Today I Learned

[Hornbein]

TIL:

1936 - the term “volkswagen” was used on entry level cars from different companies before it became the Volkswagen we know from the KdF car.

View attachment 296644​

Today I learned that of the Volkswagen only demo models were produced before the war. These elicited such enthusiasm that many Germans signed up for installment payments, though a vehicle would only be delivered once payment had been made in full. No such delivery was ever made. When the war began the unfulfilled payments were pocketed by Robert Ley, the head of the Labor Front.

 

[kyphysics]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mit-researchers-create-material-strong-201848243.html

MIT researchers create new material as strong as steel and light as plastic​

Michelle Shen, USA TODAY
Sun, February 6, 2022, 7:35 PM·2 min read

MIT researchers have developed a new material that's as strong as steel but as light as plastic.

It can be easily manufactured in large quantities, and the use cases range from lightweight coatings for cars and phones to building blocks for massive structures such as bridges, according to Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of a new study.

 

[berkeman]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mit-researchers-create-material-strong-201848243.html

MIT researchers create new material as strong as steel and light as plastic​

Michelle Shen, USA TODAY
Sun, February 6, 2022, 7:35 PM·2 min read

That might be worth starting a thread in the ME or Materials forum...

 

[kyphysics]

That might be worth starting a thread in the ME or Materials forum...

I nominate YOU for this sacred task!

 

[fresh_42]

That might be worth starting a thread in the ME or Materials forum...

 

[Frabjous]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mit-researchers-create-material-strong-201848243.html

MIT researchers create new material as strong as steel and light as plastic​

Michelle Shen, USA TODAY
Sun, February 6, 2022, 7:35 PM·2 min read

I have two questions whenever I hear about 2d structural materials
1) How many layers can be reasonably be stacked; i.e., how thick can you make it?
2) Does the stack preserve the mechanical properties.

 

[strangerep]

I'm wondering how stable/durable this plastic is under sunlight. Many plastics fall to pieces after only a few years outside.

 

[Hamiltonian]

TIL that Lhopital's rule was actually discovered by Johann Bernoulli!

 

[epenguin]

I here and there heard about a substance in medicine called warfarin. Not needing to know more I thought the word must have to do with warfare and be something thrown up in the course of research on chemical weapons.

Today I learned what no one could guess - that it comes from Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation!

 

[Keith_McClary]

I here and there heard about a substance in medicine called warfarin. Not needing to know more I thought the word must have to do with warfare and be something thrown up in the course of research on chemical weapons.

Today I learned what no one could guess - that it comes from Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation!

It is multi-purpose:

 

[berkeman]

It is multi-purpose

Oh Jeeze. If I were the medical drug manufacturer of Warfarin, I think I'd try to buy out that mousetrap application's use of the name, just to get it off of the market. Trademarks can use the same name if they are in very different markets (so folks won't get confused by the different uses of the trademark), but that's just too weird of a juxtaposition for me...

 

[fresh_42]

Oh Jeeze. If I were the medical drug manufacturer of Warfarin, I think I'd try to buy out that mousetrap application's use of the name, just to get it off of the market. Trademarks can use the same name if they are in very different markets (so folks won't get confused by the different uses of the trademark), but that's just too weird of a juxtaposition for me...

Why? IIRC it is part of some poisons against rats anyway.

 

[berkeman]

Why? IIRC it is part of some poisons against rats anyway.

Really? Why would thinning a rat's blood help to kill them? Just curious, asking for a friend...

 

[Frabjous]

Really? Why would thinning a rat's blood help to kill them? Just curious, asking for a friend...

https://www.nature.com/articles/nrcardio.2017.172.pdf
It started as a rat poison, then someone tried to commit suicide…

 

[fresh_42]

Really? Why would thinning a rat's blood help to kill them? Just curious, asking for a friend...

I'm not sure. I only remember that stopping hemostasis is part of the plan to kill them.

 

[fresh_42]

Really? Why would thinning a rat's blood help to kill them? Just curious, asking for a friend...

Here is what Wikipedia says (don't look to close on it, I used Google for translation):

The fact that 4-hydroxycoumarins are structurally similar to vitamin K is exploited both when used as a medicine and as a rodenticide. This vitamin is required in the liver in the synthesis of various coagulation factors such as prothrombin, factor VII and factor IX.

Instead of vitamin K, the coumarins attach themselves to the respective enzyme, block it and stop the formation of the relevant factors through competitive inhibition. Due to the altered structure of the coagulation factors, the calcium that is essential for coagulation can no longer be bound to the factors, which is why the factors themselves can no longer bind to the wound surfaces. The effect (liver damage, bleeding) therefore only occurs after the coagulation factors circulating in the blood at the time the anticoagulant agent is administered have been partially consumed. This is only the case after approx. 6 hours. The maximum effect is reached after 36 to 48 hours. Due to the delayed onset of action, rodenticides are among the most effective means of control.

 

[berkeman]

https://www.nature.com/articles/nrcardio.2017.172.pdf
It started as a rat poison, then someone tried to commit suicide.

Huh! My friend says "Thanks, TIL"

 

[BWV]

Oh Jeeze. If I were the medical drug manufacturer of Warfarin, I think I'd try to buy out that mousetrap application's use of the name, just to get it off of the market. Trademarks can use the same name if they are in very different markets (so folks won't get confused by the different uses of the trademark), but that's just too weird of a juxtaposition for me...

