STUFF: News, Technology, the cool and the plain weird

[MIKA27]

REVO SUPERCD

For as much as we appreciate new technology in all of its sleek, streamlined glory – we can’t help but swoon a bit when we come across something like the Revo SuperCD. Despite coming packed with all kinds of contemporary audio goodies, from the outside this wireless speaker looks as if it could’ve been sold in a RadioShack back in the 1990s.

The CD player features a vertical slot for sliding in CDs (you know, those plastic discs you haven’t used in 10 years), internet radio, and Bluetooth wireless streaming courtesy Qualcomm’s aptX technology. All of that functionality paired with the twin 3.5-inch BMR speakers means that you can pump your room full of 40Watts worth of high fidelity sounds by either tuning in to your favorite station, streaming something from Spotify, your computer, or that old CD collection you hung on to. You can pick this speaker up in either walnut and silver, or our personal favorite – walnut and black. $800

[MIKA27]

SENNHEISER HD 820 GORILLA GLASS HEADPHONES

The debate over open vs. closed-back headphones has been at a stalemate for a long time now. Those who go with open-back headphones enjoy a more clear, airy sound, while closed-back users reap the benefits of minimal ambient noise leaking into their cans. Now, thanks to Sennheiser’s newly announced HD 820 headphones, the best of both worlds are being combined.

These new cans from the German audio company make use of a specially designed concave Gorilla Glass back. Not only does this one-of-a-kind backing reveal the attractive ring radiator on the headphones, but they help reflect sound waves from the rear end of the transducer back to an absorber – cutting down on resonance and attenuating ambient noise. And to make sure nothing is lost before the audio even gets to the headphones, Sennheiser equipped the HD 820 with a symmetrically tuned impedance matching cable with 4.4mm gold plug. Finishing it all off, these circumaural headphones manage to be incredibly comfortable thanks to a pair of handcrafted ear pads and a padded metal headband. $2,400.00

[MIKA27]

LG HU80KA 4K UHD PROJECTOR

Slimmer and wider. That has been the trend in High Definition television sets for a long time now. So maybe we shouldn’t be all too surprised that one of the biggest announcements at CES 2018 is something without a screen at all. Introducing LG’s 4K UHD Projector.

This portable device is designed to project a 150-inch ultra HD image at 2,500 lumens onto a blank wall or screen. In addition to producing an incredibly high resolution picture, the projector also comes with HDR10 compatibility, and 7W speakers for filling your room with sound. Subscribed to a bunch of streaming services? No worries. LG’s webOS smart TV interface allows users to stream movies and shows from all Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. Why bother with an actual TV when you can just use a blank wall?

 

[MIKA27]

MAGIC LEAP AUGMENTED REALITY GLASSES

Thanks to the popularity of games like Pokemon Go and the upcoming Harry Potter game, augmented reality is starting to become a lot more common in our world. But, using your smartphone is not the ideal platform when it comes to serious large-scale gaming. For that, you’ll want something dedicated, like the Magic Leap AR glasses.

The brand has been teasing their augmented reality tech for a couple of years now, but it looks like they’ve finally got the hardware to back it up. The high-tech gadget (which comes with a single controller and a small belt-worn battery pack) features a smart system that generates realistic lighting effects (which blend with real-life), can auto-detect surfaces and walls to incorporate them into the digital landscape, offers realistic depth and direction of sound, and can do it all in real time and 3D. This version of the super advanced AR system is geared specifically toward developers, but it will be available in early 2018.

 

[MIKA27]

CURTISS WARHAWK MOTORCYCLE

High-end specialty motorcycle manufacturer Curtiss has officially released their first bike. The Warhawk is a massive, machined aluminum masterpiece, powered by an air-cooled, 2200cc v-twin that can push the bike up to 165 MPH. It sports a machined aluminum frame, girder forks, and a Curtiss-designed stacked gearbox with see-through covers that let you admire the machinery in action. Only 35 are being built with deliveries beginning soon.

[MIKA27]

SIERRA NEVADA HOP BULLET IPA

A classic West Coast IPA with a modern twist. That's the latest creation from Sierra Nevada, named Hop Bullet after a new brewing technique. The technique involves adding a double-barrel blast of Magnum hops and lupulin dust to the beer. The dust is the yellow powder that contains all the resin and oils responsible for the flavor and aroma, and it balances out the bitterness. It's 8% ABV, very approachable, and another victory from a craft brewing legend.

 

[Fuzz]

1 hour ago, MIKA27 said:

LG HU80KA 4K UHD PROJECTOR

Why bother with an actual TV when you can just use a blank wall?

 

Because anyone who has ever used a projector knows that a blank wall doesn't reflect the light properly, like a proper projector screen does. You'd get a pretty washed out image, then you'd think the projector was crap, and go back to your TV.

Sometimes you just have to wonder about these tech writers.

[helix]

Not really for general TV viewing as bulbs are expensive to replace . Great with a screen for movies/special events.

[fitzy]

@MIKA27  Holy crap those pictures are nuts. I wonder if this will affect their coffee harvests. I have to say Sumatran coffee is among my favorites. 

[MIKA27]

16 hours ago, Fuzz said:

Because anyone who has ever used a projector knows that a blank wall doesn't reflect the light properly, like a proper projector screen does. You'd get a pretty washed out image, then you'd think the projector was crap, and go back to your TV.

