Is The Internet Warping Our Brains?

Image from Esther's Space

From Live Science:

The Internet is no doubt changing modern society. It has profoundly altered how we gather information, consume news, carry out war, and create and foster social bonds. But is it altering our brains? A growing number of scientists think so, and studies are providing data to show it.

What remains to be seen is whether the changes are good or bad, and whether the brain is, as one neuroscientist believes, undergoing unprecedented evolution.

Read more ....

My Comment: I do not know about my brain .... but my hands suffer from carpel syndrome.

Stargazers Hope For Glimpse Of Green Comet

The comet contains the gases cyanogen and diatomic carbon, which give it its green colour. (Paolo Candy/Cimini Astronomical Observatory)

From The Independent:

It's green, about 300,000 miles wide and some 38 million miles away, and tonight a comet called Lulin could be visible to the naked eye.

At around midnight, UK space scientists and amateur stargazers will be looking due south for a glimpse of the unusual celestial body as it reaches its nearest point to Earth.

Discovered only a year ago, the comet gets its green colour from a poisonous, cyanide-like gas in its atmosphere.

Read more ....

More News On Lulin

Comet Lulin making nearest approach toward earth, one-time only -- China View
Best chance to view Comet Lulin is here! -- Scientific American
Green light for a close encounter: 'Jupiter-sized' comet to streak past Earth tonight -- Daily Mail Online
How To See Comet Lulin As It Passes Earth -- Space Daily

Google’s Gmail Service Crashes Across World

Google?s Gmail service has suffered a worldwide crash
preventing millions of users from accessing their mail

From The Telegraph:

Google’s web-based email service, Gmail, has crashed this morning, leaving millions of users from Britain to Australia unable to send and receive messages.

The email service went offline at around 10.25am GMT, and the outage appears to have affected users throughout the UK as well as across Europe, and even as far afield as Australia and India.

It appears that only web-based Gmail access is affected, and users can continue to send and receive messages using other devices, such as mobile phones and third-party mail clients.

Read more ....

More News On Today's Gmail Interruption

Google apologizes for Gmail outage -- CNET
Gmail Struck With Service Outage -- PC World
Google mail users hit by global outage -- Times Online
Gmail breakdown affects users worldwide -- AFP
Four Hours Without Gmail -- New York Times
Gmail Experiences Worldwide Crash -- FOX News

NASA Says Climate Satellite Fails To Launch

From Yahoo News/Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A mission carrying a climate satellite into orbit failed on Tuesday when the satellite was not able to separate from the rocket, NASA said.

"The vehicle ... landed just sort of Antarctica in the ocean," John Brunschwyler of Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp, which made the rocket told a news conference.

The $278 million Orbiting Carbon Observatory was going to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and to determine what happens to the climate-changing pollutant.

Read more ....

Update: Nasa's first CO2 satellite crashes into ocean after launch failure -- Times Online

Most Detailed Lunar Map Suggests Little Water Inside Moon

An international team of researchers has created the most detailed map of the Moon yet, using the laser altimeter (LALT) instrument on board the Japanese Selenological and Engineering Explorer satellite. C.K. Shum, professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University, is a member of the LALT science team and a co-author of a paper appearing in the February 13 issue of the journal Science. (Credit: Image copyright Science/AAAS)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Feb. 23, 2009) — The most detailed map of the Moon ever created has revealed never-before-seen craters at the lunar poles.

The map is also revealing secrets about the Moon's interior -- and hinting about Mars's interior as well.

C.K. Shum, professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University, is part of the international research team that published the map in the February 13 issue of the journal Science.

"The surface can tell us a lot about what's happening inside the Moon, but until now mapping has been very limited," Shum said. "For instance, with this new high-resolution map, we can confirm that there is very little water on the Moon today, even deep in the interior. And we can use that information to think about water on other planets, including Mars."

Read more ....

Unlike Diamonds, Most Minerals Not Forever

From Live Science:

Diamonds may be forever, but that's not true of most minerals. In fact, about two-thirds of the 4,300 known minerals on Earth today owe their existence to biological processes, and thus evolved fairly recently in geological terms. So says Robert M. Hazen of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., who with seven colleagues identified three phases of mineral evolution.

The first phase began more than 4.55 billion years ago, as the solar system started developing. Chemical elements came together, forming about 250 simple minerals that in turn coalesced into planets. On Earth, the second phase stretched from 4.55 billion to 2.5 billion years ago, starting with the violent collision that formed the Moon. Earth's temperature and pressure varied wildly; plate tectonics began churning the planet's surface; and volatiles appeared, such as water and carbon dioxide, helping to redistribute the elements. Those changes enabled the evolution of some 1,250 new minerals.

Read more ....

Scientists Expect To Create Life In Next 10 years

This photo, provided by ProtoLife, shows vesicles, artificial membranes for cells, made from scratch. Teams around the world, including ProtoLife, are trying to create synthetic life in a lab. Martin Hanczyc / AP

From MSNBC/AP:

First cell of synthetic life can only be seen under a microscope.

WASHINGTON - Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and they’re getting closer.

Experts expect an announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of “wet artificial life.”

“It’s going to be a big deal and everybody’s going to know about it,” said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. “We’re talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways — in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict.”

Read more ....

250 DVDs In A Quarter-Sized Device -- Coming Soon?

"I expect that the new method we developed will transform the microelectronic and storage industries, and open up vistas for entirely new applications," said co-lead investigator Thomas Russell.

From NBC Bay Area News:

A new technique developed by scientists at UC Berkeley and University of Massachusetts Amherst may drastically increase the ability of devices to store things.

Cal officials called the technique "innovative and easily implemented," on Thursday.

The method lets microscopic nanoscale elements precisely assemble themselves over large surfaces.

Scientists said the technique could soon open doors to dramatic improvements in the data storage capacity of electronic media.

Read more ....

Six Ways to Boost Brainpower

Image Composition By Scientific American Mind; Julie Felton Istockphoto (barina); Dean Turner Istockphoto (background)

From Scientific American:

Key Concepts

* Scientists are finding that the adult human brain is far more malleable than they once thought. Your behavior and environment can cause substantial rewiring of your brain or a reorganization of its functions.
* Studies have shown that exercise can improve the brain’s executive skills, which include planning, organizing and multitasking. What you eat can also influence how effectively your brain operates.
* Activities such as listening to music, playing video games and meditating may boost cognitive performance as well.

Amputees sometimes experience phantom limb sensations, feeling pain, itching or other impulses coming from limbs that no longer exist. Neuroscientist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran worked with patients who had so-called phantom limbs, including Tom, a man who had lost one of his arms.

Ramachandran discovered that if he stroked Tom’s face, Tom felt like his missing fingers were also being touched. Each part of the body is represented by a different region of the somatosensory cortex, and, as it happens, the region for the hand is adjacent to the region for the face. The neuroscientist deduced that a remarkable change had taken place in Tom’s somatosensory cortex.

Read more ....

Asia's Space Program Is Heating Up

Photo: An Indian spacecraft takes off carrying the country's first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1 last autumn

India Approves £1.7bn Plan To Launch Astronauts As Asian Space Race Heats Up -- Times Online

India has approved a £1.7 billion plan to launch its first astronauts into space by 2015, in its latest bid to close the gap with China in what many see as a 21st Century Asian version of the Cold War race for the Moon.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will attempt to put two people into orbit 172 miles (275 km) above the Earth for seven days, according to a proposal approved by the Planning Commission at a meeting on Friday.

"ISRO needs to be supported as it has done marvellous job in the field of Space Science. That's why Planning Commission will support it," Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, told reporters.

"An unmanned flight will be launched in 2013-2014 and manned mission likely to launch by 2014-2015," he said.

Read more ....

The Race for Bosons

Fermilab's Tevatron: Reidar Hahn/Fermilab

From Pop Science:

Competitor takes advantage of LHC's accident.

Particle accelerator smackdown! Scientists working on Fermilab's Tevatron have been talking some smack (in the politest of terms), saying they have a good shot at finding the elusive Higgs boson before the currently out-of-commission Large Hadron Collider does.

Also in today's links: a map of emissions, why not to keep chimps as pets (besides the now-obvious), and more.

Read more ....

Aging Mars Rover Gets A Power Boost

Mars rover Spirit

From Yahoo News/Space:

NASA's aging Mars rover Spirit has a bit more power under its hood thanks to some Martian winds that cleaned dust from its vital solar panels.

The handy cleaning occurred earlier this month and was discovered by engineers scanning data from Spirit's power subsystem.

"We will be able to use this energy to do significantly more driving," said Colette Lohr, a rover mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "Our drives have been averaging about 50 minutes, and energy has usually been the limiting factor. We may be able to increase that to drives of an hour and a half."

Read more ....

Our Grid: Powering Our 21st Century Lives With a 19th Century Design

Transformer TRP: FearChild on WikiMedia

From Pop Science:

PopSci.com welcomes Dr. Bill Chameides, dean of Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Dr. Chameides blogs at The Green Grok to spark lively discussions about environmental science, keeping you in the know on what the scientific world is discovering and how it affects you – all in plain language and, hopefully, with a bit of fun. Now, PopSci.com partners with The Green Grok to bring you exclusive new blog posts a week before they hit the Grok's blog. Give it a read and get in on the discussion!

Can you hear it? The buzz on smart grids is getting louder. News reports on green jobs are peppered with talk of a “smart grid.” Google returns 929,000 pages for the term. Even Congress is in the swim, greening the stimulus package with $11 billion for a smart grid. So is Congress wise to fund it? Or are we buying an electrical bridge to nowhere? In this and a post to follow, we’ll look at why smart grids are a smart move.

Read more ....

Scientists Close In On 'Universal' Vaccine For Flu: Study

From Breitbart/AFP:

Scientists on Sunday unveiled lab-made human antibodies that can disable several types of influenza, including highly-lethal H5N1 bird flu and the "Spanish Flu" strain that killed tens of millions in 1918.

Tested in mice, the antibodies work by binding to a previously obscure structure in the flu virus which, when blocked, sabotages the pathogen's ability to enter the cell it is trying to infect, according to the study.

Because this structure -- described by one scientist as a "viral Achilles' heel" -- is genetically stable and has resisted mutation over time, the antibodies are effective against many different strains.

Read more ....

Top 10 Science Fiction Books, Movies And TV Shows

The 10 Most Influential UFO-Inspired Books, Movies and TV Shows -- Popular Mechanics

UFO culture began in the late 40’s, when a pilot’s account of a midair encounter with mysterious aircraft triggered similar reports across the United States. Authors, movie producers and a few hack journalists were quick to respond. By the late 1950s, pop culture was completely preoccupied with aliens, and the clichés it created then have been repeated and reinvented ever since. Here are the books, TV shows and movies that helped create the mythology of UFOs in America. They aren’t the best, or the worst, but the ones that made the most impact on the prevailing American superstition of our time.

Read more ....

2009 Oscars: PM Predicts Winners for Sci/Tech Categories

From Popular Mechanics:

PM takes to the red carpet to find out who movie industry experts expect to win for audio and visual achievement at the 81st annual Academy Awards, airing Feb. 22 at 8 pm on ABC. Check back Feb. 23 to see how our experts fared—and to get their assessment of why they might have been wrong.

Read more ....

NASA Delays Space Shuttle Launch A Fourth Time

NASA workers watch as the space shuttle Discovery is moved to the launch site at the Kennedy Space Center in January. NASA has postponed the launch of the space shuttle Discovery for a fourth time, but without setting a new target date to send the orbiter to the International Space Station (ISS). (AFP/Getty Images/File/Matt Stroshane)

From Yahoo News/AP:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA delayed the launch of space shuttle Discovery for a fourth time on Friday amid valve concerns, and managers are uncertain when the flight will take place.

Following a 13-hour meeting at Kennedy Space Center, shuttle managers decided against launching next week. The launch had been targeted for no sooner than Feb. 27; no new date was set.

Officials said they believe they have a realistic shot at launching Discovery to the international space station before mid-March. After that, the shuttle would have to get in line behind a Russian Soyuz launch with a new space station crew, and the next opportunity for Discovery would be after April 6.

Read more ....

More News On The Space Shuttle

NASA Defers Setting Next Shuttle Launch Date -- FOX News
Launch of space shuttle Discovery delayed indefinitely -- Wikinews
NASA launch remains uncertain -- Red Orbit
NASA Making Agonizing Decision Over Discovery Launch -- MSNBC
NASA delays Discovery launch a fourth time -- AFP
NASA postpones space shuttle Discovery's launch for fourth time -- China View
NASA delays space shuttle launch a fourth time -- AP

Is Genius Born or Can It Be Learned?

Albert Einstein. Photo from Corbis

From Time Magazine:

Is it possible to cultivate genius? Could we somehow structure our educational and social life to produce more Einsteins and Mozarts — or, more urgently these days, another Adam Smith or John Maynard Keynes?

How to produce genius is a very old question, one that has occupied philosophers since antiquity. In the modern era, Immanuel Kant and Darwin's cousin Francis Galton wrote extensively about how genius occurs. Last year, pop-sociologist Malcolm Gladwell addressed the subject in his book Outliers: The Story of Success.

Read more ....

Single-celled Algae Took The Leap To Multicellularity 200 Million Years Ago

Pleodorina starrii has an incomplete division of labor. Although the 12 small cells near the top of this colony only swim, the 20 larger cells both swim and reproduce. (Credit: Copyright 2008 Matthew Herron)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2009) — Some algae have been hanging together rather than going it alone much longer than previously thought, according to new research.

Ancestors of Volvox algae made the transition from being a single-celled organism to becoming a multicellular colony at least 200 million years ago, during the Triassic Period.

At that time, Earth was a hot-house world whose inhabitants included tree ferns, dinosaurs and early mammals. Previous estimates had suggested Volvox's ancestors arose only 50 million years ago.

Read more..

What's An Oscar Really Made Of?

From Live Science:

On Sunday, nominated movie stars will show up at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre hoping to walk away clutching one of those glowing statuettes. But there's more to that golden guy than meets the eye.

When they pick up their trophies, the winning celebs are toting around 8.5 pounds of metal. Oscar is 13.5 inches (34 centimeters) tall.

The Oscar statuettes, officially dubbed the Academy Award of Merit, have a 24-karat gold plating on their surface.

Beneath the gold, the statuette's interior is a metal mixture called Britannium, also called Britannia metal. It is an alloy of tin (93 percent), antimony (5 percent), and copper (2 percent). It's known for its smooth texture and silvery appearance.

Read more ....