Science & TechnologyS


Einstein

QuakeFinder -- Could This Unusual Pattern of Southern California Earthquakes Offer the Clue Scientists Were Looking For?

CA Earthquake
© Market Wire

Palo Alto, CA - Following the earthquake at Borrego Springs in Southern California on the 7th of July, scientists at QuakeFinder -- a humanitarian organization conducting research into pre-earthquake electromagnetic signals with the aim of developing an early warning system -- immediately analyzed the data collected from their sensors. While more data is being retrieved from the magnetometer's hard drive for further analysis, there appears to be some prior magnetic pulse activity present before the magnitude 5.4 event.

The Borrego Springs area is located on the San Jacinto fault and had been active for several weeks through a cluster of small quakes, parallel to another small cluster of quakes at Ocotillo -- 55 miles to the southeast along the Elsinore fault. While both may be indications of a stress migration from the recent Easter Sunday earthquake in Baja, Mexico, QuakeFinder offers further elaboration.

"The aftershocks (or pre-shocks) are migrating up towards both the San Jacinto and Elsinore faults as the stress is relieved in one area, and then migrates up to adjacent fault segments," says Tom Bleier, head of QuakeFinder.

"However, Borrego and the Mexican border area clusters may not be where the real action is in the near future. The San Jacinto segment is already covered with three of our sites at Ocotillo Wells, Borrego Springs, and Anza, Ca. If there is a larger quake at the fringe of these clusters where the stress is still building, the existing and new sites may detect the same magnetic pulsations that were observed two weeks prior to the 2009 Alum Rock, Ca. M5.4 earthquake, and the 2010 Tacna, Peru events where QuakeFinder instruments were present. This could offer significant data towards the validation of existing research."

Grey Alien

First Successful Full Face Transplant With Tear Ducts

Image
© Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty ImagesFrench professor Laurent Lantieri, a specialist in hand and face transplant
A 35-year-old Frenchman can shed tears of joy through another person's tear ducts following what appears to be the world's first successful full face transplant including eyelids and tear ducts.

The surgery was performed in France on a man whose face was so deformed by "Elephant Man" disease that he consistently shocked passersby on the street. Doctors say the procedure holds promise for the 200-400 badly burned American GIs awaiting similar help in US military hospitals.

Face transplants have been a reality for a few years now, but the French surgical team went a step further and successfully included the eyelids, the whole lachrymal system, which produces tears, as well as the mouth.

Blackbox

Debate over gender disorder drug

Image
© Dopamine/Science Photo LibraryShould we regularise?
Can it be ethical to give girl fetuses a drug to prevent ambiguous genitalia when the drug may also influence their sexual preferences in later life? The US researchers involved reject the idea of using the drug to "treat" homosexuality.

New Scientist explores what's behind the story.

What is the treatment, and what is it used for at present?

The treatment is for a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), which affects about 1 in 15,000 babies. Fetuses affected by CAH have gene defects which mean that they either can't make or don't make enough of a key adrenal hormone called 21-hydroxylase.

That means that their adrenal glands carry on producing male hormones long after they should have stopped. Boys' sexual organs are not affected by this, but about 1 in 8 female fetuses with the condition develop genitalia with masculine characteristics, such as a large clitoris. Girls may also have their urethra positioned inside the vagina, for example.

Sun

Solar Plane Successfully Completes 26-Hour Test Flight

Image
© Denis Bailbouse/Getty ImagesSolar Impulse's Chief Executive Officer and pilot Andre Borschberg fly in the solar-powered HB-SIA prototype airplane during its first successful night flight attempt at Payerne airport July 8.
A solar plane using only solar energy as its power source successfully completed a 26-hour experimental flight on Thursday.

The solar plane landed safely at Payerne Air Base in Switzerland in the early morning. The plane and its pilot were greeted by an enthusiastic crowd, staff member of Solar Impulse, Lucas Chamber, wrote on the project's website.

The experimental HB-SIA plane is powered only by solar panels and has a wingspan of 207 feet, similar to that of an Airbus A340. The plane, which has the same weight of an average family car, can hold one person, the pilot.

Radar

Huge Roman coins find for hobbyist in Wiltshire, England

Image
© UnknownArchaeologists from Somerset County Council excavated the jar and coins
One of the largest ever finds of Roman coins in Britain has been made by a man using a metal detector.

The hoard of more than 52,000 coins dating from the 3rd Century AD was found buried in a field near Frome in Somerset.

The coins were found in a huge jar just over a foot (30cm) below the surface by Dave Crisp, from Devizes in Wiltshire.

"I have made many finds over the years, but this is my first major coin hoard," he said.

After his metal detector gave a "funny signal", Mr Crisp says he dug down 14in before he found what had caused it.

"I put my hand in, pulled out a bit of clay and there was a little Radial, a little bronze Roman coin. Very, very small, about the size of my fingernail."

