Link found between cold European winters and solar activity
Scientists have long suspected that the Sun's 11-year cycle influences climate of certain regions on Earth. Yet records of average, seasonal temperatures do not date back far enough to confirm any patterns. Now, armed with a unique proxy, an international team of researchers show that unusually cold winters in Central Europe are related to low solar activity – when sunspot numbers are minimal. The freezing of Germany's largest river, the Rhine, is the key.
Although the Earth's surface overall continues to warm, the new analysis has revealed a correlation between periods of low activity of the Sun and of some cooling – on a limited, regional scale in Central Europe, along the Rhine. |  |
Spacetime: A smoother brew than we knew
SpaceTime may be less like beer and more like sipping whisky.
Or so an intergalactic photo finish would suggest. Physicist Robert Nemiroff of Michigan Technological University reached this heady conclusion after studying the tracings of three photons of differing wavelengths that had been recorded by NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope in May 2009. The photons originated about 7 billion light years away from Earth in one of three pulses from a gamma-ray burst and arrived at the orbiting telescope just one millisecond apart, in a virtual tie. |  |
What was it like to be a man in the Middle Ages?
Whether you were a cleric grappling with a life of celibacy or a noble forced to demonstrate his virility in combat, what was it like to be a man in the Middle Ages?
The study of medieval masculinity
is a burgeoning field of international scholarship and two historians at the University of Huddersfield are playing a key role. They recently staged a conference which attracted experts from around the world. And they have launched a new network, which will be an important forum for research in the field.
Dr Pat Cullum and Dr Katherine Lewis are the Huddersfield historians who organised the conference, entitled ‘Religious Men in the Middle Ages’. Taking place over two days, it was attended by 50 delegates from 14 countries.
The study of medieval masculinity
is a burgeoning field of international scholarship and two historians at the University of Huddersfield are playing a key role. They recently staged a conference which attracted experts from around the world. And they have launched a new network, which will be an important forum for research in the field.Dr Pat Cullum and Dr Katherine Lewis are the Huddersfield historians who organised the conference, entitled ‘Religious Men in the Middle Ages’. Taking place over two days, it was attended by 50 delegates from 14 countries.
One of the best historical documentaries available, especially on Classical Mediterranean civilizations (Greece,
Rome, and others). There are six discs in the series, each disc containing five episodes of 20 minutes, except
the last disc which has only two. Although 20 minutes may not sound like much, so much is packed into each
episode that they do not disappoint.
Each episode shows historical ruins related to its subject, beginning with maps to let you know when and where
you are, and frequently using animation to reconstruct the ruins as they appeared in their prime. The narration
uses the pictures as a starting point to discuss the culture and history represented by the ruins. The series
frequently provides a fairly in depth discussion of the culture, ordinary life, religion, etc. of the peoples who
lived in these locations, not just stories of battles and rulers.
One of the best historical documentaries available, especially on Classical Mediterranean civilizations (Greece,
Rome, and others). There are six discs in the series, each disc containing five episodes of 20 minutes, except
the last disc which has only two. Although 20 minutes may not sound like much, so much is packed into each
episode that they do not disappoint.
Each episode shows historical ruins related to its subject, beginning with maps to let you know when and where
you are, and frequently using animation to reconstruct the ruins as they appeared in their prime. The narration
uses the pictures as a starting point to discuss the culture and history represented by the ruins. The series
frequently provides a fairly in depth discussion of the culture, ordinary life, religion, etc. of the peoples who
lived in these locations, not just stories of battles and rulers.
frequently provides a fairly in depth discussion of the culture, ordinary life, religion, etc. of the peoples who
lived in these locations, not just stories of battles and rulers.
After 32,000 Years, an Ice Age Flower Blooms Again
DISCOVER MAGAZINE
Deep in the frozen tundra of northeastern Siberia, a squirrel buried fruits some 32,000 years ago from a plant that bore white flowers. This winter a team of Russian scientists announced that they had unearthed the fruit and brought tissue from it back to life. The fruits are about 30,000 years older than the Israeli date palm seed that previously held the record as the oldest tissue to give life to healthy plants.
Holograms present celebs with new afterlife issues
When Tupac Shakur rose from the stage in the California desert earlier this year, it was not only a jaw-dropping resurrection, but also the beginning of a new form of live entertainment.
"Come with me," the digital Shakur called out, not just to tens of thousands of screaming fans but seemingly to other artists.
Follow, they will. Elvis Presley's estate announced it has authorized holograms of the King of Rock, Marilyn Monroe's estate has expressed interest and there's no shortage of other beloved stars whose fans would die to see them perform again.
"Come with me," the digital Shakur called out, not just to tens of thousands of screaming fans but seemingly to other artists.
