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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
Strange Days Are Here - Psychic Computers Now Record Your Memories
Post Date: 2009-11-11 11:28:40 by Prefrontal Vortex
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Strange Days Are Here - Psychic Computers Now Record Your Memories What would happen if we really could record what a person sees? Would dealers sell mind's eye memories like Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) does in Strange Days, or would editors make them into movie memorials like in The Final Cut? Thanks to a breakthrough by neurologists at the University of California, Berkeley, we're about to find out. At last month's Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago, researcher Jack Gallant presented the results of an experiment in which a person's brain activity was used to recreate what the person was watching when the activity occurred. Researchers already use brain scans to ...
Antimatter lightning
Post Date: 2009-11-08 23:12:59 by Armadillo
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During two recent lightning storms, Fermi recorded gamma-ray emissions of a particular energy that could have been produced only by the decay of energetic positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons. The observations are the first of their kind for lightning storms. Michael Briggs of the University of Alabama in Huntsville announced the puzzling findings November 5 at the 2009 Fermi Symposium. ... During lightning storms previously observed by other spacecraft, energetic electrons moving toward the craft slowed down and produced gamma rays. The unusual positron signature seen by Fermi suggests that the normal orientation for an electric field associated with a lightning storm somehow ...
Deep in the Forest, Bambi Remains The Cold War's Last Prisoner
Post Date: 2009-11-06 16:36:45 by Prefrontal Vortex
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Deep in the Forest, Bambi Remains The Cold War's Last PrisonerDeer Still Shun Iron Curtain Border, 20 Years After the Guards and Barbed Wire Vanished By CECILIE ROHWEDDER GRAFENAU, Germany -- It has been 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell. But deep in the forest here, a red deer called Ahornia still refuses to cross the old Iron Curtain. Ahornia inhabits the thickly wooded mountains along what once was the fortified border between West Germany and Czechoslovakia. At the height of the Cold War, a high electric fence, barbed wire and machine-gun-carrying guards cut off Eastern Europe from the Western world. The barriers severed the herds of deer on the two sides as well. The fence is ...
Ee wah gum! Babies cry with regional accents
Post Date: 2009-11-06 15:56:59 by Prefrontal Vortex
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Ee wah gum! Babies cry with regional accents By David Derbyshire Last updated at 4:49 PM on 06th November 2009 Newborn babies cry with regional 'accents' copied from their mothers, researchers have shown. An astonishing new study found that the screams of a five-day-old French baby have a distinct Gallic twang, while German babies have a Teutonic quality to their yells. The discovery suggests that babies are eavesdropping on their parent's conversations while still in the womb and are picking up their accents. The researchers believe newborns could also be crying in regional accents - and that Geordie infants sound different from Brummies. Past studies have shown that ...
Chinese challenge to 'out of Africa' theory
Post Date: 2009-11-06 11:06:50 by Prefrontal Vortex
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Chinese challenge to 'out of Africa' theory The discovery of an early human fossil in southern China may challenge the commonly held idea that modern humans originated out of Africa. Jin Changzhu and colleagues of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, announced to Chinese media last week that they have uncovered a 110,000-year-old putative Homo sapiens jawbone from a cave in southern China's Guangxi province. The mandible has a protruding chin like that of Homo sapiens, but the thickness of the jaw is indicative of more primitive hominins, suggesting that the fossil could derive from interbreeding. If confirmed, the finding would lend ...
Success in 'space elevator' competition
Post Date: 2009-11-05 17:52:12 by farmfriend
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Success in 'space elevator' competition By JOHN ANTCZAK, AP 21 hours ago EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — A robot powered by a ground-based laser beam climbed a long cable dangling from a helicopter on Wednesday to qualify for prize money in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of the science fiction concept of space elevators. The highly technical contest brought teams from Missouri, Alaska and Seattle to Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert, most familiar to the public as a space shuttle landing site. The contest requires their machines to climb 2,953 feet (nearly 1 kilometer) up a cable slung beneath a helicopter hovering nearly a mile high. ...
