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Research on global 'sun block' needed now, experts argueInternationally coordinated research and field-testing on "geoengineering" the planet's atmosphere to limit risk of climate change should begin soon along with building international governance, scientists argue.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Birds follow their noses during migrationBirds largely rely on their sense of smell to navigate on their long migration routes. Indeed, the “third sense” has been shown to be a more important for them than orientation based on the sun and the earth’s magnetic field. Exactly how birds navigate on their migration routes has not yet been fully clarified. How does a bird develop an “internal map”? How does it find its way back to last year’s nest?Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Treating depression by stimulating brain's pleasure centerEven with the best of available treatments, over a third of patients with depression may not achieve a satisfactory antidepressant response. Deep brain stimulation (DBS), a form of targeted electrical stimulation in the brain via implanted electrodes, is now undergoing careful testing to determine whether it could play a role in the treatment of patients who have not sufficiently improved during more traditional forms of treatment.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Researchers develop new tool for gene deliveryResearchers have developed a new tool to deliver DNA in gene therapy. DNA delivered to the retina with a peptide called PEG-POD was expressed 215 times more efficiently than delivery of DNA alone. The finding highlights PEG-POD as a tool for non-viral gene therapy treatments for eye disorders such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Pomegranate extract stimulates uterine contractionsScientists have found that a naturally occurring steroid, present in pomegranate seed, could be used to stimulate uterine contractions.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Star shoots out material at close to the speed of lightAstronomers studying a stellar explosion (known as SN 2007gr) have found long-sought evidence that certain types of supernovae produce 'relativistic' jets of particles, traveling at more than half the speed of light.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm Antioxidants aren't always good for you and can impair muscle function, study showsAntioxidants increasingly have been praised for their benefits against disease and aging, but recent studies show that they also can cause harm. Researchers have been studying how to improve oxygen delivery to the skeletal muscle during physical activity by using antioxidants. Their findings show that sometimes antioxidants can impair muscle function.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Color of dinosaur feathers identifiedThe color of some feathers on dinosaurs and early birds has been identified for the first time. The research found that the theropod dinosaur Sinosauropteryx had simple bristles -- precursors of feathers -- in alternate orange and white rings down its tail, and that the early bird Confuciusornis had patches of white, black and orange-brown colouring. Future work will allow precise mapping of colours and patterns across the whole bird.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Reduced fertility linked to flame retardant exposureA new study finds that women with higher blood levels of PBDEs, a common type of flame retardant, took longer to get pregnant. The flame retardants are used in foam furniture, electronics, fabrics, carpets, plastics and other common items in the home.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Lost Roman law code discovered in LondonPart of an ancient Roman law code previously thought to have been lost forever has been discovered. The breakthrough was made after piecing together 17 fragments of previously incomprehensible parchment.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am The nation's weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 3:14 am World Bank wants tiger farms shut (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 3:06 am Earth WatchWhy biodiversity might not be so cuddly after allSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 Jan 2010 | 2:43 am Mexico: Maya tomb find could help explain collapse (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 2:41 am Quantum Computer Simulates Hydrogen Molecule Just Right
Almost three decades ago, Richard Feynman — known popularly as much for his bongo drumming and pranks as for his brilliant insights into physics — told an electrified audience at MIT how to build a computer so powerful that its simulations “will do exactly the same as nature.”
Now, finally, groups at Harvard and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, have designed and built a computer that hews closely to these specs. It is a quantum computer, as Feynman forecast. And it is the first quantum computer to simulate and calculate the behavior of a molecular, quantum system.
Much has been written about how such computers would be paragons of calculating power should anybody learn to build one that is much more than a toy. And this latest one is at the toy stage, too. But it is just the thing for solving some of the most vexing problems in science, the ones that Feynman had in mind when he said “nature” — those problems involving quantum mechanics itself, the system of physical laws governing the atomic scale. Inherent to quantum mechanics are seeming paradoxes that blur the distinctions between particles and waves, portray all events as matters of probability rather than deterministic destiny, and under which a given particle can exist in a state of ambiguity that makes it potentially two or more things, or in two or more places, at once. Reporting online January 10 in Nature Chemistry, the Harvard group, led by chemist Alán Aspuru-Guzik, developed the conceptual algorithm and schematic that defined the computer’s architecture. Aspuru-Guzik has been working on such things for years but didn’t have the hardware to test his ideas. At the University of Queensland, physicist Andrew G. White and his team, who have been working on such sophisticated gadgets, said they thought they could make one to the Harvard specs and, after some collaboration, did so. In principle the computer could have been rather small, “about the size of a fingernail,” White says. But his group spread its components across a square meter of lab space to make it easier to adjust and program. Within its filters and polarizers and beam splitters, just two photons at a time traveled simultaneously, their particle-like yet wavelike natures playing peek-a-boo in clouds of probability just as quantum mechanics says they should. Quantum computing’s power stems from the curiosity that a qubit — a bit of quantum information — is not