Subscribe:
RSS feed
"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler", Albert Einstein
Browsing All Posts published on »July, 2011«
Gyromagnetic Factors and Atomic Clock Constraints on the Variation of Fundamental Constants
We consider the effect of the coupled variations of fundamental constants on the nucleon magnetic moment. The nucleon g-factor enters into the interpretation of the measurements of variations in the fine-structure constant, alpha, in both the laboratory (through atomic clock measurements) and in astrophysical systems (e.g. through measurements of the 21 cm transitions). A null […]
Mapping the most complex object in the known universe
July 29, 2011
It’s paint-by-numbers for neuroscientists. At the Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, researchers have devised a faster way of computing the neural connections that make up the brain. Mapping out this intricate web previously depended on the human eye as no computer was powerful enough to handle the brain’s complex network of 70 […]
Video: Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array
July 29, 2011
World Highest and Newest Radio-Telescope Nearly Ready
Why is the universe just right for us?
July 29, 2011
by Marcus Chown IT HAS been called the Goldilocks paradox. If the strong nuclear force which glues atomic nuclei together were only a few per cent stronger than it is, stars like the sun would exhaust their hydrogen fuel in less than a second. Our sun would have exploded long ago and there would be […]
Rock Layers in Gale Crater
July 29, 2011
This oblique view of the lower mound in Gale Crater shows layers of rock that preserve a record of environments on Mars. Here, orbiting instruments have detected signatures of both clay minerals and sulfate salts, with more clay minerals apparent in the foreground of this image and fewer in higher layers. This change in mineralogy […]
Chemists transform acids into bases
July 29, 2011
Chemists at the University of California, Riverside have accomplished in the lab what until now was considered impossible: transform a family of compounds which are acids into bases. As our chemistry lab sessions have taught us, acids are substances that taste sour and react with metals and bases (bases are the chemical opposite of acids). […]
‘It’s Alive! It’s Alive!’ Maybe Right Here on Earth
July 29, 2011
video: Life Out There: Eden in a Test Tube: To better recognize extraterrestrial life should they come upon it, scientists are working to create simple life forms in a lab. But, as Dennis Overbye reports, they first have to agree what life is. Here in a laboratory perched on the edge of the continent, researchers are trying […]
Star-Trek Teleportation: A Possibility?
July 29, 2011
This paper describes a scheme, through which the quantum information as well as the structural information of a time-reversal invariant system can be teleported over a distance. I show that my teleportation scheme can be viewed as a form of reversible purification process by repeated interactions with an auxiliary quantum system…. Read more: http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers
Molecules in supernova ejecta
July 29, 2011
The fir rst molecules detected at infrared wavelengths in the ejecta of a Type II supernova, namely SN1987A, consisted of CO and SiO. Since then, con rmation of the formation of these two species in several other supernovae a few hundred days after explosion has been obtained. However, supernova environments appear to hamper the synthesis of large, complex species due to […]
SOHO Watches a Comet Fading Away
July 28, 2011
On Nov. 4, 2010, NASA’s EPOXI spacecraft came within 450 miles of Comet Hartley 2, a small comet not even a mile in diameter, which takes about six and a half years to orbit the sun. Designated officially as 103P/Hartley 2, the comet thus became the fifth for which scientists have collected close-up images. But […]
Spinons take the heat
July 28, 2011
An international group of researchers has measured, for the first time, the phenomenon of spin–charge separation in bulk in a solid. They also found that the material violates the empirical Wiedemann–Franz law that has held true for more than 150 years. The Wiedemann–Franz law says that the ratio of thermal to electrical conductivity for a […]
How the universe appeared from nothing
July 28, 2011
video There’s no such thing as a free lunch, or so the saying goes, but that may not be true on the grandest, cosmic scale. Many physicists now believe that the universe arose out of nothingness during the Big Bang which means that nothing must have somehow turned into something. How could that be possible? […]
How Astronomers May Hunt for Life on Alien Planets
July 28, 2011
Any sulfurous molecules that astronomers spot on alien worlds might be a way to reveal whether or not those distant planets host life, researchers suggest. On Earth, microbes can live off the energy available in sulfurous molecules that volcanoes release, essentially “breathing” these compounds the way humans breathe oxygen. If a similar kind of metabolism […]
Antiprotons pass latest symmetry test
July 28, 2011
By Hamish Johnston For something that is rare in the universe, antimatter has certainly been in the news a lot lately. The latest breakthrough involves antiprotonic helium and is published in Nature today. This exotic “atom” is formed when one electron in a helium atom is replaced with an antiproton, which is negatively charged. For two decades […]
Earth and Trojan asteroid 2010TK7 revolving around the sun – video
July 27, 2011
Keeping us company, the newly discovered asteroid leading the Earth around the Sun Earth and asteroid 2010TK7 orbiting the sun together. The path of the asteroid is traced in green. Each loop or ‘epicycle’ takes one Earth year to complete. Despite the asteroid’s complex motion, the centre of the epicycle is confined to the leading […]
Triplet Galaxies Revealed by World’s Most Advanced Telescope
July 27, 2011
The bright galaxies NGC 3628, M 65, and M 66 lie within the constellation Leo. Europe’s VLT Survey telescope’s 268-megapixel camera grabbed this wide angle image, expected to yield insight into dark matter and the odd behavior of galactic halos.
NASA’s Chandra Observatory Images Gas Flowing Toward Black Hole
July 27, 2011
The flow of hot gas toward a black hole has been clearly imaged for the first time in X-rays. The observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory will help tackle two of the most fundamental problems in modern astrophysics: understanding how black holes grow and how matter behaves in their intense gravity. The black hole is […]
Astronomy’s 3D Revolution
July 27, 2011
Simple 3D tools could bring astronomy alive for scientists and the public alike. But the techniques are woefully underused, argue two astronomers When it comes to scientific visualisations, biochemists are the undisputed champions. These guys embraced 3D techniques to represent complex molecules at the dawn of the computer age. That’s made a huge difference to […]
Dying star’s last gasps provides new Kepler target
July 26, 2011
by Dr Emma Rigby A new planetary nebula, recently discovered thanks to the combined efforts of amateur and professional astronomers and within sight of the Kepler spacecraft, could hold the key to understanding how our own Sun’s life will end. The detection of the nebula, Kronberger 61 (Kn 61), along with a striking new image […]
Why is there a universe?
July 26, 2011
by Amanda Gefter AS DOUGLAS ADAMS once wrote: “The universe is big. Really big.” And yet if our theory of the big bang is right, the universe was once a lot smaller. Indeed, at one point it was non-existent. Around 13.7 billion years ago time and space spontaneously sprang from the void. How did that […]
Was the universe born spinning?
July 26, 2011
The universe was born spinning and continues to do so around a preferred axis – that is the bold conclusion of physicists in the US who have studied the rotation of more than 15,000 galaxies. While most cosmological theories have suggested that – on a large scale – the universe is the same in every […]
Ghostly Influence of Distant Magnetic Field
July 25, 2011
A 1959 Physical Review paper claimed that an electric or magnetic field could influence quantum particles even though the particles never experienced the field directly. In classical electromagnetism there is no other way to influence a particle besides direct contact with the fields. Even though quantum mechanics was well-established by then, the idea met with widespread skepticism. […]
Where did we come from?
