Science and Kitties

The View From Space

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:56:17 -0400

lifeofsigh:

elibress: SINE COSINE

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:07:12 -0400

elibress:

SINE COSINE

singyulam: Chemistry class and moles.

Fri, 03 May 2013 20:51:29 -0400

singyulam:

Chemistry class and moles.

unimpressedcats: I touch ur foods when u no look

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:02:44 -0400

unimpressedcats:

I touch ur foods when u no look

how I kill moths

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:02:17 -0400

how I kill moths

catsbeaversandducks: Photo via The Mary Sue

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:02:05 -0400

catsbeaversandducks:

Photo via The Mary Sue

engineeringisawesome: NASA Successfully Launches Three...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:07:12 -0400

engineeringisawesome:

NASA Successfully Launches Three Smartphone Satellites

Three smartphones destined to become low-cost satellites rode to space Sunday aboard the maiden flight of Orbital Science Corp.’s Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia.

The trio of “PhoneSats” is operating in orbit, and may prove to be the lowest-cost satellites ever flown in space. The goal of NASA’s PhoneSat mission is to determine whether a consumer-grade smartphone can be used as the main flight avionics of a capable, yet very inexpensive, satellite.

Transmissions from all three PhoneSats have been received at multiple ground stations on Earth, indicating they are operating normally. The PhoneSat team at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will continue to monitor the satellites in the coming days. The satellites are expected to remain in orbit for as long as two weeks.

NASA engineers kept the total cost of the components for the three prototype satellites in the PhoneSat project between $3,500 and $7,000 by using primarily commercial hardware and keeping the design and mission objectives to a minimum. The hardware for this mission is the Google-HTC Nexus One smartphone running the Android operating system.

catsncats: this might be my favorite gif ever

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:45:27 -0400

catsncats:

this might be my favorite gif ever

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST WHY DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS CAT...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:46:14 -0400

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST WHY DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS CAT BEFORE

HER NAME IS TAMA
AND SHE’S THE STATIONMASTER AT A TRAIN STATION IN JAPAN
SHE GREETS ALL THE PASSENGERS
AND SHE HAS HER OWN OFFICE
AND SHE’S PAID IN CAT FOOD
AND SHE IS A FUCKING EXECUTIVE OF A FUCKING RAILROAD STATION

AND LOOK AT HER

the trains are decorated with cartoon versions of her since she’s their mascot as well

smarterplanet: Organic transistors for brain mapping |...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:01:24 -0400

smarterplanet:

Organic transistors for brain mapping | KurzweilAI

To improve brain mapping, a group of French scientists have produced the world’s first biocompatible microscopic organic transistors that can amplify and record signals directly from the surface of the brain, building on prototypes developed at the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF).

This is the ﬁrst in vivo use of transistor arrays to record brain activity directly on the surface of the cortex using electrocorticography (ECoG). This is a ten-fold improvement in signal/noise quality compared with current ECoG electrode technology, the scientists say.

In epileptic patients, ECoG recordings help to scout brain regions responsible for seizure genesis. For patients with brain tumors, recordings help to chart the brain for tumor removal. In addition, electrical recordings of neuronal activity are being used in brain-machine interfaces to help paralyzed people control prosthetic limbs.

However, neurons and brain networks generate small electric potentials, which are difﬁcult to extract from noise when recorded with classical electrodes made of metals. In addition, today’s ECoG amplifiers are bulky and placed outside the skull, where the signal degrades.

These new biocompatible microdevices are flexible enough to go inside the brain and follow the curvilinear shape of the brain surface.

cab1729: Moore’s Law and the Origin of Life | MIT Technology...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:09:30 -0400

cab1729:

Moore’s Law and the Origin of Life | MIT Technology Review

As life has evolved, its complexity has increased exponentially, just like Moore’s law. Now geneticists have extrapolated this trend backwards and found that by this measure, life is older than the Earth itself.

Here’s an interesting idea. Moore’s Law states that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every two years or so. That has produced an exponential increase in the number of transistors on microchips and continues to do so.

But if an observer today was to measure this rate of increase, it would be straightforward to extrapolate backwards and work out when the number of transistors on a chip was zero. In other words, the date when microchips were first developed in the 1960s.

A similar process works with scientific publications. Between 1990 and 1960, they doubled in number every 15 years or so. Extrapolating this backwards gives the origin of scientific publication as 1710, about the time of Isaac Newton.

Today, Alexei Sharov at the National Institute on Ageing in Baltimore and his mate Richard Gordon at the Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Florida, have taken a similar to complexity and life.

These guys argue that it’s possible to measure the complexity of life and the rate at which it has increased from prokaryotes to eukaryotes to more complex creatures such as worms, fish and finally mammals. That produces a clear exponential increase identical to that behind Moore’s Law although in this case the doubling time is 376 million years rather than two years.

That raises an interesting question. What happens if you extrapolate backwards to the point of no complexity–the origin of life?

Sharov and Gordon say that the evidence by this measure is clear. “Linear regression of genetic complexity (on a log scale) extrapolated back to just one base pair suggests the time of the origin of life = 9.7 ± 2.5 billion years ago,” they say.

And since the Earth is only 4.5 billion years old, that raises a whole series of other questions. Not least of these is how and where did life begin.

Of course, there are many points to debate in this analysis. The nature of evolution is filled with subtleties that most biologists would agree we do not yet fully understand.

For example, is it reasonable to think that the complexity of life has increased at the same rate throughout Earth’s history? Perhaps the early steps in the origin of life created complexity much more quickly than evolution does now, which will allow the timescale to be squeezed into the lifespan of the Earth.

Sharov and Gorden reject this argument saying that it is suspiciously similar to arguments that squeeze the origin of life into the timespan outlined in the biblical Book of Genesis.

Let’s suppose for a minute that these guys are correct and ask about the implications of the idea. They say there is good evidence that bacterial spores can be rejuvenated after many millions of years, perhaps stored in ice.

They also point out that astronomers believe that the Sun formed from the remnants of an earlier star, so it would be no surprise that life from this period might be preserved in the gas, dust and ice clouds that remained. By this way of thinking, life on Earth is a continuation of a process that began many billions of years earlier around our star’s forerunner.

Sharov and Gordon say their interpretation also explains the Fermi paradox, which raises the question that if the universe is filled with intelligent life, why can’t we see evidence of it.

However, if life takes 10 billion years to evolve to the level of complexity associated with humans, then we may be among the first, if not the first, intelligent civilisation in our galaxy. And this is the reason why when we gaze into space, we do not yet see signs of other intelligent species.

There’s no question that this is a controversial idea that will ruffle more than a few feathers amongst evolutionary theorists.

But it is also provocative, interesting and exciting. All the more reason to debate it in detail.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1304.3381: Life Before Earth

cab1729: When I write general level books (or posts on this...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:26:43 -0400

cab1729:

When I write general level books (or posts on this page), I generally avoid equations as most people are more comfortable with plain English.

But equations are beautiful. Within a few symbols, equations can capture deep mathematical truths or far reaching aspects of the physical universe. Here are 3 of my favorites.

The first equation is amazing: in a single simple expression it ties together three basic mathematical constructs: Pi, i (the square root of -1), and e (the base for natural logarithms).

The second are the Einstein Field Equations from General Relativity, which relate the curvature of space-time (left hand side of equation) to the distribution of energy-momentum in space-time.

The third is, well, one of those equations that makes your jaw drop. It is a formula for Pi that was discovered by the singular mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan.

Even if you don’t understand all the symbols, it is worth now and then seeing the language that we’ve found, at least so far, to be the most powerful in grasping the architecture of reality.

—BG

www.twitter.com/bgreene

via Brian Greene

wnycradiolab: propaedeuticist: At NASA’s Drawing Board - J R...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:51:26 -0400

wnycradiolab:

propaedeuticist:

At NASA’s Drawing Board - J R Eyerman

Best. Thing.

epic cat

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 12:32:39 -0400

epic cat

realgrumpycat: Grumpy Cat turns one year old...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:27:44 -0400

realgrumpycat:

Grumpy Cat turns one year old today! H̶a̶p̶p̶y̶ Birthday!

Photo

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:01:54 -0400

(via catsncats, paulithper)

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:07:41 -0500

(via catsncats, paulithper)

(via Twitter / erik_kwakkel: Wow, 1500 followers: thank...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 14:00:22 -0500

(via Twitter / erik_kwakkel: Wow, 1500 followers: thank …)

Ink cat pawprints in a 15th c. book. I was just wondering today if calligraphers of the past had problems with cats walking across wet ink and ruining things.

#celebrating hundreds of years of cat jerkitude #cats are the best

(via yukidama)

Never change cats.

Photo

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:16:15 -0500

Photo

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:22:41 -0500