Science & TechnologyS


Bulb

Big EU imports of Sahara sun-power coming soon ?

Lewis Page
The Register
Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:49 UTC
Headlines to which the answer is no

The European Union might subsidise "interconnector" undersea power lines beneath the Mediterranean for the purpose of importing solar energy from the Sahara desert, according to reports.

"I think some models starting in the next 5 years will bring some hundreds of megawatts to the European market," European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger told Reuters on Sunday, following a meeting with energy ministers from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
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Rocket

Huge new airships for US Army: designed in Blighty

Lewis Page
The Register
Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:09 UTC
British engineers are to partner with a major US defence contractor to build a large "optionally manned" robot spy airship, intended to lurk for three weeks at a time in the skies above Afghanistan.

US army floating robot
© The RegisterNow that's a big robot.
American arms'n'aerospace goliath Northrop Grumman announced the deal last week, revealing that the US Army has ordered "up to three" Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) ships in a $517m deal. Northrop will lead a consortium of several firms on LEMV, but it is acknowledged that the actual airships will be based on Brit company Hybrid Air Vehicles' 300-foot-long HAV304 design.
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Info

Psychopathy - Academic Battle Delays Publication by 3 Years

Benedict Carey
New York Times
Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:51 UTC
Academic disputes usually flare out in the safety of obscure journals, raising no more than a few tempers, if not voices. But a paper published this week by the American Psychological Association has managed to raise questions of censorship, academic fraud, fair play and criminal sentencing - and all them well before the report ever became public.

The paper is a critique of a rating scale that is widely used in criminal courts to determine whether a person is a psychopath and likely to commit acts of violence. It was accepted for publication in a psychological journal in 2007, but the inventor of the rating scale saw a draft and threatened a lawsuit if it was published, setting in motion a stultifying series of reviews, revisions and legal correspondence.

"This has been a really, really troubling process from the beginning," said Scott O. Lilienfeld, a psychologist at Emory University and a collaborator with one of the paper's authors. "It has people wondering, 'Do I have to worry every time I publish a paper that criticizes someone that I'll get slapped with a lawsuit?' " The delay in publication, he said, "sets a very dangerous precedent" and censors scientific discourse.
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Telescope

Space Rock Watch: Next Generation of Near-Earth Asteroid Lookout Comes Online

John Matson
Scientific American
Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:37 UTC
Pan-STARRS 1
© Rob RatkowskiWide-eyed: The Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii samples a large area of the sky at once, which should enable it to spot large numbers of near-Earth asteroids and other transient objects
The first of four planned Pan-STARRS telescopes in Hawaii should boost asteroid detection rates over the next few years

A new sentry is on guard atop the Haleakala volcano in Hawaii, scanning the skies for potentially threatening asteroids and comets. The first of four telescopes planned for the Pan-STARRS project, short for Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, began a dedicated survey of the sky May 13.

Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) is a modest-size telescope, just 1.8 meters in diameter, but it has an extremely wide field of view, making it an ideal instrument for surveying. Its view encompasses seven square degrees at once - about 35 times the area of the full moon and more than four times as much sky as is visible to the telescope used in the influential Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which began in 2000. "In terms of survey power, we're the biggest telescope in the world," says PS1's director, Ken Chambers, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy (IfA). Pan-STARRS' operators predict that the telescope will complete a survey of the sky visible from Hawaii - about three quarters of the entire sky - three times a month.

Comment: For our readers to get an idea of what lies ahead and what we truly need to worry about, read Laura Knight-Jadczyk's comprehensive SOTT editorial: Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls

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Info

World's Largest Dinosaur Graveyard Linked to Mass Death

Charles Q. Choi
Live Science
Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:54 UTC
Dinosaur Graveyard
© Royal Tyrrell Museum.A herd of centrosaurs (a type of horned dinosaur) drowning in a flood millions of years ago in what is now Alberta, as depicted in this illustration. They left behind what could be the world's largest dinosaur graveyard.
Scientists have revealed what may be the world's largest dinosaur graveyard.

The dinosaurs may have been part of a mass die-off resulting from a monster storm, comparable to today's hurricanes, which struck what was then a coastal area.

The findings could help solve a mystery concerning why the badlands of western Canada are so rich in dinosaur fossils.

