Tempus Edax Rerum

meehighmeelo: supersugoiautism: thatscienceguy: Long exposure...

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:35:04 -0400

supersugoiautism:

thatscienceguy:

Long exposure picture of a Lightning Bolt hitting a Tree!

holy shit

God dammit Azula

mina-hakuba: Makise Kurisu In the MayQueen uniform

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:29:48 -0400

mina-hakuba:

Makise Kurisu In the MayQueen uniform

Has anyone in this family ever even seen a chicken?

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:27:45 -0400

Has anyone in this family ever even seen a chicken?

Photo

Thu, 09 May 2013 01:37:15 -0400

beyondthedistantstars: Are you trying to give me heart...

Wed, 08 May 2013 23:47:02 -0400

beyondthedistantstars:

Are you trying to give me heart palpitations?

Photo

Wed, 08 May 2013 23:46:41 -0400

Photo

Wed, 08 May 2013 23:46:39 -0400

alexheisler: Such a close shave that you lose your nose

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:14:54 -0400

alexheisler:

Such a close shave that you lose your nose

erikrasmussen: Happy Fibonacci Day, everybody! It won’t happen...

Tue, 07 May 2013 22:39:53 -0400

erikrasmussen:

Happy Fibonacci Day, everybody! It won’t happen again for 3019 days!

Photo

Tue, 07 May 2013 22:28:15 -0400

mizuaoi: hinoneko: we all start somewhere I really wish the...

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:40:47 -0400

mizuaoi:

hinoneko:

we all start somewhere

I really wish the cosplay community would calm down and realize this.

sagansense: Loss Of The Night (Android App)Take part in a...

Tue, 07 May 2013 03:22:00 -0400

sagansense:

Loss Of The Night (Android App)

Take part in a world-wide citizen science project that measures star visibility and light pollution. Help create a database for research on health, environment and society by telling scientists which stars you can see at your location.

In many parts of the world, the night sky shines with waste artificial light from poorly designed street lamps. This light pollution spoils the beauty of the stars and changes the natural environment.

But light pollution is not only a problem for astronomy. Scientists all over the world are studying how light pollution affects health, society, and the environment. Based on the well-known Google Sky Map, this app is a tool to measure star visibility without expensive equipment. Just look up to the sky, find certain stars, and tell us whether you can see them or not!

Using the Loss of the Night app is fun, educational, promotes citizen science, and is an active contribution to protect the environment.
Stargazing connects you to the universe, especially in places free of light pollution. Find out how many stars you can see, and compare it to other areas on the GLOBE at Night map. Learn about the stars and constellations, and find places where you can still see the Milky Way. If you’re lucky enough to live in such a place, let others know! Counting stars is a great experience and family activity!

Make a change! Most light pollution is caused by bad lamp design, although overly lit areas contribute as well. By finding areas with good lighting design, you will help other communities learn what works. This will keep our bedrooms darker, and the sky full of stars. Proper design also saves energy and money!

Take an active part in science! The Loss of the Night app allows students to measure light pollution and star visibility for their own science projects, and at the same time become part of a global citizen science network. Measurements are sent anonymously to the GLOBE at Night database (www.GLOBEatNight.org), a citizen science project that has monitored light pollution since 2006. GLOBE at Night creates worldwide maps of star visibility and light pollution, which scientists can use to analyse correlations between light pollution and health, biodiversity, life quality, and many more factors.

You are also welcome to get into contact with the light pollution researchers from Verlust der Nacht that built this app, and learn about their other projects (www.verlustdernacht.de). The app provides some basic information on the history, importance, and consequences of artificial light at night.

magnitude: stars in sky
0-1: 2-8
1-2: 8-25
2-3: 25-100
3-4: 100-250
4-5: 250-800
5: thousands

(Use this table to convert the faintest star you saw into an estimate of how many stars you can see at your location)

via International Dark-Sky Association

House of Mind: Terminal Lucidity

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:19:53 -0400

House of Mind: Terminal Lucidity :

houseofmind:

I was introduced to this concept last week while I was attending the funeral of someone who was thought to have experienced this during his last day alive. I visited the home where he passed away and was told that the nurses and family members were in awe of his passing because he had become…

ikenbot: Antimatter and Fusion Drives Could Power Future...

