Monday, marvelous Monday and time for science talk to brighten your day with selections from science sites across the globe. New discoveries, new takes on old knowledge, and other bits of news are all available for the perusing in today's information world. Today's tidbits include researchers find a way to make the internet more adaptable for the mobile era, astronomers uncover a surprising trend in galaxy evolution, a new theory to explain the mystery of ball lightning, scientists create a list of the top ten plant damaging fungi, fish skin structure explains biological cloaking, and a new study proves the moon was created in a massive planetary collision.
Pull up that comfy chair and grab a spot on the porch. There is always plenty of room for everyone. Another session of Dr. Possum's science education, entertainment, and potluck discussion is set to begin.
Featured Stories
As use of the internet grows researchers continue to seek new ways to access information in order to offer a more friendly environment for the end user.
Serval does not replace the IP address, which continues to function as usual. Instead, Serval works by adding another layer of information, called the service access layer, to certain packets contained in a data stream. Unlike the IP address, which identifies a specific computer, the service access layer identifies a service such as Google or Facebook. So if the IP address changes, the program does not stop because it receives the functional information it needs from the service access layer.
This makes it easier for users to watch a movie while their tablet computer switches between a Wi-Fi stream and a cellular one. It also allows a mobile device to use Wi-Fi and cellular service at the same time.
As the universe ages over time the process of
galactic evolution continues to change.
In the past 8 billion years, the number of mergers between galaxies large and small has decreased sharply. So has the overall rate of star formation and disruptions of supernova explosions associated with star formation. Scientists speculate these factors may play a role in creating the evolutionary trend they observe.
Now that astronomers see this pattern, they can adjust computer simulations of galaxy evolution until these models are able to replicate the observed trend. This will guide scientists to the physical processes most responsible for it.
For centuries the observed phenomena of
ball lightning has remained unexplained.
(Researcher) Lowke proposes that ball lightning occurs in houses and aeroplanes when a stream of ions accumulates on the outside of a glass window and the resulting electric field on the other side excites air molecules to form a ball discharge. The discharge requires a driving electric field of about a million volts.
As the world population grows and the need for foodstuffs increases the importance of
plant damaging fungi increases also.
Almost 500 international experts have worked together to develop a ranking system of the ten most important phytopathogenic fungi on a scientific and economic level. The rice blast fungus (Magnaporthe oryzae) sits at the top of the list.
A survey conducted on 495 international researchers resulted in a list containing the most important phytopathogenic fungi. Each researcher chose three that they thought to be most significant and the most voted then formed the list.
Some
silvery fish have attained a biological structure to allow cloaking and help avoid predators.
Previously, it was thought that the fish's skin – which contains "multilayer" arrangements of reflective guanine crystals – would fully polarize light when reflected. As the light becomes polarized, there should be a drop in reflectivity. The Bristol researchers found that the skin of sardines and herring contain not one but two types of guanine crystal – each with different optical properties. By mixing these two types, the fish's skin doesn't polarize the reflected light and maintains its high reflectivity.
A new study purports to prove the
origin of Earth's solitary moon was the result of a massive planetary collision.
The evidence might not seem all that impressive to a nonscientist: a tiny excess of a heavier variant of the element zinc in Moon rocks. But the enrichment probably arose because heavier zinc atoms condensed out of the roiling cloud of vaporized rock created by a catastrophic collision faster than lighter zinc atoms, and the remaining vapor escaped before it could condense.
Knucklehead's Photo of the Week
Six Line wrasse in a Bed Of Bubbles
©Knucklehead, all rights reserved, presented by permission. (Click on the image to see more in the same series.)
Other Worthy Stories of the Week
Time lapse shows space shuttle Endeavor's last journey
A revolutionary vision for modern farming
Lava lake in the Halema'uma'u at Kilauea reaches a new high
Hubble sees galaxy in a spin
Rare polar ring galaxy captured in a new image
Venus caught transiting the Sun
New route to large scale quantum computing?
Prehistoric human populations prospered before the agricultural boom
Dark matter filament studied in 3-D for the first time
For even more science news:
General Science Collectors:
Alpha-Galileo
BBC News Science and Environment
Eureka Science News
LiveScience
New Scientist
PhysOrg.com
SciDev.net
Science/AAAS
Science Alert
Science Centric
Science Daily
Scientific American
Space Daily
Blogs:
A Few Things Ill Considered Techie and Science News
Cantauri Dreams space exploration
Coctail Party Physics Physics with a twist.
Deep Sea News marine biology
Laelaps more vertebrate paleontology
List of Geoscience Blogs
Science20.com
ScienceBlogs
Space Review
Science Insider
Scientific Blogging.
Space.com
Techonology Review
Tetrapod Zoologyvertebrate paleontology
Wired News
Science RSS Feed: Medworm
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe--a combination of hard science and debunking crap
At Daily Kos:
This Week in Science by DarkSyde
Overnight News Digest:Science Saturday by Neon Vincent. OND tech Thursday by rfall.
Pique the Geek by Translator Sunday evenings about 9 Eastern time
All diaries with the DK GreenRoots Tag.
All diaries with the eKos Tag
A More Ancient World by matching mole
Astro Kos
SciTech at Dkos.
Sunday Science Videos by palantir
NASA picture of the day. For more see the NASA image gallery or the Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive
Sea Ice Off Eastern Greenland, NASA, Public Domain
