A Lightning Show On Saturn

Detailed views ... Saturn's great white spot. Photo: AP/NASA

Saturn Puts On Spectacular Lightning Show -- Brisbane Times

LOS ANGELES: Saturn's Great White Spot, a recurring storm that has intrigued scientists since it was first observed in 1876, is a windy, towering cloud of ammonia and water spewing out super bolts of lightning.

Now astronomers and NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which has been orbiting Saturn since 2004, have captured the most detailed views to date of the phenomenon.

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Tuna Need Urgent Protection, Study Concludes

A school of bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii).

CREDIT: NOAA Fisheries Service

From Live Science:

Five of the eight species of tuna now qualify as threatened or near-threatened, according to the world's main authority on the conservation status of animal species. The tuna face a bleak future if more isn't done to safeguard them from overfishing, researchers warn.

Published today (July 7), the draft assessment of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species shows most tuna species are declining.

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Top 10 Civilizations That Mysteriously Disappeared

From Toptenz.com:

Throughout our history, most civilizations have either met a slow demise or were wiped out by natural disasters or invasion. But there are a few societies whose disappearance has scholars truly stumped:

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Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory Remains Closed As Wildfires Threaten Facility

Los Alamos Fire: EPA Testing for Radiation -- ABC News

The wildfire that surrounds the nuclear lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico, has grown to at least 61,000 acres amid mounting concerns about what might be in the smoke that's visible from space.

Such fear has prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to bring in air monitors, along with a special airplane that checks for radiation levels. So far officials have not been able to find anything.

"Our facilities and nuclear material are protected and safe," Laboratory Director Dr. Charles McMillan told ABC News.

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More News On The Los Alamos Fire

Los Alamos nuclear laboratory under siege from raging wildfire -- The Telegraph
Los Alamos nuclear laboratory threatened by wildfire -- The Guardian
Towns near NM fire, nuclear lab wary of smoke -- USA Today
Scientists monitor air as fire burns near NM lab -- Forbes/AP
Fire chief says Los Alamos lab is safe from wildfire -- CNN
Los Alamos nuclear lab to remain closed as New Mexico wildfire nears -- Washington Post
Los Alamos wildfire reaches lab, forces evacuation -- CNET
Mandatory evacuation ordered as blaze threatens Los Alamos -- MSNBC

A Look At Cyberwarfare And Hackers From A Russian Perspective

Evgeny Kaspersky was trained as a cryptologist and went on to co-found Kapersky Labs, which makes antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and other online security products. In a recent SPIEGEL interview, he discussed a number of what he sees as worrying trends in cyber security. Regarding the new era of cyber war, he stated: "This war can't be won; it only has perpetrators and victims. Out there, all we can do is prevent everything from spinning out of control. Only two things could solve this for good, and both of them are undesirable: to ban computers -- or people." Sergei Chirikov/ AFP/ Getty Images

'I Fear the Net Will Soon Become a War Zone'. An Interview With Anti-Virus Pioneer Evgeny Kaspersky -- Spiegel Online

Evgeny Kaspersky is one of Russia's top Internet virus hunters and IT entrepreneurs. In a SPIEGEL interview, he discusses a raft of recent hacker attacks on multinationals, the "total professionals" behind the Stuxnet virus and his fear of both personal and widespread cyber violence.

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My Comment: I love interviews like this one, and this from Spiegel does not disappoint. On a side note, the Independent has an excellent story on the secret world of hackers and the anarchy that they can unleash on the web. That link is here.

Photos Of Space Shuttle Docked At Space Station

ISS Shuttle Docking NASA

First-Ever Photos of Space Shuttle Docked At Space Station -- Popular Science

How the once-in-a-lifetime photo-op came to be.

After a 5-month stay at the International Space Station, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli snapped one-of-a-kind photos of the Space Shuttle docked at the ISS, on his way back to Earth in a Soyuz craft. This is the very first time photos have captured an American orbiter docked to the International Space Station.

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Google Earth Goes Under the Sea

From Popular Science:

Google Earth broke new ground (new water?) when they took the world of virtual-earth-exploring into the oceans. Of course, the oceans are kind of big. They fill up nearly three-quarters of the earth's surface area, and most of that area hasn't been mapped out. But now you can tour roughly half of the known area without pulling on any SCUBA gear, thanks to Google's new underwater terrain explorer.

