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Are holiday and weekend eating patterns affecting obesity rates?The holidays can be challenging for even the most diligent dieters. But are weekends just as detrimental? Researchers found that weekend eating patterns change significantly.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Hops compound may prevent prostate cancerThe natural compound xanthohumol blocks the effects of the male hormone testosterone, therefore aiding in the prevention of prostate cancer.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Electromagnetic fields as cutting toolsThe bodywork on motor vehicles must be sufficiently stable, but processing the high-strength steels involved -- for example punching holes in them -- can prove something of a challenge. A new steel-cutting process will save time, energy and money in the future.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm 'Mini' transplant may reverse severe sickle cell diseaseResults of a preliminary study show that "mini" stem cell transplantation may safely reverse severe sickle cell disease in adults.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Faint star orbiting the Big Dipper's Alcor discoveredNew observations of Alcor, one of the stars that makes the constellation known as the Big Dipper's, have uncovered a smaller companion star named Alcor B. Project 1640 was able to show that the two stars moved together using "common parallactic motion."Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Newly discovered mechanism allows cells to change stateBy looking at yeast cells, a biologist has figured out one way in which cells can transform themselves: a cellular "machine" removes a regulatory "lid."Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Treating cluster headaches with high-flow oxygen appears effectivePatients with a cluster headache, which is characterized by bouts of excruciating pain usually near the eye or temple, were more likely to report being pain-free within 15 minutes of treatment with high-flow oxygen than patients who received a placebo treatment, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am Coaxing injured nerve fibers to regenerate by disabling 'brakes' in the systemExpanding on prior research, scientists provide further evidence that regeneration of nerve fibers after brain or spinal cord injury is limited by a lack of response to growth factors induced by the injury. They show in mice that axons can regenerate vigorously when responsiveness is restored genetically -- a finding that could lead to ways of helping people recover from brain or spinal cord injury.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am Chopper drop tests new technology: Expandable honeycomb cushion could make helicopters saferHow do you make a helicopter safer to fly? You crash one. NASA aeronautics researchers recently dropped a small helicopter from a height of 35 feet (10.7 m) to see whether an expandable honeycomb cushion called a deployable energy absorber could lessen the destructive force of a crash.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am Noninvasive technique to rewrite fear memories developedResearchers have developed a noninvasive technique to block the return of fear memories in humans. The technique may change how we view the storage processes of memory and could lead to new ways to treat anxiety disorders.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am Tiny 'early primate' filmedThe tiny spectral tarsier, one of the shortest and most primitive primates in the world, is caught on camera hunting at night in the jungles of Sulawesi, Indonesia.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Dec 2009 | 3:25 am The nation's weather (AP)AP - A strong winter storm was forecast to continue to bring snow and cold air to the Central U.S. on Thursday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 3:24 am Developing nations clash over climate targets (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 3:17 am Soros: Finance gap could 'wreck' climate talks (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 3:11 am Truckers ask Calif. to delay diesel-emission rules (AP)AP - California's Air Resources Board is moving ahead with plans to delay the nation's toughest diesel emissions rules, allotting truckers wrestling with the economic downturn more time to invest in cleaner trucks.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 2:48 am Experiment to test killing 1 owl to help another (AP)AP - Scientists want to determine if killing the aggressive barred owl that has invaded old growth forests of the Northwest would help the protected spotted owl.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 2:34 am Ocean acidification rates pose disaster for marine life, major study showsReport launched from leading marine scientists at Copenhagen summit shows seas absorbing dangerous levels of CO2 The world's oceans are becoming acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the last 55m years, threatening disaster for marine life and food supplies across the globe, delegates at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen have been warned. A report by more than 100 of Europe's leading marine scientists, released at the climate talks this morning, states that the seas are absorbing dangerous levels of carbon dioxide as a direct result of human activity. This is already affecting marine species, for example by interfering with whale navigation and depleting planktonic species at the base of the food chain. The report — Ocean acidification: the facts — says that acidity in the seas has increased 30% since the start of the industrial revolution. Many of the effects of this acidification are already irreversible and are expected to accelerate, according to the scientists. The study, which is a massive review of existing scientific studies, warns that if CO2 emissions continue unchecked many key parts of the marine environment – particularly coral reefs and the algae and plankton which are essential for fish such as herring and salmon – will be "severely affected" by 2050, leading to the extinction of some species. Dr Helen Phillips, chief executive of Natural England, which co-sponsored the report, said: "The threat to the delicate balance of the marine environment cannot be overstated - this is a conservation challenge of unprecedented scale and highlights the urgent need for effective marine management and protection." Although oceans have acidified naturally in the past, the current rate of acidification is so fast that it is becoming extremely difficult for species and habitats to adapt. "We're counting it in decades, and that's the real take-home message," said Dr John Baxter a senior scientist with Scottish Natural Heritage, and the report's co-author. "This is happening fast." The report, published by the EU-funded European Project on Ocean Acidification, a consortium of 27 research institutes and environment agencies, states that the survival of a number of marine species is affected or threatened, in ways not recognised and understood until now. These species include: • whales and dolphins, who will find it harder to navigate and communicate as the seas become "noisier". Sound travels further as acidity increases. Noise from drilling, naval sonar and boat engines is already travelling up to 10% further under water and could travel up to 70% further by 2050. • brittle stars (Ophiothrix fragilis) produce fewer larvae because they need to expend more energy maintaining their skeletons in more acid seas. These larvae