Science Headlines for February 6, 2009

Cancer Rejection: Scientists Discover Crucial Molecule

Researchers have discovered a molecule on the surface of immune cells which plays a critical role in cancer rejection.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 7:00 pm

Steep-Terrain Rover To Explore Other Planets, Help Back On Earth

Engineers have designed and tested a versatile, low-mass robot that can rappel off cliffs, travel nimbly over steep and rocky terrain, and explore deep craters. This prototype rover, called Axel, might help future robotic spacecraft better explore and investigate foreign worlds such as Mars. On Earth, Axel might assist in search-and-rescue operations.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 7:00 pm

Wind Power Forecasting For The US

In an attempt to minimize the potential risks -- such as blackouts -- of USA's growing dependence on renewable energies, scientists are developing a wind power forecasting model for the country. The platform for wind power prediction will be linked to a decision support methodology for network operators that will help reduce wind power production and system operation costs.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 7:00 pm

Origin Of Claws Seen In Fossil 390 Million Years Old

A missing link in the evolution of the front claw of living scorpions and horseshoe crabs was identified with the discovery of a 390-million-year-old fossil.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 7:00 pm

Seeing Sounds Or Hearing Colors: Scientists Narrow Search For Genes Associated With Synesthesia

A new study identifies specific chromosomal regions linked to auditory visual synesthesia, a neurological condition characterized by seeing colors in response to sounds. The research makes major strides towards identifying the genes that underlie synesthesia and may eventually lead to improved understanding of typical and atypical cognitive development.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 7:00 pm

Despite Their Diversity, Pygmies Of Western Central Africa Share Recent Common Ancestors

Despite the great cultural, physical, and genetic diversity found amongst the numerous West Central African human populations that are collectively designated as "Pygmies," a new report finds that they diverged from a single ancestral population just about 2,800 years ago.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 7:00 pm

New Biomass Charcoal Heater: A 'New Era' Of Efficiency And Sustainability

Millions of homes in rural areas of far Eastern countries are heated by charcoal burned on small, hibachi-style portable grills. Scientists in Japan are now reporting development of an improved "biomass charcoal combustion heater" that they say could open a new era in sustainable and ultra-high efficiency home heating.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 4:00 pm

Astronomers Spot Cosmic Dust Fountain

Space dust annoys astronomers just as much as the household variety when it interferes with their observations of distant stars. And yet space dust also poses one of the great mysteries of astronomy.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 4:00 pm

Adult Stem Cells Convert Into Embryonic-like Stem Cells, With Single Factor

The simple recipe scientists earlier discovered for making adult stem cells behave like embryonic-like stem cells just got even simpler. A new report shows for the first time that neural stem cells taken from adult mice can take on the characteristics of embryonic stem cells with the addition of a single transcription factor. Transcription factors are genes that control the activity of other genes.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 4:00 pm

Dialysis Patients Residing At Higher Altitude Have Lower Rate Of Death

Compared to dialysis patients living near sea level, dialysis patients living at an altitude higher than 4,000 feet have a 12-15 percent lower rate of death, according to a new article.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 4:00 pm

Caregiving Nuns Wiped Out by Plague

A new test confirms the presence of plague in ancient burial sites for nuns and priests.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Feb 2009 | 2:30 pm

Flu may not have killed most in 1918 pandemic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Strep infections and not the flu virus itself may have killed most people during the 1918 influenza pandemic, which suggests some of the most dire predictions about a new pandemic may be exaggerated, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 2:10 pm

Saving Hawaii From Alien Plants

Scientists are providing information that may help slow the spread of non-native plant species in Hawai'i.
Source: Livescience.com | 6 Feb 2009 | 2:07 pm

Spiral Galaxy Stands Out Among Elliptical Neighbors

Hubble captures an odd galaxy during an in-between state of formation.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Feb 2009 | 2:05 pm

Genome Study Points to New Culprit for Schizophrenia (HealthDay)

