The ‘chemputer’ that could print out any drug
When Lee Cronin learned about the concept of 3D printers, he had a brilliant idea: why not turn such a device into a universal chemistry set that could make its own drugs?
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The actual distance between the Earth and the Moon.
Perspective.
(via itsfullofstars)
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On December 13, 1920, Albert Abraham Michelson and Francis Pease measured diameter of the star Betelgeuse, the first measurement of the size of any star other than the Sun. Although the relative size of Betelgeuse has been in dispute since then mostly due to its massive size and incredible speed through space, the methods devised by Michaelson and Pease have been used for decades. The name Betelgeuse is derived from the Arabic يد الجوزاء (Yad al-Jauzā’), meaning the Hand of al-Jauzā, al-Jauzā being the constellation known in the west as Orion the Hunter. Betelgeuse is the right shoulder (or armpit) of Orion and the alpha star of the constellation. The letter B in Betelgeuse, however, was a mistransliteration from Arabic into medieval Latin of the first character Y, which was misread as a B. Betelgeuse arrived in English in 1515 as a direct phonetic transliteration of the Arabic as Ibt al Jauzah, which due to this mispelling was also mistranslated as the Armpit of the Central One. Intermediary forms include Bed Elgueze, Beit Algueze, Betelgeux and Betelgeuze, finally settling on Betelgeuse around the time Michaelson and Pease were measuring the star.
Everything about this star has been misunderstood for centuries, starting with its name in English and continuing to the present day. When Michaelson and Pease attempted to measure its size, interferometry was still a new science and early estimates both missed its size and proximity. Long considered the largest star in the catalog (currently Betelgeuse ranks third largest), Betelgeuse is a massive red super giant millions of times larger than the sun. As recently as the last ten or fifteen years the size and distance of Betelgeuse have been refined and updated as new and improved methods have been implemented.
Michaelson, the scientist who first measured Betelgeuse, had a life scripted by Hollywood: his parents fled Poland when he was only two years old and settled in the American West. Michaelson recieved an appointment from no less than President Ulysses S. Grant to attend the fledgling United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland where he began his scientific endeavors in earnest. He is actually more famous for his experiments to measure the speed of light accurately, known as the Michaelson-Morley experiment, which he began while in Annapolis and which he continued to refine for decades as he tried to measure the impact of aether on the speed of light. He never was able to find evidence of aether, which later became significant and celebrated when Einstein published his Special Theory of Relativity. He was awarded most major scientific prizes including the Nobel Prize of 1907 and is considered the first American to win that prize. His life was so dramatic and crammed with acheivement that his early life and appointment to USNA managed to penetrate into popular culture when his life was celebrated on an episode of Gunsmoke, in which an unpleasant local teacher attempts to block his advancement. The episode Look to the Stars was broadcast in March 1962, 31 years after his death on May 9, 1931.
Although Michaelson and Pease’s first measurement has been in flux since publication, this was not due to flaws in their science or methodology. As recently as 1991 the Yale University Observatory measured the distance to Betelgeuse at 330 light years. The Hipparcos Input Catalog measured the distance two years later at 650 light years, almost doubling Yale’s measurement. In 2008 a team working with Very Large Array Radio Telescopes lead by Graham Harper measured the distance at 643 light years with a margin of error of plus or minus 146 (!!!) light years.
Reblogged for Orion’s armpit.
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Oh Rayleigh?!
So the sky is blue because short wavelengths of light coming from the Sun (blue, etc.) are scattered more than long ones (yellow, red, etc.), reflecting the short wavelength light into our eyes instead of it passing through the atmosphere as part of white light. Sunsets are red for the opposite reason … but yeah, why isn’t it violet?
Violet has an even shorter wavelength than blue light. So does indigo, whatever that is. There’s a good logical case for a purple sky, right?
Want to know the answer? Why the sky isn’t violet?
Do ya?
The truth is that the sky is both violet and blue. But the color receptors in our eyes don’t see violet very well, so we get the (incorrect) impression that the sky is just blue. Some birds actually see well into the violet and ultraviolet, so the sky must look trippy as hell to them.
(via xkcd)
(via project-argus)
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“It must be strange world not being a scientist, going through life not knowing—or maybe not caring about where the air came from, where the stars at night came from or how far they are from us. I want to know.” — Michio Kaki
(via moremaggiemayhem)
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(via neuronsandneutrons)
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Science is nothing more than a never-ending search for truth. What could be more profoundly sacred than that?
Ann Druyan (via thedailycosmos)
(via astrotastic)
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Mystery of Earth’s Missing Moon —Will NASA Solve It?
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NASA’s GRAIL mission started its lunar probe late in 2011 to uncover some of the mysteries buried beneath the surface of the Moon —even, perhaps, a long-lost companion. According to recent scientific speculation, the Earth once had two moons gracing our night skies.
