Europa – Jupiter Broadcasting https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com Open Source Entertainment, on Demand. Mon, 22 Feb 2016 02:49:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.3 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cropped-favicon-32x32.png Europa – Jupiter Broadcasting https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com 32 32 Freshwater Aquifers & Brain Plasticity | SciByte 113 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/48212/freshwater-aquifers-brain-plasticity-scibyte-113/ Tue, 17 Dec 2013 21:06:29 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=48212 We take a look at new sources of freshwater, plasticity, water on Europa, spacecraft updates, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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We take a look at new sources of freshwater, plasticity, water on Europa, spacecraft updates, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Star Trek: The Return (Adapted) Audiobook | William Shatner | Audible.com

Hidden Freshwater Reserves

  • According to the latest report documented in the journal Nature Australian scientists have identified vast freshwater reserves buried beneath the oceans
  • The Discovery
  • Groundwater scientists were very well aware of the presence of the freshwater reserves beneath the seafloor, but have assumed it to occur during unusual and extraordinary situations
  • Researchers have now revealed the presence of nearly half a million cubic kilometres [120,000 cubic mi] of low salinity water located beneath the seabed on the continental shelves
  • Located off Australia, China, North America and South Africa, the newly discovered fresh water reserves can be used to supply water to coastal cities
  • This water resource is a hundred times greater than the amount we\’ve extracted from the Earth\’s subsurface in the past century since 1900
  • This latest study reveals that the fresh and brackish aquifers under the seabed are a common phenomena
  • Formation
  • Hundreds to thousands of years ago when the sea level was lower than what it is currently rainwater penetrated into the ground and filled up the water tables in regions that are currently under sea
  • Nearly 20,000 years ago, the sea levels rose, the ice caps began melting and the areas were covered by oceans
  • Most of the aquifers today are protected from seawater by blankets of clay and sediments that are piled on top
  • These aquifers are not different from those found below land. Their salinity is low due to which they can be easily converted into drinking water
  • Acquisition and Use
  • Researchers propose two ways to gain access to these freshwater reserves, either be by constructing a platform and drilling into the seabed, which is expensive, or drill from the mainland that is at a closer distance from the aquifer
  • Freshwater under the seabed is much less salty than seawater and it can be converted to drinking water with less energy than seawater desalination and also leave us with a lot less hyper-saline water
  • Because of how they formed, these water reserves are non-renewable and should be used carefully
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Scientists Discover Untapped Freshwater Reserves Beneath the Oceans | ScienceWorldReport.com

— NEWS BYTE —

Learning New Skills

  • A new computational model developed by MIT neuroscientists explains how the brain maintains the balance between plasticity and stability and how it can learn very similar tasks without interference between them.
  • To learn new motor skills, the brain must be plastic: able to rapidly change the strengths of connections between neurons, forming new patterns that accomplish a particular task, if the brain were too plastic, previously learned skills would be lost too easily.
  • Neurons
  • The key is that neurons are constantly changing their connections with other neurons
  • Not all of the changes are functionally relevant – they simply allow the brain to explore many possible ways to execute a certain skill, such as a new tennis stroke
  • The brain is always trying to find the configurations that balance everything so you can do two tasks, or three tasks, or however many you\’re learning
  • According to this theory as the brain explores different solutions, neurons can become specialized for specific tasks
  • As the brain learns a new motor skill, neurons form circuits that can produce the desired output
  • Modifications
  • Perfection is usually not achieved on the first try, so feedback from each effort helps the brain to find better solutions, complications arise when the brain is trying to learn many different skills at once
  • Because the same distributed network controls related motor tasks, new modifications to existing patterns can interfere with previously learned skills, particularly when you\’re learning very similar things such as two different tennis strokes
  • Instructions for each task would be stored in a different location on a computer chip; however, the brain is not organized like a computer chip.
  • Instead, it is massively parallel and highly connected – each neuron connects to, on average, about 10,000 other neurons
  • That connectivity offers an advantage, however, because it allows the brain to test out so many possible solutions to achieve combinations of tasks
  • The constant changes in these connections, which researchers call hyperplasticity, is balanced by another inherent trait
  • Neurons have a very low signal to noise ratio, meaning that they receive about as much useless information as useful input from their neighbors
  • New Model with Signal Noise
  • Most models of neural activity don\’t include noise, but the MIT team says noise is a critical element of the brain\’s learning ability
  • This model helps to explain how the brain can learn new things without unlearning previously acquired skills
  • The paper shows is that, counterintuitively, if you have neural networks and they have a high level of random noise, that actually helps instead of hindering the stability problem
  • Without noise, the brain\’s hyperplasticity would overwrite existing memories too easily
  • Low plasticity would not allow any new skills to be learned, because the tiny changes in connectivity would be drowned out by all of the inherent noise
  • What it Means
  • The constantly changing connections explain why skills can be forgotten unless they are practiced often, especially if they overlap with other routinely performed tasks
  • Skills such as riding a bicycle, which is not very similar to other common skills, are retained more easily
  • Once you\’ve learned something, if it doesn\’t overlap or intersect with other skills, you will forget it but so slowly that it\’s essentially permanent
  • Researchers are now investigating whether this type of model could also explain how the brain forms memories of events, as well as motor skills
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube | How Neurons Work Made Simple ~ An Animated Guide | cosmiccontinuum
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • How Our Brain Balances Old and New Skills | ScienceWorldReport.com

