Sci-Tech Information: Result for World"s Longest Experiment As Blob of Tar Drips
An 84 year experiment has reached its climax after scientists glimpsed a blob of falling tar.
The experiment, based at the University of Queensland in Australia, aims to capture the blobs of tar, or pitch, as they drop down from their parent bulk. Until now, the team had never seen a drop fall.
The blob has now dripped nine times since the experiment began in 1930 but the last time it dripped was 13 years ago and was not witnessed.
The scientist who oversaw the experiment for 50 years, John Mainstone, died in August without ever observing the drops fall.
He missed the blob by a day in 1977, by just five minutes in 1988 and again in 2000, when the webcam that was recording it was hit by a 20-minute power cut.
The Australian scientists also have another disappointment - they have already been beaten to their goal.
Last year a similar experiment at Trinity College Dublin captured the first ever video footage of a blob of pitch dropping, according to the New Scientist.
Stefan Hutzler, a member of the team who conducted that experiment said the fact that both experiments dropped within a year of each other is "just pure luck".
He also offered words of consolation to the Australian scientists, saying their experiment was better:
"Theirs is in a glass container; they measure the temperature, measure the humidity as well," he says. "Ours, we don't really call it an experiment. It was really just sitting there on a shelf, going back to the 1940s."
Physicist Thomas Parnell set up the world's longest running experiment to demonstrate that solid materials can flow like liquids.
Professor Andrew White, who oversees the experiment, said that seven drops had fallen between 1930, when the experiment began, and 1988, at an average of one drop every eight years. The eighth drop ran into the seventh drop in 2000, but took almost 14 years to tip over.
Scientists will now see how long it takes the ninth drop to separate from the pitch above it.
The latest movements can be seen on a live web stream where nearly 25,000 viewers have registered to keep an eye on the ninth drop.
Experimental cold climate house built in Japan
Japanese architectural firm Kengo Kuma & Associates recently demonstrated its ethos of design inspired by light and nature with an experimental house in Hokkaido called "Mme." The structure is designed for cold climates and whilst based upon the local Ainu people's €Chise€ (House of the Earth), it uses modern materials for an insulated double skin membrane that promotes convection and maintains a comfortable internal environment due to heat circulation from its continually lit fire.
The traditional €Chise€ housing insulates and recovers heat from a central fire, and uses bamboo grass or sedge for facade insulation, wrapped around a wooden frame. The Mme experimental house has adapted that principle.
The design team at Kengo Kuma built the 79.5 sq.mt. (855.7 sq.ft.) house frame from Japanese Larch, then incorporated their customized membrane composed of polyester fluorocarbon tarp on the outside, with a glass-fiber cloth membrane on the interior. Finally, polyester insulation from recycled plastic bottles was installed in between.
The Mme experimental house facade not only ensures natural ventilation through the materials used, but is also semi-transparent to permit natural indoor lighting throughout the year. The design also encourages natural daylight working hours for the occupants, in addition to providing a luminous glow when the building is viewed from the outside at night.
The experimental house is located on the 185,000 sq.mt. (1,991,323 sq.ft.) Mme Meadows research facility - established for studying design responses to the region's harsh climate - and will continue to test the limits of both internal and external architecture in extreme environments.
It was completed with support from the Tomonari Yashiro Laboratory at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science.
Experimental Lens Would Give Wide Angles More Focus
The eye is an extremely complex organ - no matter what species of animal. The human eye is sensitive enough to recognize more than 500 shades of grey. Our depth of field is excellent, but we lack the wide-angle range of the eyes of a fly. A hybrid human/fly eye was inevitable.
Associate Professor of biomedical engineering and ophthalmology at Ohio State University, Yi Zhao has come up with an experimental lens that would combine the depth of field capabilities of the human eye with the wide-angle capabilities of an insect eye. €Our eye can change focus. An insect eye is made of many small optical components that can't change focus but give a wide view. We can combine the two,€ says Zhao. €What we get is a wide-angle lens with depth of field.€
The lens can be applied to many different fields of technology, from laparoscopy and microscopes to smartphone cameras. Its ability to correct focus by altering its shape could also give surgeons more confidence. With delicate procedures such as tumor removal, it will allow them a wide-angle view while easily gauging the proximity of lens to tissue. It's another great example of how biomimicry can change our view of the world - quite literally.
