Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Sub-Ice Antarctic Lake Vida Abounds With Life
November 27, 2012 9:06 AM
by timothy
Sub-Ice Antarctic Lake Vida Abounds With Life
ananyo writes "It is permanently covered by a massive cap of ice up to 27 metres thick, is six times saltier than normal sea water, and at 13 C is one of the coldest aquatic environments on Earth — yet Lake Vida in Antarctica teems with life. Scientists drilling into the lake have found abundant and diverse bacteria, including at least one new phylum (full paper (PDF)). The find increases the chances that life may exist (or have once existed) on planets such as Mars and moons such as Jupiter's Europa." 
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
earth
Dr. Art Trembanis
Associate Professor
CSHEL
109 Penny Hall
Department of Geological Sciences
The College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment
University of Delaware
Newark DE 19716
302-831-2498
"We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
-T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding
Monday, November 26, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
A.I. Advances Through Deep Learning
A.I. Advances Through Deep Learning
Slashdot
An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from the NY Times: "Advances in an artificial intelligence technology that can recognize patterns offer the possibility of machines that perform human activities like seeing, listening and thinking. ... But what is new in recent months is the growing speed and accuracy of deep-learning programs, often called artificial neural networks or just 'neural nets' for their resemblance to the neural connections in the brain. 'There has been a number of stunning new results with deep-learning methods,' said Yann LeCun, a computer scientist at New York University who did pioneering research in handwriting recognition at Bell Laboratories. 'The kind of jump we are seeing in the accuracy of these systems is very rare indeed.' Artificial intelligence researchers are acutely aware of the dangers of being overly optimistic. ... But recent achievements have impressed a wide spectrum of computer experts. In October, for example, a team of graduate students studying with the University of Toronto computer scientist Geoffrey E. Hinton won the top prize in a contest sponsored by Merck to design software to help find molecules that might lead to new drugs. From a data set describing the chemical structure of 15 different molecules, they used deep-learning software to determine which molecule was most likely to be an effective drug agent."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Original Article: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/wJ5L59XMBYU/story01.htm
Sent from my iPhone
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Sandy Island, the Undiscovered Country
Sandy Island, the Undiscovered Country
Slashdot
Big Hairy Ian writes "A South Pacific island, shown on marine charts and world maps as well as on Google Earth and Google Maps, does not exist, Australian scientists say. The supposedly sizeable strip of land, named Sandy Island on Google maps, was positioned midway between Australia and French-governed New Caledonia. But when scientists from the University of Sydney went to the area, they found only the blue ocean of the Coral Sea."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Original Article: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/LD-8h-zrXs8/story01.htm
Sent from my iPhone
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
SubseaObservers on SciStarter
http://www.scistarter.com/project/712-SubseaObservers?tab=project
Thanks to Nick W for a heads up on the post about SubseaObservers.com!
Join in help us out
Thanks to Nick W for a heads up on the post about SubseaObservers.com!
Join in help us out
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
The 10 Books You Absolutely Must Read to Understand the History of Earth
Thanks to my friend Rob for this list of geology titles. I've actually only read a few of these- the works by Gould, McPhee, and Margulis. Highly recommend Wonderful Life and all the works by Gould and McPhee for that matter.
http://io9.com/5961602/the-10-books-you-absolutely-must-read-to-understand-the-history-of-earthMonday, November 19, 2012
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Renowned geoscientist Richard Alley shares climate history, predictions
http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2013/nov/denin-earth-climate-111612.html
Bummed I couldn't make this talk last week
Bummed I couldn't make this talk last week
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Carolina Bay of the Day
November 13, 2012 7:13 AM
by Google Earth Blog
Carolina Bay of the Day
We discussed "Carolina Bays" on here a few times in the past, including the well-presented theory that GEB reader 'Michael' laid out regarding the Saginaw Impact Manifold.
Using data from Cintos Research, a new Google+ page has formed that shows off the +Carolina Bay of the Day, some of which are quite stunning.
The images are clearly enhanced, with the process as follow:
To "punch up" the very gentle bay rims, a 20x exaggeration has been applied to the elevation data map, and hue-saturation-value color hinting is used, where the color is driven by the elevation value. Additionally, the DEMs are generated with a false sun-shadow to enhance the viewer's perception of the bay's shape.
Along with an image and description each day, they also include a KMZ file so you can view the bay for yourself in Google Earth. For example, "Sandy Grove Bay" (seen above) can be viewed in Google Earth by loading this KMZ file.
It's yet another neat way to show off some of the amazing sights on our planet. Follow their page on Google+ to keep up with their daily releases.
Science
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Thursday, November 1, 2012
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