Remoulded pen-vase, a nifty idea from designboom

Posted in science-tech ]]> http://lucas-loblack.com/2008/12/16/how-to-recycle-bic-pens/feed/ 4 JANrobot recycled bic pen http://lucas-loblack.com/2008/08/13/quantum-physics-made-easy/ http://lucas-loblack.com/2008/08/13/quantum-physics-made-easy/#comments Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:49:41 +0000 JANrobot http://onebluesky.wordpress.com/?p=278 ]]> It’s always good to keep things simple… I stumbled on this guide by James Higgo and feel all the richer for it: A Lazy Layman’s Guide to Quantum Physics

“What is Quantum Physics? That’s an easy one: it’s the science of things so small that the quantum nature of reality has an effect. Quantum means ‘discrete amount’ or ‘portion’. Max Planck discovered in 1900 that you couldn’t get smaller than a certain minimum amount of anything. This minimum amount is now called the Planck unit.

Why is it weird? Niels Bohr, the father of the orthodox ‘Copenhagen Interpretation’ of quantum physics once said, “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it”. To understand the weirdness completely, you just need to know about three experiments: Light Bulb, Two Slits, Schroedinger’s Cat.” more…

Fred Alan Wolf aka Dr. Quantum explains…

“Wait here a sec. Don’t touch anything.”

The young tech was aware of all of the red tape and approvals that were required for most changes, but this was different. It was a BIOS error that required a single keystroke to clear, and he couldn’t imagine anyone having a problem with it. He tried to cautiously argue his point without denigrating The Process. “Well, the change request does say that we’re responsible for rebooting the computer. Surely pressing F1 falls under that… and regardless—”

“NO,” the senior tech emphatically interrupted. “I just said that we’re not authorized for this! You think that it’s safe to just make The Process up as you go? Without The Process, we have nothing. The Process Be Praised!”

Meanwhile, a whole department was sitting around twiddling their thumbs. Word had trickled down that there was some sort of server error and that the HPCs were on it… full tale of misery

The excitement about BIM boils down to accuate accounting: BIM can predict the cost of a job with greater precision than
2-D drawing board models. “In ten years time there will be no drawings, and ‘back to the drawing board’ will just become an historic phrase,” says Dr Eastman, a professor of architecture and computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

According to the Economist, “Dr Eastman has been talking about this sort of thing since the 1970s, when the first BIM systems were developed. “But architects aren’t really technology innovators,” he admits. So until recently, BIM has largely been ignored—except, that is, by a handful of pioneering architects whose radical designs have required it.”

Frank Gehry is one pioneering example. “His uniquely warped and fluid style of architecture—exemplified by the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (pictured), and the Ray and Maria Stata Centre at MIT—results in structures so complex that it might not have been possible to build them at all without the help of BIM.”

Gehry lead the way when he “took a product-design tool called CATIA, developed by Dassault Systèmes, a French company, and tailored it to his own specifications when designing the Guggenheim Museum. It is now marketed as an architectural tool, called Digital Project, by Gehry Technologies, a company founded by Mr Gehry in 2002. Architects really started to take note that same year when Autodesk, a leading maker of CAD software, bought a smaller BIM company called Revit, says Dr Eastman. It had the same effect as when Microsoft invests in a new technology, he says: “It legitimised it.”

“Manufacturers have been waiting for the leading BIM-software companies to agree on common formats. Now an agreement is in sight… adoption will happen very quickly.” full story

Take a moment to read this uplifting post on the unwound road. It makes a beautiful connection between art and science, and the key ingredient is imagination.

“Discovery is what makes science interesting for me, because I can continue to “discover” so many new things for myself. I’m particularly fascinated how innovation and imagination work together in the realm of science, not only in generating a hypothesis but also in providing the means to prove or disprove it. My own theory is that little would be discovered at all without imagination and its cousin curiosity.”

more…

Bobjack

Jimmy in Milwaukee

One formation occurred in December 2004. Satellite images showed gaps in the clouds that precisely matched a fault line in southern Iran. Two months later, an earthquake struck in the exact area and 600 lives were lost.

Guo and Wang suggest that the appearance of the phenomena might be due to hot gases that rise up from the fault line ahead of time and evaporate the clouds. According to their evidence, Guo and Wang believe they might have a useful tool for prediction.

