DARPA's Vulcan engine
CNET News.com: DARPA has released some information on how one might build a propulsion system that combines a Constant Volume Combustion (CVC) engine and a full-scale turbine engine to accelerate a jet to hypersonic speeds.
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June 30, 2008DARPA's Vulcan engineCNET News.com: DARPA has released some information on how one might build a propulsion system that combines a Constant Volume Combustion (CVC) engine and a full-scale turbine engine to accelerate a jet to hypersonic speeds. Simple steps to energy self-sufficiencyWashington Post: As energy costs continue to soar, home owners are becoming concerned that energy expenses could compromise their long-term housing plans. The Washington Post investigates five steps towards reducing your energy costs. June 27, 2008UK universities conduct more military research than previously thoughtNatureNews: Universities in the United Kingdom may be doing far more research for the military than official estimates acknowledge, according to a report released last week. Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR), a Folkestone-based group that campaigns against military spending, says that of 13 universities surveyed, 12 received an average of around £2.4 million (US$4.7 million) each to conduct military and security-related research between 2005 and 2006. Some received as much as £5 million. The figures contrast sharply with SGR's estimate of an average of £400,000 per UK university based on the official 2004 figure of a total of £44 million defence-related research grants across all UK universities. “Our analysis leads us to ask whether government statistics in this area are as reliable as they should be,” the study says. US government overwhelmed by number of solar energy projects
New York Times: Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years.
Ares V rocket gets power boostAviation Week : NASA planners have tentatively added an engine to its planned Ares V moon rocket, and increased the length of its shuttle-derived solid-rocket boosters to accommodate a larger hydrogen tank, as early work on lunar surface operations gets under way. As now conceived, the Ares V will use six Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-68 engines to power its core stage, and twin five-and-a-half segment versions of the four-segment ATK shuttle solid boosters. Previous Ares V concepts had five RS-68s and twin five-segment boosters that basically matched the first stage of its Ares I crew launch vehicle. Supplemental spending bill gives $400 million to four US science agencies
Science: Science agencies are barely a footnote in the $186 billion supplemental spending bill to continue funding the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan approved by the House of Representatives last week. But the footnote includes a welcome bump-up of $400 million for four agencies whose research budgets were flattened late last year by legislators.
Changes ahead for UK science fundingNature News: The UK government has invested heavily in science. Now it's looking for a return, and some worry that the research councils are being pressured to deliver, possibly at the expense of 'blue skies' research. Geoff Brumfiel looks at the changing landscape of science funding in Britain. Canada to launch early warning system to track asteriodsGlobe and Mail: The space telescope will be no bigger than a hefty suitcase and weigh just 65 kilograms, but the Canadian scientists behind the project say when the device is launched two years from now, it may well go on to save the world. The $12-million Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite, dubbed NEOSSat, is considered a world's first - designed specifically as an early warning system to pinpoint asteroids on a collision course with Earth. It will also detect space junk in the path of other orbiting satellites to prevent crashes that could shut down telecommunications - television, telephone, GPS and banking systems - around the globe. The long term career risk for young scientistsScience Progress: Mounting evidence suggests that looming institutional shortcomings are eroding the ability of the so-called “science pipeline” to produce a healthy future national science infrastructure—and unless we shift the traditional paradigm rapidly, the consequences could be dramatic. Two recent studies underscore this point: One, from the National Institutes of Health, reports that the current generation of young scientists may be turning away from careers in research due to funding issues and the need for institutional change. Concurrently, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ new report, “ARISE: Advancing Research In Science and Engineering,” concludes that early-career researchers face greater challenges today than ever. The continual and grueling search for funding, the Academy suggests, fosters overly conservative decisions about laboratory research directions, which in turn impede the impact of government-funded science and thwart the careers of younger talents. EU to cap airline emissionsENN: The European Union reached a landmark agreement Thursday to cap emissions from aircraft, raising the stakes in an increasingly ferocious battle with