The patent is expired - it’s a generic drug so no incentive to market it

There is a new class of blood thinners like Xarelto that are more commonly prescribed now

 

[Janus]

Oh Jeeze. If I were the medical drug manufacturer of Warfarin, I think I'd try to buy out that mousetrap application's use of the name, just to get it off of the market. Trademarks can use the same name if they are in very different markets (so folks won't get confused by the different uses of the trademark), but that's just too weird of a juxtaposition for me...

My Dad took Warfarin to help dissolve blood clots in his legs. He used to joke that it was time to take his "rat poison".

 

[Hornbein]

I here and there heard about a substance in medicine called warfarin. Not needing to know more I thought the word must have to do with warfare and be something thrown up in the course of research on chemical weapons.

Today I learned what no one could guess - that it comes from Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation!

I thought it was call warfarin because it was used to kill wharf rats.

 

[Jarvis323]

Looks like youtube finally supports 92,000,000,000,000 Hz audio formats.

 

[NTL2009]

Looks like youtube finally supports 92,000,000,000,000 Hz audio formats.

View attachment 298097

The comments are scary/funny. Some people responding to the critics: "Don't tell someone else what they experience, their experience is not your experience!". Well, I suppose placebo-power-of-suggestion-wise, they might 'experience' something. But far too many people just don't understand that audio above the range of human hearing (let alone some crazy high figure) just doesn't exist in a youtube video, that's filtered out. There is nothing there to 'experience'.

Oddly, their chosen frequency is also ~ 10x *below* visible light, so you can't even stretch it to that area anyhow. Did I get my decimals right? They show 46 THz, and light is ~ 400 ~ 800 THz?

 

[jack action]

Joe Pyne interviewing Frank Zappa:
Joe: "I guess your long hair makes you a woman."
Frank: "I guess your wooden leg makes you a table."

 

[DaveE]

TIL about this really cool computer: Michelson's Harmonic Analyzer

I want to build one, but I know I'm too lazy.

 

[Hamiltonian]

TIL that Brian May(lead guitarist of the band Queen) actually did his Phd in Astronomy!

 

[hutchphd]

TIL that Brian May(lead guitarist of the band Queen) actually did his Phd in Astronomy!

He finshed in 2007 after some other part-time employ.

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/295744.pdf

 

[Hornbein]

TIL that Brian May(lead guitarist of the band Queen) actually did his Phd in Astronomy!

Not only that, he''s now a professor of astrophysics.

 

[jack action]

Among the few who knew of Lamarr's inventiveness was aviation tycoon Howard Hughes. She suggested he change the rather square design of his aeroplanes (which she thought looked too slow) to a more streamlined shape, based on pictures of the fastest birds and fish she could find. Lamarr discussed her relationship with Hughes during an interview, saying that while they dated, he actively supported her "tinkering" hobbies. He put his team of scientists and engineers at her disposal, saying they would do or make anything she asked for.

 

[BillTre]

Beauty and Mental Brawn.
A pleasing combination.

 

[gmax137]

Hedy was way before my time. I can't hear her name without mentally saying to myself "It's Hedley" in a Harvey Korman voice.

 

[Klystron]

View attachment 298327​

From her Wiki entry:

Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in 1914 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, the only child of Gertrud "Trude" Kiesler (born Lichtwitz; 1894–1977) and Emil Kiesler (1880–1935).

Her father was born to a Galician-Jewish family in Lemberg (now Lviv in Ukraine) and was a bank director at the Creditanstalt-Bankverein.[12][13][14] Trude, her mother, a pianist and Budapest native, had come from an upper-class Hungarian-Jewish family. She had converted to Catholicism and was described as a "practicing Christian" who raised her daughter as a Christian, although Hedy was not formally baptized at the time.

I came to post a TIL but was startled to see a photo of a relative who so closely resembles my mother.

"Evie"'s or Hedy's mother was my maternal g'mother's first cousin, also related to my paternal g'mother, all from Budapest. I mentioned in other posts that my great-grandmother (and parents) taught me electronics as a child. I entered the USAF to attend the Defense Langauge Institute but DoD switched me to radar as few airman understood the science. Guess electronics runs in the family.

Many of my relatives became baptized Catholics including my parents, going back to early Christians and the 'founder of the feast', so to speak. Working with the military also runs in the family.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Guess electronics runs in the family.

Did you also get the looks?

 

[Klystron]

Did you also get the looks?

Yes, I guess. Mom makes Hedy appear slightly underdeveloped at that age but otherwise could be twins.

Difficult to say in retrospect but good looks can be a detriment as well as a benefit, a distraction. I enjoy being intelligent more, pardon any unintentional hubris.

 

[pinball1970]

TIL.

Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) will be cooled by a closed-cycle gaseous-helium cryocooler, or refrigerator, down to a temperature below 7 kelvins (-447 degrees Fahrenheit, or -266 degrees Celsius)

I noticed the rate at which Webb was cooling was slowing down to the point the coldest part of the cold side had not moved off 39K for 4 or 5 days. (Where's Webb)

How was it going to get any colder by cooling at such a cold slow rate? I thought it cooled only via the coldness of space and protection from the Sun via the heat shield.

TIL (also) different parts need to be within certain ranges. I have been concentrating on the launch, the flight to L2, deployments of all the bits and pieces (technical stuff!)

So now it is a matter of trying to absorb some of the technology as best as possible to appreciate the next steps.

https://www.universetoday.com/154533/webb-is-cool-but-it-still-needs-to-get-cooler/

 

[Keith_McClary]

TIL: Don't try to make cowboy coffee in the microwave.