Mysterious Atmospheric River Soaks California, Where Megaflood May Be Overdue
Northern California is experiencing the first days of what weather forecasters are warning will be a long series of torrential rainstorms that could cause serious flooding across the northern one-third of the state. The relentless storms are being driven by a feature in the atmosphere you have probably never heard of: an atmospheric river.
Oh, and another atmospheric river created the worst flooding since the 1960s in western England and Wales this past week, where more than 1,000 homes had to be evacuated. |  |
Saturn's rings may double up as a moon factory
Many of the moons in the solar system could have been spawned from giant rings around planets. According to a new model, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and even the Earth may have once had ring systems that gave rise to satellites.
We used to think that moons form around planets in the same way as planets form around stars: coalescing from a gaseous disc that surrounded the planet as it formed. That model still applies to some moons, like those of Jupiter. |  |
Scientists report new dark matter finding from merging galaxy cluster
Astronomers were puzzled earlier this year when NASA's Hubble Space Telescope spotted an overabundance of dark matter in the heart of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520. This observation was surprising because dark matter and galaxies should be anchored together, even during a collision between galaxy clusters.
Astronomers have abundant evidence that an as-yet-unidentified form of matter is responsible for 90 percent of the gravity within galaxies and clusters of galaxies. Because it is detected via its gravity and not its light, they call it "dark matter.".
Astronomers have abundant evidence that an as-yet-unidentified form of matter is responsible for 90 percent of the gravity within galaxies and clusters of galaxies. Because it is detected via its gravity and not its light, they call it "dark matter.".
Massive new 'super-Jupiter' exoplanet discovered
An international team of astrophysicists has discovered an enormous gaseous planet that is 13 times more massive than Jupiter, earning it the designation "super-Jupiter."
The finding, which is set to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters, marks the first new exoplanet system to be directly observed in over four years, according to the researchers. A pre-print of the study is available here. |  |
Mercury's water ice at north pole finally proven
Scientists have finally shown what has been postulated for decades: the planet Mercury holds billions of tonnes of water ice at its north pole.
A report in Science shows evidence from the Messenger spacecraft that craters in constant shadow host water. A futher pair of Science papers shows that much of the ice is beneath an insulating layer of dark material rich in organic and "volatile" molecules. |  |
Why Bad Science Is Like Bad Religion, by Dr Rupert Sheldrake
In both religion and science, some people are dishonest, exploitative, incompetent and exhibit other human failings. My concern here is with the bigger picture.
I have been a scientist for more than 40 years, having studied at Cambridge and Harvard. I researched and taught at Cambridge University, was a research fellow of the Royal Society, and have more than 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals. I am strongly pro-science. But I am more and more convinced that that the spirit of free inquiry is being repressed within the scientific community by fear-based conformity. Institutional science is being crippled by dogmas and taboos. Increasingly expensive research is yielding diminishing returns.
I have been a scientist for more than 40 years, having studied at Cambridge and Harvard. I researched and taught at Cambridge University, was a research fellow of the Royal Society, and have more than 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals. I am strongly pro-science. But I am more and more convinced that that the spirit of free inquiry is being repressed within the scientific community by fear-based conformity. Institutional science is being crippled by dogmas and taboos. Increasingly expensive research is yielding diminishing returns.
Is 'Heaven is Real' Writer Dr. Eben Alexander Practicing Science?
Dr. Eben Alexander says there is a heaven. Dr. Eben Alexander says he's been there. Dr. Eben Alexander says he has scientific proof of both of those things. And Dr. Eben Alexander says he is that proof.
Alexander, his epiphany and his crusade aren't as well known as his original thesis, which was proclaimed on the cover of Newsweek in October. |   CA - UK - US |
Ancient palace ruins excavated in China
Archeologists have excavated the ruins of an ancient palace in China near the mausoleum of the country's first emperor dating back over two millennia.
The tomb, which is related to the emperor renowned for its terracotta soldiers, became one of the greatest modern archaeological finds in 1974 when a peasant during digging a well hit the life-size warriors at the spot, China's state-run news agency Xinhua has reported. |  |
Rebooting the world's oldest working digital computer
The world’s oldest working digital computer has just been rebooted after several decades. The computer called WITCH was last switched on about thirty years ago. After that it seemed to have vanished in the way of most iterations of computers when they become redundant. WITCH was disassembled and forgotten. Many of its parts were lost.
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310mph train: Japanese firm unveils 'floating' train (200 miles in 40 mins)
A rail operator in Japan has unveiled a prototype high-speed magnetic levitation , or 'maglev', train which uses state-of-the-art technology to hit speeds of 310mph.
