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Fight infection by disturbing how bacteria communicateResearchers have clarified the structure of an enzyme that disturbs the communication processes between bacteria. By doing so they have laid the foundations for a new method of tackling bacterial infections such as cystic fibrosis.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Soil studies reveal rise in antibiotic resistanceAn unexpected rise in environmental levels of antibiotic resistance poses a potential threat to people's health.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Alzheimer's disease may protect against cancer and vice versaPeople who have Alzheimer's disease may be less likely to develop cancer, and people who have cancer may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm New insights into mushroom-derived drug promising for cancer treatmentA promising cancer drug, first discovered in a mushroom commonly used in Chinese medicine, could be made more effective thanks to researchers who have discovered how the drug works.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Herschel Space Telescope uncovers sources of cosmic infrared backgroundA weak cosmic infrared radiation field that reaches Earth from all directions contains not yet deciphered messages about the evolution of galaxies. Using first observations with the PACS Instrument on board ESA’s Herschel Space Telescope, scientists have for the first time resolved more than half of this radiation into its constituting sources. Observations with Herschel open the road towards understanding the properties of these galaxies, and trace the dusty side of galaxy evolution.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Santa Claus at risk? Unhealthy lifestyle, unreasonable working conditions, and stressAn unhealthy lifestyle, unreasonable working conditions, and then the stress of having to deliver 152 million Christmas gifts in 24 hours. The extreme accomplishments of Santa Claus are making researchers in Sweden doubt his very existence.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm Dental delight: Tooth of sea urchin shows formation of biomineralsSome of the most common minerals in biology, including those in bones and shells, have a mysterious structure: Their crystals are positioned in the same orientation, making them behave as one giant crystal, even though they do not look like a faceted crystal.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am Researchers find new patterns in H1N1 deathsBrazilian researchers have performed the first-ever autopsy study to examine the precise causes of death in victims of the H1N1 swine flu. While previous data has shown that most patients with a non-fatal infection have fever, cough and achiness (myalgia), the study reveals that most patients with a fatal form of the disease presented with difficulty breathing (dyspnea), with fever and myalgia being less frequently present.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am How flu succeedsInvestigators have identified 295 human cell factors that influenza A strains must harness to infect a cell, including the currently circulating swine-origin H1N1.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am World's first molecular transistor createdScientists have succeeded in creating the first transistor made from a single molecule. They showed that a benzene molecule attached to gold contacts could behave just like a silicon transistor.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 24 Dec 2009 | 9:00 am Filipino troops rush to move holdouts from volcano (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 24 Dec 2009 | 3:32 am Esa satellite senses Earth's pullEurope's Goce satellite returns remarkable new data on the way the pull of gravity varies across the Earth.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 24 Dec 2009 | 3:06 am Ten years of technology: 2008As the noughties come to a close, we take a look at the biggest technology stories of the decade - and how the Guardian reported them at the time In a lot of ways, it still feels like we're living out in the ripples of 2008. It was, after all, just a year ago. But it was a year of major turbulence, largely the result of financial misadventures - the sub-prime mortgage crash in America turned into a full-blown crisis, and the resulting recession has hit every manjack among us in one way or another. Once you factor out the bitter, deflated meringue that was the economy, among the big technology companies, there was much of the same: Google continued expanding, Apple released a new version of its iPhone, Microsoft started trying to put the problems of Vista right - by announcing the imminent launch of Windows 7. A few icons died in 2008, including SF legend Arthur C Clarke, Last Lecture author Randy Pausch and Dungeons and Dragons creator Gary Gygax. But for the Guardian's technology team, it was an interesting year. The Free Our Data campaign, which had kicked off in 2006 with a crusading article Give us back our crown jewels started making serious headway. I ran the GameCamp event (great fun, and we should have more news on that front soon) and moved to San Francisco to be the Guardian's first full-time correspondent in Silicon Valley. Anyway. Let's crack on look at how we saw it. • OK, let's get the horrible stuff over with first. There were massive job cuts all over the technology world, including thousands of jobs gone at Yahoo, Sony and Siemens. For a while, the big companies tried to act as if nothing was happening. A little cheeky, perhaps, given that software was sort of to blame for the crisis anyway. • In the midst of all the crap, Microsoft found the time and money to launch an audacious $45bn bid to buy Yahoo. The saga, which went on forever, included rejection, mooted tie-ups with Google, hostility, revolt, agreements, more rejections, disappointment and then - after all of that - the decision by Yahoo boss Jerry Yang to step down. Crikey. Oh, and somewhere during all of that, Bill Gates found time to retire. • Once upon a time there had been a game called Grand Theft Auto, which sent lots of anti-gamers running for the hills and even got a bit saucy. In 2008, however, it became a genuine mainstream phenomenon when GTA IV launched. The usual