Monday 20 July 2015

International research team seeks more efficient biomass refinement processes

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Researchers from across the world, including from Virginia Tech, plan to mimic the chemistry of the brown rot

The post International research team seeks more efficient biomass refinement processes has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Technique may reveal the age of moon rocks during spaceflight

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Researchers are developing instruments and methods for measuring the ages of rocks encountered during space missions to the Moon or other planets. Many of the techniques used to date rocks on Earth are not practical in spaceflight, but a technique called laser ablation resonance ionization mass spectrometry can avoid the need for sophisticated sample preparation.
via Science Daily
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Abundance of certain elements in Earth dictate whether plate tectonics can happen

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Planet Earth is situated in what astronomers call the Goldilocks Zone -- a sweet spot in a solar system where a planet's surface temperature is neither too hot nor too cold. An ideal distance from a home star -- in Earth's case, the sun -- this habitable zone, as it is also known, creates optimal conditions that prevent water from freezing and generating a global icehouse or evaporating into space and creating a runaway greenhouse.
via Science Daily
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Vintage Astronomy Star Chart Planisphaeri Coeleste Posters

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: historian, maps, travel, old, world, decor, fine art, art, history, geography, panoramic, vintage map, vintage maps, antique map, antique maps, ancient, ancient maps, old world, historic, historical, ancient history, artwork, vintage artwork, vintage art, framed prints, framed posters, framed art, canvas, travel posters, vintage travel, antique travel, room decor, wall decor, den decor, vamp, the vintage vamp, thevintagevamp

A wonderful antique star chart depicting the constellations titled Planispaeri Coeleste This wonderful old constellation chart would be perfect for your home wall decor. Add a frame and it would make the perfect retro decoration in your bar, cafe, restaurant, home theater, office or kitchen. Framed canvas prints also make an exceptional gift for any occasion or holiday.

At The Vintage Vamp we obtain high quality images of vintage artwork. Then we use state of the art technology and editing to bring back to life the most compelling images from the past. Unlike a lot of reproductions sold on the Internet, ours have been refurbished to bring out the original colors and fix as many imperfections as possible. We use only PNG format and the largest PPI (pixels per inch) possible, which is the very best for printing. This assures that your image will print with the highest quality possible, no matter what size you choose. Credit: Library of Congress & Wikipedia




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Sticky tape and phosphorus the key to ultrathin solar cells

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Scientists studying thin layers of phosphorus have found surprising properties that could open the door to ultrathin and ultralight solar cells and LEDs. The team used sticky tape to create single-atom thick layers, termed phosphorene, in the same simple way as the Nobel-prize winning discovery of graphene.
via Science Daily

Accelerating search for intelligent life in the universe

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The National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope will join in the most powerful, comprehensive, and intensive scientific search ever for signs of intelligent life in the Universe.
via Science Daily
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Vote on a message to send to space about what earthlings think of the world

Science Focus

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We're not sure if there's anyone out there to receive them, but we earthlings have been sending messages into space for 40 years now. We've sent radio broadcasts, plaques engraved with pictures, and even a gold-plated record album. So far, we haven't gotten any return messages, but METI (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) enthusiasts are still coming up with new ways to tackle the two crucial questions raised by this kind of endeavor: How should we send the message? And what should it say?

The first question is technical, concerning the durability of materials, the means of transmission, and the distances to travel. The second is more complicated and far more interesting. A message like this is also a declaration: "This is what we find important. This is who we are."

The Earth Tapestry project aims to create a message that represents a shared, global answer to these questions through an online vote. Pairs of landmarks like Red Square, Machu Picchu, the Lascaux Caves, and others around the world (180 total) are presented along with the questions on eight different parameters: Which is more awe-inspiring? Information-rich? Famous? Noble? Ingenious? Delightful? Durable? Irreplaceable?

The plan is to create a laser engraved disc of a map of the earth along with a legend giving coordinates of these places and what we think about them. It will be sent to the moon on an Astrobotic Technology lander next year.

The director of Earth Tapestry, William Alba of Carnegie Mellon University, says the moon, being "the border between the terrestrial and celestial, between us and the rest of the universe" is a good place to put this information capsule. Not only might extra-terrestrial beings discover it, but humans from the future might as well.

There is also an art installation planned. Alba says they "will continue to take votes over the next year and a half. We plan to fill a space with images of the locations so people can get a sense of what's important to them and people around the world." Earth Tapestry images will be displayed for durations that accord with their rankings in the voting.

There are many other ways to give a sense of what humans find important, of course, but for Alba, landmarks of the world is a good arena for a trial run, to make "a kind of playground or sandbox to think about what do we think is important about ourselves as human beings and how do we decide that together. Place draws people's attention to the globe as a whole. They'll think about where they are and where other people are."

You can cast your vote at earthtapestry.org.

 
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 » see original post http://theweek.com/articles/549449/vote-message-send-space-about-what-earthlings-think-world
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Should research animals get names?

Science Focus

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You may have heard of Koko the gorilla or Alex the parrot, but what about Pia, Splinter, Oprah, and Persimmon the rats? Or Nixon the octopus? Or breeder pairs of mice named Tom and Katie or Brad and Angelina? It's not only the animals with good communication skills and long-term relationships with human researchers that get names. As Michael Erard explains in Science, "for many researchers naming is a practice whose time has come."

