Science & Technology
University of Queensland researchers have unlocked new evidence that could help them get to the bottom of our most common phobias and their causes.
Hundreds of thousands of people count snakes and spiders among their fears, and while scientists have previously assumed we possess an evolutionary predisposition to fear the unpopular animals, researchers at UQ's School of Psychology may have proved otherwise.
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| ©iStockphoto/Holger Gogolin
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| Hundreds of thousands of people count snakes and spiders among their fears, and while scientists have previously assumed we possess an evolutionary predisposition to fear the unpopular animals, researchers at UQ's School of Psychology seem to have proved otherwise.
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Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have identified a language feature unique to the human brain that is shedding light on how human language evolved. The study marks the first use of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a non-invasive imaging technique, to compare human brain structures to those of chimpanzees, our closest living relative.
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| ©iStockphoto/Igor Karon
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| Researchers have compared human brain structures to those of chimpanzees to identify a language feature unique to the human brain that is shedding light on how human language evolved.
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Windows Vista SP1 Is having a tough time getting into the Ivy League.
University of Pennsylvania tech staffers are advising faculty and students not to upgrade their computers to the new service pack for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system.
The school's Information Systems & Computing department said it will support Vista SP1 on new systems where it's preinstalled, but added that it "strongly recommends that all other users adopt a 'wait and see' attitude," according to a newly published department bulletin.
Can extraterrestrial ruminants be far behind?
Astronomers report they have detected methane for the first time in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system. The finding comes from extrasolar planet HD 189733 b, a gaseous "hot Jupiter" locked in a tight orbit around a star 63 light-years away.
In a study of New Zealand's "living dinosaur" the tuatara, evolutionary biologist, and ancient DNA expert, Professor David Lambert and his team from the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution recovered DNA sequences from the bones of ancient tuatara, which are up to 8000 years old. They found that, although tuatara have remained largely physically unchanged over very long periods of evolution, they are evolving - at a DNA level - faster than any other animal yet examined.
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| ©iStockphoto/Robyn Grant
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| Tuatara in New Zealand.
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Although it has been more than a decade since Comet Hale-Bopp blazed in the night sky, it's still sputtering as it continues to head into cold, trans-Neptunian space.
In a
paper submitted to the
Astrophysical Journal Letters, a trio of Hungarian and Australian astronomers describe capturing the most distant cometary activity ever seen.
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| ©Dennis di Cicco
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| Comet Hale-Bopp amid its glory on March 17, 1997. The comet still shines in the outer solar system, but at a mere 20th magnitude.
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - The 600 skeletons are packed into fruit cartons and stacked on shelves in the walk-in closet of a forensic lab, in the dim glow of a single bare light bulb. They are "Skeleton No. 4" or "Skeleton No. 21," and nothing more.
But a quarter-century after Argentina's dictatorship and "dirty war" against its own citizens ended, DNA technology raises the possibility of finally learning the identities of these skeletons in the closet, collected from mostly unmarked graves across Argentina.
According to researchers at the Monell Center, fruit flies are more like humans in their responses to many sweet tastes than are almost any other species.
The diverse range of molecules that humans experience as sweet do not necessarily taste sweet to other species. For example, aspartame, a sweetener used by humans, does not taste sweet to rats and mice.
However, fruit flies respond positively to most sweeteners preferred by humans, including sweeteners not perceived as sweet by some species of monkeys.
The findings, published in the current issue of the journal Chemical Senses, demonstrate the critical role of environment in shaping the genetic basis of taste preferences and feeding behavior.
Some have suggested ancient technology glassified these Indus Valley ruins but electricity is a more plausible explanation.
Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent region are thought to be the "birthplace" of civilization and the central focus for human culture dating back to the beginning of recorded history. No one knows for sure just how old the generalized composite that we call "society" really is - both because of archeological deficiencies and because of radiometric disconformity - but one of the oldest sites is located in the
Indus Valley of Pakistan and appears to date from around 3000-2500 BCE.
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| ©Arvind Garg
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| The ruins of Mohenjo-Daro in the Sindh province of Pakistan.
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NASASat, 22 Mar 2008 09:02 UTC
WASHINGTON - A powerful stellar explosion detected March 19 by NASA's Swift satellite has shattered the record for the most distant object that could be seen with the naked eye.
The explosion was a gamma ray burst. Most gamma ray bursts occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. Their cores collapse to form black holes or neutron stars, releasing an intense burst of high-energy gamma rays and ejecting particle jets that rip through space at nearly the speed of light like turbocharged cosmic blowtorches. When the jets plow into surrounding interstellar clouds, they heat the gas, often generating bright afterglows. Gamma ray bursts are the most luminous explosions in the universe since the big bang.
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| ©NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler, et al.
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| The extremely luminous afterglow of GRB 080319B was imaged by Swift's X-ray Telescope (left) and Optical/Ultraviolet Telescope (right). This was by far the brightest gamma-ray burst afterglow ever seen.
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Comment: "Most gamma ray bursts occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. Their cores collapse to form black holes or neutron stars."
This is according to standard astronomy. There is another school of thought, which is winning increasing popularity and which does explain many astronomical phenomena. It is the proponents of the "Electric Universe".
See:
Big Bang Cosmology: Going Down a Black Hole?
Comment: "Most gamma ray bursts occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. Their cores collapse to form black holes or neutron stars."
This is according to standard astronomy. There is another school of thought, which is winning increasing popularity and which does explain many astronomical phenomena. It is the proponents of the "Electric Universe".
See: Big Bang Cosmology: Going Down a Black Hole?