Diamond Oceans Possible On Uranus, Neptune

When scientists melted diamond under high temperatures and pressure and then resolidified, the solid diamond chunks floated on top of liquid diamond. Getty Images

From Discovery News:

By melting and resolidifying diamond, scientists explain how such liquid diamond oceans may be possible.

THE GIST:

* Like ice on water, solid diamond floats on liquid diamond.
* The finding explains possible liquid diamond oceans on other planets.
* Diamond oceans may cause off-kilter planetary tilts.

Oceans of liquid diamond, filled with solid diamond icebergs, could be floating on Neptune and Uranus, according to a recent article in the journal Nature Physics.

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New Satellite Maps Of Haiti Coming In

Damage evaluation map based on satellite data over the Port-au-Prince area of Haiti, following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks that hit the Caribbean nation on 12 January. Map based on data from CNES's SPOT-5, JAXA's ALOS and the U.S.-based GeoEye-1 satellites; processed by SERTIT. (Credit: CNES, JAXA, GeoEye, SERTIT)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Jan. 15, 2010) — As rescue workers scramble to provide assistance to hundreds of thousands of people following Haiti's earthquake, Earth observation satellite data continues to provide updated views of the situation on the ground.

Following the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on 12 January, international agencies requested satellite data of the area from the International Charter on 'Space and Major Disasters'.

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Earthquake Threat Lurks For United States, Too

You have to question your faith, but hopefully not lose it, a Haitian seminarian said of the earthquake that destroyed the Notre Dame Cathedral of Port-au-Prince. (Carolyn Cole, Los Angeles Times)

From Live Science:

As disaster crews and scientists investigate the havoc wrought in Haiti, questions emerge as to whether such a vastly destructive disaster could happen at home in the United States. In fact, cities are located near dangerous earthquake zones all throughout the country, from the most infamous on the West Coast to potential time bombs in the Midwest and even on the Eastern Seaboard.

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U.N.'s World Health Organization Eyeing Global Tax On Banking, Internet Activity

From FOX News:

The World Health Organization (WHO) is considering a plan to ask governments to impose a global consumer tax on such things as Internet activity or everyday financial transactions like paying bills online.

Such a scheme could raise "tens of billions of dollars" on behalf of the United Nations' public health arm from a broad base of consumers, which would then be used to transfer drug-making research, development and manufacturing capabilities, among other things, to the developing world.

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Did King Tut's Discoverer Steal From The Tomb?

Howard Carter examining King Tut's sarcophagus. The British archaeologist claimed ancient grave robbers had broken into the boy king's tomb and stolen a number of small treasures. But he had contractual reasons to make up the story. AP

From Spiegel Online:

Howard Carter, the British explorer who opened the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, will forever be associated with the greatest trove of artifacts from ancient Egypt. But was he also a thief?

Dawn was breaking as Howard Carter took up a crowbar to pry open the sealed tomb door in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. With shaking hands, he held a candle to the fissure, now wafting out 3,300-year-old air. What did he see, those behind him wanted to know. The archaeologist could do no more than stammer, "Wonderful things!"

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More Evidence That China Is Nervous About The Power Of The Inrternet

China Begins Monitoring Billions Of Text Messages As Censorship Increases -- The Telegraph

China has started scanning text messages in the latest move in the country’s increasing censorship.

Customers of China’s two largest mobile phone networks, China Mobile and China Unicom, have had their texting service blocked after sending risqué messages, the state media claims.

The disclosure comes as the country is embroiled in a dispute with Google. On Tuesday the internet giant said it could quit China because of concerns over censorship. The Global Times, a government-run newspaper, said: “Everyone seems to be under watch.”

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My Comment: Talk about paranoia .... but China has always been like this throughout its long history.

Pixel Qi: The LCD Screen That Could Finally Kill Paper For Good

Pixel Qi : Mary Lou Jepson's hybrid computer screen blends the best aspects of both laptop and e-reader displays John B. Carnett

From Popular Science:

Mary Lou Jepsen has created massive holograms and cheap laptops for the developing world. Now she’s rethinking the LCD screen, leading the way to the next great gadget: an e-reader to replace your laptop.

