Cool Science Story Of The Day [Continuing Thread]

[RWebb]

almost making Benard cells

[kach22i]

Aerodynamics of the flying snake Chrysopelea paradisi: how a bluff body cross-sectional shape contributes to gliding performance
https://jeb.biologists.org/content/217/3/382

A prominent feature of gliding flight in snakes of the genus Chrysopelea is the unique cross-sectional shape of the body, which acts as the lifting surface in the absence of wings. When gliding, the flying snake Chrysopelea paradisi morphs its circular cross-section into a triangular shape by splaying its ribs and flattening its body in the dorsoventral axis, forming a geometry with fore–aft symmetry and a thick profile. Here, we aimed to understand the aerodynamic properties of the snake's cross-sectional shape to determine its contribution to gliding at low Reynolds numbers.

[Heel n Toe]

New Paper Has a Wild Explanation For The Most Explosive 'Meteor Impact' on Record
MICHELLE STARR - 5 MAY 2020

In the early morning of 30 June 1908, something exploded over Siberia. The event shattered the normal stillness of the sparsely populated taiga, so powerful that it flattened an area of forest 2,150 square kilometres (830 square miles) in size - felling an estimated 80 million trees.

Eyewitness reports describe a brilliant ball of light, shattered windows and falling plaster, and a deafening detonation not far from the local river. The Tunguska event - as it came to be known - was later characterised as an exploding meteor, or bolide, up to 30 megatons, at an altitude of 10 to 15 kilometres (6.2 to 9.3 miles).

It is often referred to as the "largest impact event in recorded history", even though no impact crater was found. Later searches have turned up fragments of rock that could be meteoric in origin, but the event still has a looming question mark. Was it really a bolide? And if it wasn't, what could it be?

Well, it's possible we'll never actually know… but according to a recent peer-reviewed paper, a large iron asteroid entering Earth's atmosphere and skimming the planet at a relatively low altitude before flying back into space could have produced the effects of the Tunguska event by producing a shock wave that devastated the surface.

"We have studied the conditions of through passage of asteroids with diameters 200, 100, and 50 metres, consisting of three types of materials - iron, stone, and water ice, across the Earth's atmosphere with a minimum trajectory altitude in the range 10 to 15 kilometres," wrote researchers led by astronomer Daniil Khrennikov of the Siberian Federal University in their paper.

More: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-a-new-theory-about-the-colossal-tunguska-event-explosion

[IROC]

We 3D printed a nuclear reactor core:

https://newatlas.com/science/oak-ridge-3d-printed-nuclear-reactor-core/

[jyl]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/08/11/world/ceres-dwarf-planet-ocean-scn-trnd/index.html

Brine, as it exists on earth, freezes by -20C or so. If liquid brine is present on Ceres or Europa or similar, and it is water based brine (I think that’s what the articles say?) then does that mean it is warmer than -20C? Seems warmer than I thought those places were.

[Bigtoe32067]

Originally Posted by IROC

We 3D printed a nuclear reactor core:

https://newatlas.com/science/oak-ridge-3d-printed-nuclear-reactor-core/

Man I think that’s so cool you work at Oak Ridge. I was a nuke in the Navy many years ago and wanted to work there but ultimately pursued an opportunity that paid a bit more but I’m sure was way less interesting.
Tony

[Bigtoe32067]

Originally Posted by IROC

We installed a 70,000 lbs super-critical hydrogen moderator/beryllium reflector on Saturday. No more than .5" of clearance around it all the way down. Dose rates at the plane of the opening of the hole it went into were ~50 R/hr. This was the first time this has ever been done. I am the lead engineer on this installation and will get some mileage out of this...

Man like I said already you have a great job
Tony

[Bigtoe32067]

Originally Posted by IROC

We (and by "we" I mean ORNL a long time ago) designed, built and tested a nuclear reactor to power an airplane (Aircraft Reactor Experiment). Crazy stuff. I can still see the towers used to hoist a reactor up in the air for shielding tests...

It was for a long range bomber if I remember correctly back in the 60’s.

