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Implantable Defibrillators May Not Benefit Women With Heart FailureImplantable cardioverter-defibrillators do not appear to be associated with a reduced risk of death in women with advanced heart failure, according to a meta-analysis of previously published research.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Possible Genetic Factor For Male Infertility IdentifiedResearchers have discovered a gene involved with the production of sperm that may contribute to male infertility, and lead to new approaches to male contraception.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Changes In Earth's Ozone Layer Predicted To Increase UV Radiation In Tropics And AntarcticaPhysicists have discovered that changes in the Earth's ozone layer due to climate change will reduce the amount of ultraviolet radiation in northern high latitude regions such as Siberia, Scandinavia and northern Canada. Other regions of the Earth, such as the tropics and Antarctica, will instead face increasing levels of UV radiation.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Mini-Comets Within A Comet Lit Up 17P/Holmes During MegaoutburstAstronomers have discovered multiple fragments ejected during the largest cometary outburst ever witnessed. Images and animations show fragments rapidly flying away from the nucleus of comet 17P/Holmes.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Reading Kafka Improves Learning, Suggests Psychology StudyReading a book by Franz Kafka -- or watching a film by director David Lynch -- could make you smarter. According to research by psychologists, exposure to surrealism enhances the cognitive mechanisms that oversee implicit learning functions.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Necklace For Long-term And Robust Cardiac Monitoring In Daily LifeScientists have developed a prototype of an electrocardiogram or ECG necklace. The technology enables long-term monitoring of cardiac performance and allows patients to remain ambulatory and continue their routine daily activities while under observation. The embedded beat detection algorithm copes with the artefacts inherent to ambulatory monitoring systems.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Researcher Trips Amputees In Effort To Develop Improved Prosthetic LegsAn engineer has been tripping amputees in a laboratory study that seeks to improve the safety of prosthetic legs by developing a reliable and responsive stumble detection system.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am Unique Cancer Profile Of Hispanic/Latino AmericansReport finds Hispanic/Latino Americans are less likely than non-Hispanic whites to develop and die from all cancers combined as well as the four most common cancers, but have higher rates of several cancers related to infections and are more likely to have cancer detected at a later stage.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am Sophisticated Telescope Camera Debuts With Peek At Nest Of Black HolesLess than two months after they inaugurated the world's largest telescope, astronomers have used one of the world's most advanced telescopic instruments to gather images of the heavens. The handful of "first light" images include a yellow and blue orb-like structure that depicts our Milky Way galaxy, home to thousands of black holes -- including, at its core, a "supermassive" black hole thought to be as massive as 4 million suns put together.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am Diabetes Drug Kills Cancer Stem Cells In Combination Treatment In MiceIn tumors formed by human breast cancer cells in mice, a diabetes drug was more effective than chemotherapy alone in prolonging remission. Mice appeared tumor-free for the two months after treatment before the end of the experiment. The drug, metformin, appears to selectively kill cancer stem cells in culture dishes and in mice.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am Astronomers find rocky planet outside solar system (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 4:28 am Scientists say "super-Earth" has rocky surfaceLONDON (Reuters) - Detailed data about the smallest planet ever found outside our solar system suggest it is a rocky "super-Earth" world very like our own, European astronomers said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 3:40 am Scientists say "super-Earth" has rocky surface (Reuters)Reuters - Detailed data about the smallest planet ever found outside our solar system suggest it is a rocky "super-Earth" world very like our own, European astronomers said on Wednesday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 3:40 am Rolls-Royce plans nuclear plants with EDF (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 3:07 am The Nation's weather (AP)AP - Wet weather was forecast to cause flooding problems in the South on Wednesday due to a nearly stagnant storm system, while the North would remain under mild weather.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:52 am Doctors in climate change health warning (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:48 am Mafia 'sank ships of toxic waste'A ship that a mafia informant says contains radioactive waste is found off the coast of Italy.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:10 am At Last! First Real Evidence for a Rocky Exoplanet
There’s finally proof that Earth-like planets can exist outside our solar system: Scientists have managed to measure the mass of exoplanet COROT-7b, revealing that it’s the first exoplanet with a confirmed density similar to our own. “This is a day we’ve been waiting for for a long time,” said exoplanet researcher Sara Seager of the Massachusettes Institute of Technology, who was not involved in the research. “It’s the first definitive rocky world beyond our solar system, and it’s opening a new gate for our research. We’re really, really excited about it.” When astronomers discovered COROT-7b in February, they couldn’t determine its mass because they didn’t have precise enough measurements of the velocity of its star. Now, using 70 hours of observation data from the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph, scientists from the European Southern Observatory have calculated that the exoplanet is only about five times more massive than Earth. Combined with the planet’s known radius, which is almost twice that of Earth, the new mass measurement makes COROT-7b the first exoplanet with a known density similar to Earth’s. Most exoplanets are gaseous giants that resemble Jupiter or Neptune. But if extraterrestrial life exists in the universe, Seager said we’re most likely to find it on a small, rocky exoplanet with a density similar to Earth. “The holy grail in exoplanets, and maybe in all of science, is to find another planet like Earth, a planet that has signs of life on it,” she said.
Unfortunately, with daytime temperatures above 2000 degrees Fahrenheit and nighttime temps of minus 200, the environment on COROT-7b is probably too extreme to support life. “But it’s helping to tell us that these things must be pretty common,” Seager said. Indeed, scientists have found about a dozen small exoplanets that might be Earth-like, including a sister planet called COROT-7c that they discovered while studying COROT-7b. “But CORROT-7b is the only one with a measurement of the mass,” astrophysicist Claire Moutou of the Laboratory of Astrophysics of Marseilles in France wrote in an email. Moutou and her colleagues presented their results Wednesday at the European Planetary Science Congress in Germany.
“The stellar activity (presence of changing starspots on its surface) generates a strong scattering of the measurements,” Moutou said. “It was pretty hard to disentangle the effect of stellar activity from the planet signal.” In addition to being the first rocky exoplanet, COROT-7b also orbits closer to its host star than any other known exoplanet. Whipping around at a record-breaking speed of 750,000 kilometers per hour, the planet’s extreme environment may include lava or boiling oceans on its surface. Because this is the first exoplanet of its kind, researchers don’t know quite what to expect. Just last week, before the announcement of COROT-7b’s mass, astronomer Greg Loughlin of the University of California, Santa Cruz, told Wired how exciting it would be to find such a planet. “We have no idea what a five-Earth-mass planet is like,” Loughlin said. “It could be an oversized version of Earth, it could be a super-Earth. Or alternately, it could be a sub-Neptune or a sub-Uranus. It really is the last basic fundamental kind of planet that we have not had any kind of a look at.” Wired.com staff writer Alexis Madrigal contributed to this report. Image 1: Artist’s impression of COROT-7b, ESO/L. Calcada. Image 2: The planet-hosting star COROT-7, located 500 light years away near the constellation of Monoceros, ESO/Digitized Sky Survey. See Also:
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Source: Wired: Wired Science | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:00 am North America backs plan to cut greenhouse gases (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 10:05 pm Strange Dwarf Planet Has Red Spot (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - A dwarf planet in our solar system, called Haumea, is known for its unusual shape and fast spin. Now astronomers have discovered another distinguishing feature: a dark red spot which appears to be richer in minerals and organic compounds than the surrounding icy surface.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 9:15 pm Chimps Catch Yawns from CartoonIt doesn't even take a real chimp to pass on the yawning bug.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 7:08 pm UFOlogy: Aliens and Hucksters Among UsWith some who are seeking to profit from the belief in UFOs, skeptics may have to be even more wary of dubious claims and evidence.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 7:03 pm Strange Dwarf Planet Has Red SpotThe dwarf planet Haumea has a dark, red spot, scientists findSource: Livescience.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 7:03 pm Comet Outburst Spawns Mini-CometsA comet recently spewed out a cluster of mini comets in a huge outburst that was the largest ever witnessed by astronomers.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 7:03 pm Artificial Nose Knows Bad Gas
Tests with gases diluted to different concentrations and tests in air with varying humidity suggest the nose knows one toxic chemical from another. The trick, Suslick says, was designing a nose of many parts, in which each dot of dye could undergo a strong reaction. The nose could interpret the collection of reactions together, akin to how the brain interprets a mixture of molecules as one scent. “This is the exact opposite of a lock-and-key model,” Suslick says. “Mother Nature evolved an array detector — no one response is specific, but the overall pattern of response is specific.” Other approaches typically rely on less-specific reactions, Suslick says. Those techniques have a harder time distinguishing among some molecules and nosing out chemicals at low concentrations. Previous research by Suslick produced a similar nose that could distinguish among 18 commercial beers. Image: Kenneth Suslick, UIUC See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 15 Sep 2009 | 6:40 pm What's the Best Single Food to Eat?There's no good answer to this one, because we humans need a range of nutrients from a variety of foods to be healthy.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 6:36 pm Working as a team increases pain enduranceTeam players can tolerate twice as much pain as those who work alone, according to research that throws fresh light on some of the most wince-inducing feats in sporting history. Researchers at Oxford University found that members of its rowing team had a greater pain threshold after training together than when they performed the same exercises individually. Working as a group is thought to boost the rush of endorphins, a feel-good chemical that is released in the brain and helps dampen down feelings of pain, the scientists said. The effect might have played a part in an extraordinary FA Cup final between Manchester City and Birmingham in 1956. The City goalkeeper, Bert Trautmann, broke his neck after diving for the ball, but went on to make a series of crucial saves to help his team win the game 3-1. Writing in the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters, the researchers speculate that a similar surge of endorphins might underlie the feel-good sensations people experience when they dance together, play team sports or take part in religious rituals. Emma Cohen, who led the study, said it was unclear why people should experience a greater rush of endorphins when they were part of a group. The study involved 12 male rowers from the Oxford boat race squad. In the first part of the experiment, two teams of six rowed continuously for 45 minutes in the gym. Their rowing machines were linked up to create a "virtual boat" that demanded they all row in synchrony. In the next training session, the rowers performed the same exercise as individuals, unobserved by others on the team. Between five and ten minutes after each training session, the researchers measured the rowers' pain thresholds by putting a blood pressure cuff around the arm and inflating it until it became uncomfortably painful. Exercise is known to release endorphins, which act as a temporary painkiller. "Compared with training alone, group training significantly increases pain threshold," the researchers write. "We can rule out the possibility that this effect might have been due to elevated work rates ... because the rowers' power output was not significantly different." The researchers repeated the study the following week to validate the findings. "Previous research suggests that synchronised physical activity such as laughter, music and many religious activities makes people happier and is part of the bonding process," said Robin Dunbar, a co-author and head of the institute of cognitive and evolutionary anthropology at Oxford. "What this study shows us is that synchrony alone seems to ramp up the production of endorphins so as to heighten the effect when we do these activities in groups," he added. 