Approaching comet may be brightest in a century
A newly-discovered comet looks likely to blaze brightly in our skies late next year. Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON), is due to come within 0.012 astronomical units (AU) of the sun - just 1.1 million miles - on 29 November 2013. How brightly it will shine is still hard to determine, as there's a chance it will just boil away completely, as comet Elenin did last year.
If it doesn't though, it could be brighter than any comet seen in the last hundred years - brighter than the full moon. If so, it should be visible with the naked eye for about two months, even during the daylight. |  |
Europeans did not inherit pale skins from Neanderthals
The people who built Stonehenge 5000 years ago probably had the same pallid complexion of many modern inhabitants of the UK. Now it seems that the humans occupying Britain and mainland Europe only lost the darker skins of their African ancestors perhaps just 6000 years earlier, long after Neanderthals had died out. The finding confirms that modern Europeans didn't gain their pale skin from Neanderthals – adding to evidence suggesting that European Homo sapiens and Neanderthals generally kept their relationships strictly platonic.
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Green light given to driverless cars in California
California took the fast lane to the future on Tuesday when Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that lets self-driving cars onto public roads.
Brown rode to the signing ceremony at Google headquarters in the passenger seat of a vehicle that steered itself, a Prius modified by Google. Google co-founder Sergey Brin and State Sen. Alex Padilla, who sponsored the bill, were along for the ride. An engineer for the technology company, Chris Urmson, sat in the driver's seat, but the car drove itself.
"We're looking at science fiction becoming tomorrow's reality," Brown said just before signing the bill.
Brown rode to the signing ceremony at Google headquarters in the passenger seat of a vehicle that steered itself, a Prius modified by Google. Google co-founder Sergey Brin and State Sen. Alex Padilla, who sponsored the bill, were along for the ride. An engineer for the technology company, Chris Urmson, sat in the driver's seat, but the car drove itself.
"We're looking at science fiction becoming tomorrow's reality," Brown said just before signing the bill.
Tesla Motors Launches Revolutionary Supercharger
Tesla Motors today unveiled its highly anticipated Supercharger network. Constructed in secret, Tesla revealed the locations of the first six Supercharger stations, which will allow the Model S to travel long distances with ultra fast charging throughout California, parts of Nevada and Arizona.
The technology at the heart of the Supercharger was developed internally and leverages the economies of scale of existing charging technology already used by the Model S, enabling Tesla to create the Supercharger device at minimal cost. The electricity used by the Supercharger comes from a solar carport system provided by SolarCity, which results in almost zero marginal energy cost after installation. Combining these two factors, Tesla is able to provide Model S owners1 free long distance travel indefinitely.
The technology at the heart of the Supercharger was developed internally and leverages the economies of scale of existing charging technology already used by the Model S, enabling Tesla to create the Supercharger device at minimal cost. The electricity used by the Supercharger comes from a solar carport system provided by SolarCity, which results in almost zero marginal energy cost after installation. Combining these two factors, Tesla is able to provide Model S owners1 free long distance travel indefinitely.
Swiss Find Waste Makes Good Biofuel
Controversey over the impact of biofuel production on food isn't new; nor is the question of whether there is enough land to grow them on. Carbon emissions are also a concern because making biofuels can eat up energy, producing more emissions.
So which fuels are greener? A recently released study by Empa, a research institute in Switzerland, attempts to quantify how green – or not – biofuels are relative to their fossil cousins. While almost all of them (except soy and oil palms grown in Malaysia) reduce carbon emissions and are far better for the ozone layer, most are actually worse than gasoline when it comes to issues of land use, human health, or agricultural pollution. The only choice that seemed to be better than gas overall was methane from wood chips made in Switzerland, and a close second was methane (natural gas) from sludge (also made in Switzerland). |  |
100 million to die by 2030 if world fails to act on climate
More than 100 million people will die and global economic growth will be cut by 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030 if the world fails to tackle climate change, a report commissioned by 20 governments said on Wednesday.
As global average temperatures rise due to greenhouse gas emissions, the effects on the planet, such as melting ice caps, extreme weather, drought and rising sea levels, will threaten populations and livelihoods, said the report conducted by humanitarian organisation DARA.
As global average temperatures rise due to greenhouse gas emissions, the effects on the planet, such as melting ice caps, extreme weather, drought and rising sea levels, will threaten populations and livelihoods, said the report conducted by humanitarian organisation DARA.
Record Arctic Snow-Loss May Be Prolonging North American Drought
Melting Arctic snow isn’t as dramatic as melting sea ice, but the snow may be vanishing just as rapidly, with potentially profound consequences for weather in the United States.
Across the Arctic, snow melted earlier and more completely this year than any in recorded history. In the same way ice loss exposes dark water to the sun’s radiant heat, melting snow causes exposed ground to heat up, adding to the Arctic’s already super-sized warming. This extra heat retention appears to alter the polar jet stream, slowing it down and causing mid-latitude weather patterns to linger. It’s even possible that the ongoing North American drought, the worst since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, was fueled in part by climate change in the Arctic, making it a preview of this new weather pattern’s ripple effects. |  |
North vs South: Polar Sea Ice At The Extremes
In the wake of last week's announcement that Arctic summer sea ice extent had reached its lowest level in the satellite record - and possibly the lowest for the last several thousand years - a few 'skeptic' blogs were keen to trumpet what they proclaimed to be a different sea ice record.
"The world's media is extremely excited at the thirty-year record low extent of sea ice at the North Pole which occurred just days ago: but almost nobody is reporting on the fact that something almost equally unusual is going on down around the coasts of Antarctica," wrote Lewis Page in The Register. |  |
Unusual Indian Ocean earthquakes hint at tectonic breakup
A pair of massive earthquakes that rocked the Indian Ocean on 11 April 2012 may signal the latest step in the formation of a new plate boundary within Earth’s surface.
Geological stresses rending the Indo-Australian plate apart are likely to have caused the magnitude-8.6 and magnitude-8.2 quakes, which broke along numerous faults and unleashed aftershocks for 6 days afterwards, according to three papers published online today in Nature. |  |
Will NASA really build a 'gateway' L-2 Moon base?
Over the weekend, The Orlando Sentinel reported that NASA is considering building a hovering outpost beyond the Moon at L-2 (Lagrangian point 2) that will be a 'gateway' to serve as a point for launching human missions to Mars and asteroids. The buzz among the space-related social medias ranged from "this is the greatest idea ever" to "this is make-work for the Space Launch System, (NASA's new rocket.)" The newspaper's report cited a White House briefing given in September by NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, but said "it's unclear whether it has the administration's support. Of critical importance is the price tag, which would certainly run into the billions of dollars.".
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How can humans touch Mars? Bring back a soil sample
The next steps in NASA's Mars exploration strategy should build toward returning Martian rocks and dirt to Earth to search for signs of past life, a new report by the space agency's Red Planet planning group finds.
The report, released today (Sept. 25) by the Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG), lays out a series of options that NASA could employ to get pieces of the Red Planet in scientists' hands here on Earth. The space agency is now mulling those options and could announce its chosen path by early next year, when the White House releases its proposed budget for fiscal year 2014. |  |
Element 113: Ununtrium Reportedly Synthesized In Japan
Scientists in Japan think they've finally created the elusive element 113, one of the missing items on the periodic table of elements.
Element 113 is an atom with 113 protons in its nucleus — a type of matter that must be created inside a laboratory because it is not found naturally on Earth. Heavier and heavier synthetic elements have been created over the years, with the most massive one being element 118, temporarily named ununoctium. |  |
Possible ceasefire in Japanese whaling wars
A report in a leading Japanese newspaper suggests that the country's Fisheries Agencies may suspend the so-called scientific research because the fleet's ageing factory ship needs urgent repairs. But late today the Agency said it hopes to refit the ship in time for this year's hunt.
Greenpeace says the ageing mothership is another reason to shut the loss-making whaling program down, and it's accusing the Japanese government of siphoning tsunami reconstruction funds into whaling to keep the hunt afloat.
Greenpeace says the ageing mothership is another reason to shut the loss-making whaling program down, and it's accusing the Japanese government of siphoning tsunami reconstruction funds into whaling to keep the hunt afloat.
Slave rebellion is widespread in ants
Enslaved worker ants kill the offspring of their parasites and thereby improve the chances of survival for their neighboring relatives
Ants that are held as slaves in nests of other ant species damage their oppressors through acts of sabotage. Ant researcher Professor Dr. Susanne Foitzik of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany first observed this "slave rebellion" phenomenon in 2009. According to the latest findings, however, this behavior now appears to be a widespread characteristic that is not limited to isolated occurrences.
Ants that are held as slaves in nests of other ant species damage their oppressors through acts of sabotage. Ant researcher Professor Dr. Susanne Foitzik of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany first observed this "slave rebellion" phenomenon in 2009. According to the latest findings, however, this behavior now appears to be a widespread characteristic that is not limited to isolated occurrences.
