Twinkling Nanostars Cast New Light Into Biomedical Imaging

Researchers have created magnetically responsive gold nanostars that may offer a new approach to biomedical imaging. The nanostars gyrate when exposed to a rotating magnetic field, and can scatter light to produce a pulsating or "twinkling" effect. This twinkling allows them to stand out more clearly from noisy backgrounds like those found in biological tissue.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

Geoengineering Climate Requires More Research, Cautious Consideration And Appropriate Restrictions

Geoengineering -- deliberately manipulating physical, chemical, or biological aspects of the Earth system to confront climate change -- could contribute to a comprehensive risk management strategy to slow climate change but could also create considerable new risks, according to a policy statement released by the American Meteorological Society.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

Are We What Our Mothers Ate?

Mothers' health in the days and weeks prior to becoming pregnant may determine the health of offspring much later in life, according to new research. The studies demonstrate that maternal nutrition, protein intake and level of fat in the diet may cause epigenetic changes in the developing fetus that can have long-term health consequences.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

Pre-chewed Food Could Transmit HIV

Researchers have uncovered the first cases in which HIV almost certainly was transmitted from mothers or other caregivers to children through pre-chewed food.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis May Pose Neurological Risks

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has helped many couples conceive healthy children and is generally considered a safe practice. However, a new long-term analysis of PGD in mice suggests that this procedure may increase risks of weight gain and memory decline in adulthood.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

Neural Stem Cells May Rescue Memory In Advanced Alzheimer's, Mouse Study Suggests

Scientists have shown for the first time that neural stem cells can rescue memory in mice with advanced Alzheimer's disease, raising hopes of a potential treatment for the leading cause of elderly dementia that afflicts 5.3 million people in the US. Transplanted cells 'nurse' brain back to health.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

This Article Will Self-destruct: Tool To Make Online Personal Data Vanish

Private information scattered all over the Internet and impossible to control. A new system, called Vanish, puts an expiry date on electronic text. Electronic communication sent using Vanish -- such as e-mail, Facebook posts and chat messages -- would have a brief lifetime and then self-destruct.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

Nature Or Nurture? New Epigenetic Model Blurs Line In The Debate

A new report complicates the debate over whether nature or nurture plays the most important role in complex diseases such as psychiatric disorders, heart disease and cancer. Scientists explain how epigenetics (temporary changes in gene function) and gene mutations (permanent, heritable changes) contribute to disease risk within populations, and lays the foundation for public health interventions to reduce environmental epigenetic changes.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

Discovery May Open Door To Drug That Cuts Appetite And Boosts Energy

In a major advance in obesity and diabetes research, scientists have found that reducing levels of a key enzyme in the brain decreased appetites and increased energy levels.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

New Blue Light Nanocrystals Could Help Mitigate Global Warming

Researchers have produced nontoxic nanocrystals that efficiently emit blue light and could also play a role in long-term storage of carbon dioxide, a potential means of tempering the effects of global warming.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

Solar eclipse shrouds Asia in daytime darkness (AP)

AP - Millions of Asians turned their eyes skyward Wednesday as dawn suddenly turned to darkness across the continent in the longest total solar eclipse this century will see. Millions of others, seeing the rare event as a bad omen, shuttered themselves indoors.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 11:11 am

Wild camels 'genetically unique'

A study confirms the unique ancestry of the wild Bactrian camel, of which just a few hundred survive.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jul 2009 | 11:09 am

Asia darkens under longest solar eclipse of century

VARANASI, India/WUHAN, China (Reuters) - A total solar eclipse on Wednesday swept across a narrow swathe of Asia, where hundreds of millions of people watched the skies darken, though in some places thick summer clouds blocked the sun.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 10:13 am

Solar eclipse shrouds Asia in cloak of darkness (AFP)

AFP - The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century plunged millions across Asia into temporary darkness on Wednesday, triggering scenes of religious fervour, fear and excitement in India and China.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 9:44 am

Close neighbours: Quake edges NZ towards Australia

A massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake last week has edged New Zealand closer to Australia, scientists say.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jul 2009 | 9:19 am

Genetically modified rice 'crucial in drought battle' (AFP)

AFP - Genetic modification may be the only viable way to produce sufficient quantities of rice in the future as drought, climate change and dwindling acreage impact yields, experts said in a new report.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 8:36 am

Even in space, batteries need to be replaced (AP)

AP - Even in space, batteries need to be replaced.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 8:21 am

Asia watches long solar eclipse

The longest total solar eclipse this century crosses Asia, with swathes of India and China plunged into darkness.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jul 2009 | 8:18 am

Calif. budget plan includes new offshore oil (AP)

AP - The deal to close California's $26 billion budget deficit included a plan to drill for offshore oil, drawing allegations that the fiscal crisis was used for a backroom deal following rejection of the idea by state regulators earlier this year.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 7:40 am

First human trials of swine flu vaccine begin in Australia

• Two biotechnology companies start injecting adult volunteers with swine flu vaccine
• Experts say it could be two months before they can verify vaccine's effectiveness

The world's first human trials of a swine flu vaccine have begun in Australia, drug company officials said today, as the global death toll from the virus rose to 700.

Two biotechnology companies have started injecting adult volunteers in the southern city of Adelaide. CSL, a Melbourne company, has 240 people in its seven-month trial starting today. Vaxine, from Adelaide, began trials on Monday with 300 people.

At least 41 people have died in swine flu-related illness in Australia, now well into its winter flu season.

"We're in the southern hemisphere, and that is where the problem is right now," Vaxine's research director, Nikolai Petrovsky, said. "The demand was here yesterday. We're right in the middle of a surge of swine flu cases where perhaps the US won't have to worry about it as much until their flu season hits, in six months."

Australia had confirmed 14,703 cases of swine flu, while the number of deaths from the virus globally is more than 700, according to the World Health Organisation, which recently stopped counting the number of cases worldwide. A surge in cases is predicted in September and October, when students and workers in the northern hemisphere return from summer vacation.

The Australian government has already ordered 21m doses of CSL's vaccine for use in Australia, should it be proved to work.

"We have a specific vaccine that we believe will be able to protect millions of people against this new H1N1 flu," Andrew Cuthbertson, CSL's director of research and development, told reporters. He called swine flu "a novel strain of influenza", and said the trial would determine the dose and schedule of the vaccination.

Petrovsky said it would be six to eight weeks before results would verify whether a vaccine was effective.

"There is no guarantee any of these vaccines will work," he said. "Swine flu is a very peculiar beast. It is a very different virus that we're dealing with. But we are hopeful."

Medical experts warned against rushing the vaccines through trials.

"I think it's important for the public to know that they're going to get a safe and effective vaccine," Andrew Pesce, president of the Australian Medical Association, told Sky News television. "No one will give anybody brownie points for putting out a vaccine that didn't work or caused harm."

In Britain, the UK's health protection agency (HPA) estimates there were 55,000 new cases of swine flu in England the week before last, including people visiting GPs and those who are looking after themselves at home.

The British pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline, said in May it had agreed to supply nearly 130m doses of the swine flu vaccine to the UK, France, Belgium and Finland. It also said it would donate 50m doses to developing countries. The vaccine is expected to come before the end of the year.

Glaxo is one of several companies charged with producing a vaccine for H1N1 after the outbreak of the virus was declared a pandemic last month.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 22 Jul 2009 | 7:23 am

Europe eyes 'innovative UK space'

The European Space Agency opens its new British technical research centre at Harwell in Oxfordshire.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jul 2009 | 7:14 am

Donation slump could hinder disaster assistance (AP)

AP - The Salvation Army is struggling with dwindling donations across the country that will make it hard to give long-term assistance after a disaster, and a spokesman for the charity says "we have to hope and pray" this year's hurricane season is mild.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 7:09 am

Asia swathed in darkness by the longest total eclipse of the century

The eclipse was first sighted at dawn in eastern India near the town of Guahati before moving north and east to Nepal, Burma, Bangladesh, Bhutan and China
• Datablog: every eclipse until the year 2200

Tourists, astronomers and residents across a swath of Asia turned their eyes to the heavens today as the longest eclipse of the 21st century arrived.

Viewing for many was marred by heavy clouds and rain, but the drama of the total eclipse – as darkness swept a narrow path across the continent – was unmistakable.

Jiaxing in Zhejiang province, picked out by China's National Astronomical Observatory as one of the best spots to view the phenomenon, was drenched by rain after days of fine weather. Forecasters had warned all eight of the selected sites could suffer bad weather.

Thousands of foreign tourists had come to the little-knownn city of 3.5 million inhabitants. They reportedly included a party from India who had feared monsoon rains might obscure their view at home.

Around a thousand gathered in a public square for an official ceremony to mark the occasion. There were cheers when a glimpse of sun briefly broke through the clouds, shortly before the eclipse was due to begin at 8.22.20.

Visitors grabbed their darkened glasses in anticipation, following reminders that viewing with the naked eye could damage their eyesight.

But they would have little chance to use them: shortly afterwards the heavens opened and torrential rain hit the six viewing spots across the city.

Said Jin Qinlong, director of the tourism administration, said it was the most popular event in the city.

Despite the stress of organising it, he added, he felt "a deep calm and peace" as darkness swept across the land.

The phenomenon began at dawn over the western coast of India, passing over Surat, Indore, Bhopal, Varanasi and Patna, Nasa said. It moved east across Nepal, Burma, Bangladesh and Bhutan and then along China's Yangtze river valley, home to 300 million.

Thick cloud cover over India obscured the sun when the eclipse began but the clouds parted in several cities, minutes before the total eclipse took place at 6.24am.

In neighbouring Bangladesh, people came out in droves.

"It's a rare moment, I never thought I would see this in my life," said Abdullah Sayeed, a college student who traveled to Panchagarh town from the capital Dhaka to view it.

He said cars in the town needed to use headlights as "night darkness has fallen suddenly".

One of the best views, shown live on several television channels, appeared to be in the Indian town of Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges river, sacred to devout Hindus.

Thousands of Hindus took a dip in keeping with the ancient belief that bathing in the river at Varanasi, especially on special occasions, cleanses one's sins. The eclipse was seen there for three minutes and 48 seconds.

From there it passed to southern Japan and across the Pacific Ocean, where it would reach its maximum length of six minutes and 29 seconds.

In Jiaxing, the sun began to slip behind the moon at 8.22.20 and reemerged completely 11.00.21, with total eclipse from 9.35.01 to 9.40.57.

According to Nasa, a total eclipse, when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, is only visible from a narrow strip – about 150km wide – of the Earth's surface at any one time.

Humans have recorded eclipses for thousands of years, but they were often sources of fear rather than fascination. China's cabinet – the state council – recognised their enduring power when it issued a directive urging local officials to ensure social stability during the event and urged academics and the media to explain the scientific principles behind it lest it caused blind panic.

Historic Chinese documents suggest that they are portents of change.

"There's a long tradition in China's past of the natural world and human world being interconnected so developments in one speak to the other," said Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom of the University of California.

"From 2,000 years ago or so, the imperial family was interested in any kind of astronomical knowledge that could help predict eclipses. It's an early version of spin … if you knew in advance the heavens were displeased you could interpret that as being about bad officials who needed to be reprimanded as opposed to the dynasty being imperilled.

"To what extent anyone thinks in those terms now is another matter."

On a more prosaic note, Chinese authorities in many towns turned on street lights and ordered all police officers to remain on duty, fearing traffic accidents and other problems.

Yan Jun, director of the National Astronomical Observatories, told the official People's Daily newspaper that the abrupt blackout might inflict dangers on road transport, shipping, air travel and even medical services and other activities. He suggested telecommunications and power transmission might also be affected due to sudden changes in astronomic gravity and light intensity.

In Jiaxing, residents expressed disappointment at the low visibility but tourists appeared to be taking it in their stride. Pupils from Southend boys high school struck up a rousing chorus of their school song and a briefer rendition of It's Raining Men as they huddled beneath umbrellas in the square.

"Unfortunately, everything's eclipsed now," said Dr Mahamarowi Omar, an amateur astronomer who had brought a tour group from Malaysia just to see the phenomenon.

"It's something so great that humans should experience it. It's not only science. We are Muslim and after this we will go and pray to God together. He has brought us the beautiful sky and earth and sun."

There was still no sign of the sun when the rain cleared, but the sky was darkening second by second as the moon swept across its face somewhere behind the clouds. Grumbles and sighs of frustration turned to gasps.

Moments later Jiaxing enjoyed its second dawn of the day. This time, as the sky lightened, glimpses of an upside-down crescent of the sun could be caught through viewing glasses.

"There's nothing greater than a solar eclipse," said Sammy Grech, who had travelled all the way from Malta, where he heads the astronomical society.

"Except the rain," he added thoughtfully.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 22 Jul 2009 | 4:09 am

Parental Stress Boosts Kids' Asthma Risk (HealthDay)

HealthDay - TUESDAY, July 21 (HealthDay News) -- Air pollution from cars can increase a child's chances of developing asthma, but add parental stress and the odds for asthma get even higher, a new study finds.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 3:50 am

World's largest telescope to be built in Hawaii (AP)

AP - Hawaii was chosen Tuesday as the site for the world's biggest telescope, a device so powerful that it will allow scientists to see some 13 billion light years away and get a glimpse into the early years of the universe.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Jul 2009 | 2:55 am

Stephen Fry calls for 'rainbow bridge'

Here is a taste of the first day at TED including living buildings, EU policy as poetry and a way to bridge the cultural divide between scientists and artists

TED is an amazingly eclectic event, but to give you a flavour of the first day, here are some of my favourite moments.

Living Buildings

During the TED University presentations, Rachel Armstrong talked about living buildings. We're still relying on Victorian technology for buildings, she said, adding that the one-way transfer of energy from our environment to our homes and cities is unsustainable. She said:

The only way to construct truly sustainable homes and cities is to connect them to nature.

Working with a "bag of fatty acids with no DNA" called a proto-cell, she hopes to develop building systems that might be able to fix carbon dioxide from the air to create artificial reefs beneath Venice, for instance. Not only would it stabilise the city, but the proto-cells also act as a carbon sink.

Policy in Poetry

Belgian political scientist Peter Vermeersch went about rewriting the European Constitution in poetry. European leaders had offered up their citizens a huge tome that was a carefully crafted compromise, but people found more things they didn't like and rejected it.

Working with poets across Europe, Vermeersch said:

We wanted to reclaim Europe, to express our collective dreams and longings.

As an immigrant myself, I especially liked Article 65: Free Movement of Persons. Here's a snippet:

Find your way under your own steam

We will wait for you...

Seated behind the wide open arms of our kitchen window

Bridging the two cultures

Stephen Fry gave a heartfelt talk about CP Snow's two cultures, an idea which turns 50 this year. As Fry said, it was the idea that a scientist would be considered ignorant if he or she didn't know Hamlet, but an artist would not be considered ignorant for lack of knowledge about the second law of thermodynamics.

Fry offered up his friend, the late Douglas Adams, as a possible hero for TED and also someone who could be a "rainbow bridge" between the worlds of the arts and the sciences. To tackle the challenges of our day, we needed the full operation of our intellect, Fry said. But we can't separate what we think from what we feel.

Those were just a few highlights from day one. I really enjoyed Alain de Botton's very funny, but also very thought-provoking talk that kicked the day off. I have to agree with the official TED blogger, this quote of de Botton's was a keeper:

"Next time you see someone in a Ferrari, don't think: 'They're greedy." Think: "This is someone incredibly vulnerable and in need of love." - Alain De Botton, on the challenge of modern society, in which we -- and others -- measure our worth by what we "do" and what we own

After a very long first day, I'll have to look more seriously at designer Stefan Sagmeister's idea of taking a one year sabbatical every seven years. Why not redistribute those years of retirement throughout our lives?

That's just day one. Two and a half more days to go, and I'll have plenty more tomorrow. Thanks for those questions via Twitter. Keep them coming to @kevglobal.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 22 Jul 2009 | 2:27 am

Planes 'should fly on biofuels'

A think tank says plans to run cars on biofuel should be scrapped in favour of using them for aviation.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jul 2009 | 2:24 am

Hunt hopes to find ancient trees

One of the UK's biggest landowners begins a three-year survey to identify previously unrecorded ancient trees.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jul 2009 | 2:23 am

Saliva test for early birth risk

A simple saliva test could help spot which expectant women are most likely to deliver their baby prematurely, experts believe.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jul 2009 | 1:41 am

Phone gadget to diagnose disease

A new device that attaches to a mobile phone could be used to diagnose diseases in the developing world.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Jul 2009 | 1:16 am

Contact High: Lenses That Deliver Drugs

Dry-eye sufferers and glaucoma patients may soon be able to trade their messy eye drops for a contact lens that delivers medication gradually over time.

Although eye drops account for 90 percent of all eye medication, drops are irritating and inefficient. Doctors estimate that only 1 to 7 percent of the medication actually gets absorbed into the eye, while the rest drips down the cheeks or into the back of the throat.

Even worse, many patients hate eye drops or forget to take them. For example, up to 59 percent of glaucoma patients regularly skip their drops, even though untreated glaucoma can lead to blindness.

Researchers have been working for nearly a decade on drug-dispensing contact lenses that could deliver eye medication more effectively, but they’ve struggled to design a lens that releases a continuous supply of the meds. Now, scientists report that they’ve created a contact lens that can deliver a high concentration of antibiotic at a constant rate for more than 30 days.

“The main way our lens differs is that it can provide large amounts of drug released at constant rates for long periods of time, which previous discoveries have not been able to do,” said drug-delivery researcher Daniel Kohane of Harvard Medical School, who co-authored the paper published in the July issue of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. Past lenses have only been able to release a small amount of drug over a long period of time, or a substantial amount of drug for a day or two, he said.

Previous design attempts focused on dissolving medication into the hydrogel material that contacts are made of, or encasing a drug inside nanoparticles and then incorporating the particles into the hydrogel lens. The Boston researchers describe their new design like a pita pocket, with a big wad of drug in the middle of a hydrogel exterior.

“People had done all kinds of fancy things, but the problem with a lot of the methods was that the actual drug loading was very low,” Kohane said. “It’s not clear why no one did this before. It was very much like we invented the sandwich.”

Because the drug-containing portion of the lens is shaped like a doughnut, it shouldn’t affect the wearer’s vision, he said.

To make their lens, the researchers took a biodegradable polymer called PLGA and dissolved it in an organic solvent, and then they added their drug. As the solvent evaporated, they were left with drug mixed into a polymer film. Finally, they coated the film in a hydrogel called pHEMA, which is the same material that’s used to make regular contact lenses.

The group chose the PLGA polymer and the pHEMA hydrogel because both materials are FDA-approved for use in the eye. But the same technique could be used with different materials to adjust the speed of drug delivery. “Both the polymer film and pHEMA have some influence over slowing diffusion of the medication,” said ophthalmologist Joseph Ciolini of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, a co-author on the study. “So we can change the rate of drug release depending on the ratio of polymer to drug, and depending on the molecular weight of the polymer we use.”

Kohane and colleagues tested their prototype lens with an antibiotic called ciprofloxacin, which is commonly used to treat eye infections. In lab experiments, the contact lens released approximately 134 micrograms of drug each day for 30 days, enough to block bacterial growth for the duration of the study. “The rates of drug efflux that we got from these are vastly more than any other drug-eluting lens that we are familiar with,” Kohane said.

So far, the group has only tested the diffusion properties of the lens in a lab dish. But they have high hopes for the future: “We’re moving toward animal testing as we speak, and humans will be within a year or so,” Kohane said. “It’s just a matter of when we will be able to get lenses that are high-quality enough to use in a human eye.”

See Also:

• Permanent Lenses in Sight
• What’s Inside: Bausch and Lomb ReNu
• Contact Lens Could Bring TV Into Future Eyes
• Heads-Up Display Built Into Contact Lenses
• Sharper Image, Better Performance

Image 1: Flickr/Gregorio Parvus. Image 2: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 21 Jul 2009 | 11:10 pm

O we do like to be beside the seaside ...

Wildflowers at the seaside make an impressive sight for the summer holidays. Thrift, or sea pink, is found on almost every type of seashore and even stone walls near the coast, their globes of bright pink flowers held on tall stalks above cushions of green leaves. The old threepenny coin featured the thrift, maybe as a pun on its name or perhaps because it is amazingly tolerant of high copper levels in the soil, which would kill most plants.

Restharrow got its name from its tough wiry roots that could stop field ploughs in their tracks. It often sprawls on sand and dunes as a mat of dense leaves with pink pea-like flowers. Its close relative the sea pea is a beautiful but increasingly rare purple flower, its large cover of oval-shaped leaves crawling over shingle on the south-east and east coasts of Britain. The flowers develop into pods with big, buoyant seeds that float away at sea where they stay viable for up to five years.

Some coastal plants are well worth foraging for. Sea beet grows in big clumps of dark, glossy foliage on shingle beaches and many other types of coast. It is the ancestor of beetroot and spinach, and its young leaves can be eaten like spinach – although their flavour is not as strong, it comes ready salted. Sea purslane grows on saltmarshes with silvery grey, spear-shaped leaves and tiny nobbly pink flowers; its young leaves make a good ingredient for salads with their salty flavour.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 21 Jul 2009 | 11:05 pm

Mammoth Telescope to Be Built in Hawaii

Hawaii beat out Chile to become the site of the Thirty-Meter Telescope, which is scheduled to be completed in 2018.

The giant telescope will have a single primary mirror that measures 30 meters across and is made up of 492 segments, giving it nine times more collecting surface than the the biggest telescopes on Earth today.

The Thirty-Meter Telescope will surpass even the Hubble Space Telescope in some ways, giving scientists a new view of some of the oldest stars and galaxies in the universe, as well as planets orbiting nearby stars.

Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the site of the Keck and Subaru telescopes, was among five candidate sites selected based on a global satellite assessment of atmosphere and climate variables. After further studies, Hawaii and Cerro Amazones in Chile rose to the top of the list.

“In the final analysis, the board selected Mauna Kea as the site for TMT,”  Edward Stone, Caltech physicist  and vice chairman of the TMT board, said in a press release Tuesday. “The atmospheric conditions, low average temperatures, and very low humidity will open an exciting new discovery space using adaptive optics and infrared observations.”

The project still needs to be approved by the the state and $100 million still needs to be raised for construction. The rest of the $300 million estimated cost will come from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The telescope project is the joint venture of Caltech, the University of California and a group of Canadian Universities called ACURA.

“We are excited about the prospect of being the first of the next generation of extremely large telescopes,” said Professor Ray Carlberg, the Canadian Large Optical Telescope project director and a TMT board member.

Other giant telescope projects include the Giant Magellan Telescope meters and the 42-meter European Extremely Large Telescope.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 21 Jul 2009 | 9:54 pm

Jupiter's New Bruise Big As Pacific Ocean (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - The dark bruise that appeared suddenly near the south pole of Jupiter several days ago, likely as the result of an impact by a comet or asteroid, is as big as the Pacific Ocean, astronomers report.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Jul 2009 | 9:45 pm

Space Wheat Could Feed Astronauts on Mars

Long-term spaceflight exposure doesn't change later generations of wheat seeds, new research found.
Source: Livescience.com | 21 Jul 2009 | 9:42 pm

Jupiter's New Bruise Big As Pacific Ocean

Images of new impact scar on Jupiter reveal is big as Pacific Ocean.
Source: Livescience.com | 21 Jul 2009 | 9:39 pm

Molten Mars Too Hot to Handle Life

Analysis of rare meteorites shows that the surface temperature of Mars was too hot to support life.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 21 Jul 2009 | 9:30 pm

Aussie stargazer spots scar from Jupiter collision (AP)

AP - An amateur stargazer in Australia spotted an Earth-sized gash on Jupiter, possibly caused by a collision with a comet, NASA scientists say.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Jul 2009 | 9:21 pm

The Raindrop Explodes: Why Droplets' Sizes Vary

In this remarkable slow motion video, researchers have seen, for the first time, exactly how small raindrops are created from a single larger so-called parent drop.
Source: Livescience.com | 21 Jul 2009 | 9:16 pm

Status quo won't get NASA to Mars, new chief says

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA cannot continue on its present path, which includes staffing the International Space Station and returning astronauts to the moon by 2020, and fulfill its ultimate goal of getting people to Mars, the U.S. space agency's new chief said on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 21 Jul 2009 | 8:46 pm

Toilet back in service on crowded space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - After a tiring day of spacewalking, astronauts can enjoy at least one creature comfort: a working toilet.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 21 Jul 2009 | 7:44 pm

Tomorrow's Tires Made Partly from Trees?

Microcrystalline cellulose can be made from any plant fiber.
Source: Livescience.com | 21 Jul 2009 | 7:40 pm

Fetal Memories? Not So Fast

People should understand that the researchers are using the term "memory" very differently than most people do.
Source: Livescience.com | 21 Jul 2009 | 7:10 pm

Eclipse of the Century Live Online Tonight

The century’s most dramatic solar eclipse will be visible along a narrow swath of Asia and the Pacific Ocean later today. And, thanks to some University of North Dakota researchers, it’ll be visible on the internet, too. The live webcast begins at 5:15 p.m. Pacific time.

The eclipse will last six minutes and 39 seconds, which is near the theoretical maximum duration for a solar eclipse of seven minutes and 31 seconds. For everyone except Ray Kurzweil and the other singulatarians, this will be the longest eclipse of our lifetimes. The Earth won’t see an eclipse this long until June 13, 2132.

If you’re lucky enough to be near the path of the eclipse, check out our guide to the experience, How to See 93 Million Miles. Or perhaps use it to start planning a trip for next July to the Cook Islands or French Polynesia, where you’ll be able to see the next total solar eclipse on July 11, 2010.

NASA has created the definitive guide to the event’s science, including this excellent tip about the latest in protective eyewear for solar eclipse viewing:

“More recently, solar observers have used floppy disks and compact disks (CDs and CD-ROMs) as protective filters by covering the central openings and looking through the disk media,” write Fred Espenak and Jay Anderson of NASA. “However, the optical quality of the solar image formed by a floppy disk or CD is relatively poor compared to aluminized polyester or welder’s glass.”

We’ll be curating a gallery of eclipse photos from the internet, so if you take some, send them our way: brandon[at]earthlab.net.

See Also:

• How to See 93 Million Miles: Plan a Trip to a Total Solar Eclipse
• High Seas: Eclipse Cruise Gets Cosmic With Boredoms’ Drum Scrum
  
• May 29, 1919: A Major Eclipse, Relatively Speaking
• Tonight’s Lunar Eclipse: Last Chance Until 2010
• Total Eclipse of the Moon: Your Photos
• May 28, 585 B.C.: Predicted Solar Eclipse Stops Battle

Image: NASA.

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Google Reader feed, and green tech history research site; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 21 Jul 2009 | 7:02 pm

Upward jump in lab animal tests

The number of animals used in UK labs for scientific experiments is now more 3.7 million - an increase of 14% on 2007.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Jul 2009 | 6:15 pm

Should We Geoengineer the Climate?

More research is needed to make sure any of these schemes would work, meteorologists say.
Source: Livescience.com | 21 Jul 2009 | 5:48 pm

Wikipedia Teaches NIH Scientists Wiki Culture

The next time you read a health-related article on Wikipedia, it might have been improved through a new collaboration between the National Institutes of Health and the Wikimedia Foundation.

Ten experienced Wikipedia volunteers visited the NIH headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, last week to train the scientists there on how to use and contribute to the world’s de facto outboard brain. It was the first “Wikipedia Academy” to take place in the United States.

“One of our goals is to increase the scientists’ understanding of Wikipedia and the established practices and procedures that have evolved over the years,” said Frank Shulenberg, who organized the academy as head of public outreach for the Wikimedia Foundation. “They need some instructions about what’s going on and why Wikipedia culture is like it is.”

While the subject experts have epigenetics and infectious-disease outbreaks down cold, they don’t really know the complex social dynamics of the site’s thousands of contributors.

Wikipedia, by virtue of its massive and open collaboration process, is often seen as the best example of crowdsourcing. Thousands of people write, edit and source the articles that 300 million people a month look to for accurate information. The academy event aims to bring more subject experts to what has become the de facto storehouse for human knowledge.

To open-government advocates, NIH’s move represents an important step toward recognizing how to reach people online.

“NIH could have gone the typical route and warned the public against using unreliable sources for information, but they get it: That’s not going to happen,” wrote Matthew Barton at the Personal Democracy Forum. “Wikipedia is going to stay popular, so it’s vital that it provides correct information.”

In science, Wikipedia’s bigger issue might not be accuracy. As our own Thomas Goetz pointed out last year, the site doesn’t always have the most accessible articles on complex topics.

Still, having more people who actually know what they are talking about contributing to the site’s articles can’t be a bad thing.

“I think the main point is that [the NIH] recognizes what a great opportunity for doing outreach Wikipedia is,” Shulenberg said. “If you contribute to Wikipedia, you reach a large audience and we all want health-related information that’s reliable.”

See Also:

• Save Mind Uploading From Wikipedia Doom
• Why Does Wikipedia Suck on Science?
• A Wiki for the Planet: Clay Shirky on Open Source Environmentalism
• NIH Launches Undiagnosed Diseases Program
• NIH Delays Grant Comparing Amniotic, Embryonic, and Placental Stem …
• NIH’s Biodefense Lab Review Overlooked Risks of Dangerous Disease
• Liveblogging: Elias Zerhouni of NIH: A Senate Favorite

Image: A beautiful visualization of science-related Wikipedian activity from A Beautiful WWW.

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Google Reader feed, and green tech history research site; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 21 Jul 2009 | 5:03 pm

Solar Eclipse Draws in Thousands

While the solar eclipse has attracted large crowds, superstitions keep others at home.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 21 Jul 2009 | 5:00 pm

Babies Detect Different Emotions in Dogs, Music

Babies are able to recognize emotional cues long before they can speak.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 21 Jul 2009 | 5:00 pm

Tech 'has changed foreign policy'

Technology has forever changed the way the electorate communicates with politicians, says the UK prime minister.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Jul 2009 | 4:55 pm

Obama, Farm Industry Clash Over Antibiotics

After years of warnings that carelessly feeding antibiotics to farm animals would create drug-resistant superbugs, the federal government finally wants to crack down. The farm industry, however, has other plans.

Under the proposed Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, or PAMTA, newly-developed antibiotics couldn’t be given to farm animals unless they were sick. The casual use of already-established drugs would be restricted.

For people, that’s simple common sense. Doctors don’t hand out antibiotics as preventive measures, to be popped like vitamin C, because that would accelerate the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Having a few tough bugs survive in a patient who needed the drug is an inevitable downside, but cultivating those bugs in millions of already-healthy people is foolish.

But that’s not how it works on industrial U.S. farms, where antibiotics are routinely added to animal feed in order to encourage growth and prevent infections exacerbated by overcrowding and stress. About 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to healthy farm animals.

That’s turned U.S. farms into disease incubators for things like MRSA ST398, a new strain of drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Other types of drug-resistant staph infections already kill 18,000 Americans every year. The new strain, which appears to have evolved on Dutch farms and is spreading through U.S. pigs and into people, will only add to the toll.

Last year, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production concluded that “the present system of producing food animals in the United States is not sustainable and presents an unacceptable level of risk to public health.” Five of their 24 recommendations — including the top two — involved antibiotic use in farm animals. The Pew Commission was composed of national experts, not marginal activists. Other advocates of cutting back on farm antibiotics include the World Health Association, American Medical Association, American Public Health Association and the American Association of Pediatrics.

The Obama administration is taking their advice. On July 13, a Food and Drug Administration official testified in support of PAMTA at a Congressional committee. According to FeedStuffs Foodlink, a farm industry-supported news site, that support was vetted by the White House.

In the same article, the consensus that exists among public health experts is described as “years of debate on the risk” of emerging drug resistance, and the agriculture industry was left “nearly speechless with surprise.” The latter might be true, given the reluctance of past administrations to confront the issue. But surprised or not, as the New York Times reported of PAMTA last Monday, “the farm lobby’s opposition makes its passage unlikely.”

If they win, the farm lobby will have proved itself more powerful than the public interest.

Image: Friends of Family Farmers/Flickr

See Also:

• Swine Flu Ancestor Born on U.S. Factory Farms
• Swine Flu Genes From Pigs Only, Not Humans or Birds
• Another Swine Bug Raises Scientists’ Concerns

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 21 Jul 2009 | 4:54 pm

Human Stabbed a Neanderthal, Evidence Suggests

Remains of a Neanderthal show evidence he was killed by a modern human.
Source: Livescience.com | 21 Jul 2009 | 4:06 pm

Creation: Could have been racier

The trailer for Creation makes Charles Darwin sexy, but will that be enough to pull in the punters, asks Anna Pickard. Maybe they should have turned him into an action hero

There are so many plusses to the idea of Creation: The Movie. For a start, it brings Darwin to life as a fully-rounded person. More than that, by getting Paul Bettany to play him, Darwin is also very sexy. And making Darwin sexy is, for a generation who are used to thinking of him as old and with a ginormous beard, a very exciting step.

But then, there's also the opportunity to plug into both sides of a social, academic and religious argument that gets more and more heated by the day. Could they have made a perfect trailer that would attract both sides of the argument to see the film?

Well, maybe.

Because clearly, the best way to market this film would be to appeal to both the ready market of people who want to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species and the other side: people who believe that Darwin was some high-flying heretic with a mission to destroy everything sacred with help from some mysterious and powerful connections in publishing.

But that's a tall order. Those are diametrically opposite demographics. And yet you feel they might be on to something with the clips assembled here. The trailer-makers seem to be promising a film that reveals the creation of scientific theory as not just a collation of facts and findings but as a full struggle between science and religion. With Darwin's wife (Jennifer Connelly) representing religion

in a beautiful, somewhat floaty way. And armed with the whispery accent that comes as standard for American actors playing British women.

Meanwhile, Darwin is a dark, brooding force: troubled and pained. And while clearly Darwin was always going to be portrayed as somewhat scientific, images like this:

where Darwin and a primate are pulling the God-and-Adam pose from the Sistine Chapel, make you wonder if the argument is promising to be a little too polarised.

It seems like an interesting position from which to approach the subject, though, with the emphasis on the personal struggle between the accepted Christian take on creation and the gathering body of discoveries and work that led to the publication of The Origin of Species. Especially when you top it off with brilliant, audience-inflaming sentences such as, "You've killed God, sir!" Which is as dramatic and evocative a statement as one can imagine on the subject. And it comes from the mouth of Toby Jones.

Ah, Toby Jones. He's just brilliant. You may remember him from his critically-lauded portrayal of Truman Capote in the 2006 film Infamous. You may also remember him as being very short.

Weirdly, however, he's not really that short at all – 5ft 5in according to official sources, though online you'll always find someone claiming that they know better: "Nope sorry. He isn't that tall. He's like 5'4", maybe even less in Infamous," says one user of celebheights.com, as if Jones is taking method acting to an extreme by shrinking to fit certain roles.

Nevertheless he's looking quite short in this one. Maybe he's done his special shrinking trick for the role – which, in itself, might be a point. Something to do with natural selection, perhaps.

In fact, we're missing that element. If they really wanted to maximise its appeal to polar-opposite audiences, they could have done without the beautiful, meditative shots of a couple torn apart by intellectual anguish:

And more, say, heavily American, deep-voiced voiceovers that begin with "In a World", and then take things to ridiculously inflated extremes. "In a world where GAAAAD was commonly accepted as being the creador of the WORLD," they would begin, with a dramatic pause and then, "ONE MAN would declare his mission" – followed by a shot of Darwin cocking the barrel of some kind of rocket launcher, and some arse-kicking payoff.

But then, they would have had to give it a much punchier name. Do they still have time to register The Godstabber? Or is that a little racy for a film that is, essentially, about a man and his microscope?

• This article was amended on Wednesday 22 July 2009. The title of Darwin's work is The Origin of Species, not The Origin of the Species. This has been corrected.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 21 Jul 2009 | 3:36 pm

Steep rise in animal experiments in UK

Animal rights campaigners round on government as expansion in biomedical research triggers record increase in medical tests

The number of medical experiments involving animals has shown its largest rise since modern records began, the latest government figures reveal.

Nearly 3.7m experiments were performed on animals last year, a rise of 454,000 or 14% on the previous year, the Home Office said. The increase marks the greatest leap in animal use in medical research since 1986, when the government introduced new auditing procedures.

The growth in animal experiments reflects an expansion in biomedical research in Britain and is driven by advances in genetics and the development of new drugs that must be tested rigorously in monkeys before they are allowed to be given to humans. The experiments range from small procedures such as taking blood and tissue samples to invasive brain surgery and inducing incurable diseases such as Parkinson's and cancer. Substantial numbers of animals are used to test the safety of new drugs before they are allowed to be used in human trials.

Animal rights campaigners deplored the latest rise, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of landmark proposals to find alternatives to animals in medical research.

Judy MacArthur Clark, chief inspector of the Home Office animals scientific procedures inspectorate, said the rise reflected an increase in "ethically justified research" in Britain. "If the research is ethically justified and has funding, it's not our role to say you can't do it, we've used too many mice this year," she said.

More experiments on rodents and fish account for the vast majority of the rise and make up 97% of all experiments on animals. Of 197,000 more experiments on mice last year, most involve breeding genetically modified rodents to help scientists understand the role of individual genes in development and disease.

The figures reveal large falls in experiments on rats, domestic fowl, guinea pigs, rabbits and beagles, which together decreased by more than 40,000.

Britain has a longstanding policy that bans the use of great apes such as chimpanzees and gorillas in medical research, but the use of macaques and marmosets rose by more than 600 experiments, up 16%. This masks a reduction of more than half in experiments on marmosets and other new world primates, but the use of old world macaques in 1,000 more experiments, a 33% rise. Macaques have similar immune systems and physiology to humans and are increasingly being used to test advanced antibody-based drugs that target diseases with far more precision than older drugs.

Testing in monkeys has become more extensive after the disastrous clinical trial of an antibody drug at Northwick Park hospital in north London in 2006. The drug, which had been tested in primates, triggered a catastrophic immune reaction in the six trial participants which led to widespread organ failure.

Home Office inspectors investigated 45 cases where scientists had infringed their licences to do animal research. The most minor cases involved poor record keeping and retaining animals after licences had expired. Of the more serious cases, the worst occurred when mice in one study unexpectedly developed gangrene in their legs, causing greater suffering than the licence permitted. Two researchers involved in the study surrendered their licence before the inspectors' investigation was completed.

The figures were met with dismay by animal rights campaigners who rounded on the government and called for a concerted effort to reduce the number of animals used in medical research.

"With the scientific expertise this country has to offer we should have seen far greater progress to replace animals with more advanced techniques," said Dr Sebastien Farnaud of the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research. The organisation called on political parties to agree to a "roadmap to replacement" to drive the use of animals in research down.

The animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), said it was "profoundly disappointed" at the statistics and called on the government to be open about the fate of every animal used in experiments. "We have seen increases year on year in contradiction to public sentiment, but the numbers in this year's statistics are shocking by any standards," a spokesperson said.

The science minister, Lord Drayson, defended the figures and said the government was committed to reducing the use of animals in research where possible. "Britain has a high reputation for its standards of regulating research which uses animals. This work, described in today's report from the Home Office, is critical to the development of new medicines and increasing the level of understanding of diseases," he said.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 21 Jul 2009 | 3:27 pm

Raindrops Burst While in Mid-Fall

Scientists discover that most raindrops break up before hitting the ground.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 21 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

Duh! When Science Discovers the Obvious

How often do you read a science story and think to yourself, "Duh! Of course that's true. Why did they waste money studying that?"
Source: Livescience.com | 21 Jul 2009 | 2:57 pm

Ancient Theater Masks Rediscovered in Pompeii

Fifteen life-size plaster masks used in ancient Roman theaters are rediscovered.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 21 Jul 2009 | 2:55 pm

WATCH: Dogs Read Gestures Like Toddlers

Dogs recognize pointing gestures on a similar level as 2-year-olds.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 21 Jul 2009 | 2:30 pm

West Coast Tsunami Threat Higher than Thought

Study of ancient faults suggests potential tsunamis could be bigger than thought.
Source: Livescience.com | 21 Jul 2009 | 2:03 pm

U.S. Withheld Data on Dangers of Distracted Driving

Only a handful of states have passed laws banning driving while talking on cell phones or texting.
Source: Livescience.com | 21 Jul 2009 | 1:17 pm

BLOG: Car Alarms to Be Tapped for Emergencies

EU officials will soon be able to activate car alarms in the event of an emergency.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 21 Jul 2009 | 1:05 pm

Jupiter Smashed, Scar Shows

NASA confirms that Jupiter was likely struck by a comet, leaving a dark scar.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 21 Jul 2009 | 12:45 pm

Apollo astronauts bemoan state of U.S. space program

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. investment in the Apollo space program, which landed men on the moon, paid off handsomely, unlike the $100 billion plowed into the International Space Station, Apollo's pioneering astronauts said on Monday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 21 Jul 2009 | 11:54 am

Unidentified object punches Earth-sized hole in Jupiter

Australian man alerts Nasa to hole in planet's atmosphere caused by comet or asteroid crash

An amateur Australian astronomer looking through his backyard telescope has discovered that a large comet or asteroid has crashed into Jupiter, creating a hole the size of the Earth in the planet's atmosphere.

Anthony Wesley, 44, a computer programmer who lives in a small town outside the capital, Canberra, discovered a large scar on Jupiter when he was photographing the giant gaseous planet.

He tipped off Nasa about his discovery, and images taken by the US space agency's infrared telescope in Hawaii show a scar in the atmosphere near the south pole of the planet.

In a remarkable twist of fate, the discovery was made on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and the 15th anniversary of another large comet strike on Jupiter.

Wesley, who spends about 20 hours a week on his passion of watching and photographing Jupiter, spotted the strike using the telescope at the bottom of his garden in Murrumbatema at about 1am yesterday (4pm BST on Sunday).

But he almost missed making the discovery because he was watching the Open golf championship and the second Ashes test match. "I'm a keen golf watcher and unfortunately we were being flogged in the cricket," he told the Guardian. "I was imaging Jupiter until about midnight and seriously thought about packing up and going back to the house to watch the golf and the cricket. In the end I decided to just take a break and I went back to the house to watch Tom Watson almost make history.

"I came back down half an hour later and I could see this black mark had turned into view."

He recorded the moment in his observation log: "I noticed a dark spot rotating into view in Jupiter's south polar region [and] started to get curious," he said. "My next thought was that it must be either a dark moon ... or a moon shadow, but it was in the wrong place and the wrong size.

"By two o'clock I'd come back up to the house and was sending alerts to all the people I could think of that should be looking at this and especially the professional astronomers with specialised instruments for measuring this," he said.

Wesley emailed scientists at Nasa's jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, California. Using Nasa's infrared telescope facility at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, they gathered evidence indicating an impact.

"We were extremely lucky to be seeing Jupiter at exactly the right time, the right hour, the right side of Jupiter to witness the event. We couldn't have planned it better," said Glenn Orton, a scientist at the Pasadena lab.

"It could be the impact of a comet, but we don't know for sure yet," he said. "It's been a whirlwind of a day, and this on the anniversary of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Apollo anniversaries is amazing."

Wesley has been an ardent star-gazer since the age of 10 when he was given a small telescope. But over the past five years he has been in Jupiter's thrall. "It's one of my passions. It's such a dynamic planet, it's changing all the time. To take a photograph of this type, really it's a dream come true for me."

Leigh Fletcher, another Nasa scientist, told the New Scientist: "The impact scar we're seeing is about the same size as one of Jupiter's big storms ... That, I believe, is about the size of the Earth."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 21 Jul 2009 | 9:27 am