Solar eclipse darkens sky over Africa

Port-Gentil, Gabon: Despite rain and overcast skies residents of southern Gabon got a glimpse of a total eclipse of the sun, a rare phenomenon also visible in eastern Africa.

"I saw a black disc progressively cover the sun. It's magnificent," said Clarence Diledou, who lives of the port town of Port-Gentil.

"But unfortunately the bad weather spoiled the party a bit."

The moon blocks the sun seconds before a total solar eclipse at the remote Sibiloi National Park on the shore of Lake Turkana. Photo: Reuters

The west African nation got peak viewing of the total eclipse as it swept over a path nearly 60km wide.

At its peak over land in central Gabon, the sun was blocked out for about a minute.
Weather permitting, partial phases of the eclipse were also visible in southern Europe and in the eastern United States.

Forget your jumper, this thermoelectric wristband can heat or cool your entire body

A wrist-mounted heat-sink reacts to ambient and skin temperatures, pumping out "thermal pulses" to maintain overall body temperature.

 

JAMES VINCENT

 

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Heating and cooling buildings is an expensive business. Recent rises in energy prices in the UK mean that the average cost of keeping our homes warm is around £610 annually (up from £360 in 2008) whilst in the US they have the opposite problem with air conditioning accounting for a massive 16.5 per cent of the country’s entire energy bill.

A team of scientists and engineers from MIT have attempted to tackle this problem by asking one simple and radical question: what if we focus on the temperature of the individual instead of the temperature of the building?

Animal jokes

- What fish only swims at night?

- A starfish!

- Why did the chicken cross the road?

- To show everyone he wasn’t chicken.

- Why are cats good at video games?

- Because they have nine lives!

Health Check: does brain training make you smarter?

No one disputes that extensive training on a specific task will improve performance on that task. Paul Boxley

No one who has kept their head out of the sand over the past several years needs to be told “brain training” is a hot topic. And it’s big business too, with advocates using claims such as “personal training design by scientists” to market their wares.

Decades of studies in both laboratory animals and humans have demonstrated the capacity of the brain for some degree of plasticity. This can be extremely beneficial; after someone suffers a stroke, for instance, and has to relearn some basic abilities.

But is there any evidence that specific “brain training” can improve overall performance? Or is it all hype and hyperbole?
For many, not one.

Germans: 'We've found second solar system'

Photo: DPA. The Germans believe the new solar system is similar to our own.

A team of German scientists claim to have discovered a “second solar system” made up of seven planets orbiting a star similar to our own. 

The astrophysicists at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) said on Monday they had discovered “the most extensive planetary system to date.”

They have found seven planets circling a star called KOI-351 – more than in other known planetary systems.

A statement on the DLR’s website said the planets were arranged in a similar fashion to our solar system with smaller rocky planets near the star and giant gas planets further away.

A Library of Classics, Edited for the Teething Set

The humble board book, with its cardboard-thick pages, gently rounded corners and simple concepts for babies, was once designed to be chewed as much as read.

By Julie Bosman 

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William P. O’Donnell/The New York Times

Parents are flocking to the popular BabyLit series, which features works of literary art that have been adapted for babies and toddlers. The board books skip the complicated narratives and instead use the stories as a springboard to explain counting, colors or concepts like opposites.

But today’s babies and toddlers are treated to board books that are miniature works of literary art: classics like “Romeo and Juliet,” “Sense and Sensibility” and “Les Misérables”; luxuriously produced counting primers with complex graphic elements; and even an “Art for Baby” book featuring images by the contemporary artists Damien Hirst and Paul Morrison.

New species of the Amazon rainforest - in pictures

At least 441 new species of animals and plants have been discovered over the past four years in the vast, underexplored rainforest of the Amazon. The discoveries made from 2010 to 2013, include a flame-patterned lizard, a vegetarian piranha, and a monkey that purrs like a cat

A 'purring' monkey (Callicebus caquetensis) – Colombian Amazon

The new species, named the Caqueta titi monkey or Callicebus caquetensis, is one of about 20 species of titi monkeys, which all live in the Amazon basin. The population size has been estimated at less than 250 individuals, and its habitat has been fragmented by clearing for agricultural land. It is classified as critically endangered by the IUCN. According to scientists, titi monkeys are among the few species of primates that are monogamous. 'All of the babies purr like cats too,' said Thomas Defler, who was part of the team that discovered the species. 'When they feel very content they purr towards each other, and the ones we raised would purr to us'

For more amazing photographs: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2013/oct/23/new-species-amazon-rainforest-in-pictures#/?picture=420633461&index=8

11-year-old designs a better sandbag, named 'America's Top Young Scientist'

John Roach NBC News 

 

11-year-old Peyton Robertson from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., shows off his grand-prize-winning sandbag at the  Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An 11-year-old boy from Florida has designed a new kind of sandbag to better protect life and property from the ravages of saltwater floods. His invention took top honors at a science fair this week, earning him a $25,000 check and a trip to Costa Rica.
"Living in Florida, I'm keenly aware of hurricanes and saltwater flooding," the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge grand prize winner Peyton Robertson, who is a sixth grader at the Pine Crest School in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., told NBC News.

"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious."

                                           

                                           Albert Einstein

Are teenagers really careless about online privacy?

As Facebook lifts its sharing restrictions on 13-to-17-year-olds, Jon Henley finds that young people know exactly what to do with their privacy settings – especially where Mum is concerned.

Jon Henley

Secure … many teenagers use in-jokes and obscure references to effectively encode what they post. Photograph: David J Green/Alamy

They share, like, everything. How they feel about a song, their maths homework, life (it sucks). Where they'll be next; who they're with now. Photos, of themselves and others, doing stuff they quite probably shouldn't be.

They're the digital natives, fresh-minted citizens of a humming online world. They've grown up – are still growing up – with texting, sexting, MSN, Facebook, Vine, Snapchat. They're the young, and they couldn't care less about privacy.

At least, that's the assumption. But amid a rash of revelations about government surveillance, it seems it's wrong. Young people do care, a lot, about privacy – just not the kind of privacy that exercises their parents.