CO observations of symbiotic stellar systems*

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Authors: V. Bujarrabal, J. Miko?ajewska, J. Alcolea and G. Quintana-Lacaci.<br />Astronomy and Astrophysics Vol. 516 , page A19<br />Published online: 18/06/2010<br />
Keywords:
radio lines: stars ; circumstellar matter ; stars:
mass-loss ; binaries: symbiotic ; stars:
individual: R Aqr ; stars: individual: CH Cyg .

X-raying the AU Microscopii debris disk

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Authors: P. C. Schneider and J. H. M. M. Schmitt.<br />Astronomy and Astrophysics Vol. 516 , page A8<br />Published online: 16/06/2010<br />
Keywords:
circumstellar matter ; stars: individual: AU Microscopii ; stars: coronae ; X-rays: stars ; protoplanetary disks.

Evidence of the accelerated expansion of the Universe from weak lensing tomography with COSMOS*

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Authors: T. Schrabback, J. Hartlap, B. Joachimi, M. Kilbinger, P. Simon, K. Benabed, M. Brada?, T. Eifler, T. Erben, C. D. Fassnacht, F. William High, S. Hilbert, H. Hildebrandt, H. Hoekstra, K. Kuijken, P. J. Marshall, Y. Mellier, E. Morganson, P. Schneider, E. Semboloni, L. Van Waerbeke and M. Velander.<br />Astronomy and Astrophysics Vol. 516 , page A63<br />Published online: 29/06/2010<br />
Keywords:
cosmological parameters ;
dark matter ; large-scale structure of Universe ; gravitational lensing: weak?.

Absolute dimensions of eclipsing binaries

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Authors: J. V. Clausen, S. Frandsen, H. Bruntt, E. H. Olsen, B. E. Helt, K. Gregersen, D. Juncher and P. Krogstrup.<br />Astronomy and Astrophysics Vol. 516 , page A42<br />Published online: 24/06/2010<br />
Keywords:

stars: evolution ;
stars: fundamental parameters ;
binaries: eclipsing ;
stars: individual: BK?Peg ; stars: individual: BW?Aqr ;
techniques: spectroscopic .

Methanol maps of low-mass protostellar systems

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Authors: L. E. Kristensen, E. F. van Dishoeck, T. A. van Kempen, H. M. Cuppen, C. Brinch, J. K. Jørgensen and M. R. Hogerheijde.<br />Astronomy and Astrophysics Vol. 516 , page A57<br />Published online: 28/06/2010<br />
Keywords:
ISM: abundances ; ISM: molecules ; stars: formation ;
ISM: individual objects: Serpens .

What? Wait…

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UPDATE:  SOLVED by Rob at 12:29 CDT

Ah, I see you out there.  You’re quietly looking over the riddle to see if you know the answer, then leaving without a word.  You really should give it a guess, you know.  I promise nobody will laugh hysterically, point fingers, or ridicule your comment.

Tom and I are winding down this cycle, getting ready for another bonus riddle round.  Get your name on the list so you too can experience the aggravation and frustration of trying to solve a really tough riddle in three guesses, with no feedback, not seeing the other guesses, not knowing if you’re right or wrong — warm or cold — until the next day.  YAY!

Okay, right on to today’s brain-buster.  Well, maybe not “brain-buster”.  How about “brain-exerciser”?  Ready?  Today you will be looking for an object:


We think of this object as one thing, but it’s really two.

This object does something important.

While not the largest of its kind, this certainly makes the top 15.

It’s recently been involved in some very interesting discoveries.

It gets around a common problem of its “kind” by, in essence, wearing glasses.

Its two parts are not close together, but have this whole North/South thing going on.

If you follow the blog, you have a running start at guessing this one.

Nobody has to be near this to make it work.

We see it, but it never looks at us.

How about that?  Clear as mud.  Get those guesses in… you know I’m in the comments waiting for someone to talk to me.

Moonbase Alpha

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Click here to view the embedded video.

