Wednesday, April 14, 2010
New LOFAR Telescope Network Probes Universe's Low-Frequency Radiation To Look For Oldest Regions And Alien Civilizations
From The Telegraph:
Until recently, radio astronomers have concentrated almost exclusively on the high-energy radiation streaming in towards Earth from exotic stellar bodies like pulsars, quasars, and super-massive black holes. But now, a new European observatory called the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) has begun releasing data on the low-energy radiation that permeates the Universe.
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The Woman Photographer Who Braves Temperatures Of MINUS 20 To Take Stunning Pictures Of Northern Lights
Linda Drake uses a variety of different camera exposure times to photograph the spectacular lightsFrom The Daily Mail:
A photographer has captured some of the most stunning examples of the Northern Lights ever seen.
Travelling each year to Northern Manitoba in Canada to capture the Aurora Borealis, Linda Drake braves temperatures of minus 20 degrees in search of that elusive perfect shot.
Making the pilgrimage to just south of the Arctic Circle, in March each year, the 40-year-old has developed a passion for the heavenly phenomenon.
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'Climategate' Panel Set To Report
From The BBC:The second of three reviews into hacked climate e-mails from the University of East Anglia (UEA) is set to be released later.
It has examined scientific papers published over 20 years by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the heart of the e-mail controversy.
The panel was nominated by the Royal Society, and climate sceptics forecast it would defend establishment science.
But the BBC understands the panel has taken a hard look at CRU methodology.
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Twitter To Have Paid Tweets Show Up In Searches
From ABC News:
Twitter introduces tweets paid for by advertisers, to show up first in search results.
Twitter announced Tuesday that it is introducing advertising by allowing companies to pay to have their messages show up first in searches on its site.
The debut of "Promoted Tweets" comes as Twitter increasingly faces questions about how it can turn its wide usage into profits.
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Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Inexpensive Highly Efficient Solar Cells Possible
Researchers have come up with solutions for two problems that, for the last twenty years, have been hampering the development of efficient and affordable solar cells. (Credit: iStockphoto/Kyu Oh)From Science Daily:
ScienceDaily (Apr. 12, 2010) — Thanks to two technologies developed by Professor Benoît Marsan and his team at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Chemistry Department, the scientific and commercial future of solar cells could be totally transformed. Professor Marsan has come up with solutions for two problems that, for the last twenty years, have been hampering the development of efficient and affordable solar cells.
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One Mystery of Sandstorm Lightning Explained
From Live Science:
Sandstorms can generate spectacular lightning displays, but how they do so is a mystery.
By unlocking the secrets of how sparks come to fly in these storms as researchers are now doing, scientists could help grapple with all kinds of problems, from charged particle clouds that can cause devastating explosions in the food, drug and coal industries to charged dust that could obscure vital solar panels on missions to the moon or Mars.
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Twitter Reveals Business Model
From Technology Review:"Promoted Tweets" will bring ads into the stream of real-time conversation.
At long last, Twitter has announced its business model. The company has grown explosively since its launch in 2007 and there has been intense speculation about how it could make its popular service profitable. The plan is to use an advertising model that it calls "Promoted Tweets."
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The Apollo Hoax Theories
Neil Armstrong/Keystone/Getty ImagesFrom The Independent:
It is 40 years since the drama of the Apollo 13 mission turned an aborted mission to the moon from potential disaster into a celebrated recovery.
But doubts still linger about the moon landings. 9/11 and Kennedy aside, no event in world history has generated quite so many conspiracy theories than the Apollo moon landings. Do they stand up? Here are the best reasons why it couldn’t have happened, and the rebuttals. Of course, you may disagree.
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Meet The New Head Of DARPA
LEADER Regina Dugan of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Michael Temchine for The New York TimesNew Force Behind Agency of Wonder -- New York Times
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is different from other federal agencies. For one thing, the agency, known as Darpa, created the Internet (really). For another, it is probably the only agency ever to offer a $40,000 prize for a balloon hunt, a contest that was inspired by Regina Dugan, a 47-year-old expert in mine detection, who took over last summer as its director.
Dr. Dugan, who has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, is the first woman to be the director of Darpa, and those who know her say she has a knack for inspiring, and indeed insisting on, creative thinking.
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Copyright Violation Alert Ransomware In The Wild
From ZNET:
A currently ongoing ransomware campaign is using a novel approach to extort money from end users whose PCs have been locked down.
By pretending to be the fake ICPP Foundation (icpp-online.com), the ransomware locks down the user’s desktop issuing a “Copyright violation: copyrighted content detected” message, which lists torrent files found on the infected PC, and forces the user to pay $400 for the copyright holder’s fine, emphasizing on the fact that “the maximum penalties can be five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
More details on the campaign:
Can Mozilla Be Bigger Than Facebook?
From CNET:Mozilla has made a name for itself by taking on Microsoft Internet Explorer in the browser market, claiming as much as 30 percent of the global market with its open-source Firefox browser. Mozilla's second act, however, promises to be much more difficult, with increased competition from Microsoft but also from open-source competitors like Google Chrome.
