Science & TechnologyS


Telescope

See the Ghosts of Dead Stars

Alan Boyle
MSNBC/Cosmic Log
Thu, 29 May 2008 16:49 UTC
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope bears witness this week to two stellar hauntings - bizarre and beautiful phenomena sparked by dead giant stars.

First, Spitzer trained its infrared eye on the pulsing, undead corpse of a strongly magnetic star called SGR 1900+14 - revealing a bizarre ring of dusty material that couldn't be seen in visible wavelengths. Then, just today, Spitzer's scientists reported on the ghostly echoes of light emanating from Cassiopeia A, a supernova that blew up 300 years ago.

Click for video: Msnbc.com's Keva Andersen reports.

Cassiopeia A
©NASA / JPL-Caltech / MPIA
Cassiopeia A: Infrared imagery from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveals "echoes" from a supernova
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Wine

Cyprus researches millenia-old wine jars in wreck

Michele Kambas
Reuters
Fri, 30 May 2008 15:07 UTC
Nicosia - Archaeologists have started research into what they believe may be the oldest known ancient shipwreck off Cyprus which sank with hundreds of jars of wine on board 2,350 years ago.

In what could be described as a super-tanker of ancient times, Cypriot marine archaeologists say it appears to be one of the best preserved wrecks in the region, carrying hundreds of jars of wine dating from the mid-fourth century BC.
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Telescope

Strange Ring Found Circling Dead Star


Science Daily
Thu, 29 May 2008 15:54 UTC
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found a bizarre ring of material around the magnetic remains of a star that blasted to smithereens.

The stellar corpse, called SGR 1900+14, belongs to a class of objects known as magnetars. These are the cores of massive stars that blew up in supernova explosions, but unlike other dead stars, they slowly pulsate with X-rays and have tremendously strong magnetic fields.

corpse of a massive star
©NASA/JPL-Caltech
This image shows a ghostly ring extending seven light-years across around the corpse of a massive star.
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Info

Who needs sex when you can steal DNA?

Maggie Fox
News Daily
Thu, 29 May 2008 15:44 UTC
Tiny freshwater organisms that have amazed scientists because of their sex-free lifestyle may have survived so well because they steal genes from other creatures, scientists reported on Thursday.

They found genes from bacteria, fungi and even plants incorporated into the DNA of bdelloid rotifers -- minuscule animals that appear to have given up sex 40 million years ago.
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Recycle

Shuttle's crucial mission: Deliver toilet


The Seattle Times
Thu, 29 May 2008 15:25 UTC
The rush is on to fix the flush in space.

That's because three astronauts are orbiting Earth in the international space station with a balky toilet.

So folks on the ground in Florida are putting together a repair kit to send up Saturday, when seven astronauts blast off to deliver a large module, part of the Japanese space laboratory, Kibo.

The Russian-built toilet has been acting up for the past week. The three male residents have temporarily bypassed the problem, which involves urine collection, not solid waste.

The pump that astronauts plan to replace isn't something that can be picked up at the local home-repair store.
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Magnify

The Structure of XPD Sheds Light on Cancer and Aging

Paul Preuss
Berkeley Lab News Release
Thu, 29 May 2008 14:25 UTC
The protein XPD is one component of an essential repair mechanism that maintains the integrity of DNA. XPD is unique, however, in that pinpoint mutations of this single protein are responsible for three different human diseases: in xeroderma pigmentosum, extreme sensitivity to sunlight promotes cancer; Cockayne syndrome involves stunted growth and premature aging; trichothiodystrophy, characterized by brittle hair and scaly skin, is another form of greatly accelerated aging.

Unknown
©Unknown
The four domains of XPD: the helicases HD2 (green) and HD1 (blue), the iron-sulfur complex 4FeS (rust), and the Arch (purple). Sites of mutations that cause xeroderma pigmentosum are shown in red, those causing both xeroderma pigmentosum and Cockayne syndrome in gold, and those of trichothiodystrophy in purple. A strand of unwound DNA is shown passing under the arch.
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Cloud Lightning

Plasma twisters seen on the Sun

Rachel Courtland
Nature
Thu, 29 May 2008 13:12 UTC
The Sun's violent eruptions may have their origins in tangled magnetic fields that act like a loaded spring, twisting plasma and jettisoning it away.

Solar jets
©NASA/LMSAL
Solar jets are just one aspect of the Sun's violent weather.

Solar physicists, debating the mechanism behind these dramatic 'plasma jet' outbursts, have theorized that tangled magnetic fields can contort plasma into a corkscrew shape, forcing the material into space.
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Info

Large Methane Release Could Cause Abrupt Climate Change As Happened 635 Million Years Ago


Science Daily
Thu, 29 May 2008 13:03 UTC
An abrupt release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, about 635 million years ago from ice sheets that then extended to Earth's low latitudes caused a dramatic shift in climate, triggering a series of events that resulted in global warming and effectively ended the last "snowball" ice age, a UC Riverside-led study reports.

sea cliff exposures at Marino Rocks, South Australia
©M. Kennedy, UC Riverside
Geologists Chris von der Borch (front) and David Mrofka (back) look for evidence of ancient methane seepage within tidal sediments seen in sea cliff exposures at Marino Rocks, South Australia.

The researchers posit that the methane was released gradually at first and then in abundance from clathrates -- methane ice that forms and stabilizes beneath ice sheets under specific temperatures and pressures. When the ice sheets became unstable, they collapsed, releasing pressure on the clathrates which began to degas.

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Pharoah

Archaeologists unearth remains of largest ancient Egyptian fortified city in northern Sinai

AP
pr-inside.com
Wed, 28 May 2008 20:03 UTC
CAIRO, Egypt - Archaeologists have unearthed 3,000-year-old remains of the largest ancient Egyptian fortified city while exploring an old military road in Sinai that once connected Egypt to Palestine, the antiquities authority said Wednesday.

Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that archaeologists unearthed a relief of King Thutmose II (1516-1504 B.C.), thought to be the first such royal monument found in Sinai. It indicates that Thutmose II may have built a fort in the area.

Comment: Curious that this would indicate that an Egyptian military base was active around Palestine around the time of the alleged parting of the Red Sea, yet nothing like it is ever mentioned in the Old Testament. One might think that a military base in your backyard occupied by soldiers from the country you've just fled would at least merit a footnote.

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Cow

Gladstone scientists reveal the genetics of fat storage in cells


The Hindu
Fri, 23 May 2008 23:21 UTC
New research by the Gladstone Institutes of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has revealed the genetic determinants of fat storage in cells, which may lead to a new understanding of and potential treatments for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. While scientists have long understood that lipid droplets contribute to fat build up in cells, the genes involved in droplet biology have been a focus of extensive research, according to Eurekalert, the news service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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