Buy This Satellite
An interesting project which proposes to buy a satellite (using crowd sourced funding), re-commission it as an internet providing satellite, and bring the internet to people that wouldn’t have had a chance.
Oh No It Isn't (a Planet)
Apparently some other scientists this week announced that their data shows that Gliese 581g might not exist…
Scientist fight!
Tale of Tape
So scotch tape has always been known to emit blue light when peeled back, but now it’s been proven that it emits X-Ray light as well. Who would have thought to peel back scotch tape in a vacuum to measure X-ray emissions?
Apparently, modern science.
Gliese 581g
An incredibly important discovery in our universe. Gliese 581g is quite possibly the closest (and it’s scary close) to being a habitable Earth-like planet that we’ve found. It sits, smack dab, in the middle of an orbital belt around a star that would provide it with the right temperature band for life.
This could answer a lot of obvious questions, but a lot of not-so-obvious questions, like:
- Is Life as we know it different on other planets?
- What other elements or combinations of “ingredients” are required to sustain life?
- Could there be combinations of “ingredients” that are actually more efficient at sustaining life?
- The list goes on and on…
What would happen if you put your hand into the LHC beam? (and other crazy fun science questions)
Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com
postgres GEQO
Did you know that your friendly, favorite database (hint: PostgreSQL) has a module that’s built in that can use genetic algorithms for query optimizations?
How cool is that?
How long would it take for us to notice if the Sun stopped shining?
The only special thought you need to have is that the last of the Sun’s rays would still be on their way towards us when you turned the Sun off. And light doesn’t travel infinitely fast; it travels at the speed of light! So, depending where in its orbit the Earth is, it would take just under eight-and-a-half minutes (anywhere from 8:11 to 8:27, according to my calculations) for the lights to go out. And in this scenario, the Sun would go from its current colossal brightness to pretty much zero, instantaneously.
Source: scienceblogs.com
I'm a Ruby developer that loves to play with science, math, and gadgets. Previously, I was part of a startup called drop.io, acquired by Facebook. I live in Fort Worth, TX with my wife, 2 dogs, and baby boy. I'm a foodie, a gamer, and a self proclaimed scientist.
