Ilmuwan-ilmuwan Muslim : Pelopor Hebat di bidang Sains Modern

Apa hubungan antara shalat dan ilmu astronomi serta trigonometri?

Mengapa penemuan kertas mendorong kemajuan sains Islam zaman pertengahan?

Apa kaitan aljabar dan hak waris?

Warisan sains Islam zaman pertengahan yang paling dikenal hingga saat ini adalah sistem angka Arab. Sistem angka yang juga digunakan di negara-negara Barat, mengalahkan sistem angka Romawi. Namun buku ini menunjukkan bahwa sains Islam jauh lebih hebat dari pada hanya sistem angka, dan bahkan sangat berpengaruh sehingga menjadi dasar sains Eropa Barat yang muncul belakangan.

Al-Khawarizmi, Ibnu Sina, Al-Zarqali, dan masih banyak ilmuwan Muslim lainnya begitu terkenal di dunia ilmiah Eropa karena karya-karya mereka menjadi acuan sains Eropa. Buku kedokteran al-Qanun fi al-Thibb karya Ibnu Sina menjadi standar sejumlah universitas di Eropa selama berabad-abad. Buku al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa'l muqabala karya Al-Khawarizmi menjadi dasar aljabar modern. Dalam buku ini, Ehsan Masood memperlihatkan mengapa imperium Islam berhasil memajukan sains sehingga menghasilkan karya-karya yang menakjubkan bahkan untuk ukuran masa kini. Dan lewat buku ini kita bisa mengetahui bahwa keyakinan bergama serta ajaran agama bisa menjadi pendorong kemajuan sains Islam dalam banyak disiplin ilmu.

Eniya, Membuka Jalan ke Kota Hidrogen

oleh Nawa Tunggal (Kompas)

Selama belajar 10 tahun hingga memperoleh gelar doktor di Jepang, 1993-2003, inspirasi puncak Eniya Listiani Dewi meretas jalan menuju ”kota hidrogen” di Indonesia, seperti tahun 2003 saat Jepang mulai mewujudkannya di kota industri otomotif, Fukuoka.

Eniya berhasil membuka jalan ke kota hidrogen setelah memproduksi ”jantung” sel bahan bakar hidrogen dengan komponen lokal 80 persen sehingga harganya jauh lebih murah dibandingkan dengan pasaran di Asia kini. Masyarakat Ilmu Polimer Jepang memberinya penghargaan atas temuan tersebut dalam simposium internasional di Kobe, 29 Mei 2009 lalu. Sebanyak 4.000 ahli polimer dari berbagai penjuru dunia diundang menghadiri kegiatan itu.

Namun, pemberangkatan Eniya dan semua peserta yang lain kemudian dicegah karena saat itu Kobe terserang pandemi flu A-H1N1. Simposium dibatalkan. Simbol anugerah dikirimkan ke Indonesia dan diterima Eniya akhir Juni 2009.

”Justru masyarakat Jepang lebih dulu menghargai temuan hasil riset tim kami,” ujar Eniya, Kepala Perekayasaan Fuel Cell atau Sel Bahan Bakar pada Badan Pengkajian dan Penerapan Teknologi (BPPT). Eniya, putri pertama dari dua bersaudara pasangan Hariyono (almarhum) dan Sri Ningsih, asal Magelang, Jawa Tengah, ini meraih banyak penghargaan di bidangnya.

Memulai dari Akhir

Memahami kota hidrogen mencakup pemenuhan kebutuhan energi masyarakat kota secara ramah lingkungan. Tujuannya, melanggengkan kehidupan kota tanpa risiko pencemaran karena sel bahan bakar hidrogen menghasilkan energi tanpa mengemisi karbon dan limbahnya hanya air dan panas.

Aplikasi sel bahan bakar untuk kota hidrogen bertujuan memenuhi kebutuhan rumah tangga, mulai dari penerangan, memasak, sampai kendaraan. Jadi, knalpot kendaraan tak mengepulkan asap, tetapi mengucurkan air murni.

Menurut Eniya, Jepang membuat simulasi kota hidrogen dengan membagikan generator sel bahan bakar berkapasitas 1.000 watt-2.000 watt kepada 2.000 keluarga di Fukuoka untuk penggunaan cuma-cuma selama lima tahun. Disediakan pula angkutan umum bus dengan bahan bakar hidrogen yang ramah lingkungan.

