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2013-04-02 22:25:46 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Quantum-encrypted information transmitted by flying plane for first time

"Specifically, researchers from three institutes in Germany used a propeller plane equipped with a laser to exchange quantum communications keys with a telescope about 90 miles away [...] Still, with their first transmissions occurring at a sluggish 145 bits per second, it will take much more refinement before the first dedicated quantum satellites go into operation."

2013-04-01 08:29:06 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

Finally! The Substandard Model of Physics

"Now that we are on the verge of completing the Standard Model of Particle Physics, it’s time to look to the future of the field. Five physicists at CERN present their new state of the art theory: The Substandard Model of Physics"

2013-03-28 20:43:21 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 3 +1s)

NOvA Detector Sees First Particles

"The NOvA detector is still under construction in Ash River, Minn. However, using its first completed section, scientists have begun collecting data from cosmic rays—particles produced by a constant rain of atomic nuclei falling on the Earth’s atmosphere from space. The detector takes three-dimensional images of the particles' tracks as they pass through it."

2013-03-27 08:39:26 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Spontaneous and Task-Evoked Brain Activity Negatively Interact?

"We know that the brain is active all of the time. Even if you’re not doing anything in particular, there is ‘spontaneous’ (or resting-state) activation, which varies over time. But what if something in particular does happen, causing brain activation? Is that evoked activity a constant that simply gets added on to the pre-existing activity, or do they interact in some more complex way?"

2013-03-24 15:59:15 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

LHC has shut down. But what is going on there now?

Good to know these details...
"Data analysis continues, and we continue to set records for the level of activity from physicists who are preparing measurements and searches for new phenomena. We are also in the midst of a major reprocessing of all the data that we recorded during 2012, making use of our best knowledge of the detector and how it responds to particle collisions. This started shortly after the LHC run finished, and will probably take another couple of months. There is also some data that we are processing for the very first time. Knowing that we had a two-year shutdown ahead of us, we recorded extra events last year that we didn’t have the computing capacity to process in real time, but could save for later analysis during the shutdown. This ended up essentially doubling the number of eventsw... more »

2013-03-24 07:44:10 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 6 +1s)

The Long and Winding Road Of Recognizing Animal Intelligence

New research shows that we have grossly underestimated both the scope and the scale of animal intelligence. Primatologist Frans de Waal on memory-champ chimps, tool-using elephants and rats capable of empathy.

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2013-03-23 06:59:28 (11 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

72% Of Professors Who Teach Online Courses Don't Think Their Students Deserve Credit

2013-03-21 21:58:37 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

Planck's New Recipe of the Universe: Older, More Matter, Less Dark Energy

OK, these are old news from today (several hours ago), but still it's impressive - new map of the Universe made of first trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.

"On 21 March 2013 the Planck collaboration presented its first all-sky map of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which impressively confirms the standard model of cosmology and determines its parameters more accurately than ever before. At the same time, the researchers also found significant anomalies and inhomogeneities indicating that some aspects of the "standard model" are not yet understood."

2013-03-21 09:32:54 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

Did Voyager 1 Leave the Solar System or Not

The thing about crossing into uncharted territory is that you may not know when, exactly, you have crossed into it. No one needs to tell that to the Voyager 1 spacecraft, which is currently at the center of a controversy about where the solar system ends and interstellar space begins [...] On August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 saw a 90 percent drop in anomalous cosmic rays (those trapped in the solar system). At the same time, the number of galactic cosmic rays, from outside the Milky Way, doubled. [...] [but] the magnetic field is supposed to change at the edge of the solar system, when the Sun’s magnetic influence tapers off. The data of what Voyager is seeing in terms of magnetic field, however, have not been released yet

2013-03-19 07:37:00 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

Higgs: Useful Disclaimers

"...the Higgs had nothing whatsoever to do with causing the Big Bang. (Michio Kaku tries to link it to inflation, but they’re not related.) It also doesn’t “join everything,” whatever that means. It does give mass to elementary particles like electrons and quarks, which isn’t the same as giving “matter” (since that kind of doesn’t make any sense), and besides which it doesn’t give mass to protons and neutrons and therefore most of the mass in ordinary objects.
The “God Particle” label, despite being very catchy and therefore leading to more publicity than most elementary particles manage to muster, has done more harm than good for the public understanding of science. Non-experts, hearing that physicists have named something after God, might actually think they were being serious.Imagine that."... more »

2013-03-18 13:12:43 (1 comments, 3 reshares, 4 +1s)

Interesting: Phasers instead of Lasers

Using a nanoscale drum, scientists have built a laser that uses sound waves instead of light like a conventional laser.

