That, and more, in this week’s edition of News For Nerds. Let’s get our nerd on right now!

New research indicates that dogs automatically imitate us, even when it costs them food! I’m the only person in Colorado without a dog, but even I know that K9s will usually go to ANY length to get food!

Scientists in Austria recognized that humans will often copy what others are doing, even when it interferes with efficiency. So they decided to see if the same thing applied to dogs. Ten various dog breeds were involved in the experiments.

It turns out that dogs will indeed try to copy the actions of their human hosts, even if it means not getting a food treat. The desire to imitate the humans actually overrides their instinct for food.

Want to read more about it? I thought you might, so here you go.

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Black holes are fascinating monsters of nature. We’re barely beginning to learn about them, but now we can add this to their resume: they’re magnifying glasses.

A quasar more than a billion light years from us contains a black hole with gravity so strong that it’s bending the light coming from a galaxy behind it (but much farther away). Albert Einstein - remember him? - predicted that light and gravity would behave this way, and here’s the proof.

As the light from the distant galaxy rushes toward us, it encounters this massive black hole, which bends and warps the light, creating a magnifying effect. Ol’ Al knew what he was talking about!

Here’s a shortcut to the article on the Club Galahad pages that talks all about it.

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The harder you think, the more you eat. At least that’s what a new study suggests.

A group of volunteers went to three different sessions at a laboratory. The first time they were simply asked to recline in a chair for 45 minutes, the next time they were asked to read and then summarize the documents, and during the last trip they had to complete a memory test.

When offered an all-you-can-eat buffet after each session, the volunteers wolfed down an average of 860 calories after session one, 1063 calories after session two, and 1113 calories after the memory test. The study’s author believes that using your brain may cause fluctuations in certain appetite hormones.

So use your brain…but exercise!!

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As the author of a book series for young adults, I LOVE this particular study! Scientists investigated the best methods for relieving stress, and it turns out that reading a good novel is number one. Excellent!

Apparently your brain takes the words from a book and turns them into mental pictures, which essentially takes your mind off your worries. The neuropsychologist behind it all claims that reading puts you into “an altered state of consciousness.”

Next on the list for stress relief: listening to music, followed by drinking tea or coffee, and then going for a walk. I do all three, so no wonder I’m so chill.

If you’d like to read more, this will get you there.

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The Chestatee Wildlife Preserve in Georgia is getting some attention for their new baby animal. It’s a zedonk.

A what? A zedonk. It’s a cross between a zebra and a donkey.

In this case, the cute little critter was born last week at the preserve. Although it has a donkey mother, apparently it’s taking after Dad the Zebra in some of its behavior. And, as the picture shows, it has Daddy’s legs.

Here’s your chance to read more.

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We’ve all done it. We drop a tasty little snack on the floor, then immediately scoop it up and claim the “five second rule” before popping it into our mouth.

Now the lab coat brigade is spoiling our fun.

A team of researchers from Clemson University actually took the time to prove that bacteria from a dirty floor is transferred instantaneously to food when it slips from your hand to the floor. Their proclamation: There is no five second rule.

Tough. I’m gonna do it anyway.

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Until next week, keep gettin’ your nerd on!

A quasar more than 1 billion light years from Earth is providing unexpected help in the effort to identify distant galaxies. You see, the energy spewing from the black hole at the center of the quasar known as SDSS J0013+ 1523 is acting as a magnifying glass, making it easier to see the areas around (and beyond) it.

The result is that another galaxy, much farther away but in juuusssttt the right position, has come into view for the first time, allowing scientists to get a good look at both galaxies at the same time.

You can chalk this up as another victory for Albert Einstein, who first predicted this phenomenon in his groundbreaking theory of general relativity. Here’s how Space.com describes it:

According to the theory, very large masses warp the space-time around them, even causing light to bend as it travels through the region. Thus, light from faraway objects can sometimes be magnified by the bent space-time to provide a larger and brighter — though also distorted and curved — view.

If you’re interested in this kind of thing — and really, why wouldn’t you be? — there are plenty of other cool resources at your disposal. You can start with this video about the ways that black holes warp time and space, and continue on with this article about the ways that black holes eat up the mysterious space-stuff known as dark matter.

