Science Headlines for April 14, 2009

Engineers Create DNA Sensors That Could Identify Cancer Using Material Only One Atom Thick

Scientists are combining biological materials with graphene, a recently developed carbon material that is only a single atom thick.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Pavement Sealcoat A Source Of Toxins In Stormwater Runoff

Driveways and parking lots may look better with a layer of sealcoat applied to the pavement, but the water running off the surface into nearby streams will be carrying more than just oxygen and hydrogen molecules. New research indicates that sealcoat may contribute to increasingly significant amounts of polyaromatic hydrocarbons entering waterways from stormwater runoff.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Can Twitter Make You Amoral? Rapid-fire Media May Confuse Your Moral Compass

In one of the first brain studies of "higher" emotions like empathy and morality, neuroscientists find that such emotions are evoked slowly. The authors suggest that the speed of digital media culture may complicate the development of these emotions, which brain imaging shows to be deeply rooted in the body.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

How PCBs May Alter In Utero, Neonatal Brain Development

In three new studies researchers provide compelling evidence of how low levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) alter the way brain cells develop. Researchers explain the relationship between PCB exposure, and neurodevelopmental disorders in children. Together, the studies make a compelling case for the mechanism behind PCBs' harmful effects on human neurological development.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Circadian Clock: Scientists Model 3D Structures Of Proteins That Control Human Clock

Researchers say they have taken a leap forward in their quest to understand the proteins that control the human circadian clock -- the 24-hour wake-sleep cycle that, when interrupted, can lead to jet lag and other sleep disturbances.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

When Oceans Get Warmer, Carbon Dioxide Uptake By Marine Plankton May Be Reduced

Melting ice at the poles, rising sea-level, extreme weather conditions: the signs of climate change are ubiquitous. Biologists have now shown that the uptake of carbon dioxide by marine plankton organisms will be reduced in response to ocean warming, thereby potentially feeding back to climate change.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Gene Targeting Discovery Opens Door For Vaccines And Drugs

In a genetic leap that could help fast track vaccine and drug development to prevent or tame serious global diseases, researchers have discovered how to destroy a key DNA pathway in a wily and widespread human parasite. The feat surmounts a major hurdle for targeting genes in Toxoplasma gondii, an infection model whose close relatives are responsible for diseases that include malaria and severe diarrhea.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

Young Adults At Future Risk Of Alzheimer's Have Different Brain Activity, Says Study

Young adults with a genetic variant that raises their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease show changes in their brain activity decades before any symptoms might arise, according to a new brain imaging study by scientists. The results may support the idea that the brain's memory function may gradually wear itself out in those who go on to develop Alzheimer's.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

Key Gene That Protects Against Leukemia Identified

Researchers have identified a gene that controls the rapid production and differentiation of the stem cells that produce all blood cell types -- a discovery that could eventually open the door to more streamlined treatments for leukemia and other blood cancers, in which blood cells proliferate out of control.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

Pinpointing Role Of Insulin On Glucagon Levels

Researchers have shown for the first time that insulin plays a key role in suppressing levels of glucagon, a hormone involved in carbohydrate metabolism and regulating blood glucose levels.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

Germany to ban cultivation of GMO maize: Minister

BERLIN/HAMBURG (Reuters) - Germany will ban cultivation and sale of genetically modified (GMO) maize, German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said on Tuesday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 11:01 am

Biomass energy 'could be harmful'

Biomass power could do more harm than good in the battle to combat greenhouse gases, the Environment Agency warns.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Apr 2009 | 10:29 am

Dairy industry sees less-gassy future for cows (AP)

AP - The U.S. dairy industry wants to engineer the "cow of the future" to pass less gas, a project aimed at cutting the industry's greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 7:25 am

UK drug shows early promise against Alzheimer's

LONDON (Reuters) - A new drug against Alzheimer's disease, developed by British researchers, has shown promise in tests on a handful of patients.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 7:02 am

