Science Special News

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Tough decision ? Just stop thinking

Here's a suggestion for the next time you need to make a complicated decision: stop thinking. According to a new study, thinking too hard about a problem leads to poor choices - difficult decisions are best handled by our unconscious minds. While most people are happy to buy a new set of towels without much thought, they are unlikely to buy a new car or house without some serious thought. But Ap Dijksterhuis, a psychologist at the University of Amsterdam, argues that we might be getting these methods of decision-making the wrong way around. He asked volunteers to pick their favourite car from a list of four based on a set of four attributes including fuel consumption and passenger leg room. He gave them four minutes to think about their decision and most people chose the car with the most plus points. When Dr Dijksterhuis made the experiment more complex - 12 attributes rather than four - people could only identify the best car a quarter of the time. This result was no better than choosing at random.

However, when the researchers distracted the participants after showing them the cars (by giving them puzzles to do before asking participants to make their choices), more than half picked the best car. "Conscious thinkers were better able to make the best choice among simple products, whereas unconscious thinkers were better able to make the best choice among complex products," wrote Dr Dijksterhuis in a paper, published today in Science. The problem with thinking about things consciously is that you can only focus on a few things at once. In the face of a complex decision this can lead to giving certain factors undue importance. Thinking about something several times is also likely to produce slightly different evaluations, highlighting inconsistencies.

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Hypnosis can make profound changes on brain

Hypnosis, with its long and checkered history in medicine and entertainment, is receiving some new respect from neuroscientists. Recent brain studies of people who are susceptible to suggestion indicate that when they act on the suggestions their brains show profound changes in how they process information. The suggestions, researchers report, literally change what people see, hear, feel and believe to be true.The new experiments, which used brain imaging, found that people who were hypnotized "saw" colors where there were none. Others lost the ability to make simple decisions. Some people looked at common English words and thought that they were gibberish."The idea that perceptions can be manipulated by expectations" is fundamental to the study of cognition, said Michael I. Posner, an emeritus professor of neuroscience at the University of Oregon and expert on attention. "But now we're really getting at the mechanisms."Even with little understanding of how it works, hypnosis has been used in medicine since the 1950s to treat pain and, more recently, as a treatment for anxiety, depression, trauma, irritable bowel syndrome and eating disorders.

There is, however, still disagreement about what exactly the hypnotic state is or, indeed, whether it is anything more than an effort to please the hypnotist or a natural form of extreme concentration where people become oblivious to their surroundings while lost in thought.Hypnosis had a false start in the 18th century when a German physician, Dr. Franz Mesmer, devised a miraculous cure for people suffering all manner of unexplained medical problems. Amid dim lights and ethereal music played on a glass harmonica, he infused them with an invisible "magnetic fluid" that only he was able to muster. Thus mesmerized, clients were cured.

[donsaeid]

لكهاي قرمز بر روي مشتري ظاهر شده است

خبرگزاري فارس: با ظهور لكهاي قرمز رنگ بر روي سطح مشتري توجه دانشمندان زيادي به سمت مشتري جلب شده است.


