I got the basic information on fractal antennas from a small magazine in the "CQ" line of mags quite a few years ago. I did a quick look, but couldn't find it -- it was a magazine that specialized in the more theoretical aspects. Sorry there's no ref.
I hilltop. For 2 and 4 meters, I use home-built 5 element quad antennas (based on designs in some issue of the ARRL mag -- again, sorry, no references).
I wanted a similar 6m antenna, based on fractals. The fractal, if I remember right, was similar to the 6-pointed star fractal you see everywhere, except based on a square and "innie" instead of "outie." The ratio of the inset piece was slightly less than 1/3 so that, when made out of wire, the wire would never quite touch itself. It was pretty much right out of the magazine article, and looking at my description, you're going to need the magazine article, unless you're into a lot of experimentation! The magazine article gave the basic dimensions. The first one was made out of a stiff copper wire. It worked, but it was easily damaged. That's why I went to painted on thin sheets of plexiglass. I'd create the fractal outline on the computer, print it out, cut it out as a stencil like I do for airbrushing, and leave little tabs to kep it from being so floppy -- tabs I'd eventually have to do freehand. I also tried aluminum tape, but found it was hard for me to work with. The reflector and director elements (I only ever got a 3 element design) were based on the quad elements, using the dimensions from the working antenna to scale the other two. The SWR was too sensitive. A low SWR at home in my basement might mean a high SWR in the field, where the temperature was different. I used thin plexiglass and probably trimmed too much of it, so it was a little too thin. The SWR would go up with power as well. Since I like to QRP, that wasn't much of a problem.
When I closed the car door and it barely bumped the center pole of the antenna and the radiator broke, I gave up. Now I use a single quad for hilltopping. There's much less activity on 6m CW, at least that I can hear, and it feels like the same 10 people on SSB.
Of course, I've never been out there during a band opening. On the other hand, I have worked 2m SSB during an aurora, and that was definitely cool.
If you think about a Yagi, the signal it received would be in the same plane as the roof. You'd get a tremendous amount of problems with that, given the nails as well as the effect of the material. That's the other reason why people spend so much money building towers -- not only are they trying to get altitude, but they're trying to get away from the ground, which distorts the antenna field.
If you need to have a stealth antenna, you might be willing to put up with it. Otherwise, it's not that good.
As an amateur radio operator, I've been doing this for years. I've used several metalic paints and circuit writers to create fractal antennas.
Originally, I tried creating a fractal antenna out of bent wire, but it was a nightmare, even using a jig to form the fractal portions. Eventually I found that glass and paint that conducts and even liquid solder on fiberboard worked better. The only problem was, you had to change the size of the antenna -- the non-conductive material affects the resonatant frequency. Eventually, I did get a compact 6 m. antenna to work, but it was never worth the trouble. The problem with the stuffs I used: there's a limit to how much power it can take, and it's far less than wire. And, like Tim Taylor, I had to go for "more power." Oops.
I never realized I was doing something unusual. Amateur radio operators will attempt to turn anything into an antenna. I've seen "dipoles" made of cars, doorknobs loaded, etc.
For example, what about debris in orbit, which will be a serious problem. Will space be a business opporturnity for waste-management companies?
The inflatable module is designed to handle a certain level of debris impacting it. Even the ISS has a layer of Kevlar around it to protect it. No matter how well protected a space station might be, there is the possibility of something with higher kinetic energy striking it. A full-scale station, like the ISS, will have to have maneuvering capability.
There is, indeed, a market for an inexpensive way to collect up orbital trash. Coming up with that method and implementing it could make someone very rich, although not necessarily the person who invents it or first impliments it...
Sexual behavior in Bonobo apes is much closer to humans than chimps are to humans. Bonobos have sex face to face, sex for pleasure (although parakeets do that, too), lesbian sex, and (the thing that this thread reminded me of) male Bonobo apes hang from branches and fence penises.
