8/21/08
Russian Atomic Submarine in the cold waters of Arctics
There are a lot of Russian submarines cruising through the cold waters of Arctics, sometimes being caught in ice, sometimes giving magnificent looks to the dwellers of Russian polar villages, like a huge atomic submarine among icebergs of cold sea at dawn.
8/20/08
The M2-F1, An Aircraft without Wings !
The M2-F1 lifting body being towed aloft before its first free flight above Edwards Air Force Base in August 1963.
The vehicle which began that era - the M2-F1 - was an unlikely forefather to the shuttle.
The vehicle which began that era - the M2-F1 - was an unlikely forefather to the shuttle.
The world's first manned lifting body, the M2-F1 was made of wood, had an internal framework of steel tubes, looked like a bathtub sitting on a tricycle, and had no wings.
Conceived by NASA engineers at the Ames Research Center, the lifting body was intended as an alternative to a capsule spacecraft, which returned to Earth dangling under a parachute.
Conceived by NASA engineers at the Ames Research Center, the lifting body was intended as an alternative to a capsule spacecraft, which returned to Earth dangling under a parachute.
A lifting body was not a conventional winged aircraft, but rather, used air flowing over its fuselage to generate lift. This design allowed it to renter the atmosphere and land on a runway like a conventional airplane.
The idea of an aircraft without wings met with skepticism among engineers. R. Dale Reed of the NASA Flight Research Center (now the Dryden Flight Research Center) was the exception.
The idea of an aircraft without wings met with skepticism among engineers. R. Dale Reed of the NASA Flight Research Center (now the Dryden Flight Research Center) was the exception.
Reed was excited about the concept, and began testing a series of small balsa wood and tissue-paper lifting bodies which he flew down the hallways of the center's main office building and off its roof.
Reed was successful in raising interest in the concept, and center director Paul Bikle approved discretionary funding to construct a "homebuilt" lifting body called the M2-F1 (for "Manned 2 Flight 1).
Noted sailplane builder Gus Briegleb, who built wooden high-performance sailplanes at his facility at the El Mirage Airport some 40 miles from the center, was engaged to build the fuselage.
Reed was successful in raising interest in the concept, and center director Paul Bikle approved discretionary funding to construct a "homebuilt" lifting body called the M2-F1 (for "Manned 2 Flight 1).
Noted sailplane builder Gus Briegleb, who built wooden high-performance sailplanes at his facility at the El Mirage Airport some 40 miles from the center, was engaged to build the fuselage.
The internal framework was built in a curtained-off section of Briegleb's hangar with a sign reading "Wright's Bicycle Shop." Using volunteer help from center personnel, Reed kept the cost of building the M2-F1 to about $30,000.
Because the M2-F1 was unpowered, a tow vehicle was required. Walter "Whitey" Whiteside, a hot-rod enthusiast who worked at the center, was sent to purchase a new 1963 Pontiac convertible. Following modification at two race shops, the car was capable of reaching 110 miles per hour with the M2-F1 in tow.
The first car tow attempts were made on March 1, 1963, with NASA research pilot Milton O. "Milt" Thompson in the cockpit. The M2-F1 vehicle bounced back and forth on its main landing gear, and was unable to lift off the lakebed surface.
Following the poor results, the M2-F1 was taken to the Ames Research Center outside San Francisco for wind tunnel testing, which lasted until March 15. The vehicle's control system was modified based on the data.
The second attempt to fly came on April 5, 1963. Thompson was able to lift off and remain airborne for longer periods of time while the tow car roared across the lakebed.
Because the M2-F1 was unpowered, a tow vehicle was required. Walter "Whitey" Whiteside, a hot-rod enthusiast who worked at the center, was sent to purchase a new 1963 Pontiac convertible. Following modification at two race shops, the car was capable of reaching 110 miles per hour with the M2-F1 in tow.
The first car tow attempts were made on March 1, 1963, with NASA research pilot Milton O. "Milt" Thompson in the cockpit. The M2-F1 vehicle bounced back and forth on its main landing gear, and was unable to lift off the lakebed surface.
Following the poor results, the M2-F1 was taken to the Ames Research Center outside San Francisco for wind tunnel testing, which lasted until March 15. The vehicle's control system was modified based on the data.
