Kevin's Watch

peter wrote:How do such programs recognise patterns that are usefull [ie have intrinsic value as 'pieces' to slot into the vast edifice that is scientific knowledge] from those that are just intriguing or beautifull [that say the ratio of a's to e's to I's to o's to u's in Macbeth is that of the order of numbers in the 'golden ratio' {it isn't - I just made that up as an example }].

Are you sure it isn't? Wow, what if it is!

Yes - V. That is a point I was thinking about after I posted. We will always in some sense have to 'keep pace' [vis a vis intelligence] with the machines we create. And by virtue of the fact that 'no-one can know all' science already 'goes and grows' where it will anyway. One problem is the different 'moral values' different researchers bring to the table. [Consider the 'gain-of-function' experiments in say the bio-medical research feilds where evermore deadly pathogens are created deliberately in order to study their functioning in global pandemics. The risks [of accidental escape/terrorist activity etc] clearly outweigh the bennefits - a fact that immediately breaches the first principle of ethical scientific research - and yet a significant proportinon of the biotech community insist upon their necessity if we are to be prepared to meet the future threats of contagious disease in an ever more crowded populace.]

(Sorry - sort of lost the topic there but quite liked the post anyway so decided to go ahead )

Could a Vanadium battery change the power systems of the world?

My take: I don't think so. I mean, yes, it will make it easier to use solar power because of the storage capability, but the real problem is how much people use and how to generate it. Until governments get serious about either using less power or using cleaner sources or both not much will really change.

That is the essence of AC power, yes. I'm not sure how that would work for storage though, since that's ultimately what a battery is for after all.

Unless you could have ... and this is kind of a half-thought ... some sort of in-line batteries along the power lines so that issues like fallen lines don't have the same impact (ie power outages).

Now this is pretty interesting. Relates to plenty of discussions we've had in various place.
Like AI.
Like the algorithm problem [this doesn't seem to use them...or software at all?]
Here's the story:
www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=34328.php

There's a link in it to the actual paper, and to earlier related article.

Here's a link to the lead person...I've only quick scanned a little, but looks like a person maybe worth paying attention to.

www.anirbanlab.co.nr/

abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/half-stars-lie-galaxies-26738465

Not a lot of info...but it makes me wonder a couple things.
Does this mean the stars aren't distributed as we thought [meaning the total number is the same, but galaxies would have 1/2 as many, on average]
OR does it mean there are twice as many stars total as we thought?
[[I'm sure it will say when the real article comes out tomorrow]]
I hope it's the second.
OTOH...intergalactic space is BIG!
If life forms evolved out there...I mean, our nearest neighbor is 4 light years away. I think there are nearly 2000 within 50 light years...all potentially reachable even without faster than light.

If you're between galaxies? Your CLOSEST neighbor is likely to be at LEAST tens of thousands of light years...I'm not gonna do the math, but I'd bet there are at least several billions of neighbors with 10k lightyears of us.
Talk about lonely...

Terrible confession V. Turned to your fascinating link about star distribution in space and immediately got side-tracked onto the second 'Hot Right Now' leader on the right hand side, 'New reality show extreme - Man to be eaten alive on live TV by Giant Annaconda!'

This featured on the front of one of our daily red-tops yesterday, complete with picture of said man with HUGE annaconda hung round his neck. I didn't read either the the paper or the link [I did read the 'star article], but my immediate internal response is 'good luck with that!'

So, we all know about graphene...some idea of the promise and the problems.
Run across some other materials with similar attributes and potentials.
But this is a new one to me.
Here's a brief overview:

www.technologyreview.com/view/534166/bl ... -material/

Interesting that they use the words 'filters for size using a centrifuge'; I've used centrifuges and filters before - but not in combination [still - this is MIT and I guess they know their own game .]

peter wrote:Interesting that they use the words 'filters for size using a centrifuge'; I've used centrifuges and filters before - but not in combination [still - this is MIT and I guess they know their own game .]

I don't know exactly what their machinery is, or how they're doing it---it's probably micro/ultra- close tolerance/super-tech...
But I believe centrifuge is used for filtering a lot...I'm pretty sure [but don't lash me if I'm wrong] that almost all the sewage in NYC is processed that way at a number of stages. And I don't think NYC is anything like unique.
[[I saw a short piece of a piece on NYC's treatment...and it LOOKED like that was what they were doing, anyway]].
Huh...I need to look at machines/gear and check my brain.
But I think peeps still use them both ways...the spin sorts by sediments, denser to the bottom---but also concentric circles, each layer outward permeable by different sizes/has a finer mesh.

If you have clear skies tonight and can stand the cold, there's going to be an absolutely gorgeous conjunction between moon/Venus/Mars. Look about 30 minutes after sunset in the west.

That's cruel - I missed it! Teach me right for not keeping up to speed with my e-mails!

Not for anything important...just amused me.
I was tempted to start next years football thread, and ponder whether this
improves their odds [and could the guy do team data/analysis for them, too?---kinda cool, he'd have both birds-eye and in the trenches view. ] for next years Superbowl [which aren't terrible right now according to Vegas. But hell...we should at least keep football till after March Madness, right? I mean the draft hasn't even happened yet.]

www.thepostgame.com/blog/balancing-act/ ... tball-math

After all Brian May's music and science is cool...but pummeling combined with algorithms and vectors is nothing to sneeze at.

This is sweet if it works out.
There are many thousands of known intractable problems that
such a machine could solve in no time at all, relatively speaking.
Like, perhaps, all human sicknesses and aging.
[[and the tech and economics to support all of us healthy immortals]]

And there are an unknown, and currently unknowable, number of unknown intractable problems...stuff we need to discover/understand to survive.

phys.org/news/2015-04-scientists-critical-quantum.html

Nice, thanks for the heads up.

--A

And this is just plain fun....like a couple expecting a baby, but coming out of delivery with triplets [except in slow motion].
Scroll down the article for arrangement and "to scale" stuff.

www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-quin ... 02994.html


EDITED: I meant to mention that it's pretty close by, relatively [115 lights]...and apparently some of the eclipsing can be seen with a backyard telescope.

I had no idea this was so...
And if I did, I wouldn't have much idea that it mattered to much of anyone...
But apparently it does.
www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2015/july/two-ba ... oblem.html

Many basic products such as building materials, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and food are granular. Because granular materials are an unusual form of matter with properties that are poorly understood, many processing plants operate inefficiently and sometimes experience catastrophic failures.

Haha, weird.

--A

And 2D materials continue to be cool as shit [funny, the opposite directions from film cool as shit-ness]:

the latest cousin of graphene, the honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms that has spurred thousands of studies into related 2D materials. Those include sheets of silicene, made from silicon atoms; phosphorene, made from phosphorus; germanene, from germanium; and thin stacks of sheets that combine different kinds of chemical elements

stanene is — in theory — extra-special. At room temperature, electrons should be able to travel along the edges of the mesh without colliding with other electrons and atoms as they do in most materials. This should allow the film to conduct electricity without losing energy as waste heat,

www.nature.com/news/physicists-announce ... ne-1.18113