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Mars Base

ESTCube-1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/ESTCube-1

scibyte86 ESTCube

shared by Mars Base on 13 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • scheduled to be launched to orbit in second half of 2013
  • Student Satellite is an educational project that university and high school students can participate in
  • The CubeSat standard for nanosatellites was followed during the engineering of ESTCube-1, resulting in a 10x10x11.35 cm cube, with a volume of 1 liter and a mass of 1.048 kg.
  • ...44 more annotations...
  • According to the CubeSat standard there are three different sized CubeSats corresponding to size 1U, 2U and 3U. Base side lengths are the same but height is 2 to 3 times bigger than 1U CubeSats
  • Mass is also set in CubeSat standard, the highest possible mass for 1U CubeSat is 1300 grams, 2U CubeSat 2600 grams and 3U CubeSat 4000 grams
  • CubeSat base side length must be 100.0±0.1 millimeters and satellite height must be 113.5±0.1 mm
  • the Estonian satellite
  • a 1U CubeSat
  • Although
  • its main purpose was to educate students, the satellite does have a scientific purpose.
  • On board of the satellite is an electric solar wind sail (e-sail) which was created by a Finnish scientist Pekka Janhunen
  • it is the first real experimentation of the e-sail
  • 10 meters of e-sail 50 to 20 micrometers thick wire of high-technology structure so-called Heytether will be deployed from the satellite.
  • The deployment of the Heytether can be detected by decrease of the satellite's speed of rotation or by a on-board camera
  • To control the loaded solar wind sail elements interaction with the plasma surrounding the earth and the effect it has on the spacecraft spinning speed the spacecraft has two on-board nanotechnologic electron emitters/gun
  • The electron emitters are connected to the e-sail element and by shooting out electrons it loads the e-sail element positively to 500 volts
  • The positive ions in the plasma push the e-sail element and have an influence on the satellites rotation speed
  • The effect of the e-sail is measured by the change in rotation speed
  • The camera is used to take a picture of Earth and the successfully deployed Heytether. [edit]
  • ESTCube-1 will be sent to orbit by the European Space Agency's rocket Vega in spring of 2013
  • Start in spring of 2013
  • Half an hour after the satellites deployment from the start capsule satellites antennas will be opened and radio transmitter and important subsystems will be switched on
  • First days or weeks will be used to test the satellite and set it to work on full capacity.
  • Orienting the satellite so the on-board camera will be faced to earth
  • trying to take a picture of Estonia
  • Rotating the satellite on an axis with a speed of 1 revolution per second
  • E-sail element deployment from the satellite by a centrifugal force and confirming the deployment via the on-board camera
  • Activating the electron emitter and loading the e-sail
  • Measuring the e-sails and Lorentz force by satellites revolutions per second
  • If possible using the negatively charged e-sail to take the satellite off orbit and burn it in the earths atmosphere
  • If everything goes perfect the mission can be completed within a few weeks to a month
  • Lifespan of the satellite
  • Measurements and weight
  • Scientific purpose
  • Communicating with the satellite
  • held by two International Amateur Radio Unions three registered frequencies
  • Periodic but very slow communication is done on a telegraphic signal on a frequency of 437.250 MHz
  • the most important satellite parameters are transmitted every 3 to 5 minutes
  • For fast connections FSK-modulation radio signal on a frequency of 437.505 MHz with a 9600 baud connection speed and AX.25 standard is used.
  • Somewhat slow connection speed is caused by the usage of amateur radio frequencies which allow a maximum of 25 kiloherz bandwidth
  • Fast connection is used only when the satellite has been given a specific
  • Using the GFSK-modulation maximum possible connection speed is 19,200 bits per second
  • Software
  • FreeRTOS on the satellite's Command and Data Handling System and camera module
  • TinyOS on the satellite's communication module
  • Financing and costs
  • Cheapest possibility to send a satellite onto orbit is offered by European Space Agency. Because Estonia is an associated member of ESA most of the launch expenses (about 70,000 euros) will be covered from Estonian member fee for educational expenses. With the launch total expenses for the project are approximately 100,000 euros.
Mars Base

