Tuesday 24 March 2015

Veil Nebula Case For The iPad Mini

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: international, astronomy, space, nasa, hubble, telescope, gift, outer space, deep space, star

Supernova discoveries are reported to the International Astronomical Union's Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, which sends out a circular with the name it assigns to it. The name is the year of discovery, immediately followed by a one or two-letter designation. The first 26 supernovae of the year are designated with a capital letter from A to Z. Afterward pairs of lower-case letters are used: aa, ab, and so on.[36] Since 2000, professional and amateur astronomers find several hundreds of supernovae each year (572 in 2007, 261 in 2008, 390 in 2009). For example, the last supernova of 2005 was SN 2005nc, indicating that it was the 367th[nb 1] supernova found in 2005.[37][38] Historical supernovae are known simply by the year they occurred: SN 185, SN 1006, SN 1054, SN 1572 (Tycho's Nova) and SN 1604 (Kepler's Star). Since 1885 the letter notation has been used, even if there was only one supernova discovered that year (e.g. SN 1885A, 1907A, etc.)—this last happened with SN 1947A. "SN", for SuperNova, is a standard prefix. Until 1987, two-letter designations were rarely needed; since 1988, however, they have been needed every year.

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NASA satellites catch 'growth spurt' from newborn protostar

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Using data from orbiting observatories and ground-based facilities, astronomers have discovered an outburst from a star thought to be in the earliest phase of its development. The eruption, scientists say, reveals a sudden accumulation of gas and dust by an exceptionally young protostar known as HOPS 383.

via Science Daily

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NASA studies the sun in soft x-rays

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At any given moment, our sun emits a range of light waves far more expansive than what our eyes alone can see: from visible light to extreme ultraviolet to soft and hard X-rays. In 2012 and 2013, a detector was launched on a sounding rocket for a 15 minute trip to look at a range of sunlight previously not well-observed: soft X-rays.

via Science Daily

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LLNL, GE to develop open source algorithms for 3D printing

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General Electric (GE) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently received \$540,000 to develop open-source algorithms that will

The post LLNL, GE to develop open source algorithms for 3D printing has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Automation offers big solution to big data in astronomy

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The Square Kilometer Array, a radio telescope planned for Africa and Australia, will have an unprecedented ability to deliver data -- lots of data points, with lots of details -- on the location and properties of stars, galaxies and giant clouds of hydrogen gas. Scientists have now developed a new, faster approach to analyzing all that data.

via Science Daily

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Wendell Berry's 6 favorite books about environmental protection

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 Farmers of Forty Centuries: Organic Farming in China, Korea, and Japan by F. H. King (Dover, \$17). This book, first published in 1911, is an account of King’s studies of the enduring small peasant farms of three Asian countries. How did the people keep their land productive for 4,000 years? By returning all "wastes" to the soil, leaving the fertility cycle intact.

Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture by J. Russell Smith (Island Press, \$60). Published in 1929, Tree Crops confronts the error we made when we "carried to the hills the agriculture of the flat plain." This is another "travel book": Smith, a Columbia University geographer, seeks and finds better ways to interact with the land.

An Agricultural Testament by Sir Albert Howard (Benediction, \$23). Published in 1943, this is one of the major books written by Howard, a British scientist who worked in India for decades. It argues, rightly, that farming can be made to last only by obeying the laws and incorporating the systems of nature. "Mother Earth never attempts to farm without livestock," Howard wrote. "There is no waste; the processes of growth and the processes of decay balance one another."

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (Ballantine, \$8). Leopold’s masterwork, posthumously published in 1949, begins with close observation of the plant and animal life on the author’s Wisconsin farm and then expands across North America. The book ultimately proposes a "land ethic" by which a human society might live in harmony with the biotic community.

Home Place: Essays on Ecology by Stan Rowe (NeWest Press, \$20). This book insists upon the importance of the ecosphere (not the biosphere, a term that refers only to the living environment) as the inescapable context of our life. Rowe wrote that we should "live on the annual interest and leave the land’s capital alone."

Nature as Measure: The Selected Essays of Wes Jackson (Counterpoint, \$17). A scientist and advocate, Wes Jackson is fully and honorably the heir of the foregoing five writers. This 2011 book addresses "the problem of agriculture" and the prospects for practical solutions.

Wendell Berry’s newest essay collection, Our Only World, makes an urgent plea for an end to destructive land use practices.

 
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 » see original post http://theweek.com/articles/543707/wendell-berrys-6-favorite-books-about-environmental-protection
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Why the government should fund research into finding a replacement for alcohol

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Research into recreational drugs still carries a bad rap, following the anti-drug crusades of the Reagan years and beyond. But such research may be one of the most important scientific investigations happening today.

