There is a scene in the animated blockbuster "Finding Nemo" when a school of fish makes a rapid string of complicated patterns--an arrow, a portrait of young Nemo and other intricate designs. While the detailed shapes might be a bit outlandish for fish to form, the premise isn't far off. But how does a school of fish or a flock of birds know how to move from one configuration to another and then reorganize as a unit, without knowing what the entire group is doing?
New research by University of Alberta scientists shows that one movement started by a single individual ripples through the entire group--a finding that helps unravel the mystery that has plagued scientists for years.
"It is known that there is a connection between the signals animals use to communicate with each other and their behaviour," said Raluca Eftimie, a graduate student in the U of A's Centre for Mathematical Biology. "But until now, the connection between the complex spatial group patterns that we can see in nature and the different ways animals communicate, has not been stated explicitly."
Science & Technology
Astronomers based at Jodrell Bank Observatory have found evidence that giant whirlpools form in the wake of stars as they move through clouds in interstellar space. The discovery will be presented by Dr Chris Wareing at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Preston on 17th April.
Dr Wareing and his colleagues used the COBRA supercomputer to simulate in three-dimensions the movement of a dying star through surrounding interstellar gas. At the end of their life, Sun-sized stars lose their grip on their outer layers and as much as half of their mass drifts off into space.
Dr Wareing and his colleagues used the COBRA supercomputer to simulate in three-dimensions the movement of a dying star through surrounding interstellar gas. At the end of their life, Sun-sized stars lose their grip on their outer layers and as much as half of their mass drifts off into space.
A new "black smoker" -- an undersea mineral chimney emitting hot, iron-darkened water that attracts unusual marine life -- has been discovered at about 8,500 feet underwater by an expedition currently exploring a section of volcanic ridge along the Pacific Ocean floor off Costa Rica.
Expedition leaders from Duke University; the Universities of New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts have named their discovery the Medusa hydrothermal vent field. The researchers are working aboard WHOI's research vessel Atlantis, and the expedition is funded by the National Science Foundation.
The researchers picked that name to highlight the presence of a pink form of the jellyfish order Stauromedusae as well as numerous spiky tubeworm casings that festoon the vent chimney and bring to mind "the serpent-haired Medusa of Greek myth," said expedition leader Emily Klein, a geology professor from Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/ .
The bell-shaped jellyfish sighted near the vent "are really unusual, and the ones we found may be of a different species because nobody has seen types of this color before," added Karen Von Damm, an earth sciences professor and hydrothermal vent specialist on the expedition from the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space http://www.eos.sr.unh.edu/.
Expedition leaders from Duke University; the Universities of New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts have named their discovery the Medusa hydrothermal vent field. The researchers are working aboard WHOI's research vessel Atlantis, and the expedition is funded by the National Science Foundation.
The researchers picked that name to highlight the presence of a pink form of the jellyfish order Stauromedusae as well as numerous spiky tubeworm casings that festoon the vent chimney and bring to mind "the serpent-haired Medusa of Greek myth," said expedition leader Emily Klein, a geology professor from Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/ .
The bell-shaped jellyfish sighted near the vent "are really unusual, and the ones we found may be of a different species because nobody has seen types of this color before," added Karen Von Damm, an earth sciences professor and hydrothermal vent specialist on the expedition from the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space http://www.eos.sr.unh.edu/.
Tiny "smart" devices that can be borne on the wind like dust particles could be carried in space probes to explore other planets, UK engineers say.
It is time to stop thinking we are the pinnacle of evolutionary success - chimpanzees are the more highly evolved species, according to new research.
An international scientific body honoured Philippine physicist Roman Kintanar by using his name to identify a newly found asteroid that circles the Sun from the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, local papers said.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially christened as "Kintanar" the asteroid which was originally identified as 6636, in Massachusetts on April 2, local papers said in a belated report.
"This is such a big honour for me. I feel that my efforts in the past are well compensated by this unique accolade," said Kintanar, 77, head of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) from 1958 to 1994. He was also president of the UN World Meteorological Organisation from 1979 to 1987. He received his doctorate from the University of Texas in 1958.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially christened as "Kintanar" the asteroid which was originally identified as 6636, in Massachusetts on April 2, local papers said in a belated report.
"This is such a big honour for me. I feel that my efforts in the past are well compensated by this unique accolade," said Kintanar, 77, head of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) from 1958 to 1994. He was also president of the UN World Meteorological Organisation from 1979 to 1987. He received his doctorate from the University of Texas in 1958.
Frequent climate fluctuations on the world
Planets abound in the galaxy. Over the past decade, scientists have discovered giant planets mostly by radial velocity techniques that detect the spectral shift in a star's light caused by the to and fro tug of an unseen planetary companion.
This method has detected more than 200 planets, dominantly large close-in planets called "hot Jupiters" that are inhospitable to life as we know it.
In the near future, with the launch of NASA's Kepler Mission in 2008, we'll have the tools to seek evidence of Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of distant stars.
The search for life beyond Earth is the search for a good place to live, a habitable planet, in orbit about a long-lived star where life may arise and evolve. The first place we looked was at stars like our own Sun, a middle-sized, middle-aged star. G-Stars like the Sun are stable for about 10 billion years, which is a good long time for planets to form, and life to evolve. We also expected to find solar systems like our own with small terrestrial planets near the star, and larger gaseous planets farther out. This particular pre-conception was discarded with the discovery of hot Jupiters on 4-day orbits about their stars.
This method has detected more than 200 planets, dominantly large close-in planets called "hot Jupiters" that are inhospitable to life as we know it.
In the near future, with the launch of NASA's Kepler Mission in 2008, we'll have the tools to seek evidence of Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of distant stars.
The search for life beyond Earth is the search for a good place to live, a habitable planet, in orbit about a long-lived star where life may arise and evolve. The first place we looked was at stars like our own Sun, a middle-sized, middle-aged star. G-Stars like the Sun are stable for about 10 billion years, which is a good long time for planets to form, and life to evolve. We also expected to find solar systems like our own with small terrestrial planets near the star, and larger gaseous planets farther out. This particular pre-conception was discarded with the discovery of hot Jupiters on 4-day orbits about their stars.
Hurtling through a cosmic dust cloud a mere 400 light-years away, the lovely Pleiades or Seven Sisters star cluster is well-known in astronomical images for its striking blue reflection nebulae. At visible wavelengths, the starlight is scattered and reflected by the dust, but in this portrait in infrared light by the Spitzer Space Telescope, the dust itself glows.
The false color image spans about 1 degree or seven light-years at the distance of the Pleiades, with the densest regions of the dust cloud shown in yellow and red hues. Exploring this young, nearby cluster, the Spitzer data have revealed many cool, low mass stars, brown dwarfs or failed stars, and possible planetary debris disks. Want to see the Pleiades tonight? Look near Venus, the brilliant evening star in the west just after sunset.
The false color image spans about 1 degree or seven light-years at the distance of the Pleiades, with the densest regions of the dust cloud shown in yellow and red hues. Exploring this young, nearby cluster, the Spitzer data have revealed many cool, low mass stars, brown dwarfs or failed stars, and possible planetary debris disks. Want to see the Pleiades tonight? Look near Venus, the brilliant evening star in the west just after sunset.
Suggestions in regard to robotic rights seem to be flying off the shelves these days, but an engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Centre has concocted an interesting set of guidelines catering to autonomous killbots of the future. Most likely, it's just a matter of time before machine-on-machine violence becomes commonplace, and John Canning's "Concept of Operations for Armed Autonomous Systems" outlines just how lethal robots should handle themselves when faced with potentially deadly conflicts.
Interestingly, the document suggests the the bots should be allowed to make their own decisions when it comes to blasting or forgiving fellow robots, but before they pull the trigger on a human, it should request guidance from a flesh 'n blood friendly.
Interestingly, the document suggests the the bots should be allowed to make their own decisions when it comes to blasting or forgiving fellow robots, but before they pull the trigger on a human, it should request guidance from a flesh 'n blood friendly.
