Gavin's Blog.com

Global warming to devastate Europe first

According to a new study:

European winters will disappear by 2080 and extreme weather will become more common unless global warming across the continent is slowed, warns a major new report.

Europe is warming more quickly than the rest of the world with potentially devastating consequences, including more frequent heatwaves, flooding, rising sea levels and melting glaciers, says the European Environment Agency (EEA) document, launched on Wednesday.

The changes are happening at such a pace that Europeans must put in place strategies to adapt to an unfamiliar climate, the researchers write, although they stress the importance of the Kyoto Protocol in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

How could it be so localised that higher emissions in one region would results in a warmer clime? Is meteorology and climate science not a bit more complicated? Do clouds respect borders?

Language may shape human thought

New Scientist reporting a curious study:

Hunter-gatherers from the Pirahã tribe, whose language only contains words for the numbers one and two, were unable to reliably tell the difference between four objects placed in a row and five in the same configuration, revealed the study.

Experts agree that the startling result provides the strongest support yet for the controversial hypothesis that the language available to humans defines our thoughts. So-called “linguistic determinism” was first proposed in 1950 but has been hotly debated ever since.

“It is a very surprising and very important result,” says Lisa Feigenson, a developmental psychologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, US, who has tested babies’ abilities to distinguish between different numerical quantities. “Whether language actually allows you to have new thoughts is a very controversial issue.”

Indeed it is surprising.

Spirit Hints at Past Water, Opportunity Hits Rock Bottom

Those two Rovers are at it again. No, not that. They are finding more and more evident of a history of liquid water on Mars. Fascinating stuff.

"I would say that this is the most powerful evidence [of water] in the rocks at Gusev Crater," said Steven Squyres, the rovers' principal investigator from Cornell University. "We had evidence…that a little bit of water percolated through the plains there."

Teleportation goes long distance

The BBC is reporting that physicists have carried out successful teleportation with particles of light over a distance of 600m across the River Danube. Here's kind of how it works:

Researchers from the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Science used an 800m-long optical fibre fed through a public sewer system tunnel to connect labs on opposite sides of the River Danube.

The link establishes a channel between the labs, dubbed Alice and Bob. This enables the properties, or "quantum states", of light particles to be transferred between the sender (Alice) and the receiver (Bob).

In the computers of tomorrow, this information would form the qubits (the quantum form of the digital bits 1 and 0) of data processing through the machines.

The Austrian team encoded their qubits using a property of light particles, also called photons, known as polarisation. This property describes the direction in which they oscillate.

Quantum teleportation relies on an aspect of physics known as "entanglement"; whereby the properties of two particles can be tied together even when they are far apart. Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance".

So now you know.

Nasa to save Hubble telescope

NASA has finally seen sense:

The US space agency has given the go-ahead for a robotic mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, Nasa officials have announced. Nasa chief Sean O'Keefe has asked for a firm mission proposal to be worked up in a year, after which a decision whether to proceed will be made.

"Everybody says: 'We want to save the Hubble'. Well, let's go save the Hubble," Mr O'Keefe said.

Hopefully we shall see another few years of Hubble images.

Solar system may be exception not rule

Is our-type solar system a common one?

Beer and his colleagues are now arguing that the alien systems might not have formed in the same way as our solar system. It is possible that the hot-Jupiter systems might have come about when the dusty discs around stars became unstable and suddenly fragmented, with the individual fragments collapsing under their own weight to form planets. This process naturally creates more elliptical orbits and would be unlikely to form Earth-like planets, they say.

But...

"It will be another five years or so before we know whether the solar system is truly different," says Beer. "But if it is, we may have to revise our theories of planet formation, since the existing theories are largely based on information gathered in the solar system." There might be more than one way to make a world.

Human recipes: Matt Ridley

Matt Ridley gives some interesting insights into the human genome, and that of other mammals and plants.

We have 25,000 genes (or recipes for protein molecules) which is the same as a mouse, just 6,000 more than a microscopic nematode worm and 15,000 fewer than a rice plant. However sophisticated our brains are, it is not reflected in our genes. This has led some to suggest that we have been exaggerating the role of genes in shaping our brains. In fact, it reminds us that recipes are more than lists of ingredients. How those ingredients are cooked is also crucial. And the instructions for cooking up a body are hidden in the genome too - between the genes themselves.

