Map of the Universe

Scientists at University of California Santa Cruz have simulated a map of the universe using world's most powerful supercomputing facility at NASA AMES Research Center, in Mountain View, California. This simulation took four years to develop! It takes into the account the effects of dark matter and dark energy in formation and evolution of our universe and "is based on the latest version of a “map” of the early universe that was created nearly 10 years ago by a satellite called the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, or Wmap". Learn more here.

WMAP has mapped the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation (the oldest light in the universe), produced the first fine-resolution full-sky map of the microwave sky, and determined the age of the universe to be 13.73 billion years old to within 1% error, which is 0.12 billion years, among other findings!

References:
[1] http://www.mysanantonio.com/life/article/UC-scientists-map-out-the-universe-2195884.php#ixzz1ZSYrVW5a

[2] http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Another satellite is falling

As we just had sighs of relief after NASA's UARS satellite entered the Earth into the Southern Pacific ocean on September 24, 2011 without causing any harm, we learn about another dead satellite that is expected to fall back to the Earth in early November! This time it is the ROSAT satellite of the German Space Agency. ROSAT was launched in 1998 and was decommissioned in 1999 after its star tracker failed and caused its on-board camera to point directly to the Sun! UARS of NASA that was launched in 1991, was originally planned to be a three-year mission only. However, UARS was operational for fourteen years, till 2005 when it was decommissioned due to budget cuts. Yet, some consider UARS's decommissioning controversial since the mission was studying the ozone layer! I have come to believe there is no way out of having conspiracy theorists, even if the mission goes 11 more years than the original plan and enters the earth six years after it being over.

I guess as time goes by, we will have more and more of such incidents, considering so many satellites that are up there, commercial and non-commercial ones. Maybe this opens up a whole new industry and field of study for cleaning the space junk for de-orbiting them and sending them away from the Earth or re-entering them safely back to Earth.

References:

http://www.space.com/13111-falling-satellite-rosat-november-crash.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/uars/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/uars/uars_science.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Atmosphere_Research_Satellite

Why the West, and less so the rest?

We often pride in the Eastern culture, history, past achievements, but why is it that the West has prospered more than the rest of the world? When writing, medicine, first civilizations were in places like Babylon, Mesopotamia, Egypt, why their current state is not as advance and prosperous as the west? I always wondered about this question. I initially thought the west has learned from experiences and mistakes of the rest, took the lessons learned, and prospered. But could not the owners of those mistakes do the same? Historian Niall Ferguson answers this question by summarizing the ingredients of the west's prosperity as:

1- Competition
2- Scientific revolution
3- Property rights
4- Modern medicine
5- The consumer society
6- The work ethic

Learn more here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/niall_ferguson_the_6_killer_apps_of_prosperity.html

Gamification to the rescue!

I know grown men in late thirties or in their forties, playing computer games for hours and hours. I never liked such a hobby for myself as an adult, and honesty believed they could do better things with their time. Well, here is their chance to convince me of the great work they can do, with the trainings and expertise they gain from playing games: "Gamers have unlocked protein mystery that baffled AIDS researchers for years". That is, using an online game, gamers predicted the structure of a protein that plays an important rule in how HIV spreads. In other words, they solved an instance of the protein unfolding problem.

Reference:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393200,00.asp#fbid=wI-RjiePJpA

Was Einstein Wrong?

I have been waiting to hear about the results of the experiments at CERN for a while, ever since I heard about the LHC experiments. Then, there were delays and I lost track and never learned what the outcome was. Now here comes this news! Scientists have detected sub atomic particle moving faster than the speed of light, a finding that undermines Einstein's theory of relativity that claims the speed of light to be a cosmic constant, an upper limit on how fast anything in universe can travel. Now, how much faster was the detected velocity? 60 nanoseconds faster! My intuition tells me the difference is not large enough and might be do to some error, as the article mentions to. But for theoretical physicist, especially those specialized in particle physics, this may be a large enough number!

I guess we have to be careful what we wish for. Do we want to break the light-speed barrier? Are we ready to accept the consequences and live in a world in which time travel would then become possible?


Reference:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/22/science-light-idUSL5E7KM4CW20110922

Wean

"Wean: 1. to accustom (a child or young animal) to food other than its mother's milk; cause to lose the need to suckle or turn to the mother for food.
2. to withdraw (a person, the affections, one's dependency, etc.) from some object, habit, form of enjoyment, or the like: The need to reduce had weaned us from rich desserts."

Reference:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wean

Citizen Science: Discovery of Two New Planets

Scientific data sets grow at a faster pace than scientists can keep up with them, analyze them carefully, make discoveries, find trends, etc. For this reason Citizen Science, asking and involving citizen scientists and volunteers to perform scientific tasks, has become popular and essential. NASA has embraced the idea of Citizen Science and already has several active projects in which the public can participate. The tasks may vary from collecting ground truth data to finding hay in stacks (it is usually the second case).


One of the most successful citizen science projects of NASA is Zooniverse, composed of several projects like Moon Zoo, Planet Hunters, Galaxy Zoo, Solar Stormwatch, etc.

The SETI Institute, dedicated to finding extraterrestrial life, is asking citizens help find signals of others who might be out there in the universe, using setiQuest, by simply scrolling through signals and images and marking unusual activities and features!

Citizen Science has multiple benefits. In addition to the increased work force and chance of making scientific discoveries, it is educational and inspirational for students and a good tool for educators. In addition, it shows the taxpayer the value of the scientific projects by engaging them in the process, and as a result securing various missions and projects. If government decides to cut the budget on a mission, which the public around the globe is extremely invested in and supportive of, chances are very slim. This was the case for Hubble and its beautiful imagery.

We are already seeing the value of the citizen science. Two new planets, possibly habitable, were discovered by citizen scientists participating in Planet Hunting project! There is much more to be found and learned about.

How can you benefit from citizen science in your work and project? Can you interest and engage the public to help you? The public can be students, researchers, and professors all over the world in your field, anyone outside your own organization.