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The World's Nine Largest Science Projects
JBG667 writes "Nice overview of the 9 largest science projects currently ongoing. Some of the usual suspects are on the list including CERN, Space Elevator, Space Station, etc. As well as some lesser known including a 3,000-foot-tall 'Solar tower,' the ANTARES underwater neutrino detecting array, and more. Nice read for science buffs."
Aaaand soon, when #1 turns bits of Switzerland and France into Europe's newest lake, it'll be the 8 largest science projects.
I guess it's now so accepted that people forget it's beginnings as a DARPA experiment. Or perhaps it's just outgrown it's experimental status.
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and a few astronomical projects that are even bigger than that.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
How can the "space elevator" be listed? It's long on hype and short on actual effort.
I built a model of the starship Enterprise a long time ago. Building a starship is a pretty big project, so shouldn't it be listed as well?
3 things about computers: they're alive, they're self-aware, and they hate your guts.
First of all, a couple links are broken and there's major spelling errors. But to get to my real point, it says "one 200MW power station will provide enough electricity to around 200,000 typical Australian households." Oh boy, households being used as a unit of electricity again! Okay, let's do the math. That's 1000 watts per house. Wow, so everyone can have one light bulb on while their small microwave is running and that's it. Most people have 1000 watts in lights on at any given time let alone cooking and heating and cooling. What a load of bullshit. I hate sensationalist stats that are horribly, HORRIBLY incorrect.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
until recently and here they are showing off a spectacular solar power energy plant. I'm very impressed. I thought I would have heard about this on the ABC's Science Show. I haven't been this impressed since the development of the hotrocks project in Australia.
Better question: how many Libraries of Congress (LoC) would it cost to build a trans-atlantic maglev train. Dumb article.
There's an orange that roller under my workbench in the basement a couple of months ago. It is now the 10th biggest science project.
They cannot be serious. A computer simulation is one of the 9 biggest experiments? Shoot... Why didn't they list WOW then?
"It seems that we are at the age where life stops giving us things, and starts taking them away..." Indiana Jones
"With a large mirror, 6.5 meter (21.3 feet) diameter mirror the $5 billion+ [James Webb Space Telescope] will launch folded up inside the space shuttle and then unfold to its full-size - several times that of Hubble." Launching a spacecraft to a 1.5 million km orbit with the space shuttle in 2013. Its good to see the discovery channel has done their research. Honestly, I expected more from these guys...
The article suggests that the James Webb Space Telescope will be launched from the Space Shuttle, and somehow make it out to 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth. Wikipedia likes to note that an Ariane 5 rocket will be used instead. This is a surprisingly flawed story!
That depends. Enterprise NX-01? Absolutely not. Any other variant? Yeah, sounds like a winner.
1) Anyone know if the Canadian Light Source Synchrotron being used for scanning the brain? It better be.
2) For 14 billion dollars, can't you harness nuclear fusion with an enormous piston? I want some engineering/science buff to chew me out on this one.
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>> JBG667 writes Nice overview of the 9 largest science projects currently ongoing.
In Soviet Russia, nice overview writes JBG667.
Sure, as long as you know the correct placement of the giant yellow duck. It's the details that really made the Enterprise work.
"It seems that we are at the age where life stops giving us things, and starts taking them away..." Indiana Jones
actually just a brief little comment about your sig. I believe it wasnt Indy, it was his old University Dean buddy that said that..
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Perhaps my googling and wikipedia skills are off the mark but I was looking up large buildings just earlier this week and that solar tower in Australia seems to be on hold / cancelled.
Last info I could find mentioned the company attempting to do the same thing but in texas now, infact that entire project has been quiet / off the grid for maybe over a year.
If that's wrong, what else on the list isn't happening?
NASA has already run competitions to build elevator climbers. There are millions (perhaps billions) being invested in the development of carbon nanotubes as a viable building material. If such time, energy and money were being spent on building a warp drive, then you might have a point.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
Half the "projects" are imaginary, the other half are explained poorly or just plain wrong.
Trans-atlantic tunnel? Space elevator? We might as well say the establishment of psychohistory and a Foundation to guide the development of humanity is an equally large science project.
And whats with the passing jab at cold fusion in the ITER blurb? Poor attempt at a joke? Author who doesn't understand the difference? Or perhaps someone not aware about how much research actually is happening in that space?
I'd say they should be embarassed, but they're probably off watching "Ghost Hunters", I think the new season started on the Discovery Channel recently ...
Sadly, in this day and age, it's not surprising at all.
I am trolling
Mechanical translation provided by Google, just scroll down to "Electricity".
1 person household: 2220 kWh
2 person household: 3095 kWh
3 person household: 3875 kWh
Average over all households: 3230 kWh
3 things about computers: they're alive, they're self-aware, and they hate your guts.
What makes you think they are not? Most researchers into nanotubes (and there are some in my department) when asked what the applications of their work are will mention space elevators first. There are few other applications that require such ridiculously strong materials - steel suffices for pretty much everything people want to build right now.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
Do Androids Shear Electric Sheep?
Jes' askin'...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Because the hot air created by the project diffuses into the atmosphere, as gases are wont to do, so the project's proportions become planetary.
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
If we can devise a method to manufacture them cheaply, they'll become very widely used.
Think about it.... a material that is stronger, lighter, and less voluminous than steel could replace it in any application where weight, space, or amount of material is an issue. Bridges, automobiles, and buildings come to mind very quickly.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
From TFA:
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Is this digg?
I don't think any of those competitions were run by NASA, but regardless, they had about as much in common with a real space elevator as a model of the Enterprise has in common with the real thing.
There might be millions being invested in structural carbon nanotube research, but I guarantee you there are not billions. And contrary to your assertion two posts down, they may think a space elevator is what they're working on, but if they're waiting for a $trillion project to validate their efforts, they're going to be waiting for a long time. It's simply about higher strength composites, which have applications all over the place. Believe it or not, there are relatively mundane applications where even carbon fiber doesn't have the desired tensile strength.
Space elevator work is small scale, disorganized, not aimed at a final design. All of the other projects on that list (except a couple of the honorable mentions) are real, funded, and under construction in concrete, usable form.
That pitance that a few venture capitalists spend on space elevator work pales in comparison to hundreds of science projects. Even a single NASA space probe greatly outshines what is being done with space elevators.
Not forgetting the cost put towards the war against terrorism! You have to factor that in because there's no point building a tower that big if some terrorist prick is just going to fly another plane into it!
----- Concentrate on promoting more than demoting.
I remember it being Indy speaking to his dean buddy...
Indy had just commented on the tough year they had with the loss of both his father and Marcus (former dean) he then commented to the new dean that they seemed to be at an age where life had stopped giving them things and started taking them away. I am reasonably sure this is accurate...
I will let you know for sure when it comes out on DVD. Not worth paying to see twice.
"It seems that we are at the age where life stops giving us things, and starts taking them away..." Indiana Jones