Science & Technology
Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Sott.netTue, 15 Jan 2008 11:23 UTC
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| ©Unknown
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It was a warm, clear afternoon in the capital. The bustle of metropolitan commerce and tourism filled the streets. Small sailing vessels dotted the sheltered waters within sight of the government buildings, riding on a soft southerly breeze. The Sun sparkled on the gentle swells and wakes, lending a luminous glow to the poppies and tulips nodding in the parks along the water's edge. All was in order.
But suddenly, the sky brightened as if with a second, more brilliant Sun. A second set of shadows appeared; at first long and faint, they shortened and sharpened rapidly. A strange hissing, humming sound seemed to come from everywhere at once. Thousands craned their necks and looked upwards, searching the sky for the new Sun. Above them a tremendous white fireball blossomed, like the unfolding of a vast paper flower, but now blindingly bright. For several seconds the fierce fireball dominated the sky, shaming the Sun. The sky burned white-hot, then slowly faded through yellow and orange to a glowering copper-red. The awful hissing ceased. The onlookers, blinded by the flash, burned by its searing heat, covered their eyes and cringed in terror. Occupants of offices and apartments rushed to their windows, searching the sky for the source of the brilliant flare that had lit their rooms. A great blanket of turbulent, coppery cloud filled half the sky overhead. For a dozen heartbeats the city was awestruck, numbed and silent.
A one-ton "fossil rat" has been discovered in South America, scientists announced today.
The prehistoric, bull-size creature - the world's largest recorded rodent - has been identified from a well-preserved skull.
Pasadena, Calif.- The potential of carbon nanotubes to diagnose and treat brain tumors is being explored through a partnership between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and City of Hope, a leading cancer research and treatment center in Duarte, Calif.
Nanotechnology may help revolutionize medicine in the future with its promise to play a role in selective cancer therapy. City of Hope researchers hope to boost the brain's own immune response against tumors by delivering cancer-fighting agents via nanotubes. A nanotube is about 50,000 times narrower than a human hair, but it length can extend up to several centimeters.
Astronomers are using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to dissect one of the largest structures in the universe as part of a quest to understand the violent lives of galaxies. Hubble is providing indirect evidence of unseen dark matter tugging on galaxies in the crowded, rough-and-tumble environment of a massive supercluster of hundreds of galaxies.
Dark matter is an invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the universe's mass. Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys has mapped the invisible dark matter scaffolding of the supercluster Abell 901/902, as well as the detailed structure of individual galaxies embedded in it.
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Astronomers from Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, have detected for the first time the molecules methanimine and hydrogen cyanide - two ingredients that build life-forming amino acids - in a galaxy some 250 million light years away.
"Just add water!" said Robert Minchin, an Arecibo astronomer on the project, who explained that methanimine and hydrogen cyanide are two of the basic ingredients of life, because when combined with water they form glycine, the simplest amino acid, a building block of life on Earth.
Human evolution has created enhancements in key genes connected to the p53 regulatory network - the so-called guardian of the genome - by creating additional safeguards in human genes to boost the network's ability to guard against DNA damage that could cause cancer or a variety of genetic diseases, an international team of scientists led by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center writes in the Jan. 22 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Because genetically engineered mouse models are increasingly powerful tools in understanding the risks and mechanisms of human diseases - and rodents do not have the same evolution-based safeguards in p53 function as humans - the study also underscores the need for additional considerations in the interpretation of research using rodent models.
"Our findings are especially important because rodents are often used as model organisms to investigate the genetic origins of diseases that affect humans, such as cancer investigators evaluating the impact of DNA-damaging agents," said Anil Jegga, DVM, a researcher in the Division of Biomedical Informatics at Cincinnati Children's. "Rodent models remain important to our understanding of disease processes, although our study suggests the need to address experimentally the differences in p53 regulatory pathways between humans and rodent models."
A time capsule was found atop a bell tower at México City's Metropolitan Cathedral, where it was placed in 1791 to protect the building from harm, researchers said Tuesday.
The lead box - filled with religious artifacts, coins, and parchments - was hidden in a hollow stone ball to mark the moment on May 14, 1791, when the building's topmost stone was laid, 218 years after construction had begun on the cathedral.
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| ©Gregory Bull/AP
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Photographers take pictures of religious artifacts at the Metropolitan Cathedral in México City on January 15, 2008.
The items were found in an unusual time capsule atop a bell tower at the church, officials said.
The collection may have been placed there as a sort of "religious lightening rod" to protect the building against storms, officials said.
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Paul Icamina
AHNWed, 16 Jan 2008 13:25 UTC
Racine, Wisconsin - Three sophomore high school students at Racine's Prairie School have discovered an asteroid, a feat that is probably unprecedented.
An engineer from Russia's Ivanovo Region built a robot for military purposes that ended up serving as a domestic helper and a nanny for his son, the inventor told RIA Novosti.
Vladimir Metlushko's robot, built over a period of two years, was initially designed for military scouting and mine sweeping.
"But when I started a family, the device's purpose changed. It became both a nanny and a toy for our ten month-old son," he said.
The 27-metre diameter asteroid 2008 AF3 will tonight pass by the Earth as close as the Moon! (see
its orbit here)
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| ©NASA/JPL
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Comment: Continue to Part Five: Thirty Years of Cults and Comets