Sometimes you just have to wonder about these tech writers.

Agree. Which raises the question, how can it be 4K as the image wouldn't be a nice clear picture.

I'm yet to see a projector that gives a nice crisp picture which is why I've never liked them.

[Fuzz]

2 minutes ago, MIKA27 said:

Agree. Which raises the question, how can it be 4K as the image wouldn't be a nice clear picture.

I'm yet to see a projector that gives a nice crisp picture which is why I've never liked them.

I bought my projector 12 years ago, a Benq PE8700 DLP (115" screen). When that first came out, I thought that picture was very good for a projector. Even in bright light, the image was very clear. Of course, with time, that image is no longer up to standard. I've replaced the bulb probably a dozen times at a cost of about $150 each (I buy OEM bulbs without the housing). The colour wheel is wearing out too.

Considering the size of LED TVs these days, I probably won't be replacing my projector with a new one.

[MIKA27]

Fourth Man Confirmed To Have Died In Hunt For The Rocky Mountains' Possibly Fictional Fenn Treasure

The myth of a treasure hoard hidden somewhere in the Rocky Mountains has lured a fourth person to their death.

53-year-old Illinois resident Jeff Murphy died in Yellowstone National Park on June 9th, 2017 while seeking a $3 million treasure chest supposedly buried by New Mexico art dealer and aged millionaire Forrest Fenn, who claimed in the self-published 2010 memoir The Thrill of the Chase that he had buried the treasure "somewhere in the Rocky Mountains between Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Canadian border," per the BBC.

Reporters at KULR 8 filed a Freedom of Information Act request and discovered that Yellowstone officials were aware that Murphy had emailed Fenn in the days before his death, confirming a link to the seven-year treasure hunt that has allegedly drawn many thousands of people.

In the book, Fenn included a 24-line poem he later told ABC News was the key to finding "hundreds of gold nuggets, some as large as chicken eggs, ancient Chinese carved jade figures, Pre-Columbian gold animal artifacts, lots of rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds and other things." Fuelling some of the sensation may be Fenn's reputation as an individual allegedly willing to skirt the boundaries of antiquities laws. Numerous people have questioned whether the chest is just a hoax, though Fenn clarified after it became clear the hunt was getting dangerous that the chest was hidden in a location accessible to an 80-year-old man travelling solo, per the New York Times.

Fenn specified the treasure was buried at least 1,524.00m above sea level in the mountains; Murphy died after falling at least 152.40m off a cliff on Turkey Pen Peak, per the Washington Post.

Fenn allegedly offered to pay for the cost of a helicopter in the search for Murphy, though the Times noted that after the second death was logged in 2017, he had brushed off criticism by saying, "It is always tragic when someone dies, and this latest loss hit me very hard ... Life is too short to wear both a belt and suspenders. If someone drowns in the swimming pool we shouldn't drain the pool, we should teach people to swim."

According to the Post, other deaths have included 54-year-old Randy Bilyeu, 52-year-old Paris Wallace, and 31-year-old Eric Ashby, all since 2016.

National parks receive hundreds of millions of visits a year, so statistically they remain very safe despite the roughly 120-140 deaths (excluding suicides) that tend to occur in them annually, mostly from drowning, vehicular accidents and falls. But police have previously urged Fenn to call off the hunt, with New Mexico State Police chief Pete Kassetas advising that "when you have $3 million or so, as it's rumoured to be, at stake, people make poor decisions."

[MIKA27]

BAUME & MERCIER CHANNELS MOTORSPORTS WITH THE INDIAN MOTORCYCLES COLLECTION

Earlier in the year Swiss watchmaker Baume & Mercier unveiled a duo of their most affordable models from the Clifton Club line of sports watches.

With intricate motorsport styling and a high degree of wearability, the Indian Motorcycles collaboration known as the Clifton Club Legend Tributes captured our collective hearts and wrists over at SIHH 2018.

The watches come as two solid chronograph models in the aptly named Chief and Scout, named after the respective motorcycle models.

Clifton Club Legend Tributes Scout Ref. MOA 10402

Anyone who knows their heritage motorcycles will be well acquainted with the Indian Motorcycles name which was established way back in 1901.

The American manufacturer of vintage bikes was the sole inspiration behind the Scout timepiece which features a semi-opened dial to reveal the inner-mechanics much like the design of the bike.

The Scout is powered by the robust Valjoux 7750 automatic movement which affords an hours, minutes, seconds, and date function alongside chronograph counters at the 6, 9 and 12 o’clock indexes.

On the dial it’s all about the opaline grey which is finely contrasted with the snailed black chronograph counters and the aforementioned partial opening alongside a gold seconds hand. Green Super-Luminova is applied to the indexes to ensure legibility.

The watch’s power reserve clocks in at 48 hours and the whole package is housed in a 44mm stainless steel case which is paired with a brown calfskin strap to mimic the motorcycle’s saddle.

The watch affords a 50 metre water resistance rating and only 1901 examples of the Scout will be released to reflect Indian Motorcycle’s debut year.

Clifton Club Legend Tributes Chief Ref. MOA 10403

Similar to the Scout, the Chief takes all of the inner workings but changes it up with a fresh dial design and strap designation.

On the dial it’s all about the opaline black which is finely contrasted with the snailed silver-coloured chronograph counters and a red racing stripe which circles the dial and covers the seconds hand.

