Robotic Clam Could Detonate Underwater Mines

Inspired by the amazing ability of the small clam to dig and wedge itself far deeper and more securely than would be thought, they show the robo-clam. Credit: Donna Coveney

From Live Science:

Robot clams may one day help dig up and detonate buried underwater mines, researchers now reveal. They could also serve as smart anchors for robot subs or deep-sea oil drilling.

Mechanical engineers Anette "Peko" Hosoi and Amos Winter at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed robots after the Atlantic razor clam (Ensis directus) because it is one of nature's best diggers. Using its relatively simple anatomy, the razor clam — which the researchers dubbed the Ferrari of underwater diggers — can burrow into the bottom of its native mudflats at a remarkable rate of roughly a centimeter per second.

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War Goes Mainstream On The Internet, Facebook And Twitter

From ZDNet:

NATO announced a new website complete with links to Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. In an eerie flashback to the Vietnam War when the public watched the evening news with Walter Cronkite during the dinner hour, the war in Afghanistan is now available to everyone on their computer. It’s operated and managed by NATO and not by any news organisation.

The content is complete with how, where, whom and what is going on in the country, complete with video clips of operations and interviews with commanding officers, the site leaves little to the imagination.

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My Comment: With hundreds of millions of users, I a surprised that it has taken NATO this long to understand the importance of these networks.

Why Privacy Concerns Are Ruining Facebook

From PC World:

Facebook was built as a powerful social connector, allowing users to befriend others with similar interests, locations, schools, and more. But as privacy concerns mount and users demand more protection, the social networking site's philosophy has started to go down the toilet. Now that Facebook is eliminating regional networks -- or groupings of people based on where they live -- it's becoming apparent that proclivities lean towards building fences rather than crossing them.

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First Metallic Nanoparticles Resistant to Extreme Heat

From U.S. News & World Report/National Science Foundation:

PITTSBURGH—A University of Pittsburgh team overcame a major hurdle plaguing the development of nanomaterials such as those that could lead to more efficient catalysts used to produce hydrogen and render car exhaust less toxic. The researchers reported Nov. 29 in Nature Materials the first demonstration of high-temperature stability in metallic nanoparticles, the vaunted next-generation materials hampered by a vulnerability to extreme heat.

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Blue Whale Song Mystery Baffles Scientists

From Wired Science:

All around the world, blue whales aren’t singing like they used to, and scientists have no idea why.

The largest animals on Earth are singing in ever-deeper voices every year. Among the suggested explanations are ocean noise pollution, changing population dynamics and new mating strategies. But none of them is entirely convincing.

“We don’t have the answer. We just have a lot of recordings,” said Mark McDonald, president of Whale Acoustics, a company that specializes in the sonic monitoring of cetaceans.

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New Evidence That Early Therapy Helps Autistic Kids

Charlie Lamb was diagnosed with autism at age 2
Photo courtesy of the Lamb family

From Time Magazine:

Charlie Lamb was barely 2 years old when he was diagnosed with autism. His mother Susan had been convinced for months that "something was not right" with her second child. He wouldn't stand in line like the other kids in gymnastics class, she recalls, and he spoke fewer words. He was more captivated by spinning wheels than Teletubbies. His father Tom noticed that his blond, blue-eyed son would always walk in circles around the kitchen table and that he would do the equivalent at their local park in Seattle — walking along the perimeter fence rather than crossing into the play area.

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Computers Top Poll Of Modern Discoveries

Shaping the modern world (Image: Comstock/Getty)

From New Scientist:

TWO inventions have shaped our modern world more than any other: the engine and the computer. Where the engine captured and extended the human capacity to do physical work, the computer did the same for the capacity of the human brain to think, organise and control. This power has now pervaded not just homes and offices but also tens of thousands of products where it once didn't seem to fit, thanks to a small and beautiful device called the microprocessor.

