Science & TechnologyS


Bandaid

Damage to Endeavour appears less serious


Space Daily - AFP
Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:23 UTC
Damage to the US space shuttle Endeavour's protective thermal shield caused by a piece of debris during launch appears to be less serious than previously believed, a NASA official said.

©NASA HO/AFP
This photo from NASA, shows the underside of the Space Shuttle Endeavour 10 August 2007 from the International Space Station during a back flip and careful survey by crewmembers onboard the orbital outpost. Experts at NASA were analyzing the pictures that showed the apparent three square inch (19 square centimeter) gouge (white spot on lower left) on shuttle's heat shield. A piece of ice that struck the shuttle shortly after Wednesday's liftoff is believed to have caused the gouge near the hatch of one of the shuttle's landing gears, mission manager John Shannon said.
Read More...
R2-D2

NASA May Repair Shuttle, Extends Station Mission Three Days


Space Daily - AFP
Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:18 UTC
NASA engineers were conducting simulation tests Sunday to see if the Endeavour's damaged heat shield needs repair, as astronauts prepared for the second spacewalk of the space mission that has been extended by three days.

©NASA - AFP
Read More...
Magnify

MIT creates 3-D images of living cell


Physorg.com
Mon, 13 Aug 2007 07:07 UTC
A new imaging technique developed at MIT has allowed scientists to create the first 3D images of a living cell, using a method similar to the X-ray CT scans doctors use to see inside the body.

©Michael Feld laboratory, MIT
Images of a cervical cancer cell taken using a new imaging technique developed at MIT. Figures a and b show 3D images of the cell. The green structures represent the nucleolus. The nucleus, not visible in these images, surrounds the nucleolus. The red areas are unidentified cell organelles. Figures c through h show the 2D images from which the 3D images were generated. In these images, each color represents a different range of refractive index
Read More...
Magnify

X-ray images help explain limits to insect body size


ANL
Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:06 UTC
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have cast new light on why the giant insects that lived millions of years ago disappeared.

In the late Paleozoic Era, with atmospheric oxygen levels reaching record highs, some insects evolved into giants. When oxygen levels returned to lower levels, the insect giants went extinct.
Read More...
Question

What makes Mars magnetic?


ESF
Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:03 UTC
Earth's surface is a very active place; its plates are forever jiggling around, rearranging themselves into new configurations. Continents collide and mountains arise, oceans slide beneath continents and volcanoes spew. As far as we know Earth's restless surface is unique to the planets in our solar system. So what is it that keeps Earth's plates oiled and on the move?

Scientists think that the secret lies beneath the crust, in the slippery asthenosphere. In order for the mantle to convect and the plates to slide they require a lubricated layer. On Mars this lubrication has long since dried up, but on Earth the plates can still glide around with ease.
Read More...
Question

Three-Tonne Meteorite Stolen In Russia


AFP
Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:46 UTC
Russian police were combing the northern Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk on Friday for a three-tonne meteorite that has disappeared from under the nose of its keepers.

The giant rock was stolen from the yard of the Tunguska Space Event foundation, whose director said it was the part of meteor that caused a massive explosion in Siberia in 1908, news agency Interfax reported.
Read More...
Telescope

Cool place, hot bodies Circumstellar space: Where chemistry happens for the very first time

Tony Fitzpatrick
Washington University in St. Louis News & Information
Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:47 UTC
Picture a cool place, teeming with a multitude of hot bodies twirling about in rapidly changing formations of singles and couples, partners and groups, constantly dissolving and reforming.

If you were thinking of the dance floor in a modern nightclub, think again.

©NASA/JPL-Caltech
The nebula RCW49 is a nursery for newborn stars and exists in circumstellar space, where chemistry is done for the very first time.
Read More...
Bulb

New discovery! Patterns Of Excitation Waves Found In Brain's Visual Processing Center

Becky Wexler
Georgetown University
Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:34 UTC
Neuroscientists have long believed that vision is processed in the brain along circuits made up of neurons, similar to the way telephone signals are transferred through separate wires from one station to another. But scientists at Georgetown University Medical Center discovered that visual information is also processed in a different way, like propagating waves oscillating back and forth among brain areas.

©New Jersey Institute of Technology
Neurons
Read More...
Telescope

Japanese and NASA Satellites Unveil New Type of Active Galaxy

Robert Naeye
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:17 UTC
An international team of astronomers using NASA's Swift satellite and the Japanese/U.S. Suzaku X-ray observatory has discovered a new class of active galactic nuclei (AGN).

©Sonoma State University
In the newly discovered type of AGN, the disk and torus surrounding the black hole are so deeply obscured by gas and dust that no visible light escapes, making them very difficult to detect. This illustration shows the scene from a more distant perspective than does the other image. Click on image for high-res version.

Comment: More information about Swift can be found at The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission and about Suzaku can be found at The Suzaku Mission.


Read More...
Bulb

Levitation by Quantum Mechanics

Staff Writer
Panda news
Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:32 UTC
Theoretical Physicists in the School have determined that quantum fluctuations of the vacuum combined with materials of negative refractive index can lead to incredible levitation effects. The results of this study on quantum levitation by Ulf Leonhardt and Thomas Philbin are to be published in the New Journal of Physics, and are reported upon in the Institute of Physics's Physics Web.

©St. Andrew's
Artist's impression of a thin mirror being held up above another mirror by the quantum levitation effect.
Read More...