Category Archives: STEM

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Open source software is key to transferring large amounts of data to us, quickly

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But, dig beneath the hood of this story—and the diagram included—and you’ll see another story. One that points to the key role of open source software in making this phenomenal mission work and the results available to so many, so quickly.

via Open source software is key to transferring large amounts of data to us, quickly | opensource.com.

Perhaps the most important piece of this high-demand configuration, GlusterFS is an open source, distributed file system capable of scaling to several petabytes (actually, 72 brontobites!) and handling thousands of clients. GlusterFS clusters together storage building blocks over Infiniband RDMA or TCP/IP interconnect, aggregating disk and memory resources and managing data in a single global namespace.

Fabbing a chip that could encode data in a twisted vortex of light

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Photons possess a number of quantum properties that can be used to encode information. You can think of photon polarization as like the rotation of a planet on its axis. In this view, the helical shape of the light wave—known as its orbital angular momentum (OAM)—is akin to the planet’s orbit around the Sun. These properties are independent of each other, and of the wavelength of light, so they can be manipulated separately. Whereas polarization occurs as a combination of two possible orientations, the OAM theoretically can have infinite values, though in practice far fewer states are available. Nevertheless, exploiting OAM greatly expands the potentially exploitable quantum states of photons we could put to use.

via Fabbing a chip that could encode data in a twisted vortex of light | Ars Technica.

Why We Need a Supercomputer on the Moon

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Ouliang Chang floated his lunar supercomputer idea a few weeks ago at a space conference in Pasadena, California. The plan is to bury a massive machine in a deep dark crater, on the side of the moon that’s facing away from Earth and all of its electromagnetic chatter. Nuclear-powered, it would process data for space missions and slingshot Earth’s Deep Space Network into a brand new moon-centric era.

via Why We Need a Supercomputer on the Moon | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com.

Clearly, the business of dreaming up supercomputers in space is not for those who think small.

SpaceX’s first ISS supply mission is a success

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The SpaceX Dragon capsule has been successfully grabbed by the International Space Station, marking the first time a private American space flight has run a supply mission to the orbiting platform. The crew of the ISS snatched Dragon out of orbit ahead of schedule, using the space station’s robotic arm to guide the capsule in after its careful approach.

via Dragon captured: SpaceX’s first ISS supply mission is a success – SlashGear.

Researchers create algorithms that help lithium-ion batteries charge two times faster

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Researchers at the University of California San Diego have devised new algorithms that can cut lithium-ion battery charge times in half, help cells run more efficiently and potentially cut production costs by 25 percent. Rather than tracking battery behavior and health with the traditional technique of monitoring current and voltage, the team’s mathematical models estimate where lithium ions are within cells for more precise data.

via Researchers create algorithms that help lithium-ion batteries charge two times faster — Engadget.

cHTeMeLe is a board game about HTML

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Despite cHTeMeLe’s technical theme, its developers claim you don’t need any web programming experience to play. The game takes web design standards and boils them down into game rules that even children can learn. To help less technical players keep everything straight, the tag cards use syntax highlighting that different parts of code have unique colors — just like an Integrated Developer Environment. No one is going to completely pick up HTML5 purely by playing cHTeMeLe, but it does have some educational value for understanding basic tags and how they fit together.

via cHTeMeLe is a board game about HTML – Video Games Reviews, Cheats | Geek.com.

That smooth SpaceX launch? Turns out one of the engines came apart

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The Falcon 9, as its name implies, has nine engines, and is designed to go to orbit if one of them fails. On-board computers will detect engine failure, cut the fuel supply, and then distribute the unused propellant to the remaining engines, allowing them to burn longer. This seems to be the case where that was required, and the computers came through. The engines are also built with protection to limit the damage in cases where a neighboring engine explodes, which appears to be the case here.

via That smooth SpaceX launch? Turns out one of the engines came apart | Ars Technica.

The CIA and Jeff Bezos Bet on Quantum Computing

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Artificial intelligence researchers at Google regularly log into a D-Wave computer over the Internet to try it out, and 2011 also saw the company sign its first customer. Defense contractor Lockheed Martin paid $10 million for a computer for research into automatically detecting software bugs in complex projects such as the delayed F-35 fighter (see “Tapping Quantum Effects for Software that Learns“). Questions remain about just how its technology works, but D-Wave says more evidence is forthcoming. It is readying an improved processor that Rose calls the company’s first true product rather than a piece of research equipment. D-Wave is expected to announce other major customers in coming months.

via The CIA and Jeff Bezos Bet on Quantum Computing – Technology Review.

“At an engineering level they’ve put together a setup that’s impressive in various ways,” says Scott Aaronson, an MIT professor who studies the limits of quantum computation. “But in terms of the evidence that they’re solving problems using quantum mechanics faster than you could classically, I don’t think it’s there yet.” A fierce critic of D-Wave in the years following its 2007 demo, Aaronson softened his stance last year after the company’s Nature paper showing quantum effects. “In the past there was an enormous gap between the marketing claims and where the science was and that’s come down, but there’s still a gap,” says Aaronson, who visited the company’s labs in February. “The burden of proof is on them and they haven’t met the burden yet.”

Highly charged – the US Navy’s electromagnetic railgun programme

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Railguns consist of two parallel metal rails, between which a projectile held in an armature is loaded, completing a circuit between them. A massive electrical current of the order of one million amperes is applied, creating an electromagnetic field, which in turn produces a force that accelerates the projectile along the rails.

via Highly charged – the US Navy’s electromagnetic railgun programme – Naval Technology.

Railgun projectiles are generally non-explosive, relying on their enormous speed to destroy the target and thus reducing the risk of a fire on board a ship, and comparatively small and lightweight, so they can be more readily transported and stored. The kinetic energy they deliver could do as much damage as a Tomahawk missile, enabling them to travel clean through a ship.

Kinetic Energy = 1/2 * mass * velocity squared.   KE=1/2mv^2