For your daily intake of interesting thoughts...

An international team of researchers, led by physicists from Lund University, have confirmed the existence of what is considered a new element with atomic number 115. The experiment was conducted at the GSI research facility in Germany. The results confirm earlier measurements performed by research groups in Russia.

"In the future, if you need a new smartphone case, you might not have to drive to the store and purchase one that comes wrapped in even more plastic." Actually I was thinking more of printing whatever LEGO blocks you might need for a certain home project

Vortices in the South Atlantic are mathematically equivalent to black holes, say physicists, an idea that could lead to new ways of understanding how currents transport oil and garbage across oceans Black holes are regions of spacetime in which gravity is strong enough to prevent anything escaping, even light.

DuckDuckGo is a search engine that does not track you and, has more instant answers and less spam/clutter. You can still search google hits by added !g to your search query, which will then send an encrypted search request to google and return only the sensible part

The Royal Society of Chemistry, together with the British Cheese Board, has today announced the formula for making the perfect slice of cheese on toast.

Researchers report a new way to use X-rays to probe the properties of solid materials.

The paper: Mass and motion of globulettes in the Rosette Nebula http://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2013/07/aa21547-13/aa21547-13.html

In follow up of our discussion yesterday, what would be required to get private investment to keep an orbiting station going? Do we actually want to? On the side, at least the budget for NASA seems to make it unlikely to be able to afford both ISS and a beyond-Earth orbit exploration program (http://www.americaspace.com/?p=36568)

According to the article it seems that the growth of biofilms in space (MIR, ISS) is continuing to be a challenge for any space missions. Hardly any information is present on what role gravity plays in their growth and development. Maybe detection is also one important aspect of this indeed (Tom?)

I like the following text: "It's still exponentially hard, but it's exponentially easier than we thought," Duffy says. One implication is that an attacker who simply relied on the frequencies with which letters occur in English words could probably guess a user-selected password much more quickly than was previously thought. "Attackers often use graphics processors to distribute the problem," Duffy says. "You'd be surprised at how quickly you can guess stuff."

Nice examples of multiple quadcopter control and feedback loops

More details in the linked pdf file.. a low pressurized tube with pods floating on air cushions together with EM propulsion and braking.. cool, but probably not going to be build any day soon

It would be great indeed, but even though the cost of the high speed train is a factor 10x higher, the prototype nature and hence relatively lower TRL of this system will probably not have it favoured. Best chance is that he develops a working prototype, one that might not even transport humans at the moment and for short distances, then maybe the project can take off

Tonight also YoungESA is going to gather at Oudenhoorn beach at the lake in Warmond just North of Leiden from 22h onwards

Beyond google glass, the contacts

Vertical windmills based on fish fins and school swimming behaviour