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January 31, 20072007 science budget should increase says CongressThe Chronicle of Higher Education: Late Monday night Congress's Democratic leadership proposed a spending bill for the rest of the 2007 fiscal year that would provide comparatively large increases for the maximum Pell Grant award and for physical-sciences and biomedical research. Has the White House interfered on global warming reports?The Christian Science Monitor: A new report claims that the Bush administration has suppressed scientists' climate-change work. The next generation of neutrino telescopesCern Courier: Physicists met in Uppsala to consider how the next generation of high-energy neutrino detectors can contribute to new physics as well as to study cosmic phenomena. Geologists watch as Africa rips apartMSNBC: Seismic activity is tearing Africa apart and scientists are geared up to watch the ripping landscape in an unprecedented set of observations. January 30, 2007Hubble telescope loses camera after fuse blowsUSA Today: The Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope has failed and can't be fully repaired, NASA officials said Monday. The camera was installed on the HST in 2002 and is scheduled to be replaced in the 2008 service mission. "Obviously we're very disappointed," said Hubble program manager Preston Burch. The lost instrument "was the newest camera, the highest-tech instrument and … the most heavily in demand." Two-thirds of the most recent proposals for use of Hubble required the advanced camera, he said. World scientists near consensus on warmingNew York Times: Scientists from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are expected to conclude later this week in a new IGPCC report that there is at least a 90 percent chance that human-caused emissions are the main factor in warming since 1950. First nonpolar blue-violet laser diodes announcedEuropean Design Engineer: Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, led by Shuji Nakamura--who invented the blue laser--have achieved lasing operation in nonpolar gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors and demonstrated the world's first nonpolar blue-violet laser diodes. University Failures Threaten Iraq's ProfessionalsNPR (audio): Only 30 percent of Iraq's university students are currently attending classes — the lowest level since U.S. troops invaded Iraq four years ago. The universities, which are directly linked to Iraq's future, are on the verge of collapse. January 29, 2007Breakthrough spurs microchip arms raceThe Boston Globe: Intel Corp. is set to capitalize on a new breakthrough in microchip technology more quickly than its rival AMD, but analysts say the advantage will only be temporary. U.S. Ocean Research Catches a WaveScienceNow: Hurricanes, healthy fisheries, and rapid climate change are among the top priorities in an ocean research plan released here today by the White House. At the same, the Bush Administration announced it plans to ask for $143 million in new funds for ocean research and conservation in next month's 2008 budget request to Congress. "It's a good day for ocean science," says Shirley Pomponi, President and CEO of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce, Florida. Conference Focuses on Speed of Climate ChangeNPR: Scientists gather in Paris to update a U.N.-sponsored study on global warming. One big revision is how human activity is not just causing climate change, but that it appears to be happening so rapidly. With Apologies, Nuclear Power Gets a Second LookThe New York Times: Few subjects seem less suited to the intoxicating air of the World Economic Forum’s annual conference than nuclear energy. Aging, expensive, unpopular, and still vulnerable to catastrophic accidents, it is the antithesis of the kinds of cutting-edge solutions that beguile the wealthy and well intentioned, who gather each winter in this Alpine ski resort. January 26, 2007Labs brace for budget freezeChicago Maroon: University-managed Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are facing a federal funding shortfall that could severely hamper the progress of major projects, lead to employee layoffs, and prompt a month-long shutdown. Report Backs NSF Prize to Spur InnovationScience: The National Science Foundation (NSF) should test the waters before plunging into a costly program to award prizes to encourage innovation. That's the verdict of an expert panel of the National Academies' National Research Council, which has cautiously endorsed an idea Congress had ordered NSF to consider. Ironically, legislators may have lost interest. Universities unite for joint physics schoolGuardian Unlimited: Birmingham, Nottingham and Warwick universities today announced the creation of a joint graduate school for physics. Unwinding the gyroballSports Illustrated: The physics behind the mysterious pitch and the burning question of whether Matsuzaka throws it January 25, 2007Weapons-grade uranium found on arrested smugglerThe New York Times: Last January, a Russian man with sunken cheeks and a wispy mustache crossed into Georgia and traveled to Tbilisi by car along a high mountain road. In two plastic bags in his leather