Conductive paint lands in pens and pots for creatives - 0 views

phys.org/...13-05-pens-pots-creatives.html

scibyte96

shared by Mars Base on 28 May 13 - No Cached
  • The substance allows the painting of "liquid wiring" on any surface. Except for skin
  • Nontoxic and drying at room temperature, the product has caught on with educators, DIY makers and inventors
  • Radio Shack stocks their paint pen
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • they hope to appeal to a wide creative gamut of hobbyists, artists, and engineers for innovative ways to use their products
  • are Paint, they emphasized, is the first non-toxic electrically conductive paint available
  • the substance is child friendly, which opens the door to educational projects, including toys, and touch-sensitive paper drawings that play sounds
  • According to the company, Bare Paint has a surface resistivity of approximately 55 ohms/square at 50 microns layer thickness
  • The product is water-based but it is not waterproof
  • generally split applications into two simple classifications, signaling and powering
  • Signaling could include using the Paint as a potentiometer while interfacing with a micro-controller, as a conduit in a larger circuit or as a capacitive sensor
  • Powering a device would include lighting LED's or driving small speakers
Mars Base

Astronaut Builds LEGO Space Station While Inside Real Space Station | LEGO in Space & L... - 0 views

www.space.com/ce-station-astronaut-toys.html

scibyte38 lego SpaceStation

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • took more than 200 astronauts from 12 countries more than a dozen years to build the International Space Station (ISS).
  • , an astronaut from Japan, matched that feat in just about two hours
  • his space station was made out of LEGO.
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • approximately two-foot (0.6-meter) long model, which replicated the nearly 360-foot (110-meter) space station was more than just a toy
  • other building brick sets that were launched last year, the LEGO space station was part of an educational collaboration between the Danish toy company and NASA.
  • used it as a demonstration for a series of recorded videos aimed at engaging and educating children about living and working in space
  • LEGO's version of the International Space Station built by astronauts living aboard the real orbiting complex
  • Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa poses with the LEGO model of the International Space Station that he built on board the real space station.
  • Although building the LEGO space station was an activity aimed at students, it was not all child's play.
  • LEGOs are an example of something that is a lot of fun on the ground but it can be very frustrating when you have a lot of loose floating pieces
  • To keep the bricks contained and to protect against some potentially serious dangers
  • pieced together the model inside a glovebox — a sealed container with gloves built into its sides to allow the contents to be manipulated
  • crew members use a more complex glovebox to conduct science experiments with hazardous materials
  • don't have all of these little pieces getting loose and becoming either lost or potentially getting jammed in equipment or even becoming a flammability hazard."
  • Fire is usually not one of the warnings that people find on the side of LEGO boxes.
  • there are flammability concerns about the LEGOs
  • challenging part was using the thick rubber gloves in the containment system because it made me clumsy in building the LEGO space station
  • real space station was declared "assembly complete" on May 29, 2011
  • the model was launched in partially-preassembled "chunks" to help make up for the difficulties working with very small pieces in microgravity
  • The space station could not be launched fully-assembled, because like the real orbiting outpost, it could only be built in space
  • It's a solid model but I believe it can't bear its own weight under gravity
  • LEGO station's time fully assembled was short lived however
  • Due to the flammability hazards, the toy bricks could only be exposed to the open cabin air for two hours.
Mars Base

Heavily decorated classrooms disrupt attention and learning in young children -- Scienc... - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...140527100646.htm