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If you liked this article, you should also read:

Black Hole Blows 200,000 Year-Old Gas Bubble

News for Nerds: July 23, 2010

Mars, Up Close and in High Definition

]]> http://www.clubgalahad.com/SpaceScience/2010/07/27/the-black-hole-as-a-magnifying-glass/feed/ http://www.clubgalahad.com/SpaceScience/2010/07/23/news-for-nerds-july-23-2010/ http://www.clubgalahad.com/SpaceScience/2010/07/23/news-for-nerds-july-23-2010/#comments Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:20:13 +0000 Dom Testa http://www.clubgalahad.com/SpaceScience/?p=626 Stars Wars comes to life, your brain is exposed for being hyperactive, and scientists discover the perfect handshake. Those are just a few of the stories in this week’s edition of News For Nerds. Let’s get our nerd on!
Remember when Luke and Han sat in those bubbles on the Millenium Falcon and shot the bad guys with lasers? Well, although you might think we’ve already got that technology, it’s probably just because you’ve seen it so much in the movies. We didn’t have it…until now.

During tests with the US Navy, new high-powered fiber-optic laser cannons shot down four fast-moving drones over the Pacific Ocean. The system, designed by Raytheon, was able to “detect, track, engage, and defeat dynamic targets at tactically significant ranges…”

Which means, we came, we saw, we blasted their…drones.

There’s still some more testing to be done, but at least we’re almost there. As Han Solo would say: “Don’t get cocky, kid.”

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A medical study in Canada finds that all you have to do is LOOK at a sick person and your body’s defense system will kick into overdrive.

Volunteers were asked to look at either random objects, or at images relating to disease and illness. Then, when blood samples were drawn, the people who had been looking at the disease photos had a higher immune response in their own system.

According to the docs, it’s just another of the body’s miraculous ways of defending itself from pathogens. As the lead scientist reported, your immune system responds aggressively when it believes that it’s coming into contact with something that might be bad.

But don’t stop washing your hands, either.

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The folks at Intel are working on a television remote control that knows who you are and can pick you out of a crowd. How?

Well, it measures your grip, the force with which you push the buttons, and the angle at which you normally hold the remote in order to recognize you. It has over 370 special sensors which allow it to differentiate between you and the other people in your house, and then instantly customize the Internet and TV experience.

“With the TV becoming more intelligent, you can have your own applications, your own background, your own set of movies or music,” said Mariano Phillipe, who helped in the design of the smart remote.

For now they have about a 70 percent success rate in identifying the user, but they expect that to grow considerably with more work.

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Bad news for women who have put on a few extra pounds. Researchers now say that women with wide hips are significantly more likely to experience memory loss and mental decline as they get older.

The team at Northwestern University studied almost 9000 women, and found a correlation between weight and memory function. And, interestingly enough, it was also based on where the excess weight was stored. Women with more of an apple shape performed better than women with a distinct pear shape. Turns out that memory and brain function are likely related to the type of fat deposited around the hips versus the waist.

As Dr. Diana Kerwin put it: “Obesity is bad, but its effects are worse depending on where the fat is located.”

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We probably all just assume that our brains are sleeping while we’re sleeping. But no.

Neuroscientists are discovering that when you’re just lying still and your mind is blank, neurons are chattering away like crazy. In fact, these so-called “quiet moments” for the brain actually eat up twenty times more energy than during conscious thinking.

That’s a lot of energy to expend on “nothing,” so the scientists are convinced that our default quiet mode is actually serving important functions. One possibility: the brain is preparing itself for future activities. In other words, the brain is imagining what it might expect from the outside world in a short time, allowing it to react in a more agile way when the time comes.

The studies are opening up ideas regarding the mind activities of people with schizophrenia, and maybe even helping to better understand the autistic mind.

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And finally, we now know what constitutes the perfect handshake. Researchers (you gotta love ‘em) have created a formula for it.

You’ll likely shake hands about 15,000 times in your lifetime, so it helps to know how to do it just right. The white coats at the University of Manchester came up with a formula that takes into account twelve various aspects of the handshake, including vigor, eye contact, hand temperature, and positioning.

They then converted this into a five-step process to help you always deliver the perfect shake. Ready?

“Right hand, a complete grip and a firm squeeze (but not too strong) in a mid-point position between yourself and the other person, a cool and dry palm, approximately three shakes, with a medium level of vigor, helf for no longer than two to three seconds, with eye contact kept throughout and a good natural smile with a slow offest, and an appropriate accompanying verbal statement.”

Got it? Good.

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And that’s it for this week’s News For Nerds. Until next week, keep gettin’ your nerd on!

But regardless of how you heard about it, we are excited to announce that the song ‘A New Life’, written and performed aboard Galahad by Lita Marques, is now available online! You can hear the song and watch the video here, on our ClubGalahad YouTube page. And, of course, it’s completely free. Enjoy.

Want to fly over a mountain or zoom past a crater? You can do that. Interested in examining volcanoes, caves and glacial deposits? No problem. Care to make a virtual landing on Martian soil? You can do that, too.

Made possible through a new breed of public-private partnership that NASA hopes will make space more accessible to those of us who like this sort of thing, this new access to Mars is unprecedented. But it doesn’t stop there. The Terapixel sky image brings you the most comprehensive, seamless view of the night sky you’ve ever seen.

Come to think of it, why are you still reading this post? Hurry over to WorldWide Telescope and start exploring!

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If you liked this post, you should also read:

101 Amazing Earth Facts

Science Behind Galahad: Earth-like Planets

Astronaut Spots Amazing Aurora

Pretty cool, eh?

The black hole in question is a microquasar, which means that it emits jets of high-speed particles. Microquasars have been known to produce gas bubbles before, but never anything as big as this one, which is twice as big and ten times as powerful as any other known example.

All of this is taking place about 12 million light years away from us, in a galaxy called NGC 7793. (It’s a hip neighborhood.) Scientists aren’t sure yet about the size of the black hole itself, but their discovery is shedding some new light on how black holes emit energy. It has long been thought that the primary source of energy release was through x-rays. This finding, however, seems to indicate that jets of high-speed particles serve the same purpose, but with the added benefit of a giant bubble of hot gas.

Science is cool.

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If you liked this story, you should also check out:

101 Amazing Earth Facts

The NEW Galahad Series Facebook page

Triana’s Journal

The best part about interactive quizzes like this is that you learn about things that you’ve often wondered about, but also about things you’ve never considered!

For instance, here are a few of the questions you’ll come across:

• Where is the world’s highest waterfall?
• How far is it to the center of the Earth?
• How many people worldwide are at risk from volcanoes?
• Does all of the Earth spin at the same rate?

And there’s plenty of interplanetary goodness, too. What is the largest canyon in the solar system? And how much would a 100-pound person weigh on Mars?

Test your planetary IQ. See how it stacks up against your friends’. Then check back for more Space and Science news later in the week!

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If you liked this story, you should also read:

Antimatter particles found within Earth

Triana’s Journal: Learning the First Time

News for Nerds: July 2, 2010

We explore all of that, and more, in this week’s News For Nerds. Read on…
We all know people (you might be one of them) who say they can’t do anything in the morning until they have their cup of coffee. “I gotta have caffeine,” they say.

Well, hold on a second. Turns out that your body is actually building up a tolerance to that stimulation. Researchers at Bristol University found that eventually all your coffee is doing is fighting off the effects of caffeine withdrawal. In other words, once you subject your body to an endless stream of caffeine, you get to the point where you need it just to get back to normal!

It’s a pretty interesting study, and you can read all about it right here.

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I spoke this past weekend at the American Library Association convention in Washington, DC, and at one point in my presentation I joked that I was anxious to get a car like the Jetsons. Well, the day after I got back I saw that my dream may be closer to reality.

The Terrafugia Transition is a light sport aircraft that gets about 30 miles per gallon on the road, and then can unfold its wings and take off. Once in the air it will cruise at about 115 miles per hour, and can stay aloft for more almost 500 miles.

Of course, there are some strict requirements. First, you need a light sports aircraft license (which is easier to get than a full private license), and you need about 2500 feet of runway to take off. Remember Marty McFly’s time machine in Back To The Future? Well, this takes a bit more room.

But there’s good news, too. The combo car/plane, designed by former NASA engineers, will comfortably fit inside your garage.

70 people are already on the waiting list, so you better hurry up and put it on your wish list. Read more here.

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Are some cars safer to drive because of their color? Turns out that the answer might be Yes.

