The poster should have checked his facts. The desktop synchrotron light source is NOT a synchrotron. A synchrotron is an alternating lattice strong focusing particle accelerator with 1 or more accelerating cavities. A wiggler using permanent magnets and a wakefield accelerator to generate the beam of electrons is a great desktop machine, but far from a synchrotron. The wiggler produces synchrotron light - but that's about the extent of it. Synchrotron light comes about from the interaction of charged particles and magnetic fields. Don't call it a desktop synchrotron. It's a desktop synchrotron light source.
Here's some reminders for those of us who haven't studied accelerator physics in a while: Synchrotron via wikipedia Synchrotron light also via wiki Wigglers produce synchrotron light without the synchrotron
Hate to self-promote, but here's my website with the nixie tube clock I was selling (before I ran out of parts). The most informative webpage for nixie tube related stuff is actually the Yahoo NeoNixie group, at Yahoo Groups. David Forbes, who designed the watch, is a regular contributor to the list, and is a great guy- very knowledgeable. I have learned a lot from the list, and I highly suggest joining the group to anyone even remotely interested in the technology.
Does anyone remember the holographic tape from the movie Brainstorm? I was wondering when something like this would become a reality... Ah the good old days./reminiscing
Altera makes some OK FPGAs, custom ASICs, and PAL-type chips, but I wonder which chips specifically they are talking about. Reverse-engineering a custom ASIC seems quite suspect indeed...
For those who didn't read TFA, and haven't ever read about the operation of these devices, Tim Cockerill wrote his thesis about them. He provides an excellent reference for the thermodynamic operation of these devices. You can put down your tinfoil hats, as they do obey classical thermodynamics perfectly well.
Centripetal-force-generated artificial gravity systems, like those envitioned by Arthur C. Clarke shown in the film 2001, have been studied by NASA and the Air Force for decades. Basically, it would require a structure of a few hundred meters radius rotating at a few rpm. The scale of such a habitat would be enormous, and the cost associated has not been shown to be warranted as of yet. However, the commercialization of space will probably bring about such an innovation out of necessity (for comfort).
Links here, here, and here.
Exploding apples with capacitors
on
19 million Amps
·
· Score: 4, Informative
This is a fun project. I was able to get about 18kA repeatably through a variety of objects from a small cap bank using low inductance leads and vacuum triggered spark gap. Lots of people do fun projects like this at home in their garages
They bring up an interesting problem in the article about the difficulty of cleaning surfaces after a storm- the triboelectric charges wouldn't necessarily have anywhere to bleed off to. Since Earth's ground is relatively wet, simply sticking a copper rod into the ground provides a good path for stray charges to go. Unfortunately, in a dry soil like that of Mars, grounding rods may not provide the level of protection they might on Earth. On the other hand, the reduced atmospheric pressure and lowered breakdown potential might actually help simpler methods like the charge dissipators (so called "static wicks") on plane wings. Basically, as long as there is a sharp point to help field emission and concentrate the E field in a small volume of space, the excess charge is dissipated into the atmosphere.
Re:Scientific American's Amateur Scientist
on
Makers of MAKE
·
· Score: 1
You know, you can purchase every Amateur Scientist column ever on CDROM now? And don't forget some of my favorites from the Amateur Scientist column: a homemade atom smasher (a 300keV electrostatic linear accelerator), a homebuilt cyclotron (lacking plans), all manner of cloud and bubble chambers for particle detection, a gel electrophoresis setup, a CuBr pulsed laser, a 100kW-1MW pulsed Nitrogen laser, etc. The list goes on and on. Shawn Carlson, where are you now?
It could definitely have implications in quantum computing. It is interesting that TFA didn't mention any application here, though. Also, I'll have to look back into the time-dependent Schrodinger equation to remind myself how this plays in quantum mechanics. Seems that the precise timing of the electron spin flip could have some interesting quantum effects...
-F
This is a really exciting breakthrough, but the idea is far from new. The parallel-place electrometer was used in the early days to detect ionizing radiation by knocking off stored charge with the incoming flux of charged particles. This is in a way harnessing the current created by radioactive decay. Modern radiation dosimeters use a similar principle. It was always discussed that if you could simply harness the current of the emitted betas, you would have a useable battery. Until now this wasn't feasible due to the efficiency of capturing those betas and using them as a current source. I can't wait till this is made available to the public.
There's discussion on the Mars Rover Discussion Board and again. It seems careful Rover Watchers noticed that it hadn't moved in a few days, and started to wonder why. Apparently NASA had to say something, because people were asking questions.
to quote TFA "That's a long way off, but it is exciting." It is indeed a long, long way off. Specifically, the experiments involved only detected & predicted what the brain was seeing. The predition part was only demonstrating that the brain might see something, but not understand/decode immediately. The computer detected the visual input, but the brain didn't process it. This is a long way from predicting prejudices, fears, and phobias.
But on the other hand, we might not be cognisent of subliminal cues that trigger anger, fear, rejection, etc. in the brain, but the computer might be able to detect the triggers more readily/quickly/reliably. Who knows? We (and Big Brother) will have to see...
and the ubiquitous "I for one welcome our mind-reading computer-aided MRI overlords."
Patents are not the same thing as a full proof of operability. Basically, a patent is intended to cover current capability and any future expansion of a given technology. This is why there are so many patents for things that don't exist now, but might in the future if a particular technology is advanced/developed. It is interesting to me that the public at large assumes that if a technology is patented that it automatically means it is scientifically proven. Herbal supplements that might claim to do any number of things might also be patented, but that just means the process or composition is patented, not that the claimed benefit is proven.
