Researchers Discover Mechanism That Helps Humans See In Bright And Low Light

Illustration of human eye cross section. (Credit: iStockphoto/Nurbek Sagynbaev)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Oct. 14, 2009) — Ever wonder how your eyes adjust during a blackout? When we go from light to near total darkness, cells in the retina must quickly adjust. Vision scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified an intricate process that allows the human eye to adapt to darkness very quickly. The same process also allows the eye to function in bright light.

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The Link Between Parkinson Disease And Farming

From Live Science:

Although genetics is very important in Parkinson disease (PD), many researchers believe that environmental exposures also increase a person's risk of developing the disease. There are studies that show that farmers and other agricultural workers have an increased risk of getting PD.

PD was first described in 1817 by Dr. James Parkinson, a British physician. It affects 1 in 100 people over the age of 60. It can also affect younger people. The average age of onset is 60. Research suggests that PD affects at least 500,000 people in the United States.

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Gallery: Let the X-Planes Begin

From Autopia:

Few aircraft are as storied as the experimental series known as the X-Planes. These flying laboratories date to the mid-1940s and took us ever higher, further and faster.

The first, the Bell X-1, was developed to explore transonic flight after fighter pilots began experiencing control problems as they approached the speed of sound in dives. Since then, a long list of X-Planes — and other test aircraft lacking the official ‘X’ moniker — have explored the unknown edge of aerodynamics and aviation. From the early days of supersonic flight and speed records to the possibilities of unmanned combat aircraft, X-Planes have, as their pilots say, pushed the edge of the envelope.

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Modern Man 'A Wimp', Says Anthropologist

Neanderthal man, as reconstructed by French scientists.

From The Independent:

Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 metres record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions.

Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood.

Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle.

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Marine Plant Life Holds The Secret To Preventing Global Warming

Mangrove forests, salt marshes and seagrass beds, above, cover less than 1 per cent of the world's seabed, but lock away well over half of all carbon to be buried in the ocean floor

From Times Online:

Life in the ocean has the potential to help to prevent global warming, according to a report published today.

Marine plant life sucks 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year, but most of the plankton responsible never reaches the seabed to become a permanent carbon store.

Mangrove forests, salt marshes and seagrass beds are a different matter. Although together they cover less than 1 per cent of the world’s seabed, they lock away well over half of all carbon to be buried in the ocean floor. They are estimated to store 1,650 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year — nearly half of global transport emissions — making them one of the most intense carbon sinks on Earth.

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Gene Linked To Better And Faster Decision Making

From The Telegraph:

Decision-makers are born not made, say scientists, as they discover people inherit a decisive gene.

The researchers found that people with a particular gene made quicker and more accurate decisions.

They were also better at learning tasks that require rapid and flexible decision-making compared to those with a different genetic make-up.

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Kellogg's Will Use Laser To Burn Logo On To Individual Corn Flakes To Stamp Out Fakes

A proportion of Kellogg's flakes will be branded with the trademark using a laser

From The Daily Mail:

According to the advertising slogan, if you see Kellogg's on the box then you know it's Kellogg's in the box.

But now the company has become so concerned about similarly packaged supermarket cereals, it has developed a laser to burn its logo on to individual Corn Flakes.

The concentrated beam of light creates a toasted appearance without changing the taste.

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Dolphins, Sharks And Birds Team Up For One Of Nature's Most Spectacular Annual Feeding Frenzies

Feeding frenzy: Up to 1,000 common dolphins arrive from the open ocean to drive sardines shoals towards the surface during the sardine run

From The Daily Mail:

It’s been billed as the greatest natural predatory show on earth and from these stunning images it is easy to why.

An underwater photographer was there to capture the action as dolphins, sharks, whales and birds teamed up for one of nature's most spectacular annual feeding frenzies – the sardine run.

New York born Jason Heller took the amazing pictures when he travelled to the wild coast of South Africa this July.

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Jupiter Moon’s Ocean Is Rich In Oxygen

The strange striations on Europa's surface are thought to have been caused by tidal stresses from Jupiter as the ice cracks and warmer layers come to the surface. The same process may be responsible for transporting oxygen below the surface. Credit: NASA

From Cosmos:

SYDNEY: The globe-spanning ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa contains about twice the liquid water of all Earth’s oceans combined, says a new study, which finds it’s packed with oxygen which could support life.

Research completed by Richard Greenberg a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, USA, suggests that there could be as much as 100 times the amount of oxygen previously estimated. The findings were presented last week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Fajardo, Puerto Rico.

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Finger Points To New Da Vinci Art

From BBC:

A new Leonardo da Vinci portrait may have been discovered after a fingerprint found on it seemed similar to another discovered on his work.

A Paris laboratory found the fingerprint is "highly comparable" to one on a da Vinci work in the Vatican.

Antiques Trade Gazette reported that the work, previously catalogued as "German, early 19th Century", could be worth tens of millions of dollars.

The work previously changed hands for around $19,000 (£12,039).

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Bizarre Galaxy Is Result Of Pair Of Spiral Galaxies Smashing Together

Not surprisingly, interacting galaxies have a dramatic effect on each other. Studies have revealed that as galaxies approach one another massive amounts of gas are pulled from each galaxy towards the centre of the other, until ultimately, the two merge into one massive galaxy. NGC 2623 is in the late stages of the merging process, with the centres of the original galaxy pair now merged into one nucleus, but stretching out from the centre are two tidal tails of young stars, a strong indicator that a merger has taken place. During such a collision, the dramatic exchange of mass and gases initiates star formation, seen here in both the tails. (Credit: NASA, ESA and A. Evans (Stony Brook University, New York & National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, USA))

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Oct. 14, 2009) — A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures what appears to be one very bright and bizarre galaxy, but is actually the result of a pair of spiral galaxies that resemble our own Milky Way smashing together at breakneck speeds. The product of this dramatic collision, called NGC 2623, or Arp 243, is about 250 million light-years away in the constellation of Cancer (the Crab).

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Flying Reptile May Have Snatched Dinosaurs In Midair

The newly discovered remains of the flying reptile, now called Darwinopterus modularis, suggest the animals may have been an aerial predator, hunting small feathered dinosaurs (such as the one depicted here) and tiny gliding mammals some 160 million years ago. Credit: Mark Witton, University of Portsmouth.

From Live Science:

A crow-sized reptile sporting a lengthy tail likely soared through the skies some 160 million years ago, snatching feathered dinosaurs and tiny flying mammals from the air, suggest fossils of a newly identified pterosaur.

While paleontologists can't go back in time to watch the in-flight meal capture, the reptile's fossils, discovered recently in China's Liaoning Province, left behind compelling clues, the researchers say this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

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The Real Impact of America's Oil Crisis -- An Interview

Image: The book Power Trip, by Amanda Little

From Time Magazine:

Esoteric climate-science warnings about America's oil dependence can make even the most well-meaning of eyes glaze over. Amanda Little, author of Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells — Our Ride to the Renewable Future, took a different approach. She traveled from an offshore oil rig to the halls of the Pentagon, from NASCAR racetracks to the office of a pricey plastic surgeon in order to tell a more human side of the energy story. TIME talked to Little about how fossil fuels saturate our lives and why taking personal responsibility is the key to pulling out of this mess.

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Backslash: Web Creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee Apologises For HisStrokes

From Times Online:

A light has been shone on one of the great mysteries of the internet. What is the point of the two forward slashes that sit directly infront of the “www” in every internet website address?

The answer, according to the British scientist who created the world wide web, is that there isn’t one.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who wrote the code that transformed a private computer network into the web two decades ago, has finally come clean about the about the infuriating // that internet surfers have cursed so frequently.

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Plumes Of Fire And Gas Erupting From The Sun Have Been Captured By Nasa Spacecraft

From The Telegraph:

Great balls of gas erupting from the Sun have been captured in rare footage by two Nasa spacecraft.

Filmed over two days, the images show huge plumes of gas bursting from the Sun's surface and held aloft by its magnetic field.

These gas bursts - known as solar prominences - are several times larger than the Earth and travel at enormous speed.

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Astronomers Clash With US Air Force Over Laser Rules

The Gemini North observatory in Hawaii fires a laser into the sky as part of its adaptive optics system (Image: Gemini Observatory)

From New Scientist:

Could astronomers accidentally blind Earth-observing satellites? That seems to be the worry of the US air force, which restricts the use of lasers pointed at the sky to help focus telescopes. But some astronomers warn they will miss key observations under the rules, which have tightened in recent years.

Many of the world's largest observatories, including Lick, Gemini North, Palomar and Keck in the US, shine lasers into the sky to measure atmospheric turbulence, which distorts images.

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My Comment:This is probably a bigger problem than what the U.S. Air Force is willing to admit.

Extra-Powerful Military Sonar 'Is Killing Britain's Last Wild Dolphins'

Naval exercises will threaten bottlenose dolphins in the Moray Firth (pictured), according to wildlife campaigners who say the animals will deafened by the sonar

From The Daily Mail:

Conservationists fear a major naval exercise due to start today will put Britain’s wild dolphins in danger.

They say the latest generation of military sonar being used in the Nato exercise threatens the North Sea’s last remaining bottlenose dolphins.

The warning from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society comes after an unusually high number of deep sea whales have been stranded or spotted in shallow waters around the coast.

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Australian Plate: Cause Of Indonesian And Pacific Earthquakes?

This graphic provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows tsunami travel times following an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 rocked the island nation of Samoa, causing a tsunami. Credit: NOAA/AFP

From Cosmos:

SYDNEY: Following seismic activity in Vanuatu, researchers have suggested that the motion of the Australian tectonic plate may be responsible for recent earthquakes in both Indonesia and and the South Pacific.

They argue that the earthquake and tsunami, that took place in Samoa just over a week ago, may have a common cause to a quake in Sumatra and the three quakes near Vanuatu.

This is despite the fact that Samoa and Sumatra are more than 6,000 km apart.

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Microsoft Security Holes Hit Record High

From CBS:

Software Maker Patches 34 Holes, Designating Most as "Critical".

(AP) Microsoft Corp. issued a record number of security patches for its software Tuesday as part of its regular monthly update.

The software maker plugged 34 holes and designated most of them "critical," Microsoft's most severe rating. Among them are fixes for Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and even Windows 7, which doesn't go on sale to consumers until Oct. 22 but has been in use by early testers and software developers.

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Australia Fails To Plug Oil Leak

From BBC:

A second attempt to stop oil pouring into Australian waters after a rig accident in the Timor Sea has failed.

It is almost two months since oil began flowing from the West Atlas drilling platform that lies about 200km (125 miles) off the West Australian coast.

The rig's operators have said that plugging the leak is an "extraordinarily complex" task.

Environmental groups have warned that the slick is threatening wildlife, including endangered turtles.

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Fundamental Quantum Limit on Computing Speed of Any Information Processing System

The Next Big Future:

Physicists Lev Levitin and Tommaso Toffoli at Boston University in Massachusetts, have calculated a quantum speed limit on computing.

In a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, Levitin and Toffoli present an equation for the minimum sliver of time it takes for an elementary quantum operation to occur. This establishes the speed limit for all possible computers. Using their equation, Levitin and Toffoli calculated that, for every unit of energy, a perfect quantum computer spits out ten quadrillion more operations each second than today's fastest processors.

(A quadrillion is 10^15 or 1000 trillions)

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People Are Still The Weakest Link In Computer And Internet Security, Study Finds

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Oct. 14, 2009) — Two decades ago, studies showed that computer users were violating best practices for setting up hack-proof passwords, and not much has changed since then. What's clear, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and IT University in Copenhagen, is that until human factors/ergonomics methods are applied to the problem, it isn't likely to go away.

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Powerful Ideas: Navy Plans Robotic Barnacle Buster

The US Office of Naval Research recently conducted tests with a developmental ship hull grooming robot, called the Robotic Hull Bio-inspired Underwater Grooming (HULL BUG) tool. The HULL BUG is similar in concept to a autonomous robotic home vacuum cleaner or lawn mower and incorporates the use of a biofilm detector that utilizes modified fluorometer technology to enable the robot to detect the difference between the clean and unclean surfaces on the hull of a ship. Credit: U.S. Navy

From Live Science:

To help save energy on warships, the navy might one day deploy underwater robots that help vessels conserve fuel by scrubbing their hulls clean to make them cut through the water better.

As harmless as barnacles on hulls might seem to landlubbers, these crustaceans generate "increased drag as these ships move from port to port across the world's oceans," explained Office of Naval Research program officer Steve McElvany.

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Astronomers Seek To Explore The Cosmic Dark Ages

This illustration shows how astronomers believe the universe developed from the "Big Bang" 13.7 billion years ago to today. NASA/WMAP Science Team/MCT

From McClatchy News:

WASHINGTON -- No place seems safe from the prying eyes of inquisitive astronomers.

They've traced the evolution of the universe back to the "Big Bang," the theoretical birth of the cosmos 13.7 billion years ago, but there's still a long stretch of time -- about 800 million years -- that's been hidden from view.

Astronomers call it the Dark Ages, and now they're building huge new radio telescopes with thousands of detectors that they hope will let them peer back into the period, when the first stars and galaxies began turning on their lights.

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Growth Of Facebook Leaves MySpace In Dust

From CNET:

Social networking is definitely seeing a reshuffling of its top players.

Facebook and Twitter are in, MySpace is out, according to Experian Hitwise.

The Internet monitoring company reported last week that Facebook, the No. 1 social network in the U.S., grew its share of all the visits to social-networking sites from 19 percent in September 2008 year to 58.6 a year later. That's a more than 190 percent increase.

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In 1918 Pandemic, Another Possible Killer: Aspirin

A nurse took a patient's pulse in the influenza ward at Walter Reed Hospital in 1918. Corbis

From The New York Times:

The 1918 flu epidemic was probably the deadliest plague in human history, killing more than 50 million people worldwide. Now it appears that a small number of the deaths may have been caused not by the virus, but by a drug used to treat it: aspirin.

Dr. Karen M. Starko, author of one of the earliest papers connecting aspirin use with Reye’s syndrome, has published an article suggesting that overdoses of the relatively new “wonder drug” could have been deadly.

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Dyson’s Blade-Free Wonder Fan

From Gadget Lab:

James Dyson has a fetish for making unusual products: everything from vacuums that suck (in a good way) to hand dryers that blow (also in a good way), each use a clever combo of eye-catching design along with innovative methods of compressing and dispensing air. But even we in the Lab weren’t prepared for the WTF moment when we pulled Dyson’s blade-less Air Multiplier fan from its packaging.

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The US Lets Go Of The Internet – Will Anyone Notice?

ICANN relax control over the internet (Image: Stone/Getty)

From The New Scientist:

POLITICAL power is rarely ceded without good reason. So eyebrows were raised last week when the US Department of Commerce decided to relax its grip on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body responsible for the naming system that ensures that when you type a web address, your browser knows where to go.

In future, governments and other international organisations will be able to nominate staff to sit on one of ICANN's three newly created steering committees, something the DoC had resisted for years. "What it really means," says ICANN's chief executive Rod Beckstrom, "is that we're going global."

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Side Effects Of 1918 Flu Seen Decades Later

Parker / Fox Photos / Getty

From Time Magazine:

Runny nose, persistent chill, fever, fatigue — these symptoms are all familiar evidence of influenza. But what about a heart attack, suffered 60 years later?

Researchers suggest that such distant health problems may be linked to early exposure to the flu — as early as in the womb — according to a new study that analyzed federal survey data collected from 1982 to 1996. Researchers found, for instance, that people who were born in the U.S. just after the 1918 flu pandemic (that is, people who were still in utero when the disease was at its peak) had a higher risk of a heart attack in their adulthood than those born before or long after the pandemic.

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FBI Facial Recognition Software To Automatically Check Driver's License Applicants Against Criminal Database

Have You Seen This Man? via Imperial College London

From Popular Science:

Bringing the "wanted poster in the post office" concept into the 21st century, the FBI has begun using facial recognition software to identify fugitives on North Carolina highways. The software measures the biometric features of thousands of motorists' DMV photos, matching them against mugshots. When the face matches that of a known criminal, the authorities jump into action.

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Biofuel From Sewage

Image: On Q: The Q microbe (pictured), a lollipop-shaped organism that naturally breaks down and converts plant matter into ethanol, is now being used to make biofuel from sewage. Credit: Qteros

From Technology Review:

Qteros forms a partnership to use sewage as a feedstock for making ethanol.

These days, more and more companies are finding that sewage is a veritable "black gold." In recent years, sewage sludge has been mined for electricity, fertilizer, fish food, and gasoline. Now two companies have partnered up to turn sewage into ethanol. While others have worked to produce ethanol from municipal solid waste, sewage from wastewater has been a relatively unmined ethanol source.

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Researchers Probe Computer 'Commonsense Knowledge'

Few can challenge a simple pocket calculator at arithmetic. But even the most sophisticated computer cannot match the reasoning of a youngster. (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Oct. 11, 2009) — Challenge a simple pocket calculator at arithmetic and you may be left in the dust. But even the most sophisticated computer cannot match the reasoning of a youngster who looks outside, sees a fresh snowfall, and knows how to bundle up for the frosty outdoors.

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Surprising Ship 'Contrails' Seen From Space

A NASA satellite has captured an image of ship "tracks" forming off North America’s west coast. Credit: NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center.

From Live Science:

Although ships sail on the ocean, they can leave tracks in the sky. On Oct. 5, a NASA satellite snapped a shot of this phenomenon forming in a bank of clouds off North America’s west coast.

The white trails look vaguely like the condensation trails, or contrails, left behind by airplanes, but they actually result from ship exhaust.

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The Coming E-Reader Wars

Investing In The e-Reader Battle? Bet On Barnes & Noble -- Wall Street Journal

Crazy? That's what Wall Street thinks—analysts love Amazon, but have little to say about its competitor. But that's why buying Barnes & Noble may be a smart move. Some of the best profits come from going against the crowd.

Everybody loves Amazon's booming stock, which has doubled so far this year. But that run-up in value has made it dangerously expensive. By contrast, few adore Barnes & Noble shares, so they've been left for dead. When you run the numbers, the stock looks remarkably cheap.

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Building A Bridge Of (And To) The Future

HOLDING UP The Neal Bridge is taking the daily onslaught of traffic in Maine.
Craig Dilger for The New York Times

From The New York Times:

PITTSFIELD, Me. — The Neal Bridge is barely a bump in the road for motorists roaring down Route 100 south of this central Maine town. It’s a modest bit of the nation’s infrastructure — two lanes wide and 34 feet long, enough to span a small stream.

The bridge is newer than most, as suggested by the still-black asphalt and the fresh galvanized gleam of the guardrails. But it’s what is underneath that really makes the bridge stand out.

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Peer-to-Peer Passé, Report Finds

From Epicenter/Wired:

Peer-to-peer file sharing has been the bogeyman of the internet, but a new report suggests it’s destined become a fear of the past — replaced by cheap streaming video.

Rising from the ashes in the early 2000s of banned services like Napster, P2P soon became demonized as an imminent threat to software industry, Hollywood and the internet’s backbone, prompting high-profile piracy trials, federal government hearings on traffic management and hand-wringing from ISPs who said torrents of illicit traffic would overwhelm the net.

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Out Of Your Head: Leaving The Body Behind

Peculiar experiences (Image: Christian Lichtenberg/Getty)

From New Scientist:

THE young man woke feeling dizzy. He got up and turned around, only to see himself still lying in bed. He shouted at his sleeping body, shook it, and jumped on it. The next thing he knew he was lying down again, but now seeing himself standing by the bed and shaking his sleeping body. Stricken with fear, he jumped out of the window. His room was on the third floor. He was found later, badly injured.

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"Spider Pill" Camera Bots Could Crawl Your Colon

Spider Bot Cam Spider bot, spider bot, doing whatever a spider ought BBC

From Popular Science:

A tiny camera will be swallowed by patients and inspect their intestines.

People who dislike having medical cameras snake through their body on the ends of long tubing now have a fun alternative. A new remote-controlled spider bot can scuttle around inside the colon or intestine and perform a medical inspection instead.

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Ever Wonder What Every Space Mission From The Last 50 Years Looks Like On One Map?

A Visual History of Space Exploration: National Geographic

From Popular Science:

Well, here it is. National Geographic has plotted the route of every space mission carried out over the last 50 years onto a map of the solar system, giving a nice visual look at the history of space travel.

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The Chemistry of Information Addiction

From Scientific American:

A new experiment reveals why we always want to know the answer.

My mother is a more patient human being after having raised a child who incessantly asked, “Are we there yet?” That information, often out of reach for a frustrated toddler, carries with it a feeling of reward. The majority of us are all too familiar with the urge to know more about the future, whether it is an exam grade, an experimental result, or the status of a new job.

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Flu Vaccines Hit A Wall

Photo: Attacking influenza: Scientists hope that new technologies for making vaccines will lead to quicker availability of vaccines against the human strain of H1N1 that originated from the swine flu virus, shown here. Credit: CDC

From Technology Review:

As new influenza strains emerge, researchers struggle to speed vaccine development.

Making a vaccine against seasonal influenza is a constant catch-up game. Scientists must predict which of the constantly mutating virus strains will be most virulent six months in the future, the amount of time it takes to manufacture the vaccine. The system has worked well enough for the regular flu. But when new, virulent strains emerge--including the current, rapidly spreading swine flu (H1N1)--the traditional approach falls short. Even as consumers clamored for a vaccine, it took seven months and around 48,000 confirmed U.S. cases before the first H1N1 vaccines were shipped to hospitals around the country.

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Farmers Milk Facebook, Twitter For All It's Worth

From McClatchy News:

With a hand-held video camera, a computer and 800 cows, Barbara Martin of Lemoore is letting the world into her life as a dairy operator.

No, it's not a new reality television show. And Martin isn't craving her 15 minutes of fame.

But she is joining a growing number of farmers and others in agriculture who are using social media tools to communicate with each other, send out information and educate the public about agriculture.

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Nitrogen Cycle: Key Ingredient In Climate Model Refines Global Predictions

ORNL's Peter Thornton is helping climate scientists incorporate the nitrogen cycle into global simulations for climate change. (Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Oct. 11, 2009) — For the first time, climate scientists from across the country have successfully incorporated the nitrogen cycle into global simulations for climate change, questioning previous assumptions regarding carbon feedback and potentially helping to refine model forecasts about global warming.

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Reports Of American Longevity Greatly Exaggerated

(Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times)

From Live Science:

Americans got a bit of good news this month: Half the kids born today in wealthy countries could live at least 100 years. The other half might live long, too.

This respite from otherwise grim news of, say, increasing slaughter and insurgency in Afghanistan, where life expectancy is 44 years, came courtesy of a study published by European researchers in the journal the Lancet.

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Brain Food: Can Maths Really Let You See Into The Future?

From The Guardian:

Meet the professor who can seemingly predict political events using a laptop.

Let's start with some news from the near future. Iran won't build a nuclear bomb. With extra aid money, Pakistan will become more peaceful. And the Copenhagen summit on climate change this December is doomed to failure.

If Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is right, those are the headlines you'll be reading over the next few months. The author of a new book called Predictioneer, he makes big-picture forecasts employing maths, and a laptop that has been so heavily used its letters have worn away.

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Introducing The Most Efficient Solar Power In The World

Image: Randy Montoya

From Discovery Magazine:

It's taken 25 years, but a new solar-thermal plant in New Mexico has finally broken the old efficiency record.

In 1986 solar panels were literally ripped from the White House roof. But political will and financial incentives have reignited the search for efficient, affordable ways to harness the sun’s energy. Two new solar thermal technologies—which focus sunlight to create heat rather than convert it directly to electricity, as photovoltaics do—promise to make solar power practical at vastly different scales.

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The Fusion Illusion -- A Commentary

From The New Atlantis:

To hear President Barack Obama tell it, we need to fundamentally overhaul the way we produce, deliver, and consume energy. After the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill in June, the president said it would “spark a clean energy transformation in our economy. It will spur the development of low carbon sources of energy—everything from wind, solar, and geothermal power to safer nuclear energy and cleaner coal. It will spur new energy savings, like the efficient windows and other materials that reduce heating costs in the winter and cooling costs in the summer. And most importantly, it will make possible the creation of millions of new jobs.” He repeated those sentiments before the G-8 in Italy several weeks later when he stated, “One of my highest priorities as president is to drive a clean energy transformation of our economy.”

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Report: 41 Percent of Personal Computing Software Is Pirated

From Threat Level/Wired Science:

The Business Software Alliance is taking the offensive, sending out millions of takedown notices the first six months of the year in a bid to combat piracy.

Reason: if the BSA is to believed, about 41 percent of all software on personal computers is pirated – socking the industry with some $53 billion in losses. That’s the size of the proposed 2010 budget for the state of Illinois.

Read more ....

8 Experts Weigh In OnThe Future Of Human Spaceflight

From Popular Mechanics:

The Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Planes Committee is getting ready to release its full report detailing the options for the future of manned missions into space. While the discussion over the future of NASA continues, PM turned to the leading rocketeers, astronauts and manufacturers to weigh in on the debate

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Robots That Eat Bugs and Plants For Power

Crunch'n'Munch EATR will grab plants with its robotic arm, chop them with a mini chainsaw, and burn them in its onboard steam combustion engine to make power. Francis Govers III

From Popular Science:

Controversial robots devour biomass to gain energy independence.

No matter how intelligent a robot might be, it’s nice knowing you can pull its plug to halt the anti-human insurrection. Whoops, not anymore. A new cohort of ’bots that make energy by gobbling organic matter could be the beginning of truly autonomous machines.

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Energy Crisis Is Postponed As New Gas Rescues The World

Oil shale is rock containing deposits of oil and is pictured here burning.

From The L.A. Times

Engineers have performed their magic once again. The world is not going to run short of energy as soon as feared.

America is not going to bleed its wealth importing fuel. Russia's grip on Europe's gas will weaken. Improvident Britain may avoid paralysing blackouts by mid-decade after all.

The World Gas Conference in Buenos Aires last week was one of those events that shatter assumptions. Advances in technology for extracting gas from shale and methane beds have quickened dramatically, altering the global balance of energy faster than almost anybody expected.

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Wide Angle: Genetic Science

From Discovery Magazine:

Discovery Tech explores manipulating genes for our own good.

Not only has the human genome been sequenced, but so too have the genomes of many animals and crops. The sequences represent a genetic blue print of how these organisms function and how they might be repaired when they don't function. In this Wide Angle on Genetic Science, we'll look at the myriad ways, whys and hows researchers are modifying the genes of various life-forms in order to treat disease, modify crops, clone animals and repair tissue.

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