tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-112102322024-03-14T00:38:00.186-07:00Found StuffThese are interesting things I've found on the internet.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.comBlogger569125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-73926067895952057632013-04-18T19:13:00.001-07:002013-04-18T19:13:25.262-07:00The Whirlpool Galaxy Like You’ve Never Seen it Before | astrobites<a href="http://astrobites.org/2013/04/17/the-whirlpool-galaxy-like-youve-never-seen-it-before/?utm_source=feedly">The Whirlpool Galaxy Like You’ve Never Seen it Before | astrobites</a>:<br />
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"This paper presents a detailed study of the gas in M51, the Whirlpool galaxy. This system is actually two galaxies, but this paper focuses on the larger, main spiral (NGC 5194) in this interacting pair. This galaxy is relatively close by (20 million light years away), massive (~150 billion solar masses), and quite well-studied: astronomers have looked at it in wavelengths from radio to near-infrared, optical and ultraviolet. The combined resolution and sensitivity of these new millimeter observations (the J=1-0 rotational transition of the carbon monoxide molecule) allow the authors to detect for the first time individual molecular clouds in this galaxy, the objects from which stars and star clusters are born. Below is an image of M51 from this study showing the gas surface density (the amount of gas along our line of sight) from small amounts (dark blue) to large amounts (bright pink), all representing the fuel required to make the next generation of stars in this galaxy."<br />
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<img src="http://astrobites.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/PAWS_CO.png" /><br />
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<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'via Blog this'</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-43410505855798028132011-09-08T13:04:00.000-07:002011-09-08T13:04:37.511-07:00Announcing the Blogger app for iOS<div>Posted to Reader from Google:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogger/WZDh/~3/mpf9Pz2H5kY/announcing-blogger-app-for-ios.html">Announcing the Blogger app for iOS</a>: Today we’re excited to announce the new Blogger app for iOS. With the Blogger app, you can write a new blog post and publish it immediately or save it as a draft right from your iOS device. You can also open a blog post you've been working on from your computer and continue editing it while you're on-the-go. Your blog posts are automatically synced across devices, so you’ll always have access to the latest version.<br /><br /><br /><br />Pictures are worth a thousand words, and the Blogger app makes it easy to add photos either by choosing from the gallery or taking a new photo right within the app. You can also add labels and location to provide more details about the post.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align:center"><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P6NK4L9ndd8/Tmjo-rH_kcI/AAAAAAAAAKs/zkaATJ6jMfY/s1600/Blogger_app_2.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P6NK4L9ndd8/Tmjo-rH_kcI/AAAAAAAAAKs/zkaATJ6jMfY/s320/Blogger_app_2.png" style="height:320px;width:222px" /></a> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z3rPJbXs5jw/TmjpJibXdhI/AAAAAAAAAK0/9ZGFm47Ff94/s1600/Blogger_app_3.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z3rPJbXs5jw/TmjpJibXdhI/AAAAAAAAAK0/9ZGFm47Ff94/s320/Blogger_app_3.png" style="height:320px;width:222px" /></a><br /><br /><br /></div><br />Download the Blogger app today for iOS versions 3.2 and above in the <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blogger/id459407288">App Store</a>. Although the user interface is only available in English at this time, the app supports blog posts written in all languages. If you’re using an Android-powered device, you can download the Blogger app for Android from the <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.blogger">Android Market</a>.<br /><br /><br /><br />Posted by Chang Kim, Product Manager<br /><div><img width="1" height="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2399953-6429693997904369039?l=buzz.blogger.com" alt="" /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogger/WZDh/~4/mpf9Pz2H5kY" height="1" width="1" />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-69373961174148393172011-09-08T12:59:00.000-07:002011-09-08T12:59:15.113-07:00The Sailing Stones of Racetrack Playa located in Bakersfield, California, USThe stones of Racetrack Playa leave trails of movement, yet no one has ever seen them move<a href="https://plus.google.com/103482597835543369404/posts/LkTDhNFBufr">The Sailing Stones of Racetrack Playa located in Bakersfield, California, US<br /><br />The stones of Racetrack Playa leave trails of movement, yet no one has ever seen them move</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-14113105086879788172011-03-03T12:27:00.000-08:002011-03-03T12:27:50.360-08:00Baby Planet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://news.discovery.com/space/2011/02/25/planet-278x225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://news.discovery.com/space/2011/02/25/planet-278x225.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>For the first time ever, scientists believe they've detected the birth of a new world around a distant sun-like star.<br />
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If confirmed, the discovery, using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, would provide scientists with the earliest view yet of how short-lived discs of material around young stars clump together in the early stages of planetary formation.<br />
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Astronomers studying T Chamaeleontis (T Cha), a faint star 350 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Chamaeleon, detected a large gap in a disc of material around the star. They then found a small object in the disc which may be the cause of the gap.<br />
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The finding is detailed in two papers in the current edition of the Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics.<br />
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Johan Olofsson from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and lead author of one of the papers says the star was targeted because it's comparable to the sun, but aat just seven million years old it's still near the beginning of its life.<br />
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"Earlier studies had shown that T Cha was an excellent target for studying how planetary systems form, but this star is quite distant and the full power of the Very Large Telescope was needed to resolve very fine details and see what is going on in the dust disc," Olofsson says.<br />
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Scientists know planets form out of the discs of material around young stars, but theory says the transition from dust disc to planetary system is rapid and few objects are caught during this phase.<br />
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This is the first time a forming planet has been found in one of these transitional discs, although planets in more mature discs have been seen before.<br />
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Nuria Huelamo from the Centro de Astrobiologia, in Spain, and lead author of the second paper says the gap in the disc was the smoking gun: "We asked ourselves: could we be witnessing a companion digging a gap inside its protoplanetary disc?"<br />
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After careful analysis they found the clear signature of an object located within the gap in the dust disc, about one billion kilometers from the star. That's slightly further out than Jupiter lies from our sun.<br />
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This is the first detection of an object much smaller than a star within a gap in the planet-forming dust disc around a young star.<br />
