Science & TechnologyS


Meteor

Close Encounters of the Worst Kind: How Safe Are We from Killer Asteroids?

John Matson
Scientific American
Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:40 UTC
Largest near-Earth objects are already well characterized, but smaller ones could surprise

impact
© NASABIG BUT RARE: Luckily for us, meteorite impacts such as the one that formed 45-mile-wide Manicouagan Crater in Canada are quite infrequent.
In 1998, the year Deep Impact and Armageddon dueled for the attentions of apocalypse-from-the-heavens moviegoers, Congress tapped NASA to prevent such a cosmic cataclysm from becoming reality. The space agency was charged with cataloguing over the next decade the vast majority of nearby space objects larger than 0.62 mile (one kilometer) in size - those asteroids, and more rarely comets, capable of inflicting catastrophic damage to Earth.

Eleven years later - just behind schedule - the task appears to be nearly complete. Congress had requested that 90 percent of these large near-Earth objects (NEOs) be catalogued, and around 800 of them, roughly 80 to 85 percent of the entire population, have been tallied. (Astronomers can estimate how much of the lot has been surveyed by studying the gradual drop-off in discovery rates.) According to NASA's impact-threat catalogue, only two of the kilometer-size NEOs so far identified pose a very slim risk in the next century; the more threatening of the two has a one in 116,000,000 chance of colliding with Earth. (That object, known as 2009 CR2, was just discovered last week; with further observation it may prove not to be a threat at all.)
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Cloud Lightning

High-speed video captures the nuts and bolts of lightning

Doyle Rice
USA Today
Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:50 UTC
New high-speed video cameras are helping reveal the structure of lightning, allowing scientists to study these deadly bolts of electricity in much greater detail than ever before.

The cameras are showing images of lightning that have otherwise been invisible to the naked eye and have never been captured on traditional film or video cameras.

Just as photography first revealed how horses' legs actually function while at a full gallop, so too does this new technology allow us to see how lightning strikes actually work.

lightning
© Tom Warner, ZT ResearchA bolt of lightning captured with a digital still camera ...
lightning2
© Tom Warner... and the same bolt recorded on a high-speed video camera. In the high-speed image, the fingers of the bolt as it hunts for the most efficient way to reach the ground can be seen.
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Info

Impact Specialist To Discuss Catastrophic Collisions In Space


SPX - Space Mart
Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:35 UTC
Image
© Unknown

University of Arizona's planetary scientist and impact specialist H. Jay Melosh is this year's recipient of the Eugene Shoemaker Memorial Award presented by the BEYOND Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University.

As part of the honor, Melosh will deliver the annual Shoemaker Memorial lecture at 7:30 p.m. March 4 in Armstrong Hall's Great Hall on ASU's Tempe campus. The title of his talk is "Our Catastrophic Solar System: Impacts and the Latest Revolution in Earth Science."

"From the impact-scarred faces of the moon and Mars, to the death of the dinosaurs, impacts have set the course of planetary evolution," says Melosh. "We now believe that the moon itself was born in a planetary scale impact between the Earth and a Mars-size protoplanet about 4.5 billion years ago."
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Sun

Unseasonal solar storm erupts


Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:15 UTC
Solar flare
© SOHO - NASASolar Storm, Stage Left: February 20, 2009
SOHO observed a nice-sized solar storm blast off to the left of the Sun (Feb. 18, 2009). The source of the explosion appears to have been from the far side of the Sun. The STEREO (Behind) spacecraft (which is currently 45 degrees behind Earth in its orbit around the Sun, and so is able to see 45 degrees farther around the Sun's far side) did not detect anything unusual. In general, such explosions are fairly common, but with the Sun near the bottom of its 11-year activity cycle, we have not seen many such storms over the past two years. In this coronagraph, the Sun and some of its atmosphere is covered by an occulting disk so that we can see faint features in the surrounding corona. The white circle represents the size of the Sun.

View as MPEG (Large: 2.4 M)
View as Quicktime (Hi-Res: 2.6M)
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MIB

Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research

Andrew Pollack
New York Times
Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:49 UTC
Biotechnology companies are keeping university scientists from fully researching the effectiveness and environmental impact of the industry's genetically modified crops, according to an unusual complaint issued by a group of those scientists.