Here are some interesting facts about the prairie vole brain:

One example: the existence of a 400-letter phrase of repetitious text in the promoter of the vasopressin receptor gene of a prairie vole turns the rodent monogamous. That phrase alters the location of expression of the gene in the rodent's brain, making it active in the ventral pallidum, which contains a dopamine system that is responsible for addictive behaviour. A prairie vole therefore becomes "socially addicted" to its mate following sex, which is a grand way of saying it falls in love. A montane vole, lacking the 400-letter phrase, does not.

Human beings also have a repetitious phrase in this same region of the genome, though it is shorter than in prairie voles. As of this writing, the equivalent region of the chimpanzee genome has not yet been looked at. I predict it will be shorter than the human one, because humans commonly form long-term pair bonds, while chimpanzees commonly do not.

Multiply this example 10,000 or 20,000 times and you have explained how human nature differs from chimpanzee nature or vole nature. Make no mistake: this is theoretically possible. But in practice, it is an infinite task, because no sooner have you identified the "human" version than you will have to start defining how each individual slightly differs from it, and how each of those differences will cause you to recalculate the effect of the 25,000 other genes in the new context, and then the effect of those changes, and so on ad infinitum. As usual, far from closing mysteries, science opens new ones.

Apollo Image Gallery

In need of some new desktop wallpaper? Pictures taken during the Apollo missions have recently been digitized and revamped, giving some spectacular images.

Well worth at least an hour looking through.

Are we still evolving? Gabrielle Walker

Short answer: well yes, obviously. But this is yet another excellent article in Prospect. Walker goes into some detail here, and provides insight into some theories I never even knew existed. Read the whole thing, but I will give some good passages from it:

Scientists on both sides agree in principle that cultural changes can affect human evolution. After all, such changes are just another way of altering the environment, and natural selection can respond to any environmental change provided that it lasts long enough. The earliest, best documented and most intriguing cultural change is something that anthropologist Kristen Hawkes from the University of Utah calls the "grandmother effect."

Like others before her, Hawkes was baffled by the age structure of modern human societies. When a woman's childbearing years are over, natural selection should lose interest in her; she has no further chance to pass on her genes so there should be no evolutionary benefit to prolonging her life. But women survive long after they have lost fertility.

It is tempting to attribute this to modern medicine. Life expectancies in the developed world have only recently soared to their current heights. In 19th-century France, for instance, female life expectancy was just 39 years, yet by the late 20th century it had almost doubled. However, Hawkes points out that very high rates of child mortality skewed 19th-century life expectancies. Though many girls died before they reached adulthood, those women who survived to the age of 45 lived on for an average of more than 20 more years - even without the benefits of medicine.

What's more, the same strange pattern shows up in societies around the world. However primitive or advanced the culture, about a third of adult women are beyond their childbearing years. Among all the other primates, loss of fertility is quickly followed by loss of life. Why should humans be different?

I fall on the "evolution is still going on" side:

Geneticist Alan Templeton from Washington University in St Louis is convinced that evolution is not yet over, though he thinks it is meaningless to ask how fast human evolution is moving, since some traits change rapidly while others hold their ground. For one thing, he says, the diseases that we have combated are not standing still. "Disease organisms are evolving," he says, "and that's having a big selective impact." Our widespread use of antibiotics is leading to super-resistant organisms. And the malarial parasite is evolving strategies to evade the prophylactics we take. As long as diseases keep evolutionary pace with modern treatments, they will still have the capacity to affect our evolutionary development.

Then there is the effect that a western high-fat diet and sedentary lifestyle is having on people's weight. Obesity is particularly severe in American Indians and Pacific islanders, who possess genes that were once useful in helping guard against sudden variations in food supply. The same traits that protected them from starvation in the past are causing ballooning weight and an epidemic of diabetes, now that scarce plantains have been replaced by plentiful hamburgers.

Templeton studies a particular gene related to coronary artery disease, and sees clear evidence that it has been evolving throughout human prehistory. Genetics is too blunt a tool to identify more recent evolutionary changes, but Templeton sees no reason that the driving forces should have weakened. "All these factors tell me that natural selection is just as strong as ever, and that humans are still evolving and will continue to evolve," he says.

Mars rover finds that water persisted

The evidence continues to grow. It looks increasingly like there may have been very large amounts of liquid water on Mars over a very long period of time. And if there was, the possibility of life existing, now or before, increases dramatically.

