Science & Technology

Beads get ball rolling on avalanche prediction

Anil Ananthaswamy
New Scientist
Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:10 UTC

The seeming impossibility of predicting the next big avalanche or earthquake has often been blamed on the inherent unpredictability of complex systems. A unique experiment suggests that this idea may be wrong. Accurate prediction may just be a matter of analysing the most relevant information.

Phenomena as diverse as earthquakes, stock market collapses and avalanches follow so-called power-law distributions. Take the intensity of earthquakes: there are very few large tremblors and many small ones.

It is now known that even a minor perturbation can cause a major event when such systems reach a critical state because of a build-up of stress. Similarly, the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld model of sandpile avalanches, shows there is no way of knowing whether the next event would be big or small, says Henrik Jensen of Imperial College London, an expert on complex systems.

Record-breaking algorithm really packs them in

Colin Barras
New Scientist
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:00 UTC

© Johannes Schneider and colleagues
A new algorithm can pack any 50 differently sized discs into a smaller space than any other, and could help pack 3D objects into smaller spaces too. That could make shipping and delivery services less tough on resources

Geeky holidaymakers wanting to take more on a trip, as well as delivery firms trying to maximise loads and storage, could benefit from a new algorithm that packs collections of differently sized 2D shapes into the smallest available space with unprecedented efficiency.

This may seem like a more academic version of the video game Tetris, but the techniques developed can be applied to 3D problems in the real world. Increasing packing efficiency this way would lower the cost and also the environmental impact of shipping.

Fitting a set of objects into the smallest amount of space is such a complex scientific problem that researchers have yet to calculate the single best solution if more than around 20 objects are involved.

To get closer to that optimum fit, researchers pit their algorithms against each other in competitions to solve particular packing problems, such as fitting a collection of differently sized discs inside the smallest circle possible without overlaps. Johannes Schneider's team at the University of Mainz has just smashed all previous records in that disc-packing problem.

Pluto Has "Upside Down" Atmosphere

Ker Than
National Geographic News
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:00 UTC

© L. Calcada/ESO
Pluto has an "upside down" atmosphere, a March 2009 study revealed. Temperatures rise, rather than drop, with altitude on the dwarf planet—the reverse of Earth.

Pluto, the solar system's oddball, has an upside-down atmosphere compared with Earth. Temperatures rise, rather than drop, with altitude on the dwarf planet, a new study finds.

Astronomers recently made the most detailed measurements to date of the concentration of the greenhouse gas methane in Pluto's atmosphere using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope.

The measurements showed that methane is the second most abundant gas in Pluto's atmosphere, and that the gas is actually warmer at higher elevations than at the icy surface.

As a result, Pluto's upper atmosphere is about 90 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) warmer than the planet's surface.

The team, led by Emmanuel Lellouch of France's Paris Observatory, speculates that there is a thin frozen layer, or frozen patches, of methane and other gases on Pluto's surface.

Koobface, Other Worms Target Facebook Friends

Yahoo! Tech News
Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:51 UTC

As Facebook works to make itself more relevant and timely for its growing member base with a profile page makeover, attackers seem to be working overtime to steal the identities of the friends, fans and brands that connect though the social-networking site.

Indeed, Facebook has seen five different security threats in the past week. According to Trend Micro, four new hoax applications are attempting to trick members into divulging their usernames and passwords. And a new variant of the Koobface worm is running wild on the site, installing malware on the computers of victims who click on a link to a fake YouTube video.

Horses were tamed a millennium earlier than previously thought

Thomas H. Maugh II
Los Angeles Times
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:10 UTC

The horse, its four slender legs accomplishing astonishing feats of strength and endurance, has provided humans with far more than transportation from point A to point B.

It has allowed us to travel long distances for trade, carry heavy loads, move our societies around more freely and, inevitably, conduct more efficient warfare. Arguably the most important domesticated animal, the horse also has provided humans with meat and milk.

Now we have a better idea of when this complex and vital human-horse relationship began.

'Vampire' discovered in mass grave

New Scientist
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:09 UTC

© Matteo Borrini
To stop the "vampires" supposedly chewing shrouds and spreading disease, grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of plague victims.

