Science & TechnologyS


Telescope

First Microwave Image of the Complete Moon


ScienceDaily
Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Europlanet Media CentreDay time brightness temperature map of the Moon from China’s first first lunar probe Chang’E-1 at 37 GHz. False-colour image.
The first microwave image of the complete Moon was obtained thanks to the Chinese lunar satellite Chang'E-1. Global brightness temperature maps reveal radiation from the surface and deeper layers of the Moon and its diurnal variation. This will help astronomers to determine the detailed heat flow and, thus, the inner energy of the Moon.

These exciting new results are being presented by Dr. Yong-Chun Zheng and Dr. Kwing L. Chan at the European Planetary Science Congress in Rome.

Chang'E-1 (CE-1) is China's first scientific mission to explore planetary bodies beyond Earth. The stereo camera, one of the eight science instruments on board the spacecraft, has produced a state-of the-art global image of the Moon with unprecedented image quality and positioning precision. The Solar Wind Ion Detector (SWID) has discovered the acceleration of scattered solar wind protons close to the lunar polar terminator. And now, the Lunar Microwave Radiometer (MRM) made it possible, for the first time, to globally map the Moon in microwave frequencies.
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Evil Rays

Europe pushes TV spectrum sell-off

Bill Ray
The Register
Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:21 UTC
Mandatory sale to boost broadband

The European Commission has proposed requiring member countries to sell off TV frequencies by 2013, and allow wireless broadband elsewhere by 2012.

The proposal is based on Europe's commitment to broadband for all by 2013, and 30Mb/s by 2020. It serves to prod countries lagging behind on that schedule, which could be backed up with fines if the European Parliament agrees. Those countries, and everyone else, will have to deregulate 900MHz and 1800MHz and sell off 2.6GHz and 3.5GHz by 2012. They'll also have to get shot of the old TV frequencies at 800MHz (the digital dividend) by January 1 2013.

The 30Mb/s won't all be wireless, but it is supposed to reach every EU citizen, so it seems likely some of it will have to be radio. The EC also reckons we need a coordinating body to ensure compatibility between countries to enable roaming and to create an economy of scale for manufacturers.
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Chalkboard

Boffins riot as Hadron Collider upgrade is delayed

Lewis Page
The Register
Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:26 UTC
So far no threat to destroy world if demands not met

Budget cuts are forcing international science alliance CERN to postpone upgrades to the most potent particle-punisher currently operated by the human race - the subterranean Large Hadron Collider (LHC) outside Geneva. CERN has also been compelled to temporarily shut down other accelerators, and has seen "protests" from boffins and support staff threatened by the cuts.

"The plan... is firmly science-driven," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer in a statement issued on Friday. "It reduces spending on research and consolidation through careful and responsible adjustment of the pace originally foreseen in a way that does not compromise the future research programme unduly. The reductions will be painful, but in the current financial environment, they are fair."
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Evil Rays

Super-tough wireless sensors 'to be dropped into volcanoes'

Lewis Page
The Register
Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:22 UTC
Anakin Skywalker? Big girls' blouse

Topflight engineers based in Newcastle have hit upon a radical plan for warning of volcanic eruptions. They intend to build a heatproof sensor unit which can be dropped into a volcano's caldera and wirelessly transmit data to monitoring stations despite being possibly immersed in molten rock.

"At the moment we have no way of accurately monitoring the situation inside a volcano and in fact most data collection actually goes on post-eruption. With an estimated 500 million people living in the shadow of a volcano this is clearly not ideal," explains Dr Alton Horsfall of Newcastle uni's Centre for Extreme Environment Technology.

"We still have some way to go but using silicon carbide technology we hope to develop a wireless communication system that could accurately collect and transmit chemical data from the very depths of a volcano."

The Newcastle boffins say their silicon-carbide electronics would be used to measure small changes in the levels of certain gases within the caldera - for instance the dioxides of sulphur and carbon - so providing early warning of possible eruptions.
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R2-D2

AIST's HRP4: Sci-Fi-Like Household Helper Robots Have Arrived

Kit Eaton
Fast Company
Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:00 UTC
Image
© na
You've seen plenty of robots and androids in the news, but you've probably never seen anything as astonishing as HRP4, which promises to be cheap, powerful, and the most sci-fi-like bot built to date.

AIST and Kawada Industries just revealed the new humanoid machine, and by making it look "athletic" they've also turned HRP4 into a real-world version of the fictional life-assisting robots you've seen in countless sci-fi movies (the older generation of 'droids in Will Smith's I, Robot movie for one). He's five feet tall and weighs just 86 pounds, including battery. Bipedal android robotics seems to have evolved swiftly enough that new machines don't need props like Asimo's chunky battery backpack.
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Health

Human Connections Start With A Friendly Touch

Michelle Trudeau
NPR.org
Mon, 20 Sep 2010 02:07 UTC
Touch
© Gregory Bull/APHandholding causes levels of the stress hormone cortisol to drop, says Matt Hertenstein, an experimental psychologist at DePauw University in Indiana. In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a couple holds hands during a Hands Across the Sand event in Gulfport, Miss., to protest offshore oil drilling.
Social scientists have shown in many studies over the years that supportive touch can have good outcomes in a number of different realms. Consider the following examples: If a teacher touches a student on the back or arm, that student is more likely to participate in class. The more athletes high-five or hug their teammates, the better their game. A touch can make patients like their doctors more. If you touch a bus driver, he's more likely to let you on for free. If a waitress touches the arm or shoulder of a customer, she may get a larger tip.