jacket, Georgian authorities say, he carried 100 grams of uranium so refined that it could help fuel an atom bomb. Congress push to replace administration's new mercury planThe Christian Science Monitor: Mercury's tendency to pollute locally has caused the Bush administration's emissions-trading scheme to be called into question. High-density memory: A switch in timeNature: By 2020 the semiconductor industry wants a memory device that can store a trillion bits of information in an area the size of a postage stamp. As companies race towards this goal, chemists are coming up with an unusual approach. Philip Ball reports. Sea levels to rise over next 1000 yearsReuters: World sea levels will keep rising for more than 1,000 years even if governments manage to slow a projected surge in temperatures this century blamed on greenhouse gases, a draft U.N. climate report says. January 24, 2007Report Has 'Smoking Gun' on ClimateLos Angeles Times: Human-caused global warming is here, visible in the air, water and melting ice, and is destined to get much worse in the future, an authoritative global scientific report will warn next week. Ball Lightning Mystery Solved? Electrical Phenomenon Created in LabNational Geographic: Brazilian scientists may have solved a shocking scientific mystery by creating ball lightning in the lab. Study Says Tapping of Granite Could Unleash EnergyThe New York Times: The United States could generate as much electricity by 2050 as that flowing today from all of the country’s nuclear power plants by developing technologies that tap heat locked in deep layers of granite, according to a new study commissioned by the Energy Department. Can a 'leaky' levee save the Louisiana coast?The Christian Science Monitor: A bold US Army Corps of Engineers plan would build a semipermeable 'Great Wall of Louisiana' to preserve marshlands. January 23, 2007Nuclear inspectors barred from Iran
China confirms satellite downedBBC: China has confirmed it carried out a test that destroyed a satellite, in a move that caused international alarm. Making Sense of Time, Earthbound and OtherwiseThe New York Times: More than three weeks have passed since the great Waterford disco ball dropped over Times Square, and most of us are taking 2007 in stride. The time is flying by, just as it does when we’re having fun, approaching a deadline or taking a standardized test on which our entire future depends, though not, oddly enough, when we ourselves are flying, especially not when we are seated in the last row, near the bathrooms. NASA's Big Chore: Dusting on the MoonNPR: As NASA makes plans to go back to the moon, it must face a problem that Apollo astronauts recognized when they last walked on the lunar surface more than 30 years ago. The moon is covered in dust that's so incredibly fine and abrasive, it could potentially damage everything from space suits to an astronaut's lungs. Synchrotron for neutral molecules builtEarthtimes.org: German scientists reported the construction and successful operation of the world's first synchrotron for neutral molecules. January 22, 2007The Atomic Secrets of Accurate Time KeepingNPR: Clocks measure time. But have you ever wondered how they do it? For this week's Science Out Of The Box, the answer can be found at the U.S. Naval Observatory's master clock facility. That's where the Navy fires a microwave beam at an atom to keep time. Prophet of Doomsday: Stephen Hawking, eco-warriorThe Independent: 'In a world that is in chaos, politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?' So asked the most famous scientist on the planet, the newest recruit to the mission to save the Earth. James Hillier, 91, Dies; Co-Developed Electron MicroscopeThe New York Times: James Hillier, a physicist and inventor who helped develop an early and commercially successful electron microscope for RCA and then found ways to apply it for medical research, died last Monday in Princeton, N.J. He was 91. Bush Expected to Make Call for Improved Fuel EconomyThe New York Times: There is widespread anticipation, inside government and outside, that President Bush will call for better fuel economy in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. January 19, 2007Chinese test anti-satellite weaponLos Angeles Times: The Chinese military shot down one of its own aging satellites with a ground-based ballistic missile last week, demonstrating a new technological capability at a time of growing Bush administration concern over Beijing's military modernization and its intentions in space. Hartmann: The planetary renaissance manScience: Scientific innovator from the moon to Mars, author of textbooks and novels, and space artist, William Hartmann is the independent scientist writ large. China starts thinking about alternative energyThe New York Times: On the vanguard of venture capital, the buzzwords of late have been “alternative energy” and “China.” Are the two worlds about to collide? Seed investors are financing, or considering financing, start-ups in China that are developing equipment for wind and solar power, clean water and food alternatives and technology to promote energy efficiency. Climate@home analysis predicts warmer futureBBC: A computer model of climate run on home PCs in conjunction with the BBC has yielded its first results. January 18, 2007Organic semiconductors get read/write speed boostNature: The speed record for programming organic transistor memory has been shattered. Work is needed on the stability of the memory storage, but it's a promising step towards some novel technological applications. Bills on Climate Move to Spotlight in New CongressThe New York Times: Legislation to control global warming that once had a passionate but quixotic ring to it is now serious business. Congressional Democrats are increasingly determined to wrest control of the issue from the White House and impose the mandatory controls on carbon dioxide emissions that most smokestack industries have long opposed. Nanobatteries - Away with Exploding BatteriesThe Future of Things (TFOT): A new, safer type of Li-Ion nanobattery that might help prevent future fires and explosions related to conventional Li-Ion battery use has been developed by researchers at Tel Aviv University. These nanobatteries should also prove useful for various micro devices used for medical, military and a range of other applications. Moon-Based Instruments Could Change How We See EarthSpace.com: Space scientists are evaluating use of Moon-based instruments to study the Earth. Lunar situated sensors at an Earth Observatory could yield distinctive observations of our home world, its vegetation, polar caps, as well as monitor Sun/Earth interactions. Chinese scientists conduct more tests on thermonuclear fusion reactorEView Week: Chinese scientists have begun a new round of tests on the reliability of the experimental thermonuclear fusion reactor, nicknamed "the artificial sun". January 17, 2007The Doomsday Clock: Nuclear threat to world 'rising'The Independent: For 60 years, it has depicted how close the world is to nuclear disaster. Today, scientists will move its hands forward to show we are facing the gravest threat in at least 20 years Two physicists keeps on winning international prizesMonsters and Critics.com: A pair of European physicists who helped develop today's big computer drives and picked up one of Japan's top science prizes last week kept on the winning streak four days later with the award of Israel's 100,000-dollar Wolf Prize for Physics. Dwarf planet 'becoming a comet'BBC: An unusual dwarf planet discovered in the outer Solar System could be en route to becoming the brightest comet ever known. Volcanoes Erupt on Google EarthWired: Alaska's Aleutian Islands chain is a geologic, fire-breathing dragon with dozens of active volcanoes. To prevent a Vesuvius-style disaster, researchers at the Alaska Volcano Observatory have begun channeling eruption data into Google Earth. January 16, 2007Japan considers scrapping moon missionMSNBC: Decade of delays latest setback for country's space program NAS says Earth science under threatVarious: The New York Times, the Environmental News Network and the Washington Post all report that a National Academy of Sciences panel has concluded that NASA's earth science budget declined 30% in the last six years. The cutbacks leave many Earth satellite programs at risk with major delays expected in the launching some of its most important new instruments. New race for automakers: build a better batteryThe Christian Science Monitor: Can you imagine this scenario: An American automaker leapfrogs its Japanese competitors with a gasoline-electric hybrid that gets 150 miles to the gallon and can travel 40 miles on battery power alone? Where Protons Will PlayThe New York Times Magazine : Physicists across the world are looking forward to Large Hadron Collider being turned on later this year. For the past generation, physics has been in something of a rut says New York Times reporter Jim Holt. There have been plenty of findings from smaller colliders, but the results have mostly been expected. To make further progress — to understand why the basic forces of nature have such wildly varying strengths, or why elementary particles have the seemingly arbitrary masses they do, or how all these forces and particles fit together in a single mathematical framework — data from higher realms of energy are needed. The L.H.C. should take physicists to those realms. January 12, 2007The wonder and complexity of snow crystalsThe Baltimore Sun: It's official: meteorologists logged 2006 as the warmest year on record in the United States. No need to remind Ken Libbrecht. "Terrible year," says the California Institute of Technology physicist, one of a handful of scientists who takes serious the study of snowflakes. 9/11 2008: Shuttle to visit Hubble telescopeThe New York Times: The Hubble Space Telescope has a new, resonant date with destiny. NASA has set Sept. 11, 2008, as the target date for launching a mission intended to revitalize the telescope and keep it spaceworthy into the next decade, according to a planning document made public by nasawatch.com, an independent Web site. With Plutonium, Even Ceramics May SlumpScience: Crystalline ceramics such as zircon, a promising idea for immobilizing nuclear waste, may not be so solid after all. A new study reveals that alpha radiation could break down this ceramic's structure more rapidly than assumed. |