Lose Weight, Stay Active, Prevent Alzheimer's-Studies

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Losing weight, eating more fruits and vegetables and exercising your brain and body sounds like a formula to prevent heart disease, but it is also a way to prevent Alzheimer's, researchers said on Monday:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040719/hl_nm/health_alzheimers_lifestyle_dc

Midlife obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure appear to affect the brain as well as the heart, they said.

"There are a variety of lifestyle factors that people can engage in that will reduce their risk of cognitive decline," said Dr. Marilyn Albert, chair of the Alzheimer's Association's medical and scientific council.

"The brain is much more plastic than we thought," Albert added in an interview.

"It has more capacity to renew and regenerate. ... We have to tell people that they need to think about their cognitive health in a way that they typically thought about their physical health."

Early is better, she added. "The pathology of Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites) develops over 10 years, possibly longer. People should start as early in life as possible."

Several studies presented to a meeting sponsored by the Alzheimer's Association in Philadelphia this week support the contention.

A study in Finland of 1,500 elderly people found that those who were obese in middle age were twice as likely to develop dementia when they got old as those who were of normal weight. For those who also had high cholesterol and high blood pressure in middle age, the risk of dementia was six times higher than those who were not affected.

Another study, of 13,000 women, found that those who ate vegetables such as iceberg lettuce, spinach, broccoli and Brussels sprouts in middle age preserved more of their cognitive abilities as they entered their 70s than women who ate few vegetables.

"Women with the highest average intake of those vegetables appear to experience less cognitive decline," Dr. Jae Hee Kang of Harvard Medical School (news - web sites), told a news conference.

Another study suggested that leisure activities that combine social, mental and physical activity are the most likely to prevent dementia.

Each activity is less important than all of them together, said Laura Fratiglioni of Sweden's Karolinska Institute.

Mental activities such as reading books, doing crossword puzzles or playing bingo can help to prevent mental decline, Albert said. "It should be anything that will push people to encounter something that isn't routine."

An estimated 4.5 million Americans currently have Alzheimer's, and that number is expected to balloon as high as 16 million by 2050 as the baby boom generation ages.

NASA's Aura Spacecraft Launches from Vandenberg

This one for the naysayers of global warming, I wonder what this new satellite will find? It should do some important science I imagine.

With the launch of Aura, the first series of NASA's Earth Observing System satellites is complete. The other satellites are Terra, which monitors land, and Aqua, which observes Earth's water cycle. Aura will help answer three key scientific questions: Is the Earth's protective ozone layer recovering? What are the processes controlling air quality? How is the Earth's climate changing? NASA expects early scientific data from Aura within 30-90 days.

Aura will also help scientists understand how the composition of the atmosphere affects and responds to Earth's changing climate.
The results from this mission will help scientists better understand the processes that connect local and global air quality.

Can information be lost?

Stephen Hawking in a fascinating interview on Newsnight tonight. I hope its available online later, I want to watch it again.

The story has appeared online here.

Hawking has been backpedaling recently on the idea that nothing can escape the limitless gravitational pull of these collapsed, dark stars. He now claims that some information can break free of their once-thought inescapable "event horizons."

Long-Standing Disagreement

Hawking's new theory -- which he promises to unveil next week at a conference in Dublin, Ireland -- may be old hat to MIT engineering professor Seth Lloyd, an expert in quantum information, who claims that black holes allow so much information to escape that they might make viable quantum computers.

Anyone going to see him? He will make an important speech in Dublin next week.

Hawking, Penrose & Thorne in Dublin
A major conference on General Relativity and Gravitation will see the world's leading experts converge on Dublin July 18-23. Stephen Hawking is to announce an important discovery about black holes. The organisers have taken the opportunity to stage two public lectures by two of the world's leading experts in the field - Prof Kip Thorne and Prof Sir Roger Penrose. Both talks are in the RDS Concert Hall, Dublin 4.
All details of the talks are on the conference website www.gr17.com and you can book places online at that site. Tickets are €20 each (€10 for students).

Titan surface revealed

I am speechless. Whoah.

Cassini Spacecraft Arrives at Saturn

A bit late posting this, but I was delighed that Cassini had successfully entered orbit around Saturn. It is amazing the accuracy with which it was achieved. I am looking forward to hundreds of thousands of new astronomy images to choose from for my desktop.

