Science & TechnologyS


Info

Another Possible Nova in Cen

Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes & Giovanni Sostero
Remanzacco Observatory
Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:33 UTC
Following the posting on the Central Bureau's Transient Object Confirmation Page about a possible Nova in Cen (TOCP Designation: J14250600-5845360) we performed some follow-up of this object remotely through the 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD of "Faulkes Telescope South" (MPC Code - E10).

On our images taken on April 09.5, 2012 we can confirm the presence of an optical counterpart with Bessell-R CCD magnitude 8.7 at coordinates:

R.A. = 14 25 04.45, Decl.= -58 45 34.3

(equinox 2000.0; UCAC-2 catalogue reference stars).

According to VIZIER there is a 15.319 J-magnitude star at 2.6 arcseconds from the transient position (NOMAD1 0312-0489482).

Our confirmation image;

Nova in Centaurus
© Remanzacco Observatory
An animation showing a comparison between our confirmation image and the archive POSS2/UKSTU plate (R Filter - 1997).
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Satellite

Russia Plans to Bind Satellite to Apophis Asteroid


RIA Novosti
Sat, 07 Apr 2012 07:34 UTC
Image
Apophis asteroid
Russia plans to send a satellite with a radio beacon to near-Earth asteroid of 99942 Apophis for finding out how big is a threat of its collision with Earth, the country's Academy of Sciences said in its report on Saturday.

The asteroid is considered by the Russian scientists as the most serious threat to Earth as for now.

In 2029, Apophis will be at a distance of only about 36,000 miles to our planet, at the height of the orbits of geostationary satellites. The asteroid could change its orbit and cannon Earth in 2036.

The core target of the possible mission will be to clarify the exact trajectory of Apophis for up to 2036. The satellite will be equipped with a radioisotope power source with a buffer battery.

"From technical point of view the mission could be started for implementation from 2015," the Academy said in the report.
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Magnify

Single gene mutation can sweep through bacterial population, opening the door for the concept of 'species'


Physorg
Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:47 UTC
Bacteria mutation
© John KaufmannThis is a model of ecological differentiation in bacteria. Thin arrows represent recombination within or between ecologically associated populations. Thick colored arrows represent acquisition of adaptive alleles for different microhabitats.
Bacteria are the most populous organisms on the planet. They thrive in almost every known environment, adapting to different habitats by means of genetic variations that provide the capabilities essential for survival. These genetic innovations arise from what scientists believe is a random mutation and exchange of genes and other bits of DNA among bacteria that sometimes confers an advantage, and which then becomes an intrinsic part of the genome.

But how an advantageous mutation spreads from a single bacterium to all the other bacteria in a population is an open scientific question. Does the gene containing an advantageous mutation pass from bacterium to bacterium, sweeping through an entire population on its own? Or does a single individual obtain the gene, then replicate its entire genome many times to form a new and better-adapted population of identical clones? Conflicting evidence supports both scenarios.

In a paper appearing in the April 6 issue of Science, researchers in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) provide evidence that advantageous mutations can sweep through populations on their own. The study reconciles the previously conflicting evidence by showing that after these gene sweeps, recombination becomes less frequent between bacterial strains from different populations, yielding a pattern of genetic diversity resembling that of a clonal population.
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Beaker

Arsenic Turns Stem Cells Cancerous, Spurring Tumor Growth


Science Daily
Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© USGSArsenic concentrations in
Ground Water of the United States.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered how exposure to arsenic can turn normal stem cells into cancer stem cells and spur tumor growth. Inorganic arsenic, which affects the drinking water of millions of people worldwide, has been previously shown to be a human carcinogen. A growing body of evidence suggests that cancer is a stem-cell based disease. Normal stem cells are essential to normal tissue regeneration, and to the stability of organisms and processes. But cancer stem cells are thought to be the driving force for the formation, growth, and spread of tumors.

Michael Waalkes, Ph.D., and his team at the National Toxicology Program Laboratory, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of NIH, had shown previously that normal cells become cancerous when they are treated with inorganic arsenic. This new study shows that when these cancer cells are placed near, but not in contact with normal stem cells, the normal stem cells very rapidly acquire the characteristics of cancer stem cells. It demonstrates that malignant cells are able to send molecular signals through a semi-permeable membrane, where cells can't normally pass, and turn the normal stem cells into cancer stem cells.
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Grey Alien

How Would Humans Respond to First Contact from an Alien World?

Nancy Atkinson
Universe Today
Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:55 UTC
Exoplanet
© NASAArtist concept of an exoplanet.

According to Star Trek lore, it is only 51 years until Earth's first contact with an alien species. In the movie Star Trek: First Contact, on April 5, 2063, Vulcans pay a visit to an Earth recovering from a war-torn period (see the movie clip below.) But will such a planet-wide, history-changing event ever really take place? If you are logical, like Spock and his Vulcan species, science points towards the inevitability of first contact.

This is according to journalist Marc Kaufman, who is the science editor for the Washington Post and author of the book First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for life Beyond Earth. He says that from humanity's point of view, first contact would be a "harbinger of a new frontier in a dramatically changed cosmos."

What are some of the arguments for and against the likelihood of first contact ever taking place and what would the implications be?


