Swarm reveals Earth's changing magnetism (Phys.org) —The first set of high-resolution results from ESA's three-satellite Swarm constellation reveals the most recent changes in the magnetic field that protects our planet. Launched in November 2013, Swarm is providing unprecedented insights into the complex workings of Earth's magnetic field, which safeguards us from the bombarding cosmic radiation and charged particles. Measurements made over the past six months confirm the general trend of the field's weakening, with the most dramatic declines over the Western Hemisphere. But in other areas, such as the southern Indian Ocean, the magnetic field has strengthened since January. The latest measurements also confirm the movement of magnetic North towards Siberia. These changes are based on the magnetic signals stemming from Earth's core. This will provide new insight into many natural processes, from those occurring deep inside our planet to space weather triggered by solar activity. Explore further: Swarm's precise sense of magnetism
How Vital Is a Planet's Magnetic Field? New Debate | Earth & Magnetic Field, Space Weather | Mars, Venus, Solar Wind Our nearest planetary neighbors, Mars and Venus, have no oceans or lakes or rivers. Some researchers have speculated that they were blown dry by the solar wind, and that our Earth escaped this fate because its strong magnetic field deflects the wind. However, a debate has arisen over whether a magnetic field is any kind of shield at all. The controversy stems from recent observations that show Mars and Venus are losing oxygen ions from their atmospheres into space at about the same rate as Earth. "My opinion is that the magnetic shield hypothesis is unproven," said Robert Strangeway from UCLA. Each of the three planets is losing roughly a ton of atmosphere to space every hour. "The problem is in taking today's rates and trying to guess what was happening billions of years ago," explained Janet Luhmann of the University of California, Berkeley. "People aren't putting all the cards on the table," Luhmann said. The Earth's magnetosphere deflects some of the solar wind. Solar variability
Introducing the Vacuum Transistor: A Device Made of Nothing In September 1976, in the midst of the Cold War, Victor Ivanovich Belenko, a disgruntled Soviet pilot, veered off course from a training flight over Siberia in his MiG-25 Foxbat, flew low and fast across the Sea of Japan, and landed the plane at a civilian airport in Hokkaido with just 30 seconds of fuel remaining. His dramatic defection was a boon for U.S. military analysts, who for the first time had an opportunity to examine up close this high-speed Soviet fighter, which they had thought to be one of the world’s most capable aircraft. What they discovered astonished them. For one thing, the airframe was more crudely built than those of contemporary U.S. fighters, being made mostly of steel rather than titanium. After all, in the United States vacuum tubes had given way to smaller and less power-hungry solid-state devices two decades earlier, not long after William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain cobbled together the first transistor at Bell Laboratories in 1947.
Human Genetic Engineering Pros And Cons Human Genetic Engineering Pros And Cons 4.17/5 (83.45%) 493 votes Many human genetic engineering pros and cons are there that have stayed the same since its introduction to humanity. When the humans started harnessing the atomic powers, then just few years later they also start recognizing the effects of human genetic engineering on mankind. Many scientists have a belief that gene therapy can be a mainstream for saving lives of many people. A lot of human genetic engineering pros and cons have been involved since the evolution of genetic engineering. Mentioned below are some important advantages or pros of genetic engineering: With the help of gene therapy our scientists can easily detect the humans or other resources that have greater chances of getting stuck into hereditary or deadly diseases.A lot of diseases are there that have no cure, so the invention of genetic engineering in medical sciences can result as a cure to several deadly diseases.
Pesticide exposure in pregnancy linked to autism risk in kids Pregnant women who live within a mile of spaces where commercial pesticides are applied appear to have an increased risk of having a child with autism, a new study suggests. The risk that a child would develop autism appeared to be highest for women who lived near farms, golf courses and other public spaces that were treated with pesticides during the last three months of their pregnancies. "Many of these compounds work on neurons. When they work on the insect, they're dealing with the nervous system of the insect and basically incapacitating it," said study author Irva Hertz-Picciotto, an environmental epidemiologist at the MIND Institute at University of California, Davis. In adults, the brain is protected from many chemical exposures thanks to special filters that prevent many substances from crossing from the blood into the brain. Because the study looked back in time, researchers weren't able to collect blood or urine samples to directly measure pesticide exposures.
The Toxins of William B. Coley and the Treatment of Bone and Soft-Tissue Sarcomas Huge Medical Marijuana Study Reference List (700+) | Youngstown Cannabis News What we have come across has got to be one of the biggest list of studies for cannabis ever. This PDF contains links to over 700 studies varied by disease. It is simply massive. Well, here I am again, staring at this blank screen, trying to figure out what to say so you will share the information I have gathered. Survey finds 97% climate science papers agree warming is man-made | Dana Nuccitelli | Environment Our team of citizen science volunteers at Skeptical Science has published a new survey in the journal Environmental Research Letters of over 12,000 peer-reviewed climate science papers, as the Guardian reports today. This is the most comprehensive survey of its kind, and the inspiration of this blog's name: Climate Consensus – the 97%. The survey In 2004, Naomi Oreskes performed a survey of 928 peer-reviewed climate papers published between 1993 and 2003, finding none that rejected the human cause of global warming. We decided that it was time to expand upon Oreskes' work by performing a keyword search of peer-reviewed scientific journal publications for the terms 'global warming' and 'global climate change' between the years 1991 and 2011. We decided from the start to take a conservative approach in our ratings. Each paper was rated by at least two people, and a dozen volunteers completed most of the 24,000 ratings. The results Why is this important? This campaign has been successful.
