Big Tropical Storms in Atlantic Hit 1,000-Year High

From ABC News:

Study Suggests Hurricane Frequency Has Increased Dramatically; Climate Change a Potential Culprit.

The people of U.S. Gulf Coast have felt unusually battered by big storms during the past few years. Now, it turns out their instincts are right.

A new report in the scientific journal Nature indicates that the last decade has seen, on average, more frequent hurricanes than any time in the last 1,000 years. The last period of similar activity occurred during the Medieval Warm Period.

The study is not definitive, but it is a unique piece of work that combines an analysis of sediment cores from inland lakes and tidal marshes with computer modeling and finds a "striking consistency" between the two, the authors suggest.

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In Galileo’s Footsteps

Galileo

From Newsweek:

For the first time in hundreds of years, the most powerful telescopes may soon come from Europe.
Galileo has been getting a lot of press lately, and no wonder. Four centuries ago this year, the Italian genius pointed his small, primitive telescope at the night sky and saw wonders nobody had imagined. His discoveries transformed our view of the heavens, but also infected astronomers with a permanent desire to peer just a bit deeper in the universe and find a few more cosmic secrets. Which is why, less than 20 years after they put the finishing touches on a generation of telescopes so big they would have made the Renaissance stargazer swoon, the astronomers are at it again. Three teams are racing to build telescopes four times wider and with up to 16 times the light gathering power than what exists now, and to have them trained on the stars by 2018.

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Augmented Reality Reveals History to Tourists

From : Science News Service

Doing virtual reality one better, a consortium of technology companies and European Union countries have created a "visual time machine" that allows tourists equipped with a smart phone to take a picture of an ancient object and then instantly review its history and see what it originally looked like.

This new technology, dubbed the "Intelligent Tourism and Cultural Information through Ubiquitous Services" (iTacitus, after the Roman historian), brings augmented reality to museums, palaces, castles and other tourist attractions, according to its developers."[Tourists] can look at a historic site and, by taking a photo or viewing it through the camera on the mobile device, be able to access much more information about it," said Luke Speller, a scientist with the BMT engineering group based in the U.K. "They are even able to visualize, in real time, how it looked at different stages in history."

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Bookyards Editor: For more books on science go here...

Maine’s Windkeepers: From Ship Masts To Windmills

Mike Cianchette, operations manager of the Stetson Mountain wind project, scans the mountain ridge while making inspections on top of a 300-foot tall windmill, in Range 8, Township 3, Maine. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP)

From Christian Science Monitor:

Today, winds help turn on the lights, run TVs and power washers, dryers and ovens in thousands of homes all over New England.

Silent surroundings almost tease the ears as clouds skitter across the top of this eastern corner of Maine. The wind, barely audible, swishes through beech and fir trees crowding the hills of an area so remote it’s part of the state’s Unorganized Territory.

Along the rounded ridge of Stetson Mountain, wisps of wind gain a whoosh-whoosh cadence as they push into motion mammoth blades at the tops of towers reaching hundreds of feet into the air.

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Cash In On Twitter -- But Beware

From CBS News:

(CBS) Twitter was once a place for people to stay in touch with each other and spread information, but now the site's taking on the role of marketplace.

The possibility of making money in 140 characters or less on Twitter has people atwitter about making big bucks via tweets. But is it really possible?

CBS News Science and Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg discussed it -- and ways others may try to cash in on you -- on "The Early Show" Friday.

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Cosmos: Probably The Greatest Science Documentary In The Universe

Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage provides a complete guide to life, the universe and everything.

From The Guardian:

Almost 30 years after it first aired, Carl Sagan's cosmic travel guide still educates, entertains and inspires awe.

I never got to watch Carl Sagan's epic science documentary Cosmos as a child. I was at boarding school in 1980 when it was released, so my TV watching was restricted. I've heard science journalist colleagues talk about the series almost with reverence, describing Sagan's commentary as "poetry". The 13 one-hour episodes of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage have just been re-released, digitally remastered and with updates on scientific progress in the quarter century that has passed since the series was created. Would it live up to such high expectations?

