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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
Loss of Arctic ice leaves experts stunned
Post Date: 2007-09-05 01:51:48 by robin
17 Comments
The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at record lows, scientists have announced. Experts say they are "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as the UK disappearing in the last week alone. So much ice has melted this summer that the Northwest passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and observers say the Northeast passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month. If the increased rate of melting continues, the summertime Arctic could be totally free of ice by 2030. Mark Serreze, an Arctic specialist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre at ...
A Google phone is the talk of the blogosphere
Post Date: 2007-09-04 17:43:22 by robin
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TECHNOLOGY A Google phone is the talk of the blogosphere No outsider can prove it exists, and the company won't comment, but rumors are rife that a possible iPhone killer could be out by next year. By Jessica Guynn Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 4, 2007 The Google Phone is like the Roswell UFO: Few outsiders know if it really exists, but it's got a cult following. Just months after iPhone mania gripped Silicon Valley gadget heads, suspense is building over reports that Google Inc. plans to release its own cellphone. The blogosphere is buzzing with rumors that the search giant may announce Linux-based mobile software as early as this week and a Google phone, which ...
Scientists find elusive waves in sun's corona
Post Date: 2007-09-03 20:46:24 by farmfriend
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Scientists find elusive waves in sun's corona Discovery can help unlock secrets of corona's heat, solar storms BOULDER--Scientists for the first time have observed elusive oscillations in the Sun's corona, known as Alfvén waves, that transport energy outward from the surface of the Sun. The discovery is expected to give researchers more insight into the fundamental behavior of solar magnetic fields, eventually leading to a fuller understanding of how the Sun affects Earth and the solar system. The research, led by Steve Tomczyk of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), is being published this week in Science. "Alfvén waves can provide us with ...
At Rapleaf, your personals are public
Post Date: 2007-09-03 18:25:16 by mirage
5 Comments
In the cozy Facebook social network, it's easy to have a sense of privacy among friends and business acquaintances. But sites like Rapleaf will quickly jar you awake: Everything you say or do on a social network could be fair game to sell to marketers. Rapleaf, based in San Francisco, is building a business on that premise. The privately held start-up, whose investors include Facebook-backer and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, runs two consumer Web sites: http://Rapleaf.com, a people search engine that lets you retrieve the name, age and social-network affiliations of anyone, as long as you have his or her e-mail address; and http://Upscoop.com, a similar site to discover, en masse, ...
Talks on Climate Change Impact in Africa
Post Date: 2007-09-02 15:27:48 by farmfriend
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Talks on Climate Change Impact in Africa By DOUG MELLGREN, Associated Press Writer OSLO, Norway - Climate change could worsen Africa's struggle to feed itself, but simple steps _ a cistern to catch rainwater, a solar panel, or hardier seeds for crops _ could help the continent's subsistence farms, specialists and activists said Friday. About 250 researchers, donors, and officials met in Oslo this week for the Second Green Africa Revolution Conference, which follows up a 2004 challenge from former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to revolutionize African farming. Africa imports about 25 percent of its food, and one in three of its residents suffer chronic hunger, according to a ...
Coming Next Week: Colony Collapse Disorder Breakthrough
Post Date: 2007-09-02 12:59:32 by Eoghan
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The first break in the CCD mystery is about to be released. Researchers at Penn State, the USDA and Columbia University have had a research paper accepted by Science magazine that outlines the first published information on a possible cause of Colony Collapse Disorder commonly known as CCD. But Science and for the most part the researchers are being tight-lipped about what's in that paper. The secrecy surrounding this research has been extraordinary and some of the activities of the researchers has left us scratching our heads. One of the scientists let on a few weeks ago in a small farming magazine that what they had found was a virus, or viruses supposedly previously unknown in ...
Industrial nations shy away from stiff 2020 goals
Post Date: 2007-08-31 10:32:20 by richard9151
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57 minutes ago VIENNA (Reuters) - Industrial nations were shying away from fixing stiff 2020 guidelines for greenhouse gases cuts at U.N. talks on Friday in what environmentalists said would be a vote for "dangerous" climate change. A draft text at the U.N. talks dropped a demand that developed nations should be "guided" by a need for steep cuts in greenhouse gases of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 in working out a long-term fight against global warming. "There are a limited number of problems still with the text," said Yvo de Boer, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat. He predicted a compromise by the end of the August 27-31 talks ...
