Martian Methane Mystery Deepens

The Martian surface is very hostile to organics say scientists

From The BBC:

Methane on Mars is being produced and destroyed far faster than on Earth, according to analysis of recent data.

Scientists in Paris used a computer climate model for the Red Planet to simulate observations made from Earth.

It shows the gas is unevenly distributed in the Martian atmosphere and changes with the seasons.

The presence of methane on Mars is intriguing because its origin could either be life or geological activity - including volcanism.

Read more ....

New Planet-finder Shows Its Power: Kepler Orbiting Telescope Should Soon Find Alien Earths

Artist concept of Kepler in space. (Credit: NASA/JPL)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 7, 2009) — The first results are in from the Kepler orbiting observatory, the world's most powerful planet-searching telescope, and according to MIT planetary scientist Sara Seager they show that the instrument should have no trouble detecting "alien Earths" -- planets that are about the size of our own.

After its launch on March 6, Kepler began taking test data for engineering purposes. It was this engineering data, before the official inauguration of science operations, that produced the observatory's first published results, appearing this week in the journal Science. Seager, the Ellen Swallow Richards Associate Professor of Planetary Science and Associate Professor of Physics, is part of the Kepler science team but was not personally involved in this initial paper. She appeared at a NASA press conference on Thursday, Aug. 6, to comment on the significance of the results.

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Ganges Delta: Gorgeous, Wild And Deadly

This Envisat image highlights the Ganges Delta, the world’s largest delta, in the south Asia area of Bangladesh (visible) and India. This image was created by combining three Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar acquisitions taken over the same area. The colours in the image result from variations in the surface that occurred between acquisitions. Credit: ESA

From Live Science:

Satellites have captured a snapshot of the Ganges delta, the world’s largest river delta and one of the most geographically turbulent spots in the world.

The interweaving network of streams that make up the Ganges Delta in South Asia is formed by the joining of three rivers – the Padma, Jamuna, and Meghna rivers. More than 100 million people (mostly Bangladeshi) call the delta home, relying mostly on rice, tea and other crops for subsistence. The region is also inhabited by around 1,000 endangered Bengal tigers.

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Large Hadron Collider To Restart At Half Its Designed Energy

A technician inspects the site of a faulty electrical connection that damaged the LHC in September 2008 (Image: CERN)

From The New Scientist:

The world's most powerful particle smasher will restart in November at just half the energy the machine was designed to reach. But even at this level, the Large Hadron Collider has the potential to uncover exotic new physics, such as signs of hidden extra dimensions, physicists say.

The LHC is a new particle accelerator at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, designed to answer fundamental questions, such as what gives elementary particles their mass, by colliding particles at higher energies than ever achieved in a laboratory before.

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Long Debate Ended Over Cause, Demise Of Ice Ages – Solar And Earth Wobble – CO2 Not Main Driver

The above image shows how much the Earth’s orbit can vary in shape. This process in a slow one, taking roughly 100,000 to cycle. (Credit: Texas A&M University)

From Watts Up With That:

Long debate ended over cause, demise of ice ages – may also help predict future.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – A team of researchers says it has largely put to rest a long debate on the underlying mechanism that has caused periodic ice ages on Earth for the past 2.5 million years – they are ultimately linked to slight shifts in solar radiation caused by predictable changes in Earth’s rotation and axis.

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Roman Emperor Vespasian's Villa Found

An archaeologist works on the site of Roman Emperor Vespasian's summer villa. Titus Flavius Vespasianus, the emperor who ordered the construction of the Colosseum, ascended to the throne at the ripe old age of 60 and remained emperor until his death at age 69.

From Discovery News:

Aug. 6, 2009 -- The summer villa of Roman Emperor Vespasian has been found in the Sabine hill country northeast of Rome, Italian archaeologists announced today.

Titus Flavius Vespasianus is known for rebuilding the Roman Empire following the tumultuous reign of Emporer Nero. Vespasian changed the face of Rome by launching a major public works program, which included the construction of the Colosseum, the structure that arguably defines the glory of ancient Rome.