HealthDay - FRIDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Large, rare structural changes in DNA called copy number variants may play a role in schizophrenia, according to U.S. researchers, who said their findings support a sharp change of direction in genetics research on schizophrenia.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 2:03 pm

Teens More Helpful Than Parents Know (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Teens might not be entirely self-centered and lazy at home.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 1:55 pm

Protesters', whalers' ships collide in Antarctic (AP)

AP - Japanese whalers and radical anti-whaling activists trying to stop the hunters from pulling one of their kills out of the Antarctic Ocean collided Friday in an incident Tokyo condemned as "appalling and unforgivable." No one was injured.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 1:05 pm

Weather satellite blasts off from SoCal coast (AP)

AP - A rocket carrying a U.S. global weather satellite has blasted off from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 12:29 pm

Study: Climate change may reshuffle western weeds (AP)

AP - Climate change will likely shuffle some of the West's most troublesome invasive weeds, adding to the burden faced by farms and ranchers in some areas and providing opportunities for native plant restoration in others, according to a new study.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 12:24 pm

Report: US, China must cooperate on climate change (AP)

AP - Cooperation between China and the United States is crucial to successfully addressing the climate change problem, said a report released Friday that was co-produced by the U.S. energy secretary prior to his nomination.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 11:55 am

Hurricane Season 2008 (weather.com)

weather.com -
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 11:06 am

A New Science of Life: A book for ignoring

The question: Where does science end and 'magic' begin?

In Ian McEwan's terrific novel Enduring Love there is a description of a short report from 1904, which tells of how a dog vacates his master's favourite chair upon instruction, only to trick his master to get up again so the mutt could sneak back on to the warm seat. The narrator, a science journalist no less, makes no reference to how shaggy the dog was, but this anthropomorphic tale obviously does not stand up to modern scientific scrutiny. What rag published this nonsense? The journal Nature, that pillar of the scientific establishment (and my employer).

The anecdote was a jokey attempt to address reason in animals. It's fun, but there's no way to describe this other than bad science. By modern standards, it has no acceptable measures of veracity that satisfy scientific norms. Nowadays, the gold standard of scrutiny is "peer review". Work submitted to a journal is sent out anonymously to experts in the same field to comment, criticise and recommend for publication (or otherwise). Although this process developed much later than 1904 into the cast iron benchmark that it is today, it might amuse you to know that the most famous discovery of the 20th Century – the structure of DNA (pdf) by Watson and Crick in 1953 – was published, also in Nature, without peer review. This, I can assure you, could not happen today.

Which brings us to Rupert Sheldrake. The majority of Sheldrake's work is also not subjected to peer review, as it appears mostly in books. One of his books focuses on a canine phenomenon as specious as that told by McEwan and is entitled "Dogs that Know When Their Owners are Coming Home". Others are "The Sense of Being Stared At", and now a third edition, which has prompted this Cif miniseries, of "A New Science of Life".

In it, Sheldrake describes "morphic resonance", which is the notion that there is a supernatural memory that is created, reinforced and inherited by repeated action. This, he claims, explains many phenomena including how newly synthesised chemicals become easier to make elsewhere in the world, how puzzles become easier once they have been done once, and paranormal powers, such as psychokinesis and telepathy. Alas, there is no evidence for morphic resonance. And as the phenomena listed are not real, no matter how real they may seem to people, there is no requirement for it.

Sheldrake is a sort of "God of the gaps" scientist. He sees gaps in knowledge, and inserts supernature as an explanation. There are three basic flaws with use of this tool. First is that it's just not scientific. To invoke an unfalsifiable concept to fill a knowledge gap is not parsimonious. It's much better and more scientific to simply say "We don't know" and move on.

Second, history has shown us that it would be even better to say "we don't know yet", as invariably those gaps are filled in time with genuine testable explanations.

