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Mango effective in preventing, stopping certain colon, breast cancer cells, food scientists findMango fruit has been found to prevent or stop certain colon and breast cancer cells in the lab, according to a new study by food scientists.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Bifocals may slow progression of nearsightedness in childrenBifocal glasses may be effective in slowing the progression of myopia (nearsightedness) in children with high rates of progression, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Use of body ornamentation shows Neanderthal mind capable of advanced thoughtThe widespread view of Neanderthals as cognitively inferior to early modern humans is challenged by new research. Scientists examined pigment-stained and perforated marine shells, most certainly used as neck pendants, from two Neanderthal-associated sites in the Murcia province of south-east Spain. The analysis of lumps of red and yellow pigments found alongside suggest they were used in cosmetics.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm New quantum cascade lasers emit more light than heatResearchers have developed compact, mid-infrared laser diodes that generate more light than heat -- a breakthroughs in quantum cascade laser efficiency.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Breast cancer multigene test helping patients avoid chemotherapyA 21-gene test that predicts whether early stage breast cancer patients will benefit from chemotherapy is having a big impact on treatment decisions by patients and doctors alike, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Reluctant hero? Cleaner fish show it pays to be selflessPutting yourself in the line of fire is shown to reap huge rewards, in a new study. Researchers have discovered that male cleaner wrasse are quick to play the hero when their dinner is at stake.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Diabetic eye disease more severe in African-Americans who consume more calories, sodiumHigh intakes of calories and sodium appear to be associated with the progression of retinal disease among African-American patients with diabetes, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Sedentary TV time may cut life shortA study found that every hour spent in front of the television per day brings with it an 11 percent greater risk of premature death from all causes, and an 18 percent greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. The findings apply to both obese and overweight people as well as people with a healthy weight because prolonged periods of sitting have an unhealthy influence on blood sugar and blood fat levels.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Delivering stem cells improves repair of major bone injuries in rats, study showsA new study shows that delivering stem cells on a polymer scaffold to treat large areas of missing bone leads to improved bone formation and better mechanical properties compared to treatment with scaffold alone.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Genetic variant associated with aggressive form of prostate cancerResearchers have identified the first genetic variant associated with aggressive prostate cancer, proving the concept that genetic information may one day be used in combination with other factors to guide treatment decisions.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 12 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Science explains the wrinkly dogThe genetic cause of the Shar-pei dog's wrinkled skin is explained by scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 12 Jan 2010 | 3:27 am The nation's weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Jan 2010 | 3:09 am Does Your Halo Ever Give You a Headache?Apparently there is a halo of dark matter surrounding the Milky Way galaxy -- as there is, indeed, surrounding many other galaxies -- and it bears the improbable shape of a giant beach that's been partially deflated and flattened out, ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 12 Jan 2010 | 2:09 am China scraps limits on foreign wind turbine parts (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Jan 2010 | 1:37 am 2010 AL30: An Asteroid or Man Made Object?2010 AL30 as imaged remotely from Australia on Jan. 11, 2010 (Ernesto Guido & Giovanni Sostero) On Wednesday (Jan. 13), an object called 2010 AL30 will fly by Earth at a distance of 130,000 km (80,000 miles). That's only one-third ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 12 Jan 2010 | 1:31 am China 'successfully tests missile interceptor'Chinese state media announces it has tested new technology to intercept missiles in flight as US reports detecting collision China successfully tested new technology to intercept missiles in flight yesterday, state media has reported. The announcement came amid repeated complaints from Beijing over the US sale of weaponry including Patriot PAC-3 air defence missiles to Taiwan. In a terse three-sentence report, the official Xinhua news agency reported late last night that "ground-based midcourse missile interception technology" was tested within Chinese territory. "The test has achieved the expected objective," it added, without specifying whether the missile had been destroyed, although the US reported detecting a collision. Xinhua added: "The test is defensive in nature and is not targeted at any country." The report, which was issued unusually quickly, followed days of criticism of the US arms sales. Patriots can destroy missiles in mid-air, and could be used against those deployed along the Chinese coastline facing Taiwan. The island has been self-ruled since the defeated nationalists fled there at the end of the civil war, but China still asserts its sovereignty and has warned it could use military action if the island sought formal independence. In Washington, the defence department said the US did not consider the test related to the arms sales. "We did not receive prior notification of the launch," Maj Maureen Schumann, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said. "We detected two geographically separated missile launch events with an exo-atmospheric collision also being observed by space-based sensors. We are requesting information from China regarding the purpose for conducting this interception as well as China's intentions and plans to pursue future types of intercepts." Missile technology has been one focus of the Chinese military's modernisation drive, funded by double-digit rises