Tesla - Master of Lightning: A Weapon to End War Tesla inherited from his father a deep hatred of war. Throughout his life, he sought a technological way to end warfare. He thought that war could be converted into, "a mere spectacle of machines." In 1931 Tesla announced to reporters at a press conference that he was on the verge of discovering an entirely new source of energy. Asked to explain the nature of the power, he replied, "The idea first came upon me as a tremendous shock... I can only say at this time that it will come from an entirely new and unsuspected source." War clouds were again darkening Europe. The idea generated considerable interest and controversy. By 1937 it was clear that war would soon break out in Europe. What set Tesla's proposal apart from the usual run of fantasy "death rays" was a unique vacuum chamber with one end open to the atmosphere. Of all the countries to receive Tesla's proposal, the greatest interest came from the Soviet Union.
Meteorite Hunter Discovers New Mineral | Wired Science Hidden within a rock from space is a mineral previously unknown to science: panguite. The new mineral was found embedded in the Allende meteorite, which fell to Earth in 1969. Since 2007, geologist Chi Ma of Caltech has been probing the meteorite with a scanning electron microscope, discovering nine new materials, including panguite. Ma and his team have determined that panguite was one of the first solid materials to coalesce in our solar system, roughly 4.567 billion years ago. The mineral’s name is a reference to Pan Gu, a primitive, hairy giant from Chinese mythology who separated yin and yang with a swing of his enormous axe, thereby creating the Earth and sky. Panguite’s primordial nature means that it was actually around before the Earth and other planets formed, meaning it can help scientists learn more about the conditions in the cloud of gas and dust that gave rise to our solar system. Image: Chi Ma/Caltech
Generation Z Terminology[edit] USA Today sponsored an online contest for readers to choose the name of the next generation after the Millennials. In the article, Bruce Horovitz wrote that some might call the term "Generation Z" rather "off-putting" and a name that is "still in-the-running" for the next generation. The article proposed some alternate names including: iGeneration, Gen Tech, Gen Wii, Net Gen, Digital Natives, Gen Next, Post Gen.[1][3] In 2013, Jeanine Poggi reported in Ad Age that Nickelodeon channel is looking to serve a new breed of kids born after 2005 who it dubs "post-millennials".[2] "Scholars Generation" was proposed by a writer at A Time to Succeed coalition who "works to ensure that all children in the nation’s high-poverty communities have better learning time in school".[4] Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe wrote several popular books on the subject of generations. Plurals is a name coined by marketing firm Frank N. Traits and trends[edit] See also[edit] References[edit]
2012 March 12 - The Scale of the Universe Interactive Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2012 March 12 The Scale of the Universe - Interactive Flash Animation Credit & Copyright: Cary & Michael Huang Explanation: What does the universe look like on small scales? On large scales? Tomorrow's picture: dust before galaxies Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important NoticesA service of:ASD at NASA / GSFC& Michigan Tech.
Motion Mountain - The Free Physics Textbook for Download - StumbleUpon Practical Advances in Everyday Living Heat-Releasing Walls To keep a room cool, just let the walls melt. That's the trick with National Gypsum's Thermalcore, wall panels that absorb and release heat to maintain a comfortable ambient temperature without air-conditioning. At the core of each panel are paraffin-wax capsules made by BASF. When the temperature climbs above 73 degrees, the paraffin melts, drawing in heat and slowing the rise -- much as a melting ice cube "absorbs" the heat of warm water to cool it. Bird-Friendly Windows More than 100 million birds are killed each year by transparent to humans but visible to birds, because they can't discern the difference between a window's reflection and wide-open sky. Liquid Glass By extracting silicon dioxide from sand and combining it with water or ethanol, German company Nanopool has essentially turned glass into a liquid that can be sprayed on anything from desks to clothes to statues, making surfaces antimicrobial and easy to clean.
