new scientific discoveries

[Humodour]

So it turns out evolution occurs much more rapidly than predicted due to epigenetics.

 

It's something I remember studying in molecular biology in 2006. Gene regulation and expression changes AFTER birth. It would appear these changes are heritable.

 

http://www.science20.com/curious_cub/epige...s_rapidly-82714

[Walsingham]

False dichotomy, Krez. If you need to make sure you get a call, then switch it to vibrate and hold it in one hand.

 

The point with the training, BTW, was that one learns to check things, not assume things. Is there a round chambered? What time is parade? Are my socks on top of my gear? Is my phone actually off? I'm not making a big deal out of it, just saying.

[Gorth]

False dichotomy, Krez. If you need to make sure you get a call, then switch it to vibrate and hold it in one hand.

This. The majority of jerks who can't figure out how to switch off a phone at a conference/movie/theater whatever simply feels that rules are for everybody else. If you need to be available 24/7, then you wouldn't be in such a position in the first place (or put it on silent/vibrate).

[Nepenthe]

The point with the training, BTW, was that one learns to check things, not assume things. Is there a round chambered? What time is parade? Are my socks on top of my gear? Is my phone actually off? I'm not making a big deal out of it, just saying.

Otoh, one also learns to assume things: like the fact that the people around you are semi-literate morons and can't be depended on. :I

 

(FWIW, I served in the HQ company. Lawyers, engineers and a bunch of (other) guys too dangerous to themselves and people on their own side to be let to the front. )

 

 

(edit: hah, late typo edit, because i could!)

Edited September 18, 2011 by Nepenthe

[Malcador]

Who knew a cell phone ringing in a lecture is so offensive. Then again, cell reception in the lecture halls I've been in were nil so I guess that's why it wasn't an issue as much, heh.

[213374U]

I was going to point out, as Nepenthe said, most of those really smart people probably feel they are too self-important to practice good manners.

Heh. I remember reading that being a super genius is often about as much about huge egos as it is about raw brainpower. I mean, one needs to believe he can succeed where everyone else has, so far, failed.

 

And then there's Henry Cavendish... so I guess jerks come in all varieties, not just stupid.

[Humodour]

False dichotomy, Krez. If you need to make sure you get a call, then switch it to vibrate and hold it in one hand.

 

Yep, I realised that once I'd typed the post. Couldn't let a good post go to waste! And I love that you used the phrase 'false dichotomy'.

[Humodour]

Cute and nerdy female scientist shows how to make quantum dots. Wikipedia states: "Researchers have studied quantum dots in transistors, solar cells, LEDs, and diode lasers. They have also investigated quantum dots as agents for medical imaging and hope to use them as qubits." A qubit is the fundamental component of a super fast quantum computer.

 

 

Nerdgasm.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_dot

[Humodour]

Oh god I love modern technology (i.e. materials science). It's almost like magic.

 

'Thin Film Transforms Any Surface Into Touchscreen'

 

"Open up a cardboard tube, roll out a transparent film just millimeters thick, apply it on a flat object and *tada* you've got an interactive touch surface. Cambridge-based Visual Planet just launched its new massive-sized multitouch thin film drivers so you can create touchscreens from 30 to 167 inches in size! Their touchfoil is a transparent nanowire embedded polymer capable of sensing the touch of a finger, or even pressure from wind and translating that to a computer interface. It works on glass, wood, and other non-conductive surfaces."

 

http://singularityhub.com/2011/09/18/thin-...titouch-screen/

[mkreku]

http://news.yahoo.com/online-gamers-crack-...-175427367.html

 

Gamers finally have an excuse to exist!

[Orogun01]

Oh god I love modern technology (i.e. materials science). It's almost like magic.

 

'Thin Film Transforms Any Surface Into Touchscreen'

 

"Open up a cardboard tube, roll out a transparent film just millimeters thick, apply it on a flat object and *tada* you've got an interactive touch surface. Cambridge-based Visual Planet just launched its new massive-sized multitouch thin film drivers so you can create touchscreens from 30 to 167 inches in size! Their touchfoil is a transparent nanowire embedded polymer capable of sensing the touch of a finger, or even pressure from wind and translating that to a computer interface. It works on glass, wood, and other non-conductive surfaces."

 

http://singularityhub.com/2011/09/18/thin-...titouch-screen/

Soon to be named the "iExpensive"

 

http://news.yahoo.com/online-gamers-crack-...-175427367.html

 

Gamers finally have an excuse to exist!

[Humodour]

Oh god I love modern technology (i.e. materials science). It's almost like magic.

