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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
New GMO rice high in iron, zinc
Post Date: 2011-09-15 05:07:57 by Tatarewicz
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White rice contains insufficient concentrations of iron, zinc and pro-vitamin A to meet daily nutritional requirements. Image: bo1982/iStockphoto Scientists from the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) have produced rice with high enough iron levels that it meets daily recommended requirements for iron intake. The team, based at the Universities of Adelaide, Melbourne and South Australia, and Flinders University, and funded by the Australian Research Council and HarvestPlus, genetically modified rice to increase the amount of iron that is transported to the endosperm of the grain (the part that people eat). This resulted in rice that has up to four times more iron ...
Bacteria spreading in warming oceans
Post Date: 2011-09-14 03:09:54 by Tatarewicz
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BRUSSELS (AP) — Warning: The warming of the world's oceans can cause serious illness and may cost millions of euros (dollars) in health care. That is the alarm sounded in a paper released online Tuesday on the eve of a two-day conference in Brussels. The 200-page paper is a synthesis of the findings of more than 100 projects funded by the European Union since 1998. It was produced by Project CLAMER, a collaboration of 17 European marine institutes. The paper says the rising temperature of ocean water is causing a proliferation of the Vibrio genus of bacteria, which can cause food poisoning, serious gastroenteritis, septicemia and cholera. "Millions of euros in health costs ...
8 Grams Of Thorium To Power A Car For More Than 300,000 Miles
Post Date: 2011-09-14 01:44:03 by farmfriend
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8 Grams Of Thorium To Power A Car For More Than 300,000 Miles By Vlad Balan September 5th, 2011 American company Laser Power Systems claims to have found the optimum solution to fuel all existing cars in the world at a much lower cost than petrol. And if you’re expecting this solution to be hydrogen, you’re wrong, it’s a radioactive element, called Thorium. According to the company’s scientists, the 90th element in the periodic table can be a great power source for cars. Even though the company’s officials didn’t release too much info about the technology, it’s definitely an electric powertrain, with the “conventional” Lithium-ion batteries ...
Powered by Seaweed: Polymer from Algae May Improve Battery Performance
Post Date: 2011-09-13 07:47:51 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2011) — By looking to Mother Nature for solutions, researchers have identified a promising new binder material for lithium-ion battery electrodes that not only could boost energy storage, but also eliminate the use of toxic compounds now used to manufacture the components. Known as alginate, the material is extracted from common, fast-growing brown algae. In tests so far, it has helped boost energy storage and output for both graphite-based electrodes used in existing batteries and silicon-based electrodes being developed for future generations of batteries. The research, the result of collaboration between scientists and engineers at Clemson University and the ...
Ocean Acidity Linked to Mass Extinction
Post Date: 2011-09-11 01:26:55 by Tatarewicz
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Remember the ammonites? We don’t either. A new Canadian study suggests that the greatest mass extinction ever may have been caused by high acidity in the ocean. Roughly 250 million years ago, back when we were all one massive super-continent, a mysterious force took out 90% of the Earth’s species. Scientists have long speculated about the cause, often blaming Siberian volcanoes or meteorites, though no one solidified with certainty the mechanism by which the animals were killed. According to St. Francis Xavier University researcher Alvaro Montenegro, it could well have been rising levels of acidity in the ocean, which can alter the way animals create their bodies from ocean ...
Prognosticative computer
Post Date: 2011-09-10 07:05:57 by Tatarewicz
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Feeding a supercomputer with news stories could help predict major world events, according to US research. A study, based on millions of articles, charted deteriorating national sentiment ahead of the recent revolutions in Libya and Egypt. While the analysis was carried out retrospectively, scientists say the same processes could be used to anticipate upcoming conflict. The system also picked up early clues about Osama Bin Laden's location. Kalev Leetaru, from the University of Illinois' Institute for Computing in the Humanities, Arts and Social Science, presented his findings in the journal First Monday. Mood and location The study's information was taken from a range of ...
