Jun 01

Worlds Strongest Laser Debuts in California Lab

Posted in: science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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Looks like things are going smashingly well: the world’s most powerful laser, dubbed the National Ignition Facility, was unveiled Friday at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California near San Francisco, according to the Associated Press.

As we reported in April, the NIF consists of 192 separate beams, each one capable of traveling 1,000 feet per thousandth of a second and converging on a single target “the size of a pencil eraser.”

The report said that federal officials plan to use the super laser to maintain aging nuclear weapons without having to test them underground. Other applications will include astrophysics (including simulations of new planet and solar system formations), green energy development, and–here’s the one I always find fun–creating “controlled fusion reactions similar to those found in the sun.”

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Jun 01

Preyro robot experiment could enable robots to better mimic animals, kill us all

Posted in: research, robot, RobotApocalypse, Robots, science, Today's Chili

It’s kind of strange, really, how we can see just how near the end is, yet these so-called geniuses employed within the realm of academia are totally oblivious to their own evil deeds. Take cognitive science professor John Long, for instance, who is currently conducting a Preyro robot experiment in a Vassar College lab that intends to “allow robots to mimic animals far better than before.” To him, he’s just hoping to study evolutionary patterns in order to better understand how certain tweaks to things like fins and tails affect performance in the place we call reality. Though, there’s a very real possibility that this research could accelerate the impending robot apocalypse by at least a score. Oh, what we’d give to be incognizant of the truth.

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Preyro robot experiment could enable robots to better mimic animals, kill us all originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 31

Corkscrew nanopropellers may one day deliver drugs internally

Posted in: medical, nanotechnology, remote control, RemoteControl, research, science, Today's Chili

Clearly, vaccinations are so three years ago. As the race continues to find the best, most mobile internal transportation device for delivering drugs to remote places within the body, Peer Fischer of The Rowland Institute at Harvard University has teamed with colleague Ambarish Ghosh to concoct the wild creation you see to the right. The glass-derived nanopropeller was designed to move in a corkscrew motion in order to plow through syrupy, viscous liquids within the human frame. The device itself is fantastically small, measuring just 200 to 300 nanometers across at the head and 1 to 2 micrometers long. Fischer points out that each of these can be controlled with a striking amount of precision via an external magnetic field, though we don’t get the impression that they’ll be on to FDA testing in the near future. Ah well, at least our gra, er, great-grandchildren will be all taken care of.

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Corkscrew nanopropellers may one day deliver drugs internally originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 31

Acoustic superlens could mask ships from sonar… in theory, anyway

Posted in: research, science, ship, Today's Chili, university

Man, the mad scientists are really on a roll of late. First we hear that Li-ion cells are set to magically double in capacity, and now we’re learning that a new form of invisibility cloak is totally gearing up for its Target debut. As the seemingly endless quest to bend light in such a way as to create a sheath of invisibility continues, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Nicholas Fang has reportedly developed a metamaterial that acts as a type of acoustic superlens. In theory, at least, this approach would rely on phreaking with sound rather than light in order to intensely focus ultrasound waves; by doing so, one could hypothetically “hide ships from sonar.” To be fair, this all sounds entirely more believable than hiding massive vessels from human sight, but we’re still not taking our skeptic hat off until we see (er, don’t see?) a little proof.

[Via Slashdot]

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Acoustic superlens could mask ships from sonar… in theory, anyway originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 21:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 30

More scientific black magic promises to double Li-ion battery capacity

Posted in: charging, power, science, Today's Chili

Go on and file this one away in the folder of “awesome things that could, but won’t ever happen.” As the brilliant minds around the world figure out how to solve vicious diseases, move motorcars with peanut oil and send engineers to fix a telescope in outer space, we still can’t buy a pack of AA cells that last longer than a month or two in our favorite toy. Some call it a limit of physics, some deem it a conspiracy. Whatever the case, we’ve no doubt whatsoever that a new silicon-containing carbon material — designed by Dow Corning Toray to double the capacity of existing Li-ion batteries — won’t ever have a real impact in our lives. Of course, it’s not like any consumer would actually benefit from having a netbook battery good for 16 hours, nor would wedding photographers enjoy being able to shoot 1,000 indoor shots without cracking the battery door open on their SB-600. No — that’s just absurd. C’mon Dow, prove us wrong here.

