Science & Technology
It has been said that "In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is King." In the world of space science, if a collective blindness has robbed investigators of their sight, it is their inability or unwillingness to ever think or speak in electrical terms, even when electrical events are impossible to deny -- or quite obvious to those who work regularly with electricity.
Today, the Space and Science Research Center, (SSRC) in Orlando, Florida announces that it has confirmed the recent web announcement of NASA solar physicists that there are substantial changes occurring in the sun's surface. The SSRC has further researched these changes and has concluded they will bring about the next climate change to one of a long lasting cold era.
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| ©The Independent |
| Between 1645 and 1715 sunspots were rare. It was also a time when the Earth's northern hemisphere chilled dramatically |
The Sun's Great Conveyor Belt has slowed to a record-low crawl, according to research by NASA solar physicist David Hathaway. "It's off the bottom of the charts," he says. "This has important repercussions for future solar activity."
The Great Conveyor Belt is a massive circulating current of fire (hot plasma) within the Sun. It has two branches, north and south, each taking about 40 years to perform one complete circuit. Researchers believe the turning of the belt controls the sunspot cycle, and that's why the slowdown is important.
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| ©NASA |
The Great Conveyor Belt is a massive circulating current of fire (hot plasma) within the Sun. It has two branches, north and south, each taking about 40 years to perform one complete circuit. Researchers believe the turning of the belt controls the sunspot cycle, and that's why the slowdown is important.
TWO years ago the solar system lost a planet. Pluto was deemed too insignificant to rank alongside Mars, Jupiter and the rest, and was demoted to dwarf planet status. Pluto's fall from favour left us with only eight bona fide planets. But what the solar system has lost, Patryk Lykawka now hopes to replace.
The Binary Research Institute (BRI) has found that orbital characteristics of the recently discovered planetoid, "Sedna", demonstrate the possibility that our sun might be part of a binary star system.
A binary star system consists of two stars gravitationally bound orbiting a common center of mass. Once thought to be highly unusual, such systems are now considered to be common in the Milky Way galaxy.
A binary star system consists of two stars gravitationally bound orbiting a common center of mass. Once thought to be highly unusual, such systems are now considered to be common in the Milky Way galaxy.
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| ©Red Orbit |
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| ©ANDINA |
| Manco Pata could be part of the Paititi Fortress, a kind of Inca or pre-Inca lost city. |
Lima -- A new archeological fortress, known as Manco Pata, was discovered in the town of Kimbiri (Cusco), located in the Apurímac-Ene River Valley (VRAE), announced the mayor of the town, Guillermo Torres.
The Internet continued its rapid growth rate in the final month of last year, adding more than five million websites for a bottom line of more than 150 million.
According to Netcraft's web server survey, web hosters saw an increase of 5.4 million websites during the month of December which resulted in a total of 155,230,051 websites by the end of the month. In 2007, the analysis firm estimates that the Internet has grown by more than 50 million websites, topping the previously recorded absolute growth record of about 30 million sites in 2006.
According to Netcraft's web server survey, web hosters saw an increase of 5.4 million websites during the month of December which resulted in a total of 155,230,051 websites by the end of the month. In 2007, the analysis firm estimates that the Internet has grown by more than 50 million websites, topping the previously recorded absolute growth record of about 30 million sites in 2006.
Explorers just returning from the Sahara desert have claimed they found a remarkable relic from Pharaonic times.
Mark Borda and Mahmoud Marai, from Malta and Egypt respectively, were surveying a field of boulders on the flanks of a hill deep in the Libyan desert some 700 kilometres west of the Nile Valley when engravings on a large rock consisting of hieroglyphic writing, Pharaonic cartouche, an image of the king and other Pharaonic iconography came into view.
Mr Borda would not reveal the precise location in order to protect the site.
Mark Borda and Mahmoud Marai, from Malta and Egypt respectively, were surveying a field of boulders on the flanks of a hill deep in the Libyan desert some 700 kilometres west of the Nile Valley when engravings on a large rock consisting of hieroglyphic writing, Pharaonic cartouche, an image of the king and other Pharaonic iconography came into view.
Mr Borda would not reveal the precise location in order to protect the site.
An international research team has discovered that a magnetic field can interact with the electrons in a superconductor in ways never before observed. Andrea D. Bianchi, the lead researcher from the Université de Montréal, explains in the January 11 edition of Science magazine what he discovered in an exceptional compound of metals - a combination of cobalt, indium and a rare earth - that loses its resistance when cooled to just a couple of degrees above absolute zero.
"This discovery sharpens our understanding of what, literally, holds the world together and brings physicists one step closer to getting a grip on superconductivity at high temperatures. Until now, physicists were going around in circles, so this discovery will help to drive new understanding," said Prof. Bianchi, who was recruited to UdeM as a Canada Research Chair in Novel Materials for Spintronics last fall and performed his experiments at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, in collaboration with scientists from ETH Zurich, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Birmingham, U.K., the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
"This discovery sharpens our understanding of what, literally, holds the world together and brings physicists one step closer to getting a grip on superconductivity at high temperatures. Until now, physicists were going around in circles, so this discovery will help to drive new understanding," said Prof. Bianchi, who was recruited to UdeM as a Canada Research Chair in Novel Materials for Spintronics last fall and performed his experiments at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, in collaboration with scientists from ETH Zurich, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Birmingham, U.K., the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Researchers implant electrodes in the brain, and use the soundtrack from 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'
The human ear is exquisitely tuned to discern different sound frequencies, whether such tones are high or low, near or far. But the ability of our ears pales in comparison to the remarkable knack of single neurons in the brain to distinguish between the very subtlest of sound frequencies.
