Category: Science
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GPs to get drill for bird flu pandemic
This is a very interesting development. It seems that H5N1 is being taken even more seriously than before: Every doctor’s surgery in Britain will next month be sent official instructions on how to handle an outbreak of bird flu as ministers step up their preparations for a global pandemic that, if the worst fears are…
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Avian flu spreading and now a real threat to Europe
This is getting more serious with H5N1, is it a matter of time before it becomes a human-human strain? And what happens if it does? The first cases of bird flu have been reported in the Chelyabinsk region of Siberia, near the Ural mountains separating Europe from Asia. Scientists don’t yet know whether the deadly…
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Shuttle set to land in California
The Shuttle is coming home but to California instead of Florida. I hope they all make it home safely.
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Bush and Evolution
Kevin Drum is reminding some of those on the right about Bush’s views on evolution and creationism – apparently some of them forgot. Actually, what bugged me most about this whole affair was reading the faux outrage from Bush’s conservative supporters in the blogosphere, as if they had no idea he felt this way before…
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Shuttle returns to space
So Discovery made it, but some debris appeared to miss damaging any parts of the shuttle. I remember posting about the aftermath of the disaster, it is great to see the shuttle back up, even if the shuttle program expires in 5 years time.
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Monkey business-sense
I rather liked this story from last week’s Economist. It concerns risk aversion in humans and monkeys. When buying things in a straight exchange of money for goods, people often respond to changes in price in exactly the way that theoretical economics predicts. But when faced with an exchange whose outcome is predictable only on…
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Martian life might threaten human mission
It is a scenario that may seem sci-fi, but it could happen. NASA’s Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group this month issued a report on research needed to certify the safety of such a Mars mission. One of the panel’s top priorities goes well beyond the scope of any mission in NASA’s current plans. The panel…
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Most Earth-like exoplanet yet is discovered
News like this will become much more frequent in the next few years – until that one day, probably in my natural lifetime, when we will discover a pale blue dot. What do we do then, and what effect will it have on humanity? But the new âsuper-Earthâ? is by far the smallest planet seen…
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Big news indeed
Just in case you thought our galaxy was pretty big, it turns out that our neighbour Andromeda is huge… The Andromeda galaxy, the most familiar of all the starry pinwheels in the sky and the Milky Way’s virtual twin, is three times the size astronomers had thought….the disc of the galaxy is actually three times…
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NOAA issues space weather warning
Things could get hairy – expect some satellites to stop working. It is a 9 on the K-index. Or in other words, hold onto your hats: Possible impacts from such a geomagnetic storm include widespread power system voltage control problems; some grid systems may experience complete collapse or blackouts. Transformers may experience damage. Spacecraft operations…