Phoenix Mars Lander officially dead • The Register
NASA has confirmed that its Phoenix Mars Lander has not survived the harsh Red Planet arctic winter, and appears to have suffered serious ice damage to its solar panels.
The agency has been attempting to contact the lander since January, in the slim hope it may have supported the weight of up to 30cm of accumulated carbon dioxide frost. However, NASA says that although its Odyssey orbiter last week "flew over the Phoenix landing site 61 times during a final attempt to communicate with the lander", Phoenix remained silent.
(Aliens are taking it apart right now.)
In other cool news you probably haven't heard:
The proton shrinks in size
The proton shrinks in size : Nature News
The proton seems to be 0.00000000000003 millimetres smaller than researchers previously thought, according to work published in today's issue of Nature1.
The difference is so infinitesimal that it might defy belief that anyone, even physicists, would care. But the new measurements could mean that there is a gap in existing theories of quantum mechanics. "It's a very serious discrepancy," says Ingo Sick, a physicist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who has tried to reconcile the finding with four decades of previous measurements. "There is really something seriously wrong someplace."
(That's 4% smaller than previously thought and I don't believe it yet. I'm not ready for it. It's ruining my life.)
Also:
Egypt: Colourful ancient tombs unearthed
Egypt: Colourful ancient tombs unearthed - Adnkronos Culture And Media
Cairo, 7 July (AKI) - A team of archaeologists has discovered two colourful tombs, believed to be around 4,300 years old, at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo, Egyptian culture minister Farouq Hosni said on Wednesday.
Both tombs, found west of the Step Pyramid of Djoser in the Giza area, are carved into rocks and and date from the 6th Dynasty (2,374-2,191 BC), the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass said.
The tombs belong to Shendwa, a top government official and head of the royal scribes, and his son, Khonsu, who inherited the same titles as his father, according to Hawass.
Shendwa's tomb has a beautiful false door depicting him sitting in front of a table of sacrifices, signifying that he held important positions during that period, Hawass said.
The tomb's burial shaft is located directly beneath the false door, and Shendwa's wooden coffin was buried in a 20 meter-deep well that had prevented thieves getting in.
(Amazing how they're still finding this stuff.)
Also:
Anxiety May Be at Root of Religious Extremism, Researchers Find
Anxiety may be at root of religious extremism, researchers find
Anxiety and uncertainty can cause us to become more idealistic and more radical in our religious beliefs, according to new findings by York University researchers, published in this month's issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In a series of studies, more than 600 participants were placed in anxiety-provoking or neutral situations and then asked to describe their personal goals and rate their degree of conviction for their religious ideals. This included asking participants whether they would give their lives for their faith or support a war in its defence.
Across all studies, anxious conditions caused participants to become more eagerly engaged in their ideals and extreme in their religious convictions. In one study, mulling over a personal dilemma caused a general surge toward more idealistic personal goals. In another, struggling with a confusing mathematical passage caused a spike in radical religious extremes. In yet another, reflecting on relationship uncertainties caused the same religious zeal reaction.
Researchers found that religious zeal reactions were most pronounced among participants with bold personalities (defined as having high self-esteem and being action-oriented, eager and tenacious), who were already vulnerable to anxiety, and felt most hopeless about their daily goals in life.
(Now we know: difficult math problems are the cause of religious extremism. Those damn high schools around the country are a breeding ground for religious terrorists!)
And:
Tibetans May Be the Fastest-Evolving Humans We’ve Ever Seen
Tibetans May Be the Fastest-Evolving Humans We’ve Ever Seen | 80beats | Discover Magazine
Clearly, the people of Tibet must have evolved quickly to tolerate a life spent living at the top of the world. How quickly? A study out in this week’s Science, which compared Tibetans to Han Chinese to see the differences in their DNA, says that the two groups may have diverged no more than 3,000 years ago. If natural selection has changed Tibetans in such a short time, it would be the fastest known example of human evolution.
Looking at the differences in genes that regulate that, the team found vast differences between the Han and the Tibetans, with one version appearing in 87 percent of Tibetans studied but only 9 percent of Chinese. However, the assertion by the scientists at the Beijing Genome Institute—that their findings mean the two group broke apart just three millennia ago—has ruffled archaeologists who believe that the Tibetan plateau has been continuously occupied for much, much longer: more like 7,000 to 21,000 years.
(But remember, evolution here doesn't mean more highly evolved or intelligent.)
Comment on any of these subjects that you wish.
NASA has confirmed that its Phoenix Mars Lander has not survived the harsh Red Planet arctic winter, and appears to have suffered serious ice damage to its solar panels.
The agency has been attempting to contact the lander since January, in the slim hope it may have supported the weight of up to 30cm of accumulated carbon dioxide frost. However, NASA says that although its Odyssey orbiter last week "flew over the Phoenix landing site 61 times during a final attempt to communicate with the lander", Phoenix remained silent.
(Aliens are taking it apart right now.)
In other cool news you probably haven't heard:
The proton shrinks in size
The proton shrinks in size : Nature News
The proton seems to be 0.00000000000003 millimetres smaller than researchers previously thought, according to work published in today's issue of Nature1.
The difference is so infinitesimal that it might defy belief that anyone, even physicists, would care. But the new measurements could mean that there is a gap in existing theories of quantum mechanics. "It's a very serious discrepancy," says Ingo Sick, a physicist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who has tried to reconcile the finding with four decades of previous measurements. "There is really something seriously wrong someplace."
(That's 4% smaller than previously thought and I don't believe it yet. I'm not ready for it. It's ruining my life.)
Also:
Egypt: Colourful ancient tombs unearthed
Egypt: Colourful ancient tombs unearthed - Adnkronos Culture And Media
Cairo, 7 July (AKI) - A team of archaeologists has discovered two colourful tombs, believed to be around 4,300 years old, at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo, Egyptian culture minister Farouq Hosni said on Wednesday.
Both tombs, found west of the Step Pyramid of Djoser in the Giza area, are carved into rocks and and date from the 6th Dynasty (2,374-2,191 BC), the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass said.
The tombs belong to Shendwa, a top government official and head of the royal scribes, and his son, Khonsu, who inherited the same titles as his father, according to Hawass.
Shendwa's tomb has a beautiful false door depicting him sitting in front of a table of sacrifices, signifying that he held important positions during that period, Hawass said.
The tomb's burial shaft is located directly beneath the false door, and Shendwa's wooden coffin was buried in a 20 meter-deep well that had prevented thieves getting in.
(Amazing how they're still finding this stuff.)
Also:
Anxiety May Be at Root of Religious Extremism, Researchers Find
Anxiety may be at root of religious extremism, researchers find
Anxiety and uncertainty can cause us to become more idealistic and more radical in our religious beliefs, according to new findings by York University researchers, published in this month's issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In a series of studies, more than 600 participants were placed in anxiety-provoking or neutral situations and then asked to describe their personal goals and rate their degree of conviction for their religious ideals. This included asking participants whether they would give their lives for their faith or support a war in its defence.
Across all studies, anxious conditions caused participants to become more eagerly engaged in their ideals and extreme in their religious convictions. In one study, mulling over a personal dilemma caused a general surge toward more idealistic personal goals. In another, struggling with a confusing mathematical passage caused a spike in radical religious extremes. In yet another, reflecting on relationship uncertainties caused the same religious zeal reaction.
Researchers found that religious zeal reactions were most pronounced among participants with bold personalities (defined as having high self-esteem and being action-oriented, eager and tenacious), who were already vulnerable to anxiety, and felt most hopeless about their daily goals in life.
(Now we know: difficult math problems are the cause of religious extremism. Those damn high schools around the country are a breeding ground for religious terrorists!)
And:
Tibetans May Be the Fastest-Evolving Humans We’ve Ever Seen
Tibetans May Be the Fastest-Evolving Humans We’ve Ever Seen | 80beats | Discover Magazine
Clearly, the people of Tibet must have evolved quickly to tolerate a life spent living at the top of the world. How quickly? A study out in this week’s Science, which compared Tibetans to Han Chinese to see the differences in their DNA, says that the two groups may have diverged no more than 3,000 years ago. If natural selection has changed Tibetans in such a short time, it would be the fastest known example of human evolution.
Looking at the differences in genes that regulate that, the team found vast differences between the Han and the Tibetans, with one version appearing in 87 percent of Tibetans studied but only 9 percent of Chinese. However, the assertion by the scientists at the Beijing Genome Institute—that their findings mean the two group broke apart just three millennia ago—has ruffled archaeologists who believe that the Tibetan plateau has been continuously occupied for much, much longer: more like 7,000 to 21,000 years.
(But remember, evolution here doesn't mean more highly evolved or intelligent.)
Comment on any of these subjects that you wish.
