Science & TechnologyS


Comet 2

'Comet of the Century' could create 'unusual' meteor shower

Miriam Kramer
SPACE.com
Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:04 UTC
An incoming comet that may well turn out to be the "comet of the century" could create an unusual kind of meteor shower, scientists say. When Comet ISON passes by the Earth this year, it is possible that the dust sloughed off by the comet's tail will create an odd meteor shower when the planet passes through the stream of tiny particles that once were a part of the comet's tail.

"Instead of burning up in a flash of light, they [the particles] will drift gently down to the Earth below," University of Western Ontario meteor scientist Paul Wiegert said in a statement. [See Photos of Comet ISON]


The specks of dust will be travelling at a speed of 125,000 mph (201,168 km/h), but once they hit the Earth's atmosphere, they will slow to a halt, according to Wiegert's computer models.
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Dollar Gold

Bitcoin: Virtual currency now in use in shops in Berlin

Kate Connolly and Guy Grandjean
The Guardian
Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:51 UTC
Bitcoin
© The GuardianIn Kreuzberg, Berlin, Bitcoin has expanded off the internet into the local economy.
Nadim Chebli remembers well the first of his customers who decided to pay for the records they bought with virtual currency rather than cash or credit cards.

"I'd only just agreed to accept Bitcoins," said the 36-year-old owner of the Long Player record shop, "and the first sales I made in it came pretty quickly, from a guy about my age who bought Tom Waits's The Big Time and a young woman who bought a Beatles compilation from 1967."

In the few months since Chebli signed up to the peer-to-peer electronic cash system, he finds it hard to come up with definitive characteristics for the "typical" Bitcoin user who walks off the street into what he describes as his "vinyl living room". "There's no typical age group, or sex, just, well, regular folk," he said.

Florentina Martens has had the same experience since opening her Parisian-style cafe Floor's two months ago just a couple of streets away. "There is not a prototype Bitcoin payer," she said. "It's random people. Not only nerds, let me put it that way."

Like Chebli, Martens, whose Kersenvlaai (cherry cake) from her native Maastricht is rated as one of the best culinary offerings of the area, says she decided to accept Bitcoins because of the ease, cheapness and transparency of its payment system.

Comment: Listen to the latest SOTT Talk Radio show on Bitcoin, Gold and the Cashless Society

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Cow

Hornless 'Frankencow': Genetic engineers aim to create super-bovine


RT
Sun, 28 Apr 2013 11:20 UTC
gmo bovine
© AFP/Charly Triballeau
UK and US scientists are seeking to alter the genes of dairy cows in order to make them hornless. The modification is meant to make the livestock safer to deal with, and spare them the painful de-horning practice currently used by farmers.

Scientists have managed to single out DNA that suppresses horn growth in other breeds of cattle, which they now intend to implant into the genome of the Holstein cows - the world's highest-production dairy breed.

"This would be a major advance in animal welfare," Geoff Simm, a scholar and chair of the UK government's Farm Animal Genetic Resources Committee said, according to the Sunday Times. The idea - the brainchild of scientists at Edinburgh's Roslin Institute - will now be brought to life by their partners from the University of Minnesota, who were already conducting similar research.

Scott Fahrenkrug, a professor of genetics at the University of Minnesota, has extracted a short strip of DNA from the genome of Red Angus cattle. The strip, which is known to halt horn growth, was then inserted into the cells from a Holstein bull called Randy.
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Arrow Down

Phosphorescent sheep: Uruguay's Institute of Animal Reproduction creates glow-in-the-dark sheep

Ashleigh Walters
WPTV
Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:48 UTC

Montevideo, Uruguay - Scientists in Uruguay have announced the world's first genetically-modified phosphorescent sheep.

Nine sheep were born in October of 2012 at Uruguay's Institute of Animal Reproduction, an experiment conducted in conjunction with the Institute Pasteur.

The scientists used a gene from a jellyfish, allowing them to produce a green fluorescent protein.

The scientists say the sheep developed normally. They claim there are no differences to their non-modified peers.
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Comet

Schoolchildren discover new comet on school trip


The Telegraph
Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:26 UTC
Image
© ReutersThe comet was officially registered with the centre and given the name C/2013G9 (TENAGRA)
Astronomy students at Wakefield's Horbury Academy were in Hawaii and Australia for two nights to stargaze through the remote Faulkes telescope as part of a GCSE project.

They focused their study on a space object that had been observed before as a possible asteroid but its classification had not been formally noted.

After studying the data, the group were able to rule out the space matter as an asteroid but also anything that had previously been discovered.

