2013 could be the best year for comet spotting in generations | Crave - CNET

2013 could be the best year for comet spotting in generations | Crave - CNET

"The moon could have some serious competition in 2013. 

No, we're not finally building a real Death Star, no matter how much the American people demand one. I'm talking about a surprise visit from a recently discovered heavenly body known as the comet Ison. The chunk of ice and rock has likely broken free from the Oort cloud and is heading our way right now. If it survives the journey, astronomers say it could become even brighter than our lunar neighbor in the night sky as it makes a pass through our neighborhood next fall."

It'll be nice to have something like this to look forward to in December 2013.  If course, it may be a flop like the recent apocalypse scare when the Mayan calendar rolled over to a new cycle....

Seriously, a lot can happen to a comet on its long journey.  The chances of it hitting anything are remote, but you never know.  It should be interesting to follow this as astronomers are tracking its progress.

Magnetic Polar Shifts Causing Massive Global Superstorms - Salem-News.Com

Magnetic Polar Shifts Causing Massive Global Superstorms - Salem-News.Com:

"(CHICAGO) - NASA has been warning about it…scientific papers have been written about it…geologists have seen its traces in rock strata and ice core samples…

Now 'it' is here: an unstoppable magnetic pole shift that has sped up and is causing life-threatening havoc with the world's weather. ..."

Anyone who reads topographical maps has ween the diagram on the bottom edge that points to true north and magnetic north, and if you are like me, have maps of the same region that are 40 years apart in their publication dates, knows that true and magnetic north are not equivalent in most parts of the world. And they also know that the difference between the two has changed over the years.

Close to 40 years ago, in college, I took a number of courses in geology, and one of the many interesting things I learned was that the magnetic poles are constantly shifting and have actually reversed many times in geological history. The recent acceleration of the shifting of the magnetic pole suggests that a reversal may be on its way.

What is more significant is the effect the the Earth's magnetic field has on weather patterns, and the increasing chances of "super storms" and climate changes of regions of the world.

FoxNews.com - Magnetic North Pole Shifts, Forces Runway Closures at Florida Airport

FoxNews.com - Magnetic North Pole Shifts, Forces Runway Closures at Florida Airport:

"The planet's northern magnetic pole is drifting slowly but steadily towards Russia -- and it's throwing off planes in Florida. ..."

This is something that has been known for some time -- that the magnetic poles migrate, and even totally reverse polarity. It generally is seen as somewhat akin to watching glaciers move. I have topographical maps of the same region separated by 30 or more years, and the magnetic declination has changed significantly, but it rarely causes an impact except Boy Scouts who have to adjust their compasses in order to chart an accurate route.

What I am curious about is why, in the age of GPS satellites, is air travel still needing to use magnetic north for navigation?

Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug dies at 95 - CNN.com

Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug dies at 95 - CNN.com:

"(CNN) -- Nobel laureate Norman E. Borlaug, an agricultural scientist who helped develop disease-resistant wheat used to fight famine in poor countries, died Saturday. He was 95.

Borlaug died from cancer complications in Dallas, Texas, a spokeswoman for Texas A&M University said."

The world has lost a giant in the field of agriculture and humanitarianism. Norman Borlaug spent his life not only doing research in increasing crop production, but spending his time living in the areas which stood most to gain by higher yields in crop production.

A little over two years ago I posted an article on the occasion of his being awarded a Congressional Gold Medal for his work. I repeat a quote from that posting:

Norman Borlaug has not been without his critics, especially for his emphasis on fertilizer and large-scale mechanized agriculture. His answer is a real zinger: "some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They've never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they'd be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things."

Much of Borlaugs work can be summarized in what has become known as the "Borlaug Hypothesis" -- By increasing the efficiency of crop production, the need for deforestation for agricultural purposes is reduced. His work had and will continue to have far-reaching effects.

French physicist d'Espagnat wins prestigious Templeton Prize | Science | Reuters

French physicist d'Espagnat wins prestigious Templeton Prize | Science | Reuters:

"PARIS (Reuters) - French physicist and philosopher Bernard d'Espagnat has won the 2009 Templeton Prize, billed as the world's largest annual award to an individual, for his work affirming the spiritual dimension of life. ..."

d'Espagnat, A quantum physicist, holds that ultimate reality cannot be described using traditional Newtonian physics. He is quoted as saying "Mystery is not something negative that has to be eliminated, on the contrary, it is one of the constitutive elements of being."

Researchers find safer way to make stem cells | Science | Reuters

Researchers find safer way to make stem cells | Science | Reuters:

"LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers said on Sunday they had found a safer way to transform ordinary skin cells into powerful stem cells in a move that could eventually remove the need to use human embryos.

It is the first time that scientists have turned skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells -- which look and act like embryonic stem cells -- without having to use viruses in the process. ..."

This is a significant advance over previous news of adult stem cell research. Embryo farming just does not seem to be a good solution on more than one level. If pluripotent stem cells can be induced from an adult with health issues, then you not only avoid some of the ethical issues, but you might also avoid the issues with tissue matching that plague transplantation.

Whooping crane count in Texas up to record 270 | Top stories | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Whooping crane count in Texas up to record 270 | Top stories | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

"LAMAR, Texas — The whooping crane population has set another record with 270 of the endangered birds wintering on the Texas Coastal Bend.

The birds in the world's only wild flock spend each winter in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas before returning to Canada and the Wood Buffalo National Park.

Tom Stehn, whooping crane coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the flock size is up four from last year. The worldwide population, which includes both wild and captive birds, stood at more than 500 in September. The low for the species was 15 in 1941. ..."

My earliest memories of the whooping crane were that the count was hovering around thirty. During the same time frame, the brown pelican was on the verge of extinction because DDT applications had weakened the shells of their eggs to the point where almost no young were being born.

The whooping crane and the brown pelican recoveries are two good examples of why environmental protection and mitigation are important.

Year that could be turning point on disease - Times Online

Year that could be turning point on disease - Times Online:

"A tissue reprogramming technique that promises an almost limitless source of stem cells without the need to destroy embryos has been named as the breakthrough of the year by the prestigious journal Science.

The method for turning back the clock on adult tissue, so it acquires the versatile properties of embryonic stem cells, heads a list of ten achievements that also includes the direct observation of planets orbiting distant stars, and cheaper and faster technologies for mapping the genetic code.

The stem-cell advance, made by separate teams in Japan and the United States, has excited scientists because it could lead to tissue therapies for diseases such as Parkinson’s and diabetes grown from a patient’s own skin. ..."

With all the recent buzz that the new administration will roll back stem cell restrictions, it seems that new discoveries will reduce or even eliminate the need to resort to harvesting embryos for stem cells. No less a respected scientific journal than Science has named this the breakthrough of the year, and the advantages lie not only in eliminating one of the significant bioethical barriers to using stem cells, but also the fact that by using a patient's own cells, the problem of tissue rejection is greatly reduced.

Searching for the Star of Bethlehem | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Searching for the Star of Bethlehem | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction:

"Using powerful computer software, an Australian astronomer says that he has re-created the night sky over Bethlehem in the year 2 B.C. and discovered a planetary conjunction that may have been the Star of Bethlehem that drew the Magi to worship the baby Jesus.

Astronomer Dave Reneke said the close proximity of Venus and Jupiter created a spectacle in the night sky just before the summer solstice that year. Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported that Reneke went so far as to suggest that perhaps Christmas should be celebrated on June 17 rather than December 25. An interesting idea, since the December Christmas celebration probably doesn't mark the true birth day of Jesus either. The December observance has its roots in a Roman celebration of the winter solstice."

Here is an interesting summary of various theories on what constituted the Star of Bethlehem. Since this was a physical phenomenon, it is certainly within the realm of science to propose possible explanations. Adding in historical references in the Gospels that constrain the actual year of the birth of Jesus to sometime before Herod the Great died in 4 B.C., there are a limited number of theories that actually fit the known facts. Read the full article for further information.

Hubble scores a perfect ten

Hubble scores a perfect ten:

"The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is back in business. Just a couple of days after the orbiting observatory was brought back online, Hubble aimed its prime working camera, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), at a particularly intriguing target, a pair of gravitationally interacting galaxies called Arp 147."

Good to see the Hubble Space Telescope back in business. Its contribution to not only our knowledge but our enjoyment has been immense.

Follow the link back to the article for a higher-resolution image of this astronomical feature.

Congress's copyright fight puts open access science in peril: Page 1

Congress's copyright fight puts open access science in peril: Page 1:

"In recent years, scientific publishing has changed profoundly as the Internet simplified access to the scientific journals that once required a trip to a university library. That ease of access has caused many to question why commercial publishers are able to dictate the terms by which publicly funded research is made available to the public that paid for it.

Open access proponents won a big victory when Congress voted to compel the National Institutes of Health to set a policy of hosting copies of the text of all publications produced by research it funds, a policy that has taken effect this year. Now, it appears that the publishing industry may be trying to get Congress to introduce legislation that will reverse its earlier decision under the guise of strengthening copyright protections. ..."

As this article points out, the taxpayer pays not only for the research, but the publication costs -- yet is charged once again for reprints.

A researcher who publish the results of his or her research is often required to sign over the copyright to the publisher, thus losing the right to make copies of the paper for a class without paying a fee for offprints. The cost to a library for a journal subscription is pretty high as well. No wonder the publishers are fighting this new law (about a year old), and are trying to get it overturned or modified heavily in their financial favor.

The existing law was meant to make the results of research more available to the public and this would be a major step backward.

Scientists start world's biggest physics experiment | Science | Reuters

Scientists start world's biggest physics experiment | Science | Reuters:

"GENEVA (Reuters) - International scientists celebrated the successful start of a huge particle-smashing machine on Wednesday aiming to recreate the conditions of the 'Big Bang' that created the universe.

Experiments using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the biggest and most complex machine ever made, could revamp modern physics and unlock secrets about the universe and its origins. ..."

Well, we're still around. Unless the view from inside a black hole is the same as the real world...

Of course, this was just a one-way acceleration of protons. The fun stuff will take place in the weeks and months to come when they will actually "cross the beams."

What's wrong with science as religion | Salon

What's wrong with science as religion | Salon:

"July 31, 2008 | PZ Myers is a true believer, a science crusader with the singled-minded enthusiasm of a televangelist. A biologist at the University of Minnesota at Morris and a columnist for Seed magazine, Myers has earned notoriety with his blog, Pharyngula, in which he reports on new developments in biology and indiscriminately excoriates those he views as hostile to science, a pantheon of straw men and women that includes theologians, journalists and churchgoers. He is Richard Dawkins without the fame or felicitous prose style. ..."

Karl Giberson, who holds a doctorate in physics, has written a response to those scientists who have replaced faith in God with faith that science is capable of explaining everything. Dr. Giberson, who has defended Darwin and science in his book Saving Darwin, does not mince words over the way that some scientists have taken on a religious fervor in not only promoting the scientific method, but at the same time ridiculing people whose faith is in a Creator or worse, labeling them as dangerous.

If you are interested in part of the background of Giberson's article, follow the link to Pharyngula, Dr. Myers' blog. It makes for interesting reading, and I have to say that Dr. Giberson does not misrepresent what can be found there.

Workings of Ancient ‘Computer’ Deciphered - NYTimes.com

Workings of Ancient ‘Computer’ Deciphered - NYTimes.com:

"After a closer examination of the Antikythera Mechanism, a surviving marvel of ancient Greek technology, scientists have found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games.

