Science Headlines for November 21, 2008

'4-D' Microscope Revolutionizes The Way We Look At Nano World

More than a century ago, the development of the earliest motion picture technology made what had been previously thought "magical" a reality: capturing and recreating the movement and dynamism of the world around us. A breakthrough technology based on new concepts has now accomplished a similar feat, but on an atomic scale by allowing, for the first time, the real-time, real-space visualization of fleeting changes in the structure and shape of matter barely a billionth of a meter in size.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Nov 2008 | 1:00 am

Children Of Centenarians Live Longer, Have Lower Risk Of Heart Disease, Stroke, Diabetes

Centenarian offspring (children of parents who lived to be at least 97 years old) retain important cardiovascular advantages from their parents compared to a similarly-aged cohort.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Nov 2008 | 1:00 am

New Method For Tracing Metal Pollution Back To Its Sources

A new way of pinpointing where zinc pollution in the atmosphere comes from could improve pollution monitoring and regulation, according to new research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Nov 2008 | 1:00 am

Research Finds Way To Double Rice Crops In Drought-stricken Areas

New research has yielded a way to double the output of rice crops in some of the world's poorest, most distressed areas.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Nov 2008 | 1:00 am

Uncertainty Can Be More Stressful Than Clear Negative Feedback

We are faced with uncertainty every day. Will our investments pay off? Will we get the promotions we are hoping for? When faced with the unknown, most people experience some degree of anxiety and discomfort. Exactly how much anxiety someone experiences during uncertain times depends on his or her personality profile.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Nov 2008 | 1:00 am

Calorie Restriction And Exercise Show Breast Cancer Prevention Differences In Postmenopausal Women

Scientists have identified pathways by which a reduced-calorie diet and exercise can modify a postmenopausal woman's risk of breast cancer.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Nov 2008 | 1:00 am

Male Birth Defect Associated With Certain Genetic Mutations, Study Finds

A small percentage of males born with cryptorchidism (failure of one or both testicles to descend into the scrotum), the most frequent congenital birth defect in male children, are more likely to have genetic mutations, including for a syndrome that is a common genetic cause of infertility, according to new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm

Beta Pictoris Planet Finally Imaged?

A team of French astronomers have discovered an object located very close to the star Beta Pictoris, and which apparently lies inside its disc. With a projected distance from the star of only 8 times the Earth-Sun distance, this object is most likely the giant planet suspected from the peculiar shape of the disc and the previously observed infall of comets onto the star. It would then be the first image of a planet that is as close to its host star as Saturn is to the Sun.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm

Simple Blood Test For Colon Cancer: New Early-warning Test Detects Polyps Before Cancer Sets In

Researchers in Israel have developed a simple early-warning test that can detect colon cancer in the blood. Using biomarkers, it is the first test on the market that can detect cells of colon polyps the precursors to colon cancer in the blood, with a very high degree of sensitivity and accuracy.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm

Converting Sunlight Into Electricity: European Project Breaks Efficiency Record

Scientists have developed photovoltaic multi-junction solar cells which are able to convert 39.7% of the energy of sun light into electricity. This is the highest percentage ever reached in Europe, according to researchers.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm

Shuttle gives space station a mile-high boost (AP)

AP - Space shuttle Endeavour provided an orbital lift to the attached international space station on Friday as the astronauts encountered more problems with a new water recycling system.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Nov 2008 | 5:34 pm

Huge glaciers detected under rocky debris on Mars

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A radar instrument aboard a NASA spacecraft has detected large glaciers hidden under rocky debris that may be the vestiges of ice sheets that blanketed parts of Mars in a past ice age, scientists said on Thursday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 21 Nov 2008 | 5:29 pm

Lukoil could become main shareholder in Spanish oil major Repsol (AFP)

AFP - Russian oil group Lukoil could soon become the leading shareholder in Spanish-Argentine energy major Repsol, a possibility that prompted unease in Spain Friday given Repsol's strategic importance.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Nov 2008 | 5:09 pm

New Type of Ebola Virus Discovered (HealthDay)

