General science advances thread

[ScienceRocks]

Russia shows off supersonic combusting ramjet engine at airshow and expects hypersonic cruise missile around 2021

Russia has made and is showing a supersonic combustion ramjet engine that is intended for their hypersonic missies. An operational module of the supersonic combusting ramjet will be shown at the MAKS 2015 airshow. Central Institute of Aviation Motors (CIAM) is one of the world leader’s in developing supersonic combusting ramjets. A...

 

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Glad to see China investing! It makes the loserterians plan of cut, slash and burn look dumb.

Reports of improved jet engines in China and development for a mach 5 test plane faster than the SR71 Blackbird

An Aug. 25 report in Beijing-based newspaper China Aviation News praised the engine division of Xi'an-based aeronautic and aerospace firm AVIC Qingan Group. The report mentions a planned project which would see the development of China's first domestically-made turbofan-ramjet combined cycle engine, designed for an unnamed aircraft. The description...

 

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Extreme pressure reveals new phenomenon in atomic nuclei
By Richard Moss - August 27, 2015 2 Pictures

Scientists have long believed that while an atom's outer electrons are highly mobile and often behave somewhat chaotically, the inner electrons close to the nucleus are stable. They move steadily around the nucleus and stay out of each other's way. But new research reveals that if the pressure is really extreme, like double that found at the center of the Earth, the innermost electrons of an atom change their behavior.

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Spooky At A Distance Is Real

The most rigorous test of quantum theory ever carried out has confirmed that the ‘spooky action at a distance’ that the German physicist famously hated — in which manipulating one object instantaneously seems to affect another, far away one — is an inherent part of the quantum world

It’s a bad day both for Albert Einstein and for hackers. The most rigorous test of quantum theory ever carried out has confirmed that the ‘spooky action at a distance’ that the German physicist famously hated — in which manipulating one object instantaneously seems to affect another, far away one — is an inherent part of the quantum world.
The experiment, performed in the Netherlands, could be the final nail in the coffin for models of the atomic world that are more intuitive than standard quantum mechanics, say some physicists. It could also enable quantum engineers to develop a new suite of ultrasecure cryptographic devices.
“From a fundamental point of view, this is truly history-making,” says Nicolas Gisin, a quantum physicist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

[1508.05949] Experimental loophole-free violation of a Bell inequality using entangled electron spins separated by 1.3 km

 

[ScienceRocks]

Subatomic particles that appear to defy Standard Model points to undiscovered forces

Subatomic particles have been found that appear to defy the Standard Model of particle physics. The team working at Cern's Large Hadron Collider have found evidence of leptons decaying at different rates, which could possibly point to some undiscovered forces.
Publishing their findings in the journal Physical Review Letters, the team from the University of Maryland had been searching for conditions and behaviours that do not fit with the Standard Model. The model explains most known behaviours and interactions of fundamental subatomic particles, but it is incomplete – for example it does not adequately explain gravity, dark matter and neutrino masses.
Researchers say the discovery of the non-conforming leptons could provide a big lead in the search for non-standard phenomenon. The Standard Model concept of lepton universality assumes leptons are treated equally by fundamental forces.
They looked at B meson decays including two types of leptons – the tau lepton and the muon, both of which are highly unstable and decay within just a fraction of a second. The tau lepton and muon should decay at the same rate after mass differences are corrected. But the researchers found small but important differences in the predicted rates of decay.
This suggests there are undiscovered forces or particles interfering in the process. Study co-author Hassan Jawahery said: "The Standard Model says the world interacts with all leptons in the same way. There is a democracy there. But there is no guarantee that this will hold true if we discover new particles or new forces. Lepton universality is truly enshrined in the Standard Model. If this universality is broken, we can say that we've found evidence for non-standard physics."

 

[ScienceRocks]

Quantum Entanglement Creates New State of Matter

Physicists have used a quantum connection Albert Einstein called “spooky action at a distance” to link 500,000 atoms together so that their fates were entwined. The atoms were connected via “entanglement,” which means an action performed on one atom will reverberate on any atom entangled with it, even if the particles are far apart. The huge cloud of entangled atoms is the first “macroscopic spin singlet,” a new state of matter that was predicted but never before realized.

Entanglement is a consequence of the strange probabilistic rules of quantum mechanics and seems to permit an eerie instantaneous connection over long distances that defies the laws of our macroscopic world (hence Einstein’s “spooky” remark). A spin singlet is one form of entanglementwhere multiple particles’ spins—their intrinsic angular momentum—add up to 0, meaning the system has zero total angular momentum.

The experimenters worked with rubidium atoms, which have a constant spin value of 1. (All particles have an unchanging spin value, a quantum characteristic that is always given in numbers without units.) The only way for a group of these atoms to have spins that add up to zero—the requirement for a spin singlet—is if the direction of their spins cancel one another out. And once two or more atoms are entangled in a spin singlet, their spins will always equal zero. That means that, bizarrely, if the direction of one atom’s spin is altered, its entangled fellows will change their spins accordingly, and instantaneously, to preserve the sum of zero total spin.

 

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Proposed Armored Nuclear Powered Cruiser Design with a Dozen Railguns

The Center for International Marine Security considers a battleship style ship design with armor and a dozen railguns. The CARN (cruiser gun armor, nuclear powered) will need to adapt the principles of the ‘armored citadel’ concepts developed a century ago for battleships to the needs of securing the two, possibly three, nuclear reactors...