The new findings, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, also suggested that the mechanism’s concept originated in the colonies of Corinth, possibly Syracuse, in Sicily. The scientists said this implied a likely connection with the great Archimedes. ..."

This device is quite sophisticated for its time, which suggests that earlier versions must have been made, yet thus far this is the only one found.

Earlier blog entries on this:

• EurekAlert!: Mystery of ancient astronomical calculator unveiled
• Nature: Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism

How reliable is DNA in identifying suspects? - Los Angeles Times

How reliable is DNA in identifying suspects? - Los Angeles Times:

"State crime lab analyst Kathryn Troyer was running tests on Arizona's DNA database when she stumbled across two felons with remarkably similar genetic profiles.

The men matched at nine of the 13 locations on chromosomes, or loci, commonly used to distinguish people.

The FBI estimated the odds of unrelated people sharing those genetic markers to be as remote as 1 in 113 billion. But the mug shots of the two felons suggested that they were not related: One was black, the other white. ..."

Conventional wisdom has suggested for many years that DNA testing is as close to objective truth as you can get. Even when questions get raised they usually involve contamination or faulty procedures. It appears that a closer look needs to be taken at how these tests are employed as evidence.

It seems that nine genetic markers were considered sufficient in the past for establishing DNA matches, although many states are now using 13 markers. One of the cases in this article involved DNA from a crime committed 20 years ago, and such older samples may not have been tested for any more than nine markers.

Of particular concern are the allegations in this Los Angeles Times article that the FBI attempted to suppress these findings and made threats to states performing what came to be known as an "Arizona search" that their access FBI resources could be cut off. While such sanctions have not yet been taken, further searches have revealed a number of similar matches between unrelated people around the country.

This is a scientific issue, and must be dealt with using the open methods of science. It does much damage to the cause of justice if the custodians of DNA databases try to prevent the sorts of comparisons described in this article.

World's Biggest Tsunami | 1720 feet-tall - Lituya Bay, Alaska

World's Biggest Tsunami | 1720 feet-tall - Lituya Bay, Alaska:

"On the night of July 9, 1958 an earthquake along the Fairweather Fault in the Alaska Panhandle loosened about 40 million cubic yards (30.6 million cubic meters) of rock high above the northeastern shore of Lituya Bay. This mass of rock plunged from an altitude of approximately 3000 feet (914 meters) down into the waters of Gilbert Inlet (see map below). The impact generated a local tsunami that crashed against the southwest shoreline of Gilbert Inlet. The wave hit with such power that it swept completely over the spur of land that separates Gilbert Inlet from the main body of Lituya Bay. The wave then contiuned down the entire length of Lituya Bay, over La Chaussee Spit and into the Gulf of Alaska. The force of the wave removed all trees and vegetation from elevations as high as 1720 feet (524 meters) above sea level. Millions of trees were uprooted and swept away by the wave. This is the highest wave that has ever been known. ..."

This is a fascinating story with contemporary eyewitness accounts, photographs, maps, and aerial photography.

A geologist was in the process of studying Gilbert Inlet for evidence of large waves in the past. There were at least four such waves in the past 150 years. This one not only dwarfed them all, but it erased all evidence that the earlier waves had even occurred.

It just boggles the mind to think how much energy was expended so as to mow down spruce forests at a height of 1720 feet above sea level -- and all this in an area roughly 2 miles wide and 7 miles long.

Atom-thick material runs rings around silicon - tech - 17 April 2008 - New Scientist Tech

Atom-thick material runs rings around silicon - tech - 17 April 2008 - New Scientist Tech:

"A leading contender to replace silicon as the basis for computing has made another step forward.

Transistors one atom thick and ten atoms wide have been made by UK researchers. They were carved from graphene, predicted by some to one day oust silicon as the basis of future computing.

For 40 years computing has been dominated by a rule of thumb named Moore's law, which predicts that the number of transistors on a chip will double roughly every two years.

