Science & TechnologyS


Magic Hat

Space: Time Cloak Could Hide Events

Zeeya Merali
Nature
Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Universal/The Kobal CollectionImagine what the Invisible Man - memorably played by Claude Rains (above) - could do if his actions were invisible in spacetime...
Proposed device could edit actions out of history.

It would be the perfect hiding place: a hole carved out of space - time. Optical physicists have created blueprints for a cloak that generates a pocket in reality in which actions can be concealed. In practice, the proposed design can be built only inside the special environment of an optical fibre. But even this constrained space - time cloak could have useful effects, such as assisting quantum computing.

The ideal space - time cloak - the theory behind which is published in the Journal of Optics today1 - would be an upgraded version of the 'invisibility cloak' that was first proposed in 20062,3 and has since been built for some wavelengths of light. Such standard invisibility cloaks are made from metamaterials - substances with a complex internal structure that allows them to channel light around objects like water flowing around a rock in a river. A distant observer perceives the light as if it has travelled in a straight line without ever hitting an intervening object.
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Telescope

Revival on Jupiter


spaceweather.com
Tue, 16 Nov 2010 07:01 UTC
Image
Think of the turmoil at the sea surface just before a massive submarine emerges from depth. Something like that is happening on Jupiter. A turbulent plume is breaking through the giant planet's cloudtops in the south equatorial zone, heralding the emergence of ... what? Scroll past this Nov. 14th photo from astrophotographer Paul Haese of Glenalta, South Australia for further discussion:
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Meteor

Leonid Meteor Shower


spaceweather.com
Tue, 16 Nov 2010 06:56 UTC
Image
© A. Scott Murrell, Sky & Telescope Magazine
The annual Leonid meteor shower peaks this year on Nov. 17th when Earth passes through a thicket of debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Earth is expected to miss the densest swarms of comet dust, making this an off-year for Leonids with a maximum of only 20 meteors per hour. The best time to look is during the dark hours before sunrise on Wednesday.
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Info

Modern Humans Mature More Slowly Than Neanderthals Did


Science Daily
Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Graham Chedd (PBS)/Paul Tafforeau (ESRF); and Tanya Smith (Harvard University and MPI-EVA)
A sophisticated new examination of teeth from 11 Neanderthal and early human fossils shows that modern humans are slower than our ancestors to reach full maturity. The finding suggests that our characteristically slow development and long childhood are recent and unique to our own species, and may have given early humans an evolutionary advantage over Neanderthals.

The research, led by scientists at Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology (MPI-EVA), and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), is detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Teeth are remarkable time recorders, capturing each day of growth much like rings in trees reveal yearly progress," says Tanya M. Smith, assistant professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard. "Even more impressive is the fact that our first molars contain a tiny 'birth certificate,' and finding this birth line allows scientists to calculate exactly how old a juvenile was when it died."

Compared to even early humans, other primates have shorter gestation, faster childhood maturation, younger age at first reproduction, and a shorter overall lifespan. It's been unclear exactly when, in the 6 to 7 million years since our evolutionary split from non-human primates, the life course shifted.

Comment: See also our forum discussion The Neanderthal Legacy for more information on this topic.

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Cloud Lightning

Satellites provide up-to-date information on snow cover


Finnish Meteorlogical Institute
Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:59 UTC
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© ESA GlobSnow.Snow Water Equivalent map for Northern Hemisphere, 4 November 2010.
ESA GlobSnow project led by the Finnish Meteorological Institute uses satellites to produce up-to-date information on global snow cover. The new database gives fresh information on the snow situation right after a snowfall. Gathering this information was not possible before when only land-based observations were available.
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Telescope

New analysis explains formation of bulge on far side of moon

Tim Stephens
University of California - Sanata Cruz
Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:53 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A bulge of elevated topography on the farside of the moon--known as the lunar farside highlands--has defied explanation for decades. But a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, shows that the highlands may be the result of tidal forces acting early in the moon's history when its solid outer crust floated on an ocean of liquid rock.
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Rocket

Comet bomber flyby pics show spaceball belching ancient dry ice

Lewis Page
The Register
Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:51 UTC
Professor Sunshine bitchslaps wet squirty tail theory

Excellent snaps sent back by a NASA probe craft during a rendezvous with the comet Hartley 2 have revealed that the spectacular "jets" of glowing gas which make it so spectacular result from dry ice subliming in its interior.

HartleyFlybyPhoto
© The RegisterA little bit of dry ice fabulousness
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Control Panel

Hacker makes Minority Report manipulation a reality with Kinect hack

Raymond Wong
DVICE
Mon, 15 Nov 2010 01:15 UTC
kinecthack
© DVICE
After eight years of geeking over Minority Report's gesture-based manipulation interface, we're really pumped that it isn't all just movie magic anymore. It was only a matter of time before this would happen. Hackers are a crafty bunch after all.
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Grey Alien

SETI Astronomers Launch New Campaign to Eavesdrop on E.T.

Clara Moskowitz
Space.com
Sat, 13 Nov 2010 08:15 UTC
Andromeda galaxy
© Chaco Culture NHP ObservatoryAndromeda galaxy.

In a vast cosmic experiment equivalent to hitting "redial," astronomers in a dozen countries are aiming telescopes to listen in once again on some of the stars that were part of the world's first search for alien life 50 years ago.

The coordinated signal-searching campaign began this month to mark the 50th anniversary of Project Ozma, a 1960 experiment that was christened the world's first real attempt in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence - or SETI.

Like Project Ozma, which got its name from a character in L. Frank Baum's series of books about the Land of Oz, the new search is called Project Dorothy.

Project Ozma was conducted by astronomer Frank Drake of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. Drake is also famous for devising the Drake equation, which predicts the number of alien civilizations with whom we might be able to communicate. The formula is based on factors including the rate of star formation in the galaxy and the percentage of stars thought to have planets. Making educated guesses for some of the equation's terms, scientists have used it to predict we could find evidence of ET intelligence within the next 25 years.
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Magnify

New Pathway Discovered for Repairing Damaged DNA


ScienceDaily
Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:00 UTC
UC Davis researchers have found a new pathway for repairing DNA damaged by oxygen radicals. The results are published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This new inducible pathway gives cells greater capacity to repair oxidative damage," said Peter Beal, professor of chemistry at UC Davis and senior author of the paper.

As part of its inflammatory response, the body's immune system produces oxygen radicals, or reactive oxygen species, to kill bacteria, parasites or tumors. But chronic inflammation, for example in the gut, has been linked to cancer, said co-author Professor Sheila David, also of the Department of Chemistry.

Oxygen radicals are strongly linked to cancer and aging and are also formed during metabolism and upon exposure to environmental toxins and radiation. Understanding more about how this damage can be repaired could lead to a better understanding of the causes of some cancers.

Oxygen radicals can react with the four bases that make up the "letters" of DNA -- A, C, G and T -- so that the "spelling" of genes gets changed. The accumulation of spelling errors (called mutations) can lead to cancer.
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