SCIENCE BOND

Peeking through a keyhole has become even more useful. An imaging technique that measures the path of a laser to build up a three-dimensional picture could now let spies map an entire room through a tiny hole.Looking through the keyhole could soon reveal far more than you imagine.  Scientists have developed a device that could map an entire room simply by shining a laser through a 2cm gap.The system worked by firing short laser pulses at a nearby wall, bouncing light around a corner to a hidden object, which then bounces some of it back to a camera next to the laser. The system could be used in applications such as firefighting, battlefield surveillance and disaster recovery operations. The technology is the work of Harbin Institute of Technology in China and is based on a laser that can see around corners, according to a report by Jacob Aron at the New Scientist. The system worked by firing ultrafast laser pulses at walls 'behind' an area that can...

  Liquefied petroleum gas or liquid petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas), also referred to as simply propane or butane, are flammable mixtures of hydrocarbon gases used as fuel in heating appliances, cooking equipment, and vehicles.It is increasingly used as an aerosol propellant and a refrigerant, replacing chlorofluorocarbons in an effort to reduce damage to the ozone layer. When specifically used as a vehicle fuel it is often referred to as autogas.   Varieties of LPG bought and sold include mixes that are primarily propane (C3H8), primarily butane (C4H10) and, most commonly, mixes including both propane and butane. In winter, the mixes contain more propane, while in summer, they contain more butane. In the United States, primarily two grades of LPG are sold: commercial propane and HD-5. These specifications are published by the Gas Processors Association (GPA) and the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM).Propane/butane blends are also listed in these specifications...

  The simplest description of dark matter is matter that doesn’t interact with light. It also doesn’t directly interact with any atoms, which makes it almost impossible to observe. Only using sophisticated gravitational detection techniques, based on one of Sir Isaac Newton’s laws, seems to work. And until recently even that kept coming up empty yet there is so much of it out there. Scientists believe dark matter is an invisible form of matter that outweighs ordinary matter in the universe by more than 5 to 1.  Last week the first results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer were announced at the European nuclear agency CERN. After looking at 25 billion cosmic ray events over 18 months, scientists think they have seen the first hints of dark matter. But it will take months to sort out the data to make sure there is no other explanation first.   Nobel Prize-winning MIT physicist and lead scientist on the AMS Sam Ting says, “All evidence supports the exis...

  The Google Self-Driving Car is a project by Google that involves developing technology for autonomous cars, mainly electric cars. The software powering Google's cars is called Google Chauffeur. Lettering on the side of each car identifies it as a "self-driving car". The project is currently being led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its US$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense. The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges. Legislation has been passed in four U.S. states and Washington, D.C. allowing driverless cars. The state of Nevada passed a law on June 29, 2011, permitti...

  X-radiation (composed of X-rays ) is a form of electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz (3×10 16 Hz to 3×10 19 Hz) and energies in the range 100 eV to 100 keV. X-ray wavelengths are shorter than those of UV rays and typically longer than those of gamma rays. In many languages, X-radiation is referred to with terms meaning Röntgen radiation , after Wilhelm Röntgen, who is usually credited as its discoverer, and who had named it X-radiation to signify an unknown type of radiation. X-rays with photon energies above 5–10 keV (below 0.2–0.1 nm wavelength) are called hard X-rays , while those with lower energy are called soft X-rays . Due to their penetrating ability, hard X-rays are widely used to image the inside of objects, e.g., in medical radiography and airport security. As a result, the term X-ray is metonymically used to refer to a radiograph...