Science

Large Hadron Collider's atom smasher starts up next week; scientists get death threats

Isaac C. — 2008-09-05T12:17:12-07:00

Now that the first proton particles have been injected into the Large Hadron Collider, the facility is now getting ready to start up the humongous atom smasher next Wednesday. Pretty exciting stuff.

Excitement has been dampened for the scientists at the facility however, as they've been getting death threats to stop the operation.

More than that, Head of public relations, James Gillies, gets phone calls that range from tearful to angry. He gets stuff like: "I am seriously worried. Please tell me that my children are safe," or "You are evil and dangerous and you are going to destroy the world."

To which Gillies replies:

I find myself getting slightly angry, not because people are getting in touch but the fact they have been driven to do that by what is nonsense. What we are doing is enriching humanity, not putting it at risk.

One professor in Manchester University, commenting on how Nobel Prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek has received death threats, remarks: "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a t---." Right on. And the thought of a professor saying "destroy the world" and "t---" in the same sentence just puts a grin on my face.

Seriously though, the world's most brilliant minds wouldn't give the project the thumbs up if they thought it would make the world go kablooie. They live here too, after all. We don't live in a world of mad scientists. And if we do, then there's also a James Bond out there somewhere that will save us anyhoo. Chill out about it, folks.

Give your home some balls with the Energy Ball

Isaac C. — 2008-09-04T12:49:32-07:00

Here's a new gadget that might spark the interest of environmentalists out there. That thing up there is called the Energy Ball, a Wind Turbine with an innovative new ball design. Its orb structure is more efficient and more quiet than your run of the mill three-blade turbine, and is powerful enough to provide some of the energy for your home.

Ok I had a few other puns for the title, but I liked that one best. My next best started with the line "let's get rolling." Yeah, not so good. But enough about one-liners.

The design of this new wind turbine can take advantage of very low wind speeds, so it provides power even on a not-so-windy day. Pretty good for small-scale energy solutions. Plus it's infinitely more fun than a pinwheel. When used right, it can provide partial power to homes, and maybe even communities and public facilities.

Get some balls, go green.

MythBusters' Adam Savage: the truth is, Science isn't about truth

Isaac C. — 2008-09-03T11:12:54-07:00

This whole debate about Evolution versus Creationism is a very touchy subject. Religion and Science usually don't see eye to eye on this. Some have even criticized Science as if it's a religion in itself, wanting to answer all of life's "ultimate truths." It can't do that.

Adam Savage of the Mythbusters clarifies on a few things about what Science is. In a podcast interview with Popular Mechanics, Adam expressed how this issue about evolution "bugs the hell" out of him.

He was asked what the fundamental problem was when it came to supporting sciences in schools, and if he saw it as a huge issue. I'd summarize Adam's reply for you, but I wouldn't be able to give it the justice it deserves, so here's the whole quote:

What I do see as a huge issue is a very anti-science vibe. Like I said, the newspapers talking about evolution versus creationism is very much an attack on science as a type of religion believing that the scientific method is some type of religious belief. And it's not!

That kind of attack absolutely is damaging science exploration across the whole country. I do think that's a significant problem. And until we can get our head out of the sand and realize that science isn't about truth it's why this debate about the "theory of evolution" bugs the hell out of me. What scientists mean by theory is very different than what people think.

People want science to give them these ultimate truths. When of course it's never going to do that.

No scientist will ever even tell you that he'll guarantee the sun will come up tomorrow because that's not a scientific statement. He can say it'll come up because the evidence supports it and he can say he's 99.99999 sure that it's going to come up, but something could always happen.

And that willingness to have your mind changed - which is basically what that is - that willingness to change, to see something different based on the evidence, that's deeply scientific, and it's deeply creative, and I don't think enough people realize how creative science is as a field.

You can listen to the whole podcast by following the source link below.

Arctic Ice retreats, North Pole becomes island

Isaac C. — 2008-09-02T12:10:31-07:00

For the first time in human history (recorded human history, at least), the Arctic is now an island. Satellite images show that the North Pole's ice has decreased enough that the region no longer touches any of the surrounding land masses.

