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+-   Giant Nomura's Jellyfish Sink Japanese Trawler on Saturday November 07, @07:40PM Hugh Pickens

Submitted by Hugh Pickens on Saturday November 07, @07:40PM
biotech
Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that the trawler, Diasan Shinsho-maru, has capsized off the coast of China as its three-man crew dragged their net through a swarm of giant jellyfish which can grow up to six feet in diameter and travel in packs and tried to haul up a net that was too heavy. The crew was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but the three men were rescued by another trawler. The local Coast Guard office reported that the weather was clear and the sea was calm at the time of the accident. Relatively little is known about Nomura's jellyfish, such as why some years see thousands of the creatures floating across the Sea of Japan on the Tsushima Current, but last year there were virtually no sightings. In 2007, there were 15,500 reports of damage to fishing equipment caused by the creatures. Experts believe that one contributing factor to the jellyfish becoming more frequent visitors to Japanese waters may be a decline in the number of predators, which include sea turtles and certain species of fish. "Jellies have likely swum and swarmed in our seas for over 600 million years," says "jellyologist" Monty Graham of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. "When conditions are right, jelly swarms can form quickly. They appear to do this for sexual reproduction.""
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+-   Babies Begin Learning Language in the Womb on Friday November 06, @05:57PM Hugh Pickens

Submitted by Hugh Pickens on Friday November 06, @05:57PM
biotech
Hugh Pickens writes "Science Daily reports findings from a new study that suggest that infants begin picking up elements of what will be their first language in the womb, long before their first babble or coo, and are able to memorize sounds from the external world by the last trimester of pregnancy, with a particular sensitivity to melody contour in both music and language. Newborns prefer their mother's voice over other voices and perceive the emotional content of messages conveyed via intonation contours in maternal speech (a.k.a. "motherese"). "The dramatic finding of this study is that not only are human neonates capable of producing different cry melodies, but they prefer to produce those melody patterns that are typical for the ambient language they have heard during their fetal life, within the last trimester of gestation," said Kathleen Wermke of the University of Würzburg in Germany. Wermke's team recorded and analyzed the cries of 60 healthy newborns, 30 born into French-speaking families and 30 born into German-speaking families, when they were three to five days old. The recordings of 2,500 cries as mothers changed babies’ diapers, readied babies for feeding or otherwise interacted with the youngsters show an extremely early impact of native language with analysis revealing clear differences in the shape of the newborns' cry melodies, based on their mother tongue. "Newborns are probably highly motivated to imitate their mother's behavior in order to attract her and hence to foster bonding," says Wermke. "Because melody contour may be the only aspect of their mother's speech that newborns are able to imitate, this might explain why we found melody contour imitation at that early age.""
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+-   Antimatter in lightning[->] on Friday November 06, @04:52PM AMESN

Submitted by AMESN on Friday November 06, @04:52PM
earth
AMESN writes "The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope launched last year detects gamma rays from light years away, but recently it detected gamma rays from lightning on Earth. And the energy of the gamma rays is specific to the decay of positrons, which are the antimatter flavor of electrons. Finding antimatter in lightning surprised researchers and suggests the electric field of the lightning somehow got reversed."
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+-   FAA streamlines experimental space flight access[->] on Friday November 06, @02:54PM coondoggie

Submitted by coondoggie on Friday November 06, @02:54PM
space
coondoggie writes "The Federal Aviation Administration today said it would streamline the environmental review part of permit applications for the launch and/or reentry of reusable suborbital rockets to help bolster a fledgling commercial space market. At the heart of the ruling is a document used to outline and determine the potential environmental consequences of issuing experimental permits known as the Processing of Experimental Permit Applications (PEIS).
The idea as the FAA explains it: Because the PEIS presents information and analysis common to reusable, suborbital rockets, the FAA could choose to tier environmental documents from the PEIS to focus on environmental impacts specific to an applicant's proposed experimental operations. The PEIS would eliminate repetitive discussions of recurring issues and focus on issues that are ready for decision...specific to a particular launch. Individual launch operators would be required to coordinate with site operators to gain access to a site. In addition, the launch operators would be required to apply to the FAA for an experimental permit, which would require an individual safety and environmental review.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/47392"
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+-   LHC Shutdown Again - By Baguette Dropping Bird?[->] on Thursday November 05, @08:59PM Philip K Dickhead

