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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
No-Till Farming Helps Capture Snow and Soil Water
Post Date: 2012-08-31 02:30:07 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2012) — A smooth blanket of snow in the winter can help boost dryland crop productivity in the summer, and no-till management is one way to ensure that blanket coverage, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) research. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) soil scientist David Huggins conducted studies to determine how standing crop residues affect snow accumulation and soil water levels across entire fields. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency, and this work supports the USDA priority of responding to climate change. Huggins, who works at the ARS Land Management and Water Conservation Research Unit in Pullman, Wash., ...
Does Wisdom Really Come With Age? It Depends On the Culture
Post Date: 2012-08-31 02:15:04 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2012) — "Wisdom comes with winters," Oscar Wilde once said. And it's certainly comforting to think that aging benefits the mind, if not the body. But do we really get wiser as time passes? There are many way to define what exactly wisdom is, but previous literature suggests that having wisdom means that you are also good at resolving conflict. But conflict is not handled the same way across cultures. Americans have been shown to emphasize individuality and solve conflict in a direct manner, such as by using direct persuasion. In contrast, the Japanese place a greater emphasis on social cohesion, and tend to settle conflict more indirectly, ...
Shading Earth: Delivering Solar Geoengineering Materials to Combat Global Warming May Be Feasible and Affordable
Post Date: 2012-08-31 02:02:35 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Aug. 29, 2012) — A cost analysis of the technologies needed to transport materials into the stratosphere to reduce the amount of sunlight hitting Earth and therefore reduce the effects of global climate change has shown that they are both feasible and affordable. Published August 31, 2012, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, the study has shown that the basic technology currently exists and could be assembled and implemented in a number of different forms for less than USD $5 billion a year. Put into context, the cost of reducing carbon dioxide emissions is currently estimated to be between 0.2 and 2.5 per cent of GDP in the year 2030, which ...
Witching for Water
Post Date: 2012-08-29 10:04:08 by Lod
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By DAVID MERCER Associated Press (AP:CHAMPAIGN, Ill.) Well driller Randy Gebke usually uses a geology database and other high-tech tools to figure out where to sink new water wells for clients. But if asked, he'll grab two wires, walk across the property, waiting for the wires to cross to find a place to drill. Gebke is water witching, using an ancient method with a greater connection to superstition than science. Thousands of wells have gone dry this summer in the worst drought the nation has experienced in decades. Some homeowners are spending as much as $30,000 to have new ones drilled, and Gebke said most potential customers in his area expect water witching to be part the deal. ...
Are Conservatives Irrational?
Post Date: 2012-08-29 06:57:05 by Ada
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The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science—and Reality, Chris Mooney, 327 pages Chris Mooney believes conservatives are wrong about many more important issues than are liberals. Like any principled science writer, he’s also certain he could be wrong. Had Mooney chosen a less insulting title, he might have convinced a few conservatives to consider his positions on climate change, evolution, and President Obama’s healthcare program. Of course, he’d also sell fewer books. He and his publisher know their audience, just as Ann Coulter and Jonah Goldberg know theirs. Mooney admits that he has little hope of changing conservative minds through education. His 20 ...
US destroys original basis of internet: Analyst
Post Date: 2012-08-29 00:31:29 by Tatarewicz
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A political analyst says that the US government has been destroying “the very original basis of the internet,” as they launch cyber attacks against its perceived opponents. In an interview with Press TV, Paul Sheldon Foote criticized the American authorities for conducting the hacking tactic, believing “the dream of internet” has been hurt by the country’s warmongers. “When the Internet was first promoted in this country, the defense analysts said we’re doing this to make the world safer by having servers around the world and by having important information dispersed around the world -- any single attack on America or someplace else would not wipe out ...
After 32,000 Years, an Ice Age Flower Blooms Again
Post Date: 2012-08-28 14:45:26 by PSUSA2
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This campion plant grew from a 32,000-year-old fruit.AP/Institute of Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Deep in the frozen tundra of northeastern Siberia, a squirrel buried fruits some 32,000 years ago from a plant that bore white flowers. This winter a team of Russian scientists announced that they had unearthed the fruit and brought tissue from it back to life. The fruits are about 30,000 years older than the Israeli date palm seed that previously held the record as the oldest tissue to give life to healthy plants. The researchers were studying ancient soil composition in an exposed Siberian riverbank in 1995 when they discovered the first of 70 fossilized Ice Age squirrel ...
Salt-and-water battery could help plug renewables gap
Post Date: 2012-08-28 03:58:33 by Tatarewicz
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Australian researchers have developed a sodium-ion-based battery which, they say, has the potential to solve one of sustainable energy’s greatest challenges – storing energy cheaply ‘offline’ after it has been generated. Dr Manickam Minakshi and Dr Danielle Meyrick from Western Australia’s Murdoch University point out that, while the efficiency of wind and solar technologies has improved rapidly, the problem of storage has yet to be solved. ‘The central obstacle facing sustainable energy is unreliability. Wind turbines don’t turn on a still day. Solar doesn’t work at night and can be hampered in the day by cloud, dust or snow coverage,’ Dr ...
