Red tide: Researchers issue outlook for a significant New England bloom of a toxic alga in 2010

Scientists have issued an outlook for a significant regional bloom of a toxic alga that can cause 'red tides' in the spring and summer of this year, potentially threatening the New England shellfish industry. This year's bloom could be similar to the major red tides of 2005 and 2008.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

Health care volunteers and disasters: First, be prepared

A surge in volunteers following a major disaster can overwhelm a response system, and without overall coordination, can actually make a situation worse instead of better. The outpouring of medical volunteers who responded to the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti in January provides a roadmap for health care providers during future disasters, say the authors of a new article.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

'Missing link' fossil was not human ancestor as claimed, anthropologists say

A fossil that was celebrated last year as a possible "missing link" between humans and early primates is actually a forebear of modern-day lemurs and lorises, according new research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

'Pompeii-like' excavations tell us more about Toba super-eruption

Newly discovered archaeological sites in southern and northern India have revealed how people lived before and after the colossal Toba volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

Secondhand smoke raises risk of hardened arteries among 13-year-olds

Frequent exposure to environmental tobacco smoke among 13-year-olds is associated with an increased risk of future blood vessel hardening and greater risks of other heart disease factors, according to new research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

Cocaine-related deaths rise in warm weather, study finds

Researchers in the United States have discovered that accidental overdose deaths involving cocaine rise when the average weekly ambient temperature passes 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit).
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am

Pregnancy weight gain may increase a woman's risk of gestational diabetes

Women who gain excessive weight during pregnancy, especially in the first trimester, may increase their risk of developing diabetes later in their pregnancy, according to a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Mar 2010 | 6:00 am

Mass loss from Alaskan glaciers overestimated? Previous melt contributed a third less to sea-level rise than estimated

The melting of glaciers is well documented, but when looking at the rate at which they have been retreating, a team of international researchers steps back and says not so fast. Previous studies have largely overestimated mass loss from Alaskan glaciers over the past 40-plus years, according to a new study that recalculates glacier melt in Alaska.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Mar 2010 | 6:00 am

Glue, fly, glue: Caddisflies' underwater silk adhesive might suture wounds

Like silkworm moths, butterflies and spiders, caddisfly larvae spin silk, but they do so underwater instead on dry land. Now, researchers have discovered why the fly's silk is sticky when wet and how that may make it valuable as an adhesive tape during surgery.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Mar 2010 | 6:00 am

Alzheimer's-associated protein may be part of the innate immune system

Amyloid-beta protein -- the primary constituent of the plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients -- may be part of the body's first-line system to defend against infection. In a new study, researchers describe evidence that amyloid-beta protein is an antimicrobial peptide, part of the innate immune system.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Mar 2010 | 6:00 am

Earth In High-Definition and Living Color

Space photographs of the full globe of Earth taken by the Apollo astronauts in the late 1960s first revealed just how fragile and finite a world we live upon. The Earth was dubbed the "blue marble" floating against an inky ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Mar 2010 | 11:21 pm

U.S. Pays a Price for Dirty Air (HealthDay)

HealthDay - TUESDAY, March 2 (HealthDay News) -- In the state of California, failure to meet federal and state standards for air pollution was responsible for nearly $200 million in hospital medical expenses over a three-year period, a new study reports.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Mar 2010 | 9:49 pm

Cluster of Genes Tied to Alcoholism (HealthDay)

HealthDay - TUESDAY, March 2 (HealthDay News) -- There may be an association between alcoholism and a cluster of genes on chromosome 11, according to researchers who analyzed the genomes of nearly 1,900 white and black Americans.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Mar 2010 | 9:49 pm

Whale opponents huddle in Florida (AFP)

AFP - Key players on whaling huddled behind closed doors in Florida in an uncertain bid to find common ground on an issue that has bitterly divided Australia and Japan.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Mar 2010 | 7:06 pm

10 Companies Reinventing Our Energy Infrastructure

When most people think about changing the way America uses energy, they imagine new ways of generating electricity like solar farms or new nuclear reactors.

