Science Headlines for December 17, 2008

Protein That Contributes To Cancer Spread Discovered

Researchers have identified a protein likely responsible for causing breast cancer to spread. Metastatic cancer occurs when cancer cells from the original tumor travel to distant sites via the blood system.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm

Starting High School One Hour Later May Reduce Teen Traffic Accidents

With a one-hour delay of school start times, teens increased their average nightly hours of sleep and decreased their "catch-up sleep" on the weekends, and they were involved in fewer auto accidents.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm

New Way Men Can Transmit HIV To Women

Researchers have discovered a critical new way a man can transmit the HIV virus to a woman. Scientists had long believed that the normal lining of the female vaginal tract was an effective barrier to invasion of the HIV virus during sexual intercourse. But new research has shown for the first time that the HIV virus does indeed penetrate a woman's normal, healthy genital tissue to a depth were it can gain access to its immune cell targets.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm

Engineers Developing Energy-harvesting Radios

Engineers are helping a semiconductor manufacturer implement its idea of an energy-harvesting radio. It could transmit important data -- like stress measurements on a bridge, for instance -- without needing a change of batteries, ever.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm

Biggest Breach Of Earth's Solar Storm Shield Discovered

Earth's magnetic field, which shields our planet from particles streaming outward from the Sun, often develops two holes that allow the largest leaks, according to researchers sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm

Persistent Imminent Orgasms In Women Are Associated With Restless Legs

Persistent imminent orgasms in women are associated with restless legs and overactive bladder. Scientists studied 18 Dutch women with Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome. Women affected by this rare and mysterious syndrome experience persistent genital sensations as if they are continuously on the verge of an orgasm. According to one of the researchers PSAS is a genital form of restless legs.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm

'Follow The Elements' To Understand Evolution In Ancient Oceans

In the search for life beyond Earth, scientists "follow the water" to find places that might be hospitable. However, every home gardener knows that plants need more than water, or even sunshine. They also need fertilizer: a mixture of chemical elements that are the building blocks of the molecules of life. Scientists are now studying how the distribution of these elements on Earth -- or beyond -- shapes the distribution of life, the state of the environment and the course of evolution.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 4:00 pm

Advance Toward Early Diagnosis Of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Researchers in Finland are reporting identification of the first potential "biomarker" that could be used in development of a sputum test for early detection of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). That condition, which causes severe difficulty in breathing — most often in cigarette smokers — affects 12 million people in the United States.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 4:00 pm

Low Dose Of Caffeine When Pregnant May Damage Heart Of Offspring For A Lifetime

The equivalent of one dose of caffeine (just two cups of coffee) ingested during pregnancy may be enough to affect fetal heart development and then reduce heart function over the entire lifespan of the child. The study was in mice, but the biological cause and effect described in the research paper is plausible in humans.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 4:00 pm

Dark Energy Found Stifling Growth In Universe

For the first time, astronomers have clearly seen the effects of 'dark energy' on the most massive collapsed objects in the Universe. By tracking how dark energy has stifled the growth of galaxy clusters and combining this with previous studies, scientists have obtained the best clues ever about what dark energy is and what the destiny of the universe could be.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 4:00 pm

U.S. 'Death Map': Heat Deadlier Than Storms

Extreme heat is among the worst natural threats in the United States.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Dec 2008 | 2:20 pm

How Green Gifts Could Power the Future

A few holiday ideas that can spread cheer by reducing energy consumption.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:48 pm

"Safer" cigarette smoke just as harmful to embryos

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Smoke from so-called harm-reduction cigarettes is just as dangerous to developing embryos as smoke from standard cigarettes, and may be even more toxic, new experiments with mouse embryo stem cells show.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:45 pm

What are you looking at? Japan scientists find out

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese researchers have reproduced images of things people were looking at by analyzing brain scans, opening the way for people to communicate directly from their mind.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:43 pm

'Dark energy' expands, contracts universe: researchers (AFP)

AFP - Mysterious "dark energy" works simultaneously to expand the universe and shrink objects inside it, astronomers in the United States said Tuesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:34 pm

