A new way of detecting how fast large gaseous planets are rotating suggests Saturn’s day lasts 10 hours, 34 minutes and 13 seconds – over five minutes shorter than previous estimates that were based on the planet’s magnetic fields. While shortening Saturn’s day by five minutes might not sound like much it implies that some of our previous estimates of wind speeds may be out by more than 160 miles per hour! It also means that the weather patterns on Saturn are much more like those we observe on Jupiter, suggesting that, despite their differences, these two giant planets have more in common than previously thought... [more]
Source : Oxford University
Measured With Winds Saturn's Day Shortened By Five Minutes
Ants more rational than humans multimodal, egg-headed, tool-using, bipedal, opposing-thumbed – selves
This paradoxical outcome is based on apparent constraint: most individual ants know of only a single option, and the colony’s collective choice self-organizes from interactions among many poorly-informed ants. A key idea in collective robotics is that the individual robots can be relatively simple and unsophisticated, but you can still get a complex, intelligent result out of the whole group. The ability to function without complex central control is really desirable in an artificial system and the idea that limitations at the individual level can actually help at the group level is potentially very useful... [more]
Source : Arizona State University
Non-embryonic stem cells made, producing living mice from them
Two groups of Chinese researchers have induced cells from connective tissue in mice to revert to their embryonic state and produced living mice from them. By demonstrating that cells from adults can be converted into cells that, like embryonic stem cells from fetuses, have the ability to produce any type of tissue, the researchers have made a major advance toward eliminating the need for fetal cells in research and clinical applications... [more]
Source : San Francisco Chronicles
Bank disappears in Uganda after Scammers set up a fake bank, taking deposits and fleeing
The bank opened an office in Malaba town, advertised on radio and took $100,000 in deposits over two months. But when investors turned up to reclaim their money, all they found was a note saying: "Sorry the bank operations have been moved to a new place."
The scammers had paid for food, rent and advertising with fake cheques... [more]
Source : BBC
The secret terror of Michael Collins the forgotten astronaut of Apollo 11
As his spacecraft, Columbia, swept over the lunar surface, Collins - the mission's third and largely forgotten crewman - waited for a call from fellow astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to say their lander craft had successfully blasted off from the Moon. The message would banish Collins's deepest fear: that he would be the only survivor of an Apollo 11 disaster and that he was destined to return on his own to the United States as "a marked man"... [more]
Source : Guardian
The Quest For A Nechisar Nightjar 'Caprimulgus Solala' The Mystery Bird
Their subject is a bird Nicholls says no birdwatcher has ever seen. Twenty years ago a researcher found it dead and decomposing in a remote Ethiopian plain and brought back just a wing to the Natural History Museum in London. Halfway up the wing is a big, beige patch, so it was very distinctive... [more]
Source : NPR
'The London Bridge' a tale of corruption, mismanagement, financial crisis and a property crash that resulted in the downfall of the Old London Bridge
The organisation that managed the bridge at that time was plagued with incompetent management and corruption. Both workmen and their managers charged inflated prices for materials and labour, the management left rents uncollected, and on several occasions the workmen were found to have deliberately and almost fatally damaged the Bridge in order to charge for its repair. Furthermore, managers often paid for improvements to their own houses out of the coffers of the Trust running the Bridge... [more]
Source : University of Leicester
Why we never forget how to ride a bicycle
Neuroscientists has identified a key nerve cell in the brain that controls the formation of memories for motor skills such as riding a bicycle, skiing or eating with chop sticks. When one acquires a new skill like riding a bicycle, the cerebellum is the part of the brain needed to learn the co-ordinated movement... [more]
Source : University of Aberdeen
Fate Therapeutics provoking body's native stem cells to heal disease
Fate Therapeutics, a startup based in La Jolla, CA, aims to harness the body's ability to heal itself by developing drugs that stimulate resident stem cells. Rather than developing cell transplants to replace diseased or damaged tissue, which is the focus of a great deal of stem-cell research, Fate is searching for molecules that can control the behavior of adult stem cells... [more]
Source : Technology Review
