Twitter Has 105M Users, Says Co-Founder Biz Stone

From Computer World:

IDG News Service - Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams shared some long-awaited usage figures for the service and sought to assure developers that Twitter is becoming a stable platform for building applications, as they kicked off its first developer conference today in San Francisco.

Twitter has 105 million registered users, with 300,000 new users signing up every day, Stone said, opening Twitter's Chirp conference at the Palace of Fine Arts before an audience just shy of 1,000 developers. That user figure is more than a recent estimate from comScore, which pegged Twitter's user base at 65 million.

Read more ....

Are Water Filters Worth It?

From Discovery News:

As clean as the drinking water is in the United States compared to other countries, it still contains trace amounts of cancer-causing contaminants.

But this past March, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that advances in science and technology were allowing them to define stricter regulations on four chemicals: tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, which are used in industrial and textile processing, and epichlorohydrin and acrylamide, which ironically can be introduced into drinking water during the water treatment process.

Read more ....

Your Bionic Brain: The Merging Of Brain And Machine

Flickr/illuminaut

From FOX News:

The six-million dollar man was pure fantasy in the 70s -- but largely realistic technology today. And the future of this tech is even wilder: Implantable brain electrodes may be just around the corner.

Futurists and science-fiction writers have long speculated about merging human and machine, especially human brains and computers. These dreams are slowly becoming reality: The deaf are hearing with bionic "ears," the blind see with the aid of electrodes, an amputee is moving a prosthetic arm by thought, a man paralyzed with locked-in syndrome is "speaking" through a brain electrode connected to a computerized synthesizer.

Read more ....

First Direct Recording Made Of Mirror Neurons In Human Brain

Mirror neurons, many say, are what make us human. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - Los Angeles)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 13, 2010) — Mirror neurons, many say, are what make us human. They are the cells in the brain that fire not only when we perform a particular action but also when we watch someone else perform that same action.

Neuroscientists believe this "mirroring" is the mechanism by which we can "read" the minds of others and empathize with them. It's how we "feel" someone's pain, how we discern a grimace from a grin, a smirk from a smile.

Read more ....

U.S. Military Supply of Rare Earth Elements Not Secure

From Live Science:

U.S. military technologies such as guided bombs and night vision rely heavily upon rare earth elements supplied by China, and rebuilding an independent U.S. supply chain to wean the country off that foreign dependency could take up to 15 years, according to a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Read more ....

Polluted Old Stars Suggest Earth-like Worlds May Be Common

From Space.com:

Earth-like planets should be a fairly common feature of other solar systems in our galaxy, a new study of stellar senior citizens suggests.

More than 90 percent of stars in the Milky Way, including our own sun, end their lives as a white dwarfs. Traditionally, these dense stellar remains haven't been the first place that astronomers look for signs of planets outside our own solar system. Instead, exoplanet searches have focused on stars like our own sun.

Read more ....

Mysterious Radio Waves Emitted From Nearby Galaxy

Something in there is producing an unusually regular radio signal
(Image: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA)

From New Scientist:

There is something strange in the cosmic neighbourhood. An unknown object in the nearby galaxy M82 has started sending out radio waves, and the emission does not look like anything seen anywhere in the universe before.

"We don't know what it is," says co-discoverer Tom Muxlow of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics near Macclesfield, UK.

Read more ....

First Man On The Moon Neil Armstrong Blasts Obama's Space Plans

Neil Armstrong Blasts Obama’s ‘Devastating’ Nasa Cuts -- Times Online

Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, has launched an unprecedented attack on President Obama’s plans to dismantle Nasa’s manned space exploration programme.

The world’s best-known astronaut, who has traditionally avoided controversy and rarely seeks the limelight despite his feat 41 years ago, warned that Mr Obama risks blasting American space superiority on a “long downhill slide to mediocrity”.

The decision to cancel Constellation, the project to send astronauts to the Moon again by 2020 and Mars by 2030, was “devastating”, Mr Armstrong said in a powerful open letter to the President.

Read more ....

More News On Protests Against President Obama's NASA Plans

Space Fight: President Obama's Plans for NASA Attacked By Former Astronauts -- ABC News
Moon vets say Obama's NASA cuts would ground U.S. -- USA Today
White House Moves to Placate Critics of its NASA Plan -- Wall Street Journal
Put NASA on a Diet?! Them's Fightin' Words, Mr. President -- Newsweek
Obama's Revised Space Plan: Build Rocket, Save Orion -- NPR

iPad International Launch Delayed As Apple Blames 'Runaway' Demand

Apple's iPad shipped more than half a million units in its first week, the company says. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

From The Guardian:

Apple iPad pre-orders to begin internationally on 10 May, with pricing to be revealed then, after 'surprisingly strong' US orders.

