Clipmarks | Rustee's 'science' clips

How Anti-Matter Propulsion Works

Thu, 22 May 2008 20:03:46 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: It's not rocket science...at least rockets as we know them.

So, why haven't we built a matter-antimatter reaction engine? The problem with developing antimatter propulsion is that there is a lack of antimatter existing in the universe.
For now, we will have to create our own antimatter. Luckily, there is technology available to create antimatter through the use of high-energy particle colliders, also called "atom smashers." But these high-energy particle accelerators only produce one or two picograms of antiprotons each year. A picogram is a trillionth of a gram.

It states that anti-matter propulsion is the most energy efficient propulsion. I suspect that will be true as long as the process of making the anti-matter is itself efficient enough to make it feasible.

Clip Source: science.howstuffworks.com

NASA is possibly only a few decades away from developing an antimatter spacecraft that would cut fuel costs to a fraction of what they are today.

Matter-antimatter propulsion will be the most efficient propulsion ever developed, because 100 percent of the mass of the matter and antimatter is converted into energy.

There are three main components to a matter-antimatter engine:

Magnetic storage rings - Antimatter must be separated from normal matter so storage rings with magnetic fields can move the antimatter around the ring until it is needed to create energy.

Feed system - When the spacecraft needs more power, the antimatter will be released to collide with a target of matter, which releases energy.

Magnetic rocket nozzle thruster - Like a particle collider on Earth, a long magnetic nozzle will move the energy created by the matter-antimatter through a thruster.

Approximately 10 grams of antiprotons would be enough fuel to send a manned spacecraft to Mars in one month.

Tags: science, space, nasa

Listen to the Aurora

Tue, 20 May 2008 05:49:55 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: Lots of samples at the source.

Clip Source: www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu

"Natural Radio" describes naturally-occurring electromagnetic (radio) signals emanating from lightning storms, aurora (The Northern and Southern Lights), and most importantly, the Earth's magnetic-field (the Magnetosphere).

This is a presentation of Earth's natural radio emissions that occur in the extremely-low-frequency to very-low-frequency (ELF-VLF) radio spectrum--specifically, at AUDIO frequencies between approximately 100 to 10,000 cycles-per second (0.1 - 10 kHz).

PUWHS2.WAV

Tags: science, physics, astronomy

Scientific Literacy

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:27:19 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

And that's what science really stands to give them. That's the reason you and I are drawn to science. And I can see no reason to offer them anything less.

Clip Source: www.uh.edu

How do we measure scientific illiteracy? How serious a problem is it? And what can we, or should we, do about it?

We have many measures of scientific literacy. You might question any one, but together they show a steady decline from about 12% literacy in 1957 to only about 5% today.

The media reply by inventing ways to catch a child's interest. But does a man dancing in a DNA-molecule costume say enough about the beauty of science to children? Is that a rich enough food for their imaginations? Do we really let them know that science will feed their natural hunger for unanswered questions?

Observer Watson Laetsch points out two kinds of argument that favor scientific literacy. One is utilitarian.

We tell them that technical literacy will help them compete with the Japanese.

The other argument is frankly hedonistic. Bright eighth-graders don't care a fig about competing with the Japanese. Nor do they fear difficulty. But they are determined to find stimulation and pleasure.

Tags: science, education

Science, Technology, & Engineering - What They Mean

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:29:07 GMT

clipped by: Rustee

Clip Source: www.uh.edu

The word science comes from the Latin word scientia, which means knowledge. We apply the word science to ordered or systematic knowledge. A scientist identifies what's known about things and puts that knowledge into some kind of order.

Part of the word technology goes back to a nice Greek word, techni. Techni means art and skill -- what a painter, stonemason, millwright, or glassblower might do. But the other part of the word is its ending, ology, which means the study or the lore or even the science of something. Technology is the lore or the science of techni -- of making and doing.

The last of the three words -- engineering -- comes from the Latin word ingeniare, which means to devise. A lot of other English words are related to this word: ingenuity, which means inventiveness, and engine, which can be taken to mean any machine of our devising -- any "engine of our ingenuity." So an engineer is, first and foremost, a deviser of machines.

Click here for audio of Episode 12.

Tags: language, science

Medicine Rock

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:20:39 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

After a year of effort, though, they finally arrived in Louisiana. The men turned down several offers for the meteorite and shipped it to New York, where a chemist found that it was made not of platinum, but of iron.

The explorers didn't profit from the meteorite, which was named the Texas Iron. But their foray prompted Spain to step up its patrols. And the meteorite was one of the first to receive extensive scientific review. Today, it's on display at the Peabody Museum at Yale University.

Clip Source: texasnativeskies.org

Anthony Glass was an American trader who was lured westward by tales of treasure in the unexplored territory known as Texas. In 1808 he led an expedition that saw a big treasure -- one that had a big influence on the politics and science of the day.

Glass and his party traded with the Wichita Indians along the Red River. And they became the first white men to see a large meteorite that was known as the "medicine rock" because it was revered by several tribes. Glass chipped off a piece and brought it back to his home base in Louisiana.

The fragment caused a sensation. Many thought it was platinum, and two teams set out to fetch the rest of the meteorite. The first to arrive couldn't move the one-ton meteorite, though, so it was left for the second team, which traded guns and blankets for it.

But this second team had trouble, too. The meteorite was hard to move. What's more, Spain claimed the territory, and a Spanish military force set out to stop the trespassers.

