Navy Green: Military Investigates Biofuels to Power Its Ships and Planes

CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF?: The U.S. Navy has ordered more than 60,000 gallons of alternative fuels derived from weeds and algae--and hopes to power planes and ships with them in the near future. Courtesy of U.S. Navy

From Scientific American:

The U.S. Navy will begin testing biofuels from camelina and algae.

Ships powered by algae and planes flying on weeds: that's part of the future the U.S. Navy hopes to bring to fruition. This week, the seagoing branch of the military purchased 40,000 gallons of jet fuel derived from camelina—a weedy relative of canola—and 20,055 gallons of algae-derived diesellike fuel for ships.

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Cache And Carry: A Review Of The Kindle

From Scientific American:

The best answer yet to what's black and white and read all over.

I’m not your classic “early adopter” when it comes to new electronic gizardry (a word I just made up that means a combination of gizmo and wizardry, with a secondary definition of bird digestion). I’m not even what one ersatz electronics guru referred to as an “early adapter,” although I do sometimes wonder if my purpose in life has been reduced to making sure my various devices are all plugged in correctly.

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China Starts Building New Space Launch Centre

Chinese astronauts at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in a remote desert area of northwest China's Gansu province. The country has begun construction of its fourth space launch centre as the nation gears up for future manned space flights aboard a new generation of carrier rockets, state media has reported. (AFP/Xinhua/File)

From Yahoo News/AFP:

BEIJING (AFP) – China on Monday began the construction of its fourth space launch centre as the nation gears up for future manned space flights aboard a new generation of carrier rockets, state media reported.

Work started on the Wenchang Space Satellite Launch Centre on southern Hainan island, which will become China's first coastal launching pad when completed in 2013, the Hainan Daily reported.

Chang Wanquan, member of the powerful Central Military Commission, and Chen Qiufa, head of the State Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, attended Monday's groundbreaking ceremony, the report said.

China's space programme is run by the nation's military.

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More Efficient, And Cheaper, Solar Cells

Photo: Light trap: Incoming light reflects off grooves in a silver band and is redirected along a glass cover. This light, which is usually lost, can then be absorbed by the solar cell. The grooved band is one of three improvements that could significantly lower the cost of making solar power. Credit: Technology Review

From Technology Review:

New manufacturing techniques could cut solar power costs by 20 percent.

Improvements to conventional solar cell manufacturing that could significantly increase the efficiency of multicrystalline silicon cells and bring down the cost of solar power by about 20 percent have been announced by startup 1366 Technologies of Lexington, MA.

Such cost reduction would make solar power more competitive with conventional sources of electricity. In sunny environments, this could bring the cost of solar down to about 15 or 16 cents per kilowatt hour, says Craig Lund, 1366 Technologies's director of business development. That's cheaper than some conventional sources of electricity, especially those used during times of peak electricity demand.

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Brilliant 360-Degree Panorama Of The Milky Way

From Wired Science:

You can see the entire Milky Way at once in this panorama painstakingly stitched together by French photographers.

A much larger, zoomable version available from the European Southern Observatory lets you visit any part of the galaxy.

Working in the dark, dry highlands of Chile with a Nikon D3 digital camera (50 mm lens open at f5.6), Serge Brunier and Frédéric Tapissier patched together 1,200 photos of the night sky into the composite that you see above.

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The Secrets Inside Your Dog's Mind

From Time Magazine:

Brian Hare, assistant professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, holds out a dog biscuit.

"Henry!" he says. Henry is a big black schnauzer-poodle mix--a schnoodle, in the words of his owner, Tracy Kivell, another Duke anthropologist. Kivell holds on to Henry's collar so that he can only gaze at the biscuit.

"You got it?" Hare asks Henry. Hare then steps back until he's standing between a pair of inverted plastic cups on the floor. He quickly puts the hand holding the biscuit under one cup, then the other, and holds up both empty hands. Hare could run a very profitable shell game. No one in the room--neither dog nor human--can tell which cup hides the biscuit.

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Getting Ready For The Day That No One Wants

'Dirty Bomb' Breakthrough -- The Independent

British scientists have developed a revolutionary method of treating victims of radiation contamination. Trials of a new device, no bigger than a small suitcase, which can rapidly detect the extent of cellular damage caused by exposure to a nuclear "dirty bomb" or a radiation leak, will be announced this week. It could mean doctors being able to scan hundreds of potential victims at an incident within hours.

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My Comment: There are budgets in placed to develop technology (like this) because the "powers that be" have made the calculation that one day such a device will be used.

Astronomers Search For Habitable Moons

Scientists believe there are thousands of habitable moons orbiting planets in other solar systems Photo: Michael O'Connell

From The Telegraph:

Moons capable of supporting life like those portrayed in the popular Star Wars films could be scattered all over our galaxy, according to astronomers.

Scientists at University College London believe there are thousands of habitable moons orbiting planets in other solar systems trillions of miles from our own.

They have calculated that it should even be possible to spot these moons using a space telescope launched by Nasa earlier this year to hunt out other planets.

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How Photon Echoes Can Be Used To Create A Quantum Memory Device

Photo: The experiment that generated the photon echo effect. (Credit: Image courtesy of Australian National University)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 14, 2009) — A new way of storing and ‘echoing’ pulses of light has been discovered by a team from The Australian National University, allowing bursts of laser to work as a flexible optical memory and potentially assist in extending the range of quantum information systems.

Technologies like quantum cryptography are being developed to send secure information coded onto light beams from one point to another. Yet at present these systems are unable to extend beyond a distance of 50 to 100 kilometres because, beyond that range, too much of the information is lost.

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It's Raining Less Than Scientists Thought

From Live Science:

Raindrops just broke their own speed record: they can drop faster than anyone thought possible.

Larger drops are speedier than smaller ones because they are heavier and so can more easily overcome air resistance. But there’s a limit to how fast a drop can go, a “terminal velocity” achieved when the downward force of gravity equals the upward drag of the air. Thus, whenever smaller drops are detected apparently beating larger ones in the race to the ground, atmospheric scientists interpret the observations as errors by recording instruments.

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Too Close For Comfort: The Astonishing Twisters Captured By Storm-Chasing Photographer

Up close: A tornado with large Liberty Bell shaped debris cloud swirls across a dirt road less than 500 feet in front of an unmarked Kansas State Trooper patrol car

From The Daily Mail:

Running towards a raging twister might seem insane to most people but for one artist, such perils are all in a day's work.

Storm chaser Jim Reed has narrowly escaped death twice in his pursuit of the perfect stormy shot.

His experiences have been brought together in the revised and expanded version of his award-winning photo book, 'Storm Chaser: A Photographer's Journey.'

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Five New Robots March Into Hall Of Fame

From New Scientist:

The ground-breaking machines have been selected to join 18 real and fictional robots already included in the collection – meet the new entrants and the pick of the previous selections.

The Robot Hall of Fame honours real and fictional robots that have marked or inspired technical breakthroughs in the field. An international jury of of researchers, writers and designers has been adding to the list since 2003.

This year, five new robots have been selected. Click through the images to see them all

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When Nano May Not Be Nano

From A Science Centric:

The same properties of nanoparticles that make them so appealing to manufacturers may also have negative effects on the environment and human health.

However, little is known which particles may be harmful. Part of the problem is determining exactly what a nanoparticle is.

A new analysis by an international team of researchers from the Centre for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology (CEINT), based at Duke University, argues for a new look at the way nanoparticles are selected when studying the potential impacts on human health and the environment. They have found that while many small particles are considered to be 'nano,' these materials often do not meet full definition of having special properties that make them different from conventional materials.

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Homing Pigeon Faster Than Internet? In S. Africa, The Answer's Yes.

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Frustrated by Africa's unreliable service, a business needing to send 4GB of data 50 miles put Winston the pigeon up against the Web – and Winston won.

This week, a South African call-center business, frustrated by persistently slow Internet speeds, decided to use a carrier pigeon named Winston to transfer 4 gigabytes of data between two of its offices, just 50 miles apart. At the same time, a computer geek pushed a button on his computer to send data the old-fashioned way, through the Internet.

Winston the pigeon won. It wasn't even close.

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Skeptic Reporter John Stossel Leaves ABC For Fox

From Watts Up With That?

I can understand how frustrating it must have been for Stossel at ABC, given that he’s on the other side of the global warming issue from the news department there, but moving to Fox will minimize the broader impact of what he has been saying about the subject of global warming.

It is worth a flashback though, to his report in 2007 on the issue.

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Why Your Nails Are Growing 25 Per Cent Faster Than Your Grandparents' Did

From The Daily Mail:

The speed of finger and toenail growth has surged by nearly a quarter over the past 70 years, a new study has revealed.

And the modern diet – rich in protein from readily available fish, meat, eggs and poultry – may be behind the spurt.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina compared results to a study of nail growth published by Oxford University in 1938 and another study from the Fifties.

The results revealed that big toenails now grow by more than 2mm a month, compared with 1.65mm in the Thirties.

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The Climate's Warm Future Is Now in the Arctic

CARIBOU CRISIS: Thanks to shifting seasons as a result of climate change, fewer caribou calves are surviving. Courtesy of Eric Post

From Scientific America:

A new survey reveals just how far and how fast global warming is altering the Arctic.

When the summer sea ice goes, the Arctic will lose the ivory gull, Pacific walrus, ringed seal, hooded seal, narwhal and polar bear—all animals that rely on the ice for foraging, reproduction or as refuge from predators. And the sea ice is going, faster and faster: In the past 30 years, minimum sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean has declined by 45,000 square kilometers annually*—an area twice the size of New Jersey is lost each year.

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Airborne Laser Ready For Flight Tests

The US military's missile-defence laser is taking to the air for its first full-power try-out (Image: Russ Underwood, Lockheed Martin)

From The New Scientist:

IT SHOULD be the moment of truth for the Airborne Laser (ABL). In the coming months, the multibillion-dollar laser built into a customised Boeing 747 will try to shoot a ballistic missile as it rises above the clouds.

Don't expect instant reports of success, though. Instead, if all goes to plan, we're likely to hear about a series of incremental improvements.

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Aging Muscles: 'Hard To Build, Easy To Lose'

New research may explain the ongoing loss of muscle in older people, whose arms and legs become thinner as they age. (Credit: iStockphoto/Özgür Donmaz)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 12, 2009) — Have you ever noticed that people have thinner arms and legs as they get older? As we age it becomes harder to keep our muscles healthy. They get smaller, which decreases strength and increases the likelihood of falls and fractures. New research is showing how this happens — and what to do about it.

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Ancient Chinese Remedy May Work for Flu

From Live Science:

Scientists at the Kaohsiung Medial University in Taiwan have discovered that the roots of a plant used in 1918 to fight the Spanish influenza pandemic produces natural antiviral compounds that kill the swine flu virus, H1N1.

Ferula asafetida is commonly known as Dung of the Devil because of its foul-smelling sap and grows primarily in Iran, Afghanistan and mainland China. In their tests of a group of chemical compounds contained in extracts from the plant, scientists Fang-Rong Chang and Yang-Chan Wu discovered that some of them where more potent in killing the H1N1 virus than a prescription antiviral drug.

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