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Send ET A Text Message From Earth

From Yahoo News/Space:

Here's a truly long-distance message...one aimed more than 20 light-years away.

A new Web site in Australia is gathering text messages from around the world, all to be beamed to a distant alien planet called Gliese 581d.

The clock is ticking to submit text messages of no longer than 160 characters – perhaps a signal that extraterrestrial life may have a case of attention deficit disorder. The project - called "Hello From Earth" - (http://www.HelloFromEarth.net) ends Aug. 24.

Once the communiques are amassed, they will be transmitted from NASA's Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla.

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What Came Before The Big Bang?

Mehau Kulyk / Science Photo Library / Corbis

From Time Magazine:

Even as a boy watching the first moon landing on TV, Brian Clegg remembers wondering, "How did it all begin?" In his latest book, Before the Big Bang, the Cambridge-educated writer examines the theories that physicists and philosophers alike have put forth to explain how we got here. TIME spoke with Clegg about science as a social network, thinking outside of the box without losing his mind, and using Buffy the Vampire Slayer to explain Einstein.

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India Launches Bhuvan, Rival To Google Earth

From Times Online:

India has launched a rival to Google Earth, the search engine's hugely popular satellite imagery service.

The online tool, dubbed Bhuvan (Sanskrit for Earth), has been developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). Its debut comes as India redoubles its efforts to reap profits from its 45-year-old state-sponsored space programme, criticised by some as a drain on a country where 700 million people live on $US2 a day or less.

The new site also follows in the slipstream of the country's first moon probe, Chandrayaan-1, which successfully reached the lunar surface last November.

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Night-Time Photos Shed Light On Growing Economies

Bright lights, big GDP (Image: NOAA/SPL)

From New Scientist:

NIGHT-TIME images taken from kilometres above the Earth could help us better understand the economies of some of the planet's least developed countries. So say the US economists behind a method for measuring changes GDP using the intensity of street lights and other night-time lighting.

A better way of estimating GDP is badly needed, especially for poorer nations. Data collected by national governments is weak when it comes to informal sectors of the economy, such as street markets. In some countries, such as Liberia, economic information systems are so poor that meaningful data is sometimes non-existent.

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Facebook Cornering Market on E-Friends

From The Washington Post:

Fight to Own Social Media Heats Up.

Facebook just bought the rights to nearly everything you do online. And it cost them only $47.5 million.

Facebook's purchase of FriendFeed, an obscure social-media platform, is potentially momentous. To understand why, we must understand FriendFeed, a start-up that is ubiquitous among techies and unknown to everybody else. It's a sleek application that acts as a clearinghouse for all of your social-media activities. Post something to Flickr? That will show up on your FriendFeed page. Digg something? FriendFeed will know. Post to Twitter from your phone? FriendFeed will syndicate your tweets. Once you initially tell it where to look, it will collect everything and tell it to the world.

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Cave Complex Allegedly Found Under Giza Pyramids

From Discovery News:

An enormous system of caves, chambers and tunnels lies hidden beneath the Pyramids of Giza, according to a British explorer who claims to have found the lost underworld of the pharaohs.

Populated by bats and venomous spiders, the underground complex was found in the limestone bedrock beneath the pyramid field at Giza.

"There is untouched archaeology down there, as well as a delicate ecosystem that includes colonies of bats and a species of spider which we have tentatively identified as the white widow," British explorer Andrew Collins said.

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Why Flamingoes Stand On One Leg

From The BBC:

It is one of the simplest, but most enigmatic mysteries of nature: just why do flamingoes like to stand on one leg?

The question is asked by zoo visitors and biologists alike, but while numerous theories abound, no-one has yet provided a definitive explanation.

Now after conducting an exhaustive study of captive Caribbean flamingoes, two scientists believe they finally have the answer.

Flamingoes stand on one leg to regulate their body temperature, they say.

