Official "Science News" Thread

[LaurV]

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. Those guys really put a lot of effort into this meteorite!

[cheesehead]

Originally Posted by LaurV

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. Those guys really put a lot of effort into this meteorite!

I should note that, in the past, other bolides have also had observations, photos, or films that enabled some sort of triangulation to establish their paths through particular points in the atmosphere -- but rougher than in this case. In each case, the other needed datum was the travel time between those points -- either measured, or (usually) just estimated based on circumstances. From those points and times, the calculation of the corresponding meteoroids' previous orbits (actually, a range of possible orbits, depending on the uncertainties in location points and travel times) proceeded using just the same math as was used in this case for orbit calculation. So, that much isn't new.

What was new in this case AFAIK was

(1) that there were so many videos available, due to current ubiquity of small video cameras, that some of them enabled especially precise determination of the points and times. In particular,

(2) the surveillance video of Revolution Square in Chelyabinsk showed special data -- the shadows of light poles -- that enabled more-precise-than-usual triangulation (as first pointed out by Stefan Geens), along with reliable timing, and

(3) the fortunate circumstance of the bolide's traveling almost directly through the zenith over another city which, while not so precisely measurable in any individual video, was recorded in so many videos, were special to this case.

Also, (4) the hole in ice that was probably made by a piece of the meteorite from the bolide added a precise data point for path determination.

Those enabled the orbit calculations to be done with less uncertainty than for any previous bolide AFAIK.

[rogue]

Body Suit Gives 'Spidey Sense'

First Picture of an Atom's Shadow—Smallest Ever Photographed

Wireless brain implant could make controlling PCs with your mind a reality

How Many Languages is it Possible to Know?

MIT startup makes transparent solar panel that will allow your smartphone to power itself

TED 2013: 4D printed objects 'make themselves'

Brain-To-Brain Interface Allows Transmission of Tactile and Motor Information Between Rats

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by rogue

Wireless brain implant could make controlling PCs with your mind a reality

one thing I've been thinking could this one day have a counterpart below nerve damage and send the brain signals between the units if so maybe the second unit feeds to the body, then paralyzed people could have full body control restored.

[xilman]

Actually, it isn't but I couldn't pass up the opportunity of a DNA quote.

Nice little article about the consequences of a cometary impact on Mars in the near future. The odds are against it, currently around 700:1, but it would be rather interesting if it did happen.


Paul

[rogue]

Vortex knot created in lab for first time

Higgs Boson Physicists Say They're Closing In On Proof Of Particle's Existence

Black Hole Spins at Nearly the Speed of Light

Chinese physicists measure speed of Einstein’s ‘spooky action at a distance’: At least 10,000 times faster than light

Brown University creates first wireless, implanted brain-computer interface

Researchers find chemical secret to recapturing youthful brain

Self-Healing Concrete Uses Sunlight to Fix Its Own Cracks

[rogue]

Mystery boson earns Higgs status thanks to W particle

Life-friendly environment confirmed on Mars

Star system is closest found in a century

[science_man_88]

This Protein Could Change Biotech Forever

'Lost' Tectonic Plate Found Beneath California

[cheesehead]

Originally Posted by science_man_88

'Lost' Tectonic Plate Found Beneath California

I hate it when I lose a plate from my 16-place-setting tectonic collection.

[Flatlander]

Originally Posted by rogue

Vortex knot created in lab for first time

Higgs Boson Physicists Say They're Closing In On Proof Of Particle's Existence

Black Hole Spins at Nearly the Speed of Light

Chinese physicists measure speed of Einstein’s ‘spooky action at a distance’: At least 10,000 times faster than light

Brown University creates first wireless, implanted brain-computer interface

Researchers find chemical secret to recapturing youthful brain

Self-Healing Concrete Uses Sunlight to Fix Its Own Cracks

Check.
Check.
Check.
Still freaking out.
Check.
Check.
Check.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Flatlander

Still freaking out.

I dislike the misleading term "action at a distance" for entanglement - as the article notes, it cannot (AFAWK) be used to transmit information - it's merely a quantum correlation which appears bizarre to our macroscopically biased senses because it is utterly insensitive to "common-sense notions of space and time". No information transfer = no action, in my book.

Given that rather severe constraint, the article's mentioning of a perhaps-possible "quantum internet" is also way overblown. Why? Because none of the teleportation experiments violates accepted laws of QM nor relativistic faster-than-light bans which rule out *any* faster-than-light information transfer, which any kind of "quantum internet" such as that hyped in the article would require.

None of which is to say that it isn't a very nifty experimental result - but please can we have less Hollywood-style "inspired by actual physics" blurring of the line between science and fiction?