Follow, they will. Elvis Presley's estate announced it has authorized holograms of the King of Rock, Marilyn Monroe's estate has expressed interest and there's no shortage of other beloved stars whose fans would die to see them perform again.
Why Did the Ancient Maya
Civilization Collapse: Deforestation, Climate Change?
It’s long been one of ancient history’s most intriguing mysteries: Why did the Maya, a remarkably sophisticated civilization made up of more than 19 million people, suddenly collapse sometime during the 8th or 9th centuries? Although the Mayan people never entirely disappeared—their descendants still live across Central America—dozens of core urban areas in the lowlands of the Yucatan peninsula, such as Tikal, went from bustling cities to abandoned ruins over the course of roughly a hundred years.
|  |
'Climate Consensus' Data Need a More Careful Look
In his Aug. 6 op-ed, "A New climate-change Consensus," Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp speaks of "the trend—a decades-long march toward hotter and wilder weather." We have seen quite a few such claims this summer season, and Mr. Krupp insists that we accept them as "true." Only with Lewis Carroll's famous definition of truth, "What I tell you three times is true," is this the case.
But repetition of a fib does not make it true. As one of many pieces of evidence that our climate is doing what it always does, consider the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's year-by-year data for wet and dry years in the continental U.S.
But repetition of a fib does not make it true. As one of many pieces of evidence that our climate is doing what it always does, consider the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's year-by-year data for wet and dry years in the continental U.S.
Only 2% of Canadians deny climate change, suggests poll
Only two per cent of Canadians who responded to a new opinion poll believe climate change is not occurring.
The findings are in a survey conducted by Insightrix Research, Inc. for IPAC-CO2 Research Inc., a Regina-based centre that studies carbon capture and storage. The online poll of 1,550 people was done between May 29 and June 11. The results were to be released on Wednesday. "Our survey indicates that Canadians from coast to coast overwhelmingly believe climate change is real and is occurring, at least in part due to human activity," said centre CEO Carmen Dybwad. Respondents were asked where they stood on the issue of climate-change. |  |
MIT-developed 'microthrusters' could propel small satellites
A penny-sized rocket thruster may soon power the smallest satellites in space.
The device, designed by Paulo Lozano, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, bears little resemblance to today’s bulky satellite engines, which are laden with valves, pipes and heavy propellant tanks. Instead, Lozano’s design is a flat, compact square — much like a computer chip — covered with 500 microscopic tips that, when stimulated with voltage, emit tiny beams of ions. Together, the array of spiky tips creates a small puff of charged particles that can help propel a shoebox-sized satellite forward. |  |
Is space mining really feasible?
What was your reaction when you first heard about Planetary Resources' plan to mine the asteroids?
My interest was initially piqued by the fact that they also want to study space objects with their small space telescopes. That's my background: the discovery of these bodies and their orbits. I view mining asteroids as quite difficult. A lot of the technology required to do that has not yet been demonstrated. Of course, that's what somebody would have told you about brain surgery or heart surgery before it was actually done. So while this hasn't been demonstrated yet, the only way to do so is to throw a whole lot of money at the problem and to undertake a lot of experiments on Earth and in space. |  |
Bias in the fossil record
There are a whole series of biases in the fossil record that affect which organisms were preserved and how, and thus affects how we as palaeontologists can investigate the life of these ancient worlds. The key of course is to understand and recognise these biases and account for them and how they affect things, and to make allowances as far as possible for their effects.
To become a fossil, the remains of an organism must not decay away to nothing, but instead be buried in some medium (mud, sand, ash) which generally (but not always) happens in water. This must lie undisturbed for long enough and under enough pressure from additional sediments for the material to become mineralised and turn into a fossil.
To become a fossil, the remains of an organism must not decay away to nothing, but instead be buried in some medium (mud, sand, ash) which generally (but not always) happens in water. This must lie undisturbed for long enough and under enough pressure from additional sediments for the material to become mineralised and turn into a fossil.
112 Years Later, Sioux Indian Is Freed From an Unmarked Grave
DANBURY, Conn. — It was 112 years ago that Albert Afraid of Hawk, a Sioux Indian from South Dakota, died here of botulism from a bad can of corn.
Mr. Afraid of Hawk, a performer with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, was traveling through Danbury when he became ill and died at age 20 in Danbury Hospital. He was buried across the street at Wooster Cemetery in an unmarked grave — until Wednesday, that is, when the state archaeologist, Nicholas F. Bellantoni, dug down into the six-foot grave and had “a eureka moment.” He had unearthed the performer’s skull, to the cheers and tears of four of Mr. Afraid of Hawk’s family members who had come from the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota for the disinterment. |  |
Lab-grown meat gives food for thought
A burger grown in a laboratory. Sounds like science-fiction? Well up until very recently it probably was but now the prospect of lab-grown meat appearing on our supermarket shelves is closer than ever.
