National Academies Press (NAP) describes this new draft publication as follows, “This publication, ‘Fueling Innovation and Discovery: The Mathematical Sciences in the 21st Century’, ……. is based on the committee’s identification of recent advances in the mathematical sciences or advances enabled by mathematical sciences research, drawn from the committee’s assessment of the vitality of the discipline. This report is geared toward general readers who would like to know more about ongoing advances in the mathematical sciences and how these advances are changing our understanding of the world, creating new technologies, and transforming industries.”
If you have set up your own MyNAP account as I described in my 14 March 2015 posting, you can download the subject NAP report for free at the following link:
The National Academies Press (NAP) was created by the National Academy of Sciences to publish the reports of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council, all operating under a charter granted by the Congress of the United States. The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and medicine, providing authoritative information on important matters in science and health policy. NAP offers more than 5,000 titles in PDF format. All of these PDFs can be downloaded for free by the chapter or the entire book.
If you do not already have a NAP account (free), then you can do this easily by clicking on the following link:
At this site, you will see a “Help” column on the right side of the page. Under the heading “Using NAP.edu”, select “MyNAP”. On this new page, follow the instructions under “Getting Started” and register for your account. Once you have an account, you’ll be able to select and download the NAP pdf documents you find interesting. You also should receive periodic e-mails announcing the availability of new NAP publications.
Many at SAIC worked at or for one or more DOE national laboratories at some point in their careers. The following link to the DOE Office of Scientific & Technical Information (OSTI) web site provides links to other web sites with historical information on the various national labs.
For example, on this OSTI web page, you can select the Idaho National Laboratory link, and a pop-up menu will display the available documents. If you select, “Proving the Principle: A History of the Idaho Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, 1949 – 1999,” this will take you to an INL web site that includes a 25 chapter history + a 2000 – 2010 addendum, all organized for chapter-by-chapter web access.
I hope you find some something of interest via the OSTI website.
Switzerland’s Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) is designed to fly around the world on solar power. Its wing span of 236 ft. is greater than the wing span of a Boeing 747. The high aspect ratio wing maximizes aerodynamic efficiency. Power is generated by more than 17,000 high-efficiency solar cells, with a daily generation capacity of up to 340 kWh. In comparison, my home solar electric system can generate 22 kWh on a good day.
Built with carbon fiber structures, Si2 weighs only 5,070 lb., but a bit more than 1/4 of that is for the batteries.
Graphic source: info.solarimpulse.com
Check out the Solar Impulse 2 website for detailed information on how this remarkable airplane was designed and constructed to meet the challenges of its mission.
You probably remember scenes from Star Trek in which a Tricorder was used by Mr. Spock or Dr. McCoy to measure and analyze almost anything. That technology is closer than you may think.
Qualcomm is sponsoring the Tricorder XPRISE, which “is a $10 million global competition to stimulate innovation and integration of precision diagnostic technologies, helping consumers make their own reliable health diagnoses anywhere, anytime.”
Ten finalist teams have been selected. As part of the Final Round, teams will compete in both diagnostic experience evaluations and consumer testing, slated for mid-to-late 2015. The final judging and awards ceremony is scheduled to take place in early 2016.
Go to the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRISE website for details and, if you wish, sign up for their newsletter.
On 16 April 2014, Dr. Erik Viirre of the XPRISE organization spoke to the Lyncean Group about the Tricorder XPRISE. You can find more details on this talk on the Lyncean site, Past Meetings tab. Following is the direct link:
On 17 December 2014, Lambert Ninteman of San Diego State University (SDSU) spoke to Lyncean Group about their entry for the Tricorder XPRISE. You can find details on this talk and the associated presentation on the Lyncean site, Past Meetings tab. Following is the direct link:
XPRISE announced the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE has been officially extended through early 2017, providing the seven finalist teams with additional time to make refine their tricorder devices to ensure they can succeed in the competition. You can read details at the following link:
A muon is an unstable elementary subatomic particle in the same class as an electron (they’re both leptons), but with a much greater mass (207 times greater). A useful property of muons is that they can penetrate matter much further than X-rays with the added benefit of causing essentially zero damage to the matter it passes through. Muons scatter and lose energy as they pass through matter, slowing down and eventually decaying, typically into three particles: an electron and two types of neutrinos. The higher the average density of the matter encountered along the muon’s flight path, the more quickly the muon slows down.
Muons are created by the interaction of high-energy cosmic rays with the upper regions of Earth’s atmosphere and they account for much of the cosmic radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface. This means that the existing flux of muon radiation at the Earth’s surface (about 10,000 muons/square meter/sec) is a free resource for clever researchers.
Muon tomography uses this free muon flux and the muon’s characteristic of slowing down more quickly in denser matter to create a density map of the field-of-view available to a muon detector. There are two types of muon imaging, transmission and scattering. The differences are addressed in LA-UR-15-24802, listed below. In both types of muon imaging, denser objects and structures in the detectors field of view appear as shadows (muon shadows) that are darker (fewer muons getting thru to the detectors) than less dense areas.
