Science & TechnologyS


Christmas Lights

How scientists are now using virtual reality technology to manipulate the mind

João Medeiros
Wired
Wed, 26 Jul 2017 00:00 UTC
manipulating the mind
Three experiments from the University of Sussex's Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science show how virtual reality can help us understand human consciousness

Anil Seth has recently been experimenting with a new tool in his study of human consciousness: strobe lighting. A powerful strobe lamp, according to Seth, is capable of inducing altered states of consciousness, while allowing him to record brain signals at the same time. "It looks like we're simulating an altered state of consciousness, but we don't know for sure yet," Seth says. "We have to be careful. When you flicker a strobe light at someone you get messy data."


Comment: Think about this the next time you see a cop car with its strobes blaring, or enter a room with this type of lighting.


Seth, the co-director of the University of Sussex's Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, has been studying a fundamental scientific problem for most of his career: the question of how consciousness happens. "All my research is geared towards understanding what happens in the brain during conscious perception," Seth says.
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Better Earth

Ahoy Mates! Scientific expedition to unlock secrets of 'lost continent' Zealandia


Phys.org
Fri, 28 Jul 2017 00:00 UTC
puzzle pieces super continent
© CrixeoAncient super continent Gondwana and how it's landmass divided.
Scientists are attempting to unlock the secrets of the "lost continent" of Zealandia, setting sail Friday to investigate the huge underwater landmass east of Australia that has never been properly studied. Zealandia, which is mostly submerged beneath the South Pacific, was once part of the Gondwana super-continent but broke away some 75 million years ago.

In a paper published in the Geological Society of America's Journal GSA Today in February, researchers made the case that it should be considered a new continent. They said it was a distinct geological entity that met all the criteria applied to Earth's other continents, including elevation above the surrounding area, distinctive geology, a well-defined area and a crust much thicker than that found on the ocean floor.

Covering five million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles), it extends from south of New Zealand northward to New Caledonia and west to the Kenn Plateau off Australia's east.

Drill ship Joides Resolution will recover sediments and rocks lying deep beneath the sea bed in a bid to discover how the region has behaved over the past tens of millions of years. The recovered cores will be studied onboard, allowing scientists to address issues such as oceanographic history, extreme climates, sub-seafloor life, plate tectonics and earthquake-generating zones.
Zealandia plateaus
© World NewsZealandia plateaus with New Zealand (center) shown in brown.

Comment: Bruce Luyendyk, a professor of marine geophysics at UC-Santa Barbara, first proposed the concept of Zealandia in 1995.

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Rocket

Iran successfully tests Phoenix space rocket meant to deliver small satellites into orbit - Update: US complains


RT
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 17:32 UTC
Iran space rocket
© Kirill Kudryavtsev / Reuters
Iran says it has successfully tested the Simorgh rocket, a two-stage vehicle meant to deliver small space satellites into orbit. The test comes years behind schedule and may be the second one for the rocket. Named after a mythical beast of Persian folklore, the rocket was first unveiled under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2010 as part of the celebrations of Iran's first domestic satellite launch. Simorgh's maiden flight was initially scheduled for the same year, but the project was plagued by years of delays. On Thursday, Iranian media reported that the space rocket had been successfully tested for the first time.


"The Imam Khomeini Space Centre was officially opened with the successful test of the Simorgh (Phoenix) space launch vehicle," state television said. "The Simorgh can place a satellite weighing up to 250kg (550lbs) in an orbit of 500km (310 miles)." State television showed footage of the launch from the site decorated with pictures of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his successor as Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "The Imam Khomeini Space Centre ... is a large complex that includes all stages of the preparation, launch, control and guidance of satellites," state television added.

Comment: In August of 2008 Iran successfully launched a carrier rocket Safir (Messenger), capable of putting lightweight satellites into low-earth orbit.
See also: Update: US State Department: Iran's Satellite Launch Violates UN Resolution
The United States considers Iran's launch of a satellite to space with a long-range rocket to be a provocative act that violates a UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR), US Department of State spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a briefing on Thursday.

"We would consider that a violation of the UNSCR 2231," Nauert told reporters. "We consider that to be continued ballistic missile development. We also remain very concerned about Iran's support for terrorism. We consider this to be a provocative action."


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Info

First human embryos modified in U.S.

Steve Connor
MIT Technology Review
Wed, 26 Jul 2017 17:58 UTC
Human Embryo
© MIT Technological Review
The first known attempt at creating genetically modified human embryos in the United States has been carried out by a team of researchers in Portland, Oregon, MIT Technology Review has learned.

The effort, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health and Science University, involved changing the DNA of a large number of one-cell embryos with the gene-editing technique CRISPR, according to people familiar with the scientific results.

Until now, American scientists have watched with a combination of awe, envy, and some alarm as scientists elsewhere were first to explore the controversial practice. To date, three previous reports of editing human embryos were all published by scientists in China.

Now Mitalipov is believed to have broken new ground both in the number of embryos experimented upon and by demonstrating that it is possible to safely and efficiently correct defective genes that cause inherited diseases.
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Book 2

High-intensity x-ray imaging reveals medieval manuscript hidden in book binding

Laura Geggel
Live Science
Tue, 25 Jul 2017 06:51 UTC
Medieval text
© Emeline Pouyet
In the mid-16th century, a bookbinder picked up a piece of parchment - one that was already centuries old - and used it to bind a book of poetry. This parchment's text remained unreadable for nearly 500 years, but now, thanks to state-of-the-art imaging techniques, people can read its words once more, according to a new study.