Power reserve is also 48 hours and the whole package is housed in a 44mm stainless steel case which is paired with a stainless steel bracelet.

Only 1901 examples of the Chief will be released to reflect Indian Motorcycle’s debut year. Both models can be identified with the caseback engraving which wears the Indian Motorcycles logo.

[MIKA27]

Michael B. Jordan Brings Ray Bradbury's Haunting Dystopia To Life In The First Trailer For Fahrenheit 451

After what feels like ages, we finally have our first good look at HBO's movie adaptation of Ray Bradbuy's iconic novel Fahrenheit 451, and unsurprisingly, it's bringing the heat. Literally.

Set in a society where the written word is outlawed, Fahrenheit 451 follows fireman Guy Montag (played by Michael B. Jordan in the movie), a man tasked with the fiery eradication of outlawed books, who finds himself slowly disillusioned with the dystopian society he's helped proliferate by enforcing the book ban.

Most of this first trailer naturally covers the parts of the novel where Montag is still part of the Firemen, as Montag's boss Captain Beatty (Michael Shannon) waxes lyrical about the fire making society equal, complete with the now all-too-relevant nods to the "danger" of things such as news and facts.

But we do get a few glimpses of the film's futuristic take on the world - with Bradbury's critique of empty mass media consumption envisioned as... VR clubs? - as well as few hints to Montag's eventual path in the book. So far, it's looking like a pretty intriguing (and worryingly timely) take on a groundbreaking piece of American literature. Fahrenheit 451, which also stars Sofia Boutella and Martin Donovan, is set to premiere in the US on HBO this May. An Australian release has not yet been announced.

[MIKA27]

E-Cig Vapour Tested Positive For Lead And Arsenic In New Study

A new study, published Thursday in Environmental Health Perspectives, adds more evidence to the idea that e-cigarettes aren't an entirely risk-free endeavour. It suggests that the very act of vaping might be exposing people to unsafe levels of toxins like lead and arsenic.

Researchers at John Hopkins University asked 56 daily e-cigarette users -- recruited from vaping shops and conventions around Baltimore -- to lend them their tank-style devices. These modifiable, reusable devices allow people to refill their supply of e-liquid from a separate bottle dispenser. They first tested the e-liquid in the dispenser for 15 common metals.

Then they tested the aerosol that users inhale into their lungs, which is generated by the e-liquid being heated by a battery-powered metal coil. And finally they tested the remaining liquid left behind in the device.

They found negligible levels of any metal in the dispenser alone. But after the liquid was heated into an aerosol, many of the samples had elevated levels of lead, chromium, nickel, manganese, and zinc. The first three are potentially toxic in most any form, while manganese and zinc are otherwise important minerals that can be dangerous when inhaled. Concentrations of these metals were also elevated, though not as high, in the e-liquid left behind in the device.

The most substantial culprit of this contamination, the researchers found, is almost certainly the metal coil used to heat the e-liquid.

"It's important for the FDA, the e-cigarette companies, and vapers themselves to know that these heating coils, as currently made, seem to be leaking toxic metals -- which then get into the aerosols that vapers inhale," said senior author Ana María Rule, an air pollution researcher at John Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health, in a statement.

The research, as alluded to, is only the latest to indicate that e-cigarettes (and the flavored liquids they come packed with) carry their own set of health risks, even if they are less harmful than traditional tobacco cigarettes.

This latest study is in fact the continuation of preliminary research published by the authors last year that studied the same group of users. That study found elevated levels of nickel and chromium in both heated e-liquid as well as in users' urine and saliva.

The looming question, though, is just how much of a health problem vaping actually is. Some of the metals found, like lead, pose a danger no matter how little of them we're exposed to. For other metals, many of the exposure levels found were higher than a safety threshold established by US agencies like the EPA. Puzzling too is the presence of arsenic, since unlike the other toxins they detected, it isn't part of the composition of the coils typically used in e-cigarette devices.

That suggests, the researchers said, that it's being produced by the heating process itself.

The researchers say their findings "suggest that using e-cigarettes instead of conventional cigarettes may result in less exposure to cadmium but not to other hazardous metals found in tobacco."

But other research has continued to find that while e-cigarettes aren't harmless, their overall threat still falls way short of the harms brought on by tobacco cigarettes. Advocates also argue -- with mixed evidence -- that vaping has helped people quit or cut down on tobacco, representing a net good. Critics have shot back that vaping is enticing a new generation of teens to not only become addicted to nicotine, but possibly even to regular smoking too.

The researchers, for their part, plan to conduct more extensive studies that will hopefully better map out the health risks of vaping. "We've established with this study that there are exposures to these metals, which is the first step, but we need also to determine the actual health effects," Rule said.

[MIKA27]

MORRAMA ANGLE STRAIGHT RAZOR

Of all the different types of razors out there, nothing shaves quite as close and clean as a straight razor. The only problem is, many of them have a permanent blade attached to them, meaning that sharpening them is a frequent and time-consuming task. Not the Angle. This modern take on the classic straight razor uses disposable blades.

No, we don’t mean you have to buy specific blades from the manufacturer or sign up for a monthly membership. The Angle is actually compatible with nearly any disposable razor blade – making it an incredibly versatile and easy way to get a straight razor shave without the hassle. It will also last you for a very long time, thanks to its machined aluminum easy-to-maintain construction. And if you’re worried about performance and safety, this razor was designed to be comfortable in the hand, perfectly balanced, and the blade housing is both magnetic and secure. No word yet on price, but you can sign up for notifications on the availability of this up-to-date grooming tool on its website.

