Nicotine Activates More Than Just The Brain's Pleasure Pathways

Researchers have discovered there are differing taste pathways for nicotine, which could provide a new approach for future smoking-cessation products.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

New Way To Produce Hydrogen Discovered

Scientists have discovered a way to produce hydrogen by exposing selected clusters of aluminum atoms to water. The findings are important because they demonstrate that it is the geometries of these aluminum clusters, rather than solely their electronic properties, that govern the proximity of the clusters' exposed active sites. The proximity of the clusters' exposed sites plays an important role in affecting the clusters' reactions with water.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

'Bliss' Blocks Sperm: Investigating Impact Of Marijuana Exposure On Male Infertility

Evidence suggests that human male fertility is impacted by long-term exposure to marijuana. Indeed, endocannabinoids and their receptors are present in the male reproductive tract, further suggesting a functional role in fertility, but there has been no genetic test to clarify mechanisms. Now researchers have characterized the phenotype of mice genetically lacking FAAH, fatty acid amide hydrolase.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

Just Living With Females Extends The Reproductive Life Of The Male Mouse

Living with a female mouse can extend the reproductive life of a male mouse by as much as 20 percent, according to a new study. The results have significant implications for the maintenance of male fertility in wildlife, livestock and even human populations.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

Evolutionary Process More Detailed Than Previously Believed, Study Shows

New evidence from a study of yeast cells has resulted in the most detailed picture of an organism's evolutionary process to date, says a chemical engineering professor whose findings provide the first direct evidence of aspects, which up until now have remained mostly theory.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

Mediterranean Diet Reduces Long-term Risk Of Subsequent Weight Gain And Obesity Among Adults

A research group from Spain has studied the dietary patterns associated with a high intake of fruits and vegetables in Mediterranean populations. They have analyzed the associations between fruit and vegetable intake and weight gain over a 10-year period in an adult Mediterranean population. The researchers found that increased fruit and vegetable intake was associated with significantly lower risk of a medium weight gain (3,41 kg) over 10 years among adults.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

New Stretchable Electrodes Created To Study Stresses On Cardiac Cells

Engineers have created stretchable electrodes to study how cardiac muscle cells, neurons and other cells react to mechanical stresses from heart attacks, traumatic brain injuries and other diseases.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

Scientists solve enigma of Antarctic 'cooling'

Scientists have solved the enigma of the Antarctic apparently getting cooler, while the rest of the world heats up.

New research shows that while some parts of the frozen continent have been getting slightly colder over the last few decades, the average temperature across the continent has been rising for at least the last 50 years.

In the remote and inaccessible West Antarctic region the new research, based on ground measurements and satellite data, show that the region has warmed rapidly, by 0.17C each decade since 1957. "We had no idea what was happening there," said Professor Eric Steig, at the University of Washington, Seattle, and who led the research published in Nature.

This outweighs the cooling seen in East Antarctica, so that, overall, the continent has warmed by 0.12C each decade over the same period. This matches the warming of the southern hemisphere as a whole and removes the apparent contradiction.

The issue, which had been highlighted by global warming sceptics, was an annoyance, said Steig, despite the science having been reasonably well understood. "But it has now been killed off," he said.

Gareth Marshall, climatologist at British Antarctic Survey, commented: "This work allows us to look at the continent as a whole, which we have not been able to do before with confidence. It fills a big hole in the data in West Antarctica – it is the final piece in the jigsaw."

The rapid warming now revealed in the west concerns some scientists. The new analysis suggests the West Antarctic ice sheet, like that in Greenland, is precariously balanced, said Professor Barry Brook at the University of Adelaide. "Even losing a fraction of both would cause a few metres of sea level rise this century, with disastrous consequences," he said.

It was well known that a small part of Antarctic was warming – the peninsula that protrudes northwards towards South America and is the site of many research stations. But researchers knew that East Antarctica had cooled a little in recent decades and thought that might be the case across the continent's great mountain range in West Antarctica.

Temperature records have been taken on the ground since the first weather stations were built in 1957. But all but two of the 42 are very close to the coast and therefore give no information on the vast interior of the continent. Satellite data, in contrast, can take the temperature of the entire region by measuring the intensity of the infrared radiation reflected from the snow pack and has been available since 1980.