Hubble discovers 100 new planets

Great news from Hubble, if confirmed, and another reason to work on keeping it in orbit.

The Hubble Space Telescope may have discovered as many as 100 new planets orbiting stars in our galaxy.

Exciting times for Cassini

New Scientist outlines the next couple of days facing the $3 billion Cassini probe. I am looking forward to some amazing images. Here's hoping she makes it.

Oceans on Mars?

The news media has largely forgotten about those two Rovers on Mars, but they are making some huge discoveries, including the above structure. It was noted:

Despite detailed inspection with the microscopic imager, "we have not got this thing figured out yet," Squyres admitted at a press conference at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California on Friday. "I don't know how these things formed, and it's driving me nuts!"

Some very interesting science being done on Mars.

'Anomalies' in first private spaceflight revealed

It appears that the first private space flight did not go as smoothly as we thought, but they did go into space afterall. Can't be perfect firs time round.

The flight of the first private astronaut was not as perfect as it first appeared – a number of glitches occurred during the flight, some potentially catastrophic.

The revelations were made by Burt Rutan, designer of SpaceShipOne, which on Monday became the world's first privately funded craft to enter space. Until the team fully understands exactly what went wrong during the flight, he said, they will not go ahead with the pair of flights needed to claim the $10 million Ansari X-Prize.

Moon-to-Mars Commission Recommends Major Changes at NASA

A commission chartered by U.S. President George W. Bush to advise him on implementing a broad new space exploration vision is recommending streamlining the NASA bureaucracy, relying more heavily on the private sector, and maintaining more oversight of the nation’s space program at the White House.

Why not bring China into the cosmic club?

Michael Benson asks the question, and it is a fair enough one. Though my libertarian friends might prefer to see Richard Branson do it all first with Virgin.

Two things, I love this quote from the Branson article:

Andrew Nahum, the senior curator of aeronautics at the Science Museum and visiting professor in vehicle design at the Royal College of Art, said he doubted it would ever become a profitable enterprise.

"You have got to put it in proportion - what you are doing is something more ambitious than Concorde. Even that was too expensive and never made a buck."

That sounds horridly like so many quotes I have read, people who doubted flight would work, television, courier services...the list goes on. It strikes me as incredibly short sighted.

And the second from the Benson piece:

So wouldn't it make sense for NASA to cooperate with Russia and China in a meaningful way as it prepares to send humans into the greater solar system for the first time in history? Such an approach would enable a consolidation of the financial burden,and it would free NASA resources to develop a more ambitious and versatile manned deep-space vehicle.There are plenty of good idealistic reasons, too, for being inclusive. A multilateral effort to open the solar system could be a perfect antidote to our Earthly fractiousness.

It's high time we took some more giant leaps - together.

I agree.

Dino impact gave Earth the chill

Evidence has been found for a global winter following the asteroid impact that is thought to have killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Rocks in Tunisia reveal microscopic cold-water creatures invaded a warm sea just after the space rock struck Earth.

The global winter was probably caused by a pollutant cloud of sulphate particles released when the asteroid vapourised rocks at Chicxulub, Mexico.

I thought the main impact that wiped out the dinosaurs was recently reported to be in Australia?

Astronomers reveal biggest stars yet seen

Astronomers hunting massive stars in a bid to understand the early Universe have set a new record.

In April, Gregor Rauw, of the University of Liege in Belgium, and colleagues suggested that an object called WR 20a in the constellation Carina could be two giant stars orbiting each other. That would explain its otherwise puzzling spectrum of light.

Antibiotics linked to huge rise in allergies

Are anti-biotics to blame for the huge rise in the incidences of allergies? Perhaps - New Scientist has the story.

Testimony by Ray Bradbury

Also from Slashdot is Ray Bradbury's testimony to the President's Commission on Implementation on U.S. Space Exploration Policy. He has some interesting ideas on the place and time humanity finds itself in. I like this quote:

That's fascinating to think about - isn't it? Four hundred years before Kitty Hawk, an Italian lands on an empty shore, and four hundred years later the Wright Brothers take off into the air above the Earth.

Private spaceship almost in space

Nearly there, this is great news for space exploration. Hopefully we will not have to rely on state agencies for too much longer.

Two Architectures Chosen for Terrestrial Planet Finder

I think this is perhaps one of the most exciting projects, along with the Terrestrial Planet Imager, that NASA is working on at the moment.

I wrote an article on it in the Irish Examiner a few years ago. The results of this kind of project could have huge consequences for humanity, and our place in the universe.

Its exciting that its reached another stage - and over the next few years the project will become concrete, and eventually, within perhaps 20 years, the first image of a pale blue dot will come on our screens - life on another planet.

Oppurtunity arrives

Oppurtunity has arrived at the Endurance crater - whew that took a while!

Looks like there's lots of exciting science to be done there.

'Einstein' probe heads into space

This is a huge amount of money to spend - but it might well be worth it. I am looking forward to the results - my bet is on Einstein being right.

I do remember on Carl Sagan's excellent Cosmos series that an experiment was performed on how time slows down as you move. An atomic clock was placed on the ground, and synchronised with another on a 747, which then flew for a certain distance at a speed that planes do. On return it was found that there was a discrepancy - when you fly on planes you are relatively becoming slightly younger.

A cosmic ambush: Susan Trausch

This looks like a good piece.

Sedna

The 10th planet? Hmm. But how does one define a planet?

Measurements suggest Sedna's diameter is almost 2000km – the biggest find in the solar system since Pluto was discovered 74 years ago. It is believed to be made of ice and rock, and is slightly smaller than Pluto.

Higgs Boson found?

Scientists believe they may have found the Higgs Boson, the so-called 'God particle'. But we shall have to wait and see.

Hubble delivers best-ever view of early Universe

It's easy, dock Hubble with the ISS - it would please everyone. Just so we can get more pictures like this.

The official site was so busy they had to mirror it.

NASA announce evidence of water on Mars

Ongoing NASA press conference, on as I write, Slashdot quote "Drenched with Water":

They are saying that the crater that the second rover has landed in has convincing evidence that it was once drenched or covered in liquid water. They cite the tiny spherules, odd holes in the rocks, sulfur in the spectrometric analyses, and evidence of an iron sulfate hydrate (a hydrate is a chemical compound which includes water molecules in the crystal lattice).

Update: Astonishing! Lots of salt, it sounds like there were large seas on Mars. "Significant liquid water".

Update: They plan to send the Rover a good distance, to examine a particular crater - it might not make it.

Update: "We have nailed a new aspect" How extensive is this evidence of ancient ground water? "How long did water soak the rock?"

"Now we finally have examples of stuff we really want to bring home"

Update: "We cannot tell you if these rocks were laid down in a pool of water or sea" "The best way to get age is to bring a rock back"

Spirit will travel 100 metres a day, and take up to several weeks before it reaches 'Endurance' crater.

The Pentagon's Weather Nightmare

So the Pentagon is taking global warming seriously? I have been keeping an eye out for stories related to this issue - I remember Frank saying that a large number scientists don't believe global warming is happening - I just wonder what percentage of the scientific community believes it. How many scientists are there in the world anyway?

It seems this article created quite a bit of controversy. Stephen Pollard has picked it up here.

Looks like the Observer played this one up just a bit.

Dodging a space bullet

This story from Slashdot, on a new system that could be used to try and take out a rogue asteroid headed for Earth.

A killer asteroid, the kind of space rock that did in the dinosaurs, is on a collision course with Earth. A fleet of nuclear-powered robots races to the rescue. Humanity's survival hangs in the balance.

By the second bag of popcorn, swarms of robotic MADMEN --- short for Modular Asteroid Deflection Mission Ejector Nodes --- are descending on the doomsday rock. They attack like hungry dragonflies, gouging out chunks and hurling them into space with such force that the asteroid is slowly nudged into a new trajectory. The shift averts the ultimate catastrophe. The human race survives.

Space station crew spots bits of debris

Seems that bits of the ISS have been seen floating away. I hope its nothing too serious.

The latest sighting was mentioned in Monday's daily status report from NASA Headquarters: “Yesterday, the crew observed another small piece of debris floating away from the ISS, apparently of Russian origin.”

Europe joins race to send humans to Mars

So the ESA might be interested in getting men (or women) to Mars.

"We think it is technically feasible to have a manned mission to the moon between 2020 and 2025 and then to Mars between 2030 and 2035," said Franco Ongaro, project manager of the European Space Agency's Aurora space exploration program.

Two years later, the agency's ExoMars mission hopes to land a rover on the red planet to search for signs of past and present life. Then between 2011 and 2014, a second mission will bring back a sample of the Martian surface.

