Today in History
Nov 18, 1883:
Railroads create the first time zones
History.com
At exactly noon on this day, American and Canadian railroads begin using four continental time zones to end the confusion of dealing with thousands of local times. The bold move was emblematic of the power shared by the railroad companies.
The need for continental time zones stemmed directly from the problems of moving passengers and freight over the thousands of miles of rail line that covered North America by the 1880s. Since human beings had first begun keeping track of time, they set their clocks to the local movement of the sun. Even as late as the 1880s, most towns in the U.S. had their own local time, generally based on "high noon," or the time when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. As railroads began to shrink the travel time between cities from days or months to mere hours, however, these local times became a scheduling nightmare. Railroad timetables in major cities listed dozens of different arrival and departure times for the same train, each linked to a different local time zone. |
Science News
Aboriginal time runs east to west
Sun’s trajectory may channel time’s flow for one remote group By Bruce Bower
Time rises in the east and sets in the west in a remote part of Australia. Aborigines living there assume that time moves westward, apparently in accord with the sun’s daily arc across the sky, say Stanford University psychologist Lera Boroditsky and linguist Alice Gaby of the University of California, Berkeley.
Unlike any other group studied to date, these hardy foragers think about the day after tomorrow as two days to the west, the olden days as times far to the east, and the progression of a person’s life from infancy to old age as running from east to west, Boroditsky and Gaby report in an upcoming Psychological Science. |
Anti-hydrogen Captured, Held For First Time
by Nancy Atkinson
Can warp drive be far behind? A paper published in this week’s edition of Nature reports that for the first time, antimatter atoms have been captured and held long enough to be studied by scientific instruments. Not only is this a science fiction dream come true, but in a very real way this could help us figure out what happened to all the antimatter that has vanished since the Big Bang, one of the biggest mysteries of the Universe. "We’re very excited about the fact that we can actually now trap antimatter atoms long enough to study their properties and see if they’re very different from matter," said Makoto Fujiwara, a team member from ALPHA, an international collaboration at CERN. |
Ancient trumpets played eerie notes
Scientists analyze tunes from 3,000-year-old conch-shell instruments for insight into pre-Inca civilization By Marissa Cevallos
Now you can hear a marine-inspired melody from before the time of the Little Mermaid’s hot crustacean band. Acoustic scientists put their lips to ancient conch shells to figure out how humans used these trumpets 3,000 years ago. The well-preserved, ornately decorated shells found at a pre-Inca religious site in Peru offered researchers a rare opportunity to jam on primeval instruments.
The music, powerfully haunting and droning, could have been used in religious ceremonies, the scientists say. The team reported their analysis November 17 at the Second Pan-American/Iberian Meeting on Acoustics in Cancun, Mexico. |
Jet lag makes hamsters dumb
A new study highlights the perils of shifting time zones By Laura Sanders
SAN DIEGO — In addition to making you groggy and dazed, jet lag may make you stupid. A study presented November 15 at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting finds that hamsters suffering extreme, chronic jet lag had about half the normal rate of new neuron birth in a part of the brain. What’s more, these animals showed deficits in learning and memory.
Jet lag poses a serious health threat, said study coauthor Erin Gibson of the University of California, Berkeley. Studies have shown that people with work schedules that require them to frequently change their sleep patterns have higher rates of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer. |
Technology News
The 10,000 Year Clock
The Long Now Foundation
The idea to build a monument scale, multi-millennial, all mechanical clock as an icon to long-term thinking came from computer scientist Danny Hillis and was published in the form of an email to friends. Later it was followed up with an essay published in the 01995 Wired magazine "Scenarios" issue. Danny reasoned that by actually building a remote monument, the discussions around long-term thinking would be far more focused and it would lend itself to good storytelling and myth -- two key requirements of anything lasting a long time.
In 01996, a group of these friends led by Stewart Brand incorporated a non-profit around the idea of long-term thinking and responsibility. This group became the founding board of The Long Now Foundation. One of the members, Peter Schwartz, suggested that 10,000 years be the time frame, as it was about how long humans have had a stable climate and technological progression. |
Online comments maybe not total waste of time
Conversations on news sites show how information and ideas spread By Marissa Cevallos
There’s a science behind the comments on websites.
It’s actually quite predictable how much chatter a post on Slashdot or Wikipedia will attract, according to a new study of several websites with large user bases. And the thread of an online conversation — whether it sticks to the original topic or users comment on each other’s comments — can be modeled as a tree with discussions veering off on branches, researchers report online November 2 at arXiv.org.
