New Scientific Discoveries, Part Deux

[ManifestedISO]

 

Aside: WTF is up with the new Marine Corps headgear? What subgenius thought they should switch to nurses' caps?

 

 

Fortunately, no change to the male dress uniform cover is taking place. The current manufacturer of female dress covers is going out of business, and the USMC was looking for a new supplier. It was Fox that drummed up the line about Obama mandating the change.  

[Gfted1]

What I love is how modern destroyers are basically battleships, but no-one wants to admit they are, because I guess it sounds profligate at committee.

I got a kick out of the fact that they mounted two 155mm howitzers on it.

[Raithe]

Not so much a new scientific discovery, as technical engineering at work,,

 

Lockheed developing new Hypersonic Spy Plane

 

 

 

 

A new hypersonic spy plane, capable of flying up to six times faster than the speed of sound, is being developed by aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp., according to company officials.

 

The new aircraft, known as the SR-72, is the unmanned successor to Lockheed's SR-71 Blackbird, a twin-engine, two-seater, supersonic aircraft that was developed in the 1960s. The company's new spy plane will be able to fly twice as fast as the Blackbird and three times faster than current fighter jets, accelerating to Mach 6, which is six times the speed of sound, or more than 3,500 mph (5,600 km/h).

 

The hypersonic SR-72 also will be able to fly to any location within an hour, which could be revolutionary for the military, said Brad Leland, Lockheed Martin's program manager for hypersonics.

 

"Hypersonic is the new stealth," Leland told Reuters. "Your adversaries cannot hide or move their critical assets. They will be found. That becomes a game-changer."

Furthermore, Lockheed is designing the spy plane using existing technology, which could help the company develop a prototype in five or six years for under $1 billion, he added.

Lockheed is aiming to fly a missile to demonstrate the new technology as early as 2018, and Leland said operational SR-72s could be in service by 2030, according to Aviation Week, which was first to report on the new project.

 

"What we are doing is defining a missile that would have a small incremental cost to go at hypersonic speed," Leland told Reuters.

The SR-72 is being developed by Skunk Works, Lockheed's California-based advanced research program that previously worked on the SR-71 Blackbird and the famed U-2 spy plane.

 

The hypersonic SR-72 will feature a two-phase propulsion system, which uses a basic jet turbine to accelerate the plane to Mach 3. Lockheed is collaborating with rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne to incorporate this turbine with an air-breathing, supersonic ramjet engine to propel the vehicle from standstill to Mach 6. 

The new spy plane will build upon Lockheed's previous experimental hypersonic programs, such as the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, or HTV-2, which was developed as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA's) Falcon Project.

 

In 2011, the unmanned, arrow-shaped HTV-2 glider reached Mach 20 and controlled itself for approximately three minutes, before crashing into the Pacific Ocean. During the flight, surface temperatures on the vehicle reached 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,930 degrees Celsius), which is hotter than a blast furnace capable of melting steel.

The SR-72's predecessor, the SR-71 Blackbird, could accelerate to Mach 3.3 (more than 2,200 mph, or 3,540 km/h) at an altitude of 80,000 feet (24,400 m). The Blackbird made its first flight in December 1964, and was flown by the U.S. Air Force until 1998. The two-seater aircraft was capable of outracing potential threats during reconnaissance missions, including being able to accelerate and out-fly surface-to-air missiles if it was detected

 

 

Edited November 7, 2013 by Raithe

[Walsingham]

 

What I love is how modern destroyers are basically battleships, but no-one wants to admit they are, because I guess it sounds profligate at committee.

I got a kick out of the fact that they mounted two 155mm howitzers on it.

 

 

The idea is to get common ammunition with land forces. There's also all sorts of neat stuff being crammed into 155s, because you get a separate charge to choose how fast it launches.

[obyknven]

 

Not so much a new scientific discovery, as technical engineering at work,,

 

Lockheed developing new Hypersonic Spy Plane

Do Lookheed want make yet another useless Wunderwaffe as previous SR-71 spy-plane? Oh, it's really funny watch how US government wasting lots of moneys to such failed projects.

