Super Collide

7.3 Billion-Year Race

2009-11-02T22:22:00.010-05:00

Two types of gamma-ray photons emitted after a star crash long before the Earth was formed have reached the Fermi Space Telescope. After traveling 7.3 billion light years, the photons met at the detector within nine tenths of a second, affirming (with caveats) the constancy of light and rejecting some alternative theories of gravity. Physicist Peter Michelson is quoted in Science Daily, "To one part in 100 million billion, these two photons traveled at the same speed. Einstein still rules."

(image credit: illustration of two photons of different energies, NASA/Sonoma State University/Aurore Simonnet, via www.sciencedaily.com)

Beard-seconds

2009-11-01T17:32:00.006-05:00

The University of Utah has a cool model scaling from a coffee bean to a carbon atom (h/t Andrew Sullivan). They also have an interactive cell model and some other great stuff. To give an idea of the size of a nanometer, it's roughly the amount a man's beard grows as he lifts a razor to shave it.

In fact, there is an actual unit of measurement called a "beard-second". It's the physics tiny measurement partner of the light year. Wikipedia defines it as "the length an average physicist's beard grows in a second", equivalent to either 5 or 10 nanometers. I assume the namer intended some humor and, as far as physics jokes go, it's a damn good one. You can convert measurements to beard-seconds using the Google search bar. The influenza virus (see image) is roughly 25 beard-seconds.

(image credit: 3dscience.com)

The Bambino

2009-10-26T19:47:00.008-04:00

Footage of the giant of American sports, Babe Ruth, is rediscovered.

(image credit: Babe Ruth in 1920, Library of Congress)

Building a Brain

2009-10-15T22:14:00.003-04:00

Henry Markram discusses the extraordinary Blue Brain Project - using the mathematics of neurons to understand perception and reverse engineering the brain in 10 years.

Craziness and the Collider

2009-10-15T20:40:00.004-04:00

Dennis Overbye relates the much discussed and ridiculed theory that the possible future creation of the Higgs boson may be sabotaging the LHC, as Overbye writes, "like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather". Physicists Holger Nielsen and Masao Ninomiya suggested the fantastic theory and a cinematic test - see if the one "shut down the LHC" card is pulled from a million-card deck. Sean Carroll (quoted in the article) discusses the theory and the controversy here.

(image credit: CERN, simulation of the decay of a Higgs particle following collision of two protons)

Roger Penrose

2009-10-06T19:38:00.006-04:00

Discover interviews physicist Roger Penrose on his father, M.C. Escher and his view of the wrongness of modern physics. More on impossible objects here.

(image credit: Oliver Chanarin, discovermagazine.com)

IBM trying Genomics

2009-10-05T22:29:00.007-04:00

I.B.M. is trying genomics. CEO Sam Palmisano will outline their approach in a health care talk at the Cleveland Clinic tomorrow. Quoting nytimes.com:

"The I.B.M. approach is based on what the company describes as a “DNA transistor,” which it hopes will be capable of reading individual nucleotides in a single strand of DNA as it is pulled through an atomic-size hole known as a nanopore. A complete system would consist of two fluid reservoirs separated by a silicon membrane containing an array of up to a million nanopores, making it possible to sequence vast quantities of DNA at once."

More on nanopores here.

(image credit: IBM simulation of the "DNA transistor", J. Michael Loughran, via nytimes.com)

Ardipithecus

2009-10-02T23:58:00.004-04:00

Ardipithecus ramidus, our 4.4 million-year-old ancestor, is introduced. Carl Zimmer outlines some of the revelations.

(image credit: C 2009, J.H. Matternes)

Birds Come From Dinosaurs

2009-09-26T18:00:00.003-04:00

I taught my 3-year-old son that birds evolved from dinosaurs and "birds come from dinosaurs" has become one of his favorite science facts ("gravity makes you go down" and "mars is a red planet" are some others). Now there's more confirmation of that extraordinary theory as fossils of feathered dinosaurs have been found in China. Researcher Xu Xing: "The fossils provide confirmation that the bird-dinosaur hypothesis is correct, and supports the idea that birds descended from theropod dinosaurs (the group of predatory dinosaurs that includes allosaurus and velociraptor)." The fossils predate archaeopteryx, the formerly oldest bird/dinosaur. We discussed other bird-like dinosaurs as part of the Extinct Series.

(image credit: impression of Achiornis huxleyi, Hu Dongyu/AP)

Medical Genomics

2009-09-26T17:17:00.003-04:00

Personal genomics is its infancy but very exciting work is happening now. Tech Review covers researchers using genomic studies to understand genetic diseases and cancer.

