Cool Science thread

**TomCrac** · 11-14-2014, 01:24 PM

"Rosetta mission: scientists will order Philae to ‘hop’ in final bid to save lander"

"Order will be sent to Philae’s legs this evening in a bid to bounce the comet lander into a sunnier position to recharge its batteries

Philae lander tries drilling and hammering to free itself...
Alien ‘cover-up conspiracy theories emerge....
Scientists controlling the Philae lander on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko are preparing to make a last ditch attempt to “hop” the robotic probe into a sunnier spot on the comet’s surface.

If they fail, the lander will go into hibernation. Without sufficient sunlight on its solar panels, its mission will be over."...

full article... http://www.theguardian.com/science/2...nder-hop-comet

sb · 11-15-2014, 09:58 AM

Pingo, he invented rocker.

**abraham** · 11-16-2014, 02:23 PM

youtube tags I just type out now because I'm used to it.

Science stuff:

Holy shit, that's a huge landslide. 90 by 40 km. I'm curious to look at the area next time I drive through. This is almost as interesting/important to how I see that area as the lake Missoula theory has been for eastern Washington.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/...vered-in-utah/

**WaistDeepGroomers** · 11-20-2014, 10:12 AM

Happened upon two cool video last night from NAPS in the UK:

One cool one about how continuous descents in an aircraft, versus stepped descents, could save a lot of airline fuel & CO2:

And a way more interesting way showing the flightpaths of planes around the UK in 3D:

sb · 11-20-2014, 10:47 AM

^^^That is a bad infestation.

**Viva** · 11-20-2014, 10:48 AM

Scroll down for movie:

http://www.vox.com/2014/11/19/724606...carbon-dioxide

sb · 11-21-2014, 06:05 AM

**Timberridge** · 12-03-2014, 07:42 AM

This is going down on Thursday. Mars here we come.

http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-or...l#.VH8SNhaEesI

**Timberridge** · 12-05-2014, 08:05 AM

...well it went down Friday.

**ArmadaBC** · 12-05-2014, 09:51 AM

Originally Posted by Timberridge

...well it went down Friday.

Steve Agid is my favorite, has the perfect launch voice.....huge huge huge day. This is step 1 of the USA's return to human space flight, if we fund this baby it will be by far the most powerful, capable human rated space flight system ever.

Gotta love the IV Heavy, what a fucking beast....yo yo yo the whole side of the rocket is on fire !...ULA - it's ok it's designed to do that...

**BigDaddy** · 12-05-2014, 10:04 AM

Saw the Orion capsule on display at Cape Canaveral last winter. Great to see it made it off the pad. With room for four, no more fighting over who gets the girl...

**Viva** · 12-05-2014, 07:13 PM

Knock yourselves out:

http://breakthroughs.sciencemag.org/...=btotyroundtwo

**huckbucket** · 12-05-2014, 07:27 PM

Originally Posted by Viva

Knock yourselves out:

http://breakthroughs.sciencemag.org/...=btotyroundtwo

That's some stupid shit. A cure for HepC in a bottle isn't the story of the year? Investors seem to think it is.

**Viva** · 12-05-2014, 08:05 PM

Then take the Forbes poll.

**SkiCougar** · 12-09-2014, 02:25 PM

Hot Dam, we got a force field !

came across this from a post by martin Armstrong(one of those crackpot economic types who keeps predicting currency crashes coming), but he posts some very cool science stuff from time to time; figured this went here:

"Star Trek-like invisible shield found thousands of miles above Earth" -

http://www.colorado.edu/news/release...es-above-earth

best snippet imo:

"The latest mystery revolves around an “extremely sharp” boundary at the inner edge of the outer belt at roughly 7,200 miles in altitude that appears to block the ultrafast electrons from breeching the shield and moving deeper towards Earth’s atmosphere. “It’s almost like theses electrons are running into a glass wall in space,” said Baker, the study’s lead author. “Somewhat like the shields created by force fields on Star Trek that were used to repel alien weapons, we are seeing an invisible shield blocking these electrons. It’s an extremely puzzling phenomenon.”

next time a solar storm takes out your phone connection, you can blame it on having the shields up.

**iceman** · 12-09-2014, 07:22 PM

Poop transfusions: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...ent-experiment

**Alaskan Rover** · 12-09-2014, 07:37 PM

Check this out...a table-top particle accelerator at Lawerence-Livermoore...pretty damn cool!!

" Scientists Break Energy Record With "Tabletop" Particle Accelerator

MARSHALL LEMON | 9 DECEMBER 2014 5:20 PM
7
Laser-Plasma Particle Accelerator
Image Source: Berkeley Lab
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Particle Accelerator, which speeds up electrons in a 9-centimeter plasma tube, just achieved the highest energies ever recorded from a compact accelerator.

When we think about particle accelerators, we usually think of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which has a circumference of 17 miles. But particle accelerators can come in various shapes and sizes and can pull off equally impressive feats. Case in point: A team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory uses a laser-plasma accelerator, which they believe can achieve the same results as the LHC while sitting conveniently on a table. And it might be on to something, since their device just broke records for the highest energies seen in a compact accelerator.

Traditional particle accelerators, like the behemoth at CERN, work by modulating electric fields within a metal cavity. The process can only generate about 100 mega-electron volts per meter before the metal wears out, but the laser-plasma accelerator works differently. Using BELLA, the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator, injected a pulse of laser light into a 9-centimeter plasma tube, creating waves that trapped free electrons and accelerated them to 4.25 giga-electron volts. "It's similar to the way that a surfer gains speed when skimming down the face of a wave," Berkeley wrote in a recent news release.

While this is already an achievement, director of the Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics Division Dr. Wim Leemans has no plans of stopping here. Leeman's near-term goal is to accelerate these subatomic particles to 10 giga-electrons, which requires a more precise control of the plasma channel's density. But if the equipment and process can be refined enough to pull it off, you should expect Berkeley to be breaking its own record very soon.

Source: Berkeley Lab"

**powtario** · 12-09-2014, 07:48 PM

I assume they are talking in some special physics language that isn't English. I was always shit at physics in school.
And.....
I <3 poop transplants.