Science & Technology

Source of world's largest mud eruption determined to be Indonesian volcano system

American Geophysical Union
Tue, 17 Oct 2017 15:39 UTC

On May 29, 2006, mud started erupting from several sites on the Indonesian island of Java. Boiling mud, water, rocks and gas poured from newly-created vents in the ground, burying entire towns and compelling many Indonesians to flee. By September 2006, the largest eruption site reached a peak, and enough mud gushed on the surface to fill 72 Olympic-sized swimming pools daily.

Indonesians frantically built levees to contain the mud and save the surrounding settlements and rice fields from being covered. The eruption, known as Lusi, is still ongoing and has become the most destructive ongoing mud eruption in history. The relentless sea of mud has buried some villages 40 meters (130 feet) deep and forced nearly 60,000 people from their homes. The volcano still periodically spurts jets of rocks and gas into the air like a geyser. It is now oozing around 80,000 cubic meters (3 million cubic feet) of mud each day - enough to fill 32 Olympic-sized pools.

Now, more than 11 years after it first erupted, researchers may have figured out why the mudflows haven't stopped: deep underground, Lusi is connected to a nearby volcanic system.

Scientists discover evidence of extreme methane storms on Saturn's moon Titan

Matt Williams
Universe Today
Mon, 16 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC

© NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
According to a study from UCLA, Titan experiences severe methane rainstorms, leading to a the alluvial fans found found in both hemispheres.

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is a mysterious place; and the more we learn about it, the more surprises it seems to have in store.

Aside from being the only body beyond Earth that has a dense, nitrogen-rich atmosphere, it also has methane lakes on its surface and methane clouds in its atmosphere. This hydrological-cycle, where methane is converted from a liquid to a gas and back again, is very similar to the water cycle here on Earth.

Thanks to the NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens mission, which concluded on September 15th when the craft crashed into Saturn's atmosphere, we have learned a great deal about this moon in recent years.

The latest find, which was made by a team of UCLA planetary scientists and geologists, has to do with Titan's methane rain storms. Despite being a rare occurrence, these rainstorms can apparently become rather extreme.

Research sheds new light on how Earth and Mars were created

ScienMag
Mon, 16 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC

Analysing a mixture of earth samples and meteorites, scientists from the University of Bristol have shed new light on the sequence of events that led to the creation of the planets Earth and Mars.

Planets grow by a process of accretion - a gradual accumulation of additional material - in which they collisionally combine with their neighbours.

This is often a chaotic process and material gets lost as well as gained.

Massive planetary bodies impacting at several kilometres per second generate substantial heat which, in turn, produces magma oceans and temporary atmospheres of vaporised rock.

Man & machine will be melded into 1 within 20yrs - IBM expert

RT
Mon, 16 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC

A senior IBM inventor has predicted that within 20 years humans will be injected with nanomachines that will be able to repair and enhance our bodies and augment our thoughts.

In a submission to the Artificial Intelligence Committee of the UK's House of Lords, John McNamara, who works at IBM's Hursley Innovation Centre, said that the tiny robots will have enormous medical benefits.

"We may see AI nanomachines being injected into our bodies. These will provide huge medical benefits, such as being able to repair damage to cells, muscles and bones perhaps even augment them," McNamara said to the committee, which is weighing up the economic, ethical and social implications of artificial intelligence.

Comment: Heavy metals toxicity is responsible for many deceases. If the nano machines are made with metals that body's defense system consider as intruder, this may cause life threatening inflammation and toxicity.

Heavy metal toxicity can ruin your health

Certain faiths are more likely to turn to religion for answers to scientific questions

PhysOrg
Mon, 16 Oct 2017 18:51 UTC

When it comes to seeking answers to questions about science, evangelical and black Protestants and Mormons are more likely than the general population to turn to religion, according to a new study by researchers from Rice University's Religion and Public Life Program, the University of Nevada-Reno and West Virginia University.

The study, which is slated to appear in an upcoming edition of the journal Public Understanding of Science, is the first to measure whether people would actively consult a religious authority or source of information with a question about science, said lead researcher Elaine Howard Ecklund, the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, a professor of sociology at Rice and director of Rice's Religion and Public Life Program.

"Our findings suggest that religion does not necessarily push individuals away from science sources, but religion might lead people to turn to religious sources in addition to scientific sources," Ecklund said.

The study, "Scientists and Religious Leaders Compete for Cultural Authority of Science," is based on a survey of 10,241 Americans who provided information about their confidence and interest in science, their religious characteristics and their political ideology. The sample included a wide range of people, including all religious groups as well as the nonreligious.

Comment: Considering the amount of religion masquerading as science is it any wonder people are confused?

Al Gore, Global Warming, Harold Camping, science, religion

New report warns: More than 30,000 scientific studies could be wrong due to widespread cell contamination dating back 60 years

Maggie O'Neil
Daily Mail
Mon, 16 Oct 2017 15:46 UTC

Researchers at Radboud University in the Netherlands found that contaminated cells that have been used in research labs for decades might have influenced the results of more than 30,000 scientific papers.

More than 30,000 scientific papers could be flawed by contaminated cells, a study has found.

The report from Radboud University in the Netherlands revealed that 451 cell cultures used in thousands of experiments are contaminated.

Researchers are warning that these experiments could have led to authorities erroneously approving scores of ineffective treatments.

Some of the contaminated cells' origins date back to 1951, and they have been used in laboratories for upwards of six decades.

The 'Krack' hack attack: Security flaw puts every WiFi network at risk

James Titcomb
Telegraph, UK
Mon, 16 Oct 2017 14:46 UTC

The Krack Attack is the first flaw found in the WPA Wi-Fi encryption technique in 14 years

Every Wi-Fi connection is potentially vulnerable to an unprecedented security flaw that allows hackers to snoop on internet traffic, researchers have revealed.

