Phobos-Grunt – Jupiter Broadcasting https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com Open Source Entertainment, on Demand. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:51:13 +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 Phobos-Grunt – Jupiter Broadcasting https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com 32 32 Feedback & Space Lego’s | SciByte 31 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/16521/feedback-space-legos-scibyte-31/ Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:12:49 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=16521 We take a look at lego’s in space, dinosaur feathers, spacecraft updates, breaking science, viewer feedback and as always take a peek back into history.

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We take a look at lego’s in space, dinosaur feathers, spacecraft updates, breaking science, viewer feedback 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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One small flight for a Lego man, one giant leap for Lego Kind?

  • The low down on Weather Balloons
  • Made of latex for synthetic runner typically about 0.002in [0.051mm] thick on the ground and 0.000098in [0.0025mm] at bursting altitude
  • On the ground they are about 6ft [1.8m] wide and expand to 20ft [6.9m] in diameter at altitude and can be filled with either hydrogen or helium
  • Can reach altitudes of 25mi [40km] and twice a day, every day of the year, weather balloons are released simultaneously from almost 900 locations worldwide!
  • Where does space begin? – It’s a complicated answer because there is no definitive answer. NASA awards astronaut wings to anyone who reaches 49.7mi [80km.] Other instruments and scientists argue that it begins at around 62mi [100km]
  • Significance
  • Two 17 years old Canadians, used a helium filled weather balloon that brought a homemade styrofoam capsule that included two video cameras, four digital cameras, a GPS-enabled cell phone, and a tine Lego man holding a Canadian flag
  • They launched from a soccer field up to a heights of 16mi [25km] and reached a height of 6mi [25km] where the helium balloon burst in what is technically known as the stratosphere.
  • * Of Note*
  • Technically they reached the stratosphere, which is 6–30 mi [10–50km] above sealevel.
  • Commercial airliners typically cruise at altitudes of 9–12 km (30,000–39,000 ft)
  • There have been a few sightings and evidence that birds can fly in the lower stratosphere
  • Several Lego toys are constantly flying even higher above the Earth at this very moment aboard the International Space Station as part of an educational outreach effort by NASA and Lego.
  • Actually Inadvisable generally when launching a balloon of that size you have to check in with the local airports to make sure it will be in a clear flight path.
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube VIDEO : Lego man in Space
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Toronto Teens Launch “Lego Man in Space” @ UniverseToday
  • Canadian teens send Legonaut 15 miles into atmosphere @ c|net
  • Pilot warns against copycat weather balloon experiments as they ‘could bring down an airplane’ @ DailyMail

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Dinosaur feather colors

  • The low down
  • Archaeopteryx is the most ancient bird species known, who spread their wings amid the branches of Late Jurassic trees
  • Archaeopteryx got its name in 1861 based on a lone fossil feather.
  • Significance
  • Examining the original dark trace of feather, scientists turned to a specialized scanning electron microscope in Germany.
  • Checking points along the feather revealed evidence of rod-shaped nubbins like the structures that hold pigments called melanin’s inside the cells of modern feathers.
  • In a procedure that has identified colors on several dinosaurs as well as fossil penguins
  • The pigment-carrying structures, called melanosomes, grouped with modern birds’ black ones instead of the brown or gray ones, or the oddball melanosomes found in penguins
  • * Of Note*
  • There have been questions about whether Archaeopteryx feathers would have been strong enough for the early bird to fly
  • The substance of the feather material was pretty tough stuff due to the melanin, black feathers are typical of this
  • It doesn’t necessarily follow that the feather as a whole had the aerodynamic stiffness for sustained, powered flight
  • Archaeopteryx was probably a pretty clumsy flier or glider.
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube Clip from show : Fit for flight
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Archaeopteryx wore black @ SciencenNews.org
  • Feathered Dinosaur Had Black Wings? @ NationalGeographic
  • Wikipedia : Archaeopteryx