Keinginannya mewujudkan kota hidrogen di Indonesia memang terkesan tak mungkin. Di balik itu Eniya mengungkap spirit dari teknokrat BJ Habibie dalam teknik berinovasi, yaitu start from the end atau memulai dari yang terakhir.

Kenangan akan Habibie terus mengendap karena Eniya berhasil mewujudkan keinginannya sejak kecil untuk studi di luar negeri berkat kebijakan Habibie era 1990-an. Saat itu, Kementerian Negara Riset dan Teknologi di bawah Habibie memberi beasiswa bagi lulusan SMA berprestasi untuk melanjutkan studi ke berbagai negara industri. Ia terpilih menjadi salah satu penerima beasiswa dalam program Science and Technology Advance Industrial Development (STAID) Kementerian Negara Riset dan Teknologi.

Eniya menyelesaikan S-1 di Universitas Waseda, Tokyo, hingga memperoleh gelar doktor (S-3) pada Fakultas Aplikasi Kimiawi, Polimer, Katalis, dan Sel Bahan Bakar. Teknologi sel bahan bakar termasuk the end atau bagian akhir pengembangan teknologi mutakhir menyongsong peradaban ramah lingkungan dalam pemenuhan energi dengan sumber energi tak terbatas, seperti air sebagai sumber hidrogen.

Menurut Eniya, metode produksi hidrogen, selain proses elektrolisis dari air, dapat pula ditempuh seperti di Fukuoka, yakni mengubah metana dari berbagai bahan bakar gas, termasuk biogas menjadi hidrogen.

Memupuk Harapan

Seperti para periset dan perekayasa lain, Eniya berharap ada investor yang mampu mengaplikasikan temuannya untuk pengembangan sel bahan bakar secara kompetitif. Ia membuka secara transparan, bagaimana mengganti komponen ”jantung” sel bahan bakar impor dari AS atau Jepang dengan komponen-komponen lokal.

Manufaktur generator sel bahan bakar dengan komponen lokal sudah diuji menurunkan 80 persen harga dari pasaran Asia. Substitusinya antara lain pada material katalis elektrode sel bahan bakar impor dengan logam platina, yang berharga jauh lebih mahal, diganti komponen lokal vanadium yang fungsi dan keandalannya tak jauh beda.

Penggunaan nafion pada polimer elektrolit sel bahan bakar impor seharga 1.000 dollar AS (sekitar Rp 10 juta) per meter persegi disubstitusi proses sintesis hidrokarbon polimer nanosilika berharga Rp 1,5 juta per meter persegi, atau berkurang 85 persen. Substitusi material impor juga untuk komponen lain sel bahan bakar yang dirangkai berurutan membentuk lapisan stack fuel cell atau generator sel bahan bakar.

Komponen itu meliputi end-plate, current collector, graphite bipolar-plate, dan membrane electrode assembly (MEA) sebagai ”jantung” sel bahan bakar. Rangkaian stack fuel cell impor (tanpa MEA) senilai Rp 23,95 juta bisa diturunkan menjadi Rp 5 juta.

”Untuk mengaplikasikan temuan ini, saya berpijak pada upaya memproduksi listrik permukiman dengan sumber hidrogen yang menyesuaikan sumber daya setempat. Aplikasi untuk sistem transportasi bisa menyesuaikan kemudian,” ujar Eniya.

sumber : http://edukasi.kompas.com

Universal ‘Rubik’s Cube’ Could Become Pentagon Shapeshifter

by Noah Shachtman

Even by the standards of the Pentagon fringe science arm, this project sounds far-out: “programmable matter” that can be ordered to “self-assemble or alter their shape, perform a function and then disassemble themselves.” But researchers backed by Darpa are actually making progress on this incredible goal, Henry Kenyon at Signal magazine reports.

One day, that could lead to “morphing aircraft and ground vehicles, uniforms that can alter themselves to be comfortable in any climate, and ’soft’ robots that flow like mercury through small openings to enter caves and bunker complexes.” A soldier could even reach into a can of unformed goop, and order up a custom-made tool or a “universal spare part.”

One team from Harvard is working on a kind of “generalized Rubik’s Cube” that can fold into all kinds of shapes. Another is trying to order large strands of synthetic DNA to bind together in a “molecular Velcro.” An MIT group is building “self-folding origami” machines that “use specialized sheets of material with built-in actuators and data. These machines use cutting-edge mathematical theorems to fold themselves into virtually any three-dimensional object.”

