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NASA Tests Rover Concepts In ArizonaNASA's newest lunar rover prototype has now gone farther than it ever has before. A collection of engineers, astronauts and geologists have spent the past week testing out the Small Pressurized Rover in the 11th annual Desert RATS -- or Research and Technology Studies -- field tests.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Fight Obesity With New Antibody That Degrades Appetite Stimulant?Scientists have discovered a catalytic antibody that degrades a known appetite stimulant. The antibody works against the gastric hormone ghrelin, which has been linked to weight gain and fat storage through its metabolic actions.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm How We See Objects In Depth: Brain's Code For 3-D StructureNeuroscientists have discovered patterns of brain activity that may underlie our remarkable ability to see and understand the three-dimensional structure of objects.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Healing Process Found To Backfire In Lung PatientsA mechanism in the body which typically helps a person heal from an injury, may actually be causing patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis to get worse, researchers have found.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Does Religion Make A Difference In Politics?Hoping to answer the question of which political party has a monopoly on the "best" values and how religion affects these values, researchers compared the "extrinsic" values (financial success, status, appearance) with "intrinsic" values (growth, intimacy, helping) of self-declared Democrats and Republicans in four different samples.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Models Help Assess Biofuels' SustainabilityMany agricultural products can be converted into feedstocks for alternative fuel. Now analysis from the Agricultural Research Service suggests that they can be used this way without reducing the nation's food supply, soil production capacity or environmental quality.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm NASA's Spitzer Gets Sneak Peek Inside Comet HolmesWhen comet Holmes unexpectedly erupted in 2007, professional and amateur astronomers around the world turned their telescopes toward the spectacular event. Their quest was to find out why the comet had suddenly exploded. Observations taken of the comet after the explosion by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope deepen the mystery, showing oddly behaving streamers in the shell of dust surrounding the nucleus of the comet.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 3:00 pm Fire Out Of Africa: A Key To The Migration Of Prehistoric HumansThe ability to make fire millennia ago was likely a key factor in the migration of prehistoric hominids from Africa into Eurasia, according to an archaeologist studying the findings at the Gesher Benot Ya'aqov archaeological site in Israel.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 3:00 pm Masks, Hand Washing, Prevent Spread Of Flu-like Symptoms By Up To 50 PercentWearing masks and using alcohol-based hand sanitizers may prevent the spread of flu symptoms by as much as 50 percent, a new study suggests.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 3:00 pm Honing In On New Strategy To Treat Common InfectionResearchers have successfully tested a genetic strategy designed to improve treatment of human infections caused by the yeast Candida albicans, ranging from diaper rash, vaginitis, oral infections (or thrush which is common in HIV/AIDS patients), as well as invasive, blood-borne and life-threatening diseases.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 3:00 pm Ivory auction opens amid concernsThe first legal sale of southern African ivory for almost a decade opens with conservationists split over its impact.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Oct 2008 | 10:56 am Mary Midgley: Let Darwin, not Dawkins, be our guideMary Midgley: Our minds have developed from simpler ones by evolution, but what is so sinister about that?Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 28 Oct 2008 | 10:30 am People powerUK climate policy 'overlooks local communities'Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Oct 2008 | 10:29 am Scott Atran: Scientists and the secular-minded predict the demise of religion, but around the globe it is thrivingScott Atran: Will religion fade away: Scientists and the secular-minded predict the demise of religion, but around the globe it is thrivingSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 28 Oct 2008 | 10:16 am BP third-quarter profits surge on record high oil prices (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 9:38 am Wearing red boosts attraction, say scientistsWomen who don a little red dress before going out with a man may find their date more attentive and generous, according to scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Oct 2008 | 8:19 am The Cloudy Ethics of Utilitarianism
