September 3, 2006, 6:56 AM CT

NASA Names Orion Contractor

Lessons from the past are guiding NASA's next step into the future, as the space agency prepares to replace the space shuttle with an Apollo-style vehicle for human explorers.

The vehicle is Orion, named for one of the brightest and most recognizable star formations in the sky. It will be a multi-purpose capsule -- the central member of a family of spacecraft and shuttle-derived launchers that NASA's Constellation Program is developing to carry astronauts back to the moon and later to Mars. The first flight with astronauts aboard is planned for no later than 2014. Orion's first flight to the moon is planned for no later than 2020.

NASA has selected Lockheed Martin Corp. as the prime contractor to design, develop, and build Orion, America's spacecraft for a new generation of explorers.

The Orion crew capsule will carry astronauts back to the moon and later to Mars. The first flight with astronauts aboard is planned for no later than 2014. Orion's first flight to the moon is planned for no later than 2020.

In what amounts to one of the most significant NASA procurements in more than 30 years, two industry teams, Northrop Grumman/Boeing and Lockheed Martin, spent the past 13 months refining concepts, analyzing requirements and sketching designs for Orion. On Thursday, managers of NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate revealed that Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md., has been chosen to build it.........

Posted by: Brooke      Permalink         Source

September 2, 2006, 9:59 PM CT

Weeds In The Garden

Some years, no matter how diligently you pull, your backyard garden is always covered with weeds. Other years, with the minimum of effort, your garden remains weed-free. What is the cause of these oscillations? A group of weed scientists based at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) spent fifteen years studying flixweed a member of the mustard family commonly found in areas where the ground has been cultivated or disturbed in an attempt to identify the processes underlying these fluctuations.

"The failure to recognize the intrinsic nature of many weed population changes may result in over-application of control inputs, with subsequent negative economic and environmental effects," says Jose Gonzalez-Andujar, who co-authored the study, forthcoming in The American Naturalist, with Cesar Fernandez-Quintanilla and Luis Navarrete.

Many populations exhibit cyclic oscillations. Everybody can recall a summer where mosquitoes hindered attempts at al fresco dining. These cycles can be produced by climatic conditions or by internal feedback mechanisms. However, in contrast with studies of insect and animal populations, little attention has been directed at the study of cycles in plants. What happens with your garden weeds?

The researchers demonstrate that there are some intrinsic mechanisms that explain observed plant oscillations more specifically, evidence of cycles produced by delayed density dependence in a plant population growing under field conditions. This study can have a capital importance in crop protection.........

Posted by: Jessica      Permalink         Source

September 2, 2006, 9:35 PM CT

Katrina After 1 year

In the year since Hurricane Katrina struck the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, scientists and engineers have examined the full breadth of the storm's aftermath--from levee failures and ecosystem damage to weather predictions and human responses in the midst of catastrophe.

According to a FEMA report, more than 1,300 people lost their lives in Louisiana and Mississippi alone; 450,000 were displaced. Total economic losses exceeded an estimated $125 billion, including homes, universities, bridges and other infrastructure--and some 350,000 vehicles and 2,400 ships.

Some researchers arrived on the scene immediately to collect critical clues before they were lost to rescue and clean-up operations--and time. Other research took place in distant laboratories, where scientists plugged numbers into computer models or built search robots. The scientists and engineers all sought to understand exactly how the destruction happened, if and when it could happen again, and especially, how to prevent such carnage in the future.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) supported many of the studies under its Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) program. Although the program was created to support small-scale, exploratory, high-risk research of all kinds, it has proved to be especially well-suited for rapid-response situations because SGER requests can be processed and approved more quickly than other research proposals. Indeed, NSF has previously used the SGER program to field research teams in the aftermaths of both the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.........

Posted by: Tom      Permalink         Source

September 2, 2006, 9:30 PM CT

Routing from the Comfort of Your Car

Engineers have developed a system for taking anonymous cell-phone location information and turning it into an illuminated traffic map that identifies congestion in real time.The system takes advantage of the steady stream of positioning cues--untraced signals all cell phones produce, whether in use or not, as they seek towers with the strongest signals. It is the first traffic-solution technology that monitors patterns on rural roads and city streets as easily as on highways.

Developed by IntelliOne of Atlanta, Ga., the TrafficAid system could not only help guide drivers around tie-ups, but also tell emergency responders where accidents are or how effectively an evacuation is unfolding by pinpointing clusters of cell phones.

"Unlike sensors and other equipment along major freeways that are expensive and take years to deploy, our system takes advantage of existing cellular networks in which wireless carriers have already invested billions of dollars," said National Science Foundation (NSF) awardee and IntelliOne CEO Ron Herman, a former engineer and computer scientist.

Herman was inspired by a friend's demonstration several years ago of a proof-of-concept Palm Pilot software that used real-time California Department of Transportation travel-time data to route the drivers around traffic snarls."I was completely sold," said Herman. "I believed then the next 'killer app' for mobile would demand live traffic data for every road--not just select highways equipped with speed sensors--and set out to make it happen".........

Posted by: Jim      Permalink         Source

September 1, 2006, 4:41 AM CT

Nutritional Value Of Salad

Go ahead and indulge at the salad bar. "Rabbit food" is nutritious for people too.

A new UCLA/Louisiana State University study of dietary data on more than 17,500 men and women finds consumption of salad and raw vegetables correlates with higher concentrations of folic acid, vitamins C and E, lycopene and alpha and beta carotene in the bloodstream.

Published in the September edition of the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Dietetic Association, the study also suggests that each serving of salad consumed correlates with a 165 percent higher likelihood of meeting recommended dietary allowances (RDA) for vitamin C in women and 119 percent greater likelihood in men.

The study is the first to examine the relationship between normal salad consumption and nutrient levels in the bloodstream, and also the first to examine the dietary adequacy of salad consumption using the latest nutritional guidelines of the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences.

The findings blunt concerns about the human body's ability to absorb nutrients from raw vegetables, as well as concern that the structure and characteristics of some plants undercut nutritional value.

"The consistently higher levels of certain nutrients in the bloodstream of salad-eaters suggest these important components of a healthy diet are being well-absorbed from salad," said Lenore Arab, visiting professor of epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health and co-author of the study with L. Joseph Su, assistant professor at the LSU School of Public Health.........

Posted by: Sean      Permalink         Source

August 31, 2006, 4:11 PM CT

eMachines Model T6536

eMachines have rolled out a new model called T6536 that seems good when comparing quality and price, it's not the great beast better than any computer but it does have some kind of attraction style. Features an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ processor with 1GB of RAM memory, an EIDE hard-drive with a capacity of 250GB, dual-layer DVD burner and on the graphics card there is a nVidia GeForce 6100. It already comes with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 installed which might not be the best solution, so one of the positive aspects is being compatible with Vista requirements, and the other is the price: $590*.

Full review is available at PCMag site.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

August 31, 2006, 4:00 PM CT

The Real Miniplayer

Is Meizu making its Miniplayer smaller? No! Let see properly. It is the new Zino 810 which hass similar design with Meizu's Miniplayer but in smaller dimension. It sizes 74mm x 48mm x 9.3mm and weights only 40g. From the given specification, it is most likely based on the new Rockchip solution.

We have MSC Dino A that cloned iPod Nano. And now, we have Zino that ripoff Miniplayer!........

Posted by: Gina      Permalink         Source

August 31, 2006, 5:37 AM CT

A better water test

Water is essential for life. Nevertheless, even small amounts of water in the wrong places such as fuels, lubricants, or organic solvents can cause motors to sputter, metal parts to rust, or chemical reactions to go awry. That's why one of the most common lab tests performed in industry is one that looks for traces of water in other substances, even though the test itself is complicated and time-consuming.

A new method for detection and measurement of small amounts of water, developed in the lab of Dr. Milko van der Boom in the Weizmann Institute's Organic Chemistry Department, might allow such tests to be performed accurately and quickly. Van der Boom and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Tarkeshwar Gupta created a versatile film on glass that is only 1.7 nanometers thick. The film can measure the number of water molecules in a substance even when it contains only a few parts per million.

"The problem," says van der Boom, "is that water is hard to detect and to quantify." His method is a departure from prior sensing techniques. In general, such sensor systems are based on relatively weak but selective "host-guest" interactions. In the Weizmann Institute team's sensor, metal complexes embedded in the film steal electrons from the water molecules. When the number of electrons in the metal complexes changes, so does their color, and this change can be read optically. Devices based on optical readout do not need to be wired directly to larger-scale electronics an issue that's still a tremendous challenge for much of molecular-based electronics.........

Posted by: Sarah      Permalink         Source

August 31, 2006, 5:29 AM CT

honoring African American chemist Percy Julian

The American Chemical Society is hosting a symposium honoring pioneering African American chemist Percy Julian, Ph.D., at its 232nd National Meeting in San Francisco on Sept. 11. The symposium is part of the celebration of Julian, whose life story is the subject of a two-hour PBS/NOVA documentary scheduled to be broadcast on Feb. 6, 2007, during Black History month.

One of the sessions at the symposium -- "Dr. Percy L. Julian Scientist, Humanist, Educator, Entrepreneur, and Inspirational Trailblazer" -- will offer a sneak preview of the documentary, which is entitled, "Forgotten Genius," written and produced by Llewellyn Smith, writer/producer/director of Vital Pictures, Inc.; Steve Lyons, writer/producer of Moreno, Lyons Productions LLC; and Melanie Wallace, senior series producer, NOVA/WGBH.

"Forgotten Genius" is, as per Smith, "a first time portrait of this remarkable American chemist The NOVA documentary brings to the public the forgotten achievements of this 20th century scientist." The film is part of NOVA's Lives in Science series.

Percy Lavon Julian was born in Montgomery, Ala., on April 11, 1899. The son of a railway clerk and the grandson of slaves, his early schooling was spotty in the segregated South of the early 20th century. Even so, he was accepted as a freshman at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., at the age of 17; he graduated first in his class in 1920. He then taught for two years at Fisk University before enrolling in a Master's program at Harvard.........

Posted by: Sarah      Permalink         Source

August 31, 2006, 5:21 AM CT

Reducing the threat of nuclear terrorism?

Nuclear terrorism is the gravest international security challenge today. Is the United States prepared to cope with this very real threat? Is nuclear terrorism preventable? What steps has the U.S. already taken to avoid this catastrophe and what steps should be taken in the future?

Esteemed scholars, scientists, and policymakers address these crucial questions in the September volume of SAGE Publications' The ANNALS of The American Academy of Political and Social Science. All sides of the discussion, from strategic to tactical, from ideological to technical, and from the historical to the contemporary, are explored in this volume, which is edited by Graham Allison of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John. F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

This special volume of The ANNALS clarifies and assesses the possibility of a nuclear terrorist attack by taking a comprehensive historical look at this threat over time, while examining and proposing solutions for preventing such a catastrophic event.

"The authors devoutly hope for a future when world leaders recognize this grave danger, taking the actions necessary to defeat it," commented issue editor Graham Allison. "On current trendlines, however, the likelihood of failure is greater than that of success. We hope to remind the world just how horrible nuclear anarchy would be".........

Posted by: Tom      Permalink         Source

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