Science Updates

[Neferti]

That dropping the guy from a balloon seems more like marketing/thrill seeking, than science, anyway.

What ever made you think it had something to do with science? Are you under 40 Boxy?

Was replying to this post, which seems to have stirred up most of the comment over the past couple of pages.

If the best thing that happened in science last week was dropping this attention seeker from a balloon, science is in serious trouble

What attention seeker? I so NOT watch TV News for fear of being irritated by politicians and newsreaders. I am a reformed agnostic so "religion" does nothing for me either.

[Rorschach]

Not that I want to keep this going (hence I won't be posting it) but because I actually ran into it just now and figured ironic...kismet... etc.
SN you might like to look.

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dea ... periority/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Super Nova]

That dropping the guy from a balloon seems more like marketing/thrill seeking, than science, anyway.

What ever made you think it had something to do with science? Are you under 40 Boxy?

Was replying to this post, which seems to have stirred up most of the comment over the past couple of pages.

If the best thing that happened in science last week was dropping this attention seeker from a balloon, science is in serious trouble

He is a glory hunter. The claim for sicence is that the suit design and how he re-entered the atmosphere may provide some insights into how an individual in a space suit could escape from space and land sucessfully back on Earth. Could be applied at an escape route if the Space Station needed evacuation.

I think this is interesting for the military. I can imagine a new form a paratrooper. Imagine an attack where the warriors land from space. Great for our future wars when we discover aliens or just to use in our own back yard. A bunch of warriors orbiting the Earth, ready to leap out and land anywhere on the planet within an hour and kick arse.

[Super Nova]

Not that I want to keep this going (hence I won't be posting it) but because I actually ran into just now and figured ironic...kismet... etc.
SN you might like to look.

Interesting article/post. I didn't look at it through that lense. I see your point now.

By all means, criticise organised religion. Lord knows it deserves to be shaken down, scrutinised, questioned, debated and challenged. But if all you can do is make insulting jokes because your physics degree came with a bonus superiority complex then, well, I kinda feel like you need a better hobby.

[boxy]

He is a glory hunter. The claim for sicence is that the suit design and how he re-entered the atmosphere may provide some insights into how an individual in a space suit could escape from space and land sucessfully back on Earth. Could be applied at an escape route if the Space Station needed evacuation.

I think this is interesting for the military. I can imagine a new form a paratrooper. Imagine an attack where the warriors land from space. Great for our future wars when we discover aliens or just to use in our own back yard. A bunch of warriors orbiting the Earth, ready to leap out and land anywhere on the planet within an hour and kick arse.

You can't just step out of an orbiting space craft or station, and fall to earth. You continue to orbit, along side the craft, unless you have something to slow you down from orbital speed.

[Super Nova]

He is a glory hunter. The claim for sicence is that the suit design and how he re-entered the atmosphere may provide some insights into how an individual in a space suit could escape from space and land sucessfully back on Earth. Could be applied at an escape route if the Space Station needed evacuation.

I think this is interesting for the military. I can imagine a new form a paratrooper. Imagine an attack where the warriors land from space. Great for our future wars when we discover aliens or just to use in our own back yard. A bunch of warriors orbiting the Earth, ready to leap out and land anywhere on the planet within an hour and kick arse.

You can't just step out of an orbiting space craft or station, and fall to earth. You continue to orbit, along side the craft, unless you have something to slow you down from orbital speed.

True. So you need a jet back as well. I don't think your initial entry speed can be very high othersie you are toast. So you would need to slow down at re-entry then let the drag do the rest. His initial entry speed was zero.

[Super Nova]

Now this is real applied science

This is very exciting....if true and can be done on a large scale.

British engineers produce amazing 'petrol from air' technology



Revolutionary new technology that produces “petrol from air” is being produced by a British firm, it emerged tonight.

A small company in the north of England has developed the “air capture” technology to create synthetic petrol using only air and electricity.

Experts tonight hailed the astonishing breakthrough as a potential “game-changer” in the battle against climate change and a saviour for the world’s energy crisis.

The technology, presented to a London engineering conference this week, removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The “petrol from air” technology involves taking sodium hydroxide and mixing it with carbon dioxide before "electrolysing" the sodium carbonate that it produces to form pure carbon dioxide.

Hydrogen is then produced by electrolysing water vapour captured with a dehumidifier.

The company, Air Fuel Synthesis, then uses the carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce methanol which in turn is passed through a gasoline fuel reactor, creating petrol.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy ... ology.html

[The Artist formerly known as Sappho]

Extending Einstein's theory beyond light speed

Tuesday, 9 October 2012
University of Adelaide applied mathematicians have extended Einstein's theory of special relativity to work beyond the speed of light.

Einstein's theory holds that nothing could move faster than the speed of light, but Professor Jim Hill and Dr Barry Cox in the University's School of Mathematical Sciences have developed new formulas that allow for travel beyond this limit.

Einstein's theory of special relativity was published in 1905 and explains how motion and speed is always relative to the observer's frame of reference. The theory connects measurements of the same physical incident viewed from these different points in a way that depends on the relative velocity of the two observers.

"Since the introduction of special relativity there has been much speculation as to whether or not it might be possible to travel faster than the speed of light, noting that there is no substantial evidence to suggest that this is presently feasible with any existing transportation mechanisms," said Professor Hill.

"About this time last year, experiments at CERN, the European centre for particle physics in Switzerland, suggested that perhaps neutrinos could be accelerated just a very small amount faster than the speed of light; at this point we started to think about how to deal with the issues from both a mathematical and physical perspective.

"Questions have since been raised over the experimental results but we were already well on our way to successfully formulating a theory of special relativity, applicable to relative velocities in excess of the speed of light.

"Our approach is a natural and logical extension of the Einstein Theory of Special Relativity, and produces anticipated formulae without the need for imaginary numbers or complicated physics."

The research has been published in the prestigious Proceedings of the Royal Society A in a paper, 'Einstein's special relativity beyond the speed of light'. Their formulas extend special relativity to a situation where the relative velocity can be infinite, and can be used to describe motion at speeds faster than light.

"We are mathematicians, not physicists, so we've approached this problem from a theoretical mathematical perspective," said Dr Cox. "Should it, however, be proven that motion faster than light is possible, then that would be game changing.

"Our paper doesn't try and explain how this could be achieved, just how equations of motion might operate in such regimes."

Source.

Scientists have been observing particles travelling faster than the speed of light for some time now... the experiments have been successfully peer reviewed.

[Mattus]

Genetic discrimination

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/bo ... ealth.html

Boy Ordered to Transfer Schools for Carrying Cystic Fibrosis Gene Mutation
By Lara Salahi | ABC News Blogs – Fri, Oct 19, 2012 7:00 AM EDT

A California middle school has asked that an 11-year-old boy be transferred elsewhere because he carries a mutation of the gene for cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening genetic disease that is not considered contagious. His parents say they will take the issue to court.
School administrators told 11-year-old Colman Chadam he needed to transfer from Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto, Calif., because he was considered a risk to another student at the school who has the disease, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Bo ... 944802.php

[boxy]

From your link...

While the disease is not contagious, the bacteria those with cystic fibrosis carry can be dangerous to people with the same disease, and non-siblings are advised to stay at least 3 to 6 feet away from each other.

While he doesn't show signs of having the disease, I can see where the school board is coming from, given that they have a pair of siblings with the disease already enrolled. Do they regularly ask students with CF to change schools to keep them separated?