Monday, October 28, 2013
NASA's new moon probe settles into lunar orbit
NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft is pictured orbiting near the surface of the moon, in this artist's illustration released by NASA on August 15, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Dana Berry/NASA Ames/Handout via ReutersBy Irene KlotzMon Oct 7, 2013 7:39pm EDT
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Politics may be keeping most of NASA's workers home, but that didn't stop the U.S. space agency's new moon probe from achieving lunar orbit, officials said on Monday.
The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, blasted off on September 6 aboard a small rocket that placed the spacecraft into a highly elliptical orbit around Earth.
After three trips around the planet, LADEE on Sunday was in precise position to fire its braking rocket, let itself be captured by the moon's gravity and then settle into lunar orbit.
The timing was not ideal. The ongoing partial shutdown of the U.S. government has sidelined about 97 percent of the NASA's 18,000 employees.
But among those still on the job were LADEE's flight controllers, who managed the difficult maneuver, said deputy project scientist Greg Delory, with NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.
Over the next two weeks, LADEE will tweak its orbit so that it ends up about 155 miles above the lunar surface, an ideal vantage point for studying the gases surrounding the moon and search for electrically charged dust rising from the ground.
The government furlough also was not expected to impact a LADEE laser communications demonstration slated for later this month, Delory said.
Last week, NASA brought back workers preparing a new Mars orbiter for launch on November 18. Skeleton crews, meanwhile, are overseeing NASA's communications satellites and science probes.
(Editing by Tom Brown and Philip Barbara)
'Dark universe' beckons as research target after Higgs boson wins Nobel
British physicist Peter Higgs (R) shakes hands with Belgium physicist Francois Englert before a scientific seminar to deliver the latest update in the search for the Higgs boson at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin near Geneva July 4, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Denis BalibouseBy Robert EvansGENEVA | Tue Oct 8, 2013 2:54pm EDT
GENEVA (Reuters) - With the Higgs boson in the bag, the head of the CERN research center urged scientists on Tuesday to push on to unveil the "dark universe" - the hidden stuff that makes up 95 per cent of the cosmos and is still a mystery to earthbound researchers.
Rolf Heuer spoke after the Nobel physics prize went to Briton Peter Higgs and Belgian Francois Englert for predicting the existence of the Higgs boson particle, which explains how fundamental matter got the mass to form stars and planets.
"We have now completed the Standard Model," Heuer told reporters, referring to the portrait of the known universe drafted in the 1980s.
"It is high time for us to go on to the dark universe," added the director general of the world's main institution focusing on the basic particles of nature, based near Geneva.
The Higgs boson and its associated force field were among the last major building blocks of that model of how the cosmos works.
Their existence was confirmed, after three decades, when the particle was seen last year in CERN's underground particle smasher, the giant Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The LHC, now in the middle of a two-year refit and upgrade, is due to resume operations in early 2015 with its power doubled.
"That will open promising territory into new physics," Heuer's deputy Sergio Bertolucci said. New physics is the term used by scientists for the realms beyond the Standard Model that currently remain as elusive as science-fiction.
SUPER-SYMMETRY EYED
First among these - highlighted in Nobel acceptance comments by Englert - is super-symmetry, the theory that all basic particles have a heavier but invisible partner, which is linked to concepts like string theory and extra dimensions.
No sign of super-symmetry has yet appeared in CERN's collider, leading some science writers to voice doubts about the concept.
But Heuer said that just because it was elusive did not mean it did not exist. "It took us 30 years to find the Higgs," he added.
The LHC, in its 27-kilometre (17-mile) circular tunnel under a corner of Switzerland and France, was conceived in the early 1990s at a time when particle physicists, astrophysicists and cosmologists were increasingly talking together.
The interchange between experts in once separate fields has brought theories about the universe and its nature - as well as what came before and whether there are parallel undetected worlds - into sharper focus.
