Researchers crown new lightweight champion

Dan Little / HRL Laboratories

A new type of nickel-phosphorus lattice is so light it can sit atop a ball of dandelion fluff without disturbing it.

Alan Boyle writes

Researchers have created a new kind of metal that rates as the world's lightest material ? and just might show up in future batteries and shock absorbers.

The nickel-phosphorus "microlattice," which is described in this week's issue of the journal Science, is the stuff that gee-whiz is made of: It actually consists of 99.99 percent air. The other 0.01 percent is made up of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness of 100 nanometers. That's 1,000 times thinner than a human hair.

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To get technical about it, the density of the material is?0.9 milligrams per cubic centimeter. In comparison, the lightest sample of aerogel, the stuff that's been called "solid smoke," has a density of 1.1 mg/cc.

The microlattice is made through a process that's completely different from the "cooking" technique that gives rise to aerogel. The researchers start by setting up a matrix of polymer lattices, and then deposit thin films of nickel-phosphorus. When the polymer is etched away, tiny metal tubes are left behind in the shape of the lattice.

Aerogel is foamy stuff that makes a great insulator but chips off easily. In contrast, the highly ordered structure of the microlattice makes it strong and resilient.

"Modern buildings, exemplified by the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge, are incredibly light and weight-efficient by virtue of their architecture," William Carter, manager of the architected materials group at California-based HRL Laboratories, explained today in a news release. "We are revolutionizing lightweight materials by bringing this concept to the nano and micro scales."

Lorenzo Valdevit, a materials scientist at the University of California at Irvine, said materials actually get stronger when the scale is reduced to the nanometer level. "Combine this with the possibility of tailoring the architecture of the microlattice, and you have a unique cellular material," he said in a UC-Irvine news release.

The material is strong enough to bounce back after being compressed by 50 percent, yet light enough to sit on top of a fluffy dandelion without disturbing it, as shown in the photo above. The stuff's properties make it ideal for applications that involve soundproofing or shock absorption, and it could also lead to lighter battery electrodes. It's no wonder that the material was developed for the?Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. (And yes, the developers have applied for a patent on the microlattice structure and formation process.)

Update for 10:15 p.m. ET: Valdevit provided a little more perspective on the "lightest material" claim in a follow-up phone call. "You might argue that it's a 'structure' rather than a 'material,'" he acknowledged. But the key?factor has to do with?how strong and resilient the microlattice is for its weight. That's what will determine how widely it's used.???

Science's Brandon Bryn narrates a video showing how an ultralight metallic microlattice recovers from compression. (Credit: HRL Laboratories / AAAS)

More material about materials science:

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In addition to Carter and Valdevit, authors of "Ultralight Metallic Microlattices" include Tobias Schaedler, A.J. Jacobsen, A.E. Sorensen, J. Lian and J.R. Greer.

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or following the Cosmic Log Google+ page. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

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Source: http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/17/8863013-scientists-create-lightweight-champ

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UK police We beat attack on royal wedding website

LONDON (AP) ? Scotland Yard's cybercrime unit helped fend off an attack on the official website of Britain's royal wedding in April, the division's chief said Tuesday.

Det. Supt. Charlie McMurdie told a London cybersecurity conference that action was taken to safeguard the site, which received 15 million hits when Prince William married Kate Middleton on April 29.

McMurdie made the comments in passing at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank. Asked for more information by The Associated Press, she said her unit had "been called in" to deal with an attack.

She declined to go into any further detail, but a Scotland Yard spokesman asked about the case said a 16-year-old had been detained on Oct. 10 in relation to "a suspected attempt to encourage others to commit a distributed denial-of-service attack."

Such attacks work by bombarding websites with bogus traffic in an attempt to overwhelm them.

The spokesman said the teenager is out on bail and has yet to be charged. He spoke anonymously in line with force policy.

The royal wedding was a massive Internet event, with providers saying it may have been the most heavily live-streamed event ever. Many websites, including the BBC and YouTube's royal channel, occasionally struggled to cope under the strain of the traffic.

The official royal wedding website said that, at its peak, it was handling more than 2,000 requests a second.

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Online:

Royal United Services Institute: http://www.rusi.org/

The Royal Wedding website: http://www.officialroyalwedding2011.org/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2011-11-15-EU-Britain-Royal-Wedding/id-44b55bb617a54de0abfbcfd35775cf04

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Eric Schmidt Doubles Down On SOPA Bill, Describing It As ?Censorship,? ?Draconian?

