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Cool science stuff

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Sat 06 Mar , 2010 3:20 pm
The Grey Amaretto as Supermega-awesome Proud Heretic Girl
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That is very cool! I'd like to see a picture of the ark replica.

DNA studies are amazing. A PBS series here is tracing the roots of several prominent African-Americans (and some not-so prominent). It's fascinating, really. They are now able to even determine which tribes in Africa some of them are descended from. (I think that's a beautiful gift to give them.) And it's very interesting to see their genetic makeup. What it highlights is how closely related we all are.

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*E*V*E*N*S*T*A*R*
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Sat 06 Mar , 2010 4:02 pm
I've cried a thousand oceans, and I would cry a thousand more if that's what it takes to sail you home.
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I hate shows about ancestry. I wanna learn my own, dammit. :pout:




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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Sat 06 Mar , 2010 4:05 pm
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Well, I want to learn mine, too. I wonder how much it would cost to have it traced the way these people have had theirs done. I was thinking that the whole time I was watching.

(I'd have to do mine secretly, though, due to some family secrets.)

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elfshadow
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Sat 06 Mar , 2010 4:32 pm
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My uncle traced my maternal ancestry for a few generations, but nothing past that. My paternal ancestry is more difficult because my dad was adopted.


Such a fantastic story, though! :)


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Ara-anna
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Sat 06 Mar , 2010 4:58 pm
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I have a lot done on my mothers side, it's because not too many generations back we kick into Irish/Scot royals and once that happens it's fairly easy to do back a long ways. There is also a very long Manx line on my mothers side. I have two sides of my moms and one side of my fathers, but my fathers other side is pretty short, goes back to an orphan who was shipped to Canada (my great grandfather) from France in and around WWI. He moved back to France and then moved back to Canada after my grandfather was born, then after my father was born they moved to Lousianna. My great grandmother (wife) was French and Something (North African/Arab/Jew :shrug: ) orphan who was also shipped to Canada via France. However my fathers other side is Scot and goes back a good long ways.

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MariaHobbit
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Fri 12 Mar , 2010 9:53 pm
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Isn't the Manx a tailless cat???? :Q

;)

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Jude
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Fri 19 Mar , 2010 1:04 pm
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Quote:
Scientists use 3-D cloak to make object 'disappear'

Jean-Louis Santini, Agence France-Presse

European researchers have taken the world a step closer to fictional wizard Harry Potter's invisibility cape after they made an object disappear using a three-dimensional cloak, a study published Thursday in the U.S.-based journal Science showed.

Scientists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and Imperial College London used the cloak, made using photonic crystals with a structure resembling piles of wood, to conceal a small bump on a gold surface, they wrote in Science.

"It's kind of like hiding a small object underneath a carpet -- except this time the carpet also disappears," they said.

"We put an object under a microscopic structure, a little like a reflective carpet," said Nicholas Stenger, one of the researchers who worked on the project. "When we looked at it through a lens and did spectroscopy, no matter what angle we looked at the object from, we saw nothing. The bump became invisible."

Invisibility cloaks have already been developed but they only worked on two dimensions and the objects that were supposed to be made invisible were immediately visible from the third dimension.

The new 3-D cloak is composed of special lenses that bend light waves to suppress light as it scattered from the tiny bump the researchers were trying to make disappear, the study says.

The cloak and the bump were both minute.

The cloak measured 100 microns by 30 microns -- one micron being one-thousandth of a millimeter -- and the bump it hid was 10 times smaller, said Stenger.

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elfshadow
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Fri 19 Mar , 2010 2:26 pm
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I always knew Hogwarts was real. :love:


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Jude
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Fri 19 Mar , 2010 6:25 pm
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Humans Could Regenerate Tissue Like Newts By Switching Off a Single Gene
Quote:
Scientists have long been stymied by human regenerative healing -- that is, wholesale regrowth of, say, a severed limb -- an ability inherent in some species but lost on humans. But new research suggests the ability to regenerate isn't based on something newts and flatworms have that we don't; rather, it's something we do have that's keeping us from regenerating tissues. Researchers think a gene called p21 may control regenerative healing, and that by switching it off, humans could perform our own regeneration.
Read the rest of the article!

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Jude
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Tue 30 Mar , 2010 12:59 pm
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The Ottawa Citizen wrote:
The solar car versus the ice road
After two years and more than 35,000 kilometres, a Toronto man plans the ultimate challenge for his solar-powered car: the 185-kilometre ice road linking Inuvik with Tuktoyaktuk, writes Darcy Henton.


Darcy Henton, Canwest News Service

It should come as no surprise that when you drive a vehicle that looks like it came out of a Star Wars movie, you're going to attract attention.

That's probably why Marcelo da Luz has been stopped 26 times by law enforcement during a two-year, 35,750-kilometre odyssey that has taken him across Canada and the United States. The Torontonian is now headed for the Beaufort Sea.

People have called in UFO sightings when they've seen him go by in his solar-powered car, the Power of One (Xof1). The 41-year-old adventurer says he has been pulled over by the U.S. Secret Service, a SWAT team from Washington, D.C., and even Alberta Mounties. The latter said he was driving too slow on the QE2.

