2012 - Science News: Space, Evolution, Archaeology & Cataclysms

2012, November 25, 2004 at 9:31:00 AM AEDT

SuperNova Ealry Warning System

If one goes off nearby (not expected by scientists, but they've only been observing them for a short while...) - this alert service might give you time to make it to a bunker!

World-wide, several detectors currently running or nearing completion are sensitive to a core collapse supernova neutrino signal in the Galaxy. The neutrino signal emerges promptly from a supernova's core, whereas it may take hours for the first photons to be visible. Therefore, the detection of the neutrino burst from the next Galactic supernova can provide an early warning for astronomers. Putting several detectors in coincidence can provide the astronomical community with a very high confidence early warning of the supernova's occurrence.

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2012, October 29, 2004 at 6:13:00 PM AEST

Cosmic Rays affecting Earth

The actual title of the news item is: Exploding star 'helped humans evolve'

...although the angle of the scientists is that cosmic rays heated the Earth (as they would have done), which in turn helped humans evolve. My take is that the cosmic rays had a more direct role, that of mutating humans.

Stardust found deep beneath the Pacific Ocean has led to a theory that a supernova explosion three million years ago may have helped cause human evolution.

Debris from an exploding supernova, which could have changed the climate on Earth when man's ancestors first began to walk, has been discovered by a Munich scientific team.

Gunther Korschinek and colleagues at the Technical University of Munich reported in Physical Review Letters that depending on how far away the supernova was, it might have caused an increase in cosmic rays for about 300,000 years that, in turn, could have heated up the Earth.

The timing of the star explosion coincides with a change in the climate in Africa, when drier conditions caused forests to retreat and the savannah to emerge.

Anthropologists believe this change brought early hominids out of the trees.

"The African climate shifted towards more arid conditions about 2.8 million years ago," Dr Korschinek and team wrote. "Some of the major events in early hominid evolution appear to be coeval (of the period) with the African climate changes."

Source: Melbourne Herald Sun

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2012, August 2, 2004 at 9:29:00 AM AEST

Southern Africa: signs of radiation damage

Signs that the reversal is about to happen again are nowhere more apparent than over Southern Africa, according to Dr Pieter Kotze, head of the geomagnetism group at the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory in the southern Cape.

Satellites in low-Earth orbit over Southern Africa are already showing signs of radiation damage suffered as a result of the Earth's magnetic field weakening above our part of the planet. The field forms the magneto sphere, which, like the Earth's ozone layer, protects the planet from the sun's harmful radiation.

Other symptoms destined to become apparent in the years ahead include the aurora australis, or southern lights. Usually seen only over the South Pole, these will become visible closer to the equator as the Earth's magnetic field weakens and disappears. Eventually, on past form, the field will reappear but with magnetic north and south pole changing places, as they have done for billions of years.

The (temporary) disappearance of the magnetic field ahead of its reversal will lead to increased occurrences of radiation-induced cancer, Kotze said.

Commenting on the New York Times report, Kotze said that the decay in the Earth's magnetic field was becoming increasingly apparent in "the South Atlantic anomaly", a huge deviation in the Earth's magnetic field discovered with the help of the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory.

This month, the European Space Agency (ESA) approved a multimillion-euro space mission, called Swarm, to measure the anomaly, which stretches from Southern Africa towards South America. The ESA's scientists believe that this anomaly, as revealed by the occasional "geomagnetic jerk" to which our part of the world is prone, will provide a clue to predicting the next "flip" in the Earth's magnetic field, now 250 000 years overdue - as these things go. Three ESA satellites, flying in low-Earth orbit (400km to 500km up) after their launch in 2009, will measure the variation over Southern Africa.

The observatory has also recorded a faster-growing deviation between true north and magnetic north over Southern Africa during the past 10 years, drifting steadily westward. Taken together, the blip and this drift point to an imminent reversal in the Earth's north-south magnetic alignment.

"W e should be able to work out the first predictions by the end of the [Swarm] mission," Gauthier Hulot, an ESA geophysicist and a colleague of Kotze's, told the New York Times.

Kotze said that, "these are all indications that we have conditions similar to the last reversal, 780 000 years ago. So it means that we are due for another one soon." In geological terms, however, "soon" could mean anytime between tomorrow and the next 3 000 years.

Source: Sunday Times

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2012, July 16, 2004 at 9:47:00 AM AEST

Radiation affects next generation

Which means there could be a link between a sudden increase in radiation, and rapid evolution...

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Concern over the harmfulness of plutonium is growing because of discoveries about the subtle effects of low-level radiation. Researchers in Europe and North America have shown that the descendants of cells that seem to survive radiation unharmed can suffer delayed damage, a phenomenon called "genomic instability"

...And an increase was found in the number of mutations in small pieces of DNA called mini-satellites that are passed from one generation to the next.

Source: New Sceintist

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2012, June 26, 2004 at 7:22:00 AM AEST

Super-strong Mutant Boy!

A five year-old German boy is unusually muscular, and can "hold seven-pound weights with arms extended, something many adults cannot do."

He has a DNA mutation:

It is the first human case where a mutant DNA segment was found to block production of a protein called myostatin (search) that limits muscle growth, though researchers discovered in 1997 that they could create mega-mice by "turning off" the gene that directs cells to produce the protein.

Suddenly the X-Men sounds less like science-fiction!

Sources: Fox News + New Scientist

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2012, May 22, 2004 at 8:34:00 AM AEST

The Sun's mysterious X-rays

A brief mention in New Scientist (17 April 2004, page 8):

"Astronomers have been puzzled by the Sun's X-ray halo since it was first detected in the 1940s... The surface of the sun is not hot enough to produce such a bright X-ray glow"

An, although the article suggests the decay of axions, they still don't know what causes the X-rays. In my mind this means they also don't know whether the amount of X-rays is prone to fluctuations.... big enough to fry us or at least mutate us!

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2012, May 14, 2004 at 9:01:00 AM AEST

Worry! Don't Worry!

Worry

"The Earth's magnetic field is showing worrying signs that it is about to reverse again. Not only has the magnetic north pole wandered by 1100 kilometres in the past 200 years, but its strength is dropping at a rate of 5 per cent a century.

This is the fastest decrease since the last reversal 730,000 years ago..."

Don't Worry

Scientists have determined that when the magnetic field of our planet drops to almost nothing during a magnetic pole shift, the sun's solar wind kicks in and replaces it.

"Their simulations show that the solar wind - the million-kilometre-an-hour stream of hydrogen and helium nuclei from the sun - wraps itself around the Earth in a way that induces a magnetic field in the ionosphere as strong as the original field."

From a layman's point of view, my question is:

"Wouldn't the solar wind already be wrapping around Earth, and already be contributing to our magnetic field?

Source: New Scientist

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2012, March 27, 2004 at 4:42:00 PM AEDT

'Dark-Matter Highway' Streaming Through Earth?

This is similar to the "Photon Belt" promoted by some independent researchers, although there actually isn't any scientific evidence at all for the "Photon Belt".

... the disruption of a dwarf galaxy called Sagittarius, which is being torn apart and consumed by the much larger gravitational pull of the Milky Way...

The dwarf galaxy's entrails of stars and dust, like a long piece of ribbon, are entangled around and within our galaxy. The so-called "trailing tidal tail" can be seen to extend from Sagittarius' center and arcs across and below the plane of the Milky Way. The leading part of the tail extends northward above our galaxy where it then turns and appears to be showering shredded galaxy debris down directly on our solar system

Relevant here is the possibility that we have only recently been caught in this torrent of invisible matter that zips through everything (our bodies included), and that we might just be on the edge of it. We might feel the full force of it in 2012 - a force strong enough to shift the poles, and enough inter-galactic radiation to mutate us.

Source: Science Daily

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RobertBast, February 20, 2004 at 8:24:00 AM AEDT

It has begun...

There has been an unexpected increase of cosmic rays bombarding earth.

And they are coming from the centre of our galaxy.

I have being saying for years that 2012 will involve a massive amount of cosmic rays hitting our planet, which will result in evolutionary mutations. I have also suggested that a possible source is the Galactic Center, probably the black hole the resides there. There is no current scientific knowledge that supports this.

Follow the link below for a paper that mentions the increase...

Source: On the observed cosmic ray excess at particle energy 1 EeV

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RobertBast, December 13, 2003 at 9:58:00 AM AEDT

Magnetic Field - down 10% in last 150 years

This is not new news, and scientists generally feel that either the decline will take a thousand more years, or that it is a temporary decline, and it will bounce back again soon.

No-one dares to say that we could have a magnetic pole reversal in the next 10 years...

This is new:

"Over the southern Atlantic Ocean, a continued weakening of the magnetic field has diminished the shielding effect it has locally in protecting the Earth from the natural radiation that bombards our planet from space, scientists said.

As a result, satellites in low-Earth orbit are left vulnerable to that radiation as they pass over the region, known as the South Atlantic anomaly.

Among the satellites that have fallen prey to the harmful effects was a Danish satellite designed, ironically, to measure the Earth's magnetic field..."

Source: Space.com

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RobertBast, May 29, 2003 at 8:55:00 AM AEST

Measuring Radiation Exposure

How much damage does cosmic radiation do to frequent flyers?

I don't really understand the explanation of how they are planning to measure a person's radiation exposure from the past - painting chromosomes or something - but it is good news:

"If this works, we'll be able to take a measurement and see the lifetime exposure in that person," says David Brenner of Columbia University in New York. "Often there is no other reliable record of individual exposure."

Source: New Scientist

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RobertBast, May 3, 2003 at 8:57:00 AM AEST

Supermodel fears cosmic rays

Aussie Elle MacPherson has

"...allegedly lined her baby's cot with lead to shield him from cosmic rays on planes."

Good looks and brains!

Source: Herald Sun

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RobertBast, April 10, 2003 at 12:14:00 PM AEST

Worm Sex

Over in Chernobyl, some worms have started to have sex with each other, whereas they normally reproduce asexually:

"Polikarpov thinks the worms have switched to sexual reproduction in an attempt to protect themselves from the radiation. Sexual reproduction allows natural selection to promote genes that offer better protection from radiation damage, and "the resistance of populations as a whole will be increased", he suggests."

Radiation triggers evolutionary re-action!

Source: New Scientist

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RobertBast, April 2, 2003 at 7:04:00 AM AEST

Low dose X-rays dangerous

It has always been accepted that lower doses of radiation cause lower damage. But no-one considered that our bodies might give less priority to the lesser damage:

"However, the researchers noted that the damage from low radiation levels lingered days to weeks longer than damage induced by more powerful levels. They observed that when the cell cultures multiplied, the numbers of double-strand breaks decreased.

This might be because instead of repairing the damage, the body simply gets rid of these damaged cells with induced cell death, the duo suggested. In high doses of radiation, more cells b damaged - too many to kill off - so the body repairs the damage instead."

So, how might our bodies react to massive doses of cosmic radiation. Scientists who merely extrapolate data from standard or large doses might be ignoring the possibility that our bodies react intelligently.

radiation > mutation > evolution

Source: ABC Australia

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RobertBast, March 20, 2003 at 8:22:00 AM AEDT

Life on Mars?

"Radiation on Mars is so intense that it could endanger astronauts sent to explore the Red Planet, and it's unlikely that any extraterrestrial life would survive there, NASA scientists said."

Well, that's an exaggeration, they're only saying that it exceeds their safety limits. Sure, more astronauts will get cancer etc, but the level is okay for a colony or humans/plants/animals to survive if they have everything else they need.

"The radiation would expose astronauts in orbit to an effective dose 2.5 times greater than that received by humans in low Earth orbit aboard the international space station."

It does highlight the fact that we are lucky not to be bombarded by space radiation, and we should be prepared for any increase of radiation hitting Earth, or decrease in the magnetic shield or atmosphere that protect us.

Source: CNN

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RobertBast, March 8, 2003 at 9:45:00 AM AEDT

Two varieties of Gamma-Ray

Here's part of what the news release says:

"It seems unlikely that the same engine could produce both types of bursts, the team said. Although not directly addressed in the paper, these results support the notion that if the long bursts originate from massive stellar explosions, then short bursts originate from something entirely different. In the latter scenario, this event could be either mergers or such a drastic Jekyll-and-Hyde-like switch in the stellar explosion mode that the engine appears physically quite different. Such drastic and well-defined differences in the correlation between two of the major variables will need to be addressed quantitatively in future models of the burst physics. "

Which I think means that they still don't really know where they come from, but now they believe there are two ways for Gamma Ray Bursts to occur, whereas previously the puzzle only had one solution to seek.

Source: Eurekalert

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RobertBast, February 3, 2003 at 9:18:00 PM AEDT

Local X-Rays

Lightning gives off X-Rays and Gamma Rays - so it would be advisable to avoid being struck!

Source: BBC

Satellite GOES-12, which will enable us to receive better warnings of solar storms, is ready to begin its mission. It was launched into orbit 2 years ago.

"The Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) aboard the satellite will enable forecasters and scientists to detect solar storms that could impact billions of dollars worth of assets."

Source: Science Daily

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RobertBast, January 24, 2003 at 11:53:00 AM AEDT

Cancer from background radiation

A Scandinavian study, recently mentioned in New Scientist, has determined that event the tiniest doses of radiation can cause harm.

"Most cases of the commonest type of childhood thyroid cancer could be caused by low levels of natural radiation from rocks and cosmic rays, say two European scientists. Their finding strengthens the idea that even the tiniest doses of radiation, including those that come naturally from the environment, can be dangerous."

Source: New Scientist via Shutdown Sizewell

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RobertBast, January 15, 2003 at 9:52:00 AM AEDT

Radiation-proof Superbug

A radiation-proof superbug that could survive a nuclear holocaust with ease has given up its secrets to scientists. It can withstand 1,000 times more radiation than any other living thing. The secret: the cell structure seems to be like a modern car windscreen - you can smash it, but it stays in one piece.

Source: Ananova

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2012 [ News Blog of Survive2012 ]