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NASA's Global Hawk completes first science flightNASA has successfully completed the first science flight of the Global Hawk unpiloted aircraft system over the Pacific Ocean. The flight was the first of five scheduled for this month's Global Hawk Pacific, or GloPac, mission to study atmospheric science over the Pacific and Arctic oceans.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm DNA nanotechnology: 'Magic Bullets' breakthrough offers promising applications in medicineScientists have achieved a major breakthrough in the development of nanotubes. They have developed tiny "magic bullets" that could one day deliver drugs to specific diseased cells. The research involves taking DNA out of its biological context. So rather than being used as the genetic code for life, it becomes a kind of building block for tiny nanometre-scale objects.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm Family tree research can open a 'Pandora's Box' of secrets that may cause rifts, research saysPeople researching their ancestors can open a "Pandora's Box" of secrets that may cause conflict and widen rifts in the family, new research says. While most people derive pleasure and satisfaction from researching their ancestry, for some it brings to light "secrets and skeletons", the study says.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm How immune cells 'sniff out' bacteriaScientists are learning how our immune system senses and tracks down infection in the body by responding to chemical "scents" emitted by bacteria. Studying how immune cells manipulate their movement in response to external signals could shed light not only on how our immune system functions but also how cancer cells spread through the body and even how the brain wires itself.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm Tissue-engineered grafts composed of adult stem cells could one day replace synthetic vascular bypass graftsUsing adult stem cells, researchers have created functional blood vessels that could one day replace synthetic grafts often required in various vascular bypass surgeries, according to new research.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder linked to high prevalence of epilepsyChildren with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) can suffer from many developmental problems. New findings show a very high prevalence of epilepsy/seizures in the FASD population. First-trimester drinking, and drinking during all three trimesters, were the predominant forms of fetal alcohol exposure.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm How ducks host influenza unharmed: Could findings shield humans from bird flu viruses?Scientists have identified the genetic detector that allows ducks to live, unharmed, as the host of influenza. The duck's virus detector gene, RIG-I, enables a duck's immune system to contain the virus, which typically spreads from ducks to chickens, where it mutates and can evolve to be a human threat like the H5N1 influenza virus.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 9:00 am Fragile X protein loss alters brain pathways responsible for learning and memoryFragile X syndrome is due to the functional loss of fragile X mental retardation protein in the brain. Researchers are beginning to understand how FMRP regulates signaling pathways in the brain that are essential for learning and memory in adults. In a mouse model of fragile X syndrome, researchers found FMRP plays a key role in regulating adult neurogenesis, the process by which new neurons are generated in the adult brain. Adult neurogenesis is considered important for learning and memory.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 9:00 am Venus is geologically alive, signs of recent lava flows suggestFor the first time, scientists have detected clear signs of recent lava flows on the surface of Venus. The observations reveal that volcanoes on Venus appeared to erupt between a few hundred years to 2.5 million years ago. This suggests the planet may still be geologically active, making Venus one of the few worlds in our solar system that has been volcanically active within the last 3 million years.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 9:00 am Bacterial spray can help children with glue earMany children have long-term problems with fluid in the middle ear, and sometimes surgery is the only way to shift it. However, a bacterial nasal spray can have the same effect in some children, new research reveals.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 9:00 am Thai protesters break into satellite station (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:08 am UN seeks way forward on climate at Bonn meeting (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:03 am Astronauts take 1st spacewalk of shuttle mission (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:03 am Pembrokeshire is top UK coast wayThe Pembrokeshire Coast Path is voted the best coastal walkway in the UK by readers of a BBC magazine.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:58 am Earthworms make 'group decisions'Earthworms form herds and make "group decisions", scientists show for the first time.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:31 am ASEAN seek binding global climate change pact (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:02 am The nation's weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:40 am 'World needs a barometer of life'The world needs a "barometer of life" to ensure threatened species and vital ecosystems are not lost forever, say scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:02 am Deep-Diving Great Whites Could Tangle With Giant SquidNew research into the sharks' behavior suggests they might hunt giant squid in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:57 am China scientists show how arsenic treats blood cancerSINGAPORE (Reuters) - Scientists in China have demonstrated how arsenic -- a favorite murder weapon in the Middle Ages -- destroys deadly blood cancer by targeting and killing specific proteins that keep the cancer alive.Source: Reuters: Science News | 8 Apr 2010 | 11:37 pm Antarctic Diving Robot Practices for Europa Mission (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - Evidence found by NASA's Galileo spacecraft of an ocean on Europa put the giant Jovian moon on the A-list of worlds worth investigating for signs of extraterrestrial life.