Here's why: the most popular recreational drugs, particularly alcohol, are atrocious. If pharmaceutical chemists could invent a less toxic replacement for alcohol, the social benefits could be enormous.

Despite the common phrase "drugs and alcohol," which seems to imply that alcohol is merely in a related category, alcohol is definitely a drug. Indeed, as Mark Kleiman writes, alcohol is more like the ur-drug: the oldest, most common, and most widely abused drug in the world.

It's also very often terrible. It can be extremely hard on the body. Heavy long-term use damages practically every organ, especially the heart, the brain, and the liver. Chronic overuse can cause slew of different kinds of brain damage; severe memory loss; cardiovascular disease and strokes; cirrhosis of the liver; cancer of the mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon, and breast; high blood pressure; pancreatitis; and dozens of other problems.

Contrast that with another hard drug, heroin. Though heroin is very addictive, and a lot easier to overdose on, long-term use is largely non-toxic to the body (setting aside the risk of contaminants). Even its infamous withdrawal is not as bad. Indeed, alcohol withdrawals are perhaps the worst of any drug, with the possible exception of some benzodiazepines. Heroin withdrawal is excruciating, but severe alcoholics in withdrawal often simply die of seizures or delirium tremens.

Roughly 18 million Americans have an alcohol use disorder, and about half the country has a close family member with a current or previous alcohol addiction.

Something like a third of convicted people in jail or prison were drinking when they committed their crime, and nearly 40 percent of violent criminals. Two-thirds of domestic violence victims report alcohol was involved. That doesn't necessarily mean all those crimes would not have happened without alcohol, but given its effects on impulse control, it's safe to say it was a big factor.

Worldwide in 2012, according to the World Health Organization, alcohol caused 3.3 million deaths, or 5.9 percent of the total. But alcohol was responsible for about a quarter of all deaths among people aged 20 to 39. In the U.S., alcohol accounts for almost 90,000 deaths yearly; it is the third-place finisher among causes of preventable death.

Alcohol also has many benefits. In minor doses it has some protective effects on the cardiovascular system, and may reduce the risk of kidney stones and gallstones.

Its primary benefits are probably social, however. Alcohol lubricates gatherings. Loosened inhibitions help people strike up conversations and become friends. Dedicated communities get great pleasure out of the complex flavors of scotch, beer, wine, and other drinks. And as I will be the first to testify, a nice buzz feels pretty good! I am certainly not in favor of reinstating full-scale prohibition.

But that brings us to the question: would it be possible to discover another drug with similar properties to alcohol, but without its toxic side effects? Dr. David Nutt is working on that question right now. Like the famed drug chemist Alexander Shulgin, who developed more than 200 new psychedelic drugs, Nutt has filed for patents on some 85 different compounds, and claims to have a new one called "alcosynth" that mimics alcohol's buzz without the long-term damage. He's got another that can apparently help people sober up quickly and prevent hangovers.

Of course, any new drug needs extensive study before it could possibly be used on a wide scale. And as we've seen with alcohol or tobacco, setting up a giant profitable industry dedicated to pushing drugs on people is highly problematic. As with marijuana, stiff regulations to deliberately keep such a business small and inefficient would be a good start. The idea would be to make it cheap and available enough to stop a black market from developing, but only just barely, as cheap drugs enable addiction.

But as I argued with respect to MDMA and psychedelics, alcohol replacement is some of the lowest-hanging scientific fruit out there. Dr. Nutt is currently looking for funding to do studies on his new drugs; private foundations and governments everywhere should pony up the cash, and look for more candidates. And while there will undoubtedly be some risk involved, it's important to remember that our current situation is already very bad, with millions of people suffering and dying. A replacement drug doesn't have to be a miracle drug — just better than booze.

 
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 » see original post http://theweek.com/articles/542427/why-government-should-fund-researchintofinding-replacement-alcohol
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Surprisingly mature galaxy discovered in the early Universe

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A surprisingly normal galaxy has been discovered in the very early Universe, providing new information on the beginnings of star formation. The galaxy, A1689-zD1, is one of the oldest and most distant ever discovered. It dates to the epoch of re-ionization, a period in the Universe’s history when the first stars formed beginning about 560 million years after the Big Bang. The galaxy itself is visible as it was about 700 million years into the Universe’s history, or about five percent of its 13.8-billion-year lifespan.