The recent SciAm special issue, Becoming Human has an article on the Bonobos -- "Bonobo Sex and Society" that covers it in more detail.
I'm going to regret posting this and admitting I know this, aren't I?
We demonstrated that forces that follow an inverse square law follow this rule. We demonstrated that a charged sphere followed that rule in a lab by charging the sphere and then measuring the electrical force inside the sphere and out. We demonstrated that electrical forces follow the inverse square law in the lab. I'd argue that stable orbits demonstrate inverse square law for gravity, and we did visit the telescope and look at the moon in Freshman physics. We also calculated G using the old torsion technique.
Calculating the position of the moon throughout the month and deriving the orbit wasn't something I did until I got out of college. It's well within the capability of a Freshman physics student, so in theory we could have confirmed the inverse square law to a decent level of precision.
Tightening the exact value of that exponent (is it really -2?) further is the purpose of the proposed experiment.
If you know that gravity follows an inverse square law, then you know that inside a uniform sphere the gravitational acceleration will be zero.
You are correct. We never demonstrated experimentally for gravity that the net gravitational force inside a sphere was zero. Of course, I never said we did. The term "demonstrate" can, in fact, be used in a mathematical sense.
When one of the kids on our dorm floor claimed the Ringworld was unstable, we had no trouble demonstrating that instability -- not that anyone had a Ringworld to work with.
In Freshman physics, it's common to demonstrate the net gravitational or electrical attraction inside a uniform sphere is zero. Any force with an inverse-square law will exhibit this peculiarity. If you want the details, there's a Wiki article on the Divergence theorem of vector fields.
The proof, involving triple integrals, is left for the reader.
Of course, designing a spacecraft that is as spherically symmetrical and uniform in density as possible will be difficult. TFA refers to this, and before much money is spent on this project, one would hope some number-crunching is done to see how extreme the effect is.
Another problem will be microgravity. Orbital velocity is dependent upon the distance from the center of the object being orbited. In Earth orbit, even a few inches difference can produce a velocity gradient that can result in minute accelerations. At L2, some of these effects might be minimized, although again, number crunching should be done.
The late Robert L. Forward proposed a system of massive spheres that could flatten spacetime in a local region. To further minimize extraneous effects due to microgravity, a system like this might need to be used. One advantage would be that this same system might eliminate some of the problems due to assymetry in the spacecraft. One of the problems with this situation would be mass lofted, which currently tends to be expensive, and additional calculations that might be required to analyze the data.
Does anyone know where to look for photographs taken by amateur photographers of this asteroid?
When things like this come up (eclipses, occultations of Pleiades, etc.), it would be nice to have a central location where one could go to find links to the photos.
I should know this, but I don't. I guess I'm only an "amateur" amateur astronomer.
When I first started blogging, I didn't think about being anonymous. I felt, as others have stated, that what I had to say was important enough to me that I was willing to put my name to it.
Having blogged for several years, I've come to wish I'd started out and remained anonymous. While I might be willing to expose my own mistakes and foibles, the things I say can unintentionally hurt those I love. As someone who is active in my church, there are certain topics I dare not go near, and other topics I wonder if I'm just asking for trouble. The "Deb Series," while possibly some of my best writing, also caused problems.
I've watched bloggers get serious grief from families, co-workers and other communities they belong to because of what they write. The lessons are painful to watch.
In my own case, in the real world, I've trashed my career multiple times for things like accademic integrity and standing up for a co-worker who's being sexually harassed. I've lost friends for saying the truth, and God help me, it's made me a bit of a coward. I've been burned; I don't like it. I'm willing to be burned again, but it's going to have to be a serious fight. On some issues, I've backed down.
I hate that, but if I don't protect myself, I won't do anyone any good.