The Programmable Matter project is five months into its second phase, which is supposed to wind up early next Spring. When they’re done, the researchers ought to “assemble four or five three-dimensional solids of a specific size and shape from a set of building blocks.”

Intel, which has done a bunch of programmable matter work on its own, is looking beyond those basic steps. Way, way beyond. The malleable stuff could one day “mimic the shape and appearance of a person or object being imaged in real time, and as the originals moved, so would their replicas,” according to their website. “These 3D models would be physical entities, not holograms. You could touch them and interact with them, just as if the originals were in the room with you. ”

source : http://www.wired.com/dangerroom

Mindmap #2 : Solving Global Warming

source : http://mediapemb.blogspot.com/

Mindmap #1 : Energy Saving

source : http://mediapemb.blogspot.com/

NASA Chandra X-ray observatory space picture dubbed 'hand of God'

The Daily Telegraph

WE'VE already seen pictures of his eye ... now we have the first image of the hand of God. A ghostly blue cloud seems to form an outstretched thumb and fingers grasping a ball of fire. The amazing image was taken by NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory, which is orbiting 580km above the Earth. It recalls pictures of the Helix planetary nebula, with its blue centre surrounded by white clouds which earned it the nickname "the eye of God". The hand was created when a star exploded in a supernova, creating a rapidly spinning 20km-wide star called a pulsar, which is deep inside the white blob at the hand's wrist. The pulsar is spewing out enormous amounts of electromagnetic energy, creating a dust and gas cloud so wide it would take 150 years to cross at the speed of light. The red disc is a separate gas cloud. The fingers are thought to have been created as energy passed from the pulsar to the gas cloud. NASA scientists estimated the moment depicted here actually happened 17,000 years ago. It has taken since then for the X-rays to reach Earth.

Hubble's greatest hits: Hubble space telescope images

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in April 1990. After the problems with its main mirror were fixed, it started sending beautifully detailed images of space back to earth. Here are some of the best

Staring across interstellar space, the Cat's Eye Nebula lies three thousand light-years from Earth. One of the most famous planetary nebulae, NGC 6543 is over half a light-year across and represents a final, brief yet glorious phase in the life of a sun-like star

Picture : NASA

Source : Telegraph.co.uk

Cellular Lego Animations

Questions and answers with MIT's Lego educator

by Brooke Borel

With her team, Kathy Vandiver, director of the Community Outreach and Education Program at MIT's Center for Environmental Health Sciences, creates eye-catching animations of cellular processes like meiosis, mitosis, and DNA translation and transcription, using Legos. These sophisticated simulations of what is going on in the cell are used as teaching aids for both school-aged and adult students, mainly to pique their interest in the subject matter at the beginning of a class.

Popular Science spoke to Dr. Vandiver about her Lego creations.

Above is one of Dr. Vandiver's first videos, and her personal favorite. It shows translation, which is a cellular process in which proteins are synthesized. The piece of mRNA (messenger RNA) at the bottom of the video contains genetic information for building a protein. Each codon, which is a nucleotide triplet, in the mRNA sequence codes for an amino acid, which are the building blocks of proteins. The animation was made with photos from a Nikon CoolPix Camera. 137 photos were animated at two frames per second using a demo version of Boinx software.

What first gave you the idea to make Lego animations of biological processes?

As a researcher turned public school teacher, it became obvious that cell processes were more difficult to understand than cell structures. Cell processes are particularly hard to master from the static diagrams found in books, too. So when I was designing the Lego molecules, I wanted to show how the molecules work in the cell-- what they can do.

The animations came along later, as a bit of whimsy, after I had spent quite a bit of time designing the actual Lego molecules.

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20 Things You Didn't Know About... Time

The beginning, the end, and the funny habits of our favorite ticking force

by LeeAundra Temescu

1 “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so,” joked Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Scientists aren’t laughing, though. Some speculative new physics theories suggest that time emerges from a more fundamental—and timeless—reality.

2 Try explaining that when you get to work late. The average U.S. city commuter loses 38 hours a year to traffic delays.

3 Wonder why you have to set your clock ahead in March? Daylight Saving Time began as a joke by Benjamin Franklin, who proposed waking people earlier on bright summer mornings so they might work more during the day and thus save candles. It was introduced in the U.K. in 1917 and then spread around the world.

4 Green days. The Department of Energy estimates that electricity demand drops by 0.5 percent during Daylight Saving Time, saving the equivalent of nearly 3 million barrels of oil.

