General science advances thread

[ScienceRocks]

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China's 096 Nuclear Sub has specs comparable to the US Ohio Submarine

There are some reports that China deployed the 096 nuclear submarine. The 096 is reported to be able to carry 24 nuclear missiles and has other specifications that rival the 20 year old US Ohio submarine. U.S. defense officials have stated that it might begin its first sea patrol in 2014. Thomas Spypek analysis "China’s Sea-Based Nuclear...

China is a bigger threat then the USSR ever was. It will have 4 times our population and at least our economy very fast!

 

[ScienceRocks]

 

[ScienceRocks]

Ten-engine electric plane takes off
By David Szondy
May 4, 2015
3 Pictures

In seeking a compromise between helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, engineers in recent years have opted for tilt rotors, but NASA has dusted off and improved on a tilt wing aircraft design that takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like an airplane. Called the Greased Lightning, or GL-10, the unmanned prototype made a successful vertical takeoff and transition to horizontal flight at Fort A.P. Hill, not far from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

 

[ScienceRocks]

150 kilowatt Solid State combat laser is ready this year

The General Atomics 150-kw Hellads (high energy laser) will be tested this summer at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico The third generation solid state laser is to be demonstrated in 2018 on the USS Paul Foster, a decommissioned Spruance-class destroyer that now serves as the U.S. Navy’s ship-defense test vessel at Port Hueneme in California.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Dinosaur-times cockroach caught in amber, from Myanmar
May 01, 2015 by Nancy Owano weblog

Manipulator modificaputis gen. et sp. n. (Manipulatoridae fam.n.) holotype SMNS Bu-116 (deposited in the Stuttgart Museum of Natural History) from the Cretaceous Myanmar amber. A – left view, B – dorsal view, C – detail on the forewing …more

Geologica Carpathica has a paper on a new family of predatory cockroaches. Predatory? The authors, Peter Vrsansky and Günter Bechly, from the Slovak Republic and Germany, respectively, said that "unique adaptations such as strongly elongated extremities and freely movable head on a long neck suggest that these animals were pursuit predators."

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-05-dinosaur-times-cockroach-caught-amber-myanmar.html#jCp

 

[ScienceRocks]

Self-driving semi-truck makes debut on Hoover Dam
19 minutes ago by By Kimberly Pierceall

Freightliner unveils its Inspiration self-driving truck during an event at the Hoover Dam Tuesday, May 5, 2015, near Boulder City, Nev. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Daimler officials rolled out their truck of the future Tuesday night, a driverless big rig that negotiated some very tight turns—but with a driver.
As the Freightliner navigated switchbacks traveling to the top of the Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona border, Daimler Trucks officials compared their self-driving semi to man's first steps on the moon.

The company's Freightliner of the future was revealed at a news conference accompanied by videos and images projected onto the massive wall of the dam.

Company spokesman Florian Martens says the driver had his hands on the wheel the whole time for safety's sake. The turns were just too tight.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-05-self-driving-semi-truck-debut-hoover.html#jCp

 

[ScienceRocks]

World's biggest hurricane simulator aims to improve forecasts
36 minutes ago by Kerry Sheridan

A miniature house is perched at one end of the world's largest indoor hurricane simulator at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, in Miami, Florida

The world's largest hurricane simulator is now complete and experts hope it will improve forecasters' ability to predict how strong a storm will get, which has been a key weak spot for science until now.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-05-world-biggest-hurricane-simulator-aims.html#jCp

 

[ScienceRocks]

Silk reinforced carbon nanotubes spun by spiders is 3.5 times stronger than unaltered silk

The protein matrix and hard tissues of insects, worms, ants and spiders naturally incorporates metals, such as zinc, manganese and copper. This leads to mechanical hardening of teeth, jaws, mandibles, ovipositors and to an enhancement of silk toughness. Thus, the artificial incorporation of metals, or even insulating or semiconducting...

