fireflew - Slashdot User

Submission + - Deformable Liquid Mirrors for Adaptive Optics (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn on Thursday June 17, 2010 @08:21AM

eldavojohn writes: Want to make a great concave mirror for your telescope? Put a drop of mercury in a bowl and spin the bowl. The mercury will spread out to a concave reflective surface smoother than anything we can make with plain old glass right now. The key problem in this situation is that the bowl will always have to point straight up. MIT's Technology Review is analyzing a team's success in combating problems with bringing liquid mirrors into the practical applications of astronomy. To fight the gravity requirement, the team used a ferromagnetic liquid coated with a metal-like film and very strong magnetic fields to distort the surface of that liquid as they needed. But this introduces new non-linear problems of control when trying to sync up several of these mirrors similar to how traditional glass telescopes use multiple hexagon shaped mirrors mounted on actuators. The team has fought past so many of these problems plaguing liquid mirrors that they produced a proof of concept liquid mirror just five centimeters across with ninety-one actuators cycling at one Kilohertz and the ability to linearize the response of the liquid. And with that, liquid mirrors take a giant leap closer to practicality.

Submission + - China hits back at Google (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by

sopssa

on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @03:16PM

sopssa writes: "After Google yesterday started redirecting google.cn users to their uncensored Hong Kong based google.com.hk servers, Chinese government has now hit back at Google by restricting access to Google's Hong Kong servers. 'On Tuesday, according to The New York Times, mainland China users could not see uncensored Hong Kong–based content after the government either disabled certain searches or blocked links to results.' China Mobile, the largest wireless carrier in the country, has also been approached by the Chinese government to cancel a contract with Google about having google.cn on their mobile home page for search. China Unicom, the second largest carrier in China, has also either postponed or killed the launch of Android based mobile phones in the country."

Breaking the Squid Barrier 126

Posted by timothy on Sunday February 14, 2010 @09:33PM from the calimari-for-the-5000 dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Dr. Steve O'Shea of Auckland, New Zealand is attempting to break the record for keeping deep sea squid alive in captivity, with the goal of being able to raise a giant squid one day. Right now, he's raising the broad squid, sepioteuthis australis, from egg masses found in seaweed. This is a lot harder than it sounds, because the squid he's studying grow rapidly and eat only live prey, making it hard for them to keep the squid from becoming prey themselves. If his research works out, you might one day be able to visit an aquarium and see giant squid."

Why the First Cowboy To Draw Always Gets Shot 398

Posted by timothy on Thursday February 04, 2010 @04:00PM from the more-guns-less-crime dept.

cremeglace writes "Have you ever noticed that the first cowboy to draw his gun in a Hollywood Western is invariably the one to get shot? Nobel-winning physicist Niels Bohr did, once arranging mock duels to test the validity of this cinematic curiosity. Researchers have now confirmed that people indeed move faster if they are reacting, rather than acting first."

Submission + - Super Strong Metal Foam May Save Energy and Lives (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by MikeChino on Monday February 01, 2010 @12:53PM

MikeChino writes: Metal foams have been around for some time, but new research by Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei of North Carolina State University has revealed the strongest metal foam ever. It can compress up to 80% of its original size under loading and still retain its original shape. Applications for the new material are numerous — naturally, it could be integrated into the bodies of cars to minimize the impact from crashes, but it could also be used for body armor or even in artificial limbs. It’s even foreseeable that the metal foam could be used in buildings and help absorb shocks from earthquakes.

Submission + - Fertiliser dump spoils Intel's pure water (pcauthority.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29, 2010 @01:12AM

An anonymous reader writes: Intel had to shut part of its Irish plant for a while because of the extreme cold and the fact the local council polluted the water supply with fertiliser. Apparently it got down to -12 degrees C at the Intel plant in Leixlip, County Kildare. But to make matters worse, the local council ran out of rock salt to grit the roads and opted for fertiliser instead. There were fears that ammonia and nitrates in the fertiliser might have contaminated the local water supply.The problem for the chipmaker is that it needs extremely pure water for its manufacturing processes.

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