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..................KEPLER.....................

2011-12-17T05:21:00.000+02:00

Kepler mission discovers most Earth-like planet to date

NASA's Kepler mission has detected the most Earth-like planet yet - Kepler 22b (Image: Artist rendering from NASA)
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The ongoing search for Earth-like worlds has taken another promising step. On December 5, NASA announced the discovery of the planet most likely so far to sustain life outside of the Solar System. The exoplanet, given the undramatic name of Kepler 22b, was found by NASA's Kepler spacecraft as part of its mission to seek out Earth-type planets in our galaxy. Though Kepler 22b is not the first such planet to be detected in recent years, it is the first one orbiting a star similar to our Sun and at a distance where it is capable of possessing liquid water, which most scientists regard as essential for life to exist. Though this is a significant milestone, the question remains, how good a candidate for a second Earth is Kepler 22b? Could there be life there or is it a planetary blind alley?

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In the zone

Kepler 22b is not exactly around the corner. It's located about 600 light years from Earth, orbiting the star Kepler 22, which is located between the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra. (For astronomy enthusiasts, the exact coordinates are Right Ascension 19h 16m 52.2sec and Declination +47deg 53min 4.2sec.)

With a magnitude of only a little less than 12, its star isn't even visible to the naked eye. However, this distant, dim little star is important because it's orbited by Kepler 22b - the first discovered exoplanet that matches the three major factors for sustaining life as we know it. First, it is roughly Earth-sized, as opposed to the super-Jupiter planets that dwarf even the largest planet in our Solar System and make up most of the discovered exoplanets, as those found outside our system are called. Second, it circles a star that is in the same major category as our Sun, which means that the star isn't too hot or too cold, hasn't too short an existence for life to evolve, and remains relatively stable without the sort of huge changes in energy output found in many variable stars. And third, the planet's orbit is similar to Earth's - there's only one star, so the orbit is stable, and it lies in what is called the habitable zone, a range of distances where the temperatures aren't too hot or too cold.

A giant camera

The discovery of Kepler 22b was part of NASA's US$600 million Kepler mission. Named after the German Astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), who discovered the laws of planetary motion, the Kepler spacecraft was built by primary contractor Ball Aerospace & Technologies and launched from Cape Canaveral on March 7, 2009 aboard a Delta II rocket. Weighing 2,290 lbs (1,039 kg), Kepler was placed in a heliocentric orbit that trails behind the Earth with an orbital period of 372 days. The reason for this was to keep the spacecraft away from the Earth's light and gravity. That way Kepler's sensors could be made much more sensitive and the position of the craft much more stable, so it can keep pointing at one fixed spot in the sky.

Kepler is basically a giant camera. It has a 37.4 inch (0.97 m) aperture servicing a 55 inch (1.4 m) mirror and it has the largest resolution of any space camera with 95 mega-pixels and routinely downloads 100 gigabytes of data a month. But its purpose is not to take photographs. It doesn't send back beautiful images of the sort we associate with the Hubble space telescope. What it does is act as a photometer. In other words, it measures the brightness of stars and that is how it finds planets.

The idea is very simple. The stars that Kepler studies don't change in brightness very much, if at all. Think of them as being like a bare light bulb sitting on a stand in a darkened room. Now imagine that someone passes a small ball in front of the bulb. The ball isn't large enough to eclipse the bulb as the Moon does the Sun, but it does block part of the light. Even if you can't see the ball, you can detect the bulb looking slightly dimmer. If you have a photometer, a device for measuring brightness, you can measure exactly how much the bulb has dimmed and from that, you can calculate how large the ball is.

That's what Kepler does. Its photometer looks at stars, measures their brightness, and if a planet happens to pass in front of the star, it can measure how much the star's brightness dims and how fast it dims and returns to normal. With this information, scientists can then calculate how large the planet is and how far it orbits from its star.

How to find a living planet

Kepler's search for planets isn't random. In fact, it's very precise and well thought out. It continually points at one spot in the sky, scanning the constellations of Cygnus, Lyra and Draco. These were chosen for two reasons. First, they lie along the line of the Solar System's orbit around the center of the galaxy and second, this points Kepler at the "Goldilocks Zone" of our galaxy.

The Goldilocks Zone is a galactic version of the criteria used to determine if a planet can sustain life - only in this case, it applies to stars and is a little more complicated. It's based on the Rare Earth hypothesis, which states that the conditions for producing life on Earth fall inside of such a narrow range that any chance of finding other life-bearing planets can only hope to succeed if astronomers look for planets that fall inside of that range. Whether the Rare Earth hypothesis is true or not is, of course, open to debate, but NASA felt that using the hypothesis as a starting point would improve its chances.

In this case, the hypothesis says that there is only a narrow band of space inside the galaxy where planets like Earth can exist and sustain life. That 21 to 27 thousand light-year wide band is the one in which the Solar System orbits. Too close to the galactic center, and there is too much radiation, stars are too close together and there are too many heavy elements. Too far away, and there aren't enough heavy elements to form a planet like Earth. For a star to have an Earth-type planet, it must travel in a circular orbit within that band.

Using this hypothesis, the Kepler spacecraft therefore points at a nearby part of the galaxy where such stars are most likely to be found and the results so far have been good. Kepler has detected over 2,300 possible planets and 200 possible Earth-type planets with over 20 planets confirmed. However, only Kepler 22b has come the closest to being a candidate for having life.

Unfortunately, a candidate is all Kepler 22b is at the moment and there are still questions on how likely it is to be a second Earth. Some critics are outspoken in this regard with Don Pollacco, from Queen's University, Northern Ireland telling the BBC that he believes the announcement is merely a publicity stunt made as part of an effort to drum up additional funding as Kepler reaches the end of its three and a half year mission.

Is there life on Kepler 22b?

But is there life on Kepler 22b? The best answer is, perhaps, but save your money if you you're thinking about booking passage on the first colony ship. The reason is that sometimes one little number can change things completely. In this case, that number is 2.4.

True, Kepler 22b does orbit a star similar to our Sun and yes, it is at a comparable distance and it is indeed within the category of what astronomers class as "Earth type". However, this Earth-type planet has a radius 2.4 times that of the original. The Earth has a diameter of about 8,000 miles (13,000 km), that makes Kepler 22b a whopping 19,000 miles (31,000 km) in diameter. This makes it closer in size to the planet Neptune than Earth. That means that Kepler 22b is either a rocky planet with a gravity two and a half times greater than Earth (not impossible, but that raises all sorts of problems if true) or, as is more likely, the planet is probably a gas giant like Neptune with a methane atmosphere and an ocean of water, ammonia and methane ice covering a small, rocky core.

Still, that hasn't completely quashed mission optimism about the planet as Kepler team member Natalie Batalha speculates that, "it's not beyond the realm of possibility that life could exist in such an ocean." However, life on a gas giant remains as much in the realm of speculation as life hiding in a crater of the Moon.

Another problem with life on Kepler 22b is that, even if it was exactly the same size as Earth, the criteria used to evaluate it still doesn't allow astronomers to regard the planet as a candidate for life except in the broadest of terms. For example, its star, Kepler 22 is only broadly similar to the Sun, which is a G2 star where Kepler 22 is a G5. It's a quarter smaller than the Sun and a quarter colder. Kepler 22b is a quarter closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun, so this compensates somewhat, but the difference in the makeup of the two stars may be significant.

Then there is the question of the orbit of the planet. How eccentric is it? Is it circular like the Earth's or is it more elliptical, which may cause radical climactic variations with winters where it snows carbon dioxide and summers where water boils. Does the planet have a moon? How many? How big? How strong are its tides, if any? What about water? How much? How saline is it? Does the planet rotate? How fast? Does it have a magnetic field to guard against radiation? What about an atmosphere? How active is the planet? Is it a dead lump like the Moon or is it a volcanic nightmare like Jupiter's satellite Io?

Even being in the habitable zone only goes so far. True, the Earth sits comfortably inside the Solar System's zone, but so do Venus and Mars. The former is a hell of temperatures hot enough to melt lead, sulfuric acid rains and an atmosphere like the bottom of the ocean. Meanwhile, Mars is a dead, frozen world with hardly any atmosphere, almost completely dry, seared with ultraviolet radiation on a daily basis and host to sand storms of unbelievable savagery.

This isn't even to mention what else might be in the Kepler 22 system that might be wreaking havoc. The planet could be bombarded by comets or it may be in its orbit only temporarily thanks to the gravitational pull of another giant planet that threw it there a few hundred thousand years ago and may toss it out again a few millennia in the future.

None of this takes away from the importance of what the Kepler mission has uncovered. The data from the Kepler spacecraft has vastly increased our understanding of planet formation and the nature of planetary systems - not to mention finally giving astronomers hard numbers that they can use in estimating the chances of life elsewhere after centuries of having nothing but guesses. Even if Kepler 22b proves to be another Neptune, it has brought us a step closer to finding another Earth.

