Science News

A simplified 3D imaging system that does not require a conventional camera has been developed by researchers in the UK. The computational imaging technique uses information from single-pixel detectors to create an image, can be used over a range of wavelengths and is cheaper than other 3D methods. The researchers claim that, in addition to taking images, their system could be used as a detector in oil and gas exploration as well as in medical and biological imaging systems. - Halil from Bookmarklet

new technique involves using nothing more than a light projector, four single-pixel detectors and a computational imaging technique known as "ghost imaging." Computational ghost imaging creates images using "intelligent illumination". The object to be imaged is lit with a specific, known light pattern (such as a speckle pattern) and the reflected light is detected by a single-pixel... more... - Halil

Interesting stuff! - Son of Groucho

"WHY DID WE MAKE THIS? To be blunt: Science, technology, and education are important to us. But we live in a world where the little news we hear of schools, research, and the arts is when they're laying their heads on the chopping block. We live in a world where celebrity and "reality" entertainment is winning the war for our attention. Though this may just seem like it's playing off a funny trope, we do need superheroes in our world. Super men, women (and puppets), like those actualized by PBS, who inspire young generations to be scientists, teachers, and artists. But those heroes will not appear unless we create them." - Joe Silence from Bookmarklet

So very awesome. - MoTO #TeamMonique

AFPs within these living organisms bind to seed ice crystals that form as the weather cools. By binding to the ice, AFPs prevent the ice from spreading and freezing the organism. Many organisms that live in cold weather have some level of AFPs including insects, fish, plants, bacteria, algae and fungi. ~ Antifreeze protein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Halil from Bookmarklet

why don't plants freeze in the winter? (: most of cold-blooded and not-blooded-at-all organisms have these kind of proteins, complexes, chemicals, etc. it's called cold shock response. - hia

"A new study has demonstrated that plants can use an underground network of fungi to warn each other about incoming insect attacks. Carried out by researchers from the University of Aberdeen, the James Hutton Institute and Rothamsted Research, the study demonstrated that the plants are able to send warnings of incoming aphids to other plants connected to their network. The plants then send out a chemical signal that repels aphids and attracts wasps, a natural aphid predator." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

""I was sitting on the toilet. I suddenly felt an explosion in the left side of my head and ended up on the floor. I think the only thing that kept me conscious was that I didn't want to be found with my pants down. Then the other side of my head went bang! I woke up in hospital and looked out of the window to see the tree was sprouting numbers. 3, 6, 9. Then I started talking in rhyme…" Ten days after having a subarachnoid haemorrhage – a stroke caused by bleeding in and around the brain – Tommy McHugh, an ex-con who'd been in his fair share of scraps, became a new man, with a personality that nobody recognised. When he was a young man, Tommy did time in prison. But after his stroke at age 51, everything changed. "I could taste the femininity inside of myself," he said. "My head was full of rhymes and images and pictures."" - Joe Silence from Bookmarklet

"The World Health Organization says it appears likely that the novel coronavirus (NCoV) can be passed between people in close contact. This comes after the French health ministry confirmed a second man had contracted the virus in a possible case of human-to-human transmission. Two more people in Saudi Arabia are also reported to have died from the virus, according to health officials. NCoV is known to cause pneumonia and sometimes kidney failure. World Health Organization (WHO) officials have expressed concern over the clusters of cases of the new coronavirus strain and the potential for it to spread. Since 2012, there have been 33 confirmed cases across Europe and the Middle East, with 18 deaths, according to a recent WHO update. Cases have been detected in Saudi Arabia and Jordan and have spread to Germany, the UK and France. "Of most concern... is the fact that the different clusters seen in multiple countries increasingly support the hypothesis that when there is close contact this novel coronavirus can transmit from person to person," the World Health Organization said on Sunday." - Joe Silence from Bookmarklet

Around 10,000 years ago wheat evolved from goat grass and other primitive grains. The scientists used cross-pollination and seed embryo transfer technology to transfer some of the resilience of the ancient ancestor of wheat into modern British varieties. The process required no genetic modification of the crops. - Halil from Bookmarklet

