Friday Fragments - Quantum Lasers using Teamwork?

After about a month hiatus the Friday Fragments are back.  For those of you who are new to my site, the Friday Fragments are just a collection of interesting stories and links that usually are centered around science but can offer a wide arrange of info.  Enjoy!

-First, my shameless "Plug of the Week."  The Bucket List is a new blog that my friend Rob started to document his experiences trying to complete his baseball bucket list. It's the off-season now but head on over, slap a bookmark on it, and check it out from time to time if you're a baseball/sports fan.  It may inspire you do check off a few items on your bucket list as well.

-Fun with Lasers and Balloons!  Always love a good laser video, but wait and see what happens when they pull out the white balloon!




-Now while the jury is still out on the whole breaking the speed of light theory, scientists have recently published a paper about the quantum speed limit (which I thought would be the same as the speed light but once again quantum mechanics throws me a curve ball).  If you like physics, read this quick summary of their findings.


-This kid got lost inside a computer....granted it was in the 1950's when computers took up the size of whole rooms but still.


-This week I came across a small article about pharmacies and the controversial Plan B birth control.  A new study has found that some pharmacists are taking the moral issue into their own hands and not allowing girls of legal age to buy the emergency contraceptive (17 years or older) even when they have some in stock.  Now whether or not you agree with Plan B and whether it is morally and ethically alright, pharmacists do NOT have the right to deny someone of a medicine if they are legally allowed to purchase it.  I'm just saying!


-I hope you're all ready for the massive solar storm coming our way.  Wait, it's happening as we speak.  That's right, one of the largest solar storms in the last decade is bombarding our planet right now and fortunately nothing major has been affected.  Unless you are traveling in space or use precision GPS (down to the foot) for your job, you probably wouldn't notice the effects at all.


-I'll leave you with one of the best displays of teamwork...

All this work just to play the Demo of Mario Kart 7?  Worth it!

Friday Fragments (11/4/11)

Alright, no screwing around! Here are some fragments to get you through the afternoon...

-A study out of Yale University has mathematically shown that there is such a thing as a "hot hand" in basketball (or as NBA JAM won't put it, "He's on FIRE!!!").  They don't have any proposed mechanisms per say but they have uncovered some statistically significant results from years of NBA data.  Although anyone who has played basketball, or any sport for that matter, can tell you there are times when you are just in the zone. I tend to get that way for table tennis but that's another story.  Here's a summary of the study, rather than the actual research paper.

-1996...I was 9 years old and the internet was still very young too. I remember going to the computer lab to work on bulky PCs and even a few MACs, using programs like Creative Writer and Oregon Trail 2.  I happened to stumble upon this pro/con list of the internet circa 1996.  Sadly, much hasn't changed!

-I really like this footage from the moon taken in 1971 that proves Galileo was right about gravity.  Watch the video below to see a hammer and a feather fall at the same rate.

 

-Crystal skulls are always fascinating....period.

-Here is a list of 10 common food myths.  I particularly like the one about tryptophan and I cannot wait to challenge this answer in Trivial Pursuit (I'm looking at you, Mom).

-And lastly, stem cell research took a small step forward recently.  Scientists were able to produce stem cells from an unfertilized egg using someone else's DNA.  However (there's always a catch) they had to leave the native DNA in the egg as well which produce essentially worthless stem cells, as the donor would reject the stem cells for having some native properties.  But it is a step in the right direction, and for those who are sensitive about the whole embryonic stem cell debate, this is a good step in the right direction.

Friday Fragments (8/12/11)

Friday is here again and I have been busy enough that there hasn't been a Fragments for a few weeks.  That doesn't mean that I don't have links.  If anything this edition may be the largest yet!

Before we get into the fragments, Monday will begin the "new" Behind the Bench series featuring other young people in science.  First up will be a few people in pharmacy and will expand from there.  So Jeremy Daniel you're up for Monday.

-Artificial organs are nothing new but that field changes everyday it seems. Two new advances in artificial lungs are quite intriguing.  First, scientists have create the first artificial lung that breathes regular air instead of pure oxygen.  Now people on artificial lungs aren't chained to oxygen tanks.  In related news, read this article about "made-to-order" lungs.  Similarly, scientists are making artificial spinal discs out of biological materials, which would be a better alternative than fusing the discs or metal/plastic discs that degrade and are subject to attack by the host's immune system.

-A few weeks ago I caught a article about the Large Hardon Collider and how close it is to finding the elusive Higgs Boson particle. That would be a major step forward for physics and chemistry (for those of you unfamiliar with the Higgs Boson here's the wiki article to catch you up).

-Work with Microsoft Excel? Check out these cheat sheets. Ctrl Shortcuts, Function Shortcuts, and Misc. Shortcuts. Also, here is your 2011 Excel World Champion.  Yep there is a competition for Excel, Word, and Powerpoint now!

-NC State scientists are experimenting with new memory devices that work like a memristor. They would have the consistency of jell-o and even be implanted into the body!  Creepy.

-In medicine news...another new drug has proven it can prevent HIV infection to a certain extent.  More exciting than that is the prospect of a new therapy that can be used against a broad spectrum of viruses.  Much like antibiotics can kill multiple bacteria, this new therapy attacks a process all viruses have in common. This lack of specificity also may prevent a virus from mutating to avoid destruction.  Lastly, if you ever wondered what I studied as an undergrad student in Industrial Pharmacy, this article describes what's in Viagra. Learning the what, how, and why of these ingredients is a lot of what I studied.

-The Web at 20...take a trip drop memory lane (I'm thinking of you America Online)!

-If you are like any other normal human being, you probably love girl scout cookies.  Well, one box of girl scout cookies could be worth $15 million dollars in graphene.  Don't believe me, check it out!

I think that's enough for now...enjoy your Friday and weekend!

Friday Fragments (7/8/11)

Even though it was a short week because of the holiday it feels like it took forever.  I have managed to get quite a bit done in the lab this week and we have an Ice Cream social sponsored by our AAPS chapter (American Association for Pharmaceutical Scientists) this afternoon.  But, I will take the next few minutes to post some cool links to help get us to the weekend!

-Don't we all hate it when we take a picture and it comes out blurry?  Well no more, I found two different articles on new camera technology that allows you to refocus your picture after you take the picture.  It basically collects all the light data instead of the just the focused data we are used to.  Check out the links...
Lytro Camera - Click here for a demo of the feature
40,000 Lenses - Popscience guide to a similar technology.

-Barcode Art?!  Cool and useless all at the same time!

-The 4th of July might be the king of all BBQ holidays, thus I give you the coolest grill ever!

-New medicine tech; Blue light to cure diabetes. Researchers claim that they have combined flourescense with the ability to combat diabetes.  Also, for my friends who love statistics, new models that have previously been used for stock market fluctuations are being used to help find a cure for HIV.

-If you are really bored, check out this list of scenarios for the future!

-Phase change memory for computers...another great application of amorphous solids!

-Lastly, companies can now run social media background checks.  That means anything you have on the internet (for me that includes this blog, fun fun) but I recommend reading this quick article and checking out the sample report which came back negatively for one Gizmodo.com writer.  Interesting stuff!

Have a good weekend!

Friday Fragments (2/4/11)

The last week was an interesting one.  Purdue had its second snow recess in 5 years.  Before January of 2007, Purdue hadn't closed for snow since 1985.  You'd think since I had a little time off I would have posted a blog or two.  Well, I got busy being lazy.  Anyway, it's Friday and I do have a few new fragments to share with you.  

-Spray on skin!  It is here (warning-graphic link...click here for a less graphic one) and it could change burn victims lives.  Essentially it uses stem cells to regrow live skin cells over a wound.  Exciting stuff, let's just hope the whole "stem cell" thing doesn't hold it back.

-Even if you don't believe in UFOs you should watch this clip.  It is of three simultaneously taken shots by different people of a UFO over Jerusalem this last week. If it is photo-shopped, it's pretty good.  If not, I'm still not convinced there are aliens coming to earth but something fishy is going on here.  It gets good about 45 seconds in.  

-If you haven't heard by now, IBM made a computer to play Jeopardy.  It's name is Watson and it will be facing off against old champions in the middle of February. Try you hand at playing against the super-computer at this link to the NY Times.  It is pretty impressive and has a similar set-up to the Steele computer that I talked about earlier.  The caveat is that it is NOT connected to the internet.  All the information that it must find is stored inside the computer's hard drive.  Talk about your ultimate encyclopedia.

Lastly, I would like to send my condolences to to the family and friends of Mrs. Sharon Gibson.  She passed away earlier this week after battle cancer for over 20 years.  Mrs. Gibson was a Latin teacher at my high school but she was definitely more than that to all of her students.  She was one of the most influential people in my life as well as many of my friends from high school.  Each and every student of her's was important and she believed in each and every one of us.  I still remember her giving us lectures on integritas (integrity) and I can honestly say that I continue to live my life with integrity each day because of her.  We love you Mrs. Gibson and your legacy with live forever!

Harnessing the Power

Duel-cores, triple-cores, quad cores, sex-cores (that's six for those who don't know their prefixes), it's hard to keep up with processing power these days.  I remember when my Dad bought our first family PC.  It was a Gateway 2000 and it was a serious toss-up as to what I liked more; solitaire on the computer or the cow painted box.  And I remember getting my first major PC game, NCAA Football '98 and it couldn't run on our computer.  It required the old Pentium II chip.  Well now I have upgraded my personal PC to the AMD Phenom X4.  Granted it is still on the old 65nm architecture as compared to the new Phenom II's that have 45nm, but it is quite fast.  And now both Intel and AMD have the "sex-core" processors on the market between the Phenom II X6 and Core i7.  "But Matthew, why do I care?"  You probably don't but I wanted to mark a reference for you when I explain the "computer" I am working on in my Computational Chemistry course.

Computational Chemistry is exactly what it sounds like.  It uses computer algorithms to calculate how particles act.  More specifically their energy in my current lab.  Now, I was frustrated that the lab consisted of a Linux Shell program not because it was Linux, but because we were given no formal background on coding in the system.  I think Linux is simpler and I hope to utilize it some day in the future but I began ranting and raving to a few friends about how I don't understand why we can't pay Computer Scientists to make programs for Windows/MAC that I can just input data into and read the output without being a coding expert.  This is a carry over from my statistical courses as they employ the same thing into programs such as SAS.

In my frustration I found myself searching for a "help section" for this shell program.  The program/project is called Steele and it is a compute cluster that can be used remotely on campus for calculations.  It is basically access to a computer that links many processors to together in order to make elaborate calculations housed on campus at Purdue.  This is where I found my surprise.  The Steele compute cluster (named after an old professor) houses an astonishing 902 8-core Dell processors.  902! That is 7216 cores for those of you keeping score at home!  Each processor consists of two Quad-cores that are linked together.  To a pion like myself, that is almost unfathomable.  Now I understand why we use this program.  The cores are separated into further clusters, the largest one being able to compute 46.53 teraflops (basically a calculation per second, it is more complicated than that but I'm not an expert and will probably mess it up).  A Phenom processor similar to mine was clocked at 6.7 gigaflops.  This is about a 7,000,000% increase in computations.  Wow!

Now, here's where I stopped thinking about these types of calculations...I ran a simple program that uses a random number generator to calculate the energy of a particle 10,000 times and it took the computer about 20 seconds to run this program. The computer with 7216 cores needed time to think about my simple little calculation. Now there are scientists running much, much larger calculations on much larger computers.  That is when I had to stop thinking about the magnitude of this computer and starting writing down answers.  So sorry Dad for complaining about not having that Pentium II processor.