Beautiful video of the Aurora Australis, captured by ISS crew-members passing over eastern Australia on September 11, 2011. Geomagnetic storms induced by solar flares produce these intricate natural light shows.
I think beautiful may be an understatement!
(via Space.com)
An amazing video from BBC Wildlife of the Australian lyrebird — the ground-dwelling bird that has an uncanny ability to mimic sounds.
And if you are looking for a laugh, check this “unseen footage” of the David Attenborough special:
(via Kottke.org)
An article published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology described how gamers playing an online game called Foldit deciphered a puzzle that stumped scientists and automated computers working on the problem for over a decade. In three weeks!
They figured out the protein structure of a monomeric protease enzyme, which is “a cutting agent in the complex molecular tailoring of retroviruses, a family that includes HIV”. The understanding of this structure is an important step towards discovering the causes of many diseases related to this enzyme and coming up with treatments for them.
Gamers solve puzzle in 3 weeks that stumped scientists for a decade (The Next Web)
So cool!
James Drake used 600 photos from the Gateway to Astronomy Photograph of Earth archive to create this timelapse video of Earth from the International Space Station.
If you love astronomy images, be sure to view his blog — lots of amazing photos.
(via Universe Today)
Update:
“This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and the Amazon. Also visible is the Earths ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy.”
Each Friday we’ll post a collection of links for you to check out over the weekend — posts from around the web that didn’t quite make the cut for the week. Not saying these aren’t cool, by any means — they’re just older or not as exciting as the links we decided to post.
Enjoy:
Have a good weekend!
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA astronomers, using the Kepler space telescoped, recently discovered an exoplanet that orbits around two stars, instead of one. The Saturn-sized planet is about 200 light-years away and orbits stars that are “roughly three-quarters and one-fifth the mass of the sun.”
You may remember that Luke Skywalker grew up on a planet called Tatooine, that also orbited two stars. The astronomers believe the planet is probably closer to Star Wars’ cold planet Hoth, though, since the stars are both relatively cool. They estimate the temperature on the planet to be minus 100 to minus 150 degrees Fahrenheit. The planet is also similar to Saturn in that it’s a gas giant, meaning no place to stand and watch that amazing double sunset Luke watched in A New Hope.
The full report will appear in the September 16th issues of Science.
Source: New Exoplanet Discovery Is Life Imitating Star Wars | Wired Science
Researchers led by University of Alberta paleontologist Ryan McKellar discovered protofeather fossils encased in amber from the Late Cretaceous era. The latest issue of the journal Science includes their findings, which support theories of dinosaur and avian evolution.
Click through for more detail and an amazing photo gallery: Dinosaur Feathers Found in Amber Reinforce Evolution Theories – The Atlantic.
Artist concept of SLS launching. (NASA)
NASA announced they are ready to move forward with the development of the Space Launch System (SLS) in a news release yesterday. SLS is “an advanced heavy-lift launch vehicle that will provide an entirely new national capability for human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit.”
The Space Launch System, or SLS, will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as important cargo, equipment and science experiments to Earth’s orbit and destinations beyond. Additionally, the SLS will serve as a back up for commercial and international partner transportation services to the International Space Station.
Below is a NASA video showing the SLS concept, including a virtual launch:
Read more: Meet NASA’s Space Launch System, 50 Years In The Making (Fast Company) & NASA Announces Design for New Deep Space Exploration System (NASA)
A recent scientific study, published in the journal Pediatrics, on the effect of fast-paced television shows on preschool-aged children has made the rounds on the Internet over the last few days. The study showed:
Children who watched the fast-paced television cartoon performed significantly worse on the executive function tasks than children in the other 2 groups when controlling for child attention, age, and television exposure.
The study went on to conclude:
Just 9 minutes of viewing a fast-paced television cartoon had immediate negative effects on 4-year-olds’ executive function. Parents should be aware that fast-paced television shows could at least temporarily impair young children’s executive function.
Do the conclusions concern you?
As a parent of three (3-year old twins and a 4-year old), I always second guess my decision when I let them watch TV. Creative play, reading, and playing outside are all better options, right? However, Matt over at GeekDad brought up some good points regarding the study:
I tend to agree with Matt. I’ve never liked shows like SpongeBob, although the few episodes of Phineas and Ferb I’ve seen were pretty clever. So that filter, along with our kids not knowing about these shows yet, has helped us stay far away.
In the end, I’ve always felt moderation and age-appropriateness are the most important areas to focus on with regard to kids and TV. If you follow those principles, it’s probably not worth worrying about possible negatives — especially short-term negatives. Our kids pretty much only watch education-focused cartoons (PBS cartoons, Dora, Diego, etc.), anyway. Maybe I should worry about them not being funny when they grow up?
Share your thoughts in the comments!
(Hat tip: Wired’s GeekDad)
A cool story of 13-year-old Aidan Dwyer, who noticed the patterns in the branches of trees. His curiosity led him to investigate if the shape of the branches helped the tree optimize the amount of light it collected for photosynthesis.
From this he developed an award winning experiment that applied the Fiibonacci sequence — where each number is equal to the sum of its two predecessors — to his design for a solar panel array. His results claim to produce more power than a uniform array of solar cells.
Although his results were questioned by many professionals, GeekDad post this awesome update to their original article:
Yes, we are aware that young Aidan’s conclusions have been contested elsewhere on the Internet, including this article offered by Tuan Nguyen. The focus should probably be on what this group of young people have managed to do with a little curiosity and smarts, not whether the work would either hold up to stress-testing on Nature or revolutionize the world.
As a father of three toddlers, who are still in the early stages of developing their curiosity, it’s a nice reminder to focus on expanding interests and providing the necessary resources for them to learn and grow, rather than the wrong answer.
Source: Teen Taps Into Power of Fibonacci to Harness the Sun | GeekDad | Wired.com
