Showing posts tagged science
Scientists share images of lost city in Honduras NBC News: A high-tech team of scientists and filmmakers shared pictures of what appears to have been a centuries-old civilization in Honduras, one year after they used laser-mapping technology to identify traces of structures in the thick jungle. The square-shaped and rounded structures, seen in computerized elevation maps of a rugged rain forest, may have been the last vestiges of pyramids, palaces and houses in a fabled settlement known as “la Ciudad Blanca,” or the White City. Photo: Readings from a laser-mapping system were combined to produce a 3-D map of the Honduran rain forest, and then the vegetation was virtually lifted up from the scene to reveal the ruins of a circular structure. (UTL Scientific) View high resolution

Scientists share images of lost city in Honduras

NBC News: A high-tech team of scientists and filmmakers shared pictures of what appears to have been a centuries-old civilization in Honduras, one year after they used laser-mapping technology to identify traces of structures in the thick jungle.

The square-shaped and rounded structures, seen in computerized elevation maps of a rugged rain forest, may have been the last vestiges of pyramids, palaces and houses in a fabled settlement known as “la Ciudad Blanca,” or the White City.

Photo: Readings from a laser-mapping system were combined to produce a 3-D map of the Honduran rain forest, and then the vegetation was virtually lifted up from the scene to reveal the ruins of a circular structure. (UTL Scientific)

Russian capsule touches down with space station trio Space.com: A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a crew of three space travelers successfully touched down in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, wrapping up a five-month mission to the International Space Station. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko landed at about 8:31 a.m. Kazakh time (10:31 p.m. ET Monday). Their return marks the end of the station’s Expedition 35, which Hadfield commanded. Photo: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield sent this final picture from the International Space Station: “To some this may look like a sunset. But it’s a new dawn,” he wrote. (Chris Hadfield via Twitter) View high resolution

Russian capsule touches down with space station trio

Space.com: A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a crew of three space travelers successfully touched down in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, wrapping up a five-month mission to the International Space Station.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko landed at about 8:31 a.m. Kazakh time (10:31 p.m. ET Monday). Their return marks the end of the station’s Expedition 35, which Hadfield commanded.

Photo: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield sent this final picture from the International Space Station: “To some this may look like a sunset. But it’s a new dawn,” he wrote. (Chris Hadfield via Twitter)

Ground Control to Cmdr. Chris Hadfield…

CTV: Canadian astronaut Cmdr. Chris Hadfield is leaving the International Space Station with the flourish of a rock star, releasing a polished music video tribute to his months in space in the final hours before his return to Earth.

Sunday’s passing of the torch marks the end of Hadfield’s role as the pilot of the massive orbiting research station since he took over on March 13, becoming the first Canadian to command the ISS.

During his mission, the 53-year-old took part in a number of experiments, installations and repairs while delighting and entertaining fans around the world with his seemingly non-stop updates on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Video: A revised version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station (via YouTube)
‘Ring of Fire’ eclipse wows Australia AP: Skygazers across the Australian Outback were among the lucky few to witness a solar eclipse on Friday as the moon glided between Earth and the sun, blocking everything but a dazzling ring of light. The celestial spectacle, known as a “ring of fire” eclipse, was the second solar eclipse visible from northern Australia in six months. In November, a total solar eclipse plunged the country’s northeast into darkness, delighting astronomers and tourists who flocked to the region from across the globe to witness it. Photo: Friday’s annular solar eclipse blazes like a ring of fire after sunrise, 45 miles (70 kilometers) south of Newman, Australia. The “second sun” is a lens effect. (Nicole Hollenbeck via SpaceWeather.com) View high resolution

‘Ring of Fire’ eclipse wows Australia

AP: Skygazers across the Australian Outback were among the lucky few to witness a solar eclipse on Friday as the moon glided between Earth and the sun, blocking everything but a dazzling ring of light.

The celestial spectacle, known as a “ring of fire” eclipse, was the second solar eclipse visible from northern Australia in six months. In November, a total solar eclipse plunged the country’s northeast into darkness, delighting astronomers and tourists who flocked to the region from across the globe to witness it.

Photo: Friday’s annular solar eclipse blazes like a ring of fire after sunrise, 45 miles (70 kilometers) south of Newman, Australia. The “second sun” is a lens effect. (Nicole Hollenbeck via SpaceWeather.com)

World’s smallest movie created by moving individual atoms

AP: IBM says it has made the tiniest stop-motion movie ever - a one-minute video of individual carbon monoxide molecules repeatedly rearranged to show a boy dancing, throwing a ball and bouncing on a trampoline.

Each frame measures 45 by 25 nanometres there are 25 million nanometres in an inch but hugely magnified, the movie is reminiscent of early video games, particularly when the boy bounces the ball off the side of the frame accompanied by simple music and sound effects.

Video: A Boy And His Atom (IBM via YouTube)

Monster hurricane spotted on Saturn Space.com: Spectacular new images from a NASA spacecraft orbiting Saturn have captured the most detailed views ever of an enormous hurricane churning around the ringed planet’s north pole. The stunning new images and video of the Saturn hurricane, which were taken by NASA’s Cassini probe, show that the storm’s eye is 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide — about 20 times bigger than typical hurricane eyes on Earth. Photo: The spinning vortex of Saturn’s north polar storm resembles a deep red rose surrounded by green foliage in this false-color image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SS) View high resolution

Monster hurricane spotted on Saturn

Space.com: Spectacular new images from a NASA spacecraft orbiting Saturn have captured the most detailed views ever of an enormous hurricane churning around the ringed planet’s north pole.

The stunning new images and video of the Saturn hurricane, which were taken by NASA’s Cassini probe, show that the storm’s eye is 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide — about 20 times bigger than typical hurricane eyes on Earth.

Photo: The spinning vortex of Saturn’s north polar storm resembles a deep red rose surrounded by green foliage in this false-color image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SS)

Robot finds surprise in Mexico’s ancient Temple of Quetzalcoatl NBC News: A diminutive robot helped researchers make a substantial discovery during preliminary tests conducted in a tunnel running under the Temple of Quetzalcoatl at the archaeological site of Teotihuacan, the team said Monday. The team expected to find only one chamber in the last section of the tunnel — but instead, they found three, team leader Sergio Gomez said in a report published by the Mexican newspaper El Universal. The chambers are thought to have been used by Teotihuacan’s rulers roughly 2,000 years ago for royal ceremonies or burials, but they’re so choked with mud and rubble that they haven’t been explored in modern times. Photo: A worker from the National Institute of Anthropology and History walks next to a robot used to explore ruins at the entrance of a tunnel in the archaeological area of the Quetzalcoatl Temple, near the Pyramid of the Sun at the Teotihuacan archaeological site.(Henry Romero / Reuters)

Robot finds surprise in Mexico’s ancient Temple of Quetzalcoatl

NBC News: A diminutive robot helped researchers make a substantial discovery during preliminary tests conducted in a tunnel running under the Temple of Quetzalcoatl at the archaeological site of Teotihuacan, the team said Monday.

The team expected to find only one chamber in the last section of the tunnel — but instead, they found three, team leader Sergio Gomez said in a report published by the Mexican newspaper El Universal. The chambers are thought to have been used by Teotihuacan’s rulers roughly 2,000 years ago for royal ceremonies or burials, but they’re so choked with mud and rubble that they haven’t been explored in modern times.

Photo: A worker from the National Institute of Anthropology and History walks next to a robot used to explore ruins at the entrance of a tunnel in the archaeological area of the Quetzalcoatl Temple, near the Pyramid of the Sun at the Teotihuacan archaeological site.(Henry Romero / Reuters)

Test tube baby pioneer Sir Robert Edwards dies ITV News: Britain’s Sir Robert Edwards, the Nobel prize-winning scientist who pioneered the development of test tube babies, has died after a long illness, Cambridge University has announced. Professor Edwards was honoured in 2010 with the prize for medicine for his breakthrough, conceived through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). Photo: Professor Robert Edwards with the first test tube baby, Louise Brown. (Chris Radburn/PA Archive) View high resolution

Test tube baby pioneer Sir Robert Edwards dies

ITV News: Britain’s Sir Robert Edwards, the Nobel prize-winning scientist who pioneered the development of test tube babies, has died after a long illness, Cambridge University has announced.

Professor Edwards was honoured in 2010 with the prize for medicine for his breakthrough, conceived through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Photo: Professor Robert Edwards with the first test tube baby, Louise Brown. (Chris Radburn/PA Archive)

Two-headed shark discovered Barcroft Media/Telegraph: Scientists have discovered what they believe to be the first-ever two-headed bull shark. A study carried our by experts at Michigan State University confirmed the shark was a single shark with two heads, rather than conjoined twins. “This is certainly one of those interesting and rarely detected phenomena,” said Michael Wagner, the university’s assistant professor of fisheries and wildlife. Photo: Two-headed bull shark (Rex) View high resolution

Two-headed shark discovered

Barcroft Media/Telegraph: Scientists have discovered what they believe to be the first-ever two-headed bull shark.

A study carried our by experts at Michigan State University confirmed the shark was a single shark with two heads, rather than conjoined twins.

“This is certainly one of those interesting and rarely detected phenomena,” said Michael Wagner, the university’s assistant professor of fisheries and wildlife.

Photo: Two-headed bull shark (Rex)

Rare giraffe listed as endangered gives birth

AP: A rare, nearly 6-foot-tall giraffe listed as an endangered subspecies was born in a Connecticut conservation center.

Petal, a 6-year-old Rothschild giraffe, gave birth on Friday to a female calf at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center, The Greenwich Time reports.

When fully grown, the newborn could reach 18 feet in height.

