Science & TechnologyS


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Shale and our water: New York Times editorial


nytimes.com
Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:53 UTC
New York State's environmental regulators have proposed rules to govern drilling in the Marcellus Shale - a subterranean layer of rock curving northward from West Virginia through Ohio and Pennsylvania to New York's southern tier. The shale contains enormous deposits of natural gas that could add to the region's energy supplies and lift New York's upstate economy. If done carefully - and in carefully selected places - drilling should cause minimal environmental harm.

But regulators must amend the rules to bar drilling in the New York City watershed: a million acres of forests and farmlands whose streams supply the reservoirs that send drinking water to eight million people. Accidental leaks could threaten public health and require a filtration system the city can ill afford.
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Sherlock

Sunken Settlement in Greece - Atlantis?

Helena Smith
Guardian
Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:47 UTC
Image
© HandoutA diver explores the sunken settlement beneath the waters off southern Greece.
The secrets of a lost city that may have inspired one of the world's most enduring myths - the fable of Atlantis - have been brought to light from beneath the waters off southern Greece.

Explored by an Anglo-Greek team of archaeologists and marine geologists and known as Pavlopetri, the sunken settlement dates back some 5,000 years to the time of Homer's heroes and in terms of size and wealth of detail is unprecedented, experts say.

"There is now no doubt that this is the oldest submerged town in the world," said Dr Jon Henderson, associate professor of underwater archaeology at the University of Nottingham. "It has remains dating from 2800 to 1200 BC, long before the glory days of classical Greece. There are older sunken sites in the world but none can be considered to be planned towns such as this, which is why it is unique."
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Sherlock

Germany: Historic Graves Under Supermarket


BBC News
Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:28 UTC
Shopping
© BBC News
Archaeologists believe they have traced a mass grave of soldiers who fought in a 17th Century battle in Germany under a modern-day supermarket.

Scots - many of them Highlanders - were among the ranks of Protestant soldiers fighting Catholic forces at Lutzen, a key clash during the 30 Years War.

Culloden expert Dr Tony Pollard has been involved in an international team's investigations at Lutzen.

He said another mass grave on another part of the battlefield may be probed.
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Magic Hat

False Memories 'Written' on Flies' Brains


CBC News
Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:21 UTC
Fruit Fly
© iStockphotoResearchers were able to directly write memories onto the brains of fruit flies.
Scientists have given fruit flies memories of traumatic experiences that never actually happened by directly manipulating nerve cells in their brains.

Researchers in the U.K. and U.S. were able to create an association in the flies' brains between an odour and an unpleasant experience, akin to an electric shock. The treated flies avoided the smell as if the bad memory had actually happened.

"Flies have the ability to learn, but the circuits that instruct memory formation were unknown," Gero Miesenboeck of the University of Oxford said in a release.

Miesenboeck and his colleagues were able to isolate a circuit of just 12 neurons in the flies' brains that was responsible for the memory.
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Question

NASA Surprised with Strange Ribbon Circling Solar System

William Atkins
iTWire
Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:06 UTC
The NASA spacecraft IBEX is making a comprehensive map of the heliosphere, the magnetic boundary formed by the solar wind at the edge of the solar system--around 75 to 90 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun (where one AU is the mean distance between the Sun and Earth).

Unexpectedly, the IBEX spacecraft imaged a "bright, winding ribbon of unknown origin" that goes about 80% around the solar system.

At the termination shock, where the solar wind begins to slow down (from supersonic to subsonic speeds, or from above the speed of sound to below the speed of sound) from its journey from the Sun, this strange-looking ribbon appeared to the IBEX spacecraft.

Astronomers wonder: What is it?
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Satellite

Giant Ribbon Discovered at the Edge of the Solar System


NASA
Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:49 UTC
For years, researchers have known that the solar system is surrounded by a vast bubble of magnetism. Called the "heliosphere," it springs from the sun and extends far beyond the orbit of Pluto, providing a first line of defense against cosmic rays and interstellar clouds that try to enter our local space. Although the heliosphere is huge and literally fills the sky, it emits no light and no one has actually seen it.

Until now.
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Cow Skull

Birth of the Appalachians triggered mass extinction


New Scientist
Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:23 UTC
Image
© Martin ShieldsEarth Cooler
The birth of the US Appalachian mountain chain may have been behind a major ice age and a mass extinction.

The extinction event at the end of the Ordovician 450 million years ago was the second largest Earth has ever seen. It has long been believed that an ice age caused it, but no one knew what triggered the freeze.
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Target

Boeing laser shoots moving vehicle

Aubrey Cohen
Seattle PI
Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:58 UTC
Image
© Ed Turner, BoeingThe Advanced Tactical Laser aircraft flies over Albuquerque, N.M.
Boeing Advanced Tactical Laser aircraft damaged a moving ground vehicle in a Sept. 19 Air Force test, the company announced Tuesday.

"In this test, a directed energy weapon successfully demonstrated direct attack on a moving target," Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Missile Defense Systems' Directed Energy Systems unit, said in a news release. "ATL has now precisely targeted and engaged both stationary and moving targets, demonstrating the transformational versatility of this speed-of-light, ultra-precision engagement capability that will dramatically reduce collateral damage."
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Sherlock

Flashback Stone Age satnav: Did ancient man use 5,000-year-old travel chart to navigate across Britain

David Derbyshire
The Daily Mail
Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:07 UTC
Image
© The Daily MailConnected by triangles: Some of the sites created by Stone Age man (below)
It's considered to be one of the more recent innovations to help the hapless traveller.

But the satnav system may not be as modern as we think.

According to a new theory, prehistoric man navigated his way across England using a similar system based on stone circles and other markers.

The complex network of stones, hill forts and earthworks allowed travellers to trek hundreds of miles with 'pinpoint accuracy' more than 5,000 years ago, amateur historian Tom Brooks says. The grid covered much of southern England and Wales and included landmarks such as Stonehenge and Silbury Hill, claims Mr Brooks, a retired marketing executive of Honiton, Devon.
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Bulb

Coochee coo! Monkey mothers 'go gaga' over their babies just like humans


The Daily Mail
Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:00 UTC
Image
© Rex Features LTD/ Sipa PressA mother Rhesus Macaque with her cubs in China. Researchers found the monkey mothers spent long periods gazing at their babies and smacking them kisses
Monkey mothers go as gooey over their babies as humans, scientist have found.

Scientists who studied 14 pairs of rhesus macaque mothers and their infants were surprised by the human-like way they interacted.

Mothers and babies spent more time gazing at each other than other monkeys. The mothers also blew kisses at their infants by smacking their lips - and often the infants kissed back.
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