به گزارش خبرگزاري فارس به نقل از شاخه آماتوري انجمن نجوم ايران، يكي از طوفانهاي با دوام سطح گازي سياره مشتري با گذشت چند سال از عمرش به رنگ لكه بزرگ و آشناي مشتري (چشم مشتري) درآمده است.
اين لكه كه تا كنون به صورت بيضي سفيد رنگي به عنوان طوفان BA بر سطح مشتري شناخته و رصد ميشد شروع به تغيير رنگ داده بود هم اكنون كاملا به رنگ لكه بزرگ مشتري در آمده و به نام "لكه كوچك مشتري" شناخته ميشود. مكان اين لكه در منطقه جنوبي مشتري و سمت چپ لكه بزرگ است.
اندازه لكه نصف اندازه لكه بزرگ و تقريبا قطري برابر قطر زمين دارد و در تلسكوپهايي با دهانه بيش از 10اينچ قابل رصد است.
تغيير رنگ اين لكه در تاريخ 24 فوريه 2006 (5 اسفند 1385) توسط يك عكاس سيارات در فيليپين به نام "كريستوفر گو" به انجمن رصدهاي ماه و سيارات ALPO گزارش شده و بعد از پيگيري مسئولين اين انجمن و مشاهده آرشيو عكسها متوجه شروع اين تغيير رنگ از دسامبر سال 2005 شدند.
اين تغيير در سطح مشتري ميتواند جذابيتهاي بسياري براي منجمان و رصدگران آماتور داشته باشد و همينطور فكر دانشمندان براي كشف دليل اين پديده براي مدتها مشغول خواهد كرد. لكه BA حاصل به هم پيوستن دو لكه FA و BE در مارس سال 2000 بوده و اكنون بدون وقوع هيچ پديده خاصي بر سطح مشتري رنگ قرمز به خود گرفته است.
شايد دانشمندان براي بدست آوردن اطلاعات در اين زمينه مجبور به مطالعه بيشتري بر روي لكه سرخ اصلي مشتري باشند ،با وجود اينكه لكه بزرگ مشتري از سالهاي 1600 به بعد رصد شده اما اطلاعات بسيار اندكي از آند در دست است. لكه بزرگ مشتري اندازهاي دو برابر زمين دارد و بادهايي با سرعت 435 كيلومتر بر ساعت در آن جريان دارند و همچنين اين لكه تقريبا 8 كيلومتر بر فراز ابرهاي مشتري است و بر آمدگي نسبتا بزرگي به حساب ميآيد اما منابع تامينكننده انرژي اين لكه كماكان ناشناخته باقي ماندهاند.
يكي از نظريه هاي مقبول در زمينه لكه بزرگ مشتري به اين امر اشاره ميكند كه جريانهاي درون اين لكه مواد شيميايي موجود در لكه (گوگرد، فسفر و هيدروكربنها) را به سمت بالا ميآورند و به دليل بيرون بودن سر لكه از ابر هاي مشتري اشعههاي فرا بنفش خورشيد با اين مواد شيميايي واكنش داده و رنگ لكه را سرخ كرده اند. با توجه به اين نظريه ميتوان شدت گرفت طوفان در لكه BA را دليل بالا آمدن آن دانشت و دليل سرخ شدن آن را هم مشابه لكه قرمز بزرگ بدانيم.
اما هنوز سؤالهاي بي جواب زيادي در رابطه با لكه قرمز كوچك ظاهر شده بر روي مشتري و حتي لكه بزرگ قديمي و آشناي مشتري وجود دارد كه اين پديده جديد بهانهاي براي صرف وقت بر روي اين سؤالات ايجاد كرده است.

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Said jan inja farsi post nakon. mamnoon

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Fourth orbiter to arrive at Mars on Friday

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is approaching Mars and, if maneuvers go well, will join three other Earth spacecraft in orbit around the planet. About 4:25 p.m. EST Friday the $720 million spacecraft will reduce its speed by 2,200 mph, and begin to orbit Mars, The Washington Post reported Monday. If all goes well -- 21 Mars missions have ended in disaster -- after six months of course and speed corrections, it will settle into a "science orbit" between 199 and 158 miles above the Martian surface, joining three currently operating satellites -- two from NASA and one from the European Space Agency, the Post said. There it will remain for two years, using inspecting the planet. After that time it will be sent into a higher orbit to become a communications relay satellite. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been operating flawlessly since its launch in August.

"But we are getting into the dangerous portion of the mission," says Jim Graf of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "A lot can go wrong, and if we don't succeed, we will fly right by the planet."

