Clipmarks | invictus's Pops

North Pole without Ice

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:08:42 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: I look forward to the comforting data from real scientists which will refute such alarmist liberal mischief that has even fooled the CIA. I suspect these silly rumours began oin a bunker in Berlin.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.

The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.

If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above.

Tags: squirrels, mischief

Our Genome Changes Over Lifetime, And May Explain Many 'Late-onset' Diseases

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:56:01 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: They found that in almost one-third of individuals, methylation changed over that 11-year span, but not all in the same direction. Some individuals gained total methylation in their DNA, while others lost. "What we saw was a detectable change over time, which showed us proof of the principle that an individual's epigenetics does change with age,"

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that epigenetic marks on DNA-chemical marks other than the DNA sequence-do indeed change over a person's lifetime, and that the degree of change is similar among family members.

The team suggests that overall genome health is heritable and that epigenetic changes occurring over one's lifetime may explain why disease susceptibility increases with age.

"We're beginning to see that epigenetics stands at the center of modern medicine because epigenetic changes, unlike DNA sequence which is the same in every cell, can occur as a result of dietary and other environmental exposure,

If epigenetics does contribute to such diseases through interaction with environment or aging, says Feinberg, a person's epigenetic marks would change over time.

"Inappropriate methylation levels can contribute to disease

The researchers used DNA samples collected from people involved in the AGES Reykjavik Study

Tags: medicine, genome, dna

Lunar Outposts Moving Closer to Reality

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:21:02 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

The three-day Lunar Capability Concept Review capped a nine-month study led by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington that incorporated science and exploration objectives earlier developed by representatives of 14 countries. The study is part of NASA's Constellation Program, which has the responsibility for developing the next human space transportation system that will be used to extend a human presence throughout the solar system.

The Lunar Capability study looked at possible lunar mission scenarios and compared them to the capabilities of the emerging Ares V heavy lift launch vehicle and the Altair lunar lander design concepts.

"We confirmed that Constellation's conceptual designs for both Ares V and Altair will enable us to land astronauts and cargo anywhere on the moon and to build an outpost supporting widespread exploration of the lunar surface," said Jeff Hanley, Constellation Program manager.

Tags: lunar outposts, nasa

Can a Robot, an Insect or God Be Aware?

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:43:26 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Our intuitions about consciousness in other beings and objects reveal a lot about how we think.

Can a lobster ever truly have any emotions?

Or a sophisticated computer? The only way to resolve these questions conclusively would be to engage in serious scientific inquiry—but even before studying the scientific literature, many people have pretty clear intuitions about what the answers are going to be. A person might just look at a computer and feel certain that it couldn’t possibly be feeling pleasure, pain or anything at all. That’s why we don’t mind throwing a broken computer in the trash. Likewise, most people don’t worry too much about a lobster feeling angst about its impending doom when they put one into a pot of boiling water. In the jargon of philosophy, these intuitions we have about whether a creature or thing is capable of feelings or subjective experiences—such as the experience of seeing red or tasting a peach—are called “intuitions about phenomenal consciousness.”

Tags: consciousness, thought, awareness, robotics

Underground Wonders of the World

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:55:35 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: from Budapest to Disney World

Clip Source: weburbanist.com

Paris, France: There are extensive networks of catacombs, quarries and other tunnels running under the capital of France

London, England: The West Norwood Cemetery

Budapest, Hungary: A labyrinth of caves and tunnels span for miles under Castle Hill.

Orlando, Florida: For a long time, mysteries circulated about tunnels underneath the so-called Magic Kingdom. As it turns out, the rumors were true: Disney World has an extensive system of underground passages

How a Man-Made Tornado Could Power the Future

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:27:30 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Coiled up in a tornado is as much energy as an entire power plant. So a Canadian engineer has a plan to spin up his own twister and extract energy from its tethered tail.

It all depends on heating the air near the surface so that it is much warmer than the air above.

"You can generate energy whenever you have a temperature gradient," said Louis Michaud. "The source of the energy here is the natural movement of warm and cold air currents."