A skeleton exhumed from a grave in Venice is being claimed as the first known example of the "vampires" widely referred to in contemporary documents.

Matteo Borrini of the University of Florence in Italy found the skeleton of a woman with a small brick in her mouth while excavating mass graves of plague victims from the Middle Ages on Lazzaretto Nuovo Island in Venice.

At the time the woman died, many people believed that the plague was spread by "vampires" which, rather than drinking people's blood, spread disease by chewing on their shrouds after dying. Grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of suspected vampires to stop them doing this, Borrini says.

Nanotechnology goes to war

David Hambling
The Guardian
Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:57 UTC

© David Parker/Science Photo Library
Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of microcogs forming a microgear mechanism.

The Pentagon is pioneering micro technology for just about every device, from 10g video cameras to tiny atomic clocks on a chip

Wouldn't it be handy if everything we needed to build the next generation of portable devices and robots were available on a microchip? You could just plug in a navigation system, a radar sensor, cryogenic cooling system, or even a miniature power unit. For laboratory applications, there would be micro versions of everything from mass spectrometers to magnetic sensors. The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), the Pentagon's extreme science wing, aims to provide all this, and more, in handy "matchbook size" electronic packages.

Forty years ago, Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, accurately predicted that the cost of processing power would halve every two years. We have come to expect devices to get smaller, cheaper and more powerful over time. Now the revolution is spreading to other types of device. The development of mems (microelectromechanical systems) has already paved the way for "lab-on-a-chip" chemical analysis. Such breakthroughs tend to come from the military rather than industry.

Ancient pharaoh statues found in Egypt

NineMSN
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:08 UTC

A team of Egyptian and European archaeologists has discovered two large statutes of an ancient pharaoh who ruled Egypt some 3,400 years ago, the country's archaeology chief said on Thursday.

The two statues of Amenhotep III were found while the excavation team was clearing out a temple dedicated to this pharaoh on the west bank of the Nile in the southern city of Luxor, according to a statement by Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Hawass said one statute is made of black granite and shows Amenhotep wearing a traditional Pharaonic headcover, while the second one depicts him in the shape of sphinx - the mythological creature with a human head and the body of a lion.

Oldest sea turtle fossil unveiled in Mexico

Agence France-Presse
Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:35 UTC

Paleontologists on Thursday unveiled the oldest fossil remains of a sea turtle that lived 72 million years ago in northern Mexico, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said.

"It is the oldest sea turtle of its kind and it belongs to the chelonia family. The oldest specimen of this species up to now was 65 million years old and was found in New Jersey, United States," the INAH said in a statement.

The fossils of seven sea turtles were found at different sites in Coahuila, the state that Mexican scientists call "the paradise of paleontology."

Venezuela unveils $14 mobile phone

NineMSN
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:21 UTC

Venezuela is to start selling in May a mobile phone it is billing as one of the world's cheapest: a $US14 ($A21.57) handset that includes an MP3 player, radio and camera.

President Hugo Chavez unveiled the phone - named "El Vergatario" - on Thursday, saying it would be produced by a joint Venezuelan-Chinese firm and marketed across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Sun Awakens, Numerous Flares, Nova Science | S0 News Oct.26.2021 [Link]

parzival

She's better off dead. The ones that die quickly are the lucky ones. Cancers, chronic pain and exhaustion? No thanks.

DeliciousTears

Here's what lithium ion batteries also do. [Link] R.C.

Rowan Cocoan

She always looks like she's having a painful bowel movement, and is trying very hard to do it silently.

Eventide

Parzival. [Link] Documentary on who owns everything and the current situation and intention NWO. Good summary.

Joyly

Science & Technology

Beads get ball rolling on avalanche prediction

Record-breaking algorithm really packs them in

Pluto Has "Upside Down" Atmosphere

Koobface, Other Worms Target Facebook Friends

Horses were tamed a millennium earlier than previously thought

'Vampire' discovered in mass grave

Nanotechnology goes to war

Ancient pharaoh statues found in Egypt

Oldest sea turtle fossil unveiled in Mexico

Venezuela unveils $14 mobile phone

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