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More scientific black magic promises to double Li-ion battery capacity originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 May 2009 23:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 29

Opportunity Rings Up 10 Miles on Mars

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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The Opportunity Mars rover has now passed the 10-mile mark on the red planet’s surface, according to Softpedia. The milestone comes more than five years after the rover landed on Mars along with its twin, Spirit, on opposite sides of the planet. Opportunity’s achievement also comes as Spirit remains stuck in some loose terrain.

For the most part, Opportunity is in excellent condition, although it is slowed somewhat by a little wear on several of its mechanical parts. Spirit, though, has had a jammed wheel for the past three years and has been driving backwards ever since–and is now stuck to boot.
“For a vehicle that was designed to travel 1 km over its lifetime, going 16+ km is a pretty substantial accomplishment!” said Steve Squyres, the project’s lead scientist and based at Cornell University, in an interview with Space. Opportunity is currently on its way to Endeavor crater.
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May 29

Balloon Observatory to Study Suns Surface

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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A telescope capable of studying the surface of the sun is now tied to a giant balloon and scheduled to launch as early as this Monday from Sweden, according to Space.com. The telescope, dubbed Sunrise, will float from the Esrange Space Center in Sweden over the arctic to a safe touchdown in Canada in six days, the report said. NASA is treating the project as an experiment and will use the telescope to snap high-resolution photos of the sun’s surface during the flight.

The telescope and its accompanying scientific instruments are a 2-ton payload. The giant balloon, meanwhile, is larger than a stadium and filled with almost 34 million cubic feet of helium. It will fly at an altitude of almost 23 miles, and rotate horizontally using a tracking system in order to stay lined up with the sun. The goal of the project is to help scientists figure out some of the mysterious phenomena caused by magnetic fields on the surface of the sun, according to the report. (Image credit: Sweden Space Corp.)
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May 28

NASA Names New Mars Rover: Curiosity

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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NASA has selected a sixth-grade student’s entry and named its new Mars Rover Curiosity. 12-year-old Clara Ma has won a trip to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., where she will be able to sign the rover as it is being built. The new flagship rover, originally called the Mars Science Laboratory, will launch in 2011.

The agency said in a statement that they selected the name following a nationwide student contest that attracted more than 9,000 proposals, both over the Internet and via snail mail. The panel considered the quality of the essays, as well as name suggestions from the project leaders and a non-binding public poll.
NASA describes the mission as a long duration rover equipped to “assess the biological potential of at least one target area, characterize the local geology and geochemistry, investigate planetary processes relevant to habitability, including the role of water, and to characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation.” JPL, which is heading up the mission, is planning for it to last at least one martian year, or 687 days.
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May 27

Obama Picks Former Astronaut to Head NASA

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

NASA_Charles_Bolden.jpgPresident Obama has announced the nomination of General Charles F. Bolden Jr, a 34-year Marine Corps veteran, four-time NASA space shuttle astronaut, and current CEO of aerospace consulting firm JackandPanther, for the position of NASA administrator.

Bolden will have a full plate in front of him. The top question will be whether or not Bolden sticks with the Bush plan for NASA–which is to return humankind to the moon and eventually send manned missions to Mars–or decides to de-emphasize manned missions in favor of much cheaper and arguably more useful robotic missions. Current indications, though, are that Obama chose Bolden in part because he is a strong proponent of manned spaceflight–and will therefore keep the dream alive.
The appointment also comes as NASA retires its remaining three space shuttles by the end of 2010, moves away from maintaining Hubble after its recent successful repair trip, and develops next-generation rockets that won’t be ready to carry astronauts until at least 2015.
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May 22

Purdue researchers concoct new invisibility cloak, plan Walmart debut

Posted in: nanotechnology, research, science, Today's Chili

Hate to say it, but we’re beyond the point of hope here. We just won’t ever, ever see a real-deal invisibility cloak during our relatively brief stint on Earth. That said, researchers at Purdue University are doing their best to prove us wrong, recently developing a new approach to cloaking that is supposedly “simple to manufacture.” Unlike traditional invisibility cloaks, which rely on exotic metamaterials that demand complex nanofabrication, this version utilizes a far simpler design based on a tapered optical waveguide. A report from the institution asserts that the team was able to “cloak an area 100 times larger than the wavelengths of light shined by a laser into the device,” but for obvious reasons, it’s impossible to actually show us it happened. Regardless, for the sake of the kiddos above, we’re hoping this stuff gets commercialized, and soon.

[Via Digg, Image courtesy of Thomas Ricker (yes, that Thomas Ricker)]

Continue reading Purdue researchers concoct new invisibility cloak, plan Walmart debut

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Purdue researchers concoct new invisibility cloak, plan Walmart debut originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 May 2009 09:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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