US Launches Agency To Monitor Evereyone

Army Biometrics U.S. Army Staff Sgts. Jerrod McClure, foreground, and Aaron McFarland, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, input Iraqi's data into a biometrics system Dec. 15, 2008, in Nimrud, Iraq, as part of the application process for Iraqis applying to work on a road repair project in the city. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. JoAnn S. Makinano

U.S. Government Launches Official Agency to Manage Biometric Database -- Popular Science

All hail BIMA, the new U.S. biometrics agency.

Collecting fingerprints and other biometric data has long allowed law enforcement and the military alike to track down wanted individuals, solve cases, or just keep tabs on people. Now what was a U.S. government task force under the U.S. Army has officially become a full-scale national security agency in charge of biometrics, according to the Secrecy News blog run by the Federation of American Scientists.

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Picking Our Brains: Can Ee Regenerate The Brain?

The nervous system has 10,000 different types of neuron (Image: Jean Livet)

From New Scientist:

YOU were born with all the brain cells you'll ever have, so the saying goes.

So much for sayings. In the 1990s, decades of dogma were overturned by the discovery that mammals, including people, make new neurons throughout their lives. In humans, such "neurogenesis" has been seen in two places: neurons formed in the olfactory bulb seem to be involved in learning new smells, while those born in the hippocampus are involved in learning and memory.

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Bats Could Inspire New Radar Systems

Bats emit high-pitched sounds to locate obstacles and prey as they fly Photo: CORBIS

From The Telegraph:

Bats which have evolved to avoid having their echo signals blocked by interference could help scientists develop more efficient sonar and radar systems.

Bats emit high-pitched sounds to locate obstacles and prey as they fly, but when travelling in packs there is a risk the noises might overlap and interfere.

A similar problem arises when a bat chases a moth through thick foliage. Signals bouncing off the leaves can overlap and set up interference.

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Could Toads Be Used To Warn Humans Of Impending Natural Disasters?

Man's best friend? Scientists believe toads have a sixth sense

From The Daily Mail:

The toad has long been a favourite magical companion of witches and wizards. Now it seems that the humble amphibians may have picked up some magical skills of their own.

Scientists have discovered that common toads have a sixth sense about natural disasters - and can predict when an earthquake is about to strike.

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Better Military Technology Does Not Lead to Shorter Wars, Analysis Reveals

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 31, 2010) — It is generally assumed that military technology that is offensive rather than defensive in nature leads to shorter wars. Yet, a new doctoral thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, shows that this assumption is not correct.

For long, researchers have thought that offensive military technology, such as armoured cars and attack jets, makes it easier to shorten the duration of a war. It is also generally perceived that when the offensive technology is more effective than the defensive technology, it is more advantageous to start a war.

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Which States Pay Highest Gas Prices

(Click Image To Enlarge)
Gas Prices as a percent of income varies by state. See how each state fares. Credit: Karl Tate/LiveScience

From Live Science:

Everyone grumbles when prices at the pump rise, but some drivers pay more depending on where they live. A new study shows how gas price spikes hurt the wallets of drivers in some states more than in others.

On average, Mississippi drivers spent more than 6 percent of their annual income on gas in 2009, compared to drivers in Connecticut and New York who spent just 2.5 percent of their income on gas. But a price spike similar to the one in July 2008 would have worsened the imbalance — Mississippi drivers would have seen driving costs shoot up to 11 percent as opposed to just 4.3 percent for Connecticut and New York. [See gas prices in your state.]

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Undersea Search Resumes For France Flight 447

From Discovery News:

On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 disappeared in turbulent weather en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. For the remainder of the summer, two major efforts were launched by search and rescue crews to find the remains of the plane and the 228 people who had been on board, with great hopes of also finding the two data recorders. So far, 51 bodies and 1,000 pieces of wreckage have been found, but not the data recorders, which only emit signals for 30 days.

Finding the so-called black boxes is key to understanding what happened to the airplane.

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Can Common Herbs Extend Your Life?

From ABC News:

Cinnamon and Ginseng Stretch Life of a Worm; Will They Stretch Yours?

Most Americans have used herbal drugs during the past year, even though in nearly all cases there is no clear scientific evidence that they work. Now, an international team of scientists has found a way to collect that evidence, and even determine which components of very complex compounds are doing the work, and which aren't.

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Greenpeace Issues Warning About Data Centre Power

From The BBC:

Greenpeace is calling on technology giants like Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook to power their data centres with renewable energy sources.

Their electricity often comes from utility companies which generate power from burning coal, says the group.

Greenpeace estimates that data centres will use 1,963 billion kilowatt hours of electricity by 2020.

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Mobile Nuclear Reactors Could Provide Power And Jet Fuel For Military, DARPA Says

Navy Aircraft Could nuclear-powered carriers use their reactors and seawater to provide jet fuel for their aircraft? U.S. Navy/Stephen Rowe

From Popular Science:

Making U.S. Navy carrier groups and Army bases more self-sufficient and energy-efficient could mean turning to mobile nuclear reactors. The Pentagon's DARPA scientists have put forth the modest proposal of deploying miniature reactors to convert hydrogen and carbon into military jet fuel, as well as providing power, The Register reports.

