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Appetite, consumption controlled by clockwork genes at cross-purposes in fliesOne of the pioneers in research on sleep-wake circadian genes has discovered that fruit flies' appetite and consumption are controlled by two rival sets of clocks, one in neurons and the other in the fly fat body, which is analogous to the liver.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Hourly employees happier than salariedPeople paid by the hour exhibit a stronger relationship between income and happiness, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Tiny molecule slows progression of Lou Gehrig's disease in miceA substance released by muscles in response to nerve injury can reduce symptoms and prolong life in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), researchers have found. The finding has already prompted development of possible drugs to treat the disease.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Real human bone grown in tissue cultureResearchers have created a process that grows real human bone in tissue culture, which can be used to investigate how bones form, grow and fracture.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Earth's atmosphere came from outer space, scientists findThe gases which formed the Earth's atmosphere -- and probably its oceans -- did not come from inside the Earth but from outer space, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Delaying the aging process protects against Alzheimer's diseaseAging is the single greatest risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. In a new study, researchers found that simply slowing the aging process in mice prone to develop Alzheimer's disease prevented their brains from turning into a neuronal wasteland.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Bacteria engineered to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fuelGlobal climate change has prompted efforts to drastically reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels. In a new approach, researchers have genetically modified a cyanobacterium to consume carbon dioxide and produce a liquid fuel precursor to isobutanol, which holds great potential as a gasoline alternative. The reaction is powered directly by energy from sunlight, or photosynthesis.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am Stroke drug kills cancer cells and leaves normal cells intactResearchers have found that a stroke drug -- a member of a family of phenanthridine derivatives developed by an American drug company -- worked to kill cancer in mice which had been implanted with human breast cancer cells.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am 'Live' imaging reveals breast cancer cells' transition to metastasisThe spread, or metastasis, of individual breast cancer cells from the main tumor into the blood circulation to the lungs and other body tissues and organs is under the control of a growth factor abbreviated TGFb, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am 'Fighting' IED attacks with SCARE technologyResearchers have developed and successfully tested new computer software and computational techniques to analyze patterns of improvised explosive device attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan or other locations and predict the locations of weapons caches that are used by insurgents to support those attacks.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am EU nations to commit $3 billion to climate fund (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 3:38 am EU strains to come up with more climate money (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 3:32 am The nation's weather (AP)AP - Wintry weather was expected to persist over the Northeast and New England on Friday, while the Central U.S. could start to warm.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 3:30 am Hurdles remain even if climate deal is reached (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 3:18 am EU summit battles on climate vowEU leaders battle over how much to pay to an international global warming fund, with France and Britain making a joint pledge.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Dec 2009 | 3:17 am 'Boom, krak-oo, hok' - scientists translate monkey talkCampbell's monkeys may help shed light on the origins of human language, scientists report.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Dec 2009 | 2:10 am Australia threatens Japan over whaling program (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 1:58 am Iraq agreement with Shell-Petronas on giant oil field (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Dec 2009 | 1:49 am Stolen e-mails embolden climate change skeptics (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 10:20 pm Bones of T. rex to make museum debut in Oregon (AP)AP - The skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex will make its museum debut at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry along the banks of the Willamette River.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 9:31 pm Earth’s Atmosphere May Have Alien Origin
Isotopic analyses of the gases krypton and xenon suggest that much of Earth’s atmosphere came from outer space, not inner space.
Some scientists have proposed that the gases in Earth’s atmosphere originated within the planet, says Holland. According to those arguments, the atmosphere either seeped out of the Earth as the planet gradually cooled or were expelled from the crust when large numbers of asteroids pummeled the planet and melted its surface around 3.9 billion years ago. But new isotopic evidence gathered by Holland and his colleagues suggests that those scenarios probably aren’t right.
