Wednesday 29 April 2015

News and updates ~ 29/04/15: Science and Business news

The out of control rocket which will undoubtedly crash back to earth

Picture released by the press service of the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos shows a Russian Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle carrying Progress M-27M cargo ship lifting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, 28 April 2015.A Russian spacecraft delivering supplies to the International Space Station is out of control and will fall back to Earth according to Russia's space agency. The  ship was took off on Tuesday from Kazakhstan , unfortunately contact was lost within moments. Russia's space agency says Progress M-27M is now orbiting in an "uncontrolled spin". It will not reach the ISS and it is more likely that it will drop like a stone back to earth, probably breaking up on re-entrye. The craft carried on to a higher orbit after contact was lost. Progress was to deliver food, water, fuel, oxygen and clothing to the crew of six people on the space station that orbits about 250 miles above Earth. The loss was estimated at  £32.9 million, according to a Roscosmos spokesman.

Nasdaq releases Twitter reports early, causing a leak in share prices for the social media giant


Image result for twitterYesterday, a leak  exposed twitter reports early, states Nasdaq. "The posting was caused by an operational issue that exposed the release on Twitter's investor relations website for approximately 45 seconds," . During this time a website found the results and tweeted them. US markets were still trading and shares in Twitter fell 18%. US firms should report their earnings during periods when markets are non-operational as to avoid huge changes in their share price. But on Tuesday, a website called Selerity, which a scans useful investor information, discovered the pre-released reports, which was then spread by other outlets. Twitter also reported a net loss of $162m, an increase from the same period a year ago when it lost $132.4m. Here's what Nasdaq had to say on the incident; "We regret the incident and remain fully committed to providing the highest quality Investor Relations communication product and services to our clients." 

That's it for today folks... catch our previous post here: http://designingbrilliance.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/news-and-updates-24415-business.html

Quantum Stuff #11

Quantum Stuff #11

Quantum Entanglement


Usually in quantum mechanics each particle has it own quantum state so when a pair or group of particles can only be said to have one big quantum state we say that the particles are entangled.

Measurements of physical properties such as momentum are appropriately correlated. Meaning that the physical property are the same before and after they act one each other and become a 'entangled system'. But because of the theory of uncertainty we can never know all of the physical properties accurately.

Keep Learning and Have a Great Day,
Quantum Mechanics Enthusiast,

Friday 24 April 2015

News and Updates ~ 24/4/15: Business, technology, science and industry news!


Nasdaq and S&P 500 markets reach all time new record 


There is a lot of news to tell you about this week, but one huge piece of news is that both Nasdaq and the S &P markets have reached record highs! This is great news after  the fall in the FTSE recently discussed in our previous post. It rose a massive 36,02 points, closing at 5,096,08 which is the highest it has been since the famous dot-com bubble of 2000. Amazon was the run away winner, as shares rose by 14%, the company is now worth about £136.1 billion! 

Titnnitus mysteries uncovered as massive science advancements made 

brain recordings illustration
"Tinnitus, the constant presence of phantom sounds, affects around 10% of adults in the UK; for 1% it is severe enough to affect their quality of life. Often it takes the form of a ringing sound, but it can be anything from a roar to a hiss. " strangely enough though, it has always been difficult to pin down the cause of tinnitus until now. A patient undergoing surgery had electrodes attached to monitor his brain activity. Researchers compared brain activity when his tinnitus was loud, with periods when it was quiet. They spotted differences spread over a surprisingly wide set of brain areas. This allows for an accurate mapping of the regions of the brain effected, hopefully further developing our understanding. 

Hubble celebrates 25th anniversary today!

Westerlund 2
On April 24 1990, the space shuttle Discovery lifted off from Earth carrying the Hubble Space Telescope. It has helped to answer astronomical questions - such as the origin of the Magellanic Stream, a long ribbon of gas stretching nearly halfway around our Milky Way - and uncovered new mysteries. It is truly one of the greatest astronomical advancements of our era and it has survived all difficulties after 25 years of first being launched.

