Science & TechnologyS


Bulb

Moscow physicists develop cooling system for optoelectronic processors of the future


ITAR-TASS
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 22:09 UTC
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT)
© Marina Lystseva/TASS
Scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have found a solution to the problem of overheating of optoelectronic microprocessors, the institute said in a press release.

"These processors will be able to function tens of thousands time faster than the ones used today", MIPT said.

The speed of multicore and manycore microprocessors, which are already used in high-performance computer systems, depends not so much on the speed of an individual core, but rather on the time it takes for data to be transferred between the cores. The electrical copper interconnects used in microprocessors today are fundamentally limited in bandwidth, and they cannot be used to maintain the continuing growth of the processor performance. In other words, doubling the number of cores will not double the processing power.
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Bulb

Scientists create renewable and biodegradable wood-based material to replace styrofoam


Phys.org
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC
styrofoam alternative, Cellufoam
© CellutechThis prototype bicycle helmet will protect your head with a biodegradable and renewable alternative to hazardous Styrofoam. The shock-absorbing foam material inside was developed at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and it is one of the key features of an entirely wood-sourced helmet.
Maybe soon we can say goodbye to polystyrene, the petroleum-based material that is used to make Styrofoam. In what looks like an ordinary bicycle helmet, Swedish designers have replaced Styrofoam with a new shock-absorbing material made with renewable and biodegradable wood-based material.

Researcher Lars Wågberg, a professor in Fibre Technology at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology, says the wood-based foam material offers comparable properties to Styrofoam.

"But even better, it is from a totally renewable resource—something that we can produce from the forest," Wågberg says.

That's a big plus for a country where forests are planted and harvested continuously, much like any other cash crop.

Trademarked under the name, Cellufoam, the material was developed by Wågberg together with Lennart Bergström, professor in Material Chemistry at Stockholm University, and Nicholas Tchang Cervin, a former PhD student at KTH, in theWallenberg Wood Science Center (WWSC).
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Blue Planet

Industrial hemp extremely useful in removing radiation and other toxins from soils

Brandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC
hemp
It appears the uses of hemp are endless. In addition to myriad industrial products such as paper, construction material, clothing, food and fuel, hemp is also known to draw out toxic substances from the soil. In other words, not only does hemp provide humans with innumerable products, it also helps to clean the environment of the mistakes we have made in the past. It has already been discovered that hemp may be extremely useful in the removal of cadmium from the soil and other toxic metals, as well as radiation.

In fact, hemp has been seen as so successful in removing radiation from the soil that it is even being considered for use in Fukushima for the purposes of drawing out radiation. the process by which hemp cleans polluted soil is called phytoremediation - a term given to the process of using green plants to clean up the environment or "remediate" soil or water that has been contaminated with heavy metals and excess minerals. Two plants that are members of the mustard family as well as sunflowers have been known to do the same for many years. And hemp is now finding itself in the same category.

Comment: Fortunately numerous states in the U.S. have have moved to promote the development of industrial hemp production. According to the North American Industrial Hemp Council, there are more than 25,000 useful products that can be made from industrial hemp, including recyclable paper, oil and natural gas drilling fluid, car parts that otherwise would be made with plastics, oil spill absorbents and building materials.

Industrial hemp sure to become NC's newest legal crop

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Magnet

Curb your enthusiasm! Gravitational wave discovery is just a rumor

Adrian Cho
Science
Tue, 12 Jan 2016 15:36 UTC
Lawrence Krauss
© Lawrence KraussLawrence Krauss
If you follow physics, you have likely heard the rumor by now: Physicists working with a pair of gigantic detectors have finally discovered gravitational waves—ripples in space and time set off when, say, two massive neutrons stars spiral into each other—and have only to announce it. It would be a sure-fire Nobel Prize - winning discovery and the rumor sounds plausible. Sensing those waves is exactly what a $500 million project called the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) was built to do. Numerous news outlets have reported the rumor, prompted by Twitter posts by Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist and author at Arizona State University, Tempe.

There's a qualification, however: By his own account, Krauss has spoken to nobody in the 900-member LIGO Scientific Collaboration.

"I never said I've talked to anybody in the collaboration," he tells ScienceInsider. "That's why I used the word rumor. I don't know how to be clearer."

Comment: The hunt is on but will these gravity waves ever be found?

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Saturn

Five planets align for first time in a decade; last time: Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, December 26 2004

Lee Moran
The Huffington Post
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC
Solar system
© Steve Allen Getty Images
The solar system is all set to give a rare celestial show.

Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter will all be visible from Earth when they appear in a diagonal row before dawn on Wednesday, Jan. 20.

It's the first time the five bright planets, so-called as they can usually be seen easily with the naked eye, have aligned in such a way for more than 10 years, reports EarthSky.org.

The phenomenon will continue every early morning until Feb. 20.
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Rocket

SpaceX Jason-3 satellite to examine climate change, oceans


Press TV
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 01:29 UTC
Jason-3 satellite
© www.spaceflightinsider.comSpaceX launches Jason-3 satellite, Vandenberg Air Base, California
Despite being a crucial player in the global climate change, oceans are among the least known and studied of the Earth system components due to extreme difficulty in probing their deep layers. But instead of observing them by diving deep, think of an alternative way to monitor them from an orbital stance via high-tech satellites revolving around the planet. This is the idea pushed forward by NASA and executed by the private spaceflight company SpaceX.