the United States over how to regulate global greenhouse gases. In the first requirement of its kind, all airlines arriving or leaving from airports located in the EU would be obliged to buy some pollution credits beginning in 2012, joining other industrial polluters that trade in the European emissions market. That includes non-European carriers like American Airlines and Singapore Airlines Prospecting for an superconducting iron ageNature: Different material options for high-temperature superconductivity— conduction of electricity with little or no resistance at 'practical' temperatures — have arrived. Iron compounds are the latest thing. ITER partners worry about cost increasesScience: Last week, ITER scientists revealed a new cost estimate for the multibillion-dollar fusion reactor that was 30% higher than earlier calculations. Now the project's seven international partners must decide whether they can afford it. Can seeding the atmosphere with sulfur dioxide combat climate change?Wired: It was one of the largest public demonstrations in US history. On June 12, 1982, an estimated 750,000 protesters thronged Central Park in New York City, chanting "No nukes!" and bearing signs reading "Reagan is a bomb — both should be banned" and "Arms are for embracing." Some demonstrators called for unilateral US disarmament, others for renewing arms control talks with the Soviet Union. It was a diverse coalition that had been pulled together by Ken Caldeira, a 25-year-old activist and computer geek. Back then he was paying the rent doing software consulting on Wall Street, but his passion for the environment would eventually lead him to become one of the nation's leading experts on global warming. The hole at the bottom of the MoonNature: A giant crater on the lunar farside holds the key to a catastrophic bombardment that reshaped the Moon, Earth and other planets. Eric Hand reports. Tunguska at 100Nature News: The most dramatic cosmic impact in recent history has gathered up almost as many weird explanations as it knocked down trees, writes Duncan Steel. June 26, 2008Meteor Strike explains Mars’s shapeThe New York Times: The lopsided shape of Mars may well be a result of a cataclysmic impact of a Pluto-size meteor billions of years ago, three teams of scientists are reporting. That would suggest that the lowlands of Mars’s northern hemisphere are a single gigantic impact crater, the largest crater in the solar system. Huge R&D investment required to make renewable energy affordableEnvironmental News Network: Major technological progress needed to make renewable energy affordable says a study by the RAND corpoaration. North Korea takes steps to abandon its nuclear weapons programThe Economist: The North Korean government prepares to blow up a cooling tower at its nuclear reactor UK report details migration patterns of scientists
Physics Today: Global competition for scientists and engineers (S&Es) is rising as their role in economic development is increasingly recognized. Many countries are looking to S&Es from overseas to address skills gaps: in February 2008 introduction of new immigration laws favouring some categories of skilled migrant began in the UK.
The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) recently looked at the causes and impacts of migration of S&Es, focusing on the impact of the developing world. According to POST many S&Es leave their countries due to low wages, lack of career development, and because of a lack of research funding. There is a net flow of S&Es from developing countries to developed countries. The net influx is allowing UK universities to continue teaching and conducting research in fields such as chemistry, physics and mathematics, where staff faculty numbers have been falling. Although India and China lose a high number of S&Es to developed countries, it is a small percentage of the overall skilled population (5%). Countries in sub-Saharan Africa such as Gambia have 60% of their S&E workforce abroad, leading too a significant effect on their education and technology base. Related Link The future of the International Linear Collider
Science: Efforts to develop the International Linear Collider (ILC), a 40-kilometer-long, straight-shot particle smasher, have taken some thumps in the past 16 months. But like a seasoned pugilist, the ILC has rolled with the blows, project leaders say. "We've been slowed down," says Barry Barish, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, who leads the ILC Global Design Effort (GDE). Still, he says, "in terms of the threat of it being turned off, I don't think there's much chance of that.
[From Whither the International Linear Collider? Science]
Quantum coherence and entanglement with ultracold atoms in optical lattices
Nature: At nanokelvin temperatures, ultracold quantum gases can be stored in optical lattices, which are arrays of microscopic trapping potentials formed by laser light. Such large arrays of atoms provide opportunities for investigating quantum coherence and generating large-scale entanglement, ultimately leading to quantum information processing in these artificial crystal structures. These arrays can also function as versatile model systems for the study of strongly interacting many-body systems on a lattice.
