Budget Cuts Force CERN To Shut Accelerators For Year

The Linac 2 (Linear Accelerator 2) is pictured at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin near Geneva October 16, 2008. Credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse

From Reuters:

(Reuters) - Europe's particle research center CERN unveiled budget cuts Friday that will force it to temporarily close its accelerators for a year in 2012, but said its flagship "Big Bang" machine will mainly be unaffected.

Announcing the trimmed-down budget, in which governments will provide 135 million Swiss francs ($133.4 million) less over a five-year period to 2015, CERN said its high-profile drive to study the origins of the cosmos would continue as planned.

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It's Good To Think - But Not Too Much, Scientists Say

Image: People who think more about their decisions have more brain cells in their frontal lobes

From The BBC:

People who think more about whether they are right have more cells in an area of the brain known as the frontal lobes.

UK scientists, writing in Science, looked at how brain size varied depending on how much people thought about decisions.

But a nationwide survey recently found that some people think too much about life.

These people have poorer memories, and they may also be depressed.

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AIDS Virus Might Be A Million Years Old

Island-specific strains of the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), which infects monkeys such as the Bioko Drill, revealed the virus has been around thousands of years longer than previously thought. Credit: Preston Marx, Tulane University

From Cosmos:

WASHINGTON: An HIV-like virus that infects monkeys is thousands of years older than previously thought and its slow evolution could have disturbing implications for humans, according to a new study.

Scientists said the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) - the ancestor to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS - is probably between 32,000 and 75,000 years old and may even date back a million years.

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Magical BEANs: New Nano-Sized Particles Could Provide Mega-Sized Data Storage

This schematic shows enthalpy curves sketched for the liquid, crystalline and amorphous phases of a new class of nanomaterials called "BEANs" for Binary Eutectic-Alloy Nanostructures. (Credit: Image courtesy of Daryl Chrzan)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2010) — The ability of phase-change materials to readily and swiftly transition between different phases has made them valuable as a low-power source of non-volatile or "flash" memory and data storage. Now an entire new class of phase-change materials has been discovered by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley that could be applied to phase change random access memory (PCM) technologies and possibly optical data storage as well. The new phase-change materials -- nanocrystal alloys of a metal and semiconductor -- are called "BEANs," for binary eutectic-alloy nanostructures.

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Warming In Deep Southern Ocean Linked To Sea-Level Rise

From Live Science:

Warming waters in the deep ocean surrounding Antarctica has contributed to sea-level rise over the past two decades, scientists report today (Sept. 20).

The study, published in the Journal of Climate, draws on temperature trends between the 1990s and 2000s in the deep Southern Ocean. Though there are no continental boundaries, and all oceans contribute water to the Southern Ocean, its distinct circulation makes the area a separate water body.

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The Worst Part of GoingTo Space? Your Fingernails Come Off

Oh, It Hurts Some astronauts report losing their fingernails on spacewalks because of bulky gloves that cut off circulation and chafe against their hands. To avoid this inconvenience, a couple astronauts have taken to ripping off their own fingernails before reaching orbit. NASA

From Popular Science:

Did you think drinking your own urine was bad? To truly test whether you have the right stuff, imagine ripping out your own fingernails, on purpose.

A couple of astronauts have done this before going into orbit, because they figure it’s better than losing them inside chafing, unwieldy spacesuit gloves, according to Dava Newman, director of MIT’s technology and policy program and director of the university’s Man Vehicle Lab. Newman, who has studied space-related injuries, told a group of journalists at MIT that some astronauts have reported losing their fingernails during spacewalks. Fingernail trauma and other hand injuries are spacewalkers’ biggest complaint, she said.

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British Scientists Invent 'Skylon' Spaceplane That Will Take Tourists Into Orbit At Five Times The Speed Of Sound

The 270ft-long Skylon space plane will be able to take passengers into space at a fraction of the current cost

From The Daily Mail:

A space aircraft that can take off from an ordinary airport runway before carrying tourists into orbit could be a reality with 10 years, according to British scientists.

The 270ft Skylon plane will cost about £700m to build and will be able to carry 24 passengers.

Built by British engineering firm Reaction Engines, the aircraft has no conventional external engines.

Instead the Skylon will travel at five times the speed of sound using two internal engines that suck hydrogen and oxygen from the atmosphere to send it 18 miles above the ground – and out of Earth’s atmosphere.

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What's Eating The Stars Out Of Our Galaxy's Heart?

From The New Scientist:

The centre of the Milky Way is darker than you'd expect – and not just because it's home to a supermassive black hole

A LITTLE over 25,000 light years away lies the most mysterious place in the nearby universe. Jam-packed with colliding stars and cloaked in dust, it is the centre of our galaxy. At its very heart, we suspect, lurks a monstrous black hole more than 4 million times as massive as the sun. Known as Sagittarius A*, it is thought to rip stars apart, orchestrating stellar mayhem as it warps the very fabric of space and time.

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SETI 2060, Do We Make Contact By Then?

From Discovery News:

This month the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Green Bank Science Center is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the modern day search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).

In 1960 a young radio astronomer, Frank Drake, undertook a bold and visionary experiment: He used the 85-foot dish antenna at Green Bank, W.V. to listen for radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.

Drake recently retired from the SETI Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., without finding his aliens. He’s not alone. As early as the turn of the last century Nicola Tesla and the father of radio, Guglielmo Marconi, were independently listening for signals from Martians.

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Global ‘Internet Treaty’ Proposed

Proposals put before the Internet Governance Forum would enshrine in law the principles of free speech and net neutrality for the web Photo: ALAMY

From The Telegraph:

Deal would enshrine in law the founding principles of open standards and net neutrality, and protect the web from political interference.

