Low concentrations of oxygen and nutrients slowing biodegradation of Exxon Valdez oil

The combination of low concentrations of oxygen and nutrients in the lower layers of the beaches of Alaska's Prince William Sound is slowing the aerobic biodegradation of oil remaining from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, according to researchers.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm

Self-control, and lack of self-control, is contagious

A new study has revealed that self-control -- or the lack thereof -- is contagious.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm

Best way to reduce emissions is to make cars smaller

A new study says the best way to reduce emissions in the short term is a 'drastic downscaling of both size and weight' of conventional gasoline and diesel cars.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm

Concussions not taken seriously enough, researcher finds

Despite growing public interest in concussions because of serious hockey injuries or skiing deaths, a researcher in Canada has found that we may not be taking the common head injury seriously enough.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm

Physicists tie light in knots

The remarkable feat of tying light in knots has been achieved. Understanding how to control light in this way has important implications for laser technology used in wide a range of industries.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm

New biomarkers for predicting the spread of colon cancer

Scientists in China are reporting discovery of two proteins present in the blood of people with colon cancer that may serve as the potential biomarkers for accurately predicting whether the disease will spread.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm

Psoriasis drugs put to the test

Clinical trials to test the effectiveness of two prescription drugs for the debilitating skin condition psoriasis have revealed significant differences that should help inform physicians treating patients with the condition.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am

Walking robot switches gaits autonomously and flexibly

Even simple insects can generate quite different movement patterns with their six legs. The animal uses various gaits depending on whether it crawls uphill or downhill, slowly or fast. Scientists have now developed a walking robot, which can flexibly and autonomously switch between different gaits. The success of their solution lies in its simplicity: a small and simple network with just a few connections can create very diverse movement patterns. To this end, the robot uses a mechanism for "chaos control."
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am

First successful use of expanded umbilical-cord blood units to treat leukemia

Scientists have cleared a major technical hurdle to making umbilical-cord-blood transplants a more widely-used method for treating leukemia and other blood cancers.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am

New genetic map will speed up plant breeding of the world's most important medicinal crop

Plant scientists at the University of York have published the first genetic map of the medicinal herb Artemisia annua. The map is being used to accelerate plant breeding of Artemisia and rapidly develop the species into a high-yielding crop. This development is urgently needed to help meet escalating demand for effective malaria treatments.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am

Story of Newton's encounter with apple goes online (AP)

AP - It always falls down. That's how the apple helped Isaac Newton.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Jan 2010 | 3:38 am

The bear facts - webcam aims for first recording of bear birth

A webcam placed in a den may reveal the first recorded birth of a wild black bear.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 18 Jan 2010 | 2:57 am

Gravel beaches trapping oil from 1989 Exxon spill (AP)

AP - An engineering professor has figured out why oil remains trapped along miles of gravel beaches more than 20 years after the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Prince William Sound.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Jan 2010 | 9:46 pm

Cost of 2007 floods put at £3.2bn

Flooding in England in the summer of 2007 cost the economy £3.2bn, a report by the Environment Agency says.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Jan 2010 | 7:55 pm

Animal Relief Coalition for Haiti Grows

In the past few days, several organizations have joined forces to create the Animal Relief Coalition for Haiti (ARCH), with the goal of raising funds to help animals in the earthquake-stricken country and to provide direct aid to animals once ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Jan 2010 | 6:24 pm

UK to smooth biodiversity path

Ingredients of a new deal on protecting global biodiversity are set to be decided this week at a meeting in London.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Jan 2010 | 5:50 pm

A taste of things to come

We've been away for a few weeks but the Science Weekly team is poised to bring you right up to date with all the news stories that broke while we were away.

It's a show that stars Neanderthals in makeup, nanotechnology and trouble at the Royal Institution.

Alok is joined in the studio by environment correspondent David Adam and Observer science correspondent Robin McKie.

Perhaps the biggest science news of the year so far has been the revelation that four-legged creatures were walking on land 18m years earlier than anyone expected.

Emma Townshend has written a book entitled Darwin's Dogs. She explains to Andy Duckworth how dog breeding may have helped shape Charles Darwin's thinking about natural selection.

Finally we take a look at the year – and the decade – ahead. Will there be Earth-shattering discoveries at the Large Hadron Collider? Where next for disappointed environmentalists? And what will Obama's leadership mean for Nasa?

Post your comments below.

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Subscribe free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Jan 2010 | 5:05 pm

Biologist prepares to film black bear giving birth in wild for the first time

Lynn Rogers sets up camera outside den in Minnesota woods to film Lily the bear give birth to her first cub

For a bear living deep in the woods in Minnesota, Lily is about to have a very public delivery of her first cub.

