A new timeline of Stonehenge's construction reveals that the massive megaliths came first, while the smaller bluestone oval came later. Source: Live Science

Mars Struck Why we're mad for Mars

An excited comment by a NASA scientist set off a bout of feverish online speculation last week about what new discoveries might be coming from the surface of Mars.
John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for NASA's Mars Curiosity rover mission, told an NPR reporter that the rover's soil sampler analysis had turned up something exciting.
"This data is gonna be one for the history books," he said. "It's looking really good."
Populate Mars!
The comments kicked off immediate online speculation on what the finding could be, but NASA immediately began to manage expectations, with a spokesperson telling CBS News that the discovery was "nothing earthshaking."
But try as it might, NASA likely can't tamp down enthusiasm about the Red Planet. Earth's neighbor has long fascinated the public for its potential to have a history of life, or even to one day support a future human colony.
The lure of Mars
Until the first spacecraft flybys of Mars in the 1960s, scientists believed the planet might have liquid water and sustain life. That possibility was enough to fascinate the public, Bob Crossley, author of "Imagining Mars: A Literary History" (Wesleyan, 2011),told LiveScience in August.
"Somewhere deep in my own psyche, and maybe for other people as well, there is a desire for another world," said Crossley, an emeritus professor of English at the University of Massachusetts.

Mini Caller Why do parrots talk?

Though a parrot might not understand any words it's saying toward you, there's a good chance its aim is to address you individually, new research suggests.
A study indicates that at least some parrots' talent for mimicking sounds, which underlies their "talking" skill, functions in nature to let them communicate with individual parrots they encounter.
Thorsten Balsby of the University of Aarhus, Denmark and colleagues from the University of Copenhagen studied one parrot species, the orange-fronted conure.
In the wild, these birds live in dynamic flocks where individuals flit in and out, so each parrot encounters many different individuals daily, the researchers noted. Each bird also has its own unique call.
Both in the wild and in the researchers' experiments, parrots that heard an imitation of their own calls responded more often and faster to the calling individual than parrots that didn't hear this imitation, according to the scientists.
Based on these observations, they suggest that the parrots may have evolved their abilities as mimics so they could start "conversation" with a specific individual by mimicking their call. The findings were published Nov. 21 in the research journal PLoS One.
"Given that orange-fronted conures frequently communicate within large communication networks with many potential receivers, which may be from several different flocks, the ability to selectively address specific individuals may be of particular importance" to them, the scientists wrote.

The Higgs discovery

On the flight to Melbourne, Australia, I close my eyes and reflect on the day. What a day! July 4, 2012 will be a day to remember: another one like this may not come in my career. Essentially, we have announced the discovery of the Higgs boson today. I think back on the scene.
The seminar at CERN is due to start at 9 in the morning. The seating is limited, so we have lined up outside the Main Auditorium since 1 am. Mostly young people, students and postdocs, who have the stamina to stay up all night; some of us working on our laptops, because the work never stops, others drinking, chatting, playing cards; everybody wondering what the other experiment has. A discovery must be confirmed by both of the major experiments at the Large Hadron Collider: ATLAS and CMS. I am a member of ATLAS, and we have kept our results carefully hidden from CMS. CMS has tried to do the same, but there are rumors that they also have a '5-sigma significance', which is the statistical threshold needed for discovery in this field.
The auditorium door opens at 7:30 am. We troop in. Almost half of the auditorium is reserved for VIPs, who include political hotshots from the CERN member countries as well as some of the biggest names in high-energy physics. There comes Peter Higgs, who hypothesized the scalar boson back in 1964. 48 years of relentless search is about to bear fruit. The atmosphere is tremendous, with people trying to hide the inner excitement and look grave for the occasion.
Joe Incandela presents the CMS results: excesses in both diphoton and four-lepton decay channels. Combined significance: 5 sigma. Yes! Then Fabiola Gianotti steps up to present the ATLAS results. This is one of the most influential women in the world, the spokesperson for a 3400-people collaboration. The same picture is seen by ATLAS: excesses in diphoton and four-lepton channels. Combined significance: 5 sigma. So this is it, the discovery is confirmed! Standing ovation in the auditorium, the applause goes on for 3 minutes, my palms are all pink. Rolf Heur, CERN's Director General, makes the formal statement: 'we have it'.
Now I think back on all the work that has gone in. I decided to be a particle physicist all those years ago in high school, standing beside the ping-pong table in Scholastica. Later, in my second year at Harvard, I dubbed myself a Higgs Hunter and resolved to be part of the Higgs discovery, if the boson exists at all. Since I completed my PhD, I have been working on the WW channel, which is the most sensitive Higgs decay mode in the low mass range. That is only my personal story; extremely hard work by hundreds of people over years has gone into the making of this morning. Notwithstanding, I am proud of the moment, proud of representing my country here at the pinnacle of science, of knowledge and of human achievement.
The next phase is to measure the properties of this particle: couplings, spin, parity. Is this really the Standard Model Higgs boson, or something more exotic? The latter possibility is definitely the more exciting one. So there is much work to be done. But for now, I am off to Melbourne to attend the International Conference for High-Energy Physics, a few days of relative leisure away from CERN.

Dr. Kashif did his undergraduate studies at Yale University, received a PhD in Physics from Harvard University, and is now a postdoctoral researcher with CERN/University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is based at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.

Crimes of Galileo!

In the early 17th century, the great Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) had to face the wrath of the Catholic Church for his endorsement of Copernicus' heliocentric model of the cosmos. The church believed that the model was contrary to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures and branded it as heresy. It hit at the very core of the church's belief in the geocentric cosmos of Aristotle.
In 1616, officials of the Roman Inquisition, which is an institution in the Catholic Church responsible for eradication of heresies, warned Galileo to stop preaching the Copernican model as truth. At the same time, his book On the Revolution of Celestial Spheres was placed on the list of Index of Forbidden Books. Galileo, however, was steadfast in his belief and tried to enlighten the church about scientific truth as opposed to “revealed” truth. It was an exercise in vain and it eventually led to his downfall.
In 1623 Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, a friend of Galileo and a patron of the arts and sciences, was elected pope and assumed the name Urban VIII. Believing that a friend was at the helm of the church, Galileo mustered courage and wrote the Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems. Though he claimed Dialogue was neutral, it was in fact a veiled polemic in favor of the Copernican model. He had to face the Inquisition again in 1633. This time he was charged with “vehement suspicion of heresy.” After a short but swift deliberation, a guilty verdict was pronounced. Out of compassion for an old friend, the pope spared Galileo the fate of Giordano Bruno, a contemporary scholastic philosopher and Copernican astronomer, who was burned at the stake. Instead he was condemned to a life under house arrest in Florence where he died as a blind man in 1642.
Did the two trials of Galileo diminish his stature as a scientist and thinker? If we confine ourselves to the few decades following the trials, the answer is yes. In 1758, the church regretted for not accepting the truth in science, and lifted the ban on most of Galileo's works supporting Copernican theory. In the 20th century several popes acknowledged the great work of Galileo. In October 1992, Pope John Paul II took the extraordinary step to revoke the condemnation, saying that “the denunciation was a tragic error,” but fell short of admitting the mistake of the church. In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI, who condones heresy, admitted “understanding of the laws of nature could stimulate appreciation of God's work.”
After three and a half century, how are Galileo and Urban VIII remembered? Galileo is called the “father of modern observational astronomy.” Urban VIII is known as an authoritarian pope, a champion of nepotism. Galileo is admired for his unflinching devotion to seek the truth. The pope is known for his efforts to establish the Barberini Dynasty he crowned his nephew as the Prince of Palestrina. There is an epigram about Urban VIII: What the barbarians did not do the Barberini's did. Among other things, Galileo has a space probe named after him; Urban has nothing of importance named after him. Galileo's bust adorns the halls of hallowed institutions all over the world; Urban's bust erected after his death was destroyed by angry crowd.
The greatness of a person never goes unrecognized. Stephen Hawking in his book A Brief History of Time described Galileo as “perhaps more than any other single person who is responsible for the birth of modern science.” Albert Einstein considered him the father of modern physics. Even Pope Pius XII described him as one of the “most audacious heroes of research.”
The church may have silenced Galileo's voice, but it could not crush his conviction that science is independent of religion. He did not budge an iota from the credo, which in his own words is: “In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.” He also lamented, “It vexes me when they would constrain science by the authority of the Scriptures, and yet do not consider themselves bound to answer reason and experiment.”
While under house arrest, he completed his other major work on the science of motion which was published in 1634 as Mathematical Discourses and Demonstrations Concerning Two New Sciences. It was a precursor to Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion which unlocked the secrets of nature and revealed the mysteries of the Universe.

