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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 377 declined, 89 accepted (466 total, 19.10% accepted)

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Submission + - Russia to close 40% of its universities by 2016 (universityworldnews.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: According to Russian Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov the number of Russian universities will be cut by 40% by the end of 2016

Livanov said the number of universities was five times higher now than during the days of the USSR and was too high: “This is mainly the result of the opening of a huge number of private universities during the 1990s. Unfortunately, the results of our monitoring showed that the quality of education provided by some of them is very poor

He said that some institutions acted as “offices for the sale of certificates that do not have an established training process and qualified teachers”

The majority of cuts will affect private universities that provide a poor standard of education. This year, quality checks officially started on 10 March, and the results will be submitted to the Education Ministry by 30 May

An official spokesman for the ministry said it was a possible that some of the closed universities, including their infrastructure and teachers, could be absorbed by other regional universities that would continue to operate

As part of the plans, up to 100 universities will be subject to quality assessments over the next few months and this may result in some being closed. The process is set to be completed by the middle to the end of 2016

The latest plans have been welcomed by some of Russia’s leading employers. German Gref, President of Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank which employs about 240,000 workers, said the nation needed a transition to a new model of education

“At present, the majority of Russian students, teachers and employers are unhappy with the quality of higher education. In the case of employers, about 60% consider the quality of higher education in the country to be inadequate, and in need of improvement,” Gref said


Submission + - Is Japan losing its influence in global semiconductor market? (viralnewschart.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: In the 1990's Japan-based semiconductor manufacturers wielded their greatest influence on the global stage by holding six of the top 10 positions. The six Japan-based companies that were counted among the top-10 semiconductor suppliers in 1990 is a number that has not been matched by any country or region since

The number of Japan-based companies ranked in the top-10 in semiconductor sales slipped to four in 1995, fell to three companies in 2000 and 2006, and then to only two companies in 2014 – Toshiba and Renesas – among the top-10 semiconductor suppliers

Assuming the NXP/Freescale merger is completed later in 2015, Toshiba will be the lone Japan-based company left in the top-10 ranking

Will America be the next to lose global semiconductor influence?


Submission + - Japan to land unmanned lunar probe in 2018 (astrowatch.net)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is planning to attempt Japan’s first lunar landing in fiscal 2018, sources close to the project said Sunday. JAXA has said it will use unmanned probes to study the possible use of materials on the moon as well as its environment, which could pave the way for future manned missions. JAXA is expected to brief a government panel on the project with the aim of securing funding for mission preparations from the budget for fiscal 2016, which begins next April, the sources said

The lunar probe is likely to be launched on an Epsilon advanced rocket, the sources said

The SLIM mission is aimed at establishing a method for pinpoint landings that would make it possible to approach a target area with a level of accuracy ranging in the hundreds of meters

Submission + - Hubble turns 25 (hubble25th.org)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: The Hubble Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Currently it is flying about 340 miles over the Earth and circling us every 97 minutes

While the telescope itself is not really much to look at, that silver bucket is pure gold for astronomers

Scientists have used that vantage point to make ground-breaking observations about planets, stars, galaxies and to reveal parts of our universe we didn't know existed. The telescope has made more than 1 million observations and astronomers have used Hubble data in more than 12,700 scientific papers, "making it one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built," according to NASA

The truly spectacular images of the cosmo have also led to a scientific bounty that has far exceeded Hubble’s original goals: measuring how fast the universe is expanding; figuring out how galaxies evolve; and studying the gas that lies between galaxies

NASA aims to keep Hubble operating through at least 2020 so that it can overlap with its successor. The James Webb Space Telescope is due to launch in October 2018 and begin observations in mid-2019

The institute is reviewing scientists’ proposals for telescope time and mulling if some projects merit special attention as Hubble nears its end. Typically, the program receives about five requests for every hour of available telescope time

“There’s clearly there’s no lack of things to do with this observatory in its remaining years. The question is what do we do?” Sembach said at a recent American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle

More links @
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04...
http://www.space.com/29148-hub...
http://news.discovery.com/spac...
http://www.skynews.com.au/news...

Submission + - William Shatner wants to build a water pipe (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: The 84-year old Startrek star wants to build a water pipe to bring water to California

All it'll cost, according to Mr. Shatner, is $30 billion, and he wants to kickstart the funding campaign, by crowdsourcing

According to Mr. Shatner, if the kickstart campaign doesn't raise enough money then he will donate whatever that has been collected to a politician who promise to build that water pipe

As for where he wants to get the water from?

Seattle, "A place where there’s a lot of water. There’s too much water" says Mr. Shatner

Submission + - Helpin' minorities in earning Ph.Ds (cgsnet.org)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: The article outlines the attempts of universities in helping minorities — specifically the African Americans, the Latin Americans, the Native Americans and the Alaska Natives — obtaining their Ph.Ds, and the recent progress

A conundrum remains — nobody can put their fingers to a specific (proven) recipe which led to the success

The three-year study, which was paid for by the National Science Foundation, is the most comprehensive to date on times to degree, attrition, and completion rates for members of underrepresented minority groups

The report's suggestion on improvements on completion rates include

1) Conducting interventions throughout the entire doctoral process;
2) Providing students with enhanced academic support;
3) Monitoring and evaluating programs and interventions; and
4) Cultivating a culture of diversity and inclusion,

A highlight of the report

“One of the striking lessons from this study is that the dissertation phase is a particularly critical time for students. Our country’s STEM workforce will lose a great deal of potential talent if we don’t help underrepresented doctoral students cross the finish line”

...carries the hint of 'shortening the time to degree based on interviews with minority graduate students' might prove to be controversial as that could bring forth the ' entitlement mindset ' that has been plagued the society at large for much too long


Submission + - Dark Energy Survey Shows 'Weak Gravitational Lensing' Effects On Mapping Dark Ma (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: Scientists on the Dark Energy Survey have released the first in a series of dark matter maps of the cosmos. These maps, created with one of the world's most powerful digital cameras, are the largest contiguous maps created at this level of detail and will improve our understanding of dark matter's role in the formation of galaxies

The maps, created using one of the world’s most powerful digital cameras, are designed to probe the origin of the accelerating universe and help uncover the nature of dark energy

They are the largest contiguous maps created at this level of detail. The project scientists hope they will improve our understanding of the role dark matter plays in the formation of galaxies. By analysing the “clumpiness” of the dark matter in the maps, scientists will be able to further examine the nature of mysterious dark energy, thought to be the reason the universe is continuing to expand at an accelerating rate

To explain cosmic acceleration, cosmologists face two possibilities: Either 75 percent of the universe exists in an exotic form, now called dark energy, that exhibits a gravitational force opposite to the attractive gravity of ordinary matter, or General Relativity must be replaced by a new theory of gravity on cosmic scales

The new map was released April 13 at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Baltimore, MD. To create the map, scientists used data captured by the Dark Energy Camera, at 570-megapixels, one of the world’s most powerful digital cameras. The Dark Energy Camera, roughly 100 times more powerful than a typical digital camera, is the primary instrument for the DES

The camera was constructed and tested at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and is now mounted on the 4-meter Victor M. Blanco telescope at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The data were processed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign

Those theories suggest that, since there is much more dark matter in the universe than visible matter, galaxies will form where large concentrations of dark matter (and hence stronger gravity) are present. So far, the DES analysis backs this up: The maps show large filaments of matter along which visible galaxies and galaxy clusters lie and cosmic voids where very few galaxies reside. Follow-up studies of some of the enormous filaments and voids, and the enormous volume of data, collected throughout the survey will reveal more about this interplay of mass and light

Submission + - Large scale hack hits French TV Network (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: TV5 Monde, a TV Network in France, has been hit by a 'very powerful' cyber attack, purported to be by a self-proclaimed group of "Islamic State Militant" resulting in the company’s channels being knocked off the air globally

According to the spokeperson of TV5 Monde, their firewall has recently been checked but still that did not prevent the hackers from penetrating their system

The broadcaster, which airs French-language content on 11 channels in more than 200 countries worldwide and is indirectly owned by the governments of France and other French-speaking countries, said hackers penetrated the computer systems at its Paris headquarters late Wednesday evening, shutting down everything from company email and production facilities to the computer servers TV5Monde uses to send its television signals

At the same time, the hackers took control of the broadcaster’s social media accounts on platforms including Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., posting terrorist propaganda in support of Islamic State, including some alleged personal details about French military personnel, a spokeswoman for the channel said

France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said: "“Those terrorists, as they are certainly terrorists—we are checking on the claim—are using the most advanced technologies, Everything is being done to find those who carried this out, punish them, re-establish the programmes and prevent cyberterrorists threatening freedom of expression in the future"

The hacking, which is now being investigated by French intelligence, offers potential evidence of the militant group’s growing capacity to conduct technological warfare. While hackers claiming allegiance to the group have been active in recent months in posting propaganda to websites and high-profile social media accounts—including one belonging to the U.S.—this appears to be the first successful takedown of a high-profile TV channel, experts said

Now that a French TV network has fallen prey to cyber-hacking, how long before CNN, or BBC or even PBS will be hacked?

