A cyberespionage campaign believed to be based in Russia has been targeting government leaders and institutions for nearly five years, according to researchers with iSight Partners who have examined code used in the attacks.
The campaign, dubbed “Sandworm” is believed to have been running since 2009, and used a wide-reaching zero-day exploit uncovered by the researchers that affects nearly every version of the Windows operating system released since Windows Vista.
Although iSight only has a small view of the number of victims targeted in the campaign, the victims include among others, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Ukrainian and European Union governments, energy and telecommunications firms, defense companies, as well as at least one academic in the US who was singled out for his focus on Ukrainian issues. The attackers also targeted attendees of this year’s GlobSec conference, a high-level national security gathering that attracts foreign ministers and other top leaders from Europe and elsewhere each year.
It appears Sandworm is focused on nabbing documents and emails containing intelligence and diplomatic information about Ukraine, Russia and other topics of importance in the region. But it also attempts to steal SSL keys and code-signing certificates, which iSight says the attackers probably use to further their campaign and breach other systems.
The researchers dubbed the operation “Sandworm” because the attackers make multiple references to the science fiction series Dune in their code. Sandworms, in the Frank Herbert books, are desert creatures on the planet Arrakis who are worshipped as god-like entities.
iSight is not the first to spot the attackers in the wild. Other security firms, including F-Secure in Finland, have uncovered victims over the years. But iSight was able to tie various attacks together to expose commonalities in the five-year campaign. It was encoded references to Dune—which appear in URLs for the attackers’ command-and-control servers—that helped tie some of the attacks together. The URLs include base64 strings that when decoded translate to “arrakis02,” “houseatreides94,” and “epsiloneridani0,” among others.
“Some of the references were very obscure so whoever was writing the malware was a big Dune geek,” says John Hultquist, senior manager for iSight’s Cyber Espionage Threat Intelligence team.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Tsk, tsk, Russia. Sandworm? Really?
Monday, October 13, 2014
Ukrainians at US Army Conference With $116 Million Shopping List
With a long border to protect from Russia and $116 million in non-lethal U.S. military aid burning a hole in their pockets, representatives of Ukraine’s defense industry conglomerate UkrObornProm –“The State Concern” — came to the Association of the United States Army’s annual conference in Washington with a shopping list. Industry sources said the Ukrainians seemed to like what they saw for sale in the way of drones, helicopters and armored vehicles at Textron Systems, a conglomerate that can offer a wide range of weapons systems.
The Ukrainians specifically talked to Textron about the company’s unarmed Aerosonde Mark 4.7 and Shadow M2 drones, the latter a less capable version of the RQ-7B Shadow flown by the U.S. Army. They also showed interest in Textron’s Commando wheeled armored vehicle, which can be fitted with a screen to receive video feeds from drones. Textron announced Monday that NATO member Bulgaria is buying 10 Commandos, included an armed variant and an ambulance variant, for use by Bulgarian troops assigned to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
Beyond the drones and armored vehicles, industry sources said, the Ukrainians are interested in OH-58 Kiowa Warrior scout helicopters the Army is offering foreign nations as surplus defense equipment. The Army decided this year to retire the venerable Kiowa Warriors, made by Textron subsidiary Bell Helicopter, and use Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to perform the scout mission as well.
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Network Theory Predicts Wars (or Lack Thereof?)
The study of modern history is currently undergoing a revolution. That is largely because historians are beginning to apply the ideas in network theory to the complex interactions that have forged our past.
There was a time when historians focused largely on events as the be all and end all of history. But in recent years, there has been a growing understanding that a complex network of links, alliances, trade agreements and so on play a hugely important role in creating an environment in which conflict (or peace) can spread.
An interesting open question in this regard is whether certain kinds of networks exist that are stable against the outbreak of war. Today, we get an answer thanks to the work of Matthew Jackson and Stephen Nei at Stanford University in California. These guys combine network theory and game theory to study the stability of different kinds of networks based on real-world data.
In particular, Jackson and Nai study the theoretical properties of networks consisting of countries that have military links and compared them to the properties of networks in which countries have both military and trade links.
Finally, they apply real data to their model. They combine international trade data with the well-known “Correlates of War” database to see how closely their predictions match those of real networks.
Jackson and Nei begin by considering a simple network of a handful of countries that can form military coalitions of various strengths. At the same time, each alliance must serve a purpose by helping to protect the countries involved so that the deletion of any alliance would make a country vulnerable. In this network, a country is vulnerable to attack if its coalition is weaker than its opponents’ coalition and the cost of a war is less than the benefit.
An interesting question is whether such a network can ever be stable against war. In other words, can the network exist in a way that no country is vulnerable to a successful attack by others and that no country can change alliances in a way that makes such an attack viable.
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The time frame's damping of wars had nothing to do with the spread of nuclear weapons. Nope. Not at all.
Coinbase Snags Senate Advisor as Lobbyist
The Bitcoin start-up Coinbase is bolstering its team as it seeks to deepen its engagement with regulators.
The company, one of the most popular digital wallet providers, has hired John Collins, a former adviser to the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, as its head of government affairs. Mr. Collins, who focused on digital currency, will work with lawmakers and public officials on policy decisions related to virtual money.
“Bitcoin is an extremely powerful technology,” said Fred Ehrsam, a co-founder of Coinbase. “As the leader in the space, our main goal is to educate people who are going to form the regulations around it in its formative years so its potential remains.”
Coinbase’s moves comes as Bitcoin start-ups have been uncertain of what potential regulations will be coming. In July, for example, New York became the first state to issue proposed rules for digital currency companies. The public comment period on the BitLicense regulations is set to end next week. Bitcoin has also attracted the attention of other prominent regulatory agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
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Will it Ever be Built?
Cool, but probably not look at the second image. The group must be flipping the bird at Berkeley.
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Why NASA did NOT Select Sierra Nevada's DreamChaser
As Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) restart work on commercial crew contracts following NASA’s Oct 9. decision to lift a stop-work order, details of an internal agency document reveal why the bid from losing competitor Sierra Nevada lost out.
The three companies competed for $6.8 billion worth of Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CctCap) contracts to transport NASA astronauts to the international space station (ISS) starting in 2017. However, following the awards of work to Boeing for the CST-100 and to SpaceX for the Dragon V2, Sierra Nevada -- which proposed the Dream Chaser lifting body -- filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Sept 26, citing “inconsistencies in the source selection process.”
In response, NASA issued a stop-work order to Boeing and SpaceX on Oct 2, only to rescind it a week later on the grounds that a delay to development of the transportation service, “poses risks to the ISS crew, jeopardizes continued operation of the ISS, would delay meeting critical crew size requirements, and may result in the U.S. failing to perform the commitments it made in its international agreements.” The GAO has until Jan. 5, 2015, to rule on Sierra Nevada’s protest.
The internal document, signed by NASA Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier on Sept. 15, the day before the contract awards were announced, says, “I consider SNC’s (Sierra Nevada Corp.) design to be the lowest level of maturity, with significantly more technical work and critical design decisions to accomplish. The proposal did not thoroughly address these design challenges and trades.” Gerstenmaier goes on to say that Sierra’s proposal “has more schedule uncertainty. For example, some of the testing planned after the crewed flight could be required before the crewed flight, and the impact of this movement will greatly stress the schedule.”
A copy of Gerstenmaier’s document was obtained by Aviation Week.
