new scientific discoveries

[Walsingham]

More techie than sciency, but here's an article on how the iranians probably nabbed that US spy drone.

[Humodour]

More techie than sciency, but here's an article on how the iranians probably nabbed that US spy drone.

 

I heard a few technical reasons (courtesy of Slashdot) as to why that's probably not true and just more Iranian propaganda. Moreover even if it is true, there's reasonable likelihood the drone would've wiped it's electronics beyond repair once it figured out it was hijacked. Further, even if it didn't, everything about its electronics is encrypted to the point that even a friendly American defence firm would have a hugely difficult time getting anything of value out of it. In fact, probably the most valuable resource this drone has to offer is it's paint coating (which, I guess, is not insignificant).

 

Id est: this is much more of a propaganda coup for Iran than it is any sort of technological/military coup. And if the Americans are stupid enough to have not implemented fail-safes like deadreckoning, then, well, it's probably good that this happened BEFORE the war.

[Walsingham]

What I love is all the halfwits sounding off about how it couldn't have accidentally wound up in Iranian airspace. As if the Afghan border is some neatly defined Euro stateline. I'm not saying it WAS accidental. Just, you know, Volo-tanting.

[Junai]

More techie than sciency, but here's an article on how the iranians probably nabbed that US spy drone.

 

I heard a few technical reasons (courtesy of Slashdot) as to why that's probably not true and just more Iranian propaganda. Moreover even if it is true, there's reasonable likelihood the drone would've wiped it's electronics beyond repair once it figured out it was hijacked. Further, even if it didn't, everything about its electronics is encrypted to the point that even a friendly American defence firm would have a hugely difficult time getting anything of value out of it. In fact, probably the most valuable resource this drone has to offer is it's paint coating (which, I guess, is not insignificant).

 

Id est: this is much more of a propaganda coup for Iran than it is any sort of technological/military coup. And if the Americans are stupid enough to have not implemented fail-safes like deadreckoning, then, well, it's probably good that this happened BEFORE the war.

"Please return our secret drone. We need it to spy on you. It's the drone mr. Johnson from the CIA used to shoot down 40 innocent women and children in that Pakistani wedding last year,

so we're kinda emotionally attached to that drone. Please return it to us, we're prepping for war with you guys, so we can't afford to lose any drones. We need it back so that we can use it

to kill your citizens in a few months. Plz plz.. return it. Thanks. Yours truly, The American People."

 

 

J.

[Rostere]

What I love is all the halfwits sounding off about how it couldn't have accidentally wound up in Iranian airspace. As if the Afghan border is some neatly defined Euro stateline. I'm not saying it WAS accidental. Just, you know, Volo-tanting.

 

I'm sorry, but I can't see how modern technology could possibly allow such a mistake to happen. You'd have to be a brutally worthless engineer when constructing the drone, and I honestly don't think those are allowed to work on military hardware - if that is the case though, the US military must be making some serious reassessments regarding which "halfwits" they buy their equipment from.

 

More likely, the drone had the capability to stay out of Iranian airspace with precision, but some military goon gave it imprecise instructions. Or alternatively, it was really on an espionage/surveillance mission.

[Walsingham]

I'm really not losing any sleep even if it was espionage. Although there's **** all along that border that I know of so would be pretty boring. Unless it was searching for infiltartors.

 

My point was really that the best programming in the 21st century won't fix a map drawn in the the 19th century.

[Zoraptor]

It was on an espionage mission, I don't think there's any real doubt, and there is- given it's state- little doubt that it landed rather than crashed.

 

It should not matter whether the border is well demarcated or not as it could carry out an observation of a nominal border line from well inside, and an inadvertent crossing would require a far larger deviation than credible. While physically shooting it down could (theoretically) be achieved very quickly and 'off the cuff' any sort of complicated electronic lassooing should take a more considerable amount of setting up and implementation.

 

More importantly it would be far easier to achieve around certain highly valuable fixed points that you know will be of interest rather than along the border which is... ~800km long, not counting the Pakistani parts, nor the sea parts (something like 2000km), nor the border with Iraq, nor the border with Turkey; any of which the US could use as well. You simply cannot prevent intrusion along the border, it's too long, so you protect your high value targets, ping zap and you've got another card to trade with your friends in the Rus and Qin.

