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Mars Base

Team reveals oldest fossilized forest - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-oldest-fossilized-forest.html

scibyte36

shared by Mars Base on 01 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • research team has now unearthed and investigated an entire fossil forest dating back 385 million years
  • dating back about 385 million years ago
  • For decades scientists did not know what the trees connected to the stumps looked like
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • found fossils of the tree's intact crown in a nearby location in 2004, and a 28-foot-long trunk portion in 2005
  • named one of the "100 top Science Stories of 2007" by Discover Magazine
  • They were able to determine that these trees actually resembled modern-day cycads or tree ferns, but interestingly enough, were not related to either one
  • how much we don't know but need to understand about our ancient past
  • forest began to emerge -- during the Middle Devonian period, about 385 million years ago – Earth experienced a dramatic drop in global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and the associated cooling led ultimately to a period of glaciation.
Mars Base

Tube-shaped solar cells could be weaved into clothing - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...3-tube-shaped-solar-cells.html

scibyte36 solarcell

shared by Mars Base on 03 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • semiconducting nanorods grown on the surface of carbon fibers look more like bristles on a tiny hairbrush than a solar cell
  • the flexible tube-shaped cells can capture light from all directions and even have the potential to be weaved into clothing and paper for novel applications
  • current stage of development, researchers are trying to find a simple, low-cost method for fabricating high-quality tube-shaped solar cells.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • recently developed a new method for preparing uniform titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanorods on carbon fibers
  • advantages over the commonly used sol-gel method, which requires high temperatures and can cause cracks in the materials.
  • Fabricating tube-like solar cells is challenging due to the multiple steps involved
  • an ideal solution for preparing TiO2 nanostructures on carbon fibers is to grow them directly on the fiber’s surface
  • results showed that the rectangular bunched nanorod configuration achieved an energy conversion efficiency of 1.28%, compared with 0.76% for the unbunched configuration
  • attribute the difference to the larger surface area of the bunched nanorods, which enables more dye molecules to be adsorbed,
  • large surface area gives the tube-shaped solar cells the ability to capture light from all directions
Mars Base

Hot-spring fossils preserve complete Jurassic ecosystem - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...ossils-jurassic-ecosystem.html

scibyte36 fossils

shared by Mars Base on 03 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Scientists are uncovering a beautifully-preserved ecosystem from around a Jurassic hot spring, helping fill a gap in the fossil record of more than 300 million years.
  • Patagonia in southern Argentina, the San Agustin geothermal deposits include animals, plants, fungi and bacteria, preserved in three dimensions and with their internal structure largely intact.
  • date from around 150 million years ago
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • formed around an area where water heated deep underground rose to the surface
  • first time a hot-spring habitat from the Mesozoic era (from about 250 to 65 million years ago) has ever been discovered
  • Hot springs
  • are treasure troves for palaeontologists
  • the dissolved silica in their waters quickly penetrates and preserves the bodies of living things that die there
  • preserved in three dimensions rather than crushed into a two-dimensional film
  • It's a near-intact ecosystem that's beautifully preserved
  • We have the remains of everything from the bacteria living right around the hot spring vents all the way to the plants, crustaceans and insects living in wetlands further away and the trees and ferns from the forests around the margins. We also have evidence of how all these organisms interacted
  • The discovery of a rich assemblage of fossils from between these extremes could transform scientists' understanding of a vital stage in life's development
Mars Base

Study: Facebook profile beats IQ test in predicting job performance - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...3-facebook-profile-iq-job.html

scibyte36 Facebook

shared by Mars Base on 03 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Can a person's Facebook profile reveal what kind of employee he or she might be? The answer is yes, and with unnerving accuracy,
  • Other things a prospective employer might be able to glean from your Facebook profile is openness to new experiences (vacation pictures from a glacier off New Zealand), emotional stability (are your friends constantly offering you words of comfort?) and agreeableness (are you constantly arguing with "friends?").
  • series of two studies
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • six people with experience in human resources were asked to rate a sample of 500 people in terms of key personality traits using only the sample group's Facebook pages as a guideline.
  • rate members of the sample group on what is known as the "Big Five" personality traits
  • extroversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness and openness to new experiences
  • High scores
  • indication of future good job performance.
  • Members of the sample group were asked to give a self-evaluation and took an IQ test.
  • followed up with the employers of people in the sample group six months after their personality traits were rated, to ask questions about job performance.
  • raters were generally in agreement about the personality traits expressed in the sample group's Facebook page
  • ratings correlated strongly with self-rated personality traits
  • also found that the Facebook ratings were a more accurate way of predicting a person's job performance than an IQ test
  • employers need to tread carefully here
  • Facebook page can provide a lot of information that it would be illegal for an employer to ask of a candidate in a phone interview
  • gender, race, age and whether they have a disability
  • a 2011 study
  • found that 90 percent of recruiters and hiring managers look at an applicant's Facebook page whether they should or not.
  • one study should be used as a reason to start using Facebook in hiring.
Mars Base

All-carbon-nanotube transistor can be crumpled like a piece of paper - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...stor-crumpled-piece-paper.html

scibyte36 transistor nanotube

shared by Mars Base on 03 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Thanks to the flexible yet robust properties of carbon nanotubes, researchers have previously fabricated transistors that can be rolled, folded, and stretched
  • Japan has made an all-carbon-nanotube transistor that can be crumpled like a piece of paper without degradation of its electrical properties
  • the most bendable reported to date that doesn’t experience a loss in performance
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • researchers, Shinya Aikawa and coauthors from the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo University of Science
  • could lead to active electronic devices that are applied like a sticker or an adhesive bandage, as well as to wearable electronics.”
Mars Base

Saturn's Icy Moon Dione Has Oxygen Atmosphere | Saturn Pictures | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/n-dione-oxygen-atmosphere.html

scibyte36 Saturn Dione

shared by Mars Base on 03 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • NASA spacecraft circling Saturn has discovered a wispy oxygen atmosphere on the ringed planet's icy moon Dione
  • is 5 trillion times less dense than the air at Earth's surface
  • detected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • equivalent to conditions 300 miles (480 kilometers) above Earth
  • one oxygen ion for every 2,550 cubic feet (90,000 cubic meters
  • still enough to qualify as an atmosphere
  • announced Friday (March 2).
  • Dione, in addition to Saturn's rings and the moon Rhea, is a source of oxygen molecules
  • shows that molecular oxygen is actually common in the Saturn system and reinforces that it can come from a process that doesn't involve life
  • Dione is one of Saturn's smaller moons
  • 698 miles (1,123 km) wide
  • orbits Saturn once every 2.7 days
  • distance of about 234,000 miles (377,400 km)
  • roughly the same as that between Earth and its moon
  • The oxygen on Dione may potentially be created by solar photons or high-energy particles that bombard the Saturn moon's ice-covered surface, kicking up oxygen ions in the process, Tokar explained.  Another idea suggests that geologic processes on Dione could feed the moon's atmosphere, researchers added.
  • atmosphere on Saturn's moon Rhea — one similar to that of Dione — was also detected in 2010
  • Dione was discovered in 1684 by astronomer Giovanni Cassini
  • named after the Greek goddess Dione, who the ancient Greek poet Homer described as the mother of the goddess Aphrodite
  • launched the Cassini mission in 1997 and it has been orbiting Saturn since its arrival at the ringed planet in 2004
  • joint effort by NASA and the space agencies of Europe and Italy, has been extended several times, most recently until 2017
Mars Base

Exciting New 'Enceladus Explorer' Mission Proposed to Search for Life - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...on-proposed-to-search-for-life

scibyte36

shared by Mars Base on 01 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • project sponsored by the German Aerospace Center, Enceladus Explorer, was launched on February 22, 2012, in an attempt to answer the question of whether there could be life on (or rather, inside) Enceladus. The project lays the groundwork for a new, ambitious mission being proposed for some time in the future
Mars Base

Study: Old flu drug speeds brain injury recovery - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...rug-brain-injury-recovery.html

scibyte36

shared by Mars Base on 01 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • reporting the first treatment to speed recovery from severe brain injuries caused by falls and car crashes: a cheap flu medicine whose side benefits were discovered by accident decades ago
Mars Base

Darpa's Legged Squad Support System (LS3) to lighten troops' load - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...s-legged-squad-ls3-troops.html

FebMedia Darpa

shared by Mars Base on 09 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Darpa's Legged Squad Support System (LS3)
  • The Army has identified physical overburden as one of its top five science and technology challenges
  • DARPA is developing a highly mobile, semi-autonomous legged robot, the Legged Squad Support System (LS3), to integrate with a squad of Marines or Soldiers.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • Recently the LS3 prototype underwent its first outdoor exercise
  • Over the course of the next 18 months, DARPA plans to complete development of and refine key capabilities to ensure LS3 is able to support dismounted squads of warfighters.
  • Features to be tested and validated include
  • ability to carry 400lbs on a 20-mile trek in 24-hours without being refueled
  • refinement of LS3’s vision sensors to track a specific individual or object, observe obstacles in its path and to autonomously make course corrections as needed
  • the addition of “hearing” technology, enabling squad members to speak commands to LS3 such as “stop,” “sit” or “come here.”
  • serves
  • mobile auxiliary power source— troops may recharge batteries for radios and handheld devices while on patrol
  • DARPA seeks to demonstrate that an LS3 can carry a considerable load from dismounted squad members, follow them through rugged terrain and interact with them in a natural way, similar to the way a trained animal and its handler interact.
  • LS3 seeks to have the responsiveness of a trained animal and the carrying capacity of a mule
  • The tests culminate in a planned capstone exercise where LS3 will embed with Marines conducting field exercises.
  • based on mobility technology advanced by DARPA’s Big Dog technology demonstrator, as well other DARPA robotics programs which developed the perception technology for LS3’s “eyes” and planned “ears.”
Mars Base

NASA - Astronaut's Home Away from Home - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...crew_quarters.html

scibyte35 FebMedia

shared by Mars Base on 24 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • take care of the astronauts 24/7 in the Astronaut Crew Quarters during preflight training and leading up to all shuttle launches
  • they work in shifts, with additional staff called in as needed to help cook and clean.
  • The crew is extremely busy when they come in," Hooper said. "We could not function without all of the group's efforts to take care of the astronauts."
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Those who work in the crew quarters include cooks, attendants, flight data file personnel, flight nurses and other astronauts supporting the crew.
  • Inside an area that dates back to the Apollo Program are facilities that have been upgraded throughout the years, including a kitchen, staff conference room, crew conference room, workout room, lounge, laundry room, computer room, suit-up room, dining room, medical facility, staff office and prime crew sleeping quarters.
  • access to crew quarters is limited to the staff and astronaut support personnel leading up to each launch
  • certified food handlers
  • team's typical day begins at 6 a.m. They get the kitchen going for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Laundry and inventory are completed. Maintenance trouble calls are tended to, and sleeping quarters and the beach house are cleaned
  • The staff operates under NASA Johnson Space Center's Health Stabilization Program. Twice yearly, the staff undergoes a physical exam and trains regularly on health issues and crew quarters procedures
Mars Base

'Pac-Man Sun': NASA Probe Sees Solar Eclipse in Space | Lunar & Solar Eclipses | NASA &... - 0 views

www.space.com/-eclipse-nasa-pac-man-sun.html

scibyte35 sun

shared by Mars Base on 24 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • stunning footage of Tuesday's (Feb. 21)
  • partial eclipse that was visible only from space
  • @NASA_SDO
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • During its travels, the moon briefly blocked sunspot AR1422, an active region that is blasting strong ultraviolet emissions into space
  • This caused a dip in the EVE [extreme ultraviolet] output and may allow scientists to calibrate the energy emitted by the active region
  • next partial solar eclipse visible from Earth will occur May 20. Skywatchers in much of Asia, the Pacific and western North America will be able to see it
  • total solar eclipse will take place Nov. 13, but it will be visible only from parts of northern Australia and the South Pacific
  • skywatchers in much of Australia, New Zealand and southern South America will be able to see a partial eclipse on that day.
Mars Base

Moon Eats a Chunk Out Of The Sun: Big Pic : Discovery News - 0 views

news.discovery.com/...r-eclipse-sun-moon-120221.html

scibyte35 sun

shared by Mars Base on 24 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Orbiting the Earth at a distance of 36,000 kilometers in geosynchronous orbit, the SDO usually has a spectacular, uninterrupted view of our nearest star
  • The sharp edge of the lunar limb helps researchers measure the in-orbit characteristics of the telescope
  • how light diffracts around the telescope's optics and filter support grids
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • it is possible to correct SDO data for instrumental effects and sharpen the images even more than before
  • this eclipse can bring the lunar landscape into focus -- mountains and valleys on the moon show up as a raggedy edge when viewed at high resolution.
Mars Base

A Mardi Gras Moon Crossing - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...a-mardi-gras-moon-crossing

scibyte35 sun

shared by Mars Base on 24 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • During portions of the year, the Moon transits the Sun on a regular basis from the perspective of NASA’s SDO spacecraft, which lies within the Moon’s orbit
  • it gives SDO engineers a way to fine-tune the observatory’s calibration as well.
  • keep up with the latest images coming in on the SDO site at http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
Mars Base

Solar Tornadoes Dance Across Sun's Surface in NASA Video | Sun Tornado & Solar Flares |... - 0 views

www.space.com/-tornadoes-nasa-video-sdo.html

FebMedia

shared by Mars Base on 18 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • The tornado-like eruptions of super-hot plasma were spotted by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is constantly recording high-definition videos of the sun.
  • shows swirling fountains of plasma creeping across the surface of the sun during a 30-hour period between Feb. 7 and 8.
  • unlike tornadoes on Earth, which are wind-driven phenomena, the sun's plasma tornadoes are shaped by the powerful magnetic field of our star.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • active region rotating into view provides a bright backdrop to the gyrating streams of plasma
  • particles are being pulled this way and that by competing magnetic forces
  • tracking along strands of magnetic field lines
  • cooler plasma material appears as darker spots on a bright background
  • SDO spacecraft recorded the video in the extreme ultraviolet range of the light spectrum, giving the movie an eerie yellow hue.
  • released
  • SDO video
  • mark the second anniversary
  • on a five-year mission to record high-definition videos of the sun to help astronomers better understand how changes in the sun's solar weather cycle can affect life on Earth.
  • launched on Feb. 11, 2010
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