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Evidence of Hypoxic Upper Ocean Waters During the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM)
I/Ca evidence for upper ocean deoxygenation during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM)
Authors:
Zhou et al
Abstract:
Anthropogenic global warming affects marine ecosystems in complex ways, and declining ocean oxygenation is a growing concern. Forecasting the geographical and bathymetric extent, rate and intensity of future deoxygenation and its effects on oceanic biota, however, remains highly challenging because of the complex feedbacks in the earth-ocean-biota system. Information on past global warming events such as the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~55.5 Ma), a potential analog for present and future global warming, may help in such forecasting. Documenting past ocean deoxygenation, however, is hampered by the lack of sensitive proxies for past oceanic oxygen levels throughout the water column. As yet no evidence has been presented for pervasive deoxygenation in the upper water column through expansion of Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZs). We apply a novel proxy for paleo-redox conditions, the iodine to calcium ratio (I/Ca) in bulk coarse fraction sediment and planktic foraminiferal tests from pelagic sites in different oceans, and compared our reconstruction with modeled oxygen levels. The reconstructed iodate gradients indicate that deoxygenation occurred in the upper water column in the Atlantic, Indian Oceans, and possibly the Pacific Ocean as well during the PETM, due to vertical and potentially lateral expansion of OMZs.
Martian Moons' Cartography
Phobos and Deimos cartography
Authors:
Wählisch et al
Abstract:
This paper presents an overview of developments in the cartography of the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos from the early satellite images to recent maps based on data from past and on-going Mars missions, especially Viking and Mars Express. We describe in detail the definition and use of special projections for these irregular-shaped bodies. New controlled Phobos mosaics and a topographic atlas in a scale of 1: 50,000 derived from images of the High Resolution Stereo Camera/Super Resolution Channel (HRSC/SRC) camera on Mars Express are presented.
697 Genetic Variations Effect Human Height
The largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) to date, involving more than 300 institutions and more than 250,000 subjects, roughly doubles the number of known gene regions influencing height to more than 400. The study, from the international Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits (GIANT) Consortium, provides a better glimpse at the biology of height and offers a model for investigating traits and diseases caused by many common gene changes acting together. Findings were published online October 5 by Nature Genetics.
"Height is almost completely determined by genetics, but our earlier studies were only able to explain about 10 percent of this genetic influence," says Joel Hirschhorn, MD, PhD, of Boston Children's Hospital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, leader of the GIANT Consortium and co-senior investigator on the study. "Now, by doubling the number of people in our study, we have a much more complete picture of how common genetic variants affect height—how many of them there are and how much they contribute."
The GIANT investigators, numbering in the hundreds, shared and analyzed data from the genomes of 253,288 people. They checked about two million common genetic variants (those that showed up in at least 5 percent of their subjects). From this pool, they pinned down 697 (in 424 gene regions) as being related to height, the largest number to date associated with any trait or disease.
"We can now explain about 20 percent of the heritability of height, up from about 12 percent where we were before," says co-first author Tonu Esko, PhD, of Boston Children's Hospital, the Broad Institute and the University of Tartu (Estonia).
"The study also narrows down the genomic regions that contain a substantial proportion of remaining variation—to be discovered with even larger sample sizes," adds co-senior investigator Peter Visscher, PhD, of the University of Queensland, Australia.
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The Giant Flightless Birds of Paleogene Europe
Stratigraphic distribution of large flightless birds in the Palaeogene of Europe and its palaeobiological and palaeogeographical implications
Authors:
Buffetaut et al
Abstract:
The stratigraphic distribution of the three main groups of large flightless birds known from the Palaeogene of Europe, Gastornithidae, Phorusrhacidae and Ratitae, is reviewed. The huge, herbivorous gastornithids, represented by the single genus Gastornis, are known from the Selandian (Middle Palaeocene) to the late Lutetian (Middle Eocene), being recorded from reference levels MP5 to MP13. The carnivorous phorusrhacids are represented by a single species, Eleutherornis cotei, from the late Lutetian (MP14, late Middle Eocene). The ratites have a patchy distribution, being represented by two species of moderate size, Remiornis heberti from the Thanetian (MP6, Late Palaeocene) and Palaeotis weigelti from the Lutetian (MP11 to MP13, Middle Eocene). The stratigraphic distributions of large eggs referred to gastornithids in the Late Palaeocene and Early Eocene of southern Europe and the occurrence of enigmatic large avian footprints in the Late Eocene of France are discussed. Whereas gastornithids and ratites co-existed in both the Palaeocene and the Middle Eocene, phorusrhacids seem to have been the only large ground birds in Europe at the end of the Middle Eocene. The palaeobiogeographical and evolutionary implications of the stratigraphic distributions of those groups of large birds in Europe are discussed. As Gastornis first appears in North America and in Asia in the Early Eocene, it is likely that gastornithids originated in Europe and later spread to other land masses during a dispersal event close to the Palaeocene–Eocene boundary. Prior to that, gastornithids evolved on the European “island continent”, where they were the largest terrestrial tetrapods during the Palaeocene. Gastornithids do not seem to have been significantly affected by the PETM. Ratitae have a more patchy record and relationships between Remiornis and Palaeotis remain unclear. Nevertheless, those European forms are among the earliest known ratites and this should not be overlooked in discussions of ratite evolution and palaeobiogeography. Phorusrhacids appear to have been present in Europe for only a short time and are interpreted as the result of dispersal from Africa followed by local extinction.
How Well Late Permian, Burrowing Anomodont Kawingasaurus Felt Vibrations and Sounds
Bone-conduction hearing and seismic sensitivity of the late permian anomodont Kawingasaurus fossilis
Author:
Laaß
Abstract:
An investigation of the internal cranial anatomy of the anomodont Kawingasaurus from the Upper Permian Usili Formation in Tanzania by means of neutron tomography revealed an unusual inner and middle ear anatomy such as extraordinarily inflated vestibules, lateroventrally orientated stapes with large footplates, and a small angle between the planes of the anterior and lateral semicircular canals. The vestibule has a volume, which is about 25 times larger than the human vestibule, although Kawingasaurus has only a skull length of approximately 40 mm. Vestibule inflation and enlarged stapes footplates are thought to be functionally correlated with bone-conduction hearing; both morphologies have been observed in fossorial vertebrates using seismic signals for communication. The firmly fused triangular head with spatulate snout was probably used for digging and preadapted to seismic signal detection. The quadrate-quadratojugal complex was able to transmit sound from the articular to the stapes by small vibrations of the quadrate process, which formed a ball and socket joint with the squamosal. Mechanical considerations suggest that the ventrolaterally orientated stapes of Kawingasaurus was mechanically better suited to transmit seismic sound from the ground to the fenestra vestibuli than a horizontal orientated stapes. The low sound pressure level transformer ratio of 2–3 in Kawingasaurus points to a seismic sensitivity of the middle ear and a vestigial or reduced sensitivity to airborne sound. Three hypothetical pathways of bone conduction in Kawingasaurus are discussed: 1) sound transmission via the spatulate snout and skull roof to the otic capsules, 2) relative movements resulting from the inertia of the mandible if sound is percepted with the skull, and 3) bone conduction from the substrate via mandible, jaw articulation, and stapes to the inner ear.
Evidence of Episodic Crustal Formation From the Hadean to the NeoArchean From China
Hadean to Neoarchean episodic crustal growth: Detrital zircon records in Paleoproterozoic quartzites from the southern North China Craton
Authors:
Zhang et al
Abstract:
The Archean terranes exposed in several regions of the North China Craton (NCC) provide important winodws to evaluate the Hadean-Archean continental crustal evolutoin history. Here we report results from SIMS zircon geochronology and oxygen isotopes, as well as LA-ICPMS zircon Hf isotopic analyses on detrital zircons from Paleoproterozoic quartzites to probe the early crustal evolution in the southern NCC. Our data show episodic magmatism during the Eoarchean, Paleoarchean, Mesoarchean, Neoarchean and Paleoproterozoic as inferred from the concordant ages of 3.6 Ga and 2.2 Ga and the well-defined upper intercept ages of 3404 ± 30 Ma, 2919 ± 31 Ma, 2772 ± 9.5 Ma, 2698 ± 4.7 Ma, 2652 ± 6.7 Ma, and 2532 ± 5.2 Ma. The Hf and oxygen isotopic compositions of Eoarchean-Paleoarchean zircons demonstrate that the cratonic nucleus of the NCC was built in the Hadean (∼4.0 Ga), similar to the timing of formation of the nuclei of old cratons elsewhere on the globe such as the Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, and the Slave Craton, Canada, with the Eoarchean-Paleoarchean (3.8 Ga, 3.6 Ga and 3.4 Ga) marking the first phase of crustal reworking of the Hadean crust. The salient aspect of our data is that the Meoarchean to early Neoarchean (3.0-2.6 Ga with a peak at 2.7 Ga) was a significant period for crustal growth from the mantle throughout the NCC, comparable with the event of major Archean crustal growth worldwide. The latest Neoarchean (∼2.5 Ga) marks a period of significant crustal reworking that led to remelting of the newly-formed juvenile mafic crust (∼2.7 Ga). Integration with the data obtained from the TTG (tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite) and granitoid rocks of the Archean terranes and the lower crustal granulite xenoliths from various parts of the NCC suggests that the episodic Eoarchean via Paleoarchean and Mesoarchean to Neoarchean crustal growth as well as crustal reworking intensely destroyed the ancient cratonic nucleus, resulting in the scarce preservation of the Hadean and Eoarchean remnants in both the upper and lower crust of the NCC. Following the Paleoproterozoic sedimentation of the Archean zircons, apart from Pb loss during the subsequent thermal events, there was no major alteration in the Hf and oxygen isotopic compositions. Thus, our detrital zircon data provide convincing evidence for the repeated crustal growth and reworking of the NCC in the Archean.
