SciByte

ProVision, made by defense contractor L-3 Communications, a passenger enters a chamber that looks like a round phone booth and is scanned with millimeter waves, a form of low-energy radio waves, which have not been shown to strip electrons from atoms or cause cancer.

Some scientists argue the danger is exaggerated. They claim low levels stimulate the repair mechanism in cells, meaning that a little radiation might actually be good for the body.

But in the authoritative report on low doses of ionizing radiation, published in 2006, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed the research and concluded that the preponderance of research supported the linear link. It found “no compelling evidence” that there is any level of radiation at which the risk of cancer is zero.

Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a radiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, estimated that the backscatters would lead to only six cancers over the course of a lifetime among the approximately 100 million people who fly every year. David Brenner, director of Columbia University’s Center for Radiological Research, reached a higher number — potentially 100 additional cancers every year.

But in 1982, the FDA merged the radiological health bureau into its medical-device unit. “I was concerned that if they were to combine the two centers into one, it would probably mean the ending of the radiation program because the demands for medical-device regulation were becoming increasingly great,” said Villforth, who was put in charge of the new Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “As I sort of guessed, the radiation program took a big hit.”

As a result, there is an FDA safety regulation for X-rays scanning baggage — but none for X-rays scanning people at airports.

The U.S. Customs Service deployed backscatter machines for several years but in limited fashion and with strict supervision. Travelers suspected of carrying contraband had to sign a consent form, and Customs policy prohibited the scanning of pregnant women.

In July, a federal appeals court ruled that the agency failed to follow rule-making procedures and solicit public comment before installing body scanners at airports across the country

Federal Aviation Administration’s medical institute has advised pregnant pilots and flight attendants that the machine, coupled with their time in the air, could put them over their occupational limit for radiation exposure

It was made up of 15 people, including six representatives of manufacturers of X-ray body scanners and five from U.S. Customs and the California prison system. There were few government regulators and no independent scientists.

The FDA delegated the task of establishing the voluntary standards to the American National Standards Institute.

“Establishing a mandatory standard takes an enormous amount of resources and could take a decade to publish,” said Dan Kassiday, a longtime radiation safety engineer at the FDA.

and before 9/11, many states also had the authority to randomly inspect machines in airports. But that ended when the TSA took over security checkpoints from the airlines.

Last year, in reaction to public anger from members of Congress, passengers and advocates, the TSA contracted with the Army Public Health Command to do independent radiation surveys. But email messages obtained in a lawsuit brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a civil liberties group, raise questions about the independence of the Army surveys.

One email sent by TSA health and safety director Jill Segraves shows that local TSA officials were given advance notice and allowed to “pick and choose” which systems the Army could check.

The TSA considered the scanners again after two Chechen women blew up Russian airliners in

Facing a continued outcry over privacy, the TSA instead moved forward with a machine known as a “puffer” because it released several bursts of air on the passengers’ clothes and analyzed the dislodged particles for explosives. But after discovering the machines were ineffective in the field and difficult to maintain, the TSA canceled the program in 2006.

Around that time, Rapiscan began to beef up its lobbying on Capitol Hill. It opened a Washington, D.C., office and, according to required disclosures, more than tripled its lobbying expenditures in two years, from less than $130,000 in 2006 to nearly $420,000 in 2008. It hired former legislative aides to Rep. David Price, D-N.C., then chairman of the homeland security appropriations subcommittee, and to Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss.

In addition, it opened a new North Carolina plant in Price’s district and expanded its operations in Ocean Springs, Miss., and at its headquarters in Torrance, Calif., in Harman’s district.

in 2007, with new privacy filters in place, the TSA began a trial of millimeter-wave and backscatter machines at several major airports, after which the agency opted to go with the millimeter-wave machines. The agency said health concerns weren’t a factor.

archival database

more than 80,000 documen

peak at Einstein's high school certification

finishing high school at 16 in 1896

Einstein was an excellent student

he left because he couldn't handle the strict discipline and authority.

one of only three existing manuscripts containing the famous E=mc^2 equation written in Einstein's handwriting

archive contains a postcard to his mother

originally launched in 2003. Almost a decade later, a $500,000 grant from the Polonsky Foundation of London funded digitization of the 80,000 documents

In 2005, astronomers found evidence of a runaway star that was flying out of the Milky Way galaxy at a speed of 1.5 million mph (2.4 million kph).

part of a double-star system that wandered too close to the supermassive black hole

In the seven years since, 16 of these hypervelocity stars have been found

typical runaway planet would likely dash outward at 7 to 10 million mph (11.3 to 16.1 million kph), but given the right circumstances, a small fraction could have their speeds boosted to up to 30 million mph (48.3 million kph).

hypervelocity planets will escape the Milky Way and travel through interstellar space

a civilization on such a planet, they would have a very exciting journe

Once the planet exits from the local group of galaxies, it will be accelerated away by cosmic expansion. So, within 10 billion years, it would go from the center of the galaxy to all the way to the edge of the observable universe

planet that tightly orbits a runaway star will cross in front and cause its brightness to dim slightly in what astronomers call a "transit

To hitch a ride on a hypervelocity star, a planet would have to be locked in a tight orbit, which ups the odds of witnessing a transit to around 50 percent

first time someone is talking about searching for planets around hypervelocity stars

By analysing the teeth and tusks, the team estimate Yuka was about two and a half years old when it died.

