March 2011 archive

Caitlin Stier, contributor

(Image: Bo C. Christiansen/University of Copenhagen)

A highly reactive form of rust could be used to contain radioactive neptunium waste from nuclear power plants.

Green rust (pictured above) is a type of clay consisting of iron that has not entirely rusted. It has a deficit of electrons, making it react easily with other substances, including common pollutants.

Now, Bo Christiansen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and colleagues say it can help contain radioactive neptunium, a byproduct of uranium reactors with a half-life of more than 2 million years. The waste is disposed of in iron-lined copper vessels that are submerged in water.

Christiansen and colleagues say that surrounding these vessels with green rust could help ensure the waste does not seep into waterways should the containers break down.

Journal reference: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2010.12.003

Peter Aldhous, San Francisco bureau chief

As Japan struggles to bring the stricken Fukushima Daiichi site under control, and politicians worldwide debate the future of nuclear energy, it's a good time to take stock of the current inventory of reactors.

Use our interactive maps to find and sort them by type.

1800 GMT, 18 March 2011

Zena Iovino, reporter

Japan has raised the accident level at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to 5 on an international scale of 7, according to the Kyodo news agency and NHK. The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 also ranked as a level 5. But there was some good news.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday that the situation at reactors 1,2 and 3 appears to remain fairly stable. The spent-fuel ponds at units 3 and 4, however, remain an important safety concern. Reliable, validated information is still lacking on water levels and temperatures at the spent fuel ponds, but the IAEA announced on Friday that prior to the earthquake,

The entire fuel core of reactor Unit 4 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had been unloaded from the reactor and placed in the spent fuel pond located in the reactor's building.

This would explain the fear yesterday that the spent fuel in the Unit 4 pond could go critical (see 18:20, 16 March update, below). 

All today's stories on NewScientist.com, including: the latest on the Japanese nuclear plant, eggs woo sperm, and a cryogenic frog

Japanese send robots into Fukushima nuclear plant

Monirobo is designed to operate at radiation levels too high for humans and includes a radiation sensor and 3D camera system

Japan's record of nuclear cover-ups and accidents

The history of nuclear power in Japan over the past 16 years reveals serious breaches of safety and transparency

How not to change a climate sceptic's mind

Even the soundest evidence is not enough if it comes from a source we suspect

Security firm RSA gets hacked, ID token data stolen

An "extremely sophisticated cyber attack" may have given hackers access to security tokens used by corporate networks and banks

Make your own self-balancing skateboard

See a new skateboard designed to stay upright that can be made at home

After the flood: triage for disaster recovery

With thousands killed and almost half a million displaced, what are the priorities for rebuilding homes and communities in Japan?

Feedback: Conversing with a robot

Robot customer service fail, deeply chilled music, 1-centimetre cars, and more

How human eggs woo sperm

When a human egg is ready to be fertilised, it releases a hormone that gives nearby sperm cells a go-faster boost

Defending against botnet attacks - by fighting back

A way of fighting back against DDoS attacks by web activists Anonymous proved so successful it could be used to defend against other attacks

The cultural response to climate change

U-N-F-O-L-D combines video, sculpture, photography and music to show you climate change in a new light

Quake map: Tokyo might escape massive aftershock

A map showing all of the aftershocks that have struck Japan this week suggests the fault system close to the nation's capital has not been affected

Nuclear crisis: Still no power at Fukushima

It seems that engineers at Japan's beleaguered Fukushima nuclear power plant have not yet restored power to reactor 2

Probing the minds of scientists on geek X-factor

Over the next two weeks, New Scientist will be following the action on I'm a scientist, get me out of here!. First up - a particle physicist

Zoologger: Cryo-frog survives deep freeze

Still another animal that makes humans look like wimps: the brown tree frog survives being frozen by secreting protective chemicals from its skin

A right to be forgotten online? Forget it

The European Union wants a "right to be forgotten" online, but removing data from the web is difficult

Wendy Zukerman, Asia-Pacific reporter

Aftershocks have ravaged the east coast of Japan since the Sendai megaquake of 11 March, and are expected to continue in the coming days. Could Tokyo, with a population of 8.5 million, be hit?

An interactive graphic, produced by Paul Nicholls at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, provides tantalising evidence to suggest Japan's capital might dodge the worst of the seismic activity.

Read more here

Steady beats flashy in evolution death match

Staged survival battles between bacterial clones show that early pacesetters seldom prevail in the end

Most detailed view of moon's elusive far side

Images taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have provided the most complete picture of the topography of the moon's far side

Botanic gardens blamed for spreading plant invaders

More than half of the world's most invasive plant species take over native habitats after escaping from botanic gardens

Software to predict 'March Madness' basketball winner

Can software pick winning teams in the annual March Madness basketball competition better than humans can?

Giant 'quasi-stars' spawned early black holes

Black holes may have formed in the bellies of gaseous cocoons, which would explain why they grew so big so fast in the early universe

Building shelters that can withstand a tsunami

Plans exist for shelters that could protect coastal residents from the full force of a tsunami

Born to be viral: Mousetraps simulate nuclear reaction

See how to simulate a nuclear chain reaction using only mousetraps and golf balls

Why Fukushima Daiichi won't be another Chernobyl

As Japan struggles to control some of its nuclear reactors, New Scientist explains why the situation will not be as bad as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster

Obesity expert: A better fat measure than BMI

For nearly 200 years, the body mass index has been used as a measure of obesity. Richard Bergman argues it could be time for a change

American radiation pill scramble a 'waste of time'

Pills used to fight radiation poisoning are selling out in US stores. Experts warn they are not only unnecessary but could do more harm than good

Memory may be built with standard building blocks

We think of the brain as being totally malleable, but a new study suggests that its neurons may be organised into basic assemblies

Beware: It's raining creepy crawlies

Watch a clip from a new planetarium film featuring ultrarealistic virtual insects

Rubbery muscle motors to make robots more lifelike

Soft and stretchy artificial muscles could one day fulfil the functions currently carried out by more complex mechanical means

Nuclear crisis: Hope for cooling the reactors?

The Tokyo Electric Power Company has admitted that the spent fuel rods at the Fukushima plant could go critical and a nuclear chain reaction could restart

How to spot a fake whisky using its signature

Researchers are re-purposing technology that is already being used to spot counterfeit medicines to analyse the contents of liquids in bottles

Apple modifies your music - with your photos

Your photos could generate unique versions of your favourite music track. Apple thinks it's worth a patent. But why?

Gene therapy for Parkinson's passes the ultimate test

A double-blind clinical trial has shown that the symptoms of Parkinson's disease can be alleviated by gene therapy

Meet the fire-breathing scrap metal dragon

Powered by wheelchair motors, fiery kinetic sculpture El Grando turned up the heat at last weekend's Maker Faire

Seil Collins, reporter
(Image: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University)
 
This is the most complete view of the far side of the moon's topography that we have ever had.
 
The mosaic image is made up of 15,000 Wide Angle Camera frames taken between November 2009 and February 2011 by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The frames were collected when the sun was at an angle - low on the moon's horizon - that results in light conditions that favour topographical interpretations.

Images were also captured at varying latitudes and longitudes around the moon, creating a complete picture of its surface, including the far side. Other mosaic images have mapped specific features such as the steepness and roughness of the terrain, important information for surface operations.
 
"All these global maps and other data are available at a very high resolution -- that's what makes this release exciting," said John Keller, the LRO deputy project scientist. "Researchers worldwide are getting the best view of the moon they have ever had."

Bob Holmes, consultant

All today's stories on NewScientist.com, including: the latest on Japan's earthquake, a Messenger for Mercury, and paranormal investigations

Fukushima throws spotlight on quake zone nuclear power

The unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan should force a rethink on the building of nuclear power plants in seismically active areas

The megaquake connection: Are huge earthquakes linked?