Alors, Cest Jazz ou Blues dAbord? Ni lun ni lautre et pendant trente neuf ans de Radio, soit en temps que producteur à lORTF, puis Directeur des programmes de l INA, l Institut National (Français) de lAudio-visuel, soit actuellement programmateur à R.F.I. - Radio Liban, jai répété inlassablement et en Français lhistoire de la musique. Ceci sans compter 148 conférences en sillonnant le Liban, écoles, collèges, Lycées, Universités, Colloques, Conférences (en Français toujours, bien que certes locutions soient intraduisibles) etc., il me semble que beaucoup nont rien retenu et racontent des âneries au sujet de la musique en général et du Jazz en particulier, dans les journaux locaux, les Radios locales et dans toutes les langues. Croyez moi, ce nest pas là que lon apprend le Blues, le Jazz ou la musique en général ! Ce nest pas non plus dans les livres ni en consultant des amis. Lexpérience, la passion et être musicien sont la formation essentielle pour comprendre tout cela. La vraie histoire la voici, quoique abrégée, car je ne peux à travers ce Bulletin faire une thèse; cela viendra peut-être un jour, mais je tracerai ici les lignes essentielles de cette musique à controverse. Au début, on "importait" les noirs dAfrique au Nouveau Continent pour travailler dans les champs de coton, car dans les plantations du Sud des Etats-Unis, on avait besoin de main-duvre. Alors ce sont les plus démunis et les plus faibles qui comme dhabitude font les frais. Le marché des esclaves venait dêtre officialisé une deuxième fois (les romains lavaient déjà institué), les pionniers envahissaient les nouvelles terres découvertes, les cow-boys jouaient au pistoleros face aux arcs et flèches et cest toujours les indiens les plus méchants. Mais entre les trois périodes (Colomb, Vespucci et avant Disney), le commerce des esclaves noirs florissait et lAfrique fournissait la main duvre le plus qualifiée, car bien bâtis, travaillant dans les jungles et les forêts, pauvres, sans défense ni méfiance, ils représentaient la proie idéale car personne ne viendrait les réclamer ; et ceux là emportaient avec eux un bagage des plus précieux, qui envahira le monde en deux cents ans. Les chants et les traditions Africaines, le rythme, la tristesse davoir quitté leur pays survécurent avec lapport des traditions des colonisateurs; une lutte quotidienne pour la survie, et beaucoup de compromissions pour asseoir leur autorité dans un pays où la race Noire, Rouge et plus tard Jaune, étaient subalternes. Dabord, la main doeuvre Noire se convertit à la religion de la majorité (vers 1800) et devint chrétienne principalement Catholique. Ils prirent de la Bible (The Good book) les chapitres qui les inspiraient le plus et les chantèrent sans employer dinstruments, lors des rares moments où leurs maîtres les réunissaient. Cela donnait lieu à des scènes dhystérie, de cris, de hurlements. Lextase = Extasy. Suivit linverse, des réunions assises où les chants nétaient que tristesse et mélancolie,profonde conviction de maintenir les rangs serrés et de lutter autant que possible pour leur survie, leurs familles, leurs enfants, même en baissant léchine,en attendant de meilleurs jours: Ils attendront 240 ans. Doù les Sprirituals. Puis dans les sermons, les prêtres répétaient toujours une phrase importante quils martelaient et incitaient lassistance à répéter, genre appel et réponse, tel cet exemple des plus simples connu de tous: "Oh when the saints" réponse "Oh when the saints", Go marching in- réponse go marching in. Jubilee (jubiler,être ravi, heureux, se frotter les mains de contentement) Au travail même dans les plantations, ils chantaient sans instrument, en sappelant dun champ à lautre et rythmaient la cadence de leurs gestes (Field Hollers), ou chantaient pendant quils piochaient, comme le Ho- Hisses ou les chants des marins (sea chanties), pendant quils installaient les rails des trains (Work Songs) et sétant pratiquement tous convertis au Christianisme, ils chantaient leur messes : Gospel versets tirés de la Bible the Good Book Ces trois formes de chants ensemble formèrent une musique unique au monde qui traduisait leur état dâme de déraciné, de pauvre, dimpuissant à lutter contre cette autocratie dhomme à qui on prenait la femme ou la fille (droit de cuissage) parce quelle plaisait au patron Blanc. Une musique unique sans guitare, mais avec des tapements du pied ou clappements des mains à la lumière des chandelles. Une combinaison de Field Hollers, de work songs, et de gospel (prières) donna une nouvelle forme de musique la plupart du temps chantée sans instrument, ou avec des instruments de fortune, genre grosse boite de cigares qu'ils touaient trouée au milieu, un morceau de bois qui servait de manche et une corde en acier. Le Blues venait de naître ! Cest un mot quils ninventèrent pas, mais qui se trouvait déjà dans le langage parlé des blancs pour exprimer la mélancolie et la tristesse et qui se traduisait par nostalgie, tristesse avec ou sans pleurs, regrets amers etc. Même pour les blancs, Français, Anglais, Espagnols et Italiens pour la plupart, qui avaient choisi de partir à laventure et de chercher fortune dans le Nouveau Monde, la vie navait pas été facile, mais ils étaient des hommes libres, tandis que les Noirs étaient vendus et appartenait corps et âme à leurs maitres. La France donnera son élégance des salons Royaux, ses traditions des fêtes Foraines, des festivals, des bals populaires, des Quadrilles (les Square Dances des Cow-boys dans les Saloons-Salons),des instruments de musique Violons (Fiddles), Violoncelles (qui deviendront des contrebasses ou "Double basse"), les clavecins qui devinrent pianos (avec ou sans queue, selon la grandeur de lendroit) et les guitares qui étaient linstrument favori des troubadours, des trouvères ou des baladins. Les Anglais, une langue que tous adoptairent dans cette tour de Babel (cest pas folichon hein, mais quel succès !),les Espagnols,la Samba issue du Flamenco, la Rumba,le Calypso,puis lItalie (à part la mafia) le Mambo et le Tango, lequel plus tard transformé chorégraphiquement devint Argentin et les Autrichiens la valse, la danse des princes, donc plusieurs musiciens jouant de concert = LOrchestre. Lanatomie du Blues est la suivante : Quatre couplets ou douze et répéter les deux premiers = 4 or 12 Bar Blues (des quatrains ou douze vers). I m going over the hill, Im going over the hill, Oui mais tout cela prendra corps où ? Chez les plus rigolos, ceux qui font la fête, dans les bordels, la débauche ou la joie, donc chez les Français, à la Nouvelle Orléans, car cette ville fut fondée par des Orléanais Français et personne dautre qu eux ! En 1850, il y avait plus de 40.000 Méthodistes et 60.0000 Baptistes blancs et 10.000 Protestants, et cela donnera aux noirs lidée des sermons, de là naquirent les preachers et les messes chantées. Orléans en France fut pratiquement vidée de ses très nombreux mais pauvres habitants, et ne voulant pas vivre avec les "Angliches" formeront un ghetto impénétrable et gardèrent leur langue propre. Plus tard celle là deviendra la langue des îles colonisées aux alentours, une sorte de vieux Français bâtardisé danglais Américain et du dialecte des îles den face : le Créole, puis le Cajun/en Accadie(ancien Français du 17éme siècle parlé jusqu à présent) dans les marais (Swamps) pleins dalligators, Ville quils nommèrent Accadie. Et cest de là que tout partira. Pour se garder une totale exclusivité de leur musique et de leurs traditions, les Français amalgamèrent les noirs dans leur société, affranchirent certains dentre eux, en épousèrent dautres, en somme les mêlèrent à leur vie quotidienne tout en ne parlant que leur langue maternelle, le Français. Les Anglais, essayaient de comprendre ce que disaient les Frenchies, mais ceux-là Anglophobes à mort maintenaient la tension et allaient le soir "papoter" Français autour dune bière faite localement. Les musiciens blancs prêtaient parfois leurs instruments (guitares, violons ou percussions) aux esclaves noirs qui chantaient leur musique rythmée proprement Africaine mélangée de mots perçus par ci par là, appris de leurs maîtres blancs. Les Français étaient amusés par la rapidité dabsorption et curieux de ces nouveaux rythmes, par cette nouvelle musique lancinante ou le piano nétait plus ce quil était et donnait des gammes adaptées aux complaintes des noirs, laissaient faire et se développer, et même parfois participaient en leur apprenant le principe des notes. Les plus doués dentre eux furent appelés des "professeurs" par amusement, mais le terme resta. Alors le soir après le travail, ils allaient boire, samuser avec les prostituées et papoter ; mais ils utilisaient un terme plus approprié, que papoter, cétait "Allons à Sedaliale reste était dit à voix basse ce soir , (rien à voir avec la Louisiane, dont je parlerai plus tard). Un petit quartier qui deviendra une ville, et qui avait une rue où tous les bars et les vices étaient réunis, une ruelle où on se racontait des histoires et que les Anglais nommèrent "Storyville" la ville à problèmes ! Les Anglais retenaient seulement que, chaque fois quil y avait une soirée qui finissait par devenir une fête ou tout le monde samusait, flirtait avec les filles, buvait, jouait une musique si spéciale, les Frenchies lannonçaient par "Allons jaser", PAPOTER., en Anglais "Gossip". Les Anglais crurent que cétait le nom de la musique qui animait si fortement les soirées où tout finissait dans la joie, les pleurs ou les bagarres, tandis quun ex- esclave jouait du piano, ou de la guitare (chose interdite formellement par les Anglais) et cette fausse assimilation ou compréhension de la langue poussera les Anglophones à lappeler jazer, croyant quil sagissait dune forme de musique purement Française stylisée "jaz", puis finalement Jazz.= JAZZ. La définition est lâchée, et ne venez pas me dire que vous le saviez déjà, car ceux qui connaissent létymologie du terme JAZZ se comptent sur les doigts dune seule main. Maintenant ce sont des milliers qui le savent et cest tant mieux, jétais et je suis toujours là pour ça. (joerihan@gmail.com) pour la musique seulement !) Le terme restera pour la postérité, mais la vraie forme nétait pas encore définie et cest un certain ex-esclave affranchi pianiste, professeur noir, qui jouait dans les bars le soir et le matin tôt, réveillait les travailleurs à coup de clairon, qui ajoutera à ce dernier un seul, puis un second piston et lappellera Cornet. Plus tard il y ajoutera un autre et qui deviendra beaucoup plus tard la Trompette CHARLES BOLDEN dit le copain, en Anglais,Buddy soit Charles Buddy Bolden, la première grande figure et fondateur du Jazz en 1900. Joe E. Rihan

