Science

Witness This: A Lunar Eclipse

Posted by robynoratocom

"Oh, I'm bein' followed by a moonshadow..." A videographer catches a breathtaking lunar eclipse from British Columbia, Canada.

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Will Yale return all 40,000 artifacts to Peru?

Posted by Jeff from MSNBC

Yale University is holding some 40,000 artifacts from the famed Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, a government official heading efforts to return the pieces told the state news agency Andina on Sunday.

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The new statistical rhetoric of climate change.

Posted by Jeff from Slate

10 years' worth of new data have emboldened the researchers, and now they've replaced their hazy equivocations with percentage values. This shift in rhetoric-at base, from words to numbers-has made their conclusions more comprehensible and compelling. It's also made them less honest.

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Many Scientists Using Performance Enhancing Drugs

Posted by Jeff from Slashdot

docinthemachine is one of several readers to send word of a new poll published in Nature showing unprecedented levels of cognitive performance-enhancing drug abuse by top academic scientists. The poll, conducted among subscribers to Nature, surveyed 1,400 scientists from 60 nations (70% from the US). 20% reported using performance-enhancing drugs. Among the drug-using population, 62% used Ritalin, 44% used Provigil, and 15% used beta-blockers like Inderal. Frequency of use was evenly divided among those who used drugs daily, weekly, monthly, and once a year. All such use without a prescription is illegal.

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Baby with 2 faces born in north India

Posted by Jeff from MSNBC

A baby with two faces was born in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said Tuesday. I find it amusing that MSNBC put this in their Kids & Parenting section.

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New Enzyme Promises to Reduce Ethanol Costs

Posted by paneuropeanyank

University of Maryland research that started with bacteria from the Chesapeake Bay has led to a process that may be able to convert large volumes of all kinds of plant products, from leftover brewer's mash to paper trash, into ethanol and other biofuel alternatives to gasoline.

The secret to the process is a Chesapeake Bay marsh grass bacterium, S. degradans. Researchers found that the bacterium has an enzyme that could quickly break down plant materials into sugar, which can then be converted to biofuel.

Theresearchers were unable to isolate the Bay bacterium again in nature, but they discovered how to produce the enzyme in their own laboratories.

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Good news! Black hole won't destroy Earth

Posted by Jeff from MSNBC

This potential "black hole factory" has raised fears that a stray black hole could devour our planet whole. The Lifeboat Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to safeguarding humanity from what it considers threats to our existence, has stated that artificial black holes could "threaten all life on Earth" and so it proposes to set up "self-sustaining colonies elsewhere."

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