Where's My iHiggs?
A century after Albert Einstein came up with his theories of relativity, a constellation of Global Positioning System satellites is orbiting Earth, making practical use of his ground-breaking understanding of time.
If the discovery of the Higgs boson particle pans out, will even more mind-bending technologies result? It's theoretically possible, says Arizona State University physicist Lawrence Krauss, but practically, unlikely. |  |
Vital eye for killer asteroids could shut imminently
A LACK of cash could end the only survey dedicated to searching the southern skies for Earth-grazing comets and asteroids. That would create a blind spot in our global view of objects that could cause significant devastation should they hit Earth.
The Siding Spring Survey uses images from the Siding Spring observatory in Australia as part of the global Catalina Sky Survey, an effort to discover and track potentially dangerous near-Earth objects. Astronomers sift through virtually identical images of the sky, looking for moving objects. |  |
Pictorial History-Map of Santa Catarina Ixtepeji, a Village in Mexico Rediscovered
A rare 17th-century Latin American document that was "lost" for nearly a century resurfaced earlier this year. The kicker: It was right where it should have been all along -- in the American Geographical Society (AGS) Library at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).
But it's a wonder that the document -- a pictorial history-map of Santa Catarina Ixtepeji, a village in Mexico -- was rediscovered at all. |  |
Ancient relics discovered in Peru: report
THE AUSTRALIAN
Archaeologists in Peru have discovered a sundial, an underground tunnel and a reception room in a complex dating back to the Wari civilisation.
ONE of the relics is believed to be a precursor to an Incan sundial, while 18 niches painted in white on the walls may have held ancestral mummies, Joseph Ochatoma, leading the excavation, El Comercio newspaper told the newspaper.
ONE of the relics is believed to be a precursor to an Incan sundial, while 18 niches painted in white on the walls may have held ancestral mummies, Joseph Ochatoma, leading the excavation, El Comercio newspaper told the newspaper.
‘Unprecedented’ discovery could propel quantum computers to reality
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.
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 code regarding the cooling of quantum computers. And they did it by turning to one of the purest materials on Earth: diamonds. |  |
Endangered Historic Temple in India Saved from Slow Destruction
Hampi is a village in the northern Karnataka state of southern India. Located within the ruins of Vijayanagara, the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire (from 1336 to 1565), its history hails back to the 1st century C.E. It has been identified with the mythical kingdom of Kishkindha, the Vanara (monkey) kingdom mentioned in the hindu epic, Ramayana. Ruled by King Sugriva, the Vānara were ape-like humanoids described in the epic as possessing supernatural powers, able to change their shapes.
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Copper miners of Bronze Age Norway?
When the Bronze Age arrived in Scandinavia around 3,500 years ago, it was the advent of a new technology. Combining copper with the elements tin or arsenic made an alloy which is stronger and more durable; Bronze.
The region of modern-day Norway was then, as now, at the periphery of Europe and although the population had the skills and know-how to create bronze metalwork, according to current scientific consensus they would have had to import all the copper they needed from abroad.
The region of modern-day Norway was then, as now, at the periphery of Europe and although the population had the skills and know-how to create bronze metalwork, according to current scientific consensus they would have had to import all the copper they needed from abroad.
Amniotic fluid an alternative stem cell source
LONDON: Stem cells taken from amniotic fluid can be transformed into a more versatile state similar to embryonic stem cells and may offer an alternative to the medically valuable but controversial cells, scientists said on Tuesday.
British researchers said they had succeeded in reprogramming amniotic fluid cells without having to introduce extra genes.
British researchers said they had succeeded in reprogramming amniotic fluid cells without having to introduce extra genes.
On the Trail of a Weird Dinosaur
“Therizinosaur” isn’t a household name. This group of feathery dinosaurs hasn’t been around long enough to have the same cultural cachet as the tyrannosaurs, “raptors“, or other famous dinosaur tribes. But the therizinosaurs really do deserve more popularity. Although they were cousins of the carnivorous, sickle-clawed deinonychosaurs, the therizinosaurs were long-necked, pot-bellied omnivores and herbivores, albeit ones that had insanely long claws on their hands. They are some of the strangest dinosaurs ever found, and a track discovered in Alaska adds a few flourishes to our picture of the therizinosaurs.
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Gaia spacecraft to be flung 1.5 million km from Earth
The European Space Agency is continuing to prepare for the launch of its Gaia spacecraft set for 2013. Gaia's mission will see it creating a 3D map of a billion stars in the Milky Way using a 1.5-gigapixel camera.