In one context, it seems perfectly justifiable to save many lives by sacrificing one; in another, that exchange feels unconscionable, even though the equation has not changed. Perhaps our moral reasoning is not as reasonable as it seems. "The interesting thing," said Harvard University social psychologist Mahzarin Banaji, "is the lack of consistency. Suddenly we become Kantians." Nowhere is this clearer than the trolley dilemma, a classic thought experiment designed to expose this paradox. Imagine a trolley is headed towards five people bound to a track; you can choose to save their lives by throwing a switch and diverting the train to another track, where it will only run over one person. Most people would do this, albeit unhappily: it's better for one person to die than five. But change the situation slightly: you're now standing on a bridge beside a stranger, watching the trolley roll towards five people. The only way to stop the train is by pushing the stranger off the bridge and into its path. Presented with this option, said Banaji at the meeting of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing in Palo Alto on Sunday, most people refuse. In our guts, something seems different about tossing someone in front of the train rather than sending the train at someone -- and neither social psychologists nor neuroscientists nor philosophers know why. Interestingly, if the characters in the dilemma are replaced with chimpanzees, people are unhesitatingly willing to throw the monkey on the track. "When something is different from us, we become utilitarian. But for ourselves, we observe Kantian principles," said Banaji. What do you think, Wired Science readers? Is our seemingly paradoxical behavior an accidental short-circuiting of our moral wiring, betraying the arbitrary nature of morality as calculated by our brains? Or does it make evolutionary sense at some subtle behavioral level? Image: Harvard University WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 28 Oct 2008 | 7:08 am Screening hope for pre-eclampsiaA blood test that screens pregnant women for pre-eclampsia could be available in five years, doctors predict.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Oct 2008 | 6:39 am New deal to rescue Borneo orangutans in Malaysia (AP)AP - Conservationists said Tuesday they were planning a big push to protect Borneo's orangutans, pygmy elephants and other endangered wildlife by purchasing land from palm oil producers to create a forest sanctuary.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 6:06 am Should Racially Fair Juries Be Picked by Mind-Reading?
Rather than asking prospective jurors if they are racist, the legal system could use established behavioral tests to determine racial bias -- and these tests, though imperfect, would almost certainly be more accurate. So why not do this? Because people shouldn't be held responsible for their unconscious biases, argues Harvard University social psychologist Mahzarin Banaji. It's a seemingly odd position for Banaji, who has used the results of implicit association tests to demand that white surgeons treat black patients with greater care. "We can't just walk away and say it's an interesting test," she said. "It predicts your behavior." But there's a difference, said Banaji in a talk at the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing annual meeting in Palo Alto, California this week. Testing unconscious biases predicts behavior at the group level, but not necessarily an individual level. A hundred people who qualify as racist will, on the average, act racist -- but some of them will be able to keep their biases in conscious check. "We can't just give people this test and say, 'You can't be on the jury,'" she said. "People should be able to say what they are. It's a research and self-awareness tool." The research brings up some difficult questions. If a few qualified jurors are tossed out along with a great many prejudiced people, should the tests be used? And if so, where should society draw the line: should other people, such as teachers or doctors or personnel managers, be required to take the tests? Image: The Human Race Machine WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 28 Oct 2008 | 5:35 am Red on Women Drives Men Wild (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - Red may be the color of love for a reason: It makes men feel more amorous towards women, a new study reports.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 5:04 am Red on Women Drives Men WildWomen pictured wearing red were rated more attractive by male test subjects.Source: Livescience.com | 28 Oct 2008 | 5:01 am Fifteen killed in Bangladesh storm (Reuters)Reuters - At least 15 people were killed and some 300 injured by a tropical storm that battered southern Bangladesh, officials said on Tuesday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 3:44 am Technology helps restore Raphael masterpieceFLORENCE (Reuters) - After 10 years of painstaking study and restoration that tested both cutting edge technology and human patience, one of the greatest masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance is returning to the public.Source: Reuters: Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 3:33 am Artificial heart ready for human trials by 2011, say specialistsThe first prosthetic heart to beat like a living organ could be fully implanted into patients within three yearsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 28 Oct 2008 | 3:01 am Arctic ice thickness 'plummets'Arctic sea ice thickness "plummeted" last winter, thinning by as much as 49cm in some regions, data shows.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Oct 2008 | 2:53 am Study: Smog chops 2 months off Mexicans' lives (AP)AP - Mexicans would live an average of two months longer if they breathed cleaner air, Harvard researchers conclude in a study published Monday. The study found that some 7,600 people's lives were cut short each year by diseases related to air pollution between 2001-2005, representing about 1.6 percent of annual deaths in Mexico.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Oct 2008 | 12:28 am Perceptual Bias Clouds Tennis Refs' Calls
Tennis players should be disputing more referees calls that their shots landed outside the lines, according to a new study by brain researchers. About 100 milliseconds of lag time built into the human visual processing system causes observers to systematically misperceive how far objects have traveled. In tennis terms, that perceptual bias leads referees to incorrectly call shots out that actually hit the line.
"Players should concentrate their challenges on balls that are called 'out'," the authors write in the journal Current Biology. The quirks of visual perception have been widely demonstrated through simple optical illusions and sophisticated scientific research, but their impact on sports has gone largely uninvestigated. The new study is one of the first to show that even trained referees conform to predictions about the limits of their perception. In this case, the bias is not obvious, even to long-time viewers and players. Former professional tennis player George Turner, now a lawyer in New York, said that he'd never noticed the systematic bias. In fact, he'd have predicted the opposite. "I would have said that they called more balls in that they should have called them out," Turner said. Indeed, professional players do not appear to have a strategy for selectively challenging referees' calls, even though the UC-Davis work suggests they should. "If I had known that theory, I would have challenged more," said Turner. Image credit: Serena Williams. flickr/grandwaz WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter , Google Reader feed, and webpage; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 28 Oct 2008 | 12:25 am Web journals 'narrowing study'Online publishing reduces academic research to little more than a 'popularity contest', critics warn. Linda Nordling reportsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 28 Oct 2008 | 12:03 am Big decline in depth of Arctic winter sea iceThe thickness of sea ice in the Arctic dramatically declined last winter for the first time since records began in the early 1990s. The research by British scientists shows a significant loss in the thickness of the northern ice cap after the record loss of ice in the summer of 2007, although the weather was not abnormally warm. The findings, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, raise the possibility that the loss of the Arctic sea ice could accelerate, because as the ice recedes the water temperature rises. This summer the sea ice recorded its second-lowest extent after the record low of 2007, again despite relatively cool air temperatures. However, Katharine Giles of the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at University College London, who led the study, said it was too soon to say whether the downward trend would continue and lead to summer sea ice disappearing even faster than forecast. "It's dangerous to extrapolate out because colder weather would mean the ice could recover again," said Giles. "This data will help climate modellers to validate their models and make them more accurate." The study, part-funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and the European Union, found the thickness of sea ice in the Arctic was almost unchanged in the five winters from 2002-6, but then declined 10%, or 26cm, last winter. In parts of the western Arctic, where the greatest loss was recorded the previous summer, the loss was nearly double the average. But Vicky Pope, the Met Office's leading adviser to the government on climate change, warned: "There's clearly a decline over the last 30 years and we can detect a human signal in that, but the change in the last couple of years could be due to natural fluctuations in the weather." Other causes of sea ice changes could include ocean currents and wind piling up ice, making it important to measure both thickness and extent to calculate total volume, said Giles. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 28 Oct 2008 | 12:03 am Letter: Faith, humanism and teapotsLetter: Your interview with Richard Dawkins ('People say I'm strident', October 25) buys into the mistake that science and religion are at warSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 28 Oct 2008 | 12:03 am Wise Elephants Fear RoadsForest elephants are steering clear of Africa roads where poaching is rampant.Source: Livescience.com | 28 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am It's Hard up Here for a Blimp
For less than $500, you can take a flight on the the first zeppelin to touch down on American soil in more than seven decades. Housed in an enormous hangar at NASA Ames in Mountain View, California, the 246-foot airship is the longest in the country, and one of just three existing zeppelins in the world. The ship, which is like a blimp but with a rigid frame, arrived Saturday at NASA's Moffett Field, home to three of the 12 remaining airship hangars in the United States. It will make its first commercial flight on Oct. 31. The airship was built in Germany by Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik for Airship Ventures, which was launched last year by Brian and Alexandra Hall with the help of angel investor Esther Dyson. The venture was inspired by a flight Brian took in a zeppelin in Germany. The helium-filled zeppelin seats 12, has a range of 500 miles and tops out at 77 mph. Because the ship has a rigid frame, the engines are attached to the frame rather than the passenger gondola, which makes for a quieter ride.