Submitted by Philip K Dickhead on Thursday November 05, @08:59PM
news
Philip K Dickhead writes "Is Douglas Adams scripting the saga of sorrows facing the LHC? These time-traveling Higgs-Boson particles certainly exhibit the sign of his absurd sense of humor! Perhaps it is the Universe itself, conspiring against the revelations intimated by the operation of CERN's Large Hadron Collider? This time, it is not falling cranes, cracked magnets, liquid helium leaks or even links to Al Qaeda, that have halted man's efforts to understand the meaning of life, the universe and everything. It now appears that the collider is hindered from an initial firing by a baguette, dropped by a passing bird. "The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine." One cannot rule out time-traveling mischief makers, however improbable, once credulity has been so rudely affronted by this latest story."
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+-   CDC adopts near real-time flu tracking system[->] on Thursday November 05, @05:42PM CWmike

Submitted by CWmike on Thursday November 05, @05:42PM
medicine
CWmike writes "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched an effort this week to better and more easily track for H1N1, or Swine Flu, and other seasonal influenza activity throughout the U.S. The CDC said it is now tracking data on 14 million patients from physician practices and hospitals that is stored on a relational database hosted by GE Healthcare, General Electric Co.'s health care division. The data is submitted daily from physician's offices and hospitals that use GE's electronic medical record (EMR) system. The data is then uploaded to GE Healthcare's Medical Quality Improvement Consortium (MQIC), a database repository designed with HIPAA-compliance parameters of patient anonymity and best practices where it can be the subject of medical data queries. The CDC can perform queries to look for flu-like symptoms being reported by physicians, and then disseminate the data for health care providers and local government officials throughout the country, who can alert businesses and others about flu outbreak hot spots. The CDC also hopes its analysis of the data helps it better understand the characteristics of H1N1 outbreaks and to determine who is most at risk for developing complications from the virus. Prior to implementing the new system, the CDC relied heavily on tracking insurance claims data, which could take days, if not weeks, to make its way to the agency's medical staff for analysis. "You not only want to get the data from here to there, but then you also have to say I need to normalize that data," said Dr. Mark Dente, chief medical informatics officer for GE Healthcare IT. "For example, if one doctor says hypertension, another says HTN and someone else says high blood pressure, it all means the same thing when you enter a query against the data.""
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+-   NASA May Drop Ares I-Y Test Flight[->] on Thursday November 05, @10:40AM Matt_dk

Submitted by Matt_dk on Thursday November 05, @10:40AM
nasa
Matt_dk writes "Just one week after the first test flight test of the Ares I-X rocket, NASA says it may decide to cancel a follow-up launch called Ares 1-Y, which wasn't scheduled until 2014. Reportedly, program managers recommended dropping the flight because, currently, there isn't the funding to get an upper stage engine ready in time. Depending on whether the Obama administration decides to continue the Ares I program, this decision may be moot. Earlier this week Sen. Bill Nelson said Obama may make a decision on NASA's future path, based on the report by the Augustine Commission, by the end of November."
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+-   Researchers Add RFID To A Flapping Moth [->] on Thursday November 05, @10:06AM TechRev_AL

Submitted by TechRev_AL on Thursday November 05, @10:06AM
biotech
TechRev_AL writes "A team from the University of Washington has attached an RFID chip capable of sensing neural activity to a live moth, to pick up the spikes that occur as it beats its wings. Most neural implants are still relatively bulky, but the Washington researchers wanted to show the components in an RFID could be adapted for the same purpose. The NeuralWISP chip is a collection of low-power components such as a specialized signal amplifier, on a circuit board just over two centimeters long. The circuitry converts usable power from the reader--roughly 430 microwatts--to a voltage that can turn on a microcontroller. The sensor is also configured to only "wakes up" when a neuron fires. The ultimate goal is to create more compact, wirelessly-powered brain and nervous system implants for people."
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+-   LaserMotive Climbs to the Top [->] on Thursday November 05, @08:04AM Bucc5062

Submitted by Bucc5062 on Thursday November 05, @08:04AM
nasa
Bucc5062 writes "LaserMotive has achieved the first step towards the creation of a working space elevator by qualifying for the $900,000 prize in a contest sponsored by NASA. To achieve this 1st level, laserMotive needed to propel a platform at over 4 meters per sec. They hit a top speed of 4.13 m/s. The next level of qualification will be to achieve a climb speed greater then 5 meters per sec.

LaserMotive (Tuesday, Nov 3, 2009) beamed roughly 400 watts of laser power to a moving target at a distance of 1 kilometer, as part of the vertical laser alignment procedure. The target was a retro-reflective board a little larger than 1 meter on a side. I don't know offhand if that is a record; I will have to check once things calm down. (It's a record that will likely be broken tomorrow by one or more teams, of course.)

