The Robot of the Future That's About to Explore the Deep Past of Mars
I want to tell you about a special place on the surface of Mars. Back in the solar system's early days, a large object slammed into the red planet, leaving behind a hundred-mile crater -- a dent large enough to withstand three billion years of erosion. The Gale Crater, as the site is known, is almost as wide as Earth's Chicxulub crater, the impact zone of the asteroid that is thought to have killed the dinosaurs. Because Mars orbits close to the solar system's main asteroid belt, it's not unusual to find impact craters there; just recently, a group of geophysicists counted more than 600,000.
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US sees stronger hints of Higgs
Hints of the Higgs boson detected last year by a US "atom smasher" have become even stronger, scientists have said.
The news comes amid fevered speculation about an announcement by researchers at the Large Hadron Collider on Wednesday. Finding the particle would fill a glaring hole in the widely accepted theory of how the Universe works. This 30-year hunt is reaching an end, with experts confident they will soon be able to make a definitive statement about the particle's existence. |  |
Government-sponsored study destroys DEA’s classification of marijuana
A government-sponsored study published this month in The Open Neurology Journal concludes that marijuana provides much-needed relief to some chronic pain sufferers and that more clinical trials are desperately needed, utterly destroying the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) classification of the drug as having no medical uses.
While numerous prior studies have shown marijuana’s usefulness for a host of medical conditions, none have ever gone directly at the DEA’s placement of marijuana atop the schedule of controlled substances. This study, sponsored by the State of California and conducted at the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, does precisely that, driving a stake into the heart of America’s continued war on marijuana users by calling the Schedule I placement simply “not accurate” and “not tenable.”. |  |
First synthetic larynx part transplanted
Surgeons in Russia have successfully transplanted a completely synthetic chunk of the larynx. The operation, which has been performed in two patients, is the first step towards creating an entire synthetic voicebox.
The transplanted synthetic part, about 5 centimetres long, consists of a section of the windpipe, or trachea, at the top of which is a version of the cricoid arch and plate – a hollow, collar-like segment that forms the base of the larynx. |  |
Universal speech translator app ready for Olympics
In one month's time, millions of tourists from across the world will descend on London for the 2012 Olympics, creating the perfect test bed for a new speech translation iPhone app.
The app, dubbed VoiceTra4U-M, is a bit of a mouthful to say, but lets people converse with foreigners in their own language. It was developed by the Universal Speech Translation Advanced Research Consortium (U-STAR), which is made up of researchers from 23 different countries, and supports full voice translation for 13 different languages, with text translation for a further 10. |  |
Google Internet glasses on the way
Google glasses that overlay the Internet on daily lives should hit the market within two years -- technology the tech giant hopes will someday make fumbling with smartphones obsolete.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin offered the estimated timeline after a project update that included sky divers dropping in with a new version of "Glass" wearable computers. |  |
What Happens to Consciousness When We Die
Where is the experience of red in your brain? The question was put to me by Deepak Chopra at his Sages and Scientists Symposium in Carlsbad, Calif., on March 3. A posse of presenters argued that the lack of a complete theory by neuroscientists regarding how neural activity translates into conscious experiences (such as redness) means that a physicalist approach is inadequate or wrong. The idea that subjective experience is a result of electrochemical activity remains a hypothesis, Chopra elaborated in an e-mail. It is as much of a speculation as the idea that consciousness is fundamental and that it causes brain activity and creates the properties and objects of the material world.
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South Korea claims East Asia's oldest farming site
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's archaeological agency says it has unearthed evidence of East Asia's oldest known farming site.
Archaeologist Cho Mi-soon said Wednesday that the agency has found the remains of a farming field from the Neolithic period on South Korea's east coast. The site may be up to 5,600 years old. That's more than 2,000 years older than what is now the second-oldest known site, which also is in South Korea. |  |
From the archives: Great Pyramid Mystery to Be Solved by Hidden Room?
A sealed space in Egypt's Great Pyramid may help solve a centuries-old mystery: How did the ancient Egyptians move two million 2.5-ton blocks to build the ancient wonder?
The little-known cavity may support the theory that the 4,500-year-old monument to Pharaoh Khufu was constructed inside out, via a spiraling, inclined interior tunnel—an idea that contradicts the prevailing wisdom that the monuments were built using an external ramp. The inside-out theory's key proponent, French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin, says for centuries Egyptologists have ignored evidence staring them in the face. |
Hidden Portals in Earth's Magnetic Field
A favorite theme of science fiction is "the portal"--an extraordinary opening in space or time that connects travelers to distant realms. A good portal is a shortcut, a guide, a door into the unknown. If only they actually existed...
It turns out that they do, sort of, and a NASA-funded researcher at the University of Iowa has figured out how to find them.
"We call them X-points or electron diffusion regions," explains plasma physicist Jack Scudder of the University of Iowa. "They're places where the magnetic field of Earth connects to the magnetic field of the Sun, creating an uninterrupted path leading from our own planet to the sun's atmosphere 93 million miles away."
It turns out that they do, sort of, and a NASA-funded researcher at the University of Iowa has figured out how to find them.
