Dark Energy and Dark Matter

Haikal_Baik
The topic for today is about dark energy and dark matter. Well, if you're not familiar with outer space, then probably you never heard either terms, but even for those who know these terms, can't actually define it. Well, it's because of the complexity that came from the nature of the terms that make it difficult to define. Here, i'll try to explain my very best to you about what is dark energy and what is dark matter.

Dark Energy


According to wikipedia, dark energy is a hypothetical energy that permeates all of space and is the possible causes of universe expansion. Well, the term hypothetical means that no scientists have ever see the actual dark energy. They only look at the trails and signature of the cosmos before they conclude the possibility of other form of energy that exists in outer space. Kind of like black hole. You can't actually see black hole but the effect that it gives to surrounding body stars can't be neglected. 

The NASA Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe(WMAP) revealed a fact that all atoms in this universe only make up about 4.6 percent of the universe. The rest is believe to be divided into 23.3% dark matter and 72.1% of dark energy. Well, since the amount is so large, no wonder scientists try to understand them. Below is the chart showing the percentage of things that we have in our universe. 


Well, there are few theories that explain the existence of dark matter. Some people say that it is the property of empty space itself, while some chose to believe that it is a new kind of dynamic energy fluid, which gives opposite effects from normal energy and matter. The theorists called this quintessence. The last theory is that Einstein's theory of gravity is not correct. For me, i opt the third theory, but not to say that his theory is not correct, just imperfect. Probably someone will check Einstein's math and approach new method in providing new gravity theory.

Dark Matter


First of all, we know what dark matter is not more than we know what dark matter is it. First, it is as the term puts it, dark. Which by all mean says that it can't be seen. Well, at least not by using current technology. Dark matter is also not the dark clouds formed by normal matter, because these dark clouds are made up of matter particles called baryons. It is not dark matter because we can detect baryonic activities using radiation absorption that passes through them. Lastly, dark matter is not anti-matter because, as i explain to you last time, anti-matter will annihilate matter to release the gamma ray and so far, the dark matter does not has this property.



However, the possibility of the existence of dark matter can be explain using these two things, first is Massive Compact Halo Objects (MACHOs) and second one is Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). MACHOs is good in explaining dark matter in terms of isolated neutron stars which is very massive and very dark. MACHOs is said to emit gravitational pull and no light and is said to be viable candidate to test the existence of dark matter. The WIMPs on the other hand allows the possibility of large mass subatomic particles created in the right amount and the right properties to exist as dark matter after the big bang. Both theories has their own pros and cons. You can read the pros and cons here.

I think by now you understand the difference between dark energy and dark matter. Well, for one hand, the term itself gives you the different. First one is energy second one is matter. So there goes your obvious difference between these two terms. Anyway, if you can't understand any of this, just tell me and i'll try my best to explain it to you. For that, thanks for reading this!

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Random Cool Stuff

Haikal_Baik
Well, here a few things that i found cool enough for me. All the post is taken from here. I personally think that the site is quite awesome. Anyway, here are the things in case you're too lazy to browse through.

1. Ultra Light Car



First, I'm not sure whether this thing is only design or has already been created by someone. And i tend to chose the later one cause i wanna buy this thing someday. The car was designed by Chris Daisy, and is only 600 pounds and is powered by electricity. Some features in this car are really awesome i couldn't help reading it over and over again. The car can be driven from either side, the features allowed by the central joystick between the two seats. The button on the joystick is programmable and can be activated by voice, allowing full concentration on the road. You can read the other features here but one thing i wanna highlight here is this car came with REMOVABLE DOOR!!!!!!!! How cool was that?? You can even put the door behind the seats if you are worried about weather change. (Got some style, huh?!) Anyway, nice work, Chris Daisy!

2. Awesome Teeny Tiny VideoCam


Okay, first of all, i wanna say that this is supercool!! Still, i don't know whether this tiny videocam has already been created or just a concept videocam. You can ask the question to the designer, Bach Nguyen. By far i believe that this one is just a concept. But still, you can see its awesomeness just from the picture alone. You can fit this videocam in your pocket, record, stream and play the video, what's more awesome is you can use this as a projector!!!!! (*clap40x*) You can project the video from the internet, or from memory card that you can insert in this tiny awesome videocam. This device will be using and induction method to charge its battery, and its small size making it looks like high-tech handphone rather than a videocam. Anyway, it is awesome without a doubt.

