New Origin of Life Proposed: Zinc & Zap

Unlike Miller and Urey, who believed the early Earth had a reducing atmosphere, scientists today believe the early Earth had a neutral atmosphere composed primarily of carbon dioxide. Credit: NASA

From Live Science:

The Miller-Urey experiment, conducted by chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey in 1953, is the classic experiment on the origin of life. It established that the early Earth atmosphere, as they pictured it, was capable of producing amino acids, the building blocks of life, from inorganic substances.

Now, more than 55 years later, two scientists are proposing a hypothesis that could add a new dimension to the debate on how life on Earth developed.

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Cairo Slums Get Energy Makeover

Solar CITIES project leader T.H. Culhane (right) and organization intern Omar Nagy stand next to a solar-powered water heater on the roof of an apartment building in the Zabaleen neighborhood of Cairo, Egypt. The project offers people in Cairo's slums clean energy through solar panels and biogas reactors and a chance to improve their lives, according to Culhane. Photograph courtesy T.H. Culhane

From National Geographic:

In the ghettos of Egypt's largest city, solar panels are sprouting on apartment rooftops, providing residents with clean power and water and a chance to directly improve their lives.

Since 2003 the nonprofit Solar CITIES project has installed 34 solar-powered hot water systems and 5 biogas reactors in Cairo's poor Coptic Christian and Islamic neighborhoods.

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NASA Monitoring Space Junk; May Need to Move ISS

International Space Station

From Daily Tech:

The U.S. space agency is monitoring a piece of space junk that could impact the ISS

NASA is now monitoring a piece of space trash that may force a shift in position for the International Space Station and shuttle Discovery, which is currently docked at the ISS.

An old piece of metal from the Ariane 5 rocket body will fly by the ISS sometime on Friday, with it reaching its closest point just 6.2 miles away from the ISS. The size of the space junk remains unknown, though a decision will be made later this evening.

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'Telepathic' Microchip Could Help Paraplegics Control Computers

Dr Jon Spratley says his device could motor neuron sufferers such as Stephen Hawking, operate PCs and television by thought alone Photo: MARTIN POPE

From The Telegraph:

A 'telepathic' microchip that enables paraplegics to control computers has been developed by Dr Jon Spratley, a British scientist.

The chip is implanted onto the surface of the brain, where it monitors electronic 'thought' pulses.

While paraplegics may be unable to move their limbs, their brains still produce an electronic signal when they try.

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Ancient Wall Found In Jerusalem

From The BBC:

A 3,700-year-old wall has been discovered in east Jerusalem, Israeli archaeologists say.

The structure was built to protect the city's water supply as part of what dig director Ronny Reich described as the region's earliest fortifications.

The 26-ft (8-m) high wall showed the Canaanite people who built it were a sophisticated civilisation, he said.

Critics say Israel uses such projects as a political tool to bolster Jewish claims to occupied Palestinian land.

Excavations at the site, known as the City of David, are in a Palestinian neighbourhood just outside the walls of Jerusalem's old city.

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Star Wars As Andromeda Galaxy Devours Its Neighbour

Stars are being pulled from Triangulum as it orbits Andromeda due to the strong gravity of this massive galaxy, according to new research

From The Daily Mail:

British astronomers have captured the first ever images of a cannibalistic galaxy of stars 'consuming' another.

The remarkable photographs showing the giant Andromeda galaxy 'devouring' a smaller star formation is described by experts as the 'Holy Grail' of space photography.

Stargazers have long known that Andromeda, which lies approximately 2.5 million light years away, has grown by 'feeding' on other clusters, But this is the first time that its expansion has been caught on camera.

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13 More Things That Don't Make Sense

From New Scientist:

Strive as we might to make sense of the world, there are mysteries that still confound us.

Here are thirteen of the most perplexing. Cracking any one of them could yield profound truths.

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How Science Can Create Millions of New Jobs

From Business Week:

Reigniting basic research can repair the broken U.S. business model and put Americans back to work .

Name an industry that can produce 1 million new, high-paying jobs over the next three years. You can't, because there isn't one. And that's the problem.