5 By observing how quickly bank tellers made change, pedestrians walked, and postal clerks spoke, psychologists determined that the three fastest-paced U.S. cities are Boston, Buffalo, and New York.

6 The three slowest? Shreveport, Sacramento, and L.A.

7 One second used to be defined as 1/86,400 the length of a day. However, Earth’s rotation isn’t perfectly reliable. Tidal friction from the sun and moon slows our planet and increases the length of a day by 3 milli­seconds per century.

8 This means that in the time of the dinosaurs, the day was just 23 hours long.

9 Weather also changes the day. During El Niño events, strong winds can slow Earth’s rotation by a fraction of a milli­second every 24 hours.

10 Modern technology can do better. In 1972 a network of atomic clocks in more than 50 countries was made the final authority on time, so accurate that it takes 31.7 million years to lose about one second.

11 To keep this time in sync with Earth’s slowing rotation, a “leap second” must be added every few years, most recently this past New Year’s Eve.

12 The world’s most accurate clock, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Colorado, measures vibrations of a single atom of mercury. In a billion years it will not lose one second.

13 Until the 1800s, every village lived in its own little time zone, with clocks synchronized to the local solar noon.

14 This caused havoc with the advent of trains and timetables. For a while watches were made that could tell both local time and “railway time.”

15 On November 18, 1883, American railway companies forced the national adoption of standardized time zones.

16 Thinking about how railway time required clocks in different places to be synchronized may have inspired Einstein to develop his theory of relativity, which unifies space and time.

17 Einstein showed that gravity makes time run more slowly. Thus airplane passengers, flying where Earth’s pull is weaker, age a few extra nano­seconds each flight.

18 According to quantum theory, the shortest moment of time that can exist is known as Planck time, or 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 second.

19 Time has not been around forever. Most scientists believe it was created along with the rest of the universe in the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago.

20 There may be an end of time. Three Spanish scientists posit that the observed acceleration of the expanding cosmos is an illusion caused by the slowing of time. According to their math, time may eventually stop, at which point everything will come to a standstill.

Fermilab Closer To Discovering Higgs Boson 'God Particle'

The U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announced on Friday that physicists have come closer to finding the elusive "God Particle" which could one day explain why particles have mass, the American Free Press reported.

The American research institute had previously claimed it was moving ahead of its European rival in the race to discover one of the biggest prizes in physics, the elusive Higgs Boson particle.

Fermilab reported that its researchers have managed to shrink the territory where they expect the so-called “God Particle” to be found.

British physicist Peter Higgs set out to answer the question that baffled physicists: how do particles acquire mass?

In 1964, he came up with the idea that a background field must exist that would act like treacle, meaning particles passing through it would acquire mass by being dragged through a mediator, which theoreticians dubbed the Higgs Boson.

The Higgs became known as the "God Particle" because it is everywhere but remains frustratingly elusive.

wanna read more? click here

Microscopic images from inside the human body

Image: Annie Cavanagh, Wellcome Images

Of the 100 billion neurons in your brain, Purkinje neurons are some of the largest. Among other things, these cells are the masters of motor coordination in the cerebellar cortex. Toxic exposure such as alcohol and lithium, autoimmune diseases, genetic mutations including autism and neurodegenerative diseases can negatively affect human Purkinje cells.

Image: Yorgos Nikas, Wellcome Images

This image is of a purple, colour-enhanced human egg sitting on a pin. The egg is coated with the zona pellicuda, a glycoprotein that protects the egg but also helps to trap and bind sperm. Two coronal cells are attached to the zona pellicuda.

Wanna see more? click here

Dies Emas ITB: Open House dan Pameran Inovasi IPTEKS

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id

Jumat (27/02/09), pukul 09.00, Rektor ITB, Djoko Santoso, direncanakan akan membuka "Open House dan Pameran Inovasi IPTEKS" yang merupakan bagian dari rangkaian acara Dies Emas untuk puncak kegiatan Maret 2009. Berlangsung Jumat (27/02/09)-Minggu (01/03/09) di Aula Barat dan Timur, Open House akan menyajikan informasi lengkap mengenai Program Studi, Fakultas/Sekolah, dan Unit Kerja yang ada di ITB. Acara kemudian dilanjutkan dengan Pameran Inovasi IPTEKS yang direncanakan akan dibuka oleh Wakil Presiden RI, M. Jusuf Kalla, Senin (02/03/09).