........LARGE HADRON COLLIDER ..........Creates mass to the Protons......

2011-12-17T05:02:00.001+02:00

LHC physicists sniff Higgs boson discovery

By James Holloway
04:59 December 14, 2011

9 Comments

Results of a proton-proton collision with four identified muons, a possible signature of a Higgs boson (Image: CERN)

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The results of two recent experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva suggest physicists are close to discovering the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle. Combined, the two experiments have narrowed the possible band of possible Higgs boson masses to between 115 and 130 GeV (gigaelectron volt). Rather than look directly for this fleeting would-be particle itself, physicists look for the various combinations of particles into which Higgs bosons are thought to decay. Independent analyses have verified excesses of these particles from the low mass region 124 to 126 GeV. Though not sufficient to claim a discovery, the latest experiments restrict the region in which the Higgs boson might be hiding.

Remind me. The Higgs whoson?

The existence of the Higgs boson was first proposed in the 1960s by, among others, Peter Higgs, as an explanation for why particles have mass. The idea is that particles gain mass by interacting with a universal, omnipresent, but for now theoretical, Higgs field. Higgs bosons, if they exist, are the particles that comprise that field, and its discovery would fill the last hole in what physics calls the Standard Model.

Why the God particle?

Interesting story. The nickname, loved by journalists, disliked by some scientists, comes from the title of Fermilab Director Leon Lederman's book The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question? According to Peter Higgs, Lederman wanted to call it the "goddamn particle", presumably a reference to its elusiveness, but his editor preferred God particle - perhaps on the grounds that it would sell more copies. It's a nickname the media has latched on to, but don't read too much into it.

And now they've found it?

No. But, they're getting there. A seminar held at CERN yesterday announced results from two of LHC's detectors, ATLAS and CMS. ATLAS identified a most likely mass in the range of 116-130 GeV, and CMS 115-127 GeV, though it sounds as if the range 124-126 GeV is looking particularly interesting. Ongoing experiments are narrowing the remaining range. It's a case of if your quarry goes to ground ...

That said, its precise form by no means certain, nor is its discovery assured.

Hang on.1 eV is an electron volt, right? How is that a unit of mass?

The electron volt is a unit of energy. 1 GeV is one gigaelectron volt, or one billion electron volts. But thanks to mass-energy equivalence it's also a unit of mass. In Einstein's famous equation, energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. As the speed of light is a constant, it can be assigned a value of 1, making energy and mass equivalent. Incidentally, a proton has a mass of 0.938 GeV, so in relative terms, Higgs bosons, if they exist, are huge.

And how do they look for Higgs bosons, exactly?

This is where a particle accelerator like CERN's LHC or Fermilab's Tevatron (until it was shut down) comes in handy. By colliding protons traveling at close to the speed of light physicists can create collisions which replicate the conditions of the first billionth of a second after the universe began: the only conditions in which certain particles are formed. The Higgs boson itself may exist too fleetingly to observe directly, but through the particles into which it decays, it should prove possible to trace.

When will we know for sure?

It's impossible to say with certainty but some physicists are saying that a 2012 discovery is possible. Because the experiments rely on looking for peaks in reams of data rather than identifying the particle itself, there is a question of statistical certainty. According to the Guardian's Ian Sample, its correspondent at CERN, four times as much data as has been analyzed to date is required to be sure. There will be a race to gather that data before the end of 2012 when LHC closes for at least 12 months for an upgrade.

.......................Einstein avait-il tort................?

2011-12-17T04:52:00.000+02:00

Einstein's prediction finally witnessed one century later

Tannith Cattermole

Raizan and team used optical tweezers to suspend the bead and observe Brownian motion for the first time Credit:

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Einstein said it couldn't be done. But more than one hundred years later physicists at the University of Texas at Austin have finally found a way to witness “Brownian motion”; the instantaneous velocity of tiny particles as they vibrate. The “equipartition theorem” states that a particle's kinetic energy, that due to motion, is determined only by its temperature and not its size or mass, and in 1907 Einstein proposed a test to observe the velocity of Brownian motion but gave up, saying the experiment would never be possible.

More than a century later Mark Raizen and his team have finally proved this long-anticipated prediction by means of “optical tweezers”: a single laser beam was fired at a 5μm micrometer bead from below, suspending the bead in an “optical trap” mid-air using the force from the laser and the gravitational force on the bead. A plate-like transducer shook the beads to be tweezed and measured them as they were suspended, and the Brownian motion of the trapped bead was studied with ultra-high resolution.

Having noted that in this case glass beads were 3 micrometers across, Raizen and his team have proved that equipartition theorem is in fact true for Brownian particles. This is the first time in history that the equipartition theorem has been tested for Brownian particles, which forms one of the basic principles of statistical mechanics. They now intend to go further by moving the particles closer to a quantum state for observation. They also expect this to stimulate further research into cooling glass beads to a state where they could be used as oscillators or sensors.

As with much of quantum science, they don't expect the experiment to yield more answers than questions, however: “We've now observed the instantaneous velocity of a Brownian particle," says Raizen. "In some sense, we're closing a door on this problem in physics. But we are actually opening a much larger door for future tests of the equipartition theorem at the quantum level."

All Handmade Watches-Entièrement faites main,meme la bracelet...

2011-12-17T04:42:00.000+02:00

Greib & Benzinger unveil latest extraordinary "restoration" - the Blue Ocean Watch

Vincent Rice

18:27 December 11, 2011

'Blue Ocean' by Grieb & Benzinger
Image Gallery (12 images)

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We have covered luxury watches many times on Gizmag and it's often a little problematic. The marketing spiel from the manufacturers is always in that strange flowery language that's designed to appeal to those for whom the primary concern is not cost. However, every now and then along comes a series of watches that seem to truly justify their price tag in terms of provenance, style and sheer craftsmanship. The extraordinary "Blue Ocean" and the Platinum Collection from which it comes is just such a line.

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Each watch in the collection is unique - properly unique - not limited edition, false-scarcity unique. Grieb & Benzinger scour the world to collect rare watch movements from the classic age of watch-making (1880 - 1930) by the recognized masters of the art, Patek Phillipe, Brequet, Minerva, Vacheron Constantin etc. The movements are fully restored to working order then skeletonized and hand-engraved using rescued machines from the same period as the movements. Some elements are hand "guilloched" - a form of engraved decoration that hasn't been taught since the 60's. Back surfaces and all screws are "blued" using a special platinum heat process and new skeletonized faces with blued hands are added. The movements are then mounted in new oversized (47-49mm) cases of silver and gold or platinum modeled on the classic Brequet style.

Skeletonizing is the process of removing any excess metal from the movement's supporting plates and bridges to reveal the workings underneath whilst retaining the integrity of the mechanics. When combined with the decorative engraving of every surface and a transparent case-back the result is a stunning three dimensional view into the workings of a classic movement.

The level of skill and craftsmanship involved in producing these pieces can't be overstated, especially when a mistake would ruin an irreplaceable and historic movement. Hermann Greib and Jochen Benzinger are in business to make a living without doubt, but their love and respect of the past masters of watch-making is obvious. Similarly the design talent of partner and "motivator" Georg Bartkowiak is clear in the creation of new faces and cases that are classically influenced yet still contemporary.

These are stunning and desperately desirable pieces that for once seem to entirely justify their $100k plus asking price. You can download a PDF brochure explaining the process - in suitably flamboyant language of course.

.............................................Nanochip,je t'ai dans la peau..........................................

