http://ideonexus.com Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:00:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A captive colony of endangered Virginia big-eared bats, set up as an ark to protect them against white nose syndrome, has dropped from a population of 40 to 10 as a result of substantial neglect from the colony's caretakers. Healthy Virginia big-eared bat Credit: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Northeast ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/19/science-exclamation-points-for-venusday-20100319/ Please take a moment and visit broadband.gov and take the broadband connection test to help the FCC assess the strength of American Internet connections. It only takes a minute, and the data will help the government make informed decisions about where to focus efforts on improving our cyber infrastructure. BroadBand.gov Historians are ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/18/science-future-link-rot-for-jupiterday-20100318/ A traveling art exhibit will be making the rounds through 2012 featuring historical artwork detailing NASA missions (NASA has a small online art exhibit here). Remembering Columbia Credit: Chakaia Booker Highly Recommended: best article yet surveying the emerging helium shortage on Earth, which will impact science and technology, and cause the value of ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/17/science-windows-for-mercurday-20100317/ Springtime on Mars thaws the carbon dioxide ice in its northern hemisphere, causing fantastic avalanches on the planet's surface. Martian Avalanche Credit: NASA In a new report, Amnesty International details how pregnancy-related maternal deaths have increased from 6.6 per 100,000 births in 1987 to 13.3 in 2006 in the United States, beating out ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/16/science-wysiwygs-for-marsday-20100316/ The reflectivity of the Lunokhod reflectors on the Moon drops by a factor of 10 during a full moon, a mysterious phenomenon now attributed to the reflectors heating up, distorting their shape. Lunakod 1 Rover from Luna 17 mission Credit: NSSDC The Texas School Board has successfully rewritten public school history books to ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/15/science-homeruns-for-moonday-20100315/ National Geographic has posted a photoalbum of space photos for the week, including an "inverted crater" on Mars caused when an ancient impact site fills with sediment and the surrounding territory erodes away. Inverted Crater on Mars Credit: NASA The NIH has determined that women should be allowed to give birth vaginally if ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/12/science-smithereens-for-venusday-20100312/ Researchers at the Society of Toxicology's annual meeting have brought out brain images depicting Gulf War Syndrome, which the federal government has yet to accept as a legitimate illness. Healthy brain (left) shows response to pain from heat on the forearm. Different regions (right) respond to that heat in vets with ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/11/science-spectaculars-for-jupiterday-20100311/ The Chilean city of Concepció moved 10 feet to the West as a result of the recent earthquake. Credit: University of Hawaii Ray Kurzweil has written a fairly critical review of Avatar for being unimaginative with its portrayal of alien life and underwhelming in its depictions of technology a century from now. Because ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/10/science-roads-for-mercuryday-20100310/ Naegleria gruberi is an amoeba that, when subjected to stress, goes from an oozy-moving organism to an organism that sprouts arms and swims a breaststroke through its muddy environment under eucalyptus trees. Naegleria gruberi Credit: Lillian Fritz-Laylan In addition to sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami, the human tongue can also taste fat, ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/09/science-zingers-for-marsday-20100309/ Scientists are "cautiously excited" that Bruce Hudson, from Ontario in Canada, has identified interstellar dust from the Stardust spacecraft using the Stardust@Home internet application. Aerogel Tray Used to Collect Particles Credit: NASA The "big mean drunk" stereotype gets some weight, as an experiment finds that large males become more aggressive when drunk, ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/08/science-stuff-for-moonday-20100308/ Fossil find in Tanzania pushes back the origin of dinosaurs another 10 million years to 245 million years ago. Phylogenetic postion of Asilisaurus among bird-line archosaurs Credit: S. Nesbitt For better health, school districts are turning kids onto water from sodas, but bottled-water can carry industrial chemicals and is hard on the environment, ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/05/science-paths-for-venusday-20100305/ Out of sight, out of mind. The danger of extinction is that, once a species disappears from the Earth, we quickly forget it about it. Yangtze River Dolphin A comparison of the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania found that women and children go first if there's time for it, as ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/04/science-wonders-for-jupiterday-20100304/ JavaScript Frameworks I recently checked out Google's AJAX Libraries, which, aside from being inaccurately titled, provides a means for web developers to access functionality in a wide variety of popular JavaScript frameworks and toolkits without having to host the libraries themselves. Simply include the base Google library, and then use it ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/03/whats-the-right-javascript-framework-if-any/ A 67 million-year-old mudslide fossilized a snake in the act of eating a dinosaur. Snake Eating Dinosaur Credit: PLoS Biology Genetic analysis of polar bears show they have adapted to climate change in the past, challenging a USGS prediction that they will go extinct if the arctic sea ice is lost. The earthquake in ... http://ideonexus.com/2010/03/03/science-snippets-for-mercuryday-20100303/