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Apr 2010 | 10:15 pm Geese tagged and tracked to assess wind farm impactsBarnacle geese are tagged with satellite trackers to assess the impact of planned wind farms on their migration to the Arctic.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Apr 2010 | 10:01 pm Yeti and Other Mangy Monster Sightings On the Rise (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - A curious animal recently caught by hunters in the Sichuan province of China is being touted by some as a Yeti, the Oriental version of Bigfoot. The mysterious hairless animal was initially described by eyewitnesses as having features resembling a bear or kangaroo.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Apr 2010 | 9:03 pm Whaling compromise under attack (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Apr 2010 | 8:52 pm Cold fronts linked to bird flu outbreaks in EuropeLONDON (Reuters) - Outbreaks of H5N1 flu among birds in Europe came at the edges of cold fronts that caused wild birds to change migration patterns, scientists said on Thursday, suggesting cold snaps may signal future outbreaks.Source: Reuters: Science News | 8 Apr 2010 | 8:37 pm Brain scans show signs of early Alzheimer'sCHICAGO (Reuters) - People with a family history of Alzheimer's disease often have clumps of a toxic protein in their brains even though they are perfectly healthy, researchers said on Monday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 8 Apr 2010 | 8:00 pm Small asteroid to zip harmlessly past Earth (AP)AP - NASA scientists have updated information on the path of a newly discovered asteroid that is set to make a safe flyby past Earth.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Apr 2010 | 7:36 pm Ancestry Search Can Annoy Living RelativesAn ancestry search can bring skeletons out of your family history that might upset living relatives.Source: Livescience.com | 8 Apr 2010 | 6:19 pm Climate deal fear as talks resumeThe first round of UN climate talks since the bitter Copenhagen summit face divisions and mistrust on key issues.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Apr 2010 | 5:37 pm Obama to appoint boxer Ali's wife to commission (AP)AP - President Barack Obama has announced he will appoint the wife of boxer Muhammad Ali to a panel that will advise him on bioethical issues.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Apr 2010 | 4:51 pm Apple Creates Social Gaming Network for iPhoneThe new iPhone OS 4 will make it possible for iPhone and iPod Touch gamers to interact and play each other in a social gaming network.Source: Livescience.com | 8 Apr 2010 | 4:14 pm 'iAd' Brings Interactive Ads to iPhoneiAd, Apple's own mobile advertising network that allows developers to put interactive ads into apps from the company's App Store.Source: Livescience.com | 8 Apr 2010 | 4:10 pm New iPhone and iPad Software Will Have FoldersApple's latest improvements to the iPhone operating system allows you to group apps into folders.Source: Livescience.com | 8 Apr 2010 | 4:05 pm Claim over 'human ancestor' sparks furoreResearchers dispute that hominin fossil is a new species.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/BVdCqTMhcwQ" height="1" width="1"/>Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:32 pm Launched Atop a Russian ICBM, Cryosat-2 Makes it into OrbitAlthough it was designed to nuke cities, a Dnepr rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome today carrying a critical mission into space intended to keep a close eye on the condition of Earth's "cryosphere."Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:28 pm iPad and iPhone to Finally Get MultitaskingThe new iPhone OS 4 will feature multitasking to help run apps.Source: Livescience.com | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:26 pm NASA maps plans for revamped U.S. space programCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA fleshed out plans on Thursday for a revamped U.S. space program that will focus initially on developing technology needed to send people to Mars.Source: Reuters: Science News | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:26 pm iPad Breakdown: What's Inside and What it Costs to MakeApple iPads cost about about $260 to manufacture.Source: Livescience.com | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:22 pm Copycats Prevail in Computer Survival Game
Being a maverick doesn’t pay, at least not when braving a strange new world in a computer game that’s like Survivor meets Second Life. The outcome of a computerized game tournament, which finds that a copycat strategy is best, may help explain why mimicking others is so prevalent in nature.
“What we find is that under a very broad range of circumstances, not only does social learning beat asocial learning hands down, it annihilates it,” says study coauthor Kevin Laland of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “There’s no balance, no mix of asocial and social learning.” Laland and his colleagues set up a tournament in which participants wrote computer programs that controlled the behavior of avatars living in a strange and unpredictable world. The competition pitted 104 teams against each other to see who could come up with the best survival strategy and encode it in a computer program. “In a way, it’s a bit like being dumped on a Pacific island where you don’t know anything about the environment,” says Laland. “You don’t know what’s good to eat. You could fish, you could catch crabs, you could hunt antelope, pick for tubers, you name it. Some of these will reap rich rewards and some will be fruitless.”
Going into the study, the researchers thought the optimal strategy would be some kind of mixture of copying and innovating, Laland says, both of which have drawbacks. An unknown berry might turn out to be a great food source for the person who first discovers it, or the berry might be poisonous. On the other hand, copying others might be safer, but not if the information is outdated or wrong. To the researchers’ surprise, the best method relied almost exclusively on copying. Players were presented with a choice of 100 different moves, each with its own payoff. Each move, although described purely in mathematical terms, could be thought of as a corollary of picking berries or hunting antelope. To make the situation more like reality, the payoffs associated with each action changed with time, representing a shifting environment. At every turn, the players could copy others’ behaviors or write a program to create a new move. As the players racked up bigger payoffs, the probability that the avatar reproduced increased — a sign of success. After many iterations of the tournament, a program called discountmachine written by a team of two graduate students from Queen’s University in Canada beat out the competition. Mathematician Daniel Cownden and neuroscientist Timothy Lillicrap won 10,000 pounds for the winning program. In addition to discountmachine’s penchant for copying, the program relied on a feature called a neural net that tracked how fast the environment was changing. This allowed avatars to pay less attention to previous actions that were once successful, but may have become outdated. “The results have influenced my own thinking about how people can learn from their own experience and the experience of others,” comments Robert Axelrod of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In the 1980s, Axelrod conducted a similar tournament to study cooperation. There is a caveat to the winning program’s success, though. It works only when there are other agents around to copy. “They’re effectively kind of parasitic,” Laland says. “You can think of social learners as information scroungers — they’re stealing the information produced by others.” Evolutionary ecologist Richard McElreath of the University of California, Davis calls the new study a “valuable and unique contribution,” but points out that the current tournament defines social learning differently from previous studies and so may not be at odds with earlier models of behavior. Even so, McElreath suspects that this tournament will “become a classic.” Image: bootload/flickr. See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 8 Apr 2010 | 2:08 pm Venus Orbiter Finds Potential Active Volcanoes
The Venus Express spacecraft has found convincing evidence that Earth is not the only geologically active planet in the solar system. Infrared emissions from lava flows on the surface of Venus indicate that they are relatively young, which means the planet may still be capable of volcanic eruptions. “The solidified lava flows, which radiate heat from the surface, seem hardly weathered. So we can conclude that they are younger than 2.5 million years old — and the majority are probably younger than 250,000 years,” Jörn Helbert of the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Germany, co-author of a study published April 8 in Science, said in a press release. “In geological terms, this means that they are practically from the present day.” The results could explain why there are fewer asteroid impacts than expected on the planet’s surface. Volcanism has been the prime suspect, because lava flows can fill in and obscure craters. But scientists were unsure whether a major episode of volcanic activity resurfaced much of the planet all at once in the past, or if intermittent activity has slowly filled in craters over time. The existence of a recent flow suggests the latter is more likely, and that volcanism may be ongoing.
Venus is shrouded in a thick cloud cover which obscures the visible light emissions form the surface. So a team led by Suzanne Smrekar of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory studied the thermal emissions of the surface using the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer on the Venus Express orbiter. Older surfaces tend to be smoothed by weathering over time, while younger surfaces are more rough and have higher thermal emissions. Several areas on the surface had been identified as potential volcanic centers by radar imagery data from the Magellan mission, which ended in 1994 when the spacecraft was intentionally crashed into the surface. Smrekar’s team targeted three of these areas and found they had higher thermal emissions than the surrounding areas. “Now we have strong evidence right at the surface for recent eruptions,” Smrekar said in a press release. Because Venus is similar in size and internal structure to Earth, comparisons between the two planets can help scientists understand our own planet’s evolution. If volcanism on Venus is also similar to Earth, as the new study indicates, that narrows the factors that could have sent the planets on such different paths that ended with Earth being habitable and Venus being bone dry and hellishly hot. In order to determine what the young rock is made of, Helbert plans to build a lab that can heat various rock types to around 900 degrees Fahrenheit, the planet’s surface temperature, and study their thermal emission signatures to compare to the Venus Express readings.
