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Lack of diversity in embryonic stem cell linesThe most widely used human embryonic stem cell lines lack genetic diversity, a finding that raises social justice questions that must be addressed to ensure that all sectors of society benefit from stem cell advances, according to researchers.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Scientists film photons with electronsNewly invented techniques which allow the real-time, real-space visualization of fleeting changes in the structure of nanoscale matter -- have been used to image the evanescent electrical fields produced by the interaction of electrons and photons, and to track changes in atomic-scale structures.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm New 'golden ratios' for female facial beautyBeauty is not only in the eye of the beholder but also in the relationship of the eyes and mouth of the beholden. The distance between a woman's eyes and the distance between her eyes and her mouth are key factors in determining how attractive she is to others, according to new psychology research.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Pre-eruption earthquakes offer clues to volcano forecastersLike an angry dog, a volcano growls before it bites, shaking the ground and getting "noisy" before erupting. This activity gives scientists an opportunity to study the tumult beneath a volcano and may help them improve the accuracy of eruption forecasts, according to seismologists.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Cell phone records used to predict spread of malariaResearchers at work on a malaria elimination study in Africa have become the first to predict the spread of the disease using cell phone records.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm DNA sequencing used to attack lung cancerAided by next-generation DNA sequencing technology, researchers have gained insights into how more than 60 carcinogens associated with cigarette smoke bind to and chemically modify human DNA, ultimately leading to cancer-causing genetic mutations.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Synthetic platelets halve clotting timeResearchers have developed synthetic platelets from biodegradable polymers. In animal models, the synthetics attach to natural platelets and stem bleeding faster than current treatments.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am Complex life of marsh birds: Coots foil nest invaders, reject impostorsThe American coot is a drab, seemingly unremarkable marsh bird common throughout North America. But its reproductive life is full of deception and violence. According to biologists, coots have evolved a remarkable set of cognitive abilities to thwart other coots that lay eggs in their neighbors' nests.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am Heart cells on lab chip display 'nanosense' that guides behaviorBiomedical engineers have produced a laboratory chip with nanoscopic grooves and ridges capable of growing cardiac tissue that more closely resembles natural heart muscle.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am Lung cancer and melanoma laid bareResearchers have generated the first comprehensive analysis of a malignant melanoma and a lung cancer genome. The results, which reveal essentially all the mutations in the genomes, will provide powerful insights into the biology of cancer and lay the foundation for understanding causation and improving prevention, detection and treatment. The ultimate aim will be to generate catalogs for thousands of individual cancer genomes, so that treatments can be directed in the most efficient and cost-effective way.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am Danish official: Hopes for climate deal slim (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 3:13 am Govt offers $81 mln subsidy for wind power (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 3:09 am Asians, Africans 'left out of stem cell research' (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 3:09 am Slow progress at Copenhagen talksTalks remain deadlocked at the protest-hit climate summit in Copenhagen as world leaders join efforts to seal a deal.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Dec 2009 | 3:06 am The nation's weather (AP)AP - Another round of wet, wintry weather was forecast to develop throughout the Pacific Northwest as yet another disturbance approached the region on Thursday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 2:49 am Poor cannot be sacrificed to climate pact: Indian PM (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 2:46 am Obama to head to climate summit (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Dec 2009 | 2:45 am Leprosy Genes Identified (HealthDay)HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, Dec. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Seven genes associated with increased susceptibility to leprosy have been identified by scientists in Singapore and China.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Dec 2009 | 9:49 pm Police say 2 dogs fed on Nebraska owner's body (AP)AP - The Nebraska Humane Society is seeking a new home for two small dogs that police say fed on their owner's body after he killed himself.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Dec 2009 | 7:33 pm The 9 Most Provocative Sex Science Stories of 2009As 2009 comes to a close, LiveScience looks back at the year's nine most intriguing sex lessons.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2009 | 7:00 pm Sea rises 'clue' in sunken worldA unique discovery of submerged man-made structures on the seabed off Orkney could help find solutions to rising sea levels, experts say.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm Paraguay-Brazil energy treaty going nowhere fast (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Dec 2009 | 4:34 pm Saving Earth From an Asteroid Will Take Diplomats, Not Heroes
The reality will be far less dramatic, former astronaut Rusty Schweickart told scientists at the American Geophysical Union meeting here Wednesday. Asteroid-deflection efforts will have to start years before a prospective impact and will have to be essentially international. “Whether or not the international community, within or outside the United Nations, can rise to the demands of such a challenge in advance of an impact … is problematic,” Schweickart summarized. Two general strategies for deflecting asteroids are currently on the table. The first is some type of impactor or blast, possibly nuclear, that would knock the asteroid off the collision course. The second is a longer-term “shepherding” operation that would slowly morph the asteroid’s trajectory in space so that it misses Earth. Both schemes would have major international implications.
