On Simulated Mars Mission, Sleep Becomes Crucial Issue
Scientists study six astronauts in a faux spacecraft for 17 months. Most experienced some trouble sleeping — a problem that could be disastrous on a real mission.
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Ice Swirls off the Coast of Greenland … for Now
From Slate’s Bad Astronomy blog: Global warming is real. Temperatures are changing, climate is changing, and most importantly, arctic ice is changing, melting. It is absolutely critical we understand this process better so that we can better understand the implications, and some of the most formidable tools in our possession are Earth-observing satellites. Their keen…
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Data Saved In Quartz Glass Might Last 300 Million Years
Most cultural institutions and research laboratories still rely on magnetic tape to archive their collections. Hitachi recently announced that it has developed a medium that can outlast not only this old-school format but also CDs, DVDs, hard drives and MP3s. The electronics giant partnered with Kyoto University’s Kiyotaka Miura to develop “semiperpetual” slivers of quartz…
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Atom Smasher Hiatus Sets Stage for More Discovery
The Large Hadron Collider will operate for two more months then shut down through 2014, allowing engineers to lay thousands more superconducting cables aimed at bringing the machine up to “full design energy.” This will vastly improve its capacity to simulate the moments after the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago.
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Flesh-Eating Fies Map Forest Biodiversity
The blowflies and flesh flies that settle on dead animals aren’t just feasting on the carrion — they’re sampling their DNA. Scientists in Germany have now shown that this DNA persists for long enough to be sequenced, providing a quick and cost-effective snapshot of mammal diversity in otherwise inaccessible rainforests. Researchers stumbled on the grisly…
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Workers Willing to Make Less to Work for Sustainable Companies
A company’s sustainability efforts are becoming so desirable for employees that some are now willing to give up part of their salary to work for one, new research shows. More than 15% of employees in the U.S., U.K. and Germany have taken a pay cut to work for a sustainable company, a study by consulting…
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Gene Variant Linked to Personality Traits, Longevity
A study by brain researchers at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) recently found that a dopamine-receptor gene variant that is related to personality traits can also impact healthy aging. Their findings were published in The Journal of Neuroscience. In the paper, the researchers described how the gene variant, known as DRD4 7R allele, is…
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Kinder Children Are More Popular
Performing deliberate acts of kindness makes pre-teen children more popular with their peers, say scientists. A team led by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, “assigned” children three acts of kindness each week for four weeks. After the four weeks, children were happier and more liked by classmates. The researchers say than encouraging such…
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Double-Star Systems Can Be Dangerous for Exoplanets
Alien planets born in widely separated two-star systems face a grave danger of being booted into interstellar space, a new study suggests. Exoplanets circling a star with a far-flung stellar companion — worlds that are part of “wide binary” systems — are susceptible to violent and dramatic orbital disruptions, including outright ejection, the study found….
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The Value of Creativity and Imagination
SciAm excerpts Maria Konnikova’s “Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes“: “It is surprising that people do not believe that there is imagination in science,” Nobel-winning physicist Richard Feynman once told an audience. Not only is that view patently false, but “it is a very interesting kind of imagination, unlike that of the artist. The…