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ikenbot:

Sun Emits Mid-Level Flare

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 1:32 pm EDT on May 3, 2013. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation.

Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. This disrupts the radio signals for as long as the flare is ongoing, and the radio blackout for this flare has already subsided.

This flare is classified as an M5.7-class flare. M-class flares are the weakest flares that can still cause some space weather effects near Earth.

Increased numbers of flares are quite common at the moment, as the sun’s normal 11-year activity cycle is ramping up toward solar maximum, which is expected in late 2013.

Posted 1 week ago from ikenbot

“We are at an inflection point in history. For the first time in hundreds of thousands of years, our technologies are not so much aimed outward: at modifying our environment, in the fashion of fire or clothes or cities, agriculture, space travel; increasingly this technologies are aimed inward: at modifying our minds, our memories, our metabolisms, our personalities, and our kids. And this is not in some distant science fiction future, this is right now, and what is shocking about this is if you can do all that, you are talking about humans becoming the first species to really take control of their own evolution.”

— Joel Garreau, Visions of the Future: The Biotech Revolution

Posted 1 week ago

distant-traveller: Sun’s quiet corona This image taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument at 171 Angstrom shows the current conditions of the quiet corona and upper transition region of the Sun. Image credit: NASA/SDO

distant-traveller:

Sun’s quiet corona

This image taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument at 171 Angstrom shows the current conditions of the quiet corona and upper transition region of the Sun.

Image credit: NASA/SDO

Posted 1 week ago from distant-traveller

“There are real hard know scientists who have got a big bet going on right now, and the bet is that the first person to robustly live to the age of 150 is already alive today, that’s the bet they’ve got going, and the only question is how old is this person today, and some of them think that this person could be in his 50s or 60s today. Perhaps, all you have to do, is to live in a healthy fashion for the next 20 years, and you could end up living for a very long time, because all that has to happen in this scenario is for the technology to be advancing faster than you’re aging, and you can be something like immortal. It’s a credible scenario, it could happen.”

— Joel Garreau, Visions of the Future: The Biotech Revolution

Posted 1 week ago

IBM Atomic Shorts: History of the scanning tunneling microscope (by IBM)

Posted 2 weeks ago

Moving Atoms: Making The World’s Smallest Movie (by IBM)

Posted 2 weeks ago

A Boy And His Atom: The World’s Smallest Movie (by IBM)

Posted 2 weeks ago

Spotlight On Nanotechnology At a lecture of the American Physical Society in 1959, physicist Richard Feynman proposed that one day humankind could create machines composed of several individually manipulated molecules or atoms, and these machines could be constructed by tools that were only slightly larger. Why would this possibility be more than just a curiosity, more than a modern-day analogue to medieval micrography, for example? Both he and his audience knew that electrons behave differently at such a small scale — less than one hundred billionth of a meter (nanometer) — from how they behave at the scale of most present-day machines. For instance, when materials are constructed at a smaller scale, because there are fewer paths that electrons can take through their molecular structure they are more conductive of heat and electricity. Recognizing the extraordinary possibilities inherent in harnessing this and other properties, engineers, physicists, chemists, and biologists over the subsequent decades began to explore how nanotechnologies — technologies that utilize the properties of individual atoms or molecules — could improve information technology, industrial design, and biomedicine. More at: http://www.nature.com/scitable/spotlight/nanotechnology-8650176

Spotlight On Nanotechnology
At a lecture of the American Physical Society in 1959, physicist Richard Feynman proposed that one day humankind could create machines composed of several individually manipulated molecules or atoms, and these machines could be constructed by tools that were only slightly larger. Why would this possibility be more than just a curiosity, more than a modern-day analogue to medieval micrography, for example? Both he and his audience knew that electrons behave differently at such a small scale — less than one hundred billionth of a meter (nanometer) — from how they behave at the scale of most present-day machines. For instance, when materials are constructed at a smaller scale, because there are fewer paths that electrons can take through their molecular structure they are more conductive of heat and electricity. Recognizing the extraordinary possibilities inherent in harnessing this and other properties, engineers, physicists, chemists, and biologists over the subsequent decades began to explore how nanotechnologies — technologies that utilize the properties of individual atoms or molecules — could improve information technology, industrial design, and biomedicine.
More at:
http://www.nature.com/scitable/spotlight/nanotechnology-8650176

Posted 1 month ago

jtotheizzoe:

infinity-imagined:

Tesla, Einstein, and Darwin

It’s almost like they’re RIGHT HERE.

Don’t you tell me to shush, Chuck. We have a lot to talk about. I have so many questions.

