BYO Death Ray: Carbon nanohairs

Dylan is back with some nanonews.

Carbon nanotubes may help robots to better sense their environment and more!

Carbon nanotubes, is there anything they can't do?
Source Wikimedia Commons

Hairlike fibre sensors made out of tiny carbon tubes and silver particles may just be the new way to sense pressure. Whether for robots or micro-controllers, these new sensors open a world of possibility!

These sensors can detect tiny changes in pressure. A film of carbon nanotubes on the fibres carry tiny electrical signals that change when the nanotubes feel pressure, such as from wind or touch. The film of nanotubes also enables the fibre to flex over and over again while always returning to its original shape.

Help! I woke up 800 million km from home

Imagine going to sleep one night and when you wake up you are 800 million km from home. This happened to the comet-hunting Rosetta spacecraft this week after nearly three years of hibernation.

Rosetta was built by the European Space Agency and launched in 2004. It has been busy: It passed close to the Earth three times, in 2005, 2007 and 2009, and it had close encounters with Mars (2007) and two large asteroids (2008 and 2010). But its main mission is to study a comet called 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

WAKE UP! You've got work to do.
A computer generated image of the Rosetta. Public Domain image

Young Wildlife Photographer - AND JOURNALIST - of the year

Are you 17 or under?

Yes? Then keep reading.

Do you own or have access to a mobile phone that takes pictures and video?

Yes? Then keep reading.

Do you want a free trip to London, England?

Yes? Then keep reading.

Do you want the chance to GO ON A FIELD ASSIGNMENT WITH THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM (London)?

Of course you do - keep reading.

BYO Death Ray: NASA News

Dylan is back with some recent news from NASA.

A 'creature' with large tentacles has appeared 600 km off the Australian coast. It was spotted in the south-eastern Indian Ocean by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) module on a NASA satellite. The 'creature' is more than 100 km wide and is quite bright in the ocean, sparking questions about whether there are large life-forms under the earth, like in the 2013 movie Pacific Rim.

A giant monster from the deep? Source: NASA

Silly Science: Chemistry Cat Compilation

That Crazy Chemistry Cat is always joking around. Dylan has sent in his favourites.

You can make your own here (if you do, share it with the Death Ray Science News community in the comments or send it to me at deathrayscience@gmail.com).

BYO Death Ray: Space station spotting

Dylan headed out into the field (just outside his house) to see the International Space Station. Here is his report.

On January 3, 2014 at 9:36pm, I was able to see the International Space Station for around six minutes, passing from the NNW (north-north-west) towards the ESE (east-south-east) at 50 degrees. As I was seeing it for the first time, I did not know what to expect. The skies were very clear and at around 9:38, I saw a fast moving straight white dot/line travelling in the correct direction. Using a compass and my notepad I took down some observations about the sighting.

• It travelled in the correct direction at 50 degrees from the horizon.
• It travelled faster and straighter than any other object in the sky.
• It is one of the brightest objects in the sky.
• It is far away from the stars and easy to see when you find it.

The ISS is the brighter dot in the centre of the screen as I took the photo.

2013 was HOT STUFF!

2013 was Australia's hottest year since measurements began. The average temperature across Australia was 21.8 °C, which is 1.2 °C above the long-term average (1961-1990) and 0.2 °C higher than the previous record year, 2005.

The year started hot, when on January 7 Australia recorded its hottest day ever, with an average maximum temperature across the country of 40.3 °C. January was also the hottest on record, as was the entire summer.

Other temperature records that were broken in Australia last year included the hottest winter day, the hottest spring average and the hottest September average.

Almost every day of the year was above average (in red)
Source: Bureau of Meteorology

Pi art

Pi is one of the most important and interesting numbers there is, but this infinite and seemingly random mix of numbers is just not very attractive... until now.

The folks over at Numberphile have just released a video showing some of the amazing, Pi inspired artwork of Martin Krzywinski and Cristian Ilies Vasile.


Pi links (Pinks)

• What is Pi anyway, and does it taste any good?
• This is what the first 1,000,000 digits of Pi look like.
• And this is what the world's largest pumpkin pie looks like.

Silly Science: Wet jokes

Fresh from scouring the web for the top science images of the year, regular BYO contributor Dylan has sent in a couple of funny images.