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Latest Articles: Science-Technology
Plasmons Create Beautiful Full-Color Holograms
Post Date: 2011-04-07 22:29:54 by A K A Stone
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By harnessing the power of tiny waves dancing in an electron sea, Japanese physicists have developed a novel way to project holograms that don’t change color when you move your head. “In a conventional hologram, if you change the angle, the color changes,” said optical physicist Satoshi Kawata of Osaka University in Japan. “Our hologram shows natural color at any angle you observe.” The researchers’ machine takes advantage of how beams of light trigger waves of activity in free electrons, unattached to any atom, arrayed on a metal surface. Called surface plasmons, these waves could be used to blast cancer cells and build ultra-fast computer processors. They ...
Political Views Are Reflected in Brain Structure
Post Date: 2011-04-07 21:01:13 by jwpegler
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We all know that people at opposite ends of the political spectrum often really can't see eye to eye. Now, a new report published online on April 7th in Current Biology, reveals that those differences in political orientation are tied to differences in the very structures of our brains. Individuals who call themselves liberal tend to have larger anterior cingulate cortexes, while those who call themselves conservative have larger amygdalas. Based on what is known about the functions of those two brain regions, the structural differences are consistent with reports showing a greater ability of liberals to cope with conflicting information and a greater ability of conservatives to ...
Once Upon a Time, the Universe Was Really Weird
Post Date: 2011-04-04 21:35:47 by Sebastian
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Today, looking out across a seemingly boundless cosmos filled with an unimaginable variety of exotic objects, it's easy to forget that the Universe we currently admire is the product of a violent event that occurred 13.75 billion years ago. As we know, the leading theory for universal birth is the Big Bang, where everything came from nothing, in a single energetic burst of inexplicable creation. So, if we turn back the clock back 13.75 billion years, what would we see? PROBING THE FABRIC OF THE UNIVERSE WITH THE LHC My instinct would be to say "energy, the Universe was filled with pure, violent energy," but according to some mind-bending work by Jonas Mureika from Loyola ...
Critics' review unexpectedly supports scientific consensus on global warming
Post Date: 2011-04-04 14:05:10 by Skip Intro
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A UC Berkeley team's preliminary findings in a review of temperature data confirm global warming studies. A team of UC Berkeley physicists and statisticians that set out to challenge the scientific consensus on global warming is finding that its data-crunching effort is producing results nearly identical to those underlying the prevailing view. The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project was launched by physics professor Richard Muller, a longtime critic of government-led climate studies, to address what he called "the legitimate concerns" of skeptics who believe that global warming is exaggerated. But Muller unexpectedly told a congressional hearing last week that the ...
Consumer Reports: Chevy Volt doesn't make economic sense
Post Date: 2011-04-01 16:45:10 by jwpegler
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Consumer Reports recently wrote a scathing report on Government Motors new Wundercar -- the Chevy Volt. Consumer Reports concluded that: "When you are looking at purely dollars and cents, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. The Volt isn't particularly efficient as an electric vehicle and it's not particularly good as a gas vehicle either in terms of fuel economy." They are exactly right. In real world conditions, the Volt will go about 28 miles on a charge. It takes 3 to 4 hours to recharge it. Contrast that with the Tesla Roadster (made in America) which gets up to 245 miles on a charge and the upcoming Tesla Model S sedan, which will get up to 300 miles on a ...
Global Warming snow makes April Fools out of eco-fools [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-03-30 12:26:12 by Happy Quanzaa
87 Comments
No Joke: Snow Storm on Tap for April 1April Fool's! Or not. Yet another spring snow storm is slated to hit New Jersey on Friday. Computer models indicate parts of Connecticut and New York may also be in Mother Nature's wintry path, but it's still too early to tell. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch for Passaic, Union, Bergen and Essex counties in New Jersey from late Thursday night until 8 p.m. Friday. The watch also applies to southwest Connecticut and New York's lower Hudson Valley. The storm is expected to develop Thursday night off the Virginia coast and intensify Friday near the Jersey and southern New England coasts. Heavy snow is possible at ...
