Friday, February 10, 2012

Recent Scientific Discoveries



I know this is a tangent from my music stuff, but the rest of the world deserves mentioning too xP. Chronologically,  four huge scientific developments have occurred in the past few months.

1. Astrologists found a MASSIVE vortex of water vapor in space, estimated to be 140 trillion times larger in volume than all the water in earth's oceans. Pretty cool, right? Unfortunately, It's billions of light years away, so we won't be able to access it any time soon. Full report here.

2. Scientists from CERN (Europe's organization for nuclear research) fired a beam of neutrinos, which are subatomic particles, 450 miles underground in Italy. They measured the time the neutrinos took to get from point A to point B, and they were faster than light. These neutrinos are the only things EVER measured to be faster than the speed of light. They have now repeated their experiment and confirmed it. Here's an article.

3. Russians in Antarctica have reached the surface of the largest and oldest known reserve of water on the planet Earth. It's a massive underground lake (now named Lake Vostok) which is akin to Lake Ontario in size. The water is estimated to be far cleaner than distilled water, and it's 20,000,000 years old. It's literally a time capsule. They're still figuring out exactly how to study it without contaminating the water. More info here.

4. I actually came up with this idea before NASA had developed it, but I guess I wasn't quick enough on the draw. They've developed a biocapsule full of carbon nanotubes which will essentially automatically medicate whoever uses it. The biocapsule is implanted under the skin where it will not deteriorate or cause any harm, and it will release medication either in time intervals or on a need basis. Sounds pretty sweet, as it'll keep astronauts healthy in space where they won't have access to a doctor, and it has many implications here on earth, as we could implant them at birth to fight childhood illness. Even more is possible, so it's pretty exciting. Full article.

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