Spitzer sees star spew spurious spouts

post from Bad Astronomy on 04 April 2011 07:25:59 PM. © Bad Astronomy

Spitzer Space Telescope is an orbiting infrared observatory. It ran out of coolant a few years back — needed to keep its highly sensitive IR cameras working — but before it did, it took this amazing image of a young star blasting out twin[...]

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NCBI ROFL: What the f**k is a placebo bra

post from Discoblog » NCBI ROFL on 04 April 2011 07:00:34 PM. © Discoblog » NCBI ROFL

Breast elevation and compression decrease exercise-induced breast discomfort.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate whether a sports bra designed to both elevate and compress the breasts could decrease exercise-induced breast discomfort and bra fit discomfort experienced by women with large breasts relative to a standard encapsulation sports bra. METHODS: Breast kinematic data, bra fit comfort, exercise-induced breast discomfort, and bra rankings in terms of preference to wear during running were compared in 20 women with large breasts who ran on a treadmill under three bra conditions: an experimental bra that incorporated both breast compression and elevation, an encapsulation sports bra, and a placebo bra. Subjective data were collected immediately before and after the treadmill running trials. RESULTS: Exercise-induced breast discomfort (P < 0.01) and bra discomfort (P < 0.01) were significantly less for the experimental bra condition relative to the sports bra and placebo bra. This reduction in discomfort was achieved through greater breast elevation (P < 0.01) and compression, with no difference found in vertical breast displacement (P = 0.12) or vertical breast velocity (P = 0.06). CONCLUSIONS: The design features of greater breast elevation and compression ...

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Why is it so hard to find flight 447's black
boxes

post from Physics Buzz on 04 April 2011 06:16:00 PM. © Physics Buzz

The French government announced today that more bodies and wreckage from the Air France flight 447 crash off the coast of Brazil had been found almost two years after the crash. The critical pieces of the puzzle, the plane's flight data recorders - or black boxes - are still missing, however. But why are they so hard to find?

[Flight 447's vertical stabilizer (tail fin), recovered in 2009.]

The wreckage from flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil in June 2009, is scattered over mountainous ocean floor at depths from 12,500 - 13,000 feet, or around 2.5 miles. Though that doesn't sound very deep, especially when you consider that modern airliners often cruise at three times that height, it's far too deep for scuba divers or naval submarines to explore.

For every 33 feet you descend under water, the atmospheric pressure pushing down on you increases by 100 percent. At the surface, every person and object has 14.7 pounds per square inch of air pressure pressing down on him or her. That pressure feels normal to us, but once it is increased or decreased, it starts to cause problems.

Boyle's law tells us that as the pressure doubles, the volume decreases by half (assuming there's no change in temperature). If, for example, we pulled a party balloon under water, at 33 feet - where the atmospheric pressure is doubled - the balloon would be half as big as it was at the surface. Drag it down another 33 feet and it would shrink in half again. Human's lungs are a lot like a balloon. At around 100 feet, humans reach the limit of how much pressure their lungs can stand.

Imagine what it is like at 12,500 feet, where the wreckage is scattered. Even modern naval submarines can't stand the pressure at that depth. They call it a day at around 1,000 feet where the pressure is over 30 times the surface pressure. Beyond that, they could be crushed like an empty soda can.

At the wreck site, the pressure is almost 400 times the pressure at the surface. To survey the sea floor at 12,500 feet below the surface, a special mini submarine called a submersible is needed. Submersibles have a limited range and can only stay under water for hours at a time so they usually work in conjunction with another vessel - a ship or a larger submarine.

A yellow submersible called Nautile, who previously surveyed the Titanic wreckage, helped originally locate flight 447 wreckage in 2009. (The Titanic wreckage is also at a depth of about 12,500 feet.) A similar sub, called Alvin, was also used to explore the Titanic wreckage when the ship was discovered. Though it seems impossible, the tiny sub is protected by a titanium pressure hull just 2 inches thick. Both subs carry 3 explorers.

The sub that found the latest wreckage was an unmanned sub called a REMUS 6000. The REMUS 6000, with no human occupants, can travel a little faster and a little longer than Nautile or Alvin, but even it can explore for only 22 hours at a time, limited by battery life.

A deep, dark environment and the special tools needed to explore it make searching for anything at 2.5 miles under the sea a difficult task. There's hope, after finding an engine and landing gear, that the black boxes may yet be found, and help solve the mystery of what really happened to flight 447. Even if they are found, it's anyone's guess whether the boxes will have survived two years of crushing pressure in a corrosive seawater environment.

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Face-to-face with Curiosity

post from Planetary Society Weblog on 04 April 2011 05:54:43 PM. © Planetary Society Weblog

I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity today for a face-to-face visit with one of the biggest celebrities in my world: Curiosity, the next Mars rover. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory gave members of the media a chance to suit up in the white coveralls known as "bunny suits" and enter the Spacecraft Assembly Facility, the clean room in which Curiosity is being assembled and prepared for launch. That was awesome. There's nothing to compare with ....

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Fill Out a Survey for FIU Students

post from OH, FOR THE LOVE OF SCIENCE! on 04 April 2011 05:03:55 PM. © OH, FOR THE LOVE OF SCIENCE!

If you are a green or environmental blog author or reader, please help out some students from the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at Florida International University by filling out a short survey.

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States of educational decay

post from Bad Astronomy on 04 April 2011 04:28:08 PM. © Bad Astronomy

You know what happens when you cut education in your state? Businesses may start to leave.Basically, Arizona is looking to cut hundreds of millions of dollars to K-12 and University education in order to save money — despite the incredibly obvious[...]

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Microsatellites and Military Reconnaissance

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 04 April 2011 03:59:00 PM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is developing a low earth orbit (LEO) micro-satellite that can be launched from an F-15 and operate for up to seven years. Weighing less than 100 kg, LiteSat is designed to support the operational requirements of military forces that must be deployed quickly and w

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The End of Flash Drives

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 04 April 2011 03:58:40 PM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

A new, energy-efficient memory out of Edinburgh University and two Korean Institutes is said to be a possible replacement for flash drives in a number of consumer electronics. The device uses a mechanical, carbon nanotube arm that moves up-and-down to create or break currents.Previous approache

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Marriott Takes 3-D Planning to the Next Level

Well-known hotel chain, Marriott International, is going almost completely digital when it comes to design. For over 20 years, the company has relied on computer-aided design (CAD) tools for planning new hotels and renovations for existing ones.According to the MIT Technology Review, 3-D planni

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Just to put all those rumors to bed…

Last weekend (no, the weekend before) I got to stop on a long layover in Seattle and have dinner with the family back home. My sister took a few pictures, and so just because I can, here's me and my mother.