Even More Science Links
I see so many interesting science links daily that I can't even post them all.Science--it's kicking ass.
From MSNBC:
NEW YORK - Scientists are learning more about what appears to be one of the biggest meat-eating dinosaurs known, a two-legged beast whose bones were found several years ago in the fossil-rich Patagonia region of Argentina.
One expert called the discovery the first substantial evidence of group living by large meat-eaters other than tyrannosaurs like T. rex.
Here's a link to the full story:Mapusaurus
Also from MSNBC, a story about octopuses can create part-time joints. Here's an excerpt:
Scientists consider each of an octopus' eight arms to possess a virtually infinite number of degrees of freedom, allowing them to bend and twist freely. But when it's time to eat, octopuses use their flexible muscles to form temporary, quasi-articulated joints that work similar to how human joints function.
Researchers recorded muscle activity in octopus limbs, and found that an arm generates two waves of muscle contractions that propagate toward each other. When the waves collide, they form a part-time joint.
Here's the link to the full story:
Octopus elbows
Brian Witte sent me a link to an amazing story about a laser that can be painted onto a surface. Here's an excerpt from the story:
...Sargent, a Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology, created the new laser using colloidal quantum dots -- nanometre-sized particles of semiconductor that are suspended in a solvent like the particles in paint. "We've made a laser that can be smeared onto another material," says Sargent. "This is the first paint-on semiconductor laser to produce the invisible colours of light needed to carry information through fiber-optics. The infrared light could, in the future, be used to connect microprocessors on a silicon computer chip." A study describing the laser was published in the April 17 issue of the journal Optics Express.
Here's the link:
Paint-on laser
Here's another link from Brian to a story about--nanogenerators.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have crafted tiny nanowires that generate electricity when they vibrate. Just like the quartz crystal in a watch, the zinc-oxide nanowires are piezoelectric, which means bending causes them to produce an electrical charge.
Only 20-40 billionths of a meter in diameter, each fiber partners with millions of others to form a nanogenerator capable of producing significant amounts of energy from the slightest activity. According to the researchers, motions from body movement, the stretching of muscles and even the flow of liquids should be able to generate electric charges in the wires--perfect for implantable medical devices, "smart" apparel and a variety of other applications.
Science didn't seem nearly this cool when I was in college. Here's the link to the press release:Nanogenerators
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