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Japan's space agency loses touch with cutting-edge satellite, possibly broken up in orbit


RT
Mon, 28 Mar 2016 15:12 UTC
Hitomi launch
© NASAHitomi satellite launch
Japan's space agency has reported that all contact was lost with the 'Hitomi' satellite, which is equipped with cutting-edge X-ray telescopes set to study the secrets of space.

The satellite is surrounded by five pieces of debris which could be its own parts, and has been veering off course since Saturday.


It's not clear if those pieces of debris mean the satellite is beyond salvage or has only sustained minor damage, but one short signal has been received from Hitomi since the supposed incident.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and space analyst at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, hopes it can be saved, however pessimistic the situation is at the moment.

"Everyone's just gutted," McDowell said.

"To hear that they've run into this piece of bad luck, it's so very sad. I know enough about how the sausage was made to know that this could have easily have happened to us. Space is very unforgiving," he added, as quoted by AP.

The satellite's usual position would be around 580km above Earth, and the Japanese researchers are trying to find its current position, the Japan Times reported.

On Sunday, JAXA, the Japanese space agency, said that the scheduled astronomical research wouldn't be possible if the satellite is lost for good: 'Hitomi' may not be able to draw solar energy for a long time if damaged, and its battery could run down.

Comment: The Hitomi satellite was supposed to come online on March 26. Is it a coincidence that two comets, who may have 'friends', whizzed by Earth a few days before?

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

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Comet 2

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

Niall Bradley
Sott.net
Mon, 28 Mar 2016 19:19 UTC
comets
© NASA/JPL-CaltechComet 252P/LINEAR flew past Earth on March 21, 2016. On March 22, 2016, Comet P/2016 BA14 passed by at a distance of about 2.2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers).
Comet P/2016 BA14, discovered just two months ago on January 22, 2016 by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS telescope, made history on March 22, becoming the closet comet to pass by Earth in 246 years. Radar images from the flyby indicate that the comet is about 3,000 feet (1 kilometre) in diameter:


At the time of its closest approach, the comet was about 2.2 million miles (3.5 million kilometres) away, making it the third-closest flyby of a comet in recorded history. First place goes to Comet D/1770 L1 (Lexell), which shaved Earth at just 5.9 lunar distances in July 1770.

For the second-closest flyby of a comet, we have to go back 650 years. Comet 55P/1366 U1 (Temple-Tuttle) is calculated to have passed by Earth in October 1366 at 8.9 lunar distances, about 1,410,100 miles (2.3 million km).
comets
© Slooh Community ObservatoryImagery captured by the Slooh Community Observatory's Chile Observatory Telescope showing comets 252P/LINEAR (right) and 2016 BA14 as they flew past Earth on March 21 and March 22, 2016, respectively.
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Attention

No need to be chipped - Get paid to be tracked

Rob Lever
Digital Journal
Sun, 27 Mar 2016 20:14 UTC
yoga class
© Angela Weiss, Getty Images/AFPA hostess gives a yoga class during a free event organized by Fitbit cardio-watch company on the Santa Monica Pier.
Stroll around the office or neighborhood six times a day, and earn $1.50 toward your health insurance. Step up activity a bit more and bring the total to $1,400 annually.

The catch: you need to wear a special activity tracker that monitors steps taken, "intensity" levels and other physical indicators.

That's the offer in a new insurance product marketed by UnitedHealthcare, the second-largest US health insurer, one of many programs aimed at boosting physical fitness and reducing health insurance costs for employers and employees.

"One of the greatest challenges we have is how to incentivize and motivate individuals to be accountable for their own heath and well- being," said Steve Beecy of UnitedHealthcare.

He called the Trio Tracker device, introduced with technology partner Qualcomm, "a game-changer."

Across the US, employers are stepping up the use of technology in "wellness" programs that encourage healthier lifestyles.

Wellness programs aren't new, but technology like activity trackers has transformed them with more precise measurements and automated uploads to verify activity.

A survey of more than 200 large employers by the National Business Group on Health found 37 percent used activity trackers in 2015 and another 37 percent planned to adopt the technology in coming years.

"There is a strong interest (in the use of technology) because of the impact on an employer's long-term health care costs," said Scott Marcotte of Xerox Human Resources, which participated in the study.

Makers of activity trackers such as Fitbit and Jawbone have been expanding their efforts to be part of corporate wellness programs.