What should Mozilla do next?
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Pluto Joined By Up To 50 More Dwarf Planets
Comparative sizes of four dwarf planets, which may be joined by up to 50 more objects. Credit: Hubble Space TelescopeFrom Cosmos:
SYDNEY: The status of former planet Pluto has taken another blow, with new research suggesting up to 50 known objects may also meet the criteria to be dwarf planets.
To be labelled as a dwarf planet, an object must meet two criteria, as determined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU): they must be 'nearly round' and they must orbit the Sun.
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Does Stress Feed Cancer?
PUSHING IT: Stress is linked indirectly to the immune system's anti-tumor defenses, but it can also affect anoikis--a type of cell death that cancer cells bypass. iStockphotoFrom Scientific American:
A new study shows stress hormones make it easier for malignant tumors to grow and spread.
A little stress can do us good—it pushes us to compete and innovate. But chronic stress can increase the risk of diseases such as depression, heart disease and even cancer. Studies have shown that stress might promote cancer indirectly by weakening the immune system's anti-tumor defense or by encouraging new tumor-feeding blood vessels to form. But a new study published April 12 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation shows that stress hormones, such as adrenaline, can directly support tumor growth and spread.
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Astronauts Take 3rd, Final Spacewalk; Valve Stuck
From ABC News:
Astronauts take 3rd, final spacewalk to finish installing tank; stuck valve threatens cooling.
A pair of spacewalking astronauts finished installing a fresh storage tank outside the International Space Station on Tuesday, but a stuck valve was threatening to jeopardize half of the cooling system.
No sooner had Rick Mastracchio hooked up the fluid valves for the new ammonia tank on the third and final spacewalk of shuttle Discovery's flight, then flight controllers encountered the valve trouble in a separate pressurizing unit.
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40 Yard Dash: Average Dude Vs Pro Athlete
Video from the NFL Combine showing just how fast prospective NFL players can run compared to normal people.
It is almost unbelievable how quickly Jacoby Ford (the top performer in the 40 this year) covers that distance.
Above video from Kottke.org
Hat Tip: Geek Press
Turning Planetary Theory Upside Down: Nine New Exoplanets Found, Some With Retrograde Orbits
Exoplanets, discovered by WASP together with ESO telescopes, that unexpectedly have been found to have retrograde orbits are shown here. In all cases the star is shown to scale, with its rotation axis pointing up and with realistic colours. The exoplanets are shown during the transit of their parent star, just before mid-transit. The last object at the lower right is for comparison and has a “normal” orbital direction. The size of each image is three solar diameters. (Credit: ESO/A. C. Cameron)From Science Daily:
ScienceDaily (Apr. 13, 2010) — The discovery of nine new transiting exoplanets has been announced at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting. When these new results were combined with earlier observations of transiting exoplanets astronomers were surprised to find that six out of a larger sample of 27 were found to be orbiting in the opposite direction to the rotation of their host star -- the exact reverse of what is seen in our own solar system.
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Alzheimer's Self Test Works Surprisingly Well
From Live Science:A newly developed handwritten test designed to assess cognitive abilities in older adults could one day serve as a tool to help detect Alzheimer's disease in its early stages, new research suggests.
While previous pen-and-paper tests have been developed to help identify memory problems, most of them require a doctor to administer it. The new test, on the other hand, is self-administered.
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2010 Forecast As Busy Year For Hurricanes
From USA Today:The Atlantic basin is facing a busier-than-usual hurricane season, in part because of record warm water in the ocean, according to the latest hurricane forecast.
Colorado State University's forecast, released Wednesday, calls for 15 named tropical storms this year in the Atlantic basin, which includes the Carribean and Gulf of Mexico. The team says eight will become hurricanes, with sustained winds reaching 74 mph. Four are expected to be major hurricanes — Categories 3, 4 or 5 — with maximum wind speeds of 111 mph or greater.
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Instead Of "Arms Control", We Have "Cyber Controls"
Photo: Cyber warrior: Vladislav Sherstuyuk, a retired four-star Russian general who leads the Institute of Information Security Issues at Moscow State University, announced a new cyber security research collaboration on Monday. Credit: Veni Markovski Exposing Hackers As A Deterrent -- Technology Review
Two researchers propose a novel form of "arms control" at a conference in Germany.
Cyber attacks can come from governments, terrorists, thieves, or bored high school students. This makes the cyber security equivalent of "arms control" difficult to achieve. But a pair of researchers yesterday proposed methods of deterrence that they believe could work in cyberspace.
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GM Viruses Offer Hope Of Future Where Energy Is Unlimited
Photosynthesis is probably the most critical chemical process on earth. It mostly takes place in tiny structures called chloroplasts found inside the cells of a plant's leaves. AlamyFrom The Independent:
Breakthrough as US researchers replicate photosynthesis in laboratory.
Scientists have made a fundamental breakthrough in their attempts to replicate photosynthesis – the ability of plants to harvest the power of sunlight – in the hope of making unlimited amounts of "green" energy from water and sunlight alone.
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