This has also been fueled by the increasing power of telescopes, allowing scientists to detect indirectly that there must be some strange substance massing around the galaxies to keep them together. This has become known as dark matter because it cannot be seen, although its effects are evident.
Recent measurements by the European Space Agency's satellite-borne Planck telescope found dark matter accounted for 27 percent of the universe and the even more enigmatic dark energy - driving galaxies apart - 68.3 percent.
Visible matter in open space - galaxies, stars and planets - accounts for just 5 percent.
String theory says particles are in fact tiny oscillating strings that can appear differently depending on how they are viewed. It requires multiple extra dimensions that have yet to be detected.
The theory, which has partly morphed into the M-theory espoused by British scientist Stephen Hawking, has fierce critics. It also allows for parallel universes - a multiverse where universes spring into existence and die spontaneously.
"But proving that," says CERN theoretician James Wells, "won't come in our lifetime."
(Editing by Andrew Heavens)
SpaceX Falcon 9 blasts off from California
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a small science satellite for Canada is seen as it is launched from a newly refurbished launch pad in Vandenberg Air Force Station September 29, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Gene BlevinsBy Irene KlotzVANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California | Sun Sep 29, 2013 1:15pm EDT
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) - An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to test upgrades needed for planned commercial launch services.
The 22-story rocket, built and flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, soared off a newly refurbished, leased launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Station at noon EDT/1600 GMT.
The Falcon 9 blazed through clear blue skies out over the Pacific Ocean, aiming toward an orbit that flies over Earth's poles. Perched on top of the rocket was a small science and communications satellite called Cassiope, built by MDA Corp of Canada.
The upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 has engines that are 60 percent more powerful than previous versions, longer fuel tanks, new avionics, new software and other features intended to boost lift capacity and simplify operations for commercial service.
Privately owned SpaceX has contracts for more than 50 launches of its new Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets.
Ten of those missions are to fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA. The other customers are non-U.S. government agencies and commercial satellite operators.
SpaceX also has two contracts for small U.S. Air Force satellites but is looking to break the monopoly United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has on flying big military satellites as well.
SpaceX already has flown three Dragon capsules to the station and made two other successful test flights with its older version Falcons.
The company advertises Falcon 9 launch services for $56.5 million. Company founder and chief executive Elon Musk said he would like to discount that price by recycling and reusing the Falcon's first stage. Currently, the spent boosters splash down into the ocean and cannot be reused.
Toward that goal, SpaceX has been working on related program called Grasshopper to fly a booster back to its launch site. Engineers have not yet tested how the system would work over water but they may get a trial run during Sunday's Falcon 9 flight.
(Editing by Bill Trott)
'Bionic man' makes debut at Washington's Air and Space Museum
An engineer makes an adjustment to the robot ''The Incredible Bionic Man'' at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington October 17, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Joshua RobertsBy Lacey JohnsonWASHINGTON | Thu Oct 17, 2013 4:14pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A first-ever walking, talking "bionic man" built entirely out of synthetic body parts made his Washington debut on Thursday.
The robot with a human face unveiled at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum was built by London's Shadow Robot Co to showcase medical breakthroughs in bionic body parts and artificial organs.
"This is not a gimmick. This is a real science development," museum director John Dailey said.
The 6-foot-tall (1.83 meter), 170-pound (77-kg) robot is the subject of a one-hour Smithsonian Channel documentary, "The Incredible Bionic Man," airing on Sunday.
A "bionic man" was the material of science fiction in the 1970s when the television show "The Six Million Dollar Man" showed the adventures of a character named Steve Austin, a former astronaut whose body was rebuilt using synthetic parts after he nearly died.
The robot on display at the museum cost $1 million and was made from 28 artificial body parts on loan from biomedical innovators. They include a pancreas, lungs, spleen and circulatory system, with most of the parts early prototypes.
"The whole idea of the project is to get together all of the spare parts that already exist for the human body today - one piece. If you did that, what would it look like?" said Bertolt Meyer, a social psychologist from the University of Zurich in Switzerland and host of the documentary.
