Climate Change Could Be Accelerated By 'Methane Time Bomb'

From The Telegraph:

Climate change could be accelerated dramatically by rising levels of methane in the Earth’s atmosphere, scientists will warn today.

Atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gas, which is as much as 60 times more potent than carbon dioxide, appear to have risen significantly for the past three years running, scientists say.

Experts have long feared that vast amounts of the natural gas trapped in the frozen tundra of the Arctic could be unlocked as the permafrost is melted by rising temperatures, triggering a "methane time bomb" that could cause temperatures to soar.

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Stopping Stealthy Downloads

From Technology Review:

A new tool blocks files that try to install without alerting the user.

Researchers at SRI International and Georgia Tech are preparing to release a free tool to stop "drive-by" downloads: Internet attacks in which the mere act of visiting a Web site results in the surreptitious installation of malicious software. The new tool, called BLADE (Block All Drive-By Download Exploits), stops downloads that are initiated without the user's consent.

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An Astronaut Peeks Out from the Space Station's Lovely New 360-Degree Window

Cupola View: Why is this man smiling? Oh right NASA

From Popular Science:

Space shuttle Endeavour has landed safely after installing a new observation deck on the International Space Station. But the Endeavour astronauts didn't leave without first checking out the new view from the cupola window.

Here we get a view of George Zamka, NASA astronaut and STS-130 commander, peeking out from the newly-installed cupola on February 19 while the space shuttle remained docked with the space station. ISS resident Soichi Noguchi has already made good use of the cupola to take pretty Earth Twitpics with his 800mm lens camera.

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Fewer Cyclones, But More Violent

Rainfall could increase by 20 percent around the eye of intense storms, according to a recent study. Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, GSFC, NASA

From Discovery News:

Study calls for increased knowledge of the more extreme yet least understood aspects of climate change.

* Cyclones are known in the Atlantic as hurricanes and in eastern Asia as typhoons.
* Tropical storms are driven by warm seas, which maybe more common as temperatures rise.
* Storms could produce more powerful winds by an increase of between 2 percent and 11 percent.

Tropical cyclones may become less frequent this century but pack a stronger punch as a result of global warming, according to a new paper.

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Olympic timing a high-tech affair

From CNET:

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--Less than a century ago, the timing of downhill skiing required someone at the top and bottom of the run, each with a stopwatch synchronized to the time of day.

Every few skiers, the timer at the top would send down a piece of paper with the start times of the last few skiers and then some math would ensue, eventually resulting in the time of the run being calculated.

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The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough?

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The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough? -- CBS News

60 Minutes: First Customers Says Energy Machine Works And Saves Money.

(CBS) In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source that's inexpensive and clean, with no emissions. Well over 100 start-ups in Silicon Valley are working on it, and one of them, Bloom Energy, is about to make public its invention: a little power plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard.

You'll generate your own electricity with the box and it'll be wireless. The idea is to one day replace the big power plants and transmission line grid, the way the laptop moved in on the desktop and cell phones supplanted landlines.

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Back To The Drawing Board With Missile-Beating Laser

The Airborne Laser just can’t deliver a beam with enough power
(Image: Jim Shryne/USAF)

From New Scientist:

A laser-toting Boeing 747 blasted two missilesMovie Camera out of the sky earlier this month, but despite this apparent success the Pentagon is going back to the drawing board in its search for an anti-missile laser weapon.

The ABL's problem is that it can't deliver enough power over enough distance to be genuinely useful, so the culmination of a project begun in 1996 and costing an estimated $5 billion will be to downgrade the ABL to a "testbed". It will be handed over by the Missile Defense Agency to the US air force for general research use.

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Uncovering Secrets Of The Sphinx

Carved in place from limestone, the Sphinx is among the world's largest statues.
Sandro Vannini / Corbis

From the Smithsonian:

After decades of research, American archaeologist Mark Lehner has some answers about the mysteries of the Egyptian colossus

When Mark Lehner was a teenager in the late 1960s, his parents introduced him to the writings of the famed clairvoyant Edgar Cayce. During one of his trances, Cayce, who died in 1945, saw that refugees from the lost city of Atlantis buried their secrets in a hall of records under the Sphinx and that the hall would be discovered before the end of the 20th century.

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Pinch Away The Pain: Scorpion Venom Could Be An Alternative To Morphine

Researchers are investigating new ways for developing a novel painkiller based on natural compounds found in the venom of scorpions. (Credit: iStockphoto/John Bell)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 21, 2010) — Scorpion venom is notoriously poisonous -- but it might be used as an alternative to dangerous and addictive painkillers like morphine, a Tel Aviv University researcher claims.

Prof. Michael Gurevitz of Tel Aviv University's Department of Plant Sciences is investigating new ways for developing a novel painkiller based on natural compounds found in the venom of scorpions. These compounds have gone through millions of years of evolution and some show high efficacy and specificity for certain components of the body with no side effects, he says.

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Ancient Wall Possibly Built by King Solomon

Dr. Eilat Mazar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist, points to the tenth century B.C.E. excavations that were uncovered under her direction in the Ophel area adjacent to the Old City of Jerusalem. Credit: Sasson Tiram, Hebrew University.

From Live Science:

A section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. (between 1000 BC and 901 BC), possibly built by King Solomon, has been revealed in archaeological excavations.

