Video: Jason2 satellite luanched to track Oceans, climate change

A new NASA-French space agency oceanography satellite launched June 20 on a globe-circling voyage to continue charting sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. The mission will return a vast amount of new data that will improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts.

Measurements of sea-surface height, or ocean surface topography, reveal the speed and direction of ocean currents and tell scientists how much of the sun’s energy is stored by the ocean. Combining ocean current and heat storage data is key to understanding global climate variations.

OSTM/Jason 2’s expected lifetime of at least three years will extend into the next decade the continuous record of these data started in 1992 by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, or CNES, with the TOPEX/Poseidon mission. The data collection was continued by the two agencies on Jason 1 in 2001.

The mission culminates more than three decades of research by NASA and CNES in this field. This expertise will be passed on to the world’s weather and environmental forecasting agencies, which will be responsible for collecting the data. The involvement of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) as mission partners on OSTM/Jason 2 helps establish this proven research capability as a valuable tool for use in everyday applications.

From Science Daily: Read article
From National Geogrphaic: Watch video

the future of artificial limbs?

Shurford says: another lesson from the blue…

The razor-sharp beaks that giant squids use to attack whales — and maybe even Captain Nemo’s submarine — might one day lead to improved artificial limbs for people.

That deadly beak may be a surprise to many people, and has long posed a puzzle for scientists. They wonder how a creature without any bones can operate it without hurting itself.

Now, researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, report in Friday’s edition of the journal Science that they have an explanation

The beak, made of hard chitin and other materials, changes density gradually from the hard tip to a softer, more flexible base where it attaches to the muscle around the squid’s mouth, the researchers found.

That means the tough beak can chomp away at fish for dinner, but the hard material doesn’t press or rub directly against the squid’s softer tissues.

Herbert Waite, a professor in the university’s department of molecular, cellular developmental biology and co-author of the paper, said such graduated materials could have broad applications in biomedical materials.

From Discovery Channel News. Read more here