Engineers Master Bicycle Aerodynamics With the Cervélo P5

At the Olympic level, where cyclists are in roughly the same physical condition, the difference between victory and defeat often boils down to a bike’s aerodynamics. The more smoothly air flows over a frame and rider, the less wind resistance he will feel and the faster he’ll go. Engineers at Cervélo used aerospace-grade computational fluid dynamics software and virtual wind-tunnel tests to design the P5, the most aerodynamic bike ever.
With the software, the team at Cervélo designed, rendered and wind-tunnel-tested dozens of P5 prototypes, before ever constructing a physical model. They identified and refined drag-causing areas. For example, they lowered the handlebars and added internal hydraulic brake cables. They also created a tapered rear edge on the seat post, which reduces turbulence off the rider’s backside, allowing air to flow more fluidly around him. The changes translate to 75 grams less drag than on the P5’s predecessor, a reduction that could result in gains of 1.6 seconds per mile—and a gold-medal run in the 44-kilometer Olympic time trial.
CERVELO P5
Weight 18 pounds
Price From $6,500
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/index.html

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NASA Satellite Sees Several Western U.S. Fires Blazing

Fires are raging in the western U.S. and in one overpass from its orbit around the Earth, NASA's Aqua satellite picked up smoke and identified hot spots from fires in Colorado, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.

NASA's Aqua satellite captured smoke and heat signatures from several large fires burning in the western U.S. on June 19, 2012. When Aqua passed overhead, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument captured an image at 4:25 p.m. EDT.


MODIS infrared imaging can detect heat. Just as the infrared imagery from another instrument onboard Aqua, called the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is used to detect temperature of clouds, land and sea surface, MODIS data can detect hot spots on land. In the MODIS images, fires, or hot spots are color coded as red areas in imagery and smoke appears in light brown. Images are generated at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.


As of June 22, Colorado's High Park Fire has burned 68,200 acres and has destroyed 189 homes, according to the U.S. Forest Service on the Inciweb. Inciweb is the Incident Inter-agency system, that tracks U.S. fire-related incidents, specifically wildland fires. The High Park Fire is located in the Roosevelt National Forest, about 15 miles west of Fort Collins, Colo. and was started by a lightning strike.
*(news from http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/index.html)

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2012 Noctilucent Cloud Season Begins

Data from NASA's AIM spacecraft show that noctilucent clouds (NLCs) are like a great "geophysical light bulb". They turn on every year in late spring, reaching almost full intensity over a period of no more than 5 to 10 days--and the bulb is glowing. "They were visible to the north for about 3 hours as we flew between Ottawa and Newfoundland at 35,000 feet" said Brian Whittaker.


These electric-blue ice clouds hang 53 miles (85 km) above Earth's surface, at the edge of space itself, circling the north and south pole regions. AIM has helped clarify the mystery of how they form, including information on the required temperatures and water vapor necessary in the atmosphere.


Observing tips: NLCs favor high latitudes during the summer months, although they have been sighted as far south as Colorado and Virginia. Look west 30 to 60 minutes after sunset when the Sun has dipped 6-16 degrees below the horizon. If you see luminous blue-white tendrils spreading across the sky, you may have spotted a noctilucent cloud.
*(news from http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/index.html)

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Google experimenting with new search interface?

Google has put on its lab coat and turned on the Bunsen burner for an experiment in refined searches, according to a video captured by a Spanish tech site.


The search giant is currently "testing new ways to refine searches," perhaps including a sidebar-free interface, going by the video that appears on the Spanish language Tecno-Net site (see the video below).


The video showcases a new, more vertically oriented Google search page with the section titles placed at the top of the page, as opposed to their typical left-side position. The video displays search filters like "all results" and "any time" as a dropdown menu at the top of the screen.


Google hasn't confirmed the validity of the video, which is labeled as a "New Google Interface Test" posted to YouTube on Wednesday, but a Google spokeswoman did say that new elements are currently being tested on the site. The company is "constantly experimenting with new features," she said.


Google occasionally runs live tests of new features on its flagship search engine in an effort to keep adapting the interface to users' needs.


"There's no good substitute for understanding how real people, in real-world situations, actually operate," Google's Ambar Pansari and Marissa Mayer note in an official blog post from 2006 that explains the company's live testing practices and "beta"-driven culture. 
*(News from http://www.thinkdigit.com)

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