Amazing Science

The study of extrasolar planets has recently entered its heyday with the launch of NASA's Kepler mission. Kepler has found that planetary systems are very common in our galaxy. Along the way, we've been surprised by the diversity of planetary systems, many of which bear little resemblance to our own solar system. Josh Carter presents these most alien of alien worlds, including planets orbiting two suns and a planetary system with two very different planets very close to one another.

Series from Channel 4 featuring Sir Martin Rees.

There is a fundamental chasm in our understanding of ourselves, the universe, and everything. To solve this, Sir Martin takes us on a mind-boggling journey through multiple universes to post-biological life. On the way we learn of the disturbing possibility that we could be the product of someone elses experiment.

Robbert Dijkgraaf's focus is on string theory, quantum gravity, and the interface between mathematics and particle physics, bringing them together in an accessible way, looking at sciences, the arts and other matters.

This video shows never-before seen footage of a deep-sea angler fish, Chaunacops coloratus. The video is based on recent work by scientists at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The video seen here was recorded by MBARI's ROV Doc Ricketts at depths of 7,800 - 10,800 feet below the ocean's surface.

The dynamics and molecular shapes were based on X-ray crystallographic models and other published scientific data sets. Leading scientists, including many Nobel Laureates, critiqued the animations during their development. Particular effort was made to ensure the relative shapes, sizes and 'real-time' dynamics were as accurate as possible.

Professor Susskind presents an explanation of what the Higgs mechanism is, and what it means to "give mass to particles." He also explains what's at stake for the future of physics and cosmology.

Lecturer: Stuart Pimm, Duke University, USA "Taxonomy, Biodiversity & Beyond: Global Change Science & Society", A scientific meeting that was held at the Tel Aviv University

Ramesh Raskar presents femto-photography, a new type of imaging so fast it visualizes the world one trillion frames per second, so detailed it shows light itself in motion. This technology may someday be used to build cameras that can look "around" corners or see inside the body without X-rays.

Berkeley Lab scientists reveal how nanoscience will bring us cleaner energy, faster computers, and improved medicine.

Alex Weber-Bargioni: How can we see things at the nanoscale? Alex is pioneering new methods that provide unprecedented insight into nanoscale materials and molecular interactions. The goal is to create rules for building nanoscale materials.

Babak Sanii: Nature is an expert at making nanoscale devices such as proteins. Babak is developing ways to see these biological widgets, which could help scientists develop synthetic devices that mimic the best that nature has to offer.

Ting Xu: How are we going to make nanoscale devices? A future in which materials and devices are able to assemble themselves may not be that far down the road. Ting is finding ways to induce a wide range of nanoscopic building blocks to assemble into complex structures.

In outlining various paths to a technological Singularity, Vinge believes scenario based planning is incredibly important when outcomes are uncertain. It gives you a system of symptoms to watch for, so you can plan responses for different sets of symptoms. If you are doing scenario based planning, having a science fiction writer as a loose canon in your next meeting may shake up the committee in a positive way.

Vinge’s scenarios for how humanity could get to a tech singularity are as follows:

1. Pure Artificial Intelligence: The advent of an intelligent superhuman computer.

2. Intelligence Amplification: Take a natural mind, interface it with a computer and make it smarter (popular science fiction author David Brin calls the computer a neo-neo cortex; the machine part allows us to be smart, and the human part provides us with the component we’re good at: wanting things).

3. Computer Networks + Humanity: A phenomenon he calls “groupmind” or social networking, where we achieve superhuman intelligence (at least a functional sort – proceeding at a more robust rate than the others) through coordinated group efforts. An example of this would be Wikipedia.

4. Digital Gaia: A world with ubiquitous microprocessors able to communicate with their neighbors: if every physical object knew what it was, where it was, and could communicate with any other device, the result could be one where the world itself wakes up and becomes its own database.

5. Biomedical improvements in human intelligence lead to better memory and other changes.

How do galaxies like our Milky Way form? Since our universe moves too slowly to watch, faster-moving computer simulations are created to help find out. Green depicts (mostly) hydrogen gas in the above movie, while time is shown in billions of years since the Big Bang on the lower right. Pervasive dark matter is present but not shown. As the simulation begins, ambient gas falls into and accumulates in regions of relatively high gravity. Soon numerous proto-galaxies form, spin, and begin to merge. After about four billion years, a well-defined center materializes that dominates a region about 100,000 light-years across and starts looking like a modern disk galaxy. After a few billion more years, however, this early galaxy collides with another, all while streams of gas from other mergers rain down on this strange and fascinating cosmic dance. As the simulation reaches half the current age of the universe, a single larger disk develops. Even so, gas blobs -- some representing small satellite galaxies -- fall into and become absorbed by the rotating galaxy as the present epoch is reached and the movie ends. For our Milky Way Galaxy, however, big mergers may not be over -- recent evidence indicates that our large spiral disk Galaxy will collide and coalesce with the slightly larger Andromeda spiral disk galaxy in the next few billion years.

Ingesting too much silver can turn the skin blue and new research suggests the process is similar to developing black-and-white photographs. Scientists have known for years that the condition, called argyria, had something to do with silver. The condition has been documented in people who (ill-advisedly) drink antimicrobial health tonics containing silver nanoparticles and in people who have had extensive medical treatments involving silver.

Tissue samples from patients showed silver particles actually lodged deep in the skin, but it wasn’t clear how they got there. “It’s the first conceptual model giving the whole picture of how one develops this condition,” says Robert Hurt, professor of engineering at Brown University and a members of the research team. “What’s interesting here is that the particles someone ingests aren’t the particles that ultimately cause the disorder.”

A new projector allows floating 3D objects – from a model of the heart to a talking human head – to be viewed from any angle.

The RayModeler prototype, developed by Sony, is on display for the first time in the UK at an exhibit at the British Library, London, called Growing Knowledge. The device creates 3D images that viewers can see from all angles without stereoscopic glasses. Sensors that recognise gestures allow it to be spun around when you wave your hand in the desired direction.

The system can recreate both static and moving objects. A static object can be captured on a turntable with a single camera, whereas many cameras are needed to capture motion. The shots are transformed into 360 images to be displayed by an LED light source in the system.

The library is featuring the display because it could be a powerful tool for researchers. "It has clear applications in anatomy and physiology," says Aleks Krotoski, researcher-in-residence at the British Library. "If you have an MRI scan you could look at it closely in 3D and manipulate it."

http://tinyurl.com/cg76hfa

Helium-3 (He-3) is a light, non-radioactive isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron. The Perfect Fuel of the Future. The abundance of helium-3 is thought to be greater on the Moon (embedded in the upper layer of regolith by the solar wind over billions of years) and the solar system's gas giants (left over from the original solar nebula), though still low in quantity (28 ppm of lunar regolith is helium-4 and from 0.01 ppm to 0.05 ppm is helium-3).

This video captures an extremely special event. That chartreuse green insect is unfurling from its little egg to add to a slowly swelling captive population of Lord Howe Island stick insects – one of the rarest, and largest, insects in the world – at the Melbourne Zoo in Australia. It will grow up to be a flightless, nocturnal insect that stretches up to 12 cm long, its solid, shiny black or rust-coloured body weighing up to 25 grams.

This is the introductory class for biophotonics with an overview of the UC Davis Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology. It is taught by Marco Molinaro, chief education officer for the center, and James Shackelford, director of the UC Davis Integrated Studies Program and a professor of chemical engineering and materials science.

This is a documentary about a boy (Ben Underwood) who has taught himself to use echo location to navigate around the world. Ben Underwood is blind, but has managed to do some truly extraordinary feats.