Full story and Comments

]]> http://lucas-loblack.com/2008/04/11/clouds-predict-earthquakes/feed/ 3 JANrobot http://lucas-loblack.com/2008/04/04/beyond-ufos-jeffrey-bennett/ http://lucas-loblack.com/2008/04/04/beyond-ufos-jeffrey-bennett/#comments Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:05:53 +0000 JANrobot http://88mileshome.wordpress.com/?p=262 ]]> According to the buzz of reviews surrounding Jeffrey Bennett’s new release, Beyond UFOs is a fascinating read. In a nutshell, Christopher McKay at NASA describes the book as: “Precise, accurate, lucid, and engaging. This is popular-science writing at its best.”

“Planet by planet, moon by moon, [Beyond UFOs] explores the possibility of life elsewhere in this solar system. It then speculates about other solar systems in our galaxy where, according to the prevailing scientific view, simple life almost surely exists and intelligent life is plausible. For the most part, Bennett’s search for extraterrestrial life adds up to a very satisfying package. . . . At its core, this book delivers a combination that is hard to beat: solid yet highly speculative science plus accessible prose that add up to an out-of-this-world reading experience.” Fred Bortz, Seattle Times

Jeffrey Bennett is an astrophysicist and an expert in astrobiology – a new field of study that draws on geology, biology and astronomy to look at the origin and evolution of the universe. Beyond UFOs is said to be an astonishing journey through this new field, and a humanitarian call to arms.

“Science is a way of helping people come to agreement,” Bennett says, and he argues that in order to be prepared to meet intelligent life, “we must solve global warming, debilitating disease, terrorism, poverty, and war. We must use our compassion to teach all people to respect all others, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or gender.” Publisher’s Weekly. “[A] political message couched in fascinating and completely accessible science.”
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• Princeton review
• Bennett’s page
• Amazon

]]> http://lucas-loblack.com/2008/04/04/beyond-ufos-jeffrey-bennett/feed/ 0 JANrobot http://lucas-loblack.com/2008/04/01/the-secret-of-stonehenge/ http://lucas-loblack.com/2008/04/01/the-secret-of-stonehenge/#comments Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:12:03 +0000 JANrobot http://88mileshome.wordpress.com/?p=248 ]]>

Stonehenge. Health spa or burial site? A place of human sacrifice or a temple for religious rites? These long held queries may soon be answered by Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright.

The two archaeologists and a team of experts are in the process of carbon dating the site. Stonehenge was erected some 5,000 years ago, but the huge standing stones mark the existence of a mysterious older site buried underneath.

Most scholars believe that Stonehenge was a scared site, a place of burial or a symbolic gateway between the living the and dead.

Darvill and Wainwright take a different view. During their 14-day dig, the two experts hope to gather enough evidence to support their own theories: that according to folklore, the standing stones had health-giving powers, and that far from being a place of the dead, Stonehenge was a site of pilgrimage for health and well-being.

* Darvill and Wainwright’s theory
* Yahoo Archaeology great photos, Darvill/Wainwright
* BBC Science great Timewatch video of Stonehenge

The bendy chip, developed by researches at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Unlike the current generation of brittle-boned silicon chips, the new chips can be “stretched and folded whilst maintaining the electronic capabilities of traditional microchips. The circuits are built from ribbons of single crystalline silicon supported on very thin plastic and rubber-like layers.”

The development heralds a new era of flexi-tronics, and smart applications like “latex glove[s] for surgeons which would measure vital signs, such as blood oxygen levels, during an operation.” Other apps currently in progress include surveillance antennae for aircraft, and “a sheet of electronics which could lie on the surface of the brain to monitor brain activity in epileptics.” Full story

Meet Tmsuk – a child-sized robot babysitter. It’s currently operating in full Mary Poppins mode at a local shopping mall in western Japan. When parents leave their children at the mall’s kindergarten, robo-nanny Tmsuk takes charge, entertaining and talking to the children – with a limited vocabulary. It can recognise names and ages from barcodes on the children’s ID badges, and show pictures captured through its eyes. The makers plan further developments including using Tmsuk-style models as shopping guides. Full story