Science Special News

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

NASA to save Hubble telescope

NASA's most famous observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, will get a much anticipated life extension after all. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin announced on Tuesday that a shuttle will be sent to upgrade Hubble and add a few years to the lifetime of the venerable queen of the sky. "We are going to add a shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope to the shuttle's manifest to be flown before it retires [in 2010]," Griffin said to applause at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, US.The move, though not unexpected, still had astronomers on the edge of their seats. The telescope is enormously popular and has brought back a wealth of data since its launch aboard a space shuttle in 1990. "The Hubble Space Telescope has been the greatest telescope since Galileo invented the first one," said US Senator Barbara Mikulski, who pushed NASA to reconsider a final servicing mission. The space shuttle Discovery could launch to Hubble as early as May 2008 with a crew of seven.

Astronauts Scott Altman, Gregory Johnson, Andrew Feustel, Michael Good, John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino and Megan McArthur were tapped to pay one more visit to Hubble. Johnson, Feustel, Good and McArthur are all rookies, while Grunsfeld will be making his third shuttle trip to Hubble. A fifth shuttle mission to service the Hubble telescope was cancelled by former NASA chief Sean O'Keefe in 2004, citing astronaut safety following the Columbia accident. Robotic missions to fix the telescope were considered but dropped because of the time and difficulty involved in mounting them.

[Rasputin]

FBI involved in 'UFO' tale investigation

An on-going investigation by the on-line investigative report produced by Starstream Research revealed that in late August of this year three agents of the Washington Bureau of the FBI met with an undisclosed party and discussed a UFO tale involving several former and present government intelligence officers. Following this meeting concerns were raised that secure government vaults may have been breached at a USAF base and Los Alamos National Laboratory, under the guise of a 'harmless' UFO investigation.Previously concerns had been raised that sensitive or classified material was passed in a series of counterfeit government UFO documents. One government source suggested that counter-intelligence information targeted to the KGB had been publicly released within some of the documents. A prior investigation by the FBI had concluded that the documents were "bogus."Starstream Research first learned of the renewed interest in the bogus documents from a regular contributor to the on-line report, following on-going contact with a high ranking U.S. Government Intelligence Officer.

An amicable meeting with the officer and his wife in Washington, D.C. later took on a bizarre twist, when the SSR contributor was accused of asking inappropriate questions about a sensitive operation, resulting in cancellation of previously scheduled meetings with a former USAF counter-intelligence officer at the center of the UFO tale.

[Rasputin]

Loch Ness monster theory debunked

A Loch Ness Monster theory which suggests the creature is a living dinosaur has been dealt a blow by scientists. Many believe that Nessie is a plesiosaur, a long-necked marine reptile which sought refuge in Scotland's second-largest freshwater loch when most of the species died out 160 million years ago. But Dr Leslie Noe, a palaeontologist at Cambridge University's Sedgwick Museum, discovered that the plesiosaur would have been unable to lift its head up, swan-like, out of the water. Most scientists believe the creatures became extinct with the other dinosaurs, but some insist it is possible that after the last Ice Age, some plesiosaurs may have been stranded in the 23-mile-long loch, which was connected to the sea. The plesiosaur has a prominent small head on a long neck and a round body, and is the most popular explanation for mythical Nessie.

Dr Noe, whose findings are reported in this month's New Scientist, told experts at a meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology in Canada, that plesiosaurs used their long necks to reach down and feed on soft-bodied animals living on the sea floor. By examining fossils of a plesiosaur, Muraenosaurus, and by calculating the articulation of the neck bones, Dr Noe concluded the neck was flexible and could move most easily when pointing down.

[Rasputin]

VICCO, Kentucky -- Benny Campbell experiences mountaintop mining day and night. His bed is rattled by the blasting. Gray dust blankets his porch and car if a few days go by without rain. His electricity goes out repeatedly when the coal miners accidentally knock down power lines.

