moonbuggy

`An Australian researcher using high-tech software has found the tiny missing article in Neil Armstrong’s declaration as he became the first human to step onto the moon’s surface.

[..] Armstrong always insisted he had intended to say: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”, and he and NASA believed that he had. [..]

Now Sydney researcher Peter Shann Ford says he has the technological proof that Armstrong said the critical “a”.’

`What are claimed to be the world’s first specially bred hypoallergenic cats have gone on sale in the US.

US biotech firm Allerca says it has managed to selectively breed them by reducing a certain type of protein that triggers allergic reactions. [..]

The BBC’s Pascale Harter says there could soon be a global market for the kittens – in the US alone 38 million households own a cat, and around the world an estimated 35% of humans suffer from allergies.’

`The icecap may not be the only thing shrinking in the Arctic. The genitals of polar bears in east Greenland are apparently dwindling in size due to industrial pollutants.

Scientists report this shrinkage could, in the worst case scenario, endanger polar bears there and elsewhere by spoiling their love lives and causing their numbers to peter out. [..]

The adult polar bear testicles the researchers examined were on average roughly three inches across and 1.8 ounces in weight, although they could dramatically enlarge during the height of sexual activity from January to July. Their bacula, or penis bones, were on average nearly seven inches long.’

`[..] Computational modeling of the THC-AChE interaction revealed that THC binds in the peripheral anionic site of AChE, the critical region involved in amyloidgenesis. Compared to currently approved drugs prescribed for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, THC is a considerably superior inhibitor of A aggregation, and this study provides a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism through which cannabinoid molecules may directly impact the progression of this debilitating disease.

[..] Therefore, AChE inhibitors such as THC and its analogues may provide an improved therapeutic for Alzheimer’s disease, augmenting acetylcholine levels by preventing neurotransmitter degradation and reducing A aggregation, thereby simultaneously treating both the symptoms and progression of Alzheimer’s disease.’

`A radical new project could permit human beings to create a “baby universe” in a laboratory in Japan. While it sounds like a dangerous undertaking, the physicists involved believe that if the project is successful, the space-time around a tiny point within our universe will be distorted in such a way that it will begin to form a new superfluid space, and eventually break off, separate in all respects from our experience of space and time, causing no harm to the fabric of our universe.’

`Australian scientists are set to announce the discovery of a species of flatworm which is a member of group of predators known as oyster leeches. [..]

The creatures have both male and female parts and engaged in a sexual practice somewhat like penis fencing.

To reproduce they try to stab each other with their genitals and the first to penetrate inserts sperm and then goes on to spar with another flatworm. The “loser” lays and broods the eggs.’

`Bodies of extinct Ice Age mammals, such as woolly mammoths, that have been frozen in permafrost for thousands of years may contain viable sperm that could be used to bring them back from the dead, scientists said yesterday.

Research has indicated that mammalian sperm can survive being frozen for much longer than was previously thought, suggesting that it could potentially be recovered from species that have died out.

Several well-preserved mammoth carcasses have been found in the permafrost of Siberia, and scientists estimate that there could be millions more.’

`The body of a graduate student who disappeared in the ocean Thursday while trying to capture a 300-pound green sea turtle was found floating Monday near Sebastian Inlet, about a half-mile south of where he was last seen grabbing onto the back of the giant reptile.

Brevard County sheriff’s Detective Gary Harrell said Boyd Lyon’s body was spotted from a helicopter about 11:30 a.m. 300 yards off the coast. The body yielded no clues as to what happened to the 37-year-old research student who had found a niche in the “hand capture” of male sea turtles.

“There’s no indication to suggest what happened to him,” Harrell said.’

followup to Man Missing After Pulled Into Ocean By Turtle.

`A graduate student from the University of Central Florida remains missing Saturday after he was pulled underwater by a large sea turtle, according to Local 6 News.

Officials said Boyd Lyon, 35, vanished Thursday afternoon about three miles north of the Sebastian Inlet and 400 yards out to sea, sheriff’s officials said.

The student was apparently tagging turtles as part of a UCF research project.’

`Camille has beauty and brains.

She’s a former model and a Phi Beta Kappa with a master’s in education. There’s a part of her, though, that’s not so perfect.

She smells like spoiled fish.

Camille says when she taught, students wouldn’t come near her.

“They would say things like, ‘Ew, this classroom stinks like dead fish.’ They would call me ‘Miss Fishy.'”‘

‘When NASA announced its “Galileo into Jupiter” option, among those to publish immediate, serious objections (and later to repeat them on “Coast to Coast AM”) was an engineer named Jacco van der Worp. Van der Worp claimed that, plunging into Jupiter’s deep and increasingly dense atmosphere, the on-board Galileo electrical power supply — a set of 144 plutonium-238 fuel pellets, arrayed in two large canister devices called “RTGs” (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators — see image and schematic, below) — would ultimately “implode”; that the plutonium Galileo carried would ultimately collapse in upon itself under the enormous pressures of Jupiter’s overwhelming atmosphere —

Triggering a runaway nuclear explosion!’

`Canadians who spend more than an hour a day on the Internet devote less time to socializing with their spouses and children and less time doing household chores, according to a study released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday.

The report, which relied on data from a 2005 general social survey on time use, found that, on average, heavy Internet users (those who spend more than an hour a day in their personal time on-line) each spend five weeks a year surfing the web.

The study also found that these frequent users spend nearly 30 minutes less each day with their partner and kids than non-users (those who spend less than five minutes on-line a day).

“Heavy Internet users lead a very different lifestyle than non-Internet users in terms of their work and domestic lives,” said Ben Veenhof, who authored the study.’

`Scientists and science fiction fans alike have big plans for carbon nanotubes; it has been hoped that a cable made of carbon nanotubes would be strong enough to serve as a space elevator. However, recent calculations by Nicola Pugno of the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, suggest that carbon nanotube cables will not work.

[..] Laboratory tests have demonstrated that flawless individual nanotubes can withstand about 100 gigapascals of tension; however, if a nanotube is missing just one carbon atom, it can reduce its strength by as much as thirty percent. Bulk materials made of many connected nanotubes are even weaker, averaging less than 1 gigapascal in strength.

In order to function, a space elevator ribbon would need to withstand at least 62 gigapascals of tension.’

`Teenage girls who get pregnant are deliberately “planning” to become mothers in the belief that a baby will improve the quality of their lives.

An extensive study published today reveals that girls as young as 13 are making a “career choice” by deciding to have children, since they see parenting as preferable to working in a dead-end job.

The findings from the Trust for the Study of Adolescence challenges the assumption that schoolgirl mothers are all irresponsible adolescents who are ignorant about using contraception. The revelation that teenage girls are actively choosing motherhood is backed up by official figures obtained by this paper which show that nearly a quarter of pregnancies to under 18s are second children.’

`Forget cute, cuddly marsupials. A team of Australian palaeontologists say they have found the fossilised remains of a fanged killer kangaroo and what they describe as a “demon duck of doom”. [..]

“Because they didn’t hop, these were galloping kangaroos, with big, powerful forelimbs. Some of them had long canines (fangs) like wolves,” Archer told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. [..]

The species found at the dig had “well muscled-in teeth, not for grazing. These things had slicing crests that could have crunched through bone and sliced off flesh”, Hand said.’

Also, there’s an image of the demon duck of doom skull.

`An Indian born scientist in the US is working on developing DVD’s which can be coated with a light -sensitive protein and can store up to 50 terabytes (about 50,000 gigabytes) of data.

Professor V Renugopalakrishnan of the Harvard Medical School in Boston has claimed to have developed a layer of protein made from tiny genetically altered microbe proteins which could store enough data to make computer hard disks almost obsolete.’

`Four-wheel-drive owners, already seen as a road menace, are more dangerous than we thought, a study of more than 40,000 vehicles has found.

A person behind the wheel of one is far more likely to be wielding a mobile phone while driving, and less likely to wear a seatbelt, researchers say. They have concluded that four-wheel-drive owners take more risks because they feel safer.

But that distorted logic is a threat to the safety of everyone on the road, says Lesley Walker, a research associate with Imperial College London’s primary care and social medicine department.’

`A computer scientist at UCLA has transformed one power-hungry component of a silicon laser into a generator of energy — which could help engineers trying to incorporate faster optical elements into commercial processors.

“Not only are we not dumping energy in, we’re actually recovering it,” says Bahram Jalali, a professor of electrical engineering at UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science “It sounds too good to be true, but it is true.”‘

`A giant ice cube or a gift from God?

Weather experts cannot explain what caused a microwave oven-sized block of ice to fall from the sky and shatter on the pavement outside an upmarket Douglasdale complex at 9.58am on Friday.

But the security guards who witnessed the icy object plummet to its pulpy end believe that it might have been a blessing from above.

“It came from God… because the (security guard) strike is over,” one of the men told the Saturday Star.’

`Doctors have their first proof that a man who was barely conscious for nearly 20 years regained speech and movement because his brain spontaneously rewired itself by growing tiny new nerve connections to replace the ones sheared apart in a car crash.

Terry Wallis, 42, is thought to be the only person in the United States to recover so dramatically so long after a severe brain injury. He still needs help eating and cannot walk, but his speech continues to improve and he can count to 25 without interruption.’

`Genetically modified tomatoes containing edible vaccine are to be used to challenge two of the world’s most lethal viruses.

The aim is to create affordable vaccines for HIV and the hepatitis B virus (HBV) that could be easily grown and processed in the countries where they are most needed. So far, none of the 90 or so potential vaccines against HIV have proved successful and, though a vaccine already exists for HBV, it is too expensive to be used by poorer countries.’

`Online sex toy retailer LoveHoney.co.uk is advertising what could be the most unusual job ever. The company is searching for a sexually active couple who will be prepared to test a new pill designed to change the taste of semen.

The pill, which is taken as a twice-a-day for 30 days, claims to mask the traditionally salty taste of male ejaculate with a refreshing apple-like flavour. Successful applicants will take the pill for 30 days and will use an online blog to provide a blow-by-blow account of how the taste of their partner’s sexual fluid changes.

“A payment is offered,” says LoveHoney test organiser Ali Carnegie, “But this is really a job that people should do for love rather than money.”‘

`People with long-term, low-level exposure to pesticides have a 70 percent higher incidence of Parkinson’s disease than people who have not been exposed much to bug sprays, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Such workers include mostly farmers, ranchers and fishermen, the researchers report in the July issue of Annals of Neurology.

Their study supports previous research that suggests pesticides can be linked with Parkinson’s, which is caused by the destruction of key brain cells, the team at the Harvard School of Public Health said.

“The findings support the hypothesis that exposure to pesticides is a risk factor for Parkinson’s disease,” they wrote.’

`The ultimate death toll among humans from mad-cow disease could be massively under-estimated, according to an innovative study conducted among a cannibal tribe in Papua New Guinea. [..]

British doctors have hit on the idea of seeing whether people there fell sick long after the practice died out, the aim being to determine how long it takes for this BSE-like disease to incubate.

Their suspicions were confirmed, for they identified 11 people who were diagnosed with kuru between July 1996 to June 2004. [..]

As vCJD only surfaced as a disease little more than a decade ago, this relatively tiny toll has eased initial worries that tens of thousands of people could die, given that millions of people ate BSE-infected beef.’

`The neurological basis for poor witness statements and hallucinations has been found by scientists at UCL (University College London). In over a fifth of cases, people wrongly remembered whether they actually witnessed an event or just imagined it, according to a paper published in NeuroImage this week.

Dr Jon Simons and Dr Paul Burgess led the study at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. Dr Burgess said: “In our tests volunteers either thought they had imagined words which they had actually been shown or said they had seen words which in fact they had just imagined – in over 20 per cent of cases. That is quite a lot of mistakes to be making, and shows how fallible our memory is – or perhaps, how slim our grip on reality is! [..]”‘

`People in European and Muslim countries see US policy in Iraq as a bigger threat to world peace than Iran’s nuclear programme, a survey has shown.

The survey by the Pew Research Group also found support for US President George W Bush and his “war on terror” had dropped dramatically worldwide.’

`It looks like a giant cup of red wine or even blood.

Late last month villagers on Ambae, one of the chain of islands making up the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, made a startling discovery. The previously blue-green water in a three-kilometre-wide lake, perched at the top of a 1500-metre-high active volcano, had suddenly turned bright red.

“It’s quite red, like red wine,” said Esline Garaebiti, the geo-hazards manager for Vanuatu’s Department of Geology, Mines and Water Resources. But exactly why remains a mystery, she said, adding that water samples were being sent to Belgium and New Caledonia for analysis.’

`In the Cold War arms race, scientists rushed to build thousands of warheads to counter the Soviet Union. Today, those scientists are racing once again, but this time to rebuild an aging nuclear stockpile.

Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are locked in an intense competition with rivals at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the Bay Area to design the nation’s first new nuclear bomb in two decades. [..]

By law, the new weapons would pack the same explosive power as existing warheads and be suitable only for the same kinds of military targets as those of the weapons they replace. Unlike past proposals for new atomic weapons, the project has captured bipartisan support in Congress.’

followup to: Lab officials excited by new H-bomb project

`A team of scientists from The University of Western Australia Murdoch University, CSIRO and three American, French and Spanish research institutions announced the discovery of the vortex after a month-long research voyage in the ocean just west of Rottnest Island.

Led by Dr Anya Waite, a biological oceanographer from UWA, the 10-member team found the vortex – 200km in diameter and 1000m deep – spinning at speeds up to 5kph just off the Rottnest Canyon. [..]

She said the climate above the vortex was noticeably different.

“It feels like you’re in the tropics,” she said.’

‘The size of a shoebox, a mysterious bronze device scooped out of a Roman-era shipwreck at the dawn of the 20th century has baffled scientists for years. Now a British researcher has stunningly established it as the world’s oldest surviving astronomy computer. [..]

Scooped out of a Roman shipwreck located in 1900 by sponge divers near the southern Greek island of Antikythera, and kept at the Athens National Archaeological Museum, the Mechanism contains over 30 bronze wheels and dials, and is covered in astronomical inscriptions.

Probably operated by crank, it survives in three main pieces and some smaller fragments.’