Science Updates

[annielaurie]

What made us human: 'unique' evolution gene found
November 15, 2012 - 11:08AM

Researchers have discovered a new gene they say helps explain how humans evolved from apes.

The gene, called miR-941, appears to have played a crucial role in human brain development and could shed light on how we learned to use tools and language, according to scientists.

A team at the University of Edinburgh compared it to 11 other species of mammals, including chimpanzees, gorillas, mice and rats.

The results, published in Nature Communications, showed that the gene is unique to humans.

The team believe it emerged between six and one million years ago, after humans evolved from apes ......

Okay, to get back to Rorschach's original post about this bit, from the top of page 7 ..

I would like to apologize for taking the thread off in another direction with the Theory of Evolution as a whole, and commenting on "creation science" where that really had nothing to do with the posts of the other members ..

I had not read all the posts as carefully as I should have, sorry for the confusion ..

[Super Nova]

Unhackable telecom networks a step closer. This is just the beginning of the next level of encryption technology around the corner. Quantum computing will leverage this technology ....

Researchers have come up with a way of protecting telecoms networks using quantum cryptography without the need for expensive dedicated optical fibre links.

Click on image below.

[Rorschach]

Sounds promising

[AiA in Atlanta]

Marco Rubio is expected to be a contender in the 2016 Republican primaries. Can a country remain competitive when science (and common sense is rejected)? Is geology a dispute among theologians like he says?

GQ: How old do you think the Earth is?

Marco Rubio: I'm not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that's a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I'm not a scientist. I don't think I'm qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries.

[Super Nova]

I think this is a worthwhile study on a real future threat to humanity or our next contribution to the evolution of intelligence in the universe.

Could robots threaten our own existence? Study to find out

Could computers become cleverer than humans and take over the world? Or is that just the stuff of science fiction?

Philosophers and scientists at Britain's Cambridge University think the question deserves serious study. A proposed Centre for the Study of Existential Risk will bring together experts to consider the ways in which super intelligent technology, including artificial intelligence, could "threaten our own existence", the institution said on Sunday.

"In the case of artificial intelligence, it seems a reasonable prediction that some time in this or the next century intelligence will escape from the constraints of biology," Cambridge philosophy professor Huw Price said.

When that happens, "we're no longer the smartest things around", he said, and will risk being at the mercy of "machines that are not malicious, but machines whose interests don't include us."

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci ... z2DHIR9Aop

[Super Nova]

Here is a great site I just found.

[Super Nova]

Astronomers say they have found possibly the biggest black hole ever observed, a leviathan with a mass 17 billion times that of the sun, brooding at the heart of a distant galaxy.

The black hole is as unexpected as it is vast, for it accounts for nearly a seventh of its galaxy's mass, a finding that may rewrite theories of cosmic formation, they said.

Named NGC 1277, the monster lies 220 million light years away in a small galaxy just a tenth the size of our Milky Way.

The hole's maw is more than 11 times wider than Neptune's orbit around the sun.

It accounts for a whopping 14 per cent of the galaxy's mass, compared with the 0.1 per cent that is the norm for galactic black holes.

"This is a really oddball galaxy," said Karl Gebhardt of the University of Texas at Austin in a press release. "It's almost all black hole. This could be the first object in a new class of galaxy black hole systems."

NGC 1277 is already the second biggest black hole ever observed, and it is a strong contender for the top spot, for the current record holder, spotted in 2011, has still not been precisely calculated. It is somewhere between six and 37 billion solar masses.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci ... z2DjBWEzhJ

[AiA in Atlanta]

And Mercury has been discovered to have water ...

[annielaurie]

Not convinced of galactic black holes, Atlanta? The proof is out there!

[AiA in Atlanta]

Not convinced of galactic black holes, Atlanta? The proof is out there!

I am convinced. And Mercury really does have water.

The discovery of huge amounts of water ice and possible organic compounds on the heat-blasted planet Mercury suggests that the raw materials necessary for life as we know it may be common throughout the solar system, researchers say.

Mercury likely harbors between 100 billion and 1 trillion metric tons of water ice in permanently shadowed areas near its poles, scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Messenger spacecraft announced Thursday (Nov. 29).

Life on sun-scorched Mercury remains an extreme longshot, the researchers stressed, but the new results should still put a spring in the step of astrobiologists around the world.

“The more we examine the solar system, the more we realize it’s a soggy place,” Jim Green, the director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, said during a press conference today.