Clipmarks | tabsey's clips

Atacama Desert Observatory.

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:16:27 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Interesting pics of observatory and surrounds. The sky is excellent and you will see why they chose this site.

Clip Source: www.atacamaphoto.com

A very rare view in the Atacama Desert: Paranal Observatory covered in snow

Clip Source: www.atacamaphoto.com

Internal view of one of the 4 VLT telescopes; the photographer is standing under the telescope in the background

Clip Source: www.atacamaphoto.com

At dusk telescope "Antu" is being prepared for night observations. On the Nasmyth platform in the foreground the infrared instrument ISAAC is visible.

Clip Source: www.atacamaphoto.com

Paranal observatory

Clip Source: www.atacamaphoto.com

Paranal Observatory after a night of snow, July 2005. This rare show lasts only a few hours.

Clip Source: www.atacamaphoto.com

Paranal Residencia, home of astronomers and engineers working at the observatory

Clip Source: www.atacamaphoto.com

The tropical garden in the interior of the Paranal Residencia presents a strong contrast to the desert environment that can be found just outside of the building

Clip Source: www.atacamaphoto.com

Telesope "Yepun" under the Milky Way

Clip Source: www.atacamaphoto.com

New aerial impression of the VLT with two Auxiliary Telescopes and VST in upper right corner

Clip Source: www.atacamaphoto.com

The galactic center framed between two telescopes

Clip Source: www.atacamaphoto.com

Telescopes are opened at dusk, ready for night observation

Tags: astronomers, are, stars

A while back scientists were making revolutionary breakthroughs in stem cell research. Unfortunatel

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:19:07 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Way to go! to use an American term.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

In an effort to create one of Japan's greenest urban areas and clean up its air by reducing CO2 emissions, Japan announced that two gigantic solar power generation plants will be installed in Sakai City.

The title of the project is quite a mouth full – the Sakai City Waterfront Mega Solar Power Generation Plan. Say that three times fast. I guess the title has to be fitting for the size of the project, however, because the two facilities will have a 28,000 kW combined maximum capacity and will help to reduce CO2 emissions by a whopping 10,000 tons annually. The city will work in conjunction with Sharp Japan and Kansai Electric Power, with Sharp planning on using thin-film silicon solar modules.

Tags: renewable, energy, is, better, than, cream, on, milk

Stem Cells 2.0: Scientists Make Revolutionary Advance

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:16:54 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: First paragraph.
A while back scientists were making revolutionary breakthroughs in stem cell research. Unfortunately they fell foul of interpretations of thousand year old texts in foreign languages, and a government with the scientific understanding of a squashed grape said "Sorry, our kind and loving God requires that people continue to suffer from Parkinson's, anemia, and various other horrible ailments." Luckily, scientists are awesome and did the obvious thing - make ANOTHER revolutionary breakthrough to get around the problem.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

The previous problem with stem cells was that they came from aborted or otherwise unviable fetuses. Note that these fetuses had been terminated anyway, and the only issue now was whether it was more moral to chuck the goo in a bin and burn it, or use it to help cure the sick. The ethical answer, apparently, isn't what you think.

This issue can now be sidestepped with the creation of induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS) from any kind of tissue. Researchers at the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research have pioneered a way to convert any old cells into the undifferentiated wonder-stuff with unprecedented stability and efficiency.

Tags: medical

Carbon Capture Plans Get Reality Check

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:12:43 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Some sollutions won't get off the drawing board. So many shysters who couldn't give a stuff about the planet, that careful checks of effectiveness will be needed. Closer surveillance than an Iranian nuclear facility.

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

July 2, 2008 -- Carbon capture and storage (CSS) is fast becoming the oil industry's favorite solution to the climate crisis, but the seductive simplicity of the idea masks a series of doubts about its viability.

One Way to Do It

In its simplest form, CSS consists of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) as it is released into the atmosphere, compressing it and then pumping it back into depleted oil and gas fields or other safe underground chambers.

But ask an expert when the technique could be deployed on a large enough commercial scale to make a significant reduction in global CO2 emissions, and the response is often less than confident.

"That's a very difficult question," said Olav Kaarstad, a leading expert and special advisor to front-running Norwegian energy group StatoilHydro.

He said the technology exists, with the capture part being the most expensive and underdeveloped. Statoil buries about a million tons of CO2 a year at a site in the North Sea that has been operating for 11 years.

Tags: will, we, do, it?

Solar System Dented, Not Round

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:07:16 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: The "bottom" of the egg is flattened by a permanent clash of particles, as the outbound solar wind smashes into atomic debris hurtling in from interstellar space, the scientists theorize.
Voyager 2 also crossed the "termination shock" several times within the space of a single day, showing that the boundary is in perpetual flux, like the ebb-and-flow of a tide.