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<a href="http://news.discovery.com/space/baby-planet-birth-110225.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1">Baby Planet</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-87420766304341732042010-10-11T06:55:00.001-07:002010-10-11T06:55:18.228-07:00ANIMALS SAID TO HAVE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES<p><img style="float: left;" title="dog sunset" src="http://news.discovery.com/animals/2010/10/08/dog-sunset-278x225.jpg" alt="dog sunset" /><span style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Animals (not just people) likely have spiritual experiences, according to a prominent neurologist who has analyzed the processes of spiritual sensation for over three decades.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"> </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">Research suggests that spiritual experiences originate deep within primitive areas of the human brain -- areas shared by other animals with brain structures like our own.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">The trick, of course, lies in proving animals' experiences.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">"Since only humans are capable of language that can communicate the richness of spiritual experience, it is unlikely we will ever know with certainty what an animal subjectively experiences," Kevin Nelson, a professor of neurology at the University of Kentucky, told Discovery News.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">"Despite this limitation, it is still reasonable to conclude that since the most primitive areas of our brain happen to be the spiritual, then we can expect that animals are also capable of spiritual experiences," added Nelson, author of the book "The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain," which will be published in January 2011.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">The finding is an extension of his research on humans, which has been published in many peer-reviewed journals. A <em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Neurology</em> journal study, for example, determined that out-of-body experiences in humans are likely caused by the brain's arousal system, which regulates different states of consciousness.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">"In humans, we know that if we disrupt the (brain) region where vision, sense of motion, orientation in the Earth's gravitational field, and knowing the position of our body all come together, then out-of-body experiences can be caused literally by the flip of a switch," he said. "There is absolutely no reason to believe it is any different for a dog, cat, or primate’s brain."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">Other mammals also probably have near-death experiences comparable to those reported by certain humans, he believes. Such people often say they saw a light and felt as though they were moving down a tunnel.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">The tunnel phenomenon "is caused by the eye's susceptibility to the low blood flow that occurs with fainting or cardiac arrest," he said. "As blood flow diminishes, vision fails peripherally first. There is no reason to believe that other animals are any different from us."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">Nelson added, "What they make of the tunnel is another matter."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">The light aspect of near-death experiences can be explained by how the visual system defines REM (rapid eye movement) consciousness, he believes.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">"In fact," he said, "the link between REM and the physiological crises causing near-death experience are most strongly linked in animals, like cats and rats, which we can study in the laboratory."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">Mystical experiences -- moments that inspire a sense of mystery and wonderment -- arise within the limbic system, he said. When specific parts of this system are removed from animal brains, mind-altering drugs like LSD have no effect.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">Since other animals, such as non-human primates, horses, cats and dogs, also possess similar brain structures, it is possible that they too experience mystical moments, and may even have a sense of spiritual oneness, according to Nelson.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">Marc Bekoff, a professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, also believes animals have spiritual experiences, which he defines as experiences that are nonmaterial, intangible, introspective and comparable to what humans have.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">Both he and primatologist Jane Goodall have observed chimpanzees dancing with total abandon at waterfalls that emerge after heavy rains. Some of the chimps even appear to dance themselves into a trance-like state, as some humans do during religious and cultural rituals.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">Goodall wondered, "Is it not possible that these (chimpanzee) performances are stimulated by feelings akin to wonder and awe? After a waterfall display the performer may sit on a rock, his eyes following the falling water. What is it, this water?"</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">"Perhaps numerous animals engage in these rituals, but we haven't been lucky enough to see them," Bekoff wrote in a <em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Psychology Today</em> report.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">"For now, let's keep the door open to the idea that animals can be spiritual beings and let's consider the evidence for such a claim," he added.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;">"Meager as it is, available evidence says, 'Yes, animals can have spiritual experiences,' and we need to conduct further research and engage in interdisciplinary discussions before we say that animals cannot and do not experience spirituality."</p><p> </p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-35155116965051348042010-08-31T20:22:00.000-07:002010-08-31T20:22:19.667-07:00Review of "Bad Universe"<div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/80464810@N00/4926837694" style="clear: left; display: block; float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bad Universe promotional postcard" height="240" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/4926837694_10a654cd44_m.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="172" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 172px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">mage by </span></i><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/80464810@N00/4926837694"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">thebadastronomer</span></i></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> via Flickr</span></i></span></div>We recently watched "Bad Universe" on the Discovery Channel, hosted by Phil Plait. The first show was about asteroids and how they might threaten Earth, and what could be done about them. Phil Plait was quite interesting, even though he kept wanting to press the "fire" button on the gadgets. :)<br />
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Although the show did dramatize asteroid collisions, it did not focus on that aspect too much, like many other science shows do. Instead, it analyzed different types of asteroids, and how their makeup affects efforts to redirect their path. It also analysed the effects of impact at different distance, using a scale model explosion. I was not aware of the Hiroshima measuring scale!<br />
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I will watch this show again. I'd even watch this particular episode again. It was quite entertaining, brilliant, and informative.<br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-15852759937323998522010-08-05T09:29:00.000-07:002010-08-05T09:29:49.353-07:00Antivaxxers take note: vaccines stop polio outbreak in Tajikistan | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(84, 84, 84); line-height: 14px; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 7px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em !important; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">From the Discover: Bad Astronomy blog<br />See also: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity</a></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 7px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em !important; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">=================</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 7px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em !important; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">This is wildly good news! Through <a href="http://vaccinecentral.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/tajikistan-polio-outbreak-halted-via-vaccines/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(138, 122, 74); text-decoration: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Vaccine Central</a> I learned that a major polio outbreak in Tajikistan <a href="http://www.usaid.gov/press/frontlines/fl_jul10/p01_polio100702.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(138, 122, 74); text-decoration: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">has been stopped</a>!</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 7px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em !important; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">How? Through vaccination.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 7px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em !important; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Yup. The first reports of polio were confirmed in April — 413 of them. However, that ended in late June, when no new cases were reported. That is credited to the thousands of doctors and nurses who not only vaccinated at least 97% of the children in each region of the mountainous country, but also flooded the area with multi-lingual informational leaflets, posters, and banners.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 7px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em !important; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">And they succeeded! With no new reports, it appears this outbreak was stopped cold.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 7px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em !important; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">And <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/08/04/the-avn-falsehoods-keep-on-a-comin/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(138, 122, 74); text-decoration: none; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">with the AVN in Australia getting hammered</a> repeatedly in the press, I can now have some hope that the movement here in the United States, spearheaded by Jenny McCarthy, will die off as well. Vaccinations work, and they save a <em>lot</em> of lives.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 7px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em !important; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 16px; "><a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/08/04/antivaxxers-take-note-vaccines-stop-polio-outbreak-in-tajikistan/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+BadAstronomyBlog+(Bad+Astronomy)&utm_content=Google+Reader">Antivaxxers take note: vaccines stop polio outbreak in Tajikistan | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine</a></span></p></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-57436735547190606282010-04-08T14:34:00.000-07:002010-04-08T14:34:58.429-07:00New Legal Decisions Will Impact Net Neutrality and Startups<a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/71mi7OGz41g/startups-and-net-neutrality.php">New Legal Decisions Will Impact Net Neutrality and Startups</a>: <div><p>Two important legal decisions were made this week that could have significant impact on technology startups. </p><p>On Tuesday, <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/a_blow_to_net_neutrality_fcc_loses_appeal_to_comca.php%22">a U.S. Federal Appeals Court determined that the FCC had overstepped its regulatory authority in demanding that Comcast cease its 'throttling' of peer-to-peer service users</a>. And on Wednesday, <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/uk_digital_economy_bill_may_allow_for_website_shut.php">the U.K. House of Commons approved the 'Digital Economy Bill</a>', which grants sweeping regulatory power to the British government, including the ability to block websites and punish consumers and companies who are found to violate copyright law.</p><p>The Federal Appeals Court decision calls into question the reach of the FCC, and raises questions about the future of a number of policy plans for the Obama Administration, including the National Broadband Plan. Austin Schlick writes on <a href="http://blog.broadband.gov/?entryId=356610">the broadband plan's official blog</a> that several recommendations from the plan may be impacted, including 'supporting robust use of broadband by small businesses to drive productivity, growth and ongoing innovation; lowering barriers that hinder broadband deployment; strengthening public safety communications; cybersecurity; consumer protection, including transparency and disclosure; and consumer privacy.'</p><p>The British bill has seen widespread opposition from numerous sectors, including <a href="http://boingboing.net/2009/12/02/digital-companies-ob.html">Facebook, Google, and Yahoo</a>, and some are contending that it will have a chilling effect on startups in the UK.</p>Both of these decisions point to the high stakes involved with securing 'net neutrality' - both for consumers and businesses alike. Although there is by no means unanimity on what, if any, role governments should have in regulating technology ideas and infrastructure, few would disagree that startups benefit from a climate that fosters technological and business innovation. Furthermore, all businesses, not merely ones in the technology sector, are becoming dependent on quick access to the Internet for their ability to develop, deliver and distribute their services to customers.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/04/internet-freedom.html%22"></a><div><a href="http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/04/internet-freedom.html%22">Fred Wilson argues in a post on his blog today</a> that perhaps it is time to reframe the terms of the debate, moving away from the phrase 'net neutrality' and instead to argue on behalf of 'internet freedom.' He writes 'Internet Freedom is about sustaining the era of permissionless innovation that has characterized the first fifteen years of the commercial Internet in this country and brought us thousands of new big profitable companies, millions of jobs, and a vast array of new services and devices that have changed our lives and made them better.'<br /><br /></div><div>As courts, legislatures, and agencies try to create policies around digital technologies, how will new startups be effected?<br /><br /></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-41998084082194450652010-03-26T16:05:00.001-07:002010-03-26T16:05:35.171-07:00New, Ancient Way Of Making Oxygen Discovered<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img width='500' alt='New, Ancient Way Of Making Oxygen Discovered' class='left image500' src='http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2010/03/500x_custom_1269619559297_19-web_pressebild.jpg' style='float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/>Dutch bacteria have a previously unknown method to produce oxygen. The process uses methane and nitric oxide, it might predate the development of photosynthesis by hundreds of millions of years, and it could allow life to survive on other planets. <p>Three natural methods of oxygen production were known before this study. The best known and most common is photosynthesis, in which plants, algae, and some bacteria convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars, which releases oxygen as a waste product. The other two methods are the creation of oxygen from chlorates in bacteria cells and the conversion of reactive oxygen materials using enzymes.</p><p>The newly discovered process is used by a microbe found in nearly oxygen-free canals and ditches in the Netherlands, although its particular strain was first discovered in caves in Australia. In the presence of methane gas and nitrites, the microbes broke down the nitrites into nitric oxide, which they then split into nitrogen and oxygen. The oxygen was then used to burn the methane for energy, and the nitrogen was released as a waste product.