The end is not nigh, but it could be unless we constrain our own technological ingenuity. That's the warning from an initiative in Cambridge, UK, that wants to create a centre to focus on huge, technological hazards that could wipe out the human race at a stroke.
These dangers would include robots that escape our control, nuclear war, doomsday plagues designed in laboratories, and devastation from climate change triggered by human activity.
These dangers would include robots that escape our control, nuclear war, doomsday plagues designed in laboratories, and devastation from climate change triggered by human activity.
Moon rocks found on the dark side of a storage room in St. Paul
Moon rocks from mankind's first landing more than 43 years ago have been discovered tucked away in a government storage area in St. Paul, and officials are at a loss to explain how they ended up there.
The five encased rocks -- little more than pebbles -- are part of a desktop display that includes a small Minnesota flag that was among those from every state that made the trip aboard Apollo 11. Each state received a moon rock display from President Richard Nixon to commemorate the mission that put Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. |  |
Ice Age warmth wiped out lemmings, study finds
Lemmings became "regionally extinct" five times due to rapid climate change during the last Ice Age, scientists have found.
Each extinction was followed by a re-colonisation of genetically different lemmings, according to the study. It investigated how Europe's small mammals fared during the era when large numbers of megafauna became extinct. Previously, experts believed that small mammals were largely unaffected during the Late Pleistocene. |  |
Historical human presence tracked with poo marker
Biomarkers found in human poo are being used to track historical human presence in areas of Norway.
By observing changes in the levels of a compound called coprostanol in sediment cores taken from Lake Liland in the Lofoten Islands just north of the Arctic Circle Robert D'Anjou, a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts was able to measure human presence in the vicinity. Coprostanol is a biomarker formed when cholesterol is broken down during digestion. Faecal matter containing the marker washes into the lake and ends up as part of the sediment. Coprostanol can be found in a number of higher mammals but, as D'Anjou explains, "When you find these molecules at certain concentrations and in specific ratios, it provides an unmistakable indicator that people were living in the area.". |  |
Daily dose of toxics to be tracked
Think of it as a benevolent Big Brother. European researchers are gearing up to monitor thousands of people by giving them smartphones to record the chemicals to which they are exposed every day.
Two projects this week announced that they had won a combined €17.3 million (US$22.4 million) from the European Commission to study the ‘exposome’ — the effects of environmental exposures on health. The researchers hope that the four-year studies will benefit public health in ways that genome research so far has not. |  |
The U.N.'s Internet Sneak Attack
Who runs the Internet? For now, the answer remains no one, or at least no government, which explains the Web's success as a new technology. But as of next week, unless the U.S. gets serious, the answer could be the United Nations.
Many of the U.N.'s 193 member states oppose the open, uncontrolled nature of the Internet. Its interconnected global networks ignore national boundaries, making it hard for governments to censor or tax. And so, to send the freewheeling digital world back to the state control of the analog era, China, Russia, Iran and Arab countries are trying to hijack a U.N. agency that has nothing to do with the Internet.
|  |
Data from the LHC suggest the collisions may be producing a new type of matter
Collisions between protons and lead ions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have produced surprising behavior in some of the particles created by the collisions. The new observation suggests the collisions may have produced a new type of matter known as color-glass condensate.
When beams of particles crash into each other at high speeds, the collisions yield hundreds of new particles, most of which fly away from the collision point at close to the speed of light. However, the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) team at the LHC found that in a sample of 2 million lead-proton collisions, some pairs of particles flew away from each other with their respective directions correlated.
When beams of particles crash into each other at high speeds, the collisions yield hundreds of new particles, most of which fly away from the collision point at close to the speed of light. However, the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) team at the LHC found that in a sample of 2 million lead-proton collisions, some pairs of particles flew away from each other with their respective directions correlated.
Can life emerge on planets around cooling stars?
Astronomers find planets in strange places and wonder if they might support life. One such place would be in orbit around a white or brown dwarf. While neither is a star like the sun, both glow and so could be orbited by planets with the right ingredients for life.
No terrestrial, or Earth-like planets have yet been confirmed orbiting white or brown dwarfs, but there is no reason to assume they don't exist. However, new research by Rory Barnes of the University of Washington and René Heller of Germany's Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam hints that planets orbiting white or brown dwarfs will prove poor candidates for life.
No terrestrial, or Earth-like planets have yet been confirmed orbiting white or brown dwarfs, but there is no reason to assume they don't exist. However, new research by Rory Barnes of the University of Washington and René Heller of Germany's Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam hints that planets orbiting white or brown dwarfs will prove poor candidates for life.
Pioneering planet hunter suffers radiation overdose
The first space telescope to hunt for transiting exoplanets may be on its deathbed.
On 2 November, the COROT satellite, which launched in 2006Movie Camera, lost the use of its only remaining onboard computer. The spacecraft can no longer receive data from its 30-centimetre telescope, which searches for the telltale dimming of stars as planets cross in front of them.
The culprit was too much radiation, says project scientist Malcolm Fridlund of the European Space Agency. The orbiting spacecraft had spent a long time in a harsh particle environment called the South Atlantic Anomaly.
On 2 November, the COROT satellite, which launched in 2006Movie Camera, lost the use of its only remaining onboard computer. The spacecraft can no longer receive data from its 30-centimetre telescope, which searches for the telltale dimming of stars as planets cross in front of them.
