Monday, February 25, 2002

'Dig deep to find alien life'. Ordinary microbes prove far hardier than realised in a study yielding clues about extraterrestrial life. [BBC News: sci/tech] E. coli is pretty tough at high pressure. It's prety wimpy otherwise. What this does say is that pressure is not going to be a major determinate for the limits of life. 12:21:15 PM

Hiding security bugs. Technology firms are limiting the spread of information about security bugs in software to stop vandals exploiting them before they are fixed. [BBC News: sci/tech] Yeah, right. This was basically set up by the BigCos to give them a way of hiding their poor software. Full disclosure is always the best idea. 12:10:29 PM

Sceptics denounce climate science 'lie'. US and UK scientists say climate studies do not prove human activities are warming the world. [BBC News: sci/tech] For those confused by the battling scientists, this is how the process normally unfolds. Any new body of thinking is always challenged. If the new ideas are true, they will hold up to the challenge. If not, they are discarded and a new idea is proposed to explain the observations. Right now we are trying to make predictions of a very complex system (climate) and use those to shape public policy. 12:02:58 PM

Nanotechnology is the "next big thing." Advances in this field will have impacts in electronics, medicine, biological research, etc. Recently Nanowire-Based Electronics had a major breakthrough. SpaceDaily.com Feb 23 2002 7:40PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]. In ten years devices using nanotechnology will surround us. 11:56:18 AM

US Certifies Theft Of Russian Nuclear Material Has Occurred. Space Daily Feb 25 2002 1:38AM ET [Moreover - moreover...] The nuclear material at these sites is likely the greatest concern. Let's get rid of it all, then we don't have to worry about someone using it. 11:47:05 AM