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| ©NASA, ESA, C. Faure (Zentrum für Astronomie, University of Heidelberg) and J.P. Kneib (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille |
| In this image, six examples of the rich diversity of 67 strong gravitational lenses found in the COSMOS survey. The lenses were discovered in a recently completed, large set of observations as part of a project to survey a single 1.6-square-degree field of sky (nine times the area of the full moon) with several space-based and Earth-based observatories. Gravitational lenses occur when light travelling towards us from a distant galaxy is magnified and distorted as it encounters a massive object between the galaxy and us. These gravitational lenses often allow astronomers to peer much further back into the early universe than they would normally be able to. The COSMOS project, led by Nick Scoville at the California Institute of Technology, used observations from several observatories including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the XMM-Newton spacecraft, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and the Subaru Telescope. In total 67 gravitational lenses were found. |
Science & Technology
The lenses come from a recently completed, large set of observations as part of a huge project to survey a single 1.6 square degree field of sky (nine times the area of the full Moon) with several space-based and Earth-based observatories. The COSMOS project, led by Nick Scoville at the California Institute of Technology, USA, used observations from several observatories including the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as the Spitzer Space Telescope, the XMM-Newton spacecraft, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the Subaru Telescope and CFHT.
When Temple Grandin argued that animals and autistic savants share cognitive similarities in her best-selling book Animals in Translation (2005), the idea gained steam outside the community of cognitive neuroscientists. Grandin, a professor of animal science whose best-selling books have provided an unprecedented look at the autistic mind, says her autism gives her special insight into the inner workings of the animal mind. She based her proposal on the observation that animals, like autistic humans, sense and respond to stimuli that nonautistic humans usually overlook.
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| ©G. Kaplan, Centre for Animal Behaviour and Neuroscience |
| Australian magpies have been recorded as mimicking a complex sequence of sounds from a kookaburra duet or even learning a whole song on a single exposure. |
There's a kid waiting to meet you at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Like any kid, it will amuse you, it will ask you lots of questions, and it might even bother you a little bit. But unlike most kids, it doesn't walk or talk, and it pays perfect attention. Meet Wizkid: part computer, part robot, a Swiss kid who's changing our concept of how people interact with machines.
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| ©Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne |
| Meet Wizkid: part computer, part robot, a Swiss kid who's changing our concept of how people interact with machines. You can select interactive elements with a wave of your hands. |
An inoperable U.S. spy satellite orbiting 150 miles above Earth was struck Wednesday by a missile fired from a U.S. Navy cruiser, military sources told CNN.
The process of natural selection can act on human culture as well as on genes, a new study finds. Scientists at Stanford University have shown for the first time that cultural traits affecting survival and reproduction evolve at a different rate than other cultural attributes. Speeded or slowed rates of evolution typically indicate the action of natural selection in analyses of the human genome.
This study of cultural evolution compares the rates of change for structural and decorative Polynesian canoe-design traits.
This study of cultural evolution compares the rates of change for structural and decorative Polynesian canoe-design traits.
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| ©iStockphoto/Flemming Mahler |
| Polynesian outrigger canoe. The Stanford team studied reports of canoe designs from 11 Oceanic island cultures. They evaluated features that could contribute to the seaworthiness of the canoes and thus have a bearing on fishing success or survival during migration or warfare. |
Fan-shaped deltas at the edge of huge basins scattered across Mars were probably formed by a titanic influx of water, gushing from the bowels of the Red Planet, according to a study released Wednesday.
The origin and morphology of the deltas, studded with curious step-like terraces, have perplexed scientists since they were first observed three years ago.
Today the surface of Mars is bone dry, but a growing body of evidence suggests as much as a third of its surface was at one time covered with oceans.
The origin and morphology of the deltas, studded with curious step-like terraces, have perplexed scientists since they were first observed three years ago.
Today the surface of Mars is bone dry, but a growing body of evidence suggests as much as a third of its surface was at one time covered with oceans.
Washington - A defense official says a missile launched from a Navy ship in the Pacific hit the U.S. spy satellite it was targeting 130 miles above Earth's surface.
Peer review is supposed to combat fraud, but it can just as easily hold back radical discoveries, says Terence Kealey
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| ©US Navy |
| A missile fired from the USS Lake Erie will attempt to shoot down the crippled satellite |
A US attempt to shoot down a damaged spy satellite would probably be delayed because of poor weather, Pentagon officials say.
Weather forecasts in the Pacific, where a US warship is stationed for the mission, indicated that seas would not be calm enough for the ship to fire a missile at the satellite and destroy it, the officials said.
A 2,000-year-old mechanical computer salvaged from a Roman shipwreck has astounded scientists who have finally unravelled the secrets of how the sophisticated device works.
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| Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty |
| A reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism. |
