Posts tagged science
![Sequence of images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captures the Sun’s July 6th X-flares – the highest possible solar flares – in different ultraviolet wavelengths. [via explore-blog]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6svndIu4s1rqpa8po1_500.jpg)
Sequence of images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captures the Sun’s July 6th X-flares – the highest possible solar flares – in different ultraviolet wavelengths. [via explore-blog]
Neurally Controlled Prosthetics
In less than 10 years, Darpa’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics program has transformed artificial limbs. Prosthetic arms, like the DEKA model, are already wired to respond to toe movements. Next up? Arms that are fully integrated with a wearer’s neural signals.
A collaboration led by Johns Hopkins researchers will start human trials on their Modular Prosthetic Limb this year. Micro-arrays are implanted into the brain, allowing a user to operate the prosthetic — which includes 22-degrees of motion, independent finger movement and weighs only 9 pounds — with their thoughts alone.
this is profound. what an incredible step in the evolution of prosthetics.
It may not be a Double Rainbow, but it’s a Lunar Rainbow!
How could this be possible? it doesn’t rain there. The Moon doesn’t even have an atmosphere…so how could the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s camera capture this phenomenal phenomenon?
The LROC’s Wide Angle Camera uses filters to capture images, capturing three different wavelengths: a 689nm filter for red, a 643nm filter for green, and a 604nm filter for blue. To get one image, the spacecraft’s camera shoots three quickly consecutive images, which are then combined by the computer to create one single image.
When the Sun is directly overhead the Lunar surface, with the LRO in between, a phenomenon called “opposition surge” happens—a sudden increase in the surface brightness, with no shadows on the surface. As the light reaches the LROC’s camera, it interferes with itself. And as this happens, the filters change, capturing the shining at sightly different moments. When the software combines the resulting images, you can observe the light shifting in the form of a rainbow.
According to Brett Denevi at the LROC blog, the images “provide a huge new dataset for studying how light interacts with a particulate surface at different wavelengths. Perhaps an esoteric-sounding field of study, but this data can help us understand the reflectance images and spectra we have of the Moon and other bodies throughout the Solar System.”
Source: Gizmodo.com.
“ Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has, as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity.”
Teen discovers how to degrade plastic bags in as little as 3 months
Daniel Burd, an 11th grader at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, has discovered a way to make plastic bags degrade in as little as three months—a finding that won him first prize at the Canada-Wide Science Fair, a $20,000 scholarship, and a chance to revolutionize a major environmental issue.
Burd’s strategy was simple: Since plastic does eventually degrade, it must be eaten by microorganisms. If those microorganisms, as well as the optimal conditions for their growth, could be identified, we could put them to work eating the plastic much faster than under normal conditions.
With this goal in mind, he ground plastic bags into a powder and concocted a solution of household chemicals, yeast and tap water to encourage microbe growth. Then he added the plastic powder and let the microbes work their magic for three months. Finally, he tested the resulting bacterial culture on plastic bags, exposing one plastic sample to dead bacteria as a control.
Sure enough, the plastic exposed to the live bacteria was 17 percent lighter than the control after six weeks. Once Burd examined the most effective strains of bacteria, he was able to isolate two types—Sphingomonas and Pseudomonas—as the plastic munchers. At 37 degrees and optimal bacterial concentration, the microbes had consumed 43 percent of a plastic sample within six weeks.
Next up, maybe it’s time to put him to work on this whole carbon emissions thing.
via (mimosin8)
this is incredible. way to go kid canada.
Scientifically; Islam.: Expansion of the Universe
“And it is We Who have constructed the heaven with might, and verily, it is We Who are steadily expanding it.” (Qur’an, 51:47)
Ever since Einstein’s theory of general relativity was applied to what is known about the universe as a whole, it has been suspected that the…
Bill Gates gives $4.5M to U of C researcher exploring 'artificial' clouds
Climate researcher David Keith of the University of Calgary, Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science, research planet-cooling ideas
[BY MARGARET MUNRO]
Billionaire Bill Gates is funding experiments to explore using “artificial” clouds to cool the planet.
Scientists say the experiments are in the early stages and confined to the lab, but critics say they are laying the groundwork for a trial to whiten clouds in a 10,000-square-kilometre patch of the Pacific.
“Bill Gates and his cloud-wrenching cronies have no right to unilaterally change our seas and skies,” says Jim Thomas of the Montreal-based ETC Group, part of an international coalition calling for a moratorium on geoengineering experiments.
Gates, one of the world’s richest men, has given $4.5 million to climate researcher David Keith of the University of Calgary and Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science to fund research on planet-cooling ideas. Keith is on vacation and could not be reached for comment.
Caldeira says the money has gone to different researchers, including about $300,000 US to researcher Armand Neukermanns, who is also involved with the Silver Lining Project, which is working on plans to run the world’s first cloud brightening trial.
The Silver Lining Project would use “cloud” ships to blast tiny droplets of sea water about a kilometre into the atmosphere in a bid to create bright white clouds to reflect sunlight back into space and cool the atmosphere.
“David Keith and I allocated funds to Armand Neukermanns to use laboratory experiments to establish whether it would be technically feasible to produce sea water sprays,” says Caldeira. He stresses that Gates’ money is not going directly to the Silver Lining field trial.
The distinction is lost on Thomas. If Neukermanns succeeds in designing a working spray to brighten clouds, Thomas says the technology is likely to be used on the Silver Lining trial.
Robert Wood of the University of Washington is one of the scientists collaborating on the Silver Lining Project. He says the concept of whitening and brightening clouds has been around for years and is still unproven. But he and others say it may be one of the most benign ways of cooling the planet if governments cannot agree to cut the greenhouse gases warming the planet.
