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Zengrath

Technology

High-Pressure Diamond Anvil Creates a New Solid from Xenon and Hydrogen

By Jeremy Hsu Posted on 11.23.2009 12 Comments
Science under pressure can produce marvelous results, such as an entirely new way to store hydrogen fuel. Researchers combined the noble gas xenon with molecular hydrogen (H2) to make a never-before-seen solid that opens the doors to an entire new family of materials for hydrogen storage.

11.24.2009 at 12:48pm - Comment by Zengrath

The article didn't say it requires 41,000 PSI.. it said 41,000 times the pressure at sea level... at sea level that is about 14.69PSI... meaning i guess about 602,533PSI..... that's just to start, then if I'm right, then eventually forming greater pressures up to 3,306,588 PSI! Am i wrong?
NASA Kepler Space Telescope

By Posted on 11.19.2009 10 Comments
You’d be hard-pressed to get a NASA scientist to come out and say that the Kepler space telescope is designed to find aliens. Put it this way, though: The goal of the probe, which was launched in March, is to find planets much like our own in distant star systems—Earth-size bodies orbiting their stars in the sweet spot where the temperature is appropriate to support, just maybe, alien life. Using a photometer that’s more than three feet in diameter, Kepler is now continuously observing some 100,000 stars located between 600 and 3,000 light-years away.

11.19.2009 at 12:28pm - Comment by Zengrath

A_Rock, i think what he was trying to say is that... let's say we find out that there is another Earth out there in another solar system with same temps, amount of water, seasons and so on, which there definitely is a possibility of having.. Say we find this 2nd Earth.... What then? What's point? From everything I've seen so far, there is no possible way that we may ever be able to travel that far.. We are still trying to overcome hurdles to put man on Mars and finding out more and more that this might not even be possible with current technology... Another solar system is like Mars being our backyard and solar system being the sun... i mean seriously not even funny how impossible it is at this point to go to another solar system, and i doubt it will be possible for thousands of years, if that.. So why are we spending all this money trying to discover earth in another solar system when we have so many people struggling everyday just to survive with this economy to discover something that would be completely useless to us for at least thousands of years??? i mean can't we wait to do this later when things are better on our own planet? I much rather then continue efforts in our solar system instead, things that we could possibly use in next century.
Technology

Laser-Enabled Wheelchair Autonomously Navigates City

By Stuart Fox Posted on 11.10.2009 1 Comments
For the blind and the physically disabled, moving about a busy urban environment alone presents a constant challenge. For the unlucky few who are both blind and disabled, or for those too impaired to look around while operating a wheelchair, that challenge becomes nearly insurmountable. But now a new "smart" wheelchair may allow those without sight or mobility to traverse a bustling city street.

11.10.2009 at 03:15pm - Comment by Zengrath

This while it sounds nice, would to me take a looooooong time to ever be practical. I couldn't even imagine all law suits could come up due to malfunctions, etc. Those darpa vehicles were not perfect at all, although amazing. What happens if wheelchair makes a mistake on where i thinks it is and decides to turn onto a busy road? or doesn't see other wheelchairs or pedestrians, etc. etc. It's cool to dream, but just sometimes need to be realistic sometimes as well, this isn't something that will be out in next few years, that's for sure...
DIY

You Built What?! A Real-Life Version of the Atari Classic Lunar Lander

By Gregory Mone Posted on 10.30.2009 4 Comments
After hearing about preparations for the 40th anniversary of the moon landing at Kennedy Space Center last year, British engineer Iain Sharp decided to develop a tribute of his own. His offering, a remake of the 1979 Atari game Lunar Lander, in which players try to settle a module onto the moon’s surface, is a complex mix of scrapped PCs, fishing line, inkjet printer motors and miniature space vehicles.

10.30.2009 at 12:00pm - Comment by Zengrath

I wish there was a video showing how it works. for something as creative as this, hard to imagine just with pictures :) Cool though!
Science

Scientists Use Precise Flashes of Light to Implant False Memories in Fly Brains

By Posted on 10.16.2009 2 Comments
Neuroscientists have already spent the better part of a decade manipulating animal minds by using light signals to trigger genetically encoded switches. But a new study has now directly reprogrammed flies to fear and avoid certain smells, and all without the usual Pavlovian shock treatments.

10.16.2009 at 11:51am - Comment by Zengrath

great... we'll soon see the min erasers from MIB... or maybe we won't ever see them because our mind will be erased... just great.......
Technology

Instant Expert: Dark Flow Revealed

By Posted on 10.16.2009 8 Comments
As if the universe weren’t strange enough, scientists have recently discovered that entire galaxy clusters—the largest known structures in the universe, consisting of thousands of galaxies—are moving toward the same area. And we have no idea what mysterious phenomenon is drawing them along. Whatever it is, it’s huge. So far, cosmologists’ best guess is that it’s the gravitational pull from something beyond the visible universe. NASA scientist Alexander Kashlinsky and a team of researchers discovered the mystery motion, dubbed “dark flow,” last year.

10.16.2009 at 09:19am - Comment by Zengrath

Reading this article makes me feel very very very very small.. ... just to think there is something out there beyond what we can see that's possibly bigger then even our universe that could have something to do with all these mysterious forces that we currently do not understand.. ..
Technology

Mouse Scampers on Giant Trackball, Plays Quake

By Paul Adams Posted on 10.14.2009 10 Comments
In this video, a mouse runs through a virtual maze derived from a Quake 2 level, by steering a trackball suspended on a jet of air. Obviously the Princeton scientists did this because it's awesome, but the ostensible reason is because it gives them unprecedented access to study the neurological activity of the rodent while it moves around.

10.14.2009 at 03:06pm - Comment by Zengrath

I don't get it... it's just going in circles, mouse doesn't seem to change directions at all on the ball.. This is not a maze and doesn't seem to really prove anything at all... Be much more interested if they actually made a maze, and rewarded mice with food when it reached a particular place in level or giant piece of cheese, lol. Then that would be something actually intersting seeing the mouse navigate objects and such, but in this video mouse simply turns right indefinitely in a circle?!
Science

Have Scientists Finally Found the Elusive Magnetic Monopole?

By Susannah F. Locke Posted on 9.8.2009 9 Comments
A long-hypothesized particle, stuff of tantalizing detection attempts and thrilling sci-fi novels, may have finally been sighted.

9.8.2009 at 11:18am - Comment by Zengrath

huh?
Science

DNA Transplantation Yields Monkeys with One Father, Two Mothers

By Stuart Fox Posted on 8.27.2009 1 Comments
In a procedure that's sure to lead to plenty of interesting family dinners, scientists have created monkeys that have one father, but two genetic mothers. The scientists created these hybrids by transplanting mitochondrial DNA into the monkey embryo, opening up the possibility that this technique could be used to produce healthy children for human women who have mitochondrial DNA disorders.

8.27.2009 at 02:59pm - Comment by Zengrath

Definitely interesting but very scary territory... a lot of people will not be welcoming this with open arms.
Cars

Maker of Electric Hummer Challenges Chevy Volt on Record-Breaking Fuel Economy

By Jeremy Hsu Posted on 8.26.2009 13 Comments
An electric Humvee may still sound like fingernails on a chalkboard to environmentalists, but the company developing a plug-in Hummer H3e claims its green version can get 100 mpg on average. And what's a little boasting without taking a shot at the competition?

8.27.2009 at 11:51am - Comment by Zengrath

Wow, sorry for my horrible grammar. I rushed that comment and did not proof read.