Science & TechnologyS


Evil Rays

Chemists Devise New Material For Efficient Hydrogen Purification


DailyTech
Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:13 UTC
Many believe that hydrogen is the eventual replacement for gasoline and that future vehicles will be fuel cell-based plug-in hybrids. However, in order to transition to such a hydrogen-based economy, many key challenges remain. The biggest challenges are devising and implementing means to make, store, and ship hydrogen to distribution centers.

One of the key challenges in making hydrogen is the need for purification. Many chemical reactions that produce hydrogen also produce a mixture of hydrocarbon gases and water vapor. In the past separating these substances has been a tricky and inefficient process.

Now chemists at Northwestern University have developed a class of porous materials that may solve this problem by letting hydrogen gas through selectively, while impeding other gases. According to the researchers, the materials exhibit the best known selectivity towards hydrogen over methane and carbon dioxide of any known material.
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UFO 2

NASA Delays Shuttle Discovery Launch for Fourth Time


DailyTech
Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:04 UTC
Shuttle launch
© unknown

NASA has been forced to delay its first manned shuttle launch of 2009 for the fourth time, saying it needs additional time to learn about a damaged valve.

Shuttle Discovery was scheduled to launch sometime in the next five days, but engineers decided to delay the launch after a 13-hour meeting in Cape Canaveral at the Kennedy Space Center on Friday.

Engineers are working on the problem, and another follow-up meeting is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, February 25. Other valves will also be inspected after the meeting, with engineers optimistic they'll be able to launch the shuttle.
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Che Guevara

Ancient statue found buried at Egypt Giza pyramids


Comcast News
Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:58 UTC
Egypt new statue
© unknownA newly discovered statue made from quartzite stone is seen in the tomb of Pharaoh Mycerinus, on the outskirts of Cairo.

Maintenance workers at Egypt's Giza Pyramids have found an ancient quartzite statue of a seated man buried close to the surface of the desert, the culture ministry said on Tuesday.

The statue, about life-size at 149 cm (five feet) tall, was found north of the smallest of Giza's three main pyramids, the tomb of the fourth dynasty Pharaoh Mycerinus, who ruled in the 26th century BC, the ministry said in a statement.

The man was wearing a shoulder-length wig and was seated in a simple chair, his right hand clenched on his knee and holding an object. His left hand was resting on his thigh.
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Laptop

Two U.S. Teams Deliver Smallest Transistor, Densest Storage Ever


DailyTech
Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:41 UTC
Two critical nanoscale breakthroughs both have the possibility of providing vast performance gains and helping shrink computers.
semiconducter polymer
© UC BerkleyA new manufacturing process for semiconductor polymer thin films allows storage densiest of 1,124 GB/square inch, 15 times as dense as the previous record.

This month saw two critical nanoscale computing breakthroughs, both by U.S. researchers. One breakthrough involved the production of arguably the smallest transition ever, while another saw the production of one of the most compact storage formats to date. Together they represent the bold and impressive gains that the hardware industry continues to see as computers conversely shrink and become more functional.

The first breakthrough was accomplished by a team led by Jeremy Levy of the University of Pittsburgh. The team developed arguably the world's new tiniest transistor. The transistor consisted of two ceramic nanocrystal plates of lanthanum aluminate and strontium titanate opposite each other. Naturally insulators, these materials conduct electricity when sandwiched together. By etching a tiny conducting wire between the two materials, a transistor was formed consisting of a mere handful of atoms.

Professor Levy describes, "The transistor we made is arguably the smallest (transistor) that has ever been produced in a deterministic and reliable fashion. And we did it using an instrument that can be miniaturized down to the size of a wristwatch."
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Pills

New Human-Safe Glowing Nanoparticles Spot Tumors, Release Drugs


DailyTech
Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:30 UTC
Nano-particle drugs
© Luo GuA new nanoparticle, created at the University of California and tested on live animals can illuminate cancerous tissues and biodegrades with no lasting detrimental effects.

