Science News

"Researchers have demonstrated a prototype device that can rid hands, feet, or even underarms of bacteria, including the hospital superbug MRSA. The device works by creating something called a plasma, which produces a cocktail of chemicals in air that kill bacteria but are harmless to skin. A related approach could see the use of plasmas to speed the healing of wounds." - Jason Huebel from Bookmarklet

I hope they have it in shower sizes. Will let me sleep in an extra half hour :) - Roberto Bonini

"MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) and other drug-resistant bacteria could face annihilation as low-temperature plasma prototype devices have been developed to offer safe, quick, easy and unfailing bactericidal cocktails." - Jason Huebel from Bookmarklet

Researchers are closer to using tiny devices called semiconducting nanowires to create a new generation of ultrasmall transistors and more powerful computer chips. The researchers have grown the nanowires with sharply defined layers of silicon and germanium, offering better transistor performance. As depicted in this illustration, tiny particles of a gold-aluminum alloy were alternately heated and cooled inside a vacuum chamber, and then silicon and germanium gases were alternately introduced. As the gold-aluminum bead absorbed the gases, it became "supersaturated" with silicon and germanium, causing them to precipitate and form wires. - Ami Iida

"According to the promoters of a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London aimed at UK Scientific Heritage: “Scientists are no longer unrecognisable boffins” thanks to the Science in Focus exhibition, which runs until 17 January 2010. Well…I take issue with that remark! Which of the following faces do you recognise?" - Shevonne from Bookmarklet

Out of that eight I recognize four. - John (a.k.a. dendroica)

I didn't recognize any in the second montage. - John (a.k.a. dendroica)

"Armed with rock chisels, it took the thief only a few minutes to wipe out 135 million years of history. The fossilised iguanodon footprint was hacked out of the limestone slab where it had lain in a Dorset quarry and spirited away by an illicit collector. Some 5,000 miles away in southern India, scientists last month issued a plea for villagers and even student palaeontologists to halt the mass looting of hundreds of dinosaur eggs whose petrified embryos could shed new light on the extinction of a species. Fascination with the ferocious beasts has never been greater, with scientists announcing almost weekly the discovery of new prehistoric species from giant crocodiles to feathered lizards that bear testimony to an evolutionary link with birds. But with a pristine Tyrannosaurus rex specimen fetching up to $8.3m (£5m), there is growing concern that a booming trade in stolen or illicit fossils is wrecking unique sites and seeing previously unknown species disappear into private collections, where they are lost to science." - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

All too common - Fossil Huntress

"Their fossilised remains have been found in the rock, which was blasted out of Mars 16 million years ago as the solar system was forming. The meteorite, called Allen Hills 84001, made headlines in 1996 after fossils were found in it. Scientists believed they were bacteria from Earth that contaminated the rock while it lay in the frozen wastes.But a Nasa report now says there is strong evidence they originated on Mars, according to The Sun. Dr Emily Baldwin, deputy editor of the UK's Astronomy Now magazine, said: "Many scientists argued that what looked like fossils in the meteorite were really caused by the explosive event, such as an asteroid impact, that blasted the rock out of Mars in the first place. "But the Nasa team is now saying they have proved that they could not have been produced by the blast itself." - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

Scientists Say Jupiter's Moon Europa Might Be Teeming With Fish and now this. I hope this all proves to be true. - ashish

"Tomorrow the Space Shuttle Atlantis is due to touch down on Earth after a successful seven-day mission to deliver vital equipment to the International Space Station. During the past week as astronauts stockpiled the outpost and performed maintenance a series of stunning images were taken which we reveal here. Previously when images were released by Nasa they were soon after the event but still very fuzzy. It is only on recent missions that images of this quality of image were released almost as soon as they had happened. They are testament to the rapid advances in technology available to both the public and space scientists." - RAPatton