UK - US give fusion power another shot
Post Date: 2011-09-09 07:14:53 by Tatarewicz
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UK has formally joined forces with a US laser lab in a bid to develop clean energy from nuclear fusion. Unlike fission plants, the process uses lasers to compress atomic nuclei until they join, releasing energy. The National Ignition Facility (Nif) in the US is drawing closer to producing a surplus of energy from the idea. The UK company AWE and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have now joined with Nif to help make laser fusion a viable commercial energy source. At a meeting this week sponsored by the Institute of Physics and held at London's Royal Society, a memorandum of understanding was announced between the three facilities. The meeting attracted scientists and industry ...
Moving forward with lab-grown meat protein
Post Date: 2011-09-08 05:46:23 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2011) — Late last week, an international group of scientists took a step closer to their goal to produce cultured meat. They agreed on important common positions about how to bring the research forward during a workshop in Gothenburg, Sweden, arranged by Chalmers University of Technology and the European Science Foundation. Many technology components are now coming into place in order to realize the concept of cultured meat. This includes a cell source that is possible to use, several alternative processes to turn these cells into muscle cells for meat, and nutrients free of animal components which can be produced from sunlight and carbon dioxide. In addition, a ...
Japanese breakthrough will make wind power cheaper than nuclear
Post Date: 2011-09-07 23:19:11 by GreyLmist
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A surprising aerodynamic innovation in wind turbine design called the 'wind lens' could triple the output of a typical wind turbine, making it less costly than nuclear power. Snapshot from video NOTE: Some major wind projects like the proposed TWE Carbon Valley project in Wyoming are already pricing in significantly lower than coal power -- $80 per MWh for wind versus $90 per MWh for coal -- and that is without government subsidies using today's wind turbine technology. The International Clean Energy Analysis (ICEA) gateway estimates that the U.S. possesses 2.2 million km2 of high wind potential (Class 3-7 winds) — about 850,000 square miles of land that could yield ...
Lunar orbiter finds footprints on the moon
Post Date: 2011-09-07 14:12:30 by Ada
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A NASA lunar orbiter has, for the first time ever, returned photographs showing footprints and tire tread marks on the surface of the moon, as left there decades ago by the Apollo astronauts. NASA said it was looking into protecting the lunar “heritage sites” from possible damage from future spacefaring vehicles, as the imprints left by mankind’s first extra-terrestrial vacation will remain — if untouched — for over a million years thanks to a distinct lack of wind or other weather patterns on the moon. This video is from Reuters, published Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011. Click for Full Text!
Japan scientists make body tissues transparent
Post Date: 2011-09-07 08:10:01 by Tatarewicz
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All the new breakthroughs in microscopy we’ve seen recently are designed to help scientists see deeper, inside individual cells and into the depths of the brain. Of course, this would be easier to do if there wasn’t a bunch of other tissue blocking the cells you want to see. Japanese researchers have a new solution: Make it all transparent. A new chemical reagent makes the brain see-through, allowing fluorescent tags to light up neurons and blood vessels deep inside. This enables 3-D images of entire structures, without having to cut anything away or divide anything into smaller sections. It doesn’t work on living tissue, at least not yet — researchers at RIKEN, ...
Milky Way Could Be Loaded With Time Bombs
Post Date: 2011-09-07 07:13:05 by Tatarewicz
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White dwarfs scattered throughout our galaxy could be ticking time bombs ready to explode as Type Ia supernovae once their rapid spins slow down. These burned out old stars usually weigh up to 1.4 times the sun's mass, a measurement known as the Chandrasekhar mass. If a white dwarf was heavier, gravity would compact it, causing nuclear fusion and a supernova. Extra mass could be acquired via two white dwarfs merging or gas accretion from a companion star, the more likely scenario, but evidence in support of this theory is scarcely seen in Type Ia supernovae. No donor stars have been found, and traces of hydrogen and helium near supernovae are absent, even though small amounts of ...