Nuclear weapons have been explicitly outlawed in space since the Partial Test Ban Treaty was negotiated in 1963. Sending a nuclear weapon into space to hit an asteroid would require modifying the treaty, which could have unforeseen negative repercussions. “Many of us have expressed our concern about nuclear effects because of political options,” said David Morrison, an astronomer at NASA Ames Research Center who organized a session at the AGU meeting about near-Earth objects. Schweickart’s group, The B612 Foundation, has advocated a different approach to asteroid deflection, but one that will require an equally difficult international negotiation. They propose to bump or tow an asteroid “in a controlled manner” so that it misses Earth. The only problem is that such a process would take time and as the asteroid’s trajectory changed, it would be “pointed” at different places along a horizontal plane on Earth called the risk corridor.
That’s a major geopolitical problem, Schweickart said, because it requires temporarily increasing the risk to one population — in the example above, Venezuela, or Russia — to eventually eliminate the risk for the entire Earth. “It’s going to be slowly dragged across the Earth. That is a binary decision,” Schweickart said. “You don’t have the option of dragging it down through the Antarctic.” Who gets to decide which way the asteroid is dragged away from an impact with Earth? The United Nations? The United States? Russia? Some independent body of astronomers and space agencies? “What deflection technologies are OK and who says they are OK?” Schweickart asked. “Who accepts liability? How do you decide that it’s OK to endanger the people of Venezuela or the people of Kazakhstan?” He called figuring such questions out a “geopolitical decision of the first order.” Earlier this year, the Association of Space Explorers presented a report to the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space recommending that some international decision-making bodies be created to evaluate and respond to near-Earth object hazards. The U.N. committee could bring some options before the General Assembly by 2012, although Schweickart has some doubts that people are politically prepared to deal with the tough decisions that humanity could face to deflect an asteroid. “You’re going to have to make that decision when the probability is less than one, 10 or 20 years ahead of time,” he said. “That’s not easy for anyone, let alone the United Nations.”
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 | 16 Dec 2009 | 4:29 pm Sea level rise may exceed worst expectationsSeas were nearly 10 metres higher than now in previous interglacial period.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 16 Dec 2009 | 4:10 pm Space Fashions Vol. 2: Sexy Space Suits?Outside of sci-fi fanboy dreams, space suits are generally a rather unsexy affair. In this post, we'll slip into some of the more visual alluring (and revealing) numbers to come down the cosmic fashion runway.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 16 Dec 2009 | 4:02 pm Human genomics: The genome finishersDedicated scientists are working hard to close the gaps, fix the errors and finally complete the human genome sequence. Elie Dolgin looks at how close they are.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 16 Dec 2009 | 4:00 pm Genetics: Watching science at workA network of social scientists in the United Kingdom is seeking better ways to study the work of biologists. But, asks Colin Macilwain, can it earn its subjects' trust?Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 16 Dec 2009 | 4:00 pm Modellers claim wars are predictableInsurgent attacks follow a universal pattern of timing and casualties.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 16 Dec 2009 | 4:00 pm World view: Out of serviceDecaying infrastructure is an urgent threat that scientists and engineers must help to address, says Colin Macilwain.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 16 Dec 2009 | 4:00 pm Cancer genomes reveal risks of sun and smokeSequencing of skin and lung cancers show that many mutations could be prevented.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 16 Dec 2009 | 4:00 pm Survey: 15 Percent of Teens 'Sext' (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - What do you get when you give horny, tech-savvy kids cell phones? Something else for parents to worry about.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Dec 2009 | 3:46 pm Survey: 15 Percent of Teens 'Sext'Older teens and teens who pay for their own cell phones are most likely to 'sext.'Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2009 | 3:35 pm Experts uncover genes that may be linked to leprosyHONG KONG (Reuters) - Genes may explain why some people are more susceptible than others to leprosy, an extensive study in China published in the New England Journal of Medicine appears to have found.Source: Reuters: Science News | 16 Dec 2009 | 3:17 pm Genetic gift from mom, genetic burden from dadWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Will a gene bring healthful blessings or the curse of disease? It may depend on whether it is inherited from mom or dad, researchers reported on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 16 Dec 2009 | 3:16 pm "Waterworld" Super-Earth DiscoveredArtist's impression of GJ 1214b passing in front of its host red dwarf star. This red dwarf is approximately one-fifth the size of our sun (David A. Aguilar/CfA). A "super-Earth" has been discovered orbiting a red dwarf star on our ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 16 Dec 2009 | 3:08 pm Sea Levels Spiked With Ancient Warming EventAround 125,000 years ago, global warming drove sea levels to rise by more than 20 feet.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 16 Dec 2009 | 2:45 pm Violence follows common patternsResearchers uncover common patterns in the scale and timings of violent attacks across a variety of different conflicts.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Dec 2009 | 2:16 pm UK science faces funding cutbacksThe Science and Technology Facilities Council announces cuts in research funding that critics say could damage UK science.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Dec 2009 | 1:36 pm Untangling Broken Holiday LightsNo. No no no. I sat on the floor holding the half-lit strand of incandescent holiday lights and wondered what to do. Thankfully, a little company in Michigan is offering a green solution to this conundrum. Even pulling a plastic ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 16 Dec 2009 | 1:34 pm Most Elusive Gorilla Caught on VideoScientists have captured video of the world's rarest great ape.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2009 | 1:13 pm World's Rarest Ape Caught on VideoScientists captured the first professional video of the world's rarest ape, named the cross river gorilla, on a forested mountain in Cameroon. Its population includes fewer than 300 individuals in Nigeria and Cameroon.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2009 | 1:04 pm Gene maps to transform scientists' work on cancerLONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have indentified all the changes in cells of two deadly cancers to produce the first entire cancer gene maps and say the findings mark a "transforming moment" in their understanding of the disease.Source: Reuters: Science News | 16 Dec 2009 | 1:03 pm Real Occult Science: Hubble Spots Smallest Comet VagabondThe largest piece of real estate in the solar system is also the least explored. The solar system's outer rim, the Kuiper Belt, extends from just beyond Neptune's orbit to 5 billion miles from the Sun. It is a debris ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 16 Dec 2009 | 12:47 pm Don't Buy a TV NowWith lower prices and better technology on the horizon, now is not the time to buy a TV.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2009 | 12:19 pm 'Coldest place' found on the MoonThe coldest place in the Solar System yet measured by a spacecraft has been found to be on our Moon.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Dec 2009 | 12:14 pm Wealthy Nations Pledge Big Bucks to Combat WarmingDespite major disputes at Copenhagen, negotiations got a multi-billion dollar shot in the arm.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:59 am Name the New Super-Earth
Astronomers have spotted the most Earth-like planet to date, a massive ocean world that probably has an atmosphere and — though it’s highly unlikely — may support life. And it needs a better name. For now, GJ 1214b is tagged according to standard exoplanetary nomenclature: the technical name of the star it orbits, plus a letter to signify the order of its discovery. (The letter “a” is reserved for the star itself.) It’s a name only a committee could love, and hardly appropriate to the discovery’s emotional resonance. “We’ve been finding exciting planets for 50 years, and we’re still calling them by these terrible catalog names,” said David Charbonneau, a Harvard University astronomer who helped discover GJ 1214b, but doesn’t even have a nickname for it. “I have three young daughters, and I think they might be inspired by a better name.” To help David out, we’re asking you to submit your own names for this watery super-Earth. Jump in! Submit your own name: Image: Nature. 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 | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:57 am Most Earth-Like Extrasolar Planet Found Right Next Door
Meet GJ 1214b, the most Earth-like planet ever found outside our solar system. It’s not exactly Earth’s twin: It’s about six times bigger, a whole lot hotter and made mostly of water. But compared to the giant gas balls that account for nearly every other extrasolar planet ever found, it’s pretty darn close. And through a fortunate happenstance of cosmic geometry, astronomers will be able to study GJ 1214b in great detail. “If you want to describe in one sentence what this planet is, it’s a big, hot ocean,” said Harvard University astronomer David Charbonneau. “We can even study its atmosphere. This planet will occupy us for years. That’s part of what’s so exciting about it.” Described by Charbonneau and 17 other astronomers in a paper published Wednesday in Nature, GJ 1214b is the latest of roughly 400 planets detected by earthly telescopes. Of these, 28 are considered “super-Earths” — planets with a mass roughly comparable to our own. The super-Earths themselves are too distant to be seen. Instead, astronomers infer their presence from subtle distortions in starlight, caused when photons travel through the super-Earths’ gravitational fields. Depending on the degree of distortion, astronomers can even calculate a planet’s mass. That’s how Corot-7b, a rocky planet with roughly twice the heft of Earth, was spotted in February. Ditto Gliese 581c, identified two months later, and orbiting its star at a distance consistent with human notions of habitability. Unfortunately, not much more will ever be known about those planets. Corot-7b is 500 light-years away, too distant for our telescopes to discern more detail. And from our viewing angle, Gliese 581c never quite crosses directly in front of its sun, causing photons to warp in ways that would reveal its atmospheric character. GJ 1214b does pass in front of its sun. Separated from Earth by a distance of just 42 light years, it’s close enough to be studied. Scientists will finally get to look at another Earth-like world.
