Science Headlines for December 23, 2008

Advanced Imaging Technology Improves Spinal Surgery Outcome

Using a three-dimensional image-guided system to help place screws in the spines of patients results in safe and accurate surgery with a decrease in the number of misplaced screws, and subsequent injuries, seen in more traditional operations, say neurosurgeons.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2008 | 4:00 am

First 3-D Images Obtained Of Core Component Of Molecular Machinery Used For Cell Reproduction

For the first time, structural biologists have managed to obtain the detailed three-dimensional structure of one of the proteins that form the core of the complex molecular machine, called the replisome, that plant and animal cells assemble to copy their DNA as the first step in cell reproduction.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2008 | 4:00 am

Protea Plants Help Unlock Secrets Of Species 'Hotspots'

New species of flowering plants called proteas are exploding onto the scene three times faster in parts of Australia and South Africa than anywhere else in the world, creating exceptional 'hotspots' of species richness, according to new research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2008 | 4:00 am

Examination Of Widely Used Antimicrobial Compound Reveals New Strategies To Fight Malaria

Scientists working on a common antimicrobial compound with antimalarial activity have discovered a range of new therapeutic strategies to combat malaria. The research, published in the journal Cell Host and Microbe, provides valuable insight into how the human malaria parasite's requirement for fatty acids can be exploited as it progresses through the distinct stages of its complex life cycle.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2008 | 4:00 am

Mathematical Models Of Adaptive Immunity

More than five million people die every year from infectious diseases, despite the availability of numerous antibiotics and vaccines. The discovery of penicillin to treat bacterial infections, along with the development of vaccines for previously incurable virus diseases such as polio and smallpox, achieved great reductions in mortality during the mid-20th century.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2008 | 4:00 am

Snoring Intensity Linked To Subjective Measure Of Sleepiness In Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients

A new study shows that objectively measured snoring intensity is correlated with subjective sleepiness independent of the apnea-hypopnea index in patients with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2008 | 4:00 am

Evolution: Life On Earth Got Bigger In 2-million-fold Leaps

Earth's creatures come in all sizes, yet they (and we) all sprang from the same single-celled organisms that first populated the planet. So how on Earth did life go from bacteria to the blue whale? "It happened primarily in two great leaps, and each time, the maximum size of life jumped up by a factor of about a million," said a professor of geological and environmental science.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2008 | 1:00 am

Popular Class Of Diabetes Drugs Doubles Risk Of Fractures In Women

New findings out of Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of East Anglia show that long-term use of a popular class of oral diabetic drugs doubles the risk of fractures in women with type 2 diabetes.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2008 | 1:00 am

Scientists Unlock Key Mechanism Behind Cancer Metastasis

Researchers have shed light on a key mechanism behind the development of metastasis -- the main cause of death associated with cancer. The findings, published in Cancer Research, could have potential in treating the spread of metastasis, and so reduce cancer deaths.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2008 | 1:00 am

Gender Gap In Spatial Skills Starts In Infancy, Psychologists Report

Men tend to perform better than women at tasks that require a person to rotate an object mentally, studies have indicated. Now developmental psychologists have discovered that this type of spatial skill is present in infancy, and can be found in boys as young as five months old.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2008 | 1:00 am

Gas exporting states agree Qatar-based 'gas OPEC' (AFP)

AFP - Gas exporting states on Tuesday finalised the creation of a new Qatar-based forum aimed at coordinating gas policy that consumer countries fear could become the gas equivalent of oil cartel OPEC.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2008 | 5:48 pm

NYC man admits he helped air Hezbollah TV (AP)

AP - The owner of a New York satellite TV company has pleaded guilty to providing material aid to a terrorist organization by letting customers receive broadcasts from Hezbollah's television station.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2008 | 5:37 pm

Cousin Marriage Okay by Science

In an age of sexual liberation, marriage between cousins remains taboo, at least in the United States — and from a scientific perspective, it is a socially legitimized form of genetic and sexual discrimination.

That argument, raised Monday in an editorial published in the Public Library of Science Biology, may turn the stomachs of people raised to disapprove of any form of incest. But dispassioned analysis suggests that cousin marriage is no more troubling than childbearing by middle-aged women.

"Women over the age of 40 are not prevented from childbearing, nor is anyone suggesting they should be, despite an equivalent risk of birth defects," write zoologists Hamish Spencer and Diane Paul. Laws against cousin marriage, they say, should be repealed, "because neither the scientific nor social assumptions that informed them are any longer defensible."

Thirty-one states outlaw marriage between first cousins, making the United States the only developed country in which the practice is regularly banned. Most were passed in the Civil War's aftermath — not, say Spencer and Paul, to reduce the chance of defects caused by combinations of deleterious genes, but as part of a radical expansion of government authority over private lives.

"Unlike the situation in Britain and much of Europe, cousin marriage in the US was associated not with the aristocracy and upper middle class but with much easier targets: immigrants and the rural poor," they write.

But their argument is far from consensus: in Forbidden Relatives: The American Myth of Cousin Marriage, Kansas State University anthropologist Martin Ottenheimer argues that the bans were driven by now-discredited 19th century research on birth defects among children born to first cousins.

Whatever their motivations, the laws are not supported by science. According to the National Society of Genetic Counselors, birth defects are 2 to 3 percent more common in children born to first cousins than among the general population — a real risk, but not enough to justify the bans.

"It's a form of discrimination that nobody talks about. People worry about not getting health insurance — but saying that someone shouldn't marry based on how they're related, when there's no known harm, to me is a form of discrimination," said Robin Bennett, a University of Washington genetic counselor who led the NSGC study.