 

[MIKA27]

Sierra Nevada Has Teamed With the World’s Oldest Brewery for a New Beer

For all the beer advances the U.S has made over the last handful of years, there are select styles that seem to have fallen by the wayside in the pursuit of juicy IPAs and candy-flavored stouts. None is more upsetting than the Hefeweissbier. While a few American breweries do the style justice (*cough* Live Oak *cough*), it’s hard to find a good Hefe and it’s even harder to find someone trying new things with the style. That’s why Sierra Nevada turned to Weihenstephan, the world’s oldest brewery and maker of one damn fine Hefe, to craft Braupakt, a Hefeweissbier with a little American hoppiness. With Weihenstephan involved, it’s hard to imagine this beer not staying mostly true to its German roots, which makes us pretty excited to pick up a six-pack when it hits stores in April. 

[MIKA27]

SONY XPERIA EAR DUO EARPHONES

Hear both your music and your surroundings with Sony Xperia Ear Duo Earphones. They have a unique open-ear design with a "Spatial Acoustic Conductor" that pipes sound created behind your ear directly into your canal, joining other sounds that pass through the ring-shaped support. They come with a case that recharges the battery up to three times on-the-go and have a touch-sensitive surface for easy access to Google Assistant or Siri. Available in black or gold.

 

[MIKA27]

ECOCAMP PATAGONIA

Mountains. Glaciers. Lakes. Located in Torres del Paine National Park, Ecocamp Patagonia is right in the heart of it all. The hotel is comprised of multiple sustainable geodesic domes, nestled in the surrounding wilderness. Get the hostel experience with a shared room but opt for one of their upscale suites, and enjoy a private bath, wood-burning stove, and outdoor terrace. Either way, you still get full access to the camp's yoga and community domes where guests can gather at the bar and scarf down traditional Chilean fare. They also offer plenty of chances to get out and explore through tours, hikes, and wildlife safaris.

 

[MIKA27]

SAMSUNG GALAXY S9

The best camera is the one you have with you. In the case of the Samsung Galaxy S9, it's a damn good one. Its 12-megapixel camera can switch between f/1.5 and f/2.4 apertures, making it outstanding in both low light and bright sunlight. It also has a 960 fps super slow motion mode and a front-facing camera that enables AR Emoji. Otherwise, it's much the same as the S8, with IP68 water and dust resistance, wireless charging, and a sleek edge-to-edge design. Available in 5.8 and 6.2-inch Plus guises, both with Quad HD Super AMOLED Infinity Displays.

 

[MIKA27]

Experts Explain The Impact Of Australia's Latest Space Discovery

A timeline of the universe, updated to show when the first stars emerged. This updated timeline of the universe reflects the recent discovery that the first stars emerged by 180 million years after the Big Bang. The research behind this timeline was conducted by Judd Bowman of Arizona State University and his colleagues, with funding from the National Science Foundation.

At the CSIRO's Radio-Quiet Zone, on Wajarri Yamatji country in outback Western Australia, a team of Australian and International researchers just found signals from 13.6 billion year old stars.

But what does this discovery mean, exactly? We asked the experts.

Professor Alexander Heger is from the School of Physics and Astronomy at Monash University

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I have been working on the first stars and their violent deaths since some 20 years. While we know that some stars had to be the first, we were not able to directly observe their signatures until now. It is these first stars that are the origin of the first heavy elements in the universe, including the elements necessary to life. They are the seeds for the first galaxies, and they may be essential to understand the formation of the supermassive black holes that lurk in the centres of most galaxies.

These observations, if confirmed, will be a breakthrough, a milestone, in our quest to understand the transition of the ‘dark ages’ of the Universe - a Universe without stars - to the present state of the Universe, filled with stars and galaxies. The most successful method to learn about the first stars to date, has been to find them based on the chemical signatures they leave behind in other stars, in the form of ashes of their explosions that are then incorporated in the next generation of stars we can still find today.

This is a domain in which Australian observers are among the world leaders, for example, the most iron-poor star known has been discovered by the SkyMAPPER team. This new discovery will aid in allowing us to draw a more comprehensive picture of the cosmic dawn.

 

Professor Ron Ekers is a CSIRO fellow from CSIRO Astronomy & Space Science, and an Adjunct Professor at Curtin University

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This is one of the most technically challenging radio astronomy experiments ever attempted. The lead authors include two of the best radio astronomy experimentalists in the world and they have gone to great lengths to design and calibrate their equipment so that they have convincing evidence that the signal is real. Dozens of other groups around the world have searched unsuccessfully for this signal and, with such a difficult experiment, we will have to wait for independent confirmation.

It’s true that they found a signal of roughly the expected form in the expected range of frequencies, but the fact that it is twice the most optimistic predicted amplitude and three to four times most predictions is not expected and was certainly not predicted. Assuming the signal is real, this is an extremely important result and the statement that “this profile is largely consistent with expectations“ is an understatement. The accompanying theoretical paper proposes a specific dark matter explanation, but this is an explanation and not a prediction. More papers like this will follow, and this is makes this result even more important as we learn new things about our Universe.