The recent cluster of huge quakes around the Pacific Ocean has fuelled speculation that they are seismically linked. New Scientist examines the evidence

Worms on special diet make fluorescent silk

Intrinsically coloured silks could reduce the silk industry's consumption of water and dyes and pave the way for functional silks with medical applications

Dark energy is not an illusion after all

New measurements of supernovae challenge an upstart theory that dark energy is an illusion caused by our being within a giant void

Werner Herzog releases ancient paintings from history

Capturing the world's oldest cave paintings in 3D is the stroke of genius in the film Caves of Forgotten Dreams by Werner Herzog

Nuclear crisis: Choppers forced back by radiation

A helicopter that would have dumped water onto the ponds of nuclear waste has been forced to turn back due to high radiation levels

A measured disaster: Following quakes in fine detail

Last weekend's horrific events have given an unprecedented opportunity to probe the secrets of how giant earthquakes form

How an MP3 can be used to hack your car

Hackers can gain access to a vehicle's computer systems remotely via a number of weak points in the car's electronics

Removing bodies from display is nonsense

The removal of long-dead human bodies from view in museums for reburial is based on a warped notion of respect, says Søren Holm

High-tech remixes vs low-tech originals: You decide

See what happened when Intel commissioned 13 artists to reinterpret 13 masterpieces, using new technologies to bring them into the digital age

Paranormal investigations: why you want to believe

It's worth exploring the supernatural, says Richard Wiseman, because the truth is in there

How 'churkeys' keep their cool

With a turkey-like head and a chicken body, the Transylvanian naked neck chicken keeps cool thanks to a genetic mutation and vitamin A

Probe set to become Mercury's first artificial satellite

NASA's Messenger probe will attempt to go into orbit around the sun-baked planet on Friday - it could help reveal why Mercury is so dense

Seil Collins, reporter

(Image: Dr Natalia C. Tansil)

A special diet is all it takes to make a silkworms produce fluorescent silk of a particular hue. After feasting on a mixture of mulberries and fluorescent dye, the worm pictured above produced threads of bright pink silk.

According to researchers at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) in Singapore, the process is "simple and cheap enough to be translated to an industrial scale". Producing such "intrinsically coloured" silks would provide a more environmentally friendly approach for the silk industry, reducing its vast consumption of water and dyes.

Aside from environmental advantages, the technique could also have medical applications. The researchers suggest their work could help create functional silk with antibacterial, anticoagulant or anti-inflammatory properties for use in wound-dressings.

Journal reference: Advanced Materials, DOI: 10.1002/adma.201003860

Caitlin Stier, contributor

(Image: The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh)

The aptly named Transylvanian naked neck chicken looks like a strange chimera with a turkey head and a chicken body. Now Denis Headon at the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, together with an international team of researchers, has unravelled the genetics that give this barnyard oddity its characteristic 'do.

Looking at genes from birds domesticated around the world, the researchers discovered a complex feather-patterning mutation that is enhanced by the vitamin A metabolite, retinoic acid. Localised production of retinoic acid on the neck makes the skin susceptible to the mutation's balding effects.

The birds, which likely originated in Romania hundreds of years ago, keep cool in the heat thanks to their unique appearance. The findings could help explain how other birds, such as vultures, dropped their feathers in exchange for a cool head.

Journal reference: PLoS Biology, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001028

All today's stories on NewScientist.com, including: the latest on Japan's nuclear crisis, supersymmetry, and a leggy space tarantula

What art can do for science (and vice versa)

An exhibition explores how science brings closer to artistic visions of the future, while art provides insight into scientific progress

Leggy Tarantula Nebula in close-up

This vibrant red nebula is home to the closest supernova ever glimpsed by a telescope and the heaviest star

Was Friday's quake Tokyo's expected 'big one'?

The Tokai fault south-west of Tokyo could still rip, but geologists don't yet know whether Friday's events will have made this more or less likely

What if supersymmetry is wrong?

Supersymmetry would solve some of the biggest mysteries in physics, but if the Large Hadron Collider can't find it there are alternatives

Japan's nuclear crisis: The story so far

With muddled media reports of the ongoing crisis, we spell out exactly what has happened up to 15 March, and what might happen next

Shock wave puts hybrid engines in a spin

A prototype engine that relies on shock waves could allow hybrid cars to boost their efficiency even further

Implantable sensor tracks cancer in the body

Tiny device can monitor the growth or regression of a tumour without the need for repeated invasive biopsies

Some genetic tests should be "prescription only"

Genetic tests for serious conditions or to determine a person's response to a drug should not be sold direct to consumers, FDA told

The strange tale of the Lebanese space race

As Yuri Gagarin made orbit, the US and Soviet Union faced competition from an unexpected quarter - an exhibition in the United Arab Emirates shows how

Explained: The meaning of dreaming

Watch this animated film to find out about the neuroscience of our sleeping brains, and why dreams make us who we are

Japan quake shifts Antarctic glacier

The effects of Friday's quake have been felt as far afield as Antarctica, speeding up ice flow in a glacier

Briefing: How nuclear accidents damage human health

As concern surrounding the Japanese Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant continues, New Scientist looks at the risk of long-term health damage

Space superlatives: The universe's extreme performers

From a puffed-up planet to a galaxy cloaked in dark matter, New Scientist rounds up some of the biggest, darkest, fastest and hottest players in the cosmos

Time-lapse Tuesday: Ants colonise a scanner

Watch a 5-year time-lapse that reveals the secret lives of ants inhabiting an image scanner

Google's driverless car puts its foot down

Despite the close confines of the course and the speed of the vehicle, the driverless car simply weaves its way through the cones

The self: why science is not enough

Can science explain the self, or is that just neuro-scientific hubris? There's no need to take sides, says Julian Baggini

Fukushima latest: Radiation around plant falls

Radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have reportedly fallen back since a fire earlier today, but the situation remains unclear

Japan's failed attempt to hold back the sea

Did the country's extensive network of tsunami defenses lure its citizens into a false sense of security?

Japan quake halts physics and space experiments

The control centre for a Japanese lab module on the International Space Station has been evacuated, and a major physics centre has shut down

Fire did not spark human colonisation of cold Europe

A review of archaeological sites suggests that humans gained control of fire more recently than thought - and after the colonisation of Europe

Aftermath of a megaquake

A woman sits and cries amid the devastation of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, in northern Japan in the aftermath of a 9.0-scale earthquake and tsunami

Happier people tweet together

A psychological study of millions of tweets on the micro-blogging service Twitter has found that happier people tend to flock together on social networks

Why earthquakes are hard to predict

Friday's magnitude-9.0 earthquake near Japan was one of the largest ever recorded, but it struck with no warning. Why are such quakes so hard to predict?

Caitlin Stier, contributor


(Image: NASA/ESA)

NASA has been regularly checking in on the leggy Tarantula Nebula since a supernova contained within it -  the closest ever to be glimpsed by a telescope - was spotted in 1987. Now  the agency's Hubble telescope offers this latest close-up of the nebula's crossed tendrils.
 
While some stars in the nebula are on the decline, clusters of young stars feed off the Tarantula's hydrogen, glowing bright red as their intense UV light ionizes the gas. The result is a star community vibrant enough to be seen by the naked eye on a dark night.

The spidery nebula is also home to the heaviest recorded star, RMC 136a1. This hefty object is heavier than astronomers thought possible for a star and so challenges theories of star formation.

The Tarantula Nebula holds many wonders but it's not the only galactic spider: a Black Widow Nebula is also spinning through space.