 

[ScienceRocks]

China has built a prototype for a train that's 3 times faster than a plane

By utilizing the same design as Elon Musk's Hyperloop, Chinese engineers have developed the prototype of a train that can travel 1,800 miles per hour, three times the speed of a commercial airplane.

According to Chinese officials, the super maglev is the "future of train travel." The concept was put forward by the Applied Superconductivity Laboratory of Southwest Jiaotong University, and runs inside of a vacuum tube so that it is unaffected by wind resistance. The megathermal superconducting maglev loop was first tested in 2013.

If the theoretical speeds are reached, you could travel from Paris to Moscow in an hour.


https://d3ae0shxev0c...152429_7530.jpg

I'd like to build one of these between the west coast of the US to the east. Maybe have 3 or 4 tubes in which you can go way faster then a plane!

 

[Mac1958]

I looked up the "smart micro grids". Wow.

Goddamn, this is an exciting time. Advances are speeding up, feeding on themselves.

Looks like Musk is going to really be a player on the energy side. He already is.

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[ScienceRocks]

Yep, very exciting...But the amish loserterian still doesn't get it and wonders why they lose the youth vote.

China Preparing For Drone Warfare

China’s military plans to produce nearly 42,000 land-based and sea-based unmanned weapons and sensor platforms as part of its continuing, large-scale military buildup, the Pentagon’s annual report on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) disclosed Friday.

China currently operates several armed and unarmed drone aircraft and is developing long-range range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for both intelligence gathering and bombing attacks.

“The acquisition and development of longer-range UAVs will increase China’s ability to conduct long-range reconnaissance and strike operations,” the report said.

China’s ability to use drones is increasing and the report said China “plans to produce upwards of 41,800 land- and sea-based unmanned systems, worth about $10.5 billion, between 2014 and 2023."

 

[ScienceRocks]

 

[Abishai100]

Pop Atrium



A digital clock is a type of clock that displays the time digitally (i.e. in numerals or other symbols), as opposed to an analog clock, where the time is indicated by the positions of rotating hands.

Digital clocks are often associated with electronic drives, but the "digital" description refers only to the display, not to the drive mechanism. (Both analog and digital clocks can be driven either mechanically or electronically, but "clockwork" mechanisms with digital displays are rare.) The biggest digital clock is the Lichtzeitpegel ("Light Time Level") on the television tower Rheinturm Düsseldorf, Germany.

In 1970, the first digital wristwatch with an LED display was mass-produced. Called the Pulsar, and produced by the Hamilton Watch Company, this watch was hinted at two years prior when the same company created a prototype digital watch for Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Throughout the 1970s, despite the initial hefty cost of digital watches, the popularity of said devices steadily rose.

In Soviet Russia the 7-segment digital clocks were known as Elektronika 7 (source of information from top: Wikipedia).

The analog-to-digital conversion in the modern technology age changed the way we looked at the speed and efficiency of data transmission and presentation.

The digital clock/watch was marketed along with other relevant tech-age gadgets/toys such as the Walkman, the Word Processor, the rechargeable battery, the HDMI cable, etc.

When we want to think about the timeline of scientific achievements as they relate to technological developments, it is profitable to evaluate how marketing affects social demand and hence how culture is related to research funding.

With that in mind, we can understand how modern-era consumer electronics, otherwise considered to be simply user-friendly toys (i.e., iPad) can actually be appreciated as sci-tech achievements.

This is why I consider the eco-friendly (energy-efficient) flashlight to be a real advancement in science and technology.





Digital Clock

 

[ScienceRocks]

Researches from the University of Georgia, Princeton University and Oxford University report a new method for nanofiber production using a permanent magnet and ferrofluid – magnetospinning. Results of this research are published in Advanced Materials journal - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201500374/abstract



A ferrofluid is a colloidal dispersion of stabilized magnetic nanoparticles that responds to an external magnetic field: above a critical value for a uniform field the surface of the ferrofluid deforms and a liquid spike is formed on the surface. In addition, as a magnet approaches an interface, the field is nonuniform, the interface always deforms, so the spike moves towards the magnet and forms a liquid bridge. This instability was explored in this work in a new method for drawing polymeric nano and microfibers in which the magnetic force generated by a permanent magnet is used to draw fibers with controlled diameters in the 0.05–5 µm range. As the magnet approaches the ferrofluid the magnetic force attracts the droplet towards the magnet and a liquid bridge between the magnet and the needle is formed. The magnet moves away and draws the polymer fiber while the solvent evaporates. The resulting nanofibers are spooled on a reel that is attached to the opposite side of the stage.





Here is an image: https://drive.google...zLW8&authuser=0





The new method provides excellent control over the fiber diameter and is compatible with a range of polymeric materials and polymer composite materials including biopolymers. This research showcases new technique and demonstrates its advantages to the scientific community. For example, polymers with low dielectric constant cannot be electrospun without adding high dielectric constant ingredients but can be easily magnetospun, for example Teflon© fluoropolymer fibers that are ideal for the design of superhydrophobic materials. Owing to its simplicity and low costs, magnetospinning set-up could be installed in any non-specialized labs for broader uses of magnetospun nanofibers in different methods and technologies. Electrospinning is the most popular method to produce nanofibers in labs now. The total cost of a laboratory electrospinning system is above ~$10K. In contrast, it is possible to build a magnetospinning set-up, such as we utilize, by just using a $30 rotating motor and a $5 permanent magnet. No special equipment is needed for magnetospinning.

Researches showed that the productivity and scalability in magnetospinning is comparable with electrospinning methods and demonstrated universality of the new method by fabricating several examples of different polymeric fibers, including Teflon© fibers, fibers with aligned carbon nanotubes, silver nanowires, and porous fibers – all obtained with the same experimental set-up





Here is an image: https://drive.google...sSGs&authuser=0

 

[ScienceRocks]

 

[ScienceRocks]

Cyborg Russians: Russian army could soon receive exoskeletons for testing

The world’s most capable armies, the US, China, and Russia, are constantly trying to improve their strategic and warfare capabilities on the battlefield. This so-called “struggle” often involves improving the equipment of the infantry and other troops that are directly exposed to enemy fire.

We know that there is a project that has a goal to develop, an exoskeleton that will be commercially used. The Russian army is willing and is planning to find a way to upgrade some of its infantry units with such (exoskeleton) devices. The exoskeletons would allow soldiers improve their warfare abilities: huge jump, power tilting and throwing items, physical protection from bullets and smaller missiles, chemical and biological protection and built-in weapons.

With this kind of exoskeletons, Russian troops would be able to carry up to 300 kilograms of military equipment. For a comparison at the moment, a vehicle would be needed for that equipment. Additionally, exoskeletons will be controlled by brain impulses, which is significant progress in the field.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Physicists stop and store light traveling in an optical fiber

Researchers at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory in Paris have managed to store light that propagates in an optical fiber and to release it later on demand. By causing interaction between the traveling light and a few thousand atoms in the vicinity, they demonstrated an all-fibered memory.
In the May 8th issue of the Physical Review Letters, Prof. Julien Laurat and his colleagues at Pierre and Marie Curie University report that they have devised optical memory integrated into an optical fiber. The team created a way to stop and store the light that usually propagates in a fiber at a speed as fast as 200,000 kilometers per second. This capability represents an important advance in optical communications, as fibers are at the heart of our worldwide telecommunication system, but also for a future quantum Internet, in which quantum information can be transported and synchronized between interconnected nodes.

 

[Abishai100]

Organics Ergonomics



"A team of amateur science students collect an Oxford study prize from their biophysics professor for designing visionary imaginary models of evolutionary adaptation using DaVinci-esque templates from the speciation well-spring themed Alien science-fiction film franchise."

