Science & TechnologyS


Bulb

Sunspot cycle more dud than radiation flood

Dan Sorenson
The Arizona Daily Star
Mon, 19 May 2008 10:30 UTC
Many solar scientists expected the new sunspot cycle to be a whopper, a prolonged solar tantrum that could fry satellites and raise hell with earthly communications, the power grid and modern electronics.

But there's scant proof Sunspot Cycle 24 is even here, let alone the debut of big trouble.

Comment: And again we see that last little twist pushing the Anthropogenic Global Warming agenda.

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Better Earth

Ralph Nader: A Trip Inside Google

Ralph Nader
Counterpunch
Wed, 21 May 2008 06:12 UTC
An invitation to visit Google's headquarters and meet some of the people who made this ten year old giant that is giving Microsoft the nervies has to start with wonder.
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Telescope

100 Explosions on the Moon

Dr. Tony Phillips
NASA
Wed, 21 May 2008 05:23 UTC
Not so long ago, anyone claiming to see flashes of light on the Moon would be viewed with deep suspicion by professional astronomers. Such reports were filed under "L" ... for lunatic.

Not anymore. Over the past two and a half years, NASA astronomers have observed the Moon flashing at them not just once but one hundred times.

Comment: Left unsaid here is that the earth, being approximately 3.7 times the diameter of the moon has an equally exposed area of about 14 times that of the moon. Therefore the earth got hit with about 1400 meteors in the same time period. But they're only seeing half the area of the moon. Thus the true number is double that.

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Telescope

Missing matter found in deep space

Maggie Fox
News Daily
Tue, 20 May 2008 16:57 UTC
WASHINGTON - Astronomers have found some matter that had been missing in deep space and say it is strung along web-like filaments that form the backbone of the universe.

The ethereal strands of hydrogen and oxygen atoms could account for up to half the matter that scientists knew must be there but simply could not see, the researchers reported on Tuesday.

missing baryons
©REUTERS/NASA/ESA/A. Feild (STScI)/Handout
This illustration shows how the Hubble Space Telescope searches for missing baryons or normal matter, by looking at the light from quasars several billion light-years away. In an extensive search of the local universe, astronomers say they have definitively found about half of the missing normal matter, called baryons, in the spaces between the galaxies.

Scientists have long known there is far more matter in the universe than can be accounted for by visible galaxies and stars. Not only is there invisible baryonic matter -- the protons and neutrons that make up atoms -- but there also is an even larger amount of invisible "dark" matter.
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Star

Martian north pole consists of layers of dust and ice

John Johnson Jr.
Los Angeles Times
Tue, 20 May 2008 16:41 UTC
Mars' north pole, like a French parfait, comes in layers.

Scientists analyzing radar images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft have found as many as seven distinct layers of ice and dust beneath the north pole.

Roger J. Phillips, a scientist with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., said the layering was probably caused by changes in the planet's orbit over the last 4 million years.

When the planet tilts strongly on its axis, the surface ice erodes and is covered by a layer of dust, Phillips said.

Image
©AP
This image provided by NASA is a small portion of an exposure taken in March 2008 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Some high-latitude areas on Mars and Earth exhibit similarly patterned ground where shallow fracturing has drawn polygons on the surface. This patterning may result from cycles of freezing and thawing.
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Star

Cosmic dust helps in water formation on interstellar clouds


ANI
Mon, 19 May 2008 16:39 UTC
Scientists have come up with an answer to how water comes about in the interstellar clouds that give birth to stars, planets, and life, by suggesting that tiny grains of cosmic dust in the clouds help in the process.

According to a report in New Scientist, though water forms easily when hydrogen and oxygen exist as gases, models of interstellar clouds suggest that this route is unlikely to produce the abundance of water seen in them.

Most of the water that is seen has formed icy sheaths around tiny grains of dust in the clouds, and it is believed oxygen atoms accumulate on the grains and react with hydrogen to form water.
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Magnify

First Evidence Of Native Dendritic Cells In Brain Surprises Scientists


Science Daily
Tue, 20 May 2008 16:29 UTC
In a finding that has the potential to change the way researchers think about the brain, scientists at Rockefeller University have found dendritic cells where they've never been seen before: among this organ's neurons and connective cells. The immunity-directing dendritic cell had previously been seen in the human nervous system only after brain injury or disease. But the new study shows for the first time that the brain has its own, resident population of dendritic cells that may serve as a line of defense against pathogens that sneak past the blood-brain barrier.

dendritic cells
©Rockefeller University
Immunity inside. The brain's population of immunity-directing dendritic cells (green and yellow) can be seen here in the subventricular zone -- an area of postnatal neuron development.
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Bulb

Simple, Low-cost Carbon Filter Removes 90 Percent Of Carbon Dioxide From Smokestack Gases


Science Daily
Tue, 20 May 2008 15:25 UTC
Researchers in Wyoming report development of a low-cost carbon filter that can remove 90 percent of carbon dioxide gas from the smokestacks of electric power plants that burn coal and other fossil fuels.

Coal-burning power plant
©iStockphoto/Brittany Carter Courville
Coal-burning power plant.

Maciej Radosz and colleagues at Wyoming's Soft Materials Laboratory cite the pressing need for simple, inexpensive new technologies to remove carbon dioxide from smokestack gases. Coal-burning electric power plants are major sources of the greenhouse gas, and control measures may be required in the future.

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Stormtrooper

Boeing tests airborne laser gun


RIA Novosti
Tue, 20 May 2008 12:04 UTC
The Boeing Company said it has fired a high-energy chemical laser aboard a C-130H aircraft in ground tests for the first time.

The successful ground tests, "a key milestone for the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program," took place on May 13 at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.

"First firing of the high-energy laser aboard the ATL aircraft shows that the program continues to make good progress toward giving the warfighter an ultra-precision engagement capability that will dramatically reduce collateral damage," said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems.
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Einstein

World First Discovery: Genes From Extinct Tasmanian Tiger Function In A Mouse


Science Daily
Tue, 20 May 2008 11:47 UTC
Researchers from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Texas, USA, have extracted genes from the extinct Tasmanian tiger (thylacine), inserted it into a mouse and observed a biological function -- this is a world first for the use of the DNA of an extinct species to induce a functional response in another living organism.

Image
©Pask AJ, Behringer RR, Renfree MB
From extinction to gene expression. Functional analysis of the thylacine non-coding DNA fragment. (a) Diagram of transgene construct. 4 copies of a 264-bp fragment containing the Thylacine Col2a1 enhancer (TcyCol2a1) region was ligated to the human b-globin minimal promoter (black box) and ligated to lacZpA. (b--e) X-gal stained 14.5 dpc TcyCol2a1-lacZpA transgenic mouse embryo showing varying levels of reporter gene expression within the developing cartilage (blue). (f) Non-transgenic littermate, negative control fetus. (g) Top panel; Magnified image of forelimb from fetus in (b) black line indicates the plane of section shown in (g) bottom panel. Bottom panel; Histological section of transgenic forelimb digit, showing lacZ-expressing chondrogenic tissue (blue) counterstained with eosin (pink).
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