Science Special News

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Artificial retina implant holds promise

Submitted by Pandora: A tiny electrical implant that attaches to the retina may someday restore partial sight to millions of patients blinded by age-related macular degeneration, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. The device, in the early stages of human clinical testing, is part of a new class of so-called "smart" prostheses that link with the brain and nervous system to restore function lost to disease or injury, the researchers told reporters at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.Similar electrical stimulation devices known as cochlear implants have been used to treat deafness, and scientists are developing others to restore bladder control and movement to patients with spinal cord injury.The artificial retina is designed to take the place of photoreceptor cells in the brain that are charged with capturing and processing light."We anticipate this technology will help blind patients who have lost their sight through macular degeneration," said Dr. Mark Humayun, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Southern California.

Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in older adults in the United States and the developed world, affecting approximately 25 million to 30 million people.Humayun and his colleagues have teamed up with privately held Second Sight Medical Products to develop the implant, which just won clearance from U.S. regulators to test a second-generation device in a U.S. clinical trial.

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Glimpsing the Sun's south pole

A spacecraft in solar orbit reached almost directly above the south pole of the Sun last week, giving scientists a rare glimpse of this unfamiliar territory. Launched on October 6, 1990, Ulysses, a joint mission of NASA and the European Space Agency, has made only two flybys of the south pole of the Sun. "The sun's south pole is uncharted territory," said Ulysses Program Scientist Arik Posner of NASA headquarters. "We can barely see it from Earth, and most of our sun-studying spacecraft are stationed over the sun's equator with a poor view of higher latitudes."The duration of the spacecraft's south polar pass is roughly four months. Last Thursday was the day of Ulysses' closest approach to that solar region. The spacecraft hasn’t spent enough time at the sun's high latitudes to really take in all the solar secrets that can be revealed from that point of view, Posner said. “We are trying to get all the information that we can get from these flybys,” he said.

For more than 15 years, Ulysses has been collecting data that has led to a better understanding of the Sun's environment, which could also help scientists understand Earth better. "Both the sun's and Earth's magnetic poles are constantly on the move, and they occasionally do a complete flip, with N and S changing places," Posner said. This flipping happens every 11 years on the Sun, in synch with the sunspot cycle. It happens every 300,000 years or so on Earth, but no one knows what the Earth’s cycle corresponds with.

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More evidence found for water on Mars

An orbiting spacecraft has sent back new evidence for the presence of water on Mars. Scientists long have debated whether water flowed on the red planet, with evidence increasing in recent years. The presence of water would raise the possibility of at least primitive life forms existing there. Images from a camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show alternating layers of dark- and light-toned rock in a giant rift valley.Within those deposits are a series of linear fractures, called joints, that are surrounded by "halos" of light-toned bedrock, according to researchers from the University of Arizona.Their findings, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, were being presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.Lead author Chris H. Okubo said the "halos" indicate areas where fluids, probably water, passed through the bedrock. Minerals in the fluid strengthen and bleach the rock, he said, making it more resistant to erosion than other areas."On Earth, bleaching of rock surrounding a fracture is a clear indication of chemical interactions between fluids circulating within the fracture and the host rock," Okubo and co-author Alfred S. McEwen reported in the paper.

The researchers also said that layered outcrops can indicate cycles with materials deposited by regular episodes of water, wind or volcanic activity.Just last December scientists reported evidence that water may be flowing through Mars' frigid surface. Images from Mars Global Surveyor showed changes in craters that provide the strongest evidence yet that water moved through them as recently as several years ago, and is perhaps doing so even now.The Surveyor previously had spotted tens of thousands of gullies that scientists believed were geologically young and carved by fast-moving water coursing down cliffs and steep crater walls. Scientists decided to retake photos in a search for evidence of recent activity.

