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New Findings Could Help Hybrid, Electric Cars Keep Their CoolUnderstanding precisely how fluid boils in tiny "microchannels" has led to formulas and models that will help engineers design systems to cool high-power electronics in electric and hybrid cars, aircraft, computers and other devices.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Hurricane Frequency Is Up But Not Their Strength, Say ResearchersIn a new study, researchers have concluded that the number of hurricanes and tropical storms in the Atlantic Basin is increasing, but there is no evidence that their individual strengths are any greater than storms of the past or that the chances of a US strike are up.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Lies My Parents Told Me: Parents Use Deception To Influence Their ChildrenParents say that honesty is the best policy, but they regularly lie to their children as a way of influencing their behavior and emotions, finds new research.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Computer Model Shows Changes In Brain Mechanisms For Cocaine AddictsResearchers are utilizing computational models to study how the brain's chemicals and synaptic mechanisms, or connections between neurons, react to cocaine addiction and what this could mean for future therapies.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Historic Gene Therapy Trial To Treat Alzheimer's DiseaseResearchers are now recruiting volunteers for a national gene therapy trial -- the first study of its kind for the treatment of patients with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Ancient And Bizarre Fish Discovered: New Species Of Ghostshark From California And Baja CaliforniaScientists recently named a new species of chimaera, an ancient and bizarre group of fishes distantly related to sharks, from the coast of Southern California and Baja California, Mexico. The new species is the Eastern Pacific black ghostshark.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Diamonds May Be The Ultimate MRI Probe, Say Quantum PhysicistsDiamonds, it has long been said, are a girl's best friend. But a research team has recently found that the gems might turn out to be a patient's best friend as well.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am Frog Fungus Hammering Biodiversity Of CommunitiesEveryone knows that frogs are in trouble. But a recent analysis of frog surveys done at eight Central American sites shows the situation is worse than thought. Under pressure from an invasive fungus, the frogs in this biodiversity hot spot are undergoing "a vast homogenization." "We're witnessing the McDonaldization of the frog communities," comments the lead author of the new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am Rethinking Alzheimer's Disease And Its Treatment TargetsA new study suggests that the natural repair of myelin in the brain may be the root cause of various neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am Gene Variant Linked To Glaucoma IdentifiedScientists have discovered gene variants for glaucoma in a black population. The finding could lead to future treatments or a cure for this disease, which leads to blindness in two million Americans each year.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am Analysis: Time grows short for climate deal (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 4:31 am 'Fingerprints' identify cheetahsConservationists develop a pioneering technique to identify wild cheetahs by their paw prints.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Sep 2009 | 4:28 am India launches seven satellites: space agency (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 3:39 am Terrorism and nukes top General Assembly agenda (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 3:32 am Hope over skin cancer therapyScientists have presented results of an experimental new drug which in early stage trials has significantly shrunk skin cancer tumours.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Sep 2009 | 3:19 am The Nation's weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 3:12 am Desert dust storm chokes SydneyA large stretch of Australia's east coast, including the largest city Sydney, is shrouded in red dust blown in from the desert outback.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Sep 2009 | 3:10 am Blue whales disturbed by seismic surveys: scientists (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 3:03 am Alaskans bank on annual dividend (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 2:43 am Seismic bangs 'block' whale callsBlue whales change their calls during seismic surveying - usually used to look for oil and gas.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Sep 2009 | 2:35 am Dust storm blankets Sydney as drought bites (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Sep 2009 | 2:31 am War tornPutting gravely-injured soldiers back togetherSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Sep 2009 | 10:29 pm Full Moon Does Not Affect Surgery Outcomes (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - While a full moon can tug on ocean tides and make for a romantic setting, scientists have found no reliable evidence that it triggers suicides or hospital admissions, or facilitates conception, the transformation of werewolves or any of a host of other phenomena often blamed on it.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Sep 2009 | 10:13 pm Full Moon Does Not Affect Surgery OutcomesA new study shows surgery results are the same no matter the moon's phase.Source: Livescience.com | 22 Sep 2009 | 10:04 pm UN chief praises climate summitUN chief Ban Ki-moon says a one-day summit in New York has given fresh impetus to efforts to tackle global warming.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Sep 2009 | 7:49 pm Reader Photo Gallery: Crazy Dust Storm Turns Sydney Red
Dust storms swept over Sydney Wednesday morning, turning the city sky so red, some residents thought they’d left the blue planet.
