72458
submission
Dik Zak writes:
Several
news
sites
report that the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists intend to move the hands of the Doomsday Clock on Wednesday 17 January.
The clock was started at seven minutes to midnight during the Cold War and has been moved forwards or backwards at intervals, depending on the state of the world and the prospects for nuclear war. Midnight represents destruction by nuclear war.
It is not said in which direction the hands of the clock will be moved, but it should be safe to assume that it will be closer to midnight. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists cite "worsening nuclear, climate threats" as the reason for the move.
The clock was at two minutes to midnight, when both the United States and the Soviet Union tested nuclear weapons in 1953. The farthest away from midnight it ever was is seventeen minutes to midnight, in 1991 when both superpowers signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. It is currently at seven minutes to midnight.
70992
submission
Dik Zak writes:
news24.com has a story about a paper published in Hormones and Behaviour. The study found that women take greater care over their appearance when they are at peak levels of monthly fertility.
The researchers showed photographs of women to observers, and the observers had to report which of the women were trying to look more attractive. The observers chose the "high fertility" subject nearly 60% of the time.
50264
submission
Dik Zak writes:
The Indonesian volcano Talang on the island of Sumatra had been dormant for centuries when, in April 2005, it suddenly rumbled to life. A plume of smoke rose 1000 meters high and nearby villages were covered in ash. Fearing a major eruption, local authorities began evacuating 40,000 people. UN officials, meanwhile, issued a call for help: Volcanologists should begin monitoring Talang at once.
Little did they know, high above Earth, a small satellite was already watching the volcano. No one told it to. EO-1 (short for "Earth Observing 1") noticed the warning signs and started monitoring Talang on its own.
Indeed, by the time many volcanologists were reading their emails from the UN, "EO-1 already had data," says Steve Chien, leader of JPL's Artificial Intelligence Group.
