Scientists Discover Why Dark Chocolate Is So Good For You In Most Delicious Research Project Ever

Chocolate: can't live without it.



Now you have a scientific excuse to dive into your daily chocolate fix: researchers have found the reason dark chocolate is so healthy for you.

Research presented at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society reveals that microbes in the gut consume the chocolate and convert it into heart-healthy anti-inflammatory compounds.

"We found that there are two kinds of microbes in the gut: the ‘good’ ones and the ‘bad’ ones," Maria Moore, one of the study's researchers, explained.

"The good microbes, such as Bifidobacterium and lactic acid bacteria, feast on chocolate. When you eat dark chocolate, they grow and ferment it, producing compounds that are anti-inflammatory."

Inflammation has been linked to heart disease and stroke although, according to the American Heart Association, "[e]xactly how inflammation plays a role in heart attack and stroke remains a topic of ongoing research."

Before grabbing the nearest chocolate bar or scooping a bowl of chocolate ice cream, it's important to note that the health benefits are directly linked to cocoa powder and not a sugar- and milk-laden chocolate bar; lead researcher John Finleyrecommends sprinkling a little cocoa powder on top of oatmeal.

He also noted that combining dark chocolate with fruits like pomegranates and açaí could reap even more health benefits.

Source: SCI

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World's first 3-D acoustic cloaking device hides objects from sound

Using little more than a few perforated sheets of plastic and a staggering amount of number crunching, Duke engineers have demonstrated the world's first three-dimensional acoustic cloak. The new device reroutes sound waves to create the impression that both the cloak and anything beneath it are not there.

The acoustic cloaking device works in all three dimensions, no matter which direction the sound is coming from or where the observer is located, and holds potential for future applications such as sonar avoidance and architectural acoustics.

The study appears online in Nature Materials.

"The particular trick we're performing is hiding an object from sound waves," said Steven Cummer, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke University. "By placing this cloak around an object, the sound waves behave like there is nothing more than a flat surface in their path."

To achieve this new trick, Cummer and his colleagues turned to the developing field of metamaterials—the combination of natural materials in repeating patterns to achieve unnatural properties. In the case of the new acoustic cloak, the materials manipulating the behavior of sound waves are simply plastic and air. Once constructed, the device looks like several plastic plates with a repeating pattern of holes poked through them stacked on top of one another to form a sort of pyramid.

To give the illusion that it isn't there, the cloak must alter the waves' trajectory to match what they would look like had they had reflected off a flat surface. Because the sound is not reaching the surface beneath, it is traveling a shorter distance and its speed must be slowed to compensate.

"The structure that we built might look really simple," said Cummer. "But I promise you that it's a lot more difficult and interesting than it looks. We put a lot of energy into calculating how sound waves would interact with it. We didn't come up with this overnight."

To test the cloaking device, researchers covered a small sphere with the cloak and "pinged" it with short bursts of sound from various angles. Using a microphone, they mapped how the waves responded and produced videos of them traveling through the air.

Cummer and his team then compared the videos to those created with both an unobstructed flat surface and an uncloaked sphere blocking the way. The results clearly show that the cloaking device makes it appear as though the sound waves reflected off an empty surface.

Although the experiment is a simple demonstration showing that the technology is possible and concealing an evil super-genius' underwater lair is a long ways away, Cummer believes that the technique has several potential commercial applications.

"We conducted our tests in the air, but sound waves behave similarly underwater, so one obvious potential use is sonar avoidance," said Cummer. "But there's also the design of auditoriums or concert halls—any space where you need to control the acoustics. If you had to put a beam somewhere for structural reasons that was going to mess up the sound, perhaps you could fix the acoustics by cloaking it."

Source phys.org

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Shining a light on radio waves

A new device, no bigger than a grain of salt, captures feeble radio waves and transforms them into laser pulses. The gadget is compact and works at room temperature, making it considerably more attractive than the bulky, expensive, cryogenically cooled amplifiers used today.
The contraption, which Eugene Polzik of the University of Copenhagen and colleagues describe in the March 6Nature, converts incoming radio waves to light. At the heart of the gadget is a square film of silicon nitride, just 500 micrometers on a side, coated with aluminum. A laser bounces off one side of the membrane. Radio waves impinging on the opposite side cause the membrane to vibrate like a drum. The vibrations change the brightness of the reflected laser beam, which a detector captures.

Fields as diverse as radio astronomy, medical imaging and navigation depend on detecting and transmitting weak radio waves. Currently, faint signals get a boost by costly amplifiers cooled to a couple hundred degrees below zero Celsius and then travel along leaky copper wires to computers. Membrane-coupled lasers can bypass the amplifiers and replace antiquated wiring with fiber optics, dramatically reducing losses.
Published at ScienceNews.

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GEAR AND GADGETS Tasty Tech Eye Candy Of The Week

This week in tech, we present amazing concepts from exceptionally creative minds. These ideas are so good, you'll wonder why no one invented them before. How about germ-proof clothing? Odors that can be sent via text message? A car that comes with its own drone and a fish that's able to drive an aquarium. Those are just a few. Read on.

STRING JUNGLE GYM: Croatian-Austrian collective Numen/For Use is known for its large-scale interactive environments. The group's latest design is an inflatable building rigged with a network of cables. The String Prototype gives kids and adults alike a jungle gym experience. Climb aboard.

Publish at : News

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Centenary of Military Aviation 2014 (CMA14)

Centenary of Military Aviation 2014 (CMA14)

The Centenary of Military Aviation 2014 Air Show is proudly presented by the Royal Australian Air Force at RAAF Base Williams, Point Cook, Victoria over the weekend of 1st & 2nd March 2014. Point Cook is the birthplace of military aviation in Australia and the oldest continually operating military airfield in the world. The Centenary of Military Aviation is a national event celebrating 100 years of military aviation in Australian and encompassing a spectacular Air Show with air displays and ground displays. Gates are open from 8am to 4pm. Flying displays will be held from 10am to 3:30pm. The flying program is the same for both days of the Air Show. Entry is by pre-paid ticketing which will be available from December 2013. Please refer back to this website for further details in the coming weeks. Why you should come The event highlights the significant advances in military aircraft during the past 100 years. On display for the first time at CMA14 will be a newly built replica of a Bristol BoxKite aeroplane. The Bristol BoxKite was the first military aircraft flown in Australia at RAAF Point Cook, on 1 March 1914. No original Bristol BoxKite aeroplanes survive today. Three reproductions were built for the making of the film ‘Those magnificent men in their flying machines’. One is on display at the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, another is on display at the Shuttleworth Collection in Bedfordshire (where it is still flown during flying displays), and the third one is on display at the Museum of Australian Army Flying in Queensland. Go to http://airforce.gov.au/airshows for full the program.

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powerful turbo AWD rally car

Ken Block has done it again, and even though this particular dead horse has now 
suffered at least six beatings, it's always fun to see Block try to one-up himself in a wickedly powerful turbo AWD rally car.
watch 
 bit.ly/1aOPcwl  

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sure police guns are safe

A Massachusetts politician has put forth a proposal to allow local police to enter homes without a warrant in order to inspect whether gun owners are properly storing their firearms.The idea was floated by Swampsott Selectman Barry Greenfield, who expressed frustration about the Newtown school massacre in the neighboring state of Connecticut and in other cases where people have obtained their parents’ guns to carry out shootings.

“We need the ability to enforce the state law,” Greenfield said, according to theSwampscott Patch.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/11/police-entering-homes-to-make-sure-guns-are-stored-safely-if-this-politician-has-his-way/

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