questions came up - will it turn us into killers?; can games be art?; is it any good? - but this time all the right boxes seemed to get ticked. Yeah, there had been big games before - Halo 3 in 2007. But GTA IV may have been the first game that everybody took seriously. • In September, scientists completed the biggest machine the world has ever seen, a 17-mile long particle accelerator hidden under the Swiss mountains. The idea of a Big Bang Machine, ready to show physicists the secrets of the beginning of the universe gave plenty of people the willies. However, the world didn't end when it got started... but given that it broke down almost immediately, there's still time. • Last but by no means least, a certain Barack Obama proved the power of the web as he surged to victory in the US presidential elections, and therefore into the White House, in November. If every electoral contest of the past 10 years has tried to claim the title of "the election won by the internet" then perhaps this was the first time one genuinely deserved it. Obama raised hundreds of millions online, leading what seemed to be a groundswell of grassroots sentiment after eight years of George Bush. Is that a good thing? Maybe, maybe not - but money is the way the game is played. Next week we'll take a look at 2009. In the meantime, enjoy Christmas. 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 | 24 Dec 2009 | 1:30 am Space Butterflies DeadDuring Flappier Times: On Dec. 2, the space butterflies were stretching their wings in microgravity (NASA/BioServe, University of Colorado). I hate to break this news on Christmas Eve, but I can't think of a better time to remember our orbital ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 24 Dec 2009 | 12:46 am Could Phoenix Rise From The... Ice?A view from Phoenix during warmer times (NASA/Univ. of Ariz.) On Nov. 2, 2008, the Phoenix Mars Lander stopped phoning home. Sitting in the Martian Arctic, suffering a slow death due to sunlight deprivation (the sun was dropping low on ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Dec 2009 | 11:40 pm Five Years After Tsunami, Many Still Without Shelter (OneWorld.net)OneWorld.net - KALMUNAI, Sri Lanka, Dec 23 (IPS) - "We have been here for almost five years. So many promises have been made, but very few have been kept," complains Mohideen Nafia, 22, one of the survivors of the 2004 Asian tsunami still living in a temporary facility in the coastal town of Kalmunai, located 300 kilometres east of the capital, Colombo.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2009 | 9:59 pm Two Genes Work in Tandem to Spur Deadliest Brain Cancer (HealthDay)HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, Dec. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Two genes working in concert seem to spur the deadliest form of brain tumor, glioblastoma, the disease that took Sen. Ted Kennedy's life last August.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2009 | 9:49 pm Pollution May Boost Pneumonia Risk for Seniors (HealthDay)HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, Dec. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Seniors who are exposed to significant levels of air pollution for more than a year face double the risk of pneumonia, Canadian researchers report.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2009 | 9:48 pm Dinosaurs Top Santa Letter Wish ListsEach year, letters children write to Santa pour into schools, newspaper staff rooms, department stores, post offices and countless other establishments. A review of these letters from across the U.S. makes one thing clear: many kids hope Santa will bring ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Dec 2009 | 8:51 pm Doctor Calls for Santa MakeoverIs Santa Claus a public health menace? Dr. Nathan Grills from Monash University in Australia suggests the current image of Santa needs a major makeover. (Before and After Images: Dr. Nathan Grills) Before After The present Santa Claus turns out ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Dec 2009 | 8:04 pm Obama says disappointment at Copenhagen justified (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2009 | 5:59 pm Relationships: Not just for ChristmasChristmas is barely complete without a bishop or a commentator declaring that we have lost sight of the true meaning of this religious festival. But the truth is more interesting: there is an extraordinary continuity in the traditions of this winter celebration. For millennia, it has been a time to feast with family and friends, and the one point in the year when people invest in relationships: the office parties, the school nativity plays, right through to the family Christmas lunch. The festival serves a crucial need. It is a need we too easily neglect, as the Young Foundation's recent report, Sinking and Swimming, points out. Half a million pensioners will spend Christmas Day alone this year, while a million people say that they have no one to turn to. The welfare state was developed to ensure a safety net in which material needs were met, but its architects presumed that emotional and psychological needs would be met by family and community. That is not always so. Between 1991 and 2007 prescriptions for antidepressants more than trebled. Anxiety and depression are set to double in a generation. Do parents have time to spend with their kids? Do people remember to call on an elderly relative or neighbour? It is this sum of small daily interactions that constitutes such an important part of human wellbeing. As John Cacioppo and William Patrick point out in their new book, Loneliness, lack of human connection makes us ill – it has physiological consequences as well as leading to mental illness. Both Labour and the Conservatives have already begun to position themselves as the party of the family, but the debate so far has been dominated by ugly jousting over the importance of marriage. This is a dangerous impoverishment of a crucial debate. Contrary to the politicians' rhetoric, the structure of the family is far less important than the quality of its relationships, as a recent Gingerbread report demonstrates. We also need to affirm the importance of all relationships, not just marriage. As society ages, the relationships between young and old will become all the more important. And the importance of relationships goes beyond the intimacies of home, into the public realm. Managerialism and a preoccupation with efficiency has left many parts of the public sector incapable of putting human skills of warmth and attentiveness at the heart of their work. These issues are hard to squeeze into Westminster debate, but on any doorstep, relationships is a subject on which people quickly become passionate. How they have been treated, and how they treat others: this is the stuff of most lives, and it is much too important to be given its due only at Christmas. 