Technicians have begun assembling the world's largest radio telescope, with a dish the size of 30 football grounds, deep in the mountains of southwest China's Guizhou Province. Yesterday afternoon, they began to assemble the telescope's reflector, which is 500 meters in diameter and made up of 4,450 panels. Each panel is an equilateral triangle with sides 11 meters long. Once complete, the single-aperture spherical telescope called FAST will be the world's largest, exceeding the one at Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, which is 300 meters in diameter.
China Assembles World's Largest Telescope in Guizhou---Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tutkimusryhmä selvitti myös millaisen ennusteen malli antaa Auringon tulevalle aktiivisuudelle. Tuloksen mukaan jaksot ovat pahiten epätahdissa vuonna 2022. Tämä vähentäisi lähitähtemme aktiivisuutta merkittävästi.
Tutkijoiden mukaan vastaava ilmiö havaittiin viimeksi 370 vuotta sitten. Tuolloin Auringon aktiivisuus vajosi poikkeuksellisen alas. Samoihin aikoihin Euroopassa koettiin minijääkaudeksi kutsuttu aikakausi. Ei ole kuitenkaan varmaa, liittyikö 1600-luvun loppupuolen Auringon aktiivisuuden hiljeneminen nyt julkaistuun malliin.
Uusi malli ennustaa - Auringon aktiivisuus heikkenee dramaattisesti 2030-luvulla
Stephen Hawking, Frank Drake and dozens of journalists gathered at the Royal Society in London last week to hear astronomers announce a ground-breaking new project to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life called "Breakthrough Listen." They will be using two of the world's largest radio telescopes (Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia) to listen for radio messages from intelligent alien species. Scientists have chosen to target the nearest million stars as well as the nearest 100 galaxies. This project will also monitor the Galactic plane for months at a time. This unprecedented effort is a collaboration between UC Berkeley and the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, and employs an international team of astronomers and data scientists
Will SETI's unprecedented new program finally find E.T.?
China Aerospace Science & Industry Corp (CASIC), the country's largest missile manufacturer, has developed a new missile to put out fire in tall buildings.
Special fire trucks equipped with the missiles made their debut in the just-concluded Civil-military Integration Development Exhibition of Technology and Industry for National Defence this July. According to China Economic Weekly, the accurate system allows long-distance fire extinction in buildings above 100 meters high.
China Develops Fire Suppression Missiles---Chinese Academy of Sciences
In the remote Afar desert a 60 kilometre - around 40 miles - long segment of plate boundary cracked open by as much as eight metres over ten days in 2005. Since then the crack has been growing wider and longer with the latest eruptions taking place as recently as May 2010. The scientists studying the region believe that a new ocean is slowly forming and will eventually split the African continent in two.
Witness the birth of Africa’s new ocean
Chinese scientists have discovered a "super material" that is as light as a balloon yet strong as metal. This substance could be developed for military use, as was reported by South China Morning Post on Sept 23, 2015. The foam-like material was created by forming tiny tubes of graphene into a cellular structure, which is as stable as that of a diamond, said the study led by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shanghai Institute of Ceramics. The 207 times stronger than steel material can withstand a weight 40,000 times of its own without bending. The high resilience also allows the material to be squeezed to just 5 per cent of its original size and still return to its original shape.
Material as light as balloon and tough as metal created
An ancient virus has "come back to life" after lying dormant for at least 30,000 years, scientists say. It was found frozen in a deep layer of the Siberian permafrost, but after it thawed it became infectious once again. The French scientists say the contagion poses no danger to humans or animals, but other viruses could be unleashed as the ground becomes exposed. Professor Jean-Michel Claverie, from the National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) at the University of Aix-Marseille in France, said: "This is the first time we've seen a virus that's still infectious after this length of time."
