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Comment Re:What gave them the idea? -BATSE (Score 1) 153

by GammaRay Rob (#34838090) Attached to: Thunderstorms Proven To Create Antimatter

The Burst And Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on board the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory made many observations of TGFs from low-Earth orbit between 1991 and 2000. In fact, our second event after turning on the instrument was located to the Earth; very surprising, in view of the fact that we didn't expect *any*! The ironic part is that our main objects of study, gamma-ray bursts, were discovered by a series of satellites (Vela) that were monitoring the Earth (and the far side of the Moon) for gamma-rays indicating violations of the nuclear test ban treaty with the (then) Soviet Union. Seeing nothing from the Earth, the Los Alamos scientists looked for any other signal...

Comment Re:What gave them the idea? (Score 4, Informative) 153

by GammaRay Rob (#34835584) Attached to: Thunderstorms Proven To Create Antimatter

Terrestrial Gamma Flashes have been detected by orbiting instruments for some time; at least since 1991,iirc. What's new here is the definite signature of positron annihilation; this can only be done with a sufficiently large detector looking at the right energy. The Burst Monitor on Fermi was designed to catch the medium energies of gamma-ray bursts (as well as low- and high energies), so this was a nice add-on to the main science.
Earth

Natural Gas "Cleaning" Extracts Valuable Waste Carbon 73

Posted by timothy from the i'll-take-it-black dept.
Al writes "There's been a lot of focus on "clean coal" lately, but a Canadian start-up called Atlantic Hydrogen is developing a way to make natural gas more environmentally friendly. The process involves using a plasma reactor to separate hydrogen and methane in the gas. The procedure also turns carbon emissions into high-purity carbon black, a substance that is used to make inks, plastics and reinforced rubber products. Utility companies could potentially sell the carbon black, making the process more financially attractive."
PC Games (Games)

Crayon Physics Combines Science and Puzzles 78

Posted by Soulskill from the and-nobody-can-tell-how-bad-you-are-at-drawing dept.
IamAHack writes "NPR covered a new game that seems like it would have great appeal to Slashdot readers: Crayon Physics. Quoting: 'A new computer game went on sale this week. It's not a blockbuster like Halo or World of Warcraft. There's no first-person shooting, no sports, no guitar, no microphone. Instead, there's a crayon. The game is Crayon Physics Deluxe. It's a simple, mesmerizing game created by a 25-year-old independent games designer from Finland named Petri Purho. "It's a game where your crayon drawings come to life,' Purho tells NPR's Melissa Block. 'You draw stuff and your drawings behave physically correctly. As soon as you release the last button, the laws of physics are applied to your drawing."' A demo is available, and Opposable Thumbs has a review of the game."
Space

Black Holes Lead Galaxy Growth 50

Posted by kdawson from the why-did-the-galaxy-cross-the-road dept.
The AAS meeting in San Diego is producing lots of news on the astronomy front. Studying galaxies that were forming in the universe's first billion years, astronomers have solved a longstanding cosmic chicken-and-egg problem: which forms first, galaxies or the black holes at their cores? "'We finally have been able to measure black-hole and bulge masses in several galaxies seen as they were in the first billion years after the Big Bang, and the evidence suggests that the constant ratio seen nearby may not hold in the early Universe. The black holes in these young galaxies are much more massive compared to the bulges than those seen in the nearby Universe,"' said Fabian Walter of the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Germany. 'The implication is that the black holes started growing first.'"
Supercomputing

Submission + - Canadian Company Builds First Quantum Computer

Submitted by StarvingSE
StarvingSE writes: D-Wave Systems, Inc., based near Vancouver, claims to have built the world's first computer based on quantum physics. Its machine is described as a computer that can perform 64,000 calculations at once.

From the article: "There are certain classes of problems that can't be solved with digital computers," said Herb Martin, the firm's CEO, over a decidedly-noisy digital cell phone. "Digital computers are good at running programs; quantum computers are good at handling massive sets of variables."

Perhaps we are finally at the brink of a major breakthrough in supercomputing technology.

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