"No truly independent research can be legally conducted on many critical questions," the scientists wrote in a statement submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency. The E.P.A. is seeking public comments for scientific meetings it will hold next week on biotech crops.

The statement will probably give support to critics of biotech crops, like environmental groups, who have long complained that the crops have not been studied thoroughly enough and could have unintended health and environmental consequences.

The researchers, 26 corn-insect specialists, withheld their names because they feared being cut off from research by the companies. But several of them agreed in interviews to have their names used.

The problem, the scientists say, is that farmers and other buyers of genetically engineered seeds have to sign an agreement meant to ensure that growers honor company patent rights and environmental regulations. But the agreements also prohibit growing the crops for research purposes.

So while university scientists can freely buy pesticides or conventional seeds for their research, they cannot do that with genetically engineered seeds. Instead, they must seek permission from the seed companies. And sometimes that permission is denied or the company insists on reviewing any findings before they can be published, they say.
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Magnify

Lost and found: palace of Robert the Bruce

Paul Kelbie
The Observer
Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:24 UTC
Historians and archaeologists claim to have found the remains of King Robert the Bruce's palace, lost for more than 700 years.

The discovery is being hailed as one of the most important in decades as it pinpoints the location of a monument many believe is as important to Scotland's history as Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace.

Beneath the Pillanflatt in Renton, in a run-down area of West Dunbartonshire, historians claim to have found a number of artefacts and foundations matching descriptions in ancient documents about the location of the king's home.
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Telescope

Cosmic Coincidence


Space Weather
Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:56 UTC
Image
© Space Weather

What are the odds? On Tuesday morning, Feb. 24th, Saturn and Comet Lulin will converge in the constellation Leo only 2 degrees apart.

At the same time, Comet Lulin will be making its closest approach to Earth (38 million miles), while four of Saturn's moons transit the disk of the ringed planet.

Oh, and the Moon will be New, providing dark skies for anyone who wishes to see the show.
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Info

Transgenes found in wild corn


New Scientist
Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:47 UTC
Image
© Marco Ugarte/AP/PAGreenpeace stages a protest against a new Mexican bio-security law that, it claims, does not include safeguards to prevent transgenic contamination of corn seeds.

Now it's official: genes from genetically modified corn have escaped into wild varieties in rural Mexico. A new study resolves a long-running controversy over the spread of GM genes and suggests that detecting such escapes may be tougher than previously thought.

In 2001, when biologists David Quist and Ignacio Chapela reported finding transgenes from GM corn in traditional varieties in Oaxaca, Mexico, they faced a barrage of criticism over their techniques. Nature, which had published the research, eventually disowned their paper, while a second study by different researchers failed to back up their findings.

But now, Elena Alvarez-Buylla of the National Autonomous University in Mexico City and her team have backed Quist and Chapela's claim. They found transgenes in about 1 per cent of nearly 2000 samples they took from the region (Molecular Ecology, vol 18, p 750).
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Sherlock

Student Finds Rare Lincoln Fingerprint


Science Daily
Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:42 UTC
Confirmed thumbprint of Abraham Lincoln
© Jeffrey Sabo, Miami UniversityConfirmed thumbprint of Abraham Lincoln, the second one found in collections at Miami University.

A student at Miami University has discovered what experts say is a fingerprint belonging to Abraham Lincoln from nearly 150 years ago.

Lydia Smith, a first-year psychology major from Granville, Ohio, was transcribing a letter written by Lincoln on Oct. 5, 1863, for a class project when she noticed a smudge that she suspected could be the 16th president's thumbprint. Lincoln historians have confirmed the print.

The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, a project of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, reviewed and confirmed the print, making it the second rare fingerprint of the 16th president housed at Miami's libraries.
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Magnify

Google Earth's 'Atlantis' Just A Data Glitch

Thomas Claburn
Information Week
Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:02 UTC
While Google's mapping program is turning up many formerly hidden objects, a lost city under the sea isn't one of them, says a company spokesperson.

The addition of sea-floor topography to Google Earth earlier this month revealed what some claim could be the lost city of Atlantis.

But Google says the undersea grid lines spotted by aeronautical engineer Bernie Bamford while browsing Google Earth's ocean maps are data artifacts rather than sunken streets.

Comment: SoTT called this one.

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