Humans, ever the capitalists, are already planning to exploit the routes that are now open by sea. The Beluga Group will send its first ship through the opened passage to spare the vessel an extra 4,000 miles of journey from Germany to Japan.

The ice cap is expected to melt completely during the summer. Scientists - ones that are most heard anyway - say that the cause is global warming. To concede to one of our readers' point in a previous article (Orlyeh), it could be just the Earth's natural cycle of warming.

Whatever the cause, this is further proof that the ice is melting, and we may not be prepared for the changes it may bring. One such example is the amount of freshwater the melting ice cap would introduce to the waters, disturbing the natural salinity of the oceans. This may affect ocean currents, in turn affecting the climate, and existing ecosystems.

SatFinder Portable v1.3.2: view satellites, stars, ISS in real-time

Gino D. — 2008-09-01T10:18:46-07:00

SatFinder Portable is a homebrew application devised by Pedro J to locate hundreds of satellites roaming around above us. It also allows you to view the current positions of other heavenly bodies - stars, the sun, the moon - and even the International Space Station!

There's even a voice alert function that activates on certain events you might want to see and check up on the sky above you at that specific moment. For now, in SatFinder Portable 1.3.2, Pedro J has included the following changes:

Luaplayer changed. Now is used HW7 RC1
Corrected an small error when showing coordinates in the Information Screen.
Corrected an infinite loop when we try to update TLE files using WIFI. Now if you can't find a proper point of access, you are returned to the main screen.
Moon phases are in UTC time format. A label has been added to avoid confusions.
Iridium satellites now can be disabled. Added this option in the options screen.
Adapted in order to participate in the Scenary Beta 2008 contest.

The homebrew application is to be installed on your PC. And since it has a lot of functionalities and configurations, you might want to check up the SatFinder homepage linked through the Via link below to see online manuals, installation instructions, and other notes.

Download: SatFinder Portable 1.3.2

Scientists discover how to swat a fly properly

Isaac C. — 2008-08-29T14:21:42-07:00

It's a question that's been plaguing man for centuries.... why can't that danged fly just stay still and let itself be swatted? They may not be smart, but they can give Bruce Lee lessons in avoiding hits.

So what's the best way to swat a fly? Science has the answer! No, it's not a foot-wide swatter. Apparently, all you have to do is aim a little beyond the fly's starting position.

A new study of fruit flies have shown that once flies recognize impending threats, it only takes them 100 milliseconds to calculate an escape plan, and to position their legs and body to fly for optimal position to launch into the opposite direction of where the threat is coming from.

Yeah, so just aim a little more beyond where the fly is since it's going to fly in the opposite direction from where you're coming from.

The more you know. Cue piano theme .

Another victim: tequila threatened by demand for biofuels

Karl B. — 2008-08-28T18:59:03-07:00

While biofuels may be a boon for motorists besieged by the constantly rising price of gas, they may also cause the disappearance of one of the most well-known alcoholic drinks in the world, tequila.

According to the Telegraph, farmers in Mexico are starting to turn their backs on blue agave, tequila's base ingredient, in favor of more profitable crops like corn. Corn prices have skyrocketed recently due mostly to the demand for ethanol.

In the past six years, agave prices have gone down from 80 cents a pound to less than two cents. Up to 35 percent less agave was planted in Mexico last year. Mexican officials expect this trend to continue this year. This paints a pretty bleak picture for next year's National Tequila Day.

Mythbusters tackle the Moon landing conspiracy theory

Isaac C. — 2008-08-28T12:12:57-07:00

This should silence conspiracy theorists. At least for a while, until they find other things to nitpick about. In a recent episode, the Mythbusters tackled the moon landing conspiracy, busting several of the "evidences" that the landing was a hoax. Sorry, SonnySoul.