Submission + - Restart of Large Hadron Collider at CERN (bbc.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: After a two-year hiatus the LHC (Large Hadron Collider ) at CERN has been restarted

For the past two years an upgrade program was carried out for the LHC

Due to the upgrade, the LHC is enjoying a double dose of energy, as compared to its previous self before the upgrade

Particle beams have now travelled in both directions, inside parallel pipes, at a whisker below the speed of light. Actual collisions will not begin for at least another month

Currently the protons are being injected at a relatively low energy to begin with. But over the coming months, engineers hope to gradually increase the beams' energy to 13 trillion electronvolts: double what it was during the LHC's first operating run

The experiment teams have already detected "splashes" of particles, which occur when stray protons hit one of the shutters used to keep the beam on-track. If this happens in part of the pipe near one of the experiments, the detectors can pick up some of the debris

By taking matter to states we have never observed before — the LHC's collisions create temperatures not seen since moments after the Big Bang — physicists hope to find something unexpected that addresses some of these questions

Debris from the tiny but history-making smash-ups might contain new particles, or tell-tale gaps betraying the presence of dark matter or even hidden dimensions

But first we need collisions — due in May at the earliest — and then a steady torrent of data will make its way to physicists around the world, so that the massive analysis effort can begin

Submission + - Fault system enables larger quakes in California (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: Newly discovered link between different faults means potential larger quakes in California

The Hayward and Calaveras faults are essentially the same system, meaning that a rupture on one could trigger a rupture on the other, producing considerably larger quakes than once thought

Researchers have mapped the land at the southern end of the Hayward Fault and found that the creep continued 15 km beyond to merge with the Calaveras Fault, which was thought to be independent

"The maximum earthquake on a fault is proportional to its length, so by having the two directly connected, we can have a rupture propagating across from one to the other, making a larger quake," said lead researcher Estelle Chaussard, a postdoctoral fellow in the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory. "People have been looking for evidence of this for a long time, but only now do we have the data to prove it"

The 70-kilometer-long Hayward Fault is already known as one of the most dangerous in the country because it runs through large population areas from its northern limit on San Pablo Bay at Richmond to its southern end south of Fremont

Last month the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a 14.3 percent likelihood of a magnitude 6.7 or greater earthquake on the Hayward Fault in the next 30 years, and a 7.4 percent chance on the Calaveras Fault, but there is one problem — the estimate was based on the assumption that the two faults are independent systems, and that the maximum quake on the Hayward Fault would be between magnitudes 6.9 and 7.0

Given that the Hayward and Calaveras faults are connected, the energy released in a simultaneous rupture could be 2.5 times greater, or a magnitude 7.3 quake

"A rupture from Richmond to Gilroy would produce about a 7.3 magnitude quake, but it would be even greater if the rupture extended south to Hollister, where the Calaveras Fault meets the San Andreas Fault" Chaussard said

The UC Berkeley team used 19 years of satellite data to map ground deformation using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and measure creep along the southern end of the Hayward Fault, and found, surprisingly, that the creep didn't stop south of Fremont, the presumed southern end of the fault, but continued as far as the Calaveras Fault

Both are strike-slip faults — the western side moves northward relative to the eastern side. The researchers found that the underground portion of the Hayward Fault meets the Calaveras Fault 10 kilometers farther north than where the creeping surface traces of both faults meet. This geometry implies that the Hayward Fault dips at an angle where it meets the Calaveras Fault

Submission + - USAF thinking of sharing space surveillance data with scientists (spacenews.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: The data could be redacted nevertheless the United States Air Force is thinking of open up its treasure trove of space surveillance data that the military doesn’t need for its space situational awareness mission could be made available to scientists interested in using that data to search for asteroids or other research

“We collect a lot of data, and a lot of data we throw off to the side because it isn’t relevant to national security,” Whelan said in a talk at an asteroid science symposium here March 26 organized by the Universities Space Research Association and George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute. “Our trash is your treasure”

With upgrades to the network, including the upcoming Space Surveillance Telescope and the Space Fence radar, will provide the Air Force will vast amounts of additional data, which the service plans to process only to the level needed to carry out its mission of tracking objects in Earth orbit

“We’re going to have all of this data. We’re not going to process it as deeply as you might process data,” he said. “We will consume what we want to consume, the rest of it will go onto the floor”

Whelan said DARPA will hand over the telescope to the Air Force to incorporate into the Space Surveillance Network by 2017. “Those of you who have played with this know that it is a vacuum cleaner. It sucks up all kinds of data,” he said of the telescope

That telescope, coupled with the Space Fence radar system scheduled to begin operating by 2019, will greatly increase the Air Force’s ability to track satellites and other objects in Earth orbit. “We expect our catalog to explode in size,” Whelan said, from the current 22,000 objects being tracked to more than 50,000

In a separate presentation at the symposium, Mark Boslough of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico showed a map of airbursts in the upper atmosphere caused by exploding meteors. He described the data, released just in the last few months, as coming from “U.S. government sensors” without being more specific. It is widely believed, however, that the information comes from U.S. missile warning satellites