Cross pollination is one thing, (seed) embryonic transference of genetic material is essentially GM, as Victor says, it's semantics and they are trying to come across as a non-GM food. If there was no genuine GM or any kind of fiddling, why even mention that it's not GM in the first place as it should be clear from the experimental methods used! Also, they say the tests need to be... more... - Halil

i think the next one is in August? - Joe Silence

"Janhunen (Finnish Meteorological Institute) is the developer of the electric sail concept soon to be tested by the ESTCube-1 satellite, which launched last night aboard a Vega rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. [...] The ESTCube-1 satellite, the work of Estonian students testing out Janhunen’s ideas, uses a long wire that maintains a steady electric potential as its means of interacting with the solar wind. [...] ESTCube-1’s tether is a 50 micrometer wide, 10 meter long wire made out of four strands of aluminum that will gradually be deployed from the satellite in a process that could take as much as a week. Once deployed, the tether will be charged and variations in the satellite’s rotation rate will, if all goes well, reveal the interactions between it and atmospheric ions. But future electric sails will soon be deploying longer wires." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

"Assuming the concept passes its initial muster, we can look forward to upsized missions using tethers up to 20 kilometers long, deploying as many as a hundred of these from a single spacecraft. This is the design that, in computer simulations, yields potential speeds of 100 kilometers per second, fast enough to get a payload into the nearby interstellar medium in about fifteen years.... more... - Mark H

"But it quickly became apparent that Jiang was at worst guilty of violating NASA policies. There was no evidence of any sensitive material on the laptop, and Jiang didn't have clearance to such projects at Langley as an employee of the National Institute of Aerospace. Instead, investigators found, the laptop was loaded with pornography and pirated movies. Since he had lost his job and his work visa was expiring, Jiang simply was going home—with a little entertainment." - Joe Silence from Bookmarklet

indeed. - Joe Silence

"On May 6th, 1949 EDSAC (or Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) ran its first programs, calculating a table of squares and generating a list of prime numbers. The massive vacuum-tube-powered machine was put into service at the University of Cambridge and almost immediately changed how research was done at the school. It was among the first general-purpose computers capable of storing programs in rewritable memory, which took the form of mercury delay lines." - Joe Silence from Bookmarklet

"Maurice Wilkes, the designer of the EDSAC, certainly earned his place in computing history, but David Wheeler's later contributions were equally important. Using the EDSAC he invented subroutines, an essential component of modern programming that allows developers to reuse bits of existing code to simplify the act of writing software." - Joe Silence

"This milestone piece of machinery is little more than scraps at this point, but a team at the UK's National Museum of Computing is working to build a working replica. The hope is to have the computer up and running by May of 2015." - Joe Silence

A team of engineers in the US has fabricated flexible, skin-like arrays of nanowire transistors that convert mechanical motion into electronic signals and are as sensitive as a human fingertip, according to the researchers. This means that the arrays could help robots to adjust intuitively the force they use to grasp things, be used in human prosthetics, as well as offer new ways for us to interface with a variety of electronic devices. - Halil from Bookmarklet

"Thirteen years, 1,500 infrared cameras, hundreds of catnip-baited hair traps and an almost incalculable number of hours in the field have confirmed what scientists have long feared: the Formosan clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa brachyura) is in all likelihood extinct. The subspecies, endemic to Taiwan, was wiped out by poaching, trade in its pelts during the Japanese occupation, habitat destruction and elimination of its natural prey." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"Using tiny hairs similar to those on gecko feet, clingfish are able to strongly and equally adhere to surfaces with a broad range of roughness, new research shows. The fish's suction powers easily outperform manmade suction cups, scientists say, adding that mimicking their design could lead to a new class of suction devices." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"The northern clingfish (Gobiesox maeandricus) is a species of salt-water fish native to the Pacific Coast of North America. The fish live in rocky intertidal environments, where strong waves and currents threaten to toss them about. To survive in this turbulent setting, the fish has evolved an adhesion disc on its belly, which takes up about 25 percent of its underside. Using the disc, the fish can achieve a death-grip on a variety of surfaces." - imabonehead

