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World Science
2006-12-02 16:00:05
There?s nothing I like better then to collaborate with other informative & educational sites. An offer from World Science has recently sparked my attention. This site offers a wide range of information and topics that is well organized and suitable for all ages So take a break and visit World ScienceReally great stuff and fascinating!

Ranting and Venting: Evangelical Leaders Join Global Warming
2006-12-02 16:00:05
I posted this article over at my blog and thought you would like to read it as well.It looks like we have some powerful friends joining our fight over Global War ming .From Ranting and Venting:In what has to be considered a strange turn of events, dozens of evangelical Christian leaders have broken from religious right dogma and are backing a major initiative to fight global warming. Saying in their letter, "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors."Laurie Goldstein of the New York Times writes: Among signers of the statement, which will be released in Washington on Wednesday, are the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, leaders of aid groups and churches, like the Salvation Army, and pastors of megachurches, including Rick Warren, author of the best seller "The Purpose-Driven Life." "For most of us, until recently this has not been treated as a pressing issue or major priority," the statement said. "Indeed, m...
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NASA Preparing Oxygen Generation System for Space Station
2006-12-02 16:00:05
This article impressed me greatly. Knowing that we have come to the point of regenerating oxygen supplies in a contained environment, The Space Station , is an outstanding feat.The system was shipped from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., on Jan. 24, and arrived the next day at the agency's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The system will be installed in a pressurized cargo compartment later this month for a possible May launch aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery."Delivering this hardware to the space station is a major step toward achieving the full potential of the complex," said Mike Suffredini, station program manager. "Once complete, the regenerative life support system will sustain additional crew members onboard that can conduct more scientific research. It also will give us experience operating and sustaining a 'closed-loop' life support system similar to that necessary for future human spaceflight missions farther from Earth," he added.The system will also...
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Pharaonic tomb find stuns Egypt
2006-12-02 16:00:05
Archaeologists have discovered an intact, ancient Egypt ian tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the first since King Tutankhamun's was found in 1922. A team led by the University of Memphis found the previously unknown tomb complete with unopened sarcophagi and five undisturbed mummies. The archaeologists have not yet been able to identify them. The Valley of the Kings near Luxor in southern Egypt was used for burials for around 500 years from 1540BC onwards. The tomb, the 63rd discovered since the valley was first mapped in the 18th century, was unexpectedly found only 5m away from King Tutankhamun's, a member of the team told the BBC's World Tonight. Patricia Podzorski, curator of Egyptian Art at the University of Memphis, said the team had not been looking for it. Surprise "The excavation team was focused on the tomb of a 19th Dynasty pharaoh, King Amenmesses," she said. "They were working in front of the tomb looking for foundation deposits possibly related to that tomb,...
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Darwin's Evolution Gets Challenged in a Good Way
2006-12-02 16:00:05
Here is an Interesting article that has absolutely nothing to say about (un)intelligent design.From Slashdot:"Darwin 's Theory of Evolution comes under an interesting attack from an American anthropologist and an Italian biochemist, according to an article from University of Pittsburgh's school newspaper. In a nutshell, Schwartz and Maresca argue that change is not gradual as Darwin stated, but comes rapidly in response to drastic mutations caused by shifting environmental conditions."An interesting article.Nan Ama Sarfo of the Pitt News writes:?If you look at the fossil record, organisms didn?t gain new items like teeth and jaws gradually,? Schwartz said. ?It?s not like fish developed bony teeth one piece at a time. It happened suddenly.? Schwartz believes that stressors such as extreme heat and cold precipitate changes in evolution. ?Cells don?t like change. They have many different proteins that protect them from extreme changes,? Schwartz said. ?With all these different mechani...
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More Greenland Ice Flowing Into Sea, in Sign of Warming
2006-12-02 16:00:05
What do you think the GOP will call this? Melting Glaciers off of Green land? It's probably temporary.....Yeah right. You guys know how to swim right?Andrew C. Revkin of The New York Times writes:The amount of ice flowing into the sea from large glaciers in southern Greenland has almost doubled in the last 10 years, possibly requiring scientists to increase estimates of how much seas could rise under the influence of global warming, according to a study to be published Friday in the journal Science.The authors said there is evidence that the rise in flows will soon spread to glaciers farther north on the vast island of Greenland, which is covered with an ancient ice sheet nearly two miles high in places that holds enough water to raise global sea levels 20 feet or more should it all flow into the ocean.The study compared various satellite measurements of the creeping ice in 1996, 2000, and 2005 and was done by researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and...
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Girl's Science Project May Make You Rethink That Drink Order
2006-12-02 16:00:05
As much as I really didn't want this one to be true, I have to give it to this student?s scientific proof and testing to find these disturbing results.Those ice-cold drinks from favorite fast food restaurants may not seem as refreshing after a seventh-grader's science project reveals what may lurk inside the cup.Benito Middle School student Jasmine Roberts examined the amount of bacteria in ice served at fast food restaurants.Her project won the science fair at the New Tampa school, and she hopes to win a top prize at the Hillsborough County Regional Science and Engineering Fair, which starts Tuesday.The 12-year-old compared the ice used in the drinks with the water from toilet bowls in the same restaurants. Jasmine said she found the results startling."I thought there might be a little bacteria in the ice, but I never expected it to be this much," she said. "And I never thought the toilet water would be cleaner."Her discovery: Seventy percent of the time, the ice had more bacteri...
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Kissing: nature's cure-all, for most
2006-12-02 16:00:05
Here?s a posting regarding the KISS and its possible origins that I found interesting. So is it healthy? Who cares, Pucker up and go plant one on somebody and find out!Some cultures in Africa and the Himalayas don't believe in it.Some indigenous groups in the northern extremes of North America and in the Asian Pacific don't do it the same way you do it.And 40 percent of U.S. women believe they are so good at it, they're "unforgettable."It's first base. Locking lips. Snogging. Mashing.Whatever you call it, kissing is largely universal, with 90 percent of the world's population engaging in some form of it.While there are different kisses ? greeting kisses, show-of-respect kisses, familial kisses and passionate kisses ? kissing has become as ingrained in our lives as breathing."Kiss ing can be a bonding ritual," said Robin Hicks, an anthropology instructor at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. "The human species is kind of wired that way ? humans need other humans."Americans s...
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Global Warming Impact Gets Worse On Entire Great Lakes Regio
2006-12-02 16:00:05
As a Michigan resident and native, I find this disturbing. I can see what they are talking about happening around me.There are people that say we've already past the point of no return on global warming. I certainly hope not.Union of concerned Scientists writes:A revised report, originally released in 2003, finds that the Great Lakes region may suffer from the effects of a changing climate more than previously thought. A team of leading scientists from Midwest universities and solutions experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) recently found that extreme heat events are occurring more frequently, heavy precipitation events, both rain and snow, are becoming more common, air quality may deteriorate due to harmful gases released during more frequent forest fires and the number of summer pollution days may be on the rise. These changes will bring challenges to residents in Great Lakes cities as well as in rural areas, highlighting the need for action to forestall many of the ...
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Princeton professor foresees computer science revolution
2006-12-02 16:00:05
I realize that I missed out on the .COM boom back in the day, but if this guy knows something I don't then BRING IT ON! Because I've been waiting for the "so called" big PC boom! At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science , Bernard Chazelle, professor of computer science at Princeton University, plans to issue a call to arms for his profession, challenging his colleagues to grab society by the lapels and evangelize the importance of studying computer science. According to the most recent data available, the top 36 computer science departments in the United States saw enrollments drop nearly 20 percent between 2000 and 2004."The big paradox is that the computer science revolution is just unfolding," Chazelle said. "Why, then, are students are running away from it; why is there this decline when the field has never been more exciting?"Chazelle will be on the "Comp uter Science Behind Your Science" panel at AAAS on February 17. His presentation is...
