AndrewA

I understand where you are comming from, certainly there are plenty of events in Bible that are of a supernatural occurance using nature direct.. Parting of the Red Sea and the plauges for example. Science does not want God in the equation, so yes science does try to find explanations that fit the rules of physics and common sense logic. However God still uses natural events, in case of Sodom and Gomorrah it could well be an asteroid that hit the place. I watched a documentary a while ago that showed the sites of the cities were littered with pummice like stones and molten rock, amazingly non of the natural geology for hundreds of miles around contained this type of rock, so where did it come from? It was suggested at the time that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by a meteor storm, the rocks so hot they set fire to everything and then melted in the ground etc. Now, the question still lies, is the meteor discovered from the stone disc one that actually did destroy the two cities? it is suggested form the data retrieved that it impacted in Austria, it is possible that fragments from this continued to destroy the cities which would explain the places littered with small impacts, if a huge meteor hit the cities we would see a huge crater, not little impacts, so this asteroid is certainly is a good candidate for the destruction.

I have heard a number of so called recordings of angels and hell, but can not recall anything to do with space recording.. a quick search on google proves fruitless. However I wil do a bit more digging as I am now intrigued by this. From your description, see bold, i assume this was an experiment taken up on the shuttle? or was it some kind of other space science project, remote launch satellite orbit and return etc Anyway i need to relinquish PC to daughter for her homework, but ill be on it later !

We have yet another ancient find, no doubt we shall see another round and frenzy of rewriting of human evolution etc. Then in 10 years time we shall be told its not really that old or its some kind of ape and not human at all. Bless them. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7313005.stm Scientists have discovered the oldest human remains in western Europe. A jawbone and teeth discovered at the famous Atapuerca site in northern Spain have been dated between 1.1 and 1.2 million years old. The finds provide further evidence for the great antiquity of human occupation on the continent, the researchers write in the journal Nature. Scientists also found stone tools and animal bones with tell-tale cut marks from butchering by humans. The discovery comprises part of a human's lower jawbone. The remains of seven teeth were found still in place; an isolated tooth, belonging to the same individual, was also unearthed. Its small size suggests it could have belonged to a female. The find was made in the Sierra de Atapuerca, a region of gently rolling hills near the Spanish city of Burgos which contains a complex of ancient limestone caves. These caves have yielded abundant, well-preserved evidence of ancient occupation by humans and have been designated a Unesco World Heritage Site. The new remains were unearthed at the archaeological site of Sima del Elefante, which lies just a few hundred metres from two other locations which have yielded remains of early Europeans. "It is the oldest human fossil yet found in Western Europe," said co-author Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro, director of Spain's National Research Centre on Human Evolution (CENIEH) in Burgos. Ancient migration Dr Bermudez de Castro told BBC News that the latest find had anatomical features linking it to earlier hominins (modern humans, their ancestors and relatives since divergence from apes) discovered in Dmanisi, Georgia - at the gates of Europe. The Georgian hominins lived some 1.7 million years ago and represent an early expansion of humans outside Africa. The researchers therefore suggest that Western Europe was settled by a population of hominins coming from the east. Once these early people had "won the West" they evolved into a distinct species - Homo antecessor, or "Pioneer Man", say the scientists. The scientists now plan to investigate whether Pioneer Man might have been ancestral to Neanderthals and to even our own species Homo sapiens. "In terms of European prehistory, this [find] is very significant," said Professor Chris Stringer, research leader in human origins at London's Natural History Museum. The timing of the earliest human habitation in Europe has been controversial. "The earliest hominins outside Africa are those from Dmanisi in Georgia. After that, we have occupations in Europe, but the ages are not very precise. They are also without hominin [remains]," said Dr Marina Mosquera, a co-author from the Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain. Reliable date The Spanish researchers used three different techniques to date the new fossils: palaeomagnetism, cosmogenic nuclide dating and biostratigraphy. The researchers said the new find represented the earliest reliably dated evidence of human occupation in Europe. "What we have are the European descendents of the first migration out of Africa," said Dr Mosquera. Professor Stringer said that until more material was discovered from Atapuerca, he was cautious about assigning the new specimen to the species Homo antecessor. But he added: "However the specimen is classified, when combined with the emerging archaeological evidence, it suggests that southern Europe began to be colonised from western Asia not long after humans had emerged from Africa - something which many of us would have doubted even five years ago." "It gives us confidence that Europe was not left out of the picture of the spread of early humans. Early humans got to Java and China by 1.5 million years ago and certainly some of the animal remains found at those Asian sites are found in Western Europe too." He explained that the people at Sima del Elefante had made primitive stone tools and would have had relatively small brains. The outside of the jawbone had some primitive anatomical features, but the inside displayed some more advanced characteristics, he added. This suggested they may have been evolving towards humans which are known from much later in time, such as Homo heidelbergensis.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7318180.stm An "ethereal" 10 second clip of a woman singing a French folk song has been played for the first time in 150 years. The recording of "Au Clair de la Lune", recorded in 1860, is thought to be the oldest known recorded human voice. A phonograph of Thomas Edison singing a children's song in 1877 was previously thought to be the oldest record. The new "phonautograph", created by etching soot-covered paper, has now been played by US scientists using a "virtual stylus" to read the lines. "When I first heard the recording as you hear it ... it was magical, so ethereal," audio historian David Giovannoni, who found the recording, told AP. "The fact is it's recorded in smoke. The voice is coming out from behind this screen of aural smoke." Sheet music The short song was captured on April 9, 1860 by a phonautograph, a device created by a Parisian inventor, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville. The device etched representations of sound waves into paper covered in soot from a burning oil lamp. Lines were scratched into the soot by a needle moved by a diaphragm that responded to sound. The recordings were never intended to be played. It was retrieved from Paris by Mr Giovanni, working with First Sounds, a group of audio historians, recording engineers and sound archivists who aim to make mankind's earliest sound recordings available to all. To retrieve the sounds scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California made very high-resolution digital scans of the paper and used a "virtual stylus" to read the scrawls. However, because the phonautograph recordings were made using a hand-cranked device, the speed varied throughout, changing the pitch. "If someone's singing at middle C and the crank speeds up and slows down, the waves change shape and are shifting, Earl Cornell, a scientist at LBNL, told AP. "We had a tuning fork side by side with the recording, so you can correct the sound and speed variations." Previously, the oldest known recorded voice was thought to be Thomas Edison's recording of Mary had a little lamb. The inventor of the light bulb recorded the stanza to test another of his inventions - the phonograph - in 1877. "It doesn't take anything away from Thomas Edison, in my opinion," Mr Giovannoni told Reuters. "But actually, the truth is he was the first person to have recorded [sound] and played it back." The new recording will be presented on 28 March at a conference of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections at Stanford University in California.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7322134.stm The first excavation inside the ring at Stonehenge in more than four decades gets under way on Monday. The two-week dig will try to establish, once and for all, some precise dating for the creation of the monument. It is also targeting the significance of the smaller bluestones that stand inside the giant sarsen pillars. Researchers believe these rocks, brought all the way from Wales, hold the secret to the real purpose of Stonehenge as a place of healing. The excavation at the 4,500-year-old UK landmark is being funded by the BBC. The work will be filmed for a special Timewatch programme to be broadcast in the autumn. 'Magical stones' The researchers leading the project are two of the UK's leading Stonehenge experts - Professor Tim Darvill, of the University of Bournemouth, and Professor Geoff Wainwright, of the Society of Antiquaries. They are convinced that the dominating feature on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire was akin to a "Neolithic Lourdes" - a place where people went on a pilgrimage to get cured. Some of the evidence supporting this theory comes from the dead, they say. A significant proportion of the newly discovered Neolithic remains show clear signs of skeletal trauma. Some had undergone operations to the skull, or had walked with a limp, or had broken bones. Modern techniques have established that many of these people had clearly travelled huge distances to get to south-west England, suggesting they were seeking supernatural help for their ills. But Darvill and Wainwright have also traced the bluestones - the stones in the centre of Stonehenge - to the exact spot they came from in the Preseli hills, 250km away in the far west of Wales. Neolithic inscriptions found at this location indicate the ancient people there believed the stones to be magical and for the local waters to have healing properties. 'Scientific proof' Darvill and Wainwright hope the dig will demonstrate such beliefs also lay behind the creation of Stonehenge, by showing that the make-up of the original floor of the sacred circle at the monument is dominated by bluestone chippings that were purposely placed there. The dig will also provide a more precise dating of the Double Bluestone Circle, the first stone circle that was erected at Stonehenge. The original setting for this circle is no longer visible. The bluestones seen by visitors today are later re-erections. Archaeologists tried to date the first circle in the 1990s and estimated that it was put up at around 2,550BC; but a more precise dating has not been possible. Principally, this is because materials removed in earlier excavations were poorly recorded and cannot be attributed with any certainty to specific features and deposits. The 3.5m by 2.5m trench that will be excavated in the new effort will aim to retrieve fragments of the original bluestone pillars that can be properly dated. The BBC-funded excavation goes ahead with the full support of English Heritage, which manages the site for the nation. "Theories about Stonehenge are cheap; proof is precious," commented BBC Timewatch editor, John Farren. "I'm delighted that Timewatch, the BBC's flagship history programme, is able to offer the possibility for some hard scientific proof to further our knowledge of the dating of Stonehenge and to bolster this remarkable new theory. "It's taken us 18 months' hard work to get all the elements for the dig in place." Professor Wainwright added: "This small excavation of a bluestone is the culmination of six years of research which Tim and I have conducted in the Preseli Hills of North Pembrokeshire and which has shed new light on the eternal question as to why Stonehenge was built. "The excavation will date the arrival of the bluestones following their 250km journey from Preseli to Salisbury Plain and contribute to our definition of the society which undertook such an ambitious project. We will be able to say not only why but when the first stone monument was built." Dr Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage, commented: "Very occasionally, we have the opportunity to find out something new archeologically - we are at that moment now. "We believe that this dig has a chance of genuinely unlocking part of the mystery of Stonehenge." BBC Timewatch will follow the progress of the Stonehenge dig over the course of the next two weeks. Catch daily text and video reports on the programme's website. A BBC Two documentary will be broadcast in the autumn and will detail the findings of the investigation

