Geographers Help Map Devastation in Haiti

Screenshot of MCEER's Virtual Disaster Viewer.
(Credit: MCEER, State University of New York at Buffalo)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 11, 2010) — In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, University at Buffalo geography students are participating in a global effort to enhance the international response and recovery effort by helping to assess damage, using images hosted by Google Earth and the Virtual Disaster Viewer, which shares imagery of disasters from various sources.

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Diamonds Are A Girl's Toughest Friend

This time-integrated photograph shows the high-powered laser shot at the diamond target (center), which is surrounded by several instruments. The bright white light is plasma. At just over 1 million atmospheres of pressure the diamond failed. Credit: Eugene Kowaluk/LLE

From Live Science:

We've all heard that diamonds can cut through glass, but now scientists have found Earth's hardest solid can withstand pressures just over a million atmospheres before getting crushed.

For comparison, the pressure at the center of Earth is about 3.5 million atmospheres, according to the researchers. One atmosphere is the natural pressure of air at sea-level. And the human body can withstand about 27 atmospheres, if it's applied gradually, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Successful Airborne Laser Test Reported. Is This Program Combat Ready?

The Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) takes flight. (Source: U.S. Air Force)

U.S. Successfully Tests Airborne Laser On Missile -- Yahoo News/Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. high-powered airborne laser weapon shot down a ballistic missile in the first successful test of a futuristic directed energy weapon, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said on Friday.

The agency said in a statement the test took place at 8:44 p.m. PST (11:44 p.m. EST) on Thursday /0444 GMT on Friday) at Point Mugu's Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range off Ventura in central California.

"The Missile Defense Agency demonstrated the potential use of directed energy to defend against ballistic missiles when the Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) successfully destroyed a boosting ballistic missile" the agency said.

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More News On Yesterday's Successful Laser Test

U.S. Airborne Laser Eliminates Target Missile -- Global Security Newswire
U.S. Air Force's Laser Air Armada Nears Combat Readiness -- Daily Tech
Laser Jet Blasts Ballistic Missile in Landmark Test -- Danger Room
Two Northrop Grumman Laser Systems Help Airborne Laser Testbed Turn Science Fiction Into Fact -- CNN
Boeing 747 destroys ballistic missile with laser (update: photos!) -- Engadget
Boeing Airborne Laser Testbed team destroys boosting ballistic missile -- Shephard
Airborne Laser Testbed Successful -- Digital Silence
Boeing Airborne Laser Testbed Team Destroys Boosting Ballistic Missile -- Product Design And Development
US airborne laser destroys test missile -- KRQE.com

Shuttle Astronauts Add The ISS’s Last Major Piece

From Discover Magazine:

The International Space Station is almost done. Astronauts on board the current space shuttle Endeavour completed the first of three spacewalks to install the last major component of the ISS: the Tranquility module. Its huge windows will offer ISS residents 360-degree view of space, the station, and our home world.

The U.S. Tranquility module — shaped like a soda can — is the last major American addition to the station, now 98% complete. Its placement completes 11 years of U.S. construction work on the outpost, which the United States has spent more than $50 billion building [USA Today]. An Italian team designed the module’s magnificent dome, which measures 10 feet in diameter. Seven windows provide the panoramic view.

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Analysis: Chocolate May Reduce Stroke Risk

From USA Today:

Just in time for Valentine's Day, research out this week suggests eating chocolate may have a positive impact on stroke. Don't go buying too many heart boxes just yet, though, say the study authors.

A new analysis, which involved a review of three prior studies, suggests eating about a bar of chocolate a week can help cut the risk of stroke and lower the risk of death after a stroke. But the evidence is still limited, says study author, neurologist Gustavo Saposnik at St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto.

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Sweden Beats U.S. To Top Tech Usage Ranking

A Web-user views the global networking site called Xing in Stockholm, November 20, 2008.
REUTERS/Bob Strong/Files

From Yahoo News/Reuters:

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Sweden took the number one spot from the United States to top the annual rankings on the usage of telecommunications technologies such as networks, cellphones and computers, a report released on Thursday shows.

