Science & TechnologyS


Sun

Solar-powered cell phone unveiled


MSNBC
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:19 UTC
Samsung's 'Blue Earth' also has function to encourage walking over driving

Barcelona - Samsung on Monday showed off a cell phone made from recycled plastic and powered by a solar panel - as well as a more traditional plug-in charger for those indoor and cloudy situations.

The "Blue Earth" is the first solar-powered, full-touch screen phone, Samsung said in a statement issued at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

It's made from plastic taken from used water bottles, Samsung said, and is designed to look like a flat and well-rounded shiny pebble.
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Magnify

Quantum Twist: Electrons Mimic Presence of Magnetic Field

Bobbie Mixon
Innovations Report
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:05 UTC
Discovery paves way for a new type of quantum computing.

An international team of scientists led by a Princeton University group recently discovered that on the surface of certain materials collective arrangements of electrons move in ways that mimic the presence of a magnetic field where none is present.

The finding represents one of the most exotic macroscopic quantum phenomena in condensed-matter physics: a topological Quantum Spin Hall effect.

The research could lead to advances in building a new type of quantum computer that has the flexibility to operate at moderate temperatures as opposed to the low temperatures that are a standard requirement for today's powerful computing devices. The work at Princeton was funded by the National Science Foundation's Division of Materials Research and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
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Saturn

Mars Craters Tell Story of Water and Ice

Andrea Thompson
LiveScience
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:00 UTC
Enigmatic 'Meridiani Planum' deposits on Mars -- deep salty areas found by NASA's Opportunity rover -- have attracted several theories to explain their existence in recent years.

Add another one to the list: the Martian deposits could be remnants of a massive ancient ice-field, a new study suggests.

This new icy theory better explains some of the odd signatures of the deposits, its authors say. The finding, detailed in the Feb. 15 online version of the journal Nature Geoscience, "advances a new idea for how the sedimentology of Mars developed," said study co-author Paul Niles of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
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Sherlock

Video: The Search for Earth's Twin


The Daily Galaxy
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:00 UTC
Los Cumbres Observatory Video:


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Telescope

Cosmologists Search for Gravity Waves to Prove Inflation Theory

Nancy Atkinson
Universe Today
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:00 UTC
Aurora 2
© Unknown
During the next decade, cosmologists will attempt to observe the first moments of the Universe, hoping to prove a popular theory. They'll be searching for extremely weak gravity waves to measure primordial light, looking for convincing evidence for the Cosmic Inflation Theory, which proposes that a random, microscopic density fluctuation in the fabric of space and time gave birth to the Universe in a hot big bang approximately 13.7 billion years ago.

A new instrument called a polarimeter is being attached to the South Pole Telescope (SPT), which operates at submillimeter wavelengths, between microwaves and the infrared on the electromagnetic spectrum. Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that Cosmic Inflation should produce the weak gravity waves.

Inflation Theory proposes a period of extremely rapid and exponential expansion of the Universe during its first few moments prior to the more gradual Big Bang expansion, during which time the energy density of the universe was dominated by a cosmological constant-type of vacuum energy that later decayed to produce the matter and radiation that fill the Universe today.
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Network

The Complexity Theory - Implications for society uncomfortable

Ray Grigg
Courier-Islander
Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:21 UTC
A discernible change is taking place in the forum of environmental awareness. As the subject matures and our insights deepen, specific concerns are now accompanied by a general uneasiness as leading philosophers and scientists begin to examine the structure of our modern civilization and question its viability. One of these new avenues of consideration is Complexity Theory.
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Sherlock

Remains of Ancient Monolithic Temple Found in Himachal


Thaindian News
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:38 UTC
Shimla - Archaeologists have discovered the remains of an ancient monolithic temple in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district.

"We have discovered the remains of a rare, ancient monolithic Ardhnarishwar temple on the banks of the Beas river near the Panchvaktra Mahadev temple in Mandi town," archaeologist O.C. Handa told IANS.

The famous Panchvaktra Mahadev temple, located 158 km from here, is managed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
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Sherlock

Evidence of Indus Civilization?


Asian News International
Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:00 UTC
Islamabad - Archaeologists have found significant clues and material along the right bank of Indus on the Sukkur-Shikarpur highway in Pakistan, which provide evidence of the continuity of ancient civilization in the region, dating back to 3,960 years.

The region, known as Lakhian Jo Daro, is located some 40 kilometres north of Kot Diji and about 120 kilometers southwest of Moenjodaro.

The region has been known to archaeologists of Shah Abdul Latif University (SALU), Khairpur, since the early 1980s and to local, provincial and federal officials as well as to international experts since 1988.
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Sherlock

Uncovering Ancient Secrets Beneath the Surface

Randolph E. Schmid
The Associated Press
Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:00 UTC
Scholars are reconsidering what ancient Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes knew of the concept of infinity, and archaeologists may have found a fossil brain millions of years old, thanks to new ways of looking beneath the surface of ancient objects.

Using modern X-ray and spectral imaging, researchers are uncovering two ancient manuscripts by Archimedes, who lived in Sicily in the third century B.C., Uwe Bergmann of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Sunday.

In the 1300s the texts were scraped off the parchment and written over to create a prayer book, Bergmann said. But now scholars have been able to discern the original writing of Archimedes' The Method and The Stomachion volumes that exist nowhere else.
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Sherlock

Xi'an: Ancient Entrance Hall in the Daming Palace Found


Xinhua News Agency
Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:00 UTC
Archaeologists uncovered a new portion of the Daming Palace in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province on Friday.

Going by historical records, they believe the building was part of an ancient entrance hall used by chancellors to rest and wait before going in to court to see the emperor.

The Daming Palace, which is open to tourists but is also still under excavation - dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

It covers 12 square kilometers.
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