The contest will continue for another two days with at least two other teams challenging for the prize. The grand prize of 2 million is within the sights of the LaserMotive team:

To win the Power Beaming competition, the LaserMotive system uses a high-power laser array to shine ultra-intense infrared light onto high-efficiency solar cells, converting the light into electric power which then drives a motor. Our system will track the vehicle as it climbs, compensating for motion due to wind and other changes. Building on our experience from last year’s competition, we are designing an improved system able to capture the full $2,000,000 prize.

The future looks up for laserMotive as they climb higher in obtaining the ultimate prize of ground to earth orbit with a space elevator. Next floor, International space station, satellite maintenance, and ET wear."
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+-   The Ultimate Test of Financial Crash Forecasting[->] on Thursday November 05, @07:05AM KentuckyFC

Submitted by KentuckyFC on Thursday November 05, @07:05AM
science
KentuckyFC writes "One of the most extraordinary ideas to come out of econophysics in recent years is that it is possible to identify bubbles in real time and predict when they are about to burst. The idea has been championed by Didier Sornette who runs the Financial Crisis Observatory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and who already he has a number of impressive predictions under his belt. Earlier this year, for example, he successfully forecast that the Shanghai Composite Index was about to crash. But many critics say these predictions are of limited value. How do we know that Sornette doesn't make predictions on a regular basis and only publicise the ones that come true? Or perhaps he modifies them as the due date gets closer so that they always seem to be right (as weather forecasters do). It's even possible that his predictions influence the markets: perhaps they trigger crashes. To counter these criticisms, Sornette has designed an experiment--called the Financial Bubble Experiment--to test whether his predictions work. Instead of publishing his forecasts, Sornette intends to seal them in an electronic envelope held by a trusted third party, in this case, the physics arXiv. The arXiv time stamps each prediction so that there is no dispute over when it was made and ensures that it cannot be changed. Every six months, Sornette will open the envelopes and publish his predictions so that everyone can see how successful he has been. He posted the first three sealed predictions yesterday and intends to make them public on 1 May 2010."
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+-   Success in 'space elevator' competition[->] on Wednesday November 04, @11:48PM reifman

Submitted by reifman on Wednesday November 04, @11:48PM
nasa
reifman writes "LaserMotive's robot powered by a ground-based laser beam climbed a long cable dangling from a helicopter on Wednesday to qualify for prize money in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of the science fiction concept of space elevators. Earlier out on the lakebed, team member Nick Burrows had pointed out how it grips the cable with modified skateboard wheels and the laser is aimed with an X Box game controller."
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+-   Reverse Orbit Planet Found 1,000 Light Years Away[->] on Wednesday November 04, @11:21PM JoshuaInNippon

Submitted by JoshuaInNippon on Wednesday November 04, @11:21PM
space
JoshuaInNippon writes "Our sun and the planets that revolve around it all move in the same direction. Since 1995, over 400 planets outside our solar system have been found, and many of them are strikingly different than that of us. To explain these differences, a variety of planetary evolution models have been proposed, including the theoretical possibility that some planets orbit in the opposite direction to that of their star rotation. On November 4th, researchers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) announced they have found such a retrograde orbit planet for the first time, around HAT-P-7, a star about 1,000 light years away."
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+-   Fear Detector to Sniff Out Terrorists on Wednesday November 04, @09:28PM Hugh Pickens

Submitted by Hugh Pickens on Wednesday November 04, @09:28PM
biotech
Hugh Pickens writes "Evidence that the smell of fear is real was uncovered by US scientists last year who studied the underarm secretions of 20 terrified novice skydivers and found that people appear to respond unconsciously to the sweat smell of a frightened person. Now the Telegraph reports that researchers hope a ''fear detector'' will make it possible to identify individuals at check points who are up to no good. ''The challenge lies in the characterization and identification of the specific chemical that gives away the signature of human fear, especially the fear in relation to criminal acts," says Professor Tong Tun at City University London who leads the team developing security sensor systems that can detect the human fear pheromone. The project will look at potential obstacles to the device, such as the effects of perfume and the variances in pheromone production and if the initial 18-month feasibility study is successful, the first detectors could be developed in the next two to three years. ''I do not see any particular reason why similar sensor techniques cannot be expanded to identify human smells by race, age or gender to build a profile of a criminal during or after an incident,'' Tong added."
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+-   Why a high IQ doesn't mean you're smart[->] on Wednesday November 04, @01:19AM D1gital_Prob3