“It’s an intriguing idea,” said David Smith, GRAIL’s deputy principal investigator at MIT. “And it would be a way to explain one of the great perplexities of the Earth-Moon system – the Moon’s strangely asymmetrical nature. Its near and far sides are substantially different.”
The Moon’s near side, facing us, is dominated by vast smooth ‘seas’ of ancient hardened lava. In contrast, the far side is marked by mountainous highlands. Researchers have long struggled to account for the differences, and the “two moon” theory introduced by Martin Jutzi and Erik Asphaug of the University of California at Santa Cruz is the latest attempt.
(via dailygalaxy)
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Eternal Clock Could Keep Time After Universe Dies
The idea for an eternal clock that would continue to keep time even after the universe ceased to exist has intrigued physicists. However, no one has figured out how one might be built, until now.
Researchers have now proposed an experimental design for a “space-time crystal” that would be able to keep time forever. This four-dimensional crystal would be similar to conventional 3D crystals, which are structures, like snowflakes and diamonds, whose atoms are arranged in repeating patterns. Whereas a diamond has a periodic structure in three dimensions, the space-time crystal would be periodic in time as well as space.
The idea of a 4D space-time crystal was first proposed earlier this year by MIT physicist Frank Wilczek, though the concept was purely theoretical. Now a team of researchers led by Xiang Zhang of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has conceived of how to make one a reality.
“The idea of creating a crystal with dimensions higher than that of conventional 3D crystals is an important conceptual breakthrough in physics, and it is very exciting for us to be the first to devise a way to realize a space-time crystal,” Berkeley Lab physicist Tongcang Li, a member of the research group, said in a statement.
Zhang and his colleagues suggest that a space-time crystal could be constructed using an electric field to trap charged atoms (called ions), and taking advantage of the natural repulsion between two like-charged particles (positive and positive, or negative and negative), which is called Coulomb repulsion.
Image: This proposed space-time crystal shows (a) periodic structures in both space and time with (b) ultracold ions rotating in one direction even at the lowest energy state. Credit: Courtesy of Xiang Zhang group
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New Comet Discovered—May Become “One of Brightest in History”
Next year comet 2012 S1 might outshine the moon.
If astronomers’ early predictions hold true, the holidays next year may hold a glowing gift for stargazers—a superbright comet, just discovered streaking near Saturn.
Even with powerful telescopes, comet 2012 S1 (ISON) is now just a faint glow in the constellation Cancer. But the ball of ice and rocks might become visible to the naked eye for a few months in late 2013 and early 2014—perhaps outshining the moon, astronomers say.
The comet is already remarkably bright, given how far it is from the sun, astronomer Raminder Singh Samra said. What’s more, 2012 S1 seems to be following the path of the Great Comet of 1680, considered one of the most spectacular ever seen from Earth.
Continue Reading at National Geographic.
Image of Comet 2012 S1 from Space.com
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Pealing scotch tape in a vacuum emits x-rays through a process called triboluminescence. It produces enough radiation that x-ray images can be taken using only tape as a light source.(via understandingtheuniverse)
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Viking 1 1976 shot of a Martian sunset upon Chryse Planitia.
Vikings weren’t rovers, but they’re MSL’s grandparents.
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Taken by the Viking 1 lander shortly after it touched down on Mars, this image (full-size) is the first photograph ever taken from the surface of Mars. It was taken on July 20, 1976. The primary objectives of the Viking mission, which was composed of two spacecraft, were to obtain high-resolution images of the Martian surface, characterize the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface and search for evidence of life on Mars. (NASA)
(via scinerds)
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Professor Lee Cronin is a likably impatient presence, a one-man catalyst. “I just want to get stuff done fast,” he says. And: “I am a control freak in rehab.” Cronin, 39, is the leader of a world-class team of 45 researchers at Glasgow University, primarily making complex molecules. But that is not the extent of his ambition. A couple of years ago, at a TED conference, he described one goal as the creation of “inorganic life”, and went on to detail his efforts to generate “evolutionary algorithms” in inert matter. He still hopes to “create life” in the next year or two. At the same time, one branch of that thinking has itself evolved into a new project: the notion of creating downloadable chemistry, with the ultimate aim of allowing people to “print” their own pharmaceuticals at home. Cronin’s latest TED talk asked the question: “Could we make a really cool universal chemistry set? Can we ‘app’ chemistry?” “Basically,” he tells me, in his office at the university, with half a grin, “what Apple did for music, I’d like to do for the discovery and distribution of prescription drugs.” (via The ‘chemputer’ that could print out any drug | Science | The Observer)
(via futurescope)