are a key food source for herring. • tiny algae such as Calcidiscus leptoporus which form the basis of the marine food chain for fish such as salmon may be unable to survive. • young clownfish will lose their ability to "smell" the anemone species that they shelter in. Experiments show that acidification interferes with the species' ability to detect the chemicals that give "olfactory cues". The report predicts that the north Atlantic, north Pacific and Arctic seas – a crucial summer feeding ground for whales - will see the greatest degree of acidification. It says that levels of aragonite, the type of calcium carbonate which is essential for marine organisms to make their skeletons and shells, will fall worldwide. But because cold water absorbs CO2 more quickly, the study predicts that levels of aragonite will fall by 60% to 80% by 2095 across the northern hemisphere. "The bottom line is the only way to slow this down or reverse it is aggressive and immediate cuts in CO2," said Baxter. "This is a very dangerous global experiment we're undertaking here." Written for policy makers and political leaders, the document is being distributed worldwide, with 32,000 copies printed in five major languages including English, Chinese and Arabic. Every member of the US congress, now struggling to agree a binding policy on CO2 emissions, will be sent a copy. Congressman Brian Baird, a Democrat representative from Washington state, who championed a bill in Congress promoting US research on ocean acidification, said these findings would help counter climate change sceptics, since acidification was easily and immediately measurable. "The consequences of ocean acidification may be every bit as grave as the consequences of temperature increases," he said. "It's one thing to question a computer extrapolation, or say it snowed in Las Vegas last year, but to say basic chemistry doesn't apply is a real problem [for the sceptics]. I think the evidence is really quite striking." 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 | 10 Dec 2009 | 2:00 am From war to peace - Obama to accept Nobel prizeOSLO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama arrived in the Norwegian capital on Thursday to accept his Nobel Peace Prize amid criticism he does not deserve the accolade because of his Afghan war build-up and few foreign policy successes.Source: Reuters: Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 1:50 am Science faces 'bleak' £600m cutsCampaigners say the UK Treasury's plans to find £600m of savings in higher education science budgets make for "bleak reading" .Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Dec 2009 | 1:00 am Turkmen-China gas pipeline nearly operational (AP)AP - A natural gas pipeline linking Turkmenistan and China is nearly operational and President Hu Jintao will attend an inauguration ceremony during a visit to the central Asian nation this weekend, a senior Chinese diplomat said Thursday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Dec 2009 | 11:40 pm Taiwan chip giant TSMC to enter solar energy (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Dec 2009 | 11:23 pm Solar power coming to a store near you (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Dec 2009 | 10:19 pm Atom smasher catches 1st high-energy collisions (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Dec 2009 | 9:50 pm New Star Found in Big Dipper (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - One of the stars that makes the bend in the ladle's handle, Alcor, has a smaller red dwarf companion, new observations have revealed.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Dec 2009 | 9:01 pm 'Ten years remain' to cut carbonCarbon emissions must fall within a decade to keep the global temperature rise under 2C, the UK Met Office says.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Dec 2009 | 8:32 pm Saturn’s Hexagon May Be Solar System’s Coolest Mystery
The Cassini spacecraft has returned the best images yet of the strange hexagonal jet stream that flows around the northern pole of Saturn. First discovered by the Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s, the hexagon remains a beautiful mystery to astronomers, and one they’ve been waiting for another shot to see for almost three decades. “The longevity of the hexagon makes this something special, given that weather on Earth lasts on the order of weeks,” said Kunio Sayanagi, a Cassini project researcher at the California Institute of Technology, in a NASA release. “It’s a mystery on par with the strange weather conditions that give rise to the long-lived Great Red Spot of Jupiter.” The hexagon circles Saturn at 77 degrees north and is wider than two Earths. Nearly everything about the weather pattern is baffling. First, it’s unclear what causes the hexagon. Second, it’s bizarre that the jet stream would make such sharp turns. Earth’s atmospheric movements rarely display such geometric rigor. Fifty-five images were stitched together to create a three-frame animation of the jet stream on the move (see below). The sharp black triangle jutting out of the central black circle is an artifact of the image processing.
Images: NASA. 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 | 9 Dec 2009 | 6:01 pm Geeky Math Equation Creates Beautiful 3-D World<< previous image | next image >>
The quest by a group of math geeks to create a three-dimensional analogue for the mesmerizing Mandelbrot fractal has ended in success. They call it the Mandelbulb. The 3-D renderings were generated by applying an iterative algorithm to a sphere. The same calculation is applied over and over to the sphere’s points in three dimensions. In spirit, that’s similar to how the original 2-D Mandelbrot set generates its infinite and self-repeating complexity. If you were ever mesmerized by the Mandelbrot screen saver, the following images are worth a look. Each photo is a zoom on one of these Mandelbulbs.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm Wireless Brain-to-Computer Connection Synthesizes Speech
A system that turns brain waves into FM radio signals and decodes them as sound is the first totally wireless brain-computer interface. For now, 26-year-old Erik Ramsey, left almost entirely paralyzed by a horrific car accident 10 years ago, can only express vowel sounds with the system. That’s less than can be accomplished with wired brain-computer interfaces. But it’s still a promising step. “All the groups working on BCIs are working toward wireless solutions. They are very superior,” said Frank Guenther a Boston University cognitive scientist who helped developed Ramsey’s system. In the last decade, brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, have made the jump from speculation to preliminary medical reality. Since Wired reported on quadriplegic BCI pioneer Matthew Nagle four years ago (”He’s playing Pong with his thoughts alone“), the interfaces have been used to steer wheelchairs, send text messages and even to Tweet. They’re so advanced that some researchers now worry about BCI ethics — what happens when healthy people get them? And they’re concerned about the threat posed by hackers. But as amazing as these early BCIs are, they’re far from street-ready. Systems based on translating electrical signals captured by electrodes on patients’ scalps are notoriously slow, capable of producing about one word a minute. If researchers put electrodes directly into patients’ brains, the results are better — but that raises the possibility of dangerous infection. And from a purely practical point of view, wires just get in the way.
