Science & TechnologyS


Evil Rays

Hang up and drive. Dissociation the biggest risk with cellphones and driving

Katharine Mieszkowski
Salon
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:13 UTC
For years, psychologists who study driving and attention have argued that switching to "hands free" is not a real solution to the hazards caused by yakking on the mobile in the car. "The impairments aren't because your hands aren't on the wheel. It's because your mind isn't the road," says David Strayer, professor of psychology at the University of Utah, whose research has found driving while talking on a cellphone to be as dangerous as driving drunk.
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Fish

Exploration of underwater forest


BBC News
Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:20 UTC
Underwater archaeologists are taking to Loch Tay to try to uncover more about a submerged prehistoric woodland.

Tree Stump 4270 BC
©Unknown
One of the tree stumps could date back to 4,270 BC
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Frog

Human-Frog hybrids used to study autism


Asian News International
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:28 UTC
Scientists at the University of California at Irvine are studying the way the brain cells of among autistic people behave by fusing cells from the preserved brains of deceased patients with the eggs of a carnivorous African frog called Xenopus.

The researchers say that frog eggs work a little like human neurons, and that the hybrid cells act as a surrogate of a living brain with the condition.
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Sherlock

'Yeti hair' to get DNA analysis

Alastair Lawson
BBC News
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:48 UTC


Yeti Hair
© Unknown
The microscope revealed 'the yeti' suffered from split ends

Scientists in the UK who have examined hairs claimed to belong to a yeti in India say that an initial series of tests have proved inconclusive.

Ape expert Ian Redmond says the hairs bear a "startling resemblance" to similar hairs collected by Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary. He told the BBC the Indian hairs are "potentially very exciting". After extensive microscope examinations, the hairs will now be sent to separate labs for DNA analysis.
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Telescope

Asteroid Crash May Have Demagnified Mars

Irene Klotz
Discovery News
Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:10 UTC
Scientists don't know what happened on Mars that caused its magnetic field to collapse. They suspect the planet's liquid metallic core cooled, ending convective currents that spread magnetic field lines through the planet's rock and soil and out into space.

Mars
©Unknown
Missing Magnetic Field

But that may just be part of the story.

A team of researchers led by Jafar Arkani-Hamed of the University of Toronto in Canada believe a large asteroid circling the planet set up a gravitational tug-of-war that got Mars' core churning. Eventually, the asteroid lost its grip and crashed into its parent planet. Mars paid a dear price as well. Without the tidal forces, the planet's core lost its momentum, killing off the magnetic field.

What remain are patches of strong magnetic imprints in the oldest parts of Mars' crust. Because the fresher surface features are magnetic-free, scientists believe Mars lost its shield about four billion years ago.

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Meteor

10 Greatest Major-Impact Craters on Earth (photo)


Environmental Graffiti
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:03 UTC


meteorite
©Unknown

Imagine staring into the sky and seeing a tiny yellow dot, gradually getting closer. That dot doubles in size every second, until it slowly darkens the sky. You realize that this dot is actually the size of New York City and is screeching through the atmosphere faster than the speed of sound, coming right for you. This massive object will cause tsunamis, earthquakes and obliterate natural daylight for years...oh... and it will kill you. Similar asteroid impacts have and will happen on numerous occasions in our earth's history. Today we'll show you the biggest impact craters by diameter.
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Cow Skull

Scientists find complete baby dinosaur fossil

Mari Yamaguchi
Associated Press
Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:56 UTC
Japanese and Mongolian scientists have successfully recovered the complete skeleton of a 70-million-year-old young dinosaur, a nature museum announced Thursday.

The scientists uncovered a Tarbosaurus - related to the giant carnivorous Tyrannosaurus - from a chunk of sandstone they dug up in August, 2006 in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, said Takuji Yokoyama, a spokesman for the Hayashibara Museum of Natural Sciences, a co-organizer of the joint research project.

"We were so lucky to have found remains that turned out to be a complete set of all the important parts," he said.
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Telescope

Stellar nursery found near Milky Way's violent heart

Rachel Courtland
New Scientist
Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:38 UTC


The neighborhood around a black hole seems like no place to raise a star. Violent gravitational forces can rip gas clouds apart, making it hard for stars to condense. But astronomers have spotted evidence of very young stars in a ring of gas close to the heart of the Milky Way, where a massive black hole is thought to reside.

Image
©Unknown

These protostars, 6 to 20 light years from the galaxy's centre, are shrouded by so much gas and dust that they can't be seen with telescopes. Instead, Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and colleagues found them through their radio signals.
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Question

Flashback Is the eclipse in the Odyssey actually an historical account?

Rachel Courtland
New Scientist
Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:20 UTC


Image
©CNES

A solar eclipse that occurred more than 3000 years ago may be mentioned in the Odyssey, an ancient poem based on Greek mythology, a new study suggests.

The poem, attributed to the poet Homer, describes the 10-year journey that its hero, Odysseus, took to return home to Ithaca, a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, after the end of the Trojan War. The war was waged over the beautiful Helen of Troy, a daughter of the god Zeus.

Days before Odysseus returned home to kill the 108 suitors courting his wife, a prophet predicted the men's doom. "The Sun is blotted out of heaven, and a blighting gloom is over all the land," the sage said.

In fact, a total solar eclipse - in which the disc of the Sun was blocked by the Moon - is calculated to have taken place on 16 April 1178 BCE over the Ionian Islands.

That is around the estimated end of the Trojan War, which despite its appearance in mythology may represent an actual conflict or series of conflicts in the city of Troy in the 12th century BCE.
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Info

Total Solar Eclipse to Pass Over China and Siberia


New Scientist
Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:44 UTC


Image
©Fred Espenak/NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
On 1 August, a total solar eclipse will be visible from Canada to China. The path is shown in blue

Researchers and sky watchers are en route to remote regions of the Earth to catch a glimpse of a total solar eclipse.

On 1 August, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun, casting a shadow across the Earth. Much of the northern hemisphere will see a partial eclipse, but the total eclipse will only be visible in a narrow band as the shadow tracks from Canada to China.

Totality is expected to be relatively short, lasting at most about two and a half minutes. In contrast, a total eclipse in 2009 will last more than six and a half minutes in some places.

Despite the short duration of this year's event, expeditions are underway to Russia and China to see it. Several aircraft will aim to observe the eclipse from above the clouds, and an icebreaker will bring watchers to the Svalbard Islands in the Arctic.
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