The experiment, based at the University of Queensland in Australia, aims to capture the blobs of tar, or pitch, as they drop down from their parent bulk. Until now, the team had never seen a drop fall.
The blob has now dripped nine times since the experiment began in 1930 but the last time it dripped was 13 years ago and was not witnessed.
The scientist who oversaw the experiment for 50 years, John Mainstone, died in August without ever observing the drops fall.
He missed the blob by a day in 1977, by just five minutes in 1988 and again in 2000, when the webcam that was recording it was hit by a 20-minute power cut.
The Australian scientists also have another disappointment - they have already been beaten to their goal.
Last year a similar experiment at Trinity College Dublin captured the first ever video footage of a blob of pitch dropping, according to the New Scientist.
Stefan Hutzler, a member of the team who conducted that experiment said the fact that both experiments dropped within a year of each other is "just pure luck".
He also offered words of consolation to the Australian scientists, saying their experiment was better:
"Theirs is in a glass container; they measure the temperature, measure the humidity as well," he says. "Ours, we don't really call it an experiment. It was really just sitting there on a shelf, going back to the 1940s."
Physicist Thomas Parnell set up the world's longest running experiment to demonstrate that solid materials can flow like liquids.
Professor Andrew White, who oversees the experiment, said that seven drops had fallen between 1930, when the experiment began, and 1988, at an average of one drop every eight years. The eighth drop ran into the seventh drop in 2000, but took almost 14 years to tip over.
Scientists will now see how long it takes the ninth drop to separate from the pitch above it.
The latest movements can be seen on a live web stream where nearly 25,000 viewers have registered to keep an eye on the ninth drop.
Experimental cold climate house built in Japan
Japanese architectural firm Kengo Kuma & Associates recently demonstrated its ethos of design inspired by light and nature with an experimental house in Hokkaido called "Mme." The structure is designed for cold climates and whilst based upon the local Ainu people's €Chise€ (House of the Earth), it uses modern materials for an insulated double skin membrane that promotes convection and maintains a comfortable internal environment due to heat circulation from its continually lit fire.
The traditional €Chise€ housing insulates and recovers heat from a central fire, and uses bamboo grass or sedge for facade insulation, wrapped around a wooden frame. The Mme experimental house has adapted that principle.
The design team at Kengo Kuma built the 79.5 sq.mt. (855.7 sq.ft.) house frame from Japanese Larch, then incorporated their customized membrane composed of polyester fluorocarbon tarp on the outside, with a glass-fiber cloth membrane on the interior. Finally, polyester insulation from recycled plastic bottles was installed in between.
The Mme experimental house facade not only ensures natural ventilation through the materials used, but is also semi-transparent to permit natural indoor lighting throughout the year. The design also encourages natural daylight working hours for the occupants, in addition to providing a luminous glow when the building is viewed from the outside at night.
The experimental house is located on the 185,000 sq.mt. (1,991,323 sq.ft.) Mme Meadows research facility - established for studying design responses to the region's harsh climate - and will continue to test the limits of both internal and external architecture in extreme environments.
It was completed with support from the Tomonari Yashiro Laboratory at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science.
Experimental Lens Would Give Wide Angles More Focus
The eye is an extremely complex organ - no matter what species of animal. The human eye is sensitive enough to recognize more than 500 shades of grey. Our depth of field is excellent, but we lack the wide-angle range of the eyes of a fly. A hybrid human/fly eye was inevitable.
Associate Professor of biomedical engineering and ophthalmology at Ohio State University, Yi Zhao has come up with an experimental lens that would combine the depth of field capabilities of the human eye with the wide-angle capabilities of an insect eye. €Our eye can change focus. An insect eye is made of many small optical components that can't change focus but give a wide view. We can combine the two,€ says Zhao. €What we get is a wide-angle lens with depth of field.€
The lens can be applied to many different fields of technology, from laparoscopy and microscopes to smartphone cameras. Its ability to correct focus by altering its shape could also give surgeons more confidence. With delicate procedures such as tumor removal, it will allow them a wide-angle view while easily gauging the proximity of lens to tissue. It's another great example of how biomimicry can change our view of the world - quite literally.