The Connectivity Scorecard, created by London Business School professor Leonard Waverman in 2008, measured 50 countries on dozens of indicators, including technological skills and usage of communications technology.

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Cyber Warriors

From The Atlantic:

When will China emerge as a military threat to the U.S.? In most respects the answer is: not anytime soon—China doesn’t even contemplate a time it might challenge America directly. But one significant threat already exists: cyberwar. Attacks—not just from China but from Russia and elsewhere—on America’s electronic networks cost millions of dollars and could in the extreme cause the collapse of financial life, the halt of most manufacturing systems, and the evaporation of all the data and knowledge stored on the Internet.

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My Comment: I was captivated immediately when I started to read this article .... my background is also in internet security (or finding the weak spots in a network), and I have been going to China since the mid 1980s.

Bottom line .... I completely concur with the observations and conclusions from this author. I could have written the same piece .... but kudos to James Fallows .... he is a better writer than I am.

Facebook And Twitter Compete For Olympic Glory

From New York Times:

Each Olympics brings one or two novel new events. At the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, which start in Vancouver on Friday, there is Ski Cross, in which four skiers plunge down a mountain at the same time.

Then there is an unofficial competition that we’ll call the Social Media Slalom.

That is the race between the Web’s two pre-eminent social media companies, Facebook and Twitter, to establish themselves as the most visible and viable online option for fans that want to connect directly to athletes and get the latest updates from the competition without the filter of big media.

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Evolution On The March

From Philadelphia Inquirer:

New DNA findings show that human genetic mutations are more recent, more rapid than once thought.

Conventional wisdom holds that if you could bring back someone from 40,000 years ago, he or she would blend perfectly well with today's population.

After all, the fossils show that our ancestors were "anatomically modern" by 100,000 years ago, and by 40,000 B.C., they were creating complex tools and art.

It was easy to assume our species hadn't evolved much since then.

Now molecular biology is overturning that assumption.

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YouTube Adding Parental Controls

Watch CBS News Videos Online

From CBS News:

Giving Them Say Over What Kids See; Responding to Criticism that Kids Were Accessing Too Many Inappropriate Videos.

CBS) YouTube has coming under fire from parents who think some of the content on the popular Web site is unsuitable for their kids.

So, CBS News correspondent Kelly Wallace reports exclusively, starting today, YouTube is adding parental controls, enabling parents to block kids from viewing many videos.

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Home Computers Around The World Unite To Map The Milky Way

In the constellation Ophiucus resides NGC 6384, a spiral galaxy with a central bar structure and a possible central ring. Because NGC 6384 is nearly in line with the plane of our galaxy, all the stars in the image are foreground stars in our Milky Way. (Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 11, 2010) — At this very moment, tens of thousands of home computers around the world are quietly working together to solve the largest and most basic mysteries of our galaxy.

Enthusiastic and inquisitive volunteers from Africa to Australia are donating the computing power of everything from decade-old desktops to sleek new netbooks to help computer scientists and astronomers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute map the shape of our Milky Way galaxy. Now, just this month, the collected computing power of these humble home computers has surpassed one petaflop, a computing speed that surpasses the world's second fastest supercomputer.

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Scientists Freeze Water With Heat

From Live Science:

Imagine water freezing solid even as it's heating up. Such are the bizarre tricks scientists now find water is capable of.

Popular belief contends that water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). Surprisingly, if water lies in a smooth bottle and is free of any dust, it can stay liquid down to minus 40 degrees F (minus 40 degrees C) in what's called "supercooled" form. The dust and rough surfaces that water is normally found in contact with in nature can serve as the kernels around which ice crystals form.

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Yahoo Says, Don’t Count Us Out On Search

From Epicenter:

Yahoo is fighting to retain its reputation as a tech leader, after years of being adrift halfway between being a media company and a tech company, and having recently laid off engineers, sold off products and decided to outsource its search backend to Microsoft.

But Yahoo called a roomful of tech reporters to its headquarters in Sunnyvale to say that it’s still fighting.

