Science Headlines for November 18, 2008

Low Concentrations Of Pesticides Can Become Toxic Mixture For Amphibians

Ten of the world's most popular pesticides can decimate amphibian populations when mixed together even if the concentration of the individual chemicals are within limits considered safe, according to new research. Such "cocktails of contaminants" are frequently detected in nature, a new article notes.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm

Newborn Neurons In Adult Brain Can Settle In The Wrong Neighborhood

In a study that could have significant consequences for neural tissue transplantation strategies, researchers report that inactivating a specific gene in adult neural stem cells makes nerve cells emerging from those precursors form connections in the wrong part of the adult brain.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm

Protein Compels Ovarian Cancer Cells To Cannibalize Themselves

A protein known to inhibit the growth of ovarian cancer works in part by forcing cancer cells to eat themselves until they die, researchers report in Cancer Research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm

Children Distressed By Family Fighting Have Higher Stress Hormones

A new study found that children who are very distressed when their parents fight have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Distress, hostility, and level of involvement parental arguments were measured in 208 six-year olds. Cortisol levels were measured by taking saliva samples before and after simulated telephone arguments between their parents. Children who were very distressed and very involved in response to parental fighting had especially high cortisol levels.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm

First At-home Test For Vasectomized Men Proves To Be Safe And Accurate, Study Finds

In a new report, researchers have confirmed the accuracy and reliability of SpermCheck Vasectomy, the first FDA approved at-home immunodiagnostic test for detecting low concentrations of sperm.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm

NASA Satellites Capture Images Of Southern California Wildfires

Images from NASA satellites give a wider perspective of the full extent and devastation of the wildfires raging in Southern California.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm

Billions Of Particles Of Anti-matter Created In Laboratory

Take a gold sample the size of the head of a push pin, shoot a laser through it, and suddenly more than 100 billion particles of anti-matter appear. The anti-matter, also known as positrons, shoots out of the target in a cone-shaped plasma "jet."
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm

How Cancer Spreads: Signaling Between Protein, Growth Factor Is Critical For Coordinated Cell Migration

The mysterious process that orchestrates cells to move in unison to form human and animal embryos, heal wounds, and even spread cancer depends on interaction between two well-known genetic signaling pathways, researchers have discovered.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 4:00 pm

Gene Chips Accurately Detect Pneumonia In ICU Patients On Ventilators

Even seasoned doctors have a difficult time diagnosing pneumonia in hospitalized patients breathing with the assistance of a ventilator. That's because a patient's underlying illness often skews laboratory test results and masks pneumonia's symptoms. Now, researchers report they have validated the use of gene chip technology to rapidly and accurately detect pneumonia associated with ventilator use in hospitalized patients.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 4:00 pm

Gamma-Ray Evidence Suggests Ancient Mars Had Massive Oceans

As much as a third of Mars could have been underwater, scientists say. An international team of scientists who analyzed data from the Gamma Ray Spectrometer onboard NASA's Mars Odyssey reports new evidence for the controversial idea that oceans once covered about a third of ancient Mars.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 4:00 pm

The Grand Canyon: How Old is It? (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - The Grand Canyon seems to be fixed in time, but it is hardly permanent, and lately, neither are geologists' estimates for its age, sparking what one scientist calls "the Grand Canyon Wars."
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 2:12 pm

First Islamic Inscription May Solve Qur'an Question

Scholars find the world's oldest known Islamic inscription and it holds a key clue.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 18 Nov 2008 | 1:58 pm

The Grand Canyon: How Old is It?

Geologists have differing theories on just how old the Grand Canyon is.
Source: Livescience.com | 18 Nov 2008 | 1:56 pm

Signs of Weather Seen on Dwarf Planet

The nitrogen and methane ice covering Eris could be the result of weather on the dwarf planet.
Source: Livescience.com | 18 Nov 2008 | 1:56 pm

Japan approves whalemeat import

The Japanese government issues a licence for importation of a consignment of whalemeat from Iceland and Norway.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Nov 2008 | 1:40 pm

Spacewalkers prepare for in-orbit cleaning job (AP)

AP - Two astronauts face a tedious cleaning and lube job Tuesday, the first of a series of spacewalks to resurrect a massive joint that turns one of the international space station's power-generating solar-panel wings toward the sun.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 12:34 pm

Inflation slides to 4.5 percent in October: official (AFP)

AFP - Annual inflation fell more sharply than expected to 4.5 percent in October from a 16-year high point of 5.2 percent in September as oil prices weakened, official data showed on Tuesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 12:29 pm

The Nation's Weather (AP)

AP - Heavy snow and blustery winds were forecast for the Great Lakes region and the Northeast on Tuesday, while rain was expected in the mid-Atlantic and chilly temperatures were predicted in the South.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 11:57 am

Oldest nuclear family 'murdered'

A 4,600 year old family group discovered in Germany suffered a violent death, experts find.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Nov 2008 | 8:11 am

Scientists find prehistoric "nuclear family"

