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Fruit Is Even Better For You Than Previously ThoughtScientists have found that the polyphenol content of fruits has been underestimated. Polyphenol content in fruits usually refers to extractable polyphenols, but new research finds that nonextractable polyphenol content is up to five times higher than extractable compounds.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am Teetotalers More Likely To Be Depressed Than Moderate DrinkersWhen it comes to alcohol consumption and depression, a new study shows that heavy drinkers -- but also teetotalers -- have higher levels of depression and anxiety than those who drink moderately. The happiest people were those who averaged about two glasses of alcohol per week.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am Strictly Ballroom Analysis: Computers Get To Know Their Rumba From Their Cha-cha-chaComputer scientists in Taiwan have devised a neural network program that can successfully classify a computerized music file based on its beat and tempo. The system could be a boon for music archivists with large numbers of untagged recordings and for users searching through mislabeled mp3 libraries.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am Turning Back The Clock: Fasting Prolongs Reproductive Life SpanScientific dogma has long asserted that females are born with their entire lifetime's supply of eggs, and once they're gone, they're gone. New findings suggest that in nematode worms, at least, this does not hold true. The study suggests how fertility in humans may be regenerated later in life.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am Small Fluctuations In Solar Activity, Large Influence On ClimateSubtle connections between the 11-year solar cycle, the stratosphere, and the tropical Pacific Ocean work in sync to generate periodic weather patterns that affect much of the globe, according to research appearing this week in the journal Science.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am How Safe Or Unsafe Are Medical Imaging Procedures?In a new study of nearly one million adults between the ages of 18 and 64, nearly 70 percent of participants underwent at least one medical imaging procedure between July 2005 and December 2007, resulting in an average effective dose of radiation nearly double the amount they would otherwise be exposed to from natural sources.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am Huge New Planet Orbits 'Wrong' Way Around Star; Tells Of Game Of Planetary BilliardsA team of scientists has found a new planet which orbits the wrong way around its host star. The planet, named WASP-17, and orbiting a star 1000 light years away, was found by the UK's WASP project in collaboration with Geneva Observatory. The discovery casts new light on how planetary systems form and evolve.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 6:00 am Making Summer In The City More BearableAs temperatures soar, scientists have been collecting data amid the ancient ruins that symbolize the birthplace of western culture. These data, combined with measurements from aircraft and satellites, promise to improve "urban heat island" forecasts to make life in modern-day Athens easier during heat waves.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 6:00 am Gene Variation Is 'Major Genetic Determinant Of Psoriasis'A specific genetic region that has been increasingly identified as the strongest genetic link to psoriasis has an even more significant role in the chronic skin disease than has been suspected, medical researchers show in a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 6:00 am Predicting Cancer PrognosisResearchers have developed a novel methodology to extract microRNAs from cancer tissues. They optimized a new protocol for extracting miRNAs from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 6:00 am Star gazingNo telescope? Why not try naked eye astronomySource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Aug 2009 | 3:59 am The Nation's Weather (AP)AP - Unsettled weather was forecast to persist over the Eastern U.S., while Tropical Storm Danny would remain well offshore of the East Coast on Friday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 3:02 am US 'moon rock' gift to Dutch revealed as petrified woodA treasured "moon rock" on display at the Dutch national museum is merely a piece of petrified wood, curators say.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Aug 2009 | 2:28 am NASA readying shuttle Discovery for Friday launch (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 2:21 am Himalayan nations to hold first climate talks (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 2:19 am Nepal villagers on climate change frontline (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 2:11 am Dangerous citrus pest found in California (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Aug 2009 | 1:36 am Pacific Ocean garbage patch worries researchers (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Aug 2009 | 11:16 pm Benji, Marley or Bo: Three Genes Dictate Dog's Coat (HealthDay)HealthDay - THURSDAY, Aug. 27 (HealthDay News) -- New research shows that only three genes are responsible for all seven types of coats found in purebred dogs.