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'Corrective Genes' Closer Due To Enzyme ModificationScientists have re-engineered a human enzyme, a protein that accelerates chemical reactions within the human body, to become highly resistant to harmful agents such as chemotherapy.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm Smoking Increases Potential For Metastatic Pancreatic CancerSmoking has once again been implicated in the development of advanced cancer. Exposure to nicotine by way of cigarette smoking may increase the likelihood that pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma will become metastatic, according to new research.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm Game Utilizes Human Intuition To Help Computers Solve Complex ProblemsA new computer game prototype combines work and play to help solve a fundamental problem underlying many computer hardware design tasks.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm E-Noses: Testing Their Mettle Against Fly NosesScientists have developed a new system for comparing the sensory performance of electronic noses against that of the fly -- a breakthrough which should lead to improved e-nose performance.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm Wind Estimate 'Shortens' Saturn's Day By Five MinutesA new way of detecting how fast large gaseous planets are rotating suggests Saturn's day lasts 10 hours, 34 minutes and 13 seconds -- over five minutes shorter than previous estimates that were based on the planet's magnetic fields.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm When It Comes To Going Green, People Want Smaller Gains Now, Not Bigger Gains LaterPeople make environmental choices the same way they manage money, preferring smaller gains right away to bigger gains later, according to new research.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm Reprogrammed Role For The Androgen ReceptorThe androgen receptor -- a protein ignition switch for prostate cancer cell growth and division -- is a master of adaptability. When drug therapy deprives the receptor of androgen hormones, thereby halting cell proliferation, the receptor manages to find an alternate growth route. A new study demonstrates how.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm New Chlamydia Test Offers Rapid, Pain-free Test For MenA new urine test will allow doctors to diagnose chlamydia infection in men within the hour, improving the ability to successfully treat the infection on the spot and prevent re-transmission.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm Scientists Create Energy-burning Brown Fat In MiceResearchers have shown that they can engineer mouse and human cells to produce brown fat, a natural energy-burning type of fat that counteracts obesity. If such a strategy can be developed for use in people, the scientists say, it could open a novel approach to treating obesity and diabetes.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm Organic Food Not Nutritionally Better Than Conventionally-produced Food, Review Of Literature ShowsThere is no evidence that organically produced foods are nutritionally superior to conventionally produced foodstuffs, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm BLOG: Space Station SpottingA Twitter service guides our space producer to spot the space station from his backyard.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2009 | 6:05 am Energy giant Shell profits slump on weak oil prices (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 5:52 am Libya and Canada sign nuclear deal (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 5:40 am Newfound Bird Is Bald (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - Scientists have discovered a rare new bird species with a bald head.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 5:25 am 'Bald' bird a first for Asia in 100 years (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 5:22 am Beijing closing coal plants in environmental move (AP)AP - China has taken advantage of a drop in electricity demand due to the global financial crisis to speed up a campaign to close small coal-fired power plants and improve its battered environment, an official said Thursday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 4:15 am The Nation's weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 4:03 am Chimps born to appreciate musicA study of infant chimpanzees suggests that an appreciation of music is not a uniquely human trait.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 30 Jul 2009 | 3:39 am Jellyfish help to stir the oceanWith their umbrella-shaped bodies, jellyfish contribute to ocean mixing as they move around, researchers have found.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 30 Jul 2009 | 2:18 am Australian PM vows to create 50,000 'green' jobs (AP)AP - Australia's prime minister promised Thursday to create 50,000 "green" jobs and apprenticeships to combat climate change and unemployment simultaneously.