1、_20130102SSSArchaeologys taking to the air. Researchers spent a month this summer testing a semi-autonomous unmanned aerial vehiclebasically a semi-autonomous dronehigh in the Andes in Peru. The goal: to scan a colonial town from the 1500s that had been built over an Incan settlement, and then aband
2、oned.Its a collaboration between Vanderbilt University archaeologist Steven Wernke and engineering professor Julie Adams. Adams tricked out a vehicle from Aurora Flight Sciences to include cameras and algorithms that allow the drone to achieve optimal flight patterns. The resulting detailed 3-D map
3、will be much more precise than high-resolution satellite images.Heres Steven Wernke: “By our calculations this vehicle will be able to take imagery of an area in about 10-15 minutes that would take two or three entire field seasons using traditional methods.”The system can fit into a backpack. Once
4、the researchers incorporate what they learned, they hope the technology can assist in the rapid cataloguing of a variety of archaeological sites, some of which are already being lost to the ravages ofnew developments and _20120806SSSThis is Scientific American sixty seconds space, Im John Matson, go
5、t minute? “Touchdown confirmed. We are safe on Mars. Time to see where our Curiosity will take us.“The control room at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory late in the evening of August 5th, Pacific time, when word arrived that the Curiosity rover had landed safely on Mars. The one-ton rover, which dwarf
6、s all Mars landers that came before it, will now spend a planned two years exploring the Martian surface. The mission is expected to cost 2.5 billion dollars.Curiositys task is to investigate the inside of Gale Crater, where a giant mound of sedimentary deposits may provide evidence of a wetter, pos
7、sibly habitable Mars billions of years ago.But first it had to survive an elaborate landing sequence, which appears to have gone smoothly. Curiosity landed on time and on target and soon beamed back grainy photos of its wheels and its shadow.Given the carlike size of the rover and the challenges of
8、landing on Mars, Curiositys landing goes down as one of the greatest parking jobs in history.Thanks for the minute, for scientific American sixty seconds space, Im John M_20121210SSSPorcupines sport some 30,000 quills, which easily penetrate fleshand then stay stuck in it. Now, scientists have analy
9、zed the shape of individual quills to discover what makes them so effectiveand how we can harness their power for medical devices. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The black tip of each quill features backward-facing barbs. These barbs are tiny: a row of two hundr
10、ed of them would be short of an inch long. The barbs help a quill penetrate flesh more easily than a hypodermic needle of about the same diameter, and using only half the force required to push a barb-free quill through tissue. Once the quill is in, the barbs then greatly increase what force would b
11、e needed to pull it back out again.The researchers think understanding porcupine quill properties can help them make less painful needles, because of the lower force needed for penetration. Also stickier adhesives, because of the greater force needed for removal. And the study reminds us that you re
12、ally, really dont want to mess with a _20130103SSSThis is Scientific American 60 second Science, I am Sophie Bushwick, Got a minute?Sharing is one of the hallmarks of human behavior: give me a cookie and Im more likely to give you one later. But our bonobo cousins have an odd variation on the practi
13、ce. They share with strangers before friends. The finding is in the journal PLoS ONE. Researchers tested bonobo sharing in experiments involving fourteen of the apes. All were born in the wild. In the primary experiment, bonobos were placed in a cage with food, and they could choose to admit either
14、a known member of their group, a stranger, or both. In 51 trials, most bonobos shared the feast, but they let the stranger in first.Why choose an outsider over a friend? In another experiment, the scientists found bonobos only shared when doing so led to a social interaction. Giving up some food to
15、strangers lets these apes expand their social network. This behavior may have evolved to promote social tolerance, in contrast with chimps sometimes deadly aggression against strangers. Which means that even when food is offered, theres still no such thing as a free lunch.Thanks for the minute for S
16、cientific Americans 60 second Science, I am Sophie Bushwick.Vocabulary.Hallmarks: _20121231SSSArchaeologys taking to the air. Researchers spent a month this summer testing a semi-autonomous unmanned aerial vehiclebasically a semi-autonomous dronehigh in the Andes in Peru. The goal: to scan a colonia
17、l town from the 1500s that had been built over an Incan settlement, and then abandoned.Its a collaboration between Vanderbilt University archaeologist Steven Wernke and engineering professor Julie Adams. Adams tricked out a vehicle from Aurora Flight Sciences to include cameras and algorithms that a
18、llow the drone to achieve optimal flight patterns. The resulting detailed 3-D map will be much more precise than high-resolution satellite images.Heres Steven Wernke: “By our calculations this vehicle will be able to take imagery of an area in about 10-15 minutes that would take two or three entire
19、field seasons using traditional methods.”The system can fit into a backpack. Once the researchers incorporate what they learned, they hope the technology can assist in the rapid cataloguing of a variety of archaeological sites, some of which are already being lost to the ravages of new developments
20、and _20120518SSSThis is Scientific Americans 60 second Science, I am Sophie Bushwick, got a minuteDoes an ice-cold drink actually taste better than the same beverage at room temperature? Depends on what its taste is: a new study finds that the intensity of some flavors varies with temperature. The w
21、ork is in the journal Chemosensory Perception. Researchers took solutions that tasted bitter, sour, sweet, or astringenta flavor found in legumes and raw produce that creates a dry, puckering feel in the mouth. They either chilled the solutions to 5 degrees Celsius, the recommended temperature for k
22、eeping food coolor heated the solutions to 35 degrees Celsius, a couple degrees below human body temperature. Volunteers then rated the tastes.Both sour and astringent solutions tasted stronger at warm temperatures, and the intensity lasted longer than it did with chilled drinks. Bitter flavors came
23、 through best when chilled. And temperature had no effect on perception of sweetness.For most people, temperature can enhance flavors. But for some, dubbed thermal tasters, temperature alone can be a flavor. Heating or cooling parts of the tongue creates the sensation of taste without fooda finding
24、thats hard to swallow.Thanks for the minute for Scientific Americans 60 second Science, I am Sophie B_20120217SSSThis is Scientific American 60 second Science, Im Steve Mirsky, got a minute?In science, citations are gold. A journal article that gets cited a lot is usually considered a valuable piece
25、 of work. Now comes a study claiming that the number of times a paper gets tweeted in the first three days after its published is a decent indicator of how often it will eventually get cited. The study is in theJournal of Medical Internet Research and was done by the editor, Gunther Eysenbach, of th
26、e University of Toronto.Eysenbach tracked more than 4200 tweets that cited 286 articles in his own journal. Three quarters of articles that got tweeted a lot (or, to use the studys nomenclature, had a lot of tweetations) turned out to get a lot of citations. Only 7 percent of poorly tweeted pieces w
27、ound up highly cited. As the article notes: “Social media activity either increases citations or reflects the underlying qualities of the article that also predict citations.“ But I predict that young researchers who use social media to the chagrin of their administrators will cite this journal article. Or tweet about it.Oh, I learned about this research on Twitterthanks,sciam blogger Jason Goldman, jgold85Thanks for the minute for scientific American 60 second science, Im Steve Mirsky