UK to develop microwave-based crowd control systemThe Times: The Home Office has been investigating the use of high-tech pain rays against mobs as an alternative to the water cannon, according to a report by its Scientific Development Branch due to be published next month. The so-called active denial system (ADS) projects microwave-like radiation for distances of more than 500 yards, creating an excruciating, full-body burning sensation in anyone caught in its beam. The millimetre-wave rays penetrate skin to a depth of about 1/64in but cause no permanent damage, according to Raytheon, the system’s US-based maker. June 25, 2008White House refused to open EPA's email on CO2 emissionsThe New York Times: The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials said last week. How america will help create a nuclear-free worldFinancial Times: When candidates agree, it is not always front-page news. Election coverage hinges on conflict. Effective governance works differently. The next president must work to build consensus to get things done. Nuclear security is an excellent place to start; in fact, a remarkable bipartisan consensus is emerging that can help the 44th president revolutionise America’s policy towards nuclear weapons. Proposed presidential debate on science should be reworked says ex-officialWired: Threat Level caught up with Mike Nelson, a visiting professor of internet studies at Georgetown University on Tuesday for a few quick questions about science and technology policy. Nelson was attending the two-day Personal Democracy Forum in New York City. Colourful future for MRI imagingNature: Optical imaging routinely uses multicoloured contrast agents ranging from traditional chemical dyes and fluorophores to specially engineered quantum dots. In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), contrast agents have also proved extremely useful, but their effects are largely indistinguishable from one another, leading to essentially monochrome contrast based on increased or decreased signal strength. Gary Zabow Stephen Dodd, John Moreland & Alan Koretsky are bringing 'colour' to MRI. They have developed an approach to produce MRI contrast agents with characteristic spectral signals, based on the control of mechanical structures. Different versions of these probes can be used simultaneously, and are distinguishable by the geometry-dependent spectral 'colour' of their signals. Related article June 24, 2008Studying electrons on the surface of a superconductorThe Vancouver Sun: Scientists said it was impossible. But a team of University of B.C. researchers proved them wrong by developing a way to control and study electrons on the surface of superconductors - a technique that could have implications for the next generation of computing and electronics. The climate dangers of coalThe Washington Post: "CO2from oil is going to get into the atmosphere," says James E. Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute, because "you're not going to be able to tell Saudi Arabia and Russia, the countries that have oil, not to sell their oil." Hansen's solution: look to the other Why glass is glassMSNBC: Despite solid appearance, glass is actually in a "jammed" state of matter NIST causes plutonium leakThe Denver Post: The incident in a Boulder lab, where powder went down a drain, is called unacceptable. Pentagon Inked $97 million deal With Kremlin-tied outfit
Wired.com: The U.S. military's Missile Defense Agency signed a $97 million contract with a Kremlin-connected nonprofit, to help secure Russia's aid in anti-missile projects.
Pentagon higher-ups ultimately quashed the deal between the agency and International Exchange Group, or IEG, for "facilitating" Russian "cooperation" on target missiles and early-warning radars. But the 2004 agreement shows the strength of the connections between the Defense Department, IEG and former Congressman Curt Weldon, now under investigation by the FBI. Earlier this week, news emerged that the wife of one of Weldon's staffers was reportedly paid money by IEG for work never performed. June 23, 2008Historic Ride's passion to help 'fragile' planetUSA Today: Convinced that climate change is the biggest challenge people face in the 21st century, Sally Ride, the first american woman in space is on a mission to keep middle school students, particularly girls, interested in science. Astronomers create first four-continent radio telescopeNew Scientist: A radio telescope that spans four continents has been set up for the first time. In an observational run conducted in May, antennas in North America, South America, Europe and Africa all pointed in the same direction. Signals were fed by fibre optics to create real-time images at a hub in the