Science Headlines for September 15, 2009

Iraq Troops' PTSD Rate As High As 35 Percent, Analysis Finds

The Veterans' Administration should expect a high volume of Iraq veterans seeking treatment of post traumatic stress disorder, with researchers anticipating that the rate among armed forces will be as high as 35 percent, according to a new analysis.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm

Steroid Injections May Help Restore Vision In Some Patients With Blocked Eye Veins

Injecting the eye with the corticosteroid triamcinolone appears effective in improving the vision of some patients with retinal vein occlusion, an important cause of vision loss that results from blockages in the blood vessels in the retina, according to two reports.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm

El Niño, Global Warming Link Questioned; Possible Link Between 1918 El Niño And Flu Pandemic?

Research casts doubts on the notion that El Niño has been getting stronger because of global warming and raises interesting questions about the relationship between El Niño and a severe flu pandemic 91 years ago. The findings are based on analysis of the 1918 El Niño, which the new research shows to be one of the strongest of the 20th century.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm

Common Pain Cream Could Protect Heart During Attack, Study Shows

New research shows that a common, over-the-counter pain salve rubbed on the skin during a heart attack could serve as a cardiac-protectant, preventing or reducing damage to the heart while interventions are administered.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm

Evidence Points To Conscious 'Metacognition' In Some Nonhuman Animals

A comparative psychologist who has conducted extensive studies in animal cognition says there is growing evidence that animals share functional parallels with human conscious metacognition -- that is, they may share humans' ability to reflect upon, monitor or regulate their states of mind.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm

Daily Bathroom Showers May Deliver Face Full Of Pathogens, Says Study

While daily bathroom showers provide invigorating relief and a good cleansing for millions of Americans, they also can deliver a face full of potentially pathogenic bacteria, according to a surprising new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm

Study Identifies Which Children Do Not Need CT Scans After Head Trauma

A substantial percentage of children who get CT scans after apparently minor head trauma do not need them, and as a result are put at increased risk of cancer due to radiation exposure. After analyzing more than 42,000 children with head trauma, a research team has developed guidelines for doctors who care for children with head trauma aimed at reducing those risks.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am

Scientists Identify Gene For Short-circuiting Excess Mucus In Lung Disease, Common Colds

Scientists have identified the main genetic switch that causes excessive mucus in the lungs, a discovery that one day could ease suffering for people with chronic lung disease or just those fighting the common cold. The discovery sheds light on the precise biological reasons the lungs in people with asthma, cystic fibrosis and other respiratory ailments clog with thick mucus.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am

Tapping Geothermal Energy: New Drilling Method With Fire And Flame In The Depths

With increasing depth, geothermal energy offers an almost inexhaustible potential for renewable energy. The drilling costs however, rise exponentially with depth in the case of conventional rotary drilling. A thermal drilling method, which will allow for reaching greater drilling depths in a more efficient and more cost-effective way, is currently under development.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am

For Carnivorous Plants, Slow But Steady Wins The Race

The existence of carnivorous plants has fascinated botanists and non-botanists alike for centuries and raises the question, "Why are some plants carnivorous?" By measuring the construction cost of carbon needed to create these plant structures and comparing it to the payback time, researchers were able to determine how beneficial a trap might be to a plant.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am

Military robot 'hops' over walls

New video footage has been released of a robot that can leap over obstacles more than 7.5m (25ft) high.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:06 am

One in six Mediterranean mammals face extinction (AFP)

AFP - One in six Mediterranean mammals is threatened with extinction at the regional level, mainly due to the destruction of their habitat from urbanization, agriculture and climate change, nature body IUCN said Tuesday in a new study.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:53 am

Aussie rocker Garrett won't join climate change song (AFP)

AFP - Left-wing rocker turned Australian environment minister Peter Garrett said Tuesday he would not join 55 world celebrities in reprising one of his greatest hits in the name of climate change.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:32 am

The Nation's weather (AP)

AP - Wet weather with scattered showers and thunderstorms was forecast to continue beating on the Southern U.S. on Tuesday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:55 am

Thunderstorm on Saturn is a record-buster (AFP)

AFP - A tempest that erupted on Saturn in January has become the Solar System's longest continuously observed lightning storm, astronomers reported on Tuesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:20 am