Steig's team found the mathematical relationships between the weather station data and satellite data, tested them, and then used them to go back in time to estimate temperatures across the continent back to 1957. Their statistical model has now been validated by an ice core drilled into the Rutford ice stream in West Antarctica by the British Antarctic Survey, from which temperature records can be measured. That independent work also came up with a warming of 0.17C a decade for the region, and stretched the trend back to at least 1930.

The cooling seen in East Antarctica is caused in part by the ozone hole that opens each year in the atmosphere. The ozone hole causes an increase in westerly winds which, by a complex interaction of wind, sea and ice, results in lower temperatures in the east. Emissions of ozone-destroying gases have now almost been eliminated and the hole is expected to recover by mid-century. When that happens, there will be a rapid catch up of temperatures, says Marshall.

The 2007 report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that the impact of greenhouse gas emissions could be seen on every continent bar Antarctica. The new work, along with another recent study, now clearly shows that the rising temperature of the continent cannot be explained by natural climate variation alone.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jan 2009 | 6:00 pm

Quantum Teleportation Between Distant Matter Qubits: First Between Atoms 1 Meter Apart

For the first time, scientists have successfully teleported information between two separate atoms in unconnected enclosures a meter apart – a significant milestone in the global quest for practical quantum information processing. Teleportation may be nature's most mysterious form of transport: Quantum information, such as the spin of a particle or the polarization of a photon, is transferred from one place to another, without traveling through any physical medium.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm

Link Between Social Rejection And Aggressive Behavior Explained

People who feel socially rejected are more likely to see others' actions as hostile and are more likely to behave in hurtful ways toward people they have never even met, according to a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm

Bacterial Pathogens And Rising Temperatures Threaten Coral Health

Coral reefs around the world are in serious trouble from pollution, over-fishing, climate change and more. The last thing they need is an infection. But that's exactly what yellow band disease is -- a bacterial infection that sickens coral colonies. Researchers have found that YBD seems to be getting worse with global warming and announced that they've identified the bacteria responsible for the disease.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 4:00 pm

FDA allows first test of human stem cell therapy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the way for the world's first study of human embryonic stem cell therapy, Geron Corp said on Friday in a milestone for such research and a marked political shift.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:33 pm

FDA allows first test of human stem cell therapy (Reuters)

Reuters - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the way for the world's first study of human embryonic stem cell therapy, Geron Corp said on Friday in a milestone for such research and a marked political shift.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:23 pm

US approves 1st stem cell study for spinal injury (AP)

AP - A U.S. biotech company says it plans to start this summer the world's first study of a treatment based on human embryonic stem cells — a long-awaited project aimed at spinal cord injury.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:22 pm

'Hacker' wins right to fight extradition to US (AFP)

AFP - A Briton accused of hacking into computers owned by the US military and NASA space agency got the green light Friday for a fresh legal challenge against a bid to extradite him to the United States.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:21 pm

Ian Gibson: Science is the key to economic recovery

Science, innovation and technology will have a critical role to play in our recovery from the current economic crisis. Rather than cutting public spending in these areas, we should be investing more. Science should be at the very heart of efforts to boost the economy.

I welcome prime minister Gordon Brown's announcement that the government will create 100,000 new jobs in the green sector, but this should be just the beginning of a series of government initiatives that put science and innovation at the centre of public policy.

We should be moving on from the "Innovation Nation" white paper, which has some very good proposals to reward innovation, not just within government but for the country as a whole.

Proposals to have an innovation procurement plan in every government department have belatedly been introduced, although I still have concerns that they will be modelled on the Ministry of Defence's procurement plan. The MOD has on numerous occasions failed to save money and reward innovation, from the temperamental SA80 rifle to the debacle over Chinook helicopters.

Sound procurement is essential to investment as it will be pointless injecting more money if it is not spent effectively.

Science minister Lord Drayson's plan to invest £250m to create PhD training centres, the announcement of easier grants for small businesses and improved links between higher education institutions and industry – all these initiatives are welcome as they will help us tackle the challenges we will face in the future. It is just a shame that it has taken 11 years of a Labour government for these proposals to be introduced.

We should be using these proposals as a stepping stone to greater innovation in public policy. Increasing research and development further in medicine and pharmaceuticals could save the NHS billions with the UK being able to develop more innovative and cost-effective treatments.

Further research and development funding should be invested in renewable energy and energy efficiency as we face the threat of Russia turning off its pipes to the west. One of our biggest challenges is to become energy independent. The new wave of nuclear power plants will help to keep the lights on but we should be moving forward from this.

