Quantumaniac

jtotheizzoe: The Science of Money Well, I suppose it’s really...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:30:41 -0400

The Science of Money

Well, I suppose it’s really the science on money. Over the years, various national banks from around the world have adorned their currency with great scientists. Despite our intellectual stutters as a nation, even the United States has two scientists currently on legal tender: Benjamin Franklin ($100 bill, AKA “the Benji”) and Thomas Jefferson ($2 bill, rare but real).

Here we see Einstein on Isreali Lirot (1968), the Space Shuttle on a British £5 note, a senior Nikola Tesla on a rather ridiculous 10,000,000,000 Yugoslavian Dinar (1993, clearly at the height of economic health), Louis Pasteur on a 5 French Franc note (1966), Marie (Sklodowska) Curie on a 20,000 Polish Zloty, and a rather suspicious Galileo Galilei on a 2000 Italian Lire note (1973).

Check out Jacob Bourjaily’s full collection for more science plus dinero.

Bonus galleries of awesome science:

Browse my favorite über-nerdy pocket protector collection, true gems of pocket-sized mid-century design here (there’s even one in plaid).

The I.D. badges of every single Manhattan Project scientist, proving that even famous physicists take awkward photos.

So I just started doing research in a new lab, and one of the...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:19:27 -0400

So I just started doing research in a new lab, and one of the professors puts these phenomenal labels everywhere.

The Most Amazing Thing You’ll See Today Stop whatever you...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:56:58 -0400

The Most Amazing Thing You’ll See Today

Stop whatever you are doing, make this full screen, and prepare to be awed: This time-lapse video of a supercell storm cloud rotating over Texas is far and away the most amazing thing you’ll see today.

A supercell is a rotating thundercloud; the spinning vortex in the middle is called a mesocyclone. Conditions need to be just so to create one. First you need a wind shear, where wind blows faster in one spot than another, so a blanket of air is flowing over another one. This sets up a rolling vortex, a horizontally-rotating mass of air like the way a wave breaks when it gets to a beach. An updraft then lifts that vortex, which then spins vertically.

The warmer air in the vortex rises; this is called convection. If there’s a boundary layer of air above it, called a capping layer, it acts like a lid, preventing the vortex air from rising. It builds up power, and can suddenly and explosively grow to huge size. Wikipedia has a good description and diagrams of how this works.

Supercells generally form where there’s a lot of flat land to get that good horizontal flow first. Texas has that in abundance, which is why photographer Mike Olbinski went there, in hopes of getting footage like this (read his description of his adventure on the Vimeo page for the video; it’s quite good). Texas, it so happens, is roomy, so it took him four years to be at the right spot at the right time—in this case, June 3, 2013. Persistence paid off for him, and because he shared this terrifying beauty, it paid off for all of us. Olbinski has several other incredible stormchasing photos on his website.

I’m fascinated by weather phenomena, and supercells like this are something I’d love a chance to see from close by… but not too close by. They can create havoc locally, with torrential downpours (that look like alien spaceworms blasting the Earth), severe lightning, and tornadoes. Given that, maybe video like this is satisfying enough for now.

Source: Slate

Supreme Court Rules Human Genes Cannot Be Patented This...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:18:00 -0400

Supreme Court Rules Human Genes Cannot Be Patented

This morning, in a case challenging patents held by the Utah-based Myriad Genetics, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that human genes may not be patented.

Initially, the patents had been challenged by scientists and doctors who said that the patents hindered their ability to help patients.

The decision hewed closely to the position of the Obama administration, which had argued that isolated DNA could not be patented, but that complementary DNA, or cDNA, which is an artificial construct, could. The patentability of cDNA could limit some of the impact on industry from the decision.

The central question for the justices in the case, Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, No. 12-398, was whether isolated genes are “products of nature” that may not be patented or “human-made inventions” eligible for patent protection.

Myriad’s discovery of the precise location and sequence of the genes at issue, BRCA1 and BRCA2, did not qualify, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court. “A naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated,” he said. “It is undisputed that Myriad did not create or alter any of the genetic information encoded in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.”

“Groundbreaking, innovative or even brilliant discovery does not by itself satisfy the criteria” for patent eligibility, he said.

