Other Sciences

I have created a gallery in my profile which is named: Science with Boinc. I'm currently a member of 21 Boinc projects. Do you people here at SFN find Boinc to be a meaningful project?

Crew members of space shuttle Atlantis flew to NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 5, 2008 to check out the payload carriers, new science instruments and tools they'll be using to repair the Hubble Space Telescope and enhance its ability and functionality. This hands-on preflight exercise is called a crew familiarization, or Payload Crew Equipment Interface Test. Check it out.

The Space Shuttle Minute is NASA's wrap-up of activities surrounding Space Shuttle processing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Check it out!

On researching and following up some of the links posted in this Forum, I come across papers that are written in a way that is impenetrable to the casually interested. I will accept that papers are written for fellow specialists who understand the terminology. However, why write the papers in such a mangled and high-fangled way? I am as guilty as this as anyone else. During the writing of a paper, my supervisor changed the words of my original paper to make it more 'high' sounding and insisted I use the word 'moeity' instead of one of a pair of molecules and 'ablate' instead of 'broken down'. Being as dumb as an ox (and twice as ugly) I did not know the meaning …

As you can see in my sig, Nilfir stands for Neutron Induced Lithium Fission Reaction. It is an alternate way to create energy using Nuclear Fission. This is the reaction: Li-7 + N => Li-8 Li-8 => Be-8 + 16 MeV Be-8 => 2 He-4 + 90 KeV. The total energy gain is ~16.1 MeV. The energy density is about 2 MeV/AMU (193 trillion joules/ Kg) more than twice Uranium. Now all of this so far is great, but you would need an expensive and power hungry external neutron source because this reaction doesn't produce any neutrons. This is how I would alleviate this: Deuterium contains a proton and a neutron. The binding energy per nucleon is a…

Just reading the latest edition of Skeptic journal. Vol. 14 no. 2 from page 28. An article by Dr. Michael Shermer in which he refers to the basis for the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Apparently the Drake Equation is very popular with SETI researchers. This was proposed by Dr. Frank Drake in 1961 and popularised by Dr. Carl Sagan. It refers to the number of intelligent, technological, and potentially contactable civilised species in our galaxy. The number of these is obtained by multiplying together the following. 1. The number of stars in the galaxy (E11) 2. The fraction of these stars with planets (usual guess 50%) 3. The number …

I have been involved in a couple of thread discussions where I have suggested that the short to medium term harm from global warming is not going to be as bad as zealots predict. One of the arguments used against me is the predicted increase in number and force of hurricanes. So when I saw the reference below, I thought it worth posting. http://www.sciencedaily.com:80/releases/2008/08/080812160615.htm Not that I am a great fan of this kind of computer model. But it is interesting to see that the frequency of hurricanes is now predicted to reduce, not increase. I quote : "Together, these results suggest that in a global warming world, there would be le…

Just found this, I'm amazed it hasn't been considered before...I'm a bit busy ATM, but can anybody see any problems with this idea ? http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080812135702.htm

The capacitor's resistance i.e the resistance offered by the material from which capacitor was made and not the resitance offered by air gap between the capacitor should it be shown in the circuit either in series or in parallel to the capacitor.

Some time ago I read this article and started wondering about how important helium actually is. But besides not having vitally important and amusing helium balloons, how big of a deal a helium shortage would actually be? Many applications of helium just rely on it being inert but we have four other (stable) noble gases for that purpose. Because of helium's impressively low melting point one important application is of course the cooling of superconductors, but assuming superconductor technologies have improved by the time we hit the shortage it won't probably be a problem.

As I was watching a show on television about technology and how it has advanced throughout the ages, I realized that as technology is invented more technology grows off of that piece of technology. Think of the caveman when he found fire. It may have been the necessity to collect wood that lead to the discovery of the stone tool. That tool lead to a weapon and more tools and so on and so forth. As technology increases the time between each great invention is shortened. The time between each great invention back in the Greek and Roman time period would be fairly long. Probably around 200 years. But if you were to look at nowadays its only 10 years. Think of the difference …

