Science & TechnologyS


Question

Press conference in Brazil to announce discovery in outer Solar System


ESO
Wed, 26 Mar 2014 11:46 UTC
La Silla Observatory
© ESOESO's La Silla Observatory.
An international team of astronomers, led by Felipe Braga-Ribas (Observatório Nacional/MCTI, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), has used telescopes at seven locations in South America, including the 1.54-metre Danish and TRAPPIST telescopes at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile, to make a surprise discovery in the outer Solar System.

This unexpected result raises several unanswered questions and is expected to provoke much debate. A press conference will be held in Brazil to present the new results and allow opportunities for questions.

Note that all information regarding these findings is under strict embargo until 19:00 CET (15:00 BRT) on Wednesday 26 March 2014.

When: The conference will be held on 26 March 2014 at 14:30 local time (BRT) and will take place in Portuguese with a summary in English.

Who: The conference presenters are:
  • Felipe Braga-Ribas, Observatório Nacional/MCTI, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • Bruno Sicardy, LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, Paris, France
  • Prof. Roberto Martins, Observatório Nacional/MCTI, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • Prof. Julio Camargo, Observatório Nacional/MCTI, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Where: The event takes place in Observatório Nacional, Auditório do Grupo de Pesquisas em Astronomia (GPA), in the GPA/LINEA Building in Rua General José Cristino, 77, Bairro de São Cristovão, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, 20921-400, Brazil.
Read More...
Jupiter

New storms on Jupiter

Nancy Atkinson
Universe Today
Tue, 25 Mar 2014 18:03 UTC
We told you this was going to be a good season to observe Jupiter, and astrophotographers in the northern hemisphere have been making the most of this time of opposition where Jupiter has been riding high in the sky. What we didn't know was that there was going to be a familiar face staring back at us.

A combination of three storms has been noted throughout this Jupiter observing season for its resemblance to Mickey Mouse's face (at least in outline), and astrophotographer Damian Peach has captured some great images of these storms, along with the iconic Great Red Spot, its little brother Oval BA and other turbulence. Damian has also put together a stunning movie (below) showing about three hours of rotation of the king of the planets.

Damian explained the Mickey Mouse storms are two anticyclones (high pressure regions) that form the ears while a longer elongated cyclone (low pressure) forms the face.
Read More...
Rose

Human nose can detect 1 trillion odours

Jessica Morrison
Nature News
Thu, 20 Mar 2014 10:48 UTC
The human nose can distinguish at least 1 trillion different odours, a resolution orders of magnitude beyond the previous estimate of just 10,000 scents, researchers report today in Science1.
Image
© Richard Green/Commercial/AlamyThe human nose has roughly 400 types of scent receptors that can detect at least 1 trillion different odours.
Scientists who study smell have suspected a higher number for some time, but few studies have attempted to explore the limits of the human nose's sensory capacity. "It has just been sitting there for somebody to do," says study co-author Andreas Keller, an olfactory researcher at the Rockefeller University in New York.
Read More...
Black Magic

Human-animal hybrids could wreck havoc on society, yet laws are not keeping pace with scientific creations


The Voice of Russia
Mon, 24 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
human-animal hybrid embyo
© Flickr.com/lunar caustic/cc-by
Scientists worldwide are creating bizarre human-animal hybrids that could wreak havoc on society. In the past ten years alone, unforgettable advances in the field of genetic modifications have left researchers and on-lookers stunned.

Nowadays, it is possible for a couple of university-age students to concoct new life forms in the comfort of their own basement. Regrettably so, laws have not been able to keep up with the pace at which scientists have been toying around with their creations.

In turn, the entities being created are not at all illegal but by all means could pose a risk to society by and large. There is no telling what may happen if these life forms are allowed to mate. Still, eagerness can be seen in the eyes and minds of scientists on a global level just waiting to unleash their next creation to the world, that all seemed liked fantasy just a short time ago.

To give a concrete example, scientists have made mice with an artificial human chromosome "in every cell of their bodies". Such an act is being praised as a "breakthrough" which may lead to different cures for a wide scope of disease. As reported by Lifenews.com, University of Wisconsin researchers have had much success by transferring cells from human embryos into the brains of mice. These very cells began to grow, and in time made the mice more intelligent.
Read More...
Question

Cosmologists cast doubt on inflation evidence

Jason Major
Universe Today
Mon, 24 Mar 2014 17:06 UTC
BICEP Findings
© Universe TodaySome physicists still have questions on the true origin of the BICEP2 findings…
It was just a week ago that the news blew through the scientific world like a storm: researchers from the BICEP2 project at the South Pole Telescope had detected unambiguous evidence of primordial gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background, the residual rippling of space and time created by the sudden inflation of the Universe less than a billionth of a billionth of a second after the Big Bang.

With whispers of Nobel nominations quickly rising in the science news wings, the team's findings were hailed as the best direct evidence yet of cosmic inflation, possibly even supporting the existence of a multitude of other universes besides our own.

That is, if they really do indicate what they appear to. Some theorists are advising that we "put the champagne back in the fridge"... at least for now.

