Science & TechnologyS


Telescope

Upcoming gamma-ray mission may detect dark matter

David Shiga
New Scientist
Tue, 27 May 2008 18:13 UTC
A new NASA satellite with powerful gamma-ray vision is set to launch on 3 June. It will observe the deaths of massive stars, probe the gamma-ray sky for unknown objects, and might even pin down the nature of the mysterious dark matter that pervades the universe.

The $700 million Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is set to launch into low-Earth orbit at 1145 EDT (1645 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, US. It carries a gamma-ray telescope of unprecedented sensitivity and a monitor that can detect radiation from violent cosmic events called gamma-ray bursts.

The mission will provide the first detailed survey of the sky in a largely unexplored part of the energy spectrum of gamma rays, the highest-energy form of radiation.
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Pharoah

Archaeologists find ancient army HQ in Sinai

Jonathan Wright
Reuters
Wed, 28 May 2008 13:22 UTC
Egyptian archaeologists have discovered what they say was the ancient headquarters of the Pharaonic army guarding the northeastern borders of Egypt for more than 1,500 years, the government said on Wednesday.

The fortress and adjoining town, which they identify with the ancient place name Tharu, lies in the Sinai peninsula about 3 km (2 miles) northeast of the modern town of Qantara, Egyptian archaeologist Mohamed Abdel Maksoud told Reuters.

The town sat at the start of a military road joining the Nile Valley to the Levant, parts of which were under Egyptian control for much of the period, the government's Supreme Council for Antiquities said in a statement.
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Star

Student stargazers spot 'killer' asteroids


The Associated Press
Tue, 27 May 2008 21:22 UTC
AMERICAN FORK -- Three American Fork High School are earning accolades for their stargazing.

Bryce Tholl, Clinton McClesky and Karlee Craig identified a combined four asteroids as part of a NASA program tied to their astronomy class.
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Better Earth

Seattle researchers report rising ocean acidity


The Associated Press
Tue, 27 May 2008 21:10 UTC
SEATTLE -- Acidic water is appearing along the Pacific Coast decades earlier than expected, apparently the result of climate change as carbon dioxide turns the ocean more corrosive, scientists have reported.

In surveys from Vancouver Island in Canada to the tip of Baja California in Mexico, scientists reported finding the first evidence of acidic sea water in large quantities along the continental shelf, the shallow zone where most marine creatures live.
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Syringe

New DNA evidence overturns population migration theory in Island Southeast Asia


Physorg.com
Tue, 27 May 2008 21:06 UTC
An international research team has discovered new DNA evidence to overturn conventional theories that suggest that the present-day populations of Island Southeast Asia (covering the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysian Borneo) came from Taiwan 4,000 years ago.
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Attention

Dutch scientists claim to map female genome


AFP
Tue, 27 May 2008 21:01 UTC
THE HAGUE - Dutch scientists said Monday they had mapped the full genetic sequence of a woman for the first time.

"It's the first woman in the world and the first European whose DNA sequence will be made public," the researchers at Leiden University Medical Centre in the western Netherlands said in a statement.
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Magnify

Authentic Viking DNA Retrieved From 1,000-year-old Skeletons


Science Daily
Tue, 27 May 2008 20:54 UTC
Although "Viking" literally means "pirate," recent research has indicated that the Vikings were also traders to the fishmongers of Europe. Stereotypically, these Norsemen are usually pictured wearing a horned helmet but in a new study, Jørgen Dissing and colleagues from the University of Copenhagen, investigated what went under the helmet; the scientists were able to extract authentic DNA from ancient Viking skeletons, avoiding many of the problems of contamination faced by past researchers.

Viking teeth
©Melchior L et al. Evidence of Authentic DNA from Danish Viking Age Skeletons Untouched by Humans for 1,000 Years. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002214
Sampling of teeth for aDNA analysis. The last layer of soil was removed and two teeth extracted while wearing full body suit, hairnet, gloves, shoe covers, and face masks. The teeth were placed in sealed sterile tubes and transported to the aDNA-lab.
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Cow Skull

Games make men feel like 'conquering cavemen'

Wesley Yin-Poole
Video Gamer
Tue, 27 May 2008 15:28 UTC
New research explains why men are more likely to get hooked on games than women.

Men are more likely to get hooked on video games than women because they appeal to the conquering caveman in them, new research suggests.

Scientists at the University of Stanford hooked up men and women to an MRI scanner to test brain activity as they tried to win on-screen territory by clicking a series of balls.

Both sexes showed activation in the brain's mesocorticolimbic centre, the region typically associated with reward and addiction.

Male brains, however, showed much greater activation. The amount increased as they gained more territory.
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Bulb

Dutch claim first sequencing of female DNA


Associated Press
Mon, 26 May 2008 15:26 UTC
Dutch scientists claim they have completed the first sequencing of an individual woman's DNA.

The researchers at Leiden University Medical Center say they have sequenced the DNA of one their researchers, geneticist Marjolein Kriek. They plan to publish it after review. No other scientists have verified their data.
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Bulb

Cold-fusion demonstration "a success"

Jon Cartwright
Physics World
Fri, 23 May 2008 14:32 UTC
On 23 March 1989 Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton, UK, and Stanley Pons of the University of Utah, US, announced that they had observed controlled nuclear fusion in a glass jar at room temperature, and - for around a month - the world was under the impression that the world's energy woes had been remedied. But, even as other groups claimed to repeat the pair's results, sceptical reports began trickle in. An editorial in Nature predicted cold fusion to be unfounded. And a US Department of Energy report judged that the experiments did "not provide convincing evidence that useful sources of energy will result from cold fusion."

This hasn't prevented a handful of scientists persevering with cold-fusion research. They stand on the sidelines, diligently getting on with their experiments and, every so often, they wave their arms frantically when they think have made some progress.

Image
©Unknown
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