Sorry to keep commenting on your threads but nuclear power gives me goose bumps. Ever since I joined the navy at 17. Never worked in it after but always followed it in the news.

[IROC]

Originally Posted by Bigtoe32067

It was for a long range bomber if I remember correctly back in the 60’s.

Sorry to keep commenting on your threads but nuclear power gives me goose bumps. Ever since I joined the navy at 17. Never worked in it after but always followed it in the news.

Yep, that's right. That reactor was called the Tower Shielding Reactor, IIRC. They built it and then hoisted it up in the air to understand radiological effects on the ground, etc.

I grew up in this area (East TN) but as a kid never really knew what they did at ORNL. Now that I worked there, I am honestly astounded by the things that man has figured out. Especially the knowledge and application/manipulation of things at the atomic level. You hear/read about this stuff, but we're doing it every day. My whole facility operates by stripping electrons from negatively-charged hydrogen atoms traveling at 90% of the speed of light. Works like a charm!

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by IROC

Yep, that's right. That reactor was called the Tower Shielding Reactor, IIRC. They built it and then hoisted it up in the air to understand radiological effects on the ground, etc.

I grew up in this area (East TN) but as a kid never really knew what they did at ORNL. Now that I worked there, I am honestly astounded by the things that man has figured out. Especially the knowledge and application/manipulation of things at the atomic level. You hear/read about this stuff, but we're doing it every day. My whole facility operates by stripping electrons from negatively-charged hydrogen atoms traveling at 90% of the speed of light. Works like a charm!

Yea, but it makes it pretty hard to bring your work home and set up a home office.

[Heel n Toe]

Hedy Lamarr, often proclaimed “the most beautiful woman in the world.”
The 26-yr-old Lamarr was thriving in Hollywood when, in September 1940,
Nazi U-boats hunted down & sank a cruise ship trying to evacuate 90 British
schoolchildren to Canada. 77 drowned in the bleak north Atlantic. Lamarr,
a Jewish immigrant from Nazi-occupied Austria, who had been making America
her home since 1938, was outraged. She fought back by applying her
engineering skills to development of a sonar sub-locator used in the Atlantic
for the benefit of the Allies.The principles of her work are now incorporated
into modern Wi-Fi, CDMA and Bluetooth technology,and this work led to her
to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

Hedy Lamarr, often proclaimed “the most beautiful woman in the world.”
The 26-yr-old Lamarr was thriving in Hollywood when, in September 1940,
Nazi U-boats hunted down & sank a cruise ship trying to evacuate 90 British
schoolchildren to Canada. 77 drowned in the bleak north Atlantic. Lamarr,
a Jewish immigrant from Nazi-occupied Austria, who had been making America
her home since 1938, was outraged. She fought back by applying her
engineering skills to development of a sonar sub-locator used in the Atlantic
for the benefit of the Allies.The principles of her work are now incorporated
into modern Wi-Fi, CDMA and Bluetooth technology,and this work led to her
to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

That's the wrong photo.

[Heel n Toe]

Hedley Lamarr: Meeting adjourned. Oh, I am sorry, sir, I didn't mean to overstep my bounds. You say that.

Governor Lepetomane: What?

Hedley Lamarr: "Meeting is adjourned".

Governor Lepetomane: It is?

Hedley Lamarr: No, you *say* that, Governor.

Governor Lepetomane: What?

Hedley Lamarr: "Meeting is adjourned".

Governor Lepetomane: It is?

Hedley Lamarr: [sighs, then gives the governor a paddleball] Here, play around with this for awhile.

Governor Lepetomane: Thank you, Hedy.

Hedley Lamarr: No, it's Hedley!

Governor Lepetomane: It is?

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

Hedley Lamarr: Meeting adjourned. Oh, I am sorry, sir, I didn't mean to overstep my bounds. You say that.

Governor Lepetomane: What?

Hedley Lamarr: "Meeting is adjourned".

Governor Lepetomane: It is?

Hedley Lamarr: No, you *say* that, Governor.

Governor Lepetomane: What?

