A mile underground is a race to find dark matter

Submitted by Freedomman on Wed, 01/05/2011 - 15:43

LEAD, South Dakota - January 4, 2011 - Between 1876 and 2002, the people of Lead, South Dakota, extracted $3.5 billion worth of gold from the Homestake mine. It was the town’s main business, and when falling prices and diminishing returns finally shut it down, no one was sure what to do with the remaining 8,000-foot hole in the ground.

Then, in 2007, the National Science Foundation decided that an 8,000-foot hole would be the perfect place to put its proposed Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, or DUSEL, a massive research complex that will include the world’s deepest underground lab.

Giant planet may be approaching earth

Submitted by Freedomman on Wed, 12/08/2010 - 16:29

December 1, 2010 - Our sun may have a companion that disturbs comets from the edge of the solar system - a giant planet with up to four times the mass of Jupiter, researchers suggest.

A NASA space telescope launched last year may soon detect such a stealth companion to our sun, if it actually exists, in the distant icy realm of the comet-birthing Oort cloud that surrounds our solar system with billions of icy objects.

Scientists reverse aging process in mice; humans next

Submitted by Freedomman on Wed, 12/08/2010 - 16:21

BOSTON, Massachusetts - November 28, 2010 - Harvard scientists were surprised that they saw a dramatic reversal, not just a slowing down, of the aging in mice. Now they believe they might be able to regenerate human organs.

Scientists claim to be a step closer to reversing the aging process after rejuvenating worn out organs in elderly mice. The experimental treatment developed by researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, turned weak and feeble old mice into healthy animals by regenerating their aged bodies.

Attempts to redesign our species pose a serious threat to humanity's survival

Submitted by Freedomman on Wed, 12/01/2010 - 14:19

By Margaret Somerville

November 24, 2010 - Being an incurable optimist, I do not believe the human race will end, but, if it were to, I think it would most likely come about through human intervention in human life with avant-garde technoscience. Such interventions could either intentionally wipe out the species, as in the case of the transhumanists, or unintentionally, as could happen with xenotransplantation.

Hi-tech eye scanners to track passengers throughout the airport

Submitted by Freedomman on Thu, 11/25/2010 - 15:57

LONDON, England - November 16, 2010 - Passengers will have their eyes scanned as soon as they check in as part of a new trial a major UK airport.

High-tech machines that can recognize an individual's iris as they walk around will be installed at Manchester Airport at check in during the government-backed pilot program.

The technology has the potential to overhaul security and customs, with airport bosses hoping it could help in the fight against terrorism.

One EMP burst and the world goes dark

Submitted by Freedomman on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 14:54

November 11, 2010 - The sky erupts. Cities darken, food spoils and homes fall silent. Civilization collapses.

End-of-the-world novel? A video game? Or could such a scenario loom in Amerika's future?

There is talk of catastrophe ahead, depending on whom you believe, because of the threat of an electromagnetic pulse triggered by either a supersized solar storm or terrorist A-bomb, both capable of disabling the electric grid that powers modern life.

Scientists makes a robot to argue climate change for him

Submitted by Freedomman on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 16:06

November 3, 2010 - Getting into a climate change debate on Twitter could be even more exhausting than it sounds now that a software developer named Nigel Leck has automated the process.

Tired of arguing with climate change deniers in 140 character quips, the programmer wrote a script to do it for him. Chatbot scans Twitter every five minutes searching for hundreds of phrases that fit the usual denier argument paradigm. Then it serves them up some science.

Handheld radar senses life behind a wall

Submitted by Freedomman on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 15:49

WASHINGTON - October 26, 2010 - Pretty please, with sugar on top, don’t call it seeing through walls. That shorthand - with its connotations of the First Earth Battalion trying to phase through brick - gets Army engineers gritting their teeth. Instead, this cream-colored handheld senses through the wall, seeing if any live human being is behind it before a squad kicks down the door to see for itself.

New nanospheres provide stronger armor than Kevlar

Submitted by Freedomman on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 15:45

WASHINGTON - October 22, 2010 - Printable body armor, better bulletproof glass, and tougher steel are just a few of the applications for a new materials technology developed by Israeli researchers. A team of scientists there have developed a transparent material made of self-assembling nanospheres that is the stiffest organic material ever created, surpassing the properties of stainless steel and even Kevlar.

Free thinking is now a mental illness

Submitted by Freedomman on Wed, 11/03/2010 - 22:13

October 14, 2010 - Is nonconformity and freethinking a mental illness?  According to the newest addition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), it certainly is. The manual identifies a new mental illness called “oppositional defiant disorder” or ODD. Defined as an “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior,” symptoms include questioning authority, negativity, defiance, argumentativeness, and being easily annoyed.