But why does a friendly or supportive touch have such universal and positive effects? What's happening in our brains and bodies that accounts for this magic?
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Calculator

Pi record smashed as team finds two-quadrillionth digit

Jason Palmer
BBC
Thu, 16 Sep 2010 01:19 UTC
picountingforumula
© BBCThe formula turns an infinite sum into a more manageable calculation of single terms
A researcher has calculated the 2,000,000,000,000,000th digit of the mathematical constant pi - and a few digits either side of it.

Nicholas Sze, of tech firm Yahoo, said that when pi is expressed in binary, the two quadrillionth digit is 0.

Mr Sze used Yahoo's Hadoop cloud computing technology to more than double the previous record.

It took 23 days on 1,000 of Yahoo's computers - on a standard PC, the calculation would have taken 500 years.

The heart of the calculation made use of an approach called MapReduce originally developed by Google that divides up big problems into smaller sub-problems, combining the answers to solve otherwise intractable mathematical challenges.

At Yahoo, a cluster of 1,000 computers implemented this algorithm to solve an equation that plucks out specific digits of pi.
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Info

The Hunt is on For Gravitational Waves

Steve Connor
The Independent, UK
Mon, 20 Sep 2010 03:04 UTC
Albert Einstein
© AFP / Getty ImageRelative values: Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves.

Gravitational waves are one of the great mysteries of science.

They travel at the speed of light through the Universe, are described as "ripples in the fabric of space time" and are thought to be produced during great cosmic events, such as when two black holes collide. Yet they are quite invisible to detection.

Albert Einstein predicted their existence a century ago and they are fundamental to his theory of general relativity. Even though we haven't been able to detect gravitational waves, there is nothing in the theory of cosmology - well almost nothing - that says they don't exist.

Astronomers say that if we could detect gravitational waves it would not only be a wonderful fulfilment of Einstein's classic theory, it would have practical implications in that their detection would suddenly light up some of the darkest recesses of the Universe. It would give us a radically different view of space, based on something other than the detection of electromagnetic radiation (such as light and X-rays). It would literally allow us to "see" inside black holes, a place where gravity is so strong nothing, not even light can escape.
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Telescope

Jupiter over Mount Wilson


Space Weather
Sun, 19 Sep 2010 19:10 UTC
With Jupiter approaching Earth for one of the closest encounters in decades, telescopes around the world are turning toward the giant planet. Here is the view from Mt. Wilson on Sept. 18th:

Image
© Alan Friedman
The bright light in the sky is Jupiter. The blue-white scaffolding is the exoskeleton of the historic 60-inch telescope, the largest telescope in the world available for public viewing.

Astrophotographer Alan Friedman was at the controls.

"I took this picture of Jupiter," says Friedman. "Mt. Wilson is a magical location where so much of modern astronomy history was written. I spent three nights observing on the 60-inch and the 16-inch--a truly magical adventure!"
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Telescope

Closest Encounter with Jupiter until 2022

Dr. Tony Phillips
Science@NASA
Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:13 UTC
Been outside at midnight lately? There's something you really need to see. Jupiter is approaching Earth for the closest encounter between the two planets in more than a decade--and it is dazzling.

The night of closest approach is Sept. 20-21st. This is also called "the night of opposition" because Jupiter will be opposite the sun, rising at sunset and soaring overhead at midnight. Among all denizens of the midnight sky, only the Moon itself will be brighter.

Image
© Tamas LadanyiScience@NASA reader Tamas Ladanyi took this picture of a friend photographing Jupiter over a lake in the Bakony mountains of Hungary on Sept. 5th. "The giant planet was remarkably bright," says Ladanyi.
Earth-Jupiter encounters happen every 13 months when the Earth laps Jupiter in their race around the sun. But because Earth and Jupiter do not orbit the sun in perfect circles, they are not always the same distance apart when Earth passes by. On Sept. 20th, Jupiter will be as much as 75 million km closer than previous encounters and will not be this close again until 2022.

The view through a telescope is excellent. Because Jupiter is so close, the planet's disk can be seen in rare detail--and there is a lot to see. For instance, the Great Red Spot, a cyclone twice as wide as Earth, is bumping up against another storm called "Red Spot Jr." The apparition of two planet-sized tempests grinding against one another must be seen to be believed.
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