Democratic Underground - Science Discuss news, topics, and current events related to science. http://www.democraticunderground.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Thu, 23 May 2013 04:35:41 Thu, 23 May 2013 04:35:41 The Cone of Africa . . . Took Shape in Lisbon http://www.neh.gov/files/imagecache/neh_large/humanities/articles/cone_of_africa_pic_map_cone_nd2008.jpg
[i]Detail of the Cantino Planisphere, showing Africa in its entirety in 1502. The world map by an anonymous Portuguese cartographer was secretly obtained by Alberto Cantino, a spy for the Duke o... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818823 Wed, 22 May 2013 21:01:15 Astronomers spot 'missing link' collision : a supermassive galaxy 10 X the size of the milky way. Astronomers spot 'missing link' collision creating a supermassive galaxy ten times the size of the Milky Way.

Two hungry young galaxies that collided 11 billion years ago are rapidly forming a massive galaxy about 10 times the size of the Milky Way, astronomers have discovered.

Researchers say... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818820 Wed, 22 May 2013 20:40:46 "Vast Methane-Based Ecosystem Uncovered" in North Atlantic http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130522123017.htm

[i]The seep lies deep in the western North Atlantic Ocean, far from the life-sustaining energy of the sun. Mussels blanketing the the seep rely on bacteria that use the methane to make energy. The process, known as chemosynthesis, form... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818812 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:20:33 NASA Releases Image of Oklahoma Tornado as Seen From Space http://static02.mediaite.com/geekosystem/uploads/2013/05/oklahoma-tornado-640x403.jpg

NASA released this image today. It shows the storm that produced the devastating F4 tornado that hit Oklahoma yesterday minutes before the tornado touched down south of Oklahoma City. The image was taken with N... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818804 Wed, 22 May 2013 18:00:32 NASA Releases Image of Oklahoma Tornado as Seen From Space http://static02.mediaite.com/geekosystem/uploads/2013/05/oklahoma-tornado-640x403.jpg

NASA released this image today. It shows the storm that produced the devastating F4 tornado that hit Oklahoma yesterday minutes before the tornado touched down south of Oklahoma City. The image was taken with N... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818803 Wed, 22 May 2013 18:00:00 No Idle Chatter: Malaria Parasites 'Talk' to Each Other Melbourne scientists have made the surprise discovery that malaria parasites can 'talk' to each other -- a social behaviour to ensure the parasite's survival and improve its chances of being transmitted to other humans.

..


Professor Cowman said the researchers were shocked to discover that m... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818802 Wed, 22 May 2013 17:59:28 Irish potato famine pathogen identified Source: [b]BBC[/b]

21 May 2013 Last updated at 03:05 GMT

[b][link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22596561|Irish potato famine pathogen identified][/b]

By Helen Briggs
BBC News

Scientists have used plant samples collected in the mid-19th Century to identify the pathogen th... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818790 Wed, 22 May 2013 13:40:02 Physics of 'green waves' could make city traffic flow more smoothly Timing traffic lights so traffic flows optimally in 4 directions has interested me since I was a little kid. I'd love to see the results of an empirical study on this.

From [link:http://phys.org/news/2013-05-physics-green-city-traffic-smoothly.html|phys.org]:


[div class=excerpt] (Phys.org)... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818780 Wed, 22 May 2013 09:23:08 In Japan, Citizen Radiation-Tracking Project Goes Big Time - theworld.org [b]In Japan, Citizen Radiation-Tracking Project Goes Big Time
[i]A post-Fukushima effort to crowdsource radiation data in Japan has since become the largest source of radiation data in the country. And it’s now set to expand to other parts of the world. Catherine Winter reports from Tokyo.[/i][/b]
... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818766 Tue, 21 May 2013 19:00:30 Stargazer Snaps Amazing Photo of Deep Space Oasis Stargazer Snaps Amazing Photo of Deep Space Oasis
by Nina Sen
Date: 21 May 2013 Time: 07:00 AM ET

http://i.space.com/images/i/000/029/135/original/NGC4214_14Mar13_web.jpg

Dwarf barred irregular galaxy, NGC 4214, appears like a dazzling pool of water in deep space in this beautiful night sky ... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818763 Tue, 21 May 2013 18:08:50 Lazarus comets' discovered in the Asteroid Belt Astronomers have found a group of comets that have risen from the dead.

The asteroidal belt comets - or ABCs for short - lie in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, report astronomers on the on the pre press website ArXiv.org.

Dr Ignacio Ferrin, Dr Jorge Zuluaga and Pablo Cuartas f... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818754 Tue, 21 May 2013 11:35:00 The most radioactive beach in the World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdHHUGwFoJE... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818750 Tue, 21 May 2013 10:03:40 NASA funds design for a food replicator By Christopher Mims
http://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/enjoy-your-meal.jpg

Anjan Contractor’s 3D food printer might evoke visions of the “replicator” popularized in Star Trek, from which Captain Picard was constantly interrupting himself to order tea. And indeed Contractor’s company, Syst... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818748 Tue, 21 May 2013 09:51:34 Unheralded Mathematician Bridges the Prime Gap by: Erica Klarreich

On April 17, a paper arrived in the inbox of Annals of Mathematics, one of the discipline’s preeminent journals. Written by a mathematician virtually unknown to the experts in his field — a 50-something lecturer at the University of New Hampshire named Yitang Zhang — the paper... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818747 Tue, 21 May 2013 09:29:41 Puzzle of why penguin cannot fly 'solved' Researchers believe that the bird's underwater prowess may have cost it its ability to fly.

By looking at seabirds closely related to the penguin, scientists confirmed that a wing that is good for flying cannot also be good for diving and swimming.

The study is published in the Proceedings of ... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818743 Tue, 21 May 2013 08:51:28 Comets damaged 4 continents 12,800 yrs ago Evidence for deposition of 10 million tonnes of impact spherules across four continents 12,800 y ago








Significance

We present detailed geochemical and morphological analyses of nearly 700 spherules from 18 sites in support of a major cosmic impact at the onset of the Younger Dryas... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818734 Tue, 21 May 2013 05:43:04 Sobering map of tornado tracks http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/tornado-tracks_50291898244aa.jpg... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818719 Mon, 20 May 2013 22:03:09 The Waterfall and the World at Night http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1305/godafoss1600vetter.jpg
The Waterfall and the World at Night
Image Credit & Copyright: Stéphane Vetter (Nuits sacrées)
Explanation: Above this boreal landscape, the arc of the Milky Way and shimmering aurorae flow through the night. Like an echo, below them li... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818716 Mon, 20 May 2013 21:26:46 Cassini Shapes First Global Topographic Map of Titan
Scientists have created the first global topographic map of Saturn's moon Titan, giving researchers a valuable tool for learning more about one of the most Earth-like and interesting worlds in the solar system. The map was just published as part of a paper in the journal Icarus.

Titan is Saturn... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818713 Mon, 20 May 2013 21:07:38 Hubble finds dead stars "polluted" with planetary debris The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has found signs of Earth-like planets in an unlikely place: the atmospheres of a pair of burnt-out stars in a nearby star cluster. The white dwarf stars are being polluted by debris from asteroid-like objects falling onto them. This discovery suggests that rocky p... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818711 Mon, 20 May 2013 21:03:41 Gorgeous photo of the Milky Way with Cottonwood trees http://d1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/cottonwoods-580x386.jpg
Cottonwood trees and the Milky Way on May 12, 2013.
Credit and copyright: Randy Halverson/Dakotalapse.

Go here for the full resolution (2000x1333px) which is available for download:
http://www.universetoda... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818709 Mon, 20 May 2013 20:50:26 New immune system discovered [center]http://s.ph-cdn.com/newman/gfx/news/2013/newimmunesys.jpg[/center]

From [link:http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-immune.html|MedicalXpress]:

[div class=excerpt](Medical Xpress)—A research team, led by Jeremy Barr, a biology post-doctoral fellow, unveils a new immune system that pro... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818708 Mon, 20 May 2013 20:45:09 The fraud who worked with Einstein Emil Rupp spent the late 1920s and early 1930s being lauded as the most impressive experimental physicist in the world. He managed to pull off experiments that no one else could. He worked with Einstein. And he'd made it all up.

Emil Rupp was born in Germany in 1898; he had an interest in physics... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818704 Mon, 20 May 2013 11:48:38 Satellite Shoots Beautiful 6,000-Mile-Long Panoramic Photo from Orbit Eric Calouro · May 19, 2013

http://i2.wp.com/petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2013/05/landsat-earth-panorama.jpg?resize=620%2C574

There’s a slew of super-large panorama pictures available on the web, but when was the last time you heard about a picture that spans well over half the diameter of ... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818698 Sun, 19 May 2013 20:44:35 Every Known Piece Of Space Debris Orbiting The Earth http://i.imgur.com/boZhtHC.jpg

http://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/1eeswi/map_of_every_known_piece_of_space_debris_orbiting/... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818678 Sun, 19 May 2013 11:39:59 Who Actually Cracked Linear B, the Ancient Code of the Mysterious Knossos Labyrinth? As Margalit Fox says at the outset of The Riddle of the Labyrinth, the story of Linear B is well known. This 3,000-year-old language was discovered on clay tablets excavated in 1900 on the island of Crete. It thereafter puzzled scholars for half a century before it was decoded by Michael Ventris, an... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818677 Sun, 19 May 2013 11:25:25 Uncovering the secrets of North America's Ice Age giants Eighty thousand years ago the Earth began to cool, marking the start of the last Ice Age. Experts are still discovering how the big freeze affected the giant mammals which prowled its dramatically changing landscape.