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Commentary On Europe's Organic Food Scare

Europe's Organic Food Scare -- Wall Street Journal

German Greens and their European Union acolytes have long fought scientific advances in food production and protection. After a spice manufacturer in Stuttgart employed the world's first commercial food irradiation in 1957, West Germany banned the practice in 1959 and has since allowed few exceptions. So it's no small scandal that the latest fatal E. coli outbreak has been linked to an organic German farm that shuns modern farming techniques.

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What Could A Solar Flare Do To Us?

CME NASA

When The Sun Unleashed Its Plasma Blast This Week, Earth Got Lucky -- Popular Science

What a predicted 2013 blast from the sun could mean for the U.S.

On Tuesday, the biggest solar flare in four years erupted from the sun, sending a mass of charged particles hurtling towards Earth. NASA announced that it was an M-2 (medium-sized) flare and an S1-class (minor) radiation storm. The electromagnetic pulse it induced created amazing auroras, but it could also damage satellites and radio communications. What would happen with an even stronger, larger flare? Something terrible...

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Ancient Language Dictionary Finished

Martha Roth, Editor in Charge of the Assyrian Dictionary at the University of Chicago, puts the final volume in the set of books. (Credit: University of Chicago)

Huge Ancient Language Dictionary Finished After 90 Years -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (June 9, 2011) — An ambitious project to identify, explain and provide citations for the words written in cuneiform on clay tablets and carved in stone by Babylonians, Assyrians and others in Mesopotamia between 2500 B.C. and A.D. 100 has been completed after 90 years of labor, the University of Chicago announced June 5.

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My Comment: I look forward to them putting it online.

New 'Subatomic Particle' Likely A Fluke

The CDF detector, about the size of a three-story house, weighs about 6,000 tons. It recrods the "debris" emerging from each high-energy proton-antiproton collision produced by the Tevatron. CREDIT: Fermilab

From Live Science:

A report in April suggesting a giant atom smasher may have detected a never-seen-before subatomic particle had physicists at the edge of their seats with hope, albeit with a healthy dose of skepticism. Now an independent test of the results suggests it was just a fluke.

The tantalizing signal came from the Tevatron particle accelerator at the Fermilab physics laboratory in Batavia, Ill. Inside the accelerator there, particles race around a 4-mile (6.3 km) ring at near light speed. When two particles collide, they disintegrate into other exotic particles in a powerful outpouring of energy. [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]

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Astonishing Image Captures Night Sky

The image, taken in the remote town of Denial Bay, a fishing village on the edge of the Great Australian Bight, was taken using a special 'time lapse' process Photo: ANDREW BROOKS

Pictured: Astonishing Image Captures Night Sky In Dazzling Formation -- The Telegraph

Exclusive: Lit up in the night sky, this spectacular picture shows a galaxy of stars in a dazzling formation more akin to a large-scale spinning wheel.

The astonishing image, taken in the heart of the Australian outback, was used simply by taking advantage of the earth's rotation.

Andrew Brooks, an amateur photographer, took the image using his camera, a tripod, his neighbour's lounge room light and a little patience while letting gravity do the rest.

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My Comment: This is why I love astronomy.

Most Apples Have Pesticide Residues

Apples Top List For Pesticide Contamination -- CBS News

That shiny little apple you're eating has a dirty little surprise. At least, that's what a food safety watchdog claims in its annual examination of government produce tests.

The Environmental Working Group says apples top its "Dirty Dozen" list of fruits and vegetables with the highest amounts of pesticides. "We found that nearly every apple sampled, 98 per cent, had pesticide residues," says Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst. "This is an accumulation of 48 different pesticides."

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My Comment: One more reason to go organic

An Army Of Hackers Are Now Informing For The FBI

A quarter of hackers in the US have been recruited by federal authorities, according to Eric Corley, publisher of the hacker quarterly, 2600. Photograph: Getty Images

One In Four US Hackers 'Is An FBI Informer' -- The Guardian

The FBI and US secret service have used the threat of prison to create an army of informers among online criminals

The underground world of computer hackers has been so thoroughly infiltrated in the US by the FBI and secret service that it is now riddled with paranoia and mistrust, with an estimated one in four hackers secretly informing on their peers, a Guardian investigation has established.

Cyber policing units have had such success in forcing online criminals to co-operate with their investigations through the threat of long prison sentences that they have managed to create an army of informants deep inside the hacking community.