30,000-year-old giant virus 'comes back to life' - BBC News
Scientists have decoded the DNA of a bacteria found thriving in ancient permafrost, and are now seeking to understand the genes which provide its extraordinary longevity. Work is also underway to study a so far unexplained positive impact on living organisms, notably human blood cells, mice, fruit flies, and crops. Professor Sergey Petrov, chief researcher of Tyumen Scientific Centre, said: 'In all these experiments, Bacillus F stimulated the growth and also strengthened the immune system. The experiments on human erythrocytes and leucocytes were also very optimistic.'
Russian scientists make progress on secret of eternal life
Linkistä löytyy kuvakin jos kiinnostaa. Yhdelle noista kukkuloista on kai tulossa jonkinlainen yleisölle avoin observatorio, josta ihmettä voi tulevaisuudessa käydä katsomassa. Aika syrjässä tuo paikka tietysti on, mutta jos oikein hyvin kävisi niin tulevaisuudessa tuo saattaa olla maailmankuulu paikka. FAST valmistunee 2016.
Ohessa tuoretta kuvaa FAST:n edistymisestä. Video koskee siis rakenteilla olevaa maailman suurinta radioteleskooppia.
FAST Part 2 - YouTube
A new drone video has been released by China Central Television Station showing the latest progress of one of the country's most ambitious scientific projects - a radio telescope the size of 30 football pitches.
The enormous dish is on track of completion in the second half of 2016 as engineers finished the wiring installation on the telescope on October 1, People's Daily Online reports.
Incredible Drone Footage Shows the Immense Scale of the ￡124 Million Radio Telescope under Construction in China---Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ohessa tuoretta kuvaa FAST:n edistymisestä. Video koskee siis rakenteilla olevaa maailman suurinta radioteleskooppia.
FAST Part 2 - YouTube
Scientists are now considering the possibility that the exodus of modern man from Africa may have been earlier than 60,000 years ago as traditionally thought. Christopher Bae, a paleoanthropologist at UH Mānoa, and Wei Wang of the Guangxi Museum of Nationalities in Nanning, China, led a team of researchers that discovered two teeth in Lunadong, a cave site located in Guangxi, southern China.
Found in stratified deposits dating between 70,000 and 126,000 years ago, a time period when China was traditionally thought to have been only occupied by more archaic human species, at least one of the teeth can be comfortably assigned to modern Homo sapiens. Dating results of the Lunadong teeth, which include a right upper second molar and a left lower second molar, indicate that the molars may be as old as 126,000 years.
Lunadong fossils support theory of earlier dispersal of modern man
Fossil finds from China have shaken up the traditional narrative of humankind's dispersal from Africa. Scientists working in Daoxian, south China, have discovered teeth belonging to modern humans that date to at least 80,000 years ago. This is 20,000 years earlier than the widely accepted "Out of Africa" migration that led to the successful peopling of the globe by our species.
"All the fossils have been sealed in a calcitic floor, which is like a gravestone, sealing them off. So the teeth have to be older than that layer. Above that are stalagmites that have been dated using uranium series to 80,000 years. This means that everything below those stalagmites must be older than 80,000 years old; the human teeth could be as old as 125,000 years, according to the researchers.
Fossil teeth place humans in Asia '20,000 years early' - BBC News
In september 27 one of two steam-generating units KLT-40S were loaded on the world's first floating nuclear power station Academician Lomonosov, under construction at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg.
Tuo on sähköteholtaan 70 MW, mutta lämpö mukaanlukien kokonaisteho taitaa olla noin 400 MW. On herättänyt aika paljon kiinnostusta, mm. Kiinassa, Afrikassa ja E-Amerikassa. Venäjä, tai oikeastaan muutama venäläinen energia-alan yritys, on tilannut noita puolen tusinaa tuomaan sähköä, lämpöä ja juomavettä syrjässä oleviin arktisiin paikkoihin. Ensimmäinen pitäisi olla valmis 2016.
Lloyd's Register of the UK announced today it has signed a framework agreement with the Nuclear Power Institute of China (NPIC) to support the design and development of a floating nuclear power plant utilizing a small modular reactor (SMR). Under the framework agreement, Lloyd's Register and NPIC - a subsidiary to China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) - will cooperate on the development of the "first-of-a-kind floating nuclear vessel" which will be used in Chinese waters to supply electrical power to offshore installations.