The researchers analyzed samples of gas pulled from a natural reservoir of carbon dioxide that lies several hundred meters below northeastern New Mexico. There, Holland explains, krypton and xenon that originate deep within the Earth — gases that presumably accumulated when the planet coalesced billions of years ago — mix with small amounts of atmospheric krypton and xenon carried downward by rainfall and groundwater. Ratios of isotopes of krypton and xenon present in the geologic reservoir don’t match the ratios seen in today’s atmosphere. In particular, heavier isotopes of each gas appear in larger proportions in the subterranean samples than they do in the atmosphere. So it’s unlikely that large amounts of these atmospheric gases came from within the Earth, the team argues. Analyses also show that if the geologic gas samples weren’t tainted by atmospheric krypton and xenon, the isotope ratios measured for those gases would match the ratios seen in meteorites. That’s another sign that neither the planet nor meteorites were the source of the isotopically light xenon and krypton in today’s atmosphere, Holland notes. Instead, he and his colleagues propose, the krypton and xenon now present in the air — and many other atmospheric components as well — may be remnants of gas clouds swept up by the newly forming Earth. Or, they suggest, the gases may have been delivered to Earth by comets, in which the proportions of light isotopes for xenon and krypton are relatively higher. “This is an important piece of work, and an extremely interesting contribution to studies of how the atmosphere evolved,” says Robert Pepin, an astrophysicist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. But the team’s results aren’t unambiguous, he notes. The krypton and xenon in today’s atmosphere may, for example, be a mix of isotopically light gases delivered by comets and the heavier versions originating within the Earth. Image: NASA See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 10 Dec 2009 | 8:53 pm US senators show path forward on climate (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 8:11 pm Decision delayed on Meteosat teamThe choice of a team to build the next generation of weather satellites - or Meteosats - for Europe is delayed.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Dec 2009 | 7:22 pm Copenhagen: The Drowning Mouse RoarsWith deliberations at the Copenhagen climate change summit now reaching the end of their first week, tension, a colleague of mine in the meetings tells me, "is high." The tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu, the fourth smallest and third ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Dec 2009 | 7:11 pm PCs Not Dead Yet (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - Whatever it says about priorities during a recession, the facts are there: Employment is down. Housing prices are down. But PCs shipments are up. Way up.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 6:55 pm More than 1,000 Catfish Species Are VenomousAt least 1,250 species of catfish are venomous, a new study finds.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Dec 2009 | 6:49 pm T. Rex Skeleton Can Finally Be Ogled by the Public
The 40-foot long Tyrannosaurus rex that failed to sell at a Las Vegas auction in October has finally found a home in an Oregon museum. Though the skeleton, one of the most complete ever found, was purchased by a private buyer, it will be on display at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland beginning Dec. 17 through summer 2010.
Known as Samson, the 66-million year old fossil was discovered in South Dakota in 1987. Because the skull was largely intact when it was found, it is perhaps the finest T.rex skull ever unearthed. The fossil contains 60 percent of the original bones, 170 in all, making it the third most complete T. rex specimen in the world. Bonhams & Butterfields auction house estimated the dinosaur was worth between $2 million and $8 million, but bidders failed to meet the owner’s specified minimum sale price at the October auction. The most complete skeleton, known as Sue, went for $8 million at auction to the Chicago Field Museum. Samson’s new owner paid an undisclosed sum. Images: 1) Bonhams & Butterfields. 2) OMSI. See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 10 Dec 2009 | 5:28 pm Data Nerds Hack NASA (In a Good Way)
A bunch of data nerds from inside and outside NASA will gather at a house in Cupertino, California called the Rainbow Mansion this Saturday to hack through the agency’s data jungles. The event isn’t NASA-sponsored. None of the bureaucracy is involved at all. Instead, the event is being coordinated by a small group of people who just love the space program and want to help open up the agency’s troves of information. “If we can build cool prototypes and demos and proofs-of-concept, other people will see that it’s not that hard,” said the event’s co-host Jessy Cowan-Sharp, a NASA contractor and proprietor of OpenNASA.com. “Maybe then it will be adopted inside NASA.” The event is just one of dozens this weekend being promoted by the Sunlight Foundation as part of its Great American Hackathon. Each one is being organized by volunteers who want to make government data easier to access and more useful to the public. In Pittsburgh, the hackers will be working on making stimulus spending easier to understand. In Boston, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation data will be the focus.
Over the past several years, NASA has made considerable efforts to open itself up to the public. The agency’s public relations officials make extensive use of social media networks. Raw images from NASA missions like Cassini also make their way to the web. Many NASA datasets are available on the web and technical reports stretching back a decade have their own server too. But while NASA has made considerable strides, many of these tools are still hard to find and use. The challenge for Hackathon events dealing with complex data is how to pick a small enough bite to chew. “How do you identify a project that’s doable in a day?” Cowan-Sharp asked. The NASA data event will be kicked off by a quick introduction by Cowan-Sharp and her co-host, Robbie Schingler, on how they get useful stuff done in short periods of time. They run a site dedicated to developing microsoftware called TinyApps. Their motto: “Never spend more than 4 hours on a first release.” Unlike a lot of Sunlight events, which focus on making data more publicly accessible, the NASA-focused event will also look at ways of making data flow better within the agency itself. “We’re a bunch of government contractors and civil servants,” Cowan-Sharp said. “For us, the question is not just how can we take stuff outside of government, but how can we use these data sources to help each other collaborate.” Image: flickr/rocketqueen 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 | 10 Dec 2009 | 5:06 pm Darwin debateMark Brake (Letters, 9 December) and others have questioned the statements we made in our letter of 7 December, concerning Darwin's originality. What Darwin wrote and thought before 1857 can be verified by reading his notebooks and essays, freely available online (http://darwin-online.org.uk/). This is the scientific approach – to allow anyone to verify the facts of the matter for themselves. Darwin was an excellent writer, and is not difficult even for readers today. Brian Charlesworth Deborah Charlesworth Edinburgh • I love it when scientists refer to the "invisible college", so often unaware that this description of the Pure Temple of Science originated not with the Royal Society but with the Rosicrucian Manifestos, which purported to be written by a secret society of esotericists dedicated to Kabbalah, astrology, alchemy and hermeticism. John Andrew London 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 | 5:06 pm GM crops: The good newsAll discussions of genetically modified crops (Editorial, 4 December) should recognise that there are two basic types of GM. Agronomic GM seeks to improve the growing properties of the plant, for example making it weed- or pest-resistant. Nutritional GM seeks to improve the nutrient profile of the plant. The two approaches differ in critical ways. First, nutritional GM offers important benefits to consumers, something missing with agronomic varieties. The focus so far is on adding otherwise missing micronutrients (pro-vitamin A, iron and zinc) to the staple starches that form the diet for the poor in developing countries. Deficiencies in these nutrients afflict over 2 billion people, not only harming health, but restricting economic development. Thus, nutritional GM is relevant for Africa and Asia. Which is why Harvest Plus is about to start 11 large trials in developing countries, and Grand Challenges another five. Importantly, all these projects are funded by public money, from governments and foundations. Initial seeds will be given away, and harvesting seed for future seasons encouraged. Multinational seed companies are hardly involved, for an obvious reason – there is no money to be made from poor subsistence farmers. Among the diseases targeted for nutritional GM are iron-deficiency anaemia in women and vitamin A deficiency in children, especially the consequent blindness. The trials may not work. But if they do, we will see the benefits quickly, within five years. Then, some of the most serious health problems among the world's poorest people could be substantially diminished by prompt dissemination of nutritionally modified seeds. If that happens, it would transform the GM debate – much more effectively than any discussion at a learned society in London. Anyone interested in food security should be following the development of nutritional GM closely. Prof JT Winkler Director, Nutrition Policy Unit, London Metropolitan University 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 | 5:05 pm Keeping a mateThe Guardian's Evolutionary Agony Aunt Carole Jahme shines the cold light of evolutionary psychology on readers' problems I'm trapped by moralityFrom Michael, 40s, by email However I am tied up with notions of "love", "duty", "responsibility", "morality" and "guilt", but I am aware that these are just irrelevant Christian social hangovers. What should I do? Carole replies: You have one son and I'm guessing he is of school age and thus he requires parenting. You are mistaken in viewing your status quo as a dilemma of moralities versus descendents. One child that is heavily invested in can do far better in evolutionary terms than five neglected children. Your best strategy is to support your wife enabling her to give her best to your son. The sentiments of love and guilt are not Christian hangovers, they are evolved, higher cognitive emotions. These sentiments are adapted to best guide us through life. There is variation within species. These sentiments are not evenly distributed among all humans and neither are they fail-safe, but if you feel love when you think of your infertile wife and your only son then get happy quick! Why not spend some of your wealth on a family holiday? Kidd, S, et al (2001). Effects of male age on semen quality and fertility: a review of the literature. Fertility and Sterility, Volume 75, Issue 2, Pages 237-248. Van Vugt, M & Hart, CM (2004). Social identity as social glue: The origins of group loyalty (2004). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 585-598. De Waal, FBM & Bonnie, KE (2004). Primate Social Reciprocity and the Origin of Gratitude, p213, in The Psychology of Gratitude, Oxford University Press. A mid-life crisisFrom anonymous male, 50, by email He's a nice guy at heart and reckons he should leave his wife out of honesty, to give her a chance to rebuild her life with someone who might really love her. But out of pure cowardice he lets himself be talked into staying, which is materially an easyish option. He's inevitably going to fall in love with another Younger Woman, so this time round is he capable of self-sacrifice and staying? Would this be a good idea? If he leaves, is guilt going to kill him? What do I do? Carole replies: Jane Goodall, among others, has observed the complex emotions of chimps and has noted that in times of stress, or when in need of quiet contemplation, individual chimpanzees take themselves away from the group to a beautiful spot, to rest and watch waterfalls, for example. These trips to areas of natural beauty are not for feeding, breeding or socialising purposes; rather they are occasions when chimps feel the need to take a break from the pressures of primate life. Humans have an innate appreciation of natural beauty. If you can take a break I recommend you leave behind both work and domestic pressures and go travelling. Make use of your evolved, higher primate ability to self-reflect, and test your instincts in an environment unknown to you. You need to be up against the elements and relying on your intuition to discover what it really is that you want from the rest of your life. Through a Window: My Thirty Years With the Chimpanzees of Gombe. Jane Goodall. Mariner Books (paperback) April 2010. My fear of snakesFrom Johnny Viper, ageless, by email Carole replies: Rakison, D (2009). Does women's greater fear of snakes and spiders originate in infancy? Evolution and Human Behavior, Volume 30, Issue 6, p438-444. Terms and conditions Please say whether you wish to be named in connection with your enquiry and if so by what name. We reserve the right to edit questions. If you mail us a question, you agree that your email may be published on the site. We regret that Carole cannot answer all the mails we receive. We cannot provide urgent advice and suggest that if you need such advice you seek it immediately without waiting for a response from Carole. With regards to legal, medical or financial issues, we recommend seeking the advice of a listed professional. We will not be held liable for any loss, damage or injury you incur as a result of using this site or as a result of any advice given. We will not enter into personal correspondence via email. Carole is UK-based and as such any advice she gives is intended for a UK audience only. 