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Science News
See A Supernova From Your Backyard
Toward the end of this week, the closest supernova, or exploding star, to Earth in the last 25 years will be its brightest — which scientists say can be seen from our own backyards by simply using a pair of binoculars or a small telescope.
-Government Technology
Microbots Spin Molecules to Swim Through Blood Vessels and Make Repairs
A lopsided self-propelled micromotor could drive itself through blood vessels, making repairs or delivering drugs along the route, according to researchers at Penn State. The small particles leach out a trail of material, like a microspider spinning a thread.
-POPSCI
5 Emerging Technologies Soon to Hit the Government Market
When future historians look back on 2011, they’ll certainly conclude that we were a society obsessed with video games, minicomputers masquerading as phones and an endless supply of online distraction. But in a few years, many technologies developed in service of these functions may be repurposed in extraordinarily sensible ways.
-Government Technology
'Invisible' World Discovered: Planet Alternately Runs Late and Early in Its Orbit, Tugged by Second Hidden World
Usually, running five minutes late is a bad thing since you might lose your dinner reservation or miss out on tickets to the latest show. But when a planet runs five minutes late, astronomers get excited because it suggests that another world is nearby.
-Science Daily
New Fossils May Redraw Human Ancestry
An apelike creature with human features, whose fossil bones were discovered recently in a South African cave, is being greeted by paleoanthropologists as a likely watershed in the understanding of human evolution.
-The New York Times
New Material Shows Promise for Trapping Pollutants
Water softening techniques are very effective for removing minerals such as calcium and magnesium, which occur as positively-charged ions in "hard" water. But many heavy metals and other inorganic pollutants form negatively-charged ions in water, and existing water treatment processes to remove them are inefficient and expensive.
-Science Daily
Scientists find underground river beneath Amazon
Brazilian scientists have discovered an underground river some 4,000 meters (13,000) feet deep, which flows from west to east like the country's famous waterway.
-Yahoo News
Antennas in Your Clothes? New Design Could Pave the Way
The next generation of communications systems could be built with a sewing machine. To make communications devices more reliable, Ohio State University researchers are finding ways to incorporate radio antennas directly into clothing, using plastic film and metallic thread.
-Science Daily
Dino-era Mammal the "Jurassic Mother" of Us All?
A tiny, shrew-like creature of the dinosaur era might have been, in a sense, the mother of us all.
-National Geographic News
Surprise! Alien Planet Made of Diamond Discovered
A newly discovered alien planet that formed from a dead star is a real diamond in the rough. The super-high pressure of the planet, which orbits a rapidly pulsing neutron star, has likely caused the carbon within it to crystallize into an actual diamond, a new study suggests.
-Yahoo News
Earth-Bound Asteroids Come from Stony Asteroids, New Studies Confirm
Researchers got their first up-close look at dust from the surface of a small, stony asteroid after the Hayabusa spacecraft scooped some up and brought it back to Earth. Analysis of these dust particles, detailed in a special issue of the journal Science this week, confirms a long-standing suspicion: that the most common meteorites found here on Earth, known as ordinary chondrites, are born from these stony, or S-type, asteroids. And since chondrites are among the most primitive objects in the solar system, the discovery also means that these asteroids have been recording a long and rich history of early solar system events.
-Science Daily
Scientists find weakness in deadly Ebola virus
A protein that helps transport cholesterol inside cells may be a key to developing drugs to treat Ebola, a rare but lethal virus for which there are no known treatments, U.S. researchers said.
-Reuters
Zoo mystery: How did apes and birds know quake was coming?
Her name is Iris, and with her straight, elegant, red-orange hair she is beyond dispute the prettiest orangutan at the National Zoo. She’s calm, quiet, unflappable. “Iris lives the life of a queen,” says great-ape keeper Amanda Bania.
-Washington Post
Saudi Arabia discovers 9,000 year-old civilization
Saudi Arabia is excavating a new archeological site that will show horses were domesticated 9,000 years ago in the Arabian peninsula, the country's antiquities expert said Wednesday.
-Reuters
Pre-Ice Age Complex Found Off Bahamas Coast
Researchers for the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) have investigated an underwater site with what appears to be the remains of a collapsed multi-room building. Locals first found the structure and notified A.R.E. team members who made several expeditions to the location. The building foundation has manmade mitered limestone corners and other debris inside the outer walls. A sample of beach rock from a long, straight foundation wall was carbon dated to between 21,520 BCE and 20,610 BCE. These dates are astonishing, because prior to this discovery most researchers considered the oldest dates for humans in this area to be 1000 BCE.
-The European Union Times
Groundbreaking radio telescope to improve understanding of universe
The EU has funded the development of a groundbreaking radio telescope, named Electronic Very Long Baseline Interferometry (e-VLBI), which allows the simultaneous observation of the most remote objects in the universe and the creation of high-resolution images, which will allow astromers to receive and process data in near real-time because of its high-speed optical networks.
-New Europe
Fine art of hurricane tracking: Push is on for the 7-day forecast
For several days, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami had been monitoring a broad patch of storms developing in the far eastern Caribbean. The key question: Would it blossom into a tropical storm?
-The Christian Science Monitor
World's Oldest Fossil Found In Australia
Tiny structures found within 3.4 billion-year-old sandstones in Western Australia may represent the oldest direct evidence of life on Earth.
-Sky News
Japan Quake Is Causing Costly Shift to Fossil Fuels
The half-century-old, oil-fueled power generators here had been idle for more than a year when, a day after the nuclear accident in March, orders came from Tokyo Electric Power headquarters to fire them up.
-New York Times
Global Warming Hoax Is a Winning Issue for Rick Perry
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a candidate for president of the United States, not so much stepped into -- but rather charged straight -- into the global warming controversy when he suggested that theories of man-made global warming constitute a hoax.
-Yahoo News
Discovering A New Earth 430 Light Years Away
Astronomers Spy Earth-like Planet Forming Around Distant Star
-Science Daily
Medical College of Wisconsin earns $45 million grant
The Medical College of Wisconsin has received its largest grant ever, just under $45 million in federal money over six years, to fund and analyze large clinical research trials aimed at answering fundamental questions surrounding one of medicine's best weapons against certain cancers.
-Journal Sentinel
Russia plans orbiting hotel in space
A hotel in orbit, lunar sightseeing flights and luxury rides into the cosmos -- all are part of Russia's vision to ensure it is not left behind in the growing space tourism industry.
-Yahoo News
After insulin pump hacking, lawmakers seek review
Two lawmakers are requesting a review of the government's security standards for wireless medical devices after a diabetic discovered how to remotely reprogram his and other people's insulin pumps.
-The Miami Herald
Giant Space Blob Glows from Within: Primordial Cloud of Hydrogen Is Centrally Powered
Observations from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope have shed light on the power source of a rare vast cloud of glowing gas in the early Universe. The observations show for the first time that this giant "Lyman-alpha blob" -- one of the largest single objects known -- must be powered by galaxies embedded within it.
-Science Daily
Orange goo floating off Kivalina not eggs but fungal spores
Scientists say an orange-colored goo that streaked the shore of a remote Alaska village turned out to be fungal spores, not millions of microscopic eggs as indicated by preliminary analysis.
-The Anchorage Daily News
Study: Animals on average are moving north about 15 feet a day to try to escape global warming
Animals across the world are fleeing global warming by heading north much faster than they were less than a decade ago, a new study says.
-JSOnline
IBM Reveals Chip That Acts Like Human Brain
IBM is testing a computer chip modeled on human neural processing, as it tries to create silicon better suited to real-world, multi-source data processing at low power.
-InformationWeek
Caribbean Coral Catch Disease From Sewage
Human beings occasionally get diseases from animals, such as swine flu, rabies and anthrax. A new study finds that humans can also spread disease to wildlife, with grim results. A bacterium from our guts is now rampaging through coral reefs in the Caribbean.
-NPR
The Moon Could Be 200,000,000 Years Younger, Scientists Say
That old moon might not be as antique as we thought, some scientist think. They say it's possible that it isn't a day over 4.4 billion years old.
-FOX News
Virtual and Artificial, but 58,000 Want Course
A free online course at Stanford University on artificial intelligence, to be taught this fall by two leading experts from Silicon Valley, has attracted more than 58,000 students around the globe — a class nearly four times the size of Stanford’s entire student body.
-The New York Times
SETI Plans To Resume Listening For Aliens Next Month, Thanks To Donations
The SETI Institute's mothballed Allen Telescope Array — which scans the universe for signs of alien life — will soon be up and running again, thanks to more than $200,000 in donations that came from people including actress Jodie Foster and former astronaut Bill Anders.
-NPR
'Operation Shady RAT' Attackers Employed Steganography
The attackers behind the "Operation Shady RAT" targeted cyberespionage hacks hid some of their activities behind digital images.
-Dark Reading
Early Plants Grew Wood as Plumbing, Study Says
Two small plants, both about 400 million years old, are the oldest known examples of wood, according to a new study. The older of the two plants predates other early examples of wood by at least 10 million years.
-The New York Times
Processed meat, red meat tied to diabetes
Skip the hot dogs, hold the bacon and forget the sausage. Eating processed meats and red meat regularly increases your risk of type 2 diabetes, a large study shows.