Did you know?
Post Date: 2011-03-27 08:33:12 by CZ82
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Did you know? If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on the right side of your mouth. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on the left side of your mouth. To make half a kilo of honey, bees must collect nectar from over 2 million individual flowers. Heroin is the brand name of morphine once marketed by 'Bayer'. Communications giant Nokia was founded in 1865 as a wood-pulp mill by Fredrik Idestam. Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult! People in nudist colonies play volleyball more than any other sport. Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952, but he declined. ...
2 Billion Alien Earths in our Galaxy Alone
Post Date: 2011-03-22 19:43:05 by jwpegler
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Roughly one out of every 37 to one out of every 70 sunlike stars in the sky might harbor an alien Earth, a new study reveals. These findings hint that billions of Earthlike planets might exist in our galaxy, researchers added. These new calculations are based on data from the Kepler space telescope, which in February wowed the globe by revealing more than 1,200 possible alien worlds, including 68 potentially Earth-size planets. The spacecraft does so by looking for the dimming that occurs when a world transits or moves in front of a star. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., focused on roughly Earth-size planets within the habitable zones of their stars ...
Want to quit queer? There'a an app for that.
Post Date: 2011-03-21 03:02:23 by Happy Quanzaa
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Apple under fire for 'gay conversion' appApple has come under fire for approving an "app" that offers guidance on how homosexual people can be "cured" and convert to heterosexuality. The "gay cure" application, designed to be used on Apple's hand-held devices, was created by and named after Exodus International, a religious organisation which believes in teaching "freedom from homosexuality through prayer and practicing conversion therapy". The app is offered free on Apple's iTunes online shop and was given a "4+" rating by the company, meaning it is not considered to contain objectionable content. A description of the app ...
Researchers: 100 Percent Green Energy Possible By 2050
Post Date: 2011-03-13 11:46:07 by lucysmom
29 Comments
snip Researchers from Stanford University and the University of California-Davis published their analysis in the journal Energy Policy. Measuring costs vs benefits The main challenges, say the authors, will be summoning the global will to make the conversion. "There are no technological or economic barriers to converting the entire world to clean, renewable energy sources," said author Mark Jacobson, a Stanford professor, saying it is only a question of "whether we have the societal and political will." Click for Full Text!
Another Massive Natural Gas Resource Becomes Available
Post Date: 2011-02-26 17:55:07 by Mad Dog
4 Comments
There is a huge reserve of natural gas already discovered, waiting for use and distributed worldwide. The reserves are simply natural gas that is naturally formed with other gases, mostly CO2, in high enough proportion that the natural gas isn’t economically useful. How much natural gas is up for conjecture. Contaminated gas reserves haven’t been logged or reported in great or accurate detail. But estimates range from 16% of the world’s total reserves on up to 30%. Keep in mind these are hypothetical estimates. How much gas has been drilled through and ignored could be far more than these estimates. Whatever the number is it hardly matters, it’s a huge resource if the ...
UPDATED: The HB Gary Email That Should Concern Us All
Post Date: 2011-02-18 12:07:08 by Skip Intro
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As I wrote yesterday , there is a leaked email that has gotten surprisingly little attention around here. It's the one where Aaron Barr discusses his intention to post at Daily Kos - presumably something negative about Anonymous, the hacking group. But that's not the email I'm talking about here. As I also mentioned yesterday, in some of the emails, HB Gary people are talking about creating "personas", what we would call sockpuppets. This is not new. PR firms have been using fake "people" to promote products and other things for a while now, both online and even in bars and coffee houses. But for a defense contractor with ties to the federal government, ...
Computational science ... Error (Global Warming)
Post Date: 2011-02-18 08:19:24 by Biff Tannen
5 Comments
When hackers leaked thousands of e-mails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, last year, global-warming sceptics pored over the documents for signs that researchers had manipulated data. No such evidence emerged, but the e-mails did reveal another problem — one described by a CRU employee named "Harry", who often wrote of his wrestling matches with wonky computer software. "Yup, my awful programming strikes again," Harry lamented in one of his notes, as he attempted to correct a code analysing weather-station data from Mexico. Although Harry's frustrations did not ultimately compromise CRU's work, his ...
