Gamma-Ray Bursts Could Halt Photosynthesis | Wired Science | Wired.com

"Cosmic explosions thousands of light-years away could shut down photosynthesis in the ocean at depths of up to 260 feet, a new study suggests. The calculations add to a growing body of research linking these great blasts, called gamma-ray bursts, with biological damage and even mass extinctions on Earth.

Gamma-ray bursts are tremendous explosions detonated during a massive star’s death throes. When stars eight times the mass of the sun or larger reach the end of their lives, they die in spectacular supernova explosions that can temporarily outshine entire galaxies."

Now You See It, Now You Don't -- an Invisibility Cloak Made of Glass

From Tolkien's ring of power in The Lord of the Rings to Star Trek's Romulans, who could make their warships disappear from view, from Harry Potter's magical cloak to the garment that makes players vanish in the video game classic Dungeons and Dragons, the power to turn someone or something invisible has fascinated mankind. But who ever thought that a scientist at Michigan Technological University would be serious about building a working invisibility cloak?"

How music training primes nervous system and boosts learning

"Those ubiquitous wires connecting listeners to you-name-the-sounds from invisible MP3 players -- whether of Bach, Miles Davis or, more likely today, Lady Gaga -- only hint at music's effect on the soul throughout the ages."

Pre-Inca Remains Found in Peru : Discovery News

"July 21, 2010 -- A man works on uncovering the remains of a child at the Bosque de Pomac archaeological complex in Lambayeque, Peru. Peruvian archaeologists believe the remains date back to a pre-Inca civilization that is more than 1,200 years old."

Revised theory of gravity doesn't predict a Big Bang

"The Big Bang theory has formed the basis of our understanding of the universe's origins since it was first proposed in 1927 by Georges Lemaitre. And for good reason: the theory is supported by scientists' latest observations and experiments, and is based on Einstein's widely accepted theory of general relativity. But scientists are always on the lookout for any evidence that might suggest an alternative to the Big Bang. The latest in this area of research comes from astrophysicists Maximo Banados and Pedro Ferreira, who have resurrected a theory of gravity from the early 20th century and discovered that a modified version of the theory may hold some surprises."

Fly's brain -- a high-speed computer: Neurobiologists use state-of-the-art methods to decode the basics of motion detection

"What would be the point of holding a soccer world championship if we couldn't distinguish the ball from its background? Simply unthinkable! But then again, wouldn't it be fantastic if your favourite team's striker could see the movements of the ball in slow motion! Unfortunately, this advantage only belongs to flies."

Oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem discovered

"A tiny clay fragment -- dating from the 14th century B.C.E. -- that was found in excavations outside Jerusalem's Old City walls contains the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem, say researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The find, believed to be part of a tablet from a royal archives, further testifies to the importance of Jerusalem as a major city in the Late Bronze Age, long before its conquest by King David, they say."

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Fibers that can hear and sing: Fibers created that detect and produce sound

"For centuries, 'man-made fibers' meant the raw stuff of clothes and ropes; in the information age, it's come to mean the filaments of glass that carry data in communications networks. But to Yoel Fink, an Associate professor of Materials Science and principal investigator at MIT's Research Lab of Electronics, the threads used in textiles and even optical fibers are much too passive. For the past decade, his lab has been working to develop fibers with ever more sophisticated properties, to enable fabrics that can interact with their environment."

Bridge to the quantum world: Darwinian concept of natural selection figures into theory about core of physical reality

"Science fiction has nothing over quantum physics when it comes to presenting us with a labyrinthine world that can twist your mind into knots when you try to make sense of it"

Zapping Titan-Like Atmosphere with UV Creates Life Precursors | Universe Today

"The first experimental evidence showing how atmospheric nitrogen can be incorporated into organic macromolecules is being reported by a University of Arizona team. The finding indicates what organic molecules might be found on Titan, the moon of Saturn that scientists think is a model for the chemistry of pre-life Earth.

Earth and Titan are the only known planetary-sized bodies that have thick, predominantly nitrogen atmospheres, said Hiroshi Imanaka, who conducted the research while a member of UA's chemistry and biochemistry department."