 

Plus the US regularly has used overflight missions- see Gary Powers, the Blackbird etc- so it's hardly a great leap.

 

It's the drone mr. Johnson from the CIA used to shoot down 40 innocent women and children in that Pakistani wedding last year,

In this case it's a wholly unarmed spy drone, so no weddings trashed.

 

Though the "please can we have it back"s are amusing.

[Walsingham]

All this war talk segues neatly into results on the 'lightsaber versus taser' testing.

[Gfted1]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-57367745-52/futuristic-navy-railgun-with-220-mile-range-closer-to-reality/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

 

Navy railgun with 220 mile range closer to reality.

 

In the embedded video, a huge plume of fire similar to a chemical explosion is seen when the projectile fires. Why?

[pmp10]

http://news.cnet.com...g=2547-1_3-0-20

 

Navy railgun with 220 mile range closer to reality.

 

In the embedded video, a huge plume of fire similar to a chemical explosion is seen when the projectile fires. Why?

Air friction?

As far as the gun goes - last I heard they were hoping for a fusion reactor to power it.

With such energy needs I doubt it will ever become practical on naval vessels.

[Gfted1]

83-year-old woman receives new titanium jawbone created by 3D printer

[Walsingham]

I had no idea they could print titanium. That's awesome.

[Gfted1]

The Himalayas and nearby peaks have lost no ice in past 10 years, study shows

[Gorgon]

- but lead scientist says the loss of ice caps and glaciers around the world remains a serious concern

[Gfted1]

Whats that have to do with the Himalayas?

[Gorth]

Science behind ponytail revealed

 

The Ponytail Shape Equation represents the first scientific understanding of the distribution of hairs in a ponytail' date=' say the researchers.[/quote']

I remember how proud the Core developers were when they made Lara Crofts pony tail act like a pony tail...

 

Together with a new mathematical quantity known as the Rapunzel Number' date=' the equation can - they say - be used to predict the shape of any ponytail.[/quote']

Who would you rather let touch your hair, the scientist or the hair dresser?

[Walsingham]

They may not be walsausages, but stem cells can literally mend a broken heart:

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9080921/Scarred-hearts-can-be-restored-to-health-with-stem-cell-treatment-say-researchers.html

[Gorth]

It's small, it's fast, it's... very, very small and very very fast Single Atom Transistor

 

Up to a billion times faster than current semi-conductor technology. Looks like liquid cooling computers only for the moment though.

[Gfted1]

DNA Robots Programmed to Kill Cancer Cells, Harvard Study Shows

[Humodour]

It's small, it's fast, it's... very, very small and very very fast Single Atom Transistor

 

Up to a billion times faster than current semi-conductor technology. Looks like liquid cooling computers only for the moment though.

 

I am actually hugely sceptical that this is scalable. The process used certainly isn't scalable (but that's not necessarily a long-term obstacle because we may find another process, or produce innovations that somewhat commoditise the existing one), but more importantly I find it difficult to see how you could radiation harden a transistor made of a single atom. Today's circuits are sufficiently big that it takes a large amount of energy to flip things into states they shouldn't be. A single atom? You get one stray ray of EMR and flipflop!

 

I used to be a huge proponent of nanotechnology, and while I still adore materials science in general, I now think that the hype of nanotechnology is a myth. Yes, it's the future of humanity. No, it isn't magic. The future of nanotechnology, and humanity, lies in things like what Gifted posted above - still spectacular and awesome, but not quite the vision Eric Drexler had in mind.

[Walsingham]

What if you ignored situations where only one transistor flipflopped? Bunch 'em in groups?

[Gorth]

What if you ignored situations where only one transistor flipflopped? Bunch 'em in groups?

Join the Democratic Transistor Party. Power to the majority of Transistors?

[ShadySands]

32,000 Year Old Plant Brought Back to Life

[Gorth]

32,000 Year Old Plant Brought Back to Life

"A Russian team discovered a seed cache of Silene stenophylla, a flowering plant native to Siberia, that had been buried by an Ice Age squirrel near the banks of the Kolyma River (map)."

 

[Lexx]

Had exactly the same image in mind.