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Black Holes? More Like Donut Holes In The Cosmos

Black Holes? More Like Donut Holes In The Cosmos

Dec 16 2008 | comment(s)

Black holes?  Maybe we should think of them as donut holes. The shape of material around black holes has been seen for the first time: an analysis of over 200 active galactic nuclei—cores of galaxies powered by disks of hot material feeding a super-massive black hole—shows that all have a consistent, ordered physical structure that seems to be independent of the black hole's size.
If Silk Hadn't Been Invented, People Might Say 'Smooth As SPADD Damping'

If Silk Hadn't Been Invented, People Might Say 'Smooth As SPADD Damping'

Dec 16 2008 | comment(s)

During launch into orbit, a satellite is exposed to a number of extreme stresses. At takeoff the extremely strong engine vibrations are transmitted via the launcher structure to the satellite, which is also exposed to a high-intensity sound levels (140 dB and more). The increasing speed of the of the rocket also leads to aerodynamic strains that turn into a shockwave when the launch vehicle's velocity jumps from subsonic to supersonic.  


That's not all. When the burned out rocket stages are blasted off and the next stage is fired up, the satellite is exposed to temporary impulsive vibrations. So how does the satellite survive earthquake-like vibrations, the forces of supersonic shock waves and the pressures of explosive blasts? 
More Severe Storms During Upcoming Solar Cycle Predicted

More Severe Storms During Upcoming Solar Cycle Predicted

Dec 16 2008 | comment(s)

Earth's magnetic field, which shields our planet from particles streaming outward from the Sun, often develops two holes that allow the largest leaks, according to researchers sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation. 

"The discovery overturns a long-standing belief about how and when most of the solar particles penetrate Earth's magnetic field, and could be used to predict when solar storms will be severe. Based on these results, we expect more severe storms during the upcoming solar cycle," said Vassilis Angelopoulos of the University of California, Los Angeles, Principal Investigator for NASA's THEMIS mission (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms). THEMIS was used to discover the size of the leak. 
Ski Resorts Sound The Alarm Over Climate Change And Celebrity Jets

Ski Resorts Sound The Alarm Over Climate Change And Celebrity Jets

Dec 16 2008 | comment(s)

Rocky Mountain ski areas face dramatic changes this century as the climate warms, says a new Colorado study.

The study indicates snowlines -- elevations below which seasonal snowpack will not develop -- will continue to rise through this century, moving up more than 2,400 feet from the base areas of Colorado's Aspen Mountain and Utah's Park City Mountain by 2100, said University of Colorado at Boulder geography Professor Mark Williams. Williams and Brian Lazar of Stratus Consulting Inc. of Boulder combined temperature and precipitation data for Aspen Mountain and Park City Mountain with general climate circulation models for the study.
Autism And Schizophrenia Share Common Origin Says Researcher

Autism And Schizophrenia Share Common Origin Says Researcher

Dec 16 2008 | comment(s)

Schizophrenia and autism probably share a common origin, according to Dutch researcher Annemie Ploeger following an extensive literature study. The developmental psychologist says that both mental diseases have similar physical abnormalities which are formed during the first month of pregnancy. 
Eggs Vindicated In New Study

Eggs Vindicated In New Study

Dec 16 2008 | comment(s)

Since the early 1960s, it's become fashionable to use scare tactics about food and food groups to generate publicity and generate fundraising dollars.   The DDT mistake is forgivable but Alar?   Pure money-driven hysteria.
Emotional Memories - How Old And New Brains Store Them Differently

Emotional Memories - How Old And New Brains Store Them Differently

Dec 16 2008 | comment(s)

Neuroscientists from Duke University Medical Center have discovered that older people use their brains differently than younger people when it comes to storing memories, particularly those associated with negative emotions. 

The study, appearing in Psychological Science, is a novel look at how brain connections change with age. 
Finding Meaningful Variation In IQ Scores Of Kids With Intellectual Disabilities

Finding Meaningful Variation In IQ Scores Of Kids With Intellectual Disabilities

Dec 16 2008 | comment(s)

Parents of children with intellectual disabilities have long been frustrated by intelligence quotient (IQ) testing that tells them little to nothing about the long-term learning potential of their children.

That's because these tests are scored according to the mean performance of children without disabilities. The result is that the raw scores of many children with intellectual disabilities are converted into the lowest normalized score, typically a zero.

"We send back these reports that don't tell parents anything about their child," explained David Hessl, an associate professor of clinical psychiatry and a researcher at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute.
Wave Energy Tries To Navigate Troubled Waters

Wave Energy Tries To Navigate Troubled Waters

Dec 16 2008 | comment(s)

New technology is often called 'the wave of the future' but it couldn't be any more literal in the case of wave energy.  Wave energy can be a large, widespread renewable resource that is environmentally benign and readily scalable. In some locations — the northwestern coasts of the United States, the western coast of Scotland, and the southern tips of South America, Africa and Australia,  a wave-absorbing device could theoretically generate 100 to 200 megawatts of electricity per kilometer of coastline.
Cystic Fibrosis Treatment Gets A New Approach In The Evolutionary Roots Of Ancient Bacteria

Cystic Fibrosis Treatment Gets A New Approach In The Evolutionary Roots Of Ancient Bacteria

Dec 16 2008 | comment(s)

The redox-active pigments responsible for the blue-green stain of the mucus that clogs the lungs of children and adults with cystic fibrosis (CF) are primarily signaling molecules that allow large clusters of the opportunistic infection agent, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, to organize themselves into structured communities, report Massachusetts Institute of Technology geobiologists at American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008 in San Francisco.

For decades, these pigments, called phenazines, have been wrongly regarded as antibiotics, generated by P. aeruginosa, to kill off the microbe's bacterial competitors in the lungs.