New Theory: How Advertisers Get Inside Your Head

Ads work on our unconscious mind to steer our purchases.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:24 pm

Oil producers pull lever for huge output cut to stop price slide (AFP)

AFP - OPEC and non-OPEC oil exporters took action on Wednesday that could remove up to 2.6 million barrels of oil from the market in a bold bid to boost prices and producers' incomes.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:22 pm

King Tut's Father ID'd in Stone Inscription

An ancient Egyptian stone block bears an inscription revealing King Tut's father as Akhenaten.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:10 pm

Euro MPs seal major climate deal

The European Parliament backs a far-reaching package to combat global warming, seen as a key EU initiative.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Dec 2008 | 12:58 pm

Light on the dark energy mystery

Observations of the effect of dark energy on galaxy clusters suggest general relativity is alive and well.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Dec 2008 | 12:42 pm

Scientists find hole in Earth's magnetic field (AP)

AP - Recent satellite observations have revealed the largest breach yet seen in the magnetic field that protects Earth from most of the sun's violent blasts, researchers reported Tuesday. The discovery was made last summer by Themis, a fleet of five small NASA satellites.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 12:07 pm

Why Do I Laugh at Funny Things?

Laughter spreads positive emotions, decreases stress, and contributes to the cohesiveness of a group.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:49 am

Sex and Cheating: When Does It Count? (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Blame Bill Clinton: Ever since the former president confounded Congress - and the nation - with his semantically driven definition of sex, the nature of the act has become increasingly vague. In 2005, the federal government released a study that found more than 50 percent of American teenagers had engaged in oral sex; furthermore, they considered oral sex a less-significant substitution for intercourse. And as the generation enters adulthood, this attitude toward sex is affecting its relationships. ...
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:06 am

Sex and Cheating: When Does It Count?

Ever since Bill Clinton, the nature of the act has become increasingly vague.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Dec 2008 | 9:53 am

'Ancient city unearthed' in Peru

Researchers in Peru say they have discovered the ruins of an entire city - possibly the "missing link" between ancient cultures.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Dec 2008 | 8:06 am

Peter Singer: Mbeki and the tragic cost of ignoring scientific evidence

Peter Singer: Malicious or not, the former South African president's Aids policy is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 17 Dec 2008 | 8:00 am

Audio: Sea levels may rise faster than expected

James Randerson looks at a new study predicting sea levels will rise faster than previous estimates suggested

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:44 am

Guardian Daily podcast: Conservative lead cut to 5%; plus Rhys Jones’s killer jailed

A Guardian/ICM poll today shows a steep dip in support for the Conservatives, whose lead over Labour is now just 5%. Chief leader writer Julian Glover has the details.

Sean Mercer, 18, was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison at Liverpool crown court yesterday for the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones, gunned down in a pub car park as he returned from football practice. Helen Carter on the killing that shocked the country.

John Hooper reports from Rome on a major crackdown on the Sicilian mafia, where more than 1,200 police officers arrested 99 suspected mobsters.

Business secretary Lord Mandelson announced plans to part-privatise the Royal Mail yesterday. Industrial correspondent Terry Macalister says the business faces tough challenges.

Science correspondent James Randerson looks at a new US study that predicts sea levels will rise faster than previous estimates.

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 17 Dec 2008 | 6:57 am

China to send pandas to Taiwan on Dec. 23 (AP)

AP - China said Wednesday a pair of long-promised giant pandas symbolizing "peace, unity and friendship" will be sent to Taiwan next week in the latest sign of warming ties between the two once-bitter rivals.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 5:11 am

Changes 'amplify Arctic warming'

Scientists say they now have unambiguous evidence that the warming in the Arctic is accelerating.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Dec 2008 | 4:13 am

Protected habitat proposed for sea otter in Alaska (AP)

AP - A federal agency proposed nearly 6,000 square miles of southwest Alaska shoreline be protected habitat for a threatened population of northern sea otters.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 3:22 am

The way people walked across 'wobbly' bridge led to swaying

The way people walked across London's "wobbly" bridge led to the swaying which marred its opening, a study suggests.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Dec 2008 | 2:43 am

U.S. Death Map: Where and How Nature Kills Most

Heat and severe weather take more lives than hurricanes and tornadoes.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:39 am

Endangered Lemurs Survived Ancient AIDS Epidemic

In the genome of the endangered gray mouse lemur, scientists have found DNA fossils from an ancient version of HIV.

