Science News

Warning: the link is R-rated In a recent thread, the topic of predatory journals came up. Here's an example of why scientists don't trust the material they publish "Get Me Off Your F***ing Mailing List" is an actual science paper accepted by a [predatory] journal The journal claims to peer-review their submissions, but the evidence here shows that they don't. The link also points to other examples of intentionally poor papers submitted to multiple vanity journals, and getting frighteningly high acceptance rates — around half.

I see a video showing a sub station explosion at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in Kursk, Russia which immediately knocked out power throughout the surrounding area on December, 1st, 2014 https://mx.screen.yahoo.com/must-see-videos/power-plant-explosion-leaves-russian-152807079.html

synthetic biology - a science which marries disciplines such as biotechnology, molecular biology and evolutionary biology. Synthetic biology offers hope with incurables http://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=11367827 That sounds really exciting. I could imagine huge fortunes could be made from exploring this technology.

NASA plans to launch a new unmanned spacecraft called "Orion" Thursday morning There is a live chat feed at youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaaKoySLK8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gaaKoySLK8w http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#.VIBhqtKsWmw Close, but no cigar, delayed valve/weather problems, 24hr delay, tomorrow is another day.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1611410447/rosetta-an-orchestral-album What do you guys think of the idea? It's getting a little traction but not much. You know what they say - use inspiration from wherever you find it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30191584 It would be nice if anyone had a link to the (sea)horse's mouth on this.

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/physics-hendo-hoverboard/ Have we fulfilled the Back to the Future dream of hoverboards? Or is this simply another ploy?

Brian Cox visits the world's biggest vacuum chamber and performing experiment.

After ten years of flight, ESA's Rosetta spacecraft now flying alongside a comet. This is an amazing feat. I can't wait to see what we learn from this. http://annesastronomynews.com/rosetta-arrives-at-comet-destination/

http://www.wired.com/2014/11/nano-sub-co2-scrub/ I wish we had this back when I was still onboard a sub. Amine has to be one of the most noxious substances in existence. Ideally we would have a means of splitting off the oxygen from the CO2, but this is at least a step in the right direction.

Lack of water will limit fossil fuel power plants. Will their proponents continue to build them as people who buy no power die from lack of water?

Lockheed-Martin, the aerospace and defence giant, has promised a working fusion reactor of the high Beta type, using cylindrical magnetic containment and radio waves to heat deuterium and tritium. They say thy'll have the capability to meet global baseload energy demands by 2050. Any opinions or information as to where they are currently in their project would be appreciated. Is this another example of capitalism solving the world's problems because there's profit in it ?

I am sure most of you are informed that the Antares incident in Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia that happened 6:22 p.m. EDT. I am wondering why no one start a topic about this sad incident. It appears to be very serious. Usually, when any rocket fails during launch, newspaper in Malaysia will only show the news as a small paragraph in some small column that isn`t easily identified. But this time, it appears to be a full page with detailed explanation. To prevent this thread to be regarded as off topic, I posted a link-related conference by NASA. There are many links if you Google NASA or Antares in the News section. The main reason I posted this topic i…

http://www.universetoday.com/114802/there-are-no-such-things-as-black-holes/ I have my own thoughts on black holes, but in the past my ideas have been put down for no math, But one minute math says black holes exist and how they are formed, Then next math is saying they cannot exist. It seems that sometimes math can be made to say what ever it wants.

http://digg.com/video/this-man-made-leaf-could-let-humans-colonize-space http://www.cnet.com/news/this-man-made-breathing-leaf-is-an-oxygen-factory-for-space-travel/ I personally think this is one of the best things we have yet to do.

The Rossi reactor, which generates slow neutrons in the transmutation of hydrogen-loaded nickel into copper under THz radiation, has produced 1.5 MWh of energy over 32 days. http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/191754-cold-fusion-reactor-verified-by-third-party-researchers-seems-to-have-1-million-times-the-energy-density-of-gasoline

Report says physicists in China have teleported two quantum properties of a photon for the first time. And they say that, in principle, their approach could work for other properties as well. So are we getting close to the teleportation of all quantum properties of a photon, or of an electron for that matter? And then entire atoms perhaps? I would imagine doing this is still way in the future. Still, it's amazing to think it may be possible. Link: https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/first-teleportation-of-multiple-quantum-properties-of-a-single-photon-7c1e61598565

I recently have been researching Quantum Computing for an article I was writing. It's amazing how far along it has come. Google just recently hired Dr. Martinis from the University of California, Santa Barbara to help develop and working Quantum Computer. Google has been working with the DWave Two, but there is some controversy as to whether or not that is a fully quantum computer (it very likely is only quasi-quantum). This is a pretty cool development because there are all kinds of problems that could benefit from quantum computers. Problems that would take classical computers thousands of years. Just cool stuff. Google Leaps Into Quantum Computing (click at the top t…

This doesn`t actually sounds like a news but I still post it here because I get to know it from a newspaper. I think most of the members might have known this project. You can sign up for a boarding pass to get your name on a trip on the Orion testing module on-board the Delta IV Heavy rocket. After the landing scheduled at The pacific ocean transfer near California, your journey haven`t ended. Your name will continue to fly on subsequent Orion spacecraft in the future which is going to on-board the Space Launch System(SLS) by NASA. You collect points along the journey. For the Orion Flight Test, the point is 60000 miles. The website is go.usa.gov/vcpz …

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2014/ "Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy". I don't know I'd call that chemistry, but congratulations nonetheless! http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2014/advanced-chemistryprize2014.pdf

with one half to John O´Keefe and the other half jointly to May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29504761 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2014/press.html http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2014/advanced-medicineprize2014.pdf

Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources” http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2014/press.html http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2014/advanced.html /aside I do remember the glee when I found that the on/off light of my ps2 was a blue led

Regeneration like Wolverine may be on the verge of being VERY possible! What Is DARPA? Before going on to the project itself, let us look over at DARPA – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Formed in 1958, they have been funding many major technological developments for this long time. Though their main aim is to help the military sector of USA, their projects have helped the whole world too. Recently, the American government has invested $73.8 million in a biotechnology research program. This allowed DARPA and its researchers are going to carry on with research. Project ElectRx The project’s name is ElectRx... Read more. url deleted - rule 2.7 Like…

Cloaking device uses ordinary lenses to hide objects: http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/watch-rochester-cloak-uses-ordinary-lenses-to-hide-objects-across-continuous-range-of-angles-70592/ It struck me that this work may just be an ingenious application of a well known principle of optics design. Most good lenses used in photography have variable diaphrams placed somewhere between the optical elements. When you take a picture the lens's aperture or diaphram is "invisible" in that it doesn't show up in the image. Only the scene that lays in front of the first lens appears in the image that is focussed on the film or digital sensor.

Hello. My name is Roger Pink and I'm a physicist and a science writer. This is an article I wrote on the SpaceX Falcon 9. If you're interested, please give it a read and let me know what you think below in the comments here. SpaceX Falcon 9 Here is an excerpt: The current Falcon 9, known as the Falcon 9 v1.1, introduced several improvements. It is heavier at 1,115,200 pounds and taller at 224 feet, though it still measures 12 feet in diameter. The extra height and weight are due to the additional fuel required by its nine improved Merlin 1D engines that are arranged in what SpaceX calls an Octaweb configuration. In this configuration, eight of the nine engines…