Submission + - American Scientists Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry (cbsnews.com)
SchrodingerZ writes: "Two Americans have won the 2012 Nobel prize in Chemistry for their work in cell research. Their work involves the discovery and manipulation of the G-protein-coupled receptors, which detect signals outside the of cells they inhabit. 'The human body has about 1,000 kinds of such receptors, which enable it to respond to a wide variety of chemical signals, like adrenaline. Some receptors are in the nose, tongue and eyes, and let us sense smells, tastes and vision.' The winners are Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobilka . Lefkowitz, works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and is a professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Kobilka, is a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. Their research has helped create newer and more effective drugs with fewer side effects. More on G Protein-coupled Receptor research can be found here."
Submission + - PETA Condems Pokemon for Promoting Animal Abuse (forbes.com)
SchrodingerZ writes: "The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the same group that last November protested Mario for 'wearing fur,' has condemned the Pokémon media franchise and video game series. In light of the recent release of Pokemon Black and White Versions 2, the activist group is protesting that the Pokemon game series 'paints a rosy picture of what amounts to thinly veiled animal abuse.' As many of us know Pokemon is about young children who capture wild animals for the sole purpose of having them battle in non-fatal sparing matches. 'Much like animals in the real world, Pokémon are treated as unfeeling objects and used for such things as human entertainment and as subjects in experiments. The way that Pokémon are stuffed into pokéballs is similar to how circuses chain elephants inside railroad cars and let them out only to perform confusing and often painful tricks that were taught using sharp steel-tipped bullhooks and electric shock prods,' says a statement from the group. Ironically within Pokemon B/W 2 there an organization known as Team Plasma , which deals with taking Pokemon and retuning them to the wild. PETA is so up in arms that they have even created an anti-pokemon parody game in which you play as an escaped Pokemon battling your trainer. I recommend trying it, just for the laughs."
Comment Can't Make It (Score 1) 9
Unfortunately I can't make it there (also I'm under 21), but is it possible I could somehow get a tshirt?
Comment Doctor Who style (Score 1) 405
Exterminate!!, EXTERMINATE!!!
Or Weeping Angeled
Submission + - Super Bacteria Creates Gold (sciencedaily.com)
SchrodingerZ writes: "With the price of gold skyrocketing in today's market, Michigan State University researchers have discovered a bacterium that can withstand high toxicity levels that are necessary to create natural gold. ''Microbial alchemy is what we're doing — transforming gold from something that has no value into a solid, precious metal that's valuable,' said Kazem Kashefi, assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics.' The bacteria is Cupriavidus metallidurans ; which is conditioned to be tolerant to heavy, toxic metals and be 25 times strong than most bacteria. When put into Gold-chloride (a natural forming toxic liquid), the bacteria reproduces and converts the liquid into a gold nugget. The complete process takes about a week to preform. This experiment is currently on tour as an art exhibit called 'The Great Work of the Metal Lover .'"
Submission + - Two Identical UFOs Spotted on Google Maps 1000 Miles Apart (go.com) 2
SchrodingerZ writes: "It appears that Google is expanding their mapping programs to track UFOs, because two of them have been spotted on Google street view an incredible 1000 miles apart. Andrea Dove of East Texas contacted local news station KLTV with a surprising find. She reported that she was using Google Maps to get directions to visit her aunt in Jacksonville, Texas, when she spotted a UFO while using the Street View option. What she saw was a reddish saucer-shaped disk in the sky of a the street view when she looked up Jacksonville, Texas (try it yourself). The same object appears when you search Sky City Casino Hotel on 32 Indian Service Route 30, Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico. An almost identical object is seen here as well. Surprisingly there is only one connection between the two places; a McDonalds is preset in both pictures. Researchers believe the anomaly to be a simple camera lens flare, but wild conspiracy theories are still valid thus far."
Comment Take off the 'this week' (Score 1) 2
human error
Submission + - United States Navy Names Ship After Neil Armstrongthis week (defense.gov) 2
SchrodingerZ writes: "Amongst the mourning of Neil Armstrong, the United States Navy has announced this week that a new research vessel will be named in his honor. This ship will be the first Armstrong-class Auxiliary General Oceanographic Research (AGOR) ship in the world. This ship got its name from secretary Ray Mabus, who wanted to honor the first man to set foot on the moon. 'Naming this class of ships and this vessel after Neil Armstrong honors the memory of an extraordinary individual, but more importantly, it reminds us all to embrace the challenges of exploration and to never stop discovering,' say Mabus. Armstrong, before his career at NASA flew in combat missions during the Korean war. 'The Armstrong-class AGOR ship will be a modern oceanographic research platform equipped with acoustic equipment capable of mapping the deepest parts of the oceans, and modular on-board laboratories that will provide the flexibility to meet a wide variety of oceanographic research challenges'. It will be 238 feet long, beam length of 50 feet, and will be able to travel at 12 knots. The ship is currently under construction in Anacortes, Washington."