“It was like waking up on Mars,” Sydney resident Marcus Schappi wrote in an e-mail to Wired.com. Residents of eastern Australia have had to battle these bizarre conditions, because strong winds from the dry interior swept up dust and brought it gusting into the city. “An intense north low pressure area formed and generated gale-force westerly winds during yesterday, and those winds picked up a lot of dust from the very dry interior of the continent,” Barry Hanstrum, New South Wales regional director at the Bureau of Meteorology, told Bloomberg. Even though they knew what was happening, the strangeness of the event understandably caught Sydneysiders off guard. A Twitter hashtag to track the event, #sydneyduststorm, quickly appeared. One @wiredscience follower on Twitter declared it “a leeetle apocalyptic,” and none of them had ever experienced dust storms of a comparable intensity in their lifetimes. Perhaps the only similar event in recent Australian history was a massive dust storm in Melbourne in 1983. In other areas of southern Australia like Broken Hill — well inland in western New South Wales — the storms have been even more intense. Dust storms have occasionally blacked out the sky, as you can see in this incredible video.
While the immediate cause of the craziness was the wind, it’s difficult to know if there were underlying changes in Australia’s climate that contributed to the storm. It’s impossible to attribute the freak storm directly to climate change, said climatologist Kevin Hennessy, lead author of the chapter on Australia in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. “You can’t really link any individual extreme weather event to climate change,” Hennessy said. “It’s much more complicated than that.” But the 13-year drought that eastern Australia has been experiencing created the dusty conditions that made the storm possible. And the drought appears linked to global warming. The IPCC summary of impacts on Australia noted with high confidence that regional climate change had occurred in the country. Since 1950, there has been 0.4 to 0.7 Celsius degrees warming and “less rain in southern and eastern Australia.” While many of the pictures streaming out of Sydney show the blood-red sky of the morning, as the day has worn on, the sky has lightened considerably. By late morning, the sky was more sepia, @wiredscience followers, @wilko64 and @heathergracious informed us. We’ve collected photos from our Down Under readers down under. We thank them all for their quick responses to our Tweets from @wiredscience. The top image was shot by Andrew Muller and posted to his flickr account.
Ewen Wallace, Sydney Harbour panorama. Sydney Dust Storm (in Maroubra) from Marcus Schappi
More photos on following page.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Sep 2009 | 6:53 pm Killer prostate cancer test hopeScientists discover a protein that predicts survival from prostate cancer at diagnosis.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Sep 2009 | 6:42 pm Obama, China vow urgent action on climate change (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Sep 2009 | 5:39 pm Should pandas be allowed to die out?This week, TV naturalist Chris Packham said pandas might not be worth saving. Mark Wright from the World Wide Fund for Nature is one of the many who disagree Yes, says Chris PackhamI don't want the panda to die out. I want species to stay alive – that's why I get up in the morning. I don't even kill mosquitoes or flies. So if pandas can survive, that would be great. But let's face it: conservation, both nationally and globally, has a limited amount of resources, and I think we're going to have to make some hard, pragmatic choices. The truth is, pandas are extraordinarily expensive to keep going. We spend millions and millions of pounds on pretty much this one species, and a few others, when we know that the best thing we could do would be to look after the world's biodiversity hotspots with greater care. Without habitat, you've got nothing. So maybe if we took all the cash we spend on pandas and just bought rainforest with it, we might be doing a better job. Of course, it's easier to raise money for something fluffy. Charismatic megafauna like the panda do appeal to people's emotional side, and attract a lot of public attention. They are emblematic of what I would call single-species conservation: ie a focus on one animal. This approach began in the 1970s with Save the Tiger, Save the Panda, Save the Whale, and so on, and it is now out of date. I think pandas have had a valuable role in raising the profile of conservation, but perhaps "had" is the right word. Panda conservationists may stand up and say, "It's a flagship species. We're also conserving Chinese forest, where there is a whole plethora of other things." And when that works, I'm not against it. But we have to accept that some species are stronger than others. The panda is a species of bear that has gone herbivorous and eats a type of food that isn't all that nutritious, and that dies out sporadically. It is susceptible to various diseases, and, up until recently, it has been almost impossible