Science & TechnologyS


Magic Hat

The Science of Magic: Not Just Hocus-Pocus

John Blackstone
CBS News
Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:38 UTC
Blackstone
© CBSAt the Barrow Neurological Institute John Blackstone wore a device that tracked his vision while a magician went through his paces. The result: His eyes were misdirected, to keep from seeing what the magician was actually doing.
Neuroscientists and Magicians Are Studying How Sleight of Hand Affects the Brain, and Its Potential to Diagnose Autism

Las Vegas can be a magical place. It certainly is for Penn and Teller, who have been performing magic in their own Las Vegas theatre for almost eight years.

The house is packed every night - a testament to both Penn and Teller's draw . . . and to the universal appeal of magic itself.

"What makes for a successful trick?" Blackstone asked Teller, who never says a word on stage. He broke his silence for our interview (but insisted that we not show his moving lips).

Comment: Read also, The Art of Deception, for a view on how the evil magicians of our times use their tricks to control us and render us helpless and hopeless under their spellbinding lies.

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Magnify

Forest Clearances Sealed Ancient Civilisation's Downfall


University of Cambridge
Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00 UTC
Image
© UC
An ancient South American civilization which disappeared around 1,500 years ago helped to cause its own demise by damaging the fragile ecosystem that held it in place, a study has found.

Archaeologists examining the remains of the Nasca, who once flourished in the valleys of south coastal Peru, have uncovered a sequence of human-induced events which led to their "catastrophic" collapse around 500 AD.

The Nasca are probably best known for the famous "Nazca Lines", giant geoglyphs which they left etched into the surface of the vast, empty desert plain that lies between the Peruvian towns of Nazca and Palpa.

The depictions have spawned various wild theories, including that they were created by aliens. Most scholars now believe that they were sacred pathways which Nasca people followed during the course of their ancient rituals.
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Rocket

Russia Hopes Nuclear Ship Will Fly Humans to Mars

Vladimir Isachenkov
The Associated Press
Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:21 UTC
Dmitry Medvedev
© AP Photo/ RIA NovostiRussian President Dmitry Medvedev inspects a piece of equipment at a facility in Fryazino, outside Moscow.
"Russia should build a new nuclear-powered spaceship for prospective manned missions to Mars and other planets," the nation's space chief said Thursday.

Anatoly Perminov first proposed building the ship at a government meeting Wednesday but didn't explain its purpose. President Dmitry Medvedev backed the project and urged the government to find the money.

In remarks posted Thursday on his agency's Web site, Perminov said the nuclear spaceship should be used for human flights to Mars and other planets. He said the project is challenging technologically, but could capitalize on the Soviet and Russian experience in the field.

Perminov said the preliminary design could be ready by 2012, and then it would take nine more years and cost 17 billion rubles (about $600 million, or euro400 million) to build the ship.
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Sherlock

British Holidaymaker Discovers Lost Underwater 'City'

Lawrence Marzouk
The Telegraph
Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:30 UTC
Montenegrin
© Le QuesneThe Montenegrin coast is dotted with ancient ruins yet to be documented.
A British holidaymaker has uncovered what is believed to be a lost, ancient temple while snorkelling in the Mediterranean.

Michael Le Quesne, 16, was swimming off a popular beach in Montenegro with his parents and his ten-year-old sister Teodora when he spotted an odd looking 'stone' at a depth of around two metres.

It turned out to be a large, submerged building which may have been the centrepiece of an important Greek or Roman trading post, swallowed up by the sea during a massive earthquake.

A British team of experts led by Dr Lucy Blue, presenter of BBC Two show Oceans, is to investigate the significant find in this largely unexplored corner of south east Europe.

Dr Blue said that if the discovery is confirmed to be an underwater temple it would "put Montenegro on the map".
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Sun

Solar Winds Triggered by Magnetic Fields


PhysOrg
Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00 UTC
Solar winds
© HinodeSolar winds
Solar wind generated by the sun is probably driven by a process involving powerful magnetic fields, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers based on the latest observations from the Hinode satellite.

Scientists have long speculated on the source of solar winds. The Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS), on board the Japanese-UK-US Hinode satellite, is now generating unprecedented observations enabling scientists to provide a new perspective on the 50-year old question of how solar wind is driven. The collaborative study, published in this month's issue of Astrophysical Journal, suggests that a process called slipping reconnection may drive these winds.

Deb Baker, lead author from UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, says: "Solar wind is an outflow of million-degree gas and magnetic field that engulfs the Earth and other planets. It fills the entire solar system and links with the magnetic fields of the Earth and other planets. Changes in the Sun's million-mile-per-hour wind can induce disturbances within near-Earth space and our upper atmosphere and yet we still don't know what drives these outflows."
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Sherlock

Snail Fossils Suggest Semiarid Eastern Canary Islands Were Wetter 50,000 Years Ago


ScienceDaily
Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00 UTC
Fossil
© Southern Methodist UniversityFossil land snail shells from the Eastern Canary Islands.
Fossil land snail shells found in ancient soils on the subtropical eastern Canary Islands show that the Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa has become progressively drier over the past 50,000 years.