The second attempt to fly came on April 5, 1963. Thompson was able to lift off and remain airborne for longer periods of time while the tow car roared across the lakebed.
After several flights, he was able to remain aloft for the whole four miles of the run.
During the spring and summer, Thompson made more car tow flights, to higher speeds and altitudes.
The first M2-F1 free flight came on August 16, 1963. A C-47 towed the M2-F1 to an altitude of about 5,200 feet above the lakebed.
The first M2-F1 free flight came on August 16, 1963. A C-47 towed the M2-F1 to an altitude of about 5,200 feet above the lakebed.
Thompson released the towline and began a steep descent. The flight lasted under two minutes, with an average descent rate of 4,000 feet per minute. The M2-F1 handled well during the brief flight.
Thompson made several more flights during the summer and fall. By the time the M2-F1 was retired on August 18, 1966, it had made 77 air tow flights and about 400 car tows.
By this time, the first "heavyweight" lifting body, the M2-F2, had begun flights, launched from the NB-52 mothership. The M2-F2's design was similar to the M2-F1, and had similar flight characteristics during its unpowered phase.
Thompson made several more flights during the summer and fall. By the time the M2-F1 was retired on August 18, 1966, it had made 77 air tow flights and about 400 car tows.
By this time, the first "heavyweight" lifting body, the M2-F2, had begun flights, launched from the NB-52 mothership. The M2-F2's design was similar to the M2-F1, and had similar flight characteristics during its unpowered phase.
This and the subsequent manned lifting bodies, the HL-10, X-24A, M2-F3, and the X-24B, set the stage for construction of the space shuttles.
Although in the end the lifting body design was rejected for the shuttle, the lifting bodies provided extensive data on the aerodynamics and controllability of a low lift-over-drag unpowered vehicle that was directly applicable to the design of the shuttles.
The M2-F1 was restored in the mid-1990s, and returned to NASA Dryden in August 1997 where it remains on display today.
Although in the end the lifting body design was rejected for the shuttle, the lifting bodies provided extensive data on the aerodynamics and controllability of a low lift-over-drag unpowered vehicle that was directly applicable to the design of the shuttles.
The M2-F1 was restored in the mid-1990s, and returned to NASA Dryden in August 1997 where it remains on display today.
/SPACE MART
8/18/08
The Bedol Digital Eco-friendly Clock Powered by Water !
The Bedol Digital Eco-Friendly Clock is powered by a splash of water and a dash of salt, it keeps perfect time with no batteries.
Sounds like magic, it’s just simple science. Electrodes harvest energy from the water.
A clock that improves environment, both inside and out. Measures approximately 4 inches high by about 3 1/2 inches wide.
The Bedol Wall Wave Clock is available in four different colors: blue, charcoal, green and orange.
8/17/08
SILENT ALARM CLOCK !
Alarm clocks usually jolt us awake leading us to reach for the almighty snooze button.
Silence is a conceptual alarm clock that allows you to program multiple alarms and wakes you without any sound.
Each person wears a wireless rubber ring with an integrated vibration device that generates a tactile alarm.
The snooze function is engaged by shaking your hand.
However, each successive time you want to snooze, more movement is required, making sure you get to work on time.
Designer: Johan Brengesjo
Designer: Johan Brengesjo
8/16/08
CREATIVE DESIGNS FOR SKATEBOARDS !
A skateboard is a very personal possession and I would go to great lengths to “customize” it to death with stickers and colorful wheels.
Well the days of limited customizability are gone forever with these jaw dropping skateboard design by Corbus Boards.
Dispensing with standard wood, these aluminum boards weigh about as much as a standard long board and can be cut to any design you like (as long as your design allows for proper foot placement).
Somewhere between trick board and long board, these boards are not for riding rails but seriously tricked out regardless.
Well the days of limited customizability are gone forever with these jaw dropping skateboard design by Corbus Boards.
Dispensing with standard wood, these aluminum boards weigh about as much as a standard long board and can be cut to any design you like (as long as your design allows for proper foot placement).
Somewhere between trick board and long board, these boards are not for riding rails but seriously tricked out regardless.
8/15/08
A Piece of Olympic Fever
The 2008 Olympics in Beijing are arguably the best Olympics in recent history.
If you’re just dying for a piece of the action, why not a memento that looks right at home in the festivities.
This lacquered red clock looks likes a traditional Chinese talisman with each hour on the face represented by one of the 12 major Olympic sports.
Designer: QianJun Gao
8/14/08
Venomous Lionfish prowls fragile Caribbean waters
By DAVID McFADDEN, Associated Press Writer
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A maroon-striped marauder with venomous spikes is rapidly multiplying in the Caribbean's warm waters, swallowing native species, stinging divers and generally wreaking havoc on an ecologically delicate region.
The red lionfish, a tropical native of the Indian and Pacific oceans that probably escaped from a Florida fish tank, is showing up everywhere — from the coasts of Cuba and Hispaniola to Little Cayman's pristine Bloody Bay Wall, one of the region's prime destinations for divers.
Wherever it appears, the adaptable predator corners fish and crustaceans up to half its size with its billowy fins and sucks them down in one violent gulp.
Research teams observed one lionfish eating 20 small fish in less than 30 minutes.
"This may very well become the most devastating marine invasion in history," said Mark Hixon, an Oregon State University marine ecology expert who compared lionfish to a plague of locusts. "There is probably no way to stop the invasion completely."
A white creature with maroon stripes, the red lionfish has the face of an alien and the ribbony look of something that survived a paper shredder — with poisonous spikes along its spine to ward off enemies.
The invasion is similar to that of other aquarium escapees such as walking catfish and caulerpa, a fast-growing form of algae known as "killer seaweed" for its ability to crowd out native plants. The catfish are now common in South Florida, where they threaten smaller fish in wetlands and fish farms.
In Africa, the Nile Perch rendered more than 200 fish species extinct when it was introduced into Lake Victoria. The World Conservation Union calls it one of the 100 worst alien species invasions.
"Those kinds of things happen repeatedly in fresh water," Hixon said. "But we've not seen such a large predatory invasion in the ocean before."
The lionfish so far has been concentrated in the Bahamas, where marine biologists are seeing it in every habitat: in shallow and deep reefs, off piers and beaches, and perhaps most worrisome, in mangrove thickets that are vital habitats for baby fish.
Some spots in the Bahamian archipelago between New Providence and the Berry Islands are reporting a tenfold increase in lionfish just during the last year.
Northern Caribbean islands have sounded the alarm, encouraging fishermen to capture lionfish and divers to report them for eradication.
The invasion would be "devastating" to fisheries and recreational diving if it reached Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to Eugenio Pineiro-Soler of the Caribbean Fishery Management Council.
"I think at the best they will have a huge impact on reef fish, and at the worst will result in the disappearance of most reef fish," said Bruce Purdy, a veteran dive operator who has helped the marine conservation group REEF with expeditions tracking the invasion.
Purdy said he has been stung several times while rounding up lionfish — once badly.
"It was so painful, it made me want to cut my own hand off," he said.
Researchers believe lionfish were introduced into the Atlantic in 1992, when Hurricane Andrew shattered a private aquarium and six of them spilled into Miami's Biscayne Bay, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Biologists think the fish released floating sacs of eggs that rode the Gulf Stream north along the U.S. coast, leading to colonization of deep reefs off North Carolina and Bermuda. Lionfish have even been spotted as far north as Rhode Island in summer months, NOAA said.
They are not aggressive toward humans, and their sting is not fatal. There are no estimates so far of tourists who have been stung. But marine officials say swimmers will be more at risk as the venomous species overtakes tropical waters along popular Caribbean beaches.
The slow-moving fish, which measures about 18 inches, is easy to snare, though lionfish swim too deep for divers to catch in nets — a common method of dealing with invasive species.
So researchers are scrambling to figure out what will eat the menacing beauties in their new Caribbean home, experimenting with predators such as sharks, moray eels — and even humans.
Adventurous eaters describe the taste of lionfish fillets as resembling halibut. But so far, they are a tough sell. Hungry sharks typically veer abruptly when researchers try to hand-feed them a lionfish.
"We have gotten (sharks) to successfully eat a lionfish, but it has been a lot of work. Most of our attempts with the moray eel have been unsuccessful," said Andy Dehart of the National Aquarium in Washington, who is working with REEF in the Bahamas.
One predator that will eat lionfish is grouper, which are rare in the lionfish's natural Southeast-Asian habitat. Scientists are pinning long-range hopes on the establishment of new ocean reserves to protect grouper and other lionfish predators from overfishing.