We should be tackling the problem of the unpopularity of science, technology and mathematics in the classroom. We should make more funds available to make teaching more innovative and engaging to students, from increasing practical work in science lessons to introducing pupils to the practical applications of mathematics.

In higher education, while we should continue to invest in research, this should not be at the expense of the student. If we lift the tuition fee cap – allowing universities to raise their fees – we could well end up with a deficit of knowledge and capable people to transform our country.

If we want a successful model of innovation in an economy, we should look at what happened in Finland in the 1990s. After the Finns lost their main trading outlet with the collapse of the Soviet Union, they invested heavily in innovation networks and R&D, transforming the country into a world leader in telecommunications with the likes of Nokia and creating the first true knowledge-based economy.

The recession should be seen an opportunity to put in place policies that can make our society more secure, economically and environmentally, for us and our children.

In the US, President Barack Obama has promised to invest massively in infrastructure, science and technology, declaring in his inauguration speech that "we will restore science to its rightful place". His election could also mark a turning point in the UK if we choose to take the initiative and act now.

Dr Ian Gibson is a biologist and former chair of the Commons Science and Technology Select Committee

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jan 2009 | 11:52 am

US stem-cell trial gets go-ahead

The world's first trial of embryonic stem cell technology on humans is billed to take place this year after the US government gave it the go-ahead today.

The US Food and Drug Administration granted clearance for Geron Corporation to carry out a clinical trial on patients with acute spinal cord injury.

Doctors will inject healthy replacement spinal cells, grown from embryonic tissue, into patients who have become paralysed from the chest down, one to two weeks after they suffered their injury.

The injections are designed to restore organ and tissue function, meaning people who would otherwise be permanently paralysed will be able to feel sensation and move once more.

The technology is not applicable to people who have been paralysed for a long period of time but offers hope to people who would otherwise have limited options open to them.

"This marks the beginning of what is potentially a new chapter in medical therapeutics – one that reaches beyond pills to a new level of healing: the restoration of organ and tissue function achieved by the injection of healthy replacement cells," said Geron's president and chief executive, Thomas Okarma.

The FDA decision comes after the new US president, Barack Obama, said in his inaugural address that he would "restore science to its rightful place". His predecessor George Bush, who was heavily influenced by the Christian right, was a staunch opponent of stem-cell research.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jan 2009 | 11:37 am

Satellite begins climate mission

A Japanese spacecraft begins its mission to help scientists understand and monitor how the Earth's climate is changing.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jan 2009 | 10:53 am

Japan launches satellites, eyes space business

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan launched a satellite on Friday to monitor greenhouse gases along with seven smaller satellites in a mission that could boost business for the country's cash-hungry space program.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 9:55 am

Japan launches rocket with greenhouse-gas probe (AP)

AP - The first satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide emissions was launched into space Friday from a center in Japan, where officials hope to gather information on climate change — and help the country compete in the lucrative satellite-launching business.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 9:42 am

Whale pod stuck on sandbar dying

Most of a pod of about 50 whales which got trapped on a sandbar have died, say officials in Tasmania, Australia.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jan 2009 | 8:14 am

If it snows, they will come, ski resorts find (Reuters)

Reuters - Lost jobs, bankruptcies and home foreclosures have forced Americans to cut their spending, but one luxury sector is more interested in weather forecasts than economic forecasts -- the ski business.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 8:10 am

Yvonne Roberts: Misunderstanding female sexuality – again

Sometimes – especially when it comes to analysing female desire – scientists appear to be looking down the wrong end of the telescope. Take the findings of Dr Thomas Pollet and Professor Daniel Nettle, reported in the Sunday Times.

According to their research, or more precisely their interpretation of their research, the bigger the size of the man's wallet, the more orgasms his (female) partner is likely to have.

This is supposedly part of evolutionary psychology that suggests both men and women are genetically predisposed to ruthlessly exploit each other to achieve the best chances of survival for their genes. That explanation might be a piece of the jigsaw, but is it really the whole picture?

Pollet and Nettle have drawn on a Chinese longitudinal study of 5,000 people. Among the women, 121 always had orgasms during sex (take that with a large pinch of Beijing salt); 408 had them "often" and 243 rarely or never had an orgasm.

Several factors were involved in the difference, but money was apparently one of the main reasons. Research in Germany and America also indicate that a man's income leads to a more satisfied woman in his bed. Perhaps, however, instead of looking at the man's financial assets (wasn't Casanova frequently broke?), the scientists might have done better examining more of the female psyche of those satisfactorily bedded.