Submission + - MIT's Robot Uses Cuteness to Get Help (fastcodesign.com) 3
An anonymous reader writes: If you saw a helpless robot grinding up a wall, would you stop to help it? What if it told you it needed you? It is harder than one may think to get people to help robots. However, when a particularly cute robot looks like it needs help, those around it can't wait but to give it a hand. A robot named Boxie was created to do just that, be cute and helpless enough that people stop to help it do what it needs to do. Boxie's goal to test this idea, was to interview people and create a movie. By doing things like asking for help in a cute voice, getting stuck and looking lost, Boxie was able to complete a documentary about its surroundings. Boxie, with the help of people, was also able to do things that it physically could not do alone, like climb stairs or find places. When robots become more common in our everyday lives, there will be situations in which they will need help. Having the robots use social cues is a powerful non-verbal mode of communication. This "cuteness principle" is built into our very genes. Where will this lead in the future?
Submission + - New Theoretical Clock Transcends Both Time and Space (sciencedaily.com) 1
SchrodingerZ writes: "Scientists at Berkeley Labsin California have theorized a new idea for a clock that can remain ticking even after the death of our universe. The idea is to create a four dimensional crystalline structure that is unaffected by third dimensional havoc. It would work by having the ‘electric field of [an] ion trap holds charged particles in place and Coulomb repulsion causes them to spontaneously form a spatial ring crystal. Under the application of a weak static magnetic field, this ring-shaped ion crystal will begin a rotation that will never stop,’ says Berkeley faculty Xiang Zhang. ‘The persistent rotation of trapped ions produces temporal order, leading to the formation of a space-time crystal at the lowest quantum energy state.’ It is considered to be 4-dimesional because ‘a spatial ring of trapped ions in persistent rotation will periodically reproduce itself in time, forming a temporal analog of an ordinary spatial crystal. With a periodic structure in both space and time, the result is a space-time crystal’. Because this space-time ‘crystal’ would already be at the lowest quantum state possible, theorists believe the structure could continue on after the rest of the universe fades and destroys itself ( thermodynamic equilibrium). Though the idea is mathematically sound (proven by nobel prize winner Frank Wilczek), constuction and manipulation is still only theoretical."
Submission + - Three Mile Island Shuts Down After Pump Failure (cnn.com)
SchrodingerZ writes: "The nuclear power station on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania shut down abruptly this afternoon. Its shutdown was caused when one of four coolant pumps for a reactor failed to work. 'The Unit 1 reactor shut off automatically about 2:20 p.m., the plant's owner, Exelon Corporation, reported. There is no danger to the public, but the release of steam in the process created "a loud noise heard by nearby residents," the company said.' If radiation was released into the environment, it is so low that it thus far has not been detected. The plant is a 825-megawatt pressurized water reactor, supplying power to around 800,000 homes, thought there has been no loss of electrical service. Three Mile Island was the site of a partial nuclear meltdown in 1979. The Unit 2 reactor has not been reactivated since."
Submission + - Curiosity Rover Sees Solar Eclipes on Mars (nbcnews.com)
SchrodingerZ writes: "Though solar eclipses are fairly common on Earth (though much more in the southern hemisphere), yesterday the Mars Curiosity Rover caught sight of a partial solar eclipse in Gale Crater on the Red planet. The martian moon Phobos took a small bite out of the sun on the 37th day (Sol 37) of the rover's martian mission. The Curiosity Rover was able to take a picture of the rare event through a 'neutral density filter that reduced the sunlight to a thousandth of its natural intensity.' This protected the camera from the intense light rays seen during eclipse or looking directly at the sun. It is possible a short movie of the event could be compiled from the data in the near future. More solar transits of Mar's moon (including the second moon Deimos) are predicted to happen in the days to come."
Submission + - Study Boils Water Without Bubbles (sciencecodex.com)
SchrodingerZ writes: "Scientists at Northwestern University have successfully found a way to boil water with the absence of bubbles. How they did it was use a 'specially engineered coated surface can create a stable vapor cushion between the surface and a hot liquid and eliminate the bubbles that are created during boiling'. The study was founded on the Leidenfrost effect ; which explains that when droplets of water are put onto a hot skillet, they will bounce and float on top of a slim vapor film layer. In the new experiment the researchers made the 'surface of tiny steel spheres very water-repellant. The spheres were sprayed with a commercially available hydrophobic coating. When the steel spheres were heated to 400 degrees Celsius and dropped into room temperature water, water vapors formed in the valleys of the textured surface, creating a stable Leidenfrost vapor film that did not collapse once the spheres cooled to the temperature of boiling water. In the experiments, researchers completely avoided the bubbly phase of boiling.' It is hoped that this new method of water heating will make industrial work safer and more efficient in the future. The study was publish in the journal Nature (linked here)."
Submission + - Over 200,000 Tons of Deep Water Horizion Oil and Gas Consumed by Bacteria (phys.org)
SchrodingerZ writes: The University of Rochester and Texas A&M University have determined that in the five months following the Deepwater Horizon Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, bacteria have consumed over 200,000 tons of oil and natural gas. The researched was published in the journal; Environmental Science and Technology (abstract available, full text pay-walled). 'A significant amount of the oil and gas that was released was retained within the ocean water more than one-half mile below the sea surface. It appears that the hydrocarbon-eating bacteria did a good job of removing the majority of the material that was retained in these layers," said co-author John Kessler of the University of Rochester.' The paper debuts for the first time 'the rate at which the bacteria ate the oil and gas changed as this disaster progressed, information that is fundamental to understanding both this spill and predicting the behavior of future spills'. It was also noted that the oil and gas consumption rate was correlated with the addition of dispersants at the wellhead . Still an estimated 40% of the oil and natural gas from the spill is still in the Gulf today.
