Obesity and passive smoking reduce oxygen supply to unborn baby

Babies born to mothers with obesity and exposed to passive smoking are more likely to have health problems than others. This conclusion is based on evidence of elevated levels of nucleated red blood cells in the umbilical cord.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

Dogs likely originated in the Middle East, new genetic data indicate

Dogs likely originated in the Middle East, a new genetic analysis by an international team of scientists indicates. Previous genetic research suggested an East Asian origin for dogs.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

Smoking, but not past alcohol abuse, may impair mental function, study suggests

Men and women with a history of alcohol abuse may not see long-term negative effects on their memory and thinking, but female smokers do, a new study suggests.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

Chemists influence stem-cell development with geometry

Scientists have successfully used geometrically patterned surfaces to influence the development of stem cells. The new approach is a departure from that of many stem-cell biologists, who focus instead on uncovering the role of proteins in controlling the fate of stem cells.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

High Arctic species on thin ice

A new assessment of the Arctic's biodiversity reports a 26 percent decline in species populations in the high Arctic.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

Genes linked to ulcerative colitis identified

A study of the human genome has now identified genes linked to ulcerative colitis, offering clues as to what causes the condition and potential avenues for new therapies to treat the disease.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

Prescribed burns may help reduce US carbon footprint

The use of prescribed burns to manage Western forests may help the United States reduce its carbon footprint. A new study finds that such burns, often used by forest managers to reduce underbrush and protect bigger trees, release substantially less carbon dioxide emissions than wildfires of the same size.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

Potent radiation treatment provides tumor control for patients with inoperable lung cancer

Early findings suggest a radiation therapy that involves numerous highly-focused and potent radiation beams provides targeted tumor control in nearly all patients, reduces treatment-related illness, and may ultimately improve survival for patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer, according to a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

Fast growing primitive black holes discovered

The most distant quasars found in the early universe, a mere 800 million years after the Big Bang, have been observed by astronomers.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

Anti-obesity drugs unlikely to provide lasting benefit, according to scientists

Scientists argue that anti-obesity drugs fail to provide lasting benefits for health and well-being because they tackle the biological consequences of obesity, and not the important psychological causes of over-consumption and weight gain.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

US ambassador urges China cooperation on Iran (AP)

AP - Beijing needs to take seriously American concerns about the value of the Chinese currency, but bilateral disputes should not impede cooperation on global issues such as climate change and Iran's nuclear program, the U.S. ambassador to Beijing said Thursday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 4:12 am

Polar bear ban defeated at UN conservation meeting (AP)

AP - A U.S.-backed proposal to ban the international trade of polar bear skins, teeth and claws was defeated Thursday at a U.N. wildlife meeting over concerns it would hurt indigenous economies and arguments the practice didn't pose a significant threat to the animals.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 4:07 am

Report fails to shed light on SoCal runaway Prius (AP)

AP - A California Highway Patrol officer responding to a report of a runway Toyota Prius last week arrived to find a Border Patrol agent near the driver with emergency lights on.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 3:56 am

Morality, with limits | Russell Blackford

We can't expect people to be either as self-denying as conservatives or as altruistic as liberals seem to want

The question: What can Darwin teach us about morality?

At least to some extent, we are a species with an evolved psychology. Like other animals, we have inherited behavioural tendencies from our ancestors, since these were adaptive for them in the sense that they tended to lead to reproductive success in past environments.

But what follows from this? It does not follow that we should now do whatever maximises our ability to reproduce and pass down our genes. For example, evolution may have honed us to desire and enjoy sex, through a process in which creatures that did so reproduced more often than their evolutionary competitors. But evolution has not equipped us with an abstract desire to pass down our genes. Knowing all this, what should we do? Well, we are not evolution's slaves. All other things being equal, we should act in accordance with the desires that we actually have, in this case the desire for sex. We may also desire to have children, but perhaps only one or two: in that case, we should act in such a way as to have as much sex as possible while also producing children in this small number.

By all means, then, let's use contraceptive technologies for family planning. This may be "unnatural", in a sense, but so what?

Generally speaking, it is rational for us to act in ways that accord with our reflectively-endorsed desires or values, rather than in ways that maximise our reproductive chances or in whatever ways we tend to respond without thinking. If we value the benefits of social living, this may require that we support and conform to socially-developed norms of conduct that constrain individuals from acting in ruthless pursuit of self-interest. Admittedly, our evolved nature may affect this, in the sense that any workable system of moral norms must be practical for the needs of beings like us, who are, it seems, naturally inclined to be neither angelically selfless nor utterly uncaring about others. Thus, our evolved psychology may impose limits on what real-world moral systems can realistically demand of human beings, perhaps defeating some of the more extreme ambitions of both conservatives and liberals. It may not be realistic to expect each other to be either as self-denying as moral conservatives seem to want or as altruistic as some liberals seem to want.

On this picture, realistic moral systems will allow considerable scope for individuals to act in accordance with whatever they actually value. However, they will also impose constraints, since truly ruthless competition among individuals would lead to widespread insecurity, suffering, and disorder. Allowing it would be inconsistent with many values that most of us adhere to, on reflection, such as the values of loving and trusting relationships, social survival, and the amelioration of suffering in the world. If, however, we are social animals that already have an evolved sympathetic responsiveness to each other, the yoke of a realistic moral system may be relatively light for most of us most of the time.

Is this way of looking at things shocking? A rational and realistic approach to morality, based on our actual, reflectively-endorsed desires and values, and how they are best realised in current circumstances, might deflate some expectations. It might also diverge from familiar moral teachings, handed down through religious and cultural traditions. Much that is found in traditional Christian morality, with its shame about the body and guilt about sexual pleasure, and its glorification of piety, self-abnegation, and asceticism, might have to be abandoned if viewed rationally. But realising all this need not be shocking. If it leads to some deflation of extreme political expectations and to some reason-based correction of traditional morality, we should welcome it.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 18 Mar 2010 | 3:00 am

Primordial 'Dust Free' Monsters Lurk at the Edge of the Universe

On the very edge of our observable universe live two quasars. Both contain active and growing primordial black holes, but where's all the dust?
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Mar 2010 | 2:57 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - After a brief stint of fairly quiet weather activity over most of the West, a new patch of active weather was expected to move into the region Thursday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 18 Mar 2010 | 2:11 am

Meet the beetles

Behind the scenes with the Natural History Museum's unsung heroes, who collect and classify new species of animals and insects

Like most young men, Henry Walter Bates sought adventure. Unlike most, he was also obsessed with beetles. So in 1848, aged 23, he set sail from Liverpool on the trading ship Mischief, bound for Brazil. During 11 years in "savage solitudes", the naturalist fell ill with malaria, yellow fever and dysentery; he was horribly lonely but, despite physical pain and mental anguish, he kept on collecting rainforest species never before seen by European eyes. When he left South America, never to return, he shipped to the Natural History Museum more than 8,000 different species – mostly insects – that were previously unknown to science.

The Victorians' wonder at the miracles of nature, and their hunger to conquer foreign lands, has long made species hunting seem an anachronistic endeavour. Theirs was an age of never-to-be-repeated mapping of the world's plants and animals, a time of The Origin of Species and the feting of explorer-scientists such as Bates, Alfred Russel Wallace and Darwin. The discovery and naming of things has never quite captured the public imagination in the same way since.

Yet now, barely a week passes without the breathless announcement of a dramatic new find, from the Sundaland clouded leopard (a species of big cat filmed for the first time in Borneo) to a flesh-eating pitcher plant so large it can devour rats, which was found by a young British species hunter during an expedition to the Philippines.

Suddenly, species hunters and taxonomists can hardly go to work without being followed by a camera crew. Following on from the success of last year's Lost Land of the Volcano, about species hunters in Papua New Guinea, comes a new BBC series, Museum of Life. Filmed over 18 months, Jimmy Doherty (of Jimmy's Farm fame) examines the pioneering work of some of the 300 scientists tending to, and augmenting, the the Natural History Museum's collection of 70 million animals, plants, fossils and minerals.

We are, it seems, experiencing "a second wave of exploration that almost matches the Victorians", says George McGavin, an academic who headed up the Lost Land of the Volcano expedition. So what is driving this? Even now, the vast majority of life on earth remains undocumented by science. Scientists estimate there are between eight and 10 million species but, from bacteria to blue whales, we have so far only "described" – ie classified – 1.5m of them. At best, we have named one in six of every type of living thing. Last summer, a mysterious new insect was even found in the Natural History Museum gardens in London. Species hunting scientists are desperate to document the diversity of the world before we destroy it.

Going behind the scenes at the Natural History Museum is a rare treat; this is a working museum as magical as anything in fiction. Dust motes sail across crepuscular alcoves, where curators hunch over miniscule specimens on a gloomy mezzanine floor that looks unchanged from Bates's day. The smell of naphthalene – mothballs – is overpowering. Maxwell Barclay, head curator of coleoptera and hemiptera (beetles, to non-scientists) has travelled to Bolivia, Thailand, Taiwan and Peru. Unlike Bates, he collects intensively for just three weeks. Transporting finds is not a problem: thousands of beetles will pack into a small suitcase.

Barclay picks up a test tube, swimming with a sinister tangle of dead beetles. "That's what we call insect stew," he says. Specimens are brought to the museum like this, pickled in alcohol, dried, labelled, pinned inside old mahogany drawers and, finally, identified – possibly adding to the 400,000 beetles already described. Barclay grabs a tray of dung beetles collected from Kruger national park in South Africa. They have shiny shells of iridescent green and dark maroon, and are still being sorted into species and groups. He points to another, different insect, a reddish brown blob that could perch on the head of a drawing pin. He knows it is a type of leafhopper "that just happened to fly into one of the dung beetle traps", but suspects it "is unknown to science".

The world of the species hunter is endearingly low-tech. In 1848, Bates slung a shotgun over one shoulder and bags for the birds he was collecting over the other. Today's species hunters don't carry guns, but Alex Monro, a botanist at the museum, still wraps his specimens in bundles of newspaper and soaks them in alcohol, before putting them in plastic bags. "It's very retro. We regularly use mules to transport them," says Monro, who has been species hunting in La Amistad – a steep, inaccessible world-heritage site spanning Costa Rica and Panama. In Bolivia, Barclay caught beetles by hanging a sheet behind a UV lamp, laying another on the ground, and sitting through the night, picking fallen bugs from the sheet one by one. In this way, 25,000 specimens were collected in three-and-a-half weeks – from which, so far, they have found 25 new species.

"The work is physically quite hard, the conditions are uncomfortable and the walking is a real killer, so you have to be motivated – but I'm not an obsessive," says Monro, an expert in the nettle family of flowering plants. "The buzz that I'm addicted to is being somewhere where you see and collect things for the first time ever – that's a tremendous sense of discovery."

But aren't species hunters also motivated by the desire to be the first to give new species a scientific name? Doesn't rivalry drive them on? "For some people, yes," Barclay admits. "There are rogue taxonomists, just like there are rogues in every field. But most seriously believe we have a duty to understand the diversity of the planet."

Another species hunter reveals he was dismayed to receive a paper to peer-review that described a species he had also found, but had not yet got round to describing – the equivalent of a journalist being scooped on a story. "The fastest is the best – it's like Darwin, the strongest will survive," says the museum's butterfly curator, Blanca Huertas, of the rush to get species described. This can take a long time: collectors need to gather more than one specimen to properly describe a species because individuals may simply be freak mutations, and there is always the risk of describing an already recognised species.

Why does it matter whether we know about an obscure beetle living in Papua New Guinea? In part, it's because we need fungi and bacteria for all our antibiotics, while thousands more useful chemicals and remedies lie undiscovered in nature – although species hunters at the Natural History Museum do not get involved in this "bio-prospecting", according to Monro. The scientists find, classify and describe; it is up to governments what use their discoveries are put to.

But the authorities are often suspicious, says Barclay, and do not always understand that scientists are not seeking to get rich by finding magic cures, but simply documenting biodiversity, the most valuable thing of all. Beetles are often crucial cogs in ecosystems, while even butterflies have a function. "Butterflies are biological indicators," says Huertas. "They are great indicators of the quality of the environment. In the UK, butterflies are one of the best-studied groups, and so can help us understand why the climate is changing because the populations are moving and changing."

"To me," says Barclay, "just knowing there are thousands of organisms being destroyed and not attempting to document them is ridiculous. Understanding what makes the universe tick is part of our stewardship of the planet." Discoveries beget discoveries: "Charles Darwin was interested in collecting beetles because he thought beetles were pretty. Being wealthy, he funds a trip to collect a bunch of stuff, goes home, thinks about it, and comes up with a theory that changes human existence. Just because he likes beetles. If you choose to live in complete ignorance of the world around us, we're not going to make these discoveries."

McGavin, though, fears the current fascination with finding new species masks the damage we are doing to the planet's biodiversity. "Although it's a second wave of exploration that almost matches the Victorians, this could well be a short-lived renaissance. The bad side to this [species hunting] is that it gives the impression that everything is fine. The real story is habitat loss. In 50 years' time, this [species exploration] won't happen any more."

Controversially, McGavin argues it is not necessary to identify all the species of the world. "We probably don't need to describe everything, and the chances of us doing that are virtually nil because stuff is being lost at such an alarming rate." He says that to save the biodiversity of the planet, we must protect hotspots such as the rainforests in the Papua New Guinea and the Amazon, where most species reside.

"The priority, the absolute imperative, is to preserve habitat – particularly tropical rainforests – because that, apart from the oceans, is where we know most species live," McGavin says. "If we don't, by 2050 and perhaps even earlier, we're going to lose at least half the species on earth – an extinction event which is almost unbelievably fast, dwarfs anything that happened in the past, and is entirely due to us."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 18 Mar 2010 | 2:00 am

Multiple Generations Under One Roof, Again

Extended families are living together more these days, with a bad economy partly responsible.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 11:27 pm

Multiple Generations Under One Roof, Again (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Adult children are moving back in with parents, and grandparents are taking up residence with their kids' families. Sound like old times? In fact, multi-generational households are making a comeback, according to a report released today.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Mar 2010 | 10:31 pm

Frank Capra: Most Prescient Film-maker of the 20th Century

With a degree in chemical engineering, Capra anticipated one of the most important issues of our generation -- global warming -- by several decades.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Mar 2010 | 10:25 pm

Elite English universities gain in 2010 funding round

But other institutions left with a smaller slice of the pie.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/k4gVv9B4qqg" height="1" width="1"/>
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 17 Mar 2010 | 10:01 pm

Sizing Up Liquid Metal Battery Tech

Recently I got a glimpse at energy-related research in the works at MIT during an afternoon at the MIT Energy Initiative, an interdisciplinary program pursuing sustainable energy solutions. Among the mind-blowing projects is a liquid metal battery for grid-scale energy ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Mar 2010 | 9:56 pm

Dogs domesticated in Middle East, not Asia

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - From French poodles to German shepherds, domestic dogs likely trace most of their ancestry to the Middle East, as opposed to East Asian origins suggested by previous research, a genetic study reported on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 17 Mar 2010 | 8:00 pm

What is God's Role in Natural Disasters?

Religion and science are of similar minds when it comes to dealing with natural disasters.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Mar 2010 | 5:48 pm

Royal Institution crisis grows over ousted boss Lady Greenfield

• Rebels move to replace entire governing council
• Warning that 'coup' would threaten organisation

The financially troubled Royal Institution sank deeper into crisis today as senior members clashed over moves to oust the organisation's ruling council en masse.

Moves to replace the entire governing body were drawn up in protest after the Institution's director, Lady Susan Greenfield, was made redundant in January without the membership being consulted.

The Institution, the oldest independent research body in the world, will hold a vote on the proposals at a special general meeting on 12 April, but documents circulated by the council to its 2,400 members warned supporters they risked causing "immense harm" to the organisation and would "threaten its financial stability".

Rebel members said much-needed benefactors would have greater confidence in their proposed replacement council, which they would like to see include Julian Hunt, the former head of the Met Office; John Stein, professor of physiology at Oxford University and Baroness Sally Greengross.

"They are scapegoating and scaremongering," one member told the Guardian. "The turkeys are saying: please don't vote for Christmas."

The Royal Institution was set up 211 years ago and counts Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday among its former directors.

It has been in financial trouble since spending £22m on refurbishing its Mayfair premises in 2008 to include an upmarket bar and restaurant, a project driven by Greenfield. The work was funded by selling off property that had provided substantial income for the Institution. The organisation has also suffered from poor interest rates on its remaining assets.

Chris Rofe, the Institution's chief executive, today opposed the proposals to replace the council. "The Royal Institution is now well positioned to capitalise on the benefits of the refurbished premises and the drive, skill and creativity of its staff. This positive momentum will not be helped by such combative manoeuvres ... and the inevitable instability this process creates."

Last month it emerged that the Institution was being investigated by the Charity Commission after admitting it was leasing office space to a company run by its chairman, Adrian de Ferranti, without legal permission. The inquiry is ongoing.