"Diharapkan, para siswa, guru, atau orang tua yang hadir pada acara Open House dapat membayangkan pendidikan yang ada di ITB. Juga sebagai sarana sosialisasi cara masuk menjadi mahasiswa ITB," ujar Setiawan Sabana, Ketua Acara ini. Pada Open House ini juga akan dilakukan loka karya bagi guru-guru se-Jawa Barat dengan mengambil tema "Model Transformasi Sikap, Karakter, dan Intelektualitas dari Posisi Siswa ke Mahasiswa".

Pameran Inovasi IPTEKS akan berlangsung sebagian besar di daerah Campus Center ITB. Pameran yang terbagi menjadi zona-zona tertentu memudahkan pengunjung dalam berinteraksi dengan stand-stand yang ada. Zona tersebut, antara lain Energi (migas serta berbagai energi alternatif), Bioteknologi, Pengelolaan Lingkungan dan Sumberdaya Alam, Teknologi Informasi, Pengembangan Wilayah dan Infrastruktur, Industri Kreatif, Mesin otomotif, dan Senirupa dan Desain.

Industri Kreatif akan ditempatkan di Campus Center (CC) Barat. Kriya Nusantara yang dikerjakan oleh alumnus FSRD ITB akan memamerkan produk kerajinan ekspor pada salah satu stand di CC Barat tersebut. Di zona yang sama juga akan ditampilkan instrument musik teknologi karya STSI Bandung. STSI akan menampilkan sampah-sampah elektronik yang telah ditambahkan nilainya sehingga menghasilkan suara khas instrument musik, seperti suara kecapi. "Buat saya, karya STSI menarik karena untuk menampilkan karya tersebut diperlukan perpaduan imajinasi, keterampilan, dan teknologi ," ujar Setiawan ketika ditanya hal menarik dari zona Industri Kreatif.

Pada pameran ini juga akan ditampilkan produk-produk yang langsung didemokan di tempat. Mobil air karya LAPI Indowater yang akan merubah air kotor menjadi air bersih dan Turbin Angin Balon akan mendemonstrasikan produknya di hadapan pengunjung.

Bekerja sama dengan Metro TV sebagai media partner, ITB berharap Dies Emas ini memandu masa depan bangsa untuk mewujudkan daya saing bangsa melalui keunggulan teknologi. "Insya Allah meriah. Masyarakat umum dan kampus-kampus lain akan datang sehingga kesempatan ini dapat menjadi jendela untuk saling melihat dan diharapkan ada deal-deal tentang riset sehingga dapat direspon oleh stakeholder yang lain," kata Setiawan menutup wawancara dengan Kantor Berita ITB.

Physics of ‘the Hit’

by ALAN SCHWARZ

TAMPA, Fla. — Isaac Newton’s apple hurt considerably less than Ryan Clark’s coconut. But they did have a few things in common.

Clark’s shockingly violent hit on the Baltimore Ravens’ Willis McGahee two Sundays ago — a full-speed, helmet-to-helmet crash that left McGahee unconscious and Clark all but — didn’t just follow the N.F.L.’s rules, but Newton’s as well. Force equaled mass times acceleration. Momentum was conserved. And the bodies finally came to rest, McGahee’s on a stretcher.

“How I look at it, you can be the hammer or the nail,” the inner scientist in Clark explained this week. “I try to be the hammer.”

The tackle, the art of making the ball carrier not stay in motion, is football’s most primeval action. Amusing physicists the way batting averages do actuaries, collisions lead the highlight reels, impart the force of a deadly car crash, and rely upon kinematics that date to a considerably different big bang.

Sunday’s Super Bowl could very well ride on how well the Steelers’ defense — known as perhaps the most fearsome and bone-clattering in the N.F.L. — can tackle the Arizona Cardinals’ fast and evasive wide receivers. From angles and acceleration to speed and centers of gravity, players might not understand the physics of tackling, but they know how to wield it.

“It’s all about timing and leverage,” Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson said. “Being able to time the hit the right way, and the leverage you’ve got to have once you make impact so the other player goes back, and not you.”