Earth Observing Satellites Note Large Methane Leaks From American SouthWest/Four Corners Regions
An unexpectedly high amount of the climate-changing gas methane, the main component of natural gas, is escaping from the Four Corners region in the U.S. Southwest, according to a new study by the University of Michigan and NASA.
The researchers mapped satellite data to uncover the nation's largest methane signal seen from space. They measured levels of the gas emitted from all sources, and found more than half a teragram per year coming from the area where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet. That's about as much methane as the entire coal, oil, and gas industries of the United Kingdom give off each year.
Four Corners sits on North America's most productive coalbed methane basin. Coalbed methane is a variety of the gas that's stuck to the surface of coal. It is dangerous to miners (not to mention canaries), but in recent decades, it's been tapped as a resource.
"There's so much coalbed methane in the Four Corners area, it doesn't need to be that crazy of a leak rate to produce the emissions that we see. A lot of the infrastructure is likely contributing," said Eric Kort, assistant professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at the U-M College of Engineering.
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Nuclear Submarine HMS Astute Completes First Deployment
HMS Astute (S-94) — the first in class of the U.K. Royal Navy’s nuclear attack boats (SSNs) — has returned to Scotland after its first operational deployment, the Royal Navy announced on Thursday.
Astute departed its homeport, HM Naval Base Clyde, earlier this year for its inaugural eight-month operational deployment, traveling as far as the Indian Ocean, according to the Thursday statement from the Royal Navy.
“This deployment has been a huge success for HMS Astute. The submarine has travelled more than 27,000 miles and operated with our regional partners in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea,” Cmdr. Gareth Jenkins, Astute’s commander, said in the statement.
The ship left U.K. waters in March and transited the Suez Canal in July and continued operations in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, according to the statement.
The six planned Astute SSNs are designed to replace the five existing late 1970s vintage Trafalgar-class attack boats in the Royal Navy’s sub force.
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China's Productivity is Slowing Down
THE growth of China’s economy is staggering: it produced $9.5 trillion-worth of goods and services in 2013, nearly three times more than in 2007. But has that growth come simply from deploying more labour and capital? Or did total factor productivity (TFP)—the efficiency with which those two inputs are used—also increase? China’s future growth hinges on the answer.
A period of high growth does not necessarily involve a rise in productivity. The more people there are in employment, and the more factories and roads there are for them to use, the bigger an economy will be. But those workers and roads may not be put to good use. As long as the amount by which labour and capital grow outpaces any fall in productivity, GDP will still increase.
Growth of this sort, however, can last only so long. Neither labour nor capital are infinite. In the long run, improving the productivity with which they are used is the magic ingredient for any economy, the only path to sustainable growth. Hence the concerns about China. A series of estimates published this year have all suggested that productivity is flagging.
At the pessimistic end of the range is Harry Wu, an economist who has devoted much research to the shortcomings of China’s official economic data. He finds that since 2007 TFP has actually been a drag on the economy, denting growth by about 0.9 percentage points a year. At the more optimistic end, researchers at the World Bank think TFP added nearly three percentage points a year to growth from 2000 to 2010—but even they reckon that is 40% lower than in the 1990s. In between these two estimates are Jianhua Zhang, Chunxia Jiang and Peng Wang, two of whom are with the People’s Bank of China. They conclude that productivity increased just 1.5% a year between 1997 and 2012.
As these diverging estimates suggest, overall productivity growth, despite being central to economics, is frustratingly difficult to pin down. It cannot, after all, be seen. When comparing two workers with the same job in the same company, it is easy to determine which one produces more. For economies, such apple-to-apple comparisons are not possible. Instead, economists get at TFP by subtracting the change in capital and labour deployed from the change in overall output. The difference (known as the Solow residual, after Robert Solow, the economist who pioneered this method) reflects the contribution of productivity to growth. In this way, the unseen becomes visible.
But the process requires several accounting somersaults. Assumptions are needed about, among other things, the size of the capital stock, the rate of capital depreciation and the level of workers’ education. Mr Wu does not trust official GDP figures and so constructs his own. Because his estimate of average annual growth for 2008-12 (6.5%) is dramatically lower than the official figure (9.3%), his calculations yield a negative Solow residual. Productivity, in other words, appears to have gone into reverse.
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Friday, October 10, 2014
Harvard & MIT Produce First Nano Foundry...From DNA!
Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have unveiled a new method to form tiny 3D metal nanoparticles in prescribed shapes and dimensions using DNA, Nature's building block, as a construction mold.
The ability to mold inorganic nanoparticles out of materials such as gold and silver in precisely designed 3D shapes is a significant breakthrough that has the potential to advance laser technology, microscopy, solar cells, electronics, environmental testing, disease detection and more.
"We built tiny foundries made of stiff DNA to fabricate metal nanoparticles in exact three-dimensional shapes that we digitally planned and designed," said Peng Yin, senior author of the paper, Wyss core faculty member and Assistant Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School.
The Wyss team's findings, described in a paper titled "Casting Inorganic Structures with DNA Molds," were published today in Science. The work was done in collaboration with MIT's Laboratory for Computational Biology and Biophysics, led by Mark Bathe, senior co-author of the paper.
"The paper's findings describe a significant advance in DNA nanotechnology as well as in inorganic nanoparticle synthesis," Yin said. For the very first time, a general strategy to manufacture inorganic nanoparticles with user-specified 3D shapes has been achieved to produce particles as small as 25 nanometers or less, with remarkable precision (less than 5 nanometers). A sheet of paper is approximately 100,000 nanometers thick.
The 3D inorganic nanoparticles are first conceived and meticulously planned using computer design software. Using the software, the researchers design three-dimensional "frameworks" of the desired size and shape built from linear DNA sequences, which attract and bind to one another in a predictable manner.
"Over the years, scientists have been very successful at making complex 3D shapes from DNA using diverse strategies," said Wei Sun, a postdoctoral scholar in the Wyss' Molecular Systems Lab and the lead author of the paper. For example, in 2012, the Wyss team revealed how computer-aided design could be used to construct hundreds of different self-assembling one-, two-, and three-dimensional DNA nanoshapes with perfect accuracy. It is this ability to design arbitrary nanostructures using DNA manipulation that inspired the Wyss team to envision using these DNA structures as practical foundries, or "molds", for inorganic substances.
"The challenge was to translate this kind of 3D geometrical control into the ability to cast structures in other diverse and functionally-relevant materials, such as gold and silver," Sun said.
Just as any expanding material can be shaped inside a mold to take on a defined 3D form, the Wyss team set out to grow inorganic particles within the confined hollow spaces of stiff DNA nanostructures
The concept can be likened to the Japanese method of growing watermelons in glass cubes. By nurturing watermelon seeds to maturity inside cube-shaped glass boxes, Japanese farmers create cube-shaped mature melons that allow for densely-packed shipping and storage of the fruit.