Of the myths they tackled were the flapping flag (flags could apparently appear to wave in a vacuum), the footprint in the sand (moon sand is sharp, not smooth like Earth sand, so it retains the footprint despite the lack of moisture), and the slow-mo moonwalking (they recreated the scenario in a reduced gravity aircraft, and found that their footage matched the original NASA film).

For more on the moon landing conspiracy, follow the source link below. Here's some clips from the episode. They will probably be taken down after a while though, so enjoy them while they're still here:

Mythbusters previews their Moon-landing-hoax set

Laptops aboard ISS infected with password-stealing virus

Charles D. — 2008-08-27T22:43:46-07:00

A worm was recently discovered inside laptops aboard NASA's International Space Station. The detected virus was designed to steal passwords and send them to a remote server. Fortunately, none of the Space Station's critical workstations were affected by virus. Only laptops used for emails and nutritional experiments were mostly affected.

NASA initially withheld any information regarding the virus, but SpaceRef.com later revealed that the worm was W32.Gammima.AG - a worm that gathers personal data for online games.

Investigations are currently underway regarding how the virus was able to sneak into the International Space Station. More than one laptop was affected, suggesting that it spread via the local intranet or via a thumb drive.

While it is possible for astronauts to access email via a KU band data link, also used for data and video transfer, the Space Station has no direct connection to the Internet. Regardless of any outside connection, everything is scanned before it goes up.

NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries was asked whether any mission critical systems were connected to any of the infected laptops. He simply replied, "I don't know and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to tell you for IT security reasons".

Dead Sea Scrolls to be put up for display on the Internet

Mabie A. — 2008-08-27T20:18:03-07:00

The Dead Sea Scrolls is considered to be one of the most intriguing finds ever to be discovered. Unearthed in the late 1940s in caves east of Jerusalem - near the Dead Sea, hence the name - it contained the earliest known copies of every book of the Hebrew bible.

The 2,000 year-old Dead Sea Scrolls also provided a peek into the rituals of a Jewish sect at the time of Jesus, as well as apocryphal texts. Now, it is the Dead Sea Scrolls' turn to be peeked at by modern society, all thanks to the Internet.

The Israel government is finally sharing the Scrolls to the world - or at least photographs of it - by digitally capturing every fragment of it, and afterwards to upload it all on the big Net. Scientists and technicians are working with high-powered cameras and lights that do not emit heat and ultraviolet rays.

What's particularly exciting about this is the technology being used could uncover potentially huge findings, especially in those sections that were previously deemed illegible. In all of its discovered history, the Scrolls were only photographed once (in the 1950s) using infrared. These collection are now stored in a climate-controlled room, a precautionary measure for preservation of the Scrolls' contents as some of the fragments have already been lost. The infrared collection will also be scanned to include in the new collection.

Phina Shor, head of the conservation department of the antiquities authority, says of the endeavor:

The project began as a conservation necessity. We wanted to monitor the deterioration of the scrolls and realized we needed to take precise photographs to watch the process. That's when we decided to do a comprehensive set of photos, both in color and infrared, to monitor selectively what is happening. We realized then that we could make the entire set of pictures available online to everyone, meaning that anyone will be able to see the scrolls in the kind of detail that no one has until now.

The project has already begun, although it would take about another couple more years before it can be made ready for public display online.

ReWalk: medical exoskeleton helps paralyzed people walk again

Charles D. — 2008-08-26T21:37:49-07:00

Thanks to the efforts of Argo Medical Technologies, paraplegics may soon be given the chance to know what it's like to stand up and walk again. Engineer Amit Goffer, founder of the Israeli high-tech company, developed an electronic exoskeleton called "ReWalk", which can help people paralyzed from the waist down to stand, walk, and even climb stairs.

One of the first beneficiaries of technology is former Israeli paratrooper, Radi Kaiof, who was injured in 1988 while serving in the military. Today, Kaiof is now able to walk the streets for the first time in 20 years.