Posted 1 month ago from jtotheizzoe

neurolove: [Image Source] This is a hippocampal neuron (read about hippocampus here) infected with GFP and DsRed ( the green+red combination is why it looks kind of orangey).  You can really see all the different branches the dendrites have made to receive input from other neurons.  Besides which, it looks absolutely stunning!

neurolove:

[Image Source]

This is a hippocampal neuron (read about hippocampus here) infected with GFP and DsRed ( the green+red combination is why it looks kind of orangey).  You can really see all the different branches the dendrites have made to receive input from other neurons.  Besides which, it looks absolutely stunning!

Posted 2 months ago from neurolove

“The increasing amounts of data delivered by our senses drove the evolution of our brains. And those increasingly sophisticated brains became curious and demanded more and more data. And so we built telescopes that were able to extend our senses beyond the horizon and showed us a universe that was billions of years old and contains trillions of stars and galaxies. Our insatiable quest for information is the making of us.”

— Prof. Brian Cox, “Wonders of Life: Expanding Universe” (2013)

Posted 2 months ago from theaveragehare

wildcat2030: Forget about leprechauns, engineers are catching rainbows University at Buffalo engineers have created a more efficient way to catch rainbows, an advancement in photonics that could lead to technological breakthroughs in solar energy, stealth technology and other areas of research. Qiaoqiang Gan, PhD, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at UB, and a team of graduate students described their work in a paper called “Rainbow Trapping in Hyperbolic Metamaterial Waveguide,” published Feb. 13 in the online journal Scientific Reports. They developed a “hyperbolic metamaterial waveguide,” which is essentially an advanced microchip made of alternate ultra-thin films of metal and semiconductors and/or insulators. The waveguide halts and ultimately absorbs each frequency of light, at slightly different places in a vertical direction, to catch a “rainbow” of wavelengths. Gan is a researcher within UB’s new Center of Excellence in Materials Informatics. “Electromagnetic absorbers have been studied for many years, especially for military radar systems,” Gan said. “Right now, researchers are developing compact light absorbers based on optically thick semiconductors or carbon nanotubes. However, it is still challenging to realize the perfect absorber in ultra-thin films with tunable absorption band. “We are developing ultra-thin films that will slow the light and therefore allow much more efficient absorption, which will address the long existing challenge.” (via Forget about leprechauns, engineers are catching rainbows)

wildcat2030:

Forget about leprechauns, engineers are catching rainbows

University at Buffalo engineers have created a more efficient way to catch rainbows, an advancement in photonics that could lead to technological breakthroughs in solar energy, stealth technology and other areas of research.

Qiaoqiang Gan, PhD, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at UB, and a team of graduate students described their work in a paper called “Rainbow Trapping in Hyperbolic Metamaterial Waveguide,” published Feb. 13 in the online journal Scientific Reports.

They developed a “hyperbolic metamaterial waveguide,” which is essentially an advanced microchip made of alternate ultra-thin films of metal and semiconductors and/or insulators. The waveguide halts and ultimately absorbs each frequency of light, at slightly different places in a vertical direction, to catch a “rainbow” of wavelengths. Gan is a researcher within UB’s new Center of Excellence in Materials Informatics. “Electromagnetic absorbers have been studied for many years, especially for military radar systems,” Gan said. “Right now, researchers are developing compact light absorbers based on optically thick semiconductors or carbon nanotubes. However, it is still challenging to realize the perfect absorber in ultra-thin films with tunable absorption band. “We are developing ultra-thin films that will slow the light and therefore allow much more efficient absorption, which will address the long existing challenge.” (via Forget about leprechauns, engineers are catching rainbows)

Posted 3 months ago from wildcat2030

brookhavenlab: There’s beauty to be found in particle physics. Just take a look at this bubble chamber event, recorded in 1960 at Brookhaven. Bubble chambers are the precursors to our underground particle detectors. They hold supercooled liquid hydrogen (we’re talking 415 degrees Fahrenheit below zero), and when particles were passed through the chamber, a hydraulic piston rapidly expanded the volume of the liquid, causing bubbles to form along the tracks where the particles zipped by. Sifting through those tracks for anomalies was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. But it was certainly a beautiful haystack.

brookhavenlab:

There’s beauty to be found in particle physics. Just take a look at this bubble chamber event, recorded in 1960 at Brookhaven.

Bubble chambers are the precursors to our underground particle detectors. They hold supercooled liquid hydrogen (we’re talking 415 degrees Fahrenheit below zero), and when particles were passed through the chamber, a hydraulic piston rapidly expanded the volume of the liquid, causing bubbles to form along the tracks where the particles zipped by. Sifting through those tracks for anomalies was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. But it was certainly a beautiful haystack.

Posted 3 months ago from brookhavenlab

Posted 3 months ago from fckyrwrld

In my opinion, one of the best things humanity has captured on video. Done in 1979 by Voyager 1 as it approached Jupiter. 


In my opinion, one of the best things humanity has captured on video. Done in 1979 by Voyager 1 as it approached Jupiter. 

(Source: pcrastello)

Posted 3 months ago from isometries