Hixon said there is some evidence that lionfish have not invaded reefs of the fully protected Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, a 176-square-mile reserve southeast of Nassau. But unprotected locations in the vast archipelago are more vulnerable.
Containing the spread of the lionfish is an uphill fight. As lionfish colonize more territory in the Caribbean, they feed on grazing fish that keep seaweed from overwhelming coral reefs already buffeted by climate change, pollution and other environmental pressures.
Dehart said: "If we start losing these smaller reef fish as food to the lionfish ... we could be in a whirlwind for bad things coming to the reef ecosystem."
/Yahoo
The red lionfish, a tropical native of the Indian and Pacific oceans that probably escaped from a Florida fish tank, is showing up everywhere — from the coasts of Cuba and Hispaniola to Little Cayman's pristine Bloody Bay Wall, one of the region's prime destinations for divers.
Wherever it appears, the adaptable predator corners fish and crustaceans up to half its size with its billowy fins and sucks them down in one violent gulp.
Research teams observed one lionfish eating 20 small fish in less than 30 minutes.
"This may very well become the most devastating marine invasion in history," said Mark Hixon, an Oregon State University marine ecology expert who compared lionfish to a plague of locusts. "There is probably no way to stop the invasion completely."
A white creature with maroon stripes, the red lionfish has the face of an alien and the ribbony look of something that survived a paper shredder — with poisonous spikes along its spine to ward off enemies.
The invasion is similar to that of other aquarium escapees such as walking catfish and caulerpa, a fast-growing form of algae known as "killer seaweed" for its ability to crowd out native plants. The catfish are now common in South Florida, where they threaten smaller fish in wetlands and fish farms.
In Africa, the Nile Perch rendered more than 200 fish species extinct when it was introduced into Lake Victoria. The World Conservation Union calls it one of the 100 worst alien species invasions.
"Those kinds of things happen repeatedly in fresh water," Hixon said. "But we've not seen such a large predatory invasion in the ocean before."
The lionfish so far has been concentrated in the Bahamas, where marine biologists are seeing it in every habitat: in shallow and deep reefs, off piers and beaches, and perhaps most worrisome, in mangrove thickets that are vital habitats for baby fish.
Some spots in the Bahamian archipelago between New Providence and the Berry Islands are reporting a tenfold increase in lionfish just during the last year.
Northern Caribbean islands have sounded the alarm, encouraging fishermen to capture lionfish and divers to report them for eradication.
The invasion would be "devastating" to fisheries and recreational diving if it reached Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to Eugenio Pineiro-Soler of the Caribbean Fishery Management Council.
"I think at the best they will have a huge impact on reef fish, and at the worst will result in the disappearance of most reef fish," said Bruce Purdy, a veteran dive operator who has helped the marine conservation group REEF with expeditions tracking the invasion.
Purdy said he has been stung several times while rounding up lionfish — once badly.
"It was so painful, it made me want to cut my own hand off," he said.
Researchers believe lionfish were introduced into the Atlantic in 1992, when Hurricane Andrew shattered a private aquarium and six of them spilled into Miami's Biscayne Bay, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Biologists think the fish released floating sacs of eggs that rode the Gulf Stream north along the U.S. coast, leading to colonization of deep reefs off North Carolina and Bermuda. Lionfish have even been spotted as far north as Rhode Island in summer months, NOAA said.
They are not aggressive toward humans, and their sting is not fatal. There are no estimates so far of tourists who have been stung. But marine officials say swimmers will be more at risk as the venomous species overtakes tropical waters along popular Caribbean beaches.
The slow-moving fish, which measures about 18 inches, is easy to snare, though lionfish swim too deep for divers to catch in nets — a common method of dealing with invasive species.
So researchers are scrambling to figure out what will eat the menacing beauties in their new Caribbean home, experimenting with predators such as sharks, moray eels — and even humans.
Adventurous eaters describe the taste of lionfish fillets as resembling halibut. But so far, they are a tough sell. Hungry sharks typically veer abruptly when researchers try to hand-feed them a lionfish.
"We have gotten (sharks) to successfully eat a lionfish, but it has been a lot of work. Most of our attempts with the moray eel have been unsuccessful," said Andy Dehart of the National Aquarium in Washington, who is working with REEF in the Bahamas.