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Aug 2009 | 9:48 pm Single molecule's stunning imageResearchers have imaged single molecules in unprecedented detail, showing the chemical bonds that hold them together.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Aug 2009 | 8:15 pm NASA Targets Late Friday Launch for Space Shuttle (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - NASA has decided to skip its next chance to launch the space shuttle Discovery and is now targeting a late Friday liftoff.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Aug 2009 | 6:00 pm Problem cancels moon rocket test firing in Utah (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Aug 2009 | 5:42 pm Digging up BritainWe visit sites from windswept Orkney to the wilds of Dartmoor, turning up Roman treasures, bronze-age homes and a tiny figurine that hasn't been seen for 5,000 years
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 Aug 2009 | 5:09 pm UN warns over swine flu in birdsThe discovery of swine flu in turkeys in Chile raises concerns about the spread of the virus, a UN agency warns.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Aug 2009 | 4:57 pm Study Suggests Alcohol Ads Target Teens (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - The beer and spirits industries either deliberately advertise to underage children despite pledges otherwise, or they are really, really lousy at matching expensive ad time with the right demographics.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Aug 2009 | 4:37 pm New fat-fighting drug has anti-diabetes action tooWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers searching for a cure for obesity said on Thursday they have developed a drug that not only makes mice lose weight, but reverses diabetes and lowers their cholesterol, too.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Aug 2009 | 3:44 pm Nasa rocket motor test postponedThe test firing of the first-stage rocket motor Nasa hopes will one day launch its astronauts is called off just seconds before it was due to take place.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Aug 2009 | 3:42 pm Dog Coats Produced by Three GenesThree genes combine to form nearly all the various types of dog coats.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Aug 2009 | 2:25 pm Computers Help Decode Ancient TextsAn ancient, indecipherable text is slowly being unraveled by modern science.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Aug 2009 | 1:10 pm WATCH: Soy Surfboards Ride Waves of FutureSurfboard makers are using soy products to create sustainable surfboards.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Aug 2009 | 1:05 pm Louisiana Native Takes on Storm SeasonIan Giammanco is part of a team of scientists getting up close and personal with severe storms.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Aug 2009 | 1:03 pm Silky, wiry, short or long - how genes change dogs' coatsSilky, wiry, short or long - just three genes account for the wide variety of dog's coats, say scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Aug 2009 | 12:51 pm Sun's Cycle Alters Earth's ClimateStudy finds links between solar energy output and changes in stratosphere circulation and ocean temperature.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Aug 2009 | 12:42 pm Mouse set to be 'evolution icon'A fast-evolving deer mouse is one of the best examples yet studied of natural selection in action, say scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Aug 2009 | 12:40 pm Happy 150th, Oil! So Long, and Thanks for Modern Civilization
One hundred and fifty years ago on Aug. 27, Colonel Edwin L. Drake sunk the very first commercial well that produced flowing petroleum.
The discovery that large amounts of oil could be found underground marked the beginning of a time during which this convenient fossil fuel became America’s dominant energy source. But what began 150 years ago won’t last another 150 years — or even another 50. The era of cheap oil is ending, and with another energy transition upon us, we’ve got to scavenge all the lessons we can from its remarkable history. “I would see this as less of an anniversary to note for celebration and more of an anniversary to note how far we’ve come and the serious moment that we’re at right now,” said Brian Black, an energy historian at Pennsylvania State University and and author of the book Petrolia. “Energy transitions happen and I argue that we’re in one right now and that we need to aggressively look to the future to what’s going to happen after petroleum.”
