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Russian scientists discover unidentified bacteria in sub-glacial Lake Vostok


RT
Thu, 07 Mar 2013 10:49 UTC
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© Reuters / Alexey EkaikinVostock research camp in Antarctica
Russian researchers have found unidentified bacteria in waters of the unique sub-glacial Lake Vostok. However, this is not a sensational discovery since the microorganism was found in possible kerosene contaminated waters.

The finding from the water sample taken in May 2012 showed that the bacteria do not belong to any of the existing classes of bacteria. Before the latest discovery, science knew only one species of bacteria that can live under these conditions.

"The last analysis was completed a week ago - there will be another, but the results are unlikely to change anything. After exclusion of all known contaminants - extraneous organisms - bacterial DNA was detected, which does not coincide with any of the known species in the world," RIA Novosti quotes Sergey Bulat of the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute in Russia.

However, the discovery turns out not to be that sensational.

"There has been one strain of bacteria which we did not find in drilling liquid, but these bacteria could in principal use kerosene as an energy source," the head of the laboratory of the same institution, Vladimir Korolev said. "That is why we can't say that a previously-unknown bacteria was found," he stressed.
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2 + 2 = 4

How birds of different feathers flock together


Sciencedaily.com
Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:23 UTC
When different species of birds flock together, their flight formations are determined by social dynamics both between and within species.

New research from the Universities of Cambridge and Exeter reveals for the first time that, contrary to current models used to explain the movement of flocks, the differences between bird species and social relationships between individuals play a critical role in determining the dynamics of mixed-species flocks.

The unified behaviour of bird flocks has puzzled scientists for hundreds of years. One naturalist from the turn of the century even suggested telepathy may be involved. There have since been more logical explanations, including mathematical models that show that repeated interactions among individuals following simple rules can generate coordinated group movements. However, these models usually rely on the assumption that individuals within groups are identical and interact independently, which may not reflect reality.
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Bulb

New technology allows the paralyzed to paint with their brainpower


Raw Story
Wed, 06 Mar 2013 17:29 UTC
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© AFP Photo
A computer programme enabling paralysed patients to create artwork using just the power of their brains drew big crowds on Wednesday at the CeBIT, the world's top IT fair.

Under a system pioneered by Austrian firm g-tec, the user wears a cap that measures brain activity.

By focusing hard on a flashing icon on a screen, the cap can recognise the specific brain activity connected to that item, allowing the user to "choose" what he or she wants the computer to do.

The artist can select various shapes and colours via brainpower and build up a basic picture on the screen, explained g-tec sales director Markus Bruckner. The user can also draw straight lines.
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Comet

Close comet flyby will allow for spectacular naked-eye viewing in northern hemisphere


Raw Story
Wed, 06 Mar 2013 17:24 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo
A rare bright comet shows up in the northern hemisphere this week, cruising past Earth with promise of spectacular naked-eye viewings of the giant ball of ice and dust streaking the twilight sky with a blazing tail.

Dubbed Pan-STARRS after the Hawaii-based telescope that first spotted it nearing our corner of the universe, the comet should be at its brightest from about Friday to the middle of next week, say astronomers.

It is the first to pass within our line of sight this year - squeezing between the sun and its nearest-orbiting planet, Mercury.

Comets this bright generally come by about every ten to 20 years.
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Star

Space puzzle: What's behind Earth's mysterious new radiation belt?

Veronique Greenwood
Time
Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:45 UTC
Image
© NASA
Not all that far above your head is a particle accelerator that would put the Large Hadron Collider to shame. There, charged particles, some carried in by the solar wind, some created by cosmic rays, whiz along in a complicated dance, trapped by Earth's magnetic field in a pair of enormous concentric rings nestled around our planet, stretching from a low of about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) above the ground to a high of 20,000 mi. (32,000 km). These cosmic donuts, known as the Van Allen radiation belts, were one of the very first discoveries of the Space Age, detected when the Geiger counters placed on NASA's early Explorer satellites by James Van Allen and colleagues recorded high levels of radiation.

That was in 1958. Since then, scientists who study space weather - the complex interplay of the Earth's magnetic field and the energy and particles sloughed off by the Sun - have worked to understand how these belts form and how to predict the outer belt's sometimes wild behavior, which can include enormous expansion or contraction over the course of a few days. Now, however, the twin Van Allen Probes, which were launched last summer and represent NASA's latest and best-equipped mission into the radiation belts, have revealed something remarkable that has theorists shaking their heads: Mere days after the probes switched on early last September, according to a report this week's Science, a third radiation belt appear, nestled in between the other two at about 8,000 mi. (12,700 km) up.
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Nebula

Black hole spins at nearly the speed of light

Andrew Fazekas
National Geographic
Fri, 01 Mar 2013 08:20 UTC
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© Illustration courtesy Caltech/NASAAn artist's concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun.
A superfast black hole nearly 60 million light-years away appears to be pushing the ultimate speed limit of the universe, a new study says.