Finally, more often than not, the gaps invoked actually have perfectly good, scientific explanations, which are ignored because the protagonist is not disinterested. Thus, proponents of intelligent design, that pseudoscientific form of creationism, invoke a designer where evolution will happily suffice, because they wish to promote God. It's impossible to establish exactly what Rupert Sheldrake is promoting, but one guess is that it's Rupert Sheldrake.

Jung gave us a pleasant maxim which sceptics should always bear in mind: "I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud". Indeed, speculation is a key part of formulating an hypothesis, which then can be tested to destruction. Much of Sheldrake's work can be explained with just a bit more rigour than he employs. Many have applied robust scientific analysis to Sheldrake's experiments and found them to be fatally flawed. Michael Shermer described a catalogue of obvious experimental flaws in Sheldrake's work on perception of staring. If Shermer is correct, then these studies would not have made it through even the gentlest peer review. A good scientist moves on from repeated failure. Sheldrake's persistence suggests that he is not a good scientist.

Former Nature editor John Maddox questioned (and then rejected) the notion of burning "A New Science of Life". This firebrand comment backfired as it was seized upon by the publishers and repeated whenever they could. Maddox then reviewed second edition. His incendiary remark now adorns the new third edition, but I can tell you that Nature will not be reviewing it.

A book exists to be read, so a far, far worse punishment for Sheldrake's crimes against reason would be to simply ignore it. Incidentally, I recognise the irony in writing an article suggesting we should deny him the oxygen of publicity. Nevertheless, here's my final word: don't read this book, it will make you stupider.

Evolution

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Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 6 Feb 2009 | 9:00 am

Earth Watch

Can an unloved policy save the unloved shark?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Feb 2009 | 8:52 am

Titanic ancient snake was as long as Tyrannosaurus

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It was the all-time titan of snakes -- a monster as long as a Tyrannosaurus rex that stalked a steamy South American rain forest after the demise of the dinosaurs and ate crocodiles for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 6:15 am

US environmentalists hail halt of land lease for gas drilling (AFP)

AFP - US environmentalists have been celebrating after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar reversed a move by the previous administration to lease wilderness land in Utah to energy companies for exploration.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 5:38 am

Lucy 2.0: Famous Fossil Hominid Goes Digital

Lucy, the world's most famous fossil human ancestor, has gone digital in 3D. A new high-resolution CT scan of the 3.2 million year-old skeleton will provide scientists around the globe with information that may help settle debates about human evolution.

The virtual Lucy could prove invaluable to scientists by giving them their first glimpse inside her fossilized bones. The scans reveal microscopic details of the internal structure of Lucy’s bones and teeth that give clues to how she moved and ate.

“These scans will ensure that future generations are familiar with Lucy,” said Jara Mariam, director general of Ethiopia’s Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, “and will know of Ethiopia’s central contribution to the study of human evolution. A virtual Lucy will be able to visit every classroom on the planet.”

Several versions of the virtual Lucy will eventually be available to the public, according to paleoanthropologist John Kappelman of the University of Texas. A website with a basic version will allow students to look at Lucy and compare her skeleton with those of modern humans and apes, while researchers will be able to access high-resolution files. Lucy's bones, discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, represent the most complete remains of any adult human ancestor that walked on two feet. The prized fossil—currently on display at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington—sparked a controversy in 2007 when it was shipped to the United States from Ethiopia, because of concerns that it could be damaged. Now that Lucy has been digitally archived, scientists and students will be able to harmlessly examine the bones using tools available on the web.

Medical CAT scans like those done in hospitals show a cross-section of a patient’s body with 1-2 mm resolution. But because Lucy isn't a living patient, much higher-energy X-rays can be used. The computed tomography, or CT, scans done on Lucy reveal internal details on the order of 5-50 microns — less than the width of a human hair. That level of detail could yield unprecedented insight into our ancestors.

Pre-digital Lucy has already clarified key issues in the study of human evolution. Previous examinations revealed that our ancestors started walking on two feet before they developed large brains. The shape of her pelvis, feet, knees, and hip joints are all indicators that Lucy walked upright despite having a brain about the size of a chimpanzee. But many questions remain.

