Science & TechnologyS


Meteor

Large Asteroid to Pass by Earth Nov. 8, 2011 But What If It Didn't?

Elizabeth K. Gardner
The Archaeology News Network
Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:30 UTC
An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier will fly near Earth on Nov. 8. While there is no danger of it hitting the planet, a Purdue asteroid impact expert says a similar-sized object hitting Earth would result in a 4,000-megaton blast, magnitude 7.0 earthquake and, should it strike in the deep ocean, 70-foot-high tsunami waves 60 miles from the splashdown site.

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© WebAsteroid passing near the Earth
NASA scientists reported this week that the asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass between the Earth and the moon and come within 201,000 miles of Earth on its closest approach.

Jay Melosh, an expert in impact cratering and a distinguished professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, physics, and aerospace engineering at Purdue, said the asteroid's orbit and trajectory mean there is no chance of an impact.

"What is unique about this asteroid flyby is that we were aware of it well in advance," Melosh said. "Before about 1980 we wouldn't know about an asteroid of this size until it was already making a close pass, but now it is unlikely that such an asteroid will approach the Earth without our knowledge."
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Better Earth

Wounded elephant walks again, thanks to jumbo-sized false foot

Ian Williams
NBC News
Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:33 UTC
"I really thought he would never make it," said Nick Marx, stroking Chhouk's trunk with a sense of pride and affection.

"He was seriously injured. He was extremely young, emaciated and very, very sick."

Chhouk, a bull elephant now 5 years old, was found in the Cambodian jungle in 2007, alone and close to death, his left front foot mangled by a poacher's trap.

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Heart

Flock of starlings' dazzling aerial ballet

Pete Thomas
GrindTV
Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:17 UTC
Do you know what a murmuration is, and have you ever witnessed such a dazzling display of avian behavior? The accompanying video shows an enormous flock of European starlings -- a murmuration -- swirling through the sky in a magnificent ballet that almost seems choreographed. The short-lived seasonal phenomenon, signaling the onset of winter, was captured by Sophie Windsor Clive and Liberty Smith on a canoe trip atop Ireland's River Shannon. The 2-minute clip was posted to Vimeo last week and titled, "A chance encounter and shared moment with one of nature's greatest and most fleeting phenomena." This week it began circulating on the Internet, to popular acclaim (stick with it; the show begins after about 20 seconds and improves as the clip progresses).


Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

As for murmurations, they typically occur in late autumn, as the starlings return to roosts after long-distance foraging expeditions. The dusk flights can involve tens of thousands of birds and what's mystifying is how they can swirl about so swiftly and in such unison without colliding into one another. (Possessing a reaction time of under 100 milliseconds helps.)

Some experts believe the starlings flock together and fly in this manner as a means of defense against predators, such as peregrine falcons. Whatever the reason, a murmuration is a sight to behold. Check out the video and see for yourself.
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Info

3 New Heavy Elements Named: Darmstadtium, Roentgenium, Copernicium

Jennifer Welsh
Live Science
Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:28 UTC
Nicolaus Copernicus
© Public domainNicolaus Copernicus


The periodic table of elements just got a bit heftier today (Nov. 4), as the names of three new elements were approved by the General Assembly of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.

Elements 110, 111 and 112 have been named darmstadtium (Ds), roentgenium (Rg) and copernicium (Cn).

These elements are so large and unstable they can be made only in the lab, and they fall apart into other elements very quickly. Not much is known about these elements, since they aren't stable enough to do experiments on and are not found in nature. They are called "Super Heavy," or Transuranium, elements.

The General Assembly approved these name suggestions proposed by the Joint Working Party on the Discovery of Elements, which is a joint body of IUPAP and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).
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Sherlock

Mystery code spreads, but is it 'son of Stuxnet'?

Jason Ukman
The Washington Post
Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:19 UTC
The malicious computer code that bears similarities to Stuxnet - the worm that sabotaged Iran's nuclear program and prompted speculation about U.S. and Israel involvement - has now spread to eight countries, according to researchers, but there's still widespread disagreement on whether it is, in fact, the "son of Stuxnet."

Researchers at Symantec say the number of confirmed infections of the so-called Duqu malware is still limited to a handful of organizations, and there's been no sign of another Stuxnet-like attack along the lines that the company has suggested is possible. Still, samples have now turned up in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ukraine, India, Sudan, Vietnam and, of all places, Iran.
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Info

New Model Predicts Fallout from Big Meteorite Strike


Space.com
Fri, 04 Nov 2011 09:57 UTC
Aorounga Impact Crater
© Astro_Clay/NASAAstronaut Clayton C. Anderson tweeted this picture from space, a view of Aorounga Impact Crater, southeast of of Emi Koussi volcano in Chad.