There's a book out right now, "Orbit by John J. Nance that speaks of a man alone on a doomed and communicationless 3 hour orbital tour. The man is free to write the truth because he believes he is going to die and the laptop will not be recovered for decades. He doesn't have to worry about what people will think. He also doesn't know there's a one-way connection to Earth, and billions of people are reading his every word.
I wish I could blog like that. I'm not sure why I haven't just scrapped my current blog and started anew, except that I doubt it would stay anonymous very long.
Anonymity provides a freedom that is both precious and necessary for freedom to flourish. Perhaps anonymity will be crushed beneath an over-reaching government. The loss may not be apparent initially, but in the long term, it will be devastating.
Freedom of speech often needs the freedom to be anonymous.
After reading TFA, I asked myself if I would be willing to do business with a company that did something like this. Sure, they're within the law, but being "within the law" is not saying much for their character.
Would I really want the headache of dealing with an organization like this? I don't think so.
f that's what we can do now with such modest optics, I imagine it won't take much more than a decade or two before we're able to detect the signature of life in some extra-solar planet out there.
There's an upper limit on what can be seen from Earth's surface. Alas, we will need space-based telescopes to find other Earths. I suppose we could find Jupiter-sized planets with lifesigns on them. Given that terrestrial life might have needed a solid surface to evolve on, I'm not sure how likely that is. Then again, it's a big galaxy, and even the weird and unlikely has to happen someplace.
... as showing any other nearby cockatoos that he's got a stick, and he's not afraid to use it if they come any closer.
I think you're close.
Female cockatoos prefer males that can drum. The drumming demonstrates a certain level of technological intelligence which will translate into an ability of the male to care for the female.
I have several pieces of technology in my posession that were not man-made. I didn't realize this was so important! You mean people are actually interested in this stuff? Should I ebay these things?
Chauncey, our Moluccan cockatoo, regularly chews branches into sticks he can hold in his foot and drum with. It's how cockatoos mark territory in the wild. Pretty stupid, if you ask me -- his screams are far louder than any drumming he does. I've been throwing the sticks out. Maybe I should send them to NASA.
Or quite possibly, Garibaldi, Sinclair, Sheridan, Delenn, Ivanova, Marcus, Dr. Franklin, Zack, Londo, Vir, Lennier, G'kar, Lochley, Lyta, Talia, Na'toth, Senator Hidoshi, Lorien, Zathrus, Corwin...pretty much everyone but Morden, and I bet even Morden said it of camera after he got all scabby:
Our vet got a call for a dog involved in an accident. When the vet got there, she found a dog that had lost most of the front right and rear left legs to a crush injury. The dog was running around and was hard to catch. They expected the vet to put the dog down, but she wound up cleaning up the amputations and infections. The dog was given to a family. Last I heard, dog and family were doing fine, although if the dog gets out of the house without a leash, it is still hard to catch.
Possible Strange Earthlife More the Point
on
Alien Rain Over India
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· Score: 3, Interesting
New Scientist has a more extensive article titled Alien rain over India. The possible causes for 50 tons of the red gunk range from panspermia to sand to high flying bats killed by an exploding meteor. Somehow, I think panspermia is more likely than the bats, although that's not saying much.
More interesting is the idea that "alien" life might originate on Earth. Modern techniques involve culturing and DNA analysis that assume standard DNA in an organism: adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. Viruses can have RNA, but they're not considered alive (that's another argument for another day).
There are other nucleic acids and other nucleic acid pairs. There might even be molecules that could polymerize and act as hereditary subunits. Such life wouldn't have to come from space. Standard theory taught that several kinds of life might have come from the prebiotic soup, but only one survived.
We now know that's not exactly true. There are a few organisms that don't use the exact standard DNA code. The mitochondria in your cells are a perfect example, although they're no longer free-living independent organisms.
What else is out there? The possibility that there is a parallel and intertwined ecosystem is becoming a hot topic in biology.
