Science & TechnologyS


Bulb

Comet May Have Exploded Over North America 13,000 Years Ago: Caused wooly mammoth extinction, global cooling and end of early human Clovis culture

Cheryl Dybas
National Science Foundation
Tue, 14 Aug 2007 03:54 UTC
New scientific findings suggest that a large comet may have exploded over North America 12,900 years ago, explaining riddles that scientists have wrestled with for decades, including an abrupt cooling of much of the planet and the extinction of large mammals.

©Allen West, UCSB
A "black mat" of algal growth in Arizona marks a line of extinction at 12,900 years ago; Clovis points and mammoth skeletons were found at the line but not above it.
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Magnify

Researchers map Angkor's ancient sprawl

Roger Highfield
telegraph.co.uk
Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:02 UTC
Carpeted today with vegetation, obscured by a cloak of low-lying cloud and raided by thieves, Angkor in Cambodia once thrived between the 9th and 16th centuries, reaching a peak of many hundreds of thousands of people in the 13th century

Today, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a new map reveals its heart spread over 400 square miles - compared with Greater London's 600 square miles - and the associated sprawl extended out another several hundred square miles.

©PNAS
''Village temple'' configuration at Angkor
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Magic Wand

Birds learn to fly with a little help from their ancestors


The University of Sheffield
Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:16 UTC
A researcher at the University of Sheffield has discovered that the reason birds learn to fly so easily is because latent memories may have been left behind by their ancestors.

It is widely known that birds learn to fly through practice, gradually refining their innate ability into a finely tuned skill. However, according to Dr Jim Stone from the University of Sheffield´s Department of Psychology, these skills may be easy to refine because of a genetically specified latent memory for flying.
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Bell

Earthquake Warning In Less Than Five Minutes

GFZ Potsdam News Release
Science Daily
Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:45 UTC
Determination of earthquake location and size in Indonesia dramatically improved due to German Tsunami Early Warning Project (GITEWS).

The M 7.6 West Java earthquake on August 8 was detected, located and sized after only 4 minutes and 38 seconds by the German Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS) currently under construction in Indonesia.

The location of the earthquake had been established after just 2 minutes and 11 seconds. For comparison: The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) in Hawaii published the location and magnitude of this earthquake after about 17 minutes.
Comment: It is admirable how quickly one can detect and report an earthquake, especially an earthquake which could trigger a tsunami where every minute of advance warning is critical. What would be truly beneficial would be a predictive method of reporting/warning in advance of an earthquake's appearance.
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Star

Fiery rock will test whether life came from space

David Shiga
New Scientist
Tue, 14 Aug 2007 08:06 UTC
A rock will be hurled into space on a rocket and subjected to the fiery heat of re-entry into Earth's atmosphere to test whether life could have hitched a ride from one planet to another in debris from an asteroid strike.

The rock is one of 35 experiments to fly on a European Space Agency mission called Foton M3, which is set to launch on 14 September from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Some scientists say life could have spread around the solar system by hitching rides inside rocks blasted from one planet or moon to another by asteroid impacts.
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Telescope

Are Planetary Systems Filled to Capacity?

Steven Soter
Astrobiology Magazine
Tue, 14 Aug 2007 02:46 UTC
Steven Soter is a research associate in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and scientist-in-residence at New York University, where he teaches on subjects ranging from life in the universe to geology and antiquity in the Mediterranean region. His research interests include planetary astronomy and geoarchaeology. He collaborated with Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan to create the acclaimed Cosmos television series in 1980.

In part one of this two-part essay, Soter explains how computer simulations suggest that planetary systems, including our own, contain as many planets as they can hold without becoming unstable. He says that observations of extrasolar systems should provide the ultimate test of this hypothesis.
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Laptop

Firefox leak could divulge sensitive info

Dan Goodin
Channel Register
Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:37 UTC
How to remotely share your settings with people you've never met.

A security researcher has discovered a vulnerability in Firefox that could allow criminals to remotely siphon private information stored in plugins and call sensitive functions.
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Battery

Researchers Develop Bendable Battery

RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press
Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:26 UTC


©AP Photo/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and PNAS
A battery that looks like a sheet of paper and can be bent and twisted, trimmed with scissors or molded into any needed shape has been developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

WASHINGTON - It's a battery that looks like a piece of paper and can be bent or twisted, trimmed with scissors or molded into any shape needed. While the battery is only a prototype a few inches square right now, the researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who developed it have high hopes for it in electronics and other fields that need smaller, lighter power sources.
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Clock

Indians predated Newton 'discovery' by 250 years


Manchester
Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:58 UTC
A little known school of scholars in southwest India discovered one of the founding principles of modern mathematics hundreds of years before Newton according to new research.

Dr George Gheverghese Joseph from The University of Manchester says the 'Kerala School' identified the 'infinite series'- one of the basic components of calculus - in about 1350.

The discovery is currently - and wrongly - attributed in books to Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz at the end of the seventeenth centuries.

The team from the Universities of Manchester and Exeter reveal the Kerala School also discovered what amounted to the Pi series and used it to calculate Pi correct to 9, 10 and later 17 decimal places.
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R2-D2

Phoenix Adjusts Course Successfully For Journey To Mars


Space Daily
Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:48 UTC
PASADENA - Lander to make the first and largest of six course corrections planned during the spacecraft's flight from Earth to Mars. Phoenix left Earth Aug. 4, bound for a challenging touchdown on May 25, 2008, at a site farther north than any previous Mars landing. It will robotically dig to underground ice and run laboratory tests assessing whether the site could ever have been hospitable to microbial life.

©n/a
Key activities in the next few weeks will include checkouts of science instruments, radar and the communication system that will be used during and after the landing.
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