The writer is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Fordham University, New York.

The anti-social network :(

recently conducted a social experiment and gave up my compulsive texting habit for a while. Instead, I had to pick up the telephone and actually ring people. It had a curious effect. Most people answered in a panic, assuming that I’d only make a phone call if it was to announce big news, such as a death, birth or imminent appearance on Big Brother. They were baffled by the truth – that I just wanted to know if they fancied a drink, and that I expected a definite answer as to where and when it would take place.

What I was encountering was people in the grip of the new sociological phenomenon of “micro co‑ordination”, as Professor Richard Ling at the IT University of Copenhagen has dubbed it. This is the idea that smartphones have revolutionised how we communicate, allowing us to make fluid and quickly changeable arrangements digitally. Gone are the days when we made plans verbally and stuck to them. Is this a good thing, though, or has it turned us into a bunch of liars and flakes?

This week, the text message is celebrating its 20th birthday. But cast your mind back to a time before smartphones. You couldn’t text a last-minute apology: “Aargh got flu, in bed, c u soon”, and settle down with a glass of wine to watch Strictly Come Dancing instead. You couldn’t email: “Meeting overrunning – can’t make lunch”, when you’d received a more appealing offer.

So ubiquitous has this fluid behaviour become that the old lie “the cheque’s in the post” has been replaced by “sry cant make it, spk soon x”. And if you wish to opt out of these new social mores, you haven’t a hope. As Prof Ling makes clear in his recent book, Taken for Grantedness: The Embedding of Mobile Communication into Society, we are all governed by the new behaviour.

“Everybody takes it for granted that we are constantly available on [mobiles],” says Ling. “So you are effectively coerced into this kind of communication… We used to structure our plans around time and location when organising our social life. Now we just use our phones, which enables us to change and manipulate what we do.

Samsung Galaxy S III to top mobile Christmas list

Samsung dominated the smartphone market in Britain in November, with its products occupying five of the top ten positions in the monthly uSwitch.com Mobile Tracker chart.

The Samsung Galaxy S III remains popular due to its reputation for matching the iPhone's specifications without the prohibitive price tag, and for a host of innovative features that are fast becoming industry standards.

Samsung's Galaxy S III, S II, Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Ace II and Galaxy Note II all feature in the top ten.

Second and third places are taken by Apple's iPhone, though perhaps surprisingly the iPhone 4S beats the recently released iPhone 5.

This is due in part to iPhone 5 contracts, which require customers to pay £47 a month in order to get the phone for free on the Vodafone network, for example, dropping to £42 a month for the iPhone 4S. It would appear smartphone users are not convinced there is enough of value in the iPhone 5's larger display and improved camera to warrant the extra money.

Wii U review

By Tom Hoggins, Video Games Editor

7:00AM GMT 30 Nov 2012

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It's been a difficult couple of years for Nintendo. Last year saw the Kyoto video games giant post the first annual loss in their history, as their new portable games console, 3DS, initially struggled and sales of their record-breaking Wii console finally began to decline. It was the Wii that, for many, catapulted video games to the heart of the living room. Its motion-control revolution appealing to those who had never played a video game before with an easy to understand concept: swing the remote, and your character on screen will duplicate it. 97 million consoles sold around the world confirming that its simple language was universal.

