Misc. Science Topics

[RascalPuff]

"In Creation there is not only a Yes, but also a No; not only a height but also an abyss, not only clarity but also obscurity; not only progress and continuation but also impediment and limitation... not only value but also worthlessness... It is true that individual creatures and men experience these things in most unequal measure, their lots being assigned by a justice which is curious or very much concealed. Yet is its irrefutable that creation and creatures are good even in the fact that that all that is, exists in this contrast and antithesis." - Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics

[RascalPuff]

A well rounded and colorful salute to Leskey:

Upon encountering this remarkable photograph in J. A. Thomson's OUTLINE OF SCIENCE, copyright 1922, I Immediately thought of LesKey's icon, so, that's what it's doing here : )

Reproduced from "The Forces of Nature" (Messrs. Macmillan).
A SOAP BUBBLE
The iridescent colours sometimes seen on a soap bubble, as in the illustration, may also be seen in very fine sections of crystals, in glass blown into extremely fine bulbs, on the wings of dragon-flies and the surface of oily water. The different colours correspond to different thicknesses of the surface. Part of the light which strikes these thin coatings is reflected from the upper surface, but another part of the light penetrates the transparent coating and is reflected from the lower surface. It is the mixture of these two reflected rays, their "interference" as it is called, which produces the colours observed. The "black spots" on a soap bubble are the places where the soapy film is thinnest. At the black spots the thickness of the bubble is about the three-millionth part of an inch. If the whole bubble were as thin as this it would be completely invisible.


Best regards,
- Kai (aka RP)

Post Script:
From what I've gathered about the 'physics' of every kind of liquid bubble, regarding surface tensions, reflections and refractions, etceteras, what there is to be learned about what's actually happening in the 'simple' manifestation of a liquid bubble, a large essay paper or book would be required to accomodate the relevant information...

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_bubble

[labelwench]

A Swiss solar powered plane took off earlier today, with the goal to remain in the air 24 hours, flying without any conventional fuel.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38120715...s-environment/

[labelwench]

The big question with the Solar Impulse, an aircraft designed to fly wholly using solar power, is whether or not it'd be able to continue to operate at night. Well, turns out it can, as the Solar Impulse landed after successfully completing a 24-hour test flight

http://dvice.com/archives/2010/07/solar-plane-con.php

[labelwench]

I came across the following article from 2008 and it caught my interest as there are a number of observations related to the full moon, and I'm wondering if the moon passing through the earth's magnetotail might actually have some bearing on same.

One of the observations in the northern latitudes is that you can generally predict about a week of weather stability, based on whatever is occurring as the moon comes to full, and it has been a very credible generalization for where I reside.

Each month, the moon enters the magnetotail for six days. As it crosses inside the magnetotail, the moon's surface becomes highly charged. If astronauts walked across the charged surface, they might feel a static shock -- just like walking across a carpet and then touching a door knob. It's not a deadly shock, but a powerful zap! It's easy to know when the moon is passing through the earth's magnetotail -- just look for a full moon.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2...n_the_moon.htm

[Lloyd Gillespie]

Thanks for the link Lorrina, as that plays into some of the mass and gravity ideas I'm toying with...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2...n_the_moon.htm

[labelwench]

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope is regarded as a must-have because it would help settle some fundamental questions about the nature of "dark energy", the mysterious phenomenon which appears to be driving the Universe apart at an accelerating rate.

The existence of dark energy was established in 1998 and is one of the great discoveries of recent years, but science understands precious little about it.

WFIRST is envisaged as a 1.5m telescope costing about $1.6bn.

It would be despatched to a gravitational "sweetspot" in space known as L2, a location more than a million kilometres from Earth on its night side where the observatory could have an unencumbered view of the sky.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereport...poker-in.shtml

[labelwench]

What is more frustrating than waiting for your computer to 'boot up', lol.....?

Apparently this oversight is due to a piece of technology that has survived in the technical arena far longer than anyone expected. This is soon to change and the results will be coming soon to a computer shop near you.

New PCs could start in just seconds, thanks to an update to one of the oldest parts of desktop computers.

The upgrade will spell the end for the 25-year-old PC start-up software known as Bios that initialises a machine so its operating system can get going.

The code was not intended to live nearly this long, and adapting it to modern PCs is one reason they take as long as they do to warm up.

Bios' replacement, known as UEFI, will predominate in new PCs by 2011.

The acronym stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and is designed to be more flexible than its venerable predecessor.

"Conventional Bios is up there with some of the physical pieces of the chip set that have been kicking around the PC since 1979," said Mark Doran, head of the UEFI Forum, which is overseeing development of the technology.

Mr Doran said the creators of the original Bios only expected it to have a lifetime of about 250,000 machines - a figure that has long been surpassed.

"They are as amazed as anyone else that now it is still alive and well in a lot of systems," he said. "It was never really designed to be extensible over time."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11430069

[labelwench]

Pet owners know only too well the disposal problems of the waste product of their animal companions, and when this digested matter gets disposed of by means of the landfill, methane is produced, and is far more damaging to the ozone than is carbon dioxide.

The following article demonstrates one way to turn this troublesome output into useful technology and this concept was designed by an artist, Matt Mazzotta.

There is a three minute video describing the project at the bottom of the article.

http://inventorspot.com/articles/dog..._spark_project

[labelwench]

Canadians are in the forefront of Science with this news today:

Canadian scientists have turned human skin cells directly into blood cells, the first time one kind of mature human cell has been converted into another, according to a study published Sunday in the journal Nature.

The transformation was completed without first rewinding the skin cells into the flexible pluripotent stem cells that have most frequently been used to grow tissues. By skipping the pluripotent step, the researchers believe they have skirted the risk that the replacement cells might form dangerous tumors.

The team created blood progenitor cells — mother cells that multiply to produce other blood cells — as well as mature blood cells, according to the report. Both types of cells could be useful in medical treatments, said study leader Mick Bhatia, a stem cell scientist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

"There is a great need for alternative sources of human blood," Bhatia said. "Since this source would come from a patient's own skin, there would be no concern of rejection of the transplanted cells."

The scientists used a trial-and-error approach to figure out which genes needed to be activated to reprogram the cells into blood cells. Then they looked for the right combination of growth factors — blood proteins that promote development of the new cells — to coax the process along.

They found that they needed to turn on a single gene — called OCT4 — in the skin cells, and that the cells needed to bathe in precisely calibrated combinations of four to six growth factors, Bhatia said.

By tweaking the formula, the team was able to produce different types of blood cells, he said. For example, when they left out the protein called erythropoietin, the skin cells generated neutrophils and macrophages, types of white blood cell used by the immune system.

They also tested the cells in mice to see whether they would generate cancer. They did not. But it is not yet clear whether the blood cells generated directly from skin will pose safety concerns of their own.

Bhatia said he was seeking research partners to study the risks associated with the new technique and to determine whether it worked at the "industrial levels" suitable for generating the large numbers of blood cells a patient might need.

eryn.brown@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

A short video mid-way down the page at this link: http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-...id=5uken000001