WcP.Scientific.Mind's blog

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Speedy flip in Earth's magnetic field could cause trillions in damage, scientists warn
A new study of previous reversals of Earth's magnetic field has found a rapid shift occurred within two centuries — a discovery that has prompted researchers to warn of a potential dire scenario.

According to a team of international scientists, including from the Australian National University (ANU), such an event in the future would increase our planet's exposure to the Sun's radiation, and could cause trillions of dollars in damage by decimating power and communications systems across the globe.

The Earth has a magnetic field that scientists believe is generated by motion in the planet's core. It's what gives us our north and south poles and powers compasses.

We've known for more than a century that our planet's magnetic field has been weakening at a rate of about five per cent a century, prompting concerns that the Earth's magnetic poles could soon flip - an event that could have potentially disastrous results for life on Earth.

From the electrical grids that power our computers to the satellites that let us watch TV, many facets of our lives depend on the Earth's magnetic field. It also acts like an invisible force field protecting Earth from solar winds and harmful cosmic radiation.

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Image courtesy New Zealand Herald

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HOUSTON: a new study finds that consuming full-fat dairy products - including cheese, yogurt, and butter - likely won’t play a role in sending you to the grave any sooner.
Researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston say that not only are dairy fats not linked to the development of heart disease or stroke, it turns out they may actually help prevent people from suffering a severe stroke.

"Our findings not only support, but also significantly strengthen, the growing body of evidence which suggests that dairy fat, contrary to popular belief, does not increase risk of heart disease or overall mortality in older adults," says Marcia Otto, the study’s first author and an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences at the university, in a media release.

"In addition to not contributing to death, the results suggest that one fatty acid present in dairy may lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, particularly from stroke," says Otto. That fatty acid, known as heptadecanoic acid, led the researchers to conclude that people who show higher fatty acids levels - particularly from full-fat dairy products - had a 42 percent lower chance of death due to a stroke.

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Photo courtesy Iron Man Magazine

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Not even James Bond had an Aston Martin like this.
The British sports car maker revealed a concept version of a flying car, the Volante Vision Concept, at the Farnborough Airshow this week.
Aston Martin has billed the futuristic vehicle as a luxury car for the skies. The autonomous hybrid-electric vehicle, which has room for three passengers, is designed for urban and inter-city travel, the company said. It’s also capable of vertical take-offs and landings. The vehicle could fly at top speeds of around 200 miles per hour, according to Reuters.

Aston Martin unveiled the Volante Vision flying car concept on July 16. Like many other personal air-transportation concepts, the Volante Vision utilizes vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) technology, so it can land on a dime in tight urban areas. It packs hybrid-electric power and is capable of autonomous flight (as far as concepts are capable of anything).

This is the first time the British car brand, traditionally known for its luxury sports cars, has ventured into aircraft design.
Named after the Italian word for flying, the Volante was debuted on 16 July 2018 at the Farnborough Air Show, alongside other aircraft designs including Boeing's hypersonic aircraft concept.

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Image courtesy Aston Martin

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June 1, 2018 (formatted as 1/6/18 in many parts of the world) is Phi Day, a date that matches the first four digits of the golden ratio.

Represented by the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet, the golden ratio, which comes out to roughly 1.618 when rounded, is the number you get when you divide a line into two parts so that the longer part divided by the smaller part is the same as the total length divided by the longer part (or simplified: When the smaller is to the larger as the larger is to the whole).

The Pyramids at Giza, Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man," nautilus shells, sunflower seed heads, and spiral galaxies all feature the golden ratio.

The golden ratio is also closely related to the famous Fibonacci sequence. In this series of numbers beginning with zero or one, each subsequent number equals the sum of the previous two (i.e., 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc.). The ratio of any two successive numbers in this sequence comes very close to the golden ratio. Shapes made with Fibonacci dimensions are considered pleasing to the eye, which is why they so often appear in art, either unintentionally or by design.

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Image courtesy MSN / iStock

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The Volvo was in self-driving mode with a human backup driver at the wheel when it hit 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg as she was walking a bicycle outside the lines of a crosswalk, police said. She died at a hospital.

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Photo courtesy AP Photo / Eric Risberg

"It is not that I'm so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer."
- Albert Einstein

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Albert Einstein's Year of Miracles: Light Theory
Over a century ago today, 15 March 1905, Albert Einstein finished a scientific paper that would change the world. His radical insight into the nature of light would help transform Einstein from an unknown patent clerk to the genius at the center of 20th-century physics.

Scientists call 1905 Albert Einstein's annus mirabilis - his year of miracles. Within a few months, Einstein wrote a series of papers that would transform the way we see the universe. They included his theory of special relativity and the famous equation E=mc².

The first paper described his particle theory of light, which became one of the foundations of modern physics. Just as popular legend has it, Einstein really was a patent office clerk when he conceived his radical theories - but he was also a doctoral candidate who spent his free time debating cutting-edge physics with his friends.

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Photo courtesy Wikimedia

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18 Oct 2017 - First floating wind farm, built by offshore oil company, delivers electricity - Anchored, floating turbines allow offshore wind installations in deep waters.
The world’s first floating offshore wind farm began delivering electricity to the Scottish grid today.

The 30MW installation, situated 25km (15.5mi) from Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, will demonstrate that offshore wind energy can be harvested in deep waters, miles away from land, where installing giant turbines was once impractical or impossible. At peak capacity, the wind farm will produce enough electricity to power 20,000 Scottish homes.

The installation, called Hywind Scotland, is also interesting because it was built by Statoil, a Norwegian mega-corporation known for offshore oil drilling. Statoil has pursued offshore wind projects in recent years, using the company's experience building and managing infrastructure in difficult open sea conditions to its advantage.

Hywind Scotland began producing power in September, and today it starts delivering electricity to the Scottish grid.

The five 6MW turbines are the first commercial turbines to lack a firm attachment to the seafloor. The towers extend 176m (577ft) above the water and 78m (256ft) below it. Each tower is capable of pitching its blades to reduce unwanted motion and optimize power output depending on the wind direction and strength.  read more »