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 | 15 Sep 2009 | 6:32 pm Bad Veins Get Murderer a Reprieve on ExecutionConvicted murderer gets 1-week reprieve on death sentence after his veins found unsuitable for by lethal injection.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 6:21 pm Schwarzenegger signs order boosting clean power (AP)AP - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order Tuesday giving California the nation's most aggressive alternative energy standards, requiring utilities to get a third of their power from renewable sources by 2020.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 6:07 pm Validity of 'Repressed Memories' Challenged in CourtThere is no scientific consensus that people can completely forget traumatic events and recall them years later.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 5:45 pm Doctors warn on climate failureFailure to agree a new UN climate deal in December will usher in a "global health catastrophe", according to medical leaders.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 5:31 pm Report: Great Lakes toxic cleanups lagging badly (AP)AP - Cleanup of the most polluted sites in the Great Lakes is moving so slowly it will take 77 more years to finish the job at the existing pace, according to a federal report.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 5:09 pm Abortions may pose risk to future babies, according to study• Later children could be low-weight, says study Women who have an abortion may run an increased risk of subsequently giving birth to premature or low-weight babies, according to a study that will further fuel the abortion debate. The review of a large amount of research, carried out in Canada, is likely to be seized on by the anti-abortion lobby as evidence that termination is damaging to future babies. However, the authors say there could be a number of reasons for their findings, of which the most likely is physical damage to the cervix caused by older methods of abortion. The study found that women who had an abortion in the first or second trimester had a 35% increased risk of a low birth weight baby and a 36% raised risk of a pre-term baby in later pregnancies. Dr Prakesh Shah, author of the review, published today in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said there was a need for better methods of terminating pregnancy and women needed better information. "When a woman comes for induced termination of pregnancy, she should be counselled about that risk. At least she will be able to make an informed choice," he said. Shah, of the department of paediatrics at Mount Sinai hospital in Toronto, said he was anxious that the conclusions of the review should not be misrepresented by anti-abortion groups. "I think it should not be used as a way of saying, this is bad and we should not be doing this kind of thing. There is an association which we should be aware of, and we should let mothers be aware. I don't want unintended pregnancies to increase." The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said it wished to "underline the importance of support for women's choices, and the need for sensitivity in counselling women about termination of pregnancy in line with current research evidence. Abortion remains an essential part of women's healthcare services." The college called for further studies, but added that it would take the new research into consideration when updating its abortion guidelines. The Toronto group has been looking into all the reasons why babies are born premature and underweight. The researchers pulled together evidence from 37 studies around the world, carried out between 1965 and 2001, to find out whether previous abortion might be one of the factors. They discovered that in women who had undergone more than one abortion, there was a 72% increased risk for low birth weight and 93% for prematurity. There was no increased risk that the baby would be small for gestational age. Shah said the process of termination could cause some damage to the cervix, which has to be dilated, or to the womb. "Newer methods are probably safer. However, we could not find any data on which to base that assumption because they have not been studied," he said. In particular, drug-induced abortion, or using a drug to soften and ripen the cervix before mechanical dilation, may prevent damage. Many women with a history of abortion tend to be unmarried, young and from socio-economically disadvantaged groups, the paper notes, but the researchers believe they have allowed for this in their calculations. Professor Philip Steer, editor in chief of BJOG, said it was important that the study was properly interpreted. "The most important message is not that this should be used in any way to prevent women having a termination of pregnancy. "The effect has to be balanced against the serious effects of forcing women to continue with unwanted pregnancies," he said. "Any medical procedure is likely to have side-effects." 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 | 15 Sep 2009 | 5:05 pm How clean is your showerhead?Showerheads can harbour harmful germs, scientists have discovered. TV cleaning expert Aggie Mackenzie offers her top tips on cleaning them US scientists have found that showers can harbour the harmful germ myobacterium avium, which can cause lung infections if inhaled. What's the best way to keep your showerhead clean? Over to TV cleaning expert Aggie Mackenzie. . . ▶ Don't panic! Avoid antibacterial sprays. They kill good as well as bad bacteria and allow bugs to develop a resistance to cleaning chemicals. Instead . . . ▶ Take an old pan and fill it with boiling water and vinegar. ▶ Unscrew the top of the showerhead and soak it for 20 minutes. ▶ Replace firmly. ▶ Repeat every couple of months, and more frequently for showers not in regular use. 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 | 15 Sep 2009 | 5:05 pm The $150 Space CameraNASA might want to take lessons from MIT students Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:48 pm Return-to-moon plan gets boost on Capitol Hill (AP)AP - NASA's weakened return-to-the-moon program got a lift Tuesday on Capitol Hill.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:41 pm Intersex Fish Numbers Swell in U.S. RiversMale fish with female anatomy are appearing in river basins across the United States.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 pm 48-Pound Trout: World Record or Genetic Cheat?