An analysis of the sixth-century text revealed that it was part of the Roman law code. Whoever made the poetry book likely considered the text to be outdated, as at that point, society was using the church's code, rather than Roman laws, the researchers said.

The finding is a remarkable one, as it can likely be used to help decipher the text on other parchments used as bookbinding materials, the researchers said.

Between the 15th and 18th centuries, bookbinders routinely recycled medieval parchments so they could use them as bindings for new, printed books. (A parchment is a thin and stiff piece of animal skin, usually from sheep or goats, that people wrote on.) Scholars have long known about this practice, but though they were interested in the text written on these old parchments, they were unable to read them.
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Document

Midi-chlorians or mitochondria? "Star Wars" hoax paper published in four journals

Stephanie Pappas
LiveScience
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 17:30 UTC
Star Wars midi-chlorians
© Lucas Film"Star Wars" microscopic midi-chlorians were born on the fictional Wellspring of Life.
Mitochondria: totally real cell organelles that convert sugars, fats and oxygen into usable energy for cells. Midi-chlorians: completely made-up and widely derided microscopic life-forms that give Jedi warriors their ability to use the Force in the "Star Wars" movies.

See the difference? A handful of "peer reviewers" apparently didn't, as a paper that subbed in "midi-chlorians" for "mitochondria" got accepted into four journals this week. The paper mashed up lightly altered text from Wikipedia on mitochondria with Star Wars-related rambling, including the infamous monologue on the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise from "Revenge of the Sith."

The paper was a hoax written by the so-called Neuroskeptic, who blogs pseudonymously for Discover magazine. The point? To expose "predatory journals," which claim to offer peer-reviewed, open-access publication but in fact publish almost anything for a fee, according to the Neuroskeptic.
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Microscope 1

Report: Human embryo DNA edited in the US for the first time


RT
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 04:01 UTC
DNA human embryo
© Getty images
A team of researchers in Oregon have become the first to attempt to create genetically modified human embryos in the United States. The team reportedly demonstrated they could eliminate diseases in offspring with CRISPR.

Led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a team of scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University used the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology to alter human DNA in single-cell embryos, according to a report published Wednesday on the MIT Technology Review.

"So far as I know, this will be the first study reported in the US," Jun Wu, a collaborator at the Salk Institute, told the MIT Technology Review.

The report claims that Mitalipov broke new ground "both in the number of embryos experimented upon and by demonstrating that it is possible to safely and efficiently correct defective genes that cause inherited diseases."
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Cassiopaea

Signs of the times - New comet, Nova in Scutum constellation and Supernova in Pisces!

Bob King
Sky & Telescope
Wed, 26 Jul 2017 23:17 UTC
New Comet ASASSN1 (C/2017 O1)
© Rolando LigustriNew Comet ASASSN1 (C/2017 O1) already glows aqua from carbon-laced gases. The comet is currently visible in the pre-dawn sky through modest-sized telescopes.
It feels like the FedEx guy just pulled up and dropped off a truckload of astronomical goodies. News arrived in my e-mail Monday about a new comet discovered by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN).Founding member Benjamin Shappee and team have 498 bright supernovae and numerous other transient sources to their credit, but this is the group's first comet discovery, ASASSN1 (C/2017 O1).

The 15th-magnitude object was caught before dawn on July 19th in the constellation Cetus using data from the quadruple 14-cm "Cassius" telescope on Cerro Tololo, Chile. Don't be put off by that magnitude. The comet has brightened quickly in the past few days; visual observers are now reporting it at around magnitude +10 with a large (7′), weakly condensed coma. Chris Wyatt of Australia relates that a Swan band filter does a great job enhancing the apparent brightness and contrast of the coma, a sign this is a "gassy" comet.
Comet ASASSN1's location
© StellariumThis wide-view map shows Comet ASASSN1's location at the Cetus–Eridanus border south of Alpha (α) Ceti (Menkar) on July 26th.
Assuming the orbit remains close to the current calculation, Comet ASASSN1 will move northeast across Cetus and Taurus this summer and fall, slowly brightening as it approaches perihelion on October 14th in Perseus. It comes closest to the Earth four nights later, missing the planet by a cool 67 million miles. In a fun twist, ASASSN1 will slow down and spend the entire month of December and much of January within a few degrees of the North Star!
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Saturn

Secretive Saturn: New Cassini data upends existing theories


Sputnik
Wed, 26 Jul 2017 22:27 UTC
Saturn
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
NASA's Cassini probe to Saturn has revealed that the magnetic field of the ringed planet has almost no "tilt" to it, which contradicts previous scientific wisdom about the nature our Milky Way neighbor.

Cassini has been diving into and back out of Saturn's atmosphere in order to answer a longstanding question about the planet: how long is its day? In other words, how long does it take the gas giant to complete one full rotation?

This seems like it would be an easy question to answer, but it's ended up being more complicated than most expected. Saturn is a massive ball of swirling gases that make it impossible to simply choose a point on the planet and track how long it takes before you see it again.
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Rocket

NASA's mega-powerful rocket test a step closer with Mars missions on horizon


RT
Wed, 26 Jul 2017 20:20 UTC
NASA made another successful test of an RS-25 engine controller unit
© NASA
NASA made another successful test of an RS-25 engine controller unit - one of four engines that will eventually propel the world's most powerful rocket - the Space Launch System (SLS).

This is the third of the four engines to be tested and marks another significant milestone en route to the first integrated flight of the SLS deep space rocket and the Orion spacecraft, known as Exploration Mission-1.

The first unmanned flight for the SLS will take place around the moon in 2019. NASA's long term goal is to send a manned mission to Mars by 2035.
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