Synthetic or test-tube meat involves taking a small amount of cells from a living animal and growing it into lumps of muscle tissue, which can then, in theory, be eaten as meat for human consumption. As well avoiding killing animals, scientists believe it could help reduce the environmental impact of meat production. |  |
What the Cluck? Introducing the Vegan Egg Yolk
Rocky Shepheard has perfected a paradox: a vegan egg yolk, no feathered friend required. Nope, it’s not one of those coconut-and-carrot-puree concoctions that molecular gastronomists are so fond of. This sulfury golden goo is every bit as eggy as anything laid by a hen. Since February, the Vegg has been selling at health food stores and at TheVegg.com. More than 7,650 powdered packets have sold worldwide, ready to whip up into no-ovo French toast, frittatas, and hollandaise sauce.
Slime Molds Help Show How Cancer Grows
Smarty-pants slime molds can solve mazes and produce diagrams similar to the Tokyo rail system—and now, scientists suggest, they may also be able to help treat cancer. Biophysicists in Germany and Singapore suggest that mathematical models based on slime mold behavior might lead to new ways to starve tumors of blood.
The slime mold Physarum polycephalum, usually found growing inside rotting logs, forages for food by extending a network of thin tendrils from its edge. Once the mold has found food, such as a piece of decaying vegetation or a microorganism, it grows over it and secretes digestive enzymes. P. polycephalum then constructs an elaborate network of interconnections between food sources, allowing it to shuttle nutrients around.
The slime mold Physarum polycephalum, usually found growing inside rotting logs, forages for food by extending a network of thin tendrils from its edge. Once the mold has found food, such as a piece of decaying vegetation or a microorganism, it grows over it and secretes digestive enzymes. P. polycephalum then constructs an elaborate network of interconnections between food sources, allowing it to shuttle nutrients around.
Ants fitted with radio backpacks to monitor colony
One thousand rare ants on a National Trust property have been fitted with tiny backpacks to try and find out how the insects 'social network'.
Researchers from the University of York are fitting the hairy wood ants with tiny radio receivers in a world first experiment to find out how they communicate and travel between their complex nests. The three-year research project will take place on the National Trust’s Longshaw Estate in Derbyshire a hotspot for these internationally protected ants. This unique site contains more than a thousand nests and is home to up to 50 million worker ants. |  |
Humans have inbuilt sense of fairness
Researchers found that even when desperate for a drink, people who were given a glass of water but told that their colleagues would be given more chose to reject the opportunity altogether.
The study shows that humans, unlike our closest animal relatives, have an inbuilt sense of fairness which has to be balanced against self-interest, scientists said. In the study, published in the Scientific Reports journal, 21 participants were made to feel thirsty either by administering a salty solution via a drip or drinking an isotonic solution. |  |
Mars Photos by Curiosity Rover Teeming with 'UFOs'
According to the fringe sector of the Internet, Mars is practically teeming with aliens.
Since NASA's Curiosity rover touched down on the Red Planet two weeks ago and powered up its cameras, it has already managed to photograph several alleged UFOs and other "anomalies" in the surrounding landscape. From classic flying saucers to an absurdly out-of-place fossilized human finger, here's a rundown of what UFO believers claim to have found in Curiosity photos so far. |  |
Archaeological Dig Reveals Causes—and Possible Cures—for Diabetes Epidemic
The future health of Natives may lie in the scatological remains of the past—a vanguard study of ancient excrement has offered fresh new ways of thinking about the prevalence of diabetes among Native people of the American Southwest.
Karl Reinhard, a professor of forensic science and environmental archaeology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has studied the fossilized feces, or coprolites, of ancestral Pueblo people and documented typical Pueblo diets prior to European contact. He has determined that the overwhelming prevalence of diabetes among Pueblo descendants may stem from their radical departure from the healthy diets of their progenitors. |  |
Why Svalbard is rising
The uplift measured at Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard reflects changes in the regional ice cover during the last Ice Age, after the Little Ice Age and today. But the geodetic observatory operated in this Arctic settlement by the Norwegian Mapping Authority (NMA) has long shown the rise to be higher than predicted by geophysical modelling.
Comparing gravimetric readings with measurements by GPS and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) makes it possible to understand the suprisingly large uplift in Svalbard and why this is so much bigger than the models predict. At the moment, the uplift in Ny-Ålesund is about 8.5 millimetres per year. But this figure also varies considerably from year to year. |  |
No comments:
Post a Comment