NASA snaps picture of Eastern US in a record-breaking 'freezer'
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of the snow-covered eastern U.S. that looks like the states have been sitting in a freezer. In addition to the snow cover, Arctic and Siberian air masses have settled in over the Eastern U.S. triggering many record low temperatures in many states.
On Feb. 19 at 16:40 UTC (11:40 a.m. EST), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) ins ...
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Breaking down the comms barrier between humans and computers
Washington DC (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
The lifelong human imperative to communicate is so strong that people talk not only to other people but also to their pets, their plants and their computers. Unlike pets and plants, computers might one day reciprocate. DARPA's new Communicating with Computers (CwC) program aims to develop technology to turn computers into good communicators.
Straightforward as that may sound, communication ...
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Widespread winds and eedback from supermassive black holes
Keele, UK (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
Astronomers have discovered that the winds from supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies blow outward in all directions, a suspected phenomenon that had been difficult to prove before now.
These new findings, by an international team of astrophysicists, were made possible by simultaneous observations of the luminous quasar PDS 456 with ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's NuSTAR X-ray tel ...
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Sensors Detect Icing Conditions to Help Protect Airplanes
Cleveland OH (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
When ice accumulates on the surface of an aircraft during flight, it distorts the smooth flow of air necessary to stay aloft. The result is a reduction in lift, which can lead to stalls and crashes. Knowing about hazardous icing conditions in advance helps pilots, air traffic controllers and airline dispatchers navigate airplanes and passengers away from danger.
However, icing conditions c ...
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Satellite gearing up to take EPIC pictures of Earth
Washington DC (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite is on its way to do something epic. NOAA's spacecraft, sent to monitor space weather, will use its Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) to capture the entire sunlit face of our planet and collect valuable atmospheric data. EPIC, built by Lockheed Martin, will show the full face of Earth in a single picture, something previously done only ...
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Surviving Mars on Earth
Washington DC (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
Meet the man who has survived Mars on Earth. Diego Urbina, an Italian-Colombian engineer, was a part of 520-day, record-breaking simulated mission to the Red Planet. He participated in the final stage of Mars500 experiment, a year-and-a-half isolation from the rest of the world, which was intended to find out how the human mind and body would cope on a long-duration spaceflight.
The last s ...
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IXV Spaceplane misison a boost Thales Alenia Space
Washington DC (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
On Feb. 11, ESA's Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), atmospheric reentry demonstrator, successfully completed its first test flight, ending with a splashdown into the Pacific Ocean and one aerospace company is bursting with pride over the flawless test.
"The success of this mission is a source of great pride for us. Thanks to the data collected during the flight, we are paving the wa ...
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NASA, Orbital ATK preparing solid tocket booster avionics
Huntsville AL (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
A pretty strand of lights can quickly turn into a pain when one electrical short takes the twinkle out of the whole brigade. An arduous process begins of checking each bulb to figure out which one may be the blackout mea culpa.
NASA and Orbital ATK engineers have a similar task when preparing the solid rocket booster avionics for the agency's new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). Howe ...
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Orion test flight yields critical data for next mission
Washington DC (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
NASA's Orion spacecraft continues on the agency's journey to Mars as engineers analyze data from the spacecraft's December flight test and make progress developing and building the spacecraft for its first mission atop NASA Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket. On future missions, Orion will send astronauts to an asteroid and onward toward the Red Planet.
At machine houses across th ...
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New study reveals the global impact of debris on marine life
Plymouth, UK (SPX) Feb 23, 2015 -
Nearly 700 species of marine animal have been recorded as having encountered man-made debris such as plastic and glass according to the most comprehensive impact study in more than a decade.
Researchers at Plymouth University found evidence of 44,000 animals and organisms becoming entangled in, or swallowing debris, from reports recorded from across the globe.
Plastic accounted for n ...
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Egypt postpones trial of Brotherhood head, 198 Islamists
Cairo (AFP) Feb 23, 2015 -
An Egyptian military court has postponed to March 9 the trial of the Muslim Brotherhood leader and 198 other Islamists over deadly clashes after president Mohamed Morsi's ouster, an army official said Monday.
Mohamed Badie, 71, facing his first military trial, and the other defendants are accused of participating in clashes that killed 31 people in the canal city of Suez between August 14 an ...
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Hong Kong wishing tree draws tens of thousands of hopefuls
Hong Kong (AFP) Feb 21, 2015 -
Carnivals and fireworks are Hong Kong's trademark Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations - but tens of thousands of people also travel to a remote village to hurl oranges at a tree in hopes of making their wishes come true.
In a tradition stretching back more than a century, visitors to the "wishing tree" in Lam Tsuen - a village near the city's northern border - come from all over the city ...
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Humpback whale freed from netting off Hawaii coast
Maui, Hawaii (UPI) Feb 23, 2015 -
After spending all of last week circling Hawaii's Big Island with its tail entangled in hundred of feet of fishing netting, a 40-ton humpback is now swimming free. During a rescue operation lasting several hours on Friday, experts with NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard were able to cut the line away from the whale's tail.
