A reporter for SFGate describes what happened when he tried out for the quidditch team at the University of California at Berkeley: The person throwing me what’s called a “quaffle” (actually a slightly deflated volleyball) looked at me to make sure I’m ready. I gave them a head nod and grip my “broom” (a PVC pipe), ready to run. “GO!” I…
Tag: Berkeley
Sub auroral arc over Peyto Lake, Alberta
STEVE, and the northern lights. Does it get any better than this? Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/photo-steve-sub-auroral-arc-peyto-lake-alberta…
Sally Floyd, Who Helped Things Run Smoothly Online, Dies At 69
An anonymous Slashdot reader shares a report from The New York Times commemorating Sally Floyd, a computer scientist who recently passed away at the age of 69 from metastatic gall bladder cancer. “Dr. Floyd was best known as one of the inventors of Random Early Detection, or RED, an algorithm widely used in the internet,” reports The New York Times. “Though…
ALMA images show what’s happening beneath Jupiter’s storms
New radio images made with the ALMA telescope provide a look at what’s going on beneath Jupiter’s colorful storms and swirling clouds. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/image-shows-whats-inside-jupiters-storms…
Crystalline Nets Harvest Water From Desert Air, Turn CO2 Into Liquid Fuel
Omar Yaghi, a chemist at the University of California, Berkeley, reported that he and his colleagues have created a solar-powered device that uses porous crystalline material, known as a metal-organic framework (MOF), to suck water vapor and carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the air and then release it as liquid water. Science Magazine reports: One recent market report predicted that sales…
Some Original Berkeley Unix Pioneers Still Work On The FreeBSD Project
Slashdot reader sfcrazy writes:
The Linux Foundation hosted the executive director of the FreeBSD Foundation, Deb Goodkin, at the Open Source Summit in San Diego. In this episode of Let’s Talk, we sat down with Goodkin to talk about the FreeBSD project and the foundation. “How did they let you in?” jokes their interviewer. “They didn’t realize that FreeBSD was not a…
Arecibo Observatory gets $12.3 million grant
Arecibo in Puerto Rico was completed in 1963. In recent years, it has weathered multiple hurricanes. The emergency supplemental funds – supported by the U.S. Congress – represent an investment in the future of this large, famous and much-loved radio dish. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/arecibo-observatory-12-3-million-grant-upgrade…
Researchers Develop Speedy Soft Robot That’s More Robust Than a Cockroach
Researchers from Tsinghua University in China and University of California, Berkeley, have developed a new kind of soft robot that looks like a bent strip of paper, but is able to move at 20 body lengths per second and survive being stomped on. The robot has been presented in the current issue of Science Robotics. IEEE Spectrum reports: This prototype robot…
‘Never-Googlers’ Take Extreme Measures To Avoid Data Tracking
To buy his favorite oatmeal, Gregory Kelly drives to a city 40 miles away rather than sharing his data with an online retailer, or purchasing it from the company’s web site, “which he says is riddled with tracking software from Google,” according to the Washington Post: “I’m just not sure why Google needs to know what breakfast cereal I eat,” the…
Breakthrough Listen’s new search for alien lasers
For the last few decades, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has focused on detecting radio signals. But a new collaboration between Breakthrough Listen and VERITAS will focus on looking for laser-like flashes of light. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/breakthrough-listen-seti-optical-beacons-technosignatures…