Its exact origins are a mystery, but the clues could help solve a more modern and pressing unknown: how humans can beat AIDS.

Remnants of the ancient retrovirus were found by virologists studying the squirrel-sized primate on its island home of Madagascar. The DNA was deposited when viruses managed to infect sperm or egg cells, writing permanent and heritable copies of themselves into the genetic code.

Virtually every animal's genome contains fragments left by retroviruses over millions of years. (Incredibly, retrovirus genes may outnumber human genes in our own genome.) To a virologist, every genome is like a Grand Canyon cross-section or piece of Burgess shale.

But deciphering genetic strata is more difficult than dating sedimentary deposits: it's hard to tell exactly when a virus showed up. It's possible that this particular virus — technically known as pSIVgml, or prosimian immunodeficiency virus of the gray mouse lemur — was present when Madagascar split from Africa.

That would make pSIVgml at least 65 million years old — the oldest ancestor of modern HIV yet found. But it's also possible, write Stanford University virologists Robert Gifford and Robert Shafer in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that pSIVgml arrived on the island at some later date, jumping from another species just as HIV jumped from primates to people.

But while HIV destroys human immune systems, leaving bodies vulnerable to ultimately lethal diseases, pSIVgml doesn't affect the lemurs. They may have evolved an immunity to it.

In an accompanying commentary, Harvard Medical School microbiologist Welkin Johnson suggests that scientists compare the ancient virus with its descendant, resurrecting ancient genes and comparing them to modern counterparts. Perhaps we can discover the lemurs' secret.

"The lemurs may present a novel opportunity to glimpse ... a distant mirror of the AIDS epidemic," wrote Johnson.

Unfortunately, there's a catch: like so many other animals on Madagascar, the gray mouse lemur is in grave danger of going extinct. The few specimens gathered won't be enough.

"One or a few DNA sequences does nothing to capture the diversity represented by an entire species or population," he said in an interview. "It would be virtually impossible to deduce social or behavioral characteristics, or even complex physical characteristics, by glancing at a single DNA sequence or by testing a biological sample."

In the case of some endangered species, conservationists must appeal to basic sympathies for other living species. Such arguments don't always work: snail darters and spotted owls are wonderful creatures, but won't be universally missed.

Helping the gray mouse lemur, however, means helping ourselves.

They're a great opportunity — "hopefully," writes Johnson, "an opportunity gained, not lost."

A proviral puzzle with a prosimian twist [PNAS] (not yet online)

A transitional endogeneous lentivirus from a basal primate and implications for lentivirus evolution [PNAS]

Image: flickr/Arthur Chapman

See Also:

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:19 am

Researchers find short-armed raptor in Argentina

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An unusual raptor dinosaur found in Argentina is the largest of its kind found so far in the Southern Hemisphere, with awkwardly short arms that made it resemble a Tyrannosaurus, researchers reported on Tuesday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:13 am

Researchers find short-armed raptor in Argentina (Reuters)

Reuters - An unusual raptor dinosaur found in Argentina is the largest of its kind found so far in the Southern Hemisphere, with awkwardly short arms that made it resemble a Tyrannosaurus, researchers reported on Tuesday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:13 am

Tiny Saturn Moon ID'd As Good Candidate For Alien Life

SAN FRANCISCO, California — Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus may be one of the best candidates for extraterrestrial life in our solar system.

Scientists for the first time have gathered comprehensive evidence suggesting Enceladus may have all the necessary ingredients to harbor life in the ocean beneath its icy crust.

Particles in a large plume of water vapor emanating from the surface suggest the moon has an active ocean that circulates life-sustaining nutrients picked up from the rocky interior below.

"The plume is our smoking gun," said astrobiologist Christopher Parkinson of the University of Michigan. "It gives you a hint about what's going on inside."