"They could hold 50 to 200 percent more charge than similar conducting polymer batteries, and once better optimized, they might even be competitive with commercial lithium batteries, the researchers noted. They also recharged much faster than conventional rechargeable batteries — while a regular battery takes at least an hour to recharge, the new batteries could recharge in anywhere from eight minutes to just 11 seconds. The new battery also showed a dramatic boost in the ability to hold a charge over use. While a comparable polymer battery showed a 50 percent drop in the amount of charge it could hold after 60 cycles of discharging and recharging, the new battery showed just a 6 percent loss through 100 charging cycles." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"U.S. scientists have uncovered evidence of a primitive emotion-like behavior in the fruit fly, and their finding may facilitate studies of the relationship between a corrective medicine and a learning disability." - chaz2b from Bookmarklet

"A team of engineers in Alabama unveils an invention that reimagines the way magnets work, and that could change the way we do everything from closing the fridge to building frictionless gears." - Jason Huebel from Bookmarklet

"magnets that, instead of carrying a positive charge on one end and a negative on the other, have complex field patterns that can be used to attract corresponding magnetic fields. When the correlated patterns on two magnets match, they attract and clasp. With a simple turn, the correlation is lost and the two sides can be easily separated. " - Daniel Mietchen

"In a new approach to fighting cancer, scientists from Harvard University have engineered an implantable disc designed to attract immune cells and prep them to attack tumors. Mice with melanoma tumors were much more likely to survive if they'd been implanted with the device, and tumors disappeared in up to half of the vaccinated animals, according to research published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Researchers believe that the implant elicits a broader immune response than traditional vaccines, and may therefore prove more effective. A startup called InCytu, based in Lincoln, RI, is now developing the technology for human testing." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"20% of scientists responding to a survey in Nature claimed to have used cognitive-boosting drugs, including Ritalin and Provigil (Modafinil) to enable them to perform better, sleep more efficiently, or increase their concentration or memory. These are the same drugs given daily to millions of children in the US to improve school performance. In most cases it looks like the scientists' use was either illegal or quasi-legal at best. Yet scientists should not have to take these drugs clandestinely. Instead their use should be an open experiment in the advantages and disadvantages of these drugs" - chaz2b from Bookmarklet

"Eruptions reader The Bobs left a note mentioning that there may have been a 'significant' eruption at Karkar in Papua New Guinea. The only place I can find information is John Seach's Volcano Live: An eruption occurred at Karkar volcano at 6:39 pm on 25th November 2009. The eruption plume reached a height of 45,000 ft. A magnitude 5.1 earthquake hit 90 km SSE of Karkar volcano 7.5 hours before the eruption. I don't know too much about Karkar, but the GVP says that it is a volcanic island made of a pair of calderas, with the inner caldera formed in the last 1,500 years. Volcano Live mentions a 1997 activity at the volcano (in the form of fumarolic activity), but the GVP lists the last eruption as occurring in 1980. Most eruptions look to be fairly explosive (~VEI 2) from the pyroclastic cone in the inner caldera. Weekly volcano reports from the SI/USGS lists some fumarolic activity from the inner caldera in January 2008. If the reports are accurate for this new activity, it could definitely be a "significant" eruption. More news as I can find it." - Bluesun 2600 from Bookmarklet

"November 23, 2009--A product of cosmic collaboration, this new picture of the Crab Nebula combines data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The nebula is the remnant of a stellar explosion 6,000 light-years from Earth that was so powerful people saw the burst in A.D. 1054, according to NASA." - Arnaldo M Pereira from Bookmarklet

"The new GPU cluster will complement the supercomputing resources available to CSIRO researchers such as the recently installed NCI facility at the Australian National University. The cluster will allow CSIRO scientists to explore what may well be the next generation approach to supercomputing, the use of GPU technology for parallel processing. The CSIRO GPU cluster will be launched today in Canberra. The first of its kind in Australia, the cluster is about the size of six large refrigerators and contains 61 440 compute cores." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"Future lunar astronauts may want to brush up on their spelunking skills: the first lava tube has been discovered on . In a recent paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, Junichi Haruyama and colleagues report that they have discovered a mysterious hole in the lunar surface in high resolution images from the Kaguya spacecraft. The hole is 65 meters in diameter and is located in the volcanic Marius Hills region on the near side of the moon, right in the middle of a long sinuous rille. Sinuous rilles are thought to be formed by flowing lava, either on the surface or in enclosed lava tubes." - Arnaldo M Pereira from Bookmarklet

