Dragon
The Dragon capsule splashed down to a successful landing in the Pacific Ocean this week, completing an up-and-down journey to the International Space Station. Eric Hand reports in the News Blog that while this was done many times with the US space shuttle — and is still being done with Russian Soyuz capsules — the success of Dragon is significant because it is the first private, commercially owned vehicle to make that trip:
The capsule, built by SpaceX, was launched on one of the company’s Falcon 9 rockets on 22 May, and docked with the space station last week.
SpaceX should begin in earnest now on 12 station resupply missions under terms of a $1.6 billion commercial cargo contract with NASA. The company has plans to certify the capsule for use by astronauts in the next several years.
You can find out more about the Dragon capsule in Eric’s post.
Computer Virus
Ivan Semeniuk reveals in the News Blog that a massive computer virus, dubbed Flame or sKyWIper, may have been targeting computers in the Middle East and Iran, according to a report by a research team involved in analysing the sophisticated computer code:
The report, released on 28 May by the Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security in Budapest, Hungary, which was part of a team analysing the malware, bases its estimate on file names that were first spotted in Europe in 2007.
Analysts say that the virus is designed to steal information by turning infected computers into spying machines, capturing screen shots, turning on microphones and otherwise probing them for other information that can be transferred to servers under the malware’s control.
“It covers all major possibilities to gather intelligence, including keyboard, screen, microphone, storage devices, network, wifi, Bluetooth, USB and system processes,” the Hungarian researchers wrote.
Some of sKyWIper's encryption-related code
Learn more about this threat in Ivan’s post. This is also cross-posted in the House of Wisdom Blog.
Milky Way
Boston blogger, Tinker Ready explains in her latest post that the Milky Way’s quiet black hole wasn’t always that way, according to a new study out of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA):
As galaxies go, our Milky Way is pretty quiet. Active galaxies have cores that glow brightly, powered by supermassive black holes swallowing material, and often spit twin jets in opposite directions. In contrast, the Milky Way’s center shows little activity. But it wasn’t always so peaceful. New evidence of ghostly gamma-ray beams suggests that the Milky Way’s central black hole was much more active in the past.Artist's conception of edge on view of Milky Way galaxy: CfA image
Find out more in Tinker’s report.
What’s behind an fMRI signal?
Nature Method’s editorial this month discuss the importance of gaining a deeper understanding of the signals underlying fMRI technology.
Despite the increased interest in this technology and the huge investments, we know very little about the underlying biology that produces these signals. This lack of understanding limits the type of information that can be obtained from this methodology and its utility to help us understand how our brains work.
We discuss new technological developments that might help address this question, including a research article by Dr. Helmchen and colleagues in this issue.
Positive feedback drives network (and manuscript) maturation
Noah Gray links out to some excellent neuroscience-related studies emerging from the last couple of weeks:
- Covert learning by a basal ganglia circuit, despite no participating in the behavioral practice.
- Reach and grasp by people with tetraplegia using a neurally-controlled robotic arm.
- A non-transcriptional circadian cycle conserved across all domains of life.
- Identification of mechanisms linking cerebro-vascular integrity to neurodegeneration.
- Metabolic coupling of glia with axons in the long-term maintenance of axonal integrity.
Continue to Noah’s post to read an editorial back-story touching on yet another interesting study.
Bath salts
Nature Network blogger, Suzi Gage reveals in her latest post that the news report about, “a man eating another man’s face” wasn’t a zombie apocalypse, but the offender was possibly under the influence of a new type of LSD drug coined by the media as, “bath salts.”
Interesting, so what is it? Well, one problem with legal highs is that in most cases they are unregulated white powders. So, it could be anything. However, most often, ‘bath salts’ is a name used in the USA by online retailers selling mephedrone. In the UK it was sold as ‘plant food’ (to get around medicines and trading standards laws, it could only be sold as ‘not for human consumption), but was occasionally marketed as ‘bath salts’ too. You might recognise the name, as in the UK in 2009 and 2010, the drug got a lot of coverage (as miaow miaow – again not called that by users). It was hailed as ‘the new ecstacy’, and was blamed for incidents such as a man ripping off his own scrotum, to the deaths of two young men in Scunthorpe. The Government acted fast and duly made the drug illegal, yet both of these cases turned out to be unrelated to mephedrone (see here* and here). So could this drug turn a man into a ‘flesh eating zombie’, who, when ordered to stop by the police, turns, blood dripping from his face, and growls? Well, maybe.
Suzi talks more about drug induced psychosis in her post and stay tuned for updates on this story.
Overheard at SciBarCamb
Scitable’s blogger, Taylor Burns is reliving SciBarCamb, a small, open science ‘unconference’ in Cambridge. He took extensive notes and as a result, he has acquired a funny list of quotes:
“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate.”
“Are you ready for the meaning of life?”
“If we don’t get the right parts from the nuclear genome, we’re in deep s—.”
“It will be fun, I promise.”
– Various“…it’s also been tweeted by Eva.”
– Various and many“So if we learn how to fly, we’ll live longer. And we’ll be able to fly.” … “So how long would Dumbo live for?”
“There’s only one reason we’re willing to pay people to do nothing from the age of 65 – we feel sorry for them. They’re about to die.”
There are lots more quotes in Taylor’s post, do check them out.
The perfect sandwich?
Pete Etchells reveals in his latest post that he was absolutely ecstatic, chuffed, relieved, verb, when he found out that scientists have found the formula for making a perfect sandwich:
“It just looks like a mathematics nightmare to us, but we are assured this set of squiggles is the holy grail to making the perfect sandwich.
In principle, this formula will also describe the butter seeping into the bread, particularly as it warms up because D can depend upon temperature.
{(∂v(x,t))/∂t+ v(x,t)∇.v(x,t)}= ∇p(x,t)+ μ∇^2 v(x,t)+ g
At the interfaces we have a physical and chemical reaction of absorption. The reaction rates depends upon the concentration in the air and the activation energy, Ea, and the area exposed to the air.”
In the interests of science, Pete felt compelled to test it out:
STEP 4:
“Butter: Use a thick layer of butter, it is hydrophobic and keeps moisture away from the bread.”
Now we’re getting somewhere.
Continue to Pete’s post to see the results of his experiment, plus the moral of the story.