The Science Thread

[Big Ewis]

ah...got me there !

 

[Jaguares]

Science ***** !!!

 

[Rich Taff]

Oh wow. Just WOW!

http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/HDEV/

 

[Big Ewis]

 

[Feicarsinn]

Feicy just got confitmation that's he's getting a lovely honours physics degree. Bless.

 

[Rich Taff]

Feicy just got confitmation that's he's getting a lovely honours physics degree. Bless.

Congratulations!

 

[Feicarsinn]

Prof in my department has figured out how to exfoliate graphene (sexy nanomaterial) with blenders. He's also a massive Leinster fan.

 

[smartcooky]

This is what has got my attention at the moment...

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27110882

This spacecraft was launched four months after England won the RWC, and it has been on a ten year grand tour to chase down and land on a comet called 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (harder to pronounce than an Icelandic volcano) only to find that it is actually two comets orbiting each other.


Orbital rendevous is in about three weeks time

Fascinating!

 

[UlsterRugby2012]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/25/creationism-banned-uk-schools_n_5529693.html

Bit late - but creationism now banned in public UK schools. I'd say that's a decent win for science as a whole here, how long do you think it will take the USA to follow? Not for a long time by my bet anyway.

I still know a lot of people who outright dismiss evolution which is worrying, it's a shame because it's one of the most interesting and fascinating topics I've studied.

 

[William18]

I think it is essential that creationism is taught in schools; it just shouldn't happen in a science classroom. Many people do believe in it and any student should therefore know what it is people believe in and why they do so. It should be taught in a matter of fact way - this is what they believe rather than advocated for. I think anyone needs to understand religion to understand the world but this should be done in the context of social sciences.

 

[j'nuh]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/25/creationism-banned-uk-schools_n_5529693.html

Bit late - but creationism now banned in public UK schools. I'd say that's a decent win for science as a whole here, how long do you think it will take the USA to follow? Not for a long time by my bet anyway.

I still know a lot of people who outright dismiss evolution which is worrying, it's a shame because it's one of the most interesting and fascinating topics I've studied.

That will be a state issue. Some states may follow UK's lead, others haven't a chance in hell.

I agree with William18. From a science POV, not every view deserves equal weight and airtime. We would simply run out of minutes of classroom education if we were to do so.

But also, every child should study Religious Education/Studies. Religion plays a big part in our lives, whether that is directly through association, or indirectly through the acts of others. I would argue that we should teach it in a similar way to which English is studied; by examining both fictional and non-fictional texts to explore the impact of religion on others' lives. I was brought up Catholic and went to a Catholic secondary school, and our GCSE RE syllabus focused mainly on Catholic teaching (with a small amount of other religions, mostly Christian, included). I would prefer a more balanced syllabus, including criticisms of religion/"atheist works" (e.g. His Dark Materials).

 

[TRF_Olyy]

The biggest news, from that, is the Creationism was still being taught in schools.
I went to religious school's and Creationism was only ever taught in RE, and evolution in Science.

 

[William18]

That will be a state issue. Some states may follow UK's lead, others haven't a chance in hell.

I agree with William18. From a science POV, not every view deserves equal weight and airtime. We would simply run out of minutes of classroom education if we were to do so.

But also, every child should study Religious Education/Studies. Religion plays a big part in our lives, whether that is directly through association, or indirectly through the acts of others. I would argue that we should teach it in a similar way to which English is studied; by examining both fictional and non-fictional texts to explore the impact of religion on others' lives. I was brought up Catholic and went to a Catholic secondary school, and our GCSE RE syllabus focused mainly on Catholic teaching (with a small amount of other religions, mostly Christian, included). I would prefer a more balanced syllabus, including criticisms of religion/"atheist works" (e.g. His Dark Materials).

Having only recently left a secular school in New Zealand and even being an atheist myself the amount of ignorance about religion was staggering. A relatively intelligent student after being told France was a Catholic country then guessed that England was a Christian country as if Christianity was an antonym of Catholicism. He also said something about Gandhi, a Hindu, going to the Mosque. One cannot even attempt to understand the Middle East if they don't understand Islam. RE seems to be a bit of a joke in New Zealand anyway.

 

[UlsterRugby2012]

Creationism and Religion are different matters though. I agree with keeping religion in R.E classes - but the teaching that the world is 10,000 years old, Noah's flood etc. are literally true is fundamentally false and will give students the wrong impression - that this whole thing is debatable. It categorically is not.

I agree what you guys are saying, but the distinction between creationism and religion needs to be made. One is acceptable, one is completely not.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Some guys at the University of Singapore managed to make a replica of Monet's Impression, Sunrise, except it's only 300 micrometers across. To give a bit of context, that's a little under the thickness of 2 human hairs!

The technique relies on the coupling of light to free electrons near at the surface of metals. If you make sufficiently small enough metal structures (in the case aluminium capped nanopillars) you can confine the oscillations of electrons excited by the light interaction to the vertical direction. These excitations are know as local surface plasmons and they absorb and emit light at very specific frequencies, despite the structures they're built on being smaller than the wavelength of the incident light in question (nifty, eh?) By tailoring the spacing and size of these pillars, this group has been able to create a range of resonant frequencies for these pillars, and as such an associated spectrum of achievable colours. To show the power of this technique they've created the above 'nanopainting.'