The implant system tested by Ramsey, as described in a paper published Wednesday in Public Library of Science ONE, was originally developed by Philip Kennedy, founder of Neural Signals, a company that specializes in BCIs. Several electrodes are implanted in Ramsey’s cerebral cortex. Beneath the skin of his skull is an amplifier that gathers the electrodes’ signals, and an FM transmitter that sends them to a nearby computer. Using a neurological model constructed by Guenther, Ramsey’s brain activity is mapped to corresponding mouth and jaw movements. Another program decodes the signals, and synthesizes them in the sound of a tinny, but human-like voice. “The system produces the sound output in about 50 milliseconds. That’s the time it takes for sound output to come from a motor cortex command in a normal individual,” said Guenther. The three wires in Ramsey’s brain are only sufficient for making vowel sounds, said Guenther. But the researchers plan to add more electrodes, perhaps as many as 32. That would be more difficult to control, but would also allow Ramsey’s thoughts to better mimic natural tongue and jaw movements, ultimately letting him form consonants as well. For now, the computer that translates Ramsey’s mental broadcasts is still in a laboratory. “But our goal is to have him transmit directly to a laptop,” said Guenther. Image: A schematic at left and CT scans at right of the wireless brain-computer interface. PLoS ONE. Video: Visual and audio feedback is presented to Erik Ramsey. PLoS ONE. See Also:
Citation: “A Wireless Brain-Machine Interface for Real-Time Speech Synthesis.” By Frank Frank H. Guenther, Jonathan S. Brumberg, E. Joseph Wright, Alfonso Nieto-Castanon, Jason A. Tourville, Mikhail Panko, Robert Law, Steven A. Siebert, Jess L. Bartels, Dinal S. Andreasen, Princewill Ehirim, Hui Mao, Philip R. Kennedy. Public Library of Science ONE, December 9, 2009. Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on a book about ecosystem and planetary tipping points.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Dec 2009 | 5:39 pm Response: GM is still a vital part of our global future food securityTechnical innovation in food crop production would benefit all sectors of society GM technology need not reinforce "the monopolistic ambitions of agribusiness" and its "ability to control the very food we eat", as suggested in your leader column on food sustainability (Modified opinions, 4 December). However, the prediction that GM feeds large companies rather than poor people has become self-fulfilling, as a result of the "ill-tempered debate over the last 10 years" that you refer to. In the shadow of this debate, small companies and non-commercial organisations have been deterred from taking advantage of GM to promote sustainable agricultural practices. There are now just a few large companies that act as the only providers of this technology. Having recently chaired a Royal Society study looking at the contributions biological science can make to food security, I agree with your point that "food sustainability in an era of climate change requires not only, nor primarily, higher yields, but greater resilience". In effect we need a sustainable intensification of global food crop production. Our report – Reaping the Benefits – describes how different technologies, including GM, could contribute to a sustainably intensified agriculture in industrialised and developing countries. For example, GM could provide disease-resistant crops that minimise pesticide applications, and no-till agriculture that reduces soil erosion and fossil fuel use. And GM stress-resistant plants could allow yield to be maintained in regions affected by climate change. You say the Royal Society recently argued that "Britain's future food sustainability depends on employing some form of GM to increase yields". In fact, our report acknowledges that GM crops are only part of the solution to the problem of food security, even in Britain. We point out that research in sustainable agriculture will provide new methods of crop management and support the development of improved varieties by both conventional breeding and GM. Biological science has progressed in leaps and bounds in the last decade. We now have the potential to come up with viable scientific solutions for feeding a growing population, and we have a responsibility to realise this potential. For these reasons the Royal Society has called for at least £200m annually for publicly funded research to improve crops and develop sustainable crop management. The funding should be used to support areas of research that have been neglected in recent years, including crop management to increase yields and minimise environmental impact, and the development of improved crop varieties. The problem of food security for the next generation is so great that we cannot afford to let any beneficial technology remain unused. A balanced strategy for technical innovation in food crop production, including the use of GM, would benefit all sectors of society. The advances could be used by small companies, NGOs and the public sector as well as by big business, and it is time to have a constructive debate about these issues. 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 | 9 Dec 2009 | 5:05 pm Sexy spacecraftRichard Branson claims Virgin's VSS Enterprise is the 'sexiest spaceship ever'. Do you agree? Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 9 Dec 2009 | 5:05 pm Scientists find way to block fearful memoriesCHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have found a drug-free way to block fearful memories, opening up the possibility of new treatment approaches for problems such as post traumatic stress disorder, they reported on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 9 Dec 2009 | 4:37 pm Developing nations split on CO2A major split between developing countries emerges on the third morning of UN climate talks in Copenhagen.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Dec 2009 | 3:54 pm Tongue-Eating Parasite Makes News AgainDo you remember the tongue-eating parasite? If not, here's a visual reminder: (Credit: Matthew Gilligan) I told you about this photogenic species, Cymothoa exigua, at Animal Planet back in 2005. The parasite is making news again this week, at Treehugger, ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Dec 2009 | 3:11 pm That Crazy Spiral in the Sky? It Might Be Real
