Quantum gas microscope created. Physicists at Harvard University have created a quantum gas microscope that can be used to observe single atoms at temperatures so low the particles follow the rules of quantum mechanics, behaving in bizarre ways. The work, published this week in the journal Nature, represents the first time scientists have detected single atoms in a crystalline structure made solely of light, called a Bose Hubbard optical lattice. It’s part of scientists’ efforts to use ultracold quantum gases to understand and develop novel quantum materials. “Ultracold atoms in optical lattices can be used as a model to help understand the physics behind superconductivity or quantum magnetism, for example,” says senior author Markus Greiner, an assistant professor of physics at Harvard and an affiliate of the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms.
“At such low temperatures, atoms follow the rules of quantum mechanics, causing them to behave in very unexpected ways,” explains first author Waseem S. Why not turn the moon into a solar power plant? Have you looked at the moon lately? It's fascinating. And, if a certain Japanese construction firm has its way, it could also become the answer to Earth's burgeoning energy crisis.
Look, I know it might sound like I made this one up, but it's true: The R&D group at Shimizu, one of Japan's largest construction firms, recently proposed building a belt of solar panels across the moon's equator. This 'Luna Ring' would be about 12 miles wide and 6,800 miles long. Experts have proposed other ways of using the moon to make electricity before, but this project is unique.
So how would it work? Shimizu describes the process in a series of steps: First, the solar cells closest to the sun will convert sunlight into electricity, and this power will be transported via cables to the side of the moon facing Earth. The end goal is to "supply energy to the entire world. " Click here to check out Shimizu's construction plans. As you might (correctly) assume, there are numerous obstacles involved. There’s More Water On Europa (Jupiter’s moon) Than On Earth.
Well after reading this story, enthusiasts will probably want to ignore the Monlith creators’ advice. As Robert T. Gonzalez writes on io9.com: Remember that image from a few weeks back that showed Earth with all its water gathered up in a sphere beside it? Well here’s that image again, only this time, it also features Jupiter’s moon Europa, along with all of its water. HackerThings: Products for the discerning hacker. Transparent TV: Sleek & Clean See-Through Screen Design. Televisions have a strange mixed roll in the modern household.
Some say they have replaced the traditional hearth, around which we used to gather for warmth. Others suggest that TV sets are distracting and detract from interaction. The latter group may just love this ‘invisible’ television design. Michael Friebe has gone beyond a mere concept, however, with a vision for how it would work – technology combining LCD and TOLED displays, rendering the view surface effectively clear when not in use and fully colored once activated. In a way, if it works, it is the inevitable next step for this ubiquitous invention – and perhaps for computers and other electronic devices as well. Already we have made them nearly as small as they can be, so blending them even more into our home environments simply makes sense.
Unraveling the Human Genome: 6 Major Milestones. In a milestone for the understanding of human genetics, scientists just announced the results of five years of work in unraveling the secrets of how the genome operates. The ENCODE project, as it is known, dispensed with the idea that our DNA is largely "junk," repeating sequences with no function, finding instead that at least 80 percent of the genome is important.
The new findings are the latest in a series of increasingly deep looks at the human genome. Here are some of the major milestones scientists have passed along the way. 1. An understanding of heredity, 1866 The realization that traits and certain diseases can be passed from parent to offspring stretches back at least to the ancient Greeks, well before any genome was actually decoded. The Greek physician Hippocrates theorized that "seeds" from different parts of the body were transmitted to newly conceived embryos, a theory known as pangenesis. What exactly these "seeds" might be was destined to remain a mystery for centuries.
Print Your Own Penis. Photograph by Ellen Rogers Welcome to the new column from award-winning comic author, novelist, and television writer Warren Ellis. Good Morning Sinners will look at the news stories of today and turn them into a vision of the future that is nothing less than 99 percent accurate. Somewhere, in some gilded bunker of the 1 percent, a very old, very rich man is laying plans to print himself a new cock.
Perhaps one with cameras in it. And maybe a gun. Three-dimensional printing has been around for a little while now, and it's improving in leaps and bounds. On one end of the scale, I was talking to someone from a very famous special effects studio the other week who told me they now have the facility to print cars. On the other end of the scale, home 3-D printers like the Makerbot Replicator cost about $1,800 and can crank out several thousand different objects. A start that led to a lot of other people thinking about what else could be printed. Follow Warren on Twitter: @warrenellis.
'Butterfly Wing' Buildings Would Never Need Painting. A new material inspired by butterfly wings repels water and gleams with brilliant color. Like iridescent butterflies, the material uses tiny structures on its surface to achieve both qualities. A material that's both colorful and water-repelling could someday go into sensors that regulate the interior temperature of "smart buildings," said Shu Yang, a University of Pennsylvania chemist whose research group made the new material. Color may come quickly to mind when people think about butterflies, but the little flutterers are remarkably water-resistant, too.
"They have to fly, so they cannot afford to have any dirt on the wings," Yang told TechNewsDaily. Yang and a team of architects and engineers are looking to make a sturdy sensor that changes color in response to temperature. Her material also could go on the outside of buildings, to provide colorful designs that are more durable than conventional paint and that resist dirt and mildew, she said. BitTorrent's New P2P Protocol Could Fix the Internet's Shoddy Streaming Video Quality. Peering Inside the Flame: Fusion Imaging of the Final Space Shuttle Launch. Peering Inside the Flame: Fusion Imaging of the Final Space Shuttle Launch Click image for full resolution. A fused launch image of STS-135. Louise Walker and J.T. Heineck of the Experimental Aero-Physics Branch at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., are learning how to see shape and detail in blindingly bright plumes of rocket fire. The two researchers were funded by the Space Shuttle Program to document the final shuttle launch, STS-135, with their distinctive images.
Fused video of the STS-135 launch. They first tested the technique as a challenge from a co-worker. Image fusion is a technique which begins with image files taken simultaneously at nearly identical angles and positions, each with different filters. Click image for full resolution. Realizing this technique could be developed and applied to much larger rockets, Walker and Heineck began improving how such images might be taken. Click images for full resolution. Click image for full resolution. Physics. Science. Field Guide to X-ray Astronomy :: History of X-Ray Astronomy. History of X-Ray Astronomy How do X-ray telescopes differ from optical telescopes? X-rays do not reflect off mirrors the same way that visible light does. Because of their high-energy, X-ray photons penetrate into the mirror in much the same way that bullets slam into a wall.
Likewise, just as bullets ricochet when they hit a wall at a grazing angle, so too will X-rays ricochet off mirrors (see diagram below). These properties mean that X-ray telescopes must be very different from optical telescopes. The mirrors have to be precisely shaped and aligned nearly parallel to incoming X-rays. The first imaging X-ray telescope was made by a team of scientists under the direction of Riccardo Giacconi at American Science and Engineering in Cambridge, MA. This telescope was about the same diameter and length as the optical telescope Galileo used in 1610. Why are X-ray observatories in space?
The building and operation of an X-ray observatory is a marvel of modern technology and ingenuity. MAGNESIUM PHOSPHATE CONCRETE. Magnesium Phosphate Concrete Magnesium phosphate concrete (MPC) is based on a cementitious system that is different from Portland cement. Rapid repairs of patches may be economically achieved by MPC. It has high bond strength and low shrinkage rates. Setting times of 10 to 20 min are most common which may give an early strength development of 14 MPa within 2 h, which may be increased to 45 to 60 min at room temperature for mixtures with retarders. When aggregates are also added, abrasion resistance of MPC is similar to conventional concrete of similar strength. Fig: Structure before crack repair using magnesium phosphate concrete Fig: Structure after crack repair using magnesium phosphate concrete Reaction of carbonated surfaces (calcareous aggregates) with the phosphoric acid produces carbon dioxide (CO2) that weakens the paste aggregate bond.