America needs good jobs, soon. We need 6.7 million just to replace losses from the current recession, then an additional 10 million to keep up with population growth and to spark demand over the next decade. In the 1990s the U.S. economy created a net 22 million jobs, or 2.2 million a year. But from 2000 to the end of 2007, the rate plunged to 900,000 a year. The pipeline is dry because the U.S. business model is broken. Our growth engine has run out of a key fuel—basic research.

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The First "Clown" Going To Space

Guy Laliberte poses for a picture as he attends a training session in a space capsule at the Star City space centre outside Moscow July 9, 2009. The Canadian billionaire owner of Cirque du Soleil is on the countdown to become the world's seventh, and Canada's first, space tourist, slated to travel on a Russian Rocket

Laliberté Set To Be Inspired -- The Montreal Gazette

Space tourist launches to ISS on Sept. 30

Canada's first space tourist will blast off into space as part of a three-man supply crew on Sept. 30.

Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev are scheduled to launch on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

"I think this is a great, great opportunity of inspiration and I intend to inspire myself as much as possible," said Laliberté, speaking from the Johnson Space Centre in Houston.

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Guy Laliberté, in a lighter moment, clowns around during training for launch to the International Space Station. (Credit: Space Adventures Ltd.)

More News On Canada's First Space Tourist

'First clown in space' has serious mission goals -- AP
The future first clown in space to advocate for water -- AFP
Circus billionaire plans show from space -- Reuters
Space clown plans global show -- MSNBC
Cirque boss's space trip to have serious message - aside from the clown nose -- Canadian Press
Cirque du Soleil show in space -- BBC
Cirque du Soleil chief outlines 'poetic' space mission -- CNET
Big Artistic Performance to Be Set in Space -- Space.com
Laliberté flying without a nyet -- Montreal Gazette
U2 to participate in “Moving Stars and Earth for Water” event -- U2Log

Giant Galaxy Hosts Most Distant Supermassive Black Hole

False-color image of the QSO (CFHQSJ2329-0301), the most distant black hole currently known. In addition to the bright central black hole (white), the image shows the surrounding host galaxy (red). The white bar indicates an angle on the sky of 4 arcseconds or 1/900th of a degree. (Credit: Tomotsugu GOTO, University of Hawaii)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2009) — University of Hawaii (UH) astronomer Dr. Tomotsugu Goto and colleagues have discovered a giant galaxy surrounding the most distant supermassive black hole ever found. The galaxy, so distant that it is seen as it was 12.8 billion years ago, is as large as the Milky Way galaxy and harbours a supermassive black hole that contains at least a billion times as much matter as our Sun.

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FAQ: The Science And History Of Wildfires

From Live Science:

The Station Fire, the largest of eight wildfires roaring through parts of California, began on Aug. 26 and has since burned more than 140,000 acres of land within the Angeles National Forest and near the surrounding foothill communities of La Canada-Flintridge, La Crescenta, Acton, Soledad Canyon, Pasadena and Glendale.

Here's what's behind this fire and others, and how this fire season stacks up to history:

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Future Robot Soldiers?

The Exoskeleton: Extreme Technological Innovation -- Raytheon

Raytheon Company’s research facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, is developing a robotic suit for the soldier of tomorrow. The exoskeleton is essentially a wearable robot that amplifies its wearer’s strength, endurance and agility. Reminiscent of super heroes depicted in comic books and Hollywood movies, the bleeding edge technology effectively blurs the lines between science fiction and reality. So much so, that Popular Science magazine recently likened Raytheon’s exoskeleton to the “Iron Man”® depicted in the blockbuster movie of the same name.

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My Comment: Watch the YouTube video .... I am impressed.

Studying Ancient Man To Learn To Prevent Disease

iStockphoto

From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Health care as we know it didn't exist 3,000 years ago. But along the Georgia coast, the Pacific Northwest, and coastal Brazil, people grew tall and strong and lived relatively free of disease. They ate game, fish, shellfish, and wild plants.

But as corn farming spread through various regions of the Americas, people got shorter. Many became prone to anemia and began dying of tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.