Although there is little doubt that Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, walked on two feet, it is less clear whether she and her kin also spent much time in the trees. Certain features of her skeleton — curved fingers and toes, the orientation of the shoulder joint, and relatively long arms — suggest at least a partially arboreal lifestyle. However, other experts contend that these features are evolutionary holdovers from tree-dwelling ancestors.

The question of whether Lucy’s species actually climbed trees or just inherited traits associated with tree-climbers is a long-standing debate among paleoanthropologists that the CT scans may help resolve.

“If we can compare the cross-sectional structural features of the limb bones we should be able to answer this question definitively,” said anthropologist Christopher Ruff of Johns Hopkins University.

Because bones get reinforced when they are extensively used (a right-handed tennis player will have thicker bones in the right arm than the left) researchers can compare Lucy’s upper versus lower limbs to see which she used more often.

“Your bones respond to how you use them,” explained paleobiologist Brian Richmond of George Washington University. “We know that spongy bone is especially sensitive to changes in activity and exercise.”

By comparing the thickness and the distribution of spongy bone in Lucy’s arms versus her legs, the researchers hope to finally determine if she spent much time in trees. Because Lucy’s skeleton is so complete — nearly 40 percent of her remains were discovered — she is the only fossil of her species where such a test is possible, because comparing the arm bone of one individual with the leg bone of another could be misleading.

The scans were conducted at the University of Texas at Austin’s High Resolution X-Ray CT Facility, which has extensive experience with unique and valuable specimens including the brain case of Archaeopteryx and a Martian meteorite. Yet, because of her high profile status, having Lucy at the facility provided a new challenge.

“It’s the first national treasure we’ve ever scanned,” said geologist Richard Ketcham, director of the facility.

Only Alemu Admassu, the curator of Ethiopia’s National Museum, was allowed to actually touch the fossils during the scanning process. Careful inspections before and after the scans verified that Lucy was not damaged during the procedure.

Now that the delicate work of conducting the CT scans is complete, the tedious job of analyzing the vast amount of data will begin. The team of researchers will spend the next few months trying to extract as much information as possible from the virtual Lucy.

“In some ways,” Ketcham said, “scanning Lucy was the easy part.”

See Also:

Images: 1) Lucy element in scanner. Marsha Miller/UT Austin; 2) Frank White/Houston Museum of Natural Science. Video: Jessie Maisano/UTexas Austin.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 6 Feb 2009 | 5:15 am

Teens More Helpful Than Parents Know

Teens say they'd help parents at the expense of social livelihood.
Source: Livescience.com | 6 Feb 2009 | 5:05 am

Man Runs 7 Marathons in 5 Days

Richard Donovan, a 42-year-old from Ireland, is as close to being the real Forrest Gump as anyone.
Source: Livescience.com | 6 Feb 2009 | 3:17 am

Octuplets' mother dreamed of having "huge family"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The mother of six who made headlines last month by giving birth to octuplets said on Thursday she had long craved a "huge family" and tried for years to get pregnant before conceiving her first child through in vitro fertilization.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 2:12 am

Controversial ex-CIA director named to spy panel (AP)

AP - National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair has asked former CIA Director John Deutch, who was stripped of his security clearance nearly a decade ago for mishandling classified information, to sit on an advisory panel on spy satellites, a lawmaker said Thursday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 1:18 am

Einstein robot smiles when you do

LONG BEACH, California (Reuters) - Albert Einstein looked around, made eye contact and smiled.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 12:34 am

Antarctic patents strain goals of shared science

ROTHERA BASE, Antarctica (Reuters) - Fifty years into a treaty demanding all scientific findings on Antarctica be freely shared, governments are trying to end a dispute over a surge in company patents on life in the continent.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 6 Feb 2009 | 12:12 am

Freaky Claw-Headed Fossil Could Explain Scorpion Origins

If you think scorpions are scary, just take a look at this guy.

Named Schinderhannes bartelsi, it was found in fossilized form in a German quarry, and dates to 390 million years ago.

That's about 100 million years after the extinction of the last known animal to sport what's technically known as a "great appendage" — a giant claw growing out of its head.

But there it is, right between S. bartelsi's eyes: a great appendage.

If great appendage-bearing creatures survived 100 million years longer than we realized, then maybe they didn't die out.

Maybe they evolved — and come to think of it, scorpion claws look an awful lot like great appendages.

But if scorpions are a sign of ancient times, then S. bartelsi's discovery, announced Thursday in Science, contains an unfortunate sign of our own times: with business slumping, the quarry in which it was found has closed.

Citation: A Great-Appendage Arthropod with a Radial Mouth from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate, Germany." By Gabriele Kühl, Derek E. G. Briggs and Jes Rus. Science, Vol. 324, Issue 5915, Feb. 5, 2009.

Images: Science

See Also:

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 5 Feb 2009 | 11:50 pm

Dog gene 'may aid wolf survival'

A gene for dark coat colour in wolves was introduced through mating with domestic dogs, scientists report.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Feb 2009 | 11:07 pm

Sea level rise may be worse than expected (AP)

AP - Long-term sea level increases that could have a devastating effect on southern Florida and highly populated coastal areas may be even larger than once thought, a report suggests.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 5 Feb 2009 | 10:52 pm

World's Smallest Cars Have Moving Parts

Car-shaped molecules can zip around on a glass slide at about nine nanomiles per hour, and their wheels actually turn.

Understanding how these nanocars move could make it easier for researchers to build more sophisticated molecular machines.

"These are, of course, the world's smallest cars," says Jim Tour, a chemist at Rice University who has been making the cars for years. "We have considered (getting) nanoinsurance. I asked my friends at Motorola if they would make 6 x 10²³ car phones for our mole of nanocars."

Initially, the vehicles' performance was perplexing. It was obvious that the cars could cruise around, but nobody could tell whether the individual parts were moving. They are way too small to see, even with the best equipment.

In a previous set of experiments, Tour's team was able to take pictures of the molecules with an electron microscope, but those experiments took place at a rather high temperature — 200 degrees centigrade — and the cars stuck to their golden road.

By putting the cars on a glass slide, and using a different instrument — a hacked fluorescence microscope — the team was able to see them moving around at room temperature, says Stephan Link, a chemist who led the study, published in the journal ACS Nano.

To verify that the carborane — carbon and boron — wheels actually turn, the researchers built some nano-tricycles and compared them to the cars. The triangles remained stationary, presumably because each of their wheels points in a different direction.

Link says that his team recorded some movies of the cars zipping around well before backing up their observations with some tedious measurements. He lamented that few people get excited about the hard data. Everyone wants to see the video clips.

See Also:

Image and Video: Tour Lab/Rice University.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 5 Feb 2009 | 9:32 pm

Young Butterflies Trick Ants Into Raising Them

Pupae of a certain butterfly exude a scent that mimics ants so they can beg for food.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Feb 2009 | 8:35 pm

Found: Wolves in Dogs' Clothing

At least some of today's wolves inherited traits from ancient dogs, research finds.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Feb 2009 | 8:13 pm

Water kings

The boys who deliver water in Nigeria's cities
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Feb 2009 | 7:48 pm

Black Wolves the Result of Interbreeding With Dogs

The black fur of some North American wolves is the result of long-ago dalliances with domestic dogs, probably the companions of the earliest Native Americans.

And a black coat seems to provide an advantage to forest-dwelling wolves, meaning dogs passed on some useful genetic diversity to their wild cousins.

“This is pretty unique,” said biologist Tovi Anderson of Stanford University, lead author of the study published Thursday in Science. “Typically, you’d expect gene flow from domestic to wild animals would not be beneficial.”

Anderson and her team compared the genes of wolves from Yellowstone National Park and the Canadian Arctic to those of domestic dogs and coyotes. They found that, in each species, the black individuals have the same mutation, which first arose about 45,000 years ago. And molecular-clock analysis showed the mutation was oldest in dogs, suggesting it originated with them and then spread to wolves and coyotes through interbreeding.

This all happened in North America, because there are no black wolves in Europe or Asia (except for an Italian population that has hybridized very recently with dogs). And wolves picked up the black-coat mutation in the distant past, perhaps 12,000-15,000 years ago, when people first crossed the Bering Land Bridge from Asia.

“We don’t see any evidence of recent interbreeding between dogs and North American wolves,” Anderson said.

The team also found genetic evidence that the black-fur mutation established itself very quickly in forest-dwelling wolves, meaning it must provide them with some significant advantage. Improved camouflage in the dark woods is one possible explanation.

“I think there’s more going on,” said Paul Paquet, a biologist at the University of Calgary who was not involved in the research. Camouflage should not be terribly important to wolves, he said, because they run their prey down rather than ambush it. And, until recent human-led extermination campaigns, wolves have faced little predation pressure.

A better immune system may be the answer. The black-fur mutation belongs to a family of genes that, in humans, is involved in fighting off infections.

“The advantage we see in wolves could be a result of this immune system function,” Anderson said. “But that’s just a hypothesis.”

This hypothesis is complicated by the fact that, while black wolves are common in North American forests, they’re rare on the open tundras. Wildlife biologists noticed this pattern long ago, and the new study further confirms it. If a black coat confers a better immune system, why not be black on the tundra, too?

“Perhaps there’s some sort of parasite that’s more prevalent in forested areas,” Anderson said. “One of the next steps is to find out exactly why this mutation is beneficial to wolves, to understand better how it works.”

“This is a beautifully conceived and executed study,” Paquet said. “I have considered many of these things previously, and this article made me think about them again.”

Paquet said the study also raises interesting questions. Why, for example, haven't other dog colors worked their way into the wolf wardrobe? And if black wolves do well in woodlands, why are there so few of them in the forests of British Columbia, among the continent's thickest?

The authors suggest that the black-coat mutation may become increasingly important to North American wolves, as much tundra may shift to woodland in a warming world. And the study shows genetic diversity can be found in surprising places.

"Adaptation really depends on genetic diversity, especially with the environment changing so rapidly," Paquet said. "Domestic dogs might be a reservoir for resiliency."

Citation: "Molecular and Evolutionary History of Melanism in North American Gray Wolves." By Tovi M. Anderson, Bridgett M. vonHoldt, Sophie I. Candille, Marco Musiani, Claudia Greco, Daniel R. Stahler, Douglas W. Smith, Badri Padhukasahasram, Ettore Randi, Jennifer A. Leonard, Carlos D. Bustamante, Elaine A. Ostrander, Hua Tang, Robert K. Wayne, Gregory S. Barsh. Science Vol. 323, 5 February 2009.

See Also:

Image: Daniel Stahler/NPS.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 5 Feb 2009 | 7:37 pm

Bones Reveal Harsh Life of Colonial America

The remains of early settlers reveal a tough life in colonial America.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Feb 2009 | 7:23 pm

Antarctic Meltdown Would Flood Washington, D.C.

Sea level rise around North America higher than expected when previously ignored factors taken into account.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2009 | 7:00 pm

Seeing Red: Tweak Your Brain With Colors

For an all-natural brain boost, skip the pills and hit the colors.

In the latest and most authoritative study on color's cognitive effects, test subjects given attention-demanding tasks did best when primed with the color red. Asked to be creative, they responded best to blue.

"Color enhances performance," said study co-author Juliet Zhu, a University of British Columbia psychologist.

Previous research on red's effects on the brain have found that it attracts people to food and can enhance sexual arousal. But research on the color's cognitive effects have been mixed: Studies have linked red to cognitive impairment on IQ tests, telemarketing pitches and analytical problem-solving, but also to improvements on low-demand tasks and clerical work. The latest findings tip the balance toward the red-as-brain-booster results and fits with work that showed a link between the color and arousal of neurobiological awareness and vigilance.

"Think about red, and what comes to mind: stop lights, stop signs, danger, ambulances," said Zhu. "People want to avoid those things, and that's why they do better on detail-oriented tasks."

While earlier studies tended not to test creativity, Zhu's findings provide a plausible explanation for blue's apparent role.

"Blue is the color of the sky, the ocean, safety," she said. "When their environment is safe, people are more explorative."

Zhu's study, published Thursday in Science, started with tests designed to measure avoidance and attraction. Students vigilantly avoided red and were strongly attracted to blue.

Blue linked to higher scores on subsequent tests of creativity, and red with better performance on memory tests.

State University of New York at Albany psychologist Ronald Friedman, co-author of a study that found red-linked drops on IQ tests, called the findings "quite remarkable." Stony Brook University psychologist Markus Meier, also a co-author on Friedman's study, called Zhu's study "a great paper," one that underscores the unappreciated importance of color.

"Colors are everywhere in our lives," said Meier. "We should use them more carefully in all settings."

To test alternative explanations for the findings, Zhu's team showed that neither red nor blue influenced mood. Test subjects also spent the same amount of time on their tasks, suggesting that neither color affected their motivation.

The colors appeared to enhance performance, but not to impair it. Red- and white-primed students had similar creativity scores, while blue- and white-primed students were equal on attention tasks.

Asked about the implications, Zhu suggested that people engaged in creative tasks surround themselves with blue, and with red when trying to focus.

"In our university, some professors use different color sheets for different groups during exams," said Meier. "Using them in an unthinking way could produce bad results for some students, and good for others."

Zhu is now studying the effects of red on other types of tasks.

It's possible, given the other effects provoked by red — interest in food and sex — that it will have different effects in other contexts.

"The science has been focused on the cognitive domain," she said. "But maybe in the physical domain, like sports, red can be associated with a different meanings, like power or enthusiasm. That's what we're doing now."

Citation: "Blue or Red? Exploring the Effect of Color on Cognitive Task Performances." By Ravi Mehta and Juliet Zhu. Science, Vol. 324, Issue 5915, Feb. 5, 2009.

Image: Red and blue color samples used in the tests / Science

See Also:

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 5 Feb 2009 | 7:00 pm

Mammoth Bones Found in San Diego

Construction workers uncover remains ancient ice-age beast.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2009 | 6:45 pm

Your Breath Could Be Recycled into Fuel

Revolutionary technology will recycle breath into biofuel.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2009 | 6:30 pm

Movie to 'Push' Dubious Psychic Powers

The movie "Push," in theaters Feb. 6, is about a group of young Americans with various psychic abilities.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2009 | 6:13 pm

Strange Galaxy Is a Beautiful Wimp

This new Hubble photo reveals a strange galaxy in a far off cluster of galaxies called the Coma cluster.

The galaxy, NGC 4921, is unusual because of its light, wispy swirls. These aren't as distinguished and bright as the spiral arms in most spiral galaxies, which are powered by the active creation of new stars. This weak-limbed galaxy belongs to a class called "anemic spirals," named for their wimpy arms and weak star formation.

The Coma Cluster, also known as Abell 1656, lies about 320 million light-years away from Earth in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices, the hair of Queen Berenice. More than 1,000 galaxies comprise the cluster. In the image, the ghostly NGC 4921 lies in a field of thousands of galaxies of all shapes, sizes and colors, many of which are much more remote than the cluster and stretch back toward the early universe.

Spiral galaxies are the minority in clusters like Coma, which are so packed that galaxies undergo frequent interactions and collisions. Over time, all this chaos distorts pristine spiral galaxies, with their distinct swirling arms, into mash-up egg-shaped ellipticals.

