Life on Earth came from other planets

Life on Earth came from other planets. So concludes a major scientific article which will appear in the inaugural issue of the online science journal, Cosmology.com

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Australia's first astronomers

BIG AUSSIE STAR HUNT: Astronomy didn't start with the Greeks. Thousands of years earlier Aboriginal people scanned the night sky, using its secrets to survive the Australian landscape.
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Shuttle Astronauts Deploy Satellites Ahead of Landing (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour successfully deployed two sets of tiny satellites Thursday as they received word they were cleared to come home.
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Virgin Galactic Deal Targets Small Satellite Launches (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - Virgin Galactic unveiled a new partnership Tuesday that pushes the throttle forward on its plans for commercial suborbital space travel and a new small satellite launch capacity.
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Oxidized lava may help explain Earth's evolution (AP)

AP - Material from volcanoes where the Earth's plates squeeze together is more oxidized than in regions where the seafloor splits apart, a finding that helps shed light on some of the basic processes in the planet's mantle.
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(Science) New geothermal heat extraction process to deliver clean power generation

A new method for capturing significantly more heat from low-temperature geothermal resources holds promise for generating virtually pollution-free electrical energy. Scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will determine if their innovative approach can safely and economically extract and convert heat from vast untapped geothermal resources.

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(Science) Capturing images in non-traditional way may benefit AF

AFOSR-funded research in imaging may lead to advancements for the Air Force in data encryption and wide-area photography with high resolution.

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(Science) Touch typists could help stop spammers in their tracks

Computer scientists at Newcastle University are about to give office workers a perfect excuse to play games: it's all in the name of research.

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(Science) On the 40th anniversary of the first manned moon landing today's scientists point to new frontiers

Forty years ago, on July 20, 1969, the United States achieved an historic first when Apollo 11 Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on the moon. Armstrong's now famous words, "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," fulfilled the challenge set out nearly a decade earlier by President John F. Kennedy to land a man on the moon.

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(Science) Scientists assess flooding and damage from 2008 Myanmar cyclone

Tropical cyclone Nargis made landfall in the Asian nation of Myanmar on May 2, 2008, causing the worst natural disaster in the country's recorded history – with a death toll that may have exceeded 138,000. In the July 2009 issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers report on a field survey done three months after the disaster to document the extent of the flooding and resulting damage.

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(Science) Wood stoves -- a viable home heat source?

The stress of rising natural gas prices is leading many consumers to rethink how they heat their homes. For some this means moving towards modern alternative energy options, while others have been turning to a more traditional method for a solution to these rising costs. In Canada and the United States, wood burning stoves have been reevaluated as a potentially viable option for home heating.

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(Science) Between the devil and the deep blue sea

Expansion of coastal cities is accompanied by a decline in the quality of life of the people, which was the reason they moved to the coastal zone instead of bringing growing welfare to the inhabitants. Many Megacities such as Tokyo (pop. 36.000.000), New York (22.000.000) and London (12.000.000) are found in the coastal zone. Coastal protection measures give a sense of false security and require increasingly expensive infrastructure.

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(Science) High-tech cloth is first to shed scalding water

Super water-repellent materials have all failed against hot water, but a new mix of carbon nanotubes and Teflon proves up to the task
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(Science) Military mega-lasers are too hot to handle

High-energy laser weapons have been hailed as the future of anti-missile defence, but they may be further from being battle-ready than military chiefs hoped
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(Science) Interview: Fusion in a cold climate

For most researchers, any mention of cold fusion brings back memories of a shameful period in modern science, but Martin Fleischmann, who instigated the field, says he could not have done anything differently
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(Science) Laser light switch could leave transistors in the shade

An optical transistor that uses one laser beam to control another could form the heart of a future generation of ultrafast light-based computers
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(Science) Invisibility cloak could hide buildings from quakes

Borrowing from the physics of invisibility cloaks could make it possible to manipulate seismic waves and protect vulnerable buildings, say researchers
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(Science) Male sex chromosome losing genes by rapid evolution, study reveals

Scientists have long suspected that the sex chromosome that only males carry is deteriorating and could disappear entirely within a few million years, but until now, no one has understood the evolutionary processes that control this chromosome's demise. Now, a pair of Penn State scientists has discovered that this sex chromosome, the Y chromosome, has evolved at a much more rapid pace than its partner chromosome, the X chromosome, which both males and females carry. This rapid evolution of the Y chromosome has led to a dramatic loss of genes on the Y chromosome at a rate that, if maintained, eventually could lead to the Y chromosome's complete disappearance. The research team, which includes Associate Professor of Biology Kateryna Makova, the team's leader, and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow Melissa Wilson, will publish its results in the 17 July 2009 issue of the journal PLoS Genetics.

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(Science) A potential targeting gene therapy for developing HCV

Gene therapy has emerged as a novel approach to combat HCV infection in the last few years. However, one of the most important obstacles to overcome is "targeting": the appropriate genes must be delivered and expressed in HCV infected hepatocytes without harming normal tissues.