Al Gore Set To Become First “Carbon Billionaire” : CO2 tax agenda front man lining his pockets on the back of global warming fearmongering
Post Date: 2009-11-03 16:03:39 by scrapper2
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The New York Times has lifted the lid on how Al Gore stands to benefit to the tune of billions of dollars if the carbon tax proposals he is pushing come to fruition in the United States, while documenting how he has already lined his pockets on the back of exaggerated fearmongering about global warming. As is to be expected, the article is largely a whitewash and takes an apologist stance in defense of Gore. However, the NY Times‘ John M. Broder does reveal how one of the companies Gore invested in, Silver Spring Networks, recently received a contract worth $560 million dollars from the Energy Department to install “smart meters” in people’s homes that record (and ...
Attack of the galactic subatomic particles
Post Date: 2009-11-03 11:45:46 by farmfriend
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Attack of the galactic subatomic particles November 2nd, 2009 10:27 AM by Phil Plait in Astronomy, Science What is the source of cosmic rays? Seems like an easy enough question. Cosmic rays are little subatomic particles zipping across the Universe. We’ve known about them for decades, and just about any astronomer who has used a space telescope knows and loathes them; cosmic rays zap our detectors, leaving bright streaks in the images which need to be tediously cleaned out before we can do any real science. I spent a large fraction of my time with Hubble doing just that. But what’s generating them? They seem to come from all directions in the sky, making it difficult to pin ...
Five Myths About Our Land of Opportunity
Post Date: 2009-11-02 18:06:02 by Kamala
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Five Myths About Our Land of Opportunity Economic Mobility, Children & Families, U.S. Poverty, U.S. Economy Isabel V. Sawhill, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies The Washington Post Save Print E-mail Share DeliciousDiggDiigoFacebookGoogle LinkedInLiveNewsvineStumbleUponYahoo November 01, 2009 — Americans have always believed that their country is unique in providing the opportunity to get ahead. Just combine hard work with a bit of talent and you'll climb the ladder—or so we've told ourselves for generations. But rising unemployment and financial turmoil are puncturing that self-image. The reality of this "land of ...
KODAK Film Works Great upon Earth; rather hyper bluish on the moon
Post Date: 2009-10-31 02:25:37 by RickyJ
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KODAK Film Works Great upon Earth; rather hyper bluish on the moon This report is also suggesting there's been Life on Venus; as in Truth or Consequences there's been other life. (though most folks would much prefer the consequences, rather than admit to their being snookered) By; Brad Guth / GASA~IEIS updated: November 21, 2004 I believe that I'm within fullest agreement with the statement offered by "coberst" as pertaining to that of "Science and Truth", whereas my interpretations of what I have perceived as situated upon Venus is just that, my honest to-God though humanly subjective interpretation (mistakes and all), based upon what is entirely possible ...
Don’t Tell Geico: You May Be a Natural Born Bad Driver
Post Date: 2009-10-30 15:10:57 by Prefrontal Vortex
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Don’t Tell Geico: You May Be a Natural Born Bad Driver By Alexis Madrigal Next time you get cut off by a another driver, consider giving the offender a break: One-third of Americans might be genetically predisposed to crappy driving. No, really, it’s not just your imagination. In a new study of college undergraduates, those with a common genetic variation scored 20 percent worse in a driving simulator than their counterparts. “The people who had this genetic variation performed more poorly from the get-go and learned more slowly as they went along,” said Steven Cramer, a University of California, Irvine neurologist, who works on helping stroke victims recover. ...
INTERNAL MODELING MISTAKES BY IPCC ARE SUFFICIENT TO REJECT ITS ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING CONJECTURE
Post Date: 2009-10-29 20:56:06 by sourcery
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Some critics of the science of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) urge that its reliance on a consensus of scientists is false, while others simply point out that regardless, science is never decided by consensus. Some critics rely on fresh analyses of radiosonde and satellite data to conclude that water vapor feedback is negative, contrary to its representation in Global Climate Models (GCMs). Some argue that the AGW model must be false because the climate has cooled over the last decade while atmospheric CO2 continued its rise. Researchers discovered an error in the reduction of data, the widely publicized Hockey Stick Effect, that led to a false conclusion that the Little Ice Age was not ...
