Science & TechnologyS


Control Panel

Science's most powerful computer tackles first questions

Tom Simonite
New Scientist
Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:31 UTC
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© National Center for Computational Sciences, Oak Ridge National LaboratoryJaguar is the second most powerful computer ever built and the fastest dedicated to science.
In cult sci-fi tale Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the most powerful computer in the universe was charged with finding the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

In the real world, a newly built supercomputer that is the most powerful ever dedicated to science will be tackling questions about climate change, supernovas, and the structure of water.

The projects were chosen in a peer-reviewed process designed to get the computer producing useful science even during the period when its performance is still being fine-tuned by engineers.

Jaguar is located at the National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS), part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, and has a peak operating performance of 1.64 petaflops, meaning it can perform more than a million billion mathematical operations every second.

Jaguar has 181,000 processing cores, compared to the one or two found in most desktop machines. The world's only more powerful computer is the US Nuclear Security Administration's 1.7-petaflop Roadrunner at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
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Radar

Conficker botnet stirs to distribute update payload: it's alive!

John Leyden
The Register
Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:21 UTC
The Conficker superworm is stirring, with the spread of a new variant that spreads across P2P and drops a payload. It is thought to update machines infected by earlier strains of the worm.

Conficker-E (the latest variant) offers potential clues on the origins of the worm, because of possible links to other malware. Trend Micro reports that the new Downadup/Conficker variant is talking to servers associated with the Waledac family of malware, in order to download further unwanted items.

Waledec, in turn, is suspected as the latest item of malware from the gang behind the Storm botnet, sparking speculation that all three strains of botnet client are the work of the same cybercriminal gang.
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Umbrella

Obama looks to 'introduce' what has long been happening: climate geoengineering

Seth Borenstein
AP - Breitbart
Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:12 UTC
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© Unknown
The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air.

John Holdren told the Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.
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Sun

Wristband to alert sun over-exposure


Press TV
Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:39 UTC
sun wristband
© unknown
The increased rate of skin cancer among sunbathers prompts scientists to create a wristband to warn user against maximum sun exposure.

Excessive sun exposure is reported as the main trigger for DNA changes leading to melanoma, the most malignant type of skin cancer in 70 percent of sufferers.

The new bracelet-style product, which will enter the market in the upcoming months, turns pink when the sunbather is in danger of getting a sunburn.
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Family

Modern life's pressures may be hastening human evolution

Robert S. Boyd
McClatchy Newspapers
Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:33 UTC
We're not finished yet. Even today, scientists say that human beings are continuing to evolve as our genes respond to rapid changes in the world around us.

In fact, the pressures of modern life may be speeding up the pace of human evolution, some anthropologists think.

Their view contradicts the widespread 20th-century assumption that modern medical practice, antibiotics, better diet and other advances would protect people from the perils and stresses that drive evolutionary change.

Nowadays, the idea that "human evolution is a continuing process is widely accepted among anthropologists,'' said Robert Wald Sussman , the editor of the Yearbook of Physical Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis .

It's even conceivable, he said, that our genes eventually will change enough to create an entirely new human species, one no longer able to breed with our own species, Homo sapiens.
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Magnify

Toltec Mounds profiled

Bill Shrum
Daily Leader
Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:21 UTC
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© Daily LeaderSince 1975, Toltec Mounds Archeological Park was thought in the beginning to be made by the Toltec Indian tribe of Mexico but was later determined that another tribe of Indians, who are not named built the mounds. The tribe has been called The Plum Bayou Tribe, named after a nearby stream.
Stuttgart, Ark. - Within 35 miles and less than a one-hour drive from Stuttgart is Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park, just off Highway 165 North.

The Toltec Mounds, located in the park, are some of the largest and most impressive archeological sites in the Mississippi River Valley Region of the United States.

"People started living at this place we call Toltec Mounds some time before 700 A.D.," Robin Gabe, park interpreter at Toltec Mounds Archeological Park, said. "Distinctive aspects of the culture of the people who lived here are the arrangement and construction of the mounds, the style of decoration on the pottery and the kinds of stone tolls."
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Telescope

Universe lit by dust-swaddled galaxies

Rachel Courtland
New Scientist
Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:48 UTC
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© NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team/STScI/AURADust-obscured galaxies that thrived when the universe was less than 5 billion years old have been seen for the first time by a balloon-borne experiment called BLAST
Dramatic dust-swaddled stellar nurseries seem to be the main sources of a diffuse background light found in all directions, an Antarctic balloon experiment has revealed. The results could help illuminate how star formation has changed over the history of the universe.

Astronomers have long suspected that individual galaxies are responsible for a diffuse glow of long-wavelength infrared light, called the far infrared background, that was detected by NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer satellite in the 1990s.

But accounting for all that light has been difficult, because astronomers must look for such distant galaxies in submillimetre light, which sits between radio and infrared light in the electromagnetic spectrum. Water vapour in Earth's atmosphere easily absorbs this radiation, making it difficult to detect from the ground.
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Better Earth

Earthshine Reflects Earth's Oceans And Continents From The Dark Side Of The Moon


Science Daily
Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:51 UTC
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© NASAThis Clementine star tracker camera image reveals the Moon lit by Earthshine, with the Sun's corona rising over the Moon's dark limb.
Researchers from the University of Melbourne and Princeton University have shown for the first time that the difference in reflection of light from the Earth's land masses and oceans can be seen on the dark side of the moon, a phenomenon known as earthshine.

The paper is published in this week's edition of the international journal Astrobiology.

Sally Langford from the University of Melbourne's School of Physics, who conducted the study as part of her PhD, says that the brightness of the reflected earthshine varied as the Earth rotated, revealing the difference between the intense mirror-like reflections of the ocean compared to the dimmer land.
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Telescope

Korean Discovers Comet for First Time

Kim Tong-hyung
The Korea Times
Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:27 UTC
Yi Dae-am
© UnknownYi Dae-am,
Head of Yongwol Insectarium
An amateur stargazer has discovered a new comet, becoming the first South Korean to do so, science authorities said Wednesday.

Yi Dae-am, who heads the Yongwol Insectarium in Gangwon Province, found the comet, named as Yi-SWAN C/2009 F6, using a 90 millimeter telescope and a digital camera on March 26.

Yi discovered the comet almost simultaneously with American astronomer Robert Mason, who found the comet in pictures taken from the SWAN (Solar Wind ANisotropies) solar observation instrument on the Solar Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft from March 29 to April 4.
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Pharoah

Hidden Face In Nefertiti Bust Examined With CT Scan


Science Daily
Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:07 UTC
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© Radiological Society of North AmericaDetailed surface reformation of right ear conchae. Outer layer in red and high level of transparency is overlaying inner layer with sandy color. The ears bear only thin layers of stucco. They are chiseled with high level of details in limestone. The right canal shows pointed end, (whereas on the other ear the left canal ends bluntly).
Using CT imaging to study a priceless bust of Nefertiti, researchers have uncovered a delicately carved face in the limestone inner core and gained new insights into methods used to create the ancient masterpiece and information pertinent to its conservation, according to a study published in the April issue of Radiology.

"We acquired a lot of information on how the bust was manufactured more than 3,300 years ago by the royal sculptor," said the study's lead author Alexander Huppertz, M.D., director of the Imaging Science Institute in Berlin, Germany. "We learned that the sculpture has two slightly different faces, and we derived from interpretation of the CT images how to prevent damage of this extremely precious art object."
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