LONDON (Reuters) - A 4,600-year-old grave in Germany containing the remains of two adults and their children provides the earliest evidence that even prehistoric tribes attached importance to the family unit, researchers said on Monday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 8:01 am

Limb power

Microscopic needles point to new forms of artificial limb
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Nov 2008 | 6:43 am

Kangaroo genes close to humans (Reuters)

Reuters - Australia's kangaroos are genetically similar to humans and may have first evolved in China, Australian researchers said Tuesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 6:05 am

Kangaroo genes close to humans

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's kangaroos are genetically similar to humans and may have first evolved in China, Australian researchers said Tuesday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 6:05 am

Bird killings 'deeply troubling'

The number of birds of prey killed illegally in Scotland is "deeply troubling", a conservation group has said.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Nov 2008 | 3:02 am

Shuttle Endeavour's Heat Shield in Good Shape (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - NASA's space shuttle Endeavour appears to be in good shape, with engineers finding no need for an extra inspection of the spacecraft's vital heat shield, mission managers said late Monday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Nov 2008 | 1:15 am

X-Ray Discovery Sparked 19th-Century DIY Craze

What are the social consequences when science allows us to see things that had previously been invisible?

Scientists have revealed microscopic life, nanoscale molecules and galaxies billions of light years away. These images have revolutionized the disciplines in which they were made, but they also transformed the public's imagination, letting them see new things to think and dream about.

The intertwined social, scientific and artistic impacts of 19th century photography is the subject of a new exhibit, Brought to Light Photography and the Invisible, 1840-1900, at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art.

In this five-part series, we walk through the exhibit with its curator, Corey Keller. Keller spent five years scouring dusty archives, primarily in Europe, to dig up dozens of haunting photographs from the period. Many of the images have never been seen, except by their creators. Up first is the X-ray, which allowed us to see through our skin and muscle to the bones that lay within.

In 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered the X-ray, a form of electromagnetic radiation with a very short wavelength.

Waves that are shorter can penetrate denser materials. X-rays are perfectly tuned to barrel through soft tissues like muscle and fat, but get slowed down by denser materials like bone. That allowed early scientific photographers — and your dentist — to employ these rays to see skeletons without cutting into flesh.

To the common people at the time, this was (and probably should remain) astonishing. Within three months, Keller said, DIY X-ray kits were available on the market. The rich and famous had their hands X-rayed, their skeletons draped in rings. Photographers, who had access to most of the tools needed to make the images, began to train this new form of light on just about anything that might be beautiful.

"They were X-raying everything just to see what it looked like," Keller said.

In this series of images, we see the strange hodgepodge of subjects that early X-rayers tackled. At the top of the post is a chameleon, and further down the page, the boot of a shoemaker who built his own x-ray machine for fun. Below, you'll find a river dolphin fetus, two fish and the hand of the wife of Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia.

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter , Google Reader feed, and webpage; Wired Science on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 18 Nov 2008 | 1:01 am

World's oldest nuclear family unearthed in Germany

DNA extracted from bones and teeth in a 4,600-year-old stone age burial has provided the earliest evidence for the nuclear family as a social structure. The find consists of two parents and two sons who were buried together after being killed in a violent conflict over some of the most fertile farming land in Europe.

The archaeologists who examined the bones said the burial provides evidence of a shift in social organisation from communal living to societies with large social differences between people.

"It provides evidence that will allow us to understand the rise of societies that are more modern," said Dr Alistair Pike, an archaeologist at Bristol University who was a member of the team.

The site was discovered four years ago during quarrying at Eulau in Saxony-Anhalt, about 120 miles south-west of Berlin. Along with some individual burials there are four group burials in which more than one individual was interred at the same time.

The group burials, which appear to have happened together, tell a story of violent deaths. One skeleton has an arrow tip lodged in one of its vertebrae. Several of the skeletons have fractures that have not healed, showing that they must have happened shortly before death. Pike said they were probably trying to hold on to land in the face of raids.

"This particular area is considered to be one of the most fertile areas of Europe. So if people are looking for areas to settle they will be looking for these kind of soils, which might have contributed to some of the interpersonal violence," he added.

The people were members of the Corded Ware culture, named after their practice of decorating pots using twisted cord. By analysing bone samples, the scientists have shown that the arrangement of the bodies reflected family groups. Children who were related to the adults in the same grave were buried facing them; unrelated children were buried behind the adults.

"Whoever buried them knew ... it was very important that you signify genetic relationships in the way that you lay the [bodies] out," said Pike. The finds are documented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Burial as a nuclear family is different from the custom earlier in the neolithic era. Typically, archaeologists find mass graves of hundreds of individuals with little to distinguish them.

The team also examined evidence of where the people had grown up by analysing the combination of different forms of strontium in their teeth. The ratio of strontium isotopes depends on a person's diet during childhood and reflects the dominant rock types in the area. While the men and children had a strontium profile that indicates they were raised nearby, the women came from outside the area.

Pike said this was evidence of a patrilocal society, where families "married out" their daughters, either to avoid inbreeding or build allegiances with neighbours.

