Mo's moderately interesting sci/tech thread

[JD]

Advances in water desalination technology may greatly increase efficiency and lifespan of devices:
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-marangoni ... r-sea.html

[Hugh Akston]

Researchers have found a room-temperature superconductor

Yet while researchers celebrate the achievement, they stress that the newfound compound — created by a team led by Ranga Dias of the University of Rochester — will never find its way into lossless power lines, frictionless high-speed trains, or any of the revolutionary technologies that could become ubiquitous if the fragile quantum effect underlying superconductivity could be maintained in truly ambient conditions. That’s because the substance superconducts at room temperature only while being crushed between a pair of diamonds to pressures roughly 75% as extreme as those found in the Earth’s core.

[Aresen]

Researchers have found a room-temperature superconductor

Yet while researchers celebrate the achievement, they stress that the newfound compound — created by a team led by Ranga Dias of the University of Rochester — will never find its way into lossless power lines, frictionless high-speed trains, or any of the revolutionary technologies that could become ubiquitous if the fragile quantum effect underlying superconductivity could be maintained in truly ambient conditions. That’s because the substance superconducts at room temperature only while being crushed between a pair of diamonds to pressures roughly 75% as extreme as those found in the Earth’s core.

Ahem

[Hugh Akston]

Researchers have found a room-temperature superconductor

Yet while researchers celebrate the achievement, they stress that the newfound compound — created by a team led by Ranga Dias of the University of Rochester — will never find its way into lossless power lines, frictionless high-speed trains, or any of the revolutionary technologies that could become ubiquitous if the fragile quantum effect underlying superconductivity could be maintained in truly ambient conditions. That’s because the substance superconducts at room temperature only while being crushed between a pair of diamonds to pressures roughly 75% as extreme as those found in the Earth’s core.

Ahem

Sorry you posted that story in the wrong thread. Better luck next time.

[JD]

The apparent discovery of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus may have actually been an artifact of the data analysis, unfortunately:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswith ... is-absent/

[JD]

This is a bit short on details, but it is now being suggested that the popular "collapse" theory of Easter Island is not correct:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/east ... t-be-wrong

[Hugh Akston]

This is a bit short on details, but it is now being suggested that the popular "collapse" theory of Easter Island is not correct:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/east ... t-be-wrong

There's plenty of evidence of an environmental collapse driven by deforesation and the introduction of rats, but that may not have led to the tribal wars and cannibalism that Jared Diamond and Thor Heirdahl theorized.

[JD]

This is not really "joys of life", but they're going to decommission the Arecibo radio telescope. :-( Apparently it just can't be fixed safely and cost-effectively. I know that it had a good run and everything comes to an end eventually, but it's been a part of science longer than I've been alive. When I was a kid, Arecibo was one of the coolest things ever.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/19/215 ... able-break

[Aresen]

This is not really "joys of life", but they're going to decommission the Arecibo radio telescope. Apparently it just can't be fixed safely and cost-effectively. I know that it had a good run and everything comes to an end eventually, but it's been a part of science longer than I've been alive. When I was a kid, Arecibo was one of the coolest things ever.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/19/215 ... able-break

Crap. Decommission an aircraft carrier instead and use a fraction of the money to refurbish Arecibo.

[JD]

New discovery of a polymer which can be "losslessly" de-polymerized and re-polymerized, and is based on a common existing material.
https://www.princeton.edu/news/2021/01/ ... e-plastics

[thoreau]

The apparent discovery of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus may have actually been an artifact of the data analysis, unfortunately:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswith ... is-absent/

Follow up:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/02 ... bably-not/

[JD]

The Parker Solar Probe took a picture of the night side of Venus as it was swinging by, and surprised everybody by apparently being able to see through the Venusian atmosphere to the surface, which it was not intentionally designed to do.

[JD]

Undersea fiber optic cables (and specifically, disturbances in the polarization of the light passing through them) may help us detect undersea earthquakes.