Jun 2 2009 PEW PEW!: World's Strongest Laser Unveiled
The world's strongest laser was unveiled in California last week. It's not actually a single laser though, it's 192 individual ones all focused on the same spot. Cheating! It's going to be used to ensure the US nuclear weapon stockpile is still functional in case Russia starts bitching out. Also, some space shit.
The super laser, officially known as the National Ignition Facility, was unveiled Friday before thousands of people at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Beginning next year scientists will use the laser for experiments aimed at creating controlled fusion reactions similar to those found in the sun."More energy will be produced by this ignition process than the amount of laser energy required to start it. This is the long-sought goal of energy gain that has been the goal of fusion researchers for more than half a century," said NIF director Edward Moses.
'National Ignition Facility'? That's the worst name ever. Why wasn't there a contest to get to name the thing? Because it'll always be the PEWINATOR to me. Which, haha, is the same thing I named my junk penis. But seriously, don't stare directly at it.
World's strongest laser unveiled at Calif. lab [sfgate]
Thanks to Watch-303, catch22, Luis, Doug, Hunter and Phil, who did stare directly at it and paid the price. $10.
Jun 19 2008 Sure, Why Not?: Altering Bacteria To Produce "Renewable Petroleum"
First the diesel tree, and now oil bacteria. Several companies in Silicon Valley are racing to produce bacteria capable of excreting oil (black gold, Texas tea).
What is most remarkable about what they are doing is that instead of trying to reengineer the global economy - as is required, for example, for the use of hydrogen fuel - they are trying to make a product that is interchangeable with oil. The company claims that this "Oil 2.0" will not only be renewable but also carbon negative - meaning that the carbon it emits will be less than that sucked from the atmosphere by the raw materials from which it is made.
Hey, I'm all for it. And as you can see from the picture there, it's a fairly simple process to raise the bacteria. It just takes is a couple of 16oz Coke bottles, an atomic bomb, and what is either a really fancy coffee maker or a hot-air popcorn popper. You attach all the components with some plastic tubing, add some electricity, and presto, the lab explodes.
Hit the link for a much more in-depth article.
Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete oil [timesonline]
May 8 2008 Mouse Coat Created, Raises Ethical Questions
The Museum of Modern Art in New York recently had this installation, "Victimless Leather", on display. It's a coat made out of mouse embryonic stem cells. However, after just a month the coat was too large to continue growing in its flask and had to be killed. Now the creator of the exhibit doesn't know know how to feel about it.
I've always been pro-choice and all of a sudden I'm here not sleeping at night about killing a coat...That thing was never alive before it was grown.
This is almost certainly going to open a whole new can of whoop-ass worms on the ethics and moral dilemmas associated with experiments and art of this nature. Perhaps the most important of which is, "It's totally straight to shrink ray your kids so they fit in little mouse coats, right?"
Apr 24 2008 PETA Offers $1 Million For Test Tube Meat
Know anything about growing meat in a test tube? If so, bring it to market and PETA will award you with $1 million. I was so excited when I heard about the contest that I couldn't sleep. I stayed up all night in my basement laboratory banging test tubes together. But alas, no matter how hard I banged my efforts proved fruitless meatless. I don't get it, I had a lab coat on and everything. I'm starting to think this is going to be harder than I first anticipated. I bet I'm going to need a laser. *yelling upstairs* Mother! Order me a powerful burning laser! The strongest one they've got. Oh, and bring me a freaking juicebox! My scientific mind can't operate on Fruit Roll-Ups alone you know.
PETA offering $1 million for lab-created meat [dvice]
Mar 19 2008 Bouncing Oil Is Neat, Proves Many Theories
This is a picture of a stream of oil entering a pool of the same substance, bouncing off the bottom, and arcing back out.
Normally a liquid stream colliding with a pool of liquid merges immediately upon contact, perhaps also bringing air into the pool with it. However when the pool is moving as the stream hits, it can slide along the surface being separated from the pool by a thin layer of air. The air layer supports the jet and lubricates the motion between it and the bath. The same process happens when sliding a piece of paper across a desk or when a car hydroplanes on a wet road. But instead of a hard surface like the desk or the road, the jet is on top of a liquid surface, which is flexible like a trampoline. Because of the weight of the jet and the force required to change directions, the surface is pressed downward and a dent is formed in the shape of a bowl. The sliding jet then ramps out of this bowl and into the air.
Now I have no idea whatsoever what that means, but damn does it look neat. And I'm not much of one for reading long scientific explanations, but I'm fairly certain this proves many theories, including, but not limited to: the theory that wormholes exist. That time travel is possible. That science is cool, and that motor oil makes a great sexual lubricant in a pinch.
Two more pictures and a worthwhile VIDEO after the jump.
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