Science & TechnologyS


Laptop

Chinese hackers used Microsoft browser to launch Google strike

Bobbie Johnson
The Guardian
Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:36 UTC
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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Magnify

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

Sonia Rivero Torres
artdaily.org
Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:51 UTC
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.
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Magnify

"Modern" Humans Get an Ancient, Nonhuman Twist

Bruce Bower
Science News
Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:12 UTC
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.
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Saturn

Strange Mars Photo Includes Tantalizing 'Tree' Illusion

Ker Than
SPACE.com
Sat, 16 Jan 2010 08:18 UTC
Image
© 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.
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Arrow Down

US: Money for Biomedical Research Cut in Recent Years


HealthDay News
Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:58 UTC
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.
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Telescope

Thousands view solar eclipse event


Irish Independent
Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:28 UTC
Image
© 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.
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Magnet

Stars Spin Huge Magnetic Loop


SPACE.com
Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:03 UTC
Image
Astronomers have detected a giant magnetic loop sweeping out from a pair of binary stars in the Milky Way.

"This is the first time we've seen a feature like this in the magnetic field of any star other than the sun," said William Peterson of the University of Iowa.

The stellar pair, called Algol, includes a star about three times more massive than the sun along with a less-massive companion. The two lie about 93 light-years away from Earth. They have been known since ancient times as "The Demon Star" because they appear as one object that blinks on and off - a phenomenon caused when one star passes in front of the other.

Within the binary, the smaller star orbits the larger at a distance of 5.8 million miles, only about 6 percent of the distance between Earth and the sun.
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Question

Mystery Behind Solar System's Giant Ribbon Solved?

Ian O'Neill
NASA
Fri, 15 Jan 2010 04:39 UTC
Image
© NASA/IBEX/Heerikhuisen et al.A comparison between the observation of the IBEX "ribbon" (left) and a Heerikhuisen et al. simulation of what the ribbon should look like considering an interstellar magnetic field (right).

Last year, NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) made a discovery so profound that scientists had a hard time describing what they were seeing. A vast ribbon located in the outermost reaches of the solar system had been spotted, a structure that had never been seen before. Now scientists believe the shape might be created by a huge reflection caused by particles bouncing off a galactic magnetic field.

IBEX isn't an ordinary space telescope and this mystery ribbon isn't emitting any light; the ribbon is in fact the source of very energetic neutral particles that are raining down on us after travelling over 100 AU (approximately 9 billion miles).

IBEX is designed to detect fast moving particles called energetic neutral atoms (or ENAs for short) created at the absolute boundary of our solar system known as the "heliopause." This boundary separates the bubble-like heliosphere (which contains the sun, planets and solar wind) and interstellar space (i.e. the space between the stars).
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Sherlock

Are Men More Evolved Than Women?

Seth Borenstein
Discovery News
Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:25 UTC
Image
© NISTJust because the Y chromosome, which determines gender, is evolving at a speedy rate it doesn't necessarily mean men themselves are more evolved.
Men might not be so primitive after all

Women may think of men as primitive, but new research indicates that the Y chromosome -- the thing that makes a man male -- is evolving far faster than the rest of the human genetic code.

A new study comparing the Y chromosomes from humans and chimpanzees, our nearest living relatives, show that they are about 30 percent different. That is far greater than the 2 percent difference between the rest of the human genetic code and that of the chimp's, according to a study appearing online Wednesday in the journal Nature.

These changes occurred in the last 6 million years or so, relatively recently when it comes to evolution.

"The Y chromosome appears to be the most rapidly evolving of the human chromosomes," said study co-author Dr. David Page, director of the prestigious Whitehead Institute in Cambridge and a professor of biology at MIT. "It's an almost ongoing churning of gene reconstruction. It's like a house that's constantly being rebuilt."
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Cloud Lightning

Flashback Climate change by Jupiter

Lawrence Solomon
Canada Financial Post
Sat, 10 Nov 2007 06:36 UTC
The alignment of the planets, and especially that of Jupiter and Saturn, control the climate on Earth.

So explained Rhodes Fairbridge of Columbia University, a giant in science over much of the last century whose accomplishments are perhaps unsurpassed for their breadth, depth, and volume. This one man authored or co-authored 100 scientific books and more than 1,000 scientific papers, he edited the Benchmarks in Geology series (more than 90 volumes in print) and was general editor of the Encyclopaedias of the Earth Sciences. He edited eight major encyclopedias of specialized scientific papers in the atmospheric sciences and astrogeology; geomorphology; geochemistry and the earth sciences; geology, sedimentology, paleontology, oceanography and, not least, climatology.
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