When Drake and others sunk their wells, there were no cars, no plastics, no chemical industry. Water power was the dominant industrial energy source. Steam engines burning coal were on the rise, but the nation’s energy system — unlike Great Britain’s — still used fossil fuels sparingly. The original role for oil was as an illuminant, not a motor fuel, which would come decades later. Before the 1860s, petroleum was a well-known curiosity. People collected it with blankets or skimmed it off naturally occurring oil seeps. Occasionally they drank some of it as a medicine or rubbed it on aching joints. Some people had the bright idea of distilling it to make fuel for lamps, but it was easier to get lamp fuel from pig fat or whale oil or converted coal. Without a steady supply, there was no point in developing a whole system and infrastructure dedicated to petroleum. Nonetheless, some Yankee capitalists from Connecticut were convinced that oil could be found in the ground and exploited. They recruited “Colonel” Edwin Drake, who was not a Colonel at all, mostly because he was charming and unemployed. He, in turn, found someone skilled in the art of drilling, or what passed for it in those days. Drake and his sidekick “Uncle Billy” Smith started looking underground for oil in the spring of ‘59. They used a heavy metal tip attached to a rope, sending it plummeting down the borehole like a ram to break up the rock. It was slow going. On Aug. 27, 1859, at 69 feet of depth, Drake and Smith hit oil. It was a big deal, but the Civil War stalled the immediate development of the rock oil industry. “When the discovery happened, the few people who were there and not involved in the war, went around and bought all the property they could and had outside investors come in,” Black said. “But the real heyday of the development happened from 1864-1870. It’s that 11-year period when the little river valley was the world’s leading supplier of oil.”
The “little river valley” in western Pennsylvania earned the nickname Petrolia. Centered in the Oil Creek valley about one hundred miles north of Pittsburgh, the wells of Pithole, Titusville and Oil City pumped 56 million barrels of oil out of the ground from 1859 to 1873. Suddenly, rock oil was everywhere. And cheap. Whale oil had always been a bit precious. A three to five year voyage would only yield a few thousand gallons of the stuff. In 1866, after the end of the Civil War, 3.6 million barrels poured out of the region. Daniel Yergin notes in his history of oil, The Prize, that as more people poured into the oil regions “supply outran demand” and soon the whiskey barrels that held the oil “cost almost twice as much as the oil inside them.” Still, fortunes were being made and lost. Not just money, but energy, was flowing from underground. Some have estimated that for every unit of energy you invested sinking a well, you got back “more than 100 times as much usable energy. Oil, people soon found, was uniquely convenient. To equal get the amount of energy in a tank of gasoline, you need 200 pounds of wood. Pair that energy density with stability under most conditions (meaning it didn’t randomly explode), and that, as a liquid, it was easy to transport, and you have the killer app for the infrastructure age. In a world that only had a tiny fraction of the amount of heat, light, and power available that we do now, people came up with all kinds of ideas for what to do with oil’s energy: cars, tractors, airplanes, chemicals, fertilizer, and plastic. Perhaps it’s not a surprising consequence of this innovation that at current consumption levels, Americans would blow through all the oil ever produced in Petrolia in less than three days. The scale of the oil industry is astounding, but it’s becoming clear the world’s oil supply will peak soon, or perhaps has peaked already. People quibble about the details, but no one argues that oil will play a much different role in our energy system in 50 years than it did in 1959. The search for alternatives is on. If that search goes poorly — as some Peak Oil analysts predict — human civilization will fall off an energy cliff. The amount of energy we get back from drilling oil wells in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico continues to drop, and alternative sources don’t provide usable energy for humans on the generous terms that oil long has. But humans with an economic incentive to be optimistic become optimists, and the harder we look, the more possible alternatives we find. The big question now is whether the cure for our oil addiction will come with a heavy carbon side effect. “Peak oil and peak gas and coal could really go either way for the climate,” Pushker Kharecha, a scientist with NASA’s Global Institute for Space Studies, said at least year’s American Geophysical Union meeting. “It all depends on choices for subsequent energy sources.” Over the next 20 years, synthetic fuels made from coal or shale oil could conceivably become the fuels of the future. On the other hand, so could advanced biofuels from cellulosic ethanol or algae. Or the era of fuel could end and electric vehicles could be deployed in mass, at least in rich countries. With the massive injection of stimulus and venture capital money into alternative energy that’s occurred over the past few years, the solutions for replacing oil could already be circulating among the labs and office parks of the country. To paraphrase technology pundit Clay Shirky talking about the media, nothing will work to replace oil, but everything might. If history tells us anything, it’s that energy sources can change, never tomorrow, but always some day. “What is required is to operate without fear and to take energy transitions on as a developmental opportunity,” Black said.
