NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered evidence that points to the existence of an underground ocean of water and ammonia on Saturn's moon Titan.
"We believe that about 100 kilometers (62 miles) beneath the ice and organic-rich surface is an internal ocean of liquid water mixed with ammonia," said Bryan Stiles of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

If the findings turn out to be true, this will be the fourth such moon in our solar system found to have some form of water on it. Currently only three other moons, all from Jupiter, have been found to have known water sources. Ganymede, Callisto and Europa are so far the only known moons with a water source.
Members of the mission's science team used Cassini's Synthetic Aperture Radar to collect imaging data during 19 separate passes over Titan between October 2005 and May 2007. The radar can see through Titan's dense, methane-rich atmospheric haze, detailing never-before-seen surface features and establishing their locations on the moon's surface.

Using data from the radar's early observations, the scientists and radar engineers established the locations of 50 unique landmarks on Titan's surface. They then searched for these same lakes, canyons and mountains in the reams of data returned by Cassini in its later flybys of Titan. They found prominent surface features had shifted from their expected positions by up to 30 kilometers (19 miles). A systematic displacement of surface features would be difficult to explain unless the moon's icy crust was decoupled from its core by an internal ocean, making it easier for the crust to move.

Cassini scientists will not have long to wait before another go at Titan. On March 25, just prior to its closest approach at an altitude of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), Cassini will employ its Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer to examine Titan's upper atmosphere. Immediately after closest approach, the spacecraft's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer will capture high-resolution images of Titan's southeast quadrant.

The study of Titan is a major goal of the Cassini-Huygens mission because it may preserve, in deep-freeze, many of the chemical compounds that preceded life on Earth. Titan is the only moon in the solar system that possesses a dense atmosphere. The moon's atmosphere is 1.5 times denser than Earth's. Titan is the largest of Saturn's moons, bigger than the planet Mercury.

Graphic design is an integral part of website designing aimed at boosting the sales of the client. Web design firm should study the basic design requirements of the client and make use of colors, text, fonts and graphics to create magic through their imaginative designing. It is mandatory to take into account the medium, target audience, message and its aim while preparing a layout for the graphic design. There are many graphic designing firms in California that claim to offer state of the art online graphic design which meets the goal of the organization. Some of the top web design firms in California can be located through our graphic design directory.

It is better if the graphic design firm have knowledge about their client, meet them up to understand their requirements and the features of the products/services. This information influences the decision regarding what type of content has to be developed and type of style to be used in the designing. Further, the graphic design firm should be intimated with the budget as it becomes easier for the designer to visualize and design online graphics cost effectively.

Web graphic design companies use various forms of graphic art software like In Design, Photoshop Illustrator, Dream weaver and In Design to create mesmerizing interactive graphic designs. Graphics should be interactive enough to provide an insight of the client’s product in an innovative and attention catching manner. You can choose the web design firm from our graphic design directory according to designing need and the budget. Make sure to enquire and see the testimonials of the graphic design company before finalizing the firm.

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Directconnectweb.com - is an online directory providing listings for various Graphic Design companies specializing in custom graphic design, print media design, architectural design & photo image editing

You may not be aware of it but a part of the highways and parking lots that you drive your car into may have been around for millions of years! Those roadways and pavements considerable history can be attributed to one if its key component: asphalt. Yes, the asphalt that is used to pave the roads that you drive through has indeed been around since the prehistoric times to merit a discussion.

Asphalt has been dated back as early as the prehistoric period. Evidence of this claim can be attributed prehistoric animal preserves found by archaeologists at La Brea Tar Pit, Los Angeles California that have been observed to have asphalt deposits.

There should be no surprise to it already because by definition, asphalt is a black, viscous, cement-like bitumen (an organic byproduct of organic matter) that occurs naturally in crude petroleum. Since fossil deposits produce petroleum, it is natural to find asphalt that can date back to millions of years ago.