Nanoparticles are an incredibly promising treatment option when it comes to many life-threatening diseases such as cancer. The small size and often organic composition of nanoparticles allows them to bind and enter cells, delivering drugs or marking diseased tissues. However, a serious downside of nanoparticles is that many have been initially shown be quite toxic, possibly being more dangerous than asbestos to the human body.

At the University of California, San Diego, they're well aware of the toxicity dangers of nanotechnology, so they designed their latest cancer fighting particle with safety in mind. Michael Sailor, a chemistry professor at the university and leader of the study describes, "It is the first luminescent nanoparticle that was purposely designed to minimize toxic side effects. This new design meets a growing need for non-toxic alternatives that have a chance to make it into the clinic to treat human patients."

Professor Sailor's lab tested numerous luminescent nanoparticles, only to find that many of them were far too toxic for injection into humans. Typically, glowing nanoparticles use toxic organic chemicals or tiny structures called quantum dots, which can leave potentially harmful heavy metals.
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Satellite

CO2-tracking satellite crashes after lift-off

Catherine Brahic
New Scientist
Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:02 UTC
Orbiting Carbon Observatory's satellite
© NASA/Robert Hargreaves Jr/VAFBThe Orbiting Carbon Observatory's protective fairing - shown here as it was about to be fitted to the spacecraft at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California - failed to separate a few minutes after lift-off. That prevented the satellite from reaching orbit and caused it to crash into the ocean.

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory crashed into the Pacific just off the coast of Antarctica shortly after it lifted off from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on Tuesday.

Just minutes after the OCO launched at 0155 PST (0955 GMT) on a Taurus XL rocket, its protective fairing, which shields the spacecraft during launch and atmospheric ascent, failed to separate and fall away as planned. As a result of its added weight, the satellite did not reach its orbit and crashed into the ocean.

NASA says a mishap investigation board will look into the cause of the failure.

The OCO was intended to be the first satellite to monitor precisely where and when carbon dioxide is being emitted and where and when it is being absorbed.

Humans currently emit 8.5 billion tonnes of carbon each year, mostly as carbon dioxide. But not all of that ends up in the atmosphere.
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Evil Rays

UK nanny state to pipe 2-bit government-approved internet into 'every home'


BBC
Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:54 UTC
Lord Carter has been defending his report into the state of digital Britain and in particular his decision to set a 2Mbps (megabits per second) baseline speed for UK broadband.

His interim report was published at the end of January and has drawn criticism.

The decision to offer a minimum of 2Mbps was necessary to kickstart the movement of government services online, said Lord Carter.

It was "not an option" to leave people out of the digital revolution, he said.
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No Entry

Google users hit by mail blackout


BBC
Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:49 UTC
Business and consumer users of Google's popular e-mail service were hit by a blackout on Tuesday.

The service went offline at 0930 GMT and began to return for many users after four hours, one of the longest downtimes ever suffered by Google.

More than 113 million people use Google mail worldwide, according to comScore.

Google said it apologised for the inconvenience the e-mail blackout had caused its users.

"We know how important GMail is to our users so we take this very seriously," it added.
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Magic Wand

Ancients art of water divining used to find burst pipes

Nigel Bunyan
Telegraph
Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:15 UTC
The ancient art of water divining is being practised by an engineer with a utility company to find burst pipes.

Steve Robinson, 47, who works for United Utilities, generally uses radio waves to determine the location of a leak.
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Telescope

Turbulence May Promote the Birth of Massive Stars


PhysOrg
Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:14 UTC
On long, dark winter nights, the constellation of Orion the Hunter dominates the sky. Within the Hunter's sword, the Orion Nebula swaddles a cluster of newborn stars called the Trapezium. These stars are young but powerful, each one shining with the brilliance of 100,000 Suns. They are also massive, containing 15 to 30 times as much material as the Sun.

Where did the Trapezium stars come from? The question is not as simple as it seems. When it comes to the theory of how massive stars form, the devil is in the details.

We know the basics: a cloud of cosmic gas draws itself together, growing denser and hotter until nuclear fusion ignites. But how does massive star formation begin? What determines how many stars form from a single cloud? New data from the Submillimeter Array (SMA), a joint project of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, is helping to answer these questions.
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