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Presentasi Share ITB: Nuklir Untuk Ketahanan Listrik di Indonesia

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id

Salah satu unit kegiatan mahasiswa ITB yang memfokuskan diri pada riset, kembali menyelenggarakan presentasi terbuka, kali ini mengangkat topik "Nuclear Power Plant For Electricity in Indonesia", Sabtu (06/12) lalu. Presentasi diisi oleh perwakilan Share Energy Network, Siti Reiwanti Auliyani (MIPA'08), perwakilan Social Issue Network, Gladys Emmanuella Putri Langi (SITH'08), dan dilanjutkan oleh Kepala Laboratorium Nuklir Fisika ITB, Dr. Zaki Su'ud M. Eng. Presentasi diarahkan seputar prospek nuklir sebagai pembangkit listrik di Indonesia dari segi teknologi, keamanan, sosial, dan lingkungan.

Dalam kajian Energy Network yang disampaikan Siti Reiwanti, produksi energi Indonesia tahun 1999-2010 terus menurun dari 1480 hingga 1050 MBOPD (Thousand Barrels of Oil Per Day).Sementara, konsumsi energi terus meningkat dari 980-1650 MBOPD.Beberapa daerah di Indonesia seperti Aceh, Bangka Belitung, Kalimantan Barat, Kalimantan Timur, Sumatra Barat, dan Riau,bahkan mengalami Break Event Point (BEP) dalam hal ketahanan listrik.

Saat ini, di dunia telah dibangun 443 Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Listrik Nuklir dengan total kapasitas 376 GW. Asia, ternyata merupakan regional di dunia yang mengalami perkembangan signifikan dalam hal energi nuklir. Di Asia Timur dan Selatan telah beroperasi 109 reaktor nuklir, 18 pada tahap pembangunan, dan lebih dari 110 reaktor pada tahap perencanaan.Di Indonesia,Reaktor Nuklir Triga Mark 2000 yang berlokasi di Bandung menghasilkan power output 2000KW pada tahun 2000, reaktor nuklir Kartini yang beroperasi di Yogyakarta menghasilkan power output 100KW,dan reaktor nuklir G.A.Siwabessy yang berlokasi di Serpong, Tanggerang menghasilkan power output 30 MW.

Prinsip kerja reaktor, seperti yang dipaparkan Zaki Su'ud, berawal dari reaksi fisi beruntun, yaitu reaksi pembelahan inti atom akibat tubrukan inti atom lainnya, menghasilkan energi dan atom baru yang bermassa lebih kecil, serta radiasi elektromagnetik. Satu gram Uranium-235 dapat menghasilkan 81,97 Giga Joule energi atau setara dengan keluaran daya 1MW day.

Dalam hal sistem pengendalian nuklir, bila jumlah netron dari waktu ke waktu bertambah, reaktor dalam kedaan super kritis (daya meningkat) maka batang kendali masuk dalam teras dan penyerapan netron akan lebih intensif sehingga populasi netron akan cenderung menurun dan daya akan turun. Bila jumlah netron dari waktu ke waktu menurun, reaktor dalam keadaan sub kritis (daya menurun)maka batang kendali ditarik keluar teras dan penyerapan netron berkurang sehingga populasi netron cenderung meningkat dan menyebabkan kenaikan daya. Bila jumlah netron dari waktu ke waktu stabil maka reaktor dalam keadaan kritis, sistem batang kendali yang akan mengontrol posisi penyerap netron yang kuat(Misal B-10) masuk atau keluar teras reaktor. Beberapa alternatif sistem pengendalian reaktor diantaranya memanfaatkan umpan balik reaktivitas-perubahan temperatur dan parameter lain dari teras dimanfaatkan untuk mengendalikan teras-, menggunakan sistem reflektor-pada beberapa reaktor inovatif-, dan menggunakan komponen pasif.

Standar-standar dalam pembangunan dan pengoperasian reaktor nuklir diantaranya reaktor nuklir merupakan produk yang dikontrol internasional dengan sangat ketat sehingga jaminan kualitasnya termasuk yang paling baik diantara produk-produk industri yang ada. Selain itu, standar-standar dan prosedur termasuk dalam hal pengoperasian dan sistem keselamatan harus diterapkan dengan sempurna agar izin pengoperasian dapat berjalan secara lancar.

Dari segi sosial dan lingkungan, Gladys memaparkan Nuclear Waste dapat di-recycle setelah dilakukan treatment atau distorasi setelah dikonsentrasikan. Negara yang telah menerapkan metode ini diantaranya Inggris dan Prancis. Di Indonesia, kegiatan memproses limbah radioaktif tengah dilakukan oleh Pusat Teknologi Limbah Radioaktif (PTLR) di Serpong, Banten, dibawah kendali Badan Tenaga Atom Nasional (Batan)

Someone at Digg.com likes physics... cool!

