Interesting Science Stuff Thread

[Odainsaker 2,134]

Remember all the sci-fi about aliens receiving old TV broadcasts? Well, we're receiving reflections of our own. Proof of concept, at least.

Whew, that actually played out better for us than was spookily foreseen by Carl Sagan in Contact, of which the best chapter and later movie scene was the first decoding of a mysterious transmission apparently originating from the star Vega:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyYdJ_YgUmQ

Ach, he is our first ambassador to outer space!

  Edited January 18, 2012 by Odainsaker  

[Easy Bakes 253]

Well, that means that any intelligent extraterrestrial life within 80 or so light years from us could get a usable signal and study our culture.

they neglected to mention if a race had the ability to get here via FTL from 50 light years away. they would know the signals were 50 years old and stop some were outside

the solar system to get more up to date intelligence

and would not think American family life was like The Cleavers,you know like most of the politicians seem to think.

  Edited January 18, 2012 by Easy Bakes  

[Duke87 1,070]

they neglected to mention if a race had the ability to get here via FTL from 50 light years away. they would know the signals were 50 years old and stop some were outside the solar system to get more up to date intelligence

This presumes that the alien race would expect things to change significantly in 50 years. Depending on their life and culture, it is entirely possible that 50 years to them might be like a year or two to us.

Or maybe their lifespan is similar to ours, but their culture is very static and doesn't change appreciably within an individual's lifetime.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

They should pay careful attention. TV was mostly live and very good in those days as I remember.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Around and around and around she goes.

And if she stops, there will be serious dislocation in the North Atlantic. This is one of the events in the climate change going on that could affect things like the Gulf Stream which, if stopped or redirected, would cause a deep freeze in Europe. A major change in the salinity of the Atlantic would also affect the fishery because a lot of sea-life would simply die off.

On top of this, we have the run-off from the melting of the Greenland ice cap which appears to be disappearing at a greater and greater rate.

We are at the turnover point from the last ice age, and I don't think man's puny attempts to do anything about it will stop this geologic event.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Would all that fresh water released to the rest of the oceans reduce the acidity that wrecking the coral reefs?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Would all that fresh water released to the rest of the oceans reduce the acidity that wrecking the coral reefs?

In as much as it is a diluent, perhaps. But you have to remember that the effect will dissipate as it spreads through the Atlantic, and the coral reefs are in tropical waters. Maybe you'd like to put together a simulation for this? The volume of the freshwater is in the article. Why not assume the circumpolar winds reverse or stop, and go from there. The article implies that the dump will be essentially Davis Strait.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Macro-physical applications of graphene.

This may turn out to be the scientific breakthrough of the 21st century parallel to the discovery of the photoelectric effect in the 20th. More and more applications are being discovered for this material.

It can create a container for Helium, but can it also be a container for gaseous or liquid Hydrogen? If so, it could be the fuel-tank liner we've been looking for.

  Edited January 28, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[emperordaniel 1,281]

Definitely interesting news

[astronelson 339]

It pushes the definition of "container", but it could be used as hydrogen storage.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

It pushes the definition of "container", but it could be used as hydrogen storage.

Thanks for the reference.

Looks like graphene and graphane are more exciting than the photoelectric effect by a few orders of magnitude. Once they get practical manufacturing at a reasonable price done, it will be the most important material around with the exception, maybe, of spider silk. If it forms the usual molecule with hydrogen, then graphene will store at least one and maybe four atoms of hydrogen for each carbon atom. That can be a lot of hydrogen in a sheaf of sheets that doesn't take up very much space. The extraction temperature is rather high at the moment, so I hope they can find a good catalyst.

Since the sheets are only one atom thick, they are transparent, and apparently very tough. How do you spell Nobel Prize in Physics?

[astronelson 339]

It would only store one per carbon - the other three bonds are to other carbons, and breaking these means it would no longer be graphene.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

It would only store one per carbon - the other three bonds are to other carbons, and breaking these means it would no longer be graphene.

Yes. Can't imagine what I was thinking. It's been a long time since I did any physical chemistry. Carbon does only have the four covalent bonds (which may now be archaic terminology). I've really been out of touch since around 1960. In those days the International Nomenclature was just being considered. Having been brought up to terms like Ferroferricyanide I find the new stuff rather cumbersome. Although I would rather say rust than ferric oxide.

BTW, do you know if there has been any work on the possible existence of a Silicon analogue to Graphene?

  Edited January 29, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[astronelson 339]

It would only store one per carbon - the other three bonds are to other carbons, and breaking these means it would no longer be graphene.

Yes. Can't imagine what I was thinking. It's been a long time since I did any physical chemistry. Carbon does only have the four covalent bonds (which may now be archaic terminology).

