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Latest Articles: Science-Technology
Liftoff! SpaceX's Falcon 9 soars to orbit
Post Date: 2010-06-04 16:40:33 by go65
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SpaceX launched its first Falcon 9 rocket on an apparently successful maiden flight today. The 180-foot tall rocket soared off Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air ForceStation at 2:45 p.m., with only 15 minutes remaining in the four-hour launch window. The launch was widely seen as a litmus test of President Obama's controversial plan to shift the responsibility for launching U.S. astronauts from NASA to commercial space companies - even as SpaceX officials and analysts called that unfair pressure. Initial indications were that the launch proceeded as planned. SpaceX would not release the flight profile for the mission. But the rocket was programmed to fly due east into a ...
Goldi Understands Civil Engineering
Post Date: 2010-06-03 08:34:15 by Biff Tannen
4 Comments
#6. To: bluewater boats (#0) Puzzling. Sinkholes USUALLY occur when the sand in the area is no longer wet. Sand and water mix, and make for a stable foundation. When there is a drought, the water recedes, and the sand is not held in place any longer, sometimes when the water recedes, there are pockets it filled that empty, and the sand shifts and falls into it creating a sinkhole. I've never heard of a sinkhole that was created from too much water. Very curious. Maybe the Space Aliens did it to create a hole for their ships to fly into./s Goldi-Lox posted on 2010-06-01 12:52:20 ET
Poster Comment:At least she wasn't serious about the aliens. I think.
Space Shuttle Atlantis Lands For Final Time
Post Date: 2010-05-26 11:47:49 by Brian S
1 Comments
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Space shuttle Atlantis returned from its final voyage Wednesday, closing out a quarter-century flying career and safely bringing back six astronauts from a successful space station mission. "Twenty-five years, 32 flights and more than 120 million miles traveled. The legacy of Atlantis now in the history books," Mission Control's commentator announced at touchdown. About 1,200 guests - the maximum number allowed - lined the Kennedy Space Center runway for the conclusion to NASA's third-to-last shuttle flight. Employees wore white ribbons with the name "Atlantis" and its picture embossed in gold. Even the lead flight directors came in ...
NASA Ends Effort To Contact Phoenix Mars Lander
Post Date: 2010-05-25 00:53:54 by Brian S
1 Comments
(05-24) 20:21 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Phoenix lander will not rise again. NASA declared the three-legged spacecraft officially dead Monday after repeated failed attempts to regain contact. A recent image taken by an orbiting spacecraft appeared to show one of Phoenix's solar panels had collapsed from ice buildup. Phoenix landed near the Martian north pole on May 25, 2008, and successfully operated for five months — two months longer than planned — until sunlight at its far northern location waned. Scientists did not expect it to survive the Martian winter but continued to listen for any signs of life. "We had very little expectation of Phoenix recovering, but ...
Gulf Spill Looks 'Alarming' from Space, ISS Crew Says
Post Date: 2010-05-23 22:01:21 by Brian S
2 Comments
The 12 crew members currently occupying the International Space Station (ISS) said yesterday that the Gulf of Mexico oil slick looked very alarming and scary from space. Astronauts from NASA, RosCosmos and JAXA took a moment from their busy schedule as they were flying over the Gulf on May 18, and took numerous pictures of the devastation, which may help authorities in charge of the clean-up effort to their job better. The Expedition 23 members said that they experienced a lot of discomfort when seeing the scale of the spill, which US officials are struggling hard to contain. The Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible drilling rig, which operated only tens of miles south of the coasts of ...
Martin Gardner, 95, math and science writer, dies
Post Date: 2010-05-23 12:48:26 by Skip Intro
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Martin Gardner, 95, math and science writer, dies NORMAN, Okla. – Prolific mathematics and science writer Martin Gardner , known for popularizing recreational mathematics and debunking paranormal claims, died Saturday. He was 95. Gardner died Saturday after a brief illness at Norman Regional Hospital, said his son James Gardner . He had been living at an assisted living facility in Norman. Martin Gardner was born in 1914 in Tulsa, Okla., and earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at the University of Chicago. He became a freelance writer, and in the 1950s wrote features and stories for several children's magazines. His creation of paper-folding puzzles led to his ...
