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Keyword: science

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  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Nauset Light Star Trails

    10/10/2012 6:01:53 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 8 replies
    NASA ^ | October 10, 2012 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: In myth, Atlas holds up the heavens, but in this scene they seem to pivot around a lighthouse beacon. Photographed with a camera fixed to a tripod, the well-planned 30 minute exposure records star trails in the northern sky, reflecting the daily rotation of planet Earth. Hidden behind the top of the prominent Nauset Lighthouse on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA, the North Celestial Pole is at the center of all the star trail arcs. Making a complete circle, 360 degrees, in 24 hours, the star trail arcs cover 15 degrees each hour or 7.5 degrees in thirty minutes. Foreground...
  • Afterlife Exists Says Top Brain Surgeon

    10/10/2012 6:43:29 AM PDT · by Biggirl · 71 replies
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ^ | October 10, 2012 | Mark Hughes
    Dr Eben Alexander, a Harvard-educated neurosurgeon, fell into a coma for seven days in 2008 after contracting meningitis. During his illness Dr Alexander says that the part of his brain which controls human thought and emotion "shut down" and that he then experienced "something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death." In an essay for American magazine Newsweek, which he wrote to promote his book Proof of Heaven, Dr Alexander says he was met by a beautiful blue-eyed woman in a "place of clouds, big fluffy pink-white ones" and "shimmering beings".
  • Mystery Behind Supernova SN 1006 Solved?

    10/09/2012 3:49:42 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 8 replies
    Discovery News ^ | Monday, October 8, 2012 | Jennifer Ouellette
    Historical accounts from all over the world describe a spectacularly bright "guest star" in the night sky during the spring of 1006 -- what we now know as a supernova (SN 1006). Now astronomers think they have pinpointed the probable cause of that massive explosion, one thousand years later: a merging of two white dwarf stars. SN 1006 made quite a splash on its debut around May 1, 1006, in the constellation Lupus (the Wolf) just south of Scorpio. The critics raved! Monks in a Benedictine abbey in Switzerland marveled at the star's brightness, and commented on the variability of...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Simeis 147: Supernova Remnant

    10/09/2012 3:52:11 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 5 replies
    NASA ^ | October 09, 2012 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: It's easy to get lost following the intricate filaments in this detailed mosaic image of faint supernova remnant Simeis 147 (S147). Also cataloged as Sh2-240, it covers nearly 3 degrees or 6 full moons on the sky. That's about 150 light-years at the stellar debris cloud's estimated distance of 3,000 light-years. Anchoring the frame at the right, bright star Elnath (Beta Tauri) is seen towards the boundary of the constellations Taurus and Auriga, almost exactly opposite the galactic center in planet Earth's sky. This sharp composite includes image data taken through a narrow-band filter to highlight emission from hydrogen...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Spherical Planetary Nebula Abell 39

    10/08/2012 8:17:39 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 8 replies
    NASA ^ | October 08, 2012 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: Ghostly in appearance, Abell 39 is a remarkably simple, spherical nebula about five light-years across. Well within our own Milky Way galaxy, the cosmic sphere is roughly 7,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Hercules. Abell 39 is a planetary nebula, formed as a once sun-like star's outer atmosphere was expelled over a period of thousands of years. Still visible, the nebula's central star is evolving into a hot white dwarf. Although faint, the nebula's simple geometry has proven to be a boon to astronomers exploring the chemical abundances and life cycles of stars. In this deep image recorded under...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- The Same Color Illusion

    10/06/2012 9:43:54 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 19 replies
    NASA ^ | October 07, 2012 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: Are square A and B the same color? They are! To verify this, either run your cursor over the image or click here to see them connected. The above illusion, called the same color illusion, illustrates that purely human observations in science may be ambiguous or inaccurate. Even such a seemingly direct perception as relative color. Similar illusions exist on the sky, such as the size of the Moon near the horizon, or the apparent shapes of astronomical objects. The advent of automated, reproducible, measuring devices such as CCDs have made science in general and astronomy in particular less...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- At the Heart of Orion