Teeth, tusks and bone are the most common ways extinct animals such as mammoths are studied

these parts of the body take a relatively long time to decompose.

Soft tissues such as muscle, skin and internal organs decompose far quicker, and are very rarely found on old carcasses. This means that vital information is usually lost.

much of Yuka's soft tissue as well as its woolly coat has remained intact

Yuka provides direct evidence that mammoths did have lighter-coloured coats.

possibility of mammoths having lighter coat colours was proposed in 2006 after scientists studied the genes extracted solely from a mammoth bone.

One of the most striking things about Yuka is its strawberry-blonde hair,

Healed scratches found on the skin indicate a lion attack that Yuka survived earlier in its relatively short life

lions in question (Panthera leo spelea) are an extinct subspecies of the African lion, known commonly as Eurasian cave lions but were present at the same time as the mammoths.

Did we know lions hunted mammoths? Well, we guessed they did. But could we ever have expected to see such graphic evidence? No - but here it is,"

skull, spine, ribs and pelvis were all removed from Yuka's body

skull and pelvis were found nearby

most of the spine and three-quarters of the ribs are missing.

scalloped mark on the skin is made up by 15-30 small, serrations that "could be the saw-like motion of a human tool

Were humans using the lions to catch mammoths and then moving the lions off their kill

wouldn't have thought about it without seeing it [the evidence]."

Woolly Mammoth: Secrets from the Ice is on BBC Two at 21:00 BST on Wednesday 4 April and will be shown on the Discovery Channel in the US at a future date.

KELT-1b, is a massive world that is both incredibly hot and dense. The alien planet, which is mostly metallic hydrogen, is slightly larger than Jupiter, but contains a whopping 27 times the mass

completes one orbit in a mere 29 hours

surface temperature is likely above 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (roughly 2,200 degrees Celsius

receiving 6,000 times the amount of radiation that Earth receives from the sun

located approximately 825 light-years away in the constellation of Andromeda

massive enough that KELT-1 has raised tides on its parent star and actually spun it

both KELT-1 and its parent star are locked in each other's gaze as they go around."

KELT-2Ab, and is located about 360 light-years away in the constellation of Auriga

30 percent larger than Jupiter with 50 percent more mass.

KELT-2Ab's parent star is so bright it can be seen from Earth through binoculars

the star is so luminous that researchers will be able to make direct observations of the planet's atmosphere by examining light that shines through it when the star passes within KELT North's field of view again in November.

Follow-up observations are also being planned

as well as several space observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope.

orbits a star that is slightly bigger than the sun, within a binary system

one star is slightly bigger than our sun, and the other star is slightly smaller. KELT-2Ab orbits the bigger star, which is bright enough to be seen from Earth with binoculars

using the so-called transit method, which involves watching for tiny dips in the star's light that could indicate a planet is crossing, or transiting

Rather than staring at a small group of stars at high resolution, the twin KELT North and KELT South telescopes observe millions of very bright stars at low resolution,

KELT North scans the northern sky from Arizona

KELT South covers the southern sky from Cape Town, South Africa.

small ground-based KELT telescopes provide a low-cost alternative for exoplanet hunters by primarily using off-the-shelf technology. The hardware for a KELT telescope costs less than $75,000

in principle the same as every common photo or video camera creates color images

Rover Panoramic Camera differs from normal digital cameras by having filters with smaller bandwidth resulting in images with appear as having too much color saturation. To counteract this effect a special but simple processing

combining the black & white images from two filters a visual effect is created as the image would have been taken through one filter with wider bandwidth

is a good approximation to

Rover Panoramic Camera contains more than only red, green and blue filters there are more combinations available to create color images

images created with these additional filters (L2, L3 and L7) show slightly different colorizations as L2 and L3 pass only light of near infrared wavelengths and L7 pass only violet light

MER2RGB-process described above the overall colors approximate true colors sufficiently. That means, the soil looks still "Earth-like" and the sky is still blue to white.

How precise the true colors are reproduced

a 100% precise reproduction is not possible as the human visual system can only be approximated by technical devices

some scientist claim, that it is impossible to recreate the Martian colors

on Mars the same Sun is shining as on Earth with just reduced intensity by 40% and the same optical and physical laws are valid

Color is not always 100% correct, but the general colorization is represented so we can get the impression how it would look like on that location when viewing it with our own eyes

controversy about

colorization since the first color image was taken by the Viking Lander in 1976

color calibration problem seems to be unsolvable

from Spirit and Opportuniy Mars Exploration Rover

he next known approach of an asteroid this large will be in 2028.

The sunspot is actually a group of nearby darkened spots on the sun, some of which are individually wider than planet Earth

a huge sunspot like AR1339 comes with a large potential for solar flares

the spot has already produced one class M4 solar flare on Nov. 2 that was observed by SDO. A large coronal mass ejection from this flare was observed, but it was not directed toward Earth. However, as the sunspot turns toward our planet in the coming days, we may be in for a greater chance of these ejections.