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March Madness: Bracket seedings irrelevant after Sweet Sixteen roundFor the average college basketball fan looking for an edge in a March Madness office pool, an expert in statistics and data analysis has some advice on how to pick winners: After the Sweet Sixteen round of play, ignore a team's seeding, which is a statistically insignificant predictor of a team's chances of winning.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm Surgeons use neck muscle, surrounding tissue as lip implantAugmenting the lips with grafts of muscle and connective tissue from the neck appears to result in improved appearance for at least two years, according to a new report.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm Female sex chromosomes, not just hormones, help regulate blood pressureResearchers have determined that something in female sex chromosomes appears to trigger a rise in blood pressure after the onset of menopause. This finding challenges the current belief that sex hormones are largely responsible for regulating blood pressure.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm Golden bullet for cancer? Nanoparticles provide targeted version of photothermal therapy for cancerNanocages that efficiently convert light to heat are the basis for a targeted form of phototherapy that would destroy tumors without making cancer patients sick.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm Monkeys choose variety for variety's sakeGiven a choice between spending a token to get their absolute favorite food or spending it to have a choice from a buffet of options, capuchin monkeys will opt for variety.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm Formula for making teeth will soon be found, researchers sayEach cusp of our teeth is regulated by genes which carefully control the development. A similar genetic puzzle also regulates the differentiation of our other organs and of all living organisms. Scientists have developed a computer model reproducing population-level variation in complex structures like teeth and organs. The research takes a step towards the growing of correctly shaped teeth and other organs.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm New avenue for developing treatments for genetic muscle-wasting diseaseScientists have identified a promising new approach for developing drugs to treat Spinal muscular atrophy, the leading inherited cause of death in infants and toddlers. They have found that an enzyme called RhoA is overly active in a mouse model of this disease, and a common laboratory compound that blocks this enzyme can greatly increase survival.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am Super supernova: White dwarf star system exceeds mass limitAstronomers have, for the first time, measured the mass of a type of supernova thought to belong to a unique subclass and confirmed that it surpasses what was believed to be an upper mass limit. Their findings could affect the way cosmologists measure the expansion of the universe.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am Erectile dysfunction strong predictor of death, cardiovascular outcomesMen with cardiovascular disease and erectile dysfunction (ED) are at higher risk for death from all causes and also are more likely to suffer cardiovascular death, heart attack, stroke and heart failure hospitalization, according to a new study. Treatments effective in reducing cardiovascular disease had no effect on ED. Erectile dysfunction should be considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, researchers said.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am Babies are born to dance, new research showsA study of infants finds they respond to the rhythm and tempo of music and find it more engaging than speech. The research suggest that babies may be born with a predisposition to move rhythmically in response to music.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am Anthony Dunne of Royal College of Art on exhibition to explore the impact of future scientific researchAnthony Dunne of the Royal College of Art shows Andy Duckworth an exhibition to explore the impact of future scientific research on society Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 16 Mar 2010 | 3:38 am Don't give upMore reason than ever to deal with the climate debacleSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Mar 2010 | 3:08 am China, Britain pledge to improve strained ties (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 3:07 am The nation's weather (AP)AP - New England was forecast to see another day of light showers, while scattered thunderstorms would persist in the Southern Plains on Tuesday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:40 am Sharks threatened by Asian consumers, says group (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:37 am Toyota dismisses Calif. man's runaway Prius report (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:33 am Getting women into science | Latoya PetersonIt's not a lack of ability holding women back in scientific careers but gender-based stereotyping What is to blame for the persistent lack of women in the hard sciences and in technology? The New York Times explores what the writer Katrin Bennhold describes as "Risk and opportunity for women in the 21st century". The article explains that the number of women in the sciences has steadily declined, despite record levels of need in areas such as computer engineering and chemical science. This gender-based career stagnation flies in the face of workforce trends that are placing women in increasing roles of prominence and power across all sectors. With the promise of higher income and innovative work, women are certainly wooed by the idea of scientific and technological careers, yet women lag far behind men in the pursuit of science and tech studies. Research has shown that a variety of factors leads to the under-representation of women in the sciences. In addition to the steep learning curve and unforgiving schedules (which makes it difficult for women with families to rise to the higher ranks of their profession), stereotyping also plays a role, as historical constructions about the aptitude and intelligence of women continue to surface. Bennhold refers to one outdated mode of thinking that is still popular in scientific circles – the idea that the brains of women just aren't wired for hard technology or hard sciences. While this is a myth, it was most recently invoked in 2005 by the former president of Harvard University. The answer to ending the disparities may lie in an unlikely source: the games industry. Gender and game researchers – most notably in the academic collection Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat – point out that women face discouragement at just about every exposure point to video games. This type of "casual discouragement" means that women are not told outright not to play games or participate, but instead receive those messages through socialisation. Girls are encouraged to spend more time on their social