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 2:08 am SpacemanThe UK spaceplane aiming to go to a new levelSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 30 Jul 2009 | 1:45 am Pakistan island sees light, puts wind-power to work (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 1:30 am What happened to Arab science fiction?Despite its many fantastical stories, Arab culture has produced few truly futuristic sci-fi works. Let's fill the gap When I was a child, I was an avid fan of science fiction. The Foundation and Dune series in particular were engrossing in their depiction of a human race trying to re-establish itself after upheaval. Despite its geeky stigma, sci-fi seemed to me a genre with a philosophical belief in the tenacity of humanity and the potential of the mind. I was disappointed to find that while Arabic and Middle Eastern literature seemed replete with fantastical anthologies such as One Thousand and One Nights where mystical creatures abound, there appeared to be a dearth of truly futuristic science fiction works rooted in Arab or Muslim culture. During Ramadan, it is customary for most Arabic TV channels to show high-budget historical dramas focusing on some revered warrior such as Khaled ibn-al-Walid (known as the Sword of God) or medieval soap operas outlining the shenanigans of those cheeky Muslim caliphs and their concubines during the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad or the Umayyad period in Andalucia. While rich in culture, history and characterisation, these works went over familiar ground and fostered an identity fixated on a charismatic past. It is understandable that in the absence of an Arab equivalent of a Neil Armstrong or Yuri Gagarin we must look for inspiring figures from the past, but this is part of a general malaise in a culture that harks back to the Golden Age when Arabs and Muslims were in the ascendancy, commanding an empire that stretched from India to Spain. The focus is on recapturing that, and not looking forward to a new modern incarnation. Add to this a sense of fatalism and helplessness inculcated by years of social and political stagnation and you have a recipe for suspended imagination; so little has changed in the Arab world over the past few decades that one could be forgiven for thinking that nothing ever will. Isaac Asimov once said that "true science fiction could not really exist until people understood the rationalism of science and began to use it with respect in their stories". As Khaled Diab highlighted recently in an article for Cif, there is a discernible suspicion of science in the region, particularly when it sits uncomfortably with faith. In terms of science fiction, the genre could be viewed as an extension of a "foreign" heritage with its roots in Darwinism – one at odds with a monotheist world view. Those that have managed to reconcile the two have attempted to, according to Islam Online, use science fiction as a da'wah (proselytising) tool. In one particular book the mathematical structure of the Quran and obscure religious scriptures help avert the disaster of a swelling sun, reinforcing that Islam is the "ultimate revelation". But this deprives science fiction of its inherently subversive potential; if there is a sense of despair and censorship, what better way to counter the former and circumvent the latter than engage in flights of fancy and imagination? To vicariously revolutionise and hope via a medium of fantasy? With Arab literature so focused on classical themes, an Orwellian allegory, for instance, would tackle the present and envision a future in a more clandestine fashion than a straightforward political attack. Sultana's Dream is an example of such critique. Written in 1905 by a Muslim feminist writer and social reformer who lived in British India, it is one of the earliest examples of feminist science fiction, and is a sort of gender-based Planet of the Apes where the roles are reversed and the men are locked away in a technologically advanced future. An indictment of the purdah system, it was much more than simplistic utopian thinking but a philosophically mature vision of a world where, following defeat in a crushing war, men succumbed to isolation in exhaustion and disillusionment with a world dominated by brute male force. It was also an extension of the author's frustration with the limitations imposed upon her by her own society. Another such vision is long overdue. So let's start with some forward-thinking paradigm-busting ourselves. I'll get the ball rolling: It is the year 2084 and an impoverished Saudi Arabia has run out of oil. After a period of reversion to decentralised Bedouin tribalism, a group of women has unlocked the secret to harnessing solar power and is winning back areas of the country by negotiating for land in exchange for solar energy, running their state in hippy-like communes. To be continued, below the line … guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 30 Jul 2009 | 1:00 am Mosquitoes deliver malaria 'vaccine' through bites (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 10:13 pm Torrential rain in China kills 66 since June (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 9:13 pm Newfound Bird Is BaldThe discovery of a new species in Laos marks the only known bald songbird in mainland Asia.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jul 2009 | 7:00 pm Patent Models Record Inventions in Miniature<< previous image | next image >>