HealthDay - FRIDAY, Nov. 21 (HealthDay News) -- A new species of the deadly Ebola virus has been identified by American and Ugandan scientists.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Nov 2008 | 5:02 pm

Painful Labor: A Modern Thing

A new fossil pelvis upends evolutionary thinking about painful labor during birth.
Source: Livescience.com | 21 Nov 2008 | 4:47 pm

Mini Nuclear Reactors to Power Remote Areas

A company is taking orders for shed-sized, semi-truck-delivered nuclear reactors.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 21 Nov 2008 | 4:25 pm

BLOG: 'Dance Your Ph.D.' Winners Announced

Researchers perform interpretative dances illustrating their research.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 21 Nov 2008 | 3:35 pm

Estimating the True Costs of Invasive Species in Great Lakes

What is the total cost of the introduction of non-native species into the Great Lakes?
Source: Livescience.com | 21 Nov 2008 | 3:28 pm

Einstein's E=MC2 Proven Thanks to Quarks

Scientists calculating the weight of particles prove Einstein's famous formula is right on.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 21 Nov 2008 | 3:25 pm

New View Inside Bacteria Could Improve Health (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - The bacterial cell wall, a primary target for the potent antibiotic penicillin, has been imaged for the first time in 3-D to show exactly how it gives bacteria their structural support and protection. Bacterial cells rely on a surrounding cage-like net, a molecular bag of sorts, to prevent rupturing and to maintain their structural strength, especially as they multiply. ...
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Nov 2008 | 3:08 pm

IBM to build brain-like computers

A collaboration in the US is aiming to create artificial brain circuits that mimic the structure and workings of neurons.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Nov 2008 | 2:52 pm

NASA Narrows List of Next Mars Landing Sites

Potential signs of life is the priority as NASA decides among four Mars landing sites.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 21 Nov 2008 | 2:25 pm

New View Inside Bacteria Could Improve Health

The bacterial cell wall, a target of potent antibiotics, can now be imaged in three dimensions to show how it gives bacteria structural support and protection.
Source: Livescience.com | 21 Nov 2008 | 2:10 pm

Astronauts Tackle Glitches with Space Water Recycler (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - A new recycling system designed to convert astronaut urine and sweat back into drinking water aboard the International Space Station has encountered its first glitch, mission managers said late Thursday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Nov 2008 | 2:01 pm

Nothing lost in space - this time

Astronauts have completed further repairs at the International Space Station without mishap.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Nov 2008 | 1:42 pm

Hairspray linked to birth defect

Boys born to women exposed to hairspray in the workplace may have a higher risk of being born with a genital defect.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Nov 2008 | 1:38 pm

'Superglue' brain op for toddler

The parents of a 17-month-old girl have told how surgeons used glue to seal tiny brain blood vessels that were threatening her life.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Nov 2008 | 1:13 pm

Polish tests 'confirm Copernicus'

Polish researchers say they have solved an ancient mystery and identified the remains of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Nov 2008 | 12:11 pm

16th-century skeleton identified as astronomer Copernicus

The long-lost skeleton of Nicolaus Copernicus – the 16th-century astronomer who transformed our understanding of the solar system – has been found, Polish researchers have confirmed.

Forensic detective work has successfully matched DNA samples recovered from remains in a cathedral grave with hairs retrieved from a book the scholar priest is known to have owned.

The identification is the culmination of four years of investigation and centuries of speculation about the final resting place of the man who challenged the Bible and medieval teachings of the church.

Copernicus's planetary observations were the first to place the sun, not the Earth, at the centre of what is now known as the solar system. His heliocentric, cosmological revolution was condemned by Martin Luther.

Born in 1473 at Torun on the Vistula, Copernicus studied abroad and was made a canon at Frombork Cathedral, in Poland. He died in 1543. His grave was unmarked.

The hunt for his remains began in 2004. A Polish archaeologist, Jerzy Gassowski, started digging at the request of the regional Catholic bishop, Jacek Jezierski.

The following year bones and a skull were located under floor tiles near one of the side altars in the 14th-century Roman Catholic cathedral in Frombork. The lower jaw was missing.