in defence spending for several years running. Last year China's military budget rose 14.9%, to 480.6bn yuan (£44bn). "[The test] indicates a huge scale of ambition," said Ron Huisken, of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, adding that intercepting missiles in flight was "fiendishly difficult to do". "This is confirmation of the message that China fully intends to have the panoply of contemporary military technology at its disposal." Huisken said that the point of such technology was to counter US rather than Taiwanese capabilities, adding: "My interpretation is that the Chinese were ready to run a test and decided this was as good an excuse as any." Analysts believe China has used foreign weaponry to develop a number of programmes domestically. "There is an obvious concern in Beijing that they need an effective anti-ballistic missile defence in some form," Hans Kristensen, an expert on the Chinese military with the Federation of American Scientists, told AP. Staging a successful test "shows that their technology is maturing", Kristensen said. The test was also a way of signalling their capabilities, he added. A commentary issued by Xinhua yesterday – separately from the report on the test – warned: "Each time the United States has sold weapons to Taiwan, there has been huge damage to China-US relations. "This US arms sale to Taiwan will be no exception." It urged the Obama administration to immediately halt weapons sales to avoid damaging cooperation in "important areas". China curtailed military-to-military contacts with the US after then president George Bush notified Congress in October 2008 of plans to sell Taiwan a long-delayed arms package valued at up to $6.4bn (£40bn). "We have the power and ability to adopt counter-measures [against US arms sales to Taiwan]," Jin Yinan, a major-general in the People's Liberation Army and professor at China's National Defence University wrote earlier this month. In his article for a Chinese newspaper, the Study Times, he added: "We must use counter-measures to make the other side pay a corresponding price and suffer corresponding punishment." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 12 Jan 2010 | 12:50 am Bizarre cricket caught on cameraA new species of cricket is caught on camera for the first time - and its bizarre behaviour has surprised scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Jan 2010 | 10:58 pm The Big Bang is a Big Bust for SkepticsTo some astronomy enthusiasts the phrase "big bang" seems awfully superfluous. It's the shortest of shorthands for describing the origin of everything: stars, planets, people and petunias. Astronomers think all of this came from an extremely hot and dense fireball ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 11 Jan 2010 | 10:32 pm New Study Finds Poo Bacteria in Your SodaUm, yuck. A new study has found that a little less than half of sodas poured from fountains in the Roanoke, Virginia area are contaminated with coliform bacteria, an indicator of fecal contamination. According to the work, published in the ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 11 Jan 2010 | 10:11 pm Genetic Marker for Aggressive Prostate Cancer Found (HealthDay)HealthDay - MONDAY, Jan. 11 (HealthDay News) -- A focused search of the entire human genome has found a genetic variant associated with the aggressiveness of prostate cancer, in a discovery that marks an important first step toward singling out cancers that need intensive treatment from those that can simply be left alone.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Jan 2010 | 9:49 pm Mystery Behind Galaxy Shapes Solved (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - Galaxies come in many shapes and sizes, but until recently astronomers have been at a loss to explain why.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Jan 2010 | 8:17 pm Screening could curb hospital superbugLONDON (Reuters) - Patients who undergo treatment at more than one hospital in Europe should be screened for the drug-resistant "superbug" MRSA to help prevent its spread, scientists said on Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 11 Jan 2010 | 6:58 pm New protection status for the seas around LundyThe sea around Lundy Island becomes the first marine site in England to be protected by new government powers.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Jan 2010 | 6:55 pm Doomsday Clock to Change This Week (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - The minute hand of the famous Doomsday Clock is set to move this Thursday, and for the first time, anyone with Internet access can watch. Which way the hand will move and by how much have not been made public.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Jan 2010 | 5:40 pm North Florida Airport Becomes Licensed SpaceportMove over Cape Canaveral. There's a new player in town able to launch people into space. Jacksonville, Florida's Cecil Field became the country's eighth commercial spaceport on Monday, after a four-year effort to win an operator's license from the Federal ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 11 Jan 2010 | 5:22 pm Next 40 years key for climate change: study (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Jan 2010 | 5:13 pm Prehistoric building found in modern Israeli city (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Jan 2010 | 5:06 pm How to stick to New Year resolutionsWhat's the best incentive to hang in there with that diet? Humiliation If Harold Wilson reckoned a week was a long time in politics, he should have tried 12 days of keeping a resolution. Twelve days of nothing stronger than Tizer, of Pilates classes with their creepy pseudo-ethnic music, of penitently forking your way through a few leaves for a bleak winter supper. No wonder that fewer than a quarter of people asked in a University of Hertfordshire study last month actually stuck to their resolutions. But for those still battling your fleshly appetites, behavioural scientists have a recommendation: seek public humiliation. Look at the Twitter feed of Drew Magary. Comedy writer and "tender lover", Magary is also an "intense overeater" who last month tweeted: "I have to lose 50 pounds to get my back healthy. No joke. From now on, every day, I will tweet my weight to chart my progress." Which he does, along with other sufferers, on the #twitterpublichumiliationdiet hashtag. Magary reports good days ("Weigh-in: 241.8lbs. I skipped right over you, 242.) and bad ("Turns out that snorting M&Ms is just as bad for you as eating them"). Navel-gazing, you might call it, but the point is that Megary has made a public commitment; if he deviates from it, his family and friends have licence to nag. There's a lot of web-based humiliation in this resolution season, from Facebook updates to sites such as wereindebt.com run by a blogger – "early 30s with a big mortgage" – as a diary of "my journey to financial freedom". To be most effective, though, a humiliation strategy should involve partners and colleagues – people who won't just ping over a chiding e-mail, but will shout and embarrass you. Or you can combine social pressure with financial incentives: Ed Vaizey, the Tory spokesman on culture, plans to lose 40lb by his 42nd birthday. Failure to meet a weekly target means a £50 forfeit to his wife. It's a classic Nudge of the sort favoured by the "new Tories"; not only does Vaizey slim back into his jeans, he demonstrates his Cameroonian credentials. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 11 Jan 2010 | 5:05 pm Arctic tern's epic journey mappedThe Arctic tern's extraordinary pole-to-pole 70,000km migration is detailed by an international team of scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Jan 2010 | 4:53 pm Leonardo-Attributed Painting Mystifies Art ExpertsOne of the world's most controversial paintings, "La Belle Ferronnière," will go on the Sotheby's auction block in New York on January 28. Many viewers are wondering: Is she or isn't she? A Leonardo, that is. Take a look and ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 11 Jan 2010 | 4:53 pm Florida airport gets commercial spaceport licenseCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The sky's no longer the limit for Cecil Field airport in Jacksonville, Florida.Source: Reuters: Science News | 11 Jan 2010 | 4:29 pm Genes for Dogs Breeds Discovered (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - The Great Dane lumbering down the street next to the Chihuahua in its owner's purse are clear examples of the extreme variety of looks that dog species - the most diverse-looking mammal in the world - can sport.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Jan 2010 | 4:05 pm India Developing Anti-Satellite Spacecraft (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - PARIS — India has begun development of lasers and an exo-atmospheric kill vehicle that could be combined to produce a weapon to destroy enemy satellites in orbit, the director-general of India's defense research organization said Jan. 3.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Jan 2010 | 3:45 pm Egypt: New find shows slaves didn't build pyramids (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Jan 2010 | 3:11 pm Stalking in the Digital AgeJanuary is National Stalking Awareness Month and 2010 marks the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act. To commemorate both events, the Department of Justice held a panel discussion today on how serious stalking victimization is in the United ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 11 Jan 2010 | 3:03 pm Doomsday Clock to Change This WeekThe time on the Doomsday Clock will be changed this week due to nuclear weapon and other dangers.Source: Livescience.com | 11 Jan 2010 | 2:48 pm Watching television increases risk of death from heart diseaseCouch potatoes and computer users face higher risk of death from heart disease, strokes and cancer, warn scientists Every hour spent watching television each day increases the risk of dying from heart disease by almost a fifth, say scientists. Couch potatoes were warned that their lifestyle also increased the risk of death from other causes including cancer. People who spent hours watching television greatly increased the chances of dying early from heart attacks and strokes, researchers in Australia found. Compared with those watching less than two hours of TV, people who sat in front of the box for more than four hours a day were 80% more likely to die for reasons linked to heart and artery disease. The researchers monitored 8,800 adults for six years to see what impact watching television had on their long-term health. They found that each hour a day spent in front of the television increased the risk of death from all causes by 11%. It also raised the risk of dying from cancer by 9% and the risk of heart disease-related death by 18%. The scientists warned it was not only telly addicts whose lifestyles put them in danger. Any prolonged sedentary behaviour, such as sitting at an office desk or in front of a computer, posed similar risks. It also made no difference whether or not a person was overweight or obese. "Even if someone has a healthy body weight, sitting for long periods of time still has an unhealthy influence on their blood sugar and blood fats," said the study's lead researcher, Prof David Dunstan, from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Victoria, Australia. The average amount of TV people watch each day is three hours in Australia and the UK, said the scientists. In the US, where two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese, some people spent eight hours watching television ‑ the equivalent of a nine to five working day. "What has happened is that a lot of the normal activities of daily living that involved standing up and moving the muscles in the body have been converted to sitting," said Dunstan. "Technological, social, and economic changes mean that people don't move their muscles as much as they used to, and consequently the levels of energy expenditure as people go about their lives continue to shrink. For many people, on a daily basis they simply shift from one chair to another ‑ from the chair in the car to the chair in the office to the chair in front of the television." The scientists interviewed 3,846 men and 4,954 women aged 25 and older who underwent sugar tolerance tests and provided blood samples. Participants were recruited from 1999 and studied for the next six years. Based on their own reports of TV viewing they were grouped according to whether they watched less than two hours a day, between two and four hours, or more than four hours. During the follow-up period there were 284 deaths, 87 from cardiovascular, or heart and artery disease, and 125 from cancer. While the association between cancer and television viewing was modest, there was a strong link between TV watching and a higher risk of cardiovascular death. This was despite taking account of recognised heart disease risk factors such as raised cholesterol levels and lifestyle. The findings were reported today in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Dunstan had this message for members of the public: "In addition to doing regular exercise, avoid sitting for prolonged periods and keep in mind to 'move more, more often'. Too much sitting is bad for health." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 11 Jan 2010 | 2:05 pm Couch Potatoes May Have Shorter LivesWatching TV is associated with an increased risk of death, a new study says.Source: Livescience.com | 11 Jan 2010 | 2:03 pm Genes for Dogs Breeds DiscoveredDog traits linked to particular genes, such as Shar-Pei's wrinkles, could shed light on evolution of human genome.Source: Livescience.com | 11 Jan 2010 | 1:57 pm Record Migration: Small Birds Travel 50,000 MilesThe Artic tern makes the longest migration of any animal known.Source: Livescience.com | 11 Jan 2010 | 1:09 pm Giant Spider Species Discovered in Middle Eastern Sand Dunes
Scientists have unearthed a completely new species of spider hiding in sand dunes on the Israel-Jordan border. With a legspan that stretches 5.5 inches, the spider, called Cerbalus aravensis, is the biggest of its type in the Middle East. “It is rare to find a new species of spider — at least around this part of the world — which is so big,” said biologist Uri Shanas of the University of Haifa-Oranim in Israel, who discovered the arachnid. Most of Cerbalus aravensis’s habits remain a mystery, but the researchers say it is nocturnal and most active during the blazing summer heat. The spider lives in an underground den, hidden by a door that swings upwards to welcome unsuspecting prey like lizards and insects. To make the camouflage door, the spider patches together bits of sand. The researchers believe the spider uses a “sit-and-wait” hunting strategy, biding its time till prey approach, Shanas said. Unfortunately, the spider’s habitat is under immediate threat, he said. The Israeli government recently approved mining operations in the region, which could wipe out the creature.
Images: Roy Talbi See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 11 Jan 2010 | 1:05 pm Because they were worth it? Research finds Neanderthals enjoyed makeupFor decades, our low-browed Neanderthal cousins have been portrayed as dim savages whose idea of seduction was a whispered "ug" and a blow to the cranium. But analysis of pierced, hand-coloured shells and lumps of pigment from two caves in south-east Spain suggests the cavepeople who stomped around Europe 50,000 years ago were far more intelligent – and cosmetically minded – than previously thought. In 1985, archaeologists excavating the Cueva de los Aviones in Murcia found cockle shells perforated as if to be hung on a necklace and an oyster shell containing mineral pigments, hinting that the cave's Neanderthal residents had developed a taste for self-adornment and makeup. Twenty-three years later, an expedition led by João Zilhão, professor of palaeolithic archaeology at the University of Bristol, turned up a pierced, orange-coloured scallop shell bearing traces of red and yellow pigment at another Murcian cave, Cueva Antón. Despite its significance, however, the latter find was nearly overlooked. "The shell was found by an undergraduate student at Bristol on the first or second day of the dig," said Zilhão. "When he showed it to me I told him it was probably a fossil from the cave wall. Note it and bag it, I said, we'll look at it later. We forgot about it till later and then, when we were cleaning it, I realised that it was a shell, not a fossil." It was then, said the professor, that it occurred to him the shell might corroborate the finds at Cueva de los Aviones, and prove that Neanderthals were more sophisticated than they had been given credit for. Analysis of the reddish residues from the oyster shell from Cueva de los Aviones had found a pigment made up of minerals including lepidocrocite, haematite, pyrite, and charcoal. The orange scallop shell found in Cueva Antón, meanwhile, had been coloured with red haematite and yellow goethite and was probably part of a necklace. The small quantity of pigment recovered in the oyster shell also led the archaeologists to speculate that it had been made for use on the body. According to Zilhão, the effect of the darkly sparkling preparation would not have been too different from today's coruscating skin powders. "The idea that came to our minds was that it was some kind of glitter or makeup like the shimmery stuff that people were wearing a few years ago," he said. "Its preparation makes no sense unless it was used as a body cosmetic. We can't prove it but it makes sense." As well as yielding evidence of mining, transportation and the ability to work to a complex recipe, said Zilhão, the existence of the cosmetics also provides an insight into Neanderthal psychology. "They are clearly used as something to convey ideas and to decorate the face and body. It shows a symbolic dimension in behaviour and thinking that cannot be denied – especially when found in connection with the perforated and decorated shells." What's more, said the professor, the oyster shell, which was also held in high-esteem by cultures in pre-Columbian America, was also found near a quantity of yellow natrojarosite, a mineral pigment whose cosmetic properties made it a favourite of the ancient Egyptians. Radiocarbon dating of the samples was carried out by the University of Oxford's radiocarbon accelerator unit. Their tests established that the shells and charcoal found in the two caves could be traced back to around 50,000 years ago – around 10 millennia before the first appearance in Europe of early modern man. All of which, reckons Zilhão, shows that Neanderthals were doing many of the same things as their early modern human counterparts in Africa. "Whether that means that the Neanderthals were as smart as early modern humans or that early modern humans were as stupid as Neanderthals depends on how you look at the past," he said. "My view is that there's absolutely no scientific justification to consider Neanderthals as the brutish halfwits they have been portrayed as in popular culture – which has also, to a certain extent, influenced scientific thinking." It was high time, he added, to banish our caveman prejudices. "Even if they were a bit different in behaviour and cognition, they were as human as their contemporaries, who we call our ancestors." The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 11 Jan 2010 | 1:00 pm Is the 'Mancession' Real?Are men in the job market being hit harder in this recession than in previous economic downturns? On Friday, the Labor Department reported that 85,000 jobs were lost in the United States for the month of December 2009, an unexpectedly ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 11 Jan 2010 | 12:49 pm Ongoing Evolution May Explain Mysterious Rise in DiseasesThe rise in disorders such as autism could be partly due to the subtle pressures of human evolution.Source: Livescience.com | 11 Jan 2010 | 12:18 pm Classified Recordings of First Fusion Bomb Test Found in Old Safe
The long-distance scientific recordings of the blast wave from the first hydrogen bomb test have been rediscovered in a formerly classified safe at Columbia University. On November 1, 1952, physicists created the second fusion explosion the solar system has ever known. The first occurred around 4.5 billion years ago and ignited the ongoing fusion reaction in the sun. The second, the Ivy Mike experiment, was shorter lived and detonated on an atoll in the South Pacific. This 10-megaton blast was five times more powerful than all the explosives used in World War II combined, including the nuclear-fission bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The blast set off a low-frequency sound wave beneath the human hearing range, which was recorded halfway around the world at special listening stations designed by the Lamont Geological Observatory in Palisades, New York, for monitoring just such an event. The microbarographs measured changes in atmospheric pressure, and were particularly well-suited to detecting a nuclear explosion. As the wave passed, the ink-filled needles of the instruments scribbled on paper rolling around a drum. It was the first time a nuclear explosion had been detected from such a long distance and it marked the beginning of international test monitoring, a key element of nuclear non-proliferation plans. The recordings were swiftly marked “classified” and stuffed in a vault at Lamont. And there they sat for more than 50 years.
Then, in preparation for retirement in 2008, Lamont’s former security director Ray Long began cleaning out the safe. Recognizing there might be something to the recordings, he contacted Paul Richards, a seismologist and specialist in nuclear-test tracking. Richards immediately knew the measurements “were of historic importance.” If they couldn’t be declassified, they would have to be sent to the U.S. Air Force, which originally classified them, or destroyed. So, Richards tracked down the right people in the Air Force and asked them to declassify the documents so that they could by preserved for posterity. “They had the bureaucratic problem that there was no obvious indication on how to do it,” Richards said. “They were very helpful, but it took a while.” Now, finally, more than 57 years after the ink was first laid on the paper, the recordings can be seen by all. At first, the Lamont scientists working on the problem of remote nuclear-detonation detection thought they might need to get measurements from high in the atmosphere. So they sent balloons up with recording equipment. As an odd historical footnote, this research program may have launched the long-standing rumors of something strange going on near Roswell, New Mexico, when one of its stations crashed in the area. “The program was called Project Mogul, and its goal, set by a postwar America wary of losing its atomic monopoly, was to search high in the atmosphere for weak reverberations from nuclear-test blasts half a world away,” journalist William Broad explained in a 1994 New York Times article. “The debris, found near Roswell, New Mexico, was a smashed part of the program’s balloons, sensors and, of most consequence to the growth of spaceship theories, radar reflectors made of thin metal foil. At the time, the Air Force said the wreckage was that of a weather balloon, a white lie.” Over the years, scientists realized that they could use ground-based stations and didn’t need high-flying balloons. For years, microbarographs were used to measure nuclear weapons tests as they grew ever bigger, up to the largest test ever by the Soviet Union, which topped 50 megatons, a thousand times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Satellites largely took over weapons-test monitoring in the 1960s within the United States and Soviet Union. However, with the signing of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1994, cheap, easy-to-deploy microbarograph stations were deployed at dozens of locations across the world from Piñon Flats in California to Antananarivo, Madagascar. Image: 1. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory/Kim Martine. 2. Video of Ivy Mike experiment. 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 | 11 Jan 2010 | 12:08 pm Now the Royal Institution can focus on real scienceThe Royal Institution is better off without Susan Greenfield, writes Martin Robbins. It can now concentrate on its core purpose: communicating science That the Royal Institution is experiencing financial difficulties will come as a surprise to anyone who has made the mistake of offering to buy a round of drinks in its fancy new bar. But the reality is that Baroness Susan Greenfield's departure comes after the 211-year-old charity plunged more than £3m into the red after an expensive renovation of its premises. I've visited Albemarle Street twice since the revamp. Every event finishes the same way – a long, shuffling queue running the length of the building to the auditorium from the understaffed bar. Boredom at one end of the queue turns into panic at the other as the punters realise that a bottle of beer and a glass of white wine is going to leave them with the debt burden of a small African nation. Conversation inevitably gives way to anxious whispers about adjourning to a convenient pub up the road. One wonders if, rather than ploughing £22m into yet another London "event space", Greenfield couldn't have simply bought that pub. Plenty will be written about the institution, the renovations, the budget overruns, and Greenfield's management of the world's oldest independent research body. But the Royal Institution is first and foremost about science communication, and it is for her media work that the Baroness has attracted the fiercest criticism. Some of it has come from the stuffy old fart brigade, with comments about her fashion sense or skirt length belonging to a previous century, but much of it has been valid. In particular, Greenfield has triggered a string of media scare stories about the supposed dangers