The universe that we can see is so large that it might as well be infinite. Our little solar system is like a speck of dust by comparison. That part of the universe that we can't see may actually be infinite, but we might never know.
Saturday, October 31, 2020
Friday, October 30, 2020
How Large is the Universe? Bigger than you can Imagine?
The universe that we can see is so large that it might as well be infinite. Our little solar system is like a grain of sand by comparison. That part of the universe that we can't see may actually be infinite, but we might never know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2YJ7aR25P0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2YJ7aR25P0
Thursday, October 29, 2020
Fwd: Chemical Printer
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Larry
Scientists make digital breakthrough in chemistry that could revolutionize the drug industry
- At the Cronin Lab at the University of Glasgow chemists developed software that translates a chemist's words into recipes for molecules that a robot can understand.
- Professor Lee Cronin, the lab's principal investigator, has designed a robotic chemist called a "chemputer" that can produce chemicals from XDL programs, including the drug remdesivir, a FDA-approved antiviral treatment for the coronavirus.
- Cronin and his colleagues represent one of many groups rushing to bring chemistry into the digital age.
digital instructions for whipping up a batch of the nearly 400-atom molecule at the push of a button have been sitting on Github, an online software repository, freely available to anyone with the hardware needed to execute the chemical "program."
A dozen such chemical computers or "chemputers" sit in the University of Glasgow lab of Lee Cronin, the chemist who designed the bird's nest of tubing, pumps, and flasks, and wrote the remdesivir code that runs on it. He's spent years dreaming of a future where researchers can distribute and produce molecules as easily as they email and print PDFs
Cronin and his colleagues described their machine's capability to produce multiple molecules last year, and now they've taken a second major step toward digitizing chemistry with an accessible way to program with the machine. Their software turns academic papers into chemputer-executable programs that researchers can edit without learning to code, they announced earlier this month in Science. And they're not alone. The team represents one of dozens of groups spread across academia and industry all racing to bring chemistry into the digital age, a development that could lead to safer drugs, more efficient solar panels, and a disruptive new industry.
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
What's inside the Millennium Falcon? (Star Wars)
More than you ever wanted to know about The Millenium Falcon.
Contrary to what is presented in the video, I would expect redundant systems in any kind of spacecraft. Nothing is mentioned of heat shielding for re-entry, although if you could slow a craft to a near stop then you wouldn't need it.
Even if we could create and store antimatter, which would be the most compact fuel possible, it would still take an enormous amount of fuel to continuously accelerate a craft all the way to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Reaching anywhere near the speed of light takes several times more mass of antimatter than the mass of the ship.
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Why Does Wi-Fi Use the Same Frequency as Microwaves?
The other day I guessed that a router would broadcast at only 0.1 watts, which would make it about the same power as a cheap walkie-talkie. In theory, the 5ghz band allows for higher speed, but shorter range.
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
The secret history of dirt
This is a bit environmentalist but interesting nevertheless.
It would be reasonable to assume that farmers have some training in how to take care of their soil as well as some incentive to do so. Otherwise, they would be getting lower yields every year. It is possible that they rely heavily on chemical fertilizers, which is mostly just nitrogen, instead of natural ones. Chemical fertilizers are derived from fossil fuels, which are a finite resource.
Thursday, October 1, 2020
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