Planet Nine: A world that shouldn't exist

Summary:

Earlier this year scientists presented evidence for Planet Nine, a Neptune-mass planet in an elliptical orbit 10 times farther from our Sun than Pluto. Since then theorists have puzzled over how this planet could end up in such a distant orbit. New research examines a number of scenarios and finds that most of them have low probabilities. Therefore, the presence of Planet Nine remains a bit of a mystery.

FULL STORY

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This is an artist's conception of Planet Nine.

Earlier this year scientists presented evidence for Planet Nine, a Neptune-mass planet in an elliptical orbit 10 times farther from our Sun than Pluto. Since then theorists have puzzled over how this planet could end up in such a distant orbit.

New research by astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) examines a number of scenarios and finds that most of them have low probabilities. Therefore, the presence of Planet Nine remains a bit of a mystery.
"The evidence points to Planet Nine existing, but we can't explain for certain how it was produced," says CfA astronomer Gongjie Li, lead author on a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Planet Nine circles our Sun at a distance of about 40 billion to 140 billion miles, or 400 -- 1500 astronomical units. (An astronomical unit or A.U. is the average distance of the Earth from the Sun, or 93 million miles.) This places it far beyond all the other planets in our solar system. The question becomes: did it form there, or did it form elsewhere and land in its unusual orbit later?
Li and her co-author Fred Adams (University of Michigan) conducted millions of computer simulations in order to consider three possibilities. The first and most likely involves a passing star that tugs Planet Nine outward. Such an interaction would not only nudge the planet into a wider orbit but also make that orbit more elliptical. And since the Sun formed in a star cluster with several thousand neighbors, such stellar encounters were more common in the early history of our solar system.
However, an interloping star is more likely to pull Planet Nine away completely and eject it from the solar system. Li and Adams find only a 10 percent probability, at best, of Planet Nine landing in its current orbit. Moreover, the planet would have had to start at an improbably large distance to begin with.
CfA astronomer Scott Kenyon believes he may have the solution to that difficulty. In two papers submitted to the Astrophysical Journal, Kenyon and his co-author Benjamin Bromley (University of Utah) use computer simulations to construct plausible scenarios for the formation of Planet Nine in a wide orbit.
"The simplest solution is for the solar system to make an extra gas giant," says Kenyon.
They propose that Planet Nine formed much closer to the Sun and then interacted with the other gas giants, particularly Jupiter and Saturn. A series of gravitational kicks then could have boosted the planet into a larger and more elliptical orbit over time.
"Think of it like pushing a kid on a swing. If you give them a shove at the right time, over and over, they'll go higher and higher," explains Kenyon. "Then the challenge becomes not shoving the planet so much that you eject it from the solar system."
That could be avoided by interactions with the solar system's gaseous disk, he suggests.
Kenyon and Bromley also examine the possibility that Planet Nine actually formed at a great distance to begin with. They find that the right combination of initial disk mass and disk lifetime could potentially create Planet Nine in time for it to be nudged by Li's passing star.
"The nice thing about these scenarios is that they're observationally testable," Kenyon points out. "A scattered gas giant will look like a cold Neptune, while a planet that formed in place will resemble a giant Pluto with no gas."
Li's work also helps constrain the timing for Planet Nine's formation or migration. The Sun was born in a cluster where encounters with other stars were more frequent. Planet Nine's wide orbit would leave it vulnerable to ejection during such encounters. Therefore, Planet Nine is likely to be a latecomer that arrived in its current orbit after the Sun left its birth cluster.
Finally, Li and Adams looked at two wilder possibilities: that Planet Nine is an exoplanet that was captured from a passing star system, or a free-floating planet that was captured when it drifted close by our solar system. However, they conclude that the chances of either scenario are less than 2 percent.

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Emotion detector could reveal if a date really finds you attractive: Is this the kind of world we actually want?

Scientists are considering an emotion detector which, potentially, can tell whether a person really finds you attractive on a first date.

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A 3D printed image of the Voight-Kampff machine with camera and ear-piece.

