LGP Science Thread

[Shyster]

CERN's next ambition is to create a beam of antimatter which they hope will allow them to unpeel more of the mysteries surrounding it will cause the earth to be consumed by a blackhole.

My understanding is that even if the Large Hadron Collider were to create a micro black hole, it would quickly evaporate due to Hawking radiation. Admittedly, Hawking radiation is theoretical, but then again so are micro black holes.

[PensFanInDC]

CERN's next ambition is to create a beam of antimatter which they hope will allow them to unpeel more of the mysteries surrounding it will cause the earth to be consumed by a blackhole.

My understanding is that even if the Large Hadron Collider were to create a micro black hole, it would quickly evaporate due to Hawking radiation. Admittedly, Hawking radiation is theoretical, but then again so are micro black holes.

But 2 people on this board blasted me for using the word "theory" to describe something that has not been proven as fact. They told me that the word "theory" actually means proven.

So we are guaranteed to be safe

[guiner]

Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactors. Long video, worth it.

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[columbia]

Spinning the Sun's Rays Into Fuel:

Nearly all the energy we use on this planet starts out as sunlight that plants use to knit chemical bonds. Now, for the first time, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge have created a potentially cheap, practical artificial leaf that does much the same thing—providing a potentially limitless source of energy that’s easy to tap.

The new device is a silicon wafer about the shape and size of a playing card coated on either side with two different catalysts. The silicon absorbs sunlight and passes that energy to the catalysts to split water into molecules of hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is a fuel that can be either burned or used in a fuel cell to create electricity, reforming water in either case. This means that in theory, anyone with access to water can use it to create a cheap, clean, and available source of fuel.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2 ... tml?ref=hp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Physical_Graffiti]

"The Next Nostradamus"

[PensFanInDC]

Teleportation?

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread681758/pg1

A Nobel Prize winning biologist has ignited controversy after publishing details of an experiment in which a fragment of DNA appeared to ‘teleport’ or imprint itself between test tubes.

[bh]

Wow.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookou ... -the-limit" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Physical_Graffiti]

http://www.physorg.com/news174031552.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Kraftster]

Dug in to David Deutsch's 'The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World' this weekend. Really interesting read so far. I wanted to excerpt the one part that does a nice job of putting the size of the universe into perspective (not that its really possible).

Just to set the stage, he is addressing what he refers to as the Principle of Mediocrity (there is nothing significant about humans in the cosmic scheme of things) and specifically Hawking's statement that humans are just "chemical scum on the surface of a typical planet that's in orbit around a typical star on the outskirts of a typical galaxy."

Deutsch challenges this and says that humans, where we are in the universe, what its like, etc. is anything but typical.

"What is a typical place in the universe like? Let me assume that you are reading this on Earth. In your mind's eye, travel straight upwards a few hundred kilometres. Now you are in the slightly more typical environment of space. But you are still being heated and illuminated by the sun, and half your field of view is still taken up by the solids, liquids and scums of the Earth. A typical location has none of those features. So, travel a few trillion kilometres further in the same direction. You are now so far away that the sun looks like other stars. You are at a much colder, darker and emptier place, with no scum in sight. But it is not yet typical: you are still inside the Milky Way galaxy, and most places in the universe are not in any galaxy. Continue until you are clear outside the galaxy - say, a hundred thousand light years from Earth. At this distance you could not glimpse the Earth even if you used the most powerful teleccope that humans have yet built. But the Milky Way still fills much of your sky. To get a typical place in the universe, you have to imagine yourself at least a thousand times as far out as that, deep intergalactic space. (emphasis mine)

What is it like there? Imagine the whole of space notionally divided into cubes the size of our solar system (!!). If you were observing from a typical one of them, the sky would be pitch black. The nearest star would be so far away that if it were to explode as a supernova, and you were staring directly at it when its light reached you, you would not see even a glimmer (!!). That is how big and dark the universe is. And it is cold" at that background temperature of 2.7 kelvin, which is cold enough to freeze every known substance except helium.

And it is empty: the density ofa toms out there is below one per cubic metre. That is a million times sparser than atoms in the space between the stars, and those atoms are themselves sparser than in the best vacuum that human technology has yet achieved. Almost all the atoms in intergalactic space are hydrogen or helium, so there is no chemistry. No life could have evoled here, nor any intelligence. Nothing changes here. Nothing happens. The same is true of the next cube and the next, and if you were to examine a million consecutive cubes in any direction the story would be the same. (emphasis again mine)."

Crazy.

[PensFanInDC]

Awesome

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... rough.html

Scientists are growing human hearts in laboratories, offering hope for millions of cardiac patients.
American researchers believe the artificial organs could start beating within weeks.

[DocEmrick]

Awesome

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... rough.html

Scientists are growing human hearts in laboratories, offering hope for millions of cardiac patients.
American researchers believe the artificial organs could start beating within weeks.

[bhaw]

[youtube][/youtube]

Insert Austin Powers reference...

I know there's also video of them out there shooting down an unmanned drone (aircraft).

I'm assuming if they are making this public, we have something far nastier operating in war zones right now.

[columbia]

Like Europa, Titan May Have A Giant Subsurface Ocean:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26662/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cool!

[DocEmrick]

Like Europa, Titan May Have A Giant Subsurface Ocean:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26662/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cool!

They've been postulating this for the last 30some years, I'm glad to finally find that they're making headway on it. I think it's likely there's definitely life (microbial). Imagine ice fishing up there.

[columbia]

Imagine ice fishing up there.

[columbia]

Healing Blindness in Mice:
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/37467/?a=f" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[columbia]

NASA looking to build "gas" stations in space
NASA announces program to being developing space-based refueling points

http://www.networkworld.com/community/b ... ions-space" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bh]

http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news ... 92909.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Neat.

[SolidSnake]

Healing Blindness in Mice:
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/37467/?a=f" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wow awesome

[columbia]

Man discovers a new life-form at a South African truck stop:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/ ... 2011-04-26" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[columbia]

Robotic tongue gizmo lets you french kiss over the Internet:
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/2561 ... ernet.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

weird

[pittsports87]

Robotic tongue gizmo lets you french kiss over the Internet:
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/2561 ... ernet.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Glad to see that they are working on something important.

[Point Breeze Penguins]

Don't worry...I am sure other 'body parts' will soon be available.


There is a reason 90% of the internet is porn.

[columbia]

Don't worry...I am sure other 'body parts' will soon be available.

Bingo.