“Only rarely does a long-sought scientific frontier loom so prominently just beyond the horizon, that the next generation of instruments seems sure to reach it,” wrote Geoffrey Marcey, a University of California, Berkeley astronomer, in a commentary accompanying the findings. “They provide the most-watertight evidence so far for a planet that is something like our own Earth, outside our solar system.” Based on its radius and mass — about 2.7 and 6.6 times that of Earth’s — Charbonneau and the other astronomers have calculated GJ 1214b’s density. It appears to be composed of extraordinarily deep oceans, surrounding a rocky core. The planet’s atmosphere and precise composition remain a mystery, but it’s likely composed of many of the same elements found elsewhere at sites of planetary formation, in swirling disks of dust and gas that have yet to accrete: hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, magnesium, oxygen, carbon. That list of ingredients raises at least the possibility of life. With an estimated temperature of 370 degrees Fahrenheit, GJ 1214b is an unlikely incubator (Earth’s toughest extremophile, a microbe that lives in deep-sea volcanic vents, maxes out at 284 degrees) but it’s not impossible. “I don’t want to imply that there’s any indication of life as we know it. It might have life, but it would have to be a strange kind of life,” said Charbonneau. The telescopes sure to be trained on GJ 1214b in the near future will try to answer that question. But even if it proves barren, other planets await. The telescopes that spotted GJ 1214b were custom designed to find Earth-like planets around nearby stars, and had only operated for a few months before striking water. “We only look at a handful of stars before finding this planet, said Charbonneau. “Either we got lucky, or the planets are very common.” Image: Nature Help give GJ 1214b a better name. See Also:
Citations: “A super-Earth transiting a nearby low-mass star.” By David Charbonneau, Zachory K. Berta, Jonathan Irwin, Christopher J. Burke, Philip Nutzman, Lars A. Buchhave, Christophe Lovis, Xavier Bonfils, David W. Latham, Stephane Udry, Ruth A. Murray-Clay, Matthew J. Holman, Emilio E. Falco, Joshua N. Winn, Didier Queloz, Francesco Pepe, Michel Mayor, Xavier Delfosse & Thierry Forveille. Nature, Vol. 462 No. 7275. Dec. 16, 2009. “Water world larger than Earth.” By Geoffrey Marcy. Nature, Vol. 462 No. 7275. Dec. 16, 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 | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:45 am Rare Cross River gorilla filmedRare footage is taken of an elusive and critically endangered type of gorilla.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:33 am Cuts mark 'sad day for British science'Researchers criticise government U-turn as major projects are closed down and studentships slashed Britain's physics community is reeling from a "disastrous" day of funding cuts that will force scientists to withdraw from major resarch facilities and see PhD studentships fall by a quarter. Space missions and projects across astronomy, nuclear and particle physics are being cancelled to save at least £115m, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) said today. Fellowships and student grants for PhD projects will be cut by 25% from next year. The announcement has appalled senior physicists who warn the cuts threaten Britain's future as a leading player in science. Professor Mark Lancaster, head of particle physics at University College London, said: "A lost generation of students will be created who are denied the opportunity to do a PhD and cutting-edge science." The cuts come 10 months after the prime minister pledged to ringfence the science budget from savings required in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Particle physicists called the cuts a "shameful waste" of a decade's investment in new facilities, many of which have only recently opened for business. British scientists will pull out of three facilities, including the European X-ray laser project (XFEL), the Photon Science Institute in Manchester, and the New Light Source (NLS). Last year, Professor Keith Mason, the chief executive of the STFC, said the NLS gave Britain the opportunity to "win European leadership" in the field of intense laser research. In February, Gordon Brown delivered his first speech on science in Oxford and stated: "The downturn is no time to slow down our investment in science but to build more vigorously for the future." The latest round of cuts suggest the ringfence was not as robust as scientists hoped. Professor Brian Foster, head of particle physics at Oxford University, said: "These cuts give the lie to those fine words. This is a sad day for British science: the prime minister should hang his head in shame." Over the next five years, British scientists will withdraw from the Alice experiment to crash heavy ions together at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern near Geneva. British involvement in several space missions, including the Cassini probe which is investigating Saturn and its moons; the Venus Express orbiter and the SOHO mission to study the sun will also be phased out. Professor Andy Fabian, president of the Royal Astronomical Society, said: Nuclear physics is facing a 52% cut in funding that will force British scientists to withdraw from international projects and cancel seven that were planned for the future. "These out-of-proportion cuts have the potential to kill off the UK skills base in nuclear physics," said Professor Paddy Regan at the University of Surrey. "How this can be happening at a time of discussions of nuclear new build is incredible. Where does the STFC think the trained manpower that the UK in nuclear physics and associated instrumentation and measurement is going to come from?" The cuts were announced in an STFC review that sets out a £2.4bn five-year plan for British physics and related research. "The council of STFC has approved an affordable, robust and sustainable programme. This has involved tough choices affecting the entire programme including a managed withdrawal from some areas," said Professor Michael Sterling, the STFC chairman. 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 | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:13 am IPCC forecasts 9m sea-level rise if temperatures meet 2C thresholdHundreds of millions of people around the world would be affected as low low-lying coastal areas became inundated Global sea levels could rise by up to 9m in the next few hundred years, even if the world manages to stabilise average temperatures to 2C above pre-industrial levels, according to a new study. In this scenario, hundreds of millions of people around the world would be affected as low low-lying coastal areas became inundated. New Orleans would be lost to the sea, much of southern Florida and Bangladesh and most of the Netherlands. The 2C figure is significant because this is level of warming that is likely to be adopted as the threshold to be avoided by the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen – although small islands states and developing nations have argued that 1.5C would be a more appropriate target. Nine metres of sea level rise is higher than anything predicted so far because the new study takes into account the potential that the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets start to melt as the Earth warms. This did not factor into the most recent assessment of the state of climate science by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007. It forecast a sea-level rise of up to 59cm by 2100, and between 4-6m in the next few hundred years, if average global temperatures stabilised around 2C. "Everybody's known that the IPCC's last numbers were underestimates because they didn't include all the factors that can accelerate ice sheet melting," said Robert Kopp of Princeton University, who led the latest study. "If the future models are limited, you want to look at other approaches to get at the question of sea-level rise one approach is to turn to the past record of sea-level rise." Kopp's team reconstructed the sea levels in the last interglacial period, around 125,000 years ago. At the time, polar temperatures were around 3-5C warmer and equatorial sea-surface temperatures were around 2.5-3.5C warmer than today. "So you look at things like coral reef terraces and how high they grew and, if you know something about the ecology of corals, you can say how high sea level was relative to the top of the coral reef. Or you look at old beaches that are now stranded above the sea-line, or you look at sediments that have textures that indicate they were deposited inter-tidally." His results, published in the journal Nature, showed that sea levels around the world during the last interglacial were between 6.6m and 9m higher than today. "During this period when temperatures were 2-3C above pre-industrial levels, global sea level looks like it was very likely at least 6.6m higher than today, which implies significant melting of the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets." Kopp said the results could be used to infer what could happen to future sea levels over the next few hundred years, as a result of human-induced global warming. "The warming we're on track to do now is more than enough to commit us to last-interglacial levels of sea-level rise." Kopp's work echoes recent research by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) suggesting that sea-levels could rise much higher than predicted by the IPCC by the end of the century. The study by SCAR suggested that sea levels could rise by up to 1.4m by 2100 if the Antarctic ice began to melt. • The original headline on this piece incorrectly stated that the 9m estimate came from the IPCC. This has now been corrected. 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 | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:05 am Earthquake Concerns Shake Geothermal Energy ProjectsHard times are now bedeviling geothermal energy projects that risk triggering earthquakes as they delve miles deep into the Earth to tap clean and virtually limitless energy.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:00 am Experts crack cancer 'gene code'Scientists unlock the entire genetic code of two common cancers - skin and lung - a move they say could revolutionise cancer care.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:00 am Waterworld planet is more Earth-like than any discovered beforeAstronomers spotted the waterworld orbiting a star in our cosmic backyard, raising the chances that we will eventually discover planets suitable for life A giant waterworld that is wet to its core has been spotted in orbit around a dim but not too distant star, improving the odds that habitable planets may exist in our cosmic neighbourhood. The planet is nearly three times as large as Earth and made almost entirely of water, forming a global ocean more than 15,000km deep. Astronomers detected the alien world as it passed in front of its sun, a red dwarf star 40 light years away in a constellation called Ophiuchus, after the Greek for "snake holder". The discovery, made with a network of amateur telescopes, is being hailed as a major step forward in the search for planets beyond our solar system that are hospitable to life as we know it. Measurements suggest the planet is shrouded in a thick atmosphere of hydrogen and helium that blocks visible light from its sun, plunging the watery surface into permanent darkness. The weight of the atmosphere keeps the water liquid despite it being a searing 120C to 282C. Writing in the journal Nature, David Charbonneau at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics describes how his team used a suite of eight amateur-sized telescopes to spot the planet as it moved across the face of its