Anatomy Of A Dying Star

White Dwarf
A simulation of a star's final hours may help scientists uncover what triggers its death. The program simulated the death of a white dwarf (pictured above), which is a compact remnant of a star similar to our sun. H. Bond (STScI)/R. Ciardullo (PSU)/WFPC2/HST/NASA

From Discovery Magazine:

A computer program that simulates the final hours of a star's life has been developed by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and Stony Brook University in New York.

The scientists designed the simulation hoping to uncover what actually triggers a star's death.

For decades, scientists have relied on supernovae to serve as mile markers on the highways of space. These exploded stars can be measured for brightness, which provides an estimate of their physical distance.

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Google’s Abandoned Library Of 700 Million Titles

From Epicenter:

Imagine a world where Google sucks.

It might seem a stretch. The Google logo is practically an icon of functionality. Google’s search engine and other tools are the company’s strongest, if unstated, argument in favor of the Google Books Settlement, which would give the internet the largest and most comprehensive library in history, at the cost of granting Google a de facto monopoly. It’s hard to imagine any company better equipped to scan, catalog and index millions of books than Google.

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Chemical In Sperm 'May Slow Ageing Process'

The secret of eternal youth? Photo: GETTY/AFP

From The Telegraph:

Researchers in Austria say that human sperm might be the next weapon in the fight against ageing.

A new study by scientists at Graz University found that spermidine, a compound that is found in sperm, slows ageing processes and increases longevity in yeast, flies, worms and mice, as well as human blood cells, by protecting cells from damage.

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Taking The Pill For Last 40 Years 'Has Put Women Off Masculine Men'

From The Daily Mail:

It ushered in the 1960s sexual revolution and gave women control over their own fertility.

But according to a new study, the Pill may also have changed women's taste in men.

Scientists say the hormones in the oral contraceptive suppress a female's interest in masculine men - and make boyish men more attractive.

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Military Robots To Get A Virtual Touch

Photo: The Packbot Explorer

From Technology Review:

A modified game controller will give military bomb-disposal experts remote touch.

iRobot, the company that makes military robots as well as the Roomba vacuuming bot, announced last Friday that it will receive funding for several endeavors from the Robotics Technology Consortium (RTC).

One project will see the company develop controllers that give remote robot operators sensory feedback. The US military currently uses iRobot's wheeled PackBot in Iraq and Afghanistan for tasks such as bomb disposal, detecting hazardous materials and carrying equipment.

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Why Minds Are Not Like Computers

From The New Atlantis:

People who believe that the mind can be replicated on a computer tend to explain the mind in terms of a computer. When theorizing about the mind, especially to outsiders but also to one another, defenders of artificial intelligence (AI) often rely on computational concepts. They regularly describe the mind and brain as the “software and hardware” of thinking, the mind as a “pattern” and the brain as a “substrate,” senses as “inputs” and behaviors as “outputs,” neurons as “processing units” and synapses as “circuitry,” to give just a few common examples.

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Russia Plots Return To Venus

The Venera missions produced tantalising images of the Venusian surface.

From The BBC:

Densely clouded in acid-laden mist, Venus used to be the Soviet Union's favourite target for planetary exploration.

Now, after a lull of almost three decades, Russia is making plans for a new mission to the "morning star" and has invited Western scientists to participate.

Last week, Moscow-based space research institute IKI hosted an international conference aimed at luring scientists from Europe and possibly other countries such as the US into the ambitious project, officially scheduled for launch in 2016.

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Studies Suggest South Coast Of South Africa Birthplace Of Modern Humans

Stratigraphic layers visible in this lower section of the PP5-6 archaeological site at Pinnacle Point, Mossel Bay, date to 79,000 to 86,000 years ago. Credit: Photo by Simen Oestmo/South African Coast Paleoclimate, Paleoenvironment, Paleoecology, Paleoanthropology Project (SACP4)

From Science In Africa:

Studies published in the journal Science reports that early modern humans living 72 000 years ago along the south coast of South Africa used fire to improve the quality and efficiency of their stone tool manufacturing. This research provides further evidence that this area may have been the origin location for the lineage that leads to all modern humans, which appeared between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago in Africa.

