Joem # 6. Tough gel stretches to 21 times its length, recoils, and heals itself. Did Bacteria Fuel World's Worst Extinction? SAN FRANCISCO — Nickel-eating bacteria may have worsened the world's worst mass die-off by producing huge amounts of methane, a new study suggests.
The study is the latest attempt to explain how most of the world's ocean species died off in just a few hundred thousand years at the end of the Permian era, about 250 million years ago. The researchers presented their findings Tuesday (Dec. 4) here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The study proposes that a series of steps caused the mass extinction, but that bacteria played a key role.
First, massive volcanic activity in Siberia released nickel into the atmosphere, which somehow reached the ocean. The downside of warp drives: Annihilating whole star systems when you arrive. The Gaza Strip Cyber War. As military strikes between Israel and Gaza continued with the deaths of 11 Palestinian civilians on Sunday, a complicated internet battlefront has appeared.
A virtual info-war is just beginning, and it exists on multiple fronts. There is an unprecedentedly transparent wave of social media propaganda by both sides, a fairly predictable backlash of Israeli website defacement from Anonymous, and an effort to bring open internet access for civilians affected by the strikes from a group called Telecomix. On Wednesday, the IDF released an infographic-filled video describing the methods the IDF uses (phone calls and precision strikes) to minimize civilian casualties. The IDF is also live-tweeting the strikes on Gaza using their shiny new Twitter account, @IDFSpokesperson.
The Twitter feed for Al Qassam, the military branch of Hamas, has responded by tweeting numerous photos of dead children killed by Israeli strikes. The Telecomix logo. @patrickmcguire. Mystery of Mass Squid 'Suicides' Possibly Solved - Yahoo! Weather. Thousands of jumbo squid have beached themselves on central California shores this week, committing mass "suicide.
" But despite decades of study into the phenomenon in which the squid essentially fling themselves onto shore, the cause of these mass beachings have been a mystery. But a few intriguing clues suggest poisonous algae that form so-called red tides may be intoxicating the Humboldt squid and causing the disoriented animals to swim ashore in Monterey Bay, said William Gilly, a marine biologist at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, Calif.
Each of the strandings has corresponded to a red tide, in which algae bloom and release an extremely potent brain toxin, Gilly said. Dark Matter Direct Detection Experiments. The hiding spots for the particles making up dark matter are narrowing, and the answer to this cosmic mystery could come within the next three or four years, scientists say.
Dark matter is an elusive substance that is invisible and almost never detected, except by its gravitational pull. Yet astronomers say it likely makes up a quarter of the entire universe and dwarfs the amount of normal matter (galaxies, stars and planets) out there in space. Just last week, particle physics discovery from the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland cast doubt on a theory called supersymmetry, which predicts the existence of particles that are among the leading candidates for dark matter. That finding limited the types of supersymmetric particles that can exist, but didn't take the supersymmetry explanation off the table completely. And supersymmetric particles are just one of a number of theorized particles that might account for dark matter. NASA Deep-Space Outpost Could Lead to Mars. Sending astronauts to a deep-space outpost beyond the moon's far side could help lay the groundwork for more ambitious manned missions to Mars, some researchers say.
Such a lunar effort would take humanity farther from Earth than it's ever been before, allowing scientists and engineers to work their way up to even more distant targets such as asteroids and Mars in a stepwise fashion, advocates say. "It's a really good way to basically dip your toes in deep space," Josh Hopkins, a space exploration architect for Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, said during a Nov. 14 presentation with NASA's Future In-Space Operations working group.
Beyond the lunar far side NASA is apparently thinking seriously about launching astronauts to Earth-moon L2, a spot in space beyond the moon's far side. Astronauts could survive radiation on Mars, scientists say. Astronauts could survive the elevated radiation levels on the surface… (NASA ) Astronauts on a future mission to Mars could survive radiation levels on the Red Planet's surface, according to a NASA expert.
At a recent press briefing, the scientist in charge of monitoring radiation data collected by the Curiosity Mars rover said energy levels on the planet's surface fluctuate with time of day and the season but are roughly equivalent to what astronauts experience now in the International Space Station. Norway Seas Get Darker, Welcome Jellyfish Blooms.