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Hole in the ice fuels speculation about UFOs

A hole in a frozen pond in northern Latvia achieved unexpected notoriety on Wednesday as rumours began circulating that it was created by an object falling from outer space. "We've been collecting information on the story all day, and we'll definitely report it in the morning," Inguna Plume, editor of local newspaper Ziemellatvija, told reporters.The "unusually large hole" appeared in the ice of a frozen pond near the northern Latvian village of Karki in early February, the Leta news agency wrote. Despite sub-zero temperatures, the holereportedly did not freeze over for two days.Locals initially reported seeing "strange things" in the area.One girl said that she had seen "a small bright object with a silver ring around it", while other witnesses reported seeing up to six symmetrical beams of light emerging from the pond.When the existence of the mysterious hole became known, the theory that it could have been created by an object falling from outer space began to gain credence, Karki spokesperson Sandra Pilskalne told Leta.

Scientific experts admit that the hole could have been created by a falling piece of interstellar debris, the news wire added.The mysterious hole has now frozen over, but water samples have been taken for testing, Pilskalne said. Representatives of Karki council were not available for comment when approached by reporters.

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TV show planned on hunt for Texas Bigfoot

It was probably only a matter of time before someone came up with a Bigfoot reality-TV show. And that time has apparently come.Next month in the woods outside Paris, a pilot will be filmed for the proposed series Capturing Bigfoot."You've got a hot spot out there in your back yard, a hot spot like no other," Bigfoot explorer Tom Biscardi, 58, said by telephone from Northern California.Biscardi, who retired from the insurance industry to pursue Bigfoot full time, has made the creature his life's work. On his Web site he sells Bigfoot DVDs, Bigfoot mugs, Bigfoot T-shirts and pewter Bigfoot belt buckles. He also hosts a weekly Internet radio show about all things Sasquatch.He believes a Bigfoot family is living in old World War II Army bunkers buried on an abandoned portion of Camp Maxey north of Paris, near the Oklahoma border."I think it's a family pod," Biscardi said. "What we found is baby footprints next to a mother. This is the first time that has ever happened."Not only is Biscardi participating in the TV pilot, but he is also inviting enthusiasts to go along.For $375, anyone interested in finding "America's King Kong" can join him on a 24-hour expedition as part of the team trying to capture the elusive beast.

The news that a Bigfoot family is roaming the woods north of town was a surprise to Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville.Nonetheless, the judge predicted that most residents in the predominantly rural county of 49,644 would welcome the attention, noting that Paris was abuzz recently over an episode of the CW Network's One Tree Hill being filmed in the area."It puts us on the map, which is good," Superville said. "I think Northeast Texas is a good place to live. It's a garden paradise."Biscardi describes the 16,000-acre area around Camp Maxey -- part of which is still used as a Texas National Guard training center -- in more dramatic terms."You've got to look at this place," Biscardi said. "It's prehistoric. It looks like something straight out of Jurassic Park."The producers will try to sell the show to cable television outlets. If it isn't picked up, the expedition could be turned into a DVD, said Robert Barrows, a spokesman for the project.

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Batman sighting puts schools on lockdown

To an Arizona middle school, Batman! Three schools in the north Phoenix suburb of Cave Creek were on lockdown for about 45 minutes Wednesday morning after a student at Desert Arroyo Middle School reported seeing a person dressed as Batman run across campus, jump a fence and disappear into the desert, Scottsdale police Sgt. Mark Clark said.The student described the person as 6 feet 3 inches tall and possibly male."We're assuming it was male, although they did have a mask on," Clark said.Officers combed the desert around the middle school. A nearby elementary school and high school also were on lockdown as officers sought the caped crusader. The result - no Batman."It's just one of those interesting little stories that we looked into but we couldn't find anyone," Clark said.Nedda Shafir, a spokeswoman for the Cave Creek Unified School District, said putting all the schools on lockdown was a precautionary measure. "We didn't want to take any chances," Shafir said. "We just don't want to put anyone at risk."

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UN's action plan for killer asteroids

Submitted by Waspie Dwarf: A draft UN treaty to determine what would have to be done if a giant asteroid was on a collision course with Earth is to be drawn up this year. The document would set out global policies including who should be in charge of plans to deflect any object. It is the brainchild of the Association of Space Explorers, a professional body for astronauts and cosmonauts. At the moment, Nasa is monitoring 127 near-Earth objects (NEO) that have a possibility of hitting the Earth. The association has asked a group of scientists, lawyers, diplomats and insurance experts to draw up the recommendations. The group will have its first meeting in Strasbourg in May this year. It is hoped the final document will be presented to the UN in 2009. "We believe there needs to be a decision process spelled out and adopted by the United Nations," said Dr Russell Schweickart, one of the Apollo 9 astronauts and founder of the Association of Space Explorers. The threat of an asteroid hitting the Earth is being taken more and more seriously as more and more NEOs are found. In the US, Congress has charged Nasa with the task of starting a more detailed search for life-threatening space rocks. "Congress has said that Nasa's efforts to date are not sufficient to the threat," said the US space agency's Dr Steven Chesley. "They have changed Nasa's targets so that the cataloguing and tracking of asteroids is part of its mandate."

