Science and Exploration

[Midnight]

Originally Posted by Corkey

Oh shit, sorry couldn't resist...

Yeah it was a crappy story :P

[Hollylane]

On this date in 1859, a massive solar superstorm took place. It's sometimes called the "perfect space storm" or the Carrington Event, after British astronomer Richard Carrington. He reported witnessing a massive white-light solar flare: a bright spot suddenly appearing on the surface of the Sun. At the same time, the Sun produced a coronal mass ejection, or CME: a large eruption of magnetized plasma. CMEs usually take three to four days to reach Earth, but the magnetic burst from the superstorm of 1859 reached us in just under 18 hours.

People were growing accustomed to rapid communication over the telegraph, which had been in use for 15 years. Within hours of the CME, telegraph wires began shorting out, starting fires and disrupting communication in North America and Europe. Compasses were useless because the Earth's magnetic field had gone haywire. The northern lights were seen as far south as Cuba and Hawaii, and the southern lights — aurora australis — were seen in Santiago, Chile. People in the northeastern United States could read the newspaper by the light of the aurora, and the Sun itself was twice as bright during the event.

Subsequent solar storms have caused satellites, broadcast stations, and cell phones to malfunction; they've disrupted GPS systems on airplanes and have even knocked out entire power grids; in 1989, a storm much weaker than the superstorm of 1859 brought down the Hydro-Quebec power grid for more than nine hours. While scientists cannot predict the storms with any degree of confidence, some speculate that the Sun is expected to reach a period of peak activity in 2013, and the large flares often follow the peak periods. They're monitoring the Sun's activity closely, because with a little advance warning, power grids could be taken offline and satellites put in "sleep" mode for the duration of the storm, averting a global catastrophe from which it could take a decade and trillions of dollars to recover.

[puddin']

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...an-climb-walls

[mariamma]

http://myscienceacademy.org/2012/09/...tum-tunneling/
Quantum tunneling illuminated in about a minute.

[Midnight]

Originally Posted by puddin'

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...an-climb-walls

Great article. It seems that with this superfluid you could make a perpetual engine for power (once all the leaks are resolved!) Mind you that means the world economies would crash!

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Midnight

Great article. It seems that with this superfluid you could make a perpetual engine for power (once all the leaks are resolved!) Mind you that means the world economies would crash!

Midnight:

Actually, whatever else you might be able to do with superfluid helium one thing you *can't* do is make a perpetual engine. The Second Law of Thermodynamics utterly precludes any type of perpetual motion machine. The reason is that perpetual motion machines violate either of the aforementioned laws.

Perpetual motion machines of the First Kind violate the First law of Thermodynamics because they do work without an input of energy. Energy is conserved in a closed system (the Universe is a closed system, the Earth is not) which means you cannot create new energy and you can't destroy existing energy you can only transform it from state to state.

Perpetual motion machines of the Second Kind (which is the kind under discussion here) violate the Second Law because in any system where work is done there is some loss due to inefficiencies. That can't be eliminated no matter how hard you try. This means that even if you could harness the superfluid helium to drive a turbine, say, you would *still* lose some energy due to friction which would, eventually, run down the power source.

You might be able to build an exceedingly long-lived power source from superfluid helium but it wouldn't be a perpetual energy source.

Cheers
Aj

[mariamma]

This looks interesting. I wonder if there will be real world applications for it.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/09/12/15544/

Note the limitations, though: you have to start with a penis. There are relatively few of those to spare, although since histocompatibility matching isn’t an issue, it ought to be doable as part of an organ donor program — we’ll just grab the penis as well as the corneas and kidneys. This procedure does not regrow the entire penis, but just the spongy erectile tissue in the core; this is implanted into the sheath of skin of the normal penis. I know all you body modification fans are dreaming of the day you can have multiple penises, but this isn’t quite there yet, and sorry, I should hope injured people who need the procedure get priority over cosmetic uses.

But here’s the astonishing thing: it works. The procedure has only been tested in rabbits so far, but with amazing success. I know what you are saying. You are saying, “Really? Then show me the bunny penises, with erections.” And I will.

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/enormous-roman...191743498.html


Enormous Roman mosaic found under farmers field.

[Midnight]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/technology/...-than-thought/

Make it so!