-azcentral.com
Designer Immune Cells Made From Patients’ Own Blood Spurs Cancer Remission
Two leukemia patients were cancer- free in three weeks after being treated with genetically engineered versions of their own immune cells, an early finding that could lead to a new approach for treating the blood cancer.
-Bloomberg
Strange planet is blacker than coal
A planet orbiting a distant star is darker than coal, reflecting less than one percent of the sunlight falling on it, according to a paper published on Thursday.
-Yahoo News
Supernovae Parents Found: Clear Signatures of Gas Outflows from Stellar Ancestors
Type Ia supernovae are violent stellar explosions whose brightness is used to determine distances in the universe. Observing these objects to billions of light years away has led to the discovery that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, the foundation for the notion of dark energy. Although all Type Ia supernovae appear to be very similar, astronomers do not know for certain how the explosions take place and whether they all share the same origin. Now, a team of researchers has examined new and detailed observations of 41 of these objects and concluded that there are clear signatures of gas outflows from the supernova ancestors, which do not appear to be white dwarfs
-ScienceDaily
Driverless Car Drives 175 Miles on Busy Chinese Expressway, No GPS Necessary
According to China Daily, back in July, a Chinese driverless car traveled about 175 miles, at around 55 mph, on an expressway laden with other cars. Even more impressive, the car needed no GPS assistance, instead relying on only video cameras and radar sensors to see the road and the other drivers.
-POPSCI
Tiny Dinosaurs Left Footprints on Ancient South Pole
Several groups of dinosaurs that were roaming the South Pole more than 100 million years ago left three-toed prints in the wet, sandy soil. As they became compacted into cliffs, the prints waited patiently for Anthony Martin of Emory University to stumble across them in what is now Victoria, Australia. He found 24 complete prints.
-FOX News
HTML5 apps vs. native apps: Amazon, Box.net choose both
HTML5 or native apps? This can be a tough question for mobile developers. Does a developer build applications for HTML 5 or Apple's iOS? Google Android, BlackBerry (and its different mobile operating systems), Microsoft Windows Phone or HP WebOS? Or for all of these different platforms?
-Los Angeles Times
Electronic ‘Tattoo’ May Offer New Flexible Way to Monitor Brain, Heart
Weightless, skin-like bandages with microelectronic components may one day replace the bulky monitors and electrode patches now used in hospitals to monitor patients’ vital signs, researchers said.
-Bloomberg
New NASA moon rocket could cost $38 billion
Reporting from Washington—
The rocket and capsule that NASA is proposing to return astronauts to the moon would fly just twice in the next 10 years and cost as much as $38 billion, according to internal NASA documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
-Los Angeles Times
First Vampire Bat-Related Death Reported In The U.S.
According to the AFP, on July 15, 2010, a 19-year-old man was bitten by a vampire bat in Michoacan, Mexico. Ten days later, the migrant farm worker left for the U.S. to pick sugar cane at a Louisiana plantation. He fell sick, presenting symptoms of fatigue, shoulder pain, numbness in his left hand and a drooping left eye.
-TheHuffingtonPost.com
Caterpillars gang up on berry bushes, native trees
The outlook for blueberries in Southcentral Alaska this year? "It's quite bleak," says Michael Rasy, statewide integrated pest management technician for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service
-The Anchorage Daily News
GIS Technology Evolving Thanks to Geo-Immersion
How might GIS mapping evolve in the coming years? Researchers at the University of Southern California Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC) think they know. Center director Cyrus Shahabi calls it Geo-Immersion.
-Government Technology
LED Light Bulbs Transmit High-Def Video (VIDEO)
Believe it or not, someday your desk lamp might also send high-definition video to your TV.
-Government Technology
Japan tsunami tore off icebergs from Antarctica
The tsunami generated by the March earthquake off northern Japan sliced off nearly 50 square miles of icebergs from Antarctica, NASA scientists are reporting. It's the first time such an occurrence has been directly seen.
-USA TODAY
Iceberg Harvesting Can End Third-World Drought, Scientist Says
A French entrepreneur backed by a software company claims to have proved that he can tow giant icebergs across the world to end drought conditions.
-FOX News
Aircraft set to reach 20 times the speed of sound in test flight
An experimental, arrowhead-shaped aircraft that could reach blistering speeds of 13,000 mph above the Pacific Ocean is set to blast off Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, northwest of Santa Barbara. The flight is slated to test new technology that would provide the Pentagon a lightning-fast vehicle, capable of delivering a military strike anywhere in the world in less than an hour.
-Los Angeles Times
Video: Self-Assembling Microparticle Machines Pick Up and Transport Material, Forming Spontaneous Assembly Lines
Small colonies of swimming magnetic particles can self-assemble into micro-machines that can manipulate other particles, scientists report. The particles can be remotely controlled to grasp and move other objects, which could enable precise and delicate fabrication processes that were previously not possible with machines.
