Ostracods, when eaten, release firefly-like bioluminescent chemicals, which cause the fish that's eaten them to glow, which makes them a target for larger predators. So the fish throw up, and the ostracod goes on its merry way.

http://fuckyeahfluiddynamics.tumblr.com/post/96622511295/in-the-dark-of-the-ocean-some-animals-have

Non-newtonian Fluids

"It is within the realm of possibility that you could make a non-Newtonian fluid that is primarily plasma or gas? I've only ever heard of non-Newtonian fluids that are liquid-based." Nick L.

Interesting question. A non-newtonian fluid goes through a reversible phase transition on the application of pressure. That's the definition I'm guessing you are asking about. Really, a non-newtonian fluid is any fluid that doesn't follow Ohm's law of pressure/ resistance to flow = flow rate. Gasses under moderately high vacuum are non-newtonian, because they are in transition from laminar (newtonian) flow into ballistic flow. Plasmas are funky, because they are made of ions, which interact at larger distances. I hadn't really thought about it before, but I suspect that plasma physics does not meet a strict newtonian definition for fluid dynamics.

The classic non-newtonian fluid is a mixture of cornstarch and water. Some people call it ooblek, a name I despise. If you are looking for a gas that goes solid when you step on it, I think you are out of luck. It's much easier to go from a liquid (molecules held together with low energy bonds = "hydrogen" bonds = Van der Waals forces, where the molecules are in causal contact but free to rearrange their positions, to a solid, where the bonds are strong enough to stop the free movement. You can make this happen by cooling the fluid down past the phase transition, or by introducing a magnetic field into a ferrofluid, or by adding pressure to a mixture that allows the liquid portion to move out from between the solids so they jam together.

The trick to running on the cornstarch-water mix is that the cornstarch molecules are complicated, so you can force the water molecules into their structure and out of the solution, reversibly. For something like quicksand, the bed of sand is fluidized by rising water, which you can fall into if you struggle, but float on if you lay flat like floating in plain water.

If we went back to the stone age right now and stopped emitting any CO2, in about 100 years would see about 2ºC temperature rise

We have to try geoengineering, now, to try to reduce the warming effects of CO2 and methane. Peter Wadhams explains this very well.

Video
Article

Yeah, so urine is not sterile. Color me unsurprised. We're covered with bacteria, in and out.

Science News

Cutaway Bore Obstructions of a Webley Mark IV .38/200 Revolver

I understand the first one. But all eight of them? Maybe it was some sort of performance test.

As seen on Reddit.

Copper foam turns CO2 into useful chemicals

We're going to need to start sequestering CO2 and CH4 if we want to get the runaway greenhouse effect under control.

"The experiments showed that the copper foam converted CO2 into formic acid — a compound often used as a feedstock for microbes that produce biofuels — at a much greater efficiency than planar copper. The reaction also produced small amounts of propylene, a useful hydrocarbon that’s never been reported before in reactions involving copper."

Article from Brown University

3 in Congress going after SpaceX for cutting into profits of big defense contractors.

"[T]his whole thing looks to me to be a transparent attempt from members of our Congress to hinder a privately owned company that threatens their own interests." - Phil Plait

Article on Slate

Whopping huge storms on Uranus!

Article on Space.com

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

These are good people. 1-800-273-8255

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

But wait, there's more! Triclosan linked to cancer cell growth!

Like I said before, DON'T USE ANTIBACTERIALS!

Bloomberg News Story on Triclosan

FDA Panel: No Advantage to Antibacterial Soap

EPA List of things that kill norovirus:
Triclosan is not on that list. It's antibacterial, not antiviral.

I am not a doctor. Don't rely on me for medical advice.

Robin Williams

This is awful. Suicide was the 10th most frequent cause of death in the US in 2011.

My friend Elena Day says, "When he (Robin Williams) visited La Nouba (the Cirque du Soleil show Elena performed in), I LITERALLY threw myself at his feet, grabbed his ankle and said, "I love you, Robin!!" He was remarkable. He could say specifically what each person had done in the show and complimented them on it. I'm in shock."

That's as good a eulogy as I can think of.

Robin Williams Death

CDC Stats

Civilians take control of an abandoned NASA satellite.

This is totally awesome! Civilian space geeks take over control of a decommissioned NASA satellite and open source the data. NASA gave permission for this to happen in an entirely novel agreement.

Link at BetaBeat

Wire grid polarizers for NASA

Here's a blog post at Tormach of my work, including some video of the dance I programmed into the machine to wind the wire onto the small square grid. More on this in Publications coming up.

http://www.tormach.com/blog/nasa-piper/

Publications: Microwave Optics: Blackbody Calibrator: 2004

Design and Calibration of a Cryogenic Blackbody Calibrator at Centimeter Wavelengths

A. Kogut, E. Wollack, D. J. Fixsen, M. Limon, P. Mirel, S. Levin, M. Seiffert, P. M. Lubin
Review of Scientific Instruments 75 (2004) 5079-5083

