gregladen | April 25, 2012
The Sombrero Galaxy's Split Personality: The infrared vision of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed that the Sombrero galaxy -- named after its appearance in visible light to a wide-brimmed hat -- is in fact two galaxies in one. It is a large elliptical galaxy (blue-green) with a thin disk galaxy (partly seen in red) embedded within. Previous visible-light images led astronomers to believe the Sombrero was simply a regular flat disk galaxy. Spitzer's infrared view highlights the stars and dust. The starlight detected at 3.5 and 4.6 microns is represented in blue-green while the…
gregladen | April 25, 2012An American company, Altaeros Energies, recently launched a prototype helium-shelled wind turbine that can be used at high altitudes. While the test run took place at 350ft above ground, the ultimate goal is a height of 1,000ft. Tethers send the converted power back to the ground. Compared with traditional wind turbines, the prototype garners twice as much energy, as wind is stronger at higher altitudes.
Sources: Green Tech Media, Smart Planet
gregladen | April 24, 2012This is a proof of concept blog post. Please give it a try and let me know if it works for you!
Double Helix from the Wolfram Demonstrations Project by Sándor Kabai
gregladen | April 24, 2012The USDA has just confirmed that a dairy cow in California had bovine spungiform encephalopathy (BSE) sometimes known as "Mad Cow Disease," which causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob, a deadly human disease affecting the brain. The animal was about to be, or was in the process of being, "rendered" ... turned into glue or soap, most likely ... and none of it entered the food supply. It has not been demonstrated that BSE can be transferred to humans via milk. Even so, cattle futures have dropped sharply in Chicago over the last few hours.
From Reuters:
The carcass of the cow, which the USDA said was…
gregladen | April 24, 2012Don McLeroy is the creationist formerly on the Texas School board who tried very hard to ruin science education both in Texas and across the United States. He is an ill informed, paranoid, mean spirited dick head. He thinks humans and dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time. I repeat. He was on the Texas School Board. He also hates atheists. He doesn't have the qualification to breath the same air the rest of us do.
Colbert has an interesting conversation with him. Below the fold because it is a little wide.
The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political…
gregladen | April 24, 2012Yes, it was a crime; it was a crime against nature and against the law of the land, and now the first criminal charges are being filed, according to an exclusive report at NPR.
"The first criminal charges in connection with the BP oil spill have been filed against a former BP engineer named Kurt Mix," NPR's Carrie Johnson reports exclusively.
Carrie just told our Newscast unit that Mix has been charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly deleting text messages after the spill. The texts were related to the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf. Mix will make his first appearence in court…
gregladen | April 24, 2012DON'T ANSWER AN DON'T GOOGLE IT
Click here to record your response.
Thank you very much, that is all for now.
gregladen | April 24, 2012This is one of the hazards of being an archaeologist (it has happened to me a few times) but it is sad to see it occur with a private citizen.
The moral of the story? Don't be talking on your cell phone when instead, you should be scanning the terrain in front of you with Ground Penetrating Radar to locate cavities that are too close to the surface.
gregladen | April 23, 2012This is the second of two surveys designed to assess Relative Importance of various things in your profession. This survey is for anyone who works in IT, regardless if they are in higher ed, industry, government, etc. The more folks who respond to the survey, the better the results will be! The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete.
CLICK HERE PLEASE
Thank you very much.
gregladen | April 23, 2012It is not clear that Pink Slime has ever made anyone sick, but Tuna Scrapings certainly have. The difference? Chemical treatment of the former but not the latter, apparently.
The way that food is produced and processed in our industrialized society virtually grantees that much of it would be poisonous to some degree because of spoiling before it gets to our kitchens. However, the food industry has all sorts of ways of avoiding that, ranging from freezing to heating to radiation to various chemical and physical treatments. The ammonia treatment associated with the Pink Slime Maneno of…
gregladen | April 23, 2012Who says that if you scream in space no one will hear you?
A rare daytime meteor was seen and heard streaking over northern Nevada and parts of California on Sunday, just after the peak of an annual meteor shower.
Observers in the Reno-Sparks area of Nevada reported seeing a fireball at about 8 a.m. local time, accompanied or followed by a thunderous clap that experts said could have been a sonic boom from the meteor or the sound of it breaking up high over the Earth.
source
Here's an animation:
And now, a bonus question: Why do they call Sparks "Sparks"?
gregladen | April 23, 2012Here is a press release from BioMed Central that is just so interesting I had to give it to you as it is without delay:
Connecting cilia: cellular antennae help cells stick together
Primary cilia are hair-like structures which protrude from almost all mammalian cells. They are thought to be sensory and involved in sampling the cell's environment. New research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Cilia, launched today, shows that cilia on cells in the retina and liver are able to make stable connections with each other - indicating that cilia not only are able to sense their…
gregladen | April 22, 2012We had a great discussion with John Hawks on the radio today. The podcast of that conversation is available via any one of the routes indicated here.
We discussed australopiths, Homo, Paleolithic sex, ancient DNA and fossil casting calls. And more. Check it out.
Thanks, John, for your time!
gregladen | April 22, 2012A special thanks to BP on this fine Earth Day. Modifications made to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico have had several important improvements. Much of the pesky coral living at the bottom of the gulf seems to have been doused with deadly doses of BP oil, some species have been provided with hip new color schemes (mainly black and blackish), some shrimp are now eyeless, which will surely make them easier to catch and, according to BP, does not affect their edibility, the killifish are being killed, which is presumably what they want (given their name and all) and those snippy crabs that we…
gregladen | April 22, 2012Keynote talk by multimedia artist Lynn Fellman for Minneapolis DNA Days
Do you know why some people are 1 to 4% Neandertal? Lynn Fellman explains how your Uncle Ned and maybe you have an "Inner Neander" during her art and science talk on April 28th. The presentation is one of many talks at Twin City libraries to celebrate National DNA Days.
"Your Inner Neandertal" is a 30 minute presentation showing how art can uniquely express science concepts and why some of us may find a little "Neander" in our genes. With examples from "At the Crossroads" video and DNA Portrait traveling show, Fellman…