These so-called convective air currents are only useful if they can be channeled in some way. That is why Michaud proposes using a tornado as a kind of drinking straw between the warm ground below and the cold sky above. Wind turbines placed at the bottom could generate electricity from the sucked-up air.

Whirlwind tour

Tornadoes and hurricanes form when sun-heated air near the surface rises and displaces cooler air above. As outside air rushes in to replace the rising air, the whole mass begins to rotate.

Tags: energy, man made, tornado

The Petabyte Age: Because More Isn't Just More — More Is Different

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:05:03 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.wired.com

Sensors everywhere. Infinite storage. Clouds of processors. Our ability to capture, warehouse, and understand massive amounts of data is changing science, medicine, business, and technology. As our collection of facts and figures grows, so will the opportunity to find answers to fundamental questions. Because in the era of big data, more isn't just more. More is different.

Feeding the Masses:
Data In, Crop Predictions Out

Chasing the Quark:
Sometimes You Need to Throw Information Away

Watching the Skies:
Space Is Big — But Not Too Big to Map

Scanning Our Skeletons:
Bone Images Show Wear and Tear

Spotting the Hot Zones:
Now We Can Monitor Epidemics Hour by Hour

Sorting the World:
Google Invents New Way to Manage Data

Visualizing Big Data:
Bar Charts for Words

Tags: petabyte, data

Immortal Invaders Infect World's Oceans

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:20:01 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Just think, if all the other shit happenin doesn't kill us, we may be doomed 'cuz the ocean died of an infestation of tiny jellyfish...

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

The rock star mantra of "live fast, die young" works in reverse too - you can trade off enjoyment for endurance. Don't smoke, drink or eat meat and you can extend your life by decades, though what you're going to do with all that time is another question. Now it seems that an animal has taken this to the logical extreme, and can live forever - the only drawback being it lives forever as a small clump of jelly.

The Hydrozoan, a small predatory sea creature like a jellyfish but without all their well known exciting higher functions, can achieve the dream of millions and become a child again. When adverse environmental conditions threaten death it can collapse into a rugged blob of cells to survive. When it re-emerges, it does so as a child - literally building itself up all over again. Since this isn't just a shell to hide in, but a complete structural restart, it seems possible that it could keep this up forever.

the hardy hitchhiker has spread all over the globe.

Physicists Produce Quantum-Entangled Images

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:33:03 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.kurzweilai.net

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland (UM) have produced "quantum images," pairs of information-rich visual patterns whose features are entangled (linked by the laws of quantum physics).

Matching up both quantum images and subtracting their fluctuations, their noise is lower (so their information content potentially higher) than it is from any two classical images.

In addition to promising better detection of faint objects and improved amplification and positioning of light beams, the researchers' technique for producing quantum images may someday be useful for storing patterns of data in quantum computers and transmitting large amounts of highly secure encrypted information.

Tags: quantum, quantum entanglment, computing, images

100 Explosions on the Moon

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:29:46 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: The flashes on the left side of the moon show a meteoroid hitting the moon.

Clip Source: science.nasa.gov

May 21, 2008: Not so long ago, anyone claiming to see flashes of light on the Moon would be viewed with deep suspicion by professional astronomers. Such reports were filed under "L" … for lunatic.

Not anymore. Over the past two and a half years, NASA astronomers have observed the Moon flashing at them not just once but one hundred times.

"They're explosions caused by meteoroids hitting the Moon," explains Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). "A typical blast is about as powerful as a few hundred pounds of TNT and can be photographed easily using a backyard telescope."

As an example, he offers this video of an impact near crater Gauss on January 4, 2008:

Above: A lunar impact on Jan. 4, 2008. This is number 86 on the list of 100 impacts recorded by the MEO team since their survey began in 2005. Larger movies: 0.8 MB gif, 5.9 MB avi.

Tags: astronomers, eat, dark, food

Fire Under Arctic Ice: Volcanoes Have Been Blowing Their Tops In The Deep Ocean

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:33:59 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Maybe all the shaking goes to the Shaky Isles, NZ

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

A "lonely" seismometer drifts with the sea ice. (Credit: Vera Schlindwein, Alfred Wegener Institute)

Researchers found jagged, glassy rock fragments spread out over a 10 square kilometer (4 square mile) area around a series of small volcanic craters about 4,000 meters (2.5 miles) below the sea surface. The volcanoes lie along the Gakkel Ridge, a remote and mostly unexplored section of the mid-ocean ridge system that runs through the Arctic Ocean.

