Long Shot: Planet Could Hit Earth In Distant Future

From Yahoo News/Space.com:

Our solar system has a potentially violent future. New computer simulations reveal a slight chance that a disruption of planetary orbits could lead to a collision of Earth with Mercury, Mars or Venus in the next few billion years.

Despite its diminutive size, Mercury poses the greatest risk to the solar system's order. Results of the computer model show a roughly 1 percent chance that the elongation of Mercury's orbit will increase to the point where the planet's path around the sun crosses that of Venus. That's when planetary pandemonium would ensue, the researchers find, and Mercury could be ejected from the solar system, or collide with the sun or a neighboring planet, such as Earth.

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Supervolcano May Be Brewing Beneath Mount St Helens

Photo: The US volcano may be connected to a semi-molten magma chamber that could fuel a giant eruption (Image: MAI / Rex Features)

From New Scientist:

IS A supervolcano brewing beneath Mount St Helens? Peering under the volcano has revealed what may be an extraordinarily large zone of semi-molten rock, which would be capable of feeding a giant eruption.

Magma can be detected with a technique called magnetotellurics, which builds up a picture of what lies underground by measuring fluctuations in electric and magnetic fields at the surface. The fields fluctuate in response to electric currents travelling below the surface, induced by lightning storms and other phenomena. The currents are stronger when magma is present, since it is a better conductor than solid rock.

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Is This A Pandemic? Define ‘Pandemic’

TERMINOLOGY It is not often clear when the spread of a disease, such as cholera, for which a boy was being treated in Congo, becomes a pandemic. Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

From The New York Times:

After decades of warnings about the inevitability of another pandemic of influenza, it is astonishing that health officials have failed to make clear to the public, even to many colleagues, what they mean by the word pandemic.

Generations of people have used the term to describe widespread epidemics of influenza, cholera and other diseases. But as the new H1N1 swine influenza virus spreads from continent to continent, it is clear that a useful definition is far more complicated and elusive than officials had thought.

And what is at stake is far more than an exercise in semantics. A clear understanding of the term is central to the World Health Organization’s six-level staging system for declaring a pandemic, which in turn informs countries when to set their control efforts in motion.

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Birth Of A Star Predicted

A study carried out by two astronomers from the Calar Alto Observatory, in Almeria, and the observatory at the University of Munich, in Germany, has predicted that the dark nebula Barnard 68 will become a shining star in 200,000 years' time. (Credit: Image courtesy of FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (June 10, 2009) — The astrophysicist João Alves, director of the Calar Alto Observatory in Almeria, and his colleague Andreas Bürkert, from the German observatory in the University of Munich, believe that "the inevitable future of the starless cloud Barnard 68" is to collapse and give rise to a new star, according to an article which has been published recently in The Astrophysical Journal.

Barnard 68 (B68) is a dark nebula located in the constellation of Ofiuco, around 400 light years away. Nebulae are interstellar clouds of dust and gas located within the Milky Way, and some of these are the so-called 'dark' nebulae, the silhouettes of which block out the light of the stars and other objects behind them.

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Study Finds 4 Things That Keep Old Minds Sharp

From Live Science:

Some people seem to be able to keep their wits well into old age. But what's their secret?

New research reveals a host of factors that may contribute to a sharper mind late in life, including exercise, education, non-smoking behavior and social activity.

While other research has shown that genetics play a role in whether people get dementia, the study adds to a growing body of research that is uncovering ways you can up the odds of keeping your brain healthy and your memory sharp now and later.

The study tested the cognitive ability of 2,500 people aged 70 to 79 over eight years. More than half of the subjects showed normal age-related decline in mind function and 16 percent had a considerable decline during the course of the study. But 30 percent of participants did not show a change in their cognitive skills, and some even improved on the tests.

The researchers then looked to see what could account for this difference.

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New Evidence Suggests That Using the Internet Might Make You Smarter, Not Rot Your Brain

Chalk It Up to Google: Surfing the web is bench pressing for the brain,
according to findings of a recent study Kevin Hand

From Popsci.com:

Dispelling the myth that surfing the Web is a time-draining waste of neurons.

"The simple headline here is that Google is making us smarter," says Gary Small of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California at Los Angeles. Thank you, Dr. Small. And thank you, Internet, for not only helping me dig up this information but also juicing up my brain while I looked for it. Small recently published results showing that searching the Internet does for the brains of older folks what doing bench presses does for chest muscles.

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Off-the-Shelf Genetic Testing On Display

From Technology Review:

The emerging market of direct-to-consumer genetic testing gets down to business.

Want to share your genome online with friends and family? Find out how well you metabolize B vitamins? Determine if you're genetically susceptible to forming blood clots on long flights? All of this is possible with a credit card and an Internet connection, thanks to the growing field of direct-to-consumer genetic testing, which aims to move genetic tests out of the doctor's office and into the hands of individuals.

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Speeding Up Brain Networks Might Boost IQ

From New Scientist:

For decades scientists have tried, mostly in vain, to explain where intelligence resides in our brains. The answer, a new study suggests, is everywhere.

After analysing the brain as an incredibly dense network of interconnected points, a team of Dutch scientists has found that the most efficiently wired brains tend to belong to the most intelligent people.

And improving this efficiency with drugs offers a tantalising – though still unproven – means of boosting intelligence, say researchers.

The concept of a networked brain isn't so different from the transportation grids used by cars and planes, says Martijn van den Heuvel, a neuroscientist at Utrecht University Medical Center who led the new study.

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Scientists: Global Warming Has Already Changed Oceans

From McClatchy News:

WASHINGTON — In Washington state, oysters in some areas haven't reproduced for four years, and preliminary evidence suggests that the increasing acidity of the ocean could be the cause. In the Gulf of Mexico, falling oxygen levels in the water have forced shrimp to migrate elsewhere.

Though two marine-derived drugs, one for treating cancer and the other for pain control, are on the market and 25 others are under development, the fungus growing on seaweed, bacteria in deep sea mud and sea fans that could produce life-saving medicines are under assault from changing the ocean conditions.

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US, Europe Look To Partnership On Mars Exploration

This combination of images provided by NASA, right, and the European Space Agency, left, shows the Space Agency logos. For almost half a century, the United States has dominated the exploration of Mars from the first grainy black-and-white pictures of the craggy surface to the more recent discovery of ice. Now, budget woes are pushing NASA toward a joint exploration venture with Europe. By 2016, the U.S. may unite with the European Space Agency for future Mars trips — a move that would mark a significant shift for NASA. Details of such a union could come by the end of June 2009. (AP Photo/NASA, ESA)

From Yahoo News/AP:

LOS ANGELES – For almost half a century, the United States has dominated the exploration of Mars from the first grainy black-and-white pictures of the craggy surface to the more recent discovery of ice.

Now, budget woes are pushing NASA toward a joint exploration venture with Europe. By 2016, the U.S. may unite with the European Space Agency for future Mars trips — a move that would mark a significant shift for NASA.

Details of such a union could come by the end of this month.

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Let Me Sleep On It: Creative Problem Solving Enhanced By REM Sleep

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (June 9, 2009) — Research led by a leading expert on the positive benefits of napping at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep enhances creative problem-solving. The findings may have important implications for how sleep, specifically REM sleep, fosters the formation of associative networks in the brain.

The study by Sara Mednick, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego and the VA San Diego Healthcare System, and first author Denise Cai, graduate student in the UC San Diego Department of Psychology, shows that REM directly enhances creative processing more than any other sleep or wake state. Their findings will be published in the June 8th online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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Risk Factors for Heart Attack Pinned Down

From Live Science:

If you smoke, are overweight or have diabetes or high blood pressure, doctors have a fresh warning for you: These four well-known risk factors for heart attack significantly increased the size of the heart's left ventricle, a key precursor of heart failure.

The finding is detailed today in the journal Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

All four risk factors were strongly correlated with greater size of the heart's left ventricle over the short term (four years) and the long term (16 years) in a study of more than 4,217 people.

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The Future Of "Plug-In" Hybrids--And Recharging On The Go

"Seattle, Chicago, Phoenix and several California cities are now setting up recharging infrastructures for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. Paris, where Toyota is testing plug-in hybrids, has over 80 recharging stations in the city and suburbs. And London is installing upwards of 40 recharging stations around town. Pictured: the charging port for a Plug-in Hybrid Saturn Vue." Geognerd, courtesy Flickr

From Scientific American:

The success of plug-in hybrid cars such as the Tesla Roadster hinges on building an infrastructure to charge the batteries away from home

Dear EarthTalk: With plug-in hybrid and electric cars due to hit the roads sometime soon, will there be places to plug them in besides at home? And if so, how much will it cost to re-charge?
-- Nicole Koslowsky, Pompano Beach, FL

Gasoline-electric hybrids, like the Toyota Prius, are all the rage due to their fuel efficiency, and consumers have been clamoring for carmakers to up the ante and give these vehicles a plug. This way the batteries can be charged at home and not just by the gas engine and other on-board features, thus greatly reducing the need for gas except for long trips. And purely electric cars, like the Tesla Roadster already on the market, will be making more appearances on the streets as greater production brings the costs down.

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How To Chat With an Alien: The Official Guide

From Discover Magazine:

The folks at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, or SETI, in Mountain View, Calif., want to make sure we earthlings are prepared for a conversation with extraterrestrials. The group, which is dedicated to searching space for signs of life, recently began searching 10 billion channels using radio telescopes to give us a chance to communicate with beings on other planets.

The next step, of course, is to figure out what to say. The institute has given the public the chance to chime in on this issue through the Earth Project, which asks space enthusiasts how we should converse with aliens.

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Vaccines In Space: Taking Biotech To Microgravity Labs

Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of staphylococcus aureus bacteria.

From Popular Mechanics:

Last week, International Space Station crews conducted a trailblazing microgravity vaccine experiment on behalf of a company to thwart drug-resistant infections. The trick: growing superdiseases in space. Soon after, the CEO of the company behind the experiment told attendees at a conference in New York City what he envisions for the future of space-age biotech.

Last month the public watched as astronauts on the space shuttle Atlantis conducted risky spacewalks to fix the Hubble Space Telescope. But there was another, quieter task that the astronauts pursuedóa commercial drug experiment aimed at finding a vaccine against a deadly staph infection besetting hospitals.

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This Is The Moon In HD, Closer Than Ever Before

From PopSci.com:

Japan's Kaguya lunar probe sends back stunning high-definition footage from an extremely low altitude.

Japan's Kaguya lunar surveyor craft has sent back fresh HD clips as its orbit slowly degrades, bringing it closer than ever to the surface. In two days it will crash-land, bringing its mission to an end, but until then, it's keeping the ultra-crisp, almost surreal lunar footage coming.

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How Fire Made Us Human -- A Commentary

Image: Two new books argue that taming fire and learning to cook were key in human evolution (Image: University of New Mexico Press)

From New Scientist:

THE inhabitants of the Admiralty Islands say that a divine serpent once asked some children to cook a fish. The children dried it in the sun and ate it raw. Seeing this, the serpent gave them fire and taught them to cook.

So it is with every culture: the way that humans acquired fire is enshrined in legend, usually involving either a heroic benefactor or a trickster. In Greek myth, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and was punished for it; according to the Apache, it was a cunning fox who captured it for us. Once acquired, fire became sacred. In ancient Rome, it was guarded in the temple of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, by the Vestal Virgins. In India's Hindu temples, Agnihotri (literally "fire-guarder") Brahmans are still keepers of the sacred flame.

Legends aside, no other animal controls fire. Most fear it. The use of fire sets humans apart. But what difference has it made?

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A Real Whopper: Black Hole Is Most Massive Known

(Image from Discovery.com)

From Yahoo News/Space.com:

PASADENA, CALIF. — The most massive black hole yet weighed lurks at the heart of the relatively nearby giant galaxy M87.

The supermassive black hole is two to three times heftier than previously thought, a new model showed, weighing in at a whopping 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun. The new measure suggests that other black holes in nearby large galaxies could also be much heftier than current measurements suggest, and it could help astronomers solve a longstanding puzzle about galaxy development.

"We did not expect it at all," said team member Karl Gebhardt of the University of Texas at Austin.

The discovery was announced here today at the 214th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

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Huge Cosmic Explosions Are Dark and Mysterious

From Yahoo News/Space:

PASADENA, CALIF. — Some of the most powerful explosions in the universe are invisible. But astronomers are a sneaky bunch. By monitoring X-rays and gamma rays, they're able to see what's going on.

Today astronomers said that a certain type of gamma-ray burst, the most energetic explosions in the universe, can light up areas of galaxies, but only in these more energetic wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum, revealing intense star formation and death.

A survey of so-called "dark" gamma-ray bursts, which shine brightly in the gamma and X-ray parts of the spectrum but show barely a spark of visible light, found that these beacons can shed light on the dusty corners of galaxies where stars are born.

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Flexible Solar Power Shingles Transform Roofs From Wasted Space To Energy Source

PNNL, Vitex Systems and Battelle are working to adapt a film encapsulation process that would enable flexible solar panels like this. The flexible solar panels could be placed on rooftops like shingles and could replace today's boxy solar panels that are made with rigid glass or silicon and mounted on thick metal frames. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Vitex Systems, Inc.)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (June 8, 2009) — A transparent thin film barrier used to protect flat panel TVs from moisture could become the basis for flexible solar panels that would be installed on roofs like shingles.

The flexible rooftop solar panels - called building-integrated photovoltaics, or BIPVs - could replace today's boxy solar panels that are made with rigid glass or silicon and mounted on thick metal frames. The flexible solar shingles would be less expensive to install than current panels and made to last 25 years.

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