limited to holding a single discrete binary number, 1 or 0, as is the bit of standard computing. Qubits exist in a limbo of uncertainty, simultaneously 1 and 0. Until the computation is done and a detector measures the value, that very ambiguity allows greater speed and flexibility as a quantum computer searches multiple permutations at once for a final result. Plus, not only do the photons have this mix of quantum identities, a state formally called superposition, they are also entangled. Entanglement is another feature of quantum mechanics in which the properties of two or more superposed particles are correlated with one another. It is the superposition of superpositions, in which the state of one is connected to the state of the other despite the particles’ separation in distance. Entanglement further increases the ability of a quantum computer to explore simultaneously all possible solutions to a complex problem. But with just two photons as its qubits, the new quantum computer could not tackle quantum behavior involving more than two objects. So, the researchers asked it to calculate the energy levels of the hydrogen molecule, the simplest one known. Other methods have long revealed the answer, providing a check on the accuracy of doing it with qubits. Corresponding to the two wavelike photons rattling fuzzily along in the computer, the hydrogen molecule has two wavelike electrons chemically binding its two nuclei — each a single proton. Led by first author to the paper Benjamin Lanyon, who is now at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, the Queensland team programmed the equations that govern how electrons behave near protons into the machine by tweaking the arrangement of filters, wavelength shifters and other optical components in the computer. Each such piece of optical hardware corresponded to the logic gates that add, subtract, integrate and otherwise manipulate binary data in a standard computer. The researchers then entered initial “data” corresponding to the distance between the molecule’s nuclei — a driver of what energies the electrons might be able to take on when the molecule is excited by an outside influence. The photons are each given a precise angle of polarization — the orientation of the electric and magnetic components of their fields —and for one of the photons the angle was chosen to correspond to that datum. On the first run of a calculation, the second photon then shared this datum via its entanglement with the first and, going at the speed of light, emerged from the machine with the first digit of the answer. In an iteration process, that digit was then used as data for another run, producing the second digit — a process followed for 20 rounds. By following — some would say simulating — the same weird physics as do the electrons of atomic bonds themselves, the computer’s photons got the permitted energy correct to within six parts per million. “Every time you add an electron or other object to a quantum problem, the complexity of the problem doubles,” says James Whitfield, a graduate student at Harvard and second author on the paper. “The great thing,” he added, “is that every time you add a qubit to the computer, its power doubles too.” In formal language, the power of a quantum computer scales exponentially with its size (as in number of qubits) in exact step with the size of quantum problems. In fact, says his professor, Aspuru-Guzik, a computer of “only” 150 qubits or so would have more computing power than all the supercomputers in the world today, combined. Whitfield is near completion of his studies to be a theoretical chemist. A goal is, eventually, to be able to calculate the energy levels and reaction levels of complex molecules with scores or even hundreds of electrons binding them together. Even in problems with just four or five electrons, the challenge of computation by standard means has grown so exponentially fast that standard computers cannot handle it. The work is “great, a proof of principle, more evidence that this stuff is not pie in the sky or cannot be built,” says a University of California, Berkeley chemistry professor, Bergitta Whaley. “It is the first time that a quantum computer has been used to calculate a molecular energy level.” And while most of the publicity for quantum computers has marveled at the potential power to break immense numbers into their factors — a key to breaking secret codes and thus a possibility with national security implication — “this has major implications for practical uses with very broad application,” Whaley says. These uses might include the ability, without trial and error, to design complex chemical systems and advanced materials with properties never before seen. Scaling it up to five, 10 or hundreds of qubits will not be easy. In the end, photons as qubits are unlikely because of the difficulty of entangling and monitoring so many of them. Electrons, simulated atoms called quantum dots, ionized atoms or other such particles may eventually form the blurry hearts of quantum computers. How long from now? “I’d say less than 50 years, but more than 10,” says White. In a striking bit of symmetry to go with using a quantum computer to solve a quantum problem, the latest work resonates with Feynman’s original idea in another way. At that talk at MIT — published in 1982 in the International Journal of Physics — Feynman not only suggested the basis for such a computer, he also drew a little picture of one. It included two little blocks of the semi-transparent mineral calcite to control and measure the photons’ polarizations. Looking at the diagram of the device built recently by the Queensland team reveals, sure enough, two “calcite beam displacers.” Whatever shade of Richard Feynman flickers still in the entanglements of the universe, and were it made to collapse into something corporeal, perhaps it would be smiling. Image: Benjamin Lanyon See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 28 Jan 2010 | 1:45 am N.Zealand probes whaling crash: crew member (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 1:33 am Egypt's fertile Nile Delta falls prey to climate change (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 1:07 am India plans first manned space flight in 2016 (AP)AP - India's space agency is planning the nation's first manned space flight for 2016, if it gets government approval of the project budget, an official said Thursday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 12:38 am Obama sticks to climate before divided Congress (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 Jan 2010 | 12:07 am Virginia senators slam delay in offshore drilling (Reuters)Reuters - Virginia's two U.S. senators on Wednesday urged the Obama administration to carry out a previous plan to lease almost 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) in federal waters off the state's coastline to oil and natural gas companies.