SCIENCES
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What is a transit of Venus? When Venus passes directly between earth and the sun, we see the distant planet as a small dot gliding slowly across the face of the sun. Historically, this rare alignment is how we measured the size of our solar system.
Transit of Venus .org
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Magnitude 5.3 - RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
Walk up to Lancelot Encore, and he gently crosses his paws. It’s one way the golden Labrador retriever mirrors his predecessor, the late Sir Lancelot. This Lancelot is a doggie double. Owners Nina and Edgar Otto of West Boca Raton had their beloved dog cloned after it died of cancer in 2008 — and will talk about their experience in a TLC show, I Cloned My Pet , airing at 10 p.m. Monday.
couple-from-west-boca-raton-clones
Lesson Plan | 'Hunger Games' Science: Investigating Genetically Engineered Organisms
Overview | What lessons can we learn about genetically engineered organisms from the example of the jabberjay, a fictional bird in the movie “The Hunger Games”? In this lesson, students discuss the definition of genetically modified organisms, learn about the risks and benefits of research on G.M.O.’s, explore the growing do-it-yourself biology movement, and develop proposals seeking to either restrict or permit research into genetically modifying the avian flu virus. In the movie “The Hunger Games,” the Capitol (a term used to refer to what we would call the government) produced genetically enhanced birds called jabberjays to spy on rebels. Unexpectedly, these birds bred with mockingbirds, creating a new hybrid bird called the mockingjay.
Our atmosphere is filling up with CO 2 and we seem to be the major cause of that. The generally accepted solution seems to be cutting back on emissions as quickly as possible, but implementing such cuts is problematic because everyone has to agree to do more, which essentially ends up costing a lot of time and money. There is an alternative to such measures, though. Instead of relying entirely on cutting emissions, why don’t we start taking CO 2 out of the atmosphere? That’s exactly what biochemist Pierre Calleja is trying to do, and his solution almost sounds too good to be true. Calleja has developed a lighting system that requires no electricity for power.
Biochemist creates CO2-eating light that runs on algae
Magnitude 5.2 - PAPUA, INDONESIA
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American students' performance on international assessments of precollege science achievement has for some time been nothing to be proud of, and there are few signs of the picture improving. Even worse for the long-term prognosis, we don't seem able to get enough young students hooked on science, either as worthy of their attention because of its intrinsic interest or as a potential career path. Meanwhile, the design of new K-12 common standards for science is well along, with a draft due out later this month, as contributors continue to debate exactly what belongs in the curriculum. A frequently heard concern of science educators is that the "mile-wide and inch-deep" curriculum tries to cover too much ground and would have greater impact if we focused on teaching fewer topics well.
Education Week: Hooking Kids on Science
Whether you’re using wireless internet in a coffee shop, stealing it from the guy next door, or competing for bandwidth at a conference, you’ve probably gotten frustrated at the slow speeds you face when more than one device is tapped into the network. As more and more people—and their many devices—access wireless internet, clogged airwaves are going to make it increasingly difficult to latch onto a reliable signal. But radio waves are just one part of the spectrum that can carry our data.
» Forget WiFi, Connect to the Internet Through Lightbulbs Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!
Greek science on the brink : Nature News & Comment
“We are trying to survive and go along as if nothing is happening,” says Dimitra Thomaidou, a microscopist at the Hellenic Pasteur Institute in Athens. Despite Greece's financial crisis, optimism was the prevailing mood at last month's meeting of the Hellenic Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Athens, where Thomaidou coordinated a session. Meeting attendance was at a record high, and chat was full of references to fancy equipment purchases and Greek success in winning participation in European research-infrastructure programmes.
Imagine a drug that helps you study for a maths exam, or one that enhances memory in Alzheimer's sufferers. Australian scientists are in the race to develop such 'smart' drugs through research into neurotransmitters – the chemical messengers that convey impulses between neurons. They are also at the forefront of research on how imbalances in the cocktail of brain chemicals cause mental illnesses and even drug addiction. What neurotransmitters do
