Windows 7: Better Late Than Never

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

From CBS News:

Larry Magid Says Windows 7 Is What Vista Should Have Been

(CBS) I don't know why it took so long, but Microsoft has finally fixed Vista. Only it isn't calling it Vista. Instead the company is working on what it's calling a new version of Windows -- Windows 7. The operating system isn't commercially available but is likely to be out by the end of the year.

I don't know how much Microsoft plans to charge for the upgrade once it's officially available, but they should give it away free to anyone who bought Vista or a PC with Vista preinstalled. Even though there are some new features, Windows 7 strikes me mostly as a bug fix. It speeds up Windows and fixes one of its most annoying "features" and makes one particularly useful change to the user interface. It seems to me that anyone who paid for Vista is entitled to this upgrade.

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Treasure Hunters Say They’ve Found a 1744 Shipwreck

A bronze cannon recovered from the wreck of the HMS Victory was hoisted onto the deck of the Odyssey Explorer. Photo courtesy of Odyssey Marine Exploration

From The New York Times:

Sea explorers probing the depths of the English Channel have discovered what they say is a legendary British warship that sank in a fierce storm in 1744, losing more than 900 men and possibly four tons of gold coins that could be worth $1 billion.

The team found the wreckage of the warship, the H.M.S. Victory, last year and confirmed its identity through a close examination of 41 bronze cannons visible on the sandy bottom, Gregory P. Stemm, head of the discovery team, said Monday at a news conference in London.

The team lifted two of the cannons from the seabed and gave them to the British Defense Ministry, he said. The team’s leaders are now negotiating with British authorities on the disposition of the artifacts and treasure before the divers attempt further recoveries.

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Nuclear Fusion Fission Hybrid Reactor To Destroy Waste

Photo from ABC News (Australia)

From Future Pundit:

The idea behind long term (tens or hundreds of thousands of years) nuclear waste storage facilities is that we can't solve the nuclear waste disposal problem quickly. But matter is so manipulable in the hands of sufficiently smart scientists and technologists that sometimes supposedly insolvable problems become solvable. UT Austin researchers think they know how to convert nuclear power plant waste into far safer elements with a hybrid reactor.

AUSTIN, Texas--Physicists at The University of Texas at Austin have designed a new system that, when fully developed, would use fusion to eliminate most of the transuranic waste produced by nuclear power plants.

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Biodiversity Hotspot Enabled Neanderthals To Survive Longer In South East Of Spain

Photo: Present day landscapes of Gibraltar (above) and reconstructed landscapes of Gibraltar from 30,000 years ago (below). (Credit: Museum of Gibraltar)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Feb. 2, 2009) — Over 14,000 years ago during the last Pleistocene Ice Age, when a large part of the European continent was covered in ice and snow, Neanderthals in the region of Gibraltar in the south of the Iberian peninsula were able to survive because of the refugium of plant and animal biodiversity. Today, plant fossil remains discovered in Gorham's Cave confirm this unique diversity and wealth of resources available in this area of the planet.

The international team jointly led by Spanish researchers has reconstructed the landscape near Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar, by means of paleobotanical data (plant fossil records) located in the geological deposits investigated between 1997 and 2004. The study, which is published in the Quaternary Science Reviews, also re-examines previous findings relating to the glacial refugia for trees during the ice age in the Iberian Peninsula.

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FDA Approves Test To Inject Embryonic Stem Cells Into Humans

Image from ProQuest

From Live Science:

The federal government has approved the first study by a company that will use human embryonic stem cells injected into a human.

The Geron corporation announce the approval today. The therapy used in the study is designed to treat spinal cord injuries by injecting stem cells — which are able to transform into the many different types of cells we need in our bodies — directly into the patients' spinal cords.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted clearance of the company's application for the clinical trial of GRNOPC1 in patients with acute spinal cord injury.

"This marks the beginning of what is potentially a new chapter in medical therapeutics - one that reaches beyond pills to a new level of healing: the restoration of organ and tissue function achieved by the injection of healthy replacement cells," said Geron's president and CEO. Dr. Thomas B. Okarma.

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Japan Warns Of Volcano Eruption Within 48 Hours

Japan' has warned the Mount Asama volcano could erupt within 48 hours Photo: Reuters

From The Telegraph:

Tens of thousands of people living near Japan's volatile Mount Asama have been told to brace themselves for a major volcanic eruption within 48 hours.

The volcano is one of Japan's most active and last erupted in September 2004 when molten rock and ash blanketed areas more than 125 miles from the crater.

Even by Japanese standards, Mount Asama is an active volcano, with frequent bouts of activity over recent years. The most famous eruption came in 1783 and caused the deaths of more than 1,500 people and widespread damage.

Japan's Meteorological Agency yesterday raised the alert level for the 8,420ft peak, warning of an imminent eruption and forbidding anyone to scale the mountain.

More than 45,000 nearby residents have been put on alert and told to be ready to leave their homes within two hours notice.

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Update: Volcano erupts near Tokyo raining ash down on city -- Seattle PI/AP

Rubik's Revenge: Cube Inventor Set To Launch 21st Century Version Of Iconic Puzzle

Rubik's 360 (Click On Image To Enlarge)

From The Daily Telegraph:

For a few years the Rubik's Cube had millions under its spell.

Umpteen hours were spent on the infuriating device, which became the fastest selling puzzle of all time.

Eventually of course, more and more discovered the secret of how to solve it and word spread that youngsters were cracking the Cube in as little as eight seconds.

To the inventor, Professor Erno Rubik, this was merely the challenge to create something even more difficult.

And he appears to have done just that with the Rubik's 360, which is due to be formally unveiled this week.

Using the same formula of an apparently simple task that is maddeningly hard to complete, it involves moving plastic balls through a set of transparent spheres.

Professor Rubik, 64, a reclusive Hungarian, said: 'The 360 is one of the most innovative and exciting puzzles we've developed since the Cube, adopting elements of myoriginal design, challenging the solver to use skill, dexterity and logic.'

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Can A Person Be Scared To Death?

Edvard Munch's famous painting: "The Scream"

From Scientific American:

A 79-year-old woman dies in North Carolina after a heart attack brought on by terror.

A Charlotte, N.C., man was charged with first-degree murder of a 79-year-old woman whom police said he scared to death. In an attempt to elude cops after a botched bank robbery, the Associated Press reports that 20-year-old Larry Whitfield broke into and hid out in the home of Mary Parnell. Police say he didn't touch Parnell but that she died after suffering a heart attack that was triggered by terror. Can the fugitive be held responsible for the woman's death? Prosecutors said that he can under the state's so-called felony murder rule, which allows someone to be charged with murder if he or she causes another person's death while committing or fleeing from a felony crime such as robbery—even if it's unintentional.

But, medically speaking, can someone actually be frightened to death? We asked Martin A. Samuels, chairman of the neurology department at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

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Extinct Ibex Is Resurrected By Cloning

Young Spanish ibex (Capra pyrenaica), Sierra de Gredos, Spain
Photo: Jose Luis GOMEZ de FRANCISCO/naturepl.com

From The Telegraph:

An extinct animal has been brought back to life for the first time after being cloned from frozen tissue.

The Pyrenean ibex, a form of wild mountain goat, was officially declared extinct in 2000 when the last-known animal of its kind was found dead in northern Spain.

Shortly before its death, scientists preserved skin samples of the goat, a subspecies of the Spanish ibex that live in mountain ranges across the country, in liquid nitrogen.

Using DNA taken from these skin samples, the scientists were able to replace the genetic material in eggs from domestic goats, to clone a female Pyrenean ibex, or bucardo as they are known. It is the first time an extinct animal has been cloned.

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My Comment: This is incredible. The implications of this development are profound. Extinct species will be able to be cloned and returned to life.

Too Much TV Linked To Future Fast-food Intake

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Feb. 1, 2009) — High-school kids who watch too much TV are likely to have bad eating habits five years in the future. A new study followed almost 2000 high- and middle-school children and found that TV viewing times predict a poor diet in the future.

Dr Daheia Barr-Anderson worked with a team of researchers from the University of Minnesota to investigate the relationship between television and diet. She said, "To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the association between television viewing and diet over the transition from adolescence into young adulthood. We've shown that TV viewing during adolescence predicts poorer dietary intake patterns five years later".

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CO2, Temperatures, and Ice AgesA

Click The Image To Enlarge
(Source: http://www.brighton73.freeserve.co.uk/gw/paleo/400000yrfig.htm)

From Watts Up With That:

It is generally accepted that CO2 is lagging temperature in Antarctic graphs. To dig further into this subject therefore might seem a waste of time. But the reality is, that these graphs are still widely used as an argument for the global warming hypothesis. But can the CO2-hypothesis be supported in any way using the data of Antarctic ice cores?

At first glance, the CO2 lagging temperature would mean that it’s the temperature that controls CO2 and not vice versa.

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Water Plays Surprising Role in Climate Change

The twisting road up Mauna Loa's lava fields rises above the clouds.
Credit: CIRES, University of Colorado at Boulder

From Live Science:

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

With its sea turtles and surf shops, the Big Island of Hawaii resembles a tropical, watery world. Yet for climate scientists, it's the ideal place to study low-humidity air and the processes that dehydrate the atmosphere.

From the sprawling dome of Mauna Loa — 11,000 feet above Hawaii's coconut-fringed beaches — climate scientists David Noone and Joe Galewsky can track water vapor that's traveled as far as the equator and the pole. They're the first to try to measure vapor's chemical signature in real-time in order to understand the processes controlling the global water cycle.

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The Tech That Makes The Super Bowl Super

From CNET:

At its core, football represents the polar opposite of technology: A bunch of large men run around a field, battling for position and the control of a small pigskin ball.

Of course, the production of an actual NFL game requires lots of technology--from the headsets coaches use to communicate, to the computers used to calculate statistics to the HD cameras that record the contest for the viewing audience.

When it comes to the Super Bowl, one of the biggest sporting events in the world, technology has always played a very central role, and this year is no exception.

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Science May Explain Our Love Of Sports

Super Bowl 42

From Kansas City:

A relatively recent discovery in science may explain our country’s obsession with watching sports — like the expected audience of 90 million or so for today’s Super Bowl.

They call them “mirror neurons,” and they fire in your brain much the same way whether you’re doing something or watching someone else do it. The discovery killed a lot of assumptions scientists had about brain activity.

It explains why you get hungry if you see someone eating a juicy steak, thirsty when you see a cold drink — or excited when you watch sports.

“In a way, your brain is behaving the same way as (the athletes you’re watching),” says Marco Iacoboni, a neuroscientist at UCLA and the author of Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others. “Your brain is making the same signals as the athletes you see on the screen, even if you’re just on the sofa eating popcorn.”

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Scientists To Football Players: Give Us Your Brains

Brains! Brains!!: Gaetan Lee (CC Licensed)

From Popular Science:

Amidst a growing body of evidence tying severe health problems to multiple concussions, researchers are tapping NFL stars for a more hands-on corroboration

Whenever rich people gather, charities flock hoping to solicit donations of time and money. But Chris Nowinski is asking NFL players at the Super Bowl this weekend for something a bit more personal. He wants them to donate their brains to science. And he’s getting what he wants.

Nowinski is the founder of the Sports Legacy Institute (SLI), which along with the Boston University School of Medicine is conducting autopsies on former athletes to research the effect of concussive impacts. To date eight former NFL players have promised to donate their brains to science after their death. Nowinski is a former professional wrestler who understands firsthand the potential ramifications of head impacts.

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Do Huge NFL Players Help Teams Win?

From Live Science:

When the Arizona Cardinals meet the Pittsburgh Steelers in Sunday's Super Bowl, every starting offensive lineman will be a member of the 300-pound club.

This season, there were more than 600 players — about 20 percent of the league — in triple donuts. Even with 6-foot plus heights, their Body Mass Index (BMI) levels are all in the range of grade 2 obesity, one step below what's called morbid obesity.

This super-sizing of NFL players has accelerated in recent years, and some studies suggest health risks are growing. But studies are conflicting on this point.

And the big question on the minds of coaches and owners: Do heavier players mean more wins? No, one study found.

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2009 Super Bowl Tech

Cool Science News Editor: Popular Mechanics has posted a number of fun and interesting links to the game of football, and to the Super Bowl. They are listed below ... so read and enjoy.

The Tech Behind the Football Broadcast-Only First Down Line. The yellow first down line is so ingrained now that NFL junkies may be disappointed when a real game reminds them its just an effect. Allen St. John explains the origin of the little line that makes first downs stand out, and how it works.

Meet the Guy Behind the Super Bowl's Sound. Scott Carter captures the grunts, chatter and tackles on the playing field for NFL Films. And he uses more than 300 pounds of gear to do it.

When Will the NFL Broadcast in 3D? A stereoscopic first is coming to Super Bowl XLIII in the form of a 3D commercial break, featuring the debut of Dreamworks Animations' 3D trailer for Monsters vs. Aliens as well as a spot for Sobe drinks. Is 3D football around the corner?

10 Steps in the High-Tech Evolution of Pro Football Helmets. In this exclusive kickoff weekend excerpt from the new PM book How a Curveball Curves: The Incredible Science of Sports, track the high-tech history of brain safety on the gridiron, from "head harnesses" to face masks

6 Questions for Telestrator Inventor Leonard Reiffel. On the eve of Super Bowl XLII, the man behind the digital doodler made famous by John Madden talks about his invention and the evolution of touchscreen tech

HDTV: Everything You Need to Know. We untangle television invention from realitymanual-freeby untangling the top 10 hi-def myths.

Football Physics: The Anatomy of a Hit The average football sack can produce a bone-shattering 1600 lbs of force. Armed with new tools, researchers are now studying the science of a gridiron fundamental: The tackle.

From UGO.com: Guys' Guide to Super Bowl History. Our friends at geek guy site UGO take a look at the history of the Super Bowl, the best games played in the history of the big game, and some of the bigger moments in mid-game entertainment.

High-Tech Brings High Stakes for Super Bowl XLI. With an estimated $7 billion wagered on the Big Game, websites vie for action with increasingly outlandish proposition wagersor prop betsthat make up nearly 50 percent of the total wagers because theyre accessible to those who dont exactly sweat the stat sheets.

Super Bowl XLI: Behind the High-Tech Scenes. Twenty-two guys play it, but 80 million people watch it. So for the biggest broadcast of the year, CBS Sports rigged up Dolphin Stadium with some 50 cameras, hundreds of engineers and a state-of-the-art lighting system special for the Big Game.

Head-Coach Headset Tech: Call in the Geeks. While football purists still get misty recalling a solitary strategist in a fedora scribbling X's and O's on a blackboard, that image of the head coach is as outdated as that of every rookie quarterback calling his own plays.


The Evolution of the Football. From round to watermelon to its present familiar shape, the football has been stoking the passions of fans for over 100 years.

The Physics of ‘The Hit’ -- Superbowl Science

Baltimore running back Willis McGahee was seriously injured after a collision with the Steelers' Ryan Clark in the A.F.C. championship game. Julie Jacobson/Associated Press

From The New York Times:

TAMPA, Fla. — Isaac Newton’s apple hurt considerably less than Ryan Clark’s coconut. But they did have a few things in common.

Clark’s shockingly violent hit on the Baltimore Ravens’ Willis McGahee two Sundays ago — a full-speed, helmet-to-helmet crash that left McGahee unconscious and Clark all but — didn’t just follow the N.F.L.’s rules, but Newton’s as well. Force equaled mass times acceleration. Momentum was conserved. And the bodies finally came to rest, McGahee’s on a stretcher.

“How I look at it, you can be the hammer or the nail,” the inner scientist in Clark explained this week. “I try to be the hammer.”

The tackle, the art of making the ball carrier not stay in motion, is football’s most primeval action. Amusing physicists the way batting averages do actuaries, collisions lead the highlight reels, impart the force of a deadly car crash, and rely upon kinematics that date to a considerably different big bang.

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How Ancient Greeks Chose Temple Locations

The ancient Greek Temple of Hera in Selinunte, also knowns as "temple E",
at Castelvetrano, in Sicily, Italy. Image from Wikipedia

From Live Science:

To honor their gods and goddesses, ancient Greeks often poured blood or wine on the ground as offerings. Now a new study suggests that the soil itself might have had a prominent role in Greek worship, strongly influencing which deities were venerated where.

In a survey of eighty-four Greek temples of the Classical period (480 to 338 B.C.), Gregory J. Retallack of the University of Oregon in Eugene studied the local geology, topography, soil, and vegetation — as well as historical accounts by the likes of Herodotus, Homer, and Plato — in an attempt to answer a seemingly simple question: why are the temples where they are?

No clear pattern emerged until he turned to the gods and goddesses. It was then that he discovered a robust link between the soil on which a temple stood and the deity worshiped there.

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Ancient Creature Points To Parallel Evolution

Light optical microscope images of placozoans.
(Image from NASA Astrobiology Institute)

From New Scientist:

AN UPDATED family tree of the animal kingdom could radically change the way we think about the evolution of species.

According to conventional thinking, simple animals, including sponges, jellyfish and corals, evolved step-by-step in a linear fashion into those with more complex bodies, such as mammals.

Now Rob DeSalle of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and his colleagues have challenged this way of thinking.

The team analysed DNA and other molecular evidence across the animal kingdom, including tiny sea creatures called placozoans. They have found that the placozoans are the closest living thing to the ancestor of all animals.

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