This day’s launch is a test to check out design and handling inside the atmosphere as the craft maneuvered through a pre-planned course in the sky. Although the flight didn’t go into space, the builders of the vehicle hoped to learn a lot about how the on-board computers, software and avionics, work together.
Concerns have been raised that performing collisions at previously unexplored energies might unleash new and disastrous phenomena. These include the production of micro black holes, and strangelets. Such issues were raised in connection with the RHIC accelerator, both in the media[14][15] and in the scientific community;[16] however, after detailed studies, scientists reached such conclusions as “beyond reasonable doubt, heavy-ion experiments at RHIC will not endanger our planet”[17] and that there is “powerful empirical evidence against the possibility of dangerous strangelet production.”[18]
One simple argument against such fears is that collisions at these energies (and higher) have been happening in nature for billions of years apparently without hazardous effects, as ultra-high-energy cosmic rays impact Earth’s atmosphere and other bodies in the universe.[19] A concern against this cosmic-ray argument is that, if dangerous strangelets or micro black holes were created at LHC, a proportion would have less than the Earth’s escape velocity (of 11.2km/s), and therefore would be captured by the Earth’s gravitational field, whereas those created by high-energy cosmic rays would leave the planet at high speed, due to the laws of conservation of momentum at relativistic speeds[citation needed].
CERN’s review concludes, after detailed analysis, that “there is no basis for any conceivable threat” from strangelets, black holes, or monopoles.[20][21] However, the concern about the verity of Hawking radiation was not addressed, and another study was commissioned by CERN in 2007 for publication on CERN’s web-site by the end of 2007.[citation needed]
The risk of a doomsday scenario was indicated by Sir Martin Rees, with respect to the RHIC, as being a one in fifty million chance,[22] and by Professor Frank Close, with regards to (dangerous) strangelets, that ‘the chance of this happening is like you winning the major prize on the lottery 3 weeks in succession; the problem is that people believe it is possible to win the lottery 3 weeks in succession’.[23] Accurate assessments of these risks are impossible due to the currently incomplete, or even hypothetically flawed, standard model of particle physics (see also a list of unsolved problems in physics).
Micro black holes
Although the Standard Model of particle physics predicts that LHC energies are far too low to create black holes, some extensions of the Standard Model posit the existence of extra spatial dimensions, in which it would be possible to create micro black holes at the LHC[24][25][26] at a rate on the order of one per second. According to the standard calculations these are harmless because they would quickly decay by Hawking radiation. The concern from opposing civil society movements[27] is that, among other disputed factors, Hawking radiation (which is still debated[28]) is not yet an experimentally-tested or naturally observed phenomenon. Thus, the above mentioned opponents to LHC consider that micro black holes produced in a terrestrial laboratory might not decay as rapidly as calculated, or might even not be prone to decay and, if unable to rapidly evaporate, they could start interacting, grow larger and potentially be disastrous to Earth itself.[29]
Strangelets
Strangelets are a hypothetical form of strange matter that contains roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks and are more stable than ordinary nuclei. If strangelets can actually exist, and if they were produced at LHC, they could conceivably initiate a runaway fusion process (reminiscent of the fictional ice-nine) in which all the nuclei in the planet were converted to strange matter, similar to a strange star.
ou may remember hearing about China’s plans to control the weather during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing by attacking shady clouds with artillery and aircraft. Along similar lines, scientists in New Mexico decided to mess with thunderclouds, but with fancy lasers.
The researchers harassed two passing storms from their evil fortress (or observatory) with a high powered laser, fired in pulses. The laser light managed to generate clusters of plasma filaments that, in turn, caused electrical discharges within the thunderheads. It wasn’t enough to get those coveted air-to-ground lighting strikes, though.
Why are they doing it? Being able to trigger a gen-u-wine lightning bolt would allow scientists to study their effects in a controlled manner, such as the effect of lightning on power lines and aircraft. It’d also allow them to ruin someone’s day. Over and over.
Nice funny way of describing the new computing technologies scientists are concentrating on
1. Optical computing
2. Quantum computing
3. DNA computing
4. Reversible computing
5. Billiard Ball computing
6. Neuronal computing
…
EARTHWORMS WERE pushed into the firing line last week after a resumption of the testing of depleted uranium shells at Dundrennan.
Significant levels of radioactive uranium isotopes were found in the flesh of worms at the Ministry of Defence’s Dumfries weapons range last year. Despite concerns from environmentalists and the international community, the MoD last week started a series of tests of depleted uranium (DU) shells, supposed “safety checks”.
A report published in the Journal of Environmental Monitoring found that worms in the Dumfries testing ground had significant traces of poisonous uranium isotopes in their bodies.
We made a very significant announcement last week, of a collaboration with one of the most (if not the most) security sensitive institutions on earth, the United States government’s National Security Agency. They’ve joined the burgeoning OpenSolaris community, to collaborate with Sun and other community members on the future of ultra-secure operating systems.
Official Jonathan Schwartz’s Blog
In Cern, Zwitserland, zijn ze goed bezig. Ooit werd daar de basis gelegd voor het WWW, HTML, XML en meer protocollen voor ons huidige internet. Nieuw -en direct klaar voor verfilming- is: The Grid.
The Grid? Een initiatief van Cern(waar ook het W3C.org huist) met onder andere professor Tony Doyle die het project technisch leidt. The Grid? Heel simpel het initiatief om het huidige internet 10.000 maal sneller te maken dan de huidige verbindingen.
Hoe?
Er wordt beter gebruik gemaakt van fibre(glasvezel)-verbindingen. Op dit moment zijn er zo een 55.000 servers verbonden met dedicated fibre. Dit zou de komende jaren tot 200.000 moeten uitgroeien. Deze zomer moet het snelle netwerk -dat in principe evenwijdig ligt aan het huidige ‘trage’ internet- een boost krijgen.
Het parallele internetnetwerk loopt van Cern naar elf knooppunten VS, Canada, Azie, Europa en wat verspreiding over de wereld.
Een probleem kan zijn de enorme stijging in energieverbruik.
Did it take you more than 20 minutes to finish Mario Galaxy? Was it difficult getting through Halo 3’s first level? Relax, the Japanese company Cyber Gadget has the pill for you, the “Game Suppli” vitamin suppliment! If you require endurance for long gaming periods try Blueberry, for extreme concentration drop a DHA.
I almost forgot… These are some of the same nutrients Grandma grew in her garden for years… But hey… Now you can buy them as pills!
Spinal injuries that leave people paralyzed are currently incurable, one of the most feared and rehabilitating things that can happen to you. But researchers at Northwestern University are looking to change that for good, as they’re hard at work on a new nanotechnology that could enable us to completely heal cut and severed spinal cords, allowing the previously paralyzed to walk again.
The tech takes the form of a gel that, when injected into mice with spinal cord injuries, allowed them use of their hind legs again after a mere 6 weeks. The procedure hasn’t been tested on humans yet, but it’s certainly a promising step forward towards a time where spinal cord injuries won’t necessarily mean a life confined to a wheelchair.
Is this kind of advertising a bit too much manipulation, like subliminal advertising is considered to be, though?
The Boston Retinal Implant Project recently developed a bionic eye implant that will restore vision to those affected by degenerative blindness. The device works by being implanted into the back of the eyeball and working as a light transmitter to the brain, where the two are connected by a nerve/wire thinner than a human hair.
Now, the technology has its limitations; it won’t give sight to those born blind or who suffer glaucoma, nor will it offer perfect vision. Only for those who previously had sight, and a semi-functional optical nerve, is this possible. The idea is that it will give the blind a general sense of their surroundings so they can function on a basic level. But researchers do hope to improve the technology so that users can recognize things like facial detail and expressions in the future.
Android Tech: Researchers Create Bionic Eye Prototype, Render Guide Dogs Obsolete
So… when are they coming with zoom and record functionality? It may take a little while yet, but the first steps have been made!
Just like some people can fix computers just by being near them, there are also people – SLIders – who can destroy them just by being near them. SLI stands for Street Light Interference, as they tend to turn off street lights as they pass by.
I first found out in the followin article, an anecdote that caught my imagination:
Meet Mavis, the super-charged grandmother whose touch BLOWS UP kettles | the Daily Mail
Allthough people are sceptical, there is enough anecdotal evidence around. NB All the pages warn people that it’s perfectly possible they’re imagining it!
some guy with his story Loads of these pages around.
Unfortunately there’s little in the way of scientific experiments confirming it, as wiki notes
About.com does have some links to ongoing research in this area, with some interesting results coming from Princeton.
They allready give them speed, but now Viagra?
The active ingredient in the drugs was found to make climbers perform better in an environment with less oxygen, which causes fatigue and dizziness.
Google has teamed up with the X-Prize foundation to offer incentives to get onto the moon:
• GRAND PRIZE: A $20 million Grand Prize will be awarded to the team that can soft land a craft on the Moon that roams for at least 500 meters and transmits a Mooncast back to Earth. The Grand Prize is $20M until December 31st 2012; thereafter it will drop to $15M until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation
• SECOND PRIZE: A $5 million Second Prize will be offered as well, providing an extra incentive for teams to continue to compete, and increasing the possibility that multiple teams will succeed. Second place will be available until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation
It worked as the X-Prize to get Burt Rutan’s Spaceship One into space, so why not this? Good plan!
