Science & TechnologyS


Satellite

Astronauts have trouble with repair work at Hubble

astronauts work on hubble
© Associated Press/NASA TVIn this image from NASA TV astronauts Mike Good, left, and Mike Massimino work to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope during a spacewalk, Friday, May 15, 2009
The struggle had NASA on edge for about two hours. The gyroscopes are needed to point the 19-year-old observatory, and getting them in was the top priority of the repair mission.

It was the second spacewalk in as many days for the Atlantis astronauts. On Thursday, another two-man team installed a powerful new camera and a computer data unit, after struggling with a stubborn bolt. NASA had hoped for an easier, less stressful spacewalk, but instead had to endure more drama.

Michael Massimino, who was working from inside Hubble, and his partner, Michael Good, had no problem removing all six of Hubble's 10-year-old gyroscopes. They easily plugged in the first new set of two gyroscopes, but despite repeated efforts, could not get the second set properly mounted.

Magnify

2,000-Year-Old Caves Found in Raigad

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© Sakaal TimesAn ancient cave found in Raigad district during exploration by the Deccan College, Pune
Seven new Buddhist caves have been found at Dhondse and Bahirampada villages in Pali taluka of Raigad district, by the archaeology department of Deccan College here, according to a lecturer in history of ancient India and Sanskrit, Shrikant Ganveer.

The caves were found during exploration around and study of the 60 caves at Thanale and Nenawali in Raigad district.

Info

Sexy "Venus" may be oldest figurine yet discovered

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© REUTERS/Nature
London - A sexually suggestive Venus figurine with oversized breasts and thighs dates back at least 35,000 years and shows ancient humans had sex on their minds, researchers said on Wednesday.

The 60-millimetre-long figurine may be the oldest piece of its kind yet discovered and suggests Palaeolithic art was far more complex than many had thought, Nicholas Conard of Tubingen University in Germany wrote in the journal Nature.

Magnify

Inside the baby mind

mother and baby
© unknown
It's unfocused, random, and extremely good at what it does. How we can learn from a baby's brain.

What is it like to be a baby? For centuries, this question would have seemed absurd: behind that adorable facade was a mostly empty head. A baby, after all, is missing most of the capabilities that define the human mind, such as language and the ability to reason. Rene Descartes argued that the young child was entirely bound by sensation, hopelessly trapped in the confusing rush of the here and now. A newborn, in this sense, is just a lump of need, a bundle of reflexes that can only eat and cry. To think like a baby is to not think at all.

Family

Don't! The secret of self-control

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Children who are able to pass the marshmallow test enjoy greater success as adults.
In the late nineteen-sixties, Carolyn Weisz, a four-year-old with long brown hair, was invited into a "game room" at the Bing Nursery School, on the campus of Stanford University. The room was little more than a large closet, containing a desk and a chair. Carolyn was asked to sit down in the chair and pick a treat from a tray of marshmallows, cookies, and pretzel sticks. Carolyn chose the marshmallow. Although she's now forty-four, Carolyn still has a weakness for those air-puffed balls of corn syrup and gelatine. "I know I shouldn't like them," she says. "But they're just so delicious!"

A researcher then made Carolyn an offer: she could either eat one marshmallow right away or, if she was willing to wait while he stepped out for a few minutes, she could have two marshmallows when he returned. He said that if she rang a bell on the desk while he was away he would come running back, and she could eat one marshmallow but would forfeit the second. Then he left the room.

Snowman

Theory: Dark energy froze the universe

Antigravity effect
© NASAAntigravity effect: Image shows the changing rate of expansion of the universe since the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. Dark energy is thought to have accelerated the rate of expansion
Dark energy froze the universe 11.5 billion years ago, says a new theory, which researchers claim could be tested within 15 to 20 years.

"We have convincing evidence that there is some kind of dark energy out there - that is, some antigravity substance that makes up 70% of the universe and is accelerating its expansion," said lead author of the research, astrophysicist Sourish Dutta, from the Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

"We just don't know what the nature of that substance is," he said.

The pop of virtual particles

Dutta and colleagues have come up with a theory that dark energy is related to vacuum energy, the underlying background energy of empty space. Quantum mechanics predicts that a vacuum - such as space - is dotted with 'virtual particles' that pop in and out of existence. This sub-atomic activity could be the key to dark energy.

Satellite

NASA set for shuttle launch to help Hubble telescope

NASA is on target for its launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on its final mission to service the Hubble telescope, the US space agency said on Sunday.


Einstein

Will designer brains divide humanity?

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© Image: Norbert Millauer/AFP/GettyWould tweaking human brains widen the gulf between the world's haves and have-nots?
We are on the brink of technological breakthroughs that could augment our mental powers beyond recognition. It will soon be possible to boost human brainpower with electronic "plug-ins" or even by genetic enhancement. What will this mean for the future of humanity?

This was the theme of a recent Neuroscience in Context meeting in Berlin, Germany, where anthropologists, technologists, neurologists, archaeologists and philosophers met to consider the implications of this next stage of human brain development. Would it widen the gulf between the world's haves and have-nots - and perhaps even lead to a distinct and dominant species with unmatchable powers of intellect?

Chalkboard

Austrian Physicists Protest CERN Pull-out

Austrian physicists are protesting their nation's decision to withdraw from the CERN particle physics lab. The Austrian science minister, Johannes Hahn, announced last Thursday that Austria would cut its annual funding to CERN, worth approximately $27 million (20 million euros).

Austria's share of CERN's budget currently makes up just 2.2 percent, but that same amount represents 70 percent of Austria's funding for international research.

Bulb

Old Genes Can Learn New Tricks, Horned Beetles Show

Onthophagus taurus
© Alex WildTwo Onthophagus taurus males. Armin Moczek and Debra Rose's study suggests several genes involved in making legs and antennae were co-opted to make the beetles' horns. Horns are a novel trait that is unique to horned beetles
A popular view among evolutionary biologists that fundamental genes do not acquire new functions has been challenged by a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Indiana University Bloomington biologist Armin Moczek and research associate Debra Rose report that two ancient genes were "co-opted" to help build a new trait in beetles -- the fancy antlers that give horned beetles their name. The genes, Distal-less and homothorax, touch most aspects of insect larval development, and have therefore been considered off-limits to the evolution of new traits.

In the two horned beetle species Moczek and Rose studied, the genetic sequences of Distal-less and homothorax were hardly different, suggesting the two genes have retained their unique identities because of selective pressures not to change. What changed was not the genes themselves, but when and where they are turned on.