Latest Swarm Stories

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online In the next few months, scientists from across Europe will be gathering together to try and choose the European Space Agency's next Earth Explorer mission. The series of Earth Explorer satellites are designed to advance science by exploring different aspects of Earth. The missions are helping scientists improve their understanding of the interactions between Earth's different components, and how human activity is affecting natural...

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau: (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110428/DC91889LOGO) FRIDAY, JULY 20: HISTORIC BUG PROBLEM Profile America -- Friday, July 20th. Beginning on this date in 1874, the largest swarm of Rocky Mountain locusts ever recorded blackened the skies from the Dakotas to Texas and stripped farm fields in minutes. The swarm is estimated to have been 1,800...

Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.com ESA was recently able to make a software fix and get its veteran Earth-observing micro satellite Proba-1 back into full operation. Proba-1 has been in hibernation since last winter, and has been working and orbiting around the Earth for more than a decade. The space agency said that new software from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) allows the satellite to distinguish between genuine star constellations to measure its pointing direction versus...

SAN DIEGO, March 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- REGEN Energy(TM) proudly announces the release of its latest set of enhancements to the patented Swarm Energy Management(TM) platform, now featuring LiveHive(TM). The LiveHive feature allows REGEN's electric load controllers to sense live changing conditions and automatically adjust their own setting in response to these changes, thereby optimizing the swarm's peak reduction savings across warm or cool days. The LiveHive feature is capable of...

With a newly developed math equation, new insights could come on cell development and drug therapies Neither births nor deaths stop the flocking of organisms. They just keep moving, says theoretical physicist John J. Toner of the University of Oregon. The notion, he says, has implications in biology and eventually could point to new cancer therapies. Picture any scenario in which self-propelled organisms -- animals, birds, bacteria, molecules within cells, cancer cells, fish, and even...

The three satellites that make up ESA’s Swarm magnetic field mission were presented to the media on Feb 17. Following a demanding testing program, the satellites were displayed in the cleanroom before they are shipped to Russia for their July launch. Swarm is ESA’s first constellation of Earth observation satellites designed to measure the magnetic signals from Earth’s core, mantle, crust, oceans, ionosphere and magnetosphere, providing data that will allow scientists to study the...

Low protein grasses, land management choices can make insect swarms likely to roam While residents of the United States and much of Europe think of locust plagues as biblical references, locust swarms still have devastating effects on agriculture today, especially in developing countries in Asia and Africa. In a study in the journal Science on Jan. 27, scientists from Arizona State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences show that insect nutrition and agricultural land management...

First launch of Vega Europe's family of launchers will welcome its smallest member, Vega. Location: CSG, Europe's Spaceport (French Guiana) Date: 9 February BepiColombo presentation to media ESA's mission to explore Mercury will undergo extensive testing in 2012. The complete launch stack configuration (Structural and Thermal Model), composed of the European and Japanese orbiters, the Transfer Module and the Sunshield, will be assembled for mechanical testing and presented to the...

Protein associated with learning implicated in causing grasshoppers to swarm New research has found that a protein associated with learning and memory plays an integral role in changing the behavior of locusts from that of harmless grasshoppers into swarming pests. Desert Locusts are a species of grasshopper that have evolved a Jekyll-and-Hyde disposition to survive in their harsh environment. In their solitary phase, they avoid other locusts and occur in very low density. When the...