Stuff I learned at the Science Festival this year

[daibhidc]

1) The difference between scientists and engineers working on Rosetta is that scientists thought "The comet's shaped like a duck! That's fascinating!" and the engineers though "Oh my god! How do we land on that?"

2) The Royal Astronomical Society has a drinking song based on Halley's Comet.

3) If you filled a bike's tires with hydrogen instead of air, it would reduce the weight by only 10g. A more effective idea would be carbon nanotube spokes, which we might see within 10 years. Or rather, we wouldn't see them; it would look like the wheels were spokeless.

4) A plant grown under both a normal bulb and an infra red bulb will push more energy into the height at the expense of the roots, because it thinks it's in the shade.

5) "Serious games" is the new name for educational games. Kids with cancer who play a shoot-'em-up where you're a nanobot zapping cancer cells are better at taking their medication because they understand what's going on more.

6) The performers at the Lab Notes musical comedy event were awesome, and I need to check out their CDs.

Comments

[cat63.livejournal.com]

A more effective idea would be carbon nanotube spokes, which we might see within 10 years. Or rather, we wouldn't see them; it would look like the wheels were spokeless.

Having watched hubby doing wheelbuilding , my first thought was "That'd be a bugger to true..."