The observation was done using the Very Large Array’s X-Shooter instrument along with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), and it relied on gravitational lensing. The galaxy’s image was magnified over nine times by the galaxy cluster Abell 1689 which lies between zD1 and us—the cluster’s gravity acts as a lens, making the galaxy detectable. Without the magnification, it would have been too dim to observe.

“After confirming the galaxy’s distance using the VLT, we realized it had previously been observed with ALMA,” said Darach Watson, the paper's lead author from the Dark Cosmology Center at the University of Copenhagen. "We didn’t expect to find much, but I can tell you we were all quite excited when we realized that not only had ALMA observed it, but that there was a clear detection. One of the main goals of the ALMA Observatory was to find galaxies in the early Universe from their cold gas and dust emissions—and here we had it!”

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 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/tnp9MOp7Vus/
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Red Supergiant Star V838 Monocerotis Square Sticker

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: envelope sealers, amazing astronomy images, hubble images, monocerotis, supermassive red giant, stars, interstellar dust, swirling dust clouds, monoceros constellation, red supergiant star

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous astronomy picture featuring a distant star, named V838 Monocerotis, in the direction of the constellation of Monoceros on the outer edge of our Milky Way. The image shows the swirls of dust spiralling across trillions of miles of interstellar space, lit mainly from within by a pulse of light from the red supergiant, two years into its journey.

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image code: monocerotis

Image credit: NASA, the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI) and ESA

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Powers of Ten

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Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

New technique could bring quality-control tool for nanocomposites

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Layered nanocomposites containing tiny structures mixed into a polymer matrix are gaining commercial use, but their complex nature can hide defects that affect performance.



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Planets of the Solar System Wall Stickers

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: astronomy, bubble nebula, cassiopeia, celestial bodies, computer imaging, earth, imaging, jupiter, mars, mercury, moon, natural sciences, natural world, nebula, neptune, nobody, outer space, physical science, planet, pluto, saturn, sciences, the solar system, uranus, venus

ImageID: CB061976 / Corbis / Planets of the Solar System/ /

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NGC 602 bright stars Cover For The iPad Mini

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: nasa, space, astronomy, shuttle, hubble, bright, star, starry, blue, nebula

NGC 602 is a young, bright open cluster of stars located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. Radiation and shock waves from the stars have pushed away much of the lighter surrounding gas and dust that compose the nebula known as N90, and this in turn has triggered new star formation in the ridges (or "elephant trunks") of the nebula.

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Quantum experiment verifies Einstein's 'spooky action at a distance'

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An experiment devised in Griffith University's Centre for Quantum Dynamics has for the first time demonstrated Albert Einstein's original conception of "spooky action at a distance" using a single particle.



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Researchers Address Long-standing Mysteries Behind Anti-wear Motor Oil Additive

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The pistons in your car engine rub up against their cylinder walls thousands of times a minute; without

The post Researchers Address Long-standing Mysteries Behind Anti-wear Motor Oil Additive has been published on Technology Org.

 
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CT scanning shows why tilting trees produce better biofuel

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Imperial and University of Montreal researchers have used medical imaging techniques to explore why making willow trees grow

The post CT scanning shows why tilting trees produce better biofuel has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Mystic Mountains - Carina Nebula Rectangular Sticker

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: mystic mountain, billowing interstellar gas clouds, cnbigc, star forming activity, carina nebula, amazing space sculpture, star nurseries, stellar winds, young hot stars, gas cloud sculpture

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A beautiful space photograph featuring the 7500 light year distant Carina Nebula. This Hubble image shows rich, interstellar gas clouds feeding the formation of new stars. As a proto star forms, the gas clouds get dragged to its surface and some gets emitted as tight jets of material travelling at hundreds of miles per second. These in turn help sculpt the gas clouds into weird and grotesque shapes, some looking like strange worms, swimming through space.

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image code: cnbigc

Image credit: NASA, the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI) and ESA

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Crab Nebula Wall Decals

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: nebula, space, universe, astronomy, amazing, beautiful, colorful, crab nebula, background, photo, eye, outer space, astronaut, colors, hubble, nebulae, stars, red, yellow, green, blue, black, dark, wallpaper, science, geek, decorative, photography

This is a mosaic image, one of the largest ever taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the Crab Nebula, a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent event nearly 1,000 years ago in 1054, as did, almost certainly, Native Americans.

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Aqua And Amethyst Nebula Wall Decal

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: aqua, blue, green, amethyst, purple, stars, nebula, space, astronomy, abstract, explosion, galaxy, star, artistic, flower, floral, mallow, nature

Stars among an Aqua and Amethyst Nebula on this Wall Decal. Original photo was that of a large white mallow flower...

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