    10/06/2012 1:07:39 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 5 replies
    NASA ^ | October 06, 2012 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at the heart of the Orion Nebula, are four hot, massive stars known as the Trapezium. Gathered within a region about 1.5 light-years in radius, they dominate the core of the dense Orion Nebula Star Cluster. Ultraviolet ionizing radiation from the Trapezium stars, mostly from the brightest star Theta 1 Orionis C powers the complex star forming region's entire visible glow. About three million years old, the Orion Nebula Cluster was even more compact in its younger years and a recent dynamical study indicates that runaway stellar collisions at an earlier...
  • European Food Safety Authority Finds Controversial GM Study Wanting

    10/05/2012 7:03:13 PM PDT · by neverdem · 12 replies
    ScienceNOW ^ | 4 October 2012 | Gretchen Vogel and Martin Enserink
    Enlarge Image Controversial kernels. The European Food Safety Authority is questioning the validity of a high-profile study that found an association between genetically modified corn and cancer in rats. Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) says a recent study on the toxicity of genetically modified maize and a common herbicide is inconclusive. The study, published on 19 September, claimed to find that rats fed genetically modified maize developed tumors at a higher rate than control animals. The study received wide press attention, although it was criticized by many scientists for its design and its...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Aurora and Fireball Over Norway

    10/05/2012 4:40:53 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | October 05, 2012 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: What's happening behind that mountain? A convergence of variable sky spectacles. One night in mid-September near Tromsø, Norway, high red aurora could be seen shimmering through lower green aurora in a way that created a striking and somewhat unusual violet glow. Suddenly, though, the sky flashed with the brightest fireball the astrophotographer had ever seen, as a small pebble from outer space violently crashed into the Earth's atmosphere. The glow illuminated the distant mountain peak known as Otertinden of the Lyngen Alps. The bright meteor, which coincidently disappeared behind the same mountain, was also reflected in the foreground Signalelva...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula

    10/05/2012 4:40:35 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | October 04, 2012 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: A mere seven hundred light years from Earth, in the constellation Aquarius, a sun-like star is dying. Its last few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a well studied and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula, typical of this final phase of stellar evolution. A total of 58 hours of exposure time have gone in to creating this deep view of the nebula. Accumulating narrow band data from emission lines of hydrogen atoms in red and oxygen atoms in blue-green hues, it shows remarkable details of the Helix's brighter inner region, about 3 light-years across, but...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Goat Aurora Over Greenland

    10/03/2012 3:19:15 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 21 replies
    NASA ^ | October 03, 2012 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: Sometimes it's hard to believe what you see in the sky. During the Shelios Expedition to Greenland in late August, even veteran sky enthusiasts saw auroras so colorful, so fast changing, and so unusual in form that they could remember nothing like it. As the ever changing auroras evolved, huge shapes spread across the sky morphed from one familiar form into another, including what looked to be the head of a goat (shown above), the head of an elephant, a strange green-tailed comet, and fingers on a celestial hand. Even without the aurora, the sky would be notable for...
  • The Atlantic: Tin Foil Hats Actually Make it Easier for the Government to Track Your Thoughts

    10/02/2012 5:58:58 PM PDT · by a fool in paradise · 25 replies
    The Atlantic ^ | Sep 28 2012, 11:38 AM ET | Matt Soniak
    ...The scientific reasoning behind the foil helmet is that it acts as a Faraday cage, an enclosure made up of a conducting material that shields its interior from external electrostatic charges and electromagnetic radiation by distributing them around its exterior and dissipating them. While sometimes these enclosures are actual cages, they come in many forms, and most of us have probably dealt with one type or another. Elevators, the scan rooms that MRI machines sit in, "booster bags" that shoplifters sometimes use to circumvent electronic security tags, cables like USB or TV coaxial cables, and even the typical household microwave...
  • Political Non-Science [ and why you're called Nazis]

    10/02/2012 4:24:34 AM PDT · by Cincinatus' Wife · 34 replies
    The American Spectator ^ | October 2, 2912 | Lars Walker
    ...It's a tragedy of history that Karl Marx chose to dress his theories in the clothing of scientific analysis. Ever since his time, Marxists have built systems on his theories in the settled faith that their daring new policies must bear fruit,because they're based on "irrefutable science." And yet, time and again, those policies have failed. Science isn't supposed to work that way. So the Marxists are forced to ask, "What can explain such an anomaly? How can science be wrong?" The answer is always the same–"Wreckers have been at work. Saboteurs, ungrateful for the blessings of socialism, are conspiring...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- An Ancient Stream Bank on Mars

