Science News

[Duke of Buckingham]

Hunt for Life under Antarctic Ice Heats Up

On the heels of a Russian drilling effort that reached Lake Vostok, British and American teams also aim to penetrate ancient subglacial lakes
By Quirin Schiermeier and Nature magazine

Nestled in a steep fjord beneath three kilometers of Antarctic ice, the lost world of Lake Ellsworth has haunted Martin Siegert’s dreams ever since he got involved in subglacial research a dozen years ago. Finally, the time has come for him to explore its mysterious waters.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...c-ice-heats-up

[Duke of Buckingham]

Planting Seeds of Dementia

A cascade of misfolded proteins may trigger Alzheimer's

By Carrie Arnold

Researchers have untangled some of the neurological events that may ultimately lead to Alzheimer's disease. Two new studies show that a protein implicated in this form of dementia can infect other neurons to spread disease across the brain. These problematic proteins clump together, which can lead to cognitive problems.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...AT_MB_20121128

[Duke of Buckingham]

Meat of the Matter: Are Our Modern Methods of Preserving and Cooking Meat Healthy?

Why steaks could be in, but hot dogs are still out

By Ferris Jabr

John Durant really likes meat, but he does not keep much of it in his refrigerator—there is not enough room. Instead he stores his meat in a large white freezer chest in his shared Manhattan apartment. Durant, 29, opens the chest and pulls out some frozen chunks of venison wrapped in butcher paper.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...T_EVO_20121203

[Duke of Buckingham]

Mysterious Atmospheric River Soaks California, Where Megaflood May Be Overdue

By Mark Fischetti | November 30, 2012 |

Northern California is experiencing the first days of what weather forecasters are warning will be a long series of torrential rainstorms that could cause serious flooding across the northern one-third of the state. The relentless storms are being driven by a feature in the atmosphere you have probably never heard of: an atmospheric river.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...GYSUS_20121206

[Duke of Buckingham]

Galaxy Grande: Milky Way May Be More Massive Than Thought

Hubble observations of a speedy galaxy weigh on the Milky Way and indicate that our galaxy is at least a trillion times as massive as the sun

By Ken Croswell

Although scientists know the masses of the sun and Earth, it's a different story for the galaxy. Mass estimates range widely: At the low end, some studies find that the galaxy is several hundred billion times as massive as the sun whereas the largest values exceed two trillion solar masses. Astronomers would have an easier task if the galaxy consisted solely of stars. But a huge halo of dark matter engulfs its starry disk and vastly outweighs it. Now remarkable observations of a small galaxy orbiting our own have led to a new number.


http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...ysics_20121207

[Duke of Buckingham]

California Meteor Broke Speed Record for Atmospheric Entry


By John Matson | December 20, 2012

Meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens must move quickly to trap evidence of a fresh meteorite fall. In 2008, a small asteroid roughly three meters across struck Earth’s atmosphere over northern Sudan, producing a brilliant fireball in the sky. The asteroid’s orbit had been tracked before striking Earth, upping the chances that searchers would be able to locate pieces of the meteorite on the ground. So Jenniskens traveled to the Nubian Desert to recover fragments, as did dozens of searchers from the University of Khartoum.


http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...ysics_20121221

Now go and crunch a bit of Asteroids.

http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/

[Duke of Buckingham]

Intrepid Museum, Home of Shuttle Enterprise, Reopens after Hurricane Sandy Closure


By Miriam Kramer and SPACE.com

Most of the damage was in the visitor's welcome center, which still isn't open. Nearly two meters of water flooded the building, while the tip of Enterprise's vertical stabilizer tore off when an inflatable pavilion fell down around it



http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...T_SPC_20121227

[Duke of Buckingham]

New Machine Bridges Classical and Quantum Computing

So-called boson-sampling computers could serve as a stopgap until the development of more capable quantum computers

By Charles Q. Choi and TechNewsDaily

A new type of machine could rival quantum computers in exceeding the power of classical computers, researchers say.

Quantum computers rely on the bizarre properties of atoms and the other construction blocks of the universe. The world is a fuzzy place at its very smallest levels — in this realm where quantum physics dominates, things can seemingly exist in two places at once or spin in opposite directions at the same time.



http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...ysics_20121228

[Duke of Buckingham]

Nice science news by F$, thanks.

Absolute zero no longer absolute; next up, dividing by zero?

By Rachel Martin, TechHive
Jan 4, 2013 2:36 PM

Welcome to 2013: We broke physics.

A team of physicists at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany , fixed a quantum gas of potassium atoms in a standard lattice configuration using lasers and magnetic fields. A quick adjustment of the magnetic fields forced the atoms to shift to their highest possible energy state, while remaining stationary in the grip of the laser trapping field—and that energy transition caused the temperature of the gas to drop “a few billionths of a Kelvin below absolute zero”.

Absolute zero, designated as such in 1848 by Lord Kelvin, was defined as ...

See More On: http://www.techhive.com/article/2023...-by-zero-.html

[Duke of Buckingham]

Climate Change May Have Spurred Human Evolution

A record of changing climate in the Olduvai Gorge suggests early humans had to adapt to shifting ecosystems

By Umair Irfan and ClimateWire

Climatewire

An ancient lake whose shores vacillated between lush forests and dry savannahs shows how the changing climate may have shaped humanity's dawn in eastern Africa, according to new research.

Scientists studying organic remains dating back 2 million years in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania tracked how plant life adapted to the regional climate as it shifted from regular monsoons to scorching dry spells. The researchers published their findings last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


HUMAN EVOLUTION: Climate change may have helped shape human evolution, according to a new study. Image: Flickr/William Warby

See more at http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...T_EVO_20130107