Precise statistics on cousin union frequency in the United States are hard to come by, she said, but discrimination and ignorance have serious consequences.

"I'm aware of people who have been afraid to tell people that they're in love with their cousins, who've become pregnant and potentially terminated a pregnancy based on false information," said Bennett. "Or they didn't marry the person they loved because of their concerns."

"The laws against cousin marriage are archaic, outdated, and counterproductive," said Ottenheimer.

Repealing these laws doesn't seem likely in the near future: gay marriage remains a more pressing issue. But anyone who wants to fight for cousin marriage won't have to fight against science.

"Ultimately it's a political question about what you allow individuals to do, and what that says about the structure of society," said Spencer.

Citation: "'It’s Ok, We’re Not Cousins by Blood': The Cousin Marriage Controversy in Historical Perspective." By Diane B. Paul and Hamish G. Spencer. Public Library of Science Biology: Vol. 6 Issue 12, Dec. 22, 2008.

Images; 1. Emma Darwin / Darwin Day Celebration 2. Charles Darwin / WikiMedia Commons (Charles married Emma, his first cousin, shortly after returning from his expedition aboard the Beagle) 3. Map of U.S. cousin marriage bans / PLoS Biology

See Also:

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 23 Dec 2008 | 5:36 pm

Scotland prepares to host Europe's first 'dark sky park'

From the car park in the foothills of the Range of the Awful Hand, it is a short walk to what may be the darkest place in the country. Drive up here after sunset and you are unlikely to set eyes on another soul, yet the site is famous among a small group of enthusiasts who come here in the black of night to stand, watch and wonder.

The patch of ground in the imposing row of mountains is surrounded by 300 square miles of moorland, woods and lochs that form the rugged wilderness of Galloway Forest Park in southern Scotland, and in a few weeks, officers at the forest will take steps towards making it Europe's first official dark sky park.

It is the profound lack of light that makes the area worthy of recognition and such a spectacular place to look at nature. The spot is so remote that on a cloudless night it offers an unrivalled view of the heavens: a rare chance to see shooting stars and the distant Andromeda galaxy, the aurora borealis and stellar nurseries where suns are born to warm alien planets.

Only two other parks in the world, one in Pennsylvania, the other in Utah, have been recognised by the International Dark-Sky Association, a US-based organisation that seeks to preserve and celebrate the darkest corners of the Earth. To earn dark sky park status, officials in Galloway will submit digital photographs of the night sky taken through a fisheye lens. Their application must be supported by readings from light meters at different points in the park, and a list of measures that are being taken within the forest to prevent lights in and around the handful of farm buildings from spilling upwards into the sky and ruining the view.

Registering the park in Galloway will be a British highlight of Unesco's International Year of Astronomy (IYA) in 2009. If the park's accreditation is successful, others including Exmoor National Park, the Brecon Beacons and the Peak District are expected to follow suit.

Interest in preserving areas where the glow of the city has yet to encroach on the night sky follows work by the Campaign for Dark Skies, a group set up by the British Astronomical Society in 1989 to highlight the growing issue of light pollution. With increasing urbanisation come better-lit streets, roads and buildings, which send light needlessly up into the sky, obscuring all but the brightest stars. According to some estimates, the amount of light that leaks into space costs around £110m a year.

"If you go out in an urban street and look up at night, you might see 50, maybe 100 stars at best. But come to our park and when you look up and let your eyes adjust, there are so many stars you can't count them. You see shooting stars, satellites and the Milky Way, with its billions of stars. You don't even need a high-powered telescope: a pair of binoculars is brilliant," said Keith Muir, recreation officer at Galloway Forest Park.

Steven Owens, an astronomer who is coordinating the UK's involvement in the IYA, said: "We've become a very urban population, and in doing so we've cut ourselves off from experiences people have had for hundreds and thousands of years.

"People have been looking up at the night sky, telling stories and passing on myths and legends for the entirety of recorded human history. But when we moved into cities, we lost that very deep connection with the universe. In setting up dark sky parks, we're trying to reconnect people with nature."

The darkness of the night sky is judged on what is called the Bortle scale, where night-time illumination over London ranks as a 10, while that over an oil rig in the Pacific ranks as one. Galloway scores around three on the scale, making its skies the darkest in Europe.

Marek Kukula, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, said designated dark sky parks were needed to put the brakes on the rapidly vanishing natural beauty of the night sky. "This is a part of our heritage that we're losing. If we concreted over the countryside and bulldozed the forests, there would be an outcry, but this has sneaked up on us, and people don't realise what we are doing. The night sky is an amazing spectacle that 90% of the population doesn't get to see," he said.

Next year, astronomers led by Dan Hillier at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh aim to set up partnerships between local parks and astronomers to raise awareness of stargazing across the UK for those without easy access to the more remote corners of the country.

The best time to view the night sky, especially in Scotland, is in the winter when the nights are darker and longer. Amateur astronomers recommend using websites and magazines to find out what will be in the sky and when. "You might be able to see Venus and Jupiter on the horizon at sunset. And if you go somewhere perfectly dark and look just beneath the belt of Orion the Hunter, you'll see a fuzzy blob. It might not look much, but it's a stellar nursery where new stars are born," said Owens.

After midnight on 3 January and before dawn the next day, Britain will have a prime view of the Quadrantid meteor shower, when astronomers expect to see around 100 shooting stars an hour. The brilliant streaks of light are caused by the Earth hurtling through giant clouds of dust particles, which burn up in the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 23 Dec 2008 | 5:28 pm

Ancient Family Heirlooms Used to Snort Hallucinogens

Anthropologists ponder the mystery of three inhaling bowls found in the Antilles.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Dec 2008 | 5:09 pm

On Earth, Evolution Booms in Bursts

Life on Earth has evolved in fits and starts, according to controversial new research.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Dec 2008 | 5:03 pm

Ariane rocket launches satellites for Eutelsat

KOUROU, French Guiana (Reuters) - A European Ariane-5 rocket blasted off from French Guiana on Saturday putting into orbit two satellites for Europe's telecoms operator Eutelsat, officials said.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Dec 2008 | 4:55 pm

Scientists recreate nerve disease to study it

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. scientists have created the first human model for studying a devastating nerve disease, which allows them to watch how the disease develops and could help researchers find a way to treat it.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Dec 2008 | 4:54 pm

Why Some of Us Hate to Cry (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - A new study reveals why crying can feel so pointless.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2008 | 4:42 pm

Ancient Tombs Unveiled Near Cairo

Newly found tombs reveal the sprawling necropolis south of Cairo is larger than thought.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Dec 2008 | 4:30 pm

Active 2009 Atlantic hurricane season predicted (Reuters)

Reuters - Another forecaster predicted an active 2009 Atlantic hurricane season on Tuesday, six months ahead of the tropical cyclone period that begins on June 1.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2008 | 4:29 pm

Chinese pandas arrive in Taiwan in charm offensive (AP)

AP - Two Chinese pandas whose combined names mean "reunion" arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday, the latest installment in a Beijing charm offensive aimed at convincing the island's people to embrace their Communist rival.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2008 | 4:11 pm

Activists guilty of hate campaign

Four animal rights activists are guilty of a blackmail campaign against firms that supplied Huntingdon Life Sciences.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Dec 2008 | 4:06 pm

Christmas Lights May Pose Lead Hazard

Christmas lights might be bad for our health, according to a new study.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Dec 2008 | 3:30 pm

Caffeine Works Better for Men

Caffeine affects men more strongly than women, and while decaf coffee perks up both the sexes, it works better on women.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Dec 2008 | 3:13 pm

Why Some of Us Hate to Cry

Most of us like to cry, but a new study reveals why it doesn't benefit all of us.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Dec 2008 | 2:44 pm

New Spy Tricks Hide Messages in Plain Sight

Meet cryptography's evil twin: the power to hide codes in everyday communications.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Dec 2008 | 2:30 pm

Scientists No Closer to Curing Hangovers

Hangover cures vary worldwide, from tripe soup in Mexico, vitamin concoctions in America, and pickle juice in Poland, connected by one fact: They don't really work.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Dec 2008 | 2:13 pm

Blind man gives demonstration of 'blindsight'

A man who was left completely blind by a series of strokes has delighted scientists by negotiating a maze of obstacles without using his cane.

The man, known only as TN, walked around chairs and boxes without knocking into them in an extraordinary demonstration of "blindsight", a strange ability some blind people have to detect objects they cannot see.

Scans of the man's brain revealed that a succession of strokes had left him unable to see, while brain regions known to process visual information were completely inactive.

Nevertheless, the man is able to react to facial expressions, registering emotions such as joy and anger.

Scientists at the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands believe people with blindsight are unwittingly tapping into alternative brain circuitry that lets them process information their eyes are receiving.

In the experiment, scientists created an obstacle course from boxes and chairs and asked the man to negotiate it without his stick or help from another person. When he completed the course without bumping into anything, onlookers applauded in amazement.

"This is absolutely the first study of this ability in humans," said Beatrice de Gelder, who led the study, which appears in the journal Current Biology. "We see what humans can do, even with no awareness of seeing or any intentional avoidance of obstacles. It shows us the importance of these evolutionarily ancient visual paths. They contribute more than we think they do for us to funciuton in the real world."

Scientists have seen blindsight in monkeys with similar brain damage.

The study reveals that untapped neural pathways exist in the brain that allow people to orient themselves and quickly detect obstacles, even if they are not conscious of seeing them. "All the time, we are using hidden resources of our brain and doing things we think we are unable to do," said de Gelder. "There is much that patients can do outside the grip of their being too aware of what they cannot do," she added.

Neuroscience

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 23 Dec 2008 | 1:58 pm

Four animal rights activists guilty of blackmail

LONDON (Reuters) - Four British animal rights activists were found guilty on Tuesday of blackmailing companies which supplied Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a firm that conducts tests on animals.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Dec 2008 | 1:13 pm

Four animal rights activists guilty of blackmailing Huntingdon Life Sciences suppliers

Group orchestrated campaign involving hoax bombs, night visits, nuisance phone calls and letters to companies dealing with Huntingdon Life Sciences

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 23 Dec 2008 | 12:29 pm

US, Russian space station crew conduct spacewalk (AP)

AP - American and Russian crewmen installed a probe Tuesday aimed at tracking down problems with a Russian module attached to the international space station and conducted an array of other maintenance and scientific work during a six-hour spacewalk.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2008 | 11:27 am

Raymond Blanc

Why good green food isn't just for Christmas
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Dec 2008 | 10:59 am

Star of wonder

Follow that star - but was it a comet, eclipse, supernova?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Dec 2008 | 9:27 am

Spacewalkers install probe outside space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) -- A U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut completed a 5-1/2-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Tuesday to install a device that monitors conditions around the orbital outpost.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Dec 2008 | 8:09 am

Even a tiny bit of flab raises heart failure risk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even a little bit of extra weight can raise the risk of heart failure, according to a U.S. study published on Monday that calculated the heart hazards of being pudgy but not obese.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Dec 2008 | 8:04 am

4,300-year-old pharaonic tombs unveiled near Cairo (AP)

AP - A pair of 4,300-year-old pharaonic tombs discovered at Saqqara indicate that the sprawling necropolis south of Cairo is even larger than previously thought, Egypt's top archaeologist said Monday. The rock-cut tombs were built for high officials one responsible for the quarries used to build the nearby pyramids and another for a woman in charge of procuring entertainers for the pharaohs.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2008 | 5:34 am

High flyers: bees on cocaine 'behave like humans'

They are highly social, adhere to a rigid class system and are intensely house-proud. And now it emerges that bees resemble human beings in one more, previously overlooked, respect: they behave just like us under the influence of cocaine.

