Cool Science thread

**LegoSkier** · 08-20-2015, 02:45 PM

http://phys.org/news/2015-08-diamond...-valuable.html

If even a tenth of this guys science holds, somebody should give him lots of money fast. Making concrete and fertilizer from CO2 wouldn't be able to compete as they are commodities but carbon nanofibers are a another thing altogether. They are just the type of thing to make this type of CO2 capture economically feasible to scale.

**Game Over** · 08-20-2015, 02:55 PM

That is pretty cool.

You misread about the cement and fertilizer -- they were previous projects by the same team and were made without emitting CO2

**iceman** · 08-20-2015, 03:29 PM

Very cool but this quote makes ya wonder about what happens the 10 years after that and the ten years after that...unintended consequences and shit. Not that it is an imminent concern but still.

"We calculate that with a physical area less than 10 percent the size of the Sahara Desert, our process could remove enough CO2 to decrease atmospheric levels to those of the pre-industrial revolution within 10 years," he says.

**cat in january** · 08-20-2015, 03:37 PM

I think they just need a large are for sunlight capture. On the very superficial read of the article sounds possible and promising.

PB · 08-20-2015, 03:48 PM

Probably go into carbon deficit, which will cause all the fartogenic foodstocks to skyrocket in price .... better stock up early.

**iceman** · 08-20-2015, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by PB

Probably go into carbon deficit, which will cause all the fartogenic foodstocks to skyrocket in price .... better stock up early.

Free the CO2!!!

**Dantheman** · 09-02-2015, 01:03 PM

http://www.cnet.com/news/suspended-s...otted-on-mars/

**Dantheman** · 09-11-2015, 11:19 AM

The Homo Naledi discoveries announced yesterday are pretty fucking cool.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...956559/?no-ist

**From_the_NEK** · 09-18-2015, 07:28 AM

This isn't a video of any ground breaking science, but it is still well done and interesting to see the scale of our solar system.

**TomCrac** · 09-19-2015, 01:05 PM

^cool

Xpost,

Human Power!

"The world's fastest human-powered vehicle just topped 85 mph"

http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/18/a...wered-vehicle/

(old vid)

**huckbucket** · 09-26-2015, 08:32 PM

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled in stunning detail a small section of the expanding remains of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago.

Called the Veil Nebula, the debris is one of the best-known supernova remnants, deriving its name from its delicate, draped filamentary structures. The entire nebula is 110 light-years across, covering six full moons on the sky as seen from Earth, and resides about 2,100 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan.

This view is a mosaic of six Hubble pictures of a small area roughly two light-years across, covering only a tiny fraction of the nebula's vast structure.

This close-up look unveils wisps of gas, which are all that remain of what was once a star 20 times more massive than our sun. The fast-moving blast wave from the ancient explosion is plowing into a wall of cool, denser interstellar gas, emitting light. The nebula lies along the edge of a large bubble of low-density gas that was blown into space by the dying star prior to its self-detonation.

The image shows an incredible array of structures and detail from the collision between the blast wave and the gas and dust that make up the cavity wall. The nebula resembles a crumpled bed sheet viewed from the side. The bright regions are where the shock wave is encountering relatively dense material or where the "bed sheet" ripples are viewed edge on.

In this image, red corresponds to the glow of hydrogen, green from sulfur, and blue from oxygen. The bluish features, outlining the cavity wall, appear smooth and arched in comparison to the fluffy green and red structures. The red glow is from cooler gas that was excited by the shock collision at an earlier time and has subsequently diffused into a more chaotic structure. A few thin, crisp-looking, red filaments arise after gas is swept into the shock wave at speeds of nearly 1 million miles an hour, so fast that it could travel from Earth to the moon in 15 minutes.

Astronomers are comparing these new images to images taken by Hubble in 1997. This comparison allows scientists to study how the nebula has expanded since it was photographed over 18 years ago.

**Tippster** · 09-27-2015, 08:50 AM

EC Maggots: Total lunar eclipse tonight at 10:47pm.

**NoPostholio** · 09-27-2015, 12:34 PM

Super moon to boot - last one for 18 yrs.
http://www.newsweek.com/how-watch-an...eclipse-377033

**NoPostholio** · 09-27-2015, 08:01 PM

**Doremite** · 09-27-2015, 08:23 PM

Pretty epic eclipse.

**Meadow Skipper** · 09-27-2015, 08:26 PM

Fuck! A monster just ate the moon!

**TBS** · 09-27-2015, 08:35 PM

History - on March 1 1504 Columbus bamboozled the indigenous Jamaicans to keep supplying his crews by predicting a total lunar eclipse. " I have big powers - watch me make the moon disappear. Fuck with me I will make you disappear"

**Tippster** · 09-27-2015, 08:45 PM

Stupid fucking clouds.

**NoPostholio** · 09-27-2015, 08:49 PM

There will be blood

**Meadow Skipper** · 09-27-2015, 09:07 PM

^Nice. Smoke from prescribed burning ended up obscuring it here.

**iceman** · 09-27-2015, 09:14 PM

Originally Posted by Tippster

Stupid fucking clouds.

Right? Couldn't see a thing.

edit: actually just got a couple-minute clear window through the heavy cloud cover. Just starting to grow from a sliver, suddenly it lit right up like a spotlight was on it. Cool.