Mystery Behind Supernova SN 1006 Solved?
Historical accounts from all over the world describe a spectacularly bright "guest star" in the night sky during the spring of 1006 -- what we now know as a supernova (SN 1006). Now astronomers think they have pinpointed the probable cause of that massive explosion, one thousand years later: a merging of two white dwarf stars.
SN 1006 made quite a splash on its debut around May 1, 1006, in the constellation Lupus (the Wolf) just south of Scorpio. The critics raved! Monks in a Benedictine abbey in Switzerland marveled at the star's brightness, and commented on the variability of its light, "sometimes contracted, sometimes diffused, and moreover sometimes extinguished" -- likely due to atmospheric conditions, since the star was visible fairly low in the southern horizon. |
Slime Has Memory but No Brain
The living slime that may have been the muse for the 1958 science-fiction film The Blob just got creepier: Evidence has emerged that slime mold, a brainless single-celled organism, has a form of memory.
In experiments with the slime mold Physarum polycephalum, scientists at the University of Sydney noticed that the life-form avoided retracing its own paths. They began to suspect that the slime was using "externalized spatial memory" to navigate. "The slime mold leaves behind a trail of slime everywhere it goes, which it can then detect later to recognize areas it has already been," said biologist Chris Reid. Note: See a Video on Wired. |  |
Skydiver Felix Baumgartner set to break sound barrier
The Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner will attempt to become the first human to break the sound barrier unaided by a vehicle.
He is going to jump out of a balloon at more than 120,000ft (36.5km) above Roswell, New Mexico. In the near vacuum at that altitude, he should accelerate beyond about 690mph (1,110km/h) within 40 seconds. If all goes well, he will open a parachute near the ground to land softly in the desert, 10 minutes later. |  |
Mystery Boom Rattles NJ Community
Police in Manchester Township, NJ are investigating a mysterious boom that shook block after block in the Ocean County community Thursday night. Residents say it felt and sounded like an explosion.
“It was so loud that my windows were rattling" said Jayne Yereance. "I really thought the house next door blew up. That’s how bad it was.”
Residents say there have been similar incidents since the summer. Police are trying to determine if they're connected, but investigators don't yet know where the sounds are coming from or who is responsible.
“It was so loud that my windows were rattling" said Jayne Yereance. "I really thought the house next door blew up. That’s how bad it was.”
Residents say there have been similar incidents since the summer. Police are trying to determine if they're connected, but investigators don't yet know where the sounds are coming from or who is responsible.
NASA Tracking Space Junk Ahead of Private Launch to Space Station
A piece of space junk that may buzz the International Space Station Monday has NASA weighing plans to move the orbiting lab, even as a private space capsule stands poised to launch toward the station on Sunday night.
The space debris will pass near enough to the space station on Monday morning (Oct. 8) to require an avoidance maneuver as a safety precaution, NASA space station program manager Mike Suffredini said in a briefing today (Oct. 6). The decision on whether to move the station is not yet final, but if such a maneuver is required it will not affect the scheduled launch of a private Dragon space capsule to the station, Suffredini said. |  |
Japan asteroid trip will star upgraded bouncing robot
Hayabusa 2, Japan's second mission to collect samples from an asteroid, is getting a MASCOT.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne and the Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA) in Tokyo announced this week that they have formalised a deal to send the German-built Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout, or MASCOT, on the mission, set to launch in 2014. JAXA's original Hayabusa probe was a success – but only just. Technical challenges ranging from failed engines to lost communications meant that the spacecraft returned home hobbled and late, bearing just a few precious pieces of the stony asteroid Itokawa. |  |
The Mysterious Majorana Fermion - Border Between Matter & Antimatter
In 1938 one of the world's greatest scientists withdrew all his money and disappeared during a boat trip from Palermo to Naples. Whether he killed himself, was murdered or lived on under a different identity is still not known. But no trace of The Italian physicist Ettore Majorana has ever been found.
Majorana was a brilliant theorist who in the 1930's showed great insight into physics at a young age. He discovered a hitherto unknown solution to the equations from which quantum scientists deduce elementary particles: the Majorana fermion. Majorana deduced from quantum theory the possibility that there must be a special particle that would be right on the border between matter and antimatter. Fast forward to February 2012, the mysterious Majorana fermion was detected in a nanowire, according to Dutch nanoscientist Leo Kouwenhoven. The discovery could confirm the theory that assumes that dark matter, which is thought to form about 73 percent of the Universe, is composed of Majorana fermions. |
Can LSD cure depression?
Until recently, prescribing Ecstasy, mescaline or magic mushrooms has been a guaranteed way for a psychiatrist to lose his research funding, his job or even his liberty. But now, scientists are beginning to suspect that such illegal drugs may be the key to treating a range of intractable illnesses, from post-traumatic stress disorder to depression.
These chemicals – which include the psychedelic drugs psilocybin, derived from magic mushrooms, and LSD, as well as ecstasy – affect the way we think and behave, as well as causing hallucinations and mystical experiences. Yet a series of studies performed in Britain and the US is beginning to tease out their potential benefits. |  |
Fossil of ancient spider attack only one of its type ever discovered
Researchers have found what they say is the only fossil ever discovered of a spider attack on prey caught in its web – a 100 million-year-old snapshot of an engagement frozen in time.
The extraordinarily rare fossils are in a piece of amber that preserved this event in remarkable detail, an action that took place in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar in the Early Cretaceous between 97-110 million years ago, almost certainly with dinosaurs wandering nearby. |  |
Most Whale Deaths in Past 40 Years Were Caused by Humans
Human activity is still killing right whales, one of the most endangered animals in the ocean. An analysis of four decades of whale deaths shows that attempts to prevent them have not had a demonstrable impact.
