Science Behind Things

Voyager 2

Ever since April 22 of this year, Voyager 2 has not been doing well at its distance of 8.6 billion (8,600,000,000) miles from earth, as it travels literally faster than a speeding bullet toward the edge of the solar system.  But it may only be a fixable hiccup that is contributing to the 33 year old spacecraft.  It may be suffering from a bit flip.  A bit flip is defined as an unintentional state switch from 0 to 1, or vice versa, of a bit stored to random access memory or other medium.  Since computer language is ultimately just ones and zeros, switching them is like switching letters of the alphabet and then trying to communicate with another person.  Voyager should soon be back in working order and communicating valuable information from 13 light- hours out in space.

Source: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1005/11voyager2/

CSI Fingerprinting Advances

A typical fingerprint

I like TV shows such as CSI, Lie to Me, Criminal Minds, and Numb3rs, where science is used to get the bad guy.  But Nick Stokes & Dr. Ray Langston, Dr. Cal Lightman, Rossi & “Hotch”, and Don and his little brother Charlie are sometimes not able to get fingerprints due, even with the help of dusting or cyanoacrylate (SuperGlue fuming), because of porous surfaces, or some other complication that just gets in the way.  But now there is a new method to get around that.

Using something called “conformal coating”, CSIs will soon be able to retrieve fingerprints from their physical properties rather than from their chemistry left behind, making it a lot easier to identify who left the print.  In fact, some researchers even believe that even after the fingerprints are developed using the coating, forensics experts could still sample the fingerprint material to determine specifics about the person who left the prints.  Interesting.

Researchers, and soon CSIs, (will) use a form of physical vapor deposition, a method that uses a vacuum that allows vaporized materials to condense on a surface, creating a thin film. Normally, the deposition process requires exceptionally clean surfaces because any speck of dust or grease on the coated surface shows up as a deformity. However with fingerprints the point is to have the surface material’s ridges and valleys — topography — show up on the new surface so analysts can read them using an optical device without the necessity of chemical development or microscopy.  Cool, huh?  Another benefit of this approach is that fingerprints can be retrieved off fragments from incendiary or explosive devices and are still able to be analyzed for the chemicals used in the device.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100511102121.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29