scibyte132 education

shared by Mars Base on 27 May 14 - No Cached
  • materials tend to cover elementary classroom wall
  • new research from Carnegie Mellon University shows that too much
  • may end up disrupting attention and learning in young children
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • whether classroom displays affected children's ability to maintain focus during instruction and to learn the lesson content
  • They found that children in highly decorated classrooms were more distracted, spent more time off-task and demonstrated smaller learning gains than when the decorations were removed
  • a classroom's visual environment can affect how much children learn
  • do not suggest by any means that this is the answer to all educational problems
  • additional research is needed to know what effect the classroom visual environment has on children's attention and learning in real classrooms
  • consider whether some of their visual displays may be distracting
  • 24 kindergarten students were placed in laboratory classrooms for six introductory science lessons on topics they were unfamiliar with
  • Three lessons were taught in a heavily decorated classroom, and three lessons were given in a sparse classroom.
  • results showed that while children learned in both classroom types, they learned more when the room was not heavily decorated
  • children's accuracy on the test questions was higher in the sparse classroom(55 percent correct) than in the decorated classroom(42 percent correct).
  • when the researchers tallied all of the time children spent off-task in both types of classrooms, the rate of off-task behavior was higher in the decorated classroom (38.6 percent time spent off-task) than in the sparse classroom (28.4 percent time spent off-task)
  • also interested in finding out if the visual displays were removed, whether the children's attention would shift to another distraction
  • Mars Base on 27 May 14
     
    Heavily decorated classrooms disrupt attention and learning in young children
Mars Base

Kicksat: Crowd-funded, DIY spacecraft to float into low-Earth orbit - 0 views

phys.org/...-diy-spacecraft-low-earth.html

scibyte74 crowdsourcing

shared by Mars Base on 06 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • It'll look like hundreds of postage stamps fluttering toward Earth—each an independent satellite transmitting a signal unique to the person who helped send it to space
  • Sprites are the size of a cracker but are outfitted with solar cells, a radio transceiver and a microcontroller (
  • launching unit, is a CubeSat
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Using Kickstarter
  • raised nearly $75,000 as more than 300 people sponsored a sprite that will transmit an identifying signal, such as the initials of the donor
  • In 2013, about 250 sprites will be sent into space
  • One person, who donated $10,000, Manchester added, will get to "push the big red button" on the day of the launch.
  • NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNA) program, which provides a free launch (normally $300,000) for university space research
  • KickSat will hitch a ride in September 2013 (subject to change) from Cape Canaveral on CRS-3, the third SpaceX Falcon 9 flight destined for the International Space Station
  • A large part of the project is helping people track their own satellites with a simple software radio interface
  • From a research standpoint, Manchester is interested in the dynamics and behavior of the satellites, and plans to test how to track their positions and determine their orbits
  • KickSat is set to launch more than 200 of these tiny satellites, nicknamed "sprites," into low-Earth orbit
Mars Base

Physicists use Kinect to control holographic tweezers (w/ Video) - 0 views

phys.org/...olographic-tweezers-video.html

scibyte70 Kinect

shared by Mars Base on 05 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Researchers
  • in Scotland have devised a means of using a Microsoft Kinect sensing system to allow for hand control of holographic optical tweezers
  • Laser tweezers are laser based devices that allow for manipulation of very small objects; typically at the cellular level
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • A laser beam is projected towards a target, but before reaching it, is split into three separate beams
  • three beams are broadcast onto the edges of the object to be manipulated
  • as the beams are moved the object is caused to move in lockstep
  • , fine tuning control of the laser to cause the movement of an object has been less than ideal
  • researchers to continue looking for alternative means
  • In this new research, the team connected a Microsoft Kinect device to the tweezers and then demonstrated an ability to move microscopic sized objects by moving their hands around in the air.
  • connecting a Kinect device to their virtual tweezers, the researchers found that they were able to define the space in which they wished to work by using simple hand movements and then to connect, virtually to a particular tiny object
  • The Kinect
  • is not precise enough to capture subtle movements however
  • doesn't allow for force-feedback, or the ability to feel the resistance of an object as its being moved
  • HoloHands, is not sophisticated enough to allow for serious research work
  • being used as a tool for educational purposes, either as a tool, or implemented as a learning game.
Mars Base

Numbers Games Devised to Aid People with "Dyscalculia": Scientific American - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

scibyte78 Dyscalculia

shared by Mars Base on 15 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • A cognitive scientist who studies numerical cognition and a learning disability likened to dyslexia for mathematics works on identifying its cause as well as ways to help those who suffer from it
  • After conducting some tests,
  • concluded that
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • “a disaster at arithmetic” and diagnosed him with dyscalculia, a little-known learning disability sometimes called number blindness and likened to dyslexia for maths
  • Researchers estimate that as much as 7% of the population has dyscalculia, which is marked by severe difficulties in dealing with numbers despite otherwise normal
  • well above normal) intelligence
  • he has crusaded to get dyscalculia recognized — by parents, teachers, politicians and anyone who will listen.
  • Number Sense, a suite of educational computer games
Mars Base

