Monthly Archives: January 2010
Patently Obvious?
What patent applications can tell us about America’s economic prospects.
A quick glance suggests several conclusions: First, the view that a worldwide technological and innovative explosion began in the mid-1960s and continues until now is correct. The sheer number of patent applications—which had remained relatively static from the 1880s until the 1950s—suddenly grew dramatically, coinciding with the onset of the computer and telecom revolutions. Second, not surprisingly, the patent offices receiving the vast majority of this explosion have been those in nations with the greatest economic growth during that period—initially the United States and Japan and more recently China, Korea, and Russia.
This ties in with yesterday’s comment about basic research being the raw material of later applications.
This Ain't Like Dusting Crops, Boy!
Dispersion of Sound Waves in Ice Sheets
The most striking thing about these recordings is the synthetic-sounding descending tones caused by the phenomenon of the dispersion of sound waves. The high frequencies of the popping and cracking noises are transmitted faster by the ice than the deeper frequencies, which reach the listener with a time lag as glissandi sinking to almost bottomless depths.
And there’s more: …Sounds like Star Wars Blasters (which they do)
[M]any people were thinking about the cause of such sounds and the resemblance to the famous laser gun sounds in Star Wars. First: the dispersion of sound waves, meaning higher frequencies reach the listeners ears earlier than deeper frequencies, is not only an effect experienced in ice sheets, metal is another solid that can perfectly manipulate the speed of frequencies travelling through the material. Because huge thin metal plates are very rare to find (infinte plate called in physics), long wires are the best to experience the dispersion effect. The longer the wire the stronger the down glissando effect. Slinkies are good toys to demonstrate that.
Float Like a Butterfly, Sting like Faraday
Verena Kräusel and her colleagues performed their trick by beefing up an existing electromagnetic-forming machine. Such machines use a bank of capacitors to discharge a current rapidly through a coil. The coil converts the current into a powerful magnetic field. When the component to be worked is placed next to such a machine, the coil induces in it a corresponding field. Like poles repel, and the repulsion between the two fields is strong enough to make the metal distort.
Alternate Histories
Lasers would never have shone if Mandelson had been in charge
Can’t really speak to this, as I have no familiarity with the British funding climate (other than knowing the have been cutting budgets). But this would be one strength of science funding, that many countries deem it worthwhile, and recognize that funding basic research is a necessity. Fundamental discoveries are the raw material of later applications, once the field matures.
The Replacements
If it sticks, force it. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.
Uncertain Principles: Eucatastrophe in Physics
Sometimes, an equipment failure can be the best thing that happens to an experiment. This is particularly true in labs that rely on short-term labor like post-docs (who are generally hired for about two years) and graduate students (who are in a given lab longer, but typically in charge of the experiment for only a few years), where kludgey short-term solutions implemented in order to get fast results can become locked in as new experiments build on the first one.
I’m proud to say that there is no duct tape in the devices we’ve built. It exists in one or two places in the lab (even involving ductwork). When you’re in it for the long haul, there’s more incentive to do things right. But I remember at TRIUMF, we needed a variable voltage reference, which ended up being a 2 9V batteries in series discharging slowly through a MegaOhm-ish potentiometer acting as a voltage divider. Dial up what you need, and it lasted long enough that it was easier to replace the batteries than do up a proper circuit.
Watt's Up With That?
YoGen Makes a Splash in Pull-String Charging
A 5 Watt charge can be generated with a very easy pull of the string. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow you pull, the same charge is generated.
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I also got a demonstration of their prototype pedal-powered charger for laptops, which is reportedly capable of a 50 Watt charge, with just an easy push of a pedal.
The problem, of course, is that Watts is a unit of power, not energy, which is what they mean by “charge.”
Roll Up with the Magical Mystery Tour
Why, Indeed?
Why is the news media comfortable with lying about science?
If a news organization had put words in the mouth of a political figure, there would almost certainly be a firestorm of controversy. The same would occur if one had turned to a Hollywood star or sports figure for comment on, say, a Congressional Budget Office report. When it comes to science, however, the response seems to be limited to a few outraged bloggers. It’s difficult not to think that there’s a double standard involved in the complete indifference to accuracy when it comes to scientific information.
Of Mice and … Oil
Oil Drop Navigates Complex Maze
Diffusion of the chemical gives you a concentration gradient, which gives you a chemical potential gradient. It’s all “downhill” from there.