How Curiosity Will Land on Mars, Part 1: Entry

post from Planetary Society Blog on 22 June 2012 08:27:16 PM. © Planetary Society Blog

When people first hear about how Curiosity will land on Mars, their first question always is: are they nuts? This is the first in a multi-part series describing how -- and why -- Curiosity will land this way, in excruciating detail.

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http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/06221711-how-curiosity-land-
part-1.html

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PCR with caution

post from Canadian BioTechnologist2.0 on 22 June 2012 08:05:42 PM. © Canadian BioTechnologist2.0

PCR is perhaps the most prevalent and powerful tool used in molecular biology labs around the world. When performed correctly, PCR can give you fast, accurate and quantitative results. However, it is exactly this power (the power of amplification) that can lead to disaster when performed carelessly. The folks at BioMed central have posted an [...]

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http://cbt20.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/pcr-with-caution/

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Guess the Architecture 6/23/12

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 22 June 2012 05:00:00 PM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

This weeks piece of architecture:Check back on Tuesday to see where it is!

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http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/20082/Guess-the-Architecture-6-23-12?from_rss
=1

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Physics brings character to life

post from Physics Buzz on 22 June 2012 02:16:05 PM. © Physics Buzz

Trying to curl hair into perfect spiral curls is difficult enough to do in real life but for the team of scientists and artists at Pixar the quest to create a wild mane of curls for Merida, the redheaded heroine of their latest film "Brave," may have sent them from innocent intrigue to full-blown obsession.
The time and attention to detail in the hair of Merida, the main character in "Brave," is more than just about making her look realistic on screen. Image courtesy of PIXAR, © 2012 Disney/PIXAR. All Rights Reserved
"I have become obsessed with curly hair," said Claudia Chung, simulation supervisor for "Brave." "It is truly fascinating; curly hair defies physics in the way it moves and behaves."

Merida's explosion of fiery ringlets started as a series of springs on a computer. The Pixar team created many kinds of springs, including short, long, fat, thin, stretched, compressed, bouncy and stiff. In order to give Merida's hair volume, the springs were entered on the computer screen in layers. The layers varied the length, size and flexibility of each curl.

"We used 1,500 hand-placed, sculpted individual curls," said Chung. "There is this weird paradox where a 'spring' of hair needs to remain stiff in order to hold its curl but it also has to remain soft in its movement."

Once Merida's hair was in place, the next step was making it move naturally. Chung and her team of groomers used a new technique to represent the hair. Called a "core curve and points," the result bears a resemblance to a beaded necklace. The core curve is like the chain of the necklace and the points, which include the springs, are like the beads. When Merida moves her head, her curls move along the curve, keep their shape and flexibility while maintaining the look of her character. Even with a computer-generated head of hair, there were times during production when Chung really needed to see a live Merida hair model.

"We had a wig and I think everyone on the team wore it at some point," said Chung.

Steve Marschner, an award-winning computer scientist at Cornell University, in N.Y., who first proposed a widely used model that mimics the way light reflects on hair to improve the look of blonde hair, considers lighting red, curly hair a difficult problem.

"It is interesting because curly hair has strong effects on light," said Marschner.

Since hair isn't always picture perfect or dry or that matter, another challenge was to see what would happen to naturally curly hair when it got wet.

"There is a woman here who has naturally curly hair and we would hose her down," said Chung. "We never completely submerged it, but now I am really curious; I don't know what happens to curly hair when it is completely submerged underwater."

Chung and her team definitely have Merida mania.

"It took us almost three years to get the final look for her hair and we spent two months working on the scene where Merida removes her hood and you see the full volume of her hair," said Chung. "When I first saw the storyboards for 'Brave,' I drooled; I had no idea how I was going to do it, but I knew this was going to be so much fun."

That fun radiates from the screen and provides inspiration to others as well.

"I have say with Pixar [movies] I have to watch them twice," said Marschner. "The first time I am focused on the story and the second time from a technical aspect; I often get ideas about what problems to work on next from watching movies."

The time and attention to detail in Merida's hair is more than just about making her look realistic on screen.

"Everything we do is done to reinforce the character," said Chung. "We created these great individual 'breakaway' curls that really add to her wild spirit."

While a strong attraction is often the first sign of obsession, Chung and her team have definitely fallen head first in love with a fiery redhead on a mission to change her destiny.

Emilie Lorditch is an editor and writer for Inside Science

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models-bring-character-to-life.html

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Near-Earth asteroid twice as big as previously
thought

post from Bad Astronomy on 22 June 2012 01:00:10 PM. © Bad Astronomy

On June 14, 2012, the asteroid 2012 LZ1 passed the Earth. It missed us by a wide margin, over 5 million kilometers (3 million miles), so there was no danger of impact. While it does get near us every now and again, using current orbital measurements we[...]

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This Could Be Special Ops' Next Combat-Ready
Ride

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 22 June 2012 11:10:50 AM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

From Wired Top Stories: Say you need to quickly get elite fighters into and out of hostile territory for critical missions. What type of vehicle do you design for the task? Read the whole article

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http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/20298/This-Could-Be-Special-Ops-Next-Combat-R
eady-Ride?from_rss=1

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TED: Wolfgang Kessling: How to air-condition
outdoor spaces - Wolfgang Kessling (2012)

post from TEDTalks (video) on 22 June 2012 11:00:02 AM. © TEDTalks (video)

During the hot summer months, watching an outdoor sports match or concert can be tantamount to baking uncomfortably in the sun -- but it doesn?t have to be. At the TEDxSummit in Doha, physicist Wolfgang Kessling reveals sustainable design innovations that cool us from above and below, and even collects solar energy for later use.

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w_to_air_condition_outdoor_spaces.html

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Natural born scientist

Guy Harrison is a skeptic and author — he wrote a book called 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True, which is really quite good. It’s a readable and fun tour of a pile of popular misconceptions with, of course, their antidotes.I was[...]

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Great Air Conditioners for the Dog Days of Summer

From Wired Top Stories: Air conditioning is a complicated technology.? What I found over 15 hours of research, is that what works for one room or house may not be a good solution for another. If a fan just isn't cutting it for you, here's what you'll need to know in order to stay cool th

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-of-Summer?from_rss=1

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June 22, 1969: Umm, the Cuyahoga River's on
Fire Again

From Wired Top Stories: The Cuyahoga River catches fire near Cleveland, Ohio. Unrestricted dumping of waste by local industries, leaving the river clotted with oil and other combustible effluent, is blamed. Read the whole article

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n-Fire-Again?from_rss=1

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