Science & TechnologyS


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NASA engineers inspect floating object, protrusion


Associated Press
Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:36 UTC
HOUSTON - NASA engineers were trying to identify an object that floated away from Discovery and were analyzing a protrusion found on its rudder Friday, a day before the space shuttle was scheduled to land.

The two issues were noticed after a routine test of the spacecraft's flight control systems and steering jets.
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Info

The Symbolic Monkey? Animals Can Comprehend And Use Symbols, Study Of Tufted Capuchins Suggests


ScienceDaily
Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:45 UTC
From paintings and photographs to coins and credit cards, we are constantly surrounded by symbolic artefacts. The mental representation of symbols -- objects that arbitrarily represent other objects -- ultimately affords the development of language, and certainly played a decisive role in the evolution of our hominid ancestors. Can other animal species also comprehend and use symbols? Some evidence suggests that apes, our closest relatives, can indeed use symbols in various contexts. However, little is known about the symbolic competence of phylogenetically more distant species.

Capuchin monkey
©Elisabetta Visalberghi
Capuchin monkey (Cebus paella)
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Star

NASA Finds New Type of Comet Dust Mineral

William P. Jeffs
nasa.gov
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:37 UTC
HOUSTON -- NASA researchers and scientists from the United States, Germany and Japan have found a new mineral in material that likely came from a comet.

The mineral, a manganese silicide named Brownleeite, was discovered within an interplanetary dust particle, or IDP, that appears to have originated from comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup. The comet originally was discovered in 1902 and reappears every 5 years. The team that made the discovery is headed by Keiko Nakamura-Messenger, a space scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"When I saw this mineral for the first time, I immediately knew this was something no one had seen before," said Nakamura-Messenger. "But it took several more months to obtain conclusive data because these mineral grains were only 1/10,000 of an inch in size."
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Telescope

Comet Boattini Sails Towards the Sun

Tammy Plotner
universetoday.com
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:28 UTC
Serious comet chasers have been watching Comet C/2007 W1 (Boattini) for some time. For awhile, it exceeded its predicted brightness but is back to cruising at normal. During the time this photograph was taken, Boattini was a southern hemisphere object... But not for long. Now its about to round the Sun and head north!

Comet Boattini
©Unknown
Comet Boattini
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Bulb

MIT researchers unravel bacteria communication pathways


Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:31 UTC
MIT researchers have figured out how bacteria ensure that they respond correctly to hundreds of incoming signals from their environment.

The researchers also successfully rewired the cellular communications pathways that control those responses, raising the possibility of engineering bacteria that can serve as biosensors to detect chemical pollutants. The work is reported in the June 13 issue of Cell.

Led by MIT biology professor Michael Laub, the team studied genomes of nearly 200 bacteria, which can have hundreds of different pathways that respond to different types of external stimuli. Nutrients, antibiotics, temperature or light can evoke a variety of responses, including transcription of particular genes.

In most cases, the pathways involve two proteins. The first protein, an enzyme known as a histidine kinase, receives the external signal and then activates the second protein, known as a response regulator.
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Sherlock

Mysterious mountain dino may be a new species


University of Alberta
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:52 UTC
A partial dinosaur skeleton unearthed in 1971 from a remote British Columbia site is the first ever found in Canadian mountains and may represent a new species, according to a recent examination by a University of Alberta researcher.

Discovered by a geologist in the Sustut Basin of north-central British Columbia 37 years ago, the bones, which are about 70 million years old, were tucked away until being donated to Dalhousie University in 2004 and assigned to then-undergraduate student Victoria Arbour to research as an honours project. She soon realized that the bones were a rare find: they are very well-preserved and are the most complete dinosaur specimen found in B.C. to date. They are also the first bones found in B.C.'s Skeena mountain range.

Image
©University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
This composite shows what bones were found and what the Sustut dinosaur may have looked like 70 million years ago.
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Hourglass

Roman horse skeletons, chariot unearthed in Greece


ABC News (Australia)
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:06 UTC
Archaeologists have dug up the skeletons of 16 horses and a two-wheeled chariot in a grave dating back to the Roman Empire in north-east Greece, the culture ministry announced.
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Telescope

Hubble's Sweeping View Of The Coma Galaxy Cluster


Science Daily
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:58 UTC
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the magnificent starry population of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies, one of the densest known galaxy collections in the Universe.

Image
©NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: M. Carter (Liverpool John Moores University) and the Coma HST ACS Treasury Team
The Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys viewed a large portion of the cluster, spanning several million light-years across. The entire cluster contains thousands of galaxies in a spherical shape more than 20 million light-years in diameter.
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Info

Fossils Found In Tibet Revise History Of Elevation, Climate


Science Daily
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:41 UTC
About 15,000 feet up on Tibet's desolate Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau, an international research team led by Florida State University geologist Yang Wang was surprised to find thick layers of ancient lake sediment filled with plant, fish and animal fossils typical of far lower elevations and warmer, wetter climates.

Image
©Associate Professor Yang Wang, Florida State University Department of Geological Sciences
Kunlun Mountain Pass Basin, Tibetan Plateau
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Info

Woolly Mammoth Gene Study Changes Extinction Theory


Science Daily
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:28 UTC
A large genetic study of the extinct woolly mammoth has revealed that the species was not one large homogenous group, as scientists previously had assumed, and that it did not have much genetic diversity.

frozen mammoth remains
©Mammuthus lab Khatanga/Tom Gilbert
Partially frozen mammoth remains, containing preserved muscle tissue and hair.
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