Will Mankind Destroy Itself? « Here's Some Awesome
This week’s HSA gets all sciencey.
Again.
You’re welcome.
Brian Cox demonstrates to Simon Pegg why atoms are mostly empty space
The short answer is “Because they are”, but if you actually want to learn something about standing waves and atoms and the stuff matter is made of, just watch the damn video.
Science is awesome. :)
(via nslayton)
A few weeks ago I had somebody in school complaining about her eating disorder, Ceiliacs disease or something, and how she can’t eaten certain foods because of it. She has mentioned this before, and frankly I was tired of it, so I spent just *20* minutes on the internet during my lunch period and found a cure hidden in the patent database, and then told her how to use www.e-oligos.com and then www.biohack.sf.net and www.openwetware.org to get the materials she needs from www.labx.com to implement the solution in some gastrointestinal bacteria and cure it herself. Problem freakin’ solved.
A ‘biopunk’ teenager displays how easy it is to access genetic synthesis equipment. (via jamurai)
I’ve come across this before but here’s a source for the quote with commentary attached. It also reminds me of the following,
O’Reilly says most of the action is in D.I.Y. biology — manipulating genetic code the way a previous generation of hackers manipulated computer code. “It’s still in the fun stage,” he says. Just ask Bill Gates. If he were a teenager today, he says, he’d be hacking biology. “Creating artificial life with DNA synthesis. That’s sort of the equivalent of machine-language programming,” says Gates, whose work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has led him to develop his own expertise in disease and immunology. “If you want to change the world in some big way, that’s where you should start – biological molecules.”
Here’s to You, Biology Hackers. [NY Times] Also worth checking out, DIYBio.
There are also books now - Biopunk: DIY Scientists Hack the Software of Life. Think of the possibilities, would you eat meat that you grew in your sink? Maybe not right now.
(via thenoobyorker)
Jesus, I barely understand this and it’s blowing my goddamned mind.
[edit] To be clear: Neither I, nor the author of the original article that cites the quote believes it’s as simple as the above forums makes it out to be, but the concept of wetware genetic hackers and homebrew (genetic) code is what’s blowing my mind.
(via headphonesnotrequired)
cwnl:
Neil deGrasse Tyson on children and grown-ups
Number 3 so fucking true.
National Hero.
He’s on a roll.
(via drintelmann)
66 Years.
(via)
Electromagnetic energy from ambient Radio + TV signals harvested, saved and used to power small devices
Researchers at Georgia Tech have found a way to capture and harness ambient energy transmitted by such sources as radio and television transmitters, cell phone networks, and satellite communications systems.
“There is a large amount of electromagnetic energy all around us, but nobody has been able to tap into it,” Manos Tentzeris, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering who is leading the research, said in a statement. “We are using an ultra-wideband antenna that lets us exploit a variety of signals in different frequency ranges, giving us greatly increased power-gathering capability.”
According to the university, the team’s scavenging devices can capture energy transmitted by communications devices, convert it from AC to DC, and then store it in capacitors and batteries. The scavenging technology currently can take advantage of frequencies from FM radio to radar, a range spanning 100 MHz to 15 GHz or higher.
Scavenging experiments utilizing TV bands have yielded power amounting to hundreds of microwatts, and multi-band systems are expected to generate one milliwatt or more, the school reported. The school added that that amount of power is enough to operate many small electronic devices, including a variety of sensors and microprocessors.via @WFMU
Dude.
DUDE.
I swear to god, between this, jetpacks, and flying cars, my childhood dreams are coming true. On that note, Hasbro: get on those fucking hoverboards already.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson: On Alien vs. Human Intelligence.
One satellite, Intelsat VI F-3, was launched aboard a Titan III from Cape Canaveral March 14, 1990. However, the second stage of the booster failed to separate from the craft and its perigee motor. INTELSAT controllers commanded the spacecraft to separate from the combined booster stage and perigee motor, allowing the satellite to be placed in low, but nonoperational, Earth orbit.
It remained there for two years, until the first flight of the space shuttle Endeavour in May 1992. INTELSAT had contracted with NASA for the mission, during which three astronauts captured the satellite and attached a new perigee motor to take it to its proper orbit. Hughes provided the motor, hardware, and technical assistance for the mission. The F-3 satellite was put into service over the Atlantic Ocean at 325.5 degrees East in July 1992, in time to carry television coverage of the Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.
The story about how three Endeavor astronauts once captured a satellite by hand.
New estimate for alien Earths: 2 billion in our galaxy alone
Scientists are seeking out worlds that are roughly the size of Earth and are the right distance from their suns to have liquid water on the planet.
It still blows my mind that we can figure this stuff out.
Stephen Hawking on Non-Carbon-Based Alien Life
—
At the 50th anniversary celebration of NASA on October 1, 2008, Stephen Hawking, then Newton’s heir as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, was asked the question, “Are we alone?” His answer was short and simple: “probably not.”
Hawking outlined three possibilities: One, that there is no life out there; and two, somewhat pessimistically, that when intelligent life gets smart enough to send signals into space, it is also busying itself with stockpiling nuclear bombs.Hawking, known not only for his sharp mind, but his also for his biting sense of humor, prefers option number three: “Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare,” he quickly added: “Some would say it has yet to occur on earth. “We should be careful if we ever happen upon extraterrestrial life, Hawking warns. Alien life may not have DNA like ours: “Watch out if you would meet an alien. You could be infected with a disease with which you have no resistance.”
(via dailygalaxy)
