Science & TechnologyS


Galaxy

Rupert Sheldrake: Science Set Free

Thunderbolts Project/Rupert Sheldrake
You Tube
Wed, 22 Jan 2014 00:00 UTC
Part 1 of a talk by Rupert Sheldrake at the conference Electric Universe 2013: The Tipping Point, in Albuquerque, New Mexico:


Many scientists like to think that science already understands the ways of the natural world. The fundamental questions are answered, leaving only the details to be filled in. The impressive achievements of science seemed to support this confident attitude. But recent research has revealed unexpected problems at the heart of physics, cosmology, biology, medicine and psychology.
Read More...
Laptop

How to see all the companies that are tracking you on Facebook - and block them

Jim Edwards
Business Insider
Fri, 24 Jan 2014 21:27 UTC
Image
© Jim Edwards / Daniel Goodman / BI
Facebook is a great utility if you want to stay in touch with friends and family, share photos, and see what other people are up to in their lives.

It's free to use, of course, but that doesn't mean it comes without a price. If you're using Facebook, you're giving the company a ton of information about yourself which it is selling to advertisers in one form or another.

And most people forget that when they download or sign up for an app or website using their Facebook login, that they're giving those companies a direct look into their Facebook profiles and some of their personal data. That can often include your email address and phone number, but frequently also your current location.

If you're worried about your privacy, you can do two things: Opt out of ad tracking and - and this is sometimes rather alarming if you haven't done it in a while - look up the list of app companies that are logged in to your Facebook account.
Read More...
Cassiopaea

Possible supernova in M99 galaxy

Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes & Martino Nicolini
Remanzacco Observatory
Tue, 28 Jan 2014 12:02 UTC
Following the posting on the Central Bureau's Transient Object Confirmation Page about a possible Supernova in M99 spiral galaxy (TOCP Designation: PSN J12184868+1424435) we performed some follow-up of this object through a 0.50-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD + f/4.5 focal reducer from MPC Code H06 (iTelescope, New Mexico).

On our images taken on January 28.4, 2014 we can confirm the presence of an optical counterpart with unfiltered CCD magnitude 15.7 and at coordinates:

R.A. = 12 18 48.73, Decl.= +14 24 44.3
(equinox 2000.0; UCAC-3 catalogue reference stars).

Our confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version)
Supernova M99
© Remanzacco Observatory
An animation showing a comparison between our confirmation image of this transient in M99 and archive image by 2-meter telescope FTN - LCOGT (dated back to April 18, 2013). Before the discovery of this transient, three supernovae were observed in M99: 1967H (type II), 1972Q (type IIP)and 1986I (type IIP).
Read More...
Question

The North Star Polaris is getting brighter

Nola Taylor Redd
SPACE.com
Tue, 28 Jan 2014 05:41 UTC
Polaris
© Left image: M. Menefee; Right: N. Carboni; Assembly: D. MajaessThis long-exposure photo (left) shows how the North Star, Polaris, stays fixed in the night sky as other stars appear to move during the night due to Earth's rotation. At right, a close-up of the multi-star Polaris system.
The North Star has remained an eternal reassurance for northern travelers over the centuries. But recent and historical research reveals that the ever-constant star is actually changing.

After dimming for the last few decades, the North Star is beginning to shine brightly again. And over the last two centuries, the brightening has become rather dramatic.

"It was unexpected to find," Scott Engle of Villanova University in Pennsylvania told SPACE.com. Engle investigated the fluctuations of the star over the course of several years, combing through historical records and even turning the gaze of the famed Hubble Space Telescope onto the star.
Read More...
Info

Bubonic plague DNA found in teeth could strike again

Sara Watson
Guardian Liberty Voice
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 22:29 UTC
Bubonic Plague
© Guardianlv.com
Scientists in Canada found small pieces of DNA in ancient teeth, and they are warning that another outbreak similar to the bubonic plague could strike the modern world again. The Yersinia pestis bacteria was uncovered in the teeth of two skeletons that were buried at the time of the Justinian outbreak in Iron Age Germany. The bacteria could be behind two of the deadliest pandemics in history. It is known as the cause of the bubonic plague, or Black Death, that decimated large numbers of the populations throughout Europe in 1348. It is also suspected to be behind the Justinian plague in the Roman Empire, so called as it appeared during the reign of Emperor Justinian in 541 AD.

Researchers have analyzed 12 skeletons from a cemetery in Bavaria. There were 10 found with low levels of the bacteria and two which had enough in the teeth to be extracted. The remains were dated at the time of the Justinian outbreak, judging by the distinctive beads that were placed around the necks of the women buried in the cemetery. This dates them to 525-550 AD, right at the beginning of a plague that wiped out one-quarter of the population.
Read More...
2 + 2 = 4

Does math describe the universe or is it made of it?