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Invasion of the Computer Snatchers
2006-12-02 16:00:05
Interesting Story here for you computer geeks. Join the club...Hackers are hijacking thousands of PCs to spy on users, shake down online businesses, steal identities and send millions of pieces of spam. If you think your computer is safe, think againBy Brian KrebsSunday, February 19, 2006; Page W10In the six hours between crashing into bed and rolling out of it, the 21-year-old hacker has broken into nearly 2,000 personal computers around the globe. He slept while software he wrote scoured the Internet for vulnerable computers and infected them with viruses that turned them into slaves.Now, with the smoke of his day's first Marlboro curling across the living room of his parents' brick rambler, the hacker known online as "0x80" (pronounced X-eighty) plops his wiry frame into a tan, weathered couch, sets his new laptop on the coffee table and punches in a series of commands. At his behest, the commandeered PCs will begin downloading and installing software that will bombard their u...
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Where have we been?!?!?
2006-12-02 16:00:05
So you guys have probably been wondering about our sparse posts lately. Well I decided to explain it. Demetrios are going to be losing our jobs at the end of the week. They decided to outsource our jobs to that far away land called Houston, TX.So in the time that we should be diligent and blogging and swearing, we've been job searching (and just a little bit of drinking).I wanted to let you guys know that we are still here. We haven't given up (or been arrested) but it seems fairly important to have an income. At least that's what my fiance and kids keep telling me.So bear with us. Soon we'll be posting like mad again. Hell, if we don't find jobs soon, we'll be posting just to have something to do. You might even get sick of us!Wish us luck. We'll let you know what's going on.Adam Mindwolf
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Rapid Galaxy merging dominates universe?s early history
2006-12-02 16:00:05
A new study by a researcher at The University of Nottingham has provided the first observational evidence of how massive galaxies in our universe formed.The results of this study have major implications for many other areas of research and are being used by astronomers to explain seemingly unrelated processes such as how massive black holes and the universe?s stars came to be.The research, led by Dr. Christopher J. Conselice of the University?s School of Physics and Astronomy, is published in the February 20th edition of the Astrophysical Journal.It uses the deepest images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to study galaxies when they were only two billion years old. His team has found that the majority of the most massive galaxies in the early universe are undergoing multiple and spectacular mergers.These mergers lead to the creation of new stars from colliding gas clouds and likely feed and grow the masses of black holes lurking in the centre of all galaxies.The work is helping t...
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Budget Cuts Threaten Environment
2006-12-02 16:00:05
My friends at the National Environment al Trust sent me an interesting email in response to my post in Ranting and Venting concerning Bush's pretend oil addiction.Here's the email:Hey man, nice piece on the Bush budget and renewable energy. If you'’re looking for more, we've pulled together a bunch of resources on both energy and on Bush'’s proposal to sell public lands to make up for budget shortfalls. You might find something else you can use there: http://www.net.org/policy/budget/Keep up the good work.So quite naturally, I checked it out. They have managed to put together a pretty nice collection of articles and links that describe, to the letter, just how stupid Bush thinks we are. He just simply tells us how green he is while he makes it easier for oil and pollution. Personally, I think he drinks the stuff.From NET.org:It is now clear that President Bush's budget has completely undercut his State of the Union address promise to address our "addiction to oil" by 2025. The ...
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Nuclear fusion bubble bursts
2006-12-02 16:00:05
Doubt was cast this week on the credibility of experiments that seemed to suggest potentially limitless amounts of energy could be derived from collapsing bubbles.In 2002 the physicist Rusi Taleyarkhan claimed to have conducted experiments in which nuclear fusion - the chemical reaction that powers the sun - was achieved when bubbles created in acetone using a pulse of neutrons collapsed.The physics is real enough - theoretically the temperature inside a collapsing bubble only one millimetre in diameter can rise as high as the centre of the sun. But other scientists doubted whether this could result in nuclear fusion and the generation of energy, as Mr Taleyarkhan claimed.Now, this week Nature magazine reports that Mr Taleyarkhan's colleagues at Purdue University, Indiana, say their confidence in his work has been damaged.Lefteri Tsoukalas, Tatjana Jevremovic and others say that he has removed apparatus with which they were trying to replicate his findings, and say he claimed posit...