Images: 1) 3-D radar image of Maat Mons volcano./DLR. 2) Thermal emission signature of Venutian volcano. Red is higher emissivity./NASA/JPL/ESA. See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:49 pm Hurricane Season Forecast Above Average: Can We Trust It?An early forecast for the 2010 hurricane season predicts an above average season. But it may be too soon to tell.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:36 pm Mining Disasters: Why 'Never Happens Again' Always Happens AgainAfter every national tragedy, from the Columbine school shooting to terrorist attacks to mine disasters, there is call for reform. Blame and outrage mix with sadness, spurring politicians and regulators to reassure the public they are safe. Panels are assembled ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:14 pm Ancient Life Trapped in AmberBugs, fungus and other life forms have been discovered trapped in amber from the time of dinosaurs.Source: Livescience.com | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:12 pm HP shows 'memory of the future'Scientists at Hewlett Packard show off a class of computing devices that could allow faster, more efficient machines.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Apr 2010 | 12:49 pm New pre-human species offers evolutionary cluesLONDON (Reuters) - Two partial skeletons unearthed in a South African cave belong to a previously unclassified species of pre-human dating back almost 2 million years and may shed new light on human evolution, scientists said on Thursday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 8 Apr 2010 | 12:21 pm Ecologists unveil 'barometer of life'Paper co-authored by E O Wilson calls for thousands of scientists to collect information on 160,000 species deemed representative of life on Earth An ambitious project to create a "barometer of life" to track the changing fortunes of the natural world will be set out tomorrow by some of the world's leading ecologists. The plan is for thousands of scientists to collect information on 160,000 of the world's nearly 2 million known species - from great mammals, fish and birds to obscure insects and fungi - chosen to be representative of life on Earth. The index would more than triple the scope of what is alreadythe world's biggest scheme - the "red list" of extinct and endangered species published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) - and would be updated every five years. The cost of building the database would be about US$60m (£39.3m), but this would be "one of the best investments for the good of humanity," says the proposal, published in the journal Science and co-authored by the great American ecologist and writer Prof Edward O Wilson at Harvard University. "The more we learn about indicator species (which can provide information on the quality of the environment around them), the more we know about the status of the living environment that sustains us all," said Wilson. "Threatened species, in particular, need to be targeted to enable better conservation and policy decisions." The figures could be used to help companies carry out environmental impact assessments, allow national and international organisations to prioritise spending, and draw public attention to problems as a way of building support for policies to protect and improve biodiversity, said Simon Stuart, chair of the IUCN's species survival commission, and the paper's lead author. "Just think of the other uses $60m are put to by the world, and the amount of money spent on wars or banks, or advertising," Stuart told the Guardian. "We can put our hands on our hearts and say this would be better for the good of humanity. First of all it's an indicator of the health of the planet. Secondly in many parts of the world people depend on biodiversity for food or clean water or living wages. Thirdly I'd say because of their intrinsic value: there's something inspirational about ecosystems and species being in good shape, and the diversity of it." The idea – informally titled the "barometer of life" – is supported by the IUCN and nine partner organisations, including Kew Gardens in London, and the Zoological Society of London. The IUCN's red list has so far assessed more than 47,000 species, but is heavily biased towards a few groups of animals – mammals, birds and amphibians – and does not adequately represent the whole of life on Earth, says the paper. Only half of all vertebrates and "an extremely small proportion" of plants, invertebrates, fungi and other groups like seaweeds have been assessed, and species from marine, freshwater and arid environments are also "poorly covered", said Stuart. "There are good reasons for believing you are going to get different results in different groups, which is why we have got to extend what we have got already," he added. Using the hundreds of experts in the partner groups, and guidelines set down by the IUCN, Stuart estimates the first barometer could be published five years after receiving funding – probably from a private source. After that it could be updated every five years, for an annual cost of – at a "guess" - $5m, said Stuart, little more than is spent on the red list by global governments. The headline figure for all life on Earth could be modelled on the IUCN's extinction risk rating of 0-1, where 0 is all species in the group are extinct, and 1 means there are no threats. In addition, the index could be broken down by region, species group, and by type of threat, said Stuart. The 160,000 species proposed is a "provisional" figure, and includes almost all the nearly 65,000 species of vertebrates, and representative samples from the other groups. The scheme is being proposed to mark the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010. Scientists have so far described 1.9 million of the estimated up to 10 million species of vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, fungi and other groups on Earth, and possibly tens of millions more bacteria and archeans. Ten of the most endangered species in the worldFlorida bonneted bat - Eumops floridanus was thought to be extinct until 2002, when a small colony was discovered in a North Fort Myers suburb of Florida, US. Saola – The cow-like Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, which occurs only in the Annamite mountains of Vietnam and Laos is in protracted decline. Kakapo or owl parrot - In 2008, the total population of this large, flightless nocturnal parrot (Strigops habroptila) from New Zealand was 93, including the seven hatched that year. Golden arrow poison frog – With the chytridiomycosis epidemic spreading from west to east through Panama, populations of Atelopus zeteki are now at severe risk. Jamaican iguana – There may be no more than a hundred adult Cyclura collei remaining in the wild, and juvenile recruitment appears to be minimal. Chinese paddlefish - Only two adult specimens of Psephurus gladius (both females) have been recorded since 2002. It is expected there are fewer than 50 adults left in the wild. Chinese giant salamander - The largest of all amphibian species, sometimes growing to more than 1m long, Andrias davidianus is widespread in southern China, but its range is very fragmented Sicilian fir - Abies nebrodensis trees are presently limited to the steep, dry slopes of Mt. Scalone in the Madonie Mountains of Sicily. Sumatran orang-utan - The majority of surviving Pongo abelii live in the province of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. 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 | 8 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm Yeti and Other Mangy Monster Sightings On the RiseA Chinese Yeti is one of many mangy monster sightings. As the climate warms, we may see more mangy monsters.Source: Livescience.com | 8 Apr 2010 | 11:39 am Why Guys Prefer Hooking Up to DatingMore women than men continue to prefer dating whereas more men than women rate hooking up above dating, a new study finds.Source: Livescience.com | 8 Apr 2010 | 11:26 am Impressive New Hubble Image of Odd Galaxy Triplet
It’s been a little while since the Hubble Space telescope bestowed a mind-blowing space photo on us, but this one was worth the wait.