It mainly consists of motorized leg supports, body sensors, and a backpack containing a computerized control box and rechargeable batteries. The user can adjust the settings with a remote control wrist band for different type of movements, leaning forward to activate the body sensors and setting the robotic legs in motion.

The device serves to help patients both physically and psychologically. Aside from allowing the muscles to function from an upright state, it also allows people to live at the upright level and make eye contact with others.

The exoskeleton is slated for commercial use in 2010, and will cost as much as the high-end wheelchairs in the market today (around US 20,000). ReWalk is currently undergoing clinical trials in Tel Aviv's Sheba Medical Centre and will soon be shipped to the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute in Pennsylvania for testing.

How to make your own Large Hadron Collider

Gino D. — 2008-08-26T14:35:43-07:00

Move over Dr. Evil! Now it's your turn to create your own doomsday device! In their Journal of Instrumentation website, CERN has just published some extensive (haha, understatement) documentation outlining every single technical specification on how to build a Large Hadron Collider. Get your copy below, through the Via link.

Oh, don't be too overwhelmed by the blueprints. They're neatly partitioned into seven .pdf reports, all totalling some 1,600 pages. Once you've understood all the physics behind all the processes involved, it's just a matter of putting things together. Sounds simple enough, right?

Humor me for a minute here; let me sum up the various things you'll be needing to prep your little weekend project. You will need the following:

Firstly, have enough paper to print out all those documents
An IQ of some 8,000 scientists and engineers combined (that's about the same number of experts who got together to collate the entire documentation)
Make sure your location (e.g. secret volcanic island lair, moon base, Tibetan underground labyrinth, or garage) can accomodate some 27 kilometers of infrastructure
A complete 6-piece set of screwdrivers - and then some
Enough funding (assuming you win the million dollar prize with each try, it'll probably take you roughly 8,800 full rounds of winning Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? to get enough money - that shouldn't take a lot of time)
Some 1,600 superconducting magnets - ask help from the Mythbusters
Michael Pachter breathing down your back, dictating analyses of your future progress

Now that CERN's notes have been made public, I can imagine a bunch of not-quite-operational-but-still-rightfully-cool Large Hadron Collider projects. Maybe some of which will be available on eBay.

Take for example, a "Ben Heck LHC mod" - not only will it build you a particle accelerator, it might also allow you to play MGS4 on a built-in Xbox 360 booth. Eventually, we might have LHCs that are controllable via Wiimote (with Wiimote Nunchuk combo support to follow).

Pictures from Gizmodo.

M2E developing phone charger powered by motion

Isaac C. — 2008-08-26T09:53:33-07:00

This is one gadget I'd definitely buy if it comes out, thinking on all those times my cellphone ran out of power when I'm nowhere near my charger.

The company M2E (short for Motion 2 Energy) has reported that it has developed a new device that charges electronic gadgets with motion.

The idea is to place the charger in your bag. The device will charge in the background as you move around with your bag. Once fully charged, the device can pack enough punch to recharge a phone, as fast as an AC outlet could.

The charger contains coils and magnets that stores energy in a lithium ion battery when experiencing motion. If you're not the type who likes to move around though, the charger can also store energy from your everyday wall socket.

The company is now looking into applications with hybrid and electric cars. As for the charger, we might not see it for a while yet, as it's still in the design and development stage. Hopefully, it will come out sometime next year.

Dubai-based Timelinks looking to construct modern-day Ziggurat

Mabie A. — 2008-08-25T21:43:30-07:00

The ancient Ziggurat is coming alive in the 21st century, and it's all thanks to modern engineering. In the ancient times, the Ziggurat is the temple towers of the ancient Mesopotamian valley that is characterized by the receding pyramid stories.

Today, a Dubai-based pioneering environmental design company, Timelinks, is creating the Ziggurat of the future - and it will be running using natural energy. The planned city of the future is projected as sustainable, being able to support up to one million people.

The proposed city includes plans of not only reducing carbon usage, but also to accommodate complexes which can take up less than 10 of the original land surface. Apart from public and private landscaping, it is also seen to be used for both leisure and agricultural use.

Timelinks claim that the modern-day Ziggurat can run entirely on steam, wind, and other natural resources. It will supposedly also be able to feature a super efficient public transportation system, which will be running both horizontally and vertically.

The pyramid itself will be covering 2.3 square kilometers, and will be officially unveiled for the Cityscape Dubai event, which is running from October 6 to 9 of this year.

Teeth may hold key to stem cells; tooth fairy ecstatic

Gino D. — 2008-08-25T13:40:03-07:00

I can soooo picture the tooth fairy laughing raucously on top of her heaping pile of teeth collected over the centuries. As a handful of scientists in Japan have claimed, it turns out that teeth can be used to make stem cells - the wonder cure of modern medicine.

The Japanese scientists of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) claim they have successfully created stem cells using tissue extracted from a 10 year old girl's molar. Her wisdom tooth, to be exact.

Their findings show that wisdom teeth may be a more effective (and ethical) solution to create stem cells from, instead of human embryos.

In their tests, they have found a suitable sort of stem cell in the tooth that could be developed into other types of cells within a laboratory. The tissue samples that they are currently cultivating in the labs have already been in development for a month now.

The ethical implications of getting stem cells from human embryos have been a bane to many a stem cell researcher. But with these new findings, it seems that the ethical dilemma has finally been curbed. As explained by head researcher Hajime Ogushi:

One is that we can avoid the ethical issues of stem cells because wisdom teeth are destined to be thrown away anyway. Also, we used teeth that had been extracted three years ago and had been preserved in a freezer. That means that it's easy for us to stock this source of stem cells.

As indicated by the team, however, it'll only take at least five years before any of their experiments would yield actual results in practical medical procedures. It's still a start though! And get this, dentists in the US are already starting to gather and store teeth for potential uses in the future.

Hold on to those pearly whites, folks! They might save someone's life one day!

Who owns the moon?

Isaac C. — 2008-08-25T12:38:17-07:00

Have you guys read Dan Brown's Deception Point? It's all about this government guy's attempts to give NASA a monopoly on space travel - in the US at least - so that no one can claim an ownership in space. Well, imagine if corporations or private citizens with enough cash decided to launch a shuttle to the moon and claimed it as their own.

Technically, no one can own the moon, as stated in the Outer Space Treaty, which is an international law signed by more than 100 countries. It states that the moon and all other celestial bodies are the province of all mankind. But. And that's a huge but (not butt). But ownership is different from property rights.

For example - I rent. I have property rights on my space (not myspace), so I still have the right to kick you out if I wanted to. But. I don't own the building. Same thing with the moon. However, considering there are 10 billion acres on the moon - not counting crater slopes - and there are only 6.7 billion people on Earth, technically we can all own an acre. Neat.

With the International Space Station's construction more than halfway complete, it's not so radical to think that humankind may one day place settlements on the moon. Now think about it - if everyone claimed a stake on the moon, that's going to be chaos. Dan Brown made a good point when he wrote Deception Point.

William Marshall, a scientist of NASA, had the following opinion, which is perhaps the best solution to the problem:

Who owns on the moon: no one. Who should own the moon: no one. Does this stop property rights? No. The best way forward is probably some sort of property licensing body like how it works in geo.

Mars webcam now live

Mabie A. — 2008-08-22T22:03:54-07:00

The webcam's gone way beyond just global, it's gone off to outer space! That's right, folks. There's now a roving webcam in space, and it's on board Europe's Mars Express orbiter that's been circling the red planet since 2003.

The Mars Express Visual Monitoring Camera just went live today, and ESA has been going trigger-happy with it since, clicking away with the camera to show some tourists a view of Mars. Actually, it's been used to confirm the Beagle lander's separation from the main spacecraft, although now, what makes it big news is that even ordinary non-space tourists folks like us can now check it out too.

Apart from being just a viewing machine, the camera can also be used to monitor weather and other changes in the planet. It doesn't hurt that the view's spectacular too, of course. To make the experience even more universal, the Mars Express team has sent out their invitation:

Open invitation for image feedback:: You can assist the Mars Express team with additional processing of the raw image data files as well as interpretation: What do you see? What part of the Mars surface is being shown? Can you identify any geographical features? What regions of the atmosphere or atmospheric components do you see?

To experience Mars firsthand, do click on the source link below. It should lead you to ESA's official Mars webcam page.

Study: Bad jokes may induce violence

Gino D. — 2008-08-22T14:46:50-07:00

A recent study published on the Discovery Channel website indicates that, if you told an absurdly bad joke, there's a 44 chance that you might actually get yourself hurt. Yes, in stand-up comedian Russel Peter's words: "Sombuddy gonna get a hurt..."

The research study was conducted by Nancy Bell of Washington State University, and as she recruited some students (her "minions", as she called them) to "just go out and tell bad jokes." Out of the total 207 conversations in which a bad joke was dropped, 44 of reactions we deemed as "impolite."

By "bad jokes" we don't necessarily mean the offensive type - not the lewd or racist type either. But more of the mind-gratingly stupid jokes that aren't funny at all, no matter how you look at them. The prescribed joke used in the 207 conversations in the study was the following:

What did the big chimney say to the little chimney?
- Nothing, chimneys can't talk.

Horrible. I think I smell some of my brain cells being fried out of idiocy. Can someone hand me something I can throw at some innocent passerby now?

Nancy Bell, who also happens to be a linguist, attributes violence resulting from a bad joke to failed social interaction. See, to the listener, bad jokes may come as an insult and "may suggest that he or she might actually find it funny." It's as if the teller of the bad joke finds your humor so wrong that you might actually find that bad joke funny.

Of course, you really don't need a scientist to tell you this. Nor a research. But the prime reason why Nancy Bell conducted the study was simply because little research has been done on the topic of failed humor. And humor, after all, is also a science (more of the sociological science kind though), and many a professional comedian will attest to that too.

Anyways, for the sake of humor, let's lighten things up. Lemme draw up that clip of Russel Peters (warning: some strong language is used - that and it's a veeeery long video; all worth it though):

The mammatus cloud: otherwise known as the breast cloud

Isaac C. — 2008-08-22T13:51:43-07:00

Mammatus - a Latin word that essentially means "boob-like." Ok, straight off the bat: this is a science post on meteorology, not Latin. And not biology either.

Ok, a mammatus cloud is an unusual formation for pouch-like formations that form under the base of a cloud. It got it's name from, well, just click on the pictures above. Try not to use too much of your imagination.

Although the mammatus cloud is not uncommon, not many have a chance to see this sight. The formation usually appears after most thunderstorms - big thunderstorms. Also, it only lasts for five to ten minutes. So the sky basically just flashes you half a mile's worth of cloud-udders then covers up again.

I bring this post up because BBC had an article on it, and I never knew that such a cloud formation existed, and I just wanted to share it with you guys. You know, sharing knowledge and all that. Anyhoo, the pics from above are from Wikipedia. You can read up more on mammatus formations there.

First proton particles injected into Large Hadron Collider

Charles D. — 2008-08-22T06:43:53-07:00

For better or for worse, the first particles have finally been injected into the world's largest atom smasher. Scientists at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, will be observing the behavior of the first proton particles injected into the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) earlier this month.

This weekend hopes to study how the particles travel the whole way around the machine for the first time. Once the individual LHC detectors are ready, further injection tests will be conducted to ensure two counter-rotating proton beams can circulate throughout the machine.

Tests will continue all the way into September. The machine aims to achieve an optimal energy output of 5 TeV per beam by the end of 2008.

The machine hopes to improve on the current theory about the forces that bind together atom particles. The experiment also hopes to find the Higgs particle, which can supposedly explain why atoms contain particles that have weight.

Other theories may soon be brought to a new light after the LHC is switched on. One of these include the mysterious dark matter that can only be detected via gravitational forces that exerts itself on other particles.