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Author Topic: SCIENCE, Gravitational waves, and the whole LIGO OST!  (Read 477375 times)

Lagslayer

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #690 on: July 30, 2013, 09:00:01 pm »

It's interesting, but it's bound to get the same flak as fertilizer. Instead of "contaminating the water supply" it will be "tampering with the atmosphere".
Ha ha what? Over three quarters of our atmosphere is nitrogen. The contamination part is insignificant compared to the issue of where we get the fertilizer from. No reliance on methane or oil means that any collapse in oil supply won't screw over the modern world, which is only possible due to the British agricultural revolution and the green revolution. This could be one more of those revolutions. High hopes. It also won't screw with the soil quality either, since most of the nitrogen will come from the air. With a bit of tampering, I reckon they could even make plants other than legumes be nitrogen fixing in the soil! Humanity won't collapse just yet. It also helps reduce our impact on the ecological world. There is NO way playing God can never end with Godly results.
If you are under the impression that I am against using the bacteria, please let this statement serve to correct that. If you are disputing weather or not the environmentalists will rail against it, well... maybe not, but I'm not gonna put it past them just yet.

Loud Whispers

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #691 on: July 30, 2013, 09:05:34 pm »

If you are under the impression that I am against using the bacteria
Eh? Oh these things don't matter. Unless the bacteria begins its symbiotic bonding on angsty teenagers and we start getting people with vegetable powers with photosynthesis and nitrogen based abilities...
If you are disputing weather or not the environmentalists will rail against it, well... maybe not, but I'm not gonna put it past them just yet.
Maybe Monsanto can ruin it. They like doing that.

Sheb

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #692 on: July 31, 2013, 06:14:41 am »

Actually, it could still create environmental problems. We've more than doubled the global rate of nitrogen fixation through artificial fertilizers and legume culture. This could result in still more nitrogen being fixed, thus wrecking some ecosystems (a lot of natural preserves in Belgium have to be mown down every year to take biomass and nitrogen away, since the "fallout" is so high it'd destroy species adapted to poor soils).

But still, it's a definite step up from using artificial fertilizers, since those are so energy-inefficient to creat. (My chemistry teacher used to joke that to produce ammonia, man need huge tanks a 400 °C with hundreds of atmosphere of pressure and tens of tons of catalysts. Bacteria were obviously less advanced in evolution, for they did it at room temperature and pressure.)
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olemars

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #693 on: August 05, 2013, 11:23:53 am »

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/05/world-first-synthetic-hamburger-mouth-feel

First Petri-burger publically eaten. Get's a bill of "nearly meat".
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MetalSlimeHunt

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #694 on: August 05, 2013, 11:30:20 am »

Not a bad outcome for the first showing.
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10ebbor10

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #695 on: August 05, 2013, 11:35:04 am »

http://www.gizmag.com/n-fix-nitrogen-fixation/28482/

Kinda neat.  Apparently they've come up with a bacteria that can be put into plants to make it so they absorb nitrogen directly from the atmosphere.  This means they don't need nearly as much fertilizer.
Nitrogen fixating bacteria have existed, and are used in farming, for quite a long time.

Nothing new under the sun here.
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MonkeyHead

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #696 on: August 05, 2013, 11:36:06 am »

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/05/world-first-synthetic-hamburger-mouth-feel

First Petri-burger publically eaten. Get's a bill of "nearly meat".

So probably better than most of the homrmone laden mechanically processed shit we are offered at the moment then huh?
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olemars

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #697 on: August 05, 2013, 11:38:29 am »

It's actually got a higher meat content since it's completely fat-free.
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MonkeyHead

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #698 on: August 05, 2013, 11:39:48 am »

Hence the "less juciy" comment then.
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Sheb

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #699 on: August 05, 2013, 11:45:11 am »


Nothing new under the sun here.

Well, they're used, but mostly in legumes. He managed to "infect" all major cereals crop with it.

As for the steak, it's a non-event. AFAIK they didn't really develop any new technique. They just poured lots of labor in it. Still no way to scale up production.
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Levi

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #700 on: August 12, 2013, 04:57:06 pm »

Anyone else looking at the hyperloop stuff?  Sounds pretty awesome.  Looks like it could transport about 20,000 people between LA and San Francisco per day at 700mph, and runs mostly on solar power. 

Crazy I say!  Science crazy.   :)
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Another

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #701 on: August 12, 2013, 07:50:34 pm »

Quote from: bootom line from the news
As for how such a system will actually be built, Musk has been hesitant to toss his own hat into the ring, calling the Hyperloop something he’s putting out there as an open-source design. Last week during a Tesla Motors call with investors he said, “I think I shot myself in the foot by ever mentioning the Hyperloop. I’m too strung out.”

For now, Hyperloop is going to remain an idea awaiting a prototype built by other people.
Theoretically possible with current tech, but who will actually build one if at all? There may be not enough crazy in the right way billionaires.
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Evil Knievel

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #702 on: August 13, 2013, 01:46:19 am »

Anyone else looking at the hyperloop stuff?  Sounds pretty awesome.  Looks like it could transport about 20,000 people between LA and San Francisco per day at 700mph, and runs mostly on solar power. 

Crazy I say!  Science crazy.   :)

Another magnetic levitation train. They try this now for many decades. Not the development, but finding someone willing to pay for such a construction seems to be the problem. ASFAIK, the only train of this type running in the world is located in Shanghai.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev
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Osmosis Jones

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #703 on: August 13, 2013, 02:14:03 am »

The Vac-train article is probably a better link, if we're looking at existing equivalents. However, I should point out that this ISN'T maglev; it's riding on an aircushion, a la an air-hockey table.

Reading through a few comments on reddit/ars technica and the like, the civil engineers seem to think he's underpriced the land acquisition and building costs, but everyone else seems to think it's pretty feasible.

God I hope it is; Australia is pretty well perfect for this sort of thing, with large flat terrain, with about 7-800kms between large, densely populated cities. Also, lots of sunshine, for the solar panels on the roof. Plus, since you have all that power generation and transmission infrastructure anyway, it's easy enough to hook up a bunch of charging points and make electric cars more than a pipe dream for rural travel.
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10ebbor10

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Re: SCIENCE, the Higgs, and everything else!
« Reply #704 on: August 13, 2013, 04:44:31 am »

Problem is, what happens if the aircushion fails. (Which is bound to happen eventually. I mean, battery shorts, broken compressor, all that stuff). You get a several ton capsule barreling through a tube at 700 mph. Friction will damage the train and track tremendously. (Also, make everyone inside sick). It's quite probably that a fire occurs, and tunnel fires are highly dangerous. I've seen no ideas of how to evacuate the tube. The design kinda relies on having little space, after all.

((Also, they would need to demolish and replace a tremendous amount of track to get the damaged capsule out.))
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