Nintendo's new home console, Wii U, arrives under a heavy burden and without the simplicity that made its predecessor so easy to sell. Communication has been a problem for Nintendo since the Wii U and its tablet-esque Gamepad controller was revealed. Was the Gamepad an add-on for Wii? Was it a portable attachment?

No and no. Wii U is a brand new home console that connects to your telly and the Gamepad is its fascinating controller. The new console itself is high-definition enabled and far more powerful than the Wii. The Wii U will come in two packages, the basic 8GB white version and the 32GB black premium edition, though the console is equipped with an SD card slot for you to add to your memory space. The black Premium console we tested is a lovely piece of kit too, the physical unit a sleek refinement of the Wii's compact form. It's longer, but discrete and more pleasing on the eye than its competitors.

Few will be too interested in what's on the outside, of course, preferring to focus on the Wii U's inner-workings. The Japanese company have been coy about releasing detailed specifications --their philosophy is to let their unique control system do the talking for them-- but the Wii U is largely on par with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 in terms of raw power, meaning most games will have visual parity. However, the CPU is reportedly slower and initial testing bears that out. The main hub-screen of the Wii U is slow to load, and stuttering on a playtest of the Wii U version of FIFA 13 does cause concern. However, this could be poor optimisation for the game itself and as developers become au fait with the Wii U's specs, we should see a marked improvement.

There's enough visual splendour in the games made specifically for Wii U to leave room for optimism too. New Super Mario Bros. U has gorgeous, bright and crisp visuals, while Ubisoft's ZombiU makes excellent use of light and shaders to build their grimy vision of London. It's quite possible that multi-format games will continue to look and run better on Xbox 360 and PS3, as developers are more familiar with the hardware, but the Wii U exclusive titles will have some of the best visuals around.

iTunes 11 review

iTunes is more than 11 years old, and the launch of version 11 today shows that much has changed since 2001 – but much has not.

It has now got a much-improved new look, but under the bonnet, iTunes is still the same familiar and much appreciated software.

It long ago had to incorporate media such as TV and film and today's slightly delayed launch allows the software to deal better with a a range of entertainment options.

The immediate impression is that there are more graphics, fewer pages of enormous lists of text, and a more intuitive interface.

On the left are your libraries, while in the centre you can choose to view by artist or album, etc, and on the right you can see your own iPods or other devices and the iTunes store.

Swiftkey Flow Beta Android App review

Free beta

Since phones moved to the touchscreen model, there have been apps such as Swiftkey that have aimed to make typing faster, and latterly have aimed to predict what we type. While many users claim that they are absolutely wedded to the physical keyboard models of their BlackBerrys, in fact when they transfer to touchscreens most do not look back.

With SwiftKey flow, two things come together: the first is to continuous typing to Swiftkey, meaning you simply glide (or ‘flow’) your finger from one letter to the next rather than tapping each key, and it also add the option of strings of words too. So users can drag their finger from one letter to the next, then to the space bar and start the next word, without ever taking your finger off the screen. While the single word option is increasingly built in to Samsung and Google Nexus devices such as the Nexus 4,the option to do sentences is incremental progress. When it works it can be a huge boon to the hurried user. When it doesn’t it’s infuriating but the balance is largely positive. I managed to ‘type’ entire messages without lifting my finger from the screen. While Google’s in-house version offers live updates on its suggestion in a bubble above your finger, Swiftkey does it in a bar above the keyboard.

The second is the continued SwiftKey feature of predicting the next word. This is less perfect –while it can analyse your Google and Facebook accounts to see your style, it doesn’t always get it quite right, and sometimes it’s just illiterate. The system presents three options each time: after I started typing “Are you” its next suggestions were “the” and OK”, both of which are plausible, but its third option was “are”. “Are you are” seems an unlikely way to begin a sentence.

Swiftkey Flow is, overall, a really good thing in the sense that Swype-style typing is good and largely accurate, and the word prediction is both often right and sometimes good enough that you’ll accept it. Frustratingly, however, the former doesn’t work everywhere it should, such as in the gmail search box on the Nexus 4, and the ‘flow’ part of incorporating the space bar can’t also predict words.