Monday, July 19, 2010

PhysOrg Newsletter Week 28

Dear Reader ,

Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for week 28:

Revised theory of gravity doesn't predict a Big Bang
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Big Bang theory has formed the basis of our understanding of the universe's origins since it was first proposed in 1927 by Georges Lemaitre. And for good reason: the theory is supported by scientists' latest observations and experiments, and is based on Einstein's widely accepted theory of general relativity. But scientists are always on the lookout for any evidence that might suggest an alternative to the Big Bang. The latest in this area of research comes from astrophysicists Maximo Banados and Pedro Ferreira, who have resurrected a theory of gravity from the early 20th century and discovered that a modified version of the theory may hold some surprises.

A Puzzling Collapse of Earth's Upper Atmosphere
NASA-funded researchers are monitoring a big event in our planet's atmosphere. High above Earth's surface where the atmosphere meets space, a rarefied layer of gas called "the thermosphere" recently collapsed and now is rebounding again.

Physicist's blog post rumors Higgs discovery at Fermilab
(PhysOrg.com) -- A rumor that Fermilab's Tevatron may have discovered evidence of a light Higgs boson wouldn't be the first unsupported speculation from Tommaso Dorigo, a physicist at the University of Padua in Italy, on his lively blog, but it is probably one of the most intriguing. Even a slight possibility that the world's second largest accelerator has beaten the largest, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in finding the last particle in the Standard Model is enough to catch most people's attention.

Artificial blood developed for the battlefield
(PhysOrg.com) -- US scientists working for the experimental arm of the Pentagon have developed artificial blood for use in transfusions for wounded soldiers in battlefields. The blood cells are said to be functionally indistinguishable from normal blood cells and could end forever the problem of blood donor shortages in war zones and difficulties in transporting blood to remote and inaccessible areas.

GRASP lab demonstrates quadrotors (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Quadrotors, robotic vehicles resembling tiny helicopters, have been demonstrated by a group of scientists in the US. The quadrotors were shown carrying out impressive maneuvers and lifting payloads both singly and in groups working together.

Dark Energy Measurement Sheds New Light on Universe's Expansion
(PhysOrg.com) -- Through observations of massive galaxy clusters, scientists have made the most precise measurements to date of the effects of dark energy and gravity on cosmological scales. This work is an important step toward understanding why the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Something is pushing our universe apart, faster and faster, with each passing moment, and future work using similar methods should determine whether that something is dark energy or a change in the way gravity works on cosmological scales.

Down the Lunar Rabbit-hole
A whole new world came to life for Alice when she followed the White Rabbit down the hole. There was a grinning cat, a Hookah-smoking caterpillar, a Mad Hatter, and much more. It makes you wonder... what's waiting down the rabbit-hole on the Moon?

June Earth's hottest ever: US monitors
Last month was the hottest June ever recorded on Earth, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday, amid global climate warming worries.

Record-breaking X-ray blast briefly blinds space observatory
A blast of the brightest X-rays ever detected from beyond our Milky Way galaxy's neighborhood temporarily blinded the X-ray eye on NASA's Swift space observatory earlier this summer, astronomers now report. The X-rays traveled through space for 5-billion years before slamming into and overwhelming Swift's X-ray Telescope on 21 June. The blindingly bright blast came from a gamma-ray burst, a violent eruption of energy from the explosion of a massive star morphing into a new black hole.

25,000 new asteroids found by NASA's sky mapping
(AP) -- Worried about Earth-threatening asteroids? One of NASA's newest space telescopes has spotted 25,000 never-before-seen asteroids in just six months.

Nearly Hard as Steel: Aluminum with Fullerenes
Russian researchers with Siemens Corporate Technology (CT) are using special carbon nanoparticles to optimize materials. They are adding fullerenes -- soccer ball-shaped molecules comprising 60 carbon atoms -- to aluminum to obtain a new material that is roughly three times harder than conventional composites, yet weights much less. The lightweight yet strong aluminum could be used to improve the performance of compressors, turbochargers and engines.

Breakthrough achieved in explaining why tectonic plates move the way they do
A team of researchers including Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego geophysicist Dave Stegman has developed a new theory to explain the global motions of tectonic plates on the earth's surface.

Astronomers discover an unusual cosmic lens
Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have discovered the first known case of a distant galaxy being magnified by a quasar acting as a gravitational lens. The discovery, based in part on observations done at the W. M. Keck Observatory on Hawaii's Mauna Kea, is being published July 16 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Study Shows Electrical Fields Influence Brain Activity
(PhysOrg.com) -- Most scientists have viewed electrical fields within the brain as the simple byproducts of neuronal activity. However, Yale scientists report in the July 15 issue of the journal Neuron that electrical fields can also influence the activity of brain cells.

Parking lots could become 'solar groves' (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Architect Robert Noble, who specializes in sustainable design has come up with the idea of turning parking lots into "solar groves" that shade the vehicles, generate electricity, and serve as recharging stations for electric vehicles.

Light, instead of electrodes, could control deformable mirrors
(PhysOrg.com) -- The field of adaptive optics is advancing in interest as technology makes it possible to use deformable mirrors for a number of applications in optoelectronics. Deformable mirrors usually make use of rigid sections that can be actuated independently, or reflective membranes that make use of segmented electrodes. These methods, though reasonably effective, have limitations. They require complex circuitry in order to manipulate individual sections of the mirror, making deformable mirrors impractical for every day use.

Oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem
A tiny clay fragment - dating from the 14th century B.C.E. - that was found in excavations outside Jerusalem's Old City walls contains the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem, say researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The find, believed to be part of a tablet from a royal archives, further testifies to the importance of Jerusalem as a major city in the Late Bronze Age, long before its conquest by King David, they say.

Mayan king's tomb discovered in Guatemala
A well-preserved tomb of an ancient Mayan king has been discovered in Guatemala by a team of archaeologists led by Brown University's Stephen Houston. The tomb is packed with of carvings, ceramics, textiles, and the bones of six children, who may have been sacrificed at the time of the king's death.

Stock market model first to reproduce main properties of the real market
(PhysOrg.com) -- Since the early '90s, researchers have been developing simulations of financial markets with the goal to better understand market dynamics. While their models have improved since then to explain more features of the markets, no model has yet been able to fully reproduce the main statistical properties of financial markets in a single framework. In a new study, a team of researchers has developed an artificial stock market that, for the first time, can reproduce these main properties. Overall, the model shows how information exchange among agents can be used to understand the role of information in real markets.

Scientists create army of tumor-fighting immune cells and watch as they attack cancer
Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center created a large, well armed battalion of tumor-seeking immune system cells and watched, in real time using Positron Emission Tomography (PET), as the special forces traveled throughout the body to locate and attack dangerous melanomas.


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