But at an innovation summit organized by the Department of Energy’s high-risk, high-reward research branch, ARPA-E (modeled after Darpa), it’s not just power generation that’s getting a makeover. The companies hawking their ideas there, which all received grant money from ARPA-E or were finalists, are trying to reinvent the entire energy system. Everything is getting a technological re-evaluation from the actual wires that power is transmitted on to the waste heat produced in industrial processes.

And of course there are also new ways of making electricity beyond just burning some rocks or oil to create steam to drive a turbine.

Here are 10 companies that caught our attention. Any one technology is unlikely to solve the looming climate change and peak oil problems, but working together within the larger system, they could tilt the globe away from catastrophe and towards a sustainable future.

Above:

Agrivida

Now, ethanol is made with corn cobs, which are just a small amount of the corn plant’s total biomass. For years, people have been trying to come up with ways to use all the rest of the plant to make fuel. They call that stuff “cellulosic ethanol,” because it doesn’t just use the sugars in the cobs, but the cellulose in the rest of the plant. It turns out, though, that it’s not so easy to do the chemistry that transforms a corn stalk into a liquid fuel that works.

Agrivida is working on plants that release enzymes to degrade the cellulose in their own cell walls — on command. They throw a molecular switch, and the plants start turning themselves into sugar, saving fuel processors a key and energy-intensive step.

Photo: Theophilos/Flickr

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 2 Mar 2010 | 6:05 pm

Top 5 Ways to Mess With Earth's Day

The internet is abuzz today with the news that Saturday's massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile shortened Earth's day by about 1.26 microseconds (one microsecond is a millionth of a second) and nudged the planet's axis of balanced mass a ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Mar 2010 | 5:53 pm

EPA adds polluted NYC canal to Superfund list (AP)

AP - For at least 120 years, city officials have been promising to do something about the oily, smelly mess that is the Gowanus Canal.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Mar 2010 | 5:53 pm

Chilean Food Exports May Suffer From Quake

The horrible earthquake disaster in Chile may be half a world away, but the effects could reach all the way to your kitchen table. Even though we're still in the middle of winter here in the United States, we've come ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Mar 2010 | 5:22 pm

Dinosaurs Had Wrists Like Birds (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - The flexible wrists of birds that let them fold their wings have now been seen in dinosaurs well before flight, scientists find.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Mar 2010 | 5:20 pm

Northwest at risk of megaquake like one in Chile (AP)

AP - Just 50 miles off the Pacific Northwest coast is an earthquake hotspot that threatens to unleash on Seattle, Portland and Vancouver the kind of damage that has shattered Chile.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Mar 2010 | 5:19 pm

Dinosaurs Had Wrists Like Birds

The flexible wrists of birds that let them fold their wings have now been seen in dinosaurs well before flight.
Source: Livescience.com | 2 Mar 2010 | 5:11 pm

Notes and queries: Why is Doctor Who always a Time Lord and not a Lady?

Why is Doctor Who always a Time Lord and not a Lady? Journeys to the centre of the Earth; The meaning of a hiding to nothing

Why is Doctor Who always regenerated as a Time Lord, not a Time Lady?

In Doctor Who the process of regeneration is the renewing of every cell in a Time Lord's dying, damaged or unwanted body. Since Time Lords (and Time Ladies, and perhaps even Time Tots, as the children of Gallifrey are known) can change species when they regenerate, there is presumably no reason why they can't also swap sex. There's certainly nothing in the TV series' history to contradict this theory and indeed no way of telling whether the Master, the Doctor's sworn enemy, spent one or more of his 13 wasted lives as a femme fatale called the Mistress. 

Kieran Grant, London N22

Time Lords can be male or female. One of Tom Baker's companions was actually a female Time Lord called Romana who regenerated between seasons and I also understand that one of his recurring enemies was another female of the species called The Rani.

Apparently, the only way a Time Lord can regenerate as a member of the opposite sex is to commit suicide. This has happened at least once to my knowledge, in a Doctor Who Unbound audiobook called Exile, where he commits suicide and becomes Arabella Weir in order to hide from pursuers.

Guy Thomas, Canterbury

Why the Doctor has never managed to exchange his Y chromosome for a second X is one of the universe's great unsolved mysteries. Had he managed to do so, we might have been fortunate enough to experience the doctorly delights of the likes of Honor Blackman, Judi Dench, Sheila Hancock, Maggie Smith or Kathy Burke. Whatever the reasons for such rigid gender typecasting, lack of available talent isn't one of them.

