Active Sunspot Shoots Off Intense New Solar Flare
The sun fired off yet another intense solar flare today (July 5), the latest in a series of storms from a busy sunspot being closely watched by space telescopes and astronomers.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory snapped a daunting new image of a strong M-class solar flare that peaked this morning at 7:44 a.m. EDT (1144 GMT). The M6.1 flare triggered a moderate radio blackout that has since subsided, according to officials at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). |  |
'Driverless driving' envisioned for Japan in early 2020s
In just 10 years or so, Japanese motorists may be traveling around comfortably, free from traffic jams and accidents, in a vehicle that drives itself.
Japan's the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry will soon embark on a project to realize an "autopilot system" for automatic driving, a system for guiding motor vehicles on expressways without human assistance.
Japan's the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry will soon embark on a project to realize an "autopilot system" for automatic driving, a system for guiding motor vehicles on expressways without human assistance.
Toward a Better Understanding of Earthquakes
Earth is shaken daily by strong earthquakes recorded by a number of seismic stations worldwide. Tectonic tremor, however, is a new type of seismic signal that seismologist started studying only within the last few years. Tremor is less hazardous than earthquakes and occurs at greater depth. The link between tremor and earthquakes may provide clues about the more destructive earthquakes that occur at shallower depths. Geophysicists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) collected seismic data of tectonic tremor in California. These data are now being evaluated in order to better understand this new seismic phenomenon.
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Colorado Wildfire Scar Spotted from Space
Colorado's devastating Waldo Canyon Fire has left a massive scar on the Earth that is visible from space.
A false-color image snapped by a satellite yesterday (July 4) shows the blackened scar covering the mountainous terrain west of Colorado Springs, where the fire continues to burn. The Waldo Canyon fire was first reported on June 23. So far, it has burned 18,247 acres and destroyed 346 homes, making it the most destructive fire in Colorado's history. |  |
Teen's Message In A Bottle Found 12 Years After It Was Tossed Out
A Canadian teen's message in a bottle has been found on an island in Maine 12 years after it was first tossed into the ocean, the Welland Tribune reports.
In 2000, 3-year-old Taryn McKee was on vacation with her family in Letete, New Brunswick, when her mother suggested she write a note to send out to sea. With her mother's help, McKee composed the message and the bottled note was tossed into the Atlantic Ocean. Neither of them expected to ever see it again. |  |
What the DNSChanger malware is -- and why you should care
Now nearly 5 years old, DNSChanger still infects hundreds of thousands of computers. If you've got it, you'll probably lose your Internet connection on Monday. Read our FAQ to learn what this malware is and how to stop it.
How can I tell if I'm infected? If you're in the United States, go to dns-ok.us or its parent site, the DNSChanger Working Group for computers based outside of the U.S. Click on the URL appropriate to your country, and you'll see an image with a green background if you're clean. A red background means you're infected. |  |
Eureka! Cern announces discovery of Higgs boson 'God particle'
It was a breakthrough that took almost half a century of deep thought, more than 30 years of painstaking experimentation and a massive £2.6bn machine. Yesterday, scientists said they believed they had found the subatomic particle that confirms our understanding of how the universe works.
Discovering the so-called "Higgs boson" particle would be one of the greatest achievements in science, rivalling the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 and the Apollo Moon landings of the 1960s and 1970s. It can explain why some particles have mass, but why others, such as photons of light, do not.
Discovering the so-called "Higgs boson" particle would be one of the greatest achievements in science, rivalling the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 and the Apollo Moon landings of the 1960s and 1970s. It can explain why some particles have mass, but why others, such as photons of light, do not.
Numbers Tell of Failure in Drug War
When policy makers in Washington worry about Mexico these days, they think in terms of a handful of numbers: Mexico’s 19,500 hectares devoted to poppy cultivation for heroin; its 17,500 hectares growing cannabis; the 95 percent of American cocaine imports brought by Mexican cartels through Mexico and Central America.
They are thinking about the wrong numbers. If there is one number that embodies the seemingly intractable challenge imposed by the illegal drug trade on the relationship between the United States and Mexico, it is $177.26. That is the retail price, according to Drug Enforcement Administration data, of one gram of pure cocaine from your typical local pusher. That is 74 percent cheaper than it was 30 years ago.
They are thinking about the wrong numbers. If there is one number that embodies the seemingly intractable challenge imposed by the illegal drug trade on the relationship between the United States and Mexico, it is $177.26. That is the retail price, according to Drug Enforcement Administration data, of one gram of pure cocaine from your typical local pusher. That is 74 percent cheaper than it was 30 years ago.
Briton on death row in Abu Dhabi is company director's son
Nathaniel Lees, 23, could face a firing squad after being caught in a police surveillance operation selling 20g – less than an ounce – of cannabis to a Syrian man.
Lees's father, Martin, is a director of GTS Training Solutions, a British company registered in the Isle of Man and based in Abu Dhabi, where it provides staff training to oil and gas companies.