NASA's Mars Rover Might Be Stuck For Good (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - Efforts to free the stuck Spirit rover on Mars have been dragging on since May and today a NASA official said the robot may never get free.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Sep 2009 | 8:15 pm

Whitehall green drive 'saves £7m'

The government says it has saved £7m in the last year by making its departments more environmentally friendly.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Sep 2009 | 7:22 pm

Showerheads may harbor bacteria dangerous to some (AP)

AP - In what may be the scariest shower news since Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," a study says showerheads can harbor tiny bacteria that come spraying into your face when you wash. People with normal immune systems have little to fear, but these microbes could be a concern for folks with cystic fibrosis or AIDS, people who are undergoing cancer treatment or those who have had a recent organ transplant.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Sep 2009 | 7:19 pm

PETA wants to turn Va. prison into chicken museum (AP)

AP - An animal rights group wants to rent a prison building the state plans to close and turn it into the nation's first chicken empathy museum. A People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals official sent a letter Monday to Gov. Tim Kaine asking to rent the Botetourt Correctional Center building in Troutville.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Sep 2009 | 7:05 pm

Cave Divers Risk Their Lives to Explore the Underworld

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For the past 14 years, photographer and filmmaker Jill Heinerth has been exploring underwater caves around the world, from lava tubes off the coast of North Africa to icebergs in the Antarctic. Wired.com recently caught up with Heinerth to talk about some of her most exciting cave diving moments, as well as the recent technological advances that have made cave diving easier, safer and more accessible to recreational divers. This gallery showcases some of Heinerth’s best underwater images and includes captions adapted from our conversation with her.

Above: “My Neighborhood Cave” in High Springs, Florida

Heinerth snapped this photo of herself as she descended through the tannic water of the Santa Fe River into her neighborhood cave in High Springs, Florida. The swirling orange blaze above her comes from the mixing of river water, stained red by decaying cypress trees, with crystal blue spring water flowing from the cave. The giant black mask she’s wearing is connected to a special diving tank called a rebreather.

“Basically, it does the same thing as a space suit,” Heinerth said. “In normal scuba gear, you’re inhaling gas and exhaling a column of bubbles into the water. But in a rebreather, you’re actually recycling your air, with carbon dioxide getting scrubbed out of the mixture and oxygen getting added back in. With an electronic rebreather, you can tune the gases that you’re using, so that in deeper water you can use helium and other gases to get the optimal mixture of breathing gas for deep water.”

Photo: Jill Heinerth / IntoThePlanet.com

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 14 Sep 2009 | 6:00 pm

Taking showers can make you ill, scientists say

Showering may be bad for your health say scientists who have shown dirty shower heads can deliver harmful bacteria.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:06 pm

US turns over seized prehistoric relics to China (AP)

AP - U.S. Customs officials returned to China on Monday fossils dating from as early as 100 million years ago that had entered the country illegally. They included bones of a saber-toothed cat, a partial skull of a dinosaur and eggs of several other dinosaurs.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:04 pm

Zero Gravity for Zero Dollars: Best Student Discount Ever

While the super-rich can pay millions to experience weightlessness at the International Space Station, some college kids have figured out how to experience the thrill of zero gravity for the student-friendly price of $0.

Through NASA’s Microgravity University program, teams of college students get to ride in and conduct experiments on a NASA jet that simulates zero-gravity conditions. Undergrads around the county will be sending their letters of intent to apply to this year’s competition this week, with completed applications due next month.

“It’s really an ‘as only NASA can’ program,” said Sara Malloy, coordinator of the Microgravity University office at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Students spend 10 days preparing for and going on their flights. Though the program’s science doesn’t get piped directly into NASA’s high-profile programs, some of the research can end up in the hands of engineers. And the students themselves get unique training in one of the strangest environments a human can experience.

The Microgravity University program hasn’t been heavily publicized, but it has reached more than 2,800 students at more than 165 colleges and universities since it first began in 1995. The trips on NASA’s Weightless Wonder, known more informally as the Vomit Comet, would cost more than $5,000 per person through the Zero Gravity Corporation.

Justin Nieusma headed up the College of New Jersey’s team, which flew this summer. (Some of Nieusma’s cohorts, though not him, are pictured above.) Their participation grew out of research some students were doing with the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab that required access to microgravity to continue.

