August 02, 2000 -
Looking
forward to the ISS - Experts in the fields of
biology, chemistry, physics and general science proclaimed
last week that the International Space Station moves to the
"head of the class" compared to the Spacelab and
Mir programs...
Atoms
Offer Giant Leap In Computing
Power - The strange
science of quantum mechanics
promises a revolution in
computer power as radical as
that following the invention of
the transistor in the 1950s.
That invention sent computer
performance on a rocket-like
trajectory upward, its ascent
governed by what became
popularly known as Moore's Law,
after Intel founder Gordon Moore
who coined it. It states that
computers tend to double their
speed every 18 months...
Quantum
Teleportation -
Teleportation is the name given
by science fiction writers to
the feat of making an object or
person disintegrate in one place
while a perfect replica appears
somewhere else... Two years ago
an international group of six
scientists, including IBM Fellow
Charles H. Bennett, confirmed
the intuitions of the majority
of science fiction writers by
showing that perfect
teleportation is indeed possible
in principle, but only if the
original is destroyed...
Web Body To Accept Address Plans
- The Internet's oversight body said Thursday it
will accept proposals next month for expanding the pool of online
addresses used to find Web sites. New domain names such as ''.movie'' or ''.travel'' would help
relieve the crowded field of
dot-coms. They would be the first
global suffixes added since the 1980s, when Net use was limited to
academics and bureaucrats...
IMPACT!
- NASA's Chandra X-ray
Observatory images a young
supernova blast wave. May 11,
2000 -- Two images made by
NASA's Chandra X-ray
Observatory, one in October
1999, the other in January 2000,
show for the first time the full
impact of the actual blast wave
from Supernova 1987A (SN1987A).
The observations are the first
time that X-rays from a shock
wave have been imaged at such an
early stage of a supernova
explosion...
IMAGE
First Light - NASA's
IMAGE mission, a unique
satellite dedicated to space
storms, has returned its first
pictures of electrified gas
surrounding our planet.
"IMAGE is the first weather
satellite for space
storms," said Dr. James L.
Burch, Principal Investigator
for IMAGE at Southwest Research
Institute, San Antonio, Texas.
"This revolutionary
spacecraft makes these invisible
storms visible. In a sense,
IMAGE allows us to view the
Earth through plasma-colored
glasses. We eagerly anticipate
the arrival of severe solar
weather associated with solar
maximum, which we are now
entering..."
