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News | Archive (5 December 2008)
NASA orbiter finds Martian rock record with 10 beats to the bar
— 01:48 GMT | AstronomyClimate cycles persisting for millions of years on ancient Mars left a record of rhythmic patterns in thick stacks of sedimentary rock layers, revealed in three-dimensional detail by a telescopic camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter…
Mars Science Laboratory mission rescheduled for 2011
— 01:48 GMT | AstronomyNASA's Mars Science Laboratory will launch two years later than previously planned, in the fall of 2011. The mission will send a next-generation rover with unprecedented research tools to study the early environmental history of Mars. A launch date of October 2009 no longer is feasible because of testing and hardware challenges that must be addressed to ensure mission success. The window for a 2009 launch ends in late October. The relative positions of Earth and Mars are favourable for flights to Mars only a few weeks every two years. The next launch opportunity after 2009 is in 2011…
Virtual faces created with emotions, moods and personality
— 01:48 GMT | TechnologyA team of researchers from the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) has developed a computer model that enables the generation of faces which for the first time display emotions and moods according to personality traits. The study has been published in the latest edition of the magazine Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds…
Quantum simulator for complex electronic materials
— 01:48 GMT | TechnologyThe design of new materials with specific properties is a difficult and important challenge in physics and chemistry. Nobel Prize winner Richard P. Feynman in 1982 therefore suggested to build a 'quantum simulator' in order to understand and predict the properties of complex materials by simulating them using an artificial, but highly controllable different quantum system…
Researcher designs robot that jumps like a grasshopper
— 01:48 GMT | TechnologyThe first robot that can jump like a grasshopper and roll like a ball could play a key role in future space exploration. The 'Jollbot' has been created by Rhodri Armour, a PhD student from the University of Bath. It's hoped his creation, which can jump over obstacles and roll over smoother terrain, could be used for space exploration or land survey work in the future…
Free mammograms, access to follow-up care for underserved women
— 01:48 GMT | HealthAt 7:30 AM on 5 December nearly four dozen women living in one of the most rural areas of Virginia will begin arriving for appointments at a state-of-the-art medical facility - the Commonwealth's only mobile digital mammography van, which is operated by the University of Virginia Health System…
Discovery provides new perspective on animal evolution
— 01:48 GMT | BiologyGroove-like tracks on the ocean floor made by giant deep-sea single-celled organisms could lead to new insights into the evolutionary origin of animals. Biologist Mikhail 'Misha' Matz from The University of Texas at Austin and his colleagues, including Dr Tamara Frank with the Centre for Ocean Exploration and Deep-Sea Research, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) at Florida Atlantic University, recently discovered grape-sized protists and their complex tracks on the ocean floor near the Bahamas. This is the first time a single-celled organism has been shown to make such animal-like traces. The team's discovery was recently published online in Current Biology and will also appear in the journal's 9 December print issue…
A celestial snow globe of stars
— 01:48 GMT | AstronomyLike a whirl of shiny flakes sparkling in a snow globe, Hubble catches an instantaneous glimpse of many hundreds of thousands of stars moving about in the globular cluster M13, one of the brightest and best-known globular clusters in the northern sky. This glittering metropolis of stars is easily found in the winter sky in the constellation Hercules and can even be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies…
Deep-sea exploration to conduct high-tech survey of Florida's endangered coral reefs
— 01:48 GMT | EnvironmentHarbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University (Harbor Branch) has been selected by the Waitt Institute for Discovery to carry out a series of voyages of exploration in the Straits of Florida and beyond. The Waitt Institute, in partnership with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is making available cutting edge, unmanned, deep ocean exploration tools called autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The inaugural expedition launches on 4 December 2008, and taps the scientific expertise and resources of Harbor Branch to explore Florida's rare and vulnerable deep coral reefs…
Experiment shows potential for vegetation to recover at the Sierra Nevada ski station
— 01:48 GMT | EnvironmentPreparation work on the ski slopes in Spain's Sierra Nevada destroys a large number of plant species. In their efforts to develop new methods to restore plant cover, researchers from the University of Granada have now successfully grown the area's two native shrub species in the laboratory. They hope to use these to guarantee the biodiversity of the Sierra Nevada National Park…
New isotope molecule may add to Venus greenhouse effect
Jets of material emanate from Enceladus