</p> <p>The researchers at The Netherlands at the Radboud University in Nijmegen are confident this is <em>what</em> the microbes are doing, but they're less certain <em>how</em> the microbes are doing it. There is some thought an enzyme of some sort is involved, but there are hundred of proteins whose properties are still unknown that could be directing the expression of the enzyme. As such, the exact mechanics of this new oxygen-creating process remain poorly understood, although it's definitely unlike anything seen before.</p> <p>The researchers are also excited about the potential wider implications of this discovery. Primordial bacteria might have used this method to create oxygen on the early pre-photosynthesis Earth, when the atmosphere was rich in methane and poor in oxygen. This process may also shed new light on the mechanics of methane cycles.</p><p>But perhaps most intriguingly, this new process provides a potential method for life to exist on oxygen-low, methane-heavy environments like those of the planets and moons of the outer solar system. In fact, this method would not require there to be <em>any</em> free oxygen in the atmosphere at all - as long as there was sufficient methane and nitrites, that would actually be more than enough for microbes using this process to survive, even thrive.</p><p><a href='http://io9.com/5502298/new-ancient-way-of-making-oxygen-discovered'>http://io9.com/5502298/new-ancient-way-of-making-oxygen-discovered</a></p><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=682b6922-bcba-8b3d-a6c0-c8ba8eb3a3d2' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-52049044634050484202010-03-03T21:58:00.001-08:002010-03-03T21:58:03.411-08:00Dark matter could meet its nemesis on Earth<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>A SPINNING disc may be all that is needed to overturn Newton's second law of motion - and potentially remove the need for dark matter.<br/><br/>The second law states that a force is proportional to an object's mass and its acceleration. But since the 1980s, some physicists have eyed the law with suspicion, arguing that subtle changes to it at extremely small accelerations could explain the observed motion of stars in galaxies.<br/><br/>The key is to cancel out the acceleration of Earth's rotation, its orbit round the sun, and the orbit of the sun round the galactic centre. The basic idea was first proposed in 2007, when Alex Ignatiev <a href='http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19325974.300-equinox-challenge-to-newtons-law.html'>calculated that the accelerations</a> all cancel out for a millisecond at two particular points on Earth's surface, twice a year. That makes the experiment possible in theory, but not feasible.<br/><br/>Now, De Lorenci's team has figured out that a spinning disc can reproduce the effect any time and anywhere on Earth. Their calculations show that if the disc is positioned accurately and its speed precisely controlled, the acceleration at specific points on the disc's rim would cancel out the accelerations produced by the motion of the Earth and the sun. <p class='infuse'>If the second law is correct at all accelerations, a measuring device mounted on the rim should register no anomalous force at these points. However, if MOND is correct, the device should feel an aberrant kick. "We are able to control the conditions to produce the MOND regime in any place at any time," says De Lorenci.</p><p class='infuse'><a href='http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527493.900-dark-matter-could-meet-its-nemesis-on-earth.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news'>http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527493.900-dark-matter-could-meet-its-nemesis-on-earth.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news</a></p><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=fdf9706d-924f-8954-bc7f-b827e7499c62' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-16586939605002034812010-03-03T21:55:00.001-08:002010-03-03T21:55:37.676-08:00Transgenic mice could solve the obesity epidemic<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><a href='http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2010/03/fatmouse.jpg' rel='lytebox'><img width='500' title='Transgenic Mice Could Solve The Obesity Epidemic' class='left image500' src='http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2010/03/500x_fatmouse.jpg' style='float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/></a>By tweaking an enzyme in mice, researchers expected to get rodents with low cholesterol, but fatty livers. Instead they found a switch which might be a weight loss miracle.<br/><br/>The researchers from the University of Alberta bred a mouse lacking a single enzyme that's associated with fat metabolism — triacylglycerol hydrolase (TGH). TGH is partly responsible for releasing triglycerides from the liver where they go on to form very low-density lipoproteins (VLDLs), which are considered "bad" cholesterol. The scientists thought that breeding a mouse deficient in TGH would have fewer VLDLs, and instead found the mice that not only had lower cholesterol, but also system wide metabolic improvement — seemingly without downside.<br/><br/>The researchers hypothesized that removing the TGH would mean the more fat would build up in the liver, as the mechanism by which the fat was released was missing. Instead of getting tiny rodent foie gras, the triglycerides were burned almost immediately rather than being stored, and the liver compensated by synthesizing less fat. The rodents ate more, but also expended more energy, and showed no change in body weight compared to their normal cousins.<br/><br/>The interesting thing? Drugs already exist to block TGH in the human body. While more research needs to be done about the systemic effects of blocking TGH, how specific these drugs are, and if diet alters the way the liver functions in these mice, but it's an important step towards understanding how the body deals with fat and cholesterol. Who knows, we may even get a drug that helps you lose weight without utterly horrible side effects.<br/><br/><a href='http://io9.com/5482969/transgenic-mice-could-solve-the-obesity-epidemic'>http://io9.com/5482969/transgenic-mice-could-solve-the-obesity-epidemic</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=b88dbbd5-9c7f-80cb-9c56-d042e0ba6f77' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-49230952145096884932010-03-03T21:50:00.001-08:002010-03-03T21:50:56.999-08:00Old star is 'missing link' in galactic evolution<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>A newly discovered star outside the Milky Way has yielded important clues about the evolution of our galaxy. Located in the dwarf galaxy Sculptor some 280,000 light-years away, the star has a chemical make-up similar to the Milky Way's oldest stars, supporting theories that our galaxy grew by absorbing dwarf galaxies and other galactic building blocks. Some recent studies had questioned the link between dwarf galaxies and the Milky Way, citing differences between the chemistry of their stars. But the differences may not be so big after all, according to new research published in <i>Nature</i>. "It was a question of finding the right kind of star, and doing that required some new techniques," says Josh Simon , an astronomer at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution and a member of team that confirmed the star's telltale chemistry. Using earlier techniques, he says, "it was very difficult to recognize exactly which stars were the key ones to study."<br/><p>"This star is likely almost as old as the universe itself," said astronomer Anna Frebel of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, lead author of the Nature paper reporting the finding.</p> <p>In addition to the star's total metal abundance, researchers also compared the abundance of iron to that of elements such as magnesium, calcium, and titanium. The ratios resembled those of old Milky Way stars, lending more support to the idea that these stars originally formed in dwarf galaxies. </p><a href='http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/03/03/old.star.missing.link.galactic.evolution?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eScienceNews%2Fpopular+%28e%21+Science+News+-+Popular%29&utm_content=Google+Reader'>http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/03/03/old.star.missing.link.galactic.evolution?