Why talking to plants may not make you such a Charlie after all ( scientists said they had found "a set of sound-responsive genes in plants")
Post Date: 2007-08-30 11:49:32 by gengis gandhi
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Why talking to plants may not make you such a Charlie after all IAN JOHNSTON ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT (ijohnston@scotsman.com) WHEN Prince Charles suggested plants responded to his words of endearment, it was dismissed by many as eccentric nonsense. But now researchers in South Korea claim to have discovered evidence that the heir to the throne may have been right all along. The scientists said they had found "a set of sound-responsive genes in plants" in what other experts said would be an astonishing finding. Plants are known to respond to light, temperature, touch and vibration, and the South Korean team, led by Dr Mi-Jeong Jeong, decided to investigate whether they could ...
Car Disabling Device Would Put An End To Police Chases
Post Date: 2007-08-28 19:52:11 by Brian S
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In the future, high-speed police chases across the country could end with a zap and an arrest, rather than a crash and an injury. An Ann Arbor-based research and development company, Cybernet Systems, is working on a device that police could use to beam a signal from their patrol car to the one they are chasing, which would disable its computer system and stop the car. And Jackson may play a large role in its testing and production. "It's a big deal," Sparton Corp. President and CEO David Hockenbrocht said. "Not only for the community, but for our company." Hockenbrocht sits on the board of Cybernet. Jackson-based Sparton owns 14 percent of the company, he said. ...
NOAA Blames Hot Year on Greenhouse Gases
Post Date: 2007-08-28 18:39:17 by farmfriend
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NOAA Blames Hot Year on Greenhouse Gases by RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer WASHINGTON - "We have met the enemy, and he is us," the comic-strip character Pogo said decades ago. A new analysis of last year's near-record temperatures in the United States suggests he was right. Warming caused by human activity was the biggest factor in the high temperatures recorded in 2006, according to a report by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The analysis, released Tuesday, is being published in the September issue of Geophysical Research Letters, published by the American Geophysical Union. In January, NOAA's National Climatic Data Center ...
Cornell researchers clone aluminum-tolerance gene in sorghum
Post Date: 2007-08-27 18:46:21 by farmfriend
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Cornell researchers clone aluminum-tolerance gene in sorghum, promising boost to crop yields in developing world By Krishna Ramanujan When soils are too acidic, aluminum that is locked up in clay minerals dissolves into the soil as toxic, electrically charged particles called ions, making it hard for most plants to grow. In fact, aluminum toxicity in acidic soils limits crop production in as much as half the world's arable land, mostly in developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America. Now, Cornell researchers have cloned a novel aluminum-tolerant gene in sorghum and expect to have new genetically-engineered aluminum-tolerant sorghum lines by next year. The research, to be ...
Panel: It's not cheap or easy to turn green
Post Date: 2007-08-26 23:32:12 by Ferret Mike
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If you want to live in a truly green house in Eugene you've got to be rich, panelists at the Cascadia EcoFair said Saturday. That's because building codes and land use requirements are so complex that builders must hire a team of professionals to work through them, and the cost puts the green American dream out of reach for most homeowners, they said. "To really engage in sustainable practices becomes a bit of an elitist thing. It's not something readily accessible to the common people," said Ravi Logan, a yoga and meditation teacher who started the Dharmalaya Center in Eugene. The three-day fair on a farm north of Coburg featured a host of workshops, including the ...
'Thin-layer' solar cells may bring cheaper 'green' power
Post Date: 2007-08-25 18:11:39 by farmfriend
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Contact: Alex Thomas media.relations@durham.ac.uk 01-913-346-075 Durham University 'Thin-layer' solar cells may bring cheaper 'green' power Scientists are researching new ways of harnessing the sun’s rays which could eventually make it cheaper for people to use solar energy to power their homes. The experts at Durham University are developing light-absorbing materials for use in the production of thin-layer solar photovoltaic (PV) cells which are used to convert light energy into electricity. The four-year project involves experiments on a range of different materials that would be less expensive and more sustainable to use in the manufacturing of solar panels. ...
