Discovery Archives - Page 36 of 36

3D printer inspired by liquid metal robot of film ‘Terminator’ displayed

March 19, 2015 By Stephanie James

Inspired by the scary killer liquid metal robot in the movie ‘Terminator’, a group of scientists displayed a revolutionary 3D printing technology at the TED conference on Tuesday.

Chemist Joseph DeSimone put on display a 3D printer that allowed creations to rise from molten liquid pools in mostly the similar way as done by the terrifying T-1000 robot from the second ‘Terminator’ flick rose from the silvery puddle.

Presenting the incredible three-dimensional printing device at the conference, DeSimone said, “We were inspired by the ‘Terminator 2’ scene for the T-1000.”

A team of scientists led by DeSimone developed an advanced technology, known as “Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP)”, which they say enables harnessing of the powers of oxygen and light in a printer. This further allows bringing of the designed objects instantly into existence from small elastic material reservoirs having sophisticated properties.

DeSimone explains they have a reservoir that holds the puddle in the similar way as the T-1000.

The team calls the technology a “game changer” as the process of printing finishes parts at speeds that are competitive with current manufacturing processes.

Currently, the 3D printers much depend on spraying the layer upon layer of material, leading to very slow building of objects that even takes hours.

The longer durations taken by such printers intend that it is not feasible to use resins that chemically transform before the final completion of the printing process.

According to the researchers, CLIP is faster as much as 25 to 100 times than the traditional three-dimensional printers. Moreover, CLIP uses synthetic resins with mechanical properties that are strong enough to enable them finished parts.

2000 snow geese fall dead midflight in Idaho

March 18, 2015 By Carrie Davis

Massive death off of some 200 migrating snow geese in eastern Idaho likely due to avian cholera, statement made by the state’s Department of Fish and Game earlier this week.

The snow geese just fell out of sky and their bodies are recovered form the Mud Lake and Market Lake Wildlife Management Areas in the southeast region of Idaho. Avian cholera is a disease that comes on quickly and can kill bird’s mid-flight, biologists say.

The authorities said the snow geese were migrating from the Southwest and Mexico to breeding grounds on Alaska’s north coast where the geese breed during warmer months.

“It’s unclear where they picked up the bacteria, outbreaks of avian cholera have occurred sporadically in the region over the past few decades,” said Steve Schmidt, a regional Fish and Game supervisor.

Officially it is not declared by the state wildlife lab whether avian cholera is behind the massive fall but it is much likely that the bacteria are responsible for this.

To prevent other birds getting infected, “The important thing is to quickly collect as many of the carcasses as possible, to prevent other birds from feeding on the infected birds,” Schmidt said

Humans are at a low risk of getting infected by this disease, a statement made by U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center.

A major concern is that some close to 20 bald eagles were spotted near the carcasses. It is difficult for the officials to spot the infected eagles because of the delayed incubation period of avian cholera.

Defected Graphene structure boosts efficiency of fuel cells

March 18, 2015 By Jeff Suchon

Carbon allotrope Graphene always remain in news for one and another reason. A new study has found that the defective or imperfect graphene can help in enhancing the efficiency of cells.

The study, which was conducted by the researchers at the North-western University, discovered that the flaws in graphene can help in breaking proton in few seconds. This process can further assist in the easy production of extremely thin membrane consisting single atom. In general terms, the process of production of thin sheet of protons using conventional methods is very complicated.

The Northwestern University researchers conducted the study in collaboration with the scientists of five other institutes.

The scientists call the ‘impossibly thin’ Graphene one of the wonderful materials of the 21st century. It can detect light in a much better way than any sensor.

The material is even stronger than steel and also highly flexible as well as better conductor of currents as compared to copper.

According to the scientists, graphene forms a beautiful honeycomb pattern in a pristine shape. One of the flaws in fuel cell technology separates protons from hydrogen.

With the use of water and single layer graphene, minor irregularities in the graphene enable the movement of protons from one side to the other.

The selectivity and speed of the imperfect graphene membrane provides a simpler as well as more efficient mechanism for fuel cell design.

In a statement, lead study researcher Franz M. Geiger said, “Imagine an electric car that charges in the same time it takes to fill a car with gas. Or better imagine an electric car that uses hydrogen as fuel, not fossil fuels or ethanol, and not electricity from the power grid, to charge a battery. Our glaring finding provides an electrochemical mechanism that could make these things possible one day.”

The team believed that graphene, which is a single layer one-atom thick, could help in the production of the thinnest photon channel of the world.

Geiger, a chemistry professor at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, said, “We discovered that if you just dial the graphene back a little on perfection, you will get the membrane you want. Everyone always strives to make really pristine graphene, but our data show if you want to get protons through, you need less perfect graphene.”

