The Enlightening Science Thread

[A Guy]

Beyond Silicon: Transistors without Semiconductors Developed by Researchers

For decades, electronic devices have been getting smaller, and smaller. It is now possible to place billions of transistors on a single silicon chip. But transistors based on semiconductors can continue getting smaller only to a certain degree, it is generally believed. Great minds of the planet think how they can further shrink the transistor with a semiconductor, but some other look in a completely different direction.

“At the rate the current technology is progressing, in 10 or 20 years, they will not be able to get any smaller. Also, semiconductors have another disadvantage: they waste a lot of energy in the form of heat,” said Yoke Khin Yap, a physicist of Michigan Technological University.

Source

A Guy

 

[Britton30]

APOD: 2012 March 12 - The Scale of the Universe Interactive

 

[Golden]

BBC News - Pluto moons get mythical new names

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Beyond Silicon: Transistors without Semiconductors Developed by Researchers

​

For decades, electronic devices have been getting smaller, and smaller. It is now possible to place billions of transistors on a single silicon chip. But transistors based on semiconductors can continue getting smaller only to a certain degree, it is generally believed. Great minds of the planet think how they can further shrink the transistor with a semiconductor, but some other look in a completely different direction.

“At the rate the current technology is progressing, in 10 or 20 years, they will not be able to get any smaller. Also, semiconductors have another disadvantage: they waste a lot of energy in the form of heat,” said Yoke Khin Yap, a physicist of Michigan Technological University.

Source

A Guy

Yep Bill this is what I find really exciting stuff near the bottom of this ref
Graphene - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and this
Flexible graphene transistor sets new records - physicsworld.com
mind blowing stuff

 

[ICIT2LOL]

APOD: 2012 March 12 - The Scale of the Universe Interactive

Wow what a site Gary that is just mind numbing stuff

 

[ICIT2LOL]

BBC News - Pluto moons get mythical new names

Hum Golden I thought it a bit off knocking off the planet handle but anyway they did but the stuff coming in is just fantastic stuff eh?

Mind you I'd make them call it Brian just to be flippin awkward

 

[A Guy]

A nanotech fix for nicotine dependence

A chemical component present in the nightshade family of plants is one of the world’s most tenaciously addictive substances. It is the nicotine contained in tobacco and found in high concentrations in cigarettes. Smoking remains a global scourge; in the U.S. it is the leading source of preventable death.

Yung Chang and her colleagues at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute have launched an ambitious new project, designed to attack nicotine dependence in a radically new way. The research effort, pursued under a new $3.3 million grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, will attempt to design a vaccine conferring immunity to nicotine, using nanoscale structures assembled from DNA.

Source

A Guy

 

[ICIT2LOL]

A nanotech fix for nicotine dependence

A chemical component present in the nightshade family of plants is one of the world’s most tenaciously addictive substances. It is the nicotine contained in tobacco and found in high concentrations in cigarettes. Smoking remains a global scourge; in the U.S. it is the leading source of preventable death.

Yung Chang and her colleagues at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute have launched an ambitious new project, designed to attack nicotine dependence in a radically new way. The research effort, pursued under a new $3.3 million grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, will attempt to design a vaccine conferring immunity to nicotine, using nanoscale structures assembled from DNA.

Source

A Guy

This strikes chord with me Bill as I see the end results of smoking particularly and it ain't pleasant. The nicotine mentioned has been considered more addictive than heroin for a long time now.

By the by did you know that we eat a lot of plants from this genus too things like potatoes and capsicums to name but two Solanaceae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[smarteyeball]

How's your pareidolia? Rats on Mars?

BBC News - Pareidolia: Why we see faces in hills, the Moon and toasties

Always been a favorite of mine

 

[Golden]

BBC Science - The secret life of the Sun

 

[Dom]

Found a very interesting YouTube channel, Numberphile. This video mixes math with science:

 

[A Guy]

Primeval forest discovered deep off Alabama coast

It sounds more like a fantasy, but a group of scuba divers recently discovered the remains of an ancient forest about 10 miles off the coast of Mobile, Ala. Researchers are estimating that the forest existed at least 50,000 years ago, and that it thrived for 1,500-2,000 years before it was buried deep below the ocean floor. The stumps are between six and eight feet in diameter.

"This is the first I'm ever hearing of a submerged forest," said University of Southern Mississippi dendrochronologist Grant Harley, who has examined samples taken from the tree stumps. "It takes some pretty special environmental characteristics to preserve wood this long."

Source

A Guy

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Found a very interesting YouTube channel, Numberphile. This video mixes math with science:

Hum Dom so going on this fellows hypothesis there is definitely other life forms in the universe!! Just think along that line and there are more of me than just me. Theres a scary thought

 

[Layback Bear]

So a Googol Plex is a number someone made up and is completely useless.
How about a Googol Plex Plus. Maybe a Googol Plex Plus Super.
Holding the zero key down on the keyboard long enough you to can have your own number.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

So a Googol Plex is a number someone made up and is completely useless.
How about a Googol Plex Plus. Maybe a Googol Plex Plus Super.
Holding the zero key down on the keyboard long enough you to can have your own number.

Yep or whack up your power bill LOL!! Lest face it that fellow went on like a Googol itself there is no finite number or duplicates of me for instance

 

[A Guy]

Human-powered helicopter finally takes Sikorsky Prize

Since 1980, the American Helicopter Society has offered the Sikorsky Prize: a $250,000 reward for a functional, human-powered helicopter.

To win the prize, the helicopter must remain airborne for 60 seconds, with an altitude of 3 meters (a little less than 10 feet) to be reached at some point during those 60 seconds. It must also remain within a horizontal area no larger than 10x10 meters.

Source

A Guy

 

[A Guy]

Reseachers develop disc with 360TB capacity, 1 million year storage life

A lot of digital archival is done on DVDs manufactured specifically for archival purposes, something that could be changing in the near future. Researchers at the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Center, as well as the Eindhoven’s University of Technology, joined forces to create a glass disc that can hold 360TB of data for over 1 million years.

Source

A Guy

 

[Dom]

Found a very interesting YouTube channel, Numberphile. This video mixes math with science:

Hum Dom so going on this fellows hypothesis there is definitely other life forms in the universe!! Just think along that line and there are more of me than just me. Theres a scary thought

Only if our observable universe is a Googolplex metres long itself

 

[Golden]

The Hardest Thing To Find In The Universe? : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR

 

[Kari]

The Hardest Thing To Find In The Universe? : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR

What an interesting article! Thanks for sharing .