MIT, Harvard Researchers Create "Smart Sheets" That Can Self-Assemble Into Airplanes, Boats | Popular Science

"Scientists at MIT and Harvard have invented self-folding smart fiberglass sheets that can crease themselves into origami airplanes and boats.

It's a far cry from previous programmable matter research we've seen, which works at the nanoscale to create scaffolds and gears.

The fiberglass sheets are about a half-millimeter thick and made of half-inch-wide triangular tiles. They can be made at a larger scale, enabling machines that can fold, Transformer-like, into any number of objects.

Though the goal is to make large objects, the folding involves some nano-scale circuits. MIT computer scientist Daniela Rus embedded shape-memory strips, made of a nickel-titanium alloy, that were about 100 microns thick -- the width of a human hair. The sheets were also outfitted with stretchable copper-laminated plastic mesh, which served as wires."

Surfing mice: Australian trains rodent troupe - Telegraph

"Shane Wilmott, 39, hand crafts miniature mouse-sized replicas of real surf boards and teaches his amazing troupe of pet mice how to master them – on tiny wavelets near to shore."

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Quantum Entanglement May Hold DNA Together, New Study Says | Popular Science

"A new research paper brings new meaning to the joke that all science is just physics. A team of scientists at the National University of Singapore suggests that it is quantum entanglement that holds our DNA together.

It's hard to prove, but it would be a potentially explosive finding, as Technology Review explains.

In quantum entanglement, two objects are connected by an invisible wave, like an umbilical cord, that allows them to essentially share the same existence. When something happens to one object, it immediately happens to the other, no matter how far apart they are.

Elisabeth Rieper and colleagues at the National University of Singapore say this entanglement might prevent the DNA double helix from shaking itself apart."

Are We Going Back to the Moon? : Discovery News

"Between 1969 and 1972, Black Sabbath released four albums and astronauts landed on the moon six times, making it a pretty awesome time to be either a space enthusiast or a metal head. Yet while the Sabbath releases continued on into the mid-90s, missions to the moon abruptly ended.

Nearly 40 years have passed since Apollo 17, our last journey to the moon. Sure, President George W. Bush talked up a return trip, but President Obama's plans for NASA don't seem to include jaunts to the Sea of Tranquility.

So are we going back to the moon? You bet we are."

Ants Use Their Own Velcro to Catch Supersized Prey | Wired Science | Wired.com

"Long before Velcro was invented, a species of South American ant used its own natural form of the wonder material to hunt.

The claws of Azteca andreae are shaped like hooks and fit neatly into fibrous loops on the undersides of its home plants’ leaves.

It’s “like natural Velcro that is reinforced by the group ambush strategy of the workers, allowing them to capture prey of up to 13,350 times the mean weight of a single worker,” wrote researchers in a study published June 25 in PLoS One.

A. andreae colonies live in trees, and individual ants line the underside edges of leaves, jaws open and outstretched. When an insect lands, the ants seize its legs, holding it down until other ants dismember the pinioned prey."

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Battle of Bannockburn:

Robert the Bruce was the first king of Scotland. It was on this date in 1314 that he and his troops trounced the English soldiers led by Edward II, in the Battle of Bannockburn, achieving independence for Scotland.

June 23 – 24, 1314) Decisive battle in Scottish history, at which the Scots under Robert the Bruce (later Robert I) defeated the English under Edward II. The Scots were outnumbered three to one by the English soldiers, but they triumphed through masterly use of terrain, forcing the English onto a cramped, marshy battlefield with little room to maneuver. The English forces were put to flight, and many were slaughtered by the pursuing Scots. The victory cleared the last English troops from Scotland and secured Scottish independence, confirming Robert as king of the Scots.

Dino-holocaust linked to monster storm - LiveScience- msnbc.com

"Scientists have revealed what may be the world's largest dinosaur graveyard.

The dinosaurs may have been part of a mass die-off resulting from a monster storm, comparable to today's hurricanes, which struck what was then a coastal area."