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eScienceNews%2Fpopular+%28e%21+Science+News+-+Popular%29&utm_content=Google+Reader</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=bd531758-308a-8c11-a292-0418c9eb6fc7' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-20224119418196083722010-02-13T09:15:00.000-08:002010-02-13T09:18:19.551-08:00Losing Your Hands Makes It Harder To See Nearby Objects<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img width='500' class='left image500' src='http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2010/02/500x_20030_web.jpg' style='float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/>It turns out that you need more than just your eyes to see things that are right in front of you. Neuroscientists have found that we can't accurately judge the distance of nearby objects without also using our hands.<br/><p>The area within arm's length - in other words, the area with which we can directly interact - is called the "action space." Previous research had indicated that the brain judges distance within the action space in terms of the hands.</p><p> However, it had not been confirmed whether the hands merely help our brains better understand spatial positions or if they are actually <em>required</em> to figure out where objects in the action space are.</p> <p>To test this question, a research team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hadassah Hospital-Mount Scopus tested a group of people who had had their hands amputated to see how their visual perception of nearby objects had been affected. The volunteers were told to focus on a screen where a cross was projected in the center. On either side were squares of variable distance from the cross. The subjects were asked to judge which of the two squares was farther away.</p><blockquote> <p>The results reveal that hand amputations affect visuospatial perception. When the right square was slightly farther away from the center, participants with right-hand amputations tended to perceive it as being at the same distance from the center as the left square; this suggests that these volunteers underestimated the distance of the right square relative to the left. Conversely, when the left square was farther away, left-hand amputees perceived both squares as being equally far away from the center — these participants underestimated the left side of near space.</p> <p>Interestingly, when the volunteers were seated farther away from the screen, they were more accurate in judging the distances, indicating that hand amputations may only affect perception of the space close to the body.</p><p><a href='http://io9.com/5468247/losing-your-hands-makes-it-harder-to-see-nearby-objects'>http://io9.com/5468247/losing-your-hands-makes-it-harder-to-see-nearby-objects</a></p> </blockquote><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=1a2d7e4a-4e09-858d-8b2e-5ca8b548b1ec' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-47091670519761721112010-02-13T09:11:00.001-08:002010-02-13T09:11:43.658-08:00Weight scale for atoms could map 'island of stability'<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img title='The mass of an atom heavier than uranium has been measured for the first time (Image: <a href="http://garrisonphoto.org/sxc/">bjearwicke</a>/stock.xchng)' alt='The mass of an atom heavier than uranium has been measured for the first time (Image: <a href="http://garrisonphoto.org/sxc/">bjearwicke</a>/stock.xchng)' src='http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn18510/dn18510-1_300.jpg' style='float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/>Hunting for the universe's heaviest atoms just got a little easier, thanks to a new technique that directly measures the mass of elements heavier than uranium. The method could help find an "island" of unusually stable elements that is thought to extend beyond the current end of the <a target='ns' href='http://periodic.lanl.gov/default.htm'>periodic table</a>.<br/><p class='infuse'>Uranium, which contains 92 protons, is the heaviest element known to occur in nature. But researchers have synthesised a number of even heftier elements, with as many as <a href='http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225743.600-60-seconds.html'>118 protons</a>.</p> <p class='infuse'>These extreme atoms are quite short-lived – many fall apart just milliseconds after they are created. But nuclear theorists suspect that a class of 'super-heavy' atoms, boasting the right combination of protons and neutrons, could have lifetimes of decades or longer (see <a href='http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19926661.200-hunting-the-biggest-atoms-in-the-universe.html'><i>Hunting the biggest atoms in the universe</i></a>).</p><p class='infuse'>Elements in this so-called island of stability could act as powerful nuclear fuel for future fission-propelled space missions. They might also be exhibit useful new chemical properties. Element 114, for example, has shown hints that it behaves like a gas at room temperature even though it should be a member of the lead family on the periodic table.</p><a href='http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18510-weight-scale-for-atoms-could-map-island-of-stability.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news'>http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18510-weight-scale-for-atoms-could-map-island-of-stability.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=53984fe5-bd59-89ad-831e-ae78380e317f' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-4671219048774629642010-02-13T09:01:00.001-08:002010-02-13T09:01:06.908-08:00'Space diver' to attempt first supersonic freefall<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><a target='nsimage' href='http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn18427/dn18427-1_500.jpg'><img title='Joe Kittinger set the record for the highest jump in 1960, when he dropped from a helium balloon at an altitude of 31 kilometres (Image: US Air Force Archive)' alt='Joe Kittinger set the record for the highest jump in 1960, when he dropped from a helium balloon at an altitude of 31 kilometres (Image: US Air Force Archive)' src='http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn18427/dn18427-1_300.jpg' style='float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/></a>A "space diver" will try to smash the nearly 50-year-old record for the highest jump this year, becoming the first person to go supersonic in freefall. The stunt could help engineers design escape systems for space flights.<br/><p class='infuse'>On 16 August 1960, US Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger made history by jumping out of a balloon at an altitude of some 31,333 metres. "I stood up and said a prayer and stepped off," he recalled (see <a href='http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19626261.700-space-diving-the-ultimate-extreme-sport.html'><i>Space diving: The ultimate extreme sport</i></a>).</p> <p class='infuse'>Since then, many have tried to break that record but none have succeeded – New Jersey native Nick Piantanida actually died trying in 1966. Now Austrian skydiver <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Baumgartner'>Felix Baumgartner</a> has announced he will make the attempt, with help from Kittinger and sponsorship from the energy drink company Red Bull.<br/></p><p class='infuse'>He will face extreme peril. He should reach supersonic speeds 35 seconds after he jumps, and the resulting shock wave "is a big concern", the project's technical director, Art Thompson, said at a press briefing on Friday. "In early aircraft development, they thought it was a wall they couldn't pass without breaking apart. In our case, the vehicle is flesh and blood, and he'll be exposed to some extreme forces.</p><p class='infuse'>"The jump height is above a threshold at 19,000 metres called the Armstrong line, where the atmospheric pressure is so low that fluids start to boil. "If he opens up his face mask or the suit, all the gases in your body go out of suspension, so you literally turn into a giant fizzy, oozing fluid from your eyes and mouth, like something out of a horror film," Thompson explained. "It's just seconds until death."</p><p class='infuse'>To protect himself, Baumgartner will wear a more flexible version of the airtight, pressurised spacesuit currently used aboard the space shuttle (see <a href='http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12277-future-spacesuits-to-act-like-a-second-skin.html'><i>Future spacesuits to act like a second skin</i></a>). That will let him bend to achieve the standard, belly-down skydiving position needed to decelerate.</p><p class='infuse'>Red Bull would not reveal the cost of the project. And though it says it will launch this year from North America, it has not yet specified a date or launch site. This uncertainty depends in part on finding the ideal weather conditions for the flight, Thompson said.</p> <p class='infuse'>By showing that a person can safely return to Earth from that speed and altitude, the "Stratos" mission team hopes to show that astronauts might survive with similar systems if they needed to bail out of spacecraft.</p><p class='infuse'><a href='http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18427-space-diver-to-attempt-first-supersonic-freefall.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news'>http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18427-space-diver-to-attempt-first-supersonic-freefall.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news</a></p><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=0ba5abee-35a1-894e-b790-1a80c984bc24' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-4598228720058555102010-01-27T18:26:00.000-08:002010-01-27T18:26:01.009-08:00Research shows two gay parents are better than a songle straight one<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img width='340' class='left image340' src='http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/io9/2010/01/85250313small.jpg' style='float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/>Anti-gay marriage activists have argued vigorously that children need a mother and father. Now a new research study shows that kids <em>do</em> need two parents — but that gender doesn't matter.<br/><br/>The research, which also speaks to the issue of gay adoption, is summarized in the lead article of the new <em>Journal of Marriage and Family</em>. Scholars, at USC and New York University, looked at a range of existing studies, including research on gay and lesbian parents, finding that it's ideal if a child is raised by two parents who are "responsible, committed, stable," but that the gender doesn't cause radical differences.<br/><p>Sociologist Timothy Biblarz of the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences says in a release about the study:</p> <blockquote> <p>Significant policy decisions have been swayed by the misconception across party lines that children need both a mother and a father. Yet, there is almost no social science research to support this claim. One problem is that proponents of this view routinely ignore research on same-gender parents. The bottom line is that the science shows that children raised by two same-gender parents do as well on average as children raised by two different-gender parents. This is obviously inconsistent with the widespread claim that children must be raised by a mother and a father to do well.</p> </blockquote> <p>Full scientific article available via <a href='http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/123248173/HTMLSTART'>Journal of Marriage And Family</a></p><p><a href='http://io9.com/5458304/research-shows-two-gay-parents-are-better-than-a-single-straight-one'>http://io9.com/5458304/research-shows-two-gay-parents-are-better-than-a-single-straight-one</a></p><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=09ebab90-da3b-8638-98da-3a8b4e4632a1' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-23185378453680860082009-12-28T22:05:00.001-08:002009-12-28T22:05:32.639-08:00Glitter-sized solar photovoltaics<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><a href='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_VyTCyizqrHs/SzEU4MJl8jI/AAAAAAAAGBc/duRswyGO2y4/s1600-h/pvmicro.jpg' target='_blank'><img border='0' alt='' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_VyTCyizqrHs/SzEU4MJl8jI/AAAAAAAAGBc/duRswyGO2y4/s400/pvmicro.jpg' style='float: left; width: 400px; height: 300px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/></a><a target='blank' href='http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/news_releases/glitter-sized-solar-photovoltaics-produce-competitive-results/'>Sandia National Laboratories scientists have developed tiny glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected and used.</a> The tiny cells could turn a person into a walking solar battery charger if they were fastened to flexible substrates molded around unusual shapes, such as clothing. <b>100 times less silicon generates same amount of electricity</b><br/><br/>“Eventually units could be mass-produced and wrapped around unusual shapes for building-integrated solar, tents and maybe even clothing,” he said. This would make it possible for hunters, hikers or military personnel in the field to recharge batteries for phones, cameras and other electronic devices as they walk or rest.<br/><br/><span id='fullpost'>For large-scale power generation, said Sandia researcher Murat Okandan, “One of the biggest scale benefits is a significant reduction in manufacturing and installation costs compared with current PV techniques.”</span><br/><br/><span id='fullpost'>Each cell is formed on silicon wafers, etched and then released inexpensively in hexagonal shapes, with electrical contacts prefabricated on each piece, by borrowing techniques from integrated circuits and MEMS.</span><br/><br/><span id='fullpost'>Solar concentrators — low-cost, prefabricated, optically efficient microlens arrays — can be placed directly over each glitter-sized cell to increase the number of photons arriving to be converted via the photovoltaic effect into electrons. The small cell size means that cheaper and more efficient short focal length microlens arrays can be fabricated for this purpose.<br/><br/>High-voltage output is possible directly from the modules because of the large number of cells in the array. This should reduce costs associated with wiring, due to reduced resistive losses at higher voltages.</span><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=3d74f1b8-7a43-8007-99e1-375864f34c95' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-34221950584998636522009-10-02T08:15:00.001-07:002009-10-02T08:15:09.092-07:00Clock Turned Back on Aging Muscles, Researchers Claim<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Scientists have found and manipulated <span id='lw_1254321724_0' class='yshortcuts' style='background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;'>body chemistry</span> linked to the aging of muscles and were able to turn back the clock on old human muscle, restoring its ability to repair and rebuild itself, they said today.<br/><p> The study involved a small number of participants, however. And the news is not all rosy. </p> Importantly, the research also found evidence that <a href='http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/storytext/clockturnedbackonagingmusclesresearchersclaim/33570032/SIG=1kote9h19/*http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?s=health&c=news&l=on&pic=090930-muscles-old-02.jpg&cap=Young%2C+healthy+muscle+%28left+column%29+appears+pink+and+red.+In+contrast%2C+the+old+muscle+is+marked+by+scarring+and+inflammation%2C+as+evidenced+by+the+yellow+and+blue+areas.+This+difference+between+old+and+young+tissue+occurs+both+in+the+muscle%27s+normal+state+and+after+two+weeks+of+immobilization+in+a+cast.+Exercise+after+cast+removal+did+not+significantly+improve+old+muscle+regeneration%3B+scarring+and+inflammation+persisted%2C+or+worsened+in+many+cases.+Credit%3A+Morgan+E.+Carlson+and+Irina+M.+Conboy%2C+UC+Berkeley&title='><span id='lw_1254321724_1' class='yshortcuts'>aging muscles</span></a> need to be kept in shape, because long periods of atrophy are more challenging to overcome. Older muscles do not respond as well to sudden bouts of exercise, the scientists discovered. And rather than building muscle, an older person can generate scar tissue upon, say, <span id='lw_1254321724_2' class='yshortcuts'>lifting weights</span> after long periods of inactivity.