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

MarsOne, Another Step Forward

— VIEWER FEEDBACK —

Water Jets Above Another One of Jupiters Moons

  • Jacob F. Roecker ‏@jacobroecker
  • Check This Out
  • NASA\’s Hubble Space Telescope has spotted water vapor above Europa frigid south polar region, providing the first strong evidence of water plumes erupting off the moon\’s surface
  • Only after a particular camera on the Hubble Space Telescope had been repaired on the last servicing mission by the Space Shuttle did we gain the sensitivity to really search for these plumes
  • Europa’s ocean could help explain its jigsaw surface | Arstechnica.com
  • Water Plumes
  • Scientists had previously detected evidence of an ocean under Europa\’s icy crust
  • The simplest explanation for this water vapor is that it erupted from plumes on the surface of Europa
  • If those plumes are connected with the subsurface water ocean then future investigations can directly investigate the chemical makeup of Europa\’s potentially habitable environment without drilling through layers of ice
  • Water Plumes Seen Before
  • This would actually be the second moon in the solar system known to have water vapor plumes, the first one to be discovered was Saturn\’s moon Enceladus
  • First detected in 2005 by NASA\’s Cassini orbiter, the plumes of Enceladus possess dust and ice particles
  • Surface Terrain
    • Jupiter’s icy moon Europa has cracks in its surface, as seen before on Enceladus
  • On Europa the cracks come in the form of jumbled pieces of ice that make up what are called the moon\’s “chaos terrains.”
  • It seems likely that the ocean has something to do with the chaos terrain, especially given the presence of salt there
  • To figure that out, however, we’d have to know something about how water circulates in that ocean
  • It’s been thought that the big-picture pattern might look something like the atmosphere of Jupiter, with alternating bands of eastward or westward flow.
  • Circulation in the ocean would be driven by the heat from Europa’s interior, making it difficulty of studying Europa’s oceans
  • When They Can Be Seen
  • Europa plumes are similar to Enceladus in that they also seem to vary depending on the moon\’s orbital position; active jets have only been seen when Europa is farthest from Jupiter
  • This supports a key prediction that Europa should tidally flex by a significant amount if it has a subsurface ocean
  • The Future
  • Once the plumes are confirmed, scientists can take a closer look at their composition and may even be able to find out more about the potential subsurface sea of Europa
  • Future space probe missions to Europa could confirm that the exact locations and sizes of vents and determine whether they connect to liquid subsurface reservoirs
  • ESA\’s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, a mission planned for launch in 2022, and which aims to explore both Jupiter and three of its largest moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube | Jupiter Moon Europa\’s Water Plume Spied By Hubble – Artist Impression Video | VideoFromSpace
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • New computer model may explain moon Europa\’s chaotic terrain | Phys.org
  • Hubble discovers water vapor venting from Jupiter\’s moon Europa | Phys.org
  • NASA Hubble Telescope Discovers Water Plumes Over Icy Europa | ScienceWorldReport.com
  • Europa\’s ocean could help explain its jigsaw surface | Ars Technica

