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Health Benefits Of Physical Activity More Pronounced In WomenA long-term study of over 8,700 middle-aged men and women provides some of the first race- and gender- specific data on the cholesterol effects of physical activity, with the interesting result that women, particularly African-American women, experience greater benefits in their cholesterol levels as a result of exercise than men.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 9:00 pm Heart Failure: Women Different From Men; Absence Of Women In Clinical Trials Hinders Development Of Tailored TreatmentsStriking differences in the risk factors for developing heart failure (HF) and patient prognosis exist between men and women. Men and women may also respond differently to treatment, raising concerns about whether current practices provide the best care and reinforcing the urgency for sex-specific clinical trials for HF, according to a new review article.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 9:00 pm Crashing Comets Not Likely The Cause Of Earth's Mass ExtinctionsA recent likely comet collision on Jupiter caused a minor sensation, but new research shows that similar impacts on Earth are most likely not responsible for any of the planet's mass extinctions, nor have they been responsible for more than one minor extinction event.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 9:00 pm Assisted Reproductive Techniques Alter Expression Of Genes Important For MetabolismAssisted reproductive techniques alter the expression of genes that are important for metabolism and the transport of nutrients in the placenta of mice. The results underscore the need for greater understanding of the long-term effects of new assisted reproductive techniques in humans.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 9:00 pm Mines Could Provide Geothermal EnergyMine shafts on the point of being closed down could be used to provide geothermal energy to local towns. The method engineers have developed makes it possible to estimate the amount of heat that a tunnel could potentially provide.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 9:00 pm Got Zinc? New Zinc Research Suggests Novel Therapeutic TargetsEveryone knows that vitamins "from A to zinc" are important for good health. Now, a new research study suggests that zinc may be pointing the way to new therapeutic targets for fighting infections. Specifically, scientists found that zinc not only supports healthy immune function, but increases activation of the cells (T cells) responsible for destroying viruses and bacteria.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 9:00 pm High Calcium Level In Arteries May Signal Serious Heart Attack RiskResearchers may be able to predict future severe cardiac events in patients with known, stable coronary artery disease using coronary calcium scoring, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm Reexamination Of T. Rex Verifies Disputed Biochemical RemainsA new analysis of the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) that roamed Earth 68 million years ago has confirmed traces of protein from blood and bone, tendons, or cartilage. The findings is the latest addition to an ongoing controversy over which biochemical remnants can be detected in the dinosaur.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm Genetic Link To Age-related Cataracts UncoveredScientists have discovered the first gene associated with the formation of age-related cataracts, a leading causes of blindness.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm Warmer Environment Means Shorter Lives For Cold-blooded AnimalsTemperature explains much of why cold-blooded organisms such as fish, amphibians, crustaceans, and lizards live longer at higher latitudes than at lower latitudes, according to new research.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm Shuttle astronauts eye Friday landing (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 4:38 am The Nation's weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 4:31 am Journal retracts study that claimed to make sperm (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 4:16 am Medvedev in Central Asia to bolster Russian clout (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 3:55 am Space Shuttle Endeavour to Land Today (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - The seven astronauts aboard the shuttle Endeavour are hoping for clear skies over Florida today as they prepare to land after a marathon flight to the International Space Station.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 3:16 am China accepts 1st environment lawsuit against govt (AP)AP - A court in southwest China has accepted the country's first lawsuit filed by an environmental group against a local government, a member of the group said Friday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 1:57 am Shuttle aims for Friday morning landing in Florida (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 31 Jul 2009 | 1:26 am Fish for dinner: Overfishing easing in some areas (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 11:31 pm 'Suicide' Genes Help Slow Ovarian Tumor Growth in Mice (HealthDay)HealthDay - THURSDAY, July 30 (HealthDay News) -- Treatment with "suicide" genes slowed ovarian tumor growth in mice and may one day offer a way to treat late-stage ovarian cancer in women, U.S. scientists say.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 9:48 pm NY taxpayers to pay donors for stem cell studies (AP)AP - Hanqi Miao said she wanted to donate her eggs to help infertile couples reproduce, but she acknowledged the money is good, too: She said she'll be paid about $5,000.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 9:23 pm Endeavour shuttle ready to landThe space shuttle Endeavour is set to return to Earth after a 16-day mission to the International Space Station.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 30 Jul 2009 | 7:27 pm Scientists Drill a Mile Into Active Deep Sea Fault Zone
In the first deep sea drilling expedition designed to gather seismic data, scientists have successfully drilled nearly a mile beneath the ocean floor into one of the world’s most active earthquake zones.
Researchers aboard the drilling vessel Chikyu — meaning “planet Earth” in Japanese — used a special technology called riser drilling to penetrate the upper portion of the Nankai Trough, an earthquake zone located about 36 miles southeast of Japan. By collecting rock samples and installing long-term monitoring devices, the geologists hope to understand how stress builds up in subduction zones like Nankai, where the Philippine Sea plate plate is sliding beneath the island of Japan.
“One of the key benefits is the pressurized mud keeps the wall rock from collapsing on the drilling pipe, which allows you to drill deeper and with better control,” geologist Timothy Byrne of the University of Connecticut wrote in an e-mail. “For example, nearly perfectly vertical holes or steeply inclined holes can be drilled,” wrote Byrne, who co-led the project. Using a riser also makes it easier to send core samples and cuttings, or small chips of rock collected during drilling, back up to the surface. The Nankai Trough last ruptured twice in 1944 and 1946, generating earthquakes greater than magnitude 8 that shook the region and caused deadly tsunamis. Since then, the two plates have continued to move, but the boundary between them has been locked, causing pressure to build. “We know that a locked fault is not a quiet thing, but we don’t quite understand why,” said geologist Kelin Wang of the Geological Survey of Canada, who was not involved in the research. “When we understand what is meant by locking, we can understand how energy is building up for the next event.”
The Nankai project is part of an international effort called the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, designed to investigate a variety of scientific questions through drilling. The IODP chose to drill for seismic data in Nankai because of the region’s history of recent earthquakes and the accessible location of the rupture zone. The drilling is not powerful enough to trigger an earthquake. What is learned in Japan will help scientists understand other earthquake-prone plate boundaries, such as the Cascadia subduction zone, which extends along the Pacific coast from British Columbia to Northern California “For us in North America, the good news is that the Nankai subduction zone is strikingly similar to ours,” Wang said. Both zones are hotter and accumulate more sediment than average. “By studying Nankai, we North Americans can actually benefit pretty directly from the project. It’s almost as if we are drilling our own subduction zone, because we’ll see a lot of the same things.” The first drilling and sampling operations in Nankai began on May 12 and are expected to conclude on August 1. After the initial drilling stage, scientists lowered various gauges and logging instruments into the hole to measure temperature, stress, water pressure and rock permeability. Once they gather enough data, the scientists will prepare the hole for future installation of long-term monitoring equipment. See Also:
Image 1: Riser aboard Chikyu vessel, JAMSTEC/IODP. Image 2: D. Sawyer, JOI/USSAC/IODP. Video: JAMSTEC/IODP.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 30 Jul 2009 | 5:27 pm Wanted: Volunteers to grin for BritainA public experiment designed to send waves of smiles across the country hopes to banish the washed-out summertime blues Thousands of people are being sought to grin their way through next week as part of an ambitious attempt to lift the nation's spirits. Volunteers will be asked to try out one of several strategies designed to make themselves more cheerful in the hope that their new-found glee spreads to those around them. The five-day-long experiment is thought to be the first to investigate whether some techniques for boosting jollity are better than others. "If someone is cheerful, they tend to cheer up those around them," said Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire. "If we can get enough people, perhaps we cheer up the whole UK. It's a mad idea, but it's worth a go," he said. Wiseman is hoping to recruit at least 5,000 people to take part in the experiment which begins on Monday. After completing an online happiness survey, participants will be shown one of four videos describing a common mood-enhancing technique. One urges volunteers to force themselves to grin as they go about their daily routine. Another suggests they perform random acts of kindness, such as giving money to the homeless. The two other mood-boosting videos encourage people to focus on something that went well in the past 24 hours, or to express gratitude for something good in their life. Those taking part in the experiment at www.ScienceOfHappiness.co.uk will be asked to rate their mood before and after the experiment by answering a range of psychological questions. From previous studies, Wiseman has highlighted several tips to make people more cheerful. They include meeting up with old friends, exercising regularly and avoiding the news. A review of happiness research by Sonja Lyubomirsky at the University of California, Riverside, found that being cheerful made people more sociable, improved their relationships with others and even boosted their immune system. 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 | 5:05 pm How God propelled Stephen Hawking into the bestsellers listTim Radford suspects divine intervention was partly responsible for the miraculous success of A Brief History of Time A new book is a bit like a baby universe. The moment of conception is always obscure and its birth uncertain. Then it bursts into the public consciousness and either undergoes swift collapse or experiences a brief, hectic period of runaway inflation before settling down to steady expansion and a continuously cooling reception: either shining on library shelves or surviving as cold, dark matter on the remainder pile. Cosmology books were once especially vulnerable to early failure. Before 1965 – with the discovery of echoes of the big bang in the form of cosmic background radiation – they contained about as much scientific authority as the Book of Genesis, and made their case with considerably less conviction. Even after the confirmation in 1965 that the universe must indeed have experienced a beginning, cosmology books tended to be short-lived. There has been one notable exception. In 1988, a Cambridge physicist became a publishing phenomenon. He wrote a book that stayed in the Sunday Times bestseller list for 237 weeks. He became a household name, he appeared in The Simpsons and in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and he sold six million copies in hard covers of a book that comedians would claim was the greatest unread book of all time. A Brief History of Time went through several versions, and there are an estimated nine million copies in circulation altogether, but I have once again picked up the first edition: the one with a foreword by Carl Sagan. The author is given as a certain Stephen W. Hawking. The W has long since disappeared from the title pages: there is only one Stephen Hawking. I tried to make sense of its phenomenal success at the close of 1988, and have returned to the theme two or three times since then. And the answer is: I still don't know. I can't explain why it sold millions long before it went into paperback, but then none of us really knows why this universe has been successful enough to spawn galaxies, supernovae, black holes and humans. It depends on the initial conditions, and so, I suppose, did the success of A Brief History of Time. Let us leave aside the charismatic nature of the book's creator, and the compelling mix of sympathy, awe and respect connected with his enduring illness. First, he addressed the great universal question: why are we here? In 1988, most people who were prepared to read cosmology books already knew that the universe had experienced a beginning, and might very well come to an end. Thanks to the steady attrition of journalism, books, radio and television programmes, they had got the hang of a few assorted facts: that light could somehow condense into matter; that there was such a thing as antimatter; that space could expand, even if there was nothing it could expand into; that stars could collapse into black holes; that gravity was a very strange thing; that quantum mechanics was not only really weird, but also weirdly real; that there were some crazy things out there still to be discovered, like cosmic string and magnetic monopoles; and that there might be something puzzlingly special about the universe, since it had produced the conditions for intelligent life. But it was difficult to reduce these things to one big story with a cracking title. Steven Weinberg did it in 1977 with his wonderful The First Three Minutes. Eleven years later, Hawking came along with A Brief History of Time. It is true that he came along in a motorised wheelchair, driven by the pressure of one finger, and spoke through a voice synthesiser, but if he had written a third-rate book with a second-rate title, nobody would have paid much attention. In fact he wrote a sufficiently good book with an excellent title and he came along at exactly the right time, because by the close of the 1980s, the realisation was dawning on hundreds of millions of us that science had a great story to tell. Scientists had begun the exploration of the nine planets, had identified and manipulated DNA, eliminated smallpox and begun the campaign to eradicate polio, turned vast corporate computers into household toys, explained the mechanisms that created the continents, and introduced a timeline for creation. And then along came a man in a wheelchair with a great title, a gift for laconic statements, a decent prose style and a reputation for knowing a great deal about black holes – rather thrilling things that might or might not exist. This cocktail of friendly scholarship and classy narration would certainly have got the book off to a good start. Throw in a few, admirably sparing references to Hawking's physical constraints ("I started to think about black holes as I was getting into bed. My disability makes this a slow process, so I had plenty of time") and you have extra momentum. But the thing that really lit the blue touchpaper, I now suspect, was all those references to God. Thanks to the Dawkins Effect, atheism has seemingly become the norm in science. One forgets that, 21 years ago, Church of England was the default tick on the census form and that most people would have experienced some kind of religious education. Carl Sagan's introduction to the first edition identifies the conjuring trick the book so adroitly performs: "Hawking is attempting, as he explicitly states, to understand the mind of God. And this makes all the more unexpected the conclusion of the effort, at least so far: a universe with no edge in space, no beginning or end in time, and nothing for a Creator to do." There, that's my thesis. Profound theme, good narrative style, great title and accidentally perfect timing, plus a bit of divine help and of course a lot of media attention. Those are the initial conditions for a bestseller, certainly, but nine million copies? That's the real puzzle. Anyone got a better idea? Next month we'll be relaxing with some short, sympathetic and cerebral summer reading: Imagined Worlds by Freeman Dyson 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 | 5:05 pm Tech Smoothes Way to Cheaper ElectronicsScientists have developed reusable silicon templates that may lead to cheaper, more efficient technology.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2009 | 5:00 pm Bright Spot on Venus Stumps ScientistsBright spot appears in Venus' clouds; cause unknown.Source: Livescience.com | 30 Jul 2009 | 3:54 pm Bloodhound diaryPilot will attempt land speed record in 'rocket car'Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 30 Jul 2009 | 3:30 pm Nap Time! One-third of Americans Do ItA new survey reveals who is most likely to take naps.Source: Livescience.com | 30 Jul 2009 | 2:42 pm Comets From Edge of Solar System Unlikely to Hit EarthLong-period comets found to come from inner Oort Cloud, unlikely cause of past mass extinctions.Source: Livescience.com | 30 Jul 2009 | 2:05 pm Saving Fish is Possible, Unless They’re Past the Tipping Point
Just a few years after scientists warned of impending ocean apocalypse, a handful of simple management tools have pulled some of Earth’s fisheries back from the edge of collapse, according to a review of global fish populations and catch data. But though the big picture is brighter than before, many of the details remain dark. Some scientists say certain populations may hit “tipping points” beyond which recovery is practically impossible. “In most cases, when you reduce fishing pressure enough, the stock rebounds. But there’s a breaking point beyond which the system has changed so much that it may not recover,” said Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Canada’s Dalhousie University. “The longer you wait to fix a situation, the harder it becomes.” Three years ago, Worm said Earth’s ocean ecosystems were on the verge of collapse. Nearly one-third of fished species had already been critically depleted. The rest would follow by mid-century. In a paper published Thursday in Science, a Worm-led team of fisheries experts updated those findings, providing the most comprehensive analysis to date of global fisheries. The findings are mixed.
In five of 10 well-studied regions — Iceland, Newfoundland-Labrador, the Northeast U.S., Southeast Australia, and the California Current — fishing pressures have on average become less intense. One-third of the all fish populations have been steered away from imminent doom, and appear to be recovering. Their ecosystems are no longer fast-tracked for collapse. The solutions were relatively simple: abandon destructive fishing techniques like longlining and bottom trawling, reduce catches, put some waters off-limits, and give fishermen an economic reason to not overfish. New solutions didn’t need to be invented. From those perspectives, the new study is hopeful. But looked at another way, the numbers are grim. There are more collapsed fish populations now than any other time in recorded history. Even within those less-pressured regions, many individual species are threatened. Two-thirds of all stocks need to be rebuilt, and half of those are still being overfished. Some scientists warn that the rebuilding needs to happen now. Pushed too far, some species simply won’t be able to recover, despite our best efforts. They hit a population-level tipping point. It’s hard to know when it will happen, or what the consequences will be. “Some populations that we’ve tried to rebuild haven’t recovered at the rate we expected. It’s not necessarily the case that we can rebuild all these populations,” said Ellen Pikitch, a marine conservation biologist at Stony Brook University who was not involved in the study. “We don’t know where that threshold lies for most species on the planet. But we do know that if you push a population too hard, you can’t expect it to come back.”
It’s not known why cod recovered before and not now. It’s possible their numbers fell below some critical density needed to find mates at a population-sustaining rate. Other fish may be eating their young. Another species could have taken over their ecological niche. Even more worrisome is the possibility that tipping one fish species will set off a chain of reactions that causes an entire ecosystem to flip from one state to another. Known as a critical regime shift, this phenomenon has only recently been described by ecologists, who are now trying to understand it. The shifts involve interactions between multiple species, and are almost impossible to predict. In the coral reef ecosystem of the Caribbean, for example, overfishing of algae-eating reef fish allowed algae-eating sea urchin populations to explode. The reefs themselves remained healthy, but when a disease destroyed the urchins, algae soon dominated. It choked out the coral, and the reef system collapsed. Another overfishing-linked shift may be happening in the Sea of Japan, now inundated by giant, poisonous jellyfish. Overfishing removed their predators. Commercial fishing has suffered, and Japanese fishermen are now trying to market what was once considered an unpalatable goo. “Once I was talking about eating our way down marine food webs with Daniel Pauly” — director of the University of British Columbia’s fisheries center — “and he said, ‘One day we’ll be eating jellyfish.’ It was meant to be a joke,” said Pikitch. “Then we started seeing jellyfish in stores.” See Also:
Images: 1. WikiMedia Commons 2. Trophy fish catches off the Florida Keys, 1957-2007, courtesy of the Monroe County Library. Citation: “Rebuilding Global Fisheries.” By Boris Worm, Ray Hilborn, Julia K. Baum, Trevor A. Branch, Jeremy S. Collie, Christopher Costello, Michael J. Fogarty, Elizabeth A. Fulton, Jeffrey A. Hutchings, Simon Jennings, Olaf P. Jensen, Heike K. Lotze, Pamela M. Mace, Tim R. McClanahan, Cóilín Minto, Stephen R. Palumbi, Ana M. Parma, Daniel Ricard, Andrew A. Rosenberg, Reg Watson, Dirk Zeller. Science, Vol. 325, Issue 5940, July 30, 2009. Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes, Wired Science on Twitter.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 30 Jul 2009 | 1:32 pm In Vivo Video: Immune Cells Munch on Bad BacteriaFor the first time, medical researchers make movies inside a living animal of attack by immune cells on bacteria. Hemocytes (green) rapidly engulf E.coli (red) in this time-lapse microscope movie.Source: Livescience.com | 30 Jul 2009 | 12:56 pm Fresh hope for world's fisheriesThere is fresh hope that the world's depleted fisheries can be saved from collapse, say researchers.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 30 Jul 2009 | 12:26 pm Total Amateurs Discover 'Green Pea' GalaxiesTiny galaxies may provide clues to how stars in the earliest galaxies formed.Source: Livescience.com | 30 Jul 2009 | 12:18 pm 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 | 30 Jul 2009 | 12:11 pm Big Fat Star Sheds Pounds Like CrazyNew views of the supergiant star Betelgeuse revealed clues about how huge stars lose their mass in vast plumes of gas.Source: Livescience.com | 30 Jul 2009 | 12:10 pm SLIDE SHOW: DNA Reveals Whale Shark HabitatsSmall genetic differences among whale sharks indicate that their population is global.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2009 | 12:00 pm Doomsday Comet Less Likely, Calculations ShowRest easy: Comets are unlikely to wipe us out, according to new research.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2009 | 12:00 pm Nanotech gene therapy kills ovarian cancer in miceCHICAGO (Reuters) - Tiny synthetic particles carrying a payload of toxin worked as well as chemotherapy at killing ovarian cancer cells in mice, without the bad side effects, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 11:56 am Yosemite Losing Its Big TreesYosemite National Park has lost many of its large trees during the last century, possibly due to a warmer climate, a new study found.Source: Livescience.com | 30 Jul 2009 | 11:56 am Bald songbird discovered in LaosScientists discover a striking new species of bald songbird in a limestone region of South East Asia.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 30 Jul 2009 | 11:55 am Organic food not healthier, study findsLONDON (Reuters) - Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over conventionally produced food, according to a major study published on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 11:38 am 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 | 30 Jul 2009 | 11:38 am Mysteriously High Tides on East Coast Perplex Scientists
From Maine to Florida, the Atlantic seaboard has experienced higher tides than expected this summer. At their peak in mid-June, the tides at some locations outstripped predictions by two feet.
The change has come too fast to be attributed to melting ice sheets or anything quite that dramatic, and it’s a puzzle for scientists who’ve never seen anything quite like it. “The ocean is dynamic. It’s not uncommon to have anomalies like this but the breadth and the intensity and duration were unique,” said Mike Szabados, director of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s tide and current program. The unexpected tidal surge is subsiding, has reduced its reach from the entire coast, and is now concentrated just in the mid-Atlantic states. NOAA is rushing to study the data in an effort to understand what happened. Szabados’ office is already putting the finishing touches on a report that will be released next month on the wind and current patterns that appear to be correlated with the tidal surge. Szabados said that two main factors appear to have contributed to the extra high tides. First, there were steady winds out of the northeast throughout this anomaly. Second, the ocean current running from Florida up along the coast weakened. While the associations between these phenomena and the tides are provocactive, it’s too early to tell how fully they explain this unexpected tidal event. “I’m quite sure that there will be more intensive analysis of this event. By no means will this report be the definitive answer to anything,” Szabados said. “Further assessment of this event should be encouraged to better understand the phenomena.” One thing is for sure: The tidal rise is strange. Kevin Trenberth, head of the climate analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, looked over June climate data on wind, atmospheric pressure and the ocean. June was — high tides aside — “nothing to write home about” in Trenberth’s estimation. “It’s a bit of a mystery,” he said. Szabados’ team was initially puzzled that there were no major wind anomalies accompanying the tides, but his team’s wind expert figured out it wasn’t the magnitude that was anomalous. “He said there’s no significant anomalies in the magnitude of the wind, it’s the persistence of the winds,” Szabados said. An even bigger mystery is why such winds would suddenly appear and why the current running up the Atlantic coast would weaken. Was it a freak coincidence, some jitter in the data, or part of a long-term trend or cycle? John Boon, professor emeritus of oceanography at Virginia Institute for Marine Studies, thinks it could be part of a long-term global trend that’s tied in with the Pacific region’s El Niño weather pattern. “When I’m comparing these decadal cycles, I see that some of the highs in these decadal cycles coincide with El Niño events,” He said. “It’s not to say that one is caused by another, but the degree of association is somewhat surprising.” But long-term tidal patterns can be hard to spot, Boon said. “It’s such a long time scale that’s working in this process that we don’t sense it going on like we sense a hurricane coming and going,” he said. “A subtle but persistent pattern that affects the whole North Atlantic ocean: It’s acting without giving any immediate clues that it’s going on until we see, ‘Whoops, the sea levels are higher than normal.’” Boon and a team of other researchers are crunching data now on the phenomenon and hope to put out a paper later this year. Szabados wouldn’t rule out the strange tide as an indication of a larger trend, but he wasn’t ready to make that leap just yet. “Is this part of a long decadal variation? Potentially, yes,” Szabados said. “But it’s premature to make that linkage.” See Also:
Image: Flickr/djwhelan 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 | 30 Jul 2009 | 10:56 am Ancient Rocky Structures Built By MicrobesScientists now have evidence for a biological origin for 3.45-billion-year-old stromatolitesSource: Livescience.com | 30 Jul 2009 | 10:18 am Bulgaria needs investors to save nuclear plant planSOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's new center-right government must find private investors for its majority stake in the planned Belene nuclear power plant or abandon the project, parliamentarians said on Thursday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 30 Jul 2009 | 8:57 am WATCH: New Species Thrive in MekongThe Mekong region in Southeast Asia is home to over a thousand new plant and animal species.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2009 | 8:20 am Michael Jackson and the rise of the celebrity psychologistWhat limits should be placed on psychologists who share their professional opinions with the media? In the nine years since Big Brother turned psychoanalysis into a spectator sport, the media have decided that no story about a major celebrity is complete without an assessment of their mental health. The death of Michael Jackson provided celebrity psychologists with perhaps their greatest subject yet. But what are the ethical responsibilities of these media psychologists? Should professionals be commenting on the wellbeing of celebrities on the basis of articles in Heat magazine? A guiding principle of the British Psychological Society (BPS), echoed by psychologists I have spoken to, is that professionals should not comment publicly on the mental health of celebrities. Professional ethics would prevent them discussing one of their own patients – alive or dead – still less someone they hadn't even met. As the society told me, celebrity stories "provide an opportunity to discuss a wide variety of psychological and mental health issues, and to increase public awareness of psychology". However, when talking to journalists, it said psychologists should "not be able to comment on that individual specifically". It isn't hard to find examples stretching this general principle. Since Jackson's death, hundreds of articles have appeared in publications all over the world speculating about his mental health and the future wellbeing of his children, some including the comments of British psychologists. David Wilson gave an in-depth psychological analysis of the star's character in The Daily Star. Linda Papadopoulos told the Mirror that his kids may be "damaged forever" by the custody battle. Another psychologist, Linda Blair suggested the family showed "bad judgement" when it allowed Jackson's daughter to speak at his memorial service. "To be thrust into the limelight as Paris was is potentially very traumatic," said Blair. "When a child is in shock, as Paris still will be from her father's death, the most important thing is to keep everything as normal as possible. But the opposite has happened here." The society told me that when approached by journalists it tries to provide them with appropriate experts to interview, but "we then always make it clear that our members will not be able to comment on that individual specifically." However, in many ways the society is a reactive, supportive organisation rather than a proactive regulator. Psychologists I spoke to praised the help and training provided by the The media must take a large share of the blame. When I spoke to psychologist and sex educator Dr Petra Boynton, she painted a worrying picture of the relentless demands from journalists. She had been asked to "analyse photos of Peter Andre and Jordan so I could pinpoint the 'exact moment' of their split", provide sex tips for Kerry Katona, and discuss whether Britney Spears is a suitable mother. One magazine asked her to "predict a man's sexual performance by his preferences in takeaway food". This is disturbing not just because of the invasion of privacy, but also the bad science it propagates. Many of these stories have no scientific basis at all and risk misinforming the public, or damaging the reputation of the profession. When I spoke to Linda Blair about the article in which she was quoted, it was clear that although she stood by her words, she was unhappy about the way they had been presented, particularly in secondary outlets that had picked up her original comments in The Sun. Key phrases had been removed, and she had been presented as attacking Jackson's family when she felt she had done nothing of the sort. It is hard for professionals to retain control over their words. What Nick Davies called "churnalism", the growing trend among journalists to recycle content from other sources to generate articles, means that any comment a psychologist makes can end up travelling the world in an inter-continental game of Chinese Whispers. In this environment, no matter how carefully a psychologist frames their views, the chances are their words will end up being mangled by the media machine. In an experiment you can try yourself, I put a single quote from Blair's Sun article into Google: "But here she was making a speech to billions of people across the world." In total 71 results were returned, with her words appearing in publications ranging from small blogs to USA Today. The headlines and attributions varied wildly, with many outlets framing the quotes as an attack on Jackson from "experts". Blair's words were used to invent a whole new story, without her permission. Several of the psychologists I spoke to while researching this piece were pessimistic about the prospects of dealing with the problem, given its scale. Even if some psychologists are careful, the media will always be able to find another "expert" to weigh in with an opinion. And as long as there is a demand for these stories, they will be written. Perhaps the answer is stricter regulation of the media and psychologists, or perhaps – as Blair suggested to me – we should ask ourselves why we demand so much knowledge about our celebrities. When you sit back and think about it, it's kind of creepy. Martin Robbins writes for The Lay Scientist 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 | 7:49 am Space Station Reality Check: Now What?NASA's budget for the space station runs out just five years after its completion date.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2009 | 7:05 am Nasa defends its spaceflight planEngineers developing Nasa's new rockets deny the agency's human spaceflight plans are too expensive and risky.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 30 Jul 2009 | 6:45 am Website to record all species on EarthComing soon to a screen near you: The Encyclopedia of Life – a user-generated database of all living things A complete list of all the species on the planet is, for many biologists and conservationists, the natural history equivalent of the Holy Grail. So the recently-launched EoL (it stands for 'Encyclopedia of Life'), which aims to create not just a list, but an individual web-page, for every single one of the world's plant and animal species, is bound to cause a buzz. Make no mistake, this will be a truly Herculean task. There may only be about 5,000 species of mammals, 8,000 species of reptiles, and 10,000 or so species of birds. But once we get to groups like flowering plants (about 250,000 species, and that's not including hybrids), insects (over 1m species described, with perhaps another 5m new ones waiting to be discovered), let alone micro-organisms such as viruses and bacteria, it's easy to see why EoL might seem little optimistic. So how does EoL work? Well, like its forerunner Wikipedia, EoL is a self-perpetuating encyclopedia, written by and refereed by anyone who wants to contribute. In practice, the contributors are likely to be mainly professional scientists or talented amateur naturalists – in some cases the leading experts on a species or group. Others can add text, images and even video clips to each entry, with the ultimate goal of making information about all the world's organisms freely available. Accuracy will be ensured (hopefully, at least) by an expert team of curators, who will weed out any inaccuracies and clarify any confusions. Like Wikipedia, there will be no charge for anyone wishing to access the information, so writers must be willing to share their knowledge with anyone else under a 'creative commons licence'. Original sources will also be credited where possible. So far, so good. But anyone familiar with recent controversies in biological science – and in particular taxonomy, classification and nomenclature – will immediately be aware of problems beyond the sheer workload involved. Broadly, these break down into three areas of potential confusion: • What is a species? Although we know that the African elephant and Indian elephant are different species, and likewise the house sparrow is a different species from the tree sparrow, many divisions between species are not so clear-cut. Scientists may lump two previously separate species together (like the Bullock's and Baltimore orioles of the US), or split one apart (as in bean and pink-footed geese). And when it comes to the differences between closely related plants and their many hybrids, things can get really confusing. • What is its name? Brits call divers "divers", Americans call them loons; likewise "skua" (UK) and "jaeger" (US). In Africa things get even more confusing, while many species of insect and plant don't have an English name at all. And what about the non English-speaking world? OK, we could use scientific names, but even these change, as has recently happened with the classification of such common and widespread species as the tits. • How many species are there? I've already touched on this – but when you realise that the 2m species currently identified represent as little as 2% of all the species on Earth, it's easy to see why EoL may turn out to be a bit like painting the Forth Bridge – just when you think it's finished, up pops some other obscure organism begging for entry to the club. Despite these caveats, though, I think the founders of EoL do deserve praise and support. And as one representative of our own species, the poet Robert Browning, wrote:
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Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 30 Jul 2009 | 6:38 am Proud namesakesTo have a species named after you is one of the greatest compliments in science. But what if the organism in question is a pungent and diminutive penis-shaped fungus? Meet Phallus drewesii, a 5cm-long stinkhorn mushroom that smells like rotting fish and, as the name suggests, looks a little bit like a penis. The fungus was discovered during an extensive survey of biodiversity on the equatorial islands of São Tomé and Príncipe off the west coast of Africa. The happy researchers who stumbled across it, Dennis Desjardin at San Francisco State University and his postdoc Brian Perry, decided to name the fungus after their friend and colleague Robert Drewes, curator of herpetology at the California Academy of Sciences. Drewes, they explained, had inspired them to conduct the survey. The islands, they found, contain a wealth of biodiversity that scientists have barely begun to record. Drewes insists he is not remotely offended by his new namesake and points out he already has two other species named after him, a moss frog and a blind worm snake. That Drewes has taken it all in good spirit is a wonderful thing. Previously, scientists have named new species after prominent figures whom I suspect didn't see the funny side. In 2005, researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, named three new species of slime-mold beetle after George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. In fact the scientific literature is peppered with compliments and honours that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. A fertility journal recently published a paper that looked at issues surrounding HIV in gay men in California. The article noted that among the study population, a certain mix of body fluids had been named after a former republican senator, who was well known for making some controversial remarks about homosexual men and incidentally pushed for Intelligent Design to be incorporated into school education. I can only wonder what Carl Linnaeus, the 18th century father of taxonomy, would have made of it. 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 | 6:11 am 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 BIG PIC: Beaver Beats the HeatAs the Pacific Northwest swelters in a heat wave, a beaver takes relief in a fruit pop.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2009 | 4:20 am Scientists find that chimps were 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
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