"These are the first pyroclastic deposits we've ever found in such deep water, at oppressive pressures that inhibit the formation of steam, and many people thought this was not possible," said WHOI geophysicist Rob Reves-Sohn, lead author and chief scientist for the Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition (AGAVE) of July 2007. "This means that a tremendous blast of CO₂ was released into the water column during the explosive eruption."

Tags: i, don't, blow, my, top, if, not, noticed

Fossil of most primitive 4-legged creature found

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:54:31 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: From the report "It looked like a small alligator"

Clip Source: richarddawkins.net

The 365 million-year-old fossil skull, shoulders and part of the pelvis of the water-dweller, Ventastega curonica, were found in Latvia, researchers report in a study published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. Even though Ventastega is likely an evolutionary dead-end, the finding sheds new details on the evolutionary transition from fish to tetrapods. Tetrapods are animals with four limbs and include such descendants as amphibians, birds and mammals.

While an earlier discovery found a slightly older animal that was more fish than tetrapod, Ventastega is more tetrapod than fish. The fierce-looking creature probably swam through shallow brackish waters, measured about three or four feet long and ate other fish. It likely had stubby limbs with an unknown number of digits, scientists said.

Tags: short, legs, -, don't, fall, far

New Technologies Will Soon Lead to Discovery of Earth's Twin

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:55:49 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

"Detecting Earth in reflected light is like searching for a firefly six feet from a searchlight that is 2,400 miles distant," wrote a panel of astronomers recently, when describing the challenges facing the search for other planets in the universe.

But nevertheless, many astronomers involved in such a search are confident that we are very close to locating a twin Earth.

Since the first planets outside of our solar system were discovered in the early 1990’s, nearly 300 planets have been discovered. However, if you were hoping to relocate, think again; most of them are Jupiter or Saturn-like planets: big, hot, and navigating very close to their star.

Two methods are used to detect planets out of our own solar system, and both are very fine edged.

But as the years go by, our technology continues to advance; it is this fact that excites astronomers, bringing us closer and closer to finding a twin-Earth.

Tags: astronomy, habitable planets

The World's Biggest Camera to Survey 300 Million Galaxies

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:01:22 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The team’s goals are to extract cosmological information on dark energy from counting galaxy clusters and the spatial distribution of clusters, and measuring the redshift of galaxies and supernovae.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

The Dark Energy Survey (DES) camera will map 300 million galaxies using the Blanco 4-meter telescope - a large telescope with new advanced optics at Chile’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.

This instrument will consist of an extremely red sensitive 500 Megapixel camera, with a 1 meter diameter, 2.2 degree field of view prime focus corrector, and a data acquisition system fast enough to take images in 17 seconds.

Creating this huge map of the galaxy will enable astronomers to measure the dark energy far more precisely than current observations.

"Dark Energy is one of the biggest puzzles in the whole of Physics, going back to a concept proposed by Einstein 90 years ago. The DES observations will tell us if Einstein was right or if we need a major shift in our understanding of the universe.”

Observations are scheduled to begin in 2011, continuing until 2016.

Tags: astronomy, cosmology, dark energy, physics

'Shake-up' for internet proposed

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:15:13 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The net could see its biggest transformation in decades if plans to open up the address system are passed.

The net's regulators will vote on Thursday to decide if the strict rules on so-called top level domain names, such as .com or .uk, can be relaxed.

If approved, it could allow companies to turn their brands into domain names while individuals could also carve out their own corner of the net.

The move could also see the launch of .xxx, after years of wrangling.

Top level domains are currently limited to individual countries, such as .uk (UK) or .it (Italy), as well as to commerce, .com, and to institutional organisations, such as .net, or .org.

To get around the restrictions, some companies have used the current system to their own ends.

For example, the Polynesia island nation Tuvalu, has leased the use of the .tv address to many television firms.

It's a massive increase in the geography of the real estate of the internet

Tags: net, web, addresses, domain names