22649360
submission
thebchuckster writes:
China's first manned deep-sea submersible completed a Pacific Ocean dive to 5,057 meters (16,591 feet), surpassing current U.S. capabilities and setting a milestone in a race to explore for potentially vast resources in the deepest parts of the world's oceans.
22637296
submission
thebchuckster writes:
Just a few decades ago, the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming routinely saw no big wildfires in a given year.
However, due to global warming, there will be a big wildfire virtually every single year by 2050 and the area burned will be nearly 400 square miles. By 2075, the area burned is expected to exceed 1,200 square miles. (The entire Yellowstone park spans just under 3,500 square miles.)
22596658
submission
thebchuckster writes:
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has picked up tantalising fluctuations which might — or might not — be hints of the sought-after Higgs boson particle.
But scientists stress caution over these "excess events", because similar wrinkles have been detected before only to disappear after further analysis.
Either way, if the sub-atomic particle exists it is running out of places to hide.
22580634
submission
thebchuckster writes:
British researchers called for guidelines in experiments that implant human genes or cells in animals, warning of ethical issues in the rapidly developing field of research.
It may sound like something from a horror movie, but inserting a small number of human genes or cells into animals is nothing new.
For example, scientists have already made strides in medical treatment by testing cancer drugs on mice engineered to have human DNA.
22578038
submission
thebchuckster writes:
NASA has picked the Gale crater to be the landing site of the Mars rover Curiosity.
The mission of Curiosity will be to prep astronauts for an eventual visit to Mars, search for evidence of life on Mars, and gather general information on the Martian environment.
22575906
submission
thebchuckster writes:
Aurorae on many planets could make our own Northern and Southern lights look like a flickering candle, new research has shown.
It seems that aurorae on distant 'hot Jupiters' could be up to 1,000 times brighter than Earthly aurorae, rippling all the way from the equator to the poles.
22549734
submission
thebchuckster writes:
Global warming, a detectable trend in the 1980s and 1990s, all but disappeared in the 2000s.
A new study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), published Thursday in journal "Science," suggested aerosols in the earth's stratosphere are the cause.
The buffer effect of aerosol begs an interesting question: could man manipulate global temperatures by artificial techniques like putting aerosols in the atmosphere?
22546960
submission
thebchuckster writes:
he Cretaceous period ended 65 million years ago with a bang—an asteroid impact—that did in the dinosaurs. But what about the other mass extinctions?
Now researchers teasing apart the record of mass extinction at the dawn of the dinosaur age have come up with a possible volcanic killer: a burst of methane gas triggered by volcanic greenhouse gases.
22542170
submission
thebchuckster writes:
A homeless man was arrested Monday, accused of putting a cold, opened can of beer inside a marked sea turtle nesting site in a Bonita Beach Park.
Michael Joseph Gasko, 47, faces charges of molesting an endangered sea turtle nest, and two counts of violation of park rules.
22525538
submission
thebchuckster writes:
Kuroilers are hybrid chickens, well suited to resource-poor village environments. They have been genetically selected to provide both meat and eggs and are able to survive and thrive on agricultural and household waste, requiring no additional feed.
The birds were developed by Keggfarms, a company based in Gurgaon, India and known for its pioneering efforts to improve rural conditions and provide nutritional security through household poultry keeping. Kuroilers were distributed in India to over 1 million households.
22524252
submission
thebchuckster writes:
The building block of the Caltech neural network is double-stranded DNA molecules with loose ends. These loose ends then receive the input of single-stranded DNA, which, through DNA strand replacement, releases an output DNA strand.
Using this input-output mechanism, the Caltech team assembled four neurons that give out specific DNA strand outputs that serve as both 'yes' or 'no' indicators in themselves and also inputs strands into other neurons.
22515842
submission
thebchuckster writes:
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope discovered a fourth moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto. The tiny, new satellite – temporarily designated P4 — was uncovered in a Hubble survey searching for rings around the dwarf planet.
The new moon is the smallest discovered around Pluto. It has an estimated diameter of 8 to 21 miles (13 to 34 km). By comparison, Charon, Pluto's largest moon, is 648 miles (1,043 km) across, and the other moons, Nix and Hydra, are in the range of 20 to 70 miles in diameter (32 to 113 km).
22500954
submission
thebchuckster writes:
A northern snakehead fish — a toothy invader that can live out of water — has been spotted in Anne Arundel County.
That discovery set off a flurry of worry over the fish, which can live for a few days out of water, thanks to air chambers that function as primitive lungs. It's also a prolific predator, and can position itself at the top of the aquatic food chain, crowding out native fish.
22490724
submission
thebchuckster writes:
Scientists already know that the melting of ice platforms in the Arctic Circle forces polar bears to swim as much as hundreds of miles to search for new land or ice platforms.
The study found that during swims longer than 30 miles, 45 percent of polar bear cubs who swam with their mothers died during the swim.
22488190
submission
thebchuckster writes:
Google+ makes demands on free time users simply don’t have, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner has claimed, going on to suggest that the new Google service will struggle as it doesn’t fit into the established triumvirate (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) of popular social networks.