Lynn Rogers of the Wildlife Research Institute has rigged up a webcam at the entrance of the bear's den, ready to capture the first footage of a bear giving birth in the wild.

Anticipation of the happy event — which could occur any day now — had already gained Lily the bear more than 18,000 friends on her Facebook page by Friday morning.

The project, undertaken with documentary maker Doug Hajicek, marks the culmination of Rogers' years spent trying to get close to black bear in their native habitats and observe their behaviour.

In Lily's case, it was almost natural to have Rogers at the birth.

She is the daughter of Rogers's most trusting research subject – June – and he has watched her since her own birth. A BBC film about Rogers' work last year, Bearwalker of the North Woods, showed the bear patting Rogers. "We have known Lily since she was a cub. When the litter was born I spent many hours with a videocamera to the entrance of her den."

Lily is now three years old – the normal age for a bear to first give birth. It is not entirely certain she is, or was ever, pregnant.

But Rogers – who visited Lily in her den on January 11 and has been watching her on the webcam – says there are some suggestions she might be in the advanced stages of pregnancy.

"What I am seeing is a lot of re-arranging of the bedding, a lot of licking of her nipples and her genitals," he said. "Yesterday she was intensely licking the bedding."

However, he was equally concerned about a pregnancy loss. Bear pregnancies are delicate events, and he feared Lily's den might have been disturbed by fishermen.

Whatever happens, years spent trying to gain Lily's confidence means that it will likely be captured on the webcam.

The familiarity helped Rogers and Hajicek rig up equipment at the entrance to Lily's den. "The camera is right here," he said. "Between putting the big clunky camera in and the cameraman standing behind me, it scared Lily. She got up and left the den."

The pair moved away, and Lily eventually returned. "Another bear would have left the den and taken off through the woods," Rogers said.

He said he hopes the publicity will help cure the public of their distrust of black bears. "A lot of people are falling in love with her."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Jan 2010 | 5:05 pm

Firsthand account of Newton's falling apple goes online

Royal Society publishes memoirs of William Stukeley, 18th century author with firsthand account of scientist's discovery

It is the most famous apple in science. The fruit that bounced from Sir Isaac Newton's head, as he pondered the universe in his orchard, supposedly inspired the great scientist to develop his theory of gravity. Unfortunately, like so many tempting tales, this one is not quite true.

Now, anyone who wants to study the best original source of one of science's key insights can do so. The Royal Society is making available online for the first time a 100-page manuscript by the physician William Stukeley, who wrote the Memoirs of Newton's Life.

"After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank tea, under the shade of some apple trees," wrote Stukeley, in the papers published in 1752 and previously available only to academics. "He told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasion'd by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself."

Keith Moore, the Royal Society's head of library and archives, said: "Scholars know where the apple story comes from, and clearly it's an anecdote Newton polished. What we want is for the public to see the manuscript itself. It wasn't just Newton that polished it, succeeding generations put a gloss on it as well – that story just humanises him just a little bit."

The manuscript is one of seven documents to go online as part of the Royal Society's 350th anniversary celebrations. Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society, said other treasures from the archives were also being published online.

Robert Iliffe, editorial director for the Newton Project, based at Sussex University, said that Stukeley had some of the best known insider knowledge of Newton's foibles, such as the great man's forgetfulness. "There's a story in the book of Newton leading a horse up a hill just outside Grantham and he's reading a book with his left hand at the same time," he said. "When he gets to the top of the hill he finds out that, as he's been reading the book, the horse has long bolted."

The Stukeley papers include stories from Newton's childhood; one is about how he built a model of a windmill, based on a full-scale one near his Grantham home. Unimpressed by his own wind-driven machine he went on to build a fully functional version – powered by a mouse. "Isaac was not content with this bare imitation. His sp[iri]t prompted him to go beyond his prototype...He could put a mouse into it wh[ich] worked it as naturally as the wind. Thus he used to style his mouse-miller & complain'd jokingly what a thief he was; for he ate up all the corn put into the mill."

Other documents released by the Royal Society today include drawings of English wildflowers by Richard Waller, anatomical drawings based on early dissections of the human body and sketches of fossil trilobites made by Sir Henry James around 1843. "[Waller's drawings] deserve to be better known — they're a record of a scientist trying to grasp how botanical specimens should be shown," said Moore. "Waller was tremendously interested in how to reproduce colour, which was very advanced for the period."