Church Warns Cell Scientists Not To Play God
Post Date: 2010-05-21 19:42:23 by Brian S
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ROME (AP) -- Catholic Church officials said Friday that the recently created first synthetic cell could be a positive development if correctly used, but warned scientists that only God can create life. Vatican and Italian church officials were mostly cautious in their first reaction to the announcement from the United States that researchers had produced a living cell containing manmade DNA. They warned scientists of the ethical responsibility of scientific progress and said that the manner in which the innovation is applied in the future will be crucial. "It's a great scientific discovery. Now we have to understand how it will be implemented in the future," Monsignor Rino ...
Gulf Oil Spill: First Attempt With Oil Containment Box FAILS, Blobs Of Tar Reach Shore
Post Date: 2010-05-08 21:55:25 by Skip Intro
11 Comments
Gulf Oil Spill: First Attempt With Oil Containment Box FAILS, Blobs Of Tar Reach Shore ON THE GULF OF MEXICO — A novel but risky attempt to use a 100-ton steel-and-concrete box to cover a deepwater oil well gushing toxic crude into the Gulf of Mexico was aborted Saturday after ice crystals encased it, an ominous development as thick blobs of tar began washing up on Alabama's white sand beaches. The setback left the mission to cap the ruptured well in doubt. It had taken about two weeks to build the box and three days to cart it 50 miles out then slowly lower it to the well a mile below the surface, but the frozen depths were too much for it to handle. Still, BP officials ...
Invisible Disaster Unfolding In Gulf of Mexico: Experts
Post Date: 2010-05-07 12:40:56 by Brian S
6 Comments
Oil may not yet be washing ashore in large quantities in Louisiana but an environmental disaster is already unfolding deep down in the Gulf of Mexico and in the swirling currents on its surface, experts warned Thursday. "Everyone is focusing on the beaches and coastal wetlands, which, goodness knows are important enough, but we're missing many of the already ongoing ecological effects of the spill," Doug Rader, chief ocean scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, told reporter. Louisianans and Floridians were warily watching their beaches and wetlands and laying down booms to trap any sludgy mixtures of oil and sea organisms that might wash ashore in key tourist and ...
El Nino Warming System That Delays Hurricanes Will Fade by June, U.S. Says
Post Date: 2010-05-07 11:46:24 by Brian S
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May 6 (Bloomberg) -- The Pacific Ocean warming phenomenon known as El Nino that helps retard development of Atlantic hurricanes will disappear by June, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center forecast said today. One-third of weather models indicate a La Nina, or cooling, may develop in its place. “These forecasts, in addition to various oceanic and atmospheric indicators, indicate a growing possibility of La Nina developing during the second half of 2010,” the center said on its website. El Nino is a warming that occurs every two to five years, on average, and lasts about 12 months. It is credited with making the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season the least active in 12 years, ...
Debunking The Impetuously Stupid
Post Date: 2010-05-06 10:08:05 by war
3 Comments
Giant oil-services provider Halliburton may be a primary suspect in the investigation into the oil rig explosion that has devastated the Gulf Coast, the Wall Street Journal reports. Though the investigation into the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon site is still in its early stages, drilling experts agree that blame probably lies with flaws in the "cementing" process -- that is, plugging holes in the pipeline seal by pumping cement into it from the rig. Halliburton was in charge of cementing for Deepwater Horizon. "The initial likely cause of gas coming to the surface had something to do with the cement," said Robert MacKenzie, managing director of energy and ...
