The Air Force 'Baby Space Shuttle,' Secret And Reusable

From ABC News:

The Air Force’s “baby space shuttle” is ready for launch Thursday night from a launch pad at Cape Canaveral. The X-37B looks like a smaller version of the shuttle, and will be America’s second re-usable spacecraft, except it’ll be run by the military and be piloted by remote control. The 29 foot-long craft is designed to stay in orbit as long as 270 days (9 months) and it carries a secret payload of experiments.

"Secret" is the operative word. The Air Force isn’t saying how long it will be in orbit beyond saying that it won’t be a quick up-and-down test. It won’t describe what experiments will be aboard. They’re also touchy about media descriptions that it’s going to usher in the weaponization of space.

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Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer?

From Discovery News:

There are safety-warning labels on cigarettes and alcohol. Now some groups are advocating that similar cautions be printed on cell phones.

Recently, a bill in the Maine state senate proposed a label warning users, especially children and pregnant women, of the risks of brain cancer from electromagnetic radiation emanating from the device.

But the Maine legislature voted down the bill in March, stating that the scientific evidence does not indicate a public health risk.

Yet, the debate rages on. Can cell phones really cause cancer?

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Maxed out: How Long Could You Survive Without Food Or Drink?

David Blaine went without food for 44 days (Image: Scott Barbour / Getty)

From New Scientist:

How long can a human survive without food or water? In theory, when you finally run out of body fat, protein and carbohydrates, your body runs out of energy and stops functioning. Jeremy Powell-Tuck, a retired clinician who fed David Blaine after his starvation stunt in London in 2003, isn't so sure that this is the lethal point. "You're more likely to die before then," he says. Fat people would only be able to survive for longer if they had enough vital water-soluble B vitamins in their system to help metabolise fat stores. So it is possible that a person could die of starvation and still be fat.

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Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory Returns First Images

SDO sees the Sun's whole disc but can then zoom in to view fine detail

From The BBC:

Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory has provided an astonishing new vista on our turbulent star.

The first public release of images from the satellite record huge explosions and great looping prominences of gas.

The observatory's super-fine resolution is expected to help scientists get a better understanding of what drives solar activity.

Launched in February on an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral, SDO is expected to operate for at least five years.

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NASA's Earth Day Gift Runs On a 56,832-Core, 128-Screen Climate Research Supercomputer

NASA's Advanced Supercomputing Facility at Ames Research Center This ain't NASA's first supercomputer.

From Popular Science:

Earth Week is upon us, and NASA has prepared a very special gift for the blue planet. Dwarfing the iPods that we customarily give each other to celebrate another year of existence, NASA put together NEX, a planetary data-crunching tool that uses a 56,832-core, 128-screen supercomputer to blend global satellite data and sophisticated modeling software with an online collaborative culture aimed at helping scientists work together toward better climate change research.

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'Brain Training' Games Do Not Improve Mental Skills, Study Says

The results contradicted some of the claims of the brain-training industry.

From The Independent:

Brain training games do not work, according to a study into claims that it is possible to "exercise" the brain with computer tests.

A mass experiment involving nearly 11,500 members of the public failed to find any improvement in mental performance after people regularly used brain-training games on their computers for a period of six weeks.

Scientists said that the results contradicted some of the claims of the brain-training industry, which regularly promotes its computer games as a method of improving a person's mental skills through "exercising".

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Global Temperatures Push March 2010 To Hottest March On Record

Temperature anomaly is the difference from average, which gives a more accurate picture of temperature change. In calculating average regional temperatures, factors like station location or elevation affect the data, but those factors are less critical when looking at the difference from the average. (Credit: NOAA/National Climatic Data Center/NESDIS)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 21, 2010) — The world's combined global land and ocean surface temperature made last month the warmest March on record, according to NOAA. Taken separately, average ocean temperatures were the warmest for any March and the global land surface was the fourth warmest for any March on record. Additionally, the planet has seen the fourth warmest January -- March period on record.

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Study: Bomb's Shock Waves May Electrify the Brain

A computer simulation showed how a shock wave from bomb blasts can make skulls generate electric fields. Credit: Karen K. Y. Lee.

From Live Science:

The blast waves from explosions could jolt the skull into generating electricity, potentially damaging the brain, scientists now suggest.

Although the burns and shrapnel wounds that explosions can inflict are their most obvious hazards, perhaps the greatest danger comes from a blast's shock wave. These rapidly generate ripples in a person's innards, potentially causing traumatic brain injuries with deleterious effects ranging from a simple concussion to long-term impaired mental function.

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Lousy DNA Reveals When People First Wore Clothes

From Wired Science:

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexisco — For once lice are nice, at least for scientists investigating the origins of garments.

Using DNA to trace the evolutionary split between head and body lice, researchers conclude that body lice first came on the scene approximately 190,000 years ago. And that shift, the scientists propose, followed soon after people first began wearing clothing.

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Britain Heads Google’s European Censorship List

Google says it decided to make the figures available in the interests of transparency

From Times Online:

The British Government made more requests for content to be removed from Google last year than any other country in Europe, according to figures released by the company today.

Between July and December last year, Google received 1,166 data requests from British government agencies, of which 59 were requests for content to be removed. Google complied with 76.3 per cent of the removal requests.

France made 846 data requests, but fewer than ten removal requests, of which 66.7 per cent were successful.

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School Lunch Helping Make Americans Too Fat To Enlist?