For Mary Lou Jepsen, getting an MRI is not unlike getting a massage—a relaxing ritual, a rare slice of time when no work can possibly be done. I’m accompanying Jepsen to her doctor’s appointment at Massachusetts General Hospital because it’s the only few hours she can fit me in.

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Male Chromosome Evolving Fastest, Study Shows

A scanning probe microscope image of human chromosomes.

From The Telegraph:

The Y chromosome is evolving far faster than the rest of the human genetic code, according to a study by scientists in America.

The research compared the Y chromosomes - which determine a man’s sex - from humans and chimpanzees, man’s nearest living relatives, and showed that they are about 30 per cent different.

That is far greater than the two per cent difference between the rest of the human genetic code and that of the chimpanzee’s. The changes occurred in the last six million years or so, relatively recently when it comes to evolution.

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Why Did The Collapse Of Old Europe Bring A Shift From Female To Male Power?

Female Figurine (Front), Fired Clay. Marius Amarie

From The Independent:

The exhibition "The Lost World of Old Europe," in New York, has raised some very interesting questions about prehistoric societies and how they changed. David Anthony, guest curator of the exhibition and a leading anthropologist specializing in prehistoric Europe, Eurasia, and North America, raised a particularly powerful issue - why did the collapse of a highly sophisticated, matriarchal culture in what is now Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova, lead to a shift of power to men?

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Electromagnetic Manufacturing: It's A Knockout

From The Economist:

Engineers find a new way to punch holes through steel.

ELECTROMAGNETIC pulses (EMPs) are usually associated with warfare. The idea is to use a blast of energy to fry the enemy’s computers and telecommunications gear. One common way proposed to do this is with an atomic bomb. In a less extreme fashion, however, EMPs have peaceful uses. They are already employed industrially to shape soft and light metals, such as aluminium and copper. Now a group of researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology in Chemnitz, Germany, has found a way to use an EMP device to shape and punch holes through industry’s metallic heavyweight—steel. This could transform manufacturing by doing away with the need to use large, heavy presses to make goods ranging from cars to washing machines.

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Analyst: Apple Tablet 'In Full Production'

Photo: Tablets on display last week at the Consumer Electronics Show. (Credit: Brooke Crothers)

From CNET:

An analyst at AVI Securities said Friday morning that the Apple tablet is "in full production" and a research note stated that Apple "NAND" flash chip requirements may be increasing because of the tablet.

The Apple tablet information comes from "a maker of components going into the Apple tablet," according to analyst Matt Thornton. "It's been in the supply chain for a while and entered full production this month. A couple of suppliers actually had weaker Decembers than they would have expected because production was pushed back a little bit," he said in an interview.

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Neural Thermostat Keeps Brain Running Efficiently

A 'neuronal thermostat' keeps our energy-hungry brains operating reliably and efficiently while processing a flood of sensory information, new research has found. (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Jan. 15, 2010) — Our energy-hungry brains operate reliably and efficiently while processing a flood of sensory information, thanks to a sort of neuronal thermostat that regulates activity in the visual cortex, Yale researchers have found.

The actions of inhibitory neurons allow the brain to save energy by suppressing non-essential visual stimuli and processing only key information, according to research published in the January 13 issue of the journal Neuron.

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Lost Sleep Can't Be Made Up, Study Suggests

From Live Science:

If you think staying in bed on the weekends will make up for a weeks' worth of sleep deprivation, think again. A new study finds that going long periods without sleep can lead to a sort of "sleep debt" that cannot simply be undone with a little extra snoozing from time to time.

The study involved a small number of participants, however, so further research would be needed to verify the results.

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Space Station Needs 'Extension To 2020'

Europe's Columbus science module was attached to the ISS in 2008

From The BBC:

Europe wants a decision in 2010 on an extension to the life of the International Space Station (ISS).

At the moment, no programme for its use nor any funding has been put in place to support the platform beyond 2015.