Wendy Zukerman, reporter

Office workers watch as smoke rises over Tokyo after last Friday's magnitude-9.0 earthquake (Image: KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex)

For over 30 years Japanese seismologists monitoring the faults around Tokyo have warned that the city was in for a "big one". Was last week's devastating earthquake off the coast of Sendai it?

No. The Tokai fault south-west of Tokyo could still rip, but geologists don't yet know whether Friday's events will have made this more or less likely.

The warnings about Tokyo initially came from geologists watching the Tokai fault, which runs through Suruga Bay, 130 kilometres south-west of Tokyo. There, the Philippine plate pushes under the Eurasian plate. The region has been a concern since the 1970s, when Japanese seismologists reported that the area had not experienced a large earthquake since 1854 and warned the plates would soon release their energy.

1304 GMT, 15 March 2011

Andy Coghlan and Wendy Zukerman, reporters

Japanese soldiers, mobilised to wash away radioactive material emitted from a nuclear power plant damaged by Friday's earthquake, put on protective gear on their arrival in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima prefecture, today (Image: AP Photo/PA)

A fire which erupted in a spent fuel storage pond at Unit 4 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant - and which has caused the largest radiation leak of the crisis so far - was extinguished at 11 am local time (0200 GMT) this morning, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed.

The fire was associated with a large increase in radiation levels at the plant, according to the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (PDF), with radiation monitors detecting 400 millisieverts/hour in the vicinity of the plant's reactor no. 3 shortly before it burnt out. It's unclear how this has changed subsequently, but the IAEA says this measurement was the trigger for the decision to evacuate non-essential staff from the site. A 1000 millisievert dose is enough to cause radiation sickness, although it would not ordinarily prove fatal.

Ferris Jabr, Reporter

Concrete seawalls, breakwaters and similar barriers against rough seas trace roughly 40 per cent of Japan's 22,000-mile (35,400-kilometer) coastline, according to the New York Times. And yet, as the video below shows, the 2011 Sendai tsunami spilled over the seawall in the town of Miyako, Japan, as though the barricade were nothing but the flimsy perimeter of a plastic backyard swimming pool. The cities of Ofunato and Kamaishi also boasted barriers specially designed to withstand the might of a tsunami. But they too failed.

Similarly, the threat of nuclear meltdown began not because reactors were damaged by the quake itself - they survived intact - but when the tsunami overtopped sea walls and swamped diesel generators that power the cooling systems for the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants.

In short, Japan's seawalls failed.

David Shiga, reporter

Some major physics and space activities have stopped in the wake of the Japanese earthquake.

The human toll and the ongoing nuclear emergency have understandably been the focus of news coverage so far. But news has also started trickling out on how the quake has affected science facilities in Japan.

Japan's Tsukuba Space Center, about 50 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, has been evacuated due to earthquake damage, Discovery News reports. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) normally uses the centre to control its Kibo laboratory (foreground), which is part of the International Space Station.

(Image: NASA)

Cian O'Luanaigh, online producer

(Image: REUTERS/Asahi Shimbun)

A woman sits and cries amid the devastation of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, in northern Japan, on March 13, 2011, after a 9.0-scale earthquake hit the country on Friday. Thousands of people are feared dead.

The earthquake - the largest in Japan's history - occurred when two adjoining tectonic plates slipped 40 metres in a 300 - 400 kilometre fault line off the Japanese coast, triggering a tsunami, which sparked alerts around the Pacific.

The Japanese government declared a "state of nuclear emergency" on Friday after cooling systems failed at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant 240 kilometres north-east of Tokyo. Engineers are still struggling to stabilise three reactors at the plant.

An erupting volcano is now adding to the country's problems.

Follow our live blog for updates on the situation.

All today's stories on NewScientist.com, including: the latest on the Japanese megaquake, your brain on dreams, and a big slice of pi

Are you prone to mind control?

A new video will help you find out if you're easily influenced by what others do and say

Hexagonal wind tunnel lets you make your own tornado

The tunnel is designed to produce complex wind systems such as tornadoes, downbursts and gust fronts that cannot be replicated in any existing wind tunnel

AI lie detection could help crack terror cells

The new test could one day surpass existing lie detection techniques in ferreting out information from groups of suspects

Plug in to movies that know how you're feeling

Films whose storylines change according to the audience's moods are on the way - CultureLab gets a sneak preview

Pre-emptive drug could prevent breast cancer

For some women, the gamble of taking tamoxifen for the prevention of breast cancer is worth the risk of possible side effects

Pi day: Celebrate pi by eating pies

From pi-inspired music to pie eating contests, there are many ways to celebrate this most popular of mathematical constants

Japan megaquake update: the nuclear threat remains

In the aftermath of Japan's devastating earthquake, the country battles with a possible nuclear meltdown and an erupting volcano

Didn't you notice Google's crown slipping?

The Googlization of Everything by Siva Vaidhyanathan is intelligent and provocative, but fails to see the challenge of the social internet

Night life: This is your brain on dreams

Every one of us slips into this mysterious state of consciousness every night, yet we are only now waking up to its mind-altering powers

First wearable brain scanner lets rats run free

Brain activity and behaviour can be studied at the same time in rats wearing "ruff" scanner

Second explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant

An explosion has destroyed the building housing reactor No. 3 at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant, but the reactor vessels appears to be intact

Tokyo geophysicist: my earthquake diary

A seismologist at the University of Tokyo recounts his day on Friday, when the 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan

Half of Germany's doctors prescribe placebos

German Medical Association encourages the use of placebos for treatment of very minor conditions

Newly found brown dwarf is ultra-cool

A recently discovered object is at room temperature, much cooler than other failed stars

Doctors fail to report incompetent colleagues

A quarter of doctors who know that colleagues are underperforming or incompetent do not sound the alarm

Japan's megaquake: what we know

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake shook Japan on Friday, triggering tsunami waves across the Pacific and a nuclear emergency

Japan quake fault may have moved 40 metres

The magnitude 9.0 quake that struck offshore Japan was short in stature, but the fault made up for it with a huge displacement

Interactive graphic: Japan's deadly seismic history

Japan is no stranger to devastating earthquakes and tsunamis, as this map of seismic events since 1900 shows

Simple slime mould forms complex tissue

Single-celled slime moulds join together to form tissue that rivals that of multicellular animals in complexity

Friday Illusion: Mind-bending chessboard

Help us figure out why an altered chessboard appears to distort inwards

1920 GMT, 13 March 2011

Sumit Paul-Choudhury, editor, newscientist.com and Rowan Hooper, news editor

(Image: NHK)

Update 0815 GMT 14 March 2011: An explosion has destroyed the building housing reactor No. 3 at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant, injuring eleven people. However, Japanese authorities say the reactor containment vessel has remained intact, as it did at reactor no. 1, which suffered a similar explosion on Saturday. Radiation levels in the area remain low. However, cooling systems have now failed at the plant's No. 2 reactor, which is now being cooled with seawater in the same way as the plant's other two reactors (see below).

Three days after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami struck Japan, killing an estimated 10,000 people and leaving many more destitute, the country is still struggling to avert nuclear disaster, with problems reported at four separate nuclear power plants.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) is continuing attempts to cool down two reactors at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant 240 kilometres north-east of Tokyo, where a dramatic explosion destroyed the roof of the building housing reactor No. 1 on Saturday. Seawater mixed with boric acid has been introduced to reactors Nos. 1 and 3 in an attempt to cool the reactors' cores and kill the nuclear fission reaction more quickly.

Read more: "Special report: After Japan's megaquake"

0930 GMT, 12 March 2011

Sumit Paul-Choudhury, editor, newscientist.com

There has been a massive explosion at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant, raising fears of a radioactive meltdown. Several workers are believed to have been injured in the blast, which seems to have caused major structural damage to the plant.

