Ice Beneath Mars Is Asking, "Can You Hear Me Now?"

In August 2003, as the twin Mars Exploration Rovers were barreling toward Mars in their flying saucers, scientists and engineers sent a radio signal disguised as the rovers "voice" to the Odyssey orbiter at Mars. The call to Odyssey was what Dr. John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover Science Manager, defines as a "can-you-hear-me-now?" test. Scientists and engineers wanted to ensure the UHF (ultra-high frequency) radio system on Odyssey, a primary communications relay between the rovers and Earth, would work. Odyssey responded with a resounding yes, and something else from Mars responded too..

Red Planet set for close approach

Mars will not be this close until 2018 Mars is set for a close encounter with Earth, approaching to within 69.4 million km (43.1 million miles) of our planet in the early hours of Sunday. With good conditions and a lack of cloud, amateur astronomers will be able to get an unusually good look at Mars. The Red Planet will not swing this close to Earth for another 13 years. Small telescopes will be able to see Mars as a brilliant ball; observers with more powerful instruments will be able to see features on the surface. In August 2003, the Red Planet made an even closer approach to Earth, when it was at its nearest for about 60,000 years at a distance of 55.6 million km (34.6 million miles). But Mars will be higher in the sky than it was in 2003, meaning that the planet's light will not be affected as much by the Earth's atmosphere. This will make for better viewing in the northern hemisphere.

A remote control that controls humans

MSNBC.com: "ATSUGI, Japan - We wield remote controls to turn things on and off, make them advance, make them halt. Ground-bound pilots use remotes to fly drone airplanes, soldiers to maneuver battlefield robots.But manipulating humans?Prepare to be remotely controlled. I was. Just imagine being rendered the rough equivalent of a radio-controlled toy car.Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japans top telephone company, says it is developing the technology to perhaps make video games more realistic. But more sinister applications also come to mind.I can envision it being added to militaries' arsenals of so-called 'non-lethal' weapons.A special headset was placed on my cranium by my hosts during a recent demonstration at an NTT research center. It sent a very low voltage electric current from the back of my ears through my head _ either from left to right or right to left, depending on which way the joystick on a remote-control was moved.I found the experience unnerving and exhausting: I sought to step straight ahead but kept careening from side to side. Those alternating currents literally threw me off."

New mathematics-based sculpture unveils fourth dimension

Phys Org: "The stainless-steel work, a striking object of visual art, also is a mental portal to the fourth dimension, a teaching tool, a memorial to a graduate of the math department, and a reminder of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The sculpture itself measures about six feet in every direction and is mounted on a granite base about three feet high in order to bring its center approximately to eye level. The sculpture, designed by Adrian Ocneanu, professor of mathematics at Penn State, presents a three-dimensional 'shadow' of a four-dimensional solid object. Ocneanu's research involves mathematical models for quantum field theory based on symmetry."

The Man Who Would Murder Death

" Growing old is not, in his view, an inevitable consequence of the human condition; rather, it is the result of accumulated damage at the cellular and molecular levels that medical advances will soon be able to prevent — or even reverse — allowing people to go on living pretty much indefinitely. " ---great article for those who wish not to die--

The World's Fastest Bike (Popular Science)

Eat your heart out, Lance. This amateur-built recumbent may soon break its own record by hitting 82 mph Dept.:You built what?! Tech.: World’s fastest human-powered vehicle Time: 200 hours Cost: $15,000 In October 2005, a dozen or so bicyclists will haul butt down a flat two-lane state highway near Battle Mountain, Nevada, reaching speeds of more than 60 mph. That's no typo. It's par for the five-mile course at the sixth annual World Human Powered Speed Challenge.

Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems

New York Times: "The federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications. The action, which the government says is intended to help catch terrorists and other criminals, has unleashed protests and the threat of lawsuits from universities, which argue that it will cost them at least $7 billion while doing little to apprehend lawbreakers. Because the government would have to win court orders before undertaking surveillance, the universities are not raising civil liberties issues.The order, issued by the Federal Communications Commission in August and first published in the Federal Register last week, extends the provisions of a 1994 wiretap law not only to universities, but also to libraries, airports providing wireless service and commercial Internet access providers."

Biggest Wi-Fi Cloud is in Rural Oregon

BREITBART.COM - Just The News: "Parked alongside his onion fields, Bob Hale can prop open a laptop and read his e-mail or, with just a keystroke, check the moisture of his crops. As the jack rabbits run by, he can watch CNN online, play a video game or turn his irrigation sprinklers on and off, all from the air conditioned comfort of his truck. While cities around the country are battling over plans to offer free or cheap Internet access, this lonely terrain is served by what is billed as the world's largest hotspot, a wireless cloud that stretches over 700 square miles of landscape so dry and desolate it could have been lifted from a cowboy tune. Similar wireless projects have been stymied in major metropolitan areas by telephone and cable TV companies, which have poured money into legislative bills aimed at discouraging such competition. In Philadelphia, for instance, plans to blanket the entire city with Wi- Fi fueled a battle in the Pennsylvania legislature with Verizon Communications Inc., leading to a law that limits the ability of every other municipality in the state to do the same. But here among the thistle, large providers such as local phone company Qwest Communications International Inc. see little profit potential. So wireless entrepreneur Fred Ziari drew no resistance for his proposed wireless network, enabling him to quickly build the $5 million cloud at his own expense."

