Media Event As a Various Science

By Jill T Frey
Science

One need not make any extensive surveys of different media to provide evidence for this failure. It is enough to see how sports has managed to gain more coverage in various media over the last few decades vis-a-vis science.

One may argue that this is so because there are always some sports events occurring all over the world which naturally draw the attention of media.

But contention here is that scientific activity, scientific community and laboratories all over the world can also be turned into what are called ‘media events’ if enough pains are taken by science communicators to achieve this status for science. First and foremost it will require the maximum cooperation of scientists.

For instance, anniversaries of scientists, institutes, organisations and societies, including the World Health Day, etc., can be celebrated; discussions and debates with the concerned scientists organised; and doors of concerned laboratories and organisations thrown … Read the rest

Satellites play chase to measure gravity, achieve picometer accuracy

Satellites play chase to measure gravity, achieve picometer accuracy

By Jill T Frey
GRACE / gravitational wave detectors / low-earth orbit satellites / Science

Enlarge (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The spinoffs from gravitational wave detectors are not just new scientific discoveries. The technology also has other uses. A good example of this is the gravity-measuring mission, GRACE Follow On, which was launched last year. The first reports on its laser rangefinder’s performance have been released, and it makes for impressive reading.

Gravitational wave detectors work by measuring tiny changes in the distance between two mirrors. Ripples in space-time cause a tiny oscillation in that distance, which is then detected by comparing the phase shift between light that has traveled between the two mirrors and light that has traveled along a path that was unaffected by the gravitational wave. To put it in perspective, a gravitational wave detector measures changes that are far smaller than the diameter of an atom and are more like the diameter of a single proton.

The gravity of GRACE

Similar technology

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Christopher Columbus Kraft, NASA’s legendary flight director, has died

Christopher Columbus Kraft, NASA’s legendary flight director, has died

By Jill T Frey
Science

  • Chris Kraft, left, and Robert Gilruth monitor the launch of Apollo 5 in 1968. [credit:
    NASA ]

Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr.—one of NASA’s founding engineers, its first flight director, and a key architect of the Apollo and space shuttle programs—has died at the age of 95.

Back during the earliest days of NASA, the head of the agency’s Space Task Group, Robert Gilruth, assigned Kraft the job of drawing up rules and procedures for safely managing the flight of a human into space, through the great blackness, and back to the ground. Kraft was to do all of this without the aid of a calculator or sophisticated computer and without any reference material. And he had to hurry, because the Soviet Union had already taken a big lead in the Space Race.

Over time, the work Kraft did in writing those rules, as well as hiring a talented team of

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With a launch and a hop coming up, SpaceX has a big week ahead

With a launch and a hop coming up, SpaceX has a big week ahead

By Jill T Frey
Science

  • SpaceX has been assembling a Starship prototype in South Texas. This gallery highlights a recent static fire test. [credit:
    Trevor Mahlmann for Ars ]

This is a big week for SpaceX, which has an important Falcon 9 launch for NASA taking place from Florida and probably a key test flight in Texas as well.

On Wednesday, SpaceX is scheduled to attempt its ninth launch of 2019: a cargo supply mission to the International Space Station. The Dragon spacecraft will ferry about 2.5 metric tons of supplies, science experiments, and equipment to the orbiting laboratory. This will be the 18th supply mission SpaceX has flown for NASA.

With a static fire of the Falcon 9 rocket already complete, liftoff is presently scheduled for 6:24pm ET (22:24 UTC) Wednesday from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The weather forecast is not great, however, with a 70

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Silicon LED created by buzzing surface with high-speed electrons 

Silicon LED created by buzzing surface with high-speed electrons 

By Jill T Frey
CMOS / free electron lasers / light emitting diodes / Science / silicon lasers / silicon photonics

Enlarge / If only controlling electron behavior was as easy as building atom illustrations out of children’s toys… (credit: Japatino / Getty Images)

A long time ago, in a place not so far away, I used to believe that future lasers and optics would knock electronics into a tin hat. Yet silicon electronics still dominate all forms of computation and integrated circuit technology. The only place where optics rules is in communication, but even there, the extent of optic’s kingdom is limited.

For optics to really be useful, it needs to be based on the same technology as electronic integrated circuits: complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS). Therein lies the problem—there are no light sources that are CMOS compatible. New research, involving bar-buzzing electrons, may create a future for silicon light sources, but only if some fairly fundamental problems are solved.