A major meteorite impact on Earth could spell doomsday - or not. To better predict what could be in store if a giant space rock slammed into our planet, scientists have built a new model to simulate the seismic fallout from such an event.

The model predicts how seismic waves would spread through Earth after a meteorite collision. It's the first to take into account the planet's elliptical shape, surface features and ocean depths. In contrast, previous models have assumed Earth is perfectly spherical and featureless, with nothing to disrupt a meteorite's impact.

"After a meteorite impact, seismic waves travel outward across the Earth's surface like after a stone is thrown in water," research leader Matthias Meschede of the University of Munich said in a statement. "For the Earth, these calculations are usually made using a smooth, perfect sphere model, but we found that the surface features of a planet or a moon have a huge effect on the aftershock a large meteorite will have, so it's extremely important to take those into account."
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Cell Phone

Wristband lets iPhone track activity, movement and sleep

Sean Ludwig
Moblie Beat
Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© unknown
Bluetooth headset maker Jawbone will soon release its new Up life monitoring wristband that's designed to help you live a move healthy life by tracking every move you make, what you're eating, how long you're sleeping and how many calories you burn.

The Jawbone Up, in many ways, is a cool use of technology to tackle the problem of not being active enough. Using the wristband and an iOS app, you can get prompts to move when you sit at your desk too long, be told exactly how long you've slept, be prompted to wake up in accordance with your natural sleep cycle and track how many calories you eat by snapping photos of your food.

To get the most out of the product, you are expected to wear the wristband 24 hours a day. To make that possible, the Jawbone team has made the Up band water resistant and durable and it lasts 10 days on a single charge.

While all of those aspects are handy, some potential users may shy away because they don't want a piece of technology tracking every single thing they do or eat 24 hours a day. While the data isn't neccesarily being shared with anyone else, there is something a little creepy about a machine that knows every little thing you do in your life. Additionally, if someone else gets their hands on your iPhone, he or she may be able to see all of those things.
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Arrow Down

Netherlands: Tilburg Professor Faked Data in at Least 30 Academic Publications


DutchNews.nl
Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
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Tilburg and Groningen universities are to take legal action against one of their professors after an investigation showed he had faked research data in at least 30 scientific papers.

The fraud is 'considerable and shocking', the committee set up to look into Diederik Stapel's academic publications said in an initial report into the scandal on Monday.

Stapel, who was a professor of social and behavioural sciences at Tilburg, was suspended last month after doubts emerged about research that concluded eating meat makes people anti-social and selfish.
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Wolf

Dutch Psychologist Admits to Faking Dozens of Scientific Studies

Robert T. Gonzalez
i09
Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:10 UTC
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Every branch of science has its share of "sexy" studies - so called for their supposed tendency to provoke media attention, even in the absence of strong or conclusive findings - but investigations in the field of social psychology are often especially popular targets of the "sexy" label.

Now, prominent social psychologist Diederik Stapel (who earlier this year reported that something as trivial as litter can promote discriminatory behavior) has been outed as one of the biggest frauds in scientific history. Will social psychology be able to recover?

A preliminary investigative report issued on Monday by Tilburg University has concluded that dozens of research papers authored and co-authored by Stapel contain fabricated data.

Comment: Corruption in science appears to be widespread - see : The Corruption of Science in America

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Info

Our Skin Cells Can 'See' UV Rays

Wynne Parry
Live Science
Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:01 UTC
Melanocyte
© The Oancea Lab/Brown UniversityHuman melanocyte skin cells send out signals, using calcium, when exposed to ultraviolet light, a key step in producing the protective pigment melanin. Researchers have found that melanocytes use a light-sensitive receptor, called rhodopsin, also found in the retinas of our eyes, to detect certain wavelengths of ultraviolet light.

How the skin knows to start tanning after the sun's rays hit is somewhat of a mystery. Now researchers have found our skin may be able to "see" the sun's ultraviolet rays using a light-sensing pigment also found in our eyes.

"As soon as you step out into the sun, your skin knows that it is exposed to ultraviolet radiation," said senior researcher Elena Oancea, assistant professor of biology at Brown University. "This is a very fast process, faster than anything that was known before."

Tanning, or the darkening of skin when exposed to sun, is a protective response. Melanin, the dark pigment responsible for darkening skin, is believed to protect skin cells from damage caused by ultraviolet radiation in sunlight by absorbing the radiation.

Ultraviolet radiation at the Earth's surface comes in two flavors: UVA and UVB. UVB rays have shorter wavelengths, and make up only a small portion of ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Such rays lead to darkening of the skin days after exposure. UVB rays are typically linked with DNA damage that can cause skin cancer, although research has also linked UVA to cancer. UVA rays, by contrast, have longer wavelengths and are less intense, but account for the majority of ultraviolet radiation and lead to skin darkening much more quickly.
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