‘Baby picture’ of the universe unveiled NBC News: The European-led team behind the Planck cosmology probe on Thursday released the mission’s first all-sky map of the cosmic microwave background — a “baby picture” of the universe that could eventually reveal how it inflated in the first moments of its existence, and whether it possesses the extra dimensions that are predicted by some theorists. “To a cosmologist, this map is a gold mine of information,” University of Cambridge astrophysicist George Efstathiou, a member of the Planck science team, said during a Paris news conference. He joked that not that long ago, cosmologists might have “given up their children” to have such a map in their hands. Photo: The Planck cosmology probe has produced the most detailed all-sky map to date showing the cosmic background radiation, also known as the afterglow of the big bang. (ESA) View high resolution

‘Baby picture’ of the universe unveiled

NBC News: The European-led team behind the Planck cosmology probe on Thursday released the mission’s first all-sky map of the cosmic microwave background — a “baby picture” of the universe that could eventually reveal how it inflated in the first moments of its existence, and whether it possesses the extra dimensions that are predicted by some theorists.

“To a cosmologist, this map is a gold mine of information,” University of Cambridge astrophysicist George Efstathiou, a member of the Planck science team, said during a Paris news conference. He joked that not that long ago, cosmologists might have “given up their children” to have such a map in their hands.

Photo: The Planck cosmology probe has produced the most detailed all-sky map to date showing the cosmic background radiation, also known as the afterglow of the big bang. (ESA)

African forest elephants decline by 62% in 10 years BBC: Forest elephant numbers have decreased by 62% across Central Africa over the last 10 years, according to a study published in the scientific journal PLoS One. The analysis supports fears that African forest elephants are heading for extinction. Conservationists say “effective, rapid, multi-level action is imperative” to save the elephants. View high resolution

African forest elephants decline by 62% in 10 years

BBC: Forest elephant numbers have decreased by 62% across Central Africa over the last 10 years, according to a study published in the scientific journal PLoS One.

The analysis supports fears that African forest elephants are heading for extinction. Conservationists say “effective, rapid, multi-level action is imperative” to save the elephants.

Baby now free of HIV has doctors talking

NBC News: A baby born infected with the AIDS virus who got immediate treatment now has no detectable virus in her blood. Her case, presented to a meeting of AIDS researchers, will prompt questions about how early babies should be treated. It also illustrates the possibility that immediate treatment with HIV drugs could do a lot to protect those who are newly infected.

Dr. Deborah Persaud of the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, the virologist who led the study, says scientists see this as the first well-documented case of a functional cure in a neonatal child.

Persaud says a functional cure means the virus isn’t entirely gone, but it’s also not doing any damage. Doctors believe it’s because they began therapy for the baby within 48 hours of being infected

LIVE VIDEO: SpaceX rocket set to launch to Space Station Watch a live feed from NASA as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, with Dragon capsule on top, attempts to launch to the International Space Station: http://www.breakingnews.com/topic/spacex-iss-flight-march-2013The mission is the second of 12 SpaceX flights to resupply the ISS. Launch is scheduled for 10:10 a.m. EST.Photo: The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with its Dragon spacecraft onboard, is seen shortly after it was erected at Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida today. (NASA/Bill Ingalls) View high resolution

LIVE VIDEO: SpaceX rocket set to launch to Space Station

Watch a live feed from NASA as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, with Dragon capsule on top, attempts to launch to the International Space Station: http://www.breakingnews.com/topic/spacex-iss-flight-march-2013

The mission is the second of 12 SpaceX flights to resupply the ISS. Launch is scheduled for 10:10 a.m. EST.

Photo: The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with its Dragon spacecraft onboard, is seen shortly after it was erected at Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida today. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Sandstorm sends Beijing pollution levels off the charts Officials are warning residents in Beijing and other parts of northern China about hazardous air pollution levels after strong winds blew in a sandstorm today. Air in the capital turned a yellowish hue and the sky turned into a noxious soup of smog and dust, NBC News reports. At 6 a.m. local time, the U.S. Embassy’s air quality index showed a reading of 516 for particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. On the American air pollution index, the air at that time and throughout much of the morning was classified as “beyond index.” Photo: This composite image shows Beijing’s skyline during Thursday’s sandstorm (top) and during good weather on Feb. 19, 2013. (Feng Li / Getty Images)

Sandstorm sends Beijing pollution levels off the charts

Officials are warning residents in Beijing and other parts of northern China about hazardous air pollution levels after strong winds blew in a sandstorm today.

Air in the capital turned a yellowish hue and the sky turned into a noxious soup of smog and dust, NBC News reports. At 6 a.m. local time, the U.S. Embassy’s air quality index showed a reading of 516 for particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. On the American air pollution index, the air at that time and throughout much of the morning was classified as “beyond index.”

Photo: This composite image shows Beijing’s skyline during Thursday’s sandstorm (top) and during good weather on Feb. 19, 2013. (Feng Li / Getty Images)