Archive for Science
The Internet in SPAAAAAACE!
I thought this story on the Register was quite interesting, and just wanted to draw people’s attention to it. The story concerns tests of a new communication protocol called Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN), specifically designed to be an alternative for TCP/IP communication across the vast distances between planets, moons and space stations. Over such vast distances, lag and interruption are obviously very common. If this sounds interesting, then I urge you to take a look.
Lunar Eclipse (Minor Disappointment)
I set my alarm for the early morning eclipse of the moon last week, hoping to catch a glimpse of the sanguine spectacle. I had written a bit about the science behind this celestial conjunction over on Ichthyes earlier in the week…
Unfortunately there was thick, patchy cloud that morning, so I only saw the moon a couple of times over a half hour period. I managed to snap a quick picture, but it didn’t come out too well – you’ll just have to take my word for it that the red dot in the middle of the picture is in fact the Moon.
Okay, so it was a little disappointed that I didn’t get a better view or any nice pictures, but I’m still glad I set the alarm. I opened my bedroom window so I could lean out and get a better view, and was surprised at how noisy it was at half past three in the morning; there was traffic noise, bird song and people talking nearby. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but presumably it was lamenting the cloud cover. 
These people had a little more luck than me, if you’re interested.
More Railgun News
To follow-up on my earlier post, here’s a couple of videos of the experimental rail cannon being test fired. Enjoy. 
Railgun News
Not about mine this time, but a new version planned by the US Navy. It’s generally been “known” that certain navies have been thinking about ship mounted rail cannons for a good few years now, but it nice to finally see some action on this front. Not a lot of point in me repeating this story, when you can read about it here.
New Job!
As some of you will already know, I now have a new job. I’ve bidden a fond farewell to college work to assume a roll further up the education hierarchy at the University of Surrey.
I’m working at the ATI – Advanced Technology Institute – part of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences. We’re more concerned with research, rather than education, although some MSc students do their projects in our labs.
I’d love to talk a bit about what’s currently being worked on, but I can’t really, for various reasons. But if you’re interested, a list of broad research topics can be seen on the ATI homepage.
Cassini Imaging (CICLOPS)
The fairly well known Cassini probe is still exploring the Saturn ‘system’, photographing the gas giant and her moons, just as it has been since 2004. Within the past couple of days it performed a close fly-past the moon Iapetus. While looking at the first images to be sent back, I came across this site, which I wanted to share as it has some really nice photos from them mission, and some small animated GIFS. If you have an astronomical leaning, then I urge you to take a look.
Coffee Overdose
This doesn’t really have a lot to do with anything, but I was intrigued by the tale of the girl who overdosed on coffee. Futurama told us that if you drink 100 cups of coffee in a day, the 100th will allow you to move at super speed while the world moves past in slow motion.
A friend once said he wanted to try and drink the 100 cups of coffee to see what would happen. A quick calculation showed that the LD50* for instant coffee was likely to be in the region of 85 cups. Of course I don’t recommend that anyone tries to find out, as you’ll suffer horrendous side effects long before then! Oh, and my friend never did get round to making an attempt, so my estimation remains unproven.
* LD50 for a given substance is the dose that would prove lethal to 50% of a test population who ingested it.
Perseid Meteor Shower
I went out with a few people to watch the Perseid meteor shower on Sunday evening. We watched the spectacle from Southsea beach, where there was actually a lot less light pollution then I was expecting. Well away from the city and into the countryside may have been a better location, but it wasn’t really conveinient to get everyone out there.
Anyway, over the course of an hour or so I saw about seven or eight individual meteors, but between us I’d estimate we saw about twenty in total. Some were mere specs on the horizon, others seemed to streak brightly overhead, leaving a ghostly trail in their wake.
This is normally the point where I’d break-out the photos, but alas I don’t own a camera good enough to capture these fleeting comet debris. 
But fortunately, other people do, so I’ll just link to the BBC website.
As this is an annual event, we’re thinking of going camping this time next year – somewhere out in the wilderness (or as near as you can get in Britain) so we can really appreciate the show! I’m sure someone will have a good camera with them then.
Exam Season
With Wednesday’s large AS Physics practical exam done and dusted, and Thursday’s massive Biology practical similarly completed, exam season is all down hill from this point onwards.
In contrast with the frantic dashing to-and-fro of the staff directly before and after, the students carried out the practicals calmly and with barely a hitch. The only notable incident was when one of the Physics electronic experiments caught fire. It was being powered by one of those industrial six volt lamp batteries, and it would seem that the crocodile clips on the two terminals accidentally came into contact. This resulted in a short circuit that caused the metal spring terminals to get very hot, very quickly, melting the plastic of the battery case and filling the lab with a horrible stink and a small amount of smoke.
To his credit, the student using the equipment at the time swiftly disconnect everything and raised his hand for assistance. Alas his suggested cause was that he’d “turned off the voltmeter, and the current had nothing else to do”. Erm…this is so wrong I nearly caught fire. Not exactly the sort of thing you want to here from a student during an exam.
Battlesuit Type Thing…
Remember that guy who invented the cool bear-proof suit under the codename “Project Grizzly”? Well he’s back, only this time the suit is bullet-proof and he’s called it the “Trojan”. Well you would, wouldn’t you? Thought I should mention it as it’ll probably be of interest to some of my regular readers.
