IBMs World’s Smallest Movie, It’s Atomic!

Researchers from tech-behemoth IBM have unveiled – confirmed by Guinness World Records –  the world’s smallest movie, made with atoms. Named A Boy And His Atom, the movie used thousands of precisely placed atoms to create nearly 250 frames of stop-motion action.

The movie depicts a character named Atom who befriends a single atom and goes on a journey that includes dancing, playing catch and bouncing on a trampoline. Set to a playful musical track, the movie represents a unique way to convey science outside the research community.

It takes around 1 million atoms to store a single bit of data on a computer, a bit being the basic unit of information in computing. Recently, IBM Research announced it can store that same bit of information in just 12 atoms.  In order to make the movie atoms were moved with a scanning tunnelling microscope. The microscope weighs two tonnes, operates at minus 268 degrees Celsius and magnifies the atomic surface more than 100 million times :: Read the full article »»»»

50 Million Pixel All-sky Snapshot Maps Oldest Light

A new, super detailed map of the most ancient light-radiation in the cosmos has revealed our universe to be almost 90 million years older than previously thought, providing a more accurate view of the universes standard model.

The 50-million pixel, all-sky snapshot of radiation left over from the Big Bang was compiled from data gathered by the European Space Agency – ESA – Planck satellite, launched four years ago. Planck was created as part of ESA’s  Horizon 2000 Scientific Programme.

The snapshot depicts Cosmic Microwave Background – CMB – or relic radiation at a point 380,000 years after the Big Bang, as the newly-formed universe started cooling down.

Planck was launched in May 2009, reaching the Earth/Sun’s L2 point in July, and by February 2010 had successfully started a second all-sky survey. according to the ESA team the universe is 13.798 billion years old, it contains nearly 5 percent ordinary matter, 27 per cent dark matter and a whopping 68 per cent dark energy :: Read the full article »»»»

Australian Scientists Bring EXTINCT Gastric Brooding Frog Back From Extinction

A frog that can swallow its eggs, brood its young in its gut and give birth through its mouth. The gastric Brooding Frog has been extinct for more than 30 years ago, but the extraordinary amphibian is about to be un-extinct.

In a world first, a team of Australian scientists has taken the first major step in bringing it back to life. They have successfully reactivated its DNA and produced a viable embryo.

The scientists located a frozen carcasses and have been able to recover tissue from the Gastric Brooding Frog. Using a technique known as SCNT, somatic cell nuclear transfer – creating a clone embryo with a donor nucleus – they implanted the long-dead cell nucleus from the extinct species into a fresh egg from related frog :: Read the full article »»»»

Our Planet Hottest Since Human Civilisation

Earth is on track to becoming the hottest it has been at any time in the past 11.3 millennia, a period spanning the history of human civilisation, a new study says.

Based on fossil samples and other data collected from 73 sites around the world, scientists have been able to reconstruct the history of the planet’s temperature from the end of the last Ice Age around 11,000 years ago to the present.

They have determined the past 10 years have been hotter than 80 per cent of the past 11,300 years.

However virtually all the climate models evaluated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predict Earth’s atmosphere will be hotter in the coming decades than at any time since the end of the Ice Age.

This finding is resolute no matter what greenhouse gas emission scenario is used, the study found :: Read the full article »»»»

Erectile Dysfunctions Link With Heart Disease?

New Australian research has found men suffering even mild erectile dysfunction could have heart disease without knowing it. The Sax Institute’s 45 and Up Study is one of the largest on-going studies of healthy ageing in the world.

Doctors who looked at more than 95,000 men found that erectile dysfunction may be a symptom of cardiovascular disease. The study found that men with erectile dysfunction have a higher risk of being admitted to hospital with heart disease, even if they have no history of heart problems.

This is because erectile dysfunction can indicate problems with blood vessels and poor blood flow. The study notes that erectile dysfunction is common, with an estimated 40 per cent of men over 40 experiencing it ::  Read the full article »»»»

Britain’s Halley VI Antarctic Research Station Opens

REBLOG! Just over a 100 years after Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Antarctic expedition came to a tragic end, Britain’s latest and greatest Antarctic Research Station has opened. The facility will become fully operational over the coming weeks.

The new research station replaces the 20-year old Halley V, and is the 6th incarnation to occupy the floating Brunt Ice Shelf. The region has been occupied by British science stations since a Royal Society expedition in 1957.

The $US40 million facility was designed by Hugh Broughton Architects and engineering firm AECOM, and represents a continued commitment from the UK’s scientific community to maintain a cutting-edge facility in the region :: Read the full post at Gizmag »»»»