Roberto Ortiz RobertoOrtiz Location: Washington DC, USA Language(s):
Spanish Member Since: May 2002 Last Updated: 29 November 2008 Portfolio Views: 100603 Chosen as Favorite: 46
June 28, 2007.15:38 FOR REAL: The new Boeing 787's flappy wings
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"Boeing has completed static testing of a three-quarter wingbox, but engineers are still considering whether to limit testing of the full wing to a 150% load limit held for 3 sec. of to continue bending it to see when it breaks. "There's a raging debate within the engineering team to see if we should break it or not," says [787 General Manager Mike] Bair.
Breaking it isn't necessary for certification, but Bair says the wing is so strong and flexible that there's been talk that maybe it could be bend far enough for the wingtips to touch above the fuselage—or come quite close."
June 28, 2007.15:37 SCIENCE: Human-like exoskeletons
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"If you have ever wondered why we are not all running round in robotic exoskeletons that massively increase our strength and endurance, Hugh Herr, director of the biomechatronics group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media lab, US, will happily tell you.
The problem, he and his colleagues point out in the group's latest patent application, is that exoskeletons are just too heavy, and offer very limited increases in strength. In fact, were current designs ever they to fail, they could seriously hurt the wearer, they say.
Now, however, Herr's team has hit on a better way to design these systems. It involves analysing the detailed motion of the human body, and building the exoskeleton so that it exactly mimics human movement and acts in parallel to it."
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"3D images of individual molecules may soon be possible thanks to a breakthrough in holography by Swiss scientists. The technique would be useful to biologists interested in how the shapes of proteins and other components of life relate to their function.
A hologram records the complex interference pattern that is created when laser light reflects off an object. Bouncing light off the hologram recreates this pattern of waves giving the impression that the viewer is looking at the original object in 3D.
But for years physicists have grappled with a kind of double vision that has made using holography difficult.
The process results in an out-of-focus second image being superimposed on the main one, which can seriously degrade the result. "The twin image problem has existed since holography was conceived. People have always worried about it," says Hans-Werner Fink, a physicist at the University of Zurich in Switzerland.
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June 19, 2007.03:54 SCIENCE: Why videogamers make ace surgeons and better drivers
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"Playing videogames is a great workout for your eyes. In a recent study at the University of Toronto, videogame players consistently beat nongamers in timed searches for targets in both simple and complex visual environments (spotting the b in a field of ks, for example). The scientists say that videogames—which reward rapid searches for hidden targets—boost quick, efficient eye movement and improve scanning skills that can enhance your reading and driving. You can't find exercise like that at the gym. "
June 13, 2007.05:52 FOR REAL: 19th-century weapon found in whale
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"A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt — more than a century ago.
Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3 1/2-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale's age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old.
"No other finding has been this precise," said John Bockstoce, an adjunct curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
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June 11, 2007.16:16 FOR REAL: WETA Working on Robotic Lizard For Science
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"Researchers have placed in the wild a very special male that, like its wild cousins, can put on physical displays to establish its dominance.
But this reptile's skin is made of rubber, not scales, and its "heart" is a nickel-cadmium battery.
The alpha male in question is "Robo-Ollie," a robotic tuatara created to help researchers understand the behavior of these rare reptiles, the last species in a family that dates back 200 million years.
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June 08, 2007.02:01 FOR REAL: Touch Sensitive Paper With Paper Speakers
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"Boring billboards can be turned into interactive displays by using conductive inks to print touch sensors and speakers onto paper, say Swedish researchers.
"The first generation of paper was for display, like books," says Mikael Gulliksson, a researcher at Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden, "the second for packaging, and the third for hygiene - we are investigating what the fourth might be.""
June 08, 2007.01:58 FOR REAL MIT Wirelessly Powers a Lightbulb
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"The latest technical advance out of MIT could dramatically change the drudgery of recharging portable devices: An MIT research team has figured out how to wirelessly illuminate an unplugged light bulb from seven feet away.
Details about WiTricity, or wireless electricity, are scheduled to be reported today in Science Express, the advance online publication of the journal Science, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said."
June 05, 2007.15:17 FOR REAL: Chicken Bones Suggest Polynesians Found Americas Before Columbus
Quote:
"Popular history, and a familiar rhyme about Christopher Columbus, holds that Europeans made contact with the Americas in 1492, with some arguing that the explorer and his crew were the first outsiders to reach the New World.
But chicken bones recently unearthed on the coast of Chile—dating prior to Columbus’ “discovery” of America and resembling the DNA of a fowl species native to Polynesia—may challenge that notion, researchers say.
" http://www.livescience.com/history/...an_chicken.html
June 04, 2007.13:44 FOR REAL: Breakthrough Fuel Cell, Twice as Efficient as Generators
A company called Acumentrics Corporation, has developed a new kind of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell that can consume any kind of fuel, from hydrogen to bio-diesel; it is over two times more efficient than traditional generators.
