Very neat concept. I have seen quite a few robots that can walk around and such but all of them need a flat foot to get the job done. With a roller for a foot you can’t rely on static stability. Cool.
RABBIT robot
Category: Science
Amazing Space Shuttle Photos
Mummm…. Space Shuttle photos taken with a Nikon D2X. I love a camera with good dynamic range!
The D2X is sweet. Thanks to Nikon and (Palo Alto’s) Keeble & Schuchat, mine arrived in time for last week’s trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to photograph the roll out of space shuttle Discovery from the VAB to the launch pad. Tiny web-sized images do not do the camera justice, but the 11″x17″ prints that I have here are testament to the great capability of the camera to record detail in scenes requiring variously: high dynamic range and long exposures at low light levels. Here are a few examples…
D2X at NASA KSC: Nikon D100/D1/D2 Forum: Digital Photography Review
Table Top Experement Produces Neutrons!
Physicists in the US have generated nuclear fusion in a simple, table-top device operating at room temperature. The device, built by Brian Naranjo, Jim Gimzewski and Seth Putterman at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), causes two deuterium nuclei to collide with each other and generate alpha particles, neutrons and energy (Nature 434 1115). The device could have applications as a portable neutron generator or in the propulsion systems for miniature spacecraft, but will not be useful as an energy source because it consumes more energy than it produces.
The experimental set-up consists of a centimetre-sized cylindrical crystal of lithium tantalate (LiTaO) surrounded by deuterium gas. This material is pryoelectric, which means that positive and negative charges build up on opposite faces of the crystal when it is heated. This creates an electric field that is high enough to ionize any deuterium atoms that stray near a tiny tungsten tip attached to the positively charged surface. These deuterium ions get repelled from the surface and are accelerated by the field towards an erbium deuteride target, where the fusion reactions take place.
Fusion seen in table-top experiment
Video and Images
Chip-scale Refrigerators Cool Bulk Objects
Chip-scale Refrigerators Cool Bulk Objects
(Agent Greg gets a cold one for this entry.)
Nuclear Science Center at Texas A&M University
Texas A&M rocks! Where else can you tour a nuclear reactor? Sounds like just about the only things you don’t get to do it juggle fuel rods and swim in the reactor pool! Texas is looking like a better vacation spot every day…
When operating, the reactor gives off a blue glow known as Cherenkov Radiation.
When an intense radioactive source ejects high-energy charged particles into a transparent material such as water, plastic, or glass, a ghostly bluish glow extending some distance into the medium can be seen. This phenomenon is easily observed when a room containing a swimming pool reactor or a gamma facility is darkened. [Ours is intense enough that our facility does not need darkening to be able to view this phenomenon.]
Nuclear Science Center at Texas A&M University
Farnsworth-Hirsch Fusor
I added some photos of a Farnsworth Fusor demo that I attended a number of years ago to my gallery pages.
What is a ‘Fusor’ you ask? Wikipedia says it best:
It was fascinating to see this in action, even if it wasn’t producing neutrons. That was probably for the best, I doubt the glass would have stopped them very well. I was pretty close and I doubt my camera would have provided much shielding either.
Farnsworth Gallery