Gizmorama
March 1, 2010
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Good Morning,
Scientists have made a tremendous find in the world of
pre-historic study. The remains of a new dinosaur have been
discovered and may not only tell us more about the Jurassic
period but about the evolution of current animals as well.
Read all the details in the last article.
Until Next Time,
Erin
Questions? Comments? Email me at: mailto:gizmo@gophercentral.com
Email your comments=
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SMOS images better, earlier than expected
PARIS - The European Space Agency says it is halfway through
calibrating images being transmitted by its Soil Moisture
and Ocean Salinity satellite. Launched Nov. 2, the satellite
is designed to improve our understanding of Earth's water
cycle by making global observations of soil moisture over
land and salinity over oceans. The satellite captures images
that can produce information on soil moisture and ocean
salinity, the space agency said. The images of what's called
"brightness temperature" are a measure of the radiation
emitted from Earth's surface. "During the commissioning
phase, considerable effort is put into improving the quality
of these images of brightness temperature before using them
as input for the soil moisture and ocean salinity data pro-
ducts," officials said. A French Space Agency engineer, Yann
Kerr, who first proposed the mission to the ESA, said, "SMOS
has delivered its first products earlier than expected and
of a quality better than the specifications." The ESA said
the satellite's commissioning phase will continue to the end
of April, after which the satellite will become operational.
Robotic kidney surgery has good outcomes
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - A Wake Forest University Baptist Med-
ical Center study shows robot-assisted kidney surgery is
faster and has better outcomes. Dr. Ashok Hemal, a urologic
surgeon, compared laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgery
for repairing blockages that prevent urine from draining
normally into the bladder. The researchers followed the
patients for 18 months and determined both options were
equally successful, but the robot-assisted technique had
several advantages. On average, robot-assisted surgery was
50 percent faster, resulted in 60 percent less blood and
required a two-day hospital stay, versus 3.5 days for lapa-
roscopic surgery. "This was one of the first studies where a
single surgeon at one center performed both types of surgery
and compared the results," said Hemal, director of the
Robotic and Minimally Invasive Urologic Surgery Program at
Wake Forest Baptist. "It allows for a more accurate compar-
ison of surgical options than multiple physicians performing
the surgeries. The results showed that robot-assisted surgery
had significant advantages for this condition. It is also
generally easier for surgeons to learn." The research, which
included Drs. Satyadip Mukherjee and Kaku Singh at the All
India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, is repor-
ted in the Canadian Journal of Urology.
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NASA to improve deep space communications
PASADENA, Calif. - The U.S. space agency says it has started
an antenna-building project designed to improve its Deep
Space Network Communications. NASA officials broke ground
near Canberra, Australia, Wednesday to replace its aging
fleet of 70-meter-wide (230-foot-wide) dishes with a new
generation of 34-meter (112-foot) antennas by 2025. Space
agency officials said the three 70-meter antennas, at NASA
Deep Space Network complexes at Goldstone, Calif., Madrid
and Canberra are more than 40 years old. "The new antennas,
known as 'beam wave guide' antennas, can be used more flex-
ibly, allowing the network to operate on several different
frequency bands within the same antenna," NASA said. "The
new antennas also can receive higher-frequency, wider-band-
width signals known as the 'Ka band.' This band, required
for new NASA missions approved after 2009, allows the newer
antennas to carry more data than the older ones." NASA said
it expects to complete the building of as many as three 34-
meter antennas near Canberra by 2018. NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Deep Space Net-
work, while Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Indus-
trial Research Organization manages the communication comp-
lex near Canberra for NASA.
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Nanotechnology could help Arab world
SAN DIEGO - The president of the African Academy of Sciences
says nanotechnology could aid in the development of the
world's Arab countries. Mohamed Hassan, who also serves as
executive director of TWAS, the academy of sciences for the
developing world, said the Arab region of the world faces a
host of "daunting development challenges." "Three of the
most fundamental involve ensuring adequate supplies of water,
energy and food," he said. "Advances in nanotechnology could
help achieve progress by helping to address each of these
challenges." For example, he said nano-filters could enhance
the efficiency of desalinization plants and nanotechnology
could improve the capacity of solar panels. More abundant
supplies of water and energy, Hassan said, would boost
irrigation and help increase agricultural output. But first
there must be a strong commitment to training the next gen-
eration of scientists, he said. To boost science, he said
each Arab country must create at least one world-class uni-
versity and build at least one world-class state-of-the-art
science center. "Nanotechnology may not be the first thing
that comes to mind in discussions dealing with strategies to
address the Arab region's most pressing challenges," Hassan
said. "But such investments in science and technology could
be a key to the region's future." He presented his remarks
last week in San Diego during a meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science.
New sauropod dinosaur find reported
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - U.S. scientists say they've found the
remains of a new herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that may
help explain the evolution of Earth's largest land animals.
The fossils were discovered near the Carnegie Quarry in
Dinosaur National Monument, along the border between Colorado
and Utah. University of Michigan Assistant Professor Jeffrey
Wilson and graduate student John Whitlock said the discovery
represents a rare look at a sauropod skull. "At first
glance, sauropods don't seem to have done much to adapt to
a life of eating plants," said Wilson, who is also an assis-
tant curator at the university's Museum of Paleontology. But
together with paleontologists Brooks Britt of Brigham Young
University and Dan Chure from Dinosaur National Monument,
Wilson and Whitlock compared the skulls and teeth of the new
dinosaur to those of other sauropods and discovered one re-
peated trend throughout sauropod evolution -- the development
of narrow, pencil-like teeth from broad-bladed teeth. "We
know narrow-crowned teeth appear at least twice throughout
sauropod history, and both times it appears to correspond to
a rise in the number of species," Whitlock said. "This new
animal is intermediate in terms of its tooth shape and
helps us understand how and when one of these transitions
occurred." The team reports on the new dinosaur, named
Abydosaurus mcintoshi -- in honor of paleontologist Jack
McIntosh -- in the early online edition of the journal
Naturwissenschaften.
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