Science News

Two vaccines for Ebola have been fast-tracked by WHO. Which one seems more effective? One is an rVSV (replication competent) retroviral vaccine, the other is a replication incompetent (chimp adenovirus) ChAd vaccine. http://www.dddmag.com/articles/2014/09/two-anti-ebola-vaccines-historic-race http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.3702.html http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/204/suppl_3/S1075.full

Low Earth Orbits start at 160 km. These aircraft fly at about 20 km. Pictures of the earth can have160/20 = 8 times the resolution of satellite pictures. That can make Google maps better. IDK if that is a reason for their buying the company, but it seems likely.

http://foxweekly.com/2014/09/11/science/nasa-scientist-says-solar-storm-could-detonate-nuclear-weapons.html Saw this on fox weekly and didn't see anyone post it yet. People on 4chan and reddit are saying this could lead to a nuclear confrontation? your thoughts..

Researchers at Princeton University have begun crystallizing light as part of an effort to answer fundamental questions about the physics of matter. The researchers are not shining light through crystal -- they are transforming light into crystal. As part of an effort to develop exotic materials such as room-temperature superconductors, the researchers have locked together photons, the basic element of light, so that they become fixed in place. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140909130810.htm I saw this in the news today and thought it was rather interesting. In the article an "artificial atom" made of 100 billion atoms is described. Can someone explai…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rENyyRwxpHo

As this trend continues, corporations will be able to make less and less expensive products by replacing payed employees with less expensive robot labor. With fewer employees there will be fewer people able to buy expensive things; thus, the less expensive products are necessary to offset less paid employment. Will the reduced cost of things outpace less pay, so that the majority of people better off economically, or will fewer people be able to afford the necessities of life? How will this trend affect politics, will conservatives decide social programs are necessary to support more and more unemployed people, or will unemployed and underemployed people become an ever la…

Not just a new species but possibly a new phylum... Puzzling New Animals Look Like Deep-Sea Mushrooms http://www.livescience.com/47668-weird-species-deep-sea-mushroom.html

This seems promising: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/08August/Pages/Common-bacteria-could-help-prevent-food-allergies.aspx Also here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28887088 The horizon documentary about research on the link between changes to our exposure to bacteria and the increase of allergies in the west was also very interesting, probably only available in the UK though? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04g507y

While a few of these seem to be a stretch to have 13 on the list for 2013, the list includes some important milestones. One of my favorites is pumping ocean water using wave power through a reverse osmosis filter to make fresh water; I hope it is an economic and technical success. If so, perhaps wave power can be used to pump water to make electricity.

The printer is not perfected, but a bit engineering and it can IMO make things with more accuracy. People might start building glass houses in deserts, for almost nothing...the cost of a 3D printer and labor. The printer can make glass bricks, and someone can stack them to make the walls of a house. The bricks could be made to form a dome or half cylinder roof instead of using long beams and flat or sloped roof. Interlocking bricks could eliminate the need for mortar, yet keep air tight joints between bricks. It would be possible to print double or triple pane windows. Glass houses would be best in areas where there are no rocks.

Im sure a lot of you are familiar with the news of the discovery that a mega-ocean has been found beneath the Earth's surface. The question is how did this ocean get there if it was not possible for water to condense at such a high rate with the temperatures under the Earth's surface constantly evaporating the water. Thinking about this question makes me think that it could of been a giant hydrogen and oxygen reaction, combusted by the earth's flammable insides.. (impossible to create so much water ) (Jimmy, 13, London)

With a new source of free information with global access, it might change the world. http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-g-outernet-explained-20140808-htmlstory.html Will the internet become a utility rather than a product of a corrupt system of Isp's(sarcasm)? What do you think?

It sounds like science fiction, but it seems that bacteria within us—which outnumber our own cells about 100-fold—may very well be affecting both our cravings and moods to get us to eat what they want, and often are driving us toward obesity. In an article published this week in the journal BioEssays, researchers from UC San Francisco, Arizona State University and University of New Mexico concluded from a review of the recent scientific literature that microbes influence human eating behavior and dietary choices to favor consumption of the particular nutrients they grow best on, rather than simply passively living off whatever nutrients we choose to send their way....…

One of the mysteries of the deepest branch of life may be solved. Why Archaea and bacteria are different and how they got that way is being studied by University College London - UCL. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140812121731.htm?

Taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28739373 All four winners of this Congress' awards Citation: Press Release from IMU

Tests that have been repeated by NASA shows that an engine that produces thrust with no propellant. How it works is not yet known but it has been demonstrated to work. http://sploid.gizmodo.com/nasa-reveals-new-impossible-engine-can-change-space-t-1614549987/ Has anyone else read of this? I have no idea how this could work, it seems too good to be true but it has been repeatedly tested...

Chandra x-ray telescope finds spectral signal "where no such line should exist." Press release http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2014/perseus/ Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3439YtdQZ1Y&feature=youtu.be

No one knows what caused these craters, but Russian scientists are studying them. If they are caused by the release of underground methane hydrate and the amount yet frozen is large, we could see worldwide temperatures rise very quickly.

Intro by New Scientist this week; Link :- http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329780.600-white-holes-hunting-the-other-side-of-a-black-hole.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140116085105.htm I think this is quite fascinating and could benefit future discoveries about the human brain. What does everyone think?

Could some of it be photons spontaneously created by dark energy?

IMO this is no surprise, and the mental damage seems irreversible.

http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/new-spongelike-structure-converts-solar-energy-into-steam-0721 MIT announced today that with only 10X the solar intensity of a sunny day they can convert 85% of the solar energy into steam. This could be used for desalination as an example

In the nick of time, or too late?

Scientists create black material the absorbs all but 0.035% of light, http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/186229-its-like-staring-into-a-black-hole-worlds-darkest-material-will-be-used-to-make-very-stealthy-aircraft-better-telescopes Now that's "Dark matter".