Rains of frogs, seaweed, sand, and other things aren't uncommon. A rain of non-standard bacteria isn't beyond possibility. Of course, neither is a government experiment on deploying biological weapons, although 50 tons is a lot, whether English or Metric. A foul-up in the biochemistry or some weird damage to the DNA is still more likely. But wouldn't it be fun if it turned out to be Earthlife that's alien?
Re:Useful: Protection From Teflon
on
RFID Cookware
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· Score: 1
If you want to improve safety, changing technology is far more effective than attempting to change human behavior.
Useful: Protection From Teflon
on
RFID Cookware
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· Score: 1, Interesting
When used on a stove, Teflon can burn. While the fumes can't be good for humans, they are incredibly lethal for pet birds. Most parrot owners cannot use Teflon-coated pans.
RFID cards that tell the stove to turn off after a certain amount of time would help prevent mistakes with Teflon pans.
Better would be pans with sensors that monitor the temperature of the pans used. Not only would it be safer, but it would be easier to control temperatures of food being cooked.
According to the article Capsule of comet dust lands back on Earth, "The Stardust mothership will remain in orbit around the sun, and Duxbury said NASA is considering sending it to another comet or asteroid."
So, even after this successful capsule recovery, this might not be the end.
Let's not scare the living bejeezus out of everone with what The Terrorists might do with some invention that doesn't even exist yet. That sounds like a great way to make sure that it never actually exists at all -- "cutting off your nose to spite your face," as my mother probably would have said.
First, this thread is a discussion of a report on possible sonoluminescent fusion. It should work, based on the math. If it doesn't now, it will at some point in the future. Possible applications for such technology are fair game for a Slashdot discussion. Powerful technology can always be weaponized. That's what makes it powerful.
Anything's open for discussion. That's the way it should be. Ideas were made to be played with!
Discussing something doesn't ensure it doesn't happen -- it ensures that you're ready for it. A perfect example is Paul Berg's first recombinant DNA experiments. Practical recombinant DNA was 50 years away, according to my 1975 copy of Lenninger. People hadn't thought out the implications. Berg started getting phone calls from respected researchers in the field (not crackpots). Several asked him if SV40 (a virus known to cause cancer in humans) genes could be inserted in E. coli. He asked them why. The answer was "To see if it could be done." There was absolutely no consideration for the consequences of seeing if it could be done. Having intestinal flora that churn out cancer-causing viruses is something that needed a bit more thought than a late night phone call.
The Asilomar conference was hastily called. They extended biosafety protocols to recombinant DNA and set guidelines to prevent recombinant "oopsies" from occurring.
Think about the consequences before you can actually do something and you'll be better equipped to handle the situations that come up. for it.
I didn't think these two up. They were given to us during one of the breakout "tabletop" sessions in an Incident Command for HazMat seminar back in 1988. At the time, I thought the guy was riffing on Back to the Future's "Mr. Fusion." Then a couple months later, Pons and Fleischman made their announcement.
Another scenario was a 747 into a nuclear power plant's used fuel pit. Someone cracked wise with the local "worst-case scenario" and was made to plan for it: 747 into a skyscraper.
Some folks sit around inventing new ways to kill people. Others of us sit around inventing ways to save those people.
And yes, I've read the Ray Bradbury story about the emperor and the man with many pockets.
Stupid. The imploding fusing bubble IS the fusion "bomb"! You might also have trouble with the fact that it occurs on the MICROSCOPIC scale and you need conditions equivalent to that on the cm to METER scale to set off a conventional fusion bomb. This has absoluelty no weapons applications whatsoever.
Making the transition of scale is indeed the trick. Simply putting one next to the other would not work. Finding a way to jump the change in scale has interested a lot of people, though. Remember, you don't try to set a log on fire directly with sparks from flint. If it's possible, the engineering will not be simple, but as long as it's easier than getting and enriching fissile material, it's worth the effort.
Even if fusion yeild were scaled up by a million fold you would have to sit right on top of the damn thing for hours in order to get any kind of noticeable dose at all.