Huge Solar Flare Jams Radio, Satellite Signals: NASA
Post Date: 2011-02-17 12:23:15 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON (AFP) – A powerful solar eruption that triggered a huge geomagnetic storm has disturbed radio communications and could disrupt electrical power grids, radio and satellite communication in the next days, NASA said. A strong wave of charged plasma particles emanating from the Jupiter-sized sun spot, the most powerful seen in four years, has already disrupted radio communication in southern China. The Class X flash -- the largest such category -- erupted at 0156 GMT Tuesday, according to the US space agency. "X-class flares are the most powerful of all solar events that can trigger radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms," disturbing telecommunications ...
Administration to Push for Small ‘Modular’ Reactors
Post Date: 2011-02-13 13:13:53 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s 2012 budget proposal will include a request for money to help develop small “modular” reactors that would be owned by a utility and would supply electricity to a government lab, people involved in the effort say. The department is hoping for $500 million over five years, half of the estimated cost to complete two designs and secure the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s approval. The reactors would be built almost entirely in a factory and trucked to a site like modular homes. In promoting the reactor, the administration’s immediate goal is to help the Energy Department meet a federal target for reducing its carbon dioxide ...
Navy Unveils New Bat-Winged Stealth Bomber; Unmanned X-47B is Military's Deadliest New Drone (VIDEO)
Post Date: 2011-02-07 19:03:22 by Murron
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Navy Unveils New Bat-Winged Stealth Bomber; Unmanned X-47B is Military's Deadliest New Drone (VIDEO) BY Philip Caulfield- DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER The Navy's new X-47B made its maiden flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California on Friday. Watch video below An unmanned, bat-winged stealth bomber made its first demo flight in California, marking the first step in the Navy's development of a new generation of killer drones. The experimental warplane, named the X-47B, took off from Edwards Air Force base, shot to 5,000 feet and flew a racetrack pattern over a dry lakebed during the 29-minute demo flight on Friday, the Navy said in a statement. "Today we got a glimpse ...
EXOPLANET BONANZA BOOSTS COUNT BY 1,200
Post Date: 2011-02-02 12:28:08 by jwpegler
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A NASA telescope taking a nose count of planets in one small neighborhood of the Milky Way registered more than 1,200 candidates, including dozens of planets residing in life-friendly orbits around their parent stars. Scientists have no way of knowing yet if any of the newly discovered planets are solid-body worlds like Earth. But the census, collected by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope after just four months of work, shows that small planets like Earth are much more prevalent than Jupiter-sized worlds and that multiple-planet systems are common. "We think we're seeing about 200 multi-planet systems," astronomer Daniel Fabrycky, with the University of California, Santa ...
GOP Budget Cutters on NASA: 8%…50%…It’s All Good [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-01-28 11:55:34 by Godwinson
60 Comments
GOP Budget Cutters on NASA: 8%…50%…It’s All Good Republican budget cutters are preparing to take an axe to the federal budget trunk — and anyone (low- income students, rocket scientists, the newly disabled) who gets in the way. It’s part of an effort to fulfill a campaign promise to cut $100 billion from domestic discretionary spending. Just how bad would the cuts be for NASA? Legislators are actually targeting $84 billion in cuts, a reduction of 18 percent that would return spending to 2008 levels. NASA’s funding would be cut about 8 percent from $18.93 billion to $17.4 billion. However, some Republicans outside of government are advocating a much steeper ...