Theoretical physicists and cosmologists James Dent, Lawrence Krauss, and Harsh Mathur have submitted a brief paper (arXiv:1403.5166 [astro-ph.CO]) stating that, while groundbreaking, the BICEP2 Collaboration findings have yet to rule out all possible non-inflation sources of the observed B-mode polarization patterns and the "surprisingly large value of r, the ratio of power in tensor modes to scalar density perturbations."
"However, while there is little doubt that inflation at the Grand Unified Scale is the best motivated source of such primordial waves, it is important to demonstrate that other possible sources cannot account for the current BICEP2 data before definitely claiming Inflation has been proved. "

- Dent, Krauss, and Mathur (arXiv:1403.5166 [astro-ph.CO])
Inflation may very well be the cause - and Dent and company state right off the bat that "there is little doubt that inflation at the Grand Unified Scale is the best motivated source of such primordial waves" - but there's also a possibility, however remote, that some other, later cosmic event is responsible for at least some if not all of the BICEP2 measurements. (Hence the name of the paper: "Killing the Straw Man: Does BICEP Prove Inflation?")
Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Stunning lightning above mideast seen from space

Laura Poppick
Space.com
Mon, 24 Mar 2014 14:00 UTC
Image
© NASA Earth ObservatoryThis image of lightning over Kuwait was taken by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station on Dec. 12, 2013.
This stunning image of a lightning strike over Kuwait was captured last December by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and released today (March 24) by NASA's Earth Observatory. The ISS recently installed a new instrument to help study the physics and composition of such bolts in detail on a daily basis.

Lightning bolts flash across Earth's atmosphere as often as 50 times per second, which adds up to about 4.3 million times a day and 1.5 billion times a year, NASA officials wrote in an image description. Some of those strikes emit gamma radiation - a type of radiation more commonly associated with exploding stars and nuclear fusion - in bursts known as terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs). The scientists will use the new lightning imagery and data from the ISS to try to understand what triggers lightning during storms in general, and what causes these rarer bursts of TGFs. [Electric Earth: Stunning Images of Lightning]

"The fact that TGFs exist at all is amazing," Doug Rowland, a space physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center involved in this new lighting research, said in a statement. "The electron and gamma-ray energies in TGFs are usually the domain of nuclear explosions, solar flares, and supernovas. What a surprise to find them shooting out of the cold upper atmosphere of our own planet."

Comment: Cyclones, Earthquakes, Volcanoes And Other Electrical Phenomena:
These bolts of positive lightning are quite literally "bolts from space". The combination of sprites and positive lightning form a massive dielectric breakdown in the atmosphere, passing electrical energy from the ionosphere to the ground. With this comprehension, the "electrostatic induction hypothesis" is simply absurd.


Read More...
Beaker

Thank viruses for your skin and bone

Michael Slezak
New Scientist
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Medic Image/Getty
NEXT time you have a cold, rather than cursing, maybe you should thank the virus for making your skin. Genes borrowed from viruses seem to give cells the ability to grow into tissues and organs, and even reproduce sexually. Without these genes, animals could not have evolved beyond simple blobs of cells.

Our cells often need to fuse with other cells, making big cells with multiple nuclei. They do this with the help of proteins on their outer surfaces that stick the cell's walls together and then break them open, so the insides can mix. This mixing is essential for the production of most organs - such as muscles, skin and bone - and even for reproduction, when eggs and sperm fuse. For instance, fused cells form barriers in the placenta that prevent harmful chemicals crossing into the fetus, and internal tubes like blood vessels are also made of fused cells.

Comment: There's a lot going for the argument that viruses are the precursors for evolutionary leaps in the human makeup, but notably hand in hand with extinction events such as plagues. Earth is regularly visited by cometary offspring, which have been shown to be able to carry and deposit viruses into our ecosystem, despite the temperatures involved with space travel and atmospheric burnout. Taking into account that we find ourselves in times of a rise in cometary activity, it would be a good idea to make preparations so that we are protected towards the looming pathogenic threats; ditching the carb based diet and getting those ketones working. See:
New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection
On Viral "Junk" DNA, a DNA Enhancing Ketogenic Diet, and Cometary Kicks
The Ketogenic Diet - An Overview

Read More...
Comet

New Comet: P/2014 E1 (Larson)

Seiichi Yoshida
Aerith Net
Mon, 24 Mar 2014 01:11 UTC
Discovery Date: March 10, 2014

Magnitude: 16.8 mag

Discoverer: Stephen M. Larson (Catalina Sky Survey)
P/2014 E1 (Larson)
© Aerith NetMagnitudes Graph
m1 = 13.0 + 5 log d + 10.0 log r
The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2014-E86.
Read More...
Info

SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: Information theory, or why your brain is not your mind

Sott Editors
Sott.net
Sun, 23 Mar 2014 19:00 UTC
Sott Talk Radio logo
Is your brain really your mind? Is matter the only thing in the universe? Does neo-Darwinism fully explain evolution? In the last few years, we've seen several controversies erupt in the worlds of science and academia, from Rupert Sheldrake's banned TEDx talk to philosopher Thomas Nagel's infamous book Mind and Cosmos, both of which question the modern scientific worldview and its account of the origins of life, the universe, and consciousness. What should we make of it all? Does the mainstream view really explain the world as we know it, or are there better options?

Returning to SOTT Talk Radio this week is Harrison Koehli, writer and editor for Red Pill Press, to talk about his upcoming book on these topics, tentatively titled Mind Matters. The book takes a hard look at the modern scientific worldview, its inherent absurdities, the facts it ignores, and a possible way out of its seemingly insoluble problems: information theory. We'll also be discussing the recent and enigmatic disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, and why we shouldn't exclude the possibility that it might have a paranormal explanation. Our reality may be way more paranormal than we think.

Harrison will also give some updates on new and upcoming publications from Red Pill Press.

Running Time: 02:10:00

Download: MP3

Read More...
X

Microsoft caught up in fresh privacy storm

Richard Waters
ft.com
Fri, 21 Mar 2014 02:29 UTC
Microsoft
Microsoft on Thursday scrambled to head off a privacy storm after it was revealed that the software company had searched through the private email of a blogger it suspected of having received stolen software code.

The concession marked one of the most damaging privacy gaffes to hit a leading US technology company since revelations in 2013 that the country's National Security Agency had been spying on their users. The companies involved, including Microsoft, reacted with outrage at the secret government snooping.
Read More...