Hawking unveils 'strangest clock'

A £1m clock called the "time eater" has been unveiled at Cambridge University by Professor Stephen Hawking.
The author of A Brief History of Time was guest of honour when the unique clock, which has no hands or numbers, was revealed at Corpus Christi College.
Dubbed the strangest clock in the world, it features a giant grasshopper and has 60 slits cut into its face which light up to show the time.
Its creator John Taylor said he "wanted to make timekeeping interesting".
The Corpus Clock will stand outside the college's library and will be on view to the public.
Tribute
Dr Taylor is an inventor and horologist - one who studies the measurement of time - and was a student at Corpus Christi in the 1950s.
He has given the clock as a gift to his former college.
The grasshopper or "chronophage", meaning "time eater", advances around the 4ft-wide face, each step marking a second.
Its movement triggers blue flashing lights which travel across the face eventually stopping at the correct hour and minute.
But the clock is only accurate once every five minutes - the rest of the time the lights are simply for decoration.
Dr Taylor, 72, designed the timepiece as a tribute to English clockmaker John Harrison who solved the problem of longitude in the 18th century.
Harrison also invented the grasshopper escapement - a tiny internal device that releases a clock's gears at each swing of its pendulum.
Dr Taylor told the Daily Mail newspaper he decided "to turn the clock inside out... so you can see the seconds being eaten up".
"Conventional clocks with hands are boring," he said. "I wanted to make timekeeping interesting.
"I also wanted to depict that time is a destroyer - once a minute is gone you can't get it back.
"That's why my grasshopper is not a Disney character. He is a ferocious beast that over the seconds has his tongue lolling out, his jaws opening, then on the 59th second he gulps down time."
Big Ben
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The clock has taken five years and a million pounds to construct
The Corpus Clock is wound up by an electric motor which will last for the next 25 years.
It took a team of eight engineers and craftsman five years to mould the 24-carat gold-plated face.
Alan Midleton, curator of the British Horological Institute, said: "It's a wonderful idea.
"Only time will tell whether it will become as famous as Big Ben - I doubt it, actually."
Dr Taylor made his fortune developing the kettle thermostat.

Story from BBC

NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7625815.stm

Published: 2008/09/19 15:56:05 GMT© BBC MMVIII

Seventh-grader shines with solar cell research

William Yuan won a $25,000 scholarship for his graduate level work
By Christina Lent
The Beaverton Valley Times, Sep 11, 2008, Updated Sep 16, 2008

William Yuan’s bright idea to create a new, more efficient solar cell earned him top honors as Oregon’s only 2008 Davidson Fellow.
As part of the honor, the 12-year-old Bethany boy will be flown to Washington, D.C., for a reception Sept. 24 at the Library of Congress where he will receive his award and a $25,000 scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development.
“William’s work was evaluated by university professors and environmental scientists,” said Tacie Moessner, Davidson Fellows program manager in a call from Reno, Nev. “They look for the project’s potential to benefit society and make sure it is socially relevant. Generally, the projects need to be at the graduate level.”
Yuan worked on his project for the past two years with the encouragement of his science teacher Susan Duncan; support of his parents Gang Yuan and Zhiming Mei; and counsel of professional mentors Professor Chunfei Li of Portland State University’s Center for Nanofabrication and Electron Microscopy, Fred Li of Applied Materials Inc. and Professor Shaofan Li of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of California – Berkeley.
“He is our youngest fellow in science that we’ve ever had,” Moessner said. “He is really spectacular.
“His project will really make a difference in advancing the technology of solar cells. You would never know he’s 12 looking at the quality of his work.”
Young talent
William Yuan is a seventh-grader in Meadow Park Middle School’s Summa options program.
He is an active member of the school’s Math Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) Club, First Lego League team and participant in the Science Bowl and MathCounts programs. He is also a two-time, second-place chess champion for the state.
Recognizing his interest in science, math and engineering, Yuan’s science teacher encouraged him to tackle a challenging engineering project for the Northwest Science Expo after introducing him to nanotechnology and renewable energy research.
“We learned about some great energy and environmental issues,” Yuan said. “To try to help, I researched the application of nanotechnology and renewable energy.
“I felt they would best complement my background knowledge and experience. After extensive research and community outreach, I wanted to work on a project to find a solution for some of the problems of the world.”
Yuan decided to focus his project on finding the most efficient way to harness the sun’s energy.
“I felt solar energy had large potential but it was underused,” he explained. “Fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas are only finite and are slated to run out by 2050.
“We need to make solar energy more cost effective and efficient.”
With that thought in mind, Yuan got to work.
“Current solar cells are flat and can only absorb visible light,” he said. “I came up with an innovative solar cell that absorbs both visible and UV light. My project focused on finding the optimum solar cell to further increase the light absorption and efficiency and design a nanotube for light-electricity conversion efficiency.”
Yuan invested countless hours in his research, seeking out new resources in the field to find a workable real-world solution.
“He has worked very hard in the past couple years,” his father Gang Yuan said. “We’re grateful that he had great mentors and teachers to guide him.
“When he started on his research, he had great curiosity and wanted to dig into it more. As his parents, we looked for experiences to help him.”
Watching his dedication impressed William’s parents.
“This generation’s sense of urgency is much stronger than my generation’s,” his father said. “They are thinking about the future and want to know how environmental issues will impact their generation.”
Promising future
Tapping into that talent and giving gifted youth the opportunity to excel is what the Davidson Institute is all about.
The national nonprofit organization recognized 20 students this year for their achievements.
Yuan admitted he submitted his project for review as a learning experience.
“This was a test run — I wasn’t expected anything,” he said. “I thought it would help when I entered another program when I was older.”
His work on developing his three-dimensional solar cell is far from complete.
“My next step is to talk to manufacturers to see if they will build a working prototype,” Yuan said. “If the design works in a real test stage, I want to find a company to manufacture and market it.”
The Davidson Institute scholarship will help Yuan further his research and his career in science and technology.
He plans to use the money to “attend one of the best universities in the country” and study nanotechnology, biotechnology or medicine.
“I’d like to work in technology at Google, Applied Materials or some other company that starts up between now and then,” Yuan said. “I’ve always liked math and science and engineering.
“If used properly, they can help solve the problems of the world. They can also be used to explore the world around us.”
Moessner has no doubt that Yuan will achieve great things in his future and looks forward to meeting him later this month.
“All of the fellows are really focused and driven but still humble,” she said. “They are also creative and brilliant.”