Deuterium DIY: Man Builds Homemade Nuclear Fusion Reactor in Brooklyn | Popular Science

"Need a weekend project around the house? Mark Suppes, web developer by day, has built his own nuclear fusion reactor in a Brooklyn workspace. It kind of makes that project car you’ve got rusting in the garage seem lame by comparison.

Suppes' reactor – it’s about the size of an air conditioning unit with some extra bells and whistles attached – isn’t the answer to the world’s energy problems, at least not yet. He joins a list of 37 others recognized by the online community Fusor.net as having achieved homemade fusion (among them is a 15-year-old in Michigan). But his reactor is unique in the sense that it sits smack in America’s most densely populated city, and one in which the very word “nuclear” causes discomfort."

Raging Storm Detected on Faraway World : Discovery News

"Think your weather is bad? Try living on HD 209458b, a Jupiter-like world orbiting a star 150 light-years away, where, in addition to searing temperatures, a killer wind blasts through the atmosphere at speeds up to 6,200 miles per hour.

The uber-storm stems from the planet's blindingly close and rotationally synched orbit around its parent star. Located about eight times closer to its sun than Mercury is to ours, the planet reaches about 1,000 degrees Celsius, or 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit, on its sun-facing side -- hot enough to melt brass.

The planet's perpetual night side is much cooler, an imbalance that keeps gases in the atmosphere constantly moving."

Brain signs of schizophrenia found in babies

"Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental disorder affecting one in 100 people worldwide. Most cases aren't detected until a person starts experiencing symptoms like delusions and hallucinations as a teenager or adult. By that time, the disease has often progressed so far that it can be difficult to treat."

BBC News - Neutrino 'ghost particle' sized up by astronomers

"Scientists have made their most accurate measurement yet of the mass of a mysterious neutrino particle.

Neutrinos are sometimes known as 'ghost particles' because they interact so weakly with other forms of matter.

Previous experiments had shown that neutrinos have a mass, but it was so tiny that it was very hard to measure.

Using data from the largest ever survey of galaxies, researchers put the mass of a neutrino at no greater than 0.28 electron volts.

This is less than a billionth of the mass of a single hydrogen atom, the scientists say.

Their nickname is fitting: a neutrino is capable of passing through a light-year (about six trillion miles) of lead without hitting a single atom."

7th-graders discover mysterious cave on Mars - Space.com- msnbc.com

"California 7th graders discovered this Martian pit feature at the center of the superimposed red square in this image while participating in a program that enables students to use the camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. The feature, on the slope of an equatorial volcano named Pavonis Mons, appears to be a skylight in an underground lava tube."

Revealed: The stunning green glow of the Southern Lights photographed by astronauts from ABOVE | Mail Online

"Like a green ribbon snaking its way out into space this stunning image shows the famous Southern Lights from a rather unusual angle - above.

Taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), this picture shows the aurora australis against the backdrop of Earth's horizon.

These ever-shifting displays are most visible near the North (aurora borealis) and South (aurora australis) Poles."

Technology Review: Nanotubes Give Batteries a Jolt

A lithium-ion battery with a positive electrode made of carbon nanotubes delivers 10 times more power than a conventional battery and can store five times more energy than a conventional ultracapacitor. The nanotube battery technology, developed by researchers at MIT and licensed to an undisclosed battery company, could mean batteries that extend the range of electric vehicles and provide longer periods without recharging for electronic gadgets, including smartphones.

ScienceShot: Unraveling the Secrets of Rogue Waves - ScienceNOW

They're the stuff of sea captains' nightmares—giant waves barreling in seemingly from out of nowhere to capsize or swamp even the largest vessels or offshore drilling platforms. What creates these elusive monsters? In a new paper to be published in Physical Review Letters, researchers use a computer model to simulate a rogue wave's birth and propagation. Two or more small waves, driven forward by strong currents, and at the same time resisted by powerful headwinds, suddenly combine and amplify their height into a single, giant wave. Once formed, the wave structure stabilizes itself and concentrates its energy in one direction. That enables it to travel many kilometers before breaking up, typically when either the driving currents or headwinds subside. Along the way, anyone unfortunate enough to be sitting in the wave's path is bound to remember the experience."

