Random Science News Thread

peter · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 10:33 am Post subject:

Yes - V. That is a point I was thinking about after I posted. We will always in some sense have to 'keep pace' [vis a vis intelligence] with the machines we create. And by virtue of the fact that 'no-one can know all' science already 'goes and grows' where it will anyway. One problem is the different 'moral values' different researchers bring to the table. [Consider the 'gain-of-function' experiments in say the bio-medical research feilds where evermore deadly pathogens are created deliberately in order to study their functioning in global pandemics. The risks [of accidental escape/terrorist activity etc] clearly outweigh the bennefits - a fact that immediately breaches the first principle of ethical scientific research - and yet a significant proportinon of the biotech community insist upon their necessity if we are to be prepared to meet the future threats of contagious disease in an ever more crowded populace.]

(Sorry - sort of lost the topic there but quite liked the post anyway so decided to go ahead Laughing

)
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If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it. (Mark Twain)

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

Wildling · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 3:51 pm Post subject:

Could a Vanadium battery change the power systems of the world?

My take: I don't think so. I mean, yes, it will make it easier to use solar power because of the storage capability, but the real problem is how much people use and how to generate it. Until governments get serious about either using less power or using cleaner sources or both not much will really change.

Hashi Lebwohl · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 4:04 pm Post subject:

I'll have to dig out my CRC and look up vanadium. If, as the article states, V can be used on both nodes of a battery then couldn't a battery be designed which can reverse itself? That is to say, the positive terminal and negative terminal could be switched...but I am uncertain what this would do to any machinery connected to such a battery. Isn't that the essence of AC, anyway--the current flows in one direction then reverses and flows backward?

Sadly, electronics and magnetism was more difficult for me when studying physics. I do not know why.
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Wildling · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 4:10 pm Post subject:

That is the essence of AC power, yes. I'm not sure how that would work for storage though, since that's ultimately what a battery is for after all.

Unless you could have ... and this is kind of a half-thought ... some sort of in-line batteries along the power lines so that issues like fallen lines don't have the same impact (ie power outages).

Vraith · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 5:55 pm Post subject:

Now this is pretty interesting. Relates to plenty of discussions we've had in various place.
Like AI.
Like the algorithm problem [this doesn't seem to use them...or software at all?]
Here's the story:
www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=34328.php

There's a link in it to the actual paper, and to earlier related article.

Here's a link to the lead person...I've only quick scanned a little, but looks like a person maybe worth paying attention to.

www.anirbanlab.co.nr/
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Spoiler:

Sig-man, Libtard, Stupid piece of shit. change your text color to brown. Mr. Reliable, bullshit-slinging liarFucker-user.

the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.

Vraith · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 10:56 pm Post subject:

abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/half-stars-lie-galaxies-26738465

Not a lot of info...but it makes me wonder a couple things.
Does this mean the stars aren't distributed as we thought [meaning the total number is the same, but galaxies would have 1/2 as many, on average]
OR does it mean there are twice as many stars total as we thought?
[[I'm sure it will say when the real article comes out tomorrow]]
I hope it's the second.
OTOH...intergalactic space is BIG!
If life forms evolved out there...I mean, our nearest neighbor is 4 light years away. I think there are nearly 2000 within 50 light years...all potentially reachable even without faster than light.

If you're between galaxies? Your CLOSEST neighbor is likely to be at LEAST tens of thousands of light years...I'm not gonna do the math, but I'd bet there are at least several billions of neighbors with 10k lightyears of us.
Talk about lonely...
_________________
Spoiler:

Sig-man, Libtard, Stupid piece of shit. change your text color to brown. Mr. Reliable, bullshit-slinging liarFucker-user.

the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.

peter · Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2014 10:49 am Post subject:

Terrible confession V. Turned to your fascinating link about star distribution in space and immediately got side-tracked onto the second 'Hot Right Now' leader on the right hand side, 'New reality show extreme - Man to be eaten alive on live TV by Giant Annaconda!'

