Science News

NASA's Curiosity Rover recorded a strange audio frequency on August 7, 2015. A strong narrowband radio signal detected by NASA. The bandwidth of the signal is less than 10 kHz. Jerry Z. Audio Development Laboratory (ADL) working in the NASA since 20years extracted the frequency from 100 - 275Hz and heard the first music record from space specially from the planet Mars. Since August 7, 2015, NASA reseach to find out exactly where this music symphony come from and what provoke this strange sound. The frequencies has been recorded near the Olympus Mons (Mount Olympus). See the video:https://youtu.be/rumr70m7tdU

A large, heavy ship, scuttled between 1775 and 1798, is being dug out of its damp grave at the site of a new hotel construction project in Old Town Alexandria. Archaeologists found the partial hull of a ship at 220 S. Union Street, part of the city’s major redevelopment of the Potomac River waterfront. It’s on the same one-block site where workers two months ago discovered a 1755 fondation from a warehouse that is believed to have been the city’s first public building. “It’s very rare. This almost never happens,” said Dan Baicy, the hard-hatted field director for Thunderbird Archeology, the firm watching for historic evidence during construction. “In 15 years that I’ve …

Sounds like all kinds of supercomputer magnets can be made 3.2 times stronger for the same size. Does it include the LHC?

This is pretty interesting. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35976498

Can individual genes be removed or modified to learn more about the role of DNA and cell dynamics? Armed with better knowledge, will it be possible to eliminate additional parts of the DNA to make simpler and simpler cells until the secret of abiogenesis is discovered? It seems unlikely that life popped into existence with nearly 500 genes in its DNA. They seem to have hit a plateau of complexity at 531,000/473. Perhaps some genes can be changed to more or less complex forms that allow other genes to be removed, perhaps some combinations can be removed to simplify the DNA, or something else. It seems unlikely they have explored all possibilities of simplifying the DNA…

Has anyone seen this video of a unique spider that may have lived well before the age of dinosaurs? The spider is unique in that it didn't have an organ for web spinning. The 305 year-old fossil was discovered in the 1980's in France and was not examined until recently because it could not be removed from the rock in which it was encased without damage. It's suggested that web-spinning spiders had an evolutionary advantage leading to their proliferation and decline of this web-less spieces. Enjoy!

I found a video of them in action. Jump to 1.27 to actually see it. The video url link in the above article just shows stills...disappointing. Isn't evolution wonderful? Definitely a 'wow' moment for me. To read about the transitional steps is one thing but to see such a step in action makes it really sink in. It looks like we crawled out of a dark cave and not the open sea or open watercourse, as I've always imagined before

More data at CERN seems to hint at a new, very heavy fundamental particle beyond the standard model of quantum mechanics. Its mass is 750 GeV/c^2. For comparison, the top quark -- the most massive fundamental particle in the standard model -- has a mass of 173 GeV/c^2. See link: http://blog.physicsworld.com/2016/03/18/new-boson-buzz-intensifies-at-cern-fire-prevention-in-space-and-neil-turok-on-a-bright-future-for-physics/ I read somewhere that some physicists are proposing that dark matter is made of not yet detected heavy neutrinos. Could this be it? (I didn't see any electric charge data on the possible new CERN particle.)

From the BBC site:

Here is a link to the article announcing this expected discovery confirming Einstein's prediction. The article provides several informative links on subject and it's current research. Data results from the LIGO (Advance Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) experiment will be released Thursday. Ripples in space-time detected, wow!

Esmeralda; what a lovely, lyrical name. Here's a link to a Washington Post article on the discovery of one of Vasco da Gama's ill-fated ships off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea. The article discusses the discovery by David Mearns salvage company and a preliminary report published in the journal Nautical Archeology. At 500 years, the author says it is the oldest shipwreck discovery from the age of exploration da Gama led. Enjoy!

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/water-bears-glass-all-full Something spotted before, but not understood quite as well: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19732016 I like water bears, and not just because they look like the Aunts in "A Wrinkle In Time". ( photo: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/water-bears’-genetic-borrowing-questioned) To say that this is possiby the coolest thing a water bear can do is to say something. Maybe because human packaging is almost always designed to prevent water from affecting the contents, this comes from left field - but methinks those guys need to get hold of a patent attorney.