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 | 23 Dec 2009 | 5:05 pm New Yorkers beware! New cockroach hits the Big Apple (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2009 | 4:45 pm Obama says climate dismay validUS President Barack Obama says disappointment at the outcome of the Copenhagen summit is justified.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Dec 2009 | 4:26 pm Sun, moon trigger San Andreas tremors: studyWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tidal forces parallel to a segment of the San Andreas Fault in central California may be causing non-volcanic tremors that could help predict earthquakes, researchers said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 Dec 2009 | 3:59 pm NYC urges ban on shale gas drilling in watershed (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2009 | 1:45 pm Deer poaching incidents increaseLatest figures say the number of reported incidents of deer poaching have doubled in the past year.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Dec 2009 | 1:15 pm Dark matter holds the key to the universe | Paul DaviesWe've moved a step closer to understanding the nature of dark matter, and thus transforming our knowledge of the cosmos itself When Henri Becquerel spotted that photographic plates became fogged if kept in a drawer next to uranium salts, the discovery of radioactivity was immediate. By contrast, other scientific findings – global warming, for instance – take place incrementally, the result of gradually accumulating evidence. Last week, scientists announced a small but potentially significant step in our slowly evolving understanding of what the universe is made of. Astronomers have long known the stars contain the same atoms as those found on Earth. But for years evidence has been growing that most stuff in the cosmos is not made of atoms or subatomic particles at all, but Something Else. The first inkling that the universe is dominated by unseen material came from the observations of clusters of galaxies made in the 1930s. The astronomer Fritz Zwicky noticed that within the clusters, galaxies mill around so fast that the clusters ought to fly apart. So what keeps them intact? The simplest explanation is that some form of dark matter provides the necessary gravitationally binding. Today, cosmologists can put a precise figure on the amount of dark matter in the universe: about five times the mass of the luminous, common-or-garden variety of matter. And its role in shaping the cosmos is crucial. After the big bang that created the universe 13.7bn years ago, matter was spread smoothly through space. Aided by the gravitating power of the dark component, ordinary matter was pulled into clumps, which later evolved into galaxies that spawned stars, planets and, in one case at least, life. A consensus has emerged that dark matter mostly consists of massive particles coughed out of the big bang. The reason for the appellation "dark" is because, unlike atomic particles, they have no electric charge, so cannot emit or scatter light. Nor do they feel the strong nuclear force that traps protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei. As a result, the dark particles interact so feebly with ordinary matter that they mostly pass right through it. The race to detect and identify these particles started in the 1980s. Because the solar system orbits the galaxy at more than 200km per second, it should be ploughing through an ocean of primordial dark matter. As a result, there is a small probability that a dark matter particle will bump into an atomic nucleus and send it flying. The challenge is to detect such a collision. One such experiment, known as the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search, in Minnesota, has been gathering data for several years. Now, following painstaking analysis, project scientists have declared that they have recorded a couple of likely looking dark matter events. Theoretical physicists long ago predicted the existence of various weakly interacting massive particles. One of these theories, called supersymmetry, links the nature of fundamental particles to the structure of space and time, and is an essential ingredient of string theory, the scheme that seeks to unify all nature. Part of the rationale for building the Large Hadron Collider at Cern in Switzerland was to create what could be the very same particles that the Minnesota experiment may have detected coming from space. Meanwhile, many other groups are planning experiments to elucidate the nature of dark matter. Though it is too soon to open the champagne, if the Minnesota results are confirmed, they will represent nothing less than a transformation in our understanding of how the physical universe is put together. 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 | 23 Dec 2009 | 1:00 pm Snowflakes on Christmas Cards Drawn Wrong (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - In pop culture depictions, snowflakes are usually drawn inaccurately, an expert now says. Snowflakes are six-cornered, rather than the four-, five- and eight-cornered crystals typically depicted in children's books, Christmas cards and even in an ad for a science magazine.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2009 | 12:46 pm Snowflakes on Christmas Cards Drawn WrongA chemist points out how snowflakes depicted by pop culture are inaccurate.Source: Livescience.com | 23 Dec 2009 | 12:28 pm Face looking old? Don't blame your genes (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2009 | 12:18 pm Female Ducks’ Twisty Tracts Defend Against Screwy Males
The first intimate duck videos show that it’s mate and checkmate in the battle of the sexes.
