Comment

Comment by Hope on March 12, 2012 at 1:03pm

Four-winged dino lured mates with long tail

By comparing the patterns of pigment-containing organelles from a Microraptor fossil with those in modern birds, the scientists determined the dinosaur's plumage was iridescent with a glossy sheen like the feathers of a crow. (Credit: University of Texas at Austin)

U. TEXAS-AUSTIN (US) — Microraptor, a four-winged dinosaur, had an iridescent sheen and a narrow tail adorned with streamer feathers.

The new fossil specimen of Microraptor, a pigeon-sized dinosaur that lived about 120 million years ago, is the earliest record of iridescent color in feathers.

According to researchers at University of Texas at Austin, these features suggest the importance of display in the early evolution of feathers. The team of researchers, from institutions in the United States and China, present their findings in the March 9 edition of the journal Science.

 

more here;http://www.futurity.org/science-technology/four-winged-dino-lured-m...

Comment by Michel on March 12, 2012 at 11:46am

A Bit of Progress: Diamonds Shatter Quantum Information Storage Record

Researchers show how to store quantum bits at room temperature using a less complex process for seconds at a time

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER: Qubits in diamond may not last forever, but they do last a long time by quantum-physics standards. Physicists have figured out a way to encode quantum information onto a single carbon atom in a synthetic diamond for more than one second.

(The diamond pictured above is for illustration purposes only.)

Image: © Roydee/iStockphoto

------------------------

BOSTON—The quantum world and the everyday world of human experience are supposed to be two different realms. Quantum effects, as demonstrated in the lab, are usually confined to the tiniest scales. They last for imperceptibly brief instants. And they appear mostly in highly controlled systems operating at cryogenic temperatures near absolute zero.

But experimental physicists are pushing across the assumed divide between the quantum and the ordinary by demonstrating quantum effects in more familiar environments. Now a group of researchers has furthered that cause by encoding quantum information into a room-temperature solid for time spans that can be ticked off on a stopwatch. The new quantum memory scheme can store information for more than a second, which extends by orders of magnitude the lifetime of information encoded as a quantum bit, or qubit, on a particle at ordinary temperatures. The American, German and British researchers have only just submitted the research to a peer-reviewed journal, but here in late February they presented their findings to a meeting of the American Physical Society.

MORE

Comment by doone on March 11, 2012 at 4:09pm

And So It Was/Was Not

Mar. 11, 2012

Comment by doone on March 11, 2012 at 11:23am

The Worm Of Everlasting Life?

Recent reports claim that the flatworm could hold the key to immortality. Stephen Cavesummarizes:

[T]he cells in our human bodies can only replicate a certain number of times before the bits which protect our DNA (called telomeres) become frayed. The resulting unreliability in the replication process is thought to be a crucial part of what causes ageing. Flatworms, on the other hand, use an enzyme called telomerase to protect their telomeres, so their cells can replicate indefinitely. All we have to do is learn how to perform this trick for ourselves and we too will be immune to the ravages of time.

Cave tempers the excitement:

Making cells immortal is a risky business. Some of our cells already start producing telomerase so that they can replicate indefinitely—we call this cancer. 

Comment by Michel on March 10, 2012 at 12:31pm

I've seen a great doc (French) on the Kiribati a few weeks ago. There are no climate change deniers on these islands. 

Comment by doone on March 10, 2012 at 11:48am

Entire Pacific Nation Readies Plan To Abandon Low-Lying Island And ...

By Scott Keyes posted from ThinkProgress Green on Mar 9, 2012 at 6:35 pm

To many Americans, climate change is weird weather and political debate. For the nation of Kiribati, it’s an existential crisis.

Kiribati, an island nation located in the central Pacific, rises just a few feet above sea level in many areas. Elevating ocean levels could soon render the entire country uninhabitable.

With leading world economic powers doing little to combat climate change, Kiribati is drawing up contingency plans to relocate the country’s entire population to another island nation, Fiji, if necessary.

Kiribati President Anote Tong told The Associated Press on Friday that his Cabinet this week endorsed a plan to buy nearly 6,000 acres on Fiji’s main island, Viti Levu. He said the fertile land, being sold by a church group for about $9.6 million, could be insurance for Kiribati’s entire population of 103,000, though he hopes it will never be necessary for everyone to leave.

Tong said some villages have already moved and there have been increasing instances of sea water contaminating the island’s underground fresh water, which remains vital for trees and crops. He said changing rainfall, tidal and storm patterns pose as least as much threat as ocean levels, which so far have risen only slightly.

Some scientists have estimated the current level of sea rise in the Pacific at about 2 millimeters (0.1 inches) per year. Many scientists expect that rate to accelerate due to climate change.

Kiribati isn’t the only nation drawing up plans to leave their homeland if climate change continues unabated. Maldives, an archipelago nation south of India, could soon be wiped out by rising seas as well, forcing the government to consider evacuating the population to Australia.

Comment by doone on March 8, 2012 at 9:11pm

The Mainstreaming Of Genomics

The NYT reports that genome sequencing is getting much cheaper. Ezra Klein thinks this "means that an individual mandate — or something much like it — is inevitable":

Eventually, genomic testing will be a powerful predictor of future illness. And it raises the potential that young people will get themselves tested and then purchase insurance based off the result. So those with a clean genomic result might go for a cheap catastrophic plan, while those with a high risk of developing pricey illnesses will opt for more comprehensive insurance. The result would be, in insurance terms, an “adverse-selection death spiral,” as the healthy opt out of expensive insurance, the sick opt into it, and premiums spin out of control.

Razib Kahn looks on the bright side:

Comment by doone on March 7, 2012 at 5:32pm

A Year Later, Mysterious Space Plane Is Still in Orbit

• By David Axe 
• Email Author 
• March 7, 2012 |  
• 6:30 am |  
• Categories: Spies, Secrecy and Surveillance

Photo: U.S. Air Force

The Air Force’s secretive X-37B space plane gets more mysterious by the day. Designed to spend up to nine months on unspecified errands in Earth’s orbit, the second copy of the Boeing-made craft, known as Orbital Test Vehicle 2, has now been in space for a year and two days — and is still going strong. The endurance milestone is unqualified good news for America’s space force at a time when its funding and future missions are in doubt.

There’s just one thing. We still don’t know exactly what the 30-foot-long X-37B is doing up there.

Since the launch of Orbital Test Vehicle 1 in April 2010, the Air Force has insisted that the X-37 program is a purely scientific endeavor. But analysts say the spacefaring craft, which launches into orbit atop a rocket but glides back to Earth like an airplane, is capable of much more than that. It could be an orbital spy — in essence, a more maneuverable satellite. Or it could be used to tamper with enemy satellites.

With its pickup-truck-size payload bay, the estimated billion-dollar craft could even haul small batches of supplies to the International Space Station. In October, Boeing program manager Art Grantz proposed to build an enlarged X-37C model that could also carry astronauts to the station, filling a gap left by the retired NASA Space Shuttle.

Though unlikely, the X-37B could even function as an orbital bomber. “You could stick munitions in there,” said Eric Sterner, an analyst with the Marshall Institute, “provided they exist.”

Continue Reading “A Year Later, Mysterious Space Plane Is Still in ...

Comment by doone on March 7, 2012 at 5:13pm

Find out if you can live through a nuclear blast  http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

Comment by doone on March 6, 2012 at 6:18pm

Source: Hubblesite.org

Source: Hubblesite.org

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 15
• 16
• 17
• 18
• 19
• …
• 84
• Next ›
• Page