Submitted by D1gital_Prob3 on Wednesday November 04, @01:19AM
science
D1gital_Prob3 writes "...how can a "smart" person act foolishly? Keith Stanovich, professor of human development and applied psychology at the University of Toronto, Canada, has grappled with this apparent incongruity for 15 years. He says it applies to more people than you might think. To Stanovich, however, there is nothing incongruous about it. IQ tests are very good at measuring certain mental faculties, he says, including logic, abstract reasoning, learning ability and working-memory capacity — how much information you can hold in mind."
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+-   The tech aboard the International Space Station[->] on Tuesday November 03, @11:20AM CNETNate

Submitted by CNETNate on Tuesday November 03, @11:20AM
space
CNETNate writes "With its own file server for uploaded Hollywood blockbusters, a 10Mbps Internet connection to Earth and a stock of IBM ThinkPad notebooks for sending emails, the amount of consumer technology aboard the $150 billion International Space Station is impressive. Yet it's the responsibility of just two guys to maintain the uptime of the Space Station's IT, and they have given an in-depth interview with CNET to explain what tech's aboard, how it works and whether Windows viruses are a threat to the astronauts. In a related feature, the Space Station's internal network (which operates over just bandwidth of just1Mbps) and its connected array of Lenovo notebooks is explained, along with the future tech we could see aboard the traveling colony as it traverses the future."
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+-   NASA: 2 companies win $1.65M moon lander prize [->] on Tuesday November 03, @10:44AM coondoggie

Submitted by coondoggie on Tuesday November 03, @10:44AM
nasa
coondoggie writes "NASA said it will this week award $1.65 million in prize money to a pair of aerospace companies that successfully simulated landing a spacecraft on the moon and lifting off again.

NASA's Centennial Challenges program, which was managed by the X Prize Foundation will give a $1 million first prize to Masten Space Systems and a $500,000 second prize to Armadillo Aerospace for successfully completing the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/47068"
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Comments: 1 +-   Scientists build a smarter rat [->] on Monday November 02, @08:16PM destinyland

Submitted by destinyland on Monday November 02, @08:16PM
biotech
destinyland writes "Scientists have engineered a more intelligent rat, with three times the memory length of today's smartest rats. Reseachers bred transgenic over-expression of the NR2B gene, which increased communication between the rat's memory synapses. Activating a crucial brain receptor for just a fraction of a second longer produces a dramatic effect on memory, as proven by the rat's longer memories of the path through a maze!"
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+-   Solving the Mystery of Cosmic Rays' Origins[->] on Monday November 02, @01:37PM Matt_dk

Submitted by Matt_dk on Monday November 02, @01:37PM
space
Matt_dk writes "Nearly 100 years ago, scientists detected the first signs of cosmic rays — subatomic particles (mostly protons) that zip through space at nearly the speed of light. The most energetic cosmic rays hit with the punch of a 98-mph fastball, even though they are smaller than an atom. Astronomers questioned what natural force could accelerate particles to such a speed. New evidence from the VERITAS telescope array shows that cosmic rays likely are powered by exploding stars and stellar “winds.”"
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+-   Europe Launches Flood Predicting Satellite[->] on Monday November 02, @01:00PM MikeChino

Submitted by MikeChino on Monday November 02, @01:00PM
space
MikeChino writes "Today the European Space Agency launched a $460 million satellite that will aim to accurately pinpoint the future location and intensity of floods and droughts. Launched on a Russian rocket launcher from the Plesestk cosmodrome, the SMOS probe will measure soil moisture, plant growth, and ocean salt levels across the globe. The measurements gathered by the SMOS probe can be used to track ocean circulation patterns and soil moisture — data that can be used to quickly predict drought and flood risk in certain areas, as well as the intricacies of the planet’s climate cycle."
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+-   No Earth-Sized Planet Hunting for Kepler Until 201[->] on Monday November 02, @12:35PM Matt_dk

Submitted by Matt_dk on Monday November 02, @12:35PM
space
Matt_dk writes "A glitch in the Kepler spacecraft's electronics means the space telescope will not have the ability to spot an Earth-sized planet until 2011, according to principal investigator William Borucki. Noisy amplifiers are creating noise that compromises Kepler’s view, and the team will have to generate and upload a software fix for the spacecraft. “We’re not going to be able to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone — or it’s going to be very difficult — until that work gets done,” said Borucki, who revealed the problem last week to the NASA Advisory Council."
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