In my spare time, I have often thought about powering my Marshall stack with a hydrogen bomb, but it seems I’ve been beaten to it by Andrew Murray, a physicist at the University of Manchester, UK., who has found a way to trap atoms using his old amps! Now, while this has obvious applications for stadium rock pyrotechnics shows, it may also help in the development of quantum computers.Previously scientists used a complex system of lasers and force fields (much like an Iron Maiden concert) in order to trap super-cooled atoms so they can be examined – very useful if you’re into your physics, but hard to do, and not terribly accurate. The solution? Use an old amp speaker instead! According to Murray:
“The alternating [magnetic] field can be used to trap atoms as long as we ensure that the laser beams change polarisation along with it,” says Murray. “We can switch the fields off about 300 to 500 times faster [than before].” That’s fast enough to ensure that the atoms have not had time to escape the trap when they are zapped with an electron beam.
Basically producing an instant, accurate atom-trap! Good news for physicists, and if can be adapted to hold punters still, then great news the next time I play a gig and the audience tries to leave!
After producing a clone of a mouse that has been dead for 16 years, scientists at Japan’s Riken institute hope to bring the Woolly Mammoth – everyone’s favourite hippy elephant – back to life.
“The newly developed technology of nucleus transfer greatly improved the possibility of reviving extinct animals”
Also, note animalS. I hope they bring back the Glyptodon. Because I really want to ride around on an armadillo the size of a VW. LINK (Breitbart)
Good news for anyone building a T-101 in their garage, it seems that science types from, of all places, Bristol, have created a robotic head that can accurately mimic human facial expressions. Now, I’m not sure why this is a good thing, and neither it seems, are the people building it:
“Research has shown that if you have a robot that has many human-like features, then people might actually react negatively towards it,” agrees Kerstin Dautenhahn, a robotics researcher at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, who calls Jules’ copycat routine “very impressive”.
After studying the video footage however, we’ve noticed that the main facial expression mimicked here seems to be ‘cumming’, meaning that we are edging ever closer to making those silver girls from the cover of ‘Omni‘ magazine a reality! (Note:If you ever own anything like this, and are tempted, try to visualise a small zucchini being lowered into a blender until the urge goes away)
It’s November. Now, this is officially the most boring fucking month since Februaury, when we all get colds and feel all wimpy because we just want to hide in bed until the sun comes back. Well, if you’re suffering from an absence of interest then it’s time to do something about it- thats right, it’s Tache time again! As we all know, true manly men are encouraged at this time of year to grow an abominate 70s style monstrosity on their top lip. Now, apparently this is to raise awareness of prostate cancer, but if you ask me it just raises awareness of how awesome cool a big furry tache can be! I myself am of the ginger persuasion, so I’m taking the opportunity to get that ‘Handle Bar’ look popularised in top 80s cartoon ‘Bravestarr’. You however, may wish to err more on the Ron Burgandy side of things. Whatever, get growing wimps!
PS:Don’t worry, I won’t be documenting my growth on here- that would be ridiculous…
Every 8 or so minutes a portal will form between the Earth and the Sun and tons of high energy particles will flow through it. Is it just me, or is that really fucking cool?! An actual portal. Amazing. It even has a wicked-cool sci fi name – a ‘Flux-Transfer Event.’
Scientists didn’t think they existed until 10 years ago, but now they know there is probably one happening above your head right now.
Particles in Earth’s magnetosphere that were first thought to travel to Earth via solar wind are now known to arrive through these portals.
Even in our boring patch on the Universe, something amazing is happening, right now. LINK (NASA)