The vulnerability is the first to be found in the modern encryption techniques that have been used to secure Wi-Fi networks for the last 14 years.

In theory, it allows an attacker within range of a Wi-Fi network to inject computer viruses into internet networks, and read communications like passwords, credit card numbers and photos sent over the internet.

The so-called "Krack" attack has been described as a "fundamental flaw" in wireless security techniques by experts. Apple, Android and Windows software are all susceptible to some version of the vulnerability, which is not fixed by changing Wi-Fi passwords. Tech companies have issued or are developing updates to fix it.

"It seems to affect all Wi-Fi networks, it's a fundamental flaw in the underlying protocol, even if you've done everything right [your security] is broken," said Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey's Centre for Cyber Security.

"[It means] you can't trust your network, you can't assume that what's going between your PC and router is secure."

NASA: Ion thruster breaks power, propulsion records

RT
Mon, 16 Oct 2017 09:06 UTC

NASA's newest ion thruster has broken previous records of generating maximum power and propulsion in its latest test, suggesting the technology may become the future of deep space exploration.

The X3 thruster is being developed by researchers at the University of Michigan in collaboration with the US Air Force and NASA. The group has been working on the technology since 2009. They first developed a two-channel thruster, the X2, before the more powerful X3 was created.

The X3 thruster team said it broke records of generating maximum power output during recent testing at the Glenn Research Center of NASA in Ohio. Project lead Alec Gallimore said the thruster generated 5.4 N of thrust, the highest value of thrust recorded using a plasma thruster.

"We have shown that X3 can operate at over 100 kW of power," Gallimore told Space.com. "It operated at a huge range of power from 5 kW to 102 kW, with electrical current of up to 260 amperes. It generated 5.4 Newtons of thrust, which is the highest level of thrust achieved by any plasma thruster to date."

The X3 thruster is a Hall thruster, a type of system that uses a stream of ions to propel a spacecraft and expels plasma (a cloud of charged particles) to generate thrust. This allows for greater speeds than a traditional chemical propulsion rocket, and greater efficiency, as they require less propellant and can go about 10 times further on the same amount of fuel. "You can think of electric propulsion as having 10 times the miles per gallon compared to chemical propulsion," Gallimore said.

Scientists witness of gravitational waves and light from colliding of two neutron stars

RT
Mon, 16 Oct 2017 19:53 UTC

The team of scientists from the LIGO and Virgo observatories have confirmed they witnessed both gravitational waves and light coming from the collision of two neutron stars, definitively proving Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

Hundreds of scientists from 70 observatories on all seven continents - as well as an additional seven space-based laboratories - combined their resources and expertise to analyze the signal detected on August 17 this year.

"As these neutron stars spiraled together, they emitted gravitational waves that were detectable for about 100 seconds; when they collided, a flash of light in the form of gamma rays was emitted and seen on Earth about two seconds after the gravitational waves," the researchers wrote in a press release.

The scientific community, using some of the most sensitive machines ever built by humankind, managed to determine that the two dense, dead stars were 200 miles apart before they merged just 100 seconds later, producing ripples in the fabric of space time.

"It is tremendously exciting to experience a rare event that transforms our understanding of the workings of the universe,"says France A. Córdova, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds LIGO.

Comment: See also: Gravitational Waves: Einstein's Elusive Children

Herbicides & plant pathology: Cornell University study shows glyphosate damages soil-friendly bacteria

Sustainable Pulse
Mon, 16 Oct 2017 14:14 UTC

Cornell University researchers have found an agricultural conflict: negative consequences of the weed-killing herbicide glyphosate on Pseudomonas, a soil-friendly bacteria, they announced last week.

As farmers battle in their above-ground war on weeds using glyphosate-based herbicides, they may inadvertently create underground casualties - unintentionally attacking the beneficial bacteria that help crops guard against enemy fungus.

Comment: Un-Earthed: Is Monsanto's glyphosate destroying the soil?

It takes approximately 1,000 years for the earth to produce (on its own) a 2.5 inch thick layer of fertile soil. And yet, it may take only a single application of Roundup to irreversibly alter the microbial populations within the soil -- much in the same way that a single round of antibiotics may seriously and irreversibly alter your gut flora for the rest of your life.

"The FDA has many decisions to make beyond just approving the drug, or not. It must decide whether pregnant women - and any other at-risk groups -...

prehistoric

Many people who are hesitant to be vaccinated for Covid-19 see the drug as a treatment or prophylactic for the disease, though so far there is no...

Good Optics

With mail in voting likely to become a thing, does it really matter any more? Stick a fork in us...this country is done.

Bezel Bub

Other comets coming sooner, although not quite as big. E.g. "Leonard" this December https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2021_A1_(Leonard)

Tsidkenu

Tornadoes here in Aus too, as I reported here [Link]

Tsidkenu

Science & Technology

Source of world's largest mud eruption determined to be Indonesian volcano system

Scientists discover evidence of extreme methane storms on Saturn's moon Titan

Research sheds new light on how Earth and Mars were created

Man & machine will be melded into 1 within 20yrs - IBM expert

Certain faiths are more likely to turn to religion for answers to scientific questions

New report warns: More than 30,000 scientific studies could be wrong due to widespread cell contamination dating back 60 years

The 'Krack' hack attack: Security flaw puts every WiFi network at risk

NASA: Ion thruster breaks power, propulsion records

Scientists witness of gravitational waves and light from colliding of two neutron stars

Herbicides & plant pathology: Cornell University study shows glyphosate damages soil-friendly bacteria

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