An Australian research team wondered if car color was a factor in crashes, and the news is not good for those of you who drive black cars. Studies show that you have a 47 percent greater chance of being in an accident if you have a black car. The scientists think it has to do with the difficulty in distinguishing darker colored cars from the background of the road.

Other dangerous colors: Grey, silver, and blue. The safest cars to drive are white and (sorry to say) orange. Yes, orange.

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Could shopping be dangerous for men? Maybe.

Scientists are concerned that a chemical compound found on some shopping receipts contains a substance called Bisphenol A (BPA), which can suppress male hormones in the body. The compound is used to make ink visible on thermally sensitive paper (like store receipts), and gets accidentally ingested when men handle the paper and then touch their mouths or handle food.

And there’s more bad news: the same compound is also widely used in canned food and drinks to toughen the interior lining of the containers.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is turning their attention to the problem. In the meantime, guys, if your wife or girlfriend wants you to go shopping with her, put on gloves.

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Wanna lose a few pounds? Eat some hot peppers.

No, not the bland green or yellow peppers that you throw in a salad. We’re talkin’ about the jalapenos, habaneros, and similar hot peppers. Studies show that they actually burn calories for you.

The good people at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition report that these hot little firecrackers contain a chemical compound called capsaicin. Capsaicin causes the pain receptors in your mouth to send urgent messages to your brain to do something about this burning fire in your mouth. The brain, in turn, responds by turning up the dial on adrenaline production, making your heart beat faster and causing perspiration. The side effect? A few more calories burned.

Plus, they taste so good!

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Those romantic devils in France have done some research on dating, and they found that women are more likely to agree to a date with a man if they’ve been listening to romantic music before he asks.

For their study, the scientists had 87 women each meet an average-looking man while music played in the background. When he asked them out, women who were listening to romantic music were significantly more likely to say yes. 52 percent of those listening to the romantic tunes said yes, compared to only 28% who were listening to “neutral” music.

Scientists have long known that media exposure, such as listening to music, can cause various effects in our thinking and our actions. For example, there’s a correlation between music and violence. Now, however, we can add love and romance to the connection, too.

So guys, if you’re interested in a woman, wait until she’s around some romantic music before you make your move.

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That’s it for this week. Until next time, keep gettin’ your nerd on!

Could be. But first, let’s back up just a bit and get our bearings straight. We’ll start with neutrinos.

Neutrinos are lightweight, electrically-neutral particles that are the result of nuclear reactions. They also pass through ordinary matter virtually undetected. In fact, it is estimated that more than 50 trillion solar neutrinos — that is, neutrinos that come from the Sun — pass through the human body every second.

Well, after years of speculation, a new type of antimatter particle (called the geoneutrino) has been detected. The geoneutrino forms as a result of radioactive decay deep inside the Earth’s crust. The theory is that this decay leads to the heating of the earth’s mantle (the layer of Earth that stretches down almost 2,000 miles) in a process called convection. And what we know for sure is that convection is a major force behind plate tectonics, which has a role in everything from the shifting of the continents to erupting volcanoes to earthquakes.

So… these geoneutrinos could have a lot to do with some of the most massive (and destructive) forces of nature that we experience. The more we learn about them, the more we understand about our planet. Pretty cool, huh?

What’s even cooler is the way that the geoneutrino was discovered: in a giant steel sphere containing 1,000 tons of hydrocarbon liquid that was buried almost a mile below the surface of a mountain in Italy. And no, we did not make that last part up. Science really will take you places.

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If you liked this article, you should also read:

Astronaut Spots Amazing Aurora

News for Nerds: June 18, 2010

Fireballs, Asteroids and Meteors, Oh My!

Aurorae are natural light displays that are most frequently seen from Earth at the polar regions. They are caused by photon emissions in the Earth’s upper atmosphere — in other words, ions from solar winds collide with atoms of nitrogen and oxygen and voila!, an aurora is born.

The most famous example is the Aurora Borealis, which can be seen from the northernmost points of Earth. However, there are plenty of other examples to enjoy: just check out these cool photos of aurorae, all taken this year.

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If you liked this story, you should also read:

Japanese Space Capsule Brings Asteroid to Earth

The Mysteries of Venus

The Science Behind Galahad: Earth-like Planets