2011-12-10T05:43:00.000+02:00

World's first ultra-thin, low energy molybdenite microchip tested

Loz Blain

The world's first molybdenite microchip has been successfully tested in Switzerland.

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Back in February, Darren Quick wrote about the unique properties of Molybdenite and how this material, previously used mostly as a lubricant, could actually outshine silicon in the construction of transistors and other electronic circuits. In brief: it's much more energy efficient than silicon, and you can slice it into strips just three atoms thick -

meaning that you can make transistors as much as three times smaller than before, and make them flexible to boot.

Well, the technology has now been proven with the successful testing of the world's first molybdenite microchip in Switzerland. Does this mean Lausanne will become known as

"Molybdenite Valley?"

Silicon currently underpins nearly every aspect of our technological lives, as the main ingredient in the semiconductors that are used in most electronic devices. But engineers are approaching the limits of its capabilities as we continue to try to make things smaller, lighter and more portable. Silicon layers start to oxidize at anything less than two nanometers in thickness, making them useless as electronic components.

Moybdenite (molybdenum disulphide or MoS2), on the other hand, can be sliced much thinner - down to just three atoms in thickness - and it seems this freely available metal has two other key advantages.

Firstly, transistors made from MoS2 can be put into "on" or "off" states much quicker, and with less energy, than their silicon brothers - so in theory, a molybdenite computer could be made significantly faster and more energy efficient than the current technology allows.

And secondly, it appears to be suitable for use in flexible electronics - opening up the potential for all sorts of computerized clothing, roll-up computers and

even electronics that interface directly with human tissue.

Andras Kis, director of Switzerland's Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures (LANES), announced yesterday that the first working molybdenite chip has been successfully tested: "We have built an initial prototype, putting from two to six serial transistors in place, and shown that basic binary logic operations were possible, which proves that we can make a larger chip."

Will it be better than carbon-based graphene? Well, it seems it has some advantages, particularly in building tiny transistors - but

the two materials will likely do their best work in tandem, according to Kis.

Encore Digital mais le Prix est loin d'ètre abordable pour le Public...Argentic ...j'ai dis !

2011-12-06T07:19:00.000+02:00

DIGITAL CAMERAS

The new Canon EOS C300 camera

By Vincent Rice
20:12 November 3, 2011

21 Pictures

Canon's new EOS C300 digital cinema camera and prime lens

The fact that Canon chose to release its new camera on the Paramount lot in Hollywood should be a big clue as to how it is positioning it's new baby. Scorsese was there! Ron Howard was there! Though it records to the same video codec as previous Canon cameras (50Mbps 4:2:2 Canon XF) 'video camera' would be a misnomer.

Digital cinema camera would be more appropriate with the S35-sized 4K sensor designed to appeal to budget film makers and episodic TV producers. Canon sees an opportunity to sell the equivalent of an Arri Alexa for a third of the price and compete with Sony's CineAlta F3 large sensor offering. Of course, Canon has a bit of a psychological advantage in this regard.

View all

Whilst a number of 'Heath-Robinson' arrangements were available for shooting film style on small sensor video cameras, it was the addition of a video mode to the Canon 5D MkII that really popularized the '24 frames per second, shallow depth-of-field' film style that's all the rage these days. Of course, if you had some money and wanted to seriously go down the digital cinema route you bought a RED One - but that's another story.

The spec's of the new camera are very interesting for both good and bad reasons. Firstly it is available in either the cinema standard PL lens mount form or a Canon EF lens mount form. Canon have announced a number of 4K-capable cinema-specific lenses -

14.5 - 60mm T2.6 wide zoom in both mounts
30 - 300mm T2.95-3.7 long zoom in both mounts
EF-mount-only 24, 50 and 85mm cinema primes (which presumably will work great on AP-C sized Canon still cameras)

The camera's sensor is a Super-35 sized CMOS of 3840 x 2160 pixels, which is actually Quad HD rather than cinema 4K but so be it. The bad news is that the camera only records 1080P at 24 - 30fps. onto its dual Compact Flash cards. That's right, there is no 4K output. The advantage of down-sampling is of course superior color, superior low-light performance, and the requisite shallow depth-of-field effects. In fact the sensor seems to be rather unique in the way that each color (RGB) plus luminance gets its own set of photosites. So 4K output would not be an option anyway.

The picture can be saved with a Log Gamma (very flat, low contrast but high detail - suitable for post-processing) or with a film-style look baked in. The buzz from the presentation was that the picture quality was very good indeed. The nominal speed rating of the sensor is 800ASA with a potential 11 stops of latitude if the Canon Log gamma is used. Slo-mo overcranking capabilities are disappointing with up to 60fps only being available at 720P resolution. There are no automatic facilities on the camera at all. i.e. it's only manual focus, manual exposure, manual white balance and manual level control on the two XLR mic inputs. It's a statement that this is meant to be a 'controlled environment' professional movie camera - which is a good thing.

The compact, boxy camera will come as a kit, sans lens, but with a combined XLR audio input/LCD monitor unit, top handle, side grip, battery and charger. Deliveries start at the end of January and the price given at the presentation was US$20,000 (GBP12,500 / EUR14,500). This is disappointingly higher than the predicted $16,000 but street price will probably be in that region. This puts it bang in line with the Sony F3 and comparisons are inevitable. The Canon records with a higher data rate (50Mbps as opposed to 30) and though that may not be be significant, the buzz is that the Canon edges the Sony on picture quality. The Canon only possesses a single SDI output connector whilst the Sony has two, enabling high quality 4:4:4 signal to be recorded directly from the sensor block.

However, Sony charges you $4,400 (GBP2,700 / EUR3,100) for the privilege (which include Sony's own log gamma settings). In the end, Canon's advantage will be it's lenses and there can be no concerns about the quality of the new cinema primes.

Canon is also making a commitment to Hollywood with the announcement of a new service, support and research facility in the area. The company's Japanese CEO asked Hollywood to "welcome us to the community". This camera is unlikely to take the town by storm but this is clearly the first step for Canon and we have already heard that a true 4K SLR style shooter is on the way. Canon has launched a new site for the camera with lots of footage. Exciting times.

Rien de mieux qu'un Kodak-color Argentic de 200 ou 400 ASA

2011-12-06T06:59:00.001+02:00

DIGITAL CAMERAS

Nikon readies SB-910 Speedlight flash unit for release

By Paul Ridden

03:18 December 2, 2011

Nikon has revealed a new flagship Speedlight flash unit -- the SB-910

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What with the huge sensitivity range of modern digital cameras, and the strong likelihood of finding a built-in flash on most models, it might be a logical assumption that the days of producing separate flash units are numbered. In the right hands though, a powerful flash can add something very special to a subject or scene - even when there's already ample background lighting. Nikon camera owners can now look forward to a new flagship Speedlight flash unit arriving just in time to help light up festive office parties.

The new Nikon Speedlight SB-910 has been treated to an enhanced operating system, which includes illuminated function buttons, a dedicated Menu button and better graphic user interface on its LCD screen. The unit is capable of identifying FX or DX camera bodies attached to it, and optimizing zoom settings to suit. It features a multi-step power zoom range to cater for use with attached lenses ranging from wide 17mm right up to telephoto 200mm, which Nikon says will cover most of the popular focal lengths.

The SB-910 also includes a useful new Thermal Cut-Out function that protects the flash panel and body from overheating during continuous use by delaying the flash recycling time - to give the unit a little breathing space rather than have it shut down altogether. There's a built-in AF-assist illuminator that's compatible with all Nikon autofocus systems and the new Speedlight also offers three illumination patterns. The standard is used for most conventional usage situations, the center-weighted option is for portrait situations where light fall-off at the edge of the image can be safely disregarded, and - as its name might suggest - the even pattern covers a subject from the middle outwards without any fall-off.

The new 3.1 x 5.7 x 4.4 inch (78.5 x 145 x 113mm) flagship Speedlight unit (which is a tad heavier than its predecessor - the SB-900 - at 14.8 ounces/420g) can be placed on the camera itself, or wirelessly take command of up to three separate groups of other Speedlight units, or can itself be remotely triggered as part of a group. It uses new hard-type color compensation filters for fluorescent and incandescent color temperature balancing, and automatically detects which filter is being used and adjusts the white balance on the connected Nikon DSLR to suit.

Nikon has also improved battery efficiency - with flash recycling with four NiMH batteries taking just 2.5 seconds, 3 seconds with four AA-size Alkaline batteries, or 4.5 seconds with four Lithium batteries. The flash head can be tilted down to -7 degrees or up to 90 degrees, and rotated 180 degrees horizontally to the left and right.

The Speedlight SB-910 will be available from the middle of this month for a suggested retail price of US$549.95, and will come supplied with a stand, diffusion dome, a couple of color compensation filters and a soft case. Optional weather guards for certain (as yet unnamed) camera models will be made available shortly to protect the connection between the flash and camera.

