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POPSPersian Clouds - NLC's going south
Spaceweather says: "Noctilucent clouds (NLCs) are supposed to be a high-latitude phenomenon, most often seen in Canada, Russia and northern Europe. On July 19th the electric-blue clouds crept south, all the way to Iran: "I took this picture from Mt. Sabalan, a 15,784 ft extinct volcano in northwestern Iran," says Siamak Sabet. "It is the third highest peak in our extremely mountainous country." When noctilucent clouds first appeared in the late 19th century, they were confined to latitudes above 50o N. Mt Salaban is located at 38o N, far below the old threshold. Just last week, NLCs were sighted in Turkey at 40o N and in recent years they have appeared at least as far south in the United States as Colorado and Utah, also around 40o N. Why are NLCs spreading south? That is an unsolved mystery of these puzzling clouds. Some researchers believe it is a telltale sign of climate change, but this remains controversial. One thing is certain: Sky watchers at all latitudes should be ale
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POPSAnother Funny Deal, Filipino style, my Lord, not again! Where do supposedly bright people get the idea that they can make a fool out of other people or even think of them to be thick? Is this some kind of the psychological projection, where you think others are as thick or as dense as you are? (Sa lahat ng ayoko, iyong ginagawa kang tanga!)
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POPSResearchers Discover Remnant of an Ancient 'RNA World'
Breaker's lab solved a decades-old mystery by describing how tiny circular RNA molecules called cyclic di-GMP are able to turn genes on and off. This process determines whether the bacterium swims or stays stationary, and whether it remains solitary or joins with other bacteria to form organic masses called biofilms. Bacterial use of RNA to trigger major changes without the involvement of proteins resolves one of the questions about the origin of life: If proteins are needed to carry out life's functions and DNA is needed to make proteins, how did DNA arise? The answer is what Breaker and other researchers call the RNA World. They believe that billions of years ago, single strands of nucleotides that comprise RNA were the first forms of life and carried out some of the complicated cellular functions now done by proteins. The riboswitches are highly conserved in bacteria, illustrating their importance and ancient ancestry, Breaker said.
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POPSGhost Town Tourism For a modern-day travel mystery, try visiting a ghost town. I'm not referring to a town with paranormal activity, but one that has been abandoned or forgotten. The article I've clipped discusses this practice and points out that it can be exciting and a little dangerous.
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POPSDoD Lab Helps To Resolve Century-Old Russian Mystery But the remains of two children, a boy and a girl, were still missing, opening the door for some to speculate that maybe there were survivors of the execution. Now, the lab has again helped the Russian government by identifying the remains of those two children, found last year in a shallow grave about 70 feet from the larger gravesite. “There’s no doubt that nobody escaped,” said Dr. Michael Coble, the research section chief for the lab. “We can conclude here that based on this evidence, we have the two missing children.” “These types of cases are so challenging that we can apply what we learn in those cases to the current-day effort of mission,” Finelli said. “We test ourselves with these very hard cases, and then we can apply it to the casework to account for our fallen. So it’s always a little bit of a selfish motivation.” http://www.answers.com/nicholas II
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POPSNASA Needs to Take Space Sex Seriously The fact remains however, that we are naive of the effects of sex in space, let alone if it is even a pleasurable experience. The mechanics of "human docking procedures" (as described by tests carried out by the Russian space agency) are a lot more complicated when in zero gravity. There are also huge ethical questions hanging over possible pregnancies in space. Zero-G tests on rat embryos produced decreased skeletal and brain development, the effects on a human embryo will remain a mystery. The fact remains that NASA continues to cut back biological research in favor of future Moon missions, so much about human sexuality in space will remain a mystery.
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POPSWeird natural detonations Reading about the exploding ants and frogs was interesting too...but this about calm lakes..."limnic eruption. To get one you need a few basic elements: - one, a very deep volcanic lake; - two, said lake has to be over a slow source of volcanic gas; - and three, it has to be very, very still." Eerie!
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