When we saw the pictures of the spiral in the Norwegian sky this morning, we immediately wrote it off as an impressively elaborate, funny-looking but well-executed hoax. You probably did too, even after reading Google Translated reports in Norwegian newspapers. Now, SpaceWeather.com, a trusted source run by NASA science writer Tony Phillips, says the “evidence is mounting” that the sky show was real. And not just real, but the product of a Russian missile launch. “A rocket motor spinning out of control could explain the spiral pattern, so this explanation seems plausible, although it has not yet been confirmed,” Phillips wrote A space animator even took the time to use a 3-D modeling program to show how the rocket motor could have made what seems a bizarrely regular shape. Although, the YouTube poster, unmannedspaceflight, made sure to note the rendering is “not an official answer.” Still, it seems just a little too perfect, right? Crazy looking lights, Russian missiles…. Let us know if you think it is real or not below. 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 | 9 Dec 2009 | 3:09 pm Google Trike Promotion is Fiendishly BrilliantThose devilishly brilliant folks at Google! In an effort to get better resolution and more accurate images of homes, streets and businesses in the Street View area of Google Maps, Google has developed the Google Trike, a smaller and more ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Dec 2009 | 3:02 pm Gravestones Hold Secrets to Earth's Climate PastGravestones may help scientists understand changes in the atmosphere.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Dec 2009 | 2:24 pm Mystery Spiral Appears Over NorwayPhoto: Jan Petter Jørgensen via Vaeret Norway often has strange lights dancing around the night sky, but early this morning it wasn't the aurora that captivated many eyewitnesses in the north of the country. A giant spiral had appeared, and ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Dec 2009 | 2:08 pm Green familyOne family decides that being green begins at homeSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Dec 2009 | 1:50 pm Mediterranean Sea Saved by Monumental Flood
He and his colleagues calculate that at the height of the flood, water levels rose more than 10 meters and more than 40 centimeters of rock eroded away per day. The model also shows that 100 million cubic meters of water flowed through the channel per second, with water gushing at speeds of 100 kilometers an hour. Rather than a Niagara Falls-esque cascade from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean, the team’s results imply a torrent several kilometers wide at a fairly gradual slope. “It would be an exciting rafting place,” Garcia-Castellanos says. “As a hypothesis it makes sense, though it’s still in early stages,” says Sanjeev Gupta of Imperial College London. “There’s lots more to be done to explore this idea. It’s quite exciting, and I think it will get people interested in this topic.”
Luckily, 5.3 million years ago water from the Atlantic Ocean found a way back in to the drying seabed through what is now the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco. Geologists figured the resulting flood must have been impressive, but their estimates for how long it took have varied wildly, from 10 years to several thousand years. “The record of the Mediterranean tells us that the transition from the dry, high salinity situation to the normal open water situation we have nowadays was very rapid,” Garcia-Castellanos says. “But ‘rapid’ in geology could mean many tens of thousands of years.” Early models couldn’t resolve the flood’s timescale because they couldn’t tell how the volume of water flowing through the Strait of Gibraltar changed with time, Garcia-Castellanos says. Earlier studies, including work by Gupta, had concluded that England was separated from Europe in a similar cataclysmic flood 450,000 years ago based on the U-shaped valley at the bottom of the Strait of Dover (SN: 7/21/07, p. 35). But because of how long ago the flood that filled the Mediterranean occurred, the geological record of erosion from rushing waters was thought long buried.
Other geologists who had noticed the channel thought it had formed through erosion by rainwater in a river network, like in the Rhone or Nile rivers. But while those river channels are V-shaped, the new data show that the Strait of Gibraltar channel has the distinctive U-shape of the seafloor beneath the Strait of Dover. This shape is a hint that the strait formed in a torrential flood. Using equations derived from observations of mountain rivers, the team of researchers modeled how the flood might have progressed: The flood started gradually, but as the sill between the Atlantic and the dry Mediterranean wore down, the rate of water flowing and rock eroding increased exponentially. As more water flowed over the sill, more rock wore away, allowing ever more water to spill in. The calculations show an upper limit of two years for how long it took to fill the Mediterranean. But Garcia-Castellanos says it could have been as short as a few months. The energy carried in such a flood is comparable to the heat transport along the Gulf Stream in a year, or 4 percent of the kinetic energy of the meteorite impact thought to have killed the dinosaurs. “I was very satisfied with their explanation, I found it quite exciting,” says Philip Gibbard of the University of Cambridge in England. “It’s a really important development.” The flood would have had a dramatic effect on local ecosystems, and could even have affected the global climate. The model suggests that global sea level dropped 9.5 meters as a result of the flood. The team points out that a much smaller flood in North America 12,000 years ago has been linked to a worldwide cold snap, and suggests that the Mediterranean flood may have had similarly significant effects. Images: 1) NASA. 2) Robert Pibernat. See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Dec 2009 | 1:40 pm U.K. Begins Spying on File-Sharing TrafficAn Internet Service Provider in the United Kingdom has begun using a new software that can track every piece of copied music, movies, e-books, games or software. The results will shed light on file-sharing traffic that may be infringing on ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Dec 2009 | 1:31 pm Massive Simultaneous Sex Event DocumentedOn September 20, 2006, millions of individuals from two ocean species engaged in a massive and simultaneous sex event, which was witnessed and documented by a team of Italian researchers. Diana Sarno and her colleagues describe the sexually explosive event ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Dec 2009 | 1:11 pm 'Rewritten' memories less traumaticBreakthrough could help treat phobias and anxiety disorders In a breakthrough that has major implications for treating phobias and anxiety disorders, psychologists have helped people conquer their fears by "rewriting" their memories to make them less traumatic. The therapy takes advantage of the discovery that human memories can be modified and made less frightening if they are manipulated soon after they are retrieved. Scientists at New York University found peoples' memories were susceptible to being rewritten between three minutes and six hours of a memory being recalled. Only memories that were rewritten in this time frame remained changed a year after the treatment. Researchers led by Elizabeth Phelps carried out a conditioning experiment in which 20 volunteers sat in front of a computer screen on which squares of different colours appeared. When blue squares flashed on the screen, they received an electric shock to the wrist. The next day, the volunteers were shown blue squares again to reactivate the memory. Sensors placed on their skin showed that the images caused the participants to sweat as their stress levels rose. To erase the memory that linked blue squares with pain, the volunteers were put through "extinction training" which involved flashing blue squares on the screen without the accompanying electrical shocks. When the volunteers were retested a day later, the fear associated with the squares had gone, but only in participants whose memories were rewritten soon after their fear was reactivated, according to a report in Nature. Those who had extinction training after six hours did not lose their fear of blue squares. Instead of their original memory being rewritten, Phelps believes they gained a second memory – that the squares were harmless – which was stored alongside their original experience. The study shows human memories are susceptible to being modified in a specific time window called the "consolidation period", when the brain is trying to restore a memory that was recently retrieved. A year later, some volunteers returned to the laboratory and were given more electric shocks to try to bring back the fearful memories. Those whose fear memories had been rewritten during the "consolidation window" were largely immune to the shock treatment, while in the others the sense of fear was rekindled. The therapy is still at the experimental stage but it paves the way for treatments that could help people overcome traumatic memories without resorting to drugs. "Previous attempts to disrupt fear memories have relied on pharmacological interventions," Phelps said. "Our results suggest such invasive techniques may not be necessary. Using a more natural intervention that captures the adaptive purpose of reconsolidation allows a safe way to prevent the return of fear." 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 | 9 Dec 2009 | 11:39 am The Psychology of Climate Change Denial
Even as the science of global warming gets stronger, fewer Americans believe it’s real. In some ways, it’s nearly as jarring a disconnect as enduring disbelief in evolution or carbon dating. And according to Kari Marie Norgaard, a Whitman College sociologist who’s studied public attitudes towards climate science, we’re in denial. “Our response to disturbing information is very complex. We negotiate it. We don’t just take it in and respond in a rational way,” said Norgaard. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared in 2007 that greenhouse gases had reached levels not seen in 650,000 years, and were rising rapidly as a result of people burning fossil fuel. Because these gases trap the sun’s heat, they would — depending on human energy habits — heat Earth by an average of between 1.5 and 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit by century’s end. Even a midrange rise would likely disrupt the planet’s climate, producing droughts and floods, acidified oceans, altered ecosystems and coastal cities drowned by rising seas. “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future,” said Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC chairman, when the report was released. “This is the defining moment.” Studies published since then have only strengthened the IPCC’s predictions, or suggested they underestimate future warming. But as world leaders gather in Copenhagen to discuss how to avoid catastrophic climate change, barely half the U.S. public thinks carbon pollution could warm Earth. That’s 20 percent less than in 2007, and lower than at any point in the last 12 years. In a Pew Research Center poll, Americans ranked climate dead last out of 20 top issues, behind immigration and trade policy. Wired.com talked to Norgaard about the divide between science and public opinion. Wired.com: Why don’t people seem to care? Kari Norgaard: On the one hand, there have been extremely well-organized, well-funded climate-skeptic campaigns. Those are backed by Exxon Mobil in particular, and the same PR firms who helped the tobacco industry (.pdf) deny the link between cancer and smoking are involved with magnifying doubt around climate change. That’s extremely important, but my work has been in a different area. It’s been about people who believe in science, who aren’t out to question whether science has a place in society. Wired.com: People who are coming at the issue in good faith, you mean. What’s their response? Norgaard: Climate change is disturbing. It’s something we don’t want to think about. So what we do in our everyday lives is create a world where it’s not there, and keep it distant. For relatively privileged people like myself, we don’t have to see the impact in everyday life. I can read about different flood regimes in Bangladesh, or people in the Maldives losing their islands to sea level rise, or highways in Alaska that are altered as permafrost changes. But that’s not my life. We have a vast capacity for this.