Oil Spill Dispersants Don't Disappear
Post Date: 2011-01-26 15:07:44 by Brian S
17 Comments
By John Roach When nearly 800,000 gallons of a chemical dispersant were injected into the oil gushing from the busted wellhead on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico during last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster, nobody knew for sure what would happen. Now, scientists are getting their first answers, and the results are mixed.Tests for a key component of the chemical concoction reveal that the dispersant worked its way into the oil-laden plume in the deep ocean. The dispersant also stayed in the deep ocean and didn't rise toward the surface. But the chemical did not degrade as fast as scientists thought it would."It is hard for me at this point to say whether or not ...
Greenpeace Founder Questions Man-made Global Warming
Post Date: 2011-01-25 18:04:39 by jwpegler
9 Comments
Yellowstone Has Bulged as Magma Pocket Swells
Post Date: 2011-01-24 11:57:36 by Brian S
2 Comments
Yellowstone National Park's supervolcano just took a deep "breath," causing miles of ground to rise dramatically, scientists report. The simmering volcano has produced major eruptions—each a thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helens's 1980 eruption—three times in the past 2.1 million years. Yellowstone's caldera, which covers a 25- by 37-mile (40- by 60-kilometer) swath of Wyoming, is an ancient crater formed after the last big blast, some 640,000 years ago. (See "When Yellowstone Explodes" in National Geographic magazine.) Since then, about 30 smaller eruptions—including one as recent as 70,000 years ago—have filled the caldera ...
The Gaston Glock Story: Why Americans Love European Guns (American capitalism is not as innovative as European socialism)
Post Date: 2011-01-22 16:50:28 by Godwinson
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Edward Tenner The Gaston Glock Story: Why Americans Love European Guns Jan 12 2011, 2:11 PM ET < SNIP > Writing in the National Rifle Association's American Rifleman in 2009, Industry Insider columnist Cameron Hopkins provides background: The most significant innovations of the past 30 years, have all come from European gun companies. Even Ruger, the most innovative American gun manufacturer since World War II, has been playing catch up to the likes of Glock, HK, Beretta, Blaser, Sauer, and SIG. In the early 80s, the U.S. Armed Forces conducted a trial to replace the venerable 1911 pistol. An Italian gun came in first (Beretta) and a Swiss-designed, German-made gun was ...
Fruit fly nervous system provides new solution to fundamental computer network problem
Post Date: 2011-01-14 09:28:00 by go65
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The fruit fly has evolved a method for arranging the tiny, hair-like structures it uses to feel and hear the world that’s so efficient a team of scientists in Israel and at Carnegie Mellon University says it could be used to more effectively deploy wireless sensor networks and other distributed computing applications. With a minimum of communication and without advance knowledge of how they are connected with each other, the cells in the fly’s developing nervous system manage to organize themselves so that a small number of cells serve as leaders that provide direct connections with every other nerve cell, said author Ziv Bar-Joseph, associate professor of machine learning at ...
2010 Ties 2005 As Warmest Year On Record Worldwide
Post Date: 2011-01-12 12:20:08 by Brian S
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(01-12) 08:29 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) -- It's a tie: Government climate experts say last year equaled 2005 as the warmest year on record. According to the National Climatic Data Center, the average worldwide temperature was 1.12 degrees Fahrenheit (0.62 degree Celsius) above normal last year. That's the same as six years ago. Climate experts have become increasingly concerned about rising global temperatures over the last century. Most atmospheric scientists attribute the change to gases released into the air by industrial processes and gasoline-burning engines. In addition, the Global Historical Climatology Network said Wednesday that last year was the wettest on record. Rain and ...
Magnetic North Pole Shifts, Forces Runway Closures at Florida Airport
Post Date: 2011-01-07 13:06:25 by Brian S
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The planet's northern magnetic pole is drifting slowly but steadily towards Russia -- and it's throwing off planes in Florida. Tampa International Airport was forced to readjust its runways Thursday to account for the movement of the Earth's magnetic fields, information that pilots rely upon to navigate planes. Thanks to the fluctuations in the force, the airport has closed its primary runway until Jan. 13 to change taxiway signs to account for the shift, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The poles are generated by movements within the Earth's inner and outer cores, though the exact process isn't exactly understood. They're also constantly in flux, moving a ...
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