He's had to keep the 225-kilogram, flying saucer-like Xof1 off the roads in Ontario, but most other jurisdictions have given him permits to travel.

Da Luz says the one-seater can reach speeds of 120 kilometres per hour under ideal conditions, but usually cruises at a more sedate 70 km/h -- slowing to 40 km/h to climb hills -- with its 12 horsepower engine.

It's no hot rod, but it has some snap. Da Luz says it can go from zero to 85 km/h in six seconds -- not bad for a vehicle with fewer amps than a typical toaster.

It took the former airline flight attendant more than 50,000 hours to build the machine, with a lot of help from engineers, friends, college professors and university students. It has been his dream to have one ever since he stumbled upon Australia's solar car races in 1987.

Da Luz says his initial goal was to promote the use of sustainable, clean energy by building a solar car and driving it 8,000 kilometres from Newfoundland to Victoria, but he soon set his sights on smashing the solar car distance record of 15,070 kilometres. He says he accomplished that in October 2008 in Victoria, B.C. although the feat has not yet been officially recognized as a Guinness World Record.

Now, after twice crossing the Arctic Circle and cruising the U.S. from California to Florida, Da Luz is picking up where he left off in Inuvik last November. On April 10, he's tackling the 185-kilometre ice road that links Inuvik with Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T.

He has endured sandstorms in California and drenching rain on the Dempster Highway, but the ice road will test the limits of man and machine.

If the weather is too warm, the road will deteriorate and he could be stranded on the wrong side of the Mackenzie River. If it's too cold, he could freeze in the unheated car and experience breakdowns or failures of components that aren't made to endure severe wintry weather. The cold could sap his batteries. The short daylight hours and low-slung sun will impede his car's ability to run on solar power. And then there's always the risk of blinding spring blizzards.

"It will be a great challenge for me. Anything can happen. But I may get lucky with the weather and the car as well."

The flimsy-looking, made-in-Canada craft has proved to be durable. Da Luz has been thrilled with its performance. In fact, he says he's had more problems with his support van and trailer, which have broken down a number of times.

He lost the transmission in the van near Beaver Creek, on the Yukon side of the Alaska-Yukon boundary, and had to limp to Whitehorse in first gear. But he found a shop that agreed to replace it with a $2,400 new gear box for no charge.

"It amazed me the generosity of people I found on the way," said Da Luz, who says he has twice mortgaged his home and spent his life savings on the project.

He has been back in Toronto trying to raise $100,000 for the next leg, which will take him from the Arctic to Argentina, but it has been a difficult challenge to find sponsors.

"I'm getting more into debt, but you only live once," he says. "You don't want to live life moaning about your dreams and the things you should have done. Life is worth living and you try to make the best of it."

Check out the Power of One at www.xof1.com

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Tue 30 Mar , 2010 1:41 pm
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Interesting. Well, if he's cool with going broke, then I think it's cool that he's pursuing his dream.

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Estel Dúnadan
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Tue 30 Mar , 2010 10:14 pm
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It's a nice idea. I like that he's testing it so hard. But surely a battery could solve most of the problems? If that same solar energy could be stored by the car, it should help it up hills and let it keep going in bad weather.

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MariaHobbit
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Wed 31 Mar , 2010 3:36 pm
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Batteries are heavy.

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The Nameless Thing
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Wed 31 Mar , 2010 5:54 pm
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Jude wrote:
Humans Could Regenerate Tissue Like Newts By Switching Off a Single Gene
Quote:
Scientists have long been stymied by human regenerative healing -- that is, wholesale regrowth of, say, a severed limb -- an ability inherent in some species but lost on humans. But new research suggests the ability to regenerate isn't based on something newts and flatworms have that we don't; rather, it's something we do have that's keeping us from regenerating tissues. Researchers think a gene called p21 may control regenerative healing, and that by switching it off, humans could perform our own regeneration.
Read the rest of the article!

Cool!

Which one? And where's the switch? :poke:

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Jude
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Wed 07 Apr , 2010 1:28 pm
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Previously unknown species of giant lizard discovered

The side menu of the article has links to articles about other recently-discovered species.

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Wed 07 Apr , 2010 1:33 pm
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I think it's very cool when scientists discover a new creature. It kind of makes you think there's hope for Nessie and Sasquatch yet!

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Jude
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Wed 07 Apr , 2010 1:41 pm
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I doubt it - there's a difference between not finding something everyone's looking for, and finding something by accident that nobody was looking for! :D

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Wed 07 Apr , 2010 1:47 pm
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Don't dash my romantic hopes! I'd like to think there's a cool sea creature swimming around Scotland. Or some kind of ape beast wandering around Canada.

(The thought of him wandering around my woods in Ohio used to scare the crap out of me as a child. :uhoh: )

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Jude
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Thu 22 Apr , 2010 1:48 pm
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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Cool science stuff
Posted: Thu 22 Apr , 2010 2:10 pm
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Very cool!

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