After successfully putting Jason-3, a $180-million US-European satellite, into the Earth's orbit on Sunday, the SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket failed to land safely on a droneship's platform in the Pacific Ocean, broke a support leg and tipped over. The carrier rocket had lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, northwest of Los Angeles, in a foggy and cloudy weather at 10:42 am local time (1842 GMT).

Its satellite, will mainly monitor the topography of the ocean floor, examine global sea surface rise, observe tropical cyclones, and help seasonal and coastal forecast during its five-year-long mission.

The botched landing marked the California-based company's fourth such failed attempt to save carrier rockets, disrupting its plan to reduce launch costs by recycling them instead of letting them fall into the ocean.


Comment: "More than 90 percent of all the heat being trapped in the Earth's system is actually going into the ocean." Methane under the oceans is heating the surrounding water as it escapes into the atmosphere.

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Rocket

International Space Station produces first blooming flowers in space

Lonnie Shekhtman
Christian Science Monitor
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 01:27 UTC
flower grown in space ISS
© Scott Kelly/NASAFirst ever flower grown in space makes its debut!
Successfully growing the first flower in space brings explorers one step closer to growing fresh produce on long space missions.

For the first time ever, a flower has bloomed in space, aboard the International Space Station. This brings cosmic explorers one step closer to growing other flowering plants in space, like tomatoes, which NASA says it hopes to do in 2018.

On Saturday, American astronaut Scott Kelly, who has been working since March 2015 on the space laboratory and has become its resident gardner, gleefully announced on Twitter that he successfully coaxed the brightly colored Zinnia to blossom, a big accomplishment, as less than a month ago, the plants were moldy and shriveled. But even the space mold held some interest to researchers, so it was collected and frozen so it can be returned to Earth for study.

For scientists back on Earth, the flowering experiment, called "Veggie," will allow them to better understand how plants grow in microgravity. For the astronauts in space, growing the quick-sprouting Zinnias is important practice for growing fresh food on longer space missions in the future.
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Cow

Power to the poop: One Colorado city is using human waste to run its vehicles

Melanie Sevcenko
The Guardian
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 22:28 UTC
Dump trucks refuel with renewable natural gas made from human poop at the Persigo Wastewater Treatment Plant in Grand Junction.
© City of Grand JunctionDump trucks refuel with renewable natural gas made from human poop at the Persigo Wastewater Treatment Plant in Grand Junction.
No matter how you spin it, the business of raw sewage isn't sexy. But in Colorado, the city of Grand Junction is making huge strides to reinvent their wastewater industry - and the result is like finding a diamond in the sludge.

The Persigo Wastewater Treatment Plant is processing 8m gallons of Grand Junction's human waste into renewable natural gas (RNG), also known as biomethane. The RNG is then used to fuel about 40 fleet vehicles, including garbage trucks, street sweepers, dump trucks and transit buses.

It's possible through a process called anaerobic digestion, which breaks down organic matter into something called raw biogas. The biogas is then collected and upgraded to RNG - at pipeline quality - and can be used as electricity, heat or transportation fuel.
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Beaker

Previously thought impossible: Body cells transfer genetic information directly into sperm cells

Sayer Ji
Sleuth Journal
Thu, 14 Jan 2016 18:40 UTC
sperm reproduction biology
A revolutionary new study reveals that the core tenet of classical genetics is patently false, and by implication: what we do in this life — our diet, our mindset, our chemical exposures — can directly impact the DNA and health of future generations.

A paradigm shifting new study titled, "Soma-to-Germline Transmission of RNA in Mice Xenografted with Human Tumour Cells: Possible Transport by Exosomes," promises to overturn several core tenets of classical genetics, including collapsing the timescale necessary for the transfer of genetic information through the germline of a species (e.g. sperm) from hundreds of thousands of years to what amounts to 'real time' changes in biological systems.

Comment: In some shamanistic belief systems it is held that the deeds of our ancestors can have an effect on our lives, that a 'sin' (or good deed) can actually be inherited. Previously it has been shown that behaviour can indeed be affected by events in previous generations and passed on through genetic memory. However, the research mentioned in this present article goes even further. Here, not just the information of events in past generations can be inherited, but also the direct circumstances of our lives.

It is interesting that modern science may have stumbled upon a way to explain this shamanistic belief. It may also explain the 'functioning' of the so-called "family constellation" work, an alternative therapeutic method where past family events are brought back into awareness. Had the ancient shamans access to a long forgotten science?

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Sun

Infinite loop: See the Sun's yearlong figure-eight in the sky

Nina Sen
Space.com
Mon, 11 Jan 2016 17:54 UTC
This strange figure of the sun creating a figure-eight shape in the sky is an awesome sight, but required a year of patience by a dedicated photographer to create.

Veteran astrophotographer Giuseppe Petricca took the image from Sulmona, Abruzzo, Italy using a Nikon Coolpix P90 Bridge. The dots forming a curved figure-eight pattern in the sky mark where the sun appeared every day at the same time. A composite causes the pattern called a solar analemma.
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