skills and gender appropriate activities, while things such as coding and playing with computers work against these norms, placing young women who do enjoy these activities in a bind. Combined with harsh treatment by instructors and peers, fewer role models, and fewer mentors, these factors quietly inform women that the science and tech sector is not a place for them. Many of these problems feed on each other: if women are not acknowledged for the work they accomplish, there are less female role models to show to girls interested in science; if women cannot receive recognition for their accomplishments in the sciences, they may end up changing careers; if instructors and classmates believe the stereotypes about women and the sciences, women will be judged more harshly for mistakes and receive less support, increasing drop-out rates; if less women graduate with degrees in science and technology, less women are available to compete for positions. So what can be done about this? Back in 2007, the website LiveScience created a piece specifically to debunk myths about girls and technology, and focused on changing the curriculum to be more female-friendly. They note: "The mentality of needing to 'weed out' weaker students in college majors – especially in the more quantitative disciplines – disproportionately weeds out women. This is not necessarily because women are failing. Rather, women often perceive Bs as inadequate grades and drop out, while men with Cs will persist with the class. Effective mentoring and 'bridge programmes' that prepare students for challenging coursework can counteract this." Outside of reviewing how we grade and evaluate skills, tech-based summer camps, school-based instruction and community outreach from science and technology professionals really goes a long way in ensuring girls will have the opportunity to explore and develop their talents before being discouraged from the field. Parents and educators should vigilantly watch the messages that girls are receiving about their role in the world – after all, the future of science is at stake. 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 | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:30 am 2 wolves blamed in Alaska teacher's death killed (AP)AP - An Alaska Fish and Game spokeswoman says state officials have located and killed two of the wolves believed responsible for the death of a teacher who was killed while jogging alone along a rural village road.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:18 am Reliance out of race for Canada firm - source (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 2:09 am Kuwait says OPEC consensus to keep output unchanged (Reuters)Reuters - There is a consensus among OPEC members to keep output unchanged, and no change is expected at Wednesday's meeting in Vienna, Kuwait's oil minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah said on Tuesday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Mar 2010 | 12:31 am Barnstorming Mars in 3DA breathtaking three-dimensional low altitude flyover of Mars canyons is as awesome as actually being there.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 15 Mar 2010 | 10:57 pm Saving forests, cultures and carbon dioxide'Win-win' conservation should start with indigenous lands and other protected areas.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/0M5W-GfDlK4" height="1" width="1"/>Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 15 Mar 2010 | 9:59 pm For Better Relationships, Just Be Yourself (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - When it comes to romance, the advice to "be yourself" might be right on, according to new research.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 9:55 pm Repeated Anesthesia May Hamper Children's Learning Ability (HealthDay)HealthDay - MONDAY, March 15 (HealthDay News) -- Brain stem cell loss is the reason why repeated anesthesia causes memory and learning problems in children, Swedish researchers suggest.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 9:49 pm What your brain does in an emergencyResearch into people's reactions to emergencies aims to make sure there are more survivors in future Imagine you're stuck in a burning building, trying desperately to escape. After stumbling to the end of a smoke-filled corridor, you have to choose whether to turn left or right. The decision could determine whether you live or die – but the way you make it is not as random as you might think, according to Ed Galea, professor of mathematical modelling at the University of Greenwich. Galea has forged a career out of working out the science and psychology behind how people's brains function in disaster zones. He has interviewed thousands of survivors, from 300 people who escaped the World Trade Center on 9/11 to plane crash and Paddington rail disaster survivors. The results of his research are used by governments, building designers and emergency workers around the world to try to plan for the effects of future catastrophes. His latest project, funded by a €2 million (£1.8m) European Union grant, is BeSeCu (Behaviour, Security and Culture), which involves trying to understand whether culture affects the way people behave in emergency situations. "The question we're answering is, do people from different countries behave differently in a crisis?", says Galea. "Most of the data that's used in evacuation analysis is from the UK, US and Australia. There's an implicit assumption that people everywhere behave the same, but we're not sure that's true." So BeSeCu is carrying out "unannounced evacuation drills" in multistorey university library buildings around Europe, including Poland, Czech Republic and Turkey, and comparing the results with evacuation data from Brazil and the UK. "We're going to compare the data on response time and behaviour. If it varies in different places, that will suggest a need to change how we plan for emergency situations – we'll have to take a much more localised approach." Galea's interest was triggered by victims' responses to a tragic fire in the Daegu underground in Korea. "I looked at photographs of the inside of burning carriages, and collaborated with a Korean researcher who interviewed survivors. Most sat around, waiting for instructions from an authority figure. When I presented the findings at a UK conference, it was suggested that my data was irrelevant because 'that would never happen in the UK'. So I started wondering whether people around the world react differently." Working at Greenwich's Fire Safety Engineering Group, Galea and his team have designed Exodus, a computer modelling system that can simulate how people behave in emergency evacuations, which is used in 33 countries. It was used in the design of London's O2 arena, Sydney's Olympic stadium, the "bird's nest" arena in Beijing and the Airbus A380. Now he is adding to the model by analysing data from interviews with survivors of the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London and the Madrid bombings. "By studying how people responded on the underground trains and in the stations, we