Friday The 13th Strikes Again -- Two Months In A Row

Traditionally an omen of ill fortune, a black cat crosses a Palermo, Italy, street in an undated photo. Unlike its feline fellow resident of the bad luck hall of fame, Friday the 13th doesn't have nine lives—it can't even exist more than three times a year, thanks to the eccentricities of the calendar. Photograph by William Albert Allard/NGS

From The National Geographic:

You're not having a nightmare. It really is Friday the 13th again.

For the first time in 11 years, Friday the 13th is falling in two consecutive months. This double threat can only occur in certain non-leap years and only in a February-March combination. Look for it—or avoid it—again in 2015.

The double whammy isn't the only Friday the 13th claim to infamy for 2009, a particularly tough year for superstitious minds.

The ominous date falls on three Fridays this year: February 13; this Friday, March 13; and again on November 13.

But three Friday the 13ths is the yearly maximum, as long as societies continue to mark time with the Gregorian calendar, which Pope Gregory XIII ordered the Catholic Church to adopt in 1582.

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Unlocking The Secrets And Powers Of The Brain

From Discover:

Last November, DISCOVER and the National Science Foundation launched a series of events to explore the biggest questions in science today.

In the first event, “Unlocking the Secrets and Powers of the Brain,” four leading psychologists and neuroscientists discussed the hottest issues in brain research, from predicting human behavior to manipulating memory to pinpointing consciousness. Hosted by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, the panel was moderated by the award-winning author (and DISCOVER blogger and columnist) Carl Zimmer.

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Brain Scans Can Read Memories

From Live Science:

Humans create memories of locations in physical or virtual space as they move around – and it all shows up on brain scans.

Researchers tracked brain activity related to "spatial memory" as volunteers moved about inside a virtual reality setup. Their new study challenges previous scientific thinking by showing that memories are recorded in regular patterns.

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International Space Station Evacuated for Debris: The Law of Space Collisions

The International Space Station (Photo by NASA/National Geographic/Getty Images)

From Popular mechanics:

This morning, the three astronaut residents of the International Space Station scurried for safety in a Soyuz module, preparing for a possible impact with a piece of space junk—the motor of a satellite-carrying rocket. If struck, the station could experience a drop in air pressure that could kill all inhabitants. The event raises a thorny legal question: who is responsible for damages caused by space junk? Glenn Reynolds, a contributing Editor to Popular Mechanics and professor of space law at the University of Tennessee, outlines the complexities of orbital tort.

This morning, the three astronaut residents of the International Space Station scurried for safety in a Soyuz module, preparing for a possible impact with a piece of space junk—a 1/3-in.-wide part of a motor of a satellite-carrying rocket. If struck, the station could experience a drop in air pressure that could kill all inhabitants. NASA usually moves the ISS out of the orbit of debris, but some junk with erratic orbits can defeat tracking and surprise mission control, as happened during this incident. The debris missed the ISS and the astronauts exited the Soyuz “life raft,” but the junk is believed to have come within the station’s safety zone of 2.8 miles. The event raises a thorny legal question: Who is responsible for damages caused by space junk?

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Artificial Photosynthesis: Turning Sunlight Into Liquid Fuels Moves A Step Closer

Under the fuel through artificial photosynthesis scenario, nanotubes embedded within a membrane would act like green leaves, using incident solar radiation (H³) to split water molecules (H2O), freeing up electrons and oxygen (O2) that then react with carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce a fuel, shown here as methanol (CH3OH). The result is a renewable green energy source that also helps scrub the atmosphere of excessive carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. (Credit: Illustration by Flavio Robles, Berkeley Lab Public Affairs)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 12, 2009) — For millions of years, green plants have employed photosynthesis to capture energy from sunlight and convert it into electrochemical energy. A goal of scientists has been to develop an artificial version of photosynthesis that can be used to produce liquid fuels from carbon dioxide and water.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have now taken a critical step towards this goal with the discovery that nano-sized crystals of cobalt oxide can effectively carry out the critical photosynthetic reaction of splitting water molecules.

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Humans Respond to Scent of Fear

From Live Science:

Moviegoers might want to scoff a bit less when characters talk about the scent of fear. Women exposed to fear chemicals in male sweat tended to see ambiguous faces as being more fearful, according to a new study.

Such research shows for the first time how even the smell of fear can affect how people interpret what they see right in front of them. That fits with previous studies showing that visual and facial cues can affect human emotion and interpretation – but mainly when the situation seems uncertain.

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Artificial Life 'Could Be Created Within Five Years'

Prof David Dreamer believes building a new lifeform from scratch is a daunting task but is confident it could happen in five to 10 years Photo: GETTY

From The Telegraph:

Artificial life could be created "within five years", researchers from the USA have claimed.

Laboratories across the world are closing in on a "second genesis" - an achievement that would be one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of all time.

Prof David Deamer, from California University, said although building a new lifeform from scratch is a daunting task he is confident it can happen in five to 10 years.

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Solar Cycle 24 Has Ended According To NASA

Watts Up With That?:

Solar Cycle 24 has ended according to NASA. Yes you read that right. Somebody at NASA can’t even figure out which solar cycle they are talking about. Or, as commenters to the thread have pointed out, perhaps they see that cycle 24 has been skipped. We’ll be watching this one to see the outcome. - Anthony

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Apple Launches 'World's Smallest' MP3 Player... Which Can Even Talk To You

A new feature on the iPod shuffle announces songs to its user. It will carry up to 1,000 tunes

From The Daily Mail:

If you like your gadgets mini then you're sure to love the new iPod Shuffle,
launched by Apple today.

The 4GB shuffle is touted as the world's smallest music player and measures 1,8"x0.3", about the same size as an AA battery.

Users can control their songs and playlists from an earphone cord using a new VoiceOver feature, which announces the songs to users in 14 different languages.

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Our Noble Attempts To 'Feed The World' Are Simply Not Working

Food aid fills stomachs but does not provide an enduring solution to hunger and poverty. Photograph: AFP/Getty

From The Guardian:

There are 109 million more hungry people in poor countries now than there were just five years ago. But the answer is not more food aid, writes Pedro A. Sanchez

In recent decades, it seemed the struggle against world hunger was finally meeting with some success. But the number of undernourished people is growing again. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the number of hungry people in poor countries has increased by 109 million to 963 million since 2004. Unicef estimates that each day 300 million children go to bed hungry.

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Lithium Batteries Charge Ahead

Photo: Coated electrodes allow lithium-ion cells to charge up in seconds. Getty

From Nature News:

Two researchers have developed battery cells that can charge up in less time than it takes to read the first two sentences of this article. The work could eventually produce ultra-fast power packs for everything from laptop computers to electric vehicles.

Byoungwoo Kang and Gerbrand Ceder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge have found a way to get a common lithium compound to release and take up lithium ions in a matter of seconds. The compound, which is already used in the electrodes of some commercial lithium-ion batteries, might lead to laptop batteries capable of charging themselves in about a minute. The work appears in Nature1 this week.

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Intelligence Mapped In The Brain

From Live Science:

A new map of the brain shows that most key aspects of intelligence are handled in specific spots, while processing speed is distributed throughout the noggin.

Researchers used brain scans to map the mental regions involved in the cognitive work done while taking IQ tests, which remain the most widely-used intelligence tests in the world.

The scans helped examine each of four cognitive indexes of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) in 241 neurological patients who had suffered from strokes, tumor, resection and trauma. The study found some overlap in brain regions that might suggest future revisions for the IQ test, and suggested that brain scans could even help predict IQ scores.

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Dead Gene Comes Back To Life In Humans

FISH analysis of IRGM. The figure shows examples of FISH experiments on Hs (Homo sapiens), Rh (Macaca mulatta), Cja (Callithrix jacchus) and Lca (Lemur catta), with the use of human fosmid clone WIBR2-3607H18 (A, B, C) and lemur species-specific BAC clone LB2-77B23 (D). (Credit: Bekpen et al. Death and Resurrection of the Human IRGM Gene. PLoS Genet, 5(3): e1000403 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000403)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 11, 2009) — Researchers have discovered that a long-defunct gene was resurrected during the course of human evolution. This is believed to be the first evidence of a doomed gene – infection-fighting human IRGM – making a comeback in the human/great ape lineage. The study, led by Evan Eichler's genome science laboratory at the University of Washington and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is published March 6 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

The truncated IRGM gene is one of only two genes of its type remaining in humans. The genes are Immune-Related GTPases, a kind of gene that helps mammals resist germs like tuberculosis and salmonella that try to invade cells. Unlike humans, most other mammals have several genes of this type. Mice, for example, have 21 Immune-Related GTPases. Medical interest in this gene ignited recently, when scientists associated specific IRGM mutations with the risk of Crohn's disease, an inflammatory digestive disorder.

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Scientists Harness Anti-Matter, Ordinary Matter's 'Evil Twin'

Antimatter worker Jeff Larson checks out a huge magnetic ring at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory/MCT

From McClatchy:

WASHINGTON — Tom Hanks' new movie, ``Angels and Demons,'' tells of a secret plot to blow up the Vatican and everyone inside it by using ``the most terrible weapon ever made'': anti-matter.

As "Star Trek" fans know, anti-matter is the mirror image of ordinary matter, identical except that its electrical charge is reversed, like the opposite ends of a battery.

Discovered in 1932, anti-matter is sometimes called the ``evil twin'' of the familiar matter that makes up rocks, chairs, earth, air, water and living bodies.

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Space Shuttle News Updates -- March 11, 2009

Gas Leak Postpones Space Shuttle Discovery Launch -- AP

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA postponed the launch of space shuttle Discovery just hours before it was to head to the international space station Wednesday because of a hydrogen gas leak that could have been catastrophic at liftoff. The leak was in a different part of the system that already has caused a vexing one-month delay.

Shuttle managers put off the launch until Monday but left open the possibility that the repair work might allow for an attempt Sunday.

The latest delay means Discovery's two-week flight must be shortened and some spacewalks cut out of the mission. That's because Discovery needs to be gone from the space station before a Russian Soyuz rocket blasts off March 26 with a fresh station crew.

If Discovery isn't flying by Monday — possibly Tuesday, stretching it — then it will have to wait until April.

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More News On The Space Shuttle

Shuttle Discovery Launch Postponed Over Gas Leak -- Daily Tech
Nasa space shuttle launch delayed -- BBC
Shuttle Mission Delayed by Leak; Thursday Night Launch Possible -- CBS
NASA: No shuttle launch before Sunday -- Al.com
Space Shuttle Launch Delayed to March 15 -- Space.com

Saltwater Power Could Supply Energy for Most Dutch Homes

From Ecoworldly:

A new proposal to improve a 75-year-old dike, the Afsluitdijk, in The Netherlands could make it the world’s leading site for generating saltwater power— a clean, renewable energy source which is 30-40% more efficient than burning coal.

The breakthrough process, which is called reverse electrodialysis, captures the energy created when freshwater becomes saltier by mixing with seawater. Although scientists in the 1950s discovered that electricity could be generated this way, no one knew just how efficient the process could be until a recent study proved that a remarkable 80% of the energy could be recovered.

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High Speed Trains In California

Illustration by Paul Holland

From On Earth:

The rest of the developed world has high-speed rail. We don't. That's finally about to change.

With its soaring, arched ceilings, 20-story bell tower, and gilded frescoes, the Gare de Lyon rail station in Paris feels like a kind of church. This cathedral of transport was built for the World Exposition of 1900, a Belle Époque celebration of the achievements in science and technology that had given birth to the Industrial Revolution a century earlier. Coal soot and dark halos of steam billowed in the rafters, symbols of the original builders' faith in eternal progress.

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Why People Often Get Sicker When They Are Stressed

Escherichia coli

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 10, 2009) — A newly discovered receptor in a strain of Escherichia coli might help explain why people often get sicker when they're stressed.

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center are the first to identify the receptor, known as QseE, which resides in a diarrhea-causing strain of E coli. The receptor senses stress cues from the bacterium's host and helps the pathogen make the host ill. A receptor is a molecule on the surface of a cell that docks with other molecules, often signaling the cell to carry out a specific function.

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Recycling Mystery: Styrofoam

From Live Science:

It's the eternal question: Can I recycle Styrofoam®?

It's everywhere: It holds your food, secures items in packages, provides insulation in homes and it's even in your bike helmet. Also known as expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, it's a version of plastic #6 (polystyrene), which you've seen used in plastic cups and CD and DVD cases.

Fun fact: In 2006, the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers reported that 56 million pounds of EPS were recycled that year alone. That's an astonishing amount considering that EPS is 98 percent air.

Here's the thing: Even if your community recycles plastic #6, it may not accept EPS. It's a similar case to the plastic bag conundrum, where different versions of plastics require separate recycling streams.

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Computers Have A Lot To Learn From The Human Brain, Engineers Say

From Scientific American:

The year that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) first formed (as the American Institute of Electrical Engineers or AIEE), Chester Arthur was in the White House, the Oxford English Dictionary published its first edition, and construction began on the Statue of Liberty on what was then known as Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.

During a meeting today commemorating the organization's 125th anniversary, scientists (all IEEE members, of course) looked to the future, describing advances in artificial intelligence, brain-machine interfaces and energy transfer.

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