In an age of biotechnological juicing, not even the easygoing pastime of fishing is free from controversies over artificial enhancement. On September 5, Saskatchewan fisherman Sean Konrad caught a 48-pound, world-record rainbow trout. The fish came from Lake Diefenbacher, where trout genetically engineered to grow extra-big escaped from a fish farm nine years ago. The previous world record was held by Sean’s twin brother Adam, who pulled a 43-pound, 10-ounce rainbow trout from Lake Diefenbacher in 2007. That catch sparked online debate over the legitimacy of Lake Diefenbacher’s farm-born, genetically-engineered rainbows. Technically known as triploids, they’re designed with three sets of chromosomes, making them sterile and channeling energies normally spent reproducing towards growth. In 2007, on a message board of the International Game Fish Association, the angling world’s record- and ethics-keeping body, some fishermen argued that triploids were unnatural, as divorced from the sport’s history as Barry Bonds’ home runs were from Hank Aaron’s. The IGFA refused to make a distinction between natural and GM fish. Neither would they distinguish between species caught in their traditional waters and those introduced into new, growth-friendly environments, such as largemouth bass whose extra-large ancestors were imported from Florida to California in the 1960s. But to purists, there was a difference between transplantation and outright manufacture. The Konrad brothers’ response on the message board was curt: “Stop crying and start fishing.” Now they’ve caught another record-breaking trout. Or have they?
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Image: FishingGeeks Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes, Wired Science on Twitter.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:37 pm NASA's Spirit Rover Stuck in Martian SandMars rover Spirit hasn't moved since May, and it may be stuck for good.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:10 pm Scary: Fake Videos Alter Perception of RealityWatching a fake video can convince some people that they witnessed an event that didn't happen, says a new studySource: Livescience.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:47 pm Wimbledon Wants to Know: Are Pigeons Pests?Most pest definitions would surely include feral pigeons.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:15 pm Swine flu hid out in pigs for a decade, expert saysWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new pandemic H1N1 influenza was circulating undetected in pigs for at least a decade before it jumped to people, and much better surveillance is needed among both pigs and people, an expert said on Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:10 pm WATCH: Planets Shed Light on Earth's WeatherOther planets can serve as weather labs for scientists studying Earth's climate.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:10 pm SLIDE SHOW: Snake Born With a Foot (and Other Oddities)Not all animals are created equal. Take a look at a snake with a foot and other animal oddities.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Sep 2009 | 11:50 am Congress Faces NASA’s Shaky Future
Congress took its first crack at coming up with a plan for NASA in the wake of an independent report that could mean big changes at the agency — or not. The Augustine committee, as it’s known because of its head, Norm Augustine, sent over a summary of its findings to the Office for Science and Technology Policy last week. It contained five options for human spaceflight — four of them entailing major changes for the Bush-era Constellation program. All of the plans would require upping NASA’s annual budget by $3 billion a year. Nearly all representatives on the House of Representatives’ Committee on Science and Technology focused on the need for more money, but little support was offered for any of the changes to the Constellation program. Representative after representative asked Norm Augustine and his co-author, MIT professor, Edward Crawley, if one of the plans was substantially better than Constellation. Both demurred. Some House members were particularly spirited in their defense of both NASA and the Constellation program, particularly Gabrielle Giffords, a democrat from Arizona, who heads the space and aeronautics subcommittee (and who is married to an astronaut). “Instead of focusing on how to strengthen the exploration program in which we have invested so much time and treasure, they gave only glancing attention to Constellation—even referring to it in the past tense in their summary report and instead spent the bulk of their time crafting alternative options that do little to illuminate the choices confronting Congress and the White House,” she said. The vehemence and more-or-less agreement of the committee that Constellation is still viable means that the Obama administration will have to do some serious work on Capitol Hill, if it wants to make big changes to NASA’s human spaceflight program. It had been widely believed that the administration did want to make such changes, but the strong bi-partisan opposition in the House to pulling the plug on Constellation might make them think twice. The specter of Chinese competition in space was raised again and again, most pointedly by Parker Griffith, a democrat from Alabama. John F. Kennedy and the Apollo program were also mentioned at least a half dozen times a piece. Alternative views of NASA’s mission — like, say, that human exploration could take up an inordinate chunk of the agency’s budget — were excluded from the hearing. Only Vernon Ehlers, Republican from Michigan, was even willing to question the notion of a new space race. “I think the era of bragging rights of having done something first is over,” Ehlers said. So, the battle will likely remain over what kind of human spaceflight program NASA will conduct, and with what money. On that score, Mike Griffin, former NASA administrator, lined up firmly in support of Constellation, the program he began.
In a nicely choreographed question-and-answer session with Giffords, Griffin chipped away at the fundamental soundness of the Augustine report. Griffin says that he was provided their methodology and that it was unrealistically hard on NASA and soft on the new options it presented. A consistent theme for Griffin and the pro-Constellation committee members was that NASA’s already sunk a lot of money into Constellation. That’s led to technical “maturity,” which makes current cost estimates for the program more realistic than new ideas. Griffin was also highly skeptical of the ability of commercial space firms to provide human transport to low-earth orbit. “At this point, betting the farm on commercial transportation is unwise,” Griffin said. “I am one who believes that — as with airplanes and air transport — there will be a day when the US government as one option can turn to commercial providers but that day is not yet and it’s not soon.” The key question that emerged from the hearing is whether or not any of the new options presented by the Augustine panel are exciting enough to ditch Constellation or even some pieces of it. “Good public policy would tell us that there needs to be a compelling reason to scrap what we’ve invested our time and money in over the years,” said the chairman of the House committee, Bart Gordon, in opening the hearing. After three and a half hours of testimony, it seemed clear that most members of the House committee were not so compelled. Wired Science liveblogged this important meeting. The minute-by-minute updates are archived below. 11:08 AM: Bart Gordon, the Science and Technology committee chairman and Tennessee Democrat, opens up the meeting with a shot across the Augustine committee bow. “Good public policy would tell us that there needs to be a compelling reason to scrap what we’ve invested our time and money in over the years,” Gordon said, perhaps implying that he hadn’t seen any compelling reasons in the Augustine summary report. He wants to know if there are any “technical” or safety show-stoppers. 11:15 AM: Ralph Hall, ranking Republican on the committee also hammered on safety, particularly with regard to commercial space alternatives. “Commercial service should not be considered a cheap substitute for lack of national leadership in human spaceflight,” Hall said. “You get what you pay for,” he concluded. The nearly explicit message from Hall’s statement is that you can’t expect NASA-level safety from commercial companies. (He also briefly lobbied for more money for NASA.) 11:18 AM: Augustine takes the stand. He’s going to summarize the committee’s summary of its report. 11:23 AM: “From a safety standpoint, we’re not prepared to undertake a program to go directly to Mars at this point in time. There’s a great deal of additional homework to be done,” Augustine says, noting that some people don’t agree with him. 11:25 AM: “The reluctant bottom line conclusion of our committee is that our current program as it’s being pursued is not executable,” Augustine says. 11:27 AM: “We have sought to be relatively conservative in our estimates of cost, schedule and performance,” Augustine says. “We do that because it reflects our dissatisfaction at our record of doing these things in the past. Estimating that is.” 11:29 AM: MIT professor, Edward Crawley will be joining Norm Augustine at the witness stand. 11:31 AM: Boom! Constellation is “fatally flawed” with the current budget, Augustine says. But he also says that they say “no problems that appear to be unsolvable given the proper engineering talent, attention, and the funds to solve them.” Then, he turns over the mic to Crawley. 11:33 AM: Constellation has problems, Crawley says, but that they didn’t see any of them — including the “famous vibration problem” in Ares-I or the noise environment in Orion — as insurmountable. 11:35 AM: Chairman Gordon is right on point and very forthright. “We do have a program that’s been authorized we’ve spent billions of dollars on,” he says. “I don’t think you trade what you know for what you don’t know if it’s equal. Are you prepared to say that one or all of the options are substantially better than Constellation and worth having a major turn?” 11:37 AM: Augustine punts, largely, on that question. “We believe the existing program would be a fine program,” he says. But Gordon presses on saying, “That wasn’t really an answer to the question.” 11:40 AM: The conversation shifts as Republican Hall takes the floor. He asks Augustine how to “close the gap” between when the shuttle stops flying and when we’d have a near option for reaching near Earth orbit. Augustine says that the only way is to extend the Shuttle’s life. 11:43 AM:Augustine makes an interesting point. The shuttle program is bearing a lot of the general overhead costs of NASA. If you shutdown shuttle, then the costs would just go somewhere else, probably to Constellation. He says that the net cost of continuing to fly the Shuttle a couple of times per year is about $2.5 billion. 11:46 AM: Crawley adds that they looked at lots of options and “none of them closed the gap from above.” With a smile at the committee, he says “The time to close the gap was with investments in 2008 and 2009 and 2010, and here we are at the verge of 2010 and no expenditure will accelerate significantly a new US capability much earlier than 2015, 16, 17.” 11:48 AM:“Your report seems to treat all the potential launch options the same. I guess, how did the panel evaluate the crew panel safety aspect of any option other than the Constellation?” Hall asks. 11:50 AM: Augustine says safety was their top priority. Then, he provides a a bit of insight into their methodology. “We are skeptical of comparing analytical safety calculations with proven safety calculations,” he said. 11:53 AM:Representative Brad Miller, Democrat, North Carolina delivers a mini-speech asking why NASA contracts out so much work, saying it’d be cheaper and better to bring more people in house. Then he asks why the Augustine report suggests that contractors would close the gap faster. 11:56 AM:“It’s our view that NASA would be better served rather than trucking hardware to people in low earth orbit to be pursuing an energetic exploration program,” Augustine says. “Let the private sector deliver the mail, if you will.” But he doesn’t really explain why, specifically. 11:59 AM: Pete Olson, Republican from Texas, is up. “You threw cold water in our face and got us to look at this program realistically,” he says, appreciatively, it seems. Then, he asks, “What, in your opinion, is the importance of human spaceflight to this nation?” 12:02 PM: “The programs have to be justified, we think to a large degree, on a tangible basis. Namely to lay the path forward for humans to move into the solar system,” Augustine answers (no doubt to cheers from Wired Science exploration nerds). “In so doing, we establish our nation as a leader in an important and challenging area.” 12:06 PM: Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat from Arizona, head of the space subcommittee, is up. She delivers a short paean to American human spaceflight, then tells Augustine, “I’m pretty angry,” about the report. She says that the report’s main conclusion — that NASA didn’t have enough money — was already well-known. 12:12 PM: Now, Giffords is delivering an impassioned defense of NASA and its engineers and contractors. She says that the panel ducked the main issue, giving “a glancing attention to Constellation, even referring to it in the past tense.” Instead, she thunders, the committee wasted their opportunity “spending the bulk of the time crafting alternative options that do little to illuminate the choices that are really confronting Congress and the White House.” She calls the Augustine report options “cartoons” without detailed cost estimates, etc. (Here’s Gifford’s full statement, which she posted to her website.) 12:15 PM: “In the absence of mismanagement or technological showstoppers… none of which the Augustine panel has indicated has occurred in this program. Can any of us justifying canceling [Constellation]? I know I can’t justify doing this,” Giffords concludes. 12:17 PM: Ranking Republican Hall calls Giffords’ talk, “a great statement.” 12:19 PM: Augustine defends his committee, saying, “I respect your feelings, but question your facts.” He says that no one is “recommending” that Constellation should be canceled, and that they were merely presenting options to the current program. 12:21 PM: Dana Rohrabacher, Republican from California, is also taking Augustine to task. “Constellation is a perfectly good program, we’re just $3 billion short,” Rohrabacher said. Then he rails on about Federal spending saying, “We’ve been throwing a lot of money around in this city, but we’re shortchanging our space program.” Finally, he chides Augustine and his panel, “I had been hoping we’d be getting more creative options from you people.” 12:25 PM: Marcia Fudge, Democrat from Ohio, asks whether or not the Augustine commission is recommending that Ares-I be stopped. Augustine dodges and says that it’s an option. 12:27 PM: If NASA doesn’t get more money, “It will be a program that will inspire very few people,” Augustine says. 12:29 PM: Vernon Ehlers, Republican from Michigan, supports the Augustine commission, noting that Giffords is married to an astronaut and saying Augustine and Crawley haven’t “deserved” the criticism they’ve gotten from the committee. 12:32 PM: “I think the era of bragging rights of having done something first is over,” Ehlers says. He sounds eminently reasonable in making a plea for more international cooperation. 12:35 PM: Parker Griffith, Democrat from Alabama, is up. He represents the area around Marshall Space Flight Center, which stands to lose a lot if Constellation is substantially changed or canceled. He says that America needs to “meet the challenge of China” in spaceflight, saying, “I will, in fact, submit this is a national security issue.” (He mentioned China half a dozen times, asking Americans to imagine “their equivalent of Walter Cronkite” describing a Chinese moon landing.) 12:42 PM: “We do think that NASA could conduct a sensible program,” with $3 billion per year, Augustine says, either with Constellation or without it. 12:44 PM: Michael McCaul, Republican from Texas, throws his weight behind the Constellation program, a bit more subtly. 12:46 PM: Donna Edwards, Democrat from Maryland, said that she supported Representative Giffords’ remarks, then chided the committee for the dour message it sounded in the media. “It’s hard to regroup,” she said, and get positive momentum going again for human spaceflight. 12:50 PM: The real fireworks could still be coming up! Mike Griffith, the former NASA head, still hasn’t testified. 12:54 PM: “We’ve offered only one conclusion and that’s that the current program does not have enough money to be completed,” Augustine says. “Beyond that, we’ve offered options for you and the President to make decisions.” 12:57 PM: Suzanne Kosmas, Democrat from the Florida district in which Kennedy Space Center is located, says “it is essential that we maintain a professional and viable workforce to ensure the leadership of this nation in our innovation and competitiveness which I think is also critical to national security as we move forward in space exploration.” This is not exactly surprising, but she asks Augustine and Crawley which option “offers the best protection” for the spaceflight workforce she represents. 12:59 PM: Crawley says that “the problem is that the options tend to do different things” to the space workforce. “Variants that extend the Shuttle or Shuttle-heritage systems do tend to preserve the workforce preferentially,” he says. 1:10 PM: After a fiery beginning, the hearing has settled down. Most of the early anger towards Augustine and Crawley seems to have dissipated. Checking in, the Obama administration might have a real uphill battle changing the Constellation program. 1:14 PM: Alan Grayson, Democrat from Florida, quotes Kennedy and asks Augustine and Crawley which of the options is the best, in essence. Crawley and Augustine highlight “The Flexible Path,” an option that would take humans beyond low-earth orbit without landing on the moon. We noted last week that it has seemed like the Augustine commission’s preferred option, though they aren’t explicitly saying so. 1:18 PM: “I commend you for being honest with this body and I wish this body would be honest with itself,” Democrat Brian Baird of Washington State, said. “We can’t on the one hand decry Federal deficits and then on the other hand say ‘It’s just $3 billion.’” Then he asks, “Would you support repealing Federal tax cuts to fund this?” Augustine chuckles and says, “That’s beyond my pay grade, sir.” 1:22 PM: David Wu, Democrat of Oregon, is now up. He asks about international competition and cooperation. Crawley and Augustine say that Americans have to deliver on our obligations for the International Space Station to maintain any sort of credibility with our partners. Wu pushes back, asking whether or not other countries privilege moon landings over other types of space exploration. Crawley says that “our traditional allies” don’t. 1:33 PM: Augustine and Crawley are done. Retired Vice Admiral Joe Dyer of the U.S. Navy, and former NASA head Michael Griffin are now on the hotseat. 1:36 PM: Dyer is the chair of the Aerospace Safety Advisory panel. “We do note that the tempo and time restricted [the Augustine panel's] work on safety,” he says. In particular, he took issue with the new options presented by the panel. “The summary report does reference current plans against a number of conceptual alternatives,” he says. “Powerpoint will always outshine programs of record.” With that in mind, he says that the safety of any new program would have to be much better safety-wise to think about starting over. 1:39 PM: Dyer wants “to be more transparent” about the risks of human spaceflight. “Lives will be lost in the exploration of space.” 