Wednesday, March 13, 2002

BBC Online News Blue jet streaks high The lights move into the upper atmosphere at a rapid rate By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Lightning-like flashes called blue jets may link the electrical energy of thunderstorms and the charged layer of the upper atmosphere. Writing in the journal Nature Victor Pasko at Pennsylvania State University, US, and colleagues used high-speed low-light cameras to capture an image of a fleeting blue jet that extended from the top of a thunderstorm 70 kilometres up into the ionosphere. 6:01:27 PM    comment BBC News SCI/TECH Locking out the hackers Broadband users worried that their PC is vulnerable will soon be able to buy a "black box" that watches over their net link to stop viruses and hack attacks. At the CeBIT technology fair in Hanover, anti-virus firm Trend Micro has unveiled its Gatelock device, which it hopes will prove popular with worried surfers. 2:40:12 PM    comment Yahoo! News Thriving Peru Coca Hampers Drug War By MONTE HAYES Associated Press Writer TINGO MARIA, Peru (AP) - The jungle-draped mountains that loom over this town in the Huallaga valley conceal a truth that anti-narcotics officials have been loath to admit. After years of declining prices and production, coca crops are on the rise again in Peru. Even more worrisome to U.S. counternarcotics officials, Colombian drug traffickers are promoting poppy plants, the raw material of heroin. 2:13:48 PM    comment ABCNEWS.com—Researchers Chewing Gum May Make People Smarter: By Jeremy Laurence LONDON (Reuters) - The often-maligned act of chewing gum could in fact make us smarter, according to British research. A joint study carried out by the University of Northumbria and the Cognitive Research Unit, Reading, has found that chewing gum has a positive effect on cognitive tasks such as thinking and memory. 10:03:10 AM    comment CNN.com Smart Mars rovers to think, work as team March 13, 2002 Two autonomous rovers approached, gripped and carried this beam more than 164 feet (50 m) in a recent test. From Allard Beutel NASA is working on a new breed of rovers whose sole purpose is to work together on Mars. They are robots that basically act like synchronized swimmers for construction work. The space agency envisions a martian building crew consisting of multiple rovers. Prototypes can now lift and move an eight-foot metal beam. 9:21:32 AM    comment New Scientist Satellites spot city subsidence NewScientist.com Subsidence near two London tunnels constructed in the last decade is revealed in new images produced from satellite data. The ground movement appears near London Underground's Jubilee line extension and a London Electricity tunnel. 7:37:48 AM    comment

© Copyright 2002 Jack Foster Mancilla . Last update: 3/13/02; 07:37:51 .