Male Sabertoothed Cats Were Pussycats Compared To Macho Lions

Painting of Smilodon from the American Museum of Natural History. (Credit: Charles R. Knight, 1905 / Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 6, 2009) — Despite their fearsome fangs, male sabertoothed cats may have been less aggressive than many of their feline cousins, says a new study of male-female size differences in extinct big cats.

Commonly called the sabertoothed tiger, Smilodon fatalis was a large predatory cat that roamed North and South America about 1.6 million to 10,000 years ago, when there was also a prehistoric cat called the American lion. A study appearing in the November 5 issue of the Journal of Zoology examined size differences between sexes of these fearsome felines using subtle clues from bones and teeth.

Read more ....

Why Did Our Species Survive The Neanderthals? -- A Commentary

Mirror mirror on the wall: who has the reddest hair of all? Despite the comical artwork, serious science suggests some Neanderthals were ginger - but the genes behind it are different from those of modern redheads. Credit: Michael Hofreiter and Kurt Fiusterweier/MPG EVA

From New Scientist:

ONCE upon a time, a race of cavemen ruled Europe and Asia, then mysteriously vanished, leaving little but bones and stone tools behind.

The history of the Neanderthals isn't a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, but much of what has been written about the ancient human species may as well be, says evolutionary ecologist Clive Finlayson in his informative monograph.

Take their disappearance, which a team led by Finlayson has pinpointed to the rock of Gibraltar, between 28,000 and 24,000 years ago. Since the discovery of the first Neanderthal bones in Belgium in 1829, anthropologists have proposed any number of explanations for their extinction.

Read more ....

Hunting For Tuna: The Environmental Peril Grows

Tuna are unloaded at a wharf in Port Lincoln, South Australia. The town has the highest number of millionaires per capita in the country. Photo: AAP

From Time Magazine:

Nearly every day at dawn, John Heitz falls a little bit in love. Leaning over a 150-lb. (70 kg) yellowfin tuna, the 55-year-old American, whose business is exporting fish, circles his forefinger around its deep eye socket. "Look how clear these eyes are." He traces the puncture where the fish was hooked, and the markings under its pectoral fin where it struggled on the line. "Sometimes," Heitz says, "I see a good tuna, and it looks better to me than a woman."

Read more ....

The Next Two US Recessions

From The Futurist:

Here at The Futurist, we maintain a track record of predicting bubbles, busts, and recessions long before they happen. For example, the housing bubble was identified in April 2006, back when a person could be socially excommunicated for claiming that houses may not rise in value forever. After that, I have identified when the current recession started, months before most economists, and have even predicted when the present recession will end, and at what level job losses would end at. This track record will now lead me to set my sights on the next two troubles on the horizon, which will be the causes of the next two potential recessions.

Read more ....

Nitrogen Cycle Added To Climate Model

From Future Pundit:

What is missing from climate models?

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Oct. 9, 2009 -- For the first time, climate scientists from across the country have successfully incorporated the nitrogen cycle into global simulations for climate change, questioning previous assumptions regarding carbon feedback and potentially helping to refine model forecasts about global warming.

My own reaction: amazement. We are in the year 2009 and only now the nitrogen cycle gets added to climate models? What other important factors are not yet in climate models? Does anyone know? I'm looking for a knowledgeable reply, not a rant. What is the state of climate models? What are the prospects for more accurate models 5, 10, 20 years from now?

Read more ....

Hot Spot Hot Rod: The Internet Invades The Automobile

MPG OR MBPS?: Car companies are going to win customers in the future based on the networked services they offer drivers and passengers and how well these services are delivered, in addition to offering vehicles powered by a number of alternatives (fuel, battery or both). © NG CONNECT PROGRAM

From Scientific American:

A group of companies led by Alcatel-Lucent demonstrate the power of next-generation wireless broadband technologies by rolling out a Prius with 4G connectivity.

With U.S. commuters spending an estimated 500 million hours per week in their vehicles, carmakers, software companies and content providers are trying to figure out how to take advantage of new high-speed wireless network technologies to help drivers have better Internet access during this often idle time.

Read more ....

