The Enlightening Science Thread

Nasa's Curiosity rover finds water in Martian soil

Water has been discovered in the fine-grained soil on the surface of Mars, which could be a useful resource for future human missions to the red planet, according to measurements made by Nasa's Curiosity rover.

Each cubic foot of Martian soil contains around two pints of liquid water, though the molecules are not freely accessible, but rather bound to other minerals in the soil.

Source

A Guy

A Guy said:

A first: Stanford engineers build basic computer using carbon nanotubes

A team of Stanford engineers has built a basic computer using carbon nanotubes, a semiconductor material that has the potential to launch a new generation of electronic devices that run faster, while using less energy, than those made from silicon chips.

This unprecedented feat culminates years of efforts by scientists around the world to harness this promising but quirky material.

Source

A Guy

Nice one Bill and I saw this last night I don't know if you will be able to open it but it is incredible Catalyst: Quantum Computing - ABC TV Science

and this I found subsequently http://class.ee.iastate.edu/mmina/ee...fter-trans.pdf

Gravitational assist for Juno satellite in nine days:

Animation:
Earth Flyby | Mission Juno

Live coverage from Slooh:
Juno Flies by Earth | Slooh

If that's too busy:

Clicking on start button will only produce countdown clock until event start.

TomTato plant grows both tomatoes and potatoes

We've seen a number of innovations that allow for gardening in small spaces, including a ferris wheel-like contraption, a mat that shows you where to plant specially-prepared seeds, and a system that lets you grow vertically-stacked veggies in your window. The TomTato, however, is in a league of its own – it's a single plant that produces both tomatoes and potatoes at the same time.

Created by UK horticulture company Thompson and Morgan, the TomTato is not the result of genetic engineering. It's "simply" the top of a cherry tomato plant and the bottom of a white potato plant, that have been grafted together at the stem.

Source

A Guy

A Guy said:

TomTato plant grows both tomatoes and potatoes

We've seen a number of innovations that allow for gardening in small spaces, including a ferris wheel-like contraption, a mat that shows you where to plant specially-prepared seeds, and a system that lets you grow vertically-stacked veggies in your window. The TomTato, however, is in a league of its own – it's a single plant that produces both tomatoes and potatoes at the same time.

Created by UK horticulture company Thompson and Morgan, the TomTato is not the result of genetic engineering. It's "simply" the top of a cherry tomato plant and the bottom of a white potato plant, that have been grafted together at the stem.

Source

A Guy

Ype Bill I wonder why they haven't genetically modified this yet as they come from the same genus It surely couldn't be that difficult an would solve a lot of problem for gardeners eh?
Solanaceae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nuclear fusion milestone passed at US lab

Now, a breakthrough by scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) could boost hopes of scaling up fusion.

NIF, based at Livermore in California, uses 192 beams from the world's most powerful laser to heat and compress a small pellet of hydrogen fuel to the point where nuclear fusion reactions take place.

The BBC understands that during an experiment in late September, the amount of energy released through the fusion reaction exceeded the amount of energy being absorbed by the fuel - the first time this had been achieved at any fusion facility in the world.

Source

A Guy

A Guy said:

Nuclear fusion milestone passed at US lab

Now, a breakthrough by scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) could boost hopes of scaling up fusion.

NIF, based at Livermore in California, uses 192 beams from the world's most powerful laser to heat and compress a small pellet of hydrogen fuel to the point where nuclear fusion reactions take place.

The BBC understands that during an experiment in late September, the amount of energy released through the fusion reaction exceeded the amount of energy being absorbed by the fuel - the first time this had been achieved at any fusion facility in the world.

Source

A Guy

Nice one mate now for the containment vessel! Hard to imagine how they are going to do this ona large scale at least but it;s one step closed eh?

Mr. Fusion can't be far behind.

A Strange Lonely Planet Found without a Star

An international team of astronomers has discovered an exotic young planet that is not orbiting a star. This free-floating planet, dubbed PSO J318.5-22, is just 80 light-years away from Earth and has a mass only six times that of Jupiter. The planet formed a mere 12 million years ago—a newborn in planet lifetimes.

It was identified from its faint and unique heat signature by the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) wide-field survey telescope on Haleakala, Maui. Follow-up observations using other telescopes in Hawaii show that it has properties similar to those of gas-giant planets found orbiting around young stars. And yet PSO J318.5-22 is all by itself, without a host star.

Source

A Guy

Curiosity proves that bits of Mars fall to Earth as meteorites

Case closed. After several decades of speculation and the gathering of imperfect evidence, Mars rover Curiosity has positively identified hundreds of meteorites found all over the Earth as Martians. The discovery is not unexpected, but it allows the science to go forward with renewed confidence in conjectures about the Red Planet. In particular, Curiosity’s findings could help scientists figure out exactly how Mars lost the vast majority of its atmosphere, why, and how long ago it happened.

Source

A Guy