400-Billion-Euro Plan To Pump African Solar Power To Europe

A man pictured next to solar panels whose energy helps pump water into a water tower in a village in Niger, 2004. Twelve European companies launched a 400-billion-euro (560-billion-dollar) initiative on Monday to plant huge solar farms in Africa and the Middle East to produce energy for Europe. (AFP/File/Issouf Sanogo)

From Yahoo News/AFP:

MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – Twelve European companies launched a 400-billion-euro (560-billion-dollar) initiative Monday to plant huge solar farms in Africa and the Middle East to produce energy for Europe.

The consortium says the massive proposal could provide up to 15 percent of Europe's electricity needs by 2050.

Engineering giants ABB and Siemens, energy groups E.ON and RWE and financial institutions Deutsche Bank and Munich Re are among the companies which signed a protocol in Munich.

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NASA Aiming For Wednesday Shuttle Launch, Try 6

Space shuttle Endeavour stands on launch pad 39A moments after the launch was scrubbed due to weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla, Monday, July 13, 2009. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

From Yahoo News/AP:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA is hoping the weather finally cooperates for its sixth launch attempt for space shuttle Endeavour.

Endeavour is poised to take off for the international space station early Wednesday evening, along with seven astronauts. Forecasters put the odds of good weather at 60 percent.

Thunderstorms have delayed the mission three times and hydrogen gas leaks have caused two delays. Endeavour holds the final piece of Japan's space lab, which should have flown last month.

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The Spacemen Who Spent Three Months On A Mission To Mars... Without Leaving Moscow

Still smiling: The six volunteers stayed in good spirits during their three-month mission, despite living in quarters just 12ft across

From The Daily Mail:

A crew of six men saw the Sun for the first time in three months today after they were released from a cramped spacecraft simulator.

The volunteers were taking part in a simulated mission to Mars, which was designed to study the psychological and medical aspects of long-duration spaceflight.

They entered voluntary confinement at the end of March when there was still snow on the ground in Moscow.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1199429/The-spacemen-spent-months-mission-Mars--leaving-Moscow.html#ixzz0LHlGzfR7&D

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Longest Insect Migration Revealed

From The BBC:

Every year, millions of dragonflies fly thousands of kilometres across the sea from southern India to Africa.

So says a biologist in the Maldives, who claims to have discovered the longest migration of any insect.

If confirmed, the mass exodus would be the first known insect migration across open ocean water.

It would also dwarf the famous trip taken each year by Monarch butterflies, which fly just half the distance across the Americas.

Biologist Charles Anderson has published details of the mass migration in the Journal of Tropical Ecology.

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H1N1 (Swine Flu) News Updates -- July 14, 2009

Swine flu experts have warned the virus could become more deadly.
Photograph: AP

New Flu "Unstoppable", WHO Says, Calls For Vaccine -- Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saying the new H1N1 virus is "unstoppable", the World Health Organization gave drug makers a full go-ahead to manufacture vaccines against the pandemic influenza strain on Monday and said healthcare workers should be the first to get one.

Every country will need to vaccinate citizens against the swine flu virus and must choose who else would get priority after nurses, doctors and technicians, said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research.

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More News On H1N1

New flu resembles feared 1918 virus: study -- Reuters
U.K. Aims for Broad Vaccination Program -- Wall Street Journal
WHO warns of vaccine shortfall for coming flu season -- Globe And Mail
Swine flu: health experts 'surprised' by spread of virus in the UK -- The Guardian
NHS helplines swamped as swine flu panic rises after death of six-year-old girl -- Daily Mail
67 Air Force cadets stricken with swine flu -- Denver Post/AP

El Niño Is Back, Bringing Droughts, Floods, Crop Failures And Social Unrest

A parched paddy field, blamed on Rl Nino, in Merlebau village near Kota Marudu on the Malaysian eastern state of Sabah in Borneo island. (David Loh/Reuters)

From Times Online:

El Niño, the warming of the Pacific Ocean that creates chaos in global weather patterns, is on its way back, threatening droughts, floods, crop failure and social unrest.

According to scientists at America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a new bout of El Niño is under way as the surface of tropical waters across the eastern Pacific has warmed roughly 1C (1.8F) above normal and is still rising.

Further down, some 150 meters (500ft) below the surface, the waters are heating up — by around 4C (7.2F).

These indications have been emerging for about the past month from satellite pictures and an array of robotic buoys strung out across the Pacific. “The persistently warm sea temperatures are important indicators of an El Niño,” Mike Halpert, of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Centre, said.