For the first time, astronomers have managed to measure the rate of spin of a supermassive black hole - and it's been clocked at 84 percent of the speed of light, or the maximum allowed by the law of physics.

"The most exciting part of this finding is the ability to test the theory of general relativity in such an extreme regime, where the gravitational field is huge, and the properties of space-time around it are completely different from the standard Newtonian case," said lead author Guido Risaliti, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and INAF-Arcetri Observatory in Italy.

Notorious for ripping apart and swallowing stars, supermassive black holes live at the center of most galaxies, including our own Milky Way.

They can pack the gravitational punch of many million or even billions of suns - distorting space-time in the region around them, not even letting light escape their clutches.
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Info

Human Y chromosome much older than previously thought

Daniel Stolte
University of Arizona
Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:22 UTC
Y Chromosome
© University of ArizonaHuman sex-determining chromosomes: X chromosome (left) and the much smaller Y chromosome.
The discovery and UA analysis of an extremely rare African American Y chromosome pushes back the time of the most recent common ancestor for the Y chromosome lineage tree to 338,000 years ago. This time predates the age of the oldest known anatomically modern human fossils.

Human sex-determining chromosomes: X chromosome (left) and the much smaller Y chromosome. UA geneticists have discovered the oldest known genetic branch of the human Y chromosome - the hereditary factor determining male sex. The new divergent lineage, which was found in an individual who submitted his DNA to Family Tree DNA, a company specializing in DNA analysis to trace family roots, branched from the Y chromosome tree before the first appearance of anatomically modern humans in the fossil record.

The results are published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
"Our analysis indicates this lineage diverged from previously known Y chromosomes about 338,000 ago, a time when anatomically modern humans had not yet evolved," said Michael Hammer, an associate professor in the University of Arizona's department of ecology and evolutionary biology and a research scientist at the UA's Arizona Research Labs. "This pushes back the time the last common Y chromosome ancestor lived by almost 70 percent."
Unlike the other human chromosomes, the majority of the Y chromosome does not exchange genetic material with other chromosomes, which makes it simpler to trace ancestral relationships among contemporary lineages. If two Y chromosomes carry the same mutation, it is because they share a common paternal ancestor at some point in the past. The more mutations that differ between two Y chromosomes the farther back in time the common ancestor lived.
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Comet 2

Update on the comet that might hit Mars

Nancy Atkinson
Universe Today
Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:38 UTC

The latest trajectory of comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) generated by the Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory indicates the comet will pass within 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) of Mars and there is a strong possibility that it might pass much closer. The NEO Program Office's current estimate based on observations through March 1, 2013, has it passing about 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) from the Red Planet's surface. That distance is about two-and-a-half times that of the orbit of outermost moon, Deimos.

Previous estimates put it on a possible collision course with Mars.

This video, above, is based on comet's orbit calculated by Leonid Elenin, which has it is coming within 58,000 km, and visualized by SpaceEngine software.
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Fireball 4

USGS confirms Iowa town built on top of meteorite crater

Kelly Maricle
whotv.com
Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:24 UTC
The U.S. Geological Survey has confirmed the northeast Iowa town of Decorah is built on top of a meteorite crater created 470 million years ago. Iowa Department of Natural Resources geologists first suspected the area was a meteorite crater in 2008 after studying well drill-cuttings and finding a unique type of shale. Shocked quartz was also found, which is considered strong evidence of a meteorite impact.

Recent airborne geophysical surveys included an airborne electromagnetic system, which can detect how well rocks conduct electricity. The data showed the crater was filled with electrically conductive shale.
Image
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Telescope

Rare photos capture 2 comets together in night sky

Nina Sen
SPACE.com
Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:45 UTC
Comets Pan-STARRS Lemmon
© Yuri BeletskyYuri Beletsky, a Magellan Instrument Support Scientist at Las Campanas observatory located in Atacama Desert in Chile, used a Canon 5D Mark II camera with an exposure time of ~ 30 seconds on Feb. 28, 2013 to capture this image of Comets Pan-STARRS and Lemmon.
Two comets are putting on an amazing night sky show this month and some intrepid photographers have captured rare views of both celestial objects at the same time.

The photos of Comet Pan-STARRS and Comet Lemmon were taken by veteran space photographers in Chile and Australia in late February. At the time, both comets were visible from the Southern Hemisphere, though Comet Pan-STARRS is set to become visible from the Northern Hemisphere later this week.

One of the double-comet photos was taken by Yuri Beletsky, a Magellan Instrument Support Scientist at Las Campanas Observatory located in the Atacama Desert of Chile. Beletsky is an accomplished space photographer and used a Canon 5D Mark II camera with an exposure time of about 30 seconds on Feb. 28 to capture the rare sight of the two comets together.
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