When I saw this CNET headline, I thought we now have some answers regarding the nature of dark matter. I was right; the article discusses the mystery of radio signal bursts that emit the energy our Sun would over 10,000 years. The infrequency of the these bursts made their source difficult to locate. Scientist have now discovered that they originate from an elliptical galaxy about 6 billion light years from Earth. According to the article, the mystery was solved by "locating" the matter between the Earth and the signals source. The article contains a link to the published research. Enjoy!

phys.org Abiotic species that feed and replicate and sometimes create another abiotic species might evolve into biologic species, but its not likely to occur in my lifetime. This satisfies my curiosity about the genesis of life and more or less corresponds to my expectations. I hope someone else successfully does this experiment.

It was known that the moon influences the tides had, but never on precipitation. The force of gravity of the moon makes its effects felt causing fluctuations not only for what concerns the rising sea levels, but the amount of rain. To detect for the first time this influence, a barely perceptible reduction of 1%, is the study carried out by Tsubasa Kohyama, University of Washington and will be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The discovery was made by studying data on precipitation in tropical varieregioni collected by satellites over the past 15 years. Just comparing that data the researchers saw that was recorded a slight decrease in rainfall when …

What happened to the population of Easter Island? Nothing, according to this article in the IB Times. The Rapa Nui were a successful society until the Europeans arrived according to evidence based on a new analysis of island weaponry. According to the article, the abundance of prehistoric spearheads found on the island's shores and the desolation of the island's vegetation had previously led researchers to believe that sparse resources led to war and cannibalism among its inhabitants. New analysis of their so-called weaponry, according to Professor Carl Lipo of Binghamton University, suggests that their variable shapes and variance from traditional weapons rendered the…

Antarctic fungi survive Martian conditions on the International Space StationScientists have gathered tiny fungi that take shelter in Antarctic rocks and sent them to the International Space Station. After 18 months on board in conditions similar to those on Mars, more than 60 percent of their cells remained intact, with stable DNA. The results provide new information for the search for life on the red planet. Lichens from the Sierra de Gredos (Spain) and the Alps (Austria) also traveled into space for the same experiment. >>>>> Read more

The Year of Pluto - New Horizons Documentary Brings Humanity Closer to the Edge of the Solar System. ................................................ Our Solar System has a mysterious zone that holds the clue to our origins. NASA has been trying since 2006 to gain access to this zone aboard the biggest rocket yet. Exploring the outer Solar System takes a lot of time and requires a lot of patience, perseverance and dedication. If all goes well with the Pluto flyby, NASA may extend the explorations farther out into the Kuiper Belt. The New Horizons Mission is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get out there and take a closer look at the Kuiper Belt—the Solar System’s mys…

As I understand it either the Germans are Russians are working on reading ones mind, and I for one cannot understand how. Any information on that? consciousness one

We've had a few threads recently on our microbiota. I thought this might be of interest from the BBC site. Here's a more sciencey article on it from Science Daily.

Well, Duh! Actually, I ate quite a bit when I was a child back when it was packed with greater levels of lead emissions before emission standards changed. Here's an interesting DNews video on why you shouldn't let your child eat snow. Enjoy!

For those of us experiencing the latest North American Snowmaggedon, here's a link to a DNews YouTube video on the physiological effects of winter. Enjoy!

Not sure if this is the right place to post this link to a very interesting article on the current search for the origin of canine domestication. The article has a link to works suggesting that the relationship between human and ancient wolf may have been "parasitic" in nature rather than a result of wolf pup capture and breeding. The article also discusses evidence suggesting that this relationship may have began 30,000 years ago rather than 15,000 as many researchers believe. There is a collaborative effort now exploring all facets of canine evolution including its genome as a way of understanding its human impact. What do you think?

. This picture of a planet like disc , Appeared on BBC . TV . Last night 20/01/16 Suggestions of an object 10 times heavier than Earth, a gas giant , identified by an American University, Californian Institute of Technology , on the fringes of , yet within , the Solar system Mike

I already posted this before noticing there was already a thread about it (below). Moderators feel free to merge this with that thread. "The solar system appears to have a new ninth planet. Today, two scientists announced evidence that a body nearly the size of Neptune—but as yet unseen—orbits the sun every 15,000 years. During the solar system’s infancy 4.5 billion years ago, they say, the giant planet was knocked out of the planet-forming region near the sun. Slowed down by gas, the planet settled into a distant elliptical orbit, where it still lurks today. "The claim is the strongest yet in the centuries-long search for a “Planet X” beyond Neptune. The quest …