The Wyss researchers similarly planted a miniscule gold "seed" inside the hollow cavity of their carefully designed cube-shaped DNA mold and then stimulated it to grow. Using an activating chemical solution, the gold seed grew and expanded to fill all existing space within the DNA framework, resulting in a cuboid nanoparticle with the same dimensions as its mold., with the length, width and height of the particle able to be controlled independently.
Next, researchers fabricated varied 3D polygonal shapes, spheres, and more ambitious structures, such as a 3D Y-shaped nanoparticle and another structure comprising a cuboid shape sandwiched between two spheres, proving that structurally-diverse nanoparticles could be shaped using complex DNA mold designs.
Given their unthinkably small size, it may come as a surprise that stiff DNA molds are proportionally quite robust and strong, able to withstand the pressures of expanding inorganic materials. Although the team selected gold seedlings to cast their nanoparticles, there is a wide range of inorganic nanoparticles that can be forcibly shaped through this process of DNA nanocasting.
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Amazon Creates Robotics Challenge to Bring Robopocalypse to Warehouses
Amazon has lots and lots of warehouses, sorry fulfilment centers, all over the world and they employ lots of humans to find the stuff you buy. The Amazon Picking Challenge is about getting robots to do the same job.
Amazon's fulfilment centers are already interesting from the point of view of computer science. For example, they use a hashing system to place things on shelves. You don't have to search for something alphabetically, you simply compute its hash function and this is the address of the shelf it is sitting on.
In March 2012 Amazon also bought a company that makes warehouse robots, Kiva Systems. These make small trucks which turn shelving into something more mobile. In this case the trucks move any shelf with everything it is storing to a location that needs it - either to load it with new items or to obtain items that have been ordered.
However, for all this automation Amazon still uses human's, pickers, to actually go to the location on a shelf and take one, or however many, of whatever it is you ordered and put the items in a tray on another automatic shelf.
Why?
Because despite it being a seemingly menial job it actually needs all those human senses and effectors that we take for granted.
A machine just isn't up to it - or is it?
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NASA Studying Cygnus Derived "Exploration Augmentation Module" for Orion Capsule?
NASA is examining adding a habitation module to the agency’s proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) that would allow astronauts to stay at the asteroid for several additional weeks.
Chris Moore, deputy director of the Advanced Exploration Systems Division at NASA Headquarters, said in a presentation at the 65th International Astronautical Congress here Oct. 3 that the module, intended to serve as a prototype of a habitat for future deep space missions, could be in place before the first crewed mission visits the captured asteroid in the mid-2020s.
“We’re doing a study now of different module types and different times it could be launched,” Moore said. “It may be used on the first mission, if it could be ready in time.”
Under NASA’s current ARM plans, a two-person crew would fly a 26-day mission in an Orion spacecraft once the captured asteroid reached a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. Only about five days would be spent at the asteroid, allowing for two four-hour spacewalks, with the rest of the mission spent in transit between the asteroid and Earth.
That schedule is driven by the life support capabilities of the Orion spacecraft. Moore said the use of what NASA calls the Exploration Augmentation Module would allow the overall mission to last as long as 60 days. “This module would provide extra life support and consumables to extend Orion’s mission,” he said.
One end of the module would attach to the robotic spacecraft that redirected the captured asteroid into lunar orbit, with Orion docking at the opposite end. The module could also include an additional docking port to allow logistics spacecraft to dock while Orion is there, and an airlock so that astronauts could perform spacewalks without depressurizing the Orion, as currently planned.
Moore described the Exploration Augmentation Module as similar in size to a Cygnus spacecraft, a comparison that may not be coincidental. Orbital Sciences Corp. has expressed interest in finding new applications for its Cygnus cargo spacecraft, including use as a habitat module for missions in cislunar or deep space.
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US Navy Launches AirWorks: a Military In-house Skunkworks
The U.S. Navy this month launched "AIRWorks," an initiative modeled on Lockheed Martin Corp's Skunk Works and Boeing Co's Phantom Works divisions that aims to develop new weapons more quickly to meet U.S. military needs.
AIRWorks completed several projects over the past year even as it took shape. They included bulletproofing V-22 tiltrotor aircraft built by Boeing and Textron Inc for the Air Force, and adding rockets to the Fire Scout unmanned helicopter built by Northrop Grumman Corp for the Navy.
"More than anything else, for us it's about speed and cost," Rear Admiral Mark Darrah, chief engineer for the Navy's Naval Air Systems Command and commander of the Naval Air Warfare Center's aircraft division, told Reuters in an interview.
The goal is to use prototyping and the Navy's substantial in-house know-how to develop rapid solutions for urgent military needs. Depending on the situation, the products developed could later be opened to competition by defense contractors, he said.
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An Abrupt Palaeoenvironmental Change Across the Danian/Selandian Paleocene Paleogene
Integrated bio-chemostratigraphical correlations and climatic evolution across the Danian–Selandian boundary at low latitudes
Authors:
Storme et al
Abstract:
The Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the base of the Selandian Stage is defined in the Zumaia section (Spain) at an abrupt change in lithology (base of Itzurun Formation), which coincides with the onset of a negative carbonate carbon isotope shift. However, this lithological change is not always very well expressed in other sections. In order to document the stratigraphic position of the Danian/Selandian boundary (DSB) on a more global scale, we have investigated three sections across the DSB, the Zumaia reference section (GSSP), the Loubieng section (auxiliary DSB reference section, France) and the Sidi Nasseur section (Tunisia). The Danian/Selandian boundary interval is subdivided and correlated throughout low latitudes, from the Altlantic Bay of Biscay to the Southern Tethys, on the basis of seven calcareous nannofossil and planktonic foraminiferal events (E-events). The base of the Selandian is proved to coincide with the end of the Braarudosphaera acme, which correlates with the lowest consistent occurrence (LCsO) of Lithoptychius aff. bitectus (= Fasciculithus janii sensu Steurbaut and Sztrákos, 2008) (event E4), but which is slightly posterior to the second radiation of the fasciculiths, up to now considered to represent the primary correlation tool of the DSB. A short-term δ13Corg negative excursion, associated with an increase in pCO2 is recorded at the very base of the Selandian. It is interpreted as a short period of global warming (hyperthermal), the duration of which is estimated at ~ 30 kyr. It is followed in all the three studied sections by a long-term decoupled carbon isotope event, marked by increasing δ13Corg and decreasing δ13Ccarb values. It may reflect a period of climatic cooling of a few 100 kyr, interpreted as a possible precursor of the global cooling event, marking the late Paleocene in the North Atlantic realm. The integration of the biostratigraphic and the isotope data indicates major differences in sedimentation rates during the early Selandian in the studied sections, but there is no evidence of substantial breaks in sedimentation in any of the sections during this interval. The lithological shift at the base of the Selandian points to an abrupt palaeoenvironmental reorganisation, although our integrated bio-chemostratigraphical investigation does not allow for estimating its duration nor the presence of a hiatus at that time.