I am not sure where to put this so I will put this in General Science. If it belongs in a different sub-forum then I apologize in advance. I have been thinking about the three parts of time past present and future. Past and future seem relatively simple to define but I have been struggling to find a definition of present. I mean if I say this is present by the time I am done saying that it has all happened in the past. And we see everything in the past because even though light is incredible fast it take the light sometime to reach our eyes from what ever it hit. So what we see is actually in the past. Also I have been thinking that when if I looked at the ni…

I would be curious what others think about the video series from Dr. James Maxlow ( PHD - Geology ) on the Growing Earth Theory. Essentially the theory claims that the earth has grown in almost twice it's size in the last 400 million years and is continuing to grow. It also quotes NASA officials regarding the detection of a vertical radius movement in the Earths at a rate of 18mm per year via thier Space Geodesy Systems ( GPS included ). I did attempt to post this in another thread but due to the lack of the academic credentials of some of the materials it was moved elsewhere. So This thread focuses on the materials provided by a recognized PHD who uses real world dat…

Could structured potential control chemical thermodynamics? I think for instance that if you have a medium which has two elements in it, one is hotter then the other the system will move to equilibrium. So could you control the flow of this, in regards to it playing out in chemical potential, reaction and bonding? I am just wondering on the potential to do chemistry from molding a system in which reaction is diving primarily by nothing more then movement towards equilibrium really. I imagine that bonding behavior by electrons would have a close affinity in this for cause and effect or the system moving towards equilibrium correct? Yet I imagine I would have to do the…

"Edit - When i said "Exciting Holiday" - i was referring to the destination, & when i talk about the area, i am referring to a DAY trip only! - not an extended period of stay. Cheers" Good Evening All. First up, My name is Matt & I'm from Australia. Nice forums here, alot of data! Basically, ive been intrigued about the entire Chernobyl event, ever since i first layed eyes on it all those years ago. After doing some extensive research, and finding out alot of genuine data about traveling to the region for tours into Chernobyl, ive come to wounder about a few health related questions. As i am in the wrong industry for getting any knowledge, (I'm curren…

What do people think of the accuracy of Wikipedia in science related articles? I read a study that said that Wikipedia's accuracy in science was comparable to that of Britannica. Others say that Wikipedia is inaccurate and unreliable. A few professors have allowed references to Wikipedia (but only if the reference is static). What do people think of the accuracy of Wikipedia in science? On a related note, what do people think the potential of Wikipedia is? Will its accuracy continuously increase, or will vandals and incompetents keep it low? Will Wikipedia become the ultimate dictionary of the future/repository of knowledge, or is it the predecessor of the Hichhic…

What amplitude range for seismic P-waves? For range 3-8 Richter magnitudes.

Surface of earth is bark of earth . it is not real skin of earth . the real skin may have cells.

is it possible to take the color out of light so that a shadow comes out of a flashlight instead of normal light?

A veteran of six space flights talks about being an astronaut and living aboard both the International Space Station and Mir.

The Space Shuttle Minute is NASA's wrap-up of activities surrounding Space Shuttle processing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Most people know that nuclear reactors exist around the world, but few people know how they work. I looked into it and was very surprised to know that the reactors simply create fission in Uranium-235, use the heat generated to turn water into steam and use it to turn a turbine. (very primitive) What i really don't get why they don't use the gamma radiation for power as well. when a gamma ray interacts with an electron, it causes it to separate from the atom. why don't scientist use these electrons to create additional power?

Thought experiments are not just predictions. They can make valid conclusions. Wikipedia has it right here:

What kind of business models or practices do you think would favor environmentally safe behavior from a capitalist viewpoint? Currently I view environmentally safe products of business at a disadvantage simply from higher costs and less availability overall. I don’t see how the current model of our economy as I see it changing from this. I mean the SUV only stated to diminish in sales because of fuel prices, but its not extinct. How can a “free” economy sustain any lasting or positive changes to be environmentally sound globally and locally? I raise this question because I think ultimately past making huge leaps in alternative fuels that can be expended without bound …

We are creating a science news show based at WKRC at Columbia University that will be heard on the radio and be streamed over the internet. We are interested in freelance submissions for stories. The show will be a sort of "All Things Considered" for science, medicine and technology and the science back stories to general news reports. If you have a story you are interested in reporting, please submit a one paragraph summary to scienceontheweb@gmail.com. You will need to have access to a digital voice recorder. You do not need to have an advanced degree to participate. You just need to be able to report a story.