Latest Posts by 7w1x-blog - Page 5
Bots you can’t ignore
Bite-sized bots at Vanderbilt University, drumming bots at Georgia Tech, and touchy-feely bots at UCLA… it’s all about National Robotics Week at Science360 Radio this weekend. Download the Science360 Radio app to hear our featured podcasts about cutting edge robotics research.
Above: Founding director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology Gil Weinberg created a robotic drumming prosthesis with motors that power two drumsticks. The first stick is controlled physically by the musician’s arms and electronically by his muscles. The other stick on the prosthesis actually “listens” to the music and plays on its own. Credit: Rob Felt/Georgia Tech Story: http://www.news.gatech.edu/2014/03/05/robotic-prosthesis-turns-drummer-three-armed-cyborg
Below: Research engineers and students in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Biomechatronics Lab are designing artificial limbs to be more sensational, with the emphasis on sensation. The team, led by mechanical engineer Veronica Santos, is constructing a language of touch that both a computer and a human can understand. Credit: National Science Foundation Video: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/robotictouch.jsp
Frontier Fields Galaxy Cluster MACS J0717 : Frontier Fields galaxy cluster MACS J0717, one of the most complex and distorted galaxy clusters known, is the site of a collision between four clusters. It is located about 5.4 billion light years away from Earth.
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Microsoft announces all the things
Nowadays, Microsoft is a serious consumer electronics device vendor and the company presented a load of hardware at its October 6th event:
- A developer version of the VR HoloLens will be available in Q1-2016 for $ 3,000. Cool!
- An new version of the Microsoft Band is ready. The wearable band now has Cortina integration, a curved gorilla glass display and the device is fully packed with fitness centric features such as continuous heart rate monitoring, UV monitoring, GPS, a barometer and Microsoft Health integration. The Microsoft Band can be preordered today for $250 and it will be available at the end of October.
- Microsoft unveiled three new Windows 10 Lumia phones including the high-end 950 ($550) and 950XL ($650) devices and the budget Lumia 550 ($140). The 950 devices feature USB-C connectors, 5.2” or 5.7” high resolution OLED displays, 20 MP cameras with optical image stabilisation, 32GB of storage and support for additional SD card storage. The devices will be out at the end of November. Reasonable specs for high-end devices, but I’ve been burned before by Microsoft’s mobile eco system.
- The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is the company’s new tablet. The device fits a larger 12.3” 2,736 x 1,824 resolution display in the same design foot print as last years’ Surface Pro 3. The Surface Pro is 30 percent faster than the SP3 and comes with an updated Surface Pen. The pen features 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, one year battery life and nifty magnetic storage. The new and slimmer Type Cover has a 40 percent larger glass track pad and updated key mechanism compared to previous models. The Surface Pro 4 will be available at the end of October with prices starting at at $899.
- The big surprise of the event was the Microsoft Surface Book, the company’s first lap top. The convertible notebook has a 13.5” 3000 x 2000 resolution touch screen and Microsoft said it was pound for pound, the fastest laptop in the world. It can be yours for $1499 and pre orders start today. The Surface Book looks nice and the “fulcrum hinge” enables the device to bend in all kinds of positions even though it actually won’t let you fully close the lid.
Just Like Fire by Pink
Pink has never been a blockbuster star the way other divas of her era have. We’re much more likely to see a performance from Taylor Swift, or a third one from Beyonce, at the Super Bowl, for example, than from Pink. But sixteen years after her debut studio album, Pink has demonstrated a staying power worthy of respect. Some may attribute this to the strong firebrand persona she’s maintained over the years, which comes through on her new song Just Like Fire, from the soundtrack to the film Alice: Through The Looking Glass. The song has self-assertive lyrics delivered in a somewhat sentimental tone, with a grandiose chorus that reminds me of Katy Perry’s Roar. I probably won’t end up seeing the movie, but I won’t mind if this song comes on my pop music Pandora playlist.
Can eyeballs bounce? Like if you were to scoop someone's eye out and it came out in perfect shape would it bounce if it fell on the floor?
I’m not sure. They can be rubbery, but I’m not sure if the force required to make them bounce wouldn’t also make them go splat.
Maybe some biology/med students know (I don’t deal much with eyeballs as a Chemistry major).
Followers?
A, I didn't know you could sweat? What other human like functions do you have??
“I actually come equipped with several functions similar to that… my body can produce tears, and I can taste, smell, and feel sensation as well.”
Lori Hersberger.
Peter Erskine.
Sylvie Fleury
Laddie John Dill
WWF Australia Showing the View of the Reef from a Turtle’s Point of View.
A GoPro was secured to the back of the Sea Turtle as part of a campaign to raise awareness for the declining health of the Great Barrier Reef.
The reef is UNESCO listed and although passed without the “in danger” title, pollution and human development are steering the reef toward this direction in the next couple of years.
The GoPro was eventually shaken off by the Turtle and was collected by divers.
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An agate stone that looks like a window to the ocean.
TOP TEN MOST UNIQUE PLANETS IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE
Please note that I have included the descriptions of the planets on the pictures, so that you don’t have to keep scrolling up and down. All you have to do is click on them to read the description.
1. J1407b - Although it physically resembles Saturn, J1407b is much smaller than Saturn is, and has a much larger ring system.
2. TrEs-2b - Also known as the Dark Planet, TrEs-2b is officially the darkest planet in the known universe. It reflects less than 1% of light, and they say that it is so dark that even coal seems brighter than it.
3. 55 Cancri E - Also known as the Planet of Diamonds, at twice the size of Earth 55 Cancri E is so dense and carbon-heavy that the carbon has been compressed into a diamond.