Texas Fires Update
Post Date: 2011-09-05 19:32:57 by Lod
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Fires update from TAMU forest service at URL. This is totally out of control. Screw the watering restrictions here, water will be run this evening.
Mediaeval 'Black Death' linked to present plague
Post Date: 2011-09-05 09:20:25 by Tatarewicz
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A much less virulent version of the Black Death plague that killed a third of Europe's population in the 14th century is still present today, according to a German study published Tuesday. DNA testing on the skeletons of plague victims unearthed in a mediaeval London mass grave reveals part of the same gene sequence as the modern bubonic plague, despite its different attributes. "At least this part of the genetic information has barely changed in the past 600 years" said Johannes Krause, one of the authors of the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "Without a doubt, the plague pathogen known today as (yersinia) pestis was ...
Soil bacteria helps kill cancers
Post Date: 2011-09-05 07:07:40 by Tatarewicz
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A bacterium found in soil is a showing promise as a way of delivering cancer drugs into tumours. Spores of the Clostridium sporogenes bacterium can grow within tumours because there is no oxygen. UK and Dutch scientists have been able to genetically engineer an enzyme into the bacteria to activate a cancer drug. Experts said it would be some time before the potential benefits of the work - presented to the Society of Microbiology - were known. The work is being presented to the society's autumn conference at the University of York. The spores grow only within solid tumours, such as breast, brain and prostate tumours and not in other tissue in the body, where oxygen is present. ...
Electric motor made from a single molecule
Post Date: 2011-09-05 06:59:14 by Tatarewicz
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Researchers have created the smallest electric motor ever devised. The motor, made from a single molecule just a billionth of a metre across, is reported in Nature Nanotechnology. The minuscule motor could have applications in both nanotechnology and in medicine, where tiny amounts of work can be put to efficient use. Tiny rotors based on single molecules have been shown before, but this is the first that can be individually driven by an electric current. "People have found before that they can make motors driven by light or by chemical reactions, but the issue there is that you're driving billions of them at a time - every single motor in your beaker," said Charles ...
Childhood’s End … and the End of Camping, Too
Post Date: 2011-09-04 18:10:50 by X-15
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To me, the most haunting image in Richard Dolan and Bryce Zabel’s new book A.D. After Disclosure is this paragraph (p. 86): There is … a story offered by a high-level intelligence official about a UFO briefing President Carter received in June 1977. It was unknown to the source what specifics were discussed, only that when the President was seen in his office, he was sobbing, with his head in his hands, nearly on his desk. It was clear that the President was deeply upset. The authors of A.D. offer a very persuasive prediction for how humans will react to the knowledge of “Others” visiting or living on our planet. But while they comprehensively summarize the various ...
AIDS Invaded U.S. in 1969
Post Date: 2011-09-03 13:03:45 by Turtle
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New evidence that a St. Louis teen-ager died of AIDS in 1969 suggests that the AIDS virus may have been introduced into the United States several times before touching off the current epidemic, according to experts in disease transmission. Until now, many experts have assumed that the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome first appeared in the country sometime in the mid-1970's. Evidence indicates to many experts that the disease originated before then in Africa, although this has not been proved. The patient, identified only as Robert R., died in 1969 of an illness that baffled his doctors at Washington University in St. Louis. They published a paper in 1984 ...
Top Swiss science prize goes to molecular dynamics
Post Date: 2011-09-03 06:56:35 by Tatarewicz
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An Italian-born physicist has been awarded Switzerland’s top science prize for his work on molecular dynamics, it was announced on Thursday. Michele Parrinello, who holds posts at both the University of Italian-speaking Switzerland and at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, will be presented with the Marcel Benoist prize on November 28. Molecular dynamics is the computer simulation of the physical movements of atoms and molecules. Parrinello’s work has applications in a many areas of physics, chemistry and biology. His findings have enabled industry to develop more efficient chemical processes and to develop new medicines. In quite a different area, they have been ...
