Science News

[Duke of Buckingham]

Edit: P.S. Duke, this is not a slam on you. You find interesting science stories and share them with us, and that's good! I am just being grumpy about the sloppy fourth estate.

I always like polemic articles that makes people start posting on it, it is a rare opportunity of deepen things.

About the article, I see it as being very carefully once the pesticide companies are very important on the USA economics and very powerful to have as enemy.

I can understand the unusual care that this article has and that for itself is the best answer for our fears.

This is not the first article, on the scientific community about pesticides harming the environment as we had in bee/pesticide case. Scientific American is trying to avoid going to court and having an endless fighting with a giant that includes some pharmaceutical companies. That is how I see it.

The tones of pesticides that go to the rivers and from there to the ocean is absolutely alarming as the plastics that are visible and therefor subject to a better and more objective analysis, the pesticides are hidden on the body of every living things till is to late.

We are harming the environment so bad and on so many ways that now is difficult to say with accuracy what is doing what. Is in that fault that the lawyers and companies scientist come to confuse things a bit more speaking of cause and effect.

I am no scientist but I am very alert to the way our world is going ...

We need to start thinking if we need so many pesticides and so many plastic bags as many other things.

[Duke of Buckingham]

A good one about pesticides on human health.

Human Health Issues
Local Poison Control: 1-800-222-1222
Questions on Pesticides?

National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC)
1-800-858-7378
Exit EPA disclaimer

Quick Resources

Human Health Risk Assessments
Pesticides and Food
Residue Limits on Food

Pesticides are designed to (in most cases) kill pests. Many pesticides can also pose risks to people. However, in many cases the amount of pesticide people are likely to be exposed to is too small to pose a risk. To determine risk, one must consider both the toxicity or hazard of the pesticide and the likelihood of exposure. A low level of exposure to a very toxic pesticide may be no more dangerous than a high level of exposure to a relatively low toxicity pesticide, for example.

More on: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/human.htm a very good reading.

Go EPA GO, sometimes you do a good job.

[Duke of Buckingham]

Spacecraft Sees Giant 'Hole' In the Sun

A space telescope aimed at the sun has spotted a gigantic hole in the solar atmosphere — a dark spot that covers nearly a quarter of our closest star, spewing solar material and gas into space.

The so-called coronal hole over the sun's north pole came into view between July 13 and 18 and was observed by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO. NASA released a video of the sun hole as seen by the SOHO spacecraft, showing the region as a vast dark spot surrounded by solar activity.

Coronal holes are darker, cooler regions of the sun's atmosphere, or corona, containing little solar material. In these gaps, magnetic field lines whip out into the solar wind rather than looping back to the sun's surface. Coronal holes can affect space weather, as they send solar particles streaming off the sun about three times faster than the slower wind unleashed elsewhere from the sun's atmosphere, according to a description from NASA.

More on: http://www.space.com/22059-sun-hole-...asa-video.html

[Mumps]

And it's been theorized that, if a hole of that magnitude were to open up pointing at the earth, it would be the end of civilization as we know it.

[Duke of Buckingham]

Astronomers Discovery a Graveyard for Comets

Aug. 2, 2013 — A team of astronomers from the University of Anitoquia, Medellin, Colombia, have discovered a graveyard of comets. The researchers, led by Anitoquia astronomer Prof. Ignacio Ferrin, describe how some of these objects, inactive for millions of years, have returned to life leading them to name the group the 'Lazarus comets'.

The team publish their results in the Oxford University Press journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Comets are amongst the smallest objects in the Solar System, typically a few km across and composed of a mixture of rock and ices. If they come close to the Sun, then some of the ices turn to gas, before being swept back by the light of the Sun and the solar wind to form a characteristic tail of gas and dust.

Most observed comets have highly elliptical orbits, meaning that they only rarely approach the Sun. Some of these so-called long period comets take ...

More on: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0802080248.htm

[Duke of Buckingham]

Astronomers Discovery a Graveyard for Comets

Aug. 2, 2013 — A team of astronomers from the University of Anitoquia, Medellin, Colombia, have discovered a graveyard of comets. The researchers, led by Anitoquia astronomer Prof. Ignacio Ferrin, describe how some of these objects, inactive for millions of years, have returned to life leading them to name the group the 'Lazarus comets'.

The team publish their results in the Oxford University Press journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Comets are amongst the smallest objects in the Solar System, typically a few km across and composed of a mixture of rock and ices. If they come close to the Sun, then some of the ices turn to gas, before being swept back by the light of the Sun and the solar wind to form a characteristic tail of gas and dust.

Most observed comets have highly elliptical orbits, meaning that they only rarely approach the Sun. Some of these so-called long period comets take ...

More on: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0802080248.htm

Bad EDIT on this thread. Simply comes empty, I had to do this way to join the image.

[Duke of Buckingham]

Hacking the Internet of Everything
Soon, nearly every device will be online. That is both a beautiful and a dangerous thing
By Peter Haynes and Thomas A. Campbell

SA Forum is an invited essay from experts on topical issues in science and technology.

“We live in a connected world” is a well-worn axiom. Even so, few people realize the true extent of that interconnectivity. Networking giant Cisco Systems estimates that by 2015 as many as 15 billion devices will be connected to the Internet—more than double the world’s population. One forecast suggests that the number of such devices will reach 50 billion by 2050, and that is almost certainly an underestimate. Many of those machines will interact with each other without our intervention, and often without our knowledge. When that happens, the Internet of Everything will have truly arrived.

More on: http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...-of-everything

[Duke of Buckingham]

The Europa Report: A Report
By Britney Schmidt | August 3, 2013 |



I have to say, being asked to review a film for Scientific American has to be one of the most randomly awesome things that’s happened to this scientist, especially since the film is about Europa. As a UCLA PhD, most of my friends were graphics and production guys, so I’ve got to try to put in my former Los Angelino-$0.02.

As someone totally, completely UTTERLY obsessed with Europa, I’ve thought ...

More on: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...AT_BS_20130809

[Duke of Buckingham]

Meteorite that fell last year contains surprising molecules
Compounds in space rocks like the one that broke up over California may have helped seed life on Earth
By Andrew Grant
Web edition: September 9, 2013

Chemical analyses of Sutter's Mill meteorite fragments (one shown) suggest that space rocks hold the molecules necessary for life to develop. Credit: Kevin Heider/Wikimedia Commons

A space rock that lit up the California sky last year has given scientists an unprecedented look at the complex chemistry that probably took place during the solar system’s infancy. Meteorites similar to this one likely delivered the raw materials to Earth that assembled into the molecules of life.

Scientists have been analyzing pieces of the Sutter’s Mill meteorite since it burst apart over northern California on April 22, 2012 (SN: 1/26/13, p. 5). When Arizona State University chemist Sandra Pizzarello and colleagues melted away some minerals with acid, a plethora of ...

More on: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/gene...sing_molecules

[Duke of Buckingham]

The Continuing Mystery of the Moon Illusion [Video]
By Philip Yam | September 16, 2013 | Comments2



The harvest moon is almost upon us—specifically, September 19. It’s the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox, and it has deep significance in our cultural histories. Namely, it enabled our ancestral farmers to toil longer in the fields. (Today, electricity enables us to toil longer in the office—thanks, Tom Edison.)

One enduring belief is ...

More on: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...AT_MB_20130918