The SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY News Thread

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

Frozen Android phones give up data secrets

the system is call ice cream

[LoweGear]

Phys.org: Russia finds 'new bacteria' in Antarctic lake

Originally Posted by Phys.org

Russian scientists believe they have found a wholly new type of bacteria in the mysterious subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica, the RIA Novosti news agency reported on Thursday.

The samples obtained from the underground lake in May 2012 contained a bacteria which bore no resemblance to existing types, said Sergei Bulat of the genetics laboratory at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics.

"After putting aside all possible elements of contamination, DNA was found that did not coincide with any of the well-known types in the global database," he said.

"We are calling this life form unclassified and unidentified," he added.

The discovery comes from samples collected in an expedition in 2012 where a Russian team drilled down to the surface of Lake Vostok, which is believed to have been covered by ice for more than a million years but has kept its liquid state.

Lake Vostok is the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica and scientists have long wanted to study its eco-system. The Russian team last year drilled almost four kilometres (2.34 miles) to reach the lake and take the samples.

Bulat said that the interest surrounded one particular form of bacteria whose DNA was less than 86 percent similar to previously existing forms.

"In terms of work with DNA this is basically zero. A level of 90 percent usually means that the organism is unknown."

He said it was not even possible to find the genetic descendants of the bacteria.

"If this had been found on Mars everyone would have undoubtedly said there is life on Mars. But this is bacteria from Earth."

Bulat said that new samples of water would be taken from Lake Vostok during a new expedition in May.

"If we manage to find the same group of organisms in this water we can say for sure that we have found new life on Earth that exists in no database," Bulat said.

Exploring environments such as Lake Vostok allows scientists to discover what life forms can exist in the most extreme conditions and thus whether life could exist on some other bodies in the solar system.

There has long been excitement among some scientists that life theoretically could exist on Saturn's moon Enceladus and the Jupiter moon Europa as they are believed to have oceans, or large lakes, beneath their icy shells.

The possibility that the lake existed had first been suggested by a Soviet scientist in 1957. Scientific research drilling in the area started in 1989 and the lake's existence was confirmed only in 1996.

The drilling project is of major importance for the prestige of science in Russia and Russian leader Vladimir Putin was given a sample of water from Lake Vostok last year when the expedition began.

[ChainLegacy]

Awesome. Unique life in such an environment could lend credence to the idea that Europa may have life too. Would love to see more research as it comes along.

[SaintessHeart]

Russian FSB Director : Quick! Take a sample and put it into the Bio-Preparat!

[RRW]

Joe Landolina may have invented a cure for bleeding. He claims that his creation, a substance called Veti-Gel, jump-starts the clotting and healing process so quickly that even wounds to internal organs or major arteries are able to close up instantaneously. And Joe has accomplished all this by his third year of college at NYU.

"It instantly tells the body, 'OK, stop the bleeding,' but also it starts the healing process," said Landolina.

http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/resear...halts-bleeding

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by RRW

http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/resear...halts-bleeding

This student probably played too much Mass Effect.

[ogon_bat]

3D printing technology advances continue on schedule:

Man Has 75% of Skull Replaced By 3D-Printed Materials

[RRW]

The SXSW Gaming Expo is preposterously loud. At one side of the room, a Starcraft tournament is reaching its climax, but on the other side, one group of guys is yelling louder. They sound like a basement full of adolescents discussing the newest Electronic Gaming Monthly cover story, or like the NINTENDO SIXTY-FOUR kid unwrapping his Christmas present.

“Is the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality 3D headset, the future of gaming?” they ask. “Or, is it something bigger — the future of life on planet Earth?”

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/9/408...rail-of-gaming

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by RRW

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/9/408...rail-of-gaming

first 3d hologram

next the Holodeck

[Ithekro]

I remember playtesting a 3D headset once long ago. Never did see a finished product for it come out.

[ChainLegacy]

I sure do hope they can make VR a functional, believable thing in my lifetime. Seems like one of the coolest possible directions video games could go in.

[LoweGear]

While this is somewhat related to the 2011 Japan Earthquake, its implications are more far reaching, so I'll post it here instead:

Space Safety Magazine: GOCE Satellite Felt Tohoku Earthquake from Orbit

Originally Posted by Space Safety Magazine

Coinciding with the two year anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, sparking a tsunami that killed 20,000 people and causing a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima-Daitchi nuclear plant, researchers have announced that the earthquake’s effects were felt all the way from space.

