It’s been 60 years since a viking settlement was discovered, leading historians to assume that we’d uncovered everything there is to uncover. But this weekend, Danish and English archaeologists announced they’ve unearthed evidence of a new fortress that’s been sought after for years. Read more…
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Archaeologists Just Discovered a 1,000-Year-Old Viking Fortress
vinces99 writes: The number of California blue whales has rebounded to near historical levels, according to new research (abstract) by the University of Washington, and while the number of blue whales struck by ships is likely above allowable U.S. limits, such strikes do not immediately threaten that recovery. This is the only population of blue whales known to have recovered from whaling – blue whales as a species having been hunted nearly to extinction. Blue whales – nearly 100 feet in length and weighing 190 tons as adults – are the largest animals on Earth and the heaviest ever, weighing more than twice as much as the largest known dinosaur, the Argentinosaurus. They are an icon of the conservation movement and many people want to minimize harm to them, according to Trevor Branch, UW assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences. California blue whales, most visible while feeding 20 to 30 miles off the California coast, range from the equator to the Gulf of Alaska. Today they number about 2, 200, according to monitoring by other research groups, which is likely about 97 percent of the historical levels. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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California Blue Whales Rebound From Whaling
Explorer Sam Cossman just uploaded this shocking video to Youtube showing his expedition to the bottom of the Marum Crater. An active and very dangerous volcano located in the Republic of Vanuatu, in the South Pacific Ocean. The images captured are both impressive and terrifying. Read more…
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Unbelievable video shows man getting into boiling volcano
An anonymous reader writes: NASA’s Opportunity rover has been rolling around the surface of Mars for over 10 years. It’s still performing scientific observations, but the mission team has been dealing with a problem: the rover keeps rebooting. It’s happened a dozen times this month, and the process is a bit more involved than rebooting a typical computer. It takes a day or two to get back into operation every time. To try and fix this, the Opportunity team is planning a tricky operation: reformatting the flash memory from 125 million miles away. “Preparations include downloading to Earth all useful data remaining in the flash memory and switching the rover to an operating mode that does not use flash memory. Also, the team is restructuring the rover’s communication sessions to use a slower data rate, which may add resilience in case of a reset during these preparations.” The team suspects some of the flash memory cells are simply wearing out. The reformat operation is scheduled for some time in September. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Reformatting a Machine 125 Million Miles Away
MikeChino writes A new paper by a group of researchers from Montana State University confirms that life can survive under antarctic ice. Researchers led by John Priscu drilled down into the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and pulled up organisms called Archaea. These organisms survive by converting methane into energy, enabling them to survive where there is no wind or sunlight, buried deep under the ice. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Scientists Confirm Life Under Antarctic Ice
Scientists already know how to make a tasty tomato , but in the quest for mass production, there’s another barrier to overcome: how to make a tomato that grows 24 hours a day. Read more…
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Scientists Are Building a Tomato That Grows 24 Hours a Day
A few years ago, we looked at NASA’s long project to design a paint so black, it would absorb nearly every bit of light around it (that’s it above, in the “D” spot). Now, NASA has finally launched the stuff into space —which means that the six-year effort to make it is finally paying off. So, why is this such a vital project for NASA? Read more…
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Why NASA Launched One of the Blackest Materials Ever Made Into Space
No two humans type alike. Some of us jab our fingers precisely into the right spots on a screen, while others are slightly less accurate. Now, a Swedish security startup is using this behavior to add an extra layer of security to our cellphones. Read more…
Most of our devices run (not for long enough) on lithium ion batteries. But there could be a new, old kid on the block—in the shape of a solid-state battery that can hold twice the charge as li-on. Read more…
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Cheap Solid-State Batteries That Last Twice as Long as Li-On Are Coming
Way back in 1931, Albert Einstein visited the U.S. for three months. Inspired by meetings with Edwin Hubble, he began thinking about the Universe differently, writing a paper in four days to get down his thoughts—and now, those first scribblings have been translated into English for the first time . Read more…
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A Forgotten Einstein Model of the Universe Describes the Big Crunch