 

'Thin Film Transforms Any Surface Into Touchscreen'

 

"Open up a cardboard tube, roll out a transparent film just millimeters thick, apply it on a flat object and *tada* you've got an interactive touch surface. Cambridge-based Visual Planet just launched its new massive-sized multitouch thin film drivers so you can create touchscreens from 30 to 167 inches in size! Their touchfoil is a transparent nanowire embedded polymer capable of sensing the touch of a finger, or even pressure from wind and translating that to a computer interface. It works on glass, wood, and other non-conductive surfaces."

 

http://singularityhub.com/2011/09/18/thin-...titouch-screen/

Soon to be named the "iExpensive"

 

Just like computers, televisions, mobile phones, and microwave ovens were expensive for the first few years they came out. And then prices crashed because manufacturing became cheap and highly-automated and demand was so large.

 

Anyway, this is a product that is almost purely polymer (plastic). Manufacturing processes for polymers are already highly-streamlined and cheap. These guys can likely sell this product for a dozen-fold markup and STILL keep the price low.

 

Here is their support number to ring if you are curious and would like to know the price: http://www.visualplanet.biz/support/

 

Another cool thing is 'parametric sound': "To aim a sound signal at a particular passer-by without everybody in the area hearing it. In commercial applications, it can target sound to a single person without the peripheral sound and related noise that a loudspeaker emits."

 

It exists, and companies are now selling the technology to businesses for advertising purposes, among other things. Reminds me of Minority Report or something.

Edited September 18, 2011 by Krezack

[Humodour]

http://news.yahoo.com/online-gamers-crack-...-175427367.html

 

Gamers finally have an excuse to exist!

 

That is really awesome.

Using human brains as nodes in a massively parellelised supercomputer.

 

And while this isn't a new scientific discovery so much as history playing out before our eyes, it's fascinating nonetheless:

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/ga...cy-2356189.html

[Orogun01]

Just like computers, televisions, mobile phones, and microwave ovens were expensive for the first few years they came out. And then prices crashed because manufacturing became cheap and highly-automated and demand was so large.

 

Anyway, this is a product that is almost purely polymer (plastic). Manufacturing processes for polymers are already highly-streamlined and cheap. These guys can likely sell this product for a dozen-fold markup and STILL keep the price low.

 

Here is their support number to ring if you are curious and would like to know the price: http://www.visualplanet.biz/support/

 

Another cool thing is 'parametric sound': "To aim a sound signal at a particular passer-by without everybody in the area hearing it. In commercial applications, it can target sound to a single person without the peripheral sound and related noise that a loudspeaker emits."

 

It exists, and companies are now selling the technology to businesses for advertising purposes, among other things. Reminds me of Minority Report or something.

But can they keep up with the demand? If the technology its as good as advertise then there's bound to be high demand and if they fail to meet it then shortages are bound to rise the price. Seems there's more of a market for applications of this tech and the technology itself rather than it as a product.

[Walsingham]

touchfoil is a transparent nanowire embedded polymer

 

Holy crap. This really is the future, isn't it? As in 'the fuuuuutuuuure'.

Edited September 19, 2011 by Walsingham

[Humodour]

Just like computers, televisions, mobile phones, and microwave ovens were expensive for the first few years they came out. And then prices crashed because manufacturing became cheap and highly-automated and demand was so large.

 

Anyway, this is a product that is almost purely polymer (plastic). Manufacturing processes for polymers are already highly-streamlined and cheap. These guys can likely sell this product for a dozen-fold markup and STILL keep the price low.

 

Here is their support number to ring if you are curious and would like to know the price: http://www.visualplanet.biz/support/

 

Another cool thing is 'parametric sound': "To aim a sound signal at a particular passer-by without everybody in the area hearing it. In commercial applications, it can target sound to a single person without the peripheral sound and related noise that a loudspeaker emits."

 

It exists, and companies are now selling the technology to businesses for advertising purposes, among other things. Reminds me of Minority Report or something.

But can they keep up with the demand? If the technology its as good as advertise then there's bound to be high demand and if they fail to meet it then shortages are bound to rise the price. Seems there's more of a market for applications of this tech and the technology itself rather than it as a product.

 

I do not feel that you have a point and that you are arguing for the sake of it. Yes, they can keep up with the demand. The manufacturing processes are highly automated and the ingredients are highly abundant on earth: carbon, hydrogen. There may be some rare earths, or boron, phosphorous, nitrogen, etc. But these are all really common resources. If they don't have enough rare earth production, for example, then they will just start opening more mines in my country (Australia), America, and China for instance, where there are vast rare earth reserves (they are actually NOT rare... just rare relative to the other elements). Many rare earth mines in Australia (and America from memory) were closed down due to lack of demand, before the big technology boom of the last decade. Although some have since been reopened when it became apparent that China couldn't be trusted with rare earth supply (no surprise there).