One predator that will eat lionfish is grouper, which are rare in the lionfish's natural Southeast-Asian habitat. Scientists are pinning long-range hopes on the establishment of new ocean reserves to protect grouper and other lionfish predators from overfishing.
Hixon said there is some evidence that lionfish have not invaded reefs of the fully protected Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, a 176-square-mile reserve southeast of Nassau. But unprotected locations in the vast archipelago are more vulnerable.
Containing the spread of the lionfish is an uphill fight. As lionfish colonize more territory in the Caribbean, they feed on grazing fish that keep seaweed from overwhelming coral reefs already buffeted by climate change, pollution and other environmental pressures.
Dehart said: "If we start losing these smaller reef fish as food to the lionfish ... we could be in a whirlwind for bad things coming to the reef ecosystem."
/Yahoo
8/12/08
Microbes could travel from Venus to Earth !
venus, with its boiling-hot surface, doesn't seem a likely place to find ET. But a new paper argues not only that Venusian clouds could harbor microbial life, but also that the life there could potentially hitch a ride aboard the solar wind to Earth. The possibility for microbial life on Venusian clouds has been suggested before, though it's still not widely thought to be likely. However, the assertion that this life could potentially float from Venus to Earth is novel, and contentious.
The clouds on Venus are thought to be the planet's best bet for life because the temperatures there are cooler than at the too-hot surface, and water vapor has been detected in the atmosphere.
"The temperature and pressure there are entirely congenial to the survival of certain types of microbes," said researcher Chandra Wickramasinghe of the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology at Cardiff University in Wales. "Microbes are known to survive in similar environments on Earth."
In particular, bacteria that have been found in extreme conditions in sulfurous hot springs on Earth would also thrive in the Venusian clouds, he said.
Wickramasinghe, writing with co-author Janaki Wickramasinghe in the June 2008 issue of the journal Astrophysics and Space Science, further suggests that these microbes could potentially be transferred from Venus to Earth by the solar wind, the stream of charged particles that is continuously ejected from the sun. This stream is known to sometimes carry charged particles, called ions, from Venus' upper atmosphere off the planet, though no one has ever suggested it could carry heavier dust particles or microbes.
"We point out that Venus and Earth are very close in terms of proximity," Chandra Wickramasinghe told SPACE.com. "There are occasions where Venus and Earth are aligned, which would be the best possible time for any exchange of material from Venus to Earth."
The last such alignment took place in 2004 and the next will happen in 2012, he said.
Skeptics
But other scientists are skeptical that the solar wind would be able to carry these particles between the two planets.
First of all, the possibly life-harboring clouds are much too low, said David Grinspoon, an astrobiologist at the University of Arizona who was on the science team for the European Space Agency's Venus Express satellite mission.
"It's a much higher altitude where the solar wind is sweeping ions away from the planet," he said. "There's a huge physical disconnect between the clouds and the material that's being swept away by the solar wind."
But Wickramasinghe contends that convection in the atmosphere could be enough to lift these particles to the heights needed to be picked up by the solar wind.
Too heavy?
Another issue is whether the dust particles and microbes, if they did manage to be lofted to the upper atmosphere, would be too heavy to be carried away by the solar wind, which has only been observed to lift up light ions.
"Dust particles are orders of magnitude heavier than these ions and there's not enough energy in the solar wind to be knocking them out of the atmosphere," Grinspoon said. "I'm skeptical that you could really get them up to that height but even if you could you would still need a way to eject them. That's a whole different ballgame. It's like saying because I've got a window open and there's air leaking out, therefore my bed might somehow fly out the window into my backyard."
Janet Luhmann, a geophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley, calculated that the heavy microbes would need vastly more energy to escape Venus' gravity than the ions do, which is probably beyond the capability of the solar wind to provide.
"While this idea is interesting, it doesn't look too good when the numbers are applied," she said.
Wickramasinghe maintains that the process is reasonable though, if the force of the solar wind combines with pressure from the sun's radiation to pull the particles off Venus.
"I concede that the processes are speculative and need to be discussed more carefully, but the fact remains that if there is microbial life on Venus, being lifted to high enough altitudes through convective motion, then the transfer is a possibility."
Grinspoon countered that while speculations are fine, it's important to back it up with reasonable science.
