A 3D printer-created lower jaw has been fitted into an 83-year-old woman’s face.
A new first: A 3D printer-created lower jaw has been transplanted into an 83-year-old woman’s face.
Tag: science
Using heat to speed up computer hard drives.
Using heat to speed up computer hard drives.
Scientists have identified the oldest living thing on Earth, a patch of seagrass growing underwater in the Mediterranean.
Scientists have identified the oldest living thing on Earth, a patch of seagrass growing underwater in the Mediterranean.
Australian scientists sequenced the DNA of samples of the giant seagrass, Posidonia oceanic, from 40 underwater meadows in an area spanning more than 2,000 miles, from Spain to Cyprus.
The analysis, published in the journal PLos ONE, found the seagrass was between 12,000 and 200,000 years old and was most likely to be at least 100,000 years old. This is far older than the current known oldest species, a Tasmanian plant that is believed to be 43,000 years old.
A rehash of the available data has narrowed the search for the Higgs particle.
A rehash of the available data has narrowed the search for the Higgs particle.
Taken together with data from the other detector, ATLAS, Higgs overall signal now unofficially stands at about 4.3Ο. In other words, if statistics are to be believed, then this signal has about a 99.996% chance of being right.
It all sounds very convincing, but donβt get too excited, because the fact is that statistical coincidences happen every day. Over at Cosmic Variance, Sean Carroll points out that there is a 3.8Ο signal in the Super Bowl coin toss.
The final report admits that it was a programming error that doomed Phobos-Grunt, not cosmic radiation or U.S. radar.
The final Russian investigation has admitted that it was a programming error that doomed Phobos-Grunt, not cosmic radiation or U.S. radar.
The Russians have left Lake Vostok
Reality trumps science fiction: The Russians have safely left Lake Vostok, but the official word is that it is “too soon” to say whether they successfully drilled into the lake.
All NASA funding for the European ExoMars mission appears to have been cut by the Obama administration.
All NASA funding for ESA’s unmanned ExoMars mission appears to have been cut by the Obama administration.
A public announcement by Nasa of its withdrawal from the ExoMars programme, as it is known in Europe, will probably come once President Obama’s 2013 Federal Budget Request is submitted. This request, expected in the coming days, will give the US space agency a much clearer view of how much money it has to implement its various projects. “The Americans have indicated that the possibility of them participating is now low – very low. It’s highly unlikely,” said Alvaro Gimenez, Esa’s director of science.
Though this story doesn’t confirm the earlier rumors that the Obama administration was going to eliminate the entire NASA planetary program, it sure lends those rumors further weight. However, the new budget should be released any day now, when we will finally find out.
Unconfirmed reports in the Russian press today claim that the drilling team in Antarctica has successfully reached Lake Vostok more than two miles under the icecap.
Unconfirmed reports in the Russian press today claimed that the drilling team in Antarctica has successfully reached Lake Vostok, more than two miles under the icecap.
No results yet. And since the story above spends more time talking about old silly stories about a hidden NAZI hideout in Antarctica than it does the Russian science effort there it should be taken with a grain of salt.
Mars Express has found more evidence that Mars once had oceans.
Mars Express has found more evidence that Mars once had oceans.
Two oceans have been proposed: 4 billion years ago, when warmer conditions prevailed, and also 3 billion years ago when subsurface ice melted following a large impact, creating outflow channels that drained the water into areas of low elevation.
“MARSIS penetrates deep into the ground, revealing the first 60β80 metres of the planet’s subsurface,” says Wlodek Kofman, leader of the radar team at IPAG. “Throughout all of this depth, we see the evidence for sedimentary material and ice.” The sediments revealed by MARSIS are areas of low radar reflectivity. Such sediments are typically low-density granular materials that have been eroded away by water and carried to their final destination.
This later ocean would however have been temporary. Within a million years or less, Dr Mouginot estimates, the water would have either frozen back in place and been preserved underground again, or turned into vapour and lifted gradually into the atmosphere. “I don’t think it could have stayed as an ocean long enough for life to form.”
Using images taken by its lunar probe Chang’e 2, China today published a high resolution global map of the Moon.
Using images taken by its lunar probe Chang’e-2, China today published a high resolution global map of the Moon.
Studying fire in space
To see an image, click through to the NASA website link.