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Global warming a major health risk - scientists
2006-02-09 06:05:00
Global warming is already causing death and disease across the world through flooding, environmental destruction, heatwaves and other extreme weather events, scientists said on Thursday.And it is likely to get worse.In a review published in The Lancet medical journal, the scientists said there was now a near-unanimous scientific consensus that rising levels of greenhouse gases would cause global warming and other climate changes."The advent of changes in global climate signals that we are now living beyond the Earth's capacity to absorb a major waste product," said Anthony McMichael of the Australian National University in Canberra and his colleagues, referring to greenhouse gases.The scientists' review of dozens of scientific papers over the last five years said health risks were likely to get worse over time as climate change and other environmental and social changes deepened."The resultant risks to health ... are anticipated to compound over time as climate change along with o...
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NASA Public-Affairs Appointee Resigns in Disgrace
2006-02-08 15:15:00
NASA Public -Affairs Appointee Resign s in Disgrace:"George C. Deutsch, who tried to muzzle top NASA climate scientist James Hansen and ordered NASA web designers to add the word 'theory' to every mention of the Big Bang, has resigned. The New York Times reports that NASA declines to discuss the reasons for his resignation, but that it came the same day that Texas A&M University, from which Deutsch claimed on his resume to have graduated, revealed that he had attended the university but did not complete his degree." The New York Times reports it today, but as of yesterday, it was the Times that had unquestioningly passed along the falsehood of Deutsch's graduation, and it was the blog Scientific Activist whose investigation revealed he'd left before graduating to work on the Bush reelection campaign. For more on the 24-year-old political appointee's interesting viewpoints, see World O' Crap; on Monday, we covered the anger over his attempts to squelch science -- something that, ...
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Scientists Find Concrete Properties Of Dark Matter
2006-02-08 02:23:00
Scientists in the United Kingdom have finally gained some clues into one of the enduring mysteries of modern science, dark matter.A team at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge have for the first time put real numbers on how it is packed in space and measure its "temperature," reports BBC News.Dark matter is invisible to telescopes because it emits no light or radiation. It can only be detected indirectly, by observing the way galaxies rotate.Scientists concluded that because the stars move so rapidly, the gravitational attraction of an unseen material must be holding them together.Astronomers have also established that dark matter makes up about 80-85 percent of the Universe, reports BBC News.In the new study, scientists use the largest telescopes in the world to observe 12 dwarf galaxies on the edge of the Milky Way.They traced the impression of dark matter among the galaxies using the movement of the stars, and were able to weigh it precisely.Continued...
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Canadians set sights on colossal 'eye in the sky'
2006-02-05 06:00:00
When it's finally completed toward the middle of the next decade, it will be by far the largest optical telescope in the world -- and Cana da will have played a major part in its development.The proposed giant "eye on the sky" is called the TMT, for Thirty-Metre Telescope, and, with a main mirror about the size of an Olympic swimming pool, it will dwarf all previous such instruments."Canada has taken a very bold approach to astronomy over the years," says University of Toronto astronomer Ray Carlberg, who has spearheaded Canada's involvement with the TMT project, and the new telescope will ensure "that Canada is not left behind" as the next generation of instruments takes shape."It's going to be completely transformative," adds Bob Abraham, a colleague of Prof. Carlberg at U of T. "And in particular for Canada, it's going to put us, I think, in the driver's seat, in terms of international astronomy."Review Site
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NASA's Past Creeping Out of The Dark.
2006-02-05 05:00:00
SPACEHAB Files Court Complaint for Losses on Space Shuttle MissionHOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 3, 2006--SPACEHAB, Incorporated (NASDAQ/NMS:SPAB), a leading provider of commercial space services, announced today that it is filing a civil complaint against NASA with the United States District Court in Houston, Texas for loss and damages suffered during the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy in February 2003. The Company's research double module and related equipment were destroyed, along with the space shuttle and her crew, during reentry at the conclusion of the STS-107 mission. In November 2004 SPACEHAB filed a claim with NASA under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) of $79.7 million for recovery of the losses on the flight. After NASA failed to respond to the claim within a reasonable period of time, the Company was left no choice but to consider the claim as denied and then pursue restitution in the Federal Court system.Under the FTCA, SPACEHAB claims that NASA's actions and omis...