"Mozambique's rhinoceros population was wiped out more than a century ago by big game hunters. Reconstituted several years ago, it has again been driven to extinction, or to the brink of extinction, by poachers seeking their horns for sale in Asia." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"Scientists in China say they have pinpointed a likely source of a new strain of avian influenza (bird flu) that's killed 23 people in the country so far: chicken sold in the marketsof Zhejiang, China. In a study fast-tracked into online publication in the international medical journal the Lancet yesterday, 30 scientists from hospitals and universities around China took samples of the H7N9 virus strain from human patients and compared it to samples of viruses grown from chicken in a Zhejiang market and found that "viral isolate from the patient was closely similar to that from an epidemiologically linked market chicken." Yet the human version of the virus also seems to be a compilation of sorts: The scientists found that the H7 portion was similar to domestic ducks from Zhejiang, while the N9 portion more closely resembled viruses in wild birds in South Korea. "We are quite certain they very closely related and that the poultry is really giving the virus to humans," said microbiology... more... - Bluesun 2600 from Bookmarklet

"The last known rhinoceroses in Mozambique have been wiped out by poachers apparently working in cahoots with the game rangers responsible for protecting them, it has emerged." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

Oh no - Iván Abrego

"Researchers say they’ve identified a gene mutation associated with a typical form of migraine headache. The causes of migraine headaches are unknown. Between 10 percent and 20 percent of people suffer from the debilitating, recurrent headaches. For the new study, published May 1 in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers analyzed the genetics of two families in which migraines were common. They found that many of the migraine sufferers had either a mutation in the casein kinase I delta (CKIdelta) gene or were the children of a parent with the mutation." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

Worst. Mutant. Power. Ever. /ComicBookGuy - Spidra Webster

Xavier and Magneto were wrong. We must cure the mutants. - Amit Patel

"IBM scientists using a special microscope they invented to move atoms around on a surface. The movie, titled "A Boy and His Atom," consists of nearly 250 frames of stop-motion action and tells the simple story of a boy named Atom who dances and plays with an atom. By drawing viewers in with the film (a technological marvel that will no doubt be passed around far and wide), IBM then uses an engrossing behind-the-scenes clip to tell its larger story—about how the company has worked at the nanoscale for decades to explore the limits of data storage, among other things with real-world applications. (...) Today's electronic devices need roughly 1 million atoms to store a single bit of data. But IBM researchers have shown that only 12 atoms are actually needed to store one bit. The implications for data storage are astonishing—it means that one day, every movie ever made could be stored in a device the size of a fingernail." - Amira from Bookmarklet

he dalloslar he. bu kafayla olur o is 100 yila. - kunthar

"...structural geologist Richard Allmendinger of Cornell University and his colleagues now find major earthquakes of magnitude 7 or greater apparently caused the crust in northern Chile to crack permanently." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"The hummingbird hovers and rotates as handily as a helicopter; the swift glides and loops all day without landing. How did these closely related animals develop such different flying techniques? Researchers are gleaning clues from the fossil (left) of a new bird species that lived 50 million years ago. At 12 cm, Eocypselus rowei, discovered in Wyoming by commercial fossil hunters, is built on the same small scale as hummingbirds (upper right) and swifts (lower right), its modern-day cousins. The specimen's fossilized feathers—an unusual find that delighted researchers—show that its wings were somewhere in between the swift's superlong flappers and the hummer's comparatively short ones. The fossil's petite size suggests that birds in this family started to shrink early, researchers report online today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, and that hummingbirds and swifts evolved separately, rather than one giving rise to the other. Fossilized pigment cells suggest that the new... more... - John (bird whisperer) from Bookmarklet

"New measurements suggest the Earth's inner core is far hotter than prior experiments suggested, putting it at 6,000C - as hot as the Sun's surface. The solid iron core is actually crystalline, surrounded by liquid. But the temperature at which that crystal can form had been a subject of long-running debate." - Joe Silence from Bookmarklet

As hot as the surface of the sun? That's pretty surprising. - Spidra Webster

"Harvard University announced yesterday that it would shut down its primate research center, used for research into diseases like AIDS, and move the 2,000 rhesus macaques and cotton-top tamarins to other research facilities throughout the country. Harvard cited "financial uncertainties" as the cause of the shutdown, somehow neglecting to mention that this research facility has been cited for violations of animal welfare by both governmental and private organizations." - Mark H from Bookmarklet