This US team came to the MRO site in Australia because it has been protected as one of the most radio-quiet sites on Earth, and because it has sufficient infrastructure to conduct a difficult experiment. This is the site where the low-frequency SKA will be located and used for future experiments which will go on and measure the structure in the universe at this period in time when the first stars where forming.

 

Professor Brian Schmidt is a Nobel Prize winning astrophysicist and Vice Chancellor at The Australian National University, and is well known for his work on supernovae and the expansion of the universe

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The apparent detection of the signature of the first stars in the Universe will be a revolutionary discovery if it stands the tests of time.

While the detection appears robust, it is an incredibly challenging measurement, and needs to be confirmed. The fact that the detection is much stronger than expected and than can be easily explained, is particularly exciting.

Exciting because it might reflect new physics (as suggested in the paper and companion paper), but also exciting because it suggests that the upcoming generation of radio telescopes such as SKA-low will have lots to look at.

 

Dr Simon Campbell is an ARC Future Fellow from the School of Physics and Astronomy at Monash University

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Amazingly Bowman et al. have detected a signature of the first stars that ever existed in the Universe! This is a signal from very, very early in the history of our Universe - 13.6 billion years ago - 9 billion years before our own star, the Sun, was even born. However the signal wasn't quite as expected - it was stronger. One explanation for this is that the first stars shone brighter than we have so far assumed.

Interestingly for me, an expert in the life cycles of ancient stars, the timing of the recorded event (just 180 to 270 million years after the Big Bang) means that smaller stars could have contributed to the signal.

It now appears smaller stars had enough time to be born and live out their lives, shining brightly to end the early, dark, starless phase of the Universe. This detection was made using a telescope in the remote desert of Western Australia, chosen because it is a perfect place to gaze into the far reaches of the Universe.

 

Professor Lister Staveley-Smith is Science Director for The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR)

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The signal detected by Bowman and collaborators is remarkable in its strength. So strong in fact that it doesn’t fit well with expectations of the current cosmological model.

If the signal is confirmed by other experiments (which may happen soon), the implications for our understanding of the evolution of the Universe and the nature of cosmic dark matter will be profound.

Moreover, detailed observations with future radio telescopes, such as the low-frequency portion of the Square Kilometre Array (due to be constructed in Western Australia) will yield images of the distant Universe at times much closer to the Big Bang than originally thought. A truly amazing result.

 

Antony Schinckel is CSIRO's Head of the Square Kilometre Array Construction and Planning

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This Nature paper describes an extremely important and exciting result from Judd Bowman and colleagues. They have used a single antenna to watch the first stars turn on in the early Universe and to provide our first glimpse of the long-sought Cosmic Dawn. It is the first observational detection from a huge worldwide effort going back to the first predictions of such a signal almost 20 years ago.

The experiment is extremely difficult, requiring instrumental perfection of 1 part in 10,000 and they have achieved this. The success of the EDGES experiment hinges on the pristine radio-quiet environment at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia that is established and managed by CSIRO.

The work spearheaded by CSIRO with the support of the Commonwealth and WA state governments and with industry to protect the MRO from radio frequency interference has been essential to allow the faint signal from the early Universe to be picked up by the sophisticated EDGES antenna system.

The signal detected by Bowman et al. covers a frequency range that would otherwise be swamped by terrestrial FM stations and other human-generated interference. It is the lack of such interference that makes the MRO such an important setting for radio-telescopes such as the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and the forthcoming Square Kilometre Array.

The MRO site will enable these telescopes to build on the remarkable new discovery by EDGES, as well as enable many other new science discoveries.

 

Professor Steven Tingay is the Executive Director of the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA)

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In this paper in Nature, Bowman et al. describe the detection of radio wave signals from the early Universe that trace the formation of the first stars. These observations give us a fundamental insight into how matter in the Universe was evolving with surprising rapidity, only 200 million years after the Big Bang.

The Big Bang was 13.8 billion years ago. If the age of the Universe is expressed as a human lifetime, Bowman et al. are looking at the Universe when it was the equivalent of a baby starting to walk (~1 year old). The evidence Bowman et al. have presented has been keenly sought by astrophysicists around the world for the last decade, making this a breakthrough result.

In Australia, as part of an international consortium, we are currently developing the $1B Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope, which has the detailed investigation of these signals as its highest priority science case. These results (and the predictions reported in the companion Nature paper by Barkana) are therefore incredibly welcome news for Australian and international radio astronomy.

Currently in Australia we are using a precursor to the SKA, the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), to take the next steps beyond the results of Bowman et al., toward the SKA. The MWA and the instrument Bowman et al. use are located together in Western Australia, where the SKA will be built in the future.

We will be looking for confirmation of the Bowman et al. results from other instruments and this is sure to accelerate the international competition to obtain more detailed data.

 

Professor Peter Quinn is Executive Director, The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR)

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The paper, by Judd Bowman and colleagues, on the detection of an all-sky signal from the first stars, represents a landmark moment for astronomy. Over the past 50 years, our knowledge of the mechanics of the Universe (cosmology) has gone from being mostly educated guesses to a precision science. This progress was made possible by a small number of fundamental discoveries using extraordinary instruments on the ground and in space.

