Has the International Space Station inadvertently caught sight of an "Interstellar" Space Station hovering nearby? Or is a blurry streak that UFO hunters have found in new NASA footage filmed out the window of the space station merely a window reflection? Let the most likely explanation win.
On Sept. 11, YouTube user danielofdoriaa posted footage from the ISS's live camera feed, which streams over the Web. In his annotated footage, he points out a faint, elongated white shape with a neat row of faint white dots next to it set against the blackness of space just below the curve of the Earth. It is an "amazingUFO mothership letting out an orb fleet on ISS live feed," the YouTuber explains in the video title. |  |
Van Gogh's Flowers In A Blue Vase damage seen in X-rays
Researchers have spotted a never-before-seen chemical effect in Vincent Van Gogh's Flowers In A Blue Vase that is dulling the work's vibrant yellows.
It seems a layer of varnish added later to protect the work is in fact turning the yellow to a greyish-orange colour. High-intensity X-ray studies described in Analytical Chemistry found compounds called oxalates were responsible. But atoms from the original paint were also found in the varnish, which may therefore be left in place. It is not the first time that the bright yellows that Van Gogh preferred have been examined with X-rays. |  |
Adventurous artist draws dozens of bizarre self-portraits while high
This, in case you've ever lain awake at night pondering it, is what happens if you have the desire to mix drugs with paint.
Washington DC-based artist Bryan Lewis Saunders did just that to create his aptly entitled portfolio of work, DRUGS. From cocaine and marijuana, to Xanax and Absinth, these narcotics-inspired self-portraits capture the many faces of Mr Saunders as he experiments with a cocktail of illegal substances. Reminiscent of the 1987 PSA 'Brain on Drugs' the artwork is an alarming home truth of what narcotics can do to the mind. 'After experiencing drastic changes in my environment, I looked for other experiences that might profoundly affect my perception of the self,' he wrote in a commentary accompanying the collection. |  |
Snow on Mars: NASA Spacecraft Spots 'Dry Ice' Snowflakes
A spacecraft orbiting Mars has detected carbon dioxide snow falling on the Red Planet, making Mars the only body in the solar system known to host this weird weather phenomenon.
The snow on Mars fell from clouds around the planet's south pole during the Martian winter spanning 2006 and 2007, with scientists discovering it only after sifting through observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The Martian south pole hosts a frozen carbon dioxide — or "dry ice" — cap year-round, and the new discovery may help explain how it formed and persists, researchers said. "These are the first definitive detections of carbon-dioxide snow clouds," lead author Paul Hayne, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "We firmly establish the clouds are composed of carbon dioxide — flakes of Martian air — and they are thick enough to result in snowfall accumulation at the surface." |  |
Spheres spark new Martian mystery
Eight years ago, NASA's Opportunity rover came across strange-looking spheres that were nicknamed Martian blueberries — and now the Mars rover has sent back a picture showing a different flavor of berry that has the experts scratching their heads.
"This is one of the most extraordinary pictures from the whole mission," Cornell astronomer Steve Squyres, the rover mission's principal investigator, said today in a news release. The golf-cart-sized Opportunity rover used the microscopic imager on the end of its robotic arm to take a super-close look at the spherical shapes. These particular berries, measuring as much as one-eighth of an inch (3 millimeters) in diameter, cover an outcrop called Kirkwood in the Cape York segment of Endeavour Crater's western rim. |  |
Can a Robot Get Into Japan’s Most Prestigious University?
Tokyo University’s notoriously difficult entrance exam shatters the dreams of thousands of Japanese high school students each year. Can it also crush the hopes of Japan’s best robot scientists?
The scientists won’t be taking the test themselves. Instead, this being Japan, researchers have posed the question of whether a robot could pass the test to get into the country’s most prestigious university.
Fujitsu Ltd. is betting artificial intelligence is smart enough to make the grade for Todai — as the university is also known. In response to the challenge “Can a Robot Pass the Todai Entrance Exam”?, the electronics company said Monday that its research subsidiary, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. will join forces with Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, to develop a robot capable of getting through the test.
The scientists won’t be taking the test themselves. Instead, this being Japan, researchers have posed the question of whether a robot could pass the test to get into the country’s most prestigious university.
Fujitsu Ltd. is betting artificial intelligence is smart enough to make the grade for Todai — as the university is also known. In response to the challenge “Can a Robot Pass the Todai Entrance Exam”?, the electronics company said Monday that its research subsidiary, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. will join forces with Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, to develop a robot capable of getting through the test.
Plight of the Bumblebee
When Europeans arrived in the Americas, they carried measles, flu, and smallpox to the native peoples. Now history is repeating itself—in the world of bees. The introduction of a European bumblebee to South America—and the parasite that the bee carries—may have decimated populations of that continent's indigenous "giant bumblebee," scientists reported last week in Biological Invasions.
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Stasi files: The world's biggest jigsaw puzzle
More than 20 years after the Berlin Wall fell, you might think the Stasi had been consigned to history. But a new generation wants to know what the East German secret police did to their parents, and computing wizardry is about to make it easier to find out.
