Astronomers have created the most detailed, high-resolution images of Uranus ever taken, showing off its complex weather patterns and several features that scientists don’t completely understand.
Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and an ice giant, composed mainly of frozen methane, water, ammonia, and hydrocarbons. For most people, the iconic image of Uranus was taken in 1986 by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, the only man-made probe to visit the planet, showing a smooth blue-green world. But this featureless marble doesn’t represent Uranus’ true face, which is swept with intricate cloudy bands, much like Jupiter and Saturn. |  |
Northernmost Lake Resurrected Due to Warming
The world's northernmost lake, situated near the coast of Greenland (map), is coming back to life.
Populations of microscopic algae, called diatoms, have been absent from the lake Kaffeklubben Sø for over 2,000 years. But a new study has found that the diatoms are returning, thanks to global warming.
"It's a pure climate change story," said study co-author Bianca Perren, a paleoecologist at the University of Franche-Comté in Besançon, France, who specializes in Arctic environmental change.
Populations of microscopic algae, called diatoms, have been absent from the lake Kaffeklubben Sø for over 2,000 years. But a new study has found that the diatoms are returning, thanks to global warming.
"It's a pure climate change story," said study co-author Bianca Perren, a paleoecologist at the University of Franche-Comté in Besançon, France, who specializes in Arctic environmental change.
UK experiences 'weirdest' weather
The UK has experienced its "weirdest" weather on record in the past few months, scientists say.
The driest spring for over a century gave way to the wettest recorded April to June in a dramatic turnaround never documented before. The scientists said there was no evidence that the weather changes were a result of Man-made climate change. But experts from three bodies warned the UK must plan for periodic swings of drought conditions and flooding. The warning came from the Environment Agency, Met Office and Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) at a joint briefing in London. |  |
Great California ShakeOut: 9.3 million to take part in quake drill
Commuting is the focus of today's Great California ShakeOut, which is being billed as the "largest earthquake safety drill in U.S. history."
Across the state in schools, offices, hospitals and -- for the first time -- Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, people will be asked to drop, cover and hold on during the annual drill. Metro trains will also slow down at 10:18 a.m. as if a real earthquake occurred.
More than 9.3 million Californians are expected to take part.
Across the state in schools, offices, hospitals and -- for the first time -- Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, people will be asked to drop, cover and hold on during the annual drill. Metro trains will also slow down at 10:18 a.m. as if a real earthquake occurred.
More than 9.3 million Californians are expected to take part.
Cracking the code: the decipherment of Linear B 60 years on
A conference in Cambridge this weekend will mark the 60th anniversary of the decipherment by Michael Ventris of Linear B, a script used for an early form of ancient Greek. His stunning achievement pushed back the frontiers of knowledge about the ancient world.
When during the early 20th century archaeologists excavated some of the most famous sites of Ancient Greece – notably Knossos on the island of Crete and Mycenae and Pylos on the mainland – they found large numbers of clay tablets inscribed with a type of script that baffled them. It was significantly different to any other script known at the time. Moreover, it was immediately clear that there were at least two variants of this type of writing. |  |
Former UN secretary general: Anti-drug policies have failed
WASHINGTON — Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan called Thursday for a discussion on decriminalization of drugs, criticizing the crackdown on traffickers in Mexico led by outgoing President Felipe Calderon.
“When you look at the results of Calderon’s efforts, most people will tell you it has not worked. He’s got lots of people killed,” Annan said at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “There is need for change in policy, but it has to start with a debate and discussion because there are very strong emotions on either side,” Annan said. Annan served last year on a global commission headed by former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso that recommended decriminalization of drugs. He reiterated Thursday that drug laws “have not worked.”. |  |
Books Change How a Child’s Brain Grows
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA — Books and educational toys can make a child smarter, but they also influence how the brain grows, according to new research presented here on Sunday at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. The findings point to a “sensitive period” early in life during which the developing brain is strongly influenced by environmental factors.
Studies comparing identical and nonidentical twins show that genes play an important role in the development of the cerebral cortex, the thin, folded structure that supports higher mental functions. But less is known about how early life experiences influence how the cortex grows.
Studies comparing identical and nonidentical twins show that genes play an important role in the development of the cerebral cortex, the thin, folded structure that supports higher mental functions. But less is known about how early life experiences influence how the cortex grows.
Smartphone of the future will be in your brain
In the past 10 years we've seen cell phones transform into electronic Swiss army knives with a wild variety of functions and features. They are replacing the watch, the camera, the standalone GPS, the alarm clock, and many other tools.
But what will the smartphones of the future look like?
Here's what we envision ...
In five years, the Patent Wars are over and Apple emerges victorious. The company has trademarks of many design features, including many types of curves. As a result, competing smartphone manufacturers resort to triangular or angular forms.
But what will the smartphones of the future look like?
Here's what we envision ...
In five years, the Patent Wars are over and Apple emerges victorious. The company has trademarks of many design features, including many types of curves. As a result, competing smartphone manufacturers resort to triangular or angular forms.
Syria's future lies in ruins
Few forms of conflict are so damaging to a country or its people as a prolonged civil war. By 1939, when Franco's forces had finished mopping up the last Republican resistance in Spain, more than half a million lay dead and some of the most beautiful city centres in Europe had been destroyed.
A similar pattern played out in 1970s Lebanon, which saw 150,000 casualties and the almost complete destruction of the elegant villas of Ottoman Beirut. In Afghanistan it was not Soviet invasion or occupation that killed most people or wrecked Kabul, but the internecine street fighting that followed in the early 1990s. In a few years, as Masood's rockets fell on Pashtun neighbourhoods of Kabul, and Hekmatyar's forces emptied the Tajik suburbs, palaces and museums were looted; while in the Shomali plain, Gandharan Buddhist sites were serially plundered of their treasure. |  |
The Romans used Greek myths in their mosaics as symbols of civilization
Research that was coordinated at Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M) analyzes the mythological images in Roman mosaics and shows that members of the most powerful elite selected Greek gods and heroes as symbols of universal values that reinforced what Rome stood for.
This line of research, coordinated by Luz Neira, who is a professor in the Department of Humanities: History, Geography and Art, as well as a researcher in UC3M’s Institute for Culture and Technology (Instituto de Cultura y Tecnología), continues on the path established by previous studies that examined the images of women and certain legends in Roman mosaics. |  |
Tomb Near Serres Wife, Son of Alexander?
Αrchaeologists from the 28th Ephorate of Antiquities unearthed a tomb in the city of Amphipolis, near Serres, northern Greece, which they believe could belong to the wife and son of Alexander the Great, Roxane and Alexander IV.
The circular precinct is three meters, or nearly 10 feet high and its perimeter is about 500 metes, or 1,640 feet surrounding the tomb located in an urban area close to the small city of Amphipolis. The head of the team, Katerina Peristeri noted that it is too soon to talk with certainty about the identities of the discovery. |  |
Sima Qian: China's 'grand historian'
Speaking truth to power has always been a high-risk strategy in China. Its rulers tend to prefer flattery, and writers who forget this do so at their peril. China's "grand historian" - 2,000 years ago - was one of many who have paid a terrible price.
"Among defilements, none is so great as castration. Any man who continues to live having suffered such a punishment is accounted as a nothing." The man who wrote those words is by no means a nothing today. In a nation obsessed by its history, Sima Qian was the first and some say the greatest historian. |  |
The exoplanet next door
It is a world so close that E.T. could phone home in just four years. Astronomers have discovered the lowest-mass planet yet orbiting a Sun-like star. It orbits alpha Centauri B, a member of the stellar system that is our Solar System’s nearest neighbour. Although nearly identical to Earth in mass, the planet is much closer to its star than Mercury is to the Sun, meaning that it is a scorched and barren rock. Nevertheless, its astronomical proximity to Earth will undoubtedly stir dreams of interstellar exploration, particularly as astronomers search alpha Centauri for more hospitable worlds.
|  |
Moon may have once been part of the Earth, scientists say
In a paper published on Wednesday in the journal Science, Sarah Stewart and Matija Cuk said their theory would explain why the Earth and Moon have similar composition and chemistry.
The Earth was spinning much faster at the time the Moon was formed, and a day lasted only two to three hours, they said. With the Earth spinning so quickly, a giant impact could have launched enough of the Earth's material to form a moon, the scientists said in an explanation published on a Harvard website. |  |
Will climate change lead to more droughts?
Although climate change is expected to lead to slightly more rainfall at the global level, the timing and distribution of that rain is likely to change, increasing the chance of drought in some regions. The details are very difficult to predict, however. This is partly because regional climate impacts are strongly dependent on large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns like the jet stream, which are hard to model in climate simulations. There is some indication from climate modelling that the Mediterranean, Central America and Western Australia regions may experience reduced precipitation, but there is still considerable uncertainty as climate models do not all agree, because local features such as mountains and rainforests can be important, and because of the large range of natural variability.
|  |
Extreme Global Warming May Have Caused Largest Extinction Ever
Feverishly hot ocean surface waters potentially reaching more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) may have helped cause the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history, researchers say.
"We may have found the hottest time the world has ever had," researcher Paul Wignall, a geologist at the University of Leeds in England, told LiveScience. |  |
Dolphins 'stay awake for 15 days'
Dolphins can stay alert and active for 15 days or more by sleeping with one half of their brain at a time, scientists in the United States have learned.
The trick of keeping half the brain continuously awake is vital to the sea mammals' survival, experts believe. It allows them to come to the surface every so often to breath, and remain constantly vigilant for sharks. |  |
Zebra finches sing sloppily when drunk
Does beer make you shlur your wordsh? You're not alone: drunk zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) sing songs that are blurrier and more disordered than those of their sober counterparts.
What's more, binge drinking may permanently impair juvenile finches' ability to learn new songs – which could have implications for our understanding of the effect of heavy drinking on adolescents. Having a unique and interesting song is important for zebra finches to mate, and each male develops his own signature tune as he matures, says Christopher Olson of Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. |  |
Jupiter Is Undergoing Massive, Global Changes
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has made some dramatic transformations in recent years, a new study reveals.
Huge belts in the giant planet's atmosphere have changed color, radiation hotspots have faded and flared up again, and cloud levels have thickened and dissolved, all while space rocks have been hurtling into it the gas giant, astronomers said. "The changes we're seeing in Jupiter are global in scale," Glenn Orton, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement today (Oct. 17). Orton and his colleagues have been snapping infrared images of Jupiter from 2009 to 2012 and comparing them with amateur astronomers' visible images. |  |
An exo-tourist's guide to our closest alien planet
Now that we know our nearest neighbouring star system, Alpha Centauri, contains at least one planet, it's time to go exo-tourist and plan a trip. But be sure to read our travel guide first.
How long will it take to reach the new planet? Alpha Centauri is roughly 4.3 light years away. Given current technology, getting there would take a minimum of 19,000 years – if you clip along at the top speed ever achieved by a spacecraft, the Helios-2 solar probe. |  |
No comments:
Post a Comment