Saturday, 22 October 2016
Schiaparelli: Mars probe 'crash site identified'
The gouge in the ground likely made by Europe's Schiaparelli probe as it hit the surface of Mars on Wednesday has been imaged by an American satellite.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has identified a large dark patch in the robot's targeted landing zone consistent with a high-velocity impact.
Schiaparelli is widely thought to have crashed and been destroyed.
Data transmitted from the probe before it lost contact indicated that its descent systems did not work properly.
Its parachute was jettisoned too early and its retrorockets, designed to slow the robot to a hover just above the surface, fired only for a few seconds. They should have operated for half a minute.
The MRO imagery is not quite definitive because the resolution is low - just six metres per pixel. Its context is persuasive, however.
The roughly 15m by 40m dark patch, which is probably dust and rock fragments thrown out from the impact, is sited some 5.5km west of Schiaparelli's expected touchdown point in the equatorial Meridiani Plain.
Tellingly, the feature is not present in previous MRO pictures of the location.
The clincher, though, may be the artefact 1km to the south of the patch. This white blob looks to be Schiaparelli's 15m-wide parachute which would have floated down behind the probe. Again, this was not present in earlier pictures.-read more
Walking down the 21st Century Gin Lane
A new piece of art commissioned by the Royal Society for Public Health reimagines William Hogarth's classic 1751 cartoon Gin Lane.
It depicts a society preoccupied by junk food rather than gin.
The original showed the debilitating effects of a gin craze sweeping London and a population suffering from deadly infections common at the time.
In contrast, Thomas Moore's new picture shows how obesity and mental health issues are today's big health threats.-read more
What is mild cognitive impairment (MCI)? is this my future?
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a condition in which someone has minor problems with cognition - their mental abilities such as memory or thinking. In MCI these difficulties are worse than would normally be expected for a healthy person of their age. However, the symptoms are not severe enough to interfere significantly with daily life, and so are not defined as dementia.
It is estimated that between 5 and 20 per cent of people aged over 65 have MCI. It is not a type of dementia, but a person with MCI is more likely to go on to develop dementia. This factsheet explains what MCI is, the link between MCI and dementia, and the benefits of diagnosing MCI. It then looks at treatments for MCI, ways to cope with the symptoms, and how you can reduce your risk of developing MCI and dementia. Many people who are diagnosed with MCI use this as an opportunity to change their lifestyle for the better. There is a lot that someone can do to help reduce their chances of MCI progressing to dementia.
Symptoms
The term MCI describes a set of symptoms, rather than a specific disease. A person with MCI has mild problems with one or more of the following:
- memory - for example, forgetting recent events or repeating the same question
- reasoning, planning or problem-solving - for example, struggling with thinking things through
- attention - for example, being very easily distracted
- language - for example, taking much longer than usual to find the right word for something
- visual depth perception - for example, struggling to interpret an object in three dimensions, judge distances or navigate stairs.-read more
Sunday, 16 October 2016
SIBERIAN ACCENTOR!” spotted in Britain
The White Rose County was about to enjoy a red letter day. I pressed the delete button.
Seconds before, I had been penning a paean to Shetland, where the birdwatching is as dramatic as the plots of the eponymous BBC police series.
In TV’s Shetland, detective Jimmy Perez deals with cases more intricate than the patterns on the islands’ knitwear. Its birdwatchers often have to unravel identification puzzles that would stretch even the formidable DI. Rarities come here from all over the world every autumn. Warblers and chats, thrushes and buntings arrive, hide and provide tantalising glimpses to locals and visitors.
This month an unprecedented, super-inflated anticyclone over Scandinavia has not only been blocking westerlies and their Atlantic fronts but also allowed an airflow with a strong, eastern bias.
And the wave of birds with a Siberian provenance sent Shetland birders into a state of ecstasy.-read more
Star the Duck becomes star of a new children's book about his adventures
NORTH Devon's favourite duck will soon be immortalised in print with the release of a new book about his adventures.
Star the Duck, and his owner Barrie Hayman, are a common sight on the streets of North Devon where Star charms locals and visitors into donating money to good causes.
Now Star is getting some star treatment thanks to a new children's book being released this month at a special event in Clovelly.
Read more at http://www.northdevonjournal.co.uk/star-the-duck-becomes-star-of-a-new-children-s-book-about-his-adventures/story-29784354-detail/story.html#O6ypLP2sAOcvHaHX.99
Kumbuka
After attempting to make a dramatic bid for freedom, Kumbuka the gorilla looked perfectly relaxed - despite being branded a 'psycho' by one of his keepers.
Zookeepers yesterday boarded up the glass partition which cracked as the 'agitated' gorilla escaped from its den - through a door which may have been left open.
on Saturday he was said to be more docile sat in a corner of the enclosure barely moving.
It comes as renowned conservationist Ian Redmond revealed he warned London Zoo about the poor design of the enclosure long before Kumbuka mounted his escape.
Ian Redmond, an expert in mountain gorillas, said that he had told staff a number of times that the Gorilla Kingdom, which cost £5m, was too exposed to visitors.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3839142/The-ape-escape-psycho-gorilla-Kumbuka-bid-freedom-smashing-window-cracked-London-Zoo-enclosure-crowds-warned-taunting-him.html#ixzz4NGtPVXku
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Can Plants Grow with Mars Soil?
In “The Martian,” Mark Watney uses the Martian soil to grow potatoes in the controlled environment of the “Hab.” In reality, the soil on Mars actually doeshave the nutrients plants would need to survive on Mars! There may not be the right amount of nutrients depending on where astronauts land on the Red Planet, so fertilizers may need to be added to the soil. The perchlorates in the soil would be leached out and separated from the water.
NASA is developing a simulant, a replication of Mars soil, to better understand how it can be used for plant growth and other purposes.
Here is what astronauts are doing with plants on the International Space Station today.
Gary Jordan
NASA Johnson Space Center read more
oh dear ,behind you.
in this photograph you can see a couple of unsuspecting photographers in Richmond park ,south west London, you can clearly see the large red stag is right behind them .
odd pizza delivery .
if you live in a riverfront home in kent you can expect a new pizza delivery service.the pizzas will be dispatched by service delivers wearing wet suits covered in buoyancy aid in a canoe.
romi hitches strange lift.
Mid Ulster identified as 'giant hotspot' by scientists
An area in Northern Ireland has been identified as a "giant hotspot" by scientists studying a gene defect which causes people to grow abnormally tall.
One in 150 people in Mid-Ulster were found to carry the gene, compared to one in 1,000 in Belfast and one in 2,000 in the rest of the UK.
More than three-quarters of carriers will never develop health issues, but it can cause long-term problems and be potentially life-threatening for those that do.
Scientists hope the work will help find those at risk of passing on the gene.
The gene - called AIP, but known as the "giant gene" - can result in too much growth hormone, which is produced and released by the pituitary gland, a pea-sized gland just below the brain.
The excessive production occurs as the result of a non-cancerous tumour in the gland.-read more and see video
day my tooth was chipped .
sorry folks another story from primary school in 70s.i was getting ready to tuck into a rice crispy pudding after dinner as i bite down i went into instant pain due to a small piece of my front tooth being chipped.to this day its still chipped mainly due to 2 reasons -part of me and fear of the dentist.
new colours for hard hats.
yes the humble yellow hard hat is getting a facelift and being replaced by a new colour code for them -build u.k- black - supervisor-orange -signalls-white -competent operative and vehicle marshal,blue -everyone else.site staff who are first aiders or fire marshals will have a sticker -http://builduk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Safety-Helmet-Colours-Build-UK-Standard.pdf
MICE WHISTLE LIKE A JET ENGINE TO ATTRACT A MATE
Mice make whistling noises to seek sex by using a mechanism similar to that of a jet engine inside their throats, research has found.
It was previously thought that these ‘Clangers’-style songs were either the result of a mechanism similar to that of a tea kettle, or of the resonance caused by the vibration of the vocal cords.
But a study co-authored at the University of Cambridge and published in the journal Current Biology has found that when mice ‘sing’, they use a mechanism similar to that seen in the engines of supersonic jets.
The high frequency whistles are used by mice to attract mates and for territorial defence.
“Mice make ultrasound in a way never found before in any animal,” said the study’s lead author Elena Mahrt, from Washington State University.
The researchers found that mice do not use vibrating vocal folds in their larynx to make their ultrasonic sounds.
Instead, they point a small air jet coming from the windpipe against the inner wall of the larynx, causing a resonance and producing an ultrasonic whistle.
Using ultra-high-speed video of 100,000 frames per second the researchers showed that the vocal folds remain completely still while ultrasound was coming from the mouse’s larynx.
“This mechanism is known only to produce sound in supersonic flow applications, such as -read more
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