1:40 PM: Michael Griffin, glasses far down his nose, begins talking. He seems emotional. He talks about the budget shortfalls of the last two decades. 1:44 PM: “If we had just kept NASA level in constant dollars in 1993 across two presidential administrations, no gains and no cuts.” Griffin says, “We’d have more money in the NASA budget today than the Augustine commission is recommending today.” (I.e. The NASA budget would have more than three billion more dollars in it per year.) 1:46 PM: Dyer made a definitive statement that he did not want to extend the Shuttle. Chairman Gordon asks him whether the Shuttle could just, you know, be flown a few more times. Dyer fires back, “The thing that scares us the most is that kind of serial extension… The time to extend the Shuttle in the panel’s opinion was several years ago when the supply chain was still intact.” 1:49 PM: Now Gordon asks Griffin about the Augustine panel conclusion that three billion more dollars would yield a viable space exploration program. “I do agree with Norm’s conclusion that if $3 billion were added to the program,” Griffin says, “the nation could have a viable space exploration program continuing with the Constellation program and featuring a return to the moon in the mid 2020s.” 1:51 PM: Ranking Republican Hall is now talking about the NASA budget during the 1990s. It seems his point is to blame the Clinton administration for what’s happened to NASA over the years. Griffin is playing along. 1:56 PM: Hall says that Congress “has not backed you up,” speaking directly to Griffin. He ends his statement, “Are you going to comment on that, son?” Griffin says that no President has requested the proper level of funds and “the question is if Congress wants to go along with that.” 2:00 PM: Giffords, Democrat from Arizona, is railing against the Augustine report again. She’s getting into the real issues of the Ares-I rocket versus commercial companies launching humans into low-earth orbit. She’s clearly opposed to commercial enterprises — but asks Griffin and Dyer to comment. 2:06 PM: Griffin agrees with Giffords. “At this point, betting the farm on commercial transportation is unwise,” he says. “I am one who believe that — as with airplanes and air transport — there will be a day when the US government as one option can turn to commercial providers but that day is not yet and it’s not soon.” 2:07 PM: “Are the process and requirements for human rating well-understood by the commercial companies?” Pete Olson from Texas asks. Dyer responds that he feels NASA is moving in a good direction, but that the process of actually transferring human rating knowledge to commercial companies hasn’t begun. 2:12 PM: Olson asks Griffin if the Constellation program should continue in a somewhat leading way. “I agree that we should continue on,” Griffin says, “but we have come to a point where we cannot continue on unless the program is adequately funded.” 2:16 PM: Giffords is back up, after a brief Rohrabacher interlude. She asks Griffin about how accurate NASA cost assessments are. 2:18 PM: Griffin says that he was provided the methodology and that they did not give NASA credit for its improved cost methods. “NASA was not being given credit for good behavior… There was no distinction made between… viewgraph programs and real programs.” He argues NASA knows the Constellation cost estimates better than the Augustine panel could know the costs of the other options. “NASA’s current program has four years of maturity behind it,” Griffin argues. What he doesn’t discuss is that perhaps the Augustine panel, based on what it knows, might not believe that NASA’s costing methodologies really are any better. 2:21 PM: Dyer takes issues with the general costing methods used at government agencies. “We plan for an efficiency that’s not real,” Dyer says. “The cost of a program grows dramatically beyond what good resource management could provide.” He does not answer the question of whether NASA planned unrealistically in its original (and continuing) Constellation costing or not. 2:25 PM: And… It’s over. At least the hearing is. Expect to hear a lot more about the Augustine report’s recommendations and the Constellation program. The entrenched NASA institutions working on Constellation certainly made their power felt through their Representatives today. Griffin and the House members also began to chip away at the methodology that the report used to come to its conclusions. In other words, the Obama administration will not be able to hide behind the Augustine report in making major changes to NASA’s program. They’ll need other evidence and a compelling alternative vision. Well, that, and a way to keep the folks at Johnson, Marshall, and Kennedy Space Center employed so their Congressional representatives support the plan. 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 | 15 Sep 2009 | 11:28 am Itching to stop smoking? Scientists may know whyLONDON (Reuters) - Scientists think they have discovered why people trying to quit smoking often find they are itching to stop.Source: Reuters: Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 10:49 am BLOG: Water Screening Gets Space TestA new nontoxic water testing system gets a try-out on the space station.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Sep 2009 | 10:12 am Web MonitorWhy author Dan Brown doesn't trust religion or scienceSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 10:00 am Scientists find CO2 link to Antarctic ice cap originSINGAPORE (Reuters) - A team of scientists studying rock samples in Africa has shown a strong link between falling carbon dioxide levels and the formation of Antarctic ice sheets 34 million years ago.Source: Reuters: Science News | 15 Sep 2009 | 9:36 am Saturn Lightning Storm Breaks RecordsA nine month-long lightning storm on Saturn is the longest ever recorded.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Sep 2009 | 9:12 am Trading placeMarkets hold the key to the next UN climate treatySource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 9:09 am Rwanda mourns Titus - 'The Gorilla King'Titus "The Gorilla King" - the subject of documentaries and scientific studies throughout his life - dies in Rwanda aged 35.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 8:28 am Bank urges climate 'action now'Rich countries must lift climate change spending and accept responsibility for their historical emissions, says the World Bank.