Australian researchers found that bees which had been given a dose of cocaine threw themselves into unusually energetic dance routines, felt compelled to "talk" to their nest mates - and even went "cold turkey" when the drugs ran out.

The research, carried out at Macquarie University in Sydney, examined the behaviour of the bees after returning from a trip looking for food.

"When foraging honeybees discover a particularly good source of pollen or nectar, they fly back to the hive and perform a symbolic dance for their nest mates," said Dr Andrew Barron. "This is a specialised form of communication to tell their nest mates about the rewards they have found."

But after dabbing low doses of cocaine on the bees' backs before they went out, the researchers observed that when they returned they were more likely to dance for their nest mates, and performed particularly vigorous routines explaining where the food was located.

The dance language gave Barron and his colleagues an indication of what was going on in the bees' brains. Rather like a cokehead in a crowded nightclub, cocaine made the bees much more enthusiastic communicators. This was not simply because they were generally more energetic: the extra enthusiasm was in order to communicate with nest mates.

The results are reported in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Next, Barron's team investigated whether the bees suffered withdrawal symptoms when the drug was removed. This involved giving the bees a cocaine diet for a week, then testing their ability to learn how to distinguish between two different smells. "The poor little buggers had to drink cocaine for a week. Then we just stopped it dead and we gave them a learning test," said Barron. "Their performance absolutely crashed."

The finding is the first time scientists have shown that bees are affected by cocaine in a similar way to humans.

Addiction is much more complex in humans than in honeybees, said Barron, but he believes bees can provide a tool for looking at some aspects of the phenomenon, such as which genes are activated when the bee's brain goes cold turkey.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 23 Dec 2008 | 5:15 am

Brazil remembers slain activist

President Lula of Brazil leads tributes to Chico Mendes, an Amazon environmentalist killed 20 years ago.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Dec 2008 | 2:57 am

Nation's First 'Underwater Wind Turbine' Installed in Old Man River

The nation's first commercial hydrokinetic turbine, which harnesses the power from moving water without the construction of a dam, has splashed into the waters of the Mississippi River near Hastings, Minnesota.

The 35-kilowatt turbine is positioned downstream from an existing hydroelectric-plant dam and — together with another turbine to be installed soon — will increase the capacity of the plant by more than 5 percent. The numbers aren't big, but the rig's installation could be the start of an important trend in green energy.

And that could mean more of these "wind turbines for the water" will be generating clean energy soon.

"We don't require that massive dam construction, we're just using the natural flow of the stream," said Mark Stover, a vice president at Hydro Green Energy, the Houston-based company leading the project. "It's underwater windpower if you will, but we have 840 or 850 times the energy density of wind."

Hydrokinetic turbines like those produced by Hydro Green and Verdant capture the mechanical energy of the water's flow and turn it into energy, without need for a dam. The problem for companies like Hydro Green is that their relatively low-impact turbines are forced into the same regulatory bucket as huge hydroelectric dams. The regulatory hurdles have made it difficult to actually get water flowing through projects.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has oversight of all projects that involve making power from water, and the agency has recently shown signs of easing up on this new industry. In the meantime, the first places where hydrokinetic power makes in impact could be at existing dam sites where the regulatory red tape has already been cut.

“I am thrilled to support today's historic order that allows for harnessing more power from the Mississippi River,” FERC Commissioner Philip Moeller said in a release. “I hope this is the first of thousands of similar projects that produce clean and renewable power from in-stream flows at existing dams.”

Moeller's enthusiasm could encourage other companies that are trying similar strategies to tap tidal or current power.

Verdant has been testing its own turbine design to capture tidal flow in New York's East River, but it hasn't been easy.

"Verdant has spent more money on permitting their East River project that than they did on hardware," said Roger Bedard, a researcher at the Electric Power Research Institute, who has studied water-current–based energy generation.

Hydro Green's Stover hopes that his company's new unit will help shorten that regulatory process by generating environmental impact data that could ease concerns the turbines will disrupt river ecosystems and habitats.

And in the meantime, investors will continue to scour the planet for companies and technologies that could benefit from Barack Obama's plans to create green jobs. Congress already passed a bill this year to extend tax incentives for hydrokinetic projects through 2016.

"After the wind and solar craze, people said, 'What else is out there?'" Stover said. "The investment community is quite interested."

Image: Mark Stover/Hydro Green Energy, LLC

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 | 23 Dec 2008 | 1:08 am

Pair of tombs discovered in Egypt

Egyptian archaeologists say they have discovered two ancient tombs, indicating that a burial site is bigger than expected.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Dec 2008 | 12:41 am

Tangled web of spider evolution

Further study of the 385m-year-old Attercopus spider has shown that it could not have spun webs as modern spiders do.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Dec 2008 | 12:24 am

Google Maps Mashup Combines Your Address, Nuclear Blast

Nuclear weapons are often measured in kilotons, but that doesn't really tell the story of a weapon's destructive power.

Now, a new Google Maps mashup called Ground Zero lets you see the radius of thermal damage caused by a nuclear weapons blast centered at the address of your choice. In the screenshot at the right, we can see that an American-made B61 bomb hitting Wired HQ would knock out most of San Francisco.