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Why It Is Easy To Encode New Memories But Hard To Hold Onto Them

Activated PAK (red) gathers at synapses (green), and might help consolidate fresh memories. (Credit: Rex, C.S., et al. 2009. J. Cell Biol. doi:10.1083/jcb.200901084)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2009) — Memories aren't made of actin filaments. But their assembly is crucial for long-term potentiation (LTP), an increase in synapse sensitivity that researchers think helps to lay down memories. In the July 13, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology, Rex et al. reveal that LTP's actin reorganization occurs in two stages that are controlled by different pathways, a discovery that helps explain why it is easy to encode new memories but hard to hold onto them.

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Why Are Human Brains So Big?

Human brains are about three times as large as those of our early australopithecines ancestors that lived 4 million to 2 million years ago, and for years, scientists have wondered how our brains got so big. A new study suggests social competition could be behind the increase in brain size. Credit: NIH, NIDA

From Live Science:

There are many ways to try to explain why human brains today are so big compared to those of early humans, but the major cause may be social competition, new research suggests.

But with several competing ideas, the issue remains a matter of debate.

Compared to almost all other animals, human brains are larger as a percentage of body weight. And since the emergence of the first species in our Homo genus (Homo habilis) about 2 million years ago, the human brain has doubled in size. And when compared to earlier ancestors, such as australopithecines that lived 4 million to 2 million years ago, our brains are three times as large. For years, scientists have wondered what could account for this increase.

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Web Site Recreates Apollo 11 Mission In Real Time

Apollo 11

From Yahoo News/AP:

Families crowded around black-and-white television sets in 1969 to watch Neil Armstrong take man's first steps on the moon.

Now, they'll be able to watch the Apollo 11 mission recreated in real time on the Web, follow Twitter feeds of transmissions between Mission Control and the spacecraft, and even get an e-mail alert when the lunar module touches down. Those features are part of a new Web site from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum commemorating the moon mission and Kennedy's push to land Americans there first.

"Putting a man on the moon really did unite the globe," said Thomas Putnam, director of the JFK Library. "We hope to use the Internet to do the same thing."

The Web site — WeChooseTheMoon.org — goes live at 8:02 a.m. Thursday, 90 minutes before the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It will track the capsule's route from the Earth to the Moon, ending with the moon landing and Armstrong's walk — in real time, but 40 years later.

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Space Station Is Near Completion, Maybe the End

The international space station, as seen from the space shuttle Discovery. The station is scheduled to be completed next year, then returned to Earth in 2016. (Courtesy Of Nasa)

From Washington Post:

Plan to 'De-Orbit' in 2016 Is Criticized.

A number of times in recent weeks a bright, unblinking light has appeared in the night sky of the nation's capital: a spaceship. Longer than a football field, weighing 654,000 pounds, the spaceship moved swiftly across the heavens and vanished.

Fortunately, it was one of ours.

The international space station is by far the largest spacecraft ever built by earthlings. Circling the Earth every 90 minutes, it often passes over North America and is visible from the ground when night has fallen but the station, up high, is still bathed in sunlight.

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Can Wine Fight Dementia?

Photo: A glass or two of wine a day -- but no more -- appears to protect older adults from developing dementia, researchers reported here at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease.(Riser/Getty Images)

From ABC News:

A Glass a Day in the Golden Years May Protect Against Dementia, Study Says.

A glass or two of wine a day – but no more -- appears to protect older adults from developing dementia, researchers reported here at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease.

"Among cognitively normal older adults, one to two alcoholic drinks a day is associated with a 37 percent decreased risk of dementia over 6 years," said Dr. Kaycee Sink, a gerontologist at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

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Hungry Cats Trick Owners With Baby Cry Mimicry

From New Scientist:

Cat owners will know the feeling. Your pet is purring loudly, demanding to be fed, and isn't going to give up until it gets what it wants. What most doting owners won't realise is that the cat is using an acoustic ruse.

According to Karen McComb of the University of Sussex, UK, domestic cats hide a plaintive cry within their purrs that both irritates owners and appeals to their nurturing instincts.

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Mystery Mechanism Drove Global Warming 55 Million Years Ago

Photo: Close up of a melting glacier. A runaway spurt of global warming 55 million years ago turned Earth into a hothouse but how this happened remains worryingly unclear, scientists said on Monday.

From Breitbart/AFP:

A runaway spurt of global warming 55 million years ago turned Earth into a hothouse but how this happened remains worryingly unclear, scientists said on Monday.