© Richard Hutchings/CORBIS

From Time Magazine:

More than a quarter of all Americans between the ages of 17 to 24 are too overweight to join the military, according to a new report highlighted by the Associated Press. That many Americans are too tubby to meet the basic entry requirements for military service isn't new—in 2008 roughly 12,000 would-be soldiers failed the initial military physical because they were overweight, and last year the Pentagon lamented the fact that, between obesity, medical and physical problems, illegal drug use and other issues, 75% of military-age Americans were ineligible for service.

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Google Map Reveals Britain Is Third In The World For 'Big Brother' Requests About Its Citizens

The Google Government Requests tool shows how many data and censorship demands the search giant receive every six month

From The Daily Mail:

The UK Government has made over 1,000 requests for information about its citizens from Google in the last six months, the internet search giant revealed today.

It came third out of roughly 100 countries where Google operates and was only ranked behind Brazil and the U.S.

The figures came to light as Google launched a new tool that reveals where it faces governmental pressure to censor material and turn over personal information about its users.

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New iPhone Prototype Leaked?

From ABC News:

Technology Web Site Gizmodo Says It Got Its Hands on Lost Next Generation iPhone.

A prototype of the next generation of the iPhone -- scheduled for release this summer -- seems to have been left behind in a Northern California bar. Snapped up by patron who sold it to a tech news site, it has set off a game of corporate intrigue worthy of the Cold War.

Apple, which makes the iPhone, has built its towering technology reputation on secrecy. Last month, BusinessWeek reported that software developers testing the then-unreleased iPad had to promise to keep the device tethered to a fixed object in a room with blacked-out windows, and then send the company a photograph to prove compliance.

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South Korea Developing Underwater Search-and-Rescue Robot Crawlers

Underwater swimmers and crawlers could speed up rescue efforts for incidents such as the recent sinking of a South Korean Navy frigate.

From Popular Science:

South Korea's flock of robotic teachers look and sound goofy, but the nation is deadly serious about its latest project: developing aquatic robots by 2016 which can swim and crawl their way across the seafloor several miles down for search and rescue purposes, according to the Korea Times.

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Obama Consigns Moon Landings To History

Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, 20 July 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission. Aldrin is among those who support the ending of the planned Moon landing programme. NASA/ AP

From The Independent:

President's vision for Nasa rules out return to lunar surface – and divides Apollo astronauts.

Standing near the spot where the US launched its first space missions, Barack Obama attempted to sell his plans for the future of Nasa last night, predicting that his new programme for the space agency will protect thousands of jobs and send astronauts to Mars within his lifetime.

The President told a crowd of 200 people at the Kennedy Space Centre
at Cape Canaveral that he remains committed to space exploration, despite his controversial decision earlier this year to cancel plans for a new mission to the Moon.

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Why Aviation Industry Has Cloudy Knowledge Of Risks From Volcanic Ash

From The Guardian:

Tests for higher-risk flying conditions may have helped in current crisis but manufacturers said no.

That a cloud of volcanic ash can bring European flights to a standstill has raised serious questions over the aviation industry's efforts to understand the risks of flying in such conditions.

Rules laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation prohibit flights through any amount of volcanic ash, but aircraft and engine manufacturers have never fully investigated the effects of flying in ash clouds. What information they have has been gleaned from inspecting planes after they have flown into ash plumes by accident.

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Why Volcanoes Are Dangerous

Ash Cloud Reminds Us That We Should All Be Afraid Of Volcanoes -- The Telegraph

Eyjafjallajökull's giant cloud of ash is a nuisance, but a supervolcano's catastrophic eruption could threaten the fabric of civilisation, says Kate Ravilious.

Every so often the Earth chooses to remind us that we really aren't in control of this planet. The volcanic eruption in Iceland, which began on Wednesday, is just such a reminder. As ash spews out across northern Europe, grounding all flights across Scandinavia and the UK, we begin to realise how powerless we humans are.

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Giant Sequoias Yield Longest Fire History From Tree Rings

This cross-section of a giant sequoia tree shows some of the tree-rings and fire scars. The numbers indicate the year that a particular ring was laid down by the tree. (Credit: Tom Swetnam.)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 21, 2010) — A 3,000-year record from 52 of the world's oldest trees shows that California's western Sierra Nevada was droughty and often fiery from 800 to 1300, according to new research.

Scientists reconstructed the 3,000-year history of fire by dating fire scars on ancient giant sequoia trees, Sequoiadendron giganteum, in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park. Individual giant sequoias can live more than 3,000 years.

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Is 3-D TV Dangerous?

From Live Science:

3-D television looks awesome, but can it be hazardous to your health?

That's what many are wondering now that electronics giant Samsung issued guidelines on its Web site warning consumers of potential health risks associated with the emerging technology.

The warning advises parents to monitor their children as they watch 3-D, and cautions that it could trigger seizures:

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Supercomputers Map Pathogens As They Emerge And Evolve

A screenshot from a Supramap study of avian influenza, with red lines representing the spread of drug-resistant strains and the white lines drug susceptible strains. Credit: Ohio Supercomputing Center

From Cosmos:

BRISBANE: Instead of simply focussing on human infections, infectious disease researchers can now track the complex interactions, movement and evolution of the pathogens themselves using supercomputers.

The researchers are using a new program called Supramap, which operates on the computing systems at Ohio State University and the Ohio Supercomputer Center.

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