Scientists have celebrated by releasing this image, of the "Westerlund 2" cluster of stars is located about 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina. Engineers reckon it could easily survive another five years without much maintenance. Here's to another five years of scientific breakthroughs and jaw dropping galactic photography! Full story Here: Hubble celebrates 25th anniversary

Missed our last post? Link here: http://designingbrilliance.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/news-and-updates-22415-stock-market.html

Wednesday 22 April 2015

News and Updates ~ 22/4/15: The stock market trader jailed and other news

The infamous "flash crash" of 2010 in the stocks has been attributed to one UK trader, who is paying the price


Nanex chart showing trading during the Google flash crashNavinder Singh Sarao, 36, has been charged with wire fraud, commodities fraud and market manipulation and the US Department of justice wants him back. They are calling to extradite Sarao, but at the moment he has been granted bail at £5.05 million.  It is claimed the trader used automated computer programmes to manipulate share prices and contributed to the flash crash of 6 May 2010, when the Dow Jones index lost 700 points in a matter of minutes - wiping about $800bn off the value off US shares - before recovering just as quickly.US regulators filed civil claims against Mr Sarao, adding that he made $40m (£27m) over five years. I turns out he was sending what are known as spoof orders to sell futures contracts in the US stock market. He would drive the price of the stock down... then withdraw the sell orders, but the price would already have fallen. "He would then buy the orders back and guarantee a profit for himself. According the charge sheet, he did this thousands and thousands of times over many years." Full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32415664

Solar Impulse lands in China

In other news, the famous "Solar impulse" plane has finally landed in china. The Amazing vehicle laced with solar pannels made the massive cross-atlantic trip to get to its final destination. At no point did it need any extra fuel, showing a huge leap in advanced aeroplane technology. Could this be the future of travel? The plane is planned to cross the pacific next; who knows what this may lead to in the future?

That's it for today everyone - If you missed our last post you can see it here: http://designingbrilliance.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/news-and-updates

Monday 20 April 2015

Nanotechnology: What is it?


So what exactly is Nanotechnology? Nanotechnology is the manipulation and understanding of matter at an atomic or molecular level. It has dimensions of roughly 1 to 100 nanometers (nm), which is often compared to a human hair, which is about 80,000 nm wide. This kind of technology involves imaging, measuring, modelling and controlling matter at this length scale (the nanoscale). At this scale, the physical, chemical and biological properties of materials differ in significant and valuable ways from the properties of individual atoms and molecules or other matter. 

Atoms make up all the matter in our universe, they are essentially the building blocks needed for our universe. Everything is made up of atoms, you, me, every single object in your sight. Nature has perfected the science of manufacturing matter in a molecular scale. For example, human bodies are created in a specific way from millions and millions of living cells. Cells are basically nature's nano machines. Elements are at their most basic level on the atomic scale. On the nanoscale, however, we can potentially put these atoms together to make almost anything that you can imagine. It will also help us to improve future products and lead us into future generations, capable of creating unbelievable, ethereal things.
Nanotechnology will be capable of doing many things in many sectors, below are some examples:

Medicine:
Researchers are developing modified nanoparticles, which are the size of molecules capable of delivering drugs directly to the diseased cells within your body. When it is perfected, this should reduce the damage that treatments such as chemotherapy do to the healthier cells within a patient's body. Nanotechnology medical developments over the coming years will have a wide variety of uses and could potentially save a great number of lives in future generations. This development will also possibly allow us to discover many new things that we never knew were possible.

Electronics:
Future development on nanotechnology could mean that we will be capable of enhancing electronics that come with less weight and also with a reduction in power consumption. Having these electronics to be more enhanced will enable them to also become more flexible and portable. Meaning that they may become more attractive due to the accessibility and enhanced performance of these electronics. Researchers are also developing a type of memory chip with a projected density of 1 terabyte of memory per square inch, or even greater than that.

Food:
Nanotech is having a pretty significant impact on several aspects of food, from the way in which it is grown to the way it is packaged. Newer scientific based companies are introducing a variety of nano materials that will make a difference not only in the taste of food, but also in food safety and the health benefits that the foods deliver to their consumers. Having nanotech in foods can also create barriers which keep oxygen-sensitive foods fresher for a much longer time. Edible food films can also be made with cinnamon or oregano oil, nano particles of zinc, calcium, or other materials that are capable of killing bacteria.

Fuels:
Nanotechnology can have a huge impact on the shortage of fossil fuels, such as diesel and gasoline as it can be capable of making the production of fuels from low grade raw materials economical, by being able to increase the mileage of engines and make the production of fuels from normal raw materials work more efficiently.

                                                      Fabrics:
Making composite fabric particles that are nano-sized or different variations of fibres allows us to develop the properties of fabric without a significant amount of increase in it's weight, thickness etc. 
The image on the left also shows how nanotechnology in fabrics is capable of repelling any liquids that may be spilled on the fabric. This is a very interesting and amazing of manipulating nano-particles.


So what does this all mean? Well right now, it means that modern scientists are trying to experiment  with a plethora of substances at the nanoscale, in order to learn about their properties and how we could possibly be able to exploit it and take advantage of them in various applications. Engineers are also trying to use nano particles in wires to create smaller, more powerful microprocessors. Whilst Doctors are researching ways to use nanoparticles within the medical sector. Still, we've got a long way to go before nanotech dominates the technology and the medical markets. All we can do now is just wait and hope that scientists are capable of getting us there quicker.



Quantum Stuff #10

Quantum Stuff #10


Uncertainty Principal




The uncertainty principle is probably one of the most famous yet most misunderstood ideas in physics. It states that there will always be an error in our calculation and is the reason why atoms don't implode and shows that the vacuum of space is not actually empty.

The uncertainty principle says that we cannot measure the position and the momentum of a particle with absolute precision. The more the accurately we measure one value the less accurately we know the other. Multiplying the errors in the measure together has to give a number equal to or greater than a constant called 'h-bar'. It is equal to Planck's constant divided by 2 Pi. Planck's constant is equal to 6.626 * 10^-34 joule seconds.

The equation is \Delta x \, \Delta p\gtrsim h\qquad\qquad\qquad  with the particles position being x and and the particles momentum being p. 

This is because us measuring the particle will affect it even if it is only slightly affected it still changes one of the two values and makes it harder to measure meaning that we can never be sure of both values at the same time. 

Keep Learning and Have a Great Day,
Quantum Mechanics Enthusiast,

Saturday 18 April 2015

News and Updates ~ 18/4/15: Anniversary of Moore's law and LSE news

The first law of computing which rings true 50 years on

Intel chipThis weekend marks the 50th anniversary of when Gordon Moore first penned his idea of the rate at which computers would advance exponentially. The thing is, he was not only accurate in his predictions. But 50 years on, the observation which has become known as Moore's Law has become an industrial motive for and target for big tech companies to aspire to.

If you haven't heard of the famous idea it basically noted that the maximum number of components that  could be fit on a silicon chip- before which the rising risk of failure made it uneconomic to add more - was doubling at a regular pace.

Gordon Moore, suggested this could be extrapolated to forecast the rate at which more complicated chips could be built at affordable costs. The insight - later referred to as Moore's Law - became the bedrock for the computer processor industry, giving engineers and their managers a target to hit. However, In 2013, the firm's ex-chief architect Bob Colwell made headlines when he predicted Moore's Law would be "dead" by 2022 at the latest. The issue, he explained, was that it was difficult to shrink transistors beyond a certain point. Specifically, he said it would be impossible to justify the costs required to reduce the length of a transistor part, known as its gate, to less than 5nm (1nm = one billionth of a metre). "The amount of effort it's going to take to do anything beyond that is substantial," he said.

FTSE 100 Drops big but there are promises for small businesses

In other news the FTSE dropped a massive  65 points today in the Europe indexes. According to the LSE's risers and fallers list, Carclo saw a 6.3% rise while WHS saw a rise of +34 points. Luckily small businesses are doing well recently, seeing as Britain is going through deflation for the first time in many years. International trade is not the best, but local business is getting the benefit of the doubt. 

Interested in investing in small businesses? We recommend looking at the AIM market, with such companies like ARIANA PLC and 3LEGS PLC. Check their website: http://www.3legsresources.com/

Wednesday 15 April 2015

News and Updates ~ 15/4/15: Weekly bulletin and other news


Designing brilliance launches new YouTube channel!

In recent news, Designing Brilliance has launched a brand new YouTube channel, with the first uploaded on Monday. You can see our RYSE: Son of Rome review here: Ryse son of rome. Its great to see the Designing Brilliance team expanding its frontiers into new horizons using all the mediums at our disposable. Who knows where we will go from here? Onward and upwards as I always say! You'll be seeing regular videos posted by this new channel, but the blog will stay fully operational.


Huge leap forward in Dark Matter Research

Abell 3827In science news, the elusive dark matter which makes up almost 85% of the total matter in the cosmos and 27% of the known Universe had become slightly less mysterious.  It is widely believed to be associated with a specific particle, the current theory of physics known as the Standard Model does not account for one. So scientists made a huge leap forward in research using a technique known as gravitational lensing. 

While dark matter does not absorb or emit light, it does have gravity, so it bends the path of light passing nearby, warping our view of anything on the other side of it. The dark matter in Abell 3827 bent the path of light rays coming from a distant background galaxy, which happened to be aligned just right. The researchers found that one dark matter clump appeared to be lagging behind the galaxy it surrounds. Such a lag between the dark matter and its associated galaxy would be expected if the mysterious stuff was interacting with itself - through forces other than gravity. This means that there is still more to learn and new types of physics will be needed to explain the universe we live in.

Missed our last news and updates? No problem! Check it out here: News-and-updates-10415

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Monday 13 April 2015

Quantum Stuff #9

Quantum Stuff #9


Quantization


The scientist Plank discovered the relationship between frequency and energy that no one had ever guessed existed. Frequency is in fact directly proportional to energy ( so if one of them doubles the other one doubles as well. So the frequency of a photon* represents its energy. The equation would therefore be:
E is directly proportional to f
meaning energy is proportional to frequency.

But as physics grew there was no connection between the units to measure energy and the units used to measure time ( and therefore frequency). So a new equation was worked out:
E = h × f
meaning energy equals h times frequency, h represents Planck's constant.

Quantum mechanics is based on the knowledge that a photon of a certain frequency has a certain amount of energy.

Keep Learning and Have a Great Day,
Quantum Mechanics Enthusiast,
Amira Ibrahim

* This was discussed in the last Quantum Stuff. Number #8 in fact. The link is given below.

Check out last weeks post

Friday 10 April 2015

News and updates ~ 10/4/15: Technology and Industry Global Updates

Why the US refused to let Intel update China's super computer

A multi-million dollar deal was cut short today, when Intel was prevented from updating China's super computer. The country's national computing association turned to the tech giant for help updating their system. Unfortunately, the US refused to give any help to China due to the fact they suspected China was using the system for nuclear research.

Intel applied for a licence to export tens of thousands of chips to update the Tianhe-2 computer. The Department of Commerce refused, saying it was concerned about nuclear research being done with the machine. The Tianhe-2 uses 80,000 Intel Xeon chips to generate a computational capacity of more than 33 petaflops. A petaflop is equal to about one quadrillion calculations per second. This year the Chinese machine was due to undergo a series of upgrades to boost its number-crunching abilities past 110 petaflops.  Full story: Here

Scientists create the ultimate battery 
graphite foam
In science news, researchers have managed to create a flexible aluminium based battery, which they is safer and more reliable than ever. The researchers say it has advantages over lithium-ion batteries, for example they made this statement "We have developed a rechargeable aluminium battery that may replace existing storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, which are bad for the environment, and lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames," Hopefully this new type of battery will catch on soon. Full story here:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32204707


Othello at the Globe Theatre

Globe Theatre- Stage

The Globe Theatre which was built in 1599 has put on a numerous amount of fantastic plays from Othello to Romeo and Juliet and have attracted many tourists and theatre enthusiasts from all around the World as well as the UK itself.
I recently went to see Othello at the Globe Theatre and I can not stress how good it was. From the start to the end all of the characters kept in character despite the distractions from schools that had come to visit.
Globe Theatre- Seats picture

Not going to see a performance at the Globe theatre would be the worst decision ever as it is a experience I think everyone should get!





Here is a video that will give you an insight into the Globe Theatre.


For more information on plays going on and other events take a look at the globe theaters website-


Wednesday 8 April 2015

News and updates ~ 8/4/15: Some science and business updates

How the LHC could revolutionise our understanding of sub-atomic physics

Computer-generated image of dark matter
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past decade, you will have heard about the Large Hadron Collider ( or LHC), which has been smashing various particles together in an attempt to re-create the conditions of the big bang. It also managed to prove the existence of the Higgs Boson particle, a step forward in particle physics. But what is in store next for the Swedish particle accelerator you may ask? Well... it just so happens the people at CERN are attempting to re-establish the fundamental theory widely accepted by physicists everywhere.
They are literally re-writing the book on sub-atomic theory. You see, the "Standard Model" of particle physics has served us pretty well so far, developing our understanding of the universe on a molecular scale. The problem is General Relativity (that is Einstein's famous theory) doesn't get on well with Quantum theory and the Standard model of Sub- atomic theory. There are gaps, for example if anti-matter and matter were equal after the big bang why did they not cancel out? It is clear that a more developed theory has to be established, which is why CERN has re-opened the Super Collider and given it double the energy to attempt to uncover even more about the universe. Full story: Here

Business and Stocks news

In other news the FTSE 100 market plunged 24 whole points today - a whole -0.35%.  The LSE shows that BG GRP shares have skyrocketed after there £40M deal with shell. They went up a massive +242 points boosting each share by 26%. That means that anyone who bought shares before the shell deal just quadrupled their profits. Needless to say they topped the LSE's Risers and Fallers list. The full list is here: LSE risers and fallers

Are you interested in investing in the stock market? Check out 3LEGS PLC. Not only do they help investers direct their money into the right place, but they can also be invested in directly...which is a good idea seeing as they'll probably go really big and you could make a tidy profit. Check out there website:  http://www.3legsresources.com/

Check our last news and updates post-





Tuesday 7 April 2015

Quantum Stuff #8

Quantum Stuff #8


Wave and Photons

Qm template pic 4.svg

This week we will be going back to basics to explain the fundamentals of modern day physics and in turn it becomes the fundamentals of quantum mechanics.
Photons are like particles but are much smaller atoms. The more light a light source gives off the more photons are being shoot off. Light is a form of energy that behaves like a radio wave and in turn has its own wavelength,
For those of you who do not know what a wavelength is it is the distance between the top a one wave and the next wave.
A lights colour depends on its wavelength. The colour purple has the shortest wavelength with red having the longest wavelength. photos with a wavelength of less than 400nm (nanometre) or more than 700nm it is invisible to the human eye.
The shorter the wavelength of the photon the more energy it carries for example an ultraviolet carries more energy than an infra-red photon.
Wavelength and frequency are inversely proportional so we one increases the other one decreases and vice versa. Humans can detect photons that are invisible to the human eye though heat, for example we can feel the heat from a warm brick after it has been heated up from the sun without actually seeing the photons that are warming it up as the energy each photon releases is converted to heat energy.
Quantum mechanics started when  it was discovered that certain frequency means a certain amount of energy. So in turn energy is proportional to frequency. The higher frequency a photon has the more energy it carries. This can be used to calculate how much damage it can do.

Keep Learning and Have a Great Day,
Quantum Mechanics Enthusiast,

Sunday 5 April 2015

Lunar Eclipse



Lunar Eclipse


Millions of people around the globe were watching what was the shortest lunar eclipse of the century. The lunar eclipse lasted just under five minutes. The moon appeared more red than usual and this is said to be a 'blood moon'. Hundreds of photos of the moon were uploaded onto social media. 
Below are some photos of the 'blood moon':

View image on Twitter

View image on Twitter

So what causes a lunar eclipse?
It happens when the earth comes between the sun and the moon which creates the red colour which is only visible when the moon is covered by the earth shadow. Below is an illustration if the explanation did not make too much sense



Mandelbrot Set / Fractal


Mandelbrot Set


The Mandelbrot set, named after Benoit Mandelbrot, is a fractal. A fractal is a curve or geometrical figure, each part of which has the same statistical character as the whole. They are useful in modelling (such as snowflakes) in which similar patterns recur at smaller and smaller scales. They are also useful at explaining partly random or chaotic phenomena. These shapes appear to be completely random, but – as with fractals – there is an underlying pattern that determines how the shapes are formed and what they will look like. Mathematics can help us understand the shapes better, and thus has applications in medicine, biology, geology and meteorology.

The Mandelbrot set can be explained with the equation zn+1 = zn2 + c. In this equation z and c are complex numbers and n is a positive integer starting from 0. So what is a complex number? A complex number is a number that can be expressed in the form a+bi with a and b being real numbers and i being an imaginary number that can satisfy the equation  i2=1.

The Mandelbrot set is a group of complex number so we need to graph it on the complex number plane. But what is a complex number plane and what is the difference between it and a real number plane. 

Real numbers can be represented on a one dimensional line called a real number line. Negative number are plotted to the left of 0 and positive numbers are plotted to the right of 0. A real number line is shown below.
A complex number has two parts, a real number and an imaginary number, so we need a two dimensional graph to graph them. So to create this we add a vertical dimension which represents the imaginary number. A complex number plane is shown below.


First we need to find out how many numbers are part of the set so to do this we need to test the equation. c is a constant number that never changes. We change n which is the intonation of z by starting at 0 and adding one 1 each time. For example if n=0 z would  equal 1 so the answer for the particular test would be 1 plus whichever constant number c is.

We are not really interested in the actual result of zn+1 but its magnitude. The magnitude of a number is its distance from zero so the magnitude of -9 is 9. The magnitude of a complex number is harder to measure. So to calculate it we need to add the square of the numbers distance from the x-axis (in the graph below this is represented by b) to the square of the numbers distance from the y axis (this is represented by the a in the graph below) and then square root it. The equation is shown below with d being the magnitude.


As we test our equations zn+1 changes and the magnitude of zn+1 also changes. The magnitude does one of two things, It either stays below 2 or will eventually go above 2. Once the magnitude surpasses 2 it continues increasing. Any equation that surpasses 2 is not part of the Mandelbrot but those number which do stay below 2 are part of the Mandelbrot. As shown below.



If we plot thousands of points from an equation from the Mandelbrot set an image will appear. An example is seen below.





To see the Mandelbrot fractal where you can zoom in, visit this site-

http://world.mathigon.org/Fractals

Scroll down to the Mandelbrot zoomer.