“We got amazing scientific data that could never be reproduced on Earth or any other program I know of,” said Nieusma, now a graduate student in astronomy and astrophysics at University of Michigan.

Their experiment looked at how “dusty plasmas” like the ones that compose Saturn’s rings and comet tails react under different conditions. The experiments that College of New Jersey designed and built have been good (and lucky) enough to fly both of the past two years.

“You have to go through a very rigorous application process. These applications are like 50, 60 pages long, full of details that they want out of you,” Nieusma said. “It’s a crazy program, competitive, and we were so happy we got in the second year.”

By flying up, then nosing down, microgravity conditions are obtained for 18 to 25 seconds a time, and engineering students attempt to do science as their feet float above their heads. Conducting research while floating in the main cabin of a McDonnell Douglas C-9B Skytrain II isn’t the easiest thing, as YouTube videos of the microgravity experiments can attest.

Students bolt their experiments to the floor of the plane. When the plane dips, and the pull of the Earth’s gravity is counteracted by the force of the airplane’s descent, they attain weightlessness. Holding on to their experiment boxes, they race to complete whatever tasks they can before the plane levels off.

As the microgravity conditions ease, NASA personnel yell out, “Get down!” and the students bring their bodies out of dangerous positions and closer to the ground before gravity itself puts them there.

They also have time for some fun, floating and spinning in microgravity or doing one-armed pushups in simulated lunar gravity only one-sixth the strength of Earth’s.

“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime,” Niusma said.

Not everyone’s proposals get accepted, unfortunately. Recent budget cuts have made the program, which used to accept about half of the applicants, more competitive.

Sean Currey, a junior at Dartmouth who wants to go into aeronautics, led a dedicated team that wanted to study how IV-fluid–bag preparation works in microgravity. The team went through the entire process, but didn’t get to fly. Still, Currey’s team will try again this year.

“The people who read over the proposal thought it was a great idea, but they wanted more technical writing and background in the proposal,” Currey said. “We’re going to take the comments that NASA gave us last year, and resubmit it.”

Images: NASA. 1. Rachel Sherman in Superman gear. 2. The “Weightless Wonder” in microgravity mode.

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 | 14 Sep 2009 | 4:44 pm

It's Raining Less Than Scientists Thought (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Raindrops just broke their own speed record: they can drop faster than anyone thought possible.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Sep 2009 | 4:25 pm

Fake Video Can Convince Witnesses to Give False Testimony

People believe what they see, and they’re willing to punish each other for it — apparently even when what they’re seeing is a fake video that doesn’t jibe with real-life experience.

Psychologists have long known that our memories of past events can be influenced by misleading information, but now they’ve proven that doctored video evidence can convince people to offer false eyewitness testimony. In a study of 60 college students performing a computerized gambling task, nearly half were willing to testify that they saw their partner cheat in real life after watching fabricated video evidence. Of students who were told that video evidence existed but didn’t watch the footage themselves, only 10 percent gave false testimony.

“Our participants were willing to sign a statement to say that they witnessed another person cheating in an experiment, when in fact, that person never cheated,” psychologist Kimberley Wade of the University of Warwick wrote in an e-mail. “So we now know that digitally altered footage can change people’s perceptions of an event, and have serious consequences for how people behave.” Wade and her team published their findings this month in Applied Cognitive Psychology.

Most eyewitness studies have been carried out in a setting where there were no consequences for reporting that a person had cheated, but in this study, participants were told that their partner would be disciplined for cheating if they signed the testimony.

In the study, each student was paired with a member of the research team disguised as another participant. The pair sat side-by-side and played a computerized gambling game, which involved betting fake money based on the likelihood of answering a multiple choice question correctly. Each person was in charge of keeping track of their own wins; when a subject correctly answered a question, they got to take money from a shared “bank,” and when they incorrectly answered a question, they had to put money back. Participants were told that at the end of the game, the person who made the most money would win a prize.

After the gambling concluded, the researchers used Final Cut Pro to alter a video recording of the game and make it look like the partner had cheated. Five to seven hours after the first task, students were called back to the lab and told that their absent partner was suspected of cheating. One-third of the students were also told that the researchers had video evidence of the cheating, and another one-third got to watch the doctored video themselves.