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Why Women Live So Much Longer Than Men (And, No, It's Not Because They Have An Easier Life!)

Scientists have found that women's genetic makeup
could be the reason they live longer than men

From The Daily Mail:

In the battle of the sexes, women have always played the ultimate long game - by outliving men.

But there's no point crowing about the powers of female stoicism and endurance.

Scientists now believe women squeeze that extra five years out of life simply because men are made of different stuff.

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Astronomers Watch Most Massive Star Ever Go Supernova

Supernova Go Boom Yep, it's bigger than this explosion
(artist's illustration of SN 2006gy) NASA/CXC/M Weiss

From Popular Science:

Rare behemoth star produces antimatter and collapses in a runaway nuclear reaction that leaves nothing behind.

Stars don't tend to go quietly, and the most massive of them all create a supernova explosion 50 to 100 times brighter than normal. Now astronomers have confirmed the existence of rare but huge stars that contain 200 times the mass of our sun, after spotting one unusually bright cosmic explosion in 2007.

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Too Much Physical Activity May Lead to Arthritis, Study Suggests

Runners. MRI analysis by two musculoskeletal radiologists indicated a relationship between physical activity levels of middle aged people and subsequent frequency and severity of knee damage. (Credit: iStockphoto/Nick Free)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 1, 2009) — Middle-aged men and women who engage in high levels of physical activity may be unknowingly causing damage to their knees and increasing their risk for osteoarthritis, according to a new study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

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How Serious Is Angina?

From Live Science:

Angina pectoris--or simply angina--is the medical term for chest pain or discomfort usually caused by coronary artery disease. Angina is a sign that someone is at increased risk of heart attack, cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death. If you get angina, you should get medical attention immediately.

Angina (pronounced “an-JI-nuh” or “AN-juh-nuh”) hits when the heart doesn't get enough blood. This usually happens when there is a narrowing or blockage in one or more of the vessels that supply blood to the heart.

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CERN Cuts Power To Part Of The LHC, Says The Setback Is Minor

Image © CERN

From Scientific American:

Just two days after the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) reached a major milestone by producing 1.18 TeV (more than one trillion electron volts) of energy, the particle physics lab CERN had to cut power to one of the accelerator's sites following a problem with a power supplier. The outage did not affect the cryogenics required for operation, and a CERN spokeswoman in Geneva, Switzerland, was optimistic that the power would be back up by 6:30 p.m. local time.

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Man Controls Robotic Hand With Thoughts

From U.S. News And World Report/AP:

ROME—An Italian who lost his left forearm in a car crash was successfully linked to a robotic hand, allowing him to feel sensations in the artificial limb and control it with his thoughts, scientists said Wednesday.

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Placating Publishers By Limiting Links: A Google 5-Click FAQ

From Epicenter/Wired:

Google’s been taking it on the chin from traditional publishers (i.e., News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch) a lot lately. So it should come as no surprise that the search giant has come up with a new way for media sites to throw up a digital checkpoint where money or credentials can be demanded from readers who got there in a Google search.

It’s probably also no accident that the latest initiative came less than 24 hours after Murdoch railed yet again against Google and its ilk. That rant continues no matter how many times Google tells content owners how to keep their content out of Google searches.

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U.S. Allows New Stem Cell Lines for Research

President Barack Obama looks through a microscope at brain cells with Dr Marston Linehan as he tours the National Institutes of Health (NIH) before making a major announcement regarding the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, September 30, 2009. The Obama administration on December 2, 2009 approved the first human embryonic stem cells for experiments by federally funded scientists. The new policy aims at expanding government support of the controversial biomedical research. Jim Watson / AFP / Getty

From Time Magazine:

Nobody likes a busy signal. And for U.S. stem cell researchers, none has been more frustrating than the one on the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry home page. That's where the government agency lists all of the embryonic stem cell lines that scientists are allowed to study using taxpayer dollars. For months, the page has been depressingly static. "None are available at this time," it read. "Please check back later."

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Extreme Oil: Scraping The Bottom Of Earth's Barrel

The bitumen in tar sands gives the earth a thick, mushy feel. This non-conventional oil is difficult and expensive to extract (Image: Lara Solt/Dallas Morning News/Corbis)

From New Scientist:

EIGHTY-FIVE million barrels. That's how much oil we consume every day. It's a staggering amount - enough to fill over 5400 Olympic swimming pools - and demand is expected to keep on rising, despite the impending supply crunch.

The International Energy Agency forecasts that by 2030 it will rise to about 105 million barrels per day with a commensurate increase in production (see graph), although whistle-blowers recently told The Guardian newspaper in London that insiders at the IEA believe the agency vastly over-estimates our chances of plugging that gap. The agency officially denies this.

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One In Five New Brides Puts On A Stone And A Half In Weight After Just A Year Of Marriage

Photo: Comfort zone: One in five new brides admits to over-eating after the wedding

From The Daily Mail:

Every bride wants to look their best on the big day - but it seems after saying 'I do' many women lost the motivation to stay slim.

Results of a survey published today reveal marriage is no good for the wasitline, with one in five piling on one-and-a-half stone in the first year.

A further 22 per cent of married women questioned said they no longer felt the need to impress their loved ones.

And it seems the weight gain puts added strain on the relationship as well - with 21 per cent of couples rowing over the extra pounds.

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Robotic Exoskeletons: Suited For Superhuman Power

Photo: Software engineer Rex Jameson demonstrates the XOS suit designed to give Army soldiers a significant boost in strength and endurance. Raytheon Co.

From Christian Science Monitor:

Exoskeletons – or wearable robots – strengthen soldiers and mobilize the disabled.

The high-tech suits of “Iron Man” and “RoboCop” don’t seem so far off to Yoshiyuki Sankai. Since the third grade, this Japanese professor and inventor has been enchanted by Isaac Asimov’s story “I, Robot” and the idea that robots – or, in Mr. Sankai’s case, robotic suits – could help humans with everyday life.

In 2005, he unveiled several working prototypes of a mechanical, mind-controlled “exoskeleton” that could allow the disabled to walk. The suit – recently refined and now available for rent in Japan – resembles white soccer shinguards attached to each segment of the arms and legs and a fanny pack-like battery hooked around the waist.

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New Way of Detecting Exomoons Broadens Search For Extraterrestrial Life

The Forest Moon Of Endor via The Force.net

From Popular Science:

So far, the search for extraterrestrial life beyond our solar system has focused on finding Earth-like planets. And sure, planets are great, since we know at least one of them harbors life. But David Kipping of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics thinks that search might be a tad too narrow. In a new paper, Kipping described how current technology can be re-tasked to search for another life-bearing body: moons.

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Google Allows Publishers To Limit Free Content

From The Globe And Mail:

Google Inc. is allowing publishers of paid content to limit the number of free news articles accessed by people using its Internet search engine, a concession to an increasingly disgruntled media industry.

There has been mounting criticism of Google's practices from media publishers – most notably News Corp. chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch – that argue the company is profiting from online news pages.

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How Did Flowering Plants Evolve To Dominate Earth?

Colorful tulips and other spring flowers in the Keukenhof Gardens, the Netherlands. How did flowering plants come to dominate plant life on earth? (Credit: iStockphoto/Monika Lewandowska)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 1, 2009) — To Charles Darwin it was an 'abominable mystery' and it is a question which has continued to vex evolutionists to this day: when did flowering plants evolve and how did they come to dominate plant life on earth? A new study in Ecology Letters reveals the evolutionary trigger which led to early flowering plants gaining a major competitive advantage over rival species, leading to their subsequent boom and abundance.

