In case you missed them, here’s another chance to catch this week’s greatest hits. Flaring, active regions of our Sun captured by several telescopes; the Internet’s dependence on undersea cables; On-the-Go! fascinating facts about USB OTG; how we invented a Star Trek-style sonic tractor beam; and one of largest cosmological simulations ever run were all among the top stories.
Birth of Universe is One of Largest Cosmological Simulations Ever Run
Researchers are sifting through an avalanche of data produced by one of the largest cosmological simulations ever performed. The simulation, run on the Titan supercomputer, modeled the evolution of the universe from just 50 million years after the Big Bang to the present day — from its earliest infancy to its current adulthood. Over the course of 13.8 billion years, the matter in the universe clumped together …
How We Invented a Star Trek-style Sonic Tractor Beam
When I think of a tractor beam — a stream of energy that can move objects — I imagine a ray emerging from a spaceship gripping an object outside and pulling it in. In my mind this spaceship is the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek, but the idea has been used in countless science fiction plots. But in the last few decades, the concept has also gathered attention from scientists and engineers.
On-the-Go! Fascinating Facts about USB OTG
No, as much as it might be needed, this column doesn’t address how to deal with the numerous frenetic projects that we are tasked with handling every day. On-the-Go is an extension to the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard, more commonly seen as USB OTG. We’ll forgo trying to determine who came up with a name like this and, instead, take a look at some of the fascinating things it allows us to do.
In our Wi-Fi World, the Internet Still Depends on Undersea Cables
Recently, a New York Times article on Russian submarine activity near undersea communications cables dredged up Cold War politics and generated widespread recognition of the submerged systems we all depend upon. Not many people realize that undersea cables transport nearly 100 percent of transoceanic data traffic. These lines carry the world’s internet, phone calls and even TV transmissions between continents at the speed of light.
Flaring, Active Regions of our Sun
Flaring, active regions of our sun are highlighted in this new image combining observations from several telescopes. High-energy X-rays from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) are shown in blue; low-energy X-rays from Japan’s Hinode spacecraft are green; and extreme ultraviolet light from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is yellow and red. All three telescopes captured their solar images around the same time.
