Superconducting disc locked in upside-down levitation. MacGregor Campbell, consultant Surely if flying saucers existed, they would float around like the disc in this video. The demonstration by physicist Boaz Almog from Tel Aviv University, Israel, at the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, earlier this week illustrates how a superconducting plate can be fixed in 3D space while levitating above a track of permanent magnets. But this isn't simply magnetic repulsion: the disc can also stay suspended upside down when the magnets are flipped over. The clip has caused a stir online over the last few days, but the effect is perfectly explainable using the laws of physics.
The make-up of the disc is key: it's composed of sapphire crystals, which are poor conductors, coated with a thin layer of yttrium barium copper oxide, which is a superconductor. Almog's disc can be locked in place thanks to tiny gaps in the ultra-thin superconducting coating that allow some of the magnetic fields to seep in. Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos: OPERA Confirms and Submits Results, But Unease Remains. New high-precision tests carried out by the OPERA collaboration in Italy broadly confirm its claim, made in September, to have detected neutrinos travelling at faster than the speed of light. The collaboration today submitted its results to a journal, but some members continue to insist that further checks are needed before the result can be considered sound. OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-Tracking Apparatus) measures the properties of neutrinos that are sent through the Earth from the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, and arrive in its detector located under the Gran Sasso mountain in central Italy.
On 22 September, the collaboration reported in a paper on the arXiv preprint server that it had measured neutrinos arriving some 60 nanoseconds earlier than they would have if travelling at light speed. The collaboration has also checked its original statistical analysis, but today's decision to submit the results to a journal was not unanimous. Scientists create light from vacuum. (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at Chalmers University of Technology have succeeded in creating light from vacuum – observing an effect first predicted over 40 years ago. The results will be published tomorrow (Wednesday) in the journal Nature. In an innovative experiment, the scientists have managed to capture some of the photons that are constantly appearing and disappearing in the vacuum.
The experiment is based on one of the most counterintuitive, yet, one of the most important principles in quantum mechanics: that vacuum is by no means empty nothingness. In fact, the vacuum is full of various particles that are continuously fluctuating in and out of existence. They appear, exist for a brief moment and then disappear again. Chalmers scientist, Christopher Wilson and his co-workers have succeeded in getting photons to leave their virtual state and become real photons, i.e. measurable light. Explore further: What does physics reveal about the sizes of sports fields? Through the Wormhole - Season 2, Episode 1: Is There Life After Death [Full-Length]
Chalmers Scientists Create Light from Vacuum - insciences. Scientists at Chalmers have succeeded in creating light from vacuum – observing an effect first predicted over 40 years ago. The results have been published in the journal Nature. In an innovative experiment, the scientists have managed to capture some of the photons that are constantly appearing and disappearing in the vacuum. The experiment is based on one of the most counterintuitive, yet, one of the most important principles in quantum mechanics: that vacuum is by no means empty nothingness.
In fact, the vacuum is full of various particles that are continuously fluctuating in and out of existence. They appear, exist for a brief moment and then disappear again. Chalmers scientist, Christopher Wilson and his co-workers have succeeded in getting photons to leave their virtual state and become real photons, i.e. measurable light. “The result was that photons appeared in pairs from the vacuum, which we were able to measure in the form of microwave radiation,” says Per Delsing. World's smallest electric motor made from a single molecule. Chemists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences have developed the world's first single molecule electric motor, a development that may potentially create a new class of devices that could be used in applications ranging from medicine to engineering. In research published online September 4 in Nature Nanotechnology, the Tufts team reports an electric motor that measures a mere 1 nanometer across, groundbreaking work considering that the current world record is a 200 nanometer motor.
A single strand of human hair is about 60,000 nanometers wide. According to E. Charles H. Sykes, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry at Tufts and senior author on the paper, the team plans to submit the Tufts-built electric motor to Guinness World Records. Sykes and his colleagues were able to control a molecular motor with electricity by using a state of the art, low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope (LT-STM), one of about only 100 in the United States. The Changing Face of Chemistry. Ivot - Antitabu - Stiven Hoking dobio opkladu veka? Izvor: tportal.hr Pre nekoliko godina svetski mediji objavili su provokativnu vest da se slavni britanski fizičar Stiven Hoking (Stephen Hawking) javno kladio u 100 dolara da Veliki hadronski sudarač (LHC), ali i drugi akseleratori nikad neće uspeti da pronađu Higsov bozon, koji se smatra nosiocem mase većine elementarnih čestica.