Helium-3

Will Helium-3 be the energy source of the future? This article from the Daily Cardinal talks about researchers who think that mining on the moon could pay huge dividends for humanity. Some staggering figures:

UW-Madison nuclear engineering Professor and Director of the Fusion Technology Institute Gerald Kulcinski and Fusion Technology Institute Professor John Santarius said the rocks on the moon hold helium-3, an energy source approximately 1 million times more powerful than coal.

They predict the moon has enough energy to last the U.S. over 1,000 years.

Nasa rover breaks down on Mars

D'oh! Spirit has broken down, and it ain't looking good.

UPI Exclusive: Bush OKs new moon missions

This UPI article goes into greater detail than most on the plans for the Moon and Mars. I didn't see any of these details in other news reports. Where or if they go to Mars, they will initially only orbit the planet and then come straight home, much the same as the Apollo program.

Under the current plan, sources said, the first lunar landings would carry only enough resources to test advanced equipment that would be employed on voyages beyond the moon. Because the early moon missions would use existing rockets, they could deliver only small equipment packages. So the initial, return-to-the-moon missions essentially would begin where the Apollo landings left off -- a few days at a time, growing gradually longer. The human landings could be both preceded and accompanied by robotic vehicles.

The first manned Mars expeditions would attempt to orbit the red planet in advance of landings -- much as Apollo 8 and 10 orbited the moon but did not land. The orbital flights would conduct photo reconnaissance of the Martian surface before sending landing craft, said sources familiar with the plan's details.

Bush to Announce New Missions to Moon, Mars

I've been waiting a few months for this announcement, since it was first reported in the Guardian in the middle of last year. George Bush is expected to announce a major reinvigoration of NASA, with planned manned missions to Mars and the Moon. His father made similar speeches, so is it true ambition or election posturing?

William Safire: In space, we're getting along just fine

William Safire comments on the US successes in space. Interesting views i guess.

In the 20th century, stung by the triumph of the Soviet Union in putting the Sputnik into orbit, President John F. Kennedy said America had "tossed its cap over the wall of space" to be first to land a man on the moon. The United States won that competition with communism in space, an augury to America's later victories in ideology and political power.

Then, a few days later, came America's robotic visitation of the probe named Spirit to Mars. We have been there before with a small probe but suffered two failures five years ago. Now our $820 million investment paid off as we placed a roving robot the size of a golf cart splat in the middle of a Connecticut-size crater that NASA calls Sleepy Hollow.

Dusty disc may mean other Earths

Astronomers say they have evidence for Earth-like planets orbiting a nearby star, making it more like our own Solar System than any yet discovered.

Biggest solar flare goes off

The Sun has just released the biggest flare ever seen -

It was so energetic that it overloaded the detectors on satellites monitoring the Sun's surface.

Researchers are saying that the Sun's current spate of activity - now 10 days in duration - is the most dramatic and intense ever witnessed on the Sun's surface.

Monkeys’ brains move robotic arms

Scientists in North Carolina have built a brain implant that lets monkeys control a robotic arm with their thoughts, marking the first time that mental intentions have been harnessed to move a mechanical object.

Has technology really come this far? I guess so.

Sun Hurls Another Solar Flare at Earth

Scientists again warned that communications on Earth could be disrupted this week by another spectacular eruption on the surface of the Sun and that it might even hamper firefighting efforts in California.

"The Bastille Day storm produced considerable disruption to both ground and space high-tech systems," said Bill Murtagh, a space weather forecaster for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Is our universe finite?

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists said Wednesday the universe could be spherical and patched together like a soccer ball -- and it may not be infinite.

In a commentary on the research, George Ellis of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, said if Weeks and his colleagues are correct we might indeed live in a small, closed universe.

If our universe is finite, I wonder if there is something else over the universe?

Health fears over Twin Towers' plume

This is something that could prove worrying. I was at the WTC on September 28 2001, on a holiday I had planned before September 11. I was in the vicinity of the WTC, still smouldering, for quite a number of hours. Might be alarmist, but then asbesthos is a dangerous substance.

The smell was...hm...plasticy in a burning kind of way.

"This was a fully functional building that was completely smulched into a burning pit," says Thomas Cahill, an atmospheric physicist at the University of California Davis, who has focused on the composition of the finest particles in the plume for the past two years.

"That's never happened before, so we are in completely new territory. All we can say is we are worried about it," he says. "It may take years before these effects show up, just like with radiation."

Teen brain changes increase cigarette addiction

Are teens more prone to getting addicted to nicotine than adults? A study reported in New Scientist seems to suggest so.

The team provided teen rats aged about 40 days with nicotine. Others were given nicotine only after they had passed into adulthood, at about 70 days. The rats could help themselves to the drug using a lever system, which when pressed gave them an intravenous shot of nicotine.

"The adolescents took twice as much on a per kilogram basis as adults," he told New Scientist. "Furthermore they continued to administer twice as much when they became adults."

Venus possibly habitable for billions of years

Heres an interesting story.

Maybe, just maybe, life existed on the planet Venus. A new study reveals that Venus may have had an atmosphere like our own and liquid water for up to 2 billion years, before a greenhouse effect enveloped the planet.

Mars and Venus are the two most likely candidates for life given their proximity to the sun.

Suffocation suspected for greatest mass extinction

The oxygen-starved aftermath of an immense global belch of methane left land animals gasping for breath and caused the Earth's largest mass extinction, suggests new research.

Paleontologists have long puzzled over the mass extinction at the end of the Permian. There is no evidence for a large asteroid impact, but sharp changes in carbon isotope ratios indicate something triggered massive releases of frozen methane hydrates from under the sea floor and in permafrost.

Giant laser transmutes nuclear waste

A giant laser has cut the lifetime of a speck of radioactive waste from millions of years to just minutes. The feat raises hopes that a solution to nuclear power's biggest drawback - its waste - might one day be possible.

Gosh if this could be implemented it go towards creating an infinite supply of energy. Why didnt this story get more coverage?

"It is not going to solve the waste problem completely, but it reduces toxicity by a factor of 100. That's an attractive proposition," says Ken Ledingham, at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, who led the British and German research team.

'100 day countdown' to China's first astronaut

China seems the be the only country in the world currently looking 'up'. China is on course to become only the third nation ever to place a human in space, following press reports that the first crewed flight will take place in 100 days.

There has already been some speculation that China's National Space Administration may target 1 October, the date on which the People's Republic of China was founded.

World's largest virus

I had a story posted on Slashdot yesterday -

Gavinsblog writes "New Scientist is reporting that the largest virus yet discovered may have been found in a water tower in the UK. Dubbed the 'Mimivirus', it may be related to Smallpox. It is not yet known if it causes disease."

A few folks from Slashdot visited - howya! :-)

Data recorder taped shuttle's last seconds

An experimental data recorder aboard the space shuttle Columbia continued to record potentially vital information until moments before the shuttle disintegrated during re-entry, investigators say.

During duplication of the magnetic tape from the recorder, investigators saw that it continued to store data up to 14 seconds after the final telemetry was broadcast from the shuttle to ground control. NASA believes the main body of the shuttle began breaking apart just three seconds later at 1400 GMT on 1 February.

Columbia black box found

Breaking news from various sources:

The flight data recorder of the lost US shuttle Columbia, has been found.

A Cuban DC-3, apparently hijacked, has been forced to land in Key West, Florida.

Killer pneumonia likely to be new bug

New Scientist is reporting that the bug spreading throughout the world is, as yet, unknown to science. Scientists have been frantically trying to find out what the bug is, but all tests so far have shown that the bug is new.

China's new Great Leap: into space

China's plans for manned space exploration are not covered much in the Western press, but Joseph Kahn of the New York Times makes up for much of it with this article.

Not only is China planning on sending humans into space, but it will send up to three taikonauts on their first attempt at manned spaceflight. To top that they are planning to have humans on the Moon by 2010, in a search for Helium-3, something that may be important for future fusion reactors. And they want to go to Mars too.

Why can't we get this kind of ambition from the European Space Agency? Oh yeah - money.

What next for the shuttle?

I seen this story over on Slashdot, it is a good read with some details on future shuttle programs. Worth a look.

Life on Europa?

New Scientist is reporting that scientists have found that electricity is produced when aluminium bullets are fired into a block of ice. This raises the chances of finding life on Europa, s eletrical shocks of this kind could cause complex molecules to form. An electrifying discovery? :p

We are a biological weapon

George Monbiot again, on Saturday's historic protests. He writes another well crafted piece about the reasons for Bush's war. Brilliant reading.

