April 2005 in science
April 2005 :
← -
January -
February -
March -
April -
May -
June -
July -
August -
September -
October -
November -
December -
'
* The next launch of the
Space Shuttle Discovery,
STS-114, is delayed until at least
July 13. This is to be the first Space Shuttle launch since the
Columbia disaster in
February 2003.
(BBC) (CNN)
* The
Deep Impact spacecraft takes the first picture of its target
comet,
Tempel 1. The mission is on schedule to create an
impact crater on
July 4,
2005.
(BBC)
*
NASA invests $11 million over four years with
Rice University to develop an experimental power cable (
quantum wire) with 10 times better conductivity than
copper at one-sixth the weight. It would be made with
carbon nanotubes and would help reduce the weight of the next generation
shuttle; but can have wide ranging applications.
(Wired)* The new
Airbus A380 lifts off in
Toulouse to its
maiden flight. The A380 replaces
Boeing's
Jumbo Jet (Boeing 747) as largest passenger plane.
(BBC)
* By applying a small charge to bacteria in a hydrogen biomass generator, environmental engineers at
Penn State have increased its output four fold. Producing energy while cleaning water could lead to a significant reduction in the cost of treating wastewater.
(Penn State Live)
*
Soyuz TMA-5: A Russian
Soyuz spacecraft lands in
Kazakhstan, bringing three
astronauts,
Russian Salizhan Sharipov,
Chinese American Leroy Chiao and
Italian Roberto Vittori, safely back to
Earth from the
International Space Station.
(Reuters)
* Researchers at the
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have induced mice to hibernate using
hydrogen sulfide. This could have wide ranging applications from medicine to space travel if successfully applied to humans.
(NewScientist)
*The
American Dietetic Association and the
USDA release a new
food guide pyramid, called
MyPyramid. The aim of the new dietary guidelines, is to guide people to make healthier choices about what they are eating.
(EurekAlert!)
* Physicists at
Brookhaven National Laboratory announce that they have created a long sought after state of
matter by smashing
atoms in the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Surprisingly, this new state of matter behaves like a hot and dense
liquid made up of basic atomic particles such as
quarks and
gluons, and not like a
gas as expected. Researchers claim that all matter in the
universe for a fraction of a second after the
Big Bang was in the form of this liquid.
(MSNBC),
(BNL News)
*The
NASA autonomous
DART spacecraft failed to complete its mission because of lack of fuel and "retires" itself.
(BBC)
*
Soyuz TMA-6 lifts off at dawn from
Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan carrying the
Expedition 11 crew to the
International Space Station.
(Fox News) (Yahoo! News)* A
Saab Gripen fighter aircraft has been undertaking an
air-to-air refueling test campaign with a
Boeing 707 tanker at Saab's facility in
Linköping,
Sweden. The campaign had the objective of verifying the Gripen's air-to-air refueling capabilities with a
NATO standard compatible tanker.
(PrimeZone)*A fossilised
dinosaur pelvis, most likely belonging to a
theropod, contaning eggs has been found in
Jiangxi Province,
China. The dinosaurs reproductive system shares similarities with both
reptiles and modern
birds.
(BBC)
*Researchers have identified possibly the oldest stars in the universe. The stars named
HE1327-2326 and
HE0107-5240 have a very primitive composition, containing very low amount of heavy elements.
(ABC) (BBC)*
Microsoft launches a
Nupedia-like version of its
Encarta encyclopedia where anonymous users can submit their new or edited entries to be approved by a paid staff of editors.
Server problems have so far delayed launch until later tonight.
(FairfaxDigital) (Business Week)*
Michael D. Griffin takes the helm as
NASA administrator after being confirmed by the
U.S. Senate the day before.
(SpaceflightNow)
* The
College of American Pathologists asks laboratories worldwide to destroy a
flu sample they sent in their testing kits.
Canadian National Microbial Laboratory identified it as a strain of
Asian flu virus that killed millions in
1957. People born after
1968 would have no
antibodies to resist it.
WHO supports the plea.
(CNN) (Yahoo!)*
National Geographic Society and
IBM support a project to take
DNA samples from various people all over the world to track migration of
Homo sapiens from
Africa (Reuters) (New York Times)
*
MareNostrum,
Europe's most powerful (and the world's fourth most powerful)
supercomputer, is
booted up for the first time in the
Barcelona Supercomputing Center,
Spain.
(BusinessWeek)*A
German research team have developed a
laser that can detect
cancerous cells by measuring the elasticity of
biopsied cells. Heathy cells have a
cytoskeleton making them relatively rigid, cancerous cells have a diminished cytoskeleton and are stretchy.
(Nature)
* A new transistor speed record has been set by researchers at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The three material layer transistor can operate at 604 GHz, which is three times faster than the fastest silicon-based device.
NewScientist*
NASA announces the third extension to the
Mars Exploration Rover program and will support the rovers
Spirit and
Opportunity for up to 18 months.
(BBC)
*Scientists have shown that the
malaria parasite
Plasmodium falciparum hides from the human
immune system by continuously changing the
protein PfEMP1 that it deposits on the surface of infected cells.
(BBC) *Researchers at the
Australian research institute, the
CSIRO, have created
transgenic Arabidopsis that can synthesise
omega-3 fatty acids. If this technology was incorporated in
genetically modified food crops it would have the potential to reduce the demand on world
fish stocks.
(ABC)
*
Sony has patented an
idea of transmitting data directly to the brain.
(PhysOrg)*The
space shuttle Discovery is rolled onto its launch platform, in time for a launch in May for the first launch of shuttle since January
2003. A crack was found in the fuel tank's foam insulation, however
NASA officials say that it will not prevent the mission.
(BBC)*Researchers at the
University of Colorado have created a new model of the Earth's early
atmosphere. The model indicates up to 40 percent of the early atmosphere was
hydrogen, under these high-hygrogen conditions the formation of organic compounds like
amino acids, and ultimately life are more likely.
(EurekAlert!)
*Computer reconstruction of the 7 million year old fossilised remains of Toumaï (
Sahelanthropus tchadensis), confirm the fossil as the oldest known
hominid.
(Nature) (BBC)*Studies in mice hove shown that a low dose of
"9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the
psychoactive substance in
cannabis, can protect
blood vessels from the formation of arterial blockages.
(Nature)*The prevalence of
nanobacteria is becoming more accepted as evidence mounts for their role in the spread of disease; and perhaps the formation of raindrops in the atmosphere.
(EurekAlert)*
Hitachi has increased data density on
harddrives to 230
Gigabit per square inch using perpendicular recording. This could lead to 1-inch 20
Gigabyte and 1
Terabyte 3.5-inch drives by
2007.
(ElectronicNews)
*The
IUCN announced that one in four-of the 625
primate species and subspecies are at risk of
extinction.
(EurekAlert!)*
NASA researchers show that the Earth's northern and southern
polar auroras are not mirror images of each other
(EurekAlert!)*Research has shown that
polyethoxylated tallow amine (POEA). the
surfactant used in
herbicide Roundup, kills
tadpoles. The finding could be a reason for the global
decline in frog populations since Roundup is widely used and was believed to have no effect on animals .
(Science)
The Vlog channel -- To kick off product re-branding and positioning efforts,
Al Gore and
Joel Hyatt appear at the
NCTA convention and announce a new TV network, "
Current." Current will be a national network "created by, for and with an 18-34 year-old audience." Formerly known as
INdTV, Current is the same idea but with
Google branding.
(Yahoo!)
*Scientists studying
cyanobacteria '
fossils' at Meishan in southern
China propose that the
mass extinction that occurred 250 million years ago at the
Permian-Triassic boundary happened in two phases.
(BBC)
