Wiring the Wilderness

An HPWREN automated digital camera on Lyons Peak captured an image around 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 23, 2006, that shows the extent of the Horse Fire. The camera remotely collected many images that day, which the researchers were able to use to better understand the wildfire. Credit: HPWREN

From Live Science:

HPWREN (the High-Performance Wireless Research and Education Network) began in 2000 with the objective of connecting remote science sites to a high-speed network. Today, the wireless network covers nearly 20,000 square miles in San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties in Southern California.

Hans-Werner Braun, a research scientist at the University of California, San Diego, Supercomputer Center, is principal investigator of the project along with Frank Vernon, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Read more ....

Money Does Not Make You Happy 'But Therapy Does'

From The Telegraph:

Money does not make you happy but therapy does, academics have discovered.

A massive pay rise or even winning the National Lottery may not offer as much joy as talking about your problems, researchers have found.

They warn that often we overestimate how much money will increase our happiness.

Read more ....

How 16 Ships Create As Much Pollution As All The Cars In The World

Waiting game: Tankers moored off Devon waiting for oil prices to rise even further

From The Daily Mail:

Last week it was revealed that 54 oil tankers are anchored off the coast of Britain, refusing to unload their fuel until prices have risen.

But that is not the only scandal in the shipping world. Today award-winning science writer Fred Pearce – environmental consultant to New Scientist and author of Confessions Of An Eco Sinner – reveals that the super-ships that keep the West in everything from Christmas gifts to computers pump out killer chemicals linked to thousands of deaths because of the filthy fuel they use.

Read more ....

Acid Oceans Leave Fish At More Risk From Predators

From The BBC:

Ocean acidification could cause fish to become "fatally attracted" to their predators, according to scientists.

A team studying the effects of acidification - caused by dissolved CO2 - on ocean reefs found that it leaves fish unable to "smell danger".

Young clownfish that were reared in the acidified water became attracted to rather than repelled by the chemical signals released by predatory fish.

The findings were published in the journal Ecology Letters.

Read more ....

Life Expectancy And The Dangers Of Defying Death

The hands of a century old pensioner (101 years) in the day room of Manor croft care home in Fareham. The state pension is 100 years old this year. (Richard Pohle/The Times)

From Times Online:

Understanding and predicting longevity are vital if we are to manage the implications of greater life expectancy.

There’s been a lot of news recently about dying — or, more exactly, about surviving. According to figures for 2006-08 just published by the Office for National Statistics, life expectancy at birth in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, West London, has reached 84.3 years for males, 88.9 for females.

Read more ....

Bing: Google Gets Some Real Competition

From the Christian Science Monitor:

It’s hard to compete when your opponent’s name is so popular that it’s become a verb. Such is the plight of every search engine that dares to challenge Google.

Last year, four search engines made up more than 95 percent of all search traffic: Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask. Only Google increased its share of the pie that year, eating up 67 percent of all searches in January and 72 percent by 2009, according to the online traffic monitor Hitwise.

Read more ....

H1N1 Isn't The Only Worry: Syphilis Is Making A Comeback

From McClatchy:

RALEIGH, N.C. _ As health departments battle the H1N1 flu virus, North Carolina health workers worry that another epidemic may be brewing - one for a sexually transmitted disease that had almost disappeared from the state 10 years ago.

Cases of syphilis in the state have nearly doubled in the past year: 684 in the first nine months, compared to 359 cases for the same period a year earlier.

Read more ....

A Look At Global Warming Written In A Cooler And More Skeptical Time, Giving Us A Better Understanding Of Climate Science

Hackers targeted the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, pictured, and published sensitive emails on the internet. Photo from The Daily Mail.

From Fabius Maximus:

The hacked emails and papers from the UK’s Climate Research Unit reveal the underside of climate science (as the many bizarre conclusions do the same for the anti-AGW mob). Spinning data to conceal contrary evidence, avoiding freedom of information requests, purging the profession of skeptical voices. All familiar things to anyone familiar with the history of science. All evidence of the most important step needed, and that most strongly opposed by most climate scientists:

Raise the standards when applying science research to public policy questions. That means requiring full transparency of data and methods used in climate science research, and third party review of the data, analysis, and models.

Read more ....

The Dubai Airshow As Seen From Orbit

Dubai Airshow 2009 : Courtesy GeoEye (See it bigger!)

From Popular Science:

Our friend the GeoEye-1 satellite, which tirelessly photographs the world at half-meter resolution from its constant orbit, swung by the Dubai Airport the other day and took this snap of the Dubai Airshow, in progress this week. Thanks, GeoEye-1!

Read more ....

Were Rats Behind Easter Island Mystery?

Moai statues on Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, among the most remote spots on Earth.
By Jayne Clark, USA TODAY

From USA Today:

Easter Island's mystery — brooding statues atop a treeless Polynesian island — fascinates tourists and scholars alike.

And inspires debate.

"Who or what destroyed the ancient palm woodland on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)?" ask German ecologists Andreas Mieth and Hans-Rudolf Bork, in an upcoming paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science. "The circumstances, causes and triggers of these environmental changes are the subject of persistent scientific discussion."

