Science & TechnologyS


Bulb

Darwin was wrong about the wild origin of the chicken


Uppsala University
Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:01 UTC
Charles Darwin maintained that the domesticated chicken derives from the red jungle fowl, but new research from Uppsala University now shows that the wild origins of the chicken are more complicated than that.

The researchers mapped the genes that give most domesticated chickens yellow legs and found to their surprise that this genetic heredity derives from a closely related species, the grey jungle fowl. The study is being published today in the Web edition of PLoS Genetics.

"Our studies show that even though most of the genes in domesticated fowls come from the red jungle fowl, at least one other species must have contributed, specifically the grey jungle fowl," says Jonas Eriksson, a doctoral student at Uppsala University.
Read More...
Snowman

Study Shows Bacteria Are Common in Snow, Especially in France, Montana and Yukon

Randolph E. Schmid
Associated Press
Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:03 UTC
Those beautiful snowflakes drifting out of the sky may have a surprise inside bacteria. Most snow and rain forms in chilly conditions high in the sky and atmospheric scientists have long known that, under most conditions, the moisture needs something to cling to in order to condense.

Now, a new study shows a surprisingly large share of those so-called nucleators turn out to be bacteria that can affect plants.
Read More...
Better Earth

Researcher may have discovered key to life before its origin on Earth

Skip Derra
Arizona State University
Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:59 UTC
An important discovery has been made with respect to the mystery of "handedness" in biomolecules. Researchers led by Sandra Pizzarello, a research professor at Arizona State University, found that some of the possible abiotic precursors to the origin of life on Earth have been shown to carry "handedness" in a larger number than previously thought.

The work is being published in this week's Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The paper is titled, "Molecular asymmetry in extraterrestrial chemistry: Insights from a pristine meteorite," and is co-authored by Pizzarello and Yongsong Huang and Marcelo Alexandre, of Brown University.
Read More...
Robot

Robot wars 'will be a reality within 10 years'

Nic Fleming
Telegraph
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:05 UTC


Killer robot
©Unknown
US forces recently deployed remote-controlled robots equipped with automatic weapons in Iraq

The world is sleepwalking into an international robot arms race, a leading expert will warn today.

Prof Noel Sharkey fears increased research and spending on unmanned military systems by countries including the US, Russia, China and Israel will lead to the use of autonomous battlefield robots that can decide when to kill within a decade.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Mystery hum puzzles geologists

Catherine Brahic
The New Scientist
Sat, 23 Feb 2008 21:50 UTC
Geologists have detected a new continuous seismic signal in the Earth, but its cause is anybody's guess

Listen closely, and you'll hear the Earth humming - in not just one note, but two. The source of this second signal is a mystery.

For around a decade we've known about Earth's quiet "vertical" hum, probably caused by the steady thumping of deep waves on the ocean floor. Now a team in Germany has discovered a second "horizontal" note, too, and nobody knows what's causing this new signal.
Read More...
Magnet

Magnetic atoms of gold, silver and copper have been obtained


Basque Research
Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:56 UTC
An international team led by Physics and Chemistry teams from the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and directed by Professor Jose Javier Saiz Garitaonandia, has achieved, by means of a controlled chemical process, that atoms of gold, silver and copper - intrinsically non-magnetic (not attracted to a magnet) - become magnetic. The article has been published in the February issue of the prestigious international magazine in nanotechnology, Nanoletters (Vol.8, No. 2, 661-667 (2008)).
Read More...
Bulb

Scientists suspect mystery planet in solar system


thewest.com.au
Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:43 UTC
Scientists at a Japanese university said today they believed another planet up to two-thirds the size of the Earth was orbiting in the far reaches of the solar system.

The researchers at Kobe University in western Japan said that theoretical calculations using computer simulations led them to conclude it was only a matter of time before the mysterious "Planet X" was found.
Read More...
Telescope

New Moon Map Is Best Ever

Dave Mosher
space.com
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:06 UTC
Earthlings have mapped the moon's surface for the past 4,000 years, but NASA's latest view is the best yet.

Scientists have created a new map of the south lunar pole with Earth-based telescopes that is 50 times more detailed than the last version, created with data from the Clementine spacecraft in 1994.

New Moon Map
©Unknown
Read More...
Telescope

NASA Takes Aim at Moon with Double Sledgehammer

Jeremy Hsu
space.com
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:01 UTC
Scientists are priming two spacecraft to slam into the moon's South Pole to see if the lunar double whammy reveals hidden water ice.

The Earth-on-moon violence may raise eyebrows, but NASA's history shows that such missions can yield extremely useful scientific observations.

"I think that people are apprehensive about it because it seems violent or crude, but it's very economical," said Tony Colaprete, the principal investigator for the mission at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

Image
©Unknown
Read More...
Telescope

Next-best Thing To Being On Mars


sciencedaily.com
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:44 UTC
Two MIT students are currently living, working and communicating with the outside world as if they were on a mission to Mars. Whenever they go outside their small, round habitat where eight people are spending a two-week "mission," they don spacesuits and pass through an airlock. When they send e-mail, it takes 20 minutes before the recipient can see it--the time it takes for radio waves to travel to and from the red planet.

Mars Society Desert Research Station
©The Mars Society
Crewmembers of an earlier mission at the Mars Society Desert Research Station in Utah set out for an exploratory trip on their all-terrain vehicles, wearing simulated space suits.
Read More...