13.7: Cosmos And Culture. Billion-Ton Comet May Have Missed Earth by a Few Hundred Kilometers in 1883. On 12th and 13th August 1883, an astronomer at a small observatory in Zacatecas in Mexico made an extraordinary observation. José Bonilla counted some 450 objects, each surrounded by a kind of mist, passing across the face of the Sun. Bonilla published his account of this event in a French journal called L’Astronomie in 1886. Unable to account for the phenomenon, the editor of the journal suggested, rather incredulously, that it must have been caused by birds, insects or dust passing front of the Bonilla’s telescope. (Since then, others have adopted Bonilla’s observations as the first evidence of UFOs.) Today, Hector Manterola at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, and a couple of pals, give a different interpretation.
They think that Bonilla must have been seeing fragments of a comet that had recently broken up. But there’s much more that Manterola and co have deduced. That can be explained using parallax. That’s an eye opening reexamination of the data. Relativistic Baseball. What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light? - Ellen McManis Let’s set aside the question of how we got the baseball moving that fast. We'll suppose it's a normal pitch, except in the instant the pitcher releases the ball, it magically accelerates to 0.9c.
From that point onward, everything proceeds according to normal physics.: The answer turns out to be “a lot of things”, and they all happen very quickly, and it doesn’t end well for the batter (or the pitcher). The ball is going so fast that everything else is practically stationary. The ideas of aerodynamics don’t apply here. These gamma rays and debris expand outward in a bubble centered on the pitcher’s mound. The constant fusion at the front of the ball pushes back on it, slowing it down, as if the ball were a rocket flying tail-first while firing its engines. After about 70 nanoseconds the ball arrives at home plate. Suppose you’re watching from a hilltop outside the city. Knowledge & deep Search engine.
Sun Plans :: Sun-Inspired Passive Solar House Plans. The unique half timber style of our Roseburg Cottage 3 home with the stone, wood, and stone accents along with the west-facing front makes this Roseburg Cottage very different from our others. We have also moved the stairs since our client wanted easy access to the future home office in the bonus room. The house is full of surprises as you move from the inviting front porch to the living area that is open both horizontally and vertically. First Floor The house is organized about the central connecting space that houses the stairs. Second Floor The second floor has both a loft like character over the main living areas and a private bedroom and bath side too. Garage The two-vehicle garage connects directly to the main foyer that makes entering the home a pleasant experience. Construction Info The great room, kitchen, and dining have vaulted ceilings and are open to the loft above. Modification Ideas - The loft side could become an enclosed bedroom if you floored in the west side of the loft.
Free Condensed Matter Books Download. Einstein's Math May Be Compatible With Faster-Than-Light Travel, Mathematicians Say. By: Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Senior Writer Published: 10/09/2012 06:15 AM EDT on LiveScience Although Einstein's theories suggest nothing can move faster than the speed of light, two scientists have extended his equations to show what would happen if faster-than-light travel were possible. Despite an apparent prohibition on such travel by Einstein’s theory of special relativity, the scientists said the theory actually lends itself easily to a description of velocities that exceed the speed of light. "We started thinking about it, and we think this is a very natural extension of Einstein's equations," said applied mathematician James Hill, who co-authored the new paper with his University of Adelaide, Australia, colleague Barry Cox.
The paper was published Oct. 3 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Scientists have extended Einstein's equations for faster-than-light travel. "I think it's only a matter of time," he said. Mystery of ball lightning solved? › News in Science (ABC Science) News in Science Friday, 12 October 2012 Darren OsborneABC Glowing wonder A team of Australian scientists believe they have uncovered the cause of one of nature's most bizarre phenomenon - ball lightning. Ball lightning, typically the size of a grapefruit, is a rarely seen event that lasts up to 20 seconds. "Ball lightning has been reported by hundreds of people ... for hundreds of years and it has been a mystery," says CSIRO scientist John Lowke, lead author of a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres.