Old photographic plates reveal new star data

  • The low down
  • Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a means of photography.
  • A light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was applied to a glass plate
  • Glass plates were far superior to film for research-quality imaging because they were extremely stable and less likely to bend or distort, especially in large-format frames for wide-field imaging
  • There were in wide use by the professional astronomical community as late as the 1990s.
  • Starting in the 1990s, photographic plates were replaced with more sensitive CCDs (charge-coupled devices), which are digital light sensors
  • Significance
  • A century’s worth of astronomical photographic plates have revealed a slew of new variable stars, many of which alter on timescales and in ways never before seen.
  • * Of Note*
  • The discoveries come from a new analysis of the 500,000 plates made by the Harvard College Observatory from the 1880s through the 1980s, covering the whole sky.
  • Scientists are trying to digitize the plate collection, basically using CCDs to image the plates, then applying an algorithm to quantify how bright stars appear and search for variations over time.
  • Multimedia
  • IMAGE : @ Space.com
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • New Star Discoveries Found in Antique Telescope Plates

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

SPACECRAFT UPDATE – SPACE STATION

  • * Last time on SciByte*
  • SciByte 29 | Exoplanets & Social Media
    (Jan 17, 2012)
  • * Of Note*
  • Earlier this month, the space station fired its thrusters to avoid debris from a 2009 satellite crash between an U.S. and Russian spacecraft.
  • On Jan. 28 the space station had to avoid space junk from the Chinese satellite Fengyun 1C
  • Rocket thrusters on the space station’s fired in a 1-minute, four-second burn to slightly raise the laboratory’s orbit, leaving it on a path that reaches just over 251 miles (404 kilometers)
  • The space station is currently home to a six-man crew that includes three Russians, two Americans and one Dutch astronaut
  • When there is not enough time to plan a dodging maneuver, station astronauts can take shelter inside the Russian Soyuz vehicles that ferry them to and from the station until a piece of space junk has safely zoomed by.
  • The Soyuz capsules, two of which are docked at the station now, each seat three people and can double as lifeboats.
  • Also the Progress 46 cargo ship successfully docked to the International Space Station’s Pirs Docking Compartment late on January 27 to deliver almost three tons of food, fuel and supplies
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube VIDEO : Space Freighter Docks to ISS
  • Further Reading
  • Space Station Dodges Debris From Destroyed Chinese Satellite
  • Progress Resupply Ship Docks at the International Space Station

SPACECRAFT UPDATE – Curiosity Rover

SPACECRAFT UPDATE – Phobos Grunt

*— VIEWER FEEDBACK — *

What is my favorite space movie?

Time Travel

  • Gravitational Slingshot
  • A number of space probes have used gravitational slingshot (Gravity assist) to gain speed
  • A Gravity Assist Primer @ NASA.gov
  • YouTube VIDEO : NASA original voyager animation
  • SciByte Clip
  • Gravitational time dialation
  • The Theory of General Relativity, states that the rate of time passing depends on the strength of the gravitational field at the observer’s location.
  • The gravitational well of the Sun would change the apparent rate of time flow depending upon your point of observation
  • **Combining the two to get time travel?
  • Science does not support getting a Klingon bird of prey to 1986 by fling close to the sun, although it would make your trajectory faster going away on the other side
  • Star Trek clip from trailer

How can I submit Feedback or Stories?

  • Feedback
  • There are as many questions about science as there are stars in the universe, send yours in and we’ll do our best to answer it and provide links where you might find out more.
  • Did we get something wrong? Let us know! We are more than happy to correct any missteps or assumption as quickly and as accurately as we can.
  • Submit a story
  • SciByte has a wide range of listeners including experts in many fields of science with various years of experience and degrees.
  • Have you seen or heard something that you would like to know more about, know of a story in your field that is exciting and would like to share some links or thoughts? Go ahead and submit it. We will try to at least mention every story in the show and include more information, links and your thoughts in the show notes.
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  • Sending us an audio question or comment and we’ll try to play it in the show
  • Have Our Google Voice Connect you for free to our Voice Mail
  • Or find out where our IRC Chat Room is

*— BREAKING NEWS — *

Interstellar Matter

Looking up this week

The post Feedback & Space Lego’s | SciByte 31 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> Exoplanets & Social Media | SciByte 29 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/15946/exoplanets-social-media-scibyte-29/ Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:02:36 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=15946 We take a look at all the new and exciting exoplanet news, how social media can help science, news about the Space Station and more!

The post Exoplanets & Social Media | SciByte 29 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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We take a look at all the new and exciting exoplanet news, how social media can help science, news about the Space Station and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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-SHOW NOTES-

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The exoplanets never stop coming

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Science helped by social media

  • The low down

  • Official tracking of infectious or communicable diseases can takes weeks to compile and be distributed
    +This process can lead to delayed responses, further infections, and deployment of needed drugs and doctors.

  • New reports show that we might be able to look to the Internet and social media to get more up to the minute reports of these kind of diseases

  • Significance

  • In late 2010, clinics and hospitals started sending reports of Cholera to the Ministry of Heath who started tracking the data.

  • Research published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, found that online news reports, Twitter messages, Research.ly, and the website HealthMap.org did a good job of tracking this data as well.

  • Researchers found that the informal data from Twitter and HealthMap provided indications of the cholera outbreak up to two weeks before official government public health reports.

  • For tracking the flu, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine compared data from Google Flu Trends to statistics of number of patients in emergency departments and laboratory tests for the flu.

  • The data have shown to be an excellent tracking system that can get fairly accurate tracking data seven to ten days earlier than the CDC’s tracking network.

  • Google Flu Trends, visualizes this for various countries and regions.

  • New reports show that the Google data might even be able to predict patient volumes to individual hospitals.

  • * Of Note*

  • Social and online means of tracking communicable diseases are not 100% accurate, and will not replace laboratory tracking methods, they are a powerful addition to current surveillance systems.

  • Social Media

  • Twitter Results for [#cholera](https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23cholera)

  • Twitter Results for [#flu](https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23flu)

  • Further Reading / In the News

  • Researchers Tap Google, Twitter To Help Track Disease Outbreaks @ ihealthbeat.org

  • Social Media Tracks Haiti’s Cholera Epidemic @ voanews.com

  • Google.org Flu Trends

  • HealthMap.org

  • Google Helps Emergency Room Docs to Predict Flu Trends@ healthland.time.com

  • Outbreak.com: Using the Web to Track Deadly Diseases in Real Time @ time.com

Fun & Games with the moon

Space Station avoidance maneuver

  • The low down

  • In 2009 one of the Iridium 33 communications satellites, collided with a defunct Russian Cosmos spacecraft

  • This collision created a cloud thousands of pieces of debris now orbiting the Earth.

  • Clouds of debris like this can sometimes pose collision hazards to space craft

  • Significance

  • A piece of the Iridium 33 satellite about 4in [10cm] was due to pass within 0.6–15 miles [1–24km] of the International Space Station

  • Collision avoidance maneuvers for the ISS require approximately 30 hours, using Rusian thruster, to plan and execute

  • The collision avoidance maneuver, does eliminate the need for the planned reboost of the station next week, to maintain an altitude for docking later this month with Progress cargo ship.

  • * Of Note*

  • This is the 13th time since 1998 that this kind of collision avoidance maneuver has been executed.

  • There are millions of pieces of debris orbiting the Earth that are to small to be tracked; 500,000 larger than a marble; and 20,000 debris larger than a softball.

  • Some collision avoidance procedures would require the to close window hatches and hatches between the various modules of the space station

  • In 2011 there was a chance that the station crew-member would have to retreat to the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, further analysis of the debris would be farther then initial estimates showed.

  • Social Media

  • Twitter Results for [#spacestation](https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23spacestation)

  • Further Reading / In the News

  • ISS to perform debris avoidance manoeuvre @ https://blogs.esa.int

  • Space Station Dodges Space Junk from Satellite Crash @ Space.com

  • Space station to move to avoid approaching junk @ AP

  • Station Performs Debris Avoidance Maneuver @ NASA

  • Space Debris and Human Spacecraft @ NASA

‘Breaking’ Science News

SPACECRAFT UPDATE

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

Jan 18, 1911 : 101 years ago : Into the wild blue yonder ocean : A mere 11 years after the Wright brothers first flight, Lt. Eugene B. Ely made the first landing of an aircraft on a ship. He used a 50-hp Curtiss pusher biplane to safely land onto a wooden platform on the deck of the U.S.S. Pennsylvania. To land on the shorter runway he used landing gear with hooks used to catch secured ropes stretched across the landing platform. Improved versions of this are still in use today.

