How 9/11 Inspired New Robots

The PackBot, first used in response to 9/11, helps explore an overheating nuclear plant in Japan this year.

How 9/11 Inspired A New Era Of Robotics -- CNN

When Robin Murphy saw the World Trade Center towers fall on September 11, she knew of an unexpected group that could help respond: robots.

Robots had never been tried in such real-world disasters, but they had gotten much smaller and more nimble in the years before that tragic event. So Murphy, a professor of computer science at Texas A&M University, and a small group of her fellow roboticists decided it was time. The robots were ready.

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A Computer That's As Clever As A Human?

Rollo Carpenter, the inventor of the Cleverbot

Has Inventor Made A Computer That's As Clever As A Human? -- The Independent

Rollo Carpenter's Cleverbot was smart enough to convince a group of techies it was a person. But can it fool Tom Peck?

Given that, in countless science fiction films, the moment when the computers start thinking for themselves tends to coincide with the end of the world as we know it, it is perhaps a little unsettling that an American inventor has for more than 20 years been sponsoring a prize to encourage such a feat.

More worrying still, a conversational computer by the name of Cleverbot has arguably just come closer than ever to doing it.

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Supernova 'Of A Generation'

This Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101, known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, was released in 2006. Newscom/File

Supernova 'Of A Generation': How You Can See It With Binoculars -- Christian Science Monitor

A supernova in the nearby Pinwheel Galaxy is the closest supernova in 25 years. Situated near the Big Dipper, the SN 2011fe supernova can be seen with binoculars this week.

If you’ve got a decent pair of binoculars and clear skies, you’ll have a good view Wednesday night of the closest and brightest supernova display of the past 25 years.

The supernova, named SN 2011fe, is the 136th seen by astronomers this year, but its proximity makes it significant not only for stargazers but to the scientific community.

The event was first observed on Aug. 24, only hours after it first became visible from Earth. Located within the Pinwheel Galaxy, the explosion happened 21 million light-years away – a relatively small distance by astronomical standards.

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Arctic Sea Ice Falls To A Record Low

Ice thickness is just as important or more so in helping understand what is happening in the far north Photo: AP/John McConnico

Arctic Sea Ice Falls To Record Low -- The Telegraph

The minimum summertime volume of Arctic sea ice fell to a record low last year, researchers said in a study to be published shortly, suggesting that thinning of the ice had outweighed a recovery in area.

The study estimated that last year broke the previous, 2007 record for the minimum volume of ice, which is calculated from a combination of sea ice area and thickness.

The research adds to a picture of rapid climate change at the top of the world that could see the Arctic Ocean ice-free within decades, spurring new oil exploration opportunities but possibly also disrupted weather patterns far afield and a faster rise in sea levels.

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The Evolution Of Micro-Air-Vehicles (MAV)

Cyborg Beetle Aktakka, et al. via PhysOrg

Scientists Fit Cyborg Beetles With Generators That Turn Their Own Wings Into Power Plants -- Popular Science

No more battery-driven bugs for DARPA.

For years now, DARPA and other free-thinking research institutions have been developing micro-air-vehicles (MAV), usually modeled after insects. But building a tiny, lightweight flying robot is tough when you need a power supply--like an onboard battery--to keep the MAV flying. Then researchers turned to insect mind control--implanting live insects with machinery that lets humans manipulate their movements--but the problem remained: neural control hardware requires a battery to run.

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My Comment: The tools for surveillance are getting smaller and smaller.

World's First Commercial Spaceport Is Now 90% Completed

Phase One Of World's First Commercial Spaceport Is Now 90% Completed - In Time For First Flights In 2013 -- Daily Mail

Phase one of the world's first commercial spaceport, which will be the hub for Virgin's consumer spaceflights, is now 90 per cent complete.

The 1,800-acre Spaceport America site, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, is the home base for Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's most ambitious business venture yet.

It already boasts a runway stretching to nearly two miles long, a futuristic styled terminal hanger, and a dome-shaped Space Operations Centre.

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Quantum Computers Closer to Reality Than Ever

Chip for Quantum Computing The two black squares are the qubits, or processor; the center meandering line is the quantum bus; and the lateral meandering lines are the quantum memory. Erik Lucero

Two Key Advances Bring Quantum Computers Closer to Reality Than Ever -- Popular Science

Researchers on two continents are reporting two big breakthroughs in quantum computing today — a quantum system built on the familiar von Neumann processor-memory architecture, and a working digital quantum simulator built on a quantum-computer platform. Although these developments are still constrained to the lab, they’re yet another sign that a quantum leap in computing may be just around the corner.

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How Stem Cell Test-Tube Techniques Will Save The Northern White Rhinos

Tragic: Northern white rhinos are extinct in the wild. This photo, taken in 2000, is of a young male with his mother Najin at a Zoo in the East Bohemian town of Dvur Kralove

Northern White Rhinos Set For Stem Cell Test-Tube Babies To Save Species From Extinction -- Daily Mail

The northern white rhino, one of the planet’s most endangered animals, could be saved by pioneering stem cell research.

Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, also hope their work will save other animals teetering on the edge of extinction.

The team have managed to create stem cells from the majestic animals and hope they will eventually be able to produce ‘test tube babies’, too.

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Why The Arctic Will Be A Strategic Hotspot In The Future

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

Unlocked By Melting Ice-Caps, The Great Polar Oil Rush Has Begun -- The Independent

Trillions are at stake, and the ecological risks are equally huge. Michael McCarthy reports.

It's the melting of the Arctic ice, as the climate warms, that makes it possible — and you can understand why they're all piling in. In July 2008, the US Geological Survey released the first ever publicly available estimate of the oil locked in the earth north of the Arctic Circle.

It was 90 billion barrels, representing an estimated 13 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil resources. If you're an oil company, or an oil-hungry economy, that's more than enough to make your mouth water.

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My Comment: One word sums up why we have this flurry of activity now .... oil.

Why Are Women's "Boobs" Getting Bigger?

Mystery Behind Mega Boobs Revealed! -- Times of India

Scientists in the UK are trying to figure out why women's breasts are getting bigger.

While some boffins blame expanding waistlines for the increase in bust sizes, others say pollution from pesticides is causing the 'outburst'.

But others feel there's an as yet uncovered real reason as to why boobs are growing, reports The Daily Star.

A scientific source said: "It's the big question and it's got a lot of people baffled."

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My Comment: Are the scientists male? .... Just curious.

India - Pakistan Border Is So Brightly Lit It Can Be Seen From Space

(Click on Image to Enlarge)
Spectacular: The International Space Station image captures the floodlit border between India, above the orange line, and Pakistan, below the border in the picture

Whose Bright Idea Was That? Border Between India And Pakistan Is So Brightly Lit It Can Be Seen From Space -- Daily Mail

Snaking for hundreds of miles across the earth's surface, this spectacular picture shows one of the planet's land borders like never before.

The dramatic picture shows a bright orange line jutting across the earth, indicating the border between India and Pakistan.

The stunning image of the earth, taken from the International Space Station last month, also shows busy cities show up as bright clusters hundreds of miles apart.

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My Comment: It must be working .... cross border raids from Pakistan into India have dropped appreciably in the past few years, all be it that the peace can be broken at any time.

A Stroke Prevention Pill?

Photo: Pradaxa is now available for use in the UK

New Pill To Stop Strokes -- Express.co.uk

A PILL costing less than £3 a day is being hailed as the biggest breakthrough in stroke prevention in 50 years.

The drug, which slashes the risk of suffering a stroke by over a third, will help more than a million Britons.

Pradaxa is now available for use in the UK. In trials it was found to significantly reduce the risk of a stroke in patients with an irregular heartbeat, known as atrial fibrillation. This is one of the main causes of strokes.

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My Comment: Looks promising.

The Impact Of High-Density Reactive Materials (HDRM)

High-Density Reactive Material (HDRM) missiles increase the chances of a "catastrophic kill," according to US military scientists.

US Military Develops 'Bigger Bang' Explosive Material -- BBC

The US Office of Naval Research says that it has successfully tested a new type of explosive material that can dramatically increase weapons' impacts.

Missiles made from the high density substance can explode with up to five times the energy of existing armaments.

The material mixes metals and polymers and is said to be as dense as steel but have the strength of aluminum.

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More News On High-Density Reactive Materials (HDRM)

ONR tests new warhead casings -- UPI
U.S. military munitions to become even deadlier -- TG Daily
US has new catastrophic killing machine -- Press TV
High-Density Reactive Material Improves Lethality of Weapons -- Azom.com
Here Comes A New Explosive With 5x The Power Of Any Substance Seen So Far -- Business Insider
Material Dramatically Increases Explosive Force of Weapons -- Science Blog
Revolutionary Material Dramatically Increases Explosive Force of Weapons by Five Times -- Next Big Future
A new kind of missile makes for even bigger explosions -- io9

NASA Moon Rocket Could Cost $38 Billion

In this undated photo provided by NASA, the Orion space capsule is displayed at a Lockheed Martin test facility in Colorado. (Getty Images / August 12, 2011)

New NASA Moon Rocket Could Cost $38 Billion -- L.A. Times

At that price tag, it would fly just twice in the next 10 years, according to internal NASA documents. That could pose big problems for NASA supporters in Congress.

Reporting from Washington — The rocket and capsule that NASA is proposing to return astronauts to the moon would fly just twice in the next 10 years and cost as much as $38 billion, according to internal NASA documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.

The money would pay for a new heavy-lift rocket and Apollo-like crew capsule that eventually could take astronauts to the moon and beyond. But it would not be enough to pay for a lunar landing or for more than one manned test flight, in 2021.

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My comment: Only $38 billion?

Temporarily Reversing Aging In The Immune System?

Researchers have discovered a new mechanism controlling aging in white blood cells. The research opens up the possibility of temporarily reversing the effects of aging on immunity and could, in the future, allow for the short-term boosting of the immune systems of older people. (Credit: © nyul / Fotolia)

Possibility of Temporarily Reversing Aging in the Immune System -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Aug. 16, 2011) — Researchers have discovered a new mechanism controlling aging in white blood cells. The research, published in the September issue of the Journal of Immunology, opens up the possibility of temporarily reversing the effects of aging on immunity and could, in the future, allow for the short-term boosting of the immune systems of older people.

Weakened immunity is a serious issue for older people. Because our immune systems become less effective as we age we suffer from more infections and these are often more severe. This takes a serious toll on health and quality of life.

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Earth's Gravity Is Being Altered By Melting Glaciers

In this image, the location of the successive calving fronts of Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier between 1851 and 2009 are overlain on a Landsat image from July 29, 2009. The retreat of the glacier shows the substantial melt that has occurred over the time period. CREDIT: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Melting Glaciers Alter Earth's Gravity -- Live Science

Melting glaciers can alter Earth's gravity field, scientists have found, a discovery that is shedding light on when Greenland and Antarctica began heavily melting.

Knowing the timing of this melting could help climate scientists make better estimates of the potential sea level rise resulting from melting ice pouring off these two massive ice sheets.

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My comment: There is no details on how much of a shift in gravity has occurred. My suggestion .... compile the data between summer and winter, and look at the difference.

A One-Armed Personal Robot For The Rest Of Us

PR2 SE Half the arms, nearly half the price. Willow Garage

Willow Garage Introduces Discount PR2 SE, a One-Armed Personal Robot for the Rest of Us -- Popular Science

Willow Garage’s PR2 has provided a unique, open source robotics platform to all kinds of labs and institutions that otherwise wouldn’t have access to a complex robotics system--but not to that many. For all the absolutely cool things you can do with PR2, the $400,000 price tag is prohibitive--only about two dozen commercial and academic labs have their own PR2s. So, in an attempt to make their robot more accessible, Willow Garage is introducing the PR2 SE this week, a pared-down version of the same robot costing a mere $285,000.

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Making Ships Efficient and Invisible

U.S. Navy Ships at Sea Wikimedia Commons

Anti-Wave Tech Tricks Ocean Water Into Standing Still, Making Ships Efficient and Invisible -- Popular Science

We’ve already seen how future ships can be cloaked against sonar, and maybe someday even space and time. Now researchers say they can cloak the ships’ wakes, tricking water itself into acting as though nothing is there.

A new metamaterial cloaking system can trick water into standing still as an object moves through it, by eliminating the shear force and reducing water displacement, Duke University researchers say. This in turn reduces the amount of energy required to move an object — say, a ship — through the water, theoretically saving fuel.

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My Comment: And this is the research that they are publicizing .... I would love to know what they are not telling us.

Military's Maple-Seed-Inspired Drone

Sneak Preview: Military's Maple-Seed-Inspired Drone, Plus More to Come at UAV Show Next Week -- Popular Science

After years of development and military funding setbacks, defense contractor Lockheed Martin is finally ready to debut its maple seed-inspired drone. The one-winged, one-foot-long SAMARAI drone just flew a test flight for the Associated Press ahead of its official unveiling at an unmanned vehicle conference next week.

The asymmetric UAV is modeled after maple seeds, called samara, that fly off trees and twirl through the air with the utmost efficiency. Originally, the SAMARAI was envisioned as a seed-sized drone that could deliver a 2-gram payload and send back streaming video, but that has since changed to a much bigger, whining drone.

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My Comment: It appears that the future for UAVs is to be miniaturized .... the smaller the better.

SETI Project Is Back Online

Allen Telescope Array

SETI Project: We're Listening Again, ET -- Mercury News

E.T., you can phone home again.

Forty-two radio telescope dishes near Mount Shasta will again start listening for sounds of intelligent life in the universe this fall after donors -- including actress Jodie Foster -- came up with more than $200,000 to save the Mountain View-based SETI program, made famous by the movie "Contact."

The Allen Telescope Array was shut down in April when the SETI (Search of Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute ran short of of money for the project.

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The Blackest Planet

Space spy: The team made their discovery while working through data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft, one of the world's most powerful telescopes

The Blackest Planet: Astronomers Uncover Alien World So 'Extraordinarily Dark' It Makes Coal Look Shiny -- Daily Mail

Astronomers have discovered the darkest known planet.

The exoplanet, known as TrES-2b, reflects less than 1 per cent of light, which makes it darker than any other planet or moon.

The discovery, detailed in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, was made by analysing data from Nasa's Kepler spacecraft, which provides extremely precise measurements on the brightnesses of faraway stars.

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Jodie Foster Helps Revive SETI Search

A look at the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array at Hat Creek Observatory about 290 miles northeast of San Francisco, Calif. CREDIT: SETI Institute

Jodie Foster Helps Revive SETI Search For Aliens -- Live Science

E.T., the phone line is open and SETI is waiting for your call. And apparently Jodie Foster, too.

The nonprofit Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, which was forced earlier this year to shutter its Allen Telescope Array, used to listen for alien signals, due to budget issues, has raised enough money to resume the search for life beyond planet Earth.

The institute reached its goal last week of raising $200,000 to operate the telescope through the end of this year. The funds came from over 2,000 private donors, including the actress Jodie Foster, who played fictional SETI scientist Ellie Arroway in the 1997 movie "Contact."

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U.S. Science Funding Will Soon Be Cut Because Of The Debt Deal

U.S. Debt Deal Could Dramatically Slash Science Funding In 2013 -- Scientific American

US science agencies avoid immediate pain but could be devastated by automatic cuts in 2013.

Scalpel or guillotine? Those are the possible fates in store for US science funding after Congress and the White House reached a deal to cut federal spending and raise the nation's self-imposed debt limit before a 2 August deadline.

The product of tumultuous negotiations, the deal largely spares science in the short term but puts a day of reckoning on the horizon: 2 January 2013. If politicians cannot agree on how to improve the government's fiscal outlook by then through targeted cuts and other means--the scalpel option--their failure will automatically trigger the guillotine: a deep cut applied across a range of expenditures, including research. In the worst case, the automatic cuts could mean shuttered laboratories and mass lay-offs at universities.

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My Comment: The cutting has already happened .... look at NASA

Mars Rover Nears End Of Road

An artist's impression of one of the two Mars rovers, which have been studying geological samples on the planet. Reuters

Eight Years And 34 Million Miles On, Mars Rover Nears End Of Road -- The Independent

It travelled at an average speed of 60cm an hour and it has arrived a year late. But the Mars rover Opportunity is finally approaching its destination, the rim of the vast Endeavour crater.

Nasa hailed the six-wheel Opportunity's approach to the 22.5km-wide crater last night as a "tremendous scientific success".

The ageing robotic field geologist has logged more than 32km since it was first parachuted on to the planet's surface in 2003, along with its twin rover Spirit, for a planned three-month mission after their 34 million-mile journey from Earth. Spirit emitted its last signal a year ago after becoming trapped in sand. Opportunity crawled out from a crater in 2008 and headed south to the Endeavour, a two-year journey in theory, which has taken longer because Opportunity had to drive backwards to prevent its front wheel from wearing out.

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Sun Unleashes Largest Solar Flare In Five Years

Sun Unleashes Largest Solar Flare In Five Years, Sending 10Billion Ton Storm Cloud Hurtling Through Space At 5Million MPH -- Daily Mail

The sun unleashed an unusually powerful solar flare yesterday, the largest in nearly five years.

The eruption launched a ten billion ton storm cloud hurtling through space at five million miles per hour.

Scientists said the event took place on the side of the sun that was not facing Earth, so there will be little impact to satellites and communication systems.

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My Comment: 10 billion tons .... that certainly makes one feel very small.

Image: The antiprotons lie sandwiched between the inner and outer Van Allen belts (in red) around the Earth.

Antimatter Belt Around Earth Discovered By Pamela Craft -- BBC

A thin band of antimatter particles called antiprotons enveloping the Earth has been spotted for the first time.

The find, described in Astrophysical Journal Letters, confirms theoretical work that predicted the Earth's magnetic field could trap antimatter.

The team says a small number of antiprotons lie between the Van Allen belts of trapped "normal" matter.

The researchers say there may be enough to implement a scheme using antimatter to fuel future spacecraft.

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How Wine Pollutes

Vineyards in Napa Valley, Calif. Many winemakers use sulfur on their vines and the chemical poses environmental problems. Getty Images

How Wine Production Pollutes -- Discovery

Sulfur applied to vineyards washes into nearby water -- and there's no way to know which vineyards use the chemical.

* Virtually all of the fungicidal sulfur applied to vineyards washes off into nearby bays and river basins.
* Sulfur has a number of potentially concerning consequences for plants, animals and ecosystems.
* For now, there is no good way to know what the environmental impact of your wine might be.

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Three Solar Flares Spark Power Grid Concerns

Solar Flare Aug. 4 This still from a video shows the CME lifting off from sunspot 1261. NASA/SDO

Video: Three Solar Flares Spark Power Grid Concerns And Ignite Auroras In The Upper United States -- Popular Science

A trifecta of sunsplosions over the past few days has prompted government agencies to once again warn of possible power and communications disruptions. The coronal mass ejections could produce a strong aurora as far south as Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to space weather forecasters at NOAA.

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Are Office Environment's Bad For Your Brain?

Working in an office is bad for your brain researchers say Photo: ALAMY

Working In An Office Is Bad For Your Brain -- The Telegraph

Working in an office is bad for your brain and can make you less productive, according to researchers.

A study has found that the hustle and bustle of modern offices can lead to a 32% drop in workers well being and reduce their productivity by 15%.

They have found that open plan offices create unwanted activity in the brains of workers that can get in the way of them doing the task at hand.

Open plan offices were first introduced in the 1950s and quickly became a popular as a way of laying out offices.

Having a clean and sterile desk can also leave employees with smaller brains, scientists claim.

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My Comment: I have to agree .... I was always more productive when I was not faced with distractions .... which an open plan office will provide.

World Wide Web Celebrates Its 20th Birthday

Basic: Sir Tim Berners-Lee's first web site was simply a page of links to allow scientists to share data and news

Many Happy Returns! World Wide Web Celebrates Its 20th Birthday -- The Daily Mail

* First web page born on August 6, 1991
* Now there are more than 19.68billion pages

It began as a simple page of links that allowed a group of scientists to share data in the confines of their laboratories.

But in the 20 years since, it has become an inextricable part of the lives of billions of people.

The World Wide Web (WWW) was born on August 6, 1991, when the first web page was launched on the internet by Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

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My Comment: I suspect that the web will be around for a little longer.

Is Music A Powerful Antidepressant?

Making Music Proves To Be Powerful Antidepressant -- Live Science

Making music might help lift more depressed people out of the dumps than common antidepressant medications do, the results of a new study suggest.

That's not to say the people with depression should toss out their meds and pick up a guitar. The music therapy administered to patients in the new study was in addition to regular therapy, and the patients continued their regular medication routines. But about one out of four depression sufferers is likely to respond to music therapy, Finnish researchers reported in August in the British Journal of Psychiatry. In comparison, a 2009 review of research published in the journal Cochrane Database Systemic Review found that doctors must treat between seven and 16 people with tricyclic antidepressant drugs for one person to see improvement.

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Nigeria's Oil Pollution Will Take Decades To Clean-Up

Nigeria Ogoniland Oil Clean-Up 'Could Take 30 Years -- BBC

Nigeria's Ogoniland region could take 30 years to recover fully from the damage caused by years of oil spills, a long-awaited UN report says.

The study says complete restoration could entail the world's "most wide-ranging and long-term oil clean-up".

Communities faced a severe health risk, with some families drinking water with high levels of carcinogens, it said.

Oil giant Shell has accepted liability for two spills and said all oil spills were bad for Nigeria and the company.

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Where Did Man Learn To Walk

Giraffes roam in a wooded grassland savanna in Kenya's Nakuru National Park. The savanna grades into the woodland in the background. Credit: Naomi Levin, Johns Hopkins University

Where Did Humans Learn To Walk? -- Cosmos/AFP

PARIS: Grasslands dominated the cradle of humanity in east Africa longer and more broadly than thought, a new study has said, bolstering the idea that the rise of such landscapes shaped human evolution.

According to the so-called 'savannah hypothesis', the gradual transition from dense forests into grasslands helped drive the shift toward bipedalism, increased brain size and other distinctively human traits.

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The U.S. Military Wants To Reach The Stars

Space Travel: Finding The Technology To Traverse The Stars -- L.A. Times

The research-and-development arm of the U.S. military is launching a 100-Year Starship Study to find the technologies necessary for interstellar travel.

What will it take to build a spaceship capable of traveling to the stars? And what if you wanted it to be ready to launch in just 100 years?

It may sound like the premise of a science fiction show or reality TV series. But these are serious questions being asked by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research-and-development arm of the U.S. military.

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My Comment: This is $500,000 that we will never see again.

Juno Explorer Launches On Five-Year Journey To Jupiter

NASA's Juno Explorer Launches On Five-Year Journey To Jupiter -- L.A. Times

The Juno spacecraft, which NASA hopes will unlock key mysteries about Jupiter and the origin of the solar system, lifts off from Florida's Cape Canaveral. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is managing the $1.1-billion mission.

NASA's spacecraft Juno lifted off Friday in an incandescent arc over the Atlantic Ocean, the start of a five-year, 1.7-billion mile trip to Jupiter that scientists believe will unlock some of the secrets behind the origin of the solar system.

NASA's spacecraft Juno lifted off Friday in an incandescent arc over the Atlantic Ocean, the start of a five-year, 1.7-billion mile trip to Jupiter that scientists believe will unlock some of the secrets behind the origin of the solar system.

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How The Brain Remembers What Happens And When

Neuroscientists Identify How the Brain Remembers What Happens and When -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Aug. 4, 2011) — New York University neuroscientists have identified the parts of the brain we use to remember the timing of events within an episode. The study, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Science, enhances our understanding of how memories are processed and provides a potential roadmap for addressing memory-related afflictions.

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Next Generation of Computer Chips

Caltech engineers have developed a new way to isolate light on a photonic chip, allowing light to travel in only one direction. This finding can lead to the next generation of computer-chip technology: photonic chips that allow for faster computers and less data loss. (Credit: Caltech/Liang Feng)

Engineers Solve Longstanding Problem in Photonic Chip Technology: Findings Help Pave Way for Next Generation of Computer Chips -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2011) — Stretching for thousands of miles beneath oceans, optical fibers now connect every continent except for Antarctica. With less data loss and higher bandwidth, optical-fiber technology allows information to zip around the world, bringing pictures, video, and other data from every corner of the globe to your computer in a split second. But although optical fibers are increasingly replacing copper wires, carrying information via photons instead of electrons, today's computer technology still relies on electronic chips.

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Warfare Started With The Creation Of Man's First Nation States

PLUNDER Ruins at Monte Alban in Oaxaca, Mexico. A wave of new research holds that early states arose from warring chiefdoms as populations grew. Beth Greenfield for The New York Times

Sign of Advancing Society? An Organized War Effort -- New York Times

Some archaeologists have painted primitive societies as relatively peaceful, implying that war is a reprehensible modern deviation. Others have seen war as the midwife of the first states that arose as human population increased and more complex social structures emerged to coordinate activities.

A wave of new research is supporting this second view. Charles Stanish and Abigail Levine, archaeologists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have traced the rise of the pristine states that preceded the Inca empire. The first villages in the region were formed some 3,500 years ago. Over the next 1,000 years, some developed into larger regional centers, spaced about 12 to 15 miles apart. Then, starting around 500 B.C., signs of warfare emerged in the form of trophy heads and depictions of warriors, the two archaeologists report in last week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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My Comment: Economic cooperation or warfare .... the two underlying mechanisms that has always dictated how nation states behaved. It seems we have not changed much in 5,000+ years.

Atlantic Cod Recovering

Photo: Cod and similar species on the Scotian Shelf have been eight to 18 per cent more massive for their age between 2006 and 2010 compared with 1992 to 2005. (Associated Press)

East Coast Cod Found To Be Recovering -- CBC

New evidence shows that Atlantic cod off Nova Scotia are recovering from their dramatic collapse two decades ago — and that the ecosystem is recovering with them.

That suggests major changes to marine ecosystems can be reversed with time, says a Canadian study published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature.

It also "bodes well" for other cod populations further north along the East Coast that have yet to recover, says the study, led by researcher Kenneth Frank at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, N.S.

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A New Type Of Airship

New Type Of Flying Vehicle In Development -- Voice Of America

A California company is developing a new type of airship for transporting cargo and, possibly, passengers. It is not an airplane and not a blimp, but has elements of both. The vehicle uses new technology and has commercial and military applications.

The new flying ship from the Aeros Corporation is called an Aeroscraft, and is designed to carry more than 50 tons of cargo and make deliveries thousands of kilometers away.

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Human Body Vulnerable To Cyberattack

Credit: Dreamstime

Human Body Vulnerable To Cyberattack -- Live Science

LAS VEGAS — The next frontier of cybercrime could be the human body, a researcher at the Black Hat Security Conference demonstrated.

In his presentation, "Hacking Medical Devices for Fun and Insulin: Breaking the Human SCADA System," Jay Radcliffe showed how a hacker could remotely hack two medical devices used to treat diabetes and trigger them to malfunction — with potentially disastrous results.

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Remote Control Toy Trucks Save Lives In Afghanistan

Afghanistan War: Hobbyists' Toy Truck Saves 6 Soldiers' Lives -- ABC News

Staff Sgt. Christopher Fessenden is on duty in Afghanistan now after tours with the Army in Iraq. He has traveled with standard-issue equipment -- weapons, helmet, uniform, boots and so forth -- plus a radio-controlled model truck his brother sent.

The truck is not a toy to him. He says it just saved six soldiers' lives.

"We cannot thank you enough," said Sgt. Fessenden in an email from the front that his brother Ernie, a software engineer in Rochester, Minn., shared with ABC News.

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More News On How Remote Vehicles Save Lives In Afghanistan

Remote-controlled toy truck saves the lives of six U.S. soldiers after it finds bomb in Afghanistan -- Daily Mail
Hobbyists' toy truck saves 6 soldiers' lives in Afghanistan -- Stars and Stripes
Remote-control truck gift saves soldiers’ lives -- Yahoo News/Lookout
Toy truck saves soldiers from bomb -- UPI
A Toy Truck Saved the Lives of Six Soldiers in Afghanistan -- Gizmodo
This Toy Remote Controlled Truck Saved The Lives Of 6 U.S. Soldiers -- Business Insider

Boeing Is Looking For Astronauts

An artist's conception shows Boeing's CST-100 crew-carrying spaceship atop an Atlas 5 rocket on a launch pad. Such a craft could fly to the International Space Station as early as 2015. Boeing

Boeing Chooses A Rocket, Looks For Astronauts To Fly On It -- MSNBC

Atlas 5 to be used for tests of new spaceship for NASA's use; pilots wanted.

Test flights of The Boeing Co.'s future crew-carrying spaceship would be conducted starting as early as 2015 on United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket, executives announced Thursday.

Whether Boeing's CST-100 capsule actually flies in that timeframe depends on whether NASA provides the necessary development funding, said John Elbon, the aerospace company's manager for the commercial crew project. But just in case, Boeing is already looking for pilots who could help with the design and testing of the craft.

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The Negative Side Of Solar And Wind Power Projects

The Dark Side Of Solar And Wind Power Projects -- L.A. Times

Building and maintaining solar and wind power projects can be hazardous, and industry watchdogs worry that the push for more green energy places more workers and bystanders in harm's way.

They can look benign from a distance — solar panels glistening in the sun or turbines gently churning with the breeze to produce electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes. But building and maintaining them can be hazardous.

Accidents involving wind turbines alone have tripled in the last decade, and watchdog groups fear incidents could skyrocket further — placing more workers and even bystanders in harm's way — because a surge in projects requires hiring hordes of new and often inexperienced workers.

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Dieting Forces Brain To Eat Itself

A cross-section of the human brain

Dieting Forces Brain To Eat Itself, Scientists Claim -- The Telegraph

Dieters struggle to lose weight because a lack of nutrition forces their brain cells to eat themselves, making the feeling of hunger even stronger, scientists claim.

Like other parts of the body, brain cells begin to eat themselves as a last-ditch source of energy to ward off starvation, a study found.

The body responds by producing fatty acids, which turn up the hunger signal in the brain and increase our impulse to eat.

Researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York said the findings could lead to new scientifically proven weight loss treatments.

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Water On Mars?

Dark Streaks On Mars Could Be Water -- The Telegraph

Dark finger-like channels stretching across the surface of Mars could be streams of salty water running down the sides of craters, scientists have claimed.

The clusters of trails, which fade during winter and reappear in warmer months, could prove to be the first solid evidence of liquid water currently existing on the red planet.

Scientists are convinced water probably flowed across the surface of the planet at some distant point in history, but have only been able to detect samples of frozen water near the surface.

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The U.S. Army Kills The Robotic Vehicle MULE Program

XM1219 Armed Robotic Vehicle, an unmanned ground combat vehicle based on the MULE Platform.

Why The Army Killed The Robotic Vehicle MULE -- Popular Mechanics

Over the weekend, the U.S. Army killed a Lockheed Martin program to build a heavy six-wheeled robot capable of hauling gear and countering improvised explosive devices. Here's why they did it, and what it says about the future of Army bots.

Late last Friday, July 29, the Army formally canceled the Multi-Function Utility/Logistics and Equipment Vehicle, a heavyweight, six-wheeled robot known as the MULE, which was built by Lockheed Martin. The MULE program was meant to produce three variants of combat robots: One to haul gear, another to counter improvised explosives and a heavily armed version. According to the Army, however, other programs had equaled or bettered the autonomous navigation research at MULE—yet there are plenty of other reasons that Lockheed's program got the ax. Here's what MULE's demise tells us about the Army's future:

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My Comment: Fortunately, there are scores of more 'robot' programs out there .... but this is a sign that a shake-up in the industry is going to occur.

Cleanup of Space Shuttle Launch Zone Chemicals Will Take Decades and Millions of Dollars

Atlantis Launch 1 Clearing the tower John Mahoney

With Shuttle Launches Over, Cleanup of Launch Zone Chemicals Will Take Decades and Millions of Dollars -- Popular Science

With every ending comes a new beginning, as they say — so with the ending of the space shuttle program comes the beginning of a long environmental remediation at NASA’s Florida facilities.

Five decades of spacecraft launches have taken a toll on the sandy soils beneath the Kennedy Space Center, according to a report by Florida Today. Plumes of chemicals will cost $96 million to clean up in the next 30 years, including $6 million this year.

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Meet The Man Who Is Trying To Cure Aging

Bill Andrews. Photograph by John B. Carnett, illustration by Alberto Seveso

The Man Who Would Stop Time -- PopSci

Bill Andrews has spent two decades unlocking the molecular mechanisms of aging. His mission: to extend the human life span to 150 years--or die trying

Bill Andrews’s feet are so large, he tells me, that back when he was 20 he was able to break the Southern California barefoot-waterskiing distance record the first time he put skin to water. Then he got ambitious and went for the world speed record. When the towrope broke at 80 mph, he says, “they pulled me out of the water on a stretcher.”

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Inside China's Hacker World

70% Of British Men Are 'Related' To The Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun

Offer: iGENEA's website advertises its service matching customers to King Tut to see if they are ancestors

We've Got The Same Mummy! Up To 70% Of British Men Are 'Related' To The Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun -- The Daily Mail

Swiss company reconstructs King Tut's DNA profile from Discovery Channel documentary
Results show he belonged to 'haplogroup' common to half of Western European men
Claims disputed by fellow geneticists

A Swiss genetics company has claimed that up to 70 per cent of British men are related to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Scientists at Zurich-based DNA genealogy centre, iGENEA, say they have reconstructed the DNA profile of the boy Pharaoh based on a film that was made for the Discovery Channel.

The results showed that 'King Tut' belonged to a genetic profile group, known as haplogroup R1b1a2, to which more than 50 per cent of all men in Western Europe belong, indicating that they share a common ancestor.

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World's Oldest Living Animal Is 178-Year-Old Tortoise

Photo: This rare picture of a Boer war prisoner snapped on the remote island of St Helena, has shed light on one of the planets oldest living inhabitants.

World's Oldest Living Animal Is 178-Year-Old Tortoise Called Jonathan -- The Telegraph

As a photograph it looks fairly unremarkable - a tortoise nibbles at the grass in front of a Boer War prisoner and guard.

But the pictures helps to mark the reptile as the oldest animal on the planet.

Jonathan, the tortoise, is believed to be 178-years-old and was about 70 at the time the black and white picture was taken.

He was photographed during the Boer War around 1900, and his life has spanned eight British monarchs from George IV to Elizabeth II, and 50 prime ministers.

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Artist's illustration of a quasar similar to APM 08279+5255, where astronomers discovered huge amounts of water vapour. While this figure shows the quasar's torus approximately edge-on, the torus around APM 08279+5255 is likely positioned face-on from our point of view. Credit: NASA/ESA

Universe's Largest, Earliest Water Mass Found -- Cosmos

PASADENA: The largest and farthest reservoir of water in the known universe has been located. The water, equivalent to 140 trillion times all the water in the world's ocean, surrounds a distant quasar more than 12 billion light-years away.

The quasar is one of the most powerful known objects in the universe and has an energy output of 1,000 trillion suns - about 65,000 times that of the Milky Way galaxy.

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Yesterday's Internet Explorer Story Was Bogus

Internet Explorer Story Was Bogus -- BBC

A story which suggested that users of Internet Explorer have a lower IQ than people who chose other browsers appears to have been an elaborate hoax.

A number of media organisations, including the BBC, reported on the research, put out by Canadian firm ApTiquant.

It later emerged that the company's website was only recently set up and staff images were copied from a legitimate business in Paris.

It is unclear who was behind the stunt.

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My Comment: It fooled me.

The Earth Once Had Two Moons

This artist's rendering shows a simulation of a collision between the moon and a companion moon about 4 billion years ago. (Martin Jutzi and Erik Asphaug)

Two Moons Above Earth May Have Collided To Create One, Study Says -- L.A. Times

Scientists say such a collision could explain why the moon is lopsided and why its far side is covered with mountains.

Once upon a time, the sky above Earth may have held two moons — until they smashed into each other to create the lunar body we know today. Such a collision early in the solar system's history could explain why the moon is lopsided, and why its far side looks so different from the face we can see, according to a report in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature.

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The Robot That Learns Functions It Was Not Programmed To Do

Thinking For Itself: The Robot That Learns Functions It Was Not Programmed To Do -- Daily Mail

It is not quite Skynet, but robots that can learn have finally arrived.
Japanese researchers have developed a robot that can perform functions it was not programmed to do.

The machine uses past experience and its own knowledge to make a judgement about the best way to proceed.

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Bionic Microrobot Walks On Water

The water strider robot in action. (Credit: Image courtesy of American Chemical Society)

Bionic Microrobot Mimics the 'Water Strider' and Walks On Water -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Aug. 2, 2011) — Scientists are reporting development of a new aquatic microrobot that mimics the amazing water-walking abilities of the water strider -- the long-legged insect that scoots across the surface of ponds, lakes and other waterways. The bionic microrobot incorporates improvements over previous devices of this kind that position it as a prime candidate for military spy missions, water pollution monitoring, and other applications, the scientists say.

Their study appears in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

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The World's Next Tallest Building

Architectural rendering of Kingdom Tower, a building designed by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill that is set to become the world's tallest building in 2016. CREDIT: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

New World's Tallest Building To Continue Modern Trend -- Live Science

Construction will soon go forward of Kingdom Tower, a giant skyscraper planned for the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah. When complete, the sleek, kilometer-tall building will be the world's tallest.

An investment firm headed by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal will pay the Binladen Group, a construction firm, 4.6 billion riyals ($1.2 billion) to erect the tower over the next five years. Housing offices, a hotel, luxury condos and the world's highest observation tower, it will stand as the centerpiece of a 100-billion-riyal development planned for the area called "Kingdom City."

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My Comment: Looks impressive .... if they build it.

End Of The Shuttle Program Could Lead To A Brain Drain Of Space Knowledge

Could U.S. Manned Spaceflight Suffer 'Memory Loss'? -- Discovery News

Astronaut Mark Kelly voices his concerns for the end of the shuttle program and the loss of NASA talent.

* Mark Kelly, commander of shuttle Endeavour's final mission, is concerned about a drain of NASA talent once the US shuttle program ends.
* Thousands of highly skilled people will be lost, and no replacement NASA rocket is planned.
* After the shuttle, NASA will depend on Russia for rides into space for over $51 million per seat.

US astronaut Mark Kelly, who commanded shuttle Endeavour's final space flight, said Tuesday he is concerned about a drain of NASA talent once the US shuttle program ends later this year

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Apollo Astronaut Recommends Ending NASA And Starting From Scratch

Photo: Schmitt (NASA)

Apollo Astronaut: End NASA, Start From Scratch -- Houston Chronicle

Not everyone is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s decision to go to the moon with best wishes for another century of NASA.

Harrison Schmitt, the 12th astronaut to walk on the moon and a former U.S. senator, has called for dismantling NASA and replacing it with a new agency devoted solely to deep-space exploration.

Its charter, he believes, should simply be:

Provide the People of the United States of America, as national security and economic interests demand, with the necessary infrastructure, entrepreneurial partnerships, and human and robotic operational capability to settle the Moon, utilize lunar resources, scientifically explore and settle Mars and other deep space destinations, and, if necessary, divert significant Earth-impacting objects.

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My Comment: He makes some salient points. What is my take .... a new start and direction is definitely need (both psychologically and structurally) for the U.S. space program.

Searching For Cleopatra

The Search for Cleopatra Continues -- Past Horizons

A radar survey of the temple of Taposiris Magna, west of Alexandria in Egypt, was completed last month as part of the ongoing search for the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. The expedition excavating the temple and its surrounding area is headed by Dr. Zahi Hawass and Dr. Kathleen Martinez from the Dominican Republic.

The recent radar survey is a significant step forward and was carried out by an Egyptian team, with American expert Dr. Roger Vickers serving as a consultant. The radar revealed three possible areas of interest where a tomb may be located. These locations have been passed to the archaeological team who received the results of the survey with great interest, and will begin excavation of the targets next week.

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