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A gene hunt among more than 4,000 British, Irish and American patients suffering from bipolar disorder has turned up two genes that put new emphasis on a possible cause of the disease.
Add yet another new class of objects to the solar system's growing bestiary - the first known visitor from the inner part of the Oort cloud. Many comets originate in the outer Oort cloud, a shell of icy bodies that surrounds the main part of the solar system.
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| ©Illustration: N Kaib |
| No known object has a similar orbit to 2006 SQ372. Sedna, the fifth-largest object beyond Neptune, has an elongated orbit stretching nearly 1000 times farther from the Sun than the Earth, but it never comes closer to the Sun than 75 AU. 2006 SQ372, on the other hand, comes within 24 AU of the Sun, putting it in a different dynamical category |
A team of astronomers at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA) led by Dr. Istvan Szapudi has found direct evidence for the existence of "dark energy." Dark energy works against the tendency of gravity to pull galaxies together and so causes the universe's expansion to speed up.
The nature of dark energy (what precisely it is, and why it exists) is one of the biggest puzzles of modern science.
This is arguably the clearest detection to date of dark energy's stretching effect on vast cosmic structures: there is only a one in 200,000 chance that the detection would occur by chance.
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| ©B. Granett, M. Neyrinck, I. Szapudi |
| The UH team compared directions in the sky where they found superclusters (red circles) and supervoids (blue circles) with the strength of the Cosmic Microwave Background. Superclusters are more likely to coincide with directions where microwaves are unusually strong (red or orange coloring) and supervoids with directions where the microwaves are unusually weak (blue coloring). |
The nature of dark energy (what precisely it is, and why it exists) is one of the biggest puzzles of modern science.
This is arguably the clearest detection to date of dark energy's stretching effect on vast cosmic structures: there is only a one in 200,000 chance that the detection would occur by chance.
The largest 3-dimensional maps of the universe show that galaxies lie in filamentary superclusters interlaced by vast zones of emptiness, cosmic voids tens of millions of light years across that contain few or no bright galaxies.
Researchers analyzing the two largest maps, from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II) and the Two-Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS), have concluded that these voids are also missing the "halos" of invisible dark matter that bright galaxies reside in.
"Astronomers have wondered for a quarter-century whether these voids were 'too big' or 'too empty' to be explained by gravity alone," said University of Chicago researcher Jeremy Tinker, who led the new study. "Our analysis shows that the voids in these surveys are exactly as big and as empty as predicted by the 'standard' theory of the universe."
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| ©M. Blanton and the SDSS |
| A map of the distribution of galaxies in a thin wedge on the sky, from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II). The earth is at the vertex of the wedge, and the most distant objects shown are 1.3 billion light years away. Red points mark galaxies whose light is dominated by old stars, while blue points show galaxies with younger populations of stars. Galaxies are arrayed in clumps, filaments, and sheets, which are interweaved with bubbles and tunnels, the cosmic voids. |
Researchers analyzing the two largest maps, from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II) and the Two-Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS), have concluded that these voids are also missing the "halos" of invisible dark matter that bright galaxies reside in.
"Astronomers have wondered for a quarter-century whether these voids were 'too big' or 'too empty' to be explained by gravity alone," said University of Chicago researcher Jeremy Tinker, who led the new study. "Our analysis shows that the voids in these surveys are exactly as big and as empty as predicted by the 'standard' theory of the universe."
A new, cheaper way to store electricity to run air conditioners or vehicles promises to make solar power competitive with traditional generation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers said.
The discovery might shatter the biggest barrier to widespread use of solar power, namely that it's unavailable after dark, said Daniel Nocera, an MIT energy professor. The process uses nontoxic natural materials to convert sunlight into gases, as described Thursday in the online version of Science.
Electricity produced from sun rays by photovoltaic cells costs about four times as much as power from conventional coal-fired generators. The higher expense of storing solar power in batteries has undercut its acceptance as a dependable source of renewable energy.
Cheaply storing energy from sun rays would mean ''you've answered everything,'' said Kevin Book, senior energy analyst for Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., before the study was published. For solar power, ''It's the difference between being on the sidelines and being the quarterback,'' he said.
The discovery might shatter the biggest barrier to widespread use of solar power, namely that it's unavailable after dark, said Daniel Nocera, an MIT energy professor. The process uses nontoxic natural materials to convert sunlight into gases, as described Thursday in the online version of Science.
Electricity produced from sun rays by photovoltaic cells costs about four times as much as power from conventional coal-fired generators. The higher expense of storing solar power in batteries has undercut its acceptance as a dependable source of renewable energy.
Cheaply storing energy from sun rays would mean ''you've answered everything,'' said Kevin Book, senior energy analyst for Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., before the study was published. For solar power, ''It's the difference between being on the sidelines and being the quarterback,'' he said.