The culprit was too much radiation, says project scientist Malcolm Fridlund of the European Space Agency. The orbiting spacecraft had spent a long time in a harsh particle environment called the South Atlantic Anomaly.
UN envoy: Japan should do more for nuclear victims
A United Nations rights investigator said Monday that Japan hasn't done enough to protect the health of residents and workers affected by the Fukushima nuclear accident.
Anand Grover, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to health, said the government has adopted overly optimistic views of radiation risks and has conducted only limited health checks after the partial meltdowns at several reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant caused by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
Anand Grover, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to health, said the government has adopted overly optimistic views of radiation risks and has conducted only limited health checks after the partial meltdowns at several reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant caused by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
New species sit on museum shelves for 21 years
Discovering a new species must be a heady experience -- the collection in the field, the "eureka" moment when you realize you've got something new, the jubilant announcement to the rest of the scientific community.
Well, not quite.
In fact, an average of 21 years pass from the time a new specimen is discovered until the time it's identified and reported to the world, a new study finds. The individual steps may still be very exciting, but they're often incredibly slow. And at this rate, species may go extinct in the wild while the specimens that might have identified them languish unstudied on museum shelves.
Well, not quite.
In fact, an average of 21 years pass from the time a new specimen is discovered until the time it's identified and reported to the world, a new study finds. The individual steps may still be very exciting, but they're often incredibly slow. And at this rate, species may go extinct in the wild while the specimens that might have identified them languish unstudied on museum shelves.
Scrappy Mammal Survived Dinosaur Extinction
A scrappy family of mammals with unusual, mismatched features moved underground and, like living in a perpetual bomb shelter, managed to survive the mass extinction event 65 million years ago that wiped out the world's non-avian dinosaurs.
We know this thanks to new research on the fossil mammal Necrolestes patagonensis, whose name translates to "grave robber," referring to its burrowing and underground lifestyle. The animal, described in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, had an upturned snout, a sturdy body structure, and short, wide legs. |  |
Eastern valley shows off traces of Neolithic Age
Recent archaeological work in the Levent Valley in the eastern province of Malatya’s Akçadağ district has revealed traces of life from the Neolithic Age.
Levent İskenderoğlu, chairman of Malatya’s branch of the Conservation Implementation and Control Branch (KUDEB), said the 28-kilometer-long Levent Valley was a very attractive place thanks to its geological formations. The valley is home to thousands of large and small caves carved by the human hand, he said. “One can see the traces of life in these caves with the naked eye.†|  |
Greenland's viking settlers gorged on seals
UNSOLVED MYSTERY - Greenland's viking settlers, the Norse, disappeared suddenly and mysteriously from Greenland about 500 years ago. Natural disasters, climate change and the inability to adapt have all been proposed as theories to explain their disappearance. But now a Danish-Canadian research team has demonstrated the Norse society did not die out due to an inability to adapt to the Greenlandic diet: an isotopic analysis of their bones shows they ate plenty of seals.
|  |
Great Wall survey completed after 21,000km
An archaeological survey conducted by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping that has been ongoing since 2007 has revealed it’s findings on the true length and condition of China’s Great Wall.
Spanning 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China, the 2012 survey report has set the entire length of the various walls at 21,196.18 kilometres.
This is the first time the complete figure had been released, as a preliminary survey showed the Great Wall that was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) extended around 8,850 kilometres in total length.
Spanning 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China, the 2012 survey report has set the entire length of the various walls at 21,196.18 kilometres.
This is the first time the complete figure had been released, as a preliminary survey showed the Great Wall that was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) extended around 8,850 kilometres in total length.
Harvard illuminates 'richest archaeological landscape in the Middle East'
Jason Ur, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, earlier this year launched a five-year archaeological project—the first such Harvard-led endeavor in the war-torn nation since the early 1930s—to scour a 3,200-square-kilometer area around Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, for signs of ancient cities and towns, canals, and roads. Already, Ur said, the effort is paying massive dividends—with some 1,200 potential sites identified in just a few months, and potentially thousands more in the coming years.
|  |
Lake life survives in total isolation for 3000 years
It is seven times as salty as the sea, pitch dark and 13 degrees below freezing. Lake Vida in East Antarctica has been buried for 2800 years under 20 metres of ice, but teems with life.
The discovery of strange, abundant bacteria in a completely sealed, icebound lake strengthens the possibility that extraterrestrial life might exist on planets such as Mars and moons such as Jupiter's Europa. "Lake Vida is a model of what happens when you try to freeze a lake solid, and this is the same fate that any lakes on Mars would have gone through as the planet turned colder from a watery past,"... |  |
Harnessing Energy From the Body to Run Devices
Scientists are studying how to tap the energy naturally created by people's bodies—such as heat, sound and movement—to power medical devices without the need to change batteries.
The development, still years from becoming a reality, could spare some of the millions of people with implanted devices like pacemakers from undergoing surgery to replace rundown batteries. Other products, including hearing aids, insulin pumps and pain-management devices, could be made to function without changing batteries, or at least sharply extend their power time. Harnessing the body's energy also could spur development of innovative medical technologies that could potentially monitor the body's inner workings. |  |
No comments:
Post a Comment