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New organ discovered in mice

After a century of scrutinizing the laboratory mouse, one might imagine that scientists would know the creature's body like the back of their own hands. Think again, because German researchers say they have discovered a whole new organ.Common knowledge holds that in mice, the thymus, a pinkish-grey lump of tissue that helps to produce the infection-fighting T cells of the immune system, is roughly the size of a pea and nestles in the chest above the heart. Now Hans-Reimer Rodewald at the University of Ulm in Germany, and his colleagues say they have discovered a smaller, second thymus hidden in the necks of lab mice. "I couldn't believe it for the first couple of months," Rodewald says. "2006 is not the time that you expect to change anatomy."The discovery raises questions about some immunology studies in mice. Researchers interested in the immune system often slice out the main thymus of mice in order to study how this system works without it, and how T cells are produced in the gut and skin.

The presence of a second thymus suggests that many of these mice still had a working thymus in their necks, which could have confounded the results. These studies may need to be re-examined, Rodewald suggests: "Some people are not going to like this."The discovery isn't a total surprise: biologists already knew that other mammals, including some humans, harbour an extra thymus in their necks. Studies from as early as the 1940s suggest that as many as five out of six human fetuses have a second thymus in the neck, says Clare Blackburn who studies the mammalian thymus at the University of Edinburgh, UK. There were also suggestions of a second mouse thymus in a report from the 1960s.

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Himalayan melting risk surveyed

new weather station is expected to show the extent of warming in the Himalayas, one of the world's biggest deposits of ice and a key source of fresh water. It has been installed on the longest Himalayan glacier, in the Everest region of Nepal. There have been numerous reports of glacial retreats in the Himalayas over the years, but this weather station will be able to quantify changes to the local climate. One part of it has been set up on the Nguzumpa Glacier to record solar radiation, relative humidity, air and soil temperature, wind speed and direction, and precipitation. The other part has been placed in the river fed by the 35km-long glacier, to measure changes in flow caused by glacial melt. Officials with Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Metrology will climb up the Cho Oyu Mountain to the Nguzumpa Glacier in March to collect data from the unmanned station. "Once we get to see the figures in March, we will learn the extent of glacial retreat caused by global warming," said the department's chief glaciologist, Om Ratna Bajracharya. Previous studies have shown temperatures in the Himalayas have been rising at a rate of 0.06C per year, fuelling fears that melting glaciers have been filling glacial lakes more rapidly. There are 3,250 glaciers in the Nepalese Himalayas, and 2,315 of them contain glacial lakes that are increasing in size at varying rates.

"While we do know that there is a lot of glacier melting due to global warming, we still need to know the exact causes and dynamics of such melting," said Chandra Prasad Gurung, Nepal representative of the environmental group WWF which provided the weather station equipment. "Therefore, having the weather station installed will help us understand more of the weather patterns and enable us to monitor the issue clearly." Before the station, scientists either visited the glaciers themselves or studied satellite images to see any changes.

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Submitted by Telemachos: There is a small bottle containing a red fluid on a shelf in Sheffield University's microbiology laboratory. The liquid looks cloudy and uninteresting. Yet, if one group of scientists is correct, the phial contains the first samples of extraterrestrial life isolated by researchers. Inside the bottle are samples left over from one of the strangest incidents in recent meteorological history. On 25 July, 2001, blood-red rain fell over the Kerala district of western India. And these rain bursts continued for the next two months. All along the coast it rained crimson, turning local people's clothes pink, burning leaves on trees and falling as scarlet sheets at some points. Investigations suggested the rain was red because winds had swept up dust from Arabia and dumped it on Kerala. But Godfrey Louis, a physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam, after gathering samples left over from the rains, concluded this was nonsense. 'If you look at these particles under a microscope, you can see they are not dust, they have a clear biological appearance.' Instead Louis decided that the rain was made up of bacteria-like material that had been swept to Earth from a passing comet. In short, it rained aliens over India during the summer of 2001. Not everyone is convinced by the idea, of course. Indeed most researchers think it is highly dubious. One scientist who posted a message on Louis's website described it as 'bulls***'. But a few researchers believe Louis may be on to something and are following up his work. Milton Wainwright, a microbiologist at Sheffield, is now testing samples of Kerala's red rain.



