The Culgoora Solar Observatory

The Culgoora Solar Observatory is located 25 km west of the town of Narrabri, in north-west New South Wales. The observatory conducts continuous optical and radio observations of the sun every day of the year.

Observing instrumentation includes:
• a 12 cm solar telescope fitted with an hydrogen-alpha filter, used to observe solar flares and other phenomena
• a 30 cm heliostat, used to observe sunspot evolution
• a solar radiospectrograph which sweeps through a frequency range of 18 - 1800 MHz every three seconds, used to monitor solar radio bursts

Regular reports and forecasts of solar activity are transmitted to the Australian Space Forecast Centre in Sydney and are disseminated to similar organisations internationally. Particularly significant solar outbursts are reported to a wide range of interested parties around the world within minutes of their occurrence.

The Culgoora Solar Radio Spectrograph observes the radio emmission of the Sun from 18MHz to 18GHz. This is required as solar flares can radiate energy over a very broad frequency range. Solar flare radio activity appears as "sweeps" on a solar radio spectrograph display. In particular, there are two types of "sweeps" known as "Type II" and "Type IV", which can indicate that a solar coronal mass ejection has occurred. IPS combines the solar radio "sweep" signature of the event and the solar location and size of the H-Alpha flare activity (obtained from Culgoora Observatory H-Alpha patrol), to determine the geo-effectiveness of the event.

Hypoxia

Hypoxia means low oxygen and is primarily a problem for estuaries and coastal waters. Hypoxic waters have dissolved oxygen concentrations of less than 2-3 ppm. Hypoxia can be caused by a variety of factors, including excess nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, and waterbody stratification due to saline or temperature gradients. These excess nutrients, eutrophication, promote algal growth. As dead algae decompose, oxygen is consumed in the process, resulting in low levels of oxygen in the water.

Nutrients can come from many sources, including any of the following:
• Fertilizers from agriculture, golf courses, and suburban lawns
• Erosion of soil full of nutrients
• Discharges from sewage treatment plants
• Deposition of atmospheric nitrogen

The hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico forms every summer and is a result of excess nutrients from the Mississippi River and seasonal stratification (layering) of waters in the Gulf. Freshwater from the Mississippi River flows into the Gulf of Mexico. This freshwater is less dense and remains above the more dense saline Gulf water. In addition to the saline gradient caused where the freshwater and saline water meet, the freshwater is warmer than the deeper ocean water, further contributing to the stratification. This stratification prevents the mixing of oxygen-rich surface water with oxygen-poor water on the bottom of the Gulf. Without mixing, oxygen in the bottom water is limited and the hypoxic condition remains.

Why is the ocean blue?

There are several theories
• Blue wavelengths are absorbed the least by the deep ocean water and are scattered and reflected back to the observer’s eye
• Particles in the water may help to reflect blue light
• The ocean reflects the blue sky

Most of the time, the ocean appears to be blue because this is the color our eyes see. But the ocean can be many other colors depending upon particles in the water, the depth of the water, and the amount of skylight.

Wavelengths of light pass through matter differently depending on the material’s composition. Blue wavelengths are transmitted to greater depths of the ocean, while red wavelengths are absorbed quickly. Water molecules scatter blue wavelengths by absorbing the light waves, and then rapidly reemitting the light waves in different directions. That is why there are mostly blue wavelengths that are reflected back to our eyes.

Sometimes oceans look green. This may be because there is an abundance of plant life or sediment from rivers that flow into the ocean. The blue light is absorbed more and the yellow pigments from plants mix with the blue light waves to produce the color green. Sometimes parts of the oceans will look milky brown after a storm passes. This is because winds and currents associated with the storm churn up sand and sediment from the rivers that lead into the oceans.

The ocean may also reflect the blue sky. However this is prominent only at relatively low angles and when the water is smooth.

Industry leaders agreement with the European Union to launch the one-size charger

In Europe major producers on Monday agreed to set up a universal adaptor within six months. Most cell phones at present depend on different chargers, causing waste electronic.

Industry leaders, including Apple, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, have struck an agreement with the European Union to launch the one-size-fits-all charger by January 1, 2010, offering a solution to one of present life's chief annoyance.

As the quantity of cell phones has exploded over the past few years, so have the number of chargers -- creating mountains of waste technology as users change or upgrade handsets.Last year an expected 1.2 billion cell phones were sold worldwide, according to University of Southern Queensland data reported by industry umbrella group GSMA (Groupe Speciale Mobile Association), generating up to 82,000 tones of chargers. With alarm over the level of waste generated by redundant or outmoded chargers, European legislators had, proceeding to Monday's agreement, considered forcing manufacturers to adopt universal technology. This means that significantly less electronic waste, as people will no longer have to throw away chargers while buying new phones.

Wild animals face new threat

Cancer a dangerous disease in human beings is now a serious threat to wild animals. Conservationists awoke to the problem in the late 1990s when statistics of Tasmanian devils (animal) drop down in number as a result of the shocking and disfiguring devil facial tumour disease. The disease causes tumours to form in and around the marsupials' mouth as a result they cannot eat and they eventually die of starvation Tasmanian devils are not the only affected species, and are not the only group to have become in danger of extinction because of the disease.

The figures are even more concerning when compared to human figures: cancer is the second top cause of human being death in the US and is responsible for 23 per cent of all deaths. And understanding the cancers in animals will help understand them better in humans. The pair list 22 species that suffer from viral cancers. Whereas some of the viruses have only been seen in wildlife, others are very much related to human viruses, including papilloma virus, herpes simplex virus and hepatitis virus.

It’s all about chewing gum

The study of man has also found that more or less every culture chewed "gum." Ancient Greeks regularly chewed on tree resin to fresh their teeth and freshen their breath, and called their treat "mastiche." Indians chewed on the juice from trees. The Maya Indians of Central America gummed chicle.

Early in 1880s, two brothers, Henry and Frank Fleer, began conducting experiment with chicle, the sticky material found inside a sapodilla tree. Henry Fleer covered the tasteless chicle with a sugary white coating and named it as “Chiclets." In the meantime, Brother Frank named it as “Bubble Gum." In 1848, the Curtis brothers were working on the same product in Maine and sold chewing gum for the first time in history. Until the late 1870s, chewing gum was marked by little or no flavor. A druggist from Kentucky is credited with making chewing gum a sweeter treat when, in 1880, he added sugar to chicle.

Uses:
•Studies have revealed that chewing gum in fact helps people concentrate.
•Chewing gum kills about 11 calories for each hour.
•Scientists found a 9,000-year- old bundle of chewing gum in Sweden.
•If you gulp down your gum, it won't stay in your stomach years. It ends up in the same place where the rest of the undigested part of your foodstuff does.
•Detectives can find criminals by evaluating their gum to their dental records.
•Chewing gum on a plane will keep your ears from popping. Chewing gum makes your saliva glands create 250 percent additional saliva, so you ingest more and that balances the pressure in your head.
•North Americans spend about a half-billion dollars on bubble gum every year, which translates to 40 million every day, 1.6 million every hour, 26,000 every minute or 444 pieces per second.
•TODAY, almost all gum is made by machine.

Mars

Mars (pronounced /'m?rz/) is the fourth planet from the Sun in the planetary System. The planet is name after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also named as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish form as seen from Earth.

Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface features suggestive both of the impact craters of the Moon and the volcanoes, valleys, deserts and polar ice caps of Earth. It is the site of Olympus Moons, the highest known mountain in the Solar System, and of Valleys Mariners, the largest canyon. In addition to its geographical features, Mars’ rotational period and seasonal cycles are likewise alike to those of Earth.

Until the first flyby of Mars by Mariner 4 in 1965, it was speculate that there might be liquid water on the planet's surface. This was based on observations of periodic variation in light and dark patches, mainly in the polar latitudes, which looked like seas and continents, while long, dark striations were interpreted by some observer as irrigation channels for liquid water. These straight line features were later proven not to exist and were instead explain as optical illusions. Still, of all the planets in our Solar System further than Earth, Mars is the most likely to harbor liquid water, and perhaps life.