 

Just reminder about Lookheed's SR-71 spy plane

Improssible maintenance.

http://www.blackbirds.net/u2/c_bennett/bbird-03.html

 

In the AF, there are several aircraft in the inventory that have become known as "pigs". That's a bad way to say they're maintenance intensive, or in other words, break a lot and are hard to maintain. In the fighter world, it was the F-4 and the F-111. Most of us SR-71 Crew Chiefs came from the fighter world, and completely understand that concept. The SR-71 makes the Phantom and Aardvark look like dream aircraft to work on. I have never worked so hard in my life to keep just one flying. It may sound like a contradiction, but while loving the aircraft, we also cursed it a lot! But let just one person try to call my SR a "pig", and a fight would probably result. While other Crew Chiefs hope for Code-1 (no problems) sorties, we were elated when it landed Code-2 (minor problems). But usually, Code-3 (broke) was the norm. Even on those rare occasions where she did fly good, many times the Digital Mission Recording System (DMRS) tapes would show problems that needed to be corrected, especially on Friday nights it seemed

 

Constructive FAILS

http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/2011/02/betrayed-by-heat-sr-71-blackbird.html

 

as result 40% of all SR-71 just crashed and project rejected.

http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/losses.php

 

and after this Pentagon want jet another Hypersonic spy plane from  Lookheed!!!

Explanation is simple

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58687716@N05/5421041233/

[Walsingham]

Why exactly would 'oby' misspell 'Lockheed'? You've got the spelling right in front of you.

 

Tralt fail.

[ManifestedISO]

Why exactly would 'oby' misspell 'Lockheed'? You've got the spelling right in front of you.

 

Tralt fail.

 

No, it's real. Russia mocks our military air control because we stole their super secret spy plane in 1982. True story. 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0zzz3f9VpI

[obyknven]

Nope. I just don't like when charlatans use name of science for stealing money.

 

Project of hypersonic plane developed yet in III Reich, but by serious reason this project rejected. After WW2 Soviets capture alll documentation to this project and continue research, but due same reason they cancel project.

 

From this time changing nothing - because same problems any new hyperspeed plane is just reshaped old Nazi project with same result - fail.

 

Last example:

 

In 2011, the unmanned, arrow-shaped HTV-2 glider

This glider fail all tests and project canceled

[kgambit]

Quantum memory 'world record' smashed

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24934786

 

A fragile quantum memory state has been held stable at room temperature for a "world record" 39 minutes - overcoming a key barrier to ultrafast computers.  "Qubits" of information encoded in a silicon system persisted for almost 100 times longer than ever before.

 

[Katphood]

When Spiders evacuate:  http://www.amazingoasis.org/2013/11/theres-something-in-this-peaceful.html

[Lexx]

Reminds me of that one movie from a million years ago. At the end of it, the camera moves back from survivors in a house and you see all the landscape covered in webs. Horrific.

[Raithe]

Is Thorium the safer way to exploit Nuclear Power?

 

 

 

Is thorium the safer way to exploit nuclear power?

Nuclear power is back in the news so can a new type of reactor make it both free and safe?

 

Nuclear scientists are urging politicians to fund a new type of nuclear reactor using thorium instead of uranium or plutonium.

 

Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said “in my opinion we should be trying our best to develop the use of thorium. I realise there are many obstacles to be overcome but the benefits would be great.”

 

"Thorium will be safer in reactors” Blix told a CERN conference “and it is almost impossible to make a bomb out of thorium. These are very major factors as the world looks for future energy supplies."

 

Thorium is being touted as something of a wonder fuel that could solve the world’s energy crisis and decrease carbon emissions to prevent further global warming. It has “absolute pre-eminence” says Carlo Rubbia, former director of the CERN laboratory and joint winner of the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics. “In order to be vigorously continued, nuclear power must be profoundly modified.”