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Oceanology: Tethered Antenna Keeps Subs In Touch

There's a sub below (Image: Brooke Ocean Technology)

From New Scientist:

ROBOTIC submarines have always had trouble when it comes to picking up GPS signals and communicating with their operators. That's because radio signals do not travel far underwater. If the submarines do not surface regularly in order to check their position, they run the risk of drifting off-course.

This problem could now be solved, thanks to a wing-like antenna that piggybacks on small submarines. The antenna ascends to the surface on a tether as and when needed, enabling satellite communications, including GPS readings. It can even carry a camera to serve as a kind of periscope for the sub's controller.

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My Comment: The interesting line in this report is the last one ....

.... the US navy is interested in using autonomous submarines to watch for seaborne attacks ....

Nasa Astronaut Gets Ready For Blast-Off

From The Telegraph:

Technicians at a space centre in Kazakhstan have hoisted a rocket on to its launch pad ahead of Friday's blast-off.

A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts will be inside and will travel to the International Space Station.

NASA's Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko are to blast off at 10.04am (0404 GMT) Friday for their six-month mission in the orbiting science lab.

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The Male Brain: More Complex Than You Think

Coneyl Jay / Corbis

From Time Magazine:

Despite all that old talk about Mars and Venus, men and women are much more biologically alike than not. But differences in the way our brains are built shed light on everything from the way we flirt to the way we fight to how we raise our boys, says neuropsychiatrist Dr. Louann Brizendine in her provocative new book, The Male Brain. The author talked to TIME about sex, the daddy brain and why some men may be built to cheat.

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Orca The Dolphin Killer

The six-ton hunter chased the female dolphin through the waves before slamming into her, flipping her 30 feet into the air

From The Daily Mail:

This is the shocking moment a killer whale leapt from the sea to kill an exhausted dolphin.

The six-ton hunter had chased the female dolphin through the waves before swimming up under her and slamming into her, flipping her 30 feet into the air and breaking her back.

The dolphin died almost instantly and the killer whale, or orca, and the rest of its pod then closed in to devour her and her helpless youngster, turning the sea red.

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Spammers Turn To Social Networks

Photo: Fake friends: This screenshot shows real users who befriended a bogus Facebook user created by George Petre and colleagues. Credit: BitDefender

From Technology Review:

They get results by exploiting a social network's trusting environment.

As users have flocked to social networks, so, inevitably, have spammers. And according to a recent experiment, users are much more receptive to spam sent via a social network than over e-mail.

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Scientists Reverse Alzheimer's-Like Memory Loss in Fruit Flies

In a new study, neuroscientists succeeded in preventing memory loss in fruit flies caused by brain plaques similar to those thought to cause Alzheimer's disease in humans (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 30, 2010) — By blocking the cellular signaling activity of a protein, a team of neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has prevented memory loss in fruit flies caused by brain plaques similar to those thought to cause Alzheimer's disease in humans. The study also resolves a long-standing controversy about the role of this protein, PI3 kinase, which was previously thought to have a protective function against the disease.

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Bees See Color 3 Times Faster Than Humans

Bees have surprisingly fast color vision, about 3 to 4 times faster than that of humans depending on how it's measured, a new study finds. Credit: dreamstime

From Live Science:

Bees see color at about triple the speed that humans do, a new study finds.

The findings are the first to measure bumblebee color vision speed and show how it compares with that of monochromatic vision, or the "black-and-white" vision used to track motion.

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Jupiter's Red Spot Has Warm Core

Bottom: Infrared picture of the Red Spot taken by VLT in Chile on 18 May 2008. Top: Visible-light image, which was obtained by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on 15 May 2008. These images show the interaction of three of Jupiter's largest storms — the Great Red Spot and two smaller storms nicknamed Oval BA and Little Red Spot. Credit: ESO/NASA/JPL/ESA/L. Fletcher

From Cosmos:

SYDNEY: Jupiter's Great Red Spot is "extremely complicated", with a core that is warmer and spins in the opposite direction, scientists have found.

The Great Red Spot (GRS) is a storm three times the size of Earth, which spins mostly counter clockwise. It has persisted since at least 1831, and is the most recognisable feature on the striped planet.

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10 Questions The LHC May Answer

From Discovery News:

It's been just over a year since the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, suffered a serious malfunction that shut it down only nine days after going online. But as of this weekend, the LHC is back up and running.

Scientists will use the collider to recreate conditions following the Big Bang, by accelerating beams of subatomic particles (protons and lead ions, called hadrons) around a massive underground racetrack.

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'Allergic' to Electronics: Man Sues Neighbor Over Gadget Use

From ABC:

Santa Fe Man Said He Has 'Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity'.

No TV. No computer. No cell phone. Electronically speaking, he said, his home is more 1980 than 2010.

The Santa Fe man, 59, said, intellectually, he has no problem with technology. It's just that, physically, he can barely tolerate it, he said.

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