From tropical storm to hurricane to nor'easter, the short but troubled life of Noel made headlines along the Eastern seaboard over the last two weeks.
Here in South Florida, Noel took a huge bite out of the beaches, removing an estimated 12,000 truckloads of sand. Along the coastline of New England, Noel made history, generating waves 45 feet high along the Georgian Bank, 6 feet higher than those measured during the famous "Perfect Storm" of October 1991. Noel's waves were the highest recorded at the buoy since online records began in 1984.
The swamped buoy in the Georgian Bank is one of dozens deployed in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea that track wave heights, record sea-surface temperature and provide a variety of real-time weather data.
A population study of microbes in Yellowstone National Park hot pools suggests viruses might be buoyed by steam to distant pools. The result, to be published online next week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help to answer some fundamental questions about how microbes, and the viruses that infect them, impact their environment. Researchers at Montana State University and Idaho National Laboratory embarked on one of the first comprehensive, long-term characterizations of hot pool ecosystems in Yellowstone National Park. The results help shed light on how viruses survive in hostile surroundings, migrate from pool to pool, and may help control hot pool environments.
A big question for biologists is how much microbes and their predators contribute to creating the acidic, mineral-heavy environment in geothermal features. In the laboratory, microbes like sulfur-eating Sulfolobus, which is found in hot pools around the world, will lower the acidity of the surrounding water to their comfort level. Viruses that infect hot pool microbes may have a similar effect on their environment by keeping certain populations in check.
Statement of Donald K. Yeomans Manager, NEO Program Office Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Committee on House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics
Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear today to discuss the potential threats of near-Earth objects (NEOs), our progress toward meeting the discovery goal articulated in the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, the role of the Arecibo planetary radar within the NEO program and the response options available if a NEO is found to be on an Earth impacting trajectory.
JAXA and NHK
JAXA.jpMon, 12 Nov 2007 06:02 UTC
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) have successfully performed the world's first high-definition image taking by the lunar explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE,) which was injected into a lunar orbit at an altitude of about 100 km on October 18, 2007, (Japan Standard Time. Following times and dates are all JST.)
It's a new Da Vinci code, but this time it could be for real.
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©AP Photo
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A laptop screen shows musical notes encoded in Leonardo Da Vinci's "Last Supper."
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Ljilja Cvekic
ReutersMon, 12 Nov 2007 00:18 UTC
If the figurines found in an ancient European settlement are any guide, women have been dressing to impress for at least 7,500 years.
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©REUTERS/Stevan Lazarevic
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A Neolithic figurine shows a girl in a short skirt and ornate top, found in the Plocnik archaeological site near the town of Prokuplje in southern Serbia, Nov. 3, 2007.
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Intel Corp. plans to roll out its newest generation of processors Monday, flexing its manufacturing muscle with a sophisticated new process that crams up to 40 percent more transistors onto the company's chips.
The world's largest semiconductor company expects to start shipping 16 new microprocessors -- which also boast inventive new materials to stanch electricity loss -- for use in servers and high-end gaming PCs .
The world should quickly ban cloning of humans and only allow exceptions for strictly controlled research to help treat diseases such as diabetes or Alzheimer's, a U.N. study said on Sunday.
Without a ban, experts at the U.N. University's Institute of Advanced Studies said that governments would have to prepare legal measures to protect clones from "potential abuse, prejudice and discrimination".
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©University of Hawaii
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A comparison of Comet Holmes, the sun and Saturn (inset) is shown in this image from the University of Hawaii.
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Once a faint, obscure comet, 17P/Holmes has eclipsed the sun as the largest object in the solar system and it's still growing, Hawaii astronomers say.
The spectacular comet has dazzled astronomers since it exploded Oct. 24 from a tiny nucleus of ice and rock about 2.2 miles in diameter.
Lisa Zyga
PhysOrgSun, 11 Nov 2007 15:36 UTC
Usually when physicists talk about nonlocality in quantum mechanics, they're referring to the fact that two particles can have immediate effects on each other, even when separated by large distances. Einstein famously called the phenomena "spooky interaction at a distance" because information about a particle seems to be traveling faster than the speed of light, violating the laws of causality.
Although the idea is counterintuitive, nonlocality is now widely accepted by physicists, albeit almost exclusively for two-particle systems. So far, no experiment has sufficiently demonstrated the nonlocality of a single particle, although explanations have been proposed since 1991 (starting with Tan, Walls, and Collett).
Comment: 'Last Supper' by Leonardo Da Vinci has mystified researches for a very long time now.
The idea of music being encoded in the works of Da Vinci is not new and has been proposed before - Mysterious Science of Sound : Music in 'Da Vinci Code' Chapel.
We encourage you to read the following article by Laura Knight-Jadczyk for deeper insights into the true meaning of this amazing work of art.
The True Identity of Fulcanelli and The Da Vinci Code