Tags: history, science, texas

Surprisingly hot phenomenon

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:40:11 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.oregonlive.com

For the past three years, the researchers have journeyed to the Antarctic to deploy hydrophones designed and built at this tiny science center on Newport's Yaquina Bay

Earthquakes and magma spewing on the seafloor go hand in hand, and what we are seeing is, there are new heat sources right off the coast of Deception Island that no one was aware of before

It's the only place on the planet where active seafloor and subaerial (above sea level) volcanoes are near large icebergs and ice sheets.

the team's studies lead to new information about how the seafloor volcanoes and earthquakes contribute to the breakup of ice in the region

If it wasn't for our work, these deep-sea eruptions would be completely unknown

three-quarters of the Earth is covered by ocean, the vast majority of volcanic activity on Earth is occurring without our knowledge undersea

So it's unknown how much heat and chemicals the underwater volcanoes spew into the ocean and atmosphere, affecting global ocean temperatures and climat

Tags: climate, environment, geology, interesting, nature, ocean, science

The Deniers

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 19:38:54 GMT

clipped by: Rustee

Clip Source: www.nationalpost.com

In the global warming debate, there are essentially two broad camps.

The "science is settled" camp, much the larger of the two, includes many eminent scientists with impressive credentials. But just who are the global warming skeptics who question the studies from the great majority of climate scientists and what are their motives?

The series

Statistics needed -- The Deniers Part I
Warming is real -- and has benefits -- The Deniers Part II
The hurricane expert who stood up to UN junk science -- The Deniers Part III
Polar scientists on thin ice -- The Deniers Part IV
The original denier: into the cold -- The Deniers Part V
The sun moves climate change -- The Deniers Part VI
Will the sun cool us? -- The Deniers Part VII
The limits of predictability -- The Deniers Part VIII
Look to Mars for the truth on global warming -- The Deniers Part IX
Limited role for C02 -- the Deniers Part X

Tags: global warming, climate change, science

Fallacies about Global Warming

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 09:37:03 GMT

clipped by: davboz
clipper's remarks: 1 - Scientists have accurate historical temperature data
2 - Temperature trends are meaningful and can be extrapolated
3 - The accuracy of climate models can be determined from their output
4 - The consensus among scientists is decisive (or even important)
5 - The dominance of scientific papers on a certain subject establishes a truth
6 - Peer-reviewed papers are true and accurate
7 - The IPCC is a reliable authority and its reports are both correct and widely endorsed by all scientists
8 - It has been proven that human emissions of carbon dioxide have caused global warming

Clip Source: scienceandpublicpolicy.org

It is widely alleged that the science of global warming is “settled”. This implies that all the major scientific aspects of climate change are well understood and uncontroversial, and that scientists are now just mopping up unimportant details. The allegation is profoundly untrue: for example the US alone is said to be spending more than $4 billion annually on climate research, which is a lot to pay for detailing; and great uncertainty and argument surround many of the principles of climate change, and especially the magnitude of any human causation for warming. Worse still, not only is the science not “settled”, but its discussion in the public domain is contaminated by many fallacies, which leads directly to the great public confusion that is observed.

This paper explains the eight most common fallacies that underpin public discussion of the hypothesis that dangerous global warming is caused by human greenhouse gas emissions.

Tags: al. separate by commas., deceit, fraud, global warming, media influence

Texas Critter Pics

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 06:14:57 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: A small sampling of insects around here.

Clip Source: www.boingboing.net

Guatemalan Long-jawed Spider

Clip Source: www.texasento.net

Honey Bee Swarm

Clip Source: www.texasento.net

Mexican Honey Wasp

Clip Source: insects.tamu.edu

Cicada Killer

Clip Source: insects.tamu.edu

Clip Source: www.texasento.net

Giant Cicada / Chicharra Grande

Clip Source: www.naba.org

Black Witch

Clip Source: www.texasento.net

Owl Moth

Clip Source: www.texasento.net

South Texas Giant Tiger Beetle

Clip Source: www.texasento.net

Cajun Tiger Beetle

Clip Source: www.texasento.net

Texas Black Phanaeus

Clip Source: www.texasento.net

Horse Flies

Clip Source: bugguide.net

Clip Source: insects.tamu.edu

"Rainbow scarab", a dung beetle

Clip Source: www.texasento.net

Long-jawed Longhorn Beetle

Clip Source: www.texasento.net

Southern Golden Tortoise Beetle

Clip Source: www.birdcrossstitch.com

Dragonflies

Tags: science, entomology, insects, texas, bugs

New Lunar Orbital Pic

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 04:46:06 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: Looking down 500 miles above the moon.

Clip Source: stardate.org

The Moon spins just 500 miles (800 km) below Japan's Kaguya spacecraft as it enters lunar orbit on October 5. The picture was snapped by a camera that keeps an eye on Kaguya's main radio antenna (just lower right of center). The craft will begin its science mission after a few days of checkouts. [JAXA]

Tags: moon, astronomy, science, space, japan, pic

New Cure for Bruises?

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 05:51:57 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: Could very well turn out to be insightful. I just wouldn't want to be the test subject for further clinical studies.

Clip Source: blog.sciam.com

A few days ago I grilled up some kielbasa in my Brooklyn backyard. Several mosquitoes were also enjoying dinner in my backyard, and one of them hit the motherlode: the little sucker bit me right on a bruise (a relic from SciAm's recent softball game against Popular Science). For a while I sported a beautiful purple-ringed red welt, but today I noticed that the mosquito bite is gone -- and so is the bruise underneath it.

Did the mosquito actually suck the blood out of my bruise? In fact, could it have bitten me there ON PURPOSE?

Or maybe my immune reaction to the mosquito bite somehow cleared out the bruise in that area more quickly than in the surrounding skin.

Tags: bruise, cure, science