RANDOM NOTHINGNESS: science

Showing posts with label science. Show all posts

Hubble and baby galaxies

1:54 AM Steph

Refurbishing the Hubble Space Telescope has done wonders to its resolution... The installation of the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) has given the Hubble the capability to detect near infrared energy from the farthest galaxies/stars. Why near-infrared? Because light from distant galaxies get stretched as the universe expands (thus converting the ultraviolet to visible spectra into near-infrared).

Just take a look at this picture, which was released by the Hubble today:

The reddest and faintest objects in this picture are galaxies that were formed 600 million years after the Big Bang. Most of the objects observed in this 173,000-second exposure photo were not detected when Hubble's Ultra Deep Field camera was in use.

Read the full story at the Hubble Site and here (Hubble digs deep to see baby galaxies).

LHC to start up today

3:59 PM Steph

The Large Hadron Collider will finally, after 14 long months of repairs and upgrades due to some untoward incident, start up today: Friday November 20 at 5 PM Central European Time.

With the new timetable, some collissions should be accomplished by Christmas.

See full story at TimesOnline.

Leonid Meteor Shower

4:03 PM Steph

The annual Leonid Meteor Shower is here once again.

This phenomenon, which is marked by an increased occurrence of meteors in the skies, is attributed to the comet Tempel-Tuttle, which passes through our inner solar system every 33 years. Its annual passage across the Earth's orbit leaves behind tiny bits of material, the size of sand grains or peas, which spread out through time. Every year around November 17-18, the Earth passes through these trails, and the debris enter the atmosphere.

The speed of the debris (which is by the way very fast due to a combination of their inherent speed as they were left behind by Tempel-Tuttle plus their direction which is opposite that of the Earth's movement) compresses the air in front of the particles, which in turn heats up the air. The heated air ignites the particles, producing the spectacular display of light bursts that we see in the sky.

This year the Leonid Meteor Shower may be observed here in the Philippines. PAGASA said that the best viewing time would be from November 17, 11 pm through November 18, 6 am.

So, who wants to join me at the UP Observatory tonight? ;-D

Space Solar Power System

11:39 AM Steph

The Japanese has yet again proven their prowess in terms of technology.

image from Wikipedia

In their efforts to provide clean, inexhaustible and cheap energy, the Japanese are planning to launch solar panels in space, where solar energy is five times stronger than what we experience here on earth. The technology, called Space Solar Power System (SSPS), is a project of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It would use solar panels to capture solar energy in space. Harvesting solar energy in space is not really an old technology. Most spacecrafts have been relying on solar energy for their power needs. But the SSPS will go a little bit further by beaming the harvested energy back to earth through lasers and microwaves through special parabolic antennas.

The project has been ongoing for 20 years and this year, the dream is one step closer to reality. Several Japanese high-tech giants have been invited to participate in the project. The satellite will be launched in 2030 but two test launches will be done in 2020 wherein the power capacities of the test photovoltaic structure will be 10 MW and 250 MW.

Show Me What's on Your Mind

1:39 AM Steph

Mind reading has been brought to a more scientific level.

image from William Saletan, 2007

Using a computer program, correlations between the configuration of shapes, colours and movements in videos, and patterns of activity in the brain's visual cortex (monitored using a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine) were determined. The program was also trained to identify areas of the brain that is triggered by certain video clips should people be watching them. The result: a nearly perfect reproduction of images as they are being played before test subjects.

The technology was developed by Jack Gallant and Shinji Nishimoto, two neurologists from the University of California, Berkeley.

Stop

2:48 PM Steph

Borrowing this artwork from a friend.

Particles to LHC: We are back!

3:10 AM Steph

The weekend of October 23-25 marked the revival of the LHC. Once again, particles are inside the LHC, breaking its one-year hiatus as repairs were undertaken in relation to the incident of September 2008.

As of Friday, the LHC is cool. Three sets of ions were injected into the LHC's clockwise beam pipe starting Friday afternoon, accomplishing incomplete circulations as they were dumped at certain points in the machine. The results show that the LHC is in tip top shape.

Let us wait for the first circulating beam in the coming weeks!

BANGUNGOT: Sleep Paralysis

12:55 AM Steph

Ever woken up in the middle of the night (or day) with the realization that you are unable to move? Or just before falling asleep? Freakishly scary right?

