Science Online

"[Brent] Tully, a cosmologist at the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy (...) has mapped the universe in detail out to a distance of about 100 million light years. To put that in more human terms: Columbus’s maps of the New World described a land 3,000 miles from home, but Tully’s map extends 6,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles out. No wonder he is often referred to as a cosmic cartographer. By filling in the details, Tully has made it possible to discern the true structure of the universe: clusters of galaxies arranged into enormous filaments, bound together by invisible strands of dark matter, and tremendous lonely voids where galaxies are sparse." - Amira from Bookmarklet

Dr Mario Caccamo of the Genome Analysis Centre said: "Speed is important to the research so that all those studying the epidemic can start to look for clues to tackle it." And they do mean everyone. All the data is being put on a crowd sourcing website OpenAshDieBack to enable experts from around the world to help identify genes that might be connected to the trees' ability to withstand the fungus. These genes could then be part of a breeding programme for resistant trees. - Halil from Bookmarklet

After half an hour on hands and knees in the leaf litter and some identification first by magnifying glass and then by genetic analyser, that all changed. Paul Beales said: "We've just got the sporing stage of this particular fungus picked up from the ground which has never been found in the UK before. "This is a first. It's here to stay." If that is true, breeding a tree which can survive alongside it is more crucial than ever. - Halil

Here’s the premise behind the Alcubierre "warp drive": Although Special Relativity forbids objects to move faster than light within spacetime, it is unknown how fast spacetime itself can move. To use an analogy, imagine you are on one of those moving sidewalks that can be found in some airports. The Alcubierre warp drive is like one of those moving sidewalks. Although there may be a limit to how fast one can walk across the floor (analogous to the light speed limit), what about if you are on a moving section of floor that moves faster than you can walk (analogous to a moving section of spacetime)? In the case of the Alcubierre warp drive, this moving section of spacetime is created by expanding spacetime behind the ship (analogous to where the sidewalk emerges from underneath the floor), and by contracting spacetime in front of the ship (analogous to where the sidewalk goes back into the floor). The idea of expanding spacetime is not new. Using the "Inflationary Universe" perspective,... more... - Eric from Bookmarklet

In 1994, the Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre proposed a method of stretching space in a wave which would in theory cause the fabric of space ahead of a spacecraft to contract and the space behind it to expand. The ship would ride this wave inside a region known as a warp bubble of flat space. Since the ship is not moving within this bubble, but carried along as the region itself moves, conventional relativistic effects such as time dilation do not apply in the way they would in the case of a ship moving at high velocity through flat spacetime. Also, this method of travel does not actually involve moving faster than light in a local sense, since a light beam within the bubble would still always move faster than the ship; it is only "faster than light" in the sense that, thanks to the contraction of the space in front of it, the ship could reach its destination faster than a light beam restricted to travelling outside the warp bubble. Thus, the Alcubierre drive does not contradict the conventional claim that relativity forbids a slower-than-light object to accelerate to faster-than-light speeds. - Eric from Bookmarklet

Although this distance is far smaller than the 143 km record for the quantum teleportation of relatively simple states, the experiment achieves a different type of teleportation that had previously been achieved only across microscopic distances. The technique can teleport complex quantum states and could therefore have a range of technological applications – including quantum computing, long-distance quantum communication and remote sensing. - Halil from Bookmarklet

read comment 1, is he/she being paranoid or is that actually possible? - Halil

I have no clue. Last I did any sort of physics, Heisenberg was being an uncertain ass, which seemed to imply none of the above was possible. - WoH: Professor MOTHRA

"The newest addition to human anatomy is just 15 microns thick, but its discovery will make eye surgery safer and simpler. Harminder Dua, a professor at the University of Nottingham, recently found a new layer in the human cornea, and he's calling it (can you guess?) Dua's layer. Dua's layer sits at the back of the cornea, which previously had only five known layers. Dua and his colleagues discovered the new body part by injecting air into the corneas of eyes that had been donated for research and using an electron microscope to scan each separated layer. The researchers now believe that a tear in Dua's layer is the cause of corneal hydrops, a disorder that leads to fluid buildup in the cornea. According to Dua, knowledge of the new layer could dramatically improve outcomes for patients undergoing corneal grafts and transplants." - Amira

Quantum cryptography avoids all these issues. Here, the key is encrypted into a series of photons that get passed between two parties trying to share secret information. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle dictates that an adversary can’t look at these photons without changing or destroying them. “In this case, it doesn’t matter what technology the adversary has, they’ll never be able to break the laws of physics,” said physicist Richard Hughes of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, who works on quantum cryptography. But in practice, quantum cryptography comes with its own load of weaknesses. It was recognized in 2010, for instance, that a hacker could blind a detector with a strong pulse, rendering it unable to see the secret-keeping photons. Renner points to many other problems. Photons are often generated using a laser tuned to such a low intensity that it’s producing one single photon at a time. There is a certain probability that the laser will make a photon encoded... more... - Eric from Bookmarklet

I don't understand the point of quantum cryptography. Don't you want to be able to separate the message from the medium? - Amit Patel

Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute have announced the capacity to consistently teleport information between two clouds of gas atoms, according to a report in the journal Nature Physics. “It is a very important step for quantum information research to have achieved such stable results that every attempt will succeed,” - Eric from Bookmarklet

Scientists are in awe after discovering a Queensland lake that has barely been affected by changes in climate for 7,000 years. - Eric from Bookmarklet

"Early Earth was not very hospitable when it came to jump starting life. In fact, new research shows that life on Earth may have come from out of this world. (...) Lawrence Livermore scientist Nir Goldman and University of Ontario Institute of Technology colleague Isaac Tamblyn found that icy comets that crashed into Earth millions of years ago could have produced life building organic compounds, including the building blocks of proteins and nucleobases pairs of DNA and RNA. Comets contain a variety of simple molecules, such as water, ammonia, methanol and carbon dioxide, and an impact event with a planetary surface would provide an abundant supply of energy to drive chemical reactions." - Amira from Bookmarklet

Closed access article form the ACS. Figures. - OMG 404 Joe

Weinstein's theory is also the first major challenge to the validity of Einstein's Field Equations, revealing that "just as Newton's equations were an approximation to nature so too are Einstein's. One of the intriguing things to emerge from the mathematics that Weinstein weaves while combining these theories is a solution to one of the other enduring mysteries of physics: dark energy and the cosmological constant." Du Sautoy reports that When Einstein produced his Field Equations, the prevailing wisdom was that "the universe was stationary – neither expanding nor contracting. To make his equations work he arbitrarily had to stick in an extra term called the cosmological constant to ensure the universe stood still. When it was later discovered that in fact the universe was expanding he removed the term and dubbed it 'biggest blunder of my life'." But we have recently discovered, du Sautoy reports that "not only is the universe expanding, that expansion is accelerating, being pushed by... more... - Eric from Bookmarklet

] Satellite observations reveal a greening of the globe over recent decades. The role in this greening of the ‘CO2 fertilization’ effect – the enhancement of photosynthesis due to rising CO2 levels – is yet to be established. The direct CO2 effect on vegetation should be most clearly expressed in warm, arid environments where water is the dominant limit to vegetation growth. Using gas exchange theory, we predict that the 14% increase in atmospheric CO2 (1982–2010) led to a 5 to 10% increase in green foliage cover in warm, arid environments. Satellite observations, analysed to remove the effect of variations in rainfall, show that cover across these environments has increased by 11%. Our results confirm that the anticipated CO2 fertilization effect is occurring alongside ongoing anthropogenic perturbations to the carbon cycle and that the fertilisation effect is now a significant land surface process. - Eric from Bookmarklet

"Right now we’re living in what Carl Sagan correctly termed a demon-haunted world. We have created a Star Wars civilization but we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology. That’s dangerous. (…) Constant turmoil occurs in modern human societies and what I’m suggesting is that turmoil is endemic in the way human advanced social behavior originated in the first place. It’s by group selection that occurred favoring altruism versus individual level selection, which by and large, not exclusively, favor individual and selfish behavior. We’re hung in the balance. We’ll never reach either one extreme or the other. (...) I’ve also felt very strongly that we needed a much better understanding of who we are and where we came from. We need answers to those questions in order to get our bearings toward a successful long-term future, that means a future for ourselves, our species and for the rest of life. (...) We have a kind of resistance toward honest... more... - Amira from Bookmarklet

“There was this American physiologist who was asked if Mary’s bodily ascent from Earth to Heaven was possible. He said,“I wasn’t there; therefore, I’m not positive that it happened or didn’t happen; but of one thing I’m certain: She passed out at 10,000 meters.” - Amira

Physicists have a problem, and they will be the first to admit it. The two mathematical frameworks that govern modern physics, quantum mechanics and general relativity, just don't play nicely together despite decades of attempts at unification. Eric Weinstein, a consultant at a New York City hedge fund with a background in mathematics and physics, says the solution is to find beauty before seeking truth. Weinstein hit the headlines last week after mathematician Marcus du Sautoy at the University of Oxford invited him to give a lecture detailing his new theory of the universe, dubbed Geometric Unity. Du Sautoy also provided an overview of Weinstein's theory on the website of The Guardian newspaper to "promote, perhaps, a new way of doing science". - Eric from Bookmarklet

http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/node... - Eric

Now they’re just messing with us. Physicists have long known that quantum mechanics allows for a subtle connection between quantum particles called entanglement, in which measuring one particle can instantly set the otherwise uncertain condition, or “state,” of another particle—even if it’s light years away. Now, experimenters in Israel have shown that they can entangle two photons that don’t even exist at the same time. - Eric from Bookmarklet

Stranger than fiction. - Eric

Researchers at the University of Southampton have taken a significant step in a project to unravel the secrets of the structure of our Universe. One of the main recent advances in theoretical physics is the holographic principle. According to this idea, our Universe may be thought of as a hologram and we would like to understand how to formulate the laws of physics for such a holographic Universe. A new paper released by Professor Skenderis and Dr Marco Caldarelli from the University of Southampton, Dr Joan Camps from the University of Cambridge and Dr Blaise Goutéraux from the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, Sweden published in Physical Review D, makes connections between negatively curved space-time and flat space-time. The paper AdS/Ricci-flat correspondence and the Gregory-Laflamme instability specifically explains what is known as the Gregory Laflamme instability, where certain types of black hole break up into smaller black holes when disturbed – rather like a thin... more... - Eric from Bookmarklet

The findings, published in the May 30 issue of Nature, take a closer look at the 4-million-atom structure of HIV's protein shell, also known as the capsid. "The capsid is critically important for HIV replication, so knowing its structure in detail could lead us to new drugs that can treat or prevent the infection," said Peijun Zhang, senior author of the study and associate professor in the department of structural biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "This approach has the potential to be a powerful alternative to our current HIV therapies, which work by targeting certain enzymes, but drug resistance is an enormous challenge due to the virus' high mutation rate." - Halil from Bookmarklet

There does seem to be some correlation between depression, whatever the cause, and risky behaviour, just did a search. It's interesting though, I'm old enough to remember the initial outbreak and everyone back then suffered horribly and died soon after infection; now newer/better drugs can prolong and actually mediate some semblance of a normal life, it's no longer the immediate death... more... - Halil

According to The Siberian Times, the blood will now be made available to South Korean scientists seeking to use mammoth DNA to bring creatures back to life. The find - said to be the first time mammoth blood has been discovered - comes amid a hotly contested debate over the morality of Jurassic Park-style projects to restore extinct creatures to the planet, with some scientists insisting it will be impossible to get exactly the same mammoths as once roamed Siberia. - Eric from Bookmarklet

Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have developed a technique that, basically, exchanges bad carbon dioxide with an eco-friendly solution. The new approach, detailed in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, removes and stores atmospheric carbon dioxide while creating carbon-negative hydrogen and producing alkalinity, which can be utilized to counterbalance acidification in ocean waters. - Eric from Bookmarklet

