Popular Science Power point Alejandro Valencia P. 33-3-2014

Modular Phones Are A Brilliant Idea. It’s Too Bad We May Never Have Them.

• Motorola unveiled project ARA, trying to create he first modular phone. Modular phones are smartphones that snap together as easily as LEGOs users will mix and match the modules they want—screens, batteries, cameras, keyboards—and connect them to a standard phone skeleton.

• few harsh realities stand stubbornly in the way. The system would be a substantial departure from how big companies currently market their phones. Carriers and manufacturers thrive on planned obsolescence; they want you to buy a new phone every two years.

• It’s an exciting, and entirely feasible, proposition that could completely transform our relationship to phones. But there’s a problem: It could also spell doom for manufacturers.

What Escapes A Black Hole?• Black holes have a bad rep

they’re known for sucking everything in around them. But matter can actually break away from their grasp, in the form of jets

• Astronomers did not know what these jets were made up of until recently. jets are composed primarily of electrons and atomic nuclei, including those from heavy metals, such as iron and nickel

• jets carry large amounts of mass and energy from the black hole into space. In some cases, they’re so powerful that they can create shock waves that collapse surrounding gas clouds—triggering the birth of new stars.

The Garbage Man

• Mike Biddle  could free the world from having to make new plastic Forever.

• biddle had quietly achieved what most thought impossible: He had discovered how to separate certain mixed plastics completely.

• Biddle could take the plastic from, say, a laptop, reduce it to its purest form, and sell it back to a company to make another laptop.

A Cheap, Promising Way to Filter Water: Through A Twig

• A team of scientists have done just that, testing how well pine wood filtered water with its xylem, the tube-like tissue that transports water from plant roots to leaves

• To make a filter, all you need to do is peel the bark off a pine twig and stick it into a tube, sealing holes between twig and tube with epoxy. Then the pressure must be optimized, which is a little bit trickier

Chinese Scientist Likens Beijing's Smog Problem To "Nuclear Winter"

• A Chinese scientist said that the smog situation in the country is so bad that it resembles a "nuclear winter," preventing plants from producing energy from the sun's rays via photosynthesis, and presenting a possible disaster for the country's food supply.

Black Widow Spiders Would Rather Not Bite You • Scientist in Loma Linda university in California explain that black widow

would rather not bite you unless really threatened • The scientists started out by being annoying, giving each spider one little

nudge somewhere on its body. The spiders edged away. Then things escalated to a “medium threat,” representing a more persistent predator, in which they poked each spider every second for one minute. The spiders moved again, retracted their legs, and sometimes flicked silk-bombs in the attackers' general direction. For the “high threat” response, they coaxed each spider onto a gelatin finger — here, little spider! — and pinched down on it for 10 seconds. That provoked the biggest spider freak-out: The critters played dead or bit down on the finger, injecting their venom.

Nighttime Smartphone Use Can Sap Next Day's Energy• Using your smartphone at night might not be the smartest plan. A pair of

studies found that people who used the devices after 9 p.m. were more tired and less engaged at work the next day.

• recent research suggests that the negative effects of insufficient sleep may be mitigated by the strategic use of naps, stimulants (e.g., caffeine), reshuffling important tasks to other people, scheduling breaks, and working in teams."  

The Car That Runs On Air• Two engineers from French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroën thought they

could overcome that problem by pairing two tried-and-true technologies: a gasoline engine and hydraulics. To test the concept, they formed the Hybrid Air Program in 2010 and connected the engine of a subcompact car to a commercial airplane’s hydraulic system

• The Hybrid Air power train, which Mokadaddem designed with Andrés Yarce, uses a hydraulic pump and a piston to compress the nitrogen gas in a tank called the high-pressure accumulator. Hitting the accelerator releases the pressurized gas, which then moves hydraulic fluid through the same pump in reverse. The pump acts as a motor to power the wheels and the hydraulic fluid ends up in a second tank.

You Can Pay Via Fingerprint With Samsung's Latest Phone

• At Mobile World Congress Samsung announced the latest version of its flagship Smartphone, the Galaxy S5.

• a fingerprint scanner stuffed inside, Samsung has teamed up with PayPal to get you shopping through, literally, the press of a single button. Rather than logging in with a standard password on sites accepting PayPal, S5 users will soon be able to access their accounts through their fingers.

In Tibet, Dogs Breathe Comfortably With Less Oxygen• The Tibetan Mastiff, which commonly serves as a guard dog for the

plateau's residents, is able to breathe comfortably at high altitudes. Like the Tibetan people, Tibetan Mastiffs have adapted to air with less oxygen.