[Sources: Daniel Yergin's The Prize and Brian Black's Petrolia.] Images: Robert Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views. See Also:
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 | 27 Aug 2009 | 12:39 pm Scientists Create Clear Image of Tiny MoleculeA new technique reveals the atoms and bonds within a molecule.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Aug 2009 | 12:18 pm Germany unveils 2,000-yr-old statue of horse's headBERLIN (Reuters) - German archaeologists on Thursday unveiled a bronze and gold horse's head they said was believed to be a remnant of a 2000-year-old Roman statue.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Aug 2009 | 12:13 pm Shuttle Launch Postponed a Third TimeEngineers put off the shuttle launch again to review a potentially faulty valve.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Aug 2009 | 12:08 pm NO joke: Scientists call for stricter controls on emissions of laughing gasNitrous oxide could soon pose a bigger threat to ozone than CFC chemicals, says atmospheric chemist Scientists have called for stricter controls on emissions of laughing gas, after discovering the common chemical poses a new threat to the recovering ozone layer. The gas, properly known as nitrous oxide, could soon pose a bigger threat to ozone than CFC chemicals, the use of which has been restricted since the 1980s. Akkihebbal Ravishankara, an atmospheric chemist with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who led the research, said: "The dramatic reduction in CFCs over the last 20 years is an environmental success story. But man-made nitrous oxide is now the elephant in the room among ozone-depleting substances." The gas, which is not covered by existing regulations to protect ozone, is now the largest ozone-depleting substance produced by human activity, the research shows. It is expected to remain the largest over the next few decades. About a third of global nitrous oxide emissions are from human activity. The gas is produced as a byproduct of fertiliser use in agriculture and other industrial processes. It is also a common anaesthetic, used by dentists and in maternity wards. Nitrous oxide is stable at ground level but breaks down in the upper atmosphere to form compounds that trigger chemical reactions that destroy ozone. Its ability to destroy ozone has been known for decades, but the new research is the first to quantify the danger and compare it to other gases. Although the gas is 60-times less damaging to ozone than CFCs, around 10m tonnes of nitrous oxide are produced by human activity each year, compared with slightly more than a million tonnes from all CFCs at the peak of their emissions. Nitrous oxide is also a potent greenhouse gas, which contributes to global warming, so efforts to restrict emissions could tackle climate change as well as ozone loss, the scientists say. The study is published in the journal Science. 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 | 27 Aug 2009 | 12:00 pm Climate protection 'to cost more'Protecting societies against impacts of climate change will be much more expensive than the UN believes, a study concludes.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Aug 2009 | 11:50 am More ‘Evidence’ of Intelligent Design Shot Down by Science
Intricate cellular components are often cited as evidence of intelligent design. They couldn’t have evolved, I.D. proponents say, because they can’t be broken down into smaller, simpler functional parts. They are irreducibly complex, so they must have been intentionally designed, as is, by an intelligent entity. But new research comparing mitochondria, which provide energy to animal cells, with their bacterial relatives, shows that the necessary pieces for one particular cellular machine — exactly the sort of structure that’s supposed to prove intelligent design — were lying around long ago. It was simply a matter of time before they came together into a more complex entity. The pieces “were involved in some other, different function. They were recruited and acquired a new function,” said Sebastian Poggio, a postdoctoral cell biologist at Yale University and co-author of the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Mitochondria are descended from free-living bacteria, which several billion years ago were swallowed by complex cells. The mitochondria soon became central to the cells’ function. Mitochondria couldn’t have lasted in their new home without the help of a protein machine called TIM23, which delivers other proteins harvested from the cell’s body. Bacteria don’t possess TIM23, suggesting that it evolved in mitochondria. This seems to pose a cellular chicken-and-egg question: How could protein transport evolve when it was necessary to survive in the first place? The essential paradox applies to other protein-transporting cell systems, providing disbelievers