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Mars Base

The Olympic Torch That Went Around the World… Literally - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ent-around-the-world-literally

scibyte119 Olympics

shared by Mars Base on 07 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Ever since the first relay for the 1936 summer Olympic games in Berlin, Olympic torches have traditionally been used to carry a burning flame
  • from Greece to the host country’s stadium
  • On Nov. 6, 2013 (Nov. 7 UT) a Soyuz TMA-11M rocket launched
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • the Expedition 38/39 crew to the ISS
  • Along with their mission supplies and personal items, the crew members brought along something special: a torch for the 2014 Olympics.
  • The torch was brought into space two days later
  • during an EVA on Nov. 9, and handed off from one cosmonaut to the other in a symbolic relay in orbit
  • “symbolic” because the torch was not lit during its time aboard the ISS or, obviously, while in space
  • the ISS travels around the Earth 16 times each day, and the torch spent nearly four days in space
  • it will be that particular spacefaring torch that will be used to light the 2014 Olympic cauldron during the Opening Ceremony in Sochi on Feb. 7.
Mars Base

Olympians live longer than general population... But cyclists no survival advantage ove... - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...ulation-cyclists-survival.html

scibyte76 Olympian

shared by Mars Base on 14 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • second study comparing athletes who trained at different physical intensities, found that those from high or moderate intensity sports have no added survival benefit over athletes from low intensity sports
  • Olympic medallists live longer than the general population, regardless of country of origin, medal won, or type of sport played
  • those who engage in disciplines with high levels of physical contact, such as boxing, rugby and ice hockey, are at an increased risk of death in later life
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • researchers compared life expectancy among 15,174 Olympic athletes who won medals between 1896 and 2010 with general population groups matched by country, sex, and age
  • All medallists lived an average of 2.8 years longer
  • in eight out of the nine country groups studied.
  • Gold, silver and bronze medallists enjoyed roughly the same survival advantage, as did medallists in both endurance and mixed sports
  • Medallists in power sports had a smaller, but still significant, advantage over the general population.
  • study was not designed to determine why Olympic athletes live longer
  • possible explanations include genetic factors, physical activity, healthy lifestyle, and the wealth and status that come from international sporting glory
  • In the second study, researchers measured the effect of high intensity exercise on mortality later in life among former Olympic athletes
  • They tracked 9,889 athletes
  • who took part in at least one Olympic Games between 1896 and 1936
  • represented 43 disciplines requiring different levels of exercise intensity and physical contact
  • researchers did find an 11% increased risk of mortality among athletes from disciplines with a high risk of body collision and with high levels of physical contact, such as boxing, rugby and ice hockey, compared with other athletes
  • two public health experts point out that people who do at least 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity also have a survival advantage compared with the inactive general population
  • , they found that athletes from sports with high cardiovascular intensity (such as cycling and rowing) or moderate cardiovascular intensity (such as gymnastics and tennis) had similar mortality rates compared with athletes from low cardiovascular intensity sports, such as golf or cricket
Mars Base

Cloned Horses Coming to the Olympics? - 0 views

news.nationalgeographic.com/...ondon-olympics-2012-equestrian

scibyte58 horse Olympics

shared by Mars Base on 04 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • July 2012 the Féderation Equestre Internationale (FEI) lifted a ban on cloned horses and their progeny competing in the Olympic Games
  • cloning isn't easy, it isn't cheap, and there are no guarantees that the clone will match the talent of the original
  • cloning process can cost more than a hundred thousand U.S. dollars.
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • first successfully cloned horse
  • was born in 2003
  • Today, there are only a few hundred equine clones, created mainly for breeding
  • a top stallion for in vitro fertilization can go for tens of thousands of dollars
  • most male horses in high-level competitions are geldings
  • a mare can bear only so many foals
  • most common use for cloned horses is to perpetuate genetic material. The original horse can travel and compete, while its copy becomes a full-time foal-making machine
  • 2007 the FEI's general assembly decided that cloning was "potentially against the spirit of sport in that it was unfair
  • key factor in the decision was the high price of cloning, which has since come
  • federation determined that the clones were only 98 percent copies of the originals
  • the error margin of a full 2 percent was what ultimately caused the FEI to overturn the ban
  • widely agreed that environment, training, nutrition, and relationship with the rider have an incalculable impact on the horse's performance
  • American Quarter Horse Association won't allow clones
  • Neither will the Jockey Club, which registers thoroughbreds in North America
  • FEI has been careful to emphasize that cloning is a breeding technique only
  • only 300-odd horses competing in the Olympics, clones have to battle their way to the top just as traditionally bred horses do.
Mars Base

Russia launches Sochi Olympic torch into space - 0 views

phys.org/...sochi-olympic-torch-space.html

scibyte109 Olympics

shared by Mars Base on 07 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Russian officials have made it clear that the torch will remain unlit at all times for safety reasons.
  • the Olympic torch was carried into space ahead of the 1996 and 2000 Olympics in Atlanta and Sydney but has never before been taken on a spacewalk
Mars Base