In short, while Sony may have patented the technology, it will be a long time before we have UT2k4 on a neural link.
I agree. It is important to mention that there are other outlets besides the MIT robotics competition for high school students of all backgrounds to accel. It may sound outdated and corny, but the Science Fair (particularly the ISEF provides students with this type of competition designed to show off their technical and scientific achievements, regardless of their backgrounds.
It is nearly science fair season... I must dust off my judging clothes:)
Slashdot Mirror
Here's some reminders for those of us who haven't studied accelerator physics in a while:
Synchrotron via wikipedia
Synchrotron light also via wiki
Wigglers produce synchrotron light without the synchrotron
100keV protons, about 4uA http://www.niell.org/cyc2.html 2klbs, ~4kW Totally awesome.
Hate to self-promote, but here's my website with the nixie tube clock I was selling (before I ran out of parts). The most informative webpage for nixie tube related stuff is actually the Yahoo NeoNixie group, at Yahoo Groups. David Forbes, who designed the watch, is a regular contributor to the list, and is a great guy- very knowledgeable. I have learned a lot from the list, and I highly suggest joining the group to anyone even remotely interested in the technology.
Does anyone remember the holographic tape from the movie Brainstorm? I was wondering when something like this would become a reality... Ah the good old days. /reminiscing
Ooops- wrong link...
Try this one instead.
My bad. Need more coffee.
PhysOrg has a pretty good rundown of the physics involved in the discoveries. Worth a look...
Altera makes some OK FPGAs, custom ASICs, and PAL-type chips, but I wonder which chips specifically they are talking about. Reverse-engineering a custom ASIC seems quite suspect indeed...
For those who didn't read TFA, and haven't ever read about the operation of these devices, Tim Cockerill wrote his thesis about them. He provides an excellent reference for the thermodynamic operation of these devices. You can put down your tinfoil hats, as they do obey classical thermodynamics perfectly well.
Centripetal-force-generated artificial gravity systems, like those envitioned by Arthur C. Clarke shown in the film 2001, have been studied by NASA and the Air Force for decades. Basically, it would require a structure of a few hundred meters radius rotating at a few rpm. The scale of such a habitat would be enormous, and the cost associated has not been shown to be warranted as of yet. However, the commercialization of space will probably bring about such an innovation out of necessity (for comfort).
Links here, here, and here.
For example
Bert Hickman's coin shrinking
Thaltech's capacitor experiments
Sam Barros's Power Labs page
Bill Beaty's webpage
and many others...
They bring up an interesting problem in the article about the difficulty of cleaning surfaces after a storm- the triboelectric charges wouldn't necessarily have anywhere to bleed off to. Since Earth's ground is relatively wet, simply sticking a copper rod into the ground provides a good path for stray charges to go. Unfortunately, in a dry soil like that of Mars, grounding rods may not provide the level of protection they might on Earth. On the other hand, the reduced atmospheric pressure and lowered breakdown potential might actually help simpler methods like the charge dissipators (so called "static wicks") on plane wings. Basically, as long as there is a sharp point to help field emission and concentrate the E field in a small volume of space, the excess charge is dissipated into the atmosphere.
You know, you can purchase every Amateur Scientist column ever on CDROM now? And don't forget some of my favorites from the Amateur Scientist column: a homemade atom smasher (a 300keV electrostatic linear accelerator), a homebuilt cyclotron (lacking plans), all manner of cloud and bubble chambers for particle detection, a gel electrophoresis setup, a CuBr pulsed laser, a 100kW-1MW pulsed Nitrogen laser, etc. The list goes on and on. Shawn Carlson, where are you now?
Ha! Speechless.
but I don't want to text "goatse" and get any "pop art" while walking around downtown.
It could definitely have implications in quantum computing. It is interesting that TFA didn't mention any application here, though. Also, I'll have to look back into the time-dependent Schrodinger equation to remind myself how this plays in quantum mechanics. Seems that the precise timing of the electron spin flip could have some interesting quantum effects... -F
This is a really exciting breakthrough, but the idea is far from new. The parallel-place electrometer was used in the early days to detect ionizing radiation by knocking off stored charge with the incoming flux of charged particles. This is in a way harnessing the current created by radioactive decay. Modern radiation dosimeters use a similar principle. It was always discussed that if you could simply harness the current of the emitted betas, you would have a useable battery. Until now this wasn't feasible due to the efficiency of capturing those betas and using them as a current source. I can't wait till this is made available to the public.
Actually, this shot from the Mars Rover site shows the front wheels pretty well buried and covered with caked-on soil.
There's discussion on the Mars Rover Discussion Board and again. It seems careful Rover Watchers noticed that it hadn't moved in a few days, and started to wonder why. Apparently NASA had to say something, because people were asking questions.
But on the other hand, we might not be cognisent of subliminal cues that trigger anger, fear, rejection, etc. in the brain, but the computer might be able to detect the triggers more readily/quickly/reliably. Who knows? We (and Big Brother) will have to see...
and the ubiquitous "I for one welcome our mind-reading computer-aided MRI overlords."
This was modded up as Interesting, but I like to think the author was intending Funny
Exactly. His point was what would you write if the current president's White House called. Kindergarten indeed.
In short, while Sony may have patented the technology, it will be a long time before we have UT2k4 on a neural link.
My 19" LCD screen has 1280x1024 pixels, and none of the 1.3 million are dead. What gives?
It is nearly science fair season... I must dust off my judging clothes :)
D'oh. Good call. Skylab.
-F