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First U.S. "Power Tower" Lights Up California

POWER TOWER: By focusing sunlight with mirrors onto central towers, such concentrating solar power plants turn the sun's heat into electricity. Courtesy of eSolar

From Scientific American:

Turning the sun's heat into electricity--by concentrating it with thousands of mirrors onto a tower.

In southern California's Antelope Valley, 24,000 silver-bright mirrors have been positioned to reflect light on two 50-meter-tall towers. And at 11:08 A.M. local time Wednesday, this concentrated light heated steam in those towers to turn a turbine—the first "power towers" in the U.S. to convert the sun's heat into electricity for commercial use.

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Swine Flu Vaccine 'By September'

From the BBC:

The first swine flu vaccines are likely to be licensed for use in the general population in September, the World Health Organization has announced.

Several manufacturers have produced initial batches of a H1N1 vaccine and some clinical trials are already underway.

WHO director of vaccine research Dr Marie-Paule Kieny also sought to calm fears about safety of new vaccines.

She said the vaccines were based on "old and proven technology".

Figures show continuing rises in cases in the southern hemisphere in the past seven days.

Argentina has particularly seen a large increase and deaths now stand at 337.

And there has been a rise in cases of 25% in Australia.

Read more ....

Micro Flying Robots Can Fly More Effectively Than Flies

RoboFly a robot model of fruit fly wings that is 100 times larger than a fruit fly. It is submerged in oil to simulate the viscosity of the sticky air around the wing of a real fruit fly. (Credit: Dickinson lab)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 6, 2009) — Engineers have long been stymied in their attempts to fabricate micro aerial robots that can match the amazing flight capabilities of nature’s most advanced flying insects ¾flies. Such robot flies -- if they could be made efficient enough for long missions -- could be used for a variety of tasks, from spying, to mine detection to search and rescue missions in collapsed buildings.

Read more ....

Discovery Really Scratches An Itch

A neuron found in the spinal cords of mice could be responsible for sending itch messages to the brain. It likely works the same in humans. The finding could lead to treatments for serious human itches. Image credit: stockxpert

From Live Science:

The urge to scratch a mosquito bite or skin rash can be maddening. Now, scientists have pinpointed a group of neurons that signal it's time to relieve the itch.

Disabling the neurons eliminated itching in mice, which are thought to be a good analogue to humans for neurobiology studies.

The work could pave the way for treatment of serious human itches, such as psoriasis and eczema, said study scientist Zhou-Feng Chen of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Read more ....

Spying For Science: Military Satellites Aid Civilian Research

From Popular Mechanics:

American spy satellites have captured an exhaustive array of images of the Earth. After all, they have been taking photographs since the early days of the space race. In the 1990s, when climate change and other earth science issues came to the forefront, researchers began to realize that the government's unparalleled data could be a huge boon—if scientists were allowed access to classified images. Jeff Dozier was one of the first permitted behind the veil of secrecy. In the early 1990s Dozier, then a prof at the University of California, Santa Barbara, briefed Al Gore, then a Senator from Tennessee, about the opportunities that intelligence satellite photos could present to science. Gore wrote a letter to then-CIA director Robert Gates (now the Secretary of Defense), and this effort gave birth to the Medea program. A few dozen scientists, Dozier included, gained clearance to view spy satellite photos for their research, and shortly thereafter Pres. Bill Clinton declassified all spy satellite photos taken before 1972. Here are five times spy photos contributed to science, even when the photos themselves remained classified.

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Radio Telescopes Turn The Moon Into World's Largest Neutrino Detector

Neutrino Detector? courtesy of NASA

From Popular Science:

Neutrinos, the infinitesimally small particles so faint physicists used to call them "the ghost particle," have driven scientists to construct immense underground facilities simply to catch a glimpse of a single one. Now, with even the most massive detectors failing to trap certain high-energy neutrinos, astronomers have turned to a larger filter: the Moon.

Teams of scientists on the supercomputer-linked LOFAR radio telescope in Holland, and on the Very Large Array (VLA) telescope in the U.S. have both turned their attention to the Moon in hopes of recording rare neutrino interactions.

Read more ....

