Google has expanded their online mapping service to include the planet Mars. Pretty cool being able to find the landing (sometimes crashing) spots of the probes that have been sent there.
Category: Science
Science For Lovers
With birth rates low, the Japanese government is looking to get into the match making game and at the same time get people interested in science. the new magazine ‘Science Walker’ will be added as an insert in the popular magazine ‘Tokyo Walker‘ (translated version here). The idea is that the science insert will give young couples more things to talk about. I don’t know if it will work but what do they have to lose? I know that if my girlfriend asked me what photosynthesis was or if I read about the latest JAXA mission was, I’d be out looking for a ring the next day.
[via Boingboing]
No Science For You!
This is quite sad. Another blow to amateur scientists everywhere:
The United States CPSC has initiated criminal legal action against us and other chemical suppliers. In short, the CPSC would like to ban the public from all access to chemicals. This would mean an end to hobbies such as model rocketry, pyrotechnics and of course chemistry. One by one, our freedoms are slowly being taken away from us – this action must be stopped now.
I suppose that in 15 years people in the US will look around themselves in their high security cities and wonder why all the equipment and technology is being sold to them by Chinese R&D labs. I suppose they won’t care because the call center jobs pay pretty well even if you do have to learn Mandarin to work there.
(There’s irony in there but the fedral government doesn’t want anyone to point it out.)
Boing Boing:US bans sale of chemicals to hobbyists without $1K license
Laughing Gas How-To From 1949
Mumm… Old science tutorials are the greatest. Back when the world was a simpler place, little Timmy Citizen was encouraged to explore the world of science via discoveries that he would make in his back yard laboratory himself, and not just by reading boring old facts from a text book. This is an extract from a 1949 issue of ‘Modren Mechanix’ that details the production of nitrous oxide.
But don’t go trying this at home these days kids, just having ammonium nitrate (the prime ingredient in this experiment) without the proper papers will get you jail time. You could be a druggie, or even a terrorist! So be happy to just read about how reactions and decomposition takes place from a book and know that your better off blindly taking their word for it that this is how things work. Think of it like reading a cook book but being forbidden from owning any food. I’m sure all the best cooks in the world got to be what they are by just reading and never touching the ingredients…
[via Boing Boing]
Transparent OLEDs
I’m looking forward to the time where organic LEDs are used like those annoying clock LCDs you see stuck in pens, clocks your get free with magazine susbscriptions, and mouse pads.
Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Potsdam are now studying ways to make OLEDs transparent, which will lead to a variety of new applications. While metal oxide coatings in earlier OLEDs made them opaque, researchers are investigating new transparent physical properties, as well as OLED and liquid crystal display hybrids.
I’m Not Dead yet..
That’s right kids and cadets, the SuitSat isn’t dead, its just keeping a low profile before it burns up. The reception has been ‘in the weeds’ for many people but it’s strong enough for people to copy bits of the transmission. SuitSat.org has reception reports from Hams around the world that have been able to make out what the oddball satellite has been saying.
ARRLWeb: "SuitSat-1" Alive, But Signal Weak; "Keep Listening!" ARISS Urges