Only around 460 North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) are thought to be swimming the waters off the eastern seaboard of Canada and the United States. The governments of both countries have implemented several measures to protect whales from becoming entangled in fishing gear or being hit by ships, such as the US ‘ship strike rule’ that limits vessel speeds in certain areas. That rule came into force in 2008 and is due to expire next year. |  |
Clouds are gathering over Britain's new nuclear dawn
The politicians of Cumbria County Council have cooled on the idea of burying hundreds of thousands of tonnes of nuclear waste but a kilometre beneath their feet.
Initially tempted by the huge economic benefits a £12bn nuclear research and disposal would bring, councillors now seem dismayed that the waste wouldn't be considered safe for another 100,000 years.
Initially tempted by the huge economic benefits a £12bn nuclear research and disposal would bring, councillors now seem dismayed that the waste wouldn't be considered safe for another 100,000 years.
"Humans May be One of the Early Intelligent Species in the Universe"
Arthur C Clarke once wrote that a trillion years from now an advnaced civilization will look back at us with envy and say "They knew the Universe when it was young."
We may soon discover that intelligent life, indeed, may be in it's "very young" stage in the observable Universe. Its 200 billion galaxies show a clear potential to continue on as we see them today for hundreds of billions of years, if not much longer. Because planets and life are so young in our Universe, says Harvard's Dimitar Sasselov, perhaps "the human species are not late comers to the party. We may be among the early ones." That may explain why we see no evidence of "them" and may go a long way to explaining the famous Fermi Paradox, which asks if there's advanced intelligent life in the Universe, where are they? Why haven't we discovered any evidence of their existence. |
Premiership referees more like to book foreign ethnic minority players
A major analysis of referee's decisions in the Premier League has shown that officials are around 15% more likely to book foreign players who are from the same background as the most sizable ethnic minority groups in the UK.
The analysis by researchers from the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge and Oxford used the extensive in-match dataset collected by OPTA Sportsdata for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons covering 760 games in total.
The analysis by researchers from the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge and Oxford used the extensive in-match dataset collected by OPTA Sportsdata for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons covering 760 games in total.
A gender-neutral pronoun makes waves in Sweden
Sweden’s tradition of gender equality has famously put more mums in the workplace while rising numbers of dads stay at home.
Now advocates have a new frontier: they’re pushing for a gender-neutral pronoun, “hen”, to be added to “han” (he) and “hon” (she).
“There’s almost nothing left to do in the field of gender equality, so people are suggesting increasingly strange ideas,” said independent journalist Elise Claesson, partly amused and partly irritated by the debate.
Now advocates have a new frontier: they’re pushing for a gender-neutral pronoun, “hen”, to be added to “han” (he) and “hon” (she).
“There’s almost nothing left to do in the field of gender equality, so people are suggesting increasingly strange ideas,” said independent journalist Elise Claesson, partly amused and partly irritated by the debate.
Married couples 'will be in the minority by 2050'
Married couples will be in the minority in little more than a generation, a new report has claimed.
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) found marriage was increasingly the preserve of the middle and upper classes, while only about 50 per cent of new parents on low incomes were married. This rose to nearly 80 per cent for couples earning £21,000 to £31,000 a year, and to nearly 90 per cent for those earning over £50,000 a year. |  |
Why like someone on Facebook when you can hug them
Designers have come up with a jacket that actively gives you a cuddle when someone says they like you on the social network site.
The "Like-A-Hug" jacket inflates when someone clicks on the "Like" button putting a little more reality into virtual reality. Designed by MIT student Melissa Chow, who said it "allows us to feel the warmth, encouragement, support, or love that we feel when we receive hugs". Hugs can also be sent back to the original sender by squeezing the vest and deflating it. Miss Chow said: "We came up with the concept over a casual conversation about long-distance relationships and the limitations of video chat interfaces like Skype. |  |
3 Years in, Bitcoin Digital Money Gains Momentum
The digital currency exchange network now includes more than 1,000 merchants and at least tens of thousands of unaffiliated users, as it tries to solve barriers to participation.
Cowrie shells, strips of leather, huge stone discs, decorated rectangles of paper. They all share something in common: at one time, people used them as currency. In 2009, when Bitcoin went live, ones and zeros were added to the list. And like each new format that preceded it, this digital currency has changed a few of money's core concepts, including who controls it and how and where it gets spent. |  |
Henry VIII's lost crown recreated nearly 400 years on
The lost crown of Henry VIII has been recreated in minute detail, down to the last pearl and thumbnail-sized enamelled sculpture, almost 400 years after the original was melted down along with every scrap of royal regalia Cromwell's government could lay its hands on.
In 1649 Charles was beheaded in Whitehall and the crown was broken up at the Tower of London. The gold went straight to the mint for coinage, and the jewels were sold off in mixed packets like loose sweets. Of the heap of centuries-old treasures, only one 12th-century spoon escaped the melting pot.
In 1649 Charles was beheaded in Whitehall and the crown was broken up at the Tower of London. The gold went straight to the mint for coinage, and the jewels were sold off in mixed packets like loose sweets. Of the heap of centuries-old treasures, only one 12th-century spoon escaped the melting pot.
Stonehenge up close: digital laser scan reveals secrets of the past
Like any corner-cutting modern builder, the ancient stonemasons who built Stonehenge lavished the most work and best materials where they would be first seen –shining in the last light of the setting winter solstice sun, or at dawn on the longest day.
The first complete 3D laser scan of the stone circle has also revealed tool marks made 4,500 years ago, scores of little axehead graffiti added when the enormous slabs were already 1,000 years old, and damage and graffiti contributed by Georgian and Victorian visitors. |  |
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