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As Wildfire Threatens L.A., Satellites And Supertankers Hover

Smoke Monster: Smokey won't like this. NASA

From Popular Science:

Los Angelenos have recently watched billowing clouds from a nearby wildfire hover overhead, in scenes reminiscent of "Volcano." NASA's Terra satellite took the opportunity to snap a photo of the smoke monster on the night of August 30. Red outlines in the photo indicate wildfire hotspots.

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Milk Drinking Started Around 7,500 Years Ago In Central Europe

Map showing origin of milk drinking in Europe.
(Credit: Image courtesy of University College London)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2009) — The ability to digest the milk sugar lactose first evolved in dairy farming communities in central Europe, not in more northern groups as was previously thought, finds a new study led by UCL (University College London) scientists published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.

The genetic change that enabled early Europeans to drink milk without getting sick has been mapped to dairying farmers who lived around 7,500 years ago in a region between the central Balkans and central Europe.

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Dogs Descended From Wolf Pack On Yangtze River

From The Telegraph:

Today's dogs are all descended from a pack of wolves tamed 16,000 years ago on the shores of the Yangtze river, according to new research.

It was previously known that the birthplace of the dog was eastern Asia but historians were not able to be more precise than that.

However, now researchers have made a number of new discoveries about the history of man's best friend - including that the dog appeared about 16,000 years ago south of the Yangtze river in China.

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We Are All Mutants Say Scientists

From The BBC:

Each of us has at least 100 new mutations in our DNA, according to research published in the journal Current Biology.

Scientists have been trying to get an accurate estimate of the mutation rate for over 70 years.

However, only now has it been possible to get a reliable estimate, thanks to "next generation" technology for genetic sequencing.

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Discovery Of Novel Genes Could Unlock Mystery Of What Makes Us Uniquely Human

A baby chimp (Pan troglodytes) and his handler looking at each other.
(Credit: iStockphoto/Warwick Lister-Kaye)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2009) — Humans and chimpanzees are genetically very similar, yet it is not difficult to identify the many ways in which we are clearly distinct from chimps. In a study published online in Genome Research, scientists have made a crucial discovery of genes that have evolved in humans after branching off from other primates, opening new possibilities for understanding what makes us uniquely human.

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What Happens When an Astronaut Sneezes?

No kidding! This CDC photograph captured a sneeze in progress, revealing the plume of salivary droplets as they are expelled in a large cone-shaped array from this man's open mouth. The flu virus can spread in this manner and survive long enough on a doorknob or countertop to infect another person. It dramatically illustrating the reason you should cover your mouth when sneezing or coughing to protect others from germ exposure, health officials say. It’s also why you need to wash your hands a lot, on the assumptions others don’t always cover their sneezes. Credit: CDC/James Gathany .

From Live Science:

Best to do the sneezing inside a shuttle or the space station, not on a spacewalk, when it can get real messy, with goo sprayed all over the inside of the helmet's "windshield."

Lately astronauts have been complaining about stuffy heads up there on the International Space Station. NASA doesn't think they have colds, though. Rather, the effects have more to do with pockets of carbon dioxide generated when they gather in groups, space station flight controller Heather Rarick said.

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Space Mission To Mercury: How An Ion Engine Works

Photo courtesy NASA
This image of a xenon ion engine, photographed through a port of the vacuum chamber where it was being tested at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shows the faint blue glow of charged atoms being emitted from the engine. The ion propulsion engine is the first non-chemical propulsion to be used as the primary means of propelling a spacecraft.

From The Telegraph:

The solar electric propulsion systems – or ion engines - which will power the next generation of spacecraft to Mercury and beyond are ten times more efficient than conventional rocket engines.

In an ion engine the gas xenon is pumped through a chamber where xenon atoms are stripped of an electron, becoming electrically charged ions, and drift towards two grids a millimetre apart.

The grids are fed with two thousand volts – in space this power will come from paper-thin solar panels spanning 26m. As the ions pass through the electrified grids they accelerate to up to 50km a second and shoot from the rear in a parallel beam.

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