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

July 2, 2008 -- Millions of textbooks depicting our solar system as spherical have got it all wrong, according to studies of data sent back from deep space by NASA's venerable probe, Voyager 2.

The sun's zone of influence -- called the heliosphere -- turns out to be seriously asymmetrical, not round, they say.

Launched in 1977 on a historic trek of the outer planets, Voyager 2 has now crossed the turbulent boundary, known as the "termination shock," where the heliosphere yields to interstellar space.

Its twin probe Voyager 1, crossed the same threshold four years earlier at a different spot some one billion miles farther from the sun.

This difference proves that the heliosphere is not even close to perfectly round, but is oblong, like an egg, according to the studies, released by the British journal Nature on Wednesday.

Tags: astronomy, is, for, stars

Early Aussie Tattoos Match Rock Art

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:03:00 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Gave the photo a miss as Australian aborigines react adversely to pictures etc of the dead. Wouldn't be too impressed by a pic of a dead relative's arse.

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

July 3, 2008 -- Body art was all the rage in early Australia, as it was in many other parts of the ancient world, and now a new study reports that elaborate and distinctive designs on the skin of indigenous Aussies repeated characters and motifs found on rock art and all sorts of portable objects, ranging from toys to pipes.

The study not only illustrates the link between body art, such as tattoos and intentional scarring, with cultural identity, but it also suggests that study of this imagery may help to unravel mysteries about where certain groups traveled in the past, what their values and rituals were, and how they related to other cultures.

"Distinctive design conventions can be considered markers of social interaction so, in a way (they are) a cultural signature of sorts that archaeologists can use to understand ways people were interacting in the past," author Liam Brady of Monash University's Center for Australian Indigenous Studies, told Discovery News.

Tags: a, little, history

Texas Archaeological Dig Challenges Assumptions about First Americans

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:58:07 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Excavations at the Gault site in central Texas.
The Gault School

FLORENCE, TEX.—"Look at that—isn't it gorgeous?" Sandy Peck asks as she rinses dirt from a flaked stone about the length and width of a pinky finger. Peck runs a hose over soil on a fine-mesh screen, prodding at stubborn clods of clay with a muddy glove. "Look, there's another one."

View Slide Show of the Dig

But in excavations starting in 1998 Gault has revealed that Clovis people lived at the site for extended periods over a span of 300 years, says Michael Collins, a research associate with the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory. The evidence? Scientists have found numerous tools manufactured from local stone, used until they were worn, then repaired repeatedly until they finally were discarded. In other words, Paleo-Indians were members of a settled community. "We're redefining Clovis," Collins says.

Tags: grave, diggers, change, history

Adopt A Scientist Program

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:39:29 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: If you can afford to be involved , it could be fun, oh, and educational.

Clip Source: www.seti.org

Anyone can adopt a SETI Institute scientist and become part of the adventure!

Each of our scientists offers a compelling journey of discovery. When you adopt a scientist, you help lead the way towards answering profound questions regarding our place in the universe.

The SETI Institute’s Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe and Center for SETI Research are home to more than 90 scientists. Their work covers a broad spectrum of research dedicated to understanding the origins of life and the extent to which life may be present beyond Earth. Traditionally, each scientist, or principal investigator (PI), has had many partners who sponsor his/her work including NASA, the National Science Foundation, and major universities. However, current trends in government funding are making it increasingly difficult for astrobiologists to depend on those sources of support.

Tags: science, is, expensive

Cold sore virus secret revealed

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:19:18 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Many a person would love this to end their viral experience

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The secret of how the cold sore virus manages to persist for a lifetime in the human body may have been cracked by US scientists.

The herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) can lie dormant in facial nerves, emerging periodically to cause sores.

A Duke University Medical Center team may have uncovered how it can reactivate itself from a dormant state.

The finding, published in the journal Nature, could eventually lead to new treatments.

When fighting a virus, the immune system relies heavily on the protein chemicals produced by the virus which it uses to help mark it for destruction.

Herpes viruses manage to evade the immune system by shutting down production of these proteins completely, and remaining in this state for long periods before starting to replicate again.

Wake-up call

This is why patients, once infected, have occasional flare-ups of cold sores or genital herpes, and can never get rid of the infection completely.

Tags: medical

Extinction risk 'underestimated'

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:11:23 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: To quote a famous philosopher, "Mmmmmmm."

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The risk of extinction for many species may have been seriously underestimated, according to new research published in the journal Nature.

Current methods used to assess species on the brink overlook some key factors, a team of scientists claims.

These include the ratio of males to females in a population, which can have a profound influence on survival.