'It is too early to say what's in the phial,' he said. 'But it is certainly not dust. Nor is there any DNA there, but then alien bacteria would not necessarily contain DNA.' Critical to Louis's theory is the length of time the red rain fell on Kerala. Two months is too long for it to have been wind-borne dust, he says. In addition, one analysis showed the particles were 50 per cent carbon, 45 per cent oxygen with traces of sodium and iron: consistent with biological material. Louis also discovered that, hours before the first red rain fell, there was a loud sonic boom that shook houses in Kerala. Only an incoming meteorite could have triggered such a blast, he claims. This had broken from a passing comet and shot towards the coast, shedding microbes as it travelled. These then mixed with clouds and fell with the rain. Many scientists accept that comets may be rich in organic chemicals and a few, such as the late Fred Hoyle, the UK theorist, argued that life on Earth evolved from microbes that had been brought here on comets. But most researchers say that Louis is making too great a leap in connecting his rain with microbes from a comet.

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Perception and how it influences our world

We look out of the window and we can see the splendour of Mother Nature. The grass is green, the sky is blue, up is up and down is down. Everything is as it should be. But could it be that all of this happens because we expect it to? What if all we see only appears that way because we have been told that this is the only way it can be? What would happen if, just for a moment, everyone on the face of this wonderful planet stopped believing in the so-called Laws of Nature? Would planes fall from the sky? Would we float off into space? Would the sun stop shining? String Theory (or the Theory of Everything as it has been called) is a theory which hypothesises that all atoms at a sub-atomic level (and subsequently all matter) is made up of tiny ribbons of energy that, hypothetically, behave exactly the way that the scientists expect them to do...but the results would vary from one Scientist to another. For example, a Scientist who expected the energy to react and behave in a manner according to Einstien's Special theory of relativity would see the energy behave in exactly that way.

Conversely, a Scientist schooled in Quantum mechanics would see a very different result. What is going on?What if the reason is that the scientists themselves, i.e. their perceptions, could make the energy behave in a way that they wanted it to. If this was indeed the case then what would repercussions would that have around the world? What affect could this discovery have on our 'reality'?If all matter at its most fundamental level is in fact energy, then all the matter on Earth is energy and it is all connected. Furthermore, if this energy is behaving the way we want it to, because we expect it to, does this mean that our universe is shaped through the consciousness of the masses?This would lead us to believe that everything we see and perceive is fashioned from conditions placed on us by the preceding generations. We believe that the world is the way it is because we are told so and we are told this is the only way we can live.The question this raises at the same time, a scientific one, a spiritual one and a philosophical one. Can we alter our own Universe by believing we can? Ergo, can our perception of the physical and spiritual worlds change someone else's?The book, 'The Elegant Universe:Superstrings, Hidden dimensions and the Ultimate Theory' by Brian Greene documents the theory of Superstrings et al.It maintains that particles themselves are made up of ribbons of energy that have had their vibrational rate slowed enough so that it solidifies or manifests itself on the Physical plane.

Even though they are physical particles, at their most fundamental level they are still energy, much the same way that ice is still water even though it has solidified.This leads us to the conjecture that all energy is part of a Universal web, all humans are connected in some way, A person is connected to their mother through birth, their work colleagues through everyday contact, the trees in their garden through my activity there, which in turn are connected to the very Earth itself upon which all living things walk. This correlates the isea of energy relationships or entanglement. When two atoms ( Atoms A & B ) pass each other, the future behaviour of atom A is found to have an effect on atom B. The reason is that once the energy patterns became intertwined, they always maintained a relationship regardless of the varying degrees of space and time. Ergo, every person on the face of the Earth and for that matter all Animals and Plants, are all connected by this Universal Web of Cosmic Energy. So then can we alter the fate and behaviour of a person we met in our past by the actions we carry out today, here and now? Those of you who read this are, at this very moment, being influenced by this article whether we agree with it or not, so will your behaviour in the future affect my circumstances and vice versa? If so, in what way?Does this explain Psychic phenomena, mind reading, hundreds of accounts of Telekinesis? Maybe Astrology has a basis in the scientific world now? If the Planets at their fundamental level are all energy then surely they would have a profound affect on how we behave and go about our lives?

Maybe there is some basis in the old Superstitions, Myths and Legends of antiquity? My theory is that our own personal universes are shaped by our expectations and conditions placed upon us by our preceding generations, which are only enhanced and fortified by the media. Some people believe that we CANNOT alter matter with our minds. I'm not disagreeing with them, I've tried to do it and failed miserably. But could this be because my beliefs in what is and isn't possible are so deep rooted that its impossible to change them? And if so, is it possible to change my beliefs accordingly. Could it be that because everyone else believes the world is a particular way then their view of the world overpowers mine? What would happen if you taught a child that they could do anything from the moment it was born, would that make a difference at all? Maybe not, but then again, perception is everything. Is not beauty in the eye of the beholder?

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No takers for Johor Bigfoot permit

Apparently, nobody wants to meet Bigfoot. The Malaysian Forestry Department says there are no takers for permits on offer to explore a protected forest for the mythical creature, despite initial excitement over reported sightings of the beast, The Star newspaper reported Wednesday. Authorities printed 500 application forms anticipating a rush, but none has been filled, Che Hashim Hassan, the department's director in the southern state of Johor, was quoted as saying. The Malaysian media has been gripped by Bigfoot fever since November 2005, when fish farm workers reported seeing three giant human-like creatures in the Endau Rompin park in Johor. They also claimed to have seen a gigantic footprint. Park officials combed the site but found no physical evidence of a Bigfoot. However, they recorded more reports of sightings from aboriginal villagers who live on the park's fringes. "We thought that with all the interest in Bigfoot, we would have a lot of inquiries from the public," Che Hashim said.

"However, this is not the case." He said forest rangers patrolled the jungle boundaries at night, but have not heard or seen any evidence of the purported gigantic beast, and did not plan to capitalize on the craze by organizing forest tours for adventure seekers. Officials weren't immediately available for further details. Johor state officials said in January that they planned to send a team of scientists and researchers alongside a routine scientific expedition into the forest park to track the creature down. Officials did not reveal a date for the expedition. "Bigfoot" is a popular name given in the United States to giant hairy creatures walking on two legs. Sightings of such beasts have been reported in many parts of the world but their existence has never been proven.

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Secret life of deep-sea beasts revealed

Mysterious and seemingly monstrous beasts stalk the gloomy depths of the Atlantic Ocean, the so-called midnight zone where virtually no sunlight reaches. Temperatures are near freezing and the space between one creature and another can be vast.Scientists know very little about the species that inhabit this uninviting world more than a mile below the ocean's surface. For years it was believed that many of these fish nomadically wandered the ocean, munching on the organic debris that sinks from shallower waters. Now, a massive marine expedition has uncovered the secret sex lives of these fish, revealing that they may gather at underwater mountains to spawn. And the ecosystem turns out to be far richer than thought.The ongoing expedition has also collected 270 poorly known species and discovered 30 more. Deep-sea fish that spend the bulk of their lives swimming in open water are known as pelagic fish. Few large-scale expeditions have been dedicated to studying these creatures, and most species knowledge comes from what turns up in trawling nets.

In fact, scientists know so little about these fish that 50 percent of the animals collected from deeper than 3,000 meters (1.86 miles) turn out to be unidentified species. Little is known about how they reproduce. Assuming the fish are few and far between down there, how do they rendezvous to allow a species to thrive?Using remotely operated vehicles, submersibles, massive trawling nets, and acoustic survey instruments, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge Ecosystems (MAR-ECO) team discovered that pelagic fish turn up in droves around seamounts and deep-sea mountain ranges, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, to spawn.