Will.I.Am Teams With NASA to Broadcast Song From Mars
Post Date: 2012-08-27 17:06:38 by freepatriot32
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New tune 'Reach for the Stars' is part of an educational event Will.I.Am has teamed with NASA and Discovery Education for a special educational event that includes a new song that will be broadcasted from the Curiosity rover on Mars. "Reach for the Stars," a cosmic tribute from the Black Eyed Peas leader, will premiere at a special event tomorrow starting 1 p.m. PDT at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. For more information, including a live stream of the event, visit NASA's website.
Neil Armstrong: 1930-2012
Post Date: 2012-08-25 20:00:23 by X-15
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Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, has died, following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures. He was 82. Armstrong's words "That is one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind," spoken on July 20, 1969, as he became the first person ever to step onto another planetary body, instantly became a part of history. Those few words from the Sea of Tranquillity were the climactic fulfillment of the efforts and hopes of millions of people and the expenditure of billions of dollars. A plaque on one of the lander's legs that concluded "We came in peace for all mankind," further emphasized that ...
3D Printed Car May Not Be Too Far Off
Post Date: 2012-08-25 05:38:59 by Tatarewicz
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There used to be an old anti-piracy commercial that would exclaim, “You wouldn’t download a car.” A popular response would be, “I would if I could.” That sentiment has been carried throughout the years and into the modern era of affordable 3D printing. Many people would print their own car, tools or other objects if they only could. It turns out that cars are finally making their way into the world of 3D printers. Audi, one of the foremost car manufacturers in the world, is already dabbling in 3D printers for quick prototyping. The engineers can quickly create parts for vehicles for cars to see how they look in the finished product. As of now, they’re only ...
Sony’s New Reader Lets Users Share and Borrow
Post Date: 2012-08-25 03:43:37 by Tatarewicz
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The new Sony Reader PRS-T2, introduced Aug. 16, uses an E-ink display and integrates with Facebook and Evernote, where readers can share excerpts from their books. It also connects to more than 15,000 public libraries to borrow books. The Reader sells for $129.
China Exclusive: Scientist pins hope on new evidence for universe's origin
Post Date: 2012-08-24 03:41:57 by Tatarewicz
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BEIJING, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Charles Bennett, winner of the 2012 Gruber Cosmology Prize, has devoted himself to the detection of new evidence for inflation, the theorized rapid expansion of the universe that occurred in the very first moments after its birth. "We don't know how to detect gravitational waves very well, but we can detect their impact - polarization," the 55-year-old astrophysicist from Johns Hopkins University said at the 28th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) held in Beijing from Aug. 20 to 31. The inflation theory postulates that the universe expanded far faster than the speed of light and grew exponentially almost ...
Are the Eyes the Key to a New Test for Alzheimer's Disease?
Post Date: 2012-08-23 03:58:26 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Aug. 22, 2012) — A simple eye tracking test could hold the key to earlier Alzheimer's diagnosis, according to new research published August 22 in the Journal of the American Aging Association. Work, led by Lancaster University in partnership with Royal Preston Hospital, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS foundation trust, has shown that people with Alzheimer's disease have difficulty with one particular type of eye tracking test. As part of the study, 18 patients with Alzheimer's disease, 25 patients with Parkinson's disease, 17 healthy young people and 18 healthy older people were asked to follow the movements of light on a computer monitor, but in ...
New Aerogel-Based Plaster Provides Better Insulation: Space Technology for Old Buildings
Post Date: 2012-08-23 03:43:46 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Aug. 21, 2012) — Old buildings are beautiful -- and hard to insulate. Empa and the Swiss render manufacturer Fixit AG together developed a new Aerogel-based plaster that provides twice the insulation of currently used insulating renders. The product should come onto the market next year. There are one and a half million old buildings in Switzerland. We have to live with these buildings -- indeed we want to live with them. Yet at the same time the country's energy consumption is increasing. According to the Federal Office of Energy, 4.5 million tonnes of light fuel oil and 3 million cubic metres of natural gas are imported every year, 43 percent of which goes up the ...
Robot Workers Taking Over Global Industry
Post Date: 2012-08-22 05:09:48 by Tatarewicz
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Politicians ramble about how America needs to return to our manufacturing roots in order to reboot our sunken economy. But, what if it's too late? What if a super-group of the world's most highly-trained, strongest, tireless, and resilient workers has upstaged not only America's manufacturers, but the world's? If you know anything about modern day robots, you probably know that this is a real concern. As a new and ever-improving wave of skilled robots enter the global workforce, factories across the globe will be forever changed. Off the coast of China in Crachten, the Netherlands, there's a famous factory known as Philips Electronics. They maintain hundreds of ...
Researchers identify semen protein that acts on female brain
Post Date: 2012-08-22 04:06:07 by Tatarewicz
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Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan have identified a hormone in semen that nudges a woman's body to ovulate. It's a finding that could potentially open up new testing and treatment of infertility in both women and men, and might explain some "oops" babies. In a new study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Saskatoonbased researchers and their colleagues in Chile went sleuthing in llamas and cows for the identity of a seminal fluid protein they'd previously found that sends a signal to a female's brain. That signal prompts the female brain to release hormones that stimulate ovulation. Veterinary biomedical ...
