Monday 31 August 2015

M9 (NGC 6333)

M9 (NGC 6333)

Globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus.
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Scientists Find World’s Oldest Sea Scorpion

Scientists Find World’s Oldest Sea Scorpion

This huge animal likely fed on the soft-bodies of other invertebrates.
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Memorable Milky Way

Memorable Milky Way

"This was an extremely time consuming picture! This was created using 55 individual pictures at 85mm. 55 raw files are pretty big but the final panorama was 3Gb making it very slow to edit." Photo and description by David Crombie (linked in sources).
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Man Given Eight-Inch Bionic Penis After Losing Use Of Genitals In An Accident

Man Given Eight-Inch Bionic Penis After Losing Use Of Genitals In An Accident

A 43-year-old man who lost the use of his genitals at the age of six has been given a “bionic penis.” The new device, which is 20 centimeters (eight inches) long, uses fluids from an implant in his belly to inflate two tubes along its length. It is controlled by a button on his scrotum. Mohammed Abad from Edinburgh, Scotland, lost the use of his penis in a tragic accident as a child when he was hit by a car and dragged for 180 meters (600 feet).
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Three Category 4 Hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean: How Rare Is That?

Three Category 4 Hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean: How Rare Is That?

The Pacific Ocean saw a very rare occurrence on Saturday evening.
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Talking to ourselves: the science of the little voice in your head

Talking to ourselves: the science of the little voice in your head

If we want to understand what’s happening in the brain when people ‘hear voices’, we first need to understand what happens during ordinary inner speech. By Peter Moseley.
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NASA self-healing material can repair itself two seconds after being shot by a bullet

NASA self-healing material can repair itself two seconds after being shot by a bullet

While they might not be able to recreate the Terminator just yet, the discovery could have applications for everything from repairing spaceships to creating ‘self-healing’ military equipment.
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When Prisons Need to Be More Like Nursing Homes

When Prisons Need to Be More Like Nursing Homes

Finding new ways to treat the growing pool of older, ailing inmates. By Maura Ewing.
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The Cheshire Cat’s Grin

The Cheshire Cat’s Grin

Solving the greatest mystery of Wonderland, 150 years later. By David Day.
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​Hurricane Fred Forms in the Atlantic; Hurricanes Ignacio, Jimena in Pacific Should Miss Hawaii

​Hurricane Fred Forms in the Atlantic; Hurricanes Ignacio, Jimena in Pacific Should Miss Hawaii

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Fred's maximum sustained winds Monday morning are near 80 mph. Gradual weakening is forecast to begin Tuesday.
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Is Hawking any closer to solving the puzzle of black holes?

Is Hawking any closer to solving the puzzle of black holes?

The information paradox is one of the great mysteries in our understanding of black holes. But has the famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking found the solution? By Garaint Lewis.
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NASA Chief to Congress: 'Don't Make Us Hitch Rides With Russia'

NASA Chief to Congress: 'Don't Make Us Hitch Rides With Russia'

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden is tired of relying on the Russians to carry American astronauts into space. Currently, the United States pays for spots on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, which carry people and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting Earth. The White House decided to retire the Space Shuttle in 2004 after the Columbia disaster, leading to the final launch in 2011.
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“Grey swan” cyclones predicted to be more frequent and intense

“Grey swan” cyclones predicted to be more frequent and intense

Study finds some coastal regions may face a risk of unprecedented storm surge in the next century.
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New Map Plots North America’s Bounty of Rivers

New Map Plots North America’s Bounty of Rivers

More of North America’s land is covered by rivers than we thought, according to a new map. Scientists came up with a way to use satellite images to estimate the width of rivers and found that previous methods tended to underestimate how wide they are. The discovery could have implications for studies of flood risk as well as climate change impacts.
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How Smart Are Dolphins?

How Smart Are Dolphins?

Dolphins are one of the smartest animal species on Earth. In fact, their encephalization quotient (their brain size compared to the average for their body size) is second only to humans. But exactly how smart are they? Lori Marino details some incredible facts about dolphins.
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Size comparison of the universe 2015

Size comparison of the universe 2015

From the quantum size to the cosmic scale, the size comparison of the entire universe will show you how large things really are! This is an update to my previous size comparison video published on the same date in 2013.
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Supermoon Lunar Eclipse

Supermoon Lunar Eclipse

On September 27th, 2015 there will be a very rare event in the night sky – a supermoon lunar eclipse. Watch this animated feature to learn more.
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New seabed discovery rivals Great Barrier Reef

New seabed discovery rivals Great Barrier Reef

An expedition to the sea floor off Australia's southern coast has revealed an underwater Eden, scientists say.
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Tiny ant takes on pesticide industry

Tiny ant takes on pesticide industry

Studies show insects as effective or better than chemicals in controlling some crop pests
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Longer lasting ice-cream developed by scientists

Longer lasting ice-cream developed by scientists

A protein to make the frozen dessert melt more slowly has been discovered by physicists at Edinburgh and Dundee universities
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Paradigm Shift in Multidrug Resistance

Paradigm Shift in Multidrug Resistance

Michael Mahan discovers an unexpected resistance mechanism in pathogenic bacteria that may warrant changes in the way antibiotics are developed, tested and prescribed
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New “Tissue Velcro” could help repair damaged hearts

New “Tissue Velcro” could help repair damaged hearts

Engineers at the University of Toronto have created a biocompatible scaffold that allows sheets of beating heart cells to snap together just like Velcro™.
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The disturbing consequences of seeing your doppelganger

The disturbing consequences of seeing your doppelganger

One morning, a man discovered his double staring him in the eyes. Anil Ananthaswamy explores a dangerous hallucination that reveals how the brain constructs our sense of self.
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The Solar Sunflower: Harnessing the power of 5,000 suns

The Solar Sunflower: Harnessing the power of 5,000 suns

High on a hill was a lonely sunflower. Not a normal sunflower, mind you; that would hardly be very notable. This sunflower is a solar sunflower that combines both photovoltaic solar power and concentrated solar thermal power in one neat, aesthetic package that has a massive total efficiency of around 80 percent. The Solar Sunflower, a Swiss invention developed by Airlight Energy, Dsolar (a subsidiary of Airlight), and IBM Research in Zurich, uses something called HCPVT...
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Dark Matter May Be More Complex Than Physicists Thought

Dark Matter May Be More Complex Than Physicists Thought

Dark Matter — the unseen 80 percent of the universe’s mass—doesn’t emit, absorb or reflect light. Astronomers know it exists only because it interacts with our slice of the ordinary universe through gravity. Hence the hunt for this missing mass has focused on so-called WIMPs—Weakly Interacting Massive Particles—which interact with each other as infrequently as they interact with normal matter.
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Mysterious video of ants circling phone

Mysterious video of ants circling phone

Strange footage of ants snapping into formation when an iPhone gets a call has the internet spellbound.
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FAA starts testing its drone safety app

FAA starts testing its drone safety app

The B4UFLY app keeps UAV hobbyists in safe airspace.
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Sunday 30 August 2015

Are we all 'a little bit' OCD?

Are we all 'a little bit' OCD?

Clinical psychologist Uta Frith explores the many manifestations of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and why it differs from traits like fastidiousness
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AMAZING! Dive the great reefs of the world on Google Street View

AMAZING! Dive the great reefs of the world on Google Street View

The Catlin Survey is documenting the coral reefs of the world, and anyone can now watch them on Google Street View.
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China passes new pollution law, sets sights on coal consumption cap

China passes new pollution law, sets sights on coal consumption cap

The ruling Communist Party has acknowledged the damage that decades of untrammeled economic growth have done to China's skies, rivers and soil. It is now trying to equip its environmental inspection offices with greater powers and more resources to tackle persistent polluters and the local governments that protect them.
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What Is The Great Attractor?

What Is The Great Attractor?

There’s something out there so massive that it’s pulling on every object within hundreds of millions of light years, we call it the Great Attractor and we’re flying towards this unseen object at 14 million miles an hour.
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Subatomic particles that appear to defy Standard Model points to undiscovered forces

Subatomic particles that appear to defy Standard Model points to undiscovered forces

Subatomic particles have been found that appear to defy the Standard Model of particle physics. The team working at Cern's Large Hadron Collider have found evidence of leptons decaying at different rates, which could possibly point to some undiscovered forces. Publishing their findings in the journal Physical Review Letters, the team from the University of Maryland had been searching for conditions and behaviours that do not fit with the Standard Model.
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Thinking too much: self-generated thought as the engine of neuroticism

Thinking too much: self-generated thought as the engine of neuroticism

The personality dimension of neuroticism captures trait individual differences in proneness to negative psychological states of all types. High scorers on neuroticism are especially vulnerable to psychiatric illness and also tend to perform poorly in dangerous jobs, yet are typically more creative than average individuals. Despite its important effects on the human experience, currently we lack a mechanistic neurocognitive account that...
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Nothing but water: Hydrogen fuel cell unit to provide renewable power to Honolulu port

Nothing but water: Hydrogen fuel cell unit to provide renewable power to Honolulu port

As the most oil-dependent state in the nation and one that could be most affected by rising sea levels, Hawaii has become an early adopter of emerging technologies and innovative energy solutions.
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MIT invents 'breakthrough' 3D printer that can print 10 different materials simultaneously

MIT invents 'breakthrough' 3D printer that can print 10 different materials simultaneously

Researchers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have made a breakthrough in the field of 3D printing, developing a 3D printer prototype that is able to print up to 10 different materials simultaneously onto a single object. At the moment, most conventional 3D printers can only print out one material layer-by-layer at a time, whether it be plastic, metal, ceramics or wood, and users need to...
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The race for the unbreakable password is almost over

The race for the unbreakable password is almost over

Consumers may soon have access to quantum cryptography, a system for building secret codes that are so secure and difficult to intercept, some call it unhackable.
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NASA's Pluto probe is heading for the Kuiper belt

NASA's Pluto probe is heading for the Kuiper belt

The targeted Kuiper belt object is a perfect, frozen example of the outer solar system's state during the birth of our solar system.
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Oliver Sacks, eminent neurologist and author of Awakenings, dies aged 82

Oliver Sacks, eminent neurologist and author of Awakenings, dies aged 82

Author who also wrote The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat revealed in February that he was in the late stages of terminal cancer
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The Moon is about to do something very weird — and people think it's a sign of the apocalypse

The Moon is about to do something very weird — and people think it's a sign of the apocalypse

The full Moon in September will be both the darkest and brightest of the year — and some have said that the Blood Moon could be a sign of the apocalypse.
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Inside the most expensive nuclear bomb ever made

Inside the most expensive nuclear bomb ever made

Could America's latest atomic weapon ignite a new arms race?
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New NASA Satellites Could Help Improve Hurricane Warnings

New NASA Satellites Could Help Improve Hurricane Warnings

Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, scientists are building eight suitcase-sized satellites that they say will drastically improve hurricane forecast and warning systems.
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Seeing the Brain's Broken Cables

Seeing the Brain's Broken Cables

A new imaging technique helps researchers map the damage from traumatic brain injury with unprecedented accuracy.
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Flying Girls: A Compendium of WW2 Airplane Pin-Ups

Flying Girls: A Compendium of WW2 Airplane Pin-Ups

Since the Egyptians had their chariots, the Vikings had their ships and the Zulu warriors had their shields, man has been decorating his instruments of war.
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NASA begins year-long 'Mars isolation' experiment

NASA begins year-long 'Mars isolation' experiment

A crew testing how a small group of humans might cope with a trip to Mars has started their 12-month mission. They will have to eat, communicate, and live exactly as they would on Mars - in a tiny dome in Hawaii.
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Surprising benefits of sexually transmitted infections

Surprising benefits of sexually transmitted infections

Some microbes passed on during sex could actually be good for us, are most of us missing out?
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10 Years After Hurricane Katrina: Have Weather Forecasts Improved?

10 Years After Hurricane Katrina: Have Weather Forecasts Improved?

Though meteorologists knew Hurricane Katrina would slam New Orleans with levee-toppling intensity, today's weather forecasters are even better equipped to give notice of a storm's coming havoc.
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Saturday 29 August 2015

Neil deGrasse Tyson has a warning for politicians who cherry-pick science

Neil deGrasse Tyson has a warning for politicians who cherry-pick science

Danthropology
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Aboriginal Astronomy - Emu in the sky

Aboriginal Astronomy - Emu in the sky

The photograph above shows the aboriginal "emu-in-the-sky" constellation in the sky. It won its creator, Barnaby Norris, third prize in the prestigious 2007 "Eureka" awards. To see the "constellation", look at the dark dust-clouds, not the stars!
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The Swan in the Sky

The Swan in the Sky

Cygnus, is a constellation that is full of interest, and which contains a wide variety of fascinating objects. It is so far north that it is on view from England for much of the year, and anyone who owns a telescope or a pair of binoculars can have endless enjoyment by exploring the 'Swan in the sky'.
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Why NASA’s so worried that Greenland’s melting could speed up

Why NASA’s so worried that Greenland’s melting could speed up

NASA is flexing its muscles to study Greenland in particular, and that entails two major types of research: studying the melting that is occurring on top of the ice sheet, and studying the melting of its outlying, oceanfront glaciers, which often calve off gigaton-sized icebergs into the sea, with enough force to generate powerful earthquakes.
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