    10/02/2012 3:33:37 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 5 replies
    NASA ^ | October 02, 2012 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: Fresh evidence of an ancient stream has been found on Mars. The robotic rover Curiosity has run across unusual surface features that carry a strong resemblance to stream banks on Earth. Visible in the above image, for example, is a small overhanging rock ledge that was quite possibly created by water erosion beneath. The texture of the ledge appears to be a sedimentary conglomerate, the dried remains of many smaller rocks stuck together. Beneath the ledge are numerous small pebbles, possibly made smooth by tumbling in and around the once-flowing stream. Pebbles in the streambed likely fell there as...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Introducing Comet ISON

    10/01/2012 3:46:01 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 6 replies
    NASA ^ | October 01, 2012 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: Could this dim spot brighten into one of the brightest comets ever? It's possible. Alternatively, the comet could break up when it gets closer to the Sun, or brighten much more modestly. Sky enthusiasts the world over are all abuzz, though, from the more optimistic speculations -- that the newly discovered C/2012 S1 (ISON) could develop a spectacular tail or briefly approach the brightness of the full Moon toward the end of 2013. Comet ISON currently is very faint but is just visible at magnitude 18 in the above image. The comet, discovered just over a week ago from...
  • Biblical-Type Floods Are Real, and They’re Absolutely Enormous

    09/30/2012 6:17:06 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 37 replies
    Discover Magazine ^ | August 29, 2012 | David R. Montgomery
    Geologists long rejected the notion that cataclysmic flood had ever occurred—until one of them found proof of a Noah-like catastrophe in the wildly eroded river valleys of Washington State. After teaching geology at the University of Washington for a decade, I had become embarrassed that I hadn’t yet seen the deep canyons where tremendous Ice Age floods scoured down into solid rock to sculpt the scablands. So I decided to help lead a field trip for students to see the giant erosion scars on the local landforms. We drove across the Columbia River and continued eastward, dropping into Moses Coulee,...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- A Galaxy Collision in NGC 6745

    09/30/2012 4:03:09 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 19 replies
    NASA ^ | September 30, 2012 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: Galaxies don't normally look like this. NGC 6745 actually shows the results of two galaxies that have been colliding for only hundreds of millions of years. Just off the above digitally sharpened photograph to the lower right is the smaller galaxy, moving away. The larger galaxy, pictured above, used to be a spiral galaxy but now is damaged and appears peculiar. Gravity has distorted the shapes of the galaxies. Although it is likely that no stars in the two galaxies directly collided, the gas, dust, and ambient magnetic fields do interact directly. In fact, a knot of gas pulled...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula

    09/29/2012 6:53:10 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 15 replies
    NASA ^ | September 29, 2012 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: Like delicate cosmic petals, these clouds of interstellar dust and gas have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus. Sometimes called the Iris Nebula and dutifully cataloged as NGC 7023 this is not the only nebula in the sky to evoke the imagery of flowers. Still, this remarkable image shows off the Iris Nebula's range of colors and symmetries in impressive detail. Within the Iris, dusty nebular material surrounds a hot, young star. The dominant color of the brighter reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting starlight. Central filaments of the...
  • Agenda Driven Polls (Saturbray)

    09/29/2012 7:51:08 AM PDT · by bray · 7 replies
    www.brayincandy.com ^ | 9/29/12 | bray
    As John was completing his Work, he said: “Who do you think I am? I am not that one. No, but he is coming after me, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” Acts 13:25 The Obamamedia can fool some of the Republicans all of the time and all of the Republicans some of the time but the Press Corpse can’t fool all of us all of the time. It appears the poll scam has run its course and we will now begin to see more true results as the election nears. When everybody is seriously questioning why the...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- APOD: 2012 September 28 - Stars in a Dusty Sky

    09/28/2012 4:06:50 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 5 replies
    NASA ^ | September 28, 2012 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: Bright star Markab anchors this dusty skyscape. At the top right corner of the frame, Markab itself marks a corner of an asterism known as the Great Square, found within the boundaries of the constellation Pegasus, the flying horse. The wide and deep telescopic view rides along for some 5 degrees or about 10 times the angular diameter of the Full Moon, with blue reflection nebulae scattered around the scene. And even though this line-of-sight looks away from the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, it covers a region known to be filled with nearby molecular clouds. The associated...