Science & TechnologyS


Star

How many moons does the Earth have?


Krioma.net
Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:04 UTC
A simple question, with an easy answer... well if you think it is as simple as 1 then you haven't thought hard enough (seriously the answer is probably 1 but... ). Nothing new here but interesting nonetheless.

The near-Earth asteroid 3753 Cruithne is now known to be a companion, and an unusual one, of the Earth. This asteroid shares the Earth's orbit, its motion "choreographed" in such a way as to remain stable and avoid colliding with our planet. It orbits around the Sun in 1:1 orbital resonance with that of the Earth. Due to its unusual orbit relative to that of the Earth, it is a periodic inclusion planetoid. From the Earth's point of view Cruithne actually follows a kidney bean-shaped horseshoe orbit ahead of the Earth, taking slightly less than one year to complete a circuit (to see some diagrams of this take a look here. Other examples of natural bodies known to be in horseshoe orbits include Janus and Epimetheus, natural satellites of Saturn. So maybe there is a case there?
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Butterfly

Butterflies, tornadoes and climate modelling


RealClimate
Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:50 UTC
Many of you will have seen the obituaries (MIT, NYT) for Ed Lorenz, who died a short time ago. Lorenz is most famous scientifically for discovering the exquisite sensitivity to initial conditions (i.e. chaos) in a simple model of fluid convection, which serves as an archetype for the weather prediction problem. He is most famous outside science for the 'The Butterfly Effect' described in his 1972 paper "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?". Lorenz's contributions to both atmospheric science and the mathematics of dynamical systems were wide ranging and seminal. He also directly touched the lives of many of us here at RealClimate, and both his wisdom, and quiet personal charm will be sorely missed.

Image
©Unknown
Lorenz Hiking
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Cow Skull

Feeding the Dead: Ancient graves reveal bizarre Roman custom

Gary Bills-Geddes
Ledbury Reporter
Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:21 UTC
The laying of new water mains in the Ashperton area has unearthed extensive evidence of Ancient Roman settlement. The most significant finds were made last summer by a team of archaeologists called into investigate.

The Border Archaeology team from Leominster excavated the remains of at least 18 bodies in a field at Stretton Grandison. At 7.30pm on Tuesday, April 29 a special public presentation in Ashperton Village Hall will discuss the finds and throw fresh light on the area's Roman and Dark Age past.

One oak coffin was one of the best examples ever found in Britain. It contained a tall, middle-aged man with osteoarthritis. A second less well-preserved coffin provided evidence of a bizarre Roman ritual known as "feeding the dead." Part of the lid had been cut away, exposing the head, and a channel had been cut into the grave.
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Bomb

Archaeologists in Fiji discover a three thousand year old pot


Archaeologynews
Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:50 UTC
Archaeologists in Fiji are marvelling at the discovery of a 3,000 year-old pot containing jewellery.

The pot contained shell jewellery believed to have been made by the Lapita people and was found at Bourewa on Fiji's main island of Viti Levu.
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Target

Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says


The Associated Press
Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:35 UTC
WASHINGTON -- Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests.
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Alarm Clock

US: Earthquake risk on North Olympic Peninsula detailed by scientists


Peninsula Daily News
Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:22 UTC
Port Angeles, Washington - Government scientists are discussing two earthquake faults which could cause serious damage on the North Olympic Peninsula.

New earthquake faults
©KOMO News

The U.S. Geological Survey released new seismic hazard maps this week that focused on quake faults across the nation, including the Lake Creek-Boundary Creek fault that runs from central to eastern Clallam County - from roughly 15 miles west of the Elwha River to just past Siebert Creek.

It is capable of producing a magnitude-6.79 earthquake and has been active over the past several thousand years.

It was studied in detail by scientists in 2006 and is included for the first time in the new seismic hazard maps.
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Evil Rays

Study Captures Brain's Activity Processing Speech


University of Texas at Dallas
Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:14 UTC
Research is First to Describe How Neurons Interpret Different Words

Rad, Lad. You might be able to hear the difference, but to many children and adults, these words sound exactly the same. The problem isn't that they can't hear the sounds. The problem is that they can't tell them apart.

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Magnify

Science Is Leading Us to More Answers, but It's Also Misleading Us

David A. Shaywitz
Washington Post
Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:14 UTC
Be careful what you wish for. That is the unexpected lesson of the past decade of biomedical research, which has been characterized by an overwhelming abundance of interesting things to study and powerful ways to study them.

A pioneer of this era, MIT geneticist Eric Lander, speaks eloquently of the "global view of biology," meaning that scientists now have extraordinary tools to study not only individual genes, but also multiple genes at the same time. Rather than immediately investing all their resources in a few favorite genes (the traditional approach), modern researchers first can survey thousands of initial candidates, then identify and ultimately direct their attention to the most important players and pivotal networks.
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Binoculars

Did the Flores Hobbit Have a Root Canal?

Kate Wong
Scientific American
Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:16 UTC
Dental work claim challenges antiquity of hobbit skeleton

And you thought Frodo had it hard. In what is shaping up to be a battle of Tolkienian proportions, the tiny remains from Flores, Indonesia--paleoanthropology's hobbit--have once again come under attack.
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Laptop

Google hands over data on suspected pedophiles to Brazil


Agence France-Presse
Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:27 UTC
Google on Wednesday handed over data stored by suspected pedophiles on its Orkut social networking site to Brazilian authorities, ceding to pressure to lift its vow of confidentiality to its users, officials said.

The US Internet giant delivered 3,261 files to a Brazilian senate commission looking into allegations that illegal images of minors were posted in password-protected photo albums on the site.
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