Cacophony

discoverynews:

Are Sweets Making You Stupid?

What you eat may affect how you learn, say UCLA researchers in a new study on the effects of high fructose corn syrup and omega-3 fatty acids on the behavior of rats.

Rats that were fed only high fructose corn syrup and standard rat chow had more trouble navigating a maze at the end of six weeks than rats who were fed a diet supplemented with omega-3 fatty acids, according to results published in the Journal of Physiology.

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smarterplanet:

How The $25 Computer Could Change The Way We Learn, Work & Play - PSFK

The Raspberry Pi is a very basic looking micro-board that hides a sophisticated computer – the UK developers behind the computer expect other companies, hackers and DIYers to add their own peripherals and even casing. What’s buzzing the technology scene is the price. At $25 plus shipping, the inventors believe that the Raspberry Pi can revolutionize education – but they don’t expect its impact to just stop there. PSFK spoke to the Executive Director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Eben Upton, about what he and his team had created and the changes it might help create.

OK. The dumb question: Why does your computer look like one of those cards you stick in the back of a desktop computer? It’s not quite as cute as an iPad. Where’s the shell?

We’re expecting community members to design (and sell) their own shells for the device. In fact, both our distribution partners (element14/Premier Farnell and RS Components) will be marketing their own shells too.

via PSFK: 

olena:

{ MIT and Harvard launch a ‘revolution in education’ }

The new venture, called edX, will provide interactive classes from both Harvard and MIT — for free — to anyone in the world with an Internet connection.

Pictured Above: MIT President Susan Hockfield and Harvard University President Drew Faust.

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This is amazing.

scipsy:

Rubber Chicken in Space

A group of high school students from California launched an helium balloon sending “Camilla”, a rubber chicken , to an altitude of 36.5 kilometers. The mission of Camilla is part of an astrobiology project, that aims to find out if microbes can live at the edge of space. Camilla was launched right into a solar storm to be exposed to high-energy solar protons and she was equipped with a pair of radiation badges to measure the radiation, a ship full of instruments (four cameras, a cryogenic thermometer, GPS trackers, seven insects and 24 sunflower seeds), and a knitted space-suit.

Camilla flew twice: on March 3 and on March 10. The second launch coincided with one of the strongest proton storms of the year, with satellites reporting solar proton counts at about 30000 times normal.

Eventually Camilla returned back to Earth. […]

quantumaniac:

How Much Does Fire Weigh? 

Question: Since fire is a plasma, and plasma is a state of matter, and matter is defined as anything that has mass, would that then mean that fire has mass and weight to it? If so, is there a way to measure its weight? How much space would, say, a pound of fire take up?

Answer: It weighs more than nothing, but if you’re at the bottom of a pillar of fire, being crushed should be your second concern

Fires, putting aside details about plasma and chemicals or whatever, is just hot air.  For a given pressure the ideal gas law says that the density of a gas is inversely proportional to temperature, in Kelvin.  You can use this fact, the temperature and density of air (300°K 1.3 kg/m³), and the temperature of your average run-of-the-mill open flame (about 1300°K) to find the density of fire. For most “everyday” fires, the density of the gas in the flame will be about 1/4 the density of air.  So, since air (at sea level) weighs about 1.3 kg per cubic meter (1.3 grams per liter), fire weighs about 0.3 kg per cubic meter.

One pound of ordinary fire, here on Earth near sea level, would take up a cube about 1.2 meters to a side.  The reason that fires always flow upward is that its density is lower than air.  So, fire rises in air for the same reason that bubbles rise in water: it’s buoyant.  Enterprising individuals sometimes even take advantage of that fact.

If you were on a planet with no air at all, fire would fall to the ground instead of rise because, like all matter, it’s pulled by gravity.  Also, it would be hard to keep the fire going (what with there being no air).

(Source: askamathematician.com)