5 Tips For Raising Your Girl Geek

From Geekdad/Wired:

As geek parents, we often have rosy colored notions about our children growing up. We actually want them to be geeks. From the earliest of ages we dress them in WoW gear, teach them to quote Star Wars and wonder when is too early to start reading The Hobbit. We nurture them in the way of the Geek, hoping that, when the time comes for them to choose their path, they won’t stray far.

But being a geek kid isn’t easy; and being a geek girl might even be harder. Here are some things to keep in mind if you are raising a geek girl that might help her–and you–get through the school years.

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Oldest Map In Western Europe Found Engraved On 14,000-Year-Old Chunk Of Rock

The Journal of Human Evolution has released pictures of what Spanish scientists say is a map etched in stone dating back some 13,660 years

From The Daily Mail:

We all rely on maps, be they the sat nav in your car or a traditional A-Z, and archaeologists have found our ancient ancestors were no different.
They have unearthed what they believe to be the oldest map in Western Europe, in a Spanish cave steeped in legend.

The complex etchings were engraved on a hand-sized rock 13,660 years ago, probably by Magdalenian hunter-gatherers.

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Bird Experiment Shows Aesop's Fable May Be True

An undated photo released by The University of Cambridge shows a rook, a member of the crow family, as it drops stones into a tube to raise the water level and bring a worm into reach, at the Sub-department of Animal Behaviour at University of Cambridge. In Aesop's fable 'The crow and the pitcher' a thirsty crow uses stones to raise the level of water in a pitcher to quench its thirst. A new study published online Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009 in the journal Current Biology demonstrates that rooks, birds belonging to the corvid, or crow family, are able to solve complex problems using tools and can easily master the same technique demonstrated in Aesop's fable. (AP Photo/The University of Cambridge)

From Yahoo News/AP:

NEW YORK – From the goose that laid the golden egg to the race between the tortoise and the hare, Aesop's fables are known for teaching moral lessons rather than literally being true. But a new study says at least one such tale might really have happened.

It's the fable about a thirsty crow. The bird comes across a pitcher with the water level too low for him to reach. The crow raises the water level by dropping stones into the pitcher. (Moral: Little by little does the trick, or in other retellings, necessity is the mother of invention.)

Read more ....

Kepler Spacecraft Sees Its First Exoplanets

Kepler's computer has mysteriously entered a standby, or "safe", mode twice since launch - possibly because it was hit by charged particles from space called cosmic rays (Illustration: NASA)

From New Scientist:

The planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has found its first extrasolar planets: three alien worlds that had been previously discovered with ground-based telescopes. The finds confirm that Kepler's instruments are sensitive enough to detect Earth-like planets around sun-like stars – but they might also be unexpectedly sensitive to charged particles in space that can zap circuitry.

Kepler launched on 6 March with a simple charge: Stare at a swatch of sky for three and a half years, and look for Earths. The telescope will hunt transiting exoplanets, planets that pass in front of their stars and dim their brightness at regular intervals.

Read more ....

Growing Evidence Of Marijuana Smoke's Potential Dangers

Smoking marijuana causes more damage to cells and DNA than smoking tobacco, scientists say. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2009) — In a finding that challenges the increasingly popular belief that smoking marijuana is less harmful to health than smoking tobacco, researchers in Canada are reporting that smoking marijuana, like smoking tobacco, has toxic effects on cells.

Rebecca Maertens and colleagues note that people often view marijuana as a "natural" product and less harmful than tobacco. As public attitudes toward marijuana change and legal restrictions ease in some countries, use of marijuana is increasing.

Read more ....

10 Profound Innovations Ahead

From Live Science:

Today's world looks increasingly like the future. Robots work factory assembly lines and fight alongside human warriors on the battlefield, while tiny computers assist in everything from driving cars to flying airplanes. Surgeons use the latest technological tools to accomplish incredible feats, and researchers push the frontiers of medicine with bioengineering. Science fiction stories about cloning and resurrecting extinct animals look increasingly like relevant cautionary tales.

Read more ....

Twitter Hit By 'Denial-Of-Service' Attack

From Wall Street Journal:

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Twitter Inc., the fast-growing microblogging service, was inaccessible Thursday morning, struck by a "denial-of-service" attack, the company said on its status blog.

"We are defending against a denial-of-service attack, and will update status again shortly," the company said in a post shortly before 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) Thursday.

In an update to the blog post, Twitter said the site is back online, but that the company is "continuing to defend against and recover from this attack." The site will remain slow for users attempting to access it while Twitter attempts to recover.

Read more ....

Update: Facebook Confirms Problems, But Is It an Attack? -- PC Magazine

Less May Be More for Wind Turbines

Photo: Less to lift: Nordic Windpower’s N1000 wind turbines use two blades to generate up to 1,000 megawatts of power, making them cheaper to build than a conventional three-bladed machine. Credit: Nordic Windpower

From Technology Review:

Nordic Windpower's two-bladed rotors depart from conventional wind-power design.

One of the first R&D grants to a renewable-energy developer from the economic-stimulus funds approved by Congress this spring could have a dramatic impact on the design of wind turbines. The $16 million loan guarantee offered by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to Berkeley, CA-based Nordic Windpower will accelerate commercialization of the company's Swedish-designed, two-bladed wind turbines, marking the first utility-scale alternative to the industry's dominant three-bladed design in over a decade.

Read more ....

Rural Well Water Linked to Parkinson's Disease

HEALTHY FIELDS, SICK WATER: Pesticides implicated in Parkinson's Disease are believed to travel from farms to humans via private wells. FLICKR/RWKVISUAL

From Scientific American:

California finding bolsters theory linking neurological ailment to insecticides.

Rural residents who drink water from private wells are much more likely to have Parkinson’s disease, a finding that bolsters theories that farm pesticides may be partially to blame, according to a new California study.

Nearly one million people in the United States--one of every 300--have the incurable neurological disease. Beginning with a slight tremor, Parkinson’s often progresses to severe muscle control problems that leave patients struggling to walk and talk.

Read more ....

The 10 Mysteries Of Human Behaviour That Science Can't Explain

Mood-improving endorphins are released when we laugh. Photo: GETTY

From The Telegraph:

Scientists have split the atom, put men on the moon and discovered the DNA of which we are made, but there are 10 key mysteries of human behaviour which they have failed to fully explain.

The New Scientist magazine compiled a list of the everyday aspects of life which continue to confound the world's greatest brains, including the reasons behind kissing, blushing and even picking your nose.

An editorial in the publication said: "There is nothing more fascinating to most of us than ourselves.

Read more ....

Wealthy Nations See Unexpected Baby Boom

From Cosmos:

PARIS: The ironclad axiom that the wealthier a nation the lower its birthrate may reverse when countries pass a certain threshold of development, reports a new study.

Most of the two dozen nations that have passed this tipping point – including Australia, Sweden, France, the United States and Britain – are enjoying modest baby booms, breaking a pattern of declining fertility that has held for decades if not longer.

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Opinion: Do You Believe In Miracles?

Photo: Do miracles depend on definitions of the laws of nature? (Image: Carsten Koall / Getty)

From New Scientist:

THESE days most people think it unscientific to believe in "miracles", and irreligious not to believe in them. But would the occurrence of miracles really violate the principles of science? And would their non-occurrence really undermine religion? David Hume and Richard Dawkins have attempted to answer these questions in their different ways, but I am not convinced by their arguments, and for me they remain open questions.

In 1748, in one of his key essays, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, the Scottish philosopher David Hume gave an account of the philosophy of miracles that impressed and influenced many thinkers. Hume defines a miracle as "a violation of the laws of nature...a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent".

Read more ....

How To Delay Doomsday In A Dying Solar System

From Space Daily:

With this essay by Ray Villard, news director for the Hubble Space Telescope, Astrobiology Magazine presents another in our series of 'Gedanken', or thought, experiments - musings by noted scientists on scientific mysteries in a series of "what if" scenarios. Gedanken experiments, which have been used for hundreds of years by scientists and philosophers to ponder thorny problems, rely on the power of one's imagination to project these scenarios to logical conclusions.