But the European Space Agency's (Esa) Director General, Jean-Jacques Dordain, told the BBC the uncertainty was undermining best use of the ISS.

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Longest Solar Eclipse For 1,000 Years Turns Sun Into A Blazing Ring Of Fire

The skies over Hongdao, China, where the spectacular 'ring of fire' could be seen. The eclipse was annular, meaning the Moon blocked most of the Sun's middle

From The Daily Mail:

Millions of people were plunged into darkness today as the longest solar eclipse for 1,000 years turned the Sun into a blazing ring of fire.

Such a spectacle will not be seen again until December 23rd, 3043.

Unlike eclipses which block out the Sun entirely this one was annular meaning the Moon blocked most of the Sun's middle, but not its edges, causing it to look like a circular band of light.

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U.S. Military Terminates Several Robotic Warriors

MULE Gone to the robot junkyard in the sky Lockheed Martin

From Popular Science:

Budget cuts focus attention on smaller, more flexible drones and bots.

Judgment Day has come for the machines, or at least two robotic warriors once slated for the U.S. military's arsenal. The budget cut casualties include a mine-sniffing, six-wheeled transport called the MULE, and an autonomous helicopter called the Fire Scout, according to The Hill.

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Tiny Wasps 'Could Work Better Than Pesticides'

Nasonia wasp: The wasps, which all fall in the Nasonia genus,
also offer promise for genetic research. Photo: DPA

From The Telegraph:

Tiny parasitic wasps could be used as pesticides to protect crops after researchers carried out the most detailed ever study of the creatures.

A group of scientists who sequenced the genomes of three parasitic wasp species say their work has revealed that the tiny insects have features useful for both pest control and medicine, and could even improve understanding of genetics and evolution.

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Did A Thirst For Beer Spark Civilization?

Patrick McGovern in his laboratory, examining and "sniffing" out a 3,000-year-old millet wine, which was preserved inside a tightly lidded bronze vessel from an elite tomb at the Shang Dynasty capital of Anyang in China. Photograph courtesy of P. Kosty, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

From The Independent:

Drunkenness, hangovers, and debauchery tend to come to mind when one thinks about alcohol and its effects. But could alcohol also have been a catalyst for human civilization?

According to archaeologist Patrick McGovern this may have been the case when early man decided to start farming. Why humans turned from hunting and gathering to agriculture could be the result of our ancestors’ simple urge for alcoholic beverages.

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E-Readers: The Compatibility Conundrum

Just as iPods replaced your record collection with a click wheel and a pair of white headphones, e-readers now want to digitize your bookcase. The problem is: they all want to do it in different ways. Rich Clabaugh/Staff

From The Christian Science Monitor:

With the Kindle, Nook, a raft of new e-readers comes an issue well known to early adopters: what’s next?

At this month’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the biggest tech convention of the year, attendants found a trove of e-reader devices.

Just as iPods replaced your record collection with a click wheel and a pair of white headphones, the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, and untold others now want to digitize your bookcase.

However, they all want to do it in different ways.

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Google, China And A Wake-Up Call To Protect The Net

Action is needed at the global level to ensure that cyberspace doesn't slip
into a new dark age. AFP/Getty Images

From The Globe And Mail:

Action is needed at the global level to ensure that cyberspace doesn't slip into a new dark age

Google's announcement that it had been hit by cyberattacks from China and that it's reconsidering its services in that country has smacked the world like a thunderclap: Why the drastic move? How will China respond? Will other companies with interests in China, such as Microsoft and Yahoo, follow suit? What does it mean for the future of cyberspace?

Some may be puzzled. How does Google's decision to end censored search services in China relate to the attacks on its infrastructure, the theft of intellectual property and access to private e-mail accounts? Well, there are connections. Censorship, surveillance and information warfare are part of an emerging storm in cyberspace in which countries, corporations and individuals are vying for control.

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My Comment: According to TNR, Google's actions may not be that altruistic .... Gathering Clouds: Google’s reasons for leaving China aren’t as pure as they seem.