http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/science/ en-us Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:31:21 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2416646/posts PARIS — Mobile satellite communications startup OverHorizon of Sweden has selected Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy, and Orbital Sciences of Dulles, Va., to build its first satellite, to be launched in early 2012 under a contract announced by the manufacturers Dec. 23. Space News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2416646/posts#comment Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:31:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416156/posts Nothing much is going to happen in the next 10 years. Of course, that’s not counting the diesel-excreting bacteria, the sequencing of your entire genome for $1,000, massive banks of frozen human eggs, space tourism, the identification of dark matter, widespread sterilisation of young adults, telepathy, supercomputer models of our brains, the discovery of life’s origins, maybe the disappearance of Bangladesh and certainly the loss of 247m acres of tropical forest. As I said, just another decade really. These days, “just another decade” always means 10 years of future shock. Science, technology and the contemporary mania for change combine to... The Sunday Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416156/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:27:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416056/posts What revelations caused the biggest buzz in chemistry labs around the globe during 2009? With the help of an expert panel of journal editors, Chemistry World reviews the ground-breaking research and important trends of the year's published chemical science papers. Life in 3D DNA origami, the folding of DNA into shapes on the nanoscale, moved from 2D into 3D during 2009. Hao Yan's team at Arizona State University kicked off this craze with a tetrahedron shaped 3D container made of DNA.1 A day later, Danish researchers led by Kurt Gothelf, from Aarhus University, published details of a nanosized 3D DNA... Chemistry World http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416056/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:39:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415996/posts See link in post below Source cannot be posted http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415996/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:23:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415631/posts WATERLOO, Ont. (Monday, Dec. 21, 2009) - Cosmic rays and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), both already implicated in depleting the Earth's ozone layer, are also responsible for changes in the global climate, a University of Waterloo scientist reports in a new peer-reviewed paper. In his paper, Qing-Bin Lu, a professor of physics and astronomy, shows how CFCs - compounds once widely used as refrigerants - and cosmic rays - energy particles originating in outer space - are mostly to blame for climate change, rather than carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. His paper, derived from observations of satellite, ground-based and balloon measurements as well... University of Waterloo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415631/posts#comment Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:11:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415528/posts A revolutionary new operation which could effectively cure high blood pressure has been developed by scientists, offering hope to hundreds of thousands of sufferers. In what is being hailed as the most exciting development in the field for 50 years, doctors can treat the condition with a simple procedure in under an hour. It could allow some sufferers to come off medication completely and offer hope for those for whom existing treatments have no effect. The technique, which is relatively straightforward and cheap for the NHS, could reduce the risk of a major heart attack or stroke in such patients... Telegraph UK http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415528/posts#comment Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:19:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415393/posts In a developing animal, stem cells proliferate and differentiate to form the organs needed for life. A new study shows how a crucial step in this process happens and how a reversal of that step contributes to cancer. The study, led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, shows for the first time that three proteins, called E2f1, E2f2 and E2f3, play a key role in the transition stem cells make to their final, differentiated, state. These proteins help stimulate stem cells to grow and proliferate. But... Ohio State University Medical Center via biologynews.net http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415393/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:39:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415172/posts SCIENCE is one of the great achievements of the human mind and the biggest reason why we live not only longer but more vigorously in our old age, in addition to all the ways in which it provides us with things that make life easier and more enjoyable. Like anything valuable, science has been seized upon by politicians and ideologues, and used to forward their own agendas. This started long ago, as far back as the 18th century, when the Marquis de Condorcet coined the term "social science" to describe various theories he favored. In the 19th century, Karl Marx... San Gabriel Valley Tribune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415172/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 02:34:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2414590/posts Russian design studio Art Lebedev calls this simple invention--a camera that takes images from the front of a truck to show it on screens in the back--Transparentius. I call it geeneeuzz. I don't know why the drawing below shows a tank at the front of the truck, but I guess that in Russia people drive T-90s like people drive Fords in the U.S. I wish the technology was so cheap that this could be implemented for real, because I'm sure being able to see what's in the blind zone before switching lanes would save a