In 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, using an antenna intended for telecommunications studies, discovered the faint all sky radio echo of the Big Bang that occurred 13.8 billion years ago. Some 28 years later, the COBE satellite was able to map this all sky signal and show for the first time the tiny ripples in the matter content of the Universe that grew since the Big Bang into the galaxies and stars we see today. Both these discoveries were awarded Noble Prizes (in 1992 and 2006 respectively) underscoring their fundamental importance for cosmology and our understanding of the Universe. The all-sky signal detected by Bowman and colleagues is another such breakthrough.

Their discovery now identifies that time in the Universe’s history when the first stars were formed. The location of that event, its duration and its subsequent end due to the heating of the Universe from these first stars, are new data that will further refine our knowledge of the Universe and the complex processes associated with star formation, galaxy formation and the nature of other major components of the Universe, like Dark Matter.

The next step is to try to map the signal detected by Bowman in a similar manner to COBE mapping the signal detected by Penzias and Wilson. These maps will identify the locations of the places where stars were born and thereby enable us to discover the processes of star formation and ultimately galaxy formation.

There are already telescopes around the world preparing to make these maps based on the breakthrough of Bowman and his team. That breakthrough would not have been possible with observations from the middle of a crowded city or even a small town.

The radio noise generated by people, and civilization in general, completely swamps the tiny signals in the low frequency part of the spectrum from the Universes’ first stars. The isolation of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia gives it a very clear view of the low frequency radio sky and it is the home base for Bowman’s instrument.

This new observatory, supported by the Australian Federal Government and the Government of Western Australia and operated by CSIRO, is also home to the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and will be the site for the low frequency component of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Both MWA and SKA are planning to construct maps of the sky to follow-up the major discover that Bowman and his collages have made.

 

Professor Jeremy Mould is from The Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology, as well as Chief Investigator for CAASTRO

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The most radio quiet place on Earth has just set the astronomical airwaves buzzing with a cosmic discovery.

The discovery of the Big Bang and the 50 year campaign to measure its properties was a tour de force by radio astronomers to find cosmic signals at the bottom of an ocean of background noise.

Now an Arizona group may have done it again with an experiment called EDGES at the Murchison Radio Observatory in Western Australia, which has found the signature of the neutral hydrogen that preceded the formation of the first stars and galaxies.

The time and duration of this signal, starting 150 million years after the Big Bang and ending 100 million years later, was not a surprise.

The temperature of the hydrogen gas at this time, however, is a big surprise. Its low temperature seems to demand a role for dark matter, normally considered to be an inert bystander in the history of the Universe so early on.

An accompanying Nature paper by a physicist at Tel-Aviv University, Rennan Barkana, says, “An excess 21-cm absorption signal is a clear sign of scattering of baryons and dark-matter particles.”

Dark matter is famous for its role in holding galaxies together by gravity and for making up a quarter of the energy density of the Universe, some 5 or 6 times more than the chemical elements we know.

Could this be the biggest clue yet about the nature of dark matter? This would mean dark matter is not ‘sterile’; it does interact with ordinary matter.

This is what we are looking for in numerous dark matter experiments around the world, including the SABRE-South experiment, which our consortium is placing in the first underground physics laboratory in the Southern Hemisphere at Stawell, western Victoria. So far, the dark matter particle has escaped detection. But if the particle mass is as low as this interaction requires, there is no contradiction with current laboratory work.

There are other experiments at Murchison Radio Observatory that will map the neutral hydrogen, culminating in the Square Kilometre Array. This will open up a new window on the 100 million year old Universe. And it could be the biggest clue yet about the nature of dark matter.

 

Distinguished Professor Karl Glazebrook is Director of the Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology

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The Nature press release describes the signal as ‘mostly as expected’. This is something of an understatement! The work by Judd Bowman and collaborators describes the long-sought detection of the famous '21 cm' radio signal caused by the first stars to appear in the universe 13.6 billion years ago. Astronomers have been searching for this signal for the last decade and it was expected that it would take quite a few more years.

Amazingly, this detection in 2015-2016 was done by a small aerial, only a few meters in size, coupled to a very clever radio receiver and signal processing system. This is the most important astronomical discovery since the detection of gravitational waves in 2015.

No one quite knew how strong the signal would be or at what frequency to search. A number of experiments worldwide are vying to find it. The detection by the EDGES experiment at 78 Mhz (near what we call the FM band) in Western Australia tells us that the first stars appeared only 180 million years after the Big Bang.

Because of their radiation exciting the intergalactic gas, we are able to see the cold shadow of hydrogen in the early Universe absorbing the background radio emission. An even bigger surprise is this absorption signal is about twice as strong as expected, telling us that this early Universe gas was probably much colder than we thought. It is quite difficult to explain this as most new things we can think of (exotic stars, black holes) would make the Universe hotter.

One plausible explanation that theorist Rennan Barkana (detailed in an accompanying paper) has come up with is that the atoms on the early Universe could have been cooled by collisions with ‘cold dark matter’, the mysterious particles whose gravity dominates the Universe but which we have virtually no information on what they are. If true, this would be a stupendous advance and could lead us to new physical laws. This would be the first time that dark matter has demonstrated any physical interaction apart from gravity.

A note of caution is warranted. This is a very difficult signal to detect, it is thousands of times fainter than the background radio noise, even for the remote location in Western Australia. The authors have spent over a year doing a multitude of tests and checks to make sure they have not made a mistake.

The detection is an impressive technical achievement but astronomers worldwide will be holding their breath until the result is confirmed by an independent experiment. If it is, then this will open the door to a new window on the early Universe and potentially a new understanding of the nature of dark matter.