to breed in captivity. They've also got a very restricted range, which is ever decreasing, due to encroachment on their habitat by the Chinese population. Perhaps the panda was already destined to run out of time. Extinction is very much a part of life on earth. And we are going to have to get used to it in the next few years because climate change is going to result in all sorts of disappearances. The last large mammal extinction was another animal in China – the Yangtze river dolphin, which looked like a worn-out piece of pink soap with piggy eyes and was never going to make it on to anyone's T-shirt. If that had appeared beautiful to us, then I doubt very much that it would be extinct. But it vanished, because it was pig-ugly and swam around in a river where no one saw it. And now, sadly, it has gone for ever. I'm not trying to play God; I'm playing God's accountant. I'm saying we won't be able to save it all, so let's do the best we can. And at the moment I don't think our strategies are best placed to do that. We should be focusing our conservation endeavours on biodiversity hotspots, spreading our net more widely and looking at good-quality habitat maintenance to preserve as much of the life as we possibly can, using hard science to make educated decisions as to which species are essential to a community's maintenance. It may well be that we can lose the cherries from the cake. But you don't want to lose the substance. Save the Rainforest, or Save the Kalahari: that would be better. Chris Packham is a naturalist and presenter of Autumnwatch No, says Mark WrightYou are reading this because it is about giant pandas. We could have this argument about the frogs of the rainforest, and the issues would be identical, but the ability to get people's attention would be far lower. So in that sense, yes you could argue that conservationists capitalise on the panda's appeal. And, to be fair, I can understand where Chris is coming from. Everywhere you look on this planet there are issues to be addressed and we have finite resources. So we do make really horrible choices. But nowadays, almost exclusively, when people work in conservation they focus on saving habitats. Chris has talked about pandas being an evolutionary cul-de-sac, and it's certainly unusual for a carnivore to take up herbivory. But there are many, many other species that live in a narrowly defined habitat. When he says that if you leave them be, they will die out, that's simply not true. If we don't destroy their habitat they will just chunter along in the same way that they have for the thousands of years. And besides, in terms of its biodiversity and the threats it faces, I think that the part of China where pandas live should be on the preservation list anyway. The giant panda shares its habitat with the red panda, golden monkeys, and various birds that are found nowhere else in the world. The giant panda's numbers are increasing in the wild, so I don't see them dying out, and I haven't heard anything to suggest that other biodiversity isn't thriving equally. It is true, though, that there some some cases where preserving an animal is not the best use of resources. If you asked 100 conservationists – even at WWF – you would probably get 90 different answers, but look at what happened with the northern white rhino in Africa, which we're pretty sure has died out. We lament its loss. But at the same time it had got to the stage where the likelihood of success was at a critically low level. If you were doing a battlefield triage system – the rhino would probably have had to be a casualty. Otherwise, charismatic megafauna can be extremely useful. Smaller creatures often don't need a big habitat to live in, so in conservation terms it's better to go for something further up the food chain, because then by definition you are protecting a much larger area, which in turn encompasses the smaller animals. And of course they are an extraordinarily good vehicle for the messages we want to put out on habitat conservation. Look at Borneo, where you instantly think of the orang-utans. In the southern oceans, you think of the blue whale. Then there are polar bears in the north. There are things you pull out from the picture because people can relate to them. And it does make a difference. Dr Mark Wright is chief scientist at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) 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 | 22 Sep 2009 | 5:05 pm Sweetener aspartame to be investigated for possible side-effectsThe Food Standards Agency is calling for volunteers to help test claims that the artificial sweetener aspartame, used in more than 4,000 products, causes illnesses The Food Standards Agency is launching an investigation into the artificial sweetener aspartame amid claims that some people experience side-effects after consuming the substance. Scientists funded by the agency will test whether certain people develop a range of illnesses after eating food prepared with the sweetener. Aspartame is around 200 times sweeter than sugar and is used in more than 4,000 products, including diet drinks, cereal bars, yogurt and chewing