The German Democratic Republic (GDR) and its agencies did not disappear immediately once the Berlin Wall fell. For some weeks afterwards many Stasi staff remained in their offices, trying to destroy evidence that could land them in jail or expose their spies in foreign countries. But they ran into technical difficulties. "The Stasi was an organisation that loved to keep paper," says Joachim Haussler, who works for the Stasi archives authority today. |  |
Cops might finally need a warrant to read your Gmail
Major surveillance law change arrives in the Senate—and it might well pass.
Right now, if the cops want to read my e-mail, it’s pretty trivial for them to do so. All they have to do is ask my online e-mail provider. But a new bill set to be introduced Thursday in the Senate Judiciary Committee by its chair, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), seems to stand the best chance of finally changing that situation and giving e-mail stored on remote servers the same privacy protections as e-mail stored on one's home computer. |  |
Mysterious tablet’s secrets revealed
A tablet found at the Ziyarettepe excavation area has stirred excitement among scientists and archaeologists. The tablet, which belongs to eighth century BC has writings in unknown language.
A tablet from the eighth century BC in an unknown language found at the Ziyarettepe excavation has stirred excitement among scientists. “The tablet in Ziyarettepe is quite important. The first evaluations and translation of the tablet were done in England. However, the first announcements are being made at our museum in Turkey,” said Nevin Soyukaya, director of the Diyarbakır Museum, which is supervising the excavation. |  |
Malian treasures trapped in a culture war
Djenne-Djenno, one of the best-known archaeological sites in sub-Saharan Africa, spreads over several acres of rutted fields near the present city of Djenne in central Mali. The ruts are partly caused by erosion, but they're also scars from decades of digging, by archaeologists in search of history and looters looking for art to sell.
When I was there last fall, a few archaeology students were in evidence. These days, with Mali in the throes of political chaos, it's unlikely that anyone is doing much work at all at the site, though history and art are visible everywhere. Ancient pottery shards litter the ground. Here and there the mouths of large clay urns, of a kind once used for food storage or human burial, emerge from the earth's surface, the vessels themselves still submerged.
When I was there last fall, a few archaeology students were in evidence. These days, with Mali in the throes of political chaos, it's unlikely that anyone is doing much work at all at the site, though history and art are visible everywhere. Ancient pottery shards litter the ground. Here and there the mouths of large clay urns, of a kind once used for food storage or human burial, emerge from the earth's surface, the vessels themselves still submerged.
On remote Alaska island, artifacts reveal signs of human life
ST. MATTHEW ISLAND — “Oh look, another tooth,” said Dennis Griffin, dressed in raingear and caked with wet soil.
Griffin, the state archaeologist with Oregon’s State Historic Preservation Office, has traveled to one of the least-walked hillsides in Alaska to search for evidence of his species. On a tundra rise with a gorgeous view of Hall Island and a nice panorama of St. Matthew Island, he has today found a fox tooth in a decaying jaw, chips of rock where someone made tools, pottery, a plate-size anvil stone and a yellowed walrus tusk cut with deep grooves. |  |
New stone inscription shows list of offerings to ancient gods
During construction work carried out by the Ministry of Endowments at the Al-Khamis market area, which is next to the archaeological site of Matariya in northern Cairo, workers stumbled upon a part of an ancient Egyptian stele.
Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim explained that the newly-discovered stone artefact is the right section of a New Kingdom stele, on which is displayed a complete, illustrated list of various offerings to ancient Egyptian deities. A collection of geese, vegetables, fruits, bread, and cattle is depicted. |  |
Ancient Termite-Digging Creature Added to Mammal Family Tree
A new look at a fossil mammal with powerful front legs for digging is clearing up questions about the origin of a group of strange and scaly modern-day creatures called pangolins.
First excavated in Mongolia in the 1970s, the fossil sat in storage for decades until researchers for the Russian Academy of Sciences rediscovered and analyzed it, reporting their results today (Aug. 27) in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. |  |
Photofits could be constructed from DNA
A new study has identified how five different sections of the genetic code help guide the development of different facial characteristics in each individual.
Researchers from the Netherlands, UK, Canada, Germany and Australia used MRI scans and portrait photographs to map out different facial features common among people of European ancestry. They then analysed the genes of 10,000 people across the five countries to look for common genetic variants which were linked to different facial traits. |  |
95% of my 4000 cases are not ghosts
Television overflows with heady haunts and fumbling ghost hunters frantic with green light night vision hallucinations and errant cold spots. The reality of the phenomena is a much more sober affair.
Parapsychologist Dr. Barry Taff has been investigating anomalous phenomenon for 43 years, and has investigated over 4,500 cases of ghosts, hauntings and poltergeists. His book, Aliens Above, Ghosts Below: Explorations of the Unkown
provides an extensive overview of some of his most notable cases. Having consulted on films such as Poltergeist, Altered States, Demon Seed and The Entity, he is no stranger to the media, however his serious approach to the study of the outer extremes of human experience puts him at odds with today’s ‘circus sideshow‘ approach.
Parapsychologist Dr. Barry Taff has been investigating anomalous phenomenon for 43 years, and has investigated over 4,500 cases of ghosts, hauntings and poltergeists. His book, Aliens Above, Ghosts Below: Explorations of the Unkown
provides an extensive overview of some of his most notable cases. Having consulted on films such as Poltergeist, Altered States, Demon Seed and The Entity, he is no stranger to the media, however his serious approach to the study of the outer extremes of human experience puts him at odds with today’s ‘circus sideshow‘ approach.
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