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Mars Base

Planets & Brains | Jupiter Broadcasting - 0 views

www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/...planets-brains-scibyte-18

scibyte42 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 12 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • October 25, 2011
  • Baby pictures of a Planet
Mars Base

U.S. FDA Approves Possible Alzheimer's Test - ScienceInsider - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...roves-possible-alzheimers.html

scibyte42 Alzheimer

shared by Mars Base on 12 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a radioactive compound for evaluating people with cognitive impairment for Alzheimer's disease
  • Amyvid, binds to amyloid plaques, the calling card of Alzheimer's disease in the brain
  • before a PET scan, Amyvid allows doctors to see whether amyloid has begun to build up
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • negative test reduces the likelihood
  • a positive test does not necessarily confirm
  • concerns: that it could be overused in general
  • and there will be
  • both false positives and false negatives
  • medical community is going to have to develop its own standards
Mars Base

Help Track the Effects of Light Pollution with GLOBE at Night - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-pollution-with-globe-at-night

scibyte42 LightPollution

shared by Mars Base on 12 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • GLOBE at Night is a citizen-science project to raise awareness of the impact of light pollution by inviting citizen-scientists to make naked-eye observations of the night sky in your area.
  • Participating in GLOBE at Night requires only five easy steps
  • Find your latitude and longitude
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Find Orion, Leo or Crux by going outside more than an hour after sunset (about 8-10pm local time).
  • Match your nighttime sky to one of the provided magnitude charts.
  • Report your observation.
  • Compare your observation to thousands around the world
  • You can also use the new web application data submission process
  • People in 115 countries have contributed over 75,000 measurements during the past six years
Mars Base

New look at HD 10180 shows it might have nine planets - 0 views

phys.org/...2012-04-hd-planets.html

scibyte42 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 09 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • after looking at data regarding the solar system surrounding the star HD 10180, that it likely has nine planets making it the most highly populated solar system known to man
  • after studying slight wobbles by the star as it’s tugged by planetary gravitation, he found what he believes is confirmation of a seventh planet, and evidence for two more
  • HD 10180 is about 130 light years away from us
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • first noted by astronomers in 2010
  • it was thought the solar system consisted of just five planets
  • speculation that it might have as many as seven
  • other work has shown that there are likely six planets, five of which are believed to have a mass close to that of Neptune
  • other appears closer in mass to Saturn
  • to these conclusions by studying the way a star appears to wobble (a Doppler shift
  • studying these light shifts, astronomers can deduce not only the size of the planet that causes it, but its period as well
  • didn’t make any new observations
  • he went back and looked at the original data using different kinds of statistical analysis techniques
  • found evidence for three more planets, all much smaller than the original six
  • estimates to be 1.3, 1.9, and 5.1 times the size of Earth
  • much shorter periods (1.2, 10 and 68 days) than
  • they are very close to their star, closer even than Mercury is to our sun
  • far too hot to support water retention or life, at least as we know it.
  • doesn’t actually prove that any of the planets suspected of revolving around HD 10180 actually exist
  • merely offers strong evidence
  • statistical evidence offered by Tuomi suggesting that if there are truly planets there, they all appear to have stable orbits.
Mars Base

Eggs of enigmatic dinosaur discovered - 0 views

phys.org/...4-eggs-enigmatic-dinosaur.html

scibyte42 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 11 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • reported a 70 million years old pocket of fossilized bones and unique eggs of an enigmatic birdlike dinosaur in Patagonia.
  • unique are the two eggs preserved near articulated bones of its hindlimb. This is the first time the eggs are found in a close proximity to skeletal remains of an alvarezsaurid dinosaur
  • The dinosaur represents the latest survivor of its kind from Gondwana, the southern landmass in the Mesozoic Era
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • belongs to one of the most mysterious groups of dinosaurs, the Alvarezsauridae, and it is one of the largest members, 2.6 m, of the family
  • The two eggs found together with the bones during the expedition might have been inside the oviducts of the Bonapartenykus female when the animal perished
  • numerous eggshell fragments later found show considerable calcite resorption of the inner eggshell layer
  • suggest that at least some of the eggs were incubated and contained embryos at an advanced stage of their development.
  • analyzed the eggshells and found that it did not belong to any known category of the eggshell microstructure-based taxonomy
  • a new egg-family, the Arraigadoolithidae
  • using the electron scanning microscopy I observed unusual fossilized objects inside of the pneumatic canal of the eggshells
  • the first evidence of fungal contamination of dinosaur eggs
Mars Base

