Plasma astrophysicists at the University of Warwick have found that key information about the Sun's 'storm season' is being broadcast across the solar system in a fractal snapshot imprinted in the solar wind. This research opens up new ways of looking at both space weather and the unstable behaviour that affects the operation of fusion powered power plants.
Fractals, mathematical shapes that retain a complex but similar patterns at different magnifications, are frequently found in nature from snowflakes to trees and coastlines. Now Plasma Astrophysicists in the University of Warwick's Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics have devised a new method to detect the same patterns in the solar wind.
The researchers, led by Professor Sandra Chapman, have also been able to directly tie these fractal patterns to the Sun's 'storm season'. The Sun goes through a solar cycle roughly 11 years long. The researchers found the fractal patterns in the solar wind occur when the Sun was at the peak of this cycle when the solar corona was at its most active, stormy and complex - sunspot activity, solar flares etc. When the corona was quieter no fractal patterns were found in the solar wind only general turbulence.
Science & Technology
Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AEC) have found evidence that certain fungi possess another talent beyond their ability to decompose matter: the capacity to use radioactivity as an energy source for making food and spurring their growth.
Detailing the research in Public Library of Science ONE, AEC's Arturo Casadevall said his interest was piqued five years ago when he read about how a robot sent into the still-highly-radioactive Chernobyl reactor had returned with samples of black, melanin-rich fungi that were growing on the ruined reactor's walls. "I found that very interesting and began discussing with colleagues whether these fungi might be using the radiation emissions as an energy source," explained Casadevall.
Detailing the research in Public Library of Science ONE, AEC's Arturo Casadevall said his interest was piqued five years ago when he read about how a robot sent into the still-highly-radioactive Chernobyl reactor had returned with samples of black, melanin-rich fungi that were growing on the ruined reactor's walls. "I found that very interesting and began discussing with colleagues whether these fungi might be using the radiation emissions as an energy source," explained Casadevall.
The remains of a wealthy Roman man, buried 1,600 years ago near London's St. Martin-in-the-Fields church, is providing clues for archaeologists trying to understand a little-known period in the city's history.
The remains of the man, who was in his early 40s when he died about A.D. 410, went on display yesterday at the Museum of London. The museum also is showing items found in tombs nearby that date from a period when the Saxons of northern Germany ruled the city.
The remains of the man, who was in his early 40s when he died about A.D. 410, went on display yesterday at the Museum of London. The museum also is showing items found in tombs nearby that date from a period when the Saxons of northern Germany ruled the city.
Researchers from the University of Texas have discovered a multi-planet system around an unexpected star, which they say could alter planet formation theories.
Astronomers William Cochran and Michael Endl, using the 9.2-meter Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at McDonald Observatory discovered a system of two Jupiter-like planets orbiting a star whose composition seemed at odd with planet formation theories.
Astronomers William Cochran and Michael Endl, using the 9.2-meter Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at McDonald Observatory discovered a system of two Jupiter-like planets orbiting a star whose composition seemed at odd with planet formation theories.
A massive crater in Northern Quebec has been luring the curious for over 50 years. Diamond prospectors, Second World War pilots and National Geographic all made pilgrimages to the distant natural wonder.
Now, an international team led by Laval University in Quebec City has journeyed to the Pingualuit Crater near the Hudson Strait in hopes of unlocking 120,000 years worth of secrets about climate change.
Now, an international team led by Laval University in Quebec City has journeyed to the Pingualuit Crater near the Hudson Strait in hopes of unlocking 120,000 years worth of secrets about climate change.
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| ©Michel Bouchard |
| Pingualuit Crater located on the Ungava Peninsula in northern Quebec. |
Twelve footprints found in the bed of an ancient lake in northern Spain have thrown up the first compelling evidence that some land dinosaurs could swim, researchers reported Thursday.
The 15-metre (48.75-feet) -long track in sandstone "strongly suggests a floating animal clawing the sediment" as it swam against a current, they say.
The 15-metre (48.75-feet) -long track in sandstone "strongly suggests a floating animal clawing the sediment" as it swam against a current, they say.
Jets of matter have been discovered around a very low mass 'failed star', mimicking a process seen in young stars. This suggests that these 'brown dwarfs' form in a similar manner to normal stars but also that outflows are driven out by objects as massive as hundreds of millions of solar masses down to Jupiter-sized objects.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), a rather conservative newspaper in the United States, for Saturday, May 19, 2007, parrots the UK's The Economist, reinforcing the challenge to the concept that we are in the midst of a wave of new species being discovered.
In the WSJ's section "Informed Reader" obviously editorialized thumbnail sketches are given of other newspapers' recommended articles. Under "Nature," a new article in The Economist is mentioned. Entitled "Species Inflation May Infect Over-Eager Conservationists," (I was unable to upload The Economist article itself), the WSJ notes that various scientists are overzealously boosting the conversation of seemingly rare animals by upgrading subspecies into species. Primatologists are guilty of "taxonomic inflation," we are being told.
Here is the conclusion of the piece that the WSJ is "informing" the reader about:
In the WSJ's section "Informed Reader" obviously editorialized thumbnail sketches are given of other newspapers' recommended articles. Under "Nature," a new article in The Economist is mentioned. Entitled "Species Inflation May Infect Over-Eager Conservationists," (I was unable to upload The Economist article itself), the WSJ notes that various scientists are overzealously boosting the conversation of seemingly rare animals by upgrading subspecies into species. Primatologists are guilty of "taxonomic inflation," we are being told.
Here is the conclusion of the piece that the WSJ is "informing" the reader about:
For years, China has chafed at efforts by the United States to exclude it from full membership in the world's elite space club. So, lately, China seems to have hit on a solution: create a new club.
Beijing is trying to position itself as a space benefactor to the developing world - the same countries, in some cases, whose natural resources China covets here on Earth. The latest, and most prominent, example came last week when China launched a communications satellite for Nigeria in a project that serves as a tidy case study of how space has become another arena where China is trying to exert its soft power.
Beijing is trying to position itself as a space benefactor to the developing world - the same countries, in some cases, whose natural resources China covets here on Earth. The latest, and most prominent, example came last week when China launched a communications satellite for Nigeria in a project that serves as a tidy case study of how space has become another arena where China is trying to exert its soft power.
The University of Delaware is helping to build a huge "IceCube" at the South Pole, and it has nothing to do with cooling beverages.
"IceCube" is a gigantic scientific instrument--a telescope for detecting illusive particles called neutrinos that can travel millions of miles through space, passing right through planets.
A poet might refer to them as stardust or ghosts from outer space. But to astrophysicists, neutrinos are the high-energy messengers from the universe, formed during such cataclysmic cosmic events as exploding stars and colliding galaxies.
"IceCube" is a gigantic scientific instrument--a telescope for detecting illusive particles called neutrinos that can travel millions of miles through space, passing right through planets.
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| ©James Roth, University of Delaware |
| The IceCube telescope's optical detectors are deployed in mile-and-a-half deep holes in the Antarctic ice. |
A poet might refer to them as stardust or ghosts from outer space. But to astrophysicists, neutrinos are the high-energy messengers from the universe, formed during such cataclysmic cosmic events as exploding stars and colliding galaxies.