But the worst thing of all, he says, is that the mountain peaks that once loomed over his lifelong eastern Kentucky home have been flattened by dynamite and bulldozers.

"When I was young, it was a really pretty place," said Campbell, 53, who lives in a hollow called Bull Creek near Vicco. "Now it's just a rock pile. You can't do nothing with it."

Now environmentalists have found a way to let the rest of the world see what mountaintop coal mining has done to Appalachia: They have started a website that uses the Google Earth database to enable people to see aerial reconnaissance photos of the scarred countryside.

"The point is mountaintop removal has gone on under a cloak of secrecy," said Mary Anne Hitt, executive director of Appalachian Voices, one of a half-dozen environmental groups involved in the internet campaign. "Unless you have the experience of flying over the region in a small plane, it's hard to understand the scale of mountaintop removal."

Their website was launched in mid-September with a link to the campaign's "National Memorial of the Mountains," which shows a Google Earth map of Appalachia. The map pinpoints areas of mountaintop removal with graphics of flags at half-staff, and a 3-D tour reveals clear views of sludge ponds, blasting holes and mountains scraped of their peaks.

The coal industry says the website buries the benefits of mountaintop mining. "I clearly think it's for shock value," said Bill Caylor, head of the Kentucky Coal Association. "They're playing the emotional card on us."

Caylor and Carol Raulston, spokeswoman for the National Mining Association, said the website is misleading because it fails to acknowledge mine reclamation projects.

"In many parts of Appalachia, these reclamation activities have provided much needed level land above the flood plain for construction of schools, government offices, medical facilities, airports, shopping centers and housing developments," Raulston said in an e-mail.

For James Bowling, mountaintop removal has been a blessing. The 59-year-old built his dream home atop a flattened mountain called Red Oak and has 250 acres of newly leveled land to raise 80 head of cattle and vegetables.

"If it wasn't for mountaintop removal, I wouldn't be here," said Bowling, who lived in the valley below Red Oak before allowing a mine company to extract coal from his property at 50 cents per ton.

Chester Stevens of Hazard, one of the most heavily mined areas in eastern Kentucky, said mountaintop removal allowed him to build the home in which he lived for 15 years.

"We in Hazard had no place to build," said Stevens, 58. "Mining looks bad when it's going on, but then you have some beautiful land after that and that can be used by people."

Hitt said the harm to the environment should be of greater concern than development. "We're eliminating mountains off the face of the Earth," she said, adding, "The reclaimed sites look nothing more than anemic golf courses."

Folks living near Campbell's hollow also say there's no good side to mountaintop mining and that their small community values the natural beauty of the mountains over new buildings and resorts. To them, mountaintop removal ends in polluted water, noise and depressing views.

Truman Hurt has seen the once densely wooded mountains around him stripped of timber, giving way to mudslides and floods during heavy rainfall.

"You don't get it until you get up in the air and see what it's doing to us," said Hurt, 65. Supporters of mountaintop mining "really think there's not that much, but they're not getting the real view."

[Rasputin]

Why do we exist ?

If you recall nothing else from Stephen Hawking's 1988 blockbuster "A Brief History of Time," you are likely to remember the inspiring final passage: "If we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason -- for then we would truly know the mind of God." This is perhaps the most eloquent statement ever voiced of the fundamental credo of physics: that there exists an elegant final theory which, properly understood, would explain every aspect of physical reality. That final theory, physicists like to dream, would be not only elegant but unique -- no possible variation in its formulae would be conceivable. This mythical beast -- the perfect and beautiful ultimate theory -- has proven as elusive as a unicorn.

For the last several decades the quest to uncover a final theory has been dominated by string theorists, who are attempting to reconcile relativity (which provides a superb description of nature at macroscopic scales) with quantum physics (which offers an uncannily accurate explanation of the behavior of matter at the smallest scales).

[Rasputin]

'Only 50 years left' for sea fish

Submitted by Hurrikane: There will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of the century if current trends continue, according to a major scientific study. Stocks have collapsed in nearly one-third of sea fisheries, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Writing in the journal Science, the international team of researchers says fishery decline is closely tied to a broader loss of marine biodiversity. But a greater use of protected areas could safeguard existing stocks. "The way we use the oceans is that we hope and assume there will always be another species to exploit after we've completely gone through the last one," said research leader Boris Worm, from Dalhousie University in Canada. "What we're highlighting is there is a finite number of stocks; we have gone through one-third, and we are going to get through the rest," he told the BBC News website.

Steve Palumbi, from Stanford University in California, one of the other scientists on the project, added: "Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the ocean species together, as working ecosystems, then this century is the last century of wild seafood."

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Lost Moon landing tapes discovered

For years 'lost' tapes recording data from the Apollo 11 Moon landing have been stored underneath the seats of Australian physics students. A recent search has uncovered them.They were nearly thrown out with the rubbish. But a last minute search instead has scientists in Western Australia dusting off several boxes of 'lost' NASA tapes which record surface conditions on the Moon just after Neil Armstrong stepped into space history on 21 July 1969.After addressing Earth, the American astronaut set up a package of scientific instruments, including a dust detector designed by an Australian physicist. The data collected by the detector was sent back to ground stations on Earth and recorded on magnetic tapes - copies of which are as rare as the 'misplaced' original video footage of the 1969 touchdown.Last week, up to 100 tapes, clearly marked "NASA Manned Space Center", turned up after a search in a dusty basement of a physics lecture hall at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia. One of the old tapes has been sent to the American space agency to see whether it can be deciphered and 'stripped' of any important data which may have survived the ravages of time.The data are a daily record of the environmental conditions and changes taking place at the lunar site after the Eagle landed safely in the Sea of Tranquility.

The most important data were collected after the lunar module blasted off the surface later that day, leaving the still-running instrumentation behind. The information showed that scientific instruments could be affected by setting them up around landing or take-off sites. They also proved that NASA did go to the Moon.The data represented, "the only long-term information on the lunar surface environment, and as such are ideal for planning future lunar missions," according to NASA's website.

[Rasputin]

Navy UFO photograph surfaces

More than 40 years after an official Defence Force photographer snapped an image of the navy cruiser Royalist, debate is raging over the unidentified flying object in the background. The print is believed to have languished since being taken in February 1965, but a plan to display it by the Devonport Navy Museum has sparked speculation about the mystery object. UFO expert Peter Hassall, who wrote a book on the subject in New Zealand, is excited by this previously unreported sighting. The image was captured by the photographer on large-format black and white negative film shot from the cruiser's wing bridge as it approached what looks like Cape Brett in Bay of Islands. The Royalist was on its way back from Waitangi celebrations in February 1965. It was first spotted by museum staff member Paul Restall as he was assembling images for the museum's new website. He checked the negative on a light table and called in digital imaging expert Hans Weichselbaum to perform a high resolution scan. This established that the object was part of the original image. Museum director David Wright said there was nothing to explain what it was. The object appeared to be some distance in front of the ship and none of the sailors working on the bow was taking any notice, as would be expected if something was going on. He said it looked to be too distant to be a dinner plate thrown from the bridge and the same would apply to a clay pigeon used as a shooting target. The angle of the object and absence of visible lines suggested it was not a parachute.

So what is it? "We're not saying it's a UFO," Mr Wright said. "It is just one of those interesting things we came across." Museum staff did not have the time to hunt down former crew members who might be able to solve the mystery but "if people are interested in it and want to pursue its provenance we'll assist them", Mr Wright said. Mr Hassall said it was an intriguing photo. His first thought was that it might be a flaw on the negative but, if that was the case, it was an unusual one. "It is a very interesting image and the classic dome shape that's often reported." However, he is mystified that the photograph has never been reported before.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Geller claims clairvoyant aided Saddam hunt

Did a clairvoyant help U.S. commandos ferret Saddam Hussein out of his hiding place in Iraq three years ago? Israeli-born celebrity psychic Uri Geller, best known for his spoon-bending antics, says the power of the paranormal led U.S. troops to the fugitive Iraqi ex-dictator."You remember when they found Saddam Hussein in Iraq? A soldier walked over to a rock, lifted it and then found a trap-door and found him in there," Geller told Reuters."Well, I know that that soldier walked over to that rock because he got information from a 'remote viewer' from the United States."Geller, who says he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War, said his information came from a high-level source involved in U.S. paranormal programmes.A U.S. military spokesman in Iraq had no immediate comment.

At the time of his capture, U.S. commanders said a source close to the fugitive had given him up under interrogation.A Brazilian psychic tried last year to claim a $25 million (13.2 million pound) bounty offered for Saddam's capture, saying he had described the hiding place in letters to the U.S. government.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

A long, strange trip into space

For one guy it will be a homecoming. For the other, it's boldly going where he, at least, has not gone before. On Dec. 6, the desert silence near Upham, New Mexico, will be shattered by the roar of a SpaceLoft XL rocket hurtling skyward from Spaceport America. The payload: individual capsules containing the ashes of 179 people, part of the Legacy Flight program, among them the late actor James (Scotty) Doohan and Gemini program astronaut Gordon Cooper. For them, a final ride into space is a totally appropriate tribute.But if the large number of lesser-knowns accompanying Doohan and Cooper makes it seem like burial in space is a growing trend, well, it is.Space Services of Houston, Texas, fired the first shot in 1997, when it hooked up the cremated remains of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and '60s acid-guru Timothy Leary to a modified Pegasus rocket. The spacecraft spent five years in orbit before re-entering the atmosphere.That's the catch. You're not actually "buried" in space; you don't embark on an endless orbit of the Earth. The duration of the flight all depends on the apogee of the orbit, and can range from two to several hundred years, depending on the service the customer requests."Currently, we've got two missions still in orbit, totalling 59 individual clients," said Charlie Chafer, Space Services' CEO.

For space-burial purposes, family members provide one to seven grams of the deceased's ashes, which are placed in an individually engraved capsule for the flight. Capsules are collected for each mission, then placed into a module that is integrated with the spacecraft.Clients can choose from a variety of memorial services. For those wanting their remains to simply touch the edge of space, an Earth Return service means the module containing their cremains is integrated with a sub-orbital rocket such as SpaceLoft XL, most commonly used for experimentation purposes. This slender rocket flies to the internationally recognized boundary of space (62 miles altitude), and is recovered after completion of the flight.

[Rasputin]

Space sunshade may reduce global warming

Submitted by Waspie_Dwarf: The possibility that global warming will trigger abrupt climate change is something people might not want to think about. But University of Arizona astronomer Roger Angel thinks about it.Angel, a University of Arizona Regents' Professor and one of the world's foremost minds in modern optics, directs the Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory and the Center for Astronomical Adaptive Optics. He has won top honors for his many extraordinary conceptual ideas that have become practical engineering solutions for astronomy.For the past year, Angel has been looking at ways to cool the Earth in an emergency. He's been studying the practicality of deploying a space sunshade in a global warming crisis, a crisis where it becomes clear that Earth is unmistakably headed for disastrous climate change within a decade or two.Angel presented the idea at the National Academy of Sciences in April and won a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts grant for further research in July. His collaborators on the grant are David Miller of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nick Woolf of UA's Steward Observatory, and NASA Ames Research Center Director S. Pete Worden.

Angel is now publishing a first detailed, scholarly paper, "Feasibility of cooling the Earth with a cloud of small spacecraft near L1," in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The plan would be to launch a constellation of trillions of small free-flying spacecraft a million miles above Earth into an orbit aligned with the sun, called the L-1 orbit.