Artificial Cloud Created At The Edge Of Space

A NASA Black Brant XII rocket launches on Saturday evening
carrying the CARE experiment (Image: NASA)

From The New Scientist:

The study of Earth's mysterious noctilucent clouds got a boost on Saturday, when a rocket was launched to create an artificial cloud at the edge of space.

"Noctilucent", or night-shining, clouds float dozens of kilometres higher than other clouds, at an altitude of about 80 kilometres. Because of their height, they can be seen glowing before sunrise or after sunset as the sun illuminates them from below the horizon.

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The Hunt for Extraterrestrial Life Gets Weird

From Wired:

In the search for extraterrestrial life, some scientists say we’re focusing too much on finding signs of existence as we know it, and in the process, we may be missing more strange forms of life that don’t rely on water or carbon metabolism.

Now researchers from Austria have started a systematic study of solvents other than water that might be able to support life outside our planet. They’re hoping their research will lead to a shift in what they call the “geocentric mindset” of our attempts to detect extraterrestrial life.

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‘Non-Discovery’ Of Space-Time Ripples Opens Door To Birth Of The Universe

From Times Online:

Scientists have peered further back in time than ever before using instruments designed to search for a phenomenon predicted by Albert Einstein almost a century ago but not yet proven to exist.

An American observatory hunting for ripples in space and time called gravitational waves has produced its most significant results yet, despite not having directly detected any.

The “non-discovery” offers insights into the state of the Universe just 60 seconds into its existence. Previous research has been unable to look back in time further than about 380,000 years after the big bang.

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Stunning Pictures Of Glaciers From Space Reveal Worrying Signs Earth's Ice Is Melting Away

Grey Glacier in Chile: The ice field covered 104 square miles in 1996. This 2007 picture from the International Space Station revealed it had dramatically receded. Scientists think increased regional temperatures has reduced the amount of ice being replenished each year

From The Daily Mail:

These awe-inspiring images of glaciers are helping scientists to determine just how quickly our planet is heating up. The huge ice fields are thought to be one of the most reliable indicators of climate change and are best studied from space.

The features form when snow accumulates on an area of land over tens to hundreds of years. It eventually becomes so thick and heavy that it forms dense glacial ice. When enough ice is compacted it beings to flow downhill or spread across flat land.

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Immortality Only 20 Years Away Says Scientist

Ray Kurzweil claims we could all be cyborgs in 20 years.

From The Telegraph:

Scientist Ray Kurzweil claims humans could become immortal in as little as 20 years' time through nanotechnology and an increased understanding of how the body works.

The 61-year-old American, who has predicted new technologies arriving before, says our understanding of genes and computer technology is accelerating at an incredible rate.

He says theoretically, at the rate our understanding is increasing, nanotechnologies capable of replacing many of our vital organs could be available in 20 years time.

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How Facebook Copes With 300 Million Users

Photo: Credit: (portrait) Mozilla (background) facebook

From Technology Review:

VP of Engineering Mike Schroepfer reveals the tricks that keep the world's biggest social network going.

Last week, the world's biggest social network, Facebook, announced that it had reached 300 million users and is making enough money to cover its costs.

The challenge of dealing with such a huge number of users has been highlighted by hiccups suffered by some other social-networking sites. Twitter was beleaguered with scaling problems for some time and became infamous for its "Fail Whale"--the image that appears when the microblogging site's services are unavailable.

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Weird Stories of Objects Falling From the Sky—Explained

Hodges Meteorite Strike (Photograph by Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

From Popular Mechanics:

The annals of history are full of tales of strange objects falling from the sky. During biblical and medieval times, people typically perceived events such as rains of rats, dead bats, fish and frogs as signs of plague, ill portents or even manna from the benevolent above. Science eventually won out, bringing explanations for many of these seemingly inexplicable episodes. Still others remain unsolved, leaving the affected locals to theorize, and look expectantly to the clouds, for the next meat shower or golf ball storm. In honor of the release of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs we present a list of the 10 craziest things to rain down on humanity from the heavens.

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Panasonic's Robotic Bed Transforms into a Mobile Chair, Makes Standing Up Obsolete

Robo-Bed: It will do everything but fix your bed hair. Panasonic

From Popular Science:

Mobility-impaired patients and layabouts alike can rejoice at the debut of Panasonic's robotic bed that transforms into a wheelchair. Human nurses and hospitals may also breathe a tiny sigh of relief.

The bed-shaped bot morphs upon command to sidestep the usual trouble of moving a bedridden person from bed to wheelchair, or vice versa. Yet unlike the Japanese bear bot nurse that carries patients, a self-controlled bed bot allows humans to regain some independence and dignity.

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2009 Arctic Sea Ice Extent Exceeds 2005 For This Date

From Watts Up With That?:

While 2009 minimum on 09/13 of 5,249, 844 was just 65, 312 sq km below 2005 in minimum extent, which occurred on 9/22/2005 with 5,315,156 sq km, it has now rebounded quickly and is higher by 38,438 sq km, just 2 days before the 9/22/05 minimum. On 9/22/2009 it may very well be close to 60-80,000 sq km higher than the minimum on the same date in 2005.

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In Search Of Dark Asteroids (And Other Sneaky Things)

Artist's concept of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.
Image credit: (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 22, 2009) — Ninjas knew how to be stealthy: Be dark. Emit very little light. Move in the shadows between bright places.

In modern warfare, though, ninjas would be sitting ducks. Their black clothes may be hard to see at night with the naked eye, but their warm bodies would be clearly visible to a soldier wearing infrared goggles.