gum. Previous reviews by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the European Food Safety Authority have concluded that aspartame is safe, but some people complain they develop headaches, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhoea and fatigue after eating food containing the chemical. Researchers led by Professor Stephen Atkin, head of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at the Hull York Medical School, will look for signs of illness in volunteers after they consume cereal bars made with or without aspartame. Atkin's group is recruiting 50 people who believe they are sensitive to aspartame. The volunteers will be matched by age and sex to 50 volunteers who are happy to eat the sweetener. In the study, individuals will be randomly assigned an aspartame or aspartame-free cereal bar and given psychological and medical checks up to four hours after consuming it. The following week, the experiment will be repeated with each volunteer receiving the other type of cereal bar. The scientists will take blood and urine samples before and after each test. Aspartame breaks down in the digestive system into aspartic acid, methanol and phenylalanine. Some individuals believe it is these chemicals that cause their symptoms. The tests will allow scientists to link any ill effects to levels of the chemicals in the volunteers' blood and urine. "This is a fundamental study for the people who believe they are sensitive to aspartame, because it will hopefully prove or disprove whether or not aspartame can cause problems," Prof Atkin said. The study is expected to be completed next year and will be published as a report to the FSA. A spokesman for the agency said: "We know that aspartame can be consumed safely but some people consider that they react badly to it. We've commissioned this research because it's important to increase our knowledge about what is happening. The study will address consumer concerns, including these anecdotal reports." Food safety officials are expected to fund a larger investigation if the study finds evidence that people can be sensitive to the sweetener. A spokeswoman for the Aspartame Information Service, an industry body, said: "Aspartame has been on the market for more than 25 years and studies have been done on it from every angle. We get more of these breakdown products from the rest of our diets than we get from aspartame. "The whole anecdotal area [of sensitivity] has been looked at before, so why start another round of research? Our concern is that people might be attributing to aspartame something that might have a more serious cause." Patience Purdy, honorary vice president of the National Council of Women of Great Britain, which campaigns for aspartame to be banned on health grounds, said: "It's good the FSA are taking this seriously, but our concern is that the study is inadequate. We all react differently to aspartame." 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 | 22 Sep 2009 | 5:05 pm World leaders can boost healthcare at UNToday a unique opportunity will present itself to world leaders, which has the potential to change the face of healthcare for millions of mothers and children in poor countries across the world (Editorial, 21 September). The opportunity is to extend free healthcare to women and children in at least seven developing countries: Burundi, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal and Sierra Leone. In many poor countries families cannot afford even the simplest medical treatments, leaving mothers to choose which of their children will get medicine, and causing thousands of needless deaths. User fees are one of the main barriers to healthcare for women and children, and it is imperative that we fight for their removal. Where countries have removed fees, such as in Uganda, lives have been saved. The number of patients accessing healthcare has more than doubled in some clinics, with an 84% increase countrywide. But most importantly, the numbers of mothers dying in childbirth have finally started to fall. Having already seen such remarkable improvements, I strongly urge leaders in developing countries to apply these lessons and make free healthcare for women and children a reality. Now is the time to act to make a real difference and save lives. Oxfam global ambassador • This week's UN meetings on climate change will provide a platform for developing countries' voices to be heard. As a group of individuals from some of the poorest countries in Asia and Africa, we seek to remind rich countries that, as long as there is no money on the table from polluting nations to cover the costs of climate change impacts borne by those of us who are hit hardest by climate change, it is unreasonable and unlikely that developing countries will agree a deal. Raju Chhetri United Mission, Nepal, Vincent Moyo Evangelical Association of Malawi, Jeff Woodke Jemed, Niger, Sanjeev Bhanja Eficor, India 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 | 22 Sep 2009 | 5:05 pm 'Pointless' studies to be weeded out by new government panelChanges to government funding may force academics to prove that their inquiry has real-world relevance The government is to stop funding "pointless" university research, forcing academics to prove that their academic inquiry has some relevance to the real world, funding chiefs will announce today. Universities will have to show that their research influences the economy, public policy or society in order to secure the biggest research grants, the government's funding body for higher education said. The plans are contained in proposals for a new system of allocating £1.76bn in government funds for academic research every year called the Research Excellence Framework (Ref). Lecturers warned that the move would restrict academic freedom by preventing speculative "blue skies" research. It comes as the government exerts extra pressure on universities to focus on work that has demonstrable economic benefits. It also follows criticisms of some academic work ranging from the gender politics of Tarzan and Jane to surf science and "David Beckham studies". From 2012, each university department will submit evidence to be rated, with 60% of marks awarded for the quality of their research as judged by academic panels, 25% according to the "impact" the research makes and 15% according to the quality of the department. This will rate the department's research strategy, staff and postgraduate development and engagement with the public. The move aims to counter the previous system that involved universities hiring star academics at the last minute to boost results, a system seen as akin to the football transfer season. The plans include a U-turn on an earlier suggestion that the ancient system of peer review – whereby panels of professors rate standards of research – be scrapped in favour of more quantifiable measures, such as the number of citations of papers by other academics and the value of research contracts. Sally Hunt, the general secretary of the University and College Union, criticised the plan. She said: "Academic research should never be at the behest of market forces. History has taught us that some of the biggest breakthroughs have come from speculative research and it is wrong to try and measure projects purely on their economic potential." A spokesman for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), which set out the plans for consultation, insisted the system would reward the impact of academic research for arts and humanities subjects as well as science and technology. David Sweeney, the director for research at Hefce, said: "The Ref will recognise and reward excellent research and sharing new knowledge to the benefit of the economy and society, and will ensure effective allocation of public funds. It will encourage the productive interchange of research staff and ideas between academia and business, government and other sectors." 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 | 22 Sep 2009 | 5:05 pm Coyote + Wolf = Big, Carnivorous CoywolfCoyotes are breeding with wolves, turning mice-eating coyotes into larger, hungrier animals.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Sep 2009 | 5:01 pm The Science (and Art) of Depression MedicationDid you know that as much as some doctors and researchers like to think that medicine is a science, it is very much an art too?Source: Livescience.com | 22 Sep 2009 | 3:24 pm NASA Moves Up Launch Debut for New Moon Rocket (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - NASA's first version of the rocket slated to replace the space shuttle and send astronauts back to the moon will make its debut test launch Oct. 27, four days early, the space agency announced Tuesday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Sep 2009 | 3:18 pm U.S. should watch for animal disease, institute saysWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States needs to lead a global effort to protect people from new outbreaks of deadly infectious diseases that originate in animals, such as swine flu, AIDS and SARS, health experts said Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Sep 2009 | 2:20 pm The Hunt for Extraterrestrial Life Gets Weird
In the search for extraterrestrial life, some scientists say we’re focusing too much on finding signs of existence as we know it, and in the process, we may be missing more strange forms of life that don’t rely on water or carbon metabolism. Now researchers from Austria have started a systematic study of solvents other than water that might be able to support life outside our planet. They’re hoping their research will lead to a shift in what they call the “geocentric mindset” of our attempts to detect extraterrestrial life. “With our current measurement strategy for life on other planets, we will only be able to detect life which shares most of its parameters with terrestrial life,” astrobiologist Johannes Leitner of the University of Vienna, who presented his research Friday at the European Planetary Science Congress in Germany, wrote in an e-mail. “Presently we will not be able to detect exotic life, because we have no idea of its potential properties and by this, our probes to planetary surfaces do not carry instruments which can look for something exotic.”