Igloo

Climategate report: 'Campaign to win hearts and minds' needed

But what's it mean for the bloke on the bus?

The University of East Anglia's enquiry into the conduct of its own staff at its Climatic Research Unit has highlighted criticisms of the department and staff conduct - but clears the path for the individuals concerned to carry on.

The CRU played an important role in writing the UN's IPCC summaries on climate science, so the issue is far from a parochial one. The most serious charge is poor communication; Sir Muir Russell even calls for "a concerted and sustained campaign to win hearts and minds" to restore confidence in the team's work.

Russell was appointed by the institution to investigate an archive of source code and emails that leaked onto the internet last November. The source code is not addressed at all. His report suggests that the problems were of the academics' own making, stating that they were "united in defence against criticism". Yet the enquiry found that despite emails promising to "redefine" the peer review publication process, and put pressure on journal editors, staff were not guilty of subverting the IPCC process, and their "rigour" and "honesty" were beyond question.

War Whore

Credible flying jeep unveiled for US Marines

Hover, VTOL, decent performance - doomed to fail

flying jeep
© The RegisterIs it a car? Is it a plane? Is it a helicopter? I think we all know the answer
Who remembers the "Transformer TX" flying-car project, intended to equip the US Marines with a small four-seat vehicle able to drive about on the ground like a jeep, hover like a helicopter, or fly like a plane? The first team to publicly offer a contending design has now stepped forward.

That design is the "Tyrannos" from Logi Aerospace, allied with other companies and organisations including the South West Research Institute and Californian electric-vehicle firm ZAP.

The Tyrannos is nominally intended to provide Marines with the ability to leapfrog over troublesome roadside bombs, mines, and ambushes while remaining able to drive on the ground as they normally might. However, it promises to be much quieter than ordinary helicopters in use and far easier to fly and maintain.

Info

Doppler Ultrasound Can Reveal Presence of Subclinical Musculoskeletal Disease in Patients With Psoriasis

Paris -- Patients with plaque-type psoriasis more frequently display pathological findings on power doppler ultrasound examination indicative for synovitis and enthesopathy compared with non-psoriatic patients, suggesting a subclinical musculoskeletal involvement in patients asymptomatic for musculoskeletal disease.

However, ultrasound findings in patients with plaque-type psoriasis without musculoskeletal clinical involvement are not well defined. Findings were presented at the 3rd International Congress on Psoriasis.

"The objective of our study was to investigate the presence of synovitis and enthesitis with power Doppler ultrasonography in patients with psoriasis without symptoms nor clinical signs of musculoskeletal diseases," said lead study author E. Dauden, MD, Dermatology, University Hospital De La Princessa, Madrid, Spain.

A total of 136 patients with plaque psoriasis and 46 age-matched controls with other skin diseases, all withot musculoskeletal diseases were recurited at 14 centres. They underwent dermatological and rheumatological assessment.

Info

Australian Researchers Launch Project Using Ultrasound to Clean Water

Algae in Lake
© The Hindu / File PhotoUnchecked algae in a lake could choke the ecosystem off its nutrients block marine life from valuable sunlight.
University of Adelaide researchers on Wednesday embarked on a three-year project to use sound waves to control blue-green algae in Australia's freshwater supplies.

Chief Investigator Carl Howard, from the University's School of Mechanical Engineering, said researchers would be testing different amplitudes and frequencies of ultrasound to control what is a growing worldwide water quality problem.

"We've already shown in laboratory tests that ultrasound is effective at neutralizing blue-green algae," Dr. Howard said in a statement on Wednesday.

"We know it works but we don't yet know the best frequencies, amplitudes and duration for the most effective, economic and efficient process."

Dr. Howard said ultrasound at high amplitudes was already used for treating sewage and in other chemical processes but wasn't practical for fresh water.

At high amplitudes it breaks down the cell walls of the blue- green algae, releasing toxins into the water.

Info

Proton Smaller Than Thought - May Rewrite Laws of Physics

Protons
© Dorling Kindersley, Getty ImagesProtons and neutrons are shown as red and blue spheres at the center of this diagram of an atom.
Protons, among the building blocks of atoms, are even smaller than we thought - and the unexpected discovery may alter some of the most trusted laws of physics.

All atoms are made up of nuclei orbited by electrons. The nuclei, in turn, are made of neutrons and protons, which are themselves made of particles called quarks.

For years the accepted value for the radius of a proton has been 0.8768 femtometers, where a femtometer equals one quadrillionth of a meter.

The size of a proton is an essential value in equations that make up the 60-year-old theory of quantum electrodynamics, a cornerstone of the Standard Model of particle physics. The Standard Model describes how all forces, except gravity, affect subatomic particles.

But the proton's current value is accurate only by plus or minus one percent - which isn't accurate enough for quantum electrodynamics, or QED, theory to work perfectly. So physicists have been searching for ways to refine the number.