Even if it is a byproduct, technology has found different ways and means to utilize asphalt. However, industries at present do not use natural deposits of asphalts found directly from its source. The asphalt that is used these days has to be separated and isolated from crude oil such as naphtha, gasoline and diesel.

It was in the ancient times when natural asphalt was used extensively by civilizations.
Ancient Babylonians used natural asphalt as a building material. It can even be noted in the Old Testament books of Genesis and Exodus. If you browse through these books of the Bible, you can read that asphalt has been referred to several times as a 𓣡ulking material𔮠

From recent archaeological excavations, it has been found that asphalt was a significant material for ancient civilizations.

Dating back as far as 3200-540 BC, asphalt has been used by ancient civilizations near the Indus Valley such as the Mesopotamians as cement for masonry, a material for street construction and as a waterproofing layer for temple baths and water tanks to name a few.

Even Egyptian mummies had their fair share of asphalt. Mummies dating back as far as 300 BC had asphalt as one of its important materials for its mummification.

It was not until 1802 when asphalt was first used to pave roads. Back then, asphalt that was used was not yet refined and processed. Rock asphalt was first used in France for floors, bridges and sidewalk surfacing. Philadelphia then followed in 1838 when rock asphalt was also used to pave sidewalk constructions in the said state.

Before the use of processed asphalt, smooth and level roads were unheard of. Rocks, boulders and chunks of asphalt were used but not evened out to provide smooth and flat roads. Processed asphalt was not used up until 1870 when Newark, New Jersey claimed the title of the first state to have the first processed asphalt-laid pavement

Since then, the demand for processed asphalt has gradually increased. However, as the industrial age pushed forward, the demand for asphalt increased dramatically. From the 3 million-ton demand in 1926, the demand for asphalt increased up to 11 million tons in 1950, following the World War II.

The advantages of asphalt emulsion (a mixture of asphalt, water and an emulsifying agent that enables the asphalt to mix well with water) also helped in the boom of asphalt production.

During the 1970s when an energy conservation measure was issued by the Federal Energy Administration, asphalt emulsion became a commendable candidate for road construction. Since it did not require petroleum solvent to make it liquid and it can be used even without additional heat, the use of asphalt emulsion contributed much to the energy conservation drive of the government.

In retrospect, the asphalt on our present day roads and highways may not be millions of years old. However, the next time we walked through a sidewalk or drove to a parking lot; let us not disregard the history and the advantages that this age-old material has given us.

About the Author:
James Monahan is the owner and Senior Editor of www.AsphaltCenter.com .

Scientists reported that they had documented very fast evolution in the butterfly species Hypolimnas bolina. After infection by Wolbachia, the fraction of the population that was male dropped drastically to about 1% of the total population. However, after approximately ten generations (about a year) the male population had rebounded to about 39% of the overall population.

In the case of H. bolina, infected females were unable to have male offspring since the male embryos died early on. However, a gene arose which suppressed Wolbachia's ability to kill the male offspring, and this gene spread rapidly through the natural H. bolina population.

At this time, it is unknown if the novel gene was a mutation or a pre-existing gene. However, researchers said that regardless, the findings constituted strong evidence that parasites can drive and substantially alter evolution. The research was performed by scientists at the University of Berkeley lead by Sylvain Charlat, a post-doc at Berkeley.

Wolbachia is a bacterium that is very effective at jumping from species to species, generally infecting arthropods such as insects. Since the bacterium resides in the cytoplasm of cells, males cannot pass Wolbachia onto their offspring because sperms only pass on their nucleus with the DNA, but females can. Wolbachia has thus adapted a number of strategies, such as killing male embryos of infected females or preventing infected males from reproducing with uninfected females.

Wolbachia is dangerous to hosts because it is able to easily jump species barriers and so has little reason to restrain itself -if an infectious organism kills its host, it generally dies along with it. The bacterium is believed to be responsible for some extinction events as well as some speciation events.