Options Narrow For Future Of Human Spaceflight

Photo: US human spaceflight panel chairman Norman Augustine listens to public comments at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center on July 29 in in Huntsville, Ala. Bob Gathany/AP

From Christian Science Monitor:

A panel moves closer to recommending where NASA should fly next, and how.

If the US simply maintains spending for human spaceflight at current levels, NASA will have enough money to build one new rocket to carry crews into space by 2020. But it will literally be a rocket to nowhere: The space agency will have no place to send it for at least another decade.

That stark message underlies options for the US human spaceflight program, which a 10-member panel will present to the Obama administration when it wraps up its work at the end of August. The panel's assignment: Present the president with choices that are sustainable, fit within current budget constraints, yet represent bold steps beyond low-Earth orbit.

Read more ....

Top 10 Overlooked Buildings

The Golden Pavilion of Rokuonji Temple in Kyoto, Japan.
Photograph by: Koichi Kamoshida, Getty Images

From The Montreal Gazette:

SYDNEY -- Lists of beautiful buildings laud the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, and at least one token Frank Gehry building, but there are dozens of other equally beautiful choices that somehow always seem to remain unnoticed.

Members and editors of VirtualTourist.com (www.virtualtourist.com) have compiled a list of what they think are the "World's Top 10 Most Overlooked Beautiful Buildings and Structures." Reuters has not endorsed this list.

Read more ....

BMW ActiveHybrid X6: The Most PowerfulHhybrid In History

BMW ActiveHybrid X6

Officially Official: 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6 -- Autoblog

The BMW X6 ActiveHybrid has arrived, and as previously covered, the new gas-electric X6 will be the most powerful hybrid in history, with 480 peak horsepower and diesel-like plateau of 575 lb-ft of torque.

That impressive powertrain consists of twin electric motors (delivering 91 hp and 86 hp, respectively) and a twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 engine. All those horses will be corralled through a seven-speed dual-mode transmission and BMW's xDrive all-wheel-drive system. The run to sixty will take just 5.4 seconds and the top speed will be limited to 130 miles per hour.

Read more ....

Multiple Sclerosis Successfully Reversed In Mice: New Immune-suppressing Treatment Forces The Disease Into Remission

Dr. Jacques Galipeau of the Jewish General Hospital Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University. (Credit: Claudio Calligaris/McGill University)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 12, 2009) — A new experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) completely reverses the devastating autoimmune disorder in mice, and might work exactly the same way in humans, say researchers at the Jewish General Hospital Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University in Montreal.

MS is an autoimmune disease in which the body's own immune response attacks the central nervous system, almost as if the body had become allergic to itself, leading to progressive physical and cognitive disability.

Read more ....

New Batting Helmet Offers Protection From 100 MPH Heat

The S100: More protective, but less stylish Earl Wilson via The New York Times

From Popular Science:

But players think it's too ugly to wear.

Back when pitching meant Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown gingerly tossing baseballs so worn down that they resembled leather hacky sacks, players didn't need to worry about lifelong injury after getting hit by a pitch. But now that 'roided up monsters can hurl the ball fast enough to cause serious damage, players need something substantial to protect their dome.

Read more ....

The Truth Behind the 230 MPG Claim From the Chevy Volt: Analysis

From Popular Mechanics:

It's all in the numbers: The EPA has finally figured out exactly what the testing procedures might be (the regulation hasn't formally been adopted yet) for plug-in hybrid vehicles like the Chevy Volt. This week Chevy announced that the Volt will deliver 230 mpg. Other plug-in-hybrid manufacturers won't be long in announcing similarly astonishing fuel-economy numbers. But where on earth does that number come from?

Read more ....

Invisible Doorways Or Portals A Step Closer To Reality, Claim Scientists

Scientists close to inventing a Harry Potter Platform 9 and 3/4

From The Telegraph:

Invisible gateways like the one to platform 9 and 3/4 in Harry Potter and to Lewis Carroll's hidden world in Through the Looking Glass are a step closer to reality after scientists developed a new theory.