Wired.com: How is this bubble maintained? Norgaard: In order to have a positive sense of self-identity and get through the day, we’re constantly being selective of what we think about and pay attention to. To create a sense of a good, safe world for ourselves, we screen out all kinds of information, from where food comes from to how our clothes our made. When we talk with our friends, we talk about something pleasant. Wired.com: How does this translate into skepticism about climate change? Norgaard: It’s a paradox. Awareness has increased. There’s been a lot more information available. This is much more in our face. And this is where the psychological defense mechanisms are relevant, especially when coupled with the fact that other people, as we’ve lately seen with the e-mail attacks, are systematically trying to create the sense that there’s doubt. If I don’t want to believe that climate change is true, that my lifestyle and high carbon emissions are causing devastation, then it’s convenient to say that it doesn’t. Wired.com: Is that what this comes down to — not wanting to confront our own roles? Norgaard: I think so. And the reason is that we don’t have a clear sense of what we can do. Any community organizer knows that if you want people to respond to something, you need to tell them what to do, and make it seem do-able. Stanford University psychologist Jon Krosnick has studied this, and showed that people stop paying attention to climate change when they realize there’s no easy solution. People judge as serious only those problems for which actions can be taken. Another factor is that we no longer have a sense of permanence. Another psychologist, Robert Lifton, wrote about what the existence of atomic bombs did to our psyche. There was a sense that the world could end at any moment. Global warming is the same in that it threatens the survival of our species. Psychologists tell us that it’s very important to have a sense of the continuity of life. That’s why we invest in big monuments and want our work to stand after we die and have our family name go on. That sense of continuity is being ruptured. But climate change has an added aspect that is very important. The scientists who built nuclear bombs felt guilt about what they did. Now the guilt is real for the broader public. Wired.com: So we don’t want to believe climate change is happening, feel guilty that it is, and don’t know what to do about it? So we pretend it’s not a problem? Norgaard: Yes, but I don’t want to make it seem crass. Sometimes people who are very empathetic are less likely to help in certain situations, because they’re so disturbed by it. The human capacity of empathy is really profound, and that’s part of our weakness. If we were more callous, then we’d approach it in a more straightforward way. It may be a weakness of our capacity as sentient beings to cope with this problem. Image: Greenpeace/Flickr “Cognitive and Behavioral Challenges in Responding to Climate Change,” Norgaard’s World Bank white paper. See Also:
Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on a book about ecosystem and planetary tipping points.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Dec 2009 | 11:29 am In Some Bird Species, Even Females Are PrettyFemales have just as lavish plumage as males when bird species live in families and not every individual gets to breed, scientists found.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Dec 2009 | 11:06 am Ancient Med flood mystery solvedResearch reveals details of a catastrophic flood that refilled the Mediterranean Sea more than five million years ago.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Dec 2009 | 11:05 am Bad Memories Erased with Behavior TherapyA new behavior therapy could block fearful memories.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Dec 2009 | 11:02 am Colossal Flood Created the Mediterranean SeaNew data shows Mediterranean Sea was refilled in flood from Atlantic.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Dec 2009 | 11:01 am Med created in Earth's biggest delugeCatastrophic flooding caused sea levels to rise by 10 metres a day, according to new research The Mediterranean Sea was formed by the most spectacular flood in Earth's history when water from the Atlantic Ocean breached the mountain range joining Europe and Africa with the force of a thousand Amazon rivers, scientists say. The devastating surge lasted as long as two years and at its peak caused the level of the Mediterranean to rise by more than 10 metres a day. The floodwaters moved at more than 100 kilometres per hour and created scars on the seabed that are still visible today. The deluge was triggered 5.3m years ago by subsidence in the seabed that caused a land ridge between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean basin to collapse. The ridge linked the Betic and Rif mountain ranges that hug the coasts of modern Spain and Morocco. As water began to pour across the strait , it eroded the ridge until the flow became a catastrophic deluge. At the time, the Mediterranean basin was an almost entirely dry expanse of low lying land, between 1.5km and 2.7km beneath today's sea level. The surge of water created a channel several kilometres wide that would become the Strait of Gibraltar. "The flow of water increased rapidly until it was truly catastrophic," said Daniel Garcia-Castellanos, a geophysicist at the Institute of Earth Science Jaume Almera in Barcelona. The slope to the Mediterranean was around two degrees, he reported in Nature. "The column of water going down that slope was several hundred metres deep, and in a channel like this would have reached speeds of more than 100km per hour." A team led by Garcia-Castellanos used data from boreholes and seismic surveys in the area to reconstruct the deluge conditions in a computer model. Subsidence in the sea floor at the strait allowed water from the Atlantic to pour slowly into the Mediterranean basin for several thousand years, before the flow became a powerful surge that filled 90% of the Mediterranean very rapidly – between a few months and two years. The floodwater discharged around 100m cubic metres of water every second, creating a 200km-long channel across the strait. Today, the Mediterranean contains 4m cubic kilometres of water. 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 | 9 Dec 2009 | 11:00 am Green Fuel-Cell Makeover for Future Power Plants
Crucially, the new plants wouldn’t burn natural gas, they’d feed it to solid oxide fuel cells, electrochemical devices that convert the energy stored in the gas into electricity through a chemical reaction that’s more efficient than traditional combustion. Theoretically, the plant would be able to turn heat into electricity with an efficiency of 74 percent, as compared with just 50 percent at the very best natural gas plants (.pdf). And what’s left over isn’t the mix of gases that traditionally goes up a power plant’s smokestack, but relatively pure water and carbon dioxide. “Because we’re keeping the nitrogen out of there, it’s very, very easy to take the CO2 out,” said MIT engineer Tom Adams, co-author of a paper in the Journal of Power Sources on the new plant design. Though some of the scientists who have been working on solid oxide fuel cells for a long time don’t think the MIT model is realistic, it does showcase some of the advantages of solid oxide fuel cells that could make them a major part of the low-carbon energy future. Specifically, solid oxide fuel cells make capturing carbon dioxide emissions easier and less expensive compared to other ways of using fossil fuels. “The basic point is that we’re able to avoid the CO2-capture penalty,” Adams said.