High Resolution Crater Counting of Martian Terrains
Minimum Effective Area for High Resolution Crater Counting of Martian Terrains
Authors:
Warner et al
Abstract:
The acquisition of high-resolution imagery for the surface of Mars has enabled mapping of spatially limited (order of less than 103 km2) landforms such as alluvial fans, deltas, and lacustrine deposits that are targets for exploration due to their association with liquid water. It is essential for our understanding of the planet’s geologic and climate history therefore to place these landforms within the global chronostratigraphic context. Here, we analyze both the statistical variability in the cratering pattern as well as the influence of small crater resurfacing on crater counting small landforms. We identified and counted craters (diameter (D) > 200 m) on four type terrains using Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Context Camera (CTX) imagery that span the Noachian, Hesperian, and Amazonian epochs. The counts from each location include a region covering 10,000 km2, ten 1,000 km2 subsets of that larger area, and approximately one hundred 100 km2 samples. The data demonstrate significant variation in the crater size frequency and derived model ages across a single terrain type for the 100 km2 samples. The crater size frequency at this area scale varies across a single, uniform geologic unit by up to a factor of 2 to 3 on the four different terrains. At 1,000 km2, the local pattern variations that are relevant at the 100 km2 scale become less important and the age variations are tighter. In all four terrain cases, the 10,000 km2 and 1,000 km2 samples capture distinct crater populations (km-sized craters) that formed before and after resurfacing event(s). However, due to the relatively high mean distance between km-sized craters, the 100 km2 size area samples more commonly than not exclude a statistically significant sample at the kilometer size range, masking important information about the pre-resurfacing history of the terrain. We therefore suggest that due to the effect of pattern variability in cratering over 100 km2 and the susceptibility of smaller craters to resurfacing, crater counts derived from small area samples are suspect to major uncertainties.
Where are the Likely Spots for Archaeology Under the Receding Glaciers?
Combining glaciological and archaeological methods for gauging glacial archaeological potential
Authors:
Rogers et al
Abstract:
Recent climate changes have led to an increase in the exposure of archaeological remains in frozen environments due to the melting of glaciers and ice patches, and the thawing of permafrost. In some cases, the discovery of glacial archaeological findings has occurred due to chance. In order to avoid the risk of losing exceptional, often organic, cultural remains due to decomposition, systematic and predictive methods should be employed to locate areas of high glacial archaeological potential. Here, we merged archaeological and glaciological methods to create a new type of archaeological prediction model in the field of glacial archaeology. Locational analysis and glaciological modelling were used to highlight current and future areas of archaeological potential in the Pennine Alps, located between Switzerland and Italy. Future glacier area was calculated in 10 year increments until 2100. By 2090, 93% of glacier area is expected to have disappeared. The results from the final model, GlaciArch, provide new insights into future glacial archaeological prospection in the Pennine Alps by narrowing down a study region of 4500 km2 into several manageable square kilometre sites.
A New, Exquisite Anhanguera piscator (Pterosaur) Specimen From Aptian/Albian Cretaceous Brazil
The pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil at the CosmoCaixa Science Museum (Barcelona, Spain)
Authors:
Dalla Vecchia et al
Abstract:
An apparently nearly complete and fairly well-articulated specimen of a large toothed pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil is exhibited at the CosmoCaixa – Museo de la Ciencia, Barcelona, Spain. The museum label refers it to Anhanguera piscator and reports a provenance from the Crato Formation. Its study shows that it is from the Romualdo Formation and is an assembled and composite specimen over 45% reconstructed. The original skeletal elements show no diagnostic feature of Anhanguera piscator, belong to non-tapejarid pterosaurs, and do not furnish further significative scientific information. Several mistakes were made in the reconstruction and assemblage of the skeleton and some elements do not follow the proportions of Anhanguera piscator. Care is suggested when describing pterosaur material from the Romualdo Formation prepared and sold by private fossil dealers in the absence of an adequate documentation on the original material and its preparation.
Two New Bystrowianid Chroniosuchians From Olenekian Triassic Russia
New bystrowianid chroniosuchians (Amphibia, Anthracosauromorpha) from the Triassic of Russia and diversification of Bystrowianidae
Authors:
Shishkin et al
Abstract:
The first bystrowianids recorded in the Gamskian Horizon of the East European Platform, Vyushkoviana operta gen. et sp. nov. and Dromotectum abditum sp. nov. (Amphibia, Chroniosuchia), are described based on specimens from the Malaya Northern Dvina and Don river basins. The patterns of the dermal scute evolution observed in bystrowianids warrant the subdivision of the group into the subfamilies Bystrowianinae Vjuschkov 1957, Dromotectinae subfam. nov. and Axitectinae subfam. nov. The second and third show progressive reduction of the external (paraxial) zone of the interosteoderm articulation. New data supporting close proximity or phyletic succession of the chroniosuchid and bystrowianid types of the osteoderm design are revealed. The concept of the Chroniosuchidae as a paraphyletic group is rejected. Evolutionary significance of the key features distinguishing the bystrowianid subfamilies is analyzed.
Mid Cryogenian NeoProterozoic Intra Plate Magamatism's Implications for Rifting in Supercontinent Rodinia
First evidence for ca. 780 Ma intra-plate magmatism and its implications for Neoproterozoic rifting of the North Yili Block and tectonic origin of the continental blocks in SW of Central Asia
Authors:
Wang et al
Abstract:
The North Yili Block is one of the major continental constituents of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), study of its basement evolution and tectonic origin is essential for the understanding of the accretionary history of the CAOB and the reconstruction of global supercontinent as well. We conducted field geological, geochronological and geochemical investigations on the mafic dikes intruding in the highly deformed Proterozoic carbonate in the North Yili Block, NW Chinese Tianshan. Zircon U-Pb dating results suggest that the gabbro and gabbroic diorite dikes and associated granitic vein formed in 776-778 Ma. Element and isotope geochemical data reveal that these intrusive rocks derived from an OIB-like mantle source, and were variably influenced by fraction crystallization and important crustal contamination, thus, a continental rifting setting is proposed for these dikes. Our new data provide the first evidence for a Neoproterozoic continental intra-plate magmatism occurred in the North Yili Block, this event can be linked with the coeval continental rifting-related magmatism in northern Tarim and in other microcontinents within the SW CAOB (e.g., Central Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Middle Tianshan). Based on the comparison on the Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic stratigraphic sequences between the North Yili and Tarim blocks, it is suggested that the North Yili Block most likely originated from the Tarim Block, and is potentially one additional constituent member of the Rodinia supercontinent.
What Coral Reefs Will be Like in the Future Based on the Past
Persistence and Change in Community Composition of Reef Corals through Present, Past, and Future Climates
Authors:
Edmunds et al
Abstract:
The reduction in coral cover on many contemporary tropical reefs suggests a different set of coral community assemblages will dominate future reefs. To evaluate the capacity of reef corals to persist over various time scales, we examined coral community dynamics in contemporary, fossil, and simulated future coral reef ecosystems. Based on studies between 1987 and 2012 at two locations in the Caribbean, and between 1981 and 2013 at five locations in the Indo-Pacific, we show that many coral genera declined in abundance, some showed no change in abundance, and a few coral genera increased in abundance. Whether the abundance of a genus declined, increased, or was conserved, was independent of coral family. An analysis of fossil-reef communities in the Caribbean revealed changes in numerical dominance and relative abundances of coral genera, and demonstrated that neither dominance nor taxon was associated with persistence. As coral family was a poor predictor of performance on contemporary reefs, a trait-based, dynamic, multi-patch model was developed to explore the phenotypic basis of ecological performance in a warmer future. Sensitivity analyses revealed that upon exposure to thermal stress, thermal tolerance, growth rate, and longevity were the most important predictors of coral persistence. Together, our results underscore the high variation in the rates and direction of change in coral abundances on contemporary and fossil reefs. Given this variation, it remains possible that coral reefs will be populated by a subset of the present coral fauna in a future that is warmer than the recent past.
Russia Plans Two More Kilo Class Subs, Another Frigate for Black Sea Fleet
Russia plans to add a new frigate and two new diesel electric submarines (SSKs) to its Black Sea Fleet by years end, the head of the Russian Navy said on Monday.
The Admiral Grigorovich-class frigate and two Improved Kilo-class (Varshavyanka-class) SSKs will commission by the end of the year, Commander-in-Chief, Adm. Viktor Chirkov told Russian news outlet RIA Novosti in a Monday interview.
“The Black Sea Fleet will receive two out of six Varshavyanka-class boats by the end of the year,” he said.
“In addition, we are planning to raise the flag on the first out of six Project 1135.6 frigates by the same time.”
The plan is part of a previously announced $2.4 billion Russian Navy Black Sea Fleet expansion planned to be completed in 2020.
All told, the Russian Navy plans for 11 ships, including the two Kilos, an additional frigate, two Grachonok-class patrol craft and six other service and support vessels, according to local press.
The Russian Navy’s current fleet is composed of few capital ships and is oriented toward anti-submarine warfare and minesweeping.
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Thursday, October 09, 2014
NASA/APL's Europa Clipper Mission Moves Ahead, Selects Solar Panels Over RTGs
Designers of a proposed NASA mission to study the icy and potentially habitable Jupiter moon of Europa have decided to use solar panels rather than a nuclear power source for the spacecraft, while keeping spacecraft’s launch options open.
In an Oct. 3 presentation at the 65th International Astronautical Congress here, Europa Clipper deputy project manager Thomas Magner of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, said that using large solar panels for the mission was both technically viable and less expensive than a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG).
“For the last two years, we did extensive risk reduction work looking at whether solar is feasible,” Magner said. “We found that solar works fine, so our final decision about two months ago was to go to solar.”
Those tests included subjecting solar cells to a range of temperatures and radiation conditions the spacecraft would experience during the mission. Engineers also examined whether the large solar panels, with an area of 50 square meters, would cause jitter that would adversely affect the spacecraft’s scientific instruments.
Europa Clipper would not be the first solar-powered Jupiter mission: NASA’s Juno spacecraft, launched in 2011 and scheduled to go into orbit around Jupiter in July 2016, also uses solar panels. Magner said they tested solar cells used for Juno, exposing them to a wider range of temperatures to reflect the different trajectory that Europa Clipper would take to reach Jupiter.
A solar-powered Europa Clipper would be less expensive than one that used an RTG, Magner said, although he did not quantify the difference in costs. It would eliminate the need for an environmental impact statement that is required for nuclear-powered spacecraft and launch approval from the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. It would also free up constrained supplies of plutonium-238, the isotope used in RTGs, for other potential missions.
Magner said after his presentation that using solar power would increase the spacecraft’s mass in order to accommodate the panels and structures, although it remained well within current design margins. A few other tweaks would be needed to the spacecraft’s design to incorporate the solar panels, he said.
While NASA has not yet decided to develop Europa Clipper or any other mission to Europa, Magner said the project passed a NASA-sponsored mission concept review in September “with flying colors” and predicted the agency would move ahead with it.
“We expect later this year for NASA to select us as the mission they want to go forward with to Europa, and we’ll get a new start early next year,” he said.
If NASA does choose to proceed with Europa Clipper, it will defer a choice of launch vehicle for several years. One mission design could use an existing rocket, such as the workhorse Atlas 5. In that scenario, Europa Clipper would launch in mid-2022 and, after a series of gravity assist flybys of Venus and Earth, would arrive at Jupiter in early 2030.
An alternative approach would use NASA’s still-in-development Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket to send Europa Clipper on a direct trajectory to Jupiter. A mid-2022 launch would allow the spacecraft to reach Jupiter in fewer than three years, without the need of any flybys.
Launching on SLS, Magner said, would reduce the costs of operating Europa Clipper given the much shorter travel time to Jupiter, and also simplify the thermal design since the spacecraft would not have to perform a Venus flyby in order to reach Jupiter. However, it was unclear how much more Europa Clipper would have to pay for an SLS launch.
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New, Promising Gene Therapy for X-linked Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome
A new form of gene therapy for boys with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome (SCID-X1), a life-threatening condition also known as "bubble boy" disease, appears to be both effective and safe, according to a collaborative research team from Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and other institutions conducting an international clinical trial. Early data suggest that the therapy may avoid the late-developing leukemia seen in a quarter of SCID-X1 patients in pioneering gene therapy trials in Europe more than a decade ago.
Eight of nine boys recruited to date onto the trial are alive between 12 and 38 months after treatment, with no SCID-X1-associated infections, the research team reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Gene therapy alone generated functioning immune systems in seven of the eight. Genetic studies of the boys' new T-cells, which are critical components of the body's immune system, reveal that the viral vector used to deliver the gene therapy did not lead to an expansion of cells with vector insertions near known cancer-causing genes, raising cautious hopes about the vector's long-term safety. One child died of an overwhelming infection present at the time gene therapy began. Left untreated, boys with SCID-X1 usually die of infection before their first birthday.
The investigators will continue to monitor the patients for any signs of treatment-related leukemia for 15 years. In the prior European trials—which were the first to demonstrate gene therapy's potential to successfully cure a disease—leukemia appeared two to five years after treatment. This outcome was one of several events that together slowed clinical progress in gene therapy for many years.
The modified vector created for the current trial is a self-inactivating gammaretrovirus, designed to deliver its payload effectively while minimizing the chance of inadvertently turning on genes, called oncogenes, that could lead to leukemia.
"Our goal was to take the molecular data from the prior trial and use it to produce a vector that would remain effective and at the same time reduce the risk of leukemia," said David A. Williams, MD, a leader of Dana-Farber/Boston Children's, chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and director of clinical and translational research at Boston Children's Hospital, principal investigator for the gene therapy trial's U.S. sites, and corresponding senior author of the NEJM paper. "The efficacy data from our study is clear: The vector does work to correct the disease. And by a surrogate endpoint, we have improved the treatment's safety, although it's too early to say that we've completely eliminated the long-term risk of leukemia."
After a single round of treatment, six of the seven boys for whom the gene therapy was successful had achieved the trial's primary efficacy endpoints—a T-cell count greater than 300 cells per microliter of blood and T-cell proliferation in response to stimulation with phytohemagglutinin (a test used to measure T-cells' ability to react to pathogens). The seventh boy received a second round of gene therapy and remains healthy despite having relatively low T-cell counts. The eighth surviving patient was successfully treated with a conventional hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cell transplant after gene therapy failed to stimulate T-cell production.
"Only a minority of babies with SCID-X1 have the optimal donor for standard transplant, a brother or sister who is tissue-type matched," said co-lead author Sung-Yun Pai, MD, a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's. "For the rest, gene therapy is a therapeutic option that avoids the need to find an alternative donor and avoids complications of allogeneic transplant such as graft-versus-host-disease."
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The Robopocalypse has Come for the Outsourced IT Workers
Remember when a majority of new tech jobs were going to India and China? Well, increasingly, those jobs are going away altogether. Outsourcing, it turns out, is in the early stages of being automated.
This morning, news broke that Yahoo would be laying off at least 400 workers in its Indian office, and back in February, IBM cut roughly 2,000 jobs there. Cisco has been considering cuts in India as well.
Labor in India and China is still cheaper than it is in the United States, but it's not the obvious economic move that it was just a few years ago: Wages in India have increased about 10 percent annually over the last five years, according to Cliff Justice, an analyst who studies outsourcing.
"The traditional low cost arbitrage markets have been India, China and other parts of Asia," Justice wrote in a paper he called "The Death of Outsourcing." "However, the success of outsourcing and global manufacturing has spawned a rapidly growing middle class in these regions, which is both increasing the cost of labor and broadening the potential customer base for many companies."
A late 2012 report by IT analysts HFS Research suggested that "robotic automation has the potential to wreak some dramatic, painful changes on the Indian outsourcers who are the current bulwark of the industry," and analyzed several instances in which an automated IT program has already started doing important work for several (unnamed) companies.
That discussion of automation is becoming much more common in the tech industry, with tech jobs in Asia having at least the potential to be on the chopping block, said Mark Muro, an economist at Brookings.
"The labor costs are becoming significant enough in China and India that there are very real discussions about automating jobs there now," Muro said. "The next generation of robots, the next generation of computer learning, is going to be much better than they were at handling things like customer service."
"I think it's going to create some disruptions not only here, but also in the emerging world, where the whole appeal is that labor is cheaper," he added.
Unsurprisingly, robots are and will be cheaper. Meanwhile, Yahoo and other major tech firms are trying to consolidate their human operations to larger offices centered in urban centers—most often in the United States.