A research team lead by Ken Cook of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California used the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys to take the photographs used to make this image. The picture we see is a combination of 50 separate exposures through a yellow filter, totaling about 17 hours of exposure time, plus 30 exposures through a near-infrared filter taken over 10 hours.

See Also:

Image: NASA, ESA, K. Cook (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA)

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 5 Feb 2009 | 5:53 pm

In Killer Whales and Humans, Older Moms May Be Best

Calves of older killer whales have better survival rates; older age in human moms can also be beneficial.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2009 | 4:34 pm

Deep Sea Web Camera to Monitor Climate Change

A deep sea observatory will monitor how climate change affects marine life.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Feb 2009 | 4:30 pm

Did Dam Trigger 2008 Sichuan Quake?

Some Chinese scientists blame a man-made dam for last year's devastating quake.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Feb 2009 | 4:30 pm

UN chief in India climate warning

UN chief Ban Ki-moon warns a climate change conference in India that failure to tackle the issue will lead to global economic upheaval.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 5 Feb 2009 | 3:52 pm

Divorce Makes Women Look Older

Being divorced is one of several factors now found to add years to a woman's face.
Source: Livescience.com | 5 Feb 2009 | 3:41 pm

Canada, Mexico Sully U.S. Skies With Ozone

Canada and Mexico are at least partly to blame for ozone woes in the U.S.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Feb 2009 | 3:30 pm

La Nina seen gradually weakening in 2009: NOAA

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The La Nina weather anomaly will persist into the spring of 2009 but should gradually weaken during that period, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center said on Thursday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 5 Feb 2009 | 3:17 pm

Lack of sunshine may trigger MS

Women who are not exposed to sufficient sunshine in pregnancy may be at risk of giving birth to a child who will get multiple sclerosis in adulthood, research reveals today.

Oxford University researchers have identified a link between a shortage of the "sunshine vitamin" – vitamin D – and a specific gene which appears to be involved in the onset of the devastating and incurable disease.

Women are already urged to take folic acid in pregnancy to reduce the chances of a child being born with spina bifida. The research findings suggest that vitamin D could before long be advised for pregnant women as well – especially those who do not get much exposure to sunlight. The researchers think it is possible that vitamin D could play a part in other diseases whcih affect the immune system too.

"Our study implies that taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy and the early years may reduce the risk of a child developing MS later in life," said lead author Dr Sreeram Ramagopalan. "Vitamin D is a safe and relatively cheap supplement with substantial potential health benefits. There is accumulating evidence that it can reduce the risk of developing cancer and offer protection from other autoimmune diseases."

Their work, published today in the journal PLoS Genetics, breaks new ground by revealing the interaction between a gene and an environmental factor – in this case, exposure to sunlight.

It has long been suspected that sunshine played a part in the condition's development. MS, the most common disabling neurological condition, affects 85,000 mainly young adults in the UK and 2.5 million worldwide and is markedly more common in cloudy northern climates. Scotland has a significantly higher concentration of MS cases than England.

A gene variant known as DRB1*1501 has been implicated in MS. While one in 1000 people in the general population develop the disease, it is one in 300 among those who have one copy of this gene variant and one in 100 of those who have two copies.

The Oxford study has found a direct relationship between vitamin D, produced in the body as a result of sun exposure, and this gene variant. In effect, proteins activated by vitamin D in the body switch the gene on. It appears, they say, that if people get too little sunshine, the gene may not function properly.

This interaction between gene and environment – so-called "epigenetics" – is being seen as increasingly important by scientists: that genetic make-up is not set in stone from conception, but is influenced for better or worse by the world around us.

"Epigenetics will have important implications, not only for MS, but for other common diseases," said Professor George Ebers, from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford, where the work was done. "For mothers, taking care of their health during their reproductive years may have beneficial effects on the health of their future children or even grandchildren."

· This article was amended on Friday 6 February 2009. George Ebers does not run the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford. This has been corrected.

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Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 5 Feb 2009 | 3:11 pm

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