Thursday, June 26, 2008
There's Ice!
Mars Phoenix Tweets: "We Have ICE!" There is water ice on Mars within reach of the Mars Phoenix Lander, NASA scientists announced Thursday.
Photographic evidence settles the debate over the nature of the white material seen in photographs sent back by the craft. As seen in lower left of this image, chunks of the ice sublimed (changed directly from solid to gas) over the course of four days, after the lander's digging exposed them.
"It must be ice," said the Phoenix Lander's lead investigator, Peter Smith. "These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice."
more...
10:46 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Mars, NASA, USA, world, Space, Astronomy, news
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Calculate your Greenhouse gases anual personal emission
Calculate your Greenhouse gases anual personal emission and the amount of trees that needed to be planted to offset your emissions. (Brazilian Residents only), but you can get an idea of how much you are polluting and how many trees you need to plant in order to reverse the gasses you've emitted. You can now be part of the Initiative, by planting trees, you will offset you carbon footprint contributing to the global effort to tackle global warming, and at the same time you will promote local environmental benefits to ours and the next generations.
here's the link...
11:00 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Green house, Emissions, Pollution, Earth, Trees
Friday, May 30, 2008
Earth's last uncontacted tribes near Brazil-Peru border
Incredible picture of one of Earth's last uncontacted tribes firing bows and arrows!
Painted: In a thick rainforest along the Brazilian-Peruvian border, these tribespeople are thought never to have had any contact with the outside world.
Skin painted bright red, heads partially shaved, arrows drawn back in the longbows and aimed square at the aircraft buzzing overhead. The gesture is unmistakable: Stay Away.
Behind the two men stands another figure, possibly a woman, her stance also seemingly defiant. Her skin painted dark, nearly black.
The apparent aggression shown by these people is quite understandable. For they are members of one of Earth's last uncontacted tribes, who live in the Envira region in the thick rainforest along the Brazilian-Peruvian frontier.
Thought never to have had any contact with the outside world, everything about these people is, and hopefully will remain, a mystery.
Their extraordinary body paint, precisely what they eat (the anthropologists saw evidence of gardens from the air), how they construct their tent-like camp, their language, how their society operates - the life of these Amerindians remains a mystery.
'We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist,' said Brazilian uncontacted tribes expert José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Junior. 'This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence.'
More Pictures...
Survival International website...
15:33 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Survival International, Tribes, World, UK, Brazil, Peru, Indians
Sunday, May 18, 2008
NASA Offers $5000 a Month For You to Lie in Bed
Need a break from the working, walking, and standing required by the demanding and stressful life you lead?
Well, pack your bags for Houston because NASA wants to pay you $17,000 to stay in bed for 90 straight days.
The bed-rest experiment, to take place in the Human Test Subject Facility of Johnson Space Center, is designed to allow scientists to study some of the effects of microgravity on the human body. Participants will spend 90 days lying in bed, (except for limited times for specific tests) with their body slightly tilted downward (head down, feet up). Every day, they will be awake for 16 hours and lights out (asleep) for 8 hours.
more...
19:40 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: NASA, news, science, USA, blog, web, journal
Sunday, May 11, 2008
What Are You Yawning About?
It takes about six seconds. Slowly, you take in a deep breath, exhale more quickly, stretch out your arms, contort your face, and your narrowed eyes may tear a bit. You have just yawned, something that almost all vertebrate animals do many times a day by some estimates, 10 times per hour, though more often in the early morning and late evening. Does it mean you are tired? Bored? Trying to give someone a hint? 
As common as it is, little is known for sure about yawning, but it is probably a myth that yawning always indicates a need for sleep. It is true that people often yawn as they are ready to retire for the night; but it is also true that it happens when first arising in the morning, and at other times during the day depending on a variety of factors such as arousal level, distraction, and even seeing someone else yawning. Because breathing takes in oxygen and removes carbon dioxide, theories in the past about why we yawn centered on the assumption that it was a reflex in response to low oxygen or high carbon-dioxide levels. This theory lost favor after a study in 1987 in which volunteers subjected to high oxygen levels did not yawn less, and after high carbon dioxide exposure did not yawn more.
more...
21:51 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Yawning, Sleep, Science, USA, World, Blog, journal
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Fertile women 'have sexier voice'
A woman's voice becomes more alluring when she is at her most fertile, according to US research.
Recordings of women taken at different points in their menstrual cycle were played to people of both sexes. New Scientist magazine reports that the voices rated as most attractive belonged to women at peak fertility.
The study suggests sex hormones can alter the workings of the voice box, but the change may be too subtle to pick up in many situations.
Human reproduction differs from reproduction in other mammals in that there are no obvious signs that a woman is at her fertile phase.
more...
10:28 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Women, Fertility, medicine, science, world, news, blog
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Bugs Use Plants as Telephones
"Hello? Yes, this is my plant. Thanks. Bye-bye."
That's the underground half of a conversation between bugs on a mustard plant. Scientists have discovered the insects below and above use the plant like a chemical telephone.
A team of researchers led by Roxina Soler, an ecologist at the Netherlands Institute for Ecology, are not sure how widespread the phenomenon is. The organic chat is a friendly one: Leaf-munching insects above ground prefer plants unoccupied by root-eaters.
When a subterranean insect takes up residence below a plant, it settles in to feast on the plant's roots. In order to alert leaf-eating insects of the "no vacancy," the underground insect sends a chemical warning signal through the plant leaves, so the leafeaters are alerted that the plant is occupied.
Recent studies have revealed different types of aboveground insects develop slowly if they feed on plants that harbor subterranean residents and vice versa. So the green phone lines keep insects from unintentionally competing for the same plant.
Turns out, the subterranean insects can also communicate with a third party via the biophone, namely the natural enemy of caterpillars — parasitic wasps.
The chemicals emitted by the leaves give the wasps information about the occupancy of different plants. Since the parasitic wasps lay their eggs inside aboveground insects, they would do well to stop by plants unoccupied by the underground root-eaters.
The research, announced today, was funded by the Free Competition of NWO Earth and Life Sciences.
22:03 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Insects, Bugs, Science, World, news, journal, web
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The World’s Most Dangerous Bird
The Cassowary lives in the rain forests of Australia and New Guinea and are actually pretty shy animals if undisturbed, but if you get to close and it thinks you’re a threat you could receive a bone-breaking kick or get sliced by its dagger-like sharp claws. During WWII, soldiers stationed in New Guinea were warned to stay away from these birds, but some of them still became victims.
The Cassowary is also one of the most difficult animals to keep in the Zoo because of the frequent injuries suffered by Zoo keepers that look after them.
More pictures...
18:30 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Birds, Science, Australia, New Guinea, World, Animals, Guiness records
Couch-potato culture may cut our lives short
Thanks largely to medical and public health advances, Americans are living longer than ever. The average life expectancy in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available, was nearly 78. That's up from 47 in 1900 and 68 in 1950.
But even as the market for anti-aging pills and products has never been hotter with Americans seeking a longer life, some experts say we as a nation are doing ourselves in with our couch-potato culture of eating way too much and exercising far too little. Some health professionals even raise the controversial notion that today's generation of kids like Justin — about a third of whom are overweight or obese — may be the first to live shorter lives than their parents.
"Young kids are getting what have traditionally been adult-type diseases — type 2 diabetes and heart disease," she says. "It's like advanced aging."
"These kids are headed for real trouble," agrees S. Jay Olshansky, a professor of public health and a researcher at the Center on Aging at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Their parents may not be faring so well, either, he says. Two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese.
In 2005, Olshansky and colleagues published a paper in The New England Journal of Medicine predicting that in the coming decades, the obesity epidemic and its health consequences would reverse the upward longevity curve in America over the last century, slashing life expectancy by two to five years — more than the impact of cancer or heart disease.
more...
18:26 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Obesity, USA, Medicine, Health, News, Web, Living longer
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Skipping breakfast may mean your baby is a girl
Women on low-calorie diets or who skip breakfast at the time of conception are more likely to give birth to girls than boys, British scientists said on Wednesday.
New research by the universities of Exeter and Oxford provides the first evidence that a child's sex is associated with the mother's diet, and higher energy intake is linked to males.
"This research may help to explain why in developed countries, where many young women choose to have low-calorie diets, the proportion of boys born is falling," said Fiona Mathews of the University of Exeter.
more...
20:30 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: UK, London, news, weird, medicine, babies, world
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Oldest Living Tree Found in Sweden
The world's oldest known living tree, a conifer that first took root at the end of the last Ice Age, has been discovered in Sweden, researchers say.
The visible portion of the 13-foot-tall (4-meter-tall) "Christmas tree" isn't ancient, but its root system has been growing for 9,550 years, according to a team led by Leif Kullman, professor at Umeå University's department of ecology and environmental science in Sweden.
Discovered in 2004, the lone Norway spruce—of the species traditionally used to decorate European homes during Christmas—represents the planet's longest-lived identified plant, Kullman said.
The researchers found the shrubby mountain survivor at an altitude of 2,985 feet (910 meters) in Dalarna Province.
more...
22:33 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: National Geographic, Sweden, news, Trees, science, journal, web
Tai cheese, anyone?
A dairy farmer who believes a happy cow is a productive cow has discovered an unusual way to relax his herd and increase milk yields – tai chi.
Rob Taverner performs the ancient martial art in front of his 100 cows every morning to get them in the right moo-d to produce lots of milk.
The 44-year-old organic farmer visits the animals at 9am each day to run through his ten-minute routine of slow movements and breathing techniques – dressed in his distinctive overalls and wellies.
He said: 'Tai chi is all about leaving your problems behind and getting into a better zone and my mood definitely transfers to the cows.
more...
22:30 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Tai Chi, Cows, UK, Science, Vets, news, web
Sunday, April 13, 2008
The Martian Express
NASA rocket scientists have used the gravitational pull of one planet to “slingshot” space craft toward another planet. This method causes acceleration without additional fuel use. What if we could set up a system where craft were in (almost) perpetual motion between Earth and Mars, using each planet’s gravity to sling it toward the other. Such a trajectory is available, thanks to the work of Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin. The orbit is called the Aldrin Cycler.
The value of a perpetually repeating trajectory was immediately evident to NASA's engineers. Rocket scientists must contend with an immense expense when hefting material into low-Earth orbit– roughly $20 million per metric ton. Even a simple brain surgeon can grasp that a Cycler would allow mission planners to shed much of the rocket's fuel flab. In 1999, for example, NASA estimated that a rocket-powered manned mission to Mars would require 437 metric tons of stuff to be lifted into space. This equates to $8.74 billion to orbit the materials for one round trip to our rusty neighbor. Over half of that weight– 250 tons– is propellant for the Mars transfer. In contrast, a Cycler adheres to a philosophy of practical re-use rather than littering the cosmos with discarded multi-billion-dollar vehicles. Although Dr Aldrin's massive vehicle would need an initial thrust to insert it into the sweet spot, only occasional coaxing would be necessary to maintain the rhythmic encounters.
more...
22:30 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Science, Mars, Space, USA, web, news
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Dinosaur discovery: Boy spots rare, perfectly preserved 'Jurassic' footprints
An eight-year-old boy has impressed experts by finding a set of dinosaur footprints on a beach which date back an incredible 160 million years.
Rhys Nichols was strolling along the sands with dad Richard when he spotted the perfectly preserved nine-inch prints on a rock. The clever schoolboy immediately realised they could be from a dinosaur - and experts have hailed the find, believing they are the mark of a plant-eating iguanodon creature which roamed the area during the Jurassic era.
more...
11:37 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: News, kids, world, Dinasours, science
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Researchers find song recorded before Edison's phonograph
For more than a century, since he captured the spoken words "Mary had a little lamb" on a sheet of tinfoil, Thomas Edison has been considered the father of recorded sound. But researchers say they have unearthed a recording of the human voice, made by a little-known Frenchman, that predates Edison's invention of the phonograph by nearly two decades.
The 10-second recording of a singer crooning the folk song "Au Clair de la Lune" was discovered earlier this month in an archive in Paris by a group of American audio historians. It was made, the researchers say, on April 9, 1860, on a phonautograph, a machine designed to record sounds visually, not to play them back. But the phonautograph recording, or phonautogram, was made playable — converted from squiggles on paper to sound — by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California.
Scott's device had a barrel-shaped horn attached to a stylus, which etched sound waves onto sheets of paper blackened by smoke from an oil lamp. The recordings were not intended for listening; the idea of audio playback had not been conceived. Rather, Scott sought to create a paper record of human speech that could later be deciphered.
But the Lawrence Berkeley scientists used optical imaging and a "virtual stylus" on high-resolution scans of the phonautogram, deploying modern technology to extract sound from patterns inscribed on the soot-blackened paper almost a century and a half ago. The scientists belong to an informal collaborative called First Sounds that also includes audio historians and sound engineers.
more...
23:15 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Thomas A, Edison, news, Science, USA, Audionews, History
Monday, March 10, 2008
Rocky Planets May Orbit Most Stars
Astronomers have discovered that terrestrial planets might form around many, if not most, of the nearby sun-like stars in our galaxy. These new results suggest that worlds with potential for life might be more common than we thought.
Meyer and his colleagues found that at least one-fifth (20 percent), and possibly as many as three-fifths (60 percent), of stars similar to the sun are candidates for forming rocky planets.
The next critical test of the assertion that terrestrial planets like Earth could be common around stars like the sun will come next year with the launch of NASA's Kepler Mission. Kepler will detect the tiny dips in the amount of light seen as planets pass in front of their stars. The Giant Magellan Telescope, one in a new generation of extremely large ground-based telescopes, could also play a role in determining how many neighboring sun-like stars are forming planets.
more...
19:56 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Astronomy, planets, Solar system, USA, Science, news, journal
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Lose weight by increasing your metabolism!
If you're trying to lose weight and think your metabolism might be the culprit, there are changes you can make to improve it. Understand what metabolism is. In the simplest terms, metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories. The rate differs significantly from person to person. 
You and your friend can have the same activity level, diet, and weight but still gain or lose weight at different rates based on differences in metabolism.
Determine what is influencing your metabolism. There are some factors that you can change, and some factors that you can't like age, gender, heredity,etc.
Eat small, frequent meals. Extending the time between meals makes your body go into "starvation mode", which means it'll hold onto as many calories as possible and store them as fat. This is why fasting and skipping meals will only make things worse. In addition to having four to six small meals per day, eating healthy snacks will also increase metabolism.
Drink water. As with food, depriving your body of water can encourage it to "hoard" rather than "burn". In order to encourage your liver to focus on metabolism rather than water retention, make sure you drink an appropriate amount of water. Boost metabolism temporarily with aerobic exercise. Different activities burn different quantities of calories, but the important thing is to raise your heart rate and sustain the activity for approximately 30 minutes. Boost metabolism in the long run with weight training. Muscle burns more calories than fat, so the more muscle you build, the higher your resting metabolic rate.
more...
15:36 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Diet, Weigth loss, USA, news, blog, journal, web
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Astronomers discover distant solar system similar to our own
A host of amateur astronomers have helped researchers discover a distant solar system remarkably similar to our own, according to a study released Thursday by Science magazine.
Initial observations found two planets orbiting a star some 5,000 light years away which appear to be slightly smaller versions of our own Jupiter and Saturn.
Just 25 multi-planet solar systems have been mapped so far and this is the first one that really seems to resemble our own, said lead author Scott Gaudi of Ohio State University.
"It's like a scaled-down version of our solar system,"
more...
16:30 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Science, Space, USA, web, news, world, journal
Machines 'to match man by 2029'
Machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029, a leading US inventor has predicted.
Humanity is on the brink of advances that will see tiny robots implanted in people's brains to make them more intelligent, said Ray Kurzweil.
The engineer believes machines and humans will eventually merge through devices implanted in the body to boost intelligence and health.
"It's really part of our civilisation," Mr Kurzweil explained.
"But that's not going to be an alien invasion of intelligent machines to displace us."
Machines were already doing hundreds of things humans used to do, at human levels of intelligence or better, in many different areas, he said.
more...
16:24 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Human, computers, science, Future, USA, UK, world
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Sheep and a goat led to Lisa the GEEP!
Leaping into the air, she looks like something from the funny farm.
But this curious creature is making scientists do a double-take. Meet Lisa the geep... a cross between a goat and a sheep.
She was born after an unscheduled amorous encounter on the farm of Klaus Exsternbrink, in Schwerte, in northern Germany's Ruhr Valley. One of his young billy goats leapt over a fence and had a passionate liaison with a ewe.
he result a month ago was Lisa - resembling a lamb in shape and stature, but with the colouring and agile back legs of a goat.
Her mother seems unfazed by her unusual offspring and has raised her happily so far.
more...
21:40 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Geep, Science, breeding, journal, web, news, Germany
Scientists create 'see-through' fish
Scientists have created ghostly transparent fish to make human biology clearer. The feat has been achieved with zebrafish are genetically similar to humans and are already in widespread use as models for human biology and disease.
The new see through fish allows scientists to directly view its internal organs, and observe processes like the spread of tumours and blood production after bone-marrow transplant in a living organism, say researchers at Children's Hospital Boston.
The fish, described in the journal Cell Stem Cell as created by Dr Richard White, with others in the laboratory of Prof Leonard Zon.
21:38 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Science, fish, news, blog, web, journal, medicine
Monday, February 04, 2008
'Watermarks' written in first artificial genome
he scientist attempting to create the first man-made organism scribbled his name in the first synthetic genome that he unveiled a few days ago.
A team at the J Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, announced recently how it has successfully created the largest man-made DNA structure, the circular genetic code - genome - of an artificial bacterium as a precursor to breeding a synthetic organism in the lab.Now a table in the online supplemental materials for the Science paper that announced the feat reveals it contained a secret message embedded in the DNA: the code carries the name of the head of the institute, Dr Craig Venter, that of his research institute and co-workers.
more...
15:42 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Science, genome, news, blog, web, journal
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Amazing Shark pictures
It is the ultimate predator, nature's most efficient killing machine which can hunt and kill its prey with remarkable ease.
These dramatic pictures, taken near Seal Island, in False Bay, are part of a decade-long campaign to promote positive awareness of great white sharks, which are classed as "endangered" largely due to being hunted by man.
More pictures here...
22:03 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Sharks, Science, Photograph, web, amazing, scary, news
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Robots Evolve And Learn How to Lie
Robots can evolve to communicate with each other, to help, and even to deceive each other, according to Dario Floreano of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Floreano and his colleagues outfitted robots with light sensors, rings of blue light, and wheels and placed them in habitats furnished with glowing “food sources” and patches of “poison” that recharged or drained their batteries. Their neural circuitry was programmed with just 30 “genes,” elements of software code that determined how much they sensed light and how they responded when they did. The robots were initially programmed both to light up randomly and to move randomly when they sensed light.
To create the next generation of robots, Floreano recombined the genes of those that proved fittest—those that had managed to get the biggest charge out of the food source.The resulting code (with a little mutation added in the form of a random change) was downloaded into the robots to make what were, in essence, offspring. Then they were released into their artificial habitat. “We set up a situation common in nature—foraging with uncertainty,” Floreano says. “You have to find food, but you don’t know what food is; if you eat poison, you die.” Four different types of colonies of robots were allowed to eat, reproduce, and expire.
By the 50th generation, the robots had learned to communicate—lighting up, in three out of four colonies, to alert the others when they’d found food or poison. The fourth colony sometimes evolved “cheater” robots instead, which would light up to tell the others that the poison was food, while they themselves rolled over to the food source and chowed down without emitting so much as a blink.
Some robots, though, were veritable heroes. They signaled danger and died to save other robots. “Sometimes,” Floreano says, “you see that in nature—an animal that emits a cry when it sees a predator; it gets eaten, and the others get away—but I never expected to see this in robots.”
12:51 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Robots, web, blog, journal, news, science, technology
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Why We Flirt
Open Body Position: This come-and-get-me stance suggests the man is neither about to flee nor fight.
Contrary to widespread belief, only two very specific types of people flirt: those who are single and those who are married. Single people flirt because, well, they're single and therefore nobody is really contractually obliged to talk to them, sleep with them or scratch that difficult-to-reach part of the back. But married people, they're a tougher puzzle. They've found themselves a suitable--maybe even superior--mate, had a bit of productive fun with the old gametes and ensured that at least some of their genes are carried into the next generation.
And before you claim, whether single or married, that you never flirt, bear in mind that it's not just talk we're dealing with here. It's gestures, stance, eye movement. Notice how you lean forward to the person you're talking to and tip up your heels? Notice the quick little eyebrow raise you make, the sidelong glance coupled with the weak smile you give, the slightly sustained gaze you offer? If you're a woman, do you feel your head tilting to the side a bit, exposing either your soft, sensuous neck or, looking at it another way, your jugular? If you're a guy, are you keeping your body in an open, come-on-attack-me position, arms positioned to draw the eye to your impressive lower abdomen?
One of the reasons we flirt in this way is that we can't help it. We're programmed to do it, whether by biology or culture.
Evolutionary biologists would suggest that those individuals who executed flirting maneuvers most adeptly were more successful in swiftly finding a mate and reproducing and that the behavior therefore became widespread in all humans.
more...
12:30 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Flirting, Human, news, science, Love, web, blog
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
"Dinosaur Mummy" Found; Has Intact Skin, Tissue
Scientists today announced the discovery of an extraordinarily preserved "dinosaur mummy" with much of its tissues and bones still encased in an uncollapsed envelope of skin.
A newly found "dino mummy" has exquisitely preserved bones, skin, and possibly muscle and internal organs, scientists have announced.
The duck-billed dinosaur, named Dakota, is already changing theories of how the extinct creatures looked and moved—and may contain preserved ancient proteins that could better reveal the dino family tree.
For now, the team continues to examine the rare specimen, which included preserved tendons and ligaments, and to prepare scientific articles on the find for publication.
"This specimen exceeds the jackpot," said excavation leader Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at Britain's University of Manchester and a National Geographic Expeditions Council grantee.
Most dinosaurs are known only from their bones, which are seldom found joined together as they would be in real life.
But "we're looking at a three-dimensional skin envelope," Manning said. "In many places it's complete and intact—around the tail, arms, and legs and part of the body."
First the dinosaur body had to escape predators, scavengers, and degradation by weather and water. Then a chemical process must have mineralized the tissue before bacteria ate it. And finally, the remains had to survive millions of years undamaged.
"What usually would have been wiped out by the decay process—the mineralization has been so rapid that it is trapped and preserved," Manning said.
more...
21:43 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Dinosaurs, Mummy, USA, Dakota, science, news, web
Everest footprints stir up Yeti legend
KATMANDU, Nepal - Members of a TV production team investigating the existence of the legendary Yeti in Nepal said Friday that they have found footprints intriguing enough to merit further investigation.
The team of nine producers from "Destination Truth," armed with infrared cameras, spent a week in the icy Khumbu region where Mount Everest is located and found the footprints on the bank of the Manju River at an elevation of 9,350 feet (2,850 meters).
One of the three footprints found on Wednesday is about 1 foot (30 centimeters) long, with an appearance similar to those shown in sketches of the purported apelike creature, the team said.
"It is very, very similar," Josh Gates, an archaeologist who serves as the host of the weekly travel adventure series, told Reuters in Katmandu after returning from the mountain. "I don't believe it to be a bear. It is something of a mystery for us."
"This print is so pristine, so good, that I am very intrigued by this," said Gates, flanked by his team members.
21:37 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Yeti, Nepal, Everest, Science, news, blog, web
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Robot Driven by Moth's Brain
Charles M. Higgins, UA associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and doctoral student Timothy Melano presented their findings and outlined the mechanics behind the robot’s movements.
The robot’s motion is guided by a tiny electrode implanted in the moth’s brain, Higgins said, specifically to a single neuron that is responsible for keeping the moth’s vision steady during flight. The neuron transmits electrical signals which are then amplified in the robot's base and through a mathematical formula, a computer translates the signals into action, making the robot move.
The moth is immobilize inside a plastic tube mounted atop the 6-inch-tall wheeled robot. To get the moth to imitate flight, Higgins and his team placed the moth in its apparatus on a circular platform surrounded by a 14-inch-high revolving wall painted with vertical stripes. The moth's neuron reacts to the movement of the stripes and the process begins.
“Scientists have reached a frustrating point in understanding the brain - we know how it operates, to an extent but don’t know how to stop brain damage or repair it when it occurs.” Higgins said. But that may change in the future. Higgins has thus far been able to have robo-moth turn left or right but not forward or backward. The longest recorded movement has been 88 seconds.
22:46 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Robots, journal, blog, science, medicine, USA, Arizona
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
World's smallest helicopter
TOKYO, JAPAN - Japan's toy giant Tomy employee Maiko Murayama displays the world's smallest radio controlled toy helicopter "Heli-Q", which can make a five minute flight with a 20-minute charge of its lithium-ion battery on October 23, 2007 in Tokyo, Japan. Tomy will put it on the market next month.
15:27 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Helicopters, news, blog, journal, Japan, blogs, web
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Is this the World's Oldest Painting?
11,000-year-old painting surprisingly modernist in style
DAMASCUS -- French archeologists have discovered an 11,000-year-old wall painting underground in northern Syria that they believe is the oldest in the world.
The two square-metre painting, in red, black and white, was found at the neolithic settlement of Djade al-Mughara on the Euphrates, northeast of the city of Aleppo, team leader Eric Coqueugniot told Reuters.
"It looks like a modernist painting. Some of those who saw it have likened it to work by (Paul) Klee. Through carbon dating we established it is from around 9,000 BC," Coqueugniot said.
Mustafa Ali, a leading Syrian artist, said similar geometric design to that in the Djade al-Mughara painting found its way into art throughout the Levant and Persia, and can even be seen in carpets and kilims (rugs).
"We must not lose sight that the painting is archeological, but in a way it's also modern," he said.
France is an important contributor to excavation efforts in Syria, where 120 teams are at work.
Syria was at the crossroads of the ancient world and has thousands of mostly unexcavated archeological sites.
More...
22:10 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Siria, news, journals, blogs, blog, science, Art
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Get Ready for Water-Powered Cell Phones
In 2010 your mobile phone may be powered by water. Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced Thursday that it has developed a micro-fuel cell and hydrogen generator that runs on H20.
"When the handset is turned on, metal and water in the phone react to produce hydrogen gas," explained Oh Yong-soo, vice president of Samsung Electro-Mechanics' research center. "The gas is then supplied to the fuel cell where it reacts with oxygen in the air to generate power." Other fuel cells need methanol to produce hydrogen, while Samsung's needs only water. 
Since the micro-fuel cell can generate up to three watts of electricity, it could be used in mobile devices, the company said. The new fuel cell could power a handset for 10 hours, twice as long as rechargeable batteries.
22:46 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: science, Korea, Samsung, cell phones, phones, blog, journal
Sunday, October 07, 2007
DNA expert 'close to creating artificial life'
Scientists have claimed they are on the verge of creating the world's first artificial life form.
Craig Venter, a controversial American DNA researcher, has built an entirely synthetic chromosome - a sequence of genes - out of laboratory chemicals and plans to implant it in an existing cell.
If he succeeds his team will have created an almost entirely new life form for the first time.
more...
13:49 Posted in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: DNA, life, science, news, blog, journals, blogs
Sunday, September 23, 2007
'Hour a day on mobile can harm hearing'
Young people could be permanently damaging their hearing by talking on mobile phones for just an hour a day, experts have warned.
A study of 18- to 25-year-olds showed those who regularly used mobiles found it more difficult to hear certain words, particularly in the ear to which most users hold their handsets.