We describe the design and calibration of an external cryogenic blackbody calibrator used for the first two flights of the Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission (ARCADE) instrument. The calibrator consists of a microwave absorber weakly coupled to a superfluid liquid helium bath. Half-wave corrugations viewed 30 deg off axis reduce the return loss below -35 dB. Ruthenium oxide resistive thermometers embedded within the absorber monitor the temperature across the face of the calibrator. The thermal calibration transfers the calibration of a reference thermometer to the flight thermometers using the flight thermometer readout system. Data taken near the superfluid transition in 8 independent calibrations 4 years apart agree within 0.3 mK, providing an independent verification of the thermometer calibration at temperatures near that of the cosmic microwave background.

http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0402580v1.pdf

Publications: Microelectronics: Properties of thin-film SiO2: 1989

Measurements of the thermal conductivity of micrometer-thick films of silicon dioxide are reported for the first time. Results show that the thermal conductivity is much lower than the values reported for bulk specimens, decreases with increasing temperature, and decreases with decreasing film thickness. This means that heating effects may be much larger than expected in accelerated stress tests and in other cases where joule heating can be a concern.
Schafft, H.A. ; National Institutes of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA ; Suehle, J.S. ; Mirel, P.G.A. Microelectronic Test Structures, 1989. ICMTS 1989. Proceedings of the 1989 International Conference on Date of Conference: 13-14 March 1989

On Violence

"Violence is NEVER, EVER, a choice that a man should make." - Patrick Stewart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqFaiVNuy1k

How big is the comet Rosetta is going to land instruments on?

Here we go. How big is the comet we're about to land a spacecraft on? This big!

For those of you who asked how big is the comet, here's something we put together to show its size relative to things we know...http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/files/2014/07/esa-rosetta_how-big-is_comet_67P.jpg

Get your Vitamin D level checked.

“We expected to find an association between low Vitamin D levels and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, but the results were surprising – we actually found that the association was twice as strong as we anticipated."

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_405559_en.html

How dry is California? So Dry!

This is deadly serious: 

http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-g-california-drought-map-htmlstory.html

Genes

I just read Dan Riskin's book, Mother Nature is Trying to Kill You. It was a great read, except for being excessively sentimental at the end. I wanted something more technical, so I finally got around to reading (in audiobook form) The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. The audiobook is particularly good, read by Dawkins and his wife, Lalla Ward, who played Romana on Dr. Who. Their particular emphasis makes understanding the material much easier, in my experience.

Mass Effect

I did some creative consulting for weapons design for Mass Effect, back when my friend Chris Hepler was writing for them. The Reaper Blackstar was based on some (fictional) physics I worked out.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Reaper_Blackstar

"The Reaper weapon nicknamed "Blackstar" is so advanced that Alliance scientists can only offer speculation about how it works. The gun appears to exploit an element zero core and mass effect fields to fire gravitational singularities - micro black holes - that revert to their natural lethality when they impact a solid object. Researchers theorize that the blast tears apart the strong nuclear forces that hold the target's atoms together, resulting in a localized fusion reaction in light atoms and a fission reaction in heavy atoms. If that hypothesis is correct, the weapon alters nuclei, thus changing the chemical composition of the target. It destroys organic tissue, corrodes surviving armor, and leaves a visible trail of light-emitting particles.

Although some might argue that the Blackstar's single-launch capability makes it a liability, its capacity for utter destruction is essential when the user requires large-scale, instantaneous damage."

Twitter Roundup

My Recent Posts from Twitter:

Wine contains endocrine disrupting pthalates, absorbed from epoxy linings of fermentation tanks. Soda & beer cans too http://bit.ly/1ooayr4

Antibacterials Triclosan & Triclocarban pass thru placenta & are potential teratogens. DON'T USE ANTIBACTERIAL SOAPS. http://bit.ly/1uCK0C2 

We keep poking the climate dragon, "and eventually the dragon becomes pissed off enough to trash the place." http://bit.ly/1lk7juS 

Difficulties in civilian life, rather than war experiences, linked to drinking problems for soldiers back home http://bit.ly/UFB4z6 

Lands' End Announces Science-Themed Tees For Girls. Excellent. Superb.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/30/lands-end-science-tees-for-girls_n_5635375.html

Math is really useful for figuring out how to make the part of the Universe that you have under your control do what you want it to do.  PM

One of nation’s largest engineering staffing providers, Kelly Services, predicts U.S. will need 250,000 more engineers in next ten years.

To the extent we exclude anyone from engineering, we miss good ideas. @PaulMirel speaking to a group of young engineers from the @NSBE

How to print metals of the future: @NASA's new #3D tech may build spacecraft parts http://go.nasa.gov/1lOWlgP  

Oh, this is going to be good: Satanists demand religious exemption from laws that restrict access to abortion.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/07/28/3464769/satanists-hobby-lobby-abortion/

NASA: "The most powerful agency on the dreams of our nation is currently underfunded." -- Neil DeGrasse Tyson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbIZU8cQWXc

If we exclude women from engineering, we miss half the good ideas. #egalitarianism #womenintech

C2N14, zero H. Azidoazide Azide. Compound so sensitive, they had to dim the Raman spectrometer to prevent exploding.

http://bit.ly/WNUNqd