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 | 5:05 pm Despite the doubts, we shouldn't dismiss the Rom Houben coma caseI too used to be sceptical about facilitated communication. But my own research has convinced me of its merits Ben Goldacre discusses the case of Rom Houben, the Belgian who was diagnosed as being in a coma for 23 years but is now able to communicate (Making contact with a helping hand, 5 December). Goldacre raises doubts about the authenticity of the case: "My concern about this is pretty simple," he says. The video footage shows "the facilitator looking at the screen and the keyboard, moving Houben's finger at remarkably high speed to type out a message, while both of Houben's eyes are closed, his head slumped sideways across the chair". He cites various studies into so-called facilitated communication, which have "found that in FC 'almost all scientifically controlled studies showed that the facilitator was the author of the communication'", or that "the claims made for FC were unsubstantiated", and that "five US professional bodies now formally oppose the use of FC". This cannot be disputed. However, the practice of providing physical support to enable people to point more accurately continues, as it aids communication and engagement, and is often accompanied by reductions in frustration and associated "challenging behaviours". I was sceptical too. But my first observations of a young boy using FC made me question whether the interaction should be dismissed as pure "facilitator influence". As a researcher I wanted to assess the validity of the technique. An obvious way was by replicating the methodology of the research studies, and in doing so I found that the people I worked with also failed to validate their communication. It would have been easy to adopt the same conclusions as the research. However, I had daily validation of the benefits of this approach, including positive changes in relationships and levels of contentment, and the verifiable conveying of information that was unknown to the facilitator. The objective of facilitated communication is that the physical support be gradually reduced until the person using the technique reaches independence. Some of the most compelling evidence is from people who now point and/or type independently of physical support. Guidelines on best practice adopted in the European Union include ensuring that the person who is purportedly doing the pointing is also looking at the communication aid they are using. Our most recent research strategies have been to use eye-tracking technology to measure the relationship between looking and pointing. New data, currently being considered for publication, clearly shows FC users looking at what they are about to point to before beginning the movement of pointing. Facilitated communication is a complex topic. Since it is very difficult for an observer to know who is determining the direction of pointing, it is essential to judge its use on an individual level. Indications of authorship come in many forms, most of which we have so far found difficult to measure; but my experience has led me to proceed in this field with caution, in the belief that it could provide a means of improving the quality of life for some people, and lead to a greater understanding of the nature of communication impairment. 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 | 5:05 pm A New Programming Language for KidsA new way of coding is so easy that kids can learn it.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Dec 2009 | 2:54 pm Taking the Kuiper Belt CensusOut near the orbit of Pluto, the Kuiper Belt holds thousands of minor bodies. But what can they tell us about the origin of the solar system? Quite a lot, according to veteran Lowell Observatory astronomer Larry Wasserman.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Dec 2009 | 2:33 pm New NASA Sky Mapper to Hunt Stars, Galaxies, Near-Earth Asteroids
Veteran astronomer Ned Wright is already considered pretty smart. But soon he’ll be getting wise. That’s WISE as in Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the NASA spacecraft set for launch on December 11 that will provide the most comprehensive examination of the sky ever recorded in infrared radiation. Wright, of the University of California, Los Angeles, leads the $320 million robotic mission, which for at least nine months will map the sky in four bands of infrared wavelengths. These wavelengths, ranging from 3.3 micrometers to 23 micrometers, are absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere and can’t be seen from the ground.
WISE is expected to dramatically boost the number of known debris disks—composed of pulverized rocky remnants of planet formation—around young stars and to turn up more of the dusty cocoons that serve as birth sites for stars. Dust will be easily detected because it absorbs the visible and ultraviolet light from these hatchlings and reradiates the light in the infrared.
“I’m very excited because we’re going to be seeing parts of the universe that we haven’t seen before,” he notes. Wright views the mission as the successor to the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, which in 1983 became the first craft to survey the entire sky in the infrared. WISE is 500 times more sensitive than IRAS was at the mid-infrared wavelengths of 12 micrometers and 23 micrometers, meaning that the new craft will record much fainter infrared sources and pinpoint their locations with much greater accuracy. Researchers still use data generated by the now-defunct IRAS to guide high-resolution observations by large infrared telescopes. In the same way, WISE, which relies on a relatively small 40-centimeter telescope, is expected to provide an avalanche of data to help target searches by much larger telescopes, such as the recently launched European Space Agency’s Herschel telescope and especially the James Webb Space Telescope, the proposed infrared successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. “IRAS was the gift that just kept on giving, and I think WISE will do the same,” comments Charles Beichman of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “When you make a breakthrough of hundreds to thousands in sensitivity, great things will follow. When you do that over the whole sky, it will be referenced for decades to come.”
