SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
from Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society


Today's Headlines - February 19, 2008

Space Wars - Coming to the Sky Near You?

from Scientific American

"Take the high ground and hold it!" has been standard combat doctrine
for
armies since ancient times. Now that people and their machines have
entered
outer space, it is no surprise that generals the world over regard Earth
orbit as the key to modern warfare.

But until recently, a norm had developed against the weaponization of
space - even though there are no international treaties or laws
explicitly
prohibiting nonnuclear anti-satellite systems or weapons placed in
orbit.
Nations mostly shunned such weapons, fearing the possibility of
destabilizing the global balance of power with a costly arms race in
space.

That consensus is now in danger of unraveling. In October 2006 the Bush
administration adopted a new, rather vaguely worded National Space
Policy
that asserts the right of the U.S. to conduct "space control" and
rejects "new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit
or
limit U.S. access to or use of space."

To read more:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=space-wars-coming-to-the-
sky-near-you

Or: http://tinyurl.com/36e4r5


The Most Intense Laser in the Universe

from Nature News

Is this really the most intense laser in the Universe? Yes, that's what
scientists working on the HERCULES laser at the University of Michigan
in
Ann Arbor claim.

... This record-breaking beam actually has very low energy - at just 20
joules, it is less than the 8,000 joules stored in a tic tac - but the
energy is squeezed into a tiny spot (1.3 micrometres in diameter, about
a
hundred times thinner than a human hair) for a very short time, just 30
femtoseconds (10^-15 seconds).

So the beam has an intensity of 2 x 10^22 watts per square centimetre:
two
orders of magnitude more intense than achieved before.

To read more:
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080218/full/news.2008.608.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/36fwx3


Scientists Would Turn Greenhouse Gas into Gasoline

from the New York Times (Registration Required)

If two scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are correct, people
will still be driving gasoline-powered cars 50 years from now, churning
out
heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - and yet that carbon
dioxide will not contribute to global warming.

The scientists, F. Jeffrey Martin and William L. Kubic Jr., are
proposing a
concept, which they have patriotically named Green Freedom, for removing
carbon dioxide from the air and turning it back into gasoline.

The idea is simple. Air would be blown over a liquid solution of
potassium
carbonate, which would absorb the carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide
would
then be extracted and subjected to chemical reactions that would turn it
into fuel: methanol, gasoline or jet fuel.

To read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/science/19carb.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/28kqhz


Giant "Frog From Hell" Fossil Found in Madagascar

from National Geographic News

Scientists working in Madagascar have found what may be the largest frog
that ever lived. The bad-tempered Beelzebufo, or "devil frog," also
poses a
big mystery - Why do its closest relatives live half a world away in
South
America?

Paleontologist David Krause of Stony Brook University in New York and
his
colleagues began unearthing the specimen in bits and pieces more than a
decade ago. Over the years a 75-piece puzzle emerged that was only
recently
put together by fossil-frog expert Susan Evans of University College
London.

Evans, lead author of a new paper detailing the find, describes the 70-
million-year-old frog as a rather intimidating animal the size of a
beach
ball, 16 inches high and weighing about 10 pounds.

To read more:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080218-giant-
frog.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/3byo6e


Revealed: Secrets of the Camouflage Masters

from the New York Times (Registration Required)

WOODS HOLE, Mass. - The cuttlefish in Roger Hanlon's laboratory were in
fine form. Their skin was taking on new colors and patterns faster than
the
digital signs in Times Square.

Dr. Hanlon inspected the squidlike animals as he walked past their
shallow
tubs, stopping from time to time to ask, "Whoa, did you see that?" One
cuttlefish added a pair of eye spots to its back, a strategy cuttlefish
use
to fool predators. The spots lingered a few seconds, then vanished.

... Dr. Hanlon likes to see how far he can push their powers of
camouflage.
He sometimes put black and white checkerboards in the tubs. The
cuttlefish
respond by forming astonishingly sharp-edged blocks of white.

To read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/science/19camo.html

Or: http://tinyurl.com/yw6dqd