Moon (2009)
8.0
Ratings: 8.0/10 from 106,018 users Metascore: 67/100
Reviews: 372 user | 366 critic | 29 from Metacritic.com
Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.
Director:Duncan Jones |
| Watch Trailer |
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
MoOn:
Nasa’s Kepler space telescope has found its first planet outside our solar system which could become a home to humans.
Nasa’s Kepler space telescope finds possible 'new Earth'
Kepler is searching for planets as
small as Earth, including those orbiting stars in a warm, habitable zone
where liquid water could exist on the surface of the planet Photo: AP
9:32PM GMT 05 Dec 2011
New earth-like planet discovered by NASA spacecraft (Video)
NASA's Kepler deep space probe has found a planet, similar to Earth, that orbits a bright star like the sun.
This
undated handout artist rendering provided by NASA shows Kepler-22b, a
planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like
star. It is the first planet that NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed to
orbit in a star's habitable zone -- the region around a star where
liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist.
NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech/AP
New Planet:
An Earth-Like World, 600 Light-Years Away?
Dec. 6, 2011
The most promising thing about this world, called Kepler-22b for now, is that it's in the so-called Goldilocks zone around its host star. Its surface temperature is estimated at an average of 72 degrees, which means liquid water -- considered essential for life as we know it -- would be possible there.
"We are certain that it is in the habitable zone and if it has a surface, it ought to have a nice temperature," said Bill Borucki, the Kepler principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center.
But just how realistic are the prospects for life on that distant world? Even in their excitement, the researchers caution that they have found no proof that we are not alone.
The Kepler team has done a prodigious job of detection and mathematical calculation, but Kepler has not actually seen the planet or taken any chemical measurements. They know its host star is slightly smaller and cooler than the sun, and they found that its light dims ever so slightly once every 290 Earth days. That means the dot of the planet is passing in front of it. It's a little closer to its sun than we are to our sun.
Are We Alone in the Universe? Watch Video
Scientists Discover 'Goldilocks' Planet Watch Video
Mission to Mars Watch Video
That makes it among the smallest planets yet found orbiting other stars, but it's a smidgen larger than an ideal candidate for extraterrestrial life would be.
"That smidgen makes all the difference," said Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, who is one of the pioneers of planet-hunting outside Earth's solar system, and a member of the Kepler team.
Scientists know, from looking at Earth's solar system, that rocky worlds like the Earth's are a precious commodity. If a world is too small (think of Mercury or Earth's moon), any atmosphere will escape into space before life could possibly form. If a world is too large (think of Jupiter or Neptune) it's likely to be all atmosphere, a giant ball of gas or slush that thickens quickly as you plunge beneath its cloud tops, but probably has no solid surface where living things could thrive.
Kepler-22b might be the right temperature, but it is probably closer in mass to icy Neptune than to Earth. "I would bet my telescope that there is no hard, rocky surface to walk on," Marcy told the Associated Press.
Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution for Science, a colleague of Marcy's, wrote in an email to ABC News, "We know the star is sun-like, and we know the orbit is Earth-like, but the size is super-Earth-like. As Meatloaf sings, two out of three ain't bad."
Still, the discovery sets scientists' minds racing.
"In less than 20 years, we have gone from not knowing if any other planets exist in the universe, to being able to look out at the night sky and realize that essentially any star we can see has at least one planet, and a good number of those are likely to be habitable," said Alan Boss. "That is a revelation that has not yet dawned on the general public, and even astronomers are having their minds blown when they think about it."
"This discovery shows that we Homo sapiens are straining our reach into the universe to find planets that remind us of home," Marcy said. "We are almost there."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Monday, 19 March 2012
Cyborg Enhancements Available Right Now
9
Credit: L.A. Cicero, Stanford University Press Office
{Countdown}
Artificial skin
Two California research groups have each created artificial skin,
using different approaches. Researchers at Stanford University based
their skin on organic electronics (electronics made from conductive
carbon-based polymers, plastics, or small molecules) and have created a
device 1,000 times more sensitive than human skin.Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley used integrated arrays of nanowire transistors to develop their skin.
The goal of both research groups was to create something that mimics human skin while capable of being spread over large, flexible surfaces.
These highly sensitive artificial skins will give prosthetics a sense of touch, give surgeons finer control over tools, and give robots the ability to pick up delicate objects without breaking them.
In addition, researchers from the Cincinnati Shriners Hospital for Children are working on developing an artificial skin that has bacteria-resistant skin cells, which would reduce the risk of infection.
5 Reasons to Fear Robots Jeremy Hsu
Intro54321more Intro 090519-robot-fear-countdown Real robot names such as Roomba and Asimo don't evoke as much fear as the fictional "Terminator." But consider that Roomba, the automated vacuum cleaner, is manufactured by iRobot, creator also of armed robot warriors for the U.S. military. And Asimo represents just the first wave of an incoming tsunami of robots that strive to look and act eerily human. It goes beyond automated vacuums and mildly entertaining dance-bots. Japan and Korea plan to deploy humanoid robots to care for the elderly, while the United States already fields thousands of robot warriors on the modern battlefield. Meanwhile, plenty of people have enhanced their bodies technologically in ways that bring them closer to their robotic brethren. So it's OK to become a bit of a paranoid android, because many experts say that the robotic future is rapidly approaching, if not already here. Robots probably won't completely take over or annihilate the human race anytime soon, but they may supplant us by other means -- and LiveScience is here to count the reasons why you need not hide your fear of the metal ones.
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