It hasn't always been that way. In the past, naming was frowned upon because it had the potential to introduce bias. A name might make a researcher ascribe personality traits to an animal on the basis of connotations carried by the name. It also introduced a personal connection to the animal that researchers strove to avoid. In a 1980s study of lab practices, researchers said that "they didn't name because they dealt with so many animals and were interested in them as sources of enzymes or data points, not as individuals."

But it turns out that naming can lead to better science. One lab that used names for monkeys was led to start looking at individual differences between them which "led to the discovery of the genetics and epigenetics of personality in monkeys." On a more general level,

Naming improves animals' lives, argues Brenda McCowan, a scientist at the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis, who manages the behavioral enrichment program for 5000 rhesus and titi monkeys. "Naming helps create positive human-animal interaction, which is better for the welfare of those animals," she says. Buckmaster adds that naming has become more accepted because "people realized the scientific value of the stress-free animal. … We have to make sure these are really happy animals, or none of the information that we get from them will be valid."

Read more about the history of research animal naming and its effect on science at Science Magazine.

 
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 » see original post http://theweek.com/articles/545515/should-research-animals-names
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North American and Pelican Nebulae Square Sticker

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


tagged with: envelope sealers, nanpn, pelican nebula, north american nebula, emission nebulae, billowing interstellar gas clouds, awesome astronomy images, dust clouds, hydrogen clouds, stellar winds, star forming activity, star nursery, star nurseries

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous picture from outer space featuring the North American and Pelican emission nebulae in the constellation of Cygnus, The Swan. The red, green and yellow areas all highlight the cloud of interstellar ionised hydrogen.
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image code: nanpn

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Name, The Swan, Constellation Cygnus space image Gift Wrapping Paper

Get your out-of-this-world gift wrap here! Perfect for Christmas gifts for anyone who is fascinated by what the universe holds in store for us!


tagged with: star nurseries, new star s106ir, outer space, universe, hubble images, cygnus constellation, the swan, star galaxies, star birth, hrbstslr cygsb, young hot stars, interstellar gas clouds, star forming activity, glowing hydrogen, turbulence

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous star forming region in Constellation Cygnus (The Swan). This Hubble image shows a dust-rich, interstellar gas cloud with a new-born star in the centre of the hour-glass shape. The glowing blue of the hydrogen in this nebula is due to the jets being emitted from the forming star as dust falls into into it and this causes the heating and turbulence of the hydrogen. The star, known as S106 IR, is reaching the end of its birth and will soon enter the much quieter period of adulthood known as the main stage.
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image code: cygsb

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

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Comet PanSTARRS and a Crescent Moon

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Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

An international blog series from ATLAS

Hubble's Sharpest View of the Orion Neb Powiscases iPad Mini Covers

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: hubble's, sharpest, view, of-the, orion, nebulae, powiscases

Thousands of stars are forming in the cloud of gas and dust known as the Orion nebula. More than 3,000 stars of various sizes appear in this image. Some of them have never been seen in visible light. Credit: NASA,ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

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Tiny wires could provide a big energy boost

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Wearable electronic devices for health and fitness monitoring are a rapidly growing area of consumer electronics; one of

The post Tiny wires could provide a big energy boost has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Deep Sky Colors Print

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: galaxy, galaxies, nebulas, space, astronomy, poster, stars, sky, night

Full-size poster of several beautiful and unique award-winning images of the night sky, photographed by Rogelio Bernal Andreo.

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Large Magellanic Cloud Superbubble in Nebula N44 Square Sticker

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


tagged with: envelope sealers, awesome astronomy images, interstellar hydrogen clouds, sbsblmc, star cluster ngc 1929, supernovas, new born stars, n44 nebula, dust clouds, hot young stars, star nursery

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series An awesome photograph from deep space featuring a super bubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a small satellite of our Milky Way galaxy around 160000 light years from us.
The massive stars of this nebula produce intense radiation, expelling matter at high speeds, and race through their main stage finally to explode as supernovas. The stellar winds of charged hydrogen and other particles and the supernova shock waves carve out huge cavities called superbubbles in the surrounding gas. Blue shows hot regions created by these winds and shocks, while red shows where the dust and cooler gas are found. Yellow regions show where ultraviolet radiation from hot, young stars is causing gas in the nebula to glow.

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image code: sbsblmc

Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Mich./S.Oey, IR: NASA/JPL, Optical: ESO/WFI/2.2-m

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Mystic Mountains - Carina Nebula Astronomy Image Wrapping Paper

Get your out-of-this-world gift wrap here! Perfect for Christmas gifts for anyone who is fascinated by what the universe holds in store for us!


tagged with: mystic mountain, star forming activity, star nurseries, stellar winds, young hot stars, carina nebula, galaxy stars, hubble space photography, gas clouds, outer space sculpture, hrbstslr cnbigc

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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Claudia Alexander, NASA Manager Who Led Jupiter Mission, Dies at 56

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Dr. Alexander, who played a pioneering role in NASA’s Galileo mission to Jupiter, also served as a project scientists on the international Rosetta space-exploration project.










via New York Times

Personalized Purple Galaxy Cluster Case-Mate Case

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: blue, purple, nasa, hubble, galaxies, personalized, galaxy cluster, space images, macs j0717, stars, pretty, macsj0717

Galaxy Cluster MACS J0717 thanks to NASA and Hubble program.

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