Raytheon's Standard Missile-6 Program Begins Sea-Based Flight Testing
Post Date: 2010-05-05 13:53:41 by reaganisright
4 Comments
Raytheon Company's (NYSE: RTN) Standard Missile-6 begins sea-based flight testing this month, paving the way for initial operational capability (IOC) in 2011. "With its over-the-horizon protection, SM-6 increases the surface Navy's battlespace against air and cruise missile threats and offers protection for coalition forces ashore," said Frank Wyatt, Raytheon's vice president of Air and Missile Defense Systems product line. "These sea-based flight tests clear the way for Raytheon to deliver a critical capability to the warfighter by 2011." SM-6 takes full advantage of the legacy Standard Missile airframe and propulsion elements while incorporating advanced ...
Fears For Crops As Shock Figures From America Show Scale Of Bee Catastrophe [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2010-05-04 12:55:33 by Brian S
63 Comments
Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter. The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers. The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 33.8% last winter, according to the annual survey by ...
Facebook’s Bid to Socialise the Web (FWIW facebooks members)
Post Date: 2010-04-23 03:04:17 by Murron
10 Comments
Facebook’s Bid to Socialise the Web (FWIW facebooks members) Apr 22, 2010 Facebook’s bid to socialise the web Facebook has replaced its Facebook Connect platform with a new set of social plugins which will dramatically expand its presence across the web. Technology and Digital Media Correspondent Published: 10:34AM BST 22 Apr 2010 Facebook announced a whole host of new features at its annual F8 conference in San Francisco. Photo: AP Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, introduced the new tools, which are part of the company’s Open Graph strategy at yesterday’s annual F8 developer conference in San Francisco. The plugins are an attempt to extend Facebook’s ...
Toshiba, Bill Gates May Sell Nuclear Reactors
Post Date: 2010-03-24 11:25:57 by Brian S
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March 23, 2010 - 4:39PM A company backed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Toshiba are in early talks to jointly develop a small nuclear reactor, the Japanese electronics giant said Tuesday. The Nikkei business daily earlier reported that the two sides would team up to develop a compact next-generation reactor that can operate for up to 100 years without refueling to provide emission-free energy. The daily said the joint development would focus on the Traveling-Wave Reactor (TWR), which consumes depleted uranium as fuel. Current light-water reactors require refueling every few years. "Toshiba has entered into preliminary talks with TerraPower," said Toshiba spokesman Keisuke ...
Environmental Wacko Predictions From 1970 [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2010-03-05 10:46:57 by dont eat that
51 Comments
“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.” “By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.” “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.” “Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the ...
Liberalism, Atheism, Male Sexual Exclusivity Linked To IQ
Post Date: 2010-02-26 20:55:18 by Brian S
9 Comments
(CNN) -- Political, religious and sexual behaviors may be reflections of intelligence, a new study finds. Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly. The IQ differences, while statistically significant, are not stunning -- on the order of 6 to 11 points -- and the data should not be used to stereotype or make ...
Microsoft plans antipiracy update for Windows 7
Post Date: 2010-02-11 15:45:09 by Skip Intro
3 Comments
Microsoft plans antipiracy update for Windows 7 An optional update to Windows closes a number of hacks that counterfeiters have used to bypass the product activation technologies built into Windows 7. With the update, Windows will try to restore Windows to its proper state, as well as marking tampered versions as non-genuine copies of the operating system. Microsoft said on Thursday that it is planning an update to Windows 7 that will close a number of loopholes that counterfeiters had used to thwart the operating system's built-in antipiracy measures. The Windows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7, which will be released later this month, closes more than 70 ...
US gov't investigating Prius brakes
Post Date: 2010-02-04 12:31:28 by Badeye
2 Comments
APNewsBreak: US gov't investigating Prius brakes Email this Story Feb 4, 9:47 AM (ET) By KEN THOMAS WASHINGTON (AP) - The Transportation Department has opened an investigation into brake problems in the 2010 model year Toyota Prius after the Japanese automaker acknowledged design problems with the brakes in its prized gas-electric hybrid. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told The Associated Press it has received 124 reports from consumers, including four reports of crashes. The investigation will look into allegations of momentary loss of braking capability while traveling over uneven road surfaces, potholes or bumps. The Japanese government has ordered Toyota ...
