Domain: europhysicsnews.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to europhysicsnews.com.
Comments · 8
-
Re:Actually buy one
This looks a LOT like digital inline holography, but I didn't see in the article what technique they're useing. I did some minor DIH work at Dalhousie University, back in 2004. Last I heard, a couple of the profs there are developing a commercial product.
-
Re:They did this in ancient times in the middle eaHaving some old dude and a bunch of his fleeing kin at the exact right spot just as tsunami drains enough water to create a land bridge would be plenty magical I think.
Yeah, that's why it's more likely to be the result of "wind setdown" and the resulting bore when the wind failed. The water being pushed back to expose a path would have been a reasonably common event. If you were a local, you'd know it would be a dangerous path to use, but if you were desperate to escape it might have seemed worth the risk.
There's some interesting theories, including this one, here. http://www.europhysicsnews.com/full/33/article6.p
d f#search=%22part%20the%20seas%20moses%20science%22 -
Re:ergo
The mouse may not have been as good as todays optical mice, but the ergonomics are quite good, if you compare it to:
http://www.numlock.ch/gallery_repository/Mouse-Mod ding-II-The-Ultimate-Gamer-Mouse/SANY0083.sized.jp g
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00006IJX7.01.LZ ZZZZZZ.jpg
http://ciposa.com/pic/ca-mouse.jpg
http://www.weddingsolutions.com/wedding_store/imag es/medium/weddingsolutions/mini-0997735379210281wl .jpg
http://www.acclaimimages.com/_gallery/_SM/0015-050 2-1808-4928_SM.jpg
http://www.europhysicsnews.com/full/30/article10/a rticle10_2_0002.jpg
http://www.dalveydepot.com/DalveyBMS.jpg
Apples old mouse is easy to hold, doesn't discriminate against left handed people and doesn't require any funky finger positions. You just grab it, as you would grab a piece of soap. -
Re:Dodgy
Relax, a horse is not a goat.
Although, the photo, is a little disturbing. That thing looks like an alien probe of some sort... -
Re:compare Korea with Iran
Well, yes, Iran has probably among the more vibrant blogging communities in the world. I follow a few Iranian blogs regularily. Hoder is a good starting point. And authorities are cracking down on it, pissing all the kids off. Iran is strange, on one hand, the majority of the people are highly educated, they understand democracy, and there are lots of good people in higher positions, in universities, for example. So, if one were to start a democratic revolution in the Middle East, what one should do is start cooperation with the progressive forces in Iran. Contrary to Iraq, you could actually come with a lot of support to people without aiding the mullahs. A good example of this is the CERN
/Iran collaboration. With these forces gaining status and strength in society, a peaceful transition to democracy would be imminent. Many of these leading figures is of the clear opinion that current US policy has been a severe setback. -
Re:Another sub TeV ColliderEnergy isn't everything; you can do things with electron-positron colliders that you can't with proton colliders like the LHC. For instance,
Because electrons and positrons produce collisions that are much "cleaner," they are viewed to have certain advantages above the colliding protons in the LHC for investigating energies above those reached by LEP. There is much less background, and the production rates for new particles or events are not that different from the known production rates, says Peter Zerwas, a theorist at DESY, the German particle physics laboratory near Hamburg. "You can project out the new physics elements much easier," he adds. The strength of the LHC will be as an exploratory machine, says John Ellis, a theorist at CERN.
-
Re:What's the point ?They create heavy elements, which are so unstable that they decay as quickly as they were created.
So I'm wondering - what's the point ?
Elements 83 (bismuth) and under have one or more stable isotopes, and one or more unstable isotopes. So, for example, hydrogen (element 1) is stable, but deuterium (H-2) and tritium (H-3) are not. Nevertheless, these unstable isotopes are useful. Deuterium is used in nuclear medicine, in heavy water for nuclear reactors, and in fusion reactions. So...
Myth: Unstable isotopes are useless.
Myth Busted!Past element 83, there are no stable isotopes. There's a pretty good chart showing the stable and unstable isotopes here. There's also an interactive one, color-coded for lifetimes, here. The half-life of these elements decreases from millenia to microseconds. However...
It's been known for decades that certain numbers of protons are "magic" in that they "pack together" in a very stable manner. Same thing with neutrons. As we approach the next "magic" numbers, the half-lives of the elements should start going back up. And they do.
In this latest experiment, the particular isotope of element 113 *may* have lasted for as long as 1.2 seconds. That's a long time for such a heavy element. Elements under 113 last for much less time, so that shows that we may be reaching the region of stability.
The region of stability is apparently close by, and *stable* superheavy elements will assuredly have useful properties.
And that's why nuclear chemists continue to search for heavier and heavier artificial elements. Because one day one of them will last for more than a few seconds. And then one day, one of them will last forever. Instant revolution in materials science.
Myth: There's no point searching for superheavy elements.
Myth Busted!--Rob
-
Reaction From a Professional VintnerI forwarded this article to a friend who makes several well regarded Methode Chamenoise bubblies professionally. Here is his reaction:
This string is highly informative of the fine line between uninformed and misinformed. The study mentioned was either poorly conducted or deliberately misleading. I suspect the latter as it included beer and carbonated water. Real science would use controlled factors, such as the same base wine, same storage conditions, etc. As to the 'sparkling wine' in the study, we are not informed whether it is injection carbonated, bulk transfer, bottle transfer, or traditional method(methode champenoise). These processes all contribute or detract from the flavor of finished wine. Do apples taste better than oranges? I think so, but I wouldn't then draw conclusions about the organaleptic superiority of malic acid over citric acid.
In my research, evidence about a correlation between bubble size and gustatory quality is mixed. Cited in the following article is one of many studies that draws a more ambivalent conclusion, but I have read others as well. There is also an explanation of the Guiness cascade effect.
However, bubble science itself is wicked cool.
By the way, according to the EU, the term 'methode champenoise' referring to wines grown and produced outside of Champagne, also causes enough confusion so as to be banned in Europe. While I agree with protection of appellation through regulation-mainly because businesses have proven they will stoop to any prevarication in order to increase sales-this one I would have to disagree with as it is a description of process and it seems to me it is done in a respectful and even deferential way. The term used now is 'methode traditionelle' or 'traditional method.'