Dirt

Today in class we watched a movie called dirt that shows if it is living or non living. It all stared when we were learning about biotic and non biotic then we stared talking about dirt and in which category it would fall in. So we watched this movie and it has lots of interesting facts and ideas. We learned that dirt is a vital resources that gives us much more then we think and in different parts of the world it is used differently. It can be used for food, items and even houses. People all over the world worship it and it is a part of their culture and they worship it for food. They believe that their is a god who gives the soil they fertility so they can grow crops and they worship him by sacrificing animals. Dirt is also getting destroyed more and more because of mining and many other things and without it we wouldn't be on this planet. This movie was very interesting and it showed that dirt is living and if we don't stop destroying it it will become rare.

Astronomers Discover Complex Organic Matter Exists Throughout the Universe

Every day we get more information on how the earth was made, and this gave a clue how it was. There has been a new theory about how the earth was made and it is from stars. It does sound weird and unbelievable but there is a good explanation why. Prof. Sun Kwok and Dr. Yong Zhang of The University of Hong Kong found out that there is a organic substance that is commonly found in the universe and it has a similar structure to coal and petroleum. Coal and petroleum are the remnants of ancient life so that gave us the idea the stars created earth. Scientist investigated infrared emissions detected in starts. This is more commonly known as unidentified infrared emission features. Scientist thought that it was made by only two atoms but it is much more complex like coal. By looking at start dust that was left when a nova happened they saw that the stars produce this organic substance on weekly bases. Stars are not only creating complex organic materials they are also ejecting it into the general interstellar space. One really interesting thing is that the complex structure is also found in meteorites.”Our work has shown that stars have no problem making complex organic compounds under near-vacuum conditions," says Kwok. There is still lots to research about and understand but one day the answer will come.

Dark Matter Mystery Deepens

For years scientist have tried to explain what the universe is made of and they finally found the answer but the answer only make more questions about how it is made and what is its molecular structure. So they found out that it is made of dark matter. Dark matter is invisible and we only know it’s there because it has gravitation pull. Without it all the starts in the universe would just go off in different directions. The nature of dark matter is a mystery that when scientist investigated it only made more questions. A standard cosmological model of the universe shows that it is full of dark matter. Astronomers think that dark matter consists of cold which are exotic particles that clump together gravitationally. Over time the groups of dark matter grow and they attract normal matter which makes the galaxies we see today. Scientist use the highest tech computer to simulate dark matter and it show that it should all over the galaxy but in the middle there should be the most dark matter. Recent research from two dwarf galaxies shows that it is evenly places all over the space which is a big puzzle that they have to solve. They use dwarf galaxy for research because they are made up of 90% of dark matter and 10% of normal matter this makes them a great target for research. They have made lots of research and every day we find more and more information on what are they made of.

One step closer to creating quantum computer.

Some physicians at the Rice University have discovered a partial that will some day in the near future be used for a quantum computer. It is a new kind of a computer that uses quantum particles instead of digital microchips found in today’s computers. Scientists discovered a new method for making tiny device called a quantum spin Hall topological insulator that acts like a superhighway electron that represents the basis for creating quantum particles to store data. Today’s computers are based on binary system where data could use either zeros or ones in a system but thanks to quirks in quantum mechanics quantum bits could be both zeros and ones. It improves the computer’s functionality and overall performance. It could preformed some complicated calculations or it could be used for much effective code breaking, biomedical simulation and climate modeling. But there is one problem: quantum fluctuations can produce the loss of data encoded in quantum bits and this is commonly known as "fault tolerance". Physicians say that they don’t need lots of quantum bits because they would need roughly 30 that are equal to 1 billion transistors. They rely on topological designs that are more fault tolerant. But the real problem is how to put a stable pairs of particles,  called Majorana fermions, into a chip.

"We are well-positioned for the next step," Du said. "Meanwhile, only experiments can tell whether we can find Majorana fermions and whether they are good candidates for creating stable qubits."

How Area 51 Hid Secret Aircraft

Have you ever thought of what they do in area 51? Much speculated theories about US stealth aircraft are now confirmed and widely known. The Americans were testing a prototype of the OXCART. Apparently the Americans had to think about various ways to hide their aircraft from people but they had a bigger problem they knew they were surrounded by Russian spy satellites so they played a game of cat and mouse. They knew exactly the schedule of Russian satellites and they tried to trick them by making aircraft models of cardboard and other common materials in order to trick the infrared satellites buy casting fake shadows. When they saw the satellite coming over the horizon they would always scoot the planes in the garage where they had fake models of airplanes, which made it very difficult to test because they would have to go and pull it out and in and so on. Later on they discovered that Russian had a drawing of their plane thanks to the infrared satellite. When they plane is tested in the hot dessert it would create cool silhouette which was still visibly by infrared satellites. Sometimes they put heaters next to the fake models of plane’s engines to look like the aircraft has just landed. Despite all the Russians effort they never figured out the secrets of the plane before it was made public in mid 1960’s. It could reach the speed of 2000 miles per hour and cross the American continent in 70 minutes. Even thought it was really high tech it was not good enough to spot Russians satellite when flying over soviet union so it got really soon its improved successor. 

Scientists track falling satellite expected to hit Earth this week

Have you ever wonder what would happen if a falling satellite was about to hit earth in a week? Well a satellite will hit the earth this Friday. Scientist predicted that the satellite will most probably in water or on an uninhabited place. Since water covers most of the planet it is most likely it will also fall into water. The Chances of someone being hit by it is 1 out of 32000, but the chances of you being hit are 6 times less than winning the lottery. Most of NASA’s six ton Satellite would disintegrate on entering the atmosphere but there are still some parts that could cause serious damage. They say that 26 hazardous parts will enter the atmosphere intact weighting about 500 kilograms and moving at the speed of 90 to 380kph. It doesn’t seem like lots of speed but depending on how much it weights it will crush anything. There was also another satellite from Germany was going 28000 miles per hour but it landed in water so there were no casualties. 30 parts of the satellite entered the atmosphere weight with combined mass of one and a half ton. The satellite was launched at 1991 and decommissioned at 2005. The agency will make further updates as when the object is coming closer. NASA said that if any part of the derby lands near someone that they return the object by contacting the local police. Although there might be some arguments of if it lands on private property some people might not want to return it.

Lasers could be used t odecet roadside bombs!

Have you ever wonder how are we suppose to know were a bomb is so we can save people, well with the new invention from a research team in Michigan State University. Road side bombs account for around 60 percents of soldiers deaths. Lasers which can be used for a simple presentation also can use the sensitivity to canvas and detect explosive devises. Dantus said "Having molecular structure sensitivity is critical for identifying explosives and avoiding unnecessary evacuation of buildings and closing roads due to false alarms,". They detect explosive devise by using chemicals sensors. If the targeted object has the chemicals need for a bomb they would know the bomb type and where it is. Their newest laser can detect quantities as small as a fraction of a billionth of a gram. Another way it sees this is the chemical structure with differs from other substances.