The first commercial flight will take off on Halloween with members of the band Abney Park, headliner at the California Steampunk Convention, which will be taking place in nearby Sunnyvale Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. The band, and eight of the their biggest fans will stage a pirate take over of the ship in steampunk costumes before the flight. Historic Halloween Steampunk Airship Ride with Victorian Rockers Abney Park [Boing Boing] See Also: Images: Sam Coniglio Source: Wired: Wired Science | 27 Oct 2008 | 11:54 pm Ice sheet secrets to be revealedThe secrets of the largest ice sheet on earth are to be revealed under plans to map the Antarctic in detail.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Oct 2008 | 11:50 pm Climate link to amphibian declineAmphibian populations at Yellowstone - the world's oldest national park - are in steep decline, a study shows.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Oct 2008 | 11:06 pm Mine from time of King Solomon found (AP)AP - The fictional King Solomon's Mines held a treasure of gold and diamonds, but archaeologists say the real mines may have supplied the ancient king with copper.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Oct 2008 | 10:29 pm Video - The Naked Truth Under ClothesSoftware uncovers detailed body shape from analyzing clothed images. Credit: Alexandru Balan & Michael Black / Brown UniversitySource: Livescience.com | 27 Oct 2008 | 9:36 pm Yellowstone Amphibians Declining Under Climate ChangeThree of the four amphibian species native to Yellowstone are declining.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Oct 2008 | 9:31 pm Climate Change Destroying Walden Pond's Flowers
Comparing data meticulously gathered by Henry David Thoreau more than a century and a half ago with more recent observations, Harvard biologists report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that more than a quarter of Walden's plant species have already been lost. And an additional 36 percent are in imminent danger, including lilacs, roses and buttercups. "It had been thought that climate change would result in uniform shifts across plant species, but our work shows that plant species do not respond to climate change uniformly or randomly," said co-author Charles Davis, a biologist at Harvard, in a release. The Walden study shows that even small changes in temperature can have outsized impacts on plants that are evolutionarily adapted to fulfill ecological niches. Together with changes seen in other locations, like the unprecedented pine beetle damage in the West, the new work suggests that finely tuned biological systems are having a difficult time keeping up with the rapid pace of human-induced climate change. The average temperature around Walden has risen by more than four
degrees over the last century as increasing greenhouse gas
concentrations from burning fossil fuels changed the earth's climate. But the warming is not just mowing the forest down, it's shaping it as some plant species thrive under the new global conditions. The earth is not
a mere fragment of dead history, stratum upon stratum like the leaves of
a book, to be studied by geologists and antiquaries chiefly, but living
poetry like the leaves of a tree, which precede flowers and fruit — not
a fossil earth, but a living earth. "Most strikingly, species with the ability to track short-term seasonal temperature variation have fared significantly better under recent warming trends," the authors write. Although the design of the Walden study is simple, it depends on the value of Thoreau's rare pre-industrial data. "Whenever you have an opportunity to get a dataset where someone who
has made very careful efforts to observe things in a systematic way, it
gives you a snapshot of a particular time period and lets you make
comparisons," said Mark Schwartz, a world expert in phenology, the
field of seasonal changes in living things, at the University of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Unfortunately, very few ecosystems have been recorded in such excruciating detail. "We don't have a large number of datasets of this sort," Schwartz said. "Most of them are concentrated in Europe and in Asia. There are very few in North America." For example, Isabelle Chuine at France's Center for Evolutionary and Functional Ecology, published a paper in Nature using detailed grape harvest records in Burgundy dating from as far back as 1370. Schwartz also noted that many European weather services record phenological data along with their weather measurements, while American weather stations do not. As a result, Americans know less about when our plants bloom than many other countries. But Schwartz is trying to change that by empowering Americans to contribute their own Thoreau-style data. He's the chair of the National Phenology Network, a new organization attempting to incorporate data from ecological stations, citizen scientists and other types of fieldwork. Already, one of the NPN's efforts — Project BudBurst — has marshaled several thousand people to track the timing of plant flowerings in their backyards as they shift due to climate change. Their data could