Previous theories have suggested microwave radiation, oxidising aerosols, nuclear energy, dark matter, antimatter, and even black holes as possible causes. To unravel the mystery Lowke and colleagues at the CSIRO and the Australian National University turned their attention to reports of ball lightning forming near windows. After hitting the ground and lighting the sky, lightning strikes leave behind a trail of charged particles, or ions. Fusion energy: Mug handles could help hot plasma give lower-cost, controllable fusion energy. Hidden in Einstein’s Math: Faster-than-Light Travel? | Special Relativity. Oregon scientists make embryos with 2 women, 1 man. Archaeopteryx: Facts about the Transitional Fossil.
Huge 'Zombie' Alien Planet Rises from the Dead. Moon Water Mystery: Scientists Point to Solar Wind as Origin. Samarangana Sutradhara. Mysterious Elk-Shaped Structure Discovered in Russia. Experts: Global warming means more Antarctic ice. 6 Real Planets That Put Science Fiction to Shame. Why 6-Year-Old Girls Want to Be Sexy | Self-Sexualization. Magma Pooling Beneath Infamous Greek Volcano. Materials needed. Your Diet Affects Your Grandchildren's DNA, Scientists Say. John Hutchison -- "The Hutchison Effect" -- Antigravity & disruption effects -- articles & movies. Saturn’s moon Enceladus holds promise of alien life. Oldest Pharaoh Carvings Discovered in Egypt. Humans Broke Off Neanderthal Sex After Discovering Eurasia. Well-preserved mammoth carcass found in Siberia. Stretchable electronic skin being developed to monitor vital signs | Technology News Blog.
Electrons' Elusive Hideouts Imaged for First Time | Landau Levels. First ever asteroid mining company unveils plans to harvest metals and water near Earth. John Hutchison -- "The Hutchison Effect" -- Antigravity & disruption effects -- articles & movies. 99 Resources to Research & Mine the Invisible Web. Distant Black Holes Map Universe's Dark Energy History. The Vast Molecular Clouds of a Stunning 'Edge-On' Galaxy --'Engines of Life' Look Ma, No Bubbles! New Material Boils Without the Froth. String Theory: A Brief Overview. Giant Super-Magnetic Star Has Scientists Buzzing. Eternal Clock Could Keep Time After Universe Dies. Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought, Scientists Say. Winds High In Sky Affect Deep-Ocean Currents. Origin of Monster Black Hole's Energy Jet Revealed. Elusive element 113 created, researchers say.
Radical theory explains the origin, evolution, and nature of life, challenges conventional wisdom. Scientists Want to Print Lasers onto Nearly Everything. Asteroid Dust May Help Combat Global Warming | Geoengineering. Shell Game: Earth's Wandering Outer Layers Mystify. Predatory slime mould freezes prey in large groups – Not Exactly Rocket Science. Space Exploration – Space Travel, Flight and Shuttle Launches. Bicycle Power Calculator. Asteroid nudged by sunlight: Most precise measurement of Yarkovsky effect. Ancient Mariners: Did Neanderthals Sail to Mediterranean?
Archaeologists find likely queen tomb in Guatemala. Slingshot. US Military Enlists Amateurs to Track Space Junk. NASA Dawn spacecraft traveling to dwarf planet. Studies: Wind potentially could power the world. Fundamental Forces. In the Future, Your Drug Dealer Will Be a Printer. Astronauts Could Survive Mars Radiation, Curiosity Rover Finds. Could NASA Orion Spacecraft Land Like a Helicopter? Nuclear One-Two Punch Could Knock Out Dangerous Asteroid. Fundamental Forces.
Understanding tiny reactions. List of unsolved problems in physics. X Dragon Capsule Arrives at Space Station With Precious Cargo. How SpaceX's Dragon Space Capsule Works (Infographic) | SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft & Falcon 9 Rocket Launches | Private Spaceships & Human Spaceflight.