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Mars Rover Update: Onward To Victoria Crater
2006-02-03 13:49:00
Remember those plucky little Mars Rover robots? The ones with the Enegizer Bunny complex? Have you heard? Yep they're still going! They're getting old but, for now the mission continues.Leonard David for Space.com writes:NASA revered Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are both on a roll toward new scientific objectives, but two years into their mission, the twin robots are each showing their age. Spirit at Gusev crater is closing in on "Home Plate"--a circular feature that scientists want to study before the Martian winter sets in. Scientists are hopeful of finding layered rock outcrops in that area that could yield additional data about the geology of the "Columbia Hills". Spirit has been on the move after departing Husband Hill, part of the seven-rise Columbia Hills chain that the robot successfully scaled after months of mountain climbing. It has been steadily driving through the basin south of Husband Hill, traversing mainly sand and dune deposits. Meanwhile, ground con...
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Scientists discover frozen methane gas deposit off California
2006-02-03 11:18:00
LOS ANGELES - Scientists have discovered an undersea deposit of frozen methane just off the Southern Cali fornia coast, but whether it can be harnessed as a potential energy source is unknown.The size of the deposit is unknown but the researchers believe it to be substantial.In recent years, there has been a growing interest in tapping methane hydrates, ice-like crystals that form under seabeds and Arctic permafrost.Scientists estimate that the methane trapped in previously known frozen reservoirs around the globe could power the world for centuries. But finding the technology to mine such deposits has proved elusive.The newly discovered deposit is located at the summit of a mud volcano 15 miles off the Southern California coast. Scientists were plumbing the Pacific Ocean on an unrelated expedition when they accidentally came across the volcano, which sits on top of an active fault zone in the Santa Monica Basin.To scientists' surprise, the ecosystem surrounding the methane hydrate ...
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Japanese computer chip maker to pay 84 million dollar fine in US
2006-02-03 11:07:00
Here's one that goes out to all the PC building guru's out there.Silicon wafer for DRAM chips. Japanese computer chip maker Elpida Memory Inc. has agreed to pay an 84 million dollar fine after pleading guilty to price-fixing, US prosecutors said.Japanese computer chip maker Elpida Memory Inc. has agreed to pay an 84 million dollar fine after pleading guilty to price-fixing, US prosecutors said..Elpida joined other makers to set the prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) sold to computer makers between April 1, 1999 and June 15, 2002, according to charges filed in the US district court in San Francisco..The plea deal, which will not be final until approved by the court, called for Elpida to cooperate with US investigators working to determine the extent of the price conspiracy..Included in the deal are "cooperation and non-prosecution" deals with Elpida's corporate predecessors, NEC Corporation and Hitachi Ltd., according to Luke Macauley of the US Department of Justice.Con...
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Final space voyage
2006-02-03 08:53:00
What a great way to be remembered.ONE of the first Americans to orbit the Earth will make a final voyage into space when his ashes are rocketed into the cosmos.The ashes of Gordon Cooper, who was part of NASA's Project Mercury, which sent the first Americans into space, will join those of Star Trek actor James Doohan on a Falcon One rocket to be launched from California. The launch date hasn't been set."Gordon always would have taken another space flight had he the opportunity," said his widow Suzan Cooper. "This was the next best thing." View Site
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Bush's Health Plan Called Smart Politics; Critics See a 'Gimmick'
2006-02-03 04:45:00
WASHINGTON ? When President Bush's critics would charge that the administration's healthcare policy ? which emphasized tax-advantaged health savings accounts ? was tilted in favor of the rich, supporters had an easy answer. They would point to a costly White House proposal to provide poor families with tax credits toward the purchase of medical insurance.Now, that response is no longer available. After making no progress winning congressional approval for the 10-year, $74-billion credit, administration officials have quietly revamped the measure in ways that would sharply reduce its costs and thereby offset the price tag for the White House's proposed expansion of health savings accounts.Some analysts see smart politics behind the design of the administration's latest healthcare package, which Bush announced, with little detail, in his State of the Union address Tuesday."They have hit some really important themes, they've solved some political problems and, if it were to pass, ...
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