University of Minnesota astronomers find gaping hole in the Universe
Post Date: 2007-08-25 17:51:54 by farmfriend
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University of Minnesota astronomers find gaping hole in the Universe Contact: David Ruth druth@umn.edu 612-624-1690 University of Minnesota University of Minnesota astronomers have found an enormous hole in the Universe, nearly a billion light-years across, empty of both normal matter such as stars, galaxies and gas, as well as the mysterious, unseen “dark matter.” While earlier studies have shown holes, or voids, in the large-scale structure of the Universe, this new discovery dwarfs them all. “Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even expected to find one this size,” said Lawrence Rudnick of the University of Minnesota astronomy professor. ...
How three Swedish geeks became Hollywood's Number One enemy
Post Date: 2007-08-25 11:20:29 by robin
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How three Swedish geeks became Hollywood's Number One enemy Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent Guardian Unlimited Saturday August 25 2007 Hollywood's image of piracy has been altered by the internet Operating under the sign of a Jolly Roger, The Pirate Bay website hopes to evoke a buccaneer spirit: swashbuckling swordsmen, or perhaps the pirate radio stations of the 1960s. But as the internet's number one destination for illegal downloads, it has raised the hackles of the entertainment industry and elevated its founders to the top of Hollywood's most wanted list.With more than two million visitors every day, The Pirate Bay has become one of the sharpest ...
European Parliament: question on aircraft condensation trails which no longer only contain water
Post Date: 2007-08-25 07:42:30 by InsideJob
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Parliamentary acts 04:03 pm - Saturday European Parliament: question on aircraft condensation trails which no longer only contain water Strasbourg, France - By Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) (WAPA) - "Written question E-2455/07 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission Subject: aircraft condensation trails which no longer only contain water but cause persistent milky veils, possibly due to the presence of barium, aluminium and iron 1) Is the Commission aware that, since 1999, members of the public in Canada and the USA have been complaining about the growing presence in the air of aircraft condensation trails of a new type, which sometimes persist for hours and which spread far more widely ...
Scientists Induce Out-of-Body Sensation
Post Date: 2007-08-24 21:45:34 by Zipporah
7 Comments
Using virtual reality goggles, a camera and a stick, scientists have induced out-of-body experiences — the sensation of drifting outside of one’s own body — - in healthy people, according to experiments being published in the journal Science. Skip to next paragraph http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/08/23/science/23body.ready.html', '23body_ready', 'width=670,height=493,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')">Enlarge This Imagehttp://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/08/23/science/23body.ready.html', '23body_ready', 'width=670,height=493,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')"> Tej Tadi A representation of ...
Creationist Perspectives on Antediluvian (Pre-flood) Civilizations
Post Date: 2007-08-24 00:23:44 by richard9151
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I have noted two of the many files that are available at this site, which includes pictures. Enjoy. CRETACEOUS HAMMER In June of 1934, members of the Hahn family discovered this rock with wood protruding from it. They chiseled it open, exposing the hammer head. The artifact was found near London Texas by a waterfall on Red Creek. This site is part of a large geographical zone called the Edwards Plateau and it primarily consists of Cretaceous rock. Several miles upstream, masses of fossils are found that match the fossils in this concretion. The artifact is now part of the collection at Creation Evidences Museum where it has been extensively analyzed. The handle is fossilized with a ...
Strange Artifacts.... from before the Great Flood?
Post Date: 2007-08-24 00:12:29 by richard9151
2 Comments
This site is pretty interesting, and shows things that science would rather, and act as if, did not exist. Enjoy. Introduction Official position of science presents the picture of the past in which humanity started from primitive beginnings, and steadily progressed upward in the development of culture and science. Most of the artifacts preserved in archaeological and geological records have been neatly arranged to fit this accepted linear view of our past. Yet many other unearthed "out-of-place artifacts" create obvious contradictions to the conservative picture of antiquity. They don't fit the established pattern of prehistory, pointing back instead to the existence of ...
Explorer Finds Evidence of Life Before Great Flood
Post Date: 2007-08-23 23:53:54 by richard9151
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. explorers said on Wednesday they have found signs of human habitation hundreds of feet below the Black Sea where a catastrophic flood occurred about 7,500 years ago, which some scientists say is linked to the biblical story of Noah. Explorer Robert Ballard, famous for discovering the wreck of the Titanic, said his National Geographic expedition found a ''rectangular structure,'' possibly that of a building, about 310 feet below the sea's surface, indicating people lived there before a massive flood inundated the area. "We now know people were living on that surface when that event (the big flood) took place because we are now finding ...
Modern Cosmology: Science or Folktale?
Post Date: 2007-08-23 23:39:14 by rack42
2 Comments
Current cosmological theory rests on a disturbingly small number of independent observations It appears that everybody is interested in cosmology. In one anthropological study, every one of the more than 60 separate cultures examined was found to have several common characteristics, including "faith healing, luck superstitions, propitiation of supernatural beings, … and a cosmology." Apparently, to be human is to care how the physical world came to be, whether it has boundaries and what is to become of it. Modern cosmology is a highly sophisticated subject funded by governments with hundreds of millions of dollars a year. It is unquestionably interesting, but is it, even ...
Google puts universe online
Post Date: 2007-08-23 15:50:07 by robin
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Google puts universe online By Frank D. Roylance Sun reporter August 23, 2007 Imagine having millions of stars and planets at your fingertips, without spending thousands on a telescope or shivering all night under a cold, dark sky. The universe is online, available from the comfort of your computer chair. It's a feature that Google developers, in collaboration with astronomers, have added to Google Earth, the Web site that provides millions of users with bird's-eye views of their home planet. Sky at Google Earth, which made its debut in cyberspace early yesterday, turns Googlers around and aims their eyes toward the heavens, with user-friendly tools for navigating and zooming ...
Scientists drug-test whole cities
Post Date: 2007-08-23 11:39:04 by kiki
6 Comments
WASHINGTON - Researchers have figured out how to give an entire community a drug test using just a teaspoon of wastewater from a city's sewer plant. The test wouldn't be used to finger any single person as a drug user. But it would help federal law enforcement and other agencies track the spread of dangerous drugs, like methamphetamines, across the country. Oregon State University scientists tested 10 unnamed American cities for remnants of drugs, both legal and illegal, from wastewater streams. They were able to show that they could get a good snapshot of what people are taking. "It's a community urinalysis," said Caleb Banta-Green, a University of Washington drug ...
UCF physicist says Hollywood movies hurt students' understanding of science
Post Date: 2007-08-22 02:43:09 by farmfriend
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UCF physicist says Hollywood movies hurt students' understanding of science Contact: Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala zkotala@mail.ucf.edu 407-823-6120 University of Central Florida Movies such as Spiderman 2 and Speed generate excitement among audiences with their cool special effects. But they also defy the laws of physics, contributing to students’ ignorance about science. Two University of Central Florida professors show just how poorly Hollywood writers and directors understand science in an article published in the German journal “Praxis der Naturwissenschaften Physik.” Common sense may indicate that people should know the stunts in movies are just make believe, but the ...
New catalysts may create more, cheaper hydrogen
Post Date: 2007-08-22 02:25:36 by farmfriend
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New catalysts may create more, cheaper hydrogen ARGONNE, Ill. (Aug. 20, 2007) – A new class of catalysts created at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory may help scientists and engineers overcome some of the hurdles that have inhibited the production of hydrogen for use in fuel cells. Argonne chemist Michael Krumpelt and his colleagues in Argonne's Chemical Engineering Division used "single-site" catalysts based on ceria or lanthanum chromite doped with either platinum or ruthenium to boost hydrogen production at lower temperatures during reforming. "We've made significant progress in bringing the rate of reaction to where ...
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