"In the two years of work, under extremely difficult conditions – amid thousands of visitors, with earth shifting under the heavy pounding of the organ music – we managed to locate the grave, which was badly damaged," Gassowski said.

This week the archaeologist revealed he is now confident, thanks to forensic facial reconstruction of the skull, that it bears a striking resemblance to existing portraits of the astronomer.

The reconstruction shows a broken nose and other features that resemble a self-portrait of Copernicus, and the skull bears a cut mark above the left eye that corresponds with a scar shown in the painting.

The skull, furthermore, belonged to a man aged around 70 – Copernicus's age when he died.

"In our opinion, our work led us to the discovery of Copernicus's remains but a grain of doubt remained," Gassowski said.

Swedish genetics experts were called in to analyse DNA from a vertebrae, a tooth and femur bone. The material was matched and compared to that taken from two hairs retrieved from a book that the 16th-century Polish astronomer once owned. The tome is kept in the library of Sweden's Uppsala University.

"We collected four hairs and two of them are from the same individual as the bones," Marie Allen, a geneticist, said.

Copernicus, who studied eclipses, came up with his idea that the sun was at the centre of the universe between 1508 and 1514, and during those years wrote a manuscript commonly known as Commentariolus (Little Commentary). His theory prepared the way for such scientists as Galileo, Descartes and Newton.

First test for interplanetary net

Nasa has successfully tested a communications system designed to work in deep space modelled on the internet.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Nov 2008 | 10:56 am

Beavers arrive for spring release

Four Norwegian beaver families arrive in the UK as part of an historic plan to reintroduce the mammals to Scotland.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Nov 2008 | 10:43 am

Urban growers go high-tech to feed city dwellers (AP)

AP - Terry Fujimoto sees the future of agriculture in the exposed roots of the leafy greens he and his students grow in thin streams of water at a campus greenhouse.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Nov 2008 | 10:11 am

'Grape' is key to fossil puzzle

The forerunners of giant single-celled organisms living on the ocean floor may have left fossil tracks, say marine biologists.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Nov 2008 | 9:29 am

Carrie Quinlan: Heavenly work for scientists

Carrie Quinlan: A survey says young Britons aren't interested in science jobs. Come off it! Science is thrilling
Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 21 Nov 2008 | 9:00 am

War wounds

How conflict has driven medical advance
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Nov 2008 | 8:59 am

The Crusade to End a Horrific Disease Costs 10 Cents Per Person

A public health campaign has saved more than 6 million people from filarial worms, which cause elephantiasis and other grotesque maladies, in just eight years.

Massive donations from GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, made the victory possible according to a report this week in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Both companies provided antiparasitic pills, 1.3 billion of them, for the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis.

The disease, caused by nematodes that colonize the lymphatic system, affects at least 120 million people worldwide. As the worms reproduce, they cause ulcers and extreme swelling.

The antiparasitic Albendazole kills the parasites by damaging microtubules in their intestines and brains. Another drug, Ivermectin, can destroy their nervous systems. Each treatment costs less than 10 cents and often has additional benefits, ridding its recipients of infections including lice, roundworm, and hookworm.

Half a billion people will receive the parasite-killing medications this year alone. By 2020, the disease may be history.

Photo: Wuchereria bancrofti worms are among the main causes of lymphatic filariasis. Credit: Centers for Disease Control

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 21 Nov 2008 | 8:39 am

Astronauts finish second spacewalk outside station

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Shuttle Endeavour astronauts working outside the orbiting International Space Station faced glitches during a second spacewalk on Thursday, as one astronaut experienced high carbon-dioxide levels after his crew mate lost a tool bag on the mission's first spacewalk.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 21 Nov 2008 | 4:40 am

Otter survives 'perilous' sea crossing to Farne Islands

An otter has survived a "perilous" three-mile sea crossing to the Farne Islands for the first time, the National Trust says.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Nov 2008 | 2:07 am

Scientists say Copernicus' remains, grave found (AP)

AP - Researchers said Thursday they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton and hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer's books. The findings could put an end to centuries of speculation about the exact resting spot of Copernicus, a priest and astronomer whose theories identified the Sun, not the Earth, as the center of the universe.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Nov 2008 | 2:01 am

Fake Lunar Photos Sent Astronomers Over the Moon

If you wanted close-up photos of the moon in the late 1800s, you were pretty much out of luck. Unless, of course, you built incredibly detailed plaster models of lunar craters and then snapped carefully lit pictures of them.

And that's exactly what an engineer and astronomer did in 1874 to tremendous acclaim.

James Nasmyth, the inventor of the steam hammer, and James Carpenter, then at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, released a hugely successful book, The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite, illustrated by their incredible moon mock-ups. The august journal Nature gave the book a rapturous review.

"The illustrations to this book are so admirable, so far beyond those one generally gets of any celestial phenomenon, that one is tempted to refer to them first of all," the reviewer wrote. "No more truthful or striking representations of natural objects than those here presented have ever been laid before his readers by any student of Science; and I may add that, rarely if ever, have equal pains been taken to insure such truthfulness."

But what's really appealing about the images isn't their "truthfulness" but their "truthiness," said Corey Keller, the curator of a new exhibit, Brought to Light, on early scientific photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

"Astronomers were perfectly aware of what they were looking at," Keller, whose exhibit includes the book's photos, said. "But they felt that because they were photographed, it added a layer of authenticity to the undertaking that simple drawings didn't have."

Looking at these photos, astronomers could get the feeling of actually being there, which is the same desire that has driven manned space exploration throughout the last half-century.

"It wasn't possible to actually make those photographs of the moon," she noted.

Imaging the moon, after all, was an immensely difficult task. Even as 19th-century photographers and dagguerreotypists figured out the basics of taking pictures of the moon, they were limited by the immense distance separating them from their subject. In fact, it wasn't until the Apollo missions landed on the surface of our only natural satellite that humans were able to make real versions of these mock-ups.

In this five-part series, we're walking through the Brought to Light exhibit with Keller, who spent five years researching the history of early scientific photography. This video segment looks at the early history of astronomical photography and at the story of the creation of a fake moon.

NOTE: The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite is in the public domain and available online through Google Books and Archive.org.

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 21 Nov 2008 | 12:53 am

Letter: New danger of TB

Letter: While we are delighted at the recent stem cell research breakthrough of UK scientists, Claudia Castillo was the victim of a neglected disease
Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 21 Nov 2008 | 12:34 am

Editorial: Life on Mars

Editorial: The enthusiasm for space exploration is growing keener as the world's emerging economies join in
Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 21 Nov 2008 | 12:24 am

'I'd faced death - the shame was worse'

Daniel Parker was given contaminated blood as a child. Discovering he was HIV positive was shocking enough - but there were further torments to follow
Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 21 Nov 2008 | 12:20 am

Type of buggy can affect baby development, study finds

From what their children eat to where they sleep and whether their favourite toy is educational enough, parents have never been short of things to agonise about.

But today researchers add "buggy worry" to the list, with a report suggesting front-facing strollers could deprive babies of their first lessons in life by discouraging their parents from talking to them.

The study suggests that old-fashioned buggies, which allow babies to lie down and look up at their parent, give babies the best start in life. A recent wave of hi-tech, adaptable, parent-facing buggies - such as the Bugaboo Cameleon and the Stokke Xplory - can help, but they are often expensive, the researchers say.

The research into the psychological effects of buggies reveals that life in a 21st-century baby buggy can be emotionally isolating. Children in front-facing varieties are significantly less likely to talk, laugh and interact with their parents than those in buggies that face the pusher, according to the research. The study is published by the National Literacy Trust for its Talk to Your Baby campaign and funded by the educational charity the Sutton Trust.

It includes an observational study of more than 2,722 parent-infant pairs across the country, carried out by Suzanne Zeedyk, of Dundee University's school of psychology. Some 62% of the babies were in away-facing pushchairs, as were 86% of toddlers. Parents using face-to-face buggies were more than twice as likely to be talking to their child.

A separate, small-scale study monitored 20 babies wheeled in pushchairs across a one-mile stretch in Dundee. Half the journey was spent in an away-facing buggy and half in a parent-facing one. The results suggested that babies' average heart rates fell slightly in a parent-facing buggy, and babies were also twice as likely to fall asleep in this orientation, suggesting they may be more stressed when in away-facing buggies.

Mothers and infants also laughed more often in face-to-face buggies. Only one baby in the group of 20 laughed during the away-facing journey, while half laughed during the face-to-face journey.

Zeedyk emphasised that the study was small and required further investigation, but said: "If babies are spending significant amounts of time in a baby buggy that undermines their ability to communicate with their parent, at an age when the brain is developing more than it will ever again, then this has to impact negatively on their development. Our experimental study showed that, simply by turning the buggy around, parents' rate of talking to their baby doubled."

Laura Barbour of the Sutton Trust said: "The Sutton Trust hopes that buggy manufacturers will look closely at this research, which suggests that face-to-face models improve communication at a very early stage. The problem is that at present these cost a minimum of £200."

Government warns of "catastrophic" U.S. quake

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - People in a vast seismic zone in the southern and midwestern United States would face catastrophic damage if a major earthquake struck there and should ensure that builders keep that risk in mind, a government report said on Thursday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 20 Nov 2008 | 11:42 pm

Artist Wants Nuke Waste Dump to Make New Universes

The nuclear waste buried beneath Yucca Mountain will be there for millennia, untouchable and lethal. Conceptual artist Jonathon Keats would put that time and radioactivity to use by turning the dump into a generator of new universes.

His plan is based on the laws of quantum physics, which state that each atomic particle exists in multiple states at once until observation fixes it in time and space. Keats, who recently built a temple of science to explore the implications of science-based religion, takes this literally.

In "Universes Unlimited," an exhibition opening today at the Modernism gallery in San Francisco, Keats unveils a do-it-yourself universe creation kit, on sale for just $20 and made from components bought on eBay — and, as he explains in a half-tongue-in-cheek letter to the Department of Energy, it could easily be scaled up to the dimensions of Yucca Mountain, dotting its 230 square miles with crystal towers glowing in a redemptive fount of creation.

After all, if the pebbles of depleted uranium-enriched glass in his DIY kit produce an estimated 200 universes a minute, the mind boggles at what 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste could generate.

I talked to Keats this week about his latest work.

Wired.com: Where did the idea come from?

Jonathon Keats: The Copenhagen interpretation says that in a quantum system, a particle exists in multiple positions until a measurement is made. It's when you measure it that you end up with a particle as you'd expect it in the classical world, at one place in time. Then there's some way the universe collapses. That didn't make much sense to Hugh Everett and his followers. The Everett interpretation is that the system doesn't collapse. Instead, when you make the measurement, you end up with two separate universes with no connection to each other. This was exactly the methodology I needed to build a technology that would generate universes.

Wired.com: Where did you get the parts?

Keats: I went onto eBay, and bought some uranium-doped glass. Uranium was used as a colorant in classic red glass Fiesta Ware in the 1950's, and in light green glass made in the 1920's and 1930's. That provide my uranium. Then I found a guy who sells scintillating crystals, which are used by Homeland Security as a simple way to detect whether someone has a nuclear bomb under their coat. When a gamma ray hits the crystal, a photon is produced, so it glows a beautiful blue.

Wired.com: And when it glows, that's the measurement?

Keats: It sparks so subtly that you can't see it. It's singularly unspectacular. From the standpoint of being in the universe, making a new universe is very mundane. If you could stand outside it and see the universes cleave, I'm sure it would be very spectacular. But you're seeing nothing in terms of the crystal glowing. That's important to me: I didn't want it to seem like every time you get a new universe, it's Christmas. I wanted to fit it into the everyday humdrum nature of universal creation, to bring it down to a level where we recognize that creativity is what we do naturally, that it's always in everything.

In the case of the Yucca Mountain project, though, there would be a visible glow. Wired.com: What would it look like?

Keats: It would be quite beautiful: the idea is to sink two-mile-deep scintillating crystal stacks into the mountain, sticking out like chimneys, looking like a factory. But instead of sending out smoke, they'd glow in the night. I don't know if the government would go for it, but it'd be less expensive than other things that they've done in the past.

Wired.com: Beyond being pretty, what's the point?

Keats: It's a way of letting us collectively address questions of creation and quantum science. At the same time, at a more basic level, it addresses the question of where we are as a society right now, when a nuclear waste dump is the ultimate monument to ill-thought excess. Yucca Mountain represents what our civilization has come to, in terms of the threat that the world now poses to us. But with this, you'd see Yucca Mountain at work, making new possibilities for us.

Wired.com: So it's a form of redemption.

Keats: What made me look to Yucca Mountain as an ideal site for the universe factory is that here, more than anywhere, we could use some possibility of redemption.

It's also a way of taking us out of our paralysis, out of our fear for a world that now seems to be collapsing. We can make solutions to the problems we've made for ourselves. If Yucca Mountain can bring us to consider all the many alternatives of our future, then not only will it be a factory for making universes in the literal sense, but for remaking whatever universe we happen to find ourselves in.

It's important that we recognize that the future could take any number of paths. We could continue to abuse the environment as we've done, and simply go for broke, or work towards stable state. All these possibilities exist. What's crucial is that we start considering some of them. At least one of these universes will be a future in which it all comes out okay.

Wired.com: But what if someone thinks nuclear power is a pretty decent source of energy, given the alternatives?

Keats: I don't say that nuclear energy is good or bad. There's a bigger question: how much energy of any kind do we need? If the costs of energy, by whatever means are technologically feasible, are going to be so great that we're going to pay for it in terms of our future, might we need to live on less energy? What I'm asking, without any polemical point or stance, is that we consider the cost of any type of energy.

Making new universes is partly a pleasure, and partly a means of activating our search for alternatives — not only across universes, but within our own.

Images: Images: 1. Text and Universe Kit prototype / Jonathon Keats 1a. Yucca Mountain aerial view / Department of Energy 2. Universe Kit assembly instructions / Jonathon Keats 3. Nature cover, circa 1957 / Nature 4. Universe Kit / Jonathon Keats 5. Yucca Mountain aerial view / Department of Energy 6. Yucca Mountain entrance tunnel / Department of Energy 7. Letter to the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management / Jonathon Keats 8. Approximation of crystal stacks in Yucca Mountain topography / Jonathon Keats

Download universes.doe.letter.pdf

WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 20 Nov 2008 | 11:03 pm

Space Station at 10: Much Teamwork, Less Science

A look at what value the International Space Station has offered after 10 years.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 20 Nov 2008 | 8:58 pm

Scientists Team Up with Hollywood

The worlds of science and Hollywood collide.
Source: Livescience.com | 20 Nov 2008 | 8:41 pm

Study shows messiness leads to behavior decline (AP)

AP - Does a messy neighborhood make a difference on how people act? It sure does! Graffiti on the walls, trash in the street, bicycles chained to a fence, all resulted in a decline in how people behaved in a series of experiments.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 Nov 2008 | 8:32 pm

Vast Frozen Water Reserves Found on Mars

Underground reservoirs of frozen water on Mars suggest the planet could sustain life.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 20 Nov 2008 | 7:58 pm

Buried Glaciers Found on Mars

Orbiter radar reveals glaciers concealed under mid-latitude debris flows on Mars.
Source: Livescience.com | 20 Nov 2008 | 7:20 pm

Huge Buried Water Glaciers Discovered on Mars

Giant glaciers buried under the surface of Mars at much lower latitudes than any previously known ice are a potential source of drinking water for future astronauts.

The discovery, made using ground-penetrating radar on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, offers new possibilities in the search for life on the red planet.

"If there is life on Mars, this kind of ice would likely preserve ancient organisms and DNA," researcher Jim Head, a planetary geoscientist at Brown University, told Wired.com. "Examining the water ice could give you a good sample to try to detect if there had been life there."

The newly-discovered glaciers, reported Wednesday in Science, appear to contain the largest volume of Martian water ice outside the poles.

"Just one of the features we examined is three times larger than the city of Los Angeles, and up to one-half mile thick, and there are many more," said study leader John Holt of the University of Texas at Austin, in a press release.