— SPACECRAFT UPDATE—

International Space Station Troubles

China’s Chang’e-3 Moon Rover

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

  • Dec 22, 1882 : 131 years ago : Christmas Tree Lights : The first string of electric lights decorating a Christmas tree was created for his home by Edward H. Johnson, an associate of Thomas Edison. Previously, trees had been decorated with wax candles. The Dec 1901 issue of the Ladies\’ Home Journal advertised the Christmas tree lamps, first made commercially by the Edison General Electric Co. of Harrison, N.J. in strings of nine sockets, each with a miniature 2 candlepower, 32-volt, carbon-filament lamp*. Christmas tree lights quickly became the rage among wealthy Americans, but the average citizen didn\’t use them until the 1920s or later. Character light bulbs became popular in the 1920s, bubble lights in the 1940s, twinkle bulbs in the 1950s and plastic bulbs by 1955.
  • The First Electric Christmas Tree Lights | TodayInSci.com

Looking up this week

  • Keep an eye out for …
  • Sat, Dec 21 | The shortest day of the year in the N hemisphere and the longest day in the S hemisphere. Winter officially begins in the N hemisphere at the solstice at 12:11pm EST
  • Winter Constellation | Orion | Is in the E-SE right now, when it rises its three belt start are nearly verticle Image
  • Planets
  • Venus | \”Evening Star\” | Rises in the SW during and after dusk moving lower and lower each day
  • Mars | Rises around 12-1 am local, and moves to the high S skies by dawn
  • Jupiter | End of Twilight | Rises in the E-NE, and rises to its highest point around 1-2am. The moon will be near Jupiter off and on for now, interesting to know that Jupiter is 1,600 times farther away than the Moon.
  • Saturn | Dawn Brightening | Rises in the SE, it is far to the lower left of Mars

SciByte is going on a Holiday break, we will be Back Jan 7, 2014 See you then!

The post Freshwater Aquifers & Brain Plasticity | SciByte 113 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> Venus Transit & Dragon Spacecraft | SciByte 48 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/20027/venus-transit-dragon-spacecraft-scibyte-48/ Tue, 29 May 2012 22:29:24 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=20027 We take a look at the Venus transit next Tuesday, water in our solar system, creative noise, a Dragon spacecraft update and more!

The post Venus Transit & Dragon Spacecraft | SciByte 48 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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We take a look at the Venus transit next Tuesday, a rare rabbit, water in our solar system, creative noise, a dinosaur with tiny arms, a Dragon spacecraft update and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Venus Transit



YouTube channels : extractorrr | ScienceAtNASA

— NEWS BYTE—

Rare Rabbit



Credit: UnivDeleware Channel | Credit: Kyle McCarthy / World Wide Fund for Nature Japan

—TWO-BYTE NEWS—

Water in our solar system



Credit: Kevin Hand (JPL/Caltech), Jack Cook (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), Howard Perlman (USGS)

Creative Noise

  • The low down
  • A professor of business administration at the University of Illinois has been studying how the level of ambient noise affects consumer sales
  • The research has shown that a moderate level of noise not only enhances creative problem-solving but also leads to a greater adoption of innovative products in certain settings
  • Significance
  • The study shows that noise levels equivalent to a passenger car traveling on a highway, about 70 decibels, enhances performance on creative tasks
  • Researchers also studied how a high level of noise, equivalent to traffic noise on a major road, 85 decibels, hurts creativity by reducing information processing.
  • The 70 decibel level is enough of a distraction that it helps you with abstract out-of-the-box thinking, allowing for increased creativity
  • A very high level of noise becomes a distraction that affects the thought process
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Scientists Say Ambient Noise Affects Creativity | sci-news.com
  • Is Noise Always Bad? Exploring the Effects of Ambient Noise on Creative Cognition | Journal of Consumer Research

Dinosaur with tiny arms

–SPACECRAFT UPDATE–

Dragon Spacecraft



YouTube Channels : NASATelevision |

–SCIENCE CALENDAR–

Looking back

  • June 02,1889 : 123 years ago : Hydroelectricity : A hydroelectric power plant generated alternating current electricity which was for the first time made available to consumers at a significant distance from its origin. A 13 mile power line linked the Willamette Falls Electric Co. power plant to Portland, Ore. Two 300 h.p. Stilwell & Bierce waterwheels together drove a single phase, 720 kilowatt generator. It was not the first hydroelectric power plant, for one had been demonstrated in Appleton, Wisc., 30 Sep 1882 with a small dynamo. Rather, it is the use of alternating current that is significant, for this makes possible long-distance transmission that overcomes the problems of direct current. AC generators driven by steam power had been in use elsewhere since 1886.
  • June 01, 1947 : 65 years ago : Photosensitive glass : The development of photosensitive glass was announced publicly in Corning, N.Y. It had first been made by the Corning Glass Works in Nov 1937. The glass is crystal clear, but exposure to ultraviolet light followed by heat treatment forms submicroscopic metal particles creating an image within the glass. This is believed to be the most durable form of photographic medium, and to be as permanent as the glass itself.

–Looking up this week–

The post Venus Transit & Dragon Spacecraft | SciByte 48 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> Atmospheric Moon & Pacemakers | SciByte 36 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/17692/atmospheric-moon-pacemakers-scibyte-36/ Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:28:54 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=17692 Possible atmosphere on one of Saturn's moons, heart powered pacemakers, acidity levels of a moon a Jupiter, and what your Facebook page says about you

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We take a look at a possible atmosphere on one of Saturn’s moons, heart powered pacemakers, three dimensional fossils, acidity levels of a moon a Jupiter, what else your Facebook page says about you, transistors that crumple, viewer feed back
and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Show Notes:

Saturn moon with an atmosphere

  • The low down
  • The Cassini mission was launched in 1997 and it has been orbiting Saturn since its arrival at the ringed planet in 2004, as a joint effort by NASA and the space agencies of Europe and Italy, and has been extended several times, most recently until 2017.
  • Dione is one of Saturn’s smaller moons 698 miles (1,123 km) wide, and orbits Saturn once every 2.7 days at a distance roughly the same as that between Earth and its moon, about 234,000 miles [377,400 km].
  • Discovered in 1684 by astronomer Giovanni Cassini, it is one of 62 known moons orbiting the ringed planet.
  • According to new findings from the Cassini-Huygens mission announced Friday, March 2 molecular oxygen ions were seen near Dione’s icy surface, giving it a wispy oxygen atmosphere.
  • Significance
  • An ion is an atom or molecule in which the total number of electrons is not equal to the total number of protons, giving it a net positive or negative electrical charge.
  • The oxygen on Dione may potentially be created by solar photons or high-energy particles that bombard the Saturn moon’s ice-covered surface, kicking up oxygen ions in the process
  • Another idea suggests that geologic processes on Dione could feed the moon’s atmosphere, researchers added.
  • Scientists used the measurements to estimate the density of the molecular oxygen ions to be in the range of one oxygen ion for every 2,550 cubic feet (90,000 cubic meters, 0.01 to 0.09 ions per cubic centimetre
  • The atmosphere is 5 trillion times less dense than the air at Earth’s surface, equivalent to conditions 300 miles [480 kilometers] above Earth.
  • * Of Note*
  • This study shows that molecular oxygen is actually common in the Saturn system and reinforces that it can come from a process that doesn’t involve life
  • It now looks like oxygen production is a universal process wherever an icy moon is bathed in a strong trapped radiation and plasma environment
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Oxygen discovered at Saturn’s moon Dione @ physorg.com
  • Saturn’s Icy Moon Dione Has Oxygen Atmosphere @ Space.com
  • BBC News - Oxygen envelops Saturn’s icy moon
  • Oxygen Detected in Atmosphere of Saturn’s Moon Dione: Discovery Could Mean Ingredients for Life Are Abundant On Icy Space Bodies @ ScienceDaily.com

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Heart Powered Pacemaker

  • The low down
  • The device harvests energy from the reverberation of heartbeats through the chest and converts it to electricity to run a pacemaker or an implanted defibrillator.
  • It would be powered from an unlikely source: vibrations from heartbeats itself
  • The device would be placed in the thoracic artery, an extra blood vessel often removed in heart surgery.
  • Significance
  • New energy harvester could save patients from repeated surgeries. That’s the only way today to replace the batteries, which last five to 10 years.
  • It would generate 10 micro-watts of power, which is about eight times the amount a pacemaker needs to operate
  • The researchers have precisely engineered the ceramic layer to a shape that can harvest vibrations across a broad range of frequencies
  • Piezoelectric materials’ claim to fame is that they can convert mechanical stress (which causes them to expand) into an electric voltage and would essentially catch heartbeat vibrations and briefly expand in response
  • If they incorporate magnets, whose additional force field can drastically boost the electric signal that results from the vibrations.
  • * Of Note*
  • The technology was originally designed the harvester for light unmanned airplanes, where it could generate power from wing vibrations
  • Researchers haven’t built a prototype yet, but they have made detailed blueprints and run simulations demonstrating that the concept would work.
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Heart-powered pacemaker could one day eliminate battery-replacement surgery @ University of Michigan
  • This Is a Blood-Powered Heart Turbine @ gizmodo.com
  • Heart-powered pacemaker could one day eliminate battery-replacement surgery @ esciencenews.com
  • Heart-powered pacemaker could one day eliminate battery-replacement surgery @ PhysOrg.com

Hot-Spring Fossil Forest

  • The low down
  • In southern Argentina, in Patagonia, geothermal deposits include animals, plants, fungi and bacteria, preserved in three dimensions and with their internal structure largely intact.
  • The fossils date from around 150 million years ago, and is the first time a hot-spring habitat from the Mesozoic era (from about 250 to 65 million years ago) has ever been discovered.
  • Significance
  • The newly uncovered area was preserved in such a way that we were where they had stood and how big they had grown
  • This is not the type of fossilization typically thought of where living tissues were crushed into a two-dimensional film
  • Instead plant tissues and cells were permeated by water containing dissolved silica, which was precipitated prior to plant decay and resulted in magnificent three-dimensional preservation of complete plants
  • By cutting, polishing, and thinly sectioning blocks from the deposit and then examining the preserved fossils with high-powered microscopes, scientists are able to describe in intricate detail the anatomy and morphology.
  • This type of process allows scientists to literally walk among the trees, noting what kind they were
  • * Of Note*
  • The remains of everything from the bacteria living right around the hot spring vents all the way to the plants, crustaceans and insects living in wetlands further away and the trees and ferns from the forests around the margins.
    +The discovery of a rich assemblage of fossils from between these extremes could transform scientists’ understanding of a vital stage in life’s development
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Floor of Oldest Fossilized Forest Discovered: 385 Million Years Old @ sciencedaily.com
  • Floor of oldest forest discovered in Schoharie County @ physorg.com
  • Hot-spring fossils preserve complete Jurassic ecosystem @ physorg.com

*— TWO-BYTE NEWS — *

Europa’s ocean may be acidic

  • The low down
  • Europa, which is roughly the size of Earth’s moon, could possess an ocean about 100 miles deep
  • Europa’s interior. The moon is thought to have a metallic core surrounded by a rocky interior, and then a global ocean on top of that surrounded by a shell of water ice
  • The ocean underneath the icy shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa could be too acid to support life
  • Recent findings even suggest its ocean could be loaded with oxygen, enough to support millions of tons worth of marine life like the kinds that exist on Earth
  • Significance
  • Oxidants from Europa’s surface might react with sulfides and other compounds in this moon’s ocean before life could nab it generating sulfuric and other acids
  • The ocean could become relatively corrosive, with a pH of about 2.6, about the same as the average soft drink
  • Life that could form there would be analogous to microbes found in acid mine drainage on Earth, like the bright red Río Tinto river in Spain
  • The dominant microbes found there are acid-loving “acidophiles” that depend on iron and sulfide as sources of metabolic energy microbes there have figured out ways of fighting their acidic environment
  • If life did that on Europa, Ganymede, and maybe even Mars, that might have been quite advantageous
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Europa’s Acidic Oceans May Prohibit Life @ universetoday.com
  • Acidic Europa may eat away at chances for life @ physorg.com

Facebook and Job Performance

  • The low down
  • Can a person’s Facebook profile reveal what kind of employee he or she might be? The answer is yes, and with unnerving accuracy
  • A prospective employer might be able to glean from your Facebook profile is a openness to new experiences (vacation pictures from a glacier off New Zealand), emotional stability (are your friends constantly offering you words of comfort?) and agreeableness (are you constantly arguing with "friends
  • Significance
  • Six people with experience in human resources were asked to rate a sample of 500 people in terms of key personality traits using only 5–10 minutes on a persons Facebook page as a guideline.
  • They evaluators were asked to rate members of the sample group on what is known as the “Big Five” personality traits : extroversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness and openness to new experiences
  • Members of the sample group were asked to give a self-evaluation and took an IQ test.
  • High ‘Facebook’ scores were an indication of future good job performance
  • These ratings were followed up with the employers in the sample group six months after their personality traits were rated, to ask questions about job performance.
  • Raters were generally in agreement about the personality traits expressed in the sample group’s Facebook page
  • Ratings also correlated strongly with self-rated personality traits
  • In fact the Facebook ratings were a more accurate way of predicting a person’s job performance than an IQ test
  • * Of Note*
  • Facebook page can provide a lot of information that it would be illegal for an employer to ask of a candidate in a phone interview gender, race, age and whether they have a disability
  • In fact 90 percent of recruiters and hiring managers look at an applicant’s Facebook page whether they should or not.
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Study: Facebook profile beats IQ test in predicting job performance