Wet Past For Red Planet - Science News

"Mars was once a water world, concludes a new study that dives into the controversy over whether an ocean covered much of the Red Planet’s northern hemisphere early in its history.

Ever since researchers found hints in the late 1980s that Mars’ northern lowlands are ringed by what appears to be a dried-up shoreline, planetary scientists have debated whether the region was covered by water about 3.5 billion years ago. Now, Gaetano Di Achille and Brian Hynek of the University of Colorado in Boulder have analyzed spacecraft data to find that 29 of 52 dry river deltas and thousands of river valleys within and surrounding the northern lowlands all lie at about the same elevation. That’s just what would be expected if a sea once blanketed the region, leaving behind a level coastline, the researchers report online June 13 in Nature Geoscience."

Shining light around corners: Scientists explore new method for curving 'Airy' light beams

"We learned in science class that light beams travel in straight lines and spread through a process known as diffraction -- and they can't go around corners. But now researchers at Tel Aviv University are investigating new applications for their recent discovery that small beams of light can indeed be bent in a laboratory setting, diffracting much less than a 'regular' beam."

Highly efficient solar cells could result from quantum dot research

Conventional solar cell efficiency could be increased from the current limit of 30 percent to more than 60 percent, suggests new research on semiconductor nanocrystals, or quantum dots, led by chemist Xiaoyang Zhu at The University of Texas at Austin.

New laser shoots beams of night - Innovation- msnbc.com

"A laser that doesn't produce light would ordinarily be a failure. After all, the first two letters of laser stand for light amplification, not light reduction.

But a new laser created by scientists at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology and JILA, a joint institute of NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder, shoots beams of night instead of beams of light. The 'dark pulses,' as the NIST scientists ominously call them, create areas absent of light."

BBC News - Solar plane set for night flight

A solar-powered plane is getting ready to hit the skies once again - this time, at night.

It will be the first ever manned night flight on a plane propelled exclusively by solar energy.

Solar Impulse will lift off from an airfield in Switzerland, on a sunny day sometime at the end of June.

It will then fly around, charging the solar cells on the plane's wings, in a bid to store enough energy for the electric motors to last until dawn.

The aim of the project's founders, Andre Borschberg and round-the-world balloonist Bertrand Piccard, is to show that a solar-powered craft is able to fly day and night - and eventually long-distance flights - without any fuel."

Scientists to analyse Ozzy Osbourne's blood to find out why he is still alive | Mail Online

"He has spent much of his adult live either on drugs, drunk, or both.

Now scientists are going to analyse Ozzy Osbourne’s body to see how he has managed to survive for so long.

US company Knome are going to run a full analysis on the ex-Black Sabbath frontman’s genome to find out why some people can live a life of extreme excess while others can not."

Will Synthetic Biology Lead to Truly Living Buildings? | Buildings | GreenBiz.com

"The revolution, it appears, has arrived. We’ve been slow to see it coming. Like the swift lower reaches of a river, its placid public surface has belied the force below.

The recent announcement from Craig Venter that his team at Synthetic Genomics has designed and grown an entirely new type of bacteria cell (the world’s first artificial life form) has changed that. This revolution will now be televised, making synthetic biology a permanent part of our cultural consciousness."

An Off-Switch for Cancer? : Discovery News

"Wouldn't it be great if getting rid of cancer was as simple as flicking a switch?

Well, it might be.

A professor from Tel Aviv University thinks he may have uncovered a way to do just that when he identified a 'switch' in plants that halts tumor growth.

The results are published online in the journal Current Biology."

Single-molecule devices can serve as powerful new science tools

"With controlled stretching of molecules, Cornell researchers have demonstrated that single-molecule devices can serve as powerful new tools for fundamental science experiments. Their work has resulted in detailed tests of long-existing theories on how electrons interact at the nanoscale."

Life on Mars? Britain's space agency vows to find it | Mail Online

"Britain's new space agency is to spearhead a search for life on Mars, it was announced today.