"We call them X-points or electron diffusion regions," explains plasma physicist Jack Scudder of the University of Iowa. "They're places where the magnetic field of Earth connects to the magnetic field of the Sun, creating an uninterrupted path leading from our own planet to the sun's atmosphere 93 million miles away."
A Slow Trek Towards Starvation: Scott's Polar Tragedy Revisited
On the centenary of Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole, a study to be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting on July 1 has shown that Scott's men starved to death because they were consuming far too few calories to fuel their daily exertion.
The researchers, environmental physiologist Dr Lewis Halsey of the University of Roehampton and polar explorer and physician Dr Mike Stroud, examined the voyage in light of today's knowledge of nutrition and how our bodies respond to extreme exercise, cold, and high altitude. They determined that their rations, which consisted of biscuits, pemmican, butter, sugar, chocolate, cereals and raisins, and were supplemented by pony meat at the start of the expedition, were inadequate.
The researchers, environmental physiologist Dr Lewis Halsey of the University of Roehampton and polar explorer and physician Dr Mike Stroud, examined the voyage in light of today's knowledge of nutrition and how our bodies respond to extreme exercise, cold, and high altitude. They determined that their rations, which consisted of biscuits, pemmican, butter, sugar, chocolate, cereals and raisins, and were supplemented by pony meat at the start of the expedition, were inadequate.
Is it now possible to blame extreme weather on global warming?
Whenever an episode of extreme weather – heatwave, flood, drought, etc – hits the headlines, someone somewhere is sure to point the finger of blame at human-induced climate change.
Such claims are normally slapped down with the much-aired mantra: "You cannot blame a single episode of bad weather on global warming." But with the on-going record high temperatures affecting large parts of the US, there seems to be a noticeable reduction in such caveats and notes of caution.
Such claims are normally slapped down with the much-aired mantra: "You cannot blame a single episode of bad weather on global warming." But with the on-going record high temperatures affecting large parts of the US, there seems to be a noticeable reduction in such caveats and notes of caution.
New image from NASA: The Flame Nebula
A new image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) shows the candle-like Flame Nebula lighting up a cavern of dust. The Flame Nebula is part of the Orion complex, a turbulent star-forming area located near the constellation's star-studded belt.
The image is being released today along with a new batch of data from the mission. Last March, WISE released its all-sky catalog and atlas containing infrared images and data on more than a half-billion objects, including everything from asteroids to stars and galaxies. Now the mission is offering up additional data from its second scan of the sky. "If you're an astronomer, then you'll probably be in hog heaven when it comes to infrared data,"... |  |
Archaeologists dig up bog army bones in Denmark
(Reuters) - Danish archaeologists said on Tuesday they had re-opened a mass grave of scores of slaughtered Iron Age warriors to find new clues about their fate and the bloody practices of Germanic tribes on the edge of the Roman Empire.
Bones of around 200 soldiers have already been found preserved in a peat bog near the village of Alken on Denmark's Jutland peninsula. Experts started digging again on Monday, saying they expected to find more bodies dating back 2,000 years to around the time of Christ.
"I guess we will end up with a scale that is much larger than the 200 that we have at present," Aarhus University archaeologist Mads Kahler Holst told Reuters.
Bones of around 200 soldiers have already been found preserved in a peat bog near the village of Alken on Denmark's Jutland peninsula. Experts started digging again on Monday, saying they expected to find more bodies dating back 2,000 years to around the time of Christ.
"I guess we will end up with a scale that is much larger than the 200 that we have at present," Aarhus University archaeologist Mads Kahler Holst told Reuters.
Rare early 'America' map surfaces in Germany
BERLIN — Librarians at a German university have stumbled across a version of the 500-year-old world map that was the first to mention the name "America", they said Tuesday, calling the chance find "sensational".
Experts did not even know about the existence of a fifth copy of the map by German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller until it showed up a few days ago, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich said. The discovery is much smaller and thought to have been made after the 1507 original version, which Germany officially handed over to the United States in 2007 and now lies in the Library of Congress in Washington. |  |
Scientists discover bees can ‘turn back time,’ reverse brain aging
Scientists at Arizona State University have discovered that older honey bees effectively reverse brain aging when they take on nest responsibilities typically handled by much younger bees. While current research on human age-related dementia focuses on potential new drug treatments, researchers say these findings suggest that social interventions may be used to slow or treat age-related dementia.
In a study published in the scientific journal Experimental Gerontology, a team of scientists from ASU and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, led by Gro Amdam, an associate professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences, presented findings that show that tricking older, foraging bees into doing social tasks inside the nest causes changes in the molecular structure of their brains. |  |
Quantum computers arriving? New research finds diamonds may hold solution
It’s the holy grail of quantum computing: how to create the key building blocks known as quantum bits — qubits — that exist in a solid-state system at room temperature.
That problem may now be solved. A group of Harvard scientists, led by Professor of Physics Mikhail Lukin and including graduate students Georg Kucsko and Peter Maurer and postdoctoral researcher Christian Latta, say they have cracked the problem, and they did it by turning to one of the purest materials on Earth: diamonds. |  |