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remains uncertain whether the dinosaurs actively hunted or scavenged these meals

the fact that Sinocalliopteryx gobbled at least two birds of the same species at about the same time "says chances are very good it was actively selecting its prey; that makes it a predator

Oppy is now moving

surveying exposed outcrop in search of phyllosilicate clay minerals that have been detected from orbit

What are those rocks made of? How did this feature form? What do the diferent colours and textures mean? These are all questions which the MER team will be hoping to answer over the next few days

Opportunity’s solar array energy production is good, producing about 568 watt-hours

MER team reports that on Sol 3055 (Aug. 27, 2012), the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) on the end of the robotic arm was imaged (top image) to re-confirm the available bit for future grinding and the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) collected a measurement of atmospheric argon.

Receipt

Initial sponsors include Byte Internet (a Dutch Internet/Webhosting provider); Dutch lawfirm VBC Notarissen; Dutch consulting company MeetIn; New-Energy.tv (an independent Dutch web station that focuses on energy and climate); and Dejan SEO (an Australia-based search engine optimization firm). [

Mars One aims to launch a series of robotic missions between 2016 and 2020 that will build a habitable outpost on the Red Planet. The first four astronauts will set foot on Mars in 2023, and more will arrive every two years after that. There are no plans to return these pioneers to Earth.

Mars One estimates that it will cost about $6 billion to put the first four humans on the Red Planet

hopes the "Big Brother"-style reality show will pay most of these costs

televised action is slated to begin in 2013, when Mars One begins the process of selecting its 40-person astronaut corps

home to about 121 tigers. People live on the park's borders

analysis of the thousands of images show that people and tigers are walking the same paths, albeit at different times

Tigers typically move around at all times of the day and night

discovered that the tigers had become creatures of the night.

camera's infrared lights document a pronounced shift toward nocturnal activity

People in Nepal generally avoid the forests at night

it appears tiger population numbers are holding steady despite an increase in human population size

Tigers need to use the same space as people if they are to have a viable long-term future. What we're learning in Chitwan is that tigers seem to be adapting to make it work."

There appears to be a middle ground where you might actually be able to protect the species at high densities and give people access to forest goods they need to live

collect firewood, soldiers patrol forest roads to deter poachers and other criminals, and a growing number of ecotourists visit the area each year

conducted their research from January through May—during the dry season before the monsoon rains began—in both 2010 and 2011, each year deploying at least 75 camera traps spaced no more than 1 kilometer apart.

And overall tiger numbers in the park didn't drop when more humans were around: In 2010, the team estimates, the area hosted about 4.4 tigers per 100 square kilometers. The next year, that number jumped by about 40%—even though the number of humans measured by the “camera traps” rose by 55%.

analyses show that tigers were more likely to be found at sites away from human settlemen

also found that the tigers in and around Chitwan park were much more likely to be active at night than tigers living elsewher

Timesharing the environment might not work well with many threatened species or in many areas

the notion of humans and endangered animals sharing the same terrain by shifting their behavior—and particularly by shifting when each species uses the habitat—should be incorporated into conservation plans when it makes sense

Both studies used observations from NASA's Kepler space telescope

completing an orbit every 15 hours

surface temperatures estimated to be around 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (1,982 degrees Celsius).

predicted that the planet is likely surrounded by a huge veil of dust and gas

In the new study, a different team

affirms the existence of this planetary dust tail

found clear signals that

light is being scattered and absorbed by large amounts of dust.

Further work with different instruments could help nail down just what the planet is made of

By observing the dust clouds in different colors, something Kepler cannot do, we will be able to determine the amount and the composition of the dust and estimate its lifetime

"As the evaporation peels the planet like an onion, we can now see what used to be the inside of a planet."

Scheduled to launch in 2016

NASA also is planning a crewed mission to an asteroid by 2025

competition is open to students under age 18 from anywhere in the world

Each contestant can submit one name, up to 16 characters long

must include a short explanation and rationale for the name

Submissions must be made by an adult on behalf of the student. The contest deadline is Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012

sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington; and the University of Arizona in Tucson

A panel will review proposed asteroid names. First prize will be awarded to the student who recommends a name that is approved by the International Astronomical Union Committee for Small-Body Nomenclature

asteroid was discovered in 1999

received its designation of (101955) 1999 RQ36 from the Minor Planet Center, operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

also had nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide

density is quite high, it is suspected that it has a large core of silicate rock

possible that a liquid ocean could have formed between the rocky core and icy surface shell

Triton has a unique property among large solar system moons; it has a retrograde orbit

planets and their moons must also orbit in this same direction

Planets form from a circumstellar disc of dust and gas

These orbits are known as prograde

retrograde orbit of Triton means that it most likely did not form around Neptune.

Triton likely originated in the Kuiper Belt, beyond the orbit of Neptune, and was sent hurtling inwards until it was captured by Neptune's gravity

Directly after capture, the moon would have been in a highly elliptical, eccentric orbit

This type of orbit would have raised large tides on the moon, and the friction of these tides would have caused energy to be lost

energy loss is converted into heat

melt some of the icy interior and form an ocean beneath the ice shell

energy loss from tides is also responsible for gradually changing Triton's orbit from an ellipse to a circle

there

also radiogenic heating. This is heat that is caused by the decay of radioactive isotopes within a moon or planet, and this process can create heat for billions of years

Radiogenic heating contributes several times more heat to Triton's interior than tidal heating

this heat alone is not sufficient to keep the subsurface ocean in a liquid state over 4.5 billion years

One model of Triton’s interior. 70 to 80 percent rock (1), with the remainder being water ice (2) and an outer layer of methane and nitrogen ice (3). This is also believed to be the general interior configuration for the ice dwarf Pluto. Credit: Wikipedia

The exact point in time when Triton was captured by Neptune, along with the length of the time it took the orbit to become circularized are unknown

orbit is currently almost exactly circular

the exact size of Triton's rocky core is unknown

what if they just didn't break at all under strain

Toughness is a major plus for hydrogels

, created the gel from two polymers: alginate and polyacrylamide

The ionic bonds of the alginate molecules break and reform under pressure, spreading the energy of an impact over a wider area

protects the covalent bonds in the polyacrylamide molecules, which hold the gel together

A hydrogel as tough as rubber that can stretch 20 times its normal length

that up to a frightening 28.3 MPH.

Usain Bolt's peak speed during the 100-meter dash was 27.78 MPH

Cheetah, for now, is tethered to an external power supply, and runs on an indoor treadmill.

Next year, however, Boston Dynamics plans to unleash Wildcat (pictured above), a Cheetah that's designed to run untethered.

No one knows the thickness of the heliosheath, so no one knows how soon Voyager 1 might reach its outer edg

“Whether these very new data are another feature of the broad transition region that Voyager 1 has been in for the past two years, or a new region or boundary of the heliosphere, remains to be seen.”

Endeavour will be hoisted off the ground by crane

then be lowered onto the SCA's back and secured for flight

Coordinating with the Federal Aviation Administration, the SCA will perform low flyovers — as low as 1,500 feet (457 meters) — as it passes NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

low passes over areas around Houston, Clear Lake and Galveston in Texas before making a landing at Ellington Field near NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Weather permitting, the SCA and Endeavour will remain at Ellington for the remainder of the day and all day on Sept. 18, providing Johnson employees and the Houston public an ample opportunity to see the shuttle.

take to the air again at sunrise on Sept. 19, and after a brief refueling stop at Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas

low-level flyovers of White Sands Test Facility near Las Cruces, N.M., and Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California

morning of Sept. 20

Finally on the morning of Sept. 20, Endeavour, still on top of the SCA, will take off one last time, departing Dryden to fly over Northern California, passing above NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field and various landmarks in multiple cities, including San Francisco and Sacramento, the state's capitol

The carrier aircraft will fly near

, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena before performing flyovers over many Los Angeles landmarks on its way to a landing at LAX

According to NASA, some of the flyovers or layovers that are planned could be delayed or cancelled as a result

flies over seven states and eight of NASA's facilities

Flyovers of Sacramento and San Francisco ar

The orbiter then will travel through Inglewood and Los Angeles city streets on a 12-mile journey from the airport to the California Science Center, arriving on the evening of Oct. 13

Beginning Oct. 30, the shuttle will be on permanent display in the science center’s Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion

Endeavour (OV-105) was the last shuttle orbiter to be constructed for NASA. Endeavour completed 25 missions, spent 299 days in orbit, and orbited Earth 4,671 times while traveling 122,883,151 miles.

s #spottheshuttle and #OV105

A good violin depends not only on the expertise of the violin maker, but also on the quality of the wood that is used.

Swiss wood researcher

has succeeded in modifying the wood for a violin through treatment with special fungi

making it sound indistinguishably similar to a Stradivarius

discovered two species of fungi

which decay Norway spruce and sycamore – the two important kinds of wood used for violin making – to such an extent that their tonal quality is improved

Normally fungi reduce the density of the wood, but at the same time they unfortunately reduce the speed with which the sound waves travel through the wood

unique feature of these fungi is that they gradually degrade the cell walls, thus inducing a thinning of the walls

, a stiff scaffold structure remains via which the sound waves can still travel directly

the wood remains just as resistant to strain as before the fungal treatment

Before the wood is further processed to a violin, it is treated with ethylene oxide gas. "No fungus can survive that

mycowood (wood treated with wood decay fungi

on September 7, 2012 in

reported on his research and gave a preview of what his wood treatment method could mean, particularly for young violinists

In 2009 the violins were played in a blind, behind-the-curtain test versus a genuine Stradivarius from 1711

Both the jury of experts and the majority of the audience thought that the mycowood violin that Schwarze had treated with fungi for nine months was the actual Strad

Currently Professor Schwarze is working on an interdisciplinary project to develop a quality-controlled treatment for violin wood, with successful, reliable and reproducible results

cessful implementation of biotechnological methods for treating soundboard wood could in the future give young musicians the opportunity to play on a violin with the sound quality of an expensive – and for most musicians unaffordable – Stradivarius

ow there’s another suggestion: Crystallizing lava may have contained tiny pockets where water could react with other chemicals to make small amounts of iron- and magnesium-rich clay. No additional water flowing on the surface or belowground would be needed. So early Mars could have been a largely cold, dry world

not saying all clays on Mars formed by this process

“if most clays formed by a magmatic process, it says maybe water wasn’t so available on early Mars

researchers investigated the cooling-lava scenario because some Martian clays don’t appear to fit with previous explanations

Some Martian meteorites contain clay minerals with hydrogen isotope compositions characteristic of water coming from Mars’ mantle and carried in lava — not from the atmosphere or surface — suggesting water-rich lava has produced some Martian clay.

The researchers also looked at clay deposits from French Polynesia’s Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific Ocean that formed from cooling lava

This clay reflects the same wavelengths of infrared light as Martian deposits

suggesting that both have similar mineralogical properties and thus probably formed in the same way.

team says cooling lava can account for the most geographically abundant Noachian clay minerals

that doesn’t mean water didn’t flow on the surface during brief episodes

evidenced by the planet’s ancient river valleys, says coauthor

Ehlmann says scientists need to find a spot on Mars where Noachian-aged clay is found so that all three proposed clay-forming mechanisms can be tested

where NASA’s Curiosity landed is not a good test location because the clays there are slightly younger and are clearly part of a sedimentary

water near the sphere became vapor that got trapped in the valleys on the sphere’s surface. Eventually this sheet of vapor slipped off and a new one formed

Treating the surface of another sphere to make it water-loving had the opposite effect, locking the water in the violent bubbling phase

Manipulating this phase-chemistry could lead to tricks for reducing drag on ships or preventing forceful bubbling explosions in labs or kitchens

even forced parts of the island's surface to rise upward and outward by 3 to 5.5 inches (8 to 14 centimeters).

volcano has been quiet for 60 years

recent events don't indicate an imminent eruption

the earthquake activity and the rate of bulging have both slowed right down in the last few months, it doesn't look as though the volcano is about to start to erupt, and it is quite likely that it could remain quiet for another few years or decades.

don't know enough about the lifecycle of large volcanoes in between eruptions to be certain

beginning in the January 2011 data, more than a thousand small quakes, most of them imperceptible

confirmed a subtle rise in Santorini's surface level with satellite radar images and GPS receivers

Catastrophic eruptions on Santorini, which produce mostly pumice rather than lava, appear to occur here about 20,000 years apart

The last one, in 1950, oozed enough lava to cover a few tennis courts

Despite its relative quiet, Santorini is an ideal location to learn more about processes like the magma chamber's rapid inflation

While satellite evidence of swelling magma chambers has rarely been available for an active volcano, the processes the data represent may not be all that unusual

some large volcanoes like Santorini and Yellowstone spend hundreds or thousands of years in a state of what you'd call dormancy

they'll often have these little restless patches

These types of phenomena are likely to be common, but you need the right instruments and technology to detect what are usually rather small changes in behavior."

we aren't any closer to knowing if, or when, the next lava eruption might happen

likening the recent swelling to someone blowing a big breath into an invisible balloon.

don't know how small or big the balloon is, and we don't know whether just one more breath will be enough for it to pop or not

Let's ignore, for example, the homeopathic notion that illness is caused by a disturbance in an individual's "vital force" rather than something external, like a bacterium or virus

Another thing homeopathy has in common with Western medicine is its strict attention to how treatments are dosed

All homeopathic remedies are available in a huge range of concentrations

those concentrations are really small

homeopaths think of a large dose as a high dilution, instead of a high concentration.

idea that a lower dose of a drug has a bigger effect than a high dose runs contrary to what western medicine has found

Curiosity has nearly finished robotic arm tests. Once complete, the rover will be able to touch and examine its first Mars rock

about to drive some more and try to find the right rock to begin doing contact science with the arm