Previous research into this period, called the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, estimates the planet's surface temperature blasted upwards by between five and nine degrees Celsius (nine and 16.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in just a few thousand years.

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First Direct Evidence Of Substantial Fish Consumption By Early Modern Humans In China 40,000 Years Ago

Lower mandible of the 40 000 year old human skeleton, found in the Tianyuan Cave near Beijing. Analyses of collagen extracted from this bone prove that this individual was a regular consumer of fish. (Credit: Hong Shang / Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (July 13, 2009) — Freshwater fish are an important part of the diet of many peoples around the world, but it has been unclear when fish became an important part of the year-round diet for early humans.

A new study by an international team of researchers, including Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, shows it may have happened in China as far back as 40,000 years ago.

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This Is Why the Shuttle Launch Is Delayed

From Popsci.com:

It's hard to launch a Space Shuttle when the launch pad keeps getting struck by lighting. NASA cameras caught 11 lightning strikes, including one direct hit to the pad, near the space shuttle Endeavour's launch pad, during a thunderstorm on July 10.

The storm forced the space agency to call for a 24-hour delay to inspect the shuttle for possible damage. One spectacular strike even hit the top of the launch pad's lightning rod, which channeled the electricity harmlessly away from the shuttle through a series of metal wires.

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New Treatment Hope For Sufferers Of Cancer That Has Hit Patrick Swayze

Oncologist Dr Andrew Gaya (L) and patient Robert Ferrant are seen with the new CyberKnife system at Harley Street in London Photo: PA

From The Telegraph:

A man suffering from pancreatic cancer – one of most deadly forms of the disease and which has also struck Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze – has been given hope of long-term survival after being treated with an advanced form of radiotherapy.

Robert Ferrant, 62, who is one of the first in Britain to undergo the procedure, was given just a few months to live after he was diagnosed with the condition.

Only 13 per cent of people who contract it are alive a year after diagnosis and only three per cent surviving for five years.

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The First Earthling To Journey To Mars - Conan The Bacterium

Victoria crater, an impact crater at Meridiani Planum, near the equator of Mars.
Photograph: Anonymous/AP

From The Guardian:

Pictures from a Nasa mission reveal new glimpses of a world as fantastic as any imagined by a science-fiction writer.

Scientists have picked the first crew of Earthlings to fly to another planet. Those chosen for a Mars mission to be launched in October include specimens of thale cress and brewer's yeast, and a microbe known as Conan the Bacterium.

Together with several other microscopic organisms, these representatives of earthly life will be carried in a package that will be flown on a Russian robot spacecraft and are scheduled to be returned to Earth in 2012. The experiment - Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment, or Life - is designed to show if living organisms can survive unprotected in space for long periods and thus support the theory of panspermia, which argues that simple organisms can survive for years as they float through space and that life on Earth could have been wafted here from another world.

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Is Grapefruit Juice Toxic?

From Live Science:

This Week's Question: My daughter heard that grapefruit juice can be toxic for some people. Is that true?

The juice, itself, is not toxic, but you should be careful taking medicine with any grapefruit.

Grapefruit juice can raise the level of some medications in the blood. The effect of grapefruit was discovered after using juice to mask the taste of a medicine. So, be sure to ask your doctor or pharmacist if it is safe to have grapefruit with your medications.

Taking medicine can be hazardous to your health. You have to know what you're doing.

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Apollo Special: Mirrors On The Moon

Photo: Measuring the distance of the moon from Earth is one way of testing Einstein's theory of relativity (Image: Dan Long)

From New Scientist:

EACH clear night when the moon is high in the sky, a group of astronomers in New Mexico take aim at our celestial neighbour and blast it repeatedly with pulses of light from a powerful laser. They target suitcase-sized reflectors left on the lunar surface by the Apollo 11, 14 and 15 missions, as well as by two Russian landers.

Out of every 300 quadrillion (1015) photons that are sent to the moon, about five find their way back. The rest are lost to our atmosphere, or miss the lunar reflectors altogether.

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Multi-Galaxy Collision Caught in Action

From Wired Science:

Four galaxies are involved in this pile-up 280 million light years from Earth. The bright spiral galaxy at the center of the image is punching through the cluster at almost two million miles per hour.

That speeding galaxy may be what is causing the curved swath of X-rays, shown in blue near the center of the image, which were captured by NASA’s orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory. The three other yellowish galaxies in the collision are optically visible and were imaged by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on the summit of the dormant Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii.

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