The proposal was presented at the Internet Governance Forum in Lithuania last week, and outlined 12 “principles of internet governance”, including a commitment from countries to sustain the technological foundations that underpin the web’s infrastructure.

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Nasa Tests Robot Hardware For Planet Missions

A suit port allows astronauts to be on the surface within a few minutes

From The BBC:

Nasa is testing the next generation of human spaceflight technology in the deserts of Arizona, US.

The Desert RATS (Research and Technology Studies) programme is designed to give advanced equipment a trial run, and to expose any issues before it is used in space.

The dry, dusty, rocky land near the lip of the Grand Canyon provides a good simulation of other planets.

"The terrain is very varied, and is very volcanic in nature, which more or less represents what you would see on the Moon" says Joe Kosmo, Mission Manager for the Desert RATS programme.

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Airbus Engineers' Plan For The Future Of Flying

From Der Spiegel:

What will air travel look like in the year 2050? A special team of engineers from European aircraft manufacturer Airbus have drafted plans for the future of flight. These include a completely transparent fuselage that will allow passengers to the see the stars above and city lights below.

The airplane dissolves into thin air, as if erased by an invisible hand. First the cabin roof disappears, then the floor, and from one moment to the next, the passengers feel like they have lost their grip on anything solid.

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The Ultimate Field Guide to Subatomic Particles

From io9:

Muons, neutrinos, supersymmetric partners, the infamous Higgs boson - with so many different subatomic particles flying about, it's no wonder theoretical physics can be so confusing. That's why we made this (reasonably) simple guide to all the different elementary particles.

This is, as you might imagine, a pretty big topic, so we're splitting it into (at least) two posts. Today we're going to deal with just the particles that physicists are certain (or, at least, reasonably certain) exist, and then tomorrow we'll get into the even stranger world of particles that have been hypothesized but may or may not actually exist. I've also made a handy cheat sheet listing all the elementary particles and their vital statistics, which you can find here. But to understand what all of that means, you'll really want to read on.

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A New Generation Of Helicopters Are Smashing Speed Records

Faster Helicopters More Rotors, More Speed -- The Economist

A new type of helicopter breaks speed records.

THE ability of a helicopter to hover and land almost anywhere makes it an enormously useful machine. But helicopters have their limitations, particularly when it comes to flying fast. In a recent series of test flights, a new type of chopper has begun smashing speed records.

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Gene Limits Learning And Memory In Mice

Researchers have found that deleting the RGS14 gene in mice can make them smarter by unlocking a mysterious region of the brain considered to be relatively inflexible. (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2010) — Deleting a certain gene in mice can make them smarter by unlocking a mysterious region of the brain considered to be relatively inflexible, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have found.

Mice with a disabled RGS14 gene are able to remember objects they'd explored and learn to navigate mazes better than regular mice, suggesting that RGS14's presence limits some forms of learning and memory.

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Exclusive: Boeing Launches Search For Crucial Rare Earth Elements

In the movie 'Avatar,' unobtainium is a rare, precious element that triggers an interspecies war. Credit: Twentieth Century Fox

From Tech News Daily:

Boeing has signed a deal to deploy remote sensing technology to map out U.S. deposits of rare earth elements.

The rare earth family of minerals is the real-life version of the precious element "unobtanium" in James Cameron's movie "Avatar." They are used to make everything from military hardware to humble cell phones, but could soon be in short supply as worldwide demand outstrips mining production in China.

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Ozone Layer Depletion Has Been Halted

An image of the ozone hole above Antarctica in 2010, as recorded by NASA's daily Ozone Hole Watch survey. Credit: NASA/Ozone Hole Watch

From Cosmos:

GENEVA: The protective ozone layer in the Earth's upper atmosphere has stopped thinning and should largely be restored by mid century thanks to a ban on harmful chemicals, U.N. scientists said.

The "Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion 2010" report said a 1987 international treaty that phased out chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) - substances used in refrigerators, aerosol sprays and some packing foams - had been successful.

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7 Lesser Known Wonders Of The World

Photo: Jean-Marie Hullot

From Environmental Graffiti:

We all know that there are sights on earth regarded as the Wonders of the World – whether ancient or modern – sights such as the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Taj Mahal, or the Grand Canyon in Colorado with its awesome grandeur. These are not, however, necessarily the sights you have to see, because the word 'wonder' can apply to so many other locations around the globe. Here are a selection of stunning places to see, if you ever get the chance.

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The New Twitter Isn't Nearly New Enough

From Daily Finance:

As a Twitter user, I was interested in seeing just how different Twitter.com's new incarnation actually is, especially because it's been billed as the most significant product release for the micro-messaging service in a long time.

Would it finally give me a reason to ditch my Twitter client and go back to Twitter.com? Would it finally produce a revenue model commensurate with the company's stiff venture capital valuation and immense promise? Would it leap tall buildings in a single bound? Alas, none of the above. The new Twitter is fairly tame -- and fairly indicative of the troubles that have beset the popular but not easily monetizable company.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab Coming to All Four Major U.S. Carriers

From The Daily Tech:

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon will all get version of the Galaxy Tab

Following in the footsteps of the Galaxy S which has made its way to Sprint (Epic 4G), Verizon (Fascinate), T-Mobile (Vibrant), and AT&T (Captivate), Samsung announced today that its 7" Galaxy Tab will also find a home on all four of the major U.S. wireless carriers.

Samsung's all or nothing approach with the Galaxy S smartphone chassis has paid off greatly as the company announced sales of one million phones within the first 45 days of ability. This figure didn't even take into consideration the Verizon Fascinate which hadn't yet been launched at the time of that announcement.

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