Monday is here one more time and the opportunity for science talk is here once again. Time to brighten your day with selections from science sites across the globe. New discoveries, new takes on old knowledge, and other bits of news are all available for the perusing in today's information world. Today's tidbits include using matter to tell time, new earthquake models show that 'stable' zones could contribute to the generation of massive earthquakes, NASA's GALEX reveals largest known spiral galaxy, and a new material harvests energy from water vapor.
Pull up that comfy chair and grab a spot near the fire. There is always plenty of room for everyone. Another session of Dr. Possum's science education, entertainment, and potluck discussion is set to begin.
Featured Stories
Who would have thought a rock could serve as a matter source and become a clock?
Taking advantage of the fact that, in nature, matter can be both a particle and a wave, he (researcher Miller) has discovered a way to tell time by counting the oscillations of a matter wave. A matter wave’s frequency is 10 billion times higher than that of visible light.
(snip)
...(the rock clock is) still 100 million times less precise than today’s best atomic clocks, which employ aluminum ions, improvements in the technique could boost its precision to that of atomic clocks, including the cesium clocks now used to define the second.
Conventional thought suggests fault slip is a slow but continuous process leading in the end to breakage and an
earthquake but this may not be the whole story.
... supposedly stable segments can behave differently when an earthquake rupture penetrates into them. Instead of arresting the rupture as expected, they can actually join in and hence make earthquakes much larger than anticipated.
The
giant barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 is about five times the size of or own Milky Way.
The galaxy's unusual size and appearance stem from its interaction with a much smaller disk galaxy named IC 4970, which has only about one-fifth the mass of NGC 6872. The odd couple is located 212 million light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Pavo.
Astronomers think large galaxies, including our own, grew through mergers and acquisitions -- assembling over billions of years by absorbing numerous smaller systems.
Intriguingly, the gravitational interaction of NGC 6872 and IC 4970 may have done the opposite, spawning what may develop into a new small galaxy.
Engineers have created a new polymer film which may be used to harness
energy from water vapor.
The new material changes its shape after absorbing tiny amounts of evaporated water, allowing it to repeatedly curl up and down. Harnessing this continuous motion could drive robotic limbs or generate enough electricity to power micro- and nanoelectronic devices, such as environmental sensors.
(snip)
The new film is made from an interlocking network of two different polymers. One of the polymers, polypyrrole, forms a hard but flexible matrix that provides structural support. The other polymer, polyol-borate, is a soft gel that swells when it absorbs water.
Previous efforts to make water-responsive films have used only polypyrrole, which shows a much weaker response on its own.
Knucklehead's Photo of the Week
Hawkfish
Assorted corals
©Knucklehead, all rights reserved, presented by permission. (Click on the image to see more in the same series.)
Other Worthy Stories of the Week
Galactic pile up may point to mysterious new dark force in the universe
Massive outburst in neighbor galaxy surprises astronomers
Detecting dusty clouds and stars in our galaxy in a new way
Mixed forests are more productive than monocultures
Invading species can extinguish native plants
Broken skateboards become wooden sculptures
Listen live to whale songs from Hawaii
Astronomers spot the biggest structure in the universe
Spacetime: A smoother brew than we knew
NASA telescopes see weather patterns in brown dwarf
Sofia spots recent starburst in Milky Way's center
Salinization of rivers: A global environmental problem
Graphene oxide soaks up radioactive waste
For even more science news:
General Science Collectors:
Alpha-Galileo
BBC News Science and Environment
Eureka Science News
LiveScience
New Scientist
PhysOrg.com
SciDev.net
Science/AAAS
Science Alert
Science Centric
Science Daily
Scientific American
Space Daily
Blogs:
Cantauri Dreams space exploration
Coctail Party Physics Physics with a twist.
Deep Sea News marine biology
List of Geoscience Blogs
Science20.com
ScienceBlogs
Space Review
Science Insider
Scientific Blogging.
Space.com
Techonology Review
Tetrapod Zoology vertebrate paleontology
Wired News
Science RSS Feed: Medworm
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe--a combination of hard science and debunking crap
At Daily Kos:
This Week in Science by DarkSyde
Overnight News Digest:Science Saturday by Neon Vincent. OND tech Thursday by rfall.
Pique the Geek by Translator Sunday evenings about 9 Eastern time
All diaries with the DK GreenRoots Tag.
Astro Kos
SciTech at Dkos.
NASA picture of the day. For more see the NASA image gallery or the Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive
Spiral Galaxy IC342, NASA, Public Domain