Inventor unveils $7,000 talking sex robot
Post Date: 2010-02-02 05:58:16 by Sarajevo
5 Comments
Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN) -- To some men, she might seem like the perfect woman: She's a willowy 5 feet 7 and 120 pounds. She'll chat with you endlessly about your interests. And she'll have sex whenever you please -- as long as her battery doesn't run out. Meet Roxxxy, who may be the world's most sophisticated talking female sex robot. For $7,000, she's all yours. "She doesn't vacuum or cook, but she does almost everything else," said her inventor, Douglas Hines, who unveiled Roxxxy last month at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lifelike dolls, artificial sex organs and sex-chat phone lines have been keeping the lonely company for ...
Algae-powered vehicles within five years
Post Date: 2010-02-01 00:24:09 by mininggold
1 Comments
Algae-powered vehicles within five years Jan 29, 2010 11:25 AM, By Alan Fischer, University of Arizona University of Arizona (UA) researchers believe the microscopic organism algae will be providing fuel to power vehicles within the next five years. Joel Cuello, UA professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, said algae has been proven as a renewable source of fuels like ethanol, biodiesel, and hydrogen, and his research team is working on ways to make such algae biofuels cheaper and commercially feasible. "I really believe we will be able to make use of algae-based biofuels, probably in two to three years," Cuello said. "We will have the right mix of ...
Evidence of Ancient Amazon Civilization Uncovered
Post Date: 2010-01-10 06:36:31 by sneakypete
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As a result of the deforestation of the Amazon basin, a startling discovery has been made. Hidden from view for centuries, the vast archaeological remains of an unknown, ancient civilization have been found. A study published in Antiquity, a British archaeological journal, details how satellite imagery was used to discern the footprint of the buildings and roads of a settlement, located in what is now Brazil and believed to span a region of more than 150 miles across. Antiquity As Brazilian rain forest has been cleared away to make way for animal grazing, the architectural footprint of a network of ancient villages has been revealed. "The combination of land cleared of its rain ...
Your Cyborg Eye Will Talk to You
Post Date: 2010-01-07 06:16:24 by A K A Stone
1 Comments
Just as many of us are getting used to augmented reality applications for cellphones and digital cameras, Babak Amir Parviz and his University of Washington students are taking it one step further. The group is working on a human machine interface where LEDs are embedded into contact lenses in order to display information to the wearer. You heard right, in a few years your cyborg eye will talk to you. In an article with the IEEE Spectrum, Parviz relays the challenges of custom-building semi-transparent circuitry into a polymer lens roughly 1.2 millimeters in diameter. Editor's note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we'll re-publish some of our best posts of 200 ...
Device turns thoughts into speech
Post Date: 2010-01-02 17:16:21 by A K A Stone
3 Comments
Scientists have successfully tested a system that translates brain waves into speech, raising the prospect that people left mute by stroke, Lou Gehrig's disease and other afflictions will one day be able to communicate by synthetic voice. The system was tested on a 26-year-old man left paralyzed by a brain stem stroke, but with his consciousness and cognitive abilities intact. The condition is known as "locked-in syndrome." In this condition, communication by eye movement or other limited motion is possible, but extremely cumbersome. For example, British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who is nearly completely paralyzed as a result of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ...
As Alaska Glaciers Melt, It’s Land That’s Rising
Post Date: 2009-12-20 21:35:50 by borntoweardiamonds
3 Comments
JUNEAU, Alaska — Global warming conjures images of rising seas that threaten coastal areas. But in Juneau, as almost nowhere else in the world, climate change is having the opposite effect: As the glaciers here melt, the land is rising, causing the sea to retreat. Morgan DeBoer, a property owner, opened a nine-hole golf course at the mouth of Glacier Bay in 1998, on land that was underwater when his family first settled here 50 years ago. “The highest tides of the year would come into what is now my driving range area,” Mr. DeBoer said. Now, with the high-tide line receding even farther, he is contemplating adding another nine holes. “It just keeps rising,” he ...
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