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Venus Transit As Seen from the International Space Station - 0 views

  • This image is from NASA Astronaut Don Pettit on board the International Space Station
  • I knew the Transit of Venus would occur during my rotation, so I brought a solar filter with me when my expedition left for the ISS in December 2011
  • This is his first image, and we’ll add more as they become available
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A Peek Inside the Manta Ray Womb - ScienceNOW - 0 views

  • In November 2008, a female manta ray got stuck in a fishing net off the coast of Okinawa, Japan
  • fishermen called up the local aquarium, where scientists were studying how the creatures reproduce
  • The ray was pregnant
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  • manta rays give birth to live young, but they don't have an umbilical cord or a placenta to deliver oxygen
  • researchers have figured out how manta ray embryos get oxygen without a mammal's life-support equipment
  • uterus is closed off from the outside seawater, so the embryo has to be getting oxygen somehow, but nobody knew how
  • checked to see if she was pregnant using an ultrasound machine that had been modified to keep water away from the electronics
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How A Mosquito Survives A Raindrop Hit - Science News - 0 views

  • A raindrop hitting a mosquito in flight is like a midair collision between a human and a bus. Except that the mosquito survives
  • the (relatively) huge, fast drop doesn’t transfer much of its momentum to a little wisp of an insect
  • the falling droplet sweeps the insect along on the downward plunge
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  • Mosquito tricks may also inspire engineers designing swarms of tiny flying robots, or interest physicists and mathematicians studying complex fluid dynamics at this scale
  • mosquitoes hit with water survived using an insect version of tai chi:
  • Mosquitoes hitchhiking on water experience acceleration 100 to 300 times the force of Earth’s gravity
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China tells embassies to stop issuing pollution data - 0 views

  • China said foreign embassies were acting illegally in issuing their own air quality readings and that only the government could release data on the nation's heavy pollution.
  • until recently, official air quality measurements regularly rated their air quality as good
  • data from the US embassy in Beijing showed off-the-chart pollution
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  • US embassy air quality Twitter feed gained a major following in Beijing, and later in Shanghai when it was introduced at the US consulate there
  • Beijing announced earlier this year it would change the way it measured air quality to include the smaller particles experts say make up much of the pollution in Chinese cities, after a vocal campaign
  • publishing of China's air quality are related to the public interests and as such are powers reserved for the government
  • vice minister of environment protection
  • did not name the US, but called on embassies to abide by China's laws
  • China's air quality is among the worst in the world
  • According to the latest Environmental Performance Index compiled by Yale University, China ranked 128th out of 132 countries for air quality.
  • Most Chinese cities base their air-quality information on particles of 10 micrometres or larger
  • China seeks to control the sources of particulates, such as coal burning and auto emissions
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SpaceX capsule back on solid ground after flight - 0 views

  • Dragon spacecraft is back on solid ground
  • SpaceX capsule arrived by barge at the Port of Los Angeles on Tuesday.
  • Dragon is now headed to the company's rocket factory in McGregor, Texas, for unloading
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  • station astronauts filled the capsule with 1,400 pounds (635 kilograms) of old equipment
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Dinosaurs were lighter than previously thought, new study shows - 0 views

  • Scientists have developed a new technique to accurately measure the weight and size of dinosaurs and discovered they are not as heavy as previously thought.
  • biologists used lasers to measure the minimum amount of skin required to wrap around the skeletons of modern-day mammals, including reindeer, polar bears, giraffes and elephants
  • discovered that the animals had almost exactly 21% more body mass than the minimum skeletal 'skin and bone' wrap volume, and applied this to a giant Brachiosaur skeleton
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  • Previous estimates of this Brachiosaur's weight have varied, with estimates as high as 80 tonnes
  • Manchester team's calculations – published in the journal Biology Letters – reduced that figure to just 23 tonnes
  • new technique will apply to all dinosaur weight measurements
  • One of the most important things palaeobiologists need to know about fossilised animals is how much they weighed
  • surprisingly difficult
  • laser scanned various large mammal skeletons, including polar bear, giraffe and elephant
  • This has the advantage of requiring minimal user intervention and is therefore more objective and far quicker
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