Sheila Kirby, Esbjerg V, Denmark

The world's tallest building is the 828m Burj Dubai, but what is the world's deepest man-made structure?

Various mines and deep geological repositories for nuclear waste approach one kilometre. At 24.5km, Norway's Laerdal tunnel is the longest road tunnel in the world, and also up to 1400 metres deep. However, the record for the deepest hole is held by the Russians, who started drilling the Kola Superdeep Borehole in 1970 and reached the depth of 12,261 metres in 1989. The purpose of this hole is to study the continental crust. However, this represents only about 0.2% of the journey to the centre of the Earth.

In a tongue-in-cheek paper published in the science journal Nature, David Stevenson, professor of planetary science at Caltech, explains how a grapefruit-sized unmanned probe could reach the centre of the earth in a week or so. The first step would be to detonate a nuclear bomb to generate a crack in the Earth's crust 30cm wide and several hundred metres long and deep. Molten iron containing the probe would need to be poured into the crack the instant it formed. Being denser, the iron would sink, which would lead to the release of gravitational potential energy, melting the underlying rock. Once the glob of iron had passed, the rock would close up again. Data would be sent to the surface as vibrations. But the £6.5bn price tag means it will not be happening any time soon.

Mike Follows, Willenhall, W Midlands

"A hiding to nothing" – I know what it implies but it doesn't make sense. Can anyone explain?

It refers to a situation where one has everything to lose and nothing to gain. It is used (often in football) to describe a contest against supposedly inferior opposition where winning would be expected and produce little credit, while losing would be a calamity. The hiding refers not so much to the other team's performance but to the public outcry and humiliation.

The meaning of "hiding" is from the association of corporal punishment with the tanning of skins. Hence, "I'll tan your hide" and "give you a good hiding". So winning the uneven contest would be "nothing", while losing would be a "hiding".

Martin Skinner, Leamington Spa, Warks

Why are there no female Formula One drivers?

Due to their ancestors' roles as (respectively) hunters and nurturers, men's and women's brains evolved different pathways to help them make decisions. Women specialised in more nuanced, longer-term decisions, while men learned how to make good instant decisions. It's a bit of a generalisation, and there are obviously exceptions – the female Red Arrow, for instance, and the men who work in caring professions – but together with their numerical advantage, it explains why men become (and want to become) racing drivers and fighter pilots.

Nick Marsh, Sutton-at-Hone, Kent

Any answers

In folklore werewolves look like real wolves. That's the whole point – you don't know which is real and which is supernatural until it's too late. So why in films and TV do they look like very hairy people?

Susan Deal, Sheffield

What is the origin of the mortarboard as an item of academic dress? Why is it worn by graduates at some universities but not at others?

Lilian Dunlop, Manchester

Send questions and answers to nq@guardian.co.uk. Please include name, address and phone number.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 2 Mar 2010 | 5:05 pm

Chile Earthquake May Have Shortened Days on Earth (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - The massive 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have changed the entire Earth's rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet, a NASA scientist said Monday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Mar 2010 | 5:00 pm

Galactic Lenses Confirm Universe's Age, Size (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - The size and age of the universe, as well as how fast it is expanding, has been confirmed with a new, precise method that uses galaxies as lenses to look at other galaxies.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Mar 2010 | 5:00 pm

Shock effect on Earth's axis

The earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday may have shifted the Earth's axis and created shorter days

The earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday may have shifted the Earth's axis and created shorter days, according to scientists at Nasa. Richard Gross, a geophysicist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said the 8.8 magnitude quake could have moved the Earth's axis by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8cm) – enough to shorten a day by about 1.26 microseconds.

A large quake can shift huge amounts of rock and alter the distribution of mass on the planet. When that distribution changes, it changes the rate at which the planet rotates, which determines the length of a day.

"The length of the day should have got shorter by 1.26 microseconds," Gross told the Bloomberg news agency. "The axis about which the Earth's mass is balanced should have moved by 2.7 milliarcseconds."

Gross previously used the technique to estimate the shift caused by the 2004 Sumatran quake that caused the Indian Ocean tsunami. That 9.1 magnitude quake shifted the Earth's axis by 2.3 milliarcseconds and shortened a day by 6.8 microseconds.

David Kerridge, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey, said the Chile and Sumatra earthquakes were based on subduction, in which one tectonic plate slides under another, redistributing the Earth's overall mass. The effect was similar to that for an ice dancer who moved their arms in and out to accelerate and slow their spin.

"As the ice skater puts when she's going around in a circle, and she pulls her arms in, she gets faster and faster. It's the same idea with the Earth going around if you change the distribution of mass, the rotation rate changes."

Earthquakes caused by plates sliding past each other, such as the recent event in Haiti, do not have the same impact on the Earth's rotation.

Gross said the Chilean earthquake shifted the Earth's axis a greater distance than the larger Sumatran event because it was further from the equator. The fault that caused the Chilean quake also dips into the Earth at a steeper angle, which meant it moved more mass.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 2 Mar 2010 | 4:58 pm

Chile earthquake may have shortened Earth's day (AP)

AP - Earth's days may have gotten a little bit shorter since the massive earthquake in Chile, but don't feel bad if you haven't noticed.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Mar 2010 | 4:55 pm

First Mirrors Polished for Next-Gen Space Telescope

The first mirror segment of the James Webb Space Telescope, the all-purpose instrument that will take the mantle of “most awesome” telescope from Hubble in 2014, is polished.

There are 18 mirror segments to go, but it still marked a milestone on the telescope’s march towards flight-readiness.

The huge mirrors require incredible precision for collecting the tiny amounts of photons arriving at Earth from distant objects. Even the tiniest mistakes can kill the performance of a telescope.

Recall that an erroneously polished mirror fouled up Hubble’s launch. The telescope got into orbit before researchers realized that things weren’t working quite right.

It took a separate Shuttle mission — STS-61 — to get the telescope working properly.

Clearly, NASA doesn’t want a repeat of that experience, so the agency and its contractors are taking special care polishing up its latest space observatory. This time around, everyone is taking their own measurements.

“For validation purposes, we’re planning four sets of completely different cross checks and verification tests to authenticate the outcome of the mirror cryotests,” said Scott Texter, Northrop Grumman Webb Optical Telescope Element Manager. “If any discrepancies surface, we can then investigate and re-verify.”

See Also:

• 40 Years After Apollo 11, NASA Maps Out the Future
• Hubble Finds Farthest, Oldest Galaxies Ever Seen

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Tumblr, and green tech history research site; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 2 Mar 2010 | 4:20 pm

Chile steps up aid to desperate quake victims (Reuters)

Reuters - Chile's government used helicopters and boats to speed up the delivery of food to hungry survivors on Tuesday as the death toll rose to nearly 800 three days after a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Mar 2010 | 3:29 pm

Earth's Earthquake Hotspots

With the earthquake in Chile and other large quakes, you might be wondering where next.
Source: Livescience.com | 2 Mar 2010 | 3:06 pm

Weapons labs to thrive as Obama trims nukes

President takes first steps towards goal of disarmament.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/cw5_bzwG_cc" height="1" width="1"/>
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 2 Mar 2010 | 2:45 pm

Model response to Chile quake?

Experts debate how much emergency-response planners should rely on tsunami forecasts.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 2 Mar 2010 | 2:31 pm

Sex-Changing Herbicide Makes Amphibians Sick, Too

Atrazine is receiving lots of attention for turning male frogs into girls, but that’s not all the common herbicide does. It also weakens amphibian immune systems, leaving the fragile creatures vulnerable to disease.

Though less obvious than gender bending, immunosuppression could play just as large a part in the worldwide decline of amphibians, which have porous skin and easily absorb chemicals from rain, groundwater and even water vapor.

“Numerous studies have documented the effects of environmental pollutants on the amphibian immune system. Nearly all of these studies suggest that amphibians are particularly sensitive,” wrote Tyrone Hayes, a University of California, Berkeley biologist, in a paper published in the March 15 Journal of Experimental Biology. “In particular, the widespread herbicide atrazine impairs immune function and increases disease rates.”

Hayes is also an author of a March 1 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study on the developmental changes wrought in male frogs by groundwater atrazine concentrations regularly found in the United States, where 80 million pounds of the herbicide are used every year. The frogs had low levels of sperm and testosterone; some even produced estrogen, developed female reproductive organs and were ultimately impregnated by their former gender mates.

The findings are disturbing, but atrazine’s effects don’t end there. As described in the JEB paper, a large body of scientific literature describes how atrazine drives down white cell counts and turns off immune system-regulating genes. Atrazine also suppresses immune function in snails, which often carry amphibian-infesting parasites, and feeds the algae on which snails live.

It’s a perfect storm of infection: atrazine makes amphibians more vulnerable to disease, and carriers of disease more common.

The best-known amphibian killer, the chytrid fungus, has killed 95 percent of all frogs in Colombia and Panama, and driven 30 species in the Atelopus genus to extinction — and it was only identified in 1993. However, according to Hayes, chytrid is only the most apparent amphibian affliction. Others may go unnoticed because they don’t kill the fragile creatures, but damage their health just enough to prevent populations from sustaining themselves. About 70 percent of amphibian populations around the world are now in decline.

Atrazine, which is scheduled for review by the Environmental Protection Agency after being declared safe by the Bush-era EPA, isn’t the only chemical culprit. Many common pesticides and herbicides have also been linked to amphibian immune malfunction. But as bad as other chemicals may be, atrazine — which can travel up to 600 miles in groundwater — is considered the worst, said Hayes.

“It’s so common, so mobile and persistent, and so active at low levels,” he said. “But there may be chemicals out there just as bad, only we don’t have data on them.”

Image: Rainforest Harley/Flickr

See Also:

• Killer Disease Short-Circuits Frog Hearts
• What's Old Is New: 12 Living Fossils
• Salamander Discovery Could Lead to Human Limb Regeneration
• Scientists Stop EPA From Pushing Toxic Pesticide

Citations: “The cause of global amphibian declines: a developmental endocrinologist’s perspective.” By T. B. Hayes, P. Falso, S. Gallipeau and M. Stice. Journal of Experimental Biology, Vol. 213 No. 5, March 15, 2010.

“Atrazine induces complete feminization and chemical castration in male African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis).” By Tyrone B. Hayes, Vicky Khourya, Anne Narayana, Mariam Nazira, Andrew Parka, Travis Brown, Lillian Adame, Elton Chan, Daniel Buchholz, Theresa Stuevea, Sherrie Gallipeau. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 107 No. 9, March 1, 2010.

Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on a book about ecological tipping points.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 2 Mar 2010 | 2:15 pm

Amid Desperation, Fake Cures and False Hope in Haiti

In the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating earthquakes, huge amounts of money, food, clothing, water, tents, and other supplies arrived in the country. People showed up as well: professional search and rescue personnel, epidemiologists, nurses, and doctors. And, unfortunately, many people ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Mar 2010 | 2:03 pm

Scientists urge rethink on "narrow" health goals

LONDON (Reuters) - Families in some poor nations are trapped in cycles of illness and poverty as authorities fail to tackle chronic health problems or meet goals on child health and tuberculosis, scientists said on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Mar 2010 | 1:29 pm

Using Ambient Light to Charge Devices

Green inventor Ryan Hess is hoping to take the solar calculator idea to a whole new level. His grid-free Illumi-Charger design aims to charge small USB devices using only ambient light. The Illumi-Charger is a conceptual device still in development. ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Mar 2010 | 1:10 pm

FAQ: Global Warming and Snowstorms

Answers to the most common questions about global warming.
Source: Livescience.com | 2 Mar 2010 | 12:29 pm

Fat rats skew research results

Overfed lab animals make poor subjects for experiments.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 2 Mar 2010 | 12:25 pm

Sustainable Energy bets on Ontario solar market

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd, a solar equipment maker that recently relocated to Toronto from Calgary, may soon land its first large-scale orders in its new home province, the world's newest "go-to" region for solar power.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Mar 2010 | 12:11 pm

Institute of Physics clarifies its position

Strongly worded submission to the parliamentary inquiry is being used to imply the institute questions the scientific evidence for climate change, statement says

The Institute of Physics has been forced to clarify its strongly worded submission to a parliamentary inquiry into climate change emails released onto the internet.