How does a modernism avatar such as the sci-fi comic book super-villain Video-Man, a mutant who serves as an interference nemesis of the webbed-wonder Spider-Man (Marvel Comics) and who can move inside electric wires and disrupt computing networks with energy beams, represent society focus on 'social science?'

Such questions reveal why such a hypothetical news report (noted above) of a science-award would provide yet another dialogue compass to analyze 'pedestrianism-friendly sci-tech developments/innovations' such as iPads, mineral nutrition supplements, and artificial insemination.

Why, for example, were the organics-themed see-thru Swatch wrist-watch (known colloquially by designers as the Cell design) models so popular in the consumerism-categorization 1980s-1990s?

Consumerism design is a new pillar of science funding.





Alien Franchise

Biophysics Discovery (Nature.com)

 

[ScienceRocks]

America’s navy wants to arm its ships with electrically powered superguns
http://www.economist.com/news/scien...uperguns-rail?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/railstrike

FOR all the centuries of refinement that separate a modern rifle from a Renaissance arquebus, the basic idea has not changed. That idea is to convert the chemical energy stored in an explosive into kinetic energy stored in a speeding projectile.

But there is nothing to say that chemicals have to provide the kick. Indeed, the physics of chemical explosions put a limit on what a conventional gun can realistically accomplish. In an attempt to get around those limits, America’s navy is trading explosives for electricity and working on a railgun, a weapon designed to hurl shells at seven times the speed of sound. Prototype systems at the Naval Surface Warfare Centre, in Virginia, have been firing since 2006. If all goes according to plan, the first firing tests on board ship will take place next year.

Speed kills, cheaply

The brief given to the companies is to develop a weapon that can fire a 10kg projectile at about 2.5km a second. This is roughly seven times the speed of sound—and about three times the muzzle velocity of a conventional naval gun. At those sorts of speeds, there is no need to give the projectile a warhead. Its momentum is enough to cause destruction. The design has a muzzle energy of 32 megajoules, which is roughly the kinetic energy that would be carried by a small hatchback doing 900kph. The fiery plume, visible in the photograph, that accompanies the projectile out of the gun is not the result of propellant exploding but of the air itself being ionised by the electric current in the barrel.

The sheer destructive potential of the new weapon, though, is not the main point. Although a railgun’s speed makes plenty of headlines, old-style naval guns—such as the 16-inch monsters found on second-world-war battleships—had muzzle energies ten times as high. Modern ship-launched cruise missiles can deliver large explosive warheads to targets hundreds of nautical miles away.

Instead, says Commander Jason Fox of Naval Sea Systems Command, the part of the navy responsible for railguns, the weapon offers three other advantages. One is range. The projectile’s speed means ships could attack other vessels, or bombard targets on land, from a distance of 110 nautical miles. That is much farther than existing naval guns can manage, and beyond the range of at least some shore-launched anti-ship missiles.

 

[ScienceRocks]

New shield makes certain types of searches for physics beyond Standard Model possible for first time

New shield makes certain types of searches for physics beyond Standard Model possible for first time

The Standard Model of particle physics, sometimes called "The Theory of Almost Everything," is the best set of equations to date that describes the universe's fundamental particles and how they interact. Yet the theory has holes—including the absence of an adequate explanation for gravity, the inability to explain the asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the early universe, which gave rise to the stars and galaxies, and the failure to identify fundamental dark matter particles or account for dark energy.

Researchers now have a new tool to aid in the search for physics beyond the good, but yet incomplete Standard Model. An international team of scientists has designed and tested a magnetic shield that is the first to achieve an extremely low magnetic field over a large volume. The device provides more than 10 times better magnetic shielding than previous state-of-the art shields. The record-setting performance makes it possible for scientists to measure certain properties of fundamental particles at higher levels of precision—which in turn could reveal previously hidden physics and set parameters in the search for new particles.

The researchers describe the new magnetic shield in a paper in the Journal of Applied Physics.