Knowing Blends Science Fact With Fiction (Beware: Spoilers!)

From Popular Mechanics:

In Knowing, numbers predict every major disaster for 50 years—and the upcoming end of the world. But just how much can scientists predict? PM talks to MIT physicist Dr. Edward Farhi to find out. Beware: Spoilers ahead!

In Knowing, Nicholas Cage plays John Kessler, an MIT astrophysicist who believes that the universe's course is caused by random events and circumstances with no grand plan—until a mysterious numerical code, unearthed from a time capsule buried for half a century, correctly predicts every major disaster of the last 50 years. The catch? It also predicts the upcoming end of the world. Knowing's plot is part real astrophysics and part mysticism; PM's Digital Hollywood got to the bottom of what is fact—and what's science fiction.

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How Pterosaurs Could Improve Robot Planes

Hop, Skip, and Away: Paleontologist Michael Habib theorizes that pterosaurs, which lived between 250 million and 65 million years ago, used their legs and wing “knuckles”—not just their hind legs, as previously believed—to leapfrog into flight. Kevin Hand

Flight School -- Popsci.com

A new take on pterosaurs could improve robot planes

If it looks like a duck and flies like a duck, it must take off like a duck. Paleontologists long speculated that this was the case for pterosaurs, but new research shows that the prehistoric winged lizards employed a smarter launch strategy, using all four limbs to hop, skip, and jump their way into flight, instead of pushing off with two legs and flapping their wings as most birds do.

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Earth's Future: Scary Ozone Scenario Thwarted

Simulations of global ozone concentration show the real-world ozone layer (left) versus a "world avoided," in which CFCs had never been banned. Reds depict high concentration; dark blues show low concentrations. Note the seasonal pulse of ozone over the poles, how it declines to holes (blue), then becomes global depletion by the 2050s. 2009 shown here. Credit: NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio

From Live Science:

If 193 nations hadn’t agreed in 1989 to ban the chemicals that eat up the Earth’s protective ozone layer, the world would have been a much different place later this century, with nearly two-thirds of the ozone layer gone and the ozone hole a permanent fixture over Antarctica, a new simulation shows.

Sunburns would occur in a matter of minutes and skin cancer-causing radiation would soar.

Ozone is the Earth's natural sunscreen, absorbing and blocking most of the incoming ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun and protecting life from the DNA-damaging rays.

The gas is naturally created and replenished by a photochemical reaction in the upper atmosphere where UV rays break oxygen molecules (O2) into individual atoms that then recombine into three-part molecules of ozone (O3).

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First 'Rule' Of Evolution Suggests That Life Is Destined To Become More Complex

Spiny lobster. In complex crustaceans, such as shrimps and lobsters, almost every segment is different, bearing antennae, jaws, claws, walking legs, paddles and gills. (Credit: iStockphoto/Tammy Peluso)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2008) — Researchers have found evidence which suggests that evolution drives animals to become increasingly more complex.

Looking back through the last 550 million years of the fossil catalogue to the present day, the team investigated the different evolutionary branches of the crustacean family tree.

They were seeking examples along the tree where animals evolved that were simpler than their ancestors.

Instead they found organisms with increasingly more complex structures and features, suggesting that there is some mechanism driving change in this direction.

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Robot Octopus Will Go Where No Sub Has Gone Before

From New Scientist:

INVEST €10 million in a robotic octopus and you will be able to search the seabed with the same dexterity as the real eight-legged cephalopod. At least that's the plan, say those who are attempting to build a robot with arms that work in the same way that octopuses tentacles do. Having no solid skeleton, it will be the world's first entirely soft robot.

The trouble with today's remote-controlled subs, says Cecilia Laschi of the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, is that their large hulls and clunky robot arms cannot reach into the nooks and crannies of coral reefs or the rock formations on ocean floors. That means they are unable to photograph objects in these places or pick up samples for analysis. And that's a major drawback for oceanographers hunting for signs of climate change in the oceans and on coral reefs.

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Another Space Walk At The Space Station

In this image from NASA TV, international crew members, from left, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, American commander Lee Archambault and American astronaut Sandy Magnus participate in an interview while orbiting Earth, Friday, March 20, 2009. (AP Photo/NASA TV)

Astronauts Go On 2nd Spacewalk At Space Station -- Yahoo News/AP

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Astronauts took another spacewalk at the international space station Saturday, this time to lighten the workload for future crews.

As soon as they floated outside, Steven Swanson and Joseph Acaba made their way all the way to the end of the space station's power-grid framework. They loosened bolts holding down batteries that will be replaced on the next shuttle visit in June, and deployed an equipment storage platform.

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Africans Came With Columbus To New World

Skeletons that may represent the remains of crew members from Columbus' second excursion to the New World in 1493-94 were exhumed in 1990. The burials were a part of La Isabela on the island of Hispaniola, now a part of the Dominican Republic and that was the first European settlement in the New World. Credit: Fernando Luna Calderon, provided courtesy of T. Douglas Price

From Live Science:

Teeth from exhumed skeletons of crew members Christopher Columbus left on the island of Hispaniola more than 500 years ago reveal the presence of at least one African in the New World as a contemporary of the explorer, it was announced.

A team of researchers is extracting the chemical details of life history from the remains found at shallow graves at the site of La Isabela, the first European town in America, said T. Douglas Price, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of anthropology and leader of the team conducting an analysis of the tooth enamel of three individuals from a larger group excavated almost 20 years ago there.

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Finding Twin Earths Is Harder Than Thought

This artist's conception shows a hypothetical twin Earth orbiting a Sun-like star. A new study shows that characterizing a distant Earth's atmosphere will be difficult, even using next-generation technology like the James Webb Space Telescope. If an Earth-like world is nearby, though, then by adding observations of a number of transits, astronomers should be able to detect biomarkers like methane or ozone. (Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA))

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 21, 2009) — Does a twin Earth exist somewhere in our galaxy? Astronomers are getting closer and closer to finding an Earth-sized planet in an Earth-like orbit. NASA's Kepler spacecraft just launched to find such worlds. Once the search succeeds, the next questions driving research will be: Is that planet habitable? Does it have an Earth-like atmosphere? Answering those questions will not be easy.

Due to its large mirror and location in outer space, the James Webb Space Telescope (scheduled for launch in 2013) will offer astronomers the first real possibility of finding those answers. In a new study, Lisa Kaltenegger (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and Wesley Traub (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) examined the ability of JWST to characterize the atmospheres of hypothetical Earth-like planets during a transit, when part of the light of the star gets filtered through the planet's atmosphere. They found that JWST would be able to detect certain gases called biomarkers, such as ozone and methane, only for the closest Earth-size worlds.

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Microsoft Launches New Version Of Internet Explorer

From The Daily Mail:

Microsoft has released its latest version of Internet Explorer, which is available free to download.

Internet Explorer 8 is claimed to be a faster, more secure and innovative version of the world's most popular browser.

Steve Ballmer, the chief executive officer of Microsoft, said: ‘With Internet Explorer 8, we are delivering a browser that gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match.’

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Strange Particle Created; May Rewrite How Matter's Made

A particle detector as big as a three-story house records the "debris" emerging from high-energy proton-antiproton collisions in the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Data from such detectors revealed an unexpected new subatomic particle that may break all known rules governing how matter is created, scientists said in March 2009. Image courtesy Fermilab

From National Geographic:

An unexpected new subatomic particle has been discovered in Illinois's Fermilab atom smasher, scientists announced this week.

The new particle may break all known rules for creating matter, say the researchers who created the oddity.

Y(4140)—as the new particle has been dubbed—couldn't have formed through either of the two known models for matter creation. Researchers aren't even sure what Y(4140) is made of.

It's long been accepted that six different "flavors" of particles called quarks combine to form larger subatomic particles.

In one method, a quark pairs with one of its opposites, an antiquark, to create a type of matter called a meson. In the second method, three quarks gather to form baryons, such as protons and neutrons.

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Romeo And Juliet's Balcony Opens For Weddings

Well-Worn Juliet Statue
The House of Juliet is the 13th century family home of the Cappello family who, according to legend, were the Capulets of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." The house will soon be used as a venue for weddings. This is the statue of Juliet in the courtyard of the house. The current tradition for couples is to stroke the right breast of the languid bronze statue and then leave love notes on the house's walls. Rossella Lorenzi

From Discover:

March 20, 2009 -- The House of Juliet, with the legendary balcony where Juliet Capulet is said to have pined for Romeo, will soon be used as a venue for weddings, city officials in Verona have announced.

The 13th century family home of the Cappello family who, according to legend, were the Capulets of Shakespeare's tragic play, has been always a place of pilgrimage for lovers from all over the world.

The tradition for couples is to first stroke the right breast of the languid bronze statue of Juliet in the courtyard -- the gesture is believed to bring good luck -- then leave love notes on the house's walls and Gothic wooden doors.

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Pink Elephant Is Caught On Camera

The little pink calf was spotted in amongst an 80-strong elephant herd

From The BBC:

A pink baby elephant has been caught on camera in Botswana.

A wildlife cameraman took pictures of the calf when he spotted it among a herd of about 80 elephants in the Okavango Delta.

Experts believe it is probably an albino, which is an extremely rare phenomenon in African elephants.

They are unsure of its chances of long-term survival - the blazing African sunlight may cause blindness and skin problems for the calf.

Mike Holding, who spotted the baby while filming for a BBC wildlife programme, said: "We only saw it for a couple of minutes as the herd crossed the river.

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Go Play Outside To Recharge Yourself

Interviewees: John Jonides and Marc Berman, University of Michigan
Produced by Jack Penland– Edited by James Eagan
Copyright © ScienCentral, Inc

From ScienCentral:

Feeling like you’re suffering from brain drain and you can’t concentrate? Psychologists have now found out that taking some time to interact with nature, even in cold weather, can make you a bit smarter.

Mother Knows Best

Are you feeling the strain of work? Have you lost focus and is your mind feeling about as sharp as the wooden rulers you had in elementary school? Scientists have some advice for you. Advice, it turns out, that your mother already told you a long time ago: Go play outside.

But, it turns out mother was only partly right. John Jonides, University of Michigan professor of psychology and neuroscience, and graduate student Marc Berman have one big condition to that advice: A walk in nature sharpens the mind, but a walk in the city does not.

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Two Dying Red Supergiant Stars Produced Supernovae

The Crab nebula is the result of a type II supernova explosion observed by Chinese astronomers in 1054. The nebula consists of the outer parts of a red supergiant that exploded after having burned all its fuel. The nebula is still expanding into the surrounding interstellar medium with velocities of several thousand kilometers per second. In the middle of the nebula there is a neutron star, which is the collapsed central, dead core of the exploded star. (Credit: Hubble Space Telescope)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 20, 2009) — Where do supernovae come from? Astronomers have long believed they were exploding stars, but by analysing a series of images, researchers from the Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen and from Queens University, Belfast have proven that two dying red supergiant stars produced supernovae. The results are published in the journal Science.

A star is a large ball of hot gas and in its incredibly hot interior hydrogen atoms combine to form helium, which subsequently forms carbon, other heavier elements and finally iron. When all the atoms in the centre have turned to iron the fuel is depleted and the star dies. When very large and massive stars, that are at least about eight times as massive as our sun, die, they explode as supernovae.

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More People In Love Than Previously Thought

From Live Science:

Romeo and Juliet would approve: A new study found that romantic love can stand the test of time.

Though it is widely held that romance and sex must ultimately yield to friendly companionship over time, new research found that's not the case. Instead about 13 percent of people reported high levels of romance in their long-term relationships, in a new study published in the March issue of the journal Review of General Psychology.

Researchers analyzed data from surveys of more than 6,000 people, including some in newly-formed pairs and many in marriages of more than 20 years. The scientists found that a surprisingly high number of people were still very much in love with their long-term partners, though the researchers drew a distinction between romantic love, which can endure, and passionate or obsessive love, which often fades after the beginning of a relationship.

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Liquid Saltwater Is Likely Present On Mars, New Analysis Shows

Droplets on a leg of the Mars Phoenix lander are seen to darken and coalesce. Nilton Renno, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences says this is evidence that they are made of liquid water. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 20, 2009) — Salty, liquid water has been detected on a leg of the Mars Phoenix Lander and therefore could be present at other locations on the planet, according to analysis by a group of mission scientists led by a University of Michigan professor. This is the first time liquid water has been detected and photographed outside the Earth.

"A large number of independent physical and thermodynamical evidence shows that saline water may actually be common on Mars," said Nilton Renno, a professor in the U-M Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences and a co-investigator on the Phoenix mission.

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The Quest To Make Hydrogen The Fuel Of The Future

The world's first hydrogen fuel station in Reykjavik, Iceland, April 2003.
Photo supplied by about.com

From NOVA:

Australia and many other countries around the world are preparing for hydrogen to take over from fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas, and move to what's being called the 'hydrogen economy'. But there are some big hurdles to overcome before it can happen.

You may not realise it, but scientists, the energy industry, governments and climate change experts around the world have joined forces and are on a global quest - and a race against time. Their goal is to find an economical, practical and safe form of energy to replace our reliance on fossil fuels.

Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the Universe, is one potential candidate. Many regard it as the ultimate 'clean, green' fuel because when it burns in oxygen, only heat and water are created.

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If Galaxies Are All Moving Apart, How Can They Collide?

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows a collision between two spiral galaxies, NGC 6050 and IC 1179, in the Hercules constellation. NASA, ESA and HUBBLE HERITAGE

From Scientific American:

Cosmologist Tamara Davis, a research fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia and an associate of the Dark Cosmology Center in Denmark, brings together an answer:

The dynamics of the universe are governed by competing forces whose influence varies with scale, so local forces can override universal forces in discrete regions. On scales larger than galaxy clusters, all galaxies are indeed moving apart at an ever increasing rate. The mutual gravitational attraction between two galaxies at that distance is too small to have a significant effect, so the galaxies more or less follow the general flow of the expansion. But it is a different story in a galaxy's local neighborhood. There the gravitational attraction can be very significant and the interactions much more exciting.

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Schools Of Robofish To Sniff Out Pollution In The Thames

Green robofish: The pollutant-seeking robots will be based on this model at the London Aquarium, with sensors to detect contaminants and GPS navigation

From The Daily Mail:

Schools of robotic fish could be sent into the Thames to produce a 3D pollution map of the river.

Researchers at the University of Essex in Colchester are working on the robofish as part of a £2.5million EU-funded project to find new ways of monitoring water waste.

Each fish will be about 50cm long, 15cm high and 12cm wide. They will be packed with pollution sensors that can electronically 'sniff' harmful chemicals in the water.

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Chris Anderson: Web Creating Free Economy

From Times Online:

Digital technology is offering consumers better deals and reshaping economic theory, says the author of The Long Tail

The "free economy", where businesses give away their products to make money, is spreading fast thanks to the recession and the increasing reach of digital technology, according to the author Chris Anderson.

Mr Anderson, whose acclaimed book The Long Tail is about how the digital revolution allows businesses to profit from selling small quantities of relatively unpopular items, said that consumers with less in their pockets were looking for bargains, making the free business strategy even more attractive.

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