Also on camera, duck handlers coaxed males to deploy into glass tubes instead of into females. The tubes featured bends and wrong-way spirals that kept the males from extending very far, Brennan and her colleagues report online Dec. 22 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Real female ducks have such shapes, even spirals that squiggle in the direction opposite to male anatomy. And Brennan has proposed that a female duck refusing to relax the tension in all her complicated bits presents a challenge to an unwelcome male. For a mate she approves, though, a female Muscovy can ease the constrictions. Even within the same species, what serves females well as far as number and frequency of mates may not be the best for males. In the case of Muscovy ducks, the males, like competitors in an arms race, have developed explosive extension, but females may be countering with resistant geometry.
The new videos support this idea of female resistance, Brennan says. The obstructive powers of internal tracts fit with the scenario that corkscrewy genitals in certain waterfowl evolved through sexual conflict, Brennan and her colleagues report. This evidence for competing genitals could be a first for vertebrates. As far as he knows, says evolutionary biologist Locke Rowe of the University of Toronto, elaborate reproductive organs in waterfowl are the only evidence so far of sexual conflict driving coevolution of traits in vertebrates. Biologists pay so much attention to reproductive organs not out of personal weirdness, Rowe says, but because “they’re some of the most diverse traits known.” Myriad forms suggest the organs evolve fast under the pressures of sexual selection. For example, baroque reproductive tracts might benefit female ducks by allowing them to choose only high-quality or high-compatibility sires for their young. Females obviously have some way of resisting unwanted males, Brennan says. Studies of mallards, for example, show that, despite plenty of trying, unwelcome males end up siring only a few percent of a female’s offspring. Mallards and some other waterfowl are among the few birds that have any insertable sperm-delivery organ at all. Biologists have marveled at the spiraling extravagance of some waterfowl penises. But the female side of the picture didn’t emerge until 2007, when Brennan uncovered comparable female elaboration. She also observed that species with more contentious sex lives, such as the mallards, tend to have more elaborate genitals in both sexes. In contrast, male Canada geese don’t typically force copulations and have pretty uncomplicated organs. To see how waterfowl use their organs, Brennan and her colleagues turned to a commercial poultry operation in California, where male Muscovy ducks have been trained to deposit sperm into tubes. Brennan had used four sets of tubes representing what she thought would be easy or difficult geometries. The first time she tried to film males in action, she found that her camera wasn’t fast enough. With a camera that recorded 250 frames per second, Brennan got a first-of-its-kind view of male anatomy in action. When not in use, the male penis lies inside out. Lymph, not blood, powers the expansion. Brennan filmed 56 occasions of male duck extension, either just in air or into one of the tubes. Males easily extended full length into both a straight tube or into one that curled in the same direction as the duck did. However, tubes that spiraled in the opposite direction or had a bend of 135 degrees stopped the male short of full length, Brennan says. Males do ejaculate even without full extension, she discovered. What the bends and twists do then is prevent the sperm from getting very far into the reproductive tract, Brennan says. Thus a male forcing himself on a female would be less likely to sire young. Image: me’nthedogs/Flickr See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 23 Dec 2009 | 11:55 am Stars Find Fountain of Youth Via Vampirism and Collisions (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - Mysterious old stars that look oddly young found the fountain of youth via two means, new research finds. Some rely on vampirism to suck the life out of a companion star, while others are rejuvenated in cosmic collisions.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Dec 2009 | 11:16 am Animals, Plants Forced to Migrate to Keep Pace with ClimateHow far will species have to travel to escape climate change? Depends on where they live now.