Genes drive behaviour, but culture can select genes: study
Post Date: 2009-10-29 18:29:07 by Prefrontal Vortex
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Genes drive behaviour, but culture can select genes: study By Marlowe Hood (AFP) – 1 day ago PARIS — Culture, not just genes, can drive evolutionary outcomes, according to a study released Wednesday that compares individualist and group-oriented societies across the globe. Bridging a rarely-crossed border between natural and social sciences, the study looks at the interplay across 29 countries of two sets of data, one genetic and the other cultural. The researchers found that most people in countries widely described as collectivist have a specific mutation within a gene regulating the transport of serotonin, a neurochemical known to profoundly affect mood. In China and other ...
US Airways to slash 1,000 jobs
Post Date: 2009-10-29 08:07:23 by DeaconBenjamin
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NEW YORK: US Airways will trim its workforce by 1,000 employees, including 200 pilots, as part of its restructuring efforts. The loss making airline would be reducing the number of employees in the first half of 2010. The reductions would include about 600 airport passenger and ramp service positions, approximately 200 pilot jobs and nearly 150 flight attendant positions, US Airways said in a statement on yesterday. In a letter to the employees, the carrier's chairman and CEO Doug Parker said it was a difficult decision to make. "By focusing on our strengths and eliminating unprofitable flying, we will increase the likelihood of returning US Airways to long-term profitability, ...
The Importance of Escape
Post Date: 2009-10-29 06:44:46 by Ada
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"As I understand it, laws, commands, rules, and edicts are for those who have not the light which makes plain the pathway." -- Anne Hutchinson, 1591-1643 Running away from your problems might just be the best thing you could ever do. No, I'm not talking about skipping out on your child-support payments, your court hearing, or your carping spouse -- though come to think, of it, maybe I am. I'm talking about moving on when the society around you becomes too unjust, chaotic, or hidebound. I'm talking about heading for open spaces and starting over again in brand new territory. BHM readers know instinctively the importance of moving on, as they leave behind traffic ...
A novel form of fusion power
Post Date: 2009-10-28 20:50:35 by Horse
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An alternative approach to achieving nuclear fusion in the laboratory LIKE conquistadors seeking El Dorado, physicists cannot leave the idea of fusion power alone. Some spend billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money on the huge machines they believe are the best way to generate the temperatures and pressures needed to persuade atomic nuclei to merge with one another. Others still think there is something to the idea of “cold” fusion, and tinker hopefully with desktop apparatus full of electrodes made from exotic metals and electrolytes containing obscure isotopes of hydrogen. Eric Lerner, however, believes there is a third way. His experimental device does not quite fit on ...
Researchers Create Artificial Memories in the Brain of a Fruitfly
Post Date: 2009-10-28 14:51:16 by Prefrontal Vortex
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Researchers Create Artificial Memories in the Brain of a Fruitfly By NICHOLAS WADE Published: October 19, 2009 As part of a project to understand how the brain learns, biologists have written memories into the cells of a fruitfly’s brain, making it think it had a terrible experience. The memory trace was written by shining light into the fly’s brain and activating a special class of cells involved in learning how to avoid an electric shock. The goal of the research is not to give flies nightmares but rather to understand how learning in general works, from flies to people. “In the case of the fly, where we have a numerically rather simple nervous system that does ...
