Science & TechnologyS


Telescope

Thermometer Camera Reveals New Frontiers


SPX
Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:05 UTC


©Space Daily
Large Bolometer Camera (LABOCA) array wiring side.

Space is a vast expanse which hides deep within its depths the secrets behind how the first galaxies emerged from the Big Bang. Now thanks to the world's largest bolometer camera constructed and operated by a collaborative European consortium, these secrets will slowly begin revealing themselves to scientists worldwide.
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Video

Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes find 'Lego-block' galaxies in early universe


ESA/Hubble Information Centre
Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:33 UTC
The conventional model for galaxy evolution predicts that small galaxies in the early Universe evolved into the massive galaxies of today by coalescing. Nine Lego-like "building block" galaxies initially detected by Hubble likely contributed to the construction of the Universe as we know it. "These are among the lowest mass galaxies ever directly observed in the early Universe" says Nor Pirzkal of the European Space Agency/STScI.

Pirzkal was surprised to find that the galaxies' estimated masses were so small. Hubble's cousin observatory, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope was called upon to make precise determinations of their masses. The Spitzer observations confirmed that these galaxies are some of the smallest building blocks of the Universe.
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Bulb

Race for 'next big thing' in Silicon Valley

Richard Waters
The Financial Times
Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:15 UTC
Silicon Valley's annual coming-out season for tech start-ups is about to turn into a stampede.

In the next few weeks, the wraps will be removed from some 150 new companies and products at a handful of events in California competing to identify the tech industry's Next Big Thing.
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Telescope

UK plan to track asteroid threat


BBC News
Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:59 UTC
UK space scientists and engineers have designed a mission to investigate a potentially hazardous asteroid.

The 300m-wide (980ft) rock, known as Apophis, will fly past Earth in April 2029 at a distance that is closer than many communications satellites.

Astrium, based in Stevenage, Herts, wants a probe to track the asteroid so its orbit can be better understood.

©Astrium
Under the proposal Apex would rendezvous with Apophis in January 2014 and spend three years sending data back to scientists and engineers on Earth. From the data, orbit modelling would enable an accurate prediction of the risk of collision with our planet.
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Telescope

Russia Space Agency plans protecting Earth from asteroids


Itar-Tass
Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:47 UTC
The Russian Federal Space Agency plans creating a system of anti-asteroid protection after 2026, the agency's director Anatoly Perminov told a news conference on Friday.
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Telescope

Traced: The asteroid breakup that wiped out the dinosaurs


AFP
Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:36 UTC
The extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago can be traced to a collision between two monster rocks in the asteroid belt nearly 100 million years earlier, scientists report on Wednesday.

©Southwest Research Institute
Computer modeling shows that the parent object of asteroid (298) Baptistina, which was approximately 170-kilometres in diameter with characteristics similar to carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, was disrupted 160 million years ago when it was hit by another asteroid estimated to be 60-kilometres in diameter (L) .The extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago can be traced to a collision between two monster rocks in the asteroid belt nearly 100 million years earlier, scientists report. The two pictures on the right show remnants of the collision impacting the Earth and Moon. Image obtained from Southwest Research Institute.
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Bulb

Pig study sheds new light on the colonisation of Europe by early farmers


Durham University
Wed, 05 Sep 2007 14:50 UTC
The earliest domesticated pigs in Europe, which many archaeologists believed to be descended from European wild boar, were actually introduced from the Middle East by Stone Age farmers, new research suggests.

The research by an international team led by archaeologists at Durham University, which is published today in the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences USA, analysed mitochondrial DNA from ancient and modern pig remains. Its findings also suggest that the migration of an expanding Middle Eastern population, who brought their 'farming package' of domesticated plants, animals and distinctive pottery styles with them, actually 'kickstarted' the local domestication of the European wild boar.

While archaeologists already know that agriculture began about 12,000 years ago in the central and western parts of the Middle East, spreading rapidly across Europe between 6,800 - 4000BC, many outstanding questions remain about the mechanisms of just how it spread. This research sheds new and important light on the actual process of the establishment of farming in Europe.
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Telescope

World's biggest digital camera to look for Earth-shattering asteroids

David Shiga
Newscientist
Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:55 UTC
The world's largest digital camera has been installed on a new telescope designed to hunt for potentially dangerous asteroids.
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People

Persistence of Myths Could Alter Public Policy Approach

Shankar Vedantam
The Washington Post
Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:17 UTC
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued a flier to combat myths about the flu vaccine. It recited various commonly held views and labeled them either "true" or "false." Among those identified as false were statements such as "The side effects are worse than the flu" and "Only older people need flu vaccine."

Comment: True
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Magnify

Archaeologists discover ancient beehives

MATTI FRIEDMAN,
AP
Wed, 05 Sep 2007 02:44 UTC
Archaeologists digging in northern Israel have discovered evidence of a 3,000-year-old beekeeping industry, including remnants of ancient honeycombs, beeswax and what they believe are the oldest intact beehives ever found.

The findings in the ruins of the city of Rehov this summer include 30 intact hives dating to around 900 B.C., archaeologist Amihai Mazar of Jerusalem's Hebrew University told The Associated Press. He said it offers unique evidence that an advanced honey industry existed in the Holy Land at the time of the Bible.

Comment: For a good understanding of the Bible and what the real history of the Israelite people were in the times around 900 BC, read the book by Laura Knight-Jadczyk: The Secret History of the World

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