Muon tomography at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) supported the use of muon tomography at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant to help determine what damage was done to the reactor cores at Units 1, 2 and 3 during the 11 March 2011 accident, which was precipitated by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake followed by a 15-meter (49.2-ft) tsunami.
A 2013 muon tomography feasibility study (Hauro Miyadera, et al.) reported: “Muon scattering imaging has high sensitivity for detecting uranium fuel and debris even through thick concrete walls and a reactor pressure vessel. Technical demonstrations using a reactor mockup, a detector radiation test at Fukushima Daiichi, and simulation studies have been carried out. These studies establish feasibility for the reactor imaging. A few months of measurement will reveal the spatial distribution of the reactor fuel.”
At Reactor #1, two 22 ton (20 metric ton), 21-foot by 21-foot (6.4 m by 6.4 m) muon detectors were installed and used to collect data over periods of months to develop high-resolution images of the damaged reactor core and surrounding areas. Placement of the muon detectors and the general scan geometry is shown in the following diagram.
Source: LA-UR-12-20494
Reactor #1 muon scan results
In March 2015, TEPCO announced that its muon tomography scanning efforts at Fukushima were successful, and confirmed that the nuclear plant’s Reactor #1 suffered a complete meltdown. The muon scans showed no corium (i.e., the lava-like product of a reactor core meltdown containing the melted nuclear fuel, fission products, control rods, and structural materials) remained in the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). The muon scans did not show the distribution of the corium that flowed out of the bottom of the reactor vessel into the primary containment vessel (PCV).
Muon tomography scan of Reactor #1. The corium, if present in the RPV, should have been visible as a dark shadow inside the RPV. Source: TEPCO via ExtremeTech (2015)
Muon tomography scan of Reactor #1, focusing on the RPV. Source: TEPCO via ExtremeTech (2015)
Reactor #2 muon scan results
World Nuclear News (WNN) reported (2016 & 2017), “TEPCO said analysis of muon examinations of the fuel debris shows that most of the fuel has melted and dropped from its original position within the core (and resolidified)…..Measurements taken between March and July 2016 at unit 2 showed high-density materials, considered to be fuel debris, in the lower area of the RPV.”
A muon tomography image of Reactor #2. Source: TEPCO via WNN (2016)
Reactor #3 muon scan results
In 2017, WNN reported, “Some of the fuel in the damaged unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant has melted and dropped into the primary containment vessel, initial results from using a muon detection system indicate. Part of the fuel, however, is believed to remain in the reactor pressure vessel.”
Muon tomography image of Reactor #3. Source: TEPCO via WNN (2017)
Summary of fuel debris status at Fukushima
Based on the results of the muon tomography program and other means of investigation, TEPCO created the following graphic summary showing the estimated distribution of core and containment vessel fuel debris in Fukushima Units 1, 2 & 3.
The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory – an initiative launched in 2014 as a collaboration between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) – acts as the standard to unify precipitation measurements from a network of 12 satellites. The result is NASA’s integrated multi-satellite retrievals for the GPM data product, called IMERG, which combines all of these data from 12 satellites into a single, seamless map. An example of this global map is shown below:
Check out the short article and watch a short video showing the synthesized global precipitation map in action at the following NASA link:
It’s also called “quantum illumination” using “entangled quantum particles”. I think I missed that class, so I found this relatively simple explanation to be helpful.
Image source: S. Barzanjeh et al., Phys. Rev. Lett.
This land speed record project has gained national attention in the UK, not only for it’s ambitious goal of setting a 1,000 mph speed record on land, but also as a source of inspiration for a new generation of engineers. The “car” is propelled by a Rolls-Royce jet engine + a rocket engine.
I think you’ll find the main website for the Bloodhound Project to be well-designed and very engaging, Check it out at:
On the BLOODHOUND website, click on the “Education” tab to see how the project team is working to engage young engineers.
4 July 2016 Update: BLOODHOUND announces date for world record attempt in October 2017
On 3 July 2016, the BLOODHOUND team announced:
“We’re delighted to announce that the target date for BLOODHOUND’s 800mph world land speed record attempt in October 2017, 20 years after Thrust SSC set the existing record. Funding has been secured, with major deals recently signed, and race preparation is underway for high speed runs at the Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape, South Africa, in Autumn next year.
BLOODHOUND SSC will travel under its own power for the first time at Newquay in June 2017, in a slow speed shakedown test at around 220mph (354km/h). This will also be an opportunity for the team to practice live-streaming data and imagery from the car.”
You can read their complete announcement at the following link:
Mark your calendar! March 18, 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the very first extra-vehicular activity (EVA) in history, which was performed by Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who briefly left Voskhod 2 while in orbit in 1965.
This was a 12 minute spacewalk. Spacesuit over-inflation made it difficult for Leonov to re-enter the Voskhod 2 capsule and faulty hatch closure contributed to an off-course reentry.
You can read a brief article about this and other EVAs that did not go as planned at the following link:
