Mantis Shrimp-Inspired Material is Stronger than Airplanes The mighty, mighty mantis shrimp is a colorful and fearsome predator that can smash its opponent (and aquariums walls) to pieces using its arms that are covered with hard exoskeleton. Researchers hoping to harness its power have now created a material that’s stronger than what’s used in airplane frames. Also known as a stomatopd (Odontodactylus scyllarus), the 4 to 6-inch long smashing predator has a fist-like “mineralized dactyl club” that can withstand thousands of high-velocity blows, which it delivers to its prey. The force created by the impact of its club is more than 1,000 times its own weight, and underwater, the club accelerates faster than a 22-caliber bullet. Much of the impact resistance and shock absorbance is thanks to the spiraling (or helicoidal) arrangement of mineralized fiber layers on an area of the club called the endocuticle region. The work was published in Acta Biomaterialia this week. Images: Carlos Puma (top), UC Riverside (middle) Photo Gallery
Cải cách thể chế và những tranh cãi về kinh tế nhà nước - Thời sự - VnEconomy Từng là tâm điểm của nhiều cuộc tranh luận, song trong bối cảnh yêu cầu cải cách thể chế kinh tế đang được đặt ra cấp thiết, vị trí, vai trò của kinh tế nhà nước trong nền kinh tế thị trường của Việt Nam vẫn đang là vấn đề còn nguyên tính thời sự.Đây cũng là một trong những chủ đề sẽ tiếp tục được tranh luận tại diễn đàn Kinh tế Mùa xuân do Ủy ban Kinh tế của Quốc hội tổ chức trong hai ngày 28 và 29/4 tới đây, tại thành phố Hạ Long, Quảng Ninh. Trao đổi với VnEconomy trước thềm hoạt động này, một số chuyên gia kinh tế nhấn mạnh, điểm đặc thù và cũng là khác biệt của Việt Nam là nền kinh tế thị trường “định hướng xã hội chủ nghĩa”. Tuy nhiên, theo quan sát của người viết, có lẽ đây là vấn đề còn tiếp tục gây tranh cãi. Rất mới đây thôi, tại hồ sơ dự án Luật Đầu tư và quản lý vốn nhà nước đầu tư tại doanh nghiệp, “phát huy vai trò chủ đạo của doanh nghiệp nhà nước” vẫn là cụm từ được sử dụng. TS.
String Theory - The Physics of String-Bending and Other Electric Guitar Techniques Electric guitar playing is ubiquitous in practically all modern music genres. In the hands of an experienced player, electric guitars can sound as expressive and distinct as a human voice. Unlike other more quantised instruments where pitch is a discrete function, guitarists can incorporate micro-tonality and, as a result, vibrato and sting-bending are idiosyncratic hallmarks of a player. Similarly, a wide variety of techniques unique to the electric guitar have emerged. While the mechano-acoustics of stringed instruments and vibrating strings are well studied, there has been comparatively little work dedicated to the underlying physics of unique electric guitar techniques and strings, nor the mechanical factors influencing vibrato, string-bending, fretting force and whammy-bar dynamics. Figures Citation: Grimes DR (2014) String Theory - The Physics of String-Bending and Other Electric Guitar Techniques. Editor: Dante R. Copyright: © 2014 David Robert Grimes. Introduction (1)where . . .
A Rough Guide to Spotting Bad Science | Compound Interest A Rough Guide to Spotting Bad Science Click to enlarge A brief detour from chemistry, branching out into science in general today. The vast majority of people will get their science news from online news site articles, and rarely delve into the research that the article is based on. EDIT: Updated to version 2! EDIT 2 (April 2015): Update to version 3, taking into account a range of feedback and also sprucing up the design a little. Support Compound Interest on Patreon for post previews and more! The graphic in this article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You can download the previous version as a PDF here. Purchase in A2, A1 & A0 poster sizes here. The second version of the graphic is also available in: Portuguese (courtesy of Marco Filipe); Russian (courtesy of orgchem.by); and Spanish, (courtesy of Carolina Jiménez at nuakas.com). Like this: Like Loading... Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!
How To Design Your Workspace To Encourage Positive Emotions At Work We’ve been trained to think that emotions and work do not mix. They’re something to manage, to control, and to check at the door. But research is now showing that emotions can have an effect on employee and company success. Emotions are, after all, a vital part of who we are and what we bring to the workplace. If we’re happy, relaxed, and focused, we’re more willing to be flexible, collaborative, and look forward to new challenges. We can overcome negative feelings that can get in the way of productive work. Organizations have long looked at the physical well-being of employees: They’ve spent money on physical wellness programs, given gym discounts, and encouraged trends like walking meetings. But still, many haven’t considered taking a more holistic view of well-being--one that includes our emotional well-being--and how this affects a company’s overall performance. Companies can have a profound impact on shaping emotions--for better or worse--simply through the design of their office.
MIT discovers a new state of matter, a new kind of magnetism Researchers at MIT have discovered a new state of matter with a new kind of magnetism. This new state, called a quantum spin liquid (QSL), could lead to significant advances in data storage. QSLs also exhibit a quantum phenomenon called long-range entanglement, which could lead to new types of communications systems, and more. Generally, when we talk about magnetism’s role in the realm of technology, there are just two types: Ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. Ferromagnetism has been known about for centuries, and is the underlying force behind your compass’s spinning needle or the permanent bar magnets you played with at school. In the case of quantum spin liquids, the material is a solid crystal — but the internal magnetic state is constantly in flux. The existence of QSLs has been theorized since 1987, but until now no one has succeeded in actually finding one. Now read: Quantum entangled batteries could be the perfect power source
The Great Filter Sept. 15, 1998 by Robin Hanson Humanity seems to have a bright future, i.e., a non-trivial chance of expanding to fill the universe with lasting life. Introduction Fermi, Dyson, Hart, Tipler, and others [Finney & Jones, Dyson 66, Hart 75, Tipler 80] have highlighted the relevance to SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence) of the "The Great Silence" [Brin 83] (also known as the Fermi paradox), the fact that extraterrestrials haven't substantially colonized Earth yet. The Great Silence must force us to revise a standard view in one or more area of biology, astronomy, physics, or the social sciences. Life Will Colonize So far, life on earth seems to have adapted its technology to fill every ecological niche it could. Similarly, humanity has continued to advance technologically, and to fill new geographic and economic niches as they become technologically feasible. This phenomena is easily understood from an evolutionary perspective. The Data Point The Great Filter
U.S. Web Speeds Up, But So Are Attacks Your Internet service might be faster than you realize. According to Akamai's recent State of the Internet report, global average connection speeds continued to improve in the final quarter of 2013, reaching 3.8 Mbps. The U.S. in particular jumped 2 percent to 10 Mbps—a real feat considering half of the countries listed among the top 10 in average connection speeds actually dropped quarter over quarter. The Netherlands counted a 0.7 percent fall, while Latvia took a 5.7 percent tumble, according to Akamai. Ireland, meanwhile, managed an 8.4 percent increase to 10.4 Mbps. Still, South Korea remained victorious, holding its No. 1 spot among the top 10 regions with average connection speeds at or above the "high broadband" threshold. "We've reached a significant milestone in the improvement of average connection speeds," David Belson, editor of the State of the Internet Report, said in a statement. Akamai also reported that global Internet penetration is up 10 percent from the year before.
De la entropía Posiblemente pocas ideas científicas tan fundamentales tengan más expresiones diferentes que la segunda ley de la termodinámica. Una que no suele emplearse demasiado pero que encierra en una sola frase su esencia se debe a Ludwig Boltzmann que, parafraseando a Josiah Willard Gibbs, dijo: “La imposibilidad de una disminución no compensada de la entropía parece estar reducida a una improbabilidad”. Y es que el concepto de entropía está en el centro de la termodinámica, y en el de la evolución del universo. El origen del concepto de entropía tiene está en una paradoja planteada por William Thomson (más tarde lord Kelvin) en 1847: la energía no puede crearse ni destruirse, sin embargo la energía térmica pierde su capacidad de realizar trabajo (por ejemplo, levantar un peso) cuando se la transfiere de un cuerpo caliente a uno frío. William Macquorn Rankine y Rudolf Clausius propusieron sendos conceptos que representaban la misma tendencia de la energía hacia la disipación.
Lab gets funding to put 3D goggles on praying mantises It sounds like the kind of research project that a future a Congressman might hold up as an example of wasteful government spending: gluing a praying mantis to a stick and putting mini-3D goggles on it. But this project is very real and pretty neat, and it should actually tell us something about neurobiology. (Plus, it's all being funded by a private foundation.) Praying mantises aren't just unusually large insects; they're extremely efficient predators that have even been known to catch and eat birds. Right now, as the video below demonstrates, that involves placing a mantis (glued to a stick so it doesn't move around) in front of a television monitor and filming its strikes. An alternative possibility is that the insects operate under a completely different visual processing system.
Người sale phải biết kể chuyện | Tuyệt Chiêu Sale Có khá nhiều điểm chung làm nên thành công ở những người bán hàng có doanh số cực cao, chốt sale cực lẹ. Một trong số đó là khả năng kể chuyện xuất chúng. Trong những lần gặp gỡ khách hàng, họ thường tránh đề cập đến sản phẩm, thay vào đó họ chú trọng đến việc kể những câu chuyện hay ho và thú vị, những câu chuyện có liên hệ và có khả năng đánh động tâm trí khách hàng. Những câu chuyện có quyền năng thật sự trong việc đẩy nhanh quá trình bán hàng bởi con người chúng ta rất thích những câu chuyện. Một người bán bất động sản nọ quyết định thôi dùng lời lẽ thuyết phục để mồi chài khách hàng. Mục tiêu của câu chuyện là gì? Nhân vật chính của câu chuyện là ai? Nhân vật chính của câu chuyện khao khát điều gì? Nhân vật chính của câu chuyện gặp trở ngại gì? Dưới đây là sườn gợi ý cho một câu chuyện hoàn hảo: “Trước đây tôi có một khách hàng là [tên khách hàng cũ của bạn], anh ta gặp một vài khó khăn về việc [mô tả tóm tắt vấn đề]. Comments comments
Mind-Bending Video Shows Liquid Boiling, Freezing At Same Time NEXT: Amazing Sea Creatures A red lionfish (Pterois volitans) swims in the aquarium of the Schonbrunn zoo in the gardens of the Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna on October 16, 2012. The red lionfish is a venomous coral reef fish. ALEXANDER KLEIN/AFP/Getty Images A California sea lion and a walrus kiss each other during a show at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium-amusement park complex in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye) A two-day-old female white whale swims with her mother at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium-amusement park complex in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, Saturday, June 30, 2012.(AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye) A seahorse swims in an aquarium in the zoo of Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012.