"In a study in older adults, dietary intake of vitamins C and E was linked with muscle strength, leading the researchers to suggest at a meeting in Atlanta this past weekend that a diet high in antioxidants could play an important role in preserving muscle function in older adults "Muscle strength is really a marker of ageing," one of the investigators, Dr Anne Newman of the University of Pittsburgh, told Reuters Health. "Muscle strength starts declining when people are in their 40s, but it decreases dramatically after age 60." This decline is "a major risk factor" for becoming frail and disabled, she said, but certain strategies may slow down the loss. In previous work, Newman and her associates identified physical activity and, separately, dietary protein as important for maintaining muscle strength." - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

"At this point, it's not clear whether vitamins C and E specifically help preserve muscle strength, or if intake of these micronutrients is a marker of a healthy diet, Newman said. "Since they're in the food, they could be directly related, or they could be marking diets high in fruits and vegetables and low in sodium - all of which would have beneficial effects." The average daily... more... - RAPatton

"Meanwhile, she added, the current findings provide "another reason for doctors to encourage patients to eat a balanced diet, rich in fruits and vegetables." Newman cautioned consumers not to start taking high-dose supplement of vitamins C and E. "In clinical trials with very high doses of antioxidants, you don't see any benefits and in some cases, they're potentially harmful," the researcher said." - RAPatton

"While many people are still waiting for swine-flu vaccine to become available in their area, there is a lot they can do in their own kitchens to help fight off disease and build a strong immune system. Scientists in the growing field of nutritional immunology are unveiling new evidence of the complex role that nutrition plays in fighting off infectious diseases like influenza. A diet rich in nutrients such as vitamin A, found in colorful fruits and vegetables, and zinc, found in seafood, nuts and whole grains, can provide the critical fuel the body needs to fight off disease, heal injuries, and survive illness when it does strike, experts say. Scientists are still studying all the complex ways in which nutrients interact with the immune system. There is still much that they don't know about minerals such as zinc, for instance, including how they are absorbed and all the roles they play in the body. But scientists do know that certain vitamins and minerals can improve the body's... more... - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

"Some advice for a healthy diet can seem contradictory. For example, heart-healthy diets typically include unsaturated fats such as omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in fish such as salmon and trout and in flaxseed and walnuts. For people who don't want those foods, nutritionists may recommend fish-oil supplements, which can be beneficial in suppressing chronic inflammation in the... more... - RAPatton

"Today, a century and a half after Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection," the overwhelming majority of scientists in the United States accept Darwinian evolution as the basis for understanding how life on Earth developed. But although evolutionary theory is often portrayed as antithetical to religion, it has not destroyed the religious faith of the scientific community. According to a survey of members of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center in May and June this year, a majority of scientists (51%) say they believe in God or a higher power, while 41% say they do not. Furthermore, scientists today are no less likely to believe in God than they were almost 100 years ago, when the scientific community was first polled on this issue." - RAPatton

"But the Pew poll found that levels of religious faith among scientists vary quite a bit depending on their specialty and age. Chemists, for instance, are more likely to believe in God (41%) than those who work in biology and medicine (32%)" - RAPatton

"As for Darwin, his letters indicate that he was probably an agnostic who lost his faith not because his groundbreaking theory was incompatible with religion, but because of his grief after the 1851 death of his favorite child, his 10-year-old daughter, Annie. And even then, he may not have completely rejected the idea of a higher power. The concluding sentence of "Origin of Species"... more... - RAPatton