"The facility was called out last January by the Department of Agriculture for five direct violations, including the deaths of multiple monkeys as well as poor treatment of other monkeys--one cage was too small, others showed signs of psychological distress. Of the deceased monkeys, the one that jumps out is a cotton-top tamarin, a very small New World monkey, that was euthanized after... more... - Mark H

"St. Martin became fed up with surgery and was left with a fistula, a hole in his stomach through the abdominal wall, which left it open to view. (The strong stomach acid essentially disinfected the wound from the inside out, making it safe to not sew it up.) Because St. Martin couldn't work as a fur trapper anymore, Beaumont hired him as handyman. The daily task of cleaning the fistula gave Beaumont an idea: perhaps he could watch the process of digestion at work." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

That's gross and fascinating! - WoH: Professor MOTHRA

"The trio of "PhoneSats" is operating in orbit, and may prove to be the lowest-cost satellites ever flown in space. The goal of NASA's PhoneSat mission is to determine whether a consumer-grade smartphone can be used as the main flight avionics of a capable, yet very inexpensive, satellite. Transmissions from all three PhoneSats have been received at multiple ground stations on Earth, indicating they are operating normally. The PhoneSat team at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will continue to monitor the satellites in the coming days. The satellites are expected to remain in orbit for as long as two weeks. "It's always great to see a space technology mission make it to orbit -- the high frontier is the ultimate testing ground for new and innovative space technologies of the future," said Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology in Washington. "Smartphones offer a wealth of potential capabilities for flying small, low-cost, powerful... more... - John (bird whisperer) from Bookmarklet

I was just messin' :-) - Le Slip Anglais from Android

"Behind the bars of some of the nation's finest cocktail joints, there are secrets: secret recipes, secret bottles for friends only. One of these is the Green Dragon, a liquor potently infused with marijuana. There've been alcohol-based tinctures of cannabis before, of course -- usually seen in turbid brown jars on windowsills, But one prominent New York bartender (I'll call him Jon) has been responsible for bringing the infusion up to date with modern, artisanal cocktail culture. Jon is a serious, technologically minded craftsman of beverages; he works as a cocktail consultant, and has designed the cocktail programs of more than one Manhattan bar." - Joe Silence from Bookmarklet

There are many variations on green dragon, extant in the world. In my opinion, not one of them measures up to just gettin mah blaze on.[edit] but then, I've never been to Manhattan :-) - Le Slip Anglais from Android

1) Bilaterally symmetric - or zygomorphic flowers - have evolved several times and are associated with pollinator specialisation. The different types of petals form in response to gradient of the gene CYCLOIDEA (CYC), which is strongly expressed at the top or dorsal side of the flower bud, and not expressed on the bottom or ventral side. Such a gradient is seen in both bilaterally symmetric and radialy symmetric flowers. The different types of flowers differ in how they respond to the gradient. - Halil from Bookmarklet

2) Most species in the Gesneriaceae possess zygomorphic flowers, probably in response to pollinator adaptations. We isolated Gcyc, the Gesneriaceae homologue of CYCLOIDEA (a gene involved in the expression of floral symmetry in Antirrhinum), from a range of taxa with zygomorphic and actinomorphic flowers. The results indicated that the gene is still active in those species that possess... more... - Halil

yes, i was bored and this is what i'm reading, does that make me sad? lol - genetics is actually quite fascinating, but biochemical genetics rocks!!! def: biochemical genetics the science concerned with the chemical and physical nature of genes and the mechanism by which they control the development and maintenance of the organism. http://medical-dictionary.thef... - Halil

"People with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other breathing disorders need fast relief when their airways tighten up. Unfortunately, the most commonly used medication has obnoxious side effects. But scientists recently discovered that a bitter taste can be a more effective treatment—and now they know why. The work is published in PLoS Biology. [Cheng-Hai Zhang et al, The Cellular and Molecular Basis of Bitter Tastant-Induced Bronchodilation]" - imabonehead from Bookmarklet