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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
GLOBAL WARMING? IT’S THE COLDEST WINTER IN DECADES
Post Date: 2008-02-19 20:43:11 by farmfriend
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GLOBAL WARMING? IT’S THE COLDEST WINTER IN DECADES By Tony Bonnici NEW evidence has cast doubt on claims that the world’s ice-caps are melting, it emerged last night. Satellite data shows that concerns over the levels of sea ice may have been premature. It was feared that the polar caps were vanishing because of the effects of global warming. But figures from the respected US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that almost all the “lost” ice has come back. Ice levels which had shrunk from 13million sq km in January 2007 to just four million in October, are almost back to their original levels. Figures show that there is nearly a third more ice in ...
Global warming impact may be overstated
Post Date: 2008-02-19 20:40:47 by farmfriend
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Global warming impact may be overstated Scientists have discovered that glaciers survived for hundreds of thousands of years during an era when crocodiles roamed the Arctic, reports Roger Highfield The most pessimistic predictions of sea level rises as ice sheets are melted by global warming may have to be scaled back as a result of an extraordinary discovery that ice persisted when the Earth was much hotter than today. Scientists have discovered that glaciers survived for hundreds of thousands of years during an extraordinary era when crocodiles roamed the Arctic and the tropical Atlantic Ocean was as warm as human blood. They had thought that Earth was ice free during the so called ...
CU laser device analyzes breath to detect disease
Post Date: 2008-02-19 17:41:05 by farmfriend
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CU laser device analyzes breath to detect disease By Katy Human The Denver Post The Greek doctor Hippocrates sniffed the breath of his patients for clues about their health — 2,400 years ago. Now, Boulder physicists have developed a more precise way to study the air we exhale, they reported Monday. Their new laser-based technique could someday be used to diagnose cancer before it spreads, catch an ulcer before it deepens or identify early diabetes, said Jun Ye and Mike Thorpe at the University of Colorado at Boulder. By blasting breath samples with laser light, the scientists could cheaply and simultaneously measure dozens of chemicals, they said. "We really hope this is a ...
Lunar Eclipse to Occur Wednesday Night
Post Date: 2008-02-19 14:39:20 by Tauzero
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Lunar Eclipse to Occur Wednesday Night By ALICIA CHANG LOS ANGELES (AP) — The last total lunar eclipse until 2010 occurs Wednesday night, with cameo appearances by Saturn and the bright star Regulus on either side of the veiled full moon. Skywatchers viewing through a telescope will have the added treat of seeing Saturn's handsome rings. Weather permitting, the total eclipse can be seen from North and South America. People in Europe and Africa will be able to see it high in the sky before dawn on Thursday. As the moonlight dims — it won't go totally dark — Saturn and Regulus will pop out and sandwich the moon. Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation ...
UH scientists observe flipping star
Post Date: 2008-02-19 13:30:36 by Tauzero
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UH scientists observe flipping star By Helen Altonn haltonn@starbulletin.com A University of Hawaii astronomer and international colleagues caught the star tau Bootis flipping its magnetic field from north to south, similar to the sun's magnetic behavior. "Now, for the first time, we are probing the magnetic cycles of stars other than the sun," said Evgenya Shkolnik, of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the University of Hawaii-Manoa Institute for Astronomy. It is the first time such a change in magnetic field has been seen in a star other than the sun, the researchers said, reporting their work in the British journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. ...
Gregg Braden: Awakening to Zero Point, video, pt 1
Post Date: 2008-02-19 10:53:50 by gengis gandhi
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'Frog from hell' fossil unearthed
Post Date: 2008-02-18 17:54:35 by robin
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'Frog from hell' fossil unearthed Artist's impression of the "frog from hell" Enlarge Image A 70-million-year-old fossil of a giant frog has been unearthed in Madagascar by a team of UK and US scientists. The creature would have been the size of a "squashed beach ball" and weighed about 4kg (9lb), the researchers said. They added that the fossil, nicknamed Beelzebufo or "frog from hell", was "strikingly different" from present-day frogs found on the island nation. Details of the discovery are reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The team from University ...