Read more ....

Solar Winds Triggered By Magnetic Fields

XRT Full Sun (Synoptic). (Credit: Images courtesy of JAXA, NAOJ, PPARC and NASA.)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 22, 2009) — Solar wind generated by the sun is probably driven by a process involving powerful magnetic fields, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers based on the latest observations from the Hinode satellite.

Scientists have long speculated on the source of solar winds. The Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS), on board the Japanese-UK-US Hinode satellite, is now generating unprecedented observations enabling scientists to provide a new perspective on the 50-year old question of how solar wind is driven. The collaborative study, published in this month's issue of Astrophysical Journal, suggests that a process called slipping reconnection may drive these winds.

Read more ....

Sushi Often Not What You Think

Giant Atlantic bluefin tuna from Prince Edward Island, Canada. Credit: Jay R. Rooker

From Live Science:

That tuna in your sushi might be an endangered species, a new study finds.

Some genetic detective work by scientists has shown that bluefin tuna, an endangered fish, regularly gets put on the plates of sushi eaters in New York and Colorado.

"When you eat sushi, you can unknowingly get a critically endangered species on your plate," said Jacob Lowenstein, a graduate student affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History in New York and Columbia University. "But with an increasingly popular technique, DNA barcoding, it is a simple process for researchers to see just what species are eaten at a sushi bar."

Read more ....

“Planestupid” Kills Polar Bears Via CGI To Make A Point

CSN Editor: For more info, read from Watts up With That?

Fewer Players 'Secret To World Cup Success'

From The Telegraph:

The secret to success in next year’s Football World Cup could have been uncovered by academics.

New research shows that managers who field the fewest players during a campaign go on to win the most trophies.

By contrast, those who tinker too often with their selection cut their chances of victory.

Read more ....

Beam Sent From Large Hadron Collider After 14 Months Of Repairs

Large Hadron Collider: The machine has been restarted after $40million of repairs

From The Daily Mail:

The world’s largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, has been re-started after 14 months of repairs.

The $10billion (£6billion) machine suffered a spectacular failure more than a year ago – just nine days after the launch.

Scientists are hoping the results from the device, which was designed to smash together beams of protons in a bid to recreate conditions after the Big Bang, will shed some light on the makeup of matter and the universe.

Read more ....

Water Mission Returns First Data

Smos builds up its map data in strips as it sweeps around the Earth

From BBC:

Europe's latest Earth observation satellite has returned its first data.

Smos was launched earlier this month on a quest to help scientists understand better how water is cycled around the Earth.

The spacecraft will make the first global maps of the amount of moisture held in soils and of the quantity of salts dissolved in the oceans.

The data will have wide uses but should improve weather forecasts and warnings of extreme events, such as floods.

Read more ....

W5 Investigates Intriguing New Theory About MS

Dr. Paolo Zamboniis seen at his research lab at the University of Ferrara.

From CTV News:

A group of doctors in Italy is investigating a fascinating new treatment for multiple sclerosis, based on a theory that, if proven true, could radically alter the lives of patients.

An investigation by CTV's W5 reveals that this treatment appears to stop the disease from progressing. Patients seen in the documentary relate how, after the simple procedure, their MS symptoms suddenly stopped and, in some cases, they were able to resume normal lives.

The Italian research is asking fundamental questions about the origins of the debilitating condition, whose causes have long remained a mystery.

Read more ....

Scientific Scandal Appears To Rock Climate Change Promoters

From The American Thinker:

There's big news for climate change students. A hacker has gotten into the computers at Hadley CRU, Britain's largest climate research institute and a proponent of global warming, and seems to have uncovered evidence of substantial fraud in reporting the "evidence" on global warming; the unlawful destruction of records to cover up this fraud ,conspiracy,and deceit in the entire operation.

While hacking into the institute's records is inappropriate if not illegal, the activities disclosed appear illegal and damaging to science and the economies of the world.

Read more ....

Robotic Spy Planes Go Green

This photo shows the Ion Tiger in flight. The 550-watt fuel cell is show in the box in the lower left corner. Credit: Naval Research Laboratory

From Live Science:

Robot spy planes are harnessing alternative energy to make them more covert and longer lasting than ever.

Such drones could also find use in civilian life to help monitor the earth or wildlife as well, researchers noted.

Increasingly, the military is deploying unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, as eyes in the sky to scan the ground for targets and threats, especially for missions that are too dangerous for manned aircraft.

The problem with using internal combustion engines for these spy drones is how noisy they are.

Read more ....

Hacked: Sensitive Documents Lifted From Hadley Climate Center

From The Wall Street Journal:

Well, this should get interesting.

The Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain was hacked yesterday, apparently by Russian black hats, and thousands of sensitive documents, including emails from climate scientists dating back a decade, were posted online. More here.

Officials at Hadley, a leading global-warming research center, have apparently confirmed to an Australian a Kiwi publication that the documents are genuine.

Read more ....