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Jan 2010 | 8:55 pm Dinosaurs' Last Stand Found in China?The largest dinosaur bone bed in the world may have been the glorious creatures' last stand. Researchers say they can't understand why so many animals gathered in what is today the city of Zhucheng to die. But some 15,000 bones ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Jan 2010 | 8:40 pm NASA astronaut to donate flag to NYC 9/11 memorial (AP)AP - An astronaut is donating an American flag that traveled aboard the NASA space shuttle Atlantis to New York City in honor of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Jan 2010 | 7:55 pm Climate row unit 'broke data law'A university involved in a row over stolen e-mails breached rules by withholding data, the Information Commissioner says.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Jan 2010 | 7:52 pm The RSPB's annual Big Garden Birdwatch beginsThe Big Garden Birdwatch, the world's largest wildlife survey, is launched by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Jan 2010 | 6:07 pm NASA sets shuttle launch with future in doubtCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA managers on Wednesday settled on February 7 to kick off their final year of shuttle flights, uncertain about what programs will follow.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Jan 2010 | 5:24 pm Genetic contribution to human behaviour is substantialIn his latest rant against genetics, Oliver James either does not understand, or wilfully misunderstands, the genetic basis of neurobiology, and purposefully overlooks huge swathes of scientific literature (Nature v nurture – what are the latest genetic findings, 23 January). Despite the enormous complexity of the human genome, geneticists are continuing to reveal many DNA changes that explain disorders such as learning disability and autism. These changes are often private to each individual. This tells us that different parts of the human genome can be disrupted independently in people with a single disease: there are likely to be many dozens, possibly hundreds, of "autism genes", for example. It is, indeed, "extremely unlikely that there are single genes for major mental illnesses such as schizophrenia" but this does not indicate that genetics play no part. Like the brain itself, the genetic contribution to behaviour is complex. This is not a "fallback position", but a straightforward and dispassionate appraisal of the facts. Far from having "to admit defeat", geneticists have begun to disperse the fog that has enveloped genetic disease. Their new insights should ensure that unwarranted pronouncements of fault are not levelled at parents who produce anyone other than a "normal" child. Chris Ponting Medical research council and professor of genomics, University of Oxford Kevin Talbot Reader in the department of neurology, University of Oxford 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 | 27 Jan 2010 | 5:05 pm NASA Aims to Launch Space Shuttle on Feb. 7 (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - NASA has set a firm early February launch date for the space shuttle Endeavour to deliver a brand-new room and observation portal to the International Space Station.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 Jan 2010 | 5:00 pm Evolution Shrank Some Primates’ Brains
Primate brains have not always gotten bigger as they evolved, according to new research. The findings challenge the controversial argument that Homo floresiensis, also known as the hobbit, had a tiny, chimp-sized brain because of disease. “It was assumed that brain sizes generally get bigger through primate evolution,” said Nick Mundy, a Cambridge University evolutionary geneticist and lead author of the study. While that may be true for most primates, “we find very strong evidence in several lineages that brain sizes actually have gotten smaller.”
The paper, which appears Jan. 27 in Biomed Central, analyzed brain size and body mass from 37 current and 23 extinct primate species and used three different models to reconstruct how the brain evolved. Though its not clear why smaller brains would be advantageous to some species, the brain’s voracious energy consumption may have played a role, Mundy speculated. If food was scarce, it may have been better to sacrifice intelligence to use less energy.
The findings are more fodder for the debate about the mysterious H. floresiensis, a 3-foot-tall hominid discovered in a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003. Some have argued these “hobbits” were a distinct species, while others say they were simply stunted, sickly Homo sapiens. In the second line of reasoning, the hominids may have suffered from cretinism, a pituitary gland disease that leads to stunted growth and small brains. Part of this camp’s argument was that the hobbits’ miniscule brain was too small to make evolutionary sense, Mundy said. “We’ve just applied the reduction in brain size that we see across the rest of the primate phylogeny to the case of the Flores man,” he said. “Under reasonable assumptions, it does look plausible that this brain-size massive reduction could have occurred.” Some scientists argue that there’s no need to rely on either evolutionary brain shrinkage or pathology to account for the short stature of the hobbits. “Arguments for H. flo being somehow pathological (one syndrome or another) have been totally refuted,” Peter Brown wrote in an e-mail. Brown, a paleoanthropologist at the University of New England in New South Wales, Australia, first discovered the hobbit skeletons. What’s more, evidence suggests the diminutive island dwellers left Africa more than 1.8 million years ago, and ”probably arrived on Flores already small-brained and small-bodied,” he wrote. In addition, their skeletal and dental features most resemble the tiny-brained Australopithecus or Homo habilis. So, the brain of H. floresiensis could have started out small and stayed that way, rather than shrinking through evolution. Images: 1) Pygmy marmoset. jwm_angrymonkey/flickr Citation: “Reconstructing the ups and downs of primate brain evolution: Implications for adaptive hypotheses and Homo floresiensis,” Stephen H Montgomery, Isabella Capellini , Robert A Barton, Nicholas I Mundy, BMC Biology, 27 January 2010. See Also:
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Source: Wired: Wired Science | 27 Jan 2010 | 5:00 pm University in hacked climate change emails row broke FOI rules• Too late to take action, says deputy commissioner The University of East Anglia flouted Freedom of Information regulations in its handling of requests for data from climate sceptics, according to the government body that administers the act. In a statement, the deputy information commissioner Graham Smith said emails between scientists at the university's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) that were hacked and placed on the internet in November revealed that FOI requests were "not dealt with as they should have been under the legislation". Some of the hacked emails reveal scientists encouraging their colleagues to delete emails, apparently to prevent them from being revealed to people making FOI requests. Such a breach of the act could carry an unlimited fine, but Smith said no action could be taken against the university because the specific request they had looked at happened in May 2008, well outside the six-month limit for such prosecutions under the act. The hacked emails have created an international argument that has fuelled climate scepticism and led to questions about the operation of the UN's climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The circumstances surrounding the hacking and the actions of the scientists are the subject of an independent inquiry commissioned by the university and headed by Sir Muir Russell, formerly a civil servant and principal and vice chancellor of Glasgow University. The pronouncement by the Information Commissioner's Office is likely to carry significant weight with the inquiry. The illegal hack is separately also being investigated by Norfolk police. "I think that is an extremely serious charge," said Phil Willis, the Liberal Democrat MP who chairs the parliamentary science and technology select committee, which is conducting its own inquiry. He said that Smith's statement would be investigated by both the select committee and Russell's inquiry. "I don't think you can have the inquiry unless you have all the issues relating to it out in the open." Willis said it would be wrong if there could be no legal sanction had the FOI act been breached. "Given the seriousness of this issue, the fact that it has caused global consternation, and has given ammunition to the climate sceptics – to have such a serious breach and for there to be no recourse in law requires urgent attention by the government." He urged the university to be open with the data that was being requested. "If there has been a breach in this situation then the most honourable thing for the university to do would be to honour the request in its totality with all speed," said Willis. Smith's statement refers to an FOI request from a retired engineer and climate sceptic in Northampton called David Holland. The CRU had been bombarded with similar requests for data, and the hacked emails between scientists suggest they were extremely frustrated with having to deal with them. In response to the request, Dr Caspar Ammann, a scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, wrote back to three scientists, including the CRU's director, Dr Phil Jones: "Oh MAN! Will this crap ever end??" In his statement, Smith said that Holland's request was not dealt with correctly by the university. "The emails which are now public reveal that Mr Holland's requests under the Freedom of Information Act were not dealt with as they should have been under the legislation. Section 77 of the Freedom of Information Act makes it an offence for public authorities to act so as to prevent intentionally the disclosure of requested information." But he added that it was now too late to take action because the legislation requires that sanctions are imposed within six months of the offence. "The ICO is gathering evidence from this and other time-barred cases to support the case for a change in the law. It is important to note that the ICO enforces the law as it stands – we do not make it." He said he would be advising UEA on its legal obligations. "We will also be studying the investigation reports [by Sir Muir Russell and Norfolk police], and we will then consider what regulatory action, if any, should then be taken under the Data Protection Act." Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham research institute on climate Change and the environment at the London School of Economics, said: "I think that anybody reading the emails that have been posted online will have concluded that some of those showed an intention to avoid complying with the FOI. I always thought that those emails were the most damning. "I think this is quite damaging. It remains to be seen why these requests were not handled properly. I think regardless of any action by the information commissioner, the university should clearly take appropriate action in response to this." A spokesperson for the University of East Anglia said that it was not aware of Smith's statement. "The way Freedom of Information requests have been handled is one of the main areas being explored by Sir Muir Russell's independent review. We have already made clear that the findings of the review will be made public and that we will act as appropriate on its recommendations," she said. 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 | 27 Jan 2010 | 3:26 pm Astronomers spy a distant black hole with a giant companionAstronomers detect a stellar-sized black hole much further away than any such object previously known.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Jan 2010 | 1:49 pm New Discovery News Widget for Yahoo!Can't get enough of Discovery News? Want to keep your eye on the cutting edge of sci-tech reporting? If you do, you'll be excited to hear that we've launched a Discovery News module that you can add to the "My ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Jan 2010 | 1:41 pm Mid-life Crisis: An Outdated Myth?The stereotype of the mid-life crisis may be an outdated myth, scientists say.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Jan 2010 | 1:17 pm Serving Society by Studying Shifting SoilPresidential award winner studies soil properties to help plan buildings, bridges.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Jan 2010 | 1:16 pm Skin cells transformed directly to nerve in studyWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers have transformed ordinary mouse skin cells directly into neurons, bypassing the need for stem cells or even stemlike cells and greatly speeding up the field of regenerative medicine.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Jan 2010 | 1:16 pm Shoes may have changed how we runWearing cushioned running shoes may have changed the way in which many of us run, new research suggests.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Jan 2010 | 1:07 pm Runaway CO2 rise 'could be lower'The feedback between CO2 level and temperature may be too high, but overall temperature predictions are not affected.