Facial Profiling

From Slate:

Can you tell if a man is dangerous by the shape of his mug?

On Nov. 27, 2008, Indian police interrogators came face to face with the only gunman captured alive in last year's bloody Mumbai terror attacks. They were surprised by what they saw. Ajmal Kasab, who had murdered dozens in the city's main railway station, stood barely 5 feet tall, with bright eyes and apple cheeks. His boyish looks earned him a nickname among Indians—"the baby-faced killer"—and further spooked a rattled public. "Who or what is he? Dangerous fanatic or exploited innocent?" wondered a horrified columnist in the Times of India. No one, it seems, had expected the face of terror to look so sweet.

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Killer Algae: Key Player In Mass Extinctions

Pond covered with algae. (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Oct. 20, 2009) — Supervolcanoes and cosmic impacts get all the terrible glory for causing mass extinctions, but a new theory suggests lowly algae may be the killer behind the world's great species annihilations.

Today, just about anywhere there is water, there can be toxic algae. The microscopic plants usually exist in small concentrations, but a sudden warming in the water or an injection of dust or sediment from land can trigger a bloom that kills thousands of fish, poisons shellfish, or even humans.

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3 Detroit Marathon Deaths Likely A Fluke

From Live Science:

The deaths of three runners at Sunday's Detroit Marathon were tragic, but probably not representative of any increasing danger inherent in the sport.

In fact, the deaths are likely to be a statistical fluke, doctors say.

A 26-year-old half-marathon runner, and two other runners — a 36-year-old and 65-year-old — died during the event. Though autopsy results are pending, experts say the most likely cause of death while running such a strenuous race is one related to heart disease.

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China Works For Mars And Moon Missions

From RIA Novosti:

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Alexander Peslyak) - The launch of a Russian Phobos Grunt probe to Mars on October 16 has been delayed until 2011.

The delay also affects China's first mission to Mars. The 240-pound Chinese Yinghou-1 spacecraft was to be mounted atop the Russian spacecraft for transport to the Martian orbit, where it was to be released before the Russian spacecraft landed on Phobos.

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Toxic Algae 'Wiped Out Dinosaurs'

From The Telegraph:

Toxic algae rather than a massive asteroid may have wiped out the dinosaurs, scientists have claimed.

Previous studies had claimed an asteroid impact produced devastating climate changes and rising sea levels which caused the mass extinctions over the earth's 4.5 billion year existence.

But a team of American geologists and toxicologists claim algae commonly found naturally around the world could be the culprit that led to the demise of the dinosaurs.

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The Next Stephen Hawking: String Theory Pioneer Gets Cambridge Post

Michael Green: succeeds Stephen Hawking. Photograph: Cambridge University

From The Guardian:

Michael Green, one of the pioneers of string theory, takes prestigious role at University of Cambridge.

A Cambridge physicist who pioneered the idea that everything in the universe is made up of tiny vibrating strings of energy is to succeed Stephen Hawking in the most prestigious academic post in the world.

Professor Michael Green, a fellow of the Royal Society and co-founder of the fiendishly complex idea of string theory, was offered the position of Lucasian professor of mathematics following a meeting at the university this month.

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Chimps Are Happy To Help Each Other - But Only If They Are Asked

Lending a hand: One chimp passes a tool to another so they can reach a juice box

From The Daily Mail:

While chimpanzees are willing to help each other, they need to be prompted before they will offer assistance.

A study published in PLoS One showed chimps would share tools with each other, but usually only if requested. They were far less ready to spontaneously lend a hand like humans.

Researchers at Kyoto University in Japan were studying the evolution of altruism. Initially many scientist thought it developed from an ultimate perspective - 'I will help you now because I expect there to be some long-term benefit to me'.

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Kepler's Revolutionary Achievements In 1609 Rival Galileo's

Image: Catastrophe Averted: In a page from Kepler's Astronomia Nova, the astronomer works through the theretofore unexplained orbit of Mars. Owen Gingerich

From Scientific American:

The International Year of Astronomy marks the 400th anniversary of German astronomer Johannes Kepler's breakthroughs as well as those of his better-known Italian contemporary.

Four hundred years ago this year, two events marked what scientists and historians today regard as the birth of modern astronomy. The first of them, the beginning of Galileo's telescopic observations, has been immortalized by playwrights and authors and widely publicized as the cornerstone anniversary for the International Year of Astronomy. Through his looking glass, the Italian astronomer saw the mountains and valleys of the moon, the satellites of Jupiter, and sunspots—observations that would play a huge role in discrediting the prevailing, church-endorsed view of an Earth-centered cosmos.

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Fireball Picture: Meteor Explodes Over The Netherlands

From National Geographic:

October 15, 2009—When amateur photographer Robert Mikaelyan went out to snap an old Dutch sugar factory on Tuesday, he captured a rare treat: a huge exploding fireball in the sky.

Hundreds of people in the Netherlands and Germany reported seeing the fireball streak across the twilight skies around 7 p.m. local time on October 13.

Mikaelyan managed to capture several shots of the fireball as it swung low over the northern city of Groningen and began to break apart into smaller chunks.

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Scientists Try To Calm '2012' Hysteria

Amanda Peet, with Morgan Lily and Liam James, stars in "2012," opening next month. The movie's viral marketing campaign has blended seamlessly with websites spreading doomsday theories. (Columbia Pictures)

From The L.A. Times:

As an upcoming action movie fuels Internet rumors, several scientists make public statements: The world will not end in 2012, and Earth is not going to crash into a rogue planet.

Is 2012 the end of the world?

If you scan the Internet or believe the marketing campaign behind the movie "2012," scheduled for release in November, you might be forgiven for thinking so. Dozens of books and fake science websites are prophesying the arrival of doomsday that year, by means of a rogue planet colliding with the Earth or some other cataclysmic event.