NASA know-how helps swimmers rocket through water
Post Date: 2008-02-18 17:38:44 by Tauzero
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USA : NASA know-how helps swimmers rocket through water February 18, 2008 World champion swimmer Michael Phelps knows a thing or two about swimsuits. He owns 29 U.S. national swimming titles and won six gold medals and two bronze at the last Summer Olympics four years ago in Australia. NASA researcher Steve Wilkinson doesn't know that much about swimwear, but he does know a thing or two about drag reduction … how to make something propel through air or water faster and more efficiently. The swimmer and the researcher met for the first time in New York City at the unveiling of a new product they both had a part in developing. It's called by its manufacturer the ...
It's time to herald the Arabic science that prefigured Darwin and Newton
Post Date: 2008-02-18 16:01:23 by robin
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It's time to herald the Arabic science that prefigured Darwin and Newton In this era of intolerance and cultural tension, the west needs to appreciate the fertile scholarship that flowered with Islam Jim Al-Khalili Wednesday January 30, 2008 The Guardian Watching the daily news stories of never-ending troubles, hardship, misery and violence across the Arab world and central Asia, it is not surprising that many in the west view the culture of these countries as backward, and their religion as at best conservative and often as violent and extremist. I am on a mission to dismiss a crude and inaccurate historical hegemony and present the positive face of Islam. It has never been more ...
Shark species face extinction amid overfishing and appetite for fins
Post Date: 2008-02-17 21:57:33 by robin
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Call for marine reserves to protect migration hotspots as scientists fear decline will affect other species
A scalloped hammerhead shark. Photograph: Stephen Frink/Corbis
Nine more species of shark are to be added to the endangered list as scientists warn that oceans are being emptied of the fish by overfishing and finning.
The scalloped hammerhead shark, which has declined by 99% over the past 30 years in some parts of the world, is particularly vulnerable and will be declared globally endangered on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) list.
"Sharks are definitely at the top of the list for marine fishes that could go extinct in our lifetimes," said Julia Baum of the Scripps ...
Canada's oil sands a massive disaster: green group
Post Date: 2008-02-17 21:34:55 by angle
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OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's massive oil sands are "the most destructive project on earth" and the federal government must intervene to clean up the mess, a leading green group said on Friday. Environmental Defence said excavation of the oil sands in the western province of Alberta -- home to the richest petroleum deposits outside the Middle East -- is producing vast amounts of greenhouse gases and poisoning local water supplies. "This is Canada's problem -- our federal elected leaders need to clean it up or shut it down," said Aaron Freeman of Environmental Defence. The group called on the Conservative government to impose a firm cap on emissions from the oil ...
Oceanic Dead Zones Off West Coast are the 'New Normal'
Post Date: 2008-02-17 14:56:48 by robin
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Millions of dead crabs are washing up onto Oregon and Washington state beaches from the offshore "dead zone". Ever since it was first noticed by crab fishermen who hauled up hundreds of dead and dying crabs in 2002, the "dead zone" that popped up in the waters along the northwestern coastal shelf just off the coast of Oregon has claimed unknown millions of lives. This oxygen-depleted region has transformed formerly rich seafloor communities teeming with life into vast graveyards filled with the bodies of crabs, echinoderms, molluscs, sea worms and other creatures. This carnage was easily visible to a team of research scientists from Oregon State University, who ...
Fish devastated by sex-changing chemicals in municipal wastewater
Post Date: 2008-02-17 10:48:11 by angle
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While most people understand the dangers of flushing toxic chemicals into the ecosystem through municipal sewer systems, one potentially devastating threat to wild fish populations comes from an unlikely source: estrogen. After an exhaustive seven-year research effort, Canadian biologists found that miniscule amounts of estrogen present in municipal wastewater discharges can decimate wild fish populations living downstream. The research, led by Dr. Karen Kidd, an NSERC-funded biology professor at the University of New Brunswick (Saint John) and the Canadian Rivers Institute, confirms that synthetic estrogen used in birth control pills can wreak havoc on the sex lives of fish. Small ...
