Science Links for Mercuryday, 20091111

Posted on 11th November 2009 by ideonexus in Science Etcetera
  • Happy Powers of Eleven Day!
  • A year and a half from now, the Planetary Society plans to put a small box into space, which will unfurl into a solar sail-driven spacecraft, which could allow it to reach the edge of the solar system in five years.
  • LightSail-1, Solar Sail Space Craft
    LightSail-1, Solar Sail Space Craft
    Credit: Planetary Society
  • Elephant seals sleep while diving down 1,000 feet or more during their yearly migrations which keep them out to see for eight months at a time.
  • Areas of sea exposed by the melting ice caps are soaking up carbon dioxide, offsetting warming minutely.
  • Living beyond our child-bearing years, blushing, and extremely long childhoods are a few of the things that make humans special.
  • Terrific in depth coverage about what we are learning from the Voyager probes concerning the boundaries of our Solar System and what lies beyond them.
  • Boundaries of the Solar System
    Boundaries of the Solar System
    Credit: NASA
  • The first time we encounter an odor, it takes a special place in the brain, which is why some smells bring up nostalgic memories of childhood.
  • Ten years after the discovery of mirror neurons in the brain, where the same regions of the brain become activated in a person watching someone performing a physical task as the person performing it, and following research finds a similar overlap in the brains of blind people listening to other performing work.
  • The “Panama Alien” is actually a dead, bloated sloth, which only makes it slightly less creepy.
  • Solar Sail Simulations:
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