The visualization tool comes courtesy of Carlos Labs, an Australian coding firm. It appears that they used the same (or similar) data as the Federation of American Scientists. The FAS writes that most buildings within the inner circle will be "completely destroyed." The next circle will be fire-filled, and the outer regions would experience major damage from the blast shockwave.

If you want to understand what these colored circles mean, head over to the Department of Energy's Historical Test Films page and take a look at some of the footage of the American military's nuclear weapons tests.

Via > @digidave > Digital Inspiration

Image: National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office

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 | 23 Dec 2008 | 12:08 am

Would you Adam and Eve it? Quarter of science teachers would teach creationism

More than a quarter of science teachers in state schools believe that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in science lessons, according to a national poll of primary and secondary teachers.

The Ipsos/Mori poll of 923 primary and secondary teachers found that 29% of science specialists agreed with the statement: "Alongside the theory of evolution and the Big Bang theory, creationism should be TAUGHT in science lessons"

Some 65% of science specialists disagreed with the statement. When asked if creationism should be "discussed" alongside evolution and the Big Bang 73% of science specialists agreed.

That such a large minority of science teachers advocate teaching creationism has dismayed prominent scientists who believe supernatural explanations for the origin of the universe have no place in school science lessons. Professor Richard Dawkins, Britain's best-known evolutionary biologist and a leading secularist, called the findings "a national disgrace".

The teachers who advocate teaching creationism are also directly contradicting the government's guidelines on the subject, which state: "Creationism and intelligent design are not part of the science national curriculum programmes of study and should not be taught as science." The sample includes teachers from all types of maintained schools including comprehensives, grammars, faith schools and academies. It does not include fee-paying schools.

The survey also indicates strong support for the views of the Royal Society's former director of education, Professor Michael Reiss. He resigned in September over his views on how to include creationism in science lessons. But a majority of science specialists polled endorsed his argument that creationism should be "discussed" in science lessons.

In response to the poll, Reiss said: "School science lessons provide wonderful opportunities for students of all ages to be introduced to scientific thinking about the origins of the universe and evolution of life. At the same time, some students have creationist beliefs. The task of those who teach science is then to teach the science but to treat such students with respect."

Reiss argues that creationism should not be treated as a misconception but as a world view. "Just because something lacks scientific support doesn't seem to me a sufficient reason to omit it from a science lesson," he wrote on guardian.co.uk shortly before his resignation. "When teaching evolution, there is much to be said for allowing students to raise any doubts they have ... and doing one's best to have a genuine discussion."

At the height of the row, two Nobel prize winners and Fellows of the Royal Society - Sir Harry Kroto and Sir Richard Roberts - publicly called for Reiss to be sacked.

The Ipsos/Mori poll also canvassed support for the more hardline position of only mentioning creationism in the context of dismissing it. It found that only 26% of all teachers and 46% of science specialists agree with Professor Chris Higgins, vice-chancellor of the University of Durham, who is quoted as saying "the only reason to mention creationism in schools is to enable teachers to demonstrate why the idea is scientific nonsense".

The poll was conducted between 5 November and 10 December and the results are statistically weighted by sex, age and teaching phase to the known profile of primary and secondary school teachers in England and Wales. Many of the primary teachers polled for the survey may have a science specialism, but teach a range of subjects day to day.

Higgins said creationism as an alternative to Darwin's theory had been "thoroughly discredited". He added: "If a pupil raises it as a hypothesis then a brief discussion as to why creationism is wrong might be appropriate ... But it would undermine any educational system to purposefully teach discredited ideas which are now only perpetuated through ignorance or flawed thinking - one might as well teach astrology, flat Earthism, alchemy or a geocentric universe."

Phil Willis MP, chair of the parliamentary innovation, universities, science and skills select committee, said: "There are ample opportunities elsewhere in the curriculum to discuss belief rather than scientific theory. Science teachers should simply explain why evidence is crucial to good scientific practice."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 23 Dec 2008 | 12:06 am

Editorial: In praise of ... Latin binomials

Editorial: Let us salute the taxonomists who on the Fijian island of Mba, spotted a new snail and named it Ba humbugi

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 23 Dec 2008 | 12:05 am

Editorial: Green futures

Editorial: Politicians hope green revolution can rescue jobs and economy, as well as the planet

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 23 Dec 2008 | 12:05 am

Life on Earth Not Getting Much Bigger

On the off chance that your darkest nightmares involve house-sized gerbils, rest easy: the scale of life on Earth won't likely expand beyond its present limits.

Analysis of the fossil record shows that life has undergone two profound jumps in size — from bacteria to eukaryotic cells, and from single-celled to multi-celled organisms.

In each case, possible body size increased by a factor of one to two million. After the second jump, say comparative zoologists, bodies hit the limits of Earthly possibility.

"If you look at a blue whale today, it's about ten times larger than any other animal," said Stanford University comparative zoologist Jonathan Payne, co-author of a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The mass or volume of the largest animals we see in the Cambrian and Ordovician radiations" — 2 billion and 450 million years ago, respectively — "were a million times bigger than anything that had come before."

Both of those jumps coincided with massive increases in atmospheric oxygen, said Payne. Another such increase in geochemical nutrients is unlikely.

"If there were a species whose individuals were a million times the mass of a blue whale, their nutrient demands would be so large that you couldn't have many species like that on the planet. Potentially you could have just one," he said. "It'd be like having a few hundred million blue whales: there's just not much food left to go around."

Citation: "Two-phase increase in the maximum size of life over 3.5 billion years reflects biological innovation and environmental opportunity." By Jonathan L. Payne, Alison G. Boyer, James H. Brown, Seth Finnegan, Michal Kowalewski, Richard A. Krause, Jr., S. Kathleen Lyons, Craig R. McClain, Daniel W. McShea, Philip M. Novack-Gottshall, Felisa A. Smith, Jennifer A. Stempien, and Steve C. Wang. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences early edition. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0806314106, Dec. 22, 2008.

Images: 1. Flickr/mikebaird 2. Evolutionary body size chart / PNAS

See Also:

Bolt Is Freaky Fast, But Nowhere Near Human Limits

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 23 Dec 2008 | 12:00 am

Tombs from court of Pharaoh Unas found

SAQQARA, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian archaeologists have found the tombs of two court officials, in charge of music and pyramid building, in a 4,000 year old cemetery from the reign of Pharaoh Unas.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Dec 2008 | 11:58 pm

Drug shields mice from chronic lung disease: study

CHICAGO (Reuters) - An experimental drug protected mice exposed to tobacco smoke from developing chronic lung disease, raising hope for a treatment in humans, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Dec 2008 | 10:54 pm

Science Behind Mysterious 'Fifth Taste' Revealed

It's appetizing news for anyone who's ever wanted the savory taste of meats and cheeses without actually having to eat them: chemists have identified molecular mechanisms underlying the sensation of umami, also known as the fifth taste.

The much-loved but historically unappreciated taste is produced by two interacting sets of molecules, each of which is needed to trigger cellular receptors on a tongue's surface.

"This opens the door to designing better, more potent and more selective umami enhancers," said Xiaodong Li, a chemist at San Diego-based food-additive company Senomyx. Li co-authored the study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Four other basic tastes — bitter, sweet, salty and sour — were identified 2,400 years ago by the Greek philosopher Democritus, and became central to the western gastronomic canon.

In the late 19th century, French chef and veal-stock inventor Auguste Escoffier suggested that a fifth taste was responsible for his mouth-watering brew. Though Escoffier's dishes were popular, his theories were dismissed until 1908, when Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda showed that an amino acid called glutamate underlies the taste of a hearty variety of seaweed soup.

In honor of Ikeda, the taste was dubbed umami, the Japanese word for delicious. It took another 80 years for umami to be recognized by science as comparable to the other four tastes.

In the meantime, monosodium glutamate became wildly popular as a flavor enhancer. But MSG can cause headaches and dizziness, and has been tenuously linked to long-term neurological disorders. Between the public dissatisfaction with MSG and growing demand for artificial meats and dairy products, an umami alternative is welcome.

"The only way to have a substitute is to find the molecular target of glutamate. If we figure that out, then we can screen for agents that are not glutamate but could mimic it," said Johns Hopkins University neuroscientist Solomon Snyder, who was not involved in the new study.

Li's team took human kidney cells and added the genes for receptors linked to umami taste. Receptors formed on the cells' surface, geometrically resembling the mouth of a Venus flytrap — the plant renowned, appropriately, for its meat-eating proclivities.

When glutamate caught on a receptor's lips and a molecule called ribonucleotide lodged in its throat, the receptor snapped shut.

"The configuration of the receptor changes, sending a signal down into the cell," said Li. In their engineered and disconnected cells the signal quickly fizzled — but in a tongue surface cell, said Li, "Your brain gets a signal: Something tastes good that is in my mouth."

The umami receptor's shape is similar to that of sweetness receptors, he said, and his team's research could eventually suggest alternatives to sugar. But more work is needed to determine exactly what happens when signals are sent from tongue to brain.

"Right now we're working on the first step of the activation of this receptor. Downstream, there are still lots of things to understand," said Li, who added that his favorite umami-containing food is lobster.

Citation: "Molecular mechanism for the umami taste synergism." By Feng Zhang, Boris Klebansky, Richard M. Fine, Hong Xu, Alexey Pronin, Haitian Liu, Catherine Tachdjian and Xiaodong Li. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 106 No. 52, Dec. 30, 2008.

Images: 1. thebittenword/Flickr 2. The geometry of umami receptors/PNAS

See Also:

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Dec 2008 | 10:52 pm

Israelis unearth Byzantine gold hoard (AP)

AP - Israeli archaeologists said they have unearthed more than 250 gold coins from the seventh century on the edge of Jerusalem's walled Old City. A British tourist volunteering at the dig discovered the trove on Sunday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Dec 2008 | 8:30 pm

Synthetic Biology in One Easy Step

The oldest tool in biotechnology just got a major promotion, from beer brewer and bread maker to the creator of drugs and artificial life.

For the first time, scientists were able to paste an entire set of genetic codes into yeast in just one step. Using the same techniques, scientists could transform the microbes into living factories, which produce expensive chemicals in an earth-friendly manner.

Yeast are remarkably good at stitching long segments of foreign DNA together, and then reading them. But those stringy molecules must be prepared and inserted correctly. Scientists at the University of Illinois pioneered an extremely-efficient way to slip new genetic material into yeast, reported in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.

"Assembling genes into a biochemical pathway using a DNA assembler is similar to building a toy train," said chemical engineer Huimin Zhao, who led the research. "Each cart is an equivalent of a gene, which is connected to each other in an ordered manner at the same time."

Zhao and his team at the University of Illinois simultaneously inserted eight genes into yeast cells, coaxing them to produce zeaxanthin, a food dye that occurs naturally in saffron and paprika. With a bit more work, his team could harness the single-celled organisms to produce expensive antibiotics.

Other researchers have inserted genes into yeast to make drugs, but the previous method using circular DNA molecules called plasmids wasn't very efficient. Scientists could only insert a few genes at a time, and only around 20 percent of the yeast responded successfully to the plasmids.