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「神十」發射後 建太空實驗室

(明報)9月17日 星期三 05:15
【明報專訊】酒泉衛星發射中心主任崔吉俊近日透露，今年發射載人飛船「神七」後，「神八」和「神九」都將是無人飛船，「神十」則會是一艘載人飛船，升空後再和目標飛行器對接，對接完成之後將打造太空實驗室。

據《齊魯晚報》報道，崔吉俊稱，「神七」標誌性的特點就是太空人出艙。此次有3名太空人，1人出艙，1人在軌道艙內協助出艙，還有一人在返回艙。崔吉俊並解釋了選擇晚上發射的原因。

「神八」「神九」不載人

崔吉俊還透露，「神七」發射後，接着是發射一個目標飛行器，再相繼發射「神八」「神九」 「神十」。「神八」是不載人飛船，升空後去追目標飛行器，追上後與其對接；「神九」同樣也是無人飛船，升空後和目標飛行器對接；「神十」又是載人飛船，升空後再和目標飛行器對接。對接工程完成之後的任務就是打造太空實驗室。

'Big bang' experiment is hacked

Part of the computer system of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was hacked into as the world's most powerful physics experiment got under way.

A group calling itself the "Greek Security Team" hacked into a computer connected to the system last Wednesday.

A spokesman for Cern, the lab that houses the LHC, said the hackers put up a message on the facility's website.

No harm was done but the incident has highlighted the need for security in the LHC's network, the spokesman said.

The hackers had targeted the computer network of the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment (CMS), a huge detector that analyses data from the particle accelerator.

The LHC is attempting to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang, in which the universe was created.

With the world watching as the first particles began circulating in the LHC, engineers were searching the hacked computer for possible malicious damage.

The CMS website displayed a page with a mocking message, in Greek, which included the line: "We are 2600 - don't mess with us".

It was not a malicious hack and it was quickly detected... but this sort of thing keeps you on your toes James Gillies, Cern

As a result of the attack, the CMS webpage www.cmsmon.cern.ch, can no longer be viewed.
Cern spokesman James Gillies told the BBC that the compromised computer was not connected to the accelerator itself.

"The computer is used to monitor one of the experiments at the LHC, it's nothing to do with the LHC accelerator itself or any of the control systems," he said.

"It seems it was not a malicious hack and it was quickly detected and corrected but this sort of thing keeps you on your toes."

Mr Gillies said the LHC had a general access network and a more restricted access network which controls the sensitive systems.

Weakness introduced

He said that the experiment involved 10,000 scientists at 500 universities in 80 countries and that keeping on top of systems security was "not a trivial task".

"As far as I understand there was one user somewhere - who wasn't a hacker - who uploaded something on to this machine and inadvertently introduced a weakness that allowed people to get in," he said.

"Our IT department is constantly reminding the experimental collaborators of security issues regarding the network and will continue to do so," he said. "This may have strengthened their message."

The number 2600 is often used by the hacking community. It is believed to have originated in the US in the 1960s with the discovery that a tone of 2600Hz played down the line could be used to access restricted parts of the national telephone system.


Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7616622.stmPublished: 2008/09/15 11:24:56 GMT© BBC MMVIII