A state of nuclear emergency was declared at the plant yesterday as its operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, struggled to contain rising temperatures and pressures in the core of two reactors whose cooling systems failed after Friday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake. An emergency has now also been declared at the neighbouring Fukushima Daini plant.

Read more: Our live blog on the reactor explosion

1830 GMT, 11 March 2011

Paul Marks, senior technology reporter

The US Air Force is delivering a cargo of liquid coolant to the Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant - where one of six reactors seriously affected by today's quake is still alarmingly hot many hours after it was automatically shut down when the quake struck.

Electrical, mechanical and diesel generator failures are said to have combined to deprive the reactor of power for its coolant pumps.

The Tokyo Electric Power Co told Japanese news service Jiji News that pressure in the reactor vessel is rising and that the company intends to "take measures" to release it. CNN reports that activity around the plant hints at a "struggle" to cool down the facility. Indeed, Japan's trade minister said this evening that there could well be what he described as "small radiation leak" from the Fukushima plant.

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said local US air bases are helping deliver the coolant. The reactor - one of six - is thought to be a boiling water reactor, so the coolant is likely to be demineralised light water, meaning it is depleted of the hydrogen isotope deuterium.

Some 3000 people living within a 3-kilometre radius of the Fukushima plant have been evacuated by the Japanese defence force.

1722 GMT, 11 March 2011

Michael Reilly, senior technology editor

Seismologists at the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, have just revised their calculations regarding the magnitude of today's quake. They now say it was magnitude 9.0. Already one of the top 10 recorded earthquakes in history, the revision suggests the quake was even more powerful than first thought.

0240 GMT, 12 March 2011

Michael Reilly, senior technology editor

The latest figures on the earthquake that struck Japan on Friday suggest that, despite all the headlines, it was actually surprisingly small.

That is, the area of fault that ruptured was small - somewhere between 300 and 400 kilometres long. By comparison, the magnitude 9.1 Sumatra earthquake in 2004 broke along an area of fault 1300 km long.

How then, did today's quake get so powerful? What the fault lacked in size, it made up for when the two adjoining tectonic plates slipped a whopping 40 metres. This calculation comes from Chen Ji of the University of California, Santa Barbara (in the figure below, red colouring indicates areas of 40 metres' slip).

(Image: Guangfu Shao/UCSB)

Peter Aldhous, San Francisco bureau chief

The surge of water that inundated the coast of northeast Japan was triggered by the largest quake in the nation's history. But Japan is no stranger to devastating earthquakes and tsunamis, as this map of seismic events since 1900 shows. Use the slider to view quakes for a narrower range of dates, roll over the points to see data on each earthquake, and use the radio buttons to reveal the deadly quakes featured in the table.

Dashboard blog

Caitlin Stier, contributor

(Image: Daniel Dickinson)

Single-celled slime moulds work together to improve their chances for survival. Now Daniel Dickinson and his colleagues at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, have discovered that the humble slime Dictyostelium discoideum forms a specialised tissue known as a polarised epithelium that rivals forms found in multicellular animals. The findings suggest the building blocks for multicellularity existed long before the first animals evolved.

When food is scarce for the slime mould, a fungus-like creature that lurks in damp soils, they join up to create a stalk and cap structure that spreads their spores to a new home. The tip of this fruiting body is made up of the polarised epithelium (pictured above). Proteins similar to the animal equivalents of alpha- and beta-catenins (in orange) help the slime mould organise components within each cell to specialise the function of the overall tissue.

Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1199633

All today's stories on NewScientist.com, including: Japan earthquake, motion capture kangaroos, and a lost world under the sea

Japan's quake updated to magnitude 9.0

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan today, triggering a tsunami - more tsunamis are expected around the Pacific

Eight extremes: The biggest things in the universe

The mightiest planet, star, galaxy, artefact - and hole

Nuke test sensors could hear tsunamis coming

At the moment it's a matter of guesswork whether a submarine earthquake is going to produce a tsunami. But a treaty banning nuclear tests may change that

Sea level's rise and rise is down to melting ice sheets

Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could bump up sea levels by 56 centimetres this century

Lost world hints at life in the Mesozoic

A seamount of the Antarctic coast has a fauna that appears to be a throwback to the end of the Mesozoic, over 65 million years ago

Motion capture could reveal how kangaroos hop

See how a technique typically used in animated movies is being used to study kangaroo movement

Feedback: Amazing achievement of peak performer

One man who's consulted 3 million people, when an automatic door isn't, meet the googlegang, and more

PS3 no longer hackable?

The security hole in Sony's Playstation 3 appears to have been patched. What does that mean for their lawsuit against the hacker that exploited it?

Tumours could be the ancestors of animals

Cancers could be "living fossils" with a genetic code laid down 600 million years ago, giving hope that modern therapies will eventually prevail

High-tech remixes vs low-tech originals: You decide

See what happened when Intel commissioned 13 artists to reinterpret 13 masterpieces, using new technologies to bring them into the digital age

Eight extremes: The densest thing in the universe

Try working out the density of a black hole

US navy faces up to a new enemy - climate change

A National Research Council report for the US navy identifies weaknesses on the warming Arctic frontier and the threat of rising sea levels

Inflight Wi-Fi hits more turbulence

A new breed of brighter cockpit displays went blank when an inflight Wi-Fi system was turned on

Fluid societies powered human evolution

Human hunter-gatherer societies swap members more flexibly than groups of other animals do - could that have driven the rise in brainpower?

Drug-carrying robot roams through eye

A tiny robotic implant could better target drugs to treat conditions like macular degeneration

Remastered masterpieces given a new lease of life

Reinterpretations of iconic artworks in a London exhibition sometimes miss the mark, but many are excellent pieces in their own right

Debora MacKenzie, Brussels correspondent

At the moment it's a matter of guesswork whether a submarine earthquake is going to produce a tsunami. But a treaty banning nuclear tests - or at least, trying to - may change that, if the treaty doesn't die first.

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty was signed in 1996 but has not yet come into effect, mostly because the US has not yet ratified it - though President Obama wants to.

Meanwhile a worldwide network of seismographs and other sensors designed to detect nuclear blasts listens for any tests. But it also gives fast, reliable warnings of earthquakes. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization monitoring centre in Vienna, Austria, spotted today's Japanese quake, and alerted Indonesia and other governments to the quake off Sumatra that caused the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. And it can also do other tricks too.

All today's stories on NewScientist.com, including: smart wingtips, missing Martian carbon dioxide, and the darkest thing in the universe

Eight extremes: The darkest thing in the universe

The least bright thing in the universe is dark matter - one day, perhaps we'll see it

Born to be viral: Computer fights hacker attack

A stunning visualisation shows a hacker break into a server and the battle that ensues

Momentous quantum milestones

Jim Baggott's The Quantum Story: A history in 40 moments goes from Max Planck to Richard Feynman in discrete quanta

Quit-smoking apps perform dismally in tests

In tests, smartphone apps designed to help people stop smoking received a dismal 7.8 out of 60 points on average

Cigarette packets stripped bare and hidden away

The UK government has plans to hide cigarettes behind shop counters and to strip colours from the packets in a bid to curb smoking. But will it work?

Smarter wingtips speed record-breaking solar drone

Adding a miniature tail to an aircraft wingtip will allow the wing to made from lighter materials - and boost speed

One pill or two? The weather can help doctors decide

Doctors may soon look out of the window before setting drug doses - it seems sunlight can affect how fast we metabolise drugs

Eight extremes: The roundest thing in the universe

Does anything live up to the medieval notion of the music of the spheres?

Mars's missing carbon dioxide could be underground

The Red Planet's carbon-dioxide atmosphere was probably much thicker in the past - some of it may have gone into carbonate minerals that were later buried

Jessica Hamzelou, reporter

Consult on options to reduce the promotional impact of tobacco packaging, such as using plain packaging by the end of the year 

Caitlin Stier, contributor

(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

Carbonate minerals buried beneath the Martian surface could help explain the disappearance of carbon dioxide from Mars's atmosphere.

A thin, CO₂-dominated atmosphere surrounds Mars today. But in the past, it was likely much thicker, allowing liquid water to remain stable on the planet's surface. Where did that carbon dioxide go?

It may have gone towards forming carbonate minerals, which on Earth arise when oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and deposit it as carbonate rock. A similar process involving liquid water may have happened on ancient Mars.

A mineral-mapping instrument aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted the minerals (shown in lighter shades) in rocks that had once been buried beneath the planet's surface but were later brought to the surface by impacts. A crater on the raised rim of an even larger, 470-metre-wide crater called Huygens reveals these iron and calcium carbonates.

James Wray of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, presented the findings this week at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas.

All today's stories on NewScientist.com, including: a race to the moon, the fastest thing in the universe, and the shark that has to suck it up

Complete circuit map of mammal brain chunk revealed

To understand the mammalian brain we need a map of all the connections between its neurons. The first one - covering microscopic volume - is now in

Tourists spark era of space science

Scientists are salivating over the research potential of flights designed to make joy rides to the edge of space

Key to humanity is in missing DNA

It's not the genes we have, but how we use them. Losing chunks of DNA let our brains grow, got rid of beastly whiskers and made sex more intimate

Invisible Wi-Fi signals caught on camera

See how a new device can paint a picture of the Wi-Fi networks in a city

Zoologger: Megamouth, the shark that has to suck it up

The megamouth shark has a maw one-fifth the length of its body, but what in the name of Darwin is it for?

Eight extremes: The brightest thing in the universe

What can shine with the light of more than 30 trillion suns?

Sports shoe guru: How to choose the best running shoe

Cheap sports shoes can be as good as expensive ones, says Benno Nigg, the sports scientist who helped design David Beckham's Predator boot

Electric vehicle app to curb 'range anxiety'

By letting EV drivers share their recharging stations PlugShare creates a community-driven network of charging points that are free to use

Humans came from southern Africa - maybe

A study of hunter-gatherer genetics suggests that modern humans emerged from southern Africa, not the east as archaeologists have long claimed. Who is right?

Moon millions: Space firms chase Google's lunar lucre

On your marks, get set, lift-off: everyone from garage inventors to aerospace magnates is racing for the Lunar X Prize. New Scientist surveys the field

How one cybercriminal stole $86 million

Kevin Poulsen's Kingpin: How one hacker took over the billion-dollar cybercrime underground is a gripping tale that goes beyond the hacker stereotype

Crickets inspire stealthy robots to fire rings of air

A cave cricket's communication trick with high-pressure "air rings" has given robots a way to keep their messages private

Eight extremes: The fastest thing in the universe

Nothing can move faster than light, can it? Here's something that can

Websites to tell users if they're tracked

The new regulations come into force on 25 May as part of the European e-Privacy directive, which places tough new restrictions on the use of internet cookies

Time-lapse Tuesday: Hawaiian volcano light show

Watch lava flow and splatter as a crater collapses in the Kilauea volcano

Jessica Hamzelou, reporter

(Image: Davi D. Bock, Wei-Chung Allen Lee and colleagues/Nature)

This overlapping rainbow of connecting cells represents new insights into how mammalian brains work. The techniques used to create this three-dimensional map of a tiny chunk of mouse brain could help neuroscientists understand the connections that make up our own brains.

To create this map - which shows the neurons in a piece of mouse visual cortex just 8 thousandths of a cubic millimetre in volume - Clay Reid and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston combined two imaging techniques.

Michael Marshall, environment reporter

If reports this week are to be believed, the entire anatomically modern human population descends from ancestors who lived in southern Africa. This flies in the face of a mass of evidence that the cradle of humanity was east Africa, probably somewhere near the famous Great Rift valley. So where did we really come from?

The idea of a southern Africa origin comes from a study of the genetics of African hunter-gatherer groups. Brenna Henn of Stanford University in California and colleagues genotyped people from seven groups, including Khoisan-speakers from the Hadza and Sandawe populations in Tanzania and click-speaking ǂKhomani Bushmen of South Africa, and found many differences.

Nature News explains:

These sorts of differences have allowed geneticists to calculate relationships and moments of evolutionary divergence... The team used the geographic locations of the genetically diverse groups of people to determine where humans might first have emerged.

The researchers found genetically diverse groups in central and eastern Africa, but most were in the south of the continent. As Henn told the BBC:

Populations in southern Africa have the highest genetic diversity of any population, as far as we can tell. So this suggests that this might be the best location for [the origins] of [anatomically] modern humans.

All today's stories on NewScientist.com, including: engineered urethras, elephant cooperation, and close encounters of the mud-slinging kind

Eight extremes: The coldest thing in the universe

The bottom of the temperature scale is one area where humans have no trouble outdoing nature

The secret life of a container lost at sea

The 10,000 shipping containers lost at sea every year can disrupt ecosystems and may even create "stepping stones" which help invasive species spread

Living cells as you've never seen them before

A new 3D microscope captures tiny biological processes in action in living cells - watch them here

One man's quest to become a memory champion

Moonwalking with Einstein: The art and science of remembering everything tells how Joshua Foer's tried to tarmac memory lane - but is that desirable?

Wikileaks reveals endangered hardwood on sale in US

Wikileaks has published a leaked cable that reveals the Peruvian government was aware that 70 to 90 per cent of its mahogany exports in 2005 were from illegal sources

The internet is a tyrant's friend

In our rush to celebrate the democratising power of the internet we have forgotten that it can also be a tool for repression, says Evgeny Morozov

Engineered urethras still a relief for boys

First urethras made from boys' own bladder cells work perfectly six years on - that's a lot of water under the bridge

Alien-life claims spark monster mud-slinging

As the scientific community recoils from the latest "close encounter" with ET, New Scientist asks: what would convincing evidence of alien life look like?

Exhibition of a lifetime falls flat (eventually)

A 65th birthday celebration of a landmark longitudinal study fails to convey its excitement and importance

Coming soon: Pirated movies in 3D

As the film industry pushes a new wave of 3D films, pirates are matching them step for step

Boy brain, girl brain: How the sexes act differently

We've found real differences in the ways men and women think and behave - but which ones matter? New Scientist puts things in perspective

Eight extremes: The hottest thing in the universe

The universe's extreme of heat lies not in the here and now, but the way back when

NASA should bring Mars rocks back to Earth, says panel

A Mars sample return mission should be a top priority for NASA in the coming decade, says an expert panel

Lack of sleep makes for a more reckless bet

Losing a single night's sleep alters a gambler's strategy, even if they are still feeling sharp

Mother's diet sows seeds of diabetes in the womb

An unbalanced diet during pregnancy may cause changes in the fetus that lead to diabetes in adulthood

Elephants know when they need a helping trunk

When cooperation is essential, elephants can match the collaborative skills of chimps and rooks

Bird boom in wake of mad cow outbreak

North American birds boom in years following mad cow outbreaks in Europe

Peter Aldhous, San Francisco bureau chief

Over in California's Monterey bay, an unusual three-day cruise kicked off today. Marine biologists there are investigating what happens to sea-floor ecosystems when shipping containers are accidentally shed from cargo ships. With 10,000 containers lost at sea each year, that's a less trivial question than it might seem at first glance.

The project is the result of chance discovery of one such container - plus a legal settlement which resulted in the US government receiving $3.25 million to compensate for the pollution of a national marine sanctuary.

Bob Holmes, consultant

Mad cow disease in Europe seems a world apart from the lives of sparrows in North American pastures. But populations of sparrows and other pasture birds boomed three years after outbreaks of the disease hit Europe, according to a new study by Joseph Nocera and Hannah Koslowsky of Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

When mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE) hits European cattle, farmers tend to cull their herds to limit its spread. To keep beef on consumers' tables, the affected countries import more meat, and many of those imports come from the US and Canada. This, it turns out, can have a substantial benefit to North American wildlife.

Nocera and Koslowsky gathered data on BSE outbreaks, beef imports, hay production and bird prevalence for 1966 to 2007. In a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1018904108), they show that with more of their cattle going to market instead of spending another year on the hoof, North American ranchers harvest less hay two years after the BSE outbreak. This in turn leaves more natural vegetation for grassland birds such as sparrows and meadowlarks, which respond with a population boom a year after that.

There's nothing particularly surprising in any of this - every step in the causal link between BSE and the sparrows is exactly what one might have predicted. But by putting it all together and backing it up statistically, the pair provide an unusual and striking illustration of the way globalisation weaves the planet into a single fabric of cause and effect.

North American birds are unlikely to benefit from this effect in future. A New Scientist analysis recently showed that just 25 years after it was discovered, BSE is nearly extinct. Not so good for the birds, but definitely better for the cattle farmers and the meat-lovers that rely on them.

Vitamin B2 helps us see the light

Though vitamin A has been given sole credit for it for more than 100 years, there is another important player in light perception

The curious incident of the koala in the night-time

Koalas bellow at midnight - thanks to a bunch of modern technology we now know why

Hospital trial for tech that spots early Alzheimer's

A computer program for speedy and accurate diagnosis of early Alzheimer's is being trialled in UK hospitals

Japan's long-nosed bullet train stops 'tunnel boom'

The nose of the E5 Series, at 15 metres, is a massive 9 metres longer than the previous incarnation of the shinkansen, the E2 Series

Kinect hacks: Plastic people and virtual landscapes

Our latest round-up of Kinect hacks features 3D people-printing and virtual-landscape sculpting

Green Machine: Clean fuels wasted on Delhi's rickshaws

Greenhouse gas emissions actually increased after Delhi made all its auto-rickshaws convert to natural gas

Bike 'printed' using layers of powdered nylon

The Airbike was made using 3D printing and includes sections that contain moving parts, such as the bearings in both of the wheels

Putting the spark back into Frankenstein

Danny Boyle's production of Frankenstein is as haunting as it is remarkable, says Roger Highfield

Nathan Myhrvold: From Microsoft to molecular gastronomy

He's worked with Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates. His day job includes battling global warming and malaria. So what does Nathan Myhrvold do to relax?

Implanted sensors track heart-attack damage

Magnetic sensors could help doctors diagnose a "stealth" heart attack and measure the amount of damage with an MRI scan

India: The story of an emerging scientific superpower

Why are Indians such a bunch of geeks? In Geek Nation, Angela Saini goes in search of the truth behind the stereotype

Handheld camera sees through objects

A new system that can peer inside objects and people could help monitor cancer or inspect structures for defects

Smart-grid 'stockbrokers' to manage your power

Software agents that get the best price by buying and selling electricity on your behalf could increase grid efficiency and help you cut costs

Extreme universe: Eight cosmic record-breakers

From a colossal planet to the heart of a black hole, Stephen Battersby introduces the universe's most spectacular acts

Vitamin B2 helps us see the light

Though vitamin A has been given sole credit for it for more than 100 years, there is another important player in light perception

GPS chaos: How a $30 box can jam your life

Signals from GPS satellites now help you to call your mother, power your home, and even land your plane - but a cheap plastic box can scramble it all

Earliest evidence for magic mushroom use in Europe

Europeans may have used magic mushrooms 6000 years ago, suggests objects in a Spanish cave painting

Largest galaxies grow up gradually like snowflakes

They are monsters of the universe, but elliptical galaxies may be born like tiny snowflakes

Gravity's bias for left may be writ in the sky

Is gravity left-handed? An answer could provide a clue to a long-sought theory of quantum gravity - and might be within our grasp by 2013

February photo competition winners: Water

This month's photo competition focused on water. Our readers entered a mouth-watering array of images. Take a look for yourselves.

Hawass admits Egypt's ancient heritage is in danger

Egypt's chief antiquities official has backtracked on claims that the country's relics are safe - other Egyptologists agree that the situation is bleak

Paul Marks, senior technology correspondent









(Image: Boeing)

The US air force launched the second un-piloted X-37B space plane into low-Earth orbit on Saturday. While the nine-metre-long drone's mission is mysterious, a trawl of the patents filed by its maker, Boeing, before the plane became a secret "black" programme of the Department of Defense in 2004, throws some light on the technology it is packing.

The air force launched the first space plane on an Atlas V rocket in April 2010. The craft, one-quarter the length of the space shuttle, then spent nearly eight months in space, occasionally shifting its orbit with onboard thrusters. It landed in December - allegedly without human intervention, coming to a stop in front of air force engineers in heatproof suits.

Now a second X-37B, called the Orbital Test Vehicle 2, is in low-Earth orbit, after launching on an Atlas V rocket on 5 March from Cape Canaveral, Florida. While its purpose remains a mystery, Troy Giese, X-37B program manager, says one of the aims of the mission is to examine the performance of the spacecraft's solar panel systems, which are of a novel design.

A US patent issued on 24 June 2003 sheds some light on what that design may be - assuming it was used in the plane's construction.

Boeing reveals in the patent that the solar array has been designed to permit fast folding and stowing. The reason? So the X-37B can fold the solar array away, fire its thrusters and change its orbit to confound adversaries. This would be useful for satellites, too, says Boeing: "The ability to completely re-stow would offer mission flexibility to move the satellite thus making its orbit unpredictable."

Jessica Hamzelou, reporter

A computer program that promises to speedily and accurately diagnose Alzheimer's disease is being used in NHS hospitals in the UK for the first time.

The program, developed jointly by the Maudsley Hospital in London, King's College London and the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, compares a patient's brain scan to a database of 1200 images taken from the brains of people at various stages of Alzheimer's disease. It is currently being field tested in NHS memory clinics in the London area.

Matt Kaplan, contributor

Evening activity (Image: Sunset/Rex Features)

It might come as a surprise to find that anything remains to be learned about an animal as charismatic as the koala. But there are a great many questions surrounding the marsupials' nocturnal behaviour that have remained unanswered for decades. Chief among them is why the tree hugging beasts bellow around the midnight hour.

Hear a male koala bellow here.

Some have speculated that, like the calls of bison and many primates, these bellows might warn rival males to get out of the bellower's territory. Others have suggested that the deep bellows have a Barry White-like ability to attract females. But in truth biologists are largely in the dark over the issue because the calls occur, well, in the dark.

Now some light has been shed on the matter. A tracking study seems to have confirmed that male Koalas bellow to impress nearby females.

Caitlin Stier, contributor

(Image: UCI)

Although vitamin A has been given sole credit for it for more than 100 years, researchers have discovered another important player in light perception: vitamin B2. A study in fruit flies led by Todd Holmes at the University of California, Irvine, has turned up a new neuronal pathway activated by cryptochrome, a blue-light photoreceptor (as seen above) that uses a product of B2 to rapidly detect light. Previously, cryptochrome was known to play a role in the neuronal signals involved in slower processes such as waking up.

The discovery opens up new possibilities to manipulate the blue light sensor for the new field of optogenetics, which combines techniques used in optics and genetics to study neural circuits at the quick rate needed to understand brain processing.

Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.119970

Libya goes offline as nation's servers flatline

Libya has become the latest nation to disconnect from the internet

Friday Illusion: Shifting lines create phantom spin

Help us solve a new illusion where lines moving sideways appear to rotate

Neuroengineer: Unpacking the brain

Ed Boyden explains his vision - nothing less than to understand the brain, treat neural conditions and figure out the basis of human existence

Glory climate satellite falls out of the sky

Climate researchers could be forgiven for thinking that space doesn't like them: yet another of their custom-made satellites fell out of the sky today

Rare species may be there, even if you don't see them

Simply counting animals at known hangouts to assess the state of a population is no good

Floating car shows off cold side of highway mirages

Usually spotted in the baking heat of summer, mirages can be glimpsed in winter too

Antarctic ice may be more stable than we thought

Vast expanses of Antarctic ice may have hung on for the past 200,000 years, surviving the last interglacial

February photo competition winner: Water

Whet your appetite for photography by checking out the winners of our "water" photo competition

Will goal-line technology bring justice to soccer?

A Swiss research institute has carried out tests on a range of goal-line alerting technologies and will soon deliver its verdict

Lab-grown neurons might repair Alzheimer's brains

Alzheimer's disease kills brain cells vital for memory - now we can make new ones from human embryonic stem cells, raising hopes of transplants

Manipulate molecules on your iPad

A new iPad app makes it easy for scientist to control optical tweezers to move tiny particles

Empowered women smoke more

In the west, smoking among women has long been associated with empowerment - this pattern looks set to repeat itself in poorer countries

Deep ice growth on Antarctica's ghost mountains

Ice can grow from the bottom up over Antarctica's hidden Gamburtsev mountain range

Following the herd actually shifts your opinion

Agreeing with the masses isn't a white lie but a real opinion, suggest brain scans

Graphene etching to usher in computing revolution

Peeling off graphene sheets one layer at a time allows exquisite control over the material's electronic properties

Found: fine American fishing tackle, 12 millennia old

Ancient finely crafted fishing spearheads have been discovered on islands off California; their style implies that their owners could cross the sea

Android, take a letter: Robotic hand helps people type

A robotic hand that is designed to type on a keyboard could help people with mobility problems press buttons on a wide variety of applications

Born to be viral: Knitwear defies 1000 ˚C flames

Our weekly viral video series kicks off with a suit built to protect a rocket-car driver in the event of fiery disaster

Michael Marshall, environment reporter

Climate researchers could be forgiven for thinking that space doesn't like them. Yet another of their custom-made satellites has fallen out of the sky.

The latest casualty is Glory, a NASA satellite designed to monitor the effects of aerosol particles on the climate. We need to know, because aerosols have a range of effects on the climate, and sorting out what is going on would improve our climate predictions significantly.

NASA's Gavin Schmidt calls the failed satellite launch "one of the most important in ages" and explains:

[Glory's] uniqueness lies in its ability to distinguish what kind of aerosols it is seeing. [...] Sea salt comes from sea spray over the oceans, dust from dry desert areas, black carbon from burning of forests and fossil fuels, sulphates derive from ocean plankton and burning coal, nitrates derive from fertiliser use, car exhausts and lightning, and secondary organics come from the stew of volatile organic compounds from industrial and natural sources alike. There are also pollen and fat particles from outdoor cooking, etc. Because we can't easily distinguish what's what from space, we don't have good global coverage of exactly how much of the aerosol is anthropogenic, and how much is natural

Unfortunately, the satellite's launch earlier today went badly wrong. The BBC reports:

About three minutes into the flight, telemetry indicated a problem. It appears the fairing - the part of the rocket which covers the satellite on top of the launcher - did not separate properly. This would have made the rocket too heavy and therefore too slow to achieve its intended 700-kilometre orbit. It would probably have fallen into the ocean near the Antarctic, but this still has to be confirmed

Almost exactly two years ago, NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) also plummeted into the sea - after being launched on the same type of rocket, a Taurus XL. OCO was designed to monitor where and when carbon dioxide is being emitted and absorbed. Some said its data could be used to police greenhouse gas emissions - or at least help eliminate issues of mistrust between nations that self-report their emissions.

Japan's GOSAT, which did launch successfully, is taking similar measurements.

Seil Collins, reporter

(Image: Gregory Read)

You'd be forgiven for thinking this photo had been taking at the height of a baking hot summer's day, the usual time of year for spotting a mirage. But it is February on this road near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The temperature is -23 °C and yes, that's snow on the right hand side.

Mirages on roads are a familiar sight in hot weather, but at sub-zero temperatures, they are much harder to come by. However, it is essentially the same process that takes place.

The black asphalt of the road surface has been heated just a few degrees above the ambient temperature and as a result, a thin layer of air above the road surface warms up. The layer of warm air has a lower refraction index than the denser, colder air above it. The difference between them creates a boundary which behaves as a mirror, reflecting distant objects, in this case the blue winter sky, which makes it looks as if the car is floating above the road's surface.

Jeff Hecht, consultant

Anyone who lives in areas where snow accumulates over the winter learns that new snow builds on top of old mounds. So it's only natural to assume the same process created the great ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.

(Image: NSIDC)

Not so, say Robin Bell of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, and her colleagues. Their radar observations show that the East Antarctic ice sheet is also growing from the bottom up. "We usually think of ice sheets like cakes - one layer at a time, added from the top. This is like someone injected a layer of frosting at the bottom - a really thick layer," says Bell.

Online crime forum shut down

The teenage owner of an online forum used to trade stolen credit card details has been sentenced to five years in jail - but other card trading sites continue to operate.

US syphilis experiment scandal: probes begin

Two investigations will inquire how researchers deliberately infected Guatemalans with syphilis in the 1940s

I predict a riot: Where the next dictator will fall

The mathematics of complex systems could be used to predict political instability

Genetic treatment closes door on HIV

HIV may be thwarted by genetically altering blood cells to remove the "door handle" by which the virus invades the cells

Trek-like tractor beam is possible

The starship Enterprise often dragged objects towards itself using a glowing beam. Now there's a way to do this in real life

Solar energy spars with spiritual lands in California

Native American groups say solar projects in California could ruin the spiritual value of their land

Amateur snags shuttle closing in on ISS

A UK photographer captured this lucky shot using nothing more than a mid-range digital camera and a 20-year-old telescope

A country with no time for climate change scepticism

The attitude of those at the sharp end of climate change has important lessons for us all, says Adam Corner

Magnetic 'battery' to report on century-old nuke waste

A battery that uses a magnetic spring to create power could tell engineers on the surface the state of buried nuclear waste

Apple unveils iPad 2 (Yawn)

While a worthy upgrade to its wildly successful iPad, Apple's iPad 2 fails to live up to the company's hype

Schwarzenegger calls for fossil fuel termination

The ex-Gubernator has urged the US to adopt three energy policies that have created jobs and reduced emissions in California

Seil Collins, reporter



(Image: Rob Bullen)

Equipped with nothing more than a mid-range digital camera and a 20-year-old telescope, photographer Rob Bullen captured this view of NASA's Discovery space shuttle closing in on the International Space Station.

Last Saturday was generally cloudy in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, UK. But then the clouds parted, allowing Bullen, an astronomy enthusiast, to snag a shot of the ISS and Discovery as they passed over.

"I could not believe the timing was so fortuitous to show the shuttle closing in on the station," said Bullen. He described the result as "a once-in-a-lifetime image".

Not bad for an evening of star-gazing.

Sweat ducts make skin a memristor

It turns out that the missing link of electronics, which evaded discovery until 2008, was at our fingertips the whole time

Zoologger: The hairy beast with seven fuzzy sexes

What it lacks in size, one single-celled animal more than makes up for in sexual exploits: it has not two but seven sexes

Sticky feet send insect-bot climbing up the walls

A climbing robot that secretes a sticky fluid to help it cling to walls could take on the more famous gecko-bots

Evolution races to keep up with climate change

As global temperatures rise, wild songbirds in the Netherlands are swiftly evolving - but can they change fast enough?

Sonic doom: Noise in pictures

From ear-deafening occupations to the quietest place on Earth, New Scientist takes a look at the problem of noise - and some solutions

Primordial Pac-Man: Oil droplet hints at life's origin

Simple oil drops show that if you get the conditions right, basic life may emerge almost fully formed

LHC releases first Higgs search results

The results can't yet compete with the Tevatron's in hunting for a standard model Higgs, but there's now a second player in what was an exclusive club

Rare leopard caught on candid camera

See the first ever video footage of a stunning Sumatran Sundaland clouded leopard

Tevatron closure: There's life in the old dog yet

The closure of the Tevatron particle accelerator later this year doesn't spell the end of its glittering career, says Fermilab chief Piermaria Oddone

Hot pixel mystery plagues delayed space telescope

Something strange is degrading detectors on a NASA telescope that is already expected to launch late and run over-budget

Finely tuned minds: The secret of perfect pitch

The uncanny ability to recognise any note has long been associated with musical genius. But the real mystery is why we can't all do it

The only vertebrate that eats with its mouth shut

Unique among the 50,000 vertebrate species alive today, the Pacific hagfish absorbs nutrients through its skin, bypassing the mouth

Trap-snapped animal shots are window to the wild

A new database of camera trap photos offers a window into the lives of animals in the wild

Travel into 3D fractals

Celebrate World Math Day by watching two new mesmerizing fractal animations

Caitlin Stier, contributor

(Image: James Spann/NASA)

A solar wind wreaked havoc on Earth's magnetic field yesterday, setting off a day-long magnetic storm that sparked brilliant green auroras as seen in this shot from Poker Flat, Alaska. Sky watchers reported seeing the northern lights in Norway, Sweden, Latvia and Northern Ireland. Appropriately, NASA physicist James Spann captured the picture above while attending an aurora conference.

The polar light show starts with the ejection of charged hot gas from the sun. When this solar wind interacts with Earth's magnetic shield, high-energy particles can fall into our upper atmosphere, illuminating gas there.

While yesterday's magnetic storm has subsided, high solar winds could spark another. Aurora hunters can be ready for the next light show by signing up for aurora alert services provided by Lancaster University in the UK or the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Kate McAlpine, contributor

The Higgs boson, the elusive particle thought to give all others mass, is the most hyped of all the discoveries that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is expected to make. Now the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the LHC has cast its first glance on this prize.

Excitement must be tempered. The LHC, at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, can't yet compete with the Tevatron at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, in hunting for the Higgs as predicted by the standard model, particle physics's most successful framework.

But, as revealed in a paper posted to the online Physics Arxiv on Saturday, the LHC is already closing in on the version of the Higgs that appears in an alternative, more exotic framework.

For the first time, the Tevatron  - formerly the world's most powerful particle smasher and the last experiment to narrow down the possible masses that the Higgs might have - can hear a second set of footsteps on its main stomping ground.

Caitlin Stier, contributor

(Image: Smithsonian)

This golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) has been caught in a motion-activated camera trap.

Such ambushes help scientists learn about elusive creatures in the wild. Now the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC has launched an extensive photo database of these candid snaps.

The collection includes more than 200 different kinds of mammals and birds from around the world. With 202,000 plus shots, the database offers a diverse look into the wild and provides valuable insights into animal behaviour away from human eyes.

Plague scientist dies of... the plague

A bizarre turn of fate left a plague researcher vulnerable to bacteria that couldn't normally even kill mice

Time-lapse Tuesday: Building a sonic crystal

Watch us build a structure that blocks out noise and find out how to make your own

Photo competition: Scale

Scale - however you interpret it we want your best pictures of it for the March photo competition

US military requests 'Taser grenade'

A new electroshock weapon could be fired from a grenade launcher to incapacitate someone up to 100 metres away

How I learned to love the Google-bomb

Want to make sure the internet knows what you really look like? Sally Adee explains how

Theoretical physics and the art of the abstract

Great theories draw on the same creative roots as great poetry or fiction, but the constraints of fact add something unique, says Giovanni Vignale

Meteorite cargo could solve origin-of-life riddle

Abundant, ready-made ammonia discovered in meteorite dust could have given the early Earth the building blocks for proteins, DNA and RNA

First interactive 3D film to debut in Australia

In Scenario, you battle against computer-generated intelligent avatars in a visually stunning but creepy game

Porn filter for kids' mobiles sends images to parent

Samsung has a new method for blocking out porn on your child's phone

Incredible cardboard sculptures created by algorithms

Cardboard beats 3D printing when it comes to detailed sculptures

Ideas conjure up colour for swimming synaesthete

Even the mere thought of swimming evokes different colours for two people with synaesthesia

Scientists get tickets to ride with space tourists

In the first deals of their kind, a scientific institute has committed to flying its researchers on spaceships built for suborbital tourist flights

Sanitation concerns in post-quake Christchurch

Authorities are scrambling to restore water supplies and sewage systems damaged by last week's 6.3-magnitude earthquake

Balloon launches breach North Korea's bubble

Thousands of helium balloons are to be released over the Korean border with information about the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt

Sonic doom: Making a sound barrier

Driven to distraction by the urban din? A sonic crystal or a bubble sandwich could cut out the racket

NASA prepares to crush giant aluminium can

How much pressure can this section of rocket fuel tank take?

When the mind's eye processes language

In people blind from birth, the visual cortex adopts complex language processing duties

Augmented reality system teaches you chess

A new system that can track your moves could replace human chess coaches

Debora MacKenzie, reporter  

Sally Adee, features editor

Hell hath no fury. Last month, a scorned woman uploaded a picture of her ex-boyfriend to a website that lets users add humorous captions to pictures (much like this one). Most people use these sites to make goofy LOLcats, but she used it to generate dozens of images of her hapless ex, accompanied by an impressively wide selection of unflattering comments. "To be or not to be? LOLJK I can't read" said one.

It got worse for her target: blog after blog picked up on her handiwork, reposting the images and ensuring that they soon featured at the top of Google's image search results for his name. That spurred on yet more sites to write about the story (and post the pictures), most of them suggesting a moral for the story: Don't mess with someone who knows how to build a Google-bomb.

You can even prime the bomb yourself - as US Congressman Chris Lee found out just before Valentine's Day. Inexplicably, the married official decided it'd be a good idea to snap himself flexing his muscles - without a shirt on - and send the resulting candid picture to a new acquaintance on Craigslist. Inevitably, that picture now represents about half of his Google image search results. Even more inevitably, Chris Lee is now looking for a new job.

Wendy Zukerman, Australasia reporter

In the New Zealand city of Christchurch authorities are scrambling to restore water supplies and sewage systems which were severely damaged by last week's 6.3-magnitude earthquake.

Canterbury medical officer of health Alistair Humphrey told New Zealand Doctor that 40 per cent of Christchurch doesn't have running water and the entire city's water supply is "compromised".

(Image: Jamie Ball/Rex Features)

Isolated cases of measles and gastroenteritis have been reported. According to Humphrey the gastro cases were likely to have been water-borne and the result of people brushing their teeth with contaminated water - rather than spread through human contact.

But, a Canterbury District Health Board spokeswoman told the New Zealand Herald: "There is an underlying potential for there to be a measles outbreak. There's a chance of an outbreak of gastro diseases."