The findings of the study were published on March 17 by the journal Nature Communications.

Planet Mercury’s composition : NASA MESSENGER new findings

March 18, 2015 By Stephanie James

NASA MESSENGER team has provided two new maps of mercury’s surface which shows unidentified regions.

MESSENGER an acronym for mercury surface, space environment, geochemistry, and ranging is the NASA spacecraft orbiting mercury. It has entered mercury’s orbit on March 2011. It is designed to study the chemical composition of surface, geological history, magnetic field, size and state of core.

The maps were created using the X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS) and the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) of the MESSENGER and they also provided information on the concentrations of potassium, sodium, chlorine, and silicon, thorium, uranium, as well as ratios relative to silicon of magnesium, aluminum.

The new maps show unidentified regions of mercury known as “geochemical terranes” which has different composition than the surrounding crust. These terranes provide insights into the formation of the outer surface of Mercury.

“The consistency of the new XRS and GRS maps provides a new dimension to our view of Mercury’s surface, the terranes we observed had not been previously identified on the basis of spectral reflectance or geographical mapping.” said the study’s lead author Shoshana Weider, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Geochemical maps for some of the rations and elements were limited to one hemisphere and had poor spatial resolution. But a different methodology called the X-Ray fluorescence technique by which X-Rays emitted from the sun’s atmosphere will help examine the planets composition. This technique has been used to produce global maps of aluminum/silicon and magnesium/silicon abundance ratios from the data provided by XRS. This is the first global geochemical maps of Mercury and the first maps of global extent for any planetary body by using this technique.

The global aluminum and magnesium maps are paired with the less spatially complete maps of calcium/silicon, iron/silicon and sulfur/silicon to study the geochemical characteristics of the surface.

The most visible of these geochemical terrane is a large feature covering over 5 million square kilometers. This terrane “exhibits the highest magnesium/silicon, sulfur/silicon, and calcium/silicon ratios, and some lowest aluminum /silicon ratios on the planet’s surface” said Shoshana Weider from the Carnegie Institution of Washington. This high magnesium region could be because of an impact long ago. This indicates that the exposed mantel could have aided in the formation of this large feature.
The second map which is the geochemical terranes of mercury’s northern hemisphere by MESSENGERS GRS shows the absorption of the low-energy thermal neutrons across the surface. By this the distribution of the neutron absorbing elements like iron, sodium can be identified. This information combined with MESSENGERS XRS information helped to identify four geochemical terranes on mercury

“Earlier MESSENGER data have shown that Mercury’s surface was pervasively shaped by volcanic activity, the magmas erupted long ago were derived from the partial melting of Mercury’s mantle. The differences in composition that we are observing among geochemical terranes indicate that Mercury has a chemically heterogeneous mantle.” said Peplowski.

“The crust we see on Mercury was largely formed more than three billion years ago,” said Carnegie’s Larry Nittler.

“The remarkable chemical variability revealed by MESSENGER observations will provide critical constraints on future efforts to model and understand Mercury’s bulk composition and the ancient geological processes that shaped the planet’s mantle and crust.”

Widest moon crater named after aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart

March 18, 2015 By Jeff Suchon

A 124 mile crater, one of the widest craters on the moon’s surface was discovered by a research team at Purdue University. The crater is present on the earth facing side of the moon, and it was undetected by lunar observations from centuries. The craters discovery was announced at the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas.

The team comprises of Professor Jay Melosh and fellow researchers Rohan Sood and Loic Chappaz. They used the data from the NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. GRAIL determines the interior structure of the moon by using high-quality gravitational field mapping.

The main reason behind the crater being unnoticed is that most of the crater is buried under the lunar surface although the small portion of it was visible. This was only possible with the detailed maps provided by GRAIL. This discovery was by chance, the team was zooming in the data to study the ridges and valleys on the surface but this turned out to be one of the widest craters.

The crater is named after the American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1937. She was a career counselor and adviser to the Department of Aeronautics at Purdue from 1935 to 1937. She set many other records but disappeared during an attempt to fly over the world in 1937.

“This is one of the biggest craters on the Moon, but no one knew it was there,” Jay Melosh said and further added “Craters are named after explorers or scientists, and Amelia Earhart had not yet received this honor. She attempted a flight around the world, and we thought she deserved to make it all the way to the Moon for inspiring so many future explorers and astronauts.”

This naming of the crater as Earhart crater is unofficial and must be examined and approved by International Astronomical Union.

Punish climate change deniers, says Al Gore at SXSW

March 17, 2015 By Carrie Davis

Taking tough stance on the degrading climatic conditions, former US Vice President Al Gore proposed “stringent punishment” for the deniers of climate change, further suggesting to book those politicians who also reject “accepted science”.