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US Air Force Taking Over Space Shuttle Orbiter Processing Facility Bays 1 & 2 for X-37B
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B Program for use of the center’s Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) Bays 1 and 2 to process the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle for launch.
The OPF bays were last used during NASA’s Space Shuttle Program. With the agency’s transition to the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, the agency currently does not have a mission requirement for the facilities. This agreement ensures the facilities will again be used for their originally-intended purpose — processing spacecraft.
“Kennedy is positioning itself for the future, transitioning to a multi-user launch facility for both commercial and government customers, while embarking on NASA’s new deep space exploration plans,” said Kennedy Center Director Robert Cabana. “A dynamic infrastructure is taking shape, designed to host many kinds of spacecraft and rockets.”
In addition to vehicle preparation for launch, the X-37B Program conducted testing at Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility to demonstrate that landing the vehicle at the former shuttle runway is a technically feasible option.
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US Army Pushing Forward With Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator
The U.S. Army is immersed in testing with two industry teams contracted to develop and build a fuel-efficient, high-speed, next-generation medium-lift helicopter to enter service by 2030.
The service’s Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator, or JMR TD, program awarded development deals to Bell Helicopter-Textron and Sikorsky-Boeing teams to build demonstrator aircraft by 2017 to help inform the development of a new medium-class helicopter.
“These teams will build technology demonstration aircraft with flight tests starting in 2017,” an Army statement said.
Textron Inc.’s Bell Helicopter is building a tilt-rotor aircraft called the Bell V-280 Valor – and the Sikorsky-Boeing team is working on early testing of its SB> 1 Defiant coaxial rotor-blade design.
Planned mission sets for the JMR include cargo, utility, armed scout, attack, humanitarian assistance, medical evacuation, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, land/sea search and rescue, special warfare support, vertical replenishment, airborne mine countermeasures, and others, Army officials said.
Although requirements for the aircraft are still being refined, the notional concept is to succeed in building a new aircraft which can reach speeds of 230 knots, carry up to 12 troops, operate in what’s called “high-hot” conditions and achieve a combat radius of 424 kilometers.
A key intent of the program is to develop a fuel-efficient aircraft which can reach high-speeds while retaining an ability to hover and maneuver as though it is a traditional helicopter.
A combat radius of 424 kilometers means the aircraft will be engineered with an ability to fly 848 kilometers on a round-trip mission without needing to refuel. Along with calling for increased fuel efficiency, the draft requirements also ask that the aircraft be able to operate at altitudes of 6,000-feet and temperatures of 95-degrees Fahrenheit.
Described as “high-hot” conditions, the decreased air pressure at higher altitudes and hotter atmospheric temperatures typically make it
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There Were Asian Monsoons During the Eocene Paleogene
Asian monsoons in a late Eocene greenhouse world
Authors:
Licht et al
Abstract:
The strong present-day Asian monsoons are thought to have originated between 25 and 22 million years (Myr) ago, driven by Tibetan–Himalayan uplift. However, the existence of older Asian monsoons and their response to enhanced greenhouse conditions such as those in the Eocene period (55–34 Myr ago) are unknown because of the paucity of well-dated records. Here we show late Eocene climate records revealing marked monsoon-like patterns in rainfall and wind south and north of the Tibetan–Himalayan orogen. This is indicated by low oxygen isotope values with strong seasonality in gastropod shells and mammal teeth from Myanmar, and by aeolian dust deposition in northwest China. Our climate simulations support modern-like Eocene monsoonal rainfall and show that a reinforced hydrological cycle responding to enhanced greenhouse conditions counterbalanced the negative effect of lower Tibetan relief on precipitation. These strong monsoons later weakened with the global shift to icehouse conditions 34 Myr ago.
Evidence of Lake Missoula-like Glacial Lake Drainage From Mid Amazonian Chryse Planitia, Mars
RodrÃguez et alAbstract:Early geologic investigations of Mars revealed some of the largest channels in the Solar System (outflow channels), which appear to have mostly developed ∼3 byr ago. These channels have been the subject of much scientific inquiry since the 1970s and proposed formative processes included surface erosion by catastrophic floods, glaciers, debris flows and lava flows. Based on the analysis of newly acquired Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Context (CTX, 5.15–5.91 m/pixel) and High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE, 25–50 cm/pixel) image data, we have identified a few locations contained within relatively narrow canyons of the southern circum-Chryse outflow channels that retain well-preserved decameter/hectometer-scale landform assemblages. These terrains include landforms consistent in shape, dimension and overall assemblage to those produced by catastrophic floods, and at one location, to glacial morphologies. Impact crater statistics for four of these surfaces, located within upstream, midstream and downstream outflow channel surfaces, yield an age estimate of ∼600 myr. This suggests that the southern circum-Chryse outflow channels were locally resurfaced by some of the most recent catastrophic floods on the planet, and that these floods coexisted within regional glacier environments as recently as during the Middle Amazonian.
Chimps Teach Other Chimps
Social Network Analysis Shows Direct Evidence for Social Transmission of Tool Use in Wild Chimpanzees
Authors:
Hobalter et al
Abstract:
Social network analysis methods have made it possible to test whether novel behaviors in animals spread through individual or social learning. To date, however, social network analysis of wild populations has been limited to static models that cannot precisely reflect the dynamics of learning, for instance, the impact of multiple observations across time. Here, we present a novel dynamic version of network analysis that is capable of capturing temporal aspects of acquisition—that is, how successive observations by an individual influence its acquisition of the novel behavior. We apply this model to studying the spread of two novel tool-use variants, “moss-sponging” and “leaf-sponge re-use,” in the Sonso chimpanzee community of Budongo Forest, Uganda. Chimpanzees are widely considered the most “cultural” of all animal species, with 39 behaviors suspected as socially acquired, most of them in the domain of tool-use. The cultural hypothesis is supported by experimental data from captive chimpanzees and a range of observational data. However, for wild groups, there is still no direct experimental evidence for social learning, nor has there been any direct observation of social diffusion of behavioral innovations. Here, we tested both a static and a dynamic network model and found strong evidence that diffusion patterns of moss-sponging, but not leaf-sponge re-use, were significantly better explained by social than individual learning. The most conservative estimate of social transmission accounted for 85% of observed events, with an estimated 15-fold increase in learning rate for each time a novice observed an informed individual moss-sponging. We conclude that group-specific behavioral variants in wild chimpanzees can be socially learned, adding to the evidence that this prerequisite for culture originated in a common ancestor of great apes and humans, long before the advent of modern humans.
Two Distinct Pterosaur Tracks Alongside Avian Tracks From Campanian/Maastrichtian Cretaceous Alaska
Pterosaur tracks from the Lower Cantwell Formation (Campanian–Maastrichtian) of Denali National Park, Alaska, USA, with comments about landscape heterogeneity and habit preferences
Authors:
Fiorillo et al
Abstract:
We report on new records of pterosaur tracks from Alaska. Recent palaeontological investigations in the Lower Cantwell Formation of Denali National Park, central Alaska Range, Alaska, had resulted previously in the discovery of a single pterosaur manus track. Subsequent and ongoing investigation has shown that the track record for pterosaurs in this region is more robust. These new pterosaur records comprise large and small traces. The larger tracks are up to approximately 18 cm long and 6 cm wide. The smaller tracks are approximately 6 cm long and 4 cm wide. The assemblage of pterosaur traces from Denali National Park consists of manus impressions. The morphology of the pterosaur traces found in the Lower Cantwell Formation compares favourably with the morphology of the ichnogenus Pteraichnus. The presence of two very different body sizes of pterosaurs, along with the abundant record of fossil bird tracks, indicates the presence of ecological complexity among aerial vertebrates during the time that the sediments of the Lower Cantwell Formation were deposited. Sedimentological and palaeobotanical data, combined with the vertebrate ichnology record, offer details into how these aerial vertebrates were separated within this heterogenetic ecosystem.
Just What WAS the "Parrsboro jaw" From Pennsylvanian Carboniferous Nova Scotia
Redescription and Phylogenetic Analysis of the Mandible of an Enigmatic Pennsylvanian (Late Carboniferous) Tetrapod from Nova Scotia, and the Lability of Meckelian Jaw Ossification
Authors:
Sookias et al
Abstract:
The lower jaw of an unidentified Pennsylvanian (Late Carboniferous) tetrapod from Nova Scotia – the “Parrsboro jaw”- is redescribed in the light of recent tetrapod discoveries and work on evolution of tetrapod mandibular morphology and placed for the first time in a numerical cladistics analysis. All phylogenetic analyses place the jaw in a crownward polytomy of baphetids, temnospondyls, and embolomeres. Several features resemble baphetids and temnospondyls including dermal ornamentation, absence of coronoid teeth, and presence of coronoid shagreen. Dentary dentition is most similar to Baphetes. An adsymphysial toothplate may not preclude temnospondyl affinity. An apparent large exomeckelian fenestra, with the dorsal foraminal margins formed by an unossified element, echoes the morphology of the stem tetrapod Sigournea and is unusually primitive given the other features of the jaw. The jaw may thus provide an example of an intermediate stage in Meckelian element evolution.
A Gondwanan Geological Suture in Ediacaran/Cambrian Madagascar Into India and Africa
The 580–520 Ma Gondwana suture of Madagascar and its continuation into Antarctica and Africa
Authors:
Boger et al
Abstract:
U–Pb age data from southwest Madagascar provides a compelling case that the pre-Gondwana Indian plate was stitched with the arc terranes of the Arabian Nubian Shield along a suture that closed between 580 Ma and 520 Ma. The key observations supportive of this interpretation are: (1) metamorphism dated to 630–600 Ma is manifested only on the west side of the suture in rocks that have affinities with the oceanic and island arc terranes of the Arabian Nubian Shield, or represent continental rocks welded to these terranes prior to the amalgamation of Gondwana, and (2) orogenesis at 580–520 Ma is manifest in rocks on both sides of the suture, an observation taken to mark the timing of collision and reflect spatial continuity across the suture. In southwest Madagascar the distribution of metamorphic ages places the suture along the Beraketa high-strain zone, the tectonic boundary between the Androyen and Anoysen domains. Similar age relationships allow for the extrapolation of this tectonic boundary into both East Antarctica and Africa.
Evidence Walker Circulation is Weakening Over the Pacific Ocean
Equatorial Pacific coral geochemical records show recent weakening of the Walker Circulation
Authors:
Carilli et al
Abstract:
Equatorial Pacific ocean-atmosphere interactions affect climate globally, and a key component of the coupled system is the Walker Circulation, which is driven by sea surface temperature (SST) gradients across the equatorial Pacific. There is conflicting evidence as to whether the SST gradient and Walker Circulation have strengthened or weakened over the late 20th century. We present new records of SST and sea surface salinity (SSS) spanning 1959-2010 based on paired measurements of Sr/Ca and δ18O in a massive Porites coral from Butaritari atoll in the Gilbert Islands, Republic of Kiribati, in the central-western equatorial Pacific. The records show 2-7 year variability correlated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and corresponding shifts in the extent of the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool, and decadal-scale signals related to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. In addition, the Butaritari coral records reveal a small but significant increase in SST (0.39 °C) from 1959 to 2010 with no accompanying change in SSS, a trend that persists even when ENSO variability is removed. In contrast, larger increases in SST and SSS are evident in coral records from the equatorial Pacific Line Islands, located east of Butaritari. Taken together, the equatorial Pacific coral records suggest an overall reduction in the east-west SST and SSS gradient over the last several decades, and a recent weakening of the Walker Circulation.
Russian Armata Main Battle Tank to Debut in May 2015 Victory Day Parade in Moscow
The Russian Land Forces are to receive a first batch of 32 Armata main battle tanks (MBTs) in 2015, Russia's Land Forces Commander, Colonel General Oleg Salyukov, has stated. The new MBT is expected to make its public debut at the 2015 Victory Day Parade in Moscow, he also revealed.
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Is China a Paper Dragon?
China’s rise over the past 30 years has been nothing short of spectacular.
After decades of double-digit growth, today China is the world’s second largest economy—and possesses an increasingly sophisticated military that’s among the planet’s most powerful. Despite China bordering a number of unstable countries, its borders are secure.
That wasn’t always the case. In 2,000 years, China has suffered invasions, revolutions and humiliations from the outside world—plus its own internal rebellions. It has been brutalized, conquered and colonized.
No longer. China’s defense spending has increased tenfold in 25 years. Beijing is building a powerful blue-water navy, developing stealth fighters and carefully experimenting with peacekeeping and expeditionary operations.
China’s military buildup, along with an aggressive foreign policy, has inspired a fair amount of alarm in the West. Some American policymakers consider Beijing to be Washington’s only “near-peer competitor”—in other words, the only country with the military might to actually beat the U.S. military in certain circumstances.
But they’re wrong. Even after decades of expensive rearmament, China is a paper dragon—a version of what Mao Zedong wrongly claimed the United States was … in 1956.
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Wednesday, October 08, 2014
That's not a Blackhole...Its a Pulsar! The Impossible Pulsar With All the Power of 10 Million Suns
Astronomers working with NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), led by Caltech's Fiona Harrison, have found a pulsating dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. The object, previously thought to be a black hole because it is so powerful, is in fact a pulsar—the incredibly dense rotating remains of a star.
"This compact little stellar remnant is a real powerhouse. We've never seen anything quite like it," says Harrison, NuSTAR's principal investigator and the Benjamin M. Rosen Professor of Physics at Caltech. "We all thought an object with that much energy had to be a black hole."
Dom Walton, a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech who works with NuSTAR data, says that with its extreme energy, this pulsar takes the top prize in the weirdness category. Pulsars are typically between one and two times the mass of the sun. This new pulsar presumably falls in that same range but shines about 100 times brighter than theory suggests something of its mass should be able to.
"We've never seen a pulsar even close to being this bright," Walton says. "Honestly, we don't know how this happens, and theorists will be chewing on it for a long time." Besides being weird, the finding will help scientists better understand a class of very bright X-ray sources, called ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs).
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U Washington's Dynomak Fusion Reactor Design: a Derived Spheromak
Fusion energy almost sounds too good to be true – zero greenhouse gas emissions, no long-lived radioactive waste, a nearly unlimited fuel supply.
Perhaps the biggest roadblock to adopting fusion energy is that the economics haven’t penciled out. Fusion power designs aren’t cheap enough to outperform systems that use fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.
University of Washington engineers hope to change that. They have designed a concept for a fusion reactor that, when scaled up to the size of a large electrical power plant, would rival costs for a new coal-fired plant with similar electrical output.
The team published its reactor design and cost-analysis findings last spring and will present results Oct. 17 at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Fusion Energy Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia.
“Right now, this design has the greatest potential of producing economical fusion power of any current concept,” said Thomas Jarboe, a UW professor of aeronautics and astronautics and an adjunct professor in physics.
The UW’s reactor, called the dynomak, started as a class project taught by Jarboe two years ago. After the class ended, Jarboe and doctoral student Derek Sutherland – who previously worked on a reactor design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – continued to develop and refine the concept.
The design builds on existing technology and creates a magnetic field within a closed space to hold plasma in place long enough for fusion to occur, allowing the hot plasma to react and burn. The reactor itself would be largely self-sustaining, meaning it would continuously heat the plasma to maintain thermonuclear conditions. Heat generated from the reactor would heat up a coolant that is used to spin a turbine and generate electricity, similar to how a typical power reactor works.
“This is a much more elegant solution because the medium in which you generate fusion is the medium in which you’re also driving all the current required to confine it,” Sutherland said.
There are several ways to create a magnetic field, which is crucial to keeping a fusion reactor going. The UW’s design is known as a spheromak, meaning it generates the majority of magnetic fields by driving electrical currents into the plasma itself. This reduces the amount of required materials and actually allows researchers to shrink the overall size of the reactor.
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