Many of Norway's frigid fjords are turning murky thanks to an influx of freshwater, and darker seas could result in fewer fish and more jellyfish, researchers say.
Freshwater flowing from rivers and lakes brings high concentrations of colored organic matter to seawater, making it less salty and more opaque. While scientists believe this has been happening in Norwegian coastal waters gradually over many decades, darkening has increased recently likely due to warming — higher temperatures mean more precipitation, which leads to more murky freshwater flowing out and mixing with the sea. Darker waters block the light needed for some algae to photosynthesize to make food and grow; the changes in visibility may also hurt predatory fish that rely on sight to find their prey. GP-B — Spacetime & Spin. The Many Faces of Spin Many of nature's deepest mysteries come in threes.
Why does space have three spatial dimensions (ones that we can see, anyway)? Why are there three fundamental dimensions in physics (mass M, length L and time T)? Why three fundamental constants in nature (Newton's gravitational constant G, the speed of light c and Planck's constant h)? World Changing Ideas 2012. Fossilized Raindrops May Help Resolve Early Earth Paradox. I want to get off this planet! – Group at Last.fm. Climate Scientists Applaud Dire World Bank Report.
Climate scientists who have been warning of the dangerous effects of global warming now have the World Bank on their side, after a new report from that organization calling for action to prevent climate catastrophe.
"The World Bank did a great service to society by issuing this report," said Michael Mann, a climate researcher at Pennsylvania State University and the author of "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars" (Columbia University Press, 2012). Climate deniers often claim that solutions to global warming are part of a "global socialist agenda," Mann told LiveScience. "The fact that the World Bank — an entity committed to free market capitalism — has weighed in on the threat of climate change and the urgency of acting to combat it, puts the nail in the coffin of that claim," he said. Super-Earths Get Magnetic 'Shield' from Liquid Metal. Within supersized alien versions of Earth, a common transparent ceramic may become a flowing liquid metal, perhaps granting those distant worlds magnetic fields to shield life from harmful radiation, researchers say.
The Puniest Planet; The New Truth About Wormholes. Your 3D Mini-Me - Up to 8 Inches Tall - Awaits. Just in time for the annual holiday family portrait, designers in Japan have come up with a unique alternative to standard prints: miniature action figures of the family. Gone are the days of photo sessions requiring nothing more than a still camera and lights. Direction of Time Fuzzy for Subatomic Particles. Subatomic particles don't care if time moves forward or backward — it's all the same to them. But now physicists have found proof of one theorized exception to this rule.
Usually, time is symmetrical for particles, meaning events happen the same way if time progresses forward or backward. X Chief Eyes Huge Mars Colony. Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and CEO of the private spaceflight company SpaceX, wants to help establish a Mars colony of up to 80,000 people by ferrying explorers to the Red Planet for perhaps $500,000 a trip. In Musk's vision, the ambitious Mars settlement program would start with a pioneering group of fewer than 10 people, who would journey to the Red Planet aboard a huge reusable rocket powered by liquid oxygen and methane.
3D-Printing a Low-Cost Satellite. Seeking a low-cost way to launch their experiments into space, a team of scientists has designed a space-ready, 3-D printed CubeSat. Wax-filled nanotech yarn behaves like powerful, super-strong muscle. New artificial muscles made from nanotech yarns and infused with paraffin wax can lift more than 100,000 times their own weight and generate 85 times more mechanical power than the same size natural muscle, according to scientists at The University of Texas at Dallas and their international team from Australia, China, South Korea, Canada and Brazil.
How Rare Black Dahlias Get Their Color. Universe Grows Like A Brain. The universe may grow like a giant brain, according to a new computer simulation. The results, published Nov.16 in the journal Nature's Scientific Reports, suggest that some undiscovered, fundamental laws may govern the growth of systems large and small, from the electrical firing between brain cells and growth of social networks to the expansion of galaxies. Pluto Atmosphere Larger Than Thought, Study Shows. University lectures physics. Balloon Test Shows Space Tourism on the Horizon.
Not all space tourism is rocket science. Atom Smasher Creates New Kind of Matter. Collisions between particles inside the Large Hadron Collider atom smasher have created what looks like a new form of matter. Periodic Table of the Elements. Physics. Solar Energy: Stanford scientists build the first all-carbon solar cell. Ring of antimatter surrounds the Earth.
New Satellite Will Be Space Mechanic, Gas Station. Earth's Radiation Belts More Dynamic Than Thought, New Probes Find. Brown Dwarf Stars Could Host Earth-Size Planets, Study Finds. US Military Seeks to Turn Planes into Satellite Launchers. Mysterious Gravity Waves May Explain Clear-Skies Turbulence. So just what is out there beyond the Standard Model? Phew! Universe's Constant Has Stayed Constanty. Dark matter scaffolding of universe detected for the first time. GRAIL creates most accurate Moon gravity map. Plasmas have healing powers. [1107.4882] The discovery of geomagnetically trapped cosmic ray antiprotons. New Foam-Like Fabric Lets Sunshine In…and Keeps Road Noise Out. 'Luci' Inflatable Lamp Lights Up Places Off the Grid. 'Luci' Inflatable Lamp Lights Up Places Off the Grid.
Is Russia's Robotic Space Program Headed for a Renaissance? U.S Group Strikes Deal to Use Chinese Moon Lander for Space Research. New diamond aerogel is so light that it's like "frozen smoke" made of diamonds. Developers selling ‘dragonfly’ robotic drone for about $100. Potentially Habitable Planet Detected Around Nearby Star. Chinese Spacecraft Flies by Asteroid Toutatis. 7 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life. Clues Point to Volcanoes Erupting on Venus. Killer Cave May Have Inspired Myth of Hades. Mars Mountains Look Frosty in New Images. Brown Dwarf Stars Could Host Earth-Size Planets, Study Finds. Mercury's Water Ice Bodes Well for Alien Life Search. Super-Dense Neutron Star Is Fastest Ever Seen. Lockheed Martin Provides Plan/Rationale for Earth/Moon L2 Deep Space Station. Robots Assemble for Military's $2 Million Challenge. Microwave Missile Test Targets Electronics, Not People. World's Largest Telescope to Crown European Observatory's 50-Year History.
10 Worst Internet Laws In the World. Why Not Let All the States Secede From the US? Bursts Provide Insight to Theory of Everything. Spider Silk May Act as Pest Repellent. Space Bursts Provide Insight to Theory of Everything. How to Get High in the Future: A Pharmacopeia of Speculative Drugs. Writing Messages With Water. Dumb and Dumber: Study Says Humans Are Slowly Losing Their Smarts.
'Islam is like Nazism': top Sweden Democrat. 19th-Century Shipwrecks Discovered Off Israel's Coast. Global Warming Action Must Happen Soon: Scientist. Lab-Made Genes Appear in Rivers. Mind-Control Parasites Hijacks Immune System, Too. Hagfish Slime Makes Silken Threads. Polar Ice Loss Accelerating, Study Finds. Intelligence Genes Found. NASA's Deep-Space Station Lacks White House Approval.
Artificial Brain Mimics Human Abilities and Flaws. Opo1210d.jpeg (JPEG Image, 1280 × 823 pixels) - Scaled (67%) New Treatment for Box Jellyfish Stings Discovered. Catfish learning to hunt pigeons on land (VIDEO) Can humans regrow fingers?" VIDEO: Disney Designs a Robot That Can Play Catch. Why People May Be the Biggest Roadblock for Interstellar Travel. Crime In The U.S.A. Ancient ‘hobbit’ is revealed. Older Adults Welcome Robots Help with Chores. Four African Teenage Girls Create a Pee-Powered Generator.
Where to See America's Greatest Spaceships (Infographic) Can Slamming a Spaceship into an Asteroid Save Earth? Mars Cave-Exploration Mission Entices Scientists. Olfaction & Olfactory White. A Recyclable, Paper USB Drive. Private Moon Race May Spark Lunar 'Water Rush' Mercedes Ener-G-Force concept imagines the SUV of 2025. Jellyfish-Inspired Tentacles Capture Cancer.