Furthest, oldest, etc: Newsy bits

[unixronin]

Furthest:  Astronomers using Hubble and the twin Keck telescopes have photographed the most distant object ever seen, a faint galaxy 13 billion light years away.  According to current beliefs about the age of the universe, we're seeing that galaxy as it was only 750 million years after the Big Bang.

Oldest:  Re-examination of a 400-million-year-old fossil of Rhyniognatha hirsti shows it to be a true insect, pushing back the known origins of insects by 80 million years.

Worst spot for skinnydipping:  Europa may not be as habitable as previously thought.  New analysis of data from the Galileo probe indicates that Europa's ice layer may be as much as 30km thick, and that the ocean beneath it may be concentrated sulphuric acid with a pH close to zero.  There seems to be a lot of hydrogen peroxide around, too.  Hope you have good insurance on those Speedos.

Highest tides, relatively speaking:  Most of the island nation of Tuvalu, best known for selling space in its .tv top-level domain, will go mostly underwater this Thursday and Friday, as "king tides" rise to 3.1 meters.  Tuvalu is home to 11,500 people living on nine atolls, with not a single spot more than 4.5 meters above sea level.

Worst weather:  Global climate change could be showing up as atmospheric "planetary waves" that pin weather systems in place.  Planetary waves are being blamed for Europe's flooding in 2002 and heatwave in 2003, and researchers at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and England's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research say Europe's weather could potentially flip back and forth between the two extremes every year.  The effect may also show up on other continents.

Speechless:  the American Association for the Advancement of Science has issued a warning that half of all human languages may vanish during this century.  "Each language lost leaves a gap in our understanding of the variable cognitive structures of which the human brain is capable," says Steven Anderson of Yale.

Healthy as a horse:  Three cloned mules born last year at the University of Idaho are reported to be "healthy, normal and energetically enjoying life."  See, mules CAN too reproduce!  (They just need a little help from their friends.)

Healthy as a horse II:  the French Institute of Health and Medical Research has developed a new technique to eradicate prostate cancer using ultrasound.  The new therapy is as effective as surgery, with much reduced side effects, and leaves a still-functional prostate.

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(Oops.  Missed the link for the languages story.  Corrected.  Here's a few more to make up for it.)

When spinning your wheels is good:  The Opportunity rover spent six minutes spinning its wheels yesterday . . . on purpose, to dig a trench 20 inches long by four inches deep in order to study the subsurface.  Meanwhile, Spirit has travelled 356 feet of its 1150-foot trek to a nearby impact crater, surpassing Sojourner's 337-foot record for travel on the surface of Mars.

Staying cool under fire: The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Oregon State University are developing a new lightweight cooling vest for the US Army, a tenth of the weight of conventional vests.

Different kinds of madness:  A new variant of mad cow disease resembling human sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has been discovered in Italy.  It seems to involve a slightly different prion, and creates a different pattern of damage including amyloid plaques.  This could support the growing speculation that Alzheimer's disease is caused by a prion.

And finally, Diamonds are forever:  Astronomers studying the pulsating white dwarf BPM37093 have concluded that the star's heart contains, not a diamond as widely mis-reported in the press, but a giant crystal of degenerate carbon and oxygen, containing 90% of the mass of the star.  Degenerate matter is an intermediate step between normal matter and neutronium.

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Picture??

Re:

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

From the cut tag:
( Here is the news, and this is a photograph of me saying it. Tiddley pong. )

Picture?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, then perhaps we'd better make a BBC-newsreaderish userpic of me reading the news off the back of a brown paper bag. :)

Re:

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Too right.

Pip! Pip! Cheerio...