The institute's submission, to the science and technology select committee, said the emails from scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) contained "worrying implications for the integrity of scientific research in this field".

The submission has been used by climate sceptics to bolster claims that the email affair, dubbed "climategate", shows the scientists did not behave properly and that the problem of global warming is exaggerated.

The committee held its only evidence session yesterday and interviewed witnesses including Phil Jones, the climate scientist at the centre of the media storm.

In a statement issued today the institute said its written submission to the committee "has been interpreted by some individuals to imply that it does not support the scientific evidence that the rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is contributing to global warming."

It says: "That is not the case. The institute's position on climate change is clear: the basic science is well enough understood to be sure that our climate is changing, and that we need to take action now to mitigate that change."

The institute said its critical comments were focused on the scientific process, and "should not be interpreted to mean that the institute believes that the science itself is flawed."

The statement appears to contradict sections of the original submission, which suggests the emails showed scientists had cherry-picked data to support conclusions and that some key reconstructions of past temperature cannot be relied upon.

The institute statement says its submission was approved by its science board, a formal committee of experts that oversees its policy work.

The Guardian has been unable to find a member of the board that supports the submission. Two of the scientists listed as members said they had declined to comment on a draft submission prepared by the institute, because they were not climate experts and had not read the UEA emails. Others would not comment or did not respond to enquiries.

An institute spokesperson said the submission was "strongly supported" by three members of the board. "All members were invited to comment. Only a few did, all concerned approved [the submission] unanimously."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 2 Mar 2010 | 11:00 am

Do the Meek Inherit the Galaxy?

The good news: the Milky Way could be abundant in intelligent life forms. The bad news: we may never hear from them. At last week's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego, California's ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Mar 2010 | 10:45 am

Ostrich Eggs Used in Stone Age Communication

Long before social networks, text messages, phone calls or even the postal system, hunter-gatherers would communicate using eggshells.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Mar 2010 | 10:29 am

Common weedkiller turns male frogs into females

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Atrazine, one of the most commonly used and controversial weedkillers, can turn male frogs into females, researchers reported on Monday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Mar 2010 | 10:26 am

GM potato cleared for EU farming

The European Commission clears a genetically modified potato for cultivation in the EU - only the second GM product allowed.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 2 Mar 2010 | 9:54 am

Mars Express Swings by Phobos

The information the satellite gathers could prove crucial to understanding the origin of Mars' moon.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Mar 2010 | 9:40 am

Marines Land in Iwo Jima for Battle's Anniversary

Commemoration ceremonies will honor the 65th anniversary of one of World War II's bloodiest and most iconic battles.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Mar 2010 | 9:13 am

Even the Spineless Feel Pain

Invertebrate life is generally painless life, but not for all.
Source: Livescience.com | 2 Mar 2010 | 9:06 am

The snake that swallowed dinosaurs

Fossils reveal that some snakes preyed on baby sauropods.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 2 Mar 2010 | 8:19 am

Where the Quakes in Chile Struck

A map of Chile's coast shows an underwater trench where the Feb. 27 earthquake occurred.
Source: Livescience.com | 2 Mar 2010 | 7:57 am

New Material Patterned After Spider Hair Refuses to Get Wet

Scientists have created a flat surface patterned after the body hair of spiders that refuses to get wet.
Source: Livescience.com | 2 Mar 2010 | 7:36 am

Cow Dung, Urine as Medicine?

Borrowing from Hindu spiritual traditions, researchers in India are working on medicines based on the waste of these sacred animals.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Mar 2010 | 7:34 am

The snake frozen in the act of eating a dinosaur

Scientists identify what they say is the fossilised remains of a snake that dined on dinosaur eggs.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 2 Mar 2010 | 7:12 am

Marijuana Use Linked to Psychosis

Using marijuana at an early age could put you at greater risk for psychosis, such as schizophrenia.
Source: Livescience.com | 2 Mar 2010 | 7:03 am

In pictures: Severn Estuary biodiversity threatened by tidal plans

A new report by the Wildlife Trusts highlights the importance of the Severn estuary both for biodiversity and people

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 2 Mar 2010 | 7:00 am

Animal instincts ruled on Lusitania

A breakdown of passenger lists indicates that survival of the fittest reigned on the Lusitania because of how quickly it sank

The frightfully British stiff upper lip disaster, with women and children ushered towards the lifeboats and everyone else queueing politely, only happens if there is enough time: the hours after the Titanic hit the iceberg were a model of decorum, but the short sharp shock of the sinking of the Lusitania was a panic-stricken scramble of the youngest and fittest to escape.

Scientists have studied the casualty figures for the two famous passenger liner disasters, and found that although the ships, passenger numbers and fatalities were very similar, the breakdown of the casualty figures was not.

On both ships the captains gave orders for women and children to be saved first – but the response was very different.

The Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage on 14 April 1912, and took several hours to sink with the loss of 1,517 lives.

The highest percentage of survivors were women, children, or people accompanying a child. Statistically males, adults and passengers without children were less likely to survive.

A woman's chance of survival was more than 50% greater than a man's, a child had a 14.8% higher probability of surviving than an adult, and an adult accompanying a child was 19.6% more likely to survive than one without.

The Lusitania took just 18 minutes to sink on 7 May 1915, torpedoed by a German U-boat just off Kinsale in Ireland, on a voyage between New York and Liverpool: 1,198 died, and it was literally survival of the fittest among the 639 who escaped.

Fit young passengers, aged between 16 and 35, had the best chance of survival. Men in that age group had a 7.9% better chance of survival, and women 10.4%. Slightly more women survived, but there was no significant difference between the sexes.

Not only did the fittest get to the lifeboats first, but when the boats were launched inefficiently, with some tilting or rocking violently, they were more likely to be able to hang on or to get back in if they fell out.

Class also played a part: first class passengers on the Titanic were more likely to find a place in a lifeboat, but fared worse in the stampede on the Lusitania.

The scientists, who publish their findings this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, conclude: "This difference could be attributed to the fact that the Lusitania sank in 18 minutes, creating a situation in which the short-run flight impulse dominated behaviour. On the slowly sinking Titanic, there was time for socially determined behavioural patterns to re-emerge."

They noted that on the Titanic the women and children first order was enforced by the crew, and accepted by the passengers – "otherwise the passengers could have easily revolted against such a protocol".

The study could be useful for predicting behaviour in other disasters, they suggest.

"Knowing human behaviour under extreme conditions provides insight into how widely human behaviour can vary, depending on differing external conditions."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 2 Mar 2010 | 6:49 am

Queen Ant Will Sacrifice Colony to Retain Throne

Queen ants will sacrifice the ant colony when other queens are competing for the throne.
Source: Livescience.com | 2 Mar 2010 | 6:15 am

Flying into a row

Support sought for Bristol airport expansion
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 2 Mar 2010 | 5:54 am

Whaling woes

Commercial interests 'abuse' whaling rights
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 2 Mar 2010 | 5:48 am

Good news on polio - bad news on drugs and HIV

Talking of disease eradication, as we were the other day, I just heard some very cheerful news from India. Last week there were no polio cases recorded at all in the country. Yes, that's only one week, but the news sends a surge of hope and excitement through all those who are involved in the very long and now fairly tedious business of vaccinating and re-vaccinating every child under 5 in the two areas where polio is still considered endemic - the poor and populous Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

When I went to watch this Herculean effort in November, India had battled its way down to 163 cases a year (as of its last report in August 2009). That's just over three cases a week. But the problem is that the last bit is always going to be the hardest. The places where polio lingers suffer insanitary and unhygienic conditions. Open sewers run down the sides of roads where children play. So many children are born - half a million in Uttar Pradesh each month - that it is hard to ensure all are getting immunised. And there is a great deal of migration among desperately poor families looking for seasonal work.

So a polio-free week is good news and will put heart into those who must sometimes wonder if polio eradication is a losing battle.

Meanwhile, the Lancet has published a report on HIV among injecting drug users, which confirms the sorry state of support for harm reduction which can limit the spread of the virus through shared needles. In my earlier blog I said that 30% of infections outside of Africa were linked to injecting drug use. They say that 10% of those living with HIV are injecting drug users. That may well match up.