A tank of hydrogen ice will keep WISE chilled to 15 degrees above absolute zero, reducing infrared emissions from the craft that could interfere with detection of faint infrared sources from space. Wright expects the first images to be released a few months after launch, but he says the first detailed maps won’t be available until sometime around April 2011. Images: NASA See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 10 Dec 2009 | 1:33 pm Obama accepts peace Nobel, defends "just war"OSLO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama defended the right of the United States to wage "just wars" as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday, acknowledging that as a wartime president he was a controversial choice.Source: Reuters: Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 1:09 pm T.rex's 'little cousin': Researchers unearth new dinosaur speciesResearchers unveil a new species of dinosaur from the late triassic - an early relative of T.rex and velociraptor.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Dec 2009 | 12:39 pm Geographic Origin of Dinosaurs Pinned DownA newly identified carnivorous dinosaur sheds light on the wanderings of the early beasts.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Early-bird dinosaur found in New MexicoPalaeontologists delighted to discover 213m-year-old remains of feathered meat-eater that retain intact air sacs in their bones The remains of a two-legged meat-eating predator that roamed the Earth at the dawn of dinosaurs have been uncovered in an ancient bone bed by fossil hunters. The feathered beast, named Tawa hallae, was the size of a large dog and sported a long neck and tail, a slender snout, and sharp, curved teeth to catch and kill its prey. Palaeontologists unearthed several skeletons belonging to Tawa hallae during an excavation at the Hayden quarry in northern New Mexico. The remains are more than 213m years old, placing the creature at the foot of tree of dinosaur evolution. The species is one of the earliest known therapods, the group of dinosaurs that includes birds, velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus rex. The most complete skeleton belongs to a juvenile that stood around 70cm tall at the hips and measured two metres from snout to tail. The dinosaurs emerged in the late triassic period, around 230m years ago and became the dominant land-dwelling vertebrates for the next 160m years. "It's very rare to have known this much about a single dinosaur during the early time of dinosaur evolution," said Sterling Nesbitt, a palaeontologist at the University of Texas in Austin. The dinosaur lived at a time when the world's land mass was a single vast supercontinent called Pangea. This later broke up into the separate continents we see today. The animals' remains are in such good condition palaeontologists suspect they were buried very soon after dying. Examination of the fossils revealed air-filled sacs in the bones, a feature that links the dinosaurs with the evolution of birds much later. "When we saw them, our jaws dropped. A lot of these theropods have really hollow bones, so when they get preserved, they get really crunched. But these were in almost perfect condition," Nesbitt said. Analysis of the fossils from New Mexico suggest Tawa hallae may have originated in what is now South America and crossed Pangea to the region that is now North America, according to a report in the journal, Science. "This new dinosaur Tawa hallae changes our understanding of the relationships of early dinosaurs and provides fantastic insight into the evolution of the skeleton of the first carnivorous dinosaurs," said Randall Irmis, a co-author on the study from the Utah Museum of Natural History. 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 | 12:00 pm Mediterranean Is Scary Laboratory of Ocean Futures
Warmed, overfished and polluted, the small Mediterranean Sea is giving scientists a look at what the future may hold for the rest of Earth’s oceans — and it’s not pretty. Beneath its surface, a transformation is taking place. Food webs are shrinking, with rich ecosystems that supported valuable commercial fisheries giving way to barrens dominated by jellyfish and tiny invertebrates. Mass die-offs and disease are now common. “The predicted effects of climate change are being met in the Mediterranean. The results are more obvious and dramatic, but the drivers are the same all over the world,” said Pierre Chevaldonné, a University of the Mediterranean biologist. Chevaldonné is a co-author of a review of more than 100 studies on the Mediterranean’s changing ecological dynamics. Published last Monday in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, it describes the convergence of climate change and human impacts in waters that had been stable since the time of Aristotle.
During the latter half of the 20th century, the Mediterranean’s deep northern regions, a traditional source of cold waters that flowed south into warmer basin currents, warmed by one-fifth of a degree Fahrenheit. Shallow northwest waters — an intermediate zone more productive than any other region of the Mediterranean — warmed by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Some of the warming was expected, but it appears to have accelerated in the last 20 years, as the unusually hot 1990s coincided with natural cycles. With that overheated decade came anomalies in surface temperature and rainfall. These appear to have disrupted deep-water hydrology, changing its composition and currents. That disruption has now rippled to the western shallows. Compounding the problem, runaway population growth has packed 132 million people around the sea’s rim, with habitat destruction, pollution and fishing pressure increasing apace. The effects of these interacting stresses make the Mediterranean a model system for the rest of Earth’s oceans, which are also overfished and, in many regions, warming at comparable or greater rates. Scientists say warming will continue for decades even if greenhouse gas emissions soon fall to a fraction of current levels. And though it will take longer for disruption to become visible in those larger waters, the lessons are the same. “It’s difficult to know exactly what’s going to happen elsewhere, but the principles can be extrapolated,” said Marta Call, a Dalhousie University marine biologist who has modeled the interactions of Mediterranean species. In a paper published last year in Ecosystems, she and her colleagues described Mediterranean food webs as “in an advanced state of degradation.”
