Science News

[Duke of Buckingham]

Mysterious Disappearance of Malaysia Air Flight 370 Highlights Flaws in Aircraft Tracking
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the jetliner at the junction of several international air traffic control regions—the kind of fringe location where radar coverage is known be spotty
Mar 20, 2014 |By Larry Greenemeier

There is no shortage of theories about what may have happened to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Some depict the flight crew of the Boeing 777-200ER into heroes battling and eventually succumbing to an onboard fire. Others paint them as hijackers and kidnappers stealing off with a commercial aircraft and hundreds of hostages. Veracity of such speculation aside, they all point to one problem—the futility of tracking transoceanic aircraft across international borders when their data transmission systems and transponders cease to function. More on: http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar..._TECH_20140325


This map depicts several International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) flight information regions (FIRs). Air traffic controllers lost contact with Malaysia Airline Flight 370 near the region where Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore FIRs intersect (marked by the red dot).
Courtesy of the International Civil Aviation Organization

[Duke of Buckingham]

How Do You Hide a Boeing 777?
Three weeks into the search for Flight 370, clues to its whereabouts remain scarce while fanciful theories explaining the disappearance abound
Mar 24, 2014 |By Erik Schechter

Satellite imagery might yet locate Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which went missing during a nighttime flight on March 8. Over the weekend, the governments of France and China said they had identified debris, possibly from the civilian airliner, in the southern Indian Ocean. Australian officials issued a similarly hopeful statement Thursday, but despite the best efforts of search teams, no confirmed wreckage has been found so far (although the Malaysian government certainly believes that MH370 went down in the area).

The seeming disappearance of a 64-meter-long Boeing 777-200ER in midair has encouraged speculation from the conspiratorial to the fantastical regarding MH370’s fate. None of these elaborate theories ... More on: http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...SA_BS_20140328


A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 takes off from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) October 2013.
Credit: Paul Rowbotham/Wikimedia Commons

[Godric]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/0...ter-into-fuel/

US experts have found out how to extract carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas from seawater. Then, using a catalytic converter, they transformed them into a fuel by a gas-to-liquids process. They hope the fuel will not only be able to power ships, but also planes.

For the first time we’ve been able to develop a technology to get CO2 and hydrogen from seawater simultaneously, that’s a big breakthrough,” she said, adding that the fuel “doesn’t look or smell very different.

Drawbacks? Only one, it seems: researchers warn it will be at least a decade before US ships are able to produce their own fuel on board.

Once it becomes a reality and feasible for the civilian population I wonder what kind of maritime type communities might evolve (waterworld?) and how long before the salt tax is implemented?

[zombie67]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/0...ter-into-fuel/
and how long before the salt tax is implemented?

Sorta the reverse of a salary....get it?

[Fire$torm]

Let's see. Global Corps and Governments have been hording large caches of fresh water. Many have been doing this for years, maybe decades. Now the military wants dibs on the sea water.

This is going to work out just dandy for the "little guy". Globally speaking.

[Slicker]

LOL. I used to teach my third graders how to turn water into hydrogen and oxygen with a battery, a couple wires and some test tubes. Good to know that it has taken the US government 30 years to finally read a 3rd grade science book and consider it a huge discovery. Next thing you know, they will discover that they can separate the salt from seawater via evaporation. I sure hope the government run health care system won't mean that we have to go back to being treated via medical science from the 80's as well.

[Mumps]

Keep in mind, the "exciting" part of this is separating sea water into Hydrogen and CO2, not simply Hydrogen and Oxygen. After separating the Hydrogen from the Oxygen, they need another step to reclaim the CO2 that seawater traps in order to basically recreate "gasoline" from the seawater. Diesel fueled engines don't do very well at burning Hydrogen/Oxygen mixes as fuel, so getting the Carbon element, as well as the liquification part, from the same source is where the trick is.

[Duke of Buckingham]

Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?
Predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years, Turkey's stunning Gobekli Tepe upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization
By Andrew Curry
Smithsonian Magazine
November 2008

Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. The megaliths predate Stonehenge by some 6,000 years. The place is called Gobekli Tepe, and Schmidt, a German archaeologist who has been working here more than a decade, is convinced it's the site of the world's oldest temple.


Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...3v5iCOtsI7x.99
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

[Godric]

Glow In The Dark Roads Make Debut In Netherlands





Glow in the dark lane markings have debuted in Netherlands, they've been described as fairytale like. They're created by mixing a photo luminescent powder in with the paint that glows in the dark for up to 10 hours after charging in the daylight.

Light-absorbing glow-in-the-dark road markings have replaced streetlights on a 500m stretch of highway in the Netherlands. Studio Roosegaarde promised us the design back in 2012, and after cutting through rather a lot of government red tape we can finally see the finished product.
One Netherlands news report said, "It looks like you are driving through a fairytale," which pretty much sums up this extraordinary project. The design studio like to bring technology and design to the real world, with practical and beautiful results.

The glow in the dark design also includes weather warnings, they appear at certain temperature levels. I like the look and it makes sense to utilize technology like this to warn about upcoming hazardous road conditions, it will probably end up saving some lives.

Back in October 2012, Daan Roosegaarde, the studio's founder and lead designer, told us: "One day I was sitting in my car in the Netherlands, and I was amazed by these roads we spend millions on but no one seems to care what they look like and how they behave.
I started imagining this Route 66 of the future where technology jumps out of the computer screen and becomes part of us."

I'm not sure about it becoming part of us, lol. Sometimes it can be very difficult to see the lane markings when it's dark or stormy out. I wonder how the paint will hold up, it will be interesting to see if the use of this paint takes off outside of the Netherlands.
Full article


This technology will eventually also be used on streetlights in the Netherlands, and will end up saving money on by lowering energy use.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that, back in 2011, England’s Highway Agency shut off a significant amount of the country’s streetlights overnight in order to meet a carbon emissions goal. The mass turn-off ended up saving the agency about $668,000 (or £400,000). Another of the country’s councils estimated that setting one-third of England’s streetlights to either turn off during a certain period of time, or allowing them to be dimmed, would save around $1,337,000 (or £800,000) per year.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1...e-money-energy

[Justgeo1]

That could be very helpful in foggy conditions or anytime it's hard to see the road. Might be nice to have in the Seattle area... if it doesn't wash off too fast...