"A vast ocean once covered a third of Mars, scientists believe. Such a stunning prospect greatly increases the chances of life having existed on the Red Planet, the fourth from the Sun in our solar system. Researchers have come to the conclusion after using new software to analyse images of the surface. As a result, they have managed to find dozens of valleys to build up the most detailed map to date. The valleys, first spotted in 1971, were caused by a network of rivers more than twice as extensive as previously mapped. The water channels were in a belt between the equator and mid-southern latitudes. The experts from Northern Illinois University and Nasa believe they mark the paths of rivers that once flowed from the planet's southern highlands into a huge ocean in the north. The evidence suggests that billions of years ago much of Mars had an 'arid continental climate' similar to drier areas of the Earth. Rain would have fallen regularly, swelling the rivers and topping up the ocean... more... - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

"Climate has been a major driver of armed conflict in Africa, research shows - and future warming is likely to increase the number of deaths from war. US researchers found that across the continent, conflict was about 50% more likely in unusually warm years. Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they suggest strife arises when the food supply is scarce in warm conditions. Climatic factors have been cited as a reason for several recent conflicts. One is the fighting in Darfur in Sudan that according to UN figures has killed 200,000 people and forced two million more from their homes." - Eivind from Bookmarklet

"If temperatures rise across the continent as computer models project, future conflicts are likely to become more common, researchers suggest. Their study shows an increase of about 50% over the next 20 years. When projections of social trends such as population increase and economic development were included in their model of a future Africa, temperature rise still emerged as a likely... more... - Eivind

"While many people are still waiting for swine-flu vaccine to become available in their area, there is a lot they can do in their own kitchens to help fight off disease and build a strong immune system. Scientists in the growing field of nutritional immunology are unveiling new evidence of the complex role that nutrition plays in fighting off infectious diseases like influenza. A diet rich in nutrients such as vitamin A, found in colorful fruits and vegetables, and zinc, found in seafood, nuts and whole grains, can provide the critical fuel the body needs to fight off disease, heal injuries, and survive illness when it does strike, experts say." - Joe Bonner from Bookmarklet

NEC of Japan has unveiled a pair of hi-tech spectacles that allow wearers to see past language barriers, literally. The company says it hopes to develop the technology to a point where nothing is ever lost in translation again. - Ami Iida

"Explanation: What's happening on the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus? Enormous ice jets are erupting. Giant plumes of ice have been photographed in dramatic fashion by the robotic Cassini spacecraft during this past weekend's flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Pictured above, numerous plumes are seen rising from long tiger-stripe canyons across Enceladus' craggy surface. Several ice jets are even visible in the shadowed region of crescent Enceladus as they reach high enough to scatter sunlight. Other plumes, near the top of the above image, appear visible just over the moon's sunlit edge. That Enceladus vents fountains of ice was first discovered on Cassini images in 2005, and has been under close study ever since. Continued study of the ice plumes may yield further clues as to whether underground oceans, candidates for containing life, exist on this distant ice world." - RAPatton from iPhone

"The heart of QPACE is the IBM PowerXCell 8i processor, an enhancement of the Cell/B.E. processor, which originally was developed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM for the Sony PlayStation 3. With its nine processor cores, the chip can carry out a very large number of calculations simultaneously and at a high speed. The novel concept of QPACE consists of connecting processors by a network of programmable units, called Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), to an efficient scalable computer. Each of the QPACE installations in Jülich and Wuppertal can reach a maximum performance of 100 TeraFlops (double precision). That equates to 100 trillion (100,000,000,000,000) computing operations per second. As a result of the scalability of the network, it is in principle possible to increase the performance to the PetaFlops scale (one quadrillion operations per second). The technology concepts developed for the QPACE project are setting the trend for future high-performance computers. One example of this... more... - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

That's some piece of hardware I'd like to own :) - Ibrahim El Issaoui

reference site https://www.fbo.gov/index... - Ami Iida

footnote:cell broad engine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Ami Iida

p.s.IBM have not stopped Cell processor development http://www.driverheaven.net/news... - Ami Iida