Ancient "Fossil" Virus Shows Infection To Be Millions Of Years Old

INFECTIOUS INSERTIONS: Today's songbirds are harboring traces of ancient viral strains in their genomes, giving researchers a new understanding of the disease's age and evolutionary history. Image: ISTOCKPHOTO/GLOBAL IP

From Scientific American:

Genetic traces of an ancient hepatitis B-like virus confounds common knowledge about viral evolution.

Viruses can be thought of as hyperspeed shape-shifters, organisms that can adapt quickly to overcome barriers to infection. But recent research has been finding ancient traces of many viruses in animal genomes, DNA insertions that have likely been there for much longer than the viruses were previously thought to have existed at all.

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Freshly Discovered Earth-Like Planet Orbiting Nearby Star Could Be The First Truly Habitable Exoplanet

Gliese 581 Digital Sky Survey/ESO

From Popular Science:

A couple of math geeks recently calculated that the discovery of the first “habitable” exoplanet would be announced in May of next year -- but a few stargazers from UC Santa Cruz and their colleagues simply couldn’t wait that long. In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, the astronomers report the discovery of what may be the first truly habitable earth-like exoplanet orbiting the nearby red dwarf star Gliese 581.

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The Difference Engine: Bigger Than Wi-Fi

From The Economist:

HAVE you ever wondered, if you are of an age with your correspondent, about those missing channels on old television sets? Apart from channel two, the rest of the original VHF channels on the dial were usually just the odd numbers from three to 13. That was because, in over-the-air VHF broadcasting, the channel between two analogue stations had to be left unused so that it would not interfere with adjacent ones. When UHF broadcasting came along, empty “guard bands” were added to each channel for the same reason. In some places, this so-called “white space” of unused frequencies separating working channels amounted to as much as 70% of the total bandwidth available for television broadcasting.

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The Carbon Age: Dark Element, Brighter Future

Image: A computer-rendered view inside a carbon nanotube. (Credit: ghutchis/Flickr)

From CNET:

Humankind has seen the Stone Age, the Golden Age, and the Iron Age. Some would argue the 20th century should be called the Silicon Age. Based on the events of its first 10 years, the 21st century may very well become known as the Carbon Age.

An important tension is unfolding between two types of carbon--atmospheric carbon in the form of carbon dioxide emissions, and elemental carbon as a building block for a new generation of devices designed to manage and abate those same pollutants.

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Mars Moon Phobos Likely Forged By Catastrophic Blast

From Space.com:

One of the two moons of Mars most likely formed from rubble catapulted into space after a comet or meteorite slammed into the Red Planet, a new study finds.

The moon, Phobos, looks a lot like an asteroid: It's lumpy, potato-shaped and very small. It has an average radius of just 11 kilometers (6.8 miles).

Scientists have long wondered about the origin of Phobos — is it merely a captured asteroid, the leftovers from Mars' formation or evidence of a cosmic Martian hit-and-run with another object?

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Sneaking Spies Into A Cell's Nucleus

Tuan Vo-Dinh, left, and Molly Gregas are researchers at Duke University. (Credit: Duke University Photography)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2010) — Duke University bioengineers have not only figured out a way to sneak molecular spies through the walls of individual cells, they can now slip them into the command center -- or nucleus -- of those cells, where they can report back important information or drop off payloads.

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Mysterious, Rare Red Diamond On Display

The Kazanjian Red Diamond, one of only three red diamonds of more than five carats, is on display at the American Museum of Natural History. Credit: AMNH/D. Finnin.

From Live Science:

NEW YORK — Among colored diamonds, red is particularly rare, and mysterious, since no one knows for certain the origin of the color within the stone.

One of the three known red diamonds weighing more than 5 carats (1 gram), an emerald-cut stone about the size of a small fingertip rests against a gray background in an American Museum of Natural History display case. This stone, known as the Kazanjian Red Diamond, has a dark hue resembling that of a garnet or a ruby, and in its nearly century-long history, it has been mistaken for the latter.

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Quantum Leap Towards Computer Of The Future

An artist's impression of a phosphorus atom (a red sphere surrounded by a blue electron cloud) coupled to a silicon single-electron transistor (College of Fine Arts, The University of New South Wales: William Algar-Chuklin)

From ABC News (Australia):

An Australian-led team of scientists have taken a big step forward in the race to develop a quantum computer.

Quantum computing relies on harnessing the laws of quantum physics - laws that apply to particles smaller than an atom - to get a computer to carry out many calculations at the same time.

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Solar Or Wind Power? Why Not Both?

Solar wind doesn't act like wind on Earth, and the satellite wouldn't generate electricity like a windmill. iStockphoto

From Discovery News:

A massive satellite that harvests the power in solar wind could meet the energy needs of all humanity and then some.

Solar and wind power have long been two of the main contenders in the race to find the next big renewable energy resource. Rather than choosing between the two, scientists at Washington State University have instead combined them.

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Kindle For The Web

One-Fifth Of World's Plants At Risk Of Extinction

Photo: Plants such as artemisia sweet wormwood provide valuable drugs - in this case, for malaria

From The BBC:

One-fifth of the world's plants - the foundation of life on Earth - are at risk of extinction, a study concludes.