Those data showed approximately 550 such events from 1994 through 2013, including the February 2013 airburst above Chelyabinsk, Russia, that released the equivalent of nearly half a megaton of TNT. That single event, Boslough said, accounted for at least as much energy as all the others combined

Submission + - AT&T lost the throttling case (chinatopix.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes:

Judge Rules in Favor of FTC Against AT&T in Throttling Case

AT&T has lost a case against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over throttling its customers' mobile data plans after a certain threshold

The wireless carrier offered unlimited data packages, but in reality once the customer went over 3 GB of 5 GB per month, AT&T began to automatically throttle the connection

Millions of unlimited phone customers were hit by poor service without AT&T even making the customer aware of the throttling. AT&T previously argued it should be allowed to manage its network from unlimited carrier contracts, but has since claimed that due to common carrier laws the FTC cannot investigate

The argument was overruled by U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen in Northern California earlier today, saying that AT&T was not defended by common carrier in the wireless business, since it still has not been reclassified by the Federal Communications Commission and that the FTC has the right to prosecute AT&T regardless of common carrier status

FCC has added bans to throttling by wireless or broadband providers, apart from times where the network needs to be managed. As the move to common carrier continues, the FCC will maintain more command over these companies, making sure they stay in line with the new rules


Submission + - Space Based Solar Power Station (english.cas.cn)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: It could be an April Fool's story — but this story has appeared in many different media outlets

A huge space-based solar power station with 5 to 6 square kilometer total area of solar panels is in the planning stage

A space-based solar power station can generate 10 times more power than ground-based solar power generators and it can generate power up to 99% of the time since there is no 'night and day' up in the space

The proposed space-based solar power station will be in geosynchronous orbit, and the electricity generated would be converted to microwaves or lasers and transmitted to a collector on Earth

This idea is not new, in fact, it was first proposed by Isaac Asimov, in his short story, "Reason", back in 1941

Links regarding the space-based solar power station are below:

http://www.geek.com/science/ch...
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/china...
http://www.computerworld.com/a...
http://timesofindia.indiatimes...
http://english.cas.cn/newsroom...

Submission + - Global Wind Power grew by an astounding 42% in 2014 (navigantresearch.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: A new report from Navigant Research covers developments in the wind energy sector during 2014 found out that worldwide wind power installations grew by 42 percent year-over-year in 2014

Fueled by the policy-driven acceleration of installations in three key countries—China, Germany, and the United States—the global wind industry staged a remarkable comeback in 2014. Expansion in second-tier countries, such as Brazil, Turkey, France, and Canada also helped sustain a strong foundation for the industry as it matures into a significant global source of reliable, renewable energy

The revival of the U.S. and German markets meant there was a significant shake-up in the rankings of the world’s top 10 wind turbine suppliers in 2014, according to the report. Vestas remained the top supplier after strong sales both onshore and offshore and widespread across global markets. Siemens jumped two positions to second place in 2014 due to strong sales in the offshore sector and the surge of the German market. Had more planned 2014 offshore wind been fully commissioned and grid-connected, Siemens would have challenged Vestas’ top position, the report concludes

“The wind power industry achieved a record year of installations in 2014, setting the stage for steady growth in the coming years” says Jesse Broehl, senior research analyst with Navigant Research. “The industry’s development is being bolstered by key established markets and increasingly supported by new and diversified global markets”


Submission + - Physical sciences contribute 22% of economy (universityworldnews.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: According to a report published in Australit — http://www.science.org.au/scie... — physical sciences, including core disciplines of physics, chemistry, earth sciences and the mathematical sciences have contributed around 22% of the Australian economy The direct contribution of the advanced physical and mathematical sciences is equal to 11% of the economy while additional and flow-on benefits add another 11%, bringing the total benefits to almost A$300 billion a year The report also notes that this estimate is likely to be conservative, and sets out several other areas of benefit that are harder to measure The report carefully considered the pathways by which the advanced physical and mathematical sciences yielded economic benefits and the Australian community’s continuing commitment to the advanced physical and mathematical sciences would be needed to ensure that the benefits from what is essentially a global scientific enterprise will continue to accrue to the Australian economy The economists who prepared the report conducted industry consultations to determine the importance of the physical sciences to Australia’s 506 industry classes. They outline the economic contribution of the sciences to the top 10 industry groups in an appendix to the report There are three distinct sources of useful knowledge, the report says: the core disciplines of mathematics, physics and chemistry can provide useful knowledge individually and it takes banking as an example: "“Part of the banking industry relies on complex mathematically based models that support risk and investment decisions, but on no other science input. We estimate that 3.6% of Australia’s economic output is produced from inputs that embody useful knowledge from a single core discipline” The economists also estimate that 7.3% of Australia’s economic output is produced from inputs that embody useful knowledge from multiple disciplines. So the multidisciplinary nature of science means that the total impact of science is greater than the sum of the contributions of the individual sciences

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