Njegova je tvrdnja izazvala pravu uzbunu u naučnoj zajednici, a škotski fizičar Piter Higs (Peter Higgs), po kome je bozon dobio ime (istraživanja Higsa i njegovih kolega 1960-ih udarila su temelje ideji o postojanju misteriozne čestice) provokaciju je doživeo kao ličnu uvredu. Higs se tada požalio da bi odgovor na Hokingov izazov bio poput 'kritikovanja princeze Dajane', međutim konačno je ipak uspeo da mu uzvrati 2008. godine, nakon što se Hoking u jednom intervjuu našalio rekavši da bi zapravo bilo zanimljivije kada LHC ne bi pronašao bozon. (Da li Božja čestica zaista postoji?) Ipak, fizičari u CERN-u (koji upravlja LHC-om) nisu još sasvim odustali. What the UN ban on geoengineering really means - environment - 01 November 2010. Last week's conference of the UN Convention on Biodiversity appeared to ban any future efforts to "geoengineer" the planet to counter the effects of climate change.
But did it? And why was the decision made at the UN's biodiversity meeting in Nagoya, Japan, rather than at next month's climate conference in Mexico? Campaigners such as the ETC Group said the UN meeting had imposed "a de facto moratorium on geoengineering projects and experiments". In fact, the resolution was worded in a way that placed a moratorium on geoengineering only if it might affect biodiversity.
The 193 signatories to the convention agreed to outlaw such geoengineering projects "until there is an adequate scientific basis on which to justify such activities and appropriate consideration of the associated risks for the environment and biodiversity and associated social, economic and cultural impacts". The agreement exempted "small-scale scientific research studies". Carbon capture Global sunshades Promoted Stories. Through.the.wormhole.s02e03.hdtv.xvid-diverge. Scientists invent new way to disarm malaria parasite. A novel technique to "tame" the malaria parasite, by forcing it to depend on an external supply of a vital chemical, has been developed by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of California-San Francisco.
The scientists have, in effect, created a domesticated strain of Plasmodium — the one-celled parasite that causes malaria — that would no longer cause this dreaded disease. Their findings not only make it possible to grow large volumes of this modified parasite, but also reveal how the parasite's very survival turns on the production of one chemical — isopentenyl pyrophosphate, or IPP. These developments could help to speed up drug development and provide the basis for the first effective vaccine against malaria. At the heart of the paper is a discovery by Yeh and DeRisi: The scientists identified IPP as absolutely essential to the malaria parasite's viability during the stage when it invades blood cells.
PhysOrg. ‘The last free people on the planet’ <div class="greet_block wpgb_cornered"><div class="greet_text"><div class="greet_image"><a href=" rel="nofollow"><img src=" alt="WP Greet Box icon"/></a></div>Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to <a href=" rel="nofollow"><strong>subscribe to the RSS feed</strong></a> for updates on this topic. <div style="clear:both"></div></div></div> In small pockets around the world live isolated indigenous communities, groups that, even though they have had run-ins with their neighbours or Westerners, prefer to avoid or resist any further contact. Although we sometime call them ‘uncontacted,’ a more accurate description is probably ‘voluntarily isolated’ or ‘withdrawn’ or ‘evasive.’
Survival International reports that about one hundred groups around the world prefer to be left alone. The Lost World of Lake Vostok. It sometimes seems as if our planet has no secrets left - but deep beneath the great Antarctic ice sheet scientists have made an astonishing discovery. They’ve found one of the largest lakes in the world. It’s very existence defies belief.
Scientists are desperate to get into the lake because its extreme environment may be home to unique flora and fauna, never seen before, and NASA are excited by what it could teach us about extraterrestrial life. But 4 kilometers of ice stand between the lake and the surface, and breaking this seal without contaminating the most pristine body of water on the planet is possibly one of the greatest challenges science faces in the 21st century. In 1957 the Russians established a remote base in Antarctica - the Vostok station. It soon became a byword for hardship - dependent on an epic annual 1000km tractor journey from the coast for its supplies. Watch the full documentary now - Global Energy Network Institute - GENI - Electricity Grid Linking Renewable Energy Resources Around the World. Minority rules: Scientists discover tipping point for the spread of ideas. Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society.