Life could arise in these conditions, or it could arrive from elsewhere in the galaxy, Parkinson said Monday at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

"If we sent a probe with the idea that there was microbial life on it that we were going to infect the place with, it would likely be a successful experiment," he said. "I'm not suggesting we do it, but it would be very cool."

So far, space missions have found evidence in the solar system for liquid water and organic molecules on Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa and now Enceladus. Scientists hunting for life outside of the solar system are looking for planets with atmospheres with the right chemistry. But if Enceladus could host life, it shows that worlds without atmospheres could also be candidates.

Chemical analyses of the moon's vapor plume made by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft in a close flyby in October showed that it was mostly water, but also contained methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and silicate dust.

Some of the vapor from the plume falls back to resurface the crust, Parkinson said. There the molecules could react with charged particles from the sun to create things like hydrogen peroxide and methanol — unappetizing to humans, but a nutritious buffet for microbes.

The plume emanates from an area of Enceladus that has long dark lines, known as tiger stripes, that may mark where the ice is slowly circulating up to the surface. That would mean that in between the stripes, the ice would make its way down to the ocean, taking the nutrients with it.

The circulation of the ocean could continue to bring more silicate dust from the rocky floor of the ocean up to the base of the ice where it would circulate through the tiger stripes to the surface and out into the plume, starting the process over. The whole cycle would take less than a million years — fast enough, Parkinson said, to keep a microbial colony alive.

"There could be ocean processes that could create a sustainable or complete geochemical cycle required for life," Parkinson said. "We have analogs on Earth that show this. Certainly we know from Lake Vostok in Antarctica, there's water and life stays fairly dormant but it's there."

But going from the possibility of life on Enceladus to life actually taking hold is a leap, said planetary scientist Juergen Schmidt of Potsdam University, who has also studied Enceladus' plume.

"We say we need water and we need this chemistry, but that could just reflect our geocentrism," he said.

And even if we do know the right ingredients for life, Enceladus might not be the best candidate to host it.

"There are three candidates — Mars, Europa and now Enceladus, and all that is based on the presence of liquid water and organic molecules," Schmidt said. "But I don't think Enceladus is more likely than the others."

For now, Parkinson is content with just the possibility.

"I can show it's life friendly. Is there life? No guarantee," he said. "If we put it there, it could thrive. It's possible."

Image: NASA

See Also:

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:02 am

Hot rocks

Geologists get an unexpectedly close look at molten rock
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Dec 2008 | 12:49 am

"Death map" shows heat a big hazard to Americans

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Heat is more likely to kill an American than an earthquake, and thunderstorms kill more than hurricanes do, according to a "death map" published on Tuesday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 17 Dec 2008 | 12:25 am

Another view: 'Dog listener' Stan Rawlinson on Dean Spanley

Another view: Dean Spanley is a little like Scrooge with a twist: he is visited by memories of his previous life as a dog

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 17 Dec 2008 | 12:14 am

Spacewatch

January brings the fifth anniversaries of the landings on Mars of Nasa's Spirit and Opportunity rovers

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 17 Dec 2008 | 12:10 am

What happens to fighter pilots' brains at high altitudes

I'm in a simulated altitude chamber under the watchful eye of Des Connolly of QinetiQ's Human Performance division, and they're about to suck most of the air out.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Dec 2008 | 12:00 am

Archeologists in Peru unearth ancient Wari city

LIMA (Reuters) - Researchers digging at the Cerro Patapo archeological site in northern Peru have discovered the ruins of an entire city, which may provide the "missing link" between two ancient cultures, investigators said on Tuesday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 16 Dec 2008 | 11:42 pm

First US face transplant complete

The first almost-total face transplant to be carried out in the US has been completed at a clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Dec 2008 | 11:27 pm

Trend: Dead Take Cell Phones With

More and more people are taking their cell phones to the great beyond.
Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2008 | 11:25 pm

Strange dark energy acts as galactic diet enforcer (AP)

AP - Mysterious dark energy, which likely causes the universe to keep expanding, seems to have another effect: It prevents the biggest clusters of galaxies from getting too fat. Astronomers used X-rays to study the formation of galactic clusters billions of years ago. Their research supports the hard-to-fathom concept of dark energy as a potent force that governs the growth of the universe.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Dec 2008 | 11:00 pm

Holes in Earth's magnetic cloak let the sun in

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Earth's protective magnetosphere has two large holes that are letting in disruptive solar winds, scientists said on Tuesday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 16 Dec 2008 | 10:18 pm

Death Star Galaxy

Galaxy 3C321's supermassive black hole is shooting a jet of particles nearly at the speed of light toward a nearby galaxy.
Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2008 | 9:20 pm

X-ray measurements boost dark energy theory

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - X-ray measurements of distant galaxy clusters confirm theories that dark energy is forcing the universe to expand infinitely, scientists said on Tuesday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 16 Dec 2008 | 8:58 pm

Technology helps Santa make magic, scientist says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ever wondered how Santa Claus can travel around the world in just one night on his reindeer-pulled sleigh and deliver toys to all the children?

Source: Reuters: Science News | 16 Dec 2008 | 8:30 pm

Dark Energy Could Be Einstein's Cosmological Constant

Dark energy, which forms almost three-quarters of the universe, is the most mysterious stuff known to man. A new set of Chandra X-Ray Observatory data, however, has given scientists good information on what dark energy might actually be.

Turns out, it looks suspiciously like Einstein's cosmological constant, a factor he added to his theory of general relativity. He once considered it his greatest blunder.

"Putting all of this data together gives us the strongest evidence yet that dark energy is the cosmological constant, or in other words, that 'nothing weighs something,'" said lead researcher, Alexey Vikhlinin of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a press release. "A lot more testing is needed, but so far Einstein's theory is looking as good as ever."

Einstein's general relativity equations famously described the curvature of space-time as the mechanism for gravity. In the original theory, Einstein added a "cosmological constant" that acted as an expulsive force to counteract gravity. That stabilized the universe so it didn't collapse in on itself, but Einstein abandoned the idea when further astronomical observations showed the universe was accelerating and not static, as the great physicist had thought.

For years, the cosmological constant remained just a blunder, but mounting evidence for dark energy in recent years, a mysterious expulsive force, revived interest in the idea.

Previous work on the nature of dark energy had focused on the speed at which the universe was flying apart, which requires enormous amounts of energy counteracting the contractive force of gravity. The new data from the X-Ray Chandra Observatory provides astrophysicists with another data point: Dark energy is slowing down the formation of galaxy clusters by stretching space-time. Combining the two sets of observations allows scientists to make the mysterious dark energy a little bit smaller and more well-defined.

"What's remarkable is that these two different methods — distance and structure — are giving the same answer," said David Spergel, a theoretical astrophysicist at Princeton University who was not involved with the new research.

Now scientists know that dark energy has remained constant through time, an important factor in figuring out the ultimate fate of the universe. Vikhlinin said it appeared that the universe won't stop expanding anytime soon, but won't be torn apart in what some theoretical physicists had called "The Big Rip."

"The acceleration of the universe will proceed forever, but it will probably not be torn apart," Vikhlinin said.

The scientists also have a pretty good idea that dark energy — responsible for these large-scale structural changes of the universe — is generated at the smallest scales we know of.

"The quantum fluctuations in the vacuum have some tiny energy," Spergel said. "Even nothing, empty space, weighs something. And because in our universe, we've got a lot of nothing, it has a major effect on our evolution and causes space to expand."

Now, scientists will focus on pinning down these energies, which, as seen in the diagram at right, drive the expansion of the universe. Vikhlinin's co-investigator, William Forman, compared dark energy to "springs" driving matter apart at high speeds.

"We're now confident in the existence of the springs," said Forman, an astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. "Now our goal is to understand the nature of the springs."

Image: Two images, the left taken in the optical section of the spectrum, the other taken in the X-ray. In the X-ray part of the spectrum, galaxy clusters become far more obvious /NASA. Schematic: X-Ray Chandra Observatory.