Apple has delayed the international launch of its iPad computer for a month, blaming "surprisingly strong US demand" that has outstripped its ability to produce them.

More than 500,000, it says, have been delivered to retailers and customers in its first week on sale.

Read more ....

New LOFAR Telescope Network Probes Universe's Low-Frequency Radiation To Look For Oldest Regions And Alien Civilizations

LOFAR's View of The Super Massive Black Hole In The 3C61.1 Galaxy via Alpha Galileo

From The Telegraph:

Until recently, radio astronomers have concentrated almost exclusively on the high-energy radiation streaming in towards Earth from exotic stellar bodies like pulsars, quasars, and super-massive black holes. But now, a new European observatory called the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) has begun releasing data on the low-energy radiation that permeates the Universe.

Read more ....

The Woman Photographer Who Braves Temperatures Of MINUS 20 To Take Stunning Pictures Of Northern Lights

Linda Drake uses a variety of different camera exposure times to photograph the spectacular lights

From The Daily Mail:

A photographer has captured some of the most stunning examples of the Northern Lights ever seen.

Travelling each year to Northern Manitoba in Canada to capture the Aurora Borealis, Linda Drake braves temperatures of minus 20 degrees in search of that elusive perfect shot.

Making the pilgrimage to just south of the Arctic Circle, in March each year, the 40-year-old has developed a passion for the heavenly phenomenon.

Read more ....

'Climategate' Panel Set To Report

From The BBC:

The second of three reviews into hacked climate e-mails from the University of East Anglia (UEA) is set to be released later.

It has examined scientific papers published over 20 years by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the heart of the e-mail controversy.

The panel was nominated by the Royal Society, and climate sceptics forecast it would defend establishment science.

But the BBC understands the panel has taken a hard look at CRU methodology.

Read more ....

Twitter To Have Paid Tweets Show Up In Searches

From ABC News:

Twitter introduces tweets paid for by advertisers, to show up first in search results.

Twitter announced Tuesday that it is introducing advertising by allowing companies to pay to have their messages show up first in searches on its site.

The debut of "Promoted Tweets" comes as Twitter increasingly faces questions about how it can turn its wide usage into profits.

Read more ....

Inexpensive Highly Efficient Solar Cells Possible

Researchers have come up with solutions for two problems that, for the last twenty years, have been hampering the development of efficient and affordable solar cells. (Credit: iStockphoto/Kyu Oh)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 12, 2010) — Thanks to two technologies developed by Professor Benoît Marsan and his team at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Chemistry Department, the scientific and commercial future of solar cells could be totally transformed. Professor Marsan has come up with solutions for two problems that, for the last twenty years, have been hampering the development of efficient and affordable solar cells.

Read more ....

One Mystery of Sandstorm Lightning Explained

From Live Science:

Sandstorms can generate spectacular lightning displays, but how they do so is a mystery.

By unlocking the secrets of how sparks come to fly in these storms as researchers are now doing, scientists could help grapple with all kinds of problems, from charged particle clouds that can cause devastating explosions in the food, drug and coal industries to charged dust that could obscure vital solar panels on missions to the moon or Mars.

Read more ....

Twitter Reveals Business Model

From Technology Review:

"Promoted Tweets" will bring ads into the stream of real-time conversation.

At long last, Twitter has announced its business model. The company has grown explosively since its launch in 2007 and there has been intense speculation about how it could make its popular service profitable. The plan is to use an advertising model that it calls "Promoted Tweets."

Read more ....

The Apollo Hoax Theories

Neil Armstrong/Keystone/Getty Images

From The Independent:

It is 40 years since the drama of the Apollo 13 mission turned an aborted mission to the moon from potential disaster into a celebrated recovery.

But doubts still linger about the moon landings. 9/11 and Kennedy aside, no event in world history has generated quite so many conspiracy theories than the Apollo moon landings. Do they stand up? Here are the best reasons why it couldn’t have happened, and the rebuttals. Of course, you may disagree.

Read more ....

Meet The New Head Of DARPA

LEADER Regina Dugan of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Michael Temchine for The New York Times

New Force Behind Agency of Wonder -- New York Times

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is different from other federal agencies. For one thing, the agency, known as Darpa, created the Internet (really). For another, it is probably the only agency ever to offer a $40,000 prize for a balloon hunt, a contest that was inspired by Regina Dugan, a 47-year-old expert in mine detection, who took over last summer as its director.

Dr. Dugan, who has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, is the first woman to be the director of Darpa, and those who know her say she has a knack for inspiring, and indeed insisting on, creative thinking.

Read more ....

Copyright Violation Alert Ransomware In The Wild

From ZNET:

A currently ongoing ransomware campaign is using a novel approach to extort money from end users whose PCs have been locked down.

By pretending to be the fake ICPP Foundation (icpp-online.com), the ransomware locks down the user’s desktop issuing a “Copyright violation: copyrighted content detected” message, which lists torrent files found on the infected PC, and forces the user to pay $400 for the copyright holder’s fine, emphasizing on the fact that “the maximum penalties can be five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.

More details on the campaign:

Read more ....

Can Mozilla Be Bigger Than Facebook?

From CNET:

Mozilla has made a name for itself by taking on Microsoft Internet Explorer in the browser market, claiming as much as 30 percent of the global market with its open-source Firefox browser. Mozilla's second act, however, promises to be much more difficult, with increased competition from Microsoft but also from open-source competitors like Google Chrome.

What should Mozilla do next?

Read more ....

Pluto Joined By Up To 50 More Dwarf Planets

Comparative sizes of four dwarf planets, which may be joined by up to 50 more objects. Credit: Hubble Space Telescope

From Cosmos:

SYDNEY: The status of former planet Pluto has taken another blow, with new research suggesting up to 50 known objects may also meet the criteria to be dwarf planets.

To be labelled as a dwarf planet, an object must meet two criteria, as determined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU): they must be 'nearly round' and they must orbit the Sun.

Read more ....

Does Stress Feed Cancer?

PUSHING IT: Stress is linked indirectly to the immune system's anti-tumor defenses, but it can also affect anoikis--a type of cell death that cancer cells bypass. iStockphoto

From Scientific American:

A new study shows stress hormones make it easier for malignant tumors to grow and spread.

A little stress can do us good—it pushes us to compete and innovate. But chronic stress can increase the risk of diseases such as depression, heart disease and even cancer. Studies have shown that stress might promote cancer indirectly by weakening the immune system's anti-tumor defense or by encouraging new tumor-feeding blood vessels to form. But a new study published April 12 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation shows that stress hormones, such as adrenaline, can directly support tumor growth and spread.

Read more ....

Astronauts Take 3rd, Final Spacewalk; Valve Stuck

From ABC News:

Astronauts take 3rd, final spacewalk to finish installing tank; stuck valve threatens cooling.

A pair of spacewalking astronauts finished installing a fresh storage tank outside the International Space Station on Tuesday, but a stuck valve was threatening to jeopardize half of the cooling system.

No sooner had Rick Mastracchio hooked up the fluid valves for the new ammonia tank on the third and final spacewalk of shuttle Discovery's flight, then flight controllers encountered the valve trouble in a separate pressurizing unit.

Read more ....

40 Yard Dash: Average Dude Vs Pro Athlete

Video from the NFL Combine showing just how fast prospective NFL players can run compared to normal people.

It is almost unbelievable how quickly Jacoby Ford (the top performer in the 40 this year) covers that distance.

Above video from Kottke.org

Hat Tip: Geek Press

Turning Planetary Theory Upside Down: Nine New Exoplanets Found, Some With Retrograde Orbits

Exoplanets, discovered by WASP together with ESO telescopes, that unexpectedly have been found to have retrograde orbits are shown here. In all cases the star is shown to scale, with its rotation axis pointing up and with realistic colours. The exoplanets are shown during the transit of their parent star, just before mid-transit. The last object at the lower right is for comparison and has a “normal” orbital direction. The size of each image is three solar diameters. (Credit: ESO/A. C. Cameron)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 13, 2010) — The discovery of nine new transiting exoplanets has been announced at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting. When these new results were combined with earlier observations of transiting exoplanets astronomers were surprised to find that six out of a larger sample of 27 were found to be orbiting in the opposite direction to the rotation of their host star -- the exact reverse of what is seen in our own solar system.

Read more ....

Alzheimer's Self Test Works Surprisingly Well

From Live Science:

A newly developed handwritten test designed to assess cognitive abilities in older adults could one day serve as a tool to help detect Alzheimer's disease in its early stages, new research suggests.

While previous pen-and-paper tests have been developed to help identify memory problems, most of them require a doctor to administer it. The new test, on the other hand, is self-administered.

Read more ....

2010 Forecast As Busy Year For Hurricanes

From USA Today:

The Atlantic basin is facing a busier-than-usual hurricane season, in part because of record warm water in the ocean, according to the latest hurricane forecast.

Colorado State University's forecast, released Wednesday, calls for 15 named tropical storms this year in the Atlantic basin, which includes the Carribean and Gulf of Mexico. The team says eight will become hurricanes, with sustained winds reaching 74 mph. Four are expected to be major hurricanes — Categories 3, 4 or 5 — with maximum wind speeds of 111 mph or greater.

Read more ....

Instead Of "Arms Control", We Have "Cyber Controls"

Photo: Cyber warrior: Vladislav Sherstuyuk, a retired four-star Russian general who leads the Institute of Information Security Issues at Moscow State University, announced a new cyber security research collaboration on Monday. Credit: Veni Markovski

Exposing Hackers As A Deterrent -- Technology Review

Two researchers propose a novel form of "arms control" at a conference in Germany.

Cyber attacks can come from governments, terrorists, thieves, or bored high school students. This makes the cyber security equivalent of "arms control" difficult to achieve. But a pair of researchers yesterday proposed methods of deterrence that they believe could work in cyberspace.

Read more ....

GM Viruses Offer Hope Of Future Where Energy Is Unlimited

Photosynthesis is probably the most critical chemical process on earth. It mostly takes place in tiny structures called chloroplasts found inside the cells of a plant's leaves. Alamy

From The Independent:

Breakthrough as US researchers replicate photosynthesis in laboratory.

Scientists have made a fundamental breakthrough in their attempts to replicate photosynthesis – the ability of plants to harvest the power of sunlight – in the hope of making unlimited amounts of "green" energy from water and sunlight alone.

Read more ....

Study: Spanking Kids Leads To More Aggressive Behavior

A mother spanks her daughter. Peter Dazeley / Photographer's Choice / Getty Images

From Time Magazine:

Disciplining young children is one of the key jobs of any parent — most people would have no trouble agreeing with that. But whether or not that discipline should include spanking or other forms of corporal punishment is a far trickier issue.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) does not endorse spanking for any reason, citing its lack of long-term effectiveness as a behavior-changing tactic. Instead the AAP supports strategies such as time-outs when children misbehave, which focus on getting kids to reflect on their behavior and the consequences of their actions. Still, as many parents can attest, few responses bring about the immediate interruption of a full-blown tantrum like a swift whack to the bottom.

Read more ....

Take From ATM Malware Caper Exceeded $200,000

From Threat Level:

A Bank of America worker who installed malicious software on his employer’s ATMs was able to siphon at least $200,000 from the hacked machines before he was caught, according to a plea agreement he entered with prosecutors last week.

Rodney Reed Caverly, 37, was a member of the bank’s IT staff when he installed the malware, which instructed the machines to dispense free cash without creating a record of the transaction. The Charlotte, North Carolina, man made fraudulent withdrawals over a seven-month period ending in October 2009, according to prosecutors, who’ve charged him with one count of computer fraud.

Read more ....

Russian President Calls Station, Suggests 'Space Summit'

The International Space Station's six-member crew participates in a Cosmonautics Day call from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev early Monday. Back row, left to right: Timothy Creamer, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Soichi Noguchi. Front row, left to right: Alexander Skvortsov, commander Oleg Kotov and Mikhail Kornienko. (Credit: NASA TV)

From CNET:

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston--Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called the International Space Station Monday to mark the 49th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's launch on the first manned space flight, suggesting an international space summit to discuss future cooperative ventures on the high frontier.

Read more ....

Computer-Enhanced Vision Adds A 'Sixth Sense'

In the future you could be reminded about your experiences with people and places just by looking at them. Credit: iStockphot

From Cosmos:

MEGEVE, FRANCE: Picture this: as your eyes alight for the first time on a skyscraper in a foreign cityscape, a disembodied voice whispers in your ear the phone number of a posh bar on the top floor.

Or this: You have been spotted on the street by an old friend whose name suddenly eludes you. But even before there is time to shake hands, a glance at your smartphone reveals her identity and the date of your last encounter.

Read more ....

Rivers Heating Up With Warming

Image: Rivers that flow near U.S. cities, as the Delaware River, shown here, are warming at the fastest rate. Getty Images

From Discovery News:

Twenty major U.S. streams and rivers have warmed significantly over the last few decades, according to new research.

Along with warmer air and warmer oceans, rivers also seem to be heating up with global warming. Across the United States, a new study found, water temperatures in some rivers have risen by more than 3 degrees Celsius in the last few decades.

Read more ....

Hawaiian Submarine Canyons Are Hotspots Of Biodiversity And Biomass For Seafloor Animal Communities

Large gorgonian observed at 650 m off the North Coast of Moloka i, dubbed "Cousin It." (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Hawaii at Manoa)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 11, 2010) — Underwater canyons have long been considered important habitats for marine life, but until recently, only canyons on continental margins had been intensively studied. Researchers from Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) and the Universtiy of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) have now conducted the first extensive study of canyons in the oceanic Hawaiian Archipelago and found that these submarine canyons support especially abundant and unique communities of megafauna (large animals such as fish, shrimp, crabs, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins) including 41 species not observed in other habitats in the Hawaiian Islands.

Read more ....

Town From Before Invention Of Wheel Revealed

The Tell Zeidan site is about 48 feet high at its tallest point and covers about 30 acres. It sits in an area of irrigated fields at the junction of the Euphrates and Balikh Rivers in what is now northern Syria. Credit: Gil Stein, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.

From Live Science:

A prehistoric town that had remained untouched beneath the ground near Syria for 6,000 years is now revealing clues about the first cities in the Middle East prior to the invention of the wheel.

The town, called Tell Zeidan, dates from between 6000 B.C. and 4000 B.C., and immediately preceded the world's first urban civilizations in the ancient Middle East. It is one of the largest sites of the Ubaid culture in northern Mesopotamia.

Read more ....

Gorillas Losing Battle Against Loggers And Hunters In Central Africa

From Times Online:

Gorillas in Central Africa are in danger from illegal logging, mining and from hunters killing great apes for meat, says a new report from the United Nations and Interpol.

In 2002 it was estimated that only 10 per cent of gorillas would remain by 2030.

“We fear now that the gorillas may become extinct from most parts of their range in perhaps 15 years,” said Christian Nellemann, of the UN Environmental Programme.

Read more ....

New Species 'Live Without Oxygen'

One of the species has been named Spinoloricus Cinzia, after Dr Danovaro's wife

From The Telegraph:

Three species of creature, which are only a millimetre long and resemble jellyfish encased in shells, were found 2.2 miles (3.5km) underwater on the ocean floor, 124 miles (200km) off the coast of Crete, in an area with almost no oxygen.

The animals, named Loriciferans due to their protective layer, or lorica, were discovered by a team led by Roberto Danovaro from Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona, Italy.

Read more ....

How Carbon Dioxide In The Blood Could Be Responsible For Near-Death Experiences

Towards the light: People who have out-of-body experiences on the operating table may have high levels of carbon dioxide in their blood

From The Daily Mail:

Some experience an out-of-body floating sensation, others an intense feeling of joy and peace.

Now scientists believe they have explained what causes the near death experiences reported by thousands of people on the operating table.

A study of heart attack victims has found a link between out of body experiences and high levels of carbon dioxide in the blood.

Read more ....

Wonder Lust: Trinity Test Site

Making the pilgrimage to ground zero (Image: Joe Raedle/Getty)

From New Scientist:

AT 15 seconds to 5.30 am on 16 July 1945, the world's first nuclear explosion turned 4 hectares of sand into glass and signalled the start of the atomic age. It happened at the Trinity site in the Jornada del Muerto desert of southern New Mexico.

It's hard to imagine a more isolated, desolate spot. Yet the site, part of the White Sands missile range, is open two days each year to pilgrims to this "ground zero" of the nuclear arms race. Aside from a bus that runs between the blast site and a historic ranch house where the bomb's plutonium core was assembled, visitors have to fend for themselves.

Read more ....

Robo-Suit Will Help Aging Japanese Farmers Pick Crops ith EaseW

Robotic Suit Aids Farmers A postgraduate student at the Tokyo Agriculture and Technology University models a motorized exoskeleton developed to help aging farmers endure the strain of hard labor. AFP

From Popular Science:

Harvesting the bounty of the earth is harder than it looks, especially you're over 65 years old -- as two-thirds of Japan's farmers are. For those whose joints ache more with every radish pulled out of the ground, Shigeki Toyama, a professor at Tokyo Agriculture and Technology (TAT) University, has developed a motorized exoskeleton designed to boost the wearer's strength by 62 percent.

Read more ....

Hewlett Packard Outlines Computer Memory Of The Future

Image: 17 memristors captured by an atomic force microscope

From The BBC:

The fundamental building blocks of all computing devices could be about to undergo a dramatic change that would allow faster, more efficient machines.

Researchers at computer firm Hewlett Packard (HP) have shown off working devices built using memristors - often described as electronics' missing link.

These tiny devices were proposed 40 years ago but only fabricated in 2008.

HP says it has now shown that they can be used to crunch data, meaning they could be used to build advanced chips.

That means they could begin to replace transistors - the tiny switches used to build today's chips.

Read more ....

Did A Comet Trigger A Mini Ice Age?

A sudden plunge of global temperatures 12,900 years ago may have been caused by a comet impact, a British researcher argues. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey

From Cosmos/AFP:

PARIS: A sudden plunge of global temperatures at the dawn of human civilisation may have been caused by a comet impact, a British researcher argues.

Known as 'the Younger Dryas', it has been also called the Big Freeze and the Last Blast of the Ice Age - but for researchers trying to understand the Earth's ancient climate, it's one of the big mysteries of the field.

Read more ....

Space Skydiver Suit Revealed

From Discovery News:

Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner wants to attempt a record-breaking free fall from 120,000 feet above the Earth. It's not the kind of jump a person can do with a conventional sky-diving suit and helmet. After all, Baumgartner will break the speed of sound during his fall. He will need life-support.

Read more ....

Periodic Discussions: It's Going To Take A Long Time For Element 117 To Make It Onto The Periodic Table. Why?

From Slate:

A team of Russian and American scientists announced today the creation of several atoms of the previously unknown element 117. The discovery of "ununseptium" will eventually fill a longtime gap on the periodic table, although that formal change may not happen for years. In June 2009, element 112 was designated as an official element, more than a decade after it was first created. Sam Kean explained why changing the periodic table requires the scientific equivalent of a Supreme Court decision. His column is reprinted below.

Read more ....

Scientists Explore Origins Of 'Supervolcanoes' On The Sea Floor: Ancient Goliaths Blamed For Multiple Mass Extinctions

JOIDES Resolution departing from Yokohama, Japan, on the Shatsky Rise expedition. (Credit: John Beck, IODP/TAMU)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2010) — "Supervolcanoes" have been blamed for multiple mass extinctions in Earth's history, but the cause of their massive eruptions is unknown.

Despite their global impact, the eruptions' origin and triggering mechanisms have remained unexplained. New data obtained during a recent Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) expedition in the Pacific Ocean may provide clues to unlocking this mystery.

Read more ....

Ancient Pre-Human Skeleton May Contain Shrunken Brain

The cranium of the newly identified species, Australopithecus sediba, was found at the Malapa site, South Africa. Credit: Photo by Brett Eloff courtesy of Lee Berger and the University of the Witwatersrand.

From Live Science:

A shrunken brain may potentially lie inside the fossil skull of a newfound candidate for the immediate ancestor to the human lineage, researchers now reveal.

This new species, dubbed Australopithecus sediba, was accidentally discovered in South Africa by the 9-year-old son of a scientist. Two members of this hominid were introduced to the world last week — a juvenile male and an adult female, who might have known each other in life and who could have met their demise by falling into the remains of the cave where they were discovered.

Read more ....

The 10 Best Mathematicians

Pythagoras, from a 1920s textbook. Photograph: © Blue Lantern Studio/Corbis

From The Guardian:

Alex Bellos selects the maths geniuses whose revolutionary discoveries changed our world.

Pythagoras (circa 570-495BC)

Vegetarian mystical leader and number-obsessive, he owes his standing as the most famous name in maths due to a theorem about right-angled triangles, although it now appears it probably predated him. He lived in a community where numbers were venerated as much for their spiritual qualities as for their mathematical ones. His elevation of numbers as the essence of the world made him the towering primogenitor of Greek mathematics, essentially the beginning of mathematics as we know it now. And, famously, he didn't eat beans.

Read more ....

Profile: Julian Assange, The Man Behind Wikileaks

Julian Assange

From Times Online:

They seek him here, they seek him there, but the founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks is as elusive as a modern-day pimpernel.

Julian Assange dreamt that one day the internet would streamline the leaking of state secrets. Last week his whistleblowers’ website posted its most explosive leak yet: a secret video shot by an American attack helicopter of Iraqi civilians and a Reuters photographer being mown down, apparently in cold blood.

Read more ....

Images Mark 20 Years Of Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

From The Telegraph:

The most dramatic and significant images of the universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope have been named to mark the iconic telescope's 20th anniversary in space.

In the two decades since its launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has transformed the way we see and understand our universe.

In pictures: 3D space pictures: stereo images of moons, galaxies and nebulae

Read more ....

New Super-Heavy Element Discovered That Points Towards 'Strange Materials Of The Future'

From The Daily Mail:

Physicists have discovered a new super-heavy element that had been labeled a nuclear 'missing link' by scientists.

The element 117 is roughly 40 per cent heavier than lead and has been given the temporary name ununseptium, which refers to its atomic number.

Researchers believe the element points towards a concoction of more massive and stable elements that could be used to create strange and unpredictable new materials.

Read more ....

First Footage From World's Deepest Volcanic Vents

From New Scientist:

At this depth, the water is hot enough to melt lead, and the pressure it exerts means that every square centimetre has to withstand the weight of five hefty men.

"It was like wandering across the surface of another world," says Bramley Murton, a geologist at the National Oceanographic Centre (NOC) in Southampton, UK, who piloted the Hy-Bis underwater vehicle around these deep volcanic vents and filmed them for the first time.

Read more ....

Happy 50th Birthday To The Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence!

SETI's Allen Telescope Array via SETI Institute

From Popular Science:

Celebrating half a century of no aliens

Fifty years ago today, on April 8th, 1960, a Cornell astronomy professor named Frank Drake pointed a radio telescope at the star Tau Ceti in the hope of hearing broadcasts from extraterrestrial intelligence. Naturally, he didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. But with this experiment, Drake began the decades-long search for aliens, known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), that celebrates its 50th anniversary today. Over the last half century, SETI has failed at its initial goal of contacting aliens, but succeeded mightily in bringing new attention to astronomy, helping to develop cloud computing, and inspiring generations of new scientists.

Read more ....

'World Needs A Barometer Of Life'

From The BBC:

The world needs a "barometer of life" to prevent ecosystems and species being lost forever, scientists have warned.

Existing schemes, they said, did not include enough species from groups such as fungi and invertebrates to provide a detailed picture of what is at risk.

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said the barometer would increase the number of species being assessed from almost 48,000 to 160,000.

The data would help identify areas in need of urgent action, they added.

Read more ....

CSN Editor On Vacation, Will Be Back Soon

Update: Taking Easter off with family. Will return on Monday, April 12.

Yup .... took a little vacation. Will be back soon.

US Launches Agency To Monitor Evereyone

Army Biometrics U.S. Army Staff Sgts. Jerrod McClure, foreground, and Aaron McFarland, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, input Iraqi's data into a biometrics system Dec. 15, 2008, in Nimrud, Iraq, as part of the application process for Iraqis applying to work on a road repair project in the city. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. JoAnn S. Makinano

U.S. Government Launches Official Agency to Manage Biometric Database -- Popular Science

All hail BIMA, the new U.S. biometrics agency.

Collecting fingerprints and other biometric data has long allowed law enforcement and the military alike to track down wanted individuals, solve cases, or just keep tabs on people. Now what was a U.S. government task force under the U.S. Army has officially become a full-scale national security agency in charge of biometrics, according to the Secrecy News blog run by the Federation of American Scientists.

Read more ....

Picking Our Brains: Can Ee Regenerate The Brain?

The nervous system has 10,000 different types of neuron (Image: Jean Livet)

From New Scientist:

YOU were born with all the brain cells you'll ever have, so the saying goes.

So much for sayings. In the 1990s, decades of dogma were overturned by the discovery that mammals, including people, make new neurons throughout their lives. In humans, such "neurogenesis" has been seen in two places: neurons formed in the olfactory bulb seem to be involved in learning new smells, while those born in the hippocampus are involved in learning and memory.

Read more ....