Comet Elenin is no more
Chicken Little wrong again! Comet Elenin is no more.
Tag: science
Russia’s next attempt to return to Mars is set for a November 9 launch
Russia’s first attempt in decades to send a probe beyond Earth orbit is now set for a November 9 launch.
Phobos/Grunt is a combined orbiter and lander, and is aimed not at Mars but at the Martian moon Phobos.
Eradicating polio: not this year
The effort to eradicated polio entirely by the end of 2012 will not be met.
Afghanistan and Nigeria, two of the three remaining endemic countries, have had more cases in the first nine months of this year than in 2010 altogether. Several other countries targeted by the plan have also seen more cases to date this year compared to this time in 2010. Additionally, polio had popped up in countries where it had previously been eradicated — notably China, which went polio-free for 11 years until this summer.
Sadly, politics and culture are almost certainly the main reasons polio still survives in these countries.
ROSAT has crashed to Earth, but no one knows where as yet
ROSAT has crashed to Earth, but no one knows where as yet.
House Panel Lays Out Spending Preferences for science programs
The Republicans on the House science panel lay out their recommended spending plans for science.
Updated and bumped: First a correction: in my original post I had incorrectly assumed these recommendations were from the entire House panel, not from the Republicans alone. (You can read their actual letter here [pdf].)
Second, that these recommendations come from the Republicans alone is quite depressing, as it seems they don’t have the guts to cut much of anything. All these recommendations do is trim some programs around the edges. Overall, very little is cut at all, with almost all departments ending up with budgets greater than they had in 2008. Even NASA, whose budget is cut from the 2011 $18.8 billion down to $16.6 billion, still includes the billions allocated for the Congressionally-designed Space Launch System. As these Republicans depressingly enthuse, “We also strongly support proposed funding levels for the Space Launch System and the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.”
With this kind of budget-cutting wimpiness from the Republicans, I expect the federal government to continue to grow in an out-of-control manner, even as the rest of the economy continues to tank.
World on fire
Video: The world on fire.
An independent study of climate suggests the climate has warmed 0.9 degrees Celsius since 1950
An independent study of land temperature records by a team led by Richard Muller concludes that the climate has warmed 0.9 degrees Celsius since 1950.
Does this prove that human-caused global warming is happening? No, not even close. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed, and others have not yet been able to duplicate its results. Also, a warming trending since 1950 can be caused many things, and it is only a very short snapshot of a vastly longer movie.
Nonetheless, it does appear that real science (open data, honest analysis, and a willingness to entertain opposing viewpoints) is beginning to return to the field of climate research. For this we should celebrate.
A baby star surrounded by “oceans of water”
A baby star surrounded by “oceans of water.”
Astronomers snap a picture of a exoplanet as cool as the Earth
Astronomers snap a picture of an exoplanet six times the mass of Jupiter but as cool as the Earth.
“After completing this study, we know less about dark matter than we did before.”
The uncertainty of science: “After completing this study, we know less about dark matter than we did before.”
Russians look at lunar caves for their lunar bases
Using images from Japanese and American lunar orbiters, the Russians are looking at lunar caves to build Moon bases by 2030.
North Cliffs collapse in Cornwall
Ancient Greek ships shipped more than just wine
New data has shown that ancient Greek merchant ships transported a wide assortment of goods, not just wine.
What is interesting about this story is how it punctures a hole in an assumption too many archeologists have been making about the amphorae, the standard shipping container of the ancient Mediterranean:
Amphorae have been found in their thousands in wrecks all over the Mediterranean Sea. Some of them contain residues of food, such as olive pits and fish bones, but the vast majority of them are discovered empty and unmarked. Foley says historians tend to assume that these containers were used mainly to transport wine — in a survey of 27 peer-reviewed studies describing 5,860 amphorae, he found that 95% of the jars were described as having carried the beverage.
The new research found evidence for many things besides wine, illustrating again the dangers of assuming anything in science.
The scattered remains of Comet Elenin will pass the Earth on Sunday, 22 million miles away
Chicken Little was wrong again! The scattered remains of Comet Elenin will pass the Earth, on Sunday, 22 million miles away.
Europe has invited Russia to join the US/ESA ExoMars mission as full partner
Lacking sufficient funds, Europe has invited Russia to join the US/ESA ExoMars program as full partner.
The man who created Unix, Dennis Richie, has died
Unix creator Dennis Ritchie has died, aged 70.
He also helped create the C programming language.
Twenty-three Indian Ocean nations test their own tsumani warning system
Twenty-three Indian Ocean nations successful tested their own tsumani warning system on Wednesday.
An archeology discovery in Africa suggests that Stone Age humans had an understanding of basic chemistry
An archeology discovery in Africa suggests that Stone Age humans had an understanding of some basic but complicated chemistry.
Archaeologists have found evidence that, as long ago as 100,000 years, people used a specific recipe to create a mixture based on the iron-rich ochre pigment. The findings, published in the journal Science, “push back by 20,000 or 30,000 years” the evidence for when Homo sapiens evolved complex cognition, says Christopher Henshilwood of the universities of Bergen in Norway and Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, who led the work. “This isn’t just a chance mixture, it is early chemistry. It suggests conceptual and probably cognitive abilities which are the equivalent of modern humans,” he says.
Amateur astronomers discover near Earth asteroid
Amateur astronomers discover near Earth asteroid.
A giant lava basin on Mars appears to have instead once been a lake of water
The uncertainty of science: Hesperia Planum, a giant basin on Mars, assumed for decades to have been formed by volcanic activity, now appears to have instead been formed by water.