"One argument against first contact is from those who say there is no other life in the Universe," said Kaufman, speaking to Universe Today via phone, "and with that is the Fermi paradox, which says that if there is so much life out there, why hasn't it visited us yet? That was posited back in the 1950's and with everything we've learned since then, it seems rather presumptuous and Earth-centric to say that because no one has come to Earth, there is no life out there."
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Laptop

Beware Mac Users: Flashback Botnet Issue Discovered


redOrbit
Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:07 UTC
Mac
© redOrbit

Russian Security Firm Dr. Web says they've discovered a botnet infecting nearly half a million Macs worldwide. The firm made their announcement on Wednesday about the more than 550,000 infected Macs. Later in the day, however, their malware specialist Sorokin Ivan increased this number, saying he had discovered more than 600,000 Macs on the botnet, with 274 of these Macs located at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, according to Ars Technica.

Though no other security firm has been able to corroborate these numbers, such a discovery raises concern for Mac users as they are usually less likely to contract a virus malware on their machines.

In a blog post describing the outbreak, Dr. Web said they had been studying the Trojan responsible for infecting the computers, called Backdoor.Flashback.39. Of all the infected machines, 12% were located in the UK, 19% were located in Canada, and more than 50% were housed in America.

Dr Web's blog said, "Systems get infected with BackDoor.Flashback.39 after a user is redirected to a bogus site from a compromised resource or via a traffic distribution system," it said. "JavaScript code is used to load a Java-applet containing an exploit. Doctor Web's virus analysts discovered a large number of web-sites containing the code."
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Info

Surprise! Venus May Have Auroras Without a Magnetic Field

Charles Q. Choi
Space.com
Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:01 UTC
Venus
© ESAVenus' southern hemisphere, as seen in the ultraviolet.

The same magnetic phenomenon that causes auroras on Earth has now surprisingly been discovered creating giant magnetic bubbles around Venus, a planet without a magnetic field.

These findings could help explain mysterious flashes of light from Venus, in addition to the way comet tails work, researchers say.

The Northern and Southern Lights on Earth are caused by magnetic lines of force breaking and connecting with each other. This process, known as magnetic reconnection, can explosively convert magnetic energy to heat and kinetic energy.

Scientists had seen magnetic reconnection with planets only when they had intrinsic magnetic fields, such as Earth, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn. These magnetic fields deflect charged particles in the solar wind streaming from the sun into a shell surrounding the planet known as a magnetosphere. Magnetic reconnection can occur within magnetospheres, leading to auroras and magnetic storms.
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Arrow Up

'PAL-V ONE' flying car takes maiden flight

Nadine Bells
Good News
Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© pal-v.comThe PAL-V ONE
The future is here.

The Dutch company PAL-V has successfully built and tested the prototype for a flying car, the PAL-V ONE (Personal Air and Land Vehicle).

Tecca's Mariella Moon describes the gyrocopter PAL-V ONE as "most of a flying three-wheeled enclosed motorcycle." If it becomes commercially available - Geekosystem reports the vehicle is "slated to go into production in 2014" - drivers will fly below an altitude of 4,000 feet in uncontrolled airspace, nowhere near the commercial jets flying above at 30,000-plus feet.

"The PAL-V ONE has a very short take off and landing capability, making it possible to land practically anywhere. When not using controlled airspace, you can take off without filing a flight plan," states the official site.
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Info

New Gigantic Tornado Spotted on Mars

Nancy Atkinson
Universe Today
Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:03 UTC
Mars Tornado
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/UAA Martian dust devil roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) high was captured winding its way along the Amazonis Planitia region of Northern Mars on March 14, 2012 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Despite its height, the plume is little more than three-quarters of a football field wide (70 yards, or 70 meters).
Last month, we were excited to share an image of a twister on Mars that lofted a twisting column of dust more than 800 meters (about a half a mile) high. We now know that's nothin' - just peanuts, chump change, hardly worth noticing.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has now spotted a gigantic Martian dust devil roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) high, churning through the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars. The HiRISE camera (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) captured the event on March 14, 2012. Scientists say that despite its height, the plume is just 70 meters (70 yards) wide.

Yikes! After seeing trucks thrown about by the tornadoes in Dallas yesterday, it makes you wonder how the MER rovers and even the Curiosity rover would fare in an encounter with a 20-km high twister.
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Robot

A Robot With a Human Skeleton

Clay Dillow
PopSci
Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:04 UTC
ECCEROBOT
© BBCECCEROBOT, The First Anthropomimetic 'Bot.

Over at BBC, mathematician Marcus du Sautoy has examined what he's calling the world's first anthropomimetic robot--a robot that mimics in extremely high anatomical detail the movements and construction of the human body.

The robot, named ECCEROBOT, possesses artificial analogs of human bones, muscles, and tendons that endow it with human-like motions and--perhaps someday--will imbue it with human-like intelligence.

Captured for a BBC show titled "Horizon: The Hunt for AI" (it airs tonight at 9 p.m., for any of our across-the-pond readers who may be interested), ECCEROBOT--for Embodied Cognition in a Compliantly Engineered Robot--serves three purposes.

The first, of course, is to prove out the creation of a truly anthropomimetic robot. The second: figure out how to control it. But thirdly (and most interestingly), ECCEROBOT serves to explore how having a human-like physical form could influence human-like cognitive features.
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