not only benefit scientists of the present and future, but could aid in providing Americans with direct evidence of climate change, helping to create the political will necessary to address the nation's greenhouse gas emissions. "When someone asks me about climate change, I say, 'You can go observe it in your own backyard,'" Schwartz said. "If you want to see what's happening, start taking records and see for yourself." Citation: "Phylogenetic patterns of species loss in Thoreau's woods are driven by climate change" http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0806446105 Image: A specimen from Harvard University's Herbaria :: Rosaceae Pyrus bretschneideri Rehder WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter, Google Reader feed and webpage; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 27 Oct 2008 | 9:23 pm Scientists Grow Bigger, Better DiamondsResearchers use refined method to grow bigger, clearer synthetic diamonds.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Oct 2008 | 9:00 pm Climate change affecting Walden Pond plants (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Oct 2008 | 9:00 pm How Life Should End: What Physicians ThinkIndividuals tend to stick with their end-of-life wishes over time.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Oct 2008 | 8:01 pm US claims rule changes don't threaten wildlife (AP)AP - The Bush administration on Monday said that changes it wants to make to endangered species rules before President Bush leaves office will have no significant environmental consequences.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Oct 2008 | 7:53 pm WHO: Heart, Infectious Diseases, Cancer Kill MostU.N. health agency names top three world killers.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Oct 2008 | 7:46 pm French company aims to create artificial heartPARIS (Reuters) - A company backed by European aerospace giant EADS and one of France's leading cardiac surgeons aims to create an implantable artificial heart it says could help hundreds of thousands of patients.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Oct 2008 | 6:43 pm The Water Cooler: ArchiveScience news as it breaks from around the web and around the world.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Oct 2008 | 6:35 pm Artificial Heart Would Make No 'Lub Dub'Scientists are developing an artificial heart that would pump blood continuously.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Oct 2008 | 6:31 pm Orcas Missing From Puget Sound Thought DeadSeven missing Puget Sound orcas could represent the biggest decline in a decade.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Oct 2008 | 6:06 pm Club drug Special K helps schizophrenia researchersLONDON (Reuters) - British researchers said on Monday they might have discovered how schizophrenia affects part of the brain by carrying out tests with "Special K," a popular club drug that mimics the symptoms of the mental illness.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Oct 2008 | 5:53 pm Nearby Solar System Looks Like Our Own at Time Life Formed
A nearby solar system bears a striking similarity to our own solar system, raising the possibility it could harbor Earth-like planets. Epsilon Eridani, located about 10.5 light-years from our sun, is surrounded by two asteroid belts that are shaped by planets, astronomers at SETI Institute and Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced today. But it's the possibility that currently undetected smaller planets could lie within the innermost asteroid belt that make the solar system intriguing to astrobiologists. "This system probably looks a lot like ours did when life first took root on Earth," said SETI's Dana Backman, lead author of a paper on the 850-million-year-old star that will appear next year in The Astrophysical Journal, in a release. Back then, the Kuiper Belt of space objects beyond Neptune was much larger. Over time, many of those objects fell into the inner solar system during a period about four billion years ago known as the Late Heavy Bombardment. The barrage of large asteroids pockmarked the rocky planets and possibly created our moon when a large object collided with Earth, expelling a huge amount of material into space. Epsilon Eridani's evolution could provide insight into how universal these processes are. That's important because our solar system contains a planet — Earth — just far enough from the sun not to be fried but close enough to capture enough energy to support life as we know it. Similar systems could end up with planets orbiting in the same biological sweet spot. "Epsilon Eridani looks a lot like the young solar system, so it's conceivable that it will evolve similarly," said astronomer Massimo Marengo of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, a co-author of the paper. It will take more sensitive instruments — perhaps like the next-generation of planet-hunting telescopes — to determine whether any would-be Earths lurk inside the habitable zone near the star. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter, Google Reader feed and webpage; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 27 Oct 2008 | 5:49 pm Fear the Flu? Don a MaskWearing masks and using alcohol-based hand sanitizers can cut flu symptoms in a community by up to half.