Topic: SCIENCE - on June 9, 2008 at 12:42:11 PM CEST
Antarktis-Forscher horten 16488 Kondome
Sex ist ein gutes Mittel gegen Langeweile - und gegen Kälte. Der Meinung sind auch Wissenschaftler einer Forschungsstation in der Antarktis: Eine neuseeländische Zeitung berichtet von einer Großlieferung Verhütungsmittel vor Winterbeginn.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SCIENCE - on May 18, 2008 at 5:36:13 PM CEST
Happy Birthday, Lasers: Wired.com's Best Laser Stories
Lasers are like your favorite uncle who can do no wrong. You know, the one who's always hip to the latest technology, does amazing magic tricks at all the family dinners, always photographs well, and has more than once saved baby Med-Tech from a burning house of boring. All the other technologies wish they were he, and Wired.com readers openly admit he's their favorite.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SCIENCE - on May 16, 2008 at 3:57:14 PM CEST
Black Holes Don't Trap Information Forever
New calculations suggest that black holes are not a one-way street. Anything that falls into them may eventually come out. The findings lend important support to quantum gravity, but fly in the face of Einsteinian relativity. They also support Stephen Hawking's reluctant admission that information couldn't be destroyed by black holes. Penn State researcher Ahbay Ashtekar was quoted saying, 'Once we realized that the notion of space-time as a continuum is only an approximation of reality, it became clear to us that singularities are merely artifacts of our insistence that space-time should be described as a continuum.' Let the physics infighting begin
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SCIENCE - on May 14, 2008 at 3:15:07 PM CEST
Childish superstition: Einstein's letter makes view of religion relatively clear
Scientist's reply to sell for up to £8,000, and stoke debate over his beliefs.
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." So said Albert Einstein, and his famous aphorism has been the source of endless debate between believers and non-believers wanting to claim the greatest scientist of the 20th century as their own.
A little known letter written by him, however, may help to settle the argument - or at least provoke further controversy about his views.
Due to be auctioned this week in London after being in a private collection for more than 50 years, the document leaves no doubt that the theoretical physicist was no supporter of religious beliefs, which he regarded as "childish superstitions".
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SCIENCE - on April 26, 2008 at 4:05:00 PM CEST
How HAARP works
The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) has been entwined with controversy since its birth. Originally envisioned as a way to facilitate communications with nuclear-armed submarines, HAARP took almost two decades to build and has incurred around US$250 million in construction and operating costs. It consists of 360 radio transmitters and 180 antennas, and covers some 14 hectares near the town of Gakona about 250 kilometres northeast of Anchorage.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SCIENCE - on April 19, 2008 at 1:12:00 PM CEST
'Babelfish' to translate alien tongues could be built
If we ever make contact with intelligent aliens, we should be able to build a universal translator to communicate with them, according to a linguist and anthropologist in the US.
Such a "babelfish", which gets its name from the translating fish in Douglas Adams's book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, would require a much more advanced understanding of language than we currently have. But a first step would be recognising that all languages must have a universal structure, according to Terrence Deacon of the University of California, Berkeley, US.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SCIENCE - on April 18, 2008 at 12:49:00 PM CEST
Complete Darwin Papers Debut on Internet
The complete works of Charles Darwin -- a god among scientists and the bane of every creationist’s existence – are finally available for anyone, anywhere to read. And it only took 126 years and another scientific revolution to make it happen.
Cambridge University, where Darwin studied theology, has digitized and published on the internet its collection of some 30,000 items and 90,000 images by the man who changed the course of science by writing the evolutionary primer, The Origin of Species, in 1859.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SCIENCE - on April 17, 2008 at 3:42:00 PM CEST
Wie die Wissensgesellschaft betrogen wird
Das Wissen der Welt wächst explosiv. Doch aus Profitgier und Angst wird der Zugang zu neuen Erkenntnissen immer stärker beschränkt. Physik-Nobelpreisträger Robert B. Laughlin warnt in einem Essay für SPIEGEL ONLINE vor einem neuen dunklen Zeitalter der Desinformation und Ignoranz.
Wir stehen am Beginn des Informationszeitalters, in dem der Zugang zu Wissen in vielerlei Hinsicht wichtiger ist als der Zugang zu materiellen Ressourcen. Tatsächlich wird aber in dieser sogenannten Wissensgesellschaft der Zugang zu Informationen versperrt, und frei erworbene Erkenntnisse werden aus wirtschaftlichen, politischen oder militärischen Gründen als illegal erklärt. Die zunehmenden Bemühungen von Staaten, Unternehmen und Individuen, Konkurrenten um jeden Preis davon abzuhalten, bestimmte Dinge in Erfahrung zu bringen, die sie selbst wissen, hat zu einer erstaunlichen Ausweitung des Schutzes geistigen Eigentums im Urheberrecht und zu einer beträchtlichen Ausweitung staatlicher Geheimhaltungsmöglichkeiten geführt.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SCIENCE - on April 10, 2008 at 12:28:00 PM CEST
20 Percent of Scientists Admit Using Brain-Enhancing Drugs -- Do You?
Nature released the results of an online survey in which 20 percent of respondents, largely drawn from the scientific community, admitted to using brain-enhancing drugs like Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Provigil (modafinil).
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SCIENCE - on December 22, 2007 at 8:32:00 PM CET
Dolphins speak a contextual language
Listen to dolphins whistling to each other and you could be forgiven for thinking that they are having a conversation. Now we're a bit nearer to understanding what they might be saying, thanks to a project that has distinguished nearly 200 different whistles dolphins make and linked some of them to specific behaviours.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SCIENCE - on December 22, 2007 at 8:25:00 PM CET
Plexiglas-like DVD to hold 1TB of data
At the upcoming CES conference in Las Vegas, one company plans to demonstrate the ability to store half a terabyte of data on a DVD disc that is made of a polymer similar to Plexiglas.
Israel-based Mempile Inc. said its TeraDisc DVDs will offer 1TB of storage for consumers in the next few years -- and corporations will be able to use the technology to permanently store data at a fraction of the price of spinning disk and tape, according to Dr. Beth Erez, Mempile's chief marketing officer. Today's high-definition DVDs hold a maximum of 50GB in formats such as HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SCIENCE - on November 4, 2007 at 11:59:00 AM CET
World to gaze on King Tut's face
The face of one of Egypt's most mysterious ancient rulers, the boy king Tutankhamun, is being put on public view for the first time on Sunday.
His mummy is being displayed in a climate-controlled case inside his tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