Since being ousted from her job, Greenfield has begun legal proceedings to bring a sex discrimination case against her former employers. The case, which may be heard as early as June, could cost the institution £500,000 in damages.

The proposals drawn up by the rebel members include a request that the RI reinstall a plaque that was mounted on a wall in honour of Greenfield's accomplishments at the organisation. The plaque has since been put back, but has been bent .Greenfield, 59, was a divisive figure in her 12 years as the head of the Royal Institution. Supporters credit her with raising the profile of science and female scientists, but critics say she has used the post to enhance her own profile.Members will be asked to vote in April on proposals to demand an explanation from the council for its decision to dissolve the post of director, and to "refresh" or remove entirely the existing council and replace it with a new transitional governing body. A new council could decide to reinstate Greenfield.

Nicholas Beale, a fellow of the RI, said: "The Royal Institution needs clear vision, first-rate leadership and sound finances. The people on the proposed transitional council have international reputations and would be excellently placed to achieve this. The idea that serious donors and business partners would be put off by having a Council of such stature, which has the confidence of the leadership of the UK scientific establishment, is preposterous."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Mar 2010 | 5:46 pm

The Oldest Trees on the Planet

Pando

While Pando isn’t technically the oldest individual tree, this clonal colony of Quaking Aspen in Utah is truly ancient. The 105-acre colony is made of genetically identical trees, called stems, connected by a single root system. The “trembling giant” got its start at least 80,000 years ago, when all of our human ancestors were still living in Africa. But some estimate the woodland could be as old as 1 million years, which would mean Pando predates the earliest Homo sapiens by 800,000 years. At 6,615 tons, Pando is also the heaviest living organism on earth.

The photo above of the Pando colony was taken by Rachel Sussman, as part of The Oldest Living Things In The World project.

Image: “Clonal Quaking Aspens #0906-4318 (80,000 years old, Fish Lake, UT)” / Rachel Sussman

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 17 Mar 2010 | 5:45 pm

Male pipefish abort embryos of ugly mothers

Males show sexual selection before and after copulation.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 17 Mar 2010 | 5:13 pm

Vatican Investigates Virgin Mary Miracle

According to an AP story, the Vatican has begun an investigation into miracles and appearances of the Virgin Mary at the famous Medjugorje shrine in Bosnia. “An international commission of inquiry headed by Italian Cardinal Camillo Ruini — a top ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Mar 2010 | 4:18 pm

Scientists supersize quantum mechanics

Largest ever object put into quantum state.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 17 Mar 2010 | 4:01 pm

Science in court: DNA's identity crisis

It may be the gold standard of forensic science, but questions are now being raised about DNA identification from ever-smaller human traces. Natasha Gilbert asks how low can you go?
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 17 Mar 2010 | 4:00 pm

Science in court: The fine print

A single incriminating fingerprint can land someone in jail. But, Laura Spinney finds, there is little empirical basis for such decisions.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 17 Mar 2010 | 4:00 pm

Hobbit origins pushed back

Stone tools reveal that hominins lived on the Indonesian island of Flores a million years ago.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 17 Mar 2010 | 4:00 pm

Science in court: Head case

Last year, functional magnetic resonance imaging made its debut in court. Virginia Hughes asks whether the technique is ready to weigh in on the fate of murderers.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 17 Mar 2010 | 4:00 pm

World view: What can little Europe do?

Scientists must engage with the European Union's redesign of its research programmes to shore up the continent's competitive position.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 17 Mar 2010 | 4:00 pm

Arctic animals doing better, but not close to pole (AP)

AP - The overall number of animals in the Arctic has increased over the past 40 years ago, according to a new international study. But critters who live closest to the North Pole are disappearing.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:52 pm

Tests for genes don't predict breast cancer better (Reuters)

Reuters - Studying genes linked to breast cancer may someday lead to better treatments, but they do little to improve a doctor's ability to predict who is likely to develop a tumor, researchers reported on Wednesday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:39 pm

News briefing: 18 March 2010

The week in science
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:30 pm

Carbon Capture & Sequestration

Captured Carbon Can Pump New Energy
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:13 pm

Wildlife service plans for a warmer world

US interior department seeks ways to save species threatened by climate change.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

Smithsonian opens $21M human evolution hall (AP)

AP - Hundreds of early human fossils, artifacts and forensically recreated faces of our prehistoric relatives went on display Wednesday, exploring 6 million years of evolution at the National Museum of Natural History.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:54 pm

NASA Shows Ireland From Space for St. Patrick's Day (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - If wearing green and watching a parade isn't enough for you this St. Patrick's Day, NASA has unveiled the emerald day's Irish homeland as it appears from space.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:46 pm

A Blood Test for Colon Cancer Sounds Great--But It's Short on Proof (U.S. News & World Report)

U.S. News & World Report - It's an eye-catching headline: " 'Revolutionary' Blood Test for Colon Cancer Screening Announced." The press release goes on to say that EDP Biotech Corp., based in Tennessee, will today brief its home state's legislators on what it calls a "breakthrough blood test" that "could save thousands of colon cancer deaths and billions in healthcare costs each year." (It not only briefed them, a later release said; it offered them the chance to participate in a study.) The company is hoping for approval from the Food and Drug Administration in the next couple of years.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:42 pm

Cool: New Exoplanet Is Near Habitable Zone

Extrasolar planet hunters are excited about a not-so-hot discovery. For the first time, they’ve found a relatively cool extrasolar planet that they can study in detail.

The finding is a milestone, says study co-author Hans Deeg of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Tenerife, Spain, because it is the first time astronomers have found an extrasolar planet that not only is cool enough to be similar in composition and history to the familiar solar system gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, but also passes in front of the star it orbits.