Adams and his co-author, MIT engineer Paul Barton, have built on a decade-long effort by the Department of Energy: The Solid Energy Conversion Alliance, a consortium of heavy-hitting fuel-cell scientists and companies like Siemens coordinated by the National Energy Technology Laboratory, has been working to develop solid oxide fuel cells for commercial use. The group has been steadily progressing towards building fuel-cell power plants. Right now, solid oxide fuel cells like the ones described by Adams are nearing commercialization by Siemens, but at the kilowatt scale, not the megawatt scale. But Adams believes megawatt prototypes could be operational by 2012. Fuel cells might not sound like the hottest field in energy, but that might be because you’re thinking about the wrong kind of fuel cell. “You say fuel cells and it’s like the kiss of death,” said Michael Tucker, a chemical engineer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who is researching new ways of making fuel cells. “But that’s because [people] associate the fuel cell with two things: the hydrogen economy, which doesn’t exist, and PEM fuel cells, the hydrogen kind.” PEM, or polymer electrolyte membrane, fuel cells can convert hydrogen into electricity with the help of a catalyst at fairly low temperatures. They were supposed to be used largely in transportation to power cars. Whatever their merits, they haven’t had the impact that some analysts predicted years ago.
Despite this savings, the cost of solid oxide fuel cells is still too high, which is a major deterrent to their adoption. “There needs to be a benefit to overcome cost differential,” said Tucker. “You need to offer something better, and cheaper.” Right now, projections by backers of solid oxide fuel cells show that if they were able to manufacture them in large numbers, they’d be commercially competitive, Tucker said. But it’s hard to know if those projections are realistic. Despite all the technical advances and DOE-directed research, cheap fuel cells still aren’t really on the market. “There is a reason that you can’t buy one,” said Tucker. “No one wants one at the cost that they can manufacture it at.” He’s working on a new way of making the fuel cells largely out of stainless steel instead of the ceramic commonly used. This could be radically cheaper than the current technology, which would make it competitive with standard power sources.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Dec 2009 | 10:53 am First fuel cell boat cruises Amsterdam's canalsAMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Emitting only water vapour and gliding silently through Amsterdam's centuries-old canals, a canal boat -- a popular tourist attraction -- powered by fuel cells made its debut cruise on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 9 Dec 2009 | 10:41 am LHC claims energy world recordScientists claimed a world record by crashing particles together at the highest energy achieved in a laboratory. Physicists at the Cern nuclear research organisation near Geneva working on the Large Hadron Collider recorded head-on collisions between beams of protons at an energy of 2.36 trillion electron volts. The machine is designed to recreate the conditions in the moments after the big bang. Scientists hope it will help them to identify the Higgs boson, which gives other particles mass, and reveal the nature of dark matter, the invisible substance that clusters around galaxies. 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 | 9 Dec 2009 | 10:21 am Richard Black on what's happening to our shared environmentSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Dec 2009 | 9:04 am Earth WatchHow UN climate conferences work, or how they don'tSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Dec 2009 | 8:56 am Meteors, Twitter and an AstrobunkerOn Dec. 12, the world's largest observatory will go online. However, this observatory doesn't have mirrors, it will be an international collaboration of social media users all watching the Geminid meteor shower and participating in MeteorWatch.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Dec 2009 | 8:26 am Ep. 3: Giants in the Depths - The Biggest Black HolesSuper-powerful galactic overlords rearrange the contours of space itself in their local neighborhoods. Their blast-waves heat up - and hollow out - hundreds of thousands of light years of interstellar space.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Dec 2009 | 8:09 am Tiny Nuclear Batteries to Power Micro DevicesA company has developed tiny nuclear batteries for both military and civilian uses, ranging from wireless vehicle or building monitors to implantable medical sensors.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Dec 2009 | 7:59 am Belief in Witchcraft Leads to Murders in AfricaBlack magic still plays a big role in some societies.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Dec 2009 | 7:42 am Mysterious Radiation May Strike Airline PassengersAirplane passengers that fly through storms may be exposed to high levels of radiation, according to new research.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Dec 2009 | 7:29 am Engineers Find Design Inspiration from NatureResearchers look to beetles, flies and lizards for engineering inspiration.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Dec 2009 | 7:26 am New drug threat to Asian vulturesA veterinary pain drug can be lethal to vultures that eat the carcasses of treated livestock, say scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Dec 2009 | 7:17 am Stolen Hitler Art Book To Be ReturnedAfter fighting his way across Europe during World War II, John Pistone was among the U.S. soldiers who entered Adolf Hitler's home nestled in the Bavarian Alps as the war came to a close.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Dec 2009 | 6:50 am Crest of a waveOrkney machines built to harness wave powerSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Dec 2009 | 5:05 am Warming Turns Fish into DaredevilsA temperature increase of few degrees can make fish more aggressive and bold.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Dec 2009 | 5:00 am Children Can Inherit Mom's Abuse-Altered BrainNeurological changes in child abuse victims may be passed on to offspring, new research shows.