It was still in use last time I took a chemistry course, which was a little over a year ago.

BTW, do you know if there has been any work on the possible existence of a Silicon analogue to Graphene?

Looks like there's research going on.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

It would only store one per carbon - the other three bonds are to other carbons, and breaking these means it would no longer be graphene.

Yes. Can't imagine what I was thinking. It's been a long time since I did any physical chemistry. Carbon does only have the four covalent bonds (which may now be archaic terminology).

It was still in use last time I took a chemistry course, which was a little over a year ago.

Unfortunately, when my kids hit high-school the Système Internationale was all the vogue among Chemistry teachers. They hated Chemistry, and I tend to agree. That juiceless notation and nomenclature is just a lot of bafflegab to me. Maybe I am a romantic, but there is nothing like periodic acid (HIO₄).

BTW, do you know if there has been any work on the possible existence of a Silicon analogue to Graphene?

Looks like there's research going on.

Thanks for the reference. When I was much younger, the first useful silicone compounds hit the market. I believe that with great difficulty someone made Silane, but I don't think Silamine exists.

  Edited January 30, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[astronelson 339]

I'm pretty sure we use the IUPAC nomenclature down here. Of course, you'd expect a university to use the international standard. As I recall, my high school used it as well.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I'm pretty sure we use the IUPAC nomenclature down here. Of course, you'd expect a university to use the international standard. As I recall, my high school used it as well.

I guess I am an old-school alchemist. I even know what Xerion is. In my qualitative chemistry course, it was recommended that you could taste a substance to help identify it. I am glad there were no substances like Osmium trioxide around. You find out it tastes like garlic a few seconds before you drop dead.

My late brother-in-law worked as a mass spectroscopist at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. at the Whiteshell Laboratories outside Winnipeg. When I was visiting them, he got me a pass and we took a tour of the labs. It was the weekend and the place was deserted. We had to wear protective booties because someone in a hot cell had cut into a fuel bundle from a crashed Russian satellite outside of a hot cell, and it turned out to be Plutonium. (Project Moosehoof, long since declassified). That is quite a place since they were doing a lot of nuclear chemistry. The reactants inventory would have made the budget of most cities. I got to stand on the top of the National Research Universal reactor. Nice and warm, but not "hot". The caps for the insertion of experiments just looked like big plates on the floor with a bolt though them.

My late wife worked for AECL when she got out of university. She was in the Reactor Design group at Chalk River running reactor simulations for power reactors. She never took a physics course in her life, and her degree was in business administration. She took a few math courses for interest. Interestingly, she was hired, sight-unseen by letter after sending in a cold letter because of a note in the university's hiring office on a bulletin board. That girl was one demon programmer. We met when we were both working for the Information Systems and Defense Products Group at Canadian General Electric. Long story.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

I cannot write links on my phone but some companies have found out how to mass produce carbon composite cars through a special process to producing carbon fiber reinforced polymer and another patented a way to mass produce single part fiberglass car floor/base.

[_marsh_ 1,117]

There is fungus among us.

  Edited February 3, 2012 by _marsh_  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Would have made more sense if one knew what the magnification of this was. Mycophotography, no doubt.

[_marsh_ 1,117]

There's a link to his livejournal showing the camera setup, that's about it. http://lariontsev.livejournal.com/#5331

  Edited February 3, 2012 by _marsh_  

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Life and nature are so beautiful!

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[Ocram's Razr 963]

The fungi were wild? I thought they were grown in a lab?

I also saw that some of the scenes vaguely resemble large scale scenes with grey fungal "mountains" and green fungal "forests."

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Without fungi, there are a lot of things that would never decay. On the other hand, if they didn't exist, something else would fill the niche.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

On a different vein, I read the other day that 10% of all named animal species are haplodiploid. It is interesting because we tend to view the world through the lens of diploidy.

Barbarossa

Yes, there are are very large number of bees and other insects that use this system. It sure makes it easy for the Queen bee to make her drones.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Morning all. We are playing the old Chinese sky rocket game again.

After all these years, this is still our best system for getting off this old ball of dirt? Well, so be it.

The Lares satellite's name may have a trumped-up acronym, but the Lares are the Roman household gods along with the Penates. I think only ESA would have come up with that name. Anyway, using the experiment to verify one of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity's side issues is an interesting idea.

All the relativists I've ever known or worked with were pretty convinced already, but this will help put more certainty in such an abstruse collection of physical conjectures.

Of note, the ESA has taken Arthur C. Clarke's principle of an equatorial launch site to heart.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Nine Higgs bosons, hanging on the wall ...

This toy uses power like it was free. Hope they don't find a singularity.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa