"Impact from the Deep" by Peter D. Ward

http://www.chicagocleanpower.org/ward.pdf

This short article from Scientific American, by Peter D. Ward, provides short overview with clear illustration of the mechanism of Mass Extinction he describes in detail in his book, Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future.

Mass Extinctions have fascinated me since I was a little boy reading about Dinosaurs,  Peter Ward's books are the primary way I indulge that fascination as an adult.

I recommend the pdf if you want a short concise explanation, but strongly suggest the book if your looking for a deeper understanding, or if like me your fascinated by Mass Extinctions or Paleontology.

Institute for Redwood Ecology

http://www.humboldt.edu/redwoods/sillett/

Professor Sillett is an leads an interesting life, at least in my opinion,  he studies Forest Canopy Ecology, from what I understand he pioneered the study of Redwood Canopy, by climbing to the tops of Giant California Redwoods, to observe first hand the life and ecology that lives way up there.

He has also studied Cloud Forests, which in addition to Redwoods, are my passions for life sciences, if Mosquitoes didn't like me so much, I might have pursued more first hand learning in the great forests.

I have to make do by studying the work of people like Professor Sillett, whose work I greatly appreciate and admire.

So if you have any interest in Redwoods, or Forest Ecology, or Cloud Forests, take the time to learn from Professor Sillett's work.

Bike Head Light

Got my girlfriend a new bike this weekend, so started looking around for a good light for her morning commutes.

This light, NiteRider MiNewt 600 Cordless Rechargable Headlight, gets very good, even exceptional, reviews on Amazon & REI. Flashlight, and related, technology continues to impress me.

On the high setting this like will put out 600 Lumens! Only a little over $100 at the moment on Amazon.

I also found this Portland Design Works Danger Zone Tail Light

REALLY bright tail light. Uses same LED's used in Car taillights.

Improved Solar Cell Power Production: "Solar ‘towers’ beat panels by up to 20x"

It seems, based on this story by ScienceBlog, that 3D Solar structures offer more efficiency than normal flat ones, especially in higher latitudes.

That story is based on Solar Energy Generation in Three Dimensions, by Marco Bernardi, Nicola Ferralis, Jin H. Wan, Rachelle Villalon, Jeffrey C. Grossman.

Solar Energy Generation in Three Dimensions abstract here, full PDF here.

From Journal Nature: Satellites expose 8,000 years of civilization

http://www.nature.com/news/satellites-expose-8-000-years-of-civilization-1.10257

I started in the hard sciences, and I still have a lot of passion for Astronomy & Physics, though my degree is in Anthropology.

So stories like this, that combine Satellites, Technology, and Anthropology always draw my attention, I have been waiting in anticipation for advancements like this to bring new types of data to light.

This Nature article quotes Jason Ur, as saying, “Traditional archaeology goes straight to the biggest features — the palaces or cities.

I am not sure if that is really true in the first place, reality is you go were something has been found, or that you believe something can be found, and you have the funding to pursue.

Additionally, in Archaeology, you need a significant sample of data, in order to draw many conclusions, and working in a large site is more time and resource efficient.

Part of the reason I am excited by this article, it actually provides a large amount of data in itself, and it also points to additional areas to study, on the ground, with traditional techniques.

Colossal Squid

I saw the summaries of this BBC story, about the eyes of Giant Squid, some time ago, looked at it closely for the first time today, no puns intended.

I had not realized before this that the Giant Squid is not the largest.

That privilege belongs to the Colossal Squid as far as we know.

This is best site I have found, http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/ it was referenced at link below.

This site, http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2008/04/30/hooks-and-suckers/ shows good pictures of the hooks or claws from on the arms of the Colossal Squid.

I find cephalopods among the most interesting and intriguing of sea creatures, my favorites are the Cuttlefish.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-sea_gigantism

Robots Imitating Life

Amoeboid Robot based on slime mold


http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27638/

Climategate: Leaked docs: Heartland Institute think tank pays climate contrarians very well

Full story here at Ars, usually on Ars I recommend reading the comments thoroughly, since the comments sections on Ars often has more and deeper information than the main article, though with a controversial topic like this one, there might be more noise and less information than usual.

Seems like Ars comments are up to par, found this link on first comment http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/jul/19/climate-change-wiki-heartland-institute

"A Swiss satellite tackles space debris"

Full story here, from News Mediacom.

Basically they are looking at grappling with debris and deorbiting it so it burns up on reentry.

I could see this maybe working for a few larger object, don't think it will be very practical for the cast majority of space debris in Earth Orbit.

IMVHO this concept would make more sense for an anti Satellite weapon.

NEO (Near Earth Orbit) and Planetary Defense. I so want to say Deathstar.

http://www.planetarydefense.info/index.html

But this is a serious resource for people working on the detection and possible deflection of objects that might impact Earth.

See also  http://www.nss.org/resources/library/planetarydefense/WhitePaper-2009PlanetaryDefenseConference.pdf

Seaweed for Bio Fuel?

Article from Scientific America discusses using bacteria to make biofuel.

Sounds promising, in test "researchers ground up some kombu, mixed it with water and added the altered E. coli. Before two days had gone by the solution contained about 5 percent ethanol and water. It also did this at (relatively) low temperatures between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius."

They make the excellent point, that using seaweed for biofuel wouldn't compete with edible crop production.

Astronomy Software

A wonderful list of software and apps for or related to Astronomy, including for apps for iPhone and Android. 

A very dense resource of links, strongly suggest spending some time looking through their information.

Here is just one resource from the link about, a 9 page pdf, of just iPhone Apps http://astronomyonline.org/PDFs/iPhoneApps.pdf

New Insights into Primitive Cells

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2012/01/researchers-resurrect-lost-proteins-to-understand-molecular-machines.ars

The Bio Sciences are my weakest by far, so I am not going to try and give any highlights, just suggest people click on the Ars link above.

Science keeps opening doors into the past, so exciting!

"At near-absolute-zero temperatures, atoms can be held in an optical lattice"

At near-absolute-zero temperatures, atoms can be held in an optical lattice—formed by standing light waves, where the atoms sit in the troughs of the waves at low potential energy. At these temperatures, they lose most of their thermal fluctuations and begin to act like an ideal quantum system. Atoms held in an optical lattice can be used to simulate electrons trapped in a crystalline solid, so this quantum system can be helpful in studying important phenomena like quantum magnetism and high-temperature superconductivity. The atoms could also be used for quantum logic gates and registers (the working memory of quantum computers).

Source and rest of the story:  http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/12/how-cold-is-cold-enough-a-lot-colder-than-you-think.ars

This is intriguing, when I was a kid I thought Molecular circuits were just Sci Fi, now it is looking like quantum computers may be a reality in my lifetime.

Ediacaran fossils

The authors have essentially performed a CAT scan of these tiny fossils, except they use energies high enough to fry human tissues. This is sufficient to reveal subtle internal features, including what appears to be a nucleus inside many of the cells, as shown above. The authors argue that this isn't not just a matter of similar appearance. The object has a consistent location within the cells, takes up a consistent fraction of the cell's volume, and only appears once per cell, all of which are features of a nucleus.

Source and full story: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/12/precambrian-fossils-once-thought-to-be-embryos-reinterpreted-as-somethign-else.ars

Mass Extinctions have long been an area of interest to me, so I find this deeply interesting.  As much for the advances of Technology in Paleontology/Paleobiology, as for the actual fossils being discussed.

Birds can do Math

Pigeons can learn abstract numerical rules, a skill that scientists had believed only primates possessed. Although the birds may not be able to do higher math, their ability to reason numerically is likely something that a wide variety of species can do, too, researchers say.

Full story at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/12/no-joke-pigeons-ace-a-simple-math.html

Simply Cool, Planets & Stars to scale

http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm

Neutrinos and Dark Matter

A planned Neutrino Telescope KM3NeT  http://www.km3net.org/home.php looks to add a lot to our knowledge about the universe.  It will also be one of the largest objects ever built.

When it the KM3NeT is finished it will join the IceCube particle detector in the Antarctic http://www.icecube.wisc.edu/index.php in the search into the understanding the cosmos.

Google Hacking

I keep mentioning this to people, so decided to put it here for easy reference.

Tom Bowers:  Goggle Hacking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_hacking

http://streaming.linux-magazin.de/events/usenix08/archive/tbowers/

http://www.usenix.org/media/events/usenix08/tech/mp3/bowers.mp3

http://www.usenix.org/event/usenix08/tech/slides/bowers.pdf

"Discovery of a ‘Dark State’ Could Mean a Brighter Future for Solar Energy"

Using "organic plastic semiconductor material" a group led by  Xiaoyang Zhu is looking to double Solar Cell efficiency.

The maximum theoretical efficiency of the silicon solar cell in use today is approximately 31 percent, because much of the sun's energy hitting the cell is too high to be turned into usable electricity. That energy, in the form of "hot electrons," is instead lost as heat. Capturing hot electrons could potentially increase the efficiency of solar-to-electric power conversion to as high as 66 percent.

Source and full story at http://www.utexas.edu/news/2011/12/15/dark_state/