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Bagpipes100

Science

World's First Osmotic Power Plant Goes Live in Norway

By Clay Dillow Posted on 11.24.2009 10 Comments
When it comes to harnessing the energy potential of the oceans, the Norwegians have no problem starting small. The world's first osmotic power plant opened today in Tofte, Norway, utilizing the properties of salty seawater to generate a whopping 4 kilowatts of electricity for the grid, or about enough to power a coffee maker. But the Norwegian company running the project, Statkraft, is a glass-half-full kind of company, claiming that eventually osmotic plants could draw half of Europe's electricity from the saltiness of the sea.

11.24.2009 at 07:56pm - Comment by Bagpipes100

How exactly are they mixing up the salt water? Would seem they would need to keep adding fresh water to it....and I think fresh water isn't something there is an infinite supply of.
Technology

Mathematicians' Alternate Model of the Universe Explains Away the Need For Dark Energy

By Jeremy Hsu Posted on 10.6.2009 72 Comments
Dark energy is a mysterious force that cosmologists use to fill gaps in our model of why our universe continues its ever-faster expansion. But now two mathematicians have found a way to explain those baffling observations of the universe without the dark energy question mark hanging overhead.

11.23.2009 at 11:41am - Comment by Bagpipes100

I think some of you Darwin-thumping fundamentalists, need to learn some basics in reasoning. You start with a set of axioms you take on faith, and are then able to reason from there. Now after you can reason you can form a scientific paradigm, this paradigm is formed AFTER you've accepted those axioms on faith. So that scientific paradigm is contingent on those axioms. What you seem to constantly fail to realize is that other people with other basic axioms will come up with other scientific paradigms. Because of this they will have different interpretations of observed data. They will make predictions about what else they should see, and their predictions can hold. If multiple paradigms each predict the same observations (even if the interpretation is wildly different) you won't be able to judge one to be false just based on those observations. This is where the Darwin-thumping fundamentalists always go wrong. They seem to think that conclusions they draw from their own paradigm falsify entire other paradigms.....that's poor logic....and if that is the kind of logic they use.....well how good of a scientific paradigm can they actually have?
Technology

Muscle-Linked Gene Therapy Pumps Up Monkeys

By Stuart Fox Posted on 11.12.2009 6 Comments
It's getting much harder to cheat at sports these days. Urine tests have been re-calibrated to look for the cream and the clear, blood tests check for the presence of excessive oxygen, and you spitballers? Yeah, they're on to you, too. But a new breakthrough in gene therapy may allow athletes to skip the steroids in favor of adding muscles from the DNA up.

11.12.2009 at 06:31pm - Comment by Bagpipes100

I wonder if this works well in a low g environment. Would this be useful for long term space trips?
Science

Baguette Dropped From Bird's Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really)

By Stuart Fox Posted on 11.5.2009 86 Comments
The Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, just cannot catch a break. First, a coolant leak destroyed some of the magnets that guide the energy beam. Then LHC officials postponed the restart of the machine to add additional safety features.

11.5.2009 at 03:50pm - Comment by Bagpipes100

Particle physics is for the birds.........or at least the birds would have it be that way.
Science

Kissing Evolved To Spread Germs, Not Feelings

By Clay Dillow Posted on 11.2.2009 13 Comments
It looks like your kindergarten gut reaction to kissing might have been correct after all: it really is sick. Or, more specifically, the practice is designed to spread sickness. British scientists say the human habit of kissing evolved for less-than-romantic reasons, but one that is nonetheless important to a healthy reproductive relationship: to spread germs.

11.3.2009 at 04:53pm - Comment by Bagpipes100

Vigier, Well played!
Science

Physicists Calculate Exact Number of Alternate Universes

By Stuart Fox Posted on 10.16.2009 33 Comments
For some time, physicists have theorized about the existence of alternate universes. In fact, some models of physics require multiple universes, to explain some rarely observed phenomena. But, other than obvious ones like The Man In The High Castle Universe where the Nazis won WWII, the Earth-295 Age of Apocalypse Universe, and the Terran Empire "Mirror Mirror" Universe, just how many alternate universes are there? Well, some Stanford University physicists have answered that question, and the magic number is: 10^10^16 other realities.

10.19.2009 at 05:42am - Comment by Bagpipes100

Qll, how about for starters the formation of amino acids which all have the same chirality. (Let's not even bother thinking about the improbability of actually randomly getting DNA bases). Point is, the whole multiverse is a joke....unless you need it to explain the otherwise unexplainable. You joke about God....and yet find this acceptable? That's exactly my point in bringing it up.
Science

Physicists Calculate Exact Number of Alternate Universes

By Stuart Fox Posted on 10.16.2009 33 Comments
For some time, physicists have theorized about the existence of alternate universes. In fact, some models of physics require multiple universes, to explain some rarely observed phenomena. But, other than obvious ones like The Man In The High Castle Universe where the Nazis won WWII, the Earth-295 Age of Apocalypse Universe, and the Terran Empire "Mirror Mirror" Universe, just how many alternate universes are there? Well, some Stanford University physicists have answered that question, and the magic number is: 10^10^16 other realities.

10.16.2009 at 10:11pm - Comment by Bagpipes100

It isn't a matter of observation which dictates that there are multiple universes. It's the mathematical/philosophical necessity of there being multiple universes to try and force the otherwise unreasonable probabilities of evolutionary science to work with out adding even more eons of time to the time line of our universe.
Science

Physicists Calculate Exact Number of Alternate Universes

By Stuart Fox Posted on 10.16.2009 33 Comments
For some time, physicists have theorized about the existence of alternate universes. In fact, some models of physics require multiple universes, to explain some rarely observed phenomena. But, other than obvious ones like The Man In The High Castle Universe where the Nazis won WWII, the Earth-295 Age of Apocalypse Universe, and the Terran Empire "Mirror Mirror" Universe, just how many alternate universes are there? Well, some Stanford University physicists have answered that question, and the magic number is: 10^10^16 other realities.

10.16.2009 at 10:27am - Comment by Bagpipes100

Multiverse.....the naturalists answer to the whole "God in the Gaps".....we really don't have probability on our side...so we write in 10^10^16 other universes into the mix so that one of them will work out the way we want things to.
Technology

Artificial Black Hole Created in Chinese Lab

By Stuart Fox Posted on 10.15.2009 42 Comments
Just because most black holes are solar-system-sized maelstroms with reality-warping gravitational pulls doesn't mean you can't have one in your pocket! That's right, just in time for the holidays comes the pocket black hole. Designed by scientists at the Southeast University in Nanjing, China, this eight-and-a-half-inch-wide disk absorbs all the electromagnetic radiation you throw at it, with none of the pesky time dilation and Hawking radiation associated with the larger, interstellar versions.

10.15.2009 at 10:02pm - Comment by Bagpipes100

wait.....if it absorbs "all the electromagnetic radiation you throw at it" ...... how'd they take a picture of it?
Science

Water Bears Are Headed for a Martian Moon

By Jeremy Hsu Posted on 10.12.2009 7 Comments
Water bears, the tiny creatures that have already been proven to survive direct exposure to the vacuum of space, were slated for launch to a Martian moon this month. But Russian officials chose to delay their first interplanetary mission in more than a decade due to safety and technical issues, until the next launch window opens in 2011.

10.13.2009 at 07:02am - Comment by Bagpipes100

Terra-forming critters would be a better idea. Though I think sending them directly to mars would be more useful for manned missions later on than sticking them on Phobos. As to some of your concerns.....let's face it, there's never been any hard scientific observation that says there is life anywhere but right here on earth. I wouldn't get all that worried about contaminating anything.