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Oct 2008 | 5:46 pm Museum Features 'Green' Kansas CommunityTown demolished by tornado rebuilds as model 'green' community.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Oct 2008 | 5:22 pm Safe Haven Laws Encourage Baby DisposalThe laws were enacted in response to a series of news reports about newborns killed or thrown away by their mothers.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Oct 2008 | 4:51 pm Pesticides Dropping in Groundwater?A new study has some encouraging news for people concerned about pesticides in groundwater.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Oct 2008 | 4:06 pm Space tourism will weather market crisis: astronautSTAR CITY, Russia (Reuters) - At over $30 million a ticket it is not cheap, but rich adventurers will still pay for a dream trip into orbit despite a global financial crisis, U.S. space tourist Richard Garriott said Monday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Oct 2008 | 3:45 pm Evidence found of solar system around nearby star (McClatchy Newspapers)McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON For the first time, astronomers think that they've found evidence of an alien solar system around a star close enough to Earth to be visible to the naked eye.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Oct 2008 | 3:01 pm Tourist Argues for More Access to Space CentersRichard Garriott describes his trip to space and advocates opening up access.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Oct 2008 | 2:58 pm Scientists develop cancer fighting tomatoLONDON (Reuters) - A purple tomato genetically engineered to contain nutrients more commonly seen in dark berries helped prevent cancer in mice, British researchers said on Sunday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Oct 2008 | 2:14 pm SLIDE SHOW: Our Prodigal SunView the hottest solar images ever captured, thanks to hi-tech roving space telescopes.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Oct 2008 | 1:41 pm Humans made fire 790,000 years ago: studyJERUSALEM (Reuters) - A new study shows that humans had the ability to make fire nearly 790,000 years ago, a skill that helped them migrate from Africa to Europe.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Oct 2008 | 1:34 pm Tomatoes Made Purple -- For Your HealthScientists engineer purple tomatoes to add nutrition to the standard veggie.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Oct 2008 | 1:31 pm Australia's Stern review warns of runaway global warmingCarbon pollution levels are rising so fast that the world has no realistic chance of hitting ambitious climate targets set by Britain and the G8, an influential report to the Australian government has warned. The report, from economist Ross Garnaut, says existing carbon goals, such as those in Britain's climate change bill, are based on out-of-date emissions figures, and are so ambitious that they could wreck attempts to agree a new global deal on global warming. Garnaut says that nations must accept a greater amount of warming is inevitable, or risk a failure to agree that "would haunt humanity until the end of time." The report, billed as the Australian Stern review, uses recent estimates of booming carbon emissions that were not included in last year's report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), or the 2006 report from Sir Nicholas Stern on the economics of the problem. Since 2000, the Garnaut report says, global carbon emissions from fossil fuel use have grown by 3% each year, as economies of developing countries including China have boomed. This compares to annual growth rates of 2% through the 1970s and 1980s, and just 1% in the 1990s. The report, published today, predicts that carbon dioxide emissions will continue to rise by more than 3% each year until 2030. The worst case considered by the IPCC was that world carbon dioxide emissions would rise by 2.5% each year — a scenario often criticised as too pessimistic. Most government projections and discussions are based on the milder IPCC "median" scenario, which sets an annual growth rate of just 2%. Garnaut says the recent spike in emissions reflects a "platinum age" for the world economy, with growth exceeding the "golden age" of the 1950s and 1960s. And he says the trend raises "serious questions" about suggested climate targets. Britain and Europe are pushing for the world to agree to limit carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to 450 parts per million (ppm), which they say could avoid dangerous climate change. The level is currently more than 380ppm, up from 280ppm before the industrial revolution, and rising by more than 2ppm each year. The framework for such an agreement was established at UN negotiations in Bali last year, and will be discussed in Poland this December. Analysts say a new treaty must be agreed at a meeting in Copenhagen, late next year, for it to enter into force in 2012, when the existing Kyoto protocol expires. The Garnaut report says