The Flu Virus Can Tell Time. Here's Why You Should Care | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...time-heres-why-you-should-care

scibyte78 Flu

shared by Mars Base on 18 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • The flu knows how long it has to invade our cells and spread to other humans. So new treatments could fight the virus by resetting its clock.
  • Influenza can tell time, and it choreographs its actions according to a strict schedule. If new vaccines can reset flu’s clock, the human immune system might be able to fight it more effectively
  • Viruses multiply by invading a host cell, hijacking its machinery and using it to make new copies of itself. Cells have warning systems that can detect this invasion and call in reinforcements, but that can take a while.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • The virus has to orchestrate its actions carefully--if it moves too fast, it won’t have time to make new copies of itself, and if it moves too slowly, it might be stopped by immune defenses.
  • Researchers knew the virus has about eight hours to make copies of itself before a cell will notice
  • To produce sufficient copies to infect another human, it needs about two days of continuous activity inside our cells
  • The team figured out that the virus slowly gathers a protein it needs to make its exit, and leaves the cell in the nick of time.
  • To fight it, they tricked the virus into changing the amount of time it took to gather the protein.
  • First, they made it acquire the protein too quickly, which caused the flu to leave the cell before it had made enough copies of itself.
  • In this case, the cells were lung epithelial cells. Then they altered it to leave too late, giving immune cells enough time to respond and kill the virus before it escaped.
  • This is promising for new flu vaccines and antiviral drugs, which could target this internal protein clock
  • a flu vaccine is still the best way to protect yourself against the flu, not everyone is eligible to get one--especially the nasal spray, which is not recommended for the very young and the very old.
  • also rely on an educated guess about which flu will spread throughout the population in a season, and there are only so many vaccines.
  • a treatment that targets the virus’ clock wouldn’t need a dead or weakened version of the flu--it would just need to fool the virus into losing track of time
Mars Base

'Space Selfie' Telescope Could Hunt Alien Planets … If It Raises A Cool $2M - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...planets-if-it-raises-a-cool-2m

scibyte98 CrowdSourcing Arkyd

shared by Mars Base on 12 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • A crowdfunded telescope
  • is now considering a search for alien planets.
  • Planetary Resources Inc. (the proposed asteroid miners) announced a new “stretch goal” for its asteroid-hunting Arkyd-100 telescope.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • If the company can raise $2 million — double its original goal — it promises to equip the Arkyd telescope to look at star systems for exoplanets
  • partnering with exoplanet researchers at MIT [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Arkyd would use two methods to hunt down planets
  • Transiting, or seeing the dip in a star’s brightness when a planet passes in front of it;
  • Gravitational microlensing, or finding planets by measuring how the gravity of the star (and its planets) distorts light from stars and galaxies behind
  • If it can raise $1.3 million, Planetary Resources proposes to build a ground station at an undisclosed “educational partner” that would double the download speed of data from the orbiting observatory
  • Two more stretch goals will be revealed if Arkyd receives 11,000 backers and 15,000 backers
Mars Base

Moon Probes' Crash Site Named After Sally Ride | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ail-moon-crash-sally-ride.html

scibyte75 Grail

shared by Mars Base on 18 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • The spot on the lunar surface where NASA intentionally crashed its twin gravity-mapping moon probes
  • Dec. 17) has been named after the late Sally Ride, America's first woman in space
  • Ebb and Flow, slammed into a crater rim near the moon's north pole at 5:28 p.m. EST (2228 GMT)
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • f Sally Ride, who played a key role in Grail's education and outreach efforts
  • Ride had led Grail's MoonKAM project, which allowed schoolkids around the world to select lunar sites for Ebb and Flow to photograph
Mars Base

Reading wordless storybooks to toddlers may expose them to richer language - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...-toddlers-expose-richer_1.html

scibyte93

shared by Mars Base on 30 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Researchers
  • have found that children hear more complex language from parents when they read a storybook with only pictures compared to a picture-vocabulary book
  • often, parents dismiss picture storybooks, especially when they are wordless, as not real reading or just for fun
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • these findings show that reading picture storybooks with kids exposes them to the kind of talk that is really important for children to hear, especially as they transition to school
  • a graduate student, recorded 25 mothers while they read to their toddlers both a wordless picture storybook and a vocabulary book with pictures
  • moms in our study significantly more frequently used forms of complex talk when reading the picture storybook to their child than the picture vocabulary book
  • especially interested in looking at the language mothers use when reading both wordless picture storybooks and picture vocabulary books
  • to see if parents provided extra information to children like relating the events of the story to the child's own experiences or asking their child to make predictions.
  • The results of the study are significant for both parents and educators because vocabulary books are often marketed as being more educationa
  • even short wordless picture books provide children with exposure to the kinds of
  • language that they will encounter at school
  • lay the foundation for later reading developmen
Mars Base

Twinkle, twinkle little star: New app measures sky brightness - 0 views

phys.org/...e-star-app-sky-brightness.html

scibyte93 LightPollution

shared by Mars Base on 04 May 13 - No Cached
  • Researchers from the German "Loss of the Night" project have developed an app for Android smart phones, which counts the number of visible stars in the sky
  • The data from the app will be used by scientists to understand light pollution on a world wide scale.
  • The smartphone app will evaluate sky brightness, also known as skyglow, on a worldwide scale
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • This data can be used to map the distribution and changes in sky brightness, and will eventually allow scientists to investigate correlations with health, biodiversity, energy waste and other factors
  • The app works by interactively asking users to say whether individual stars are visible. By determining what the faintest visible star is, the researchers learn how many stars are visible at that location, and by extension how bright the sky is
  • With this app, people from around the world can collect data on skyglow without needing expensive equipment
  • some of the testers found that without intending too they learned the names of several stars and constellations
  • is based on the widely used Google Sky Map application
  • development of the app was sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education,
  • satellites that observe Earth at night measure the light that is radiating into the sky, not the brightness that is experienced by people and other organisms on the ground
Mars Base

Working alone won't get you good grades, study finds - 0 views

phys.org/...2013-01-wont-good-grades.html

scibyte80 Learning

shared by Mars Base on 01 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Students who work together and interact online are more likely to be successful in their college classes, according to a study
  • 80,000 interactions between 290 students in a collaborative learning environment for college courses
  • major finding was that a higher number of online interactions was usually an indicator of a higher score in the class
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • High achievers also were more likely to form strong connections with other students and to exchange information in more complex ways
  • tended to form cliques, shutting out low-performing students from their interactions
  • Students who found themselves shut out were not only more likely to have lower grades; they were also more likely to drop out of the class entirely.
  • Elite groups of highly connected individuals formed in the first days of the course
  • "For the first time, we showed that there is a very strong correspondence between social interaction and exchange of information - a 72 percent correlation
  • almost equally interesting is the fact that these high-performing students form 'rich-clubs', which shield themselves from low-performing students, despite the significant efforts by these lower-ranking students to join them.
  • weaker students try hard to engage with the elite group intensively, but can't. This ends up having a marked correlation with their dropout rates
  • might better identify patterns in the classroom that can trigger early dropout alarms
  • allowing more time for educators to help the student and, ideally, reduce those rates through appropriate social network interventions.
  • work is part of
  • wider research effort at the intersection of the computer and social sciences
  • enhance our understanding of the ways in which people share information and how this impacts areas of national significance, such as the spread of health-related or political behavior.
Mars Base

ScienceShot: Counting Penguins From Space - ScienceNOW - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...nceshot-counting-penguins.html