Huge Magma Pocket Lurks Beneath Yellowstone Supervolcano The magma reservoir lurking beneath a dormant supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park far exceeds past estimates of its size, a new analysis shows. (See also "Yellowstone Supervolcano Discovery—Where Will It Erupt?") "We found it to be about two-and-a-half times larger than we thought," said analysis team scientist James Farrell of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The size finding, presented at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco last Thursday, has big implications for the extent of the volcano's impact when it next erupts. The supervolcano underneath the national park last erupted on a massive scale some 640,000 years ago, according to the U.S. "We believe it will erupt again someday, but we have no idea when," Farrell said. More Magma Measured Yellowstone National Park is located in a very seismically active region and experiences between 1,500 to 2,000 earthquakes a year. "Seismic waves travel slower through molten material," Farrell said.
Scientists Have Simulated Time Travel With Photons Looks like time travel is possible... for particles of light. Using a photon, physicists have managed to simulate quantum particles traveling through time. Studying the photon’s behavior could help scientists understand some inexplicable aspects of modern physics. "The question of time travel features at the interface between two of our most successful yet incompatible physical theories -- Einstein's general relativity and quantum mechanics," University of Queensland’s Martin Ringbauer says in a news release. Time slows down or speeds up depending on how fast you move relative to another object. In a quantum regime, the authors say, the paradox of time travel can be resolved, leaving closed timelike curves consistent with relativity. Pictured above, a space-time structure exhibiting closed paths in space (horizontal) and time (vertical). The work was published in Nature Communications this week. [Via University of Queensland] Image: Martin Ringbauer
Scientists Found a Genetic Switch to Reverse Aging in Neurons Another day, another step towards that elusive fountain of youth—thanks, this time, to a new study that claims scientists have effectively reversed the effects of aging in neurons. Just last week, a study out of Italy revealed that neurons—specifically mouse neurons—could live much longer than usual when transplanted into a longer-living organism. Or, as we put it here at Motherboard, that “Brain Cells May Live Longer When Not Tied to Their Weakling, Mortal Flesh.” Brain cells, the study suggested, don’t have built-in expiration dates like the rest of our cells. But what good is a brain that lives forever if that brain is an old fuddy duddy? According to a study published this week in the journal, Neuron, researchers at the Yale School of Medicine isolated a gene in mice that allowed them to reverse that change. Aside from what this does to advance Ray Kurzweil’s theory that human immortality is only 40 years away, the research has more promising, immediate implications.
Sonoluminescence Single-bubble sonoluminescence - A single, cavitating bubble. Video of synthetic wound cavity collapsing creating sonoluminescence. Long exposure image of multi-bubble sonoluminescence created by a high-intensity ultrasonic horn immersed in a beaker of liquid History[edit] The sonoluminescence effect was first discovered at the University of Cologne in 1934 as a result of work on sonar. In 1989 an experimental advance was introduced by Felipe Gaitan and Lawrence Crum, who produced stable single-bubble sonoluminescence (SBSL). Properties[edit] Sonoluminescence can occur when a sound wave of sufficient intensity induces a gaseous cavity within a liquid to collapse quickly. Some facts about sonoluminescence: Rayleigh–Plesset equation[edit] The dynamics of the motion of the bubble is characterized to a first approximation by the Rayleigh-Plesset equation (named after Lord Rayleigh and Milton Plesset): Mechanism of phenomenon[edit] In 2002, M. Other proposals[edit] Quantum explanations[edit] [edit]
Fluid Experiments Support Deterministic “Pilot-Wave” Quantum Theory For nearly a century, “reality” has been a murky concept. The laws of quantum physics seem to suggest that particles spend much of their time in a ghostly state, lacking even basic properties such as a definite location and instead existing everywhere and nowhere at once. Only when a particle is measured does it suddenly materialize, appearing to pick its position as if by a roll of the dice. This idea that nature is inherently probabilistic — that particles have no hard properties, only likelihoods, until they are observed — is directly implied by the standard equations of quantum mechanics. The experiments involve an oil droplet that bounces along the surface of a liquid. Particles at the quantum scale seem to do things that human-scale objects do not do. To some researchers, the experiments suggest that quantum objects are as definite as droplets, and that they too are guided by pilot waves — in this case, fluid-like undulations in space and time. Magical Measurements Riding Waves
Perovskite Perovskite (pronunciation: pe'ɹovskaɪt) is a calcium titanium oxide mineral species composed of calcium titanate, with the chemical formula CaTiO3. The mineral was discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia by Gustav Rose in 1839 and is named after Russian mineralogist Lev Perovski (1792–1856).[1] Occurrence[edit] Perovskite is found in contact carbonate skarns at Magnet Cove, Arkansas. It occurs in altered blocks of limestone ejected from Mount Vesuvius. Special characteristics[edit] The stability of perovskite in igneous rocks is limited by its reaction relation with sphene. Physical properties[edit] Perovskites have a cubic structure with general formula of ABO3. t=(RA+RO)/(√2 (RB+RO)) where RA, RB and RO are the ionic radii of A and B site elements and oxygen, respectively. Layered perovskites[edit] Perovskites may be structured in layers, with the above ABO3 structure separated by thin sheets of intrusive material. Geologic occurrence[edit] Discovery and name[edit] See also[edit]