SciByte

Alaska earthquake

In 1965, south central Alaska was rocked by North America's greatest earthquake. (At 8.3-8.5 on the Richter scale, it released over twice the energy of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.) Its epicenter was near Price William Sound, along a 1,000 km thrust fault where the Pacific plate subducts under the North american plate. The earthquake tilted at least 120,000 sq km. Some landmasses were thrust up locally as high as 25 m; elsewhere land sank as much as 2.5m. The shock was felt over almost 1,300,000 sq km. Extensive coastal damage resulted from submarine landslides and tsunamis which caused 122 of the 131 deaths. Property damage cost was about $311 million. Tsunami damage reached Crescent City, Calif. Tens of thousands of aftershocks indicated that the region of faulting extended about 1,000 km.

Hoyle coined “Big Bang”

In 1949, Fred Hoyle unintentionally coined the term “Big Bang” as a household name, in a scripted radio broadcast on the BBC Third Programme. His talk was printed in the The Listener (7 Apr 1949). He compared his own belief in a “steady state” universe, saying, “earlier theories … were based on the hypothesis that all the matter in the universe was created in one big bang at a particular time in the remote past.” He repeated its use in a 1950 broadcast published in The Listener (9 Mar 1950): “One [idea] was that the Universe started its life a finite time ago in a single huge explosion… This big bang idea seemed to me to be unsatisfactory.” His critics found the “big bang” term pejorative, yet Hoyle has said his intention was to make a vivid description for the radio audience. The term stuck

Coca-Cola

In 1886, the first batch of Coca Cola was brewed over a fire in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. John Pemberton had created the concoction as a cure for "hangover," stomach ache and headache. He advertised it as a "brain tonic and intellectual beverage," and first sold it to the public a few weeks later on 8 May. Coke contained cocaine as an ingredient until 1904, when the drug was banned by Congress.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has just pulled into

terrain chock full of curvy rock outcrops at Kimberly that’s suitable for contact science and drilling action

The robot’s arm has been deployed to investigate the most scientifically productive spots

A new study

has developed a new drug that can manipulate the body's natural signalling and energy systems, allowing the body to attack and shut down cancerous cells.

ZL105,

The object journeys 80 to 452 AU from the sun, never approaching Neptune (30 AU) or Pluto (39.5 AU).

The new world is roughly 450 kilometers across, just one-fifth Pluto's diameter

If Pluto were as big as a basketball, Sedna would be a softball and the new world a mere golf ball

Astronomers have discovered a probable dwarf planet that orbits the Sun far beyond Pluto

Together with Sedna, a similar extreme object discovered a decade ago, the find is reshaping ideas about how the Solar System came to be

been searching for more objects like Sedna for more than 10 years now.

Opportunity rover on Mars has gotten a 70% boost in power over the past few weeks

A good portion of that comes from the fact that its springtime in Mars’ southern hemisphere where Oppy now sits

so the Sun is now shining longer and higher in the sky.

The rover experienced a partial cleaning of dust from its solar panels

Combined, the seasonal effect and multiple dust-cleaning events have increased the amount of energy available each day from the rover's solar array by more than 70 percent compared with two months ago

ESA sent a wake-up call to the 100-kg (220-lb) lander riding aboard the Rosetta spacecraft

bringing it out of its nearly 33-month-long slumber and beginning its preparation for its upcoming

landing on the surface of a comet in November

Velcro

In 1978, Velcro, the hook-and-loop fastener, was released. It was developed by Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral, who noticed how thistle burrs clung to his clothing during a hike in the mountains. Using a microscope, he discovered their natural hook-like shape. From 1948, he worked with a local weaver from a textile plant to design a "locking tape". The important discovery was accidental - that nylon, when sewn under ultraviolet light, formed industructable hooks. Velcro uses two tapes, one with stiff "hooks" like the burrs which clings to the second tape with soft "loops" like the fabric of his pants. The trademarked name Velcro comes from "vel" or velvet and "cro" from the French word crochet which means hook

First photo of sun

Teflon

In 1938, Du Pont researcher Roy J. Plunkett and his technician Jack Rebok accidentally discovered the chemical compound polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), later marketed as Teflon. Plunkett was researching chemical reactions of the gas perfluoroethylene in order to synthesize new types of refrigerant gases. Rebok found an apparently defective cylinder of this gas, since no pressure was found when the valve was opened, even though the cyclinder weight was the same as full cylinders. Rebok suggested sawing it open to investigate. Inside was a slippery white powder. Plunkett found it had unusual properties, a wonderful solid lubricant in powdered form, was chemically inert and had a very high melting point. He realized it was formed by an unexpected polymerization. It was patented on 4 Feb 1941

Challenger

Mrs Potts sad iron

In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden voyage. It was named after the British Naval research vessel HMS Challenger that sailed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans during the 1870's. Challenger joined the NASA fleet of reusable winged spaceships and flew nine successful Space Shuttle missions. But on 28 Jan 1986, its tenth launch, the Challenger and its crew of seven were lost 73 seconds after launch when a booster failure resulted in the breakup of the vehicle

First cell phone call

In 1973, the first portable phone call was placed by inventor Martin Cooper. The phone was 10 inches in height, 3 inches deep and an inch-and-a-half wide and weighed 30-oz. Since then, cell phones have shrunk to a mere palm-size weighing 4-oz, and are used by a billion people around the world. Cooper's first ''shoebox'' phone replaced a car phone of the time that weighed more than 30 pounds and cost thousands of dollars. A car phone owner had to drill a hole in his car to install the antenna and most of the phone sat in the trunk. A control unit with a handset was placed inside the car