Science & TechnologyS


Meteor

Small Asteroid Buzzes Earth‏


SpaceWeather.com
Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:14 UTC
Newly-discovered asteroid 2009 DD45 is about to fly past Earth only 72,000 km (0.000482 AU) away. That's about twice the height of a typical geostationary communications satellite. The 30- to 40-meter wide space rock is similar in size to the Tunguska impactor of 1908, but this time there is no danger of a collision. At closest approach on March 2nd, around 1340 UT (5:40 am PST), 2009 DD45 will speed through the constellation Virgo shining as brightly as an 11th magnitude star. Experienced amateur astronomers can track the asteroid using this ephemeris.

Update: Using a 14-inch telescope at the University of Nariño Observatory in Columbia, Alberto Quijano Vodniza has photographed the asteroid streaking toward Earth thirteen hours before closest approach: 1 MB movie.
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Ark

Boffins disprove dinosaur theory


Staines Guardian
Sat, 28 Feb 2009 08:00 UTC
Egham scientists have come up with "compelling new evidence" to prove how dinosaurs really became extinct.

A team of researchers from the department of Earth Sciences and the School of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway University (RHU) have produced evidence which refutes the theory dinosaurs were wiped out by wildfires triggered by an asteroid impacting the Earth 65 million years ago.
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Pharoah

Archaeologists rediscover lost Egyptian tomb

Alaa Shahine
Reuters
Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:03 UTC
Cairo - Belgian archaeologists have rediscovered an ancient Egyptian tomb that had been lost for decades under sand, Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said on Sunday.

In 1880 Swedish Egyptologist Karl Piehl uncovered the tomb of Amenhotep, the deputy seal-bearer of the Pharaoh King Tuthmosis III, in the city of Luxor, about 600 km (375 miles) to the south of the capital Cairo.

"It later disappeared under the sand and archaeologists kept looking for it to no avail until it was found by the Belgian expedition," a statement from the Supreme Council of Antiquities quoted Hosni as saying.
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Magnify

Discovery of 6000-Year-Old Artifacts in Miyan-Rud


The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies News
Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:18 UTC
London -- Archaeologists reported the conclusion of the season of archaeological survey at Mīyān-Rūd Tappeh in Iraj area, of Rāmjerd, in the town of Marvdasht (Fārs Province) These are some of the number of discoveries reported the Persian service of CHN on Thursday.

This survey was conducted for demarcation of The Miyan-Rud archaeological site,

Miyan-Rud Tappeh, with an area of 2.5 hectare, contains remains of Bakun period (late 5th to early 4th millennium BCE) mainly The Bakun I and II periods, Also a little habitation evidence of The Lapuee period in the area, which was possibly used as their burial site, according to Musa Zar'a, head of archaeological team at Miyan-Rud site.
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Telescope

Pluto is visible soon, whatever it's definition

Roger Culver
Daily Astronomy
Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:07 UTC
This month, binocular and small telescope observers of Colorado skies will have a unique opportunity to observe a peripheral player in the ongoing controversy over the status of the outer solar system world known as Pluto.

On New Year's night in 1801, an Italian astronomer named Giuseppi Piazza stumbled across an object that changed its position nightly against the backdrop of fixed stars. After months of observations and an ingenious orbital analysis, it was determined that the object was a member of the solar system and moved in an orbit about the sun halfway between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
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Ark

Experts trying to decipher ancient language


Associated Press
Sun, 01 Mar 2009 04:27 UTC
Almodovar, Portugal - When archaeologists on a dig in southern Portugal last year flipped over a heavy chunk of slate and saw writing not used for more than 2,500 years, they were elated.

The enigmatic pattern of inscribed symbols curled symmetrically around the upper part of the rough-edged, yellowish stone tablet and coiled into the middle in a decorative style typical of an extinct Iberian language called Southwest Script.
stone tablet
© AP Photo/Armando FrancaA stone tablet engraved with symbols at least 2,500 years old is seen at the Southwest Script Museum on Feb. 5, 2009 in Almodovar, southern Portugal. The museum has on display 20 tablets engraved with symbols of the Iron Age extinct Iberian language called Southwest Script.
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Info

Mega-laser to probe secrets of exoplanets

Jim Giles
New Scientist
Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:55 UTC
gas giant planet circling the star Gliese 436
© NASAArtist's impression of a gas giant planet circling the star Gliese 436. The new laser will investigate the internal chemistry of these vast planets.

An awesome laser facility, built to provide fusion data for nuclear weapons simulations, will soon be used to probe the secrets of extrasolar planets.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California was declared ready for action earlier this month. Its vital statistics reveal it to be a powerful beast: its ultraviolet lasers can deliver 500 trillion watts in a 20-nanosecond burst. That power opens up new scientific possibilities.
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Info

Airborne laser weapon sails through tests

Sandrine Ceurstemont
New Scientist
Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:51 UTC
The Pentagon may soon have a new anti-missile weapon - a high-powered laser fired from the nose of a large jet plane to destroy missiles soon after they leave the ground.

The latest video footage from the project reveals the results from a round of testing that ended in December 2008 (see our story on the tests). A prototype mounted in a plane on the ground fired infrared laser beams at a target in 1 second bursts.


The system has left the ground too, in trials 16 months ago, that proved the weapon could track a simulated missile well enough to reliably deploy the powerful beam if required.
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Crusader

How to spot a hidden religious agenda

Amanda Gefter
New Scientist
Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:35 UTC
As a book reviews editor at New Scientist, I often come across so-called science books which after a few pages reveal themselves to be harbouring ulterior motives. I have learned to recognise clues that the author is pushing a religious agenda. As creationists in the US continue to lose court battles over attempts to have intelligent design taught as science in federally funded schools, their strategy has been forced to... well, evolve. That means ensuring that references to pseudoscientific concepts like ID are more heavily veiled. So I thought I'd share a few tips for spotting what may be religion in science's clothing.

Red flag number one: the term "scientific materialism". "Materialism" is most often used in contrast to something else - something non-material, or supernatural. Proponents of ID frequently lament the scientific claim that humans are the product of purely material forces. At the same time, they never define how non-material forces might work. I have yet to find a definition that characterises non-materialism by what it is, rather than by what it is not.
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Palette

'Early Da Vinci portrait' found


British Broadcasting Corporation
Sat, 28 Feb 2009 13:31 UTC
Da Vinci
© BBCThe image resembled older known portraits of Leonardo
A sketch found in one of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks could be an early self-portrait, experts believe.

The drawing had been obscured by handwriting for 500 years before being discovered by Italian scientific journalist Piero Angela.

After months of restoration work, the image was aged using criminal investigation techniques and compared with older self-portraits of Leonardo.

The findings will be revealed on Italy's RAI television channel.
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