3. Cool Arts Using CT Scan







Okay, you can see these art and if you tell people that it is not as awesome as i think it is, then maybe you can get out from here!!!!(its a joke of course). But still the creator of these arts, Kai-Hung Fung, a radiologist from Hong Kong must be cool enough in order to create things like this. He uses a technique which he calls it "rainbow technique" which can be done by simply adding some colors and let the image to stand on their own. It's beautiful and yet still does not defy the purpose of the CT Scan and the data from this artwork can still be use as a relevant medical tool. He said that some of his artworks are from diseased organs, which frankly is still that good under his touch. Frankly, it's just awesome!!

4. Cool Homeless Man



The man in the car, Orismar de Souza, was a homeless man living in Brazil before he created this car. De Souza, who was homeless always has a dream, which is to have his own car. So what did he do? He starved himself for four months in order to save $270 in order to buy the metal sheet for the car's body. Despite of the hardwork that he need in order to cut the metal, he managed to build the body of his car. The rest of the car, he scrounged it and he managed to find a small engine that is used to move his car! The car can go up to 50 mph and what's more awesome is he use the car to find good job and now he has his own home!!!!! See? Don't underestimate the power of poor people!!! (it's a good story to motivate me too)

I think that's all from me. You can read all the story i mentioned in the link that i've given in the early post. Anyway, thanks for reading and hope you guys enjoyed it.
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Anti Matter: History and Achievement

Haikal_Baik
Hi. I know most of you have heard about antimatter from friends, books, papers, news and etc. But have you tried to understand about it better? If your answer is no, then continue reading this post. If yes, go on and google other stuff that has more meaning to you. LOL.
A picture showing how the big bang theory works.
Antimatter existed as to counter matters that exist in this universe. The theory was during the big bang, all the antimatter and matter reacts together, annihilating one another. But due to some unknown reason, asymmetry exists between the production of matter and antimatter. That is to say, for every billion antimatters produced, there will be a billion and one matters produced. Hence, all the antimatters were annihilated during the Big Bang explosion, leaving the visible matters alone. Actually there's a math behind this theory that I couldn't understand, so i just picked up things that i could understand and tell this to you guys.

To begin with, lets start with the history of the antimatter first. Then we will look at what scientists have achieved in this past years after the discovery of antimatter.

History of Antimatter

The theory of antimatter first discussed in 1880 by William Mitch, a British mathematician and physicist. Somewhere between 1880 and 1890s, Karl Pearson, also a British mathematician theorized that there are positive and negative matter (a term where Pearson referred to as coining). 1898, a German-born British physicist Artur Schuster sent two controversial letters to Nature (journal for scientific discoveries) about the possibility of antiatom, and describe the possibility of atom and antiatom to annihilate one another in the early universe. Schuster's letters were more of a controversial and speculative thought, rather than a theoretical proposal that the first two mathematicians explained.
Paul Dirac
Karl Pearson
p/s: I tried to find picture of William Mitch, but couldn't find any. Sorry.

Modern theory of antimatter was given by Paul Dirac, a Swiss theoretical physicist in which while working with Schrodinger's Equation to study the electron, he predicted the possibility of antielectrons. This was later confirmed by the finding of antielectron itself by Carl D Anderson, and he named it positron (combination between positive and electron i think). After this important discoveries, the antimatter discoveries advanced once more with the discovery of antiprotons and antineutrons. The term antimatter came along with the discoveries of these antiatom in the year 1900s.
Diagram showing the differences between H and H-bar

Achievement

At first, only the antielectron, antiprotons and antineutrons were discovered. The question remained was is there going to be a complete antiatom? The answer to that was yes thanks to CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in 1995 when they artificially made the antihydrogen in their lab. The antihydrogen contains one positron and one antiproton. On Earth, antimatters are the most expensive thing a company can produce. The cost for 10 miligrams of positron can reach up to 250 billion USD and a gram of antihydrogen can cost you about 62.5 trillion USD. So far the creation of these antimatter is only about a billionth of a gram as this is the amount that is used in research laboratory. Still, it cost you around hundreds of millions swiss franc just to produce in that amount. 

The latest news in the discovery of antimatter is the creationn of antihelium-4, the weightiest antimatter ever created. Scientists claimed that this record will likely stand longer, as because it is far and out of reach of today's Earth technology. Anyway, you can read the rest of the news here because it's hard for me to explain all the things there. On the other hand, since the cost of producing antimatter is too high, scientists believe that they can exploit the antimatter exists in Van Allen Belt (if there's any). Sincerely, i do hope that they can find the way to produce antimatter better because of the vast energy it hold when giving out a reaction with matter.