Before asking participants to sign an eyewitness testimony, the researchers emphasized that no one should testify unless they were 100 percent sure they had seen their partner cheat, and they emphasized that the cheater would be punished. Students who watched the fake video were far more likely to give false testimony than students who heard about the video or were simply told that their partner was suspected of cheating.

When asked to describe what they had seen, some participants even invented memories. “One subject told us that the other person had acted suspiciously and taken money from the bank when there was clearly a cross on the screen,” Wade wrote. “So we are confident that a significant portion of people who saw the fake video genuinely believed—or even falsely remembered—that they had witnessed the cheating.”

The scientists offered several possible explanations for why video had such a strong effect on memory. “First, people still view photos and videos as reliable records of the past,” psychology graduate student Robert Nash wrote in an e-mail. “Around 75 percent of the people who participate in our research know something about photo or video editing software, yet many of the people in this study were convinced by our edited footage.”

In addition, watching a person cheat on video makes the cheating incident feel familiar, and when an event feels familiar, it’s often confused for something that was really witnessed. “So our participants may have misremembered seeing our confederate cheat,” Nash wrote, “because when they were asked about the cheating incident they may have thought, ‘Well, now that you mention it, that sounds kind of familiar to me, so perhaps I did see that happen.’” Upon debriefing, participants in the study expressed complete surprise that the video had been fake and that their memory was false.

“I believe these results, definitely,” said memory expert Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, who was not involved in the research. “The whole body of work with doctored photos and videos is kind of scary; it is very visual and it is powerful evidence. And now we know it can contaminate the memory and make someone accuse another person of doing something wrong.”

In an era of easily manipulated photo and video evidence, the researchers say their findings have major implications for law enforcement officials and policy-makers, adding yet more evidence that eyewitness testimony cannot always be accepted as fact.

“We need to remember that witnesses’ memories should be treated like fingerprints, DNA, and other physical evidence — with a lot of care,” wrote Wade. “If we don’t treat them with care, then we run the risk of contamination.”

Image 1: Flickr/joegratz. Images 2 and 3: Kimberley Wade and Robert Nash/ University of Warwick.

See Also:

Follow us on Twitter @wiredscience, and on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 14 Sep 2009 | 4:02 pm

Male bass in many US rivers feminized, study finds (AP)

AP - Government scientists figure that one out of five male black bass in American river basins have egg cells growing inside their sexual organs, a sign of how widespread fish feminizing has become.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:54 pm

The Science in ‘Fringe’ 2nd Season

The popular show is one of the few that looks to put science back into sci-fi.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:30 pm

Apollo Moon Rocks Go Missing

Many of the rocks brought back from the Apollo missions have been stolen, sold or lost.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Sep 2009 | 2:00 pm

Depression can affect cancer survival: researchers

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Depression can affect the likelihood of surviving cancer, but there is no clear association yet with how quickly the cancer progresses, according to a report published on Monday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Sep 2009 | 1:30 pm

Study: Showerheads Loaded With Bacteria

Showerheads harbor disease-causing bacteria.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 1:00 pm

Birds Eat Bats

The birds "specifically and systematically searched for and killed bats for food."
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 1:00 pm

Dangerous Pathogens Live in Showerheads

Showerheads can harbor harmful bacteria -- and cleaning them doesn't help.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Sep 2009 | 1:00 pm

Ancient Aphrodite Figures Hint at Pagan Resistance

Figurines of Aphrodite found buried in ancient city; hint pagan beliefs still around despite spread of Christianity.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 11:58 am

'Ice explorer' ready for launch

Europe's ice monitoring satellite is likely to launch from Kazakhstan in February next year, officials tell BBC News.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Sep 2009 | 11:40 am

Survey: Media Accuracy at New Low

Just 29 percent of U.S. adults think news organizations generally get the facts right.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 11:27 am

Brilliant 360-Degree Panorama of the Milky Way

You can see the entire Milky Way at once in this panorama painstakingly stitched together by French photographers.

A much larger, zoomable version available from the European Southern Observatory lets you visit any part of the galaxy.

Working in the dark, dry highlands of Chile with a Nikon D3 digital camera (50 mm lens open at f5.6), Serge Brunier and Frédéric Tapissier patched together 1,200 photos of the night sky into the composite that you see above.

