It's lucky for the good burghers of Ullapool in Scotland that they weren't around 1.2 billion years ago, because it was around then that the biggest meteorite ever to hit the British Isles would have made a bit of a dent in local house prices.
That's according to the combined forces of the University of Oxford and the University of Aberdeen, who say that "unusual rock formations" previously thought to have volcanic origins are actually the debris ejected from a meteorite strike which threw material over an area 50km across.
Science & Technology
With little warning, three big sunspots have materialized and on March 25th one of them (989) unleashed an M2-class solar flare. This is the biggest flare of the year and it signals a significant increase in solar activity. The eruption also produced a coronal mass ejection (CME), but auroras are unlikely because the cloud is not heading toward Earth: movie.
"It's March Madness," says Greg Piepol who photographed the three sunspots from his backyard observatory in Rockville, Maryland:
"It's March Madness," says Greg Piepol who photographed the three sunspots from his backyard observatory in Rockville, Maryland:
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| ©Greg Piepol |
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| ©SOHO, ESA, NASA |
Every 11 years or so, the sun gets a little pissy. It breaks out in a rash of planet-sized sunspots that spew superhot gas, hurling clouds of electrons, protons, and heavier ions toward Earth at nearly the speed of light. These solar windstorms have been known to knock out power grids and TV broadcasts, and our growing reliance on space-based technology makes us more vulnerable than ever to their effects. On January 3, scientists discovered a reverse-polarity sunspot, signaling the start of a new cycle - and some are predicting that at its peak (in about four years) things are gonna get nasty. Here's a forecast for 2012.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising at an alarming rate, and new research indicates that soybean plant defenses go down as CO2 goes up. Elevated CO2 impairs a key component of the plant's defenses against leaf-eating insects, according to the report.
Deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels have significantly increased carbon dioxide levels since the late 18th century, said plant biology professor and department head Evan DeLucia, an author of the study.
"Currently, CO2 in the atmosphere is about 380 parts per million," DeLucia said. "At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution it was 280 parts per million, and it had been there for at least 600,000 years -- probably several million years before that."
Deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels have significantly increased carbon dioxide levels since the late 18th century, said plant biology professor and department head Evan DeLucia, an author of the study.
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| ©Evan Delucia |
| Plant defenses go down as carbon dioxide levels go up, the researchers found. Soybeans grown at elevated CO2 levels attract many more adult Japanese beetles than plants grown at current atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. |
"Currently, CO2 in the atmosphere is about 380 parts per million," DeLucia said. "At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution it was 280 parts per million, and it had been there for at least 600,000 years -- probably several million years before that."
Before swatting at one of those pesky flies that come out as the days lengthen and the temperature rises, one should probably think twice. A University of Missouri researcher has found, through the study of Drosophila (a type of fruit fly), that by manipulating levels of certain compounds associated with the "circuitry" of the brain, key genes related to memory can be isolated and tested. The results of the study may benefit human patients suffering from Parkinson's disease and could eventually lead to discoveries in the treatment of depression.
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| ©University of Missouri |
| This depth-encoded image shows serotonin clusters in the brain of the drosophila, a type of fruit fly. |
Low doses of the toxic gas responsible for the unpleasant odor of rotten eggs can safely and reversibly depress both metabolism and aspects of cardiovascular function in mice, producing a suspended-animation-like state. In the April 2008 issue of the journal Anesthesiology, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers report that effects seen in earlier studies of hydrogen sulfide do not depend on a reduction in body temperature and include a substantial decrease in heart rate without a drop in blood pressure.
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| ©iStockphoto |
| When adminstered to mice in small, controlled doses, hydrogen sulfide -- the stinky gas found in sewers -- can produce what appears to be a state of suspended animation, researchers have found. |
Final results from the University of Utah's High-Resolution Fly's Eye cosmic ray observatory show that the most energetic particles in the universe rarely reach Earth at full strength because they come from great distances, so most of them collide with radiation left over from the birth of the universe.
The findings are based on nine years of observations at the now-shuttered observatory on the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Ground. They confirm a 42-year-old prediction -- known as the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) "cutoff," "limit" or "suppression" -- about the behavior of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, which carry more energy than any other known particle.
The findings are based on nine years of observations at the now-shuttered observatory on the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Ground. They confirm a 42-year-old prediction -- known as the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) "cutoff," "limit" or "suppression" -- about the behavior of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, which carry more energy than any other known particle.
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| ©University of Utah |
| Two mirrors within the University of Utah's High Resolution Fly's Eye cosmic ray observatory. |
Scientists on Sunday said they had ruled out a key hypothesis to explain Earth's greatest extinction, when 95 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species were wiped out.
Dubbed "the Great Dying" or "the mother of all mass extinctions," the catastrophe occurred around 250 million years ago at the end of the Permian era.
The event may have unfolded over millions of years, and an increasing number of clues testify to its severity, include the discovery worldwide of eerie, fossilised, mutant plant spores. What is unclear, though, is what caused it.
British researchers, reporting on Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience, ruled out a leading theory that the oceans became starved of oxygen and rich with sulphide, causing marine life to die out.
Dubbed "the Great Dying" or "the mother of all mass extinctions," the catastrophe occurred around 250 million years ago at the end of the Permian era.
The event may have unfolded over millions of years, and an increasing number of clues testify to its severity, include the discovery worldwide of eerie, fossilised, mutant plant spores. What is unclear, though, is what caused it.
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| ©Unknown |
| Paleontologists uncover the bones of a "Southern Elephant" (archidiskodon meridionalis) in Stavropol, 2007. Scientists on Sunday said they had ruled out a key hypothesis to explain Earth's greatest extinction, when 95 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species were wiped out. |
British researchers, reporting on Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience, ruled out a leading theory that the oceans became starved of oxygen and rich with sulphide, causing marine life to die out.
Zeus's weapon has been cracked. Researchers say they have finally worked out how lightning forms, how it escapes the storm cloud that fosters it - and whether it will form a "bolt from the blue".
The theory, which is backed by a computer model, is the first to explain all of the different types of lightning that exist - from regular cloud-to-ground lightning, to gigantic "jet lightning" that escapes up through the top of clouds, to "bolts from the blue", which can strike the ground under blue skies, several kilometres away from a thunderstorm.
The theory, which is backed by a computer model, is the first to explain all of the different types of lightning that exist - from regular cloud-to-ground lightning, to gigantic "jet lightning" that escapes up through the top of clouds, to "bolts from the blue", which can strike the ground under blue skies, several kilometres away from a thunderstorm.
Saturn's moon Titan may have a deep, hidden ocean, according to data published in the journal Science.
Radar images from the Cassini-Huygens mission reinforce predictions that a reservoir of liquid water exists beneath the thick crust of ice.
If confirmed, it would mean that Titan has two of the key components for life - water and organic molecules.
Currently, three other Solar System objects are suspected of having deep oceans: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of the US space agency (Nasa), the European Space Agency (Esa) and the Italian Space Agency (Asi).
Radar images from the Cassini-Huygens mission reinforce predictions that a reservoir of liquid water exists beneath the thick crust of ice.
If confirmed, it would mean that Titan has two of the key components for life - water and organic molecules.
Currently, three other Solar System objects are suspected of having deep oceans: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of the US space agency (Nasa), the European Space Agency (Esa) and the Italian Space Agency (Asi).
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| ©NASA |
| Future observations by Cassini will help test the prediction |