A Lloyd's Register spokesman confirmed to World Nuclear News that the floating nuclear power plant would be based on a marine version of CNNC's ACP100 SMR design, known as the ACP100S. This 100 MWe design with passive safety features has been under development since 2010 and its preliminary design was completed in 2014.
Lloyd's Register to help Chinese develop floating SMR
Kansainvälinen tutkimus on vahvistanut todisteet viime vuosituhanten voimakkaimmista tunnetuista aurinkomyrskyistä. Äärimmäiset purkaukset Auringosta osuivat maapalloon vuosien 774-775 ja 993-994 paikkeilla.
Muutama vuosi sitten havaittiin merkit kyseisten vuosien kohdalta puunäytteisiin varastoituneesta radioaktiivisesta hiilestä. Nyt samat merkit on todistetusti havaittu myös sekä Grönlannin että Etelämantereen jääkairausnäytteistä.
Jää säilytti todistusaineiston - rajuimmat purkaukset Auringosta sattuivat 775 ja 994
Chinese scientists have completed an initial conceptual design of a super giant particle collider which will be bigger and more powerful than any particle accelerator on Earth. If everything moves forward as proposed, the construction of the first phase project CEPC will start between 2020 and 2025, followed by the second phase in 2040.
China plans world's most powerful particle collider
Reaction Engines Ltd. can announce today the biggest breakthrough in aerospace propulsion technology since the invention of the jet engine. Critical tests have been successfully completed on the key technology for SABRE, an engine which will enable aircraft to reach the opposite side of the world in under 4 hours, or to fly directly into orbit and return in a single stage, taking off and landing on a runway.
The Biggest Breakthrough in Propulsion Since the Jet Engine
BAE Systems has bought a 20% stake in a company developing a radical engine that could propel aircraft into space. BAE is paying £20.6m for the stake in Reaction Engines, which is developing a hybrid rocket/jet engine called Sabre. Reaction says the technology would allow the launch of satellites into space at a fraction of the current cost and allow passengers to fly anywhere in the world in four hours. The British government is also investing £60m in the company.
The firm hopes to have a ground-based test engine working by the end of this decade and begin unmanned test flights by 2025.
BAE invests in space engine firm Reaction Engines - BBC News
Windfarms that float on the sea raise hopes of a greener future
Kelluvia tuulivoimaloita on muutamina viime vuosina testattu useissa maissa ja kokemukset ovat olleet hyviä. Brittien lisäksi suuria suunnitelmia tällä saralla on esimerkiksi Japanilla.
A floating offshore wind farm will be installed in the North Sea off the coast of Peterhead after the Scottish government gave it consent. Norwegian energy firm Statoil has been granted a licence for the pilot scheme of five turbines. Construction is planned to start as early as next year with final commissioning in 2017, according the company.
Floating wind farm to be installed off Peterhead - BBC News
Nasa has released new images of the mysterious Kazakhstan geoglyphs as researchers prepare to mount an expedition to the ancient site. The latest pictures, taken from space, show four of the 260 geoglyphs discovered to date. The Kazakhstan geoglyphs are far older than Peru's famous Nazca Lines – dating to around 8,000 years. The Nazca Lines are around 1,500 years old. Similarly, while Peru's geoglyphs are thought to have been created by the Nazca culture, the origin of those found in Kazakhstan are a complete mystery.
Nasa releases images of Kazakhstan geoglyphs as experts mount expedition to mystery site
A huge haul of bones found in a small, dark chamber at the back of a cave in South Africa may be the remnants of a new species of ancient human relative. The excavators recovered more than 1,500 pieces of bone belonging to at least 15 individuals. The remains appear to be infants, juveniles and one very old adult. Thousands more pieces of bone are still in the chamber, smothered in the soft dirt that covers the ground.
Homo naledi: new species of ancient human discovered, claim scientists