Underwater Antarctic Volcanoes

07-22-2011 • arclein

Scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have discovered previously unknown volcanoes in the ocean waters around the remote South Sandwich Islands. Using ship-borne sea-floor mapping technology during research cruises onboard the RRS James Clar

Cellulose Advance at Los Alamos

07-22-2011 • arclein

Ammonia transformed the naturally occurring crystalline allomorph Iβ to IIII, which led to a decrease in the number of cellulose intrasheet hydrogen bonds and an increase in the number of intersheet hydrogen bonds. This rearrangement of the hydr

Morphogenetic fields

07-21-2011 • arclein

For example, when enough mice in a group have learned a maze, they ALL suddenly know the maze – whether they have run it or not! It now appears, after a BBC television experiment, that if enough humans have learned something, then it becomes easier f

XCOR to Fly Atsa Suborbital Observatory

07-20-2011 • arclein

The Atsa project will use crewed reusable suborbital spacecraft equipped with a specially designed telescope to provide low-cost space-based observations above the contaminating atmosphere of Earth, while avoiding some operational constraints of sa

What's Going on With the Sun?

07-20-2011 • arclein

arlier this month a lot of column inches were devoted to the news that the Sun continues to behave in a peculiar manner – and that solar activity could be about to enter a period of extended calm. The story emerged after three groups of researchers p

Dark Fireworks on Sun

07-16-2011 • arclein

"The blast was triggered by an unstable magnetic filament near the sun's surface," he explains. "That filament was loaded down with cool1 plasma, which exploded in a spray of dark blobs and streamers."

Focus Fusion Lightning

07-14-2011 • arclein

small ball of plasma. In other words, sitting in a space the size of a small garage, FoFu-1 unleashes a bolt of lightning that lassos itself into a knot, and LPP’s patented approach appears to be much more efficient in generating those all-important

Sea-bed Oxygenation Can Solve Eutrophication

06-16-2011 • arclein

If oxygen-free bottoms in the Baltic are oxygenated, it can be anticipated that every square kilometre of bottom surface will be able to bind 3 tonnes of phosphorus in a short time, which is a purely geochemical effect. If the bottoms are then kept o

Sunspot Cycle Decline Supports Global Chill

06-16-2011 • arclein

"The solar cycle may be going into a hiatus," Frank Hill, associate director of the National Solar Observatory's Solar Synoptic Network, said in a news briefing today (June 14). The studies looked at a missing jet stream in the solar interior,

Aquarius to Study the Power of Sea Salt

06-15-2011 • arclein

"Salinity, along with temperature, governs the density of seawater," says Lagerloef. "The saltier the water, the denser it is, and density drives the currents that determine how the ocean moves heat around the planet. For example, the Gulf Stream