Bering Strait may be global temperature stabilizer - 0 views

phys.org/...al-temperature-stabilizer.html

scibyte42 BeringStrait

shared by Mars Base on 11 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • normally the AMOC causes cycling of warm water from the south to flow north, and cold water from the north to flow south
  • engine for this system is cold salt laden water in the north sinking beneath incoming warm water
  • If the cold water in the north is fresh, as it would be if it were coming from the melted glaciers, then it wouldn’t sink and the whole AMOC system would stop
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • if it stopped, air temperatures could change quickly.
  • computer simulation actually showed the same temperature fluctuations over Greenland as researchers have found, via core ice samples, occurred the last time the Strait closed during the last Ice Age.
Mars Base

Land Bridge Caused Wild Temperature Swings - ScienceNOW - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...e-caused-wild-temperature.html

scibyte42 BeringStrait

shared by Mars Base on 11 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • When the Bering Strait (box, lower left) was closed at the height of the last ice age, any sudden influx of fresh water to the North Atlantic couldn't flow through the Arctic Ocean to the North Pacific, making episodes of abrupt climate change much more likely.
  • Much of the last ice age was characterized by violent climate swings
  • beginning about 80,000 years ago, average temperatures in and around the North Atlantic rose or fell by 10°C or more in the course of a decade or two—a pattern that lasted for 70,000 years
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • a new study also points to a more earthbound culprit: the presence of a land bridge connecting Asia to North America.
  • debated whether the climate swings were driven by sharp variations in solar activity or simply by unstable climatic processes
  • Earth's climate has been relatively stable since the end of the last ice age
  • temperatures were fairly stable, too, after the ice age began in earnest about 100,000 years ago
  • 20,000 years later, things became unhinged
  • global sea level dropped to about 50 meters lower than it is today
  • As the ice sheets that covered North America and northern Eurasia snatched up more and more of Earth's water
  • exposed a broad strip of land that connected what is today Alaska and Siberia
  • Ancient animals used the land bridge, which measured as much as 1500 kilometers wide in spots, to roam back and forth between Asia and North America
  • also huge consequences for Earth's climate
  • two sets of climate simulations
  • one in which the Bering Strait was open
  • one in which it was blocked
  • each set of simulations, the researchers gradually added large amounts of fresh water to the North Atlantic between the latitudes of 20° and 50
  • researchers propose, this swath, which spans the latitudes from southern Cuba to southern England, would have received large amounts of meltwater from Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during warm spells that occasionally punctuated the ice age
  • Today, the surface waters in this swath affect the temperature and salinity of water even farther north in the Atlantic
  • a region where surface waters cool, sink to the seafloor, and then flow southward—a critical link of the worldwide conveyor belt of ocean circulatio
  • Gulf Stream, which brings climate-warming waters from the equator to the North Atlantic, comes to a halt.
  • If waters of the far North Atlantic don't sink, says Hu, much of the large-scale ocean circulation worldwide temporarily collapses
  • surface waters became so fresh that they never got denser than the underlying salty water, and therefore never sank
  • shutting down ocean circulation and plunging areas around the North Atlantic, including Greenland, into a cold spell
  • researchers noted a critical difference between the sets of simulations: When the Bering Strait was closed, it took as many as 1400 years for ocean circulation to recover; when the strait was open, the circulation rarely took more than 400 years to recuperate
  • sign that ocean circulation is stable when the strait is open
  • Whenever the ocean circulation shut down in the simulations, temperatures in Greenland suddenly dropped by 12°C—a decrease similar in magnitude to many abrupt cold snaps chronicled in the Greenland ice core records
Mars Base

