Nasa's Curiosity rover 'sniffs' Martian air
Nasa's Curiosity rover has measured the Red Planet's atmospheric composition.
The robot sucked the air into its big Sample Analysis at Mars (Sam) instrument to reveal the concentration of different gases. It is the first time that the chemistry of the atmosphere has been tested from the surface of the planet since the Viking landers in the 1970s. The Sam analysis is ongoing but no major surprises are expected at this stage - carbon dioxide will dominate. |  |
UFO hunters converge on Swedish lake
A research team has been sent to the far north of Sweden to attempt to verify reports that a "ghost rocket" crashed into a lake in 1980.
The leader of the expedition, Clas Svahn, told TheLocal.se that while he doesn't necessarily "believe" that an extraterrestrial object crashed into the lake, he wants to find out what did. He's taking along a support team, divers, and a film crew to document the process. He's also taking along a pair of witnesses -- Bo and Liz Berg -- who saw the object landing in the south end of a lake in Muddus, on 31 July, 1980. |  |
Strange hum keeping West Seattle awake
Julie Schickling stood out on her porch in West Seattle just after midnight because she couldn't explain what she was hearing. So she recorded the sound (listen here on West Seattle Blog).
"It gets high and lower, and goes away, then comes back," said Schickling. Some of her neighbors report being shaken out of bed by the low rumble, also described as a growl. In fact, as many people you talk with is about how many different words you heard to describe it. |  |
Cloud seeding trial underway in NSW
Winter has come and gone for another year and with it more data has been gathered in a cutting edge trial that is being carried out in the Australian Alps.
The trial is exploring the possibility of increasing snowfall by utilising a technique called cloud seeding that was first seen more than 50 years ago. Cloud seeding is the process of introducing a particle into the clouds to help make it rain or snow. |  |
Quantum-y interconnected telescopes see clearer
The goal of new telescopes is usually to resolve more details at greater distances. The most straightforward way to do this is to simply make telescopes larger. Unfortunately, the simple weight of the mirrors makes this a path fraught with difficulties. Despite the difficulties, there are consortiums attempting to do just this.
An alternative is to combine the light from different telescopes. The interference between the light fields captured by separate telescopes creates an image that has details that would ordinarily be resolved by a telescope with a size similar to the separation between the telescopes. This seems simple, but the light fields are very weak and losses involved in transporting and combining the light fields are such that separations of a few hundred meters are today's limits. A trio of Canadian researchers has proposed using technologies being developed for quantum key distribution to greatly extend the allowable distance between telescopes.
An alternative is to combine the light from different telescopes. The interference between the light fields captured by separate telescopes creates an image that has details that would ordinarily be resolved by a telescope with a size similar to the separation between the telescopes. This seems simple, but the light fields are very weak and losses involved in transporting and combining the light fields are such that separations of a few hundred meters are today's limits. A trio of Canadian researchers has proposed using technologies being developed for quantum key distribution to greatly extend the allowable distance between telescopes.
Exclusive Pictures: Maya Murals Found in Family Kitchen
If these walls could talk, they'd solve a Maya mystery.
Five years ago Lucas Asicona Ramírez (far right, pictured with family) began scraping his walls while renovating his home in the Guatemalan village of Chajul. As the plaster fell away, a multi-wall Maya mural saw light for the first time in centuries, according to archaeologist Jaroslaw Zralka, who recently revealed the finds to National Geographic News.
The paintings depict figures in procession, wearing a mix of traditional Maya and Spanish garb. Some may be holding human hearts, said Zralka, who was working on the other side of Guatemala when a colleague tipped him off to the kitchen murals.
Five years ago Lucas Asicona Ramírez (far right, pictured with family) began scraping his walls while renovating his home in the Guatemalan village of Chajul. As the plaster fell away, a multi-wall Maya mural saw light for the first time in centuries, according to archaeologist Jaroslaw Zralka, who recently revealed the finds to National Geographic News.
The paintings depict figures in procession, wearing a mix of traditional Maya and Spanish garb. Some may be holding human hearts, said Zralka, who was working on the other side of Guatemala when a colleague tipped him off to the kitchen murals.
In Ghana's witch camps, the accused are never safe
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — In the witch camps of Ghana, the dying contortions of a slaughtered chicken determine the guilt of an accused woman: witch, or not.