But manipulating a gene to create something not found in nature, Justice Thomas added, is an invention eligible for patent protection. He also left the door open for other ways for companies to profit from their research.

They may patent the methods of isolating genes, he said. “But the processes used by Myriad to isolate DNA were well understood by geneticists, ” Justice Thomas wrote. He added that companies may also obtain patents on new applications of knowledge gained from genetic research.

Source: NY Times

Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield to Retire Chris Hadfield,...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:52:00 -0400

Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield to Retire

Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut who captivated the world with his photos and videos on social media from the International Space Station (ISS) and professional badass - is retiring.

Cmdr Chris Hadfield, 53, says he is making good on a promise to his wife to move back to Canada after 30 years - effective July 3rd.

The astronaut was the first Canadian to command the ISS. He returned from his third space mission in May. He has lived in Texas since he became a fighter pilot in the late 1980s and was later assigned to the Nasa Johnson Space Center in Houston by the CSA.

“I’ve had such an interesting career and after 35 years it’s time to step down,” Cmdr Hadfield was quoted as saying by the CBC. “I’m the last astronaut of my class that’s still around.”

“Chris Hadfield has inspired all Canadians, especially our next-generation of scientists and engineers,” Chris Alexander, parliamentary secretary for defence, said in a statement.

“His exceptional career achievements make him a true Canadian hero and icon.”

Source: BBC

Just a quick reminder that Bill Nye is awesome. “Everyone you...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 19:19:40 -0400

Just a quick reminder that Bill Nye is awesome.

“Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.”

“Humor is everywhere, in that there’s irony in just about anything a human does.”

“If you look back on all the teachers that you liked, I am sure you will find they were very entertaining.”

“Science is the key to our future, and if you don’t believe in science, then you’re holding everybody back.”

Three Reasons Why Voyager I Is Badass As of this writing,...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 22:22:00 -0400

Three Reasons Why Voyager I Is Badass

As of this writing, Voyager I is over 18,000,000,000 km away from Earth - for comparison, that’s about the distance one would travel if one went from California to New York about four million times.
When Voyager I was initially launched, it was only expected to survive for four years - it’s been active for over 35 years.
Currently, the craft is travelling in a region of space that may well be beyond our solar system - although this is unclear at the moment.

Quantumaniac on Twitter

christinetheastrophysicist: Jupiter From Beneath Jupiter’s...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 21:03:30 -0400

christinetheastrophysicist:

Jupiter From Beneath

Jupiter’s southern hemisphere is rendered into a mass of concentric cloud patterns in this unusual view, constructed from data gathered with the Cassini spaceprobe during its December 2000 fly-by of the giant planet. The image stitches together data from 36 separate exposures taken over the course of nine hours as the spaceprobe passed by some 10 million kilometres (6.2 million miles) away. Despite an equatorial diameter 11 times larger than Earth’s, Jupiter rotates in less than ten hours, wrapping high- and low-pressure weather systems into parallel bands around the equator.

"Think of an experience from your childhood. Something you remember clearly, something you can see,..."

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:28:20 -0400

“Think of an experience from your childhood. Something you remember clearly, something you can...

Saturn’s Rave Looks like there’s a rave on Saturn....

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:01:00 -0400

Saturn’s Rave

Looks like there’s a rave on Saturn. The (top) ultraviolet image of the southern polar region of Saturn, with its rave-like aurora, was taken on January 28, 2004 by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Imaging Spectrograph.

On Earth, auroral storms may develop in as little as ten minutes and last for no more than a few hours. On Saturn, however, the rave lives on - it can last for days.

Saturn’s auroral storms are primarily caused by the pressure of solar wind, a stream of charged particles from the Sun. When the aurora becomes brighter and more powerful, the ring shrinks in diameter.

Unfortunately, the ultraviolet representation is a little misleading - it does not properly represent what you would see if you were flying around up there. The above drawings are an artist’s conception what one might see, but we can be fairly confident that if the ultraviolet was excited that the visible spectra would be excited as well.

Sources: 1, 2

Quantumaniac on Twitter

the-science-llama: Light at 1-Trillion Frames/Second That’s...