The study explores how large-scale pathogen outbreaks were much more infrequent in the past, which suggests the human role in transporting pathogens to new locations, such as the international seed trade, is a major factor. - Halil from Bookmarklet

shock horror, humans spreading disease? really? - Halil

Plants that were frozen during the "Little Ice Age" centuries ago have been observed sprouting new growth, scientists say. Samples of 400-year-old plants known as bryophytes have flourished under laboratory conditions. Researchers say this back-from-the-dead trick has implications for how ecosystems recover from the planet's cyclic long periods of ice coverage. - Eric from Bookmarklet

"Physicists have dreamed up some bizarre ideas over the years, but a decade or so ago they outdid themselves with the concept of Boltzmann brains – fully formed, conscious entities that form spontaneously in outer space. It may seem impossible for a brain to blink into existence, but the laws of physics don't rule it out entirely. All it requires is a vast amount of time. Eventually, a random chunk of matter and energy will happen to come together in the form of a working mind. It's the same logic that says a million monkeys working on a million typewriters will replicate the complete works of Shakespeare, if you leave them long enough. (...) However, if we can demonstrate that the universe has a finite lifespan, that would deny Boltzmann brains the infinite time they need to outnumber us. String theory might be able to help (...)." - Amira from Bookmarklet

"According to string theory, there may be a large number of universes. All of these universes are believed to come into existence through a process called eternal inflation, in which at least one universe continually expands at an incredible rate, while others form and grow within it like bubbles. This pool of universes has been dubbed the multiverse. Many of these other universes could... more... - Amira

If scientists and officials at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California seem a little starstruck these days, there's a good reason: The lab's massive National Ignition Facility, or NIF, has something of a starring role in Star Trek Into Darkness, which opened nationwide last Thursday. "For many years, we've been waiting for ‘Star Trek' to realize that they should be here," NIF principal associate director Ed Moses told Live Science. "This is a very futuristic facility... and I think we've all been influenced by Star Trek's vision of the future." - Eric from Bookmarklet

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

"The gate model... is the single worst thing that ever happened to quantum computing", Geordie Rose, chief technology officer for D-Wave, told BBC Radio 4's Material World programme. "And when we look back 20 years from now, at the history of this field, we'll wonder why anyone ever thought that was a good idea." Dr Rose's approach entails a completely different way of posing your question, and it only works for certain questions. But according to a paper presented this week (the result of benchmarking tests required by Nasa and Google), it is very fast indeed at finding the optimal solution to a problem that potentially has many different combinations of answers. - Eric from Bookmarklet

Scientists hailed CERN's confirmation of the Higgs Boson in July of 2012, speculating that it could one day make light speed travel possible by "un-massing" objects or allow huge items to be launched into space by "switching off" the Higgs. CERN scientist Albert de Roeck likened it to the discovery of electricity, when he said humanity could never have imagined its future applications. - Eric from Bookmarklet

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

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

Perhaps lit by Native Americans hundreds or thousands of years ago, it is fed by a new type of geologic process that hasn't been recorded before in nature, Schimmelmann told OurAmazingPlanet. Typically, this type of gas is thought to come from deeply submerged, ancient and extremely hot deposits of shale, a kind of rock. Temperatures have to be near the boiling point of water or hotter to break down the large carbon molecules in shale and create smaller molecules of natural gas, Schimmelmann explained. - Eric from Bookmarklet

It’s important to understand our relationship with the microbial world. Most microscopic organisms benefit humans, other organisms or the environment in some way — for example, they help us digest our food and keep bad bugs in check. At the same time, we are never far away from one of the 1,400 kinds of disease-causing microbes that are capable of infecting people; many infect animals, too. Of these microbes, known as pathogens, about 500 can be transmitted from humans to other humans. And around 150 of them can cause epidemics — rapidly spreading outbreaks of serious, sometimes life-threatening, disease. Each pathogen has its own “footprint” (or potential footprint) on our human health and social, political and economic landscapes. Far too often the public — and policy makers and journalists — confuse those infectious diseases that can be life-threatening for a limited number of individuals with those that can cause widespread damage to society as a whole. A disease in the former... more... - Eric from Bookmarklet