Science & TechnologyS


Evil Rays

Baby monitors killing urban Wi-Fi


PC Pro
Mon, 11 May 2009 16:23 UTC
IT Portal
Baby monitors and wireless TV transmitters are responsible for slowing down Wi-Fi connections in built-up areas, according to an Ofcom-commissioned report.

The regulator commissioned the report to evaluate the effectiveness of the unlicensed 2.4GHz band that Wi-Fi operates over.

The report smashes the myth that huge congestion on overlapping Wi-Fi networks is responsible for the poor performance of Wi-Fi in urban areas. Instead, it points the finger of blame at the raft of unlicensed equipment operating on the 2.4GHz band.

"There is a view that some domestic users generate excessive amounts of Wi-Fi traffic, denying access to other users," claims the report from wireless specialists, Mass Consutling. "Our research suggests that this is not the case, rather the affected parties are almost certainly seeing interference from non-Wi-Fi devices such as microwave ovens, Audio Video senders, security cameras or baby monitors."

"The greatest concentration of different radio types tends to occur in urban centres, so interference tends to increase with population density.
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Syringe

Scientists Experiment with Vaccinations in GMO Corn


Google
Mon, 11 May 2009 03:28 UTC
Ames, Iowa - Iowa State University researchers are putting flu vaccines into
the genetic makeup of corn, which may someday allow pigs and humans to get a
flu vaccination simply by eating corn or corn products.

"We're trying to figure out which genes from the swine influenza virus to
incorporate into corn so those genes, when expressed, would produce
protein," said Hank Harris, professor in animal science and one of the
researchers on the project. "When the pig consumes that corn, it would serve
as a vaccine."

Comment: This is yet one more reason to eat organic food. Wouldn't this just serve to increase the rate of virus mutation; especially since people will be eating the pigs who have eaten the corn, besides eating the corn itself? Read more about the controversy surrounding vaccines here, here, here, and here.

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Info

World's Largest Tornado Experiment Heads For Great Plains


Terra Daily
Wed, 13 May 2009 01:49 UTC
Boulder, CO - The largest and most ambitious tornado study in history will begin next week, as dozens of scientists deploy radars and other ground-based instruments across the Great Plains to gain a better understanding of these often-deadly weather events.

The collaborative international project, involving scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and a number of other organizations, will examine in detail how tornadoes form and the patterns of damage they cause. The findings are expected to improve tornado warnings and short-term severe weather forecasts.
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Saturn

Soft Ground Puts Mars Rover Spirit In Danger


Mars Daily
Wed, 13 May 2009 01:42 UTC
Image
© Mars Daily
The five wheels that still rotate on NASA's Mars Exploration
Rover Spirit have been slipping severely in soft soil during recent attempts to drive, sinking the wheels about halfway into the ground.

The rover team of engineers and scientists has suspended driving Spirit temporarily while studying the ground around the rover and planning simulation tests of driving options with a test rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
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Info

Prehistoric fishing tackle found in Egypt


Khaleej Times Online
Wed, 13 May 2009 01:27 UTC
Cairo - An Egyptian archaeological team has found prehistoric fishing gear, sewing equipment and jewellery all made from animal bones, as well as pottery and coins, near an oasis south of Cairo, officials said on Tuesday.

Culture Minister Faruk Hosni said in a statement: "An Egyptian archaeological mission working near El-Karn island on Lake Qarun in Fayoum has found a large amount of fishing tackle, sewing equipment and jewellery made from animal bone dating back to prehistoric time."
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Magnify

Race to preserve the world's oldest submerged town

University of Nottingham
PhysOrg.com
Wed, 13 May 2009 01:19 UTC
The oldest submerged town in the world is about to give up its secrets - with the help of equipment that could revolutionise underwater archaeology.

The ancient town of Pavlopetri lies in three to four metres of water just off the coast of southern Laconia in Greece. The ruins date from at least 2800 BC through to intact buildings, courtyards, streets, chamber tombs and some thirty-seven cist graves which are thought to belong to the Mycenaean period (c.1680-1180 BC). This Bronze Age phase of Greece provides the historical setting for much Ancient Greek literature and myth, including Homer's Age of Heroes.
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Rocket

NASA finds minor scratch damage to shuttle shield

Irene Klotz
Reuters
Wed, 13 May 2009 01:12 UTC
Cape Canaveral, Florida - The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis apparently was hit by a piece of debris that nicked part of its heat shield but the damage appeared very minor, NASA said on Tuesday.

Atlantis and its seven-member crew blasted off from Florida on Monday on an 11-day mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

It will be the U.S. space agency's last chance to tinker with the telescope -- which has vastly expanded scientists' knowledge of the universe -- before NASA ends the shuttle program in 2010.
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Frog

Enemies of creationism may be hindering science teachers

Andrew Brown
Guardian
Tue, 12 May 2009 14:58 UTC
A US judge's ruling is a warning to those who want to teach real science in schools that they need to change their tactics

Adistrict court judge in southern California has ruled that a teacher who described creationism as "superstitious nonsense" was making a religious statement, which is impermissible in US public schools. On the face of it, this is completely absurd, even for southern California. Creationism is superstitious nonsense, and teachers should be able to say so. But when you look at the background, the case becomes in some respects less absurd, but also more threatening - especially for hardline rationalists such as Richard Dawkins, who would like to dismiss creationism as beneath contempt.
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Magnify

Physicists make smallest incandescent lamp


United Press International
Tue, 12 May 2009 01:36 UTC
Los Angeles, -- U.S. scientists say they have created the world's smallest incandescent lamp to explore the boundary between thermodynamics and quantum mechanics.

The UCLA researchers said thermodynamics concerns systems with many particles while quantum mechanics works best when applied to just a few. The team is using its tiny lamp to study physicist Max Planck's black-body radiation law, which was derived in 1900 using principles now understood to be native to both theories.
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Info

Phair, woman who named Pluto, dead at 90


United Press International
Tue, 12 May 2009 01:30 UTC
Image
© UPI Photo/NASAAstronomers declared that Pluto is no longer a planet at an International Astronomical Union meeting in Prague, Czech Republic on August 24, 2006. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope in 2005 shows Pluto, its moon Charon (below and right of center) and two newly discovered moons to the right.
Banstead, England -- Venetia Phair, who earned scientific notoriety at the age of 11 by suggesting the name Pluto for a newly discovered planet, has died in Britain, her son says.

Phair's son, Patrick, confirmed his mother, who was born Venetia Burney, died of unspecified causes April 30 at the age of 90 in the British town of Banstead, The New York Times said Monday.
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