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February 1 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on February 1st, died, and events - 0 views

todayinsci.com/2_01.htm scibyte117 LookingBack
shared by Mars Base on 25 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Bell Rock Lighthouse
  • the Bell Rock Lighthouse was lit for the first time. Using 24 lanterns, it began flashing its warning light, 11 miles out off the east coast of Scotland atop a white stone tower rising over 30m (100ft) high. It was built by Robert Stevenson on a treacherous sandstone reef, which, except at low tides, lies submerged just beneath the waves. Since then, no repair has been necessary to its stonework. It is the oldest sea-washed lighthouse in existence. It was Stevenson's finest achievement, regarded by many as the finest lighthouse ever built, the most outstanding engineering achievement of the 19th century. In the centuries before, the dangerous Bell Rock had claimed thousands of lives, as vessels were wrecked on its razor-sharp serrated rocks.
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Chang'e 3 Lander Beams Back New Lunar Panorama Photos - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...back-new-lunar-panorama-photos scibyte117 ChineseSpaceProgram
shared by Mars Base on 19 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • the lander beamed back a series of new photos taken with its panoramic camera
  • Stitched together, they give us a more detailed and colorful look of the rover’s surroundings in northern Mare Imbrium
  • The final mosaic unfortunately doesn’t have the resolution yet of the other images. Perhaps one will be published soon
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  • One thing that stands out
  • is the brown color of the lunar surface soil or regolith
  • Color images of the moon’s surface by the Apollo astronauts along with  their verbal descriptions indicate a uniform gray color punctuated in rare spots by patches of more colorful soils
  • Apollo visited six different moonscapes – all essentially gray
  • wonder if the color balance in the Chinese images might be off. Or did Chang’e 3 just happen to land on browner soils
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Smart Foam In Football Helmets Measures Impact Of Each Hit | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...lmets-measures-impact-each-hit scibyte117 Football
shared by Mars Base on 23 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • . The CDC estimates that between the 1.6 million and 3.8 million Americans suffer sports-related concussions every year
  • , these concussions occur after what seems like a pretty mild blow to the head
  • in football,
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • the risk of concussion has been a hot-button issue,
  • Sensors within helmets can catch what human eyes often miss, alerting people on the sidelines that a player may need to be taken out of play and screened for a concussion
  • Jake Merrell, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Brigham Young University
  • created a smart foam that works within football helmets to measure how hard a player just got hit
  • Motion sensors transmit data wirelessly to a tablet or computer when the foam in the helmet is compressed by the player's head, measuring the force and acceleration of the impact.
  • The helmet manufacturer Riddell debuted a similar concussion-alert product this year, called the InSite Impact Response System
  • is being used by some high school teams in the 2013 season.
  • Sensors inside the player's helmet lining measure the severity of a head impact and send an alert to the sidelines if a player has sustained a potentially concussion-inducing hit
  • the system only works in Riddell's Revolution Speed helmet so far.
  • "A coach will know within seconds exactly how hard their player just got hit
  • l plans to submit his project to the Head Health Challenge sponsored by GE and the NFL.
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Telescope spies water plumes on dwarf planet Ceres - 0 views