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:16:35 -0400

ikenbot:

Antimatter and Fusion Drives Could Power Future Spaceships

Nuclear fusion reactions sparked by beams of antimatter could be propelling ultra-fast spaceships on long journeys before the end of the century, researchers say.

Image: Comparison of Daedalus spacecraft and Saturn V rocket.

A fusion-powered spacecraft could reach Jupiter within four months, potentially opening up parts of the outer solar system to manned exploration, according to a 2010 NASA report.

A number of hurdles would have to be overcome—particularly in the production and storage of antimatter—to make the technology feasible, but some experts imagine it could be ready to go in a half-century or so.

It’s “probably not a 40-year technology, but 50, 60? Quite possible, and something that would have a significant impact on exploration by changing the mass-power-finance calculus when planning,” Jason Hay, a senior aerospace technology analyst for consulting firm The Tauri Group, said during an Aug. 29 presentation with NASA’s Future In-Space Operations working group.

The power of fusion

The fuel for such a fusion-driven spaceship would likely consist of many small pellets containing deuterium and tritium—heavy isotopes of hydrogen that harbor one or two neutrons, respectively, in their nuclei. (The common hydrogen atom has no neutrons.)

Inside each pellet, this fuel would be surrounded by another material, perhaps uranium. A beam of antiprotons—the antimatter equivalent of protons, sporting a net electrical charge of minus-1 rather than plus-1—would be directed at the pellets.

When the antiprotons slammed into uranium nuclei, they would annihilate, generating high-energy fission products that ignite fusion reactions in the fuel.

Such reactions—for example, deuterium and tritium nuclei merging to create one helium-4 atom and one neutron—throw off huge amounts of energy that could be harnessed to propel a spacecraft in several different ways.

“The energy from these reactions could be used to heat a propellant or provide thrust through magnetic confinement and a magnetic nozzle,” states the 2010 report, called “Technology Frontiers: Breakthrough Capabilities for Space Exploration,” which NASA produced with the help of The Tauri Group and other experts.

The basic idea is not new: Project Daedalus, a study conducted by the British Interplanetary Society in the 1970s, proposed using a fusion rocket to power an interstellar spacecraft. Daedalus’ fusion reactions would be sparked by electron beams rather than antiproton beams, however.

Full Article

distant-traveller: LAGEOS I, 1976 The LAGEOS I, Laser...

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:07:00 -0400

distant-traveller:

LAGEOS I, 1976

The LAGEOS I, Laser Geodynamics Satellite, was launched on May 4, 1976 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The two-foot diameter, 900-pound satellite orbited the Earth from pole to pole and measured the movements of the Earth’s surface relative to earthquakes, continental drift, and other geophysical phenomena.

The mirrored surface of the satellite precisely reflected laser beams from ground stations for accurate ranging measurements. Scientists at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. came up with the idea for the satellite and built it at the Marshall Center.

Image credit: NASA/MSFC

rawlivingfoods: Seattle’s vision of an urban food oasis is...

Mon, 06 May 2013 01:26:28 -0400

rawlivingfoods:

Seattle’s vision of an urban food oasis is going forward. A seven-acre plot of land in the city’s Beacon Hill neighborhood will be planted with hundreds of different kinds of edibles: walnut and chestnut trees; blueberry and raspberry bushes; fruit trees, including apples and pears; exotics like pineapple, yuzu citrus, guava, persimmons, honeyberries, and lingonberries; herbs; and more. All will be available for public plucking to anyone who wanders into the city’s first food forest.

“This is totally innovative, and has never been done before in a public park,” Margarett Harrison, lead landscape architect for the Beacon Food Forest project, tells TakePart. Harrison is working on construction and permit drawings now and expects to break ground this summer.

The concept of a food forest certainly pushes the envelope on urban agriculture and is grounded in the concept of permaculture, which means it will be perennial and self-sustaining, like a forest is in the wild. Not only is this forest Seattle’s first large-scale permaculture project, but it’s also believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.

Read More

smalltownbigguy: in the south we don’t say “you’re a dumb fuck” we say “bless your heart” and i...

Mon, 06 May 2013 00:03:26 -0400

smalltownbigguy:

in the south we don’t say “you’re a dumb fuck” we say “bless your heart” and i think that’s beautiful.

stridersgarage: “Recreate any Game/Film/Album cover using ONLY...

Sun, 05 May 2013 17:17:21 -0400

stridersgarage:

“Recreate any Game/Film/Album cover using ONLY Clipart and Comic Sans”

casually jumps on this bandwagon

punkassweasel: Recreate any Game/Film/Album cover using ONLY...

Sun, 05 May 2013 17:17:06 -0400

punkassweasel:

Recreate any Game/Film/Album cover using ONLY Clipart and Comic Sans

I think everyone should do this. It is so, SO much fun.

scinerds: The scientist who decided what you’ll eat and whether...

Sun, 05 May 2013 13:22:00 -0400

scinerds:

The scientist who decided what you’ll eat and whether you’ll like it

Rose Marie Pangborn has almost certainly decided what you’re going to eat today. Possibly it’ll be a soda. Maybe it will be potato chips. It could be some candy. Whatever it was, her work made it possible to understand what you’ll taste, and how much you’ll like it.

Rose Marie Valdes Pangborn was born in 1932, when food science was mostly concerned with not poisoning people. She wound her way through New Mexico State University and Iowa State University before finally teaching at UC Davis - where her academic career really took off. She directed hundreds of grad students, taught one of the university’s most work-intensive classes to many hundred more undergraduates, and published over 180 papers. The subject of all that teaching and research? You’re probably nibbling on it right now. Pangborn was one of the first sensory researchers, to precisely measure a person’s responses to the food they eat.

The idea of such researchers conjures up images of tedious and cynical focus groups for a new line of soups marketed as “home style,” or the carefully edited taste tests shown in television commercials. Although Pangborn’s kind of research is worth a lot of money to companies, Pangborn’s interest was scholarly. Despite the bad press, the subject needs scholarly analysis. No one quibbles with the idea that it’s academically important to measure when a person first consciously or unconsciously responds to light, to pain, or to sound. It should be the same to measure a person’s first response to salt, or to sweet. If anything, as Pangborn discovered, the measuring of taste is a lot more complicated than the perception of light or sound.

One of the common themes running through Pangborn’s many papers is how taste is not an absolute, but depends on many different factors. She measured how body weight related to a person’s experience of milk fats. She tested how color affects a person’s experience of sweets - people tend to prefer blue and hate yellow-green. Most of all she related how a person’s regular diet caused them to react to new foods. Did someone who habitually tasted wine perceive a new kind of wine as more or less astringent than an infrequent drinker? How did someone who was accustomed to eating fats and sweets react to lemonade and milk fat compared to someone who rarely ate them? The data she got showed how complicated biochemistry and perception can be. In one paper she describes testing how regular sodium intake affects a person’s experience of salt. When salt was added to water, high-intake people recognized it first. In tomato juice, low-intake people noticed it first. Low-intake people added less salt to their food, but didn’t generally recognize when more was added. She concluded that showing that a person noticed, or liked, salt in one solution did not guarantee a better response when adding salt across the board. (She added, a little bit testily, that they needed to develop a better process to verify the salt intake of their subjects.)

Sadly, Pangborn died in 1990, but she left behind a science - sensory analysis - that she helped shape throughout its infancy. The Association for Chemoreception Sciences, which she co-founded, and the Sensory Reception Scholarship Fund, which she established, both continue to shape the science of sensory perception. Although few people will read their research, we all undoubtedly have tasted it.