rover – Jupiter Broadcasting https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com Open Source Entertainment, on Demand. Sun, 05 Nov 2017 03:48:42 +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 rover – Jupiter Broadcasting https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com 32 32 All Natural Drugs | User Error 33 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/119626/all-natural-drugs-user-error-33/ Sat, 04 Nov 2017 19:48:42 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=119626 RSS Feeds: MP3 Feed | Video Feed | iTunes Feed Become a supporter on Patreon: Links A phone app that listens to your car and could warn of impending trouble | Ars Technica Rover Log Playlist Buy Now – Nintendo 2DS – Console Bundles

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Vomit Tent | User Error 32 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/119491/vomit-tent-user-error-32/ Sat, 28 Oct 2017 20:47:21 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=119491 RSS Feeds: MP3 Feed | Video Feed | iTunes Feed Become a supporter on Patreon: Links Chris’ vlog: Hooking up the Lady – YouTube We go inside a physical Amazon Store, and Meet up with a Patron | Jupiter Broadcasting on Patreon Amazon introduces the Echo Spot, an alarm clock with a 2.5-inch screen – […]

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Driving into a Tornado | Rover Log 17 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/101541/driving-into-a-tornado-rover-log-17/ Fri, 29 Jul 2016 11:08:25 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=101541 Only a few hours into our return trip we heard the warning to get off the road, and take shelter.

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Only a few hours into our return trip from SCALE 14x we heard the warning to get off the road, and take shelter. Troubles with tornadoes, drones with friends, and the the long haul home.

Note: Footage is from January 2016.

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Is that a server in your pocket? | LINUX Unplugged 128 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/92786/is-that-a-server-in-your-pocket-lup-128/ Tue, 19 Jan 2016 21:14:18 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=92786 This week we dive into what the community thinks about putting a server in their pocket, show you some smart tricks with Gimp & some Windows nightmares. Plus some router chat & more! Thanks to: Get Paid to Write for DigitalOcean Direct Download: MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Video | HD Video | Torrent […]

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This week we dive into what the community thinks about putting a server in their pocket, show you some smart tricks with Gimp & some Windows nightmares. Plus some router chat & more!

Thanks to:

Ting


DigitalOcean


Linux Academy

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Patreon

Show Notes:

Pre-Show:

Smart Gimp Tricks

The Quickmask for adjusting selections: I’m a born-again Quickmask evangelist, because I went so long without realizing that it was there, and it makes selections so much easier.

Decomposing an image and using the components as a mask to select part of an image—that’s an easy way to select skies and get rid of a drab overcast sky, or to change or enhance the color of the sky.

Using the Dodge/Burn tool to make a background really white, for when you want an object to stand out and make the background go away. It can be a lot easier than selecting or erasing.

Feedback:

Noah Hit Something on the Head

“I wish Ubuntu would just use GNOME, and go back to trying to contribute useful bits.”

ScreenShot

Now, I have a few extensions installed, but the way I use GNOME isn’t much different from how someone would use Unity; I keep the Dash up at all times, I have those pesky tray apps up in the corner, and so on. This is so close to how I used to work in Unity, OS X, etc., that I’m puzzled at why GNOME gets treated like the red-headed stepchild sometimes.

Now, I know that once in a while the GNOME dev team decides to go off the deep end (Let’s make the filemanager work like old-school Finder and do that by default! Hell, let’s override users’ pre-existing settings, that’s how good it is!) but overall GNOME just keeps getting better.

Windows Secureboot Causes a Mess

I just made a potentially costly mistake: we nuked and repaved my friend’s brand new Lenovo Yoga 500 with Linux… without booting into Windows to disable SecureBoot explicitly. He didn’t want to accept the EULA; and we successfully booted into USB key (Ubuntu MATE 15.10, Ubuntu w/Unity 15.04) so we thought we would just go ahead.

I thought Ubuntu would have been candidate, but apparently not. Is this the correct way? Which distros would work? We tried installing and booting into Ubuntu Unity 15.04 (which is supposed to have the appropriate signature) but after install and reboot, we get the above. Given that Windows has been obliterated at this point, what options do I have?

Unfortunately, he’s leaving in just over a week, so if the conclusion ends up being “install Windows to do this” I’ll take it….. but I’d rather not!

Ever Heard of FriendOS?

I heard yesterday about Friendos. It looks like this: https://youtu.be/Y5n0f5DSbSM?t=16m14s , so it’s like Amiga Workbench in the browser powered by a Linux backend. They releasing public beta as open source this week.It will be able to run both thml5 and native applications. Their website is a little enigmatic right now:

Rover Log – Live Tracker

Live map of the adventures of Jupiter Broadcasting’s Rover Studio.

TING

A Server in Your Pocket

Ocean is a mobile server, a device that combines the portability of a mobile phone with the flexibility of a Linux web server.

Want a portable Linux-powered web server that will fit into your pocket? Look no further than Ocean.

Ocean has been designed from the ground up for portability, and features an integrated battery that allows you to run web and Bluetooth applications in places where direct power is limited.

The device is approximately the size of an iPhone 6, and can easily fit in your pocket.

This bundle costs $149 and ships in February. Higher capacity versions are slated to ship later in the year.

DigitalOcean

Numbers don’t lie—it’s time to build your own router

I’ve noticed a trend lately. Rather than replacing a router when it literally stops working, I’ve needed to act earlier—swapping in new gear because an old router could no longer keep up with increasing Internet speeds available in the area. (Note, I am duly thankful for this problem.) As the latest example, a whole bunch of Netgear ProSafe 318G routers failed me for the last time as small businesses have upgraded from 1.5-9mbps traditional T1 connections to 50mbps coax (cable).

A lot of you are probably muttering, “right, pfSense, sure.” Some of you might even be thinking about smoothwall or untangle NG. I played with most of the firewall distros out there, but I decided to go more basic, more old school: a plain, CLI-only install of Ubuntu Server and a few iptables rules.

Admittedly, this likely isn’t the most practical approach for every reader, but it made sense for me. I have quite a bit of experience finessing iptables and the Linux kernel itself for high throughput at Internet scale, and the fewer shiny features and graphics and clicky things that are put between me and the firewall table, the less fluff I have to get out of the way and the fewer new not-applicable-in-the-rest-of-my-work things I have to learn. Any rule I already know how to create in iptables to manage access to my servers, I also know how to apply to my firewall—if my firewall’s running the same distro as my servers are.

Cumulus Networks is a system software company founded with the principle of enabling high capacity networks that are easy to deploy and affordable. Led by networking experts and innovators from Cisco and VMware, we provide great networking for layer 2, layer 3 and overlay architectures supported by improved economics and a robust ecosystem — a modern alternative to proprietary vendor-locked stacks that constrain IT innovation.

Linux Academy

Gnome Core Apps

It would appear that the GNOME developers are currently in the process of revisiting the desktop environment’s moduleset and defining a clear set of core apps, which should form the default user experience in upcoming releases of the GNOME desktop (most probably starting with GNOME 3.20, which should be available in spring 2016).

At the moment of writing this article, the GNOME developers have only managed to announce that the Cheese webcam viewer app has been integrated as a core GNOME app as it is required by the GNOME Control Center, GNOME Initial Setup and GNOME Contacts components. They are also in talks with the developers of the Gedit text editor to make it a core app too.

Furthermore, the GNOME Color Manager component will also be pushed to the core apps moduleset, as the GNOME Control Center software requires it. However, the GNOME developers will also define a set of non-core apps, which they don’t recommend GNU/Linux OS vendors to include in their distributions when using the GNOME desktop environment by default.

Support Jupiter Broadcasting on Patreon

Post Show:

Phoenix OS

Google Android may have been developed as a smartphone operating system (and later ported to tablets, TVs, watches, and other platforms), but over the past few years we’ve seen a number of attempts to turn it into a desktop operating system.

One of the most successful has been Remix OS, which gives Android a taskbar, start menu, and an excellent window management system. The Remix OS team has also generated a lot of buzz over the past year, and this week the operating system gained a lot of new alpha testers thanks to a downloadable version of Remix OS that you can run on many recent desktop or notebook computers.

But Remix OS isn’t the only game in town. Phoenix OS is another Android-as-desktop operating system, and while it’s still pretty rough around the edges, there are a few features that could make it a better option for some testers.

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Truck Repairs and Possible RV Pickup | Rover Log #1 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/88256/truck-repairs-and-possible-rv-pickup-rover-log-1/ Fri, 04 Sep 2015 17:43:18 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=88256 A long list of items has to be completed to make the truck trailer and road ready. I attempt to get the work done on the truck, and pick up the trailer while keeping the shows on the air! Amazon Wishlist: https://bit.ly/jbroadtrip Support the network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jupitersignal

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A long list of items has to be completed to make the truck trailer and road ready. I attempt to get the work done on the truck, and pick up the trailer while keeping the shows on the air!

Amazon Wishlist: https://bit.ly/jbroadtrip

Support the network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jupitersignal

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Exoplanet Clouds & Updates | SciByte 105 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/44732/exoplanet-clouds-updates-scibyte-105/ Tue, 15 Oct 2013 20:30:50 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=44732 We take a look at exoplanetary clouds, updating atomic weights, plastic on Saturns moon, viewer feedback, story and spacecraft updates, and more!

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We take a look at exoplanetary clouds, updating atomic weights, plastic on Saturn\’s moon, viewer feedback, story and spacecraft updates, Curiosity news, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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— Show Notes —

Exoplanet Clouds

  • Astronomers using data from NASA\’s Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes have created the first cloud map of a planet known as Kepler-7b
  • Kepler-7b
  • One of the first five planets to be confirmed by NASA\’s Kepler spacecraft, and was confirmed in the first 33.5 days of Kepler\’s science operations
  • Kepler-7b is a hot Jupiter that is about half the mass of Jupiter, but is nearly 1.5 times its size, and orbits its star every five days
  • Previous observations of Kepler-7b revealed that it could float on water
  • Temperature and Light Data
  • Kepler\’s visible-light observations of Kepler-7b\’s moon-like phases led to a rough map of the planet that showed a bright spot on its western hemisphere
  • That data was not enough on its own to decipher whether the bright spot was coming from clouds or heat
  • Spitzer can fix its gaze at a star system as a planet orbits around the star, gathering clues about the planet\’s atmosphere
  • Spitzer\’s ability to detect infrared light means it was able to measure Kepler-7b\’s temperature, estimating it to be between 1,500 and 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,100 and 1,300 Kelvin).
  • What the Temperature and Lights Measurements Mean
  • Those measurements are relatively cool for a planet that orbits so close to its star, within 0.06 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is the distance from Earth and the sun)
  • The measurements are also too cool to be the source of light Kepler observed.
  • Astronomers don\’t expect to see oceans or continents on this type of world, but they do detected a clear, reflective signature that they interpreted as clouds
  • What it All Means
  • By observing Kepler-7b with Spitzer and Kepler for more than three years, scientists were able to produce a very low-resolution \’map\’ of this giant, gaseous planet
  • Astronomers determined that light from the planet\’s star is bouncing off cloud tops located on the west side of the planet.
  • The patterns on this planet do not seem to change much over time, indicating it has a remarkably stable climate
  • The Future
  • Combining Spitzer and Kepler data together offers scientists with a multi-wavelength tool for getting a good look at exoplanets
  • This is bringing advancements to exoplanet science, moving beyond just detecting exoplanets, and into the exciting science of understanding them
  • 3D Visualization Tool
  • A fully rendered tool, available for download at eyes.nasa.gov/exoplanets
  • The program is updated daily with the latest findings from NASA\’s Kepler mission and ground-based observatories around the world as they search for planets
  • Also Pointed Out By
  • Paul Hill ‏@P_H_9_3 on Twitter
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • NASA Space Telescopes Find Patchy Clouds on Exotic World – NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory | jpl.nasa.gov
  • Clouds On Alien Planet Mapped for 1st Time | Space.com

— NEWS BYTE —

Updating Atomic Weights

  • The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, IUPAC, has changed the official atomic weights of 19 elements
  • Atomic Weights
  • Every atom of an element, silver for example, has the same number of protons
  • Silver has 47, but not every atom of an element necessarily has the same number of neutrons
  • Different versions of an element\’s atoms are called isotopes, Silver occurs as silver-109 and silver-107
  • Chemists calculate the atomic weight of an element that you see on the periodic table from the masses of its isotopes, giving more common isotopes more weight than less common isotopes
  • This doesn\’t necessarily mean every sample of silver on Earth has an atomic weight of exactly
  • Samples of elements vary from place to place, and the differences play an important role in many sciences
  • The differences help chemists trace the origin of different materials and help date archaeological findings
  • Not a Big a Deal, But Why Do It?
  • The latest atomic weights measurements differ too little from their predecessors to really change science
  • The changes in weights mostly come from continuing improvements in atomic mass measurements thanks to advances in the technology behind mass spectrometers
  • They can also change how they view the number of isotopes an element has
  • For example, the IUPAC had previously thought that thorium-230 was too rare to include in atomic weight calculations, they now recognize it
  • The last time international chemistry really altered the periodic table was in 2009, when IUPAC decided to list the atomic weights of some elements as ranges, instead of single numbers
  • The Changes
  • Atomic weights are relative, so they don\’t have units
  • Molybdenum, Losing 0.0122
  • Thorium, Losing 0.000322
  • Yttrium and Niobium, Tied, Losing 0.00001
  • Selenium, Gaining 0.0088
  • Cadmium, Gaining 0.0026
  • Holmium, Thulium and Praseodymium, all Gaining 0.00001
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Chemistry\’s Biggest Loser: Official Atomic Weights Change For 19 Elements | Popular Science
  • Periodic Table of the Elements | chemistry.about.com

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013

Plastic in Titan’s Clouds?

  • An essential chemical used in the creation of plastic on Earth has been found in Saturn\’s largest moon, Titan
  • Scientists used Cassini\’s composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) instrument, which measures infrared light given off by Saturn and its moon, made the discovery
  • Cassini Measures Propylene
  • NASA\’s Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting Saturn, found that the atmosphere of Titan contains propylene
  • Propylene is a key ingredient of plastic containers, car bumpers and other everyday items on Earth
  • Strung together in long chains it can form a plastic called polypropylene
  • Helps Explain Voyager 1 Data
  • This helps answer a decades old question
  • When Voyager 1 conducted the first close flyby of the moon in 1980, it recognized gasses in the moon\’s brown atmosphere as hydrocarbons.
  • Those measurement were very difficult to make because propylene weak signature is crowded by related chemicals with much stronger signals
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube Clip | Plastic Moon: Propylene Detected On Titan | VideoFromSpace
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • [NASA Finds Ingredient for Plastic on Saturn\’s Moon Titan | Space.com](NASA Finds Ingredient for Plastic on Saturn\’s Moon Titan | Space.com)

Now There Are Robots Who Run …

— VIEWER FEEDBACK —

Ice Cap Growing/Shrinking?

  • Nogal
  • In the chat room I brought up the fact that the ice caps have been growing, yet everyone called me a nut
  • Sorry, Staying Away From Hot Button Issues
  • First SciByte will neither agree or disagree with a highly hot button issue
  • Some studies can be made to agree in either direction you feel
  • There are studies that say the area of the Antarctic polar cap is expanding while the Arctic is decreasing
  • There are also studies arguing about the thickness of both polar sheets
  • Adding to the confusion and arguments is an article from National Snow and Ice Data Center showing significant shrinking of the area of the polar cap actually had an error
  • In addition there are arguments about global heating/cooling/climate change over what time span and comparing to historical data
  • For issues such as this it is important to find data from as impartial sources as you can, and to also look at the data that argues against how you feel

Food Science

  • Matt
  • Have you ever considered doing an episode on some of Chris\’ beliefs about nutrition and food?
  • Sorry, Staying Away From Some Food Health Science
  • While I might talk about what science is saying about how food interacts with the human body I’m not a dietician or a medical doctor so I’m going to stay away from dietary issue
  • Studies that talk about how one specific thing affects how interacts with your well being and health I view as somewhat bordering on fuzzy science
  • There are so many things that can affect your health it is hard to say anything specific about the general population
  • There are also many people with restrictive diets because of allergies or sensitivities that restrict diets that only affect specific portions of the population

— Updates —

Comet ISON

— SPACECRAFT UPDATE—

Private Space Travel – Orbital Science & SpaceX

  • Orbital Science – Cygnus Spacecraft
  • The Cygnus spacecraft initial docking was delayed a week due to an easily fixed communications glitch
  • After docking, the hatches to Cygnus opened on Monday, Sept. 30 after completing leak checks
  • Cygnus delivers about 1,300 pounds (589 kilograms) of cargo, including food, clothing, water, science experiments, spare parts and gear to the Expedition 37 crew
  • SpaceX
  • Also on Sept 29 the Next Generation commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket had its demonstration test flight
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 blasted off from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California
  • They deployed Canada’s 1,060 pound (481 kg) Cascade, Smallsat, and Ionospheric Polar Explorer (CASSIOPE) weather satellite and several additional small satellites.
  • Private Space Travel
  • Both Cygnus and Falcon 9 were developed with seed money from NASA in a pair of public-private partnerships between NASA and Orbital Sciences and SpaceX
  • With Orbital science\’s successful delivery there are now two commercial partner\’s with the ability to deliver supplies to the ISS
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube Clip Cygnus Spacecraft Captured By Space Station | videoFromSpace
  • YouTube | [SpaceX] Launch of Inaugural Falcon 9 v1.1 Rocket with Cassiope! | SpaceVidsNet
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Doubly Historic Day for Private Space: Cygnus docks at Station & Next Gen Falcon 9 Soars | UniverseToday.com

Opportunity

  • Planning the Path to Prepare for Winter
  • The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) recently succeeded in collecting “really interesting” new high resolution survey scans of Solander Point
  • The new CRISM spectrometer survey from Mars orbit will vastly improve the spectral resolution – from 18 meters per pixel down to 5 meters per pixel
  • It will take some time, a few weeks, to review and interpret the new spectral data from the MRO and decide on a course of action
  • The new MRO data are crucial for targeting the rover’s driving in coming months.
  • Solander Point
  • Opportunity rover has begun the ascent of Solander Point, the first mountain she will ever climb
  • Solander Point is an eroded ridge located along the western rim of huge Endeavour Crater where Opportunity is currently located
  • Another important point about ‘Solander Point’ is that it also offers northerly tilted slopes that will maximize the power generation during Opportunity’s six month winter
  • Recent Science
  • The rover recently investigated an outcrop target called ‘Poverty Bush’.
  • The 3 foot long (1 meter) robotic arm was deployed and the rover collected photos with the Microscopic Imager (MI)
  • They collected several days of spectral measurements with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).
  • What is interesting about this location is that there are several geologic units that are overlapping and Opportunity is sitting on the contact
  • The east side of the contact are rocks maybe a billion years older than those on the west side of the contact
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Opportunity Scaling Solander Mountain Searching for Science and Sun | UniverseToday.com

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

  • More Autonomy
  • Curiosity has now used a new technique, in placement of the tool-bearing turret on its robotic arm
  • The technique, called proximity placement, uses the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) as if it were a radar for assessing how close the instrument is to a soil or rock surface
  • The rover can then interpret the data and autonomously move the turret closer if it is not yet close enough
  • This will enable placement of the instrument much closer to soil targets than would have been feasible without risk of touching the sensor head to loose soil
  • It will also save extra days of having team members check the data and command arm movement in response
  • Multimedia
  • Image Galleries at JPL and Curiosity Mulimedia
  • Social Media
  • Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Mars Science Laboratory: Images | mars.jpl.nasa.gov

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

  • October, 18 1989 : 24 years ago : Jupiter orbiter Galileo launched
    : The Galileo space orbiter was released from the STS 34 flight of the Atlantis orbiter. Then the orbiter\’s inertial upper stage rocket pushed it into a course through the inner solar system. The craft gained speed from gravity assists in encounters with Venus and Earth before heading outward to Jupiter. During its six year journey to Jupiter, Galileo\’s instruments made interplanetary studies, using its dust detector, magnetometer, and various plasma and particles detectors. It also made close-up studies of two asteroids, Gaspra and Ida in the asteroid belt. The Galileo orbiter\’s primary mission was to study Jupiter, its satellites, and its magnetosphere for two years. It released an atmospheric probe into Jupiter\’s atmosphere on 7 Dec 1995.
  • Galileo Spacecraft Website | NASA

Looking up this week

<img src=\”https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/ISON_Comet_captured_by_HST%2C_April_10-11%2C_2013.jpg/250px-ISON_Comet_captured_by_HST%2C_April_10-11%2C_2013.jpg” width=250 align=right>

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Painful Math & Canadian Rovers | SciByte 70 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/27201/painful-math-canadian-rovers-scibyte-70/ Thu, 08 Nov 2012 22:54:38 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=27201 We take a look at Painful Math, Canadian robotic rovers, using the Kinect in science, updates on spacecraft, stories, and Curiosity!

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We take a look at Painful Math, Canadian robotic rovers, using the Kinect in science, updates on spacecraft, stories, and Curiosity, viewer feedback, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

Direct Download:

MP3 Download | Ogg Download | Video | YouTube

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MP3 Feed | Ogg Feed | iTunes Feed | Video Feed

Support the Show:

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Show Notes:

Math Hurts

  • Mathematics anxiety can prompt a response in the brain similar to when a person experiences physical pain, according to new research
  • The low down
  • Using brain scans, scholars determined that the brain areas active when highly math-anxious people prepare to do math overlap with the same brain areas that register the threat of bodily harm
  • Anticipation of doing math prompts a similar brain reaction as when they experience pain
  • Significance
  • Researchers found it was the anticipation of having to do math, and not actually doing math itself, that looked like pain in the brain.
  • Brain activation does not happen during math performance, suggesting that it is not the math itself that hurts it is the anticipation of math is painful
  • Scholars worked with 14 adults who were shown to have math anxiety based on their responses to a series of questions about math
  • Additional tests showed that these individuals were not overly anxious in general; instead, their heightened sense of anxiety was specific to math-related situations.
  • Volunteers were tested in an fMRI machine, which allowed researchers to examine brain activity as they did math, they were given mathematical equations to verify like the validity of the following equation: (12 x 4) – 19 = 29
  • Subjects were also shown short word puzzles. For these puzzles, people saw a series of letters (for example: yrestym) and had to determine if reversing the order of the letters produced a correctly spelled English word.
  • fMRI scans showed that the anticipation of math caused a response in the brain similar to physical pain
  • The higher a person’s anxiety about math, the more anticipating math activated the posterior insula—a fold of tissue located deep inside the brain just above the ear that is associated with registering direct threats to the body as well as the experience of pain.
  • Math anxiety levels were not associated with brain activity in the insula or in any other neural region when volunteers were doing math.
  • For those with math anxiety, a painful sense of dread may begin long before a person sits down to take a math test.
  • Of Note
  • current work is also consistent with other research which showed that the mere anticipation of doing mathematics changes functioning in the brains of people with high levels of math anxiety
  • Mathematics anxiety can begin as early as first grade
  • The value of seeing math anxiety not just as a proxy for poor math ability, but as an indication there can be a real, negative psychological reaction to the prospect of doing math.
  • The reaction needs to be addressed like any other phobia rather than simply piling on math homework for students who are anxious about math, students need active help to become more comfortable with the subject
  • For instance, that writing about math anxieties before a test can reduce one’s worries and lead to better performance.
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • When people worry about math, the brain feels the pain | MedicalXPress.com

— NEWS BYTE —

Canadian Robotic Rovers?

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Kinect in Science

  • Researchers in Scotland have devised a means of using a Microsoft Kinect sensing system to allow for hand control of holographic optical tweezers
  • The low down
  • Laser tweezers are laser based devices that allow for manipulation of very small objects; typically at the cellular level
  • A laser beam is projected towards a target, but before reaching it, is split into three separate beams
  • The three beams are broadcast onto the edges of the object to be manipulated and as the beams are moved the object is caused to move in lockstep
  • However fine tuning control of the laser to cause the movement of an object has been less than ideal and researchers to continue looking for alternative means
  • Significance
  • In this new research, the team connected a Microsoft Kinect device to the tweezers and then demonstrated an ability to move microscopic sized objects by moving their hands around in the air.
  • Connecting a Kinect device to their virtual tweezers, the researchers found that they were able to define the space in which they wished to work by using simple hand movements and then to connect, virtually to a particular tiny object
  • The Kinect is not precise enough to capture subtle movements however as it doesn’t allow for force-feedback, or the ability to feel the resistance of an object as its being moved
  • Of Note
  • HoloHands, is not sophisticated enough to allow for serious research work but it is being used as a tool for educational purposes, either as a tool, or implemented as a learning game.
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube HoloHands: Kinect control of holographic optical tweezers | dundeephysics
  • Kinect control of two trapped particles. | C. McDonald
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Physicists use Kinect to control holographic tweezers (w/ Video) | phys.org

– SPACECRAFT UPDATE –

Shuttles

— Updates —

Space-X’s Grasshopper

  • The low down
  • SpaceX is developing the “Grasshopper” reusable vertical takeoff, vertical landing rocket
  • In September, the 32-meter- (106-ft-) tall Grasshopper made a tiny hop – barely lifting off the pad just to test-fire its engines
  • The Grasshopper has now made a second, bigger hop
  • Phase 1 and 2
  • Reportedly the goal with Grasshopper is to eventually create a reusable first stage for its Falcon 9 rocket that would be able to land safely instead of falling back into the ocean and not being usable again
  • The Grasshopper test program is to have three phases of test launches at SpaceX’s facility in McGregor, Texas
  • Both Phase 1 and 2 flights would last up to 45 seconds.
  • Phase 1 rocket would rise to not more than 240 feet [73 meters]
  • Phase 2 rocket would rise to not more than 670 feet [204 meters]
  • Both Phase 1 and 2 flights would last up to 45 seconds.
  • Phase 3
  • Phase 3 tests have the goal of increasingly higher altitudes with higher ascent speeds and descent speeds altitude test sequence likely would be 1,200 feet [366 meters]; 2,500 feet [762 meters]; 5,000 feet [1,524 meters]; 7,500 feet [2,286 meters]; and 11,500 feet [3,505 meters]
  • The maximum test duration of Phase 3 firings would be approximately 160 seconds. If all goes well the Grasshopper would land back on the launch pad
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube Flight of 10 story tall Grasshopper rocket | Clark Lindsey
  • Social Media
  • SpaceX @SpaceX
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • SpaceX’s 10-Story Re-useable Grasshopper Rocket Takes a Bigger Hop | UniverseToday.com

Documentary : Chasing Atlantis

Fermi

  • Astronomers using data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope were able to look at distant blazars to help measure the background light from all the stars that are shining now and ever
  • Last time on SciByte
  • Breast Cancer & Mayan Calender | SciByte 69 (October 30, 2012
  • The low down
  • This enabled the most accurate measurement of starlight throughout the universe, which in turn helps establish limits on the total number of stars that have ever shone.
  • The optical and ultraviolet light from stars continues to travel throughout the universe even after the stars cease to shine
  • Fossil radiation field we can explore using gamma rays from distant sources and also provide a stellar density in the cosmos of about 1.4 stars per 100 billion cubic light-years, which means the average distance between stars in the universe is about 4,150 light-years
  • Significance
  • Blazars, which are among the most energetic phenomena in the universe. They are galaxies powered by extremely energetic black holes:
  • To gamma rays, the EBL functions as a kind of cosmic fog, but Fermi measured the amount of gamma-ray absorption in blazar spectra
  • Gamma rays produced in blazar jets travel across billions of light-years to Earth
  • Occasionally, a gamma ray collides with starlight and transforms into an electron and its antimatter counterpart, a positron
  • Once this occurs, the gamma ray light is lost much the same way as fog dims a distant lighthouse.
  • From studies of nearby blazars, scientists have determined how many gamma rays should be emitted at different energies
  • Which gives an upper and lower limit on the amount of stars that have formed
  • Previous estimates have only been an upper limit, this data shows that the upper and lower limits are very close to each other
  • Of Note
  • Measuring the extragalactic background light was one of the primary mission goals for Fermi
  • While Fermi is providing us with a shadow image of the first stars, whereas Webb will directly detect them
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube NASA | Fermi Explores the Early Universe
  • The locations of 150 blazars (green dots) used in the a new by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Telescope. | NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Fermi Measures Light from All the Stars That Have Ever Existed | UniverseToday
  • Light From Universe’s First Stars Seen | Fermi Telescope | Space.com
  • Astronomers spot leftover light from ancient stars | Atom & Cosmos | Science News

— Viewer Feedback —

  • Educational Experience
  • Jusitn Luna asks about my Educational experience, in regards to school applications
  • Graduated with a BA in Physics, minoring in Astrophysics
  • Did all the volunteer work and internships I could both related and unrelated to school
  • Pay careful attention to all resume’s, mistakes creep in very easily, ask someone to look it over
  • What is pertinent to what you are applying for and check the details
  • If you have to do interviews practice
  • New ”Super-Earth” found
  • Michael Henriques pointed out a story about a new “Super Earth” found
  • That story is actually on the docket for next week

– CURIOSITY UPDATE –

  • Returning to Earth time
  • After three months working on “Mars time,” the team operating NASA Mars rover Curiosity has switched to a Earth schedule as planned
  • A Martian day, called a sol, is about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, so the team’s start time for daily planning has been moving a few hours later each week
  • Telecommuting Teams Start
  • In addition more than 200 non-JPL scientists who have spent some time working at JPL since Curiosity’s landing will now continue participating regularly from their home institutions throughout North America and Europe
  • The team has been preparing in recent weeks to use dispersed participation teleconferences and Web connections.
  • X-Ray Analysis
  • Results of the first analysis of Martian soil by the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) experiment on NASA’s Curiosity rover show the presence of crystalline feldspar, pyroxenes and olivine mixed with some amorphous (non-crystalline) material
  • This makes is similar to volcanic soils in Hawaii
  • NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has completed initial experiments showing the mineralogy of Martian soil is similar to weathered basaltic soils of volcanic origin in Hawaii
  • The teams used its Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) for quantitative results and new identifications of the minerals in this first X-ray diffraction analysis on Mars
  • Identification of minerals in rocks and soil is crucial for the mission’s goal to assess past environmental conditions and the mineral records the conditions under which it formed.
  • The composition of a rock provides only ambiguous mineralogical information, minerals diamond and graphite, which have the same chemical composition, but strikingly different structures and properties
  • CheMin uses X-ray diffraction, which provides more accurate identifications of minerals than any method previously used on Mars it reads minerals’ internal structure by recording how their crystals distinctively interact with X-rays
  • The sample was processed through a sieve to exclude particles larger than 0.006 inch (150 micrometers), roughly the width of a human hair.
  • The soil material CheMin has analyzed is more representative of modern processes on Mars
  • So far materials Curiosity has analyzed are consistent with our initial ideas of the deposits in Gale Crater recording a transition through time from a wet to dry environment
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube Curiosity Rover Report (Nov. 1, 2012): First CheMin Results | JPLNews
  • Image Galleries at JPL and Curiosity Mulimedia
  • Social Media
  • Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Curiosity rover finds clues to changes in Mars’ atmosphere | UniverseToday.com
  • NASA rover’s first soil studies help fingerprint Martian minerals | phys.org
  • Why Mars Life Hunt Targets Methane | Space.com
  • Curiosity rover finds clues to changes in Mars’ atmosphere | phys.org
  • Curiosity Finds Methane on Mars, or Not – ScienceNOW | ScienceMag.org
  • Curiosity team switches back to Earth time | phys.org

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

  • Nov 09, 1965 | 47 years ago | Blackout | The biggest electricity grid failure in U.S. history at the time caused a 13-hour blackout in northeast America and parts of Canada. The power lines from Niagara Falls to New York City were operating near their maximum capacity. At about 5:15 pm, a transmission line relay failed. Now there was insufficient line capacity for New York City. New England and New York are interconnected on a power grid, and the power that had been flowing toward New York City had to go elsewhere, instantly. Unable to handle this overload, generator operators shutdown to protect their equipment. Almost the entire grid failed, affecting 80,000 square miles, and 25 million people. In the subways of New York, 800,000 people were trapped

Looking up this week

Solar and Lunar Eclipses

  • Solar Eclipse
  • On Nov. 13, residents of northeastern Australia will get a ‘false-start’ sunrise
  • About an hour after the sun breaks the horizon in the coastal city of Cairns, it will be fully obscured by the moon, whose shadow will darken the sky and bring the stars back into view for 2 minutes there
  • The solar corona should take on a ‘wound up’ circular shape, with a high potential for tongues of pink nuclear fire leaping from the Sun’s edge
  • A three-man crew will be capturing and broadcasting the solar eclipse live with a telescope in northern Australia, which will be the only land area that will witness the total eclipse
  • Parts of New Zealand and Chile will see the sun partially obscured as the moon crosses the sky
  • Lunar Eclipse
  • A lunar eclipse that will take place on Nov. 28.
  • The penumbral lunar eclipse will manifest as a slight but noticeable darkening of the northern half of the moon; the dimming should be easily visible to the naked eye after most of the moon has dipped into the Earth’s penumbra
  • The Eastern United States will miss out on the lunar eclipse, as the moon will already have set there when the eclipse begins
  • The rest of the country can watch at least part of it, with the duration of visibility longest for people on the West Coast and in Alaska
  • Use THIS NASA GRAPHIC to check if you’ll be able to watch the lunar eclipse from their backyard.
  • Multimedia
  • Watch the Nov. 13 Solar Eclipse webcast for free starting at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time LIVE FEED
  • Lunar eclipse location graphic IMAGE
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Total Solar Eclipse and Minor Lunar Eclipse to Grace Nov. Skies | Space.com

The post Painful Math & Canadian Rovers | SciByte 70 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> Neil Armstrong & Dinosaur Footprints | SciByte 60 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/23826/neil-armstrong-dinosaur-footprints-scibyte-60/ Tue, 28 Aug 2012 21:40:40 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=23826 We take a look at the life of Neil Armstrong, dinosaurs at NASA, a Hubble contest update, a Curiosity Rover update much more!

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We take a look at the life of Neil Armstrong, dinosaurs at NASA, musical training, an update on a Hubble contest, Curiosity update and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Show Notes

Neil Armstrong



YouTube Channel NASAexplorer

  • For the famed astronaut’s funeral set on Friday, August 31, flags will be flown at half-staff as ordered by President Obama as “a mark of respect for the memory of Neil Armstrong”.
  • Before NASA
  • He was licensed to fly at 16, before he got his driver’s license
  • Armstrong was active in the Boy Scouts and he eventually earned the rank of Eagle Scout
  • Recognized with the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo Award
  • July 18, 1969, while flying towards the Moon inside the Columbia, he greeted the Scouts: “I’d like to say hello to all my fellow Scouts and Scouters at Farragut State Park in Idaho having a National Jamboree there this week; and Apollo 11 would like to send them best wishes”. Houston replied: "Thank you, Apollo 11. I’m sure that, if they didn’t hear that, they’ll get the word through the news. Certainly appreciate that
  • NASA
  • He became a test pilot with what evolved into NASA, flying more than 200 kinds of aircraft from gliders to jets.
  • Gemini 8
  • Armstrong and pilot David Scott achieved the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit, linking up with an unmanned Agena target vehicle
  • The mission was a near disaster, suffering the first critical in-space failure of a U.S. spacecraft after a stuck thruster set the Gemini spacecraft spinning
  • Armstrong ultimately regained control by using their re-entry system thrusters, steadying the spacecraft and forcing an early, but safe end to the mission
  • Apollo 11
  • Armstrong privately concluded that they had a 90 percent chance of returning safely to Earth but only a 50–50 chance of pulling off a successful landing.
  • It was crucial to land without any sideways motion, lest they risk tipping over at touchdown but the blast of the descent rocket was kicking up moon dust
  • Armstrong fixed his gaze on rocks sticking up through the blowing dust; using them as reference points and guided Eagle slowly downward, about as fast as an elevator
  • In those first few moments on the moon, Armstrong stopped in what he called “a tender moment” and left a patch to commemorate NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who had died in action.
  • An estimated 600 million people [a fifth of the world’s population] watched and listened to the moon landing, the largest audience for any single event in history.
  • In Wapakoneta, media and souvenir frenzy was swirling around the home of Armstrong’s parents where people were pulling grass out of their front yard.
  • After Apollo 11
  • Soon after returning from the moon, Armstrong announced he would not fly in space again.
  • Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were given ticker tape parades in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and later made a 22-nation world tour. A homecoming in Wapakoneta drew 50,000 people to the city of 9,000.
  • In 1970, Armstrong was appointed deputy associate administrator for aeronautics at NASA but left the following year to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
  • Words of remembrance
  • Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 lunar module pilot and second man to walk on the moon | “Whenever I look at the moon it reminds me of the moment over four decades ago when I realized that even though we were farther away from Earth than two humans had ever been, we were not alone.”
  • Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins | “He was the best, and I will miss him terribly,”
  • NASA Administrator Charles Bolden | “As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind’s first small step on a world beyond our own.”
  • NASA Administrator Charles Bolden | “As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind’s first small step on a world beyond our own. Besides being one of America’s greatest explorers, Neil carried himself with a grace and humility that was an example to us all. When President Kennedy challenged the nation to send a human to the moon, Neil Armstrong accepted without reservation.”
  • U.S. President Barack Obama | “Neil was among the greatest of American heroes – not just of his time, but of all time. When he and his fellow crew members lifted off aboard Apollo 11 in 1969, they carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation. They set out to show the world that the American spirit can see beyond what seems unimaginable – that with enough drive and ingenuity, anything is possible. And when Neil stepped foot on the surface of the moon for the first time, he delivered a moment of human achievement that will never be forgotten.”
  • Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney | “Neil Armstrong today takes his place in the hall of heroes. The moon will miss its first son of Earth.”
  • House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) | “Neil Armstrong blazed trails not just for America, but for all of mankind. He inspired generations of boys and girls worldwide not just through his monumental feat, but with the humility and grace with which he carried himself to the end.”
  • In the words of Neil Armstrong
  • “[The moon was] simply magnificent, beyond any visual experience that I had ever been exposed to.”
  • “In my own view, the important achievement of Apollo was a demonstration that humanity is not forever chained to this planet, and our visions go rather further than that, and our opportunities are unlimited.”
  • “I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer,” “And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession.”
  • “I can honestly say—and it’s a big surprise to me—that I have never had a dream about being on the moon”
  • The space race was “the ultimate peaceful competition: USA versus U.S.S.R. It did allow both sides to take the high road, with the objectives of science and learning and exploration.”
  • From his family
  • "Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.
  • Multimedia
  • Image Gallery Neil Armstrong – American Icon Remembered | Space.com
  • YouTube NASA | Highlight Reel of Partially Restored Apollo 11 Video | NASAexplorer
  • YouTube NASA | The 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11 | NASAexplorer
  • YouTube NASA: Neil Armstrong Remarks from Congressional Gold Medal July 21, 2009 | tvspace
  • YouTube The Åpollo–11 Channel | TheApollo11Channel
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Neil Armstrong Info
  • Biography : Neil Armstrong | NASA.gov
  • The Apollo 11 Flight Journal | history.NASA.gov
  • Debunking myths about Neil Armstrong | NBCnews
  • For Neil Armstrong, the First Moon Walker, It Was All about Landing the Eagle | ScientificAmerican
  • Neil Armstrong, 1st man on the moon, dies at 82 (Update) | phys.org
  • Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon, Dies at 82 | UniverseToday.com
  • Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon | Space,com
  • Neil Armstrong (1930–2012): NASA Remembers an American Icon | Space.com
  • Neil Armstrong Remembered: Tributes to 1st Man to Walk on the Moon | Space.com
  • Neil Armstrong, First Man to Walk on Moon, Dies at 82 | Space.com

— NEWS BYTE —

NASA and Dinosaurs?



Credit: NASA/GSFC/Rebecca Roth

  • The low down
  • Footprints of ankylosaur have been found on the property of a NASA‘s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
  • Significance
  • Ankylosaur are members of the heavily-armored ankylosaur subgroup that lacked tail clubs but often sported prominent spike’s along their sides
  • At least two, possibly a mother and child tracks of two nodosaurs have been confirmed
  • A smaller print was discovered within the first, evidence that they were made around the same time and leading researchers to suggest it may have been a mother-and-child pair.
  • The track has started to erode, and may have been damaged by a lawnmower, the roughly 112-million-year-old track still shows four toe imprints
  • The tracks were found earlier this summer and recently NASA scientists were taken out to the site to see the fossil depression at that time
  • Researchers found several more possible dinosaur tracks, the NASA facility may have been founded on a Cretaceous dinosaur stomping ground.
  • Of Note
  • Officials are already moving to protect the fossil, and they plan to bring in paleontologists to look for other dinosaur tracks
  • What happens next will depend on the laws that regulate how fossils can be removed and curated.
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Multiple Dinosaur Tracks Confirmed at NASA Center | UniverseToday.com
  • NASA’s Nodosaur Track | Smithsonian.com

Musical training as a child has a life long affect

  • A little music training in childhood goes a long way in improving how the brain function
  • The low down
  • Researchers for the first time have directly examined what happens after children stop playing a musical instrument after only a few years
  • Compared to peers with no musical training, adults with one to five years of musical training as children had enhanced brain responses to complex sounds
  • Making them more effective at pulling out the lowest frequency in sound crucial for speech and music perception, allowing recognition of sounds in complex and noisy auditory environments.
  • Significance
  • For the study, young adults with varying amounts of past musical training were tested by measuring electrical signals from the auditory brainstem in response to eight complex sounds ranging in pitch
  • Forty-five adults were grouped into three matched groups based on histories of musical instruction
  • One group had no musical instruction, another had 1 to 5 years the others had to 6 to 11 years
  • Both musically trained groups began instrumental practice around age 9
  • Musical training during childhood led to more robust neural processing of sounds later in life
  • The study suggests that short-term music lessons may enhance lifelong listening and learning
  • Of Note
  • Prior research on highly trained musicians and early bilinguals revealed that enhanced brainstem responses to sound are associated with heightened auditory perception, executive function and auditory communication skills.
  • The team believes that a few years of music lessons also confer advantages in how one perceives and attends to sounds in everyday communication situations, such as noisy restaurants
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Practicing music for only few years in childhood helps improve adult brain: research | MedicalXPress
  • Musical Training During Childhood Shapes Brains As Adults | medicalnewstoday.com

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Documentary : Chasing Atlantis

— Updates —

Hubble’s Hidden Treasures

– CURIOSITY UPDATE –



Credit: JPLnews

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

  • August 1971 | 41 years ago | Neil Armstrong Retires from NASA

Looking up this week

The post Neil Armstrong & Dinosaur Footprints | SciByte 60 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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Spacecraft Updates | SciByte 23 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/14486/spacecraft-updates-scibyte-23/ Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:28:59 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=14486 Find out the latest on Russia’s failed attempt to reach Mars, NASA’s new mission, and we’ll update you on the biggest stories of the month!

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Find out the latest on Russia’s failed attempt to reach Mars, NASA’s new mission, and we’ll update you on the biggest stories of the month, including a few updates that could have huge impacts for physics!

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.

SciByte will provide you with a treasure trove of small talk for your next cocktail party, the knowledge to show off to friends and family, and provide you the means, with the help of our trusty show notes, to further investigate the things that interest you the most.

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Phobos-Grunt : Update

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity” Rover : Updates and more

YU55, the molten asteroid : Update

Faster than light Neutrinos : Update

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Super Saturnian storm

Gumby-Bot

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

  • Dec 04, 1819 : 192 years ago : Watermarking – A triple paper was patented in Britain by Sir William Congreve that could incorporate a colored watermark visible when the paper was held up to the light, to make currency harder to counterfeit
  • Dec 6, 1830 : 181 years ago : US Navel Observatory – One of the oldest scientific agencies in the U.S., was established as the Depot of Charts and Instruments in Washington, D.C. Its primary mission was to care for the U.S. Navy’s chronometers, charts and other navigational equipment.
  • Dec 6, 1850 : 161 years ago : Ophthalmoscope – Hermann von Helmholtz announced his invention, the ophthalmoscope, to the Berlin Physical Society. It revolutionized ophthalmology, enabling a view inside a person’s eye to see the details of the living retina, diagnose eye diseases and prevent blindness. Ophthalmoscope Retina from Ophthalmoscope
  • Dec 06, 1945 : 66 years ago : Microwave Oven – The microwave oven was patented.
  • Nov 30, 1954 : 57 years ago : The Sky WAS Falling – In Alabama, USA, Ann Hodges, was bruised on the arm and hip by a meteorite that fell through the roof of her house, smashed the case of her wooden radio and struck her as she lay resting on her sofa. The meteor made a fireball visible from three states, even though it fell early in the afternoon Image Image Image of Meteorite
  • Dec 01, 1997 : 14 years ago : Planets align – Eight planets from our Solar System lined up from West to East beginning with Pluto, followed by Mercury, Mars, Venus, Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter, and Saturn, with a crescent moon alongside that lasted until Dec 8. The planets also aligned in May 2000, but too close to the sun to be visible from Earth. It will be at least another 100 years before so many planets will be so close and so visible.IMAGE

Looking up this week

  • Keep an eye out for …

  • All this week during dawn hours, Saturn and Spica remain 5 degrees apart all this week, or about half the width of your fist held at arm’s length. IMAGE

  • Friday, Dec 2nd : Moon hits first quarter IMAGE

  • Monday, Dec 5th : Jupiter will be to the lower left of the Moon at nightfall. Only the Moon and Venus outshine it.

  • More on whats in the sky this week

  • Sky&Telescope

  • AstronomyNow

  • SpaceWeather.com

  • HeavensAbove

  • StarDate.org

The post Spacecraft Updates | SciByte 23 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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Your Mom thought I was big enough

*— 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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