If you have an account with online vendor Amazon.com, when you open up the site's home page a short bit of text at the top greets you. It might say, for example, "Hello, Tim. We have recommendations for you." One click will lead you to another page with a list of products related to your past purchases. Although this feature isn't particularly intrusive and only exists on a Web page, are there any examples like this in brick-and-mortar stores?
While we aren't aware of any advertising technologies out there that transmit holographic images into your brain to personally greet you and offer new products, one emerging technique works with sound to capture customers' attention. This technology, developed by Holosonics, has introduced a directional speaker unit that many retail chains are currently testing for use in their stores. Instead of blasting music and announcements from an omnidirectional public-address system, directional loudspeakers -- or Audio Spotlight systems, as Holosonics calls them -- make sound audible only in certain designated locations.
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| ©Holosonics |
| An Audio Spotlight system by Holosonics |
While we aren't aware of any advertising technologies out there that transmit holographic images into your brain to personally greet you and offer new products, one emerging technique works with sound to capture customers' attention. This technology, developed by Holosonics, has introduced a directional speaker unit that many retail chains are currently testing for use in their stores. Instead of blasting music and announcements from an omnidirectional public-address system, directional loudspeakers -- or Audio Spotlight systems, as Holosonics calls them -- make sound audible only in certain designated locations.
In a feat of interplanetary sharpshooting, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has pinpointed precisely where the icy jets erupt from the surface of Saturn's geologically active moon Enceladus.
New carefully targeted pictures reveal exquisite details in the prominent south polar "tiger stripe" fractures from which the jets emanate. The images show the fractures are about 300 meters (980 feet) deep, with V-shaped inner walls. The outer flanks of some of the fractures show extensive deposits of fine material. Finely fractured terrain littered with blocks of ice tens of meters in size and larger (the size of small houses) surround the fractures.
"This is the mother lode for us," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. "A place that may ultimately reveal just exactly what kind of environment -- habitable or not -- we have within this tortured little moon."
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| ©NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| This sweeping mosaic of Saturn's moon Enceladus provides broad regional context for the ultra-sharp, close-up views NASA's Cassini spacecraft acquired minutes earlier, during its flyby on Aug. 11, 2008. |
New carefully targeted pictures reveal exquisite details in the prominent south polar "tiger stripe" fractures from which the jets emanate. The images show the fractures are about 300 meters (980 feet) deep, with V-shaped inner walls. The outer flanks of some of the fractures show extensive deposits of fine material. Finely fractured terrain littered with blocks of ice tens of meters in size and larger (the size of small houses) surround the fractures.
"This is the mother lode for us," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. "A place that may ultimately reveal just exactly what kind of environment -- habitable or not -- we have within this tortured little moon."
Two physicists have boldly gone where no reputable scientists should go and devised a new scheme to travel faster than the speed of light.
# Star Trek technology: The reality
# A brief history of warp drives
# Warp Drive - A New Approach [the paper]
The advance could mean that Star Trek fantasies of interstellar civilisations and voyages powered by warp drive are now no longer the exclusive domain of science fiction writers.
# Star Trek technology: The reality
# A brief history of warp drives
# Warp Drive - A New Approach [the paper]
The advance could mean that Star Trek fantasies of interstellar civilisations and voyages powered by warp drive are now no longer the exclusive domain of science fiction writers.
Google's Postini operation keeps a watchful eye on all the malevolent code and viruses that transit the Internet. Last month, it saw e-mail virus attacks surge, with 10 million nasty e-mails sent on July 24th alone.
I am not surprised to see these statistics from Google. I noticed a dramatic increase in the number of spam messages in my in-box beginning last month. According to Google, July and August typically see a boost in the amount of virus attacks. It said the most common attack last month was a "spoofed UPS package-tracking link". In the e-mail, users are tempted to download some sort of malware.
I am not surprised to see these statistics from Google. I noticed a dramatic increase in the number of spam messages in my in-box beginning last month. According to Google, July and August typically see a boost in the amount of virus attacks. It said the most common attack last month was a "spoofed UPS package-tracking link". In the e-mail, users are tempted to download some sort of malware.
Clyde Primary School has been rocked by news it is the custodian of a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite.
Principal Maurie Richardson said the school had received word from Museum Victoria that an 85kg rock on display at the school is a fragment of Cranbourne's world-famous meteorite shower, the Cranbourne Leader reports.
Mr Richardson said when he announced the news over the PA system a huge cheer rang out across the school.
Principal Maurie Richardson said the school had received word from Museum Victoria that an 85kg rock on display at the school is a fragment of Cranbourne's world-famous meteorite shower, the Cranbourne Leader reports.
Mr Richardson said when he announced the news over the PA system a huge cheer rang out across the school.