of evolution with a key part of their critique. As articulated by intelligent design proponent Michael Behe, “This constant, regulated traffic flow in the cell comprises another remarkably complex, irreducible system. All parts must function or the system breaks down.” According to evolutionary theory, however, cellular complexity is reducible. It requires only that existing components be repurposed, with inevitable mutations providing extra ingredients as needed. Flagella, the hairlike propellers used by bacteria to move, are one example of this. Their component parts are found throughout cells, performing other tasks. Intelligent design mavens once cited flagella as evidence of their theory. Scientific fact dispelled that illusion. The mitochondria study does the same for protein transport. “This analysis of protein transport provides a blueprint for the evolution of cellular machinery in general,” write the researchers, led by molecular biologist Trevor Lithgow at Australia’s Monash University. “The complexity of these machines is not irreducible.” When they analyzed the genomes of proteobacteria, the family that spawned the ancestors of mitochondria, Lithgow’s team found two of the protein parts used in mitochondria to make TIM23. The parts are located on bacterial cell membranes, making them ideally positioned for TIM23’s eventual protein-delivering role. Only one other part, a molecule called LivH, would make a rudimentary protein-transporting machine — and LivH is commonly found in proteobacteria. The process by which parts accumulate until they’re ready to snap together is called preadaptation. It’s a form of “neutral evolution,” in which the buildup of the parts provides no immediate advantage or disadvantage. Neutral evolution falls outside the descriptions of Charles Darwin. But once the pieces gather, mutation and natural selection can take care of the rest, ultimately resulting in the now-complex form of TIM23. “It hasn’t been possible up until this point to trace any of those proteins back to a bacterial ancestor,” said Dalhousie University cell biologist Michael Gray, one of the researchers who originally described the origins of mitochondria, but was not involved in the new study. “These three proteins don’t perform precisely the same function in proteobacteria, but with a simple mutation could be transformed into a simple protein transport machine that could start the whole thing off.” “You look at cellular machines and say, why on earth would biology do anything like this? It’s too bizarre,” he said. “But when you think about it in a neutral evolutionary fashion, in which these machineries emerge before there’s a need for them, then it makes sense.” Citation: “The reducible complexity of a mitochondrial molecular machine.” By Abigail Clements,1, Dejan Bursac, Xenia Gatsos, Andrew J. Perry, Srgjan Civciristova, Nermin Celik, Vladimir A. Likic, Sebastian Poggio, Christine Jacobs-Wagner, Richard A. Strugnell, and Trevor Lithgow. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 106 No. 33, August 25, 2009. Image: Journal of Cell Science See Also:
Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes, Wired Science on Twitter.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 27 Aug 2009 | 11:43 am Banana diseases hit African cropsTwo banana diseases have hit crops in Africa, putting supplies of the staple food at risk, experts tell the BBC.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Aug 2009 | 11:20 am Science Agencies Lag in Stimulus Spending
The Department of Energy still has 98.8 percent of its stimulus cash sitting in the bank. Only $451 million of the $36.7 billion the DOE received when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed into law in February has been accounted for as “spent.” It’s a stunning number, but it’s likely more money has already been spent, even if it hasn’t made it onto the agency’s books yet. It just takes a while for the money spent on new jobs or projects to be recorded, said Matt Rogers, a senior advisor to Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, and the department’s Recovery Act czar. “We have moved $9.8 billion out the door,” Rogers told Wired.com. “I think we’re right on track with where we expected to be.” The DOE has only awarded $10 billion to companies, which works out to a little over a quarter of its total stimulus cash. That doesn’t compare favorably with the average agency. Thirty-five percent of the total sum of money that all federal agencies received has already been spent. But perhaps we should expect the DOE to take a little more time reviewing applications. The DOE spending situation is paralleled at the other science-based agencies like the National Science Foundation, NASA, and Environmental Protection Agency. Together, those agencies have only registered 1.2 percent of their $44 billion in Recovery Act money spent.
