Science & TechnologyS


Comet 2

Comets & Asteroids - Summary for March 2016

Ernesto Guido
Remanzacco Blog
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 01:55 UTC
During the month of March 2016, 3 new comets were discovered. On March 17, 2016 a new impact flash on Jupiter has been captured by amateur astronomers. Moreover, delay-doppler images of asteroid 2016 DV1 (on March 03, 2016) and of comet P/2016 BA14 (on March 22, 2016) have been obtained by Goldstone Solar System Radar.(see below for more about these news). "Current comet magnitudes" & "Daily updated asteroid flybys" pages are available at the top of this blog (or just click on the underline text here).
The dates below refer to the date of issuance of CBET (Central Bureau Electronic Telegram) which reported the official news & designations.
Comet P/2016 BA14
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSRRadar images of comet P/2016 BA14.
Comet Discoveries

Mar 11 Discovery of C/2016 E1 (PANSTARRS)
Mar 16 P/2015 B4 (LEMMON-PANSTARRS)
Mar 16 C/2016 E2 (KOWALSKI)

Scientists using the Goldstone Solar System Radar in California's Mojave Desert observed comet P/2016 BA14 during its historic flyby. Close approach of March 22, 2016 by P/2016 BA14 has been the third closest on record and the closest flyby of a comet in 246 years (for more info about P/2016 BA14 see our previous post). Radar images from the flyby indicate that the comet is about 1 kilometer in diameter. Moreover data collected by V. Reddy using the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii indicate that the comet reflects less than 3 percent of the sunlight that falls on its surface.
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Die

Scientists now able to hack living cells and alter their function

Sarah Knapton
The Telegraph
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 23:44 UTC
programmed bacteria
© SPL / BARCROFT MEDIA/SPL / BARCROFT MEDIA Bacteria could be programmed to release cancer drugs when encountering a tumour Credit:
Scientists at MIT have proven they can 'hack' living cells and programme them to carry out new tasks.

In the same way that computer language tells a machine how to operate, researchers have shown it is possible to write DNA 'code' and insert it into bacteria to alter how they function.

They hope that one day cells could be programmed so they could release cancer drugs on encountering a tumour, or allow plants to fight back with insecticide when a pest comes near.

"It is literally a programming language for bacteria," said Christopher Voigt, an MIT professor of biological engineering.

"You use a text-based language, just like you're programming a computer. Then you take that text and you compile it and it turns it into a DNA sequence that you put into the cell, and the circuit runs inside the cell."

Comment: It is chilling to imagine what fresh hell this might unleash on a world already plagued by the experiments of mad scientists.

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Cassiopaea

Collision of dying stars identified as 'trigger' of Milky Way's latest supernova


RT
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 16:41 UTC
Supernova
© NASA
The most recent disturbance in our galaxy appears to have been caused by two dying white dwarf stars crashing into each other, say US scientists.

Data gathered from NASA's Chandra X-ray space telescope and giant radio dishes at the Karl G Jansky VLA in New Mexico point to a collision of collapsing sun-like masses of energy triggering a 'supernova' - a massive star explosion.

Light from the remnants of the Milky Way's youngest supernova, awkwardly named G1.9+0.3, had until recently been hidden by an area of space dust and gas. It was first tracked by astronomers in the 1980s.

It has since been the subject of the Chandra deep space observatory - the most powerful telescope ever built.

It's estimated the explosion happened 110 years ago, replacing the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A as the most recent stellar explosion.

"We observed that the X-ray and radio brightness increased with time, so the data point strongly to a collision between two white dwarfs as being the trigger for the supernova explosion," said Francesca Childs, co-author of a recent Harvard study of star explosions.

Scientists are also exploring whether the Type la supernova might also have been caused by the degenerating white dwarf stars pulling too much material from a nearby companion star.

According to Harvard's Alicia Soderberg, since the light given off from Type la supernovas is measured to determine the expansion rate of the universe, it is important to understand how the phenomenon occurs.

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People

Anyone home?: Consciousness and its disorders

Selen Atasoy
The Conversation
Wed, 30 Mar 2016 21:33 UTC
counsciousness
© Melissa Portes/Flickr, CC BYConsciousness remains one of the most puzzling phenomena in science.
Imagine you just woke up from a deep, dreamless sleep. Fuzzy at first, you suddenly become aware of your surrounding, your body, your reality.

We say at this point that you are conscious. But although familiar and intimate to all of us, consciousness remains one of the most puzzling phenomena in science.

How does the electric and chemical activity in your brain produce your subjective experiences; the redness of red, the taste of chocolate or the pain in your back?

So far, science hasn't provided a plausible explanation of how these subjective qualities (called qualia) are produced by the brain.
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Question

Why, exactly, do humans have toes?

Dan Nosowitz
Atlas Obscura
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 21:17 UTC
toes
© Andy/Public DomainWhat are these for?
Not long ago, after I accidentally kicked the radiator next to my bed and brutally stubbed my toe, I looked down. I saw ridiculous mutant-finger-like protuberances coming out of my foot, part of them covered with useless nails that seem to need clipping much more often as I get older. "What is the point of these garbage toes?," I wondered. They're lousy at grabbing things, they break easily, and they look, in a pure aesthetic sense, weird.

Are they the appendix of the foot, worthless remnants from our ape days just waiting to wreak havoc?

In reporting this story, I contacted a number of podiatrists and orthopedic surgeons who declined to comment, presumably too busy to ponder the lower digits. Luckily, Dr. Terry Philbin, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon and spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons who focuses exclusively on the foot and ankle, finally took time to explain the meaning of our toes.

