clhs sciblog

Opportunity to live forever

bracetj — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:01:10 +0000

In the late 1700′s the life expectancy of a human was about 24 years. In the 1800′s that age doubled. In our generation we can expect to live to the age of 76, or is it? Recent scientific findings show the role of “telomeres”. Telomeres are the tip of the DNA molecule. Telomeres can now be looked at to tell how long a person is going to live because telomeres are programmed to die within a certain amount of time. Biologists are looking to provide a synthetic telomere to increase lifespans, maybe even live forever. To read more click here.

New Machine Recreates a Star’s Surface

wozniajm — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:43:15 +0000

Scientists have found a way to use an x-ray to recreate conditions in aging stars. (White Dwarfs) This machine is referred to as the Z machine, which is located at Sandia National Labs. They figured why not make a machine like this to learn more about white dwarfs. When they use this machine it can imitate the temperatures and the density conditions of the star.

This article is extremely amazing. The fact that we can imitate a stars surface is amazing. If this continues who knows what else we can achieve.

Read the full article here.

What Was Once Perfect Is Now…More Perfect

harrispg — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:00:42 +0000

“Qark-gluon-plasma” is the most perfect liquid known to man, and it can only get better. When most people think of liquids, they automatically think of the most famous liquid on planet earth water. Even though water may keep all human beings alive it may be as far from perfect as we are. See quark-gluon-plasma is nothing like water at all. It is more like a warm honey type of liquid. Quark-gluon-plasma isn’t that easy to explain though. In fact it is so complicated that one of the ways to explain it is through the complicated though highly famous “String Theory”. Quark-gluon-plasma can only be made by heavy-ion collusion, so yes it is a little bit more complex than our precious H2O.

I think that it is pretty cool that we have discovered a liquid that basically destroys everything that many great scientists said that liquids can’t do, and it has. Any time you do something that people say you can’t do, you can’t help but feel proud of yourself, so I grant quark-gluon-plasma the permission to rejoice that it is able to break down barriers. It’s also pretty cool to think that we called something perfect and we are still finding ways to improve it. That alone gives us great hope that we can find cures to diseases that we have thought for the longest time were incurable. As long as we have scientists that are committed to their studies then we can always have hope for the future of improvement. For more information, please click here.

Q2-1

An “Out of This World” Form of Ice

brownng — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:11:09 +0000

Scientists at the Cornell’s Neil Ashcroft have found new phases of water, particularly ice, at very high pressure levels. Although these high pressure levels don’t exist on earth, they are most likely found in many places in outer space. Different structures of ice have been predicted in the 1-5 terapascal pressure rang. What does that mean, you may ask? Well think of this: in outer space, pressure is measured in atmospheres. Here on earth, we live under one atmosphere. A terapascal is measured by 10 million atmospheres. One of the researchers comments that it’s difficult to produce such a pressure in a laboratory; however, those kinds of pressures would be found in planets such as Neptune or Uranus. The scientists have discovered that under these pressure scales, “discrete water molecules” vanish. The oxygen-hydrogen-oxygen bonds get squished against each other, creating new forms. These new forms of ice turn into metal, although, not as quickly as other scientists had predicted. It has been assumed that the pressure for the metallization of ice must be above 4.8 terapascals. Calculations also proposed that at certain pressures, ice may become squished to the point of transformation into a quantum liquid.

This new knowledge could help NASA in the future, when planning missions to the outer planets of our solar system. When creating the spacesuits and the technology needed for the trip, having such knowledge would definitely help and guide the designing of it. It’s also quite impressive that high pressures have the capability of changing phases of different substances.

For more info, click here.

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The Truth About Wood-Burning Stoves

brownng — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:08:10 +0000

Wood-burning stoves are quite popular throughout many different countries, however, the view and opinion of them is beginning to change. People are starting to question if there are negative health affects due to the wood smoke. Some groups would like to ban it, while others are trying to encourage wood burning. The main concern of those who would like to ban wood burning is the increase of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases; for example, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. “Different burning conditions give different particles.” Different factors that should be taken into consideration when studying the health effects of burning wood are the chemical composition, solubility, and size. Some substances are more harmful to our bodies than others, water soluble particles dissolve easily into the lung lining fluid, and the size of the particles determines how quickly they decompose. During good combustion conditions with a reasonable supply of oxygen and high temperature, most of the organic substances should burn in the fire. When the combustion conditions are poor, a large amount of organic substances is emitted; some of which may be considered carcinogenic. With complete combustion, all organic substances are burned in the fire. Complete combustion emits the least amount of harmful substances, and the ones that are emitted, do not remain in the lungs for very long. Researchers have found that newer burners are much healthier than the old ones.

It seems that no matter what type of combustion conditions there are, organic substances are always released, creating a negative affect on our bodies; but, newer burners are supposedly better and healthier than conventional stoves. I think if people all over the world knew about the negative health effects of traditional stoves and switched to clean-burning stoves, there would obviously be a positive outcome. There would be less air pollution, and the chances of spreading cardiovascular and respiratory diseases would be lessened.

To learn more, click here.

