Science and Education

22:54 April 2, 2009 PDT

A present-day salt lake in the south of Russia
Pic Credit: Dr. Ludwig Weißflog/UFZ

A new report by an international team of scientists has suggested that the largest mass extinction in the history of the earth may not have been caused by volcanic eruptions, methane hydrate or the impact of an asteroid as previously surmised. It may actually have been triggered by giant salt lakes, whose emissions of halogenated gases changed the atmospheric composition to such an extent that vegetation was irretrievably damaged. While this is a lot less dramatic than a volcanic eruption or an asteroid, the effect would be no less devastating and may have implications for us today with forecasts predicting an increase in the surface areas of deserts and salt lakes due to climate change that researchers expect will also lead to an increase in the effects of these halogenated gases. Read More

2,200-year-old bronze statue raised in fishing nets

By Mike Hanlon

22:23 March 24, 2009 PDT

2,200-year-old bronze statue raised in fishing nets

You just never know what you might find! In an extraordinary and unexpected discovery last Wednesday, a Greek fisherman trawling with nets between the islands of Kos and Kalymnos in the south eastern Aegean, landed what he thought was a very large catch – upon bringing his nets to the surface he found a significant portion of a 2200 year-old bronze statue of a male on horseback. The Greek Ministry of Culture issued this photo of the statue, which is currently residing in desalination tanks prior to cleaning. The portion of the statue retrieved from the depths is a torso wearing a breastplate and carrying a sheathed sword. Read More

Bringing sight to the invisible

23:43 March 17, 2009 PDT

Harry Potter and his cloak of invisibility - which you can't see obviously

Invisibility has been a staple of science fiction, (and my own personal fantasies), for decades and in recent years we’ve watched as fiction edges ever closer to reality through the use of metamaterials. The problem with most of the devices currently being researched however, is that since they totally encompass the object being rendered invisible, they are also rendered blind as well, which kind of defeats the purpose. But a team from Hong Kong’s University of Science and Technology believes they have come up with an answer to this problem and that it is indeed possible to create a cloaking device that would be able to render an object invisible without encompassing it. Read More

Killing mosquitos with lasers

22:36 March 17, 2009 PDT

Bullseye!
Pic credit: Intellectual Ventures

March 18, 2009 Mosquitoes have plagued mankind since time immemorial. For many they’re just annoying pests that leave an itchy reminder of their bloodsucking ways, but for much of the world’s population they’re carriers of deadly disease – malaria in particular. So far man’s efforts to combat mosquitoes have so far proved fruitless but the Wall Street Journal is reporting that researchers in the US are looking to take the battle into the space age by using lasers to kill the nasty little buggers. Read More

The most violent gamma-ray explosion ever observed

20:23 March 2, 2009 PST

The afterglow of GRB 080916C.

Image via NASA

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space telescope, which was launched on June 11 last year, has borne witness to the most violent gamma-ray burst ever observed – a monster that exceeded the power of 8000 supernovae. The GRB 080916C burst appeared in the Carina constellation, 12.2 billion light years from Earth, and was analyzed by five French teams, which published their results in the February 19 issue of Science Express. Read More

Planet seeking Kepler Spacecraft readies for launch

16:56 February 25, 2009 PST

Artist's impression of Kepler Spacecraft

On March 5, NASA will launch the largest camera ever sent into space in an attempt to find the holy grail of astronomy: an Earth-like planet. The $591 million Kepler craft will orbit the sun for at least 3.5 years, using an unprecedented 0.95-meter diameter Schmidt telescope packing an array of 42 CCDs, each with 2200x1024 pixels, to scan over 100,000 stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the galaxy. The craft is seeking planets in the “goldilocks” zone – not too close to the sun, and not too far – but the scope of the project means that no matter what scientists find, our understanding of the universe will be greatly enhanced. Read More

NASA’s Space Observatory to provide global measurements of CO2

00:56 February 5, 2009 PST

An artist’s concept of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory
Photo: NASA/JPL.

NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory spacecraft and its Taurus XL launch vehicle are undergoing preparations for liftoff on February 23. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory’s mission is to collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth's atmosphere to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important greenhouse gas - important because its the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth's climate. This improved understanding will enable more reliable forecasts of future changes in the abundance and distribution of CO2 in the atmosphere and the effect that these changes may have on the Earth's climate. Read More

Google Earth goes to Mars

00:30 February 5, 2009 PST

Anyone not familiar with Google’s virtual globe program Google Earth would have to have been living on another planet – maybe Mars. But a new initiative by Google and NASA might pique even Martian interest with the advent of a Mars mode in Google Earth 5. Google Mars 3D brings the red, red hills of home to any Earth bound Martian’s desktop and enables users to fly virtually through enormous canyons and scale huge mountains on Mars, higher than any found on Earth. Read More

NASA two years away from full sun visualization

14:10 January 27, 2009 PST

NASA's two STEREO spacecraft, launched on October 25, 2006, will align on either side of the sun on February 6, 2011, allowing scientists to view the entire sun simultaneously for the first time in history. The Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory is currently providing scientists with a view of 75% of the sun. Read More

4D technique promises new insights into brain function

19:14 January 22, 2009 PST

The 'colorimetric technique' that maps four dimensions (4D) of brain data using EEG signal...

January 23, 2009 It’s kind of ironic that the very organ that gives us our intelligence and understanding of the world around us is also the one we understand the least. Now a novel 4D colorimetric technique developed by researchers at Florida Atlantic University, (FAU), that simultaneously maps four dimensions of brain data, (magnitude, 2D of cortical surface and time), in EEG signals could dramatically change the way neuroscientists are able to understand how the brain operates. The technique makes it possible to observe and interpret oscillatory activity of the entire brain as it evolves in time, millisecond by millisecond, so that for the first time, true episodes of brain coordination can be spotted directly in EEG records and carefully analyzed. Read More

Celestron showcases latest handheld digital microscope

18:19 January 20, 2009 PST

Celestron showcases latest handheld digital microscope

A simple to use tool for capturing the fine detail of almost any object from coins, plants and rocks to electronic circuit boards, Celestron's new handheld USB digital microscope provides 10x to 40x and 150x magnification and a 1.3mp digital camera for capturing stills and video. Read More

Audience response app for iPhone/iPod Touch

By Mike Hanlon

16:41 January 5, 2009 PST

Audience response app for iPhone/iPod Touch

January 6, 2009 The Apple iPod/iPhone/iTunes App Store ecosystem is producing some remarkably useful tools for life, work, play, and now education. A free app for the iPhone or iPod Touch from ResponseWare transforms them into wireless, interactive audience response tools that could transform the way people learn and collaborate in many environments. The app allows alphanumeric entry for single response, multiple response, fill-in-the-blank and essay questions and the diversity of response types it offers enhances a presenter’s communication options. It displays the question and answer choices on the iPod/phone during polling and participants logged into an interactive session can review previous polls as well as instant message the leader/ with questions and feedback. Beyond education, we also see the platform getting a serious workout in any collaborative environment as a way of exploring and responding to the needs/views of an audience in any forum. This idea has legs! Read More

Visualizing data from the visual cortex: one step closer to dream recording?

18:55 December 11, 2008 PST

Japanese student walking in a virtual world with the character controled by his brain wave...

Dream analysis could be set to become a whole lot easier with news that a Japanese research team has created a technology that could eventually display images from people’s dreams on a computer screen. So far the team at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories has only managed to reproduce simple images from the brain, but, “by applying this technology, it may become possible to record and replay subjective images that people perceive like dreams," the private institute said in a statement. Read More

Teddy Bears in space

03:05 December 8, 2008 PST

For half a century, the friendliest face of space travel was Laika the space-dog, launched into Earth orbit aboard Sputnik II. Now Britain has challenged Laika’s supremacy by launching two teddy bears into the stratosphere. The toys, named MAT and KMS, wore space suits designed by children at the Parkside and Coleridge community colleges. Read More

Remote observatory aims to solve Earth's magnetic mystery

14:58 December 1, 2008 PST

Until November, Tristan da Cunha was home only to 271 people, a small flightless bird, and a piece of land named Inaccessible Island. Now the world's most remote inhabited archipelago is host to a Danish Observatory designed to help improve our understanding the Earth’s weakening magnetic field and the way this affects satellites. Read More

Historic pics show worlds beyond our solar system

01:22 November 14, 2008 PST

Visible-light image from the Hubble showing the newly discovered planet, Fomalhaut b

In two separate scientific show-stoppers, unprecedented direct images of planets outside of our own solar system have been captured by NASA's Hubble space telescope and terrestrial observatories in Hawaii. Over the past two decades astronomers have detected around 300 exoplanets and are rapidly finding more, but these have mostly been observed by methods such as monitoring the gravitational effects of a planet on its parent star rather than seen as a direct optical image. We now have the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star from the Hubble, and the first-ever direct images of an exoplanetary system from the massive 8-meter Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea. Read More

New early warning system to minimize tsunami impact

By Jude Garvey

01:04 November 14, 2008 PST

A new tsunami warning system called the German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS) has just been implemented in Indonesia. Unlike previous tsunami warning systems, it uses new scientific procedures and technologies which are more suited to the specific geological conditions of the region. Read More

Last call: Mars Phoenix lander mission winds down

16:43 November 10, 2008 PST

Phoenix spacecraft on Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona

The approaching Martian winter has spelled an end to the pioneering Phoenix Mars Lander mission. More than five months after reaching the red planet, the lander sent what is expected to be its final transmission back to Earth on November 2, exceeding its planned operational life-span by two months. Increased cloud, dust and the onset of colder temperatures mean that the robot is no longer receiving enough sunlight to charge its batteries and although engineers will keep the airwaves open, further communication with the lander is not expected. Read More

Looking further into space than ever before

By Mike Hanlon

15:26 November 8, 2008 PST

Looking further into space than ever before

November 9, 2008 Comedians are astute social observers and their perspective is often refreshing and enlightening. In an interview with the Guardian recently, actor/comedian Jim Carey said, “it's such arrogance that human beings think we're the point. I always thought we were just a speck - you see those pictures from the Mars Rover and you go: 'Speck!' There are ants on my property that think they own it, that they have the deeds. In support of Jim’s hypothesis is this image – the deepest ultraviolet image of the Universe ever taken - one billion times fainter than can be seen by the unaided eye. At these depths, the sky is almost completely covered by galaxies, each one, like our own galaxy, the Milky Way, home of hundreds of billions of stars. Like Jim said, “speck” … Read More

SMART multitouch table offers hands-on group learning

19:45 November 2, 2008 PST

SMART multitouch table offers hands-on group learning

Over the past two decades the role of computers in classrooms has evolved from one of curious optional-extra to core learning tool, and it's not a trend that is about to slow down. One relatively new technology that has great potential within educational environments is the multi-touch interface and this underpins SMART Technologies latest product - the SMART Table interactive learning centre. Looking a little like a retro-arcade game, this brightly colored 29" (73 cm) wide x 25" (65 cm) high table incorporates a 27" (69-cm) screen which can simultaneously receive input from a "virtually unlimited" number of fingers or pen tools. The table is designed to encourage group problem solving and collaboration and its intuitive interface makes it suitable for children in the 4 to 11 age group while teacher input is facilitated by the company's complementary interactive whiteboard products. Read More

A purple tomato a day keeps the oncologist away