“Seismologists are particularly excited by this discovery because they were virtually the only Earth scientists without a space-based instrument directly comparable to those deployed on the ground,” said Raphael Garcia from the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology.

A preliminary publication in Geophysical Research Lectures demonstrates that acoustic waves propagated 270 km above the earthquake. These waves altered the atmospheric density in that region and vertically disrupted ESA’s GOCE satellite. GOCE is a highly sensitive gravity-mapping satellite. It’s low-flying orbit is necessary to its mission, but requires highly accurate compensation for the relatively high atmospheric drag in that region. Very precise accelerometors take care of this compensation, and it is they that allowed scientists to infer atmospheric density values along its orbital trajectory.

[erneiz_hyde]

Naturally it still can't predict earthquakes with how the new method reportedly work. Actually, seems like it's using earthquakes as its source, not what it detects (in the same vein that seismology doesn't 'detect' blast waves, they're 'using' them to detect underground structures and the like). This seems more like the discovery in gravity method, of what tomography is in the seismic method, if even that.

I don't really see the far-reaching consequences for now since what this does is already being done, but it is certainly a scientifically intriguing thing to explore.

[ogon_bat]

Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde

Naturally it still can't predict earthquakes

There are other methods to predict earthquakes, but some people thought is was just a method to produce mass hysteria.

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by ogon_bat

There are other methods to predict earthquakes, but some people thought is was just a method to produce mass hysteria.

Earthquake prediction has been regarded among geophysicists as something akin to Laplace's Demon: nobody really take it seriously anymore (it's theoretically possible, but practically impossible).

But it certainly is sad that this doesn't translate well in to sociopolitical situations. Any kind of conventional prediction have months sometimes years as error. So they're (we are ) damned if right, damned if wrong .

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde

Earthquake prediction has been regarded among geophysicists as something akin to Laplace's Demon: nobody really take it seriously anymore (it's theoretically possible, but practically impossible).

But it certainly is sad that this doesn't translate well in to sociopolitical situations. Any kind of conventional prediction have months sometimes years as error. So they're (we are ) damned if right, damned if wrong .

Yhep. Don't forget those Italian scientists that got charged with manslaughter for failing to predict an earthquake.

[AnimeFan188]

Russia to replace current bombers with subsonic flying wing:

"The Russian air force has selected a subsonic Tupolev flying wing proposal as the
basis for its PAK-DA long-range bomber programme, according to command
sources quoted by local media. If confirmed, the choice would end a long
campaign by deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin to develop a hypersonic
aircraft, which appears to have been abandoned as technically incompatible with
the air force's insistence on extended-range performance and stealth
characteristics."

See:

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/art...g-wing-383065/



Looks like the Russians are going for a B-2 wannabe.

[AnimeFan188]

Meet the Sun’s new neighbors:

"Today, an astronomer announced that by scanning archival images dating back
to 1978, he has located a binary star system only 6.5 light years from Earth. This
is close enough that it qualifies as the third-closest star system to our Solar
System. The system is composed of two brown dwarfs orbiting each other with a
period of about 25 years."

See:

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/...new-neighbors/

[AnimeFan188]

New study validates longevity pathway:

"A new study demonstrates what researchers consider conclusive evidence that
the red wine compound resveratrol directly activates a protein that promotes
health and longevity in animal models. What's more, the researchers have
uncovered the molecular mechanism for this interaction, and show that a class of
more potent drugs currently in clinical trials act in a similar fashion. Pharmaceutical
compounds similar to resveratrol may potentially treat and prevent diseases
related to aging in people, the authors contend."

See:

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Ne...thway_999.html

[AnimeFan188]

3D printing gunmaker forms company to flout copyright law, à la the Pirate Bay:

"Less than two weeks ago, Texan gunsmith and law student Cody Wilson made
headlines (Ars included) when he demonstrated a new 3D-printed lower receiver
for an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle that can fire more than 600 rounds. At that time,
the United States Department of Justice told Ars that Wilson's initiative was
completely legal."

"Wilson said DefCAD will become a for-profit corporation that will act as a one-
stop search engine for “3D printable models” of just about anything. In other
words, DefCAD hopes to be an expanded version of the physibles section on the
Pirate Bay.

“It maintains all the present features but we step it up a notch,” Wilson told
Ars. “The Pirate Bay has the right idea with physibles, but increasingly the fight is
going to be about physical copyright—we want to build one of the tools early.”"

See:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...he-pirate-bay/