Although a number of extrasolar planets with moderate temperatures have been discovered, only a planet that passes in front of — or transits — its star can be studied in depth. The starlight that filters through the atmosphere of the planet during each passage reveals the orb’s composition, while the amount of starlight that is blocked outright indicates the planet’s size.

All the other transiting planets seen so far have been “weird — inflated and hot” because they orbit so close to their stars, notes study collaborator Didier Queloz of the Geneva Observatory in Sauverny, Switzerland. Deeg, Queloz and their colleagues report their findings in the March 18 Nature.

The planet, found with the COROT satellite and dubbed COROT-9b, lies 1,500 light-years from Earth and never gets closer to its star than Mercury’s average distance from the sun. That puts the surface temperature of the planet in a relatively temperate range, somewhere between 250 kelvins and 430 kelvins (-23˚ to 157˚ Celsius). Although the gaseous planet isn’t expected to be habitable, its atmosphere could contain water vapor.

If this Jupiter-like planet has a moon, that satellite’s rocky surface could be habitable, says Sara Seager of MIT. But a planetary system closer to Earth would offer a better chance of searching for the tiny gravitational tug of such a moon, Seager adds.

“This discovery adds weight to the fact that we know that planets often orbit in or close to the habitable zone, so we should not be surprised when the Kepler or COROT satellites or some ground-based search makes the claim for the first habitable Earth or super-Earth,” comments Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C.

Nevertheless, finding such a planet is encouraging news, Seager says, because “where there is gold dust there might be a gold mine.”

Citation: “2010A transiting giant planet with a temperature between 250K and 430K” by Deeg, H.J. et al. Nature 464:384. doi:10.1038/nature08856

Image: ESO/L. Calçada

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:34 pm

Hobbit ancestors once colonized Indonesia island

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Ancestors of a hobbit-like species of humans may have colonized the Indonesian island of Flores as far back as a million years ago, much earlier than thought, according to a new study published Thursday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:20 pm

Seminal ’70s Environmental TV Series Now Online

Every episode of what was probably the environmental movement’s first television series is now available on the web.

Our Vanishing Wilderness first aired almost 40 years ago. The eight half-hour episodes were broadcast by the PBS precursor, National Educational Television beginning in October of 1970. They are now available on a website created by another NET descendant, the New York public channelThirteen.

The production values of the show are a far cry from the ultra-slow-mo, high-definition extravaganzas epitomized by the BBC’s Planet Earth. The series was created by nature writer Mary Louise Grossman and her husband Shelly, a nature photographer. It is low-resolution and grainy. The tone is groovy in that slow, Saganish way but tinged with deep sadness over the loss of American biodiversity.

“Forty years ago, a small crew of filmmakers set out to document some of the more pressing issues involving wildlife in America. They made eight half-hour films around the country — it ended up being the first environmental TV series in the U.S.,” the Thirteen website maintains. “Shot in 1969, the issues weren’t new, but hadn’t been handled much yet on television — the medium had yet to embrace the environmental movement.”

The eight shows are a mini-study in the issues most important to the environmentalists of the day. The Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969, which has been described as “the spark that brought the environmental issue to the nation’s attention,” features prominently. Also covered are the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska. Its construction and operation brought a consortium of different environmental groups to the remote reaches of the Arctic.

And there’s also some good, old-fashioned nature porn like the fight between an owl and a snake embedded below.

The shows were actually digitized last year, but have not received wide circulation. A tip from web producer Robin Edgerton, who worked on the project at Thirteen, brought the series to our attention.

The strange and discordant music that accompanies the opening sequence was arranged by Barry Kornfeld, who may be the same Barry Kornfeld who played guitar with Bob Dylan and on the Van Morrison track, “The Way Young Lovers Do.”

See Also:

• The '70s Photos That Made Us Want to Save Earth
• The Environmentalism of Wall-E
• Op-Ed: Stop Trying to Save the Planet

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:12 pm

What Science and Art Have In Common

Climate scientist who proposed cloud whitening also writes plays, poems.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 2:07 pm

'Cool Jupiter' Widens Exoplanet Search

The exoplanet could be the Rosetta Stone in the search for worlds beyond our own.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:45 pm

Planck spies massive dust clouds

Europe's Planck space telescope pictures the colossal swathes of cold dust that spread through the Milky Way galaxy.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:27 pm

Teen victim of Australia's war massacre identified after almost 100 years

Gene tests help name some of 250 bodies at Fromelles, where 5,533 Australian troops died in single day in first world war

No one knows exactly what happened to Harry Willis, a fresh-faced 19-year-old farmer's boy from Victoria in Australia, who died on the evening of 19 July, 1916 in the battle of Fromelles on the western front, but thanks to two medallions presented to him by the proud authorities in Alberton when he volunteered, his body has finally been identified after 94 years.

Harry's is one of 75 bodies of Australian troops to whom names can now be put, out of 250 uncovered from a mass grave at Fromelles, a village 10 miles (16km) west of Lille. Their identities were released for the first time yesterday. The burial pit, first discovered three years ago, is the largest uncovered from the first world war in modern times. The bodies have been reinterred in the first new war cemetery to be opened on the western front since the 1920s. It will be consecrated on the anniversary of the battle in the summer.

"We historians spend a lot of time trying to counteract the image of the first world war as being fought by lions led by donkeys," said Peter Francis of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). "But the battle of Fromelles was the exception that proves the rule – it was a complete and utter fiasco, badly planned and executed, though that was not the troops' fault.

"The poor men did not know what was beyond the German line or what they should do when they got there. There was fierce hand-to-hand fighting in the German trenches."

Dr Tony Pollard, director of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at Glasgow University, who led the first official investigation of the site in 2007, said: "It was just mass slaughter. This identification brings home the individual tragedies involved. A few bodies are still discovered every year on the western front, but nothing on this scale."

The assault on the German salient that summer evening was meant as no more than a diversion from the battle of the Somme, then into its third attritional week 50 miles to the south, and was intended to prevent the Germans diverting troops to the main theatre. The attack was such a disaster that it was called off the following day.

The Australian troops, newly arrived in France a few days earlier and the first to go into action on the western front, and British soldiers of the 61st division – equally callow territorial soldiers from Midlands regiments such as the Warwickshires and Gloucesters – were thrown into the attack in full daylight after a bombardment which failed to clear the German trenches.

The Australian and British, thrown together haphazardly from units not fighting on the Somme, were mown down by machinegun fire. One survivor, Jimmy Downing, reported: "The air was thick with bullets, swishing in a flat, crisscrossed lattice of death. Hundreds were mown down in the flicker of an eyelid, like great rows of teeth knocked from a comb."

About a fifth of the attackers were killed or wounded, some after they penetrated German lines and were then cut off. The 5,533 Australian casualties that night were as many as the country suffered in the Boer, Korean and Vietnam wars combined, and the country's war memorial describes the battle as the worst 24 hours in Australia's history.

The Germans – as was customary and as they did with their own casualties – buried the dead in mass graves and, in accordance with convention, sent their identifying dogtags to the Red Cross. As a result, many of those whose bodies have been uncovered have few identifying marks beyond their scraps of uniform or badges. Troops only had one dogtag at that stage, usually made of cardboard or leather, so any still left on bodies would long since have deteriorated in the mud. Soldiers wishing for metal tags had to buy their own.

The process of identification of the skeletons has been painstakingly slow. DNA has been matched with that of relatives, but also the bodies' height and age ranges have been compared with the service records of those known to have been lost in the battle.

The evidence has to be "clear and convincing", according to the CWGC, before identification is confirmed.

Three British bodies were found in the pit, but none have so far been identified, though some British-born troops serving with Australian regiments have been discovered.

Kevan Jones, the British veterans' minister, said: "Identification is a challenging task and this has been no exception. We are disappointed that there was insufficient evidence to name British soldiers. What is most important is that these men have all been laid to rest with the dignity and honour they deserve."

Of the 75 Australian bodies that now have names, there are 60 privates, six corporals, three sergeants and six officers, the highest ranking being Major Victor Sampson.

The CWGC's Fromelles website yesterdaylisted the names and published the photographs of some of the men, among them Private Willis looking extraordinarily young in his slouch hat. It was the discovery of his medallions which started the identification process.

Willis's relatives still live in Victoria. His grand-nephew Tim Whitford, himself a former serviceman, visited the excavation two years ago and was one of the first to be told that his ancestor had been identified. "I told him last night and he was ecstatic and going to tell his grandmother," said Pollard.

Also uncovered with the bodies were more than 6,000 artefacts, some unbearably poignant. They included a return train ticket from Fremantle to Perth, for a journey never completed; a French phrase book with "Don't shoot" underlined; a heart-shaped locket containing a strand of hair and crumpled pages from a Catholic prayer book for the evening service, in which the owner had marked the phrase "Peace with God".

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:23 pm

Who Was St. Patrick?

How to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in the United States: Cover yourself in green (bonus points for shamrocks), put a smiling leprechaun cut-out on your front door, head to your local "Irish Pub" after work, get rowdy and wasted. How ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:23 pm

Limits of quantum world stretched

Scientists have created the largest-ever "quantum state", a result that has implications for quantum physics and computing.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:16 pm

Pregnant Male Fish Can Choose Abortion

Male gulf pipefishes – one of the only species whose males can become pregnant – can selectively abort embryos from less attractive females, new research finds.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 1:01 pm

Pipefish show the dark side of male pregnancy

Far from being model fathers, male pipefish abort embryos from less attractive females

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:19 pm

New exoplanet like 'one of ours'

A new temperate planet, found 1,500 light-years away from Earth, has similarities to planets within our own Solar System.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:19 pm

National Broadband Plan Not Ambitious Enough, Experts Say

The National Broadband Plan that the FCC unveiled Tuesday calls for Internet download speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mpbs) to be available in 100 million U.S. homes by 2020.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 12:05 pm

Robot Baby Teaches Parenting Skills

It giggles and then it cries. It coos and then it wails. Ah yes. The wild swing of emotions from babies is now replicated in robots. Engineering students from Tsukuba University north of Tokyo in Japan have given birth to ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Mar 2010 | 11:34 am

Lunar Orbiter Spots Long Lost Russian Rover

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has picked out the final resting place of the Soviet Lunokhod 2 rover after a Canadian researcher followed the 37 year old tire tracks captured in recently released moon photos.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Mar 2010 | 11:21 am

Quantum Physics Used to Control Mechanical System

By using a quantum device to control a mechanical object, researchers have linked the mind-bending laws of quantum physics to the tangible, everyday world.

Until now, quantum physical behaviors were observed at atomic and subatomic scales, or in medium-sized molecules. Now they’ve been found in something that bumps and grinds, visible with nothing fancier than a high school lab-issue microscope.

“At the macroscopic scale we live in, we don’t see quantum effects at all,” said Andrew Cleland, a University of California, Santa Barbara, physicist. “The goal of the experiment was to see if we could see quantum mechanical effects in a large, mechanical object.”

The mechanical object used in the experiment, published March 17 in Nature and led by Cleland and fellow UCSB physicists John Martinis and Aaron O’Connell, is a 0.0002 millimeter-square wafer of quartzlike material bracketed by metal plates. The wafer is a piezoelectric resonator, expanding and contracting in response to electrical voltages at a precise, extremely high frequency. Cleland likened its expansion and contraction to the inflation and deflation of a balloon.

The quantum device is a qubit, a term that generically refers to a kind of quantum transistor being used for quantum computation, in this case made from an ultrathin aluminum-based superconductor. At extremely cold temperatures, it goes quantum: It exists in an oscillating waveform spanning an excited state, an unexcited state, or both simultaneously, all controlled by electrical currents.

With their experiment, the researchers have not only fulfilled a two decade-old dream of controlling quantum motion in micrometer-sized system, but “opened the door for quantum control of truly macroscopic mechanical devices,” wrote Aspelmeyer.

To do so, Cleland’s team wired a qubit to a resonator, then cooled them to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, the point at which all atomic motion nearly stops. At this temperature, the vibrations of the atoms in the qubit and resonator are small enough to prevent them from interfering with quantum measurements.

When the researchers sent a pulse of energy into the qubit, the resulting energy quantum was transferred to the resonator, which fluctuated accordingly. With extraordinarily acute vision, “you’d see it expanding and contracting. You’d see it vibrating. These are quantum vibrations,” said Cleland.

In a study published in September in Nature, Cleland’s team coupled two qubits in what’s known as quantum entanglement, in which the oscillations of one were linked to the oscillations of the other, even when physically distant. That feat drew attention for demonstrating quantum properties in a large, visible system, but the properties themselves still belonged to electrons, in which quantum effects are routinely observed and controlled.

In a sense, it was the same old quantum physics. The latest results occur in a new world, one that quantum physicists have tried to enter for nearly two decades. In a commentary accompanying the paper, University of Vienna physicist Markus Aspelmeyer described the reaction of an audience of physicists to whom Cleland described the experiment’s design. “Dead silence — and then roaring applause,” he recalled.

One of the principles of quantum physics, illustrated by the Schrodinger’s cat thought experiment, is that the act of measurement collapses an object’s waveform into a single, observed state. To get around this conundrum, the researchers used a repetitive measurement, preparing the system and then measuring its waveform millions of times.

At a precise moment during one trial, the resonator might be both in its expanded and its contracted state; a single measurement forces it to “choose” which state to be in. The quantum nature of its behavior emerged from the accumulated readings. “If we do it enough times, we can assign a probability to the state at each point,” said Cleland. 

According to Aspelmeyer, the findings could inform the design of storage devices used in quantum computers. Cleland isn’t sure the system will be reliable enough for that, but thinks it could be used in exploring how the subatomic rules of quantum physics are manifested at higher scales.

Schrodinger’s cat experiment is likely impossible, because the cat itself is a measuring device, said Cleland. However, it might be possible with other large but inanimate objects linked to a quantum device.

“If you had a tuning fork and got it cold enough, maybe that could behave quantum mechanically,” he said.

Image: Schematic of the resonator-qubit system./Nature

See Also:

• Everywhere in a Flash: The Quantum Physics of Photosynthesis
• Quantum Computing Thrives on Chaos
• Ultra-Precise Quantum-Logic Clock Trumps Old Atomic Clock
• Quantum Entanglement Visible to the Naked Eye
• “Sudden Death” Threatens Quantum Computing

Citations: “Quantum ground state and single-phonon control of a mechanical resonator.” By A. D. O’Connell, M. Hofheinz, M. Ansmann, Radoslaw C. Bialczak, M. Lenander, Erik Lucero, M. Neeley, D. Sank, H. Wang, M. Weides, J. Wenner, John M. Martinis & A. N. Cleland. Nature,  March 18, 2010.

“The surf is up.” By Markus Aspelmeyer. Nature,  March 18, 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 | 17 Mar 2010 | 11:11 am

Prehistoric Shark Attack Reconstructed

A prehistoric shark attack was pieced together from bite marks found on the remains of the victim, a dolphin.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 10:58 am

In pictures: Arctic peril

Populations of many species living in the high Arctic have declined by one quarter, according to a new assessment measuring how the wildlife there is responding to environmental change.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Mar 2010 | 10:22 am

Why Do Some Clovers Have Four Leaves?

Four-leaf clovers sometimes pop up among the three-leaf kind due to a genetic mutation.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 10:18 am

Iditarod Winner Makes History

Lance Mackey is the first musher to win the 1,000-mile race four years in a row.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Mar 2010 | 9:48 am

New Toyota Troubles: Copycat Complaints?

Copycat complaints often occur in the wake of widely publicized events, especially of defective or tampered products.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 9:47 am

Kids These Days: Study Exposes 'Generation Me'

Today's teens have similar values and attitudes as generations past.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 9:33 am

NASA Crashes Helicopters to Improve Safety

A cushioning device called a deployable energy absorber (DEA) is being tested by NASA on helicopters that have to make crash landings.
Source: Livescience.com | 17 Mar 2010 | 9:24 am

Catlin Arctic Survey: 'It's -38C but worth all the hardship'

Catlin touches down on the Arctic ice and begins taking samples straight away despite problems with their water

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Mar 2010 | 8:54 am

Philosophy of science: Must do better

Jon Butterworth responds to philosopher Nicholas Maxwell's assault on science and scientists

I strive to retain respect for philosophy and philosophers, really I do. Some of my best friends are philosophers. I would hate to dismiss a whole area of intellectual endeavour as a sterile playground for clever people creating and demolishing pointless academic fashions.

But you can tell I am struggling hard right now, and it is all Nicholas Maxwell's fault. His entry into the heated debate on climate science rained blow after blow on my patience. I will resist, and will not damn all philosophy. But I do want to respond to his piece, since the debate he stumbled into is real and important.

On communication: There is clearly a problem with the public perception of science. The criticism that Maxwell makes about too much "specialised gobbledygook" may be hilarious, coming from a philospher, but it is a fair criticism in some contexts. Science really can be complex and difficult (sorry Nicholas). Jargon is a short-hand to improve communication between experts which quickly becomes an obstacle if used outside a sub-field.

More misleadingly, Maxwell accuses scientists of dishonestly claiming that science is a search for truth. He starts by misrepresenting physics:

"At present most of them [scientists] take for granted the view that the intellectual aim of science is to acquire knowledge of truth, the basic method being to assess, impartially, claims to knowledge with respect to evidence – nothing being accepted permanently as a part of scientific knowledge independently of evidence. But this is nonsense. Physics only ever accepts theories that are unified – that attribute the same laws to all the phenomena to which the theory in question applies – even though many empirically more successful disunified rivals can always be concocted."

As far as I can tell his claim is that in trying to find simple theories covering the maximum amount of data, we somehow assume that such theories exist, and discard "more successful" disunified theories. In his philosophical way I think he is saying that if you have 100 data points and draw a line through them freehand, you can go through all the points. Which is true, but a worthless observation since playing join-the-dots with data doesn't tell you anything. You only gain understanding when you find a line that can explain and predict where the dots should be.

Maxwell then leaps onward to damn all science according to his inaccurate characterisation of physics. His false impression of physics might be forgiven on the basis that perhaps he read one too many pop science books about "theories of everything". But to stretch this to cover chemistry, biology and climate science is ridiculous. While there are underlying models in many areas of these sciences, they are hugely empirical. The complex systems they deal with are in many cases impossible to predict from first principles. The models used often rely on "rules of thumb" drawn from observation of the whole system, as well as basic physical laws.

Science is a form of systematised pragmatism: it finds out what works, and in the process we increase our understanding of the universe in which we live. I have no objection to philosophers watching, and trying to understand and improve the processes. It might even work. But they really ought to (and often do) have an understanding of what they are watching.

Science often falls short of its ideals, and the climate debate has exposed some shortcomings. Science is done by people, who need grants, who have professional rivalries, limited time, and passionately held beliefs. All these things can prevent us from finding out what works. This is why the empiricism and pragmatism of science are vital, and why when scientific results affect us all, and speak against powerful political and financial interests, the openness and rigour of the process become ever more important.

This is worth discussing, and I sincerely hope philosophers of science can do better than Maxwell in contributing to a debate of huge significance for the future of our species.

Jon Butterworth is a member of the High Energy Physics Group at University College London

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Mar 2010 | 8:03 am

Blinded soldier 'sees' with his tongue

New technology is helping a soldier blinded by a grenade attack in Basra see again using a camera that sends electrical impulses to his tongue

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Mar 2010 | 7:54 am

Daffodils are blooming scarce this spring

The long, cold winter means traditional spring flowers are thin on the ground, especially at the Thriplow daffodil festival

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Visitors will pause in wonder, and murmur rapturously with William Wordsworth:

"…when all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of bare green stalks,

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Rattling stiffly in the breeze."

Despite promises from the Met office of a belated outbreak of spring, with the warmest day of the year – up to 15C forecast today for London and much of the south – the village of Thriplow in Hertfordshire has a unique feature to offer visitors to its 42nd annual daffodil festival this weekend: no daffodils.

The tonnes of daffodil bulbs planted along the pretty village's lanes, gardens and green attract up to 10,000 visitors, and this year they will see an awe-inspiring display of stalks.

The organisers spend much of the year second guessing the weather: the date of the very first festival, held in 1969 to raise funds to repair the parish church, was put back after a very cold snap; in 1977 the flowers were out but smothered in a heavy snowfall the following day; and even in 1979, after an equally bitter winter, there was but one daffodil in bloom.

Lynne Turner, a member of the daffodil committee, said: "It's a bit hard as I have to do all the publicity months in advance, and I don't know what the weather will be like so I say the village will be swathed in daffodils. Nine times out of 10 it is."

The village promises that there will still be teas, morris dancing, sheep dogs, and an early May pole.

To the dismay of Cumbrian tourism officials, daffodils are also distinctly thin on the ground in Wordsworth's back yard. Eric Robson, chair of Cumbria tourism and the presenter of BBC Radio Four's Gardener's Question Time, said: "It's virtually unheard of not to have seen a single daffodil in the Lake District by the middle of March." In fact the tourist office is urging visitors to email or tweet any sightings.

Robson added: "The upside is that because they are late, it means they should be out and looking their best for the Easter holidays."

At Dove Cottage, Wordsworth's home in the Lake District, Paul Kleian said: "We have crocuses and snowdrops out in the garden, but no daffodils yet – but they are in bud, so we may have some by the weekend.

"Interestingly that famous diary entry by Dorothy Wordsworth which inspired the poem was written on 15 April 1802. The early blooming daffodils which people have got used to seeing are non-native imported species."

With one of the many first days of spring approaching – the spring equinox, on 20-21 March, though the Met Office takes 1 March as the first day, and the Irish date it from St Bridget's Day on 1 February – the longest coldest winter in a generation does finally seem to have shuffled off.

The forecast is for mild, showery, breezy weather – with more rain by the weekend. And after months when the weather map was splattered with orange and red warnings, there's isn't a single severe weather warning anywhere in the UK. Which can only mean there's more snow on the way.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 17 Mar 2010 | 6:47 am

In pictures

Behind the scenes at London's Natural History Museum
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Mar 2010 | 5:20 am

Crimean ship found off Balaclava

Ukrainian archaeologists say they have found the HMS Prince, a British naval vessel sunk during the Crimean War.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Mar 2010 | 4:56 am

Monkeys learn more from females

Groups of monkeys pay more attention to females than to males when learning a task, say scientists.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Mar 2010 | 4:56 am

Ads 'exaggerated climate change'

Two government press adverts aimed at raising awareness of climate change are banned for overstating the risks.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Mar 2010 | 3:05 am