Saturn moon Iapetus' huge landslides stir intrigue
Saturn's moon Iapetus frequently plays host to a huge type of landslide or avalanche that is rare elsewhere in the Solar System, scientists report.
Sturzstroms or "long-runout landslides" move faster and farther than geological models predict they should. They have been seen on Earth and Mars, but there is debate about their causes. Now, images from the Cassini space mission, reported in Nature Geoscience, suggest that heating of icy surfaces helps the landslides keep going. |  |
Dolphin Social Networks Show First Hints of Culture
For the bottlenose dolphins of Shark Bay, Australia, functional fashion seems to be all the rage, with inclusion in cliques dependent on whether one is wearing a nose sponge — a tool that helps dolphins find food — new research suggests.
The female dolphins that wear marine basket sponges on their beaks to scour the sandy bottoms of deep channels for fish associate more with each other than with non-sponge users, the researchers said. (Sponges are filter-feeding invertebrates that come in all shapes and sizes but tend to look like sponges, as they are porous.). |  |
Should Britain ban pesticides blamed for killing bees?
The Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs have launched a consultation on a new action plan for ‘sustainable use of pesticides’.
The document is designed to bring the UK into line with EU rules and “reduce the risks and impacts of pesticide use on human health and the environment. Ministers also hope to “promote the use of integrated pest management and of alternative approaches or techniques such as non-chemical alternatives to pesticides . |  |
Luxury food and pampered pooches in Iron Age Britain
University of Reading archaeologists have found evidence that Iron Age people in Britain were spicing up meals with foods and seasoning imported from around the Mediterranean.
Previously it had been assumed that prior to the Roman occupation of Britain, only liquid products such as olive oil and wine were imported from across the Channel. However archaeologists working at Silchester Roman Town in Hampshire have discovered that people of that time were importing Mediterranean seasoning as well as whole olives themselves.
Previously it had been assumed that prior to the Roman occupation of Britain, only liquid products such as olive oil and wine were imported from across the Channel. However archaeologists working at Silchester Roman Town in Hampshire have discovered that people of that time were importing Mediterranean seasoning as well as whole olives themselves.
Where To? The Dream Space Missions of 3 Scientists
Less than two weeks from now, the Mars Science Laboratory will reach the Red Planet. After scientists hold their breath through the sophisticated but terrifying landing procedure, the car-size Curiosity rover should be in position to explore new regions of our neighboring world.
Curiosity may well capture the imagination of the world, just as the Mars Phoenix Lander did when it found evidence of water ice back in 2008. Nevertheless, the future of U.S. planetary science remains in limbo. As part of ongoing belt-tightening in Washington, President Barack Obama proposed to cut $309 million from NASA planetary science, or about 20 percent of its $1.5 billion budget. |  |
Space Elevators To The Cosmos: 'Next Stop, Low Earth Orbit'
In the ongoing sweepstakes for cheap access to low earth orbit, the idea of “space elevators” has long been relegated to the technological margins. But half a century after the concept was first proposed, the notion that elevators could eventually be used to transport humans and several tons of cargo from sea level to geosynchronous orbit and beyond is finally gaining currency.
Next month, the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) will meet in Seattle in hopes of furthering the cause. |  |
Plastic-Eating Underwater Drone Could Swallow the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
A new underwater drone concept could seek and destroy one of the ocean’s most insidious enemies, while earning a profit for plastics recyclers. This marine drone can siphon plastic garbage, swallowing bits of trash in a gaping maw rivaling that of a whale shark.
Industrial design student Elie Ahovi, who previously brought us the Orbit clothes washer concept, now presents the Marine Drone, an autonomous electric vehicle that tows a plastic-trapping net. The net is surrounded by a circular buoy to balance the weight of the garbage it collects. It discourages fish and other creatures from entering its jaws via an annoying sonic transmitter, and it communicates with other drones and with its base station using sonar. |  |
Wannabe astronaut looks to asteroids
For as long as he can remember Eric Anderson wanted to become an astronaut. But knew his short-sightedness would prevent him from joining Nasa.
Instead, he has made it his mission to take others into space. He kick-started the space tourism industry at the age of 23 – so far his company, Space Adventures, has sent seven people (all multimillionaires) into space on Russian rockets – and is now planning a 17-day trip for two around the moon. At $125m (£81m) a seat, it will probably be the most expensive joyride ever. "It's more than a theme-park ride," he says. |  |
'Air' Batteries Could Energize EVs
Researchers in the UK say they have made a key step in development of a lithium-air battery, a device that promises three to five times as much energy per unit mass as the existing lithium-ion batteries that we use in our consumer devices and electric vehicles.
Once built, such a battery could allow you to fly cross-country flights with a functioning laptop, or talk for a week without charging your cellphone or even a take a 500-mile journey in a Chevy Volt, for example, instead of the 100 miles it runs today. |  |
Life science businessmen predict genetically enhanced athletes will soon compete in the Olympics
The journal Nature has begun publishing a series of commentary piece articles related to the sciences as they apply to the Olympics.
One, for example is by an epidemiologist considering the infectious disease implications of the sudden onrush of millions of people to a single two week event. Another author wonders if there shouldn’t be more variety in the kinds of Olympic Games that exist. He suggests that perhaps there ought to be a separate set of games where the athletes are free to use whatever performance enhancing drugs they wish, just to see what feats they might be capable of achieving. Perhaps more realistic is a commentary piece by Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans, managing directors of Excel Venture Management, a group that builds companies around life science technologies. They suggest that like it or not, people with performance enhancing genetic alterations will likely very soon be competing against one another in the Olympics. |  |
Climate change study forces sceptical scientists to change minds
The Earth's land has warmed by 1.5C over the past 250 years and "humans are almost entirely the cause", according to a scientific study set up to address climate change sceptics' concerns about whether human-induced global warming is occurring.
