丛林奇葩：玛雅文明的新发现——玛雅文明的骤灭

时间是公元10世纪左右，在玛雅人居住的平原中部大部分地区的城市中心，开始出现了这种情况：居民们仿佛一夜间死亡，或突然消失了。其原因不得而知，大型建筑物上没有一点迹象反映，玛雅记事的日历墙上也没有标明，鼎盛时代的社会突然经历了衰退变化。不久前还繁荣昌盛的文明究竟怎么了？这种骤灭的发生是否是个意外？情况正如考古学家埃尼克·顿姆索指出的那样，建筑物突然停工，以致专门为某个大厦做地基的石块还闲置在那里，而在瓦沙克杜的一个庙宇，显然还没有完工。     

Optical search for extraterrestrial intelligence with Air Cerenkov telescopes

We propose using large Air Cerenkov telescopes (ACTs) to search for optical, pulsed signals from extraterrestrial intelligence. Such dishes collect tens of photons from a nanosecond-scale pulse of isotropic equivalent power of tens of solar luminosities at a distance of 100 pc. The field of view for giant ACTs can be on the order of 10 square degrees, and they will be able to monitor 10-100 stars simultaneously for nanosecond pulses of about 6th magnitude or brighter. Using the Earth's diameter as a baseline, orbital motion of the planet could be detected by timing the pulse arrivals.     

在尘埃中诞生的新太阳系

我们的太阳系可能不是孤独的,两位观察到环绕着几颗年轻恒星的尘埃环的美国天文学家说.这些环有“缝隙”,两位天文学家声称这是沿这些恒星规道运行的类似于木星的行星造成的.     

Why Raman spectroscopy on Mars?--a case of the right tool for the right job

We provide a scientific rationale for the astrobiological investigation of Mars. We suggest that, given practical constraints, the most promising locations for the search for former life on Mars are palaeolake craters and the evaporite deposits that may reside within them. We suggest that Raman spectroscopy offers a promising tool for the detection of evidence of former (or extant) biota on Mars. In particular, we highlight the detection of hopanoids as long-lived bacterial cell wall products and photosynthetic pigments as the most promising targets. We further suggest that Raman spectroscopy as a fibre optic-based instrument lends itself to flexible planetary deployment.     

Aspartic acid racemization and age-depth relationships for organic carbon in Siberian permafrost

We have analyzed the degree of racemization of aspartic acid in permafrost samples from Northern Siberia, an area from which microorganisms of apparent ages up to a few million years have previously been isolated and cultured. We find that the extent of aspartic acid racemization in permafrost cores increases very slowly up to an age of approximately 25,000 years (around 5 m in depth). The apparent temperature of racemization over the age range of 0-25,000 years, determined using measured aspartic acid racemization rate constants, is -19 degrees C. This apparent racemization temperature is significantly lower than the measured environmental temperature (-11 to -13 degrees C) and suggests active recycling of D-aspartic acid in Siberian permafrost up to an age of around 25,000 years. This indicates that permafrost organisms are capable of repairing some molecular damage incurred while in a "dormant" state over geologic time.     

Archaeal genome organization and stress responses: implications for the origin and evolution of cellular life

For DNA to be used as an informational molecule it must exist in the cell on the edge of stability because all genomic processes require local controlled melting. This presents mechanistic opportunities and problems for genomic DNA from hyperthermophilic organisms, whose unpackaged DNA could melt at optimal temperatures for growth. Hyperthermophiles are suggested to employ the novel positively supercoiling topoisomerase enzyme reverse gyrase (RG) to form positively supercoiled DNA that is intrinsically resistant to thermal denaturation. RG is presently the only archaeal gene that is uniquely found in hyperthermophiles and therefore is central to hypotheses suggesting a hypothermophilic origin of life. However, the suggestion that RG has evolved by the fusion of two pre-existing enzymes has led to hypotheses for a lower temperature for the origin of life. In addition to the action of topoisomerases, DNA packaging and the intracellular ionic environment can also manipulate DNA topology significantly. In the Euryarchaeota, nucleosomes containing minimal histones can adopt two alternate DNA topologies in a salt-dependent manner. From this we hypothesize that since internal salt concentrations are increased following an increase in temperature, the genomic effects of temperature fluctuations could also be accommodated by changes in nucleosome organization. In addition, stress-induced changes in the nucleoid proteins could also play a role in maintaining the genome in the optimal topological state in changing environments. The function of these systems could therefore be central to temperature adaptation and thus be implicated in origin of life scenarios involving hyperthermophiles.     

在火星上如何分辨时间

2012年8月6日“好奇”号火星车登上火星后，特制的火星表、戈达德研究所网站上的Mars24……这些让火星时间走进了人们的视线。     

GE和普惠再次为A3XX确定GP7267发动机的设计

GE/普惠合资公司正在研究各种易碎的轴承机匣,以作为为研究中的A3XX运输机发动机减轻重量和降低费用的一种方法.支撑该发动机风扇的第一和第二号轴承是这种机匣的可选用的轴承.该轴承机匣将用于当风扇叶片脱开时隔离风扇与发动机的其他结构.     

推进剂温度对比冲的影响

本文研究了预示推进剂温度对比冲(I_(s))影响的改进方法。对现有的仅仅考虑热容的方法进行了评价,发现它是不完善的。研究了两种新方法,它们是:a)修正热容法,b)理论上处理生成热和压力影响的方法。两种方法均使用赫克利斯公司改进后的暂定固体性能程序(SPP—HI),作为基本分析方法来预示比冲。为了建立新的方法,在研究工作中使用了几种不同尺寸的全尺寸发动机的点火试验数据。研究结果表明,推进剂温度对比冲的影响不大,比冲的变化随推进剂生成热的变化比随发动机平均压力的变化更为敏感。     

跨音速机翼的方案设计方法

阐述了跨音速机翼的方案设计方法，文中所描述的研究是开发该技术用于方案设计，建立并存取跨音速气动力数据库的第一步，该研究的主导思想是开发一种可以进行非线性气流数据叠加的方法，用轻型公务机的实际设计对该方法进行了测试。