The brown stripes are made up of dust, and the blue and pink bright areas in the galaxies are star clusters. Messier 66 is popular with astronomers because it has had an impressive three supernova explosions since 1989. Images: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 8 Apr 2010 | 11:24 am Obituary: Peter CooperPsychologist and pioneer of focus groups in Britain Peter Cooper, who has died suddenly aged 73, was a psychologist who pioneered the use of the focus group in market research in the 1960s. His company, Cooper Research and Marketing, advised many large companies on consumer behaviour, helping them to understand the market in relation to leading brands. Peter also recognised the potential of market research to empower disadvantaged groups by breaking down traditional structures in society, such as the doctor-patient relationship, and even ventured into the imbalance in equality between men and women, thus seeking to make market research an integral aspect of the democratic process. His work in the last years of his life was preoccupied with the needs of consumers caught in the recession. Born in north London, Peter was evacuated during the second world war and, after his parents separated, he was brought up principally by his father, a professional trumpeter. In 1959, he graduated with a first-class degree in psychology from Manchester University, where he stayed on as a postgraduate to work with his mentor, John Cohen, on aspects of the psychology of risk. A significant element of his research involved children's understanding of war and peace, based on studies carried out in Japan, Germany and the UK. His work took him to the Sorbonne, in Paris, and to the universities of Oslo and London. During this period he was also actively involved in the Workers' Educational Association. In the mid-1960s Peter studied in France, where he was intrigued by new approaches to understanding consumerism. People would be taken away for a long weekend in order to be observed as they expressed their relationships with different brands and products. Peter recognised that equally effective results could be obtained by bringing consumers together for three-hour sessions to explore emotional, as well as practical, responses to a range of issues relating to consumerism, from product attributes to advertising, packaging and brand identity. During these "extended creativity group" sessions, respondents were asked to draw, model with clay and role-play their feelings and emotions. In time, this method was to become recognised globally as the alternative to the more narrative-centred groups that predominated in the US. In 1963 Peter became one of the first academics to apply his research to the marketplace and, in 1966, with his then wife, Jackie French, he set up Cooper Research and Marketing (later CRAM International). In 1968, the company moved from Manchester to London where, over the next four decades, a string of major companies sought Peter's advice on consumer behaviour, among them Guinness, BMW, the Financial Times, British Airways, Persil, American Express, BP, GSK, the BBC and Nokia. From understanding marketing techniques to helping pharmaceutical companies better understand patients' needs, Peter gave an intellectual rigour to market research. Furthermore, he was fascinated by the need to develop different techniques outside western markets. From the early 1980s, he was in the far east, introducing his methods to Japan, China and south-east Asia. He was also acutely aware of the importance of new technologies. A fellow of the UK Market Research Society and the Royal Society of Medicine, Peter conducted pioneering work in ethnography and also on the quantification of qualitative research data, which he called QualiQuant. He wrote many papers and was active right up to his death, highlighting key issues in contemporary marketing, market research and communication. A byproduct of Peter's love of psychology was his passion for phrenology. While he acknowledged the flawed science behind it, for him phrenological busts were things of beauty, and over the years he amassed a significant collection of phrenologica. He sought to revive interest in the subject, and in the early 1980s commissioned a limited edition of Coalport china phrenological heads. Peter and Jackie divorced several years ago. For the past 10 years, he lived with his partner, Claudia, also a psychologist, in Gloucestershire. They were brought together not only by their interest in psychology, but also good food and fine wine. They shared their lives with two horses, two Shetland ponies, three cats and six chickens. Claudia survives him, as do his three children and five grandchildren. • Peter Cooper, psychologist and market researcher, born 26 November 1936; died 12 February 2010 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 | 8 Apr 2010 | 11:24 am Sushi Digestion Aided By Intestinal GermsTrillions of friendly bacteria live in our guts in a mutually beneficial relationship with their hosts.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 8 Apr 2010 | 10:55 am Scientists find the first animals able to live without oxygenScientists find the first animals able to survive and reproduce entirely without oxygen, deep in the Mediterranean.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Apr 2010 | 10:48 am Are Robots Alive?The University of Tokyo's JSK Robotics Laboratory recently unveiled Kojiro, a new humanoid robot designed to operate in a household environment. Built from lightweight, flexible material on a skeletal structure, the robot's appearance and movements are strikingly human. But are ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 8 Apr 2010 | 10:04 am Nepal, China recognize two heights of Mount EverestKATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal and China have agreed to recognize the snow and rock heights of Mount Everest, ending a long-standing debate about the height of the world's tallest mountain, officials said Thursday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 8 Apr 2010 | 9:06 am Fossil Skeletons May Be Human AncestorSkeletons of a juvenile boy and woman may have been the immediate ancestor to the human lineage.Source: Livescience.com | 8 Apr 2010 | 9:00 am Possible New Human Ancestor Discovered
Two 1.9 million-year-old skeletons found in a South African cave have added a new and intriguing member to the primate family. Dubbed Australopithecus sediba, it has many features — including long legs and a protruding nose — common to Homo, the genus that eventually spawned humans. Other features, such as extra-long forearms and flexible feet, date from deep in our primate past. Paleontologists disagree over whether A. sediba is a direct human ancestor, or just looks like one. But whatever their lineage, the fossils provide rare insight into a period shrouded in paleontological mystery. “We feel that A. sediba might be a Rosetta Stone for defining for the first time what the genus Homo is,” said paleontologist Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand. “They’re going to be a remarkable window, a time machine.”