phys.org/...spies-plumes-dwarf-planet.html scibyte117 Asteroid Ceres
shared by Mars Base on 23 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Scientists
  • have made the first definitive detection of water vapor on the largest and roundest object in the asteroid belt, Ceres.
  • Plumes of water vapor are thought to shoot up periodically from Ceres when portions of its icy surface warm slightly
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  • Ceres is classified as a dwarf planet, a solar system body bigger than an asteroid and smaller than a planet.
  • "This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an icy surface and an atmosphere,"
  • Michael Küppers of ESA in Spain
  • NASA's Dawn mission, which is on its way to Ceres now after spending more than a year orbiting the large asteroid Vesta
  • Dawn is scheduled to arrive at Ceres in the spring of 2015, where it will take the closest look ever at its surface.
  • will map the geology and chemistry of the surface in high resolution
  • International Astronomical Union, the governing organization responsible for naming planetary objects
  • Ceres was known as the largest asteroid in our solar system
  • reclassified Ceres as a dwarf planet because of its large size. It is roughly 590 miles (950 kilometers) in diameter
  • When it first was spotted in 1801, astronomers thought it was a planet orbiting between Mars and Jupiter
  • Scientists believe Ceres contains rock in its interior with a thick mantle of ice that, if melted, would amount to more fresh water than is present on all of Earth
  • The materials making up Ceres likely date from the first few million years of our solar system's existence and accumulated before the planets formed.
  • Until now, ice had been theorized to exist on Ceres but had not been detected conclusively
  • far-infrared vision to see, finally, a clear spectral signature of the water vapor. But
  • did not see water vapor every time it looked
  • spied water vapor four different times, on one occasion there was no signature.
  • what scientists think is happening
  • when Ceres swings through the part of its orbit that is closer to the sun, a portion of its icy surface becomes warm enough to cause water vapor to escape in plumes
  • a rate of about 6 kilograms (13 pounds) per second
  • When Ceres is in the colder part of its orbit, no water escapes
  • The strength of the signal also varied over hours, weeks and months
  • water vapor plumes rotating in and out of Herschel's views as the object spun on its axis
  • This enabled the scientists to localize the source of water to two darker spots on the surface of Ceres
  • previously seen by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes. The dark spots might be more likely to outgas because dark material warms faster than light material.
  • "The lines are becoming more and more blurred between comets and asteroids," said Seungwon Lee of JPL
  • Paul von Allmen, also of JPL. "We knew before about main belt asteroids that show comet-like activity, but this is the first detection of water vapor in an asteroid-like object."
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Driverless Taxis in European Cities from 2014 - 0 views

www.scienceworldreport.com/...-european-cities-from-2014.htm scibyte117
shared by Mars Base on 23 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Driverless taxis will be carrying passengers during demonstration projects in five European cities as of February 2014.
  • cybercars, by the EU-funded CityMobil2 project, is one of a number of research initiatives that are testing out specially designed self-driving road vehicles as the technology required to navigate them becomes cheaper and more reliable.
  • Cybercars have traditionally sensed the world through expensive gyroscopes, microwaves and laser beams
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  • cheap cameras and fast image-recognition algorithms has led to a new technique known as visual odometry
  • a computer analyses images to determine the position and orientation of the vehicle.
  • researchers have better access to the technology required for automated vehicles
  • e V-Charge project, a consortium of companies and universities which is working on fully automated low-speed driving in cities using only cameras and other low-cost sensors mounted on standard cars
  • . The consortium is working to produce detailed maps and a perception system that allows a vehicle to recognize its location and identify nearby pedestrians and vehicles, all using only stereoscopic or fisheye cameras.
  • team has taken this a step further, pioneering a guidance system that works economically by using a single camera.
  • car manufacturers are already making automated piloting features of their own – radar-based cruise control, anti-braking systems (ABS) and lane-control assistance
  • cables and hydraulic pressure valves which previously linked the controls of the vehicle to its working parts are gradually being replaced with electronic circuits
  • While companies such as Google see autonomous cars in a couple of decades
  • CityMobil2 project
  • thinks that they could be hitting the road sooner than that
  • The challenge lies in their environment
  • believes that, in addition to teaching cars to respond autonomously to traffic conditions, traffic should be adapted to automated cars
  • In their current state of development, cybercars could already drive safely in pedestrian areas and designated lanes
  • , investors are at present deterred by their high initial investment and perceived risks.
  • why they are being implemented in small stages
  • The first CityMobil project shuttled passengers across the car park of London Heathrow airport in a fleet of driverless pods
  • CityMobil2, now brings specially designed automated vehicles to designated roads inside the city centre
  • The project plans to procure two sets of automated vehicles which will tour five cities in a series of demonstration projects each lasting six to eight months
  • CityMobil2 is bringing together experts from ministries in each member state to agree on technical requirements by the time the project concludes in 2016 that could feed into a future European directive on the issue
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Nighttime smartphone use zaps workers' energy - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...140122170624.htm scibyte117
shared by Mars Base on 23 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • In a pair of studies surveying a broad spectrum of U.S. workers
  • found that people who monitored their smart phones for business purposes after 9 p.m. were more tired and were less engaged the following day on the job.
  • More than half of U.S. adults own a smartphone
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  • Many consider the devices to be among the most important tools ever invented when it comes to increasing productivity of knowledge-based work
  • the National Sleep Foundation says only 40 percent of Americans get enough sleep on most nights
  • a commonly cited reason is smartphone usage for work.
  • the first study, the researchers had 82 upper-level managers complete multiple surveys every day for two weeks.
  • The second study surveyed 161 employees daily in a variety of occupations -- from nursing to manufacturing and from accounting to dentistry
  • both studies
  • showed that nighttime smartphone usage for business purposes cut into sleep and sapped workers' energy the next day in the office
  • The second study also compared smartphone usage to other electronic devices and found that smartphones had a larger negative effect than watching television and using laptop and tablet computers
  • In addition to keeping people mentally engaged at night, smartphones emit "blue light"
  • the most disruptive of all colors of light. Blue light is known to hinder melatonin, a chemical in the body that promotes sleep
  • nighttime use of smartphones appears to have both psychological and physiological effects on people's ability to sleep and on sleep's essential recovery functions
  • "There may be times in which putting off work until the next day would have disastrous consequences and using your smartphone is well worth the negative effects on less important tasks the next day,"
  • "But on many other nights, more sleep may be your best bet."
  • Johnson, MSU assistant professor of management
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January 26 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on January 26th, died, and events - 0 views