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7318847.stm Environmental campaigners are calling for greater restrictions on shipping around Antarctica in order to prevent damage to its unique ecosystems. More tourists than ever before are visiting Antarctica, some in ships not designed for the harsh conditions. Campaigners say the sinking of the M/S Explorer last year was a wake-up call. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) is asking the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to strengthen its rules. The IMO's environment committee is meeting this week in London. "The IMO is the only body that can agree stringent vessel standards, equipment and procedures in order to protect human life and the marine environment for all vessels using Antarctic waters," said James Barnes, ASOC's executive director. ASOC and its allies are calling for the banning from Antarctic waters of ships that use heavy oil as fuel. They want to see tighter restrictions on the discharge of sewage and grey water, and a requirement that all vessels entering the region are strengthened to withstand icy conditions. International rescue So enticing is the lure of the White Continent that Antarctic tourism has grown about five-fold in the last 15 years. Figures from the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators suggest that 37,552 tourists visited Antarctica during 2006-07, the majority arriving by sea. ASOC is concerned that many of the vessels carrying them are not ice-strengthened. This makes serious accidents more likely, and increases the risk of an oil spillage if a ship gets into trouble. They have documented six incidents in little more than a year which carried a risk of major contamination, the most notable being the holing of the M/S Explorer - probably by an iceberg - which resulted in the vessel sinking and an international rescue mission for passengers and crew. Antarctica is the unique home to several varieties of penguin, an important base for others such as seals, and a vital feeding ground for whales. "It's fragile, hostile at times, yet staggeringly beautiful," said Vassili Papastavrou, a biologist with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) which is backing ASOC's bid. "You just don't get such abundance of wildlife in an undisturbed environment anywhere else in the world." Oil impact Antarctica is heavily regulated by the Antarctic Treaty and its various protocols and annexes. They ban mineral exploitation, limit uses of the continent to "peaceful purposes", and require member governments to protect the unique environment. But the treaty has only 46 members, and governments broadly supporting the bid for greater regulations - including the UK - will have to convince the much larger IMO membership that the extra curbs are necessary. Requiring ice-strengthening and banning ships fuelled by heavy oil would have an impact on businesses currently operating in the region, according to John Shears, head of the Environment and Information Division at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and senior environmental advisor to the UK delegation at Antarctic Treaty meetings. "BAS's ice-strengthened research vessels use marine gas oil, which is like diesel fuel, and if it spills it will evaporate and disperse quickly in the sea," he told BBC News. "A spill of heavy fuel oil would have a more significant environmental impact because the fuel coalesces in the cold water and is very persistent, making it exceptionally difficult to clean up. "A ban would certainly affect some of the very large cruise ships." The meeting of the IMO's Maritime Environment Protection Committee runs until Friday.

An experiment revealed that the rooks would team up so they could reach a tray of food that was inaccessible to lone birds. The researchers from the University of Cambridge were surprised to find that the birds performed as well as chimpanzees at the test. The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The researchers presented pairs of captive birds with a tray topped with tasty morsels of egg yolk and mealworm - however, it was placed just out of reach, outside of the birds' cage. A single piece of string was threaded through two hooks on the tray, with each end left dangling 60cm (24in) apart, just inside the rooks' enclosure. Psychologist Amanda Seed, the lead author of the paper, who is now based at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, said: "If just one bird pulled on one end of the string, it would slip out from the loops. "The question was would they work out, without any training, that they needed one bird to pull on one end of the string and another to pull on the other, simultaneously, to get to the food?" The team, including Nicola Clayton and Nathan Emery, discovered that the eight pairs were happy to cooperate, with some pairs solving the task straight away, others taking a day or two to work out that team-work was the key to getting their nibbles. Dr Seed told the BBC News website: "They performed remarkably well - as well as chimps when they were presented with the same test." The team then gave the rooks another trial. This time a single rook was presented with the same tray-string set-up, while its pair waited in a neighbouring cage linked by a one-way flap. The idea was to see whether the rook would wait for the other rook to enter the enclosure so they could once again work together to reach the food. Dr Seed said: "We found the birds just didn't wait." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7322113.stm Pairs of rooks can co-operate to solve problems, scientists report. The researchers believe that while rooks had the ability to cooperate, they may have failed to understand the importance and value of the act. Dr Seed said: "The results suggest the rooks weren't using information about the efficacy of the partner: the need for the partner to solve that task." However, chimps, when presented with the same scenario were happy to wait and team-up. Dr Seed explained: "In terms of the cognitive mechanisms underpinning co-operation, there may be a difference between rooks and chimps. "This could be because social groups of rooks and chimpanzees are structured differently. "Chimpanzee society is a dynamic mix of cooperative and competitive relationships, whilst rook groups seem to be more stable." Rooks (Corvus frugilegus) are members of the crow family. They live in colonies and form monogamous relationships for life. The researchers are now keen to find out if other species of birds perform his kind of co-operative behaviour.

the odd person who plunges a region or the world into war comes and goes all through history. Many individuals do bad things, you can search all through history and for every 50 years you can find examples of these people quite easy. Looking at the main events and a selected number of incidents and people is not a good gauge to identify moral and social decline which you attempt to find. To see how things are getting worse you need to look at the general population and the very fabric and ethics of society. In past whole streets used to know each other and watch out and care for each other, now most people do not even know the names of the people they been living to for past 5 years. Children are definitely more rebellious and turning against all forms of authority including their parents. every week you can read about how children and those who have hardly turned into adults have been found guilty for murder and attempted murder, let alone stealing and assaults. In America every month we now seem to hear of a youth going on rampage killing spree in their school. Just look how morals have changed, you only have to see that in the media, especially TV and magazines. There used to be a time not that long ago, where swearing on TV would have you sacked. No nudity or anything that even hinted at sexual immorality would be shown. Even when i was a child i remember a children's TV presenter being sacked for getting pregnant outside of marriage. However today we hear non stop swearing and its just considered normal, we see homosexuality being broadcast at all hours, such as on soap operas where same sex couples are common place. With number of cable and satalite tv channels it is not difficult to find some kind of porn, especially at night. IF you want to look at porn films in day then that is not difficult with internet. Look at what has happened, in society today, with the above examples and plenty of others, what used to be considered disgusting and depraved is now encouraged and considered normal.. THIS is what the sings of times are and what we are seeing, not necessarily the rise to power of some nasty dictator, for which history is littered with.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7314240.stm On the coral atoll of Midway in the central Pacific - famous for America's first victory over the Japanese fleet in World War Two - wildlife experts are facing a new battle against a rising tide of plastic waste. The Midway Islands are home to some of the world's most valuable and endangered species and they all are at risk from choking, starving or drowning in the plastic drifting in the ocean. Nearly two million Laysan albatrosses live here and researchers have come to the staggering conclusion that every single one contains some quantity of plastic. About one-third of all albatross chicks die on Midway, many as the result of being mistakenly fed plastic by their parents. I watched as the deputy manager of the wildlife refuge here, Matt Brown, opened the corpse of one albatross and found inside it the handle of a toothbrush, a bottle top and a piece of fishing net. He explained how some chicks never develop the strength to fly off the islands to search for food because their stomachs are filled with plastic. "It is disheartening to see such a monumental problem. It's really going to take not just people in a refuge or people working with birds like this - it's really a global effort to solve this problem." According to Matt Brown, the need for action is urgent because plastic waste adds to a list of existing threats. "The plastic is just another, very large straw on the camel's back that's really endangering the future of these birds." Many albatrosses are found to have swallowed disposable cigarette lighters - which look remarkably similar to their staple food of squid. Others become ensnared in plastic. We were alerted to one albatross chick with a large green hook fixed inside its beak. The beak itself had become deformed. One of the experts here, John Klavitter, carefully extracted the hook and found a small plastic net dangling from it. The net may once have held some fruit, hung on display in some distant shop, only to end up threatening the life of one of the world's greatest sea-birds. The staff here regularly try to clear up the plastic but the task is huge. We filmed a clean-up operation on one short stretch of beach and after just 30 minutes there was a vast pile of fishing floats, bottles, plastic sheeting, toys, torches, and deodorant sticks. One challenge is finding every small piece of plastic - it's often the tiniest fragments that cause most damage. Another is maintaining morale as each tide or wind brings another load of plastic to Midway's shores. In theory the wildlife here enjoys a double layer of bureaucratic protection - lying within a wildlife refuge and a newly declared Marine National Monument. But none of that counts for much if products designed to be cheap, durable and long-lasting are allowed into the oceans in the first place.

