Science & TechnologyS


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.
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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
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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
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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.
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Telescope

Did A Mega-collision Alter Venus?


sciencedaily.com
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:24 UTC
A mega-collision between two large embryonic planets could have created Venus as we know it, according to a new paper by a Cardiff University scientist.

venus
©JPL, NASA
NASA radar image of Venus.
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Magnify

Bacterial 'Battle For Survival' Leads To New Antibiotic


sciencedaily.com
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:19 UTC
MIT biologists have provoked soil-dwelling bacteria into producing a new type of antibiotic by pitting them against another strain of bacteria in a battle for survival.

The antibiotic holds promise for treatment of Helicobacter pylori, which causes stomach ulcers in humans. Also, figuring out the still murky explanation for how the new antibiotic was produced could help scientists develop strategies for finding other new antibiotics.

Rhodococcus rhodochrous
©CDC
Slide culture of Rhodococcus rhodochrous. Rhodococcus does not normally produce antibiotics.
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Roses

Earlier plantings underlie yield gains in northern Corn Belt

Chris Kucharik
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:50 UTC
U.S. farmers plant corn much earlier today than ever before and it seems to be paying off, at least in the north. Earlier plantings could account for up to half of the yield gains seen in some parts of the northern Corn Belt since the late 1970s, a new study has found.

Comment: As the current trend in climate cooling continues, earlier plantings will soon become impossible.

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Question

The Evolution of Aversion: Why even children are fearful of snakes

Vanessa LoBue
Association for Psychological Science
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:44 UTC
Some of the oldest tales and wisest mythology allude to the snake as a mischievous seducer, dangerous foe or powerful iconoclast; however, the legend surrounding this proverbial predator may not be based solely on fantasy. As scientists from the University of Virginia recently discovered, the common fear of snakes is most likely intrinsic.

Evolutionarily speaking, early humans who were capable of surviving the dangers of an uncivilized society adapted accordingly. And the same can be said of the common fear of certain animals, such as spiders and snakes: The ancestors of modern humans were either abnormally lucky or extraordinarily capable of detecting and deterring the threat of, for example, a poisonous snake.
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Pharoah

Mystery of 'Maya blue' dye tied to human sacrifice

Jeff Hecht
NewScientist
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:15 UTC
Archaeologists may have at last cracked the mystery of how and why Mayans produced "Maya blue", a pigment famed for its sky-blue colour and remarkable durability.

The Mayans produced the fabled pigment as part of their ritual sacrifices - including that of humans - at their ancient centre of power, the city of Chichén Itzá, suggests a new study of artefacts.
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Display

European commission fines Microsoft record £680m

David Gow
The Guardian
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:07 UTC
The EU today imposed a record €899m (£680m) fine on Microsoft for charging "unreasonable" prices to rivals for access to its dominant software.

The fine, the largest imposed on a single company, brings the total levied on the world's leading software group close to €1.7bn in the past four years.

Neelie Kroes, EU competition commissioner, who said she had no pleasure in imposing the fine, told journalists she could have charged Microsoft €1.5bn in the latest penalty.
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