Degradation in the Mediterranean has taken place on multiple levels. Many large fish species, including top-level predators like sharks and tuna, have been fished to functional extinction. A few still swim, but they no longer have the same ecological role. Coll’s models and other research on predator interactions suggest that they helped stabilize food webs, and their absence now leaves other species prone to wild fluctuations. Mass die-offs of dozens of invertebrate species are now common in the northeast. They’re stressed by rising temperatures and vulnerable to disease, and the most common invasive species are not new predators, but microbes. Most strikingly, soft corals that once carpeted the northwest seafloor, forming a literal underwater forest, have in many areas been wiped out altogether. Replacing them is what Chevaldonné calls “lawns” of algae and short-lived invertebrates. The prevailing dynamic is what scientists call “brittleness,” or a decline in “robustness.” Historically complex food webs cannot find balance. In their place have emerged simpler food webs dominated by species that Coll and her colleagues characterize as “unpalatables” and “detritus” — algae, invertebrates and jellyfish. There are still some fish, but they’re relatively few in number, and small. Much of the Mediterranean catch is now processed and sold as animal feed. “In terms of biomass and production, the Mediterranean is basically impoverished,” said Coll. These conditions probably represent a transitional period for the Mediterranean, though it’s likely a one-way transition. Neither Chevaldonné nor Coll claims to know exactly what the sea’s next stable ecological configuration will look like, but this may be a preview, just as the Mediterranean may be a preview of the profound shifts likely elsewhere. “In the future, we may get only jellyfish. Then we’ll find a way of consuming jellyfish,” Coll said. “The problem is, do we want that?” Images: 1) In some regions of the Mediterranean, traditional food webs have collapsed, and the new ones are dominated by bacteria, small invertebrates and jellyfish./jetzt_ist_immer/Flickr. See Also:
Citations: “Climate change effects on a miniature ocean: the highly diverse, highly impacted Mediterranean Sea.” Christophe Lejeusne, Pierre Chevaldonne, Christine Pergent-Martini, Charles F. Boudouresque and Thierry Perez. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, published online, Dec. 1, 2009. “Structural Degradation in Mediterranean Sea Food Webs: Testing Ecological Hypotheses Using Stochastic and Mass-Balance Modelling.” By Marta Coll, Heike K. Lotze, and Tamara N. Romanuk. Ecosystems, Vol. 11 No. 6, Sept. 2008. 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 | 10 Dec 2009 | 11:52 am Kill Your Online PersonaFacebook, Twitter, Linkedin ... sick of it all? Just want to hide? Maybe an e-death is for you.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Dec 2009 | 11:32 am Through a Lobster's EyesFrom the annals of "How did I miss that story?": While reading a news snippet about how scientists hope to mimic the structure of a mantis shrimp's eyes to improve on the next generation of Blu-Ray players, I stumbled on ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Dec 2009 | 11:11 am UK space agency is goForty years after moon landing, Britain gets its own agency to co-ordinate the nation's space exploits Britain is to get its own space agency more than 40 years after the Apollo project landed the first astronauts on the moon. The agency will come into being next year and replaces the existing British National Space Centre as a single co-ordinating organisation for the nation's space exploration activities. Speaking today at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, the science minister Lord Drayson said the agency – which is yet to be named – was being launched to boost support for the £6.8bn industry. The announcement coincides with the publication of a government review of space exploration that warns the nation is "at a critical point" in deciding its future in the space business. Without major changes to domestic space policy, Britain will miss out on international plans to explore space over the next three decades, the review says. "The international community is beginning to define the infrastructure that will be used on the moon and elsewhere for the next 20 to 30 years. Decisions taken in the coming few years will thus affect the role that the UK does or does not play in this initiative for years to come." Britain has a long-standing policy of not contributing to human spaceflight programmes and instead supports robotic and satellite-based missions. The country spends about £270m a year on space, most of which is paid to the European Space Agency. Earlier this year, ESA announced the first Briton to join its astronaut corps, Major Timothy Peake, a former army helicopter pilot. The review urges ministers to consider backing a space programme that involves both robotic and human explorers. In one scenario, a British geologist would train as an astronaut with a view to working on moon-related projects. In another, engineers might work on a moon-based telescope. "Our space sector hasn't missed a beat during this recession," Drayson said. "The new space agency is about making sure that the UK fully exploits its competitive advantage in satellites, robotics and related technologies." 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 | 11:06 am Million Dollar Fish Hurt By LookalikeThe white marlin is so prized that it can sometimes earn fishermen $1 million in tournaments. Look over the mantelpiece at lodges and the homes of fishermen and you might even see one of these lean and mean fish, preserved ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Dec 2009 | 11:05 am Temperature may hit high in 2010The global average temperature could reach a record high in 2010, according to the UK's Met Office.