Behold! The tiny dots near the bottom of this image may not look like much, but they could be the first direct images of extrasolar planets orbiting a Sun-like star. An international team snapped the objects with the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii last May and August. Both are orbiting GJ 758, a star located about 50 light-years away. And both are about 40 times more massive than Jupiter. That means they might not be planets at all, but brown dwarfs, objects that are too massive to be gas-giants but not quite massive enough to ignite into stars. Yet current theory says two brown dwarfs can't exist so close to each other without merging. Stay tuned.
That's me.Chimps know their names. That's how keepers get their attention. But what exactly is going on in a chimp brain when it hears those familiar syllables? Researchers glued electrodes to the scalp of Mizuki, a research chimpanzee, and recorded her brain activity while she heard four sounds: her own name, the name of another group member (Tsubaki), an unfamiliar name (Asuka), and white noise that sounded similar. Mizuki's brain waves showed that she noticed all the sounds, the researchers reported online 16 December in the journal Biology Letters. But only her own name produced a peak that, in human babies, is related to how they pay attention to important stimuli. This shows that, like humans, chimps process their own names differently from other sounds, the team says.
No oasis. It's not easy to cross the Sahara--even if you're flying. Scientists tracked the autumn and spring migrations of 46 raptors, including ospreys and honey buzzards, by satellite as they flew over the vast desert. The birds showed signs of trouble during about 40% of these crossings. Many changed course, others slowed down, and some took a break on the ground. Four birds even turned around. Those that had trouble crossing the desert reached their breeding grounds later and were about 40% less likely to reproduce, the researchers report online 2 December in Biology Letters. But things weren't always so tough: About 5000 years ago, the western Sahara was a cool, dry forest.
作者: 彩虹天堂 时间: 2010-1-16 18:40
刚好学习一下英语！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！作者: 彩虹天堂 时间: 2010-1-16 18:40