Yet silicon, the material that has so far been used to keep up with Moore's law cannot form stable structures below 10 nanometres in size. And today's newest chips already have features just 45 nm across. The hunt is on for a replacement for silicon. ..."

Yesterday's blog entry was addressed by New Scientist three months ago with this story on the use of graphene, a flat sheet of carbon, one atom thick, with the atoms arranged in a honeycomb. While there has been success in the laboratory, it remains impractical to mass-produce with graphene.

Shrinking chip could keep us on track with Moore's law - tech - 10 July 2008 - New Scientist Tech

Shrinking chip could keep us on track with Moore's law - tech - 10 July 2008 - New Scientist Tech:

"Silicon chips could become even more densely packed with transistors thanks to a breakthrough that carves features in silicon that are many times smaller than the wavelength of the light used to make them.

The new approach produces grids of parallel lines just 25 nanometers wide using light with a wavelength of 351 nm. The grids are not functional circuits but could be made into working chips by adding extra small features.

The technique could help us keep track with Moore's law, which states that the number of transistors we can fit on a chip will double every two years. ..."

Just about a year ago, I blogged on a CNET article on Moore's Law which noted that 65nm chips were already here. This article notes that 45nm chips are being used in computers today, with 32nm chips already being made in laboratories. Moore's Law is clearly holding thus far.

This use of interference patterns (similar to what makes oily road surfaces appear multicolored when it rains) is not without its technical hurdles. Just being able to focus even short-waved ultraviolet light (350nm wavelength) to resolve features less than 1/10 that size is difficult.

But as long as smaller and smaller features can be etched into the silicon layer, then Moore's law will apply. Keep in mind that the next two years may bring 15nm chips -- which involve features about 30 atoms across. It's not going to hold forever.... At least not with silicon.

Empathy comes naturally to children: study | Science | Reuters

Empathy comes naturally to children: study | Science | Reuters:

"CHICAGO (Reuters) - When children see others in pain, their brains respond as if it were happening to them, U.S. researchers said on Friday.

This response, which also has been shown in adults, suggests that normal school-age children may be naturally prone to empathy, they said.

'What it shows us is that we have this inborn capacity to resonate with the pain of others. That's probably a very important step toward empathy,' said Jean Decety of the University of Chicago, whose study appears in the journal Neuropsychologia. ..."

When children are baptized in our congregation, a prayer is delivered that, among other petitions, asks God to "... grant [him|her] a quick concern for others. ..."

I have thought for a long time that children are born with that "quick concern for others", having seen not only my own son grow from a newborn infant to a boy who is fast approaching manhood, but a fair number of others in his age group.

Perhaps the Lord has already granted that prayer. It is up to us as parents to reinforce what children seem to be born with, because it seems to be be a behavior that dwindles over time.

A Renegade Against Greenpeace | Newsweek Future Of Energy | Newsweek.com

A Renegade Against Greenpeace | Newsweek Future Of Energy | Newsweek.com:

"Patrick Moore is a critic of the environmental movement—an unlikely one at that. He was one of the cofounders of Greenpeace, and sailed into the Aleutian Islands on the organization's inaugural mission in 1971, to protest U.S. nuclear tests taking place there. After leading the group for 15 years he left abruptly, and, in a controversial reversal, has become an outspoken advocate of some of the environmental movement's most detested causes, chief among them nuclear energy. NEWSWEEK's Fareed Zakaria spoke to Moore about his sparring with the green movement, and why he thinks nuclear power is the energy of the future."

There are more and more former anti-nuclear activists who are re-evaluating their stands based on science and reality. Some interesting statistics are presented in this short interview.

It's been years since I have gotten into a discussion with anti-nuclear folks, but there seem to be fewer and fewer scientists in such groups and more and more ideologues. And it's no fun arguing with ideologues...

My wife told me that the current Discover magazine has an article on the same topic. I was not able to wrest it out of her hand, but I'll take a look later. I should also note that she pointed me to this Newsweek article.