From NASA:

Moonbase Alpha is a game with single and multiplayer options where players step into the role of an exploration team member in a futuristic 3-D lunar settlement. Their mission is to restore critical systems and oxygen flow after a nearby meteor strike cripples a solar array and life support equipment.

NASA will release the game on Valve’s Steam network on Tuesday, July 6. The Army Game Studio produced the game with development by Virtual Heroes, a division of Applied Research Associates in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

Game Features:

* Realistic NASA exploration scenarios
* Immersive 3D graphics
* Solo or team play
* VOIP chat
* Alternate voicable text chat

…COMING JULY 6th!

I have a Beta copy of this and find it rather challenging. The graphics are good and the play on the laptop is nice and smooth. At first I thought driving the rover was a little counter intuitive until I started piloting the robots, all of a sudden the rovers weren’t so bad :mrgreen:

I’m getting there even though I seem to be running out of oxygen on every EVA.

Enjoy a safe 4th of July everybody!!

Progress 38 Docking Aborted

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Progress resupply ship (NOT the errant one). Credit: NASA

The automated resupply ship, Progress 38, has lost telemetry and has flown past the International Space Station. Reports are sketchy, some reports have the Progress spinning out of control. I don’t know about that and I’ll stick to what NASA is saying as of 15:14 ET:

Friday’s docking for the ISS Progress 38 has been aborted due to a loss of telemetry. Flight controllers have reported the resupply craft flew past the International Space Station. The flight control team is in the early stages of diagnosing what may have caused the aborted docking with the space station, but have decided not to re-attempt docking Friday. As the Progress 38 continues its separation from the space station, the Russian and American teams are discussing their options for a future docking attempt and reconfiguring the station for standard operations. The six Expedition 24 crew members are continuing with normal station activities.

I’m watching NASA TV and they are apparently replaying coverage from before the problem started. I did hear the Progress lost telemetry a bit less than a half before the schedule 11:58 am ET docking and flew past the station at a safe distance. The main thing is nobody is (or was) in any danger.

If by chance NASA TV has anything new in the next hour or two, I will let you know.

It’s Official!

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A Gemini image of a star and its 8-Jupiter mass planet taken in 2008. Click for a larger version. Credit: Gemini Observatory.

I wrote about this back in 2008 and finally we have confirmation this is indeed the first directly imaged planet around another star!

Here’s the first part of the press release from the Gemini Observatory:

A planet only about eight times the mass of Jupiter has been confirmed orbiting a Sun-like star at over 300 times farther from the star than the Earth is from our Sun. The newly confirmed planet is the least massive planet known to orbit at such a great distance from its host star. The discovery utilized high-resolution adaptive optics technology at the Gemini Observatory to take direct images and spectra of the planet.

First reported in September 2008 by a team led by David Lafrenière (then at the University of Toronto, now at the University of Montreal and Center for Research in Astrophysics of Quebec), the suspected planetary system required further observations over time to confirm that the planet and star were indeed moving through space together. “Back in 2008 what we knew for sure was that there was this young planetary mass object sitting right next to a young Sun-like star on the sky,” says Lafrenière. The extremely close proximity of the two objects strongly suggested that they were associated with each other but it was still possible (but unlikely) that they were unrelated and only aligned by chance in the sky. According to Lafrenière, “Our new observations rule out this chance alignment possibility, and thus confirms that the planet and the star are related to each other.”

Read the rest of this and get more visuals at the Gemini site.

The Links Effect | Not Exactly Rocket Science

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Research news

A new set of fossils from Gabon may be the earliest evidence of multicellular creatures. Or, not. I wrote about them briefly, but Nature News has a great piece with thoughts from various scientists, and Chris at Highly Allochthonous explains why, at the very least, we can confidently say that the fossils at 2.1-billion years old.

Scientists have created a remote controlled “robofish” that sticklebacks accept as one of their own, says BBC News. Now, for Phase Two…

XMRV – the virus that has or has not been linked to cause chronic fatigue syndrome – is stirring up headlines again. Heidi Ledford at Nature reports on the CDC’s decision to delay the publication of a new study, following the emergence of conflicting results elsewhere. And Grant Jacobs at Code for Life uses this as a case study for context in science journalism.

You’ve probably heard about the new super-whale called Leviathan, which I and everyone else wrote about. What you may not have heard about is that the name may not be valid, given that Leviathan had previously been assigned to a mammoth. SV-POW has the story and some great debates in the comments. The authors are checking out the problem but if they are forced to change the name, what will they choose? Megaleviathan? Ultraleviathan? Mechaleviathan? Brian? Failocetus?

The human body makes rare antibodies effective against all flu viruses and these might be boosted to design a better universal flu treatment, says Maggie Fox at Reuters

A new technique for deciphering the calls of sperm whales allows the magnificent, mysterious creatures to be studied in unprecedented detail, says Brandon Keim in Wired. Researchers identified subtle variations caused by differences in the shape of individual whales’ heads. It’s the first time that sperm whale vocalizations have been linked to specific individuals.

A new scent is enough to spark the evolution of a new moth species — and it can start with just a single genetic mutation. More from Wired.

Other goings-on

The early buzz on Brian Switek’s first book Written in Stone is tremendous. I read three chapters when they were in a very early draft stage and they were superb. We can only guess what he’s managed to do with them since then, but the book is available for pre-order on Amazon. Go and buy it.

Simon Jenkins has launched another half-arsed attack on science in the Guardian. Scientists decided that mockery was the only good response to such tripe, and launched #SpoofJenks Monday. I particularly loved the efforts from Matt Parker, Jon Butterworth, and Stephen Curry. Meanwhile, Imran Khan spoils the fun with a substantive response to Jenkins with, you know, points and stuff.

Peter Aldhous at New Scientist reports on a zoo with plans to save endangered species by reprogramming cells from dead animals into stem cells. First step: a drill (it’s a monkey, not a tool).

You know that things are bad with the oil spill when the fact that thousands of turtles not burning to death is a cause for celebration. You know, earlier this year, thousands of turtles weren’t burning to death on a fairly regular basis.

Ben Goldacre has a somewhat depressing take on a paper about people’s reactions to scientific evidence. “When presented with unwelcome scientific evidence, it seems, in a desperate bid to retain some consistency in their world view, people would rather conclude that science in general is broken. This is an interesting finding. But I’m not sure it makes me very happy.”

Is a parasite influencing people’s World Cup skills? Is a parasite influencing people’s tendency to ascribe everything to parasites? Mind Hacks has more, but Vaughan’s probably been taken over by a parasite that reproduces by searching Pubmed.

Neurodojo talks about what happens to neurons when you’re as small as a shrew or as large as an elephant.

What do astronauts want to be when they grow up? A lovely piece by Tom Whyntie in the Guardian.

Despite an election pledge to take an evidence-based approach to health, the Conservatives have appointed MPs Nadine Dorries and David Tredinnick to the health select committee. Martin Robbins laments.

Heh/Wow

The Large Hadron Collider FAQ. “What would happen if I went inside it?” “Just. Don’t.”

What, if anything, is Big Bird? The Loom brings us a talk on the evolutionary affinities of a strange bird species

A gallery of close-ups of bug eyes, from Wired

Susan Orlean can apparently write about anything. Including hashtags.

Journalism and communication

The big news this week is that the Times has finally disappeared behind a full paywall. It’s a sad day for science journalism, for the Times provides some of the best science reporting out there thanks to folks like Mark Henderson, Hannah Devlin, Sam Lister et al. Through Eureka, they’ve shown that a science supplement can work in a national newspaper. They set up one of the only science blogs from a mainstream source that actually works. And they’ve always shown a great understanding of the value that the Internet and social media can bring to science journalism. To see all of that be less accessible to people is a big shame, but to be honest, I would be happy to pay a little less than the current asking price of £2/week for access to the science sections alone… (Also, the Sunday Times has disappeared behind a paywall too, so you win some, you lose some.) In the meantime, it’s interesting that the Guardian is going to the opposite extreme, by offering a plug-in that ports their content directly onto blogs. There’s also a good discussion on the future of paywalls at the Strange Attractor blog. Hint: people pay for the platform not the content,