 

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Proposed design for future armored warship with railguns, lasers and drones

Startpoint brings together the best teams in naval defence systems to tackle the twin challenges of providing advanced technology set against the backdrop of funding constraints. It encompasses the structures, processes, people and policies that exist to deliver equipment and support to the Royal Navy (UK). Patrick Tucker at Defense One...

 

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Japan to open fully automated lettuce factory in 2017

Japanese factory operator SPREAD Co. has announced it will develop the world's first large-scale vegetable factory that is fully automated from seeding to harvest and capable of producing 30,000 heads of lettuce per day.

 

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Magnetic wormhole connecting two regions of space created for the first time

"Wormholes" are cosmic tunnels that can connect two distant regions of the universe, and have been popularised by the dissemination of theoretical physics and by works of science fiction like Stargate, Star Trek or, more recently, Interstellar. Using present-day technology it would be impossible to create a gravitational wormhole, as the field would have to be manipulated with huge amounts of gravitational energy, which no-one yet knows how to generate. In electromagnetism, however, advances in metamaterials and invisibility have allowed researchers to put forward several designs to achieve this.

Scientists in the Department of Physics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona have designed and created in the laboratory the first experimental wormhole that can connect two regions of space magnetically. This consists of a tunnel that transfers the magnetic field from one point to the other while keeping it undetectable – invisible – all the way (Scientific Reports, "A Magnetic Wormhole").

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New law implies thermodynamic time runs backwards inside black holes

(Phys.org)—Black holes are known to have many strange properties, such as that they allow nothing—not even light—to escape after falling in. A lesser known but equally bizarre property is that black holes appear to .

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Self-sweeping laser could dramatically shrink 3-D mapping systems
A new approach that uses light to move mirrors could usher in a new generation of laser technology for a wide range of applications, including remote sensing, self-driving car navigation and 3D biomedical imaging.

 

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Kratos gets $20 million railgun contract likely for more railgun fire control work

Kratos Defense and Security Solutions a leading National Security Solutions provider, announced today that it has recently received a $20 million electromagnetic railgun program contract award with an approximate two-year period of performance for a United States government customer. DRSS is a leading provider of hardware, products, solutions...

Phagraphene, a 'relative' of graphene, discovered

A group of scientists from Russia, the USA and China, led by Artyom Oganov from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), using computer generated simulation have predicted the existence of a new two-dimensional carbon material, a "patchwork" analogue of graphene called phagraphene. The results of their investigation were recently...

 

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Graphene Converts Heat Into Electricity. Starting at room Temperature, currently at 3% efficiency

Graphene was first isolated at the University of Manchester in 2004 by Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov. In 2010, they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for their discovery. Graphene’s most unique property is that it is only 1 atom thick, making it the first 2-dimensional material. Today, the university remains the home of graphene research, with over 40 industrial partners working on graphene-related projects.
Recently, its scientists, working with European Thermodynamics Ltd, created low-cost thermoelectric materials that could be used to capture heat from automobiles and convert it into electricity. That electricity can then be used to recharge the batteries in hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric cars to give them more range.
The team—led by Prof Ian Kinloch, Prof Robert Freer, and Yue Lin—added a small amount of graphene to strontium titanium oxide. The resulting composite was able to convert heat that would otherwise be wasted into an electric current over a broad temperature range, beginning at room temperature. Previously, thermoelectric materials only functioned at extremely high temperatures around 700 degrees Celsius.

 

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[longknife]

A new sensor system enables researchers to know the risk of corrosion in reinforced concrete structures in real time



Date: September 4, 2015

Source: Asociación RUVID

Summary:

Researchers have developed a new sensor system able to quickly and non-destructively detect the risk of corrosion in the concrete structure of buildings and do so when the first symptoms appear.



More @ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150904121626.htm



Could be very important for our infrastructure

 

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Full invisibility for UAVs and other vehicles might be possible in near future with cloaking progress

University of California, San Diego have created a new design for their cloaking device, using a Teflon substrate, studded with cylinders of ceramic, that is thinner than any prior development and does not alter the brightness of light around concealed objects. The Teflon has a low refractive index, while the ceramic’s refractive index is...

Armed Robotic ground vehicles patrolling Israeli borders

Israel has unmanned ground vehicles that can carry remote-controled weapons and sensors for surveillance missions for patroling the Gazan border. The Tomcar-based Guardium, produced by Israeli defense company G-NIUS Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicles, has spent the past six years patrolling the Gaza border, carrying out reconnaissance missions....
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Layered graphene makes fibers 15% stronger and 31-36% better electrical and thermal properties

A team of researchers working at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has found a way to create a graphene fiber that is stronger and maintains conductive properties better than prior efforts. Prior research has shown that it is possible to make graphene fibers by creating graphene oxide (GO) sheets in a liquid solution using a wet-spinning...

 

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Ultrathin metasurface lenses do things conventional optics can't

• Colin Jeffrey
• September 8, 2015

Once, the only way to manipulate light was with the use of a transparent glass or plastic lens whose shape and makeup determined such things as focus, magnification, and polarity. However, to incorporate all of these properties in the one optical system required a large and complex collection of multiple lenses to achieve. Now researchers working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have created a flat silicon metamaterial lens that manages all of these thing in a microminiaure device that electromagnetically controls the properties of any light passing it.