Many scientists doubted that giant reservoirs of ice could exist on Mars so close to the equator, but calculations suggest these regions were once much colder than they are now, due to variations in the tilt of Mars' rotational axis. The ice was buried under debris, and as the areas warmed, the ice was insulated by its protective layer of surface rock.

Puzzling surface features above the glaciers, such as sloping deposits of rock near larger mountains, were first noticed by NASA's Viking orbiters in the 1970s. Some experts thought they represented rocky debris made slippery by tiny bits of ice mixed with dirt. But recent studies of buried glaciers on Antarctica, which look markedly similar, support the buried glacier hypothesis.

Recently Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter confirmed that there really are giant layers of ice hidden under the surface with data from its SHARAD radar instrument. When the radar scanned the regions, its reflected signal bounced back in a pattern consistent with traveling though a thick layer of ice, rather than rock. Furthermore, the velocity of the radar's reflected radio waves matched that expected from passing through water ice.

The glaciers are good news for future studies on Mars, because they lie at more easily accessible latitudes than the freezing cold poles. They could even prove helpful as a source of drinkable water to future astronauts exploring Mars.

"This says there may be samples of ice within our reach," Head said. "If we're thinking ahead to human exploration of Mars, it means we could go to some of these places and actually have water ice there."

See Also:

Citations:

"Radar Sounding Evidence for Buried Glaciers in the Southern Mid-Latitudes of Mars"
John W. Holt, Ali Safaeinili, Jeffrey J. Plaut, James W. Head, Roger J. Phillips, Roberto Seu, Scott D. Kempf, Prateek Choudhary, Duncan A. Young, Nathaniel E. Putzig, Daniela Biccari, Yonggyu Gim
doi:10.1126/science.1162780

Image: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 20 Nov 2008 | 7:01 pm

Graffiti Triggers Crime and Littering

One form of rule-breaking can lead to more.
Source: Livescience.com | 20 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm

Mars orbiter detects hidden glaciers on red planet

Vast concealed glaciers that extend for tens of miles along the cliff edges and mountain tops of Mars have been spotted by a space probe as it orbits the red planet.

The ice sheets – which are up to half a mile thick – are thought to be the planet's largest reserves of water ice outside the polar caps.

The discovery of such large quantities of ice is encouraging for Nasa scientists, whose strategy for hunting extraterrestrial life is to follow signs of water.

The US space agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter used radar echoes to image gentle slopes at the base of cliffs and mountain ridges that have puzzled scientists since they were first photographed by spacecraft in the 1970s.

The radar images show that the features contain large amounts of water ice. "These results are the smoking gun pointing to the presence of large amounts of water ice at these latitudes," said Ali Safaeinili at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers describe how they discovered the glaciers in the Hellas Basin region in the southern hemisphere of Mars. Similar features are known to exist in the northern hemisphere.

"Altogether, these glaciers almost certainly represent the largest reservoir of water ice on Mars that's not in the polar caps. Just one of the features we examined is three times larger than the city of Los Angeles, and up to one-half-mile thick, and there are many more," said John Holt at the University of Texas at Austin. "In addition to their scientific value, they could be a source of water to support future exploration of Mars."

The rocky debris on top of the glaciers is thought to have protected the ice from vaporising on contact with the thin atmosphere.

"A key question is how did the ice get there in the first place," said James Head at Brown University. One theory is that ice sheets are able to spread down to mid-latitudes when the planet tilts dramatically on its axis.

The discovery of the hidden glacier came as Nasa announced its shortlist of four landing sites for its next mission to the planet. The Mars Science Laboratory rover is due to blast off in September or October next year.

The four landing sites are Eberswalde, where an ancient river once flowed into a lake; a mountain inside the Gale crater, where the rover could investigate clay deposits; the Holden crater; and the Mawrth valley, an apparent flood channel near the Martian highlands.

Winter weather hard to predict this year: NOAA (Reuters)

Reuters - Winter will be warmer than normal for much of the central United States, but government forecasters said on Thursday this season's weather for the rest of the country will be particularly hard to predict.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 Nov 2008 | 6:28 pm

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