Kill them all...........à bas les moustiques

2011-12-02T13:41:00.000+02:00

Genetic genocide: Genetically altered mosquito warriors could wipe out humanity's biggest killer

Loz Blain

Aedes aegypti, the #1 disease vector for dengue fever (Photo by Muhammad Mahdi Karim, published under the GNU free documentation license)
Image Gallery (2 images)

War, plague, famine, heart disease, cigarettes, road trauma: six very effective killers of human beings. But they're all amateurs when their records are compared to the number one mass murderer of all time. The humble mosquito, and the deadly diseases it carries, is estimated to have been responsible for as many as 46 billion deaths over the history of our species. That staggering number is even more frightening in context - it means that mosquitoes are alleged to have killed more than half the humans that ever lived.

So if any creature has earned the full force of the wrath of humanity, this nasty little bugger is it. Especially certain species like

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes -

.....the world's number one disease vector for deadly dengue fever, which infects between 50 and 100 million people a year around the world.

A. aegypti has evolved into the most curious and innocuous of human predators - it's the females that bite, and they more or less only feed on humans. Each bite exposes the victim to any blood-borne pathogens that the mosquito might have picked up along its way. Dengue and yellow fevers are among the most common - the mosquito contracts the virus by biting an infected victim, and then injects it along with its saliva when it stabs the next unlucky target's skin with its proboscis.

A. aegypti flies silently, so it's hard to know when you're in danger of being bitten, and it breeds and multiplies extremely effectively, needing only a teaspoon full of standing water for its larvae to hatch.

DDT-based insecticides have been effective against these little blighters, but evolution is quickly building up their resistance

to this and other control measures. Fighting them with poison might be effective in the short term, but in the long run it only makes them stronger.

There is, however, a potential solution that can hijack the mosquito's breeding cycle to dramatically bring down the population and human risk factors. And it's undergoing testing in two very different ways right now.

Genetic hacking - a brilliant solution

American scientist Anthony James, from UC Irvine, has made mosquito genetics the focus of his career - and his latest invention is a genetically modified mosquito designed to bring populations of Aedes aegypti down from within.

In short, the modified genes affect only the female mosquitoes, rendering them flightless. The larvae hatch on the water, and the females are unable to leave, rendering them harmless to humans and leaving them to die. The males are unaffected, so they mature normally, then mate with other females to pass the genetic modification on.

It's an extremely effective way of triggering a mosquito population crash - James and his colleagues have proven in cage-based testing in Mexico that a sufficient number of genetically hacked males can completely decimate a mosquito population within a few months. The table below shows this genetic genocide in action - within 23 and 33 weeks, the genetically modified males managed to completely destroy the otherwise stable mosquito population in James' test cages.

A. aegypti eggs make this a fantastically portable solution too - they survive for years at a time in dry conditions, then hatch in the presence of water. So you can more or less post an envelope full of millions of dry eggs to wherever in the world it's needed, and just add water. The crippled females will die where they hatch and you've got yourself a mutant force of GM males ready to start their work.

Genetically modified mosquitoes to the wind

But while James' "netted laboratory" follows the traditionally cautious scientific approach, one of his partners has been decidedly more gung-ho about it.

Luke Alphey, whose company Oxitec was originally hired by James to design the flightless female genetic modification, is so confident that these genetic warriors work, and that there will be no environmental ill effects, that he has taken advantage of the lack of regulation in many areas to conduct full scale field tests in the wild.

Oxitec's historic first release of GM mosquitoes in 2009 killed an estimated 80% of the A. aegypti population on the Grand Cayman island in the Carribbean - a geographically isolated area.

More mutant, autocidal mosquitoes have been released in Malaysia, and the technique is reportedly going into large scale production in Brazil.

James sees Oxitec's full-speed-ahead approach as a potential risk to the entire science of genetic modification. "That's the difficulty of working with corporations," he told Scientific American, "I can't control corporate partners."

An ethical and environmental quandary

So it seems it's happening. And whether it's for better or for worse depends entirely on your viewpoint.

It's difficult to know exactly what the result might be when you release something like this into the wild. Will there be knock-on effects on the food chain? What will the birds and fish that feed on mosquitoes eat instead? Will the demise of A. aegypti make way for an even nastier pest? Will their removal take away the means of pollination for certain plants? And will the genetic modification itself have unforeseen repercussions down the track?

Then there's the ethics of it - advanced use of this technology could foreseeably cause A. aegypti to become extinct. Some people brave the antarctic winter to save endangered whales, others will chain themselves to trees to defend endangered frogs... But who will stand up for the mosquito? And with a world human population ticking past 7 billion and counting, should we look at A. aegypti as an effective and necessary form of human population control?

On the other hand, humans have become dominant on this planet chiefly due to our ability to manipulate our environment - and with a scientific consensus forming that

the complete eradication of mosquitoes would have limited, if any, adverse environmental effects, this could be one of the most human-friendly modifications we could make to our world. And it would certainly be no worse for the environment than our habit of clear-felling forest areas.

As for "playing God" - that argument is moot. We're well and truly adept at that. We've been artificially selecting animals and plants for hundreds and thousands of years to suit our visual, olfactory and gastronomic preferences. Hardly a species that enters our lives in a significant way has not been altered over the generations to suit us better.

Why should we spare our most dangerous natural predator? Does history's greatest killer of human beings deserve a reprieve from the death penalty? What do you think?

ASA Captures New Images of Large Asteroid Passing Earth This radar image of asteroid 2005 YU55 was obtained on Nov. 7, 2011, at 11:45 a.m. PST This radar image of asteroid 2005 YU55 was obtained on Nov. 7, 2011, at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. EST/1945 UTC), when the space rock was at 3.6 lunar distances, which is about 860,000 miles, or 1.38 million kilometers, from Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech › Full image and caption Share3041 November 07, 2011 PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif. has captured new radar images of Asteroid 2005 YU55 passing close to Earth. The asteroid will safely fly past our planet slightly closer than the moon's orbit on Nov. 8. The last time a space rock this large came as close to Earth was in 1976, although astronomers did not know about the flyby at the time. The next known approach of an asteroid this size will be in 2028. The image was taken on Nov. 7 at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. EST/1945 UTC), when the asteroid was approximately 860,000 miles (1.38 million kilometers) away from Earth. Tracking of the aircraft carrier-sized asteroid began at Goldstone at 9:30 a.m. PDT on Nov. 4 with the 230-foot-wide (70-meter) antenna and lasted about two hours, with an additional four hours of tracking planned each day from Nov. 6 - 10. Radar observations from the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico will begin Nov. 8, the same day the asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth at 3:28 p.m. PST (6:28 p.m. EST/1128 UTC). The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. At the point of closest approach, it will be no closer than 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) as measured from the center of Earth, or about 0.85 times the distance from the moon to Earth. The gravitational influence of the asteroid will have no detectable effect on Earth, including tides and tectonic plates. Although the asteroid is in an orbit that regularly brings it to the vicinity of Earth, Venus and Mars, the 2011 encounter with Earth is the closest it has come for at least the last 200 years. NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes some of them, and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The new radar images are online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/multimedia/yu55-20111107.html . For more information about asteroids and near-Earth objects, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch . More information about asteroid radar research is available online at: http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/ . For more information about NASA's Deep Space Network, visit: http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn . DC Agle 818-393-9011 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. agle@jpl.nasa.gov Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726 11-11-2011 Nostradamus predictions ? NASA Headquarters, Washington dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov 2011-343

2011-11-09T08:44:00.000+02:00

NASA Captures New Images of Large Asteroid Passing Earth

This radar image of asteroid 2005 YU55 was obtained on Nov. 7, 2011, at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. EST/1945 UTC), when the space rock was at 3.6 lunar distances, which is about 860,000 miles, or 1.38 million kilometers, from Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

November 07, 2011

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif. has captured new radar images of Asteroid 2005 YU55 passing close to Earth.

The asteroid will safely fly past our planet slightly closer than the moon's orbit on Nov. 8. The last time a space rock this large came as close to Earth was in 1976, although astronomers did not know about the flyby at the time. The next known approach of an asteroid this size will be in 2028.

The image was taken on Nov. 7 at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. EST/1945 UTC), when the asteroid was approximately 860,000 miles (1.38 million kilometers) away from Earth. Tracking of the aircraft carrier-sized asteroid began at Goldstone at 9:30 a.m. PDT on Nov. 4 with the 230-foot-wide (70-meter) antenna and lasted about two hours, with an additional four hours of tracking planned each day from Nov. 6 - 10.

Radar observations from the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico will begin Nov. 8, the same day the asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth at 3:28 p.m. PST (6:28 p.m. EST/1128 UTC).

The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. At the point of closest approach, it will be no closer than 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) as measured from the center of Earth, or about 0.85 times the distance from the moon to Earth. The gravitational influence of the asteroid will have no detectable effect on Earth, including tides and tectonic plates. Although the asteroid is in an orbit that regularly brings it to the vicinity of Earth, Venus and Mars, the 2011 encounter with Earth is the closest it has come for at least the last 200 years.

NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes some of them, and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

The new radar images are online at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/multimedia/yu55-20111107.html .

For more information about asteroids and near-Earth objects, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch .

More information about asteroid radar research is available online at: http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

For more information about NASA's Deep Space Network, visit: http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn .

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov
2011-343

Like the first one,suddenly everyone "has" already invented the First manned ship...but Now it's a two man thing

2011-11-05T06:51:00.000+02:00

On October 22nd, just a day after the first manned flight of an electric multicopter took place in Germany, California's JP Aerospace achieved an aeronautical feat of its own - it broke the record for the world's highest airship flight. Remotely controlled from the ground, the all-volunteer group's Tandem twin-balloon airship reportedly ascended to an altitude of 95,085 feet (28,982 meters). That's almost four miles (6.4 km) higher than any airship has gone before.

JP Aerospace's Tandem class of airships are fairly spartan, consisting of two balloons mounted at either end of a central keel frame, and two six foot (1.8 meter) -long propellers, each driven by a separate electric motor - those propellers are specifically designed to work in the thin air present at high altitudes.

The aircraft used in last month's flight weighed 80 pounds (36.3 kg), including its balloons. As is the plan for all Tandems, it gained altitude using the lift of its balloons only. After making its way through turbulence from 40,000 to 60,000 feet (12,192 to 18,288 meters), the airship eventually reached its cruising altitude, at which point its motors were remotely turned on. A pilot on the ground then guided it through a series of maneuvers until eventually one balloon burst, at which point the other balloon was intentionally released, and the airship drifted back to the ground with the help of five parachutes.

"The big aerospace firms have been trying to do this for decades, spending hundreds of millions of dollars," said John Powell, President of JP Aerospace. "We've spent about $30,000 and the past five years developing Tandem."

The Tandem is intended to function as a workhorse aircraft. It could serve as a launch platform for small research rockets, and perform various duties for JP's proposed Airship to Orbit program, in which large V-shaped airships would travel from Earth's upper atmosphere into space.

...Quadracocpters...for One...Spirou et Fantasio....

2011-11-05T06:40:00.000+02:00

By now, most readers are probably pretty familiar with quadracopters - small hovering unmanned electric aircraft, which get their lift from a set of four propellers. Well, make the whole thing larger, boost the number of propellers (and accompanying motors) to 16, and you get what German aircraft developer e-volo calls a multicopter. While the company has previously demonstrated unmanned drones, on October 21st it accomplished what it claims is a world first - a manned flight.

The flight took place at an airstrip in southwest Germany, and lasted one and a half minutes. Thomas Senkel, a physicist and designer/builder of the multicopter, piloted the aircraft from a center-mounted seat, using a handheld wireless control unit. The flight consisted mainly of maneuvering the multicopter around within a fairly small area - no sense in getting cocky.

"The flight characteristics are good natured," Senkel said afterward. "Without any steering input it would just hover there on the spot."

According to e-volo, its multicopter is simpler in construction and mechanics than a helicopter, and safer - it can reportedly land even with up to four of its motors failed, and its propellers experience much less wear. Onboard computers running custom firmware control the rotational speed of the propellers, dictating the attitude (horizontal orientation to the ground), altitude and direction of travel of the aircraft.

Potential flight times range from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on payload and battery capacity.

The e-volo team are also working on a commercial version of the manned multicopter, which they hope will be ready for the marketplace "at an affordable price" within the next few years. They state that a gas/electric hybrid model is a possibility, to increase flight time to at least an hour.

The first manned electric multicopter flight can be seen in the video below.

The world's first manned electric helicopter flight was achieved earlier this year. Technically, at least by current definitions, there's no such thing as a multicopter, but we expect it will become part of the language eventually.

Interestingly, e-volo's Stephan Wolf went to great pains to point out that the company's new flight machine was not a helicopter. "It uses a completely different technology compared to standard helicopter technology, which we now consider obsolete", he said.

----360º cities...only the link & the photo...the web will rotate---

2011-11-02T23:15:00.000+02:00

Bangkok: Kaset Intersection Bangkok Flood 2011

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 05:04 AM PDT

360° panorama by Supasit Srisawathsak.
Click the image to open the interactive version.

A la nage les ordinateurs

2011-11-02T15:50:00.000+02:00

How to increase the data storage density of HDDs -

just add salt

By Darren Quick

22:13 November 1, 2011

A new process using table salt increases the data storage density of HDDs by six times (Image: Kamil Porembski via Flickr)

While Solid State Drives (SSDs) are seen as the way of the future for computer data storage and their prices have started to come down as their capacities increase, they still can't compete with traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) in terms of bang for your buck. Now a team of researchers from Singapore has moved the goalposts yet again and shown traditional HDDs still have some life in them by developing a process that can increase the data recording density of HDDs to six times that of current models.

The researchers from the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), who worked in collaboration with the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Data Storage Institute (DSI), liken the new process to packing a suitcase - the neater you pack, the more you can carry.

Conventional HDDs store data using randomly distributed nanoscopic magnetic grains, with a few tens of grains used to form one bit. This allows the latest model HDDs to hold up to 0.5 Terabit/in2 of information. Using nanopatterning to create uniform arrays of magnetic bits, the team was able to increase the data storage density to up to 3.3 Terabit/in2.

The secret of the new technology lies in the use of an extremely high-resolution e-beam lithography process that produces super fine nano-sized structures. Dr Joel Yang, the IMRE scientist who heads the project, found that adding sodium chloride - or table salt - to a developer solution used in existing lithography processes produced highly defined nanostructures down to 4.5 nm half pitch, without the need for expensive equipment upgrades.

"In addition to making the bits, we demonstrated that they can be used to store data," said Dr Yang.

This "salty developer solution" method, which was invented by Dr Yang when he was a graduate student at the MIT, means a HDD that currently holds 1 TB of data could, in the future, hold 6 TB of data in the same size unit.

Source: Agency for Science, Technology and Research

Nous n'irons plus au bois ceuillir....la mirabelle...mais...

2011-11-02T07:58:00.000+02:00

Neutrinos—ghostly subatomic particles—may have been observed traveling faster than the speed of light, scientists announced this week.
If confirmed, the astonishing claim would upend a cardinal rule of physics established by Albert Einstein nearly a century ago.
"Most theorists believe that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. So if this is true, it would rock the foundations of physics," said Stephen Parke, head of the theoretical physics department at the U.S. government-run Fermilab near Chicago, Illinois.
(Related: "Proton Smaller Than Thought—May Rewrite Laws of Physics.")

The existence of faster-than-light particles would also wreak havoc on scientific theories of cause and effect.

"If things travel faster than the speed of light, A can cause B, [but] B can also cause A," Parke said.

"If that happens, the concept of causality becomes ambiguous, and that would cause a great deal of trouble."

Don't Bet on Breaking Light Speed

Members of the Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus, or OPERA, at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) described the unusual neutrino detection in a paper published this week on the research website arXiv.org.
The team shot neutrinos out of a particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland, and measured how long it took the particles to travel to a neutrino detector in Gran Sasso, Italy, 450 miles (724 kilometers) away.
(See pictures of a neutrino detector 1.5 miles [2.4 kilometers] under Antarctic ice.)

Neutrinos are subatomic particles that have almost no mass and can zip through entire planets as if they are not there.

Being nearly massless, neutrinos should travel at nearly the speed of light, which is approximately 186,000 miles (299,338 kilometers) a second.

To the astonishment of the OPERA team, the particles appear to have reached their destination about 60 nanoseconds faster than expected.

A nanosecond may not sound like much, but "the effect is quite large," said Fermilab's Parke, who was not part of the CERN team.

The extra speed would mean that, over a distance of 621 miles (1,000 kilometers), neutrinos travel about 66 feet (20 meters) farther than light travels in the same amount of time.

The results would be "revolutionary" if true, Parke said, but he added that he highly doubts the findings will hold up under closer scrutiny.

"If I was a betting man, I would bet against it," he said. "Your first response is it can't possibly be true, that they must have made a mistake."

Neutrino Speed an Instrument Error?

Parke is not alone in his skepticism. Many physicists have speculated that the OPERA results are due to a measurement or instrument error.

It would not be the first time such an error occurred, said Louis Strigari, an astrophysicist at Stanford University also not on the CERN team.

"There have been several instances where, through no fault of the experimenters, the equipment was not understood as well as it needed to be," Strigari said.

"It just so happens that you learn more as you get more data and you understand the machinery a little better."

Even the OPERA team is cautious about its results and is welcoming other researchers to repeat the neutrino experiment.

"We want just to be helped by the community in understanding our crazy result—because it is crazy," Antonio Ereditato, coordinator of the OPERA collaboration, told the BBC.

Supernova Neutrinos Not So Speedy

Dave Goldberg, an astrophysicist at Philadelphia's Drexel University, said that if faster-than-light neutrinos did exist, they would likely have been observed in nature before now.

For example, in 1987 detectors on Earth identified neutrinos and photons—light particles—from an exploding star. Both types of particles reached our planet at almost exactly the same instance.

According to Goldberg's calculations, if neutrinos travel faster than light by the amount the OPERA team claims, then neutrinos from that supernova should have been detected in 1984—three years before the photons.