Van Allen Radiation Belt
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Technology News

Haikal_Baik
Hi. Yesterday i couldn't read any of the news related to my field of interests because of the field trip that was compulsory for all PG students. Today there should be one more, but screw the field trip and lets talk about technology news. Among all the news that i read, these are 4 news that sort of got my attention as the news are quite important for us to know. Anyway, just continue reading the news below.

1. G-Slate, The Competitor for iPad

G-Slate developed by LG
As Steve Jobs said, 2011 will be the year where a lot of Apple ideas are being used by other company as to put up to the market competition of Apple's products. Well, apart from the Samsung Galaxy Tab which Apple is starting to sue for intellectual property theft, LG came out with their own version of tablet PC which is claimed to be the competitor of iPad. Nevertheless, the review done by the public stated that this tab is too expensive as compared to iPad. Despite of the features such as cameras and a very high quality graphic images, iPad is still considered as the favorite among the public as the price is cheaper. Read the review of the G-Slate here.

2. Botnets moved to P2P

I believe not that many of you know what botnets are. By definition, botnets are a little piece of codes\ that allows computer manipulation over the network. Criminal use this botnets in order to steal personal information such as credit cards and pins. Traditionally, botnets depended on small group of controlled computers in order to send the instructions to do dirty work on thousands of computers. This method has one giant flaw, which is it depends on central computer too much. Thus, kill the central computer and the botnets will die.
Example of how botnets are distributed

Because of this property, botnets has grow up in terms of code. These new botnet has extra codes that allows  it to pass along the instructional information. With these so called P2P networks, it will not depends on central computer anymore and thus, is harder to kill compared to the old one. Researchers have put out efforts, money and time in order to understand the botnets and design a way to kill them. Hopefully the right side of the law will develop a way to kill this kind of botnets first before the left side came out with a better botnets.


3.Tracking Device in iPhone and iPad


iPad and iPhone 
Well, i know not that many knows about this too. Yeah, it's because non of the person who uses these devices know how to discover it. But Dr Alasdair Allan, a researcher from University of Exeter found out that there apple's product are keeping track of the movement and whereabout of their owner and save it in a file on the device. Pretty shocking, isn't it? So far the reason why this device is there is questionable, and no one is yet to figure out if there's any conspiracy thingy out of this.
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Alan Turing, Father of Modern Computer Science

Haikal_Baik
Hi, I bet not that many of you know about Alan Turing, although those who read this post read it on their computer. Well, Alan Turing is the father of computer science. This title was given to him because his invention helped in the creation of modern computer.

Alan Turing in his youth
I bet not that many too recognized his invention, the Turing Machine which anticipated the usage of series of instructions called the "algorithm." This turing machine first was not meant to be something big (the invention of computer) but rather as a thought experiment that Turing use to represent the computing machine. At that time, scientists used his machine in order to understand the limits of mechanical computation.

In 1950, Alan Turing proposed a thought question in his paper called "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" by asking "Can machines think?" In the years that follow, a more intense debate about whether or not machines can think occurred. Blay Whitby, a philosopher and technology ethicist, stated that there are 4 major turning points in the history of Turing test.

  1. The publication of "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" by Alan Turing in 1950
  2. Joseph Weizenbaum, a German-American author with his computer program called ELIZA.
  3. Psychiatrist Kenneth Colby with his creation called PARRY
  4. Turing colloquium (like a conference) in 1990
Back to Alan Turing, after World War 2, Turing's homosexuality resulted in criminal prosecution and as an alternative to prison, he chose to take female hormon as a treatment. He died in 1954 from cyanide poisoning. The inquest after that concluded that the cyanide was intentionally ingested and Alan Turing died because he killed himself. But his mother, unable to believe such fact, came out with a theory that Turing was careless in organizing the chemicals, resulting in accidental ingestion of the cyanide.

In 2009, British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown made an official public apology for the way Turing was treated after the war. (Yeah, such a great mind usually will receive a little respect from authority). As for today, a significant advancement has been made in computer science and it is all thanks to ALAN TURING!!!
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Graphene: An Advancement in Technology Industry

Haikal_Baik
Hi. I'm sure not that many of you have heard of graphene. Well, graphene is a allotrope of a carbon, same like graphite and diamond. The graphene has sp2-bonded carbon which is only one atom in thickness that arrange itself in highly dense honeycomb lattice. Graphene was discovered by Professor Andre Geim who won the Physics Nobel Prize together with Professor Konstantin Novoselov in 2010. 

Atomic scale of honeycomb lattice exhibit by graphene material
Andre Geim
Konstantin Novoselov
Some of the unique properties of graphene includes its high electron mobility and the breaking strength that is 200 times greater than steel. Some researchers claim that graphene is harder than diamond. As for right now, the process of getting graphene to split from a layer of graphite only occurs naturally, so the advancement in harvesting graphene for our purposes can't be made, although this will change in near future as more and more effort is putting into making graphene a potential powerful material for electronic devices.

The most prominent usage of graphene is a nanoscale transistor, made reliable because of its small size and its property to conduct electricity far better than silicon. In the future, many researchers believe that silicon will be replaced by graphene in all electronic devices as graphene provides better electrical conductivity as compared to silicon. It is also believe that graphene can help the computer's calculation faster than what we have now and make new and complex calculations render possible.

Other usage of graphene includes the single gas molecule detector, transparent conducting electrodes, solar cells and many more. In recent news, scientists tried to make a paper that is stronger than steel by reforming and reshaping the mother material graphite to produce graphene paper. These paper will have an exceptional thermal, electrical and mechanical properties.

Graphene paper sample. Picture by Lisa Aloisio
If you want to read more about breakthrough that's already been achieved in graphene research, you can go here and type graphene in the search box. You can also go to google and refine the search into pdf format as scientists usually published their papers and findings in that format. I think that is all for today. Thanks for reading!!
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Astronomy News

Haikal_Baik
Hi everyone. Today i'm going to share with you guys some news in astronomy. I bet you pretty much now what astronomy is, so i'm not going to elaborate on the meaning and stuff. Just enjoy!

1. A Galactic Rose
Interacting galaxies forming rose-like structure.
In conjunction with the Hubble's Space Telescope 21st anniversary after its deployment into space, astronomers release this photogenic picture taken by that telescope in 2010. The galaxies are believed to be interacting because of the gravitational pull from one galaxy with another. The first galaxy, called UGC1810 is heavily distorted because the gravitational pull from neighbouring galaxy, called UGC1813. 

To read the rest of the news, you can visit here and try to understand what trigger this interaction and learn how the we can interpret what happened there only by using colors visible in our telescope and data. 

2. Existence of Life Inside Black Holes

This is pretty much unexpected. Well, first because as we know it, black holes have a strong gravitational pull that give effects to whatever things around them. But a Russian cosmologist, Vyascheslav Dokuchaev life could exists inside a black holes because of their specific unique characters. The black hole as scientists know it, that deep inside the rotating, charged black hole and past the event horizon, things will switch back to what could be considered normal. At least, the normal here being that the photons can orbit the singularity. 

A picture showing the effects of black hole on surrounding bodies.
You can read the rest of the existence of life forms here. And as extra reading material, i think you should read about the nature of black hole and try to make conclusion(s) on your own. 

3. WISE 

In 2009, NASA launched a Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer or WISE to help us understand about our universe better. Its mission was to map the entire sky with infrared light and is hoped to give an improved resolution and sensitivity from its predecessor. WISE is already out of duty (more on went to hibernation actually) from February 2011. And as for right now, WISE has sent us more than 2.7 million images ranging from faraway galaxies or asteroids near Earth for astronomers. 

Among of the things that WISE discovered are 20 comets, more than 33 000 asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which is located 28 million miles away from our Earth. Scientists believed that in near future, WISE will delivers more informative data in which the astronomers and cosmologists can give a new insight in understanding this universe. 
WISE before its mission to go to space

The las sky snapshot by WISE before it went for hibernation

The Andromeda galaxy, nearest galaxy to the Milky Way captured by WISE
I think that is all, besides i'm already late for class. Hope you enjoy and if you have things to ask or an idea for me, just throw it in comment section. Thank you.
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Black Plant and Terrestrial Animal ??

Haikal_Baik
Today, my favorite website (here's the link) stated the question about finding a black plant on a planet which has two suns. Well, we always see in the movies how people who stuck in unknown planet know that they were in unknown planet because of the two suns. And researcher, O-Malley James tell that there is a possibility where a planet can has two suns. Back to the topic just now, black plant is assume black because of their tendency to adapt to the environment. The argument is that plant responds to temperature, light intensity and the color of the light that is present for photosynthesis.


