Season 11: Science Stories in the News

[Tensor 32209]

This thread is for science stories that the guys, or girls might be interested in.  This ones for you DJ. 

[mirs1 22962]

The CERN  has reported the observation of the Particle Xi, a particle from the baryon family,  containing two heavy quarks. It was a very long research, since its existence was expected, but physicists have been looking for such baryons for a long time.

https://home.cern/about/updates/2017/07/lhcb-announces-charming-new-particle

Edited July 7, 2017 by mirs1

[spidergirl 19513]

 

 Engineers have designed the  first battery-free cellphone that can send and receive calls using only a few microwatts of power, which it harvests from ambient radio signals or light. It's a major step forward in moving beyond chargers, cords and dying phones.

  

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170705164453.htm

 

Edited July 7, 2017 by spidergirl

[djsurrey 7690]

5 hours ago, spidergirl said:

 

 Engineers have designed the  first battery-free cellphone that can send and receive calls using only a few microwatts of power, which it harvests from ambient radio signals or light. It's a major step forward in moving beyond chargers, cords and dying phones.

  

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170705164453.htm

 

I went to the website of the source of the story. There are significant issues like needing to be within 30 feet of the base station. Not the cell phone most are looking for.

http://batteryfreephone.cs.washington.edu/

Quote

 It can operate on power that is harvested from RF signals transmitted by a basestation 31 feet (9.4 m) away.

 

[spidergirl 19513]

On 7/8/2017 at 1:06 AM, djsurrey said:

I went to the website of the source of the story. There are significant issues like needing to be within 30 feet of the base station. Not the cell phone most are looking for.

http://batteryfreephone.cs.washington.edu/

 

Science is not static , maybe this project might get a more pratical application in a near future. Cell phones in their beginning could not be handed like we use them today, as they are like pockett computers. It is at least a very interisting project and has much potencial imo.

Edited July 10, 2017 by spidergirl
Rephrased one setence

[djsurrey 7690]

15 hours ago, spidergirl said:

Science is not static , maybe this project might get a more pratical application in a near future. Cell phones in their beginning could not be handed like we use them today, as they are like pockett computers. It is at least a very interisting project and has much potencial imo.

There are others attempting to harvest energy in other ways that I expect will show more promise. There is little energy in a received cell phone signal. 

see https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/09/wearable-teg-heat-harvesting-2016/

[spidergirl 19513]

9 minutes ago, djsurrey said:

There are others attempting to harvest energy in other ways that I expect will show more promise. There is little energy in a received cell phone signal. 

see https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/09/wearable-teg-heat-harvesting-2016/

I am sorry for the science news I shared is so questionable. I think I will let it to the experts of the fórum though.

[vonmar 38660]

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/the-big-bang-theory-inspires-discovery-of-new-compound-baznga/3007707.article

[mirs1 22962]

A very sad news in the Mathematical community

http://news.stanford.edu/2017/07/15/maryam-mirzakhani-stanford-mathematician-and-fields-medal-winner-dies/

Edited July 16, 2017 by mirs1

[djsurrey 7690]

Oh, my gosh Bozeman, Montana has made it into the science news! This is where Sheldon attempted to move to in 3.13.

Quote

On August 21, Des Jardins, an astrophysicist at Montana State University in Bozeman, will help broadcast the first livestream of a total solar eclipse from the edge of space. She and more than 50 groups across the United States will launch high-altitude balloons to film the moon’s shadow racing across the Earth and broadcast it over the internet as it happens (eclipse.stream.live).

see https://www.sciencenews.org/article/balloons-broadcast-2017-solar-eclipse-livestream

 

[Die Zimtzicke 4383]

Nice to see Mayim included in this STEM program.
https://www.studyinternational.com/news/5-women-changing-face-stem/#X5A6Sa41zqHPhjuR.97

[mirs1 22962]

16 minutes ago, Die Zimtzicke said:

Nice to see Mayim included in this STEM program.
https://www.studyinternational.com/news/5-women-changing-face-stem/#X5A6Sa41zqHPhjuR.97

Which program? The article was a list of five women who in a way or the other are connected to STEM, but I don't think they are involved in doing something together to promote it. Although, it would be very cool if Mayim could meet Fabiola Gianotti, she is a very accomplished scientist and also very good at presenting her work and science in general to a wider public.

[Die Zimtzicke 4383]

Sorry. I don't know why that didn't work right. I got it off the GSUSA page. The Girl Scouts are using those women's stories and work to promote science to girls. GSUSA is coming out with new STEM badges. They especially like Mayim because she used to be a Girl Scout. They showed a picture of her in her uniform when she did that show for NOVA a couple of years ago and ever since then they have tried to encourage troops developing science programs to use her as an example.