Silicon’s dark secret

Light-emitting diodes are as cheap as chips,

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India has launched an ambitious mission to the Moon

India has launched an ambitious mission to the Moon

By Jill T Frey
Science

Enlarge / India’s GSLV Mark III rocket is seen on the launch pad with its lunar payload. (credit: ISRO)

On Monday, an Indian rocket launched a spacecraft bound for the Moon from Sriharikota, a barrier island off the Bay of Bengal coast. This Chandrayaan-2 mission is the second spacecraft India has sent to the Moon, and it represents a significant effort to explore the lunar surface and its potential as a source for water ice.

The GSLV Mark III rocket lifted off Monday after an eight-day delay due to a technical issue, and the launch proceeded normally. “Today is a historical day for space and science and technology in India,” K. Sivan, chair of the Indian Space Research Organization, said after the launch. “I’m extremely happy to announce that GSLV Mark III successfully injected Chandrayaan-2 into the defined orbit.”

Although this is India’s most powerful rocket, the GSLV vehicle only

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The Greatest Leap, part 6: After Apollo, NASA still searching for an encore

The Greatest Leap, part 6: After Apollo, NASA still searching for an encore

By Jill T Frey
Science

Video shot by Joshua Ballinger, edited and produced by Jing Niu and David Minick. Click here for transcript. (video link)

And then it was all over.

After the drama of Apollo 13, the final four human missions to the Moon in 1971 and 1972 flew smoothly. With each successive, increasingly routine landing, astronauts made longer forays out onto the dusty lunar terrain and delved deeper into the scientific secrets hidden there.

Read 60 remaining paragraphs | … Read the rest

Amazon warns customers: Those supplements might be fake

Amazon warns customers: Those supplements might be fake

By Jill T Frey
Science / Tech

Enlarge (credit: Getty | John Greim)

On the second evening of Prime Day, Amazon’s annual sales bonanza, Anne Marie Bressler received an email from Amazon that had nothing to do with the latest deals. The message, sent from an automated email address Tuesday, informed her that the Align nutritional supplements she ordered two weeks earlier were probably counterfeit. “If you still have this product, we recommend that you stop using it immediately and dispose of the item,” the email reads, adding that she would be receiving a full refund. It’s not clear how many other customers may have purchased the fake supplements. Amazon confirmed that it sent out the email but declined to specify the number of customers impacted.

For years, Amazon has battled third-party sellers who list knockoffs of everything from iPhone charging cables to soccer jerseys on its site. Nutritional supplements are another popular target for

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Watch this paper doll do sit-ups thanks to new kind of “artificial muscle”

Watch this paper doll do sit-ups thanks to new kind of “artificial muscle”

By Jill T Frey
artificial muscles / chemistry / materials science / Science

A new twist on a special kind of polymer is what enables this paper doll to do calisthenics.

A new twist on lightweight organic materials shows promise for artificial-muscle applications. Chinese scientists spiked a crystalline organic material with a polymer to make it more flexible. They reported their findings in a new paper in ACS Central Science, demonstrating proof of concept by using their material to make an aluminum foil paper doll do sit-ups.

There’s a lot of active research on developing better artificial muscles—manmade materials, actuators, or similar devices that mimic the contraction, expansion, and rotation (torque) characteristic of the movement of natural muscle. And small wonder, since they could be useful in a dizzying range of potential applications: robots, prosthetic limbs, powered exoskeletons, toys, wearable electronics, haptic interfaces, vehicles, and miniature medical devices, to name just a few. Most artificial muscles are designed to respond to

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The Greatest Leap, part 5: Saving the crew of Apollo 13

The Greatest Leap, part 5: Saving the crew of Apollo 13

By Jill T Frey
apollo / apollo the greatest leap / NASA / Science / space

Video shot by Joshua Ballinger, edited and produced by Jing Niu and David Minick. Click here for transcript.

As Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise floated in the tunnel snaking between the Lunar Module and Command Module, he heard—and felt—a loud bang. Around him, the two vehicles began to contort. Then, the metal walls of the tunnel crinkled as the spacecraft shuddered.

Wide-eyed, Haise scrambled from the tunnel into the Command Module alongside Jack Swigert and

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