of the internet. She has been responsible for provoking articles with daft headlines such as "Social websites harm children's brains: chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientist" and "Computers could be fuelling obesity crisis, says Baroness Susan Greenfield". These are bold and serious claims, yet they have not been backed up by any published research. As he put it to me earlier today: "Baroness Greenfield has a theory that computers – which are extremely widespread – pose a serious environmental hazard to children. She therefore has a clear duty to her peers, and more importantly to the public, to present this theory clearly and formally in an academic journal, with the evidence, so that her scientific peers can assess the threat." He added: "I'm sad to say Baroness Greenfield's response to this suggestion was to say that I was like the people who denied that smoking causes cancer. That seems to me to be simply offensive, and unhelpful." Her stance is particularly ironic given that she is also active in promoting products such as MindFit, a computer program that claims to improve mental ability. A Which? Magazine investigation into the product looked at three scientific studies provided by Greenfield that supposedly support the product's claims. Two had "basic design flaws" (neither featured a control group), while the third failed to establish that the product had any significant advantage over playing Tetris – a game that doesn't cost £88. Meanwhile, a piece published in the Guardian in 2003 by a well known professor of pharmacology gave short shrift to technology bashers:
The author of these words? One Susan Greenfield. Who is the real Baroness? The woman warning against scare stories and promoting the use of computers in learning, or the one quoted in article after article speculating about the harm computers might do to children? Greenfield would do well in the spare time she now has to reflect on what exactly her media work is designed to achieve. And those at the Royal Institution also need to reflect. The institution has survived for over two centuries and will I'm sure ride out this storm; but what exactly was it trying to achieve with the expensive renovation? There is no shortage of events venues in London. Neither is there a shortage of young, up-and-coming science popularisers who visit schools or run blogs or do occasional freelance work for the Guardian. The Royal Institution doesn't need wine bars, nor does it need a well-paid "face" spouting speculative scare stories to the press. Instead, it should concentrate on harnessing the wealth of communication talent already out there to educate the public about real science. Martin Robbins writes for The Lay Scientist guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 11 Jan 2010 | 11:56 am Great Pyramid tombs unearth 'proof' workers were not slavesEgypt's leading archaeologist says 4,000-year-old burial plots with skeletons expose myth that builders were slaves Egypt displayed today newly discovered tombs more than 4,000 years old and said they belonged to people who worked on the Great Pyramids of Giza, supporting evidence that slaves did not build the ancient monuments. The modest 9ft deep shafts held a dozen skeletons of pyramid builders, perfectly preserved by dry sand along with jars of beer and bread for the afterlife. The mud-brick tombs were uncovered last week near the Giza pyramids, stretching beyond a burial site first found in the 1990s and dating to the 4th dynasty (2575BC to 2467BC), on the fringes of the present-day capital, Cairo. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus once described the pyramid builders as slaves, creating what Egyptologists say is a myth propagated by Hollywood films. Graves of the builders were first found nearby in 1990 by a tourist. Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, said the finds show the workers were paid labourers, rather than slaves. Hawass told reporters at the site that the find, first announced on Sunday, said the find sheds more light on the lifestyle and origins of the pyramidbuilders. Most importantly, he said the workers were not recruited from slaves commonly found across Egypt during those times. One popular myth that Egyptologists say was perpetrated in part by Hollywood held that Israelite slaves built the pyramids. Amihai Mazar, professor at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says that myth stemmed from an erroneous claim by the former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, on a visit to Egypt in 1977, that Jews built the pyramids. "No Jews built the pyramids because Jews didn't exist at the period when the pyramids were built," Mazar said. Dorothy Resig, an editor of Biblical Archaeology Review in Washington DC, said the idea probably arose from the Old Testament Book of Exodus, which says: "So the Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with backbreaking labour" and the Pharaoh put them to work to build buildings. "If the Hebrews built anything, then it was the city of Ramses as mentioned in Exodus," said Mazar. Dieter Wildung, a former director of Berlin's Egyptian Museum, said it is "common knowledge in serious Egyptology" that the pyramid builders were not slaves. "The myth of the slaves building pyramids is only the stuff of tabloids and Hollywood," Wildung said. "The world simply could not believe the pyramids were build without oppression and forced labour, but out of loyalty to the pharaohs." Hawass said the builders came from poor families from the north and the south, and were respected for their work – so much so that those who died during construction were bestowed the honour of being buried in the tombs near the sacred pyramids of their pharaohs. Their proximity to the pyramids and the manner of burial in preparation for the afterlife backs this theory, Hawass said. "No way would they have been buried so honourably if they were slaves." The tombs contained no gold or valuables, which safeguarded them from tomb raiders throughout antiquity, and the bodies were not mummified. The skeletons were found buried in a foetal position – the head pointing to the west and the feet to the east according to ancient Egyptian beliefs, surrounded by jars once filled with supplies for afterlife. The men who built the last remaining wonder of the ancient world ate meat regularly and worked in three-month shifts, said Hawass. It took 10,000 workers more than 30 years to build a single pyramid, Hawass said, a tenth of the workforce Herodotus wrote about after visiting Egypt around 450BC. Hawass said and that evidence indicates they the approximately 10,000 labourers working on the pyramids they ate 21 cattle and 23 sheep sent to them daily from farms. Though they were not slaves, the pyramid builders led a life of hard labour, said Adel Okasha, supervisor of the excavation. Their skeletons have signs of arthritis, and their lower vertebrae point to a life passed in difficulty, he said. "Their bones tell us the story of how hard they worked," Okasha said. Wildung said the find reinforces the notion that the pyramid builders were free men, ordinary citizens. "But let's not exaggerate here, they lived a short life and tomography skeletal studies show they suffered from bad health, very much likely because of how hard their work was." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 11 Jan 2010 | 11:44 am Green Highlights from the Consumer Electronics ShowThe recent Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas made a splash with 3-D TV. Oh to have seen it. But, probably much like you, I was bundled up for winter instead. Here's green tech from the show that will haunt my ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 11 Jan 2010 | 11:20 am Prehistoric Building and Hippo Bones Found in Tel AvivThese are the remains of the earliest building ever found in Tel Aviv, according to Israel's Antiquities Authority. Located on the northern bank of the Yarkon River, the building consists of at least three rooms and it is believed to ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 11 Jan 2010 | 11:02 am 'Wet computer' project kicks offAn EU project to engineer "chemical computers" that mimic the actions of neurons in the brain has begun.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Jan 2010 | 9:57 am Climate scientist disputes Mail on Sunday's use of his workMojib Latif denies his research supports theory that current cold weather undermines scientific consensus on global warming A leading scientist has hit out at misleading newspaper reports that linked his research to claims that the current cold weather undermines the scientific case for manmade global warming. Mojib Latif, a climate expert at the Leibniz Institute at Kiel University in Germany, said he "cannot understand" reports that used his research to question the scientific consensus on climate change. He told the Guardian: "It comes as a surprise to me that people would try to use my statements to try to dispute the nature of global warming. I believe in manmade global warming. I have said that if my name was not Mojib Latif it would be global warming." He added: "There is no doubt within the scientific community that we are affecting the climate, that the climate is changing and responding to our emissions of greenhouse gases." A report in the Mail on Sunday said that Latif's results "challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy's most deeply cherished beliefs" and "undermine the standard climate computer models". Monday's Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph repeated the claims. The reports attempted to link the Arctic weather that has enveloped the UK with research published by Latif's team in the journal Nature in 2008. The research said that natural fluctuations in ocean temperature could have a bigger impact on global temperature than expected. In particular, the study concluded that cooling in the oceans could offset global warming, with the average temperature over the decades 2000-2010 and 2005-2015 predicted to be no higher than the average for 1994-2004. Despite clarifications from the scientists at the time, who stressed that the research did not challenge the predicted long-term warming trend, the study was widely misreported as signalling a switch from global warming to global cooling. The Mail on Sunday article said that Latif's research showed that the current cold weather heralds such "a global trend towards cooler weather". It said: "The BBC assured viewers that the big chill was was merely short-term 'weather' that had nothing to do with 'climate', which was still warming. The work of Prof Latif and the other scientists refutes that view." Not according to Latif. "They are not related at all," he said. "What we are experiencing now is a weather phenomenon, while we talked about the mean temperature over the next 10 years. You can't compare the two." He said the ocean temperature effect was similar to other natural influences on global temperature, such as volcanos, which cool the planet temporarily as ash spewed into the atmosphere reflects sunlight. "The natural variation occurs side by side with the manmade warming. Sometimes it has a cooling effect and can offset this warming and other times it can accelerate it." Other scientists have questioned the strength of the ocean effect on overall temperature and disagree that global warming will show the predicted pause. Latif said his research suggested that up to half the warming seen over the 20th century was down to this natural ocean effect, but said that was consistent with the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "No climate specialist would ever say that 100% of the warming we have seen is down to greenhouse gas emissions." The recent articles are not the first to misrepresent his research, Latif said. "There are numerous newspapers, radio stations and television channels all trying to get our attention. Some overstate and some want to downplay the problem as a way to get that attention," he said. "We are trying to discuss in the media a highly complex issue. Nobody would discuss the problem of [Einstein's theory of] relativity in the media. But because we all experience the weather, we all believe that we can assess the global warming problem." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 11 Jan 2010 | 9:47 am Big Spider Discovered in Disappearing Sand DunesScientists discovered a previously unknown spider in dunes in Israel.Source: Livescience.com | 11 Jan 2010 | 9:26 am Stat defenceCan you use maths to catch airline bombers?Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Jan 2010 | 8:26 am 'Jurassic' tree survives Scotland's big freezeWhat is believed to be the world's most northerly grove of a prehistoric tree is so far surviving Scotland's big freeze.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Jan 2010 | 8:18 am Green Sea Slug Is Part Animal, Part Plant
SEATTLE — It’s easy being green for a sea slug that has stolen enough genes to become the first animal shown to make chlorophyll like a plant.
The slugs can manufacture the most common form of chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants that captures energy from sunlight, Pierce reported January 7 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Pierce used a radioactive tracer to show that the slugs were making the pigment, called chlorophyll a, themselves and not simply relying on chlorophyll reserves stolen from the algae the slugs dine on. “This could be a fusion of a plant and an animal — that’s just cool,” said invertebrate zoologist John Zardus of The Citadel in Charleston, S.C.
Microbes swap genes readily, but Zardus said he couldn’t think of another natural example of genes flowing between multicellular kingdoms. Pierce emphasized that this green slug goes far beyond animals such as corals that host live-in microbes that share the bounties of their photosynthesis. Most of those hosts tuck in the partner cells whole in crevices or pockets among host cells. Pierce’s slug, however, takes just parts of cells, the little green photosynthetic organelles called chloroplasts, from the algae it eats. The slug’s highly branched gut network engulfs these stolen bits and holds them inside slug cells. Some related slugs also engulf chloroplasts but E. chlorotica alone preserves the organelles in working order for a whole slug lifetime of nearly a year. The slug readily sucks the innards out of algal filaments whenever they’re available, but in good light, multiple meals aren’t essential. Scientists have shown that once a young slug has slurped its first chloroplast meal from one of its few favored species of Vaucheria algae, the slug does not have to eat again for the rest of its life. All it has to do is sunbathe. But the chloroplasts need a continuous supply of chlorophyll and other compounds that get used up during photosynthesis. Back in their native algal cells, chloroplasts depended on algal cell nuclei for the fresh supplies. To function so long in exile, “chloroplasts might have taken a go-cup with them when they left the algae,” Pierce said. There have been previous hints, however, that the chloroplasts in the slug don’t run on stored-up supplies alone. Starting in 2007, Pierce and his colleagues, as well as another team, found several photosynthesis-related genes in the slugs apparently lifted directly from the algae. Even unhatched sea slugs, which have never encountered algae, carry “algal” photosynthetic genes. At the meeting, Pierce described finding more borrowed algal genes in the slug genome for enzymes in a chlorophyll-synthesizing pathway. Assembling the whole compound requires some 16 enzymes and the cooperation of multiple cell components. To see whether the slug could actually make new chlorophyll a to resupply the chloroplasts, Pierce and his colleagues turned to slugs that hadn’t fed for at least five months and had stopped releasing any digestive waste. The slugs still contained chloroplasts stripped from the algae, but any other part of the hairy algal mats should have been long digested, he said. After giving the slugs an amino acid labeled with radioactive carbon, Pierce and his colleagues identified a radioactive product as chlorophyll a. The radioactively tagged compound appeared after a session of slug sunbathing but not after letting slugs sit in the dark. A paper with details of the work is scheduled to appear in the journal Symbiosis. Zardus, who says that he tries to maintain healthy skepticism as a matter of principle, would like to hear more about how the team controlled for algal contamination. The possibilities for the borrowed photosynthesis are intriguing though, he says. Mixing the genomes of algae and animals could certainly complicate tracing out evolutionary history. In the tree of life, he said, the green sea slug “raises the possibility of branch tips touching.” “Bizarre,” said Gary Martin, a crustacean biologist at Occidental College in Los Angeles. “Steps in evolution can be more creative than I ever imagined.” Image: Nicholas E. Curtis and Ray Martinez See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 11 Jan 2010 | 8:11 am Action urged on nature 'crisis'The UN launches a Year of Biodiversity, warning that the on-going loss of species affects human well-being worldwide.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Jan 2010 | 7:47 am Global Trade Fuels Invasive SpeciesA new study found a decline in invasive bird species introduced into Eastern Europe during the Cold War.Source: Livescience.com | 11 Jan 2010 | 7:01 am Blurry Vision in Old Age: What to DoBlurry vision may be a sign of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss in Americans 60 years of age and older.Source: Livescience.com | 11 Jan 2010 | 6:59 am Climate confusionScientists need to ensure their work is understoodSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Jan 2010 | 6:20 am Cocaine changes how genes work in brainCHICAGO (Reuters) - Prolonged exposure to cocaine can cause permanent changes in the way genes are switched on and off in the brain, a finding that may lead to more effective treatments for many kinds of addiction, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 11 Jan 2010 | 6:01 am Egypt tombs suggest pyramids not built by slavesCAIRO (Reuters) - New tombs found in Giza support the view that the Great Pyramids were built by free workers and not slaves, as widely believed, Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Sunday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 11 Jan 2010 | 5:58 am Big freeze 'good for pond life'Contrary to received wisdom, frozen ponds will not harm most wildlife within them, conservationists say.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Jan 2010 | 4:45 am
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