hope to better understand how the perception of risk, reaction to authority figures and interaction with other survivors influences emergency behaviour." The findings will be used to improve computer software so it better reflects how people behave in emergencies and can be more reliable in building design. There are also practical ideas that are easier to implement, Galea says. "I'm looking at how people respond to alarms and instructions. If people on trains always wait for an official to tell them what to do, then perhaps we need to improve communication systems on trains so they have a better chance of working in extreme situations." Galea is also investigating how people think when trying to escape house fires or a flooding house. "We've set up an online survey looking at how people move – at intersections, do they go left or right, for example. So far it seems that left-handed and right-handed people behave differently, and so do people who drive on different sides of the road. Working out the patterns will give people a better chance of surviving future disasters." Galea, who spends his days mapping human behaviour, fell into his work "completely by accident". More than two decades later, he has amassed plenty of advice on getting out of a fire or crash alive. "The main thing is having good situational awareness," he says. "Understand the environment you're in, whether it's a plane, train, ship or building, know where your nearest exit is and how you'd escape in a hurry. If you're travelling with family, plan what you would do in an emergency, like whether you'd try to reunite before escaping, or meet outside." On planes, Galea recommends choosing a seat close to an exit. "I always try and sit within five rows of an exit on an aisle seat," he says. "Once you're seated, count the rows to your nearest two exits in case it becomes too dark to see." Galea stresses, however, that planes are "really quite safe". One thing that does make him upset, however, is disaster movies. The latest to hit our screens is 2012, which Galea says makes him "frustrated about how badly Hollywood gets it wrong". "Disaster films convey completely the wrong view of how most people behave in these kind of situations," he says. "Hollywood shows people panicking, but my research shows that 9.9 times out of 10, people don't turn into crazed individuals, but behave quite rationally. They tend to help each other, too." That, says Galea, is a crucial part of his job. "The knowledge that most people react in a humanist way helps me to get in up in the morning – I come to work knowing that people tend to behave in a supportive, helpful way in emergencies, so any way we can help inform intelligent building design and disaster strategies will help them to survive." • Galea is keen to hear from survivors of particular emergencies, including: • People who have experienced domestic fires in the last 10 years that required evacuation and the emergency services • People involved in the Royal Marsden hospital fire in January 2008 • Anyone who was on a train that was evacuated or in one of the stations that was evacuated during the 7/7 London bombs • Anyone who has been forced to evacuate their home due to floods Find out more: http://fseg.gre.ac.uk/fire/besecu.html 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 | 15 Mar 2010 | 9:32 pm Toxic troubles for climate 'fix'Spreading iron in the oceans as a climate "fix" could poison marine mammals and birds, scientists show.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Mar 2010 | 9:04 pm Home improvement 'hitting swifts'A survey of swifts suggests the species is at risk from improvement work being undertaken on old houses.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Mar 2010 | 7:53 pm Dinosaurs Choked on OzoneWhat killed the dinosaurs? Ok, ok, we know an asteroid did it, roughly, but that made a comparatively small hole in the ground -- what actually killed them? We've heard lots about nuclear winter, global wildfires, all sorts of poisonous ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 15 Mar 2010 | 7:43 pm The truth about internet profilesThere's more honesty out there than you think Nearly 17 years ago, the New Yorker ran what is probably still the best-known cartoon about the world wide web. It featured two dogs sat at a computer, with one pawing the keyboard while saying to his chum, "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog." The notion that the internet is full of barefaced liars remains a popular one. And with good reason: dating sites allow Devito-esque men to pass themselves off as Schwarzenegger, while teens on MySpace Photoshop away their acne. And then there are the internet predators, such as Peter Chapman, convicted this month for murdering Ashleigh Hall, a 17-year-old girl he befriended online. But for all the horror stories, there remains little hard evidence of how far the 700 million-plus users of MySpace, Facebook and other social-networking sites adopt a different persona online. So Mitja Back, a psychologist at Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, set out to get some. And he eventually found that internet profiles are more truthful than you might think. Back and his colleagues got 236 American and German students with Facebook accounts to fill in personality questionnaires that gave a picture of their openness, extroversion and other traits. Independent observers then scrutinised the respondents' Facebook pages, nosing through the photos, the messages and the listed interests. And they found a remarkable degree of overlap between how students projected themselves on the internet and how they saw themselves in real life. Outgoing teenagers didn't pretend to be sullen online; introverts didn't pose as the life and soul of the party. Two caveats should be made here. Back and his team only surveyed those between 17 and 22 years old, and were purely interested in broad personal characteristics. But for Back, the study suggests people behave more honestly online than they are given credit for. Which is something to think about, next time you come across a Facebook page for an old friend who appears to have made a million and kept all their hair. 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 | 15 Mar 2010 | 6:05 pm Japan prepares for Venus countdownAkatsuki probe could help to explain why Venus is so different from Earth.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 15 Mar 2010 | 5:59 pm Stubborn storm darkens, floods much of Northeast (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 5:30 pm Closest Ever Look at Martian Moon
The sharpest images yet taken by the Mars Express spacecraft of Mars’ tiny moon Phobos reveal features as small as 14.5 feet across, the European Space Agency announced March 15.
During the three flybys on March 7, 10 and 13, researchers measured the moon’s tug on Mars Express by examining changes in the frequency of radio signals beamed by the spacecraft to Earth. The frequency shifts indicate that the craft has sped up or slowed down by a few millimeters per second due to the moon’s gravity.