Fri, 31 May 2013 18:42:52 -0400

Light at 1-Trillion FPS // TED - Ramesh Raskar // posted by The-Science-Llama

Light at 1-Trillion FPS // TED - Ramesh Raskar // posted by The-Science-Llama

the-science-llama:

Light at 1-Trillion Frames/Second

That’s right, you are seeing light in slow motion! At this speed you can study the way light interacts and reflects off of surfaces and, as you can see, when it travels past the tomato onto the wall it seems like a ripple in a pond. This technology will even allow you to see around corners, like into a room or even inside the human body.

The gifs make it seem a little bit faster than the actual video so watch the TED talk video with Ramesh Raskar explaining what he calls “Femto-Photography”.

This is astounding.

Check out Quantumaniac on Twitter! I apologize for the...

Sun, 19 May 2013 20:29:27 -0400

Check out Quantumaniac on Twitter!

I apologize for the shameless plug, but please follow me on Twitter if you aren’t already. Obviously there are billions and billions of reasons to follow this account but besides links to the main posts, here are a few of the totally stellar things you’ll find on Twitter:

Jokes - seriously, some of my space jokes are out of this world.
Quotes - Much like the Large Hadron Collider, these are always a smashing success.
Random Bits of Insight - You’ll totally get to see me in my element.

If this (somehow) didn’t convince you, please check it out anyway! I promise you (probably) won’t regret it.

Quantumaniac on Twitter

thedailywhat: Coming Soon of the Day: Neil Degrasse Tyson Will...

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:03:24 -0400

thedailywhat:

Coming Soon of the Day: Neil Degrasse Tyson Will Host the Sequel of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos
Though it’s been quietly in the works since 2011, Fox has officially confirmed that Carl Sagan’s monumental 1970 sci-ed miniseries Cosmos: A Personal Voyage will be getting an updated sequel next year, which will consist of 13 episodes produced by Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane and hosted by one of the Internet’s most celebrated astrophysicists, Neil Degrasse Tyson. Fox is hoping the show will have as much as of cultural impact as Carl Sagan’s original series, which still remains one of the most watched PBS series in the world to this day.

(Image by Richard Davies)

Re-Grading Hey guys! So I’m now writing comics for The...

Sun, 12 May 2013 22:40:04 -0400

Re-Grading

Hey guys! So I’m now writing comics for The Daily Princetonian, Princeton University’s daily independent student newspaper. Here’s my first one.

The World’s Smallest Movie - “A Boy and his...

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:38:56 -0400

The World’s Smallest Movie - “A Boy and his Atom”

This is really, really sick. A movie with atoms as ‘actors’ has been named by the Guinness World Records organization, as the “world’s smallest movie.” Called “A Boy and his Atom”, the stop-action film was produced by IBM to introduce students to the world of mathematics and science, while highlighting IBM’s own history of research.

earthandanimals: “Leo the lion, Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:33:28 -0400

earthandanimals:

“Leo the lion, Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear were found together as cubs during a police raid of a drug baron’s home in Atlanta. When the young trio moved to Noah’s Ark rescue center in Locust Grove, Ga., zookeepers decided to keep them together, and they all still live and play in their very own habitat. Visitors can watch the 1,000-pound bear, 350-pound lion and 350-pound tiger cuddle, lounge and wrestle together, and zoo Co-Founder Jama Hedgecoth says the animals are oblivious to the fact that they aren’t natural companions.”

dvdp: 130207

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:27:29 -0400

dvdp:

130207

cellokind: donut math 101 Joseph did his research.

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:44:16 -0400

cellokind:

donut math 101

Joseph did his research.

moshita: Scientists have grown a kidney in a laboratory and...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 22:00:47 -0400

moshita:

Scientists have grown a kidney in a laboratory and shown that it works when implanted into a living animal. The work is an important step towards the longer-term goal of growing personalised replacement organs that could be transplanted into people with kidney failure.

Nature Medicine

the-muggles-got-me-down: this was a hint in my geometry...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 09:30:29 -0400

the-muggles-got-me-down:

this was a hint in my geometry textbook

somewhere there is a mathematician whose entire life has led up to this joke