Hedley Lamarr: "Meeting is adjourned".

Governor Lepetomane: It is?

Hedley Lamarr: [sighs, then gives the governor a paddleball] Here, play around with this for awhile.

Governor Lepetomane: Thank you, Hedy.

Hedley Lamarr: No, it's Hedley!

Governor Lepetomane: It is?

I don't get it.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

I don't get it.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by masraum

I was kidding...

[masraum]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/your-next-digital-tablet-could-be-made-paper-180975727/

Engineers at Purdue University have developed a printing process that can turn an ordinary sheet of paper into a Bluetooth-connected, self-powered, wireless, interactive keyboard or keypad.

First, the team takes a plain old sheet of paper with a typical alphabetical keyboard, numeric keypad or even piano keys printed on it and places coats it with a neon-green, omniphobic solution, which repels just about everything, including dust, water and oil, reports Gizmodo's Victoria Song. The solution dries clear, and then the engineers can "print" circuit layers over the page without smearing the ink, according to a press release. The layers are constructed to be triboelectric, meaning friction generates its electricity. Essentially, each time a "key" is pressed, energy is produced, so the paper-based tablet is totally self-powered.

In a preprint paper published in the scientific journal Nano Energy, the researchers explain that those now triboelectric areas can then be used to relay “Bluetooth wireless communication,” much like a wireless keyboard relays letters, numbers and other data to a computer.

All-in-all, the printed device doesn’t need an external battery to operate, says Purdue University engineer Ramses Martinez, one of the paper’s authors.

“This is the first time a self-powered, paper-based electronic device is demonstrated,” Martinez says in the press release. “We developed a method to render paper repellent to water, oil and dust by coating it with highly fluorinated molecules. This omniphobic coating allows us to print multiple layers of circuits onto paper without getting the ink to smear from one layer to the next one.”

The new development relatively inexpensive to employ because it can be applied to a scrap of cardboard or any other paper-based surface. The team hopes that the technology can be used operationally by many different industries.

“I envision this technology to facilitate the user interaction with food packaging, to verify if the food is safe to be consumed, or enabling users to sign the package that arrives at home by dragging their finger over the box to properly identify themselves as the owner of the package,” Martinez says. “Additionally, our group demonstrated that simple paper sheets from a notebook can be transformed into music player interfaces for users to choose songs, play them and change their volume.”

So, the next time you’re about to crumple up a piece of paper and pitch it into the trashcan, you might want to think twice. You could very well be tossing out an important piece of technology.

[Heel n Toe]

It took over a decade and 1,000 hours of photography to create this picture of the Milky Way

Finnish astrophotographer, JP Metsavainio, took on the daunting task of creating a mosaic of the Milky Way back in 2009. It took him twelve years to get the whole picture which is around 100,000 pixels wide and has 234 individual mosaic panels stitched together.

Full res image here (after opening, click to enlarge): https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TqRxEAjrDYI/YFCLF-H8K3I/AAAAAAAAS-E/rj_avOwDgw0TP66RQURSDcDIOPPxJIscgCLcBGAsYHQ/s7023/000-GrandeMosaic120DegreesLONG.jpg

More: https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/finnish-photographer-jp-metsavainio-took-over-a-decade-and-1000-hours-of-photography-to-create-this-picture-of-the-milky-way-and-20-million-stars/slidelist/81563516.cms

[kach22i]

April 1, 2021
Ingenuity Mars helicopter: The historic journey to fly on another planet
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/01/world/mars-ingenuity-helicopter-journey-scn/index.html

It was a long seven years of design, building and testing, with a technical crisis or challenge arising every week, Balaram said.
The rigorous work put in to Ingenuity's design and testing is what made the helicopter possible, and the current helicopter sitting on Mars went into fabrication in 2018, Bailey said.

[Heel n Toe]

https://earthsky.org/space/lunar-crater-radio-telescope-lcrt-phase-2-duaxel-radio-waves-dark-ages

Apparently we're planning to build a radio telescope in a crater on the far side of the moon.

If the aliens let us.