AprMedia scibyte43 penguins

shared by Mars Base on 18 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Counting penguins isn't as hard as it might sound.
  • Someone snaps a photograph of a colony and then marks up the picture to make sure that they aren't missing or double counting anybody
  • What is hard is getting to remote places, especially Antarctica
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • also came across seven new colonies (one shown at left), bringing the total to 44
  • Scientists have found twice as many emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) as previously thought to exist, roughly 595,000 (plus or minus 81,000
  • a new approach is to use satellite images, and today researchers report the results of the first such comprehensive stu
Mars Base

LEGO Figures Flying On NASA Jupiter Probe | NASA Juno Spacecraft & LEGOs In Space | Spa... - 0 views

www.space.com/s-jupiter-juno-spacecraft.html

scibyte38 lego Jupiter

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • three more "very special" LEGO figurines are set to fly to the planet Jupiter with NASA's Juno spacecraft
  • specially-constructed LEGO Minifigures are of the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno, and "father of science" Galileo Galilei.
  • part of the Bricks in Space project
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • joint outreach and educational program developed as part of the collaboration between NASA and the LEGO Group to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
  • NASA has a long-standing partnership with the LEGO company
  • Juno and the minifigures are scheduled to arrive in July 2016 and orbit Jupiter for a year (33 revolutions) before intentionally crashing into the giant gas planet
  • 04 August 2011
  • The trio resemble the typical small toys that LEGO sells, but are made out of metal.
  • Jupiter (who was the equivalent of "Zeus" to the Greeks) drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief
  • Juno was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature
  • Juno spacecraft will also look beneath the clouds to help NASA understand the planet's structure and history.
  • Juno holds a magnifying glass "to signify her search for the truth,"
  • husband holds a lightning bolt
  • third LEGO crew member, Galileo Galilei, made several important discoveries about Jupiter
  • first to point a telescope at the sky to make astronomical observations and discovered the four largest satellites of Jupiter — named the Galilean moons in his honor.
  • minifigure Galileo has his telescope with him for the journey to Jupiter.
  • basically the size of the normal LEGO figures
  • made out of aluminum, very special aluminum and they have been prepared in a very special way
  • space-grade aluminum
  • testing to make sure that they fit on our spacecraft in a way that is like our other science instruments."
  • mini-metal statues are joined on the spacecraft by another "special passenger," one
  • 2.8-inch by 2-inch (71 mm by 51 mm) plaque also made of flight-grade aluminum is bonded to Juno's propulsion bay with a spacecraft-grade epoxy. The graphic on the plaque shows a self-portrait of Galileo. The plaque also includes — in Galileo's own hand — a passage he made in 1610 of observations of Jupite
  • Galileo's text included on the plaque reads as follows: "On the 11th it was in this formation -- and the star closest to Jupiter was half the size than the other and very close to the other so that during the previous nights all of the three observed stars looked of the same dimension and among them equally afar; so that it is evident that around Jupiter there are three moving stars invisible till this time to everyone."
Mars Base

Music has big brain benefits compared to other leisure pursuits - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...ig-brain-benefits-leisure.html

GrabBag MusicalScience

shared by Mars Base on 20 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Musical instrumental training, when compared to other activities, may reduce the effects of memory decline and cognitive aging
  • second study
  • which confirms and refines findings from an original study
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • that revealed that musicians with at least 10 years of instrumental musical training remained cognitively sharp in advanced age
  • range of cognitive benefits, including memory, was sustained for musicians between the ages of 60-80 if they played for at least 10 years throughout their life
  • While years of playing music were the best indication of enhanced cognition in advanced age, the results revealed different sensitive periods for cognitive development across the lifespan
  • before age nine, predicted verbal working memory functions
  • Sustained musical activity in advanced age predicted other non-verbal abilities involving visuospatial judgment, suggesting it is never too late to be musically active
  • Continued musical activity in advanced age also appeared to buffer lower educational levels
  • to obtain optimal results, individuals should start musical training before age nine, play at least 10 years or more and if possible, keep playing for as long as possible over the age of 60.
Mars Base