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'Double Food Output To Stop World Starving,' Say Scientists

From the Independent:

Royal Society wants green revolution to deal with global population rise of 3 billion.

Global food production needs to be increased by between 50 and 100 per cent if widespread famine is to be avoided in the coming decades as the human population expands rapidly, leading scientists said.

A second "green revolution" is needed in agriculture to feed the extra 3 billion people who will be added to the existing population of 6 billion by 2050.

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West Antarctic Ice Sheet May Not Be Losing Ice As Fast As Once Thought

The West Antarctic ice sheet rests on a bed well below sea level and is drained by much larger outlet glaciers and ice streams that accelerate over distances of hundreds of kilometers before reaching the ocean, often through large floating ice shelves. (Credit: NASA/LIMA)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Oct. 20, 2009) — New ground measurements made by the West Antarctic GPS Network (WAGN) project, composed of researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, The Ohio State University, and The University of Memphis, suggest the rate of ice loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet has been slightly overestimated.

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Plants Recognize Rivals and Fight, Play Nice with Siblings

Harsh Bais, University of Delaware assistant professor of plant and soil sciences, and doctoral student Meredith Bierdrzycki with Arabidopsis plants in the laboratory at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute. Credit: University of Delaware.

From Live Science:

Plants can't see or hear, but they can recognize their siblings, and now researchers have found out how: They use chemical signals secreted from their roots, according to a new study.

Back in 2007, Canadian researchers discovered that a common seashore plant, called a sea rocket, can recognize its siblings – plants grown from seeds from the same plant, or mother. They saw that when siblings are grown next to each other in the soil, they "play nice" and don't send out more roots to compete with one another.

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Rocket Science For Kids

A pupil looks through a telescope at an afterschool astronomy club at Alexandra Park school, north London. Photograph: Rogan Macdonald

From The Guardian:

In the corner of a north London classroom, a huddle of year 7s are fizzing with excitement as they talk to each other about rocket science. Yes, you read that right. Some wander across the room to talk to the maths teacher about the forces required to propel the rockets they are building, while others start bundling up tiny parachutes into their rocket designs. A few more are busily adding fins to the sides of their rocket.

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Meet Future Woman: Shorter, Plumper, More Fertile

Tall, slim, and soon to be a museum piece.
(Image: Hugh Kretschmer / Stone + / Getty)

From New Scientist:

Women of the future are likely to be slightly shorter and plumper, have healthier hearts and longer reproductive windows. These changes are predicted by the strongest proof to date that humans are still evolving.

Medical advances mean that many people who once would have died young now live to a ripe old age. This has led to a belief that natural selection no longer affects humans and, therefore, that we have stopped evolving.

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U.S. Military Create Live Remote-Controlled Beetles To Bug Conversations

Researchers at UC Berkeley have implanted surveillance equipment into beetles
that allows them to control where they fly

From The Daily Mail:

Spies may soon be bugging conversations using actual insects, thanks to research funded by the US military.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has spent years developing a whole host of cyborg critters, in the hopes of creating the ultimate 'fly on the wall'.

Now a team of researchers led by Hirotaka Sato have created cyborg beetles which are guided wirelessly via a laptop.

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Total Recall Achieved

From Scientific American:

Activating a small fraction of neurons triggers complete memory.

Just as a whiff of pumpkin pie can unleash powerful memories of holiday dinners, the stimulation of a tiny number of neurons can evoke entire memories, new research in mice suggests.

Memories are stored in neurons distributed across a host of brain regions. When something triggers a memory, that diffuse information is immediately and cohesively reactivated, but it's unclear how the circuit gets kicked into full gear.

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2009 Orionid Meteor Shower Peak Begins

Halley's comet streaks through the twilight sky on January 9, 1986, in an image from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The annual Orionids meteor shower, created by debris left behind from Halley's comet, will peak on October 21, 2009. Photograph courtesy NOAO/AP

From National Geographic:

Earth is currently plowing through space debris left behind by a visitor that last swung by during the Reagan Administration.

Spawned by Halley's comet, which last buzzed the planet in 1986, the tiny space rocks are the seeds of the annual Orionid meteor shower.

At its peak before sunrise Wednesday morning, the Orionids shower should produce 20 to 25 meteors an hour—a "relatively decent show," according to astronomer Anita Cochran, of the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory.

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Is Barnes & Noble's Nook a Kindle killer?

(Credit: Barnes & Noble)

From Crave/CNET:

While information on Barnes & Noble's new e-book reader, the Nook, has been trickling out for several days, the company unveiled the new $259 device on its Web site Tuesday a few hours before the official launch event in New York.

As previously reported, the Nook, billed as the first Android-powered e-book reader, features not only a 6-inch E-ink screen but a color touch screen that allows you to navigate content and also can turn into a virtual keyboard for searches.

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Plants And Wasps Are Smarter Than You Think

A nest of the paper wasps used in the study (Polybia aequatorialis), taken in the field near Monteverde, Costa Rica. Colonies of several thousand adult workers live in a paper nest. Workers usually start with tasks inside the nest, then on the surface. They 'graduate' to become food foragers. (Courtesy of Sean O'Donnell/University of Washington)

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Seedlings know when they're from the same plant, and wasps get smarter as they get tougher tasks, studies show.

Plants and pea brains can be smarter than you think. Plants like those that discriminate between siblings and strangers within their own species, that is. And pea brains like the tropical paper wasp that reorganizes its tiny brain to tackle increasingly complex tasks.

These research tidbits illustrate the fact that acquiring and using information is a fundamental aspect of organic life.

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