tagged w/ Earth and Scicence
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From surfers and marine biologists to board shop workers and Aussies.
What's you favourite beach in the world?From surfers and marine biologists to board shop workers and Aussies.
What's... more
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There was a time when Britain had a reputation for excelling in competitive sports. These days, however, the experience of children engaging in competitive sports comes with a health warning. Since the 1980s, many schools have drawn the conclusion that team sports are an outdated and psychologically risky masculine vice that should be heavily regulated if not banned altogether.There was a time when Britain had a reputation for excelling in competitive sports.... more
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During the next few weeks on some clear moonless early morning, if you are fortunate to be far from any haze and bright lights, keep a close watch on the eastern horizon about two hours before sunrise. If you're lucky you might catch a glimpse of a ghostly column of light extending upward into the sky.
Many have been fooled into thinking that it's beginning of morning twilight and indeed the Persian astronomer, mathematician and poet Omar Khayyam (1050? -1123?) referred to this ghostly glow as the "false dawn" in his poem, The Rubaiyat.
That faint ghostly glow was once thought to be solely an atmospheric phenomenon: perhaps reflected sunlight shining on the highest layers of Earth's atmosphere. We know now that while it is indeed reflected sunlight, it is being reflected not off our atmosphere, but rather off of a non-uniform distribution of interplanetary material; debris left over from the formation of our solar system. During the next few weeks on some clear moonless early morning, if you are fortunate... more
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A pigeon-sized dinosaur that lived more than 100 million years ago sported four ribbon-like tail feathers that likely helped the creature balance on tree branches.
That picture comes from a fossil of a nearly complete skeleton and the well-preserved feathers of Epidexipteryx hui, discovered in Inner Mongolia, China. The finding, detailed in the Oct. 23 issue of the journal Nature, fills in gaps about the transition from non-avian dinosaurs to birds.
Although scientists are not positive about the dates for the sediments that the skeleton was found in, researchers suspect the dinosaur lived some time around 152 million to 168 million years ago during the Middle to Late Jurassic Period. That makes the remains slightly older than Archaeopteryx, long considered the oldest bird, which lived about 150 million years ago. A pigeon-sized dinosaur that lived more than 100 million years ago sported four... more
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King Solomon, who assumed the throne of the kingdom of Israel after the death of his father King David, was renowned for his great wealth no less than for his great wisdom. But as always with the Bible, scholars have a field day arguing over the account’s historical accuracy. On one count, at least—the story of King Solomon’s mines—archaeologists think they have evidence that the story was more than a legend.
An excavation led by Thomas Levy of the University of California, San Diego, and Mohammad Najjar of Jordan’s Friends of Archaeology has unearthed what they identify as an ancient center for copper production at Khirbat en-Nahas. Located in the lowlands of a desolate, arid region south of the Dead Sea in what was once the Kingdom of Edom, which the Old Testament describes as a foe of Israel, it is now the Faynan district of Jordan. As they are reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, radiocarbon analysis dates the site as from the 10th century BCE, when David and Solomon would have ruled and about 300 years earlier than scholars thought. It is by no means certain that Solomon (or David) controlled the mines, but at least the dates now match.
Earlier work by Levy and Najjar, The New York Times reported in 2006, “len[t] credence to biblical accounts of the rivalry between Edom and the Israelites in what was then known as Judah. . . . [T]his supported the tradition that Judah itself had by the time of David and Solomon, in the early 10th century, emerged as a kingdom with ambition and the means of fighting off the Edomites.”King Solomon, who assumed the throne of the kingdom of Israel after the death of his... more
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Using chemical vapor deposition, gems can be grown very rapidly
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If you thought that rock on the ring in the window of Tiffany's was big and beautiful, the diamonds treated in labs with a newly-developed method will really blow you away.
Diamond, a particular form of pure carbon, is of course used for more than adding sparkle to jewelry. It is also used for making scalpel blades, electronic components, and even quantum computers.
But the very properties of diamond that make it perfect for these uses — its hardness (it's the hardest known naturally-occurring mineral), optical clarity and resistance to chemicals, radiation and electrical fields — can also make it a difficult substance to work with. Using chemical vapor deposition, gems can be grown very rapidly... more
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SYDNEY - Researchers in Australia have discovered that honey bees have the ability to count — at least to the number four.
A scientist from the University of Queensland put five markers inside a tunnel and placed nectar in one of them, Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio reported.
Honey bees placed in the tunnel flew to the marker with the food, and would still fly to the same marker stripe when the food was removed.SYDNEY - Researchers in Australia have discovered that honey bees have the ability to... more
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Scientists have made a range of structures that mimic water-repellant surfaces found in nature.
The team, led by Wei Pan at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, developed a new electrospinning technique that aligns hydrophobic polymer nanofibres as they form from solution by collecting them on a thin silver wire. When they collected the fibres on to a flat surface instead of the wire, the fibres formed in a random arrangement.Scientists have made a range of structures that mimic water-repellant surfaces found... more
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US scientists have developed a method for screening Tamiflu in an attempt to foil counterfeiters.
Counterfeiters have targeted Tamiflu, an antiviral flu drug effective against bird flu, due its high cost and demand. Scientists have found fake Tamiflu containing vitamin C instead of the active ingredient, oseltamivir.US scientists have developed a method for screening Tamiflu in an attempt to foil... more
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enior researchers have warned that a sharp drop in the number of research grants awarded this year risks damaging UK chemistry.
Young chemists applying for first-time grants have suffered most under widespread changes to the funding strategy of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). In the half-year since April 2008, EPSRC has funded 4 and rejected 17 'first grant' chemistry applications: a success rate of under 20 per cent. In the last financial year, EPSRC funded 18 out of 25, or 72 per cent, of first grant applications. enior researchers have warned that a sharp drop in the number of research grants... more
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Could ripe bananas be the new nightclub glow stick? The yellow fruits glow bright blue under ultraviolet light, researchers in Austria were surprised to discover - with the intensity of the blue glow peaking at the point the fruit is perfect to eat.Could ripe bananas be the new nightclub glow stick? The yellow fruits glow bright blue... more
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The extreme fatigue that muscular dystrophy patients suffer after gentle exercise could be treated with longer-acting variants of sildenafil (Viagra), US scientists say - if a molecular mechanism newly revealed in mice can be translated to humans.
Kevin Campbell at the University of Iowa and colleagues studied mouse models of Duchenne muscular dystrophy - one of a group of disorders that cause muscles to gradually waste away. The mice Campbell studied had weak muscles, but not weak enough to account for their fatigue after exercise.
Looking for another explanation, the researchers found that the tired mice lacked a key signalling molecule in the membrane of their muscle cells: neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), which triggers blood vessel dilation and increases blood flow to exercising muscle. In healthy muscle, nNOS releases nitric oxide during exercise. This in turn triggers the release of cGMP (cyclic guanosine monophosphate), which relaxes smooth muscle in blood vessels, causing the vessels to dilate.
Campbell then showed that artificially boosting blood vessel dilation - by blocking molecules that degrade cGMP - could counter the fatigue effect. He did this by treating the mice with PDE5 inhibitors - the family of drugs that includes sildenafil (Viagra), which works by blocking cGMP degradation.
Patients with a wide variety of neuromuscular diseases have reduced nNOS levels, suggesting a common mechanism of fatigue that could be treated with PDE5 inhibitors, says Campbell. Drugs such as Viagra already on the market have been developed to be fairly short acting, so wouldn't be particularly useful to treat muscular dystrophy. 'We've been in contact with several companies who have made a lot of these drugs because of their main indication [erectile dysfunction], and they have ones that are long-acting,' says Campbell. 'We're planning to look at some of these to find out if they'd be useful.'The extreme fatigue that muscular dystrophy patients suffer after gentle exercise... more
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A total of 281 children from Scotland under the age of 16 contracted a sexually transmitted infection (STI) last year, according to new figures.
181 youngsters tested positive for chlamydia, while a total of 62 were diagnosed with genital warts, 13 contracted herpes and 10 picked up gonorrhoea.
STI rates have rocketed in recent years with one in seven young women and one in 10 young men contracting chlamydia. It is known as the "silent infection", as it often shows no symptoms, but if left untreated can cause infertility.A total of 281 children from Scotland under the age of 16 contracted a sexually... more
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