Cockroach Superpower No. 42: They Don’t Need to Pee
Post Date: 2009-10-28 14:46:08 by Prefrontal Vortex
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Cockroach Superpower No. 42: They Don’t Need to Pee By Brandon Keim To survive in hostile environments, cockroaches rely on their own vermin: Blattabacterium, a microbe that hitched a ride inside roaches 140 million years ago, and hasn’t left since. Researchers who sequenced the Blattabacterium genome have found that it converts waste into molecules necessary for a roach to survive. Every cockroach is a testimony to the power of recycling — thanks to their microbes, they don’t even need to pee. “Blattabacterium can produce all of the essential amino acids, various vitamins, and other required compounds from a limited palette of metabolic substrates,” write ...
NASA's New Rocket Lifts Off On Short Test Flight
Post Date: 2009-10-28 11:32:58 by Brian S
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(10-28) 08:30 PDT Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP) -- NASA's newest rocket has blasted off on a test flight that may pave the way for a return to the moon. After a one-day weather delay, the Ares I-X rocket rumbled away Wednesday morning from a former shuttle launch pad at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. No people or payloads are on board. The prototype moon rocket should fly for just two minutes. That's how long it will take for the first-stage booster to burn out. The booster will be recovered from the Atlantic for analysis. The 327-foot rocket is nearly twice as tall as the spaceship it's supposed to replace, the shuttle. It's the first step in NASA's effort to ...
Climate chief Lord Stern: give up meat to save the planet
Post Date: 2009-10-27 10:20:19 by christine
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People will need to turn vegetarian if the world is to conquer climate change, according to a leading authority on global warming. In an interview with The Times, Lord Stern of Brentford said: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.” Direct emissions of methane from cows and pigs is a significant source of greenhouse gases. Methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas. Lord Stern, the author of the influential 2006 Stern Review on the cost of tackling global warming, said that a successful deal at the Climate Change Conference ...
Windows 7 Upgrade Woes Mount: Endless Reboots and Product Key Problems
Post Date: 2009-10-26 14:50:24 by christine
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Call it the legacy of Microsoft's Vista operating system. PC users upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 have run into a variety of hair pulling problems since last Thursday when Windows 7 launched. Complaints range from endless reboots to refusals by Windows to accept Microsoft's assigned product keys. As of Monday morning, Microsoft had answered about 2600 questions that poured into support forum regarding upgrades. At last count, around 1400 questions remained unanswered. Unable to Unpack On Microsoft's support forum, users are complaining of receiving "unspecified errors" when unpacking Windows 7 Home Premium from the student download, and about getting the ...
Lunar Hoax Material
Post Date: 2009-10-24 19:28:33 by Kamala
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Lunar Hoax Material October 23, 2009 Dr. Stephen Rorke, has provided a series of images related to the lunar hoax theory. Seen here is a side-by-side comparison of two photos, one taken in zero gravity and one allegedly taken in deep space, which look suspiciously similar. View the complete gallery of images here.
Web Bot for Dummies. What is the Web Bot?
Post Date: 2009-10-24 10:24:55 by christine
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32 planets discovered outside solar system
Post Date: 2009-10-22 20:00:13 by christine
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(CNN) -- Thirty-two planets have been discovered outside Earth's solar system through the use of a high-precision instrument installed at a Chilean telescope, an international team announced Monday. The existence of the so-called exoplanets -- planets outside our solar system -- was announced at the European Southern Observatory/Center for Astrophysics, University of Porto conference in Porto, Portugal, according to a statement issued by the observatory. The announcement was made by a consortium of international researchers, headed by the Geneva Observatory, who built the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS. The device can detect slight wobbles of stars as they ...
Cosmic pattern to UK tree growth
Post Date: 2009-10-19 15:37:48 by farmfriend
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Cosmic pattern to UK tree growth By Matt Walker Editor, Earth News The growth of British trees appears to follow a cosmic pattern, with trees growing faster when high levels of cosmic radiation arrive from space. Researchers made the discovery studying how growth rings of spruce trees have varied over the past half a century. As yet, they cannot explain the pattern, but variation in cosmic rays impacted tree growth more than changes in temperature or precipitation. The study is published in the scientific journal New Phytologist. "We were originally interested in a different topic, the climatological factors influencing forest growth," says Ms Sigrid Dengel a postgraduate ...
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