Science & Technology
A statistical approach to studying genetic variation promises to shed new light on the history of human migration.
London -- Scientists have found microbes in a 111-million-year-old rock buried 1.6 kilometres below the sea floor, a discovery that marks the deepest living cells ever to be found beneath the sea floor.
According to a report in Nature News, this finding beats the old record of the presence of microbial life - 842 metres below the sea floor.
According to a report in Nature News, this finding beats the old record of the presence of microbial life - 842 metres below the sea floor.
Jupiter has a new freckle -- a third red spot much smaller than the well-known Great Red Spot and a newer one dubbed Red Spot Jr., scientists said on Thursday.
The new spot arose from a white oval-shaped storm, and its change to a red color indicates that the storm is swirling up high into the Jovian atmosphere, the international team of planetary scientists said.
The new spot arose from a white oval-shaped storm, and its change to a red color indicates that the storm is swirling up high into the Jovian atmosphere, the international team of planetary scientists said.
Humans have used symmetrical patterns for thousands of years in both functional and decorative ways. Now, a new book by three mathematicians offers both math experts and enthusiasts a new way to understand symmetry and a fresh way to see the world.
In The Symmetries of Things, eminent Princeton mathematician John H. Conway teams up with Chaim Goodman-Strauss of the University of Arkansas and Heidi Burgiel of Bridgewater State College to present a comprehensive mathematical theory of symmetry in a richly illustrated volume. The book is designed to speak to those with an interest in math, artists, working mathematicians and researchers.
|
| ©Chaim Goodman-Strauss |
| Flower image designed by mathematician Chaim Goodman-Strauss, University of Arkansas. |
In The Symmetries of Things, eminent Princeton mathematician John H. Conway teams up with Chaim Goodman-Strauss of the University of Arkansas and Heidi Burgiel of Bridgewater State College to present a comprehensive mathematical theory of symmetry in a richly illustrated volume. The book is designed to speak to those with an interest in math, artists, working mathematicians and researchers.
Hackers attacked Russian nuclear power websites that allow users to check radiation background amid false rumors of a nuclear accident in northwest Russia, a nuclear industry official said on Friday.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, several Internet forums carried reports of radioactive emissions from the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant near St. Petersburg, and of a planned evacuation of local residents.
A spokesman for the Rosatom state nuclear corporation said the cyber attacks had been planned and coincided with the release of the reports.
"People who stand to lose out from the Russian nuclear power industry's development have an incentive to spread false rumors of an accident at the nuclear plant," he said.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, several Internet forums carried reports of radioactive emissions from the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant near St. Petersburg, and of a planned evacuation of local residents.
A spokesman for the Rosatom state nuclear corporation said the cyber attacks had been planned and coincided with the release of the reports.
"People who stand to lose out from the Russian nuclear power industry's development have an incentive to spread false rumors of an accident at the nuclear plant," he said.
Deposits of nearly pure silica discovered by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in Gusev Crater formed when volcanic steam or hot water (or maybe both) percolated through the ground. Such deposits are found around hydrothermal vents like those in Yellowstone National Park. That's the conclusion of planetary scientists working with data collected by the rover's Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES), developed at Arizona State University.
|
| ©NASA/JPL/University of Arizona |
| The silica-rich deposits occur in the Eastern Valley, flanking Home Plate in the inner basin of the Columbia Hills. The rover spent its second Martian winter parked on Low Ridge. Site A near Tyrone is where Mini-TES spotted the first silica-rich outcrop, and sites B and C are other silica-rich areas; the Gertrude Weise trench site lies at D. This perspective view, made with a digital elevation model and frame PSP_001777_1655_red from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, looks southwest. |
The first images of Jupiter since it came out from behind the sun show that the turbulence and storms that have plagued the planet for the past two years continue. Whether or not this is a sign of global warming, the turbulence does seem to be spawning new spots. As Red Spot Jr. and the Great Red Spot approach a June conjunction, a new third spot may merge with the GRS in August.
|
| ©M. Wong and I. de Pater (University of California, Berkeley) |
| In what's beginning to look like a case of planetary measles, a third red spot has appeared alongside its cousins - the Great Red Spot and Red Spot Jr. - in the turbulent Jovian atmosphere. This third red spot, which is a fraction of the size of the two other features, lies to the west of the Great Red Spot in the same latitude band of clouds. The new red spot was previously a white oval-shaped storm. The change to a red color indicates its swirling storm clouds are rising to heights like the clouds of the Great Red Spot. One possible explanation is that the red storm is so powerful it dredges material from deep beneath Jupiter's cloud tops and lifts it to higher altitudes where solar ultraviolet radiation - via some unknown chemical reaction - produces the familiar brick color. |
Mysterious bands of shadow which sometimes pass across the ground during an eclipse might be produced by sound pulses, according to a new theory.
"Shadow bands" have been observed travelling across the ground before and after totality - when the Moon completely covers the Sun.
Many attribute these regular light and dark bands to atmospheric turbulence.
But astrophysicist Dr Stuart Eves thinks the phenomenon could be down to something called infrasound.
|
| ©NASA |
| The bands appear before and after eclipse "totality" |
"Shadow bands" have been observed travelling across the ground before and after totality - when the Moon completely covers the Sun.
Many attribute these regular light and dark bands to atmospheric turbulence.
But astrophysicist Dr Stuart Eves thinks the phenomenon could be down to something called infrasound.
LOS ANGELES - The "Big One," as earthquake scientists imagine it in a detailed, first-of-its-kind script, unzips California's mighty San Andreas Fault north of the Mexican border. In less than two minutes, Los Angeles and its sprawling suburbs are shaking like a bowl of jelly.
The jolt from the 7.8-magnitude temblor lasts for three minutes - 15 times longer than the disastrous 1994 Northridge quake.
The jolt from the 7.8-magnitude temblor lasts for three minutes - 15 times longer than the disastrous 1994 Northridge quake.
Leading U.S. scientists have called on Congress to prevent the next elected president from doing what they say the George W. Bush Administration has done. That would be censoring, suppressing and falsifying key environmental and health research. Serious consequences result when drug safety decisions are not based on the finest and most accurate scientific advice available from experts.