 

Testing thorium out

 

A private organisation called Thor Energy is performing thorium tests at the Halden Research Reactor in Norway. The test will help to further research the use of thorium in traditional nuclear power plants.

 

Norway, it should be pointed out, has particular interests in this area. Norway doesn’t need the extra energy, (it’s the world’s third largest exporter of natural gas) but it is sitting on an estimated four per cent of the world’s thorium reserves.

 

Thorium is far from a rare substance though. It’s a naturally occurring radioactive element discovered by Jöns Jacob Berzelius a Swedish chemist in 1828 and named after Thor, the Norse god of Thunder. It is found in widespread locations all over the world and is considered to be around four times as abundent as the uranium scientists hope it will replace.

 

Thor Energy

Thor Energy's test rig containing six thorium fuel rods shown being installed in the IFE Halden Research Reactor

 

"There is lots of thorium in the world” says Oystein Asphjell, Thor Energy’s chief executive it is “very well distributed all over the globe. In operations, in a reactor, it has some chemical and physical properties that make it really superior to uranium as well. On the waste side, we don’t generate long lived waste."

 

“Weinberg called it burning the rocks” says Gordon McDowel, a filmmaker working on a documentary called Thorium Remix. “You can literally mine rock just for its energy content. Thorium is so common in the earth's crust that an average American's energy demand, including industry and transportation, could be met by a half barrel of everyday rock. Dirt, anywhere in the world - worth many multiples of crude oil. The key is to very efficiently convert thorium into energy.”

 

There is so much Thorium around that America has started to dispose of it’s unused supplies. “Go out to Nevada, and dig down about 12 feet “ says McDowel “and in nice tractor-trailer containers … there is barrel after barrel of thorium nitrate, about 3,200 tons, which would provide about two-thirds of the planet's energy needs for a year. Thorium would never need to be mined. Ever.”

 

Energy From Thorium

Thorium fuel is so plentiful that it’s unlikely to ever need mining

 

Thorium: less waste and no weapons?

 

The key advantage of Thorium over other nuclear fuel isn’t how profligate the fuel source is, but how much of the fuel is burnt up during the process. In traditional nuclear energy production only one per cent of uranium is used, the rest is turned into leftover materials like plutonium, that are either weaponised or disposed of. In a thorium reactor almost all of the thorium is used up.

 

It’s also safer to produce. “It's not prone to runaway chain reactions that can lead to nuclear disasters” says Duncan Clark, Visiting researcher at UCL Energy Institute “[thorium’s] waste products remains dangerous for a much shorter period, and its byproducts aren't useful for making nuclear weapons.

 

Energy From Thorium

The thorium test is using a standard Boiling Water Reactor manufactured by General Electric

 

Traditional nuclear reactors “leave behind two classes of materials.” explains McDowell, “one is the actual fission products… then there is what's called the transuranics.” The fission products aren’t really a problem “they decay rather quickly. They don't really have long-term radioactivity.” But “the real challenge with spent fuel management is the presence of those transuranics: plutonium, americium, curium. When you're looking at a Yucca Mountain [Nuclear Waste Repository] or a disposal site you say, ‘What are we going to do with that?’"

 

Wikipedia

Halden, Norway where the Thorium Reactor is being tested

 

Thorium power has, itself some powerful backers. In a famous TED speech on global warming Bill Gates said “the equation on CO2 is actually a very straightforward one… [it]  leads to a temperature increase, and that temperature increase leads to some very negative effects… and so you get ecosystem collapses.

 

“So this is a wish.’ says Gates “It's a very concrete wish that we invent this technology. If you gave me only one wish for the next 50 years - I could pick who's president, I could pick a vaccine, which is something I love, or I could pick that this thing that's half the cost with no CO2 gets invented - this is the wish I would pick. This is the one with the greatest impact.”

 

 

[Raithe]

Engineering principles at work again..