Using a technique known as transformation optics, the researchers have revealed a way to alter the pathway of light waves that could eventually allow them to create portals that are invisible to the human eye.

Pushing the laws of refraction and reflection to the limit, the team from Hong Kong University and Fudan University in Shanghai, describe the concept of a “a gateway that can block electromagnetic waves but that allows the passage of other entities”.

Read more ....

Antibodies To Strep Throat Bacteria Linked To Obsessive Compulsive Disorder In Mice

from :ScienceDaily

A new study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health's Center for Infection and Immunity indicates that pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Tourette syndrome and/or tic disorder may develop from an inappropriate immune response to the bacteria causing common throat infections.





The mouse model findings, published online by Nature Publishing Group in this week's Molecular Psychiatry, support the view that this condition is a distinct disorder, and represent a key advance in tracing the path leading from an ordinary infection in childhood to the surfacing of a psychiatric syndrome. The research provides new insights into identifying children at risk for autoimmune brain disorders and suggests potential avenues for treatment.
OCD and tic disorders affect a significant portion of the population. More than 25% of adults and over 3% of children manifest some features of these disorders. Until now, scientists have been unable to convincingly document the association between the appearance of antibodies directed against Group A beta-hemolytic streptoccoccus (GABHS) in peripheral blood and the onset of the behavioral and motor aspects of the disorder. As a result, treatment strategies were restricted to targeting symptoms rather than causes.





MORE....


Bookyards Editor: For more books on Medecine go here...

'Many Hurricanes' In Modern Times

From BBC:

Hurricanes in the Atlantic are more frequent than at any time in the last 1,000 years, according to research just published in the journal Nature.

Scientists examined sediments left by hurricanes that crossed the coast in North America and the Caribbean.

The record suggests modern hurricane activity is unusual - though it might have been even higher 1,000 years ago.

The possible influence of climate change on hurricanes has been a controversial topic for several years.

Study leader Michael Mann from Penn State University believes that while not providing a definitive answer, this work does add a useful piece to the puzzle.

Read more ....

Why Humans Can Talk And Chimps Can't

Nothing to say (IMAGE: Manfred Rutz/Rex Features)

From New Scientist:

A brain region critical to speech and language ballooned after humans split from chimpanzees, a new study finds.

Named after French physician, Pierre Paul Broca, who identified the region in two brain-damaged patients incapable of uttering more than a few words, Broca's area usually occupies a much larger portion of the left half of the human brain than the right.

Because right-handed humans also tend to process language in their left halves – lefties' brain are flip-flopped – some researchers think that lop-sidedness in Broca's area may help explain why humans alone developed language.

Read more ....

Drive For Atomic Energy Adds To Nuclear Challenge: US

Steam billows from cooling towers at a nuclear power generating station in Illinois. A senior US official acknowledged on Wednesday that the growing demand for atomic energy in response to climate change was adding to the challenges of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. (AFP/Getty Images/File/Scott Olson)

From Yahoo News/AFP:

GENEVA (AFP) – A senior US official acknowledged on Wednesday that the growing demand for atomic energy in response to climate change was adding to the challenges of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.

"Some people are calling this a nuclear renaissance, it's very much in vogue," said Susan Burk, the US president's special representative for nuclear non-proliferation in what she termed her first public presentation.

Read more ....

New Drug-resistant TB Strains Could Become Widespread, Says New Study

Chest X-ray image. One in three humans already carries the TB bacterium. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of New South Wales)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 12, 2009) — The emergence of new forms of tuberculosis could swell the proportion of drug-resistant cases globally, a new study has found. The finding raises concern that although TB incidence is falling in many regions, the emergence of antibiotic resistance could see virtually untreatable strains of the disease become widespread.

Australian researchers from the University of New South Wales and the University of Western Sydney have published the new finding in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read more ....

Babies' Brains Churning With Activity

Electrodes recorded brain activity while infants grabbed for toys. The same brain area showed activity whether infants grabbed for a toy themselves or watched an adult do the same. Credit: Michael Crabtree.

From Live Science:

The look of amazement in the eyes of an infant suggests the wheels are churning away inside that noggin. New research confirms they are. Scientists have shown that when 9-month-olds watch people reach for objects, the motor region in their brains gets activated, as if the babies were doing the reaching themselves.

The brain ability is likely due to so-called mirror neurons, which fire both when we do an action ourselves, and when we watch others do a similar action. While such neurons have only been directly measured in monkeys, scientists think they exist in adult humans, and now in infants.

Read more ....

NASA Budget Too Slim to Reach Moon by 2020, Panel Says

From Space.com:

A White House panel charged with reviewing NASA's exploration plans has dropped any hope of sending astronauts directly to Mars and found the space agency's budget too slim to accomplish its goal of returning humans to the moon by 2020.

After more than six hours of public deliberation on Wednesday, the 10-member committee overseeing the Review for U.S. Human Space Flight Plans decided not to include a plan to send astronauts straight to Mars - called Mars Direct - on its list of options to be considered by President Barack Obama because of its daunting challenges and cost.

Read more ....

The FuA- Men

Robot Chefs Run a Restaurant

The FuA-Men - Fully Automated raMen restaruant in Nagoya, Japan features a chef and assistant - both fully autonomous robots. The robots perform all of the cooking tasks needed to make eighty bowls per day, serving the customers who come to their small shop.
When asked, customers seem to feel that there is little difference between noodle dishes prepared by real, human chefs, and meals prepared by autonomous robots. For those who appreciate precision in food preparation, you can't beat robot chefs.
"The benefits of using robots as ramen chefs include the accuracy of timing in boiling noodles, precise movements in adding toppings and consistency in the taste and temperature of the soup," said Kenji Nagaya, president of local robot manufacturer Aisei.
The two chefs also work very well together; their movements are perfectly choreographed (see video).

More.......

Bookyards Editor: For more books on engineering go here...

Galapagos Face Ecological Disaster Due To Tourism: Study

File photo of a seal on the shores of San Cristobal island in the Galapagos. Mosquitoes brought into the Galapagos on tourist planes and boats threaten to wreak "ecological disaster" in the islands, central to Darwin's theory of evolution, a study said. (AFP/File)

From Yahoo News/AFP:

LONDON, (AFP) – Mosquitoes brought into the Galapagos on tourist planes and boats threaten to wreak "ecological disaster" in the islands, central to Darwin's theory of evolution, a study said Wednesday.

The insects can spread potentially lethal diseases in the archipelago off Ecuador's Pacific coast, used by Charles Darwin as the basis of his seminal work "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection".

"Few tourists realise the irony that their trip to Galapagos may actually increase the risk of an ecological disaster," said Simon Goodman of Leeds University, one of the study's co-authors.

Read more ....

Satellites Track, Improve French Wine Crop

Toasting to Technology: The cutting-edge system, Oenoview, combines satellite pictures and grapevine analysis to help French winemakers determine when their grapes, planted in varying conditions across sprawling vineyards, will be ready for picking.

From Discovery News:

Aug. 11, 2009 -- French winegrowers are reaping the benefits of satellite imagery to improve their grape harvests, in a fusion of cutting-edge technology and the ancient art of winemaking.

The Oenoview system -- initially developed to help grain producers -- combines satellite pictures and vine analysis to allow oenologists to determine when grapes planted in varying conditions across sprawling estates will be ready.

It conveys important information about the berries to winegrowers, such as the amount of water in the fruit and how much to prune back their vines.

Read more ....

Swine Flu: How Experts Are Preparing Their Families

How will the health infrastructure cope? (Image: Raveendran/AFP/Getty

From New Scientist:

AS THE swine flu pandemic continues to sweep the world, what do public health officials, epidemiologists and flu researchers think will happen in the coming months? When New Scientist asked 60 of them, it turned out that half are concerned enough about the possibility of a virulent swine flu outbreak to take precautions such as acquiring a supply of Tamiflu for their families. Though most do not think it likely that a nastier strain will emerge, many are worried that if it did, their local hospitals and other parts of the health infrastructure could not cope.

Read more ....

NASA Falling Short of Asteroid Detection Goals

The team says it is almost certain that a large Baptistina fragment created the 180km Chicxulub crater off the coast of the Yucatan 65 million years ago. The impact that produced this crater has been strongly linked to the mass extinction event that eliminated the dinosaurs. Image from The BBC.

From Wired Science:

Without more funding, NASA will not meet its goal of tracking 90 percent of all deadly asteroids by 2020, according to a report released today by the National Academy of Sciences.

The agency is on track to soon be able to spot 90 percent of the potentially dangerous objects that are at least a kilometer (.6 miles) wide, a goal previously mandated by Congress.

Asteroids of this size are estimated to strike Earth once every 500,000 years on average and could be capable of causing a global catastrophe if they hit Earth. In 2008, NASA’s Near Earth Object Program spotted a total of 11,323 objects of all sizes.

Read more ....

Molecular Condom Blocks HIV

Imgae: Viral blockade: A gel, shown here stained blue, forms tendril structures at pH 7.4. The red dots are 100 nanometer particles, about the same size as HIV, which are trapped in these structures. Credit: Kristopher Langheinrich

From Technology Review:

A novel gel that filters out HIV could protect women from infection.

A polymer gel that blocks viral particles could one day provide a way for women to protect themselves against HIV infection. The gel reacts with semen to form a tight mesh that blocks the movement of virus particles. The material, which is still in early development, could eventually be combined with antiviral gels currently in clinical trials to provide a dual defense against HIV.

Read more ....

New Planet Displays Exotic Orbit

Planets with retrograde orbits should be rare

From The BBC:

Astronomers have discovered the first planet that orbits in the opposite direction to the spin of its star.

Planets form out of the same swirling gas cloud that creates a star, so they are expected to orbit in the same direction that the star rotates.

The new planet is thought to have been flung into its "retrograde" orbit by a close encounter with either another planet or with a passing star.

The work has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal for publication.

Read more ....

When Did Humans Return After Last Ice Age?

Gough's Cave. (Credit: Copyright Natural History Museum)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 12, 2009) — The Cheddar Gorge in Somerset was one of the first sites to be inhabited by humans when they returned to Britain near the end of the last Ice Age. According to new radio carbon dating by Oxford University researchers, outlined in the latest issue of Quaternary Science Review, humans were living in Gough's Cave 14,700 years ago.

A number of stone artefacts as well as human and animal bones from excavations, spread over more than 100 years, shed further light on the nature as well as the timing of people to the cave.
Read more ....

New Facebook Lite To Take On Twitter With Simplified Messaging Service

Battle: Facebook is currently testing 'Facebook Lite' a simplified version of the service which looks remarkably similar to Twitter

From The Daily Mail:

Facebook are currently testing a simplified version of its social network service aimed at countries where Internet bandwidth is limited.
The new system, named Facebook Lite, focuses primarily on messaging and user updates and looks remarkably similar to rival micro blogging service Twitter.
Industry experts are viewing the development as the latest in a series of moves from Facebook to take on Twitter.

Read more ....

Meteor Show Reaches Dazzling Peak

From The BBC:

Skygazers are observing a dazzling sky show, as the annual Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak.

No special equipment is required to watch the shower, which occurs when Earth passes through a stream of dusty debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle.

Budding astronomers are advised to lie on a blanket or a reclining chair to get the best view.

The National Trust has released online guides to seven top Perseid viewing sites in the UK.

Read more ....

Killer Whales Visit 'Social Clubs'

From BBC:

Killer whales create and visit social clubs just like people do, scientists have discovered.

Up to 100 fish-eating killer whales come together in the Avacha Gulf, off the coast of Russia.

But no-one knew why the whales form these huge superpods, when they normally live in smaller groups.

Now scientists report in the Journal of Ethology that these groups act as clubs in which the killer whales form and maintain social ties.

Read more ....

The Long Legacy Of Peru's "Mine Of Death"

Image from Chemistry World blog

From Earth Magazine:

The Inca knew there was something sinister about the cinnabar they hauled out of the ground at Huancavelica in Peru hundreds of years ago. They called the mine the Mine of Death. Now, a new study has exposed a 3,500-year history of mercury pollution from the cinnabar mines, a much longer legacy than researchers had previously realized.

Read more ....

Previous Post: Mercury pollution from ancient Inca mines -- Chemistry World Blog

You Deleted Your Cookies? Think Again

From Epicenter:

More than half of the internet’s top websites use a little known capability of Adobe’s Flash plugin to track users and store information about them, but only four of them mention the so-called Flash Cookies in their privacy policies, UC Berkeley researchers reported Monday.

Unlike traditional browser cookies, Flash cookies are relatively unknown to web users, and they are not controlled through the cookie privacy controls in a browser. That means even if a user thinks they have cleared their computer of tracking objects, they most likely have not.

What’s even sneakier?

Read more ....

Planet Smash-Up Sends Vaporized Rock, Hot Lava Flying

This artist's concept shows a celestial body about the size of our moon slamming at great speed into a body the size of Mercury. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence that a high-speed collision of this sort occurred a few thousand years ago around a young star, called HD 172555, still in the early stages of planet formation. The star is about 100 light-years from Earth. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 12, 2009) — NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found evidence of a high-speed collision between two burgeoning planets around a young star.

Astronomers say that two rocky bodies, one as least as big as our moon and the other at least as big as Mercury, slammed into each other within the last few thousand years or so -- not long ago by cosmic standards. The impact destroyed the smaller body, vaporizing huge amounts of rock and flinging massive plumes of hot lava into space.

Read more ....

Men Not Choosy In One-Night Stands

From Live Science:

It's no secret that men are more likely than women to jump into the sack. But a new study adds some twists to the rules of such casual sex.

The research suggests men are far less choosy about the attractiveness of a potential one-night stand. For women to be tempted into considering casual sex, the guy better be a hottie.

These results, based not on real-life encounters but rather on interviews, match with past research showing that men lower their standards when it comes to one-night stands. And it turns out, from the new study, women raise their standards.

Read more ....

Mediterranean-Style Diet And Exercise 'Cuts Chances Of Alzheimer's'

From The Telegraph:

Following a Mediterranean-style diet and exercising regularly can cut the chances of developing Alzheimer's by as much as 60 per cent, a new study shows.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence that following a healthy lifestyle can offer protection against the devastating disease.

Experts warn that this is crucial because there are few ways to treat the condition once it develops.

Read more ....

Are We On The Brink Of Creating A Computer With A Human Brain?

Professor Markram claims he plans to build an electronic human brain 'within the next ten years'

From The Daily Mail:

There are only a handful of scientific revolutions that would really change the world. An immortality pill would be one. A time machine would be another.
Faster-than-light travel, allowing the stars to be explored in a human lifetime, would be on the shortlist, too.
To my mind, however, the creation of an artificial mind would probably trump all of these - a development that would throw up an array of bewildering and complex moral and philosophical quandaries. Amazingly, it might also be within reach.

Read more ....

Google Reveals Caffeine: A New Faster Search Engine

The front end of the improved search engine looks no different. It is the back end technology which Google developers hope will noticeably index new content faster. Photo: AP

From The Telegraph:

Google has revealed project “caffeine”, a new test version of its search engine which it claims will be faster and more relevant than ever before.

In the face of increasing innovation and competition in the search market, Google is upping the ante by developing new technology which will speed up indexing search results and create a larger index.

Read more ....

What A Shower! Catch Up On Meteors With Twitter

The Horsehead Nebula from 'Ancient Light: a Portrait of the Universe' by David Malin

From The Independent:

Astronomy becomes art in a new book of photographs which takes us to parts of the universe our eyes cannot normally see. The results are out of this world, says Hannah Duguid.

In 1609, when Galileo first looked at the universe through a telescope, he was limited by the boundaries of his vision. He could see only what his eye was capable of perceiving. It was not until the birth of photography in the mid-19th century that astronomy was able to progress.

Read more ....

NASA Falling Short of Asteroid Detection Goals

The team says it is almost certain that a large Baptistina fragment created the 180km Chicxulub crater off the coast of the Yucatan 65 million years ago. The impact that produced this crater has been strongly linked to the mass extinction event that eliminated the dinosaurs. Image from The BBC.

From Wired Science:

Without more funding, NASA will not meet its goal of tracking 90 percent of all deadly asteroids by 2020, according to a report released today by the National Academy of Sciences.

The agency is on track to soon be able to spot 90 percent of the potentially dangerous objects that are at least a kilometer (.6 miles) wide, a goal previously mandated by Congress.

Asteroids of this size are estimated to strike Earth once every 500,000 years on average and could be capable of causing a global catastrophe if they hit Earth. In 2008, NASA’s Near Earth Object Program spotted a total of 11,323 objects of all sizes.

Read more ....

Last Female Space Shuttle Commander Leaves NASA

Astronaut Pamela Melroy

From Yahoo News/Space:

Astronaut Pamela Melroy, the last-ever female space shuttle commander, is leaving NASA's spaceflying ranks for a new career in private industry.

Melroy is a veteran of three shuttle missions. On her third flight, the STS-120 flight of Discovery in 2007, she became the second woman to command a space shuttle -a role reserved for astronauts who have been trained as pilots, rather than mission specialists.

Despite the significance of her achievement, Melroy said the distinction wasn't a big deal for her.

Read more ....

GM Claims Chevy Volt Will Get 230 MPG--But How?

The 2011 Chevrolet Volt General Motors

From Popular Science:

General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson says the EPA will certify the Chevrolet Volt with triple-digit mileage. How'd they come up with that?

General Motors calls the Chevrolet Volt an extended-range electric vehicle. That's because the only motive force comes from the electric motor; the gas engine only charges the batteries. In a press conference earlier today, GM's CEO Fritz Henderson said the Volt will have a city mileage figure of 230 miles per gallon--almost five times more efficient than a Prius. But considering the uniqueness of the Volt's powertrain, how did the EPA get that figure?

Read more ....

A Metal Coating That Repairs Itself

Healing bubbles: Tiny fluid-filled capsules a few hundred nanometers wide are dispersed throughout a thin electroplated metal layer. The capsules could be filled with polymers to make metal coatings that repair themselves. Credit: Fraunhofer IPA

From Technology Review:

Electroplated metal could be used to make self-healing construction materials, car parts, and machinery.

Airplanes, cars, and ships that don't corrode are the promise of self-healing paint coatings and polymer materials. Now researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation in Stuttgart, Germany have come up with a metal coating that may be able to repair itself after sustaining damage.

Read more ....

Could Robots Unite Under One Operating System?

Robots Unite: Patch my operating system to 3.0 now, human! Warner Bros.

From Popular Science:

A common robot operating system could lead to a robotics revolution -- scientifically speaking, of course.

Today's robots represent islands unto themselves that don't share either software or hardware with each other. But researchers have begun developing a common operating system that could revolutionize robotics and permit easier collaboration with less reinvention of the proverbial wheel. The change could rival that which rippled through the PC industry when Microsoft's Disk Operating System (DOS), and later Windows, burst onto the scene and became standard.

Read more ....

Mars, Methane And Mysteries

From Scientific American:

Mars may not be as dormant as scientists once thought. The 2004 discovery of methane means that either there is life on Mars, or that volcanic activity continues to generate heat below the martian surface. ESA plans to find out which it is. Either outcome is big news for a planet once thought to be biologically and geologically inactive.

The methane mystery started soon after December 2003, when ESA's Mars Express arrived in orbit around the red planet. As the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) began taking data, Vittorio Formisano, Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario CNR, Rome, and the rest of the instrument team saw a puzzling signal. As well as the atmospheric gases they were anticipating, such as carbon monoxide and water vapour, they also saw methane. "Methane was a surprise, we were not expecting that," says Agustin Chicarro, ESA Mars Lead Scientist. The reason is that on Earth much of the methane in our atmosphere is released by evolved life forms, such as cattle digesting food. While there are ways to produce methane without life, such as by volcanic activity, it is the possible biological route that has focused attention on the discovery.

Read more ....

What's Luck Got To Do With It? The Math Of Gambling

From New Scientist:

FIVE years ago, Londoner Ashley Revell sold his house, all his possessions and cashed in his life savings. It raised £76,840. He flew to Las Vegas, headed to the roulette table and put it all on red.

The wheel was spun. The crowd held its breath as the ball slowed, bounced four or five times, and finally settled on number seven. Red seven.

Revell's bet was a straight gamble: double or nothing. But when Edward Thorp, a mathematics student at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, went to the same casino some 40 years previously, he knew pretty well where the ball was going to land. He walked away with a profit, took it to the racecourse, the basketball court and the stock market, and became a multimillionaire. He wasn't on a lucky streak, he was using his knowledge of mathematics to understand, and beat, the odds.

Read more ....

Experimental Drug Helps Ward Off Osteoporosis

An X-ray of the human shoulder
Photodisc / Getty

From Time Magazine:

An experimental drug has successfully reduced hip and spine fractures in the two largest patient populations at risk for osteoporosis — postmenopausal women and men being treated for prostate cancer — according to two major studies published online on Aug. 11 by the New England Journal of Medicine. The new compound, denosumab, is being reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration. If approved, it has the potential to become a standard treatment for certain patients.

Read more ....

First Black Holes Born Starving

FROM SCIENCE DAILY

The first black holes in the universe

The simulations were carried out by astrophysicists Marcelo Alvarez and Tom Abel of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, jointly located at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, and John Wise, formerly of KIPAC and now of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Several popular theories posit that the first black holes gorged themselves on gas clouds and dust in the early universe, growing into the supersized black holes that lurk in the centers of galaxies today. However, the new results, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, point to a much more complex role for the first black holes.
"I'm thrilled that we now can do calculations that start to capture the most relevant physics, and we can show which ideas work and which don't," said Abel. "In the next decade, using calculations like this one, we will settle some of the most important issues related to the role of black holes in the universe."

MORE......

Bookyards Editor: For more books on astromomy go here...

Men Not Choosy in One-Night Stands

FROM : LIVE SCIENCE

It's no secret that men are more likely than women to jump into the sack.

It's no secret that men are more likely than women to jump into the sack. But a new study adds some twists to the rules of such casual sex.
The research suggests men are far less choosy about the attractiveness of a potential one-night stand. For women to be tempted into considering casual sex, the guy better be a hottie.
These results, based not on real-life encounters but rather on interviews, match with past research showing that men lower their standards when it comes to one-night stands. And it turns out, from the new study, women raise their standards.

MORE.......

Bookyards Editor: For more books on psychology go here...

Biggest Meteor Shower of the Year Peaks Tonight

From Wired News:

Stay up past midnight, grab a blanket and go stargazing tonight: The year’s most spectacular meteor shower is expected to peak Wednesday morning around 1 a.m., and then again just before dawn.

The Perseid meteor shower happens every year in August, when the Earth travels through a cloud of debris left by the periodic comet Swift-Tuttle, which last approached the Earth in 1992. Under optimal conditions, up to 80 shooting stars can be seen every hour, although how many you’ll see tonight depends on cloud cover, the brightness of the moon and the proximity of city lights.

Read more ....

Isotope Shortage Means A Healthcare Crisis

Click on Image to Expand

From The L.A. Times:

The radioisotope is needed to scan for heart disease and cancer. Two nuclear reactors that produce it have been shut down, severely limiting the supply, and alternatives are scant.

The abrupt shutdown of two aging nuclear reactors that produce a radioisotope widely used in medical imaging has forced physicians in the U.S. and abroad into a crisis, requiring them to postpone or cancel necessary scans for heart disease and cancer, or turn to alternative tests that are not as accurate, take longer and expose patients to higher doses of radiation.

Read more ....

The Flu Hunters: Racing To Outsmart A Pandemic

Research student Nick Cattle, working in the flu lab at the World Influenza Centre
Philip Hollis for TIME

From Time Magazine:

On April 25, Rod Daniels, the deputy director of the World Influenza Centre in London, was at a meeting in Germany when he received a call from a co-worker: an influenza outbreak had been reported in Mexico and the first samples of the virus were on their way to London for examination. A virologist who has studied flu for more than 30 years, Daniels knew exactly what he was looking for. Influenza A viruses — the type that can cause pandemics — use a protein called hemagglutinin to bind to the cells of their animal hosts. When a virus jumps from animals to humans, its contagiousness is largely determined by what is called the "binding specificity" of this protein. An alpha-2,3 binding specificity means the virus is well suited to the cells in an animal respiratory tract but probably not human cells. An alpha-2,6 binding specificity, on the other hand, means the virus can easily bind to human cells.

Read more ....

Traffic Jam In Brain Causes Schizophrenia Symptoms; First Mouse To Develop Disease As Teenager, Just Like Humans

There are fewer pathways (green strands) for information to flow between neurons in the brain of a mouse bred to exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia compared to a normal mouse. Fewer pathways make it hard for information to flow between neurons and results in the symptoms of schizophrenia. (Credit: Peter Penzes, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 11, 2009) — Schizophrenia waits silently until a seemingly normal child becomes a teenager or young adult. Then it swoops down and derails a young life.

Scientists have not understood what causes the severe mental disorder, which affects up to 1 percent of the population and results in hallucinations, memory loss and social withdrawal.

Read more ....

Hole In The Earth

The Aorounga crater is spproximately 345–370 million years old based on the age of the sedimentary rocks deformed by the impact.

From Live Science:

A meteorite that rocked the Sahara desert over 300 million years ago left behind quite a scar that's been photographed before.

New satellite images released by NASA this week provide a closer view of the Aorounga Impact Crater in north-central Chad, one of the best preserved impact structures in the world.

The crater measures 10 miles (17 kilometers) across with a peak that is surrounded by a small sand-filled trough. This feature is surrounded by an even larger circular trough. Winds at the site blow from the northeast and sand dunes formed between the ridges are actively migrating to the southwest. Measuring 10 miles (17 kilometers) across,

Read more ....

Saturn's Rings to Disappear Tuesday

Magnificent blue and gold Saturn is seen in 2007, as one of its moons, Dione, hangs in the distance. A day on Saturn is pretty short, and it just got shorter. The time it takes the beringed behemoth to complete a spin on its axis has just been calculated by astrophysicists at 10 hours, 34 minutes and 13 seconds, more than five minutes shorter than previous estimates. (AFP/NASA-HO/File)

From Yahoo News/Space:

In a celestial feat any magician would appreciate, Saturn will make its wide but thin ring system disappear from our view Aug. 11.

Saturn's rings, loaded with ice and mud, boulders and tiny moons, is 170,000 miles wide. But the shimmering setup is only about 30 feet thick. The rings harbor 35 trillion-trillion tons of ice, dust and rock, scientists estimate.

The rings shine because they reflect sunlight. But every 15 years, the rings turn edge-on to the sun and reflect almost no sunlight.

Read more ....

Perseid Meteors To Shower Down Late Tuesday, Early Wednesday

From Salt Lake Tribune:

The most-watched meteor shower of the year is coming back late Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, and this year, stargazers may be treated to even more fiery streaks of light zooming across the night sky.

Under the right conditions, observers away from city light pollution are sometimes able to see an average of one and sometimes two Perseid meteors per minute, said Patrick Wiggins, NASA solar system ambassador to Utah.

"But this year," he said, "NASA is predicting the possibility of an enhanced shower Wednesday morning between 2 and 3 a.m."

The more frequent meteor sightings could happen if the Earth passes through what astronomers suspect to be a particularly rich pocket of meteor-producing particles cast off by the shower's parent comet nearly 400 years ago in 1610.

Read more ....