Pandemic Payoff From 1918: A Weaker H1N1 Flu Today

Past vaccinations and previous infection by interrelated viruses may account for the mildness of the new H1N1 swine flu. Bettmann CORBIS

From Scientific American:

How the legacy of the vicious 1918 outbreak led to today's comparatively tame swine flu.

Although the swine flu outbreak of 2009 is still in full swing, this global influenza epidemic, the fourth in 100 years, is already teaching scientists valuable lessons about pandemics past, those that might have been and those that still might be. Evidence accumulated this summer indicates that the novel H1N1 swine flu virus was not entirely new to all human immune systems. Some researchers have even come to see the current outbreak as a flare-up in an ongoing pandemic era that started when the first H1N1 emerged in 1918.

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5 Technologies Missing From The Clean Energy Bill

From Popular Mechanics:

Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., unveiled the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act last week, a bill that aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020. The massive bill—it was 821 pages long—covers a range of programs aimed at cutting U.S. emissions, including clean transportation, waste management, water protection and even the ecological effects of wildfires. A number of emerging technologies show great promise in addressing climate change. The following innovations weren't fleshed out in the new climate bill, but they deserve attention.

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Video: Raytheon's Free Roaming Combat Simulator Lets You Feel Getting Shot

From Popular Science:

A new combat simulator lets you toss real flash-bangs and feel the consequences of getting shot by virtual enemies

First-person-shooter video games have nothing on a new combat simulator by defense giant Raytheon. Fully rigged warfighters can roam freely in the real world and engage unseen virtual enemies through their VR goggles, tossing real flash-bang grenades and even shaking off the muscle-numbing effects of getting shot.

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Card Counters' Days Are Numbered

From New Scientist:

GAMBLERS who adopt a well-known probability strategy to beat the house at blackjack beware - UK researchers have developed an automated system that will detect card counters before they can cash in.

Card counting, a strategy made famous by the film Rain Man, involves remembering which cards have been played, and which might be likely to turn up. An abundance of low-value cards in the discard pile can tip the odds slightly in favour of the gambler, and a card counter bets big only then.

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How 'Superswarms' Of Krill Gather

From The BBC:

When krill come together, they form some of the largest gatherings of life on the plant.

Now scientists have discovered just how these small marine crustaceans do it.

Huge 'superswarms' containing trillions of krill are formed by juveniles not adults, and these swarms are even denser than experts supposed.

That suggests that all krill in the Southern Ocean are more vulnerable to overfishing then previously thought, the scientists warn.

Krill are small shrimp-like crustaceans that gather in huge numbers.

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Nasa's Greatest Missions, From Apollo To Voyager

Buzz Aldrin unpacks instruments from the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Photo: NASA

From The Telegraph:

Nasa’s ‘Moon bombing’ LCROSS mission has successfully crashed into the lunar surface. We look back at five of the space agency’s other most important missions.

Apollo
Without doubt the most important of all: the first time a human being has stood on the surface of another world.

In 1969, eight years after US President John F Kennedy announced that man would walk on the Moon and be returned safely to Earth, two men – Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin – did exactly that. Ten more would follow in the next six years.

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Can The E-Reader Really Replace The Good Old Book? We Put Them To The Test

Book of the future: A festival goer uses the Sony Reader

From The Daily Mail:

Is this the end of the novel as we know it? Thanks to the ebook - a new generation of mini-computers that allow you to download thousands of books at the click of a button - it seems the answer may be yes. Yesterday, Amazon announced their Kindle e-reader - a device that can download a book from the internet in 60 seconds - will be available in the UK later this month. So, can the e-reader really replace the good old book? LINSEY FRYATT, editor of gadget website Stuff.tv, puts them to the test...

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Household Robots Do Not Protect Users' Security And Privacy, Researchers Say

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Oct. 9, 2009) — People are increasingly using household robots for chores, communication, entertainment and companionship. But safety and privacy risks of information-gathering objects that move around our homes are not yet adequately addressed, according to a new University of Washington study.

It's not a question of evil robots, but of robots that can be misused.

"A lot of attention has been paid to robots becoming more intelligent and turning evil," said co-author Tadayoshi Kohno, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering. "But there is a much greater and more near-term risk, and that's bad people who can use robots to do bad things."

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Even Modest Exercise Boosts Self-Image

From Live Science:

Want to feel good about your self? Just get off the couch and do a little exercise. You don't even have to get real serious, a new study finds.

Heather Hausenblas of the University of Florida reviewed 57 intervention studies on the topic of exercise and how it makes people feel, and she concludes that "the simple act of exercise and not fitness itself can convince you that you look better," according to a statement released today by the university.

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Cambridge Laboratory of Molecular Biology: The Nobel Prize factory

Cambridge's Laboratory of Molecular Biology

From The Independent:

For the 14th time, the judges have honoured a member of the same lab.

Yesterday at tea time at Cambridge's Laboratory of Molecular Biology, something a little stronger than the usual brew was being glugged by the scientists gathered on the top floor overlooking Addenbrooke's Hospital.