Congress has asked the agency to mount a much more aggressive survey. At the moment, Nasa tracks all objects greater than 700m (2,300ft) in diameter. The agency's new goal is to track all objects greater than 70m (230ft) in diameter. To do this, the agency needs to use a new suite of telescopes. Alternatives include building a new Nasa-owned system or investing in other proposed telescopes such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) or the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-Starrs). Pan-Starrs is a wide-field telescope being developed at the University of Hawaii, whilst the LSST is a proposed ground-based instrument being developed by the not-for-profit LSST corporation based in the US. Nasa estimates that there are about 20,000 potentially threatening asteroids yet to be discovered.

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UFOs and space travel

Ellen Lloyd: One of the most interesting aspects of the UFO phenomenon focuses on the origin of extraterrestrial craft. Whether you are new to the UFO phenomena, or have studied the subject for years, you cannot help wondering: "If UFOs are real outer space craft, then where do they come from and how do they get here?" It is a simple question and yet it is very difficult to provide an intelligent and solid answer to this query. What is the place of origin of these intelligent alien beings? Can we find them in the cluster of the Pleiades, in the constellation of Orion, or do they perhaps exist much closer to home? Could it be that the aliens are in fact visitors from the future? Are the aliens perhaps living in a world next to our own, a place that is invisible to the naked eye, a parallel world or another dimension? Do UFOs use hidden inter-dimensional gateways to reach our world and enter our reality? In my previous article "The Stargate of the Alien Gods", I discussed the possibility that one such inter-dimensional portal, a stargate might be located in Peru. Before I continue writing, it is essential to point out that the purpose of this article is not to prove the existence of Unidentified Flying Objects. It is not my intention to convince skeptics that we are and have always been visited by extraterrestrials.

Although it is fair to say this is a complex subject, any curious investigator will discover that a comprehensive and objective analysis of the UFO phenomenon clearly shows that we are not alone in the universe. It is correct to say that a number of UFO sightings can be dismissed and easily explained away, but let us not forget the unexplained cases. Countless UFO reports, photographs, world-wide mass-sightings, testimonies from high-ranked officials, photographs taken by NASA and astronauts sightings obviously speak for themselves.

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3D projection screens planned

A project combining 3D imagery with hand-tracking and speech recognition technology could change the way in which the next generation of computers presents information — as well as how we interact with it. One of the key aims of the EU-funded Interact project is to develop a system that provides interaction with 3D images without the need for any additional hardware such as gloves or virtual reality goggles. According to Tomas Rodriguez of Spanish software firm Eptron, which is leading the project, it will bring together the very latest developments in the field. 'We think there's a real need to develop a completely new form of human-computer interaction,' said Rodriguez. The idea is that a user will be able to manipulate a 3D projection in real-time. The project is working on two different methods for interacting with the images. The first and more groundbreaking of the two is a form of gesture recognition technology that tracks natural hand movements and uses the information to manipulate images. Rodriguez said one of the key challenges is the development of a hand-tracker that requires no additional hardware, the first time this has been attempted in a project like Interact.

'There are already technologies available which use spots or markers for gesture recognition,' he said. 'However, the real problem is developing extremely precise hand-tracking without any other hardware which can also operate under common office lighting conditions. Developing a sensor within these constraints is a completely different story.' The second form of interaction uses speech recognition to enable the user to turn, flip or resize 3D objects with simple verbal commands. The user will also be able to call up contextual information about the product from the system using speech. The core part of the project will be the 3D visualisation subsystem itself.