"It's OK to pursue speculative ideas because we don't want to be too cozy and safe and assume that we know everything about life in the universe," he said. "However, we have to be rigorous and careful and honest and logical and scientifically meticulous when we speculate. They have not done that. When somebody does this and calls it astrobiology, it risks discrediting the entire field and associating this necessary speculative edge of astrobiology with complete pseudoscience."
Evidence or drawing?
He took special issue with one figure in Wickramasinghe's paper. The caption reads, "Evidence of solar wind excavating the atmosphere of Venus."
"Evidence? There's no evidence there, it's just a drawing!" he said. "I can't believe, if this was peer reviewed, that somebody didn't point this out."
Indeed, David Brain, a University of California, Berkeley scientist on the Venus Express team who released the image, said it was "definitely an illustration."
But Wickramasinghe defended calling the picture evidence.
"The color picture is a representation of data," he said. "I wouldn't call it an artists' depiction. If it was an artist's depiction, it was based on data from the satellite."
While Brain said the image itself wasn't evidence for solar wind excavation of the Venus atmosphere, he did confirm that the Venus Express mission found ample proof that this process is going on.
The clouds on Venus are thought to be the planet's best bet for life because the temperatures there are cooler than at the too-hot surface, and water vapor has been detected in the atmosphere.
"The temperature and pressure there are entirely congenial to the survival of certain types of microbes," said researcher Chandra Wickramasinghe of the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology at Cardiff University in Wales. "Microbes are known to survive in similar environments on Earth."
In particular, bacteria that have been found in extreme conditions in sulfurous hot springs on Earth would also thrive in the Venusian clouds, he said.
Wickramasinghe, writing with co-author Janaki Wickramasinghe in the June 2008 issue of the journal Astrophysics and Space Science, further suggests that these microbes could potentially be transferred from Venus to Earth by the solar wind, the stream of charged particles that is continuously ejected from the sun. This stream is known to sometimes carry charged particles, called ions, from Venus' upper atmosphere off the planet, though no one has ever suggested it could carry heavier dust particles or microbes.
"We point out that Venus and Earth are very close in terms of proximity," Chandra Wickramasinghe told SPACE.com. "There are occasions where Venus and Earth are aligned, which would be the best possible time for any exchange of material from Venus to Earth."
The last such alignment took place in 2004 and the next will happen in 2012, he said.
Skeptics
But other scientists are skeptical that the solar wind would be able to carry these particles between the two planets.
First of all, the possibly life-harboring clouds are much too low, said David Grinspoon, an astrobiologist at the University of Arizona who was on the science team for the European Space Agency's Venus Express satellite mission.
"It's a much higher altitude where the solar wind is sweeping ions away from the planet," he said. "There's a huge physical disconnect between the clouds and the material that's being swept away by the solar wind."
But Wickramasinghe contends that convection in the atmosphere could be enough to lift these particles to the heights needed to be picked up by the solar wind.
Too heavy?
Another issue is whether the dust particles and microbes, if they did manage to be lofted to the upper atmosphere, would be too heavy to be carried away by the solar wind, which has only been observed to lift up light ions.
"Dust particles are orders of magnitude heavier than these ions and there's not enough energy in the solar wind to be knocking them out of the atmosphere," Grinspoon said. "I'm skeptical that you could really get them up to that height but even if you could you would still need a way to eject them. That's a whole different ballgame. It's like saying because I've got a window open and there's air leaking out, therefore my bed might somehow fly out the window into my backyard."
Janet Luhmann, a geophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley, calculated that the heavy microbes would need vastly more energy to escape Venus' gravity than the ions do, which is probably beyond the capability of the solar wind to provide.
"While this idea is interesting, it doesn't look too good when the numbers are applied," she said.
Wickramasinghe maintains that the process is reasonable though, if the force of the solar wind combines with pressure from the sun's radiation to pull the particles off Venus.
"I concede that the processes are speculative and need to be discussed more carefully, but the fact remains that if there is microbial life on Venus, being lifted to high enough altitudes through convective motion, then the transfer is a possibility."
Grinspoon countered that while speculations are fine, it's important to back it up with reasonable science.
"It's OK to pursue speculative ideas because we don't want to be too cozy and safe and assume that we know everything about life in the universe," he said. "However, we have to be rigorous and careful and honest and logical and scientifically meticulous when we speculate. They have not done that. When somebody does this and calls it astrobiology, it risks discrediting the entire field and associating this necessary speculative edge of astrobiology with complete pseudoscience."