From 1790 until 1870, U.S. patent law required inventors to submit actual physical models of their novel machines along with their drawings and descriptions. These miniature testaments to innovation — “not more than twelve inches square … neatly made” — are the subject of a new exhibition at Harvard University, Patent Republic. The display draws on the collection of Susan Glendening, a New York psychoanalyst by day and fervent collector by night. Seventy-five of her models are on display in Cambridge. The patent models have taken a strange and winding path from their original creation to Glendening’s collection. After the patent office stopped requiring models, it spent more than 50 years trying to figure out what to do with them. Before they were auctioned in 1925, mostly to Sir Henry Wellcome, a pharmaceuticals magnate, they had a variety of homes in the nation’s capital. They were stuffed anywhere space could be found in the patent office building, but eventually lost their spots. “Crowded out of the hallways, the models were put on display in a rented building. Early in the present century a wave of economy caused that practice to be abandoned,” reads a 1925 New York Times article. “For a while the old models were stored in a leaky tunnel near the House of Representatives’ office building.” Glendening wants to provide them with a much comfier home: her own. She plans to transform her mid-18th century house into a museum, as soon as she can round up some funding.  Collecting patent models is not for the faint of heart or thin of wallet. Most respectable models go for five figures. And the prize of her collection — the model of a “carbonizer” invented by Thomas Edison to create early electric light filaments — could fetch a much gaudier sum. “I’ve been offered a million dollars for it and I refused it,” Glendening said. From the safety pin to a precursor to the Bowflex, dish washers to a machine for cutting lozenges, Glendening’s collection reminds us that someone, at some time, had to dream up all the devices of modern life. “What I normally get from people when they see the collection is, ‘Oh, gosh! Everything had to be invented!’” Glendening said. It’s not just an item itself that has to be invented, but all the ancillary components and associated technologies. For example, the top photo shows the model for a “stop attachment for [the] roller skate.” The invention isn’t the skate itself, but the piece of metal at the back that allows you to slow down. Similar technology is still used today. Click through this gallery to see 14 more of these beautiful models. Images: Susan M. E. Glendening Susan M. E. Glendening is working toward establishing a museum as a permanent home for this model and her collection of over 250 patent models. The planned museum site is an 1844 federal house with a rich history, lush grounds and a breath taking view of the Hudson River. If you are interested in becoming involved in protecting these models, you can e-mail her at glendeningsusan@hotmail.com.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 29 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm Let private firms run space taxis, panel toldCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. government should leave the business of launching cargo and people into Earth orbit to private commercial space transporters, members of a presidential panel said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:34 pm Bob Geldof and Isaac Newton: which is which?One in 20 children think the Boomtown Rats singer discovered gravity. Let's put an end to this terrible confusion The results of a survey released this week revealed that one in 20 British children believe gravity was discovered by pop crusader Bob Geldof. Here, for the benefit of these children, and possibly their parents, is our cut-out-and-keep guide to not confusing Sir Isaac with Sir Bob. Bob Geldof KBEFamously Swore on television; hates poverty; looks homeless. Strengths Still alive. Likes Making poverty history. Dislikes Mondays. Politics Advocates fathers' rights and nuclear energy. Opposes the Euro. Is global poverty adviser to the Conservative party. Great works A few Boomtown Rats songs; Band Aid; Live Aid; Live 8; Peaches Geldof (co-authored) In his own words "I'm fairly lucky in that I've always looked like shite. If you were a pretty boy pop singer, it would wreck you, growing older." Sir Isaac NewtonFamously Discovered gravity under a tree. Strengths Maths; physics; astronomy; philosophy; theology. Likes Making gravity science. Dislikes Apples; people saying, "Don't mind him, an apple fell on his head"; being constantly associated with apples. Politics Elected as an MP in 1689. His only contribution seems to have been to suggest they close the window. Great works Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica; Opticks; The System of the World In his own words "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:10 pm Krakatoa's fiery eruptionMarco Fulle's pictures of Krakatoa capture the raw intensity of volcanic eruption
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:05 pm Bald-Headed, Pink-Faced Songbird DiscoveredThe "bubbling" bird has the distinction of being the only bald songbird in Asia.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:01 pm New Bald Bird Discovered in Laos
A rare bald songbird has been hiding out in the rocky limestone cliffs of central Laos. Dubbed the “bare-faced bulbul” because of its unusual feather-free head, the newly discovered species is the only example of a bald songbird in Asia and the first new type of bulbul reported in the last hundred years. It’s not clear how such a distinctive-looking bird escaped detection for so long, but the creature’s preference for rugged terrain probably played a role. The rocky limestone-dominated regions of Laos are generally uninhabitable by humans but home to a variety of unique animals, including new species of rabbit and rat discovered in the last decade. Biologist Robert J. Timmins of the Wildlife Conservation Society caught a glimpse in 1995 of what looked like a songbird with a bald head. He recorded the strange sighting in his field notebook, but omitted it from published account, because the idea of a bald bulbul seemed far-fetched. “RJT subsequently weathered a fair amount of good-natured ribbing on relating the sighting to skeptical colleagues,” wrote the researchers in a paper introducing the new bird, published July in the birding journal Forktail. Now, 13 years later, Timmins has been vindicated: Two more scientists spotted a small grey bird with an orange, featherless face and a distinctive song. Using recordings of the first animal’s call, the researchers attracted at least six more of the bizarre bald-faced birds. They captured one and sent it to a museum to compare with known species to confirm it is a new species, which the scientists named Pycnonotus hualon. “Bald songbirds are unusual in general, not only in Asia,” wrote conservation biologist Peter Clyne of the Wildlife Conservation Society. “While in some birds, such as the vultures, it probably evolved as a feature that enabled more efficient feeding, in many species it is more likely that baldness evolved as a means of display.” No one knows exactly why this particular bulbul went bald, but Clyne suspects its featherless face evolved as a way to attract mates. So take note, middle-aged men: Bald is beautiful, at least if you’re a bird. See Also:
Image: Iain Woxvold/University of Melbourne
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:00 pm Mosquito Bites Used to Deliver Malaria 'Vaccine'Using mosquitoes, scientists have created a delivery mechanism for a malaria "vaccine."Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 Jul 2009 | 4:30 pm Wikipedia blows secrets of Rorschach inkblotsThe online encyclopedia Wikipedia has become embroiled in a bitter row with psychologists after a Canadian doctor posted answers to controversial tests on the site. The Rorschach test is designed to give psychologists a window into the unconscious mind, but many now fear their patients will try to outwit them by memorising the "right" answers. The test, developed in 1921 by the Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach, comprises 10 inkblot images, which patients must look at and describe what they see. In some cases, focusing on tiny details around the edges of the images is seen as evidence of obsessive behaviour. Advocates of the Rorschach test say it can reveal underlying mental issues that patients themselves may not be aware of, but critics dismiss it as out-of-date and it is rarely used in the UK. The row erupted when hospital doctor James Heilman from Saskatchewan posted all ten inkblot plates on Wikipedia alongside the most common responses given to each. Heilman uploaded the images after becoming frustrated by a debate on the website as to whether a single Rorschach inkblot plate should be taken down. "I just wanted to raise the bar," he said. The move brought immediate condemnation from psychologists who signed on to complain that making the tests public renders them useless. "Making images available on the internet will make it obsolete and we will have lost a helpful tool," said one. Psychologists familiar with the Rorschach test say it is most valuable when patients describe the first thing that comes into their head on seeing the inkblots. Publishing the images and common reactions on the internet means patients are more likely to be familiar with the test and give considered, less helpful answers. Mike Drayton, a consultant clinical psychologist at Opus Psychology in Birmingham, said: "It completely compromises the validity of the test." The Rorschach inkblots have been published before, in the 1983 book Big Secrets, by William Poundstone, which gives details of how the test is administered. Tony Black, who used the Rorschach test on patients held at Broadmoor, the high-security psychiatric hospital in Berkshire, said while he was sceptical about the test, it was a mistake to publish the images and answers on the internet. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Jul 2009 | 3:04 pm The Real Twitpocalypse: Asteroid Alerts Come to Twitter
Been looking for a reason to join Twitter, but haven’t been able to quite take the plunge? Forget Shaq and William Gibson: Alerts about asteroids cruising near Earth have come to Twitter. @AsteroidWatch will let you know any time a space rock gets within a few lunar distances. Much more asteroid info will be distributed via a new NASA/JPL website. (Though if you want to know if a nuke is the best way to stop an asteroid, you’ll still need to come to Wired Science.) “Most people have a fascination with near-Earth objects,” Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a press release. “And I have to agree with them. I have studied them for over three decades and I find them to be scientifically fascinating, and a few are potentially hazardous to Earth.” The recent collision between a comet and Jupiter underscored the very real presence of possibly dangerous space objects in the solar system. The Twitter feed, @lowflyingrocks, already uses NASA’s raw data to let you know after an asteroid has passed the Earth. But the site tells you about every rock within 0.2 astronomical units — that’s more than 18 million miles — so you get a ton of updates. @AsteroidWatch will be choosier about the near-earth objects it tells you about. Only rocks that come within a scant 750,000 miles or so of Earth will earn a Tweet. With previous Twitter accounts, NASA employees have created voices for the various robots and machines that the agency operates. Some, like @MarsPhoenix, were cute and cuddly. Perhaps the proper voice for the near earth object warning system will be slightly more urgent and prone to profanity. Any kind of personality would be an improvement on @lowflyingrock’s robotic language. Its last Tweet went a little something like this: “2007 LL, ~220m-490m in diameter, just passed the Earth at 6km/s, missing by ~twenty-seven million, five hundred thousand km.” See Also:
Image: NASA/JPL 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 | 29 Jul 2009 | 2:55 pm New 'crisis satellites' launchedA rocket is launched from Kazakhstan carrying two UK-built satellites which will help monitor natural disasters.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jul 2009 | 1:51 pm Saturn's Day Five Minutes Shorter Than ThoughtA day on Saturn is five minutes shorter, according to new calculations.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 Jul 2009 | 1:00 pm BIG PIC: Amur Leopard Cubs Hit the RoadThree extremely rare Amur leopard cubs are on their way to zoos in the U.S. and the U.K.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 Jul 2009 | 1:00 pm Jellyfish Have Big Mixing Effect on the OceansSea creatures stir the world's oceans.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jul 2009 | 12:52 pm Jellyfish Mix Up Ocean WaterAs the jellyfish swims, water gets pulled along with the animal, seen as swirls of red or green dye that was injected into the water.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jul 2009 | 11:04 am Fight Fat With More Fat
The latest candidate for an obesity-fighting wonder drug is not what you’d expect: It’s fat. Adding fat sounds like a strange way to curb obesity, but scientists think boosting “brown fat” — a special kind of fat that burns calories to keep people warm — might bump up metabolism and help take off pounds. Now, researchers have figured out how to turn skin cells into brown fat that sucks up energy when transplanted into mice. They’re hoping a similar strategy could someday work in people. “Brown fat is one of the body’s natural defenses against obesity,” said cell biologist Bruce Spiegelman of Harvard Medical School, who co-authored the paper published Wednesday in Nature. “We’re trying to tap into a natural pathway involved in this kind of biology.” Previously, scientists thought only small mammals and newborn babies harbored brown fat. But in April, three different research teams reported the presence of metabolically active brown fat in adults, located on the front of the neck and around the spine. “It looks like it’s present in different amounts in various people,” said endocrinologist Francesco Celi of the National Institutes of Health, who was not involved in the research. Heavier people appear to have less brown fat, while slim folks have more. Scientists have speculated that increasing stores of the energy-burning fat might help maintain a proper weight, but until now, making brown fat was a mystery. Now, Spiegelman and colleagues have identified two proteins that act as molecular “switches” to turn on the production of brown fat. In the lab, the scientists forced young skin cells from both mice and humans to make these proteins, which then transformed the skin cells into what looks and acts like natural brown fat.
“The purpose of brown fat is to be able to burn energy upon request,” Celi said. “The classical experiment is placing a rodent in a cold room at 4 degrees Celsius. The animal is able to maintain its core temperature by burning energy, and the amount of energy that’s consumed goes up in a very substantial manner through the increased metabolism of brown adipose tissue.” Like natural brown fat, the engineered cells burned calories at an astonishing rate. When transplanted into mice, the artificial fat consumed even more energy than expected. “The engineered brown fat cells have same thermogenic program, but it’s not regulated by hormones the way the natural brown fat cells are,” Spiegelman said. Instead of needing to be activated by a specific chemical messenger, the engineered fat cells are always active. “They’re basically in the on position all the time.” Being stuck in the on position might not be a bad thing, Spiegelman said. It could mean that less of the engineered fat would be needed to boost metabolism and help people lose weight. “Now that we all know that brown fat can be engineered, and that adult humans have brown fat, the question is how much does it take to alter the metabolism of a human?” he said. The researchers see two ways their findings could translate into treatment for obesity: Either a person’s own cells could be used to make a brown fat implant, or a drug could be developed that turns on the production of brown fat inside the body. “If we could find chemical that turns this pathway on, that would be ideal,” Spiegelman said. Don’t expect a brown fat treatment anytime soon, though. Humans evolved to conserve energy, not waste it, and so far our clever bodies have managed to foil nearly all of scientists’ attempts to treat obesity. Even if researchers can find a safe way to make extra brown fat, Celi said, the body might compensate for lost energy by eating more or slowing down other aspects of metabolism. “It’s a very sound and solid study,” he said. “In the long run, this could be a strategy. But from this data to the clinic, there is a long, long time.” See Also:
Image 1: Flickr/a_soft_world. Image 2: Engineered brown fat cells/Courtesy of Shingo Kajimura.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 29 Jul 2009 | 11:02 am Jellyfish Are the Dark Energy of the OceansThe fluid dynamics of swimming jellyfish have provided a plausible mechanism for a once-wild notion: that marine animals, hidden from sight and ignored by geophysicists, may stir Earth’s oceans with as much force as its wind and tides. Called induced fluid drift, it involves the tendency of liquid to “stick” to a body as it moves through water — and a little bit of drift could add up quickly on a global scale. “The mere act of swimming implies that some water travels with the swimmer,” said CalTech engineer Kakani Katija, co-author of the study in Nature Wednesday. “Drift applies to all animals, to anything with a body.” That the mere motion of animals could play a profound role in water-column commingling was once considered absurd. The sea would surely absorb the force of a flapping fin, to say nothing of a phytoplankton’s flagellae. It was a basic principle of friction, applied to water. But in recent years, this consensus has sprung some leaks. When added up, winds and tides don’t quite provide enough energy to account for the amount of water-mixing observed in the seas. In 2004, a study found that a school of fish could cause as much turbulence as a storm. Other researchers soon suggested that ocean swimmers could account for the gap. Soon after that, ocean physicists measured enormous turbulence generated by a swarm of krill, a crustacean considered too small to have meaningful mixing effects.
Missing from their equation, however, was a physical explanation for how tiny forces could avoid being swallowed by the friction of the sea. One possibility, originally proposed by Charles Darwin’s grandson, also named Charles, was that the act of swimming created pressure differentials that pulled water along with a body, an invisible suitcase to be unpacked along the way by cross-currents. “As a body moves in a fluid, a high-pressure field is created in front of the body, and a low-pressure field behind. Because fluid moves from high to low pressure, the fluid that’s adjacent to the rear of the body moves along with it,” said Katija. “You get a permanent displacement of the water.” Katija and CalTech bioengineer John Dabiri have provided the first direct observation of this phenomenon. Using fluorescent dyes and underwater video cameras, they’ve made visible the invisible, producing videos of swimming jellyfish trailed by the water they came from. If the video seems like an infinitesimal drop in the bucket compared to winds or tides, consider that most of the ocean — excepting the top 300 feet or so — is so placid that a couple hand-held kitchen mixers could stir a cubic mile of it. According to Katija and Dabiri, induced fluid drift should be caused by any swimming animal. Their next task is to verify that it does, and to put numbers to how much water is moved by each animal, how it mixes, how the figures vary by body shape and size and population density. Future findings could have a profound influence on climate models, which do not now account for this so-called biogenic mixing. If swimming generates tide-scale forces, then “it has an impact on global climate. This is a rather novel twist to the whole climate story,” said William Dewar, a Florida State University oceanographer. “How one would extend existing models to include a biosphere mixing input is not clear, largely because no-one has spent much time thinking about it.” See Also:
Citations: “A viscosity-enhanced mechanism for biogenic ocean mixing.” By Kakani Katija & John O. Dabiri.. Nature, Vol. 460, No. 7255, July 29, 2009. “A fishy mix.” By William K. Dewar. Nature, Vol. 460, No. 7255, July 29, 2009. Video: K.Katija/J.Dabiri Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes, Wired Science on Twitter.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 29 Jul 2009 | 11:01 am Could Earth Be Hit, Like Jupiter Just Was?A recent asteroid collision on Jupiter is an eerie reminder that earth can get walloped too.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jul 2009 | 11:01 am Jellyfish May Affect Climate by Stirring OceansJellyfish pulsating through the oceans could actually influence Earth's climate.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 Jul 2009 | 11:00 am Spacewalkers complete Japan's laboratory complexCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A pair of spacewalking astronauts put the finishing touches on Japan's International Space Station research lab Monday during a fifth and final outing before the visiting shuttle Endeavour departs.Source: Reuters: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 10:55 am BLOG: T. Rex Blood, Bone Protein ID'dTraces of protein from blood and bone are found in T. Rex remains.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 Jul 2009 | 10:40 am Organic food is no healthier, study findsLONDON (Reuters) - Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over ordinary food, according to a major study published Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 10:29 am Swine flu 'hits pregnant harder'Pregnant women are four times more likely to need hospital treatment for H1N1 swine flu, US data suggests.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jul 2009 | 10:22 am Overdose Epidemic: Not Just for CelebritiesMichael Jackson's death spotlights a growing problem with prescription drugs.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jul 2009 | 10:21 am FDA: Don't Worry About Mercury in TeethMercury tooth fillings do not pose a health risk to those who have them, FDA says.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jul 2009 | 10:19 am BLOG: Shark Bites Woman Bites Shark HuntersA shark tore into her foot in 2004; now she works to protect the animals.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 Jul 2009 | 8:30 am Antikythera clockwork computer may be even older than thoughtNew detective work suggests that the ancient mechanism for simulating planetary motions and predicting lunar eclipses was built in the 2nd century BC I thought my capacity for sheer jaw-dropping amazement at the Antikythera mechanism had been well and truly exhausted – until last night. The puzzling instrument is a clockwork computer from ancient Greece that used a fiendishly complex assembly of meshed cogs to simulate the movement of the planets, predict lunar eclipses and indicate the dates of major sporting events. The clockwork technology in the device was already known to be centuries ahead of its time, but new evidence suggests that the enigmatic machine is even older than scientists had realised. "It is the most important scientific artefact known from the ancient world," said Jo Marchant, who has written a compelling book on the find called Decoding the Heavens. "There's nothing else like it for a thousand years afterwards." First, a quick recap. The Antikythera mechanism was discovered by sponge divers in 1901 who chanced upon the wreck of a Roman vessel off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. The ship was filled with bronze statues, pottery and glassware – booty that had been plundered from across the ancient Greek world. At first no one noticed the corroded lump of cogs among the treasures, but the mechanism has since attracted the, at times, obsessive interest of a small group of scientists. What we now know about the mechanism and its purpose is a fascinating tale of scientific rivalry, low-down skulduggery and eventual glory. There is much still to learn about where the machine came from, who made it and what it was for, but the best guess seems to be that it was more must-have executive toy than useful gadget. It modelled the state-of-the-art astronomy of the time: a universe with the Earth at the centre with planets following circular orbits that included apparent wobbles called epicycles. The mechanism was probably not used for navigation but perhaps served more as a beautiful representation of an ordered, clockwork universe. "Something to elevate the spirit and get closer to God or the true meaning of things," as Marchant put it during a talk at the Royal Institution in London last night. So what about the new stuff? Research from Prof Alexander Jones of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York, which has yet to be published, suggests that rather than dating from the 1st century BC the Antikythera mechanism may in fact have been constructed in the preceding century. The new data concerns the four-year Olympiad dial, which has the names of significant Greek games etched into it – Isthmia, Olympia, Nemea, Pythia and Naa (plus one other that hasn't been deciphered). The first four were major games known throughout the ancient world, but the Naa games, held near Dodona in northwest Greece, were a much more provincial affair that would only have been of local interest. "One possibility is that it was made by or for somebody in Naa," said Marchant, who described the clockwork computer on the Guardian's Science Weekly podcast last year. This also helps to pin down the date because the Romans took over that region in the 2nd century BC. A Greek-inscribed gadget like this, reasons Jones, would not have been made after the Romans took charge. Jo Marchant's book Decoding the Heavens will be published in paperback on 6 August. It is among the six books shortlisted for this year's Royal Society Science Book Prize guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Jul 2009 | 8:26 am Seasonal weather forecasting: Still uncertain despite leaps in technologyLong-range forecasts are limited