Saturn emitted less energy each year from 2005 to 2009, according to observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, but Saturn's southern hemisphere consistently emitted more energy than its northern one and those energy levels changed with the seasons.
That Saturn actually emits more than twice the energy it absorbs from the sun has been a science puzzle for decades but long-term data from the composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS), when combined with information about the energy coming to Saturn from the sun, could help scientists understand the nature of Saturn's internal heat source.
Because society demanded to know, researchers have discovered which species has the largest testicles in relation to body weight on the planet – and it's Tuberous Bush Cricket (Platycleis affinis) which has testes which are 14% of the male body mass.
Don't feel bad, Drosophila bifurca, your testes equal to 10.6% is still mighty. Just in second place now.
What's the reason for that? More sperm, it would seem, but the researchers say that isn't the case, which proves once again that Nature is a bitch (and also a fine magazine, though this study was in Biology Letters.)
I finished building my test Picosatellite! It's a working skeleton, using the real PCB boards but without the electronics wired in. In short, it's 'real enough'. Were I to put in half of the $264 worth of electronics I bought at DigiKey, and toss in a BasicX chip and the 2 radio parts, it would be flyable.
University of California president Mark G. Yudof
has issued an 'open letter' to California to talk about the budget problems the system is facing and how they want to deal with the issues facing the state- "
I am writing today to let Californians know about the fiscal realities that confront the university, and also about some recommendations I intend to bring next week to our governing Board of Regents. First, though, I'd like to provide a bit of background."So I will list what he writes and then translate that into economic reality, as seen by people who actually live here but are not employed by the state.
If you've been to a hospital to see a newborn you've likely been assaulted by a number of sprays and soaps before even getting near the little critter. You'd have to wonder how you ever survived as a child without antibacterial soaps, wipes and special clothing.
Gradual evolution is not supported by geological history, writes New York University geologist Michael Rampino, who prefers the hypothesis that long periods of evolutionary stability were disrupted by catastrophic mass extinctions of life. Not surprisingly, he studies volcano eruptions and asteroid impacts.
When we discuss Foucault on a science site, we mean
French physicist Léon Foucault and not that annoying prat of a post-modernist, Michel Foucault. You know who
Léon Foucault is if you have been to a science museum in the last 150 years because you saw a Foucault pendulum - a simple way of observing the Earth's rotation.
I like Nicholas Wade, and think that his latest
NY Times piece on basic research is worth reading. However, I take issue with his overly simplistic characterization of how research works:
Basic research, the attempt to understand the fundamental principles of science, is so risky, in fact, that only the federal government is willing to keep pouring money into it. It is a venture that produces far fewer hits than misses....
The most recent issue of
symmetry magazine has a feature titled, "
When Muons Collide," by Leah Hesla. [Full disclosure: I have also written for
symmetry.] The article lays out the need for a muon collider as well as theoretical plans for building one.
How To Get Well And Truly ShellackedNow I'm not recommending for every future president that they take a shellacking like they, like I did last night.
Barack Obama,November 07 2010,
as reported by
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/content/2010/s3059266.htm
President Obama's use of the word 'shellacking' has puzzled some folks here in England, where the term has long since fallen out of use.
