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Science

02.04.11

NASA’S Kepler Telescope Finds 1,235 Planets In Four Months Science, Space | (0)
Via the Huffington Post: It's raining planets. Members of the science team for NASA's Kepler telescope have just announced the tentative discovery of more than 1,200 worlds orbiting distant stars. Of these, approximately four dozen are candidates for being Earth's doppelgangers -- planets that could be layered by a liquid ocean and a thick atmosphere. Worlds that might conceivably host life. This is big news, and the search for radio transmissions from these latter worlds is already underway. Finding a signal would be shattering, for it would tell us that a planet is home to technologically savvy inhabitants. Link
02.04.11

Giant Virus, Tiny Protein Crystals Show X-ray Laser’s Power and Potential Science | (0)
Via KurzweilAI.net: Two studies to be published February 3 in Nature demonstrate how the unique capabilities of the world’s first hard X-ray free-electron laser—the Linac Coherent Light Source, located at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory—could revolutionize the study of life. In one study, an international research team used the LCLS to demonstrate a shortcut for determining the 3-D structures of proteins. The laser’s brilliant pulses of X-ray light pulled structural data from tiny protein nanocrystals, avoiding the need to use large protein crystals that can be difficult or impossible to prepare. This could lop years off the structural analysis ...
01.12.11

Drunk scientists pour wine on superconductors and make an incredible discovery Science | (0)
Via io9.com: Yoshihiko Takano and other researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan were in the process of creating a certain kind of superconductor by putting a compound in hot water and soaking it for hours. They also soaked the compound in a mixture of water and ethanol. It appears the process was going well, because the scientists decided to have a little party. The party included sake, whisky, various wines, shochu, and beer. At a certain point, the researchers decided to try soaking the compound in the many, many liquors they had on hand and seeing how ...
09.17.10

Pi Calculated to 2,000,000,000,000,000th Digit Science | (0)
From the BBC: A researcher has calculated the 2,000,000,000,000,000th digit of the mathematical constant pi - and a few digits either side of it. Nicholas Sze, of tech firm Yahoo, said that when pi is expressed in binary, the two quadrillionth digit is 0. Mr Sze used Yahoo's Hadoop cloud computing technology to more than double the previous record. It took 23 days on 1,000 of Yahoo's computers - on a standard PC, the calculation would have taken 500 years. Link
04.09.10

Scientists Discover How to Turn Ordinary T-Shirts Into Body Armor Defense, Science | (0)
Via Boing Boing via Ecouterre via USC: A simple cotton T-shirt may one day be converted into tougher, more comfortable body armor for soldiers or police officers. Researchers at the University of South Carolina, collaborating with others from China and Switzerland, drastically increased the toughness of a T-shirt by combining the carbon in the shirt’s cotton with boron – the third hardest material on earth. The result is a lightweight shirt reinforced with boron carbide, the same material used to protect tanks... The scientists started with plain, white T-shirts that were cut into thin strips and dipped into a boron solution. The strips ...

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