Science & TechnologyS


Pistol

Star Trek-like phaser developed

Kate Devlin
The Daily Telegraph
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:17 UTC
phaser
© Daily TelegraphA phaser traditionally emits a beam capable of stunning or killing an enemy
Scientists have developed a Star Trek-like phaser, capable of causing paralysis with a beam of light.

However, anyone hoping that the machine will become a powerful new weapon could be disappointed, scientists have only proven the effect on worms.

A phaser traditionally emits a beam capable of stunning or killing an enemy.

Researchers have now found a way to paralyse tiny worms when they expose them to ultraviolet light.

Even when the ultraviolet light was turned off the animals stayed stunned.

However, if they were subsequently exposed to a different form of light they recovered again and were able to move.
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Laptop

Intel Thinks Brain Implants Could Control PCs by 2020


Fox News
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:27 UTC
In its Pittsburgh research laboratory, Intel is developing chips that can harness human brain waves to operate computers, television sets and cell phones.

The chips giant's scientists have found that blood flow changes in certain parts of the brain when people think of a specific word. By shrinking down the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) machines they use to monitor the flow of blood into a tiny chip, and implanting it in your head, you'll be able to type on a keyboard or dial your phone with the power of your thoughts.
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Sherlock

Flashback Biologists Discover Why 10 Percent Of Europeans Are Safe From HIV Infection


Science Daily
Sun, 03 Apr 2005 20:14 UTC
Biologists at the University of Liverpool have discovered how the plagues of the Middle Ages have made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV.

Scientists have known for some time that these individuals carry a genetic mutation (known as CCR5-delta 32) that prevents the virus from entering the cells of the immune system but have been unable to account for the high levels of the gene in Scandinavia and relatively low levels in areas bordering the Mediterranean.

They have also been puzzled by the fact that HIV emerged only recently and could not have played a role in raising the frequency of the mutation to the high levels found in some Europeans today.

Professor Christopher Duncan and Dr Susan Scott from the University's School of Biological Sciences, whose research is published in the March edition of Journal of Medical Genetics, attribute the frequency of the CCR5-delta 32 mutation to its protection from another deadly viral disease, acting over a sustained period in bygone historic times.
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Laptop

Climate Sceptics Claim Leaked Emails are Evidence of Collusion Among Scientists

Leo Hickman and James Randerson
The Guardian
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:33 UTC
Image
© Vo Trung Dung/CorbisA researcher collects data from an electronic device to monitor climate change.
Hundreds of emails and documents exchanged between world's leading climate scientists stolen by hackers and leaked online

Hundreds of private emails and documents allegedly exchanged between some of the world's leading climate scientists during the past 13 years have been stolen by hackers and leaked online, it emerged today.

The computer files were apparently accessed earlier this week from servers at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, a world-renowned centre focused on the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change.

Climate change sceptics who have studied the emails allege they provide "smoking gun" evidence that some of the climatologists colluded in manipulating data to support the widely held view that climate change is real, and is being largely caused by the actions of mankind.

The veracity of the emails has not been confirmed and the scientists involved have declined to comment on the story, which broke on a blog called The Air Vent.
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Telescope

Deep Hole Spotted on Moon

Sid Perkins
Science News
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:21 UTC
Image
© Haruyama et al./Geophysical Research LettersThis unusually deep feature on the moon (in box) is 65 meters wide and may be a portal into an underground cavern that once held flowing lava.
New revelations of a big hole in the moon don't revive the notion that our cosmic companion is made of Swiss cheese. Instead, scientists say, the unusually proportioned feature is most likely a portal into an underground cavern that once held flowing lava.

Analyses of high-resolution images taken by a moon-orbiting probe suggest that the 65-meter-wide, nearly circular feature is between 80 and 88 meters deep, says Carolyn H. van der Bogert, a planetary geologist at Westphalian Wilhelm's University Münster in Germany. Typical impact craters of this size, she notes, are less than 15 meters deep.

Although the hole is located in a lunar province once home to widespread volcanic activity, a dearth of hardened lava around the hole indicates that it isn't a volcanic crater, she and her colleagues report in the Nov. 16 Geophysical Research Letters. The geology of the region also suggests that the hole isn't associated with a fault zone.
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Magnify

Early Humans May Have Been Hobbits, Scientists Say

Tim Gahr
The Cornell Daily Sun
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:55 UTC
In a strange case of science imitating art, one hobbit has again become the center of a heated and ongoing conflict.

Since its 2003 discovery on the Indonesian island of Flores, the Homo floresiensis (nicknamed hobbit because it only grew to be about three feet tall) has caused scientists across the world to debate whether the find is a new species or simply a variation of the modern human. The difference could signal a major paradigm shift in the study of primitive humans.

Although several partial H. floresiensis skeletons have been identified, the majority of the attention has been given to a specimen called LB1 (the first to be discovered) because it is the most complete skeleton and the only one that has an entire cranium.

The earliest known hobbit lived approximately 18,000 years ago, although archaeological records of ancient tools suggest that hobbits may have been alive as early as 12,000 years ago. Until the discovery of LB1, scientists had widely believed that the last non-modern humans were the Neanderthals, which became extinct around 24,000 years ago.

If hobbits are indeed a new species, they will replace Neanderthals as the most recent non-modern humans.
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Magnify

On Your Last Nerve: Researchers Advance Understanding of Stem Cells


ScienceDaily
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:00 UTC
Image
© North Carolina State UniversityThis is a high-resolution image of the surface of the adult stem cell niche in a mouse brain with a genetic label that makes FoxJ1+ cells green.
Researchers from North Carolina State University have identified a gene that tells embryonic stem cells in the brain when to stop producing nerve cells called neurons. The research is a significant advance in understanding the development of the nervous system, which is essential to addressing conditions such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders.

The bulk of neuron production in the central nervous system takes place before birth, and comes to a halt by birth. But scientists have identified specific regions in the core of the brain that retain stem cells into adulthood and continue to produce new neurons.

NC State researchers, investigating the subventricular zone, one of the regions that retains stem cells, have identified a gene that acts as a switch -- transforming some embryonic stem cells into adult cells that can no longer produce new neurons. The research was done using mice. These cells form a layer of cells that support adult stem cells. The gene, called FoxJ1, increases its activity near the time of birth, when neural development slows down. However, the FoxJ1 gene is not activated in most of the stem cells in the subventricular zone -- where new neurons continue to be produced into adulthood.
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Telescope

Watching a Cannibal Galaxy Dine


ScienceDaily
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:00 UTC
Image
© ESOthe central parts of Centaurus A reveals The parallelogram-shaped remains of a smaller galaxy that was gulped down about 200 to 700 million years ago.
A new technique using near-infrared images, obtained with ESO's 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT), allows astronomers to see through the opaque dust lanes of the giant cannibal galaxy Centaurus A, unveiling its "last meal" in unprecedented detail -- a smaller spiral galaxy, currently twisted and warped. This amazing image also shows thousands of star clusters, strewn like glittering gems, churning inside Centaurus A.

Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is the nearest giant, elliptical galaxy, at a distance of about 11 million light-years. One of the most studied objects in the southern sky, by 1847 the unique appearance of this galaxy had already caught the attention of the famous British astronomer John Herschel, who catalogued the southern skies and made a comprehensive list of nebulae.

Herschel could not know, however, that this beautiful and spectacular appearance is due to an opaque dust lane that covers the central part of the galaxy. This dust is thought to be the remains of a cosmic merger between a giant elliptical galaxy and a smaller spiral galaxy full of dust.

Between 200 and 700 million years ago, this galaxy is indeed believed to have consumed a smaller spiral, gas-rich galaxy -- the contents of which appear to be churning inside Centaurus A's core, likely triggering new generations of stars.
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Bulb

Geologists uncover the truth about the origin of valuable mineral

Alexandra Irena Eremia
The Varsity
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:47 UTC
A recent study has revealed that "earthly" minerals such as rhodium and platinum did not originate from our beloved blue planet. University of Toronto geology professor James Brenan collaborated with William McDonough at the University of Maryland to outline a new theory explaining the existence of certain metals in the Earth's crust.

Brenan and McDonough simulated the extreme temperature conditions that occurred during the Earth's formation. This allowed them to measure the proportion of metals that would have remained after the Earth's temperature cooled. Through their intensive research, they demonstrated that metals such as platinum, rhodium, and iridium (from the platinum metal group) should have been completely eliminated from the Earth's outermost layer as a result of high temperatures.
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Satellite

Boeing: Laser Systems Destroys Unmanned Aerial Vehicles


Boeing
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:44 UTC
Image
Image available for use by news media.
The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] in May demonstrated the ability of mobile laser weapon systems to perform a unique mission: track and destroy small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

During the U.S. Air Force-sponsored tests at the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, Calif., the Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated experiments (MATRIX), which was developed by Boeing under contract to the Air Force Research Laboratory, used a single, high-brightness laser beam to shoot down five UAVs at various ranges. Laser Avenger, a Boeing-funded initiative, also shot down a UAV. Representatives of the Air Force and Army observed the tests.

"The Air Force and Boeing achieved a directed-energy breakthrough with these tests," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Missile Defense Systems' Directed Energy Systems unit. "MATRIX's performance is especially noteworthy because it demonstrated unprecedented, ultra-precise and lethal acquisition, pointing and tracking at long ranges using relatively low laser power."
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