July 25, 2011
by Stephen Hawking WHY are we here? Where did we come from? According to the Boshongo people of central Africa, before us there was only darkness, water and the great god Bumba. One day Bumba, in pain from a stomach ache, vomited up the sun. The sun evaporated some of the water, leaving land. Still […]
Why time travel will remain a sci-fi fantasy
July 25, 2011
Scientists prove nothing can travel faster than the speed of light No heading Back To The Future: Scientists have proved that a single photon obeys Einstein’s theory that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light and that time travel is therefore impossible For those that while away their days dreaming about travelling […]
Probability of ET Life Arbitrarily Small, Say Astrobiologists
July 25, 2011
Astronomers have always thought that because life emerged quickly on Earth, it must be likely to occur elsewhere. That thinking now turns out to be wrong. The Drake equation is one of those rare mathematical beasts that has leaked into the public consciousness. It estimates the number of extraterrestrial civilisations that we might be able […]
New laser technique makes cold positronium
July 25, 2011
Physicists in the US have shown that positronium – a short-lived bound state of a positron and an electron – can be produced by firing a laser beam onto a silicon surface. Because the technique is highly controllable and operates over a wide range of temperatures, it could prove extremely useful in low-temperature experiments designed […]
Very Large Telescope Ready for Action
July 25, 2011
As the Sun sets in the north-western sky above the Chilean Atacama Desert, astronomical work is about to begin. This is home to ESO’s Very Large Telescope, one of the most powerful astronomical devices ever constructed. It is located atop Cerro Paranal, a 2600-metre high mountain some 120 kilometres south of the city of Antofagasta. […]
Exquisite Machines
July 24, 2011
By Sean Gibbons The synthesis of non-equilibrium thermodynamics and biology, pursued in fits and starts over the years by an eccentric cast of thinkers, has produced a few scientific red herrings, but the overall idea has expanded our biophysical horizons. I’ll summarize what I’ve come to understand about the development of biological thermodynamics and its implications, […]
Higgs boson ‘hints’ also seen by US lab
July 24, 2011
A US particle machine has seen possible hints of the Higgs boson, it has emerged, after reports this week of similar glimpses at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) laboratory. The Higgs boson sub-atomic particle is a missing cornerstone in the accepted theory of particle physics. Researchers have been analysing data from the Tevatron machine near […]
Introduction to General Relativity
July 24, 2011
Lectures General Relativity 2010 G. ‘t Hooft, T. Prokopec http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~hooft101/
Higgs Boson: One page explanation
July 24, 2011
In 1993, the UK Science Minister, William Waldegrave, challenged physicists to produce an answer that would fit on one page to the question ‘What is the Higgs boson, and why do we want to find it?’ The winning entries taken from Physics World Volume 6 Number 9, were by:…..
NASA Picks Rover Destination: Mountain on Mars
July 23, 2011
NASA’s next Mars rover — the ambitious, beleaguered, delayed Mars Science Laboratory — finally has a destination. Mission scientists announced Friday that the rover, a nuclear-powered vehicle the size of a small S.U.V., would head to Gale Crater, a 96-mile-wide depression near the Martian equator. What attracted them there is a mountain that rises upward […]
Inside the Innards of a Nuclear Reactor: Tiny Robots May Monitor Underground Pipes for Radioactive Leaks
July 23, 2011
As workers continue to grapple with the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in Japan, the crisis has shone a spotlight on nuclear reactors around the world. In June, The Associated Press released results from a yearlong investigation, revealing evidence of “unrelenting wear” in many of the oldest-running facilities in the United States. That study found […]
Cern scientists suspect glimpse of Higgs boson ‘God particle’
July 22, 2011
Unusual data bumps detected by two teams at Large Hadron Collider thought to be glimpse of elusive source of particle mass Scientists may have caught their first glimpse of the elusiveHiggs boson, or “God particle”, which is thought to give mass to the basic building blocks of nature. Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider at […]
Astronomers Find Largest, Most Distant Reservoir of Water
July 22, 2011
Two teams of astronomers have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe. The water, equivalent to 140 trillion times all the water in the world’s ocean, surrounds a huge, feeding black hole, called a quasar, more than 12 billion light-years away. “The environment around this quasar is very unique […]
Sun’s death rattle may hurl comets out of solar system
July 22, 2011
A DYING star deserves a last hurrah. It is fitting then, that our sun will throw many of its comets into interstellar space when it dies, according to new simulations. In about 5 billion years, the sun will run out of hydrogen to burn in its core and will expand to become a red giant […]
Snowstorms on Mars may dwarf those on Earth
July 22, 2011
SNOWSTORMS more violent than any on Earth may have hit Mars – and could occasionally strike again, despite its extremely dry climate. No rain or snowstorms have ever been observed on Mars, which has been mostly cold and dry for about 3.5 billion years. But mineral evidence suggests short-lived lakes have formed intermittently on the […]
The Best Space Shuttle Tribute Video
July 22, 2011
Remembering what it was to be 10 and in awe of the future There are a bunch of videos out there paying tribute to the end of the final flight of one of the most complicated pieces of technology ever conceived — the Space Shuttle. Despite a childhood spent dreaming of becoming an astronaut, running […]
Fermilab experiment discovers a heavy relative of the neutron
July 22, 2011
Scientists of the CDF collaboration at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announced the observation of a new particle, the neutral Xi-sub-b (Ξb0). This particle contains three quarks: a strange quark, an up quark and a bottom quark (s-u-b). While its existence was predicted by the Standard Model, the observation of the neutral […]
No privilege for earthly observers
July 22, 2011
Confirmation of the Copernican Principle at Gpc Radial Scale and above from the Kinetic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich Effect Power Spectrum Pengjie Zhang and Albert Stebbins Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 041301 (Published July 21, 2011) According to most cosmologists, there is nothing special about us as observers of the universe. Still, some theories shirk this so-called Copernican principle, […]
Elliptical galaxies much younger than previously thought?
July 22, 2011
The standard model for elliptical galaxies formation is challenged by a new result uncovered by an international team of astronomers from the Atlas3D collaboration. Team members from CNRS, CEA, CFHT, and the Observatoire de Lyon published in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society the first results from their study on two […]
Space shuttles united – a video tribute
July 21, 2011
With Atlantis safely home, this Nature video combines footage from all 135 space shuttle missions to create one epic journey “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.” Surely nothing better embodies Robert Browning’s sentiment than space exploration. Today, an era of human spaceflight came to a close, with wheelstop of STS-135, the final space shuttle […]
Cloak could hide ships from flowing water
July 21, 2011
Ships of the future may be able to move through the water without a creating a wake. That is according to a pair of physicists in the US, who have proposed a new type of material that lets water flow around an object as if it were not there at all. The design, which has […]
Movement of Black Holes Powers Quasars, the Universe’s Brightest Lights
July 21, 2011
Whether on their own or orbiting as a pair, black holes don’t typically sit still. Not only do they spin, they can also move laterally across their host galaxy. And according to astrophysicists at Brigham Young University, both types of movement power massive jets of energy known as quasars. The study, which appears in the […]
You give me noise, I give you organized bundles
July 21, 2011
Research outlines math framework that could help convert ‘junk’ energy into useful power A University at Buffalo-led research team has developed a mathematical framework that could one day form the basis of technologies that turn road vibrations, airport runway noise and other “junk” energy into useful power. The concept all begins with a granular system […]
Watch Final Shuttle Landing Live
July 21, 2011
Nasa’s shuttle programme comes to an end as Kennedy Space Centre awaits Atlantis’ landing ……. (update) Space shuttle Atlantis has landed in Florida. NASA shuttle program is now over with Atlantis’ successful space station resupply mission….
Sugar Molecule in Milky Way’s Habitable Zone Hints at Possibility of Life
July 21, 2011
Scientists recently detected an organic sugar molecule that is directly linked to the origin of life, in a region of our galaxy where habitable planets could exist. Glycolaldehyde, (HOCH 2 -CH = O) the simplest of the monosaccharide sugars, can react with the substance propenal to form ribose, a central constituent of Ribonucleic acid (RNA), thought to be […]
Mars through the eyes of spirit
July 20, 2011
http://www.space.com/12349-mars-eyes-spirit-montage.html
U.S. space shuttle spawned heart pump, fly by wire
July 20, 2011
As the United States prepares to end its space shuttle program, technologies developed to nurture the reusable spaceships through three decades of flight will live on in day-to-day use on Earth. Shuttle Atlantis and its four-member crew are due back at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:57 a.m. EDT on Thursday after a […]
July 30, 2011
0