Space-time waves may be hiding in dead star pulses
TAKE the pulse of the universe, and its invisible wrinkles become visible. The first direct evidence of Einstein's gravitational waves, may already exist in records of light pulses from rapidly spinning dead stars.
Crucially, we may uncover those waves as early as 2013. New research suggests that we've underestimated the rate at which black holes merge, and how that changes the light from pulsars. Gravitational waves are produced by massive, accelerating objects, such as two black holes spinning towards each other... |  |
Storytelling software learns how to tell a good tale
"MY, WHAT a big mouth you have, Grandma," says Little Red Riding Hood, with just a hint of suspicion. The wolf sneezes. "Bless you," says the little girl.
Sound odd? That's because this snippet of Little Red Riding Hood was written not by a person but by a piece of software called Xapagy. It may not seem like much, but it demonstrates a first step towards computers that can invent stories. It also signals a new approach to designing a more human-like artificial intelligence. |  |
Johns Hopkins surgeons implant first brain ‘pacemaker’ for Alzheimer’s disease in US
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have surgically implanted a pacemaker-like device into the brain of a patient in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, the first such operation in the United States.
The device, which provides deep brain stimulation and has been used in thousands of people with Parkinson’s disease, is seen as a possible means of boosting memory and reversing cognitive decline. The surgery is part of a federally funded, multicenter clinical trial marking a new direction in clinical research designed to slow or halt the ravages of the disease... |  |
Archaeologists find Maya ceramics and mural paintings in three underwater caves in Mexico
Underwater archaeologists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH – Conaculta), recently explored three spaces, all abundant with Mayan culture materials: two semidry caves in Campeche and a cenote [A water-filled limestone sink hole] in Yucatan. The cenote stands out since it contains particularly stylish ceramic that is calculated to have been elaborated about 2,300 years ago. This is unique in its type since it’s the only one that has been found in a cenote.
To Helena Barba Meinecke, responsible for all the underwater archaeology of the Yucatan peninsula, the detailed registry of the caves and the cenote, as well as the archaeological elements found in them, confirm the speculation that these places were used for rituals in the pre Hispanic era. |  |
Archaeologist sues over use of artifact likeness in Indiana Jones crystal skull
A Belize archaeologist is suing the makers of a blockbuster ‘Indiana Jones’ film for using a likeness of a so-called Crystal Skull, which he says is a stolen national treasure.
Dr. Jaime Awe claims the skull was stolen from Belize 88 years ago, and that filmmakers had no right to use a model of it in 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, according to the Hollywood Reporter. In a lawsuit filed in Illinois this week, Awe is demanding the return of the Crystal Skull, which he says is a national treasure, from a treasure-hunting family who allegedly stole it, said the industry journal Friday. |  |
Slam a spaceship into asteroid, save the Earth — it's that easy
It sounds like the plot of a bad Bruce Willis movie, but some experts are saying it should be a reality.
In order to prepare for massive asteroids that could aim for Earth in the future, researchers should ram a spaceship into a real asteroid to see if the space rock would shift course, scientists say. The proposal, which was presented Wednesday at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, would send two spaceships to deflect a small asteroid in a binary (double asteroid) system coming toward Earth in 2022. |  |
Monkeys Show Why It's Hard to Prove Ancient Human Interbreeding
A bundle of recent genetic studies have suggested that modern humans had sex with Neanderthals thousands of years ago when the two populations roamed the planet alongside each other. However, the bones left behind by the two species don't bear any obvious traces of interbreeding and a new study of monkeys in Mexico shows why we shouldn't expect them to.
Researchers examined blood samples, hair samples and measurements collected from mantled howler monkeys and black howler monkeys that were live-captured and released in Mexico and Guatemala between 1998 and 2008. The two monkey species splintered off from a common ancestor about 3 million years ago... |  |
Lines in the sand may have been made for walking
Famous line drawings etched into Peru’s Nazca desert plateau around 1,500 years ago are enduring puzzles. At least one of them is also a labyrinth, researchers say.
Archaeoastronomer Clive Ruggles of the University of Leicester in England discovered the labyrinth — a single path leading to and from an earthen mound, with a series of disorienting twists and turns along its flat, 4.4-kilometer-long course — by walking it himself. From the ground, little of the labyrinth is visible, even while ambling through it. From the air, it’s difficult to recognize the array of landscape lines as a connected entity. |  |
Black boxes in cars raise privacy concerns
Many motorists do not know it, but it is likely that every time they get behind the wheel, there's a snitch along for the ride.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday proposed long-delayed regulations requiring auto manufacturers to include event data recorders—better known as "black boxes"—in all new cars and light trucks beginning Sept. 1, 2014. But the agency is behind the curve. Automakers have been quietly tucking the devices, which automatically record the actions of drivers and the responses of their vehicles in a continuous information loop, into most new cars for years.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday proposed long-delayed regulations requiring auto manufacturers to include event data recorders—better known as "black boxes"—in all new cars and light trucks beginning Sept. 1, 2014. But the agency is behind the curve. Automakers have been quietly tucking the devices, which automatically record the actions of drivers and the responses of their vehicles in a continuous information loop, into most new cars for years.