This featured on the front of one of our daily red-tops yesterday, complete with picture of said man with HUGE annaconda hung round his neck. I didn't read either the the paper or the link [I did read the 'star article], but my immediate internal response is 'good luck with that!'
_________________
If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it. (Mark Twain)

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

Vraith · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 7:08 pm Post subject:

So, we all know about graphene...some idea of the promise and the problems.
Run across some other materials with similar attributes and potentials.
But this is a new one to me.
Here's a brief overview:

www.technologyreview.com/view/534166/black-phosphorous-the-birth-of-a-new-wonder-material/
_________________
Spoiler:

Sig-man, Libtard, Stupid piece of shit. change your text color to brown. Mr. Reliable, bullshit-slinging liarFucker-user.

the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.

peter · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 5:22 pm Post subject:

Interesting that they use the words 'filters for size using a centrifuge'; I've used centrifuges and filters before - but not in combination [still - this is MIT and I guess they know their own game Laughing

.]
_________________
If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it. (Mark Twain)

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

Vraith · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 5:45 pm Post subject:

Zarathustra · Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 8:05 pm Post subject:

If you have clear skies tonight and can stand the cold, there's going to be an absolutely gorgeous conjunction between moon/Venus/Mars. Look about 30 minutes after sunset in the west.
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Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth ... Do not let them fly away from earthly things and beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earth the virtue that flew away, as I do-back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a human meaning. -Nietzsche

peter · Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2015 11:19 am Post subject:

That's cruel - I missed it! Teach me right for not keeping up to speed with my e-mails!
_________________
If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it. (Mark Twain)

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

Vraith · Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 5:39 pm Post subject:

Not for anything important...just amused me.
I was tempted to start next years football thread, and ponder whether this
improves their odds [and could the guy do team data/analysis for them, too?---kinda cool, he'd have both birds-eye and in the trenches view. Smile

] for next years Superbowl [which aren't terrible right now according to Vegas. But hell...we should at least keep football till after March Madness, right? I mean the draft hasn't even happened yet.]

www.thepostgame.com/blog/balancing-act/201503/john-urschel-baltimore-ravens-nfl-football-math

After all Brian May's music and science is cool...but pummeling combined with algorithms and vectors is nothing to sneeze at.
_________________
Spoiler:

Sig-man, Libtard, Stupid piece of shit. change your text color to brown. Mr. Reliable, bullshit-slinging liarFucker-user.

the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.

Vraith · Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 4:24 pm Post subject:

This is sweet if it works out.
There are many thousands of known intractable problems that
such a machine could solve in no time at all, relatively speaking.
Like, perhaps, all human sicknesses and aging.
[[and the tech and economics to support all of us healthy immortals]]

And there are an unknown, and currently unknowable, number of unknown intractable problems...stuff we need to discover/understand to survive.

phys.org/news/2015-04-scientists-critical-quantum.html
_________________
Spoiler:

Sig-man, Libtard, Stupid piece of shit. change your text color to brown. Mr. Reliable, bullshit-slinging liarFucker-user.

the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.

Avatar · Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 4:27 am Post subject:

Nice, thanks for the heads up. Very Happy

--A
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Vraith · Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 2:00 pm Post subject:

And this is just plain fun....like a couple expecting a baby, but coming out of delivery with triplets [except in slow motion].
Scroll down the article for arrangement and "to scale" stuff.

www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-quintuple-star-system-02994.html

EDITED: I meant to mention that it's pretty close by, relatively [115 lights]...and apparently some of the eclipsing can be seen with a backyard telescope.
_________________
Spoiler:

Sig-man, Libtard, Stupid piece of shit. change your text color to brown. Mr. Reliable, bullshit-slinging liarFucker-user.

the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.

Vraith · Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 4:25 pm Post subject:

I had no idea this was so...
And if I did, I wouldn't have much idea that it mattered to much of anyone...
But apparently it does.
www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2015/july/two-ball-bounce-problem.html

Avatar · Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 5:47 am Post subject:

Haha, weird. Very Happy

--A
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It's easy to judge. It's more difficult to understand.

Vraith · Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:46 pm Post subject:

And 2D materials continue to be cool as shit [funny, the opposite directions from film cool as shit-ness]: