'Quiet Sun' Baffling Astronomers

Sunspots could be seen by the Soho telescope in 2001 (l), but not this year (r)

From The BBC:

The Sun is the dimmest it has been for nearly a century.

There are no sunspots, very few solar flares - and our nearest star is the quietest it has been for a very long time.

The observations are baffling astronomers, who are due to study new pictures of the Sun, taken from space, at the UK National Astronomy Meeting.

The Sun normally undergoes an 11-year cycle of activity. At its peak, it has a tumultuous boiling atmosphere that spits out flares and planet-sized chunks of super-hot gas. This is followed by a calmer period.

Last year, it was expected that it would have been hotting up after a quiet spell. But instead it hit a 50-year year low in solar wind pressure, a 55-year low in radio emissions, and a 100-year low in sunspot activity.

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Cosmic Close-Up: Sensational Images Of Saturn Show The Ringed Planet In Incredible Detail

This image was taken by Cassini as it moved above the dark side of the planet. As very little light makes its way through the rings, they appear somewhat dark compared with the reflective surface of Saturn. This view combines 45 images taken over the course of about two hours

From The Daily Mail:

These stunning images of Saturn taken by Nasa's Cassini spacecraft show the ringed planet, its moons and rings in the most incredible detail yet.

Extraordinary glimpses of the planet's atmosphere and surfaces add to our expanding understanding of the sixth planet in the solar system, as the Equinox mission approaches its second year.

The images show the incredible differences within the Saturn system. In one image, serene-looking rings are elegantly stacked up around its equator, making a striking contrast to the cratered appearance of its plethora of moons.

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Dr Panayiotis Zavos will be online from 10am BST to answer questions about his controversial work

Dr Panayiotis Zavos will be online from 10am BST to
answer questions about his controversial work.

From The Independent:

Controversial doctor filmed creating embryos before injecting them into wombs of women wanting cloned babies

A controversial fertility doctor claimed yesterday to have cloned 14 human embryos and transferred 11 of them into the wombs of four women who had been prepared to give birth to cloned babies.

The cloning was recorded by an independent documentary film-maker who has testified to The Independent that the cloning had taken place and that the women were genuinely hoping to become pregnant with the first cloned embryos specifically created for the purposes of human reproduction.

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Italian Scientist, Turning 100, Still Works

Italian neurologist and senator for life Rita Levi Montalcini, Nobel Prize winner for Medicine in 1986, delivers her address at a press conference for her one hundredth birthday in Rome, Saturday April 18, 2009. Montalcini will be 100 years old on April 22. The Italian scientist received the Nobel prize for medicine with Stanley Cohen of the United States, in 1986, for discoveries of mechanisms that regulate the growth of cells and organs. Riccardo De Luca /AP Photo

From The State:

ROME -- Rita Levi Montalcini, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, said Saturday that even though she is about to turn 100, her mind is sharper than it was she when she was 20.

Levi Montalcini, who also serves as a senator for life in Italy, celebrates her 100th birthday on Wednesday, and she spoke at a ceremony held in her honor by the European Brain Research Institute.

She shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for Medicine with American Stanley Cohen for discovering mechanisms that regulate the growth of cells and organs.

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New Engine Design Sparks Interest

Photo: Scuderi Group unveiled a prototype of its fuel-saving engine Monday in Detroit. Car makers including Honda and Daimler have shown interest. Scuderi Engine

From The Wall Street Journal:

WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- On Easter Sunday in 2001, Carmelo Scuderi called his family together in his home here and announced, essentially, that he had outsmarted the world's auto makers and their billion-dollar research departments.

The retired engineer and inventor told his children and grandchildren he had developed a dramatically more fuel-efficient design for the internal combustion engine, something car companies have been chasing for decades.

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What Makes Us Human?

Photo: The 1 percent difference: Humans are distinct from chimpanzees in a number of important respects, despite sharing nearly 99 percent of their DNA. New analyses are revealing which parts of the genome set our species apart. James Balog Getty Images

From Scientific American Magazine:

Six years ago I jumped at an opportunity to join the international team that was identifying the sequence of DNA bases, or “letters,” in the genome of the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). As a biostatistician with a long-standing interest in human origins, I was eager to line up the human DNA sequence next to that of our closest living relative and take stock. A humbling truth emerged: our DNA blueprints are nearly 99 percent identical to theirs. That is, of the three billion letters that make up the human genome, only 15 million of them—less than 1 percent—have changed in the six million years or so since the human and chimp lineages diverged.

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How Pocket-Size Computers Will Finally Overcome Small Screens And Tiny Keyboards

From Popular Mechanics:

Today, a 4-inch-long smartphone holds as much processing power as a desktop PC from five years ago—or a warehouse-bound computer from just a few decades prior. But Moore's law moves far faster than evolution, and no matter how small processors and memory chips shrink, human hands remain the same size. Even if pocket-size computers are technologically capable of serving as our primary go-anywhere PC, their tiny keyboards and small screens present ergonomic problems. Thumbing out a short e-mail on a Blackberry or iPhone may be easy, but try writing a dissertation or creating a CAD model.

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Astronomers Closer To Exoplanet "Holy Grail"

From Wired News:

In the astronomical equivalent of meeting someone who reminds you of yourself, scientists have discovered a planet outside the solar system that weighs just twice as much as Earth.

The relatively small size of the new planet, dubbed Gliese 581e, prompted Grenoble Observatory astronomer Xavier Bonfils to call it "the least massive exoplanet ever detected" in a press release.

That seems an odd reason for celebration until one considers the behemoth sizes of other exoplanets.

The largest, named TrES-4 and found — quite appropriately — orbiting a star in the Hercules constellation, is roughly twice the diameter of Jupiter, which itself could house 1,000 planet Earths. Corot-7b, the previous smallest-exoplanet designee, is twice the size of Earth and about five times as heavy.

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Earth-Sized Planet Discovered In Galaxy Outside Our Solar System

Exoplanet: An artist's impression shows Gliese 581 e with its star in the distance

From The Daily Mail:

Scientists have discovered a planet close in size to Earth in a galaxy outside our solar system.

As many as 300 so-called exoplanets - or planets outside our solar system - have been discovered, but most are much larger than Earth.

Gliese 581 e is about twice the mass of our planet and orbits a star 20.5 light years away in the constellation Libra.

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Where's The Remotest Place On Earth?

(Click the Above Image to Enlarge)
In our hyperconnected world, getting away from it all is easier said than done.
Click the link in the main text to see more of the connectivity maps

From The New Scientist:

SO YOU'VE hitch-hiked through Central America, stalked rare beasts in Madagascar and trekked your way through northern Chile. You're pretty well travelled, even if you do say so yourself. Before you get ideas about being an intrepid explorer, however, consider this. For all their wide open spaces and seeming wildernesses, none of these places can be described as remote in 2009.

In fact, very little of the world's land can now be thought of as inaccessible, according to a new map of connectedness created by researchers at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, and the World Bank.

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Solar Systems Around Dead Suns?

Asteroid 'Bites the Dust' Around Dead Star. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope set its infrared eyes upon the dusty remains of shredded asteroids around several dead stars. This artist's concept illustrates one such dead star, or "white dwarf," surrounded by the bits and pieces of a disintegrating asteroid. These observations help astronomers better understand what rocky planets are made of around other stars. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2009) — Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers have found that at least 1 in 100 white dwarf stars show evidence of orbiting asteroids and rocky planets, suggesting these objects once hosted solar systems similar to our own.

Team member Dr Jay Farihi of the University of Leicester will present this discovery on April 20th at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science conference at the University of Hertfordshire.

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Is Picking A Mate Just Genetics?

Is finding true love a matter of romance and judgment or just cold genetics?
(ABCNews Photo Illustration/ABC News)

From ABC News:

Scientists Say Genes May Dictate Mate Selection, at Least for Fruit Flies

So after looking for years you finally found your perfect mate. Was it good judgment on your part, helped along by a lot of romance, or was it just a case of cold genetics?

It may well be that your genes, not your superior taste when it comes to the opposite sex, made the choice for you. But even your genes can get it wrong. At least if you are a fruit fly.

A team of scientists at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, have been trying for a number of years to figure out the role genes play in mate selection.

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Lack Of Water Threatens "Garden of Eden"

Iraq’s marshes in 2003. Today, the marshes are drying up due to a drought and competition over limited water supplies. Hassan Janali, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

From Earth Magazine:

Since the downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraqis and scientists from around the world have been working hard to restore Iraq’s once-lush marshes. But after several years of measurable improvement, drought and competition over limited water supplies threaten to reverse this progress. Those working on the marshes are confident that the marshes can come back — but whether the people who rely on these wetlands for their livelihood will be as resilient remains to be seen.

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Manhattan Depicted Before Human Impact

Modern Manhattan on right; virtual recreation of 1609 Mannahatta on left. Image © Markley Boyer / Mannahatta Project / Wildlife Conservation Society

From Live Science:

New York City seems about as far removed from its natural state as any spot on the planet. Now a new study reveals what Manhattan looked like before it became a concrete jungle.

Once known as Mannahatta — the land of many hills — in the Lenape Native American dialect, New York was a lush island paradise 400 years ago. Times Square used to be an old-growth forest, Harlem was a ranging meadow, and downtown was wetlands. Streams teemed with fish. Wolves, mountain lion, elk and deer roamed the rolling hills.

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Medical Micro-Robots Made As Small As Bacteria

Artificial bacterial flagella are about half as long as the thickness of a human hair. They can swim at a speed of up to one body length per second. This means that they already resemble their natural role models very closely. (Credit: Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems/ETH Zurich)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 19, 2009) — For the first time, ETH Zurich researchers have built micro-robots as small as bacteria. Their purpose is to help cure human beings.

They look like spirals with tiny heads, and screw through the liquid like miniature corkscrews. When moving, they resemble rather ungainly bacteria with long whip-like tails. They can only be observed under a microscope because, at a total length of 25 to 60 µm, they are almost as small as natural flagellated bacteria. Most are between 5 and 15 µm long, a few are more than 20 µm.

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Are Wind Farms A Lot Of Hot Air... And What Would We Do When It's Not Windy?

Romantic hope: Wind farms cannot be the sole solution to our energy crisis

From The Daily Mail:

They're fine for making the odd cup of tea. But, says the Mail's Science Editor; if we wanted to go totally green, we'd have to carpet the country with more windmills than exist in the whole world.

There can be few more dramatic ways to create energy to boil a kettle. A few feet above my head, a giant blade scythes through the air. It is razorsharp, travels at about 90mph, is 130ft long and weighs some nine tons. Moments later, a second blade does the same thing, followed by a third.

The three rotors are attached to a 210ft-tall white tower which looms to the same height as St Paul's Cathedral - although many would consider it considerably less beautiful - and can be seen from miles around.

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Why Antarctic Ice Is Growing Despite Global Warming

Photo: Sea ice has grown in the Ross Sea off Antarctica, despite global warming: what's going on? (Image: Daisy Gilardini / The Image Bank / Getty)

From The New Scientist:

It's the southern ozone hole whatdunit. That's why Antarctic sea ice is growing while at the other pole, Arctic ice is shrinking at record rates. It seems CFCs and other ozone-depleting chemicals have given the South Pole respite from global warming.

But only temporarily. According to John Turner of the British Antarctic Survey, the effect will last roughly another decade before Antarctic sea ice starts to decline as well.

Arctic sea ice is decreasing dramatically and reached a record low in 2007. But satellite images studied by Turner and his colleagues show that Antarctic sea ice is increasing in every month of the year expect January. "By the end of the century we expect one third of Antarctic sea ice to disappear," says Turner. "So we're trying to understand why it's increasing now, at a time of global warming."

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Physicist Stephen Hawking Very Ill And In Hospital

Photo: Stephen Hawking (Wikimedia Commons)

From Yahoo News/Reuters:

LONDON (Reuters) – Physicist Stephen Hawking, the author of "A Brief History of Time" who is almost completely paralyzed by motor neurone disease, has been urgently admitted to hospital, Cambridge University said on Monday.

Hawking, 67, was taken by ambulance to a local hospital in Cambridge, where he teaches as a professor of applied mathematics and theoretical physics.

"Professor Hawking is very ill and has been taken by ambulance to Addenbrooke's Hospital," the university said.

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More News On Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking hospitalized, reported very ill -- AP
Scientist Hawking ill in hospital -- BBC
Physicist Hawking hospitalized -- UPI
Physicist Stephen Hawking hospitalized, "very ill" -- Scientific American
Stephen Hawking rushed to hospital -- CBC
Scientist Stephen Hawking 'very ill': university -- AFP
FACTBOX - Physicist Stephen Hawking -- Reuters

Egypt's Top Archaeologist Claims Antony And Cleopatra Tomb Found

Zahi Hawass (left) displays finds from the Toposiris Magna temple, where he believes Antony and Cleopatra's remains are located Photo: EPA

From The Telegraph:

Egypt's top archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, has shown off treasures from the site of a tomb which he claims contains the remains of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

Ahead of the start of excavations on Tuesday, Mr Hawass exhibited 22 coins, 10 mummies, an alabaster head and a fragment of a mask with a cleft chin as evidence that the site, a 2,000-year-old temple to the god Osiris, is likely to hold further treasures.

He believes that the Toposiris Magna temple, 30 miles from Egypt's ancient seaside capital of Alexandria, contains the tomb of the doomed lovers that has been shrouded in mystery for so long.

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Learning Disabilities In Males: Nine New X Chromosome Genes Linked To Learning Disabilities

Image: Family with missense variants in the CASK gene, one of the genes discovered in this study. Individuals with the missense variant are denoted by a *. Females are denoted with circles and males with squares. Black shading denotes individuals with learning disabilities. (Credit: Image courtesy of Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2009) — A collaboration between more than 70 researchers across the globe has uncovered nine new genes on the X chromosome that, when knocked-out, lead to learning disabilities. The international team studied almost all X chromosome genes in 208 families with learning disabilities - the largest screen of this type ever reported.

Remarkably, the team also found that approximately 1-2% of X chromosome genes, when knocked-out, have no apparent effect on an individual's ability to function in the ordinary world. The publication in Nature Genetics - a culmination of five years of scientific collaboration - emphasises the power of sequencing approaches to identify novel genes of clinical importance, but also highlights the challenges researchers face when carrying out this kind of study.

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