Science & TechnologyS


Frog

Flashback Darwinism - The forbidden subject

Richard Milton
World Mysteries
Thu, 20 Jan 2005 09:59 UTC
It isn't scientific investigation of Darwinism that's forbidden -- it's public debate of the findings of such research. Most educated, rational people will find it almost impossible to believe that the debate of Darwinism through mainstream news papers and the principal TV channels is forbidden. I still find it hard to believe myself.

The article below was first commissioned and later censored by the Times Higher Education Supplement. (The circumstances under which it came to be censored, following the intervention of Dr Richard Dawkins, are described in the pages on Scientific Censorship).

The readers of the Times Higher Education Supplement (a large proportion of the University lecturers of Britain) have thus been prevented from learning of its contents. Now you have the facts before you and can make up your own mind.
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Binoculars

Noah's Ark nestled on Mount Ararat

Satish Kanady
The Peninsula
Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:35 UTC
Dogubayazit (Turkey's Iran-Armenian Border) - For the first time in the seven decade-long history of the search for the legendary Noah's Ark, a Turkish-Hong Kong exploration team on Tuesday came out with "material evidence", to prove that the Ark was nestled on Mount Ararat, Turkey's highest mountain peak bordering Iran and Armenia.
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Bulb

Case researcher in RNA biology makes waves by challenging current thinking


Case Western Reserve University
Sat, 19 Jan 2008 14:36 UTC
In the January 18th issue of Molecular Cell, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researcher Kristian E. Baker, Ph.D. challenges molecular biology's established body of evidence and widely-accepted model for nonsense-mediated messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) decay. With her collaborator, Ambro van Hoof, Ph.D. of The University of Texas Health Sciences Center, Baker directly tested the "faux 3' UTR" model and proved it could not explain how cells recognize and destroy deviant mRNA. This landmark discovery will redirect mRNA research and expand opportunities for new discoveries in understanding the cells' ability to protect itself from these potential errors.
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Laptop

Hackers Cut Cities' Power

Andy Greenberg
Forbes
Sat, 19 Jan 2008 14:23 UTC
Cyber-security experts have long warned of the vulnerability of critical infrastructure like power, transportation and water systems to malicious hackers. Friday, those warnings quietly became a reality: Tom Donahue, a CIA official, revealed at the SANS security trade conference in New Orleans that hackers have penetrated power systems in several regions outside the U.S., and "in at least one case, caused a power outage affecting multiple cities."
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Bulb

Tiny genetic differences have huge consequences: McGill researchers


McGill University
Sat, 19 Jan 2008 12:25 UTC
A study led by McGill University researchers has demonstrated that small differences between individuals at the DNA level can lead to dramatic differences in the way genes produce proteins. These, in turn, are responsible for the vast array of differences in physical characteristics between individuals. The study, part of the Genome Regulators in Disease (GRID) Project funded by Genome Canada and Genome Quebec, was led by Dr. Jacek Majewski of McGill University's Department of Human Genetics and the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, and first-authored by his research associate Dr. Tony Kwan. It was published January 13 in the journal Nature Genetics.
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Info

Cloning Said to Yield Human Embryos

Andrew Pollack
The New York Times
Sat, 19 Jan 2008 01:32 UTC
Scientists at a small biotechnology company say they have used cloning to create human embryos from the skin cells of two men.

The work represents a step toward the promise of creating personalized embryonic stem cells that could be used for medical treatments. Although the embryos grew only to a very early stage, the work could also theoretically be seen as a step toward creating babies that are genetic copies of other people.

Scientists at the company, Stemagen, which is based in San Diego, California, said Thursday that they were the first to use human adult cells to create cloned embryos that advanced to the stage known as a blastocyst, from which embryonic stem cells typically are extracted.
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Telescope

Messenger reveals a new side of Mercury


C/net News
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:14 UTC


©NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

NASA's Messenger spacecraft made the first human visit to Mercury in 33 years when it flew by the planet on Monday. Mercury's last visitor from Earth, Mariner 10, was able to photograph about half of the planet's surface. Messenger was able to return images of about half of the never-before-seen surface of the planet.

Guess what they found in the new images? Craters. But they do show off new geological features and a history of the planet. The area at the top right of this image is called the Caloris basin, which was probably formed by an impact with an asteroid or comet. The brighter color shows that it may have a different composition of soil than the rest of the planet.
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Bulb

Materials' crystal properties illuminated by mathematical 'lighthouse'


Princeton University
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:29 UTC
A deeper fundamental understanding of complex materials may now be possible, thanks to a pair of Princeton scientists who have uncovered a new insight into how crystals form.

The researchers' findings reveal a previously unknown mathematical relationship between the different arrangements that interacting particles can take while freezing. The discovery could give scientists insight into the essential behaviors of materials such as polymers, which are the basis of plastics.

Molecules in a material cooled to absolute zero can take on a multitude of different configurations. Historically, scientists' difficulty with identifying crystallized molecules' spatial arrangements from this high number of possible configurations has blocked theoretical efforts to understand these materials' qualities, but the new findings could offer the tool that science needs.
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Star

Math Models Snowflakes


US Davis
Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:16 UTC
Three-dimensional snowflakes can now be grown in a computer using a program developed by mathematicians at UC Davis and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

No two snowflakes are truly alike, but they can be very similar to each other, said Janko Gravner, a mathematics professor at UC Davis. Why they are not more different from each other is a mystery, Gravner said. Being able to model the process might answer some of these questions.

©Janko Gravner and David Griffeath
Computer-generated snowflake
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Telescope

Spaceguard: UK Campaign for NEO Telescope


BBC
Fri, 18 Jan 2008 06:57 UTC
An observatory which monitors the potential threat to earth from asteroids has launched a campaign to raise money to install a new telescope.

©BBC
The cost of installing the telescope is estimated at £54,000
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