The roughly 76-million-year-old fossil beds apparently hold thousands of bones over an area of at least 568 acres (2.3 square km), skeletons that belonged to a roughly cow-sized, plant-eating horned dinosaur known as Centrosaurus. This treasure trove provides the first solid evidence that some horned dinosaur herds were much larger than previously thought, with numbers easily in the high hundreds to low thousands, said senior research scientist David Eberth, a palaeontologist and geologist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta.
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Telescope

Venus Express shows off new findings at major conference


European Space Agency
Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:26 UTC
Image
© ESA Venus Express in orbit around Venus
Thanks to data from Venus Express we have the best idea yet of how Venus' atmosphere works, but there is still a long way to go, delegates at this year's International Venus Conference will be told. At the event, taking place this week (20-26 June) in Aussois, France, scientists are outlining how a better understanding of our nearest planetary neighbour can help us probe our own planet, as well as other bodies in our Solar System, and beyond.

Venus has long been a mysterious place. A runaway greenhouse effect has rendered the surface invisible, as thick clouds of sulphuric acid and a dense atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide engulf a planet only marginally smaller than Earth. With surface temperatures averaging about 464 ºC (737 K), and surface pressures about 100 times that on Earth, Venus was a prime target for early space exploration. However, it then lost favour with space agencies, subsequently being labelled the "forgotten planet".
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Robot

7 Unmanned Airborne Warriors

Ned Smith
TechNewsDaily
Wed, 23 Jun 2010 20:46 UTC
Image
© Northrup GrummanNorthrop Grumman Fire-X
Though fixed-wing UAVs dominate the category, they don't have a complete monopoly on unmanned aerial action. The Fire-X medium-range vertical unmanned aerial system is currently in development with first flight expected by the end of the year. The Fire-X combines the reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition architecture of the U.S. Navy's MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV, which takes off and lands vertically, and the extended range, payload and cargo-hauling capabilities of the commercially mature FAA-certified Bell 407 helicopter. The result is a fully autonomous, four-blade single-engine unmanned helicopter that will support battlefield demand for enhanced situational awareness.
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Grey Alien

Now Scientists Read Your Mind Better Than You Can

Maggie Fox
Reuters
Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:00 UTC
mind reader
© unknown

Scan predicted 75 percent of behavior

People were right about themselves just half the time

Technique might enhance advertising, education efforts

Brain scans may be able to predict what you will do better than you can yourself, and might offer a powerful tool for advertisers or health officials seeking to motivate consumers, researchers said on Tuesday.

They found a way to interpret "real time" brain images to show whether people who viewed messages about using sunscreen would actually use sunscreen during the following week.

The scans were more accurate than the volunteers were, Emily Falk and colleagues at the University of California Los Angeles reported in the Journal of Neuroscience.
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Magnify

King Tut Died of Blood Disorder, Study Says


Agence France-Presse
Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:00 UTC
Image
© Agence France-PresseKing Tutankhamun's golden mask displayed at the Egyptian museum in Cairo in 2009
The new finding challenges past assertions that the famous pharaoh died of malaria.

Legendary pharaoh Tutankhamun was probably killed by the genetic blood disorder sickle cell disease, German scientists said Wednesday, rejecting earlier research that suggested he died of malaria.

The team at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in the northern city of Hamburg questioned the conclusions of a major Egyptian study released in February on the enigmatic boy-king's early demise.

That examination, involving DNA tests and computerised tomography (CT) scans on Tutankhamun's mummy, said he died of malaria after suffering a fall, putting to rest the theory that he was murdered.
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People

Women's bodies 'choosy' about sperm: Australian study


Agence France-Presse
Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:56 UTC
Image
© unkThis handout photo shows human sperm. A woman's body may be unconsciously selective about sperm, allowing some men's to progress to pregnancy but killing off the chances of less suitable matches, an Australian researcher has said.
A woman's body may be unconsciously selective about sperm, allowing some men's to progress to pregnancy but killing off the chances of less suitable matches, an Australian researcher said Wednesday.

University of Adelaide professor Sarah Robertson said her research suggested that sperm contains "signalling molecules" that activate immunity changes in a woman so her body accepts it.

But some apparently healthy sperm failed to activate these changes, leading to the suggestion that the female system can be "choosy" about its biological mate, she said.
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