Quantum Water Bear

2009-09-20T22:49:00.006-04:00

Quantum mechanics tells us that probability underlies all things, that atoms exist in a haze of uncertainty. This allows the strangeness of superposition, in which atoms or molecules can exist in two states simultaneously. Researchers are now trying to test superposition of living things, starting with viruses (sort of alive). They might then advance to the extraordinary tardigrade, the microscopic "water bear". From wikipedia, "Tardigrades are polyextremophiles and are able to survive in extreme environments that would kill almost any other animal. Some can survive temperatures of -273°C, close to absolute zero, temperatures as high as 151 °C (303 °F), 1,000 times more radiation than other animals such as humans, nearly a decade without water, and even the vacuum of space." That's like evolution's NASA astronaut program. Check out video of the water bear.

(image credit: tardigrade, Ralph O Schill, via newscientist.com)

Young Innovators

2009-09-15T23:43:00.011-04:00

Tech Review lists 2009 Young Innovators under 35. There's some amazing stuff. Check out Jorge Conde of Knome.

(image credit: Bryan Christie Design, nanoparticle mimicking HDL)

The Last Journey of a Genius

2009-09-05T20:08:00.003-04:00

PBS NOVA's program (originally The Quest for Tannu Tuva on BBC Horizon) on physicist Richard Feynman and his search for Tannu Tuva. Part 1 below. More Feynman here.

Toy Symphony

2009-09-01T22:55:00.003-04:00

Tod Machover's great talk on music, technology and letting kids write symphonies. Hyperscore site here.

Wireless Electricity

2009-08-25T19:45:00.003-04:00

Eric Giler talks WiTricity, the realization of Tesla's dream of wireless electricity.

Robo-fish

2009-08-25T12:29:00.003-04:00

MIT engineers have developed a new and improved team of robo-fish.

Anti-aging

2009-08-22T10:22:00.006-04:00

Nicholas Wade on new anti-aging research and the focus on sirtuin activators and resveratrol. He even mentions Super Collide favorites the bristlecone pine and the hydra. More on anti-aging.

(photo credit: G. Baden/Corbis, via nytimes.com)

Francis Collins to Head NIH, concluded

2009-08-17T20:58:00.003-04:00

Francis Collins was sworn in today as head of the NIH. Sam Harris's full response to Collins's appointment here.

And Collins's 5 priorities for the NIH.

Fastest Man in the World

2009-08-17T20:47:00.004-04:00

The incredible Usain Bolt.

Usain bolt runs 9:58
by bigjie

90% of Bills Have Cocaine on Them

2009-08-16T22:53:00.005-04:00

A new study finds that 90% of U.S. bills have small amounts of cocaine. That's up from 67% two years ago. It's a pretty amazing finding, even if it was from a small sample size. If it makes you feel any better, the contents of your wallet may have figured prominently in this guy's social life. Follow the cocaine here.

Latter-day Nostradamus continued

2009-08-16T19:09:00.009-04:00

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, sometimes called a latter-day Nostradamus, uses game theory to predict moderation in Iran and a halt to their pursuit of nuclear weapons (h/t Patrick Appel). I find this plausible, but I still think that picture looks like the result of a frat party.

(image credit: Ethan Hill, goodmagazine.com)

A Short Course on Synthetic Genomics

2009-08-13T20:13:00.004-04:00

The Edge Master Class 2009 features George Church and Craig Venter on synthetic genomics. There are six lectures available on edge.org, addressing (from Edge):

What is life, origins of life, in vitro synthetic life, mirror-life, metabolic engineering for hydrocarbons & pharmaceuticals, computational tools, electronic-biological interfaces, nanotech-molecular-manufacturing, biosensors, accelerated lab evolution, engineered personal stem cells, multi-virus-resistant cells, humanized-mice, bringing back extinct species, safety/security policy.

Watch it all.

(photo credit: George Church (left) and Craig Venter (right), edge.org)

Mild Collide

2009-08-13T20:02:00.003-04:00

The LHC will restart in November at half power. CERN twitter feed here.

Supercollide?

2009-08-04T15:30:00.002-04:00

News on the restart of Large Hadron Collider is expected this week.

(photo credit: Valerio Mezzanotti, nytimes.com)

Supercavitation

2009-08-04T09:54:00.007-04:00

DARPA is working a 100 knot submarine (3-4x the current top speed) that could revolutionize military (and perhaps commercial) sea travel. The sub works via supercavitation, in which an underwater bubble is established that minimizes drag. (h/t Andrew Sullivan).

(Photo credit: theday.com, via popsci.com)