Science & TechnologyS


Telescope

Mars craters might be scars from fallen moon

Ker Than
New Scientist
Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:01 UTC
An unusual pair of craters on Mars formed when a moon broke apart before crashing into the planet's surface about a billion years ago, a new study suggests.

The craters could hint at what lies in store for Phobos, a potato-shaped moon that is expected to smash into Mars millions of years from now.

The two craters, which lie about 12.5 kilometres apart, share the same oval shape and nearly the same west-east alignment.
a fallen moon that broke apart in Mars's atmosphere
© NASAThe alignment of two oval-shaped craters – one spanning 10 km (right) and the other, 3 km – hints they might have been gouged out by a fallen moon that broke apart in Mars's atmosphere.

Similar crater pairs are seen elsewhere, including a duo called "Messier" on the Moon (scroll down for image). The Messier craters may have formed from a pair of orbiting asteroids that crashed to the surface together at a low impact angle.

But John Chappelow and Rob Herrick of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, say there is only a 2% chance that the two craters on Mars formed that way.

They say the original asteroids in such a pair could have orbited each other in any configuration, making the craters' observed alignment unlikely. "In such a case, the craters should be oriented randomly," Chappelow told New Scientist.

Instead, their calculations suggests that a moonlet about 1.5 km wide was pulled into a 'death spiral' by the planet's gravity. It then broke apart in the atmosphere, where atmospheric drag separated the pieces so that they struck the ground at different points. They say the pieces probably hit the surface at an oblique angle of 10° or less.
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Info

Why did Neanderthals have such big noses?


New Scientist
Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:26 UTC
The Neanderthal's huge nose is a fluke of evolution, not some grand adaptation, research suggests.

The Neanderthal nose has been a matter of befuddlement for anthropologists, who point out that modern cold-adapted humans have narrow noses to moisten and warm air as it enters the lung, and reduce water and heat loss during exhalation.
Neanderthal
© Wikimedia CommonsMuseum recreation of a Neanderthal

Big noses tend to be found in people whose ancestor's evolved in tropical climates, where a large nasal opening helps cool the body.

But Neanderthals go against this trend, says Tim Weaver, a palaeoanthropologist at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the study.
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Target

Mechanism In Cells That Generate Malignant Brain Tumors May Offer Target For Gene Therapy


ScienceDaily
Sun, 26 Oct 2008 10:12 UTC
Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute who first isolated cancer stem cells in adult brain tumors in 2004 have now identified a molecular mechanism that is involved in the development of these cells from which malignant brain tumors may originate. This could offer a target for scientists seeking treatments that would kill malignant brain tumors at their source and prevent them from recurring.
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Frog

Modern Genetics Versus Ancient Frog-killing Fungus


ScienceDaily
Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:11 UTC
frog
© Jeanne Robertson/University of IdahoA photo is of the frog species Hylalinobatrachium valerioi, one of the many species in decline in Central America
Scientists at the University of Idaho currently are involved in a CSI-like investigation of a killer known to have been running rampant for the past decade. But the killer's name can't be found on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Instead, it's on the minds of ecologists on every continent in the world.

Its name is Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). It is a "chytrid" fungus that lives on keratin, a type of protein found in the skin of amphibians, and is particularly deadly for certain species of frogs. A summary of key findings from the 2004 Global Amphibian Assessment states that 43 percent of all frog species are declining in population, with less than 1 percent showing increases. Although there are many reasons for frog decline, including climate change and habitat loss, Bd seriously is affecting a growing number of species.

Comment:
"This fungus is really bizarre," [...] "It's a member of an group of ancient fungi that are at least a half billion years old. But it only recently began killing amphibians and unequivocally is responsible for a lot of the catastrophic frog die-offs during the past decade."
That sounds very interesting: an ancient fungus, half billion years old, is re-appearing and contributes to the decline in frogs' populations. Is it possible that this fungus has any relationship to impacts from outer space, as we speculated few months ago?

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Sherlock

21st Century Detective Work Reveals How Ancient Rock Got Off To A Hot Start


Science Daily
Mon, 27 Oct 2008 05:14 UTC
A new technique using X-rays has enabled scientists to play 'detective' and solve the debate about the origins of a three billion year old rock fragment.

In the study, published in the journal Nature, a scientist describes the new technique and shows how it can be used to analyse tiny samples of molten rock called magma, yielding important clues about the Earth's early history.
Komatiites
© Imperial College LondonKomatiites are formed from super hot molten rock.

Working in conjunction with Australian and US scientists, an Imperial College London researcher analysed a magma using the Chicago synchrotron, a kilometre sized circular particle accelerator that is commonly used to probe the structure of materials.
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Sherlock

Greece unearths Neolithic home, household equipment

Renee Maltezou
Reuters
Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:18 UTC
Athens - Archaeologists in northern Greece have unearthed the ruins of a Neolithic house, a rare find that offers valuable information about everyday life 6,000 years ago, the Greek culture ministry said Friday.

A kitchen area with two ovens, clay pots and stone tools, and two more rooms show stone age farmers processed grains in the house, which appears to have burned down.

"This is a rare case. All findings have remained untouched by farming or any other activity for about 6,000 years," the ministry said in a statement.

"This excavation has given us valuable information about architecture at the time."
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Satellite

After Chandrayaan, India is going to be in deep space

Dr. Lalit Kishore
mynews.in
Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:46 UTC
space craft
© mynews.in
India is the sixth country in the world to go for a lunar mission. Our maiden lunar space craft, Chandrayaan-1, has been successfully launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), and the journey has already begin on the morning of October 22 from Sriharikota.
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Rocket

GOCE launch delayed until 2009


ESA news
Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:21 UTC
GOCE mounted onto the Breeze-KM Upper Stage
© ESAGOCE mounted onto the Breeze-KM Upper Stage
The Russian authorities responsible for the Rockot launcher that shall carry ESA's GOCE Earth Explorer satellite into orbit have completed the investigation of a failure in the guidance and navigation system of the launcher's Upper Stage (Breeze KM).
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Sun

COROT directly sees 'Sun-quakes' in other stars for the first time


ESA news
Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:47 UTC
Star interior
© CNESStar interior
Sounding the Sun through a technique similar to seismology has opened a new era for understanding the Sun's interior. The COROT satellite has now applied this technique to three stars, directly probing the interiors of stars beyond the Sun for the first time.
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Display

Google reads brain waves to measure ads on YouTube

Garett Rogers
ZD Net
Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:16 UTC
Google, along with MediaVest are releasing information about ad quality determined by reading brain waves and psychological responses to ads on video content. This is an interesting idea, and for the most part, it seems like it could be a very accurate way to measure how ads are perceived by viewers.

Yaakov Kimelfeld of MediaVest and Leah Spalding of Google presented in a webinar this morning to share these results. The goal was to measure the impact of YouTube overlay advertisements on attention levels, emotional engagement, and other psychological metrics.
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