While many of the most stunning space images come from huge telescopes or Hubble, Brunier wanted to create photographs of space that were closer to the commonplace human experience of just going outside and looking at the sky.

“I wanted to show a sky that everyone can relate to — with its constellations, its thousands of stars, with names familiar since childhood, its myths shared by all civilizations since Homo became Sapiens,” Brunier said in a release. “The image was therefore made as man sees it, with a regular digital camera under the dark skies in the Atacama Desert and on La Palma.”

Each exposure was six minutes long, and the project extended over several months.

Image & Video: Serge Brunier and Frédéric Tapissier.

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 | 14 Sep 2009 | 11:16 am

Giant Panda Calls Reveal Sex Talk

The bleat calls of frisky giant pandas have just been deciphered.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:35 am

NASA Rocket to Create Clouds Tuesday

A rocket experiment set to launch Tuesday aims to create artificial clouds at the outermost layers of Earth's atmosphere.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:25 am

Science Video for Kids from They Might Be Giants

It's an upbeat ode to the periodic table of elements and how they form our world.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:18 am

DIY Pics From the Edge of Space for Just $150

For $148 in off-the-shelf parts, two Massachusetts Institute of Technology students have taken pictures from the edge of space.

Justin Lee and Olivery Yeh’s DIY dirigible launched on September 2 from Sturbridge, Massachusetts and rose 18 miles before popping. It was recovered, photographs intact, upon landing in a nearby construction site.

To carry the camera, a second-hand Canon A470 running open-source software that shot every five seconds, the students used a $30 weather balloon filled with helium from a party favor store. A prepaid cell phone with enabled AccuTracking service sent GPS coordinates via text message. Protecting the apparatus from minus 50 degree Fahrenheit stratospheric chill was a styrofoam beer cooler and pocket hand warmers.

Photographs and a full parts list can be found on the students’ website.

Note: This is a good moment to honor Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer, who on a spring morning in 1931 became the first humans to enter the stratosphere. Ten miles up their descent valves malfunctioned, meaning they couldn’t come back down until sunset, when cooling air would shrink the balloon.

“I have never come across a case where a balloon never descended,” said Piccard, who inspired the cartoon character Cuthbert Calculus. “The only question is when will we descend?”

See Also:

Images: 1337arts

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 14 Sep 2009 | 9:50 am

It's Raining Less Than Scientists Thought

Researchers show that raindrops break a supposed speed limit.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 9:37 am

Natural History Museum's Darwin Centre opens

Natural History Museum's £78m cocoon will allow the public to watch – and quiz – scientists in action

Millions of plant and animal specimens will go on display in giant eight-storey cocoon tomorrow as the Natural History Museum's new £78m Darwin Centre opens its doors to the public.

Up to 2,500 people a day will also be able to see the museum's scientists in action, working in once-concealed hi-tech laboratories and among 3.3 kilometres of cabinets.

Some of the glass-fronted laboratories will be linked by intercom so visitors can quiz the experts about what they are doing.

The opening celebrations were attended Prince William and Sir David Attenborough. "The Natural History Museum and the dedicated people who work here are at the very forefront of research, seeking out through study of the natural world the answers to the great questions of our age," the prince said.

"Its collections, and what it achieves in the areas of research and education make it – quite simply – the envy of the world. This magnificent new wing will further enhance the museum's peerless reputation."

Attenborough also addressed guests. "Never has it been so important to understand the diversity of life on Earth and how it is changing, if we are to tackle many of the issues that humans face today," he said. "The Darwin Centre will inspire the next generation of naturalists and scientists through its combination of scientific expertise, specimens, public dialogue, film and interactive media. It will enable all of us to explore the wonders of our world and investigate its secrets."

The new Darwin Centre, by Scandinavian architects CF Møller, holds 17m entomology specimens and 3m botany specimens. At 60 metres long, 12 metres wide, 300 millimetres thick and covering 3,500 square metres, it is the largest sprayed concrete curved structure in Europe.

It offers 1,040 square metres of laboratory space, doubling the size of the museum's lab areas. The top three floors are devoted to spectacular new galleries, where some of the oldest and most precious objects in the collection, among them specimens brought back by Charles Darwin from the Beagle voyage, will be displayed.

Rachel Williams

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 | 14 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am

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