Because laser is an acronym for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation,” these new contraptions – which exploit particles of sound called phonons – should properly be called phasers. Such devices could one day be used in ultrasound medical imaging, computer parts, high-precision measurements, and many other places.

2013-03-17 17:57:58 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 5 +1s)

Chemical in Bee Venom Kills HIV?

2013-03-16 13:32:32 (1 comments, 3 reshares, 7 +1s)

We have "a" Higgs boson

"No more Higgs-like, Higgs-ish or even Higgsy boson. The CMS and ATLAS collaborations, the two large experiments operating at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, have now gathered sufficient evidence to say that the new boson discovered last summer is almost certainly “a” Higgs boson. Note that we are going to call it “a” Higgs boson and not “the” Higgs boson since we still need more data to determine what type of Higgs boson we have found. But all the analysis conducted so far strongly indicates that we are indeed dealing with a type of Higgs boson..."

2013-03-16 01:05:18 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Detecting Who We Are Thinking About

"Scientists scanning the human brain can now tell whom a person is thinking of, the first time researchers have been able to identify what people are imagining from imaging technologies. Work to visualize thought is starting to pile up successes..." 

2013-03-07 11:26:40 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Latest news on the Higgs boson: Higgs-like particle still looking like the Higgs

"After six hours of presentations dedicated to the search for the Higgs boson at the Moriond conference, here is a summary of the many new results shown today..."

2013-02-28 16:25:14 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

The Universe is doomed to undergo some sort of “phase transition” at some distant time in the future?

"...we live in a Universe having parameters sitting just on the edge. Their calculations established that the stability of our Universe depends on the specific values assumed by various entities such as the masses of some fundamental particles. Assuming the new boson found last July is the Higgs boson and has a mass of 126 GeV, and injecting the known value of the top quark mass (roughly 173 ± 1 GeV), implies the Universe sits in a meta-stable region. This means the Universe is doomed to undergo some sort of “phase transition” at some distant time in the future."

2013-02-28 16:22:52 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Bad News: Standard Model Higgs?

"Turns out that the result points strongly towards the even-parity particle, which is consistent with the Standard Model Higgs."

2013-02-25 18:20:54 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

The great orchestral work of speech

"What goes on inside our heads is similar to an orchestra. For Peter Hagoort, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, this image is a very apt one for explaining how speech arises in the human brain. “There are different orchestra members and different instruments, all playing in time with each other, and sounding perfect together."

2013-02-22 11:35:41 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Meteorite Map Malarkey

"As is obvious within a few seconds of having tweeted the map purportedly showing “every meteorite that has hit Earth since 2300 BC”, the map actually just shows where the people are and where people have recorded meteorite impacts."

2013-02-20 00:41:24 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Some basic facts: Spectroscopy

"Spectroscopy is a technique that astronomers use to measure and analyze the hundreds of colors contained in the light emitted by stars, galaxies and other celestial objects.
Ordinary telescopes show the directions in which objects are located but offer no information on how far away these objects are.
Spectroscopic surveys make use of the fact that, as light travels to us from distant galaxies, it gets stretched out by the expanding universe and appears redder. By measuring the light spectrum of a galaxy, scientists can determine its redshift and thus its distance."

2013-02-04 13:15:26 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)

There is a blurry frontier between active and alive

"...The particles aren’t truly alive — but they’re not far off, either. Exposed to light and fed by chemicals, they form crystals that move, break apart and form again. “There is a blurry frontier between active and alive,” said biophysicist Jérémie Palacci of New York University. “That is exactly the kind of question that such works raise.” [...] The ultimate goal of the work is to study how complicated collective behaviors arise from simple individual properties, perhaps informing molecular self-assembly projects, but it’s hard not to think about the origin-of-life implications. “Here we show that with a simple, synthetic active system, we can reproduce some features of living systems,” Palacci said. “I do not think this makes our systems alive, but it stresses the fact that thelimit between the two i... more »

2013-01-26 12:02:34 (3 comments, 4 reshares, 10 +1s)

Anonymous Threatens Massive WikiLeaks-Style Exposure, Announced On Hacked Gov Site

As proof of their power, they announced details of the plan on hacked government website, the United States Sentencing Commission (USSG.gov). Citing the recent death of free information activist Aaron Swartz, they explain, “With Aaron’s death we can wait no longer. The time has come to show the United States Department of Justice and its affiliates the true meaning of infiltration.”

2013-01-20 23:37:51 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 4 +1s)

3D Printed Building

"Sure, 3D printing is fun and cute [...] But the possibilities of 3D printing stretch far beyond DIY at-home projects. In fact, it could entirely replace the construction industry."

For +ScienceSunday

2013-01-08 21:35:19 (1 comments, 8 reshares, 6 +1s)

Future Mars Colony. Help Wanted.

"Mars One, a nonprofit organization based in the Netherlands, intends to establish a human settlement on Mars in 2023. They need astronauts. Anyone on planet Earth can apply if they meet the basic requirements. But obviously, the job isn’t for just anyone. Today, Mars One released its application criteria..."

Check them now: http://goo.gl/8sxlQ
#scienceeveryday   #sciencesunday  

2013-01-04 17:21:10 (9 comments, 13 reshares, 15 +1s)

Quantum Gas Temperature Drops Below Absolute Zero [ultracold atoms pave way for negative-Kelvin materials]

"Physicists have created a quantum gas capable of reaching temperatures below absolute zero and paving the way for future quantum inventions [...] by tweaking the magnetic fields the research team were able to force the atoms to attract rather than repel one another and reveal the sub-absolute zero properties of the gas [...] Moving into the sub-absolute zero realm, matter begins to display odd properties."

Negative Absolute Temperature for Motional Degrees of Freedom - http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6115/52
Quantum gas goes below absolute zero - http://www.nature.com/news/quantum-gas-goes-below-absolute-zero-1.12146
A temperature below absolute zero - http://www.mpg.de/6776082/negative_absolute_temperature

For... more »

2013-01-03 23:17:51 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

Scientists have identified a never-before-seen type of meteorite from Mars that has 10 times more water and far more oxygen in it than any previous Martian sample.

2012-12-20 00:23:46 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

Cavemen drawings: Some funny statistics

"The experts of animal locomotion well know the characteristics of quadruped walking since the pioneering work of Eadweard Muybridge in the 1880s [...] The error rate of modern pre-Muybridgean quadruped walking illustrations was 83.5%, much more than the error rate of 73.3% of mere chance. It decreased to 57.9% after 1887, that is in the post-Muybridgean period. Most surprisingly, the prehistoric quadruped walking depictions had the lowest error rate of 46.2%. All these differences were statistically significant. Thus, cavemen were more keenly aware of the slower motion of their prey animals and illustrated quadruped walking more precisely than later artists."

#sciencesunday , #sciencesunday
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2012-12-17 23:20:18 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Social Sciences and Communication
This circle will give you exposure to Anthropology, Economics, Linguistics, Philosophy, Psychology/Neuroscience, Sociology, and it also contains K- 12 Science Teachers and Science Writers.

Join the Science on Google+ Community: http://goo.gl/uhJCN
Applied and Mathematical Sciences: http://goo.gl/l0prd
Natural Sciences: http://goo.gl/t8ljm
Ultimate Science Page Circle: http://goo.gl/Gu1EX

Add your Profile/Page to Science on Google+: A Public Database 
If you have a science related degree, you are a science journalist, you are a K-12 science teacher, or you curate a science page, then add your profile/page to the database by filling out this form (http://goo.gl/yEg7M). Please note that Profiles also have to circle +Science on Google+: A Public Database if you would like to be considered for shared circles.... more »

2012-12-15 11:00:00 (300 comments, 386 reshares, 963 +1s)

Two human look-a-like robots invented by Japanese engineers. They can talk to each other and were tested in hospitals. Few people felt uneasy in their presence.

#sciencesunday   #scienceeveryday  
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2012-12-13 12:41:36 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 2 +1s)

Different routes to depression

"Both studies used the same methods to trigger neurons in the same part of the brain… and got completely different effects. In Tye and Mirzabekov’s experiment, depressed mice resumed their normal behaviour. In Chaudhury and Walsh’s study, the resilient mice showed more depressed symptoms."

2012-12-09 19:55:30 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

The spectacular star-forming Carina Nebula has been captured in great detail by the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory.