70425583
submission
hypnosec writes:
Aggression is one human failing that celebrity scientist Stephen Hawking would like to correct as it holds the potential of destroying human civilisation and even wipe humans off the planet. Hawking expressed his views while escorting Adaeze Uyanwah — London’s Official Guest of Honour — around London's Science Museum. Uyanwah asked Hawking what human shortcomings he would alter, and which virtues he would enhance if this was possible. To this he replied: "The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression. It may have had survival advantage in caveman days, to get more food, territory, or partner with whom to reproduce, but now it threatens to destroy us all. A major nuclear war would be the end of civilization, and maybe the end of the human race."
70404851
submission
hypnosec writes:
There have been many theories that claim to put forward reasons behind mass extinction of dinosaurs, but none have implicated the role of dark matter until now. A new research claims that Earth's infrequent yet predictable path around and through Milky Way's disc may have a direct and significant effect on geological and biological phenomena occurring on Earth. The research adds that dark matter may perturb the orbits of comets and lead to additional heating in the Earth's core, both of which could be connected with mass extinction events. In his research published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, New York University Biology Professor Michael Rampino analyzed the pattern of the Earth's passes through the Galactic disc and found that these disc passages seem to correlate with times of comet impacts and mass extinctions of life. The famous comet strike 66 million ago that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs is just one example, he notes.
70399391
submission
hypnosec writes:
One of the top science journals, Nature, will be offering double-blind peer review starting March in a bid to eliminate personal biases, such as those based on gender, seniority, reputation and affiliations. Nature notes that peer-review process alternatives are proposed often and some researchers have even advocated use of open peer review wherein the identity of the authors and reviewers are known. Open peer review process supporters argue that such a method with increased transparency will limit bias. But a recent study involving 4000 researchers has shown that 76 per cent researchers agree to effectiveness of double-blind peer review as compared to just 20 per cent who are in favour of open review.
70378709
submission
hypnosec writes:
Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Microsoft Research have joined hands to develop a computer model that provides for the first time a comprehensive simulation of development of blood cells paving way for better understanding of the control mechanisms that keep blood production normal while also paving way for new treatments for leukemia and lymphoma. The research is published in journal Nature [paywalled].
70363375
submission
hypnosec writes:
The Gilbert Atomic Energy Lab — dubbed as the world's most dangerous toy — has gone on display at the Ulster Museum in Northern Ireland. The toy has earned the title of most dangerous toy because it includes four types of uranium ore, three sources of radiation, and a Geiger counter that enables parents to measure just how contaminated their child had become. The Gilbert Atomic Energy Lab was only available between 1951 and 1952 and was the most elaborate atomic energy educational kit ever produced. The toy was one of the most costly toy of the time retailing at $50 — said to be equivalent to $400 today.
70333783
submission
hypnosec writes:
The Mars One project has picked its 100 candidates out of the initial 202,586 applicants for its next round of Mars One Astronaut Selection Process which will ultimately see around 40 undertake a one-way trip to Mars to set up a colony on the red planet. 50 men and 50 women make up the 100 candidates with 39 from the Americas, 31 from Europe, 16 from Asia, 7 from Africa, and 7 from Oceania.
70313105
submission
hypnosec writes:
We know of many risks that threaten human existence on our planet, but scientists over at Oxford University have for the first time identified 12 global risks that threaten our existence. Not only have the researchers drawn up a list of risks that threaten our civilisation, they have for the first time provided a structured overview of key events related to the 12 risks and have tried to provide initial rough quantifications for the probabilities of these impacts. The risks include Extreme climate change; nuclear war; ecological catastrophe; global pandemic; global system collapse; major asteroid impact; supervolcano; synthetic biology; nanotechnology; artificial intelligence; uncertain risks; and Future Bad Global Governance.