We've already articulated our stance on the PROTECT IP, SOPA, E-PARASITE, or whatever you want to call it bill, which creates a dangerous precedent of blacklisting domains and concentrates power on rights-holders, and remains vague enough to be easily abused. Eric Schmidt has already spoken out against it, saying that Google would not comply with its restrictions. Today he upped the rhetoric a bit while speaking at MIT's Sloan School of Management. "The solutions are draconian. There's a bill that would require ISPs to remove URLs from the Web, which is also known as censorship last time I checked." By dropping the C-bomb, Schmidt may have committed to becoming one of, if not the, most high-profile opponents of the bill in the tech industry, a position that may cause some inconvenience later. Luckily, he's got the clout to back up his harsh words.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HTz4A59GyNk/

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Sandglaz Is a Web-Based To-Do Manager That?s Part Day Planner, Part Calendar [Webapps]

There's no shortage of to-do managers and organizers on the web, but Sandglaz, a new webapp that combines the best things from a day planner and a calendar together into an easy-to-use webapp, really stands out. Adding to-dos, reordering them, and browsing your next actions are all easy operations that don't take a long tutorial to figure out. Sandglaz manages to be powerful and customizable without being difficult to use.

Regardless of the productivity system you use, Sandglaz has tools that work the way you work. If you're a GTD fan, the daily view shows you what you have on your plate right now, what your next actions are, and what you have to do later. If you're a fan of Covey's "four quadrant" approach to important and urgent to-dos, you'll appreciate the ability to organize your to-dos in groups called "grids" that show you your work in terms of what's urgent and important, what's important but not urgent, urgent but not important, or neither. If you'd rather just use Sandglaz as a day planner, you can do that as well with Sandglaz Infinity, the webapp's premium service, which lets you organize your to-dos by urgency and when they need to be done at the same time.

Once you have some to-dos added to Sandglaz, you can reorder them by dragging and dropping them, mark them complete by checking them, set due dates and add additional details that you need to complete the task, or even share them with someone else on your team right from the checklist screen.

Basic accounts at Sandglaz are free and allow you to create unlimited grids and to-dos and share your to-dos with as many people as you want. Sandglaz Infinity adds weekly grids, to-do tagging, priority support, and removes the ads. Infinity is free during beta so you can get a feel for all of Sandglaz's features, but when it launches it'll set you back $6/month if you want to continue using it.

Sandglaz

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You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/98lsLKjxvt4/sandglaz-is-a-web+based-to+do-manager-thats-day-planner-part-calendar

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Did Fracking Cause Oklahoma's Largest Recorded Earthquake?

QUAKE CAUSE?: Oklahoma recently experienced its strongest earthquake ever and some suggest drilling for oil and gas may have played a role. Image: ? iStockphoto.com / cstar55

Supplemental Material

• MP3 file Audio Fracking to Free Natural Gas?

The biggest earthquake ever recorded in Oklahoma struck on November 5, a magnitude 5.6 temblor that buckled a highway and ruptured water pipes. This quake is part of a skyrocketing rise in seismic activity the state has seen in the past three years, leading many to wonder?and worry?about its cause. Might the practice of fracking, a controversial method of drilling into rock for natural gas, be to blame?

The earthquake struck around 10 P.M. local time about 50 kilometers east of Oklahoma City, and was felt from Saint Louis to Dallas. Until then, the state's largest temblor was a magnitude 5.5 event near the town of El Reno in 1952.

Overall, only minor injuries and damage were reported after last weekend's earthquake. A magnitude 4.7 foreshock preceded the quake by about 20 hours, and dozens of aftershocks were detected as well. These all apparently happened on the well-mapped Wilzetta Fault. "It seems the east side of the fault moved a bit southward," says seismologist Randy Keller, director of the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS).

The recent uptick in the area's temblors has been dramatic. From 1972 to 2008 only two to six earthquakes were reported per year in Oklahoma, and were often too small for people to notice. However, in 2009 nearly 50 earthquakes were recorded (pdf), and that number more than doubled in 2010 to 1,047, with 103 powerful enough to be felt.

This unusual seismicity has led some to wonder about increased activity in the area related to fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, which uses millions of gallons of fluid to break apart rock and release natural gas. The practice generates a considerable amount of waste liquid, which is often disposed of by injecting it? into deep rock formations where it can lubricate faults. Hydraulic fracturing is common in Oklahoma, the nation's third-largest producer of natural gas, and has taken place there for decades (pdf). Now, with the discovery of natural gas deposits in other regions of the U.S., the extraction method is being used more widely and has raised concerns about its potential to contaminate drinking water.

Fracking has been linked to two minor earthquakes in northwest England, very likely by lubricating an already stressed fault zone and thus making it easier for the land to shift (pdf). A report in August (pdf) by seismologist Austin Holland at the OGS also suggested that a swarm of nearly 50 small quakes of magnitude 1.0 to 2.8 near the center of the state might have been triggered by nearby fracking.

