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Guiding Light Around Corners With New Metamaterial DeviceScientists have built a device from metamaterials and transformational optics that delivers a complex set of instructions capable of guiding light with unprecedented accuracy. The discovery expands on earlier "cloaking" efforts to guide light around objects or space.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 1 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm New Theory On Why Male, Female Lemurs Same Size: 'Passive' Mate Guarding Influenced Evolution Of Lemur SizeBiologists are offering a new theory for the long-standing mystery of why male lemurs are no larger than females. The theory posits that male lemurs guard their mates just like other primates. But whereas evolution favors larger males in gorillas and other species that guard females by fighting, lemurs have evolved to passively guard their mates.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 1 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm Invisible Ink? What Rorschach Tests Really Tell UsOne of the most well-known psychological tools is the Rorschach Inkblot Test. A viewer looks at ten inkblots, one at a time, and describes what they see. However, does the inkblot really reveal all? According to a new article, the Rorschach may not be the best diagnostic tool and practitioners need to be cautious in how they use this technique and interpret their results.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 1 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm Opening A New Window On Daylight, While Reducing Electricity ConsumptionA new approach to windows could let in more light and cut indoor lighting needs by up to 99 percent in buildings in Tropical regions without losing the cooling effect of shades.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 1 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm Mutation Responsible For Cystic Fibrosis Also Involved In Muscle AtrophyPatients with cystic fibrosis usually experience significant muscle loss, a symptom traditionally considered to be a secondary complication of the devastating genetic disease. However, a recent study reverses the equation: new results show that muscle atrophy and weakness may be a primary symptom caused by the effects of CFTR gene mutations on the muscle itself.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 1 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm Sun Exposure May Trigger Certain Autoimmune Diseases In WomenUltraviolet radiation from sunlight may be associated with the development of certain autoimmune diseases, particularly in women, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 1 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm Experimental Treatment Halts Hypoxic-ischemic Brain Injury In Newborns, Study SuggestsInhibiting an enzyme in the brains of newborns suffering from oxygen and blood flow deprivation stops brain damage that is a leading cause of cerebral palsy, mental retardation and death, according to researchers. The scientists show blocking the brain enzyme, tissue-type plasminogen activator, in newborn rats prevented progressive brain damage triggered by the lack of oxygen and blood supply.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 1 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am Extraterrestrial Platinum Was 'Stirred' Into EarthA research program aimed at using platinum as an exploration guide for nickel has for the first time been able to put a time scale on the planet's large-scale convection processes.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 1 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am Food Additive May One Day Help Control Blood Lipids And Reduce Disease RiskScientists have identified a substance in the liver that helps process fat and glucose. That substance is a component of the common food additive lecithin, and researchers speculate it may one day be possible to use lecithin products to control blood lipids and reduce risk for diabetes, hypertension or cardiovascular disease using treatments delivered in food rather than medication.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 1 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am Virus Linked To Some Cases Of Common Skin CancerA virus discovered in a rare form of skin cancer has been found in people with squamous cell carcinoma, a common skin cancer. Researchers identified the virus in more than a third of 58 SCC patients and in 15 percent of their tumors. Virus found in tumor cells had a mutation that could enable it to integrate into the host cell DNA, suggesting that the virus might help cause some cases of SCC.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 1 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am Experts puzzled by spot on VenusAstronomers have been puzzled by a strange bright spot which has appeared in the clouds of Venus.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 1 Aug 2009 | 4:07 am Astronauts return from space to sushi overload (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 1 Aug 2009 | 2:21 am SF eyes UN Climate Center at polluted shipyard (AP)AP - Mayor Gavin Newsom and the United Nations are eyeing a former naval shipyard contaminated by radiation, heavy metals and other industrial toxins as the future site of a sprawling new green technology complex and climate change think tank.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 5:16 pm WATCH: DNews You Can UseJames Williams runs down the week's top stories to bring you all the news that affects you.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 31 Jul 2009 | 4:30 pm Gallery: The Making of a Prehistoric Brew<< previous image | next image >>
