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Mars Base

Coffee, other stimulant drugs may cause high achievers to slack off: research - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...3-coffee-drugs-high-slack.html

scibyte40 coffee

shared by Mars Base on 29 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • While stimulants may improve unengaged workers’ performance, a new University of British Columbia study suggests that for others, caffeine and amphetamines can have the opposite effect, causing workers with higher motivation levels to slack off.
  • impacts of stimulants on “slacker” rats and “worker” rats, and sheds important light on why stimulants might affect people differently, a question that has long been unclear
  • suggests that patients being treated with stimulants for a range of illnesses may benefit from more personalized treatment programs.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • suggest that some stimulants may actually have an opposite effect for people who naturally favour the difficult tasks of life that come with greater rewards
  • found that rats – like humans – show varying levels of willingness to expend high or low degrees of mental effort to obtain food rewards.
  • with stimulants, the “slacker” rats that typically avoided challenges worked significantly harder when given amphetamines
  • worker” rats that typically embraced challenges were less motivated by caffeine or amphetamine
Mars Base

Slacker Rat, Worker Rat - Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...Slacker_rat%2C_worker_rat

scibyte40 coffee

shared by Mars Base on 29 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • some individuals reliably went for the easy version and collected their small reward
  • Other animals overwhelmingly chose the intellectually harder route
  • Not only do these divisions between what the team termed slackers and workers exist, the researchers showed, but the differences persist across many trials.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • For slacker rats, amphetamine sharpened the mental work ethic, making the animals more likely to choose the harder task.
  • can’t yet explain why stimulants would cause workers to choose the easier task
  • One possibility is that hard workers are already performing optimally, so anything that swings the system out of whack, such as stimulants, could cause a net decrease in productivity.
Mars Base

Comets Disintegrate Faster on Deeper Dives Into Sun | Sun-Diving Comets | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/iving-comets-solar-system.html

scibyte41

shared by Mars Base on 02 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Comets skimming past the sun may seem like ill-fated cosmic snowballs, and a team of scientists is trying to figure out what makes some fizzle and others explode as they make their solar death dives
  • may yield clues
  • origins of the solar system
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • shed light on the potential risks the comet deaths on the sun could pose for us on Earth
  • In recent decades, astronomers have witnessed even dramatic interactions between comets and the sun
  • researchers are analyzing how these so-called sun-diving comets lose their mass and energy depending on how close they get to the star.
  • Such data can show us for the first time what is inside a comet
  • All other data to date, apart from Jupiter impacts like Shoemaker-Levy 9, are only from the surface layers."
  • the sun's lower atmosphere. This lies about 4,350 miles (7,000 kilometers) above the top of the photosphere, the sun's brightest visible layer.
  • sunskimmer" comets — ones that dive toward the sun but not into its lower atmosphere — can slowly get vaporized by sunlight in deaths that last hundreds to thousands of seconds, depending on their mass
  • scientists calculated that the comets should emit weak but detectable extreme ultraviolet radiation.
  • sunplunger" comets that get even closer to the sun will meet their demise in only a few seconds, as they collide with the dense layers of the sun's lower atmosphere
  • most massive comets smashed into the sun, they would produce dramatic explosions just above the photosphere
  • To create their model, the scientists looked at the first direct observations of sunskimmer comets, captured last year by NASA's sun-watching Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
  • comet, C/2011 N3, was completely destroyed after passing about 62,000 miles (100,000 km) above the photosphere
  • comet, Lovejoy (C/2011 W3), survived a close approach to a similar distance of 87,000 miles (140,000 km), although it lost a significant fraction of its mass in the process
  • Both events were in line with the predictions of the researchers' new model.
  • corona is hot, but its density is so small that the heat Lovejoy experienced "would be quite safe even on our skin
  • Comet Lovejoy did pass through the sun's million-degree corona
  • Comets might help serve as probes of the sun's atmosphere and magnetic field, helping to uncover its secrets
  • cometary flares that the very largest comets might release if they slammed into the sun can be 100 times more energetic than the largest solar flares ever observed
  • Such comets are, however, very, very rare today, though they may have been commoner in the early system
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

Kepler Mission Extended to 2016 - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...epler-mission-extended-to-2016

scibyte41 Kepler

shared by Mars Base on 03 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Artist concept of Kepler in space. Credit: NASA/JPL
  • NASA’s tight budget
  • Anxieties were rampant about one mission in particular, the very fruitful exoplanet-hunting Kepler mission, as several years of observations are required in order for Kepler to confirm a repeated orbit as a planet transits its star
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Additionally, missions such as Hubble, Fermi and Swift will receive continued funding
  • only mission that took a hit was the Spitzer infrared telescope, which – as of now — will be closed out in 2015, which is sooner than requested.
  • Senior Review of missions takes place every two years
  • In the Review, missions are ranked as which are most successful
  • previous Senior Reviews led to the removal of funding for the weakest 10-20% of extended missions
  • Hubble Space Telescope will continue at the currently funded levels
  • Chandra will also continue at current levels, but its Guest Observer budget will actually be increased to account for decreases in Fiscal Year 2011
  • Fermi operations are extended through FY16, with a 10 percent per year reduction starting in FY14.
  • Swift and Kepler mission operations are extended through FY16, including funding for data analysis.
  • Planck will support one year extended operations of the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI).
  • Spitzer’s operations are extended through FY14 with closeout in FY15
  • U.S. science support of Suzaku is extended to March 2015.
  • Funding for U.S. support of XMM-Newton is extended through March 2015.
  • all FY15-FY16 decisions are for planning purposes and they will be revisited in the 2014 Senior Review
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

Tonight's Sky: April 2012 - YouTube - 0 views

www.youtube.com/watch

scibyte41 scibyte42 scibyte43 tonightssky

shared by Mars Base on 04 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • April 2012
  • produced by HubbleSite.org
Mars Base

NASA - Kepler Mission Manager Update - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...keplerm-20120401.html

scibyte43 Kepler aprilfool

shared by Mars Base on 04 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • For those inspired by Roger's look for the day, you can participate by adding a Johannes Kepler (the namesake of the mission) likeness to your personal photo and sharing with the NASA Kepler mission community on Facebook and Twitter.
  • identification of potentially habitable planets requires deep thought. To think deeply, we must dress as deep thinkers have dressed in the past. There is nothing that speaks of deep thought more plainly than a formal neck-ruff
Mars Base

Google's self-driving car takes blind man on errands - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-self-driving-car-errands.html

scibyte41 google car

shared by Mars Base on 04 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • A self-driving car being developed by Google Inc. took a blind man for a ride this week, driving him to a Taco Bell and then to a dry cleaner in San Jose, Calif.
  • Google posted a video of a modified Toyota Prius driving Steve Mahan, who is legally blind, saying it shows one of the possibilities and benefits that could come from the technology.
  • The self-driving car took Mahan to Taco Bell for a quick meal and a dry cleaner to pick up his clothes.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • the drive took place on a carefully programmed route in San Jose and showed one of the possibilities that self-driving cars could offer.
  • we've now safely completed more than 200,000 miles of computer-led driving, gathering great experiences and an overwhelming number of enthusiastic supporters
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

Well-preserved strawberry-blond mammoth discovered in Siberia | Fox News - 0 views

www.foxnews.com/...-mammoth-discovered-in-siberia

scibyte41 WollyMammoth

shared by Mars Base on 04 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • juvenile mammoth, nicknamed "Yuka,"
  • found entombed in Siberian ice near the shores of the Arctic Ocean and shows signs of being cut open by ancient people.
  • remarkably well preserved frozen carcass
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • part of a BBC/Discovery Channel-funded expedition and is believed to be at least 10,000 years old, if not older
  • If further study confirms the preliminary findings, it would be the first mammoth carcass revealing signs of human interaction in the region.
  • in such good shape that much of its flesh is still intact, retaining its pink color. The blonde-red hue of Yuka's woolly coat also remains.
  • first relatively complete mammoth carcass -- that is, a body with soft tissues preserved -- to show evidence of human association
  • carbon dating is still in the works, the researchers believe Yuka died at least 10,000 years ago, but may be much older
  • The animal was about 2 ½ years old when it died.
  • appears that Yuka was pursued by one or more lions or another large field, judging from deep, unhealed scratches in the hide and bite marks on the tail
  • Yuka then apparently fell, breaking one of the lower hind legs
  • humans may have moved in to control the carcass, butchering much of the animal and removing parts that they would use immediately.
  • may, in fact, have reburied the rest of the carcass to keep it in reserve for possible later use
  • removed parts include most of the main core mass of Yuka's body, including organs, vertebrae, ribs, associated musculature, and some of the meat from upper parts of the legs
  • Kevin Campbell of the University of Manitoba also studied Yuka
  • Campbell famously published the genetic code of mammoth hemoglobin a few years ago
  • Most permafrost-preserved mammoth specimens consist solely of bones or bone fragments that currently provide little new insight into the species' biology in life
  • This extremely rare finding of a near complete specimen, like the discovery of the baby mammoth Lyuba in 2007, will be a boon to researchers as it will help them link observed phenotypes (morphological features that we can see) with genotype (DNA sequences)."
  • Such information could help reveal whether or not mammoths had all of the same hair colors that humans do
  • An intriguing and controversial application would be to bring a mammoth back to life via cloning.
  • producer and director of a forthcoming BBC/Discovery Channel show called "Woolly Mammoth"
  • told Discovery News that cloning a mammoth could take years or even decades.
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

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

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.
Mars Base

Young Mammoth Likely Butchered by Humans | Ice Age Beasts | LiveScience - 0 views

www.livescience.com/-mammoth-butchered-humans.html

scibyte41 mammoth

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • wouldn't a single mammoth be lonely and sad?" he asked. "They were, after all, communal animals."
Mars Base

Young Mammoth Likely Butchered by Humans : Discovery News - 0 views

news.discovery.com/...oolly-mammoth-yuka-120404.html

scibyte41 mammoth

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • possible that a ritual may have taken place involving the bones.
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

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

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.
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