The section of wall, about 230 feet long (70 meters) and 19 feet (6 meters) high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

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Aids: Is The End In Sight?

From The Independent:

Mass prescription of anti-retroviral drugs could eradicate the disease within 40 years, scientist says.

Testing everyone at risk of HIV and treating them with anti-retroviral drugs could eradicate the global epidemic within 40 years, according to the scientist at the centre of a radical new approach to fighting Aids.

An aggressive programme of prescribing anti-retroviral treatment (ART) to every person infected with HIV could stop all new infections in five years and eventually wipe out the epidemic, said Brian Williams of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis.

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U.S. Pinpoints Code Writer Behind Google Attack: Report

A bird flies over Google China headquarters building next to a Chinese national flag in Beijing in this January 14, 2010 file photo. Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee

From Reuters:

BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. government analysts believe a Chinese man with government links wrote the key part of a spyware programme used in hacker attacks on Google last year, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

The man, a security consultant in his 30s, posted sections of the programme to a hacking forum where he described it as something he was "working on," the paper said, quoting an unidentified researcher working for the U.S. government.

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On Thick Ice: Live From An Antarctic Drilling Trip

Integrated Oceans Drilling Program Operations Superintendent Ron Grout on deck with icebergs in the background. (Photograph by Etienne Claassen, IODP/TAMU)

From Popular Mechanics:

PM's far-flung geological correspondent, Trevor Williams, of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, reports from the scientific research ship JOIDES Resolution. Part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, the Wilkes Land expedition has been drilling deep into the ocean floor around Antarctica to learn how the ice sheet reacted in warmer climates of the past, which will help scientists predict how it will respond to future warming.

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Retreating Glaciers May Boost Dust Storms

A massive dust storm streaming from northern Africa across the
Atlantic Ocean in February 2006. Credit: SeaWiFS/NASA

From Cosmos:

SAN DIEGO: The retreat of glaciers and the loss of moisture from soil due to climate change will likely increase the number of large-scale dust storms, such as those that blanketed Sydney in 2009, scientists predict.

“Every year, hundreds of millions of tonnes of African dust are carried westward across the Atlantic to South America, the Caribbean and to the North America,” as well as across the Mediterranean and the Middle East, said Joseph Prospero, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Miami.

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Climate Scientists Withdraw Journal Claims Of Rising Sea Levels

The Maldives could be hard hit by rising sea levels. Photograph: Reuters

From The Guardian:

Study claimed in 2009 that sea levels would rise by up to 82cm by the end of century – but the report's author now says true estimate is still unknown.

Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.

The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century.

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New Role For Robot Warriors

From ABC News:

Drones Are Just Part of Bid to Automate Combat.

Science fiction sometimes depicts robot soldiers as killing machines without conscience or remorse. But at least one robotics expert today says that someday machines may make the best and most humane decisions on the battlefield.

Guided by virtual emotions, robots could not only make better decisions about their own actions but also act as ethical advisers to human soldiers or even as observers who report back on the battlefield conduct of humans and whether they followed international law.

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My Comment: Another interesting article on the evolving role of unmanned weapons platforms.

High-Tech Armor Protects Olympic Skiers, Why Not Lugers?

From ABC News:

Protective Suits Feature Orange Goo That Instantly Hardens Upon Impact.

The Olympic alpine skiing course has seen its share of wipeouts the last couple of weeks.

But crashing U.S. and Canadian skiers have been well protected by a neon orange goo.

Made by the British firm d3o and adapted by U.S. ski wear designer Spyder for the U.S. and Canadian ski teams, the material is soft and flexible under most conditions, but instantly hardens when a skier hits a gate.

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Sex Hormone Progesterone To Get Head Injury Trial

From The BBC:

Natural progesterone, the sex hormone used in the first contraceptive pills, is to be tested on patients with severe head injuries.

Scientists will begin a phase III clinical trial in March and say the drug could save patients' lives and reduce damage to their brains.

They announced the trial at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

It will involve 1,000 patients in 17 trauma centres across the US.

Dr David Wright, associate professor of emergency medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, will lead the trial.

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Warmer Planet Temperatures Could Cause Longer-Lasting Weather Patterns

Tony Lupo, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Missouri, is studying atmospheric blocking and how this weather pattern could be increasing due to global warming. (Credit: University of Missouri)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 21, 2010) — Whether it's never-ending heat waves or winter storms, atmospheric blocking can have a significant impact on local agriculture, business and the environment. Although these stagnant weather patterns are often difficult to predict, University of Missouri researchers are now studying whether increasing planet temperatures and carbon dioxide levels could lead to atmospheric blocking and when this blocking might occur, leading to more accurate forecasts.

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'The Biggest Loser' Has Big Problems, Health Experts Say

A biggest loser contestant during a weigh-in, which helps determine who stays and
who is booted off the show. Credit: NBC

From Live Science:

NBC's "The Biggest Loser" is all about records. In the past seasons, the weight-loss reality show has repeatedly set new benchmarks for heaviest contestant (454, 476 and 526 pounds), fastest 100-pound weight loss (seven weeks), and most weight lost in one week (34 pounds).

The show, which takes obese Americans and pits them against each other in a battle to lose the most weight and win $250,000, thrives on extreme numbers. But physicians and nutritionists worry the show's focus on competitive weight loss is, at best, counterproductive and, at worst, dangerous.

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