Personal link and braindump: Science

Touched Echo Interactive Exhibit Uses Bone Conduction Technology

Touched Echo Interactive Exhibit (Images courtesy livegrids.net)

By Andrew Liszewski

Most large museums and art galleries today provide some kind of personal audio device that visitors can carry with them if they wish to learn more about the various exhibits on display. A similar idea has been implemented at the Brühl’s Terrace in Dresden, Germany, but instead of having to wear headphones or hold some device to their ear, visitors simply need to rest their elbows on a metal rail and cover their ears with their hands

New windows double as solar panels

New windows double as solar panels - Science, News - The Independent

Instead of coating the entire solar panel with solar cells - the expensive semiconductor devices that turn the energy of sunlight into electricity - the new solar panel works on the principle of concentrating the light, and the energy, at the edges of a pane of glass where it can be collected by the solar cells.

The Blind Climber Who "Sees" With His Tongue

The Blind Climber Who "Sees" With His Tongue | Senses | DISCOVER Magazine

The Blind Climber Who "Sees" With His Tongue

Erik Weihenmayer's BrainPort translates images into electrical signals.

Monday, 14 July 2008

Breaking the Internet's glass ceiling

Breaking the Internet's glass ceiling - News and Events - University of Sydney

"This circuit uses the 'scratch' as a guide or a switching path for information - kind of like when trains are switched from one track to another - except this switch takes only one picosecond to change tracks. This means that in one second the switch is turning on and off about one million million times. We are talking about photonic technology that has terabit per second capacity."

This initial demonstration proves it is possible to achieve speeds 60 times faster than current Australian Networks. With further development, the process is likely to produce even faster results.

Natural Disasters Becoming More Frequent

Natural Disasters Becoming More Frequent | Worldwatch Institute

The trend of more frequent global natural disasters continues, due to an onslaught of weather-related crises in the first half of 2008.

The total number of disasters as of June 30, 2008 already exceeds the average number of disasters recorded at mid-year over the past decade. Although 2008 is not on pace to eclipse 2007 as registering the most natural disasters ever, an especially active Atlantic hurricane season is expected.

During the first half of each year between 1998 and 2007, the average number of disasters recorded was 380. So far in 2008, 400 disasters have been reported, according to data released last week by Munich Re, a German reinsurance group.

Atom-smasher: LHC factfile

Atom-smasher: LHC factfile | COSMOS magazine

GENEVA: The world's biggest atom-smasher, now close to completion at the CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) laboratory near Geneva, is a study in big numbers:

Money Can Change Your Behavior Toward Others

Money Can Change Your Behavior Toward Others - World of Psychology

In 2004, researchers James Heyman and Dan Ariely (author of Predictably Irrational) devised a set of deceptively simple experiments that illustrated that the moment money enters a social relationship, it can change the very nature of our expectations and the relationship.

In the first experiment, they asked three different groups to perform a simple but menial task – drag as many circles as you can across a computer screen in 5 minutes. The groups only differed in what they would get for completing this task: $5, $0.50 or nothing. For the group that got nothing, the task was framed not as a task per se, but as a ‘favor’ to help out the researchers.

Sunday, 13 July 2008

Interesting Tricks of the Body

Interesting Tricks of the Body - Jean's Blog

Interesting Tricks of the Body

The Pit of Life and Death

Damn Interesting » The Pit of Life and Death

By 1983, the hill was so exhausted that the Anaconda Mining Company was no longer able to extract minerals in profitable amounts. They packed up all the equipment that they could move, shut down the water pumps, and moved on to more lucrative scraps of Earth. Without the pumps, rain and groundwater gradually began to collect in the pit, leaching out the metals and minerals in the surrounding rock. The water became as acidic as lemon juice, creating a toxic brew of heavy metal poisons including arsenic, lead, and zinc. No fish live there, and no plants line the shores. There aren’t even any insects buzzing about. The Berkeley Pit had become one of the deadliest places on earth, too toxic even for microorganisms. Or so it was thought.

City of Ants

10 tons of concrete were used to visualize the whole structure.

Saturday, 12 July 2008

Ocean Power Systems

BioPower Systems - Biologically Inspired Ocean Power Systems

BioPower Systems is commercialising ocean power conversion technologies. Through application of biomimicry, we have adopted nature's mechanisms for survival and energy conversion in the marine environment and have applied these in the development of our proprietary wave and tidal power systems.

Our technologies inherit benefits developed during 3.8 Billion years of evolutionary optimization in nature’s ocean laboratory.The resulting systems move and sway in tune with the forces of the ocean, and naturally streamline when extreme conditions prevail. This leads to lightweight designs and associated low costs.

The inherently simple bioWAVE™ and bioSTREAM™ devices are designed to supply utility-scale grid-connected renewable energy using efficient modular systems. These systems will reside beneath the ocean surface, out of view, and in harmony with the living creatures that inspired their design.

Sunday, 6 July 2008

What is the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider?

Whats Next In Tech: What Is The Large Hadron Collider

What is the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider?

The Large Hadron Collider is a particle accelerator complex spanning the border between Switzerland and France near Geneva. LHC will smash together opposing beams of either protons or lead ions inside a massive circular accelerator.

Sunday, 22 June 2008

MIT Students Develop Revolutionary Solar Dish That is Hot Enough to Melt Steel

DailyTech - MIT Students Develop Revolutionary Solar Dish That is Hot Enough to Melt Steel

The results are staggering -- the completed mirror focuses enough solar energy at its focal point to melt solid steel. The energy of typical sunlight is concentrated by a factor of 1,000. This was showcased during a demonstration, in which a team member held up a board, which instantly and violently combusted, when brought within range of the focal point.

By directing the dish at a more practical target -- water piped through black tubing -- steam can be flash created, offering instant means of producing energy or providing heating.

Spencer Ahrens, who just received his master's in mechanical engineering from MIT, was among the designers of the dish. He and his fellow team members are serious about marketing it, and leveraging its cheap cost and easy production. They have founded a company named RawSolar. They say their design is easily mass producible and that they hope to be pumping out 1,000 of dishes in years to come.

Sunday, 1 June 2008

Gapminder

Gapminder - Home

Gapminder World

This website, powered by Trendalyzer, enables you to explore the changing world from your own computer. Moving graphics show how the development of all countries by the indicators you choose.