Science & TechnologyS


Einstein

Particle Accelerator May Reveal Shape Of Alternate Dimensions


sciencedaily.com
Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:41 UTC
When the world's most powerful particle accelerator starts up later this year, exotic new particles may offer a glimpse of the existence and shapes of extra dimensions.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of California-Berkeley say that the telltale signatures left by a new class of particles could distinguish between possible shapes of the extra spatial dimensions predicted by string theory.

©CERN
A new particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, is scheduled to begin operating later this year near Geneva, Switzerland.
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Telescope

Gas 'Finger' Points To Galaxies' Future


sciencedaily.com
Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:28 UTC
Like a fork piercing a fried egg, a giant finger of hydrogen gas is poking through our Milky Way Galaxy from outside, astronomers using CSIRO radio telescopes at Parkes and Narrabri have found.

The location of the intrusion may give a crucial clue to the fate of the little galaxies the gas flows from, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

©John Rowe Animations
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Robot

Shape-shifting robot forms from magnetic swarm

Tom Simonite
New Scientist Tech
Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:37 UTC
Swarms of robots that use electromagnetic forces to cling together and assume different shapes are being developed by US researchers.

The grand goal is to create swarms of microscopic robots capable of morphing into virtually any form by clinging together.

Comment: See some prototypes of robot swarms created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University:

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Chess

Quantum computing firm gets $17 million in cash

Michael Kanellos
CNet News.com
Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:10 UTC
D-Wave Systems has received $17 million to see if it's possible to compute complex equations by studying the behavior of molecules.

International Investment and Underwriting of Dublin led the round, which was the third round of funding for the Vancouver-based company. Draper Fisher Jurvetson (which always seems to be involved in wacky sorts of companies), GrowthWorks Capital, BDC Venture Capital, Harris & Harris Group, and British Columbia Investment Management also participated. Previously, the company raised more than $30 million.
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Umbrella

Comet samples are surprisingly asteroid-like

David Shiga
NewScientist
Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:28 UTC
Samples of Comet Wild 2 suggest it is made of rocky material, like an asteroid, rather than the fluffy dust expected of a comet. The object may be a refugee that formed in the asteroid belt before getting kicked to the chilly fringes of the solar system, or it might have formed in that frigid realm from material thrown out of the inner solar system, scientists say.

©NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Comet Wild 2 is shown in close-up above. Beside it is a microscopic view of an EDM (electrical discharge machined) surface. Note the flat-floored depressions with steep scalloped walls and terracing. The small white spots on the comet can then be reasonably identified as the active cathode arcs that produce the cometary jets.

Comment: Read also SOTT's special report on Comets and Catastrophe (links on the left bar)

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Fish

Lost City Pumps Life-essential Chemicals At Rates Unseen At Typical Deep Ocean Hydrothermal Vents


sciencedaily.com
Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:06 UTC
Hydrocarbons -- molecules critical to life -- are being generated by the simple interaction of seawater with the rocks under the Lost City hydrothermal vent field in the mid-Atlantic Ocean.

Being able to produce building blocks of life makes Lost City-like vents even stronger contenders as places where life might have originated on Earth, according to Giora Proskurowski and Deborah Kelley, two authors of a paper in the Feb. 1 Science. Researchers have ruled out carbon from the biosphere as a component of the hydrocarbons in Lost City vent fluids.

©Kelley, U of Washington, IFE, URI-IAO, NOAA
The carbonate structures at the Lost City Field include these spires stretching 90 feet tall. The white, sinuous spine is freshly deposited carbonate material. Added digitally to this image are the remotely operated vehicles Hercules and Argus that were used to explore the hydrothermal vent field during an expedition in 2005 funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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Sheeple

Medicine From Milk: Gene Therapy Transforms Goats Into Pharmaceutical Factories


sciencedaily.com
Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:39 UTC
University of Pennsylvania researchers have used gene therapy to reduce the time it takes to breed large animals capable of producing therapeutic proteins in their milk, such as insulin or those that fight cancer. This represents a significant milestone in drug development, as current methods involve cloning, which takes more time and generally costs more.

©iStockphoto
Researchers have used gene therapy to reduce the time it takes to breed goats capable of producing therapeutic proteins in their milk, such as insulin or those that fight cancer.
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Document

You Are What You Eat: Some Differences Between Humans And Chimpanzees Traced To Diet


sciencedaily.com
Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:09 UTC
Using mice as models, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology traced some of the differences between humans and chimpanzees to differences in our diet.

©iStockphoto/Stephanie Swartz
Humans consume a distinct diet compared to other apes, like this chimpanzee eating an apple. Not only do we consume much more meat and fat, but we also cook our food. It has been hypothesized that adopting these dietary patterns played a key role during human evolution.
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Key

Flashback Lost city 'could rewrite history'

Tom Housden
BBC News
Sat, 19 Jan 2002 06:33 UTC
The remains of what has been described as a huge lost city may force historians and archaeologists to radically reconsider their view of ancient human history.

©Unknown
The city is believed to predate the Harappan civilisation
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Telescope

More students find asteroids

David A. Vallette
The Republican
Sun, 03 Feb 2008 05:27 UTC
Gill - If the name "2007TK238" rings no bells, that would not be surprising.

What is surprising, however, is that it was students here at Northfield Mount Hermon School, not some established astronomer, who discovered an asteroid subsequently identified with that number-filled name.

A trio of students in S. Hughes Pack's astronomy class, and Pack himself, got official credit for discovering a group of asteroids while working with the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge. They used images fed to their computers from a 32-inch telescope in Illinois.
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