<br/><br/>"Our study shows that the ability of old human muscle to be maintained and repaired by muscle stem cells can be restored to youthful vigor given the right mix of biochemical signals," said study leader Irina Conboy of the University of California, Berkeley. "This provides promising new targets for forestalling the debilitating <span id='lw_1254321724_4' class='yshortcuts' style='border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;'>muscle atrophy</span> that accompanies aging, and perhaps other tissue degenerative disorders as well." <br/><br/><a href='http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/clockturnedbackonagingmusclesresearchersclaim'>http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/clockturnedbackonagingmusclesresearchersclaim</a><br/><br/><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=a8ab3491-a07c-85ad-8d85-a76b4a84e20d' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-1735370412428974382009-09-30T09:59:00.001-07:002009-09-30T09:59:15.545-07:00Bell Labs breaks optical transmission record, 100 Petabit per second kilometer barrier<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><strong>Alcatel-Lucent today announced that scientists in Bell Labs, the company’s research arm, have set a new optical transmission record of more than 100 Petabits per second.kilometer (equivalent to 100 million Gigabits per second.kilometer).<br/></strong><p>This transmission experiment involved sending the equivalent of 400 DVDs per second over 7,000 kilometers, roughly the distance between Paris and Chicago. This is the highest capacity ever achieved over a transoceanic distance and represents an increase that exceeds that of today’s most advanced commercial undersea cables by a factor of ten. To achieve these record-breaking results the Bell Labs researchers made innovative use of new detection techniques and harnessed a diverse array of technologies in modulation, transmission, and <a class='textTag' rel='tag' href='http://www.physorg.com/tags/signal+processing/'>signal processing</a></p> <p>High speed optical transmission is a key component of Alcatel-Lucent’s High Leverage Network architecture, key elements of which have already been selected by leading service providers.</p><a href='http://www.physorg.com/news173455192.html'>http://www.physorg.com/news173455192.html</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=b4fed218-cf6a-8bd4-b876-f5a0e1cefec2' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-21010519452066350972009-09-17T12:25:00.001-07:002009-09-17T12:25:42.058-07:00Scientists Cure Color Blindness In Monkeys<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><a rel='thumbnail' href='http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2009/09/090916133521-large.jpg'><img width='300' height='298' border='0' alt='' src='http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2009/09/090916133521.jpg' style='float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/></a><span class='date'>ScienceDaily (Sep. 16, 2009)</span> — Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Florida used gene therapy to cure two squirrel monkeys of color blindness — the most common genetic disorder in people.<br/><br/>"We've added red sensitivity to cone cells in animals that are born with a condition that is exactly like human color blindness," said William W. Hauswirth, Ph.D., a professor of ophthalmic molecular genetics at the UF College of Medicine and a member of the UF Genetics Institute and the Powell Gene Therapy Center. "Although color blindness is only moderately life-altering, we've shown we can cure a cone disease in a primate, and that it can be done very safely. That's extremely encouraging for the development of therapies for human cone diseases that really are blinding."<br/><p>About five weeks after the treatment, the monkeys began to acquire color vision, almost as if it occurred overnight.</p> <p>"Nothing happened for the first 20 weeks," Neitz said. "But we knew right away when it began to work. It was if they woke up and saw these new colors. The treated animals unquestionably responded to colors that had been invisible to them."</p><p><a href='http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090916133521.htm'>http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090916133521.htm</a></p><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=3c7d01e5-1ec3-8f53-92c0-7bbac9a13378' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-34409334136804207252009-09-17T12:23:00.001-07:002009-09-17T12:23:43.075-07:00On Demand Books Turns Google's eBook Archive Back Into Paperbacks<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img align='right' src='http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/odb_espresso.png' alt='odb_espresso.png' style='float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/>When you think about <a href='http://books.google.com'>Google Books</a>, chances are that you are thinking about eBooks and searching books on your desktop. <a href='http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2009/09/books-digitized-by-google-available-via.html'>Starting today</a>, however, <a href='http://www.ondemandbooks.com'>On Demand Books</a>, the makers of the <a href='http://www.ondemandbooks.com/video2.htm'>Espresso Book Machine</a>, will have access to Google's vast library of public domain books, and bookstores that buy an Espresso Book Machine will be able to provide on-demand printing services for any of these close to 2 million books in Google's repository.<br/><br/>The Espresso Book Machine can print out about 145 pages per minute at a cost of about 1 cent per page. The machine itself <a href='http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h7wxlKuKJFNcU_QllAW_0PYVgQEA'>costs</a> around $10,000 (ed: $100,000). On Demand Books argues that this device can revolutionize the distribution of books by decentralizing the marketplace for the distribution of books and can give libraries and bookstores a potentially unlimited inventory in their shops. In its press release about today's agreement with Google, On Demand Books likens its machine to "an ATM for books."<br/><br/>For now, these printers are only available in a about a dozen <a href='http://www.ondemandbooks.com/our_ebm_locations.htm'>locations</a>, including the University of Michigan Shapiro Library in Ann Arbor, MI, and the Bibliotheca Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt. The Harvard Book Store will also soon get one of these machines as well. By early 2010, On Demand Books hopes to have sold about 35 to 40 machines and this new deal with Google will surely help the company to reach this goal.<br/><br/><a href='http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/on_demand_books_turns_googles_public_domain_book_a.php'>http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/on_demand_books_turns_googles_public_domain_book_a.php</a><br/><a href='http://www.ondemandbooks.com/home.htm'>http://www.ondemandbooks.com/home.htm</a><br/><a href='http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h7wxlKuKJFNcU_QllAW_0PYVgQEA'>http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h7wxlKuKJFNcU_QllAW_0PYVgQEA</a><br/><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=18e271c5-7c37-8715-ad59-a6baa6d6bc8d' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-10729672470853664662009-09-16T10:47:00.001-07:002009-09-16T10:47:48.135-07:00In One Study, a Heart Benefit for Chocolate<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img width='190' height='314' border='0' alt='' src='http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/09/15/health/chocolate_190.jpg' style='float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/><nyt_byline type=' ' version='1.0'><div class='byline'>By NICHOLAS BAKALAR</div> </nyt_byline> <div class='timestamp'>Published: September 14, 2009 </div> <p>In a study that will provide comfort to chocoholics everywhere, researchers in Sweden have found evidence that people who eat chocolate have increased survival rates after a <a title='In-depth reference and news articles about Heart attack.' href='http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/heart-attack/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier'>heart attack</a> — and it may be that the more they eat, the better.</p>The scientists followed 1,169 nondiabetic men and women who had been hospitalized for a first heart attack. Each filled out a standardized health questionnaire that included a question about chocolate consumption over the past 12 months. Chocolate contains flavonoid antioxidants that are widely believed to have beneficial cardiovascular effects.