Credit: Image courtesy of Lancaster University

An emotion detector which, potentially, can tell whether a person really finds you attractive on a first date has been created by researchers at Lancaster University.

The inspiration for the device came from a gadget featured in the 1982 sci-fi fantasy film, Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford and directed by Ridley Scott.
Replicating the Voight-Kampff machine, a fictional interrogation tool, the Lancaster team have created a device that mimics this emotion-detector.
But the plausibly real device is, at this stage, still pure fiction and, while creating it has sparked imaginative design skills and a little fun, it has been built to convey a serious message.
The design team, which includes the Centre for Spatial Analysis (CASA) at UCL, are keen to get people to think about the ethical implications of a world in which we use computers to monitor or even manipulate our emotions.
The polygraph-like Voight-Kampff machine was used by the Blade Runners police force to determine if an individual was a biorobotic android, detected by means of a test in which emotional responses were provoked.
It measured body functions such as blush response, respiration, heart rate and eye movement in response to questions dealing with empathy.
Designers at Lancaster are now researching technologies for their own Voight-Kampff machine including an ear-piece which measures skin and heart rate responses and a pupil-dilation measure.
The team's fictional speculative device is set against an online dating backdrop and is designed, in theory, to determine if it's love and sincerity at first sight or sound.
The machine takes on a whole new 21st century appearance -- neat, bright and compact -- and simply clips onto the bottom of a smartphone or tablet.
The research team, headed by Lancaster University's design fiction expert Professor Paul Coulton, are set to present a paper on 11 May in San Jose at CHI, the world's premier conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the place to see, discuss and learn about the future of how people interact with technology.
"This machine looks and feels very real and has even prompted a film-making company in the States to request filming us manufacturing the device," said Professor Coulton. "But this is actually a tool for creating some pretty serious discussions."
Design fiction is, in broad terms, speculative design which heralds what might come about in the future world of human computer interaction, explains Professor Coulton.
"The factor that differentiates and distinguishes design fiction from other approaches is its novel use of 'world building' and, in this paper, we consider whether there is value in creating fictional research worlds through which we might consider future interactions."
"As an example, we built this world in which rules for detecting empathy will become a major component of future communications. We take inspiration from the sci-fi film 'Blade Runner' to consider what a plausible world, in which it is useful to build a Voight-Kampff machine, might be like.
"People are working towards this kind of thing," he added. "What we are doing is questioning whether it has a place in our society -- what kind of uses they have and what the world would actually be like with them. We want people to think about the ethical implications of what we do. Technically a lot of this is possible but is it actually what we want?"

A 3D printed image of the Voight-Kampff machine with camera and ear-piece.

Credit: Image courtesy of Lancaster University

An emotion detector which, potentially, can tell whether a person really finds you attractive on a first date has been created by researchers at Lancaster University.

The inspiration for the device came from a gadget featured in the 1982 sci-fi fantasy film, Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford and directed by Ridley Scott.
Replicating the Voight-Kampff machine, a fictional interrogation tool, the Lancaster team have created a device that mimics this emotion-detector.
But the plausibly real device is, at this stage, still pure fiction and, while creating it has sparked imaginative design skills and a little fun, it has been built to convey a serious message.
The design team, which includes the Centre for Spatial Analysis (CASA) at UCL, are keen to get people to think about the ethical implications of a world in which we use computers to monitor or even manipulate our emotions.
The polygraph-like Voight-Kampff machine was used by the Blade Runners police force to determine if an individual was a biorobotic android, detected by means of a test in which emotional responses were provoked.
It measured body functions such as blush response, respiration, heart rate and eye movement in response to questions dealing with empathy.
Designers at Lancaster are now researching technologies for their own Voight-Kampff machine including an ear-piece which measures skin and heart rate responses and a pupil-dilation measure.
The team's fictional speculative device is set against an online dating backdrop and is designed, in theory, to determine if it's love and sincerity at first sight or sound.
The machine takes on a whole new 21st century appearance -- neat, bright and compact -- and simply clips onto the bottom of a smartphone or tablet.
The research team, headed by Lancaster University's design fiction expert Professor Paul Coulton, are set to present a paper on 11 May in San Jose at CHI, the world's premier conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the place to see, discuss and learn about the future of how people interact with technology.
"This machine looks and feels very real and has even prompted a film-making company in the States to request filming us manufacturing the device," said Professor Coulton. "But this is actually a tool for creating some pretty serious discussions."
Design fiction is, in broad terms, speculative design which heralds what might come about in the future world of human computer interaction, explains Professor Coulton.
"The factor that differentiates and distinguishes design fiction from other approaches is its novel use of 'world building' and, in this paper, we consider whether there is value in creating fictional research worlds through which we might consider future interactions."
"As an example, we built this world in which rules for detecting empathy will become a major component of future communications. We take inspiration from the sci-fi film 'Blade Runner' to consider what a plausible world, in which it is useful to build a Voight-Kampff machine, might be like.
"People are working towards this kind of thing," he added. "What we are doing is questioning whether it has a place in our society -- what kind of uses they have and what the world would actually be like with them. We want people to think about the ethical implications of what we do. Technically a lot of this is possible but is it actually what we want?"