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New Class Of Astronomical Object: Super Planetary Nebulae

An optical image from the 0.6-m University of Michigan/CTIO Curtis Schmidt telescope of the brightest Radio Planetary Nebula in the Small Magellanic Cloud, JD 04. The inset box shows a portion of this image overlaid with radio contours from the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The planetary nebula is a glowing record of the final death throes of the star. (Optical images are courtesy of the Magellanic Cloud Emission Line Survey (MCELS) team). (Credit: Image courtesy of Royal Astronomical Society)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 16, 2009) — A team of scientists in Australia and the United States, led by Associate Professor Miroslav Filipović from the University of Western Sydney, has discovered a new class of object which they call “Super Planetary Nebulae.”

They report their work in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Planetary nebulae are shells of gas and dust expelled by stars near the end of their lives and are typically seen around stars comparable or smaller in size than the Sun.

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Pollution Reduces Rain Vital To Crops

From Live Science:

Air pollution in China has cut the amount of light rainfall by 23 percent over the past 50 years, a new study finds.

The cause: Particles in air pollution cause smaller drops of water to form, and smaller drops have a harder time making rain clouds.

The result: Bad air could hamper the country's ability to grow food.

It is the first such study to link pollution to altered climate that can directly affect agriculture.

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New Data: Mega-Quake Could Strike Near Seattle

Seattle Skyline

From McClatchy News:

WASHINGTON — Using sophisticated seismometers and GPS devices, scientists have been able to track minute movements along two massive tectonic plates colliding 25 miles or so underneath Washington state's Puget Sound basin. Their early findings suggest that a mega-earthquake could strike closer to the Seattle-Tacoma area, home to some 3.6 million people, than was thought earlier.

The deep tremors, which humans can't feel, occur routinely every 15 months or so and can continue for more than two weeks before they die back to undetectable levels.

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Hubble's Deepest Look Into Space, Now Rendered In 3D

From Popular Science:

Over a period of four months in late 2003, the Hubble telescope assembled an image that represents the deepest look into space every composed. The Ultra Deep Field image captures an estimated 10,000 galaxies, some as old as 13 billion years (just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, going by most estimates), all squeezed into a sliver of sky no bigger than what you'd see behind a 1-millimeter square postage stamp held one meter away.

Here's what it looks like in 3D.

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Longer Eyelashes Without Mascara, Thanks To Scientific Breakthrough

Long and luscious eyelashes have been considered a sign of beauty and glamour Photo: GETTY

From The Telegraph:

Brushes and bottles of mascara could be consigned to the dustbin after scientists discovered a way of making eyelashes grow longer.

Since the time of the pharaohs, mascara has formed an essential part of many women's daily beauty regime.

But now researchers have developed a gel which extends the length of time individual eyelashes grow for before they fall out, leading to longer and bushier eyelashes.

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Defense Last In WH Science Goals

From DoD Buzz:

The Obama administration’s budget guidance for 2011 makes clear that basic research spending will stay flat in most areas or decline, including at the Pentagon.

Money will first go to research that can “drive economic recovery, job creation, and economic growth,” says the guidance issued in an Aug. 4 memo by White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag. The administration also makes clear that since they expect little new money for science and technology funding then government agencies must move dollars to what it calls four “practical challenges.”

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My Comment: Many of our greatest technological and engineering accomplishments have come from the labs of Darpa and other defense related laboratories. So much for the campaign rhetoric that the sciences will benefit from an Obama administration. In fact .... it is the science that conforms to the political agenda of the White House that will now get the funding.

Robotic Systems Help People with Disabilities

With the help of a remote human assistant, a person with disability pilots a robotic mobility and manipulation system and opens a refrigerator door to retrieve a pre-prepared meal from home. Cooperative control leaves the person with disability in command, and the ability to use the capabilities of both the local pilot and remote human assistant enable safe, effective, and efficient operation of the robotic system in natural environments. Credit: Rory Cooper, Department of Veterans Affairs/University of Pittsburgh

From Live Science:

People might be surprised to learn that about 50 million people in the world use, or could benefit from the use of, a wheelchair.

Wheelchairs are one of the most commonly used assistive devices for mobility, and they provide people with mobility within their homes and communities. While wheelchairs were once a symbol of inability and stigmatizing, they have evolved to be highly mobile forms of self-expression that are often fitted to each individual user.

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