David Buss, professor of psychology at the University of Texas, in his book The Evolution of Desire tries to unravel the mystery of the female orgasm. He is apparently perplexed because it has nothing to do with reproduction and appears to have no other function except to give a woman pleasure – hence the existence of the clitoris, "useful" only for female sensory delight. (Clearly a piece of anatomy unknown to Dr William Acton, who pontificated in 1857: "I would say that the majority of women, happily for society, are not much troubled with sexual feelings of any kind.")

Professor Buss suggests, in the Sunday Times:

[Orgasms] could promote emotional bonding with a high-quality male or they could serve as a signal that women are highly sexually satisfied and hence unlikely to seek sex with other men. What these orgasms are saying is, 'I'm extremely loyal, so you should invest in me and my children'.

Alternatively what these orgasms might be saying is a great deal more rooted in culture and conditioning than evolutionary science and the neural hardwiring that helps to prompt desire. While we appear to be in the female lust frontier with sexual promiscuity allegedly rampant, many women still feel guilty about their sexual feelings. Unless, of course, they are confident, attractive and self-assured enough (and, heaven forbid, may even be hanging on to their own substantial bank balance) to attract the attention of a man who seeks an alpha match (and may work extra hard in bed to prove that he really is the best).

In 2002, Professor Paula Nicolson presented her research to the British Psychological Society's annual conference. She had interviewed females between the ages of 18 to 60 about desire and sexual activity. She discovered that even those whose parents had grown up in the so-called swinging 60s had been told very little about sex. It was considered to be mysterious, embarrassing and taboo. For many, that crippling menage a trios – guilt, inhibition and shame, still lingered in the bedroom.

Of course, one piece of research isn't the story of every woman. Some are very much at ease with their libido. They are self-confident, 21st century shame-free (as opposed to 19th century shameless) and light years away from the traditional view that only bad girls "like it". A few, to my knowledge, even have partners younger, less educated and definitely poorer: so much for Darwin.

While never has so much been written, filmed, downloaded, read and discussed about sex, porn and perversion, it remains the case that sex is in the head; it's not what or how you do it but, for women, how they feel about themselves that impacts on what they genuinely get out of the boudoir. And that's whether the man is a pauper or a well-endowed prince.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jan 2009 | 8:00 am

45 sperm whales beached off Australian island (AP)

AP - Rescuers poured water on the parched skin of sperm whales beached on a remote sand bank off Australia's coast Friday to keep them alive until the next high tide, after a stranding that left at least 38 whales dead.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 6:48 am

New RoboCop Operated by Cell Phone (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - The fat, bungling mall cop may succeed in Hollywood, going after bad guys on his oh-so-yesterday Segway.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 3:45 am

New RoboCop Operated by Cell Phone

Paul Blart, step aside.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 3:33 am

Charlie's cheer

At last, a solution to UK classic film's ending
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jan 2009 | 3:04 am

Worm gene offers clues to nerve cell repair: study

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Researchers believe they have found a potential way to regenerate nerves by stimulating a gene and said on Thursday they hope their work in worms may some day help people with spinal cord injuries.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 2:59 am

NASA Aims to Quiet Sonic Booms

A sonic boom is created by shock waves that form on an aircraft flying faster than the speed of sound.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 2:51 am

Scientists solve mystery: 3 fish are all the same (AP)

AP - Researchers believe they have solved the puzzle of three seemingly different fish, one all males, one all females and one all juveniles. They're the same fish, and undergo remarkable changes as they mature. "You can imagine it was a pretty exciting discovery," said G. David Johnson, an ichthyologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. "The pieces kept falling into place."

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Jan 2009 | 2:30 am

Evolution Gets Support in Texas

A decision Thursday by the State Board of Education is a big defeat for proponents of creationism.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:15 am

Climate shift 'killing US trees'

Old growth trees in the western US are being killed as a result of regional climatic shifts, a study suggests.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:12 am

Scientists to test DNA to find out if Galileo could really see stars

When he was buried - at the insistence of the Catholic church in unconsecrated ground - Galileo Galilei left behind at least two conundrums: how could a man with impaired eyesight have made the observations that revolutionised astronomy; and did his faulty vision alter what he saw and recorded?

When his body was moved to the basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, almost 100 years later on the initiative of local freemasons, it gave rise to a third riddle: who was the woman found buried alongside him?

Scientists are planning now to solve all three questions with the help of genetics. Paolo Galluzzi, the director of Florence's museum of the history of science, said yesterday he had applied to the local authorities for permission to exhume Galileo's body and that of his companion in death to take samples of their DNA for examination.

"From the time of his astronomical discoveries onwards, Galileo wrote to friends and relatives about the trouble he was having with his eyes and the difficulties it created for his observations," said Galluzzi. In his later years he was heavily dependent on his disciple, Vincenzo Viviani. By the end he was blind, or nearly so.

Yet by then he had analysed the spots on the sun, chronicled the lunar mountains and "seas", and discovered the largest of the satellites orbiting Jupiter. Based on his own accounts, it has been speculated that the great Tuscan physicist suffered from uveitis, or inflammation of the middle layer of the eye.

That could explain some of the idiosyncrasies in Galileo's observations. He described Saturn, for example, as having bulges on either side, instead of a ring.

His insistence that the earth orbited the sun led to his being tried in Rome in 1633. The court ordered him to "abjure, curse and detest" his opinions and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

The young woman whose body was found alongside his is thought to be that of his eldest daughter, Virginia, who became a nun and died at the age of 33. But the theory lacks proof.

To obtain it would cost "some hundreds of thousands of euros", said Galluzzi, who added that he was hoping to raise the necessary funding before the end of 2009, which the UN has declared International Year of Astronomy to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo's observations.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:01 am

Obituary: Robert Furman

In September 1941, Robert Furman, a 26-year-old lieutenant in the US army construction division, was made executive officer in charge of day-to-day operations on the building of a new headquarters for the war department. Less than a year and a half later, the Pentagon was operational. Furman, who has died aged 93, had so impressed the man in charge, Colonel Leslie Groves, that when Groves, promoted to general, was given command of the Manhattan project to build an atomic bomb, he appointed Furman his intelligence officer, responsible for tracking Germany's progress on its own atomic weapon.

Furman would prove critical to the development of the bomb, but his role remained a close-kept secret, and the man who became known as "the mysterious major" did not speak about it for decades. "He was the guy who actually handled all this stuff. He was extremely young, and he had extraordinary power," said Thomas Powers, who interviewed Furman for his book Heisenberg's War (1993).

Furman was briefed by Robert Oppenheimer's team of scientists at Los Alamos, and soon had spies checking German lakes and rivers for signs of the "heavy water" created in the bomb-making process. He led teams following the allied advance across Europe, and stole uranium samples from the Germans in Belgium, which led to the discovery, in Toulouse, of a hidden store of 31 tons of the crucial metal.

After the physicist Niels Bohr was smuggled out of Denmark, Furman debriefed him and concluded that another physicist, Werner Heisenberg, was the key to the German effort. Groves ordered that Heisenberg be captured or killed. Instead, Furman sent an agent to a conference in Zurich, where Heisenberg was speaking. He chose Moe Berg, educated at Columbia and Princeton, fluent in seven languages, and for 15 years a backup catcher in major league baseball. After chatting with Heisenberg at a cocktail party, Berg concluded, correctly, that the Germans were years behind the American bomb effort, and Heisenberg returned home unharmed.

Furman eventually got his man anyway, as, after the war, he ran the operation to spirit the Nazis's top scientists away before the Russians could get them. Heisenberg was one of 10 men flown to Versailles and eventually detained in Britain, who proved crucial to the US nuclear and space programmes for the next 30 years.

With operations in Europe concluded, it was Furman who escorted uranium from Los Alamos to Tinian Island in the Pacific on the cruiser Indianapolis. Four days later, the Indianapolis was sunk, and 800 sailors died. A week after that, the Enola Gay took off from Tinian to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Furman was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and graduated from Princeton with a degree in civil engineering in 1937. In 1940 he was called up from the Army Reserve, and within a year was supervising some 13,000 workers on the Pentagon. After the war, he set up his own construction company in Washington DC, building many major works in the Capitol area and also the US embassy in Nicaragua.

He married Mary Eddy in 1952, raised a family, was president of the local rotary club and sang baritone in a barbershop quartet. Not until researchers began tracking him down, four decades after the atomic bomb was dropped, did he discuss his central role in its development. His silence sprang from the simplest of motives. "We all went to war," he told one interviewer. "We all went back to our dreams and ambitions. We lived through the war to get life going again."

At a recent dedication ceremony at the wartime offices of the Manhattan project, Furman reflected that the "biggest miracle" of the past 60 years was that no other atomic weapons had been used. He is survived by his wife and three daughters.

• Robert Ralph Furman, intelligence officer, born 21 August 1915; died 14 October 2008

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 23 Jan 2009 | 12:01 am

Power of 10: Magic Number for Wild Dog Packs

What pack size lets wild dogs maximize their hard-won calories?
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jan 2009 | 10:53 pm

AP: Iraq forced to cut spending as oil price falls (AP)

AP - Iraq's government will have dramatically less money to spend this year than expected because of plunging oil prices — a dire economic situation that's already forced the country to slash rebuilding plans by 40 percent, The Associated Press has learned. As the U.S. seeks a timetable for withdrawal, cutbacks on spending and jobs could trigger heightened violence.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Jan 2009 | 10:44 pm

Mating Game Is a Waiting Game

Extended courtships allow females to screen for potential providers, while males can prove they're suitable.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jan 2009 | 10:31 pm

Three Strange Fish, One Species

Three seemingly different fish are really one species that changes as it matures.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Jan 2009 | 8:04 pm

Global warming: Rate of tree deaths in western US rising due to climate change, study warns

Trees in the western United States are dying twice as quickly as they did three decades ago and scientists think global warming is to blame.

In their surveys, ecologists found that a wide range of tree species were dying including pines, firs and hemlocks and at a variety of altitudes. The changes can have serious long-term effects including reducing biodiversity and turning western forests into a source of carbon dioxide as they die and decompose. That could lead to a runaway effect that speeds up climate change.

"The trend was pervasive across a wide variety of forest types, across all elevations, in trees of all sizes and among major species," said Phillip van Mantgem of the US Geological Survey (USGS). "At the same time, the rate of new establishment of trees didn't change."

If these trends continued, he said, forests will become sparser and store less carbon. "It introduces the possibility that western forests could be come net sources or carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, further speeding up global warming."

The forest survey, carried out by a team of scientists led by van Mantgem, is published tomorrow in the journal Science. It showed that death rates of trees overall had more than doubled since 1955. In the Pacific north-west and British Columbia, deaths had doubled in 17 years. In California, the death rate took 25 years to double.

The work is the first large-scale study of death rates in forests or temperate regions. Much of the world's population – in North America, Europe, most of China and large portions of Russia – live near temperate forests so what happens in these forests has global importance, according to Jerry Franklin, a professor of forest resources at the University of Washington and a co-author of the study.

The researchers think that warming global temperature is the most likely cause for the dramatic decline. From the 1970s to 2006, the period that includes most of the surveyors' tree data, the average annual temperature of the western US increased by 0.3C-0.4C, and increased even more at the higher elevations that are normally covered in forests.

"While this may not sound like much, it has been enough to reduce winter snowpack, cause earlier snowmelt, and lengthen the summer drought," said van Mantgem. This longer summer drought means less water for trees and it also encourages the growth of insects and diseases that attack the plants. Recent outbreaks of tree-killing bark beetles in the western US have already been linked to warmer temperatures.

Mark Harmon, a forest ecologist at Oregon State University, said another concern from the study is that a climate feedback loop could develop from the increased death rate of trees. As temperatures rise, the smaller forests will not only absorb less CO2 but will emit more greenhouse gases ias the dead material decays. This, in turn, would lead to even higher levels of global warming.

The data for the research was gathered by several generations of scientists counting trees over more than 50 years. It included forests in Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and south-western British Columbia. All were older than 200 years, with many being established more than 500 years ago. Death rates in old forests tend to be more stable since they mostly contain very old trees.

"With many of our long-lived trees that grow very large, each year as they become larger and older, the probability of living the next year increases," said Franklin. "You might imagine that, as a tree gets larger and older, the probability of death would increase but it does not – it decreases for many of our species."

In most forests, it is the youngest trees that are most likely to die. "Often they are shaded by larger, taller trees and so they grow more slowly," said Nathan Stephenson of the USGS. "They are less resilient to changes in the environment and they also don't have as well-developed root systems so, if they run into a drought, they're more likely than a large tree to suffer."

In the latest survey, the research team found that trees of all ages were dying more quickly.

The team also ruled out factors such as overcrowding, forest fragmentation or air pollution. The main air pollutant that harms trees in the western US, for example, is ozone. "In California, where most of our forests are concentrated, ozone is fairly severe," said Stephenson. "Over the time period of the study, there was no trend in ozone and it might even have declined slightly."