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Dec 2009 | 4:32 am The Royal Institution must surviveThe world's oldest independent scientific research organisation could go out of business. It shouldn't Amid all our other troubles, did you notice that the recession has also helped place in jeopardy the Royal Institution. Founded in 1799 it is the world's oldest independent scientific research organisation but could go out of business. It shouldn't. I say that as an ignorant non-scientist who happens to be reading The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes's wonderful book about late 18th century science, which features the RI. So I hope the cuttings are put on Alistair Darling's desk when he has a quiet moment after work this evening. Put it another way, did you read Ian Sample's terrific article in yesterday's Guardian? Followed up in today's Times and elsewhere, it explained how director Lady (Susan) Greenfield's expansionist plans to modernise the grand and hallowed institution in Mayfair have come a financial cropper. At a cost of £22m, Greenfield ordered a complete refit of the historic Faraday lecture hall and the installation of a bar and restaurant. You get the general picture, I'm sure. Unfortunately, the works overran their budget, fundraising targets were not met, and the refurb was late, so the Queen eventually reopened the RI in October when everyone was thoroughly immersed in financial gloom. The trustees reported that they could have coped with "any of the four negative factors in isolation" – but not all of them at once. That sounds a familiar story, confident firms with plans to expand not responding quickly enough to collapsing economic confidence and the collapse of credit, and failing to retrench in time. Gordon Brown is only the most conspicuous ostrich in this particular herd. In the RI's case things are complicated by Greenfield, an unusual figure in bureaucratised science of today. A distinguished neuroscientist who wears designer outfits for Vogue and Hello! magazine, she was clearly – as the old saying goes – "asking for trouble", intellectually speaking. You can imagine the usual suspects muttering into their test tubes, can't you? Someone who has seen the refurb at the RI tells me: "It can't have paid off. The main (Faraday) lecture room has zero character now. The new restaurant and bar are mostly empty. You can see why people are miffed with Greenfield." Perhaps a vote of no confidence might have been appropriate? Perhaps the RI doesn't do things that way? Sample reports that "according to documents circulating in the governing council 'the currently defined role of director … is unaffordable'" and needs to be redefined ie shrunk. This being Britain, none of the top bods appears willing to be quoted – at least not on the record – and few figures have yet been published on the size of the problem, let alone Greenfield's salary. I doubt if it is in the banker's bonus league. There, there. These things happen. The Royal Academy, even older and more prestigious, went through nightmare "modernisation" years recently, though it now seems to have settled down. Officials who ought to know better stop talking to each other. It sounds worse than a university senior common room. Greenfield's project seems to have cost the endowment fund £3.2m it can't afford, creating an overdraft of the same size. It has promised the charity commissioners to repay the endowment money over 15 years – if it can. Let's hope the Treasury – or a banker with a bad conscience – can help tide the RI over. My own interest in reading about its plight stems from reading Holmes's award-winning Age of Wonder (Harper Press, £9.99). The Institution was founded in 1799 at the home – in Soho Square – of the great Sir Joseph Banks, South Sea explorer with Captain Cook, turned brilliant president and talent-spotter of the much-older Royal Society. Wealthy men, many interested in the newly emerging natural sciences for purely intellectual, not commercial, purposes, chipped in 50 guineas apiece – say, £5,000 in today's money – and funded Thomas Garnett to be its first professor of a study that was becoming known as chemistry. Garnett was quickly superseded by an improbable figure, the amazing Cornishman Humphry Davy (1778-1829), whose dramatic public experiments and lectures quickly turned him into a scientific rock star – pulling in huge crowds, especially young women, so his critics quickly noted. Gilray and Rowlandson quickly turned their Steve Bell-like talents towards mocking the whole show. But the money poured in and the institution – later led by Davy's protege, Michael Faraday – pioneered discoveries of lasting importance to the world. You probably knew all this. I didn't. Two other omissions to my general knowledge especially surprised me in this context. One is the friendships, personal and intellectual, which then existed between the new men of science and the poets of the Romantic era: Coleridge, Southey, Shelley, Keats (who was a medical student), Byron. Davy wrote poetry that Coleridge published. They were (mostly) on the same side, imagination against authority and – by implication – the deity, though the scientists had to tread a careful path in their public lectures because the thought police were on their case. There was also a tussle, of less interest to the police, between Romantic imagination and Enlightenment reason, another still-familiar complaint that "Newton destroyed all the poetry of the rainbow, by reducing it to a prism," as Keats famously put it at what became known as "the immortal dinner" of 1817. Clever chap that he is, Holmes (not to be confused with the military historian or the American actor) argues that Keats knew enough to know that Newton had expanded the poetic potential of the rainbow by proving it was not divine sign-writing, but a natural phenomenon. Never mind. It is a comfort to be reminded that such battles are eternal, not the brilliant insights of no-nothing mullahs or born-again American congressfolk. My other surprise is also a comfort of sorts. Davy is remembered for his miner's safety lamp, a great boon, and much else. But his early experiments with gas – deemed immoral – came close to making a major scientific discovery of immense importance to mankind: namely that gas's vital use would be to dull pain and enable operations to take place under anaesthetic. He noted the effect, Holmes writes, but did not draw the right conclusion, perhaps because pain was then accepted and doctors' skill measured by the speed of their amputations and psychological domination of their patients, the writer suggests. It took another 40 years of unimaginable pain in surgery before an American medic – they're so practical, aren't they? – mastered the medical use of gas. In 1811, after Davy's near-miss, the novelist Fanny Burnley underwent successful mastectomy in Paris (she lived another 30 years) without an anaesthetic – and, being a writer, bravely wrote up her experience. All of which is a far cry from the RI's current budget crisis. But it does serve to remind us all that science is often flamboyant, that scientists overspend – and even great ones miss important discoveries. But they also keep the lights on (good old Faraday) and will continue to do so if the Copenhagen summit gets the politics right. 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 | 9 Dec 2009 | 3:36 am
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But Garcia-Castellanos and colleagues found it, thanks to plans for an underground train. Cores drilled in the seafloor as part of preparations for the Africa-Europe tunnel project, which hopes to run trains under the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain to Morocco, revealed a deep channel filled with loose sediment. Using the drilling data and previously collected seismic data, the researchers determined that the channel is 200 kilometers long, between 6 and 11 kilometers wide, and between 300 and 650 meters deep.
But