Tag: Science

Tiny Unmanned Aircraft to Fly Into Hurricanes

Tiny aircraft to track storm dataWhat would you say if someone told you that they are going to fly their model  plane into a hurricane? Crazy right? That’s exactly what you would think but the bright lads over at the Aerosonde Corporation think it’s crazy not to. Each small airplane is equipped with scientific instruments that will monitor temperature, pressure, humidity and wind speeds inside the storm. This data will be transmitted back to a receiving station in real time as the tiny craft spirals into the eye of the storm and then back out. It’s hoped that such data will help NASA and NOAA better understand how these large storms develop in order to predict changes in hurricane intensity.

Tiny uncrewed aircraft to fly into hurricanes

Wired Nextfest 2006

NextFest2006-001

 

 

 

 

I had the happy accident of seeing a sign for the Wired Nextfest in a subway on Tuesday and made it one of the last things on the big list for NYC.
Holy crap, all the time I was there I kept thinking Roy Batty’s line from Blade Runner "I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…’ This was stuff that I had blogged about or read of in magazines…

Flickr photoset Wired Nextfest 2006 

Magnetohydrodynamic Projects

MHD projects If you have ever seen the submarine movie "The Hunt for Red October" you will remember that it’s big thing was the silent propulsion system. It used something called ‘magnetohydrodynamics‘, that is it used a powerful electro magnet to pull water through a pipe and squirt it out the back. Your thinking ‘water and magnets? Get real’ well it’s true, water, and may other fluid type things (solar wind, salt water…) can be manipulated with magnetic fields. Water is a substance that is diamagnetic, that means that it is magnetic in the presence of a magnetic field (read the Wikipedia article on it, it’s explained better there). Grab a super magnet and shallow plastic pan and fill it with a little water and see what it does.

Anyway, this is a little project where you can experiment with this fascinating subject. Go have a look and try it for yourself. You could be having races with your mad scientist friends in no time..

Three magnetohydrodynamic propulsion projects

Extra Drumsticks Anyone?

Mumm, mutant chicken! 

So this is actually a six limbed critter. How weird. Now, the thing that begs attention is if some scientist can cause this mutation at will. Drumbsticks are my favorite part of the bird so I’d win out big.

Ryan Dickey, 10, found the four-legged wonder legging it around an incubator at his Te Uku home on Monday.

Mum, Marlene, breeds 14 types of chickens and said it was the first time she’d seen one hatch with four legs.

The little clucker is a Barnevelder chicken, a Dutch breed, and Mrs Dickey said other lesser legged chicks had accepted it without a problem.

 

[via hemmy] 

It’s a rare feet

 

THAAD Missile Launch Out of White Sands

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This morning I spotted the vapor trail from a missile launch from White Sands New Mexico. The launch was part of a test for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system being tested by the US Army. For more information on viewing these launches check out the Space Archive web site. Brian does a bang up job at alerting people of these spectacular events.