www.todayinsci.com/...1_26.htm scibyte116 LookingBack
shared by Mars Base on 18 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Canadian earthquake   In 1700, an earthquake, the most intense Canada has ever seen, hit the sea floor off the British Columbia coast. Long before Europeans first landed on Vancouver Island, native legend tells of a great disaster. The sea rose in a heaving wave, and landslides buried a sleeping village. Myth was resolved with science in 2003 by government research. Earthquakes of that intensity cause tidal waves, and Japanese written history tells of a massive tsunami striking fishing villages the next day along the coast of Honshu, killing hundreds. Coupled with geological evidence of the level 9 quake, the connection was clear. Mythology and seismology came together to validate history.
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January 23 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on January 23rd, died, and events - 0 views

www.todayinsci.com/...1_23.htm scibyte116 LookingBack
shared by Mars Base on 18 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Pluto photographed (source)   In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh photographed the planet Pluto, the only planet discovered in the twentieth century, after a systematic search instigated by the predictions of other astronomers. Tombaugh was 24 years old when he made this discovery at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.
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Migraine Attacks Can be Prevented with High Blood Pressure Drug Candesartan - 0 views

www.scienceworldreport.com/...-pressure-drug-candesartan.htm scibyte116 migraine
shared by Mars Base on 16 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Researchers say that the drug Candesartan may be prescribed for those who get no relief from propranolol.
  • researchers
  • have found that the drug Candesartan is as effective in combating migraines as the commonly prescribed drug propranolol for the malady.
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  • This finding is a follow up of a ten-year study from NTNU
  • Though the drug Candesartan is used by several doctors to treat migraine, this study proves the effectiveness of the drug in treating migraine
  • confirmed based on triple a blind test where the doctors, patients and even the researchers were unaware whether the patient was given a placebo or the real drug.
  • The study had 72 participants, who suffered migraine attacks atleast twice every month
  • The patients were given placebo, 16 mg of candesartan or 160 mg of propranolol for 12 weeks each and were given a break of 4 weeks without the medicines before the start of the drug and in between too.
  • more than 20 percent of those suffering with migraine attacks felt better even when they were given a placebo.
  • the blind test revealed that the candesartan works preventively for more 20-30 percent migraine patients
  • The study confirmed that 16 mg of candesartan was as effective as 160 mg of propranolol in treating migraine attacks.
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Countdown to Pluto - 0 views