 

The arguments you are making could just as easily be applied to many current conventional touchscreens and polymers/plastics, because the ingredients and demand response are the same - have you seen the prices of these products fall or rise, hmmm? I am currently using a 21 inch multitouch monitor which I purchased 3 months ago for $200 AUD. It's fun using my fingers to click on web pages.

 

What do you mean when you say "there is a market for this technology, but not this product"? Seems nonsensical.

 

touchfoil is a transparent nanowire embedded polymer

 

Holy crap. This really is the future, isn't it? As in 'the fuuuuutuuuure'.

 

It makes me giddy like a schoolgirl. And it is my field! Next year I will be studying ligand chemistry, organometallic chemistry, and polymer chemistry. I'm going to bug some profs about doing a research project a year early.

 

Something I am fascinated by right now is a carbon analogue called boron nitride. Boron nitride is isoelectronic with carbon, and so you can make diamond, nanotube, graphene/graphite, polymers, benzene, and other carbon analogues out of it. Boron nitride analogues are more thermally and chemically stable than their carbon counterparts, and are generally very similar in properties. Although boron nitride nanotubes are an insulator rather than a conductor, which I found surprising. Boron nitride nanomesh (graphene analogue) is, however, a conductor like graphene.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanomesh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borazine#Applications

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boron_nitride

[Gfted1]

CERN claims faster-than-light particle measured

 

Sep 22, 2:22 PM (ET)

 

By FRANK JORDANS

 

GENEVA (AP) - Scientists at the world's largest physics lab say they have clocked subatomic particles traveling faster than light, a feat that - if true - would break a fundamental pillar of science.

 

The readings have so astounded researchers that they are asking others to independently verify the measurements before claiming an actual discovery.

 

"This would be such a sensational discovery if it were true that one has to treat it extremely carefully," said John Ellis, a theoretical physicist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, who was not involved in the experiment.

 

Nothing is supposed to move faster than light, at least according to Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity: The famous E (equals) mc2 equation. That stands for energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.

 

But neutrinos - one of the strangest well-known particles in physics - have now been observed smashing past this cosmic speed barrier of 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers).

 

CERN says a neutrino beam fired from a particle accelerator near Geneva to a lab 454 miles (730 kilometers) away in Italy traveled 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. Scientists calculated the margin of error at just 10 nanoseconds, making the difference statistically significant. But given the enormity of the find, they still spent months checking and rechecking their results to make sure there was no flaws in the experiment.

 

The CERN researchers are now looking to the United States and Japan to confirm the results.

 

A similar neutrino experiment at Fermilab near Chicago would be capable of running the tests, said Stavros Katsanevas, the deputy director of France's National Institute for Nuclear and Particle Physics Research.

 

Katsanevas, who participated in the CERN experiment, said help could also come from the T2K experiment in Japan, though that is currently on hold after the country's devastating earthquake and tsunami in March.

 

Scientists agree if the results are confirmed, that it would force a fundamental rethink of the laws of nature, starting with the special theory of relativity proposed by Einstein in 1905.

 

Special relativity, which helps explain everything from black holes to the Big Bang theory about the origins of the universe, underlies "pretty much everything in modern physics," Ellis said. "It has worked perfectly up until now."

 

He cautioned that the neutrino researchers would also have to explain why similar results weren't detected before, such as when an exploding star - or supernova - was observed in 1987.

[HoonDing]

It's either a calculation error (confer Fermi lab 2007) or Mass Effect just got real.

[Tale]

It was probably the janitor playing a trick by setting all the clocks back a minute.

[HoonDing]

A neutron enters a bar.

 

The bartender: "For you, no charge"

 

A neutrino enters a bar.

 

The bartender: "We're not open yet."

[Oblarg]

CERN just broke physics.

 

How long until we have FTL travel? I want to be a space marine!

[Gorth]

Muahaha!

 

e = mc2 + x

 

[Humodour]

CERN has also almost disproved the existence of both the Higgs and Supersymmetry. By the end of 2012 these two things should be definitively disproven. I love shake-ups like this because it gets more people interested in science, and doing science, and also tends to lead to a huge burst of new technologies being invented.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-01/supe...?site=melbourne

[Gorth]

Virtual monkeys write Shakespeare

 

Somebody decided to take the Infinite Monkey Theorem to the test.

 

A few million virtual monkeys are close to re-creating the complete works of Shakespeare by randomly mashing keys on virtual typewriters.

 

A running total of how well they are doing shows that the re-creation is 99.990% complete.

 

The first single work to be completed was the poem A Lover's Complaint.

 

Turns out that this cloud computing thing is good for something after all. Also, gives new meaning to the term "Code Monkey"

[Malcador]

I'd thought that'd have been an NPC problem. Would be an interesting analysis, if I remembered any of my complexity stuff, bah.

Edited September 28, 2011 by Malcador