Personally, I love this kind of ****. I did my undergrad research project of plasmonics, and it's a really cool field. Being able to control light at subwavelength distance scales could have important applications in fields such as computing (light based logic & transistors), energy (better directional control and efficiency for solar cells) and other nifty stuff like displays and phones (field emission, etc.) Nano is where it's at.

 

[munstermuffin]

Some guys at the University of Singapore managed to make a replica of Monet's Impression, Sunrise, except it's only 300 micrometers across. To give a bit of context, that's a little under the thickness of 2 human hairs!

The technique relies on the coupling of light to free electrons near at the surface of metals. If you make sufficiently small enough metal structures (in the case aluminium capped nanopillars) you can confine the oscillations of electrons excited by the light interaction to the vertical direction. These excitations are know as local surface plasmons and they absorb and emit light at very specific frequencies, despite the structures they're built on being smaller than the wavelength of the incident light in question (nifty, eh?) By tailoring the spacing and size of these pillars, this group has been able to create a range of resonant frequencies for these pillars, and as such an associated spectrum of achievable colours. To show the power of this technique they've created the above 'nanopainting.'

Personally, I love this kind of ****. I did my undergrad research project of plasmonics, and it's a really cool field. Being able to control light at subwavelength distance scales could have important applications in fields such as computing (light based logic & transistors), energy (better directional control and efficiency for solar cells) and other nifty stuff like displays and phones (field emission, etc.) Nano is where it's at.

Very impressive and definitely something I can see being part of the next evolution of technology

 

[SelimNiai]

Some guys at the University of Singapore managed to make a replica of Monet's Impression, Sunrise, except it's only 300 micrometers across. To give a bit of context, that's a little under the thickness of 2 human hairs!

The technique relies on the coupling of light to free electrons near at the surface of metals. If you make sufficiently small enough metal structures (in the case aluminium capped nanopillars) you can confine the oscillations of electrons excited by the light interaction to the vertical direction. These excitations are know as local surface plasmons and they absorb and emit light at very specific frequencies, despite the structures they're built on being smaller than the wavelength of the incident light in question (nifty, eh?) By tailoring the spacing and size of these pillars, this group has been able to create a range of resonant frequencies for these pillars, and as such an associated spectrum of achievable colours. To show the power of this technique they've created the above 'nanopainting.'

Personally, I love this kind of ****. I did my undergrad research project of plasmonics, and it's a really cool field. Being able to control light at subwavelength distance scales could have important applications in fields such as computing (light based logic & transistors), energy (better directional control and efficiency for solar cells) and other nifty stuff like displays and phones (field emission, etc.) Nano is where it's at.

Not gonna lie, didnt understand most of that but that looks fliippin cool

 

[Feicarsinn]

Cool nano fact of the day: Nanoscience can make your beer cheaper!

As I'm sure we all know, beer is predominantly sold in glass bottles. This is as the taste of most alcoholic beverages are extremely sensitive to the carbon dioxide content, far more so than soft drinks like coke. Unfortunately, carbon dioxide can diffuse (escape) through most plastics pretty easily, meaning that in a period of two weeks (tops) after bottling the beer spoils.

However, by putting very small amounts of graphene into the plastic during the molding process we can greatly increase the amount of time it takes for the gas is to escape. Graphene is a two dimensional material consisting of carbon atoms. It's incredibly thin, but is entirely impermeable to gasses, meaning that the carbon dioxide molecules would have to go around, and not through, the sheets to escape. This can increase the lifetime of the beer in plastic bottles to +26 weeks, making it a viable alternative to glass.

As the plastic bottles would be around 5 times lighter, it'd cut down on transport costs, making the beer cheaper and better for the environment.

 

[munstermuffin]

Cool nano fact of the day: Nanoscience can make your beer cheaper!

As I'm sure we all know, beer is predominantly sold in glass bottles. This is as the taste of most alcoholic beverages are extremely sensitive to the carbon dioxide content, far more so than soft drinks like coke. Unfortunately, carbon dioxide can diffuse (escape) through most plastics pretty easily, meaning that in a period of two weeks (tops) after bottling the beer spoils.

However, by putting very small amounts of graphene into the plastic during the molding process we can greatly increase the amount of time it takes for the gas is to escape. Graphene is a two dimensional material consisting of carbon atoms. It's incredibly thin, but is entirely impermeable to gasses, meaning that the carbon dioxide molecules would have to go around, and not through, the sheets to escape. This can increase the lifetime of the beer in plastic bottles to +26 weeks, making it a viable alternative to glass.

As the plastic bottles would be around 5 times lighter, it'd cut down on transport costs, making the beer cheaper and better for the environment.

Man your on to a winner. But I've to ask when I've been to a few concerts in Croker or Aviva I've got Bud in plastic bottle how's this?

 

[smartcooky]

HL Tauri: A solar system being formed

For any fellow science geeks out there, you will find this truly awesome....

This is an image of the star HL Tauri (450 LY away) taken with the European Southern Observatory's ALMA sub millimetre telescope. It shows the star during formation (which has been under
way for about a million years) with the proto-planetary disc and planets being formed.




Here is a scale comparison with our Solar System

http://www.eso.org/public/usa/news/eso1436/