The SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY News Thread

[kyp275]

Originally Posted by Fahd

The day meteor's have re-entry shields is the day we should get suspicious . I wonder if home-insurance would cover all the broken windows, or if it would come under a "random unpredictable event" get-out clause...

That's when you start calling up your XCOM squad

I'm guessing shockwave from meteors would fall under that category, but wouldn't those be covered? I was under the impression it's certain specific type of damage that wouldn't be covered if the coverage wasn't purchased like flood or tornado etc.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Originally Posted by RRW

YouTube

https://youtu.be/1W90i4nZZAQ

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...e64_story.html

In soviet Russia, space explores you!

Admittedly, the first thought I had seeing that video was 'oh Tungska, caught on camera.' If nothing else it looked awesome.

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by Fahd

I wonder if home-insurance would cover all the broken windows, or if it would come under a "random unpredictable event" get-out clause...

If watching Trigun taught us anything is that it will fall under the "acts of God" category (not covered, ask the big guy for a refund).

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

anyone following the Tesla/NYT feud?


as much as i support tesla. If your product depends on common sense to operate, it probably won't be very successful.

When it comes to charging, I think most people are fairly well-conditioned by the rest of their electronic appliances. You don't hear people expressing dismay that their cellphone didn't make it through the day when they left the house without a necessary charge to support their activities.

The bigger concern is how this will color people's perception of electric vehicles' performance in cold weather. It's fairly well known that batteries drain faster in cold weather. It's one thing if your battery dies over night and requires you to get a jump-start to get going; it's another if your car can't be driven until you spend an hour charging it. Tesla rates their batteries down to -10˚F, and one Roadster driver remarked this his battery loses about 5% overnight in the cold. From what I understand, keeping the vehicle plugged in doesn't just charge the battery, it also runs some heaters that keep the battery warm. There are multiple benefits going on there.

As others elsewhere have pointed out, John Broder has a history of bashing electric vehicles and "green" technologies. It's certainly believable to think that he intentionally set up a failing scenario. It's also believable that he, like many other journalists, embellished and exaggerated when it came to his writing. Tesla certainly wouldn't be unique if they overstated the capabilities of their products, but real-world usage hasn't revealed any of their claims to be too far removed from reality (if you could say that they're unreal at all).

[AnimeFan188]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

When it comes to charging, I think most people are fairly well-conditioned by the rest of their electronic appliances. You don't hear people expressing dismay that their cellphone didn't make it through the day when they left the house without a necessary charge to support their activities.

The bigger concern is how this will color people's perception of electric vehicles' performance in cold weather. It's fairly well known that batteries drain faster in cold weather. It's one thing if your battery dies over night and requires you to get a jump-start to get going; it's another if your car can't be driven until you spend an hour charging it. Tesla rates their batteries down to -10˚F, and one Roadster driver remarked this his battery loses about 5% overnight in the cold. From what I understand, keeping the vehicle plugged in doesn't just charge the battery, it also runs some heaters that keep the battery warm. There are multiple benefits going on there.

Maybe this would help:

Doped nanotubes boost lithium battery power three-fold:

"A team from the University of Southern California (USC) has built a lithium
battery that provides three times the power capacity of conventional designs,
with a recharge time of just ten minutes and a predicted long life-span."

See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02...thium_battery/

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

Maybe this would help:

Doped nanotubes boost lithium battery power three-fold:

"A team from the University of Southern California (USC) has built a lithium
battery that provides three times the power capacity of conventional designs,
with a recharge time of just ten minutes and a predicted long life-span."

See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02...thium_battery/

The problem with doped materials is that it lacks the ability to retain electromagnetism for a long time as compared to their ferromagnetic counterparts. For short term use, it is viable, but we need a shield to keep that magnetism in for more than half a month.

[kyp275]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

The problem with doped materials is that it lacks the ability to retain electromagnetism for a long time as compared to their ferromagnetic counterparts. For short term use, it is viable, but we need a shield to keep that magnetism in for more than half a month.

Don't know much about this field, but do you mean that without a shield the device will be unable to function as a battery in two weeks? or that it won't be able to hold a charge over that time period?

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by kyp275

Don't know much about this field, but do you mean that without a shield the device will be unable to function as a battery in two weeks? or that it won't be able to hold a charge over that time period?