If the chicken falls with its head down and its feet in the air, the woman is declared a witch and she must spend the rest of her days in the squalor of the camp, abandoned by her family, with just one unfortunate young relation sent by her family to care for her until she dies.
And if the chicken collapses feet down and she's declared innocent of witchcraft? She still must spend her remaining years in the camp, just in case some villagers don't believe in her innocence.
If the chicken falls with its head down and its feet in the air, the woman is declared a witch and she must spend the rest of her days in the squalor of the camp, abandoned by her family, with just one unfortunate young relation sent by her family to care for her until she dies.
And if the chicken collapses feet down and she's declared innocent of witchcraft? She still must spend her remaining years in the camp, just in case some villagers don't believe in her innocence.
No ban on pesticides that 'threaten bees'
Nerve-agent pesticides should not be banned in Britain despite four separate scientific studies strongly linking them to sharp declines in bees around the world, Government scientists have advised.
An internal review of recent research on neonicotinoids – pesticides that act on insects' central nervous systems and are increasingly blamed for problems with bee colonies – has concluded that no change is needed in British regulation.
An internal review of recent research on neonicotinoids – pesticides that act on insects' central nervous systems and are increasingly blamed for problems with bee colonies – has concluded that no change is needed in British regulation.
Protected Areas for Wildlife Expand to Size of Russia
OSLO (Reuters) - Protected areas for wildlife have expanded worldwide to cover a land area the size of Russia in the past two decades, but far more parks and reserves are needed to meet a 2020 target, a study showed on Friday.
The sharp growth, as governments expanded existing areas and declared new ones, was needed to help slow a loss of animal and plant species and to conserve eco-systems which serve vital functions such as purifying water and storing greenhouse gases, it said.
"These rich natural areas are very important for people, who rely on them for food and clean water, climate regulation and reducing the impacts of natural disasters," said Julia Marton-Lefevre, head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The sharp growth, as governments expanded existing areas and declared new ones, was needed to help slow a loss of animal and plant species and to conserve eco-systems which serve vital functions such as purifying water and storing greenhouse gases, it said.
"These rich natural areas are very important for people, who rely on them for food and clean water, climate regulation and reducing the impacts of natural disasters," said Julia Marton-Lefevre, head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Overfishing pushes tuna stocks to the brink: experts
Global tuna stocks are fast reaching the limits of fishing sustainability, decimated by an absence of comprehensive, science-based catch limits, conservation experts warned Saturday.
Five of the world's eight tuna species are already classified as threatened or nearly threatened with extinction, according to the Red List of Threatened Species compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). At the IUCN's World Conservation Congress currently underway in South Korea's southern Jeju Island, experts said partial quotas currently in place were inadequate and uninformed. |  |
Study shows how sea otters can reduce CO2 in the atmosphere
Can an abundance of sea otters help reverse a principal cause of global warming?
A new study by two UC Santa Cruz researchers suggest that a thriving sea otter population that keeps sea urchins in check will in turn allow kelp forests to prosper. The spreading kelp can absorb as much as 12 times the amount of CO2 from the atmosphere than if it were subject to ravenous sea urchins, the study finds. The theory is outlined in a paper released online today (September 7, 2012) in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment by lead authors UC Santa Cruz professors Chris Wilmers and James Estes. |  |
Lemon sharks 'learn' skills by watching each other
Lemon sharks have the ability to learn from each other's behaviour, US scientists have found.
The team compared the performance of inexperienced juvenile sharks working with both trained and untrained partners. The results showed that sharks working with trained partners could complete tasks more quickly and successfully. The study is thought to be the first to demonstrate social learning in any cartilaginous fish. "I think it's a really cool finding," said lead author Dr Tristan Guttridge from the University of Miami, Florida whose paper was published in the Journal of Animal Cognition. |  |
Can Birds Tell If We Look Them in the Eye?
In humans, the eyes are said to be the ‘window to the soul’, conveying much about a person’s emotions and intentions. New research demonstrates for the first time that birds also respond to a human’s gaze.