Most of what we accumulate and consider as indispensable is simply junk, a filter between us and God's love, and none of it can we take with us. Yes I understand where you are comming from, and there is a good joke where richest man in world whos done amazing things persuades God to allow him take same valuable into heaven with him, upon comming back he shows a couple of bars of pure gold, angels start laughing and as why he has bought paving material with him. There is nothing wrong with technology nor owning expensive possessions, most of us rely to much on technology, which dosnt have to be expensive, you can get basic personal organizers for a few dollars, i have a very cheap mobile phone where i keep everyones phone and address on. IF that died in an accident i wouldnt be in trouble as i would know how to get everyones info again, however if you have 100s of company contacts from all over the world on your phone and it was stolen, then your business could colapse. That is why when using any kind of technology it is vital to keep several back ups. How many of you have seperate back up files of your photos for example? WHen i first got into IT and computing one of the first things we were taught was BACK UP BACK UP BACK UP.

LOL I WISH! yeah Ill change that, of course we know that is the default Link Message when you click the "insert link" button New Scientist is a jolly good monthly magazine that has been running for years and years, its good they have a decent internet site, but to read most stuff you need to pay a subscription, only fair as you can read everything that appears in the magazine on the website.

Amen! But of course evolutionists will say how wonderful evolution is for coming up with such a design, entirely random and by chance, to us that seems so laughable. How on earth can people claim this is work of evolution, its just blind brainwashing.

I suppose the lack of space vehicles owned by other nations gives this impression, Russia basically became bankrupt and money was just not there, Europe has nothing suitable to send people up in, the only efficient means of transport to and from sation is the US Space Shuttle. if you remember the old Space Station was Mir which was owned by the old Soviet Union. It was plainly obvious that any new station would be too expensive for any one country to build and run, and to promote a more unified global effort, we have the New International Space Station. Anyway I am please to see Europe finally has something that appears to work making a serious contribution! I say this because if you follow space exploration you will know that Europe's track record has not been 100% successful, most noteablly when the first rover died on the Mars exploration. I am looking forward to Thursday and will breathe a sigh of relief when the Jules Verne docks. This will be a huge step forward as obviously having a remote cargo ship dock and return will mean we will not see any human fatalities if it goes wrong, well assuming it dosnt crash into the space station. This will also see a push towards constructing ships alongside the Space Station, until the Jules Verne came along we could not put up the seriously large amount of parts and materials needed for construction Anyway i could waffle on about this for ages, ill just shut up now