Have you ever had a good look at the source code for Digg.com?

Perhaps you don't even know what the source code for a website is; in that case you may not be interested in this. But for the rest of you, I have found something that is quite strange and there appears to be a comical physicist working on the code at Digg.com.

If you view the source code for digg.com and go down to the very bottom you will notice this line:

-- digg is done serving you. 2.01355321270u 137.03599911 6.6742x10-11m3kg-1s-2 6.6742x10-11m3kg-1s-2 -->

This line was just a comment and will not appear anywhere on the actual website, making it basically useless. But then you start wondering what the significance of these number are, and why someone would waste the time putting these seemingly useless numbers there in the first place.

Of course I am to curious to let this go on without finding some type of explanation so to the search engine I went.

The first number of the series, 2.01355321270u is the atomic mass of the hydrogen isotope known as deuterium. The atomic mass can be defined as the total mass of protons, neutrons and electrons in a single atom, expressed in unified atomic mass units.
The nucleus of deuterium, called a deuteron, contains one proton and one neutron, whereas the far more common hydrogen nucleus contains no neutrons. For more information you can have a look at the Wikipedia page on deuterium.


The second number, 137.03599911 is quite a bit more complicated and is the inverse of the Sommerfeld fine-structure constant. The fine-structure constant is 1/137.03599911, it is the measure of the strength of the electromagnetic force that governs how electrically charged elementary particles (e.g., electron, muon) and light (photons) interact.

I warned you that it was complicated and I am not even going to try to explain that number any further because I know too little about quantum electrodynamics. But feel free to check out this page for more info.

The final 2 numbers in the series are just the same number, 6.6742x10-11m3kg-1s-2, multiplied by itself, making it the square of a number. The number that is being squared is actually pretty common in any type of physics and is known as the Gravitational constant (G). The gravitational constant appears in Newton's law of universal gravitation, but it was not measured until 1798 — 71 years after Newton's death — by Henry Cavendish. For more reading on this check out Wikipedia.

After looking at these number for a while trying to understand the meaning of this equation it finally hit me.

The numbers spell out a secret message D I G G !

You see the numbers represent Deuterium, Inverse of the fine structure constant, G, G

Yes, someone at Digg.com is as much of a geek as me and decided to use science to encrypt a secret message, and now that I have solved it I will be able to sleep at night.

To look at the source of the website go to digg.com and click the view tab and click "page source" (for Firefox of course).

[source: www.hyperevo.com]

Total Solar Eclipse on August 1: Where, How to See It

Anne Minard

for National Geographic News

Solar eclipses have been blamed in the past for war, famine, and the deaths of kings. But the upcoming total eclipse on August 1 will mostly be celebrated by excited skywatchers—even if it won't break any records.

The sun will be completely obscured for just under two and a half minutes, "a tad on the short side," according to astrophysicist Fred Espenak, an eclipse expert based at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

A typical eclipse lasts for three minutes, Espenak said, and the longest possible is seven and a half minutes.

When it starts, this year's full eclipse will be visible from a narrow arc spanning the Northern Hemisphere.

Its path will begin in Canada and continue northeast across Greenland and the Arctic, then southeast through central Russia, Mongolia, and China.

The eclipse will start around 8:30 a.m. Greenwich mean time in the eastern part of the arc, leading to totality in just under an hour.

In a much wider swath of the globe—including northeastern North America along with most of Europe and Asia—people will be able to see a partial eclipse.

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Will Our Future Brains Be Smaller?

Will our future brains be smaller? It has been thought for some years that mammals have two decision-making systems in their brains which operate at different speeds to cope with different situations. Do we still benefit from using both?
(Credit: iStockphoto/Vasiliy Yakobchuk)

ScienceDaily — The speed at which we react to threatening situations can have life or death implications. In the more primitive past, it could have meant escaping a wild animal; today it might mean swerving to avoid a head-on car crash.

It has been thought for some years that mammals have two decision-making systems in their brains which operate at different speeds to cope with different situations. New research from the University of Bristol supports this theory and has shown that the evolutionary pressures arising from the older, faster, but less accurate, part of the brain may have shaped the more recent development of the slower-acting but more precise cortex, found in humans and higher animals.

