Science & TechnologyS


Rocket

Virgin Galactic to Launch Spaceships in 2013

Douglas Perry
TomsGuide.com
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:17 UTC
It appears that we are now having 2013 as a much more credible date for space flights.
Image
© Unknown

Stephen Attenborough, commercial director at Virgin Galactic, said that the company will be taking customers into space in about 2 years, if all tests go well. According to a report published by the BBC, Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson had originally hoped to launch into space by 2007 and apparently 500 people have bought tickets for $200,000 a piece so far.

Attenborough, however, cautioned against considering 2013 a fixed date just yet. He said that the launch into space cannot have a fixed date as the carrier won't compromise on safety. He denied claims that the space flight program is delayed.

"Our foot is flat on the gas, we have proven technology, we have a spaceport that opened last week, and the test flight programme is well advanced - I don't think you can ask for a lot more from a programme like this," he told the BBC. "A delay is [a] strange word, and there is no delay."
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Telescope

Discovery: Cosmic Dust Contains Organic Matter from Stars

Denise Chow
Space.com
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 01:32 UTC
Image
© NASA, C.R. O'Dell, S.K. Wong (Rice University) A spectrum from the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observator superimposed on an image of the Orion nebula, where these complex organics are found.
A new look at the interstellar dust permeating the universe has revealed hints of organic matter that could be created naturally by stars, scientists say.

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong observed stars at different evolutionary phases and found that they are able to produce complex organic compounds and eject them into space, filling the regions between stars. The compounds are so complex that their chemical structures resemble the makeup of coal and petroleum, the study's lead author Sun Kwok, of the University of Hong Kong, said.
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Info

Evidence For The Existence Of A Hypnotic State Found


Nano Patents and Innovations
Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:11 UTC
Researchers have found evidence for the existence of a hypnotic state -- the key was in the glazed staring eyes.

Hypnotically Induced Stare
© University of Turku and Aalto University/PLoSThe Hypnotically Induced Stare (HIS).
A multidisciplinary group of researchers from Finland (University of Turku and Aalto University) and Sweden (University of Skövde) has found that strange stare may be a key that can eventually lead to a solution to this long debate about the existence of a hypnotic state.

One of the most widely known features of a hypnotized person in the popular culture is a glazed, wide-open look in the eyes. Paradoxically, this sign has not been considered to have any major importance among researchers and has never been studied in any detail, probably due to the fact that it can be seen in only some hypnotized people.

This study was done with a very highly hypnotizable participant who can be hypnotized and dehypnotized by just using a one-word cue. The change between hypnotic state and normal state can thus be varied in seconds.
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Info

Are Gut Bacteria In Charge?

Jessica Marshall
Discovery News
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:07 UTC
Gut Bacteria
© CorbisExperiments have shown that mice with no gut microbes show differences in how much they move and in their anxiety-like behavior than mice with normal gut bacteria.

The bacteria in our gut may be controlling our lives more than we ever realized.

In the latest findings, published today in Nature, a link between gut bacteria and the development of multiple sclerosis in mice was shown. Studies have also examined gut bacteria in relation to obesity, depression and much more.

More human studies are emerging hinting at the role the bacteria in our guts may play well beyond helping us to digest our food.

"What has been observed in humans with regard to obesity is that there seems to be a difference in the number of kinds of bacteria in the gut," said Rob Knight of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "That number is much lower in obese people than in healthy people."

Researchers have also seen differences in bacteria between mice bred to be obese versus those of normal weight. In one experiment, researchers found that an obese mouse's gut microbes extracted more of the calories from a given parcel of food than did those of non-obese mice.

This caused the obese mice to gain more body fat than the non-obese mice did.

But even stranger, in a type of mouse with a different mutation that leads to obesity, transferring gut microbes from the obese mice into other mice led the non-obese mice to eat more.
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Question

Trees blamed for lack of air


Phnom Penh Post
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:14 UTC
Oxygen eating trees

A day after 136 students collapsed at a Kompong Cham high school while standing at attention as punishment for not showing deference to the national flag, the local police chief offered a unique explanation for the mass fainting - trees.

"According to the hospital's analysis, the reason why the students fainted is [because of] the huge tree in the school compound and the farmland surrounding the school, which absorbed the oxygen," said Heng Meng, police chief of Chamkar Leu district, adding that the punishment could not be blamed as one of the teachers "also [had difficulty breathing] and felt dizzy".

Heng Phal Rith, school director of Bosknor high school in Chamkar Leu district, also cited the hospital's report in blaming the incident on a lack of oxygen, adding that he "did not punish the students. It is just a rumour".

A doctor from the local hospital, Iv Then, said that based on his examination, the lack of oxygen was due to an abundance of trees, which trapped the oxygen, adding that the first four or five students fainted because they were standing under the school's large medicinal oil tree.
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Info

'Junk DNA' Defines Differences Between Humans and Primates


The Daily Galaxy
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:03 UTC
Junk DNA
© The Daily Galaxy

Scientists believed for years that the vast phenotypic differences between humans and chimpanzees would display significantly different genetic makeups. However, when their genomes were later sequenced, researchers were surprised to learn that the DNA sequences of human and chimpanzee genes are nearly identical.