Cheetah Breaks Speed Record-Beats Usain Bolt by Seconds - 0 views

news.nationalgeographic.com/...rd-science-usain-bolt-olympics

scibyte58 cheetahs

shared by Mars Base on 04 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • Sarah the cheetah has shattered the world record for the standing 100-meter dash, clocking a time of 5.95 seconds—making Olympian Usain Bolt's world record of 9.58 seconds look positively stodgy by comparison
  • USA Track & Field-certified course established by the Cincinnati Zoo, the 11-year-old cheetah was radar-timed at up to 61 miles (98 kilometers) an hour
  • National Geographic magazine
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • featured in its November issue, which will include unprecedented high-speed pictures
  • June 20 sprint is the fastest timed 100 meters ever run by anything on the planet
  • five cheetahs each completed several sprints a day
  • bolting out of the back of one of the zoo's vans and chasing fluffy toy dogs as they were pulled across a meadow on a high-speed cord.
  • used to long sprints, regularly running for zoo crowds
  • not only good for the individual cats, who get much-needed exercise, but good for the species as well:
  • zoo's track-star cheetahs have helped raise over a million U.S. dollars for conservation
  • almost certain that cheetahs in the wild—lean, hungry, chasing down antelopes for their own survival or that of their cubs—have run considerably faster.
Mars Base

Teenagers play detectives on Interpol's new website - 0 views

phys.org/...eenagers-interpol-website.html

scibyte49 Interpol crime

shared by Mars Base on 30 May 12 - No Cached
  • Global police agency Interpol Tuesday launched a website to educate teenagers about crimes that can be committed over the Internet and tell them how they can protect themselves from the dangers
  • website also aims to teach teenagers about the 190-country-member organisation
  • focal point of the new site is a game "Interpol Junior Officer -- the Case of the Black Tattoo," in which players assume the role of an Interpol officer who travels worldwide, gathering clues to help local police track down an international gang involved in smuggling.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • launched in English and will eventually have Arabic, French and Spanish versions.
Mars Base

Crowdsourcing the Hunt for Potentially Dangerous Asteroids - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...otentially-dangerous-asteroids

scibyte47 Asteroid crowdsourcing

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • new partnership between the European Space Agency and the Faulkes Telescope Project, which will encourage amateur astronomers to look for asteroids
  • providing educational opportunities that will allow students to discover potentially dangerous space rocks, too.
  • ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program is part of an international effort to be on the lookout for space hazards – not only asteroids but disruptive space weather and space debris objects in Earth orbit
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • asteroids pose a problem
  • hard to see because they can be very dark
  • can approach rather too close before anyone sees them
  • often spotted only once and then disappear before the discovery can be confirmed.
  • ESA is turning to schools and amateur astronomers to help as part of Europe’s contribution to the global asteroid hunt
  • UK’s Faulkes Telescope Project will become the latest team to formally support the SSA program
  • Spain’s La Sagra Sky Survey, operated by the Observatorio Astronomico de Mallorca, began helping SSA earlier this year
  • The Faulkes project has two telescopes where you can sign up for observing online: Haleakala, Hawaii
  • and Siding Spring, Australia
  • For European students, collaborating on exciting ESA activities and possibly detecting new NEOs is very appealing, as its engagement with one of the world’s great space agencies doing critical scientific work.”
  • While the Faulkes project focuses on schools
  • amateurs will be able to freely access the data archives
  • archives are also open to all, and they work
  • Since starting their SSA-sponsored survey work in January 2010, the TOTAS amateur astronomers have identified hundreds of asteroid candidates, over 20 of which have been confirmed and named.
Mars Base

March 5 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on March 5th, died, and events - 0 views

www.todayinsci.com/...3_05.htm

scibyte122 LookingBackMar

shared by Mars Base on 01 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • Oldest eclipse record
  • In 1223 BC, the oldest recorded eclipse occurred, according to one plausible interpretation of a date inscribed on a clay tablet retrieved from the ancient city of Ugarit, Syria (as it is now). This date is favoured by recent authors on the subject, although alternatively 3 May 1375 BC has also been proposed as plausible. Certainly by the 8th century BC, the Babylonians were keeping a systematic record of solar eclipses, and possibly by this time they may have been able to apply numerological rules to make fairly accurate predictions of the occurrence of solar eclipses.
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