Science & TechnologyS


Star

Meteor Astronomers: Looking Down Into Earth


Astrobiology Magazine
Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:37 UTC
Using fossil meteorites and ancient limestone unearthed throughout southern Sweden, marine geologists at Rice University have discovered that a colossal collision in the asteroid belt some 500 million years ago led to intense meteorite strikes over the Earth's surface.

The research, which appears in this week's issue of Science magazine, is based upon an analysis of fossil meteorites and limestone samples from five Swedish quarries located as much as 310 miles (500 km.) apart. The limestone formed from sea bottom sediments during a 2 million-year span about 480 million years ago, sealing the intact meteorites, as well as trace minerals from disintegrated meteorites, in a lithographic time capsule.
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HAL9000

Weapons lab develops world's fastest computer

H. Josef Hebert
Associated Press
Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:12 UTC
WASHINGTON - Scientists unveiled the world's fastest supercomputer on Monday, a $100 million machine that for the first time has performed 1,000 trillion calculations per second in a sustained exercise.

The technology breakthrough was accomplished by engineers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and IBM Corp. on a computer to be used primarily on nuclear weapons work, including simulating nuclear explosions.


Comment: And you all thought for a second that this new technology would be used for the benefit of the human race.

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Telescope

NASA ties up with universities to develop planet-searching satellite

David Chandler
Domain-b.com
Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:23 UTC
Mumbai: The NASA Ames Research Center will develop the first of the planet-searching satellites along with scientists from MIT, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, as part of the six proposed spacecraft concepts that NASA has picked for its Small Explorer (SMEX) satellite programme.

The planet-searching satellite would have the potential to discover hundreds of "super-Earth" planets, ranging from one to two times Earth's diameter, orbiting other stars, an MIT release said.
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Telescope

Water on the Moon?

Brad Dalton
Space.com
Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:06 UTC
Recent headlines have announced a raging controversy among scientists about whether there is actually water ice in the permanently shadowed craters near the lunar poles. Because these permanently shadowed regions are extremely cold (~100K) water ice is expected to be stable there - even in the vacuum of space. If water is present, it will dramatically reduce the cost of a lunar base. The Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission is intended to test for this water by impacting the lunar surface with its empty rocket upper stage, and looking for water in the ejected plume.

Comment: Unfortunately the 'scientific method' is not always employed.

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Star

Tunguska, a century later

Sid Perkins
Science News
Thu, 05 Jun 2008 04:49 UTC
Early on the morning of June 30, 1908, a massive explosion shook central Siberia. Witnesses told of a fireball that streaked in from the southeast and then detonated in the sky above the desolate, forested region. At the nearest trading post, about 70 kilometers away from the blast, people were reportedly knocked from their feet. Seismic instruments in the area registered ground motions equivalent to those of a magnitude-5 earthquake.

Effects of the event - often called the Tunguska blast, after a major river running through the area - weren't restricted to Siberia. Sensitive barometers in England detected an atmospheric shock wave as it raced westward and then detected it again after it traveled around the world. High-altitude clouds that formed over the region after the event were so lofty that they caught light from beyond the horizon, illuminating the sky so much that people at locales in Europe and Asia could read newspapers outdoors at midnight.

Comment: Read the 'Comets and Catastrophe' series for far more comprehensive information on the probable source of the Tunguska incident:

Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls

Letters From the Edge

Tunguska, the Horns of the Moon and Evolution
Comet Biela and Mrs. O'Leary's Cow

Thirty Years of Cults and Comets

Wars, Pestilence and Witches

Cosmic Turkey Shoot

The Hazard to Civilization from Fireballs and Comets

New Light on the Black Death: The Cosmic Connection

Majesterium and the Tipping Point

Something Wicked This Way Comes

The Younger Dryas Impact Event and the Cycles of Cosmic Catastrophes - Climate Scientists Awakening

Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction!

Climate Change Swindlers and the Political Agenda

Wake the World Up Campaign

Fire and Ice - The Day After Tomorrow

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Sherlock

Iron-Coated Fossils Hold Clues To Possible Signs Of Martian Life


Space Daily
Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:16 UTC
Fossil microbes found along an iron-rich river in Spain reveal how signs of life could be preserved in minerals found on Mars. The discovery may help to equip the next generation Mars rover with the tools it would need to find evidence of past life on the planet.

The Rio Tinto arises from springs west of Seville. These springs percolate up through iron ores that were deposited by geothermal activity more than 200 million years ago. Spring water dissolves iron sulfide minerals from the ores, and this stains the river red.

The iron sulfide minerals also dissociate to form sulfuric acid. With a pH between 1.5 and 3, Rio Tinto is as sour as vinegar, yet it supports a surprising variety of life. Bacteria, algae, single-celled organisms called protists and fungi all thrive in the acid headwaters.

Rio Tinto has attracted the attention of exobiologists because this environment can create the iron mineral hematite, which has been found on Mars. On Earth, hematite only forms with liquid water. Since liquid water is seen as a prerequisite for life elsewhere, the mineral's presence on Mars tantalizes those who hope to find signs of life, past or present, on our neighboring planet.

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Sherlock

Will work at Allendale County archaeological dig rewrite human history?

Liz Mitchell
The Island Packet Online
Sun, 08 Jun 2008 18:52 UTC


Topper Dig 2
©Jay Karr/The Island Packet
Cynthia Curry of Charlotte holds up a piece of quartz she discovered at Topper on Wednesday.

More than 13,000 years ago, South Carolina was a wild kingdom alive with all sorts of beasts: saber-tooth tigers, beavers the size of Great Danes, camels, elephants and mastodons.

Until recently, these animals were believed to have vanished before the first Americans -- called the Clovis people -- arrived about 13,000 years ago from Asia via the Bering Sea land bridge.

That view may soon change.

An archaeological dig currently under way at the Topper Site in Allendale County is one of a handful of excavations across the country where evidence is being uncovered that could rewrite America's history.
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Eye 2

German scientists develop bionic eye

Robert Jaques
VNUNet.com
Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:30 UTC
German researchers today reported that a 12-year project to develop a wireless implant that can restore vision to the blind has been successful.

The researchers unveiled details of a fully implantable visual prosthesis for patients who have lost their sight through diseases of the retina.
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Laptop

UK: Fraudsters hack into Home Office website

Ben Leach
The Telegraph
Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:06 UTC
Cunning computer hackers have hijacked the Home Office crime reduction website and used it to carry out an elaborate online scam.

The fraudsters set up a fake page on the website then sent millions of web users a "phishing" email purporting to be from an Italian bank, asking customers to visit the page and confirm their bank details.

Anyone who typed in their password left themselves open to money being stolen from their account.

The security breach began last Sunday and was not resolved until the following morning.
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Info

245 Million Years Old Fossilized Burrows Suggest Lizard-like Creatures Antarctica


Science Daily
Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:51 UTC
For the first time paleontologists have found fossilized burrows of tetrapods -- any land vertebrates with four legs or leglike appendages -- in Antarctica dating from the Early Triassic epoch, about 245 million years ago.

Image
©Cara Fritz/Oregon State University
Christian Sidor of the University of Washington digs for tetrapod fossils in Allan Hills, part of the southern Victoria Land area of Antarctica, during field work in January 2006.
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