Science & TechnologyS


Meteor

New Comet Found, Vaporized

Like a modern-day Icarus, this newfound comet learned the hard way what happens when you fly too close to the sun.


Attention

German government warns against using MS Explorer

The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security.

The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google's systems.

Microsoft rejected the warning, saying that the risk to users was low and that the browsers' increased security setting would prevent any serious risk.

However, German authorities say that even this would not make IE fully safe.

Info

Flashback Huge Pre-Stonehenge Complex Found via "Crop Circles"

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© Damian Grady/English HeritageEtched into crops, the outlines of Bronze Age burial mounds surround a roughly 190-foot (57-meter) circular Stone Age temple site about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Stonehenge in southern England in an undated aerial photo.
Given away by strange, crop circle-like formations seen from the air, a huge prehistoric ceremonial complex discovered in southern England has taken archaeologists by surprise.

A thousand years older than nearby Stonehenge, the site includes the remains of wooden temples and two massive, 6,000-year-old tombs that are among "Britain's first architecture," according to archaeologist Helen Wickstead, leader of the Damerham Archaeology Project.

For such a site to have lain hidden for so long is "completely amazing," said Wickstead, of Kingston University in London.

Archaeologist Joshua Pollard, who was not involved in the find, agreed. The discovery is "remarkable," he said, given the decades of intense archaeological attention to the greater Stonehenge region.

"I think everybody assumed such monument complexes were known about or had already been discovered," added Pollard, a co-leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, which is funded in part by the National Geographic Society.

Magnify

"Noisiest" Neurons Persist in the Adult Brain, Research Finds

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© Carlos LoisNeurons genetically rendered hyperactive (red) survive better than normal neurons (green). Traces at bottom of the image show the electrical activity of genetically-manipulated neurons (red trace) and normal neurons (green trace).
MIT neuroscientists have discovered that when it comes to new neurons in the adult brain, the squeakiest wheels get the grease.

"Before, scientists believed the cells with the most accurate performance were selected and the others were rejected," said Picower Institute for Learning and Memory researcher Carlos Lois. "Our study shows that it doesn't matter what the cells are doing, as long as they are doing something, even if it is wrong. It's like musicians being chosen in an audition based not on how well they play, but how loudly."

Neuronal survival is a key component to the success of cell replacement therapies in the brain. Current therapies have hit a roadblock because the vast majority of grafted cells do not survive and do not integrate into adult brain circuits. "Our discovery of a survival-determining mechanism in new neurons is likely to have a significant influence on such treatments," said Lois, Edward J. Poitras Assistant Professor in Human Biology and Experimental Medicine at the Picower Institute.

Laptop

Chinese hackers used Microsoft browser to launch Google strike

Microsoft has admitted that its Internet Explorer browser was the weak link used by hackers to attack Google's systems in China.

The world's biggest software company today issued a security advisory and warned of a loophole that was used by Chinese hackers to attack dozens of US companies - the same attack that led Google on Tuesday to announce its plan to drop the censorship of its search engine in China.

"In a specially-crafted attack... Internet Explorer can be caused to allow remote code execution," said Microsoft in its security alert.

The company added that it had not yet fixed the vulnerability in the world's most popular web browser, which is used by around two thirds of internet users.

The attacks, which apparently attempted to steal personal information on Chinese dissidents and the code that runs some of Google's critical services, also hit a number of other companies, said to include Yahoo and US defence contractor Northrop Grumman.

Comment: Interesting bunch running iDefense:
Rick Howard, - Prior to joining iDefense, Mr. Howard lead the intelligence gathering activities at Counterpane Internet Security and ran Counterpane's global network of Security Operations Centers (SOCs). Mr. Howard served in the US Army for 23 years in various command and staff positions involving information technology and security and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2004. He spent the last two years of his career as the US Army's Computer Emergency Response Team Chief where he coordinated Network Defense, Network Intelligence and Network Attack operations for the Army's global network

Jayson Jean - Mr. Jean brings more than eight years of technical experience in the software, telecommunications and security industries. Early in his career, Mr. Jean worked at several start-up companies as a Network Engineer. Prior to joining iDefense, Mr. Jean worked for SAIC, where he served as a security analyst for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Eli Jellenc - Mr. Jellenc's prior professional experience includes research positions at the UK's Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House) and the Center for Defense Information in Washington, DC.

Andrew Scholnick - Since 1980, Mr. Scholnick has been in the forefront during the evolution of the Internet and was a principal innovator for projects including the US Government's automated global digital video infrastructure, the first US Government certified EC/EDI VAN, AOL's internet email gateway and core search engines, high-speed secure satellite communication technology, and real-time telephony management tools.



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1000-Year-Old Monument with Image of Mayan Ruler Found

Mexico City - A 1000-year-old stele with the sculpted image of a Mayan ruler was found in the archaeological area of Lagartero in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said.

In the bas-relief sculpture the Mayan ruler rises above an individual who lies at his feet, "a scene representing the seizing of power by one Maya group from another," INAH said, adding that the archaeological area of Lagartero will be open to the public this year.

INAH experts found the stone monument in late 2009 at the 10th section of Pyramid 4 in Lagartero, the source said.

Magnify

"Modern" Humans Get an Ancient, Nonhuman Twist

Two new reports suggest that hominids other than Homo sapiens made complex stone tools and fancy necklaces

Behaviors and intellectual capacities that scientists have commonly attributed to the rise of Homo sapiens around 200,000 years ago actually appeared in other Homo species as well, according to a pair of new investigations.

Excavations in Kenya have yielded nearly 100 complete and partial stone blades, along with stones from which blades were struck, dating to 500,000 years ago, say Cara Johnson and Sally McBrearty, both of the University of Connecticut in Storrs. That's roughly 150,000 years before the earliest previous evidence of blade making. Production of these thin, sharp-edged implements flourished around 30,000 years ago among modern humans.

Saturn

Strange Mars Photo Includes Tantalizing 'Tree' Illusion

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© NASA/JPL/University of ArizonaThis new image of Mars taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows an optical illusion. What appears to be trees rising from the Martian surface are actually dark streaks of collapsed material running down sand dunes due to carbon dioxide frost evaporation.
Naturally erupting dust clouds on Mars are creating structures that look surprisingly like trees near the planet's north pole. But don't be fooled - it's just an optical illusion, NASA scientists say.

The Martian "trees" are actually dark basaltic sand pushed to the surface of sand dunes by sun-heated solid carbon dioxide ice, or dry ice, sublimating directly into vapor, explained Candy Hansen, a member of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) team at the University of Arizona.

The sand dunes form a nearly complete ring around Mars' north pole and are covered by a thin layer of reddish Martian dust and patches of dry ice. To date, there is no firm evidence of any type of Martian biology, past or present, plant or otherwise.

Arrow Down

US: Money for Biomedical Research Cut in Recent Years

From 2005 to 2008, the level of funding for biomedical research in the United States appears to have decreased by 2 percent, a new study shows.

The same review also found that the rate of increase in funding has slowed since 2005.

An analysis of data showed that funding of biomedical research by federal, state and local government, and private and industry sources increased from $75.5 billion in 2003 to $101.1 billion in 2007, an inflation-adjusted increase of 14 percent.

Telescope

Thousands view solar eclipse event

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© Getty Images The rare annular solar eclipse was visible across much of Africa and Asia. During the 7 minutes 15 seconds annularity, the moon passes directly in front of the sun, leaving a spectacular ring of fire. The whole eclipse took 4 hours, 11:05 a.m. until 03.05 p.m.

Thousands of people in Africa and Asia have viewed an eclipse as the moon crossed the sun's path blocking everything but a narrow, blazing rim of light.

The path of the eclipse began in Africa - passing through Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Somalia before crossing the Indian Ocean, where it reached its peak, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration website.

The path then continued into Asia where the eclipse could be seen in the Maldives, southern India, parts of Sri Lanka, Burma and China.

Clouds obscured the partial solar eclipse in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, disappointing residents who were up early to catch a glimpse.