Prof Richard Muller, a physicist and climate change sceptic who founded the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (Best) project, said he was surprised by the findings. "We were not expecting this, but as scientists, it is our duty to let the evidence change our minds." He added that he now considers himself a "converted sceptic" and his views had undergone a "total turnaround" in a short space of time. |  |
Simply Smiling Can Actually Reduce Stress
It sounds like the most useless advice imaginable: Just put on a happy face. Conventional wisdom is that smiling is an effect of feeling happy, rather than the other way around. Simply smiling in stressful situations can’t possibly make you feel any better, right?
Wrong. A fascinating new study by University of Kansas psychologists that will soon be published in the journal Psychological Science indicates that, in some circumstances, smiling can actually reduce stress and help us feel better.
Wrong. A fascinating new study by University of Kansas psychologists that will soon be published in the journal Psychological Science indicates that, in some circumstances, smiling can actually reduce stress and help us feel better.
DNA hints at African cousin to humans
Expeditions to Africa may have brought back evidence of a hitherto unknown branch in the human family tree. But this time the evidence wasn’t unearthed by digging in the dirt. It was found in the DNA of hunter-gatherer people living in Cameroon and Tanzania.
Buried in the genetic blueprints of 15 people, researchers found the genetic signature of a sister species that branched off the human family tree at about the same time that Neandertals did. This lineage probably remained isolated from the one that produced modern humans for a long time, but its DNA jumped into the Homo sapiens gene pool through interbreeding with modern humans during the same era that other modern humans and Neandertals were mixing in the Middle East, researchers report in the August 3 Cell.
Buried in the genetic blueprints of 15 people, researchers found the genetic signature of a sister species that branched off the human family tree at about the same time that Neandertals did. This lineage probably remained isolated from the one that produced modern humans for a long time, but its DNA jumped into the Homo sapiens gene pool through interbreeding with modern humans during the same era that other modern humans and Neandertals were mixing in the Middle East, researchers report in the August 3 Cell.
Daring NASA Mars Mission Broadcast Lands In Times Square
WASHINGTON -- The Toshiba Vision screen in New York City's Times Square will become the largest East Coast location for the public to see live mission coverage of Curiosity, NASA's most advanced planetary rover, as it lands on the Martian surface at 1:31 a.m. EDT August 6.
The Toshiba Vision screen will broadcast NASA TV coverage beginning at 11:30 p.m. EDT August 5 and continuing through 4 a.m. EDT the next day. Programming will originate from Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. The rover is on a precise course for a landing beside a Martian mountain to begin 2 years of unprecedented scientific detective work.
The Toshiba Vision screen will broadcast NASA TV coverage beginning at 11:30 p.m. EDT August 5 and continuing through 4 a.m. EDT the next day. Programming will originate from Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. The rover is on a precise course for a landing beside a Martian mountain to begin 2 years of unprecedented scientific detective work.
Higgs boson results from LHC 'get even stronger'
The Higgs boson-like particle whose discovery was announced on 4 July looks significantly more certain to exist.
The particle has been the subject of a decades-long hunt as the last missing piece of physics' Standard Model, explaining why matter has mass. Now one Higgs-hunting team at the Large Hadron Collider report a "5.9 sigma" levels of certainty it exists. That equates to a one-in-300 million chance that the Higgs does not exist and the results are statistical flukes. |  |
Scientists Discover Another Mammal That Forms Elite Groups
Dolphins form cliques based on their skills, scientists have found, suggesting they could be the only non-human mammals to indulge in elite societies.
Wild bottlenose dolphins bond over their use of tools, with distinct cliques and classes forming over decades as a result of their skills, scientists have found. The communities, which have been compared with societies such as the Bullingdon Club in humans, mean the aquatic animals share their knowledge only with those in their own circle, passing it down the family line. |  |
Once In A Blue Moon: August Is A Blue Moon Month
People say things will happen “once in a blue moon” when they mean it’s unlikely to happen or something very rare. In fact, we’ve been using a “blue moon” as synonymous with “never” for about 400 years. But what is a blue moon, really?
A full moon that actually appears blue is very rare. It happens because of ash or dust in the air, sometimes from volcanic eruptions or major forest fires, which act like a color filter for your eyes making the moon appear blue. Because these types of blue moons only happen after a major event, they aren’t predictable. There are a few other reasons the moon could appear blue, according to Les Cowley, an atmospheric optics expert. “Our eyes have automatic ‘white balances‘ just like digital cameras. |  |
Higgs discovery papers unveiled
Yesterday on the popular preprint server arXiv.org, ATLAS and CMS, the two main physics experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, posted their scientific papers describing a new Higgs-like particle (ref: ATLAS, CMS).
The papers are lengthy and dense, 39 pages in the case of ATLAS and 59 pages for CMS. They describe, in painstaking detail, the decay of a new particle into a variety of known particles, including ã rays and W and Z bosons. The upshot seems to be about the same as it was at the beginning of July: the signal is still there, and it’s even stronger than before. Both experiments now report significance well above five standard deviations... |  |
Later Stone Age In South Africa Emerged Earlier Than Previously Believed
Two recent articles in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences show that the Later Stone Age (LSA) and Modern Culture both emerged much earlier than was previously thought.
A team of international scientists from South Africa, France, Italy, Norway, the USA and Britain dated and directly analyzed organic objects found in the archaeological layers at Border Cave, South Africa in the Lebombo Mountains near the border of Swaziland. The team carbon-dated many organic objects, including beads made from ostrich eggshells, thin bone arrowhead points, wooden digging sticks, a gummy substance called pitch and a lump of beeswax. The last two objects were both used to haft bone or stone blades to shafts... |  |
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