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Dec 2009 | 11:05 am Christmas card snowflakes 'corrupt nature' by defying laws of physicsProfessor rails against depictions of 'unnatural' snowflakes that lack hexagonal symmetry The fragile truce between science and art came under strain today when common depictions of snowflakes threatened to divide the two cultures over the festive season. In the latest salvo between the warring factions, Christmas card manufacturers, advertising agencies and children's book publishers are accused of corrupting nature with "incorrect designer versions" of snowflakes that defy the laws of physics. A letter to the prestigious journal Nature calls on scientists to take a stand against all images of four, five and eight-sided "faux" snowflakes. Professor Thomas Koop, who specialises in ice crystal formation at the University of Bielefled in Germany, had turned a blind eye to the depiction of unnatural snowflakes until he noticed an octagonal one on Nature's own marketing website, captioned "... for anyone who loves science." Koop decided to make his frustration known. "It bugs me," Koop told the Guardian. "It's the molecular building blocks that shape these crystals and they can't form any shape other than a hexagon." In a letter to Nature, Koop points out that the hexagonal shape of snowflakes has been known for at least 400 years when Johannes Kepler, the German astronomer, published his mini-treatise on the subject, "On the six-cornered snowflake". "Beautiful photographs abound, including those taken by Vermont farmer Wilson A Bentley starting in 1885 ... Why then do many artists invent their own physically unrealistic snow crystals?" Snowflakes – or more accurately snow crystals – are famously unique, though Koop admits scientists cannot prove that no two alike have ever fallen to Earth. As different as they are, all have sixfold hexagonal symmetry. Snowflakes can be single crystals or larger agglomerations. Poor understanding of how snowflakes form means we are now knee-deep in fake flakes, Koop laments. "The grand diversity of naturally occuring snow crystals is commonly corrupted by incorrect 'designer' versions," his letter adds. Snow crystals form when water vapour condenses into solid ice. Depending on the temperature and relative humidity, the ice crystal will grow into a hexagonal rod, a solid, flat plate, or a spectacular branched crystal. The symmetrical shape comes from the water molecules' hexagonal crystal lattice. "We who enjoy both science and captivating design should aim to melt away all four, five and eight-cornered snow crystals from cards, children's books and advertisements, by enlightening those who unwittingly generate and distribute them," Koop concludes. 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 | 23 Dec 2009 | 11:00 am 7 Tipping Points That Could Transform Earth
When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issue its last report in 2007, environmental tipping points were a footnote. A troubling footnote, to be sure, but the science was relatively new and unsettled. Straightforward global warming was enough to worry about. But when the IPCC meets in 2014, tipping points — or tipping elements, in academic vernacular — will get much more attention. Scientists still disagree about which planetary systems are extra-sensitive to climate shifts, but the possibility can’t be ignored. “The problem with tipping elements is that if any of them tips, it will be a real catastrophe. None of them are small,” said Anders Levermann, a climate physicist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Levermann’s article on potential disruptions of South Asia’s monsoon cycles was featured in a series of tipping element research reviews, published December 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Also discussed were ocean circulation, polar icecaps, Amazon rainforests, seafloor methane deposits and a west African dustbowl. Each is stressed by rising planetary temperatures. Some are less likely than others to tip; some might not be able to tip at all. Ambiguities, probabilities a limited grasp of Earth’s complex systems are inherent to the science. But if any tip, it will be an epic disaster. Wired Science takes you on a tour. Image: Earth’s Eastern and Western Hemispheres/NASA.