Taps for HD DVD as Wal-Mart Backs Blu-ray
Post Date: 2008-02-16 17:36:06 by Dakmar
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SAN FRANCISCO — HD DVD, the beloved format of Toshiba and three Hollywood studios, died Friday after a brief illness. The cause of death was determined to be the decision by Wal-Mart to stock only high-definition DVDs and players using the Blu-ray format. The format war confounded and frustrated consumers in Tokyo, above, and elsewhere. There are no funeral plans, but retailers and industry analysts are already writing the obituary for HD DVD. The announcement by Wal-Mart Stores, the nation’s largest retailer of DVDs, that it would stop selling the discs and machines in June when supplies are depleted comes after decisions this week by Best Buy, the largest electronics ...
Arctic Melt Yields Hints of Bigger U.S. Seabed Claim
Post Date: 2008-02-16 14:07:05 by robin
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February 12, 2008, 9:20 am Arctic Melt Yields Hints of Bigger U.S. Seabed Claim By Andrew C. Revkin The warming of the Arctic has created all kinds of strange twists, as The Times has been reporting for years now. Video On the one hand, the dramatic shortening of the deep-frozen season on the North Slope of Alaska — when the tundra is firm enough to drive on — has made it harder for oil companies to send out their seismic survey teams to seek new petroleum deposits. (Some environmentalists have noted that this is a rare instance when global warming seems to have worried oil companies.) On the other, however, the big recent summer retreats of the floating sea ice on the ...
Where have all the sunspots gone?
Post Date: 2008-02-16 12:03:29 by farmfriend
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Where have all the sunspots gone? I’m writing this after doing an exhaustive search to see what sort of solar activity has occurred lately, and I find there is little to report. With the exception of the briefly increased solar wind from a coronal hole, there is almost no significant solar activity. The sun has gone quiet. Really quiet. It is normal for our sun to have quiet periods between solar cycles, but we’ve seen months and months of next to nothing, and the start of Solar cycle 24 seems to have materialized (as first reported here) then abruptly disappeared. The reverse polarity sunspot that signaled the start of cycle 24 on January 4th, dissolved within two days after ...
Sick Truth About Shrinks !
Post Date: 2008-02-16 03:46:47 by noone222
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I remember a recently admitted patient, nose-to-nose with his psychiatrist, screaming at her "you don't know what I'm going through - how the fuck do you know what it's like little missy?". The psychiatrist finished the discussion, saying she'd come back to him later, and after a brief pause to collect herself, moved on to the next patient in the ward round. It is still an incredibly vivid memory for me, partly because everyone else in the room knew that the psychiatrist had been a patient herself, as she had a lifetime's worth of experience dealing with her own mental health issues. Study after study has shown that psychiatrists have higher rates of mental ...
Bill would require California's science curriculum to cover climate change
Post Date: 2008-02-15 19:58:34 by farmfriend
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Bill would require California's science curriculum to cover climate change SOME THINK SCIENCE ISN'T DEFINITIVE ENOUGH TO TEACH By Paul Rogers Mercury News Article Launched: 02/15/2008 01:42:53 AM PST Reading, writing and . . . global warming? A Silicon Valley lawmaker is gaining momentum with a bill that would require "climate change" to be among the science topics that all California public school students are taught. The measure, by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, also would mandate that future science textbooks approved for California public schools include climate change. "You can't have a science curriculum that is relevant and current if it ...