The 45-foot long humpback was first spotted off Hawaii's Kona Coast o ...
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Probe finds no fraud in World Bank Chinese loan deal
Washington (AFP) Feb 19, 2015 -
An internal investigation over the World Bank's controversial handling of a $1 billion loan from China to help poor countries has found no evidence of fraud, according to documents reviewed Thursday by AFP.
A law firm hired by the global development lender said there was nothing untoward in the unusual structure to accomodate the loan created by two of the Bank's arms, the International Deve ...
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Can unemployment trigger personality changes?
Stirling, Scotland (UPI) Feb 23, 2015 -
A new study claims to link lengthy waits in the unemployment lines to discernible changes in personality - changes that may become near-permanent.
It's accepted knowledge that unemployment can have negative psychological consequences. Not only is a person's job status is not only often tied inextricably to a person's self-worth, but it's the life jacket that keeps the rising tides of p ...
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UN climate experts meet despite chief's absence over sex case
Nairobi (AFP) Feb 23, 2015 -
Climate scientists went ahead with a scheduled meeting in Kenya despite the absence of the chief of the UN's top climate science body who faces sexual harassment allegations.
Experts gathering in Nairobi on Monday said the absence of Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), would not affect this week's meeting.
"We've all be ...
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Lightning kills five in Tanzania school
Dar Es Salaam (AFP) Feb 23, 2015 -
A lightning strike in Tanzania killed four school children and their teacher on Monday as they sheltered in their classroom, a teacher said.
"Lightning struck at a classroom at Nyakasanda village and a teacher and four pupils died on the spot," said William Lituhi, local leader in the Kasulu district of eastern Tanzania's Kigoma region.
A total 17 other school-children were injured in th ...
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Cambodia expels Spanish environmental activist after arrest
Phnom Penh (AFP) Feb 23, 2015 -
Cambodia deported a Spanish environmental activist Monday after he was arrested in Phnom Penh, officials said, a move described by a rights group as the government's latest attempt to stifle dissent.
Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, co-founder of the advocacy group Mother Nature, has been an outspoken and long-time campaigner against plans for a controversial dam in a protected forest area in th ...
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Ancient and modern cities aren't so different
Santa Fe NM (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
Despite notable differences in appearance and governance, ancient human settlements function in much the same way as modern cities, according to new findings by researchers at the Santa Fe Institute and the University of Colorado Boulder.
Previous research has shown that as modern cities grow in population, so do their efficiencies and productivity. A city's population outpaces its develop ...
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Scientists bring oxygen back to dead fjord
Odense, Denmark (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
More and more of the world's waters are seriously lacking oxygen. Could we use pumps to bring oxygen and thus higher life back into these waters? A Danish/Swedish research team says yes. They installed pumps in a Swedish fjord that showed a strong oxygen deficit and now they report that all the right oxygen-loving organisms have come back to the fjord.
Lack of oxygen is a major problem in ...
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Fever alarm armband: A wearable, printable, temperature sensor
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
University of Tokyo researchers have developed a "fever alarm armband," a flexible, self-powered wearable device that sounds an alarm in case of high body temperature. This armband will be presented at the 2015 IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference, San Francisco, on 22-26 February, 2015.
The flexible organic components developed for this device are well-suited to wearable dev ...
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Amazonian bird chick mimics toxic caterpillar to avoid being eaten
Chicago IL (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
In a study published in the January 2015 issue of The American Naturalist, Gustavo A. Londono, Duvan Garcia, and Manuel Sanchez Martinez report a novel nesting strategy observed in a tropical lowland bird that inhabits an area with very high losses to nest predators.
How can tropical birds cope with the high rates of nest predation that are typical in most tropical habitats? Are there nest ...
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Reconstructing topsy-turvy paleoclimate of western US 21,000 years ago
Nashville TN (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
Climate scientists now put the odds that the American Southwest is headed into a 30-year "mega drought" at 50/50. Meanwhile, the forecast for the Pacific Northwest is continued warming with slightly drier summers and even wetter winters.
However, 21,000 years ago, at the peak of the last Ice Age, a period known as the Last Glacial Maximum, the Southwest was wetter than it is today - much w ...
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Brain makes decisions with same method used to break WW2 Enigma code
New York NY (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
When making simple decisions, neurons in the brain apply the same statistical trick used by Alan Turing to help break Germany's Enigma code during World War II, according to a new study in animals by researchers at Columbia University's Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute and Department of Neuroscience. Results of the study were published Feb. 5 in Neuron.
As depicted in th ...
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The past might tell what the future holds for Greenland meltdown
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Feb 24, 2015 -
A team of scientists lead by Danish geologist Nicolaj Krog Larsen have managed to quantify how the Greenland Ice Sheet reacted to a warm period 8,000-5,000 years ago. Back then temperatures were 2-4 degrees C warmer than present. Their results have just been published in the scientific journal Geology, and are important as we are rapidly closing in on similar temperatures.
While the world ...
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