August 8, 2012

Good Morning,

The first article serves as a good update on the Curiosity Mars mission, touching on how Russia has made their contribution to the exciting frontier. Check out the article for more details.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Russian detector to help Curiosity mission

MOSCOW - Russia's contribution to the Curiosity rover that landed on Mars can search for water in shallow underground minerals along the rover's path, scientists say. The DAN neutron detector, developed under an agreement between NASA and Russia's Roscosmos Federal Space Agency, will be activated within three to four days, project director Igor Mitrofanov said. The detector is designed to search as deep as 20 inches for any water that might be bound into shallow underground mineral layers, he said. "If we conclude that there is something unusual in the subsurface at a particular spot, we could suggest more analysis of the spot using the capabilities of other instruments," he said. By measuring the energies of neutrons leaking from the ground, DAN can detect the presence of hydrogen, a possible sign of water, RIA Novosti reported. The detector will help Curiosity determine whether Mars was ever a habitable planet and whether it has any suitable places for habitation now, scientists said.


High temps hit developing countries hard

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Increased temperatures from climate warming will hurt poor countries and limit their long-term growth, a U.S. researcher says. Ben Olken, a professor of economics at MIT who co-authored the study, said every 1-degree-Celsius increase in a poor country over the course of a given year reduces its economic growth by about 1.3 percentage points. And it's not just droughts and hot weather hurting agriculture, he said; hot spells have much wider economic effects. "What we're suggesting is that it's much broader than [agriculture]," Olken said. "It affects investment, political stability and industrial output." The study looked at temperature and economic-output data for each country in the world, in every year from 1950 through 2003, looking at economic data by type of activity, an MIT release reported Tuesday. There are a variety of "channels" through which weather shocks hurt economic production, the researchers found, by slowing down workers, commerce, and perhaps even capital investment. "If you think about people working in factories on a 105-degree day with no air conditioning, you can see how it makes a difference," Olken said. The researchers said their findings apply only to the world's developing nations, as wealthier countries do not appear to be affected by the variations in temperature. "The impacts of these things are going to be worse for the countries that have the least ability to adapt to it," Olken said. "[We] want to think that through for the implications for future inequality. It's a double whammy."


Apple pulling its YouTube app from iOS 6

CUPERTINO, Calif. - Apple Inc. has removed its YouTube app from its latest beta version of iOS 6, with the Cupertino, Calif., company saying its license from Google has expired. The app will not be included in the next version of its mobile operating system for the iPhone and iPad, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Since the iPhone went on sale in 2007, Apple's YouTube app has come pre-installed on the company's mobile devices. It's the latest sign of a growing gulf in the relations between Apple and Google, which have been strained as Google began taking on Apple with its own Android mobile operating system. Apple has already removed Google Maps in iOS 6, expected to be released this fall, in favor of its own mapping app. Although iOS 6 will not come with an Apple YouTube app, users will still be able to access YouTube through Apple's Safari browser. Google is reportedly working on its own YouTube app that will be available through Apple's app store.


White House fast tracks energy projects

WASHINGTON - Seven significant U.S. solar and wind energy projects will be expedited, including some in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Wyoming, the White House announced. President Barack Obama, as part of his We Can't Wait initiative, announced the infrastructure projects which are estimated to produce nearly 5,000 megawatts of clean energy, enough to power approximately 1.5 million homes, a White House release reported Tuesday. "As part of President Obama's all-of-the-above strategy to expand domestic energy production and strengthen the economy, we are working to advance smart development of renewable energy on our public lands," Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said. "These seven proposed solar and wind projects have great potential to grow our nation's energy independence, drive job creation, and power economies across the west." The projects include two solar power efforts in California, two in Nevada, and a wind energy project in Wyoming said to be the largest proposed wind farm in North America. Two projects in Arizona, one solar and one wind, are intended to help the state meet its renewable energy goals, the White House said.

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