Reporting in the January 10 issue of the journal Nature, Dr. Itzhak Fried, a professor of neurosurgery and director of the epilepsy surgery program, and colleagues at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Weizmann Institute of Science, show that in humans, a single auditory neuron in the brain exhibits an amazing selectivity to a very narrow sound frequency range, roughly down to a tenth of an octave. In fact, the ability of these neurons to detect the slightest of differences in sound frequencies far exceeds that of the auditory nerve that carries information from the hair cells of the inner ear to the cortex as much as 30 times more sensitivity. Indeed, such frequency tuning in the human auditory cortex is substantially superior to that typically found in the auditory cortex of non-human mammals, with the exception of bats.
It is quite a paradox, the researchers note, in that even musically untrained people can detect very small sound frequency differences, much better than the resolution of the peripheral auditory nerves. This is very different from other peripheral nerves, such as those in the skin, where the human ability to detect differences between two points (say from the prick of a needle) is limited by the receptors in the skin. Not so in hearing.
The human ear is exquisitely tuned to discern different sound frequencies, whether such tones are high or low, near or far. But the ability of our ears pales in comparison to the remarkable knack of single neurons in the brain to distinguish between the very subtlest of sound frequencies.
Reporting in the January 10 issue of the journal Nature, Dr. Itzhak Fried, a professor of neurosurgery and director of the epilepsy surgery program, and colleagues at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Weizmann Institute of Science, show that in humans, a single auditory neuron in the brain exhibits an amazing selectivity to a very narrow sound frequency range, roughly down to a tenth of an octave. In fact, the ability of these neurons to detect the slightest of differences in sound frequencies far exceeds that of the auditory nerve that carries information from the hair cells of the inner ear to the cortex as much as 30 times more sensitivity. Indeed, such frequency tuning in the human auditory cortex is substantially superior to that typically found in the auditory cortex of non-human mammals, with the exception of bats.
It is quite a paradox, the researchers note, in that even musically untrained people can detect very small sound frequency differences, much better than the resolution of the peripheral auditory nerves. This is very different from other peripheral nerves, such as those in the skin, where the human ability to detect differences between two points (say from the prick of a needle) is limited by the receptors in the skin. Not so in hearing.
Comment: See also: NASA's Long Range Solar Forecast
SOTT has some doubts about the authenticity of the outfit offering this "warning." That is not to say that the warning itself is in question. If you read the NASA report, you notice that the main difference is the predicted timing. So, whether or not it happens in this coming sun cycle or the next one doesn't affect the fact that the experts are saying it is going to happen!
If you check this page that tells you about this "research center", you will read:
'Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, the Space and Science Research Center (SSRC) is the leading science and engineering research company internationally, that specializes in the analysis of and planning for climate changes based upon the "Relational Cycle Theory."'
What is "Relational Cycle Theory"? The site explains it this way:
However, these are well known as the Gleissberg and deVries-Suess solar cycles (whose resonances explain the Dansgaard-Oeschger events - ice rafting).
Then, there is this statement:
"All records of sunspot counts and other proxies of solar activity going back 6,000 years clearly validates our own findings that when we have sunspot counts lower then 50 it means only one thing - an intense cold climate, globally."
There are no sunspot records going back 600 years, let alone 6000 years. They only date from the time of Galileo and his first telescope. Even the proxy records (DC14 records in tree rings and Beryllium-10 from ice cores) don't tell us how many sunspots there were, though these records are proxies for solar activity and a simple model may predict sunspots.
Although the NASA report makes a prediction on sunspot activity in the next two cycles, it does not predict the effect on climate. It should also be noted that John Casey makes no argument as to what physical process would actually cool the earth's climate. A correlation is not a physical connection. The theory is that the sun's magnetic field strength increases, affecting the earth's magnetic field and diverting cosmic rays which would otherwise strike the upper atmosphere, causing clouds to form and this would then cool the planet. But oddly he doesn't mention this as a causal mechanism, nor any causal mechanism for that matter which would explain why the earth would cool in the upcoming cycle. Perhaps it's just a direct reduction in insolation. If he were a climate expert he would have given this background and offered an explanation.
What exactly, we ask, is unique about this "research"?
Even the Anthropogenic Global Warming skeptics over at Climate Audit have their doubts. As Leif Svalgaard, a solar physicist turned computer programmer from Stanford University in California, says: So, again, if it were not for the fact that the information about the solar cycle is backed up by NASA, we would not be carrying this piece. As it is, we don't know who these people are, what their real expertise might be, and whether or not they are legitimate in any way. It could be someone on the "inside" trying to get info out to the public, or someone on the inside setting up a straw man panic to knock down. So, on the off chance that this is a COINTELPRO psy-op, we thought we would keep it in the database for possible future reference.
The bottom line still is: something strange is going on "out there".