Global warming and evolution

New Scientist is reporting that using a technique called quantitive genetics, researchers have found that due to the effects of global warming female squirrels now give birth on average 18 days earlier in the year than their great-great-grandmothers. Is global warming affecting human evolution?

Weird story about a stone slab

Apparently a 120 million year old stone with writing on has been discovered in the Ural mountains. This would turn all ideas about humans evolution on their head and as you might imagine I remain extremely sceptical, if not cynical about this story.

Sharks face extinction

ITN is reporting that shark populations are down by over 50% on the last 15 years, a staggering figure by any means. Hammerhead sharks are worst affected with an estimated 75% reduction in stocks. This is truly amazing reading, the full report will appear in the journal Science.

Nobel prize winners have figured it out, but didn't we all know that the markets are really based on irrational behaviour?

The celebrated economist, who wrotes some excellent stuff in the Atlantic a while back writes a riveting piece in the Guardian. I had thought that markets can also be based on mob or herd mentalities, but he also gives us several other ideas. A good primer on ecomomic psyhcology - if I can call it that.

Smallpox vaccine will kill more than a few

The planned vaccination of millions of US citizens against smallpox will likely lead to death of some according to New Scientist. With so many being innoculated it is thought that some people will have adverse reactions and may die. You can read the story here.

Take it out and zap it

A year ago doctors in Italy took out a man's cancer ridden liver, gave it high doses of radiation, and stuck it back in. This meant that none of his other organs were affected by the damaging radiation, but his liver tumors were successfully cured, and have not come back. They are hoping to start using the same procedure on more patients. Amazing technology.

Finally the answer to a very interesting question - concerning the menstrual cycle

Why do groups of women living in the same household have synchronous menstrual cycles? At last my question has been answered, and it is as I thought - to do with social groups and our evolutionary past. I speculated that it may be chemicals like pheremones that cause the synchronisation, but I did not know the exact evolutionary reasoning behind it.

Good news for white wine lovers

Yes those scientists are at it again, cooking up things to help make our lives healthier and lazier - and so we can drink more wine. Since red wine has more polyphenols it is thought that its anti-oxidant properties help reduce ageing by getting rid of those nasty free radicals, good for red wine drinkers like myself. So what have they done? Traditionally white wine had less polyphenols but now they have found a way to grow them with three times as much.

Hell-Mars idea

Was Mars once like the Earth, or was it a hellish inferno like Venus? Well new theories are put forward often, and this is another.

SETI@Home to take a closer look

SETI have decided to look again at their 100 most promising signals. I am a firm advocate of further investigation of space, and more space exploration - I hope SETI find something!

And solar sails will get us there

And in case you were wondering, we will be able to get to other planets by using solar sails. Duncan Steel writes in today's Guardian that this much talked about, and very often written about technology will be utilised in the test probe Cosmos 1. Appropriate that it is named after Carl Sagan's riveting book and television series. I hope it goes well.

Life from underwater?

Science Daily is carrying a story on the origins of life. It calls it revolutionary, but I would not think so after reading the report. The existence of life around hydrothermal vents has long been known, and do point towards the possibility that life originated without the help of the sun, and underwater - so I was not that surprised by this theory.

Yes, we did go the moon

The European Space Agency are planning to use the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to image the remains of NASA equipment still on the moon. This might convince conspiracy theorists that man did indeed land on the moon. I can be somewhat of a conspiracy theorist myself, but I think this one is too far fetched - man did go to the moon!

Mars - we go there or humans die out

Well the headline is my view - but I do think this story is worth looking at. I have read of the Mars Society, and I do believe they hold the director James Cameron as one of their major backers. Pity he made such a dismal movie about Mars. Robbins and Sinise at their worst. Anyway an interesting story nonetheless, see it here.

GM - the real story

One of my favourite writers in the Guardian (betraying my leftist tendencies), George Monbiot writes another article on GM foods. I could not agree more with his sentiments. Have a read of it yourself and see what you think.

Cold War Spy photos released

Yes they are finally here. Now we can gaze in awe at what the US was gazing at back in the 60's. For those of you who want to get some classic 60's photos please go here.

Nasa and its robots

Some hope for humanity, that we are taking steps to get our asses off the planet. Our attempts at exploration are somewhat feeble and indeed under funded, but are very important if humanity is to survive the nest 100 years. Thankfully Nasa will be webcasting its testing of Mars Rovers for us all to see, and how they will work on the surface of the Red Planet.