Science & TechnologyS


Eye 1

DHS photo database to keep "unauthorized" immigrants from working being considered in immigration bill

Erik Even
Opposing Views
Sat, 11 May 2013 00:00 UTC
Image
An immigration bill under review by the Senate Judiciary Committee would mandate a federal photo database of U.S. adults, sparking concerns that the plan constitutes a national ID system.

The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, S.744, instructs the Department of Homeland Security to develop a "photo tool," a national database of headshots that would be used to ensure that only authorized citizens and residents can gain employment in the United States. The existence of the provision in the 800 page bill was first reported by Wired magazine.

The DHS database would record each person's name, age, and social security number, in addition to their photograph.

Critics are concerned that the database could be used for far more than just confirming immigration status and employment eligibility. The Wired report noted that the social security number system was originally designed for, and legally is still only authorized for use concerning, federal retirement benefits - yet today the number is used for identification in a wide variety of circumstances, including verifying citizenship and employment status.
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Question

A cosmic sleight of hand

Monica Young
Sky&Telescope
Fri, 10 May 2013 16:54 UTC
G2
© ESO / MPE / M.SchartmannAn artist imagines one scenario for G2: as the black hole tidally tears the gas cloud apart, the gas heats to X-ray-emitting temperatures, causing an extended X-ray flare from the galactic center.
A mysterious object is hurtling towards the supermassive black hole lurking in our galaxy's center. Known as G2, the object looks like a tiny bit of fuzz in images taken by some of the most powerful infrared telescopes. In fact, it could be anything from a gas cloud with the mass of three Earths to an enshrouded star or even an evaporating protoplanetary disk.

Whatever it might be, G2 will whizz past our galaxy's central black hole (often called Sgr A*) in mid-September. It'll pass just 180 times the distance between Earth and the Sun away from the black hole, an event that affords astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to watch the beast devour a snack. What exactly will happen is anyone's guess, but astronomers are at the ready, regularly monitoring the galaxy's central black hole.

On April 24th, the Swift telescope witnessed an X-ray flare coming from the galactic center, tantalizing lengthy compared to Sgr A*'s typical flares. And one day later, Swift's Burst Alert Telescope captured a fleeting, 32-millisecond-long burst of higher-energy X-rays

Needless to say, the galactic center had astronomers' attention.

But did the flare signal G2's imminent demise? The ultra-short flare emitted on April 25th looked more reminiscent of the type of outburst emitted by magnetars, spinning stellar corpses with extreme magnetic fields.
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Robot

Pre-empting a new generation of killer robotic weapons

Jayantha Dhanapala
In Depth News
Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:38 UTC
Stop Killer Robots
© Stop Killer Robots
In his farewell address on January 17, 1961 - at the height of the Cold War - President Eisenhower, speaking with the combined experience of a US Army General and a two-term elected President of the most powerful country in the world, warned his country of the danger of the military-industrial complex.

He said: "This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence - economic, political, even spiritual - is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

Over 50 years later we continue to live with the problem of more and more lethal weaponry being designed, manufactured and sold under Government financed contracts not only by the military-industrial complex in the USA but in other countries as well. Government contracts power much research in laboratories and many scientists are lured away from Universities to work on weapons manufacture. These weapons are then placed on the market and sold to countries ostensibly for defence purposes despite their heavy burden on economies especially in developing countries. The recent adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty in the UN General Assembly is a modest brake on this $70 billion trade.
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Camcorder

CCTV surveillance cameras in US city up for adoption as organization tries to raise funds

Chip Smedley
Lancaster Online
Wed, 08 May 2013 08:11 UTC
security camera
© Blaine Shahan A security camera mounted at South Prince and Conestoga streets is shown in this file photo
For $1,000, you can adopt a security camera in Lancaster.

That's because the Lancaster Community Safety Coalition is embarking on an "Adopt-A-Camera" campaign to raise funds that will help pay for the coalition's 161 surveillance cameras deployed around the city.

"It's an idea that came from our volunteers," said LCSC managing director Wes Farmer.

Added coalition resource development chairman DJ Risk, "Our all-volunteer committee believes this fundraiser will generate interest among individuals and businesses who wish to support LCSC's efforts in enhancing Lancaster's community safety."

Risk said the use of cameras to identify suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings illustrates "how Lancastrians should feel safer. because of LCSC's video evidence project."
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Info

Mystery of moon's magnetic field deepens

Charles Q. Choi
SPACE.com
Fri, 10 May 2013 06:01 UTC
Moon's Magnetic Field
© M.-H. Deproost, ORB, BelgiqueThis illustration shows one suggested mechanism for creating an ancient magnetic field on the moon. In this scenario, impacting space rocks on the moon would create instability in the moon's core that could lead to a dynamo that creates a magnetic field.
The moon generated a surprisingly intense magnetic field until at least 3.56 billion years ago, 160 million years longer than previously thought, a new study reports.

These findings could shed light not just on the magnetic field of the moon, which is now extremely weak, but on that of asteroids and other distant worlds, investigators added.

Earth's magnetic field is created by its internal dynamo, which itself is generated by the planet's churning molten metal core. Research increasingly suggests that the moon once had a dynamo as well, with evidence of magnetism found in lunar rocks returned by Apollo astronauts.

Models of the moon's core suggest its dynamo should have lasted only until about 4.1 billion years ago. However, last year, scientists revealed that the moon possessed a magnetic field for much longer than previously thought, with a powerful dynamo in its core from 4.2 billion years ago to at least 3.72 billion years ago.

