Category: Technology (Page 6 of 6)

Discovering (the) God (Particle) Could Open Up a Black Hole

February 11, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

I love when I come across a little bit of information that totally blows my mind. My brother recently made my privy to the God particle (also known as the Higgs boson). This is a tough concept to wrap your head around, but here’s my not-so-scientific explanation of what the God particle is—or rather what it’s hypothesized to be.

First there was the atom, which was thought to be indivisible. Then it was discovered that the atom was actually made of subatomic particles called protons, neutrons, and electrons. So much for that whole indivisible theory! So these subatomic particles must be indivisible. Wrong! While scientists think the electron cannot be divided (and therefore classify it as an elementary particle), protons and neutrons are actually made of other elementary particles.

Okay, so the God particle is supposedly the most fundamental of the all the elementary particles. Scientists think that finding this God particle will help to unravel all the mysteries of the universe. They hope to discover the source of matter, i.e. how things were created.

Scientists have built the Large Hadron Collider in order to try to observe the God particle. The only problem with this device is that there is a very minute chance that it could open up a black hole or cause the Earth to implode. I guess that’s the risk you take when you start smashing very volatile particles together.

The operations of this project actually started last year (and, no, the Earth wasn’t sucked into a black hole!), but a malfunction has since shut down further experiments. It’s scheduled to begin again in the fall of 2009.

In the meantime, I’ll try to get as much blogging in as I can because it would be a real bummer to be sucked into a black hole before I got all my super-important observations out to the public.

Viewer Discretion Advised

February 5, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

I always chuckle when that “Viewer Discretion is Advised” warning airs at the beginning of a TV show. I can’t help but think Duh! Shouldn’t viewers always use discretion when watching a TV program? And can anyone really indiscriminately watch TV anyway?

Maybe if people used discretion (defined as “the power or right to decide or act according to one’s own judgement”) in all aspects of their lives, the world would be a better place. And if someone fails to use discretion, then maybe that right should be taken away from him and we should let someone else use discretion on his behalf.

Some of my favorite programs have these warnings (Family Guy and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), but some programs that should include this warning don’t. I’m not sure if this episode of How It’s Made had a viewer warning, but this clip definitely should. It was very unsettling. It made me laugh, which immediately made me feel bad, and then it kind of made me want to cry! You’ll just have to watch it to see what I mean.

NFL’s Virtual Playbook Hilarity

October 10, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m always interested in emerging technologies. I recently encountered a gem in the Virtual Playbook, courtesy of EA Sports and ESPN. Previously, analysts on ESPN’s NFL pre-game shows simply acted out plays on a demo field. Sadly I wasn’t able to find a clip to show you (if anyone does, please post a link in the comments section!).

Now, I’ve always found this segment a bit amusing. Picture out-of-shape football analysts and former NFL players on a studio field (at least they had a real football) demonstrating NFL plays with the skills and speed typical of, well, out-of-shape analysts and former football players.

With the Virtual Playbook, this once technologically defunct segment has been upgraded to include analysts interacing in reality-based game scenarios involving video-game images of real football players. (See more details in this article…again, sorry about the lack of a real video.)

This technology may be able to answer such burning questions as: What if (insert name of favorite NFL quarterback) had completed that pass to (insert name of favorite NFL receiver), resulting in a touchdown for (insert name of favorite NFL team)? I know, something we were all dying to know about!

Let’s hope the world of sports will continue to create technologies that allow viewers to vicariously judge the actions of professional athletes for years to come!

The Waste of Beer Can Innovation

June 13, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

The technology that has gone into beer containers of late is quite impressive. Coors seems to be the leader in the industry. They first came out with the wide-mouth beer can in 1996. Contrary to what I thought, it was not designed to allow for faster beer chugging, but was created to give drinkers an experience that was closer to drinking beer out of a glass. Go figure. I didn’t know people actually drank beer for the taste!

Earlier this year Coors introduced the venting beer can. You may have seen the commercial where a guy lets his girlfriend think that his buddy needs to emotionally vent when the guys really just want to pore over some vented beer cans (pun intended!). (I won’t even digress into the absurdity of commercials like that…please, don’t get me started). Like the wide-mouth can, this technology was designed to give the beer a smoother feel. Coors is also the company behind the temperature indicator on beer labels. Their signature Rocky Mountains turns from white to blue when the beer is cold enough to drink. So much for good-old common sense.

My favorite invention has to be the self-cooling beer can. This little beauty–created by a company called Tempra Technology–uses all kinds of scientific principles (vacuums, evaporation, gels, etc…) to give you the pleasure of a can that cools your beer to the perfect temperature in just three minutes. Finally, someone has found a way to save me all that time I spend waiting for my beer to cool. Maybe they’ll even put a little voice recorder on the can to tell me when it’s ready.

Don’t worry; all you have to do is twist the base of the can. Supposedly, it’s all environmentally friendly and won’t contaminate the flavor of the beer (again with the whole flavor thing). I even read that you can throw the can on a fire and it won’t explode! I know, what a disappointment.

Now, imagine if all this thought, creativity, and innovation were applied to something useful…say to reverse global warming or discover a new power source. Wow, we could solve all the world problems in no time! But really, who needs that…not when you have perfectly cold beer pouring out of a vented can in three minutes. Did I mention I was a wine drinker?