The severity of his son's punishment has surprised many in the emirate, where other crimes are treated with comparative lenience. This week, a man who stabbed his wife to death had his five-year prison term reduced to three years.
Lees's father, Martin, is a director of GTS Training Solutions, a British company registered in the Isle of Man and based in Abu Dhabi, where it provides staff training to oil and gas companies.
The severity of his son's punishment has surprised many in the emirate, where other crimes are treated with comparative lenience. This week, a man who stabbed his wife to death had his five-year prison term reduced to three years.
New Videogame Lets Amateur Researchers Mess With RNA
Jessica Fournier has a job that makes poor use of her talents. She spends her days stocking sneakers at a warehouse outside Grand Rapids, Michigan. A decade ago she was an astrophysics student at Michigan State University, where she coauthored a paper on RR Lyrae, a low-mass star that pulsates light. But having failed to secure long-term employment in her arcane field, today she pays her bills by cataloging shoe sizes.
She may have given up astrophysics, but Fournier still has a deep love of science. As soon as she gets home from work each night, she boots up her Asus laptop and begins what she calls “my second job”: designing molecules of ribonucleic acid—RNA—that have the power to build proteins or regulate genes. It is a job that she happens to perform better than almost anyone else on earth. |  |
Horses Soothe Kids with Autism
Animals have helped many kids with autism improve their speech and social skills, but these cases have been largely isolated. Now the first scientific study of horse therapy finds its many benefits may have to do with rhythm.
A study of 42 children with autism, six to 16 years old, found that riding and grooming horses significantly bettered behavioral symptoms. Compared with kids who had participated in nonanimal therapy, those exposed to horses showed more improvement in social skills and motor skills, rated via standard behavioral assessment surveys, according to the study published in the February issue of Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Psychologist Robin Gabriels of the University of Colorado Denver, who led the study, speculates that the calming, rhythmic motion of the horses played a role. |  |
Jaguars May Soon Get Critical Habitat in the U.S.
Jaguars, the third-largest cats after lions and tigers and the biggest in the Western Hemisphere, used to live here. In the 1700s and 1800s people spotted them in Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas. Sometimes the cats roamed as far east as North Carolina and as far north as Colorado.
As humans have encroached on their territory, the endangered cats' range has shifted south. Today it stretches from northern Argentina into Mexico's Sonoran Desert. But they cross into the American Southwest frequently enough for some conservationists to argue that they deserve critical habitat protection. Now, after years of legal wrangling, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has agreed. “We do plan on proposing to designate some critical habitat,” says Steve Spangle, field supervisor for FWS in Phoenix. “But we don't know yet where or how much.” The agency plans to announce its decision in July. |  |
Plastic in Bird’s Stomachs Reveals Ocean’s Garbage Problem
Plastic found in the stomachs of dead ocean birds reveals the Pacific Ocean off the northwest coast of North America to be more polluted than was realized.
The birds, called northern fulmars, feed exclusively at sea. Plastic remains in their stomachs for long periods. Researchers have for several decades examined stomach contents of fulmars, and in new study they tallied the plastic products in dead fulmars that had beached on the coasts of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, Canada. |  |
The Little-Known History of How the Modern Olympics Got Their Start
What is known as Wenlock Edge, a great palisade, almost 1,000 feet high, running for 15 miles through the county of Shropshire, overlooks, near its eastern end, the tidy town of Much Wenlock. (Much Wenlock being so named, you see, to distinguish it from its even wee-er neighbor, Little Wenlock.) However, to this quaint backwater village near Wales came, in 1994, Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, the grandiose president of the International Olympic Committee.
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How volcanoes shaped Britain's landscape
Britain's volcanic fires may be no more, but remnants of an enduring eruptive past can be found throughout the country, writes Professor Iain Stewart.
"So there I lie on the plateau, under me the central core of fire from which was thrust this grumbling grinding mass of plutonic rock, over me blue air, and between me the fire of the rock and the fire of the sun, scree, soil and water, moss, grass, flower and tree, insect, bird and beast, wind, rain and snow - the total mountain. |  |
Cosmology group finds measurable evidence of dark matter filament
As time passes and more research is done, more evidence is compiled supporting the theory that suggests that dark matter is a real thing, even though no direct evidence for its existence has ever been found. Instead, the evidence comes about as measurements of other phenomenon are taken, generally involving gravitational pull on objects in the universe we can see that cannot be explained by other means. One of these instances is where weak gravitational lensing occurs, which is where light appears to bend as it passes by large objects. Theory suggests that in cases where lensing occurs but there is no detectable object behind its cause, the reason for it is dark matter exerting a gravitational influence. That has been the case with what are known as filaments; gravitational effects that connect galactic superclusters, keeping them bound together.
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Apocalypse, not so fast
Although hieroglyphs previously found at an ancient Maya site may or may not mention December 21, 2012, as the end of time, don’t cancel any New Year’s Eve plans. Scientists working at another Maya city have uncovered a second reference to the same 2012 date, and the writing on the wall — make that the staircase — concerns political turmoil back then, not apocalypse now.
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