Measuring a black hole 660 million times as massive as our sun

Findings by Rutgers and other scientists could help shed light on how galaxies and their supermassive black holes form

Date:

May 5, 2016

Source:

Rutgers University

Summary:

It's about 660 million times as massive as our sun, and a cloud of gas circles it at about 1.1 million mph. This supermassive black hole sits at the center of a galaxy dubbed NGC 1332, which is 73 million light years from Earth. And an international team of scientists has measured its mass with unprecedented accuracy.

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This is NGC 1332, a galaxy with a black hole at its center whose mass has been measured at high precision by ALMA.

Credit: Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey

It's about 660 million times as massive as our sun, and a cloud of gas circles it at about 1.1 million mph.

This supermassive black hole sits at the center of a galaxy dubbed NGC 1332, which is 73 million light years from Earth. And an international team of scientists that includes Rutgers associate professor Andrew J. Baker has measured its mass with unprecedented accuracy.
Their groundbreaking observations, made with the revolutionary Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, were published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. ALMA, the world's largest astronomical project, is a telescope with 66 radio antennas about 16,400 feet above sea level.
Black holes -- the most massive typically found at the centers of galaxies -- are so dense that their gravity pulls in anything that's close enough, including light, said Baker, an associate professor in the Astrophysics Group in Rutgers' Department of Physics and Astronomy. The department is in the School of Arts and Sciences.
A black hole can form after matter, often from an exploding star, condenses via gravity. Supermassive black holes at the centers of massive galaxies grow by swallowing gas, stars and other black holes. But, said Baker, "just because there's a black hole in your neighborhood, it does not act like a cosmic vacuum cleaner."
Stars can come close to a black hole, but as long as they're in stable orbits and moving fast enough, they won't enter the black hole, said Baker, who has been at Rutgers since 2006.
"The black hole at the center of the Milky Way, which is the biggest one in our own galaxy, is many thousands of light years away from us," he said. "We're not going to get sucked in."
Scientists think every massive galaxy, like the Milky Way, has a massive black hole at its center, Baker said. "The ubiquity of black holes is one indicator of the profound influence that they have on the formation of the galaxies in which they live," he said.
Understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies is one of the major challenges for modern astrophysics. The scientists' findings have important implications for how galaxies and their central supermassive black holes form. The ratio of a black hole's mass to a galaxy's mass is important in understanding their makeup, Baker said.
Research suggests that the growth of galaxies and the growth of their black holes are coordinated. And if we want to understand how galaxies form and evolve, we need to understand supermassive black holes, Baker said.
Part of understanding supermassive black holes is measuring their exact masses. That lets scientists determine if a black hole is growing faster or slower than its galaxy. If black hole mass measurements are inaccurate, scientists can't draw any definitive conclusions, Baker said.
To measure NGC 1332's central black hole, scientists tapped ALMA's high-resolution observations of carbon monoxide emissions from a giant disc of cold gas orbiting the hole. They also measured the speed of the gas.
"This has been a very active area of research for the last 20 years, trying to characterize the masses of black holes at the centers of galaxies," said Baker, who began studying black holes as a graduate student. "This is a case where new instrumentation has allowed us to make an important new advance in terms of what we can say scientifically."
He and his coauthors recently submitted a proposal to use ALMA to observe other massive black holes. Use of ALMA is granted after an annual international competition of proposals, according to Baker.

What materials are planes typically made of and why?

One of the most important objectives for airplane designers is reduction of weight - build something that meets all the functional requirements while weighing as little as possible (within reasonable cost parameters, of course. Unicorn skin is way too expensive, for example. There's a joke that a commercial airplane designer would sell his grandmother to save 100 pounds of weight from the plane. ). Less weight means less engine thrust is needed, which means less fuel is burned. Less fuel burned means the airline makes more money. Airlines love to make money :-)

Large commercial transport aircraft have traditionally been made with aluminum skin over an aluminum frame. Aluminum is a great metal for airplanes since it's light and can be pretty strong when alloyed. But it has some issues over time, including corrosion and metal fatigue. With the introduction of the Boeing 787 a few years ago, large-scale use of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, aka composite, is proving itself as a lighter weight, corrosion-proof, and stronger replacement for aluminum skin. The Airbus A350 entering service later this year also is skinned with composite material, but uses panels over a frame rather than one piece composite fuselage barrels like the 787. Here's a video of a 787 fuselage section being built up:

As you can see, this is a very different way of building big airplanes.  The chamber seen later in the video into which the fuselage barrel is inserted is an autoclave, basically a large oven that is used to cure and harden the resin used in the composite material. When the barrel is complete, windows and other openings are cut into it as needed. 
Most of the stuff on the inside of the plane is made from aluminum or plastic, with artificial fibers used for carpets and upholstery.

A350 is another engineering marvel with 52% Composite Material , which includes Glass Fibre / Carbon Fibre.  With the reduction in weight they have increased the fuel efficiency by 4% which is a huge achievement .
Further to these every fastener that goes into the aircraft is either made of Titanium / Aluminum / Steel,However the composition of each is specific to the manufacturer , namely Airbus , Boeing , etc.
On the other hand smaller planes can also be made of light weight wood - used only for bush flying.

Robot

 A robot is a mechanical or virtual artificial agent, usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by a computer program or electronic circuitry. Robots can be autonomous or semi-autonomous and range from humanoids such as Honda's Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility (ASIMO) and TOSY's TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot (TOPIO) to industrial robots, medical operating robots, patent assist robots, dog therapy robots, collectively programmed swarm robots, UAV drones such as General Atomics MQ-1 Predator, and even microscopic nano robots. By mimicking a lifelike appearance or automating movements, a robot may convey a sense of intelligence or thought of its own.
The branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, and application of robots,^[2] as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing is robotics. These technologies deal with automated machines that can take the place of humans in dangerous environments or manufacturing processes, or resemble humans in appearance, behavior, and/or cognition. Many of today's robots are inspired by nature contributing to the field of bio-inspired robotics. These robots have also created a newer branch of robotics: soft robotics.
From the time of ancient civilization there have been many accounts of user-configurable automated devices and even automata resembling animals and humans, designed primarily as entertainment. As mechanical techniques developed through the Industrial age, there appeared more practical applications such as automated machines, remote-control and wireless remote-control.
The word 'robot' was first used to denote a fictional humanoid in a 1921 play R.U.R. by the Czech writer, Karel Čapek but it was Karel's brother Josef Čapek who was the word's true inventor.^[3][4] Electronics evolved into the driving force of development with the advent of the first electronic autonomous robots created by William Grey Walter in Bristol, England in 1948. The first digital and programmable robot was invented by George Devol in 1954 and was named the Unimate. It was sold to General Motors in 1961 where it was used to lift pieces of hot metal from die casting machines at the Inland Fisher Guide Plant in the West Trenton section of Ewing Township, New Jersey.^[5]
Robots have replaced humans^[6] in performing repetitive and dangerous tasks which humans prefer not to do, or are unable to do because of size limitations, or which take place in extreme environments such as outer space or the bottom of the sea.
There are concerns about the increasing use of robots and their role in society. Robots are blamed for rising unemployment as they replace workers in increasing numbers of functions.^[7] The use of robots in military combat raises ethical concerns. The possibilities of robot autonomy and potential repercussions have been addressed in fiction and may be a realistic concern in the future.

Camera Lens

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The camera lens is an invention that attempts to duplicate the operation of the human eye. Just like the eye, the lens sees an image, focuses it, and transmits its colors, sharpness, and brightness through the camera to the photographic film, which, like our memory, records the image for processing and future use. Lenses are made of optical glass or plastic. They focus light rays by refracting or bending them so that they meet or converge at a common point.
A simple lens "sees" well through its center, but its vision around the edges tends to blur. Blurring, color changes, distortion of lines, and color halos around objects are caused by defects in the lens called aberrations. Some aberrations can be corrected in the simple lens by shaping one or both surfaces so they are aspheric; aspheric curves vary like the curves of a parabola, rather than staying constant like the curvature of a sphere. A camera lens reduces the effects of aberrations by replacing a simple lens with a group of lenses called lens elements, which are lenses of different shapes and distances of separation. The lens becomes more complex as greater correction of vision is achieved. The lens will also be more complex depending on the size of the aperture—the opening that allows light to pass through—and the range of angles it "sees." Lens design used to rely on the optician's art and considerable experimentation. Today, computer programs can adjust the shaping and spacing of lens elements, determine their effects on each other, and evaluate costs of lens production.
Lens elements are usually described by their shape. The convex lens curves outward; a biconvex lens curves outward on both sides, and a plano-convex lens is flat on one side and outwardly curved on the other. There are also concave lenes, biconcave, and plano-concave lenses. The elements are not necessarily symmetrical and can curve more on one side than the other. Thickening the middle of the lens relative to its edges causes light rays to converge or focus. Lenses with thick edges and thin middles make light rays disperse. A complex camera lens contains a number of elements specially grouped. The combination of the composition, shape, and grouping of the elements maximizes the light-bending properties of the individual elements to produce the desired image. The lens is focused by moving it nearer or farther from the film or focal plane. The lens can be twisted, causing the lens elements to move in and out along a spiral screw thread machined into the casing of the lens. Twisting the lens also moves a scale on the casing that shows the distance of the best focus.
The stop or diaphragm is a specialized part of the lens. In simple cameras, the stop is a fixed stop or a ring of black sheet metal that is permanently set in front of the lens. Box cameras, studio cameras, and some cameras of European manufacture use a sliding stop, which is a strip of metal that slides across the front of the lens between grooves. It has two or more holes of different sizes that are the apertures. Lenses with a variable stop have a machined ring on the outside of the lens mount, printed with f-stop numbers. By turning this ring, the diaphragm can be opened or closed. This iris diaphragm works much like the iris of the eye in allowing adjustments for varied light conditions.
The lens in a compact camera is usually a general-purpose lens with a normnal focal length that takes pictures of an image the way our eyes see it. Lenses designed for special purposes are used with more advanced cameras. Telephoto lenses work much like binoculars or telescopes, and make a distant image appear closer. Wide-angle lenses make the image appear farther away; a panoramic lens is a special kind of wide-angle lens that is useful for taking pictures of broad expanses of scenery. Some disposable cameras are equipped with panoramic lenses. A fish-eye lens is also a special kind of wide-angle lens that deliberately distorts the image so the central part is enlarged and the outer image details are compressed. Fish-eye lenses cover very wide angles like horizon-to-horizon views. Another special purpose lens is the variable-focus lens, also called a "zoom" lens. It uses moveable lens elements to adjust the focal length to zoom closer to or farther away from the subject. These lenses are complex and may contain 12 to 20 lens elements; however, one variable-focus lens may replace several other lenses. Some compact cameras also have limited zoom, telephoto, or wide-angle features. The single-lens reflex (SLR) camera is made so that the photographer sees the same view as the lens through the viewfinder. This enables the photographer to plan the image that will appear on film with the flexibility of a variety of interchangeable lenses.

History

The camera lens evolved from optical lenses developed for other purposes, and matured with the camera and photographic film. In 1568, a Venetian nobleman, Daniel Barbaro, placed a lens over the hole in a camera box and studied sharpness of image and focus. His first lens was from an old man's convex spectacles. The astronomer Johann Kepler elaborated on Barbaro's experiments in 1611 by describing single and compound lenses, explaining image reversal, and enlarging images by grouping convex and concave lenses.
In the 1800s, the first box cameras had a lens mounted in the opening in the box. The lens inverted the image on a light-sensitive plate at the back of the box. There was no shutter to open the lens; instead, a lens cap was removed for several seconds or longer to expose the plate. Improvements in the sensitivity of the plate necessitated ways of controlling the exposure. Masks with different sized openings were made for insertion near the lens. The iris diaphragm was also developed to control the aperture. Its metal leaves open and close together to form a circular opening that can be varied in diameter.
In 1841, Joseph Petzval of Vienna designed a portrait lens with a fast aperture. Previously, lenses made for daguerreotype cameras were best suited for landscape photography. Petzval's lens allowed portraits to be taken ten times faster, and the photograph was less likely to be blurred. In 1902, Paul Rudolph developed the Zeiss Tessar lens, considered the most popular ever created. In 1918, he produced the Plasmat lens, which may be the finest camera lens ever made. Rudolph was followed shortly by Max Berek, who designed sharp, fast lenses that were ideal for miniature cameras.
Other essential developments in lens history include lens coating technology, use of rare-earth glass, and calculation methods made possible by the computer. Katharine B. Blodgett developed techniques for thin-coating lenses with soap film to remove reflection and improve light transmission in 1939. C. Hawley Cartwright continued Blodgett's work by using coatings of metallic fluorides, including evaporated magnesium and calcium that were four-one-millionths of an inch thick.

Design

Design of a camera lens begins by identifying the photographer who will use it. When the market is identified, the lens designer selects the optical and mechanical materials, the optical design, the appropriate method for making the mechanical parts, and, for auto focus lenses, the type of inter-face between the lens and camera. There are conventions or patterns for the different categories of lenses, including macro, wide-angle, and telephoto lenses, so some design aspects are standardized. Advancements in materials give designers many challenging

A group of lenses called lens elements, which are of different shapes and distances of separation, make up the camera lens. Lens design used to rely on the optician's art and considerable experimentation. Today, computer programs can adjust the shaping and spacing of lens elements, determine their effects on each other, and evaluate costs of lens production.

options, however. In selecting materials, the engineer must consider a range of metals for the components and various types of glasses and plastics for the lenses, all the while mindful of the final cost to the photographer. When the designer has completed the design, its performance is tested by computer simulation. Computer programs that are specific to lens manufacturers tell the designer what kind of image or picture the lens will produce at the center of the image and at its edges for the range of lens operation. Assuming the lens passes the computer simulation test, the criteria for performance that were chosen initially are reviewed again to confirm that the lens meets the needs identified. A prototype is manufactured to test actual performance. The lens is tested under varying temperature and environmental conditions, at every aperture position, and at every focal length for zoom lenses. Target charts in a laboratory are photographed, as are field conditions of varying light and shadow. Some lenses are aged rapidly in laboratory tests to check their durability.
Additional design work is needed if the lens focuses automatically, because the auto focus (AF) module must work with a range of camera bodies. The AF module requires both software and mechanical design. Extensive prototype testing is performed on these lenses because of their complex functions and because the software is fine-tuned to each lens.

Raw Materials

The raw materials for the lenses themselves, the coating, the barrel, or housing for the camera lens, and lens mounts are described below in the manufacturing section.

The Manufacturing
Process

Grinding and polishing lens elements

• 1 Optical glass is supplied to lens manufacturers by specialized vendors. Usually, it is provided as a "pressed plate" or sliced glass plate from which the elements are cut. The glass elements are shaped to concave or convex forms by a curve generator machine that is a first-step grinder. To reach the specifications for its shape, a lens goes through a sequence of processes in which it is ground by polishing particles in water. The polishing particles become smaller in each step as the lens is refined. Curve generation and subsequent grinding vary in speed depending on the frailty, softness, and oxidation properties of the optical materials. After grinding and polishing, the elements are centered so that the outer edge of the lens is perfect in circumference relative to the centerline or optical axis of the lens. Lenses made of plastic or bonded glass and resin are produced by the same processes. Bonded materials are used to make lenses with non-spherical surfaces, and these lenses are called "hybrid aspherics." The aspherical surfaces of these lenses are completed during centering.
  

Coating lenses

• 2 Formed lenses are coated to protect the material from oxidation, to prevent reflections, and to meet requirements for "designed spectrum transmission" or color balance and rendition. The lens surfaces are carefully cleaned before coating. Techniques for applying coatings and the coatings themselves are major selling points for a manufacturer's lenses and are carefully guarded secrets. Some types of coatings include metal oxides, light-alloy fluorides, and layers of quartz that are applied to lenses and mirrors by a vacuum process. Several layers of coating may be applied for the best color and light transmission, but excessive coating can reduce the light that passes through the lens and limit its usefulness.

Producing the barrel

• 3 The barrel includes the chassis that supports the various lens elements and the cosmetic exterior. Metal mounts, grooves, and moving portions of the lens are critical to the performance of the lens, and are machined to very specific tolerances. Lens mounts may be made of brass, aluminum, or plastic. Most metal barrel components are die-cast and machined. Metal mounts last longer, maintain their dimensions, can be machined more precisely, and can be dismantled to replace elements, if necessary. Plastic mounts are less expensive and of lighter weight. If the barrel is made of engineering plastic, it is produced by a highly efficient and precise method of injection molding. The interior surfaces of the barrel are also coated to protect them and to prevent internal reflection and flare.

Assembling the lens

• 4 Other parts of the lens, such as the diaphragm and auto focus module, are produced as subassemblies. The iris diaphragm is constructed of curved leaves cut out of thin sheets of metal. The metal leaves are held in place by two plates. One plate is fixed, the other moves, and has slots for sliding pins. These slide the leaves back toward the barrel to open the diaphragm or into the center to close the opening as the f-stop ring is turned. The diaphragm assembly is fastened into place when the lens mount is attached to the end of the barrel. The auto focus is also added, the optical elements are positioned, and the lens is sealed. After final assembly, the lens is adjusted and inspected rigorously. It must meet the design standards for optical resolution, mechanical function, and auto focus response. Lenses may also be tested by subjecting them to shocks, dropping, and vibration.

Quality Control

Approaches to lens manufacture vary greatly among companies. Some use full automation including industrial robot s to make their products, others use large assembly lines, and still others pride themselves on hand-crafting. Quality and precision are essential to lens production, however, regardless of manufacturing approach. Incoming materials and components are rigorously inspected for quality and compliance with engineering specifications. Automated processes are also inspected constantly and subjected to tolerance checks. Hand-craftsmanship is performed only by skilled artisans with long years of training. Quality control and stress tests are incorporated in each manufacturing step, and elements and components are measured with precise instruments. Some measuring devices are laser-controlled and can detect deviations of less than 0.0001-millimeter in a lens surface or in lens centering.

The Future

Camera lenses are enjoying new developments in many areas. The consumer's interest in the best photos for the lowest cost has led to disposable cameras with simple but effective lenses. Lenses for professional photographers and for specialized uses such as high-performance binoculars or telescopes are made with exotic and "non-preferred" glasses that are more sensitive, expensive, and harder to obtain than traditional materials. These are called "abnormal dispersion" materials because they merge all the colors in the light passing through the lens to produce the best images, rather than allowing colors to disperse like a simple lens. Water and other liquids also bend light, and scientists have identified liquids that are abnormally dispersive and can be trapped between layers of ordinary glass to produce the same image quality as exotic optical glass. The ordinary or "preferred" glass (preferred because of low cost and workability) is bonded around the liquid with flexible silicone adhesive. The resulting "liquid lens" may replace several elements in a professional-quality lens. It also reduces the coating required and the amount of lens polishing needed because the liquid fills imperfections in the glass. The cost of the lens is reduced, and the light transmission properties are improved. Lens makers in the U.S., Japan, and Europe are preparing to produce liquid lenses in the near future.

How a Car is Made: Every Step from Invention to Launch

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From the January 2016 issue

You may not be surprised to hear that cars do not spring all shiny and dew-studded from beneath lily pads, ready to hit the road. In fact, the car-creation odyssey makes NASA’s Journey to Mars program seem like a Caribbean luxury cruise. While we frequently address elements of the design and development process on this page, this is the first time we’ve presented the entire start-to-finish plan; this year’s 10Best celebration seemed like the perfect time and place to do so. One domestic and one import manufacturer—both requesting anonymity for competitive reasons—helped compile this guide to how cars are made.
We gathered related tasks under five headings.
The time required is the most interesting and secretive part of a car’s gestation; a crash program to replace a dead-on-its-wheels product may take only half the time invested in a normal, full-redesign effort.
In our illustrations, the clock begins when the generals gather to spur their troops to action. The end is when the new model reaches showrooms. On average, the entire process takes 72 months. There’s overlap to save time, as revealed by the start and finish months listed in each of the five category headings. After-sale activities—including service issues, continuous improvement, and midlife face lifts—are not included in this account. That’s for another 10Best.

1. INVENTION MONTHS 0–72 Research market, including in-house and field investigations, to identify the role of this product and its components in the global portfolio; define separation from similar models sold by sister brands Identify special features, advantages, and potential world, U.S., or segment firsts Define competitive set, target customers; set curb-weight, fuel-economy, and performance goals Competitive assessment Powertrain selection Budget, funding, pricing, investment considerations Computer-aided-engineering (CAE) analysis Customer, press, analyst clinics

2. DESIGN MONTHS 0–72 (FOLLOWING MARKET RESEARCH) Interior—sketches, theme selection, model build, continuous reviews Exterior—same as above until design freeze Exterior colors, interior-trim materials selection Wind-tunnel assessment of theme models Concept creation for management presentation, potential auto-show use Additional CAE Management and engineering reviews

3. ENGINEERING MONTHS 0–72 (CONCURRENT WITH DESIGN) Additional CAE Customer clinics aimed at gathering current model feedback, suggestions for improvements Research advanced technologies—engines, transmissions, motors, electronic controls, manufacturing techniques (painting, metal forming, plastic molding), and emerging trends Package, layout studies Body design and development for crashworthiness, weight, durability (in conjunction with CAE efforts) Aerodynamic development Design, development, tuning, validation (in-lab and on-road) of: Powertrain Chassis HVAC, infotainment, seats, lighting systems Hot-, cold-, wet-weather tests Crash tests Fuel-economy evaluations Design for manufacturing and assembly studies Component and manufacturing cost analysis Collaborate with suppliers for R&D of purchased components Safety and emissions certification

4. MANUFACTURING MONTHS 36–72 Design for manufacturing and assembly Construct or modify production facilities Tooling design, construction, validation Pilot builds to validate process and parts On-line preproduction builds Quality improvements Confirm that production vehicle meets performance targets Train workforce Collaborate with suppliers Commence production of saleable autos

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5. LAUNCH MONTHS 60–72 Market research Naming research (if needed) Define pricing Develop marketing theme Introduce product to dealer body Plan logistics (flow of vehicles to dealers) Create promotional (media and advertising) materials Craft presentations for management, auto shows, press, social media, dealers, analysts