The scientists, who are members of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center (SCNARC) at Rensselaer, used computational and analytical methods to discover the tipping point where a minority belief becomes the majority opinion. The finding has implications for the study and influence of societal interactions ranging from the spread of innovations to the movement of political ideals. "When the number of committed opinion holders is below 10 percent, there is no visible progress in the spread of ideas. It would literally take the amount of time comparable to the age of the universe for this size group to reach the majority," said SCNARC Director Boleslaw Szymanski, the Claire and Roland Schmitt Distinguished Professor at Rensselaer. Jason Verbelli visits Searl Magnetics Headquarters March 2011 - See information in the description
Energy efficiency. Video - Laser fusion. Scientists release most accurate simulation of the universe to date. High-resolution supercomputer simulation of the large-scale structure of the universe (credit: Stefan Gottlober, AIP) The Bolshoi supercomputer simulation, announced Thursday, is the most accurate and detailed large cosmological simulation run to date, giving physicists and astronomers a powerful new tool for understanding such cosmic mysteries as galaxy formation, dark matter, and dark energy. The simulation traces the evolution of the large-scale structure of the universe, including the evolution and distribution of the dark matter halos, in which galaxies coalesced and grew.
Initial studies show good agreement between the simulation’s predictions and astronomers’ observations. “What’s exciting is that we now have this highly accurate simulation that will provide the basis for lots of important new studies in the months and years to come,” said Joel Primack, distinguished professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Based on latest cosmic microwave background studies. MIT Creating 24-Hour Solar Power on the Cheap? By Stephen Lacey on August 2, 2011 at 3:14 pm "MIT Creating 24-Hour Solar Power on the Cheap? " Researchers at MIT are designing a new method of building concentrating solar power plants with thermal storage that they say could lower the cost of energy by 50% compared with existing technologies.
Last month, a 19.9 MW power-tower concentrating solar power plant in Spain became the first to generate electricity for 24 hours using molten-salt storage. But the cost of building that demonstration plant is higher than most CSP technologies – around $18 per watt, putting the cost of electricity somewhere around 30 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour. The company developing the plant, Torresol, wasn’t building it to prove the design could be the cheapest. Rather than use a complicated plumbing infrastructure to heat and pump the molten salt for storage, Slocum’s design puts the salt storage and water heating in a single tank mounted on the ground, rather than on a tower far above the field of mirrors.
Tesla Ne Veruje Ajnštajnu | Istina. Prvo je snažno uzdrmana ona čuvena Ajnštajnova energetska formula E = mc2 . Pošto su astronomi otkrili postojanje supernove na čak 18 milijardi svetlosnih godina on das (ranije se verovalo da je granica nama poznatog univerzuma negde na 12 milijardi svetlosnih godina) nedvosmisleno je dokazano da se širenje univerzuma ubrzava. Prema ovom podaktu naučnicima je postalo jasno da gravitacija nema tako veliki uticaj na kosmičke događaje već da postoji još nešto. Dalje je utvrđeno da ni sama materija i za nju vezana energija takođe u “praznom” prostoru, u vakuumu nalazi se 80% energije, a samo 20% otpada na vidljivu i nevidljivu materiju ( tzv. tamna materija) Tesla je još 1900. godine tvrdio da ne samo da u vakuumu postoji ogroman energetski potencijal već i da takva energija može da se ukroti, što bi praktično bio neiscrpan energetski izvor.
Daljim istraživanjima dvadesetih i tridesetih godina Tesla je bio sasvim uveren da je ovaj problem rešio, a tragom njegovog rada, već 1939. dr. Aluminum Isopropoxide Urbee: The world's first 'printed' car rolling off the 3D printing presses... By Daniel Bates Updated: 21:54 GMT, 23 September 2011 The world’s first 'printed' car has finally rolled off the printing press. The 'Urbee' was made using a special printer which built up layer upon layer of bodywork - almost as if the car was 'painted' into existence, except using layers of ultra-thin composite that are slowly 'fused' into a solid.
But unlike most 'innovations' in cars, this one won't break down after 5 years - Urbee is built to last 30. Project leader Jim Kor, told MailOnline today: 'For us, this unveiling was quite a milestone. Built to last: The highly-durable material used in 'additive layer manufacturing' is said to last for 30 years Underneath is a petrol and electric hybrid engine which helps make it one of the greenest cars in the world. Experts have said the car uses eight times less energy than a similar vehicle and can go can go 200mpg on the motorway. Kor says, 'We are a small group of designers and engineers in Winnipeg trying to make a difference. Beijing develops pulse weapons. NOAA: Prepare - CMEs' Effects Will Hit Earth in the Next Few Days - August 2011 Michio Kaku | Professor of Theoretical Physics, CUNY. Nanotechnology: The Future of Electricity. Jeremy Rifkin on global issues and the future of our planet
Why we're right to trust our gut instincts: Scientists discover first decision IS the right one. Mysterious Structures In Chinese Desert Captured By Satellite Explained…Most Probably (video.