Dr. Katherine Albrecht (RFID Expert) visits the Infamous Baja Beach Club (Where Club Patrons were Chipped)
Post Date: 2008-02-14 12:15:30 by Artisan
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Dr. Katherine Albrecht (RFID Expert) visits the Infamous Baja Beach Club (Where Club Patrons were Chipped) Dr. Katherine Albrecht, co-author of the best-selling book 'SPYCHIPS How Major Corporations Plan to Track your Every Move with RFID' and director of CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) has a daily radio show on WE THE PEOPLE RADIO NETWORK. She holds a Doctorate in Education from Harvard University with a research focus in consumer education, privacy and psychology. WTPRN just re-ran a program from October 22, 2007 in which Dr. Albrecht talks about attending a 'RECALLING RFID' Conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.During ...
New meat-eating dinos identified
Post Date: 2008-02-14 05:17:42 by robin
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New meat-eating dinos identified Eocarcharia dinops had teeth shaped like blades Enlarge Image Two previously unknown types of meat-eating dinosaur have been identified from fossils unearthed in the Sahara desert in Niger. The new carnivore fossils have been described by a researcher from the University of Bristol working with palaeontologists from the US. One of the dinosaurs probably scavenged its prey like a hyena, the other probably hunted live animals. Details appear in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. The fossilised remains of two 110-million-year-old carnivorous dinosaurs were found along the western edge of the Tenere Desert in Niger ...
Cell Phone Gun
Post Date: 2008-02-13 22:25:45 by Horse
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Poster Comment:Can anyone at 4um explain how this is done? I am not in the market for a cell phone gun. You would have to be almost on top of the target to hit anything.
Rat genes shed light on ancient human migrations
Post Date: 2008-02-13 18:01:37 by Tauzero
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Rat genes shed light on ancient human migrations 15:16 01 February 2008 NewScientist.com news service Emma Young One of humanity’s greatest scourges – the black rat – may help health experts track the spread of disease. New work probing Rattus rattus’s origins and historical movements should help health officials track its ongoing dispersal – and might also explain anomalies in its spread of diseases such as typhus and plague. Ken Aplin at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Canberra, Australia, and colleagues have analysed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of 170 black rats from 76 regions in 32 countries. They also surveyed other Rattus species to probe the ...
Microbial 'cheaters' help scientists ID 'social' genes
Post Date: 2008-02-13 16:26:42 by Tauzero
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Microbial 'cheaters' help scientists ID 'social' genes Genome-wide search for social genes turns up more than 100 cheaters HOUSTON, Feb. 13, 2008 -- The first genome-wide search for genes governing social behavior has found that even the simplest social creatures -- the amoebae Dictyostelium discoideum -- have more than 100 genes that help regulate their cooperative behavior. The study by scientists at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) was published online this week by the journal Nature. It marks one of the first large-scale attempts to combine evolutionary biology with genomics in a systematic search for genes tied to social behavior. "This pool ...
Call to scrap 'anti-teen' device (UK)
Post Date: 2008-02-12 01:46:21 by robin
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Call to scrap 'anti-teen' device The device sends out a high-pitched, irritating noise A high-pitched device used to disperse teenagers is being challenged by campaigners, who say it is not a fair way to treat young people. There are estimated to be 3,500 of the devices, known as the mosquito, in use across the country. Their sound causes discomfort to young ears - but their frequency is above the normal hearing range of people over 25. The Children's Commissioner for England says they should be scrapped as they infringe the rights of young people. Negative views The devices have proved popular with councils and police who use them to disperse ...
UAE starts work on world's first zero-carbon city
Post Date: 2008-02-11 06:58:00 by Ada
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The oil-rich United Arab Emirates was set to start work on Sunday on construction of the world's first zero carbon emissions city, a spokesman for the project said. "Construction on Masdar City begins today," the spokesman told AFP, adding that the 6.5-square-kilometre (2.5-square-mile) development will cost 22 billion dollars and is set for completion in 2015. Masdar City will house 50,000 people and will be run entirely on renewable energy including solar power, exploiting the desert state's near constant supply of sunshine. The city, which is named after the Arabic word for "source", will be built in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi. Residents will use ...
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