Science & TechnologyS


Radar

GPS system may fall over, authorities say


Daily Telegraph
Wed, 20 May 2009 12:29 UTC
The US Government has warned that the worldwide network of satellites that makes up the Global Positioning System could fail by next year, affecting millions of people around the globe.

Many depend on the satellite navigation network to beam precise directions from A to B into users' cars or on their mobile phones.

But mismanagement and a lack of investment means the 20-year-old system could lead consumers into nothing but trouble.

The first replacement satellite was supposed to be launched into space in 2007, but won't be ready until November - nearly three years too late.
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Sun

Stealth storm erupts from the sun

Rachel Courtland
New Scientist
Wed, 20 May 2009 03:59 UTC
The twin STEREO probes that image the sun's activity have caught sight of a burp of ionised gas that blasted into space from our star's surface without warning.

The find confirms suspicions that some solar ejections can occur even though the surface of the sun looks tranquil.

The eruption was a coronal mass ejection (CME) - a bubble of plasma that, if energetic enough and pointed at Earth, could zap satellites, endanger astronauts, and knock out power grids (see Space story alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe).
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Blackbox

Flat universe may be the new flat Earth

Eugenie Samuel Reich
New Scientist
Wed, 20 May 2009 03:29 UTC
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© Garry Wade/Stone/GettyToday we dismiss flat-Earthers as ignorant, yet we may be making an almost identical mistake - not about our planet, but about the entire universe.
For centuries the ancients believed the Earth was flat. Evidence to the contrary was either ignored or effortlessly integrated into the dominant world view. Today we dismiss flat-Earthers as ignorant, yet we may be making an almost identical mistake - not about our planet, but about the entire universe.

When it comes to the universe, "flatness" refers to the fate of light beams travelling large distances parallel to each other. If the universe is "flat", the beams will always remain parallel. Matter, energy and dark energy all produce curvature in space-time, however. If the universe's space-time is positively curved, like the surface of a sphere, parallel beams would come together. In a negatively curved, saddle-shaped universe, parallel beams would diverge.

Thanks in part to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite, which revealed the density of matter and dark energy in the early universe, most astronomers are confident that the universe is flat. But that view is now being questioned by Joseph Silk at the University of Oxford and colleagues, who say it's possible that the WMAP observations have been misinterpreted.
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Magnify

Ancient Gem-Studded Teeth Show Skill of Early Dentists

John Roach
National Geographic News
Wed, 20 May 2009 01:21 UTC
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© José C. Jiménez López
The glittering "grills" of some hip-hop stars aren't exactly unprecedented. Sophisticated dentistry allowed Native Americans to add bling to their teeth as far back as 2,500 years ago, a new study says.

Ancient peoples of southern North America went to "dentists" - among the earliest known - to beautify their chompers with notches, grooves, and semiprecious gems, according to a recent analysis of thousands of teeth examined from collections in Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (such as the skull above, found in Chiapas, Mexico).
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Info

The first evidence of pre-industrial mercury pollution in the Andes


University of Alberta
Wed, 20 May 2009 01:17 UTC
The study of ancient lake sediment from high altitude lakes in the Andes has revealed for the first time that mercury pollution occurred long before the start of the Industrial Revolution.

University of Alberta Earth and Atmospheric Sciences PhD student Colin Cooke's results from two seasons of field work in Peru have now provided the first unambiguous records of pre-industrial mercury pollution from anywhere in the world and will be published in the May 18th Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
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Info

Scientists debunk "Angels and Demons" antimatter

Julie Steenhuysen
Reuters
Wed, 20 May 2009 01:10 UTC
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© REUTERS/Zade Rosenthal/Columbia Pictures/HandoutDirector Ron Howard (L) is shown on the Cern set of his film "Angels & Demons" in this undated publicity photo released to Reuters May 19, 2009.
Chicago - "Angels and Demons," the recently released film version of the Dan Brown thriller, focuses on a plot to destroy the Vatican using a small amount antimatter pilfered from the European particle physics laboratory CERN, the world's largest particle accelerator.

Some of the world's top particle physicists attempted to sort through facts and fiction about antimatter on Tuesday, and comment on their real quest behind CERN -- to unlock secrets about the origins of the universe.

"Antimatter atoms exist, but it is very difficult to make them," Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director-general of CERN, or the European Organization for Nuclear Research, said on Tuesday in a telephone briefing.
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Rocket

Astronauts release Hubble telescope back into space

Irene Klotz
Reuters
Wed, 20 May 2009 01:01 UTC
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© ReutersAstronaut John Grunsfeld, STS-125 mission specialist, positioned on a foot restraint on the end of Atlantis' remote manipulator system (RMS), participates in the mission's fifth and final session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as work continues to refurbish and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope on May 18, 2009.
Houston - Rejuvenated by hours of repairs in space, the Hubble Space Telescope floated out of shuttle Atlantis' cargo bay on Tuesday to reclaim its place as the world's flagship observatory for astronomical research.

Atlantis astronauts spent more than 36 hours over five marathon spacewalks to make upgrades and outfit Hubble with new instruments. These included a panchromatic wide-field camera that should be able to see objects formed just 500 million years after the universe's birth in the big bang explosion some 13.7 billion years ago.

Using the shuttle's robot arm, astronaut Megan McArthur gently lifted the 13-tonne observatory from a work platform in Atlantis' payload bay where it had been positioned since Wednesday.

Holding the telescope high overhead, she released Hubble at 8:57 a.m. EDT as the spacecraft soared 350 miles over the planet.

"There are folks who thought we couldn't do this. They told us, 'You're too aggressive,'" said lead flight director Tony Ceccacci. "I don't want to say, 'We told you so,' but, 'We told you so.'"
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Magnify

Scientists unveil ancient fossilized primate

Michelle Nichols
Reuters
Wed, 20 May 2009 00:54 UTC
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© Reuters
New York - Scientists on Tuesday unveiled the well preserved fossilized remains found in Germany of a primate from 47 million years ago that may have been a close relative of the common ancestor of monkeys, apes and people.

It is the most complete fossil primate ever found, only missing part of one leg below the knee, and could shed light on an early stage of primate evolution, the scientists said.

Norwegian paleontologist Jorn Hurum, who led a team of scientists who analyzed the fossil in the past two years, said it may resemble one of the earliest ancestors of humans but was not likely to have been a direct ancestor.
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Heart

Embryo heartbeat drives stem cell creation


United Press International
Tue, 19 May 2009 20:38 UTC
U.S. medical scientists say their discovery that an embryo's heartbeat drives blood cell formation might lead to new treatments for blood diseases.

Biologists have long wondered why the embryonic heart begins beating so early, before tissues actually need to be infused with blood.
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Rocket

Rendezvous around the Moon


British Broadcasting Corporation
Tue, 19 May 2009 01:04 UTC
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The moonshot architecture took a while to emerge
Exactly 40 years ago, Apollo 10 blasted off Earth; its mission in the words of Commander Tom Stafford "to sort out the unknowns and pave the way for a lunar landing". Continuing his series of essays marking the 40th anniversary of the moonshots, Dr Christopher Riley reflects on Nasa's method for landing on the Moon and the Apollo legacy of space rendezvous.
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