Max Tegmark
Scientific American
Fri, 10 Jan 2014 23:24 UTC
mathematics universe
When we look at reality through the equations of physics, we find that they describe patterns and regularities. But to me, mathematics is more than a window on the outside world: I argue that our physical world not only is described by mathematics, but that it is mathematics: a mathematical structure, to be precise. -- Max Tegmark
In this excerpt from his new book, Our Mathematical Universe, M.I.T. professor Max Tegmark explores the possibility that math does not just describe the universe, but makes the universe

What's the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything? In Douglas Adams' science-fiction spoof The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the answer was found to be 42; the hardest part turned out to be finding the real question. I find it very appropriate that Douglas Adams joked about 42, because mathematics has played a striking role in our growing understanding of our Universe.

The Higgs Boson was predicted with the same tool as the planet Neptune and the radio wave: with mathematics. Galileo famously stated that our Universe is a "grand book" written in the language of mathematics. So why does our universe seem so mathematical, and what does it mean? In my new book Our Mathematical Universe, I argue that it means that our universe isn't just described by math, but that it is math in the sense that we're all parts of a giant mathematical object, which in turn is part of a multiverse so huge that it makes the other multiverses debated in recent years seem puny in comparison.
Read More...
Comet

What killed the woolly mammoth? UCSB Professor finds evidence to support comet collision


Noozhawk
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 12:00 UTC
Nanodiamond
© UCSBNanodiamond textures observed with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy: A) star twin and B) multiple linear twins.
Could a comet have been responsible for the extinction of North America's megafauna - woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths and saber-tooth tigers? UC Santa Barbara's James Kennett, professor emeritus in the Department of Earth Science, posited that such an extraterrestrial event occurred 12,900 years ago.

Originally published in 2007, Kennett's controversial Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) hypothesis suggests that a comet collision precipitated the Younger Dryas period of global cooling, which, in turn, contributed to the extinction of many animals and altered human adaptations. The nanodiamond is one type of material that could result from an extraterrestrial collision, and the presence of nanodiamonds along Bull Creek in the Oklahoma Panhandle lends credence to the YDB hypothesis.
Read More...
Fireball 5

Asteroid shaves Earth, more on the way

Duncan Alfreds
News24.com
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 09:40 UTC
Vesta
© Nasa/APAsteroid Vesta resembles a planet, data from Nasa has showed.
Cape Town - An asteroid dashed close by the Earth on Sunday, but experts were watching it to ensure that it stayed on the predicted course.

On Sunday, the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory watched as an asteroid, dubbed 2014 BP8, whizzed by the planet at 9.3km/s (kilometres per second).

The asteroid is between 11m and 24m in diameter and passed 1.4 million kilometres, or just under four lunar distances from the Earth.

According to the JPL, Tuesday will bring the closest approach of 2014 BM25 which is travelling at 6.8km/s and between 6m and 14m in diameter.

It will pass even closer than 2014 BP8, at 2.7 lunar distances, and followed by the bigger 19m 2014 BK25, at 11.9km/s on the same day.
Read More...
Info

New technique could demystify ancient human DNA

Tia Ghose
Livescience
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 14:00 UTC
Neanderthal Family
© NASA/JPL-CaltechAn artist's depiction of a Neanderthal family.
The DNA of a Neanderthal found in a Siberian cave has been sequenced, thanks to a new technique that weeded out contamination from modern humans.

The method, described today (Jan. 27) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, seems to work on very contaminated samples, as well as on incredibly ancient remains. These benefits could help scientists finally analyze some of the most intriguing archaic human fossils, which have thus far been inaccessible because of contamination from modern DNA, said study co-author Pontus Skoglund, a paleogenomics researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden.

Archaeologists excavated some of the most tantalizing fossils of ancient humans, such as Neanderthal bones, decades or even centuries ago. However, while handling the bones, archaeologists often contaminated the archaic DNA sequences with their modern genetic material.

"We can't really blame them for this," Skoglund told LiveScience. "Many of the fossils were excavated before people knew DNA existed." (DNA was discovered in the late 1800s and its information-encoding potential was only understood decades later.)

Without a surefire way to distinguish contamination from ancient DNA, many of the most fascinating fossils have kept their genetic secrets hidden.
Read More...
Wolf

Your dog really does love you: Scans reveal affection comes from same part of brain as humans

Lucy Osborne
Dialy Mail, UK
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 15:11 UTC
Image
For years scientists have told us the bond between a pet and its owner goes no further than their need for food and security. But new research suggests what dog owners knew all along - that they do in fact experience feelings of love and affection
  • They do experience feelings of love and affection, research says
  • Team trained more than a dozen dogs to cope with noisy MRI scanners
  • Scientists hope to show that the animals love us for things far beyond food
For years scientists have told us the bond between a pet and its owner goes no further than their need for food and security.

But new research suggests what dog owners knew all along - that they do in fact experience feelings of love and affection.

Scientists at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, discovered that a part of the brain associated with positive emotions, was similar in dogs and humans.
Read More...