[djsurrey 7690]

from https://www.sciencenews.org/article/rumors-swirl-ligo-snagged-gravitational-waves-neutron-star-collision 

Quote

NEWS

ASTRONOMY,

PHYSICS,

GRAVITATIONAL WAVES

Rumors swirl that LIGO snagged gravitational waves from a neutron star collision

As latest search ends, there’s speculation of a detected neutron star smashup

BY 

EMILY CONOVER 

3:14PM, AUGUST 25, 2017

 

[djsurrey 7690]

from https://www.llnl.gov/news/carbon-nanotubes-worth-their-salt 

Quote

Carbon nanotubes worth their salt

Lawrence Livermore (LLNL) scientists, in collaboration with researchers at Northeastern University(link is external), have developed carbon nanotube pores that can exclude salt from seawater. The team also found that water permeability in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with diameters smaller than a nanometer (0.8 nm) exceeds that of wider carbon nanotubes by an order of magnitude.

The nanotubes, hollow structures made of carbon atoms in a unique arrangement, are more than 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. The super smooth inner surface of the nanotube is responsible for their remarkably high water permeability, while the tiny pore size blocks larger salt ions.

[snip]

The key breakthrough achieved by the LLNL team was to use smaller-diameter nanotubes that delivered the required boost in performance.

"These studies revealed the details of the water transport mechanism and showed that rational manipulation of these parameters can enhance pore efficiency," said Meni Wanunu, a physics professor at Northeastern University and co-author on the study."

 

[Die Zimtzicke 4383]

I have to do a project with high school Girl Scouts about water. Thanks for pointing out a great role model to use, djsurrey.

[vonmar 38660]

From The New York Times

2017 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to LIGO Black Hole Researchers

Rainer Weiss, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Kip Thorne and Barry Barish, both of the California Institute of Technology, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for the discovery of ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago but had never been directly seen.

<more in the link>

[djsurrey 7690]

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/neutron-star-collision-gravitational-waves
 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171016102822.htm

Quote

Astronomers strike cosmic gold, confirm origin of precious metals in neutron star mergers

First observation of light from neutron star merger reveals new cosmic phenomenon, opens new field

Date:

October 16, 2017

Source:

University of California - Berkeley

Summary:

What many thought would be a long way off, the detection of gravitational waves from the merger of binary neutron stars, actually happened on Aug. 17. The observation of a blue and then red glow from the radioactive debris cloud left behind matched simulations of what the merger should look like, proving that such mergers are the source of most of the very heavy elements in the universe, including gold.

 

[veejay 25002]

9 minutes ago, djsurrey said:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/neutron-star-collision-gravitational-waves
 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171016102822.htm

 

Thanks. Just saw it at the news.

[vonmar 38660]

From The Guardian

Stephen Hawking's expanding universes thesis breaks the internet

Demand for 1966 PhD work, made freely available for the first time, crashes Cambridge’s repository website

Stephen Hawking’s 1966 doctoral thesis has broken the internet after becoming available to the general public for the first time.

Demand for the thesis, entitled Properties of Expanding Universes, was so great on Monday that it caused Cambridge University’s repository site to go down. The site was still inaccessible at 7.30pm on Monday.

The “historic and compelling” thesis had swiftly become the most-requested item in Cambridge’s open access repository, Apollo.

The university made the essay public at midnight on Sunday to mark Open Access Week after hundreds of readers sent in requests to download Hawking’s thesis in full.

A University of Cambridge spokesperson said: “We have had a huge response to Prof Hawking’s decision to make his PhD thesis publicly available to download, with almost 60,000 downloads in less than 24 hours.

“As a result, visitors to our Open Access site may find that it is performing slower than usual and may at times be temporarily unavailable.”

<more in the link>

[Tensor 32209]

I actually read it back a few years ago, but I wanted my own copy so I'm probably one of those that helped to take down the site.    

[Tensor 32209]

 

It looks as though Leonard may have been right:

https://www.nature.com/news/physicists-shrink-plans-for-next-major-collider-1.22983?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews&sf157356325=1

[vonmar 38660]

20 hours ago, Tensor said:

 

It looks as though Leonard may have been right:

https://www.nature.com/news/physicists-shrink-plans-for-next-major-collider-1.22983?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews&sf157356325=1

TBBT guest Ira Flatow agrees with you...

 

[djsurrey 7690]

I don't think so. from http://news.mit.edu/2017/faculty-profile-jesse-thaler-1107

Quote

Theorist explores particle physics at the boundary of “messy and elegant.”

[snip]

Looking to the future, Thaler is eager to explore more uncharted territories beyond the Standard Model, and is working on theoretical designs for other experiments to detect dark matter. 

“I have a responsibility to push on whatever I think I can make an impact on, and push it forward,” Thaler says.

from 

[Tensor 32209]

Astronomers are enjoying an embarrassment of riches, with the Aug 17 detection of a neutron star merger.   However, it has revealed problems in dealing with the new discoveries.  

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/two-stars-slammed-into-each-other-and-solved-half-of-astronomys-problems-what-comes-next/?ex_cid=538twitter