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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human
Post Date: 2007-03-26 10:17:31 by christine
10 Comments
Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs. The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer. Professor Esmail Zanjani, of the University of Nevada, has spent seven years and £5million perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human cells into a sheep's foetus. He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own ...
Are GM Crops Killing Bees?
Post Date: 2007-03-22 23:08:56 by robin
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SPIEGEL ONLINE - March 22, 2007, 06:21 PM URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,473166,00.htmlCOLLAPSING COLONIESAre GM Crops Killing Bees?By Gunther Latsch A mysterious decimation of bee populations has German beekeepers worried, while a similar phenomenon in the United States is gradually assuming catastrophic proportions. The consequences for agriculture and the economy could be enormous. DDP Is the mysterous decimation of bee populations in the US and Germany a result of GM crops? Walter Haefeker is a man who is used to painting grim scenarios. He sits on the board of directors of the German Beekeepers Association (DBIB) and is vice president of the European ...
France Opens Secret UFO Files Covering 50 Years
Post Date: 2007-03-22 12:17:08 by Brian S
24 Comments
France became the first country to open its files on UFOs Thursday when the national space agency unveiled a website documenting more than 1,600 sightings spanning five decades. The online archives, which will be updated as new cases are reported, catalogues in minute detail cases ranging from the easily dismissed to a handful that continue to perplex even hard-nosed scientists. "It is a world first," said Jacques Patenet, the aeronautical engineer who heads the office for the study of "non-identified aerospatial phenomena." Known as OVNIs in French, UFOs have always generated intense interest along with countless conspiracy theories about secretive government ...
Nikola Tesla profiled by Mark Pilkington
Post Date: 2007-03-21 20:42:13 by Zipporah
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Nikola Tesla profiled by Mark Pilkington Mark Pilkington, editor of the wonderful fringe culture magazine Strange Attractor Journal, has written a fascinating profile for Fortean Times of Nikola Tesla, quintessential maker, intriguing eccentric, and power hacker. Makers around the world celebrated Tesla's 150th birthday last year. (Seen here, a multiple exposure photo of Tesla in his laboratory.) From Pilkington's article: While it’s still possible to find modern histories of electricity that make no mention of Tesla, during his lifetime he was, alongside Thomas Edison and Guglielmo Marconi, the most celebrated inventor of the age. His polyphase system of Alternating ...
Study Details Catastrophic Impact Of Nuclear Attack On US Cities
Post Date: 2007-03-21 11:10:44 by Brian S
2 Comments
Science Daily — A new study by researchers at the Center for Mass Destruction Defense (CMADD) at the University of Georgia details the catastrophic impact a nuclear attack would have on American cities.A dense column of smoke rises more than 60,000 feet into the air over the Japanese port of Nagasaki, the result of an atomic bomb, the second ever used in warfare, dropped on the industrial center August 8, 1945, from a U.S. B-29 Superfortress. (Credit: Image courtesy of U.S. National Archives and Records Administration) The study, which the authors said was the most advanced and detailed simulation published in open scientific literature, highlights the inability of the nation’s ...
Erasing the Pain of the Past
Post Date: 2007-03-21 08:10:54 by Itisa1mosttoolate
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Erasing the Pain of the Past Scientists Are Developing Drugs That Could Eliminate Traumatic Events From Our Memories By RUSSELL GOLDMAN March 20, 2007 — "I'd take it in a second," said Sgt. Michael Walcott, an Iraq War veteran, referring to an experimental drug with the potential to target and erase traumatic memories. Walcott, who served in a Balad-based transportation unit that regularly took mortar fire, now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Since returning to the United States two years ago, he has been on antidepressants and in group therapy as he tries to put his life back together and heal from the psychological scars of war. "There are ...
