The Mystery of Global Warming's Missing Heat

Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them.

This is puzzling in part because here on the surface of the Earth, the years since 2003 have been some of the hottest on record. But Josh Willis at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the oceans are what really matter when it comes to global warming.

In fact, 80 percent to 90 percent of global warming involves heating up ocean waters. They hold much more heat than the atmosphere can. So Willis has been studying the ocean with a fleet of robotic instruments called the Argo system. The buoys can dive 3,000 feet down and measure ocean temperature. Since the system was fully deployed in 2003, it has recorded no warming of the global oceans.

Read more from NPR!

Blue is not the colour - it's red

The success of football teams wearing red shirts - including Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal - is no coincidence, academics have revealed.

Scientists at universities in Plymouth and Durham analysed data on all English league clubs since World War II and found home teams in red won more often.

Players in yellow or orange shirts had the worst record but performances away from home did not show any differences.

Researchers believe there could be a psychological boost in wearing red.

They said the crimson shade is often associated with male aggression and dominance.

Professor Robert Barton, from Durham University, said: "We see a couple of possible explanations.

"Firstly, over time supporters may have been subconsciously more attracted to a club wearing red, so the club has developed an increasing resource base within its community.

"Secondly, there may be a positive psychological boost from wearing red that is reflected on the field of play.

"Competing against a team in red could also impair performance."

The warmest winter in Finnish measurement history

According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, this winter's mean temperature in most parts of Finland was the highest ever measured. Temperatures have been measured in Finland for over a century. The high temperatures resulted from mild southern and southwestern air currents that continued all winter, and from climate change.

The winter has been also exceptionally rainy. Precipitation measured in all of Finland between December and February was higher than average. The number of days with rain and sleet was clearly more than usual. In large areas of westernmost Finland and in Oulu Province, the sum of precipitation for the winter was over 1.5 times the long-term average. If all that rain had come down as snow, we would have about 2 meters of snow here...

Read more from FMI News.

P.S. Global warming is sure one reason for this weather. But I believe that La Niña is the motor that pushes warm weather here. Let's wait few years and see how's the winter when El Niño rules the world.

Nanomagnets 'could target cancer'

Tiny magnets made by bacteria could be used to kill tumours, say researchers.

A team at the University of Edinburgh has developed a method of making the nanomagnets stronger, opening the way for their use in cancer treatment.

The bacteria-produced magnets are better than man-made versions because of their uniform size and shape, the Nature Nanotechnology study reported. It is hoped one day the magnets could be guided to tumour sites and then activated to destroy cancerous cells.

The bacteria take up iron from their surroundings and turn it into a string of magnetic particles. They use the chains of particles like a needle of a compass to orient themselves and search for oxygen-rich environments.

There has been a lot of interest in their potential application in medicine, but how useful they could be will depend on the strength of the magnets.

Scientists at Edinburgh University grew the bacteria in a mixture that contained more cobalt than iron. The addition of cobalt in the nanomagnets made them 36-45% stronger. This meant they stayed magnetised longer when taken out of a magnetic field.

Read more from BBC Science News

Finnish Censorship Expanding

I'm against child pornography and I hate pedophiles. But what happens now here in far north, makes me feel like I'm living in China - our government censors thousands of websites in the name of "war against child pornogaphy". Well, basically that sounds good... but because the secret list, maintained by the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, contains whole domains instead of individual web sites, ISP's are now forced to block access to lot's of innocent sites like a musical instrument store, a doll store, and a site of Windows tips in Thai. Are the people of NBI just stupid or are they just missing IT experts, who knows....?

See Comet Holmes Tonight!

Yet another comet this year! The strangest comet to burst onto the celestial scene in our lifetime is easy to see with your bare eyes — even if your sky is fairly light-polluted. You just have to know exactly where to look - up to north eastern sky, to Perseus constellation.

Arctic Sea ice disappears

During the crucial summer melting season, scientists monitor the condition of Arctic sea ice for comparison to previous years.

See the pictures on the left, they show you the situation on 2005 (right) and 2007 (left). Global warming is really here...

McNaught, a surprise in Finland

Comet McNaught was not supposed to be seen here, at least not well, so it was a nice surprise when I suddenly got messages that told me to look at it this evening. And there it was, it was visible already before sunset. South of the equator, it is putting on a gaudy show, popping out of the twilight with a "peacock tail" that amazes even experienced astronomers. It is visible from all parts of the southern hemisphere.

On the photo you will see how it looked in Tampere with bare eyes. With binoculars you could see much longer tail.

Photo copyright: Tapio Lahtinen, 2007.

The Raw Feed: VR Gear Makes RC Airplane the Coolest Toy Ever

A Canadian RC airplane enthusiast shows us some sweet unanticipated convergence between a model RC airplane and virtual reality gear. It works like this: The airplane is a conventional one, controlled by a wireless remote control. On the airplane is a pan-and-tilt camera, controlled also wirelessly. Here's the cool part. The video is viewable through virtual reality goggles, which have a gyroscope built in to sense the movement of the goggles. When the wearer moves his head, the camera moves. Tragically, this is not a product you can buy, but a DIY project. Take a look at the website of those guys, their video is amazing!

Bye bye planet Pluto

So, from now on, we have only 8 planets in our solarsystem.

The IAU members gathered at the 2006 General Assembly agreed that a "planet" is defined as a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.

This means that the Solar System consists of eight "planets" Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. A new distinct class of objects called "dwarf planets" was also decided. It was agreed that "planets" and "dwarf planets" are two distinct classes of objects. The first members of the "dwarf planet" category are Ceres, Pluto and 2003 UB313 (temporary name). More "dwarf planets" are expected to be announced by the IAU in the coming months and years. Currently a dozen candidate "dwarf planets" are listed on IAU's "dwarf planet" watchlist, which keeps changing as new objects are found and the physics of the existing candidates becomes better known.

The "dwarf planet" Pluto is recognised as an important proto-type of a new class of trans-Neptunian objects. The IAU will set up a process to name these objects.

More, please take alook at IAU 2006 General Assembly: Result of the IAU Resolution votes



Credits to The International Astronomical Union/Martin Kornmesser