Health warning over illegal internet tanning drug

Government's regulatory agency urges customers not to use synthetic hormone Melanotan
Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 18 Nov 2008 | 12:05 am

Woolly rhino's ancient migration

Palaeontologists piece together the fossilised skull of the oldest example yet found of a woolly rhinoceros in Europe.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Nov 2008 | 11:42 pm

Emissions up in developed nations

Emissions of greenhouse gases by industrialised nations rose 2.3% from 2000 to 2006, the UN climate change agency says.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Nov 2008 | 10:48 pm

Ancient graves yield clues to family relationships (AP)

AP - A stone-age burial in central Germany has yielded the earliest evidence of people living together as a family. The 4,600-year-old grave contained the remains of a man, woman and two youngsters, and DNA analysis shows they were a mother, father and their children.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Nov 2008 | 10:04 pm

Shuttle astronauts deliver space station's new gear

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Space shuttle astronauts delivered tons of custom upgrades to the International Space Station on Monday and prepared for their first spacewalk to restore the outpost to full power.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 17 Nov 2008 | 10:02 pm

Grave Reveals Violent Death of Ancient Family

Researchers analyze the grave of a family of four killed and buried 4,600 years ago.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm

Study: Vitamin C or E Pills Do Not Prevent Cancer

Vitamin C or E pills do not help prevent cancer in men, concludes a big study.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Nov 2008 | 9:25 pm

Plankton Found in 100-Million-Year-Old Amber

Scientists find intact marine organisms within 100-million-year-old tree resin.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Nov 2008 | 8:46 pm

Rare blood transfusion attempted on tiger cub (AP)

AP - Veterinarians carried out a rare blood transfusion in an attempt to save a 7-month-old wild tiger that had been attacked and beaten by angry villagers in central India. The female cub received the emergency treatment late Sunday after blood taken from captive adults was airlifted to the zoo where the cub is being cared for, said Bimal Majumdar, the chief wildlife officer in the region.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Nov 2008 | 8:27 pm

Japanese Whalers Set Sail, Say Witnesses

Japan's controversial whaling fleet may have begun its annual Antarctic hunt.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Nov 2008 | 7:12 pm

Discovery offers way of tracking cancer in blood

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Tiny sacs released from tumor cells and circulating in the blood carry genetic information about the tumor, offering a new way to track and treat the cancer, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 17 Nov 2008 | 7:02 pm

Lousy Call! Technology Could Help Referees

The loneliest men in sports have not been making any friends lately.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Nov 2008 | 6:48 pm

Hadron Collider repairs cost £14m

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will cost almost £14m ($21m) to repair and hopefully be back up and running for June 2009.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Nov 2008 | 6:17 pm

Africa trade bust 'biggest ever'

Five African countries have worked with Interpol to arrest dozens of illegal traders and seize a tonne of ivory products.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Nov 2008 | 5:52 pm

Space Station Gets Pee-Recycling System

Astronauts on the International Space Station will soon be able to drink their own recycled urine using a new system delivered by NASA's space shuttle Endeavour which launched Friday.

Until now, pee has been dumped overboard, but the new "Water Recovery System" will make sure it doesn't go to waste, an ability that could be critical to future human space travel.

"Some people may think it’s downright disgusting, but if it’s done correctly, you process water that’s purer than what you drink here on Earth," said Endeavour mission specialist astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper in a preflight NASA interview. "More important, [it] allows us the capability of being more self sufficient and not requiring as many supplies to be sent up to the space station. Going on to the moon and to Mars, that’s really going to be critical."

Astronauts plan to install the system after Endeavour docks at the orbiting laboratory on Monday. The machine will use a distillation process that compensates for the absence of gravity to remove impurities from urine. Then the water will be combined with fluid from showers, shaving, tooth brushing and hand washing, as well as perspiration and water vapor that collects inside the astronauts' space suits.

All this reclaimed water will go through a processing system to extract free gas and solid materials such as hair and lint. Afterward, the system will remove any remaining contaminants through a high-temperature chemical reaction.

The recycling machine should cut down the amount of water and consumables that must be launched to the station by about 15,000 pounds, or 6,800 kilograms, a year. And since it currently costs roughly $10,000 to ship a pint of fresh water to space, the money savings will be huge. Moreover, the system is part of a plan to expand the number of residents the space station can accommodate from three to six.

"As early as the late 1960s we knew sustaining life in space would require recycling water and oxygen," Bob Bagdigian, the project manager for the overall Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System on the station, said in a release. "A number of us have experienced the entire life cycle of this technology, all the way from early ideas to implementation. Knowing that we will soon see this system completed gives us great pride."

See Also:

Image Credit: NASA/Sandra Joseph-Kevin O'Connel

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 17 Nov 2008 | 5:44 pm

A ton of illegal ivory seized in 5 African nations (AP)

AP - An undercover investigation of the illegal wildlife trade in five African nations led to the seizure of about a ton of ivory along with hippo teeth and cheetah, leopard and python skins, the Kenya Wildlife Service said Monday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Nov 2008 | 5:16 pm

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