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(Science) Naval Research Laboratory's ANDE-2 launched aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour

The Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL's) satellite suite, the Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment 2 (ANDE-2), launched aboard NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavour on July 15, 2009. The ANDE-2 satellite suite consists of two nearly perfectly spherical micro-satellites with instrumentation to perform two interrelated mission objectives. The first objective is to monitor the total atmospheric density along the orbit for improved orbit determination of resident space objects. The second is to provide a test object for both radar and optical U.S. Space Surveillance Network sensors.

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(Science) New portrait of Omega Nebula's glistening watercolors

The Omega Nebula, sometimes called the Swan Nebula, is a dazzling stellar nursery located about 5500 light-years away towards the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer). An active star-forming region of gas and dust about 15 light-years across, the nebula has recently spawned a cluster of massive, hot stars. The intense light and strong winds from these hulking infants have carved remarkable filigree structures in the gas and dust.

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(Science) Experts nail best ways to promote exercise

Mass media fitness campaigns and encouraging the use of pedometers are the most cost-effective ways to promote physical exercise, an Australian study suggests.
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(Science) Hardware problem blamed on NASA satellite crash (AP)

AP - A piece of rocket hardware failed to separate during the launch of a NASA climate satellite earlier this year, causing it crash back to Earth, according to an accident summary released Friday.
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(Science) Encrypted CCTV protects the innocent

Software that securely scrambles footage of anyone who is not a suspect should ease privacy fears over surveillance cameras
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(Science) Moon rock competition winner revealed

This week's Feedback reveals the lucky winner of our moon rock competition, plus pithy entries from 12 of the runners-up…
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(Science) Ex-astronaut Bolden to lead Nasa

The US Senate has confirmed Charles Bolden as the new administrator of the American space agency (Nasa).
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(Science) NASA Releases Restored Video of Apollo 11 Moonwalk Broadcast

NASA has released newly restored video of the July 20, 1969, live television broadcast of the Apollo 11 moonwalk. The video release commemorates the 40th anniversary of the first mission to land astronauts on the moon. For another cool Apollo 11 related item, check out the special trunk Louis Vuitton made to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11's first lunar landing. Here's the video clip of the restored moonwalk via the AP.

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(Science) British Airways Crew Member Hospitalized With Flu-Like Symptoms

There are over 1,000 cases of Swine Flu in Mexico and over sixty people have died. The Mexican government is taking action by shutting down schools and public events. There have been more alarming news today with reports of a couple Swine Flu cases in Kansas and possibly hundreds of cases at at a private school in New York City. The Guardian is reporting that a member of the cabin crew of a British Airways flight was taken to the hospital with flu-like symptoms. The flight was going from Mexico City to Heathrow airport in London.

A member of cabin crew was taken to hospital with "flu-like symptoms" today after falling ill on a British Airways flight from Mexico City to Heathrow.

The World Health Organisation has warned countries to be on alert for any unusual flu outbreaks after a swine flu virus was implicated in possibly dozens of human deaths in Mexico.

The BA employee, who has not been named, has been taken to Northwick Park hospital in Harrow, a hospital spokesman said.

He added: "He has flu-like symptoms and is responding well to treatment. The patient was admitted directly to a side room and the hospital is scrupulously following infection control procedures to ensure there is no risk to any other individual in the hospital."

The man was taken from flight BA242 which landed at 2pm today, a BA spokesman said.

Air travel is obviously the quickest way for this new strain of flu - comprised of swine, avian and human flu - to spread around the globe. The one bright spot so far is that most of the cases in the United States have been mild. It's possible that there is something else in Mexico causing the cases to be more deadly or that the U.S. just has not experience any of the more severe cases so far. Read more ...

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(Science) Researchers: 361 to 38,000 Intelligent Civilizations in our Galaxy

The BBC reports that report in the International Journal of Astrobiology estimates the number of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy is somewhere between 361 and 38,000. The researchers think there are at least 361 intelligent civizations but there could be as many as 38,000.

The current research estimates that there are at least 361 intelligent civilisations in our Galaxy and possibly as many as 38,000.

The work is reported in the International Journal of Astrobiology. Even with the higher of the two estimates, however, it is not very likely that contact could be established with alien worlds.

While researchers often come up with overall estimates of the likelihood of intelligent life in the universe, it is a process fraught with guesswork; recent guesses put the number anywhere between a million and less than one.

"It's a process of quantifying our ignorance," said Duncan Forgan, the University of Edinburgh researcher who carried out the work.

It's quite a wide range. It may not be very easy to identify intelligent life because it could be very different from human life. The head of the research team, Duncan Forgan, said, "Even if alien life forms do exist, we may not necessarily be able to make contact with them, and we have no idea what form they would take."
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(Science) Teen Behaviors Stem From Genetics, Environment (HealthDay)

HealthDay - THURSDAY, July 16 (HealthDay News) -- Teens' alcohol use and behavior problems are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, a new study finds.
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(Science) Book Review : Cogent Science in Context: The Science Wars, Argumentation Theory, and Habermas by William Rehg

A philosopher reflects on the best way to validate a scientific claim.MIT Press, 2009, 345 p., $40.

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