Gizmorama - October 1st, 2012

Good Morning,

What does data storage, forests, a Russian satellite, and the history of Earth's oxygen have to do with each other? They are the 4 amazingly interesting topics that you can read about in today's issue!

Learn about these interesting stories, and others, from the scientific community.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Safe data storage for millions of years? --*
TOKYO - Japanese electronics firm Hitachi says it has invented a way of storing data that could keep it safe and stable for hundreds of millions of years. The technology behind the long-term storage capability involves a laser that is employed to encode data into a piece of quartz glass with dots corresponding to binary code that can be read back by an optical microscope, ZDNet reported. Hitachi announced the laser/quartz storage technology in Tokyo Monday. Company researchers said they tested the potential longevity of the technology by heating a sample of the encoded quartz glass to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 hours. All of the information remained intact and could be read back after the sample cooled, they said. One drawback, researchers said, is that the technology cannot store a lot of information in the available space. In tests, the quartz glass method was able to store around 40 megabytes per square inch, whereas a modern hard drive can store up to 1 terabyte per square inch. Still, Hitachi said, the new technology could be useful for ultra-long-term data archives of cultural information, among other uses.


*-- U.N.: World must sustain its forests --*
ROME - A country's forests must be carefully managed because they play a crucial role in helping achieve sustainable development, a senior U.N. official says. Jose Graziano da Silva, director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, made the remarks Monday at the opening of the agency's Committee on Forestry in Rome, a U.N. release reported. "The success of FAO's work in improving lives will depend very much on how we balance the use and preservation of natural resources," he said. "This includes forests, which play an important role in environmental factors like carbon sequestration, soil and water quality preservation and conserving biodiversity." The committee, composed of heads of forest services and other senior government officials, will spend five days in Rome identifying emerging policy and technical issues, to seek solutions and to advise FAO and others on appropriate action, the United Nations said. They will address issues such as rural development, the integration of forests with environmental and land use policies and improving the management of forestry resources, including wood and non-wood products. Around 350 million of the world's poorest people, including 60 million indigenous people, depend on forests for their daily subsistence and long-term survival, da Silva said, but deforestation and forest degradation are contributing to significant losses of soil each year, putting the lives of many in peril. "Preserving our soil is necessary to sustain life on the planet and yet the slow process of desertification has not captured as much attention as it merits," he said. "We will need to work together with governments, civil society and the private sector to maximize the role that forests and wooded land will play in food security in the future." "It will take a collective effort, including of all our partners within and beyond the U.N. system, to manage the world's forests in a sustainable way," da Silva said.


*-- Russia to launch privately built satellite --*
MOSCOW - Russia is preparing to launch the first satellite manufactured by a private firm in the country, the head of the aerospace company involved said. The DX1-class 1,100-pound satellite, set for launch in 2013, will be designed to "fine-tune a satellite platform, monitor the movement of ships in the world's oceans and test a variety of payloads," Mikhail Kokorich, head of satellite constructor Dauria Aerospace, said. Work on a second satellite, dubbed DRE, will begin by the end of this year, Kokorich said, and eventually several DRE-class satellites will be launched to provide space imagery. Dauria Aerospace, in addition to building the satellites, will also operate them and market their services, RIA Novosti reported.


*-- History of Earth's oxygen studied --*
SEATTLE - Microbial life may have migrated from Earth's oceans to land by 2.75 billion years ago, producing oxygen earlier than previously thought, U.S. scientists say. Research reported from the University of Washington suggests the land-based microbes were producing oxygen well in advance of what geologists refer to as the "Great Oxidation Event" about 2.4 billion years ago that initiated the oxygen-rich atmosphere and the creation of life as we know it. In addition to producing oxygen, the microbes were weathering pyrite, an iron sulfide mineral, which released sulfur into the oceans, researches said. In turn, that influx of sulfur probably enhanced the spread of life in the oceans, Eva Stueken, a doctoral student in Earth and space sciences, said. The added sulfur might also have allowed marine microbes to consume methane, setting the stage for atmospheric oxygenation. Before that, large amounts of oxygen would have been destroyed by reacting with methane that rose from the ocean into the air, the researchers said. "It supports the theory that oxygen was being produced for several hundred million years before the Great Oxidation Event. It just took time for it to reach higher concentrations in the atmosphere," Stueken said.

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