lot of lives on the CNET News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2414590/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:37:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414583/posts From a long-sealed cave tomb, archaeologists have excavated the only known Jesus-era burial shroud in Jerusalem, a new study says. The discovery adds to evidence that the controversial Shroud of Turin did not wrap the body of Christ, researchers say. [ snip ] The weave of the Tomb of the Shroud fabric, the new study says, casts further doubt on the Shroud of Turin as Jesus' burial cloth. The newfound shroud was something of a patchwork of simply woven linen and wool textiles, the study found. The Shroud of Turin, by contrast, is made of a single textile woven in... National Geographic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414583/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:28:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414289/posts Butte-Silver Bow County will erect a permanent building in its TIFID for the testing of rocket engines. Kristen Rosa, administrator of the Tax Increment Finance Industrial District, said that the steel-sided structure could be in operation by next spring. "It will help them be able to test bigger and bigger rocket engines," Rosa said. (cut) Space Propulsion Group Inc., a Stanford University-affiliated company, visited Butte a number of times last year to test fuels used in hybrid rockets. The approximately eight-second tests were done on the smaller 11-inch models, but thanks to the new building companies will be able to... Montana Standard http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414289/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:13:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414127/posts Yesterday, Dec. 22nd at approximately 0455 UT, magnetic fields around sunspot 1036 erupted, producing a C7-class solar flare. NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft was almost directly above the sunspot at the time of the blast and recorded this extreme ultraviolet movie: The shadowy wave racing away from the blast site is a "solar tsunami"--a swell of hot, magnetized plasma about 100,000 km high packing as much energy as a million megatons of TNT. The tsunami petered out before it went more than halfway around the sun, but another manifestation of the blast is still going. The eruption hurled a faint coronal mass... Spaceweather.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414127/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:05:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413741/posts During the 70 years that the communists controlled the Soviet Union, they had a peculiar way of teaching history to the people. They would teach things as historical fact that never happened. If you were one of those who took umbrage with their revisionist history lessons, you would soon find yourself living in a tiny apartment in a part of the country where they laugh at anyone who claims the world is getting warmer. In a communist country this is the only way to convince the masses that they are actually better off than anyone in the history of... Enterprise Record Post Scripts http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413741/posts#comment Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:19:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2413295/posts Our President has once again jetted off on AF1. Yep, he’s back in Copenhagen to save the world from those evil carbon footprints like the giant ones emitting from his 747. The health care debate is at an impasse, at least for a short time, and can wait until he saves the world—again (yaaaaaaaaaaawn!) Despite the efforts of Senators Joe Lieberman and Tom Coburn, a truncated bill of some kind will probably get passed against citizen wishes by about 60% against VS 35% for. All this will do is glorify the “One” currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when he... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2413295/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:45:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412993/posts Believers in human-caused global climate change have been placed under an uncomfortable spotlight recently. That is thanks to the Climategate scandal, centering on e-mails hacked from the influential Climate Research Unit (CRU) at England’s University of East Anglia. The e-mails show scientists from various academic institutions hard at work suppressing dissent from other scientists who have doubts on global warming, massaging research data to fit preconceived ideas, and seeking to manipulate the gold standard “peer review” process to keep skeptical views from being heard. Does this sound familiar at all? To me, as a prominent skeptic of modern Darwinian theory,... Human Events http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412993/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:53:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412663/posts Science is one of the great achievements of the human mind and the biggest reason why we live not only longer but more vigorously in our old age, in addition to all the ways in which it provides us with things that make life easier and more enjoyable. Like anything valuable, science has been seized upon by politicians and ideologues, and used to forward their own agendas. This started long ago, as far back as the 18th century, when the Marquis de Condorcet coined the term "social science" to describe various theories he favored. In the 19th century, Karl Marx... Jewish World Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412663/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:39:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412555/posts Boeing's X-51A WaveRider — a jet-fueled, air-breathing hypersonic rocket — is one step closer to reality. In tests over Edwards Air Force Base in California, a B-52 bomber carried the X-51A WaveRider aloft for the first time, announced manufacturer Boeing Corp. The test was a key milestone in preparation for the X-51A to light its supersonic "ramjet" engine and propel the WaverRider at hypersonic speed for about 5 minutes, before plunging into the Pacific Ocean FOX http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412555/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:12:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2411746/posts I have to admit it. I am jealous of former Vice President Al Gore. I want what he's got, at least in a generalized way. It isn't that I envy him for having been vice president. The number two spot has traditionally been one not well regarded and only a few VPs have made the position an important one, if only in a fleeting way. Thomas Jefferson did some excellent work fashioning the procedure of the Senate while he was the veep, Nixon became an important part of Ike's foreign policy team, and Dick Cheney became, well, Dick Cheney! But... Publius Forum http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2411746/posts#comment Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:09:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2411435/posts Our President has once again jetted off on AF1. Yep, he’s back in Copenhagen to save the world from those evil carbon footprints like the giant ones emitting from his 747. The health care debate is at an impasse, at least for a short time, and can wait until he saves the world—again (yaaaaaaaaaaawn!) Despite the efforts of Senators Joe Lieberman and Tom Coburn, a truncated bill of some kind will probably get passed against citizen wishes by about 60% against VS 35% for. All this will do is glorify the “One” currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when he... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2411435/posts#comment Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:18:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410992/posts As most of you know, the international recognition of me as a scientist began with the day that I captured lightning with a kite. Had I done that experiment the way the popular myth says, I probably would have been electrocuted, an early end to an ordinary career. You probably recall that my formal education ended when I was 14. After that, I bought and read every worthwhile book I could find. I died in 1790, but one aspect of the Other Side that I can share with you is that we get to read and see whatever interests us... American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410992/posts#comment Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:16:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2410952/posts "Everyone loves a good road movie, whether it's Hope and Crosby or Fonda and Hopper. But the scope of those films pales in comparison to the ground covered by the Hayden Planetarium's new video, The Known Universe. The video starts in Tibet and zooms out through time and space until it shows well, the entire known universe. The video, created for the new Rubin Art Museum exhibit Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, uses over a decade of data collected by researchers at the planetarium. Called the Digital Universe Atlas, the data encompasses the... PopSci http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2410952/posts#comment Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:11:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2410707/posts Not only do the findings of science have moral implications, the actual work of scientific research presupposes that the researcher himself is a man of virtue. When scientific research is divorced from, or worse opposed to, the life of virtue it is not simply the research or the researcher that suffers but the whole human family. Take for example, the scandal surrounding the conduct of researchers at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at East Anglia University in the UK. Whether or not the recently revealed emails and computer programs from undermine the theory of anthropological global warning (AGW), it is... Catholic Education Resource Center http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2410707/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:54:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2410698/posts If we wanted to add a twentieth-century name to the list of prophets, I would nominate Robert Nisbet (1914-1996), who would not be surprised by recent revelations that an elite group of global-warming experts have been reckless with their "science" and ruthless towards their scientific peers I refer to the scandal that broke at the disclosure of private e-mails among leading climatologists connected to the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, one of the nerve centers for global warming studies. As former Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson summarizes the preliminary evidence for the London Times: "(a)... Catholic Education Resource Center http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2410698/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:37:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2410693/posts Our President has once again jetted off on AF1. Yep, he’s back in Copenhagen to save the world from those evil carbon footprints like the giant ones emitting from his 747. The health care debate is at an impasse, at least for a short time, and can wait until he saves the world—again (yaaaaaaaaaaawn!) Despite the efforts of Senators Joe Lieberman and Tom Coburn, a truncated bill of some kind will probably get passed against citizen wishes by about 60% against VS 35% for. All this will do is glorify the “One” currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when he... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2410693/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:30:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410617/posts This week, the nations of the world are wrapping up a massive global conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark. During the opening ceremony, a powerful video was presented to the conference delegates. In it, a young girl has a horrifying nightmare. In her dream, she awakes to a dusty, deserted, barren wasteland. As she explores, she comes upon an abandoned swing set. Suddenly, the ground cracks beneath her feet. She drops her stuffed animal as she sprints from a burgeoning earthquake, only to turn and see the sky covered in darkness, and a swirling tornado heading her way. She... HeadlineBistro.Com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410617/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:15:38 GMT