Science & TechnologyS


Sherlock

Exploring the mysterious Pompeii


Associated Press
Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:56 UTC
Under the fertile slopes of mount Vesuvius lie the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

Here every summer scores of students come to experience what life is like working in one of the world's most famous archaeological sites.

The city of Pompeii was buried in a volcanic eruption in A.D. 79, killing thousands of people.

However, a 20-foot-deep (approx. seven metres) cocoon of volcanic ash kept the city virtually intact, providing precious information on domestic life in the ancient world.

Pompeii
©Unknown
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Telescope

New Laser Technology Could Find First Earth-like Planets


Space Daily
Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:38 UTC
The leading method of finding planets orbiting distant stars spots mostly Jupiter-sized worlds. Technology limitations make it difficult to detect smaller planets. But that is about to change. A revolutionary laser technology being developed by scientists and engineers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), with colleagues at MIT, will enable scientists to spot Earth-sized worlds in Earth-like orbits.

"We are at the cusp of a new era in planet searches," said CfA astrophysicist Chih-Hao Li. "With this technology we are developing, astronomers will finally be able to find the first truly Earth-like worlds in terms of size and orbit."
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Alarm Clock

Splenda Could Destroy Algae's Ability to Eat CO2

Kiki Hubbard
Environmental Science & Technology
Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:22 UTC
People who want to avoid genetically engineered sugar this year should think twice about one of the alternatives. Sucralose, or Splenda, is reportedly pervasive in Norway and Sweden's wastewater, leaving some scientists worried about the sugar-like substance's effect on the environment.
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Telescope

Milky Way Seen to be a Galactic Cannibal


Australian National University
Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:01 UTC
A stream of debris across the sky is the result of intergalactic cannibalism, researchers from The Australian National University conclude, and it is the not the first time our galaxy has had one of its neighbours for breakfast.
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Binoculars

Turkcell Monitors Turkey from a Single Center


Sabah
Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:37 UTC
The coordination center established after the earthquake in Adana was completed in 10 years. The center, which is worth $30 million, monitors 13,500 stations.
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Bulb

"Astro Comb" May Boost Hunt for Earthlike Planets

Sara Goudarzi
National Geographic News
Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:09 UTC


Mount Hopkins Observatory
©MMTO staff member Howard Lester
Sunlight colors the horizon behind the MMT Observatory on Mount Hopkins in Arizona in an undated image. Researchers who developed technology called an astro-comb for enhancing the search for Earthlike worlds plan to test their device at MMT in the summer of 2008.

The scientific equivalent of a fine-toothed comb may soon sweep across the skies looking for Earthlike planets outside our solar system.

Dubbed the astro-comb, the technology improves on a highly successful planet-hunting technique called the radial velocity - or wobble - method, which looks for small shifts in the wavelengths of a star's light caused by the gravitational tug of an orbiting planet.
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Better Earth

Ancient Imbalances Sent Earth's Continents "Wandering"

Anne Minard
National Geographic News
Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:37 UTC


Imbalanced Earth
©Bernhard Steinberger
An illustration shows what Earth's continents looked like 110 million to 100 million years ago and their rotation based on magnetic signatures in ancient rocks. A new study suggests that the motion represents a phenomenon called true polar wander, in which Earth's landmasses become imbalanced compared to its spin axis and then move rapidly to right themselves.

A new study lends weight to the controversial theory that Earth became massively imbalanced in the distant past, sending its tectonic plates on a mad dash to even things out.

Bernhard Steinberger and Trond Torsvik, of the Geological Survey of Norway, analyzed rock samples dating back 320 million years to hunt for clues in Earth's magnetic field about the history of plate motions.
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Ark

Ancient Tools Unearthed in Australia

Tanalee Smith
Associated Press
Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:25 UTC
Sydney, Australia - Tools dating back at least 35,000 years have been unearthed in a rock shelter in Australia's remote northwest, making it one of the oldest archaeological finds in that part of the country, archaeologists said Monday.

stone tool
©AP Photo/Australian Cultural Heritage Management, Clive Taylor, HO
In this undated photo provided by Australian Cultural Heritage Management, a stone tool called a chert knife uncovered in an iron ore mine site is seen at Hope Downs, 950 kms (590 miles) north east of Perth, Australia. Archaeologists have unearthed a large number of stone tools dating back at least 35,000 years.
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Einstein

The Not-So-Digital Future of Digital Signal Processing

Emily Ayshford
Northwestern University
Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:42 UTC
Fungi processing audio signals. E. Coli storing images. DNA acting as logic circuits.

It's possible, and in some cases, it's already happened. In any event, performing digital signal processing using organic and chemical materials without electrical currents could be the wave of the future - or so argue Sotirios Tsaftaris, research professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and Aggelos Katsaggelos, Ameritech Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, in their recently published "point of view" piece in the March 2008 edition of Proceedings of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.)
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Hourglass

Iran: Archeologists excavate Sialk Mound


Press TV
Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:50 UTC
A team of Iranian and European archeologists has started their first phase of Sialk Mound excavations in the central city of Kashan.

Sialk Mound
©Unknown
Sialk Mound, Kashan, Iran
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