The Mars Express flybys, which happen every five months, may also determine if Phobos is a fragile pile of rocky fragments stuck together — what planetary scientists refer to as a rubble pile — or solid through and through, says Mars Express scientist Gerhard Neukum of the Free University of Berlin. He notes that due to orbital maneuvers that had to be performed on relatively short notice, scientists missed the opportunity to take even higher-resolution images with another camera on Mars Express, which would have revealed features on Phobos as small as a meter across. The craft will make two more passes by Phobos before the end of March, but they will not come as close as the March 7 flyby. Image: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 15 Mar 2010 | 5:06 pm Carbon-capture scheme could cause toxic bloomsFindings raise more concerns over proposals to boost plankton growth in the oceans.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 15 Mar 2010 | 5:00 pm Friday News Feedbag Info for March 12th, 2010If this is your first exposure to the Friday News Feedbag...we're glad to have you in the club. Welcome to Feedbag Nation, which stems from our weekly science news podcast that you can subscribe to here on iTunes and chat ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 15 Mar 2010 | 4:30 pm Texting From Beyond The GraveGenerally a headstone conveys two very basic facts about the person interred below it - their name plus the two most important dates of their life. Thanks to some new technology, headstones can now convey much more that: a photo ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 15 Mar 2010 | 4:11 pm For Better Relationships, Just Be YourselfStaying true to yourself may help improve your relationships, a new study suggestSource: Livescience.com | 15 Mar 2010 | 4:09 pm You’re Leaving a Bacterial Fingerprint on Your Keyboard
The bacterial communities that live on human skin may form a bacterial fingerprint on the items that you touch. In a new study led by microbiologists Rob Knight and Noah Fierer of the University of Colorado, Boulder, researchers swabbed three different keyboards and nine mice for bacteria, then compared the genomic variation between the communities to deduce whose hands had been touching what. The people were clearly identifiable from the bacterial communities they’d transferred to their computer input devices. “The results demonstrate that bacterial DNA can be recovered from relatively small surfaces, that the composition of the keyboard-associated communities are distinct across the three keyboards, and that individuals leave unique bacterial ‘fingerprints’ on their keyboards,” wrote Knight and his colleagues at the University of Colorado, Boulder in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The results are the latest to show the variety and complexity of the bacterial communities living in a variety of different human ecosystems like the gut, saliva and skin. The Human Microbiome Project at the Institute for Genome Scientists is out to catalog and understand the relationships between our bacteria and ourselves. Early results suggest “our microbial partners may be essential for our survival as a species.”
Microbiome science is just a few years old. It was only in the middle of the decade that sequencing and computational technology became available to do this kind of work. Already, the work is beginning to rewrite what it means to be a human. “If humans are thought of as a composite of microbial and human cells, the human genetic landscape as an aggregate of the genes in the human genome and the microbiome, and human metabolic features as a blend of human and microbial traits, then the picture that emerges is one of a human ‘supra-organism’,” argued a 2007 Nature paper lead-authored by Peter Turnbaugh, a Harvard microbiologist. Despite the excitement, we’re just beginning to understand the bacterial community variations within a single body and between individuals. The new study adds a helpful plank of knowledge in pointing out that human skin microbiomes are diverse enough to allow researchers to distinguish between people. That’s a bit surprising as a 2008 article had found “a low level of interpersonal variation” in skin microbiomes relative to studies performed on gut bacteria. While the most obvious implication of the work might seem to be that the skin microbiome technique could be used in forensic settings, this technique is not coming to a courtroom near you, said Jacques Ravel, a microbiologist at the University of Maryland who works on both the human microbiome and more general forensic science. “It’s a nice piece of work but the forensic aspect as far as I’m concerned is the weakest,” Ravel concluded. The researchers will need a lot more evidence that human microbiomes don’t change rapidly in time — and that bacterial communities transferred to keyboards endure with few changes. Without that proof, Ravel said, the technique is unlikely to be used in real-world forensics, where evidence is often collected long after contact with a keyboard or other surface would have ceased. Forensic scientists will also just need more data on variations in skin microbiomes to reduce the uncertainty associated with identifications. “When we do a human genotyping for forensics, we can tell you this is the person and there is one chance in X billion that it is someone else,” Ravel said. “Here, they don’t have that power. They can’t tell you that. The statistics support is still very weak. You can’t bring that in the courtroom.” There is one forensic niche, though, where the microbiome could eventually come in handy: identical twins. A 2008 study found that identical twins showed substantial gut bacteria variation. Skin microbiomes could be similar. “Even identical twins harbor substantially different microbial communities, suggesting that the collective genomes of our microbial symbionts may be more personally identifying than our own human genomes,” the Colorado researchers conclude. Citation: “Forensic identification using skin bacterial communities” in PNAS by Noah Fierer et al. Image: flickr/6×7 WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Tumblr, and green tech history research site; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 15 Mar 2010 | 3:21 pm Babies Bounce to the BeatIn an new study, infants engaged in more rhythmic movements, or dancing, when exposed to drumbeats and other rhythmic stimuli than they did to speech.