Oct 8, 2005

Selected Week News #1


Mystery Ocean Glow Confirmed in Satellite Photos
By Robert Roy Britt
From LiveScience

For the first time a strange glow in the ocean already described by sailors is photographed by satellite. The only explanation that was though till now is that it should be luminescent bacteria (that emmit light by a process called, a little obviously, bioluminescence), but more studies are needed to find the truth. It is interesting to think in how many natural phenomena we have yet to study in our own planet. I will not be surprised if more ghost and aliens sightings would be explained by natural phenomena we don´t understand yet.


Python Eats Gator, Explodes
By Denise Kalette
From LiveScience


Poor snake! That´s what happens when men break the natural balance by introducing alien species in different habitats. But in the end, I think that the world is getting so connected that it will be very difficult to maintain isolated natural habitats. Sad, because the number of species will diminish drastically and some substances that would be discovered among these organisms will probably take too much time to be synthetized by us.


Micro-organisms may be turned into nano-circuitry
By Will Knight
From New Scientist


The picture is of diatoms, a kind of microorganism with dimensions of the order of nanometers that some scientists think they could use to construct circuits.

IgNobel 2005
The IgNobel Prize is back and the laureates were already announced this year. If you don´t know what it is, it´s a prize given to the most weird reasearchs and achievements of the year. Sometimes these guys are a little unfair, but surely always fun.

No comments: