Fallopian Tubes Offer New Stem Cell Source

Human tissues normally discarded after surgical procedures could be a rich additional source of stem cells for regenerative medicine. New research shows for the first time that human fallopian tubes are abundant in mesenchymal stem cells which have the potential of becoming a variety of cell types.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 6:00 pm

Crustacean Shell With Polyester Creates Mixed-fiber Material For Nerve Repair

Weaving chitosan, found in the shells of crabs and shrimp, with an industrial polyester creates a promising new material for biomedical applications, including the tiny tubes that support repair of a severed nerve.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 6:00 pm

Much Touted 'Depression Risk Gene' May Not Add To Risk After All

Stressful life events are strongly associated with a person's risk for major depression, but a certain gene variation long thought to increase risk in conjunction with stressful life events actually may have no effect.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 6:00 pm

Beaked, Bird-like Dinosaur Tells Story Of Finger Evolution

Scientists have discovered a unique beaked, plant-eating dinosaur in China. The finding, they say, demonstrates that theropod, or bird-footed, dinosaurs were more ecologically diverse in the Jurassic period than previously thought, and offers important evidence about how the three-fingered hand of birds evolved from the hand of dinosaurs.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 6:00 pm

Pregnant Women At High Risk Of Complications From H1N1 Influenza

With the H1N1 flu outbreak now elevated to pandemic level, scientists reports that oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) are relatively safe drugs for use in pregnant and breast-feeding women.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 6:00 pm

Artificial Sweeteners May Contaminate Water Downstream Of Sewage Treatment Plants And Even Drinking Water

Sewage treatment plants fail to remove artificial sweeteners completely from waste water. What's more, these pollutants contaminate waters downstream and may still be present in our drinking water. Researchers were able to demonstrate the presence of several artificial sweeteners in waste water.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 6:00 pm

Definitive Evidence For Ancient Lake On Mars

Scientists have discovered the first definitive evidence of shorelines on Mars, an indication of a deep, ancient lake there and a finding with implications for the discovery of past life on the Red Planet.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Progress Made Toward Early Identification Of Muscular Dystrophy

New muscular dystrophy (MD) research is moving doctors and scientists closer to disease diagnosis in advance of patient symptoms. Since it is now clear that early treatment significantly improves life expectancy and quality of life for muscular dystrophy children, this new discovery regarding MD's prenatal origin has the potential to result in earlier diagnosis, and thus create a better quality of life for these patients.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Nanocrystals Reveal Activity Within Cells

Researchers have created bright, stable and bio-friendly nanocrystals that act as individual investigators of activity within a cell. These ideal light emitting probes represent a significant step in scrutinizing the behaviors of proteins and other components in complex systems such as a living cell.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

Less Invasive CT-scan Based Colorectal Cancer Screening Method Shows Good Accuracy

Computed tomographic colonography may offer patients at increased risk of colorectal cancer an alternative to colonoscopy that is less-invasive, is better-tolerated and has good diagnostic accuracy, according to a study in the June 17 issue of JAMA.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

PETA wishes Obama hadn't swatted that fly (AP)

AP - The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 11:28 am

Climate catastrophe getting closer, warn scientists (AFP)

AFP - The world faces a growing risk of "abrupt and irreversible climatic shifts" as fallout from global warming hits faster than expected, according to research by international scientists released Thursday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 11:26 am

NASA heads back to the moon (AFP)

AFP - NASA is set to blast off probes Thursday on a landmark lunar exploration mission to scout water sources and landing sites in anticipation of leading man back to the moon.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 10:48 am

Vaccinate kids to control H1N1 flu: researchers

LONDON (Reuters) - Targeting children for vaccination may be the best way of using limited supplies of vaccine to control the current H1N1 flu pandemic, British researchers said on Thursday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 10:27 am

Study: Pollution killing rare Irrawaddy dolphins (AP)

AP - Pollution on the Mekong River is putting the rare Irrawaddy dolphins in danger of disappearing from Cambodia and Laos, according to a study released Friday by an environmental group.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 9:32 am

The Nation's Weather (AP)

AP - A storm system over the Upper Great Lakes was expected to move into the northeastern U.S. on Thursday, bringing showers and some heavy downpours.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 9:28 am

Canadian seal hunt 'collapsing'

Canada's fishermen catch only 25% of this year's seal quota, blaming falling prices for seal pelts and an expected EU ban on seal products.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Jun 2009 | 9:24 am

Mekong dolphins 'almost extinct'

Freshwater dolphins in the Mekong River are on the verge of extinction, according to the conservation group WWF.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Jun 2009 | 9:14 am

Rockets move 'threatens' St Kilda

A proposal to leave a radar station for rocket ranges unmanned will be damaging for St Kilda, the national trust warns.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Jun 2009 | 8:33 am

Mobiles boost Africa climate data

An innovative partnership between mobile phone companies and humanitarian organisations pledges to improve understanding of Africa's climate.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Jun 2009 | 8:25 am

Extreme weather in Britain

As the Met Office releases projections of climate over the next 100 years, we look at dramatic weather from Britain's recent past

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 18 Jun 2009 | 7:17 am

Genes May Raise Risk of Neuroblastoma in Kids (HealthDay)

HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, June 17 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have identified a genetic trait that appears to boost the risk that a child will develop an often-fatal cancer that targets the nervous system.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 3:48 am

Experts uncover how malaria gets into host cells

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Parasites which cause malaria appear to be using a handful of proteins to steal into the red blood cells of their hosts, scientists have found.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 3:25 am

Team homes in on genetic causes of neuroblastoma

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A missing stretch of DNA on a chromosome involved in nervous system development may help explain why some children are predisposed to a deadly type of tumor called neuroblastoma, researchers reported on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 3:15 am

UK maps climate change forecasts

The UK government's detailed projections of climate change impacts, due out later, are said to be "worse than expected".
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Jun 2009 | 2:20 am

First hard evidence found of a lake on Mars

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A long, deep canyon and the remains of beaches are perhaps the clearest evidence yet of a standing lake on the surface of Mars -- one that apparently contained water when the planet was supposed to have already dried up, scientists said on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 1:38 am

Evidence Found for Ancient Mars Lake (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - Several studies in recent years have claimed evidence for shorelines and other features that suggest ancient lakes on Mars. Firm evidence has remained elusive.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jun 2009 | 1:32 am

Do You Have the Right Stuff to Be a NASA Pillownaut?

NASA will pay you $160 per day to lie in bed — and they’ve got plenty of takers.

Lying on your stomach at a slight downward angle for months on end used to stand in for the effects of nearly no gravity. Now, the scientists at NASA’s Human Test Subject Facility in Galveston, Texas, are trying a new type of bed rest to simulate the moon’s gravitational field. They put you, face up, on a bed tilted up at exactly 9.5 degrees with your feet planted on a panel. Do the trigonometry, and the experiment places just about  the same amount of gravity on your feet as the moon would.

“Obviously, there’s no magic switch to turn off gravity,” said Ronita Cromwell, senior research scientist heading up the project. “What we’re doing is removing some of the effects of 1 G and achieving one-sixth G along the long axis of the body.”

While previous bed-rest studies have required a commitment to lying in bed for 90 days, the feasibility studies for the lunar analog study only require six days in bed. If the test subjects can handle it, which they appear to be doing, it will be extended to much longer periods of time. It’s a novel analog, though, so the team is taking it slow

“Not many people have done it before, and no one has done it in the way that we’re doing it,” Cromwell said.

The effects of lying in bed for months on end aren’t pretty. Our bodies are used to being used. Astronauts and “pillownauts” as some study participants call themselves, experience muscle atrophy and even some mild bone-density loss. They also can experience headaches, nausea and a host of other unpleasant symptoms. It can take astronauts weeks or months to readjust to the Earth’s gravitational force.

In fact, that’s exactly why NASA runs these bed-rest studies. They help them to understand the physiological changes that the body undergoes when it’s not being used like a normal human body. They can try out ways to mitigate the problems that arise.

Cromwell answered most of our functional questions — conjugal visits, food, bone loss — about the bed-rest studies last year, but we’ve always wondered what it feels like on the NASA bed-rest ward. Do people have fun? Is it boring? We spoke with Heather Archuletta, IT specialist, sometime pillownaut, and ardent blogger about her experiences.

Archuletta just completed the lunar bed-rest feasibility study after being chased out of Galveston by Hurricane Ike last year after 50 days of the down-tilted bed-rest study. Her photos and blog provide a fascinating peak into a community of people united by their duty to stay in bed, tilted in one direction or another.

They do crafts, keep fish, watch movies, read books, sing each other Happy Birthday and, in some cases, form a cohesive community. It sounds like camp, but just, you know, always lying down and urinating through a catheter.

“We had this joke that we were all dating,” said Archuletta. “By the end when we got to know each other, we were doing dinner and a movie.”

That is to say, the nurses would wheel the residents’ prone bodies into the common social area and array them in rows in front of a television for some camaraderie. Archuletta organized a library of books and DVDs. And the activities’ coordinator would make sure that they could order new movies from the communal NetFlix account.

While looking for a new job, Archuletta found the bed-rest studies through your favorite science blog, Wired Science.

“If I hadn’t done it, I would have just gotten another IT job, probably,” Archuletta said.

But she’s a space lover and wanted to contribute to humanity’s return to the moon and Mars. And maybe do a little something different.

“Something unique, something not in an office environment,” she said. “It was a chance to confront stillness in a way.”

As it was, Archuletta, who usually works out avidly, subjected her body to intense discomfort, particularly in the first week.

“When they first put me head down that first day — part of it is mental — I had a little bit of a moment right before they put the head at minus six degrees. I thought, ‘Oh my god, my feet aren’t going to touch the floor for 90 days,’” she said. “But I had committed to it. Once I was head down, what’s immediate is the blood rush. All the blood rushes up to your face and you get a little headachey, nauseous.”

After a week, she’d adjusted and didn’t experience much pain. The nasty surprise came at the end of 50 days of the study, when Ike forced the premature end of her experiment and a readjustment process that had to occur in hours instead of the normal days.

“We all of a sudden got this evacuation order that we had to outrun a storm. Here’s a storm literally the size of Texas. We got up in three hours,” she said. “They monitored our blood pressure and I never lost consciousness, but I did fall twice. The pain in my feet was so bad. You don’t realize what your feet feel like after two months off of them.”

After that, you’d think she wouldn’t have gone back. But she did, easily completing the much shorter lunar-analog study in May.

“It was absolutely, totally worth it,” she said.

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Google Reader feed, and book site for The History of Our Future; Wired Science on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 18 Jun 2009 | 12:30 am

Mammoths survived late in Britain

Woolly mammoths lived in Britain longer than scientists thought - until about 14,000 years ago, according to new evidence.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Jun 2009 | 11:13 pm

Guatemala turns to DNA to help solve war crimes

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala opened its first DNA testing lab on Wednesday hoping that genetic fingerprinting will help solve decades-old civil war crimes as well as more recent murders.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 17 Jun 2009 | 10:58 pm

Over the Moon?

US considers its future space exploration
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Jun 2009 | 10:36 pm

NASA heads to moon as panel weighs its future

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - As NASA prepared to launch its debut mission in a program aimed at returning astronauts to the moon, a presidential panel on Wednesday began looking at alternative ways to get there and whether the United States should even go.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 17 Jun 2009 | 10:28 pm

How to Stop Yourself From Staring

People with disfigurements would probably rather not have strangers staring relentlessly at them. And many starers surely wish they could stop. But experts believe it’s a Herculean effort to control such gaping, because it’s triggered not by insensitivity but by instinct.

People become transfixed due to the work of the amygdala, a primitive part of the brain evolved to sort faces into “safe” or “potentially unsafe” categories. When the amygdala cannot process a face that doesn’t fit any it has previously encountered, it simply freezes like a computer unable to process a command. Scientists say that regaining composure requires serious conscious effort.

But with practice, you can regain control of your brain, according to neuropsychiatrist Joshua Freedman at UCLA. And the same technique could help handle other involuntary emotions such as anger and fear.

The frozen state that starers find themselves in has been called the “hijacking of the amygdala” by psychologist Daniel Goleman, author of the best seller, Emotional Intelligence.

Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux of New York University, has shown that rats experience a similar kind of involuntary behavior. This suggests the behavior is a primitive one that goes way back into our evolutionary past and is shared by other species.

“Because the regions of the brain that are involved in voluntary control have little connectivity with areas like the amygdala involved in certain involuntary primitive emotions, those emotions are very hard to control,” LeDoux wrote in an e-mail.

So, what can you do to stop your primitive brain from embarrassing you in public?

One theory is that the key may lie in the cortex. When we see someone approach, the thalamus directs the visual impulse to the visual cortex for processing. The cortex “thinks” about the impulse and makes sense of it: “Mom!” it concludes, for example. That message then shoots to the amygdala where a cascade of peptides and hormones are released that creates emotion (love, say) and spur your reaction (smile, hug, etc.).

Previous research has shown that when we encounter something that may represent danger, however, the thalamus bypasses the thinking cortex and goes straight to the primitive amygdala to make the call: Is this safe or potentially dangerous? If the visual image fits no known pattern, the amygdala detains the image for further questioning, and, we stare.

When this occurs, cortical thinking shuts down, more or less strong-armed by the amygdala trying to fulfill its role as storm trooper against potential danger. Fixating on something out of the ordinary can save our lives, but it can also compel unthinkable behavior like gaping at someone with a deformity.

When we stand thus riveted, our brain is flooded with electro-chemicals, but those chemicals do not persist, according to Freedman. They will dissipate in three to six seconds. Still, that’s an agonizing chunk of time to remain in visual lockdown. In the grip of that span, Freedman believes we can vanquish the pull of the primitive by rousing the analytical part of our brain — the cortex.

The cortex performs tasks including math, language, complex visual or auditory processing, and other “high order” thinking. If we consciously assign the cortex to one of those tasks, like a simple math problem such as adding up the digits in your phone number, the amygdala loses its grip. We are then free to smile or nod to acknowledge the person’s presence, look her in the eye, extend our hand or engage in conversation.

If eye contact proves too difficult due to the fear that the amygdala will seize the tower again, look at the bridge of the person’s nose, advises James Partridge, chief executive of Changing Faces, a non-profit in Britain that challenges the prejudices surrounding facial disfigurement.

Unfortunately, this is not a technique we can pull off on the fly. We’ve got to practice it.

“You have to become adept at observing yourself, both your external behavior and your internal body conditions,” LeDoux said. “When you feel an emotion swelling up, that’s when you have to do your best to put on the brakes. It’s not impossible. Different cultures express emotions to different degrees. In Eastern cultures, for example, people learn to suppress the external signs of emotion to a greater extent than in the Western world. So it can be done.”

This cortical exit strategy also works to conquer other emotions that cause the amygdala to lay siege to our behavior, such as anger and fear. So next time your boss provokes you, try taming your anger with algebra.

DeAnne Musolf is co-author of Faster, Better, Stronger, a book on the biology of fitness.

See Also:

• Why We Stare, Even When We Don’t Want To
• Researchers Try to Cure Racism
• Researchers Find Optimistic Regions of Brain, Or So They Think …
• Beauty In the Brain of the Beholder
• Cross Words: Talking About Bad Feelings Helps Control Them

Image: Flickr/cvogle

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 17 Jun 2009 | 10:20 pm

Mammoths survived in Britain for thousands of years longer than thought

The creatures returned to the British Isles from Siberia towards the end of the last ice age, feeding on rich grassland

Woolly mammoths were roaming the ­British Isles for thousands of years longer than previously thought, a new study shows. By analysing mammoth remains found in Condover, Shropshire, scientists concluded that the animals were probably wiped out by rapidly changing climate at the end of the last ice age rather than hunted to extinction by humans.

"Mammoths are conventionally be­lieved to have become extinct in north-western Europe about 21,000 years ago during the main ice advance, known as the last glacial maximum," said Adrian Lister, of the Natural History Museum, in London, who led the study. "Our new radiocarbon dating of the Condover mammoths changes that by showing that mammoths returned to Britain and survived until around 14,000 years ago."

The last ice age occurred between 75,000 and 12,000 years ago. During that time, the Earth's climate changed ­regularly with relatively colder and warmer periods.

A particularly cold period started 21,000 years ago with ice sheets expanding all over Britain. At this stage, the mammoths and many other mammals disappeared from this part of Europe.

Lister's research, published in tomorrow's issue of the Geological Journal, suggests that the animals returned to Britain as the region warmed up again.

"Plant growth had started again and there was rich grassland and that's exactly what the mammoths liked," said Lister. "The mammoths had been hiding out in Siberia in relatively low numbers during the glaciation maximum. They came back into Europe for a few thousand years on this rich grassland until the forests arrived and it got really warm, and that's when they died out completely."

Scientists have been arguing for years over the cause of the mammoths' extinction. One idea is that humans hunted them out, another is that climate change made life too difficult for them.

"We think our research shows that climatic change, particularly working through its effect on the vegetation, was largely responsible for the extinction," said Lister. "It was certainly responsible for squeezing the range of this species right down."

Humans might have had a hand in killing off the last remaining populations but without climate change cutting the creatures' numbers in the first place, the species, consisting of millions of indivi­duals, would not have been wiped out just by people.

The Condover mammoth remains, of a single adult male and at least four calves, were found in 1986 but the radiocarbon dating used then to work out their age was later proved inaccurate.

To date bones, a protein called collagen is first extracted, but this material can often get mixed up with organic matter from the environment where the remains are found. "If the thing's been buried in the ground and it rains and organic dissolved matter from the plants above is filtering down and might get absorbed by the bone, then the date could end up being too late," said Lister.

His research took advantage of improved radiocarbon dating and biological sample filtering. Calculations on the age of the mammoth bones were also based on an analysis of how they had decayed, a geological assessment of the surrounding rocks, and fossilised insects found at the site.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Jun 2009 | 10:00 pm

Mexican salamander may yield clues for amputees

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Scientists are genetically modifying a bizarre looking Mexican salamander, which according to ancient mythology is a transformed Aztec god, in the hope its ability to regenerate body parts will one day help human amputees.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 17 Jun 2009 | 9:55 pm

Is the Universe All in Your Mind?

Robert Lanza thinks so. But his book, "Biocentrism," is kooky by many scientists' accounts.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Jun 2009 | 8:32 pm

This Week's Coolest Science Photos

The images that made science news the week of June 14, 2009.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Jun 2009 | 8:28 pm

Nut-Cracking Dinosaur Like a Giant Parrot (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - A newly described dinosaur hopefully suffered no nut allergies. Fossil remains suggest the parrot-beaked beast that lived 110 million years ago was a sophisticated nutcracker, researchers said this week.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Jun 2009 | 8:23 pm

Energy bill advances in Senate (AP)

AP - Legislation that would require greater use of renewable energy, make it easier to build power lines and allow oil and gas drilling near the Florida coastline advanced Wednesday in the Senate.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Jun 2009 | 8:16 pm

Fossil Catches Dinosaur Red-Handed, Evolving Into Bird

A newly discovered dinosaur provides a fossil snapshot of the reptiles’ evolution into birds, and neatly fills a troublesome transitional gap.

Living 159 million years ago in what is now Western China, Limusaurus inextricabilis was a small, herbivorous member of the theropod family. The coelurosaur branch of that family survives today, in highly modified form, as birds.

But while bird wings appear to have developed from the middle three digits of a five-digit hand, theropod forelimbs have just three digits, leaving a double-digit gap in the evolutionary record. Limusaurus inextricabilis, described in a paper published Wednesday in Nature, appears to fill that gap.

It has four digits. The first is shrunken, while the second is enlarged, as if compensating for the dimunition of the first. And though this transitional creature didn’t yet have the feather-like structures found in later proto-bird dinosaurs, it did have a toothless upper and lower jaw — in other words, a beak.

See Also:

• Paleontologists Find Dinosaur Protofeather
• Vote for Your Favorite Dinosaur Illustration
• Fancy Feathers Predated Flight in Dinosaur-Bird Hybrid
• Ancient Dinosaur Flesh Really Just Slime, Say Scientists

Citation: “A Jurassic ceratosaur from China helps clarify avian digital homologies.” By Xing Xu, James M. Clark, Jinyou Mo, Jonah Choiniere, Catherine A. Forster, Gregory M. Erickson, David W. E. Hone, Corwin Sullivan, David A. Eberth, Sterling Nesbitt, Qi Zhao, Rene Hernandez, Cheng-kai Jia, Feng-lu Han & Yu Guo. Nature, Vol. 459 No. 7249, June 17, 2009.

Images: 1&2. James Clark 3. Portia Sloan

Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 17 Jun 2009 | 8:12 pm

U.S. Senate panel approves comprehensive energy bill (Reuters)

Reuters - A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday approved a comprehensive energy package that would require utilities to generate 15 percent of electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind power by 2021.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Jun 2009 | 8:02 pm

Why rats could rule at roulette, according to scientists

Rats play the odds to maximise their gains, say researchers who have designed a rodent task to test the biology of gambling.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Jun 2009 | 8:01 pm

Air France Jet Likely Broke Up Flying

Autopsies of Air France plane crash victims suggest a mid-air breakup.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Jun 2009 | 7:35 pm

Dinosaur Digit Bolsters Dino-Bird Link

A beaked dinosaur's digits could help explain the mysterious evolution of birds.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Jun 2009 | 7:30 pm

Nut-Cracking Dinosaur Like a Giant Parrot

Parrot-beaked dinosaur devoured nuts and seeds.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Jun 2009 | 6:56 pm

The Fastest Texter

Kate Moore won $50,000 at the LG U.S. National Texting Championship for speed and accuracy.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Jun 2009 | 6:39 pm

Top 10 New Species

Each year the IISE announces a list of the Top 10 New Species for the preceding calendar year.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Jun 2009 | 6:32 pm

Scientists Tell Obama Where to Go — to Sea

President Barack Obama has said all the right things about safeguarding the oceans. While campaigning, he promised to improve their management and research. Last Friday, he gave an Ocean Policy Task Force 90 days to develop a comprehensive oceans policy.

Of course, it was just four-and-a-half years ago that the bipartisan Commission on Ocean Policy presented its sweeping recommendations to President Bush, who responded by creating a Cabinet-level Committee on Ocean Policy. The committee is now defunct.

Whether Obama’s promises will amount to more than another round of bureaucratic chair shuffling remains to be seen. If so, it will be tragic. For years scientists have warned the oceans are in crisis, teetering on the edge of breakdown. Overfishing has all but eliminated many once-common species, disrupting aquatic ecosystems and unleashing plagues of jellyfish. Agricultural runoff and warming temperatures are causing oxygen levels to drop, leaving once-rich coastal areas lifeless. Greenhouse gases threaten to turn ocean water acidic, literally dissolving the world’s corals and tiny, foundation-of-the-food-chain shellfish.

Wired.com surveyed leading ocean scientists by e-mail to ask what they considered most important to sustainable oceans policy. Their recommendations varied, from better science to greenhouse gas control and fishing regulations. Most important of all, though, may be money.

“We’ve known for many years now what we need to know, and what we need to do to get there,” said James Carlson, a Williams College marine ecologist and adviser to the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative. “What we’ve lacked is truly serious funding levels to permit us to set sail.”

Here’s what the researchers had to say. Let’s see if Obama listens.

Andreas Schmittner, Oregon State University biogeochemist: I think the most important thing is to involve scientists or scientific information in the decision process. My hope is that Obama is doing this already.

Ken Caldeira, Carnegie Institution global ecologist: Overfishing is the most immediate threat to our marine environment. Fish stocks throughout the world are in a crisis state. We need to work together internationally to reduce fishery yields to levels that can allow our marine ecosystems to recover from the ravages of the modern industrial fishing industry.

Over the next decades, ocean acidification will become an increasingly important threat to our marine environment. For example, we are likely to lose all the coral reefs in the world unless we reverse current carbon dioxide emissions trends.

 Developing the level of international cooperation in reforming fishing practices will set a good precedent for the far more difficult task of developing the level of international cooperation necessary to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions.

Robert Diaz, Virginia Institute of Marine Science ecologist: I would focus on dissolved oxygen and how low DO will negatively interact with resource harvesting, habitat quality, biodiversity, and even recreational use of estuarine and coastal areas.

There are two parts to our oxygen problems: One is global warming that is altering all of our ocean processes, leading to lower DO and expanding oxygen minimum zones, and the other is industrial scale agriculture that leads to massive nutrient runoff and has fueled a global eutrophication of coastal areas, which in many areas causes dead zones to develop.

Both of these problems are related to the total size of our human population and standard of living. We need decisive action now, not tomorrow, to solve these problems. The good news is that if nutrient runoff can be significantly reduced, dead zones will decline and disappear on the order of years.

Gary Shaffer, University of Copenhagen geophysicist: I would tell him to invest still more in a long-term, truly-global ocean observation system. This is needed to capture ongoing changes and to help improve the ocean component of global climate models. It is still not known for sure if global warming will lead to weaker or stronger overturning circulation in the ocean but the way this goes will be decisive for future ocean CO2 uptake and ocean anoxia.

Lucas Brotz, University of British Columbia biologist: One, establish a global, connected network of Marine Protected Areas. Currently, roughly 12 percent of land is protected from destructive activities, while less than 1 percent of the oceans are protected. Two, implement ecosystem-based management for all marine activities, especially in fisheries management. Three, eliminate harmful subsidies to fisheries. Currently, taxpayers are helping to subsidize the destruction of the marine environment.

Monty Graham, senior marine scientist, Dauphin Island Sea Lab: Ocean policy is directed at the national level by a patchwork of authorizations loosely connected under the Omnibus Public Land Management Act. The mere fact that ocean policy falls under a ‘Lands’ Act speaks volumes about the priority we have established regarding the sea.

Priority Number One is to consolidate ocean-related actions into an Omnibus Oceans Act, and work with congressional leadership for its passage. Of course, authorizations are only as good as the level of appropriation they ultimately receive.

Funding levels can increase with improved civic and legislative education on the financial benefits and costs of sound ocean policy. If more than half of the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of the coast, perhaps we ought to spend more time and effort educating the other half. So, along with consolidation of authorizations, I would encourage President Obama to include extensive public education to the ‘interior’ population in support of increased funding rates for sound ocean science leading to sound ocean policy.

James Carlton, Williams College marine ecologist, advisor to the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative: It’s not that we need to continue to ask what’s most needed for the ocean agenda. We’ve generated thousands of pages of superb thinking on this, ranging from NGO reports to agency reports to many scholarly papers published in peer-reviewed journals.

In my mind, we need to now address two core issues: the need to inspire public, the press, and the politicians, and to ensure that a real, not token, budget is available.

See Also:

• Sort Tons of Beach Trash With Wired’s Spreadsheet
• Climate Change Chokes Oceans
• Ocean Dead Zones May Be Worse Than Thought
• Rising Ocean Acidity Could Disorient Fish

Image: Flickr/Jim Champion

Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 17 Jun 2009 | 6:31 pm

Cancer Linked to Missing DNA

A cancer is traced to a type of genetic defect for the very first time.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Jun 2009 | 6:30 pm

Sasers: Sound-based Lasers Invented

Sasers are the sound-based equivalent of lasers, made by focusing phonons.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Jun 2009 | 5:52 pm

Give me three: new evidence on modern birds' dinosaur ancestors

A new fossil has shed light on how the bones of a five-fingered dinosaur evolved in to a modern bird's wing.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Jun 2009 | 5:51 pm

Debate Rages Over Moon Water

The debate has raged over whether the moon does in fact harbor water ice. Soon, two moon missions may yield the truth.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Jun 2009 | 5:50 pm

Could Life Be 12 Billion Years Old?

Astronomers model abundances of key biological elements early in universe.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Jun 2009 | 5:35 pm

Sonic Black Hole Traps Sound Waves

The world's first sonic black hole is created using Bose-Einstein condensates.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Jun 2009 | 5:30 pm

The secrets of ant sleep revealed

While queen ants dreamily doze, workers are forced to take power naps.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Jun 2009 | 5:20 pm

Fossil Solves Mystery of Dinosaur Finger Evolution

Dinosaur hands shed light on evolution of modern bird wings.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Jun 2009 | 5:10 pm

Report: Climate Change Is Already Impacting U.S.

U.S. government releases report on impact of global warming on country, what mitigation choices are.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Jun 2009 | 4:29 pm

Same-sex relationships may play an important role in evolution

Biologists claim that same-sex relationships help drive the evolution of animals' physiology, life history and social behaviour

Birds do it. Bees probably do it. No one's sure whether educated fleas do it. What they do is have same-sex relationships and, in a new review of published research on the subject, biologists have started to consider what it might mean for the evolution of the animals in question.

Nathan Bailey and Marlene Zuk, biologists at the University of California, Riverside, found that same-sex relationships were a universal phenomenon in the animal kingdom, seen in everything from worms to frogs to birds. "It's clear that same-sex sexual behavior extends far beyond the well-known examples that dominate both the scientific and popular literature: for example bonobos, dolphins, penguins and fruit flies," said Bailey.

Penguins have been known to form long-term same-sex bonds where males will engage in sexual activity. Toads generally don't discriminate between sexes while marine snails all start out male and, when they mate with another male, one of them helpfully changes sex. Dolphins will often touch their genitals together or one male might even mount another and penetrate its blowhole. Bonobos go the furthest in same-sex bonding with regular copulation among males.

But not all relationships should be considered the same. A male fruit fly, for example, may court other males because it lacks a gene that allows it to tell the difference between the sexes. "But that is very different from male bottlenose dolphins, who engage in same-sex interactions to facilitate group bonding, or female Laysan albatross that can remain pair-bonded for life and cooperatively rear young," said Bailey.

Writing in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, the authors said that lots of previous studies had considered how same-sex relationships might have come about but very few studies had considered whether the relationships shape the course of evolution.

"Same-sex behaviors – courtship, mounting or parenting – are traits that may have been shaped by natural selection, a basic mechanism of evolution that occurs over successive generations," Bailey said. "But our review of studies also suggests that these same-sex behaviors might act as selective forces in and of themselves."

In other words same-sex relationships might shape evolution in subtle and important ways for many animals. When bilogists think about selective pressure in evolution, they tend to focus on environmental concerns such as weather, temperature, or geographic features in a particular locality. Social circumstances can also have an impact and Bailey argues that same-sex relationships could "radically change those social circumstances, for example by removing some individuals from the pool of animals available for mating."

In addition, the behaviour can lead to the evolution of defence mechanisms. "For example, male-male copulations in locusts can be costly for the mounted male, and this cost may in turn increase selection pressure for males' tendency to release a chemical called panacetylnitrile, which dissuades other males from mounting them," said Bailey.

Bailey and Zuk are also researching the Laysan albatross, a species in which females form same-sex pairs and rear young together. "Same-sex behavior in this species may not be aberrant, but instead can arise as an alternative reproductive strategy," they said.

Almost a third of Laysan albatross couples are female-female pairs and they are more successful than unpaired females when it comes to rearing chicks.

"Same-sex sexual behaviors are flexibly deployed in a variety of circumstances, for example as alternative reproductive tactics, as cooperative breeding strategies, as facilitators of social bonding or as mediators of intrasexual conflict. Once this flexibility is established, it becomes in and of itself a selective force that can drive selection on other aspects of physiology, life history, social behaviour and even morphology," said Bailey.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Jun 2009 | 4:11 pm

Gas leak delays space shuttle launch for second time

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA canceled the launch of space shuttle Endeavour on Wednesday for the second time after a potentially dangerous hydrogen gas leak surfaced while the ship was being fueled for flight.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 17 Jun 2009 | 2:56 pm

BLOG: Roll-Up Computer: Yay or Nay?

Is a computer display that you can roll up and stick in your pocket appealing?
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Jun 2009 | 2:00 pm

BLOG: 'Sea Monster' Caught on Camera

An orbiting instrument captures a sea monster-like swirl of ocean plankton.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Jun 2009 | 1:50 pm

'Genius Fish' Strategizes Like Humans

The nine-spined stickleback can think and learn like we humans do, researchers find.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Jun 2009 | 12:10 pm

Dinosaur Looked, Behaved Like a Parrot

A newly-found dino resembled a parrot on steroids, but it was likely not a close relative.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Jun 2009 | 10:40 am

Gas Leak Scrubs Another Shuttle Launch

A hydrogen gas leak again delays Endeavour's launch until at least July.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Jun 2009 | 10:20 am