Clipmarks | Octane's clips

Giant truck set for the stars

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:41:51 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Giant truck set for sky-high task

A colossal 28-wheel truck that will help build a major telescope array in the Chilean Andes has successfully passed a series of tests.

The giant vehicle will heave antennas - each weighing 115 tonnes - up a mountainside to the site of the array, a plateau 5,000m above sea level.

The Alma telescope will study the night sky at sub-millimetre wavelengths.

Astronomers say Alma will illuminate one half of the Universe that has hitherto been shrouded in darkness.

Tags: astronomy, science, physics

'Space arrow' to map Earth's tug

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 12:11:53 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

'Space arrow' to map Earth's tug

A satellite that can measure tiny variations in the Earth's gravity field will be one of Europe's most challenging space missions to date.

Goce, due for launch next year, looks like a spyplane from a movie.

Its arrow shape, fins, and electric engine help keep the satellite stable as it flies through the wisps of air still present at an altitude of 260km.

Goce data will have many uses, probing hazardous volcanic regions and bringing new insight into ocean behaviour.

The latter, in particular, is a major driver for the mission.

By combining the gravity data with information about sea-surface height gathered by other spacecraft, scientists will be able to track the direction and speed of ocean currents.

Tags: earth, ocean, space, research, goce, esa

Researchers develop cheap process for solar panels

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:35:10 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Researchers develop inexpensive, easy process to produce solar panels

Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology have developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets.

“The process is simple,” said lead researcher and author Somenath Mitra, PhD, professor and acting chair of NJIT’s Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences. “Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations.”

“Fullerene single wall carbon nanotube complex for polymer bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells,” featured as the June 21, 2007 cover story of the Journal of Materials Chemistry published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, details the process.

Tags: solar power, solar panels, research, science, environment

Is dark energy lurking in hidden spatial dimensions?

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 23:03:17 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

Is dark energy lurking in hidden spatial dimensions?

The mysterious cosmic presence called dark energy, which is accelerating the expansion of the universe, might be lurking in hidden dimensions of space. The idea would explain how these dimensions remain stable – a big problem for the unified scheme of physics called string theory.

Ever since astronomers discovered in the mid-1990s that other galaxies are accelerating away from us, physicists have struggled to explain why. Their favourite suggestion is quantum vibrations in the vacuum of space (called vacuum energy or the cosmological constant) that could produce repulsive gravity.

Tags: science, physics, astronomy, dark matter

Milestone for unique bionic hand

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:50:30 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Milestone for unique bionic hand

A highly functional bionic hand which was invented by a Scottish NHS worker has gone on the market.

The thumb and fingers can move and grip just like a human hand and are controlled by the patient's mind and muscles.

Tags: nhs, bionics, robitics, prosthesis, science

Spandex leotards the future of space exploration?

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:35:01 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

Future spacesuits to act like a second skin

It's a good thing astronauts tend to be so fit and trim. In the future, they may have to don skintight spacesuits that, while flexible and lightweight, would be rather unforgiving to those of us who could stand to lose a few pounds.

In the vacuum of space, there is not enough air pressure to keep fluids in the body from boiling, so astronauts need to wear pressurised spacesuits to prevent gas from building up in their tissues.

For the last seven years, Newman and colleagues have been working on a different kind of suit (see First people on Mars will be shrink-wrapped). Their "BioSuit" provides pressure by wrapping tight layers of spandex and nylon around the body – an idea first proposed by Paul Webb in the 1960s (see the 1968 New Scientist article A porous leotard for space).

Tags: space, exploration, astronauts, space suits

NASA urged to search for 'weird life'

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 23:50:36 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: arstechnica.com

Panel: NASA should open its eyes to new lifeform possiblities

According to a new report issued by the National Academies of Science, NASA may be going down the wrong path when it comes to searching for life elsewhere in the solar system. The report, entitled The Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems, suggests that NASA's existing approach, one based on what we know about current life on Earth, has been made obsolete by advances in chemistry and thermodynamics that pertain to origin-of-life issues. When newer findings are taken into account, the report suggests that exotic forms of life may exist that look very little like known biology.

Tags: nasa, life, science, chemistry, exploration, space

Astronomers look to quark stars for a fifth dimension

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:37:31 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

Astronomers look to quark stars for a fifth dimension

IF THE universe has weird extra-spatial dimensions in parallel to the 3D world we see around us, then billion-dollar particle accelerators may not be the only place to find them.