I remember having this experience a couple of times in the past (both upon waking up or just before falling asleep), sometimes with accompanying buzzing sounds or feelings that there is a 'presence' in the room with me. I've always felt panicky whenever I have these episodes, There were even times when the bangugot occur in successive days that I simply dread sleep. I'm always convinced that I was about to die (death by BANGUNGOT, how ironic can that be?!), until I read from a dream interpretation thread about a year (or more?) ago about this phenomenon. A little consultation with Mr. Wikipedia brought these words:

Sleep paralysis occurs during REM sleep, thus preventing the body from manifesting movements made in the subject's dreams. Very little is known about the physiology of sleep paralysis. However, some have suggested that it may be linked to post-synaptic inhibition of motor neurons in the pons region of the brain. In particular, low levels of melatonin may stop the depolarization current in the nerves, preventing the stimulation of the muscles and any consequent enactment of the dream activity by the body (e.g. preventing a sleeper from flailing his legs when dreaming about running).

In other words, sleep paralysis or bangungot is just a result of our brain blocking out certain neurotransmitters so our body will not be able to act out the dream we are having. Sometimes, we regain consciousness even before the neurotransmitters are unblocked, thus the inability to move.

Being a total fan of science [give me any scientific explanation/proof, and i will believe you =)], I felt relief and stopped scaring the sh*t out of myself whenever I feel Bangungot kicking in. Instead, I just ignore the bangungot and resume sleeping! And it was a big, big, big relief actually, liberating even, not being afraid of experiencing bangungot.

Now, nothing can take me away from my precious sleep! :D

Goodnight (errr... morning) everyone!

Static Shock

5:06 PM Steph

For weeks now, I have been jolted by static shocks from time to time when I grab my mouse after walking around our teeny office. Our floor's not even carpeted, so I'm really wondering where the extra negative charges come from... Or am I really that negative right now???? It is irritating at times, especially when boss is around (I am noisy when I get surprised. =|)

So i snooped around the internet to look for solutions to this problem. But first, the preliminaries:

What causes static shock?

Static shock occurs when we acquire extra negative electrons (hence negative static charge) by rubbing onto another object (like a carpet, for instance) and then holding on to a conductive object (like a doorknob or any electronic equipment: MOUSE!). ZAP! electrons jump from us to these objects so we feel static shock.

So how do we eliminate this problem?

Here are some tips i got from the WWW:

increase humidity in the room
change clothes - synthetic fibers pick up more static charge
rub clothes with fabric softener sheets or spray with dilluted fabric softener
change shoes - leather soles are good
moisturize skin
consider wearing a wrist strap with a wire connected to the electrical 'gound'
walk barefoot
wear a thimble in your finger or carry a coin and use them to touch grounded metal objects as often as possible
ground one's self before touching sensitive electronic equipment
always keep hand in contact with the metal part of the car door while getting out of the car
try driving completely naked (whoa!)

So there you are! Do you have any other tips? Leave a comment!

Magnetricity Observed!

3:52 AM Steph

Finally! The existence of magnetic 'charges' (north and south poles) existing independently has been observed by scientists!

The study, which was led by Professor Steve Bramwell of the London Center for Nanotechnolgy, showed that atomic-sized 'north' and 'south' charges can flow through materials when placed in a magnetic field. Their paper published in Nature just today, showed that 'north' and 'south' charges can be isolated and rove around independently in dysprosium titanate (Dy2Ti2O7), also called spin ice. This material possess two unusual magnetic properties due to its crytal lattice, which translates to the interpretation that magnetic 'charges' can move around randomly in the absence of a magnetic field and, much like electrical charges, to flow through the crystal in its presence. Hence the term 'magnetricity.'

Mountain Dew Glow in the Dark

12:22 PM Steph

A friend posted the following video on Facebook:

Wanna see the chemical reaction that made Montain Dew neon-y glow?

Click below!

LHC News

4:13 PM Steph

[Warning: Nerd Alert!]

The Large Hadron Collider's (LHC) operations halted in September 19, 2009 (just a little over one week after proton beams were successfully circulated in its main ring for the first time in September 10, 2009) due to a serious fault between two superconducting magnets. Electrical problems in the bus between two magnets caused parts of the superconducting coils to enter into a normal (resistive) state, causing that spot and the surrounding area to heat up, thereby pushing these other areas into normal states, too . This process is accompanied by a loud bang as the energy of the magnetic field is converted to heat, vaporising massive amounts of liquid helium and damaging 53 magnets. The magnets had to be repaired or replaced and the affected 8 sectors warmed up and then cooled down again before the LHC becomes operational again.

image from CERN

It has been more than a year and now, the LHC is on it's final cooling stage (see CERN Bulletin released 10/05/2009 here)! Just one more week of cooling down and then operations will resume on mid-November! Yey!

If all goes well, key physics questions about the Higgs boson, the Grand Unification Theory, gravity, sypersymmetry, quarks, antimatter, dark matter and extra dimensions in string theory might be answered. Cool!