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Jan 2010 | 1:03 pm Dinosaurs show their true coloursFlesh-eating dinosaur sported a mohican-style crest and a racoon-like tail with alternating russet and white stripes, say researchers Scientists have recreated the colourful plumage of some of the earliest dinosaurs to grow feathers in research that shines fresh light on the evolution of the beasts. The flesh-eating Sinosauropteryx, which lived 125m years ago, sported a mohican-style crest on its head and a racoon-like tail marked with alternating russet and white stripes, researchers say. Paleontologists reconstructed the hues of the dinosaur's coat after discovering pigments preserved in fossilised remains of the creatures. It is the first time fossil hunters have known the true colours of a dinosaur. Scientists at Bristol University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing analysed fossils of Sinosauropteryx unearthed in the Jehol rock beds in northeast China. The rocks have been dated to between 131m and 120m years old. The knee-high Sinosauropteryx, a less fearsome cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex, stood on two legs and had an early version of feathers, made of bristles as long as a fingernail. The metre-long creature used its tail for balance when running. The colourful tail stripes led researchers to believe that feathers evolved primarily for ornamental reasons and only later became adapted for insulation and flight. Sinosauropteryx had short, muscular forearms and powerful claws to grasp prey. The creature fed on early lizards and cockroach-like insects that were plentiful in the Florida-like environment of the region. Its jaws were lined with tiny, sharp teeth used to pierce flesh. Professor Michael Benton, who led the study, examined the remains of bristles under an electron microscope and found tiny structures called melanosomes that contain melanin, a common pigment found in human skin. In modern birds and mammals, different kinds of melanosomes produce black, grey, orange and brown tones. Black colouration comes from sausage-shaped melanosomes, while spherical ones produce an orangey brown. Samples from Sinosauropteryx show its tail had bands of melanosomes which produced white and orange rings. The technique gives paleontologists a way of mapping the colours of feathers across the whole body of a dinosaur. "Two things we thought we would never know about dinosaurs were the noises they make and their colours. We've discovered evidence that can tell us for sure some aspects of colour in dinosaurs," Benton said. The research is published in the journal, Nature. In birds, bright colours are always associated with display, with the tail of the peacock being an extreme example. The colours are used to attract mates or to frighten off rivals or predators. "From the fact that Sinosauropteryx has a stripey tail, we would say that it's a display function," Benton said. "It's clearly not for flight because these are just short bristles. "What we don't know is how substantially the body was covered in feathers. The whole body may have been covered in feathers or maybe not. If it was not, then display is the primary purpose." The team also found melanosomes in the feathers of a primitive bird, Confuciusornis, recovered from the same rocks. Pigments in the feathers suggest it was covered in patches of black, white and brown. The pigments survived for millions of years because melanosomes are made from tough proteins that are hard to break down. The multicoloured plumages of modern birds are produced by a variety of pigments that are not as hardy as melanosomes. These pigments, which are responsible for flashes of red, purple and green in many birds, may have evolved in early dinosaurs but are too fragile to be preserved in fossils. "We're giving a minimum palette. There could be more colours, including flashes of purple and green, that we haven't been able to see," said Benton. The team plans next to look for arrangements of melanosomes that produce striking iridescent blues and greens in modern birds such as the kingfisher. Last year, scientists at Yale University in Connecticut studied iridescent colours in a 40m-year-old bird fossil. The wings changed from a metallic green to blue or copper depending on the viewing angle. Chances of determining the colour of scaly dinosaurs, like those depicted in the BBC series Walking With Dinosaurs, are slim, since skin and fur is not preserved in their fossils. 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 | 27 Jan 2010 | 12:38 pm Discovery News Yahoo! Module LaunchesCan't get enough of Discovery News? Want to keep your finger on the pulse of the cutting edge of sci-tech reporting? If you do, you'll be excited to hear that we've launched a Discovery News module that you can add ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Jan 2010 | 12:35 pm New Animations Take You Flying Over MarsA space-loving animator has created stunning flyovers of Mars from data captured by NASA’s HiRISE imager, which is mounted on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite. HiRISE creates detailed digital-elevation models. Crunch that data, add perspective and some cinematic effects, and you have the movies that Doug Ellison, founder of UnmannedSpaceflight.com, posted to YouTube this morning. The video at the top shows the Mojave Crater. The one below takes you flying through Athabasca Valles. Ellison said that both animations are rendered accurately from the data with no exaggerated scaling. Via Nancy Atkinson at Universe Today Videos: Doug Ellison. 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 | 27 Jan 2010 | 11:49 am ‘Bomb Detecting’ Dowsing Rod Demonstrates Danger of PseudoscienceThe New York Times recently reported on the arrest of Jim McCormick, head of a British company that supplied a device called ADE 651s, which he claimed detects hidden bombs. At least 800 of the detectors were purchased by the ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Jan 2010 | 11:39 am NASA Sends Airborne Radar to Map Haiti Faults in 3-D
NASA is sending a radar-equipped jet to Haiti to make 3-D maps of the deformation caused by the magnitude 7 earthquake on Jan. 21 and multiple aftershocks that continue to occur.
The Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar, or UAVSAR, was already scheduled to head to South America aboard a modified Gulfstream III to study volcanoes, forests and Mayan ruins. NASA added the island of Hisapaniola to the itinerary to help study faults in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. “UAVSAR will allow us to image deformations of Earth’s surface and other changes associated with post-Haiti earthquake geologic processes, such as aftershocks, earthquakes that might be triggered by the main earthquake farther down the fault line, and the potential for landslides,” JPL’s Paul Lundgren, the principal investigator for the Hispaniola overflights, said in a press release Wednesday.
“Because of Hispaniola’s complex tectonic setting, there is an interest in determining if the earthquake in Haiti might trigger other earthquakes at some unknown point in the future,” Lundgren said, “either along adjacent sections of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault that was responsible for the main earthquake, or on other faults in northern Hispaniola, such as the Septentrional fault.”
