Brunel, Locke And Stephenson: The Engineering Giants Who Shaped Our World

Paddington station: designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and opened in 1847
Photo: PA

From The Telegraph:

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Joseph Locke and Robert Stephenson are past giants of engineering whose legacy remains one hundred and fifty years on, says Michael Bailey.

One hundred and fifty years ago today, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, one of the greatest engineers in history, died at the age of just 53. His funeral in Kensal Green cemetery was attended by several hundred people, including Joseph Locke who, with Brunel, had opened up Britain to the railway. He was buried a year later, also in Kensal Green.

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Colour Blindness Breakthrough In Gene Therapy Experiment

Squirrel monkey Dalton, who was successfully treated for red-green colour blindness. The image on the left simulates what the scene would have looked like to a monkey or human before the treatment. Photograph: Neitz Laboratory

From The Guardian:

Two squirrel monkeys that were colour-blind from birth have had their vision restored after receiving gene therapy.

The experiment paves the way for the treatment of a range of genetic eye disorders in humans, including some that cause full or partial blindness in millions of people worldwide.

Sam and Dalton, two male squirrel monkeys, were able to see the world in full colour five months after being treated, doctors said. The animals were born without an ability to see the colour red.

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Patterns In Mars Crater Floors Give Picture Of Drying Lakes

Detailed image of large-scale crater floor polygons, caused by desiccation process, with smaller polygons caused by thermal contraction inside. The central polygon is 160 metres in diameter, smaller ones range 10 to 15 metres in width and the cracks are 5-10 metres across. (Credit: NASA/JPL)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 16, 2009) — Networks of giant polygonal troughs etched across crater basins on Mars have been identified as desiccation cracks caused by evaporating lakes, providing further evidence of a warmer, wetter martian past.

The findings were presented at the European Planetary Science Congress by PhD student Mr M Ramy El Maarry of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research.

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What Are The Signs of Diabetes?

From Live Science:

This Week's Question: I've been very thirsty lately and someone mentioned to me that this
is a symptom for diabetes. Is that true?

An intense thirst is one diabetes symptom. Here are others: frequent urination, strong hunger, fatigue, unintended weight loss, slow-healing sores, dry and itchy skin, numbness or tingling in your feet, and blurred vision. However, some people with diabetes do not have symptoms.

Diabetes mellitus is a group of diseases characterized by high levels of blood sugar. Diabetes can create serious health problems, but diabetics can control the disease.

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China Says Will Push Space Programme To Catch Up West

From Breitbart/AFP:

China said Thursday its rapidly growing space programme was the crowning achievement of the nation's high-tech transformation and pledged to continue to develop it to close the gap with Western countries.

"I believe a space programme represents a country's high technology and I believe China has already become a major country in high technology," Vice Minister of Science and Technology Li Xueyong told reporters.

"Our success shows not only the progress of the space programme but also our overall level of science and technology," he said at a press briefing.

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Fossil Find Challenges Theories on T. Rex

The bones of Raptorex were discovered in northern China. Mike Hettwer

From The New York Times:

Paleontologists said Thursday that they had discovered what amounted to a miniature prototype of Tyrannosaurus rex, complete with the oversize head, powerful jaws, long legs — and, as every schoolchild knows, puny arms — that were hallmarks of the king of the dinosaurs.

But this scaled-down version, which was about nine feet long and weighed only 150 pounds, lived 125 million years ago, about 35 million years before giant Tyrannosaurs roamed the earth. So the discovery calls into question theories about the evolution of T. rex, which was about five times longer and almost 100 times heavier.

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Pictured: Three Bald Eagles Lock Talons As They Plunge To The Ground In Mid-Air Battle

The three hungry bald eagles lock talons in a vicious mid-air battle for a fish supper

From The Daily Mail:

Locked in desperate mid-air battle, the three eagles plunge towards the ground in a contest to see who will let go last.

Between their claws lies a gasping fish freshly plucked from an Alaskan lake, now the target of fearsome talons as each eagle grapples for supper.

This is not so much a desperate bid for food - instead it's a macho show of strength between three birds who want to show who's who in the pecking order.

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Counting Money 'Makes People Feel Better About Themselves'

Research suggests that counting cash makes people feel better about themselves.

From The Telegraph:

Counting money can make you feel good about yourself – even if it isn't your own, according to a new study.

Just handling and thinking about money can actually lessen pain and even ease the social stigma of having no friends, researchers believe.

The psychological benefits increase feelings of internal strength, fearlessness and confidence.

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Pause In Arctic's Melting Trend

Photo: Walrus have been seen on Alaska's north coast in unusual numbers

From The BBC:

This summer's melt of Arctic sea ice has not been as profound as in the last two years, scientists said as the ice began its annual Autumn recovery.

At its smallest extent this summer, on 12 September, the ice covered 5.10 million sq km (1.97 million sq miles).

This was larger than the minima seen in the last two years, and leaves 2007's record low of 4.1 million sq km (1.6 million sq miles) intact.

But scientists note the long-term trend is still downwards.

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How Last.fm Inspired A Scientific Breakthrough

From The Guardian:

I first saw Mendeley pitch two weeks ago – now it is on the way to changing the face of science.

The music radio site Last.fm is one of the great ideas from the UK during the first dotcom boom. Users can listen to their own songs and other tracks recommended by Last.fm's algorithms based on their tastes, including iTunes, and those of friends. It could easily have been a one-trick pony. But now a few academics have applied its serendipity to scientific research. Why can't researchers, instead of waiting anywhere up to three years for their papers to jump all the hurdles, be part of a real-time market place – a fusion of iTunes and Last.fm for science?

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Women Really Can't Keep A Secret: Tongues Start Wagging After Just 47 Hours

Spilling the beans: Women cannot keep a secret for longer than 47 hours

From The Daily Mail:

Ever wondered how long a woman can keep a secret? Well the answer, it seems, is less than two days.

Researchers found that they will typically spill the beans to someone else in 47 hours and 15 minutes.

A study of 3,000 women aged between 18 and 65 also found that four in ten were unable to keep a secret, no matter how personal or confidential the news was.

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Brain Science To Help Teachers Get Into Kids' Heads

Neuroscience is set to bring fresh insight to teaching
(Image: Anne-Christine Poujoulat / Getty)

From The New Scientist:

NEUROSCIENCE could do for schools what biomedical research has done for healthcare. That's the conclusion of the Decade of the Mind (DOM) symposium last week in Berlin, Germany, to discuss how the latest findings could be used to improve education.

"In medicine, we have an excellent system in place to go from basic research to clinical practice, while in neuroscience we have the basic understanding of how the brain learns but still need to figure out how to translate this into the classroom," says Manfred Spitzer of the University of Ulm in Germany, one of the conference organisers.

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Scientists Cure Color Blindness In Monkeys

A test for color blindness showing a "6". Scientists used gene therapy to cure two squirrel monkeys of color blindness -- the most common genetic disorder in people. (Credit: iStockphoto/Thomas Pullicino)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 16, 2009) — Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Florida used gene therapy to cure two squirrel monkeys of color blindness — the most common genetic disorder in people.

Writing online September 15 in the journal Nature, scientists cast a rosy light on the potential for gene therapy to treat adult vision disorders involving cone cells — the most important cells for vision in people.

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Can Robots Make Ethical Decisions?

From Live Science:

Robots and computers are often designed to act autonomously, that is, without human intervention. Is it possible for an autonomous machine to make moral judgments that are in line with human judgment?

This question has given rise to the issue of machine ethics and morality. As a practical matter, can a robot or computer be programmed to act in an ethical manner? Can a machine be designed to act morally?

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Killer Whales Die Without King Salmon

King Salmon: It's What's for Dinner. A killer whale snags a king salmon. Some killer whale populations favor king salmon so much that the whales will actually die when numbers of this largest member of the salmon family drop. Brian Gisborne

From Discovery News:

Sept. 16, 2009 -- Some killer whale populations favor king salmon so much that the whales will actually die when numbers of this largest member of the salmon family drop, according to new research.

The study, published in the latest Royal Society Biology Letters, suggests that although killer whales may consume a variety of fish species and mammals, many are highly specialized hunters dependent on this single salmon species.

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Facebook Grows And Makes Money

From The BBC:

The world's largest social networking site just got bigger with the announcement it has 300 million active monthly users from around the globe.

Facebook also revealed that it had started making money ahead of schedule.

The company had not expected to start turning a profit until sometime in 2010.

"This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term," said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

"We are succeeding at building Facebook in a sustainable way. We are just getting started on our goal of connecting everyone.

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Advanced Solar Panels Coming to Market

Photo: Cheaper solar: Nanosolar’s thin-film panels.
Credit: Nanosolar

From Technology Review:

Nanosolar's new factory could help lower the price of solar power, if the market cooperates.

A promising type of solar-power technology has moved a step closer to mass production. Nanosolar, based in San Jose, CA, has opened an automated facility for manufacturing its solar panels, which are made by printing a semiconductor material called CIGS on aluminum foil. The manufacturing facility is located in Germany, where government incentives have created a large market for solar panels. Nanosolar has the potential to make 640 megawatts' worth of solar panels there every year.

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New 'Drake Equation' For Alien Habitats

An illustration of an alien exoplanet orbiting a distant star.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

From Cosmos:

SYDNEY: A mathematical equation that counts habitats suitable for alien life could complement the Drake equation, which estimates the probability of finding intelligent alien beings elsewhere in the galaxy.

That equation, developed in 1960 by U.S. astronomer Frank Drake, estimates the probability of intelligent life existing elsewhere in our galaxy by considering the number of stars with planets that could support life (see "Are we alone?").

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Near-Instant Book Printer Adds Google Books Titles

A morning's worth of output from the Espresso Book Machine, which used Google Books as the source of the data. (Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET)

From CNET:

Google is hell-bent on digitizing the world's books, but it's also aware that sometimes you just want to turn the pages.

On Demand Books, makers of the Espresso Book Machine, are expected to announce Thursday that they have been granted access to Google's library of public domain digital books for use with their product. The Espresso Book Machine can print a 300-page book in four minutes, complete with a cover and a bound edge. It ranges in price from $75,000 to $97,000, depending on the configuration, and is found mostly at universities, libraries, and institutions around the globe.

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Too Much Radiation For Astronauts To Make It To Mars

A trip to Phobos comes with extras (Image: NASA/JPL)

From New Scientist:

FORGET the risk of exploding rockets or getting sideswiped by a wayward bit of space junk. Radiation may be the biggest hurdle to human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and could put a damper on a recently proposed mission to Mars orbit.

A panel tasked by the White House with reviewing NASA's human space flight activities (New Scientist, 22 August, p 8) suggests sending astronauts to one of Mars's moons, Phobos or Deimos, among other possibilities raised in its report released last week (http://tinyurl.com/mbajav).

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