The skeletons, described April 8 in Science, were found — with a bit of help from Google Earth — two years ago in a South African cave, where they fell two million years ago. On one side of that date in the fossil timeline are the various species of Australopithecus, the first great apes to walk on two feet. On the timeline’s other side is the genus Homo, the first creatures one would recognize — with all due respect to Lucy’s famous A. afarensis — as close to human. In between is uncertainty. The fossil record is mostly bare. Some of the Australopithecus lineage split, with one branch becoming Homo. But the identity of that lineage, and the characteristics of early Homo, are unknown. According to Berger’s team, A. sediba’s combination of old and new features make it a likely descendant of A. africanus — one of Lucy’s direct descendants — and either a direct ancestor of early Homo and ultimately us, or what Berger calls “a very close side branch.” “It sits at a very critical moment in time,” said Berger. It “fills a critical gap in the line.” While the Australopithecus designation is correct, “the proposed link between A. sediba and early Homo is forced and tenuous at best,” said William Jungers, a Stony Brook University paleoanthropologist. He doesn’t consider a juvenile specimen — the most complete of the two skeletons comes from the human equivalent of a teenager — a reliable indicator of adult features. To this criticism, Berger said the teen’s brain had “clearly reached about 95 to 98 percent of adult capacity.” Few changes would be expected in its cranial size and shape, which are critical in characterizing a primate species. Jungers also noted that the first Homo fossils predate A. sediba by 500,000 years, while Homo ergaster had reached western Asia just 200,000 years after A. sediba’s known date. Both these figures suggest that Homo was established well before A. sediba came along, said Rick Potts, curator of anthropology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. “The connection with the origin of Homo doesn’t seem to hold much water,” said Potts, and the confluence of some A. sediba traits with Homo is just coincidence. “Evolution produces a universe of features that are combined and recombined,” he said. According to Berger, however, A. sediba may have older roots than they think. “The site we found is simply a point in time. It doesn’t represent the first appearance of this species,” he said. Meanwhile, Arizona State University paleoanthropologist William Kimbel argued that A. sediba should have been classified as Homo, though it may not have been a direct human ancestor. “In my way of thinking, it belongs in Homo because of the brow ridge, the face, the pelvis,” he said. “It’s true that it has the small brain and long upper limbs indicative of Australopithecus, but those are signs of its ancestry, not its future.” These arguments may be settled as more A. sediba skeletons emerge. Berger is currently assembling at least two. However, taxonomic debates may ultimately prove less important than the questions A. sediba provokes. Already the fossils suggest that Australopithecus didn’t morph suddenly into Homo, but adapted in gradual, piecemeal fashion. What pressures led to these adaptations — and their relationship to tool use, cognitive developments, dietary shifts and climate changes — have yet to be determined. “The significance is in the patterns and insights it provides,” said Kimbel. “These specimens fall at the young end of a very puzzling million-year period in hominin evolution.” Whether or not A. sediba is our ancestor, “it could help us understand the dynamics that led to the split producing the lineage culminating ultimately in us,” said Kimbel. Images: Lee Berger/Science See Also:
Citations: “Australopithecus sediba: A New Species of Homo-Like Australopith from South Africa.” By Lee R. Berger, Darryl J. deRuiter, Steven E. Churchill, Peter Schmid, Kristian J. Carlson, Paul H. G. M. Dirks, Job M. Kibii. Science, Vol. 328 No. 5975, April 9, 2010. “Geological Setting and Age of Australopithecus sediba from Southern Africa.” By Paul H. G. M. Dirks, Job M. Kibii, Brian F. Kuhn, Christine Steininger, Steven E. Churchill, Jan D. Kramers, Robyn Pickering, Daniel L. Farber, Anne-Sophie Mériaux, Andy I. R. Herries, Geoffrey C. P. King, Lee R. Berger. Science, Vol. 328 No. 5975, April 9, 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 | 8 Apr 2010 | 8:53 am Kenyan GM maize shipment blockedA shipment of genetically modified (GM) maize is blocked in the Kenyan port of Mombasa after protests by environmentalists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Apr 2010 | 8:42 am 'Biological Bypass' Saves Hearts Sans SurgeryWhy bother cleaning clogged arteries when you can simply grow new ones?Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 8 Apr 2010 | 8:35 am Launch success for 'ice explorer'Europe's Cryosat-2 spacecraft launches successfully from Baikonur on a mission to map Earth's polar ice.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Apr 2010 | 8:17 am Fossil skeletons may belong to an unknown human ancestorThe fossil remains found in a cave in South Africa could represent an evolutionary link between tree-dwelling apes and our earliest human ancestors to walk upright Fossilised skeletons recovered from a deep underground cave in South Africa belong to a previously unknown species of human ancestor, scientists claim. The partial skeletons of an adult female and a young male, aged 11 or 12, were found lying side by side in sediments that first covered their remains an estimated 1.9m years ago. The individuals are thought to have fallen into the cave network through a fissure before being carried a few metres by mud or water into a subterranean pool, where they were gradually encased in rock. The extraordinary remains are thought to represent a period of evolutionary transition between tree-dwelling apes and the earliest human ancestors, or hominids, to take their first tentative steps on two feet. Their position at the very root of our family tree has led scientists to claim that the skeletons will help define what it means to be human. The remains were recovered alongside the fossilised bones of at least 25 other animals, including sabre-toothed cats, a hyena, a wild dog, several antelope and a horse, according to two reports in the journal Science. At the time the creatures died, the region was dominated by a grassy plain crossed by wooded valleys. The discovery of the mass grave has led researchers to suggest that the ancient animals and the hominids fell into the cave network through "death trap" holes in the surface and were unable to escape. The skeletons were so well preserved that palaeontologists believe the two individuals fell into the cave together and were dead and buried within days or weeks. The remains, found in the Malapa cave network at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site 40km outside Johannesburg, have already triggered a row over their identity, because they share anatomical features with both early humans from the genus, Homo, and their ancient predecessors, the Australopithecines, or southern apes. The skeletons have long arms similar to those of orang-utans, a trait shared with Australopithecines, which suggests they were adept at living in trees. But unlike other Australopithecines, they have long legs and a pelvis that is well adapted to walking upright. Analysis of the male's skull revealed small teeth and facial characteristics seen in early members of the genus Homo. Their brains were exceptionally small, around a third the size of a modern human's. Given their long arm bones and other physical characteristics, lead scientist Lee Berger, a palaeontologist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, assigned the remains to a new species, Australopithecus sediba. The word "sediba" means fountain or wellspring in Sotho, one of the official languages of South Africa, and was chosen because the species might be a direct ancestor of the genus Homo, and the point at which the story of modern humans begins. According to Berger, Australopithecus sediba may be descended from the more primitive South African ape men, Australopithecus africanus, which lived more than 2m years ago and are known from the skeletons of the Taung child and Mrs Ples, recovered in South Africa in 1924 and 1947 respectively. "These fossils give us an extraordinarily detailed look into a new chapter of human evolution, and provide a window into a critical period when hominids made the committed change from dependency on life in the trees to life on the ground," said Prof Berger. "Sediba may very well be the Rosetta stone that unlocks our understanding of the genus Homo." Other experts argue that the remains have been misclassified and belong to the genus Homo. "The transition to Homo continues to be almost totally confusing," Donald Johanson at Arizona State University in Tempe told Science magazine. Based on the thinness of the lower jaw and other bone features, Johanson is convinced Berger has it wrong: "It's Homo," he said. Teams of palaeontologists will spend the next weeks and months poring over the fossils in the hope of building up a more complete picture of their postition in the human story. Berger said he hoped to retrieve DNA from the remains, which could add enormously to scientists' understanding. "Any time we find remarkable fossils like this, in remarkable completeness, and of this quality, they are going to answer a great many questions in a very fragmented fossil record," he added. "As more fossils are recovered from the species, it is undoubtable that it is going to contribute enormously to our understanding of what was going on at that moment when the early members of the genus, Homo, emerged." The fossils were discovered by Berger's nine-year-old son, Matthew, in a visit to the Malapa site in 2008. Since their recovery, researchers have carefully removed the fossils from the concrete-like sediments in which they were encased. "These new fossils from Malapa return the spotlight to South Africa as a possible location for the presumed transition from Australopithecus to the genus Homo," said Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London. "The fact that experts differ over whether to classify these specimens as Australopithecine or human indicates the mixed features that they display, and the fossils provide valuable clues to the evolutionary changes that led to the first members of the human genus." 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 | 8 Apr 2010 | 8:05 am 'New human-like species' revealedThe remarkable remains of two ancient human-like creatures (hominids) have been found in South Africa.