News Briefs 27-08-2012

'One giant leap for mankind' -- what a legacy!

• Neil Armstrong, First Man to Walk on Moon, dies at 82.
• Astronauts turn to twitter to mourn Neil Armstrong.
• Neil Armstrong spent last years fighting for human space exploration.
• NASA makes progress in protecting astronauts' bone strength from the damage caused by space flight.
• The astronauts' doctor: A toaster-sized ‘miracle box’.
• What are the limits of human survival?
• Hands down, the most breathtaking video of Curiosity’s descent.
• Can neutrinos be used to predict solar storms? How do solar flares affect the rate at which radioactive materials decay?
• The Oatmeal’s Tesla Museum campaign has totally obliterated its fundraising goal. At its peak, the campaign was raising $27,000 per hour, crashing Indiegogo, the crowdfunding platform used to raise the money.
• Ancient Roman tablet holds 'black magic' curses.
• King James medical mystery unraveled.
• Linguistic archeology: The tree of knowledge.
• Uncle Ray's Dystopia: Ray Bradbury didn’t just extrapolate the evolution of gadgetry; he foresaw how it would stunt and deform our psyches.
• 9-year-old piano prodigy Gavin George.
• Tanishq Abraham became a member of Mensa at age four. He gives talks at NASA. Ironically, he can't get into college as a full-time student because he's 9 years old.
• Maths prodigy, 10, 'with a brain like a calculator' receives an A* in A-level statistics.
• Eleven-year-old chess prodigy became the youngest national master in the U.S. at age nine.
• Revenge of the nerds: Social rejection can 'lead to imaginative thinking and strong independence.'
• Bugs have a solar-powered immune system -- unlike anything biologists have ever seen.
• Hunt for a lion on the loose in Essex: 30 police officers, crack marksmen and two helicopters join search. More.
• Venus the Chimera Cat attains viral fame. She reminds me of my Luna.
• NEON light: The 30-year plan to study America’s ecology. When fully operational in 2016, NEON will generate 200 terabytes of data per year -- four times more than the Hubble space telescope churned out in its first two decades.
• A robot named Nico could soon pass a landmark test - recognising itself in a mirror.
• Nanofibres used to make sports equipment and nappies can be just as dangerous as asbestos.
• Genes now tell doctors secrets they can't utter.
• An immune disorder at the root of autism.
• Big Chem, Big Harm?
• How long do you want to live? Results of an informal poll.

Quote of the Day:

It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.

Albert Einstein, refusing surgery as he lay dying of an abdominal aortic aneyrysm in 1955.