One of the biggest tie-ups was announced last year when US retail giant Target said it would offer free or discounted Fitbit trackers to its more than 300,000 employees.
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Question

Washing machines to be obsolete? Self-cleaning nano-clothes on the way


Sputnik
Sun, 27 Mar 2016 12:27 UTC
Washing machines
© Flickr/ hjhipster
A day will come in the near future when we won't have to do laundry anymore because clothes would magically clean themselves when exposed to light. Well, perhaps not exactly magically, but due to special nanostructures, Mahsa Mohammad Taheri, a researcher involved in this breakthrough discovery, told Radio Sputnik.

A group of scientists from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) attached copper and silver-based nanostructures, which can absorb light, into textile.

The trick is that when these nanostructures are exposed to light, they release electrons that break down organic matter around them. Now if a person is wearing a shirt with these nanostructures attached to the molecules of textile, every time the shirt is exposed to light the nanostructures will release dirt-destroying electrons that would clean up the shirt.

Comment: So what would prevent these nanostructures from breaking down our body's organic structures when you wear the clothes in the sun against your skin?

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Bizarro Earth

Snake River Plain in Idaho may have produced giant super-eruptions larger than those at Yellowstone


Phys.org
Thu, 24 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
snake river canyon idaho
© Marc Reichow, University of Leicester Scenic canyon in southern Idaho, USA, which beautifully exposes several cliff-forming, intensely-welded deposits each recording an individual giant eruption.
A number of giant super-eruptions between 8 and 12 million years ago that could be larger than the colossal eruptions known to have taken place at Yellowstone have been identified in the United States through research led by the University of Leicester.

The international research team suggests that while the number of volcanic eruptions thought to have originated from the central Snake River Plain in Idaho, USA is less than previously believed, the 12 recorded giant eruptions were likely 'significantly larger' than research has previously suggested.

Dr Tom Knott, Professor Mike Branney and Dr Marc Reichow, from the University of Leicester's Department of Geology's Volcanology Group, conducted the research with a team of international collaborators from the University of California, Santa Cruz, the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and Idaho State University.

Comment: Further reading:

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Fish

Researchers discover waterfall-climbing fish that has evolved similar skeletal features as our ancestors did for walking

Carl Zimmer
The New York Times
Thu, 24 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
Cryptotora thamicola, climbing fish
© Danté Fenolio/Science Source Cryptotora thamicola, a waterfall-climbing cave fish that appears to walk the way land vertebrates do, researchers say.
It's one of the most famous chapters in evolution, so familiar that it regularly inspires New Yorker cartoons: Some 375 million years ago, our ancestors emerged from the sea, evolving from swimming fish to vertebrates that walked on land.

Scientists still puzzle over exactly how the transition from sea to land took place. For the most part, they've had to rely on information gleaned from fossils of some of the intermediate species.

But now a team of researchers has found a remarkable parallel to one of evolution's signature events. In a cave in Thailand, they've discovered that a blind fish walks the way land vertebrates do.

The waterfall-climbing cave fish, Cryptotora thamicola, has even evolved many of the skeletal features that our ancestors did for walking, including a full-blown pelvis.

"It's really weird," said John R. Hutchinson, a biologist at the Royal Veterinary College at the University of London who was not involved in the new study. "It's a good example of how much fish diversity there's left to be discovered."
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Sun

Astronomers find evidence that our sun is capable of producing superflares

Rasmus Rørbæk & Christoffer Karoff
Phys.org
Thu, 24 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
sun superflares
© AIA/SDO/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER The Sun send out huge burst of materials i August of 2012. A few days later we could see some of the most impressive northern lights on Earth. The new finding has established, that the Sun could emit even bigger flares of highly active materials.
Every now and then large sun storms strike the Earth, causing aurora, and in rare cases, power outages. But these events are nothing compared to the apocalyptic destruction Earth would experience if struck by a superflare. An international research team led by Christoffer Karoff from Aarhus University, Denmark, has now shown that this scenario is a real possibility.

The Earth is often struck by solar eruptions. These eruptions consist of energetic particles that are hurled away from the sun into space, where those directed towards Earth encounter the magnetic field around our planet. When these eruptions interact with Earth's magnetic field, they cause beautiful auroras, poetic phenomena that remind us that our closest star is an unpredictable neighbor.

When the sun pours out gigantic amounts of hot plasma during large solar eruptions, it may have severe consequences on Earth. Solar eruptions are, however, nothing compared to the eruptions we see on other stars, so-called 'superflares'. Superflares have been a mystery since the Kepler mission discovered them in larger numbers four years ago.

