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The Science Thread

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SirRumpole said:
Er no sorry, that type of video is one of my pet hates. Too much hype and trying to get ignorant/stupid people to understand wastes too much time. I'm sure it could be done a lot more efficiently.
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There is actually method to his madness, he did his PHD thesis one how to make films to teach physics.

What he learned is that when he made normal video simply explaining the facts, most veiwers that hold misconceptions on the topic zone out when questioned about the topic continue to hold the misconceptions.

In his thesis he showed his style of video, has the best chance of viewers picking up new information.

 
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pixel said:
, we have ASX-listed companies that apply themselves to solve problems and create saleable products.
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Yep, a lot of good science happens in private(non government) companies.

This little Gem is not part of Berkshire Hathaway, but it started out in 1928 with one patent and one product and grew it's self to the point Warren Buffett bought it for Billions.

 
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Very impressive. Have to have a look at his videos . I do like his style and his idea of how to present new information is a great teaching method.

Thanks
 
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The point is that many of the new science inventions like driverless cars contain chips running computer code.

I was asking how can we trust the software in these devices when giant corporations like Microsoft still write Operating Systems with errors, glitches or unforeseen side effects ?
 
basilio said:
I do like his style and his idea of how to present new information is a great teaching method.

Thanks
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This one is interesting, because all the people he interviews to find misconceptions are actually other scientists.

 
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The last video was "How" trees can get tall.

This one is "why" they got tall, it is an explanation of stable vs unstable systems also.

 
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My answer would be: Windoze tries to be all things to all people on all hardware using all kinds of external devices. Just consider how difficult - nay: impossible - it is to bring a mere hundred people to maintain a civil discussion on a contentious topic.

A driverless car doesn't run on windows. It uses a single-purpose chip with single-purpose software.
No, I'm not saying it's easy. But you can use a Windows-based program to make certain that every combination of inputs has been considered and leads to a defined outcome. Some of these outcomes may still result in damage, especially in cases of mechanical component failure, but you are dealing with a finite system that has a finite number of possible states. That makes it possible to ensure that every one of these states - no matter how large the number - results in a known outcome.
 

Easy fix. Just put a self-destruct function like they do in all them sci-fi movies.

Interesting these discussion. And there I was thinking it'd just be getting the car to drive from A to B and not hit things in front of it.
 
pixel said:
That makes it possible to ensure that every one of these states - no matter how large the number - results in a known outcome.
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I'll take your word for it but I find it hard to believe that every possible combination of circumstances could be considered with current technology.

Maybe they could do it with quantum computing but that's a different kettle of fish and we can't yet reduce quantum computers to the size of a fingernail.
 
Thought this link might be of interest.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/technology/a/31454537/cactus-skin-aids-electric-car-efficiency/

A cactus-inspired skin could hold the secret to creating a more efficient electric car.

That's the proposition from CSIRO and Korean scientists in a paper published in the scientific journal Nature on Thursday.

They've created a membrane that holds water like cactus, one they say has the potential to boost the performance of fuel cells in electric cars.

Currently electric cars must carry a power-sapping radiator, water reservoir and humidifier to ensure their fuel cells stay cool.

CSIRO researcher Cara Doherty says the membrane in the fuel cell works in a similar way to tiny pores in the skin of a cactus that close to conserve water in dry conditions and open at night to absorb moisture.

"The (membrane's) cracks widen when exposed to humidifying conditions, and close up when it is drier," she said.

"This means that fuel cells can remain hydrated without the need for bulky external humidifier equipment."

Professor Doherty says it makes the cells up to four times more efficient in hot and dry conditions.

The collaborative research could also be applied to existing technology including machines for water treatment and gas separation.
 
luutzu said:
That's too much gimmick for me.

Here's a better one.

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Here is more on the Sun.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/31465315/solar-flare-captured-by-nasa/#page1


NASA captures solar flare in mesmerising 4k video

Yahoo7
Published 9 hrs, 5 mins ago

Share

The US space agency, NASA, has released a stunning video of a solar flare earlier this month, which was reportedly so powerful it caused radio blackouts around the world.

The mid-level M-class flare was caught in high definition and makes for some incredible viewing thanks to NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

The video shows a series of images taken every 12 seconds across 10 different colour spectrums, showing the full range of radiation the sun throws out. Source: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
 
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luutzu said:
You guys don't have, and not planning to have, any nuclear power station down there right?
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No chance of that. Couldn't afford it for a start.

But remote control of hydro stations is a pretty old idea now. It started out running things that were close by but by the 1960's there was enough confidence to design an entire new scheme with 7 stations all controlled from the one location (so there's nobody actually at the power stations to operate them). That was all hard wired stuff but by the 1970's there was enough confidence to do it with another new station via wireless communications from a long way away.

There's a lot of fail-safe stuff in all of that. Even if control is lost as such, shutdown is fully automated if an alarm triggers (vibration, temperature and so on).

It, now, makes a lot of sense to operate a radio station like you said. Learning something new everyday.
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I'm told by those in the industry that a lot comes down to economics. People like the idea that they're listening to a "live" broadcast but actually doing it live means that you've got an announcer sitting there the whole time and that comes at a cost. It varies by station but in general quite a few seem to have gone for actual live broadcasting during daytime when the number of potential listeners and thus advertising revenue is highest but do it all pre-recorded after hours when the economics of radio are are far less attractive in general.
 

What concerns me about driverless cars is the ability to test for things that are highly unusual but which may occur. For example, a human knows that a plastic bag blowing in the wind poses no real threat to the car or occupants but that a plastic bag sitting on the road filled with something may well be a serious hazard. Both look the same, one isn't a threat but the other could be.

Or something totally random happens. A tree falls across the bonnet of the car whilst you're driving at highway speeds (that actually happened to me). The car hasn't run into anything, there's nothing in front of it, but all of a sudden you've got a tree across the bonnet and that's definitely a problem.

So it's random stuff like that that I see could be difficult to test for. How does a driverless car respond to an aircraft landing on the road in front of them? Or the simple threat that unconstrained farm animals are spotted standing right beside the road and there may well be one on the road around the next bend? And so on.

With something like a power station or even a railway there's a limited number of things that can go wrong so every possible combination can be tested. Bearings getting hot. Unexpected head loss. Vibration. Something on the train tracks ahead. Etc. But with a car on a road there's a huge number of possible scenarios as to what could happen.
 
bellenuit said:
Did Life Begin in what is now Western Australia?

https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpres...possible-life-on-earth-4-1-billion-years-ago/
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Do you have Netflix?

There is an awesome 4 part series called a time travellers guide to Australia ( or something like that), in the documentary section. Its pretty good, talks about the origin of life in western Australia, and traces our animal evolution through geologic time.

-------------------------------------------------

Talk about linking two threads together, you probably won't find that Doco on the US netflix Rumpy.

Here it is the ad for it, its on Netflix at the moment.

 
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Value Collector said:
This one is interesting, because all the people he interviews to find misconceptions are actually other scientists.

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What an amazing blast!!! Yeah I think I know something - like hell.. Always good to realise how complex the world is and the contribution that good science makes to our understanding of it.

__________________________________

Also loved the discussion on sea level. The effect of continents, local gravitational anomalies. Thanks again.
 
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Nice work Noco.

Thanks
 
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