‘Now that most scientists agree human activity is causing Earth to warm, the central debate has shifted to whether climate change is progressing so rapidly that, within decades, humans may be helpless to slow or reverse the trend. [..]
There are three specific events that these scientists describe as especially worrisome and potentially imminent, although the time frames are a matter of dispute: widespread coral bleaching that could damage the world’s fisheries within three decades; dramatic sea level rise by the end of the century that would take tens of thousands of years to reverse; and, within 200 years, a shutdown of the ocean current that moderates temperatures in northern Europe.’
`Scientists in the UK have made 2D arrays of particles that are held together by nothing except light. The “optical matter” arrays developed by Colin Bain of Durham University and Christopher Mellor, now at the National Institute for Medical Research, consist of polystyrene nanospheres that are trapped by light that has been scattered off a prism. The arrays provide a new way of assembling matter on the nanoscale, and could also shed light on processes inside crystals that take place at even smaller scales [..]’
`New research reveals that monkey cops help keep social groups in line.
Not having guns or nightsticks, they leverage their group seniority, craft intimidating reputations and count on good voter turnout.
Take the primate police out of a group, as researchers did, and the rest get more violent and aggressive. Interaction between cliques drops significantly. [..]
The study, detailed in today’s issue of the journal Nature, also uncovered a complex monkey “voting” system for appointing the peacekeepers.’
`From space, the aurora is a crown of light that circles each of Earth’s poles. The IMAGE satellite captured this view of the aurora australis (southern lights) on September 11, 2005, four days after a record-setting solar flare sent plasma—an ionized gas of protons and electrons—flying towards the Earth. The ring of light that the solar storm generated over Antarctica glows green in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, shown in this image. The IMAGE observations of the aurora are overlaid onto NASA’s satellite-based Blue Marble image. From the Earth’s surface, the ring would appear as a curtain of light shimmering across the night sky.’
(various size Quicktimes)
`A team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Purdue University, and the Russian Academy of Sciences has used sound waves to induce nuclear fusion without the need for an external neutron source, according to a paper in the Jan. 27 issue of Physical Review Letters. [..]
By bombarding a special mixture of acetone and benzene with oscillating sound waves, the researchers caused bubbles in the mixture to expand and then violently collapse. This technique, which has been dubbed “sonofusion,” produces a shock wave that has the potential to fuse nuclei together, according to the team.’
`The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists.
Dr. Hansen said he would ignore the restrictions. “They feel their job is to be this censor of information going out to the public,” he said.’
`A US Environmental Protection Agency has found possible links between non-stick cookware, cancer and birth defects and is now asking manufacturers to start winding down production. [..]
Non-stick pots and pans are supposed to be good for you, as they need less fat to cook with.
But the coating contains a compound that the US environmental protection agency has warned may harm our health. [..]
Vet Naya Brangenberg says vets have long known that the fumes from cooking with non-stick pans can be deadly to household birds.
“They’ll have a sudden accumulation of fluid and blood in their lungs, and this fluid will cause them to have a similar effect to drowning, where they can’t absorb oxygen from the air and they will drown to death.”‘
`Dr. Benford derived a formula to explain this. If absolute certainty is defined as 1 and absolute impossibility as 0, then the probability of any number “d” from 1 through 9 being the first digit is log to the base 10 of (1 + 1/d). This formula predicts the frequencies of numbers found in many categories of statistics. [..]
Given a string of at least four numbers sampled from one or more of these sets of data, the chance that the first digit will be 1 is not one in nine, as many people would imagine; according to Benford’s Law, it is 30.1 percent, or nearly one in three. The chance that the first number in the string will be 2 is only 17.6 percent, and the probabilities that successive numbers will be the first digit decline smoothly up to 9, which has only a 4.6 percent chance.’
`Sam Tabor, a professor of experimental nuclear physics at FSU and director of the university’s Superconducting Accelerator Laboratory, recently performed the experiment at the GSI laboratory in Darmstadt, Germany, in collaboration with the international team. In the experiment, a cigar-shaped atom was created using a particle collider. To the scientists’ surprise, this atom demonstrated a novel kind of radioactive decay by spitting out two free protons at the same time.
Radioactive decay normally involves the emission of one of three types of particle: a helium nucleus consisting of two protons and two neutrons, an electron or a photon. Exotic atoms engineered to contain fewer neutrons than in the atom’s natural state were expected to break down by emitting protons one at a time. But the correlated two-proton decay hadn’t been seen before and represents a new form of radioactivity.’
`A professor from chair of quantum and optical electronics of the Ulyanovsk State University in western Russia has patented a method of making things invisible, Interfax news agency reported.
The so-called invisibility cloak, created by Oleg Gadomsky, is called “The method of conversion of optical radiation” in the patent.
Gadomsky had been long experimenting on nanoparticles of gold. Thus, he invented a sub-micron stratum of microscopical colloid golden particles that makes an object placed behind it invisible for an observer.’
`University of Pittsburgh scientists say they’ve genetically engineered an avian flu vaccine that has proven 100 percent effective in mice and chickens.
