Science

Linux Symposium. Statistics and perspectives

admin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:45:32 -0700

The 8th annual Ottawa Linux Symposium (OLS) kicked off Wednesday in Ottawa, Canada at the Ottawa Congress Centre. Jonathan Corbet, co-founder of Linux Weekly News, opened the symposium with The Kernel Report, an update on the state of the kernel since last year.

Corbet started his talk with a brief recap of the Linux kernel development process. According to Corbet, Linux kernels are now on a two- to three-month release cycle. The current Linux kernel version is 2.6.17.6, with 2.6.17.7 expected shortly. All 2.6.x kernels are major releases, with 2.6.x.y kernels being bug-fix releases.

Corbet says that there will not be a 2.7 kernel tree for the foreseeable future, not until there is a major, earth-shattering change that will break everything -- and thereby require an unstable kernel tree.

New Futuristic Spacesuits Created for NASA

vova — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:13:17 -0700

According NASA officials the next generation spacesuits are going to be developed by a company called Oceaneering International Inc. It is interesting to note that Oceaneering is famous for creating products for oil and gas industry and providing services for deep water operations.

NASA beat out Exploration Systems and Technology, which is a company owned by ILC and Hamilton Sundstrand. The later is a subsidiary of United Technologies and it has been the main contractor for creating spacesuits for Houston-based company since 1960s.

Achievement of nanotechnologies: Heavy-duty and supereasy cable for a space elevator

vova — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:36:05 -0700

According to a report in New Scientist, Nicola Pugno of the Polytechnic of Turin in Italy has calculated how many nanotubes would be needed to support a person, taking into account small defects that develop in the tubes during manufacture.

When held 5 micrometres apart, to keep them invisible, they would form a cable only 1 centimetre in diameter weighing a mere 10 milligrams per kilometre.

NASA's New Telescope to Spot Universe's Violent Events

vova — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:05:43 -0700

Today NASA's Glast mission is going to launch a space telescope the goal of which is to spot the most violent events that take place in the universe. The telescope will be launched from Cape Canaveral air force station, located in Florida.

NASA hopes its new mission will help search the universe for gamma rays. It is worth mentioning that the gamma rays are emitted by the black holes, as well as amalgamation of neutron stars and streams of hot gas that travel through the universe at enormous speeds.

The new observatory costs $690 million and it is expected to take images of the gamma rays, thus providing answers about the source of cosmic rays, as well as the answer to how black holes are able to accelerate huge jets of material to a speed that is close to the speed of light.

NASA Astronauts to Complete the Final Task at the Space Lab

vova — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:06:54 -0700

A number of tasks for the newest laboratory on the international space station were to be performed today by the astronauts from space shuttle Discovery. They had to fully extend the 33-foot robotic arm (the cost of which is about $1 billion). It is worth mentioning that the robotic arm has already been moved on Saturday, but only a little.

"They will do a series of motions. It will practically extend all the way out," mentioned flight director Annette Hasbrook.

Lost tribe from Amazon

vova — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:21:09 -0700

Dramatic photographs have emerged of one of the few remaining peoples on earth who are thought to have had no contact with the outside world.

Indians are photographed during an over flight in May 2008, as they react to the over flight at their camp.

Taken from a small airplane, the photos show men outside thatched communal huts, necks craned upward, pointing bows toward the air in a remote corner of the Amazonian rainforest.

Science: more black than black

vova — Mon, 26 May 2008 08:33:08 -0700

US researchers say they have made the darkest material on Earth, a substance so black it absorbs more than 99.9 per cent of light.

Made from tiny tubes of carbon standing on end, this material is almost 30 times darker than a carbon substance used by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology as the current benchmark of blackness.

And the material is close to the long-sought ideal black, which could absorb all colours of light and reflect none.

"All the light that goes in is basically absorbed," said Pulickel Ajayan, who led the research team at Rice University in Houston.

Willis E. Lamb dies at 94

vova — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:38:33 -0700

Willis E. Lamb Jr., a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work on the electron structure of the hydrogen atom revolutionized the quantum theory of matter, has died. He was 94.

Lamb died in a Tucson hospital from complications of a gallstone disorder May 15, according to an announcement from the University of Arizona, where he was professor emeritus of physics and optical sciences.

Lamb worked as a physicist at various universities from the late 1930s until retiring from the University of Arizona in 2002.

Lamb was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1955 for research he conducted while working at Columbia University's Columbia Radiation Laboratory.

High cholesterol risk

vova — Tue, 20 May 2008 07:54:07 -0700

Blood cholesterol is a risk factor for coronary artery disease and heart attack, so reducing your risk of high cholesterol is a worthy goal.

A smarter way of looking at cholesterol risk is by component.

However, the next time you brag that your cholesterol is nice and low -- or lament that your number is in the mid-200s -- know this:

Earthquake shacked China’s faith

vova — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:07:43 -0700

The first thing you notice about this small town in China's quake-devastated Sichuan province is that every building is standing except one: the primary school.

Bi Kaiwei rushed to his daughter's school, digging with his hands, desparately trying to find her.

As many as 200 children were killed here, crushed to death when three stories of concrete came crashing down.