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Gems from Science

Fuddlemiff

Fuddlemiff

Is this real life?
Yes, the "Gems from Twitter" thread was such a runaway success (139 posts and counting!) that I've decided to open my 12th or whatever thread. Hello.

I'm just gonna post whatever interesting science stories I find. Feel free to go ahead and do the same. We're all science nerds, right? But we hardly ever talk about the subject.

So this one's in the "hey, isn't that like the ________ from Star Trek?" category. Some scientists scanned a portion of the Amazon rainforest using LIDAR (basically like the Kinect, but more powerful) and at the same time took spectral data, meaning they ended up with a 3D model of the forest that documented the species of every tree. Yeah, it combines existing technology that's been used for ages in astronomy and geography and other fields, but still. They scanned the planet for lifeforms!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/27/amazon-rainforest-map-biodiversity-detail
 
I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE. I'll post some gems from twitter regarding SCIENCE.
 
Another in the "Hey, isn't that like the replicator from Star Trek?" category.

We've all heard of 3D printers by now, but this one prints food. And it's an open source (open sauce lol?) design.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/24/technology/3D_food_printer/index.htm

It seems as though, eventually, the only human intervention in manufacturing will be the design and use/consumption of the products. Everything else will be automated. That's probably been a scifi concept for as long as the genre's existed, but it seems as though there's a real shift in gear with the proliferation of 3D printing in small scale manufacturing, so it's not such a pipe dream anymore.
 
http://news.discovery.com/animals/golden-moles-iridescent-122401.html#mkcpgn=twsci1

Glow-in-the-Dark Mammal Discovered
The fur of golden moles has multiple layers that act as reflectors similar to the "eye shine" of nocturnal mammals.

Golden moles are the first known iridescent mammals, aside from the "eye shine" of nocturnal mammals.
The moles are completely blind, so the iridescence likely serves a function other than communication.
The microscopic structure of the hairs may facilitate the mole's movement underground through dirt and sand.
Click to expand...
 
Reading about the Very Large Telescope...

At the heart of each observatory is an 8m-wide mirror made from a single piece of polished glass, the exact shape of which changes 100 times per second to counteract, in real time, the distorting effects of the air on the starlight that it is trying to detect.
Click to expand...

And Alma.

When it is fully operational in 2013, Alma will provide such an increase in sensitivity over current instruments that it will find a previously unseen galaxy every three minutes.
Click to expand...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2...e-chile-astronomy?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

Astronomers are such show offs.
 
How to build a Quantum Levitation Device, Enjoy...

[YOUTUBE]VyOtIsnG71U[/YOUTUBE]
 
We're Living in a Space Cloud

A NASA robotic probe sampling particles flowing into our solar system from the galactic neighborhood shows we're living in a cloud -- and likely to stay that way for hundreds or even thousands of years.

The measurements from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft include the first direct samplings of hydrogen, oxygen and neon that didn't come from the sun or anywhere else in the solar system.

Instead, the gases, along with helium, which was previously detected by NASA's Ulysses spacecraft, streamed into our solar system from the galactic neighborhood, which right now includes a tenuous wispy cloud.

The flow of intergalactic particles is slower than expected, though still zipping along at a hearty 52,000 mph, and coming from a slightly different direction than previously thought.

That has several implications, including a new assessment that the sun and its brood of planets, asteroids, comets and everything else within the sun's protective, pressurized cocoon -- a structure known as the heliosphere -- is not going to be leaving the cloud that has been our home for the past 45,000 years or so anytime soon.

The slower flow also means that the heliosphere faces less pressure from the outside, making it more susceptible to external magnetic forces. Consequently, it has a different shape than previously thought, more like a squashed beach ball than a speeding bullet.

"The heliosphere is essentially the balance between outward-moving solar wind and the compression from the gas and dust that surround it, so if you're in a different interstellar medium environment, you're going to create a different heliospheric structure," said astronomer Seth Redfield with Wesleyan University.

That in turn impacts how effectively the heliosphere shields the solar system from galactic cosmic rays and other high-energy radiation.

"As the sun moves through space and moves in and out of interstellar clouds, the flux of galactic cosmic rays at the Earth really changes. Someday maybe we'll be able to link the sun's motion through interstellar clouds with the geologic history of Earth. I think that would be really exciting," added University of Chicago senior scientist Priscilla Frisch.

The new results also raise questions about where the solar system came from. Analysis of the interstellar gases collected by IBEX shows a shortage of oxygen, relative to the amount of neon.

"The local cloud is actually somewhat different in composition than the sun and the Milky Way as a whole, said University of New Hampshire physicist Eberhard Möbius.

"That leaves us with a puzzle for now. Could it be that some of this oxygen is locked up in the cosmic dust? Or does it tell us how different our neighborhood is compared to the sun's birthplace?" he said.

Six papers on the new IBEX findings are published in this week's Astrophysical Journal.

http://news.discovery.com/space/space-cloud-galaxy-solar-system-120201.html
Click to expand...

Space the cloudy frontier...
 
Fuddlemiff said:
Another in the "Hey, isn't that like the replicator from Star Trek?" category.

We've all heard of 3D printers by now, but this one prints food. And it's an open source (open sauce lol?) design.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/24/technology/3D_food_printer/index.htm

It seems as though, eventually, the only human intervention in manufacturing will be the design and use/consumption of the products. Everything else will be automated. That's probably been a scifi concept for as long as the genre's existed, but it seems as though there's a real shift in gear with the proliferation of 3D printing in small scale manufacturing, so it's not such a pipe dream anymore.
Click to expand...

I fail to see how we're going to maintain global suffering and starvation if this catches on. How are we going to continue to manufacture need? I wonder if they can set up a similar printer to make a three-d consumer.

I'd like a roast beef sandwich.
 
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