Doped plastics are supposed to have miniscule elextromagnetic properties, ones that will degrade over time becuase they do not have the natural physical properties (metallic bonds in most cases) to sustain a regular and even magnetic field. The doped plastic component would probably be demagnetised if the current in the circuit is lowered below a certain threshold.

I was told about this by a university Physics professor when I snuck into his lecture 4-5 years ago; my memory is fuzzy but I remembered that he said something about metallic bonds and ferromagnetic properties in metals making them being able to sustain a magnetic flux, but due to the covalent nature of non-metals they are unable to unable to conduxt electricity and thus, not able to sustain a magnetic flux.

The only example I remembered about doped plastics is that it is the safest way to build a functioning plasma cannon - a plastic with a high melt point and low boiling point being superheated so it becomes a glob of plasma encased in its outer cooler solid shell, then fired by a repelling magnet through a gauss gun system.

I think Vexx probably worked with a non-mass produced version in the CIA, so he should have a better idea how it works.

EDIT : Oh those are CARBON nanotubes. Carbon is the only non-metal with metallic properties due to its free electron. I often relate doping to plastics - sorry my bad.

[Vexx]

Apparently, my speculation that the meteor over Russia might have been a "companion" of the asteroid didn't pan out.

According to NASA scientists, the trajectory of the Russian meteorite was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, making it a completely unrelated object. Information is still being collected about the Russian meteorite and analysis is preliminary at this point. In videos of the meteor, it is seen to pass from left to right in front of the rising sun, which means it was traveling from north to south. Asteroid DA14′s trajectory is in the opposite direction, from south to north.

Ya'll carry on with your plasma whatever stuff and just look this way when I hold the eye examination tool up.

[SaintessHeart]

Gravity light set to illuminate the developing world

[Vexx]

Tripped across this website. Seems to be a good source for science news of the day and general "state of the science" articles.

http://machineslikeus.com/

[AnimeFan188]

Has Dark Matter Finally Been Found? Big News Coming Soon:

"Big news in the search for dark matter may be coming in about two weeks, the
leader of a space-based particle physics experiment said today (Feb. 17) here at the
annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

That's when the first paper of results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a
particle collector mounted on the outside of the International Space Station, will be
submitted to a scientific journal, said MIT physicist Samuel Ting, AMS principle
investigator.

Though Ting was coy about just what, exactly, the experiment has found, he said
the results bear on the mystery of dark matter, the invisible stuff thought to
outnumber regular matter in the universe by a factor of about six to one."

See:

http://news.yahoo.com/dark-matter-fi...144840916.html

[kyp275]

I'll believe it when they announce something solid, there's been way too many "WE FOUNDZ IT!!!!..well sort of...not really....*cough*" for me to be excited at these type of announcements.

[RRW]

cientists say they may be able to determine the eventual fate of the cosmos as they probe the properties of the Higgs boson.

A concept known as vacuum instability could result, billions of years from now, in a new universe opening up in the present one and replacing it.

It all depends on some precise numbers related to the Higgs that researchers are currently trying to pin down.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21499765

[AnimeFan188]

Chip daddy Mead: 'A bunch of big egos' are strangling science:

"ISSCC Microelectronics pioneer, Caltech professor emeritus, and all-around smart
guy Carver Mead believes that the scientific revolution that began with the
discovery of special relativity and quantum mechanics has stalled, and that it's up
to us to kickstart it."

See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02...re_of_science/

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

Chip daddy Mead: 'A bunch of big egos' are strangling science:

"ISSCC Microelectronics pioneer, Caltech professor emeritus, and all-around smart
guy Carver Mead believes that the scientific revolution that began with the
discovery of special relativity and quantum mechanics has stalled, and that it's up
to us to kickstart it."

See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02...re_of_science/

George Orwell's 6 Rules of Writing state that :

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

These scientists wrote ridiculously and speak barbarously. And they are men of science; Orwell must be rolling in his grave right now.

[RRW]

YouTube

https://youtu.be/v1uyQZNg2vE

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[AnimeFan188]

US government to back massive effort to understand the brain:

"Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that the Obama administration is
preparing to launch biology into its first big project post-genome: mapping the
activity and processes that power the human brain. The initial report suggested that
the project would get roughly $3 billion dollars over 10 years to fund projects that
would provide an unprecedented understanding of how the brain operates."

See:

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/...and-the-brain/

[Ithekro]

To control something, you must first understand it.

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by RRW

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21499765

That reminds me of a very geekish joke:

$god: Universe will reboot in five minutes, please logout.