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Dec 2009 | 10:52 am Solar Panels In Aisle ThreeWhat to get that person who has it all? Maybe some solar panels. In California, at least, it's now possible to haul a box of do-it-yourself solar power off the shelf. Home improvement retail giant Lowe's announced that it's started ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Dec 2009 | 10:51 am Nice Guys Finish FirstSurvival of the fittest is so two centuries ago. These days it's all about survival of the kindest. So all of you cut-throat, road-raging, self-absorbed, Wall Street, pirating, war-mongering, greedy jerks out there, take note: Your "every man for himself" ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Dec 2009 | 10:41 am Walking with Dinosaurs Dino StolenA thief in Mexico walked away with a Walking with Dinosaurs remote-controlled dinosaur, according to show spokeswoman Karla Arrollo. Various media reports value the stolen dinobot at anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000. It was a model baby Plateosaurus, but it ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Dec 2009 | 10:30 am Hurricanes 2010: Harsh ForecastThe next hurricane season could be a harsh one, according to Colorado State University hurricane forecasting team. They predicts the United States will fall prey to between three and five major hurricanes in 2010, well above the 2.3 average. Why? ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Dec 2009 | 10:17 am Bizarre Sky Spiral Caused by Failed MissileA spectacular spiral light show in the sky above Norway Wednesday was caused by a Russian missile that failed just after launch, according to Russia’s defense ministry.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Dec 2009 | 10:15 am PCs Not Dead YetDespite reports of doom and gloom, PC sales have actually gone up.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Dec 2009 | 10:09 am Americans Believe in God, Astrology and GhostsPoll finds many individuals believe in many things that arguably conflict.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Dec 2009 | 10:03 am UK to have dedicated space agencyBritain is to follow other major nations and set up a dedicated government agency to direct its policy on space.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Dec 2009 | 9:50 am Seamount diary: December 2009IUCN scientists hit the 'roaring forties', sampling the strange creatures of the southwest Indian Ocean ridge.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Dec 2009 | 9:37 am The other Nobel prize winnersBarack Obama picked up his Nobel peace prize in Oslo today, but less high-profile recipients have also been rewarded Barack Obama was the centre of attention when he picked up the Nobel peace prize in Oslo, Norway, today. But there were also prizes for physics, literature, medicine and chemistry, in a parallel event in Stockholm, Sweden. In Charles Kuen Kao, Woolwich Polytechnic in east London – now part of Greenwich University – has its first Nobel laureate. A Chinese-born Briton, Kao studied at Woolwich before joining a phone company in Essex. He shares half of the prize for physics with two Americans, Willard Boyle and George Smith. Kao made a discovery that led to a breakthrough in fibre optics in 1966, when he calculated how to transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibres. Optical fibres are the basis for high-speed communications – without fibre optics, there would be no broadband for example. The transfer of enormous amounts of data – text, music, images and video – around the globe in a split second is possible thanks to fibre optics. Boyle and Smith share the award because of their work in digital imagery. They invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD (charge-coupled device). The CCD revolutionised photography, as light could now be captured electronically instead of on film. CCD technology is also used in many medical applications – imaging the inside of the human body, both for diagnostics and for microsurgery – and in barcode readers in supermarkets. Herta Müller, the German novelist, is only the 12th woman in 108 years to win the Nobel prize for literature. Born in Romania in 1953, Müller refused to co-operate with Nicolae Ceausescu's secret police, lost her job as a teacher and was the subject of repeated threats until she emigrated in 1987. She now lives in Berlin, where she has won several literary awards, including Germany's most prestigious, the Kleist prize. Oppression, dictatorship and exile figure prominently in Müller's novels, including Herztier (published in English as The Land of Green Plums), considered by many to be her best novel and Atemschaukel (Everything I Possess I Carry With Me). The Nobel prize for economics is shared by two Americans, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, for their pioneering work on how individuals co-operate and share common resources, and work together within companies. Ostrom – the first female winner of the economics prize – was recognised for her work on how "common property can be successfully managed by user associations". She has examined how politics, economics and the legal system affect how natural resources are used – and has shown that community-driven projects can be more efficent than privatisation or socialism. Williamson's work explores how conflicts of interest are handled in different ways by hierarchical organisations, such as firms, compared with stock markets. It explains why it is sometimes better for a company to develop a product or service inhouse, rather than buying it from outside. The award for medicine marked another milestone for women as it was the first time that it was won by two women at the same time. Elizabeth Blackburn at the University of California, San Francisco, Carole Gredier at Johns Hopkins University, and UK-born Jack Szostak at Harvard University were joint winners. They solved a major problem in biology – how the chromosomes can be copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation. The discoveries by Blackburn, Greider and Szostak, the award-givers said, added a new dimension to the understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms, and stimulated the development of potential new therapies. The award for chemistry was awarded to three scientists for unravelling the mechanism by which cells make proteins. The process is fundamental for life and describes how cells use genetic code to produce the building blocks of living organisms. The prize went to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, a US scientist at the Medical Research Council's prestigious Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, Thomas Steitz at Yale University, and an Israeli, Ada Yonath at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. 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 | 9:35 am Making Computers Think Like a JournalistComputer scientists looks to create artificial intelligence that can anticipate wants and needs.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Dec 2009 | 8:54 am Weird Spiral Caused by Russian Nuke TestThe spectacular white plume that appeared over Norway was not of alien origin, but Russian.