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Cyborgs in our future

Fifty years after the dawn of the space age, hundreds of people have flown into space. A dozen of those left their boot marks on the Moon’s surface, and several nations now are planning to send astronauts back to the Moon and then beyond. So you would think the expansion of humanity ever deeper into the Cosmos is a sure bet.But the notion that human explorers are destined to become an interstellar species is far from a sure thing as far as Roger Launius is concerned.More likely, humans, and the machines they use to explore space, are going to evolve together in ways that are hard to predict at this early stage in the opening of the space frontier, said Launius, an eminent space historian and chair for the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington.Speaking to a crowd of space professionals at the Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF 2007) in Albuquerque Feb. 12, Launius said humans are destined to become a multi-planetary species, but that word may take on a whole new meaning as time evolves.

Given that there will be the first child born on the Moon, as well as Mars, will that person be a Homo sapien, he asked. Could the differences of gravity, radiation exposure mean those children would be unable to return to Earth?“I think that’s problematic,” Launius said, and in some respects might this be an evolutionary road not unlike that taken by amphibian creatures that departed their water world to become land creatures.“There is the possibility of the evolution of human species into something different,” Launius said. He and fellow space researcher, Howard McCurdy of The American University in Washington, have authored a book on the subject to be published later this year.

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Scrutiny surrounds mystery foot

When the foot turned up at the Spotsylvania County, Va., landfill, the first thought was that someone had committed a brutal crime. Deputies began sorting through mounds of trash in a somber search for body parts.Now, the foot is a phenomenon.The hairless 8-inch appendage with five longish toes isn’t human after all. But no one knows yet what species – known or undiscovered – it is. And that has led to some wild conjecture.Spotsylvania sheriff’s officials have said the foot might have come from an “ape-like species,” leaving Bigfoot-believers across the country wondering whether there might finally be proof of the creatures’ existence.“Discoveries like the foot in the landfill quickens the heartbeat of every Bigfoot researcher, but all of us realize it probably won’t be that easy,” read a message on the Virginia Bigfoot Research Organization blog. “Stay tuned!”Bob Hagan, a former county supervisor and president of the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce, doesn’t wish harm on any animal. But he said speculation about the owner of this left foot has become a bit of a parlor game around town.“We did see a suggestion that it might be a Yeti or a Sasquatch, and that might be why they call it Bigfoot instead of Bigfeet,” Hagan joked.

“People are trying not to talk about it over lunch, the idea of a severed foot isn’t really lunch conversation. We talk about it the rest of the time.”Workers at the Livingston Landfill found the cleanly sawed-off foot Feb. 10, and authorities spent the next day painstakingly sifting through 127 tons of trash.Arkuie Williams, an administrator at the medical examiner’s office in Richmond, said there hasn’t been a determination that it’s an ape’s foot, and an examination is under way.“It’s not human,” he said, “and we’re still trying to determine where it came from.”Some think the appendage might not be from any primate.

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Skiing on the Moon

Submitted by Waspie Dwarf: Astronauts heading to the Moon should learn the art of cross-country skiing, a scientist who flew on the last lunar Apollo mission claims. Harrison Schmitt, part of the 1972 Apollo 17 crew, said it would allow them to explore faster and more easily. Addressing scientists in San Francisco, he said his knowledge of Nordic skiing had allowed him to glide effortlessly across the dusty lunar surface. The US space agency (Nasa) will send manned missions to the moon by 2020. "When you're cross-country skiing, once you get a rhythm going, you propel yourself with a toe push as you slide along the snow," explained Dr Schmitt. "On the Moon, in the main you don't slide, you glide above the surface. But again, you use the same kind of rhythm, with a toe push." Talking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, Dr Schmitt said that because gravity was just one-sixth that of Earth, astronauts would not need skis themselves. "Poles would be nice to have for stability," said Dr Schmitt, the first and only scientist to land on the Moon.

To stop, a lunar explorer would just have to dig into the powdery lunar dust, he said. "The debris layer is very soft - you can dig your heels in very easily," he added. Dr Schmitt's recommendation is based on personal experience. Video footage taken on the third and final excursion of his mission saw Dr Schmitt using his preferred technique to negotiate a boulder field near the Van Serg crater. "You'd be amazed how fast I'm going," he recalled The geologist estimates that he could travel between 10 and 12km/h (6-7mph), a speed he believes could make him the fastest man on the Moon.

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Afterlife sentence

Convicts serving afterlife sentences keep things lively in West Virginia's creaky, creepy old penitentiary. A forlorn monolith of stone near the Ohio River, the West Virginia Penitentiary was closed in 1995, a decade after courts ruled that doing time in its cramped steel cages, where sewage dripped from pipes and bugs wriggled in food, constituted "cruel and unusual" punishment. But some rogues still prowl the gothic fortress in spirit form, say visitors and former administrators. Paranormal investigators and amateur ghost-hunters are frequent visitors to the 19th-century big house, which allows tours by day and night. Whether tricks of shadow and gloom or something supernatural, visitors have felt, seen and photographed strange things in the steel labyrinth embraced by sandstone ramparts and gothic turrets. From a window in the abandoned confines of the third-floor administration building where female prisoners once worked, a woman's face has been repeatedly sighted, peering into the silent prison yard. A blurry, furtive apparition called "Shadow Man" has been glimpsed in the psychiatric ward, the cafeteria and the catacombs. But the granddaddy of them all seems to be inmate No. 44670, known in life as R.D. Wall.

He's been attracting attention for 76 years, long before the tourists came. Annually, about 20,000 people are drawn to the old pen and get a history lesson on its macabre executions and grisly violence, some of it imparted while visitors -- who dare -- stand locked in maximum security cells. (They qualify for "I Did Time" T-shirts on sale in the gift shop.) West Virginia, which split with Virginia in 1863 in the tumult of the Civil War, began work on the prison in 1866. Movie buffs may recognize the unusual gateway inside the entrance -- a round, rotating cage with one open side, installed in 1894. A guard in a booth controlled movements of "the wheel," spinning it with an old trolley motor to provide access to side passageways or the main prison area.

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Universe offers 'eternal feast'

There is no such thing as a free lunch, some say, but they would be wrong. In fact, the entirety of the universe defies them. According to Stanford physics Professor Andrei Linde, one of the architects of the inflationary theory, our universe (and all the matter in it) was born out of a vacuum. "Recent developments in cosmology have irreversibly changed our understanding of the structure and fate of our universe and of our own place in it," says Linde, who will discuss the inflationary view of the universe at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In the same session, titled "Multiverses, Dark Energy and Physics as an Environmental Science," physics Professor Leonard Susskind of Stanford will talk about string theory and its relation to inflationary theory and physics Professor Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University will represent the skeptic view.

The conventional theory of the Big Bang says that the newborn universe was huge, containing more than 10^80 [ten raised to the power of eighty] tons of matter. But physicists were stumped for an explanation of where all this matter came from. Inflationary theory solves this problem by showing how our universe could emerge from less than a milligram of matter, or perhaps even from literally nothing.

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Raelians sell 'UFOland'

As real-estate listings go, this one is out of this world. A property is on sale in Quebec for a cool $2.95-million, and it even comes with its own flying saucer. UFOland, the playground and pied-a`-terre of the white-robed prophet known as Rael, is on the market — a onetime utopia that appears to have fallen to Earth.The Raelians, who gained global notoriety in late 2002 after announcing the birth of a yet-to-be-seen cloned baby, say their popularity has peaked in Quebec. So they are packing up and moving south.“We’ve been in Quebec for 30 years and our membership is saturated. Our future is in the United States,” said group spokesman Jocelyn Chabot, who describes himself as a Raelian priest.Observers say it’s a sign of decline for a sect that once piled up publicity with its beliefs in telepathy, aliens and free love. UFOland was the group’s headquarters and world embassy, a shrine to its belief that humans were created in an alien lab 25,000 years ago.Only four years ago, the cloning announcement brought throngs of journalists to UFOland from as far away as Australia and Japan.

Now it’s all available for the right price. The property, which is already posted on one Internet site, sprawls over 110 hectares in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. It offers campgrounds, lakes, an amphitheatre, offices and — for those with otherworldly tastes — a condominium building in the shape of a spaceship.Also on site is the copy of the UFO that Rael says he encountered while hiking along a volcano in France in the 1970s. Before that, he had been a race-car driver and failed sportswriter named Claude Vorilhon.