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Nobel Foundation: Why We Said No To Reform -- A Commentary

The Nobel Foundation responds to New Scientist's call for change
(Image: Oliver Morin/AFP/Getty Images)

From The New Scientist:

LAST year, a group of 10 scientists brought together by New Scientist wrote an open letter to the Nobel Foundation calling for an overhaul of the Nobel prizes. The group suggested that to keep the Nobels relevant, the foundation should introduce prizes for the environment and public health, and open them to institutions as well as individuals. It also suggested reforming the existing physiology or medicine prize to recognise contributions from across the life sciences, especially neuroscience and genetics.

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Boeing's Biggest Bird Takes To The Skies

(Photograph by Jeremy Lindgren)

From Popular Mechanics:

The largest commercial aircraft ever built in the United States, the Boeing 747-8, took off on its maiden flight Monday afternoon, marking an important step forward for the manufacturer's iconic—but aging—747 family of airliners. After lifting off from Boeing's factory at Paine Field in Everett, Wash., Boeing Flight 501 Heavy flew loops around northwestern Washington for a few hours of tests before returning to Everett.

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Are Robot Scientists The Future Of Laboratory Research?

Eve, at Work in the Lab Automated Experimentation

From Popular Science:

There was a time when science produced robots, but a paper published recently in the Automated Experimentation Journal suggests that in the future robots will autonomously produce science. It's not just a matter of cheap labor or taking menial tasks off the hands of researchers; the authors argue that science needs to be uniform and formalized, and AI robot scientists could help us get to that point by developing their own hypotheses and carrying out experiments with minimal human input.

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A Menu For Feeding 9 Billion

From New York Times:

Science Magazine has removed the pay wall from “Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People.” The paper concludes, as many have before, that keeping up with humanity’s needs as numbers and appetites crest toward mid-century poses big challenges. But it expresses optimism that a sustained focus on efficiency, technology and policy innovations can do the trick. (The images above, from the paper, show how investments in water storage and other measures helped restore vegetation in a dry region in Niger.) Here’s the summary:

Continuing population and consumption growth will mean that the global demand for food will increase for at least another 40 years. Growing competition for land, water, and energy, in addition to the overexploitation of fisheries, will affect our ability to produce food, as will the urgent requirement to reduce the impact of the food system on the environment. The effects of climate change are a further threat. But the world can produce more food and can ensure that it is used more efficiently and equitably. A multifaceted and linked global strategy is needed to ensure sustainable and equitable food security, different components of which are explored here.

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It's Google's World, We Just Live In It

From Salon:

It's fun to trash the search-monster's Buzz, but there's a method to its social networking smart-phone madness.

Is this what world domination looks like? On Wednesday, Google announced it was building an ultrafast, one-gigabit-per-second broadband network designed to showcase "innovative" Internet applications. On Tuesday, Google launched Google Buzz, integrating social networking functions into Gmail. Last month, Google debuted its Nexus One smart phone.

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Google Takes On The Telecoms

From The Wall Street Journal:

Google's decision to build a gigabit-a-second broadband network serving between 50,000 and 500,000 people predictably won plaudits from the Federal Communications Commission and public interest groups. But if Google truly wants to help speed the development of universal high-speed Internet access, as it says, it will need to do much more.

After all, there isn't a huge technical challenge building a fast network. Verizon Communications already is operating one that runs at 2.5 gigabits a second, offering television, Internet and phone. The maximum Internet speed it offers is 50 megabytes per second, but it easily can turn that up. It is spending $23 billion over several years to roll out the network to pass 18 million homes in largely suburban and urban areas.

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Facebook Bans UK Inmates After Taunts

From CBS News:

Prisoners Were Using the Site to Make Threats and Even Plan Future Crimes.

(AP) The criminals are behind bars but their victims are still feeling their reach - through the Internet.

The British government said Thursday that Facebook had removed the profiles of 30 U.K. inmates at its request after several incidents in which prisoners reportedly used the social networking site to organize crime or taunt others.

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