More kerfuffle on embargoes this week around a study on menopause and the increasingly appropriately named Jonathan Leake. Ivan Oransky, as per usual, has a great take on the whole affair and Leake’s own thoughts. Fiona Fox is discusses Leake’s priors, Natasha Loder praises him and thinks he should be offered an apology, and Gimpyblog disagrees, having read the ESHRE’s media policy.

An interesting thought-provoking thread from Jack of Kent on the image of skepticism, with some great comments building up.

A truly inspiring interview with Eric Roston on science journalism, writing, new media and more, brought to you by Bora Zivkovic.

Scott Rosenberg at Wordyard is knocking them out of the park at the moment, with two great posts on journalists and public criticism, and the recent journo/blogger war (Episode #38302) at the Washington Post. Meanwhile, Brian Cubbison has another excellent piece on journos/bloggers (Episode #38303). I loved this: “Anyone who speaks of bloggers vs. journalists should be made to show their work. Strengthen the argument with links to actual bloggers and journalists. Anyone who uses the saggy, worn-out cliche of bloggers in pajamas should name one, just one, or be made to take down that sign above the desk, “When your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

“Do arrogant, condescending, and dismissive attitudes contribute to the journalism crisis?” asks Abel Pharmboy. This isn’t one of those question headlines where the answer is no…

Renew your freedom | Bad Astronomy

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Every year on this date, I take a few minutes and read The Declaration of Independence*. For my money, it’s one of the greatest documents ever written in the English language.

I know not all of my readers are Americans. Even if you’re not, the Declaration is a fantastic work and you should read it. And if you have the time — and you should make the time — read The Bill of Rights, too. You may not be from a country with the same laws we do, the same values we do, or the same attitudes we do, but the Founders of the United States of America had some pretty good ideas about what the citizens have the right to do, and what the government does not.

Living up to those ideas, those ideals, is what America is about. These freedoms are not given, they are earned, and must always be protected. Remember:

Happy 234th, America.

* I was not surprised at all to find out that Adam Savage has the same tradition.


Scientists Listen to the Public? Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Mooney! | The Intersection

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Andrew Maynard publishes a wonderful satire on this topic. An excerpt:
But I am a reasonable man Mr. Mooney. And so I thought I would at least give your naive and misguided ideas a go. So after cleaning up the Cheerios and milk spattered across my Washington Post, I grabbed myself a member of the public and tried listening to them.
As I suspected, it was a disaster.
Accosting the first person I came across, I asked them a few simple questions:
Me: What’s the second law of thermodynamics?
Member of the public: Err, um…
Me: Okay, forget that. How do airplanes fly?
Member of the public: Err, excuse me, could you just loosen your grip a little…
Me: Come on come on, I’m trying to listen to you – say something intelligent. Please! Why don’t you accept evolution? Why do you believe vaccines cause autism in children? Why don’t you understand simple statistics? Why are you so stupid?
Member of the public: Get your hands off me now, or see me in court!
You see what I mean Mr. Mooney? There’s no reasoning with these people! Listen to them? I’d rather listen to a lamp post. Read more: http://2020science.org/2010/07/04/scientist-listen-to-the-public-surely-youre-joking-mr-mooney/#ixzz0sj2YgXuE


This time it’s different | Gene Expression

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I’ve been hearing about structural adjustment due to technology and gains to productivity from people since the early 1990s. The sort of dynamic which motivated the original Luddites. But this chart from Calculated Risk makes me lean toward the proposition that the time is nigh. In relation to previous post-World War II recessions the big difference in unemployment seems to be in the area of the long term; these are those whose skills will degrade, and are probably least likely to reenter the labor force at an equivalent position.


DurationUnemploymentJune2010