Still, researchers say it seems unlikely that fracking had anything to do with last weekend's magnitude 5.6 quake. "There was a lot of deformation of the Earth here 300 million years ago that created huge geological structures in the subsurface that shift from time to time," Keller says. "We have an unstable situation here, and it's one reason why oil and gas is available here in the first place."

"I won't say that man's activity never ever caused the release of seismic stress, but hydro-fracks are such small things," Keller adds. "If we were talking a magnitude 1 or 2 earthquake, that'd be different, but it's awfully hard to imagine a hydro-frack being involved with one of this size. We also have to determine if there were any frack jobs going on there right now, but I don't think there were?it didn't happen in an area of particularly active oil and gas exploration."

As to whether the spike in earthquakes recently seen in the state might be due to fracking, "it is probably best not to attach much significance to perceived increases in seismic activity in Oklahoma?the occurrence of earthquakes anywhere is quite irregular," says seismologist Art McGarr with the U.S. Geological Survey. This surge in quakes might be a temporary statistical anomaly.

"It may be, however, that more earthquakes are being induced in Oklahoma because of an increase in disposal well operations and, indeed, research is going on now to investigate this possibility," McGarr says. The large amounts of fluid disposed of in this way can seep into cracks and lubricate already stressed faults, making it easier for them to slip and cause an earthquake." No answers yet, however."

Scientists had three or four seismographs positioned at the epicenter of the earthquake when it occurred, and another 25 to 30 will be deployed there now or soon to study aftershocks and locate the November 5 quake's origin more precisely. "In a few weeks or a month we may have a better idea of what might have caused this earthquake sequence?natural tectonic processes or industrial activities," McGarr adds.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=57aad76c42a81f96677e33818bd7301f

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Shayne Lamas Welcomes Daughter! Named Press!

Shayne Lamas and husband Nik Richie welcomed their first child, a daughter named Press, at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, Calif.

"I feel blessed today. Press Dahl Lamas-Richie is the coolest baby in the history of female kind," Nik, who owns The Dirty (dot) com, says of his offspring.

"She doesn't even cry and she has the prettiest eyelashes."

Richie admits that he and Lamas were planning to welcome their baby on 11/11/11, but that nature almost got in the way, as Lamas went into labor Thursday.

"The delivery was intense," he says. "Shayne was in labor for over 10 hours. Contractions were a total nightmare." But happily, everything is just great now.

"Shayne is glowing and I am truly proud of her," gushes the new family man.

So are we. To think how far our girl has come since we first got to know her. Congrats to Shayne Lamas, the former Bachelor winner, and her hubby Nik.

Oh, and Press is seeking representation if you know any L.A. agents. Really.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/shayne-lamas-welcomes-daughter-named-press/

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Iran rejects Bahrain's claim of terror cell links (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? Iran rejects Bahrain's allegations that a terror cell uncovered in the tiny island nation has links to the Shiite powerhouse's Revolutionary Guard, an Iranian deputy foreign minister said.

Bahrain's public prosecutor on Sunday alleged the cell planned attacks against high profile sites, such as the Saudi Embassy in the Bahraini capital Manama and a Gulf causeway linking Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

The cell purportedly had contact with Iran's Guard, according to a Bahrain News Agency report, which gave no further details to back up the allegations.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian said the claims were "baseless and fabricated" and urged the Bahraini government to focus instead on repairing the "deep schism" between its ruling Sunni monarchy and Shiite majority.

Abdollahian spoke to the Arabic Language al-Alam channel late on Sunday.

"We reject such deceptive allegations," he said. "We believe it is necessity to deal peacefully and democratically with legitimate demands voiced over the past months by the Bahraini people."

Bahrain's Sunni leaders have repeatedly accused Iran of encouraging Shiite-led protests that erupted in February in the kingdom, a charge Iran denies.

The Bahraini claim followed recent U.S. accusations that an elite unit of the Revolutionary Guard ? which is closely tied to Iran's ruling clerics ? was involved in a foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington. Iran has denied the American charges.

Bahrain's majority Shiites insist they have no political links to Iran. Bahrain's Sunni monarchy and its Gulf allies claim that Iran seeks to gain another foothold in the Arab world through unrest in the tiny strategic nation, which hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

The unrest in Bahrain has killed more than 35 people since it began nearly nine months ago, inspired by Arab uprisings elsewhere. Protesters say they are seeking greater rights and an end to the Sunni dynasty's hold on top political decisions. Bahrain's rulers have offered some compromises, such as expanding the powers of parliament, but not enough to satisfy the opposition.

The Iran-Bahrain tensions are not limited to politics.

On Saturday, Iran summoned Bahrain's envoy to Tehran to protest what it called mistreatment of Iranian football players and supporters following a 2014 World Cup qualifier in Manama.

Iran's official IRNA agency said security forces failed to confront some Bahraini supporters who threw water bottles and other objects at the Iranian players and supporters.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111114/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_terror_cell

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