It will be exciting news for Australia in particular, Western Australia is the most radio-quiet zone in the world and will be the prime location for future searches. New FM band telescopes with more power, such as the Murchison Widefield Array and the future Square Kilometre Array, could make a picture of the 21cm signal on the sky and this could reveal the nature of the first stars, and even tell us what dark matter is made of.

 

Swinburne University’s A/Prof Alan Duffy, Lead Scientist of Australia’s Science Channel

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Radiation from the intense light of the first stars, in particular Lyman alpha, altered giant clouds of gas 180m years after the Big Bang. These clouds then blocked the light of the afterglow of that Big Bang, the Cosmic Microwave Background. We see these clouds, silhouetted against the fireball all around us. The continuing growth of stars, and the first galaxies, eventually heated that gas until it itself began to glow, within just 100m years.

This detected silhouette would be a first of its kind, one of the earliest detections of forming stars/galaxies and acts as a trailblazing observation in low frequency radio astronomy for years to come. Yet that’s not even the most exciting part - it could be the very first confirmation of the dark matter particle. A hidden component of our universe, outweighing everything we can see five times over.

In the billions of years since the silhouette blocked this light from the Big Bang afterglow, the Universe has expanded, and the fireball has long since cooled to just 2.7K above absolute zero. It's now visible in microwaves by radio telescopes such as EDGES (the Experiment to Detect the Global Epoch of Reionizaton Signature).

It searches at low frequencies of radio, from 50 - 100 MHz, similar to radio stations such as ABC RN or TripleJ. Just like your car radio that you tune into different stations at different frequencies, these radio telescopes tune into different regions of space. The lower the frequency, the further away from us, and further back in time we look into the Universe.

At 78 MHz a silhouette is seen where something appears to be blocking the CMB radio station. To see this silhouette required hundreds of hours of patient observing of the Southern sky by EDGES. Like your favourite song playing at a whisper over the radio while standing in the noisiest, most chaotic city traffic imaginable, the team first had to filter out the other signals. Ten thousand times louder than the desired signal was the radio emission of all of the fast-moving electrons spiralling along magnetic fields of our Galaxy itself. Once filtered away, there was left the silhouette.

This is a giant cloud of gas, unexpectedly cold and efficiently blocking that signal. The early Universe was a simple time, as quite literally there had not been much time for things to form that would complicate the picture. Most objects, from stars to black holes, that might exist would tend to heat the gas. Not many things can cool the gas. Indeed the lowest bound on the signal of the silhouette is 50% colder than anything we might expect. The only thing possibly colder than this gas? Dark matter.

The dark matter is a ghost, able to travel through solids, much less a gas, without ever colliding. Yet if the dark matter somehow collided with gas in the early universe then it would leach the energy from it and cool it just as seen by EDGES. This is potentially one of the greatest clues as to the nature of dark matter. All other experiments that have indicated the presence of dark matter have used its gravitational force to trace it. This would be the first glimpse into the dark matter interacting with atoms with some different kind of force.

The very coldness of the gas and hence relative stillness in reference to the ultra-cold dark matter allows any mutual-interaction to be highlighted. Indeed, non-standard Coulomb-like scattering suppress interaction of the two by the fourth power of their velocities. Increase the relative velocities from 1km/s to 10km/s and the interaction between dark matter and gas becomes ten thousand times less. Today, near the Earth, the relative velocities are hundreds of km/s, meaning the dark matter truly is a ghost, 100 million times less interacting.

Experiments are underway in Australia, such as SABRE, to directly detect such interactions in the laboratory. This signal from space would be an incredibly exciting guide of what mass of dark matter they should try to be most sensitive too. Early results, if confirmed, suggest it may well be lighter than is commonly searched for, potentially less than 4 times the mass of a proton rather the hundreds of times more massive in WIMP models.

If this is confirmed, and several other competitors are close, then the future for dark matter investigation is low frequency radio telescopes. The largest telescope ever conceived, the Square Kilometre Array, starts construction in Australia and South Africa imminently. All eyes in astronomy were already following this telescope, now all eyes in physics will be as well.

The drive to understand the nature of dark matter may even require telescopes to be built in evermore radio quiet environments. The best location? The far side of the Moon, where the bulk of the Moon blocks the radio stations of Earth and is free from the blurring effects of our planet’s ionosphere on radio signals from space.

 

A/Prof Csaba Balazs is the Head of the Monash Particle Theory Group and Monash Node Director of the ARC CoE for Particle Physics

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Understanding that the effect can be explained in various ways, it's always exciting to see another tantalising hint of dark matter particles from the early Universe.

Unfortunately, so far, these hints indicated something other than dark matter, but there's a first time for every discovery.

Considering the chances of this one being "it": there's nothing surprising about a gigaelectronvolt mass dark-matter particle.

Such a particle can easily hide from other probing experiments, provided its interaction strength with ordinary matter is low enough. An assumed interaction cross-section greater than about 10^−21 cm^2 between dark and standard matter particles, however, should lead to other detectable signals.

So, there's good reason for optimism, because this signal should soon be verified by other experiments.

 

 

[MIKA27]

A Shaolin Monk Piercing A Pane Of Glass With A Needle Is Why You Need Slow-Mo

There's a lot of mythology around what a martial arts master is capable of, from leaping between buildings to turning invisible. But The Slow Mo Guys and their slow-mo camera spent some time with three Shaolin monks who demonstrated an amazing ability to throw a needle through a sheet of glass.