"It's possible, but unlikely," Goldberg said, that detectors active on Earth at the time would have missed such an obvious spike in cosmic neutrinos.

Goldberg concedes that supernova neutrinos are less energetic—and would thus be traveling slower—than the neutrinos from CERN's particle accelerator.

However, "assuming Einstein was correct, both types [of neutrinos] would be moving at something like 99.999999999 percent the speed of light," Goldberg said in an email.

"In other words, from a measurement point of view, they'd be going at essentially identical speeds."

(Also see "Einstein Theories Confirmed by NASA Gravity Probe.")

Relativity Still Very Close to Right

Even if the OPERA results are confirmed by other scientists, they wouldn't totally invalidate Einstein's theories of general and special relativity, Stanford University's Strigari stressed. Those theories still explain a remarkable range of observed phenomena in the universe.

"I think it's long been understood that the theories we have today aren't the full answers," Strigari said.

"If this observation holds up, then it's probably a good piece of evidence that the theories we currently have need to be reworked."

Drexel University's Goldberg agreed that physicists won't be discarding Einstein's theories anytime soon.

"Even if relativity turned out to be wrong," he said, "it's clearly very, very close to being right."

Also see "Einstein's Relativity Affects Aging on Earth (Slightly)"

....Buy me a Chevrolet....

2011-11-01T18:33:00.000+02:00

General Motors will become the first American automotive manufacturer to build its own electric motors when production begins in White Marsh, Md., in late 2012. In promoting this capability, GM has released details of the first motor to be built there, the 85 kW (114 hp) permanent magnet motor to be used in the 2013 Chevrolet Spark EV.

Currently, GM uses electric motors as part of the propulsion system in nine vehicles including the Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet Malibu Eco, Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid, Buick Lacrosse eAssist, Buick Regal eAssist, GMC Sierra Hybrid, GMC Yukon and Yukon Denali Hybrid, and Cadillac Escalade Hybrid.

Sperm count @ home... faut eviter la pipe surtout...

2011-11-01T18:28:00.001+02:00

Faut eviter une avaleuse de sabres...

sinon c'est foutu

While just about everyone is familiar with home pregnancy testing kits, what many of us may not realize is that a (sort of) equivalent product exists for men - home sperm count kits. These kits, however, will simply tell users if their sperm count is above or below a standard value. While a yes or no answer like that might suffice for the pregnancy kits, a little more information would definitely help a man who suspects he might be infertile. Loes Segerink, a PhD student from The Netherlands' University of Twente, hopes to change that with this prototype lab-on-a-chip device. Segerink's chip counts exactly how many sperm are present in a sample of ejaculate, and can even differentiate between the good swimmers and the duds.

In Segerink's chip, sperm are caused to flow through a liquid-filled channel, passing beneath electrode bridges. As cells of any type pass below those bridges, it causes a brief fluctuation in the electrode's electrical resistance. When tested, the system was able to tell the difference between sperm, white blood cells, and introduced microspheres.

By counting the number of sperm-specific fluctuations, the chip determines the number of sperm in the sample - a one-milliliter sample should contain at least 20 million of them. The system also keeps track of the number of white blood cells, which is an indicator of sperm quality.

...........Dans la godasse....

2011-11-01T07:27:00.000+02:00

Article Summary

As millions of baby boomers approach 65, the rates of Alzheimer’s sufferers is expected to continue to rise significantly in the coming decade. Already 5.4 million Americans are living with the disease with that figure predicted to rise to as many as 16 million by 2050, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

To make it easier for caregivers and family members to keep track of those suffering dementia, Personal Location Services company GTX Corp has partnered with comfort shoe manufacturer Aetrex to produce the GPS Shoe that allows real-time tracking of the wearer.

...........Il y a quand meme un espoir quelque part ???...

2011-11-01T07:12:00.000+02:00

Moshe Dayan's Widow Ruth: Zionist Dream Has Run Its Course

Oct 30, 2011 10:00 AM EDT

These startling words were uttered last week in Tel Aviv by 95-year-old Ruth Dayan, widow of one of Israel's founding fathers

Elegantly dressed and perfectly made up, Ruth Dayan, 95, receives me with a wide smile in her Tel Aviv home overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The charismatic, alert, and extremely intelligent Dayan is the widow of Moshe Dayan, legendary chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces and a key leader in the war of independence in 1948.

Indeed, Moshe Dayan was transformed into a symbol of national strength during the Six-Day War in 1967, when Israel took control of the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The Israelis felt invincible with this imposing figure at the helm. Having lost his eye in battle, he chose to wear a black eye patch, which became his trademark. In the years since his death, Ruth has continued to act as one of Israel’s most outspoken elder statesmen.

Sixty-three years after the founders began to build a democratic, secure, prosperous state, Israel is still struggling: there is no peace deal in place with the Palestinians, tensions between Arabs and Israelis grow by the day, and the violence drags on. Under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party, Israel has been racked with political divisions.

The government has moved to the right politically in order to keep a majority in Parliament. Yet over the summer, liberal Israelis set up tent cities protesting the massive income inequality and high cost of living that are plaguing the nation. Moshe Dayan is very much seen as one of the “founding fathers” of Israel. And there is a nostalgic turn today, mainly among the middle-class Ashkenazi who see him and his brethren as symbols of collective sacrifice and communal bonds.

Dayan is rich with memories of the Israel of then and gets furious when I ask her to compare it with the Israel of now: “We built this country inch by inch, and we lost so many lives. We built public and social institutions, schools, factories. What’s going on today is awful. They’re ruining this country.

I am a proud Israeli. I’ve lived through every war, endured every moment of suffering, but I never stopped believing in peace. I lost friends and family members. I’m a peacemaker, but the current Israeli government does not know how to make peace. We move from war to war, and this will never stop. I think Zionism has run its course.”

Left: Ruth Dayan.; Right: Moshe Dayan in 1967., Michal Chelbin for Newsweek (left); Hulton Archive / Getty Images

She sighs, and adjusts herself before continuing. “I long for the old Israel, where I traveled alone to Gaza the day after we won the 1956 war. Moshe was already a war hero, known to Israelis and Arabs alike. When I met the Palestinian mayor, I introduced myself as Ruth Dayan. The mayor almost had a heart attack.” She giggles.

“His aides fled the scene. He cautiously asked me what my business was, and I replied that I wanted to see their rugs. He was astonished. ‘Rugs?’ he asked me. I was the head of Maskit at the time, a chain of arts-and-crafts stores.

We were employing Bulgarian immigrants, and I wanted to include Arabs. I hired Arabs all over the country to make rugs and other merchandise. It was about living together, working together, creating a bridge. Today we use foreign labor to work in Israel because Palestinians are not allowed. And this continuous expansion of the settlements everywhere—I cannot accept it. I cannot tolerate this deterioration in the territories and the roadblocks everywhere. And that horrible wall! It’s not right.”

The tensions between the Jews and the Arabs in Israel have been particularly fraught since the second intifada started in 2000. The wall built to protect the nation from the terrorist attacks sealed off Gaza and the West Bank, but it also cut off contact between the two populations.

Ruth Dayan is considered a free thinker in Israeli society.

And her devotion and constant efforts to bring Israelis and Palestinians together are legendary. “Moshe had a double-edged policy: hardline punitive raids of cross-border Arab retaliation, and at the same time, he led the delegation for the ceasefire negotiations with Jordanian King Abdullah. He was a fighter and a negotiator.

He was tactical and realist—never saw things as black or white. After the death of his brother, Zorik, in battle in 1948, Moshe reached out to the Druze community, which had been responsible for his brother’s death, and made a peace accord with them. Moshe’s father never forgave him for that.”

.........360 DEGREES PHOTO BLOG...la technonologie qui renverse le futur

2011-11-01T06:47:00.001+02:00

360Cities - Panoramic Photography Blog noreply@360cities.net via google.com to me

show details

360Cities Panoramic Photography Blog

Istanbul: Arnavutköy Belediyesi – Taşoluk Yeşil Camii / Avlu
Korea: Republic of Korea mountains secret bookstore, and offices
Africa: Spitzkoppe
Erlangen: Autumn forest

Istanbul: Arnavutköy Belediyesi – Taşoluk Yeşil Camii / Avlu

Posted: 30 Oct 2011 05:18 PM PDT

360° panorama by nt360.Click the image to open the interactive version.

.....Money money money...J'en veux un comme ça...

2011-11-01T06:39:00.000+02:00

Actually it's two US$5,000 (GBP3,100/EUR3,500) amps because these rather spectacular looking beasts are mono-blocks. They are two completely separate, but matched, mono amplifiers. Now it's no secret that the world of audiophile hi-fi sound systems can be a place of strange voodoo and esoterica - where the Law of Diminishing Returns becomes a way of life for deluded males of a certain age (never women it seems) but let's check our cynicism at the door for the moment. There is something interesting going on here and it may just turn out that at $10,000 for the pair, these amps are a (relative) bargain.