For some species, the risk could be a hundred times greater than previously thought, the team calculates.

Currently, two key factors are used to estimate risk - the birth-death ratio, and environmental conditions such as habitat destruction.

But the US researchers - Brett Melbourne and Alan Hastings - believe other elements are under-weighted.

As well as the male-to-female ratio, they point to the physical size of individuals in a species, and some aspects of behaviour.

They found that when populations are small and vulnerable, changes in the sex ratio can have a huge impact on survivability.

New model

Tags: oceans, are, dying

Statins have unexpected effect on pool of powerful brain cells

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:29:40 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Debate about taking cholesterol lowering medication containing statins

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have a profound effect on an elite group of cells important to brain health as we age, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found. The new findings shed light on a long-debated potential role for statins in the area of dementia.

Neuroscientists found that statins, one of the most widely prescribed classes of medication ever used, have an unexpected effect on brain cells. Researchers looked at the effects of statins on glial progenitor cells, which help the brain stay healthy by serving as a crucial reservoir of cells that the brain can customize depending on its needs. The team found that the compounds spur the cells, which are very similar to stem cells, to shed their flexibility and become one particular type of cell.

Tags: medical

In unique stellar laboratory, Einstein's theory passes strict, new test

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:20:15 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Details at the site, but I think I can see a grin in the cosmos tonight.

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

Taking advantage of a unique cosmic configuration, astronomers have measured an effect predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of General Relativity in the extremely strong gravity of a pair of superdense neutron stars. Essentially, the famed physicist's 93-year-old theory passed yet another test.

Scientists at McGill University used the National Science Foundation's Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to do a four-year study of a double-star system unlike any other known in the Universe. The system is a pair of neutron stars, both of which are seen as pulsars that emit lighthouse-like beams of radio waves.

"Of about 1700 known pulsars, this is the only case in which two pulsars orbit around each other," said Rene Breton, a graduate student at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. In addition, the stars' orbital plane is aligned nearly perfectly with their line of sight to the Earth. This causes the signal of one to be blocked, or eclipsed, as it circles the other.

Tags: einstein, -bloody, marvel

Johann Hari: Science is thrilling – except in our schools

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:14:53 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: At Primary School level, often teachers teach little science as this is often hands on, and they keep the messy lesson for art. Also, some teachers at this level just are not science people, forcing themselves to be proficient at maths in stead. I pushed early on for teachers to move from class to class teaching from their area of expertise. Attitudes became more positive.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

In a moment, I am going to say some words, and I want to know if you begin to drift into a coma. The periodic table. Bunsen burner. Photosynthesis. Eyelids heavy yet? Teat pipette. Petri dishes of mould. Magnezzzzzzzium.

Wake up! It is exactly 150 years since a British scientist published perhaps the greatest insight of any human so far: you, me and everyone we know are sophisticated apes, thrown up by millennia of blind evolution. Armed only with his grey matter, Darwin forced us to rethink everything we thought we knew. It is still thrilling, and strange, and stunning. Yet today, potential little Darwins and Hawkings and Dawkins across Britain – and most of the rich world – are being bored out of science.

Tags: science, teaching, is, very, rewarding

Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Balanced Nutrition Saves Lives

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:01:00 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Give the body nutrition so it can heal itself.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (July 4, 2008) — Clinician-scientists from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center are suggesting an immediate and important change to guidelines used in the care of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The researchers say that following TBI, patients should be given nutritional supplementation through a gastric feeding tube as soon as possible, which they say can improve their chances of survival by as much as four-fold.

The study's findings are published in this month's issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery. This is the largest study to ever look at the issue of nutrition and survival following TBI. The research team followed survival outcome and nutritional care in 797 patients from 2000–2006.

Tags: medical

Bee Disease Still A Mystery, Despite New Advances In Undersanding Common Virus

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:40:45 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: They have to find a cure for this or we will all be running round cross pollinating plants. Have to train the ants to like sugar enough to take over. haha

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (July 4, 2008) — Scientists are one step closer to understanding the recent demise of billions of honey bees after making an important discovery about the transmission of a common bee virus. Deformed wing virus (DWV) is passed between adult bees and to their developing brood by a parasitic mite called Varroa destructor when it feeds.

The deadly parasitic Varroa mite on the back of this honey bee is one of many insect pests that sugar esters may be useful in controlling. Sucrose octanoate, a sugar ester, can kill the mite without harming the bee. (Credit: Photo by Scott Bauer; courtesy of USDA/Agricultural Research Service)

However, research published in the July issue of the Journal of General Virology suggests that the virus does not replicate in Varroa, highlighting the need for further investigation.

Tags: bees, make, food, possible, as, do, ants