-POPSCI
Orange goo that washed ashore in Kivalina ID'd as eggs
Scientists have identified an orange-colored gunk that appeared along the shore of a remote Alaska village as millions of microscopic eggs filled with fatty droplets. But the mystery is not quite solved.
-The Anchorage Daily News
Mysterious Orange Goo Baffles Remote Alaska Village
Leona Baldwin's husband saw it first, and she got on the marine radio to alert others in the remote Alaska village of Kivalina that a strange orange goo was sitting on top of the town's harbor.
-Fox News
Experts grow mouse sperm to help with human infertility
Researchers in Japan used embryonic stem cells to grow healthy mouse sperm on laboratory dishes, a development which could help treat human infertility, they said Friday.
-Reuters
Alzheimer's disease could be detected through pre-symptomatic blood test, South Jersey researcher finds
A single drop of blood trickles onto a slide. A computer scans it, producing a glowing green image of nearly 25,000 proteins. The image it produces could be from anybody — a healthy person or a patient with a ravaging disease in their brain. But then the computer screens out almost all of the molecules, seeking the presence of just 10 obscure antibodies. If they’re not there, the image goes dark, and the person is healthy.
-NJ.com
A Tainted Water Well, and Concern There May Be More
For decades, oil and gas industry executives as well as regulators have maintained that a drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that is used for most natural gas wells has never contaminated underground drinking water.
-The New York Times
Digging Around for Snails
Amanda Schmidt, an assistant professor of geology at Oberlin College, writes from Sichuan Province, China. She is studying the relative natural hazards of some places where people choose to live.
-The New York Times
Mars may have salty water
Scientists have found new evidence for possible saltwater flows on Mars. The discovery was announced at a NASA news conference Thursday.
-Chicago Tribune
Volcano watchers raise alert status for Mount Cleveland
Signs of lava at Mount Cleveland prompted volcanologists to raise their alert level Tuesday afternoon for the Aleutian Islands volcano.
-The Anchorage Daily News
NW tribes drive effort to save primitive fish
As long as American Indians have lived in the Pacific Northwest, they have looked to a jawless, eel-like fish for food. Tribes once harvested the lamprey from rivers throughout the Columbia Basin, which stretches from the Oregon coast up into Canada. But with dozens of hydroelectric dams in the way, the fish has followed the path of the buffalo — from a food staple of a people to a curiosity.
-Toshiba America Information Systems
Two moons above Earth may have collided to create one, study says
Once upon a time, the sky above Earth may have held two moons — until they smashed into each other to create the lunar body we know today. Such a collision early in the solar system's history could explain why the moon is lopsided, and why its far side looks so different from the face we can see, according to a report in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature.
-Los Angeles Times
Swedish man caught trying to split atoms at home
A Swedish man who was arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen said Wednesday he was only doing it as a hobby. Richard Handl told The Associated Press that he had the radioactive elements radium, americium and uranium in his apartment in southern Sweden when police showed up and arrested him on charges of unauthorized possession of nuclear material.
-The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SpaceX Founder Elon Musk Wants Man to Be a Multi-Planet Species
Space may be the final frontier, but Mars should be the next one. At a spaceflight propulsion conference held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics on Tuesday, Elon Musk -- the billionaire founder of PayPal and the man behind leading private spaceflight company SpaceX -- spoke about just how to get humanity there.
-Fox News
Physicists closing in on the elusive Higgs boson
Scientists at a meeting in Grenoble, France, stoked speculation last week that physicists at the world's biggest particle accelerator may soon provide a first look at the elusive Higgs boson — the final piece of evidence needed to prove that the Standard Model of particle physics, which explains the behavior of subatomic particles, is correct.
-Los Angeles Times
Ambitions as Deep as Their Pockets
A new generation of daredevils is seeking to plunge through nearly seven miles of seawater to the bottom of a rocky chasm in the western Pacific that is veiled in perpetual darkness. It is the ocean’s deepest spot. The forbidding place, known as the Challenger Deep, is so far removed from the warming rays of the sun that its temperature hovers near freezing.
-New York Times
Hypersonic X-51A Scramjet Failure Perplexes Air Force
Air Force engineers are scratching their ends after a test flight of an experimental hypersonic X-plane ended last month prematurely when the vehicle failed to reach full power. A rocket successfully boosted the hypersonic X-51A Waverider vehicle to just over five times the speed of sound (Mach 5) on June 13. The experimental craft's air-breathing scramjet engine then lit briefly on ethylene but failed to transition to its primary JP7 fuel, Air Force officials said.
-Fox News
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