Items of Interest

Ternary State Data Molecule

#206
Professor Damien Thompson and a team at the Bernel Institute at the University of Limerick have co-discovered a molecule that can maintain three seperate and stable asymmetric states within a broad temperature range of -100 to +100 °C. The discovery means that the molecule can be exploited to enhance current data storage technologies that operate on just two asymmetric states (0 and 1).
Innovation
Science

Reboot Your 787

#206
The FAA has ordered all Boeing 787 aircraft to be turned off and on again every 51 days to prevent "stale data" from misleading pilots! The data that could be affected include airspeed, attitude and altitute! Oh and the stall warning horn might also stop working. WTF! Spot the multinational aircraft manufacturer without a working QA department.
Life
Tech

What Causes Lift?

#205
An surprising article in Scientific American describes how there is still no scientific consensus on how to fully describe how lift occurs around an aircraft wing. A combination of Bernoulli's Principle and Newton's Third Law describe most of what happens during lift. However, neither are fully emcompasing and newer theories that address why an area of low pressure is created above an airfoil are not universally accepted by scientists.
Science

The COVID-19 Lightswitch Method

#205
Researchers at Stanford created an interactive model to simulate the results of different long term COVID-19 intervention strategies. The models show that lifting strong social distancing measures too quickly (between 5 and 10 months) will result in a resurgence of cases that could overwhelm hospital capacity. One solution to this in the long term is the lightswitch method, where strong social distancing measures are turned on once a hospital capacity threshold is reached (e.g.
Data Vis
Life
Science

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