They do not involve lab equipment or, often, even experimental data. They can be thought of as focused daydreams. Yet, as in the famous case of Einstein's Gedanken experiments about what it would be like to hitch a ride on a light wave, they have often led to important scientific breakthroughs.

Read more ....

Another League Under the Sea: Tomorrow's Research Subs Open Earth's Final Frontier

Flying Low: The Deep Flight II sub uses stubby wings that propel it down like an airplane goes up. Nick Kaloterakis

From Popular Science:

Armed with better batteries and stronger materials, new submersibles aim to go deeper than ever before and open up the whole of the unexplored ocean to human eyes.

By liberal estimates, we’ve explored about 5 percent of the seas, and nearly all of that in the first 1,000 feet. That’s the familiar blue part, penetrated by sunlight, home to the colorful reefs and just about every fish you’ve ever seen. Beyond that is the deep—a pitch-black region that stretches down to roughly 35,800 feet, the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Nearly all the major oceanographic finds made in that region—hydrothermal vents and the rare life-forms that thrive in the extreme temperatures there, sponges that can treat tumors, thousands of new species, the Titanic—have occurred above 15,000 feet, the lower limit of the world’s handful of manned submersibles for most of the past 50 years.

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Solar Industry: No Breakthroughs Needed

Photo: Cheaper solar: First Solar’s improvements in manufacturing photovoltaics have helped lead to big drops in cost. A worker at a First Solar factory in Frankfurt, Germany, moves one of the company's solar panels. Credit: First Solar

From Technology Review:

The solar industry says incremental advances have made transformational technologies unnecessary.

The federal government is behind the times when it comes to making decisions about advancing the solar industry, according to several solar-industry experts. This has led, they argue, to a misplaced emphasis on research into futuristic new technologies, rather than support for scaling up existing ones. That was the prevailing opinion at a symposium last week put together by the National Academies in Washington, DC, on the topic of scaling up the solar industry.

Read more ....

Computer Technology Brings 300million-Year-Old Spider Fossils Back To Life

A CT scan of Eophrynus, an ancient spider that lived 300 million years ago. Scientists used a computer technology to generate 3D images

From The Daily Mail:

Fossils of 300million-year-old spiders have been brought to life with computer technology.

Scientists used a CT scan to generate three dimensional images of two of the creatures, Cryptomartus hindi and Eophrynus prestivicii.

Both were around the size of a 50p piece and they lived during the Carboniferous period, before the age of the dinosaurs.

Read more ....

Brain Difference In Psychopaths Identified

Scientists have found differences in the brain which may provide a biological explanation for psychopathy. (Credit: iStockphoto/Hayden Bird)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2009) — Professor Declan Murphy and colleagues Dr Michael Craig and Dr Marco Catani from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London have found differences in the brain which may provide a biological explanation for psychopathy.

The research investigated the brain biology of psychopaths with convictions that included attempted murder, manslaughter, multiple rape with strangulation and false imprisonment. Using a powerful imaging technique (DT-MRI) the researchers have highlighted biological differences in the brain which may underpin these types of behaviour and provide a more comprehensive understanding of criminal psychopathy.

Read more ....

Experts Predict Quieter Atlantic Hurricane Season

This NOAA satellite image shows Hurricane Ike in 2008. Weather experts on Wednesday reduced the number of projected hurricanes in the north Atlantic this season to four, two of them major hurricanes with winds above 178 kilometers (111 miles) per hour.(AFP/NOAA/File)

From Yahoo News/AFP:

MIAMI (AFP) – Weather experts on Wednesday reduced the number of projected hurricanes in the north Atlantic this season to four, two of them major hurricanes with winds above 178 kilometers (111 miles) per hour.

After one of the calmest starts to the hurricane season in a decade, the experts from Colorado State University said the development of an El Nino effect in the Pacific had caused them to scale back their projections for the Atlantic.

Read more ....

Human Population Expanded During Late Stone Age, Genetic Evidence Shows

align="center"> Cave painting reproduction. (Credit: iStockphoto/Jose Ramirez)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 4, 2009) — Genetic evidence is revealing that human populations began to expand in size in Africa during the Late Stone Age approximately 40,000 years ago. A research team led by Michael F. Hammer (Arizona Research Laboratory's Division of Biotechnology at the University of Arizona) found that sub-Saharan populations increased in size well before the development of agriculture. This research supports the hypothesis that population growth played a significant role in the evolution of human cultures in the Late Pleistocene.

The team's findings are published in the online peer reviewed journal PLoS ONE on July 29.

Read more ....

Pneumonic Plague: Should We Worry?

From Live Science:

An outbreak of pneumonic plague in Ziketan, China has killed three people, leading officials to seal off the town, according to news reports that are getting a lot of play this week.

But what is the pneumonic plague, and how is it different from other types of plague?

Plague is caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis and is a zoonotic disease, meaning it can be transmitted from animals (usually rodents) to people.

There are three types of plague. The bubonic plague is the most common form and is spread to people from flea bites. This type is thought to be responsible for the Black Death, the pandemic that killed millions of people in the 1300s.

Read more ....

New Technology Could Drill Deeper Into The Earth Than Ever Before

Ultra-Deep Drill G Myers

From Popular Science:

An adaptation of oil drills for deep water could bring scientists closer to the goal of drilling all the way through the earth's crust to the wonders beneath.

In 2005, we came the closest we ever had before to drilling into the mantle: the layer beneath the Earth's crust. Now, with new drilling technology adapted from the oil and gas industry, scientists might finally be ready to reach that holy grail of depth.

The International Ocean Drilling Project announced today that, with the help of a company called AGR Drilling Services, they have engineered a type of technology called Riserless Mud Recovery (RMR) for extremely deep drilling. RMR allows for a closed drilling system -- where the mud and drilling fluid are kept separate from surrounding seawater -- without the need for risers surrounding the drill to draw mud up to the surface. Althought it was originally designed as a shallow water drilling system for oil and gas collection, the IODP says their development has made RMR a good tool for drilling in deep water as well.

Read more ....

Strange New Air Force Facility Energizes Ionosphere, Fans Conspiracy Flames

From Wired Science:

Todd Pedersen had to hustle—the sky was scheduled to start glowing soon, and he didn't want to miss it. It was just before sunset, a cold February evening in deep-woods Alaska, and the broad-shouldered US Air Force physicist was scrambling across the snow in his orange down parka and fur-lined bomber hat. Grabbing cables and electronics, he rushed to assemble a jury-rigged telescope atop a crude wooden platform.

The rig wasn't much, just a pair of high-sensitivity cameras packed into a dorm-room refrigerator and pointed at a curved mirror reflecting a panoramic view of the sky. Pedersen had hoped to monitor the camera feed from a relatively warm bunkhouse nearby. But powdery snow two feet deep made it difficult to string cables back to the building.

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Giant Particle Collider Struggles

Many of the magnets meant to whiz subatomic particles around the 17-mile underground Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva have mysteriously lost their ability to operate at high energies. Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times

From The New York Times:

The biggest, most expensive physics machine in the world is riddled with thousands of bad electrical connections.

Many of the magnets meant to whiz high-energy subatomic particles around a 17-mile underground racetrack have mysteriously lost their ability to operate at high energies.

Some physicists are deserting the European project, at least temporarily, to work at a smaller, rival machine across the ocean.

After 15 years and $9 billion, and a showy “switch-on” ceremony last September, the Large Hadron Collider, the giant particle accelerator outside Geneva, has to yet collide any particles at all.

But soon?

Read more ....

European Bison On 'Genetic Brink'

From The BBC:

Europe's largest mammal, the European bison, remains extremely vulnerable to extinction, despite long-standing efforts to save it, new research shows.

One of the two remaining wild herds of pure bred European bison is down to an effective population size of just 25.

That is despite the actual number of wild bison in the herd having steadily risen to around 800.

The effective population measures the bison's genetic diversity, and can help predict the animal's survival chances.

Read more ....

A More Efficient Spacecraft Engine

Photo: Ion power: NASA’s new ion-propulsion system is undergoing testing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Credit: NASA

From Technology Review:

NASA's new ion-propulsion system could be ready for launch as soon as 2013.

NASA engineers have finished testing a new ion-propulsion system for earth-orbiting and interplanetary spacecraft. The system is more powerful and fuel-efficient than its predecessors, enabling it to travel farther than ever before.

Ion propulsion works by electrically charging, or ionizing, a gas using power from solar panels and emitting the ionized gas to propel the spacecraft in the opposite direction. The concept was first developed over 50 years ago, and the first spacecraft to use the technology was Deep Space 1 (DS1) in 1998. Since then, one other spacecraft has used ion propulsion: the Dawn mission to the outer solar system, launched in 2007.

Read more ....

WHO Maintains 2 Bln Estimate For Likely H1N1 Cases

From Reuters:

* Rough estimate of likely H1N1 cases by end is 2 billion

* No precise estimate of current infections

* High proportion of southern hemisphere flu cases are H1N1

* WHO to update on vaccine efforts this week

* WHO names African expert as H1N1 chief

By Jonathan Lynn

GENEVA, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation stuck on Tuesday to its statement that about two billion people could catch H1N1 influenza by the time the flu pandemic ends.

But the estimate comes with a big health warning: no one knows how many people so far have caught the new strain, known as swine flu, and the final number will never be known as many cases are so mild they may go unnoticed.

Read more ....

Has The Mystery Of The Mars 'Monolith' Been Solved?

How the experts see it: The original HiRISE satellite image supplied to Mail Online by the University of Arizona showing a close up of what appears to be a 'monolith' on Mars

From The Daily Mail:

An image of what appears to be a mysterious rocky monument on Mars has excited space junkies around the world.

The 'monolith', was snapped from 165miles away using a special high resolution camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

After being published on the website Lunar Explorer Italia, it set tongues wagging with space buffs questioning whether there was once life on the Red Planet.

Read more ....

Love Songs Of Bowhead Whales: Whales Sings With 'More Than One Voice'

Bowhead whale. (Credit: Photo by John Jacobsen, University of Copenhagen)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 3, 2009) — It wasn’t that many years ago that the bowhead whale was written off as extinct in the waters around Greenland and especially in Disko Bay in northwest Greenland where University of Copenhagen has its Arctic Field Station.

But now the situation has changed and adult bowhead whales, which can grow up to 18 metres long and weigh 100 tons, have returned to the bay. This is probably because global warming has opened up the Northwest Passage, making it ice free at certain times of the year for the first time in 125,000 years. This gives bowhead whales from the northern Pacific a chance to reach Disko Bay and mate with the small local population.

Read more ....

8 Tools and Gadgets to Prepare Your Home For Any Disaster

(Illustration by Gabriel Silveira)

From Popular Mechanics:

For millions of Americans living along the Gulf and Atlantic coastlines, hurricane season is an annual call to arms, a six-month stretch from June through November spent watching the skies and the local news for signs of trouble. Other regions cope with the threat of wildfires, quakes and tornadoes—and blackouts can strike anywhere. While no season is safe from disruption, late summer seems particularly inviting to the demons of disaster. Here’s a step-by-step guide to preparing your home and family.

Read more ....

Launch Your Own Personal Satellite

TubeSat: My First Satellite

From Popular Science:

Ever wanted to launch your own satellite into low earth orbit, then track it on ham radio for a few weeks before it burns up on re-entry? Well, 52 years after the launch of Sputnik, you can. Interorbital Systems is offering YOU the chance (by the end of 2010) to send up a TubeSat Personal Satellite Kit for the low introductory price of just $8,000.

Read more ....

Do Computers Make Planes Less Or More Safe?

In this Sunday, June 14, 2009 file photo workers unload debris, belonging to crashed Air France flight AF447, from the Brazilian Navy's Constitution Frigate in the port of Recife, northeast of Brazi. (AP Photo)

From ABC News:

A Look at Whether Increased Automation Means that Planes Will be More Dangerous.

Ben Cave was starting to get bored. The Australian had been sitting in his seat for more than three hours, and he still had two hours left before the Qantas jet was scheduled to touch down in Perth.

The Airbus A330 was flying at a cruising altitude of 11,278 meters (37,000 feet). The calm of modern jet travel, accentuated by the monotonous drone of the engines, prevailed on board the aircraft. The flight attendants were clearing away the last of the lunch trays into their trolleys, some of the 303 passengers were waiting near the toilets, and others were passing the time with stretching exercises.

Read more ....

Domestic Dog Origins Challenged

Domestic dog origins challenged

From BBC News:

The suggestion that the domestic dog originated in East Asia has been challenged.

The huge genetic diversity of dogs found in East Asia had led many scientists to conclude that domestication began there.

But new research published in the journal PNAS shows the DNA of dogs in African villages is just as varied.

An international group of researchers analysed blood samples from dogs in Egypt, Uganda and Namibia.

Today's dogs are descended from Eurasian grey wolves, domesticated between 15,000 and 40,000 years ago.

Read more ....

Scientists Report Original Source Of Malaria

UCI's Francisco Ayala and colleagues report in a new study that malignant malaria originates from a parasite found in chimpanzees in equatorial Africa. (Credit: Daniel A. Anderson / University Communications)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 4, 2009) — Researchers have identified what they believe is the original source of malignant malaria: a parasite found in chimpanzees in equatorial Africa.

UC Irvine biologist Francisco Ayala and colleagues think the deadly parasite was transmitted to humans from chimpanzees perhaps as recently as 5,000 years ago – and possibly through a single mosquito, genetic analyses indicate. Previously, malaria's origin had been unclear.

Read more ....

Top 10 American Innovations

From Live Science:

With the recession seemingly on the wane, it is time to tap into that spirit of innovation that has always succeeded in moving America forward, President Obama said Aug. 1.

Pull up your bootstraps and invent stuff, in other words.

Historically, Americans have had no trouble leading the way in scientific and technological advancement, especially in the 20th century, and it's that leadership that has pulled the country out of tough economic times. Foster the innate potential with policies and education and this recession can be a thing of the past too, according to Obama.

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After The Boom, Is Wikipedia Heading For Bust?

From New Scientist:

Wikipedia has rapidly become one of the most used reference sources in the world, but a new study shows that the website's explosive growth is tailing off and also suggests the community-created encyclopaedia has become less welcoming to new contributors.

Ed Chi and colleagues at the Palo Alto Research Center in California warn that the changes could compromise the encyclopaedia's quality in the long term.

"It's easy to say that Wikipedia will always be here," says Chi, a computer scientist. "This research shows that is not a given."

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Living Near A Wind Farm Can Cause Heart Disease, Panic Attacks And Migraines

Turbines: Ministers want to see another 4,000 across the country, meanwhile new research shows living near wind farms could damage your health.

From The Daily Mail:

Living close to wind farms can lead to a greater risk of heart disease, panic attacks and migraines, according to a study.

The farms can cause 'wind turbine syndrome', the symptoms of which also include tinnitus, vertigo and sleep deprivation, research to be published later this year claims.

Dr Nina Pierpoint, a leading New York paediatrician, says her five-year study of people living near wind turbines in the U.S., Britain, Italy, Ireland and Canada has led her to believe that they can also trigger nightmares in children and stop their brains developing properly.

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Trees Are 'Crucial Famine Food'

From The BBC:

Trees can serve as a vital "famine food" to keep drought-hit communities alive when all other food crops fail, according to campaigners.

Food insecurity is a routine fact of life for many of the world's poorest people, Miranda Spitteler, chief executive of Tree Aid told BBC News.

She said the West needed to recognize the important role trees could play in reducing the need for conventional aid.

She also called for support for a local tree-based solution to food shortages.

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Scientists 'Grow Replacement Teeth In Mice'

From The Telegraph:

Scientists have managed to grow replacement teeth in mice from cells in a laboratory.

The team behind the research claim that it is a crucial step towards growing fully functioning "bioengineered" organs in the human body.

The scientists grew a tooth "germ", a seed-like piece of tissue which contains the cells and instructions necessary to form a tooth, which they then transplanted into the animal's jawbones.

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