In this photo, taken at the EADS CASA test facility in Madrid, Spain, checks are being made on Gaia's 1.5-metre-wide antenna panel to ensure data will reach Earth safely. The foam spikes on the walls of the test room block radio signals to simulate space. Electronic steering will ensure the antenna is always directed towards its target while the spacecraft rotates in space as it maps the stars, asteroids, extrasolar planets and other objects. |  |
Worm lifetime 'longer in space'
Spacefaring worms undergo genetic changes associated with longer lives in their Earth-bound cousins, research has shown.
A number of Caenorhabditis elegans worms were carried aboard a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) and brought back for study. Researchers found reduced activity of five genes in the worms that, when suppressed in the species on Earth, lead to longer lifetimes. The work appears in Scientific Reports. |  |
Mass extinctions reset the long-term pace of evolution
A new study indicates that mass extinctions affect the pace of evolution, not just in the immediate aftermath of catastrophe, but for millions of years to follow. The study's authors, University of Chicago's Andrew Z. Krug and David Jablonski, will publish their findings in the August issue of the journal Geology.
Scientists expected to see an evolutionary explosion immediately following a mass extinction, but Krug and Jablonski's findings go far beyond that. |  |
Rise in Sea Level Can't Be Stopped
LONDON (Reuters) - Rising sea levels cannot be stopped over the next several hundred years, even if deep emissions cuts lower global average temperatures, but they can be slowed down, climate scientists said in a study on Sunday.
A lot of climate research shows that rising greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for increasing global average surface temperatures by about 0.17 degrees Celsius a decade from 1980-2010 and for a sea level rise of about 2.3mm a year from 2005-2010 as ice caps and glaciers melt.
A lot of climate research shows that rising greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for increasing global average surface temperatures by about 0.17 degrees Celsius a decade from 1980-2010 and for a sea level rise of about 2.3mm a year from 2005-2010 as ice caps and glaciers melt.
Israel memorial softens view of WWII pope
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's national Holocaust memorial has toned down its account of Pope Pius XII's conduct toward the massacre of Jews during of World War II, following a long diplomatic dispute with the Vatican.
Critics have long contended that Pius, who was pope from 1939 to 1958, could have done more to stop the Holocaust, when 6 million Jews were killed. Before his election as pope, he also served as the Vatican's No. 2 and before that as the papal envoy to Germany. |  |
Amelia Earhart: New expedition seeks answers
An expedition to find out what happened to celebrated US woman pilot Amelia Earhart is setting sail from Hawaii on Tuesday, 75 years to the day since search teams went looking for her.
The expedition is to set out one day late, once a customs official arrives in Hawaii and boards the ship. Researchers will dive around an uninhabited Pacific island where they believe Earhart crashed in 1937. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, in 1932. |  |
Cocaine and coca not the same thing, says Bolivia's Morales in defiance of US
The coca leaf, the unrefined source of cocaine, holds special significance for Bolivian President Evo Morales. A former cultivator of the plant himself, Morales was swept into office in 2006 with the backing of Bolivia's cocaleros movement, a syndicate of coca-growers' unions Morales has helmed for decades.
Since then, his defense of his countrymen's right to grow the leaf, which is considered an illegal substance under the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, has brought him into conflict with the United States, which is seeking to eradicate coca production in the Andean region. |  |
Almanac: 65th anniv. of Roswell UFO
(CBS News) And now a page from our "Sunday Morning" Almanac . . . July 8th, 1947, 65 years ago today - a day many believe was truly out of this world. For that was the day Public Information Officer Walter Haut of the Roswell Army Air Field in New Mexico told the local press about an object recently found in the desert:
"On July 8th, 1947, he issued a press release under orders from Col. William Blanchard, saying basically, 'We have in our possession a flying saucer.'". Julie Shuster is the daughter of Haut, and the director of the International UFO Museum in Roswell. Just one day later, she says, came an official change of tune... |  |
'Most realistic' robot legs developed
US experts have developed what they say are the most biologically-accurate robotic legs yet.
Writing in the Journal of Neural Engineering, they said the work could help understanding of how babies learn to walk - and spinal-injury treatment. They created a version of the message system that generates the rhythmic muscle signals that control walking. A UK expert said the work was exciting because the robot mimics control and not just movement. |  |
Man and robot linked by brain scanner
Robot avatars have got a step closer to being the real world doubles of those who are paralysed or have locked-in-syndrome.
Scientists have made a robot move on a human's behalf by monitoring thoughts about movement, reports New Scientist. The man-machine link joined a man in a brain scanner in Israel and a robot wandering a laboratory in France. The person controlling the robot could also see through the eyes of his electronic surrogate. |  |