by the chaotic nature of weather systems Weather forecasting has been transformed by the advent of Earth-observing satellites, leaps in computing power and more advanced models of the atmosphere and oceans, but it remains a business built on uncertainty. When the Met Office announced in April its much-criticised seasonal forecast for the summer, it declared a 65% probability that temperatures would be above average, and that rainfall would be near or below the average for the time of year. That the weather has arguably failed to co-operate does not mean the Met Office was wrong to say we were "odds on for a barbecue summer". The forecast amounts to little more than an educated guess that the summer will be warmer and drier than usual. In recent years the Met Office has extended its traditional weather forecasts to include predictions of climate change over the coming decades and even centuries. Seasonal forecasts began in earnest in the winter of 2005-06, correctly foreseeing a particularly frigid spell over Europe. This summer's seasonal forecast was created using a relatively new technique called ensemble forecasting. It works by plugging weather data into a computer and running the forecasting programme tens of times, in this case 41, to produce an average – and it is hoped more realistic – forecast. For each run, the weather data are varied slightly to account for errors in measurements from satellites and weather stations. The weather depends strongly on sea surface temperatures, but the accuracy of a forecast is diminished by the inherent chaos of weather systems. As forecasters look further and further ahead, the chaotic behaviour of the atmosphere makes predictions less and less reliable. The seasonal forecasts from the Met Office typically look five to six months ahead. So what is the value of seasonal forecasts? For one, they help businesses affected by the weather to plan ahead. Winter temperatures affect the price at which gas is traded, and the demand from homes and businesses. Forecasts of heavy rainfall alert emergency services to prepare for floods. The Met Office produces bespoke forecasts for some businesses on a commercial basis. Climate change is another reason such forward-looking forecasts are desirable. As the atmosphere warms, we can expect more extreme weather events, including heatwaves and flash floods, which may be picked up in advance by seasonal forecasts. The Met Office recently published its seasonal forecast for the coming winter, in which it says there is a likelihood of a wetter and warmer winter ahead. In September, it will add probabilities to the forecast that will reflect its confidence in the prediction. The weather may not match the forecast, but just as a loaded dice will not always land on a six, it is still worth knowing what the chances are. Seasonal forecasts are still in their infancy, but they are likely to improve considerably as technology and understanding of the atmosphere and oceans improves. The Met Office's four-day forecast is now as accurate as the one-day forecast was 20 years ago. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Jul 2009 | 7:41 am Panel backs NASA bid for bigger shuttle budgetCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The United States needs to boost NASA's budget by $1.5 billion to fly the last seven shuttle missions and should extend International Space Station operations through 2020, members of a presidential panel reviewing the U.S. human space program said on Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 29 Jul 2009 | 7:24 am Organic 'has no health benefits'Organic food is no healthier than conventionally produced food, a large independent review has concluded.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jul 2009 | 7:22 am Let's Talk About Rectal Cancer, Shall We?There is a new attitude that protecting your life is more important than protecting your sensibilities.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jul 2009 | 7:02 am Politician Nixes HIV/AIDS StudiesFederal grants for studies designed to better understand the spread of HIV/AIDS called wasteful spending.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jul 2009 | 6:46 am Tanning Beds as Lethal as Mustard Gas, ArsenicExperts view tanning beds as a top cancer risk, deeming them as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 Jul 2009 | 6:45 am Toxic Pollen, Nectar Could Sting BeesA powerful toxin is not only threatening bee populations, but also the nation's food supply.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 Jul 2009 | 6:30 am Sharp view of 'Orion's shoulder'The Very Large Telescope facility in Chile takes the sharpest pictures yet of the Orion star Betelgeuse.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:51 am Confirmed: Tanning Beds Cause CancerGroup raises warning of tanning beds from "probably carcinogenic to humans" to "carcinogenic to humans."Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:45 am 50 Percent of Doctors Use WikipediaA survey in April found that 50 percent of doctors turn to Wikipedia for medical info.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jul 2009 | 5:33 am A fossil records the oldest known creature to live in the treesA 260-million-year-old fossil is oldest known creature to live in the trees, according to scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jul 2009 | 4:51 am 'Barcode' to help identify plantsScientists agree on a standard DNA barcode for plants, allowing species to be identified more quickly and easily.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jul 2009 | 4:35 am
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The fat is brown because it contains extra blood vessels and mitochondria, the energy factories of the cell. But unlike most cells, which take up glucose and turn it into chemical energy, brown fat sucks up glucose and generates heat instead.