Gizmorama
March 28, 2011
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Good Morning,
In the search for alternative, renewable energy resources,
a company traverses a major barrier in promoting oil-pro-
ducing algae. Being a living resource, algae is exposed to
"microscopic predators," which works against its case for
practicality. The California company has solved this problem
using electro magnetism, and not the expected chemical
means. Find out more details in the second article.
Until Next Time,
Erin
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'Quantum' computers said a step closer
DALLAS - U.S. researchers have demonstrated another step
toward creating a quantum computer, exhibiting a so-called
quantum chip at a convention in Dallas. The 2-inch by 2-inch
chip demonstrated by University of California, Santa Barbara,
researchers at the American Physical Society meeting holds
nine quantum devices, including four "quantum bits" that do
the calculations, the BBC reported Tuesday. A quantum compu-
ter would utilize strange "quantum states" of matter to per-
form calculations that could someday vastly outperform con-
ventional computers. Instead of the binary ones and zeroes of
digital computers, quantum computers utilize what are known
as superpositions -- states of matter that can be thought of
as both one and zero simultaneously. In a quantum computer,
calculations on all possible superposition states can be
performed at once. While with only one quantum bit, or qubit,
the speed advantage is not great, the effect scales rapidly
as the number of qubits rises. The figure often put forward
for the number of qubits that would bring quantum computing
to a competitive level with digital computers is about 100,
so each increase in quantum devices on a chip is a signifi-
cant one, experts say. "It's pretty exciting we're now at a
point that we can start talking about what the architecture
is we're going to use if we make a quantum processor," UCSB
researchers Erik Lucero said. "We're right at the bleeding
edge of actually having a quantum processor."
New process protects oil-producing algae
LOS ANGELES - A California company promoting algae as a re-
newable source of oil to compete with petroleum has announced
a process to protect it against microscopic predators.
OriginOil, Inc. said the process it dubbed Algae Screen uses
an electromagnetic pulse instead of chemicals to keep the
algae healthy and productive, a company release reported
Tuesday. "All algae are targets for invasion. Oil-rich algae
are particularly attractive to rotifers and other microscopic
predators," OriginOil's Paul Reep said. "Algae Screen will
protect an algae culture continuously from microscopic
invaders such as rotifers, bacteria, and ciliates." Such
invaders reduce the value of the algae crop by metabolizing
valuable oil and biomass, the company said, and invasions can
choke off algae growth and reduce the percentage of daily
harvest. The problem exists in all types of growth systems,
but most acutely in open ponds, the company said. The process
targets invaders with calibrated pulses of low-power electro-
magnetic energy that leave the algae safe. The power levels
are adjustable for different algae types and environmental
conditions such as water hardness and salinity, company
officials said.
Study: Supernovas source of cosmic rays?
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - U.S. astronomers say a pattern of X-ray
"stripes" in the remnant of a supernova explosion could ex-
plain the source of cosmic rays. Observation of the Tycho
supernova remnant with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory may
provide the first direct evidence of a cosmic event that can
accelerate particles to energies a hundred times higher than
is achieved by the most powerful particle accelerators on
Earth, a release from the Chandra X-Ray Center at Harvard
University said. "We've seen lots of intriguing structures in
supernova remnants, but we've never seen stripes before,"
said Kristoffer Eriksen, a researcher at Rutgers University
who led the study. "This made us think very hard about what's
happening in the blast wave of this powerful explosion." The
Chandra data suggests magnetic fields can be dramatically
amplified in such blast waves and that high-energy charged
particles can bounce back and forth across the shock wave
repeatedly, gaining energy with each crossing, leaving holes
and dense walls -- the "stripes" -- in the magnetic field.
"We were excited to discover these stripes because they might
allow us to directly track, for the first time, the origin of
the most energetic particles produced in our galaxy," said
Eriksen. "But, we're not claiming victory yet." Supernova
remnants have long been considered a good candidate for pro-
ducing cosmic rays in our Galaxy. "Supernova remnants are our
best cosmic laboratories for understanding how nature accel-
erates the highest energy cosmic rays," said Roger Blandford
of Stanford University, who was not involved in the study.
"These careful measurements provide a very strong clue as to
what actually happens at these giant shock fronts."
Scanner eyes Earth's coastlines from space
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Images of Earth's coastal regions from a
space-borne scanner are helping scientists monitor events
from oil spills to plankton blooms, U.S. researchers say.
Scientists at Oregon State University say the Hyperspectral
Imager for the Coastal Ocean aboard the International Space
Station is the first space-borne sensor created specifically
for observing the coastal ocean, an OSU release said Thursday.
It will allow scientists to better analyze human impacts and
climate-change effects on the world's coastal regions,
Curtiss O. Davis, an OSU oceanographer and the project scien-
tist, said. "What HICO does that other ocean imaging systems
like NASA's MODIS cannot is provide color sensor data down to
the human scale," Davis said. "Whereas the normal resolution
for an ocean imager is about one kilometer, HICO provides
resolution down to 90 meters. "It is a scientific treasure
trove for the coastal oceanographer," he said. Developed by
the Naval Research Laboratory, the sophisticated imaging
system was installed aboard the space station in 2009. Its
development was an experiment to see if engineers could
create an instrument very quickly, at low cost, and make it
work for a year, said Davis, who worked for several years at
the laboratory before joining the OSU faculty.
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