The new technique employs straight DNA strands with special segments at the ends that match up with part of the yeast genome, helping it integrate into the yeast genome. The result is a 70 percent success rate.

The same tricks could come in handy for researchers who want to create artificial life. In that case, the yeast would be used to stitch the man-made fragments of a genome together. That's important because even the best synthesizers can't make DNA that is long enough to contain the entire recipe for an organism.

"The method needs some optimization to make it work more efficiently and assemble very large recombinant DNA molecules such as a bacterial genome," says Zhao.

Image: Yeast are used to produce nutrient-rich products like Vegemite, one of the finest foods on Earth. Credit: erictitcombe / flickr

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Dec 2008 | 8:18 pm

Steve Jones and Richard Dawkins on creationism in science lessons

Steve Jones and Richard Dawkins give their reaction to a poll suggesting 29% of specialist science teachers believe creationism should be taught alongside evolution

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 22 Dec 2008 | 8:15 pm

Poll: 29% of science teachers say creationism should be taught

Almost three out of ten specialist science teachers believe that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in school science lessons, according to a national poll of primary and secondary teachers.

The survey also reveals strong support for the views of Michael Reiss, the Royal Society's former director of education. Reiss resigned from that position in September over his views on how to include creationism in science lessons. Some 73% of science specialists endorsed his position that creationism should be "discussed" in science lessons.

However, the finding that a large minority of science teachers advocate the active teaching of creationism will dismay many scientists who believe that supernatural explanations for the origin of life and the universe have no place in science lessons at all. At the height of the row over creationism teaching, two Nobel prize winners and Fellows of the Royal Society – Sir Harry Kroto and Sir Richard Roberts – publicly called for Reiss to be sacked over his views.

The teachers who advocate teaching creationism are also directly contradicting the government's guidelines, which state that "creationism and intelligent design are not part of the science national curriculum programmes of study and should not be taught as science."

The Ipsos/MORI poll of 923 primary and secondary teachers found that 37% of all teachers and 29% of science specialists agreed with the statement that, "alongside the theory of evolution and the Big Bang theory, creationism should be TAUGHT in science lessons."

Forty-seven per cent of all teachers and 65% of science specialists disagreed with the statement. When asked if creationism should be "discussed" alongside evolution and the big bang, 65% of all teachers and 73% of science specialists agreed. This is close to Reiss's position that creationism should not be treated as a misconception but as a world view.

"Just because something lacks scientific support doesn't seem to me a sufficient reason to omit it from a science lesson," Reiss wrote on the Guardian's website shortly before his resignation in September. "When teaching evolution, there is much to be said for allowing students to raise any doubts they have (hardly a revolutionary idea in science teaching) and doing one's best to have a genuine discussion."

The Ipsos/MORI poll also canvassed support for the more hard-line position of only mentioning creationism in the context of dismissing it. It found that 26% of all teachers and 46% of science specialists agree with the views of Prof Chris Higgins, vice-chancellor of the University of Durham, who is quoted as saying "creationism is completely unsupportable as a theory, and the only reason to mention creationism in schools is to enable teachers to demonstrate why the idea is scientific nonsense and has no basis in evidence or rational thought."

The poll was conducted between November 5 and December 10 and the results were statistically weighted by sex, age and teaching phase according to the known profile of primary and secondary school teachers in England and Wales.

Responding to the findings, Reiss said: "School science lessons provide wonderful opportunities for students of all ages to be introduced to scientific thinking about the origins of the universe and evolution of life. At the same time, some students have creationist beliefs. The task of those who teach science is then to teach the science but to treat such students with respect. Good science teaching may therefore involve discussing creationism or intelligent design without presenting such ideas to students as if they were supported by science."

Higgins said the idea creationism was an alternative to Darwin's theory had been "thoroughly discredited". He added, "Of course, if a pupil raises it as a hypothesis then a brief discussion as to why creationism is wrong might be appropriate as part of an education in intellectual integrity and rational thought. But it would undermine any educational system to purposefully teach discredited ideas which are now only perpetuated through ignorance or flawed thinking – one might as well teach astrology, flat earthism, alchemy or a geocentric universe."

Phil Willis MP, chair of the parliamentary Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Select Committee said: "Whilst pupils should never have their views or questions dismissed without reason, there are ample opportunities elsewhere in the curriculum to discuss belief rather than scientific theory. Science teachers should simply explain why evidence is crucial to good scientific practice."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 22 Dec 2008 | 8:15 pm

Background: Michael Reiss

Michael Reiss is professor of science education at the Institute of Education, University of London, and was director of education at the Royal Society between 2006 and 2008.

In September, Reiss resigned over a public row connected to his views on how to include creationism in science lessons. In comments to the press ahead of a lecture at the British Association Festival of Science in Liverpool on September 11, Reiss restated his view that creationism should be treated not as a misconception by teachers, but as a different "world view" and that it could be discussed in science lessons.

In an online comment piece at the time for the Guardian he wrote, "The implication of this is that the most a science teacher can normally hope to achieve is to ensure that students with creationist beliefs understand the scientific position. In the short term, this scientific world view is unlikely to supplant a creationist one."

He specifically rejected the notion that creationism and evolution should be given equal time in class.,

His comments were taken (incorrectly) by some as his advocating the inclusion of creationism in the science curriculum. Some scientists also objected to any ambiguity over whether supernatural explanations for life on Earth and the origin of the universe should be even mentioned alongside Darwinian evolution and the big bang theory.