Netherlands.. Recently, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico joined a project called Electronic Very Long Baseline Interferometry (e-VLBI), which can make temporary radio telescopes that rival the size of the Earth. Its size allows the array to image objects – like the bright 'afterglow' formed when a high-speed jet of matter from a gamma-ray burst slams into its surroundings – that just look like points to individual radio telescopes, says Chris Salter of Arecibo. Quantifying entanglement in macroscopic systemsNature: Traditionally, entanglement was considered to be a quirk of microscopic objects that defied a common-sense explanation. Now, however, entanglement is recognized to be ubiquitous and robust. With the realization that entanglement can occur in macroscopic systems — and with the development of experiments aimed at exploiting this fact — new tools are required to define and quantify entanglement beyond the original microscopic framework. New space race developing between India and ChinaThe Times: India and China are taking their rivalry into orbit, with Delhi determined to catch up with Beijing in what is starting to look like an Asian version of the Cold War “space sace”. General Deepak Kapoor, India’s Chief of Army Staff, has spoken publicly for the first time of his fears about China’s military space programme and the need for India to accelerate its own. “The Chinese space programme is expanding at an exponentially rapid pace in both offensive and defensive content,” he told a conference attended by India’s military top brass this week. “The Indian Army’s agenda for exploitation of space will have to evolve dynamically. It should be our endeavour to optimise space applications for military purposes.” Congress passes science funding billsScienceNow: A third of a loaf is better than nothing. That's the feeling among the U.S. research community after the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly yesterday to boost the current budgets of four key science agencies by $337 million. Although it was less than lobbyists had hoped, it's probably more likely to happen than the sizeable budget increases for next year approved this week by several House and Senate spending panels with jurisdiction over a number of science agencies. Lobbyists fear those numbers, for the 2009 budget year that begins in October, could represent high-water marks in a process that likely will extend far beyond the November elections. CERN report confirms Earth will not be destroyed by a LHC-produced black holeThe New York Times: A new particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider scheduled to go into operation this fall outside Geneva, is no threat to the Earth or the universe, according to a new safety review approved Friday by the governing council of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or Cern, which is building the collider. Phoenix announces on Twitter that it has found iceNature: "Ice!" screams NASA's Phoenix lander. Icy future for Enceladus's oceanspace.com:The tide may be changing for the ocean suspected under the icy shell of Enceladus. Recent research has shown that this small moon of Saturn does not produce enough heat in its present configuration to keep water from freezing down to its core. June 20, 2008Running on VaporsThe New York Times : Honda Motor chose a good week to introduce its new hydrogen-powered car. With gas prices rising above $4 a gallon, we could hardly be more eager for an alternative energy source, especially one that claims to have no bad effects on the environment. A car powered by a ubiquitous, inexhaustible gas that emits nothing worse than water. NASA, NSF fund UD space physics researchUniversity of Delaware: Faculty in the space physics group in the Bartol Research Institute and the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UD have been awarded several multi-year grants by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct theoretical and observational research projects. Row erupts about accuracy of ball-tracking technologyNature: A fierce rally of words is being played out ahead of the Wimbledon tennis fortnight in London. The inventor of Hawk-Eye — a high-speed camera-based device used to help tennis umpires make decisions — is arguing with academics at Cardiff University, who claim that the workings of the technology could be represented more transparently to the public. Louisiana Opens School Door for Opponents of EvolutionScience: A bill passed overwhelmingly by the Louisiana state legislature and expected to become law as early as next week marks the latest attack in the United States on the teaching of evolution and mainstream scientific thought on global warming and other topics. June 19, 2008Does Fermilab have a future?
Science: The United States's last particle physics lab finds itself in turmoil, with its current experiments soon to wind down and nothing under construction to replace them. Physicists wonder whether the lab--and particle physics in the United States--will survive
Quantum weirdness and surrealismNature: A joint exploration of early modern physics and the surreal art movement shows these twentieth-century revolutions had more in common than we thought, explains Nature's Philip Ball. Nuke detectors being tested on private jetsUSA Today: Vayl Oxford, who runs the department's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), says agents began radiation screening of private planes at the start of the year amid concerns that terrorists could try to "bypass the traditional ports of entry," such as airports and border crossings where security systems are in place. McCain Sets Goal of 45 New Nuclear Reactors by 2030The New York Times: Senator John McCain said Wednesday that he wanted 45 new nuclear reactors built in the United Arctic sea ice melt 'even faster'BBC: Arctic sea ice is melting even faster than last year, despite a cold winter. ORNL pulls contract of top surface physics researcherKnoxville News Sentinel: Ward Plummer, a distinguished scientist with joint appointments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, said today that ORNL had eliminated his lab position — effective June 30. “ORNL terminated me,” Plummer said. “I got terminated without a review.” June 18, 2008The case for Yucca mountain revisitedScience: In papers published over a quarter of a century ago Isaac J. Winograd and Eugene H. Roseboom Jr discussed the assets and liabilities of burying high level radioactive waste (HLW) in areas with deep water tables, specifically within the several-hundred-meter-thick unsaturated zones common to the arid and semiarid Southwest U.S.A. This idea which was taken by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission eventually led to the proposal of using Yucca Mountain as a potential repository for HLWs. In the ensuing decades, a voluminous body of knowledge of the geology, hydrology, geochemistry, and paleoclimatology of YM and the surrounding southern Great Basin was acquired and documented in hundreds of studies by federal, state, university, and industry scientists. As a result of these efforts, Yucca mountain remains controversial for storage of HLWs. Winograd and Roseboom examine several reasons for this outcome, two of which would apply to any site being considered for the geologic isolation of HLWs, and suggest a potential way to move beyond the controversy. The changing acoustical nature of concert halls
Nature: The science of concert hall acoustics is founded on our understanding of the physical behaviour of sound and how our ears interpret it. But concert halls are, of course, more than just scientifically designed spaces. The raised status of acousticians within design teams since the mid-1980s has resulted in less risk-taking and more conservative designs.
China's elite universities eye alumni wallets
Forbes.com: A decade ago, then-President Jiang Zemin said he wanted to transform China's top universities into world-class institutions fit for the 21st century. But attracting the world's best faculty, funding top-notch research and expanding campuses doesn't come cheap.
Since Chinese universities receive the bulk of their funding from tuition and the government--income sources that remain flat from year to year--they must turn elsewhere for the extra cash. So the elite ones are now focused on developing the kind of powerful private fund-raising machines that have made top U.S. universities so rich. Shuttle retirement will hurt Florida's space coast
Washington Post: Up to 6,400 of the 8,000 people who work as shuttle contractors in the area will lose their jobs, according to early NASA estimates.
Darpa brain drain costs agency DoD research funds
Wired.com: The U.S. military is shifting $32 million away from its premiere research agency -- because that agency, Darpa, can't find enough qualified people to run its cutting-edge projects.
An interview with Max TegmarkDiscover magazine: Cosmologists are not your run-of-the-mill thinkers, and Max Tegmark is not your run-of-the-mill cosmologist. Throughout his career, Tegmark has made important contributions to problems such as measuring dark According to Tegmark, “there is only mathematics; that is all that exists.” In his theory, the mathematical universe hypothesis, he updates quantum physics and cosmology with the concept of many parallel universes inhabiting multiple levels of space and time. By Economics of alternative energy improveCNET: Two reports released on Tuesday make the case that alternative forms of energy--everything from plug-in hybrid cars to solar power plants--are becoming more cost-competitive with fossil fuels. UK Physics agency instigates reviewBBC: The body overseeing UK astronomy and physics is to commission an independent review of its operations. The problem with using scientists' words to support religious beliefsSlate.com: Science traffics in the great unknowns, admitting that it has far more to learn than it has to teach. That hasn't stopped some from attempting to enlist it in the defense of religion. The pope puts out an encyclical trying to split the difference between evolution and the Book of Genesis. Intelligent design makes a mockery of both the method of induction and metaphysics. And scientists who use deistic language to describe the infinite mysteries of the cosmos are made out to be water-carriers for ancient dogmas—perhaps none more so than Albert Einstein. He's been a genius well worth stealing. The nimbus-domed father of relativity was, throughout most of the 20th century, held up as the most impressive example of a rationalist who left the door open a crack for the divine presence. June 17, 2008Md Governor unveils plan to invest $1.1 billion in biotechnologyBaltimore Sun: Governor unveils plan to invest $1.1 billion for research center, medical studies Sun might hold secret of dark matterUSA Today: The identity of the mysterious dark matter thought to pervade the universe has eluded astrophysicists for decades. Now, for the first time a team hopes to look inside the sun for one of the prime candidates. Japan's monitoring system beaten by shallow quakeNature: Earthquake takes nine lives as destruction arrives ahead of warning. |