Rogers argued the DOE’s pace and process were most advantageous for taxpayers, though. He referenced the competitive applications that were submitted by companies in hopes of grabbing $2.4 billion for advanced batteries. More than 2,000 peer reviewers are helping vet applications for the DOE. “We awarded one out of every five projects, so the projects we were able to select are terrific projects,” Rogers said. “If we don’t go through this competitive process, you don’t see the best projects. There’s a time-quality trade-off.” The agency expects to award $16 billion by the end of September and $30 billion by the end of 2009, Rogers said. An additional $4 billion in loan guarantees might not show up in the books for months, but that money is headed into the field, too. If they hit their targets, more than 90 percent of the cash that Congress gave the DOE will be out of the agency’s hands, even if it technically remains in the bank. “We have a lag between obligation and costing,” Rogers said. “I’ve been less focused on the costing column because I don’t think it is illustrative of the hiring and impact in the marketplace. I’m going to be more worried about that if we don’t see it moving by the end of the year.” Departments like Labor, Agriculture, and Commerce used their cash for projects that didn’t require a competitive grant application process. Thus, the Department of Labor has spent nearly 68 percent of its $24.7 billion allotment and the Department of Health and Human Services 65 percent of its $42.3 billion. Curt Rich, head of public policy practice at Van Ness Feldman, said the DOE had an uphill battle getting the funds out quickly. He noted that the main internal beneficiary of the DOE, the office for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy had never seen this kind of money. And it all came flowing in under a new administration and DOE chief. “While folks were waiting for solicitations to come out, there was some grousing,” Rich said. “I think in hindsight, what they’ve been able to get done in six months is very impressive.” One would-be DOE stimulus money recipient, Oakland solar thermal company, Brightsource, gave the process high marks, too, even if it was taking a while. “My opinion is that the DOE is doing a really good job in balancing the need for immediate stimulus while protecting the taxpayers’ interest,” said Keely Wachs, a spokesperson for the company, which has been negotiating a loan guarantee deal with the agency for months. “When I put only my Brightsource hat on, I think, ‘Let’s get it done.’ But as a taxpayer, I want to make sure that those funds are being used appropriately.” Many in the clean tech industry, which will receive the lion’s share of the funds, expect the DOE to ramp up pay-outs to companies over the next few weeks. “We’ve got very high assurances that the floodgates are about to open in early September,” said Dallas Kachan, managing director of the Cleantech Group. Rogers said to expect major announcements out of the DOE every couple of weeks. For example, the grant winners receiving some of the $4.5 billion allocated to smart grid equipment will be announced soon. “We’ll see the big, investment-focused pieces now,” Rogers said. “That’s going to be the primary story as we work through the fall.” Image: flickr/nathangibbs See Also:
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 | 27 Aug 2009 | 10:57 am Darn! I'm Just an Internet Hoax!That's what I learned from Personas, a new web ap that claims to reveal how the Web sees you.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Aug 2009 | 10:54 am India nuclear test 'did not work'A retired atomic scientist closely associated with India's 1998 nuclear tests says they were not as successful as claimed.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Aug 2009 | 10:43 am Ripe Fruit May Inspire Mosquito RepellentsOdors from ripening bananas can jam mosquitoes' power to detect carbon dioxide.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Aug 2009 | 10:25 am Internet Addicts Get First U.S. Treatment ClinicA new clinic uses farm animals to help Internet junkies get off the Web.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Aug 2009 | 9:30 am Spinal injury drug developed cysts in animals: GeronBANGALORE (Reuters) - Geron Corp said animals injected with its experimental cell therapy for subacute spinal cord injury developed microscopic cysts in the injury site, but its shares rose as the company reported none of the animals developed teratomas, a kind of tumor.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Aug 2009 | 8:57 am Revamped Shuttle Booster to Get First TestA skinny rocket that is designed for future moon and Mars missions will soon be tested.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Aug 2009 | 8:45 am Monkeys Born of Two MothersTechniques similar to cloning produced monkeys with the genes of two mothers. Could help with human diseases.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Aug 2009 | 7:59 am Powerful Ideas: Mutant Bacteria + Polyester = More BiofuelNew brewing method for butanol created with mutant bacteria and polyester fiber bundles.