Gizmorama - September 28, 2016

Good Morning,

I guess size does matter. When it comes to memory cards and telescopes, it does!

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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* SanDisk's new memory card has more storage than your laptop *
COLOGNE, Germany - Western Digital announced the world's first 1 terabyte memory card this week, giving a photographer or videographer more storage than a laptop.

The new disk will allow the card user to shoot in 4K or 8K high definition without having to use multiple memory cards. The company announced the new memory card at the Photokina trade event in Cologne, Germany.

"Showcasing the most advanced imaging technologies is truly exciting for us," said Western Digital's Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product management, Content Solutions Business Unit. "The SanDisk 1TB SD card prototype represents another significant achievement as growth of high-resolution content and capacity-intensive applications such as virtual reality, video surveillance and 360 video, are progressing at astounding rates."

Western Digital is using the card to prove it has nearly doubled the capacity of a traditional SD card and allowed photographers and videographers greater freedom.

"Just a few short years ago the idea of a 1TB capacity point in an SD card seemed so futuristic -- it's amazing that we're now at the point where it's becoming a reality," said Sam Nicholson, CEO of Stargate Studios and member of the American Society of Cinematographers.

"With the growing demand for applications like VR, we can certainly use 1TB when we're out shooting continuous high-quality video. High-capacity cards allow us to capture more without interruption, streamlining our workflow, and eliminating the worry that we may miss a moment because we have to stop to swap out cards," he said.

The card sells online for about $260.




*-- World's largest radio telescope testing underway in China --*
PINGATANG COUNTY, China - Testing has begun on the world's largest radio telescope, which was built in the Guizhou Province in southwest China.

Chinese scientists reported the mammoth dish, which measures 2,640 feet across and contains 4,450 reflector panels, is already receiving its first signals from space.

The Five-hundred-meter Single-Aperture Radio Telescope, or FAST, opened at a ceremony Sunday.

"This is very exciting," Professor Peng Bo, deputy project manager of FAST, told the BBC. "For many years, we have had to go outside of China to make observations -- and now we have the largest telescope. People can't wait to use it."

The telescope took five years to build at a cost of $105 million in a mountainous area. Also, 9,100 local residents were relocated in 2009 to four settlements at government expense and each person was given $1,800 to ensure a silence zone around the facility. Ethnic minority households facing housing difficulties were given another $1,500.

No residents live within 3 miles of the telescope and the hills around the depression form an equilateral triangle.

The former record holder, the Aricebo Observatory in Puerto Rico, is only 1,000 feet.

The Chinese telescope "listens" for radio waves emitted by objects in space.

"Normally a traditional telescope will take about two years to become fully functional, but FAST is so big, I would say we need three years before it is open to the world," Peng said.

But he said scientists can perform some experiments.

"It's a hugely ambitious project, and it's been carried out very efficiently. It's probably come on stream faster than any of us would have expected for such a complex project," Simon Garrington, associate director for Jodrell Bank Observatory in England, told BBC.

FAST was first brought online in July for trial observation, including data from a pulsar about 1,351 light-years away, according to the Xinhua news agency.

China plans to use one of its best supercomputers, the SkyEye-1, to process the massive amounts of data from FAST. It will require computing power of over 200 teraflops per second.

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