For instance, Leitner said, we can send rovers to Mars carrying antibodies that detect traces of chemicals and bacteria that would indicate life. But because we can only make antibodies to known substances, this method will be limited to finding Earth-like life. “When we try to find a definition for life, in most cases, such a definition is more a summary of the specific properties of terrestrial life,” Leitner said. Because life on Earth requires water, most of the search for extraterrestrial life thus far has focused on the “habitable zone,” or the relatively narrow region around a star where liquid water could exist. But while water is liquid only between zero and 100 degrees Celsius, other solvents are liquid over a much larger temperature range. For instance, because ammonia stays liquid at a lower temperature, an ocean of ammonia could exist on a planet much further from its host star. By exploring the properties of more potential solvents, such as sulfuric acid and formamide, the researchers hope to expand the potential life-supporting zone. The Austrian researchers are certainly not the first to consider the possibility of exotic life supported by a solvent other than water. According to Ariel Anbar, head of the astrobiology program at Arizona State University, the idea dates back to at least 1954, when J.B.S. Haldane speculated that ammonia might be able to sustain life at a symposium on the origin of life. “The notion of alternative solvents is certainly plausible, though entirely unproven,” Anbar wrote in an e-mail. But because life as we don’t know it is so hard to study, he said the topic has received less attention than it deserves. Leitner’s team is starting its search for exotic life by investigating the thermal and biochemical properties of potential solvents, especially focusing on each substance’s ability to support a non-carbon-based metabolism. “We know, for instance, that a carbon-oxygen-based metabolism simply won’t work in an ammonia or sulfuric acid solvent,” Leitner said in a press release. “If life exists in the Venusian atmosphere, it probably won’t work in the same way as life on Earth.” For now, Anbar says our search for extraterrestrial life is limited more by our access to extraterrestrial environments than by our conception of what life might look like. “However, as we plan future missions to Mars and elsewhere, especially Titan,” he said, “and as we begin to consider the prospects for life in the solar systems other than our own that are being discovered at a rapid pace, it’s important to begin thinking about ‘weird life’ so that we don’t miss something under our noses.” Image 1: Artist’s rendering of exoplanets orbiting a distant star. ESA/AOES Medialab. See Also:
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Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Sep 2009 | 2:12 pm Freaky New Ghostshark ID’d Off California Coast
A new ghostshark species has been identified off the coast of Southern California, and it’s darker and weirder than any shark we know. The purplish black ancient relative of the modern shark comes packed with a suite of odd features that give its taxonomical family the name chimaera, after the mythical beast made from the parts of many animals. “It’s a big weird looking freaky thing,” said ichthyologist Doug Long of the California Academy of Sciences. “They have some shark characteristics and they have some that are very non-shark.” Perhaps the most intriguing feature of the newly described species, Hydrolagus melanophasma, is a presumed sexual organ that extends from its forehead called a tentaculum. “They have this club on the top of their head with spikes. People think it’s used for mating,” Long said. “It’s like a little mace with little spikes and hooks and it fits into their forehead. It’s jointed and it comes out. We’re not sure if it is used to stimulate the female or hold the female closer.” The species is yet another example of the tremendous, unknown biodiversity that still exists near heavily populated regions like the Los Angeles coastline. It was actually “discovered” long ago in the sense that museum specimens of the fish existed at Scripps Oceanographic Institute. But it wasn’t until a team of researchers from the Pacific Shark Research Center and the California Academy of Sciences came together to examine the odd creatures that they realized they were looking at something new.
“There’s an old expression by a well-known paleontologist that the best place to find new dinosaurs is in a museum,” said Dave Ebert, a researcher at the Pacific Shark Research Center, and a co-author of the paper. “If you go to the California Academy of Sciences and go wandering through the fish collection, you’ll find new species just sitting on shelves there.” In fact, he’s had his students do just that in various collections. They’ve found 11 new species of sharks, rays and chimaeras in the last three years. The latest description, lead-authored by student Kelsey C. James, was published in the journal Zootaxa this month. They made the identification not just from the formalin-preserved specimens like the one pictured above, but also from video of the living creature from a Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute ROV. Ebert also said that figuring out what species are actually living in the oceans isn’t just an academic task. It’s important to understand the biodiversity that ecologists are trying to protect from being accidentally killed by fishermen, even if those creatures are not as charming as dolphins or awe-inspiring as great whites. “Ecosystem-based management is such a buzzword right now, but then you start looking at a lot of the fishes and we don’t even know what some of these are,” Ebert said. “A lot of skates and rays and the chimaeras are not as charismatic as white sharks or whale sharks or a manta ray, but these things are probably taken in far greater numbers in terms of by-catch.” Until recent years, chimaeras hadn’t received much study, so people treated the similar-looking creatures found in different spots across the world as the same species. It’s hard to study or account for animals like the California chimaera if you don’t even know what they are. “We didn’t have a name for this thing until now,” Ebert said. Its genus name, hydrolagus, means “rabbit teeth” after the chimaera’s crab- and clam-munching dental work. Nine specimens of the fish have been identified from the Sea of Cortez up the California coast. 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 | 22 Sep 2009 | 1:23 pm SLIDE SHOW: Space Station Resupply FleetExplore current and future spacecraft that will keep the space station up and running.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Sep 2009 | 1:15 pm Texas Educators: Neil Armstrong Not a ScientistA review team says they made the proposal because Armstrong was not a scientist.Source: Livescience.com | 22 Sep 2009 | 12:38 pm Yes Men Want Scientists to Get Political
With climate change legislation poised to crash and burn, popular activist pranksters the Yes Men want scientists to break their political silence. “Scientists do need to stop being scientists sometimes,” said Andy Bichlbaum, a leading member of the group. “It’s not natural to them. They have to learn to be political.” Bichlbaum spoke from the banks of the East River in New York City, where a small flotilla of activists in “Survivaballs” — spherical costumes symbolizing the ability of wealth to insulate itself from the effects of climate change — had been discouraged from floating past the United Nations, where President Obama will speak today. The U.N. is preparing a new climate change treaty, which will be finalized in December at its meeting in Copenhagen. But with the U.S., China and India unable to agree on greenhouse gas cuts, it appears the Copenhagen agreement will be a failure, falling well short of what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says is necessary to avoid potentially catastrophic global warming. Also falling short are climate change bills passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and now being discussed by the Senate. Those impending failures were described yesterday in 100,000 copies of a spoof edition of the New York Post, printed by the Yes Men and headlined, “We’re Screwed.” The prank was part of what liberal environmental activists billed as an international “day of action.” Noticeably absent from the activities, however, were scientists whose professional judgments are being largely ignored in policy, but have stayed quiet in the climate debate.
Scientists have long worried that political advocacy will compromise their essential work of providing people with facts necessary to make decisions, rather than making the decisions for them. One notable exception is James Hansen, the NASA climate scientist who was arrested this summer while protesting an especially destructive form of coal mining. But the more typical example is Rajendra Pachauri, head of the IPCC, who in August was asked about an ideal target for catastrophe-avoiding CO2 levels. “As chairman … I cannot take a position because we do not make recommendations,” Pachauri told Agence-France Presse in August. “But as a human being, I am fully supportive of that goal.” In light of what scientists expect of climate change, that sideline stance is untenable. Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. Secretary-General, has called the Copenhagen summit a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to address “the greatest collective challenge we face as a human family.” And as of now, Copenhagen appears to be — by the standards of climate science — doomed. “Scientists do say very unequivocally what the problem is. Except they’re scientists, so they have to operate by the scientific method,” said Bichlbaum, who urged scientists to visit the Beyond Talk website on climate-related civil disobedience. “Their training is all about questioning and figuring things out. But they have to put aside their scientist hats. They have to start doing it the way Hansen does.” See Also:
Image: kthread/Flickr Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes, Wired Science on Twitter.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Sep 2009 | 12:33 pm Why It's So Hard to Make Nuclear WeaponsDeveloping nuclear weapons are a challenge for many countries, but some experts think it's only a matter of time.Source: Livescience.com | 22 Sep 2009 | 11:45 am Satellite to begin gravity questEurope's Goce spacecraft will start this week to make the most detailed global map of the Earth's gravity field.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Sep 2009 | 11:27 am Rare Giant Squid Caught in Gulf of MexicoIt's the first one there since 1954, suggesting how little we know about the deep.Source: Livescience.com | 22 Sep 2009 | 11:18 am Details of Galactic Core Revealed in X-Rays
This new X-ray image of the center of the Milky Way is dominated by the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A. The black hole and several massive young stars in the chaotic region are creating the surrounding haze of superheated gas that shows up beautifully in X-ray light.
An annotated version of the image above is available, as well as a high-resolution version and a flyby animation. See Also:
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Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Sep 2009 | 11:07 am Turtle Tots: Hatchery Saves Endangered TerrapinsRaising young diamondback terrapin turtles, scientists bring the creature back from the brink along Alabama's Dauphin Island coastline.Source: Livescience.com | 22 Sep 2009 | 11:02 am What is a 100-Year Storm?These storms don't wait every 100 years to come around, there's just a 1 percent chance they'll hit in any year.Source: Livescience.com | 22 Sep 2009 | 10:57 am Heat helps in cancer treatmentBERLIN (Reuters) - Cancer patients whose tumors are targeted with heat treatment as well as chemotherapy are more likely to stay alive and cancer-free for longer than those who receive only chemotherapy, researchers said on Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Sep 2009 | 10:19 am WATCH: Night-Shining CloudsDo you ever wonder why you can sometimes see clouds at night?Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Sep 2009 | 10:15 am Archaeologists find suspected Trojan war-era coupleANKARA (Reuters) - Archaeologists in the ancient city of Troy in Turkey have found the remains of a man and a woman believed to have died in 1,200 B.C., the time of the legendary war chronicled by Homer, a leading German professor said on Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Sep 2009 | 10:14 am Echidna's Ancestor Swam With PlatypusesEgg-laying mammals like echidnas have evolved quicker than previously thought.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Sep 2009 | 10:01 am BIG PIC: Milky Way Galaxy CloseupTake a closer look at the very heart of our home galaxy, the Milky Way.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Sep 2009 | 10:00 am BLOG: Dying Sun Not So Far-Fetched"Q balls" (if they exist) could mean an early death for our sun.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am Yellowstone Grizzlies Back on Threatened ListFacing climate change pressures, Yellowstone's grizzlies get threatened status.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Sep 2009 | 8:20 am Why Healthcare Will Always Cost a FortuneUntil Americans change lifestyle and diet, our "disease care" system will foot the bill of a sick population.Source: Livescience.com | 22 Sep 2009 | 8:02 am Booze: Possible Treatment for Brain InjuryStudy shows patients with alcohol in the bloodstream were less likely to die from head trauma than the alcohol-free.Source: Livescience.com | 22 Sep 2009 | 8:01 am Museums head sacked after investigationActing director of group including London's Science Museum dismissed for failing to declare a possible conflict of interest in a business deal The acting director of some of Britain's leading science and technology museums has been sacked for failing to declare a perceived conflict of interest relating to a business deal. Molly Jackson was dismissed from her post as head of the National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI) following an investigation into a deal that would have seen the Science Museum in London stock clothing from a firm owned by a male friend. The NMSI is a family of museums that includes the prestigious Science Museum in London, the National Railway Museum in York and the National Media Museum in Bradford. Together they attract four million visitors a year, including one and a half million children. Although the transaction did not go ahead and Ms Jackson did not benefit financially, the governing board found she had made "a serious error of judgement" in failing to declare her friendship with the man. Jackson left her £120,000-a-year job on Monday after the two-month investigation concluded. Lord Waldegrave, chairman of the NMSI, said: "In allowing a perceived conflict of interest to develop, she clearly fell short of the high standards expected of her. "This is a great shame because until this Molly Jackson had done a very good job for NMSI." A spokesperson for the Science Museum refused to identify the company involved in the deal or the value of the contract, but added: "There was no financial impropriety, but we would expect all members of staff to comply with the code of conduct, and that goes for all staff from the director down." Jackson worked for the organisation for six years and was managing director of the group's trading arm. She was appointed acting director of the NMSI in March and was awaiting government approval to continue as full director of the organisation. The the NMSI is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Andrew Scott, who has been director of the National Railway Museum since 1994, takes over as acting director with immediate effect. 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 | 22 Sep 2009 | 7:38 am Why Fall Colors Are Different in U.S. and EuropeChanges during ice ages might explain fall color differences between European and North American trees.Source: Livescience.com | 22 Sep 2009 | 7:24 am U.S. scientists net giant squid in Gulf of MexicoWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. scientists in the Gulf of Mexico unexpectedly netted a 19.5-foot (5.9-meter) giant squid off the coast of Louisiana, the Interior Department said on Monday, showing how little is known about life in the deep waters of the Gulf.Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Sep 2009 | 6:00 am In picturesDeadliest viruses and bacteria cast in glass sculptureSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Sep 2009 | 5:23 am Wired upHow hi-tech is transforming life in RwandaSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Sep 2009 | 5:19 am
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In visible light, the gas and dust would hide the stars from sight, but the 