Normally fragile and brittle silicon chips have been made to bend and fold, paving the way for a new generation of flexible electronic devices. The stretchy circuits could be used to build advanced brain implants, health monitors or smart clothing. The complex devices consist of concertina-like folds of ultra-thin silicon bonded to sheets of rubber. Writing in the journal Science, the US researchers say the chip's performance is similar to conventional electronics. "Silicon microelectronics has been a spectacularly successful technology that has touched virtually every part of our lives," said Professor John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the authors of the paper. But, he said, the rigid and fragile nature of silicon made it very unattractive for many applications, such as biomedical implants. "In many cases you'd like to integrate electronics conformably in a variety of ways in the human body - but the human body does not have the shape of a silicon wafer. Professor Zhenqiang Ma of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who also works on flexible silicon circuitry, said the new research was an "important step". "Completely integrated, extremely bendable circuits have been talked about for many years but have not been demonstrated before," he told BBC News. "This is the first one." Silicon wave The chips build on previous work by Professor's Roger's lab. In 2005, the team demonstrated a stretchable form of single-crystal silicon. That demonstration involved very thin narrow strips of silicon bonded to rubber," explained Professor Rogers. At a microscopic level these strips had a wavy structure that behaved like "accordion bellows", allowing stretching in one direction. "The silicon is still rigid and brittle as an intrinsic material but in this accordion bellows geometry, bonded to rubber, the overall structure is stretchable," he told BBC News. Using the material, the researchers were able to show off individual, flexible circuit components such as transistors. The new work features complete silicon chips, known as integrated circuits (ICs), which can be stretched in two directions and in a more complex fashion. "In order to do this, we had to figure out how to make the entire circuit in an ultra-thin format," explained Professor Rogers. The team has developed a method that can produce complete circuits just one and a half microns (millionths of a metre) thick, hundreds of times thinner than conventional silicon circuits found in PCs. "What that thinness provides is a degree of bendability that substantially exceeds anything we or anyone else has done at circuit level in the past," he said. Rubber wrinkle The slim line circuits, like conventional chips, are made of sandwiches of multiple materials to form the wires and different components. The depth and relative position of the different layers, including chromium, gold and silicon, is crucial. "You have to design the thicknesses of those materials in such a way that you put what is called the neutral mechanical plane so that it overlaps with the most brittle material," explained Professor Rogers. The neutral mechanical plane is the layer in a material where there is zero strain. In a homogenous substance, this plane occurs exactly half way between the top and bottom surface, where there is equal compression and tension as it bends. This is where the silicon - the most brittle material - is usually positioned, according to Dr Rogers. "If you locate your circuits there, you can bend your overall system to a very tight radius of curvature, but your circuit doesn't experience any strain," he said. To create the foldable chips, these circuit layers are deposited on a polymer substrate which is bonded in turn to a temporary silicon base. Following the deposition of the circuits, the silicon base is discarded to reveal delicate slivers of circuitry held in plastic. These are then bonded to a piece of pre-strained rubber. When the strain is removed, the rubber snaps back into shape, causing the circuits on the surface to wrinkle accordingly. "This leads to the wavy geometry that allows the overall circuit system to be stretched in any direction you want," said Dr Rogers. The complete circuits are still relatively crude compared to top-end computer chips but have typical "silicon wafer performance" for the size of the component, he said. Brain pad Other companies and researchers are working on different approaches to flexible electronics. One approach is to make so-called "organic" electronics, also known as plastic electronics. These rugged devices are made from organic polymers and have been built into flexible "electronic paper" displays. However, they are relatively slow and therefore of limited use in high performance devices. The new work offers an alternative. "There are many applications," said Professor Ma. His own work has explored the possibility of using the technology in aircraft, for example building compact antennae or creating 360-degree surveillance applications by embedding chips across the surface of the fuselage. "In some applications, such a form of stretchable and foldable integrated circuits may be the only choice," he said. Professor Rogers, working with other scientists, is concentrating on medical applications. One collaboration seeks to develop a smart latex glove for surgeons which would measure vital signs, such as blood oxygen levels, during an operation. Another aims to develop a sheet of electronics which could lie on the surface of the brain to monitor brain activity in epileptics. "Most of our energy is now focused on applications," said Professor Rogers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7319576.stm Europe's "Jules Verne" freighter is about to start practice docking manoeuvres at the space station. The cargo truck will test its systems with two close approaches and retreats before finally linking up with the orbiting platform next Thursday. The ship, which is carrying just under five tonnes of supplies for the station's astronauts, flies under the control of autonomous computers. The vehicle's performance so far has been exemplary, say space officials. "We've had the usual small anomalies; we're learning how to fly the bird - but nothing that has been really difficult," said John Ellwood from the European Space Agency (Esa). Button pressing Launched earlier this month, Jules Verne, also known as the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), was parked up in front of the International Space Station (ISS) during the recent shuttle visit. But now that the Endeavour orbiter and its crew are on the ground, controllers have commanded the truck to come back over the platform for two demonstration days. Jules Verne is designed to make its own way to the platform and complete an automated attachment. Humans will only interfere if something is seen to be going wrong. But as a new ship, the ATV must prove itself; and the demos will allow for the checkout of all the vehicle's close-manoeuvring systems, including its advanced GPS technology and optical sensors. The first practice session, on Saturday, will see the ATV move to a hold point just 3,500m (2 miles) behind and 100m (330ft) above the station. The second, on Monday, will see Jules Verne edge to just 12m (40ft) from the back of the ISS; and, hopefully, aligned straight with the docking mechanism. The second day will also give the station crew an opportunity to practise their safety interventions. By pressing buttons on a special panel positioned in the ISS's Zvezda module, it is possible for the astronauts to command the ATV to stop in its tracks and even move away from the station Once these operations have been completed, ground controllers will assess the results, before giving the green light to Jules Verne to try a docking for real. At the moment, this procedure is booked to begin next Thursday at 1144 GMT, with the ATV starting from a hold point 250m (820ft) from the ISS. Contact with Zvezda's docking mechanism is timed for 1441 GMT. The cargo ship's speed relative to the station at that moment will be about seven cm/second (three inches/s). In reality, of course, the two objects - cargo ship and station - will be moving across the surface of the Earth at about 27,000km/h (17,000mph). Once a seal and electrical connections have been confirmed, and the astronauts have checked the air inside the ATV is safe to breathe - the supplies can be unloaded. Crews will use Jules Verne like a store cupboard. They will go into the pressurised vessel to obtain food, clothing and equipment when they need it. Fuel will be piped across to the main station complex; water will be carried out in bags; air will simply be vented from taps. As the supplies are depleted, the space will be filled with rubbish. The ATV is expected to take this waste into a controlled burn-up over the Pacific Ocean when it leaves the station later this year. Cool running Esa is understandably delighted with the way the mission has gone so far. There was a glitch associated with the propulsion system shortly after launch but back-up systems kicked in as designed; and the issue that triggered the alert was resolved within a day or so. ATV controllers in Toulouse, France, have seen their screens light up with alarms on a number of occasions when sensors on the spacecraft have detected low temperatures. But engineers say this resulted from warning values being set too strictly prior to flight and did not indicate there was anything seriously wrong with the truck. The trigger values had subsequently been re-set, said Dr Ellwood. "This bird has got so many thermisters, so many sensors, if we didn't have some things set wrongly it would have been a surprise," he told BBC News. "It's been virtually perfect so far, but obviously over next few days we'll all be a little bit nervous, naturally." Esa's ATV project manger added: "We've got a lot of things to do, and it would be nice to dock by next Thursday; but if there's anything we've got question marks about, we'll hang on. We don't have to rush this." ATV flights over the coming years will be the way Europe pays its way on the space station project.

This may seem amusing, but more and more of us are relying on keeping all our essential data and information on computers and mobile phones, what happens if we have a problem with our electronic equipment or it is stolen, suddenly we find everything we rely on is gone. It is best to do as one person in this report does and that is write everything down in a notebook and keep it in a safe place. http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91221-1310908,00.html Spending big money on technology does not lead to people being more careful, after research showed large numbers losing gadgets and vital contacts. The carelessness includes losing contact with people by dropping mobiles down the toilet. According to mobile phone operator O2, many people feel they have lost out on 'the love of their life' because of such carelessness. The survey of 1,009 people, carried out by Tickbox, found that one in five people had lost out on potential love by not backing up their contacts on their phone and then losing the device. In total, 68% of people admitted not copying their contacts elsewhere. The survey found that 44% had permanently lost contact with friends, 40% lost memorable photographs, whilst one in 10 lost downloaded music as a result of losing their mobile. The places where phones are lost are also unusual, with 19% left on buses, 14% in pubs, 12% dropped in toilets and 4% put it in the washing machine. A significant number of people, 23%, said that losing their contacts allowed them to lose touch with people they did not like much anyway. Psychologist and behaviour expert Peter Cohen said people needed to be more careful and it was not surprising that they lost devices such as mobiles, despite their cost and the importance of the data on them. He told Sky News Online: "People take a chance and think 'it won't happen to me'. "It's just the same as people not looking after themselves, they can be too lazy to take exercise or eat well." O2 commissioned the research to coincide with the launch of its Bluebook data back-up service. Latest comments on this stor

http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/nocs/news.php?a...ews&idx=449 Scientists have discovered Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) living and feeding down to depths of 3000 metres in the waters around the Antarctic Peninsula. Until now this shrimp-like crustacean was thought to live only in the upper ocean. Reporting this week in the journal Current Biology scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) describe how they used a deep-diving, remotely operated vehicle known as the Isis RoV to film previously unknown behaviour of krill - the major food source for fish, squid, penguins, seals and whales. Professor Paul Tyler of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton said,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7319929.stm Towns and cities around the world are turning out the lights for an hour to highlight the threat of climate change. Sydney was the first major city to begin "Earth Hour", when at 2000 (0900 GMT), lights went out on landmarks like the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Bangkok, Toronto, Chicago and Dublin are among 27 other cities officially due to follow suit at 2000 local time. But critics have dismissed the event as a gimmick that will not make any difference, a BBC correspondent notes. The initiative began in Sydney last year when an estimated two million residents took part, cutting energy usage by more than 10% for the hour. Organisers expect hundreds of towns and cities across the world to take part in the event and hope some capitals not officially involved, such as London and Rome, will mark the event by dimming lights on some landmarks. In its own contribution, the Google web search engine is putting a dark background on its homepage. Top emitter Organisers insist the aim of Earth Hour is to show that communities care passionately about climate change and want to keep up the pressure on governments to act decisively. Andy Ridley of the WWF, which is behind the initiative, says interest has been immense. "We're aware of villages in Norfolk in England that are doing Earth Hour and we're aware of the big cities like Chicago and Sydney that are doing it," he told the BBC. Celebrations in Australia to mark Earth Hour include traditional Aboriginal torchlight performances, environmentally friendly dinner parties and special candlelit evenings for single people, the BBC's Phil Mercer reports from Sydney. Some pubs are spending the evening without the lights on while many Australians are marking the occasion quietly in the darkness at home. Australia is one of the world's worst per capita emitters of greenhouse gases and many believe recent droughts and floods are the result of man's destabilising influence on the climate, our correspondent says. New Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made the environment one of his priorities, signing up to the Kyoto Protocol on tackling climate change soon after he took office.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7313385.stm A South American river dolphin uses branches, weeds and lumps of clay to woo the opposite sex and frighten off rivals, scientists have discovered. Researchers observed adult male botos carrying these objects while surrounded by females, and thrashing them on the water surface aggressively. Writing in the journal Biology Letters, they say such behaviour has never before been seen in any marine mammal. The boto lives in only two rivers, and numbers are thought to be declining. A group of British and Brazilian researchers studied the dolphin's unique courtship behaviour over three years in the Mamiraua Reserve, a flooded rainforest area on the Amazon. "You see them coming up with bits of wood or lumps of rock in a very ritualised manner," recalled Tony Martin from the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews University. "Quite often they'd slowly come up above the surface in a vertical posture holding this stuff in their mouths, then sink down rotating on their own axis. "They would also throw it or smash it against the surface, and it does appear that the waving around and bashing is to impress the ladies; but at the same time there's a lot of aggression between adult males, and we have to infer that's part of it." Professor Martin's group established that rock carrying and branch thrashing were almost exclusively the preserve of adult males, and that they did it more when lots of adult females were present. Although the males were more aggressive towards each other at these times, they were never seen to hit each other with the rocks or plants. Sound theory Three years ago, scientists found bottlenose dolphins in Australian waters carrying pieces of sponge, either to help with foraging or to defend against predators. But using objects for socio-sexual display is a novel finding. "I naively imagined this kind of thing was seen in other mammal species," said Professor Martin. "But I was quite surprised when I consulted friends and colleagues, and it turns out that only chimps do anything similar - and that's much less sophisticated." How and why the boto evolved the behaviour is unclear; although as cetaceans communicate largely with sound, it appears likely that the displays also create an impressive auditory impact on females, rival males, or both. Hooked on boto This research stemmed from a larger project, Projeto Boto, aimed at conserving the Amazon dolphin and its habitat. River dolphins are among the most threatened of all cetaceans; the baiji, a native of the Yangtze in China, may already have gone extinct in the last two years, while numbers of the Indus or blind river dolphin of South Asia are believed to be down to around the 3,000 mark. Compared to these species, the South American dolphin is in good health in its traditional haunts along the Amazon and Orinico rivers. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species suggests "there are probably tens of thousands of botos in total". But the future does not appear secure. The Red List concludes that the boto is threatened by dams (causing fragmentation of their habitat) and pollution, such as from mercury used in gold mining. "With growing human populations in Amazonia and Orinoquia, the conflicts between fisheries and dolphins are certain to intensify", it notes. Projeto Boto has found that fishermen are increasingly catching the dolphins for use as bait to catch a fish, the piracatinga, which usually feeds on dead flesh. Meat from the caiman, a close relative of the alligator, is also used for this purpose. Projeto Boto scientists are regularly finding dead dolphins, either harpooned or entangled in ropes. "We lost half of the animals from our study area in just five years," said Tony Martin. "They may be fairly numerous now, but they're going downhill fast and we can't see any end to it."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7312442.stm The tactics used by elephants to keep their cool in extreme desert heat have been caught on camera. A BBC crew filmed the tusked beasts spraying themselves with water that they had stored in a reservoir in their throats several hours earlier. Although this skill for storing water was first documented 100 years ago, the team believes this is the first time it has been filmed. The footage was recorded over six months in the Namib Desert, Namibia. It forms part of Natural World's Elephant Nomads of the Namib Desert programme. Cameraman Martyn Colbeck, who has spent the last two decades filming elephants, said: "Elephants normally drink every day, but the desert elephant has adapted to go up to five days without drinking. "Just behind the tongue they have this little pouch called the pharyngeal pouch. This is an area that is used partly in communication - it allows the elephants to have all of the deep calls, but they can also store several litres of water in it. "The desert elephants obviously regularly keep water in this pouch, but it is very rare to see them actually use it." Mr Colbeck was able to film the elephants take advantage of their water reservoirs as extreme temperatures hit the region. He told the BBC News website: "Seven elephants left the main river system and went right up into the mountains to get to a plant that they like eating." However, once the creatures had reached the top of the mountain, the temperature shot up to 45C (113F) and shade was extremely limited. He said: "At midday, the elephants started to regurgitate the water that they had stored earlier that morning into the tips of their trunks. "They sprayed it on to the outside of the ear that was facing the wind to cool down; they also sprayed it on to the inside of the ear where all the really thick veins lie to maximise the cooling effect. "The bulls, the females and the calves were all doing it - this went on every 20 minutes for several hours - they must have had several litres stored," Mr Colbeck explained. "This is a very unusual thing to see. Before this, I'd only seen it twice in 18 years - and this is the first time we have filmed it."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7314329.stm Evidence of the biggest meteorite ever to hit the British Isles has been found by a team of scientists. Researchers from the universities of Oxford and Aberdeen think a large object hit north-west Scotland about 1.2 billion years ago. The space rock struck the ground near the present-day town of Ullapool, they report in Geology journal. The scientists found what they believe to be debris which was flung out when the impact crater was formed. "If there had been human observers in Scotland 1.2 billion years ago, they would have seen quite a show," said co-author Ken Amor, from the University of Oxford. "The massive impact would have melted rocks and thrown up an enormous cloud of vapour that scattered material over a large part of the region around Ullapool. The crater was rapidly buried by sandstone which helped to preserve the evidence." The crater is suspected to lie under the Minch, the waterway that separates Lewis in the Outer Hebrides from the north-west Highlands of Scotland. Unusual rock formations in the area were previously thought to have been formed by volcanic activity. 'Spectacular' strike But Ken Amor and his colleagues found "ejecta blanket" evidence buried in rocks from the area. This represents debris thrown out when the huge object slammed into the ground. Ejected material from the meteorite strike is scattered over an area about 50km across. In the rocks, the researchers found elevated levels of the element iridium, which is characteristic of extra-terrestrial material. They also found microscopic parallel fractures that also imply a meteorite strike. Co-author John Parnell, a geologist at the University of Aberdeen, said: "Building up the evidence has been painstaking, but has resulted in proof of the largest meteorite strike known in the British Isles." Mr Amor said this was the "most spectacular evidence for a meteorite impact within the British Isles found to date". He added: "What we have discovered about this meteorite strike could help us to understand the ancient impacts that shaped the surface of other planets, such as Mars." The proposed volcanic origin for the rock formations had previously been a puzzle, as there are no volcanic vents or other volcanic sediments nearby. The UK's only other known space impact location is Silverpit in the North Sea. Scientists have found evidence on the sea floor for a cataclysmic asteroid or comet strike that occurred some 60-65 million years ago. The impact structure is about 130km (80 miles) east of the Yorkshire coast. Some researchers, though, have questioned its space origins

Visit My Website What is the fastest a dolphin can swim? Near the surface, no more than 54 kilometres per hour. Why? Because it hurts it to swim faster. Those are the findings of a pair of researchers from the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. But tuna, they say, do not suffer the same problem. Gil Iosilevskii and Danny Weihs carried out a series of calculations to model the tail and fins of fish such as tuna and mackerel, and cetaceans such as dolphins. The aim was to determine what limits the maximum speed at which these creatures can swim. The researchers found that although muscle power is the limiting factor for small fish, this is not the case for larger and more powerful swimmers such as tuna and dolphins. Pain barrier "There are certain limits on swimming speed that are imposed irrespective of power," explains Iosilevskii. One of these is the frequency at which the swimmers can beat their tails to propel themselves forward. The other is the formation of microscopic bubbles around the tail, a phenomenon known as "cavitation". According to Iosilevskii and Weihs, for animals such as dolphins that have nerve endings in their tails, cavitation can be the most important limiting factor. The bubbles form as a result of the pressure difference created by the movement of the fins. This process is what produces the ribbons of tiny bubbles that stream behind a ship's propeller (see image). When the bubbles collapse, they produce a shockwave, which eats away the metal in propellers. To dolphins, it is painful. According to the researchers' calculations, within the top few metres of the water column, this happens when the dolphins reach 10 to 15 metres per second (36 to 54 kilometres per hour). 'Cheating' surfers Tuna have "bony" tails without nerve endings, which is why they may sometimes break the speed limit imposed by the pain barrier. Tuna have been known to have lesions typical of the damage caused by cavitation. Despite this, cavitation does slow tuna down: when the bubbles collapse, they break the flow of water over the fish's fins and tail, causing it to stall. But for real speed, head deep. Cavitation events decrease as fish or dolphins swim deeper, and the local pressure increases. The theoretical top speed of dolphins and tuna is unknown, however, as the animals' intrinsic power and maximum "tail beating rate" is unknown. Either way, Iosilevskii says reports of dolphins overtaking speed boats are likely to be a result of the dolphins "cheating" by surfing the bow waves.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg1972...azy-images.html STUDYING the quantum realm can be illuminating in more senses than one. The special relationship between entangled photons of light could help us gain a clearer picture of things like microscopic structures. High-quality optical imaging involves measuring individual photons reflected off an object. The trouble is that the photons can be deflected en route, and extra photons created by thermal noise can obscure this weakened signal. Seth Lloyd of Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests that entangled photons could sharpen up such images by providing a way to discard the noise. The properties of entangled particles remain intimately linked, no matter how far apart they are. So by firing one photon from an entangled pair towards an object and keeping its partner behind, Lloyd says you could match the two when the reflected photon returns. The imaging device could then ignore any unmatched photons. "A noise photon would find it much harder to masquerade as a signal photon," he says (www.arxiv.org/0803.2022). Lloyd's calculations show the technique could significantly improve the signal-to-noise ratio. But he admits that the delicate measurements necessary are not yet possible.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1355...-the-earth.html Campaigners in the US are attempting to delay the start-up of the world's most powerful particle smasher with a lawsuit claiming it could spawn dangerous particles or mini black holes that will destroy the entire Earth. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is nearing completion at CERN, the European centre for particle physics near Geneva, Switzerland. Scientists hope it will begin operations in mid-July. On 21 March, Hawaii residents Luis Sancho and Walter Wagner filed a lawsuit in Hawaii's US District Court against CERN and US contributors to the project demanding that they do not operate the LHC until they prove it is safe. The US contributors named are the Department of Energy (DoE), the National Science Foundation and Fermilab, an accelerator laboratory near Chicago. The DoE and Fermilab will not comment on the case, insisting it is a legal matter to be dealt with by the Department of Justice. The lawsuit's claims are "complete nonsense", James Gillies, a spokesman for CERN, told New Scientist. "The LHC will start up this year, and it will produce all sorts of exciting new physics and knowledge about the universe," he said, adding: "A year from now, the world will still be here." Killer strangelets The collider will simulate conditions less than a billionth of a second after the big bang, by smashing protons together at enormous energies. Physicists hope to resolve long-standing questions, such as why particles have mass and whether space has hidden extra dimensions. But Wagner and Sancho's court papers raise theoretical scenarios in which the LHC could create particles that gobble up the Earth, such as "killer strangelets". Strangelets are hypothetical blobs of matter containing "strange" quarks, as well as the usual "up" and "down" types that make up ordinary matter. If a strangelet were stable and negatively charged, it might begin eating the nuclei of ordinary matter, converting them into strange matter. Eventually the menacing chain reaction could assimilate our entire planet and everyone on it. A 2003 safety review for the LHC found "no basis for any conceivable threat". It acknowledged that there's a small chance the accelerator could create short-lived, mini black holes or exotic "magnetic monopoles" that destroy protons in ordinary atoms. But it concluded that neither scenario could lead to disaster. That report and lay summaries of its findings are available on CERN's website. An updated version of the safety assessment will soon be released, and physicists plan to discuss safety during a CERN open house on 6 April. 'Dangerous matter' Wagner raised similar concerns to those in the new court papers during development of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York State. "RHIC started running in 2000 and we're still here," says Gillies. Besides, he adds, much higher energy collisions that those at the LHC frequently occur in nature, because cosmic ray particles zip around our galaxy at close to the speed of light. The moon has undergone such collisions for 5 billion years without being devoured by a ravenous black hole or killer strangelet, he adds. However, Wagner and Sancho describe CERN's safety reviews as "perfunctory" and say the cosmic ray argument may be misleading. "There is no question that should [the] defendants inadvertently create a dangerous form of matter such as a micro black hole or a strangelet, or otherwise create unsafe conditions of physics, then the environmental impact would be both local and national in scope, and quite deadly to everyone," their lawsuit claims. A website appeals for funds to support their case. Unconfirmed reports say that a magistrate judge has been assigned to the case for an initial conference on 16 June, and that Wagner intends to serve court papers to the federal government. "What we want to do is get this machine up and running," Gillies says. "We'll show people that the world is not going to disappear."

click on the link to see original page and link to youtube video of storm. http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13...m-released.html A false-colour movie of a whirling vortex at Saturn's south pole has been released. The storm may be driven by updrafts of warm, moist air