See Also:

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter , Google Reader feed, and project site, Inventing Green: the lost history of American clean tech; Wired Science on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 16 Dec 2008 | 8:28 pm

Leaks Found in Earth's Protective Magnetic Field

Solar particles penetrate Earth's magnetosphere at different points, in different ways and in greater amounts than though.
Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2008 | 8:27 pm

New Pterosaur Species Unearthed in Sahara

The remains of two new species of extinct animals are found in remote Morocco.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Dec 2008 | 8:00 pm

Planet Hunter

Supercharged Hubble Space Telescope Searches for Extrasolar Planets.
Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2008 | 7:43 pm

Planet Hunter

Supercharged Hubble Space Telescope Searches for Extrasolar Planets.
Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2008 | 7:43 pm

Drillers Accidentally Create First Live Magma Observatory

SAN FRANCISCO, California — Drillers accidentally hit a pocket of molten rock underneath a working geothermal energy field in Hawaii, a lucky break for geologists that could allow them to map the geological plumbing that created everything we know as land.

The unprecedented discovery could act as a "magma observatory," allowing scientists to test their theories about how processes transformed the molten rock below Earth's surface into the rocky crust that humans live on today.

"This is like Jurassic Park for magmatic systems," said Bruce Marsh, a geologist at Johns Hopkins University. "You can go to museums and see dinosaur skeletons. But if a paleontologist could see a dinosaur frolicking in the open countryside, it would be absolutely spellbinding. And this is what it is for me to see this thing in in its natural habitat."

Scientists know a lot about lava, but far less about its subsurface predecessor, magma, the molten material that originates deep in the crust and cools into rock near the surface, sometimes erupting as lava. They've developed models of magma's behavior based on how recently created land looks, but they've never glimpsed the stuff where the vast majority of it actually resides, underneath the crust that covers the globe. Understanding magma and how it forms land could shed light on how our continents came to be composed the way they are.

"This is how we built the Earth," Marsh said. "We built the Earth from very primitive materials, materials that remelted and remelted and distilled and eventually you get continental material."

"It's exciting," said geologist Peter Kelemen of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University. He agrees that a live magma chamber could reveal some fundamental things about how crust is formed.

Because this is the first encounter scientists have had with underground magma, they are still putting together plans for how to best study it. They will likely drill more holes into the chamber and send instruments down to take measurements of size and characteristics.

"We don't really understand how the chemical differentiation of magma occurs," he said. Some theories suggest the separation of buoyant and non-buoyant material is responsible for creating different types of crust, a process that would be dependent on convection.

"The subsurface magma chamber could be convecting," Kelemen said. "That would be interesting."

Previously, the closest scientists have been able to get to magma has been in Hawaiian lava lakes. But the magma becomes stagnant and cools. The magma in the chamber is insulated from the air, and geologists will be able to study it in action.

Like so many other discoveries in the history of science, this one was an accident and completely unexpected.

One day in 2005, a commercial geologist was boring a hole deep into Hawaii's crust, looking for a place to inject waste fluid from the Puna Geothermal Plant back into the Earth. It was a routine process; the company had spent months drilling into basalt. As per their standard operations, the engineer sent the drill bit crunching through some more rock, pulled back and then went to reset the bit to drill deeper. But something strange had happened.

"My colleague called me as soon as he saw it. He's a very experienced geologist and as soon as he saw it, he knew immediately that we were into something very different, especially the way it behaved coming up the wellbore," said Bill Teplow, a consulting geologist with U.S. Geothermal. "The driller can actually feel it. He pulled the drill string up and when he set it down, he didn't set down on bottom, he set down 30 feet up."

The geologist re-drilled the hole several times with the same result. When they looked at samples of the rock, it wasn't the gray basalt that looks like cooled lava, it was clear and glassy.

"This is a singular event," Marsh said. "It's first contact with the inner Earth where the magma lives."

In this case, the body of magma is sitting underneath a standard geothermal field, with all of the geological tools — like massive drilling rigs — that can aid their quest.

"This could be the first magma observatory in the Earth," Marsh said.

See Also:

Image: flickr/casch52

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter, Google Reader feed, and project site, Inventing Green: the lost history of American clean tech; Wired Science on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 16 Dec 2008 | 7:28 pm

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