Extinguish a fire by blasting it with sound Sandrine Ceurstemont, editor, New Scientist TV Forget blasting out your favourite tunes, you could now use speakers to put out a fire. A new video from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) shows how to extinguish burning fuel by trapping it in an acoustic field generated by surrounding speakers. By using specific frequencies, a fire is killed in a two-pronged attack. First, sound increases the air speed, thinning the layer where combustion occurs and thus making it easier to disrupt the flame. But the acoustics also disturb the surface of the fuel which increases vaporisation, widening the flame and cooling its overall temperature. Whereas typical firefighting techniques disrupt chemical reactions involved in combustion, DARPA has been looking at approaches like this one that exploit physics. If you enjoyed this post, watch a knitted suit resist 1000 ˚C flames or see how to fight a fire in space.
100 Websites You Should Know and Use In the spring of 2007, Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH, gave a legendary TED University talk: an ultra-fast-moving ride through the “100 websites you should know and use.” Six years later, it remains one of the most viewed TED blog posts ever. Time for an update? We think so. Below, the 2013 edition of the 100 websites to put on your radar and in your browser. To see the original list, click here. And now, the original list from 2007, created by Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH. In the spring of 2007, Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH, gave a legendary TED University talk: an ultra-fast-moving ride through the “100 websites you should know and use.” To see the original list, click here. And now, the original list from 2007, created by Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH.
40 websites that will make you cleverer right now The indexed web contains an incredible 14 billion pages. But only a tiny fraction help you improve your brain power. Here are 40 of the best. whizzpast.com – Learn about our awe inspiring past all in one wonderful place. khanacademy.org – Watch thousands of micro-lectures on topics ranging from history and medicine to chemistry and computer science. freerice.com – Help end world hunger by correctly answering multiple-choice quizzes on a wide variety of subjects. artofmanliness.com – Blog/site dedicated to all things manly, great for learning life skills and good insights. unplugthetv.com – Randomly selects an educational video for you to watch. coursera.org – An educational site that works with universities to get their courses on the Internet, free for you to use. mentalfloss.com – Interesting articles guaranteed to make you smile and get you thinking. feelgoodwardrobe.com – Find out how the world of fashion really works and what you can do to combat it. lifehacker.com – Learn to hack life!
Glass Half Empty What if a glass of water was, all of a sudden, literally half empty? —Vittorio Iacovella The pessimist is probably more right about how it turns out than the optimist. When people say “glass half empty”, they usually mean something like a glass containing equal parts water and air: Traditionally, the optimist sees the glass as half full while the pessimist sees it as half empty. This has spawned a zillion joke variants—e.g., the engineer sees a glass that’s twice as big as it needs to be, the surrealist sees a giraffe eating a necktie, etc. But what if the empty half of the glass were actually empty—a vacuum? The vacuum would definitely not last long. For our scenario, we’ll imagine three different half-empty glasses, and follow what happens to them microsecond by microsecond. In the middle is the traditional air/water glass. We’ll imagine the vacuums appear at time t=0. For the first handful of microseconds, nothing happens. When the bottle is struck, it’s pushed suddenly downward.
Victorian Artificial Arm, c.1850-1910 “Made from steel and brass, the elbow joint on this artificial arm can be moved by releasing a spring, the top joint of the wrist rotates and moves up & down, and the fingers can curl up and straighten out. The wearer may have disguised it with a glove. Among the most common causes of amputation throughout the 1800s were injuries received as a result of warfare.” - Science Museum
10 Mind-Blowing Discoveries This Week | Environment Photo Credit: Sabino Parente/Shutterstock.com July 20, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. We’ve talked about this before. 1. This week saw a lot of encouraging news on the disease-eradication front: the FDA approval of Truvada , the first HIV preventative drug and the possibility that a peptide in spider venom -- specifically that of the Chilean rose tarantula -- could thwart the progression of muscular dystrophy. Did I lie? Most cases occur in South Sudan and people who get it try to stem the pain of the exit by putting their feet in water -- and guess what happens? But through the efforts of the Carter Center and other groups the guinea worm is on its way out…of the world. “We are approaching the demise of the last guinea worm who will ever live on earth,” says former US president Jimmy Carter, namesake of the Carter Center. One thing’s for sure. 2. A2I Labs in Boise, Idaho has come up with a pair of glasses called 02AMPS.