GUERNEVILLE, California — This isn’t your dad’s beer. Or even your grandpa’s. It’s your distant prehistoric mammalian ancestor’s. And you’ve never tasted anything quite like it. There are only four ingredients in most beer: Malted barley, water, hops and yeast. But on the banks of northern California’s Russian River, Stumptown Brewery’s Peter Hackett is cooking up a different kind of brew. His unique ale is made with a special ingredient: 45-million year old Saccharomyces cerevisiae (aka brewer’s yeast) rescued from a piece of amber formed during Eocene epoch and reanimated in the lab of microbiologist Raul Cano. The single-celled yeast, unsurprisingly robust for something that has lived 45 million years in dormancy, is shockingly good at making beer, though it’s not without its quirks. After all, modern brewer’s yeast has evolved in the anaerobic environment of a fermentation tank, while the ancient yeast hasn’t had the benefit of adapting to the harsh world inflicted by beermakers. Here’s a look at the technical nitty-gritty behind the science and art of cooking up a batch of the Fossil Fuel’s first offering: XP Ale. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 31 Jul 2009 | 4:10 pm BLOG: NASA, CAFE Sponsor Green Flight ContestA $1.5 million prize awaits the winner of a contest to engineer a more efficient aircraft.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 31 Jul 2009 | 4:00 pm Internet Video Watching SoarsThe number of adults who watch videos on video-sharing sites like Google and YouTube has nearly doubled since 2006.Source: Livescience.com | 31 Jul 2009 | 3:39 pm Mock Supernova Created by Supercomputer (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - A new view of supernovas — the spectacular explosions of dying stars — has come not from a telescope, but from a powerful supercomputer simulation.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 3:16 pm Space shuttle Endeavour lands safely after 16-day mission (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 3:12 pm Mock Supernova Created by SupercomputerNew supercomputer techniques could help render supernova models in more detail.Source: Livescience.com | 31 Jul 2009 | 3:10 pm A Space Rock Hunter Picks Top 10 Asteroid FactsLearn why asteroids are a whole lot more than space debris.Source: Livescience.com | 31 Jul 2009 | 3:04 pm SLIDE SHOW: This Week's Top StoriesTake a look at the week's top stories in the Discovery News Flashback Slide Show.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 31 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm Ebola cousin found in fruit bats in Uganda: studyWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Thousands of bats in a cave in Uganda are infected with Marburg virus, a cousin of the Ebola virus, researchers said on Friday, strengthening the theory the mammals are natural carriers of the deadly viruses.Source: Reuters: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 2:26 pm Welcome to Svalbard, Here’s Your Bird-Defense Stick
Need an insider’s visitor guide to the northernmost settlement on Earth? NASA’s got you covered. Kasia Wegrzyn, a NASA scientist, has spent the past several weeks in Ny-Ålesund, a 35 person village in the Svalbard, a chain of islands halfway between Norway and the North Pole. She’s learned the ropes, tasted the boxed wine, and fended off angry packs of “beautiful, but vicious” terns. This week, she posted her tourist tips on the Characterization of Arctic Sea Ice Experiment mission blog — and they make for a fascinating peak into life in a remote international research station. “If you know the bartender, which you should … you can request a song for the Saturday dance party,” wrote Kasia Wegrzyn of the CASIE project to remotely study arctic sea ice, on the mission’s blog. “But don’t get too rowdy because you’re bound to run into the man (or men) who proposed marriage to you the night before, at least once the next day. He may even be the captain of your next boat trip. It’s a small world over here.” You might know Svalbard as the home of the doomsday seed vault near the town of Longyearbyen, but it’s also an important base for doing arctic science. CASIE is using UAVs and satellites to better determine the extent of “old” sea ice. Long-lived sea ice appears to be declining at precipitous rates, which could be a signal that fundamental change is occurring in the arctic. Unmanned reconnaissance planes could provide the sort of detail scientists need to make that call. Meanwhile, as their planes dodge the fog to buzz the ice, the scientists have their own hazards to contend with, and some of them are slightly more dangerous than the local bar flies.
“Beware of the terns, beautiful but vicious birds who will dive-bomb your head with their sharp red beaks if you get too close to their nests (which just happen to be located by the dorms, dog kennels, intersection, and pretty much any popular place in town),” Wegrzyn wrote. “So, walk with a stick or arm raised above your head. That makes for great photo opportunities.” Alternatively, “a rifle held high will also do.” Happily, you’re likely to have one around “since you’ll be carrying one of those around everywhere you go to protect yourself from the polar bears.” If you can make it safely back to your dorm, there is food and drink to be had, but the ration of booze — two liters of hard alcohol, one liter of port, 24 cans of beer — could leave something to be desired. “If you’ve finished your ration… you can always head to the drinking hole on Wednesday and Saturday nights, where ‘half of a gin and tonic’ means half gin, half tonic, and drinks range from Ny-Ålesund coffee with glacier ice (Ivar’s secret recipe) to boxed wine (the only kind to be had) to vodka with Fanta Orange (Svalbard’s version of a Screwdriver),” wrote Wegrzyn. While some of Wegrzyn’s advice is Svalbard specific, some of it could apply more broadly to the trials and tribulations that small teams of scientists encounter at the ends of the world. And with organizations like Scripps, NASA and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program trying to bring more citizens into the day-to-day drama of their work via blogs and Twitter, we can only hope more witty aphorisms about far-off research locales come to light. “It’s true what they say about Alaska,” our own Wired Science editor Betsy Mason said, drawing on her days as a geologist. “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.” See Also:
Image: flickr/Rerun van Pelt
WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Google Reader feed, and green tech history research site; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 31 Jul 2009 | 1:46 pm Blowflies Get Virtual Reality in Flight Simulator
Ever wonder how an insect with such a tiny brain can thwart your attempts to catch it nearly every time? Apparently scientists do, too. To find out how the common blowfly manages to process visual images more than four times faster than humans, researchers have built the bug a flight simulator. After immobilizing each insect with a fly-sized harness and attaching electrodes to its brain, biologists from the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology placed blowflies in front of a semicircular LED screen displaying various moving patterns.
The German scientists hope what they discover about insect vision will help build better flying robots. And they’re not the only ones studying flies in a flight simulator — a group led by Michael Dickinson at the California Institute of Technology has used a similar setup, called Fly-O-Vision, to learn about muscle coordination and visual processing in fruit flies. “Engineers would like to be able to build simple things that behave in complex ways, like a power grid or a robot, and one of the best ways to figure out how to get complex behavior from simple things is by studying biological organisms,” wrote Dickinson in a press release last year. “It’s Model Biological Systems 101: Study an animal that’s easy to study, and then extrapolate.” See Also:
Images: MPI Neurobiologie. Follow us on Twitter @wiredscience, and Facebook.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 31 Jul 2009 | 1:16 pm Space shuttle, Japanese astronaut return to EarthCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Space shuttle Endeavour and seven astronauts, including the first Japanese to live on the International Space Station, landed in Florida on Friday, capping a 16-day mission to complete construction of Japan's orbital laboratory.Source: Reuters: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 12:45 pm Rorschach Test: Discredited But Still ControversialThe latest furor over an inkblot test reveals flaws in an popular psychology tool.Source: Livescience.com | 31 Jul 2009 | 12:44 pm BLOG: Drought Imaging Reveals Ancient CityAerial photos taken during a drought uncover the lost Roman city of Altinum.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 31 Jul 2009 | 12:30 pm Bacteria for BrainsSome math problems can only be solved by throwing exponentially more computer processors at them. Bacteria could be the answer.Source: Livescience.com | 31 Jul 2009 | 12:07 pm Video Gamers Hooked for Life (LiveScience.com)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 11:34 am Journal Retracts Stem Cell StoryAn article about stem cells created from sperm has been retracted due to plagiarism.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 31 Jul 2009 | 11:30 am 'Happiness Meter' Analyzes Blogs, TweetsSoftware finds Obama's inauguration was one of the happiest days in years.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 31 Jul 2009 | 10:45 am Abuse of drug used by Michael Jackson growing among medical professionals• Some addicts inject drug more than 100 times a day Michael Jackson's death was every bit as strange as his progressively eccentric life. He died in a room that was swelteringly hot as he always felt cold, surrounded by the paraphernalia of addiction - oxygen tanks, an IV drip, empty drug cannisters. As the details of his final hours have emerged, attention has come to settle on the drug Propofol which he appears to have been given intravenously by his personal doctor in the early hours of June 25, the day he died. Should the imminent toxicology reports confirm Propofol as the primary cause of death, that would place Jackson in a rare category. There are only two other cases recorded of lay people addicted to Propofol. The first was an American man aged 21 who bought it through eBay and took it through a drip, killing himself - an echo there of Jackson, though in this case the man administered himself. The other was a 25-year-old Berliner who obtained it from vets' clinics. He pretended he kept tropical fish and needed to anaesthetise them. These exceptions apart, Propofol abuse is confined to the medical profession, specifically anaesthetists and nurses working with them who are constantly in the presence of the drug and have easy access to it. Outside the medical world, the plight of these men and women is relatively little known, a secret world open only to their closest family and friends and carers. Interviews with recovering users, self-help groups and the leading experts in Propofol addiction in the US paint a picture of desperate cravings, yearnings for oblivion, escape from childhood abuse and the slow, stuttering road back to recovery. They reveal too a drug that is almost entirely unregulated, kept freely available to medical staff at the behest of drug companies and health providers. Yet it is powerfully addictive and potentially lethal. A tiny excess dose can stop the heart or suppress breathing, and send the user into a coma from which they never come back. Propofol, or Diprivan as it trades in America, is a white milky substance that was introduced in 1986. Its popularity as an anaesthetic has steadily grown until it is now the most widely used IV drug for putting patients to sleep. Doctors like it because it is quick to act and leaves a minimal hangover. But it became known early on that it was addictive. In tests, rats and primates became hooked on it. In 1992 the first human dependency was recorded, an anaesthetist in his early thirties who began injecting himself to cope with stress. His secret was uncovered when he was found unconscious one night in the bathroom at work. In the past few years concern has grown over the dangers. Alarm bells started ringing for Paul Wischmeyer, an anaesthetist from Colorado, when a friend of his from medical school was found at home with a syringe stuck in his arm. Wischmeyer began making informal inquiries, and was shocked by what he learned. "People would reach into the needle discord boxes full of used syringes and pull out old vials of Propofol, not knowing what patient it had been used on or whether it was spoiled. That's pretty extreme," he said. In another case, an addict fell asleep at his desk so frequently that his lolling forehead bore a perpetual bruise. As Propofol can only be injected in small doses, giving a high that lasts no more than seven minutes, users have been known to inject more than 100 times a day. Wischmeyer decided to expand his research into a formal study. In 2006 he contacted 126 main anaesthesia departments across the US. He found that almost one in five of them had experienced Propofol addiction among the staff. Though numbers remained small compared with opiate addiction, he calculated a five-fold increase in Propofol abuse over the past 10 years. Those findings chimed with the experiences of Paul Earley of the Talbott Recovery Campus, the oldest and largest treatment centre for troubled medical professionals in the US. He saw eight cases of Propofol abuse in 2006, 12 in 2007, leaping to 27 in 2008. As Earley grew more attuned to the problem, he also began to notice a striking factor shared by many Propofol addicts: sexual or physical abuse in their past. "I started seeing a fair number of our patients who are victims of abuse as children," he said. "When I mentioned that to a colleague he said 'Yeah, I've noticed that in my patients too'." Omar Manejwala, an expert in addiction treatment at the William Farley Center in Virginia, has observed an alarming rate of post-traumatic stress among his patients. PTSD is not uncommon among addicts, presenting in maybe 30% or