The active environmentalist made the remarks while speaking over the serious issue of climate crisis at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas.

Gore, who is the founder and chairman of the Climate Reality Project, revealed that several smart investors are now making investments in the alternate energy firms rather than on companies that invest in fossil fuels.

“We have this denial industry cranked up constantly. We need to put a price on carbon to accelerate these market trends. In order to achieve that, we require to put a price on denial in politics. In addition to 99 percent of the scientists and all the professional scientific organizations, now Mother Nature is weighing in,” Gore said.

Gore made a presentation at the SXSW festival underscoring the important events related to the weather and climate conditions, which may have been the result of the human activities as well as negligence. In his presentation, he also linked the issues associated with the Middle East with the current issues of climate change.

The environmentalist suggested that the changes in weather has led to drought in the region that has forced Syrian refugees to flee to those cities that are already having full with refugees following the Iraq war.

During his presentation, the renowned environmentalist also exposed several facts related to the global warming and the initiatives taken to cut down the carbon emissions. He highlighted that Bangladesh is also working very aggressively in direction for installation of solar panels on the rooftops. He further revealed about the state utility of Dubai that has accepted a solar power plant bid.

The one and a half hour presentation also had a special mention about the efforts of Pope Francis in tackling the menace of climate change. Hailing his efforts, Gore said that the Pope is highly concerned about the climate changes and have asked Christians to urgently address the issue.

Warm ocean water triggering major Antarctic glacier melting

March 17, 2015 By Stephanie James

A group of researchers have found a valley underneath the most rapidly-changing glacier of East Antarctica which is well-known for warm water delivery to the ice base that is triggering significant melting.

The study, which was conducted by the researchers at Imperial College London, showed that the invasion of warm ocean water has accelerated the process of melting and thinning of Totten Glacier. The 65 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide glacier contains enough ice for raising the global sea levels by 3.5 metres. Moreover, the glacier serves as one of the major outlets for the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is the largest mass of ice on the Earth and covers 98 percent of the continent.

Professor Martin Siegert, co-author of the study and co-director of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, said that it was only one glacier and it has been changing now. Moreover, the glacier was important for sea levels globally.

Siegert further said that the 3.5 metre increase is likely to take several centuries to finish, but now the process has commenced when it may be irreversible. Moreover, he further said that this served as another instance of how human-induced changes in climate could lead to remarkable changes with knock-on impacts that will be felt in global context.

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet was earlier believed to be enveloped by colder water and so relatively stable as compared with the smaller West Antarctic Ice Sheet that has been losing over 150 cubic kilometres of ice each year. However, the data provided by the satellite have shown that the Totten Glacier has also been depleting considerably.

The findings of the study were detailed today in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Sea Level Rising Faster Than Earlier Prediction

March 4, 2015 By Doyle Buehler

A new study suggests that the rise of global sea levels has sped up compared to the earlier prediction of scientists. Carling Hay, lead researcher from the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences of Harvard said the global sea levels rise in the twentieth century was not that high compared to earlier forecasts. Previous research indicated up to 6 inch rise in the sea levels during the same century, but the latest researchers claimed nearly 5 inches.

Hay reiterated that the averages are very simple, although not considered as accurate representation of the global value. Uncertainty and errors are contributory factors, saying many tide gauges that have been installed could not cover up massive areas of the ocean, hence, estimates are not final and complete, considering large gaps that require more accurate measurements.

NASA Releases Astounding Image of Andromeda

February 20, 2015 By Stephanie James

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures the newest, largest, and sharpest image of the Andromeda. At 1.5 billion pixels, the photo shows the nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. The image showcases more than 100 million stars along with thousand star clusters entrenched in the galaxy’s pancake-shaped section that stretch across more than 40,000 light-years.

However, the image requires a disk space of 4.3GB so as people can view. Hubble also said that over 600 high-definition television screens are necessary to display the whole image. Finally, the panoramic image indicates only one-third of the galactic neighbor. A new video has also been released to make the image viewing easier.

Study Says Planets Outside Solar System More Hospitable Than Expected

February 14, 2015 By Jeff Suchon

The University of Toronto astrophysicists conducted a study, revealing that planets outside the solar system are more hospitable than thought. These planets, called exoplanets have liquid water along with more habitable environment than expected.

Jeremy Leconte, lead author of the study, said planets with probable oceans could offer a climate much similar to Earth’s. Initially, scientists thought exoplanets behave in a manner contrary to Earth, but the study suggests that exoplanets rotate around their own stars, spinning at a speed in order to exhibit similar to Earth’s day-night cycle. However, the exoplanet’s ability to develop life remains a big question, considering the planets’ climate increases.

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