The UK Space Agency is providing 10.5 million to develop life-seeking instruments for an advanced Martian rover.

ExoMars is due to land on the Red Planet in 2018 as part of a joint European and US mission."

Virgin space tourists could be launched from Scotland by 2015 | Mail Online

"An RAF base in Scotland could be launching tourists into space by 2015, it has been revealed today.

Sir Richard Branson’s UK Space Agency has identified Lossiemouth as the ‘ideal’ location from where a spaceflight would take off.

Will Whitehorn, the Virgin Galactic president, said the company is pressing for changes to legislation in Britain which does not permit commercial flights."

Tiny insect brains capable of huge feats

"Insects may have tiny brains the size of a pinhead, but the latest research from the University of Adelaide shows just how clever they really are."

Earth and Moon formed later than previously thought, new research suggests

"Astronomers have theorized that the planet Earth and the Moon were created as the result of a giant collision between two planets the size of Mars and Venus. Until now, the collision was thought to have happened when the solar system was 30 million years old, or approximately 4,537 million years ago. But new research shows that Earth and the Moon must have formed much later -- perhaps up to 150 million years after the formation of the solar system."

Incredible slow-motion picture as golf ball flattens as it hits steel plate at 150mph | Mail Online

"It looks like a rubber ball that has been squashed after being flung at a wall.

But these images actually show what happens during a high speed impact - to a golf ball.

The slow motion close-up of the smash reveals the incredible forces at play when a golf ball is fired at a piece of steel at 150mph."

Skeletons of 80 gladiators slaughtered for the crowds unearthed in York | Mail Online

"Slaughtered in the arena by tigers, or killed by a hammer blow from a fellow fighter, they died to entertain bloodthirsty crowds.

Such a savage spectacle is mostly associated with ancient Rome, but historians believe they have uncovered an entire cemetery of gladiators in the North of England.

The 2,000-year-old remains of almost 80 young men, mutilated by horrific injuries, were found by archaeologists as they excavated a residential area of York."

Copper nanowires enable bendable displays and solar cells; Pin-like copper structures self-assemble in solution

"A team of Duke University chemists has perfected a simple way to make tiny copper nanowires in quantity. The cheap conductors are small enough to be transparent, making them ideal for thin-film solar cells, flat-screen TVs and computers, and flexible displays.flexible displays.ible displays.

'Imagine a foldable iPad,' said Benjamin Wiley, an assistant professor of chemistry at Duke. His team reports its findings online in Advanced Materials.

Nanowires made of copper perform better than carbon nanotubes, and are much cheaper than silver nanowires, Wiley said.

The latest flat-panel TVs and computer screens produce images by an array of electronic pixels connected by a transparent conductive layer made from indium tin oxide (ITO). ITO is also used as a transparent electrode in thin-film
solar cells."

Mycenaean tombs discovered might be evidence of classless society - News, Archaeology - The Independent

"A team of archaeologists have unearthed five chamber tombs at Ayia Sotira, a cemetery in the Nemea Valley in Greece, just a few hours walk from the ancient city of Mycenae. The tombs date from 1350 – 1200 BC, the era in which Mycenae thrived as a major centre of Greek civilization.

They contain the remains of 21 individuals who probably came from Tsoungiza, an agricultural settlement close to the ancient city. Despite the significant human remains, however, the team have found no evidence of elite burials, prompting speculation that Tsoungiza may have been an egalitarian society without leaders."

Top 10 Minoan Treasures to See at the British Museum | Heritage Key

"With Bettany Hughes' documentary 'Atlantis: The Evidence' set to premire on BBC Two, what better way to prepare than to explore the Aegean Bronze Age treasures of the British Museum? If the Minoan civilisation was indeed home to the Atlantis legend, what better way to get to know the Atlanteans than through what they left behind? And, lets face it, visiting London's most famous museum is far easier than getting a permit to dig beneath the sphinx. ;)"

Optical Legos: Building nanoshell structures

"Imagine creating novel devices with amazing and exotic optical properties not found in Nature—by simply evaporating a droplet of particles on a surface."