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18th Century Ships' Logs Predict Future Weather Forecast

Dr Dennis Wheeler launches the new project at HMS Trincomalee based at Hartlepool Marina. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Sunderland)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Oct. 6, 2009) — One hundred and fifty years ago, Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species revolutionised how we view the natural world. Now his voyages on HMS Beagle are influencing modern research on the evolution of our climate.

A ground-breaking partnership between JISC, the University of Sunderland, the Met Office Hadley Centre and the British Atmospheric Data Centre sees historical naval logbooks being used for the first time in research into climate change. The logbooks include famous voyages such as the Beagle, Cook’s HMS Discovery and Parry’s polar expedition in HMS Hecla.

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Does Taste Decrease With Age?

From Live Science:

This Week’s Question: I have a bet with a friend that you start losing your sense of taste as you get older. She says that her taste is as strong as ever and thinks I’m wrong. Who wins the bet?

In general, sensitivity to taste gradually decreases with age. But there are some whose taste isn’t affected by getting older. Who wins the bet? I won’t touch that one.

The ability to taste food and beverages means a lot to seniors. Let’s face it; we lose a lot of the pleasures of our youth, but eating well isn’t usually one of them.

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Abruptly Forgotten: Working Memory Disappears In A Blink

From Scientific American:

Certain memories die suddenly rather than fading away.

When you go from bed to bathroom on a dark night, a quick flick of the lights will leave a lingering impression on your mind’s eye. For decades evidence suggested that such visual working memories—which, even in daylight, connect the dots to create a complete scene as the eyes dart around rapidly—fade gradually over the span of several seconds. But a clever new study reported in the journal Psychological Science finds that such memories actually stay sharp until they are suddenly lost.

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Nobel Prizes For Chemistry Awarded -- News Roundup

From left, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England; Thomas A. Steitz of Yale University; and Ada E. Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel will share the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Reuters

Three Win Nobel For Ribosome Research -- New York Times

Three researchers whose work delves into how information encoded on strands of DNA is translated by the chemical complexes known as ribosomes into the thousands of proteins that make up living matter will share the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Swedish Academy of Sciences said Wednesday.

The trio are Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England; Thomas A. Steitz of Yale University; and Ada E. Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. Each scientist will get a third of the prize, worth 10 million Swedish kronors in total, or $1.4 million, in a ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10.

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More News On the Nobel Prize For Chemistry

Trio wins chemistry Nobel for solving ribosome riddle -- Reuters
2 Americans, Israeli share Nobel Prize in chemistry -- L.A. Times
Ada Yonath: first Israeli woman to win a Nobel -- AFP
US duo, Israeli win Nobel Chemistry Prize -- AFP
3 Scientists Share Nobel Chemistry Prize for DNA Work -- Voice of America
2 Americans, 1 Israeli win Nobel chemistry prize -- AP
Cambridge chemist wins Nobel prize for showing how proteins are made in cells -- The Guardian
Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded for ribosome research -- Science News
X-ray crystallography at the heart of the 2009 Nobel chemistry prize -- Physics Today
Nobel Prize In Chemistry: What Ribosomes Look Like And How They Functions At Atomic Level -- Science Daily
Unraveling the Ribosome: Chemistry Nobel Awarded to Modelers of Cells' Protein-Maker -- Scientific American
FACTBOX: Nobel chemistry prize - Who are the winners? -- Reuters
List of recent Nobel Prize in chemistry winners -- AP

Flying Feline, Hidden Kitten: The Fur Flies In Amazing 'Ninja' Cat Fight

Take that: This frame catches the two pals getting to grips mid-air

From The Daily Mail:

Leaping through the air, claws outstretched these cats appear locked in mortal combat.

But rather than a deathly duel over a mouse or territory, this acrobatic pair are simply play-fighting.

Dubbed the 'ninja cats' after the Japanese feudal warriors, the sparring pair are in fact Muffi and his friend Tiger.

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Discovery Sheds New Light On Stonehenge

Members of a British archaeological team stand in newly discovered holes that once held the stones of a circular monument connected to Stonehenge by an avenue. It may have served as a crematory. (Aerial-Cam)

From The L.A. Times:

Archaeologists say the remains of another large henge near the River Avon offer clues to the building of Stonehenge and the significance of the river. They had sought the telltale holes for years.

British archaeologists have found the remains of a massive stone henge, or ceremonial circle, that was part of the ancient and celebrated Stonehenge complex, a find that is shedding new light on how the monument was built and its religious uses.

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Is The Arctic Ready To Give Up Its Treasures?

The icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnicov in pack ice off Canada Photo: Daisy Gilardini

From The Telegraph:

Global warming could reveal lucrative reserves of untapped oil, gas and precious metals beneath the ice caps in the near future - but at what environmental cost?

For all the talk among world leaders of the perils of climate change, many are scenting an opportunity. As the Arctic ice retreats, surrounding nations are looking to plunder those natural resources under the surface, estimated by the US Geological Survey to constitute as much as 13 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 per cent of its undiscovered natural gas – as well as precious metals including iron ore, gold, zinc and nickel.

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Nasa 'Needs Another £30bn To Fulfil Moon Mission'

Photo: Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in 1969. He believes a new lunar mission would be pointless - even if it were affordable. (Nasa/EPA)

From Times Online:

Nasa will not be able to meet its target of sending humans back to the Moon by 2020, or even dream of landing on Mars, because it is suffering from chronic underfunding, a presidential review panel has warned.

The US space agency needs at least another $50 billion (£30 billion) over the next decade if it is to come close to delivering on its vision for retiring the space shuttle, completing construction of the International Space Station and launching ambitious new voyages of discovery.

The bleak assessment comes from a ten-member committee established by President Obama to review America’s manned spaceflight programme. Made up of aerospace experts and former astronauts, it is not due to make its final report until the end of this month.

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Why Women Have Sex

RCWW Inc. / Corbis

From Time Magazine:

While figuring out what women want has stumped men for centuries, understanding how they think about sex may have just gotten easier. Cindy Meston and David Buss, psychologists at the University of Texas, interviewed over 1,000 women around the world for their book Why Women Have Sex and managed to come up with 237 reasons, ranging from the predictable — commitment — to the puzzling — curing a headache. Spoiler alert: love may be further down on the list than one might think. TIME spoke to Buss about the myriad mind games, turn-ons and turn-offs involved in female sexuality, and what a guy can do to stand a chance.

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The Faces of Singularity: Are You Ready For The Human-Robot Merge?

Singularity Summit Crowd David Orban/Flickr

From Popular Science:

We asked an assortment of the Singularity Summit's brilliant minds how they're looking forward to a life merged with artificial intelligence

The Singularity Summit drew a wide range of people from around the globe. There were technology companies hoping to spread brand recognition, quasi-spiritual sojourners looking for a new clue to the secret of immortality, and serious academics interested in cutting edge in artificial intelligence.

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Acidic Clouds Nourish World's Oceans

Water droplets in clouds generally form around dust and other particles. When clouds evaporate, as they often do naturally, the surface of the particle can become very acidic. This is especially true where the air is polluted. Paradoxically, scientists suggest that large scale industry in countries like China could be combating global warming to some extent by creating more bioavailable iron in the oceans, and therefore increasing carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere. (Credit: Copyright Michele Hogan)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Oct. 6, 2009) — Scientists at the University of Leeds have proved that acid in the atmosphere breaks down large particles of iron found in dust into small and extremely soluble iron nanoparticles, which are more readily used by plankton.

This is an important finding because lack of iron can be a limiting factor for plankton growth in the ocean - especially in the southern oceans and parts of the eastern Pacific. Addition of such iron nanoparticles would trigger increased absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

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Ancient Rome's Real Population Revealed

From Live Science:

The first century B.C. was one of the most culturally rich in the history of the Roman Empire — the age of Cicero, Caesar and Virgil. But as much as historians know about the great figures of this period of Ancient Rome, they know very little about some basic facts, such as the population size of the late Roman Empire.

Now, a group of historians has used caches of buried coins to provide an answer to this question.

During the Republican period of Rome (about the fifth to the first centuries B.C), adult male citizens of Rome could be taxed and conscribed into the army and were also given the right to vote. To keep track of this section of the population (and their taxable assets), the Roman state conducted periodic censuses.

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