A Chinese supercomputer has been ranked as the world’s second-fastest machine, surpassing European and Japanese systems and underscoring China’s aggressive commitment to science and technology. The Dawning Nebulae, based at the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen, China, has achieved a sustained computing speed of 1.27 petaflops — the equivalent of one thousand trillion mathematical operations a second — in the latest semiannual ranking of the world’s fastest 500 computers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/science/01compute.html?ref=science
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/science/01compute.html?ref=science

Japan shoots for robotic moon base by 2020 . These are the droids we've been looking for. The Japanese space agency, JAXA, has plans to build a base on the Moon by 2020. Not for humans, but for robots, and built by robots, too. A panel authorized by Japan's prime minister has drawn up preliminary plans of how humanoid and rover robots will begin surveying the moon by 2015, and then begin construction of a base near the south pole of the moon. The robots and the base will run on solar power, with total costs about $2.2 billion USD, according to the panel chaired by Waseda University President Katsuhiko Shirai..... read more here ...

http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/27/japan-shoots-for-robotic-moon-base-by-2020/
http://www.universetoday.com/2010/05/27/japan-shoots-for-robotic-moon-base-by-2020/

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Scientists create artificial mini black hole. Scientists from China have built a device using metamaterial structures that can trap and absorb microwaves coming from all directions with a 99% absorption rate -- a property that makes the device simulate, to some extent, an astrophysical black hole. A model of the electromagnetic omnidirectional absorber, in which electromagnetic waves...

http://www.physorg.com/news194788240.html
http://www.physorg.com/news194788240.html

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NASA Science News for June 7, 2010

It's immersive, it's explosive, and best of all it's free. On June 7th, NASA will begin sending complimentary DVDs of the smash-hit planetarium show "Journey to the Stars" to teachers and students around the country. Today's story from Science@NASA reviews the show and tells educators how to request their copies.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/07jun_journeytothestars/

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NASA Science News for June 4, 2010

The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and the next few years could bring much higher levels of solar activity. NASA is keeping a wary eye on the sun as officials meet in Washington DC on June 8th to discuss the potential consequences of stormy space weather.

FULL STORY at:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/04jun_swef/

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Space Weather News for June 8, 2010

NEW COMET McNAUGHT: A fresh comet is swinging through the inner solar system, and it is brightening rapidly as it approaches Earth for a 100 million mile close encounter in mid-June. Comet McNaught (C/2009 R1) has a vivid green head and a long wispy tail that look great through small telescopes. By the end of the month it could be visible to the naked eye perhaps as bright as the stars of the Big Dipper. Because this is the comet's first visit to the inner solar system, predictions of future brightness are necessarily uncertain; amateur astronomers should be alert for the unexpected.

for sky maps, photos and more information Visit ...

http://spaceweather.com

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TRAPPIST First Light Image of the Tarantula Nebula. Credit: ESO

A new robotic telescope has had first light at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, in Chile. TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) is devoted to the study of planetary systems through two approaches: the detection and characterisation of planets located outside the Solar System (exoplanets) and the study of comets orbiting around the Sun. The 60-cm telescope is operated from a control room in Liège, Belgium, 12 000 km away.

http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1023/

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Space based solar power? How about a Moon-based solar collector that would beam energy back to Earth. This is just one idea proposed by a 200-year-old Japanese construction company, Shimizu that prides itself in forward-thinking technology and structure development. For this "Luna Ring," an array of solar cells would extend like a belt along the entire 11,000 km lunar equator, and laser power transmission facilities would beam a high-energy-density laser towards receiving stations on Earth .....

http://www.universetoday.com/2010/06/09/japanese-firm-designing-futuristic-space-mega-projects/
http://www.universetoday.com/2010/06/09/japanese-firm-designing-futuristic-space-mega-projects/

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Space based solar power? How about a Moon-based solar collector that would beam energy back to Earth. This is just one idea proposed by a 200-year-old Japanese construction company, Shimizu that prides itself in forward-thinking technology and structure development. For this "Luna Ring," an array of solar cells would extend like a belt along the entire 11,000 km lunar equator, and laser power transmission facilities would beam a high-energy-density laser towards receiving stations on Earth .....

http://www.universetoday.com/2010/06/09/japanese-firm-designing-futuristic-space-mega-projects/
http://www.universetoday.com/2010/06/09/japanese-firm-designing-futuristic-space-mega-projects/

Those are really very interesting ideas....it makes me wonder whether I chose the right job! I like the Moon solar-panel idea in the equator with those maintenance bases serviced by astronauts teams. I would not mind spending there some months and back again to Earth for holidays/rest and start all over again.

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A simple way to create nano circuitry on graphene developed. A method of drawing nano scale circuits onto atom-thick sheets of graphene has been developed by researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) The simple, quick one-step process for creating nano wires, based...

http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=58002
http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=58002

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NASA Science News for June 11, 2010

On June 3rd, amateur astronomers were startled by a bright flash of light on Jupiter. It appeared to be an impact event--a comet or asteroid hitting the planet's cloudtops. Curiously, though, the strike left no obvious debris. Was it really an impact--or something else? Today's story from Science@NASA discusses the possibilities.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/11jun_missingdebris/
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/11jun_missingdebris/

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It might well have been an iron meteorite that did not break up to any appreciable degree as it ploughed thru the gaseous atmosphere of Jupiter. I presume that we can't see very far in at optical wavelengths due to the clouds anyhow. Jupiter might have a solid core but the atmosphere is probably too thick to see any effect on the ground. Perhaps with infra red it might be different.

From the June 2010 Scientific American Magazine. A simple twist of fate. An old idea from Roger Penrose excites string theorists. In the late 1960s the renowned University of Oxford physicist and mathematician Roger Penrose came up with a radically new way to develop a unified theory of physics. Instead of seeking to explain how particles move and interact within space and time, he proposed that space and time themselves are secondary constructs that emerge out of a deeper level of reality. But his so-called twistor theory never caught on, and conceptual problems stymied its few proponents. Like so many other attempts to unify physics, twistors were left for dead. In October 2003 Penrose dropped by the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., to visit Edward Witten, the doyen of today’s leading approach to unification, string theory. Expecting Witten to chastise him for having criticized string theory as a fad, Penrose was surprised to find that Witten wanted to talk about his forgotten brainchild .....

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=simple-twist-of-fate&sc=physics_20100611
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=simple-twist-of-fate&sc=physics_20100611

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Most comets are thought to have originated great distances away, traveling to the inner solar system from the Oort Cloud. But new computer simulations show that many comets – including some famous ones – came from even farther: they may have been born in other solar systems. Many of the most well known comets, including Hale-Bopp (above), Halley, and, most recently, McNaught, may have formed around other stars and then were gravitationally captured by our Sun when it was still in its birth cluster. This new finding solves the mystery of how the Oort cloud formed and why it is so heavily populated with comets .....

Read more here ...

http://www.swri.org/9what/releases/2010/cometorigins.htm
http://www.swri.org/9what/releases/2010/cometorigins.htm

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The Blue Brain Project is the first comprehensive attempt to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, in order to understand brain function and dysfunction through detailed simulations. Once you start building a brain in a box you get two things: admission into the Mad Scientists’ Club, and a chance to speak at TED. Henry Markram is the director of the Blue Brain Project, a collaboration between European scientists and IBM that aims to construct a life-like simulation of a brain using a supercomputer. Earlier this year Markram spoke at TED Global discussing how most of human perception is based on decision making within the brain.....

read more here

http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/
http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/

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Space Weather News for June 12, 2010. A new sunspot has popped up and it is crackling with solar flares. Today, AR1081 has unleashed a series of M- and C-class eruptions plus at least one strong shortwave radio burst detected by amateur radio astronomers on the Pacific side of Earth. High resolution movies of the flares and an audio recording of the solar radio burst may be found at http://spaceweather.com

Read more here ...

http://spaceweather.com
http://spaceweather.com

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When I was in the Army we would receive when on Post Officer of the Day Duty, TOP SECRET Telex's about Sun spots and solar flare activity that would affect communications here on earth. I would have to print these off and deposit them in a safe under guard by the MP's even to drive from the Fort Monmouth Post Guard location to the Signal Corps headquarters on the same New Jersey compound.

Physicists demonstrate 100-fold speed increase in optical quantum memory. As with today's computers, future quantum computers will require more than just quantum information processing; they will also require methods to store and retrieve the quantum information. For this reason, physicists have been studying different types of quantum memories, which are capable of controllably storing and releasing photons. However, these memories still face several challenges in areas including storage time, retrieval efficiency, the ability to store multiple photons, and bandwidth. An international team of physicists has achieved data rates that exceed 1 GHz, more than 100 times greater than the speed of existing quantum memories. The method also offers long coherence times of several microseconds. A signal containing the information and a write pulse are sent together into a cesium vapor cell. The vapor turns the...

read more here ...

http://www.physorg.com/news189320461.html
http://www.physorg.com/news189320461.html

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Japan's little spacecraft that could returned to Earth, putting on quite a show over the Australian outback, making a fiery reentry. Hayabusa returned around 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) in the Woomera Prohibited Area of South Australia. In the video you'll see a little speck of light ahead of the falling debris: that’s the sample return canister with, hopefully, some precious goods aboard – samples from asteroid Itokawa. The canister separated about three hours before reaching Earth, and returned to Earth via parachute. The canister has been recovered, and will be taken to Japan where scientists will open it to find out if there is anything inside. The return was monitored scientists from around the world, including a NASA crew on aboard a DC-8 airplane who took the video footage. Read the rest of Hayabusa Returns .....

read more here ...

http://www.universetoday.com/2010/06/13/hayabusa-returns/
http://www.universetoday.com/2010/06/13/hayabusa-returns/

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Vast oceans likely covered one third of Mars. Illustration of what Mars might have looked like some 3.5 billion years ago when an ocean likely covered one-third of the planet’s surface, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study. (Illustration by University of Colorado) Like rising waters from a flood, the evidence for past water on Mars — and large amounts of it – keep mounting. The latest study, which combined the analysis of water-related features including scores of delta deposits and thousands of river valleys with a look at the possibility of a global hydrosphere on early Mars, found that a vast ocean likely covered one-third of the surface of Mars some 3.5 billion years ago. Like rising waters from a flood, the evidence for past water on Mars — and large amounts of it – keep mounting. The latest study, which combined the analysis of water-related features including scores of delta deposits and thousands of river valleys with a look at the possibility of a global hydrosphere on early Mars, found that a vast ocean likely covered one-third of the surface of Mars some 3.5 billion years ago.

Read more here ...

http://www.colorado.edu/news/r/f9b2e81224758e6b422b6bb0735f7098.html
http://www.colorado.edu/news/r/f9b2e81224758e6b422b6bb0735f7098.html

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