Drawing of how black plants will look like

The possibility is govern by the fact that there are many earth like system in our universe and this system may contain life just like ours. The article also stated something like having a red dwarf and the distance between the orbit of the stars that i somehow can't understand. So, if you want to understand it yourself, you can read it here.

Next is about terrestrial animal. Well, not exactly about that but scientists right now have tried so many things in order to find terrestrial life forms but came out with nothing. One theory that tells you the reason behind this failure is that these terrestrial animals are afraid to respond to this signal because they afraid that we're coming for whatever resources that they have. I know it sounds a bit cliché but that is the hard cold truth. It's a basic response as an animal that we would mark our territory and will not let anyone invade it in order to steal their resources. Well, that is assuming that these terrestrial life forms behave like an animal. But for whatever reasons that we may not know much about terrestrial life, i believe it's for our own benefit. (I don't want to fight over a food with an alien!!!!!!! They're scary!! ) 

Usual description of an alien, short, bald, big eyes. Sometimes got three or four fingers only.
If you want to read more about aliens, you can ask professor google because he's so knowledgeable. Or else you can click here. You can also find out many more alien stories there. Just read and you shall know. Enjoy!!
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5 Items That You Should Have in Your Possession

Haikal_Baik
Since our world is full with these new technologies, i think it's fun if you can have these items in your possessions. I'm quite sure that these also will make you like the coolest kid in town.


 1.A Lightweight Personal Plane.


Developed by Aki Suokas, a famous Finnish aeronautical engineer, this plane can support up to 200 kg weight and can fly up to 140 km/h. The small size and lightweight material allow this plane to only weight about 70 kg and only one person can ride it at a time. Kind of a downside but hey, if you want to show off, this is the way to do it!! Anyway, this plane is open for orders now with a price of $40,000. Book it before someone else use it to show off in front of you!!!! LOL. You can read the info about this plane here

 2. Flame Glove System  


This hand glove that can throw fire is pretty much allows you to be the scariest kid in town. Hell yeah!! They should be afraid of you now because if they don't you can just burn them down. *evil laugh.* The system is still in demo version as it stated in the video but i'm pretty much sure a significance advancement has been made since this video is uploaded. And i think if you can tweak it a little, you may be able to change the color from fiery red to scorching blue. (Well, blue fire is hotter than the red/orange color fire right??)

 3. Awesome Binary Watch

This one is one of my favorite. Well, first is because you can tell the difference between a cool geek and normal, plain looking geek. Second is it also makes normal people who didn't know how to convert from binary numbers to normal numbers looks like an idiot. And i assure you that you can see frustration in their face because of their stupidity. (Make sure you do know how to convert the binary system before you have this watch or else, you are the one who's an idiot.) Read the rest of the story about binary watch in here

 4. Shoot and Snap!!!!

This one is for those who wants to take pictures of hot chicks without them realizing it. The only problem and i think is the main one is you need to practice how to shoot(snap) pictures because if you shoot wrongly, you might not get the image that you actually want. Granted if you aim for boobs you get butts then it's okay but if you aim for boobs and what you get is her shoes, then i'm pretty sure it's frustrating. Anyhow, practice makes perfect. Just aim and shoot thousand times and you'll be okay. You can read about this pistol here.

 5. Apple iPad 2
For those who are in USA, this may not looks like a geeky gadget to you. But in Malaysia, there's only a few who loves to use Apple gadgets. Well the main reason is because of its price. Apple laptop is twice the price of IBM laptop, which i'm pretty sure is how Bill Gates and his crew manage to survive until now. Personally, i love Apple products because it has higher quality than IBM products but the constraint that i have prevent me from having this cool product. Oh, and if you have so many Apple products and wanted to keep them in place, you can see how this guy did it. It's only a few items but you can see the idea there. 

I think that's it for today. I do hope on your comments and ideas on how this blog should grow. Your concern is highly appreciated, thank you. Enjoy!!




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Introduction

Haikal_Baik
Hi. This is the introductory post. This blog is about information gathering. Nowadays, most of us can't keep track of what's happening around us anymore. My posts will be about science, chemistry, physics, technology, astronomy, ancient history and all things related to this. I'll try to update at least once a week as i'm also a "busy" student. Anyway, have fun reading my blog!!!!
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