Science & TechnologyS


Better Earth

Digital magnetic map goes global

Liz Seward
BBC News
Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:33 UTC
The first global map of magnetic peculiarities - or anomalies - on Earth has been assembled by an international team of researchers.

Magnetic anomalies are caused by differences in the magnetisation of the rocks in the Earth's crust.

Many years of negotiation were required to obtain confidential data from governments and institutes.

Scientists hope to use the map to learn more about the geological composition of our planet.
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Question

Mysterious Ancient Script Investigated


Iceland Review Online
Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:34 UTC
The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies was given an ancient script yesterday which was discovered during a clean-up in a house in Hafnarfjördur a few years ago. The script is at least 200 to 300 years old and has mysterious writing.

"There are dots between the letters and they are neither runes nor Latin," manager of the institute Vésteinn Ólafsson told Fréttabladid. "It is some kind of a secret code written on skin in an old Icelandic binding."
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Rocket

NASA's New Target: Near Earth Asteroids

Dawn Stover
popsci.com
Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:02 UTC


©Nick Kaloterakis
On the Rocks: Deep-space travelers arrive at their destination. Lack of gravity could make exploring the asteroid tricky.

A manned mission to an asteroid sounds far-fetched, but a new study says it will soon be possible. The goal?: "to significantly alter the orbit of an asteroid, in a controlled manner, by 2015."

Comment: To add another possibility for NASA's growing interest in near earth asteroids, be sure to see the SOTT Focus Feature: Something Wicked This Way Comes

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Telescope

More on Holmes: Comet phenomenon is spotted in UK


BBC News
Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:51 UTC
A Devon astronomer was able to track the unexpected brightness of a comet with a telescope in the Canary Islands.

©n/a
The earth in relation to the comet is 244 million km (151 614 570 miles) away
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Star

Planets, meteors and comets mean plenty to see in November's sky

Glenn K. Roberts
The Guardian
Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:44 UTC
Though the nights are definitely chillier now, there's much to see in the night sky worth getting out for, especially this month.

Dress warmly and head for a dark site away from city lights and enjoy the special treats on display for those with the fortitude to venture forth.

The show starts just after sunset, with Jupiter shining brightly low in the southwest sky. You'll have to be quick to spot Jupiter's four largest moons - Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede - as Jupiter will follow the sun below the horizon soon after darkness falls. On Nov. 12, look for the slender, three-day old crescent moon just to the lower left of Jupiter.
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Bulb

Brain Cells Colored To Create 'Brainbow'

Ker Than
LiveScience
Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:47 UTC
Borrowing genes from bacteria, coral and jellyfish, scientists have set mice brains aglow in a bold panoply of colors, revealing the intricate highways and byways of neuronal connections.

The technique, dubbed "Brainbow" by its Harvard University inventors, is detailed in the Nov. 1 issue of the journal Nature.

©Credit: Livet et al. Nature 1st Nov 2007
In 'Brainbow' transgenic mice, nerve cells randomly express fluorescent proteins of different colors. Combinations of these proteins label neurons with multiple distinct hues, as seen here neurons of the hippocampus (confocal microscopy, dentate gyrus).

Previous techniques for highlighting neurons used at most two colors. One common approach developed in 1873 by an Italian physician and still used today, called the Golgi method, stains neurons in their entirety but only affects a few brain cells at a time.

In contrast, Brainbow allows researchers to tag several hundred neurons at once with roughly 90 distinct colors. The resulting images , which resemble abstract color paintings, are both beautiful and informative. They look like they could hang in a modern art museum and are among the most detailed images of neuronal connections ever made.
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Clock

Defect Suspected in Fabric of Space-Time

Ker Than
LiveScience
Thu, 25 Oct 2007 02:01 UTC
An enormous cold spot in our universe could be explained by a cosmic defect in the fabric of space-time created shortly after the Big Bang, scientists say.

©V. Travieso and N. Turok/University of Cambridge
The figure shows a random collection of textures taken from high-resolution, supercomputer simulations. Red indicates a positive twist in the topological charge density and blue a negative twist. Credit: V. Travieso and N. Turok/University of Cambridge

If confirmed by future studies, the finding, detailed in the Oct. 25 issue of the journal Science, could provide cosmologists with a long-sought clue about how the infant universe evolved.

But other scientists, and even members of the study team, are skeptical of the new claim.
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Bulb

A Breathable Earth


Terra Daily
Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:08 UTC
Ohio State University geologists and their colleagues have uncovered evidence of when Earth may have first supported an oxygen-rich atmosphere similar to the one we breathe today. The development of an oxygen atmosphere signaled a major change in the evolution on life, and gave way for the numerous forms of oxygen-utilizing organisms we see on the Earth's surface today. Studying how and when this oxygen-rich atmosphere came to be can provide important insight into how life on Earth has evolved alongside our planet's changing climate.

©Unknown
During the Ordovician period, which began around 490 million years ago, many new species sprang into being. The first coral reefs formed during that time, and the first true fish swam among them. New plants evolved and began colonizing land.
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Light Sabers

Israel ups airline defenses


United Press International
Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:56 UTC
Israel will fortify its commercial airplanes with new, laser-based missile-defense technology designed by Elbit subsidiary El-Op, the company announced this month.

©Unknown
disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only
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Coffee

The mouse that shook the world

Steve Connor
Independent
Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:01 UTC
Scientists have been astounded by the creation of a genetically modified "supermouse" with extraordinary physical abilities - comparable to the performance of the very best athletes - raising the prospect that the discovery may one day be used to transform people's capacities.
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