Since November 2009, the radar has been mapping the San Andreas and other major faults in California. The 3-D data will help scientists better understand the state’s seismic risk. UAVSAR works by sending microwaves to the ground from a pod under the aircraft flying at about 41,000 feet and recording the return signal. The differences in the times it takes waves to return from points on the ground to the plane gives information about the topography. By hitting the same target from different angles as the plane flighs overhead, a 3-D image can be made. Very precise details about ground motion can be calculated by flying over the same area later, giving scientists information about strain buildup on a fault. The Hispaniola data will be made public in a few weeks. The Dominican Republic flyovers could help scientists understand future earthquakes on the Septrional fault. Images: 1) NASA’s UAVSAR airborne radar will create 3-D maps of earthquake faults over wide swaths of Haiti (red shaded area) and the Dominican Republic (yellow shaded area)./NASA. 2) Dave Bullock/Wired.com See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 27 Jan 2010 | 11:31 am Dino's True Colors Revealed by Tail FeathersWhat do redheads and this meat-eating dinosaur have in common? Find out here.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Jan 2010 | 11:29 am Running barefoot may minimise injuriesRunning barefoot generates less impact shock making it more comfortable and minimising running-related injuries, study finds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 Jan 2010 | 11:11 am Running Shoes Changed How Humans RunRunning shoes may have changed the way people run, causing them to strike the ground with their heel first, a new study says.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Jan 2010 | 11:05 am Dinosaur had ginger feathersScientists reveal that the bristles of a small, 125-million-year-old dinosaur were in fact ginger-coloured feathers.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Jan 2010 | 11:04 am Dinosaur Sported Colorful FeathersFossils of feathers suggest some meat-eating dinosaurs had colorful feathers.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Jan 2010 | 11:02 am Trouser turn-up: level of men's waistband a clue to age• Waistband altitude a metaphor for life, declares Debenhams Middle age, it oft is said, is when your age starts to show around your middle. And for men, it seems, the moment is marked by the inexorable rise in the position of their trouser waistband. A survey shows that the last time most men are able to fasten their trousers around anything resembling a natural waist is at the age of 39. After that, the only way is up, or down. "Over achievers", as they are known in the rag trade, hoist their trousers so high by the age of 57 the waistband can be just 7in (17.8cm) under the armpit. The "under achievers", making up about 20%, plump for below, fumbling to fasten belts, buttons and zips they can no longer see. "The changing fortunes of a man's trouser waistband can often become a metaphor for his life," said Paul Baldwin, director of menswear buying for Debenhams, which commissioned the survey to chart the force of gravitational pull beneath the male midriff. Boys wear their trousers around their waist, the thinnest part of the body between the rib cage and hips, until the age of 12, because their parents buy their clothing for them, concluded the survey of 1,000 males. But waistbands plunge with the advent of teenage hormones, plummeting to 5in towards the apex of the hips, and far below the underpants position by the age of 16. Dressing for work sees a gradual upward creep between 16 and 20 years. By 27, the waistband starts returning to the natural waist, a position largely maintained until the age of 36, and influenced by factors such as career progression, marriage and impressing prospective in-laws. The critical turning point is 39 and the demise of the washboard stomach. And by 45 trousers will be worn at least 2in above the waist, rising to 5in by the age of 57. The frailties of old age bring some benefits. With 65-year-olds, waistbands are 3in above the waist, and for those aged 75 just an inch. Baldwin said the research would help designers produce better-fit trousers for men regardless of their age. "However, our hardest task continues to be persuading men to confront the fact that their trouser waistbands have risen. From our experience men still prefer to assume that their trousers no longer fit because their legs have suddenly grown." 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 | 27 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am Rain, Mudslides at Machu Picchu Strand TouristsDeadly landslides in Peru have claimed several lives and devastated the homes of thousands.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Jan 2010 | 10:35 am U.S. general urges world war on space debrisHERZLIYA, Israel (Reuters) - World powers must find ways to reduce the amount of debris in orbit, as the collision risk it poses to spacecraft is increasing, the head of the U.S. Strategic Command said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Jan 2010 | 10:06 am India manned space trip 'by 2016'India's space agency will launch its first manned mission to space in 2016, officials say.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Jan 2010 | 9:58 am Haiti's Children Face Long-Term StruggleHomeless and often orphaned, Haiti's smallest survivors may pose the biggest humanitarian challenge following the devastating earthquake.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Jan 2010 | 9:20 am Penises and caustic soda: the case of the Cambridge antiquitiesThe antiquities gallery at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge reopens to the public on Saturday – with some fascinating stories In the Greek and Roman gallery in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge – Unless, that is, you happen to take more than a cursory view at the According to conservator Christina Rozeik, who has been working with The pot was once owned by the collectors Charles Ricketts and Charles They amassed a fine collection of antiquities that was later The flesh-coloured blotch is actually the trace of a rescue attempt on Nor is it a question of simply removing Ricketts' work and having a The question of the blotchy genitals is a very modern conservation The Ricketts-Shannon collection in the Fitzwilliam includes about 100 Not all the pieces are as controversial as the smudged-penis kalyx; For instance, a miniature bronze statuette of a Roman priest (known as The statuette was packed away with other precious items during the war The condition could have completely destroyed the object, so advice The up-to-the-minute cure for the condition – which would be regarded According to Beard: "The story of the object goes right up to now. It 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 | 27 Jan 2010 | 8:56 am In pictures: Wildlife of the Chagos islandsThe British Indian Ocean territory of the Chagos islands is the UK's greatest area of marine biodiversity, home to at least 220 coral species and more than 1,000 species of fish Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 Jan 2010 | 8:49 am People Born to Run -- BarefootRunning barefoot places far less impact stress on the feet than running in modern running shoes, a new study concludes.