Comment: See also: Floppy-footed Gibbons Help Us Understand How Early Humans May Have Walked

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Bulb

No more space debris: Russia developing satellite that will burn up in Earth's atmosphere


RT
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 01:15 UTC
russian mayak satellite
© Mayak / YouTube
A Moscow-based team of physicists and engineers has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the $45,000 required to assemble a unique satellite, which will shine brighter than most stars and leave no space debris once it stops operating.

The satellite will be exceptionally bright as once it reaches orbit it will extend an ultra-shiny, pyramid-shaped solar reflector, the Kickstarter description says. The pyramid will be 16 sq meters in size and made of "air-thin film that is 20 times thinner than human hair."

The satellite will also be used to test an aerodynamic braking system that will help it come out of orbit and eventually burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. If the test is a success, the technique could be further used to prevent all kinds of objects sent into space from becoming floating debris.
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Jupiter

Update: Was Jupiter slammed by another comet... or was it something else?

Tariq Malik
Space.com
Tue, 29 Mar 2016 18:13 UTC
Jupiter Impact
© John McKeon The flash from a new impact on Jupiter (arrow) is seen in this still from a video taken through a telescope by amateur astronomer John McKeon of Swords, Ireland on March 17, 2016.
Take that, Jupiter! The largest planet in the solar system just got whacked by an asteroid or a comet, and some intrepid stargazers have captured the planet's latest collision on camera.

Amateur astronomer John McKeon was observing the king of planets by telescope from Swords, Ireland, on March 17 when he captured this stunning time-lapse video of something hitting Jupiter. McKeon was recording the transit of Jupiter's moons Io and Ganymede with an 11-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and his ASI120mm camera when something struck Jupiter, and he struck cosmic pay dirt.

"The original purpose of the imaging session was to get this time-lapse, with a happy coincidence of the impact in the second, last capture of the night," McKeon wrote in a YouTube video description.

While it's still too early to know exact details on the Jupiter crash, NASA asteroid expert Paul Chodas, who heads the agency's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said there's greater chance that an asteroid, not comet, is the culprit.

"It's more likely to be an asteroid simply because there are more of them," Chodas told Space.com by phone.

It's not yet clear what hit Jupiter, but the impact was also captured by at least one other amateur astronomer — Gerrit Kernbauer of Mödling, Austria — according to Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait, who posted Kernbauer's YouTube video of the impact. According to Plait, the impact occurred at 00:18 GMT, or just after midnight, on March 17.

Comment: If this was a space rock impacting Jupiter, it would be the 6th such time since 1994.

However, we've since learned of Suspicious Observers' idea that it may have been some kind of energetic plasma event, which is an intriguing possibility. Weird things, after all, are happening in our atmosphere, so why not Jupiter's?

See also: SOTT Exclusive: Two comets whizz past Earth on same day, including third and fifth closest flybys in recorded history

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Bulb

Moon landings faked? New graphics chip sheds light on a 47-year-old conspiracy theory (VIDEO)


Sott.net
Tue, 29 Mar 2016 20:03 UTC
moon landing
The following promotional video is for a new NVIDIA graphics chip. The objective of their showcase simulation was an accurate realtime-rendering of the lighting conditions on the Moon during Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's famous 1969 lunar landing.

As you'll see, it matches very closely to the actual photographs taken. It thus adds, we think, a valuable and credible data point to the Moon landing controversy, and exposes the 'flat' thinking of some of the 'experts' in this controversy, specifically those who argue for the landings having been faked...

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Magnify

Our hands help us navigate the world through touch by sensing patterns of vibration at a distance


Science Daily
Mon, 28 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
hand vibration patterns
© University of California - Santa BarbaraVibration patterns of the type measured by the authors of the study.
Type an email on your computer. Raise a glass to your lips. Feel for the light switch in a dark room. Simple, everyday tasks can demand subtle interactions between our hands and our surroundings, but, surprisingly, much remains unknown about the mechanics of the sense of touch.

"Most people don't have a very clear picture of how touch sensation actually arises," said UC Santa Barbara faculty member Yon Visell, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and in the campus's Media Arts and Technology graduate program. While people are familiar with touch as consisting of the interaction between two surfaces -- the skin and whatever it is in contact with -- they are less aware of the subtle ways that touch sensing helps us to identify and navigate our surroundings, he said.

For instance, if your fingers are numb, you may still be able to move them, but be hesitant to pick up an object or send a text message, because of the lack of sensation -- think of what happens when your foot or arm falls asleep. According to a study co-authored by Visell that appears in the Proceedings in the National Academy of Sciences, our hands in particular have access to rich tactile information that travels far beyond the tips of our fingers. This may help to explain some remarkable capabilities of the sense of touch -- why, for example, people whose fingers have been anesthetized are still able to feel fine surface detail, as has been demonstrated in prior research.
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Eye 1

Google will send out alerts if Gmail accounts are targeted by the government

Clarice Palmer
The Anti Media
Tue, 29 Mar 2016 15:08 UTC
google alert
As privacy advocates celebrate the FBI's decision to stop harassing Apple over the San Bernardino shooter's encrypted iPhone, other tech giants seem to have finally noticed that what consumers want is privacy. But for privacy to prevail, the government must stop snooping.

With that idea in mind, Google decided to change how the game is played.

In an official Google blog update detailing new security measures for Gmail, the tech giant announced it would begin alerting consumers whenever the firm detects an account is being targeted — or rather, hacked — by government agencies or their proxies. While the company believes less than 0.1 percent of Gmail users will receive this type of warning, the idea that a tech giant is going to these lengths to give users peace of mind and privacy should give advocacy groups across the country reason to continue celebrating.

Comment: Considering Google's history should we relax in the thought that they really care about our privacy?

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