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Big Freeze: Earth Could Plunge Into Sudden Ice Age

Topographic map of the Nordic Seas and Subpolar Basins, with schematic circulation of surface currents (solid curves) and deep currents (dashed curves) that form a portion of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC). The color of the curves depicts their approximate temperatures. Map inset shows the boundaries of the Nordic Seas and Subpolar Basins used in the analysis of water volume. Credit: Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

From Live Science:

In the film, "The Day After Tomorrow," the world gets gripped in ice within the span of just a few weeks. Now research now suggests an eerily similar event might indeed have occurred in the past.

Looking ahead to the future, there is no reason why such a freeze shouldn't happen again — and in ironic fashion it could be precipitated if ongoing changes in climate force the Greenland ice sheet to suddenly melt, scientists say.

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Do Black Holes Build Their Own Galaxies?

From RedOrbit:

Which comes first, the supermassive black holes that frantically devour matter or the enormous galaxies where they reside? A brand new scenario has emerged from a recent set of outstanding observations of a black hole without a home: black holes may be “building” their own host galaxy. This could be the long-sought missing link to understanding why the masses of black holes are larger in galaxies that contain more stars.

The ‘chicken and egg’ question of whether a galaxy or its black hole comes first is one of the most debated subjects in astrophysics today,” says lead author David Elbaz. “Our study suggests that supermassive black holes can trigger the formation of stars, thus ‘building’ their own host galaxies. This link could also explain why galaxies hosting larger black holes have more stars.”

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The Claim: Exercise More During the Day, and You Will Sleep Better at Night

From The New York Times:

THE FACTS It has long been said that regular physical activity and better sleep go hand in hand. Burn more energy during the day, the thinking goes, and you will be more tired at night.

But only recently have scientists sought to find out precisely to what extent. One extensive study published this year looked for answers by having healthy children wear actigraphs — devices that measure movement — and then seeing whether more movement and activity during the day meant improved sleep at night. The results should be particularly enlightening to parents.

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What East Anglia's E-mails Really Tell Us About Climate Change

From Popular Mechanics:

PM guest analyst Peter Kelemen, a professor of geochemistry at Columbia University's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, explains what stolen e-mails from climate scientists corresponding with East Anglia University tell us about global warming—and what they don't.

In the past two weeks, scientists like myself have been gripped by news of the theft and online release of more than a decade of e-mails from one of the world's leading centers for climate-change research, the Hadley Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at Britain's University of East Anglia. During these same weeks, world political leaders have been preparing for a climate summit in Copenhagen and a new study has indicated that a major ice sheet in eastern Antarctica, previously thought to be stable, is in fact losing mass. But those developments have been overshadowed by the stolen e-mails and what they may imply about how research into human-induced global warming is carried out.

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Seas Could Rise 1.4m, Warns Antarctic Climate Review

From New Scientist:

A review of climate change in Antarctica forecasts that by 2100 the world's seas will have risen to levels previously considered too extreme to be realistic.

The review, Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (PDF), was compiled by 100 scientists associated with the international Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. Using 20 of the most up-to-date models that take into account the complex behaviour of the ozone hole over Antarctica, as well as the most recent observations of ice loss, the review predicts that the area of sea ice around Antarctica could shrink by 33 per cent – 2.6 million square kilometres – by 2100, leading to a sea-level rise of 1.4 metres.

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Skunk (Marijuana) Linked To Huge Increase In Risk Of Psychotic Disease

Skunk worse than ordinary hash Photo: Getty

From The Telegraph:

People who smoke the highly potent form of cannabis known as skunk are almost seven times more likely to develop a psychotic illness than those who use the traditional strength drug, a new study shows for the first time.

The results are considered particularly worrying as skunk now accounts for around 80 per cent of the street market in cannabis in the United Kingdom.

Scientists at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London made the discovery after studying admissions to hospital for psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia, paranoia and serious depression.

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Tweet Victory For Twitter... The Most Used English Word

Twitter, which has celebrity fans such as Stephen Fry, has become
the most used word in the English-speaking world

From The Daily Mail:

It has become many celebrities' favourite way to share their thoughts, however mundane, with the world.

But now internet phenomenon Twitter has become the most popular word in the English language, according to researchers.

The microblogging website - which allows its 20million users including Stephen Fry and Demi Moore to transmit 140 character messages across the globe instantly - beat Barack Obama into second place in a survey of the most-used phrases this year.

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Google Wants To Stream TV, For A Fee

From FOX News:

YouTube, which is already trying out the movie rental business, wants to get into TV too.

Google's video site has been trying to convince the TV industry to let it stream individual shows for a fee, multiple sources tell me.

YouTube already lets users watch a smattering of TV shows for free, with advertising. Now it envisions something similar to what Apple and Amazon already offer: First-run shows, without commercials, for $1.99 an episode, available the day after they air on broadcast or cable.

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The Royal Society Puts Historic Papers Online

From BBC News:

One of the world's oldest scientific institutions is marking the start of its 350th year by putting 60 of its most memorable research papers online.

The Royal Society, founded in London in 1660, is making public manuscripts by figures like Sir Isaac Newton.

Benjamin Franklin's account of his risky kite-flying experiment is also available on the Trailblazing website.

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Birth Control Pill for Men? Scientists Find a Hormonal on-and-Off Switch For Male Fertility

Artist's rendering of swimming spermatozoa. (Credit: iStockphoto/David Marchal)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 30, 2009) — A new research report published in the December 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal could one day give men similar type of control over their fertility that women have had since the 1960s. That's because scientists have found how and where androgenic hormones work in the testis to control normal sperm production and male fertility. This opens a promising avenue for the development of "the pill" for men.

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Bendable Antennas Could Reshape Electronics

The bendable antenna consists of liquid metal injected into tiny channels within the silicon elastomer. The antenna can be deformed and snap back to its original shape. Credit: Ju-Hee So, North Carolina State University

From Live Science:

Tiny antennas that can bend, twist and stretch, before snapping back to their original shapes, could some day find themselves in flexible electronics and equipment that needs to be rolled up before deployment.

The shape-shifting antennas are still in the lab and the researchers from North Carolina State University are not sure when the invention would hit the market.

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The Scientific Tragedy of Climategate

From Reason.com:

Can climate change science recover from the damage done by leaked emails?

Climategate. What a hot mess. Researchers at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia and their colleagues around the globe may have fiddled with historical climate data and possibly the peer review process to ensure that publicized temperature trends fit the narrative of man-made global warming—then they emailed each other about it. Now those emails and other documents have been splashed all over the Web. Revelations contained in the leaked emails are roiling the scientific community and the researchers may be in pretty serious trouble. But the real tragedy of the Climategate scandal is that a lack of confidence in climate data will seriously impair mankind's ability to assess and react properly to a potentially huge problem.

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Microsoft Windows 7 Problem 'Could Affect Millions'

Security experts have warned that millions of computer users could be affected by a software problem that causes Windows operating systems to crash Photo: EPA

From The Telegraph:

Microsoft said it is looking in to reports that some computers running Windows 7 crash as soon as the user logs on.

Users have been complaining on internet forums about the "black screen of death", which causes the screen of their Windows 7 machine to turn black and the computer to crash when a user logs on.

Microsoft confirmed that it was investigating the possibility that a security update, released on Thursday, could be the root of the problem.

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The Loneliness Of Three Degrees Of Separation

From New Scientist:

John Cacappio of the University of Chicago and his colleagues reckon that loneliness can spread through society like an infection.

Their study, published in this month's issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, draws on a large group of people living in a town in Massachusetts that had already been assigned as part of a heart health study.

This group of around 5,000 were given questionnaires to assess their loneliness every four years or so, enabling the researcher to track any "spread" in this gloomy emotion.

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Genetics Rather Than Stress To Blame For Grey Hair

From The Telegraph:

Women who find themselves going grey should blame their parents rather than their stressful lifestyles, research has found.

Scientists studied more than 200 identical and non-identical twins between the ages of 59 and 81. They found that there was little difference between the greyness of identical twin sisters, implying that their varying lifestyles or upbringing had little impact.

Among non-identical siblings that did have differing levels of grey hair, 90 per cent of cases could be attributed to differing genetic factors, researchers from Unilever, who conducted the research published it in US journal PLoS ONE, found.

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Windows 7 Users Facing 'Black Screens Of Death'

The Sugababes are fronting an advertising campaign for Microsoft's Windows 7. The operating system has been hit by a 'black screen of death'

From The Daily Mail:

Frustrated Windows 7 users are facing 'black screens of death' after logging on to their computers, Microsoft have confirmed.

The software giant said they were investigating a disabling glitch that seems to particularly affect its latest operating system.

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Barnes & Noble May Not Deliver Nooks Ordered Early in Time for Christmas

From Daily Tech:

B&N is trying "everything" it can to get Nook to buyers who ordered before Nov 20 on time

The eReader market is hot right now and the gadgets have become some of the most popular gifts to give this holiday season. That means some freshman offerings that are new to the market are very hard to find.

One of these new offerings is the Nook from Barnes & Noble. The Nook is an eReader that sells for $259 and sports the typical e-ink display for reading along with a color screen that is touch sensitive on the bottom for browsing the B&N digital bookstore.

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Space Station Crew Lands In Kazakhstan

From Space.com:

A Canadian, a Russian and a Belgian astronaut left the International Space Station and landed on the icy steppes of Kazakhstan Tuesday aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Belgian astronaut Frank DeWinne, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk touched down in their Soyuz TMA-15 crew capsule at 2:15 a.m. EST (0715 GMT) after heavy parachutes slowed the craft's descent.

The landing went smoothly, though the subzero temperatures in Kazakhstan prevented helicopters from flying to retrieve the crew as usual. Instead, the Russian Federal Space Agency sent teams in all-terrain vehicles to recover the spaceflyers.

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'Global Surge' In Rhino Poaching

From BBC:

Rhino poaching around the world is on the rise despite efforts to protect the animals, a report warns.

The global surge in the illegal trade has been driven by demands from Asian medicinal markets, the study by conservationists concluded.

It suggests that a decline in law enforcement is the main reason for the rise in poaching in Africa.

The report found that 95% of rhino poaching in Africa since 2006 had occurred in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

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Copenhagen: The Era Of Climate Stability Is Coming To An End

A man rides his bicycle through the flood on River Street, Ballinasloe in County Galway which is under 3ft of water after the river Suck burst its banks. Photograph: PA

From The Guardian:

After 400 generations of stable weather, the world is on the brink of violent climate change. But there is good news too.

For about 10,000 years, our climate on Earth has been stable. Remarkably stable, in fact. Since the end of the last ice age, we humans have spent 400 generations taking advantage of this stability to build our civilisation.

We have had warm periods and little ice ages; but the changes have been small. We have always known pretty much when it will rain, what the temperature will be each summer and winter, and how high the rivers will flow.

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New Brain Connections Form Rapidly During Motor Learning

New connections begin to form between brain cells almost immediately as animals learn a new task, according to a new study. (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 30, 2009) — New connections begin to form between brain cells almost immediately as animals learn a new task, according to a study published recently in Nature. Led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the study involved detailed observations of the rewiring processes that take place in the brain during motor learning.

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Exercise Prevents Aging of Cells

From Live Science:

Exercise is known to have a bounty of health benefits that can ward off age-related diseases, but a new study shows that regular physical activity has an anti-aging effect at the cellular level.

The research found that intensive exercise prevents the shortening of telomeres — the DNA that bookends chromosomes and protects the ends from damage — much like the cap on the end of a shoelace.

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Antarctica Protected From Global Warming By Hole In Ozone Layer

From The Scotsman:

A HUGE hole in the ozone layer has protected Antarctica from the impacts of global warming, according to scientists.
The temperature across Antarctica has not risen over the past 30 years and there has been a 10 per cent increase in the amount of sea ice appearing during winter.

Climate change sceptics regularly cite the lack of warming in Antarctica as evidence
global warming is not happening.

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Buried Treasure

Face from a Coffin. Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, 1075-656 B.C. Coffin sculptures such as this were first covered with gesso as a primer before being painted. The gesso and most of the paint have worn off, revealing the wood underneath. Three thousand years later, you can still see the sculptor's hand in the carving marks.

From Archaeology News/Forbes:

The Brooklyn Museum scours its archives for a show on ancient Egypt.

Besides ensuring tourism and providing storylines for scores of feature films, the mystique of ancient Egypt also launched a specific sort of museum show that has become de rigueur for large institutions: the blockbuster. When the traveling exhibition Treasures of Tutankhamun came to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1979, it broke all the museum's previous attendance records and became famous enough to merit a spoof on Saturday Night Live.

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Is The Once-Stable Part Of Antarctica Starting To Melt?

From Discover Magazine:

Climate change doesn’t affect all places equally, and while Greenland and West Antarctica’s glaciers have started slipping into the sea at an alarming rate, East Antarctica was actually gaining ice. But now that could be changing, as a Nature Geoscience study done with data from NASA’s gravity-measuring satellites called GRACE suggests that the area could now be losing mass.

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Why Do NASA Launch Times Depend On Lighting Conditions?

The International Space Station photographed from Space Shuttle Discovery in March 2009. (NASA)

From The Air & Space Smithsonian:

It's all about the solar beta angle.

While it was a hydrogen leak on the pad that forced NASA to scrub the launch of space shuttle mission STS-127 on June 17, one main reason the agency had to wait several weeks to try again was something called a “solar beta angle cut-out.”

Solar what?

Before sending a shuttle aloft, mission planners carefully calculate the angle defined by its orbital plane around Earth and a line drawn from the center of Earth to the center of the sun. This “solar beta angle” changes constantly as Earth moves around the sun and the shuttle’s orbital plane precesses, or slowly shifts, due to the gravitational tug from Earth’s equatorial bulge.

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Astronauts Want A Next-Gen Ride 10 Times Safer Than The Shuttle

A Safer Space Ride NASA's next-gen Ares I-X test rocket launches
within sight of the aging space shuttle. NASA

From Popular Science:

Astronauts say the next crew launch vehicle should have disaster odds of just 1 in 1,000.

Spaceflight continues to represent one of the more extreme and hazardous undertakings for humans, even if it's just about getting off the ground. But the men and women of NASA's astronaut corps say that the U.S. space agency can improve on the odds that faced the doomed shuttle crews of Challenger and Columbia. Florida Today has obtained the documents that show just where NASA's astronauts stand regarding their next-gen vehicle's safety.

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Drowned Cities: Myths And Secrets Of The Deep

From New Scientist:

The idea that great cities, rich in forgotten knowledge and treasure, lie hidden beneath the sea holds immense appeal. Scarcely a year goes by without someone claiming to have found Atlantis. But what's really out there under the waves?

Jo Marchant looks at some of the sunken towns and cities discovered worldwide, and separates the facts from the myths.

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Solar Panel Costs 'Set To Fall'

The fall in cost is due to the increased lifetime, the institute says

From the BBC:

The cost of installing and owning solar panels will fall even faster than expected according to new research.

Tests show that 90% of existing solar panels last for 30 years, instead of the predicted 20 years.

According to the independent EU Energy Institute, this brings down the lifetime cost.

The institute says the panels are such a good long-term investment that banks should offer mortgages on them like they do on homes.

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