The vaccine was produced from the critical components of the deadly H5N1 virus that has devastated bird populations in Southeast Asia and Europe and has killed more than 80 people.
Since the newly developed vaccine contains a live virus, researchers say it may be more immune-activating than avian flu vaccines prepared by traditional methods. Furthermore, because it is grown in cells, it can be produced much more quickly than traditional vaccines, thereby making it an extremely attractive candidate for preventing the spread of the virus in domestic livestock populations and, potentially, in humans.’
`British girls are among the most violent in the world, with nearly one in three Scottish and English adolescents admitting to having been in a fight in the past year, according to research.
In a survey of youngsters in 35 countries, child health experts found the average rate of violence among girls in all countries was 23 per cent. Hungary scored worst with 32 per cent, with Scotland and England on 29.2 per cent and 29.1 per cent respectively. Finland had the least violent girls (13 per cent)
Researchers also found high levels of fighting and violence among boys, particularly in Scotland, where nearly two-thirds admitted to having been in a punch-up in the past year.’
`More than half of students at four-year colleges — and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges — lack the literacy to handle complex, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers, a study found.
The literacy study funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the first to target the skills of graduating students, finds that students fail to lock in key skills — no matter their field of study. [..]
Overall, the average literacy of college students is significantly higher than that of adults across the nation. Study leaders said that was encouraging but not surprising, given that the spectrum of adults includes those with much less education.’
`We hope you enjoy J-Track 3-D. It should appear in its own window and begin loading a database of over 500 satellites.
What you will see (assuming your system supports this JAVA applet) is a plot in 3-dimensions showing the position of these satellites. Be sure to try the “Satellite” pull-down menu to choose which satellite you wish to view.’
`A full superconducting experimental Tokamak fusion device, which aims to generate infinite, clean nuclear-fusion-based energy, will be built in March or April in Hefei, capital city of east China’s Anhui Province.
Experiments with the advanced new device will start in July or August. If the experiments prove successful, China will become the first country in the world to build a full superconducting experimental Tokamak fusion device, nicknamed “artificial sun”, experts here said.’
`Constant darkness throws a molecular switch in mammals that shifts the body’s fuel consumption from glucose to fat and induces a state of torpor in mice, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston reports in the Jan. 19 edition of Nature.
[..] A series of experiments pinpointed 5-prime adenosine monophosphate (5′-AMP) as the key molecular mediator of the constant darkness effect, switching mice from a glucose-burning, fat-storing state to a fat-burning, glucose-conserving lethargy.’
`People who took their cars to work were 13 per cent more likely to be overweight or obese than those who walked, cycled or used public transport, regardless of their income level, the survey of 6810 employed people found. The further people had to drive each day, the greater their weight increase. [..]
The NSW study revealed that even short, regular car trips significantly reduced people’s opportunity to get sufficient exercise in the course of their working week. [..]
Overall, 49 per cent of the workers in the health survey were overweight or obese, and two-thirds drove their car to work. Seven per cent walked, 2 per cent cycled and 6 per cent worked at home.’
`A 16-year-old boy invented a hamster-powered mobile phone charger as part of his GCSE science project. [..]
“I thought the wheel could be made to do something useful so I connected a system of gears and a turbine,” he said.
“Every two minutes Elvis spends on his wheel gives me about thirty minutes talk time on my phone.”
The teenage inventor was given a C for his project and has been awarded a D overall for the course.’
`A big brown cockroach crawls across the table in the laboratory of Japan’s most prestigious university. The researcher eyes it nervously, but he doesn’t go for the bug spray. He grabs the remote. This is no ordinary under-the-refrigerator type bug. This roach has been surgically implanted with a micro-robotic backpack that allows researchers to control its movements. This is Robo-roach.
Unfortunately spammers are emailing the roaches when they broadcast to cell phones. “We had an incident last week where we sent a roach into an duct to test for an air leak, when we asked the roach to turn right, it responded by asking for our email addresses and offered to send us viagra in return.” said Assistant Professor Isao Shimoyama, head of the bio-robot research team at Tokyo University.’
`Bacteria in yogurt have been modified to deliver a drug that blocks HIV infection.
In their natural state, the bacteria (Lactococcus lactis) produce lactic acid and are used to make cheese and yogurt. It is not harmful to humans.
Research based at Brown Medical School in Rhode Island altered the genetics of the bacteria so they generate cyanovirin, a drug that has prevented HIV infection in monkeys and human cells, according to a report at news@nature.com.
Cyanovirin binds to sugar molecules that are attached to the HIV virus, blocking a receptor used by HIV to infect cells.’