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Jan 2010 | 7:10 am 'Big freeze' makes this year's Big Garden Birdwatch more important than ever | Mark AveryBy taking part, you will be contributing valuable data that over the years has raised awareness of some shocking declines in garden bird numbers This weekend is the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch. We're we're asking you to count the birds that you see in your garden for one hour over the two days and let us know your results. At dawn or dusk, while you're eating your lunch or during a quiet hour in the afternoon - it doesn't matter when. This year the results should be even more interesting than usual, following the "big freeze". By taking part, you will be contributing valuable data that over the years has raised the alert about some shocking declines in garden bird numbers. In previous years the birdwatch has highlighted the massive reduction in numbers of song thrushes, house sparrows and starlings which we've subsequently been able to act upon and do our utmost to start reversing. And the survey has also given us happy news over the years, for example, showing increases in collared dove and blackcap numbers, which are beautiful additions to any garden. This year you can't have failed to come across recent reports about our fears for wildlife in the abnormally harsh and prolonged snowfall and we did all we could to raise the alert for the need for extra feeding. The public responded in droves as people stocked their feeders and put out leftovers to help. But inevitably we may see some large losses, especially among those species that aren't too well equipped for the cold even during a more "normal" winter. Many of the smaller-bodied birds will have had a particularly hard struggle, as they lose heat quicker. Wrens, robins, long-tailed tits and maybe even sparrows are likely to have been affected. However, opinions differ amongst RSPB staff as to whether the cold weather will have had a big impact or not - only you can settle the arguments. You don't have to be a bird expert to take part but I guarantee that you will become familiar with a whole range of birds by the time your hour is up. If you're not sure what you're seeing, take a look at this gallery of common garden birds and the RSPB's bird identifier which asks simple questions about size, colour and behaviour and makes suggestions on what you are seeing with pictures to help you choose. You'll be an expert before you know it. • Mark Avery is the RSPB's conservation director 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 | 27 Jan 2010 | 7:06 am U.S. sends NASA flights to study Haiti quake lineWASHINGTON (Reuters) - NASA will send surveillance flights over Haiti and the Dominican Republic to look for signs that more earthquakes may hit the area after a giant quake that killed as many as 200,000 people two weeks ago.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 Jan 2010 | 6:47 am New Theory of Primate Origins Sparks ControversyDramatic geological events may have driven the origin of primates.Source: Livescience.com | 27 Jan 2010 | 6:33 am Emotional signals cross culturesPeople are able to recognise negative sounds such as expressions of disgust across cultures, say scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Jan 2010 | 5:10 am Warming Stimulates Mountain Growth SpurtMountain climbers, take notice: You may need to take a few more steps to make it to the top.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Jan 2010 | 5:00 am Survivors Remember Auschwitz LiberationElderly survivors of Auschwitz gathered Wednesday at the site of the former death camp to mark the 65th anniversary of its liberation.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Jan 2010 | 4:51 am Climate sceptics distract us from the scientific realities of global warming | John CookIs the goal of climate sceptics to lead us into greater scientific truth – or merely to sow doubt about the temperature record? When you peruse the many sceptic arguments against man-made global warming, you find a tendency to focus on a narrow piece of the puzzle while ignoring the broader picture. This narrow focus serves as a useful distraction from the scientific realities of global warming. A recent example is the campaign to sow doubts about the US temperature record. To achieve this, an army of volunteers traversed the US photographing weather stations. Pictures were posted on surfacestations.org, showing weather stations positioned near heated buildings, air conditioners and other sources of artificial heat. Each new photo was greeted with a clucking of tongues and a sense of reaffirmation among sceptics that global warming was largely the product of suspect temperature data. "How do we know if global warming is a problem if we can't trust the temperature record?" asked Anthony Watts who runs the sceptic blog Wattsupwiththat. Never mind that the Greenland ice sheet is losing ice at an accelerating rate. That Antarctic ice loss is also accelerating, including east Antarctica which until late 2009 was thought too cold and stable to lose ice. Arctic sea ice is melting, sea levels are rising and glaciers are retreating. These and many other physical realities of global warming are well documented in the peer-reviewed literature. However, to some, the accumulated body of empirical data is no match against the persuasive power of a well-framed photograph. The photos were compiled into a single report by Watts and published by the Heartland Institute, a thinktank that funds climate sceptic activities. For good measure, infrared photos were included to visually drive the point home. Using the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's own classifications, Watts divided the weather stations into five categories. Well-sited stations, positioned well clear of roads, buildings and other heated surfaces, were given a rating one or two. Poorly sited stations, positioned in proximity to warming influences, were ratedthree, four or five. Most weather stations fell into the poorly sited categories. Watts suggested poor siting could contribute a warming of at least 1-5C to individual stations. The report concludes: We found stations located next to the exhaust fans of air conditioning units, surrounded by asphalt parking lots and roads, on blistering-hot rooftops, and near sidewalks and buildings that absorb and radiate heat ... The conclusion is inescapable: The US temperature record is unreliable. And since the US record is thought to be "the best in the world," it follows that the global database is likely similarly compromised and unreliable. The crucial question though is how much extra warming do poorly sited weather stations contribute to the temperature record? Unfortunately, no amount of photos will answer this question. The only solution is data analysis, calculating the temperature trends from poor sites compared with good sites. Curiously, Watt's report contained no such data analysis. While page after page of photos may be effective in sowing doubt about the temperature record, they offer no actual answers on the impact