As far as ninja-like skills go, throwing a needle with such tremendous force isn't immediately as impressive as hurling shurikens. But through the lens of a high-speed camera it looks superhuman -- and as a tool for taking out an enemy (like a balloon that disrespected your family), a needle might actually be the perfect covert weapon.

 

[MIKA27]

FERRARI 488 PISTA IS THE LATEST TRACK BEAST HEADING TO GENEVA

Porsche have their 911 GT2 RS. McLaren have their 720S. In that same accord, it’s due time that Ferrari joined the track contention and they’ve done so with the new 488 Pista (that’s Italian for ‘Track’).

Whilst unfortunately named for the uninitiated, the track-friendly car does come with the most powerful V8 engine to ever come out from the Maranello camp. In sheer numbers it’s a frothy bit of reading. A tuned version of the 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 found in the 488 GTB now makes 530kW of power at a lofty 8,000rpm and 770Nm of torque. That’s enough grunt to see the Pista take down the 0-100km/h sprint in just 2.8 seconds before topping out at 340km/h.

The car’s refinement also extends beyond the power plant with a 90kg reduction in weight paired with an angrier aero setup. The front splitter draws inspiration directly from the 488 GTE race car and there’s even a new cooling setup which sucks air from the nose before exhausting via a heavily vented bonnet.

Even the rear duckbill wing has been tweaked to give it twenty percent more downforce than the standard 488 GTB. If that’s not enough to convince you of its intentions, the interior should do the trick. The heavily bolstered Alcantara seats also come with a pair of racing harnesses.

Those looking to go full Stig can opt for the deep pocket option consisting of carbon fibre wheels which will set buyers back AU$28,000 on top of the estimated AU$645,000 sticker price.

[MIKA27]

BREMONT UNVEIL THEIR STRONGEST WATCH EVER BORN FROM THE ANTARCTIC

Tested to the limits. This is a term that’s thrown around all too often these days but when Bremont takes on the tired old cliche, they actually follow through with a technical masterpiece.

Say hello to the limited edition Bremont Edurance, a piece that’s been born from the coldest corners of the Earth. To pull off such a task, renowned British polar explorer Ben Saunders was called upon to take the watch to its limits via his latest Trans-Antarctic Solo Expedition.

The deal was made and the watch had soon set out with Ben on November 2017. Destination: a deadly west-to-east traverse across Antarctica – alone. To understand the gravity of such a dangerous expedition, one simply needs to look at the man who planned Ben’s route. Lt Col Henry Worsley was Ben’s close friend who died in a hospital in Chile from illness after attempting the very same expedition he’d set out for Ben.

Ben wasn’t a quitter though and with 7,000km of expedition time spent in the polar regions, he’d set out to finish what his friend had started.

Knowing the challenge that faced him, Bremont developed one of their most robust timepieces ever to ensure Ben could track his progress with precision timing even in amongst mother nature’s extremities.

And with that, the specs. The Bremont Endurance looks and plays the part – it’s no pretender. Starting with the movement, we have a modified calibre 11 1/4’’’ BE-93-2AE automatic chronometer boasting a 42-hour power reserve. This movement drives the hours, minutes and seconds hands alongside a 24H GMT hand. There’s also a date window at the 3 o’clock mark to make sure the count of days aren’t lost when the region sees 24 hours of daylight during summer and 24 hours of darkness during winter.

On the cobalt black metal dial there’s a globe etching as well as Super-LumiNova coated hands and applied indexes for easy legibility.

All of this is encased in a 43mm satin polished titanium case to ensure absolute strength and lightness when going up against the elements. A bi-directional rotating compass bezel with Super-LumiNova and protective patented anti-shock movement mount also comes as part of the package.

These specs are further reinforced with a domed anti-reflective sapphire crystal, a titanium caseback and 500 metres water resistance.

Reliability of the chronometer is also certified by C.O.S.C and the watch comes individually serial numbered with accompanying C.O.S.C certification.

A striking orange NATO strap with additional rubber Temple Island strap wraps up the Endurance model nicely as does a limited run of just 300 pieces.

“I wore a prototype of the new Limited Edition Endurance during my Trans-Antarctic Solo Expedition,” says Ben.

“A reliable timepiece is a vital piece of equipment on a polar expedition, and this new watch performed faultlessly on some of the toughest conditions I’ve ever encountered.”

The watch retails for AU$8,150. See Bremont for more details.

[MIKA27]

Can You Handle High-Speed Drone Racing... From The Drone's POV?

Drone racing. Of course people do that! But it's one thing to stand around, watching these tiny flying machines zip past at breakneck speeds and entirely another to experience it from the drone's perspective. For one, it's a lot more vomit-inducing, so if you're of a weak constitution, you might want to give this clip a pass.

The video, filmed by drone racing enthusiast Paul Nurkkala back in January, takes us on a spinny, twirly and flippy trip around a variety of purpose-built courses and I have to say, this guy's reflexes are something else.

While you could go with an off-the-shelf drone, Nurkkala's is custom-made, from the racing frame through to the flight controller and motor.

It's a little hard to spot, but in the first part of the video, there's another drone ahead of Nurkkala's. Yes, that's how small they are.