even 50% of cases; but with Propofol he sees it in 70% or 80%. The underlying trauma often relates to childhood, from physical abuse to early exposure to sexual experiences or rape. What draws these people to Propofol, he believes, is that the drug has the ability to induce a sense of oblivion. "What's shocking is that most Propofol patients are not looking for euphoria or for a high, they just want to go into a coma. They are wanting to disappear." Thayne Flora, a nurse from Virginia, wanted to do just that. She fell into addiction to opiates when she was working in anaesthesiology and was suffering chronic headaches. She abused sedatives, on or off, for years. Towards the end of her addiction she developed severe insomnia, and was desperately sleep deprived. That's when she turned, much like Michael Jackson, to Propofol. "I was in such bad shape, I was looking not only to sleep, but to escape. Escape from life." By then, her addictive self had driven away friends and family, and she was socially isolated. "I just felt so lost, so completely alone. I thought I needed to end my life, and Propofol did that for me. It just allowed me to go away for a while." Flora was lucky. On 16 March 1993, an intervention was organised for her and she was put into treatment. She is in recovery and has been clean since that day. Others are not so lucky. The drug is very potent and can kill without constant observation and respiratory help. Astonishingly, medical professionals in anaesthesia know that full well, but still take the risk. "That boggles the mind, and shows how desperate people are for it," says Earley. In particular danger are the young doctors just starting out, who are not fully trained. The Colorado study found almost 40% of first-year doctors abusing Propofol ended up dead. Known deaths include a man aged 37 who gave himself a Propofol drip, a 26-year-old nurse who injected a normal dose too quickly, and a woman doctor found dead in a hospital dormitory with the door locked from inside. Despite the evidence, Propofol remains largely unregulated. It is not a controlled substance, and stocks of the drug do not have to be registered or accounted for. Art Zwerling, who runs an online forum for about 180 recovering medical addicts, says access is a problem. "It's very easy for someone to walk into a stockroom and walk out with cases of Propofol." Like many of those involved in treating Propofol addicts, he wants the federal drug agencies to control the substance. The need is all the greater now, he believes, because there's a risk that the media circus surrounding Jackson's death has brought Propofol to the attention of a wider field of abusers. But all those interviewed for this article also saw Jackson's death, and the publicity surrounding it, as a tragedy that could be put to positive use - to spread the word that a lonely death in a sweltering room is not inevitable. There is another ending. "Through treatment I've gained my life back," says Thayne Flora. "And it's better than I could ever have imagined." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 31 Jul 2009 | 10:42 am How to Make an Electronic Display With Paper and Mood-Ring Ink
Using cheap materials that anyone can order by mail, scientists built several color-changing electronic displays on sheets of ordinary paper.
The device relies upon thermochromic ink, the same stuff that can be found in mood rings and disposable thermometers. When its temperature changes, so does its color. “At first, paper may not sound like exciting, state-of-the-art stuff, but it is in fact, a very interesting material,” said electrical engineer Adam Siegel, a Harvard graduate student who led the project. Siegel works in George Whitesides’ lab at Harvard, which has been churning out all sorts of inexpensive devices that could be used in the developing world. In the past years, they have also whipped up centrifuges with egg beaters and built two-cent medical tests with paper and tape. “The goal here is to get people to think outside the silicon box,” says Siegel. “That is, to think that simple, everyday materials like paper can be used in very technologically-sophisticated ways.” The inspiration for the project came from an educational science catalog that had a special ink that turns color at different temperatures. “I thought it might be possible to pattern this ink on one side of a sheet of paper and then use electrical current to heat the paper and ‘write’ a message on the other side in plain English, or another language for that matter,” Siegel said. By coating one side of the paper with ink, and affixing metal heating elements to the other, Siegel built a makeshift monitor. These simple devices could provide the readout for equally inexpensive tests that can tell if someone has an infection, or if water is safe to drink, he said.
These displays may not show up in Best Buy anytime soon, but they could turn up at the Maker Faire. You can find complete instructions for building them at the Lab on a Chip website. Citation: Thin, lightweight, foldable thermochromic displays on paper. Adam C. Siegel, Scott T. Phillips, Benjamin J. Wiley and George M. Whitesides, Lab on a Chip, 2009. Images: Adam Siegel See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 31 Jul 2009 | 10:29 am Cyprus to build wind park (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 10:04 am India wants climate change pact at Copenhagen (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 10:00 am RU-486 abortion drug to be allowed in Italy (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 9:58 am Climate concernsAre monsoon seasons becoming weaker?Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 31 Jul 2009 | 9:37 am Space Shuttle Endeavour Touches DownThe space shuttle arrives home after a 16-day mission at the space station.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 31 Jul 2009 | 9:20 am Video Gamers Hooked for LifeAn addiction to video games may lead to self-destructive behaviors.Source: Livescience.com | 31 Jul 2009 | 9:11 am Britain to outlaw most private organ transplants (AP)AP - The British government said Friday that it plans to ban private organ transplants from dead donors to allay fears that prospective recipients can buy their way to the front of the line.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 9:09 am Space shuttle touches downSuccessful 16-day mission comes to an end after Space shuttle Endeavour lands at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida Space shuttle Endeavour and its seven astronauts are back on Earth. Endeavour landed at Florida's Kennedy Space Centre today after a 16-day mission that saw the Endeavour's astronauts complete all their major construction goals at the international space station. Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata is back after four-and-a-half months in space. He says he can't wait to eat some sushi and see his wife and son. Japan's space station lab got a porch for experiments during Endeavour's visit. The crew also installed fresh batteries and stockpiled big spare parts. It was eventful in other ways. The astronauts celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing with their own spacewalk. They also coped with a flooded toilet and an overheated air-purifier. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 31 Jul 2009 | 9:05 am Space shuttle touches down safelyUS space shuttle Endeavour successfully lands at Florida's Kennedy Space Center at the end of a 16-day mission.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 31 Jul 2009 | 8:48 am BLOG: How Sharks Make FriendsFind out what two qualities sharks seek out when bonding with other sharks.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 31 Jul 2009 | 8:35 am Journal retracts claim of sperm made of stem cells (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 8:25 am Mammals Beat Reptiles in Battle of EvolutionStudy finds mammals, birds, fish are evolution's winners; crocodiles, alligators are losers.Source: Livescience.com | 31 Jul 2009 | 8:15 am Shuttle Plumes Hint at Comet Crash in SiberiaShuttle plumes help scientists confirm a comet flattened a Siberian forest in 1908.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 31 Jul 2009 | 7:30 am Caught on Video: Immune Cell Destroys BacteriaIn a first, scientists capture in video immune cells consuming bacteria in a living organism.Source: Livescience.com | 31 Jul 2009 | 7:28 am Images reveal 'lost' Roman cityAerial photographs reveal a lost Roman city called Altinum - which some scholars regard as a forerunner of Venice.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 31 Jul 2009 | 7:01 am Honeybees warn of risky flowersHoneybees warn each other to steer clear of dangerous flowers where predators lurk, scientists discover.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 31 Jul 2009 | 5:00 am
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As the fly responded to virtual objects flying around it, the scientists used a fluorescent microscope to watch how its brain processed the images. Compared to people, who can distinguish a maximum of 25 discrete images per second, blowflies are visual virtuosos: They can sense up to 100 separate images per second and respond fast enough to change their flight direction.