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 Jan 2009 | 7:05 pm

Tree Deaths Double in Western U.S. Forests

Monitoring of forest plots finds western tree death rates have doubled, likely due to regional warming.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jan 2009 | 7:00 pm

UK sat firm plans low cost mapper

A UK firm believes its latest satellite design can dramatically reduce the cost of high resolution space imagery.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jan 2009 | 6:09 pm

New Fault Raises Threat of Eastern Earthquakes

A newfound earthquake fault in Arkansas could be the site of a major earthquake.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jan 2009 | 5:55 pm

'Greening' the UK's heating

Energy experts are meeting to generate new ideas for the "greening" of heating, reports the BBC's environmental analyst Roger Harrabin.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jan 2009 | 5:35 pm

New Catfish Species Climbs Rocks (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - A previously unknown species of climbing catfish has been discovered in remote Venezuela, and its strange traits are shaking the evolutionary tree for these fish. The newfound catfish, Lithogenes wahari, shares traits with two different families of fish - Loricariidae (armored catfishes) and Astroblepidae (climbing catfishes). It has bony armor that protects its head and tail, and a grasping pelvic fin that helps it to climb vertical surfaces such as rocks. These characteristics in L. ...
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Jan 2009 | 4:40 pm

A billion frogs on world's plates

As many as one billion frogs are being harvested from the wild for human consumption each year, according to a new study.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jan 2009 | 4:39 pm

Nationwide Recycling Program for CFL Light Bulbs Launched

The disposal of CFL bulbs is an issue for most consumers.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jan 2009 | 4:38 pm

Bloodhound SSC: Virtual tests begin on 1,000 mph car

Three months ago, a team of engineers unveiled their plans to build Bloodhound SSC, the first car designed to reach 1,000mph. Since the fanfare of the project's launch, engineers have been doing what engineers do best: getting on with it.

I've picked up a bit about the latest computer simulations the team has been running, and wanted to write a quick note on them for anyone who's keen to follow the project more closely.

Arup, the consulting engineers who happened to work on London's wobbly Millennium Bridge, are lending their expertise to the project, and that's not as worrying as I've made it sound. Those guys really know their stuff.

So what have they been doing? One of the first tasks for Arup was to create a computer model of the Bloodhound's chassis and structure. With this, the team can test whether the concept design will rip to pieces under the stresses of the jet engine, the booster rocket, or the parachute, which is used as a brake.

If the chassis can't take the strain, it's back to the drawing board in a major way.

So far, it sounds as though the tests are going well, though it's early days. This kind of modelling also lets engineers spot parts of the car that are "over-designed". If a strut here or there is stronger than it needs to be, for example, it can be replaced with something more slender to save weight.

The still, above, is from one of the team's computers and is part of a series that shows how the chassis flexes under the stresses produced by the rocket and parachute.

I'll post more as and when I hear. It's an ambitious, inspiring project and it will be great to see this machine in action.

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 Jan 2009 | 4:35 pm

Reducing Pollution Extends Life Expectancy

Americans in cities with cleaned up air live longer, research finds.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Jan 2009 | 4:35 pm

Human Spaceflight Should Drive Evolution

There is fierce debate over the direction humanity should take when exploring the solar system.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jan 2009 | 4:34 pm

Green Jobs Expected to Rise Under New Administration

Experts are predicting the market for green jobs to skyrocket.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Jan 2009 | 4:11 pm

New Fault Spells Quake Trouble for Ark.

A newly found fault in eastern Ark. could trigger a major quake near a gas pipeline.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Jan 2009 | 3:35 pm

Planting Trees Saves Cash, Research Confirms

Planting a tree near your home translates in energy savings, at least in Calif.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Jan 2009 | 3:35 pm

'Flying Car' Goes to Market

A group of former NASA engineers invents an airplane that can drive itself to the airport.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Jan 2009 | 2:35 pm

'Moon Bricks' Devised for Lunar Igloos

A newly devised way to craft moon bricks could help astronauts build lunar homes.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Jan 2009 | 2:35 pm

Is that two moons around Saturn I see?

ROME (Reuters) - Italian and British scientists want to exhume the body of 16th century astronomer Galileo for DNA tests to determine if his severe vision problems may have affected some of his findings.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Jan 2009 | 1:35 pm

Fingering a killer

The British forensics which may solve an American murder
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jan 2009 | 12:07 pm