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April 6, 2003
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Superbright gamma ray burst may be closest ever
Astronomers have begun analysing what could be the closest gamma ray burst ever detected. The work could shed new light on the mysterious cause of these explosions, the most powerful in the Universe.
The intense flash of gamma radiation was first detected on 29 March by NASA's Earth-orbiting High-Energy Transient Explorer (HETE-2) satellite. But astronomers around the world are now performing follow-up observations.
"This burst is much closer to us than all other observed bursts, so we can study it in considerably more detail," says Carl Akerlof, at the University of Michigan, who is observing the burst with the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) in Texas, US.
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Workstation Opteron chipset on the way?
On April the 22nd AMD will roll out the first iteration of its "Hammer" family, aimed at providing 32-bit power with 64-bit extensions and the like.
And, according to AMD specialist site AMD Zone, a number of vendors, mobo makers and the like are telling it that there's a big demand for workstation chipsets, rather than the full blown server model.
The site also hints that there does appear to be a dedicated workstation chipset lurking in the wings and we suppose we'll find out sooner or later which firm has stepped up to the ockey.
But in the meantime you can think about the need for such a chipset by going over here.
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Why we may never regain the liberties that we've lost
The lights of a magnificent, recovering city glittered from the 80th floor of the Empire State Building on Wednesday evening. The multiple ironies were not lost on the gathering of civil-liberties and public-interest activists.
The Empire State Building is now the tallest structure in the city, still half-stunned from the attacks that brought down the two taller buildings 18 months ago. As a new war raged in Iraq, the people in the room were acutely aware of the only slightly older war that has consumed their daily lives like nothing before -- the way in which the war on terrorism has also turned into an assault on individual liberties.
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Ebola, hunting threaten ape populations
An international team of scientists, tracking gorillas and chimpanzees through thick African rain forests, reported Sunday that ape populations have been ravaged by the deadly Ebola virus and illegal hunting and soon could face extinction.
For the past 20 years, the researchers estimated, humanity's closest genetic cousins have suffered catastrophic losses in Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to some 80 percent of all gorillas and most of the world's chimpanzees.
The findings contradict a 1995 estimate that assured relative stability among wild ape populations, suggesting some 110,000 gorillas would continue to inhabit the forests of western equatorial Africa. The new study, which does not specify numbers, calculates a 56 percent ape decline in Gabon between 1983 and 2000. In view of the greater human rural population and deforestation rates along with a raging Ebola epidemic in Congo, the scientists said they expect to see an even bleaker picture there.
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Superbright gamma ray burst may be closest ever
Astronomers have begun analysing what could be the closest gamma ray burst ever detected. The work could shed new light on the mysterious cause of these explosions, the most powerful in the Universe.
The intense flash of gamma radiation was first detected on 29 March by NASA's Earth-orbiting High-Energy Transient Explorer (HETE-2) satellite. But astronomers around the world are now performing follow-up observations.
"This burst is much closer to us than all other observed bursts, so we can study it in considerably more detail," says Carl Akerlof, at the University of Michigan, who is observing the burst with the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) in Texas, US.
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Mapping the Moon
As the European Space Agency (Esa) reveals more details of its first Moon mission, BBC News Online's Helen Briggs looks at the renaissance in lunar science.
Anyone who has seen the remarkable footage of the historic Apollo landings will have no doubt about the fascination the Moon holds for us.
As Manuel Grande, a leading British scientist on the European project puts it, the Moon is part of our world, and we see it every day.
Yet despite its relatively close proximity to us, and the wealth of lunar space missions in the 1960s and 1970s, he believes there is much left to learn.
In fact, a "new science" of the Moon is starting to unfold, according to Professor Grande, with the launch this summer of the first European mission carrying the first UK experiments.
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The Amazing Toilet Roll Web Browser
An internet toilet roll browser and a net-enabled chopping board are among cutting edge designs at the Ideal Home Show.
The show, which runs at London's Earls Court exhibition centre until 6 April, is home to a variety of strange gadgets.
Brunel University design graduates came up with five of the 15 products showcased in the Future Concepts gallery.
Design graduate Andrew Cubitt has taken the humble toilet roll and turned it into a hi-tech news and information service.
A unit installed in front of a toilet on the cubicle wall provides up-to-the-minute information on products, stocks and shares and lottery results.
People can even print off the information on a standard toilet roll.
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Plants: New Anti-Terror Weapon?
Green and leafy, working 24 hours a day in a diverse range of environments, the newest recruits in the fight against terrorism could soon be trailing alongside your windowsill or eyeing you from the corner of the room.
As concerns grow over the threat of bioterrorism, researchers are developing an early-warning system using plants that can detect and signal the presence of harmful chemical or biological agents.
Thanks to a three-year, $3.5 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Penn State scientists are laying the groundwork for these so-called "sentinel plants," which are genetically engineered to perform their anti-terrorism tasks.
"Plants are exquisitely attuned to their environments and are extremely dynamic," said Jack Schultz, a chemical ecologist and professor of entomology at the College of Agricultural Sciences. "I like to say they're just very slow animals because they have to deal with the world as it comes to them, since they can't move away."
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