Isotopic measurements performed on fossil land snail shells resulted in oxygen isotope ratios that suggest the relative humidity on the islands was higher 50,000 years ago, then experienced a long-term decrease to the time of maximum global cooling and glaciation about 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, according to new research by Yurena Yanes, a post-doctoral researcher, and Crayton J. Yapp, a geochemistry professor, both in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

With subsequent post-glacial climatic fluctuations, relative humidity seems to have oscillated somewhat, but finally decreased even further to modern values.

Consequently the eastern Canary Islands experienced an overall increase in dryness during the last 50,000 years, eventually yielding the current semiarid conditions. Today the low-altitude eastern islands are characterized by low annual rainfall and a landscape of short grasses and shrubs, Yanes says.
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Snowman

Beijing Gets First Snow After Meteorologists Seed Clouds

Saibal Dasgupta
Times of India
Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:49 UTC
Image
© Agence France-PresseBeijing's first snow of season 'artificially induced'
Beijingers woke up Sunday morning to a city turned white with snow that came far ahead of the winter. It was only in the later part of the day that one learnt that 186 doses of silver iodide went into persuading the clouds to release snow flakes.

The metrological department said it had started seeding the clouds from 8pm in Saturday to beat down lingering drought in and around Beijing. The department claimed success in producing 16 million tones of snow for the city.

"We wont miss any opportunity of artificial precipitation since Beijing is suffering from the lingering drought," said Zhang Qiang, who is in charge of the Beijing metrological office, said in a statement.
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Blackbox

Timeline: The secret history of swine flu

Debora MacKenzie and Michael Marshall
New Scientist
Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:54 UTC
Image
© Associated Press16 August 1957: a nurse at Montefiore Hospital gets the first Asian flu vaccine shot in New York
Six months ago, swine flu emerged as a massive threat to global health. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but our timeline explains how the origins of the H1N1 pandemic go back more than a century

1889

Prior to 1889, the main flu virus circulating in humans has been from the H1 family. But this year, a new strain of H2 flu emerges in Russia and spreads around the world, killing about 1 million people. Afterwards, H2 replaces H1 in humans. Such replacements seem to be a regular feature of flu pandemics.

People born before 1889, who have been exposed to H1 flu, have some immunity to it. This affords them some protection in the deadly H1N1 epidemic of 1918. Those born after 1889 do not have any immunity to H1.

1918

The "Spanish flu" epidemic of 1918 kills at least 50 million people worldwide. It is caused by an H1N1 virus which evolves directly from a bird flu into a human flu.

After a mild wave of infections in the summer, the epidemic goes global: one-third of the population eventually get sick. Although most cases are mild, many sufferers develop a rapidly fatal infection deep in their lungs. People born before 1889 are less susceptible, thanks to their previous exposure to H1N1.

Most deaths are caused by bacterial lung infections that move in after the virus. Modern antibiotics might mean that a re-run of the 1918 pandemic would be less dangerous.

After 1919, the descendants of the H1N1 virus continue to circulate and cause seasonal flu outbreaks in humans - and pigs.

Comment: One might enjoy reading:

Swine Flu Smoking Gun? CDC was Combining Flu Viruses in 2004

Swine Flu Scare: Stock Market Bonanza for "Politically Connected" BioTech Companies

Is Swine Flu A Biological Weapon?

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Telescope

Voices of long-dead stars haunt the galaxy

David Shiga
New Scientist
Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:14 UTC
Image
© NASA/NRAO/AUI/NSFSome neutron stars only appear as radio blips
Mysterious radio blips that come from apparently empty regions of space may be the voices of long-dead stars.

Thirteen unexplained radio blips have turned up in radio telescope observations since the 1980s. They emerged in spots where there are no stars or galaxies to be seen, last anywhere from hours to days, and do not seem to repeat. The blips could be traces of a vast population of stellar corpses - neutron stars that roam the universe largely unseen, suggests a team led by Eran Ofek of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Most of the galaxy's estimated billion neutron stars are invisible. Some of the newly formed ones have been detected because their rapid rotation sends radio pulses our way multiple times per second. These are thought to fade with age.
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Sherlock

Archeologists Discover Ancient Fortress near Moscow


Russia-InfoCentre
Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:00 UTC
Fortress
© cinform.ru
Archeologists have found defensive installations of an Old Russian fortress that stood at the confluence of Dubna River and Volga more than 800 years back.

In the course of archeological excavations they cleared a plot of a defensive moat, which had been constructed in the early 12th century and soon destroyed by a massive fire.

Experts assume that the initial version of the fortress on the border with Novgorod land was erected by Yuri Dolgoruki - the Prince of Rostov and Suzdal - around 1134.

Cultural strata of the ancient town are up to two and a half meters thick. During archeological diggings of 2009 over a thousand Old Russian artifacts have been procured.
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