:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Friday, January 18, 2008 ::

Cloaks and Popes

'Cloak of silence' design is unveiled
Two independent teams of researchers have come up with a recipe for making special materials that could completely cloak an object from sound. Although the “acoustic metamaterials” have yet to be made, a third team is now trying to create a real cloak. These metamaterials promise to guide sound waves around an enshrouded object as if the object wasn’t there. As well as being used to conceal submarines from detection by sonar, such metamaterials could be used to improve the acoustics in concert halls.

Pope calls off university visit
The protests of nearly 70 scientists, including former CERN director general Luciano Maiani, have forced Pope Benedict XVI to cancel tomorrow’s visit to La Sapienza University in Rome. The scientists, who expressed their objections in a joint letter to the university’s rector earlier this week, deemed the visit would be “incongruous” with the Pope’s previous support of the persecution of Galileo in the 17th century.

Labels: Acoustics, Physics, Religion

:: Dan 18.1.08 [Arc] [1 comments] ::
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Comments:

Heheh... Talking of CERN, Dr Brian Cox's most recent podcast features a rather interesting chat with the Very Revd Victor Stock, dean of Guildford cathedral as they wander round the Large Hadron Collider, chatting about science, religion and the all that jazz.

# posted by  Anonymous : 18/1/08 7:22 am

 

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