Either way, services for drug users are poor, says the paper published online. Only 8% of users can access needle exchange programmes (less than 3% in China, Malaysia, and Thailand). The authors, Bradley Mathers of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues, come to a stern conclusion.

Our findings suggest that, worldwide, there are few countries in which the level of intervention coverage is sufficient to prevent HIV transmission... Governments that have not made needle and syringe programs and opioid substitution available need to be convinced that these interventions are the most effective ways to stop HIV spreading among injecting drug users, and to the wider community.

I'm told this issue is "close to the heart" of the Global Fund to fight HIV, TB and Malaria, so we should presumably expect some push on this front at the forthcoming International Aids conference in Vienna in July.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 2 Mar 2010 | 5:03 am

Earth Watch

Troubled waters tinge UK's marine protection plan
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 2 Mar 2010 | 4:54 am

'Bigger brains'

Did cooking our food make us human?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 2 Mar 2010 | 4:30 am

In pictures: Satellite eye on Earth - February 2010

Breakaway glaciers, submarine volcanos and multicoloured lakes were among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 2 Mar 2010 | 4:30 am

Egg shells illustrate human story

Etched ostrich shells from South Africa are among the earliest examples of the use of symbolism, scientists say.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 2 Mar 2010 | 4:06 am

Aptly named: swift takes the record for fastest bird

A common swift has taken the title as the fasted bird recorded in level flight, say scientists.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 2 Mar 2010 | 2:22 am

Fossil of dinosaur-eating snake found

Prehistoric snake discovered in India was three metres long and preyed on baby sauropods

Even dinosaurs may have been afraid of snakes, a discovery suggests. Scientists have unearthed the almost complete fossil skeleton of a prehistoric snake that preyed on baby dinosaurs. The creature, which was three metres long, was "caught in the act" of pursuing a meal 67m years ago.

Its body was found in a dinosaur nest coiled around a hatched and crushed egg, and next to it was a 50cm fossil hatchling titanosaur – a small version of a plant-eating giant that as an adult weighed up to 100 tonnes. The remains of two other snakes were also found paired with eggs at the same site in Gujarat, western India.

The snake, named Sanajeh indicus, lacked the wide-open jaws of modern snakes such as pythons and boa constrictors and would not have been able to swallow a whole dinosaur egg. But baby dinosaurs would have been just the right size, according to researchers.

Dr Jason Head, from the University of Toronto in Canada, who led a study of the snake reported today in the online journal PLoS One, said: "Living primitive snakes are small animals whose diet is limited by their jaw size, but the evolution of a large body size in Sanajeh would have allowed it to eat a wide range of prey, including dinosaur hatchlings.

"This is the first direct evidence of feeding behaviour in a fossil primitive snake, and shows us that the ecology and early evolutionary history of snakes were much more complex than we would think just by looking at modern snakes today."

The fossils were uncovered in 1987 by dinosaur egg expert Dr Dhananjay Mohabey, of the Geological Survey of India. At first they were identified as the remains of a hatchling dinosaur. It was not until 2001 that palaeontologist Dr Jeff Wilson, from the University of Michigan, spotted the bone patterns of a snake.

"I saw the characteristic vertebrae of a snake beside the dinosaur eggshell and larger bones, and I knew it was an extraordinary specimen, even if I couldn't put the whole story together at that point," said Wilson. More experts were brought in, and years of further research and field trips followed.

The titanosaur eggs were laid in loose sand. Scientists believe the hatchling had just emerged from its egg when the snake struck, attracted by its movements. Predator and prey are believed to have been rapidly buried and preserved in sand and mud, possibly as a result of a storm.

Titanosaurs were among the last surviving members of a group of four-footed, long-necked plant eaters known as sauropods, which included the biggest land animals that ever lived. Like other dinosaurs, they are thought to have grown to a large size quickly after hatching. Until then, they would have been highly vulnerable to predators such as Sanajeh indicus.

"It would have been a smorgasbord," said Head. "Hundreds or thousands of defenceless baby sauropods could have supported an ecosystem of predators during the hatching season."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 2 Mar 2010 | 1:36 am