Scientists are helping to uncover the secrets of giant Ice Age beasts like the s... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818675 Sun, 19 May 2013 08:44:52 Dark, massive asteroid to fly by Earth on May 31 [div class="excerpt"]It's 1.7 miles long. Its surface is covered in a sticky black substance similar to the gunk at the bottom of a barbecue. If it impacted Earth it would probably result in global extinction. Good thing it is just making a flyby.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 will make its closest pass to E... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818658 Sun, 19 May 2013 00:32:25 Microscopic crystal 'flowers' build themselves in a Harvard lab - MSNBC [b]Microscopic crystal 'flowers' build themselves in a Harvard lab[/b]
By Jillian Scharr, TechNewsDaily/MSNBC
5/17/13

http://m.static.newsvine.com/servista/imagesizer?file=boyle8E3E7311-4661-5185-C9F7-EEA18E298719.jpg
[i]Researchers formed hierarchically complex structures by controlling the g... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818649 Sat, 18 May 2013 16:48:42 Corporations are manufacturing uncertainty about scientific findings. Scientists are fighting back [b]Corporations are manufacturing uncertainty about scientific findings. Now scientists are fighting back.[/b]
By Moyers & Company - RawStory
Saturday, May 18, 2013 14:08 EDT

<snip>

Science is under attack. With corporations manufacturing uncertainty to undermine studies that hurt their bott... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818644 Sat, 18 May 2013 16:02:14 New Horizons: Encounter Planning Accelerates Back in 2005 and 2006, when Pluto’s second and third moons (Nix and Hydra) were discovered, searches by astronomers for still more moons didn’t reveal any. So the accidental discovery of Pluto’s fourth moon by the Hubble Space Telescope in mid-2011 (during a search for Plutonian rings) raised the po... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818639 Sat, 18 May 2013 15:08:08 Saratoga Teen’s Research Takes Science World By Storm A Saratoga, Califorina, High School student, Eesha Khare, is one of two runners up at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, which took place in Phoenix this week.

Eesha has developed a new supercapacitor, that fits inside a cellphone battery, and can charge in 20 to 30 seconds. ... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818629 Sat, 18 May 2013 12:56:00 Light-in-Flight Imaging [div class="excerpt"]Transient imaging is a recent imaging modality in which short pulses of light are observed "in flight" as they propagate through a scene. Transient images are useful to help understand light propagation in complex environments and to analyze light transport for research and many... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818628 Sat, 18 May 2013 12:24:03 Super-Bright Explosion Seen on the Moon http://d1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/frames-580x116.jpg
Credit NASA

If you were looking up at the Moon on March 17, 2013 at 03:50:55 UTC, you might have seen one of the brightest “lunar flashes” ever witnessed. And it would have been visible with just the naked eye.

... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818613 Sat, 18 May 2013 04:55:30 Are These the First Ever Pictures of Honduras's Lost Ciudad Blanca? Explorers have been searching on foot for Honduras's mythical city for generations. Now, they seem to have found it from a tiny Cessna airplane, aided by million-dollar technology.

...


"This whole adventure for the last couple years has been quite a wild ride," the expedition's leader Steve ... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818610 Sat, 18 May 2013 03:19:39 The Mystery of the Immaculately Conceived Baby Anteater Staffers at a zoological conservation center in Greenwich, Conn., are very confused — as are the rest of us — because their female giant anteater, Armani, has managed to conceive a baby, apparently without the presence of a male anteater.

It all started in August, writes Lisa Chamoff for Greenwic... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818607 Sat, 18 May 2013 00:40:09 NASA Announces Brightest Lunar Explosion Ever Recorded http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/17/nasa-announces-largest-ever-lunar-explosion/

A boulder-sized meteor slammed into the moon in March, igniting an explosion so bright that anyone looking up at the right moment might have spotted it, NASA announced Friday.

NASA’s Meteoroid Envi... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818599 Fri, 17 May 2013 20:54:58 Co-discoverer of ozone hole dies
17 May 2013

Joe Farman, one of three British scientists who discovered a ‘hole’ in the ozone layer, died on 11 May (see obituaries in the Guardian and the Telegraph).

It was exactly 28 years ago yesterday (on 16 May 1985) that Joe Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin published their ... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818596 Fri, 17 May 2013 19:47:18 Focus-Stacked Macro Photos by Photographer Nicolas Reusens by DL Cade · May 17, 2013

http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2013/05/macrobugs5.jpg
Photographer Nicolas Reusens has always been interested in insects, so when he purchased his first DSLR three years ago, he immediately dove into the art of macro photography. By using the technique known as ... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818591 Fri, 17 May 2013 18:24:28 Science Toons From The Union of Concerned Scientists funniest fundraiser-

http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/images/si/cartoon-contest-2013/Bilicki.jpg

http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/images/si/cartoon-contest-2013/Hicks.jpg

more-
http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/science_idol/2013-cartoon-contest-conte... http://www.democraticunderground.com/122818588 Fri, 17 May 2013 16:19:07