The findings give hope to social scientists trying to understand broader phenomena, like how rumors about a candidate spread during a campaign or how information about street protests flows out of a country with state-controlled media. |
Senate panel approves domain name seizure bill
by Declan McCullagh
A controversial proposal allowing the government to pull the plug on Web sites accused of aiding piracy is closer to becoming a federal law.
After a flurry of last-minute lobbying from representatives of content providers including the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a Senate committee approved the measure today by a unanimous vote.
In the last week, support for the bill known as COICA, for Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, broadened beyond groups traditionally active in online copyright disputes to include the Newspaper Association of America, which said the legislation was needed because online piracy "undermines the investments that newspapers make in journalism." Labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, argued that American workers "have suffered significant harm due to theft of copyrighted and trademarked goods." |
Memo to Washington: It's the broadband, stupid
by Larry Downes
As lawmakers gear up for the post-election Congress that convenes in January, the multiyear debate over new laws to keep ISPs from blocking Web sites or managing traffic in anticompetitive ways--the so-called Net neutrality rules--is heating up again.
The result can be safely predicted: more wasted energy and a continued failure by policymakers to focus on the real challenges of our increasingly important broadband infrastructure. |
Environmental News
Welcome to the Environmental History Timeline
Environmental issues have surfaced throughout human history. Professor William (Bill) Kovarik, Ph.D.
The evidence is in manuscripts, publications and historical archives, but it is often found under labels like public health, conservation, preservation of nature, smoke abatement, municipal housekeeping, occupational disease, air pollution and water pollution. So the modern word "environmental" encompasses longstanding concerns.
Just as individuals are lost without their memories, civilization needs its collective memory in the form we call history. But history does not simply accumulate. Historians must take an interest in recovering facts and interpretations that may be important or useful. |
Assessing the US Supply of Rare Earth Elements
David A Gabel, ENN
In the headlines lately has been news of China's monopoly of rare earth elements (REE), adding to China's growing clout. It would increase their leverage should they choose to reduce exports, causing REE prices to soar. The United States imports almost all of its REE from China, putting it in a position of geopolitical weakness. In light of this circumstance, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has conducted a study to map out the presence of REE found domestically. It turns out that rare earth elements in the United States are not so rare. |
Deepwater Horizon Spill Report Blames BP, Contractors, Government
Environmental News Service
WASHINGTON, DC, November 17, 2010 (ENS) - Lack of a systematic approach to well safety, numerous flawed decisions, plus technical and operational breakdowns all contributed to the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and massive spill from BP's Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, says a scientific committee of the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council in a report released today. |
As Glaciers Melt, Science Seeks Data on Rising Seas
By JUSTIN GILLIS
TASIILAQ, Greenland — With a tense pilot gripping the stick, the helicopter hovered above the water, a red speck of machinery lost in a wilderness of rock and ice.
To the right, a great fjord stretched toward the sea, choked with icebergs. To the left loomed one of the immense glaciers that bring ice from the top of the Greenland ice sheet and dump it into the ocean.
Hanging out the sides of the craft, two scientists sent a measuring device plunging into the water, between ice floes. Near the bottom, it reported a temperature of 40 degrees. It was the latest in a string of troubling measurements showing that the water was warm enough to melt glaciers rapidly from below.
"That’s the highest we’ve seen this far up the fjord," said one of the scientists, Fiammetta Straneo. |
Medical News
Researcher Investigates The "Subjective Time Trajectory" In Psychological Health
George Hunka, American Friends of Tel Aviv University
In life, we're told, we must take the good with the bad, and how we view these life events determines our well-being and ability to adjust. But according to Prof. Dov Shmotkin of Tel Aviv University's Department of Psychology, you need more than the right attitude to successfully negotiate the vicissitudes of life.
As recently reported in Aging and Mental Health, Prof. Shmotkin's research reveals that people's well-being and their adaptation can be ascertained by their "time trajectory" - their concept of how they have evolved through their remembered past, currently perceived present, and anticipated future. A close study of how patients compartmentalize their life into these periods can help clinical psychologists treat them more effectively, he says. |
Study shows importance of exercise for those at special risk for Alzheimer's
Participants included individuals who carry a high-risk gene University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Physical activity promotes changes in the brain that may protect high-risk individuals against cognitive decline, including development of Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study done at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).
J. Carson Smith, an assistant professor of health sciences, included in the study both people who carry a high-risk gene for Alzheimer's disease, and other healthy older adults without the gene.