In molecular biology, "junk" DNA is a collective label for the portions of the DNA sequence of a chromosome or a genome for which no function has yet been identified. About 98.5% of the human genome has been designated as "junk", including most sequences within introns and most intergenic DNA.

While much of this sequence is probably an evolutionary artifact that serves no present-day purpose, some may function in ways that are not currently understood. In fact, recent studies have suggested functions for certain portions of what has been called junk DNA. Moreover, the conservation of some "junk" DNA over many millions of years of evolution may imply an essential function. The "junk" label is therefore recognized as something of a misnomer, and many prefer the more neutral term "noncoding DNA."
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Beaker

Your DNA May Carry a 'Memory' of Your Living Conditions in Childhood


Science Blog
Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:59 UTC
dna
© n/a
Family living conditions in childhood are associated with significant effects in DNA that persist well into middle age, according to new research by Canadian and British scientists.

The team, based at McGill University in Montreal, University of British Columbia in Vancouver and the UCL Institute of Child Health in London looked for gene methylation associated with social and economic factors in early life. They found clear differences in gene methylation between those brought up in families with very high and very low standards of living. More than twice as many methylation differences were associated with the combined effect of the wealth, housing conditions and occupation of parents (that is, early upbringing) than were associated with the current socio-economic circumstances in adulthood. (1252 differences as opposed to 545).

The findings, published online today in the International Journal of Epidemiology, could provide major evidence as to why the health disadvantages known to be associated with low socio-economic position can remain for life, despite later improvement in living conditions. The study set out to explore the way early life conditions might become 'biologically-embedded' and so continue to influence health, for better or worse, throughout life. The scientists decided to look at DNA methylation, a so-called epigenetic modification that is linked to enduring changes in gene activity and hence potential health risks. (Broadly, methylation of a gene at a significant point in the DNA reduces the activity of the gene.)
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Info

Software Seamlessly Inserts New Objects Into Existing Photographs

Rebecca Boyle
PopSci
Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:00 UTC
Photography
© Kevin Karsch Real vs. Fake Images: A new, ultra-realistic object insertion method automatically accounts for lighting.

A simple programming tool can build a model of a scene in a two-dimensional photograph and insert a realistic-looking synthetic object into it. Unlike other augmented reality programs, it doesn't use any tags, props or laser scanners to model a scene's geometry - it just uses a small number of markers and accounts for lighting and depth. The result is an augmented scene with proper perspective, which looks so realistic that testers could not distinguish between an original photo and a modified one.

With just a single image and some annotation by a user, the program creates a physical model of a scene, as demonstrated in the video below.


Kevin Karsch, Varsha Hedau, David Forsyth and Derek Hoiem at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign developed a new image composition algorithm to generate an accurate lighting model. It uses geometry to build upon existing light-estimation methods, and it can work with any type of rendering software, the researchers explain. It works by breaking down the scene's geometry and depth of field, and then determining how much of the scene's overall illumination is a result of reflection (albedo) and how much directly emanates from light fixtures. This provides light parameters that can be transposed onto an inserted object. The team has developed algorithms for interior lights and for external light sources, typically light shafts from the sun.
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Blackbox

Last mystery of first recorded supernova laid to rest

Rik Myslewski
TheRegister.co.uk
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:26 UTC
NASA says it has put to rest any lingering doubts about the identity of the first recorded supernova, described in the Chinese historical work Book of the Later Han as having taken place in 185 A.D.

As strongly suspected by observations made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton Observatory in 2006, the "guest star" sighted by Chinese astronomers 1,826 years ago is, indeed, the rather prosaically named RCW 86.

Image
© NASAData from all four space telescopes were combined to produce this image of RCW 86 (click to enlarge)
One scientist studying the supernova remnants in 2006, Jacco Vink of the University of Utrecht, said in 2006: "I think it is very interesting that we can now say with some confidence, but not absolute certainty, that RCW 86 is the remnant of A.D. 185."

NASA now says that all doubt has been removed. New observations made by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, better know as WISE, have not only confirmed the earlier suspicions, but have determined that RCW 86 is a Type 1a supernova.
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Info

Disruptive Sleep Disorder Affects the Left-Handed Differently

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:54 UTC
Sleep Issues
© Diego Cervo, ShutterstockA man struggles to sleep.

Whether you prefer to write with your right or left hand may influence your sleep, according to a new study that finds among people who have a sleep disorder that causes rhythmic movements in the night, the left-handed are more likely to move both sides of their body.

The findings suggest that the disorder, periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), originates in the brain, not in the spinal cord as has been suggested, said study researcher Dawn Alita R. Hernandez, a professor of medicine at the University of Toledo Medical Center in Ohio.

"What we know of people who are left-handed is they tend to have a slightly different dominant brain hemisphere than right-handed people," Hernandez told LiveScience. "So if [PLMD] is coming primarily from the cortex, we should see a difference in handedness."
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