The Frustrated Bunny

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Tagged: science

Science

We get signal: New Horizons’ first science data payload

Last night, the New Horizons team received a signal from the probe containing a data payload that was mostly engineering data–systems status, telemetry…basically, phoning home letting Mom know it was doing just fine after its busy day flying by Pluto and taking lots of pictures and scientific measurements. This morning, from about 7:00 – 8:25 am ET, they received the first payload of those pictures and measurements. This payload will include three very high-resolution, greyscale images in which each pixel represents a quarter mile. Beginning at 3:25 pm, more data will start streaming in. But this is only the beginning–it...

Science

New Horizons Pluto mission is up there with the moon landing in American space achievement

If ever there were a perfect use for the phrase, “I can’t even,” this is it. Today we saw a high-resolution picture of a world over a billion miles away, taken by a small probe launched nine years ago on a mission that has been over 25 years in the making. And oh, yeah, that tiny probe not only took pictures, but it (presumably) took a variety of scientific readings, passing just 7,500 miles from Pluto. That’s less than the average diameter of the Earth. In astronomical terms, that’s CLOSE. I hardly have words for how absolutely awesome it is...

Science

“Zom-bees” may provide key to cracking colony collapse disorder

Colony collapse disorder, the “phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or European honey bee colony abruptly disappear,” has been attributed to everything from cell phone radiation to fungi, but scientists have not been able to find a consistent link among affected colonies. A recent discovery of the larvae of a parasitic fly inside of some dead honeybees may provide that link. Researchers have found that the parasitized bees tend to behave strangely, acting almost like zombies. Eventually, the affected bees leave the hives at night, fly into a light source, and lose control of their bodies before falling...

Random

On the bright side: Mythbusters’ accident also confirms Civil War myth

In case you missed it, the Mythbusters had a small accident last week involving a cannonball, a house, and a minivan. The short version is that the secondary build team was testing whether a cannonball could breach a stone castle wall when muzzle lift (think recoil, but with a cannon) caused the cannonball to skip over the top of a hill at the Alameda Sheriff’s Department’s bomb and artillery range. The cannonball proceeded to fly through the wall of a house nearly a half-mile from the range, bounce across a few roads, and come to rest in someone’s minivan. Mythbusters has already...

Random / Technology

Another reason why Georgia Tech is better than your school

We get space shuttle flyovers before our football games. Three Georgia Tech grads will have the ultimate nosebleed seats for pre-game activities before their alma mater’s big football game with Miami tonight. They’re aboard space shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled to be above Atlanta about 6:10 p.m., according to the school. The shuttle will track from southwest to northeast and look like a very bright moving star. From the center of campus, look kind of in the direction of the CRC (southwest) and trace up toward the direction of the Coliseum (northeast). If you’re in Home Park, looking toward the...