Researchers have proposed two possibilities to explain why the moon's dynamo lasted so long. One possible explanation is that giant cosmic impacts set the moon lurching enough to drive its dynamo. Another explanation has to do with how the moon's core spins around a slightly different axis than its surrounding mantle layer, generating wobbles - known as precession - that could dramatically stir its core.

The cosmic-impact idea is supported by the fact that the moon experienced massive collisions until around 3.7 billion years ago, such as the one that created the 715-mile-wide (1,150 kilometers) Mare Imbrium, among other craters.
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Magic Wand

The moth that developed the sharpest hearing in the animal world - so it can hear bats coming

Mark Prigg
The Daily Mail
Wed, 08 May 2013 15:09 UTC
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© alamyResearchers believe the moth developed its supersense hearing to avoid bats.
A humble moth has been identified as having the sharpest hearing in the animal kingdom - up to 150 times more sensitive than a human's.

The greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella) lays its eggs in beehives, where the larvae feed on the wax and debris of the honeycombs.

Now, new research published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters has shown it has extremely high frequency sensitivity in its simply constructed ear.

It is capable of sensing sound frequencies up to 300 kHz, the highest recorded in any creature in the natural world.

Humans hear in the 2 to 5 kHz range.

The researchers said it is an example of a well-known animal with a newly discovered, extraordinary, sensory characteristic.

It also reflects on the 'co-evolution' of animals, as the moth's development is intertwined with that of their predators, bats.

The furry mammals find their way in complete darkness using a biological sonar system called echolation.
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Info

Is man descended from the king of the swimmers? Forget about swinging in trees. Experts now say our earliest ancestors were apes who loved to monkey around in the water

John Naish
The Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 10 May 2013 11:05 UTC
When we think of our early human ancestors, we typically picture them roaming as hunter-gatherers across wide African grasslands or arid dusty plains.

But according to a highly controversial scientific theory being debated in London this week, we should abandon this conventional scene and instead imagine our ancestors up to their necks in water, splashing after fish and clams, their primitive lives spent entirely amid wetlands, lakes and rivers.

So says the 'aquatic ape' theory which puts forward the idea that our distant ancestors spent a million years swimming and paddling in water. It argues that this perpetually damp experience shaped us into the hugely successful species that we are today.
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© getty imagesMaking a splash: A bonobo male chimp wading through water to forage

The theory also claims to explain many of our most puzzling human quirks - such as why we have evolved as naked primates who walk on two legs rather than four; why we are prone to obesity; and why we have unusually big brains and noses.

This idea, that our forebears evolved during a prolonged period of aquatic living, has resurfaced this week after years of being drowned out by scornful academic laughter.

It was first proposed in England by the eminent zoologist Sir Alister Hardy in 1960. He suggested that around seven million years ago our ancestors lived in an area of Ethiopia that became flooded. To survive they foraged for food in shallow waters. After about a million years the flood waters receded.
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X

NASA confirms 'serious' leak from International Space Station but says crew are safe

Rob Williams
The Independent
Fri, 10 May 2013 06:09 UTC
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© NASA
Nasa said in a bulletin on its website that while the rate of ammonia leaking from the section of the cooling system has increased the crew were in no danger.

Nasa has insisted that the crew of the International Space Station are safe despite a radiator leak in its power system.

The six-member crew of the space station, which is in orbit 370 km above the earth, reported seeing small white flakes floating away from an area outside the craft yesterday.

Mission Control used external cameras along with images captured by crew members to narrow down the leak's location.

Nasa said in a bulletin on its website that while the rate of ammonia leaking from the section of the cooling system has increased the crew were in no danger.

Ammonia runs through multiple radiator loops to cool the station's power system.

NASA said the leak is increasing from one previously leaking loop that can be bypassed if needed.
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Meteor

Water on moon, Earth came from same primitive meteorites

Kevin Mayhood
Case Western Reserve University
Thu, 09 May 2013 04:59 UTC
The water found on the moon, like that on Earth, came from small meteorites called carbonaceous chondrites in the first 100 million years or so after the solar system formed, researchers from Brown and Case Western Reserve universities and Carnegie Institution of Washington have found.

Evidence discovered within samples of moon dust returned by lunar crews of Apollo 15 and 17 dispels the theory that comets delivered the molecules.

The research is published online in Science Express today.

The discovery's telltale sign is found in the ratio of an isotopic form of hydrogen, called deuterium, to standard hydrogen. The ratio in the Earth's water and in water from specks of volcanic glass trapped in crystals within moon dust match the ratio found in the chondrites. The proportions are far different from those in comet water.

The moon is thought to have formed from a disc of debris left when a giant object hit the Earth 4.5 billion years ago, very early in Earth's history. Scientists have long assumed that the heat from an impact of that size would cause hydrogen and other volatile elements to boil off into space, meaning the moon must have started off completely dry. But recently, NASA spacecraft and new research on samples from the Apollo missions have shown that the moon actually has water, both on and beneath its surface.
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Sun

"Ring of Fire" solar eclipse


SpaceWeather
Fri, 10 May 2013 00:13 UTC
As the sun rose over Australia on Friday morning, May 10th, the solar disk turned into a ring of fire. The day began with an annular solar eclipse:
Solar Eclipse May 2013
© Nicole Hollenbeck
Nicole Hollenbeck took the picture from inside the narrow path of annularity about 70km south of Newman, Australia. At the time, more than 95% of the sun's diameter was covered by the Moon.

In an annular eclipse the Moon is not quite big enough to cover the entire solar disk. A blinding ring of solar fire juts out around the Moon, overwhelming the sun's delicate corona. It may not be the same as totality, but annularity has a charm and beauty all its own. Browse the gallery for more images from the eclipse zone.
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