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
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