Will a Shortage of Nuclear Isotopes Mean Less Effective Medical Tests?

Mo-99 One plan is to retrofit the University of Missouri Research Reactor to make Mo-99, but that won’t be completed until 2012. Courtesy University of Missouri

From Popular Science:

The Chalk River nuclear reactor in Ontario doesn’t sell a watt of electricity. Never has. But when it sprang a leak and shut down this spring, it threw a multibillion-dollar industry into crisis. Before it broke, the reactor produced nearly two thirds of the U.S. supply of molybdenum-99, or Mo-99, the isotope behind 16 million critical diagnostic medical tests each year. In July, things got worse: The Dutch reactor that supplied the remaining third shut down for a month of repair work.

Read more ....

Japan Uses Controverisal Nuke Fuel

Photo: Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s nuclear plant is seen in Kashiwazaki, northeastern Japan, July 17, 2007. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

From CBS News:

(AP) Japan used weapons-grade plutonium to fuel a nuclear power plant Thursday for the first time as part of efforts to boost its atomic energy program.

Kyushu Electric Power Co. said workers fired up the No. 3 reactor at its Genkai plant in the southern prefecture of Saga using MOX fuel - a mixture of plutonium oxide and uranium oxide.

Read more ....

Genes Show When A Woman's Biological Clock Will Stop

Is time running out? (Image: Altrendo Images/Stockbyte/Getty)

From New Scientist:

IT IS a dilemma facing a growing number of young women: can I delay having a baby until my career is more established? A genetic test that could make this decision less of a gamble might be on offer by next year, thanks to the discovery of a gene that seems to predict the rate at which a woman's egg supply diminishes.

No one is yet sure how useful the test will be. But the aim is to tell a woman in her early 20s whether she is at high risk of early menopause. If she is, monitoring her egg supply will confirm whether her fertility is in early decline. Armed with this information she could then decide whether to start a family sooner or later, or freeze some eggs to increase her chances of conceiving later on.

Read more ....

From Space To Soil, Farmers Enlist Satellites For More Bountiful Harvests

A Better View of Soil NASA Earth Observatory

From Popular Science:

There was a time when a farmer simply tasted a clump of dirt to tell the fecundity of the soil. Now, a wide range of chemical analysis help instruct farmers on the optimal mix of fertilizer, pesticide and water. However, tests on soil samples are expensive and time consuming, and few farmers can afford to waste either time or money. And that's where the satellite imaging comes in.

Read more ....

Space Hotel Reportedly On Track For 2012 Opening, Already Has Paying Guests

Space Hotel 2012 Will these space pods fly on time? Galactic Suite

From Popular Science:

A company aiming to open the first space hotel already has 43 paying customers at $4.4 million a pop.

Anyone with a cool $4 million and change might consider doing what 43 other people have done, and sign up for an orbital space vacation in 2012 with Galactic Suite Space Resort. The Barcelona-based company plans to open the first space hotel if all goes according to plan.

Read more ....

Killer Dolphins Baffle Marine Experts

From The Telegraph:

It's hard to visualise but the intelligent and ever-friendly dolphin can also be a determined killer.

• Orca whales hunt eider ducks for practice
• 'Tougher laws' to protect friendly dolphins
• Shark pictures show amazing killing display

New evidence has been compiled by marine scientists that prove the normally placid dolphin is capable of brutal attacks both on innocent fellow marine mammals and, more disturbingly, on its own kind.

Read more ....

Study: Internet Users Aren't Isolated (Thank Facebook)

From PCWorld:

Internet users are not as isolated as sociologists thought, but we've known that all along. Rather than isolating Americans, a new study finds the Internet broadens our social circle, and Facebook gets particular credit.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that "Americans are not as isolated as has been previously reported. People's use of the mobile phone and the Internet is associated with larger and more diverse discussion networks."

Read more ....

Early Scents Really Do Get 'Etched' In The Brain

Common experience tells us that particular scents of childhood can leave quite an impression, for better or for worse. Now, researchers reporting the results of a brain imaging study show that first scents really do enjoy a "privileged" status in the brain. (Credit: iStockphoto/Olga Solovei)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 6, 2009) — Common experience tells us that particular scents of childhood can leave quite an impression, for better or for worse. Now, researchers reporting the results of a brain imaging study online on November 5th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, show that first scents really do enjoy a "privileged" status in the brain.

Read more ....

Horror Movies: Why People Love Them

From Live Science:

This time of year, screens big and small entertain our basest instincts with horrifying gore, monsters, insanity and the supernatural. Although considered a mostly niche genre, horror films enjoy an avid following and rake in plenty of bucks at the box office.

Yet, as horror buffs come down from their Halloween rush, many are ready to do it again. Being scared out of their wits, it seems, is fun. Audiences get another chance this weekend as the "based-on-true-events" alien-abduction thriller "The Fourth Kind" (Universal) opens nationwide.

Read more ....

Masturbation In The Animal Kingdom.

From Slate.com:

Isn't it wonderful when science and religion come together? My Slate colleague William Saletan points out that a recent paper has laid the groundwork for a pro-life defense of onanism. According to obstetrician David Greening, a rigorous program of daily masturbation can actually improve sperm quality in men with fertility problems. (Samples collected at the end of the program showed less DNA damage and higher sperm motility than samples from control subjects.) Since masturbation can help you have babies, Saletan argues, it must also serve the "procreative and unitive purposes" described in the Catechism.

Read more ....

Report: Cyber Attacks Caused Power Outages in Brazil

From Threat Level:

Electrical blackouts impacting millions of people in Brazil in 2005 and 2007 were caused by hackers targeting control systems, according to the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes.

In a show set to air Sunday night, CBS blames a two-day outage in Espirito Santo in 2007 on a hack attack. The blackout affected three million people. Another, smaller blackout north of Rio de Janeiro in January 2005 was also triggered by computer intruders, the network claims.

Read more ....

My Comment: I am sure there are now more safeguards to prevent such occurrences from happening, but it is an excellent example to use in revealing how easy it is to put down a power grid.

Electric SUVs: A Smaller Footprint For Big Vehicles

(Dan Vasconcellos)

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Converting existing gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs into hybrid and electric vehicles gains traction.

Tom Reid likes his ride big – a 2000 Ford Explorer SUV with plenty of interior room and all the amenities. None of those prissy little hybrid vehicles will do for him.

But after gas hit $4 a gallon last year, Mr. Reid had a big fuel bill, too – and an epiphany: convert his gas guzzler to an all-electric vehicle.

So he did. Now Reid’s bright idea has become a sideline business for his shop, HTC Racing, which produces specialized protective coating for automotive and other metal parts in Whitman, Mass. He offers kits to convert any 1995-2004 gas-sucking Ford Explorer into a cheap-to-keep, no fuel, little maintenance all-electric SUV. Cost: $15,000.

Read more ....

Vision Of The Future: Custom Corneas

Super Sight: The same technology used in the Hubble telescope could offer LASIK patients better sight. Ophthalmologists can use this technology to perform "custom" surgery to correspond to the patient's lifestyle. Getty Images

From Discovery News:

NASA technology that allows the Hubble telescope to focus on distant stars now offers LASIK eye surgery patients customized options for fine-tuned night vision, superior image contrast and sight even beyond 20/20.

Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2001, wavefront technology is the newest LASIK innovation that ophthalmologists are using not only to correct eyesight, but also to peer into the physical structure of patients' eyes and locate the exact sources of their vision problems.

Read more ....

How Much Power Does The Human Brain Require To Operate?

Neurogrid 65,536 artificial neurons packed onto just
one of Neurogrid's chips Rodrigo Alvarez 2009

From Popular Science:

Simulating the brain with traditional chips would require impractical megawatts of power. One scientist has an alternative.

According to Kwabena Boahen, a computer scientist at Stanford University, a robot with a processor as smart as the human brain would require at least 10 megawatts to operate. That's the amount of energy produced by a small hydroelectric plant. But a small group of computer scientists may have hit on a new neural supercomputer that could someday emulate the human brain's low energy requirements of just 20 watts--barely enough to run a dim light bulb.

Read more ....