Machine Makes Dishes on Demand

Wired News: "When Barbara Wheaton, culinary historian and honorary curator at Radcliffe's Schlesinger Library, told Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers that she longed for durable dishes that didn't need to be washed and could be thrown away after a meal, she was surprised when they took her seriously. MIT Media Lab's Counter Intelligence Group, which develops innovative kitchen designs, has created a machine that makes dishes on demand and recycles them after diners have finished a meal. The dishes are made from food-grade, nontoxic acrylic wafers, which are shaped into cups, bowls and plates when heated, then resume their original wafer shape when they are reheated and pressed. Designed by MIT grad student Leonardo Bonanni, the DishMaker frees space in dish cabinets and reduces landfill trash. It also uses less energy to recycle dishes than factories use to make them. And, because the machine can produce up to 150 items, a dinner host would never be short of table settings when unexpected guests arrive: Cooks can select the number of place settings needed using a simple push-button control panel. The prototype DishMaker is the size of a standard dishwasher, and uses the heating element of a toaster oven to shape the items. To recycle the dishes, it heats them to about 300 degrees Fahrenheit to soften the acrylic, then a press restores them to wafers for easy stacking."

Big stars are born near Milky Way's black hole

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dozens of massive stars, destined for a short but brilliant life, were born less than a light-year away from the Milky Way's central black hole, one of the most hostile environments in our galaxy, astronomers reported on Thursday. On Earth, this might be a bit like setting up a maternity ward on the side of an active volcano. But researchers using the Chandra X-ray Observatory and other instruments believe there is a safe zone around black holes, a big dust ring where stars can form. Black holes, including the one at the center of our galaxy, are monstrous matter-sucking drains in space, with gravitational pull so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape once it comes within the hole's grasp. These young stars, however, are just far enough away to be held in orbit around the hole much as planets are kept in orbit around the sun, according to Sergei Nayakshin of the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. At less than a light-year's distance, the 50 or 100 massive young stars are quite close to the black hole, but not close enough to be drawn in, Nayakshin said in a telephone interview. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year. By comparison, Earth is about 26,000 light-years from the galactic center where the black hole lies."

GM crop 'ruins fields for 15 years'

GM crops contaminate the countryside for up to 15 years after they have been harvested, startling new government research shows. The findings cast a cloud over the prospects of growing the modified crops in Britain, suggesting that farmers who try them out for one season will find fields blighted for a decade and a half.

Rhythm Gene Discovered: The Scoop On When Worms Poop, Ovulate And Swallow

We have found a gene that is important for the control of fundamental rhythms in nematode worms," says biology professor and physician Andres Villu Maricq, a member of the Brain Institute at the University of Utah. "The same gene products that control the fundamental processes of life in mammals also are found in the worm, so our study suggests this gene and related genes may have critical roles in controlling rhythmic behaviors in humans and other animals."

crashing satellite

satelllite crashing Originally uploaded by riley27. The European Space Agency has confirmed that its ice mission Cryosat has been lost off the Russian coast. The satellite fell into the Arctic Ocean minutes after lift-off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The £90m (135m euro) craft was designed to monitor how the Earth's ice masses are responding to climate change. Scientists said the crash was a "tragedy" and it would be years before they could launch a similar mission, even if more funding were available.

'10th planet' has moon companion

BBC NEWS: "The astronomers who in July announced the discovery of a '10th planet' in our Solar System say the object has a moon. The new development comes as a result of observations made with the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Michael Brown, from the California Institute of Technology, US, says the find will help his team make a better determination of the new planet's mass. Currently, the planet has been dubbed Xena; the moon will be called Gabrielle until official names are agreed. Both 'codenames' come from characters in a US TV series, Xena: Warrior Princess. 'Since the day we discovered Xena, the big question has been whether or not it has a moon,' Professor Brown said in a statement. 'Having a moon is just inherently cool - and it is something that most self-respecting planets have, so it is good to see that this one does, too.'"

Hurricane forecaster predicts busy October - LiveScience - MSNBC.com

"A longtime guru of hurricane forecasting said today that October is likely to be another busy month. William Gray, a Colorado State University scientist who has been predicting seasonal hurricane activity for many years with remarkable accuracy, issue a statement today.'We project that October will continue the trend of above-average activity that we have witnessed in the preceding four months of the hurricane season,' Gray's team said."