Predators tend to look at their prey when they attack, so direct eye-gaze can predict imminent danger. Julia Carter, a graduate student at the University of Bristol, and her colleagues, set up experiments that showed starlings will keep away from their food dish if a human is looking at it. However, if the person is just as close, but their eyes are turned away, the birds resumed feeding earlier and consumed more food overall. |  |
Sexual selection in the fossil record
Sexual selection – the phenomenon in which organisms choose mates on the basis of desirable traits – is one of the fundamental driving processes of evolution. It’s all around us, seemingly explains an enormous amount of the morphological and behavioural variation observed in the natural world, and has been shown to be tightly linked with speciation, adaptation, and even the susceptibility of a species to extinction. Accordingly, it is inherently logical to assume that sexual selection shaped the evolution of extinct animals as well as modern ones.
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Counterfeit fossils undermine research projects
Fake fossils are duping scientists and museums, a senior paleontologist has warned, after a scholar was forced to retract a controversial essay that stated the cheetah originated in China.
According to Li Chun, associate researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, counterfeits are now widespread and have become a serious risk to genuine study projects. "I believe many scholars are victims of fake fossils," he said, before estimating that more than 80 percent of marine reptile specimens on display in Chinese museums "have been altered or artificially combined to varying degrees". |  |
Dinosaur skeleton in custody battle may be 'Frankenstein amalgam'
A 70-million-year-old dinosaur at the center of an international fossil custody battle is a Frankenstein-like amalgam of parts of several creatures, a Manhattan federal court was told on Wednesday.
The claim - which federal prosecutors challenged - could complicate the U.S. government's forfeiture case against a Florida fossil dealer who reconstructed tyrannosaurus bataar bones and sold the piece at auction in May for $1.05 million. Auction marketing material for the skeleton implies that it is a reconstruction of a single creature. |  |
Capacity for language implied by right-handedness in Neanderthals
Like modern humans, most Neanderthals were right handed, adding to the weight of evidence regarding their capacity for language.
In a new analysis, published in the open journal PLoS ONE, of the skeleton of a 20 year old Neanderthal man dubbed “Regourdou“ discovered in 1957 near the famous Lascaux cave, the researchers confirmed that he had been right-handed like most of his European cousins whose remains have also been studied.
In a new analysis, published in the open journal PLoS ONE, of the skeleton of a 20 year old Neanderthal man dubbed “Regourdou“ discovered in 1957 near the famous Lascaux cave, the researchers confirmed that he had been right-handed like most of his European cousins whose remains have also been studied.
How Do Hallucinogens Work?
wiss chemist Albert Hofmann, who discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD, died yesterday. But the LSD trip is far from over as scientists bring lucidity to how hallucinogens work.
Also called psychedelics, hallucinogens alter a person's perception, mood and a slew of other mental processes. Hallucinogen history goes back centuries as people worldwide have taken the drugs to induce altered states for religious and spiritual purposes. |  |
Respected Federal Judge Calls for Legalizing Marijuana
Richard A. Posner, a widely respected federal judge, called for the elimination of criminal laws against marijuana in a September 6 lecture at Elmhurst College in Illinois.
Judge Posner, a member of the influential United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, is an intellectual giant who is the most-cited judge in America. His call for legalization is significant because Posner is considered a legal conservative.
“I don’t think we should have a fraction of the drug laws that we have. I think it’s really absurd to be criminalizing possession or use or distribution of marijuana,” he said. “I can’t see any difference between that and cigarettes.”.
Judge Posner, a member of the influential United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, is an intellectual giant who is the most-cited judge in America. His call for legalization is significant because Posner is considered a legal conservative.
“I don’t think we should have a fraction of the drug laws that we have. I think it’s really absurd to be criminalizing possession or use or distribution of marijuana,” he said. “I can’t see any difference between that and cigarettes.”.
DNA could have existed long before life itself
THE latest twist in the origin-of-life tale is double helical. Chemists are close to demonstrating that the building blocks of DNA can form spontaneously from chemicals thought to be present on the primordial Earth. If they succeed, their work would suggest that DNA could have predated the birth of lifeMovie Camera.
DNA is essential to almost all life on Earth, yet most biologists think that life began with RNA. Just like DNA, it stores genetic information. What's more, RNA can fold into complex shapes that can clamp onto other molecules and speed up chemical reactions, just like a protein, and it is structurally simpler than DNA, so might be easier to make. |  |
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