The Night Sky Guide for April 2012 | meteorwatch.org - 0 views

www.meteorwatch.org/...night-sky-guide-for-april-2012

scibyte41 LookingUp scibyte42 scibyte43

shared by Mars Base on 02 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • The Lyrid meteor shower will be best seen in the early morning hours of April 22nd. Under a dark sky, you can expect to see up to 20 bright meteors per hour.
  • Evening Planets
  • In early April, four planets grace the sky at nightfall
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • In the west, Jupiter hangs low on the horizon. Around mid-month, the planet disappears into the sunset
  • Venus blazes just above Jupiter in the west. Use a telescope to see its crescent phase.
  • In the south, Mars is already climbing high. It will remain visible into the early morning
  • Saturn will shine low in the east in the evening but climb higher during the night. On April 15th, Saturn reaches opposition, meaning it is opposite the Sun in Earth’s sky. It is also closer to Earth than it’ll be the rest of the year, making it appear slightly bigger and brighter
  • Constellations and Deep-Sky Objects
    • Mars Base
      Mars Base on 11 Apr 12
       
      YouTube Video
Mars Base

Scientists find possible cause of movement defects in spinal muscular atrophy - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...t-defects-spinal-muscular.html

scibyte42 medical SpinalMuscularAtrophy

shared by Mars Base on 11 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • abnormally low level of a protein in certain nerve cells is linked to movement problems that characterize the deadly childhood disorder spinal muscular atrophy, new research in animals suggests
  • previous research has established the disease’s genetic link to SMN in motor neurons, scientists haven’t yet uncovered how this lack of SMN does so much damage
  • showed in zebrafish that when SMN is missing – in cells throughout the body as well as in motor neurons specifically – levels of a protein called plastin 3 also decrease
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • When the researchers added plastin 3 back to motor neurons in zebrafish that were genetically altered so they couldn’t produce SMN, the zebrafish regained most of their swimming abilities movement that had been severely limited by their reduced SMN. These findings tied the presence of plastin 3 – alone, without SMN – to the recovery of lost movement
  • without SMN in their cells still eventually died, so the addition of plastin 3 alone is not a therapeutic option
  • using animal studies to pinpoint the role of plastin 3 in this disease
  • In zebrafish genetically altered so they don’t produce SMN, plastin 3 levels remained low, as well.
  • lowering plastin 3 first in the fish – SMN was unaffected. This showed that the plastin 3 decrease occurred only when SMN was lowered first
  • SMN production was stimulated in zebrafish initially lacking the protein, plastin 3 levels were restored as well
  • researchers determined that decreased SMN influences plastin 3 production at a late point in the process called translation, when amino acids are strung together to form the protein’s initial shape
  • lack of SMN creates conditions in which too little plastin 3 is made to complete the protein’s normal functions – in these animals, the reduction was about four-fold
  • maybe SMN is affecting translation of other proteins that could be contributing to spinal muscular atrophy
  • That hasn’t been shown before
  • examination of zebrafish motor neurons suggested that decreased plastin 3 affects these cells in at least two ways
  • damaging axons, branch-like extensions that allow for communication among nerve cells
  • destabilizing synapses, structures through which those signals pass
  • result of the added plastin 3, the fish recovered their ability to turn and swim, movements they were previously unable to make.
  • rescued axons, synaptic proteins and behavior all by putting plastin 3 back in motor neurons,” she said. “That’s very encouraging.”
Mars Base

James Cameron reshoots Titanic scene - Telegraph - 0 views

www.telegraph.co.uk/...on-reshoots-Titanic-scene.html

scibyte41 Titantic

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • expert Neil deGrasse Tyson sent him a “snarky” email.
Mars Base

James Cameron Corrects Astronomy Mistake in 'Titanic' | Neil deGrasse Tyson | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/anic-astronomy-correction.html

scibyte41 cameron Titantic

shared by Mars Base on 04 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Cameron has addressed Tyson's criticism that the incorrect star field was used during one of the film's most famous scenes.
  • when Rose (Kate Winslet) is lying on the piece of driftwood and staring up at the stars, that is not the star field she would have seen,"
  • There is only one sky she should have been looking at ... and it was the wrong sky! Worse than that, it was not only the wrong sky; the left-half of the sky was a mirror reflection of the right-half of the sky
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • send me the right stars for that exact time and I'll put it in the movie
  • Tyson did just that and the correct star field has been included in the re-release.
Mars Base

Kepler Explorer app puts distant planets at your fingertips - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...lorer-app-distant-planets.html

scibyte41 Kepler app

shared by Mars Base on 04 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Kepler Explorer app puts distant planets at your fingertips
  • Kepler Explorer challenges users to design a planet that matches the Kepler data
  • Armchair explorers of the cosmos can now have at their fingertips the nearly 2,000 distant planetary systems discovered by NASA's Kepler Mission
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • innovative app for iPads and iPhones
  • available for free
  • brought together faculty and students in astrophysics, art, and technology for a summer institute last year
  • team quickly settled on the idea to create an app, and also developed it into an exhibit that provides additional information and shows the app's output on a large screen
  • scheduled for long-term installation in the Lick Observatory visitors gallery later this month
  • Kepler Explorer starts with drop-down menus listing all the Kepler-discovered planetary systems, plus our own solar system
  • selected system is displayed in a view that shows the planet or planets in their orbits around the host star
  • Shown in real time the planets look motionless, but moving a slider increases the speed until the planets zip around their star
  • lets users zoom in and move around the system, and tapping on an individual planet brings it up for further exploration. Another view shows the relative sizes of the individual planets compared to their host star
  • when viewing individual planets
  • The user can manipulate the composition of the planet and its atmosphere and see which mixtures of components (iron, rock, water, and hydrogen) are consistent with Kepler's observations
  • represents graphically the type of in-depth analysis that Fortney does for the Kepler Mission
  • the app allows anyone to explore the properties of many different planets very quickly
  • only measures the radius of a planet, or how big it is. In most cases, the mass of the planet is unknown
  • there may be different combinations of components that result in a planet of a given size
  • 's interactive graphics show how this works
  • sliders for different components and how they are partitioned in the core and the atmosphere, and as you move the sliders the image of the planet grows and shrinks, based on hundreds of calculations
  • the app tells you when the size of your planet matches the observations
  • calculations involved took hours of computer time, but the results are stored in tables so the app can use them on the fly.
Mars Base

Planet-Hunting Kepler Mission Extended Through 2016 | Alien Planets | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/lanet-kepler-mission-2016.html

scibyte41 Kepler exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Kepler mission, which has discovered more than 2,300 potential alien planets to date,
  • slated to run out this November
  • launched in March 2009 on
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • finding 61 confirmed alien planets to date
  • members have estimated that the vast majority of these candidates — 80 percent or more — will likely end up being the real deal.
  • artist's conception illustrates Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. CREDIT: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
  • Seeing more transits will also increase the signal-to-noise ratio for closer-in planets, allowing more of them to be detected, researchers have said
Mars Base

Giant Feathered Tyrannosaur Found in China | Wired Science | Wired.com - 0 views

www.wired.com/...yutyrannus-huali-feathers

scibyte41 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Artist's impression of Yutyrannus and the smaller Beipiaosaurus. Image: Brian Choo
  • covered from head to tail in downy feathers.
  • 30 feet long and weighing 3,000 pounds, Y. huali wasn’t so large as T. rex,
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • found in the Yixian Formation, a fossil deposit in northeastern China that over the last two decades has yielded dozens of dinosaur skeletons so finely preserved that it’s possible to discern feather-like structures.
  • early feathered members of the tyrannosaur family have been found, they were very smal
  • If the primary purpose of feathers was insulation, a possibility suggested by the feathers’ down-like shape, then larger tyrannosaurs might not have needed them. Thanks to small surface-to-volume body ratios, large-bodied animals tend to maintain heat easily.
  • didn’t know whether these larger-bodied forms would show as many.”
  • significance of Y. huali is its body size and the apparent density of feather-like structures
  • Yutyrannus skull. Image: Zang Hailong
  • What were tyrannosaur feathers used for? Might the king of dinosaurs have strutted like a peacock?
  • At this point we don’t have any data on the coloration of the plumage
Mars Base

A gigantic feathered dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of China : Nature : Nature Publ... - 0 views

www.nature.com/...nature10906.html

scibyte41 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Figures at a glance
  • Numerous feathered dinosaur specimens have recently been recovered from the Middle–Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous deposits of northeastern China, but most of them represent small animals1
  • shares some features, particularly of the cranium, with derived tyrannosauroids2
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • analysis suggests that Y. huali differed from tyrannosaurids in its growth strategy13
Mars Base

Warm and fuzzy T. rex? New evidence surprises - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...012-04-fuzzy-rex-evidence.html

scibyte41 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Artists' depiction of Yutyrannus huali. Artwork by Lida Xing and Yi Liu.
  • discovery of a giant meat-eating dinosaur sporting a downy coat has some scientists reimagining the look of Tyrannosaurus rex.
  • making it the largest feathered dinosaur ever found.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Scientists have long debated whether gigantic dinosaurs lost their feathers the bigger they got or were just not as extensively covered.
  • this is the first direct sign of a huge, shaggy dinosaur
  • name is a blend of Latin and Mandarin, which translates to "beautiful feathered tyrant."
  • recovered from a quarry in China's Liaoning province by a private fossil dealer
  • Most striking were the remains of down-like feathers on the neck and arm
  • coverage was patchy, scientists suspected the species had feathers over much of its body
  • would have felt like touching "long, thick fur
  • compared it to the feathers of an emu.
  • Y. huali would have reached T. rex's chest.
  • dino-fuzz likely provided insulation, though camouflage or showing it off like a peacock could not be ruled out.
  • Since T. rex is related to this newfound feathery species, chances are good that T. rex was feathered as well
Mars Base

T. Rex Has Another Fine, Feathered Cousin - Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...other_fine%2C_feathered_cousin

scibyte41 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • From 125-million-year-old rocks, scientists have unearthed the remains of a new species of extensively feathered dinosaurs that weighed up to about 1,400 kilograms and stretched 9 meters from nose to tail.
  • fossils, from one adult and two younger dinos, were unearthed in northeast China
  • region known for keeping soft tissues of ancient animals well-preserved
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • Based on the shapes of the jaw and skull bones found in the fossils, the team concluded that the three animals belonged to the same species and were tyrannosaurs
  • broader classification of two-legged meat-eaters called theropods
  • biggest of the newly described creatures — the largest extensively feathered dino known to date — was about one-quarter the weight of its relative, Tyrannosaurus rex
  • smaller dinosaur is named Yutyrannus hauli, which translates to “beautiful feathered tyrant
  • new species had feathers that were at least 15 centimeters long and look as if they covered the dinosaur’s skin
  • might have given the dinosaur a shaggy appearance
  • the full extent of this covering is difficult to confirm because the specimens aren’t complete.
  • For the vast majority of dinosaurs we only have bone. We don’t have feathers or featherless skin
  • Full-feathered dinosaurs that have been discovered so far have been much smaller
  • much more likely to lose body heat because of their size
  • scientists thought these petite creatures used a fluffy layer to stay warm
  • study authors think that the newfound dinos might have also needed some insulation
  • But Norell is not convinced
  • Many large animals that live in warm climates, such as modern giraffes and wildebeests, have external covering but don’t need it for insulation, he says.
  • feathers might also have helped the dinosaurs show off and attract mates.
  • Other traits the new dinos had include a high, bumpy nose plate, known as a midline crest
  • unclear what type of posture the animals maintained, Sullivan estimates that the full-grown dino stood about 2.5 meters tall.
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