Tag Archives: radioactive

Radioactive Orchestra 2.0 takes the music live, makes sweet photonic melodies (video)

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Radioactive Orchestra 20 takes to the live stage, makes sweet melodies from photons video

Sweden's Kollektivet Livet took a step towards demystifying the invisible energy around us last year through its Radioactive Orchestra, which turned isotopes into beats and beeps. To our relief, the Orchestra isn't content to record in the studio. Version 2.0 of the music project is all about going on tour, so to speak, through live instruments: in a first prototype, a photon detector translates every radiation hit from nearby materials into its own audio pulse. The invention results in an imprecise art based on distance, but aspiring cesium rock stars can tweak the sensitivity or transpose the notes to generate their own distinct tunes. Orchestra manager Georg Herlitz tells us that the initial setup you see here, played at TEDx Gotëborg, is just a "sneak peek" of both a finished instrument and more work to come. We might just line up for the eventual concerts if the performance video after the break (at the 10:30 mark) is any indication.

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Radioactive Orchestra 2.0 takes the music live, makes sweet photonic melodies (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nuclear Watch: A Pre-Apocalyptic Time Telling Device

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Most watches with glow-in-the dark parts achieve the effect using special paint that absorbs light and reflects it back for an extended period. But the faint glow from the Nuclear Watch comes from decaying radioactive hydrogen atoms. They died for you!

nuclear watch

According to its product page, each watch contains about 100 quadrillion radioactive hydrogen atoms, divided among the dials and hands of the watch. The atoms are stored in a glass tube that is lined with phosphorescent material. As the hydrogen atoms decay, the electrons they emit hit the lining. This causes the glow. The page also claims that about 250 million of the hydrogen atoms decay every second, but their sheer number means that the watch will keep glowing 24/7 for 25 years.

nuclear watch 2

If you’re not creeped out at the thought of carrying an atomic genocide on your wrist, order the Nuclear Watch from Gadgets & Gear for $175 (USD).

 


Alt-week 8.11.12: Robo-billies, quasicrystals and radioactive art

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Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days.

Alt-week 8.11.12: Robo-billies, quasicrystals and radioactive art

It's not like we're trying to out-weird ourselves, it just, somehow, keeps happening. At least one of this week's offerings (we'll leave it to you to figure out which) will possibly be the creepiest thing we post all year. As for the rest, well it's slightly more palatable. We'll get uncharacteristically pumped about cycling, meet some extra-terrestrial quasicrystals and enjoy some art with X-men credentials. This is alt-week.

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Alt-week 8.11.12: Robo-billies, quasicrystals and radioactive art originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Scientists bend gamma rays, could neuter radioactive waste

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Bending most light is easy; bending it in gamma ray form, however, has often been deemed impossible given how hard it is for electrons to react to the extreme frequencies. University of Munich scientist Dietrich Habs and his Institut Laue-Langevin teammate Michael Jentschel have proven that assumption wrong: an experiment in blasting a silicon prism has shown that gamma rays will refract just slightly through the right material. If a lens is made out of a large-atom substance like gold to bend the rays further, the researchers envision focused beams of energy that could either detect radioactive material or even make it inert by wiping off neutrons and protons. In theory, it could turn a nuclear power plant's waste harmless. A practical use of the technology is still some distance off -- but that it's even within sight at all just feels like a breakthrough.

Scientists bend gamma rays, could neuter radioactive waste originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 May 2012 05:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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