star, which is less than 0.5% as bright as our own sun. The telescopes picked up a slight dimming in light from the star as the waterworld, named GJ1214b, passed in front of it every 1.6 days. The planet has a radius 2.7 times as large as the Earth's and orbits at a distance of only two million kilometres from its star. Our own planet circles the sun at an average distance of around 150 million kilometres. "It would be very difficult to imagine life as we know it on the surface. It's hot and dark and there are probably no rocky surfaces like we have on Earth," said Charbonneau. Charbonneau heads the MEarth project, which trains telescopes on a class of star called M-dwarfs or red dwarfs, which are much cooler and dimmer than our own sun. Planets orbiting close to these can lie in what astronomers call the "Goldilocks zone", where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for water to flow and life to flourish. "We've found this planet in the first few months of MEarth being in operation, so we are either extremely lucky or these kinds of planets are very common," Charbonneau said. "In time, we expect to find planets that are further away from their parent stars and so are likely to have surface temperatures much closer to those found on Earth," he added. The latest planet is only a stone's throw away in astronomical terms, meaning scientists will be able to turn the Hubble Space Telescope towards it and analyse its atmosphere, potentially revealing signs of life. Charbonneau's team has already requested time on the space telescope. "Using the Hubble, we can look at the atmosphere and say not only whether it's habitable, but whether it's inhabited," Charbonneau told the Guardian. "If we find oxygen in the atmosphere things will get really interesting, because on Earth all the oxygen in the atmosphere comes from life." After spotting GJ1214b in orbit, the astronomers measured tiny movements in the parent star as the planet circled around it. From these wobbles they calculated the mass of the planet to be 6.6 times as great as the Earth's. The most likely composition of the planet is 75% water, with 22% silicon and 3% iron forming a solid core, the scientists report. In an accompanying article, Geoffrey Marcy, an astronomer at the University of California in Berkeley, said the extrasolar planet or "exoplanet" provides "the most watertight evidence so far for a planet that is something like our own Earth outside our solar system". Zachory Berta, a co-author on the latest paper, said: "Despite its hot temperature, this appears to be a waterworld. It is much smaller, cooler and more Earth-like than any other known exoplanet." Some of the planet's water is expected to be in an exotic form called ice VII, a crystalline form of water that exists under immense pressures. Astronomers have discovered more than 400 planets beyond our solar system in the past twenty years. Two dedicated space missions, the French space agency's Corot telescope and Nasa's Kepler telescope have been launched to look for Earth-sized rocky planets in stars' Goldilocks zone that could be hospitable to life. 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 | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:00 am Cancer genomes reveal deadly sequence of mutationsThe pattern of mutations in cancer could eventually be used to tailor treatments to particular patients Scientists have reconstructed the biological history of two types of cancer in a genetic tour de force that promises to transform medical treatment of the disease. The feat, a world first, lays bare every genetic mutation the patients have acquired over their lifetimes that eventually caused healthy cells in their bodies to turn into tumours. The procedure gives doctors a profound insight into the biological causes of a patient's cancer and marks a major milestone in progress towards personalised anticancer therapies and strategies to prevent the disease. "This is a really fundamental moment in the history of cancer research. We have never seen cancer revealed in this way before," said Mike Stratton, a co-leader of the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge. The researchers took diseased cells from a 45-year-old man with a type of skin cancer called malignant melanoma, and from a 55-year-old man with small cell lung cancer. They then used advanced genetic sequencing machines to read the full genomes of both the cancer cells and healthy tissues taken from the same patients. By comparing the genetic makeup of the diseased and healthy cells, the scientists created catalogues of all the mutations found only in the cancerous tissues. Most of these genetic glitches are harmless, but every once in a while a mutation causes major damage that pushes a cell closer to becoming cancerous. The scientists focused on skin and lung cancer because the environmental causes are well known. Most melanomas are triggered by overexposure to ultraviolet rays in sunlight as a child, while almost all small cell lung cancer is caused by smoking. In the case of the lung cancer patient, scientists discovered 23,000 mutations that were exclusive to the diseased cells. Almost all were caused by the 60 or so chemicals in cigarette smoke that stick to DNA and deform it. "We can say that one mutation is fixed in the genome for every 15 cigarettes smoked," said Peter Campbell, who led the lung cancer part of the study. "That is frightening because many people smoke a packet a day." Lung cancer accounts for one in seven deaths in the UK and is almost untreatable. Fewer than 10% of patients in the UK survive more than five years after being diagnosed. The risk of developing the disease falls dramatically in smokers who have quit for more than 10 years. Genetic sequencing of the skin cancer cells revealed 33,000 mutations caused by exposure to direct sunlight. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes that carry all of our genetic material in the form of three billion pairs of letters. In both patients, scientists saw a variety of mutations. The most common were point mutations, which flip one letter of the genetic code into another. More complex mutations involved missing or extra sequences of DNA. Occasionally, chromosomes had broken apart or fused together in the wrong way. "It's like doing archaeological excavation. You've got traces and imprints of all these processes that have been operative for decades before the cancer arose," said Stratton. The work is reported in two studies published in the journal Nature. The rapid advance of genetic technology is likley to make the technique a routine procedure for cancer patients within 10 years. The Sanger Institute scientists costed the procedure at $100,000 per person a few months ago, but they expect that to fall to $20,000 in the next 18 months. "In the long term, every cancer patient will have this done in a clinically relevant timeframe, so in the six weeks it takes to be seen, biopsied and taken into the clinic," said Stratton. The research is the first to emerge from a global consortium that is analysing the genetic makeup of 50 different types of cancer. The 10-year project will help cancer specialists unravel the particular mutations that drive each variety of tumour. By understanding the genetic flaws behind common cancers, scientists hope to develop more powerful and precise anti-cancer drugs. In the near term, researchers expect to develop blood tests that pick up signs that a cancer is returning in patients who have already had surgery or chemotherapy. 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 | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:00 am World's Rarest Gorilla Captured on VideoThe world's most camera shy great ape has just been captured on video, marking only the second time that the elusive Cross River gorilla has been filmed, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and Germany's NDR Naturfilm. (Credit: @NDR Naturfilm) ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 16 Dec 2009 | 10:16 am Experts put together best ever atlas of Mercury - the 'iron planet'The pictures from the Mariner 10 and Messenger probes are stitched together to make an atlas of Mercury.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Dec 2009 | 9:42 am Satellite sees "lumpy" layer of CO2An instrument aboard a seven-year-old satellite designed to help weather forecasters is proving to be a powerful new tool in climate monitoring by detecting the distribution of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And it turns out, NASA scientists say -- ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 16 Dec 2009 | 8:56 am How to Slow Climate Change for Just $15 Billion
Weaning humanity from its fossil fuel habit will take decades, and it will take decades more for global warming to stop. But one simple measure could slow warming in some of Earth’s most sensitive regions, effective immediately — and it would cost just $15 billion. That’s a rough price tag for providing clean stoves to the 500 million households that use open fires, fed by wood and animal dung and coal, to heat their homes and cook. Those fires produce one-quarter of all so-called “black carbon,” a sooty pollutant that’s adding to the planetary heat burden. “We know how to cook without smoke,” said Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a University of California, San Diego climatographer. “A clean stove costs $30. Multiply that by 500 million households, and it’s only $15 billion. This is a solvable problem.”
After floating to the atmosphere, black carbon mixes with dust to form a solar heat-absorbing particulate layer. Raindrops form around the particles, trapping even more heat. Soot deposited by the rain heats up, too. The climate dynamics of the black carbon process have been fully described only in the last decade, but scientists now say their short-term impact sometimes rivals that of carbon dioxide. As much as one-half of the 3.4 degree Fahrenheit rise in Arctic temperatures since 1890 is attributed to black carbon. By disrupting weather patterns, it may be responsible for weakening seasonal rains in South Asia and West Africa. And black carbon is also a major reason why Himalayan glaciers, which provide water to hundreds of millions of people, are vanishing. Unlike carbon dioxide, however, which can hang in the atmosphere for centuries, black carbon returns to Earth in less than a month. And that makes it a ripe target for immediate action. Though Ramanathan is quick to warn that eliminating black carbon is no substitute for controlling carbon dioxide emissions, which in coming centuries could have a far greater effect, he estimates that a 50% reduction in black carbon could delay the onset of severe global warming by one to two decades. In addition to being emitted by unclean stoves, black carbon also comes from coal-fired power plants, and burning diesel fuel and forests. Halting deforestation and installing filters on power plants and cars will cost more than clean stoves, though the price would likely be small compared to the environmental, agricultural and health benefits. In the meantime, clean stoves remain a very practical target. Black carbon emissions are not being considered as part of whatever agreement comes from the ongoing United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen, but Ramanathan hopes that regional agreements will address the problem. Many non-governmental organizations are already working to distribute clean stoves. “We’re not talking about a trillion dollar problem. We’re talking about a few billion dollars. There’s no downside here,” said Ramanathan. Image: Atmospheric black carbon intensity/Nature Geoscience. 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 | 16 Dec 2009 | 8:10 am Strange Physical Theory Proved After Nearly 40 YearsPhysicists have finally created a trio of bound particles that connect at increasingly higher energy levels, a phenomenon long predicted but never before seen.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2009 | 7:40 am Can the Aging Process Be Slowed?You can't halt aging, but there are ways to extend your health.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2009 | 7:27 am Rocking Out With Christmas LightsTired of the same old Christmas lights displays? Bored by animatronic Santas waving listlessly? Not impressed with the giant inflated snowman on the lawn? Maybe you should take a musical cue from Ric Turner. Turner, a contract worker with Disney ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 16 Dec 2009 | 7:21 am New Bigfoot Image Cut Down by Occam's RazorIf an image resembles a human in size and shape, is it more likely that the figure is actually a person, or that it's Bigfoot?Source: Livescience.com | 16 Dec 2009 | 7:18 am Birth of stars captured by space telescopeThe European Space Agency has released the first scientific results from the recently launched Herschel Space Telescope.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Dec 2009 | 6:44 am EU agrees on 2010 fishing limitsEU ministers agree on reduced quotas of cod, haddock and sole for next year, but a ban on anchovy fishing is lifted.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Dec 2009 | 5:11 am Chew on This: New Gum Could Detect MalariaChomping on a stick of gum could cheaply diagnose malaria and other diseases.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 16 Dec 2009 | 5:00 am What's wrong with wellbeing? | Juliet MichaelsonThe ultimate goal of government should be promoting wellbeing. It's not 'surreal' to make policies on that basis Catherine Bennett is unconvinced that "it is the state's business to meet those psychological needs" that the Young Foundation's recent research has highlighted. She suggests that "since no nice person would want to set their face against general wellbeing", using wellbeing as a political goal is utterly devoid of meaning. This inadvertently raises a crucial question: what is the overall goal of politics? Economic growth is the most common headline measure of political success. Combating problems such as poor mental health or income inequality, although dismissed by Bennett, might also be candidates. In fact none of these pass muster in the role of ultimate outcome for societies. When examined closely, it becomes clear that they are all different means to the end of wellbeing: enabling people to experience their lives going well. As the economist Andrew Oswald has noted:
Aiming for wellbeing is not about seeking an "immediate surge in collective pleasure", as Bennett puts it. It is about a life well lived, not short-term happiness or pleasure seeking. What we do is fundamental to how we feel, and research shows that strong connections to other people and engagement in meaningful activities are among the most important determinants of wellbeing. This understanding informs our work at Nef (the New Economics Foundation), where we have demonstrated that wellbeing outcomes can be robustly and systematically measured through a framework of national accounts of wellbeing. There is broad public support for wellbeing being the ultimate political goal. A 2006 poll for the BBC found that 81% of people supported the idea that the government's prime objective should be the "greatest happiness" rather than the "greatest wealth". Furthermore, a sense of wellbeing is itself a means to traditional policy ends, with proven links, for example, to longer life expectancy and improved health outcomes. Bennett suggests that it would be "surreal" for policy initiatives to aim to improve wellbeing. But what is truly surreal is that public policy has often been antithetical to wellbeing – encouraging long work hours and personal debt, and engendering intense competition from tests at primary school onwards. The evidence shows that our current turbo-charged consumption levels are largely driven by competition for status – a zero-sum activity where for every winner there is a loser. Focusing on social position through material goods leads to the inescapable treadmill of working longer and harder to buy ever more – at the cost both to wellbeing and the planet. While some less empathetic members of the public may, as Bennett says, "feel quite happy with current levels of brittleness, inequality and mental ill health", this is cold comfort to those suffering at the sharp end of these problems. And as evidence from epidemiologists Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson has highlighted, we all suffer under greater levels of inequality, given its associations with crime, low social capital and a host of other undesirable outcomes. There is a clear role here for policy to discourage the excesses of these damaging behaviours. Fortunately, the evidence from fields such as behavioural economics and positive psychology also points to what enhances experienced wellbeing. The "five ways to wellbeing", distilled by Nef from a 2008 government review of the latest scientific evidence in the field, identify wellbeing-enhancing activities in everyday life. Current policy, directed towards maximising hours spent in paid employment and failing to value non-market activities, hampers people's ability to get involved in the sorts of community and voluntary activities that offer some of the best opportunities to connect with others, be physically active, take notice of what's around us, learn new skills, and give. It is not the state's business to impose such activities on us. But it does have a clear role in establishing the conditions that allow individuals to maximise their own wellbeing. This is the true yardstick by which political success should be measured. 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 | 16 Dec 2009 | 4:00 am
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