A giant patch of frozen water has been pictured nestled within an unnamed impact crater on Mars. The photographs were taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board Mars Express, the European Space Agency probe which is exploring the planet. The ice disc is located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of Mars’ far northern latitudes
Astronomical detective work led to the stunning discovery of a large new world beyond Pluto — and hiding in plain sight. The object could be the biggest in the Kuiper belt of rocky objects that orbit the outer reaches of the solar system. The first data made public about the object suggested the object could be up to twice the size of Pluto, but newly revealed observations indicate the object is about 70% Pluto’s diameter
Sunlight Direct is using fibre optics to bring the light from outside and transmit it inside. Their 1.2m diameter solar dish will light 90m² inside — minus the harmful UV rays — rendering a more natural lighting feel, which can be hybridised with florescent and possibly LED lighting to provide a constant light level, though the tone changes with the level of light outside. The GPS-based sun-tracking mechanism uses very little energy
Archaeologists have unearthed 2,400-year-old treasure in a Thracian tomb in eastern Bulgaria. Professor Daniela Agre, who led the team of 15 from the Bulgarian Archaeological Institute, said the finds, made on Saturday, provided enormous clues to understanding one of Europe’s most mysterious ancient people
Why one species branches into two is a question that has haunted evolutionary biologists since Darwin. Given our planet’s rich biodiversity, speciation
clearly happens regularly, but scientists cannot quite pinpoint the driving forces behind it. Now, researchers studying a family of butterflies think they have witnessed a subtle process, which could be forcing a wedge between newly formed species
Using technology already available for self-cleaning windows and bathroom tiles, scientists hope to paint up cities with materials that dissolve and wash away pollutants when exposed to sun and rain. The idea: UV rays hitting the titanium dioxide coated cement and concrete trigger a catalytic reaction that destroys the molecules of pollutants, including nitrogen oxides
The first mirrors have been cast for the world’s largest telescope. The result of cooperation from some of the foremost institutions in education and science in the nation, the Giant Magellan Telescope stands to operate at a resolution 10 times larger than the Hubble. The project, set to be constructed in Chile, is slated for completion in 2016
Due to an increase in their funding the Australian Bureau of Statistics is making many of its publications free so that they can be accessed by anyone from any computer with internet access. There are no special requirements and no passwords. The free material will include electronic publications (pdf and html) and electronic tables in spreadsheet or data cube formats which contain publication tables
Officials from UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, meeting in the South African town of Durban, decided on eight additions to the prestigious list of protected sites. The sites are: India’s Valley of Flowers National Park, Thailand’s Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai forest, Japan’s Shiretoko Peninsula, Egypt’s Whale Valley, the west Norwegian fjords, South Africa’s Vredefort Dome, the Gulf of California in Mexico and Coiba National Park in Panama
According to the new study, about a third of all major studies from the last 15 years were subsequently shown to be inaccurate or overblown
The people over at Treehugger have found an amazing little article on how to build a 5m – 3kW+ output wind turbine. Apparently this is the latest project of OtherPower.com and the site has a variety of other engergy saving/producing projects including a Homebrew Maytag Gas Battery charger — via Slashdot
According to Foresight, a government think-tank, mind-altering drugs could be as common as coffee within a couple of decades
Popular Science has a how-to article up on turning a backpack into a portable, solar-powered Wi-Fi hotspot. Its secret ingredient: the Junxion Box. Plug a cellular-network card into the book-size open-source-based device and you have an instant Wi-Fi hotspot, with speeds averaging around 700 kilobits per second. Just the thing for sharing bandwidth with your mates on a roadtrip
Reuters reports that a Russian astrologer is suing NASA for $300 million because Deep Impact’s impact will make it difficult for her to do her job — voa BoingBoing
US space agency (Nasa) scientists are celebrating after seeing a probe crash into the heart of a comet. The washing machine-sized impactor
collided with Comet Tempel 1 at a relative speed of 37,000km/h, throwing up a huge plume of icy debris. The probe’s mothership, the Deep Impact spacecraft, watched the event from a safe distance, sending images to Earth
Jonathan Huebner, a Naval Air Warfare Centre physicist, claims that the rate of technological innovation is actually decreasing, not increasing exponentially as some people believe. Huebner says that there are now fewer important technological developments per billion people
than at any time since the 17th century. He says the rate of technological innovation reached a peak a century ago and has been declining ever since. And like the lookout on the Titanic who spotted the fateful iceberg, Huebner sees the end of innovation looming dead ahead
A collection of notes by the 17th century English mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton, that scientists thought had been lost forever, have been found
US scientists have managed to revive dead dogs to life, by using a technique similar to cryogenation, in which the dogs’ blood was drained and replaced by a cold, saline liquid. A couple of hours, their blood was replaced, and an electric shock brought them back to life with no brain damage. The technology will be tested on humans within the next year. Bear in mind this comes via one of Murdoch’s tabloids and they’re never known for fact checking or truthful reporting
It’s a technology that could one day aid buildings to survive earthquakes or hurricanes. It could be used to remotely control the viscosity of liquid shock absorbers in cars, or the lubricants in robotic joints. Japanese researchers have devised a way to turn a range of oily liquid solutions to jelly using a burst of sound waves. The jelly can then be shocked back into becoming a liquid. Until now, there had been no method to achieve instant, remote and reversible control between stable liquid and gel phases at ambient temperatures
Real Simple provides a useful guide to expiration dates and how long dozens of products last — via BoingBoing
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