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Why Autumn Begins Tuesday

From Live Science:

The first day of autumn — Sept. 22 this year — is no guarantee of fall-like weather, but officially the season's start comes around at the same time each year nonetheless.

Well, sort of.

The first day of autumn arrives on varying dates in different years for two reasons: Our year is not exactly an even number of days; and Earth's slightly noncircular orbit, plus the gravitational tug of the other planets, constantly changes our planet's orientation to the sun from year to year.

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Discovery Threads Tricky Path Home

From Florida Today:

Navigating a web of clouds and showers, space shuttle Discovery returned home to Kennedy Space Center just after noon Monday atop a 747 jumbo jet, ending a two-day ferry flight from California.

"If it was any greater of a challenge, we wouldn't have landed here," said Charles Justiz, a pilot on the NASA C-9 aircraft that scouted safe routes ahead of the shuttle.

Up to the last minute, more than two hours after departing Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, La., it was uncertain if Discovery might be diverted to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa or Orlando International Airport to await calmer skies.

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Naked Mole Rats May Help Cure Cancer

Cancer-free mole rats could help humans in the fight against cancer
(Image: Neil Bromhall/Naturepl)

From New Scientist:

THEY might be bald and ugly, but naked mole rats never get cancer. If their trick can be copied it could help humans resist cancer too.

It's almost impossible to culture naked mole rat cells in the lab, which made Andrei Seluanov and Vera Gorbunova from Rochester University, New York, wonder if this might be linked to their ability to resist cancer.

They found that a dilute solution of naked mole rat skin cells did start to proliferate, but stopped once the cells reached a certain, relatively low density. Such "contact inhibition" is also used by human cells to inhibit growth, but cancer bypasses this mechanism so cells keep growing.

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Exposure To Sun 'May Help People With Cancer Survive'

Experts say protection from the sun is vital but that some
exposure is necessary for good health. Reuters

From the Independent:

Sunbathing warnings may have been too simplistic, say scientists.

Sunbathing is known to cause skin cancer – but it may also help people survive when they get it, scientists are reporting.

Two studies published yesterday showed that vitamin D produced by the action of the sun on the skin may help improve survival for patients with skin and bowel cancer.

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Where Will The E-Reader Revolution Take Publishing?

A commuter uses a Kindle while riding the subway in New York June 1, 2009. The publishing industry is trying to deal with the growing demand for online content and is looking at the music industry for lessons. Lucas Jackson / Reuters

From The Globe And Mail:

Some experts believe the devices will change our reading habits and throw several industries into turmoil -- that is, just as soon as Apple gets into the game.

Will it or won't it?

The Internet is burning up with speculation about Apple Inc.'s plans for an “iPad,” a potential new entrant in the e-reader market of low-power digital devices whose displays approach paper quality.

Amazon's Kindle and the Sony Reader together cracked the million-unit mark last year, but everyone – especially those in troubled publishing industries – is looking to the iPod maker to potentially bring digital reading into the mainstream, and transform their businesses forever.

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Solar System's Coldest Spot May Be On Moon

The coldest spot in our solar system may be on the moon, astronomers claim.

From The Telegraph:

The coldest spot in our solar system may be on the moon, astronomers claim.

In course of producing the first ever temperature map of the moon, Nasa discovered that at its south pole temperatures are lower than on Pluto, despite being far nearer to the sun.

The moon is about 93 million miles from the sun, while Pluto orbits at an average of around 6 billion miles from the centre of the solar system

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3D TV: Now Leaping Out Of The Cinema And Into A Living Room Near You

SPY KIDS 3-D: GAME OVER

From The Daily Mail:

We've only just got used to high-definition TV and now the technology industry is moving the goalposts again - 3D is being trialled by a number of TV makers and the BBC has said it may even broadcast part of the London 2012 Olympics in the format.

Here, Rob Waugh explains the competing home 3D technologies and answers your burning 3D questions.

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New Space Station Tech Maps Earth's Coasts

A satellite view of a coastline on Earth. An extensive imaging project aboard the International Space Station may give scientists their first look at Earth's coasts on a global scale. Getty Image

From Discovery News:

For 20 years, researchers have used light-splitting devices mounted in aircraft to study coastal regions on Earth. This week, the effort expands into space with an instrument arriving at the International Space Station.

From a vantage point 225 miles above the planet and full-time operations for at least a year, the Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean (HICO) is expected to give scientists their first detailed look Earth's coasts on a global scale.

"HICO gives us access to repeat imagery worldwide," said lead researcher Mike Corson with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

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Bold Rwanda Takes Broadband Leap

From The BBC:

Landlocked Rwanda is weeks away from completing a link to a new fibre-optic network promising high-speed internet for East Africa, officials say.

Engineers expect the capital, Kigali, to be connected to newly-arrived undersea cables in Kenya by November.

A national fibre-optic ring is due to go online early in 2010.

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New Transient Radiation Belt Discovered Around Saturn

Radiation belt map of the ions with energies between 25-60 MeV, in Saturn's magnetosphere, based on several years of Cassini MIMI/LEMMS data. The structure of this radiation belt is almost perfectly stable for more than 5 years of Cassini observations, despite the intense variability of the radiation belts, outside the location of Tethys. (Credit: Image courtesy of Europlanet Media Centre)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 21, 2009) — Scientists using the Cassini spacecraft's Magnetospheric Imaging instrument (MIMI) have detected a new, temporary radiation belt at Saturn, located around the orbit of its moon Dione at about 377,000 km from the center of the planet.

The discovery will be presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam by Dr Elias Roussos on Monday 14 September.

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