`The best ten stories, according to HumorFeed, are as follows (in alphabetical order, by website):
* Avant News: President Bush Paints Self Into Corner
* BBspot: Microsoft’s Antispyware Tool Removes Internet Explorer
* Brainsnap:Christian Fundamentalists Suspected of Terrorist Bombings
* BSNews: President Bush Sells Louisiana Back to the French
* Confusion Road: Terri Schiavo Dies; Congress Orders Feeding Tube Reinserted
* Department of Social Scrutiny: Government Responds to Charles and Camilla’s Wedding with ID Card Follow-up
* The Fake News: One Hot White Chick Injured in Tsunami Disaster
* John Fanzine: Scientists Discover Most Boring Substance Ever
* Opinions You Should Have: Existence of Poor People A Surprise, Says Bush
* Studio 8 Entertainment: Popeless World Plunges Into Chaos’
`Iran stepped up its defiance of international pressure over its nuclear programme yesterday by warning of soaring oil prices if it is subjected to economic sanctions. As diplomats from the US, Europe, Russia, and China prepared to meet today in London to discuss referring Tehran to the UN security council, [..]
In a provocative move, Iran also announced plans yesterday to convene a “scientific” conference to examine the evidence supporting the Holocaust. The news comes weeks after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked a global outcry by describing the slaughter of 6 million Jews by the Nazis in the second world war as a “myth”.’
`When the stress of the war in Iraq becomes too severe, the Pentagon has a suggestion for military families: Learn how to laugh.
With help from the Pentagon’s chief laughter instructor, families of National Guard members are learning to walk like a penguin, laugh like a lion and blurt “ha, ha, hee, hee and ho, ho.”
No joke.
“I laugh every chance I get,” says the instructor, retired Army colonel James “Scotty” Scott. “That’s why I’m blessed to be at the Pentagon, where we definitely need a lot of laughter in our lives.”‘
I once had to go to a team building day where we had to force laughter. It was stupid.
`How often have we seen Superman fly down and pull a car up by the roof into the sky? In the real world, there are few vehicles that would even hold together if Superman yanked them up by the roof. The car would probably continue forward, with the roof ripped off and held by Superman. Every time Superman lifts a building into the air, why don’t all the bricks, held together by cement and pressure, suddenly start falling apart? Those are the types of ordinary problems that seem never to occur in any superhero adventures. Basically, superheroes perform super acts and the logic squad cleans up afterwards.’
`Sometimes you will see entertainers on the streets who make little poodles out of balloons. Some street entertainers can create several figures but very often their repertoire is limited. Because of this shortage of many street entertainers’ possible sculptures you could think that this skill is difficult to learn. That is not true. Within a couple of minutes the skill of the ‘poodle knot’ can be learned. The knotting techniques for more complicated structures can be learned quickly: After a couple of days in which you practise knotting for about one hour, you are able to model complex structures. Modelling balloons can very well be employed to visualise complex chemical structures and could therefore be used by professors and lecturers at universities or teachers at schools for a better presentation and explanation.’
`Nicky Taylor, 39, is stumbling around a nightclub dance floor in the early hours of the morning, clutching a bottle of Smirnoff Ice.
In five hours, she has drunk equal to four bottles of wine in a potentially fatal mix of cocktails, spirits and beers. [..]
This ugly scene is not a typical night for Nicky. In an experiment for a British TV documentary, the single mother spent a month matching the bingers drink-for-drink to see what it did to her body and mind.
Over 30 days, going out five nights a week, Nicky consumed a staggering 516 units of alcohol — 17.2 units a day. Guidelines say women should drink no more than two or three units a day, and a maximum of 14 a week.’
with pre- and post-binge photos.
`DNA 11 creates abstract art from a sample of your DNA. Each custom art piece is as original as you are and is created on the highest quality canvas. Available in multiple color schemes and sizes.’
`There is a new breed of weaponry fast approaching — and at the speed of light, no less. They are labeled “directed-energy weapons,” and they may well signal a revolution in military hardware — perhaps more so than the atomic bomb. [..]
After more than two decades of research, the United States is on the verge of deploying a new generation of weapons that discharge beams of energy, such as the Airborne Laser and the Active Denial System, as well as the Tactical High Energy Laser, or THEL.’
`Wildlife researchers have found new evidence that Arctic polar bears, already gravely threatened by the melting of their habitat because of global warming, are being poisoned by chemical compounds commonly used in Europe and North America to reduce the flammability of household furnishings like sofas, clothing and carpets.
A team of scientists from Canada, Alaska, Denmark and Norway is sounding the alarm about the flame retardants, known as polybrominated diphenyls, or PBDEs, saying that significant deposits have recently been found in the fatty tissues of polar bears, especially in eastern Greenland and Norway’s Svalbard islands.’
‘Between July 1945 and November 1962 the United States is known to have conducted 216 atmospheric and underwater nuclear tests. After the Limited Test Ban Treaty between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1963, nuclear testing went underground. It became literally invisible – but more frequent: the United States conducted a further 723 underground tests until 1992. 100 SUNS documents the era of visible nuclear testing, the atmospheric era, with 100 photographs drawn by Michael Light from the archives at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the U.S. National Archives in Maryland. It includes previously classified material from the clandestine Lookout Mountain Air Force Station based in Hollywood, whose film directors, cameramen, and still photographers were sworn to secrecy.’