Gendered division of labor gave modern humans advantage over Neanderthals
Post Date: 2007-03-20 18:14:58 by Peetie Wheatstraw
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Diversified social roles for men, women, and children may have given Homo sapiens an advantage over Neanderthals, says a new study in the December 2006 issue of Current Anthropology. The study argues that division of economic labor by sex and age emerged relatively recently in human evolutionary history and facilitated the spread of modern humans throughout Eurasia. "The competitive advantage enjoyed by modern humans came not just from new weapons and devices but from the ways in which their economic lives were organized around the advantages of cooperation and complementary subsistence roles for men, women, and children," write Steven L. Kuhn and Mary C. Stiner (University of ...
Is This the Fabric of the Universe? [can anyone explain this?]
Post Date: 2007-03-20 09:04:48 by a vast rightwing conspirator
9 Comments
Is this the fabric of the universe?Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 19/03/2007Roger Highfield describes a heroic mathematical enterprise that could lay bare the fundamentals of the cosmosMathematicians have successfully scaled their equivalent of Mount Everest. Today they unveil the answer to a problem that, if written out in tiny print, would cover an area the size of Manhattan. A two dimensional representation of E8, courtesy of Peter McMullen and John StembridgeAt the most basic level, the calculation is an arcane investigation of symmetry – in this case of an object that is 57 dimensional, rather than the usual three dimensional ones that we are familiar with. Although this object was ...
Comet C/2007 E2 (Lovejoy)
Post Date: 2007-03-19 20:05:31 by BeAChooser
5 Comments
Comet C/2007 E2 (Lovejoy) This is might offer a good show as it approaches earth. Here's an orbital simulation: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?sstr=C%2F2007+E2&group=all&search=Search
Scientist accuses White House of 'Nazi' tactics
Post Date: 2007-03-19 19:26:06 by Zipporah
6 Comments
Scientist accuses White House of 'Nazi' tactics By Joel Havemann, Times Staff Writer 1:05 PM PDT, March 19, 2007 WASHINGTON -- A government scientist, under sharp questioning by a federal panel for his outspoken views on global warming, stood by his view today that the Bush administration's information policies smacked of Nazi Germany. James Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, took particular issue with the administration's rule that a government information officer listen in on his interviews with reporters and its refusal to allow him to be interviewed by National Public ...
Israel a Hotbed of Internet Attacks, Report Says
Post Date: 2007-03-19 17:09:52 by Tauzero
1 Comments
Israel has the dubious honor of being home to the most malicious Internet activity per Internet user, according to Symantec's twice-yearly Internet Security Threat Report. The latest report, covering the second half of 2006, was just released today. This was the first time Symantec measured how much activity like spam origination, phishing site hosting and bot-infected computers could be attributed to an average Internet user. From July through December, 9 percent of all such activity traced back to Israel. Taiwan came next with 8 percent, while Poland and the US tied with 6. Dave Cole, Director of the Symantec security response team, says it doesn't mean that viruses and phishing ...
Germany Automakers' Hybrid Efforts Plagued by Technical Problems
Post Date: 2007-03-18 12:04:21 by robin
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SPIEGEL ONLINE - March 16, 2007, 04:14 PM URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,472189,00.htmlCOMING LATE TO THE GAMEGermany Automakers' Hybrid Efforts Plagued by Technical ProblemsBy Christian Wüst German automakers will introduce hybrid cars into the market later than planned. Carmakers underestimated the difficulty of developing the sophisticated, environmentally friendly technology. DPA Toyota's Lexus LS 600h hybrid model at the Geneva Auto Salon: a pioneer in hybrid technology The first defeat was bad enough. It amounted to a collective recognition by executives at German car companies that they had misjudged the situation. More than two years ago ...
This time, China may get to moon 1st
Post Date: 2007-03-18 09:19:04 by a vast rightwing conspirator
3 Comments
This time, China may get to moon 1st By Traci Watson, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — China is on track to put humans on the moon before the United States can return there, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told a House panel Thursday. If NASA continues to receive its current level of funding, it will return astronauts to the moon in 2019, Griffin told the House Science and Technology Committee. A "few billion extra" dollars would allow NASA to send crews to the moon in 2017, he said. President Bush ordered NASA to send humans back to the moon by 2020 for the first time since 1972. Griffin said it "would be easily possible" for the Chinese to put humans on the lunar ...
