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Space

Spectrum of Light Captured From Distant World 32

Posted by Soulskill from the what-are-you-made-of dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Cosmos: "Astronomers have made the first direct capture of a spectrum of light from a planet outside the Solar System and are deciphering its composition. The light was snared from a giant planet that orbits a bright young star called HR 8799 about 130 light-years from Earth, said the European Southern Observatory (ESO). ... The find is important, because hidden within a light spectrum are clues about the relative amounts of different elements in the planet's atmosphere. 'The features observed in the spectrum are not compatible with current theoretical models,' said co-author Wolfgang Brandner. 'We need to take into account a more detailed description of the atmospheric dust clouds, or accept that the atmosphere has a different chemical composition from that previously assumed.' The result represents a milestone in the search for life elsewhere in the universe, said the ESO. Until now, astronomers have been able to get only an indirect light sample from an exoplanet, as worlds beyond our Solar System are called. They do this by measuring the spectrum of a star twice — while an orbiting exoplanet passes near to the front of it, and again while the planet is directly behind it. The planet's spectrum is thus calculated by subtracting one light sample from another."
Image

Gold Sold From Vending Machines In Germany 472

Posted by samzenpus from the correct-change-only dept.
There are fewer hassles for an adventurer or business traveler bigger than lugging around bags of silver and copper pieces. Luckily TG-Gold-Super-Markt has installed gold vending machines in 500 locations including train stations and airports all across Germany. The machines charge about 30% more than the current trading price for gold, and are updated every few minutes. All are closely monitored by cameras, and like 3rd and 4th edition, electrum pieces are not accepted.
Security

Infrared Fibers Can Protect Against Chemoterrorism 71

Posted by timothy from the movie-plot-waiting-to-happen dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Although most Americans take the safety of their drinking water for granted, ordinary tap water can become contaminated within minutes, says Prof. Abraham Katzir of Tel Aviv University's School of Physics and Astronomy who has developed a fiber-optic system that can detect poisons such as pesticides in water in amounts well below the World Health Organization safety threshold using 'colors' in the infrared spectrum which distinguish between pure and contaminated water. 'With our naked eyes we can't distinguish between pure water and water that contains a small amount of alcohol or acetone. They're all clear,' says Katzir. 'But we can clearly distinguish between liquids using an infrared spectrometer which can distinguish between "colors" in the invisible infrared spectrum.' Connected to a commercial infrared spectrometer, the fibers serve as sensors that can detect and notify authorities immediately if a contaminant has entered a water reservoir, system, building or pipeline. 'Toxic materials are readily available as pesticides or herbicides in the agriculture industry, and can be harmful if consumed even in concentrations as low as few parts per million,' says Katzir. Cities like New York are especially susceptible to a chemoterrorist threat. With many skyscrapers holding water reserves on the top of the building, a terrorist only needs to introduce poison into a tank to wreak havoc. 'A terrorist wouldn't have to kill tens of thousands of people. Only 50 deaths — as horrible as that would be — would cause nationwide panic,' says Katzir."
Biotech

Submission + - Designer Babies - Like It Or Not, Here They Come (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by
Singularity Hub
Singularity Hub writes: "The Fertility Institutes recently stunned the fertility community by being the first company to boldly offer couples the opportunity to screen their embryos not only for diseases and gender, but also for completely benign characteristics such as eye color, hair color, and complexion. The Fertility Institutes proudly claims this is just the tip of the iceberg, and plans to offer almost any conceivable customization as science makes them available. Even as couples from across the globe are flocking in droves to pay the company their life's savings for a custom baby, opponents are vilifying the company for shattering moral and ethical boundaries. Like it or not, the era of designer babies is officially here and there is no going back."

Comment Re:Insert standard replies here... (Score 5, Informative) 158

by you-nix-boy (#23993311) Attached to: A Video Game To Teach AP Level Immunology
Advanced Placement. It's a program offered by the College Board that allows high school students to receive college credit for courses completed in high school, teaching college-level curriculum, and evaluated by a test (that the College Board administers and scores). The number of credits and exact course translation toward your university is usually determined by your AP test score (on a scale of 1-5). Shaved close to a year off college with these puppies :)
Media

HD DVD Player Sales Grind To a Halt 507

Posted by kdawson from the it-was-that-bunker-video-did-it dept.
Lucas123 writes "While the news may fall under the 'Duh' category, it's still relatively shocking how quickly the death knell for HD DVD player sales came on after Warner Bros. announced they were dropping dual hi-def DVD format support in order to back only Blu-ray. According to a Computerworld story, the week after Warner's announcement, sales of HD DVD players dropped to 1,758, down from 14,558 players the week before. In contrast, consumers bought 21,770 Blu-ray Disc players, up from 15,257 the previous week."
Space

The Secret of the Sun's Heated Atmosphere 158

Posted by kdawson from the ooh-shiny dept.
eldavojohn writes "There has long been speculation on why the Sun's surface is a mere ten thousand degrees while the atmosphere can reach millions. Space.com is reporting that the mystery has now been solved. Researchers looked for Alfven waves in the solar chromosphere and found them. Followup studies employing simulations demonstrated that the energetics work out to transfer energy from the Sun's surface to its overlying corona.. The magnetic waves may also be the power source behind the solar wind."
Businesses

Submission + - Creating a Successful Startup

Submitted by
calumtdalek
calumtdalek writes: "Economist Larry Smith discusses how to create a successful software startup company. He notes that many students have the technical knowledge to create a product but lack the skills necessary to market their product and manage a software company. Smith gives specific examples of University of Waterloo startups (with names redacted) that have been successful and others that have been unsuccessful."
Republicans

Submission + - Illegal White House Email Causing Security Risk?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Has White House email policy broken the law and endangered national security? Hold on, this gets complicated. While investigating what happened during the recent firing of eight federal prosecutors, it was revealed that much of the email from the White House were not using official government servers, but using servers provided by the Republican National Committee. (One of these serves was named 'GWB43.com'.) It was also reported that Karl Rove does 95% of his email on these non-governmental accounts.

This raises two critical issues: first, does this violate the Presidential Records Act, passed after Nixon and Watergate? Second, does this create a potential security breach? How much security does the RNC maintain, compared to the White House? There is also the issue of people on the White House payroll doing work for the RNC on government time, another potential law-breaker.

Henry Waxman, D-CA, wants to know what is going on. He has sent a letters to the RNC and the Bush-Cheney campaign to preserve there emails for congressional investigation. http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/26/rnc-emails-wax man/

For comments on security see http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/005879.html and http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002875.php.

All these websites are extremely partisan. Let the Flame Wars begin!
Real Time Strategy (Games)

Submission + - Second life terrorist attacks?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yahoo online news reports about a virtual terrorist group called the Second Life Liberation Army which has ignited a few bombs near online shopping districts in a protest against the way Second Life is currently going. It seems that many players from the first hour do not like the way things are heading in the virtual world now that bigger companies also show an interest in the virtual world.

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