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ENGADGET Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:05:00 EDT
Ken Mankoff is a PhD student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he studies ice and ocean interactions. He also counts himself among a growing legion of environmental scientists who have begun using Microsoft's Kinect to create detailed, 3D maps of caves, glaciers and even asteroids. As Wired reports, the Kinect has garnered something of a cult following within the scientific community, especially among those who, until now, have relied upon comparatively more expensive and complicated technologies to gather detailed 3D data. The approach du jour for most researchers is something known as Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) -- a laser-based technology capable of creating precise maps over relatively large areas. The Kinect, by contrast, can only see up to 16 feet in front of itself, but at just $120, it's significantly cheaper than the average LIDAR system, which can run for anywhere between $10,000 and $200,000. It's also surprisingly accurate, capable of........
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BHASKAR Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:04:36 GMT
London: Does the "God particle" exist? Scientists might have taken a crucial step toward a conclusive answer at the end of latest experiments conducted at CERN.
According to a statement issued by the research centre, scientists have arrived at an estimate of the mass of the particle, also called the Higgs boson.
"The Standard Model Higgs boson, if it exists, is most likely to have a mass constrained to the range 116-130 GeV by the ATLAS experiment, and 115-127 GeV by CMS," the statement said.
It added Higgs bosons, if they exist, are very short lived and can decay in many different ways.
The discovery is "sufficient to make significant progress in the search for the Higgs boson, but not enough to make any conclusive statement on the existence or non-existence of the elusive Higgs."
The Higgs boson is theoretically responsible for mass, without which there would be no gravity and no universe or anything measurable that exists on earth and elsewhere. Research for the God........
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SLASHDOT Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:59:00 GMT
Pierre Bezukhov writes "The roundworm has about 20,000 protein-coding genes — nearly as many as humans, who have about 23,000. Furthermore, there is a lot of overlap between our genome and theirs, with many genes performing roughly the same functions in both species. Launching C. elegans roundworms to Mars would allow scientists to see just how dangerous the high radiation levels found in deep space — and on the Red Planet's surface — are to animal life. 'Worms allow us to detect changes in growth, development, reproduction and behavior in response to environmental conditions such as toxins or in response to deep space missions,' said Nathaniel Szewczyk of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. 'Given the high failure rate of Mars missions, use of worms allows us to safely and relatively cheaply test spacecraft systems prior to manned missions,' he adds."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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BHASKAR Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:50:57 GMT
More than 13,000 guests at the Kennedy Space Centre witnessed the historic launch of NASA’s six-wheeled, one-armed wonder, Curiosity, on Saturday.
This car sized rover is the biggest and best equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet. The Atlas V initially lofted the spacecraft into Earth orbit and then, with a second burst from the vehicle's upper stage, pushed it out of Earth orbit into a 352-million-mile (567-million-kilometer) journey to Mars.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said," We are very excited about sending the world's most advanced scientific laboratory to Mars. MSL will tell us critical things we need to know about Mars, and while it advances science, we'll be working on the capabilities for a human mission to the Red Planet and to other destinations where we've never been."
Unlike the other Mars rovers sent earlier, Curiosity will use a drill and scoop at the end of its robotic arm to gather soil and powdered samples of rock interiors, then sieve and....
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GOOGLE Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:32:32 GMT
NASA successfully launched its "Curiosity" Mars probe from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 10:02 AM Saturday.
The one-ton probe left Earth aboard an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket, reported the Associated Press. More than 13,000 spectators were present to watch the launch of NASA's first mission to Mars in four years.
Curiosity will take eight and a half months to travel the 354 miles to Mars. It is due to land in a crater on the Red Planet on the morning of August 6, 2012.
More from GlobalPost: Russian space craft gets lost on way to Mars moon (VIDEO)
Once there, it will look for signs of Mars' ability to support microscopic life forms, the BBC said. The rover is equipped with 10 scientific instruments and a mobile laboratory that will allow it to sample and analyze soil and rocks.
That cargo makes Curiosity significantly more advanced than NASA's previous successful Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which each carried five scientific instruments on board.
Doug McCuistion,...
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GUARDIAN Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:39:24 GMT
The rover, part of the Mars Science Laboratory, will probe the Red Planet's secrets with a wide array of scientific instruments
The size of a small 4x4, it is about to embark on a 570m-kilometre, one-way trip costing $2.5bn to one of the most intriguing destinations in the solar system. On Saturday, Nasa plans to launch its Curiosity rover on the most ambitious mission yet to the Red Planet.
After years of delays and cost overruns, the US space agency believes the 23-month Mars Science Laboratory mission will provide crucial scientific information and an unprecedented level of knowledge of the planet's hostile terrain.
First among the mission's many objectives is, in Nasa's words, "to assess whether the landing area has ever had or still has environmental conditions favourable to microbial life".
"Mars really is the Bermuda Triangle of the solar system. It's the death planet," said Colleen Hartman, Nasa's assistant associate director at a pre-launch briefing with........
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GUARDIAN Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:01:07 GMT
Xbox 360/PS3/Wii; £39.99; cert 12+; Yukes/THQ
A friend of mine who is a massive wrestling fan once explained to me that the audience of the WWE (and indeed, most pro-wrestling shows) is divided into two camps: marks and sparks.
Marks, he said, believe everything they're watching is real. These are people young enough in mind to be swept up in the sheer spectacle of wrestling and are genuinely shocked when a heel defeats a face.
Sparks, on the other hand, he said, follow wrestling as much as a business as they do an entertainment form. This group could see the potential for the Montreal screwjob before it happened, and more than likely would to be able to tell you which high-profile superstars also happen to be fundamentalist Christians.
If my mate's definitions hold true then both Marks and Sparks will find an awful lot to enjoy in WWE 12. The game is fit to bursting point with content and customisation options, and offers a fairly decent, if slight flawed wrestling........
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