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Mar 2010 | 3:15 pm Common English species face extinctionIf a country that takes conservation so seriously can still be losing plants and animals every year, where does hope lie? The names alone should cause anyone whose heart still beats to stop and look again. Blotched woodwax. Pashford pot beetle. Scarce black arches. Mallow skipper. Marsh dagger. Each is a locket in which hundreds of years of history and thousands of years of evolution have been packed. Here nature and culture intersect. All are species that have recently become extinct in England. I cannot claim that I've been materially damaged by their loss, any more than the razing of the Prado would deprive me of food or shelter. But the global collapse of biodiversity hurts almost beyond endurance. The sense that the world is greying, its wealth of colour and surprise and wonder fading, is so painful that I can scarcely bear to write about it. Human welfare, as measured by gross domestic product, is doubtless enhanced by the processes that drive extinction. Human welfare, as measured by the heart and the senses, is diminished. We have no use for most of the world's natural exuberance; it cannot be commodified or reproduced. Biodiversity does not belong to us: that is why it is worth preserving. In Doha today, governments are engaged in their annual festival of frustration: the endless arguments over the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. They are struggling against what often looks like an inexorable assault by technology, economic growth and sheer bloody idiocy. The latter is exemplified by the battle over the Atlantic bluefin tuna. Many governments want to ban the trade in this species for several years, but Japan is resisting furiously. Whether or not a ban is imposed, the effect on Japanese industry will be roughly the same, as the species is likely to become commercially extinct next year if fishing continues. But the government would prefer one more year of raw exploitation rather than indefinite supplies in the future. There is no reasoning with this madness. But it's the new report by Natural England that hit me hardest. English plant and animal species are still disappearing at the rate of two a year. All the goodwill, the billions of pounds and millions of hours poured into conservation work, the global treaties and concordats seem to be no match for the amplification of our presence on earth. If we can't even get this right in England, where the two biggest membership organisations are both conservation groups, where does hope lie? There were several shocks in the report, but it was a different set of names that hammered into my mind. Some of the most endangered species have very ordinary – even, if I might be so rude, common – names. The common frog, common gull, common skate and common smoothhound are all in trouble. The common eel is now listed as critically endangered everywhere. I remember, years ago, sitting beside a chalk stream whose entire bed was a writhing black conveyor belt of eels moving upriver. The eel was a universal, indestructible species. It can live almost anywhere, even stagnant water in which no other fish can survive; it can eat any old carrion, and travel overland between ponds on dewy nights. Nobody valued them because they were everywhere. Had someone told me, on the bank of that river, that within my lifetime they would be threatened with extinction, I would have laughed out loud. If the common eel is now critically endangered, is any species safe? Beside the clanking rigours of commerce and technology, our concerns about biodiversity sometimes appear almost effete. That there are payoffs here is undeniable. The major cause of extinction in most countries is habitat loss. Most of this is caused either by clearing land for farming or by intensifying farming methods, in both cases to increase production. Even in the UK, where hundreds of millions have been spent on schemes to make farms hospitable to wildlife, Natural England blames changes in farm practices – cutting grasslands early, ploughing in winter stubble, the replacement of mixed farms with arable deserts – for many of the losses. The rightwing thinktanks that demand a further intensification of farming argue, as they always do these days, that their real concern is not the welfare of the rich (the businesses and bosses who pay them to develop these arguments) but the welfare of the poor. If we were to farm with wildlife rather than only profit in mind, the decline in productivity would raise the price of food, at an intolerable cost to the poor. There is some truth in this, as far as it goes. But I have never heard these people argue on the same grounds against unregulated urban sprawl, which every year takes millions of acres of good farmland permanently out of production. Far from it: they demand the scrapping of planning rules. Nor do I see them making the case for reducing the rich world's consumption of meat, to release grain for feeding humans. The immediate choice we have to make is not between biodiversity and feeding the world, but between biodiversity and blithering stupidity. As a child I watched chalk downlands – where rare orchids and wild strawberries, adonis blues and marbled whites, whitethroats and hobbies, flint pits and burial mounds, had survived since the Neolithic – being wiped clean by ploughs, to produce grain that fed nothing but the subsidy mountains. Now I watch the remaining scraps of our collective memory erased to grow biofuels that produce more greenhouse gases than the petroleum they replace. This week's issue of Fishing News tells us that around 2m tonnes of the fish sold in Europe are used for feeding other fish or terrestrial livestock, and a further million tonnes of edible fish are dumped back into the sea, dead, as they are over-quota catches. Much of this bycatch consists of species like the once common skate and once common smoothhound, which are now in danger of extinction. Japanese fishing policy might be stark raving mad; ours is scarcely saner. So where does hope lie? I'm often struck by the strength of national feeling when an artwork – even one that scarcely anyone has seen – is stolen or damaged or bought by a foreign collector. Yet our animals and plants slip away unknown and unmourned. This country's wildlife groups are admirable in many ways, but they have somehow failed to ignite our interest in most of the species threatened with national extinction, many of which are small and unobtrusive. It seems to me that one of the handicaps conservationists suffer is that few of these species have common names. It is hard to persuade people to care about something they can't pronounce. Nature is most valued when it intersects with culture. I would love to see a body like Natural England launch a public competition to name the country's nameless species: the micromoths and creeping mosses, the bashful beetles and unassuming mushrooms known only in Greek or Latin. It need simply list their characteristics, habits and locations and let the public do the rest. But it should set one condition: don't call any of them common. 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 | 15 Mar 2010 | 2:30 pm People leave unique trail of germsWASHINGTON (Reuters) - People leave more than fingerprints when they touch stuff -- they also deposit a tell-tale trail of germs that could help investigators solve crimes, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 2:19 pm Hand Bacteria Left On Surfaces Could be Forensic ToolBacteria communities are unique to individuals' hands; could be used in forensic science.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Mar 2010 | 2:04 pm Babies Are Born to DanceBabies love a beat, according to a new study that found dancing comes naturally to infants.