Science & Technology

Unique Fossil Discovery Shows Antarctic Was Once Much Warmer

Science Daily
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:56 UTC

A new fossil discovery- the first of its kind from the whole of the Antarctic continent- provides scientists with new evidence to support the theory that the polar region was once much warmer.

Scientists made a new fossil discovery in the Dry Valleys of the East Antarctic region. The fossils (ostracods) come from an ancient lake - 14 million years old - and are exceptionally well preserved, with all of their soft anatomy in 3-dimensions.

©Mark Williams, University of Leicester

Figure of the fossil ostracod from the Dry Valleys. The specimen is less than 1 mm long, but preserves an array of soft tissues including legs and mouth parts. The head end is to the right.

The discovery by an international team of scientists is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. It involved researchers from the University of Leicester, North Dakota State University, the British Geological Survey, Queen Mary University of London, and Boston University.

Sea Surface Maps Help Extreme Weather Forecasting

RedOrbit
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:15 UTC

©NASA/JPL

Satellites passed over the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004. Two of those satellites--Jason 1 and Topex/Poseidon--were equipped with altimeters that for the first time measured the height of a tsunami in the open ocean.

For humans in the path of destructive hurricanes and tsunamis, an accurate warning of the pending event is critical for damage control and survival. Such warnings, however, require a solid base of scientific observations, and a new satellite is ready for the job.

The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason 2 adds to the number of eyes in the sky measuring sea surface and wave heights across Earth's oceans. The increased coverage will help researchers improve current models for practical use in predicting hurricane intensity, while providing valuable data that can be used to improve tsunami warning models.

Scholar Finds New Archaeological Sites by Googling

Dani Cooper
ABC Science Online
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:37 UTC

Indiana Jones's next adventure may well be in front of a computer if Hollywood scriptwriters decide to embrace a new approach to archaeological research in war-torn zones.

David Thomas, a Ph.D. student in La Trobe University's archaeological program in Melbourne, has used Google Earth to safely uncover historic sites in a remote part of war-torn Afghanistan.

Using the free Internet resource, Thomas found up to 450 possible archaeological sites in Registan, which borders Helmand and Kandahar provinces in southern Afghanistan. The decision to use Google Earth was "partly born out of adversity", Thomas said, when a planned field trip was cancelled because of security concerns.

The region has been made inaccessible because of the ongoing military conflict between western and Afghan government forces and the former Taliban government.

©Google Earth

Using the free Internet resource, Google Earth, a scholar found up to 450 possible archaeological sites in Registan, which borders Helmand and Kandahar provinces in southern Afghanistan. Shwn is the citadel of Bust. Bust was the tenth to twelfth century Ghaznavid dynasty's winter capital that stretches along the Helmand River.

American physicists warned not to debate global warming

Andrew Orlowski
The Register
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:28 UTC

Bureaucrats at the American Physical Society (APS) have issued a curious warning to their members about an article in one of their own publications. Don't read this, they say - we don't agree with it. But what is it about the piece that is so terrible, that like Medusa, it could make men go blind?

Coral isotopes show quake history; Absorbed carbon may also improve disaster forecasts

Eric Hand
Nature
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:58 UTC

Carbon isotopes trapped for thousands of years in coral skeletons could establish the long-term frequency of major earthquakes in southeast Asia and the South Pacific, and perhaps enable these events to be forecast.

Geoscientists have used corals before to look at earthquake history, by studying the terraced growth patterns that result. A major quake can push up an entire region, thrusting parts of a reef above the low-tide level, killing the exposed coral polyps. The rest of the coral continues to grow, producing a 'hat-brim' pattern that can indicate elevation changes as small as a few centimetres. This phenomenon has allowed scientists to date many earthquakes, including major ones in 1797 and 1833 off Sumatra, Indonesia. But the pattern erodes over time, so it can only be used to identify quakes that occurred within the past few hundred years.

©Soc./EPA/Corbis

Wildlife Conservation

Codex Sinaiticus, the world's oldest Bible, goes online

Harry de Quetteville
Telegraph
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:10 UTC

Almost 1700 years after scribes in the Holy Land first created it from vellum, one of the world's oldest Bibles this week makes its debut on the internet.

©EPA

Prof. Schneider [left] and Dr. Carsten Dorgerloh, of Microsoft, hold two facsimiles of the papyrus Ebers (circa 1550) and a paper of the Codex Sinaiticus (313) at the library of the University of Leipzig

Saharan dust storms help sustain life in North Atlantic Ocean

The Hindu
Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:15 UTC

Working aboard research vessels in the Atlantic, scientists mapped the distribution of nutrients including phosphorous and nitrogen and investigated how organisms such as phytoplankton are sustained in areas with low nutrient levels.

They found that plants are able to grow in these regions because they are able to take advantage of iron minerals in Saharan dust storms. This allows them to use organic or 'recycled' material from dead or decaying plants when nutrients such as phosphorous - an essential component of DNA - in the ocean are low.

Professor George Wolff, from the University's Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, explains: "We found that cyanobacteria - a type of ancient phytoplankton - are significant to the understanding of how ocean deserts can support plant growth. Cyanobacteria need nitrogen, phosphorous and iron in order to grow. They get nitrogen from the atmosphere, but phosphorous is a highly reactive chemical that is scarce in sea water and is not found in the Earth's atmosphere. Iron is present only in tiny amounts in sea water, even though it is one of the most abundant elements on earth.

Spitzer Reveals 'No Organics' Zone Around Pinwheel Galaxy

Science Daily
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:30 UTC

The Pinwheel galaxy is gussied up in infrared light in a new picture from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

The fluffy-looking galaxy, officially named Messier 101, is dominated by a mishmash of spiral arms. In Spitzer's new view, in which infrared light is color coded, the galaxy sports a swirling blue center and a unique, coral-red outer ring.

©NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI

The Pinwheel galaxy, otherwise known as Messier 101, sports bright red edges in this new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

A new paper appearing July 20 in the Astrophysical Journal explains why this outer ring stands out. According to the authors, the red color highlights a zone where organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are present throughout most of the galaxy, suddenly disappear.

Awaiting a Messenger From the Multiverse

NotEvenWrong
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:06 UTC

As particle physicists eagerly await results from the LHC, many theorists are already promoting interpretations of what they hope it will find. This week's Chronicle of Higher Education has a cover story on the LHC entitled The Machine at the End of the Universe (see associated articles here and here). In it, Gordon Kane enthusiastically describes the LHC as "It is certainly the most important experiment of any kind in the past century, without qualification" and "the most important thing ever in our quest to understand the fundamental laws of nature and the universe."

Asteroids and Comets: The Earth's Scars

Richard Stone
National Geographic
Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:26 UTC

Asteroids and comets in nearby space pose a constant threat to our planet. Can we avert catastrophe the next time around?

The first sign of the threat was no more than a speck on a star-streaked telescope image. Just after 9 p.m. on June 18, 2004, as twilight faded over Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, David Tholen was scanning for asteroids in an astronomical blind spot: right inside Earth's orbit, where the sun's glare can overwhelm telescopes. Tholen, an astronomer from the University of Hawaii, knew that objects lurking there could sometimes veer toward Earth. He had enlisted Roy Tucker, an engineer and friend, and Fabrizio Bernardi, a young colleague at Hawaii, to help. As they stared at a computer, three shots of the same swath of sky, made a few minutes apart, cycled onto the screen. "Here's your guy," said Tucker, pointing at a clump of white pixels that moved from frame to frame.

Tholen reported the sighting to the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, a clearinghouse for data on asteroids and comets. He and Tucker hoped to take another look later that week, but they were rained out, and then the asteroid disappeared from view.

Comment: The threat to Earth by asteroids and comet fragments has been increasing dramatically, please see our 'must-read' Comet Series for more information.

Ehret an idiot beyond belief

smertzasmert

.. .. are wheel barrel sales are up too?

Jibrish

I doubt any pureblood would object to the "vaccinated" being masked, but if they (the "vaccinated") still feel unsafe then maybe their problem is...

HashAttack2

I said this would happen...now they are looking to mandate companies with less that 100 employees...shits getting real, people[Link]

Bezel Bub

it's all a lie ! :O

cracker

Science & Technology

Unique Fossil Discovery Shows Antarctic Was Once Much Warmer

Sea Surface Maps Help Extreme Weather Forecasting

Scholar Finds New Archaeological Sites by Googling

American physicists warned not to debate global warming

Coral isotopes show quake history; Absorbed carbon may also improve disaster forecasts

Codex Sinaiticus, the world's oldest Bible, goes online

Saharan dust storms help sustain life in North Atlantic Ocean

Spitzer Reveals 'No Organics' Zone Around Pinwheel Galaxy

Awaiting a Messenger From the Multiverse

Asteroids and Comets: The Earth's Scars

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