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Key Proteins In Blood Stem Cell Replication PinpointedA discovery from Stanford researchers is the first to directly link the notorious members of the retinoblastoma family of proteins to the cellular production factories responsible for churning out all the blood and immune cells in the body.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Digital Zebrafish Embryo Provides First Complete Developmental Blueprint Of A VertebrateResearchers in Europe have generated a digital zebrafish embryo -- the first complete developmental blueprint of a vertebrate. With a new microscope scientists could for the first time track all cells for the first 24 hours in the life of a zebrafish. The data was reconstructed into a three-dimensional, digital representation of the embryo.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Extending The Life Of Fresh CranberriesCranberries are tart, tiny fruits packed with powerful antioxidants. The good news about cranberries is spreading, resulting in growing consumer demand for fresh cranberries and cranberry products. This demand has led to increased interest in finding ways to extend the shelf life of the popular fruit.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Statins May Prevent Miscarriages, Study SuggestsHospital for Special Surgery researchers have found that statins may be able to prevent miscarriages in women who are suffering from pregnancy complications caused by antiphospholipid syndrome, according to a study in mice.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Tobacco Smuggling Is Killing More People Than Illegal Drugs, Experts ClaimTobacco smuggling causes around 4,000 premature deaths a year -- four times the number of deaths caused by the use of all smuggled illegal drugs put together -- but the UK government is not doing enough to tackle the problem, claim experts on the British Medical Journal website.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Waterborne Disease Risk Upped In Great LakesAn anticipated increased incidence of climate-related extreme rainfall events in the Great Lakes region may raise the public health risk for the 40 million people who depend on the lakes for their drinking water, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Understanding The Cycle Of ViolenceResearchers have long known that children who grow up in an aggressive or violent household are more likely to become violent or aggressive in future relationships but the developmental link has been unclear. Researchers now say children who grow up in aggressive households may learn to process social information differently than their peers. "Children with high-conflict parents are more likely to think that aggressive responses would be good ways to handle social conflicts."Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Unlocking Stem Cell, DNA Secrets To Speed TherapiesResearchers have discovered that as embryonic stem cells turn into different cell types, there are dramatic corresponding changes to the order in which DNA is replicated and reorganized.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm New Findings May Improve Treatment Of Inherited Breast CancerScientists have identified some of the elusive downstream molecules that play a critical role in the development and progression of familial breast cancer. The research also identifies a compound found in grapes and red wine as an excellent candidate for treatment of some forms of breast cancer.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Breast Stem Cell Fate Is Regulated By 'Notch'A normal developmental protein that sometimes goes awry has been implicated in breast cancer. This discovery indicates the mechanism by which inappropriate expression of the notch pathway may contribute to breast cancer.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Unlocking the Secrets of Atomic Nuclei (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Oct 2008 | 2:22 pm The 100th Crewed Soyuz Flight That (Maybe) Isn'tThe Sunday launch of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft will mark the 100th crewed launch. Or will it?Source: Livescience.com | 11 Oct 2008 | 1:03 pm The 100th Crewed Soyuz Flight That (Maybe) Isn't (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - HOUSTON - As the commander of the next Soyuz launch to the International Space Station, Yuri Lonchakov was in charge of designing a patch to represent his three-person crew.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Oct 2008 | 1:02 pm Space Tourist, Station Crew to Launch SundayThe new space station Expedition 18 is set to launch Sunday.Source: Livescience.com | 11 Oct 2008 | 1:01 pm The Nation's Weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Oct 2008 | 11:59 am Russia says Soyuz space landings will be safeBAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - Russian space authorities said on Saturday they had improved safety measures for spaceships returning to Earth from the International Space Station after a series of rough landings.Source: Reuters: Science News | 11 Oct 2008 | 11:50 am Rich ecosystemThe skills which you might need to save the planetSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Oct 2008 | 10:36 am Nasa committed to Mars rover planNasa is pushing ahead with plans to launch its next Mars mission in 2009, but acknowledges that extra funds are required to make it happen.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Oct 2008 | 9:26 am Peruvian president accepts full cabinet resignation (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Oct 2008 | 2:07 am Video Podcast #6: 192 Lasers, Nuclear Weapons and Fusion Power
LIVERMORE, California — Who says that there's nothing good about nuclear weapons research? The National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was built by the Department of Energy to gather data on the thermonuclear reactions that occur inside atomic weapons. And as an excellent side bonus, NIF (rhymes with stiff) could unlock the secret of harnessing fusion for unlimited, clean electricity. To achieve these high-fallutin' goals, NIF contains 192 of the world's most powerful lasers, which wend their way through a series of amplifiers inside the three-football-fields-long laser bay. At the end of their journey, their energy is focused onto a tiny target about the size of the end of your pinkie. When the facility is up to full-power, sometime next year, the physicists hope the lasers will fuse hydrogen atoms inside the target into helium, giving off more power than was pumped into them. In this video, we tour the high-security facility and I talk with its director, Ed Moses, about this unique place and its role in the future of energy. Every week, Wired Science will bring you videos on the latest in science, medicine, energy, and space. You can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, too, so check us out there. Image: Alexis Madrigal/Wired.com See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 11 Oct 2008 | 12:24 am Environmental Destruction Could Cost World $5 Trillion -- Each Year
That's nothing compared with the $2 to $5 trillion per year ecological damage costs the world each year, according to the preliminary report from an European Union-sponsored group of economists. The calculation attempts to value the services, such as absorbing carbon dioxide and nitrogen fixation, that natural systems like forests provide for humans. "So whereas Wall Street by various calculations has to date lost, within the financial sector, $1-$1.5 trillion, the reality is that at today's rate we are losing natural capital at least between $2-$5 trillion every year," Pavan Sukhdev, a Deutsche Bank economist and the study's leader, told the BBC today. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity report uses a similar methodology as the Stern Review, a landmark report by British economist Nicholas Stern, which argued that the cost of doing nothing about climate change outweighed the costs of even strict CO2 mitigation measures. A landmark Nature paper in 1997 estimated the value of the world's ecosystems at somewhere between $16-54 trillion dollars (pdf). This type of accounting, in both its general thrust and detail, has been criticized by some economists. Pinning a number on the value of healthy air is no easy task.
Unlike standard commodities, no one can buy or sell the air to determine a
"fair market value" for it. "These are predominantly public goods with no markets and no prices," Sukhdev's group's website notes. But the idea that nature has some kind of quantifiable value appears to be gaining steam among the scientific community. Earlier this year, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ran a nine-article special feature on implementing development strategies based on the concept of valuing ecosystem services. Via > The BBC Image: flickr/Taran Rampersad WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter , Google Reader feed, and webpage; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:17 pm Bad Science: Detecting faultlines in CO servicing surveyBen Goldacre: Lloyds Pharmacy is trying to flog carbon monoxide detectors (for only £12.99)Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:13 pm Climate Models Trump Financial Models — Phew!
In two words, say scientists and financial engineers: not really. It turns out that it's much harder to model human sentiment, the basis of value, than particle interaction. "It's the physics. The issue is that economic models aren't based on any underlying physically observed facts. They're based on people's feelings," said Gavin Schmidt, a climate modeler at Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "We're not having a climate crisis because there's a lack of confidence in water vapor." Modeling systems has always been a part of science, but increasing computer power has brought ever-more complex systems within the grasp of would-be modelers. Over the past two decades, scores of physicists, mathematicians and other scientists have headed to Wall Street to apply their knowledge to the markets. The models these "quants" created underpin a lot of the current financial system, particularly how options and derivatives are priced. The complexity of these models has been partially blamed for the problems the world's credit markets now face. Meanwhile, scientists trying to understand the impact of human carbon dioxide emissions have built increasingly sophisticated models of the atmospheric chemistry of the Earth, which have come under criticism as well. Given that both are big complex, computer-driven efforts, it's natural to link the two, as in this New Scientist article defending the accuracy of climate models. "The claim is sometimes made that if computer models were any good, people would be using them to predict the stock market. Well, they are!" writes the author. But Emanuel Derman, a physicist turned financial engineer, who teaches at Columbia University, said that while the symbols and math used in finance are drawn from science, they don't mean the same things. "Climate models are very complex but you more or less understand the basic physics or chemistry," said Derman. "[Finance papers] look like physics but a lot of the similarity is syntactic more than semantic." For example, stock options are priced with the Black-Scholes model, which says that stock price movement can be seen to move like the random movements of particles suspended in a liquid, i.e. Brownian motion. But stock price models differ from particle models because they describe the aggregate actions of people. "When you put out a weather forecast, the weather doesn't read your forecast and get affected by it," Derman said. In other words, Derman argues, in a soon-to-be released essay, the primary difference between physical and financial models is that the accuracy of financial models could be fundamentally unknowable. No test can really validate how they works. "The gap between a successful financial model and the correct value is nearly indefinable," he writes. Functionally, the ability to generate returns determines how useful a financial model is. "What then is the test of the [Black-Scholes] model?" asked Jeremy Bernstein in a prescient 2004 Commentary article. "Presumably, it is that if one uses it as a guide to buy these options and, as a result, goes broke, one will be inclined to re-examine the assumptions. Presumably." But the quantitative models aren't totally at fault for the financial crisis, Derman said. "There was an over reliance on these models," he said. "But I think there's a whole chain of people trying to make a buck and greed and excitement and enthusiasm and somewhere in there some quantitative people built models." WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter , Google Reader feed, and webpage; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 10 Oct 2008 | 10:20 pm NASA gives budget-busting Mars probe a reprieveCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA needs more money to resolve problems with its next Mars mission and keep it on track for launch next year, and is gambling that the U.S. Congress will find the extra funds, officials said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 10 Oct 2008 | 10:08 pm NASA presses ahead for Mars rover launch in 2009 (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Oct 2008 | 9:54 pm Stem cell generation from ordinary cells now safe (Reuters)Reuters - Japanese researchers who invented a way to make powerful stem cells out of ordinary cells say they have now found a safer way to do it.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Oct 2008 | 9:46 pm This Week's Best Science ImagesThe coolest photos from the world of science during the week of 10/6/08.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 9:08 pm Xenophobia Founded on Faulty AssumptionsImmigration: the most disadvantaged kids might turn out to be the whiz kids.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:19 pm Tropical Species Also Threatened by Climate ChangeTropical species may be even more threatened by warming than polar animals.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Oct 2008 | 6:34 pm Scientists: Virginia shark's pup a 'virgin birth' (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Oct 2008 | 6:32 pm Flying Cars Near TakeoffThe Moller skycar is on its way.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 6:15 pm Space Station Toilet Breaks AgainThe International Space Station's master toilet is on the fritz again.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 5:37 pm World's loneliest bug may offer clues to life on other planetsA bug which lives entirely on its own without oxygen and in complete darkness could offer clues to life on other planets.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Oct 2008 | 5:35 pm Gaming Makes Grown-Ups Safer DriversOlder adults may soon be able to play video games and get cheaper car insurance.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Oct 2008 | 5:34 pm Ancient Bling Went GreenPeople must have gone to great lengths to obtain stones of the latest color.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 5:17 pm Einstein letters discussing post-war Russia go on saleLetters penned by Albert Einstein in which he sets out his views on how to deal with Russia to go under hammer in LondonSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 10 Oct 2008 | 5:10 pm Carbon monoxide poisoning newspapersHow carbon monoxide poisoned 150 newspapers (with a little help from their prejudices)Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 10 Oct 2008 | 4:57 pm America's Superpower Status Threatened by Financial CrisisAt the very least, world power is likely to be share more, analysts say.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 4:33 pm Do Lie Detectors Work?Polygraphs don't actually out a liar.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 3:42 pm Creation Museum Claims Big CrowdsYear and a half after opening, Creation Museum claims to draw crowds.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Oct 2008 | 3:31 pm Doctors, investors get latest data on heart devicesCHICAGO (Reuters) - After years of controversy and concern over the safety and overuse of drug-coated heart stents, physicians and investors attending a cardiology meeting next week will get a clearer look at how these devices are used.Source: Reuters: Science News | 10 Oct 2008 | 3:04 pm Gaming Mogul to Blast Off on Russian RocketA son of a U.S. astronaut and video game mogul is slated to blast off to space.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Oct 2008 | 2:34 pm Animals Have Personalities, Too (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - We know our siblings and in-laws have personalities - sometimes to a fault. But science recently has revealed that such individual differences are widespread in the animal kingdom, even reaching to spiders, birds, mice, squid, rats and pigs.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:25 pm Where Have All the Little Plutos Gone?The far corners of our solar system may be surprisingly sparse, research shows.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:23 pm Second 'Virgin Birth' Documented in SharkA female shark becomes pregnant without a male in a second documented case.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:15 pm
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$700 billion? 