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Mar 2010 | 2:02 pm Genetic discovery promises healing without scarsMice engineered without P21 gene regrew holes punched in their ears with no scars Human regeneration has to date been the preserve of science fiction. But mammals may have a dormant ability to regrow healthy tissue, research suggests, possibly paving the way for scar-free healing at some point in the future. Biologists believe that a gene called p21 may hold the key to spontaneous healing, which could allow limited regeneration of the human body, as witnessed in newts, flatworms and the hydra. It is thought that in mammals this healing potential has been lost through evolution, but may lie dormant in cells and could be reactivated by switching off the p21 gene. Mice engineered in the laboratory to lack the p21 gene, were able to renew surgically removed tissue so that no trace of an injury remained. Removing p21 causes adult cells to behave like stem cells – those cells in embryos with a "pluripotent" power to become any kind of tissue. In experiments, mice which were missing the gene had holes punched into their ears (as commonly done to identify lab animals), but after a few weeks all traces of the ear holes had disappeared. "Much like a newt that has lost a limb, these mice will replace missing or damaged tissue with healthy tissue that lacks any sign of scarring, said Ellen Heber-Katz, a professor at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, who led the study. "While we are just beginning to understand the repercussions of these findings, perhaps one day we'll be able to accelerate healing in humans by temporarily inactivating the p21 gene." This gene is tightly controlled by another gene, p53, which is a well-known cell division regulator and tumour suppressor. Defective p53 can lead to many types of cancer. In normal adult cells, p21 acts as an anti-cancer safety mechanism, blocking out cell division in the event of DNA damage, said the biologists. So, mice lacking p21 might be expected to suffer worsening damage to DNA, and eventually cancer. But, while increased DNA damage was observed in experimental mice, there was no cancer surge, according to a report of the research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Instead there was an increase in "cell suicide", or apoptosis, a cancer-blocking mechanism that directs dysfunctional cells to kill themselves. "The combined effects of an increase in highly regenerative cells and apoptosis may allow the cells of these organisms to divide rapidly without going out of control and becoming cancerous," said Prof Heber-Katz. 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 | 15 Mar 2010 | 1:46 pm How going green may make you meanEthical consumers less likely to be kind and more likely to steal, study finds When Al Gore was caught running up huge energy bills at home at the same time as lecturing on the need to save electricity, it turns out that he was only reverting to "green" type. According to a study, when people feel they have been morally virtuous by saving the planet through their purchases of organic baby food, for example, it leads to the "licensing [of] selfish and morally questionable behaviour", otherwise known as "moral balancing" or "compensatory ethics". Do Green Products Make Us Better People is published in the latest edition of the journal Psychological Science. Its authors, Canadian psychologists Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong, argue that people who wear what they call the "halo of green consumerism" are less likely to be kind to others, and more likely to cheat and steal. "Virtuous acts can license subsequent asocial and unethical behaviours," they write. The pair found that those in their study who bought green products appeared less willing to share with others a set amount of money than those who bought conventional products. When the green consumers were given the chance to boost their money by cheating on a computer game and then given the opportunity to lie about it – in other words, steal – they did, while the conventional consumers did not. Later, in an honour system in which participants were asked to take money from an envelope to pay themselves their spoils, the greens were six times more likely to steal than the conventionals. Mazar and Zhong said their study showed that just as exposure to pictures of exclusive restaurants can improve table manners but may not lead to an overall improvement in behaviour, "green products do not necessarily make for better people". They added that one motivation for carrying out the study was that, despite the "stream of research focusing on identifying the 'green consumer'", there was a lack of understanding into "how green consumption fits into people's global sense of responsibility and morality and [how it] affects behaviours outside the consumption domain". The pair said their findings surprised them, having thought that just as "exposure to the Apple logo increased creativity", according to a recent study, "given that green products are manifestations of high ethical standards and humanitarian considerations, mere exposure" to them would "activate norms of social responsibility and ethical conduct". Dieter Frey, a social psychologist at the University of Munich, said the findings fitted patterns of human behaviour. "At the moment in which you have proven your credentials in a particular area, you tend to allow yourself to stray elsewhere," he 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 | 15 Mar 2010 | 1:42 pm U.S. stem cell expert is "hottest" researcherWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rudolf Jaenisch, whose stem cell lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has consistently broken new barriers in the field, is the world's "hottest" researcher, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.Source: Reuters: Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 1:34 pm When a Volcano Kills QuietlyIn June of 1996 New Zealand's Mt. Ruapehu erupted with violence. Its ash cloud blotted out the sun for miles, climbing almost 30,000 feet into the atmosphere. In all, some 7 million tons of rock and ash were ejected. Yet ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 15 Mar 2010 | 1:21 pm Why I'm backing Simon SinghComedian Robin Ince explains why he hosted The Big Libel Gig, the climax of Libel Reform Week Last night I hosted The Big Libel Gig at the Palace Theatre in London, where comedy, science and human rights came together to proclaim that "England's libel laws have become a dangerous joke". Why did I host the gig? Out of ignorance. Let me explain. Every book I read should leave me knowing more, whether it's a little more about Plato or planets or patio design. Unfortunately, on the way to knowing a little more, I've also discovered that I never knew just how little I knew in the first place. It turns out there's even more things I didn't know I didn't know. I felt like that when Simon Singh's fracas with the British Chiropractic Association began. I knew I didn't know much about the libel laws of England and Wales, but I was even more ignorant than I had imagined. How could a scientist not be able to criticise ideas he found unscientific? Surely there were laws to protect that important right? Science moves forward by healthy and heated debate, not fear and silence. The days when scientists are burnt at stakes are hopefully over, which may be a pity because they do burn with a delightful blue fame. I re-embraced science after it was bored out of me in school around the time my voice started to break. Since returning to science I have discovered wonderful things about macaque monkey behaviour and the surface temperature of Venus, but I have also discovered that I spent years being bamboozled by snake oil salesmen and believing things that were not just unscientific, but frankly idiotic. I've been trying to make up for lost time, poring over the wonderful stories of scientific discovery and getting headaches as I mull over the idea that there was a time when time did not exist. Scientific progress over the past 400 years has been phenomenal. We have discovered the workings of outer space and the inner mind. Unfortunately, one ancient discovery is the potency of money over all else. We are entering a time where science writers are having their right to criticise censored by a fear of bankruptcy and all those times when editors say: "Well I agree with what you're writing, but we'd better not publish as it's a big company and they have deep pockets for a court case." Why all this bother over some mouthy scientists, you might ask. Well it's not just scientists facing the threat of legal action, it's investigative journalists, political bloggers, pretty much anyone who publishes their opinion, whether it's backed up by empirical evidence or not. In a country that likes boasting of its free speech and democratic process, that seems a parlous state of affairs. And the most important reason for me hosting this gig? Last year, Simon Singh kindly bought me a book signed by Carl Sagan. If he loses his case, he won't be able to afford to buy me another, and I think that would be a pity. Robin Ince is a stand-up comedian, writer and actor Sign the Petition for Libel Reform 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 | 15 Mar 2010 | 1:21 pm Blind soldier uses tongue device to 'see'Camera sends electrical pulses to lollypop-like sensor in mouth allowing Craig Lundberg to visualise surroundings A soldier who was blinded by a rocket propelled grenade in Iraq three years ago has been fitted with a device that allows him to "see" with his tongue, enabling him to visualise shapes, read words and walk unaided. Lance Corporal Craig Lundberg, 24, from Walton, Liverpool, lost his sight while on patrol with the 2nd Battalion Duke of Lancaster's in Basra in 2007. He has been selected by the Ministry of Defence to test the BrainPort miniature video camera and sensory equipment, which could revolutionise treatment for blind patients. The device works by converting visual images into a series of electrical pulses that are relayed to the tongue. The differing strengths and patterns of the tingles can be interpreted to build up a picture of surroundings and enable users to navigate around objects. The device consists of a tiny video camera attached to a pair of sunglasses. It is linked by wires to a plastic lollypop-like sensor which users place on their tongue to receive the electrical impulses. "It feels like licking a nine-volt battery or like popping candy," Lundberg explained. "The camera sends signals down onto the lollypop and onto your tongue, you can then determine what they mean and transfer it to shapes. "It's only a prototype, but the potential to change my life is massive. It has enabled me to pick up objects straight away, I can reach out and pick them up when before I would be fumbling around." The MoD is paying around £18,000 for the device and training for the trial. Major General Gale Pollock, a retired US officer who worked on the development programme, said the BrainPort sends information to 400 points on the tongue connection. Designers plan to upgrade this to 4,000 points, providing a clearer image. 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 | 15 Mar 2010 | 1:15 pm Ancient Amphibian Skull Discovered at AirportA newly discovered species of ancient amphibian may represent one of the earliest examples of land-based vertebrate life, scientists announced.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Mar 2010 | 1:04 pm Ocean Geoengineering Scheme May Prove LethalSeeding the oceans with iron could result in the production of a potent neurotoxin, putting the lives of birds, fish and even humans at risk.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 15 Mar 2010 | 1:01 pm FedEx fossil arrives 300m years lateA fossil amphibian has come to light on land owned by FedEx and has been named Fedexia striegeli Fossil hunters have named a 300m-year-old amphibian in honour of the courier service FedEx, after unearthing the creature on land owned by the company near a US airport. The remains of the ancient amphibian, which lived 70m years before the first dinosaurs, were recovered in 2004 from a slab of rock near Pittsburgh International Airport by Adam Striegel, an amateur fossil enthusiast on a geology field trip. Researchers at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh described the creature on the basis of its remarkably well-preserved 12cm-long skull, which survived fossilisation without being crushed. A group led by David Berman, curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the museum, identified the amphibian as a new genus and species, Fedexia striegeli, in the institution's journal, Annals of Carnegie Museum. Fedexia belongs to a family of extinct amphibians called trematopidae, which lived at a time when the Earth's climate was in the throes of a dramatic transition. The planet's oceans were increasingly becoming locked up in polar ice, causing sea levels to drop and vast swathes of land to become drier and warmer. Gradually, some groups of amphibians, including the trematopids, left their mostly aquatic environments and became more adapted to a terrestrial habitat, returning to the water perhaps only to mate or lay eggs. The remarkable preservation of its skull allowed palaeontologists to identify Fedexia as a trematopid, mainly by a hallmark feature of the group: an elongated external nasal opening. When it died, what is now Pittsburgh was situated near the equator and experienced huge downpours, making an ideal environment for amphibians to flourish. "What is particularly amazing about this discovery is that it was made by an amateur who had no prior experience in recognising vertebrate fossils in the rock, a talent that usually takes years to develop," said Berman. 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 | 15 Mar 2010 | 12:34 pm Shrimp Dinner Found Beneath Antarctic IceHigher orders of life can apparently thrive in even the most extreme environments.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 15 Mar 2010 | 12:30 pm The Sun Can't Save Us From Global WarmingWhen the sun enters solar minimum, its brightness decreases slightly. If this reduction of energy continued for an extended period of time, could it counteract global warming? Don't bet on it.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 15 Mar 2010 | 12:10 pm UK responds to EU noise directiveThe government has responded to the EU Noise Directive by publishing a long-delayed noise policy statement.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Mar 2010 | 12:08 pm Meat-Eating Amphibian Predated DinosA newly found terrestrial amphibian lived 70 million years before dinosaurs in what is now Pennsylvania.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 15 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm First Internet .com Celebrates 25th Anniversary TodayToday marks the 25th anniversary of the registration of the first .com domain name in the history of the Internet.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Mar 2010 | 11:40 am Gene That Lets Snakes See Heat Helps You Taste Wasabi
Genes that make mustard hot and spicy on human tongues also let snakes “see” heat, explaining the remarkable ability of some species to strike prey in total darkness. Until now, scientists knew that snakes’ heat perception involved the pit organ, a cavity found between the eyes and nostrils of boa constrictors, pythons and pit vipers. These species can hunt if blindfolded, but cover their pit organ and they can’t. Beyond that, however, the snakes’ sixth sense was a mystery. “Although the role of the pit organ as an infrared sensor is well-established, fundamental questions remain about its mechanism of stimulus detection,” wrote University of California, San Francisco biologists Elena Gracheva, Nicolas Ingolia and David Julius in a study published March 14 in Nature.
Some scientists have proposed that infrared photons hit light-sensitive cells in the pit organ, making it work like a rudimentary eye. But others, including the UCSF team, suspected that pit organs detect heat directly. When they measured gene activity in nerve cells that run from pit organs to snake brains, the researchers found that a gene called TRPA1 was about 400 times higher than in other snake tissues. In humans, TRPA1 produces proteins that let people detect chemical irritation and temperature difference, producing the distinctive sensation of mustard and peppers.
After the changes in ambient temperatures trigger TRPA1 activity in pit organ membranes, specialized brain structures process the signals and turn them into spatial images. According to the researchers, the findings illustrate the ability of evolution to use common components for different, highly specialized functions. As for what a mouse slathered in mustard would taste like to a snake, they do not speculate. Image: 1. Julius Lab/University of California, San Francisco 2. Comparison of TRPA1 activity in rattlesnake and rat snake cells/Nature See Also:
Citation: “Molecular basis of infrared detection by snakes.” By Elena O. Gracheva, Nicolas T. Ingolia, Yvonne M. Kelly, Julio F. Cordero-Morales, Gunther Hollopeter, Alexander T. Chesler, Elda E. Sanchez, John C. Perez, Jonathan S. Weissman, & David Julius. Nature, Advance Online Publication, March 14, 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 | 15 Mar 2010 | 11:19 am Mars moon Phobos seen in detailThe European Mars Express probe releases new pictures from its close flybys of the Martian moon Phobos.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Mar 2010 | 11:00 am What Does the Achilles Tendon Do?A tear to the Achilles' tendon can take months to heal, not something soccer star David Beckham or his fans want to hear.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Mar 2010 | 10:24 am Concentrated Solar Goes Small-ScaleThe concentrated solar concept has been around for a while and is usually found on a giant scale in arid, sunny places. Now that technology is being scaled down and incorporated into a building exterior...in Syracuse, New York. The Syracuse ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 15 Mar 2010 | 9:49 am SpaceX says Falcon 9 rocket test fire is a successCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Space Exploration Technologies successfully test fired its Falcon 9 rocket this weekend, clearing a milestone toward the inaugural flight of a privately developed spaceship to fly cargo, and possibly astronauts, into orbit, the company said.Source: Reuters: Science News | 15 Mar 2010 | 9:39 am Testosterone May Make Women NicerWomen given testosterone act nicer to others than those given a placebo, a new study finds.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Mar 2010 | 8:20 am The Ides of March: Diary of a Doomed DayThe idea that March 15 is unlucky goes back to ancient traditions and superstitions.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Mar 2010 | 8:03 am Tiger decline 'sign of failure'Governments need to crack down on the illegal trade in tiger parts if the big cats are to be saved from extinction, the UN warns.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Mar 2010 | 7:47 am Body Clock of Arctic Reindeer Ticks DifferentlyArctic reindeer lack built-in daily body clock to deal with perpetual night and day.Source: Livescience.com | 15 Mar 2010 | 7:12 am Reindeer body clock switched offReindeer have "switched off" their internal body clocks to survive dark winters and light summers in the Arctic.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Mar 2010 | 5:20 am UK minister talks climate in ChinaThe UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband is in China to hold discussions with the country's political leaders.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Mar 2010 | 4:59 am Bee swarms follow 'pied pipers'A tiny group of bees act like "pied pipers" to trigger the onset of "explosive" swarms leaving the hive, report scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Mar 2010 | 4:17 am Carbon capture plans under wayThe first stage of a planning process to build a coal plant with carbon capture technology in Ayrshire is to get under way.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Mar 2010 | 3:55 am
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When combined with images, the gravity data may provide new clues about Phobos’ composition and origin. According to one theory, Mars captured the moon from the nearby asteroid belt. Alternatively, Phobos may have formed where it now resides and could be a direct leftover from the planet-making era. With dimensions of 17 by 14 by 12 miles, the moon is the larger of Mars’ two moons.