'Cave entrances' spotted on Mars
Post Date: 2007-03-17 23:17:27 by F.A. Hayek Fan
3 Comments
Nasa release on the topography of the south polar region of Mars Scientists studying pictures from Nasa's Odyssey spacecraft have spotted what they think may be seven caves on the surface of Mars. The candidate caves are on the flanks of the Arsia Mons volcano and are of sufficient depth their floors mostly cannot be seen through the opening. Details were presented here at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas. Temperature data from Mars Odyssey's Themis instrument support the idea. The authors say that the possible discovery of caves on the Red Planet is significant. The caves may be the only natural structures capable of protecting primitive life ...
Age of enlightenment
Post Date: 2007-03-17 15:07:02 by robin
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Age of enlightenment By Jonathan Duffy BBC News Magazine The days of the humble light bulb are numbered, with plans to phase it out by 2011 in favour of energy-saving bulbs. Before consigning it to the dustbin, it's worth reflecting on how this cheap and disposable piece of technology has changed the world. Asked to reflect on the recent backlash against Thomas Edison's pioneering "invention", his great-great-grand nephew strikes a positive note: "It's served us well for over 100 years", says Robert KL Wheeler. But as the inverted commas suggest, this is not the first time the humble light bulb has been fought over. Its very inception is a ...
Study Challenges Theories on Species
Post Date: 2007-03-16 18:25:27 by Tauzero
1 Comments
Study Challenges Theories on Species By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID Friday, March 16, 2007 WASHINGTON - More species develop in warm, tropical climates or cooler, temperate areas? It turns out the longtime answer _ the tropics _ may be wrong. True, more different types of animals exist there than in places farther from the equator. New research suggests that is because tropical species do not die out as readily. Cooler regions have a higher turnover rate, with more species developing but also more becoming extinct. "It's a surprising result," Jason T. Weir of the zoology department at the University of British Columbia said in a telephone interview. The findings by Weir and Dolph ...
Vista activation cracked by brute force
Post Date: 2007-03-14 20:33:48 by boonie rat
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Vista activation cracked by brute force Sledgehammered By Charlie Demerjian: Thursday 01 March 2007, 17:15 IT LOOKS LIKE Microsoft's unhackable OS activation malware has been hacked. There is an active thread at the Keznews forums (account needed), and a summary on its main page about the crack. It is a simple brute force attack, dumb as a rock that just tries keys. If it gets one, you manually have to check it and try activation. Is is ugly, takes hours, is far from point and click, but it is said to work. I don't have any Vista installs because of the anti-user licensing so I have not tested it personally. The method of attack has got to be quite troubling for MS on many ...
Scientists Find Seas on Saturn's Moon
Post Date: 2007-03-13 21:12:49 by Brian S
3 Comments
(03-13) 17:37 PDT LOS ANGELES, (AP) -- Scientists for the first time have discovered what appear to be sea-size bodies of liquid on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, including one about as big as the Caspian Sea on Earth. The discovery by the international Cassini spacecraft was welcomed by researchers, who have long theorized that Titan possessed hydrocarbon seas because of methane and other organic compounds in its thick, largely nitrogen atmosphere. Until now, Cassini had only spotted clusters of small lakes on the planet-size moon. "They're very obvious. There's nothing subtle about them," said Cassini scientist Jonathan Lunine of the University of ...
The Cult of Pharmacology
Post Date: 2007-03-12 06:17:51 by Ada
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The Cult of Pharmacology: How America Became the World’s Most Troubled Drug Culture by Richard DeGrandpre. Durhan, NC: Duke University Press, 2006. x + 294 pp, ISBN 0-8223-3881-5, $25 (hardback). Richard DeGrandpre might be familiar to you as the author of Ritalin Nation. Ritalin comes in for much attention by detailed comparison with cocaine. Both are said to produce the same mental effects to the point where Ritalin is called "synthetic cocaine." A main theme of this book is that Ritalin is considered an "ethical" drug and an angel in dealing with ADHD, while cocaine is considered a "street" drug and a demon; this artificial difference had nothing to do ...
