A new study provides some of the strongest evidence to date that Americans prefer to read political articles that agree with the opinions they already hold.
Researchers found that people spent 36 percent more time reading articles that agreed with their point of view than they did reading text that challenged their opinions.
Even when they did read articles that countered their views, participants almost always balanced that with reading others that confirmed their opinions.
The study is important because it is one of the first to record what people actually read and link these findings to their views on the same topics.
Science & Technology
© BNPS
Artist's impression of the creature
Artist's impression of the creature
Archaeologists have spent months piecing together dozens of old bones found encased in limestone on Britain's Jurassic Coast by a fossil hunter.
After nearly completing the jigsaw-like puzzle they have disclosed that the skeleton, which is 70 per cent complete, is that of a 12ft long plesiosaur.
The marine reptile resembled the Loch Ness monster with its long thin neck and tail, four large flippers and razor-sharp teeth.
© Unknown
Yinghuo-1 would go into Mars orbit in 2010 after a 10-month, 380-million-kilometer journey.
Yinghuo-1 would go into Mars orbit in 2010 after a 10-month, 380-million-kilometer journey.
The probe had passed test of the research phase, Zhang Weiqiang, deputy secretary of SAST Committee of the Communist Party of China, told the third Shanghai International Aerospace Technology and Equipment Exhibition.
The event runs from Thursday to Saturday and includes a full-scale model of Yinghuo-1.
© Unknown
The new instrument has three times the aperture of the old telescope. It represents a significant advance in high-resolution observations of the Sun, since it has the largest aperture of any solar telescope in existence, said Goode. Since it is an off-axis telescope, there is no part of the sunlight blocked by the telescope.
The new instrument has three times the aperture of the old telescope. It represents a significant advance in high-resolution observations of the Sun, since it has the largest aperture of any solar telescope in existence, said Goode. Since it is an off-axis telescope, there is no part of the sunlight blocked by the telescope.
This year marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope
that he used to demonstrate that sunspots are indeed on the Sun.
"With our new big, beautiful white machine, Galileo's work can leap ahead with a capability never before available," said NJIT Distinguished Professor of Physics Philip R. Goode.
© NASA
Evidence suggests flowing water formed the rivers and gullies on the Mars surface, even though surface temperatures were below freezing. Dissolved minerals in liquid water may be the reason.
Evidence suggests flowing water formed the rivers and gullies on the Mars surface, even though surface temperatures were below freezing. Dissolved minerals in liquid water may be the reason.
Researchers report that fluids loaded with dissolved minerals containing elements such as silicon, iron, magnesium, potassium
and aluminum, can remain in a liquid state at temperatures well below freezing. The results of this research appear in the May 21 issue of Nature magazine entitled "Stability Against Freezing of Aqueous Solutions on Early Mars."
"We found that the salts in water solutions can reduce the melting point of water, which may help explain how liquid water existed in a frozen Martian environment," said Alberto Fairen, a space scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. and the lead author of the study.
© AFP
A US weapons lab pulled back the curtain on a super laser with the power to burn as hot as a star.
A US weapons lab pulled back the curtain on a super laser with the power to burn as hot as a star.
The National Ignition Facility's main purpose is to serve as a tool for gauging the reliability and safety of the US nuclear weapons arsenal but scientists say it could deliver breakthroughs in safe fusion power.
"We have invented the world's largest laser system," actor-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said during a dedication ceremony attended by thousands including state and national officials.
© Martin McKenna
News flash: The bulb is beginning to glow. The first NLCs of 2009 were sighted over Russia on May 27th, and an even brighter display appeared last night, May 29th, over Denmark and the British Isles. Martin Mc Kenna sends these snapshots from Maghera, Northern Ireland.
Every six years, Earth spends a number of months passing through the orbital plane of Jupiter's moons. During the passage, amateur astronomers get to see a rare display of "mutual occultations." Jupiter's moons eclipse one another in plain view of backyard telescopes.
On May 25th, Mike Salway of Central Coast, Australia, watched Ganymede eclipse Io. Click to watch.
Images like these are unprecedented. Although Jupiter's moons put on the same kind of show in 2002-2003, no one recorded such clear pictures. "Imaging techniques and equipment have improved immensely over the past 6 years," notes Salway. "So this is the first year where amateurs are recording these events and producing detailed, high-resolution images of the phenomena."
On May 25th, Mike Salway of Central Coast, Australia, watched Ganymede eclipse Io. Click to watch.
Images like these are unprecedented. Although Jupiter's moons put on the same kind of show in 2002-2003, no one recorded such clear pictures. "Imaging techniques and equipment have improved immensely over the past 6 years," notes Salway. "So this is the first year where amateurs are recording these events and producing detailed, high-resolution images of the phenomena."
© clix, stock.xchng
Some chimps use multi-purpose tools to forage honey from hives
Some chimps use multi-purpose tools to forage honey from hives
A team led by Christophe Boesch of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, studied chimps living in Loango National Park in Gabon. They found that the chimps built and used five different types of tools to help them find beehives and extract honey: thin, straight sticks to probe the ground for buried nests; thick, blunt-ended pounders to break open beehive entrances; thinner lever-like enlargers to break down walls within the hive; collectors with frayed ends to dip honey from the opened hive and bark spoons to scoop it out. Various tools were often found near the same hive, suggesting that the chimps employ them in sequence (Journal of Human Evolution, DOI: link).
© NASA / Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC
Artist's impression of the Earth's magnetosphere, buffeted by the solar wind
Artist's impression of the Earth's magnetosphere, buffeted by the solar wind
The region in space that contains the Earth's magnetic field, known as the magnetosphere, protects us from the charged particles that come streaming from the sun. By acting as a barrier to this solar wind, it is also thought to prevent these particles transferring enough of their energy to gas molecules in the atmosphere for these molecules to escape the Earth's gravitational pull.
This may be only half the story, though. At the poles, the magnetosphere might be aiding loss of the atmosphere, according to Stas Barabash of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics in Kiruna, who is principal investigator for the European Space Agency's Venus Express mission. Barabash bases his suggestion on measurements of the flow of ions escaping from Venus, Mars and Earth. It is thought that Venus has never had a magnetosphere, whereas Mars did until its magnetic dynamo wound down 3.5 billion years ago.
