Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - NASA News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery (nasa.gov)

Submitted by tpheiska
tpheiska writes: NASA Sets News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery; Science Journal Has Embargoed Details Until 2 p.m. EST On Dec. 2

NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life .

The news conference will be held at the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 300 E St. SW, in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website at http://www.nasa.gov./
Iphone

iPhone Alarm Bug Leads To Mass European Sleep-in 487

Posted by CmdrTaco from the yeah-it-was-my-phone dept.
nk497 writes "A flaw in the alarm clock in iPhone 4s gave Europeans a bit of a lie-in this morning. While the Apple handsets automatically adjusted to daylight savings time, a bug in the alarm system meant many were woken up an hour later than they should have been, after clocks rolled back over the weekend. Annoyingly, Australia was hit by a similar problem last month, but Apple failed to fix the problem or even warn users. American Apple fans, consider yourselves warned. The iOS4 bug can apparently be avoided by using one-off alarms, rather than pre-set regular wake-up calls."
Iphone

Submission + - iPhone alarm clock hit by daytime savings bug (tuaw.com)

Submitted by tpheiska
tpheiska writes: The iOS bug that caused recurring alarms to go off an hour early in New Zealand after its switch to Daylight Saving Time subsequently hit some territories in Australia following their switchover a week later. Apple promised a fix to the problem, and it's likely the fix will be bundled with the forthcoming iOS 4.2 update — but that update hasn't come soon enough to stop the problem from striking Europe. With the switchover to Standard Time in Northern Hemisphere nations, European and Middle Eastern countries that have switched are now experiencing the same problem we saw in New Zealand and Australia, but in reverse: Europeans' recurring alarms are going off an hour later following the switch to Standard Time.

Comment Re:Nope (Score 1) 237

by tpheiska (#28879135) Attached to: Panel Advises Longer Life For Space Station

Apologies for commenting on my own post. Just a random pick from the list, an experiment done back in the day, Zeolite Crystal Growth (ZCG).

Some exerpts:

Zeolites, which are mineral crystals of aluminosilicates, have a rigid crystalline structure with a network of interconnected tunnels and cages that is similar to a honeycomb. A sort of mineral sponge, zeolites have the ability to absorb and release liquids and gases such as petroleum or hydrogen while remaining as hard as rock.

...

Results from the samples mixed on ISS suggest that the Lewis acid catalytic sites are altered in microgravity, as indicated by lower catalytic activity in the MPV probe reaction compared to Earth-grown zeolite. This further suggests that the control of fluid dynamics during crystallization may be important in making better industrial catalysts. Although space-grown zeolites had the same particle morphology and identical surface framework as zeolites grown on Earth, the average zeolite size of the space-grown crystals was 10% larger than crystals grown on Earth (Akata et al. 2004).

Larger zeolite crystals allow researchers to better define the structure and understand how they work, with a goal of producing improved crystals on Earth. Improved zeolites may have applications in storing hydrogen fuel, reduction of hazardous byproducts from chemical processing, and more efficient techniques for petroleum processing.

So just tacking a random pick of the huge experiment list, something called ZCG, I found that there are substantial results. These people just need to get the public interested with this stuff by communicating it more efficiently. "The science we do might lower gas prices and also contribute to hydrogen car research".

Comment Re:Nope (Score 2, Informative) 237

by tpheiska (#28879063) Attached to: Panel Advises Longer Life For Space Station

The ISS is the most amazing laboratory ever built. Vast amounts of awesome science is done on it. Thing is, NASA is so completely inept at communicating this to the public that even space geeks, like myself, have no idea what the hell they do up there.

Your post got me wondering.. I had no idea either. A little google search gave me this interesting list.

Comment Re:Why now? (Score 1) 132

by tpheiska (#28863875) Attached to: Noctilucent Clouds Likely Caused By Shuttle Launches

It didn't take that long.

I distinctly remember hearing about this in a lecture back in 2006 in Kiruna space campus. They have investigated stuff like this for a while there and remarked that spacecraft launches 'also' cause them. Shuttles were not specifically mentioned.

The clouds that are not man-made were said to dissolve ozone, but not in big quantities, they are completely "natural".

Comment Brief History of Time (Score 1) 413

by tpheiska (#27648611) Attached to: Stephen Hawking Is "Very Ill" In Hospital

Magnificent book. I got a copy when I was under 10 years old and read it, changed my life. I heard a great quote concerning it: "It is one of the most bought, least read books in the world that every owner claims to understand". I truly hope he pulls through.

P.S. I understood the book.
NASA

Submission + - Orbiting Carbon Observatory launch failed (nasa.gov) 1

Submitted by tpheiska
tpheiska writes: NASA reports that Orbiting Carbon Observatory launch has failed due to a failed separation of payload fairing. A press conference to discuss the contingency is expected at about 7:15 a.m. EST.

Slashdot Top Deals

An Ada exception is when a routine gets in trouble and says 'Beam me up, Scotty'.

Close