Interesting Science Stuff Thread

[Duke87 1,070]

The problem with desalinization is that it is an energy-intensive process. You have to boil every last drop of water. It works great for places like Saudi Arabia where they've got plenty of cheap oil to burn and few other options, but for most of the world the costs are prohibitive.

The obvious solution would be to stop moving to places where water is scarce, but unfortunately places like Las Vegas and Phoenix are very attractive for other reasons and continue to grow at unsustainable rates.

Of course, for places where being in a desert isn't the problem, there are some changes in philosophy which can attack the demand side rather than the supply. For instance: your lawn does not need to be watered, it can go brown in a drought. And your car does not need to be washed.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Boil? You could have fooled me. I have always believed that desalination worked using ion exchangers and semi-permeable membranes.

[Duke87 1,070]

Hmmm... apparently there are other ways, so I stand semi-corrected. But boiling is the traditional method.

[hym 358]

And your car does not need to be washed.

That's not completely true. Road grime can chew through a car's paint job if allowed to sit there. Chemicals and substances used to combat icy road conditions that shorten that time to several years. That's just for the normal people. Individuals who work at chemical/petrochemical facilities often have to wash their cars more frequently than that. Keep your car clean or watch the various chemicals and particulates in the air reduce the world's best paint job to rust before the 3 year/36,000 mile warranty runs out.

Boil? You could have fooled me. I have always believed that desalination worked using ion exchangers and semi-permeable membranes.

Depends on how it's done. A large percentage of the desalination done in the world is by the chemical/petrochemical facilities that need fresh water for their processes, but only have access to salt water. The exact process(es) employed will depend on what resources are available and how the desalination process needs to fit into the larger water treatment process.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

On another topic, virtual reality is becoming an extremely interesting scientific reality. Apparently, there are programs based of the Cry Engine that can render real, proposed, and fictional areas both wild, and developed (urban, suburban, etc) with true photorealism. Scientists working in disability solutions have devised a way to take brain signals and make you move an avatar in a rudimentary VR program and even use subvocalization for speech in this program. That technology has been hooked up to Second Life. Furthermore, there are goggles (older), helmets (full field of view), and glasses (feel natural and sounds natural but without peripheral vision) that can project stereoscopic 3D movies and visuals. James Cameron and other directors pioneered new ways to capture motion of the body and face for digitally animated movies.

So by 2030, these technologies could merge to the point where virtual reality could completely replace true reality for certain (wealthy and agoraphobic) individuals or augment reality for a vast upper middle class living in urban hellholes.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Hmm..

Even more people will cut themselves off from reality.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Hmm..

Even more people will cut themselves off from reality.

We could add some back in by including smell-o-vision. Ever smelled a battlefield? Just visit your local abattoir.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Most people did not predict virtual reality previous to home computers except for E.M. Foster in her short story The Machine Stops in 1909.

  Edited April 25, 2012 by OcramSeattle  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Great progress.

I have only one good eye and over 25 years later I remember the progression of losing the other slowly in spite of everything the ophthalmic crowd could do then. Having any light perception must be a great blessing for these men. I also have arrested macular degeneration in my remaining eye. There is always hope.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Great progress.

I have only one good eye and over 25 years later I remember the progression of losing the other slowly in spite of everything the ophthalmic crowd could do then. Having any light perception must be a great blessing for these men. I also have arrested macular degeneration in my remaining eye. There is always hope.

that's pretty neat.

probably a long time before its inexpensive enough to see general use

  Edited May 3, 2012 by Easy Bakes  

[Meg 368]

I also have arrested macular degeneration in my remaining eye. There is always hope.

How? The medicine put directly into the eye?

My father has macular degeneration but refuses to go near needles.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Well, I only have Myopia that seemed to only get worse until I got reading glasses. Apparently (I must remember 2 'p's followed by an 'a'), reading with my glasses (because I have to literally put my nose in the book to read) gave me enough eye strain to make me more near sighted. Now, I try to read without glasses (nose to the ebook reader) and wear my reading glasses everywhere except when I truly need good distance vision including going to the movies (though I forgot twice).

