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Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for week 24:
What's down with the Sun? Major drop in solar activity predicted
(PhysOrg.com) -- A missing jet stream, fading spots, and slower activity near the poles say that our Sun is heading for a rest period even as it is acting up for the first time in years, according to scientists at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
A pulse no longer necessary for life
(PhysOrg.com) -- While most people connect a pulse and a heartbeat to life, Dr. Billy Cohn and Dr. Bud Frazier from the Texas Heart Institute have found a way to keep the blood circulating and extend the life of patients while taking away their pulse.
New data suggests the universe is clumpier than thought
(PhysOrg.com) -- After analyzing data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSK), cosmologist Shaun Thomas and colleagues from the University College of London, have concluded that the universe is "clumpier" than scientists have thought, leading to speculation that new theories need to be made to explain why the matter that makes up the universe isn’t as smooth as models have suggested they should be. The results of their research, published on Physical Review Letters, show that there is either faulty evidence in their discovery, or that established laws of gravity do not apply to such a large scale as the entire universe.
A step closer to solving one of the biggest mysteries in fundamental physics?
(PhysOrg.com) -- Where did all the matter in the universe come from? This is one of the biggest mysteries in fundamental physics and exciting results released on 15 June 2011 from the international T2K neutrino experiment in Japan could be an important step towards resolving this puzzle.
A new, distant arm of the Milky Way galaxy
(PhysOrg.com) -- Our Milky Way galaxy, like other spiral galaxies, has a disk with sweeping arms of stars, gas, and dust that curve around the galaxy like the arms of a huge pinwheel.
Invisibility carpet cloak can hide objects from visible light
(PhysOrg.com) -- Most of the invisibility cloaks that have been demonstrated to date conceal objects at frequencies that are not detectable by the human eye. Designing invisibility cloaks that can conceal objects from visible light has been more challenging due to the strict material requirements. But in a new study, researchers have fabricated a carpet cloak that can make objects undetectable in the full visible spectrum.
Nano-LEDs emit full visible spectrum of light
(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists from Taiwan have designed and fabricated nano-sized light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that emit light spanning the entire visible spectrum. Although the tiny full-color LEDs aren't intended for commercial lighting applications, they should be useful in high-resolution microscopy and subwavelength photolithography.
Breeding with Neanderthals appears to have helped early humans fight disease
(PhysOrg.com) -- Following up on evidence that Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals mated and produced offspring, following the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome last year, Peter Parham, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford, set forth evidence in a presentation to the Royal Society in London last week that shows that humans benefitted from such encounters by having human leukocyte antigens (HLAs), added to their genomes, which in turn helped them to fight off diseases native to northern climates.
Messenger orbital data confirm theories, reveal surprises
On March 18, 2011, the MESSENGER spacecraft entered orbit around Mercury to become that planet's first orbiter. The spacecraft's instruments are making a complete reconnaissance of the planet's geochemistry, geophysics, geologic history, atmosphere, magnetosphere, and plasma environment. MESSENGER is providing a wealth of new information and some surprises. For instance, Mercury's surface composition differs from that expected for the innermost of the terrestrial planets, and Mercury's magnetic field has a north-south asymmetry that affects interaction of the planet's surface with charged particles from the solar wind.
Pterosaur-inspired aircraft makes sharper turns
(PhysOrg.com) -- By morphing and repositioning a small aircraft's vertical tail to resemble the cranial crest of a pterosaur, researchers have shown that the aircraft's turn radius can be reduced by 14%. The ability to make sharper turns is especially important for small aircraft that operate in urban environments and in the presence of obstacles.
Oh-My-God Particles
Cosmic rays are really sub-atomic particles, being mainly protons (hydrogen nuclei) and occasionally helium or heavier atomic nuclei and very occasionally electrons. Cosmic ray particles are very energetic as a result of them having a substantial velocity and hence a substantial momentum.
Canadian researchers devise method to directly measure the quantum wavefunction
(PhysOrg.com) -- Physics researchers working at the National Research Council in Canada have succeeded in developing a way to directly measure the wavefunction of a photon. The technique, as described in their paper published in Nature, combines both strong and weak measurements, and offers researchers a new tool for use in understanding the intricacies of quantum mechanics. The wavefunction is a mathematical function that describes the quantum state of a particle.
Researchers find new clues about aging
National Institutes of Health researchers have identified a new pathway that sets the clock for programmed aging in normal cells. The study provides insights about the interaction between a toxic protein called progerin and telomeres, which cap the ends of chromosomes like aglets, the plastic tips that bind the ends of shoelaces.
Ancient sewer excavation sheds light on the Roman diet
(PhysOrg.com) -- Archaeologists working in a system of connected sewers and drains under the ancient town of Herculaneum in the Bay of Naples area of Italy have analyzed the human excrement found there and discovered the diet of ordinary Romans included a lot of vegetables and fruits, especially figs, and protein sources such as sea urchins and dormice.
Interview: Dr. Ben Goertzel on Artificial General Intelligence, Transhumanism and Open Source (Part 2/2)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Dr. Ben Goertzel is Chairman of Humanity+; CEO of AI software company Novamente LLC and bioinformatics company Biomind LLC; leader of the open-source OpenCog Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) software project; Chief Technology Officer of biopharma firm Genescient Corp.; Director of Engineering of digital media firm Vzillion Inc.; Advisor to the Singularity University and Singularity Institute; Research Professor in the Fujian Key Lab for Brain-Like Intelligent Systems at Xiamen University, China; and general Chair of the Artificial General Intelligence Conference Series. His research work encompasses artificial general intelligence, natural language processing, cognitive science, data mining, machine learning, computational finance, bioinformatics, virtual worlds and gaming and other areas, Dr. Goertzel has published a dozen scientific books, 100+ technical papers, and numerous journalistic articles, and the futurist treatise A Cosmist Manifesto. Before entering the software industry he served as a university faculty in several departments of mathematics, computer science and cognitive science, in the US, Australia and New Zealand.
World's first Content Addressable Memory stores data without using power
NEC Corporation and Tohoku University announced today the development of the world's first content addressable memory (CAM) that both maintains the same high operation speed and non-volatile operation as existing circuits when processing and storing data on a circuit while power is off.
Graphene may gain an 'on-off switch,' adding semiconductor to long list of material's achievements
A team of researchers has proposed a way to turn the material graphene into a semiconductor, enabling it to control the flow of electrons with a laser "on-off switch".
Restoring memory, repairing damaged brains
Scientists have developed a way to turn memories on and off -- literally with the flip of a switch.
New electric diwheel hints at future of city transportation
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a bit of technical wizardry, students from the University of Adelaide, Australia, have devised and built an electric diwheel, that with modification, could possibly solve inner city transportation problems. The team, comprised of 14 mechanical engineering students, has taken the idea of a diwheel and quite literally, turned it on its head, and in the process have created a vehicle that could be used to safely transport people around; all with a minimum amount of energy.
Pentagon dreams of Star Trek interstellar travel
The Defense Department first proposed Star Wars. Now it wants Star Trek.
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