fishmike - Slashdot User

Submission + - Finding the Hottest Spots on Earth by Satellite (naturenplanet.com)

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fishmike

on Wednesday May 02, 2012 @09:09AM

fishmike writes: "The traditional way to measure temperatures on Earth is with a thermometer, and the World Meteorological Organization, the U.S. National Weather Service, and other scientific institutions have established some very specific guidelines for how to do it. The air temperatures reported by your local meteorologist are measured by a thermometer situated 1.2 to 2 meters off the ground and shielded from direct sun. However, it cannot be measured in the shade of a building, mountain, or tree."

Submission + - ESA contracts Astrium UK to build Solar Orbiter (naturenplanet.com)

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fishmike

on Tuesday May 01, 2012 @02:19PM

fishmike writes: "ESA has awarded the contract to build its next-generation Sun explorer to Astrium UK. Solar Orbiter will investigate how the Sun creates and controls the heliosphere, the extended atmosphere of the Sun.

Prof. Alvaro Giménez Cañete, ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration and Miranda Mills, National Director — Earth Observation, Navigation and Science of Astrium signed the contract on 26 April on the occasion of a ceremony celebrating 50 years of the UK in space."

Submission + - Samsung overtakes Nokia in mobile phone shipments (bbc.co.uk)

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fishmike

on Monday April 30, 2012 @12:04PM

fishmike writes: "Samsung Electronics has overtaken Nokia to become the world's largest maker of mobile phones, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Nokia took the top spot in 1998 from Motorola, but in the first quarter of 2012 Samsung shipped 93m phones compared to almost 83m by Nokia.

Samsung also reported its highest quarterly profit since 2008."

Submission + - A New Generation of Ultra-small and High-precision Lasers Emerges (scienceworldreport.com)

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fishmike

on Friday April 27, 2012 @08:10AM

fishmike writes: "Ultra fast, robust, stable, and high precision: these are some of the characteristics of a new laser developed by an international research team. This ultra-small laser paves the way for a new generation of highly powerful, ultra-stable integrated lasers. Professor Roberto Morandotti and his team at the INRS University's Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre played a leading role in the design of this versatile laser that recently made the front page of the prestigious scientific journal Nature Communications."

Submission + - How Twitter Broke Its Biggest Story, #WeGotBinLaden (scienceworldreport.com)

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fishmike

on Thursday April 26, 2012 @12:33PM

fishmike writes: "Nearly a year after U.S. Special Forces killed Osama bin Laden, the events of May 1, 2011 remain one of the busiest traffic periods in Twitter history. More than 5,000 tweets were sent per second when Twitter became the first source with news of bin Laden's death. But how did the news break and quickly spread across the Twittersphere?"

Submission + - Under 'Dark Halo' Old Galaxies Have Many More Stars (scienceworldreport.com)

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fishmike

on Thursday April 26, 2012 @09:07AM

fishmike writes: "Some of the oldest galaxies in the Universe have three times more stellar mass, and so many more stars, than all current models of galaxy evolution predict.

The finding comes from the Atlas3D international team, led by an Oxford University scientist, who found a way to remove the 'halo' of dark matter that has clouded previous calculations."

Submission + - First Camera Trap Photos of Rare Leopard in China (scienceworldreport.com)

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fishmike

on Wednesday April 25, 2012 @02:32PM

fishmike writes: "The first-known camera trap photos of an Amur leopard in China have recently been taken by protected area staff in Hunchun Amur Tiger National Nature Reserve in Jilin Province according to the Wildlife Conservation Society. Coupled with Jilin Province's recent announcement of a survey estimating 8-11 leopards across that northern province, the photographs suggest that leopards may be returning to China."

Submission + - Molecule Movements that Make Us Think (scienceworldreport.com)

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fishmike

on Wednesday April 25, 2012 @08:55AM

fishmike writes: "Every thought, every movement, every heartbeat is controlled by lightning-quick electrical impulses in the brain, the muscles, and the heart. But too much electrical excitability in the membranes of the cells can cause things like epilepsy and cardiac arrhythmia. A research group at Linköping University has now published new discoveries that can lead to new medicines for these diseases."

Submission + - Mad cow disease found in California; no human threat seen (reuters.com)

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fishmike

on Wednesday April 25, 2012 @05:50AM

fishmike writes: "U.S. authorities reported the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in six years on Tuesday and quickly assured consumers and global importers that meat from the California dairy cow did not enter the food chain."

Submission + - Northern Canada Feels the Heat – Climate Change Impact on Permafrost Zones (scienceworldreport.com)

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fishmike

on Tuesday April 24, 2012 @10:08AM

fishmike writes: "Permafrost zones extend over 50% of Canada's land area. Warming or thawing of permafrost due to climate change could significantly impact existing infrastructure and future development in Canada's north. Researchers Jennifer Throop and Antoni Lewkowicz at the University of Ottawa, along with Sharon Smith with the Geological Survey of Canada, have published a new study, part of an upcoming special issue of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (CJES), that provides one of the first summaries of climate and ground temperature relations across northern Canada."

Submission + - Tech billionaires bankroll gold rush to mine asteroids (reuters.com)

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fishmike

on Tuesday April 24, 2012 @05:45AM

fishmike writes: "Google Inc executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and filmmaker James Cameron are among those bankrolling a venture to survey and eventually extract precious metals and rare minerals from asteroids that orbit near Earth, the company said on Tuesday.

Planetary Resources, based in Bellevue, Washington, initially will focus on developing and selling extremely low-cost robotic spacecraft for surveying missions."

Submission + - Study Finds Surprising Arctic Methane Emission Source (scienceworldreport.com) 1

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fishmike

on Monday April 23, 2012 @12:46PM

fishmike writes: "The fragile and rapidly changing Arctic region is home to large reservoirs of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. As Earth's climate warms, the methane, frozen in reservoirs stored in Arctic tundra soils or marine sediments, is vulnerable to being released into the atmosphere, where it can add to global warming. Now a multi-institutional study by Eric Kort of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has uncovered a surprising and potentially important new source of Arctic methane: the ocean itself."

Submission + - Exclusive: UK has vast shale gas reserves, geologists say (reuters.com) 1

Submitted by fishmike on Sunday April 22, 2012 @02:14PM

fishmike writes: Britain may have enough offshore shale gas to catapult it into the top ranks of global producers, energy experts now believe, and while production costs are still very high, new U.S. technology should eventually make reserves commercially viable.

UK offshore reserves of shale gas could exceed one thousand trillion cubic feet (tcf), compared to current rates of UK gas consumption of 3.5 tcf a year, or five times the latest estimate of onshore shale gas of 200 trillion cubic feet.

Submission + - Investigation on Envisat Continues (scienceworldreport.com)

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fishmike

on Saturday April 21, 2012 @01:15PM

fishmike writes: "Optical, radar and laser observations of the Envisat satellite show that it is still in a stable orbit. Efforts to regain contact with the satellite have been under way since 8 April, when it unexpectedly stopped sending data to Earth.

To determine if Envisat has entered its 'safe mode' — which would be a starting point for revival — the recovery team is drawing on every information source available."

Submission + - Kidney Stone Mystery Solved (scienceworldreport.com)

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fishmike

on Friday April 20, 2012 @11:33AM

fishmike writes: "Kidney stones strike an estimated 1 million Americans each year, and those who have experienced the excruciating pain say it is among the worst known to man (or woman).

Now, new research by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis provides evidence to explain why some people are more prone to develop the condition than others. Their discovery opens the door to finding effective drug treatments and a test that could assess a person's risk of kidney stones."

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