So say Gergely Gabor Barnaföldi and colleagues at the Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics in Budapest, Hungary, who propose that extra dimensions may show their face in areas of extreme gravity around dense stars. The concept could also solve a 25-year-old puzzle about the origin of mysterious particles emanating from a distant star system.

Tags: science, physics, astronomy

Do black holes really exist?

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:32:03 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

Do black holes really exist?

Black holes might not exist – or at least not as scientists have imagined, cloaked by an impenetrable "event horizon". A controversial new calculation could abolish the horizon, and so solve a troubling paradox in physics.

The event horizon is supposed to mark a boundary beyond which nothing can escape a black hole's gravity. According to the general theory of relativity, even light is trapped inside the horizon, and no information about what fell into the hole can ever escape. Information seems to have fallen out of the universe.

Tags: science, physics, astronomy

Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:24:31 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: environment.newscientist.com

Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil

A US company is taking plastics recycling to another level – turning them back into the oil they were made from, and gas.

All that is needed, claims Global Resource Corporation (GRC), is a finely tuned microwave and – hey presto! – a mix of materials that were made from oil can be reduced back to oil and combustible gas (and a few leftovers).

Tags: science, microwave, oil, gas, recycle

Power-generating buoys shelter in the deep

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 21:07:03 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: environment.newscientist.com

Power-generating buoys shelter in the deep

They look a bit like underwater mines, but they have a far less sinister purpose – the first of these submarine wave-energy devices should sprout up off the UK coast in 2008.

AWS Ocean Energy has developed an underwater buoy that harnesses wave energy from 50 metres below the surface. The British company says that because the entire device is underwater, it does not suffer from storms in the way that other wave-power devices do, and will not interfere with shipping.

It will be anchoring its first five test buoys to the seabed in a test site off the Scottish coast next year.

Tags: energy, oceans, science, renewable energy

Jets of matter clocked at near-light speed

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:08:46 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

Jets of matter clocked at near-light speed

The fastest flows of matter in the universe shoot out of dying stars at more than 99.999% the speed of light, new observations reveal.

When a massive star runs out of fuel, it collapses to form a black hole or a neutron star. In the process, some of the matter from the star also explodes outwards at blistering speeds, producing an intense burst of gamma rays and other radiation.

Scientists had predicted that the matter expanding in these explosions would be propelled to very nearly the speed of light, but it has previously not been possible to clock them precisely.

Now, rapid follow-up measurements of two gamma-ray bursts have allowed a team of scientists to precisely measure the expansion speed of matter in these explosion to more than 99.999% the speed of light. The team was led by Emilio Molinari of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera in Merate, Italy.

Tags: astronomy, light speed, gamma rays, black hole, neutron star, physics

First zero-emission home unveiled

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:43:39 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

First zero-emission home unveiled

The UK has unveiled its first zero emission home that will set the environmental standard for all new homes in the future.

The two-bedroom house is insulated to lose 60% less heat than a normal home.

It also features solar panels, a biomass boiler and water efficiency devices such as rainwater harvesting.

The design, unveiled at the Offsite 2007 exhibition in Watford, meets rules to be applied in 2016 that aim to make UK homes more energy-efficient.

The Kingspan Off-Site's Lighthouse design is the first to achieve level six of the Code for Sustainable Homes - which means the house is carbon neutral.

Tags: energy-efficient, housing, environment, eco-friendly, carbon neutral

Boffins demo wireless electricity

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:10:40 GMT

clipped by: Octane
clipper's remarks: Make no mistake, this is big...

Clip Source: www.theregister.co.uk

Boffins demo wireless electricity

Researchers in the US have demonstrated an experimental wireless energy transfer system that could pave the way for truly wireless computing. The team has already successfully made a 60W light bulb light up from a distance of 2 metres.

This might be very early days, but the work has been described as "truly pioneering" by Professor Moti Segev of the Israel Institute of Technology.

The group of researchers, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), outlined their ideas in a paper in 2006. But this experiment (the details of which have been published in the Journal Science), is the first time it has been made to work.

Tags: energy, wireless, technology, science, research, nikola tesla

Bulletproof polythene is 40% stronger than Kevlar

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 17:32:25 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: www.newscientisttech.com

Bulletproof polythene is 40% stronger than Kevlar

It's the mundane stuff of plastic bags and sandwich boxes, but polyethylene has a more streetwise talent: in the form of dense, high-molecular-weight fibres it can stop a bullet in its tracks. But no one has ever succeeded in making an ultra-thin, concealable, easy-to-move-in bulletproof vest from it.

Until now, that is.

Tags: materials, technology, dyneema sb61, polyethylene