Kepler Blasts Off In Search Of Earth-Like Planets

In a timed exposure, spectators watch from Cocoa Beach as the Kepler satellite launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. March 6. Malcolm Denemark / Associated Press

From The L.A. Times:

The $590-million mission, jointly managed by JPL and NASA, will examine a star-rich stretch of sky for a planet where water could exist in liquid form.

NASA's Kepler spacecraft blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday on a three-year mission to find Earth's twin, a Goldilocks planet where it's neither too hot nor too cold, but just right for life to take hold.

The Delta II rocket, carrying the widest-field telescope ever put in space, lifted off the launch pad at Cape Canaveral at 10:49 p.m. Eastern time.

The launch vehicle headed downrange, gathering speed as its three stages ignited, one after the other, passing over the Caribbean island of Antigua and tracking stations in Australia before climbing into orbit.

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More News On The Kepler Telescope

After Launch, Kepler Prepares To Carry Out Its Mission -- Red Orbit
Nasa launches Earth hunter probe -- BBC
CU leads historic voyage to find other Earths -- AP
Guide To Exoplanets -- MSNBC
Kepler Mission Sets Out to Find Planets Using CCD Cameras -- Daily Tech

Naked Mole Rats May Hold Clues To Successful Aging

A naked mole rat in a toilet paper roll.
(Credit: Image courtesy of University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 6, 2009) — Naked mole rats resemble pink, wrinkly, saber-toothed sausages and would never win a beauty contest, even among other rodents. But these natives of East Africa are the champs for longevity among rodents, living nine times longer than similar-sized mice. Not only do they have an extraordinarily long lifespan, but they maintain good health for most of it and show remarkable resistance to cancer.

Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio are studying mechanisms that enable the prolonged good health and slowed aging of naked mole rats in their large colony at the university’s Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies. In the March 3 print edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists report on another unusual feature of the animals — tissues of the naked mole rat are remarkably efficient at discarding damaged proteins and thereby maintaining stable, high-quality proteins.

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Wine and Beer May be Good for Your Bones

From Live Science:

A glass of wine or a bottle or two of beer a day may strengthen the bones of older men and women, but drinking more than that could actually weaken bones, according to new research from the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston.

The research, on men and post-menopausal women over 60 years of age, found that regular moderate alcohol intake was associated with greater bone mineral density (BMD).

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Facebook To Launch Redesigned Home Page - News Feed Going “Live” Next Wednesday (Updated With Screenshots)

(Click The Above Image To Enlarge)

From Inside Facebook:

Today, Facebook announced that the News Feed, which has long been the most powerful way for users to discover updates from their friend on the site, is going “Live.” In addition, users will be able to filter the changes, most prominently according to friend lists.

The new home page consists of 4 primary elements: the Stream, Publisher, Filters, and Highlights.

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The Lost World Beneath The Antarctic Ice

Scientists start explorations in the two-mile-thick ice sheet
above Lake Ellsworth in Antarctica. Press Handout

From The Independent:

British scientists search for life forms hidden more than 400,000 years ago beneath Antarctic ice.

British scientists are about to mount one of the boldest-ever missions, to search for life forms that have survived for possibly millions of years in a frozen "lost world" beneath an ancient ice sheet.

This week, a team of Antarctic scientists has been given the go-ahead to drill through a two-mile-thick sheet of ice that has sealed a sub-glacial lake from the rest of the biosphere for at least as long as Homo sapiens has walked the Earth.

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Q&A: Mitchell Baker On The Future Of Firefox

Browsing The Future -- Newsweek

Mozilla's Firefox gave Microsoft a run for its money. What's next?

At least 18 percent of you already know what Firefox is, because you're using it to read this interview. (Or so says the statistics engine behind Newsweek.com, which tracks things like that.) For the unfamiliar, Firefox is a free Web browser that is built by coders around the world whose open-source work is organized by the Mozilla Corp. and its nonprofit parent, the Mozilla Foundation. Introduced in 2004 as an alternative to Microsoft's ubiquitous, but buggy, Internet Explorer, Firefox has been a force for innovation in the browser category, with improvements such as tabbed browsing and plug-ins that work on any operating system. Commissions from search engines appear to keep Mozilla awash in revenue for now ($75 million in 2007; the foundation has not released 2008 data), although the vast majority of that comes from a company, Google, that now has its own competing browser, Chrome. Mozilla's plans for 2009 include a new version of Firefox, which will focus on user-interface polish; an overhaul of Thunderbird, its e-mail client; and taking Firefox mobile. Mitchell Baker, the Mozilla Foundation's chairwoman, spoke to NEWSWEEK's Nick Summers and Barrett Sheridan about the challenges of making a browser for mobile phones, adapting to a socially networked universe and what she really thinks of Chrome and Internet Explorer. Excerpts:

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Bionic Eye Lets The Blind See

Ron who has a bionic eye as featured on BBC's Inside Out.

From The Telegraph:

A bionic eye has allowed a blind patient to see well enough to sort his socks and work the washing machine after one of the first operations of its kind in the UK.

Ron, 73, is one of just three patients in the UK to be fitted with a bionic eye and after 30 years of being completely blind he can now see well enough to do the laundry.

The operation was carried out at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London seven months ago and Ron's sight has steadily improved since then.

He lost his sight in his 40s after suffering from a disease called retinitis pigmentosa but now thanks to the operations he is regaining some of his independence.

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Telescope 'Cousins' Meet At Last

Scheduled to launch in April 2009, the Herschel and Planck space telescopes bring capabilities never before available to study the origins of stars, galaxies and the universe. The expected data might revolutionize both astrophysics and philosophy. Image from Environmental Graffitti.

From The BBC:

Europe's Herschel and Planck space telescopes have finally come together.

The satellites now share a common cleanroom at the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, from where they will be despatched into orbit on 16 April.

The observatories have been produced as part of a joint programme that has taken more than 10 years to develop and which is worth some 1.9bn euros.

Their arrival in the S1 preparation hall at Kourou marks the first time the pair have come face to face.

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Update: Europe expects busy year in space -- BBC News

Yucca No Longer Option For Waste Site

In this June 25, 2002, photo, the view from the summit ridge of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump near Mercury, looking west toward California. For two decades, a ridge of volcanic rock 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas known as Yucca Mountain has been the sole focus of government plans to store highly radioactive nuclear waste. Associated Press file photo

From Nevada Appeal:

WASHINGTON — For two decades, a ridge of volcanic rock 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas known as Yucca Mountain has been the sole focus of government plans to store highly radioactive nuclear waste.

Not anymore.

Despite the $13.5 billion that has been spent on the project, the Obama administration says it’s going in a different direction.

It slashed funding for Yucca Mountain in its recently announced budget.

And on Thursday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate hearing that the Yucca Mountain site no longer was viewed as an option for storing reactor waste, brushing aside criticism from several Republican lawmakers.

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The Kepler Telescope: Taking A Census Of The Galaxy

At the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida, workers from Ball Aerospace check the star trackers on NASA's Kepler spacecraft before testing. NASA

From Time Magazine:

Think you could stare at a single spot without blinking for three and a half years? Then be glad you're not NASA's Kepler telescope, which is set to blast into space from Cape Canaveral this Friday night. Kepler's job may sound boring to you, but what the spacecraft accomplishes could be extraordinary: the discovery of the first Earth-like planets orbiting sun-like stars. Those kinds of places might well be brewing Earth-like forms of life.

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How Are People Lost at Sea Found?

SHIPWRECKED: The U.S. Coast Guard found boating accident survivor Nick Schuyler yesterday on the overturned vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. COAST GUARD/ADAM CAMPBELL

From Scientific American:

How does the U.S. Coast Guard conduct searches for people stranded in bodies of water, including two National Football League players and their friend missing off the Florida coast?

The U.S. Coast Guard today announced that it had suspended its search at 6:30 P.M. EST for three boaters, including two pro football players, missing in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Clearwater, Fla. The trio was part of a group of four men who left from Clearwater on a fishing trip Saturday and were reported missing early Sunday after failing to return. In calling off the hunt, Coast Guard Capt. Timothy Close said that "We're extremely confident that if there are any survivors on the surface of the water that we would have found them," the Associated Press reports.

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Otzi The Prehistoric Iceman Goes Online Allowing Users To Virtually Tour His Body

Otzi has been photographed using 12 different angle-shots

From the Daily Mail:

A Stone Age warrior frozen in an icy tomb for 5,300 years can now be viewed in astonishing detail thanks to a new website.

The Iceman photoscan project took 150,000 high definition images of the perfectly preserved mummy from 12 different angles, which the researchers loaded onto the new website www.icemanphotoscan.eu.

This allows users to zoom into details that are just millimetres wide from the comfort of their living room. They can also view the mummy in 3D and see its distinctive tattoos in both white and UV light.

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Schizophrenia Could Be Caused By Faulty Signaling In Brain

Schizophrenia has been linked to signaling problems, according to a new brain study. (Credit: iStockphoto/Vasiliy Yakobchuk)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2009) — Schizophrenia could be caused by faulty signalling in the brain, according to new research published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. In the biggest study of its kind, scientists looking in detail at brain samples donated by people with the condition have identified 49 genes that work differently in the brains of schizophrenia patients compared to controls.

Many of these genes are involved in controlling cell-to-cell signalling in the brain. The study, which was carried out by researchers at Imperial College London and GlaxoSmithKline, supports the theory that abnormalities in the way in which cells 'talk' to each other are involved in the disease.

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Exercise: The Best Medicine

New studies find exercise makes for better eye health, less chronic pain, stronger bones and can even help prevent some cancer. Image credit: Dreamstime

From Live Science:

It just seems too good to be true. Study after research study consistently promoting the endless benefits of exercise. Couch potatoes everywhere are waiting for the other shoe to drop, telling us that all of those scientists were wrong and we should remain as sedentary as possible.

Yet four additional studies released recently each give the same prescription for improving some aspect of your health: exercise.

They add to recent evidence that regular workouts can improve old brains, raise kids' academic performance and give a brain boost to everyone in between.

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9 Big NASA Projects Over Budget

From MSNBC:

Auditors cite projects such as asteroid explorer, Earth-like planet hunter.

The Government Accountability Office, the congressional budget watchdog, found cost overruns in at least nine big NASA projects:

Mars Science Laboratory. Price: $2.3 billion, up $657.4 million since October 2007. Launch delayed 25 months to October 2011.

NPOESS Preparatory Project a satellite to study atmosphere and sea temperatures. Price: $794.6 million, up $121.8 million since October 2006. Launch delayed 26 months to June 2010.

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Asteroid's Near Miss A Cosmic Close Call

An asteroid named 2009 DD45 came within 48,800 miles
from Earth, March 3, 2009. (AP / CBS)

From CBS News:

(AP) An asteroid about the size of one that blasted Siberia a century ago just buzzed the Earth.

The asteroid named 2009 DD45 was about 48,800 miles from Earth when it zipped past early Monday, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported.

That is just twice as high as the orbits of some telecommunications satellites and about a fifth of the distance to the Moon.

"This was pretty darn close," astronomer Timothy Spahr of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said Wednesday.

But not as close as the tiny meteoroid 2004 FU162, which came within 4,000 miles in 2004.

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Before Google Became Google: The Original Setup At Stanford University

From Pingdom:

Since it launched in 1998, Google has become one of the true giants of the Internet. These days, Google has data centers all around the world and hundreds of thousands of servers. The sheer size of Google today makes it very interesting to look back at its humble beginnings as a small research project called Backrub at Stanford University.

Back in early 1998, the entire search engine and website ran on this setup:

Closeups and hardware descriptions available here. Note the homemade Lego disk box…

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Flexible Screens Get Touchy-Feely

Photo: Touch and feel: Bendable, touch-sensitive screens could lead to a new generation of more rugged and easy to use portable displays. Credit: Flexible Display Center

From Technology Review:

The first bendable, touch-screen display will be used by the military.

Researchers have developed the first computer display that is both flexible and touch sensitive. They say that the breakthrough could lead to more practical and easier-to-use portable devices.

Over the past few years, there has been a drive to develop displays that more closely mimic the properties of paper.

E Ink, based in Cambridge, MA, already supplies displays that are easy to read in direct sunlight and require little power for both the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader, compared to LCDs and plasma screens. E Ink's technology uses a layer of microcapsules filled with submicrometer black and white particles to create a low-power, reflective screen.

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5 Huge Green-Tech Projects in the Developing World

From Wired News:

Any solution to global climate change will eventually have to involve the whole globe, not just the richest countries.

That's why deals like the one announced Tuesday between Pasadena's eSolar and the Indian conglomerate Acme Group are essential to any truly green global future. ESolar will sell Acme 1,000 megawatts worth of solar thermal technology, so that the latter can build a network of solar power plants in India's northern state of Haryana.

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Mould Problem At France's Lascaux Cave

Paleolithic handywork: Discovered in 1940, France's Lascaux Cave has some of the world's most spectacular prehistoric cave art.

From Cosmos Magazine:

PARIS: The problem of black fungus threatening world-famous prehistoric paintings at the Lascaux Cave in southwestern France is stable, a scientist said last week.

France, criticised for its management of Lascaux, applied fungicide to the cave's walls in January 2008 in a bid to roll back patches of mould imperilling the legendary art.

Dubbed "the Sistine Chapel of prehistory," Lascaux, listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, includes stunning pictures of horses, extinct bulls and ibexes, painted by unknown hands some 17,000 years ago.

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