General Scientific Thread

[Rosewind]

I learned recently that over-leavening a baking recipe actually produces product that is dense instead of light -- as well as leaving soapy off flavors (from the break down of sodium bicarbonate -- the carbon dioxide gas is released but the sodium salts remain; baking powder does not have this problem because the acids present in the baking powder are buffered). You can look at a recipe and tell if it's over-leavened by comparing the cups of flour to the amount of leavening added.

1 cup of flour should not have more than 1/4 tsp of baking soda OR 1 1/4 tsp baking powder.

This can vary with altitude (in which case you'd use even less), or by other acids present -- even mild ones, (such as found in brown sugar or even milk) can mess up the chemistry and should be accounted for.

[SonicRainboomGirl]

http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=36817

Eeyup!

[shyshy]

http://iwastesomucht...com/on/?i=36817

Eeyup!

[DrMaxwell]

eehh, that fine print.

[Parker_Izing]

Let's divide by Zero!

Any number divided by zero, equals infinite. Computers tend to go nuts at the concept and crash, so the Divide by zero meme was born.

I only experimented it once, on the game Secret Weapons of The Luftwaffe, trying to set the bomb timer in a grounded B-17, at zero speed and at zero altitude, game crashed with a subtle "Divided by zero" text.

To understand it, grab a random number, like '5' and divide it by 2:

5/2=2.5

5/1=5 (duh)

5/0.5=10

5/0.2=25

5/0.005=1000

5/0=derp... You see, smaller divisor becomes, greater the total becomes, so with a infinitely small divisor,"0", the total becomes infinite.

[shyshy]

Let's divide by Zero!

Any number divided by zero, equals infinite. Computers tend to go nuts at the concept and crash, so the Divide by zero meme was born.

I only experimented it once, on the game Secret Weapons of The Luftwaffe, trying to set the bomb timer in a grounded B-17, at zero speed and at zero altitude, game crashed with a subtle "Divided by zero" text.

To understand it, grab a random number, like '5' and divide it by 2:

5/2=2.5

5/1=5 (duh)

5/0.5=10

5/0.2=25

5/0.005=1000

5/0=derp... You see, smaller divisor becomes, greater the total becomes, so with a infinitely small divisor,"0", the total becomes infinite.

well, im unsure thats entirely the full equation is it?

[Parker_Izing]

Well I'm not a titulated science guy... But the one that understood what is suposed to be a Tesseract at first glance... and dug the idea...

P.s. Totally not using the "keeping simple for you" excuse... I know a lot of thigs, by books, or simple observation, but not know the name of half of them...

[shyshy]

Well I'm not a titulated science guy... But the one that understood what is suposed to be a Tesseract at first glance... and dug the idea...

P.s. Totally not using the "keeping simple for you" excuse... I know a lot of thigs, by books, or simple observation, but not know the name of half of them...

i feel that

[shyshy]

so, let's bring this place back to life.

anypony up for some neuro-enhanced bio-prosthesis? augments, prosthesis, artificial limbs, neural hubs, internal physical enhancement. the likes?

[Parker_Izing]

I could talk quite about that topic, since 2008 I lost mobility on both arms (more on left and not affecting hands) due to brain infection, cause that's sadly not a nerve issue, but a Motor Cortex issue, i dunno if bio-prosthesis could help me...over years I noticed slow improvement, now being capable to lift my right hand to head level, even to manipulate some stuff...

[shyshy]

I could talk quite about that topic, since 2008 I lost mobility on both arms (more on left and not affecting hands) due to brain infection, cause that's sadly not a nerve issue, but a Motor Cortex issue, i dunno if bio-prosthesis could help me...over years I noticed slow improvement, now being capable to lift my right hand to head level, even to manipulate some stuff...

i doubt the neuro-enhanced prosthesis would help if it is a nerve issue

[Rosewind]

So today I learned that corn starch does not gelatinize until 190F, and egg yolks cook at 150F -- though whole eggs won't congeal until 165F. What does all this mean? Starch is good to add to meringue to balance the liquid content and stabilize the air/protein matrix, but adding it straight into the whipped egg whites won't do squat because the starch particles need moisture and heat to expand, so you cook it first then whip it in. Adding in hot liquids to eggs can scramble them unless you temper them first, but if the liquid is below 165F it should be okay.

[Kirby Krackle]

So. Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors.

Thorium is metal, atomic number 90, and is allegedly the future of power production! It's super common to find. So common in fact that miners used to just... throw it out when mining for Uranium. It burns cleaner, as in it only gives out easy to stop Alpha particles and not kill-everything Gamma radiation. Its waste is toxic for... maybe three hundred years, as opposed to Uranium's waste which is toxic forevvvvvverrrrrrrr. Also, its waste, unlike Uranium is really hard to make bombs out of.

Problem is that outfitting and modding the hundred and fifty (approx.) nuclear power plants to work with our new wonder-metal would be... expensive. Worth it in the long run? This brony thinks so. But what's your opinion?

[shyshy]

anypony ever heard of the "princeton project". the experimentation with "slip gates" and time travel. originally started under a different name, it was founded by the German wehrmacht's top scientific minds back in 1938. the experimentation was inspired by Egyptian lore from hieroglyphs in a temple that depicted a "portal to the real of shadows".

hitler was often said to be a very superstitious man. the lore stated that by performing certain rituals that the portal would open and a great beast would awaken and plague the earth with eternal suffering but grant those responsible for it's release with "eternal life".

hitler had ordered that the rituals be followed through using POW's as subjects. rituals included horrid grotesque disembodiment and gross disfigurement. often times associated with mass blood sacrifices and the sacrifice of a man resembling the beast. the beast was depicted as short and fat but with long spindly arms. the wehrmacht often attempted to recreate such a thing but failed to make such a thing. in 1963 the project was discovered by the UN and shut down.

many involved personnel were later reported missing and never found, presumably terminated. in 1984 the project was brought to american interest with the intention to create a slip gate/or time travel device. in 1985 the project was continued via CIA, FBI, and secret service. for years not known of until 1992 when the project was made public. the project's experimentation was without the use of superstition or ritual. no experiments turned out successful but many scientific strides were made in the study of time travel theory, black holes, worm holes and the like.

now it is still ran by the US CIA, FBI, and secret service. but is still "public" enough that basic information on the project and goals itself are available to civilians. however for safety and government purposes most information is kept behind closed doors. and for good reason too. but still, imagine what may have been discovered recently.

they are currently excepting donations for funding a newer experiment for the princeton project as it is now called.

many rumors among conspirators have been made. some are quite popular and i think are quite interesting, but the 2 i find most relevant are:

1. THEORY 1: that some time between 1992 and 2003 the US government was in possession of a "miniaturized black hole" of sorts. it was supposedly around .00001% the size and density of an actual black hole. and was kept in stasis underground. and that it was disposed of due to stasis being too costly. the theory states that it was terminated by using thermite to incinerate the stasis facility causing the black hole to collapse as usual but was unable due to inefficiency in size to crush the facility and crushed itself into oblivion and disappeared.
   
2. THEORY 2: that time travel devices currently exist and are banned from use.
   

now theory 1 is far fetched but interesting. what are the possibilities of such a thing?

theory 2 is still far fetched but just as interesting. again what are the possibilities?

[Noedig]

Hmm.

This is sorta technology based, but I wanna talk about it anyway.

You know there are many people that complain about pollution in this world, right?

Well, I thought of this when I was younger, and I had an idea of how it can work.

Right now, I understand why it can't work at this very moment because of this:

1) Scientist waste so much money to try and find life in space, which is totally unnecessary.

2) They won't care about this very much, because they think what they want is as important as what is right.

My idea was to invent a space craft that can dispose trash into the sun.

It may be manned, but it would be better if unmanned and controlled.

This spacecraft will be huge, because it can cost a lot of money, but scientists waste over billions of dollars just to try and find life in space.

People won't care about this because they'll think it's ridiculous.

I think it's genuinely brilliant because if you stop wasting money on an adventure like this, you might find that working on paying money to build a space craft that can dispose trash is WAY more important and beneficial than finding life in space!

What we need are good leaders.

Not leaders that are only smart, but also wise.

No matter how smart you are, you will still be immature if you don't have any understanding of taking wisdom.

Anyway, what do you think of this idea I've made up?

[Chapien]

Well, populating space will be necessary within the next few centuries for a reason other than pollution (ie Overpopulation, we are having more babies than we have space for, and genocide tends not to be a viable option, so colonizing other worlds is the generally agreed-upon solution), and finding life in space is relating to this as we can only inhabit worlds that can support life which generally speaking would already have life in some form on them, but as for trash disposal, I don't see why we couldn't dump it into the sun. The only problem is we have no technology or material at this time (and we may never have this technology) capable of withstanding the intense temperature of the sun- we wouldn't even be able to get closer than Mercury without our equipment burning up.

Now, anyone ever done some research into old Soviet Experiments? Those tend to be the most random, as well as the most hilarious, experiments.

Behold the Soviet WWII secret weapon: THE PIG CANNON!

YES, this video is comedic and not actually real, but the Soviets did do crazy stuff all the time.

Like trying to dig to the center of the earth.

[Noedig]

About getting close to the sun.

That wouldn't be necessary.

1) You need a projectile launch at an accurately estimated time while in space, this projectile can work such as a vacuum ejection.

2) To make this accurate, you need to crush these things into cubes or such so the barrel ejecting it can let it out accurately.

About Technology.

It is possible.

Because If they worked hard on studying this instead of using materials for other unnecessary things(You name anything), it can work. How? By focusing on this point, duh.

Finding a world that we can inhabit?

If we're talking about air, that would be impossible to get anywhere else except this planet so far.

The Moon and Mars might work in some ways to inhabit by using some oxygen supplies, but no other place.

We're talking about centuries of space Hubbles scouting for possible visual of life-supporting planets.

By that time, we won't be able to find a single place in the people.

.... Off the subject.

I've been thinking about war.... its sorta bad but a weirdly beneficial in some ways.

Believe it or not, it somehow decreases the population quite effectively. Weird, huh?

Not that I think it's such a good idea to make another one. Because we've had quite enough from the last and this century.

Meh, sounds ridiculous of me to talk about it right now.

[Chapien]

The problem is nearly every scientific discovery ever was done on accident while researching something often completely unrelated. It seems to be how a lot of our discoveries happen- by accident. Trying to solve one issue will lead to us solving something completely different oftentimes.

As for inhabitable worlds, there are a few theories on it (if we don't find any we can live on). Such as Greenhouses, altering the atmosphere, etc. Find a world at least remotely similar to ours and with a century or two you could make it at least some what inhabitable, in theory.

A big problem I do have with our efforts to find life is how they go about it- they are viewing it from an entirely anthrocentric point of view (ie that life would be like us). As far as we know, whatever else is out there may not need even remotely close to what we need for survival (oxygen, water, etc.), the fact is we do not know.

The universe we are in, we know very very little about it. Next to nothing, in comparison to its size (infinite).

[shyshy]

any major scientific breakthrough in the past 600 or so years was for the destruction of men. as any great humanitarian act was to fix it

[starswirlthebearded]

The problem is nearly every scientific discovery ever was done on accident while researching something often completely unrelated. It seems to be how a lot of our discoveries happen- by accident. Trying to solve one issue will lead to us solving something completely different oftentimes.

As for inhabitable worlds, there are a few theories on it (if we don't find any we can live on). Such as Greenhouses, altering the atmosphere, etc. Find a world at least remotely similar to ours and with a century or two you could make it at least some what inhabitable, in theory.

A big problem I do have with our efforts to find life is how they go about it- they are viewing it from an entirely anthrocentric point of view (ie that life would be like us). As far as we know, whatever else is out there may not need even remotely close to what we need for survival (oxygen, water, etc.), the fact is we do not know.

The universe we are in, we know very very little about it. Next to nothing, in comparison to its size (infinite).

Please tell that to Nikolai Tesla. Seriously... That man made invention after invention and never stopped. Then you have people like Einstein whom were crazy and came up with really accurate theories. Then you have the discovery of the structure of DNA, and Mendelian genetics and the theory of evolution which all took decades of focused and dedicated research. There are countless others.

Now I'm not saying there aren't discoveries that are made by accident... Penicillin was an accident, and restriction enzymes and the ability to attach foreign DNA into a strand was also kind of an accident. (The restriction enzyme part was, the genetic engineering part wasn't so much).

Basically, what I am saying is this... As many "accidental" discoveries you can find, there are probably twice as many completely intentional discoveries that are the result of long and hard work either in the field or in a lab.

And no discovery is inherently bad or good, nor will any discovery ever lead to anything inherently bad or good. Each discovery is just information. It is how we choose to use that information that causes ill effect or beneficiary effect.

[SonicRainb00m]

Wow, I'm a little late to the science party here, but oh well. I'm actually taking physics and biology after summer ends in school! I've always loved biology AND physics... but to make a career that involves both will be a challenge. I will most likely have to choose one area and move from there, but which one?! I'm zure it's going to drive me crazy later on... But anyway, I actually know quite a bit about nanotechnology right now since I did a project on it recently... if you guys want to talk about that more. But I can also try to contribute to any other discussions as well.

[Chapien]

An interesting question:

To what extent do you scientists consider Computer Science to be a, well, science?

Computer Science is my field of study, and I was just curious on your thoughts on why it is called a science.

[shyshy]

An interesting question:

To what extent do you scientists consider Computer Science to be a, well, science?

Computer Science is my field of study, and I was just curious on your thoughts on why it is called a science.

well in 20-45 years the silicon based computer industry will fail due to moores law.

[Chapien]

Actually, someone JUST won the Nobel Prize in Physics for finding an alternative to Silicon.

A special kind of Graphene that can carry a charge as small as one electron.

So it won't fail. We already solved the issue.

SCIENCE!

[starswirlthebearded]

Depends on the area of computer science. There is a lot of Comp Sci that I don't consider to be science, but there are others that I do.

For instance... Programming? I consider that to be more akin to engineering in a different language.

That is unless you are working on a program for the purposes of a new device.

The problem with Comp Sci is that it rarely if ever follows the scientific method. When it does, I certainly consider it a science.

Granted, I only know what I have read, which is to say not nearly as much as my friends who graduated with Comp Sci degrees (I actually have a friend whom works for Google).