Woo Audio has been hand-building high quality tube amplifiers in New York since 2004. Tube amps are prized by hi-fi aficionados for their warm, enveloping sound and the sweetest circuit type of all, un-coincidentally the simplest, is called a single-ended triode (SET), and it is just this type that Woo specialize in. The downside with amps of this nature is that they are quite low powered, so Woo Audio has been producing primarily headphone amplifiers where this isn't a concern. Paradoxically, because a simple circuit means that tweaks and variations are easier to implement, using the very finest individual components possible makes these amplifiers potentially more expensive than a more complex, but mass produced, design. While many of Woo Audio's products are in the US$500 - $1500 range, with the WA234 they have pulled out all the stops and produced a SET amplifier without compromise.

Design Decisions

The first decision was to make the amplifier a pair of mono-blocks. That is, a completely separate amplifier and power supply for each side of the stereo signal. This is done to eliminate crosstalk between the channels and maintain a rock-solid stereo image. Secondly, the circuit is completely hand-wired using the shortest cable path possible and the highest quality components, including a stepped resistor volume control rather than a potentiometer. Transformers and filter coils are wound by hand on the premises for the specific circuit requirements - hi-fi (and guitar) amp experts will tell you that the output transformer is where a great deal of the magic happens in a tube amp. The final piece of the puzzle is the massive machined chassis that reduces vibration and stray magnetic fields affecting the tubes mounted on the top surface.

Unique Feature

All that would be fine and dandy but the WA234 has a unique additional feature. While tube amp designs can be very simple and pure, that does mean that they are optimized for a particular tube, a particular output impedance and a particular power output. Change any of those requirements and the circuit needs to change. To allow flexibility in that regard the 234 is supplied with a set of physical plug-in "keys" that actually modify the circuit configuration for different uses. One key socket allows the circuit to be optimized for 300B, 2A3, or 45 tubes (that all sound different by the way) and another socket accepts keys to change the output impedance for different headphone types, or indeed allow loudspeakers to be driven from the output. A maximum of 8 watts a side won't fill a nightclub but with efficient speakers it will fill a typical living room.

Long Experience

While Jack Wu's eponymous company has only been trading for seven years, it was formed to exploit the 40 years of amp design experience of his father, Wei, and the engineering experience of his brother, Zhi Dong. The company already has a great reputation in the audiophile community and press for creating very high quality amps at reasonable cost. The exemplary construction and hand-wired circuitry of this no-compromise flagship product suggest that rather than being an over-priced toy for the bored and wealthy, it might well be a genuine bargain for the serious audiophile.

.....Le "Guillaume-Wilhelm"- Tell" des neiges...est né!

2011-11-01T06:31:00.000+02:00

With winter fast approaching in the northern hemisphere and snowbound hostilities due to recommence in neighborhoods across the globe it might be worth updating your arsenal with this Crossbow Snow Launcher from The Sharper Image. With the ability to shoot snowballs distances of up to 60 feet (18 m) the device is sure to give you the upper hand in any Hoth-like conflict without the risk of tearing a rotator cuff.

To prime the device, simply place a ball in the front, pull back the lever until it locks and you're ready to aim and fire. An included snowball press that churns out three perfectly sized snowballs at a time ensures you'll have a nice stockpile of ammo, while the ergonomic design and improved launching mechanism means your trigger finger will just be getting warmed up while your adversary's arms are tiring. It also comes with a vinyl target to let you get your eye in before entering into target-rich environments.

Despite the image on The Sharper Image website appearing to be only a computer render, the device is apparently available now for US$39.99.

Les Volcans s'allument...SMU Geothermal Lab

2011-11-01T06:25:00.000+02:00

As a green energy source, geothermal heat is tough to beat, but until recently, it was believed to be economically feasible only in areas with shallow tectonic (volcanic) activity. Now, with a generous grant from Google.org, the search engine giant's philanthropic arm, two scientists from Southern Methodist University (SMU) have pooled together the results from more than 35,000 data sites to paint a very different, almost rosy, energy picture for the United States and, indeed, the world.

For over one hundred years, traditional geothermal plants have exploited natural steam reservoirs fairly close to the surface of the earth's crust. The superheated steam is captured by wells which channel it to drive turbines in adjacent power plants.

Calpine Corporation's Geysers Field, situated north of San Francisco in the craggy Mayacamas Mountains, is the world's largest earth-powered electrical generation complex and provides a good example of this green technology at work.

Currently, more than 2700 MWh of electricity are generated geothermally in the U.S. each year- roughly equivalent to 60 million barrels of oil - and sufficient to power 3.5 million homes, all while eliminating 22 million tons of carbon dioxide, 200,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, 80,000 tons of nitrogen oxide and 110,000 tons of particulate matter. Clean, indeed.

SMU Geothermal Lab Coordinator Maria Richards and Geophysics professor David Blackwell's research has revealed, however, that a much larger portion of the earth's crust can yield usable energy than was previously thought, especially in the eastern U.S. The project's findings indicate that, with advanced technology already available, the continental U.S. harbors a staggering 2,980,000 MW of potential energy! That's especially impressive considering the current global geothermal generating capacity is only 9,000MW.

The SMU team's research meshes nicely with new technology coming online, collectively dubbed Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), that promises to expand the yield of geothermal energy by several orders of magnitude. Whereas traditional plants exploit naturally existing steam, the EGS technique involves injecting water into wells drilled deep into hot rock. The resultant steam is then captured to drive turbines and generators, similar to those powered by natural steam.

To date, Google.org has made over US$10 million in grants to foster EGS development. Other plants will use a lower temperature approach, such as this facility we covered a few years back, which can generate power with much less heat.

"This assessment of geothermal potential will only improve with time," said Blackwell. "Our study assumes that we tap only a small fraction of the available stored heat in the Earth's crust, and our capabilities to capture that heat are expected to grow substantially as we improve upon the energy conversion and exploitation factors through technological advances and improved techniques."

We now know that potentially exploitable EGS resources can be found in all 50 U.S. states and countless regions around the globe as well, so it's only a matter of time before abundant clean energy begins to flow from tapping into that massive molten furnace churning below our feet.

"BGoogle and the SMU researchers are fundamentally changing the way we look at how we can use the heat of the Earth to meet our energy needs, and by doing so are making significant contributions to enhancing our national security and environmental quality," said Karl Gawell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association.

To view the new Enhanced Geothermal Systems maps constructed with SMU's data , go here to get the latest version of Google Earth, then download and open the file here.

........& the Sun goes down...it's down for You...-

2011-11-01T06:11:00.001+02:00

Complex organic matter discovered throughout the Universe

By Darren Quick

A spectrum from the Infrared Space Observatory superimposed on an image of the Orion Nebula where the complex organics are found

Arab Renewable Energy - www.greenpowerconferences.com
29-30 November 2011 Amman, Jordan

Ads by Google

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) claim to have solved the mystery of "Unidentified Infrared Emission features" that have been detected in stars, interstellar space, and galaxies. For over two decades, the most commonly accepted theory regarding this phenomenon was that these signatures come from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules - simple organic molecules made of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Now HKU researchers say the substances generating these signatures are actually complex organic compounds that are made naturally by stars and ejected into interstellar space.

The team of Prof. Sun Kwok and Dr. Yong Zhang used observations taken by the Infrared Space Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope of stardust formed in exploding stars called novae to show that the astronomical spectra contain a mixture of aromatic (ring-like) and aliphatic (chain-like) components that cannot be explained by PAH molecules.

"Our work has shown that stars have no problem making complex organic compounds under near-vacuum conditions," says Kwok. "Theoretically, this is impossible, but observationally we can see it happening."

As the organic stardust is similar in structure to complex organic compounds found in meteorites, the findings raise the possibility that stars enriched the early solar system with organic compounds. With the Earth being bombarded by comets and meteorites early in its life that could potentially have carried the organic stardust, there is a possibility that the seeds of life on Earth were sown by organic compounds created naturally by stars. If that turns out to be the case, it has obvious implications for the chances of life outside our solar system as the complex organic compounds exist throughout the Universe.

Kwok and Zhang's Paper, Mixed aromatic-aliphatic organic nanoparticles as carriers of unidentified infrared emission features is published this month in the journal

Gigapixels,...terapixel...Petapixel? U just need a huge memo card...

2011-10-11T18:45:00.000+03:00

Chinese manufacturer Penchan has done it! A 5.5 terapixel camera!

Katherine Hannaford

on February 20, 2011 Comments (9)

Who woulda thunk it? The Chinese company Penchan has developed a camera with a whopping 5.5 Terapixel resolution, or in layman's terms, 5,500,000 megapixels. Yes, really. We just got off the phone to Canon and Nikon and it's safe to say, they're petrified.
When we told Hasselblad about Penchan's new product, they vowed to get out of the industry as fast as their little Swedish legs could carry them.
But, to obviously soften the blow to their competitors, they encased it in a powder blue cover and painted a little penguin on. Those darlings, they really *do* care about their rivals' feelings.
(via Gearfuse)
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