70292779
submission
hypnosec writes:
The work done by Interstellar’s visual effects team is now more than just mere science fiction as their work could find use in providing new insights into the powerful effects of black holes. In a paper published in Classical and Quantum Gravity, the team has described an innovative computer code that was used to generate the movie’s iconic images of the wormhole, black hole and various celestial objects and explained how the code has led them to new science discoveries.
70268685
submission
hypnosec writes:
According to a new study that tracked marine debris from its source, 8.8 million tons of plastic ends up in the world oceans annually. Plastic waste is a global problem and until now there wasn't a comprehensive study that highlighted how much plastic waste was making it to the oceans. Latest study by researchers over at University of Georgia claim that if all the plastic waste being dumped to oceans is accounted for, it will be equivalent of five grocery bags full of plastic debris dotting each foot of coastline around the world.
70241061
submission
hypnosec writes:
The European Space Agency (ESA) has successfully completed the first test flight of its Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), as planned, wherein it saw the wingless spaceplane land in one piece in the Pacific Ocean. A Vega VV04 rocket took the IXV to an altitude of 340 km from where it separated and continued up to 412 km. Reentering from this suborbital path, it recorded a vast amount of data from more than 300 advanced and conventional sensors. According to ESA the spaceplane few east around the globe during its descent and finally landed safely in the the Pacific Ocean west of the Galapagos Islands at about 15:20 GMT
70208241
submission
hypnosec writes:
Artificial leaf created waves the moment it was announced by Daniel Nocera back in 2011 and his latest research, published in PNAS, involves utilising hydrogen from this artificial leaf, carbon dioxide from another source and feeding it to bacterium Ralstonia eutropha to create liquid fuel. The new system involves using the “artificial leaf” to split water into hydrogen and oxygen; carbon dioxide from another source and a bacterium Ralstonia eutropha engineered to convert carbon dioxide plus hydrogen into the liquid fuel isopropanol.
70187837
submission
hypnosec writes:
European Space Agency (ESA) has revealed its preparedness for the launch of its experimental “space plane” dubbed Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) on Wednesday. ESA’s car-sized, wingless vessel is being tested for re-entry and could build a platform on which design of future reusable spacecraft are based on. IXV will be launched on Vega flight VV04 at 13:00 GMT (14:00 CET) for a suborbital flight to test technologies and critical systems for Europe’s future automated reentry systems from Kourou, French Guiana, 11 February 2015.
70150101
submission
hypnosec writes:
Over 40 years after Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 space travel, a hidden bag full of artefacts has been discovered by his widow Carol Armstrong. Carol found the bag after Neil’s death in 2012 shortly after he underwent a heart surgery. The bag contains a total of 20 items including the priceless 16mm movie camera that recorded Apollo 11’s descent to the surface of the moon, optical alignment sight used by crew for docking manoeuvres, and Waist tether among other things. The purse and the contents are now on loan at the National Air and Space Museum for preservation, research and eventual public display.
70097071
submission
hypnosec writes:
DARPA is all set to take its Airborne Launch Assist Space Access module (ALASA) program to the next level after the program has shown promising results for its mission of sending 100-pound satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) for just $1 million per launch. Currently under intensive testing, ALASA is a new program that seeks to overcome a stipulation series of launch systems by streamlining pattern and production and leveraging a coherence and re-usability of an air-launched system.
69980623
submission
hypnosec writes:
Researchers over at University College London (UCL) have demonstrated a new technique for fibre optic signal processing that doubles the distance at which data travels error-free through transatlantic sub-marine cables. The UCL research, published in Scientific Reports, has the potential to reduce the costs of long-distance optical fibre communications as signals wouldn't need to be electronically boosted during their journey, which is important when the cables are buried underground or at the bottom of the ocean. The study reports a new way of improving the transmission distance, by undoing the interactions that occur between different optical channels as they travel side-by-side over an optical cable. By eliminating the interactions between the optical channels, Researchers are able to double the distance signals can be transmitted error-free, from 3190km to 5890km, which is the largest increase ever reported for this system architecture.
