Science & TechnologyS


Better Earth

Predicting Coastal Changes On A Changing Planet


terradaily.com
Sun, 18 Nov 2007 23:37 UTC
Geoscientists are beginning to unravel the complex web of interactions among climate change and geological processes that alters coastlines on which a sizeable percentage of Earth's inhabitants live. As debates over sustainable coastal development heat up, a new publication from the Geological Society of America focuses on development of integrated predictive computer models of coastal change.

Coastline Changes: Interrelation of Climate and Geological Processes reflects the many forces at work in coastal change. They include sea-level rise due to melting glaciers, depletion of groundwater reservoirs, and thermal expansion of gradually warming ocean water. Some of the underlying contributing factors include greenhouse gas additions to the atmosphere, vertical tectonic motions, sedimentary processes, and changes in atmospheric pressure systems and ocean currents, waves, and tides.
Read More...
Magnify

Mars Express Creates First Global Map Of Martian Ionosphere


marsdaily.com
Sun, 18 Nov 2007 23:12 UTC
With ESA's Mars Express, scientists continue to gain new insight into the mysterious Martian environment. Some of the most exciting results are being sent back by the MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding) experiment. MARSIS transmits low frequency radio waves towards the planet's surface and records the echoes of the different layers.

Although Mars is sometimes described as the most Earth-like of all the planets, there are many differences between the two worlds which scientists are trying to understand. One of the less familiar aspects of both planets is that they possess an ionosphere - a layer of ionised (electrically charged) particles - in their upper atmospheres.

©unknown
After some two years of operation, an international team of scientists has been able to analyse more than 750 000 echoes from MARSIS in order to make the first direct measurement of the global distribution of electrons in the Martian ionosphere - or the total electron content (TEC).
Read More...
Question

Flashback There's A Mystery Object Not Far From The Earth


New Scientist
Wed, 24 Feb 1999 15:14 UTC
A chunk of rock some 50 metres across has been found circling the Sun in an orbit close to Earth's. The object, which was discovered on 10 February by an automated asteroid-hunting telescope in New Mexico called Linear, is probably a chip off the Moon, say astronomers.

After six nights of observations, Gareth Williams of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, calculated that it circles the Sun every 1.09 years. Its nearly circular orbit is just nine million kilometres farther from the Sun than the Earth's.
Read More...
Display

Bee Strategy Helps Servers Run More Sweetly


Georgia Institute of Technology
Sun, 18 Nov 2007 14:50 UTC
Honeybees somehow manage to efficiently collect a lot of nectar with limited resources and no central command - after all, the queen bee is too busy laying eggs to oversee something as mundane as where the best nectar can be found on any given morning. According to new research from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the swarm intelligence of these amazingly organized bees can also be used to improve the efficiency of Internet servers faced with similar challenges.

©Georgia Institute of Technology
Honeybees maximize efficiency with dance communication. Click on image for larger version.
Read More...
Info

Nanotube tangles power printable batteries


New Scientist
Sun, 18 Nov 2007 14:46 UTC
Batteries that can be printed onto a surface with "nanotube ink" have been demonstrated by US researchers, who say the technique will fit well within the growing field of printed electronics, which still use conventional power sources.

The batteries were created by George Gruner and colleagues at the University of California in Los Angeles, US, and use the same zinc-carbon chemistry as ordinary non-rechargeable batteries.

Being able to print flexible batteries onto different surfaces should prove handy for powering disposable devices, such as long-range RFID tags or small displays, the researchers say.
Read More...
Attention

Nuclear Scientists Explore the Core of Existence

Annie Jia
LiveScience
Sun, 18 Nov 2007 00:04 UTC
This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

The strong nuclear force is the strongest of the four fundamental forces of nature, binding protons and neutrons in the cores of atoms. Yet the same force prevents those fundamental particles from combining in certain combinations.

When I first learned that, my entire view of the physical world was shaken. It was like learning that only certain mixes of peanut butter and jelly could be put into a sandwich.

As a journalist at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University, one of the nation's top nuclear science laboratories, the strangeness of this truth was my first glimpse into the peculiar nature of matter at the subatomic level.

©NSCL
Matt Johnson, NSCL staff engineer, inspects a 45-degree dipole magnet. The magnet, used to turn and separate nuclei, was installed in 2007, enabling researchers to continue pursuing exotic nuclei at the edge of existence.
Read More...
Question

Noah's Ark flood spurred European farming

Michael Kahn
Reuters
Sat, 17 Nov 2007 23:27 UTC
LONDON - An ancient flood some say could be the origin of the story of Noah's Ark may have helped the spread of agriculture in Europe 8,300 years ago by scattering the continent's earliest farmers, researchers said on Sunday.

Using radiocarbon dating and archaeological evidence, a British team showed the collapse of the North American ice sheet, which raised global sea levels by as much as 1.4 meters, displaced tens of thousands of people in southeastern Europe who carried farming skills to their new homes.
Read More...
Sheeple

UK Dolly Creator Gives Up Cloning Method


Associated Press
Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:53 UTC
LONDON - The Scottish scientist who created Dolly the sheep more than a decade ago said he is abandoning the cloning technique that he pioneered, according to an interview published Saturday.
Read More...
Wine

Flashback A Philologist's Discoveries: Affinity of an Ancient South American Language to the Semitic Tongues


New York Times
Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:44 UTC
August 12, 1879, Wednesday - Rudolph Falb, a German Professor, recently arrived in San Francisco, after spending two years in South America, and now on his way back to his native country, authorizes us to announce that he has made discoveries of great interest to ethnology and philology.
Read More...
Question

Flashback Rock 'face' mystery baffles experts


University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Thu, 17 Jun 2004 10:55 UTC
Archaeologists have found a trio of extraordinary stone carvings while charting the phenomenon of prehistoric rock markings in Northumberland, close to the Scottish border in the United Kingdom.

Records and examples of over 950 prehistoric rock art panels exist in Northumberland, which are of the traditional 'cup and ring' variety, with a typical specimen featuring a series of cups and concentric circles pecked into sandstone outcrops and boulders.

However, archaeologists at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, who are studying prehistoric rock carvings, are baffled by three unusual markings found carved into rocks at separate locations.

©Aron Mazel
Photograph of the face carving (1), found near Rothbury, Northumberland
Read More...