Jan 22, 1997 : 15 years ago : The sky was actually falling : In 1969 there were reports of of pieces of space debris, assumed to be of Soviet origin, that hit a Japanese ship injuring five sailors. However on Jan 22, 1997 Lottie Willians was hit on the shoulder with what looked to be a blackened metallic metal. It was later confirmed to be consistent with fiber glass fabric used on a Delta II rocket, launched nine months before, that had crashed into the atmosphere half an hours earlier. Making her the first human in the world to be hit by confirmed man-made space debris. YouTube VIDEO : Tulsa Woman Hit By Space Junk

Looking up this week

The post Exoplanets & Social Media | SciByte 29 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> Moons Here & There | SciByte 28 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/15611/moons-here-there-scibyte-28/ Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:27:59 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=15611 We take a look at how not only Exoplanets but exomoons, Lunar minerals, dogs socialization, and what Russia is now saying about Phobos-Grunt!

The post Moons Here & There | SciByte 28 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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We take a look at how not only Exoplanets but exomoons, Lunar minerals, dogs socialization, neutrinos, hangovers, Opportunity rover, what Russia is now saying about Phobos-Grunt and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Show Notes:

The Exoplanet and Exomoon News keeps coming

  • The exoplanet low down
  • The Hungarian-made Automated Telescope Network (HATNet) Project, one of the goal of the HATNet project is to detect and characterize extrasolar planets using the transit method
  • I believe the HATNet network telescopes are now deployed in : Budapest, Hungary; Arizona; United States, Negev Desert, Israel; New South Wales, Australia; Gamsberg, Namibia; Santiaho, Chile
  • As 2011 ended, there were a total of 716 confirmed exoplanets and 2,326 planetary candidates
  • Four more planets have already been discovered this year, not by Kepler but by a ground based telescope network who has already discovered 29 other extrasolar planets
  • All four are ‘hot Jupiter’ type planers with ‘years’ from 1–5.5 days long. In comparison Mercury takes 88 days.
  • SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program will take a look at the exoplanets discovered by Kepler in the continuing search for alien radio signals
  • Based on early Kepler data, the new estimates for the number of exoplanets have billions of planets in our galaxy alone
  • They now have can now focus on systems with planets
  • * Of Note for Exoplanets*
  • Runs Linux : The ground based exoplanet searching network, HATNet, is controlled by a single Linux PC without human supervision.
  • Data for the HATNet is stored in a MySQL database
  • SETI has even joined in the exoplantest search, and has seen a few ‘interesting’ signals, but are most likely interference from the Earth
  • The exomoon low down
  • Current technology may be able to detect Large Earth-size moons
  • There are currently three different mechanisms that scientist believe would cause an Earth sized moon
  • form together with it’s planet in the accretion disk
  • massive impact, like the theory of our moons formation. Estimates currently say might be as frequent as 1 in 12 could be formed this way and are expected to only contain roughly 4% of the total mass of the planet
  • an Earth sized object would also be captured by a gas giant. Simulations show that around 50% of captured objects would survive
  • Such moons could be detected using the detected wobble of the star, this has already been measured with planets of similar size. There already simulations for trinare stars which could be altered to analyze a sun-planet-moon scenario.
  • The first exoplanets discovered were found around a pulsar, causing cariations in the regular pulsations.
  • Pulsars often beat thousands of times a minute which makes them extremely sensitive to gravitational affects of planets and possibly moons.
  • In the past few years it has become possible for direct imaging of planets, although planets near Earth sized is likely a few fear off, possible upcoming missions may make that possibility a reality.
  • Direct imaging may be no more than a slightly offset center of a dot, or a barely oblong circle indicating a possible moon.
  • * Of Note for exomoons*
  • There are no moons in our own solar system of the necessary size for detection by typically used technology, the largest moon in our solar system (Ganymede) is only 40% the diameter of the Earth
  • Using technology for use on pulsars a planet a mere 0.04% the mass of the Earth has been discovered.
  • The same technology that could be used to detect exomoons could also be used to detect unique data signals that would indicate Saturn-like rings around stars.
  • Significance
  • Each year the technology for discovering exoplanets increases, we are now entering the ability to detect exomoons.
  • The possibilities of seeing details in other solar systems will increase our understand of how solar systems and planets form.
  • Multimedia
  • IMAGE : Artist impression of an exomoon orbiting an exoplanet @ universetoday.com
  • IMAGE : Habitable zone depends on the mass and type of star @ physorg.com
  • IMAGE : Habital Exoplanets Catalog @ i.space.com
  • Social Media
  • HEK Project @HEK_Project
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • The Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler
  • Forget Exoplanets. Let’s Talk Exomoons
  • Hungarian-made Automated Telescope Network
  • HAT-P–34b – HAT-P–37b: Four Transiting Planets More Massive Than Jupiter Orbiting Moderately Bright Stars
  • Exomoons? Kepler‘s On The Hunt
  • Wanted: Habitable moons
  • The Hunt Is on for Habitable Moons Around Alien Planets
  • Wanted: Habitable Moons
  • Four new exoplanets to start off the new year!
  • First Four Exoplanets of 2012 Discovered
  • Astronomers have discovered the first four exoplanets of 2012
  • Analysis of the First Kepler SETI Observations

Lunar Minerals found

  • The low down
  • When the lunar samples first returned from the Moon there were subjected to rigorous study and considered extremely precious.
  • In the hundreds of pounds of lunar rocks astronauts brought back three minerals were unique to the moon: armalcolite, pyroxferroite and tranquillityite
  • Armalcolite and Pyroxferroite were both found on Earth in the 70’s
  • Tranquillityite had previously been found in certain meteorite, but not naturally on the Earth.
  • Tranquillityite is shaped like tiny needles that have been pounded flat and are unusually small, less than the diameter of the thickest human hair (about 150 micrometers )
  • Tranquillityite develops during the late stages of crystallization of molten rocks in oxygen-poor conditions
  • Significance
  • Tranquillityite has just been found in Australia
  • In fact it has now been found in six widely scattered sites in Western Australia suggests that it might be more common than thought in igneous rocks
  • The identification of all minerals found in the Lunar samples brought back from the Moon during the Apollo program lends credence to the impact theory for the Moons creation
  • * Of Note*
  • It’s not surprising that tranquillityite hasn’t shown up until now as it is unstable over the long term at Earth’s surface
  • In addition tranquillityite can easily be mistaken for another similarly colored mineral
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Third lunar mineral – Tranquillityite found in Western Australia
  • Rare Moon Mineral Found in Australia
  • Rare Moon Mineral Found on Earth
  • Pyroxferroite @ midat.org
  • Armalcolite@ mindat.org

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Dogs know when your not looking

The low down

  • An new study proves what all dog owners already knew
  • The study shows that dogs will follow the gaze of humans, even on television screens, and can recognize when they look to one side or another, not even something primates can do
  • Significance
  • In this study 22 different dog breeds were used, all performed fairly similarly
  • A stranger on a TV screen would say “hi, dog!” in either a high- or low- pitched voice and either looking at the screen or down.
  • In any instance the person would then look at the pot that contains a toy for 5 seconds
  • When the person on the screen avoided eye contact and spoke in a low voice the likely hood that the dogs would look at one pot over the other was a statistical wash
  • When a high pitched-pitched voice was used the dog looked at the person on the screen 69% of the time.
  • Future studies could compare different dog breeds and various ages with each other as the next stage in the experiment
  • The results from this study were also nearly identical to those seen in 6-month-old human infants
  • Some researchers even say that dog social skill can reach the level of a two-year-old human, missing only language
  • In another study done in 1994 a 19-year-old apprentice working at a chimpanzee center was assisting in a study on primate behavior that he claimed his dog did. he was told to prove it
  • He devised a simple experiment in his garage hid treats under cups when a dog wasn’t looking then either pointed or simply looked at the cup containing the treat
  • * Of Note*
  • In studies analyzing the ability to follow a person’s pointing finger or the direction of his gaze, dogs perform better than primates
  • However dogs are less likely to inhibit a learned response than primates
  • There are research teams that suspect that horses and domesticated cats may also be able to read human intent, since they too have lived closely with us for many years.
  • Both children and animals are more likely to respond to a high-pitched voice, which explains why we naturally tend to ‘baby-talk’ animals and young children
  • This experiment also gives you a scientific excuse to do this the next time you get funny looks from people
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • In the Eyes of a Dog
  • Can dogs tell when we’re talking to them?
  • Dogged
  • Dogs read our intent too: study @ PhysOrg.com
  • Can Dogs Read Minds? Not Exactly @ DiscoveryNews.com
  • How Specific Are The Social Skills of Dogs? @ scienceblogs.com
  • Monday Pets: Biological Evidence That Dog is Man’s Best Friend @ ScientificAmerican.com

Neutrinos strike again!

The low down

  • Physicists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing now argue that Neutrino’s could not travel faster than the speed of light, as it would not only mess up Einstein’s theory of special relativity, but also the last of conservation of energy and momentum
  • Significance
  • Both studies claim that the particles, called pions, could not possibly have had enough energy to give rise to the faster-than-light, or superluminal, speeds indicated by OPERA.
  • The new team of physicists calculate that achieving the velocities measured required pions with energies 20 times greater than their offspring
  • The team says that the IceCube detector at the South Pole has measured these neutrinos to energies more than 10,000 times as high as OPERA’s neutrinos
  • They also say with a neutrinos near zero, but not zero, mass there should be a limit to how fast they can travel.
  • Social Media
  • Alcoholics Anonymous @AlcoholicsAnony
  • * Of Note*
  • One Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist has said that results are not impossible but if they turn out to be accurate "I would say to Nature, ‘You win.’ Then I’d give up, and I’d retire.”
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube VIDEO : Science in Action: Fast Neutrinos
  • Social Media
  • CERN @CERN
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Neutrino parents call into question faster-than-light results @ ScienceNews.com
  • Pions don’t want to decay into faster-than-light neutrinos, study finds @ news.wustl.edu

The anti-alcohol drug that lessens hangovers too?

The low down

  • Scientists have been surveying herbal compounds that supposedly have reduced alcohol affects
  • Once such candidate was from the seeds of the Asian tree Hovenia dulcis, first said to be an excellent handover drug in 659 [That’s 1,352 years ago]
  • The team of scientists focused on one ingredient of the Hovenia dulcis tree, called dihydromyricetin, or DHM, on rats, which responds to alcohol in similar ways as humans
  • Significance
  • Rats given the equivalent of 15–20 beers in under two hours tolerated the alcohol better, with a stupor lasting around an hour, with DHM the stupor lasted only 15 minutes
  • A dose of DHM also helped ease hangover symptoms, reducing anxiety and susceptibility to seizures
  • Althought these results are promising, it still won’t allow you to drink like you were breathing air, as alcohol has many affects on the brain and DHM seems to only curb some of these affects
  • * Of Note*
  • The most promising result is that rats given access to alcohol gradually start consuming more, while rats drinking DHM-laced alcohol did not increase consumption
  • This seems to indicate that DHM might be a promising weapon to use against Alcohol addiction
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Drug gives rats booze-guzzling superpowers @ ScienceNews.com
  • Herbal drug reduces the effects of alcohol @ Medicalxpress.com

SPACECRAFT UPDATE

Opportunity Rover gets ready for hibernation

The low down

Phobos-grunt round 342

* Last time on SciByte*

  • SciByte 27 (Jan 5)
  • SciByte 23 (Nov 30)
  • SciByte 21 (Nov 15)
  • SciByte 20 (Nov 8)
  • The low down
  • Phobos-grunt is currently projected to land on Sunday, January the 15th
  • After 19 attempts over 51 years, Russia has yet to have a fully successful mission to Mars.
  • Also one of five high-profile failures for the Russian space program in 2011.
  • The Russian chief of the Russian space program has hinted that the recent unlucky Russian space program may be the fault of ‘foreign power’
  • Significance
  • The last Russian Program Chief was fired after three navigation satellites were lost during launch
  • Russian Space Program Chief says that the vessels setbacks have occurred flying through Russia’s blind spot where they can not see or receive telemetry readings
  • The current Program Chief does admit that the mission was risky and underfunded, with original designs date back to the Soviet Union
  • He also admits that the launch window was limited and if they didn’t launch during the window, they would have to write off $160 million / 125.5 million Euro’s / five billion rubles
  • * Of Note*
  • This won’t be the first time that the Alaskan radar station, last November it was blamed for the failure of the Phobos-Grunt by un-named retired Russian General (previously in charge of Russia’s early warning system)
  • HAARP does perform active and passive radar experiments on the ionosphere
  • However, personnel at HAARP said a full-power blast would have kissed the Phobos-Grunt rocket with the equivalent of pointing a 60-watt light bulb at it from about 69 feet away. [about 1.03 milliwatts of radio energy per square centimeter ]
  • One communications satellite that failed, broke into fragments and a 20inch [5-centimeter] fragment crashed into a house in the Novosibirsk region of Siberai, ironically on Cosmonaut Street.
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • [Russia hints at foul play in its space failures @ PhysOrg.com(https://www.physorg.com/news/2012–01-russia-hints-foul-space-failures.html)
  • Russian Space Failures May Be Result of Foul Play, Official Says @ Space.com
  • Alaska’s HAARP project blamed for Russian space probe’s failure @ AlaskaDispatch.com
  • Off the Beam: Did a U.S. Radar Research Station Disable Russia’s Phobos Probe? @ ScientificAmerican
  • The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) main websites

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

  • Jan 11, 1922 – 89 years ago – Diabetics live : Before 1922 diabetes typically resulted in death withing months or even days or weeks of a diagnoses. On Jan 11, 1922 a 14 year old, Leonard Thompson, was the first person to receive an injection of insulin. At a mere 65 pounds [29.5kg] and about to slip into a coma he was in desperate need of treatment. Although the first dose had some impurities that led to an allergic reaction further purified injections caused his symptoms to disappear when his blood sugar levels returned to a normal level.
  • Jan 12, 1984 – 27 years ago – Restoring the Pyramids : In the early 1980’s severe signs of decay were seen some of the oldest man-made structures on earth, the Great Pyramids in Egypt. Originally the restoration crews used modern cement to restore the structures and Sphinx was successfully restored. However, the water in modern cement and mortar was causing the adjacent limestone in the pyramids to split. An international panel convened and decided, on Jan 12, that after years of frustration the restoration teams working on the pyramids would start useing the same methods used to create the pyramids to finish restoration. After the switch to ancient techniques restoration continued smoothly
  • Jan 14, 2005 – 6 years ago – Welcome to Titan : The Huygens spacecraft was released from the Cassini spacecraft landed on On January 14, 2005. The pictures is showed on the way down showed pictures which strongly resembled drainage channels, shorelines, and flodded regions. The lander continued to send data for 90 minutes after landing and remains the most distant landing of any man-mane craft.

Looking up this week

You might have seen …

  • Although there was a coronal mass ejection that was once thought to be headed towards the Earth, it was later predicted to only have a glancing blow. Although no increased auroras were seed there were surges in the ground currents in northern Norway

Keep an eye out for …

  • Fri, Jan 12–14 : Mars is near the waning moon before and during dawn

  • Jan 16 : Last Quarter Moon

  • The southern hemisphere should, Keep an eye out for …

  • Jan 14 : Mars is below and to the right of the Mood

  • Jan 16 : Last Quarter Moon

  • Jan 17 : Saturn will be below ant to the left of the Moon, also the star Spica will be to the upper left of the Moon

More on whats in the sky this week

The post Moons Here & There | SciByte 28 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> Revisiting the Moon | SciByte 27 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/15341/revisiting-the-moon-scibyte-27/ Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:32:49 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=15341 We take a look at new satellites orbiting the moon, bugged bugs, unicycles, a comet that survived it's brush with the sun, and much more!

The post Revisiting the Moon | SciByte 27 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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We take a look at new satellites orbiting the moon, bugged bugs, unicycles, a comet that survived it’s brush with the sun, 15 minutes of science fame, another update on the poor Phobos-Grunt satellite and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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