The Year 11 pupils sent off their analysis to the Minor Planet Centre in Massachusetts and were amazed to be told they had discovered a new comet.

The comet was officially registered with the centre and given the name C/2013G9 (TENAGRA).
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Info

Stonehenge was also an ancient burial ground for the rich: Study

Elizabeth Howell
Universe Today
Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:14 UTC
Stonehenge
© Wikimedia Commons
The site of Stonehenge - that mysterious collection of British rocks that could have served as a calendar using the stars - was also a graveyard for the elite, according to new research.

A British group led by the University College London looked at 63 bodies surrounding the historical site. They determined these people were part of a group of elite families that brought their relatives to Stonehenge for burial over more than 200 years, starting from 2,900 BC.

The bodies were buried long before the rocks visible today were erected, though.

"The first Stonehenge began its life as a huge graveyard," stated UCL's Parker Pearson, who led the study. "The original monument was a large circular enclosure built 500 years before the Stonehenge we know today, with the remains of many of the cremated bodies originally marked by the bluestones of Stonehenge. We have also discovered that the second Stonehenge was built 200 years earlier than thought, around 2500 BC."
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Blue Planet

Great balls of iron: Researchers uncover clue to bird navigation


Current Biology
Sat, 27 Apr 2013 08:22 UTC
Image
(Phys.org) - Every year millions of birds make heroic migratory journeys across oceans and continents guided by the Earth's magnetic field. How they detect those magnetic fields has puzzled scientists for decades.

But now a collaboration between the Keays lab at the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna and researchers at The University of Western Australia's Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA) has added some important pieces to the puzzle.

Their work, published today in the online version of Current Biology, reports the discovery of iron balls in sensory neurons. These neural cells, called hair cells, are found in the ear and are responsible for detecting sound and gravity. Remarkably, each cell has a single iron ball, and it's in the same place in every cell.

"It's very exciting. We find these iron balls in every bird, whether it's a pigeon or an ostrich, but not in humans," said Mattias Lauwers, the IMP researcher who discovered the balls.

CMCA research associate Dr Jeremy Shaw, who has studied iron in a range of animals from molluscs to humans, said it was an astonishing finding.
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Airplane

Boston police chief says drones for next year's marathon 'are a great idea'


RT
Sat, 27 Apr 2013 05:51 UTC
Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis
© Reuters/Neal Hamberg
United States Vice President Joe Biden says the 2014 Boston Marathon will be "bigger, more spectacular" than ever before, and the city's police commissioner could see that through with some serious changes starting at next year's race.

Notwithstanding last week's terrorist attack that killed three and wounded hundreds, Boston, Massachusetts is expected to continue its tradition of hosting the annual 26-mile run next spring. Speaking to the city's Herald newspaper though, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis says he's looking to add at least one new element in 2014: unmanned aerial vehicles.

Weighing in with regards to how his city will ensure another attack won't ruin next year's marathon, Davis says he's looking towards obtaining a drone aircraft to conduct surveillance from the Boston sky.
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Airplane

Domestic opening of UK drone control center reaps anti-drone protest


RT
Sat, 27 Apr 2013 05:42 UTC
A US Predator drone
© AFP/John MoorePredator drone
Anti-war groups will protest at the UK airbase from which the country has begun controlling its fleet of assassination drones in Afghanistan. Previously, the remote pilots were deployed only in the US.

Four anti-war groups - including CND, the Drone Campaign Network, Stop the War and War on Want - are staging a nonviolent protest on Saturday over drone use by the Waddington base in Lincolnshire.

The British Royal Air Force (RAF) has opened drone control stations at the base located south of Lincoln this week to work in tandem with those already in place at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. In 2010, the Ministry of Defence decided it needs the capability to remotely operate its armed drones from its own soil following a strategic security review.
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Cloud Lightning

Mysterious energy discovered in thunderclouds


The Australian
Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:18 UTC
Image
© SuppliedAmerican scientists believe invisible 'dark lightning' packs a potent punch of radiation.
Central Floridians are no strangers to violent thunderstorms, living in the lightning capital of the country.

But now scientists have discovered an exotic and dynamic form of energy lurking in the thunderclouds above: dark lightning.

Scientists at the Florida Institute of Technology on the Space Coast are traveling the world explaining the mysterious bursts of energy in the atmosphere during lightning storms that emit little visible light.

According to scientist Joseph Dwyer and his colleagues, space telescopes - looking for high-energy bursts from solar flares, black holes and exploding stars - detected strange, bright bursts but had no idea where they originated.

The phenomenon occurs high in the atmosphere at nearly the same altitude as commercial airline flights. The radiation dark lightning produces is about 100 times more potent than an X-ray.
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