Posts Tagged ‘Science’
Drinking with friends could lower the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease [Medicine]
16
Aug
Singapore will soon become more garden than city [Urban Design]
11
Aug
Gibbons defy their own evolution to jump as high as they can [Monkey News]
10
Aug
Orbiter spots possible water seepage on surface of Mars
04
Aug
Over the last several decades, evidence has piled up that Mars once played host to liquid water on its surface. But in its current geological era, the red planet is too cold and has too little atmosphere to allow liquid to survive for long. Even at the peak of Martian summer, water would evaporate off quickly during the day, or freeze solid as soon as night hit. But that doesn't mean it couldn't exist beneath the surface, where pressures and temperatures might be quite different, so researchers have been looking for signs that some subterranean liquid might bubble to the surface. Now, scientists are reporting some changes on the Martian surface that seem to be best explained by a watery seep.
The information comes courtesy of the finest resolution camera we've ever put in orbit there, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The MRO has been circulating Mars for long enough that it's been able to image certain areas multiple times over a Martian year or more, which has enabled the authors of a new paper to identify seasonal changes on the planet's surface.
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The Batman Equation
02
Aug
Reportedly, the equation above plots as the figure below, which is…familiar from somewhere. Can’t quite put my finger on it. [via Boing Boing]
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Drink More Wine, Get Less Sunburned [Health]
01
Aug
How an argument with Hawking suggested the Universe is a hologram
31
Jul
The proponents of string theory seem to think they can provide a more elegant description of the Universe by adding additional dimensions. But some other theoreticians think they've found a way to view the Universe as having one less dimension. The work sprung out of a long argument with Stephen Hawking about the nature of black holes, which was eventually solved by the realization that the event horizon could act as a hologram, preserving information about the material that's gotten sucked inside. The same sort of math, it turns out, can actually describe any point in the Universe, meaning that the entire content Universe can be viewed as a giant hologram, one that resides on the surface of whatever two-dimensional shape will enclose it.
That was the premise of panel at this summer's World Science Festival, which described how the idea developed, how it might apply to the Universe as a whole, and how they were involved in its development.
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Photo: Father and son at first and last Space Shuttle launches, 30 years apart
12
Jul
"Father and Son: STS-1 and STS-135," a photo by Chris Bray, who is the younger of the two in these side-by-side captures from the very first shuttle launch thirty years ago, and the final one, last Friday. "The picture we waited 30 years to complete."
(Flickr, via Reddit and Laughing Squid.)
Space Exploration: 9 Private Sector Companies Ready to Take Off
08
Jul
When Atlantis launched on Friday morning, it was the last of NASA’s space shuttle flights.
The event marks the end of a 30-year program that has put 777 people in orbit.
But it is not the end of space exploration in the United States. Companies have been engaging in a private sector space race alongside and in partnership with NASA for quite some time.
In April, NASA awarded four of these companies $269 million to develop spacecraft, and companies in the private sector have also established expertise in other aspects of space travel, like space suits and climate control. Some are even famously selling tickets for consumer space flights.
Here are what some of them are working on.
1. Armadillo Aerospace
What it does: Builds reusable rocket-powered vehicles.
Claim to fame: An exclusive agreement with Space Adventures, a consumer space travel company. "Eventually, we wish to provide a platform for civilian flights to suborbital space, and ultimately, we plan to reach orbit," reads the site's FAQ.
2. Masten Space
What it does: Designs and builds reusable space vehicles. Unlike most other commercial space companies, Masten specializes in unmanned, suborbital flights.
3. Oribital Outfitters
What it does: makes space suits for commercial and government space travels.
Most interesting project: Orbital Outfitters partnered with a company called SpaceDiver on a project that will demonstrate the capability to dive from a space shuttle and return to Earth safely.
4. Oribital Sciences
What it does: About 3,700 employees help make space launch vehicles, missile defense systems and satellites as well as offer space technical services at this more than 29-year-old company. It's like a department store for space.
Claim to Fame: In 2002, the company signed its largest contract ever: $900 million to develop, build, test and support missile interceptor booster vehicles for the Boeing Company.
5. Paragon Space Development
What it does: Makes environmental controls for extreme and hazardous environments, like space.
Claims to fame: Paragon is responsible for the first full-motion, long-duration video (4 months, 60 total minutes) of plant and animal growth on orbit, the first multigenerational animal experiment in space and the first commercial experiment on the International Space Station.
6. Virgin Galactic
What it does: Sells tickets for consumer space trips. The company has already sold about 430 tickets.
Cost per ticket: $200,000
7. XCOR Aerospace
What it does: Flight vehicles, piston pumps and rocket engines. And of course, consumer sub-orbital space travel. Its two rocket-powered vehicles, the X-Racer and EX-Rocket, have safely completed 67 piloted demonstrations.
Cost per ticket: $95,000
8. SpaceX
What it does: Space transport. Eventually wants to put a man on Mars.
Famous Founder: SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk, the cofounder of PayPal and Tesla Motors.
9. Blue Origin
What it does: Develops vehicles and technologies to lower the cost and increase the reliability of human access to space.
What Amazon and space have in common: Blue Origin is owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos.
10. Bigelow Aerospace
What it does: "Expandable space habitat technology." The company creates space stations that have more breathing room than your everyday "aluminum can" International Space Station by using inflatable components. Eventually it hopes to lease space on one of its stations for experiments and research. Two prototypes are already in orbit.
Great Expectations: "We anticipate construction of our first space station to begin with a Sundancer launched in early 2014, and that by 2015 the station will be available for client use," says Bigelow's website.
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Potato chips — the other natural way to get stoned [Food Science]
05
Jul