Researchers have sampled almost 4,000 species, and conclude that 22% should be classified as "threatened" - the same alarming rate as for mammals.

A further 33% of species were too poorly understood to be assessed.

The analysis comes from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the Natural History Museum and International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

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The End of Time Is Nigh (In A Cosmic Sense, Anyhow)

The End of Time Ticking off the seconds until the end of time, some 3.7 billion years from now. Leo Reynolds via Flickr

From Popular Science:

The universe has only about 3.7 billion years in which to settle its affairs. At least, that’s the new assertion from a group of physicists who say that there is a 50 percent chance that time will end within that time frame. If the laws of physics as we understand them are in fact correct, then time must eventually end – and their math shows that both the sun and the Earth should still be around when that happens.

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Deceptive Robots Hint At Machine Self-Awareness

From New Scientist:

A robot that tricks its opponent in a game of hide and seek is a step towards machines that can intuit our thoughts, intentions and feelings

ROVIO the robotic car is creating a decoy. It trundles forward and knocks over a marker pen stood on its end. The pen is positioned along the path to a hiding place - but Rovio doesn't hide there. It sneaks away and conceals itself elsewhere.

When a second Rovio arrives, it sees the felled pen and assumes that its prey must have passed this way. It rolls onwards, but is soon disappointed.

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The End Of An Era In British Military Aviation

Last flight? The Cold War Vulcan bomber may not take to the skies again, unless its owners can raise £400,000 by the end of October

Last Vulcan Flies Into The Unknown: Iconic Cold War Plane Will Be Grounded Unless Owners Can Raise £400,000 -- The Daily Mail

Soaring into the sky with its engines booming, this may be the mighty Cold War Vulcan bomber making its last flight.

The former RAF bomber, the last airworthy plane of its type, is shown at an airshow at Coventry Airport in aid of the Help for Heroes military charity at the weekend.

But the plane - which was in active service from 1960 to 1984 and is one of the greatest achievements of British aerospace-engineering - will not be able to fly again unless its owners raise £400,000 by the end of October for costly maintenance to ensure it passes safety tests.

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Google's Boss Envisions a Utopian Future

Credit: Dave Getzschman/TechCrunch

From Technology Review:

Google's CEO Eric Schmidt played make believe and sketched out his vision of the future on stage at TechCrunch's Disrupt event in San Francisco today.

"It's a future where you don't forget anything...In this new future you're never lost...We will know your position down to the foot and down to the inch over time...Your car will drive itself, it's a bug that cars were invented before computers...you're never lonely...you're never bored...you're never out of ideas."

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Why Are There No Hyenas In Europe?

Profile of an alert spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2010) — A team from the National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC) has analysed the impact of climate change on spotted hyena survival in Europe over 10,000 years ago. These changes played an important role, but the scientists say studies are still needed to look at the influence of human expansion and changes in herbivorous fauna on the definitive extinction of this species across the continent.

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Diet and Exercise Trump Diabetes Drugs

From Live Science:

A news search on the word "Avandia," the diabetes drug, will pull up thousands of results, nearly all pertaining to the Food and Drug Administration's decision last week to keep this dangerous drug on the market, albeit with restrictions.

Another search on "Avandia + diet," will produce only a few results. And herein lies the problem. Too many doctors rely solely on prescription drugs to treat their patients' diabetes; and too many FDA regulators leave the concept of diet completely out of the diabetes equation.

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Depressing Lottery Simulator Lets You Play 1000 Times a Second, Shows All The Millions You Didn't Win

Big Pile O' Cash, But Not For Me aresauburn on Flickr

From Popular Science:

Thanks to one man, I don’t need to play the lottery. I already know that if I play twice a week every week for the next 10 years, I will win a staggering total of $93 by 2020. Or, put differently, I will make back eight percent of the $1,040 I'll spend on the tickets.

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The Effects Of World War I And II Are Still With Us

Bomb Hotspots Of Northern Europe -- New Scientist

If you want to avoid being blown up by a bombs lost during World Wars I and II, be careful trawling the seabed for fish - particularly near the coast of the Netherlands and Belgium. That's the message from the most comprehensive survey yet of sunken wartime munitions in waters of the North-East Atlantic.

The survey highlights the southern North Sea as a hotspot for accidental finds of bombs (PDF). Of 1879 encounters reported throughout the North-East Atlantic since 2004, almost three quarters, 1320, were in that area.

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Revealed: Europe's Hybrid 'Helicraft' That Makers Hope Will Smash The Speed Barrier... And Steal U.S. Rival's Business

High-speed: The X3 is equipped with two turboshaft engines that power a five-blade main rotor system and two propellers installed on short-span fixed wings, creating an advanced transportation system offering the speed of a turboprop-powered aircraft and the full hover flight capabilities of a helicopter

From The Daily Mail:

A revolutionary winged helicopter that hopes to break the speed record has finally been unveiled after months of secrecy.

European group Eurocopter showed off the high-speed aircraft in a bid to counter U.S. rival Sikorsky's efforts to break the speed barrier by rewriting rotorcraft design rules.

The X3 hybrid helicraft - which combines forward-facing propellers astride two short aircraft wings with the familiar overhead rotor blades seen on any normal helicopter - is half-plane, half-helicopter in design.

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