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I also have arrested macular degeneration in my remaining eye. There is always hope.

How? The medicine put directly into the eye?

My father has macular degeneration but refuses to go near needles.

It is hereditary, and currently spontaneously arrested. I am on something like 20 prescription medications for my auto-immune diseases and it is possible that some synergy of them has put the brakes on this. However, it could also be one of the four heart/hypertension medications or one or more of the other drugs, or some mysterious synergy of all of them. Nobody is willing to commit to a guess on this.

I have also had lots and lots of needles poked into either eye at various times. When they go after the muscles at the back of the eye when you have a detached retina, you think of lost of sight not of inconvenience.

I've been involved with the opthalmology crowd for more than 35 years from the time I had my first cataract extraction. I've pretty much seen (pun intended) the progress of that field over that time. Two years ago I had an eye rehabilitation with a full IOL implant and the removal of some extra humor that was leaking through my iris. I also have some bad endothelial cells in one corner of my eye which is cleared by a little 5% saline as needed, but these cells could be replaced if I was willing to risk yet one more surgery. The odds are 50/50, so I have declined.

Needles? Hah!

[Duke87 1,070]

How long until we have digital implants that are capable of "seeing" sharper images in more detail than your average natural retina? Then you will be able to get surgery and brag "my eyes have more megapixels than yours!"

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Camera megapixels are useless if the image is out of focus and proper software would be needed for certain blind people. I also experience visual snow and chronic migraines so even if the light is bent in in the right direction, what I see is like analogue HD with a bad signal.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

There has been some work done on a complete, operating prosthetic eyeball. It is in the very early stages and I haven't heard much about it lately. I would be delighted to try one, since I have one completely dead eye.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Wild horses tamed in one place.

And must have spread very quickly. The Ancient Egyptians had horses tamed to chariots.

And speaking of horses ...

Google is turning out to be more beneficial to the public than could be expected from a firm arising from the microcomputer revolution.

  Edited May 8, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[Easy Bakes 253]

Wild horses tamed in one place.

And must have spread very quickly. The Ancient Egyptians had horses tamed to chariots.

And speaking of horses ...

Google is turning out to be more beneficial to the public than could be expected from a firm arising from the microcomputer revolution.

We already have self driving cars they just crash when the texting driver looks up and panics.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Intel vs. AMD. AMD's latest entry.

it is starting to get weird. This new clock technology must be a push in the right direction since it seems to use less power. We'll see when people start showing up with HP's new box of tricks. The integrated chip set has the GPU on board with four other cores.

Wonder how it does with SC4 driving one core at 100%.

  Edited May 15, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[Easy Bakes 253]

thought HP was getting out of the PC hardware game?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

thought HP was getting out of the PC hardware game?

They did. They are using AMDs.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Victorian mores prevent publication of apparent necrophilia.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Science really has come a long way since them.

[Easy Bakes 253]

I wonder if there is still a curator of eggs and nests and the Natural history Museum.

Probably a political appointment.

  Edited June 10, 2012 by Easy Bakes  

[Easy Bakes 253]

Hope every one enjoyed their " Leap Second" last weekend.

Too much time on my hands

So what did every one do with their extra time?

[hym 358]

I did the same thing I was doing before and after the leap second.

[Terring 6,473]

A 24 years old Greek, Giorgos Hronakis (Γιώργος Χρονάκης), designed a series of awesome futuristic cars for the year 2025. I think we should have them as automata as well

(Foolish trolling against Greece in 3...2...1...)

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

CERN: LHC finds the heavyweight

Probably the most important verification of a theory since relativity. Next stop: Gravitons.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Cool cars! Are they made of carbon composites?

Wonderful news! I am so glad they finally found the Higgs Boson!

[Easy Bakes 253]

CERN: LHC finds the heavyweight

Probably the most important verification of a theory since relativity. Next stop: Gravitons.

and no black holes were formed.Good for them, we need more science.

Cool cars! Are they made of carbon composites?

to bad they wont look like that in production.They will look like a Taurus or corolla

[MandelSoft 2,769]

All physicists on the world celebrate! The God-particle is found