Category Archives: Scientifically

Reuters reports that NASA is thinking of replacing the shuttles with next-generation Apollo-type capsules. Under pressure to ensure safe manned spaceflight and space transport, the agency said it is looking in the option to use capsules as a viable alternative … Continue reading →

A Canadian researcher says that Greek alphabetical numerals and Egyptian demotic numerals (what is this?) have so many striking similarities, suggesting that the Greek probably borrowed knowledge from their Egyptian masters. Earlier it was thought that the Greek system was … Continue reading →

Report over at the Online Journal (via MetaFilter): apparantly there’s something brewing underneath the Yellowstone park: geologists suspect that a masssive supervolcano is lurking and possibly about to erupt. The vulcano is long overdue too: its regular eruption cycle is … Continue reading →

Bored with your SETI online screensaver? Try a climate model! Via the BBC, a collaboration between the universities of Oxford and Reading, the Met Office, the Open University, the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and Tessella Support Services, resulted in a new … Continue reading →

The Iranian conjoined twin wanted to have a separate life. The doctors wanted to be added to the history book. And it went wrong. Wired reports how a piece of software led surgeons to oversee a critical vein:    “At that … Continue reading →

Norwegian scientists say that millions of dollars are wasted on blood pressure pills. They argue that vast amounts of that money could have been saved if doctors prescribed thiazides (commonly known as diuretics), the cheapest and most recommended drugs.    “Our … Continue reading →

Over at the US Geological Survey the latest quake forecast for the San Francisco Bay area: they say that there is a 62% probability that a 6.7 Richter scale earthquake will hit that area between now and 2032. Images, summary … Continue reading →

DNA sampling seems to confirm that Borneo elephants are (or rather have become) a subspecies of the elephant race: apparantly Borneo elephants were seperated from their relatives about 300,000 years ago. Borneo’s ‘pygmee’ elephants are significantly smaller, have relatively bigger … Continue reading →

Well, the planet Venus will transit the Sun. The good thing is that it happens on my (our) birthday, June 8th of 2004 and apparantly you should be watching it in Rome. One of the amazing parts of these cosmic … Continue reading →

Yesterday’s topic of the day about that asteroid (earlier) caused networks to look forward to one of ESA’s missions, Rosetta. The spacecraft will be launched in February of 2004 and is expected to send a lander (artistic impressions) to the … Continue reading →

Apparantly the asteroid that was supposed to hit us in 2014, isn’t going to hit us. False alarm, say the scientists from NASA’s JPL (sorry for the pop-ups). After extensive simulations the JPL was able to plot a more ‘detailed’ … Continue reading →

Scientists say that the earth appears to be warmer since 1980 than in any other century. The scientists (professor Philip Jones and Professor Michael Mann) say that their findings seem to support the latest commentaries from the Intergovernmental Panel on … Continue reading →

Imagine spam software finally deliver the right message in your mailbox! Via Cleverhack, an interesting demonstration of an algorithm that attempts to predict the gender of the author of (any) piece of text. Interesting success ratio too.