developed nations including Britain, the United States and Australia would have to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 5% each year over the next decade to hit the 450ppm target. Britain's climate change bill, the most ambitious of its kind in the world, calls for reductions of about 3% each year to 2050. Garnaut, a professorial fellow in economics at Melbourne University, said: "Achieving the objective of 450ppm would require tighter constraints on emissions than now seem likely in the period to 2020 ... The only alternative would be to impose even tighter constraints on developing countries from 2013, and that does not appear to be realistic at this time." The report adds: "The awful arithmetic means that exclusively focusing on a 450ppm outcome, at this moment, could end up providing another reason for not reaching an international agreement to reduce emissions. In the meantime, the cost of excessive focus on an unlikely goal could consign to history any opportunity to lock in an agreement for stabilising at 550ppm, a more modest, but still difficult, international outcome. An effective agreement around 550ppm would be vastly superior to continuation of business as usual." Experts say that a 450ppm goal could limit temperature rise to 2C, while 550ppm would commit the world to 3C warming, which the IPCC warned would inflict drought and famine on hundreds of millions of people and devastate wildlife. Friends of the Earth said: "A target of 550ppm of carbon dioxide is a recipe for disaster and even the lower target of 450ppm will mean we will face runaway climate change. The Arctic sea ice and Himalaya glaciers are already disappearing and the permafrost bomb is looming. We need much deeper cuts. Professor Garnaut has described strong targets as delusional, but he continues to feed a delusional policy debate that recognises the problem but doesn't want to implement the solution." The report, which was released by the Australian government last month, comes after climate scientists criticised carbon targets as having no scientific basis and potentially leading to "dangerously misguided" policies. Kevin Anderson and Alice Bows at the Tyndall centre for climate change research at Manchester University say global carbon emissions are rising so fast that they would need to peak by 2015 and then decrease by up to 6.5% each year for atmospheric CO2 levels to stabilise at 450ppm, which might limit temperature rise to 2C. Even a goal of 650ppm - way above most government projections - would need world emissions to peak in 2020 and then reduce 3% each year. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 27 Oct 2008 | 1:28 pm On your trailWhat control do we have over our personal data?Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Oct 2008 | 12:44 pm Climate change making seas more salty, research findsGlobal warming is making the sea more salty, according to new research that demonstrates the massive shifts in natural systems triggered by climate change. Experts at the UK Met Office and Reading University say warmer temperatures over the Atlantic Ocean have significantly increased evaporation and reduced rainfall across a giant stretch of water from Africa to the Carribean in recent years. The change concentrates salt in the water left behind, and is predicted to make southern Europe and the Mediterranean much drier in future. Peter Stott of the Met Office, who led the study, said: "With global warming we're talking about very big changes in the overall water cycle. This moisture is being evaporated and transported to higher latitudes." The team wanted to see whether manmade climate change could be blamed for changes in salinity measured in the Atlantic. In 2003, experts reported that the north Atlantic waters were freshening, with salt levels decreasing – a mild version of the scenario depicted in the Hollywood film The Day After Tomorrow where massive amounts of fresh water shut down warm ocean currents and cause temperatures to plunge. Meanwhile, further south towards the tropics, Atlantic waters have been getting saltier – about 0.5% more since the 1960s. Using state-of-the-art climate models, the scientists simulated events over both parts of the ocean with and without increased levels of greenhouse gases. They found that the freshening of the north Atlantic could be explained by natural variations, a conclusion supported by a recent recovery of the salt levels there. But for the mid Atlantic, the models showed that only human-driven global warming could explain the increase in saltiness – the first time such an explicit link has been made between climate change and salinity. The results will appear in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 27 Oct 2008 | 10:58 am Jab hope for rheumatoid arthritisA monthly injection with an antibody drug could halt rheumatoid arthritis in half of all patients, trial data suggests.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Oct 2008 | 10:55 am Virtual helpHow a 3D computer world can be used to train paramedicsSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Oct 2008 | 10:36 am
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