A handful of fellows of the Royal Society, including Nobel prize winners Sir Harry Kroto and Sir Richard Roberts called for Reiss to resign. He left his post on September 16. In a statement, the Royal Society said: "While it was not his intention, [his comments have] led to damage to the Society's reputation...in the best interests of the Society, he will step down immediately as director of education."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 22 Dec 2008 | 8:15 pm

Galactic Halfway House Discovered

Scientists have spotted a rare class of galaxy that could represent a cosmic halfway-house between two stages of galaxy development.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Dec 2008 | 8:07 pm

EU seeks WTO case to test hormone-treated beef rules

GENEVA (Reuters) - The European Union launched a case at the World Trade Organization on Monday to test whether its restrictions on beef treated with growth hormones comply with global trade rules.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Dec 2008 | 8:00 pm

Seawater science can help climate change forecasts

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A team of scientists has come up with a new definition of seawater which is set to boost the accuracy of projections for oceans and climate.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Dec 2008 | 7:16 pm

High Times in Ag Science: Marijuana More Potent Than Ever

Story Updated: 12/23, 9:30 AM, PST.

Modern agriculture hasn't just made beef cows beefier and corn cornier, it's also made pot more potty.

The potency of marijuana, measured by the presence of its (psycho)active ingredient, THC, has tripled since 1987, according to the latest figures from the Department of Justice's National Drug Intelligence Center.

The new data from the University of Mississippi Potency Monitoring Project — which is not just a group of your college buddies talking about the differences between now and the old days — was released in the 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment.

The Department of Justice attributed the steadily rising numbers to "increased demand for higher-potency marijuana and improvements in cultivation techniques."

The new pot is certainly a superior product to the shake of the old days, but it's nowhere near as strong as some war-on-drug advocates have contended. The old White House drug czar, John Walters, has said publicly that marijuana's THC content has "increased as much as 30 times," which researchers say is not supported by the available evidence. UPDATE: The Office of National Drug Policy assistant press secretary, Rafael Lemaitre, contacted Wired.com to say that Walters was referring to the most potent samples tested by the University of Mississippi, which now reach over 37 percent THC (pdf).

The doubling of pot since the mid-80's is a really big deal and should not be minimized," wrote Lemaitre. "What if cigarette companies doubled the amount of nicotine in cigarettes in that same amount of time? Wouldn't that be cause for serious public health concern? We think so."

On the other hand, Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project, an organization lobbying to change the drug's regulation, said that the average American pot doesn't stack up with the tightly-controlled cannabis in Amsterdam.

"In the Netherlands, where marijuana for medical use is sold in pharmacies and grown to government standards of purity and potency, the minimal allowable potency is 15 percent THC," Mirken wrote in an email to Wired.com.

He also noted that the potency of marijuana might not actually matter much, with smokers (and/or midnight tokers) adjusting their intake based on the bud's THC content.

"A fair amount of data show that people who smoke marijuana adjust their smoking behavior in accordance with the potency of the material," Mirken wrote. "This is just like alcohol drinkers, who commonly consume a far smaller quantity of hard liquor than they do of beer."

Image: Drug Enforcement Agency

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 | 22 Dec 2008 | 6:32 pm

Global Warming Might Cook Up Too Many Male Fish

Earth’s warming could have troublesome impacts on reptiles because their gender is determined by temperature.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Dec 2008 | 5:45 pm

Tropics Cooled by Volcanic Eruptions

Particles spewed by erupting volcanoes have periodically cooled the tropics for centuries.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Dec 2008 | 5:41 pm

A bee a day keeps the hungry caterpillars away

Bees help plants in more ways than one, scientists find; as well pollination, they help scare caterpillars away.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Dec 2008 | 5:30 pm

SpaceShipTwo Mothership Makes First Test Flight

Most of us can hardly afford plane tickets right now, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be saving up for our first spaceship ride.

WhiteKnightTwo, the carrier ship for the commercial space plane SpaceShipTwo, made its first test flight Sunday. The distinctive double plane flew from Mojave Air and Space Port in California for about an hour, taking off around 8:15 a.m. PST. The 79-foot-long behemoth is powered by four Pratt and Whitney PW308A turbofan engines. The spaceship is a joint project of the Scaled Composites company and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

"The maiden flight went perfectly," Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, told Wired.com. "With these aircraft, nothing is ever a foregone conclusion. It's not like pulling another AirBus off the line and putting it into the air. This was a big moment. I think it was a big milestone for the whole industry."

Until recently, only government-trained astronauts could experience the weightlessness and wonder of space flight. But now, spurred by the $10-million Ansari X Prize, won by SpaceShipTwo's predecessor, a small industry is developing to make space tourism accessible to the common millionaire.

While craft like the SpaceShipTwo technically reach space by crossing the rather-arbitrary Karman Line, passengers don't enter orbit around Earth. You get what you pay for: Seats on the new craft are only supposed to run about $200,000, while a trip to the International Space Station retails for more than $20 million.

WhiteKnightTwo is a unique vehicle; it's the first aircraft made from 100 percent carbon composite materials. Yesterday two pilots guided the plane on a flight to 16,000 feet. Eventually, the vehicle must go much higher. It is designed to launch SpaceShipTwo in mid-air at about 48,000 feet.

SpaceShipTwo will carry two pilots and six passengers. The spaceship is twice as big as its predecessor, SpaceShipOne, the first privately-funded suborbital spaceplane, which now hangs in the National Air Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Whitehorn said he expects the first test flight of ShaceShipTwo in six or seven months, and Virgin and Scaled Composites hope to begin carrying space travelers before the end of 2010.

See Also:

Image (artist's depiction of WhiteKnightTwo carrying SpaceShipTwo underneath it): Virgin Galactic

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Dec 2008 | 5:29 pm

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