Month: September 2007

Galaxy ‘Hunting’ Made Easy

ESO 40/07 – Galaxy ‘Hunting’ Made Easy
Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have discovered in a single pass about a dozen otherwise invisible galaxies halfway across the Universe. The discovery, based on a technique that exploits a first-class instrument, represents a major breakthrough in the field of galaxy ‘hunting’.

There are estimated to be hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe, but only about a dozen that sit in front of quasars have been detected at such a distance from Earth. The latest finds have doubled this tally.

Light from the newly found galaxies comes from the time the universe was about 6 billion years old, less than half its current age. By studying the light, the researchers have determined they are starburst galaxies that form lots of new stars — the equivalent of 20 suns a year.

Wind power takes a toll on migratory bats

Wind power takes a toll on migratory bats
The danger of wind turbines to birds has long been known and well documented. Most recently several studies and articles have attempted to place the level of bird casualties in perspective: “More birds killed by cats than wind turbines”. But lesser known—and lesser studied—is the effect wind turbines have on bat populations. Collisions between groups of bats and wind turbines have been observed at numerous turbines in America, Australia, and Europe. While these fatalities, sometimes killing hundreds of bats, have been seen for years, their cause remains unknown.

Though a distressing and new issue, wind turbines are not the only threat to bat populations. Years of pesticide use has taken heavy tolls on insectivorous bats, while timber roofs treated with toxic chemicals is another pollutant issue. Cavers disturbing bats amid hibernation can be devastating. Habitat loss continues to be a top threat—as it is with many species. Finally, these nocturnal flying-mammals are still greatly misunderstood; in some places species suffer systematic killing: people set fires inside caves or use shotguns to decimate what they consider a pest species. 

100-plus snakes greet Firemen.

Fire reveals 100-plus snakes
DELRAY BEACH — The hissing coming from the smoky warehouse Sunday morning wasn’t from fire.

When firefighters, responding to a 1:31 a.m. call, forced the door open, they found more than 100 boa constrictors and pythons – some on the loose.

Others were in metal, glass and plastic cages that had started melting when firefighters arrived at the warehouse at 340 N.E. Fourth St., Battalion Chief Russ Accardi said. The boas were about 8 feet long and the pythons 12 to 17 feet, he said. The big ones weighed about 200 pounds. Some of the smaller ones were dead when firefighters arrived. Continue reading “100-plus snakes greet Firemen.”

Ancient Records Indicate Climate Change

Ancient Records Help Test Climate Change – Forbes.com
EINSIEDELN, Switzerland –

A librarian at this 10th century monastery leads a visitor beneath the vaulted ceilings of the archive past the skulls of two former abbots. He pushes aside medieval ledgers of indulgences and absolutions, pulls out one of 13 bound diaries inscribed from 1671 to 1704 and starts to read about the weather. “Jan. 11 was so frightfully cold that all of the communion wine froze,” says an entry from 1684 by Brother Josef Dietrich, governor and “weatherman” of the once-powerful Einsiedeln Monastery. “Since I’ve been an ordained priest, the sacrament has never frozen in the chalice.”

Pfister has found that from 1900 to 1990, there was an average of five months of extreme warmth per decade. In the 1990s, that number jumped to an unprecedented 22 months. The same decade also had no months of extreme cold, in contrast to the half-millennium before.

Even in the last major global warming period from 900 to 1300, severe winters were only “somewhat less frequent and less extreme,” Pfister says. Over the past century, temperatures have gone up an average of 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit, which is often attributed to the accumulation of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere.

Stem Cells Save Endangered Fish

Salmon Spawn Baby Trout in Experiment – Forbes.com
Initial attempts to transplant sperm-producing cells into normal masu salmon mostly produced hybrids of the two species that didn’t survive.

This time, Yoshizaki engineered salmon to be sterile. He then injected newly hatched salmon with stem cells destined to grow into sperm that he had culled from male rainbow trout.

Once they were grown, 10 of 29 male salmon who got the injections produced trout sperm, called milt.

Here’s the bigger surprise: Injecting the male cells into female salmon sometimes worked, too, prompting five female salmon to ovulate trout eggs. That’s a scientific first, Yoshizaki said. The stem cells were still primitive enough to switch gears from sperm-producers to egg-producers when they wound up inside female organs, explained Idaho’s Cloud.

Then Yoshizaki used the salmon-grown trout sperm to fertilize both wild trout eggs and the salmon-grown trout eggs. DNA testing confirmed that all of the dozens of resulting baby fish were pure trout, he reported.

Moreover, those new trout grew up able to reproduce. Sockeye Salmon and Bluefin Tuna are the next endangered species that this technique will be tried on.

Get Spaced on the Net

Steve Bass’s Tips & Tweaks Outer Space Apps and Sites
For the last couple of days, I’ve had some fun exploring Google Sky and satellite videos. In the last of a series, here are some free tools and sites you can use to expand your knowledge of outer space.If you’re interested in tracking satellites and poking around in outer space (and haven’t had your fill with Google Sky), here are some programs and sites you might want to look at: Click on the Steve Bass link. Also check-out the 2 previous links on his page on Google Sky and Balloon pictures. You can also click on the picture and then on the video, from which this picture was taken.

London Most Expensive Place To Eat Out

Average Restaurant Meal in London: $79 | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited
London is the most expensive dining capital in the world, restaurant rating company Zagat said Tuesday.

The average meal in London costs just over $79, beating out Paris, at nearly $72 and Tokyo, at just over $71, according to the company’s survey of 5,300 Londoners.

That makes eating out in the British capital more than twice as expensive as New York, where the average meal costs $39.

What is the Average American Woman’s Bust Size?

What is the Average American Woman’s Bust Size? | LiveScience
In the last 15 years, the average bust size has increased from 34B to 36C. Whether the lift is due to breast augmentation surgeries or a side-effect of expanding waistlines is not known.

  • A single bra weighs about 1.6 ounces (45 grams) and contains more than 40 components.
  • Caterpillar spit, dirt, crude oil and molten metal are several of the ingredients in a bra.
  • More than 4 million new bras are created on average every day.
  • Consumers spend around $16 billion a year on bras.
  • Each woman owns an average of about six bras.

Eyes lock on different letters when reading

Eyes lock on different letters when reading | Science | Reuters
When we read our eyes lock on to different letters in the same word instead of scanning a page smoothly from left to right as previously thought, researchers said on Monday.

Using sophisticated eye tracking equipment, the team looked at letters within a word and found that people combined parts of a word that were on average two letters apart, said Simon Liversedge, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Southampton. Continue reading “Eyes lock on different letters when reading”

For the first time in 10,000 years, farming is not the dominating industry

For the first time in 10,000 years, farming is not the dominating industry « Peter S Magnusson
So, firstly, modernization of large economies is largely bypassing industrialization and going straight for service industries – in our western economies the service sector was about two-thirds of the economy, and has grown further (to 71.2%). But the so large parts of the world economy are moving straight to service industries that their roles have changed. Worldwide, in 1996 agriculture employed 42%, industry 21%, and services 37%. In 2006, the numbers are 36%, 22%, and 42%. So in the period, services has overtaken farming on a global scale. Continue reading “For the first time in 10,000 years, farming is not the dominating industry”