Do you remember the original Pons and Fleischman announcement? A big argument against their actually having accomplished what they claimed was that no one died from it, and folks weren't sitting on top of it.
Neutron radiation from a fusion reactor that's not breakeven won't contaminate a city. But there are tactical uses for which it would be far superior to your Cs.
No it wouldn't. The fission bomb is used to produce a high pressure shockwave sufficient to compress the dueterium. This won't produce a sufficient shockwave to act as a trigger.
Who said anything about violating Lawson's criteria? If the sonoluminescent fusion is actually occurring significantly above breakeven, then you've already exceeded Lawson and the critical ignition temperature somewhere! The trick is to make use of that. At that point, it's engineering. Is that engineering going to be easy? There's no guarantee, but the possibility has already inspired folks long before Pons and Fleischman became household names.
Lots of things give off neutrons. They're useful for a controlled nuclear reaction like a power-plant, but not that useful when what you actually need is more pressure than the surface of Jupiter.
I switched topics and you didn't. The second case was an example of what might be done with something that doesn't exceed the breakeven point. Again, think it through. We're not talking about a fusion bomb now, but rather what destruction can be done with a very good source of neutrons. Let's say someone achieved sonoluminescent fusion in a normal pyrex beaker. How close do you want to stand to it?
If this ever did achieve better than breakeven, it would make triggering a fusion bomb much easier. Currently fission is used to trigger a fusion bomb. This might make it easier, although I doubt it would be as compact.
Even if it doesn't reach breakeven, it still has weapons potential. This thing gives off neutrons. If it's portable, it could be set up someplace and used to spray neutron radiation in a city. At low levels of efficiency, it would just be a weapon of terror. At high levels, it's a dirty bomb.
Thankfully, one can't simply ask Harry Osborne for some deuterium-enriched acetone. This isn't quite the "Mr. Fusion" of back to the future -- which is a good thing!
Slashdot Mirror
I hilltop. For 2 and 4 meters, I use home-built 5 element quad antennas (based on designs in some issue of the ARRL mag -- again, sorry, no references).
I wanted a similar 6m antenna, based on fractals. The fractal, if I remember right, was similar to the 6-pointed star fractal you see everywhere, except based on a square and "innie" instead of "outie." The ratio of the inset piece was slightly less than 1/3 so that, when made out of wire, the wire would never quite touch itself. It was pretty much right out of the magazine article, and looking at my description, you're going to need the magazine article, unless you're into a lot of experimentation! The magazine article gave the basic dimensions. The first one was made out of a stiff copper wire. It worked, but it was easily damaged. That's why I went to painted on thin sheets of plexiglass. I'd create the fractal outline on the computer, print it out, cut it out as a stencil like I do for airbrushing, and leave little tabs to kep it from being so floppy -- tabs I'd eventually have to do freehand. I also tried aluminum tape, but found it was hard for me to work with. The reflector and director elements (I only ever got a 3 element design) were based on the quad elements, using the dimensions from the working antenna to scale the other two. The SWR was too sensitive. A low SWR at home in my basement might mean a high SWR in the field, where the temperature was different. I used thin plexiglass and probably trimmed too much of it, so it was a little too thin. The SWR would go up with power as well. Since I like to QRP, that wasn't much of a problem.
When I closed the car door and it barely bumped the center pole of the antenna and the radiator broke, I gave up. Now I use a single quad for hilltopping. There's much less activity on 6m CW, at least that I can hear, and it feels like the same 10 people on SSB.
Of course, I've never been out there during a band opening. On the other hand, I have worked 2m SSB during an aurora, and that was definitely cool.
If you need to have a stealth antenna, you might be willing to put up with it. Otherwise, it's not that good.