Brain's Code for Pronouncing Vowels Uncovered
Post Date: 2012-08-22 02:22:59 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Aug. 21, 2012) — Scientists at UCLA and the Technion, Israel's Institute of Technology, have unraveled how our brain cells encode the pronunciation of individual vowels in speech. Published in the Aug. 21 edition of Nature Communications, the discovery could lead to new technology that verbalizes the unspoken words of people paralyzed by injury or disease. "We know that brain cells fire in a predictable way before we move our bodies," explained Dr. Itzhak Fried, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "We hypothesized that neurons would also react differently when we pronounce specific sounds. If so, we may one ...
Microscopic molecule determines human intelligence
Post Date: 2012-08-22 00:07:48 by Tatarewicz
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University of Colorado scientists have identified a minute particle inside a protein that is responsible for human intelligence. Researchers suggest that this microscopic molecule makes the human to become the most intelligent creature on earth, stressing that DUF1220 can explain why human brains are bigger and more complex than any other animals. Compared with other species, human brain’s ratio to body size is significantly larger and has a much greater cerebral cortex, the area that has a higher concentration of neurons and controls higher thought processes. “The size and cognitive capacity of the human brain sets us apart, we want to know how did that happen?” said ...
Sun cycle - C2C upcoming program
Post Date: 2012-08-21 06:11:25 by Tatarewicz
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Wednesday, August 22, 2012: In the first half, Prof. Ramon E. Lopez will discuss how over the next two years, as the sun reaches a peak in its 10-year activity cycle, there could be a heightened risk that a whopping solar storm could knock out the power grids, satellites, and communications. In the second half, scholar, award-winning poet, Jungian psychoanalyst, and cantadora (keeper of the old stories in the Latina tradition), Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes will discuss the recent rash of shootings and why they could be manifestations of evil on both psychological and spiritual levels. Hosted by George Noory.
Big Bang Theory Challenged by Big Chill
Post Date: 2012-08-21 04:44:36 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Aug. 20, 2012) — The start of the Universe should be modeled not as a Big Bang but more like water freezing into ice, according to a team of theoretical physicists at the University of Melbourne and RMIT University. They have suggested that by investigating the cracks and crevices common to all crystals -- including ice -- our understanding of the nature of the Universe could be revolutionized. Lead researcher on the project, James Quach said current theorizing is the latest in a long quest by humans to understand the origins and nature of the Universe. "Ancient Greek philosophers wondered what matter was made of: was it made of a continuous substance or was it ...
Insight: Experts hope to shield cars from computer viruses
Post Date: 2012-08-20 04:51:55 by Tatarewicz
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BOSTON, Aug. 20, 2012 (Reuters) — A team of top hackers working for Intel Corp's security division toil away in a West Coast garage searching for electronic bugs that could make automobiles vulnerable to lethal computer viruses. Intel's McAfee unit, which is best known for software that fights PC viruses, is one of a handful of firms that are looking to protect the dozens of tiny computers and electronic communications systems that are built into every modern car. It's scary business. Security experts say that automakers have so far failed to adequately protect these systems, leaving them vulnerable to hacks by attackers looking to steal cars, eavesdrop on ...
Brain's Mysterious Switchboard Operator Revealed
Post Date: 2012-08-18 04:45:04 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Aug. 17, 2012) — A mysterious region deep in the human brain could be where we sort through the onslaught of stimuli from the outside world and focus on the information most important to our behavior and survival, Princeton University researchers have found. The researchers report in the journal Science that an area of our brain called the pulvinar regulates communication between clusters of brain cells as our brain focuses on the people and objects that need our attention. Like a switchboard operator, the pulvinar makes sure that separate areas of the visual cortex -- which processes visual information -- are communicating about the same external information, explained ...
Novozymes of Denmark makes fungus to produce bio-chemicals from renewable materials
Post Date: 2012-08-17 02:54:15 by Tatarewicz
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COPENHAGEN, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Industrial enzyme manufacturer Novozymes of Denmark said here Thursday that it has developed a fungus that can be used to produce from renewable sources bio-chemicals useful in the plastics and other industries. The micro-organism will enable production of so-called bio-based malic acid, which will make possible production of plastic and other oil-derived products from renewable materials instead of mineral oil, the company said in a press statement. The company's Executive Vice President Thomas Videbaek described the technology as "our first biochemical building block," adding that "bio-chemicals produced from renewable raw materials ...
3D printing potential
Post Date: 2012-08-15 05:47:54 by Tatarewicz
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Some things are too phenomenal to tell you about... I have to show you. 3D Printer Isn't that cool? It's a 3D printer. And while this one is demonstrating how easy it is to replicate a Renaissance sculpture, they can be used to create almost any object imaginable... Jay Leno uses one to print hard-to-find parts for the dozens of classic cars in his collection.Jay Leno 3D Printer One was used to print out over 31,000 individual facial features for the upcoming animated 3D film ParaNorman. A Japanese company is even using 3D printers to make lifelike models of your unborn child. No more grainy ultrasound pictures on the fridge. Like I said, they can be used to make anything. ...
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