Herb Quells Cows' Methane-Laden Belches

From Live Science:

For scientists concerned about greenhouse gas emissions, cow farts are nowhere near as problematic as their methane-laden belches. Now a new oregano supplement could stem the burps and reduce the potent methane emissions.

Worldwide, cows are responsible for 37 percent of the human-produced methane, according to study researcher Alexander Hristov, an associate professor of dairy nutrition at Penn State University. Most of that methane comes not from the backsides of cows, but from the gas they belch after digesting their food, according to Hristov and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

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My Comment: Belching creates more methane gas than farting .... that is news to me.

Whoops! The 10 Greatest (Accidental) Inventions of All Time

From Gizmodo:

"Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits," Thomas Edison once said. But is hustling all it takes? Is progress always deliberate? Sometimes genius arrives not by choice—but by chance. Below are our ten favorite serendipitous innovations.

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The 727 That Vanished

In 2003, a 727 that once flew for American Airlines disappeared from Angola.
(Courtesy Mike Gabriel)

From Air & Space Magazine:

A case pursued by the FBI, the CIA, the U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security, CENTCOM, and the sister of Ben Padilla.

Seven years after her brother disappeared from Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport in Angola, Benita Padilla-Kirkland is trying to persuade the FBI to re-open his case. She believes she has the “new information” agents told her they require. But she suspects that the agency already has more information than agents will admit to.

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Archive Gallery: The Twentieth Century's Best-Kept Military Secrets

From Popular Science:

Death-ray bombs, giant flamethrowers, unclassified airfields, and more of history's deepest military secrets.

It's hard to look at military spending without wondering what's behind the scenes.. For instance, in this month's issue of Popular Science, we investigate what exactly the Pentagon is getting for the $58 billion it has dropped on classified assassination weapons.

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My Comment:View the photo gallery starting here.

Warming Solution: Just Stop Cold?

From National Geographic:

The greatest climate threat is from future cars and building, study says.

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

Imagine that tomorrow, the whole world will stop building things that burn fossil fuels—cars and planes, power plants, and housing tracts.

How much more global warming would the planet endure?

(See Related, from National Geographic Channel: "Aftermath: Population Zero" )

This might sound like an environmentalist's dream—or a CEO's nightmare—but it's a serious question addressed by a new study published in the September 10 issue of Science.

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Mars Shows Signs Of Recent Activity

MARS PHOENIX LANDERA new analysis of carbon dioxide gas sampled in 2008 by NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander, shown in this self-portrait taken by a camera on the lander, suggests that the Red Planet may have been an active place with volcanoes and liquid water during the past 100 million years.JPL/NASA, University of Arizona, Texas A&M University

From Science News:

Carbon dioxide measurements suggest liquid water and volcanoes in past 100 million years.

New evidence suggests that Mars was much more active in the relatively recent past, with volcanoes erupting and water flowing on its surface within the past 100 million years.

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Skydiving From The Edge Of Space: Can A Human Break The Sound Barrier?

Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner in his high-altitude suit after a test jump in California. Photograph: Robert Yager

From The Guardian:

A person freefalling from 120,000 feet would theoretically reach a supersonic speed of over 700mph. Two daredevils of the skies are racing to break the sound barrier – and face unknown hazards in their attempt.

We know this. At around 120,000 feet, on the fringes of space, the air is so thin that a falling human body would travel fast enough to exceed the speed of sound. A skydiver, properly equipped with pressurised suit and a supply of oxygen to protect against the hostile elements, could feasibly jump from that height and, about 30 seconds later, punch through the sound barrier – becoming the first person ever to go "supersonic" without the aid of an aircraft or space shuttle.

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World's Most Expensive Book Up For Grabs

(Image: Sotheby's)

From New Scientist:

If you like this picture of snowy owls and have a spare £4 to £6 million floating around, you might want make a bid for Audubon's book Birds of America when it goes to auction on 7 December at Sothebys, London.

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Evolving Culture: Where Do We Go From Here?

Hide And Seek? A male musk ox stands in a paddock at the Large Animal Research Station in Fairbanks, Alaska. The musk ox is genetically adapted to survive the harsh climate. Its long hair skirt, covering a fine wool coat and a 2-inch layer of fat, allows the animal to retain heat during the long, lean winters. All animals, except humans, adapt to climate by changing genetically. Jane Greenhalgh/NPR

From NPR:

For billions of years, the environment and how it affected organisms' genes was the key to evolution. But in the past 10,000 years, for humans at least, genetic evolution has been nudged aside by something more powerful.

"What we are able to do which other animals aren't able to do is to rapidly adapt to completely new environments," says Robert Boyd, an anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Most animals — all animals except humans — would have to adapt to that by changing genetically."

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Extreme X-Ray Source Suggests New Class of Black Hole

This is an artist's impression of the source HLX-1 (represented by the light blue object to the top left of the galactic bulge) in the periphery of the edge-on spiral galaxy ESO 243-49. This is the first strong evidence for the existence of intermediate mass black holes. (Credit: Heidi Sagerud)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 8, 2010) — A group of international astronomers in the UK, France and the USA, led by the University of Leicester, have found proof to confirm the distance and brightness of the most extreme ultra-luminous X-ray source, which may herald a new type of Black Hole.

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Humpback Dinosaur Surprises and Puzzles Experts

Hypothetical reconstruction of the flesh-eating dinosaur Concavenator that lived 125 million years ago shows the animal's humpback and spiky appendages on its forearms that may have been wings. Copyright: Raúl Martín.

From Live Science:

A hunchback dinosaur of sorts once roamed what is now central Spain. The meat-eating beast sported a humplike structure low on its back, a feature never previously described in dinosaurs, and one that has scientists scratching their heads.

The dinosaur, which is being called Concavenator corcovatus, measured nearly 20 feet (6 meters) in length and belonged to a group of some of the largest predatory dinosaurs known to walk the earth — carcharodontosaurs. It lived some 125 million years ago.

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The New iPod Line: A Mix Of Hits And Misses

From Chicago Sun Times:

September means three things: letter carriers and UPS delivery drivers tentatively start wearing long pants again, there will be a day when your entire sunny disposition is soured by the sounds of the first Christmas ad of the season ... and Apple releases updates to all of their iPods.

I’ve had time to use the new Shuffle, Nano, and Touch and I declare the 2010 editions to be a mixed bag. One is a retreat back that amounts to a big step forward; another is set of “under the hood” upgrades that adds true muscle car performance; and the third is ...

... um ...

Quite creative.

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Junkie Food: Tastes Your Brain Can't Resist

A delicious indulgence, or your next desperate hit? (Image: Jonphotography.com)

From New Scientist:

Is that cupcake an innocent indulgence? Or your next hit? We're finding that a sweet tooth makes you just as much an addict as snorting cocaine

SETTLED on the sofa watching the usual rubbish on TV, I notice that predictable, uncontrollable, nightly craving. At first I sit there, fighting it. But the longer I fight, the worse it gets. After 20 minutes, I can't concentrate on anything, I feel anxious, and start fidgeting like crazy. Finally, admitting my addiction, I break. I go to the freezer - to my stash of white stuff - and take a hit. Almost instantly, I relax, my brain in a state of bliss as the chemical courses through my veins. Isn't it amazing what a few scoops of ice cream can do?

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Brace For Global Cooling, Says The Old Farmer's Almanac

The Statue of Liberty, depicted frozen solid in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow." Many weather forecasters and scientists wonder whether a coming period of "global cooling" may be on the way. Twentieth Century Fox

From FOX News:

DUBLIN, N.H. – Most of the country will see a colder-than-usual winter while summer and spring will be relatively cool and dry, according to the time-honored, complex calculations of the "Old Farmer's Almanac."

The 2011 issue of the almanac, which claims to be the nation's oldest continuously published periodical, was released Tuesday. It predicts that in the coming months, the Earth will continue to see a "gradual cooling of the atmosphere ... offset by any warming caused by increased greenhouse gases."

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Optical Speedbumps Create Illusion of Little Girl Darting Out In Front Of You

Slow Down As the driver approaches, this 2-D optical illusion painted on the pavement comes into focus, appearing in 3-D and reminding drivers to slow down.

From Popular Science:

Civil authorities around the world have tried all kinds of tricks to get drivers to slow down: speed bumps, rumble strips, flashing lights, the decoy police cruiser, and of course the good old-fashioned speed trap. The British Columbia Automobile Association Traffic Safety Foundation is taking a different tack: scaring the living hell out of drivers. In an effort to brusquely remind drivers of the consequences of wanton acceleration, they’re painting an elongated image of a child chasing a ball into the street in 2-D on the pavement in such a way that it appears three-dimensional.

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Human Body Parts Found in Tiger Shark's Stomach

From Discovery News:

The legs, arms and severed torso of a person were all found inside the stomach of a tiger shark caught by sport fishermen last weekend, according to The Press Association, The Boston Herald, and numerous other reports.

Tiger sharks can swim over long distances, so it is not yet clear where the 12-foot-long shark consumed its human victim. Police are currently conducting DNA tests on the person's remains, Assistant Police Commissioner Glenn Miller in Nassau, Bahamas, told AP.

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Ipad Killers

(Photo: Apple iPad)

From CBS:

The product that ignited what until then had been a dormant market, Apple's iPad dominates the category. But its success has ignited the imagination of rivals who are prepping their own tablet computers - some of which are now available, others which are expected soon. Some made a splash last week at the IFA Berlin show last week and more doubtless will debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. This much is clear: If the iPad is not your cup of tea, sit tight - fairly soon, there are going to be far more consumer touch-screen tablets to choose from.

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One In Four Gives Fake Net Names

From The BBC:

More than a quarter of people online have lied about their name and more than one in five has done something online they regret, says a new report.

The behavioural and psychological impacts of online life are outlined in a report from the security firm Norton.

The report suggests that two-thirds of web users have been hit by cybercrime, with the costs and time to resolve the crime varying widely around the world.

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Fundamental Constant Might Change Across Space

A team of astronomers have obtained new data by studying quasars, which are very distant galaxies hosting an active black hole in their center. As the light emitted by quasars travels throughout the cosmos, part of it is absorbed by a variety of atoms present in interstellar clouds, providing astronomers with a natural laboratory to test the laws of physics billions of light-years away from the Earth. Credit: Dr. Julian Berengut, UNSW, 2010.

From Space Daily:

New research suggests that the supposedly invariant fine-structure constant, which characterizes the strength of the electromagnetic
force, varies from place to place throughout the Universe. The finding could mean rethinking the fundaments of our current knowledge of physics.

These results will be presented tomorrow during the Joint European and National Astronomy Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, and the scientific article has been submitted to the Physical Review Letters Journal.

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The Brain Speaks: Scientists Decode Words From Brain Signals

This photo shows two kinds of electrodes sitting atop a severely epileptic patient's brain after part of his skull was removed temporarily. The larger, numbered, button-like electrodes are ECoGs used by surgeons to locate and then remove brain areas responsible for severe epileptic seizures. While the patient had to undergo that procedure, he volunteered to let researchers place two small grids -- each with 16 tiny "microECoG" electrodes -- over two brain areas responsible for speech. These grids are at the end of the green and orange wire bundles, and the grids are represented by two sets of 16 white dots since the actual grids cannot be seen easily in the photo. University of Utah scientists used the microelectrodes to translate speech-related brain signals into actual words -- a step toward future machines to allow severely paralyzed people to speak. (Credit: University of Utah Department of Neurosurgery)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2010) — In an early step toward letting severely paralyzed people speak with their thoughts, University of Utah researchers translated brain signals into words using two grids of 16 microelectrodes implanted beneath the skull but atop the brain.

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NASA Team To Trapped Miners: No Alcohol Or Cigarettes

Workers stand next to a special drill, the Xtrata 950, which will dig an escape hole for the miners who are trapped underground in a copper and gold mine, as it is transported to the top of a hill at Copiapo, some 725 km (450 miles) north of Santiago August 27, 2010.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

From Live Science:

After spending almost a week in Chile, a team of NASA personnel sent to provide nutritional advice and psychological support to 33 trapped miners reported Tuesday that the efforts of the Chilean government have been outstanding so far, and the focus needs to be on long-term strategies that will allow the men to live sustainably underground as a community.

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The Shark Soup Massacre And How To Stop It

From New Scientist:

Sharks attacking humans is big news; humans attacking sharks, not so much. Conservation photographers Paul Hilton and Alex Hofford are trying to redress this imbalance. In revealing the extent of the bloody trade in shark fins, their book Man and Shark is a testament of our cruelty towards these majestic creatures.

Hilton and Hofford, who both live in Hong Kong, have witnessed the butchery of sharks in places as diverse as Mozambique, Yemen and Sri Lanka. But Hofford had seen nothing until he went to Japan.

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Scientists Invent A Tractor Beam

In "Stak Trek," Federation starships relied upon tractor beams to hold and tow other vessels. Scientists may not be there yet, but they have managed to tow a small particle using light beams

From FOX News:

WASHINGTON – Tractor beams, energy rays that can move objects, are a science fiction mainstay. But now they are becoming a reality -- at least for moving very tiny objects.

Researchers from the Australian National University have announced that they have built a device that can move small particles a meter and a half using only the power of light.

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Airborne Laser Weapon Fails to Take Down Dummy Nuke In Critical 100-Mile Test Shot

The Airborne Laser Test Bed Missile Defense Agency

From Popular Science:

The Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser Test Bed (ALTB) – formerly known simply as the Airborne Laser – has endured a back-and-forth existence, at different times the darling of the MDA, at other times on the verge of catching the Pentagon or Congressional axe. But after an all-around success in February, the scales have tipped back the other way for the embattled ICBM-blaster as it failed a critical test on September 1.

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Hubble Spots Ghostly Space Spiral

From Discovery News:

When I first saw this ghostly Hubble Space Telescope image, I assumed that faint blurry spiral was a lens flare or some other photographic anomaly. But on closer inspection, the details started to present themselves.

As imaged by the space telescope's sensitive Advanced Camera for Surveys, this striking pattern is formed by material being ejected from a dying star. But this isn't a lone star; there's a second star -- a binary partner -- orbiting with it and modulating the expanding gas.

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Mystery Of Google Doodles Answered: 'Google Instant'

From CBS News:

The big tease of the last few days is over: Google earlier today announced a search enhancement called Google Instant.

Google Instant, which is rolling out through the course of the day, evolved from the company's mission to speed up search results for Internet queries. The basic change means that users will find a changing set of results in the middle of the page each time they type in a character into the search box. The added technology is designed to help Google's search engine predict what a person might be searching for.

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Are We Closer To A 'Theory Of Everything'?

From The BBC:

The physicists' ultimate dream is the search for a "theory of everything", a unifying explanation that can make sense of the infinitely tiny as well as the infinitely large.

From the strange particles that are the terrain of atom-smashing machines such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern, to galaxies beyond our own, about which we're learning more and more through increasingly powerful telescopes and observatories.

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Evolution Of The Star Trek Warp Drive Effect

[Via Gizmodo]

Two Asteroids To Pass By Earth Wednesday

Two small asteroids in unrelated orbits will pass within the moon's distance of Earth on Wed. Both should be observable with moderate-sized amateur telescopes.

From Space Daily:

Two asteroids, several meters in diameter and in unrelated orbits, will pass within the moon's distance of Earth on Wednesday, Sept. 8.

Both asteroids should be observable near closest approach to Earth with moderate-sized amateur telescopes. Neither of these objects has a chance of hitting Earth.

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The Boss Is Robotic, And Rolling Up Behind You

Dr. John Whapham, using a robot, discussed care with a patient at Loyola University Medical Center near Chicago. Sally Ryan for The New York Times

From The New York Times:

SACRAMENTO — Dr. Alan Shatzel’s pager beeped at 9 on a Saturday morning. A man had suffered a stroke, and someone had to decide, quickly, whether to give him an anticlotting drug that could mean the difference between life and death.

Dr. Shatzel, a neurologist, hustled not to the emergency room where the patient lay — 260 miles away, in Bakersfield — but to a darkened room at a hospital here. He took a seat in front of the latest tools of his trade: computer monitors, a keyboard and a joystick that control his assistant on the scene — a robot on wheels.

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Can We Spot Volcanoes On Alien Worlds? Astronomers Say Yes

This artist's conception shows an extremely volcanic moon orbiting a gas giant planet in another star system. New research suggests that astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope could potentially detect volcanic activity on a distant Earth-sized planet by measuring volcanic gases in its atmosphere. Credit: (Credit: Wade Henning)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2010) — Volcanoes display the awesome power of Nature like few other events. Earlier this year, ash from an Icelandic volcano disrupted air travel throughout much of northern Europe. Yet this recent eruption pales next to the fury of Jupiter's moon Io, the most volcanic body in our solar system.

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New Details On How The Brain Responds To Fear

From Live Science:

Some ostensibly important politician once said, "The only thing we have to fear...is that a mad scientist will learn how to directly manipulate the brain regions responsible for fear itself." Whoever that was, he or she could not have been more insightful.

Thanks to some recent work from the European Molecular Biology Laboratories (EMBL) and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, fear itself might soon become the linchpin of this mad scientist's quest for world domination.

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Apple iPod Touch (4th Gen. With Camera)

From PC Magazine:

Apple's fourth-generation iPod touch finally gets a camera for HD video recording, and still-photo capture. Plus a second, front-facing camera brings FaceTime video chat to the touch. On the new high-res Retina display, everything looks crisp and colorful, and the screen remains highly responsive to touch. Apple eliminated video playback from its sixth-generation iPod nano ($149, ), making the touch the least-expensive video-playing iPod. Starting at $229 (direct, 8GB), however, it's not cheap, and that isn't much storage for an HD video device. The $299 32GB player seems like the best deal, while the 64GB model offers twice the storage, but remains exorbitantly priced at $399. Despite the cost, the iPod touch remains, by far, the best portable media player you can buy—and it retains our Editors' Choice crown.

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How Websites Make You Spill Your Secrets

Image: Owning up: Volunteers were more likely to divulge personal information to a less-official-looking website (top), than to an official-looking one (bottom). Credit: Carnegie Mellon University

From Technology Review:

People divulge more sensitive information on sites that look less safe.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have found that the appearance of website has a big effect on how honestly people answer personal questions put to them by the site. But paradoxically, it turns out we're more likely to spill our secrets on websites that appear less reputable. The way a website phrases questions also affects our willingness to disclose revealing information, the researchers found.

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Are We Living In A Designer Universe?

The argument over whether the universe has a creator, and who that might be, is among the oldest in human history. Photo: WALES NEWS SERVICE

From The Telegraph:

The creators of the world were closer to men than to gods, argues John Gribbin.

The argument over whether the universe has a creator, and who that might be, is among the oldest in human history. But amid the raging arguments between believers and sceptics, one possibility has been almost ignored – the idea that the universe around us was created by people very much like ourselves, using devices not too dissimilar to those available to scientists today.

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Google TV To Launch This Year

Doubts remain about the ease of integrating content for computers with that for TV sets – will remote controls be better than a mouse?

From The Guardian:

The new Google service will bring the web to TV screens – the announcement comes a week after a new version of Apple TV was unveiled.

Google will launch its Google TV service, which it intends will bring the web to TV screens, in the US this autumn and around the world next year, its chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said today.

In its sights will be a slice of the £117bn global TV advertising market – which it will want to add to its online advertising revenues, which totalled $22.9bn (£14.94bn) in 2009.

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Boeing's Billion Dollar Gamble

Boeing has taken 847 orders for the Dreamliner, worth nearly $150 billion, which makes the 787 the most successful new aircraft in Boeing's 94-year history

Boeing's Billion Dollar Gamble: Inside The World's Biggest Building, Where The New 787 Dreamliner Plane Is Built -- The Daily Mail

It's made in the world's biggest building, takes only four days to put together and is the first commercial aircraft built from carbon composites, but will the revolutionary new Dreamliner win the battle for our skies?

Tucked away in the upper north-west corner of the U.S., about 30 miles north of Seattle, sits the biggest building in the world, utterly dominating the town of Everett. It's three-quarters of a mile long and a third of a mile wide. Beneath the concrete floors there are two miles of pedestrian tunnels, while nestling in the five-storey structures that have sprung up inside the place are meeting rooms, offices and cafes. The inhabitants of this strange, vast palace get around on golf buggies and bicycles. It's so huge that the storm water runoff ponds - a must in Seattle winters - are large enough to float an ocean-going liner, and it has its own fire department.

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Money Can Buy You Happiness – Up To A Point

From New Scientist:

CAN money buy you happiness? The answer, it appears, depends on what you mean by "happiness". High earners are generally more satisfied with their lives, it seems, but a person's day-to-day emotional wellbeing is only influenced by money up to a certain point.

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How To Make The Perfect French Fry

adria.richards/Flickr

From Popular Mechanics:

For fare that looks so effortlessly prepared by millions of restaurant chains and festivals all over America, fried foods undergo a harrowing series of chemical reactions before they end up on your plate. Take the common French fry. Copying the magic of even a simple oil-cooked potato at home requires diligence, resources and certain flirtation with danger. Here is the food science you need to know to fry.

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What Was On Display At A Drone Trade Show

Global Hawk Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk is the highest-flying of the military’s current fleet of UAVs. With its 116-foot wingspan, it can climb to 60,000 feet and has a range of 9,500 nautical miles. Another show-goer gives a sense of scale. Eric Hagerman

Scenes From A Drone Trade Show -- Popular Science

Take a photo tour of AUVSI, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International trade show in Denver

When most people think "trade show," what comes to mind are harsh fluorescent lights and hollow convention halls, all filled with corporate drones (of the human variety) idly wandering through booths hyping the latest in office paper technology, stopping only to hover over bowls of stale candy and cheap swag.

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My Comment: The photo gallery is here.

Fears Of A Decline In Bee Pollination Confirmed

A recent study provides the first long-term evidence of a downward trend in pollination. (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2010) — Widespread reports of a decline in the population of bees and other flower-visiting animals have aroused fear and speculation that pollination is also likely on the decline. A recent University of Toronto study provides the first long-term evidence of a downward trend in pollination, while also pointing to climate change as a possible contributor.

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Mediterranean Shipwrecks Reveal Shift To Modern Shipbuilding

A cannon from the shipwreck of a vessel, likely British, recently discovered near Turkey. RPM Nautical Foundation

From Live Science:

Three recently discovered shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea could give archaeologists new insights into the transition between medieval and modern shipbuilding.

The remains of the three craft – all dating from between 1450 and 1600 – were found in the straits between Turkey and the Greek island of Rhodes. One ship appears to be a large English merchant ship, while the other two are smaller – perhaps a patrol craft from Rhodes and a small trading boat that could have been Turkish, Italian or Greek.

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A Cheaper, Safer Way To Move Natural Gas

Photo: Power snow: A five-centimeter-wide nozzle head (top) sprays out a mixture of methane and water that forms snow-like methane hydrate. Credit: Charles Taylor, NREL

From Technology Review:

A new transport method involving ice crystals could make it practical to get natural gas from remote areas, with no worries about explosions.

Storing and shipping natural gas by trapping it in ice--using technology being developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy--could cut shipping costs for the fuel, making it easier for countries to buy natural gas from many different sources, and eventually leading to more stable supplies worldwide.

Read more ....

Big Body Movements Key To Attracting Women On The Dance Floor

From The Telegraph:

Running on the spot, windmill arms and spinning may attract ridicule on the dance floor but it will also attract the opposite sex, claim psychologists.

Researchers asked women to judge men purely on their dance moves and found that it was those that showed the most movement of the body that were most attractive.

That means if you use big body movements and fancy footwork you may look like a show off but subconsciously women will desire you.

Read more ....

Many Fathers Get Depressed After Having Children

A study says one in five men suffer from depression after becoming fathers.
Photograph: Martin Argles

From The Guardian:

One in five men suffer from depression by the time their child is 12, according to a Medical Research Council study.

One in five men become depressed after becoming fathers as they juggle lack of sleep, extra responsibilities and a changed relationship with their partners, new research shows.

By the time their first child is 12, 21% of fathers have had at least one episode of depression, according to an in-depth study funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC).

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An F-22's Rainbow

Refraction Action: Stunning Rainbow Caught In Trail Of F-22 Fighter Jet -- The Daily Mail

It looks like a fancy new special smoke effect that would put the the Red Arrows' simple colours to shame.

But this spectacular photograph is simply a remarkable fluke of nature when all the components that were needed to create this kaleidoscope effect were suddenly present.

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My Comment: As an aviation buff, for me this is cool.

The Natural Selection Of Leaders (Commentary)

Was he born for the job? (Image: David Brown/Polaris/Eyevine)

From New Scientist:

IMAGINE this. You and your colleagues are gathered round a conference table, with coffee and biscuits. You open the door and greet the first sharp-suited candidate of the day. Before evening falls, one lucky applicant will hear the unlikely phrase: "We would like to offer you the job of being our boss."

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The Last Word On Battery Longevity In Gadgets

Your charging habits need to change. There's more life in those batteries than you think. (Photo by Flickr/jzx100.com)

From Popular Mechanics:

Where's the battery-extending truth in the mix of myths, speculation and red herrings? Yes, there is (some) actual scientific research that is all too often ignored. Here is how to make your electronic devices actually last longer.

The proof, to me, was irrefutable. I had bought a new iPod within weeks of my coworker: the same generation player, running on the same lithium-ion (li-ion) cobalt oxide battery. She plugged it into her computer every day to get to her music. That seemed like an astonishing mistake—obviously, her iPod's battery would suffer, since it would cycle every day, multiple times during each 8, 10 or 12-hour workday. My player, which I ran down completely before each charge, would burn less cycles, and retain more power in the long run.

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With Ancient Arches, The Old Is New Again

The Mapungubwe National Park Interpretive Center in South Africa. Robert Rich, Peter Rich Architects

From The Smithsonian Magazine:

An MIT professor shows how ancient architecture can be the basis for a more sustainable future

In a basement workshop, John Ochsendorf stands beneath a thin layer of bricks mortared into a sinuous overhead arch that seems to defy gravity. With the heel of his hand, he beats against the bricks. “Hear that ringing?” he asks. “It’s tight like a drum.”

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The ESO Turns Its Massive Laser Beam On The Heavens (For Science)

The VLT's Yepun Instrument Lights Up the Sky ESO/Y. Beletsky

From Popular Science:

We are not at war with an alien race from the center of the Milky Way, but if we were, this is exactly what we would want it to look like. Snapped at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory -- home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) array -- the photo depicts the VLT's Laser Guide Star facility in action.

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A Smile May Not Mean Your Baby Is Happy

Doctors who measured brain activity in babies subjected to a painful procedure found that even when they they did not cry or grimace there was still a pain response in the brain. ALAMY

From The Independent:

If you want to tell whether your baby is in pain, looking at its face may not be enough, researchers have found.

Generations of mothers have depended on their baby's facial expressions to tell them what they are feeling. But a study has found that giving a baby a spoonful of sugar before an injection or blood test may alter its expression without lessening its pain.

Read more ....

Melting Rate Of Icecaps In Greenland And Western Antarctica Lower Than Expected

This artist's concept shows GRACE's twin satellites, which orbit Earth in a back-to-back manner and change positions in response to variations in Earth's gravity field. The GRACE satellites house microwave ranging systems that measure the change in the distance between the satellites over time, enabling them to essentially "weigh" the changes in glaciers. (Credit: NASA)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2010) — The Greenland and West Antarctic ice caps are melting at half the speed previously predicted, according to analysis of recent satellite data.

The finding is the result of research by a joint US/Dutch team from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft, The Netherlands) and SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research. The scientists have published their work in the September issue of Nature Geoscience.

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Huge Windstorm Spawns New Classification: 'Super Derecho'

The radar image on the left, taken at 11:56 a.m. on May 8, 2009, shows the super derecho's bow-shaped structure, with a tropical-storm-like eye in the center. A model forecast (right) accurately predicts this rare structure. Credit: NOAA/NWS/Morris Weisman.

From Live Science:

A windstorm that swept across Kansas, Missouri and Illinois in May 2009 was so fierce that it has earned a brand-new name: super derecho.

A derecho (from the Spanish adverb for "straight") is a long-lived windstorm that forms in a straight line — unlike the swirling winds of a tornado — and is associated with what's known as a bow echo, a line of severe thunderstorms. The term "derecho" was first used over a century ago to describe a storm in Iowa. Across the United States there are generally one to three derecho events each year.

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