Mom's Diet Can Change Unborn Baby's Genetics

If a mother rat does not eat well, her offspring exhibit genetic changes that affect what they'll become.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Apr 2009 | 3:51 am

Race May Not Be Key in Cancer Disparities (HealthDay)

HealthDay - MONDAY, April 13 (HealthDay News) -- Race and genetics may not be as big a factor in surviving certain cancers as long suspected, a new study finds.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 3:49 am

For Sale: Slightly Used Spacesuit, $500K OBO

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union became the first country to launch anything into space. The event set off a space race that eventually landed humans on the moon and encircled the Earth with satellites. But a second, smaller race began at the same time. A small, dedicated group of fans began to find, collect and authenticate the physical objects associated with man's out-of-this-world journeys.

Now there is a bustling business in the detritus of space flight. Several auctioneers host major sales during the spring where hundreds of pieces can be sold for between a few hundred bucks and a few hundred thousand. Starting April 16, Regency-Superior will host a four-day auction featuring an ultra-rare spacesuit used for testing in the Gemini program (see video) along with dozens of other rare items, photographs and space hardware.

For the people who devote their lives and time to collecting, it's not just a hobby or even an avocation. They see themselves as guardians of a deeply importan't trove of objects from the first generation of human spaceflight. It might be fun, but it's not a game.

"I'm only a custodian. It's my duty as a collector to make sure that the next generation will receive it in as good or better shape that I have it," Roy Gutzke, an electronics engineer from Toronto, said of his prize possession, a Russian spacesuit worn during the Soyuz 15 mission. "If you get a bit of stardust in your veins, it stays in there and you can't get it out. It gives you a sense of wonder once in a while. You go outside, you look at the moon, you look at your wall and you go, 'Wow.'"

Space memorabilia collecting has gathered new steam with the help of networking tools that connect a hard-core group of about 500 collectors. Many of them first met on Compuserve and Prodigy — where they traded stories and memorabilia. Those collectors now hang out on dedicated sites like CollectSPACE, which has 25,000 registered accounts and about 2,000 active users.

The supply of artifacts from the space program, however, continues to come from the same old sources. Pieces pop up seemingly at random from the thousands who worked on the programs that sent people into orbit or built the shuttle, said Alan Lipkin, a space memorabilia expert with Regency-Superior.

"Some comes from collectors who picked it up over the years at garage sales or government surplus. Some comes from astronauts themselves who have stuff left over and their wife sees it at home and says get rid of it. Some comes from people at NASA who were in the space program, desk workers, clerical workers, engineers, scientists," said Lipkin. "I've got things that were flown to the moon that were used by astronauts to paint their houses, coveralls that had been in space."

Finding and securing these leftovers from humanity's triumphant flights into the great beyond often lead the collectors into getting acquainted with astronauts. They become historians of a very particular type.

"I've been a collector for over 30 years. I've had a passion for the space program since I was a kid. I used to watch them bopping around up there on the moon," Gutzke said. "I started writing to some of the astronauts and they made a very bad mistake and answered me. That set me off on a bit of a passion for collecting. I actually started making friends with some of the astronauts like Jim Irwin."

Though they run in the same circles, space collectors don't all like the same objects. Each of the mostly male collectors has his own niche. Some of them like the astronaut-as-celebrity stuff: autographs, photographs, hand-written notes, etc. Others like the flags and patches that were flown into space. And then there are the hardware folks, who search for heat shields and solar panels, and even larger pieces of metal scavenged from dumps near the major NASA research stations. And what they find themselves collecting seems less a choice than a calling.

In 1968, Ken Havecotte, who has been collecting for more than 30 years, moved with his parents to Merritt Island, Florida.

"Viewing my first 'live' rocket launch from the Cape that same year was simply awe-inspiring for me," Havecotte wrote in an email to Wired.com. "So much, that in fact, I have attended — as an eyewitness to space history up close — every manned U.S. space shot since 1968, including all Apollo-related liftoffs and every space shuttle launch to date!"

He began collecting newspaper clippings about space, which he still has, and ended up devoting his life to the pursuit and preservation of objets d'espace. Now he has one of the broadest collections around including, "flown-in-space items, astronaut-owned memorabilia, vintage Space Age autograph material, flown-used space hardware, astrophilately/postal covers, badges, original manuscripts, full collections of aerospace personalities, vintage-era photos and literature, launch pad relics, and much more."

Robert Pearlman, the 33 year old collector who runs CollectSPACE, caught the bug from Havekotte. Pearlman saw a story about the collector in a newspaper, his artifacts arrayed behind him, and sent the older man a letter. It just so happened that Havekotte had a long standing policy of providing a "free packet of space goodies to avid space fans," and so one day a package showed up at Pearlman's door.

Buy a Piece of Space History

A gallery of images from the
Regency-Superior Space Auction

"I wrote to him and said, 'How do I get started in this?' And he sent me a big box of stuff," Pearlman said. "I still have most of the contents of that box. I was 13 or 14 years old."

Alongside the collectibles was a piece of wisdom that helped Pearlman find his particular niche.

"It had a note from him that said to look through the box, find what excites me, and then specialize," Pearlman said. "What really struck my fancy were the small bits and pieces that had been in space. A couple tiny little pieces of the Apollo 13 command module heat shields and some gold-covered foil that had covered the Soyuz test module."

Pearlman had discovered that he was a hardware man.

The jewel of Pearlman's collection is a hatch manufactured for the International Space Station — "a 4-foot-by-4-foot, 200-pound aircraft-grade piece of aluminum" — which one of his collector buddies found at a recycling center in Alabama.

"He called me and said, 'You won't believe what I found.' I had it trucked down to Houston, where I am," Pearlman said. "I live on the third floor of a walkup. I had to call four companies to find someone who was willing to help me move it."

Gutzke doesn't collect the hardware. He sticks more to the soft stuff: flags and patches, in particular. But he's discerning about where those things have been.

"There are three levels. First is something that's been flown in space. That could be something on the Shuttle or when they went to the moon. The next level that would be something that landed on the moon," he said. "The final level is the stuff that actually ended up on the surface of the moon. Those are the holy grail of the hobby."

Gutzke, a Toronto-native, has both American and Canadian flags that made it to the moon.

No matter what their specialties, collectors tend to be united in the awe they hold for spacesuits, which combine the engineering of the hardware with the humanity of the astronaut items. Lipkin said the Gemini suit in the upcoming auction is the first American spacesuit they've seen in more than a decade.

Gutzke said it "knocked his socks off" and Pearlman called it "phenomenal" and "one of the holy grails of hardware collecting." That excitement is why the Gemini spacesuit could go for between $300,000 and $500,000.

Most of the objects in the auction, though, will fetch much smaller, but still considerable, sums. A transmitter sent up on an Aerobee rocket could go for $2,000 (top image). A urine bag for $300, maybe. Hubble solar cells for $1,000. A Saturn V gyroscope for $10,000.

So, if you're tired of collecting Battlestar Galacticana, get your credit card ready because stardust for your veins doesn't come cheap.

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 | 14 Apr 2009 | 12:36 am

Mars rover Spirit has unexplained computer reboots (AP)

AP - NASA's aging Mars rover Spirit has rebooted its computer at least twice for unknown reasons.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Apr 2009 | 12:16 am

Thieving dwarves cause supernovae

Researchers suggest that a common type of supernova occurs early because it steals mass from a nearby helium star.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Apr 2009 | 12:12 am

Drug offers hope on Alzheimer's

A new drug which shows promise as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease has been developed by UK scientists.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Apr 2009 | 11:35 pm

Elephant hair reveals competition

Dietary and behavioural clues in the tail hairs of elephants shows how they compete for resources and time their reproduction.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Apr 2009 | 11:24 pm

Scientists fear worst on global warming

• Poll admission that official targets are unrealistic
• Public doesn't realise 'how serious climate change is'

Politicians insist that urgent and widespread action can yet prevent the worst of global warming but the cracks in that argument have been showing for some time.

Officially, UK efforts on climate change are in line with a global ambition to limit the temperature rise above pre-industrial levels to below 2C - a threshold the EU has defined as dangerous. But in 2006 David King, then the government's chief scientist, said a 3C rise was likely. Last summer, Bob Watson, the chief scientist to the environment department (Defra), told the Guardian the world needed to prepare for the possibility of a 4C rise. This autumn, Oxford University will hold a conference to discuss life in a 4C warmer world.

Hit with a double whammy of spiralling carbon emissions from the coal-fired boom in developing countries such as China and political stalemate, many climate scientists have become noticeably nervous in recent years. While technical papers in academic journals have tracked increasingly desperate predictions, most have put on a brave face in public. Likely failure to meet the 2C target, and the certainty of dreadful consequences, has been the worst-kept secret in climate science.

No longer. Today's Guardian poll of attendees at a climate conference last month in Copenhagen exposes the gulf between political rhetoric and scientific thinking. Of more than 250 experts surveyed, more than half said the 2C target could still be achieved but only 18 thought that it would be. By the end of the century, most thought average temperatures would rise by some 4C.

The figure is not plucked from their imaginations. The authoritative report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 laid it out in simple terms. If carbon emissions continue to rise at present rates, then the IPCC's best guess is a 4C rise by 2100. The Guardian poll merely highlights a belief that the warning has simply failed to penetrate. As one said: "I think a full understanding of what must be done quickly, and the consequences of insufficient action, is lacking among the policy makers and the public." Another said: "Current government actions are playing into the hands of ... an electorate that doesn't quite understand how serious climate change is."

Survey respondents were promised anonymity. Many scientists are reluctant to admit publicly that the 2C target is unrealistic, and several warned that simply raising the subject was sensitive. One said: "Telling people that x% people think it can't be done would be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Great things can only be achieved by everyone believing it can be done ... Churchill didn't stand around saying most people think we will lose the war. He said we will fight it on the beaches."

Several scientists said the G20 summit in London, where climate change was barely considered, had convinced them the action required would not be taken. Simon Lewis, a climate researcher at the University of Leeds, said: "The summit shows that political leaders do not regard climate change as an urgent issue. They were tasked to re-configure the global economy and they chose to re-affirm the old model, and not move to a low-carbon economy as scientists have urged. The summit was more of an end-of-the-world order than a new world order."

Bob Doppelt, director of the climate leadership initiative at the University of Oregon, said: "One of the problems is that the issue is still being framed as a scientific and environmental issue. This is a major mistake. Climate change is just a symptom of dysfunctional social and economic practices and policies. It is a social and economic issue. The emphasis needs to shift away from the biophysical sciences now to the social sciences if we have any hope of solving this problem."

Others said it could take a series of extreme weather events similar to Hurricane Katrina and the 2003 European heatwave to force political action. One said a "9/11-type event" that could be traced to increased greenhouse gas emissions might break the political deadlock.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 13 Apr 2009 | 11:01 pm

Artist gets extra ear implanted onto arm

A man with three ears will appear at Edinburgh Napier University today to talk about his "extra" ear, which has been surgically implanted on to his forearm.

Australian performance artist Stelios Arcadiou, known as Stelarc, had the third ear created from cells in a lab in 2006. At the Edinburgh Science International Festival today, Stelarc will discuss his plans to install transmitters in his new ear, so people listen to what it is hearing online. He also hopes to grow a soft earlobe using his own stem cells.

