Science & TechnologyS


Better Earth

Save the Environment: Switch to Linux


CNN
Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:55 UTC
True or False: Switching from a Windows-operated computer to a Linux-operated one could slash computer-generated e-waste levels by 50%.

The answer is: TRUE

A UK government study in late 2004 reported that there were substantial green benefits to running a Linux open source operating system (OS) on computers instead of the ubiquitous Windows OS, owned by Microsoft. The main problem with Windows users was that they had to change their computer twice as many times as Linux users, on average, thereby effectively creating twice as much computer-generated e-waste.
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Telescope

Mass extinctions: The armageddon factor

Michael Reilly
New Scientist
Mon, 10 Dec 2007 14:33 UTC
Why do some asteroid impacts and mega-eruptions wipe out most life on Earth while others leave barely a trace in the fossil record?

Comment: Recent indications are that you won't have to wait that long.

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Rocket

Duff sensor grounds space shuttle Atlantis until next year


CNN
Sun, 09 Dec 2007 14:46 UTC
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- NASA scrubbed space shuttle Atlantis' planned Sunday launch after a cut-off sensor designed to gauge the fuel level of the external liquid hydrogen tank failed another test, a space agency spokesman said.
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Rocket

Space Shuttle Scheduled to Lift Off Sunday

Warren E. Leary
The New York Times
Sun, 09 Dec 2007 07:08 UTC
Cape Canaveral, Florida - NASA will try to launch the space shuttle Atlantis on Sunday under restrictive rules to deal with problem fuel sensors and an unusually tight liftoff schedule.
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Telescope

What's up in Space? BIG SUNSPOT


SpaceWeather.com
Sat, 08 Dec 2007 06:16 UTC
Sunspot 978 popped over the sun's eastern limb on Dec. 6th and it has quickly become one of the largest sunspots of the year. Pete Lawrence of Selsey UK photographed the active region yesterday:

©Pete Lawrence
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Info

Most ancient case of tuberculosis found in 500,000-year-old human; points to modern health issues

John Kappelman
University of Texas at Austin
Fri, 07 Dec 2007 01:54 UTC
Although most scientists believe tuberculosis emerged only several thousand years ago, new research from The University of Texas at Austin reveals the most ancient evidence of the disease has been found in a 500,000-year-old human fossil from Turkey.

The discovery of the new specimen of the human species, Homo erectus, suggests support for the theory that dark-skinned people who migrate northward from low, tropical latitudes produce less vitamin D, which can adversely affect the immune system as well as the skeleton.
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Frog

Animals Do the Cleverest Things

Steve Connor
AlterNet
Sat, 08 Dec 2007 23:29 UTC
The chimp who outwits humans; the dolphin who says it with seaweed; the existential dog

An elephant that never forgets its extended family, a chimp that can outperform humans in a sophisticated test of visual memory and an amorous male dolphin that likes to say it with flowers -- well, a clump of river weeds to be more precise. These are just some of the recent observations from the field of animal behaviour. They appear to show that there is no limit to the intelligence of animals, but what do we really know about the true cognitive powers of the non-human brain?
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Bizarro Earth

Did a massive comet kickstart plate tectonics on Earth?

Michael Reilly
New Scientist
Sat, 08 Dec 2007 05:56 UTC
It's such a simple idea that it's surprising no one seems to have thought of it before. Did a massive asteroid or comet impact kick-start plate tectonics on Earth?

For much of our planet's history, rocky plates have been sliding over a viscous, molten mantle, colliding to build mountain ranges or spreading apart to make way for oceans. In a neat piece of recycling, an oceanic plate dives, or "subducts", underneath a less dense continental plate, and eventually melts into the hot mantle.

Geologists estimate that plate tectonics began during the Archean period, between 2.5 and 3.8 billion years ago - but they don't know what triggered it. Ancient Earth was too hot for the crust to solidify completely, and the lightest minerals would have floated to the surface over the entire planet, making the subduction of denser plate material unlikely.
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Sheeple

Hittites 'used germ warfare 3,500 years ago'

Malcolm Moore
Telegraph
Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:56 UTC
An ancient Middle-Eastern empire had already mastered the art of biological warfare almost 3,500 years ago, according to an Italian scientist.
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Cloud Lightning

Flashback Unlocking the mystery behind lightning's puzzling friend


NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Tue, 07 Jun 2005 08:49 UTC
Sprites are likely generated by major lightning strikes.

Giant red blobs, picket fences, upward branching carrots, and tentacled octopi - these are just a few of the phrases used to describe sprites - spectacular, eerie flashes of colored light high above the tops of powerful thunderstorms that can travel up to 50 miles high in the atmosphere.

Sprites, so-named by a University of Alaska scientist inspired by the creatures in Shakespeare's "The Tempest," have been observed since the 1800s, though rarely visible from the ground. Aircraft pilots began reporting sightings of sprites in the 1950s and '60s, but they were not formally identified until 1989 when the Space Shuttle (STS-34) recorded the flashes as it passed over a thunderstorm in northern Australia. While many theories have been offered on the cause of this rare phenomenon, new NASA-funded research is settling the mystery and helping to determine the driving force behind these marvel displays of light.



©ISUAL Project, NCKU/NSPO, Taiwan
This dramatic, garishly colored image was captured with a low-light level camera on June 7, 2001. It shows what appears to be a "burning tree", or red sprite, above the National Cheng Kung University campus in Tainan City, Taiwan.

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