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San Francisco, 3:49 PM
Fri Jan 1
18 posts in the last 24 hours
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Computers Determine Where To Build Ski Resorts
As we continue to engineer the perfect foods, animals, and children, scientists have figured out a way to engineer the perfect winter resort — by using software to pinpoint the best powder and mountain slopes to build them on. More »12/27/09
How to permanently capture a lightning bolt into an acrylic sculpture. Make sure to watch the videos to see the process while it's happening and also check out some of the other pages, which have lots of extremely interesting information.
[www.CapturedLightning.com]
#tips #madscience #lightning #observationdeck
12/27/09
#tips
12/27/09
[www.CapturedLightning.com]
#tips
12/27/09
#tips
The Oceans Are Getting Louder
We all know carbon emissions are making our planet warmer. But the increase in carbon brings with it other surprising problems. More carbon apparently means low sounds travel farther underwater, making the ocean a noisier place to live and work. More »Glitter-Sized Solar Cells For Electricity-Producing Clothes
While it may look like some sort of metallic snowstorm, this is actually an assortment of tiny photovoltaic cells, each less than a millimeter across. And these minuscule cells could be the versatile, flexible future of solar power. More »Will The Recession Scar You For Life? Economists Say Yes.
People who grew up during the Great Depression often turned into compulsive penny-pinchers, unable to spend money without anxiety. Will recent recessions leave similar psychological scars on people growing up today? A new study by economists suggests they will.Female Ducks Have Evolved A Vagina Dentata
Color-Changing Contacts Monitor Your Glucose Levels
For diabetics, finger pricking could be a thing of the past. A biochemical engineer has developed contact lenses embedded with nanoparticles that react with the glucose in tears. As glucose levels change, so does the color of the lens. [PopSci]Chimps Demonstrate Sophisticated Understanding Of Fire
The line between human and monkey has been crossed again - this time by chimps. Based on new research, scientists say chimps understand how fire will behave, and move to avoid it "expertly" in the wild. More »Discovery of 4.4-Million-Year-Old Hominid "Ardi" Is Greatest Scientific Breakthrough of 2009
Venerable journal Science has announced its top breakthroughs of 2009, and topping the list is a breakthrough in evolutionary biology. It's the discovery of Ardipithecus ramidus, a 4.4-million-year-old hominid skeleton that reveals how homo sapiens' ancient ancestors looked and lived. More »Transplanted Rat Brains Could Beat Alzheimer's
Transplanting small numbers of nerve cells directly into the brain has restored the learning ability of brain-damaged rats — and might be able to defeat the memory loss of Alzheimer's disease. More »We Can Replace Your Blood Cells With Synthetics
A few years from now, your blood transfusion may contain synthetic blood cells (pictured) almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Except in one important way: These synth-cells can be stuffed with drugs for special delivery via your circulatory system. More »Accidental Supervillain on Trial for Causing Earthquakes
Markus Haering probably didn't intend to emulate Lex Luthor when his company's drilling triggered a series of minor earthquakes. But the geothermal energy mogul is up on criminal charges for his earth-shaking exploits. More »Octopus Uses Coconut Shells as Portable Armor
Tools aren't just for vertebrates anymore. The veined octopus has been spotted lugging around coconut shells to serve as mobile shelters, the first time scientists have observed tool use in an invertebrate species. More »12/11/09
A CERN bulletin dated December 14 (that's in the future!) talks about the awesome progress the LHC is making on its way to achieve its planned 3.5 TeV per beam.
[cdsweb.cern.ch]
1 eV = 1 electron-volt is the energy that an electron would receive if you were to accelerate it through a potential difference of 1 volt.
1 TeV = 1 tera eV = 10^12 eV = 1 000 000 000 000 electron-volts.
To put that energy in perspective, 1 TeV is enough energy to create about 1000 protons at once.
The LHC is designed to achieve 3.5 TeV per beam, that is, 7.0 TeV when the two proton beams collide.
So, to grasp what this means, this is like throwing 2 protons against one another with enough energy to produce 7000 more protons.
(It doesn't actually happen that way, though. The proton-proton collision produces a lot of other stuff, rather than 7000 protons)
Another way to grasp how awesomely powerful 7 TeV is, consider the fact that *all* chemical reactions (that is, all of chemistry and all of the biochemistry of life) take place at an energy level of a few tens of electron-volts per reaction, that is, about 100 billion times smaller than what the LHC produces in a single collision.
#tips #LHC #CERN #madscience #physics
12/11/09
Artificial retina gives woman limited vision after decades of darkness
[edition.cnn.com]
#tips #madscience #technology
A Device That Lets You Type With Your Mind
Talk Monkey to Me: Monkey Language Contains Simple Sentences
While other primates have exhibited simple vocabularies, it has long been believed that syntax, the construction of sentences, was unique to humans. But a recent study suggests that at least one species of monkey communicates in vocalized sentences. More »Charting the Possible Evolution of Same-Sex Liaisons
Same-sex sexual behavior has evolved multiple times in various animals, including mammals, birds, fish, and even insects. Researchers are increasingly finding that the reasons such behaviors evolved are as varied as the animals themselves. More »Could New Therapies For Drug-Resistant Staph Help To Breed Even Worse Mutant Super-Bacteria?
Antibiotic-resistant staph bugs are a terrifying prospect: a potentially deadly skin infection that resists most traditional treatments. But now, researchers think they've found a weapon against MRSA: hitting it with low-temperature plasma. More »12/04/09
CNN article:
[edition.cnn.com]
UC San Diego research institution doing the dissection:
[thebrainobservatory.ucsd.edu]
Watch it live here:
[thebrainobservatory.ucsd.edu]
#tips #brain #madscience
Give Me A Biotech Apocalypse That I Can Believe In