paulsutton

Good point, apparently babies can do this as a response to entering water,

Hmm seems to be some interesting ideas here, however some are open to interpretation, for example Do we not sort of do this, we have launched a spacecraft to explore Europa, however in order to do that, we need to send it via the earth so that we use Gravity to slingshot the spacecraft around the earth to give it extra momentum so it can reach its destination. So in a way we are using the energy from the Earth to do this, I sort of get the principle so not sure if it is quite what you are thinking here.

Hi I am involved with a local STEM café and discovery centre, in Torbay. We have a unit thing, that consists of a container to hold sand, this is connected to an upright and a xbox kinect, and a screen, the idea is that you fill the container with sand, and the kinect can scan the contours of the sand and display this on the screen. Rather than using play sand, the proprietor wants to use Kinetic sand, as this is expensive to buy as we need about 200kg (container is quite large) he would like to try and make some. I have looked up some instructions to make this, but many of the instructions seem to use perishable food products such as corn starch. We don't want to be buying more play sand down the line to make more due to the food based ingredients going mouldy or similar. Apparently it is possible to make with silicone oil (I assume in place of olive oil or similar) however I have tried and failed to find any instructions for this. I tried to do a search kinetic sand and silicone oil, and ended up with instruction using olive oil. Just wondered if anyone had any ideas please, or where I can perhaps find some actual instructions. I think silicone oil is some sort of lubricating oil, not sure. Thanks Paul Ps the same unit also has various games built in that can be projected on the surface, so when we just had various objects in the container, the projected sprites could move around but also sort of avoid the objects placed in the container, I think it needed more calibration but we were just testing it at that point. I am aware that normal bought kinetic sand is non-toxic and using the oil may not meet this, however children using this will be under supervision, so it should be safe to use in that respect.

Hence i was hoping to find a better source of info than a paper article, I agree with what you're saying,

Saw this on the Fediverse so also sharing here, sounds pretty good to me, and if this gives more institutions access to anti matter for research that is a good thing. The most dangerous delivery truck? How a lorry-load of antimatter will help solve secrets of universe https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/dec/08/cern-antimatter-secrets-universe-science Does anyone know where more information can be found about this, Or can they share if anything is found. Hope this is interesting anyway Paul

I am not too sure if this is the right forum category to share this. I happened upon this a few days ago and decided to share as it may be useful to anyone interested in the space station and developing projects to determine current location. This was posted to Phys.org Space station trajectory data now available https://phys.org/news/2024-12-space-station-trajectory.html Hopefully it is useful, I guess it will be useful for sites such as Heavens above ( https://www.heavens-above.com/ ), which does have details on when and where to look for the ISS Regards Paul

The lessons are excellent, the nice thing about so many different channels is that there should be one that suits an individual learning style or even better more than one.

I if I understand things correctly, a reference list is a list of sources that are cited in your document / paper etc., so in LaTeX each time you use \cite{key} it will add the details of that key from your .bib file. However, I think there are also times when you may list what sources have been looked at even if you don't actually cite them. Maybe this goes in an appendix, as it can also help with further reading. I think it also depends very much on what is being written and the requirements of the institution you are studying at or the journal you are writing for.

Very interesting, even though I can't help thinking I am watching blobs of liquid interacting, rather than 2 bodies of rock.

Agreed, any regime change needs to come from within.

Thanks, interesting topic though, So will the upcoming space based gravitation wave telescope help with our understanding? https://lisa.nasa.gov/

Just reading an artcle about a black hole ripping a star apart due to its gravity. https://scitechdaily.com/black-hole-tears-star-to-shreds-unleashing-cosmic-shockwaves/ Seems interesting, however I just wondered if this is a similar phenomenon that is mentioned in the Brian Cox series recently on BBC one where he mentions asteroids around planets also being pulled apart and forming rings. As with the paper above, this new disk is also interacting with another star, I think Professor cox talks about Phobos is going to one day break up, some parts will burn up, however the rest will form a ring or rings around Mars. So something similar is also happening on Saturn, where a moon is causing gaps in the rings. Both do see similar, only clearly what happens with a black hole and star is on a massive scale by comparison. Just asking Paul

Thanks, I will make a note to include some more information next time. Paul

This was posted to the Fediverse recently and has created an interesting discussion, so I am posting the link to the research here too. Potential Ozone Depletion From Satellite Demise During Atmospheric Reentry in the Era of Mega-Constellations https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL109280 Not quite sure what the solutions to this is really. Perhaps there are multiple ideas, I can see Elon Musk haling the rollout of Starlink.

I am not an expert in fertility, but I have read that there are other factors such as diet, even sitting for long periods or wearing certain types of clothing, heat etc. So antibiotics may be a small factor, if use is combined with other activity. In the US don't they use antibiotics in animals, do those animals also suffer lower fertility, ? Does this put those antibiotics in the food chain.?

Currently reading Research data visualization and scientific graphics, by Martins Zaumanis, which is the 2nd book in the peer recognized series, the first being How to write an impactful research paper. I finished reading this first. Nice series of books.

Update, I managed to get this working nicely using 2x AA batteries powering 2 motors at the front and the same for the other 2 motors at the back, bigger wheels also help. I am now looking to rebuild, motors will be glued on, with hot glue, rather than with sticky pads, gives a chance to do a quick re-design to make the wiring better. Thanks for the help / advice on this, really helpful. Paul

There is definitely a power issue. Using 2x cheap batteries and 2x Duracell makes a huge difference. I have wired up 2 motors, so that a battery pack can power 2 motors, then just need to do the same the other side. Paul

Hi Thanks for these suggestions, I will do as suggested. Paul

I am trying to build a small motor driven vehicle, this is toy size. I have a polycarbonate sheet and 4 motors, and 4 plastic wheels (but also have other wheel, so can interchange them. I have wired this up so far so that 2 of the wheels are wired up to a battery, the other 2 wheels are just attached to motors, my main issue regardless of how I do things, is that a motor plus wheel spins if held up, as soon as I put down on a flat surface, the motor + wheel stops turning. I am not an engineer, so not really sure what to do here. Thanks Paul

Ah OK thanks, I was probably confused by the diagram. So I can have A-T and T-A along with G-C and C-G I will have a look at what I have and make sure the right bits go together and disguard the wrong combinations. Thanks Paul

Thanks for this, Paul

Hi I am guessing this is the right place to ask this. I am building a Model of DNA using coloured craft sticks, which happen to be in 4 colours Red, Green, Yellow and Blue which is ideal for representing A G C T as the base molecules Amine, Thymine, Guanine, Cytosine As I am putting these in pairs, can I have the same molecule connected together? e.g AA GG CC TT Looking at the diagram on the compound chemistry https://www.compoundchem.com/2015/03/24/dna/ I am guessing not, as this does not show pairs that are the same. Just asking anyway. Going Ok so far, I just need some string to tie everything together. And yes I know I can buy one of these as a kit, but it is fun to do this way but also can help others do the same, as it is a cheap way of making the model Thanks Paul

Hi . Thanks for this This is for a home chem lab or rather for use at the library stem group. I don't think my budget will stretch that far so will stick to manual stirring, Paul

I am looking at building a device that makes it easier to stir or mix liquids together. Is there any advantages or disadvantages of Manual stirring Magnetic Stirring device that use a paddle to stir liquids (usually a motor of some sort) Or rotating the actual beaker so the liquid within moves around at a consistent speed. I have found by accident that the beaker I have here, sits nicely on a robot wheel, connected to a motor and Arduino, so if I can attach more securely should allow this to be set up while mixing. I will eventually add a potentiometer to this so that the speed can be controlled and maybe a few other components, such as an on / off switch Thanks Paul