4. Gliese 436b - Although the planet is similar in size to Neptune, it is too dense to be composed largely of hydrogen (as most gas giants are). Scientists believe that instead it is made up of a large concentrate of hot water ice (also known as “Ice-x”).
5. WASP-12b - This planet rotates so close to its parent star that it only has about another ten million years before it’s completely devoured.
6. Titan - This one isn’t a planet; it isn’t even outside of our Solar System. Titan is the largest moon that orbits Saturn, and is the only place outside of Earth where clear evidence of liquid has been found. The difference is that while the liquid on Earth is mostly composed of water, the liquid on Titan is actually methane.
7. Gliese 1214b - Scientists have nicknamed this planet ‘Waterworld’ due to it being the most likely contender outside of our Solar System to contain liquid water.
8. TrES-4b - Aside from WASP-12b, TrES-4b is one of the largest exoplanets ever found - this is a size comparison of TrES-4b to Jupiter.
9. HD 188753 - Also known as “Hot Jupiter”, this exoplanet is so hot and so large that it has actually challenged the currently accepted theory of gas planet formation. According to prevailing scientific theories, a gas planet this hot should not be able to exist.
10. HD 189733b - A gas giant with a daytime temperature of about 2,000 degrees Farenheit (1093 C), according to NASA, HD 189733b rains liquid glass sideways amid 4,500 mph winds.
https://soundcloud.com/imkryptogram/scarlet
Tell us about your new single ‘Scarlet’
“'Scarlet’ was a combination of many things at the time. The initial idea was easy to get down but completing it and giving it the respect that it deserves was a little more tough, which is possibly the reason it’s my most intricate production to date. For me 'Scarlet’ represents a second wind, a breath of fresh air; the moment you’re reborn and start thinking clearly again.”
Happy #InternationalWomensDay! Learn more about Kevlar, invented by Stephanie Kwolek: http://wp.me/s4aPLT-kevlar
FINAL WEEK! Flatlands brings together paintings by five emerging artists—Nina Chanel Abney, Mathew Cerletty, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Caitlin Keogh, and Orion Martin.
Orion Martin (b. 1988), Bakers Steak, 2015. Oil on canvas, 51 ½ in. × 35 ½ in. (130.8 × 90.17 cm). Courtesy of the artist
source: Philosophy and Reason
Auroras of Jupiter
William Hundley.
Fun Facts About Mars
Mars is a cold desert world, and is the fourth planet from the sun. It is half the diameter of Earth and has the same amount of dry land. Like Earth, Mars has seasons, polar ice caps, volcanoes, canyons and weather, but its atmosphere is too thin for liquid water to exist for long on the surface. There are signs of ancient floods on the Red Planet, but evidence for water now exists mainly in icy soil and thin clouds.
Earth has one, Mars has two…moons of course! Phobos (fear) and Deimos (panic) are the Red Planet’s two small moons. They are named after the horses that pulled the chariot of the Greek war god Ares, the counterpart to the Roman war god Mars.
The diameter of Mars is 4220 miles (6792 km). That means that the Red Planet is twice as big as the moon, but the Earth is twice as big as Mars.
Since Mars has less gravity than Earth, you would weigh 62% less than you do here on our home planet. Weigh yourself here on the Planets App. What’s the heaviest thing you’ve ever lifted? On Mars, you could have lifted more than twice that! Every 10 pounds on Earth only equals 4 pounds on the Red Planet. Find out why HERE.
Mass is the measurement of the amount of matter something contains. Mars is about 1/10th of the mass of Earth.
Mars and Earth are at their closest point to each other about every two years, with a distance of about 33 million miles between them at that time. The farthest that the Earth and Mars can be apart is: 249 million miles. This is due to the fact that both Mars and Earth have elliptical orbits and Mars’ orbit is tilted in comparison with the Earth’s. They also orbit the sun at different rates.
The temperature on Mars can be as high as 70 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) or as low as about –225 degrees Fahrenheit (-153 degrees Celsius). How hot or cold the surface varies between day and night and among seasons. Mars is colder than Earth because it is farther from the sun.
You know that onions have layers, but did you know that Mars has layers too? Like Earth, Mars has a crust, a mantle and a core. The same stuff even makes up the planet layers: iron and silicate.
Ever wonder why it’s so hard launching things to space? It’s because the Earth has a log of gravity! Gravity makes things have weight, and the greater the gravity, the more it weights. On Mars, things weigh less because the gravity isn’t as strong.
Take a deep breath. What do you think you just breathed in? Mostly Nitrogen, about a fifth of that breath was Oxygen and the rest was a mix of other gases. To get the same amount of oxygen from one Earth breath, you’d have to take around 14,500 breaths on Mars! With the atmosphere being 100 times less dense, and being mostly carbon dioxide, there’s not a whole lot of oxygen to breathe in.
Mars has about 15% of Earth’s volume. To fill Earth’s volume, it would take over 6 Mars’ volumes.
For more fun Mars facts, visit HERE.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
Full Venus and Crescent Moon Rise via NASA
Spring has sprung! Enjoy a dose of color with Willie Cole’s Pressed Iron Blossom No. 2.
[Willie Cole. Pressed Iron Blossom No. 2. 2005. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © 2016 Willie Cole]
Jackson Pollock’s Echo: Number 25, 1951 is back on view at MoMA as part of Jackson Pollock: A Collection Survey, 1934–1954 after its recent visit to the Dallas Museum of Art. Find out what our conservation department learned from studying Echo.
[Shown: Jackson Pollock. Echo: Number 25, 1951. 1951. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © 2016 Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Installation view of Jackson Pollock: A Collection Survey, 1934–1954 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (November 22, 2015–March 13, 2016). Photograph: Yan Pan]