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Dec 2009 | 8:45 am Emissions 'higher than reported'Emissions of some greenhouse gases are substantially higher than companies and countries report, say scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Dec 2009 | 8:28 am Shrimp Eye Tech: Coming Soon to DVD?This is quite a crustacean. It's called a mantis shrimp. Colorful little devil, huh? Well, get this. Humans see in three colors, but some species of mantis shrimp can see in as many as twelve. Yeah, I know. That's cool. ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Dec 2009 | 8:20 am Real Christmas Trees 'Greener' than FakeReal Christmas trees are the greener option over artificial ones.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Dec 2009 | 8:06 am Earth WatchThe nightmare of reporting the UN climate conferenceSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Dec 2009 | 7:57 am Scientists say paper battery could be in the worksWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ordinary paper could one day be used as a lightweight battery to power the devices that are now enabling the printed word to be eclipsed by e-mail, e-books and online news.Source: Reuters: Science News | 10 Dec 2009 | 7:45 am Vulnerable nations at Copenhagen summit reject 2C targetAlliance of Small Island States say any deal that allows temperatures to rise by more than 1.5C is 'not negotiable' More than half the world's countries say they are determined not to sign up to any deal that allows temperatures to rise by more than 1.5C - as opposed to 2C, which the major economies would prefer. But any agreement to reach that target would require massive and rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions combined with removal of CO2 in the atmosphere. An extra 0.5C drop in temperatures would require vastly deeper cuts in carbon dioxide and up to $10.5 trillion (£6.5tr) extra in energy-related investment by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. Holding temperatures to an increase of 1.5C compared to preindustrial levels would mean stabilising carbon concentrations in the atmosphere at roughly 350 parts per million (ppm), down from a present 387ppm. No technology currently exists to feasibly remove CO2 from the atmosphere on a large scale. The temperature issue was starkly highlighted yesterday when Tuvalu, one of the world's most climate-threatened countries, formally proposed that countries sign up to a new, strengthened and legally binding agreement that would set more ambitious targets than what is presently being proposed. This divided G77 countries, some of whom led by China and India argued against it, fearing that it would replace the Kyoto protocol. But they were supported by many of the vulnerable countries, from sub-Saharan Africa as well as the small island states, with passionate and powerful statements about the catastrophic impact of climate change on their people. "Tuvalu has taken a strong stand to put the focus back on their bottom line. Nothing but a legally binding deal will deliver the strong commitments to urgent action that are needed to avoid catastrophe, especially to the most vulnerable countries and people," said the Oxfam spokesman Barry Coates. Today the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis), a grouping of 43 of the smallest and most vulnerable countries, including Tuvalu, said any rise of more than 1.5C was not negotiable at Copenhagen. They are backed by 48 of the least developed nations. But the UN conference chief, Yvo de Boer, implied this morning that the proposal had little chance of being adopted. "It is theoretically possible that the conference will agree to hold temperatures to 1.5C but most industrialised countries have pinned their hopes on 2C," he said. The 2C figure, which was included in the leaked draft negotiating text prepared by the summits host Denmark has emerged as the figure favoured by large economies and the likeliest to be adopted. But the poorest countries say that latest science implies that a 2C warming would lead to disastrous consequences – for example from sea level rise. "We have two research stations, one in the Pacific and one in the Caribbean. They both suggest a rise of 2C is completely untenable for us," said Dessima Williams, a Grenadian diplomat speaking for Aosis. "Our islands are disappearing, our coral reefs are bleaching, we are losing our fish supplies. We bring empirical evidence to Copenhagen of what climate change is doing now to our states," she said. 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 | 6:55 am Video: Study finds the limits of fearResearchers at New York University develop a new technique in the treatment of fear Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 10 Dec 2009 | 6:41 am Snow at Highest Elevations No Longer PureThe toxic pollutants called PCBs have been found in snow on the Aconcagua Mountain, the highest mountain in the Americas.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Dec 2009 | 6:25 am Interactive: effects of ocean acidification around the worldA major study from European scientists released at the Copenhagen climate conference shows marine life under threat from increased CO2 in the oceans Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 10 Dec 2009 | 5:46 am Rare words 'author's fingerprint'Researchers say that classic authors' use of rare words provides a means to linguistically "fingerprint" them.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Dec 2009 | 4:04 am
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“It is a truly unique and magnificent specimen that has opened new doors to scientific discovery about the life of the Tyrannosaurus rex,” said OMSI president Nancy Stueber in a press release. “We’re pleased to offer visitors the rare opportunity to view its real bones up close.”
The craft is also likely to find the nearest known brown dwarfs — Jupiter-sized balls of gas that are not quite massive enough to keep burning like stars do. Wright calculates that WISE may find as many as 100 brown dwarfs within a mere 20 light-years of Earth. By imaging hundreds of thousands of asteroids in the main belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, WISE will provide the first complete census of the number and sizes of these rocky bodies and new information about their composition, Wright says.
The craft will settle into a polar orbit around Earth, allowing WISE to sweep out a circle that will slowly precess, or change its angle of inclination. That orbit will enable WISE, which takes a snapshot every 11 seconds, to scan the entire sky in six months. The craft will then begin a second, partial scan of the sky that will last three months.