Texans Tornado Threat - Heads Up
Post Date: 2007-03-11 18:47:13 by IndieTX
4 Comments
Poster Comment:
BERLIN GOES 3D IN GOOGLE EARTH
Post Date: 2007-03-10 18:22:14 by robin
1 Comments
SPIEGEL ONLINE - March 9, 2007, 04:07 PM URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,470720,00.htmlBERLIN GOES 3D IN GOOGLE EARTHClick Your Way through the Brandenburg GateBy Holger Dambeck and Christian Stöcker As though one Berlin were not enough. A virtual 3D tour of the German capital at Google Earth is the first of its kind. Soon, the site hopes to add a historical tour as well. Berlin has gone virtual. As of Thursday morning, the German capital - from the gigantic Alexanderplatz TV tower right down to the potholes in the side streets -- can be seen in Google Earth. The virtual visitor can even enter the new Berlin Central Station and marvel at the Reichstag. Other landmarks ...
Sick people used like laboratory rats in GM trials
Post Date: 2007-03-10 09:54:45 by DeaconBenjamin
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Genetically modified potatoes developed by Monsanto, the multinational biotech company, have been fed to sick patients in an experiment. Rats that ate similar potatoes in the research suffered reductions in the weight of their hearts and prostate glands. Dr Michael Antoniou, reader in molecular genetics at Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine, said use of humans was "irresponsible and totally unethical, especially when already ill subjects were enrolled. These people truly were guinea pigs." Other scientists said the trials were too short, on too few people, to give meaningful results of long-term effects. Monsanto said the vegetables were safe, and the ...
Don't Mention The Polar Bears, Bush Tells US Scientists
Post Date: 2007-03-10 00:39:35 by Brian S
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Published: 10 March 2007 The Bush Administration has been accused once again of gagging US government scientists by getting them to agree not to talk about polar bears, sea ice and climate change during official overseas trips. A leaked memorandum issued by a regional director of the US Department of the Interior states that officials within the US Fish and Wildlife Service will limit their discussions when travelling in countries bordering the Arctic region because of sensitivities about climate change. "This traveller understands the administration's position on climate change, polar bears and sea ice and will not be speaking on or responding to these issues," says the ...
Facts you should know about hemp
Post Date: 2007-03-09 06:09:45 by YertleTurtle
2 Comments
Fuel: * Planting 6% of the continental U.S. with biomass crops would satisfy all America's energy needs. * Hemp is Earth's number-one biomass resource; it is capable of producing 10 tons per acre in four months. * Biomass can be converted to methane, methanol, or gasoline at a cost comparable to petroleum, and hemp is much better for the environment. * Hemp can produce 10 times more methanol than corn. * Hemp fuel burns clean. Petroleum causes acid rain due to sulfur pollution. * The use of hemp fuel does not contribute to global warming. Food: * Hemp seed can be pressed into a nutritious oil, which contains the highest amount of fatty acids in the plant kingdom. Essential oils ...
Some common sense on global warming
Post Date: 2007-03-06 05:52:30 by YertleTurtle
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This is going to be a busy day. I still have tomorrow's installment of Chaos Manor Reviews to get done. It's Monday meaning I have to roll over View and Mail. There's a lot of news that should get comments; and Niven has taken a short pass through Inferno meaning I need to merge his version and mine. And I managed to get some fiction done Saturday, I am eager to get at it today, but I have an appointment this afternoon right in the middle of my prime writing time. I don't think I will get it all done. I did manage to do a bit more work on the short comment I had about The Jesus Tomb; rather than start over, I added a bit to what I wrote yesterday. I hope that will count. ...
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