Transistors the Crumple

  • The low down
  • Thanks to the flexible yet robust properties of carbon nanotubes, researchers have previously fabricated transistors that can be rolled, folded, and stretched
  • Japan has made an all-carbon-nanotube transistor that can be crumpled like a piece of paper without degradation of its electrical properties
  • This study could lead to active electronic devices that are applied like a sticker or an adhesive bandage, as well as to wearable electronics.”
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • All-carbon-nanotube transistor can be crumpled like a piece of paper @ physorg.com

*— VIEWER FEEDBACK — *

Chronic pain

  • The low down
  • It has long been known that the central nervous system “remembers” painful experiences, that they leave a memory trace of pain.
  • Researchers have now found the key to understanding how memories of pain are stored in the brain
  • The best example of a pain memory trace is found with phantom limb pain
  • When the brain remembers that pain there is a new sensory input, the pain memory trace in the brain magnifies the feeling so that even a gentle touch can be excruciating
  • There is evidence that any pain that lasts more than a few minutes will leave a trace in the nervous system
  • It is this memory of pain, which exists at the neuronal level, that is critical to the development of chronic pain.
  • Until now however it was not known how these pain memories were stored at the level of the neurons
  • Significance
  • Recent studies have now that the the protien kinase PKMzeta both maintains memory and strenghtens the connections between neurons
  • The level of PKMzeta increases persistently in the central nervous system (CNS) occurs after painful stimulation
  • New research shows that by blocking the activity of the PKMzeta at the neuronal level, they could reverse the hypersensitivity to pain that neurons developed after applying an irritating stimulation on the skin.
  • In fact, erasing this pain memory trace was found to reduce both persistent pain and heightened sensitivity to touch
  • * Of Note*
  • Most of the current medications for persistent pain from arthritis, injury, fibromyalgia or other nerve diseases simply apply analgesia systems in the brain or reduce inflammation to reduce the feeling in the brain
  • With PKMzeta could actually target the pain memory trace itself as a way of reducing pain hypersensitivity
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Neuron memory key to taming chronic pain

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

  • Mar 10, 1876 : 136 years ago : Pass GO, collect $200 : In 1933, the game “Monopoly” was created and trademarked by Charles Darrow in Atlantic City. It was preceded by other real estate games. The first, called “The Landlord’s Game,” was invented by Lizzie Magie of Virginia (patented 1904). In it, players rented properties, paid utilities and avoided “Jail” as they moved through the board. Darrow set about creating his own version, modeled on his favorite resort, Atlantic City. He made numerous innovations for his game, which had a circular, cloth board. He color-coded the properties and deeds for them, allowing them to be bought, not just rented. The playing pieces were modelled on items from around his house. It was mass marketed by Parker Brothers in 1935.
  • Mar 07, 1933 : 79 years ago : Alexander Graham Bell : In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made what was, in effect, the first telephone call. His assistant, Thomas Watson, located in an adjoining room in Boston, heard Bell’s voice over the experimental device say to him, “Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.” This was Bell’s first successful experiment with the telephone, which is recorded in the 10 Mar entry of his Lab Notebook. That same day, an ebullient Bell wrote his father of his “great success” and speculated that “the day is coming when telegraph [phone] wires will be laid on to houses just like water and gas - and friends converse with each other without leaving home.” Bell had received the first telephone patent three days before. Later that year, Bell succeeded in making a phone call over outdoor lines.

Looking up this week

The post Atmospheric Moon & Pacemakers | SciByte 36 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> Curiosity Rover | SciByte 22 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/14177/curiosity-rover-scibyte-21/ Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:49:34 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=14177 We take a look at the Curiosity Rover launching this week, Europa’s water, bugs, Voyager, telescopes and as always take a peek back into history!

The post Curiosity Rover | SciByte 22 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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We take a look at the Curiosity Rover launching this week, Europa’s water, bugs, Voyager, telescopes and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

Too much out there is just plain distraction, why can’t we have our cake and eat it too? There are a lot of interesting things going on out there in science, but getting to the interesting bits without all the hype you get from major media outlets is a trick we at Jupiter Broadcasting are hoping to pull off.

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*— LAUNCHING THIS WEEK — *

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity” Rover

Jupiter’s ice-moon Europa

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Why are flies attracted to beer?

  • The low down
  • Insects use their taste system to glean important information about the quality and nutritive value of food sources
  • Taste becomes important only after the fly makes physical contact with food
  • A fly first locates food sources using its odor receptors – crucial for its long-range attraction to food
  • Then, after landing on food, the fly uses its taste system to sample the food for suitability in terms of nutrition and toxicity
  • Significance
  • Flies are attracted to beer because they detect glycerol, a sweet-tasting compound that yeasts make during fermentation.
  • A receptor (a protein that serves as a gatekeeper) that is associated with neurons located in the fly’s mouth-parts is instrumental in signaling a good taste for beer
  • * Of Note*
  • How do you get information from the chemical environment to the brain – not just in flies but other insects as well
  • Social Media
  • UC Riverside @UCRiverside
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • The buzz around beer @ PhysOrg
  • University of California – Riverside

Amoeba-Sized Insect

  • The low down
  • The fairy wasp (Megaphragma mymaripenne), which at a mere 200 micrometers in length is one of the world’s smallest animals [roughly 2 strands of human hair / or 10 could fit between between pins in DIP]
  • Roughly the size of an amoeba, the wasp shrink so small that it can avoid most predators and invade the eggs of other insects
  • When the scientist compared the neurons of adult and pupae fairy wasps, he discovered that more than 95% of adult neurons lack a nucleus.
  • Significance
  • suggest that while a complete set of neurons is needed to grow, far less are required to live
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • ScienceShot: Amoeba-Sized Insect Is Missing Some Pieces @ Science Magazine

Voyager tune-up

To telescope or not to telescope for the holidays

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back this week

  • Nov 24, 1639 – 372 years ago : First Transit of Venus : Jeremiah Horrocks, an English astronomer and clergyman, measured a transit of Venus, the first ever to be observed.
  • Nov 24, 1859 – 152 years ago : The Origin of Species : The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Darwin’s groundbreaking book, was published in England to great acclaim
  • Nov 26, 1885 – 126 years ago : First meteor photo : The first meteor trail was photographed in Prague, Czechoslovakia. On the next evening, 27 Nov, he declared “meteors were falling so thickly as the night advanced that it became almost impossible to enumerate them.”
  • Nov 23, 1897 – 114 years ago : Pencil Sharpener : patent was issued for a pencil sharpener to its inventor , John Lee Love of Fall River, Mass.
  • Nov 25–27, 1922 – 89 years ago : Tut’s tomb approached : Archaeologist Howard Carter opened the two doorways to the tomb of King Tutankamun. The sepulchral chamber itself was not opened until 16 Feb 1923
  • Nov 29, 1961 – 50 years ago : Animal astronaut : Enos, a five-year-old chimpanzee, became the first chimp to orbit the Earth on a 2-orbit ride for 3-hr 20 min. During the flight, Enos carried out the lever-pulling performance and psychological tests that he had trained on for the past 16-months. NASA Animals in Space
  • Nov 27, 2001 – 10 years ago : Sodium atmosphere : Sodium was detected in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet by the Hubble Space Telescope. The planet, was the first transiting planet discovered (5 Nov 1999). It was later seen to have Oxygen, Carbon, and Hydrogen in it’s atmosphere. Osiris / HD 209458b

Looking up this week

  • You might have seen …

  • In arctic countries like Norway, they saw the last sunrise/sunset until January

  • While sunspot activity has remained high, solar activity has been low recently

  • Keep an eye out for …

  • Wed, Nov 23 : The Moon will be at perigee, its closest point to Earth for its current orbit. It will pass less than 224,000 miles away, or about 15,000 miles closer than its average distance.

  • Fri, Nov 25 : Antarctic Solar Eclipse – The Moon will pass in front of the sun, slightly off-center, producing a partial solar eclipse visible from Antarctica, Tasmania, and parts of South Africa and New Zealand. Maximum coverage occurs about 100 miles off the coast of Antarctica where the sun will appear to be a slender 9% crescent

  • Sat, Nov 26 : At twilight, low in the SW sky you can see the thin crescent moon, and to the upper left is Venus.

  • More on whats in the sky this week

  • Sky&Telescope

  • AstronomyNow

  • SpaceWeather.com

  • HeavensAbove

  • StarDate.org

The post Curiosity Rover | SciByte 22 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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