<br/><br/>The patients had a health examination three months after their discharge from the hospital, and researchers followed them for the next eight years using Swedish national registries of hospitalizations and deaths. After controlling for age, sex, <a title='In-depth reference and news articles about Obesity.' href='http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/obesity/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier'>obesity</a>, physical inactivity, <a title='In-depth reference and news articles about Smoking.' href='http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/smoking-and-smokeless-tobacco/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier'>smoking</a>, education and other factors, they found that the more chocolate people consumed, the more likely they were to survive. <a title='Abstract of the paper.' href='http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122276494/abstract'>The results are reported</a> in the September issue of The Journal of Internal Medicine.<br/><br/>Compared with people who ate none, those who had chocolate less than once a month had a 27 percent reduction in their risk for cardiac death, those who ate it up to once a week had a 44 percent reduction and those who indulged twice or more a week had a 66 percent reduced risk of dying from a subsequent heart event. The beneficial effect remained after controlling for intake of other kinds of sweets.<br/><br/>But before concluding that a box of Godiva truffles is health food, chocolate lovers may want to consider some of the study’s weaknesses. It is an observational study, not a randomized trial, so cause and effect cannot be definitively established. The scientists did not ask what kind of chocolate the patients ate, and milk chocolate has less available flavonoid than dark chocolate. Finally, chocolate consumption did not reduce the risk for any nonfatal cardiac event.<br/><br/><a href='http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/health/15choc.html?partner=rss&emc=rss'>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/health/15choc.html?partner=rss&emc=rss</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=b3da5d07-32b3-88ac-99ce-0f1dd48b4a59' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-5369085733689838332009-09-14T14:37:00.000-07:002009-09-14T14:38:02.154-07:00Fighting to Allow College Education at $99/Month<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Higher education is ready to be re-invented and this re-invention should not be delayed for two decades.<br/><br/><a target='blank' href='http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/feature/college_for_99_a_month.php?page=all&print=true'>The next generation of online education could be great for students—and "catastrophic" for universities.</a><br/><br/>StraighterLine is offering online courses in subjects like accounting, statistics, and math. It offers as many courses as you want for a flat rate of $99 a month.<br/><br/>If the USA and other countries truly cared about effectively educating the people, increasing the productivity of economy, then legislative efforts would be made to breakdown the barriers to effective and affordable online education. Funding could be provided to help educational institutions to transition to a new world where they are less land/building intensive and where they have less of an undergraduate cash cow. Some inferior institutions would be shutdown.<br/><br/><a href='http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/09/far-more-important-than-freeing-music.html'>http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/09/far-more-important-than-freeing-music.html</a><br/><a href='http://www.straighterline.com/'>http://www.straighterline.com/</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=45e71386-8533-88e0-81a6-64158ef9ad4e' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-67914964637563532622009-09-14T10:08:00.001-07:002009-09-14T10:08:14.307-07:00Magnetic Monopoles Detected In A Real Magnet For The First Time<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><a rel='thumbnail' href='http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2009/09/090903163725-large.jpg'><img width='300' height='300' border='0' alt='' src='http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2009/09/090903163725.jpg' style='float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/></a><span class='date'>ScienceDaily (Sep. 4, 2009)</span> — Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie have, in cooperation with colleagues from Dresden, St. Andrews, La Plata and Oxford, for the first time observed magnetic monopoles and how they emerge in a real material.<br/><br/>Magnetic monopoles are hypothetical particles proposed by physicists that carry a single magnetic pole, either a magnetic north pole or south pole. In the material world this is quite exceptional because magnetic particles are usually observed as dipoles, north and south combined. However there are several theories that predict the existence of monopoles. Among others, in 1931 the physicist Paul Dirac was led by his calculations to the conclusion that magnetic monopoles can exist at the end of tubes – called Dirac strings – that carry magnetic field. Until now they have remained undetected.<br/><br/>In this work the researchers, for the first time, attest that monopoles exist as emergent states of matter, i.e. they emerge from special arrangements of dipoles and are completely different from the constituents of the material. However, alongside this fundamental knowledge, Jonathan Morris explains the further meaning of the results: "We are writing about new, fundamental properties of matter. These properties are generally valid for materials with the same topology, that is for magnetic moments on the pyrochlore lattice. For the development of new technologies this can have big implications. Above all it signifies the first time fractionalisation in three dimensions is observed."<br/><br/><a href='http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090903163725.htm'>http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090903163725.htm</a><br/><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=2a6d8d1f-7eb8-806f-9c23-9a0b53a2dbe7' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11210232.post-85105057461437708822009-09-02T07:38:00.001-07:002009-09-02T07:38:00.825-07:00Children With Autism Use Alternative Keyboard<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><a rel='thumbnail' href='http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2009/08/090831080957-large.jpg'><img width='300' height='147' border='0' alt='' src='http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2009/08/090831080957.jpg' style='float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/></a>The OrbiTouch keyboard. (Credit: Blue Orb)<br/><br/><span class='date'>ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2009)</span> — Autism can build a wall of poor communication between those struggling with the condition and their families. While a personal computer can help bridge the divide, the distraction and complexity of a keyboard can be an insurmountable obstacle.<br/><br/>Using a unique keyboard with only two "keys" and a novel curriculum, teachers with Project Blue Skies are giving children with autism the ability to both communicate and to explore the online world.<br/><br/>The Project Blue Skies curriculum is based on the functions of the OrbiTouch, which allows a user to input letters, symbols and any other command by independently manipulating two computer-mouse shaped grips forward, back, diagonally and to the sides.<br/><br/>Teachers guide the students and monitor their progress, ultimately helping the kids better communicate with their families. While the primary goal of Project Blue Skies is to help people with autism develop stronger social skills, McAlindon is working with partners to start integrating standard coursework into the program.<br/><br/><a href='http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090831080957.htm'>http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090831080957.htm</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=cdccba0c-a210-8203-a7c7-75b9d0be8d19' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10280706280547824878noreply@blogger.com0