Exciting stone tool find in Kenya
Post Date: 2011-09-02 03:05:57 by Tatarewicz
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The world's earliest sophisticated stone tools have been found near Lake Turkana in northwest Kenya. The teardrop-shaped hand-axes date to about 1.76 million years ago, and would have been used for a range of tasks from chopping wood to cutting up meat. They would have been so useful in fact that scientists describe them as the "Swiss army knife" of the Stone Age. Researchers tell the journal Nature that the tools were probably made by the human ancestor Homo erectus. This was a bigger-brained, smarter and more dextrous creature than any human species before it. Homo erectus ranged across Africa and Asia before going extinct about 70,000 years ago. Many suspect it was on ...
Scientists Use Cultured Stem Cells for Blood 'Self-Transfusion'
Post Date: 2011-09-02 01:49:41 by Tatarewicz
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THURSDAY, Sept. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers report that they used stem cells to create cultured red blood cells and then successfully injected the blood cells back into the human donor who provided the stem cells in the first place. The findings raise the possibility of creating individualized blood supplies without making people donate their own blood for storage before they need a transfusion, a potentially dicey situation if someone is ill. The researchers said that the cultured red blood cells created with the help of stem cells from the donor -- and then inserted back into the donor -- lived about as long as regular blood cells normally do. The study, the first to show that ...
Gut bacteria picky about what we eat: study
Post Date: 2011-09-02 00:23:47 by Tatarewicz
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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Gut bacteria -- colonies of bacteria that live in the human digestive tract -- appear to have fairly picky dining habits, with one type preferring high-fat, fast-food fare, and another preferring a high-fiber feast, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. Researchers are increasingly trying to understand the interplay of bacteria and their human hosts. "We know our human bodies are colonized with tons and tons of bacteria and other organisms. In your colon alone, you have more bacterial cells than you have human cells in your whole body," said Dr. James Lewis, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, who worked on the study published in the journal ...
Scientists use laser beams to control rainfall
Post Date: 2011-09-01 02:16:54 by Tatarewicz
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In a discovery that may have weather forecasters the world over eyeing the job vacancy websites, scientists at the University of Geneva in Switzerland claim to have found a way to control the weather using laser beams. According to the results of a study published in the Nature Communications journal this week, the researchers have found a way of using laser beams to make water droplets in the air through a method called laser-assisted water condensation. This is a safer method than current rain-inducing techniques, which fill the air with tiny particles of dry ice and silver iodide. With laser-assisted water condensation, nitric acid particles are formed when powerful laser beams are ...
pecialized Adult Stem Cells Re-Grow Fingertips
Post Date: 2011-09-01 00:36:48 by Tatarewicz
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WEDNESDAY, Aug. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Specialized adult stem cells make it possible for mammals to re-grow the tips of injured fingers or toes, rather than a "jack of all trades" cell type formed in response to serious injury, a new study shows. Researchers from Stanford University found the regenerating stem cells are tissue-specific, meaning each has a particular job regenerating bone, skin, tendon, vessels or nerves. The findings call into question a popular theory that damaged extremities are regenerated by a bump of cells considered "pluripotent," meaning that they are able to grow into a variety of cell types. This versatile bump of repair cells is called a ...
Chinese want to capture an asteroid into Earth's orbit
Post Date: 2011-08-31 08:31:51 by Tatarewicz
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While most astronomers seem to be understandably worried about the best way to steer asteroids away from Earth, Chinese scientists are instead trying to figure out how they can capture nearby asteroids into Earth orbit. And then mine them. At first glance, nudging an asteroid closer to Earth seems like one of those "what could possible go wrong" scenarios that we generally try and avoid, and for good reason: large asteroid impacts are bad times. The Chinese, though, seem fairly optimistic that they could tweak the orbit of a near-Earth asteroid by just enough (a change in velocity of only about 1,300 feet-per-second or so) to get it to temporarily enter Earth orbit at about ...
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