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Apr 2010 | 8:02 am New Ancestor May Be Ape-Human LinkA new species of human found in a South African cave lived around 1.95 million years ago, had smallish teeth and walked upright.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 8 Apr 2010 | 8:00 am Nanotube Propels Atoms Into Black-Hole-Like SpiralPhysicists have created something akin to a black hole in their labs. It's on the atomic scale, that is, very, very small. But it's the first time anything like this has ever been done and the experiment could prompt innovations ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 8 Apr 2010 | 7:06 am Balanced Rocks Defy Quake Hazard MapsPrecariously balanced rocks reveal that earthquake hazard maps often overestimate the risk of shaking.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 8 Apr 2010 | 6:07 am CryoSat-2 satellite launches on mission to monitor climate changeEuropean Space Agency satellite takes off succesfully to measure Arctic and Antarctic ice with unprecedented precision A resurrected satellite, carrying the hopes of climate scientists, successfully made a second attempt to reach orbit today from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The first CryoSat satellite crashed minutes after launch in 2005, ditching - with cruel irony - into the Arctic Ocean it was meant to study. The €140m (£122m) CryoSat-2 is a replica built by the European Space Agency, but with some additional instruments. The satellite is currently in orbit after a successful separation and has sent communication signals which have been received by a ground team in Malindi, Kenya. The satellite will be able to measure the thickness of Arctic and Antarctic ice to within a centimetre - an accuracy unmatched until now. Lift-off was shown live online and took place during the scheduled launch of 1457 BST. The melting of sea ice, ice caps and glaciers across the planet is one of the clearest signs of global warming and the UK-led team of scientists will use the data from CryoSat-2 to track how this is affecting ocean currents, sea levels and the overall global climate. Duncan Wingham, a climate physicist at University College London and the lead scientist for both missions, is hoping this will be second time lucky. "Satellites have transformed our knowledge of what is happening to these distant and uninhabited parts of the planet. CryoSat-2 will help unravel the consequences of the dramatic changes in the poles that we've seen in the past two decades." Wingham said that, without CryoSat-2, there would be a significant gap in the data needed to track climate change. "The data we do have is patchy because the instrumentation on the earlier generation of satellites was not designed to deal with the ice-sheets," said Wingham. The first CryoSat mission was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia on 8 October 2005, but it crashed into the icy sea shortly afterwards, due to a malfunction in the launch vehicle. Approval for a successor mission to CryoSat was given by Esa within months of the accident. The new probe was built using improved electronics and batteries, and an extra radar altimeter, a device that will fire microwaves at the Arctic and Antarctic ice to reveal its thickness. Scientists have already shown that the amount of sea ice in the Arctic is falling, and the latest data confirms the long-term trend. But some data also suggests that the ice that remains is thinning. If the measurements from CryoSat-2 bear out this thinning theory, it would mean the ice is being lost more quickly. Scientists are concerned that the loss of sea ice is leading to a feedback effect where the newly exposed, darker ocean absorbs more sunlight, warming the water yet further. In addition, sea ice can block glaciers on land from falling into the ocean, so its loss could raise sea levels. "We are altering the Arctic climate far faster than anywhere else on Earth," said Wingham. "We're changing the whole structure of the Arctic Ocean, but we still don't know what the consequences will be. We have to find out what is going on up there. CryoSat-2 will do that." Another antenna on CryoSat-2 will measure the shape of the ice and tell researchers about slopes and ridges at the edges of the great Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Alan O'Neill, director of the National Centre for Earth Observation at the University of Reading said: "These measurements are absolutely crucial to our understanding of climate variability and climate change. Not only are they early indicators of climate change because of feedbacks in the system. But they're not remote from what affects people's lives and the weather that affects the rest of the planet. The polar regions are connected to the rest of the planet by the atmosphere and the ocean." Richard Francis of Esa, who led the team that built CryoSat-2, said scientists were holding their breath until launch. "There'll be a lot of relief when we acquire that signal [after launch], I can tell you." 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 | 8 Apr 2010 | 2:54 am
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This swirly, spooky, sparkly shot is of Messier 66, the largest of three spiral galaxies that make up the Leo triplet, 35 million light-years away. The galaxy measures around 100,000 light-years across and has odd, asymmetrical arms that were most likely pulled out of place by the gravity of the other two galaxies in the triplet.