There are also important historical documents. "Fellows of the Royal Society in the early days weren't just scientists as we define them now, they were interested in all kinds of things. John Locke, who is well known these days as a philosopher, was a fellow and [in 1681] was involved in drafting a constitutional document for one of the American colonies, the Carolinas. We thought that we would reproduce that so that people in the US could see it," said Moore.

The Royal Society holds more than 250,000 manuscripts and pieces of paper in its archives, and today's publication is the start of an attempt to make all of that available one day. "This is just a baby step towards bringing our archives to a wider public," said Moore.

"The manuscripts are of worldwide importance and we hold these things in trust for the international scene."

Further events this year to mark the Royal Society's anniversary will include public lectures and debates, collaborations with artists and performers, and a nine-day science exhibition at London's South Bank in the summer.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Jan 2010 | 5:05 pm

Chavez says U.S. occupying Haiti in name of aid (Reuters)

Reuters - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Sunday accused the United States of using the earthquake in Haiti as a pretext to occupy the devastated Caribbean country and offered to send fuel from his OPEC nation.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Jan 2010 | 4:40 pm

Point of no return

Hilary Benn on halting the decline in world biodiversity
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Jan 2010 | 4:02 pm

Support Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial by Searching the Internet

Construction recently began on the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution. (Image: MLK at a press conference. Photo taken by Marion Trikosko in 1964. Credit: Library of Congress) If all goes as planned, the ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Jan 2010 | 3:46 pm

Chile, once Latin America's economic model, now overtaken by Brazil (The Christian Science Monitor)

The Christian Science Monitor - For two decades, Chile was the “teacher’s pet” of Latin America, the student who always brought home straight A’s.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Jan 2010 | 3:45 pm

Why coastal oil spills can pollute for decades: study (AFP)

AFP - Oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill that devastated Alaska's Prince William Sound still lies trapped beneath its beaches, continuing to pollute once pristine shores, scientists reported Sunday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Jan 2010 | 2:14 pm

Twisted Physics: Scientists Create Light Knots (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Like your shoelaces or electrical cords, light can get twisted into knots. Now, scientists have used a computer-controlled hologram and theoretical physics to turn a light beam into pretzel-like shapes.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Jan 2010 | 11:10 am

Twisted Physics: Scientists Create Light Knots

Knots of light created in the lab, implications for laser devices.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Jan 2010 | 11:01 am

DNA sweep finds new genes linked to diabetes (AFP)

AFP - Hundreds of scientists sifting through genetic data from 122,000 people have quintupled the number of gene variants known to boost the risk of diabetes, a pair of studies released Sunday reported.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Jan 2010 | 10:14 am

BBC put contract to provide weather forecast out to tender for first time

Met Office's 87-year role at risk as reputation tainted by botched predictions

The Met Office risks losing its lucrative deal to provide weather forecasts to the BBC after the corporation decided to put the contract out for tender for what is believed to be the first time since 1923, it emerged today.

The decision to invite rival forecasters to bid for the contract comes during a difficult spell for the Met Office, which is under fire following a series of botched predictions. The service's long-range forecast was of an "odds-on barbecue summer", which ended up sodden. Last week it failed to anticipate heavy snowfall in the south-east that brought traffic to a standstill. While it issued a forecast in autumn proclaiming that this winter would be mild, with the chances of a cold winter less than 15%, rival forecasters correctly predicted colder than normal weather. The Met Office, which is owned by the Ministry of Defence, has held the contract to provide the BBC's weather since the service began broadcasting, a BBC spokesman said.

"We have always worked with the Met Office - in 1923 they started doing radio broadcasts for us," he said.

All 24 of the BBC's weather presenters are trained meteorologists provided by the Met Office. Their jobs could be in jeopardy if the contract is awarded to a rival forecaster, as well as those of a number of other Met Office employees dedicated to the BBC service. The Sunday Times reported yesterday that the Met Office contract with the BBC expires in April and the broadcaster has begun talks with Metra, the national forecaster for New Zealand, as a possible alternative. The BBC put the contract out to tender to ensure "best value for money", but its timing coincides with a storm over the Met Office's accuracy.

Metra already produces graphics for the BBC, including the 3D map that made some viewers feel sick when it was introduced in 2005. Weather Commerce, Metra's UK subsidiary, has usurped the Met Office in supplying forecasts to Tesco, Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose. Retailers use forecasts to make sales predictions and for weather-related distribution issues.

Employees at Weather Commerce were under instruction not to speak to the media, but a source close to Metra told the Sunday Times: "The BBC is not happy with the service it has been getting from the Met Office; it thinks it's too expensive. We can provide a bespoke service that will undercut it. Because we already produce the graphics we've got a foot in the door, so we're optimistic."

The BBC would not confirm why they had decided to put the contract out to tender, nor whether they had invited other forecasters to bid in the past.

In a statement, the corporation said: "The contract for the supply of the weather services to the BBC expires this year and we are considering various options relating to provision of these services. It is common practice to look at the options … to ensure we get best value for money."

A spokesman for the Met Office said: "There has been renegotiation regularly. But whether it has been done as a competitive tender [before], I'm not sure."

Asked how confident the Met Office was that the contract would be renewed, another spokesman said: "We hope we can continue the successful relationship."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Jan 2010 | 10:13 am

NASA listens for silent Mars lander (AP)

AP - Will Phoenix rise from the dead? Don't bet on it.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Jan 2010 | 9:01 am

Birds 'breathe like alligators'

Alligators and birds share a breathing mechanism that may have helped their ancestors dominate Earth in Triassic times.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Jan 2010 | 8:02 am

Greenroads

Of course: apply the same sustainability paradigm to bridges and roads that we've applied to buildings. Roads may not be as sexy as buildings, but they represent miles of opportunity to improve the way we use resources, to improve the ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Jan 2010 | 6:36 am

Keeping the Midlands bling

This massive hoard of Anglo-Saxon has put Mercia back on the archeological map. We must do all we can to keep it there

Yesterday, David Starkey coined the phrase "gangland bling" to describe the vast hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold, mostly of a military nature, that was unearthed in a field in Staffordshire in July last year. He was speaking at the launch this week of The Art Fund's campaign to raise £3.3m to save these bejewelled and glistening items of gold and silver by 17 April, so that the story of the ancient region of Mercia can begin to be told. It is vital that the hoard can be assured a permanent home in the West Midlands, where it was found.

As soon as the news of the find broke in September, it instantly seemed to capture the imagination of the nation. Queues around the block were reported on a daily basis during the 19 days that items were displayed at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, prior to the hoard's valuation, and over 40,000 people were able to see the astonishing treasure that had lain underground for 1,500 years.

There is no doubt about it – the Staffordshire hoard is a unique discovery. No hoard of gold and silver objects from this period has ever emerged before. The earlier, notable discoveries have been grave burials such as the find at Sutton Hoo of 1939. The actual objects found in the hoard are most unusual as there is virtually no trace of anything that would have been used by women; it is almost exclusively what might be termed "war-gear". The treasure includes numerous precious fittings from the hilts of swords and other trophies from the battleground, as well as crosses and religious artefacts. Bling indeed, but distinguished and deeply evocative too.

Who did it belong to and how did it come to be buried in that field? At present we can only speculate. Perhaps the treasure belonged to an invading army who were defeated by the Mercians, or perhaps it was part of an armoury built up over a longer period of time. We just don't know, but what we now have is a golden opportunity to find out – and to deepen radically our understanding of Anglo-Saxon history. Before, much of what we knew about this period was focused on Kent and East Anglia, but now Mercia is centre stage – and the study and conservation of the hoard will begin to unlock the region's history in wholly new dimensions.

One thing is for certain, though: this is great news for the West Midlands. With so many people having pressed to see the hoard in the few days it was shown in Birmingham, no one doubts that the West Midlands is the region that should own and treasure the hoard for good. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent are bidding jointly to acquire it.

The collection, which is so deeply rooted in local history, must remain in context in the West Midlands. Regional museums are of incomparable importance – economically, culturally, educationally and socially. They provide regions with a wealth of history and heritage, and are integral to telling the story of a region's identity. This is why we must seize the opportunity to save the hoard for the West Midlands.

However, the success of the campaign is by no means a foregone conclusion. If the £3.3m cannot be raised, ultimately the landowner and finder of the hoard would be free to split it up and sell it on the open market. The Art Fund has kick-started the campaign with an initial grant of £300,000 towards the acquisition, and Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent city councils have each given £100,000 – bringing the total raised so far to £500,000. But there is a very long way to go before the hoard can be considered saved for the nation.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Jan 2010 | 6:00 am

Israeli minister visits Abu Dhabi for first time (AP)

AP - Israel for the first time sent a Cabinet minister to the United Arab Emirates, a small Gulf country with which it doesn't have relations, to attend a conference on alternative energy.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Jan 2010 | 4:59 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - A storm that has soaked areas of the Southeast will continue to do so on Sunday, as a low pressure system makes its way northeastward into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Jan 2010 | 3:03 am