Sinfest

E-boy · Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 4:26 pm Post subject: Science blurb thread.

This is for those individuals (yes me too) who enjoy occasionally posting on developments, debates, and discoveries in various disciplines of scientific investigation.

Todays suggested reading is this months SCIAM issue's article on "The Quest for the Super Lens".

http://sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=000A65C9-0A9E-1493-835483414B7F0000

Not likely to make an impact in optical wavelengths any time soon they could still revolutionize sensors like radars. Good stuff.
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"Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid" ~ SGT John Stryker from "Sands of Iwo Jima".

Snorri · Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 5:38 pm Post subject:

E-Boy posted a link in his first post?????

Wow.
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Froggums · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 384 Location: Coeur d'Alene

Care to post the article, Eboy? You have to subscribe to it to get more than the first 2 paragraphs.

E-boy · Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:59 pm Post subject:

Yeah I noticed that froggums... I have the hard copy, not the digital subscription.

I'll see what I can dig up. Would I get in trouble for transcribing it? I want to share and all, just not in an illegal way.

For now I'll see if I can dig up references the article was based on. Some of those should be relatively easy to collect.
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"Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid" ~ SGT John Stryker from "Sands of Iwo Jima".

E-boy · Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:08 pm Post subject:

http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=786

More info, but not as complete as the article I read.

Basically, they've been able to produce materials that have negative refraction indexes, an idea that had been toyed with for some time, but one that no one took seriously until someone managed to produce a material that had a negative refractive index. The properties of a negative refractive index allow for a lense that can resolve details smaller than the wave length of light used. Unfortunately, for wavelengths in the visual spectrum the "compound materials" they've developed would be required to be nano sized. Lawerence livermore has verified these materials work on the microwave scale.
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"Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid" ~ SGT John Stryker from "Sands of Iwo Jima".

E-boy · Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:10 pm Post subject:

http://www.newscientisttech.com/channel/tech/nanotechnology/mg18624975.400

Slightly better link
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"Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid" ~ SGT John Stryker from "Sands of Iwo Jima".

E-boy · Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:13 pm Post subject:

Engineering of Sub-Wavelength Photonic Meta Materials: A Route Towards Nano-Scale Plasmonics and Super Imaging
Town & Country Ballroom

Xiang Zhang, NSF Nano-Scale Science and Engineering Ctr. at Univ. of California/Berkeley

Abstract: Recent theory predicts that artificial plasma and artificial magnetism enable a super lens that focuses far below the diffraction limit. This technology, if realized, will have profound impact in a wide range of applications such as nano-scale imaging, nanolithography, and integrated nano photonics. This presentation will discuss a few micro- and nano-fabrication technologies that were developed for engineering complex meta-structures and in the second part, sub-λ photonic "atoms" and "molecules" and the potential applications in nano-scale imaging and lithography. We demonstrated, for the first time, the high-frequency magnetic activity at THz generated by artificially structured "molecule resonance", as well as the artificial plasma. Our experiment also confirmed the key proposition of super lens theory by using surface plasmon. We indeed observed preliminary superlensing at near-field. This talk will be concluded with a vision of the nano manufacturing that will enable the new nano plasmonics and other applications.
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"Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid" ~ SGT John Stryker from "Sands of Iwo Jima".

Dusty · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 650

welcome to the brand new sinfest forums. thats eboy over in the corner, he talks about stuff he reads that no one else could really give a shit about.

Kitten · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 1613 Location: mil pitos

i cared.

mostly because i'm a student at berkeley. Very Happy

lily · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 1531 Location: worcester, ma

Uncle Taylorbell · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 3191 Location: Northern England

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5172292.stm

'KILLER KANGAROO' EVIDENCE FOUND

The "killer kangaroos" were not like the creatures we know today Palaeontologists digging in northern Australia have found fossil evidence of several new species - including a "killer kangaroo".

The flesh-eating marsupial would have lived between 10 and 20 million years ago, scientists say.

The research team has also unearthed evidence of a large carnivorous bird dubbed the "demon duck of doom".

The dig site in Queensland has yielded remains of at least 20 previously unknown creatures.

The team from the University of New South Wales made the discoveries in the Riversleigh fossil fields in the north-west of the state.

Professor Mike Archer said the dig had turned up "truly extraordinary material".

He said the killer kangaroos would not have been like the creatures of today.

"There were meat-eating kangaroos with long fangs, and galloping kangaroos with long forearms, which could not hop," he told The Australian newspaper.

Palaeontologist Sue Hand, who also participated in the dig, told Australian radio that other potentially frightening creatures were unearthed.

"Very big birds... More like ducks, earned the name demon ducks of doom, some at least may have been carnivorous," she said.

The team now plans to study the fossils in detail, to see what more they can learn about the species and what effect changing climate had on their development.

Zenom · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 2:04 pm Post subject:

bun bun · Guest

er, i'll take a shot?

i presume you know how lenses work? when light passes through a medium denser than a vacuum, it is refracted at an angle, yadda yadda yadda? well, every material has a refraction limit (without fancy fiddling, diamond is the best refractor, which is why diamonds sparkle more than anything else on earth).

these people have fiddled with material on a subatomic level to artificially lower that limit, so that a single lens, without fancy burrowing electron microscopes, can see tiny tiny things.

is the essential gist i get from it.

ah, OK, quick edit. just re-read it.

so they didn't fiddle with a solid material, they took a gas that has been pressurized far far beyond its condensation point (plasma) and aligned its molecules/atoms (sorry, i didn't catch whether this plasma was elemental or some sort of compound) using an electromagnet so that the result is a very very tightly packed, very very regular structure of molecules/atoms. which is what you need for low refraction, only natural materials, and even most manmade ones, have flaws in them cause they're solids, and the more rigid structural bonds in a solid mean that flaws develop more easily (a tiny shift when the crystalline bonds develop means that they're stuck in the "wrong" place).

so, they used a gas. soooooo clever.

i presume the plasma was ionised, so that the electromagnets pulled the molecules/atoms into a perfectly regular structure automatically.

(YAAAAARGH edit edit, i meant low refraction....! phew. *psst* i think no-one noticed...)

Zenom · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 3:15 pm Post subject:

Oh okay.... I think I'm just going to go over there and look really confused.

mouse · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 15467 Location: under the bed