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My Comment: I am skeptical that the FBI list of informers (in the hacking community) is that long .... but it is certainly an effective way to police the internet.

China's Drought Is Impacting World's Food Supplies

How Will China's Food Supply Weather the Year of Drought? -- Time

In China food supplies and food prices are deeply sensitive topics. So by the time the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization issued a special alert warning in February that a prolonged drought in the North China Plain was a “potentially serious problem” for the country's winter wheat crop, China's leaders had already mobilized. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao made visits to farming regions in north China, pledging cash, equipment and manpower to ensure the crop survived.

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My Comment: The world is already at the brink of experiencing severe food shortages .... China's drought is only going to make the situation worse.

Number Of Internet-Connected Devices Set To Reach 15 Billion Globally By 2015

New generation of users: Almost three billion people are expected to be connected to the internet by 2015

Everybody's Doing It: Number Of Internet-Connected Devices Set To Reach 15 Billion Globally By 2015 -- The Daily Mail

Forecasters predict there will be 15billion internet-connected devices in use around the world by 2015 - more than two for every person on the planet.

The recent growth in mobile phones and tablets has already pushed the number of devices above the five billion mark.

And fresh technical developments - including internet-connected televisions and cars - will drive a new surge in appliance use in the next four years, according to technology giant Cisco.

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Endeavour's Mind-Boggling Cockpit Controls

(Click on Image to Enlarge)
Cluttered cockpit: Commander Mark Kelly and Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori sit on Endeavour's flight deck during what was the Nasa vessel's final mission

So, Where's The Ignition Switch? Endeavour's Mind-Boggling Cockpit Controls Revealed In All Their Glory -- The Daily Mail

Nasa shuttle is now bound for the California Space Center museum in Los Angeles

With hundreds of switches and buttons, and pieces of paper stuck to various hard surfaces, this is the somewhat chaotic cockpit of space shuttle Endeavour.

Commander Mark Kelly and Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori sit on the flight deck during what was the Nasa vessel's final mission.

With equipment strapped in place all around them, including a device taped to the back of a seat, the pair are jammed into their seats at the controls of the $2.2billion ship.

The cockpit is so crammed full of electronics, the astronauts are unable to stand when they climb in and out of their seats.

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Astronomers Capture A Milky Way 'Clone'

The large spiral galaxy named NGC 6744 Photo: ESO/PA

Milky Way 'Clone' Captured By European Astronomers -- The Telegraph

A striking image of a giant Milky Way ''clone'' has been captured by astronomers.

The bird's eye view of NGC 6744 gives a good idea of what our own galaxy would look like to a passing space traveller.

The spiral galaxy is around 30 million light years away in the southern constellation of Pavo, the Peacock.

In the new image from European Southern Observatory astronomers it is seen almost face on, so that the striking spiral arms are clearly visible.

NGC 6744 would almost be an identical twin of the Milky Way were it not for its size.

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A Leap Forward For DNA-Based Computers

A wiring diagram illustration depicts a system of 74 DNA strands that constitute the largest synthetic circuit of its type ever made. The circuit can compute the square root of numbers up to 15, though very slowly. (Lulu Qian / Caltech / June 2, 2011)

Research Marks A Leap Forward For DNA-Based Computers -- L.A. Times

A system involving 74 DNA strands can calculate square roots of numbers up to 15, though very slowly. Scientists say the goal is to devise computers that can interact directly with living cells — and perhaps fight disease.

Caltech researchers have produced the most sophisticated DNA-based computer yet, a wet chemistry system that can calculate the square roots of numbers as high as 15.

The system is composed of 74 strands of DNA that make up 12 logic gates comparable to those in a silicon-based computer, the researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science. But the system operates a little more slowly than a conventional computer: It takes as much as 10 hours to obtain each result.

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The Evolution of DARPA's Robotic Hummingbird

Video: The Evolution of DARPA's Robotic Hummingbird, From Start to Finish -- Popular Science

Of all the DARPA projects we follow here at PopSci--and regular readers know that we follow a lot of them--perhaps none has been quite so fascinating as the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) program, a.k.a. the robotic hummingbird, which culminated earlier this year in a working prototype. So you can imagine our delight when DARPA released this short video chronicling the bird’s journey from drawing board to early prototype to crash test dummy to eventual functioning, camera-equipped nano air vehicle that fits in the palm of a hand.

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My Comment: I can easily see soldiers having this tech in their arsenal 5 years (or more) from now.