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Weekly Science Picks

Markus — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 19:04:02 +0000

After the Perseid meteor shower last weekend, it seems that lots of exciting things have been discussed this week. Here are a few of the things which caught my eye.

The first of my picks is homegrown here on Australian Science, if you’ll pardon the pun. A sustainable food source for space travellers and outposts is one which has a lot of scientists and engineers scratching their chins, as does dealing with waste products. Which makes the prospect of using a form of bacteria to recycle waste and generate a food supply a very interesting one…

Red bacteria as astronaut food

Bacteria offer an attractive ingredient for space food. Quick and easy to grow, exponentially and to large numbers, and can provide the basic nutrients. And it was in search for astronaut space food that another discovery was made.

There’s been a lot of talk this week about the Hyperloop – a high speed transit system conceived by everyone’s favourite space entrepreneur, Elon Musk. I must say, the concept looks quite exciting.

Hyperloop

The design of Hyperloop has been considered from the start with safety in mind. Unlike other modes of transport, Hyperloop is a single system that incorporates the vehicle, propulsion system, energy management, timing, and route. Capsules travel in a carefully controlled and maintained tube environment making the system is immune to wind, ice, fog, and rain. The propulsion system is integrated into the tube and can only accelerate the capsule to speeds that are safe in each section. With human control error and unpredictable weather removed from the system, very few safety concerns remain.

Poor Voyager 1. For a startlingly long time now, we’ve been unsure about whether or not it’s actually left the Solar System and the protective influence of the Sun’s solar wind. In fairness, this is because it’s truly an explorer and, in a manner which would make any Star Trek fan proud, going where no one has gone before. All the same, the most recent buzz is that Voyager 1 may have indeed left the Solar System. In fact, it looks like it did so last year. (Though this study will no doubt remain contentious, there are a few of us who suspected this was the case).

Voyager 1 Spacecraft Left Solar System Last Year, Study Suggests

“It’s a somewhat controversial view, but we think Voyager has finally left the solar system, and is truly beginning its travels through the Milky Way,” lead author Marc Swisdak of the University of Maryland said in a statement.

Interestingly though, some recent archaeological discoveries suggest that, despite the achievements of human technology, the first technology wasn’t created by modern humans at all. The exact nature of our extinct cousins, the neandertals, is shrouded in mystery, but it looks as though the first specialised bone tools ever created on Earth were made by them, and not us homo sapiens.

Neandertals Made the First Specialized Bone Tools in Europe

How widespread this new Neandertal behavior was is a question that remains. The first three found were fragments less than a few centimeters long and might not have been recognized without experience working with later period bone tools. It is not something normally looked for in this time period. “However, when you put these small fragments together and compare them with finds from later sites, the pattern in them is clear,” comments Shannon McPherron. “Then last summer we found a larger, more complete tool that is unmistakably a lissoir like those we find in later, modern human sites or even in leather workshops today.”

I hope everyone has a good week!

Image: A luminous Perseid meteor over the McDonald Observatory, Texas. Credit and copyright: Sergio Garcia Rill/SGR Photography.

Cite this article:
Hammonds M (2013-08-18 19:04:02). Weekly Science Picks. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 07, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/news/weekly-science-picks-42/

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Weekly Science Picks

Markus — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 00:48:37 +0000

It’s been an interesting week for science news, and I’ve been lucky enough to be asked to give this week’s science picks! This made me spend a little while sipping contemplatively on a cup of vanilla iced coffee and wondering where to even start…

The articles I’ve selected are, of course, slanted towards my own (rather geeky) interests, but all the same I hope you find them all as fascinating as I did!

First up, the news that Star Trek style warp drives may actually be possible, at least in theory, made me exclaim “Oh wow!” out loud. Fortunately, people who spend any time with me are generally used to me talking to myself while staring at a computer screen…

Warp Drive May be More Feasible than Thought

“Everything within space is restricted by the speed of light. But the really cool thing is space-time, the fabric of space, is not limited by the speed of light.”
– Richard Obousy, president of Icarus Interstellar

Artists impression of Mimivirus, the first giant virus to be discovered. Image Credit: InvaderXan/Wikimedia Commons

From the vastness of space to life under the microscope, biologists have been debating for years whether or not viruses qualify as a form of life. The latest evidence is that they may indeed be a life form in their own right, and an old one at that!

Giant Viruses are Ancient Living Organisms

They found that many of the most ancient protein folds in living organisms were present in the giant viruses, which “offers more evidence that viruses are embedded in the fabric of life,” Caetano-Anollés said.

Heritage Daily had a fascinating article about the archaeology of the future, and what precisely our distant descendents may one day think of us and the way we lived…

The Archaeology of the Future

The point is that most of what survives will not be determined by conscious decisions on our part. This may not be for want of trying, as shown by the current popularity of time capsules. The most impressive of these must be the KEO satellite, due to be launched in 2014 and to return to Earth 50,000 years later.

And speaking of what we know of the past, it’s been shown again and again that our primitive relatives, the neanderthals, were likely not the brainless savages they’re often depicted to be. Evidence suggests that neanderthals liked to collect bird feathers as ornaments.

Neanderthals Used Feathers as ‘Personal Ornaments’

“I think this is the tip of the iceberg,” said Prof Finlayson: “It is showing that Neanderthals simply expressed themselves in media other than cave walls. The last bastion of defence in favour of our superiority was cognition.” Neanderthals, he said, may have been “different”, but “their processes of thinking were obviously very similar”.

Curiosity self-portrait. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

As the Curiosity rover settles into its new home in Gale Crater on our neighbouring planet, one small worry is growing in the backs of the minds of certain NASA scientists. Could a blunder on the part of some engineers lead to Curiosity contaminating the surface of Mars with Earth life?

Drill Bits on Rover Could Contaminate Mars

John D. Rummel, a professor of biology at East Carolina University, said, partly in jest: “It will be a sad day for NASA if they do detect ice or water. That’s because the Curiosity project will most likely be told, ‘Gee, that’s nice. Now turn around.’ “

And finally, planet hunters are scouring the sky for exoplanets. Astrobiologists are hoping to soon be able to look into the atmospheres of those planets in search of life signs, in the form of certain molecules created by living organisms. But could they be fooled by those molecules coming from somewhere else?

Meteors Might Add Methane to Exoplanet Atmospheres

One key gas astrobiologists looking for extraterrestrial life would concentrate on would be oxygen […] Another possibility would be methane, a colorless, odorless, flammable organic gas that microbes on Earth produce. Seeing both together in an exoplanet’s atmosphere might be an especially significant sign of life, since they would both ordinarily remove each other from the atmosphere without something like life to constantly replenish them.

Have a good weekend!

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