Hydrogel remembers its shape -- just add water
Scientists have created a shape-remembering material out of synthetic DNA that is eerily reminiscent of T-1000, the liquid metal assassin in the hit sci-fi film Terminator 2.
“It is almost as soft as water and it is still gel. And water you cannot stretch, but this gel can stretch. That is why it is very, very unusual,” Dan Luo, a professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell University, told NBC News.
“It is almost as soft as water and it is still gel. And water you cannot stretch, but this gel can stretch. That is why it is very, very unusual,” Dan Luo, a professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell University, told NBC News.
An accelerometer so good that only quantum mechanics limits it
We take it for granted now, but the fact that you can flip your phone from portrait to landscape mode depends on accelerometers. As everyone knows, though, the damn things often get it wrong, leaving you staring at a screen that refuses to reorient until you give it a good shake. One of the reasons for the screen refusing to orient correctly is that accelerometers have to balance sensitivity to small changes with the speed of response—a slow accelerometer is a sensitive accelerometer.
This compromise, however, is also due to fabrication limitations. A recent paper in Nature Photonics shows that clever fabrication can result in an accelerometer that is both fast and sensitive. |  |
Are You Smarter Than Your Grandfather? Probably Not
In the mid-1980s, James Flynn made a groundbreaking discovery in human intelligence. The political scientist at the University of Otago in New Zealand found that over the last century, in every nation in the developing world where intelligence-test results are on record, IQ test scores had significantly risen from one generation to the next.
“Psychologists faced a paradox: either the people of today were far brighter than their parents or, at least in some circumstances, IQ tests were not good measures of intelligence,” writes Flynn. Now, in a new book, Are We Getting Smarter? Rising IQ in the Twenty-First Century, Flynn unpacks his original finding, explaining the causes for this widespread increase in IQ scores, and reveals some new ones, regarding teenagers’ vocabularies and the mental decline of the extremely bright in old age. |  |
It's genetic: Some smokers have biological resistance to anti-tobacco policies
Despite concerted government efforts to curtail tobacco use, the number of smokers in the United States has remained stable in recent years, rather than declining. The reason: genetics.
New research from the Yale School of Public Health suggests that individuals' genetics play an important role in whether they respond to tobacco-control policies. The study appears online in the journal PLOS ONE. |  |
World leaders lend weight to film urging end to drug prohibition
Current and former world leaders on the frontline of the US-led war on drugs have called for a radical change of approach in a British-made film, to be launched online on Friday, that aims to do for global drugs policy what An Inconvenient Truth did to highlight manmade climate change.
By featuring a host of leaders, experts, opinion formers and household names pointing out the devastation they say has been inflicted on communities through prohibition, Breaking the Taboo seeks to persuade politicians to put aside fears about being seen as soft on drugs and explore alternatives.
Note: See the film here
Related: The House I Live In director Eugene Jarecki on the war on drugs
By featuring a host of leaders, experts, opinion formers and household names pointing out the devastation they say has been inflicted on communities through prohibition, Breaking the Taboo seeks to persuade politicians to put aside fears about being seen as soft on drugs and explore alternatives.
Note: See the film here
Related: The House I Live In director Eugene Jarecki on the war on drugs
Italian police find stolen Egyptian sphinx
Police in Italy say they have recovered a stolen 2,000-year-old Egyptian sphinx near the capital Rome.
They believe the granite statue was about to be taken out of the country. It was discovered boxed up in a greenhouse after police had found photographs of Egyptian artefacts during a routine search of a vehicle. |  |
Prehistoric rhino reveals secrets
The preserved body of a woolly rhinoceros has revealed new insights into how this now extinct giant animal once lived.
The woolly rhino was once one of the most abundant large mammals living in Eurasia, but only a handful of preserved carcasses have been found. Now an analysis of a female woolly rhino found preserved in Siberia reveals that the animal was a herbivore that grazed mainly on cereals, and was similar in size to today's Javan rhino. |  |
Giant Sequoias Grow Faster With Age
Aging giant sequoia trees are growing faster than ever, with some of the oldest and tallest trees producing more wood, on average, in old age than they did when they were younger.
A 2,000-year-old giant sequoia is just cranking out wood, said Steve Sillett, a professor at Humboldt State University in California who has conducted recent research on the big trees.
Other long-lived trees like coast redwoods and Australia's Eucalyptus regnans also show an increase in wood production during old age, according to an article Sillett published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management.
A 2,000-year-old giant sequoia is just cranking out wood, said Steve Sillett, a professor at Humboldt State University in California who has conducted recent research on the big trees.
Other long-lived trees like coast redwoods and Australia's Eucalyptus regnans also show an increase in wood production during old age, according to an article Sillett published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management.
For Many, Old Age Brings Happiness
Growing old can bring a renewed sense of happiness and wellbeing, despite physical and mental declines, researchers report today in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
The finding adds to growing evidence that aging is not all "doom and gloom," said Dilip Jeste, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego. Instead, old age can be a time of growth, and older people can be a helpful resource for younger generations. Psychiatrists, too, might do well to re-evaluate their expectations for older patients. |  |
How Maggots Heal Wounds
Yes, maggots are creepy, crawly, and slimy. But that slime is a remarkable healing balm, used by battlefield surgeons for centuries to close wounds. Now, researchers say they've figured out how the fly larvae work their magic: They suppress our immune system.
Maggots are efficient consumers of dead tissue. They munch on rotting flesh, leaving healthy tissue practically unscathed. Physicians in Napoleon's army used the larvae to clean wounds. In World War I, American surgeon William Baer noticed that soldiers with maggot-infested gashes didn't have the expected infection or swelling seen in other patients. The rise of penicillin in the 1940s made clinical maggots less useful, but they bounced back in the 1990s when antibiotic-resistant bacteria created a new demand for alternative treatments. In 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved maggot therapy as a prescription treatment. |  |
The first flexible, fiber-optic solar cell that can be woven into clothes
An international team of engineers, physicists, and chemists have created the first fiber-optic solar cell. These fibers are thinner than human hair, flexible, and yet they produce electricity, just like a normal solar cell. The US military is already interested in weaving these threads into clothing, to provide a wearable power source for soldiers.
In essence, the research team started with optical fibers made from glass — and then, using high-pressure chemical vapor deposition, injected n-, i-, and p-type silicon into the fiber, turning it into a solar cell. |  |
Middle East beginning to embrace solar energy
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Covering nearly 300 football fields in a remote patch of desert, the Shams 1 solar project carries off plenty of symbolic significance for the United Arab Emirates.
It will be the first, large-scale solar project in the oil-rich country when it is completed at the end of the year, and the largest of its kind in the Middle East. At full capacity, the 100-megawatt, concentrated solar project will be able to power 20,000 homes. For those behind the project, it's the surest sign yet that solar is coming to the region in a big way. |  |
Norway to pay Brazil $180 million for slowing deforestation
Norway has agreed to give $180 million to Brazil as part of a broader $1 billion deal for slowing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, Oslo's environment minister said on Thursday.
Norway has promised $1 billion each to Brazil and Indonesia for protecting their tropical rainforests and warned Jakarta earlier this year that its progress in reforming its forestry sector will not be sufficient to meet its pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020. |  |
Stop Burning Rain Forests for Palm Oil
In the Tripa forest in Indonesia's Aceh province, the rare Sumatran orangutans were dying. Flames devoured the trees, smoke filled the air and the red apes had nowhere to go. The fires had been set intentionally, to clear the land for planting oil palms—trees whose fruit yields palm oil, a widely used component of biofuels, cosmetics and food. Although the land was supposed to be protected, the Aceh governor issued a permit in August 2011 for Indonesian palm oil firm PT Kallista Alam to develop some 1,600 hectares in Tripa. In September 2012, under pressure from environmental groups, the permit was revoked. It seemed like a significant win for conservation. Yet the controversial Tripa permit was just a small part of the country's palm oil–driven deforestation crisis.
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Smoke from Arctic wildfires may have caused Greenland's record thaw
The freak melt of the Greenland ice sheet last summer may have been forced by smoke from Arctic wildfires, new research suggests.
Satellite observations, due to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union on Friday, for the first time tracks smoke and soot particles from tundra wildfires over to Greenland. Scientists have long known that soot blackens snow and ice, reducing its powers of reflectivity and making it more likely to melt under the sun. |  |
2012: The End of the Arctic Era
“2012 has been an astounding year,” said Jason Box, who studies Greenland at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University. It was the warmest summer in 170 years, he said, and the vast extent of melting ice seems to indicate something has fundamentally changed. “This year Greenland crossed a threshold. We can expect Greenland to be melting across its entire surface from now on.”
The loss of all this ice in the Arctic is not simply a consequence of global warming, however, it also adds to the problem. Ice and snow are terrific reflectors that keep a lot of solar energy from being trapped in Earth's atmosphere. When ice melts, darker ground and waters are exposed and absorb that sunlight. “The Arctic is one of the Earth's mirrors and that mirror is breaking,” said researcher Donald Perovich of Dartmouth College. |  |
Last Christmas? Partridges and turtle doves face risk of extinction in UK
For at least 200 years it has been a yuletide staple, but the traditional world of the popular carol The Twelve Days of Christmas is now under threat as never before.
Partridges and turtle doves are disappearing from the countryside at such alarming rates that without urgent action the species may cease to exist in the UK outside the verses of the festive classic, scientists have warned. |  |
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