Originally, I tried creating a fractal antenna out of bent wire, but it was a nightmare, even using a jig to form the fractal portions. Eventually I found that glass and paint that conducts and even liquid solder on fiberboard worked better. The only problem was, you had to change the size of the antenna -- the non-conductive material affects the resonatant frequency. Eventually, I did get a compact 6 m. antenna to work, but it was never worth the trouble. The problem with the stuffs I used: there's a limit to how much power it can take, and it's far less than wire. And, like Tim Taylor, I had to go for "more power." Oops.
I never realized I was doing something unusual. Amateur radio operators will attempt to turn anything into an antenna. I've seen "dipoles" made of cars, doorknobs loaded, etc.
The inflatable module is designed to handle a certain level of debris impacting it. Even the ISS has a layer of Kevlar around it to protect it. No matter how well protected a space station might be, there is the possibility of something with higher kinetic energy striking it. A full-scale station, like the ISS, will have to have maneuvering capability.
There is, indeed, a market for an inexpensive way to collect up orbital trash. Coming up with that method and implementing it could make someone very rich, although not necessarily the person who invents it or first impliments it...
The recent SciAm special issue, Becoming Human has an article on the Bonobos -- "Bonobo Sex and Society" that covers it in more detail.
I'm going to regret posting this and admitting I know this, aren't I?
Calculating the position of the moon throughout the month and deriving the orbit wasn't something I did until I got out of college. It's well within the capability of a Freshman physics student, so in theory we could have confirmed the inverse square law to a decent level of precision.
Tightening the exact value of that exponent (is it really -2?) further is the purpose of the proposed experiment.
If you know that gravity follows an inverse square law, then you know that inside a uniform sphere the gravitational acceleration will be zero.
You are correct. We never demonstrated experimentally for gravity that the net gravitational force inside a sphere was zero. Of course, I never said we did. The term "demonstrate" can, in fact, be used in a mathematical sense. When one of the kids on our dorm floor claimed the Ringworld was unstable, we had no trouble demonstrating that instability -- not that anyone had a Ringworld to work with.
The proof, involving triple integrals, is left for the reader.
Of course, designing a spacecraft that is as spherically symmetrical and uniform in density as possible will be difficult. TFA refers to this, and before much money is spent on this project, one would hope some number-crunching is done to see how extreme the effect is.
Another problem will be microgravity. Orbital velocity is dependent upon the distance from the center of the object being orbited. In Earth orbit, even a few inches difference can produce a velocity gradient that can result in minute accelerations. At L2, some of these effects might be minimized, although again, number crunching should be done.
The late Robert L. Forward proposed a system of massive spheres that could flatten spacetime in a local region. To further minimize extraneous effects due to microgravity, a system like this might need to be used. One advantage would be that this same system might eliminate some of the problems due to assymetry in the spacecraft. One of the problems with this situation would be mass lofted, which currently tends to be expensive, and additional calculations that might be required to analyze the data.
When things like this come up (eclipses, occultations of Pleiades, etc.), it would be nice to have a central location where one could go to find links to the photos.
I should know this, but I don't. I guess I'm only an "amateur" amateur astronomer.
Having blogged for several years, I've come to wish I'd started out and remained anonymous. While I might be willing to expose my own mistakes and foibles, the things I say can unintentionally hurt those I love. As someone who is active in my church, there are certain topics I dare not go near, and other topics I wonder if I'm just asking for trouble. The "Deb Series," while possibly some of my best writing, also caused problems.
I've watched bloggers get serious grief from families, co-workers and other communities they belong to because of what they write. The lessons are painful to watch.
In my own case, in the real world, I've trashed my career multiple times for things like accademic integrity and standing up for a co-worker who's being sexually harassed. I've lost friends for saying the truth, and God help me, it's made me a bit of a coward. I've been burned; I don't like it. I'm willing to be burned again, but it's going to have to be a serious fight. On some issues, I've backed down.
I hate that, but if I don't protect myself, I won't do anyone any good.
