Science & Technology
The near-Earth approach of a disintegrating comet in May 2006 gave scientists from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory a rare opportunity to study its chemical composition.
Israeli scientists have discovered how the unicellular alga Dunaliella salina proliferates in extremely salty environments.
The researchers said their identification of the unique proteins involved in the process might provide methods to help crop plants resist the progressive accumulation of salt in soil -- a major limitation for agricultural productivity worldwide.
The researchers said their identification of the unique proteins involved in the process might provide methods to help crop plants resist the progressive accumulation of salt in soil -- a major limitation for agricultural productivity worldwide.
Papa salmon plus mama salmon equals ... baby trout? Japanese researchers put a new spin on surrogate parenting as they engineered one fish species to produce another, in a quest to preserve endangered fish.
Idaho scientists begin the next big step next month, trying to produce a type of salmon highly endangered in that state - the sockeye - this time using more plentiful trout as surrogate parents.
Idaho scientists begin the next big step next month, trying to produce a type of salmon highly endangered in that state - the sockeye - this time using more plentiful trout as surrogate parents.
|
| ©Science |
| Graphic shows surrogate broodstocking technique used to produce a rainbow trout from sterile salmon. |
Scientists on the Cassini mission to Saturn are poring through hundreds of images returned from the Sept. 10 flyby of Saturn's two-toned moon Iapetus. Pictures returned late Tuesday and early Wednesday show the moon's yin and yang--a white hemisphere resembling snow, and the other as black as tar.
Images show a surface that is heavily cratered, along with the mountain ridge that runs along the moon's equator. Many of the close-up observations focused on studying the strange 20-kilometer high (12 mile) mountain ridge that gives the moon a walnut-shaped appearance.
Images show a surface that is heavily cratered, along with the mountain ridge that runs along the moon's equator. Many of the close-up observations focused on studying the strange 20-kilometer high (12 mile) mountain ridge that gives the moon a walnut-shaped appearance.
|
| ©NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Cassini surveys a bright landscape coated by dark material on Iapetus. This image shows terrain in the transition region between the moon's dark leading hemisphere and its bright trailing hemisphere. |
These images taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board Mars Express show the mouth of the Tiu Valles channel system on the red planet.
The pictures were taken in orbit 3103 on 10 June 2006 with a ground resolution of approximately 16 metres per pixel.
The mouth of Tiu Valles is an estuary-like landform. On Earth, an estuary is the tidal mouth of a river valley, or the end that meets the sea and fresh water comes into contact with seawater. In such an area, tidal effects are evident.
The pictures were taken in orbit 3103 on 10 June 2006 with a ground resolution of approximately 16 metres per pixel.
|
| ©ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) |
| Tiu Valles |
The mouth of Tiu Valles is an estuary-like landform. On Earth, an estuary is the tidal mouth of a river valley, or the end that meets the sea and fresh water comes into contact with seawater. In such an area, tidal effects are evident.
A kilogram just isn't what it used to be. The 118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing weight - if ever so slightly.
Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies.
"The mystery is that they were all made of the same material, and many were made at the same time and kept under the same conditions, and yet the masses among them are slowly drifting apart," he said. "We don't really have a good hypothesis for it."
Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies.
"The mystery is that they were all made of the same material, and many were made at the same time and kept under the same conditions, and yet the masses among them are slowly drifting apart," he said. "We don't really have a good hypothesis for it."
Japan launched its first lunar probe on Friday, nicknamed Kaguya after a fairy-tale princess, in the latest move in a new race with China, India and the United States to explore the moon.
The rocket carrying the three-metric ton orbiter took off into blue skies, leaving a huge trail of vapor over the tiny island of Tanegashima, about 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Tokyo, at 10:31 a.m. (9:31 p.m. EDT) as it headed out over the Pacific Ocean.
The rocket carrying the three-metric ton orbiter took off into blue skies, leaving a huge trail of vapor over the tiny island of Tanegashima, about 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Tokyo, at 10:31 a.m. (9:31 p.m. EDT) as it headed out over the Pacific Ocean.
If you think that the idea of a morning person or an evening person is nonsense, then postgraduate student Martin Sale and his colleagues from the University of Adelaide have news for you.
They have found that the time of day influences your brain's ability to learn-and the human brain learns more effectively in the evening.
They have found that the time of day influences your brain's ability to learn-and the human brain learns more effectively in the evening.
SOFTWARE GIANT, Microsoft has been caught updating punters' Windows machines without asking them.
A dead, spinning star has been found feeding on its stellar companion, whittling it down to an object smaller than some planets.
|
| ©Sonoma State |
Comment: As above, so below.