The robot was modeled after Meyer, who was born without a hand and relies on an artificial limb. He showed off the bionic man by having it take a few clumsy steps and by running artificial blood through its see-through circulatory system.
"It, kind of, looks lifelike. Kind of creepy," said Paul Arcand, a tourist who was visiting from Boston with his wife.
The robot has a motionless face and virtually no skin. It was controlled remotely from a computer, and Bluetooth wireless connections were used to operate its limbs.
The bionic creation's artificial intelligence is limited to a chatbot computer program, similar to the Siri application on the Apple iPhone, said Robert Warburton, a design engineer for Shadow Robot.
"The people who made it decided to program it with the personality of a 13-year-old boy from the Ukraine," he said. "So, he's not really the most polite of people to have a conversation with."
Assembly began in August 2012 and took three months to finish.
The robot made its U.S. debut last week at New York's Comic Con convention. It will be on display at the museum throughout the fall.
(This story has been corrected to fix spelling of documentary host's first name to Bertolt, not Bertold, paragraph 7)
(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson; editing by Barbara Goldberg and Leslie Adler)
Diesel exhaust pollution may disrupt honeybee foraging
A colony of honeybees swarm on the ledge of a window outside the Media Centre, in Bern June 17, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Ruben SprichBy Kate KellandLONDON | Thu Oct 3, 2013 9:07am EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Exposure to pollution from diesel exhaust fumes can disrupt honeybees' ability to recognize the smells of flowers and could in future affect pollination and global food security, researchers said on Thursday.
In a study published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, scientists from Britain's University of Southampton found that the fumes change the profile of the floral odors that attract bees to forage from one flower to the next.
"This could have serious detrimental effects on the number of honeybee colonies and pollination activity," said Tracey Newman, a neuroscientist who worked on the study.
Bees are important pollinators of flowering plants, including many fruit and vegetable crops.
A 2011 U.N. report estimated that bees and other pollinators such as butterflies, beetles or birds do work worth 153 billion euros ($203 bln) a year to the human economy.
Bee populations have been declining steadily in recent decades but there is scientific disagreement over what might be causing it. Much attention has been focused on whether a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids may be the culprit.
A report from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in January said three widely-used neonicotinoids, made mainly by Switzerland's Syngenta and Germany's Bayer, posed an acute risk to honeybees.
EU leaders voted in April to ban three of the world's most widely-used pesticides in this class for two years because of fears they could be linked to a plunge in the bee populations.
But the British government, which recommended abstaining in a previous EU vote in March, argues the science is inconclusive and advises caution in extrapolating results from laboratory studies to real-life field conditions.
SENSITIVE SMELL
Guy Poppy, an ecology professor who worked with Newman, said to be able to forage effectively, honeybees need to be able to learn and recognize plants - a process their results showed could be disrupted by so-called NOx gases, particularly nitrogen dioxide, found in diesel exhaust and other pollution.
For their study, the scientists took eight chemicals found in the odor of oil rapeseed flowers and mixed them in one experiment with clean air and in another with air containing diesel exhaust.
They found that six of the eight chemicals reduced in volume when mixed with diesel fumes, and two disappeared completely within a minute - meaning the profile of the chemical mix had changed. The odor mixed with clean air was unaffected.
When the researchers used the same process with NOx gases - nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide - found in diesel exhaust emissions, they saw the same results, suggesting NOx is key to how and why the odor's profile was altered.
When the changed chemical mix was then shown to honeybees - which are known to use their sensitive sense of smell to forage for flowers - they could not recognize it.
Giles Budge of Britain's Food and Environment Research Agency said Newton's study highlighted "a fresh issue to add to the many problems facing our insect pollinators".
But he said that since the study was based in the laboratory, more research is needed to see if the problem is occurring in the wider environment.
(Editing by Pravin Char)
Higgs boson, key to the universe, wins Nobel physics prize
1 of 8. Belgian physicist Francois Englert reacts as he appears at the balcony of his house in Brussels October 8, 2013, after he and Britain's Peter Higgs won the 2013 Nobel prize for physics.
Credit: Reuters/Yves HermanBy Simon Johnson and Johan AhlanderSTOCKHOLM | Tue Oct 8, 2013 7:44pm EDT
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Britain's Peter Higgs and Francois Englert of Belgium won the Nobel Prize for physics on Tuesday for predicting the existence of the Higgs boson particle that explains how elementary matter attained the mass to form stars and planets.
The insight has been hailed as one of the most important in the understanding of the cosmos. Without the Higgs mechanism all particles would travel at the speed of light and atoms would not exist.
Half a century after the scientists' original prediction, the new building block of nature was finally detected in 2012 at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) centre's giant, underground particle-smasher near Geneva.
"I am overwhelmed to receive this award," said Higgs, who is known to shun the limelight and did not appear in public on Tuesday despite winning the world's top science prize.
"I hope this recognition of fundamental science will help raise awareness of the value of blue-sky research," he said in a statement via the University of Edinburgh where he works.
The two scientists had been favorites to share the 8 million Swedish crown ($1.25 million) prize after their theoretical work was vindicated by the CERN experiments.
To find the elusive particle, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had to pore over data from the wreckage of trillions of sub-atomic proton collisions.
The Higgs boson is the last piece of the Standard Model of physics that describes the fundamental make-up of the universe. Some commentators - though not scientists - have called it the "God particle", for its role in turning the Big Bang into an ordered cosmos.
Higgs' and Englert's work shows how elementary particles inside atoms gain mass by interacting with an invisible field pervading all of space - and the more they interact, the heavier they become. The particle associated with the field is the Higgs boson.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the prize went to Higgs and Englert for work fundamental to describing how the universe is constructed.
"According to the Standard Model, everything, from flowers and people to stars and planets, consists of just a few building blocks: matter particles."
REMAINING QUESTIONS
Although finding the Higgs boson is a remarkable achievement - and one which Higgs once said he never expected to see in his lifetime - it is not the end of the story for physicists trying to understand the structure of the universe.
Scientists are now grappling with other mysteries such as understanding the nature of dark matter, which accounts for more than a quarter of the universe, and dark energy, which is believed to be the driver of cosmic expansion.
Asked how it felt to be a Nobel winner, Englert told reporters by phone link to Stockholm: "You may imagine that this is not very unpleasant, of course. I am very, very happy to have the recognition of this extraordinary award."
CERN Director General Rolf Heuer said he was "thrilled" that the Nobel prize had gone to particle physics. He said the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN last year marked "the culmination of decades of intellectual effort by many people around the world".
Some physicists were surprised that there was no recognition for the CERN teams that discovered the new particle, since there had been speculation of a prize for CERN as an institution.
The will of Swedish dynamite millionaire Alfred Nobel limits the award to a maximum of three people - harking back to an earlier era when science was conducted by individuals or very small teams.
However, thousands worked on detecting the particle at CERN and a total of six scientists published relevant papers in 1964.
Englert, 80, and his colleague Robert Brout - who died in 2011 - were first to publish; but the now 84-year-old Higgs followed just a couple of weeks later and was the first to explicitly predict the existence of a new particle.
Similar proposals from American researchers Carl Hagen and Gerald Guralnik and Britain's Tom Kibble appeared shortly afterwards.
Kibble said it was no surprise that he and his colleagues were not included in the Nobel honor since "our paper was unquestionably the last of the three to be published in Physical Review Letters in 1964 - though we naturally regard our treatment as the most thorough and complete".
(Additional reporting by Mia Shanley and Niklas Pollard in Stockholm, Ben Hirschler in London and Robert Evans in Geneva; Editing by Alistair Scrutton, Kate Kelland and Ralph Boulton)
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