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Barnes & Noble To Launch Android-Based Kindle Killer?

From Channel News:

Amazon (NSDQ:AMZN)'s Kindle might have a new e-reader enemy from a familiar source: Barnes & Noble.

Barnes & Noble is reportedly preparing to unveil an e-reader device to compete with Amazon's Kindle and the rapidly expanding field of e-readers. The book retailer is already a force in e-books thanks to its three-month-old eBookstore, but according to reports is prepping an e-reader of its own that will run on Google's Android operating system.

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Universe To End Sooner Than Previously Thought

Find The Entropy In This Super Massive Black Hole via Jevin Studios

From Popular Science:

While Robert Frost famously said that he prefers the world to end in fire, physicists have long predicted the universe will end with an icy sputter known as "heat death." Heat death occurs when the universe finally uses up all its energy, with all motion stopping and all the atoms in creation grinding to a halt. And, based on new calculations from a team of Australian physicists, it looks like heat death is far closer than previously thought.

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Look Into My Eyes: The Power Of Hypnosis

From New Scientist:

I AM about to have my left leg paralysed, my arm taken over by an alien force and, quite possibly, be made blind. I confess I'm a bit nervous. But also, strangely, I hope it all works.

These insults to my body will not be inflicted with a scalpel, but instead induced using hypnosis. The effects, if they occur, will only be temporary, my hypnotist, David Oakley, reassures me.

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Nasa Team Scours Moon Crash Data

The "shepherding spacecraft" will analyse the impact debris

From The BBC:

Nasa scientists have been outlining their preliminary results after crashing two unmanned spacecraft into the Moon in a bid to detect water-ice.

A rocket stage slammed into the Moon's south pole at 1231 BST (0731 EDT).

Another craft followed just behind, looking for signs of water in debris kicked up by the first collision.

Instruments on the second spacecraft identified a flash from the initial impact as well as a crater, but the expected debris cloud was not evident.

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Nobel Prize: Ten Most Important Winners

Professor Marie Curie working in her laboratory at the University of Paris in 1925
Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

From The Telegraph:

As the 2009 Nobel Prize winners are announced, we look at ten of the most influential laureates in the history of the awards.

1. Marie Curie

The leading light in a family that between them amassed a remarkable five Nobel Prizes in the fields of Chemistry and Physics. She became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1903 when she was recognised, along with her husband Pierre and Antoine Henri Becquerel, with the Physics award for their research into radiation.

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Is China Beating The U.S. In Clean Tech?

Credit: Technology Review

From The Technology Review:

The president of NRDC points to a growing investment by China in energy technologies.

China could beat the United States in a race to deploy clean energy technology that can reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, said Frances Beinecke, leader of a leading environmental group, speaking this week at MIT.

"I just got back from China, where there is tremendous investment in the clean tech sector," said Beinecke, the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "They have a national renewable energy standard, a national efficiency standard, and China will build more of everything--more coal, more nuclear, more renewables--and they'll invest in more efficiency than any other single country in the world."

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Scaling New Heights: Piano Stairway Encourages Commuters To Ditch The Escalators

Music to your ears: The new stairway has proved a hit with commuters in Stockholm

From The Daily Mail:

Apart from the fighting fit, most of us struggle taking the stairs during the morning commute to work... especially if there is an escalator right next to them.

Now Volkswagen has come up with a nifty way of encouraging people to exercise more... by making climbing the stairs a note-worthy experience.

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Burning Buried Coal Has 'Potential'

Photo: In the future power stations could use gas extracted from seams of coals deep underground to generate electricity, say experts (Source: ABC)

From ABC News (Australia):

Burning coal underground could be one of the next breakthroughs to increase the world's energy supply, say some experts.

They say the technology could provide access to additional coal reserves that are either too deep or remote to mine.

But the approach is so far untested on a commercial scale, making the initial expense a concern for governments and investors.

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Last Time Carbon Dioxide Levels Were This High: 15 Million Years Ago, Scientists Report

Photo: Aradhna Tripati. (Credit: Image courtesy of UCLA)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Oct. 9, 2009) — You would have to go back at least 15 million years to find carbon dioxide levels on Earth as high as they are today, a UCLA scientist and colleagues report Oct. 8 in the online edition of the journal Science.

"The last time carbon dioxide levels were apparently as high as they are today — and were sustained at those levels — global temperatures were 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than they are today, the sea level was approximately 75 to 120 feet higher than today, there was no permanent sea ice cap in the Arctic and very little ice on Antarctica and Greenland," said the paper's lead author, Aradhna Tripati, a UCLA assistant professor in the department of Earth and space sciences and the department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.

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Real Tsunami May Have Inspired Legend of Atlantis

From Live Science:

The volcanic explosion that obliterated much of the island that might have inspired the legend of Atlantis apparently triggered a tsunami that traveled hundreds of miles to reach as far as present-day Israel, scientists now suggest.

The new findings about this past tsunami could shed light on the destructive potential of future disasters, researchers added.

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