"Our study suggests that if you are at genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease, the benefits of exercise to your brain function might be even greater than for those who do not have that genetic risk," says Smith. |
UGA researchers identify key enzyme that regulates the early growth of breast cancer cells
University of Georgia
Athens, Ga. ¬¬-- New University of Georgia research, published this week in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has found that blocking the action of an enzyme called GnT-V significantly delays the onset and spread of tumors in mice with cancer very similar to many cases of human breast cancer.
When the GnT-V enzyme activity in the cells was increased in mammary gland cells, they increased proliferation and began to take on many characteristics of cancer cells. Using a mouse model of human breast cancer, tumors appeared when the enzyme was deleted, but onset was delayed an average of 10 weeks in the mice. |
On the brain: More about mixed-up senses
Elizabeth Landau - CNN.com Health Writer/Producer
For Chad Myers, "2" is a boy and blue. "3" is a girl and green. In his mind, every number and letter has a color and a gender. In his words, they have "personalities."
He thought everyone did this until a few years ago, when he brought up with his family and, he says, "They all started looking at me weird."
Myers, 38, of Spring Hill, Kansas, no relation to CNN's weatherman by the same name, is one of many CNN.com readers who shared their experiences with synesthesia, a condition in which senses are mixed up, on this article about brain function in synesthesia yesterday.
Before reading this blog, Myers had no idea his unusual perceptions had a name. |
Space News
Study predicts end of the universe
By Stuart Gary
A new study suggests the universe and everything in it could end within the Earth's lifespan - less than 3.7 billion years from now - and we will not know it when it happens.
But one expert says the result is not valid because the researchers chose an arbitrary end point.
The universe began in a Big Bang about 13.7 billion years ago and has been expanding at an ever accelerating rate ever since.
According to standard cosmology models the most likely outcome for the universe is that it will expand forever.
But a team of physicists led by Raphael Bousso from the University of California, Berkeley, claim their calculations show the universe will end. |
Rover Teams Keeping Spirits Up on Fate of Frozen Mars Rover
by Nancy Atkinson
The hibernating Spirit rover hasn’t communicated with Earth since March 22 of this year, and while everyone hopes for the best, NASA, it seems, wants to brace rover fans for the worst, just in case. The space agency has dutifully issued a couple of press releases the past few months saying it is possible we may not hear from the rover again. Even Cornell University ‐ home of MER PI Steve Squyres — featured an article in their Daily Sun newspaper this week with the headline, "Mars Rover May Have Lost Power for Good." But yet, Squyres is quoted "Spirit hasn’t died; we haven’t heard from it, but we suspect it is still alive and we are waiting to hear from it." |
NASA Spacecraft Sees Cosmic Snow Storm During Comet Encounter
NASA
PASADENA, Calif. -- The EPOXI mission's recent encounter with comet Hartley 2 provided the first images clear enough for scientists to link jets of dust and gas with specific surface features. NASA and other scientists have begun to analyze the images.
The EPOXI mission spacecraft revealed a cometary snow storm created by carbon dioxide jets spewing out tons of golf-ball to basketball-sized fluffy ice particles from the peanut-shaped comet's rocky ends. At the same time, a different process was causing water vapor to escape from the comet's smooth mid-section. This information sheds new light on the nature of comets and even planets. |
Giant space bubbles baffle astronomers
Two giant gas bubbles - each one 25,000 light-years wide - discovered in our galaxy are baffling astronomers. The Telegraph
The two vast structures, stretching to the north and to the south of the centre of the Milky Way, are so big that a beam of light, travelling at 186,282 miles per second, would take 50,000 years to get from the edge of one to the edge of the other.
The previously unseen bubbles were discovered by astronomer Doug Finkbeiner, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, using NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Telescope. He admitted yesterday: "We don't fully understand their nature or origin."
They span more than half the visible sky, from the constellation of Virgo to the constellation of Grus, and are thought to be millions of years old. They were not noticed before because they were lost in a fog of gamma radiation across the sky. |
Odd News
World's loudest alarm clock rings at 90 decibels
newslite.com
An ultra-loud alarm clock has gone on sale which should wake most people up -- because it rings at a massive 90 decibels.
That means the Amplicom TCL 200 is as loud as a lorry driving past your bed or someone blowing a Vuvuzela on your bedside table. At 6:30am.
Makers say the ear-splitting alarm clock is designed for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, but could also be useful for incredibly deep sleepers. |