How Humans Lost Our Chance at a Third Eye
Most animals had a shot at having a third eye, but blew it in favor of questionably more helpful things, like hair.
Lizards have a little dot at the top of their heads that is called a "parietal eye." This eye is not as complex or as useful as the two in the front of their heads, but it does react to light. Are they eventually going to have a third eye? No. It's just a vestigial trait. In fact, it looks like most animals — including humans — had a chance at a third eye, and we blew it. |  |
Younger, Happier Mona Lisa: Is It a Da Vinci?
Leonardo da Vinci painted a younger and happier Mona Lisa some 10 years before painting the famous painting, art experts are claiming.
Slightly larger in size than the famous portrait, which now hangs in the Louvre in paris, the painting features a darker tonality, a different and unfinished background framed by two columns, and shows a younger lady with a less enigmatic smile. |  |
Archaeologists to reconstruct the Devil's Frying pan aka 'Cornish Stonehenge'
An ancient tomb dubbed Cornwall’s answer to Stonehenge is to be rebuilt 5,000 years after it was first constructed by early man.
Carwynnen Quoit (a term for a giant tomb) - known as ‘The Giant's Quoit’ - marked a macabre mass burial site used between 4,000BC and 2,300BC. The stone structure, set in five acres of farmland, was originally built on top of a huge tomb thought to contain the remains of Neolithic men. It was later used by the Victorians for picnics and was a meeting place for members of the traditional Celtic religion. But the Stonehenge-like structure collapsed in 1834 and was rebuilt but then fell again in 1967 following an earth tremor. |  |
Discovered by a Nazi expedition, the Buddhist statue made from a meteorite
In a discovery that sounds uncannily like the plot of an Indiana Jones film, researchers have discovered that a 1,000 year old buddhist statue found by a Nazi expedition in 1938 is made from a meteorite.
The findings, published in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science, reveal the priceless statue to be a rare ataxite class of meteorite. The statue, known as the Iron Man, weighs 10kg and is around 24cm tall. 'The statue was chiseled from a fragment of the Chinga meteorite which crashed into the border areas between Mongolia and Siberia about 15,000 years ago,' said Dr Elmar Buchner from Stuttgart University, who made the discovery. 'While the first debris was officially discovered in 1913 by gold prospectors, we believe that this individual meteorite fragment was collected many centuries before.' The team was able to classify it as an ataxite, a rare class of iron meteorite with high contents of nickel. |  |
MDMA may help treat depression and PTSD, Channel 4 study suggests
Research hints at therapeutic uses for MDMA – but the taboo surrounding psychoactive drugs prevents similar studies
I was amused by Conal Urquhart's description in the Observer of the novelist Lionel Shriver being sucked into an MRI brain scanner "that resembles a giant washing machine". I see her tumbling around with the rest of the laundry, including actor Keith Allen and former MP Evan Harris, to emerge bright and uplifted.
The three of them were participants in a brain imaging study into the effects of MDMA ("ecstasy") on brain function, parts of which will be televised on Channel 4's Drugs Live documentary on Wednesday and Thursday night.
I was amused by Conal Urquhart's description in the Observer of the novelist Lionel Shriver being sucked into an MRI brain scanner "that resembles a giant washing machine". I see her tumbling around with the rest of the laundry, including actor Keith Allen and former MP Evan Harris, to emerge bright and uplifted.
The three of them were participants in a brain imaging study into the effects of MDMA ("ecstasy") on brain function, parts of which will be televised on Channel 4's Drugs Live documentary on Wednesday and Thursday night.
Artificially intelligent game bots pass the Turing test on Turing's centenary
AUSTIN, Texas — An artificially intelligent virtual gamer created by computer scientists at The University of Texas at Austin has won the BotPrize by convincing a panel of judges that it was more human-like than half the humans it competed against.
The competition was sponsored by 2K Games and was set inside the virtual world of "Unreal Tournament 2004," a first-person shooter video game. The winners were announced this month at the IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games. |  |
Einstein’s Brain Goes Digital With iPad App
For a man who never actually donated his brain to science, Albert Einstein’s grey matter sure does get around a lot. Obsessed with the late, great’s genius, as everyone of his day was, Princeton Hospital pathologist Thomas Harvey removed Einstein’s organ during an autopsy in 1955 without permission, and proceeded to slice it up into more than 200 cubes and slivers, preserve these in formaldehyde, then take them home. He lost his job after refusing to give the specimens up, despite getting permission from Einstein’s son retrospectively.
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