Summer Olympics: 2020 | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...look-summer-olympics-2020

scibyte58 Olympics

shared by Mars Base on 05 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • HOLOGRAPHIC OBSTACLES
  • 100 riders are injured in eventing falls every year, and when a multimillion-dollar horse goes down, even a minor injury like a twisted ankle can end its career
  • Line-of-sight infrared beams could monitor the edges of the obstacles; if the horse breaks the beam, the system would instantly alert the judges—and the crowd—to the fault
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • SMART LANDING PADS
  • Scoring the exact length of a long or triple jump can be imprecise and time-consuming
  • land in a sand pit
  • Researchers at Arizona State University have developed a 2,016-pressure-sensor array to map where an athlete hits the ground
  • underneath the sand in the landing pit, a dozen or so of the mats could record the exact point of touchdown
  • computer could automatically calculate the length of the jump
  • HEAD-UP GOGGLES
  • Swimmers
  • with an integrated head-up display could broadcast a live view of the competition and help racers to better pace themselves
  • AUTOMATIC GOAL KEEPER
  • German research
  • has developed an automated goal-tracking system
  • Actuators around the net generate a magnetic field across the face of the goal. When the ball passes through that field, a chip embedded in the ball sends a signal to the ref’s watch within one tenth of a second.
  • RETRACTABLE DIVING BOARD
  • On a good day, a diver’s head misses the board by a couple of inches
  • famously, Greg Louganis in the 1988 Olympics.
  • In the one second a typical diver is airborne above the plane of the board, it could retract as much as three feet
Mars Base

Crew Launches to Space Station with Olympic Torch - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ace-station-with-olympic-torch

scibyte109 Olympics

shared by Mars Base on 07 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • In an usual situation, when the new crew arrives, there will be nine crew members and three Soyuz vehicles at the ISS
  • The new crew is bringing the unlit torch along, then
  • the space station’s current crew, will take the torch out on a spacewalk,
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • The real reason for the spacewalk is to do some routine Russian maintenance outside the station
  • Then,
  • three crew members will return
  • and they will bring the torch back home
  • The torch then will be given back to Olympic officials and it will be used in the opening ceremonies of the February games
  • There have not been nine crew members on the ISS since 2009.
Mars Base

Soyuz Lands Safely with Space Station Crew and Olympic Torch - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...station-crew-and-olympic-torch

scibyte109 Olympics

shared by Mars Base on 11 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Expedition 37 crew members Karen Nyberg of NASA, Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency have returned to Earth from the International Space Station
  • after spending 166 days in space.
Mars Base

Santorini Bulges as Magma Balloons Underneath - 0 views

news.nationalgeographic.com/...lava-santorini-volcano-science

scibyte63 Santorini

shared by Mars Base on 13 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Santorini locals began to suspect last year that something was afoot with the volcano under their Greek island group
  • Wine glasses occasionally vibrated and clinked in cafes, suggesting tiny tremors, and tour guides smelled strange gasses.
  • satellite radar technology has revealed the source of the symptoms. A rush of molten rock swelled the magma chamber under the volcano by some 13 to 26 million cubic yards (10 to 20 million cubic meters)—about 15 times the volume of London's Olympic Stadium—between January 2011 and April 2012
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • even forced parts of the island's surface to rise upward and outward by 3 to 5.5 inches (8 to 14 centimeters).
  • volcano has been quiet for 60 years
  • recent events don't indicate an imminent eruption
  • the earthquake activity and the rate of bulging have both slowed right down in the last few months, it doesn't look as though the volcano is about to start to erupt, and it is quite likely that it could remain quiet for another few years or decades.
  • don't know enough about the lifecycle of large volcanoes in between eruptions to be certain
  • beginning in the January 2011 data, more than a thousand small quakes, most of them imperceptible
  • confirmed a subtle rise in Santorini's surface level with satellite radar images and GPS receivers
  • Catastrophic eruptions on Santorini, which produce mostly pumice rather than lava, appear to occur here about 20,000 years apart
  • The last one, in 1950, oozed enough lava to cover a few tennis courts
  • Despite its relative quiet, Santorini is an ideal location to learn more about processes like the magma chamber's rapid inflation
  • While satellite evidence of swelling magma chambers has rarely been available for an active volcano, the processes the data represent may not be all that unusual
  • some large volcanoes like Santorini and Yellowstone spend hundreds or thousands of years in a state of what you'd call dormancy
  • they'll often have these little restless patches
  • These types of phenomena are likely to be common, but you need the right instruments and technology to detect what are usually rather small changes in behavior."
  • we aren't any closer to knowing if, or when, the next lava eruption might happen
  • likening the recent swelling to someone blowing a big breath into an invisible balloon.
  • don't know how small or big the balloon is, and we don't know whether just one more breath will be enough for it to pop or not
Mars Base

Cheetah Breaks Speed Record-Beats Usain Bolt by Seconds - 0 views

news.nationalgeographic.com/...rd-science-usain-bolt-olympics

scibyte58 cheetahs

shared by Mars Base on 04 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • Sarah the cheetah has shattered the world record for the standing 100-meter dash, clocking a time of 5.95 seconds—making Olympian Usain Bolt's world record of 9.58 seconds look positively stodgy by comparison
  • USA Track & Field-certified course established by the Cincinnati Zoo, the 11-year-old cheetah was radar-timed at up to 61 miles (98 kilometers) an hour
  • National Geographic magazine
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • featured in its November issue, which will include unprecedented high-speed pictures
  • June 20 sprint is the fastest timed 100 meters ever run by anything on the planet
  • five cheetahs each completed several sprints a day
  • bolting out of the back of one of the zoo's vans and chasing fluffy toy dogs as they were pulled across a meadow on a high-speed cord.
  • used to long sprints, regularly running for zoo crowds
  • not only good for the individual cats, who get much-needed exercise, but good for the species as well:
  • zoo's track-star cheetahs have helped raise over a million U.S. dollars for conservation
  • almost certain that cheetahs in the wild—lean, hungry, chasing down antelopes for their own survival or that of their cubs—have run considerably faster.
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