Science News

Global Analysis - November 2013 Global Highlights The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for November 2013 was record highest for the 134-year period of record, at 0.78°C (1.40°F) above the 20th century average of 12.9°C (55.2°F). The global land surface temperature was 1.43°C (2.57°F) above the 20th century average of 5.9°C (42.6°F), the second highest for November on record, behind 2010. For the global oceans, the November average sea surface temperature was 0.54°C (0.97°F) above the 20th century average of 15.8°C (60.4°F), tying with 2009 as the third highest for November. The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature…

Science is getting closer and closer to synthetic life. Creating a cell from parts of living cells is one direction but building a living cell from scratch is gaining ground. http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/38393/title/Proto-Organelles-for-Synthetic-Cells/

I had already hypothesized this way before, but was considered a crackpot for it. I guess I was right in some areas.

Holographic universes makes sense of entwined black holes at a distance having identically the same interior (via a wormhole).

The sweet spot is, according to economists, a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $36,000 / yr. I'm afraid US politicians will continue to be gridlocked, and ignore these experts, unless they are afraid unhappy voters will vote them out of office.

Something interesting for those of us with a laser fetish... New military laser system takes down mortar rounds... http://www.gizmag.com/hel-md-vehicle-mounted-laser-test/30116/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=da80c1591c-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-da80c1591c-90207101

Ctenophores, it would now seem, are the most basal of all living animals according to genetic analysis. Sponges have long been considered the most basal or closest living representative of the base of the animal tree. Sponges which lack a nervous system or muscles would appear to have descended from animals that had those traits instead of being animals that never had them. ​Ctenophores are predators that eat plankton and swim with cilia, have smooth muscles and a nervous system would appear to be more advanced than sponges but apparently this is not true. Details here... http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/38619/title/A-New-Basal-Anima…

So, apparently this is a big effing deal. http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/materials/bose-einstein-condensate-made-at-room-temperature-for-first-time What do you think? Where does this take us? What comes next?

Can time be traced back to infinity? The rainbow gravity theory suggests time had no beginning and there was no singularity and that different wave lengths of light are affected differently than others. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=rainbow-gravity-universe-beginning&WT.mc_id=SA_WR_20131211

Scientists have begun to consider Einsteins "spooky action at a distance" maybe spookier than was first thought. Entangled particles might be the result of worm holes connecting the particles or groups of particles that are entangled. Even Black holes could be similarly entangled. http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Spooky_action_builds_a_wormhole_between_entangled_particles_999.html

This find may secure the lives of many people despite global warming melting glaciers. It is unfortunate the water is concentrated on continental shelves off Australia, China, North America and South Africa, rather than being more dispersed. There are many questions regarding its use, including technical, legal, and economic. For example, will pumping from these aquifers cause sea water to foul the fresh water, are the resources in international waters, and how much will it cost to move that water to places like Europe that are far from the sources.

I found a link to mtu.edu news release on the 3D printer, but have not been able to access the server, yet. It appears to be overloaded, rather than down.

As the title says, a paper just came out in which the use of lures by alligators has been reported. V. Dinets, J.C. Brueggen & J.D. Brueggen , Ethology Ecology & Evolution (2013): Crocodilians use tools for hunting, Ethology Ecology & Evolution, DOI: 10.1080/03949370.2013.858276 The abstract: In a photo within the article an alligator was balancing sticks and similar nestbuilding materials on its head. Now they need to learn how to use beer as a lure...

It sounds dubious, but DARPA may buy one.

Posted in Astronomy and Cosmology forum : link below http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/80227-dr-who-take-on-start-and-end-of-universe/ as they say sit back and enjoy the show for 3 minutes 1000.s did in the LONDON Royal Albert Hall a few days ago ( here on BBC i player ) should work automatically . Mike

While chimpanzees craft sticks as tools and use rocks as tools, no other modern animal, except man, combines stone and wood into a tool.

One of My daughters is in Australia at the moment. She e mailed me today Quote " Hey Dad, Check out the link below. Me and Marcus were sat in a hostel on the Queensland coast of Australia last Wednesday and out of nowhere a huge meteor shower went straight past us! Was incredible! See why you should come over here? http://www.sott.net/category/17-Fire-in-the-Sky Love xay xxxxx " It seems coincidental that the visit of Ison comet is just passing this week into the suns corona, could this be fragments breaking off on its way in. It is due coming out from the sun during December for the biggest show in recent years. Note the quotes above ,alre…

The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)! My economics teacher likes to think that he knows copious amounts of fine details when it comes to computing. He keeps going on about the NSA having one of only two terahertz computers in the world. This doesn't exactly mean much of anything, as far as I'm aware there still isn't at present a terahertz transistor to design a chip on. So I decided to do a little research and it seems that the current standard in national security is the petaflop. Recent articles suggest however, that in fact there is currently a work in progress toward an exaflop security center, and this has generated so…

Inner shell electrons being shared is a wild thought to me but I am limited to high school chemistry (which I did perfectly in btw ) but a very interesting development... http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=chemical-bonds-inner-shell-electrons&WT.mc_id=SA_WR_20131122 How many more predictions from Star Trek have to come true before it is canonized

Physicists at the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics have developed a device that "leaves the photon untouched upon detection". After reviewing the link to the original article, I found the following that explains that "an incoming photon is reflected off an optical resonator containing a single atom prepared in a superposition of two states". So, I wouldn't say that the photons are untouched. However, the claim is that the detector allows the photons to continue on their way after being detected: This non-destructive technique of observing the photon may lead to new advances in quantum computing, communication, and information processing: Pretty cool…

The infinite monkeys Brian Cox and Robin Ince are back! http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03j9lvb/The_Infinite_Monkey_Cage_Series_9_Through_the_Doors_of_Perception/ And catch previous series here http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+infinite+monkey+cage+series+9&page=1

Molecular hydrogen is being discussed as a possible greenhouse gas to explain an early warm mars. Other models using just CO2 and H2O do not result in a warm Mars with a dim Sun but adding molecular hydrogen might do the trick. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131124200548.htm

More reason to eat your vegetables.

I wonder how much current this material can conduct?

This increase may make microalgae oil production competitive with petroleum diesel. There are many millions of acres of desert in the southwest with saline groundwater that can be used to grow marine microalgae. There is little rain in this area, which means these groundwater sources will deplete quickly if squandered. Fortunately, growing algae is best done in greenhouses or in photobioreactors that conserve water. If this development sparks the large scale production of algal oil, it will create jobs, reduce CO2 emissions, and stop the flow of dollars to oil producing countries. It would be a huge benefit for the environment and economy of the US…