The ear is made of human cartilage. Stelarc, who is visiting professor at Brunel University School of Arts, took 10 years to find a surgeon willing to perform the operation. He uses medical instruments, prosthetics, robotics, virtual reality and the internet in his work.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 13 Apr 2009 | 11:01 pm

Green revolution

Brazil's green reputation under threat
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Apr 2009 | 10:52 pm

Early Humans Were Poor Climbers (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Our ancient human ancestors traded in the ability to climb trees for the power to walk on two legs, but it is unclear when this happened in evolutionary time.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Apr 2009 | 10:09 pm

Neurological Roots of Compassion Run Deep

Contrary to conceptions of human nature as fundamentally selfish, compassion appears to be as deep-seated a trait as fear or anger.

When researchers showed multimedia documentaries designed to arouse compassion or admiration to 13 test subjects, brain scans revealed activity in the precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex and retrosplenial region. The study's authors describe the areas as "an intriguing territory currently known for its involvement in the default mode of brain operation."

"In the very least, it tells us that social emotions are not skin deep," said study co-author Antonio Damasio, a University of Southern California neuroscientist. "They engage our whole biology viscerally, so to speak."

"Given the common impression that admiration and compassion are cultural artifacts, it is intriguing to see that they recruit the brain depths not unlike evolutionarily old emotions such as fear," he said.

From a neuroanatomical standpoint, the findings are also useful because scientists would not otherwise know "that engaging emotions such as admiration or compassion would recruit brain structures well below the cortex, in the hypothalamus and brain stem, whose role is known to regulate life," Damasio said.

The findings were published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Citation: "Neural correlates of admiration and compassion." By Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Andrea McColl, Hanna Damasio, and Antonio Damasio. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 106, No. 15, April 13, 2009.

See Also:

Image: PNAS

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 13 Apr 2009 | 9:46 pm

Herbal wine, just the thing for ailing pharoahs (AP)

AP - When great-grandma took a nip of the elderberry wine "for medicinal purposes," she was following a tradition that goes back thousands of years.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Apr 2009 | 9:37 pm

Bilingual Babies Get an Early Edge

Babies may get an early learning advantage from bilingual parents.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2009 | 9:02 pm

Early Humans Were Poor Climbers

Early humans were not as good at climbing as chimps, a new study suggests.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2009 | 9:02 pm

Mystery of Tooth Strength Cracked

Basket-weave structure of tooth enamel prevents cracks from spreading.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2009 | 9:02 pm

Feds oppose gas terminal in Long Island Sound (AP)

AP - The U.S. Commerce Department on Monday announced its opposition to a proposed massive floating liquefied natural gas terminal in Long Island Sound.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Apr 2009 | 8:59 pm

Facebook Users Get Worse Grades in College

Facebook users have lower grades, but say their studying is unaffected by online networking.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2009 | 7:35 pm

Police Twitter to Get the Word Out

Police departments are sending "tweets" to alert followers about local disruptions.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 13 Apr 2009 | 7:19 pm

Hidden Orangutan Population Discovered

As many as two thousand orangutans have been found in a remote Indonesian forest, raising hopes for the great ape's future. Any discovery of a new population of an endangered species is good news, but this one's extra-good.

Humans and the great apes — orangutans, bonobos, chimpanzees and gorillas — last shared a common ancestor 13 million years ago. That's an evolutionary eye-blink. And as Wired Science has covered before, the great apes share many qualities, from self-awareness to emotion, that people consider fundamental to personhood. The Spanish government may even grant them human rights.

With their entire species in danger of disappearing, the Nature Conservancy's finding of new orangutans is a bit like learning that a sick cousin's health has improved. The situation is still grave, as most of the world's 50,000 orangutans live in Malaysia and Indonesia, where rain forests are being rapidly cut down and replaced by palm oil plantations. But at least there's hope.

"That we are still finding new populations indicates that we still have a chance to save this animal," said Paul Hartman, leader of the Orangutan Conservation Service Program, to the Associated Press.

See Also:

Image: Flickr/Y-Not

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 13 Apr 2009 | 7:13 pm

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