Questions arose: Are superflares formed by the same mechanism as solar flares? If so, does that mean that the sun is also capable of producing a superflare?
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Beaker

Scientists create smallest life form yet, unsure what it is, how little we know about DNA

Eric Roston
Bloomberg Business
Thu, 24 Mar 2016 02:00 UTC
Tiniest life form
© lost-history.comCraig Venter, tiniest life form, Syn3.0, an engineered living microbe simpler than nature.
For years, DNA and computer operating systems served as clichés for each other: DNA is the "operating software" of living cells in the same way that system software is the "DNA" of a computer. The problem with the comparison, as shown by research two decades in the making, is how much biologists still don't know about DNA, or genomes. That's an especially problematic development, given the industry sprouting up around genetic manipulation.

Genomics pioneer Craig Venter and more than 20 colleagues engineered a living microbe with a genome simpler than any seen in nature. In other words, they created a life form whose relative simplicity and modular design make it a platform that one day may be as easily manipulated as, say, software. Setting aside fears of Blade Runner replicants running amok, the breakthrough revealed on Thursday in the journal Science may hold promise for a new era in medicine, industry, and energy.

"These cells would be a very, very useful chassis for many industrial applications, from medicine to biochemicals, biofuels, nutrition, and agriculture," said Dan Gibson, a top scientist at both Venter's research institute and his company, Synthetic Genomics Inc. Ultimately, the group wants to understand the tiny genetic framework well enough to use it as a biological foundation for more complex organisms that could address many of the world's ills. Once each essential gene's function is identified, scientists can build an effective computer model of it; from there, they can simulate how best to go about "adding pathways for the production of useful products," they wrote.
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Laptop

Breakthrough technology or hype? Scientists develop program to upload skills and knowledge directly to the brain

Sean Martin
Express
Thu, 24 Mar 2016 07:32 UTC
upload knowledge brain
© GettyScientists may have figured out how to upload knowledge to brains
In a breakthrough which promises new technology like that from The Matrix, researchers at HRL Laboratories have developed a programme which they say can upload new skills and knowledge directly to your brain.

The California-based institution analysed electrical signals in the brain of a pilot and fed the data to people who didn't have the knowledge to fly planes via electrode-embedded head caps which stimulated the correct regions of the brain.

The participants who were fed the information via electrodes were then pitted against a placebo group on a realistic flight simulation test, which found that the former performed an average of 33 per cent better than the latter, according to the results published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Lead author Dr Matthew Phillips explained: "Our system is one of the first of its kind. It's a brain stimulation system.

Comment:
Enhanced Learning: Researchers develop 'Matrix'-style brain stimulator that instantly teaches skill

There are reasons to be wary of the research at this stage. According to Popular Mechanics, the company that owns the Frontiers of Human Neuroscience journal, called Frontiers Media, has had to retract studies in the past and has had its publishing methods called into question.


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Beaker

WHOI researchers identify a major source of methanol in the ocean


Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
Phytoplankton
© NASA MODISSatellite imagery captures a massive bloom of microscopic phytoplankton exploding across the Barents Sea. Among the most abundant organisms in the sea, phytoplankton, scientists find, are able to biologically produce methanol – and in quantities that could rival or exceed that which is produced on land.
As one of the most abundant organic compounds on the planet, methanol occurs naturally in the environment as plants release it as they grow and decompose. It is also found in the ocean, where it is a welcome food source for ravenous microbes that feast on it for energy and growth. While scientists have long known methanol exists in the ocean, and that certain microbes love to snack on it, they've been stymied by one key question: where does it come from?

Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have solved this mystery through the discovery of a massive - and previously unaccounted for - source of methanol in the ocean: phytoplankton.

The study found that these microscopic, plant-like organisms, which form the base of the marine food web, have a unique ability to biologically produce methanol in the ocean in quantities that could rival or exceed that which is produced on land. The results, published in the March 10, 2016, issue of PLOS ONE, challenge previous thinking on sources of methanol in the ocean, and help fill important knowledge gaps about ocean microbiology and the amount of methanol generated on our planet. The discovery may also spur research leading to biofuel applications in the future.

"Methanol can be considered a 'baby sugar' molecule and is rapidly consumed in the ocean by abundant bacteria - called methylotrophs - which specialize in this type of food," said Dr. Tracy Mincer, WHOI associate scientist and lead author of the paper. "However, up until now, the thought was that methanol in the ocean came from an overflow of terrestrial methanol in the atmosphere. So, this discovery reveals a huge source of methanol that has gone completely unaccounted for in global methanol estimates."


Comment: FYI: We know that methane is seeping up through the ocean floor and escaping as a gas. Methane, CH4, is a hydrocarbon (i.e. consists of only H and C atoms), containing one C atom ("meth"). On the other hand, methanol, CH3-OH, is an "alcohol derivative" of methane. It is produced by substituting a H atom from methane by an OH group. Methane is a gas whereas methanol is a highly volatile liquid at normal temperature and pressure.

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