Evidence or drawing?
He took special issue with one figure in Wickramasinghe's paper. The caption reads, "Evidence of solar wind excavating the atmosphere of Venus."
"Evidence? There's no evidence there, it's just a drawing!" he said. "I can't believe, if this was peer reviewed, that somebody didn't point this out."
Indeed, David Brain, a University of California, Berkeley scientist on the Venus Express team who released the image, said it was "definitely an illustration."
But Wickramasinghe defended calling the picture evidence.
"The color picture is a representation of data," he said. "I wouldn't call it an artists' depiction. If it was an artist's depiction, it was based on data from the satellite."
While Brain said the image itself wasn't evidence for solar wind excavation of the Venus atmosphere, he did confirm that the Venus Express mission found ample proof that this process is going on.
NISSAN MORI SCOOTER
The Nissan Mori is an electric scooter inspired by a chest of draws featuring simple interfaces.
It can adjust to suit the rider, and all mechanical and maintenance issues are handled by an on-board computer.
Living outside Tokyo means people cannot rely solely on public transport, but they don’t have enough money for a car.
Living outside Tokyo means people cannot rely solely on public transport, but they don’t have enough money for a car.
An electric scooter would be practical, affordable and have less of an impact on the environment.
Although current scooters are o.k., they are still a bit intimidating for some people, who wish they were as easy to understand and use as their mobile.
Although current scooters are o.k., they are still a bit intimidating for some people, who wish they were as easy to understand and use as their mobile.
Nissan understands this, and that there is a market in Japan for electric scooters.
With local automotive sales declining in recent years, Nissan is looking to expand its market by creating scooter that will capture this demographic for their 1st vehicle purchase.
Designer: Shane Crozier
Half of the Overweight adults may be heart-healthy
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer
CHICAGO - You can look great in a swimsuit and still be a heart attack waiting to happen. And you can also be overweight and otherwise healthy.
A new study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people — about half — have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while an equally startling number of trim people suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity.
The first national estimate of its kind bolsters the argument that you can be hefty but still healthy, or at least healthier than has been believed.
The results also show that stereotypes about body size can be misleading, and that even "less voluptuous" people can have risk factors commonly associated with obesity, said study author MaryFran Sowers, a University of Michigan obesity researcher.
"We're really talking about taking a look with a very different lens" at weight and health risks, Sowers said.
In the study, about 51 percent of overweight adults, or roughly 36 million people nationwide, had mostly normal levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, blood fats called triglycerides and blood sugar.
Almost one-third of obese adults, or nearly 20 million people, also were in this healthy range, meaning that none or only one of those measures was abnormal.
Yet about a fourth of adults in the recommended-weight range had unhealthy levels of at least two of these measures. That means some 16 million of them are at risk for heart problems.
It's no secret that thin people can develop heart-related problems and that fat people often do not. But that millions defy the stereotypes will come as a surprise to many people, Sowers said.
Even so, there's growing debate about the accuracy of the standard method of calculating whether someone is overweight. Health officials rely on the body mass index, a weight-height ratio that does not distinguish between fat and lean tissue. The limits of that method were highlighted a few years ago when it was reported that the system would put nearly half of NBA players in the overweight category.
A number of experts say waist size is a more accurate way of determining someone's health risks, and the study results support that argument.
Dr. Robert Eckel, a former American Heart Association president and professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, said the new research may help dismiss some of the generalizations that are sometimes made about weight and health.
Study co-author Judith Wylie-Rosett emphasized that the study shouldn't send the message "that we don't need to worry about weight." That's because half of overweight people do face elevated risks for heart disease, explained Wylie-Rosett, a nutrition researcher at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
But, for those without elevated risks, losing weight "might be important only from a cosmetic perspective," she said.
To arrive at the estimates, scientists analyzed nationally representative government surveys involving 5,440 people age 20 and over, and extrapolated to calculate nationwide figures.
The new study, appearing in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, used government surveys from 1999 to 2004 that included lab tests and height and weight measurements. Participants reported on habits including smoking and physical activity.
In all weight categories, risk factors for heart problems were generally more common in older people, smokers and inactive people. Among obese people who were 50 to 64, just 20 percent were considered healthy compared with half of younger obese people.
The results underscore how important exercise is for staying healthy, even for people of healthy weight, Wylie-Rosett said.
The authors noted that fat tissue releases hormones and other substances that affect things like blood vessels, cholesterol and blood sugar. The results suggest this interaction varies among overweight and obese people, the authors said.
The results also add to mounting evidence that thick waists are linked with heart risks.
Among people of healthy weight in the study, elevated blood pressure, cholesterol and other factors were more common for people with larger waists or potbellies. This often signals internal fat deposits surrounding abdominal organs, which previous research has shown can be especially risky.
Similarly, among overweight and obese adults, those in the "healthy" category tended to have smaller waists than those with at least two risk factors.
Dr. Lewis Landsberg, a Northwestern University obesity expert, noted that the research didn't look at heart disease, and that not everyone with high risk factors develops heart problems.
Still, he said, the study shows that waist measurements can help assess health.
/Yahoo
CHICAGO - You can look great in a swimsuit and still be a heart attack waiting to happen. And you can also be overweight and otherwise healthy.
A new study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people — about half — have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while an equally startling number of trim people suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity.
The first national estimate of its kind bolsters the argument that you can be hefty but still healthy, or at least healthier than has been believed.
The results also show that stereotypes about body size can be misleading, and that even "less voluptuous" people can have risk factors commonly associated with obesity, said study author MaryFran Sowers, a University of Michigan obesity researcher.
"We're really talking about taking a look with a very different lens" at weight and health risks, Sowers said.
In the study, about 51 percent of overweight adults, or roughly 36 million people nationwide, had mostly normal levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, blood fats called triglycerides and blood sugar.
Almost one-third of obese adults, or nearly 20 million people, also were in this healthy range, meaning that none or only one of those measures was abnormal.
Yet about a fourth of adults in the recommended-weight range had unhealthy levels of at least two of these measures. That means some 16 million of them are at risk for heart problems.
It's no secret that thin people can develop heart-related problems and that fat people often do not. But that millions defy the stereotypes will come as a surprise to many people, Sowers said.
Even so, there's growing debate about the accuracy of the standard method of calculating whether someone is overweight. Health officials rely on the body mass index, a weight-height ratio that does not distinguish between fat and lean tissue. The limits of that method were highlighted a few years ago when it was reported that the system would put nearly half of NBA players in the overweight category.
A number of experts say waist size is a more accurate way of determining someone's health risks, and the study results support that argument.
Dr. Robert Eckel, a former American Heart Association president and professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, said the new research may help dismiss some of the generalizations that are sometimes made about weight and health.
Study co-author Judith Wylie-Rosett emphasized that the study shouldn't send the message "that we don't need to worry about weight." That's because half of overweight people do face elevated risks for heart disease, explained Wylie-Rosett, a nutrition researcher at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
But, for those without elevated risks, losing weight "might be important only from a cosmetic perspective," she said.
To arrive at the estimates, scientists analyzed nationally representative government surveys involving 5,440 people age 20 and over, and extrapolated to calculate nationwide figures.
The new study, appearing in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, used government surveys from 1999 to 2004 that included lab tests and height and weight measurements. Participants reported on habits including smoking and physical activity.
In all weight categories, risk factors for heart problems were generally more common in older people, smokers and inactive people. Among obese people who were 50 to 64, just 20 percent were considered healthy compared with half of younger obese people.
The results underscore how important exercise is for staying healthy, even for people of healthy weight, Wylie-Rosett said.
The authors noted that fat tissue releases hormones and other substances that affect things like blood vessels, cholesterol and blood sugar. The results suggest this interaction varies among overweight and obese people, the authors said.
The results also add to mounting evidence that thick waists are linked with heart risks.
Among people of healthy weight in the study, elevated blood pressure, cholesterol and other factors were more common for people with larger waists or potbellies. This often signals internal fat deposits surrounding abdominal organs, which previous research has shown can be especially risky.
Similarly, among overweight and obese adults, those in the "healthy" category tended to have smaller waists than those with at least two risk factors.
Dr. Lewis Landsberg, a Northwestern University obesity expert, noted that the research didn't look at heart disease, and that not everyone with high risk factors develops heart problems.
Still, he said, the study shows that waist measurements can help assess health.
/Yahoo
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