There's a book out right now, "Orbit by John J. Nance that speaks of a man alone on a doomed and communicationless 3 hour orbital tour. The man is free to write the truth because he believes he is going to die and the laptop will not be recovered for decades. He doesn't have to worry about what people will think. He also doesn't know there's a one-way connection to Earth, and billions of people are reading his every word.
I wish I could blog like that. I'm not sure why I haven't just scrapped my current blog and started anew, except that I doubt it would stay anonymous very long.
Anonymity provides a freedom that is both precious and necessary for freedom to flourish. Perhaps anonymity will be crushed beneath an over-reaching government. The loss may not be apparent initially, but in the long term, it will be devastating.
Freedom of speech often needs the freedom to be anonymous.
Would I really want the headache of dealing with an organization like this? I don't think so.
It's bad enough I'm running Windows.
There's an upper limit on what can be seen from Earth's surface. Alas, we will need space-based telescopes to find other Earths. I suppose we could find Jupiter-sized planets with lifesigns on them. Given that terrestrial life might have needed a solid surface to evolve on, I'm not sure how likely that is. Then again, it's a big galaxy, and even the weird and unlikely has to happen someplace.
I think you're close.
Female cockatoos prefer males that can drum. The drumming demonstrates a certain level of technological intelligence which will translate into an ability of the male to care for the female.
In the cockatoo world, geeks rule.
Is this something NASA and the U.S. military should admit?
Chauncey, our Moluccan cockatoo, regularly chews branches into sticks he can hold in his foot and drum with. It's how cockatoos mark territory in the wild. Pretty stupid, if you ask me -- his screams are far louder than any drumming he does. I've been throwing the sticks out. Maybe I should send them to NASA.
"Aaaaaacccccccccckkkkk...."
Or quite possibly, Garibaldi, Sinclair, Sheridan, Delenn, Ivanova, Marcus, Dr. Franklin, Zack, Londo, Vir, Lennier, G'kar, Lochley, Lyta, Talia, Na'toth, Senator Hidoshi, Lorien, Zathrus, Corwin...pretty much everyone but Morden, and I bet even Morden said it of camera after he got all scabby:
"It's going straight to hell!"
Our vet got a call for a dog involved in an accident. When the vet got there, she found a dog that had lost most of the front right and rear left legs to a crush injury. The dog was running around and was hard to catch. They expected the vet to put the dog down, but she wound up cleaning up the amputations and infections. The dog was given to a family. Last I heard, dog and family were doing fine, although if the dog gets out of the house without a leash, it is still hard to catch.
More interesting is the idea that "alien" life might originate on Earth. Modern techniques involve culturing and DNA analysis that assume standard DNA in an organism: adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. Viruses can have RNA, but they're not considered alive (that's another argument for another day).
There are other nucleic acids and other nucleic acid pairs. There might even be molecules that could polymerize and act as hereditary subunits. Such life wouldn't have to come from space. Standard theory taught that several kinds of life might have come from the prebiotic soup, but only one survived.
We now know that's not exactly true. There are a few organisms that don't use the exact standard DNA code. The mitochondria in your cells are a perfect example, although they're no longer free-living independent organisms.
What else is out there? The possibility that there is a parallel and intertwined ecosystem is becoming a hot topic in biology.
Rains of frogs, seaweed, sand, and other things aren't uncommon. A rain of non-standard bacteria isn't beyond possibility. Of course, neither is a government experiment on deploying biological weapons, although 50 tons is a lot, whether English or Metric. A foul-up in the biochemistry or some weird damage to the DNA is still more likely. But wouldn't it be fun if it turned out to be Earthlife that's alien?
If you want to improve safety, changing technology is far more effective than attempting to change human behavior.
RFID cards that tell the stove to turn off after a certain amount of time would help prevent mistakes with Teflon pans.
Better would be pans with sensors that monitor the temperature of the pans used. Not only would it be safer, but it would be easier to control temperatures of food being cooked.
So, even after this successful capsule recovery, this might not be the end.
First, this thread is a discussion of a report on possible sonoluminescent fusion. It should work, based on the math. If it doesn't now, it will at some point in the future. Possible applications for such technology are fair game for a Slashdot discussion. Powerful technology can always be weaponized. That's what makes it powerful.
Anything's open for discussion. That's the way it should be. Ideas were made to be played with!
Discussing something doesn't ensure it doesn't happen -- it ensures that you're ready for it. A perfect example is Paul Berg's first recombinant DNA experiments. Practical recombinant DNA was 50 years away, according to my 1975 copy of Lenninger. People hadn't thought out the implications. Berg started getting phone calls from respected researchers in the field (not crackpots). Several asked him if SV40 (a virus known to cause cancer in humans) genes could be inserted in E. coli. He asked them why. The answer was "To see if it could be done." There was absolutely no consideration for the consequences of seeing if it could be done. Having intestinal flora that churn out cancer-causing viruses is something that needed a bit more thought than a late night phone call.
The Asilomar conference was hastily called. They extended biosafety protocols to recombinant DNA and set guidelines to prevent recombinant "oopsies" from occurring.
Think about the consequences before you can actually do something and you'll be better equipped to handle the situations that come up. for it.
I didn't think these two up. They were given to us during one of the breakout "tabletop" sessions in an Incident Command for HazMat seminar back in 1988. At the time, I thought the guy was riffing on Back to the Future's "Mr. Fusion." Then a couple months later, Pons and Fleischman made their announcement.
Another scenario was a 747 into a nuclear power plant's used fuel pit. Someone cracked wise with the local "worst-case scenario" and was made to plan for it: 747 into a skyscraper.
Some folks sit around inventing new ways to kill people. Others of us sit around inventing ways to save those people.
And yes, I've read the Ray Bradbury story about the emperor and the man with many pockets.
Making the transition of scale is indeed the trick. Simply putting one next to the other would not work. Finding a way to jump the change in scale has interested a lot of people, though. Remember, you don't try to set a log on fire directly with sparks from flint. If it's possible, the engineering will not be simple, but as long as it's easier than getting and enriching fissile material, it's worth the effort.
Even if fusion yeild were scaled up by a million fold you would have to sit right on top of the damn thing for hours in order to get any kind of noticeable dose at all.
Do you remember the original Pons and Fleischman announcement? A big argument against their actually having accomplished what they claimed was that no one died from it, and folks weren't sitting on top of it.
Neutron radiation from a fusion reactor that's not breakeven won't contaminate a city. But there are tactical uses for which it would be far superior to your Cs.
Who said anything about violating Lawson's criteria? If the sonoluminescent fusion is actually occurring significantly above breakeven, then you've already exceeded Lawson and the critical ignition temperature somewhere! The trick is to make use of that. At that point, it's engineering. Is that engineering going to be easy? There's no guarantee, but the possibility has already inspired folks long before Pons and Fleischman became household names.
Lots of things give off neutrons. They're useful for a controlled nuclear reaction like a power-plant, but not that useful when what you actually need is more pressure than the surface of Jupiter.
I switched topics and you didn't. The second case was an example of what might be done with something that doesn't exceed the breakeven point. Again, think it through. We're not talking about a fusion bomb now, but rather what destruction can be done with a very good source of neutrons. Let's say someone achieved sonoluminescent fusion in a normal pyrex beaker. How close do you want to stand to it?
Even if it doesn't reach breakeven, it still has weapons potential. This thing gives off neutrons. If it's portable, it could be set up someplace and used to spray neutron radiation in a city. At low levels of efficiency, it would just be a weapon of terror. At high levels, it's a dirty bomb.
Thankfully, one can't simply ask Harry Osborne for some deuterium-enriched acetone. This isn't quite the "Mr. Fusion" of back to the future -- which is a good thing!