phys.org/...2014-01-countdown-pluto.html scibyte116 newhorizons
shared by Mars Base on 16 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • One of the fastest spacecraft ever built—NASA's New Horizons—
  • at nearly one million miles per day
  • The encounter begins next January
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Closest approach is scheduled for July 2015 when New Horizons flies only 10,000 km from Pluto
  • The first step, in January 2015, is an intensive campaign of photography by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager or "LORRI."
  • This will help mission controllers pinpoint Pluto's location, which is uncertain by a few thousand kilometers
  • use the images to refine Pluto's distance from the spacecraft, and then fire the engines to make any necessary corrections
  • By late April 2015, the approaching spacecraft will be taking pictures of Pluto that surpass the best images from Hubble
  • If New Horizons flew over Earth at the same altitude, it could see individual buildings and their shapes
  • Other than a few indistinct markings seen from afar by Hubble, Pluto's landscape is totally unexplored
  • "If you drove a car around the equator of Pluto, the odometer would rack up almost 5,000 miles-as far as from Manhattan to Moscow."
  • possibility that New Horizons will discover new moons and rings as well
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Send Your Names to an Asteroid, NASA Says - 0 views

www.scienceworldreport.com/...d-on-osiris-rex-spacecraft.htm scibyte116 Asteroid
shared by Mars Base on 18 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • NASA invited the public to submit their names that will be engraved on a microchip aboard a spacecraft that will head to the 1,760-foot-wide asteroid.
  • The spacecraft will be sent to the asteroid where it will collect about two ounces of surface material and return with it to Earth in a sample-return capsule in 2023
  • submit their names online before September 30 at 'Message to Bennu.'
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  • your name not just stays up there for 500 days but will remain in space even after the spacecraft returns the capsule to Earth.
  • Those who have submitted their names can download and print a certificate documenting their participation in the OSIRIS-REx mission
  • Participants who have registered their names and who 'follow' or 'like' the asteroid mission on Facebook and Twitter will get notifications on the status of their name in space from the time it is launched and until the samples are returned to Earth in 2013.
  • The aim of the OSIRIS-Rex mission is to address the basic questions on the composition of the early solar system.
  • Once the samples return to the Earth, the spacecraft will be placed into a long term solar orbit around the sun, along with the microchip on which the names are engraved.
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The Rock that Appeared Out of Nowhere on Mars - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ppeared-out-of-nowhere-on-mars scibyte116 opportunity
shared by Mars Base on 18 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • An intriguing recent mystery is a strange rock that suddenly appeared in photos from the Opportunity rover in a spot where photos taken just 12 sols earlier showed no rock
  • described the rock as “white around the outside, in the middle there’s low spot that is dark red.
  • haven’t driven over that spot.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • “One theory is that we somehow flicked it with a wheel,”
  • . “We had driven a meter or two away from here and somehow maybe one of the wheels managed spit it out of the ground. That’s the more likely theory.”
  • Mars Exploration Rovers, mission principal investigator Steve Squyres
  • “The other theory is that there might be a smoking hole in the ground nearby and this may be crater ejecta. But that one is less likely,”
  • Another idea suggested by others is that it may have tumbled down from a nearby rock outcrop
  • making measurements on this rock.
  • looks like a jelly donut
  • We’ve taken pictures of both the donut part and the jelly part,”
  • . “The jelly part is like nothing we’ve seen before on Mars. It’s very high in sulfur and magnesium and it has twice as much manganese as anything we’ve seen before
  • I don’t know what any of this means. We’re completely confused, everybody on the team is arguing and fighting. We’re having a wonderful time!”
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