Last week Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) revealed its Series L0 prototype, which it plans to operate on one of Japan's busiest routes from 2027. Maglev trains use magnets to lift the train above the track, eliminating friction to provide a faster and quieter service. JR Tokai says it aims to run the train between Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan's third largest incorporated city, on the JR Chuo Shinkansen Line, a route currently served by Japan's high-speed bullet trains. If approved, the new train will pass to the northwest of of Mount Fuji. |  |
Japanese scientists develop humanoid to keep astronauts company
The 13-inch android is scheduled to be completed by next summer and will be sent to the orbiting ISS shortly before astronaut Koichi Wakata arrives, according to officials of the Kibo Robot Project.
Currently being developed by a consortium of companies, including Toyota, Robo Garage Co. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the robot will weigh around 2.2lbs and be able to recognise Wakata's facial features.
Currently being developed by a consortium of companies, including Toyota, Robo Garage Co. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the robot will weigh around 2.2lbs and be able to recognise Wakata's facial features.
Robots replace costly US Navy mine-clearance dolphins
For decades, science fiction writers and futurologists have predicted a time when wars are fought at the push of a button and Terminator-like robo-soldiers fight in place of humans. While the rise of drone warfare suggests that vision may be starting to come true, it would seem that it will not be humans who are first in line to lose their military commission.
“We’re in a period of transition,†explains Captain Frank Linkous, head of the US Navy’s Mine Warfare Branch. After nearly 50 years, he says, the Navy plans to phase out its Sea Mammal Program and retire its pods of dolphins and sea lions that are currently used to help locate – and in some cases destroy – sea mines. |  |
Dolphins found shot, slashed, stabbed with tool
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — Authorities are investigating several attacks on dolphins in the northern Gulf of Mexico after some were found with gunshot wounds, cuts and missing jaws.
The Sun Herald reports that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a "heads up" directive. That puts officials on alert for an increase in human interaction with dolphins in the waters across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
The Sun Herald reports that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a "heads up" directive. That puts officials on alert for an increase in human interaction with dolphins in the waters across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Tribe to buy mountaintop site and end dispute over quarry plan
Through seven years of disputes, a proposed rock quarry site in Riverside County has been called a job creator, an economy killer, an environmental disaster and even a creation site.
The debate ended Thursday, when the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians agreed to purchase 354 acres of the mountaintop site for $3 million and pay developer Granite Construction $17.35 million to end the dispute. |  |
Lost civilization unearthed
Ancient Balinese history was not uppermost in Ida Rsi Bhujannga’s life until plans to build a septic tank at his home turned into an archeological discovery that has scientists bewitched.
The elderly high priest says he is now fascinated by his community’s history, which the rare find of dozens of massive stones has uncovered. These meter-long stones are believed to be from a 14th century temple complex that may have been the largest ever constructed on the Island of the Gods. |  |
'Trust' provides answer to handaxe enigma
Trust rather than lust is at the heart of the attention to detail and finely made form of handaxes from around 1.7 million years ago, according to a University of York researcher.
Dr Penny Spikins, from the Department of Archaeology, suggests a desire to prove their trustworthiness, rather than a need to demonstrate their physical fitness as a mate, was the driving force behind the fine crafting of handaxes by Homo erectus/ergaster in the Lower Palaeolithic period. |  |
Catalan: a language that has survived against the odds
Catalan is not, as some believe, a dialect of Spanish, but a language that developed independently out of the vulgar Latin spoken by the Romans who colonised the Tarragona area. It is spoken by 9 million people in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Isles, Andorra and the town of Alghero in Sardinia.
Variants of Catalan are spoken in Valencia and the Balearics, which were taken back from the Moors in the 13th century. According to Professor Albert Rossich of the University of Girona (Gerona) these variants reflect the origin of the people who repopulated these areas when the Moors were driven out. Valencia was repopulated with people from Lleida and Tortosa; the Baleares with people from Barcelona and l'Empordà in the north. |  |
MIT African teen guest fashions battery, plans windmill (w/ video)
An inventor in his teen years has been on a three-week visit to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a guest resident. From university officers to labs workers, to bloggers, Americans enjoyed the chance to get to know him better as he got to know his way around university life in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the youngest invite ever to MIT's Visiting Practitioner's Program for international development. A 16-year-old from Sierra Leone, he is a self-taught engineer. He never took any engineering or electronics class, but at 13 figured out how to make a battery suitable enough to power his family home. Kelvin Doe told his interviewers that "I love inventing." Never mind that the things he made have been from bits and pieces found around the house and from electronic parts found in dustbins which he used to head toward after school. That is how he made the first Doe battery.
Taking a Stand for Office Ergonomics
THE health studies that conclude that people should sit less, and get up and move around more, have always struck me as fitting into the “well, duh†category.
But a closer look at the accumulating research on sitting reveals something more intriguing, and disturbing: the health hazards of sitting for long stretches are significant even for people who are quite active when they’re not sitting down. That point was reiterated recently in two studies, published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine and in Diabetologia, a journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. |  |
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