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One Step Closer to Controlling Nuclear Fusion

colejm — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:46:49 +0000

A huge step in nuclear fusion has been made. Scientists have figured out how to prevent the development of instabilities in an efficient alternative way relevant to a future nuclear fusion reactor for the first time. This will make a newer, better reactor easier and more obtainable. Nuclear reactors are our attempt to recreate the sun’s energy in an earth-based reactor system. Reactors work by heating gas to millions degrees, which changes it to plasma. From this, we get the “sun’s” energy. Sometimes, though, in stabilities happen in the plasma. It makes the plasma vibrate despite the magnetic field that it is contained in. If it vibrates enough, it can touch the walls of the reactor, making the plasma cool very quickly, creating big electromagnetic forces in the reactor. The scientists figured out how to prevent these instabilities by adjusting the magnetic field that holds the plasma in place. They used real antennas in real reactors, so their calculations and adjustments could be confirmed. The next step in making nuclear reactors better is adding a detector system that can make it possible to stop instabilities in real time over long periods of time. After this, reactors will be “perfected”.

Making nuclear reactors the best they can be is very important. Making them the safest and the most productive, will be greatly beneficial for the world. Having stable reactors will allow us to make huge amounts of energy. This will solve our energy issues, and it could lead to everyone in the world having constant electricity. It would be awesome if this could happen. Everyone could have electricity and have a chance for a “civilized” life. These reactors could also help with pollution and global warming. If we can make these reactors, we can have clean energy. This would make the world a better, cleaner, healthier place. This discovery will lead to many great things.

Q2-P2

Pen Physics

oscarsde — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:17:57 +0000

We all have used a pen in our life, but have any of us really put thought into the physical aspects of a pen when it creates strokes on a piece of paper? A team of American and south Korean scientists are researching this writing tool. With the information they learn they hope to get a better understanding of ancient biological systems. The team discovered many properties that relate from the transfer of ink from pen to paper. Observations demonstrated the glycerin ink in the basic pen flows into crevices in the paper as they expected it would.

Click here to read more.

The Future in Science

schobebj — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:54:29 +0000

Higgs boson, also know as the god particle, is a hypothetical massive elementary particle that is said to exist. Its existence is predicted by the Standard Model (SM) to explain how spontaneous breaking of electro weak symmetry takes place in nature. This will prove that particles have mass. This would prove that the SM is correct. Recently in a lab in Germany they are on the brink of a break through in proving this Higgs boson to be true. They have found a particle that has a mass of 125 GeV. It is predicted that the higgs boson particle to have a mass between 115 and 131 GeV. This particle fits right in. This particle would be about 125 times a proton. They have a machine that is very big that can detect and measure the particles when the protons collide.

This is very early on in test and needs many more days and test to be done before proven true. If proven true it will open up a whole new field just for these particles that relate to the Higgs boson particles. It will also prove the SM to be true. This is a great jump in science and in discovering new things about our world. If you would like to learn more about the Higgs boson click here for the full article.

New Homes on Mars

schobebj — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:54:16 +0000

Would you like to live on the moon? How about on Mars? Scientists have been testing the effects of living in these conditions by testing flies. They use magnets to make the fruit flies weightless and balance out Earth’s gravity. It is not Quite the same as zero gravity in space but it is pretty close and cheaper to use magnets rather than going to space. When they make the flies weightless they seem to move quicker, when they are in the middle where there is more normal gravity they move slower. They are not sure why this is, they have ideas but none are for sure. Some of these ideas are it is easier on there joints and muscles or maybe they are just confused what way is up or down because of the lack of gravity. Once they made a live frog weightless. There is no magnet that is strong enough to do this on humans nor is it safe enough yet.

As we study the affects on these flies we can learn more about what would happen to a human in zero gravity over many days. As the test continues we will be able to test larger more advanced organisms and learn more about the affects of zero gravity on humans. One day we will know enough about the gravity on the moon or mars to set up a camp there and live there. I don’t know about you but i would love to have a house on the moon. This would be many years down the road but someday will happen.

Here is a link for the full article.

Mars-Bound Rover Takes Aim at the Red Planet

kronebca — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:03:09 +0000

On Wednesday January 4, NASA launched a rover to head to Mars. The rover was launched in the direction of Mars but was launched 38,000 miles away from the planet to make sure that the rover would not run into Mars. This rover costs 2 and a half billion dollars. The rover will travel around Mars and back to earth within eight and a half months. In June the rover is expected to land. The rover will collect some data that is necessary for the scientists to do further research on. A huge factor in traveling to Mars in the future is the problem of radiation. Mars has an incredible amount of radiation and hopefully the rover will bring back data for the scientists to figure out how to work with it.

I think it’s great that NASA is taking huge steps in exploring Mars. Before reading this article I had thought to myself why doesn’t NASA launch many more rovers to Mars and the moon so we can continue to learn more about outer space? Then I realized that it costs billions and billions of dollars to have anything go into space so every thing that travels into space we should consider it important and hope that anything NASA does goes well.

If you would like to read more on this article click here.

Q2-P2