 

Hoverbike - The Twin Rotor bmw Boxer powered Flying Motorcycle

 

Hover-Bike.Com

 

If Chris Malloy's Hoverbike works as it's designed to work, there's going to be a long line of customers waiting for a chance to get on board, this twin rotor BMW boxer powered hovercraft flying motorcycle will do more than give you the feeling of flying, you'll BE flying.

 

The carbon fiber Hoverbike weighs 231 pounds with a maximum takeoff weight of 595 pounds. On just the primary fuel tank it has a range of 92 miles at 80 knots (92 mph), with a theoretical top speed of 172 mph and a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet! So far, all tests have been tethered so these performance figures are somewhat speculative, but if he gets into the next phase of actual untethered flight, we'll know whether those numbers can be achieved.

 

 

Control is by the motorcycle style handlebars, twist grips control rotor thrust and deflection of the air vanes which provides forward and reverse, turns are controlled by turning the bars, somewhere in the near future are gyros for stability and explosive parachutes to bring the craft down in the event of engine failure or the rider can wear a chute, too. Counter rotating rotors eliminate the need for a tail rotor.

 

Malloy says the Hoverbike is actually designed for utilitarian purposes like search and rescue, power line inspection and the like, but I can't see this staying out of the hands of thrill seekers who have always dreamed of a bike like this. He figures it will be classed as an ultralight in the US eliminating the need for a pilot's license.

 

Personal hover type vehicles have a long history of great designs that never make it to market because they always seem to come up short in actual flight testing, but if there's ever been one I would like to see make it to production, this would be the one.

Edited December 3, 2013 by Raithe

[Woldan]

Interesting theory about death being merely an illusion and life/consciousness creating the universe not the other way around using quantum mechanics.

Edited December 9, 2013 by Woldan

[Rosbjerg]

I don't see the correlation between the observer effect and biocentrism. It seems logical that an observation "forces" a quantum state and thus an observation changes the outcome - and so an observer is simply another factor in a system - rather than resorting to the conclusion that reality is a product of intelligent/conscience presence.. I don't know, it just seems like quite a leap.

[Woldan]

IMO its just as much of a leap as all the other theories we currently have about time, death and reality. Its all equally abstract.

 

It seems logical that an observation "forces" a quantum state and thus an observation changes the outcome. 

Thats what he said, he said that the consciousness of an observing person changes the behavior of the particle.

[Rosbjerg]

I know, we just disagreed on the causation after that. As he argued this was proof that life created the universe and I think it only really proves that observation should be seen as part of the phenomenon observed.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

Interesting theory about death being merely an illusion and life/consciousness creating the universe not the other way around using quantum mechanics.

 

Eh.

[Walsingham]

Interesting theory about death being merely an illusion and life/consciousness creating the universe not the other way around using quantum mechanics.

 

*Thinks*

 

Wow. Maybe this will make sense of all my weird death dreams.

 

*sees it's on the Daily Mail website*

 

 

AAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHH!

[Gfted1]

Army laser weapon KOs mortar rounds.

[rjshae]

For me this is a very intriguing story...

 

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Evidence of Water Vapor Venting off Jupiter Moon

 

The moon being Europa.

[Raithe]

Not directly "New" but a collection of fun science based images from the last year..

 

 

io9 - The most amazing science images of 2013?

[Hiro Protagonist]

China lands rover on moon. Has a backdrop at a trade fair with Europe being nuked.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/chinese-moon-rover-trade-fair-backdrop-shows-europe-being-nuked/story-fnjwlcze-1226786319994

[BLnoT]

Real life light sabers : http://gizmodo.com/scientists-created-a-new-form-of-matter-and-its-like-a-1387420181/1391676580/@jesusdiaz

 

An intresting concept by my favourite physicist, Michio Kaku

 

I would like to point out Graphene. Although its not a recent discovery  i beleive most people have no idea of its existance. It is AMAZING! As soon as we can produce large quantaties it will liturally change the world around us. Mabye even give us that fabled space elevator =o

[Gfted1]

We’re One Step Closer to Nuclear Fusion Energy.

 

High-Powered Lasers Deliver Fusion Energy Breakthrough.