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Aug 2009 | 7:55 am BLOG: Mars Hoax Day Is HereMars is about to make a historic close approach to Earth -- or so claim the emails.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Aug 2009 | 7:10 am Abbott, Pfizer in pact for lung cancer screeningCHICAGO (Reuters) - An Abbott Laboratories Inc unit that makes genetic tests will work with Pfizer Inc to develop a test to screen non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors to determine which patients are good candidates for a novel cancer therapy being developed by Pfizer.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Aug 2009 | 7:03 am Ocean 'Deserts' Becoming More LifelessVast stretches of ocean where very little life can survive have become more extreme.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 Aug 2009 | 6:50 am Zoo accused of pushing creationist agendaNoah's Ark farm denies allegations, saying it promotes debate between science and religion over evolution A secular group was today demanding that tourism groups stop promoting what it calls a "creationist" zoo, that questions the traditional view of evolution. The Noah's Ark zoo farm, in Wraxall, near Bristol, was accused by the British Humanist Association (BHA) of misleading tens of thousands of annual visitors and "threatening public understanding". The zoo, however, rejected the BHA's claims that it is not open about its interest in creationism, the belief that all life was created by God, and said that it wanted to promote a debate about Darwinism and 6000 BC creationism (also known as young Earth creationism), both of which it said on its website were "flawed" and "extreme in their own rights". The BHA has written to the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums , North Somerset council, Visit Britain and the tourism group South West England, asking them to remove Noah's Ark from their material. The BHA said the zoo farm, run by husband and wife Anthony and Christina Bush, seeks to discredit scientific facts such as radio carbon dating, the fossil record and the speed of light. The BHA said signs at the zoo also describe how the "three great people groups" could be descended from the three sons of Noah. The zoo's owners said they were "slightly different" from pure creationists because the zoo explains life as being created by "both God and evolution", and there is a long detailed section on this on the zoo's website entitled "Creation Research". BHA director of education and public affairs, Andrew Copson, said: "We believe Noah's Ark farm zoo misleads the public by not being open about its creationist agenda in its promotional activities and by advancing misunderstandings of the natural world. "We have therefore asked the South West England and Visit Britain tourist boards to stop promoting the zoo. "As they are public bodies, we believe it is inappropriate that they should support establishments that seek to urge religious or ideological beliefs upon people in these ways." Noah's Ark research assistant Jon Woodward said: "To say that we are not upfront with our beliefs is unfounded. The name Noah's Ark is the first indicator. "We also have much material on our website, which is not disguised or hidden, as well as being on our leaflet. Our education policy is purely based around the national curriculum. At no point is religion taught in the classroom, unless requested, as that would go against the national curriculum. "We are offering our visitors the chance to look at the evolution/creation debate. As it is a free country, that is within our right. Contrary to a small minority of people's claims, we do not teach false science. This is clearly shown within the zoo with one exhibition talking about Darwin and another offering another point of view." A North Somerset council spokesman, Steve Makin, said: "The licensing of zoos does consider education in so far as a zoo must promote an understanding of, and concern and respect for, biodiversity, animals and the natural world. The zoo licensing system therefore does not comment on or is involved in personal beliefs." 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 | 27 Aug 2009 | 6:26 am Is quantum mechanics messing with your memory?For all we know we may live in a world in which windows un-break and cold cups of coffee spontaneously heat up, we just don't remember. The explanation is quantum entanglement Imagine if a cold cup of coffee spontaneously heated up as you watched. Or a cracked pane of glass suddenly un-broke. According to physicist Lorenzo Maccone at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, you see things like this all the time – you just don't remember. In a paper published last week in Physical Review Letters, he attempts to provide a solution to what has been called the mystery of "the arrow-of-time". Briefly, the problem is that while our laws of physics are all symmetrical or "time-reversal invariant" – they apply equally well if time runs forwards or backwards – most of the everyday phenomena we observe, like the cooling of hot coffee, are not. They never seem to happen in reverse. We have a statistical law that describes these everyday phenomena called the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This law tells us that the "entropy" or degree of disorder of a closed system never decreases. Roughly speaking, a process in which entropy increases is one where the system becomes increasingly disordered. Windows break, thereby increasing disorder, but they will not spontaneously unbreak. Gases will disperse but not spontaneously compress. However, entropy describes what happens with large numbers of particles. We presume that it must arise from what happens with individual particles, but all the laws that govern the behaviour of individual particles are time-reversal invariant. This means that any process they allow in one direction of time, they also allow in the other. So why will your coffee spontaneously cool down, but not heat up? Maccone's solution is to suggest that in fact entropy-decreasing events occur all the time – so there is no asymmetry and no associated mystery about the arrow of time. He argues that quantum mechanics dictates that if anyone does observe an entropy-decreasing event, their memories of the event "will have been erased by necessity". Maccone doesn't mean that your memories will never form in the first place. "What I'm pointing out is that memories are formed and then are subsequently erased," he tells me. When you observe any system, according to Maccone, you enter into a "quantum entanglement" with it. That is, you and the system are entangled and cannot properly be described separately. The entanglement, Maccone says, is between your memory and the system. When you disentangle, "the disentangling operation will erase this entanglement, namely the observer's memory". His paper derives this conclusion mathematically. While we cannot remember our cups of coffee re-heating, and hence cannot study them, Maccone thinks that entropy-decreasing events like that must happen. "If transformations that increase the entropy do occur – and we know that they do – by symmetry we should expect also transformations that decrease the entropy – but we cannot see them." I'm not convinced that Maccone has solved the dilemma of the arrow of time, and I'm not alone. One problem is that, as he acknowledges, he cannot prove that entropy-decreasing events occur. Rather, he shows that if they do, we won't remember them. Concerns about symmetry lead him to conclude that they must in fact happen. However, it is statistically very (very, very very) unlikely that the entropy of a macroscopic system will decrease. It's all down to the way particles move around. In a gas, for example, there are many fewer ways in which the particles can be in a lower entropy state than there are ways for them to be in a higher entropy state. So the most likely state either before or after is one of higher entropy – simply because there are many more such states for the system to occupy. Importantly, the statistics of entropy do not predict an asymmetry, because they suggest entropy should neither decrease towards the past nor decrease towards the future. The mystery of the arrow of time is that entropy only increases towards the future. Put another way, why does entropy actually decrease towards the past, despite what the statistics predict? Maccone says that "we should expect" entropy decreases towards the future since they occur towards the past. But the statistics show us that we should expect no such thing. It is enormously surprising that they happen towards the past and it would be doubly surprising if they happened towards the future. Symmetry is not a reason to expect what we know is statistically extremely unlikely. Huw Price, head of the Centre for Time at the University of Sydney, thinks Maccone is simply trading one mystery for another. "The proposal to explain the thermodynamic arrow in terms of the [quantum] effects of observers has an obvious flaw," he says. "It doesn't explain why all observers have the same orientation in time ... Why don't some observers remember what we call the future, and accumulate information towards what we call the past?" A standard way of explaining why observers like us remember the past is by appealing to thermodynamics – the fact that entropy is increasing. This explanation is unavailable to Maccone since his theory takes that thermodynamic fact to depend on the existence of observers. Such an explanation, for Maccone, would thus be circular. If Price is right, then Maccone has explained one temporal asymmetry at the expense of creating another that is equally hard to explain. What's more, Price thinks that Maccone has made a hidden asymmetrical assumption. He argues that the quantum correlations Maccone relies on must be assumed to happen only in one temporal direction and not the other. "But that's just assuming the conclusion he wants to derive." Whether or not Maccone has solved the mystery of the arrow of time is unclear. But to tell the truth, it would suit me just fine if my cold cup of coffee heated back up all on its own. I don't even care if I remember it happening or not. Michael Slezak is a freelance journalist and teaches the philosophy of science at the University of Sydney, Australia 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 | 27 Aug 2009 | 5:21 am
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