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Polar Sea IceDwindling Arctic sea ice and crumbling Antarctic ice sheets are now a common sight. Whether they signal an impending tip, with rapid melts causing Earth’s seas to inundate heavily-populated coastal plains, is debated. The process appears to accelerate itself: Warming ice melts, which exposes darker areas, causing local temperatures to rise further. But in the Arctic, another feedback may stabilize the ice, wrote Max Planck Institute meteorologist Dirk Notz in PNAS. Though most of the ice “will disappear during summer,” much of it will re-freeze in the winter. Arctic sea ice loss “is likely to be reversible if the climate were to become cooler again.” But Notz is less optimistic about Antarctic sea ice, its undersides heated by eddying Southern Ocean currents. And the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have shrunk suddenly at least twice in the last several million years, a behavior that’s backed up by climate models. It’s “well possible that a tipping point exists for a possible collapse” for those sheets, wrote Notz. It could “render the loss of ice sheets and the accompanying sea-level rise unstoppable beyond a certain amount of warming.” Image: NASA. ———-
Amazon RainforestAs one of Earth’s great carbon sinks, the replacement of Amazon jungles with savannah or forest would drastically accelerate global warming. On their own, rising temperatures and changing weather patterns would not trigger jungle dieback, wrote researchers led by Oxford University ecosystem scientist Yadvinder Malhi in PNAS. But deforestation combined with intensified dry seasons leaves forests vulnerable to fire, producing more weather-altering deforestation. “The dieback of the forests of East Amazonia in the 21st century is far from inevitable but remains a distinct possiblity,” they wrote. Image: NASA. ———-
Bodélé Depression, ChadWinds whipping across the Bodélé, a 10,000 square mile Saharan plain covered by ancient lakebed sediments, carry 700,000 tons of dust into the atmosphere annually. It floats around the world, blocking sunlight and lowering temperatures in some regions, and causing rain and warming in others. Saharan dust influences Atlantic ecosystems, Caribbean coral reefs and the Amazon. Its full effects are unknown. Small atmospheric changes “could profoundly alter the behavior of this feature,” wrote Richard Washington, a specialist in African weather African weather specialist at Oxford University, and colleagues in PNAS. At one point in the last 10,000 years, dust ceased to flow altogether from the Bodélé. That doesn’t seem to be our problem. “Although subject to a great deal of uncertainty, some simulations of the 21st century indicate the potential for a substantial increase in dust production,” wrote the researchers. Image: NASA.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 23 Dec 2009 | 10:40 am Pain Pills Could Ease Hurt FeelingsThe main ingredient of Tylenol could alleviate hurt feelings.Source: Livescience.com | 23 Dec 2009 | 9:26 am Teeny Tiny EV Practically FreeOklahoma residents have a fun choice to make before year-end: get a micro-mini electric vehicle for under $900 or invest the money in some other alt transport. Like a bike. Federal and state tax credits in Oklahoma pushed down the ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Dec 2009 | 9:24 am Hunting Alien WorldsIn this special interview, Travis Barman, an astronomer who seeks out exoplanets, discusses the historic night when his Keck Observatory team directly imaged an alien solar system for the first time.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Dec 2009 | 7:58 am Top Earth Stories: No. 7 - The Great Species Shuffle[Editor's note: Get the entire Decade's Top 10 Earth Stories list here] If the 1990s saw the popularization of the poster animal -- the most majestic or cuddly of at-risk species -- then the past decade saw conservation interest democratized. ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Dec 2009 | 7:41 am How to Lick Bad Breath and Dry MouthTry these tips for a cleaner, healthier mouth.Source: Livescience.com | 23 Dec 2009 | 7:26 am Forget the Remote; Control TV By Waving Your HandNo need to worry about losing the remote with new touchless technology.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Dec 2009 | 7:25 am Ancient Mayans Likely Had Fountains and ToiletsMayan technology may be ancient, but it might have been enough to build toilets.Source: Livescience.com | 23 Dec 2009 | 7:23 am How One Odd Duck Says 'No' to SexFemale ducks have oddly shaped vaginas to keep out unwanted males.Source: Livescience.com | 23 Dec 2009 | 7:12 am Ancient Tree (Almost) Older Than DirtAn unassuming tree in southern California has overcome the test of time by surviving for more than 13,000 years.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Dec 2009 | 6:40 am 9 Things We Learned About Us in 2009Find out why some adults still have baby fat, whether you should multitask and other amazing things we learned about us in 2009.Source: Livescience.com | 23 Dec 2009 | 6:24 am Kids for Kids | Little donkey saving lives in DarfurKids for Kids is a charity that helps children in remote villages in Darfur. Through providing water, goats and donkeys, and training midwives, a lasting impact is being made Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 23 Dec 2009 | 4:20 am Manatee migration mystery solvedAmazonian manatees migrate during low water season to avoid being hunted, solving a mystery about why the secretive animals make such a perilous journey.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Dec 2009 | 4:09 am 2009 highlightsFrom space smash-ups to climate shockwavesSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Dec 2009 | 3:59 am In picturesAntarctic survey reveals life in the deep freezeSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 23 Dec 2009 | 3:34 am
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