veektor - Slashdot User

Herschel Spectroscopy of Future Supernova 21

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday November 28, 2009 @01:50PM from the that's-a-big-star dept.

davecl writes "ESA's Herschel Space Telescope has released its first spectroscopic results. These include observations of VYCMa, a star 50 times as massive as the sun and soon to become a supernova, as well as a nearby galaxy, more distant colliding starburst galaxies and a comet in our own solar system. The spectra show more lines than have ever been seen in these objects in the far-infrared and will allow astronomers to work out the detailed chemistry and physics behind star and planet formation as well as the last stages of stellar evolution before VYCMa's eventual collapse into a supernova. More coverage is available at the Herschel Mission Blog, which I run."

Programmable Quantum Computer Created 132

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday November 26, 2009 @12:41PM from the four-out-of-five-ain't-bad dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A team at NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) used berylium ions, lasers and electrodes to develop a quantum system that performed 160 randomly chosen routines. Other quantum systems to date have only been able to perform single, prescribed tasks. Other researchers say the system could be scaled up. 'The researchers ran each program 900 times. On average, the quantum computer operated accurately 79 percent of the time, the team reported in their paper.'"

Comment Weapons Most Likely (Score 2, Insightful) 903

by veektor on Sunday September 06, 2009 @08:50AM (#29330685) Attached to: Which Breakthrough Is Most Likely?

- which would be sharks with frickin' lasers, unless the AI is developed for weapons purposes.

Comment Conspiracy theory (Score 3, Insightful) 222

by veektor on Sunday June 28, 2009 @02:36PM (#28505857) Attached to: Has NASA Found the Lost Moon Tapes?

Crucially, they could once and for all dispel 40 years of wild conspiracy theories.

New facts would never dispel a perfectly good conspiracy theory. Instead, the new facts are evidence that the conspiracy is still on-going.

Up your k1lt!

First Light Images From Herschel Satellite Released 35

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday June 20, 2009 @09:47AM from the pretty-pictures dept.

davecl writes "The first images from the Herschel satellite have been released by ESA. The images are of the galaxy M51 and show a lot of structure and other features never seen before. Coverage of these results can be found on the ESA website and on the Herschel mission blog. There's a lot of work still to be done on tuning the satellite and instruments for optimum performance, but these very early results already show the promise of this mission. I work on this project and can say that these results are really impressive at this early stage!"

Submission + - Software Enables Re-Creation of 'Lost' Instrument

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Saturday May 30, 2009 @01:05PM

Hugh Pickens writes: "BBC reports that the Lituus, a 2.4m (8ft) -long trumpet-like instrument, was played in Ancient Rome but fell out of use some 300 years ago. Bach's even composed a motet (a choral musical composition) for the Lituus, one of the last pieces of music written for the instrument.. But until now, no one had a clear idea of what this instrument looked or sounded like until researchers at Edinburgh University developed software that enabled them to design the Lituus even though no one alive today has heard, played or even seen a picture of this forgotten instrument. The team started with cross-section diagrams of instruments they believed to be similar to the Lituus and the range of notes it played. "The software used this data to design an elegant, usable instrument with the required acoustic and tonal qualities. The key was to ensure that the design we generated would not only sound right but look right as well," says Professor Murray Campbell. "Crucially, the final design produced by the software could have been made by a manufacturer in Bach's time without too much difficulty." Performed by the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (SCB) the Lituus produced a piercing trumpet-like sound interleaving with the vocals in an experimental performance of Bach's "O Jesu Christ, meins lebens licht" in Switzerland earlier this year giving the music a haunting feel that can't be reproduced by modern instruments. The software opens up the possibility that brass instruments could be customized more closely to the needs of individual players in the future — catering more closely for the differing needs of jazz, classical and other players all over the world. "Sophisticated computer modelling software has a huge role to play in the way we make music in the future.""

Comment I'm unemployed ... (Score 1) 887

by veektor on Monday January 12, 2009 @12:35AM (#26413373) Attached to: How do you get to work?

pick one: ... you insensitive clod. ... which means I commute via the wire to the unemployment site. ... so I commute by car to the beer store daily. ... I (stationary) bike in the basement to get my exercise (yeah, right). ... so I have plenty of time with which to invent Teleportation.

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