[Midnight]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

Midnight:

Actually, whatever else you might be able to do with superfluid helium one thing you *can't* do is make a perpetual engine. The Second Law of Thermodynamics utterly precludes any type of perpetual motion machine. The reason is that perpetual motion machines violate either of the aforementioned laws.

Perpetual motion machines of the First Kind violate the First law of Thermodynamics because they do work without an input of energy. Energy is conserved in a closed system (the Universe is a closed system, the Earth is not) which means you cannot create new energy and you can't destroy existing energy you can only transform it from state to state.

Perpetual motion machines of the Second Kind (which is the kind under discussion here) violate the Second Law because in any system where work is done there is some loss due to inefficiencies. That can't be eliminated no matter how hard you try. This means that even if you could harness the superfluid helium to drive a turbine, say, you would *still* lose some energy due to friction which would, eventually, run down the power source.

You might be able to build an exceedingly long-lived power source from superfluid helium but it wouldn't be a perpetual energy source.

Cheers
Aj

Agreed. After further research (before I read your post) superfluids would just flow around, say a waterwheel, instead of exerting energy against it to create movement. Shame!

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Midnight

Agreed. After further research (before I read your post) superfluids would just flow around, say a waterwheel, instead of exerting energy against it to create movement. Shame!

Isn't it though? But superfluids are one of those things that I just think are intrinsically cool. Even if there is *never* a practical application for them (and likely there will be practical applications we can't dream of now) from a purely aesthetic point of view, I like living in a universe where the laws of physics allow for such exotic states of matter.

Cheers
Aj

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/50-million-old...231502312.html


50 Million y/o chunk of Redwood found in diamond mine in Canada.

[Toughy]

The Science Channel has a new weekly series called The Code. It is about math holding the code or key to everything from music to how branches on a tree are formed to fractals......way good highly recommend it.

A new season of Curiosity is also starting.

I couldn't figure out where to post these fascinating little tidbits of news about good science related TV.........so I put it here.....

[Corkey]

Originally Posted by Toughy

The Science Channel has a new weekly series called The Code. It is about math holding the code or key to everything from music to how branches on a tree are formed to fractals......way good highly recommend it.

A new season of Curiosity is also starting.

I couldn't figure out where to post these fascinating little tidbits of news about good science related TV.........so I put it here.....

Good choice, I'll be looking for the shows.

[Kelt]

Sadly Code is not on either netflix or amazon

Curiosity is only on amazon for rent, not on the free list

(I hate commercials enough to disallow them, streaming or nothing in this house)

[dreadgeek]

Evidence of an alluvial fan showing that rocks were moved by water flowing at a steady clip.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ms...l20120927.html

So it appears that at one point in its geological history, Mars had liquid water and where there is liquid water, there's the possibility of life.

Cheers
Aj

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/asteroid-dust-...132248031.html

Interesting theory, doubt I'll see it in my lifetime.

[Jesse]

Wasn't sure where to put this link, but medicine IS science so...

NEW YORK (AP) — The potential scope of the meningitis outbreak that has killed at least five people widened dramatically Thursday as health officials warned that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of patients who got steroid back injections in 23 states could be at risk...

http://news.yahoo.com/hundreds-seen-...nlwYWdl;_ylv=3

[Corkey]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Wasn't sure where to put this link, but medicine IS science so...

NEW YORK (AP) — The potential scope of the meningitis outbreak that has killed at least five people widened dramatically Thursday as health officials warned that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of patients who got steroid back injections in 23 states could be at risk...

http://news.yahoo.com/hundreds-seen-...nlwYWdl;_ylv=3

Thank you and WOW! I get steroid injections in my hip so thanks for the info and before the next injection me and the Doc are gonna have a lil discussion.

[Lasiurus_cinereus]

"Use of population-genetic data to predict economic success sparks war of words.

The invalid assumption that correlation implies cause is probably among the two or three most serious and common errors of human reasoning.” Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould was referring to purported links between genetics and an individual’s intelligence when he made this familiar complaint in his 1981 book The Mismeasure of Man.

Fast-forward three decades, and leading geneticists and anthropologists are levelling a similar charge at economics researchers who claim that a country’s genetic diversity can predict the success of its economy. To critics, the economists’ paper seems to suggest that a country’s poverty could be the result of its citizens’ genetic make-up, and the paper is attracting charges of genetic determinism, and even racism."

for the complete article:
http://http://www.nature.com/news/ec...-union-1.11565