Y chromosome have at least 50 million years left on the planet
There had been concern that the bundle of DNA that determines the male was shrinking and would be defunct within five million years. But rumours of its demise have been dismissed. Steve Rozen, one of the leading scientists on the project, says the Y chromosome has a robust life expectancy... [more]
Source : BBC
Barry Callebaut Vulcano low-calorie, no-melt chocolate
Scientists for the world's largest chocolatier believe they have stumbled on the holy grail of chocolate: a recipe that is both melt-resistant and low-calorie. Vulcano is the internal code name for the new product by the Swiss chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut. Developed in a laboratory under top-secret conditions by an international team of food engineers, it not only has 90% fewer calories than the average chocolate product, it is also heat-resistant to temperatures of up to 55C (131F). Most chocolate starts to melt at 30 degrees... [more]
Source : Guardian
Sharespost Or How To Buy Private Stock Of Non Public Companies
Want to own a piece of Tesla Motors? Facebook? LinkedIn? Unless you're a founder, employee, or an investor in one of these companies, you're out of luck. That's what separates "public" companies from private: anyone can buy a piece of a public company on an open exchange. There are no wide-open exchanges for private company shares. But there is now, at least to a degree. Sharespost is a marketplace where people who own private shares of non-public companies can connect with investors who want that stock... [more]
Source : CBS News
Crafty cats coax their owners into giving them what they want by using a special purr that humans just can’t ignore
Psychologists discovered that cat owners find this “solicitation” purr irresistible because a high-frequency element embedded within it, similar to a cry or meow, subtly triggers a sense of urgency. By employing such an embedded “cry”, cats appear to be exploiting innate tendencies that humans have for nurturing offspring. However, in this case the felines subtly bury their “feed me” messages in an otherwise pleasant purr... [more]
Source : University of Sussex
Swearing lessen the feeling of physical pain
It might be socially unacceptable, but an outburst of swearing after a DIY mishap or stubbing a toe can actually do some good. Swearing could have evolved as a way of raising aggression levels and reducing the feeling of pain to allow our ancestors to flee or fight back when attacked by predators... [more]
Source : Telegraph
Dogfish 'Chateau Jiahu' the stone age beer 9,000 year old brew
Called Chateau Jiahu, this blend of rice, honey and fruit was intoxicating Chinese villagers 9,000 years ago—long before grape wine had its start in Mesopotamia. University of Pennsylvania molecular archaeologist Patrick McGovern first described the beverage in 2005 based on chemical traces from pottery in the Neolithic village of Jiahu in Northern China... [more] & [more]
Source : Scientific American & Discover Magazine
Professor Karim Nayernia artificial sperm from human stem cells
The breakthrough in stem cell science offers a potential cure for male infertility and could be used in IVF clinics in as little as five years. It would allow thousands of men to father children that are genetically their own, possibly from just a sliver of their skin... [more]
Source : Daily Mail
Scientist on the way to creating the first artificial nerve cell that can communicate specifically with nerve cells in the body using neurotransmitter
Scientists have now used an electrically conducting plastic to create a new type of "delivery electrode" that instead releases the neurotransmitters that brain cells use to communicate naturally.
The advantage of this is that only neighbouring cells that have receptors for the specific neurotransmitter, and that are thus sensitive to this substance, will be activated... [more]
Source : Karolinska Institutet
Professor John Marshal 'retinal rejuvenation' cure for age-related macular degeneration (AMD)
A surgeon who pioneered laser eye surgery to cure short-sightedness has announced a new technique which could prevent millions of older people from going blind. Prof Marshall said the treatment delayed the effect of ageing, a process he calls "retinal rejuvenation", without damaging any other cells. The technique works by stimulating enzymes to remove waste material from a thin membrane behind the retina, called Bruch's membrane... [more]
Source : Telegraph
Drinking 22 or more units of alcohol a week increases of 20% the rates of hospital admission
Men who drink 22 or more units of alcohol a week have a 20% higher rate of admissions into acute care hospitals than non-drinkers, researchers from the University of Glasgow have found. The study also showed that drinking between eight and 14 units of alcohol a week increases the total number of days spent in hospital... [more]
Source : University of Glasgow
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