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 8:27 am Romantic adventurers win book prizeThe biographer Richard Holmes has won the Royal Society's annual science book award for The Age of Wonder, his awe-inspiring romp through 18th century discovery The Age of Wonder was always the one the others had to beat to claim this year's prestigious Royal Society science book prize. Its rave reviews were well deserved, and it joined Ben Goldacre's Bad Science as the Bookies' favourite at 3/1. Described by Holmes as a "relay race of science stories", the book follows the upsurge of interest in science across Britain at a time when popular culture was in the hands of the Romantics. The book was an instant hit with our Science Book club. The Nobel prizewinner and book judge, Sir Tim Hunt, praised Holmes's book at a ceremony in London earlier today: "This is a book about real heroes, scientists like Joseph Banks, Humphrey Davy and William Herschel, who changed our understanding of the world forever. It's extremely accessible, wearing its science lightly while placing it within a much wider cultural context. We all found it a wonderful, eclectic and compelling read, completely absorbing, romantic and original. An extraordinary achievement and a truly worthy winner." The Age of Wonder beat a strong shortlist that included three British entries and three from US academics. The book took Holmes nine years to complete. "It was hard but I loved it. It was a re-education. I had a very scientific childhood, but as is often the case, I got streamlined into literature," Holmes told the Guardian. "One of the difficulties is that it's very clear how important team work is in science, how much it is a co-operative enterprise. It required a different approach to my other books." It is 50 years since CP Snow lectured on the divide between art and science. It's a view we need to leave behind, Homes says. "We can't afford two cultures any more. We need to be up on how science is done, and what it tells us." 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 | 15 Sep 2009 | 8:25 am Scale of gorilla poaching exposedAn undercover investigation by a conservation organisation reveals the extent of gorilla poaching in the Republic of Congo.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 8:07 am Pollution fears on China birth defectsBeijing sees another rise in birth defects, mirroring increases elsewhere in China, amid fears pollution is to blame.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 7:52 am Tech Helps Dandelions OozeNew tech helps dandelions produce more latex for use in gloves, tires and drugs.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Sep 2009 | 7:52 am Book that reveals 18th Century innovation nets prizeA book about the great 18th-Century innovators wins this year's Royal Society prize for popular science books.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 6:42 am BLOG: Emotional Outbursts ExplainedExplaining behavior of Congressman Wilson, Serena Williams and Kanye West.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Sep 2009 | 6:26 am NASA Levitates Mice in Magnetic FieldNASA scientists have levitated mice, simulating a zero-gravity environment.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Sep 2009 | 6:00 am Against the grain on Norman BorlaugThe feted agronomist may have saved a billion from starvation, but critics say he planted the seed for future environmental woes Accolades don't come much more gushing than those expressed this week following the death of Norman Borlaug, the agronomist whose lifelong work developing high-yield crops played a major role in heralding the so-called "green revolution" and who has often been credited as the "man who saved a billion lives". Throughout his life he was feted with awards and honours across the world: the Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, India's Padma Vibhushan, to name just a few. But despite the passionate humanitarian zeal that drove much of his work, he certainly had his critics. The criticism was not so much aimed at the man himself, but for the biotech legacy he played such a major role in creating. After all, this was the man who arguably did more than any other to nurture the era of monocrops, GM foods and the intensive use of petrochemical pesticides and fertilisers. He may well have saved a billion people from imminent starvation, but by doing so, say his critics, he also inadvertently helped to plant the seed for future environmental woes. Has there ever been a person in human history whose legacy has pivoted so precariously on the fulcrum between good and bad? We will only know the complete answer in the decades to come once the full implications of the world being so reliant on what are now called "conventional" farming methods have been borne out in the context of overpopulation, peak oil, climate change, water depletion and all the other issues now so inextricably linked to modern farming. Borlaug was not naive on these issues, though. In his Nobel acceptance speech, he recognised that "we are dealing with two opposing forces, the scientific power of food production and the biologic power of human reproduction":
Borlaug said this in 1970 when the global human population stood at 3.7 billion. Today, it is fast approaching seven billion. Modern farming has won the "battle" with population control convincingly. Borlaug also dismissed the sometimes barbed attack of the environmentalists by arguing that his high-yield crops helped protect rainforests because they allowed farmers to continue exploiting existing farmland, therefore avoiding the need to stray into neighbouring forests with their chainsaws and firesticks. As he grew older, though, he became an increasingly fervent supporter of GM technology, arguing that without it the booming human population would face widespread famine. It was another subject for which he often came into combat with some environmentalists. But he saved much of his disdain for the organic farming movement. This is what he told Reason magazine in 2000 when asked what he thought of organic farming:
Borlaug's vision and subsequent success was underpinned by the widespread availability of cheap oil. His solution for feeding the world was one that could only have ever been dreamed up in that post-war era when the energy source was obvious and unquestioned. But times have changed: with Borlaug's passing we are reminded how impatiently we await a successor to dream up the answer to our battle between rising population levels and sustainable food production. 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 | 15 Sep 2009 | 5:00 am Military robot 'hops' over wallsNew 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
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A new sensor sniffs out noxious gases with on-the-nose accuracy, identifying chemicals including ammonia and hydrogen cyanide in less than two minutes, researchers report online September 13 in Nature Chemistry. A handheld, inexpensive prototype of the new nose is already underway. And the researchers hope the device may soon provide chemists or first responders to a chemical spill with a wearable detector, much like the badges worn to detect radiation.