of poor siting. Finally this month, a peer-reviewed analysis of the temperature data was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. The paper used Watt's station ratings to split all US weather stations into two categories: good (rating one or two) and bad (ratings three, four or five). The analysis then compared the raw, unadjusted data from the good and bad sites. In typical peer-reviewed understatement, the results were described as "counterintuitive". They were in fact, a great surprise to many. Poorly sited weather stations actually show a cooler trend compared to the good sites. The cause of this cooling bias appears to have been a change in instruments. In the late 1980s, many sites converted from Cotton Region Shelters (CRS, otherwise known as Stevenson Screens) to electronic Maximum/Minimum Temperature Systems (MMTS). This had two effects. Firstly, MMTS sensors record lower daily maximums compared to their CRS counterparts. So the switch from CRS to MMTS sensors caused a cooling bias in certain stations. Secondly, the MMTS sensors were attached by cable to an indoor readout device. Limited by cable length, the MMTS weather stations were often located closer to buildings and other artificial sources of heat. This meant most of the stations with the newer MMTS sensors also happened to fall under poorly sited categories. The net result is that poor stations show an overall cooler trend compared with good stations. However, when the change from CRS to MMTS is taken into account in data adjustments, the trend from good sites show close agreement with poor sites. One might reasonably question whether the goal of surfacestations.org was to lead us into greater scientific truth or merely to sow doubt about the temperature record. Nevertheless, their efforts to rate each individual weather station enabled scientists to identify a cool bias in poor sites and isolate the cause. A net cooling bias was perhaps not the result the surfacestations.org volunteers were hoping for, but improving the quality of the surface temperature record is surely a result we should all appreciate. 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 | 27 Jan 2010 | 4:32 am Aliens can't hear us, says astronomerFainter broadcasting signals and digital switchover mean Earth will soon be undetectable to extraterrestrials Human beings are making it harder for extraterrestials to pick up our broadcasts and make contact, the world's leading expert on the search for alien life warned yesterday. At a special meeting on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (Seti), the US astronomer Frank Drake – who has been seeking radio signals from alien civilisations for almost 50 years – told scientists that earthlings were making it less likely they would be heard in space. Astronomers assumed that a standard technique for any alien intelligence trying to pinpoint other civilisations in the galaxy would involve seeking signals from TV, radio and radar broadcasts, Drake told the meeting at the Royal Society in London. Scientists on Earth have been using this method, without success so far, to find evidence of intelligent aliens. The theory is that elsewhere in the galaxy other civilisations would probably be doing the same. An example of this interstellar eavesdropping is dramatised in the Jodie Foster film Contact. Based on a novel by the US astronomer Carl Sagan, it tells the story of an alien civilisation that makes contact after picking up TV broadcasts from Earth. "The trouble is that we are making ourselves more and more difficult to be heard," said Dr Drake. "We are broadcasting in much more efficient ways today and are making our signals fainter and fainter." In the past, TV and radio programmes were broadcast from huge ground stations that transmitted signals at thousands of watts. These could be picked up relatively easily across the depths of space, astronomers calculated. Now, most TV and radio programmes are transmitted from satellites that typically use only 75 watts and have aerials pointing toward Earth, rather than into space. "For good measure, in America we have switched from analogue to digital broadcasting and you are going to do the same in Britain very soon," Drake added. "When you do that, your transmissions will become four times fainter because digital uses less power." "Very soon we will become undetectable," he said. In short, in space no one will hear us at all. What is true for humans would probably also be true for aliens, who may already have moved to much more efficient methods of TV and radio broadcasting. Trying to find ET from their favourite shows was going to be harder than we thought, Drake said. Most scientists at the meeting said they were sure that life existed on other worlds. Lord Rees, president of the Royal Society and the astronomer royal, said it should soon be possible to detect planets no bigger than Earth orbiting other stars and determine whether they had continents and oceans. "Although it is a long shot to be able to learn more about any life on them, then it's tremendous progress to be able to get some sort of image of another planet, rather like an Earth, orbiting another star. And were we to find life, even the simplest life, elsewhere that would clearly be one of the great discoveries of the 21st century. "I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms that we can't conceive. And there could, of course, be forms of intelligence beyond human capacity – beyond as much as we are beyond a chimpanzee." 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 | 27 Jan 2010 | 4:06 am Himalayan flowsThe water story is more complex than that of the glaciersSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 27 Jan 2010 | 3:42 am Penguins, Peaks and Penny-Farthings: National Geographic Covers, 1959-2000<< previous image | next image >>
National Geographic magazine is known for its high-quality journalism, preservation of historical moments and access to some of the most remote places on Earth. But what it is best known for is its images. In particular, the iconic yellow-bordered cover shots that opened our eyes to new corners of the world. It’s the amazing stuff you’d never see if National Geographic didn’t show it to you.
The National Geographic Society celebrates its 122nd anniversary on Jan. 27. The first issue of the magazine was published nine months later in 1888. Though the early issues had rather drab academic-looking covers, by 1959 they were consistently adorned with eye-catching art and photos. Here we’ve collected some of our favorite covers from 1959 to 2000, including a penguin with a high-tech backpack, a self-portrait by Koko the gorilla and a shark attack. Image: National Geographic
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 27 Jan 2010 | 3:01 am
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The brains of marmosets, mouse lemurs and mangabeys have shrunk significantly. The brain of the mouse lemur, a teacup-sized, nocturnal primate found in Madagascar, is 27 percent smaller than that of the common ancestor of all lemurs, Mundy said.
The UAVSAR, which left NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., on Jan. 25, will flyover Hispaniola multiple times this week and again in early February.
