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Russian Research Project Offers ‘Immortality’ to Billionaires – by Transplanting Their Brains Into Robot Bodies

July 19, 2012 2 comments

Thursday, 19 July 2012

So what would be the difference? I don’t understand

‘A Russian entrepreneur who heads a hi-tech research project called ‘Avatar’ has contacted billionaires to offer them immortality. Itskov claims he will personally oversee their immortality process, in exchange for an undisclosed fee.’

Read more: Russian Research Project Offers ‘Immortality’ to Billionaires – by Transplanting Their Brains Into Robot Bodies

Hubble sees the needle galaxy, edge-on and up close


July 16, 2012

Hubble sees the needle galaxy, edge-on and up close

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image credit: ESA/NASA

This image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals an exquisitely detailed view of part of the disc of the spiral galaxy NGC 4565. This bright galaxy is one of the most famous examples of an edge-on spiral galaxy, oriented perpendicularly to our line of sight so that we see right into its luminous disc. NGC 4565 has been nicknamed the Needle Galaxy because, when seen in full, it appears as a very narrow streak of light on the sky.

The edgewise view into the Needle Galaxy shown here looks very similar to the view we have from our into the core of the Milky Way. In both cases ribbons of dust block some of the light coming from the galactic disc. To the lower right, the dust stands in even starker contrast against the copious yellow light from the star-filled central regions. NGC 4565’s core is off camera to the lower right.

Read more : http://phys.org/news/2012-07-hubble-needle-galaxy-edge-on.html

Early Human Ancestor, Australopithecus Sediba, Fossils Discovered in Rock


July 13, 2012

ScienceDaily — Scientists from the Wits Institute for Human Evolution based at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg have just announced the discovery of a large rock containing significant parts of a skeleton of an early human ancestor. The skeleton is believed to be the remains of ‘Karabo’, the type skeleton of Australopithecus sediba, discovered at the Malapa Site in the Cradle of Humankind in 2009.

This is the tooth of a hominid embedded in a rock containing significant parts of a skeleton of an early human ancestor. The skeleton is believed to be the remains of “Karabo”, the type skeleton of Australopithecus sediba, discovered at the Malapa Site in the Cradle of Humankind in 2009. (Credit: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg)
 

Professor Lee Berger, a Reader in Palaeoanthropology and the Public Understanding of Science at the Wits Institute for Human Evolution, will make the announcement at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum in Shanghai, China on 13 July 2012.

“We have discovered parts of a jaw and critical aspects of the body including what appear to be a complete femur (thigh bone), ribs, vertebrae and other important limb elements, some never before seen in such completeness in the human fossil record,” says Berger. “This discovery will almost certainly make Karabo the most complete early human ancestor skeleton ever discovered. We are obviously quite excited as it appears that we now have some of the most critical and complete remains of the skeleton, albeit encased in solid rock. It’s a big day for us as a team and for our field as a whole.”

Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120712162744.htm

Astronomers in Chile spot evidence of dark galaxies


AAP  July 12, 2012

CHILE-SPACE

A photo released on July 9, 2012, of the Cats Paw Nebula revisited in a combination of exposures from the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope in Chile with 60 hours of exposures on a 0.4-metre telescope taken by amateur astronomers Robert Gendler and Ryan M. Hannaho. Source: AFP

ASTRONOMERS in Chile using a powerful telescope have observed what appears to be evidence of the existence of dark galaxies, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) says.

Dark galaxies are small, gas-rich galaxies from the early universe that are believed to be the building blocks of today’s bright, star-filled galaxies, said the ESO, an intergovernmental organisation supported by 15 countries.

“For the first time, dark galaxies – an early phase of galaxy formation, predicted by theory but unobserved until now – may have been spotted,” the observatory said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, an international team thinks they have detected these elusive objects by observing them glowing as they are illuminated by a quasar,” the statement said.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/astronomers-spot-evidence-of-dark-galaxies/story-e6frfro0-1226424613498#ixzz20ONE74R1

Arctic Biologist Shares Astonishing Sea Creatures With the World


  There is no road to the White Sea Biological Station, which sits at latitude 66° N on the cusp of the Arctic Circle. Located on the shores of its namesake, the White Sea, the only way to get there is by boat in summer and snowmobile in winter since the waters of Kandalaksha Bay are frozen six months out of the year.

Inside the station is an unlikely photo studio where Alexander Semenov, 25, is sharing his stunning photographs of arctic sea creatures with the global online community.

“I’m trying to act like the Discovery channel, but as a single unit,” says Semenov.

 Read more: http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2012/07/arctic-sea-creatures/?pid=2706

Giving Ancient Life Another Chance to Evolve: Scientists Place 500-Million-Year-Old Gene in Modern Organism

July 12, 2012 1 comment

July 12, 2012

Paleo-experimental evolution. (Credit: Image courtesy of Georgia Institute of Technology)
 
Using a process called paleo-experimental evolution, Georgia Tech researchers have resurrected a 500-million-year-old gene from bacteria and inserted it into modern-day Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria. This bacterium has now been growing for more than 1,000 generations, giving the scientists a front row seat to observe evolution in action.

“This is as close as we can get to rewinding and replaying the molecular tape of life,” said scientist Betül Kaçar, a NASA astrobiology postdoctoral fellow in Georgia Tech’s NASA Center for Ribosomal Origins and Evolution. “The ability to observe an ancient gene in a modern organism as it evolves within a modern cell allows us to see whether the evolutionary trajectory once taken will repeat itself or whether a life will adapt following a different path.”

Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120711100726.htm

Hubble Discovers a Fifth Moon Orbiting Pluto


ScienceDaily (July 11, 2012) — A team of astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is reporting the discovery of another moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto.

This image, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, shows five moons orbiting the distant, icy dwarf planet Pluto. The green circle marks the newly discovered moon, designated P5, as photographed by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 on July 7. The observations will help scientists in their planning for the July 2015 flyby of Pluto by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. P4 was uncovered in Hubble imagery in 2011. (Credit: NASA; ESA; M. Showalter, SETI Institute)
 

The moon is estimated to be irregular in shape and 6 to 15 miles across. It is in a 58,000-mile-diameter circular orbit around Pluto that is assumed to be co-planar with the other satellites in the system.

“The moons form a series of neatly nested orbits, a bit like Russian dolls,” said team lead Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.

The discovery increases the number of known moons orbiting Pluto to five.

The Pluto team is intrigued that such a small planet can have such a complex collection of satellites. The new discovery provides additional clues for unraveling how the Pluto system formed and evolved. The favored theory is that all the moons are relics of a collision between Pluto and another large Kuiper belt object billions of years ago.

Read more : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120711123038.htm

Belching Black Hole Proves a Biggie: First Known ‘Middleweight’ Black Hole


July 10, 2012

  • ScienceDaily (July 9, 2012) — Observations with CSIRO’s Australia Telescope Compact Array have confirmed that astronomers have found the first known “middleweight” black hole.

Galaxy ESO 243-49, about 300 million light-years away, is home to the newly found black hole. An arrow shows the location of the black hole HLX-1 in the galaxy ESO 243-49. (Credit: NASA, ESA and S. Farrell (U. Sydney))
 

Outbursts of super-hot gas observed with a CSIRO radio telescope have clinched the identity of the first known “middleweight” black hole, Science Express reports.

Called HLX-1 (“hyper-luminous X-ray source 1”), the black hole lies in a galaxy called ESO 243-49, about 300 million light-years away.

Before it was found, astronomers had good evidence for only supermassive black holes — ones a million to a billion times the mass of the Sun — and “stellar mass” ones, three to thirty times the mass of the Sun.

“This is the first object that we’re really sure is an intermediate-mass black hole,” said Dr Sean Farrell, an ARC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Sydney and a member of the research team, which included astronomers from France, Australia, the UK and the USA.

Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120709102720.htm

The real Mars


July 6, 2012

Written by : Joseph P. Skipper 

http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com

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Verify M0902042 at MSSS and USGS.

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      Verify E0801033 at MSSS and USGS 

(22 more images at http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/evidence-reports/2012/221/real-mars.htm)

The visual evidence is presented here in two sampling blocks representing the better of the discoveries. In the first block you’ll see quite a few different bodies of water in a liquid state with some of these surrounded by the bonus of very conventional looking forests. The second block is all about samples of large form forest life Mars style none of which are by official consensus suppose to exist at all on this world.

Remember that the Mars surface is officially suppose to be completely dry and devoid of life. Further, the atmosphere is suppose to be 95.35% carbon dioxide (CO2) with only a very tiny .03% of water vapor and super hard frozen to the tune of as much as –220º Fahrenheit or –140º Celsius. In other words it would be a race as to whether an unprotected Earth human out in the open there would be speedily killed by too much poisonous CO2 gas by many times over or quickly frozen to death.

Note that, even though all of the following evidence is in the official science data and available there for verification, you have never heard a peep out of NASA or JPL as to its existence. So this amounts to the hidden Mars that it appears someone in control does not wish you and I to know about or at least also ignore. Also note that I have added a slight bit of false color to these online images to increase clarity and the viewing comfort level. In any case, the high drama visual evidence is as follows.

Read more : http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/evidence-reports/2012/221/real-mars.htm

WISE Captures a Nebula on Fire

July 8, 2012 1 comment

Sunday July 8, 2012

The 'Flame' Burns Bright in New WISE Image 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Flame Nebula sits on the eastern hip of Orion the Hunter, a constellation most easily visible in the northern hemisphere during winter evenings. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

(Phys.org) — A new image from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, shows the candle-like Flame nebula lighting up a cavern of dust. The Flame nebula is part of the Orion complex, a turbulent star-forming area located near the constellation’s star-studded belt.

The image is being released today along with a new batch of data from the mission. Last March, WISE released its all-sky catalog and atlas containing  and data on more than a half billion objects, including everything from asteroids to . Now, the mission is offering up additional data from its second scan of the sky.

“If you’re an astronomer, then you’ll probably be in hog heaven when it comes to,” said Edward (Ned) Wright of UCLA, the principal investigator of the WISE mission. “Data from the second sky scan are useful for studying stars that vary or move over time, and for improving and checking data from the first scan.”

Read more: http://phys.org/news/2012-07-flame-bright-wise-image.html