Boeing 787 Dreamliner Finally Takes To The Skies In First Test Flight - Two Years Later Than Originally Planned

Employees cheer as the Dreamliner takes off for the first time

From The Daily Mail:

Boeing Co made the first successful test flight of its 787 Dreamliner today, almost two and a half years after the new, fuel-efficient plane was supposed to fly.

The lightweight carbon and titanium plane, promising to save airlines million of dollars in fuel and maintenance costs, has been hampered by a shortage of bolts, faulty design and a two-month strike.

But today Boeing sent the plane on a four-hour flight from Paine Field in Everett, Washington, at 10am local time, to test it as it flew around the local area.

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Rise And Fall Of A Dinosaur Hunter

Nate Murphy doing what he did best - unearthing dinosaurs
(Image: James Woodcock/Billings Gazette)

From New Scientist:

ANYONE who met Nate Murphy would think he had lived and breathed dinosaurs all his life. He's the sort of man who stands out in a crowd: stocky, outgoing and invariably wearing a straw hat and shorts. He never claimed to be a dinosaur scientist, just a regular guy with a love for fossils and a knack for finding them.

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Will The U.S. Military Do Right By The Dugong?

From Scientific American:

Would a plan to build a 2.5-mile-long airfield in Okinawa, Japan, doom a rare manateelike species to extinction? That's the assertion of more than 400 environmental organizations (pdf), which recently sent a letter to President Obama urging him to cancel the plans to expand Camp Schwab, a U.S. Marine Corps base on Okinawa island.

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Company Aims to Make Jet Fuel from Coal

An artist’s rendition of the proposed facility. Rentech

From The New York Times:

Some of the world’s largest airlines — including American, US Airways, Delta and Lufthansa — have signed a memorandum of understanding to buy 500,000 barrels per month of jet fuel made from coal and petroleum coke, a refinery waste product.

The development will be announced this morning by Rentech, the Los Angeles, Calif.-based company that plans to make the fuel at a plant in Mississippi.

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People Who Look Young For Their Age 'Live Longer'

Photo: Fresh-faced actor Leonardo Di Caprio might expect a long life.

From BBC News:

People blessed with youthful faces are more likely to live to a ripe old age than those who look more than their years, work shows.

Danish scientists say appearance alone can predict survival, after they studied 387 pairs of twins.

The researchers asked nurses, trainee teachers and peers to guess the age of the twins from mug shots.

Those rated younger-looking tended to outlive their older-looking sibling, the British Medical Journal reports.

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More Pores Could Ease Global Warming

By boosting the number of pores in leaves, scientists hope to one day absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere. Credit: iStockphoto

From Cosmos/AFP:

TOKYO: Japanese researchers last week said they had found a way to make plant leaves absorb more carbon dioxide - an innovation that may help ease global warming and boost food production.

The Kyoto University team found that soaking germinated seeds in a protein solution raised the number of pores, or stomas, on the leaves that inhale CO2 and release oxygen, said chief researcher Ikuko Hara-Nishimura.

"A larger number means there are more intake windows for carbon dioxide, contributing to lowering the density of the gas," she said.

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Black Carbon Deposits On Himalayan Ice Threaten Earth's 'Third Pole'

To better understand the role that black soot has on glaciers, researchers trekked high into the Himalayas to collect ice cores that contain a record of soot deposition that spans back to the 1950s. (Credit: Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 15, 2009) — Black soot deposited on Tibetan glaciers has contributed significantly to the retreat of the world's largest non-polar ice masses, according to new research by scientists from NASA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Soot absorbs incoming solar radiation and can speed glacial melting when deposited on snow in sufficient quantities.

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Why Humans Outlive Apes

Chimps and apes are genetically so similar to humans - and their human-like gestures do remind us how close we are on the family tree - that scientists have long been puzzled why they don't live as long as we do. Diet-related evolutionary changes may explain it. Image credit: stockexpert.

From Live Science:

Genetic changes that apparently allow humans to live longer than any other primate may be rooted in a more carnivorous diet.

These changes may also promote brain development and make us less vulnerable to diseases of aging, such as cancer, heart disease and dementia.

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How James Cameron's Innovative New 3D Tech Created Avatar

Director James Cameron holding an antique stereoscope. (Photographed By Joe Pugliese, Sept. 19, 2009, at Fox Studios in Los Angeles, Calif.)

From Popular Mechanics:

Director James Cameron is known for his innovations in movie technology and ambitions to make CG look and feel real. His next film, Avatar, will put his reputation to the test. Can Cameron make blue, alien creature look real on the big screen? With all the attention focused on the film, anything short of perfection may not be good enough. Here is how Cameron plans to make movie history with a host of new technologies and years of development.

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A Stroll Around Pompeii, Courtesy Of Google’s Street View

From Discovery News:

If you can't be one of the 2.5 million tourists who wander through the streets of Pompeii every year, you now have another option: Google's Street View.

The 360-degree panoramic street-level service debuted last week in the ancient Roman town that was buried in Mount Vesuvius' catastrophic eruption in 79 A.D.

Statues, temples, amphitheaters, as well as close-up views of houses, bakeries and baths are now visible on the search engine's free mapping service.

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Discovery Of New Planets Raises Hopes Of Other Life In Universe

Astronomers have discovered four new planets Photo: NASA/AP

From The Telegraph:

Astronomers have discovered four new planets orbiting two stars similar to Earth's sun, raising hopes that other life may exist in the universe.

However, the stars are 28 and 84 light years away – placing them far beyond the reach of existing spacecraft.

The first three planets orbit the star 61 Virginis and can be seen with the naked eye in the constellation of Virgo.

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Ocean Acidification Will Threaten Our Food Supply, UK Environment Secretary To Warn

Thousands of Glassfishes swim on the edge of the coral reef near Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Marine species are at risk of extinction due to rising acidity levels in the oceans

From The Daily Mail:

Humanity's food supply will be threatened by the acidification of our oceans unless climate change is tackled, Hilary Benn is to warn as the UN climate summit today.

The UK environment secretary will say acidification provides a 'powerful incentive' to cut carbon emissions.

The comments follow a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which has warned acidification will cause the mass extinction of marine species unless immediate action is taken.

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Nanocrystals Create An Insulator Better Than Pure Vacuum

Better Vacuum Thermos Ain't no party like a lunar tea party: an Apollo astronaut holds a thermos for collecting lunar regolith NASA

From Popular Science:

Photonic crystal insulation could have exciting applications.

Vacuum's emptiness doesn't just pose a problem for space travelers -- a vacuum lining is also one of the best known insulators on Earth, and may help keep those holiday drinks and soups warm in your thermos. Now scientists have found that layering photonic crystals within the vacuum lining can even prevent heat loss from invisible infrared radiation.

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Google Demonstrates Quantum Computer Image Search

D-Wave chips could make searching much faster
(Image: Copyright © 2005 – 2008 D-Wave Systems Inc.)

From New Scientist:

Google's web services may be considered cutting edge, but they run in warehouses filled with conventional computers. Now the search giant has revealed it is investigating the use of quantum computers to run its next generation of faster applications.

Writing on Google's research blog this week, Hartmut Neven, head of its image recognition team, reveals that the Californian firm has for three years been quietly developing a quantum computer that can identify particular objects in a database of stills or video.

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How Global Warming Could Change The Winemaking Map

Photo: Members of the Vignerons Indépendants wine growers associated clinked their bottles to express concerns over the consequences of inaction on climate change. Alexandra Fleurantin / Greenpeace France

From Time Magazine:

Many Bordeaux winemakers are declaring 2009 the best vintage in 60 years, but Yvon Minvielle of Château Lagarette isn't celebrating. Like many vintners across France, Minvielle is feeling uneasy after another unusually warm summer and early grape harvest. "They say everything is going great in Bordeaux, but take a closer look," he says. Heat-stressed vines ripened at unequal rates this year, and only skillful picking spread over a full month allowed Minvielle to gather a mature crop.

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Buy A Custom Robot That Looks Just Like You (PHOTO)

From The Huffington Post:

If you're wondering what to put on your wishlist for the holidays, here's a gift idea you might not have considered: your robot twin -- a robotic double that looks, and talks, just like you.

Japanese department store Sogo & Seibu has announced that they are selling two, customizable robots that can be tweaked to look exactly like you (or the person of the buyer's choosing).

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Black Hole Found to Be Much Closer To Earth Than Previously Thought

An international team of astronomers has accurately measured the distance from Earth to a black hole for the first time. (Credit: Image courtesy of SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 14, 2009) — An international team of astronomers has accurately measured the distance from Earth to a black hole for the first time. Without needing to rely on mathematical models the astronomers came up with a distance of 7800 light years, much closer than had been assumed until now. The researchers achieved this breakthrough by measuring the radio emissions from the black hole and its associated dying star.

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Real Christmas Trees 'Greener' Than Fake

From Live Science:

It may not sound like "tree-hugging," but cutting down a real tree for Christmas is actually greener than going with the artificial kind, one scientist says.

"It is a little counterintuitive to people," said Clint Springer, a biologist at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia.

Because of concerns over deforestation around the world, many people naturally worry that buying a real tree might contribute to that problem, Springer says. But most Christmas trees for sale these days are grown not in the forest but on tree farms, for the express purpose of being cut.

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Super-Earths Orbit Neighboring Stars

Astronomers have found up to six new planets orbiting stars that resemble the sun, paving the way forward for the discovery of a truly extraterrestrial Earth. NASA

From Discovery News:

The discovery of up to six planets breaks new ground in the search for worlds like our own.

The race to find Earth-like planets around stars similar to our sun edged closer to a finish with the announcement on Monday that up to six "super-Earths" have been found orbiting sun-like neighbor stars.

The smallest of the bunch weighs in at about five times the mass of Earth and orbits a star known as 61 Virginis, which is visible with the naked eye in the constellation Virgo. The star is 28 light-years from Earth and closely resembles the sun in size, age and other attributes.

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Wine Tastes Better In Blue Or Red Lit Rooms

From The Telegraph:

Wine tastes better if a room is backlit with red or blue ambient lights, a psychologist has found.

Drinkers' brains are tricked into thinking a glass of white wine is better and more expensive tasting when exposed to the red or blue background lighting than those in rooms with green or white background lighting.

And connoisseurs are warned to be wary of unscrupulous bar owners who try to pass off cheap plonk in trendy lit bars.

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