Pete Trimmer, lead author on the study, explained: "If we compare the brain of a human with that of a reptile, we find they are very similar except that mammals have a large 'outer cortex' around the outside of the existing 'sub-cortical' brain, that is common to other vertebrates.

"The fact that lizards make decisions indicates that the sub-cortical brain in humans is also likely to be used in decision-making. However, fMRI scans now reveal that parts of the outer cortex (which developed more recently in our evolutionary past) are also used when making decisions."

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Nano-Prospecting

Energy companies pour millions into nanotechnology for oil and gas recovery

Could nanotechnology help squeeze more oil and gas out of the ground? That's the hope of a consortium of energy companies that is putting millions of dollars into the development of new micro- and nanosensor technologies.

The seven companies that make up the Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC), which includes Halliburton Energy Services, BP America, and ConocoPhilips, will put up $21 million in total to fund the research. The aim is to develop subsurface sensors that can be used to improve both the discovery and the recovery of hydrocarbons.

"It's been a long time coming," says Wade Adams, director of the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University, in Houston, a technical partner to the consortium. "It's the first time the energy companies have got together to fund this kind of research, so it really is a big deal," he says.

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Buah tin bisa mencegah kanker

SANA’A - Buah Tin, yang namanya tercantum dalam Al-Qur`an disamping buah zaitun, disebut-sebut oleh hasil penelitian medis terbaru sebagai buah yang bermanfaat untuk mencegah kanker.

Menurut hasil penelitian medis yang disiarkan oleh harian Al-Raya, Qatar, Sabtu (5/1), buah yang besarnya seperti buah kelengkeng itu selain kaya akan kalsium dan potasium juga mengandung zat benzaldehyde yang bermanfaat melawan sel-sel kanker.

Di dalam buah tin yang rasanya manis itu juga mengandung zat yang sangat penting bagi tubuh manusia karena dapat mengurangi kolesterol jahat, menguatkan jantung dan menormalkan pernafasan bagi penderita sesak nafas.

Buah yang juga dikenal dengan nama Ara atau Figs itu banyak dijumpai di negara-negara Arab. Buah ini mudah dicerna oleh alat pencernaan, bermanfaat untuk mengobati sulit buang air besar, bermanfaat untuk hati dan limpa.

Buah yang rasanya manis seperti korma ini juga lebih mirip sebagai makanan biasa karena mengenyangkan seperti buah korma sehingga warga Arab jarang memasukkannya dalam daftar buah-buahan.

Penelitian tentang kandungan benzaldehyde dalam buah Tin sebenarnya telah diungkap dalam jurnal yang dimuat website Cancer Cure Foundation. Website ini menyebutkan bahwa riset yang dilakukan para ahli dari Institute of Physical and Chemical Research di Tokyo menunjukkan benzaldehyde terbukti efektif dalam menghambat tumor.

Selain itu, Departemen Pertanian Amerika Serikat mengungkapkan bahwa buah Tin mengandung beragam nutrisi mulai dari vitamin A, C, kalsium, magnesium hingga potasium. Buah ini juga baik untuk mengendalikan nafsu makan dan membantu usaha penurunan berat badan. Jus buah Tin pun merupakan minuman yang baik untuk membunuh bakteri merugikan dalam sebuah peneltian.

sumber : www.kompas.com

'Death Star' Galaxy Black Hole Fires at Neighboring Galaxy

A black hole jet at the center of a galaxy strikes the edge of another galaxy.
Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/ CfA/D.Evans et al.; Optical/UV: NASA/ STScI; Radio: NSF/VLA/CfA/D.Evans et al., STFC/JBO/MERLIN

WASHINGTON - A powerful jet from a super massive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy, according to new findings from NASA observatories. This never-before witnessed galactic violence may have a profound effect on planets in the jet's path and trigger a burst of star formation in its destructive wake.

Known as 3C321, the system contains two galaxies in orbit around each other. Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory show both galaxies contain super massive black holes at their centers, but the larger galaxy has a jet emanating from the vicinity of its black hole. The smaller galaxy apparently has swung into the path of this jet.

This "death star" galaxy was discovered through the combined efforts of both space and ground-based telescopes. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope were part of the effort. The Very Large Array telescope, Socorro, N.M., and the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) telescopes in the United Kingdom also were needed for the finding.

"We've seen many jets produced by black holes, but this is the first time we've seen one punch into another galaxy like we're seeing here," said Dan Evans, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and leader of the study. "This jet could be causing all sorts of problems for the smaller galaxy it is pummeling."

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