Deepest core drilled from Antarctic Peninsula; may contain glacial stage ice

A new core drilled through an ice field on the Antarctic Peninsula may contain ice dating back into the last ice age. If so, that record should give new insight into past global climate changes. The expedition in early winter to the Bruce Plateau, an ice field straddling a narrow ridge on the northernmost tongue of the southernmost continent, yielded a core that was 445.6 meters (1,462 feet) long, the longest yet recovered from that region of Antarctica.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 3:00 pm

High-performance computing reveals missing genes

Scientists have used high-performance computing to locate small genes that have been missed by scientists in their quest to define the microbial DNA sequences of life. Using an ephemeral supercomputer made up of computers from across the world, the mpiBLAST computational tool used by the researchers took only 12 hours instead of the 90 years it would have required if the work were performed on a standard personal computer.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 3:00 pm

Childhood obesity linked to stiff arteries

Children with more body fat and less endurance than their fitter, leaner counterparts have stiffer arteries at a young age, researchers said.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 3:00 pm

Creepy crawly cockroach ancestor revealed in new 3-D model

An early ancestor of the cockroach that lived around 300 million years ago is unveiled in unprecedented detail in a new three-dimensional "virtual fossil" model.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 3:00 pm

Fear of getting fat seen in healthy women's brain scans

When healthy women see an image of an overweight stranger, it lights up a part of their brain that processes identity and self-reflection. These "sub-clinical" signs of body image discomfort may put women at greater risk for eating and mood disorders.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 3:00 pm

Is cleanliness to blame for increasing allergies?

Allergies have become a widespread in developed countries: hay fever, eczema, hives and asthma are all increasingly prevalent. The reason? Excessive cleanliness is to blame, according to one expert.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 3:00 pm

Only known living population of rare dwarf lemur discovered

Researchers have discovered the world's only known living population of Sibree's Dwarf Lemur, a rare lemur known only in eastern Madagascar. Researchers discovered approximately a thousand of these lemurs.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm

Lack of omega-6 fatty acid linked to severe dermatitis

Scientists have learned that a specific omega-6 fatty acid may be critical to maintaining skin health.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm

Giant natural particle accelerator above thunderclouds

A lightning researcher has discovered that during thunderstorms, giant natural particle accelerators can form 40 km above the surface of the Earth.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm

Gene identified for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy

A mutation in a brain protein gene may trigger irregular heart beat and sudden death in people with epilepsy, according to new research. People with epilepsy who are otherwise healthy are more than 10 times more likely to die suddenly and unexpectedly than the general population.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm

'No malpractice' by climate unit

There was no scientific malpractice at the unit at the centre of the "Climategate" affair, a panel concludes.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Apr 2010 | 4:03 am

Obama to outline 'bold' US space future (AFP)

AFP - Under fire from critics, President Barack Obama will outline a "bold" new vision of US space exploration on Thursday when he addresses astronauts, workers and lawmakers at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 3:14 am

Great Barrier Reef oil spill hits wildlife sanctuary (AFP)

AFP - Oil from a huge Chinese ship which ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef has washed up at a famed nature sanctuary, officials said Wednesday, raising fears for birds and baby turtles.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 2:58 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - Wet weather was forecast to persist in the Northern Plains and Northern Rockies on Wednesday as a low pressure system slowly moved into Canada.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 2:47 am

NASA begins science flights with robotic jet (AP)

AP - One of NASA's newest research jets soared high over the Pacific Ocean Tuesday on a 24-hour mission to study Earth's atmosphere.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 12:58 am

Australia stranding kills around 30 dolphins (AFP)

AFP - Wildlife experts have rescued 11 dolphins beached in a remote area of the Australian island of Tasmania, but around 30 animals died in the stranding, officials said Wednesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Apr 2010 | 12:29 am

Speed Flying: Screaming Fast, Heart-Thumping, Deadly.

Blend extreme skiing with skydiving, and what do you get? One of the craziest, most dangerous sports on the planet.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Apr 2010 | 11:50 pm

Japanese whale meat 'sold abroad'

Scientists say they have clear proof that meat from whales caught by Japan is being sold in US and Korean eateries.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Apr 2010 | 10:11 pm

Magnets Might Boost Stem Cell Therapy (HealthDay)

HealthDay - TUESDAY, April 13 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers report they've used magnets to guide stem cells to damaged areas of animal hearts.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Apr 2010 | 9:48 pm

Hundreds Dead in China Quake

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake in northwestern China has left at least 300 people dead.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Apr 2010 | 9:46 pm

Obama to outline revamped space policy in Florida

WASHINGTON/CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will outline a revamped space policy on Thursday aimed at speeding development of a new heavy-lift rocket, increasing the number of human spaceflight missions, creating 2,500 new jobs and ultimately voyaging to Mars.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 13 Apr 2010 | 9:31 pm

Box Harvests Water in the Driest Places

Blood from a stone? Try growing crops in water-poor areas where unpredictable weather can wreak havoc. Happily for cash-strapped farmers, a prototype device is managing to coax agricultural miracles out of the desert. Ever since our elementary school class watched ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Apr 2010 | 9:05 pm

Illegal whale meat tracked back to Japan

Researchers identify sashimi from restaurants in California and South Korea.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/m64QUDi0dhw" height="1" width="1"/>
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 13 Apr 2010 | 9:01 pm

President Obama to Revive NASA's Scrapped Orion Spacecraft (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -  A top NASA official said U.S President Barack Obama will announce plans to continue development of a stripped-down version of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle for use as a crew lifeboat on the International Space Station.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Apr 2010 | 9:00 pm

Obama Backtracks on NASA Capsule

Amid growing concern for the future of NASA's human spaceflight plans, the White House has announced a possible reprieve for the Constellation's Orion capsule.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Apr 2010 | 7:23 pm

Ancient Cockroach Relative Revealed in 3-D

An early ancestor of the cockroach that lived around 300 million years ago has been revealed in a new 3-D virtual fossil.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2010 | 6:52 pm

Rio's Christ the Redeemer closed after rains (AP)

AP - Rio de Janeiro's iconic Christ the Redeemer statue will be closed indefinitely because of damage to access roads from heavy rains last week, authorities said Tuesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Apr 2010 | 6:26 pm

Obama revives capsule from canceled moon program (AP)

AP - President Barack Obama is reviving the NASA crew capsule concept that he had canceled with the rest of the moon program earlier this year, in a move that will mean more jobs and less reliance on the Russians, officials said Tuesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Apr 2010 | 6:23 pm

Seeing in a New Light (and Searching for Extraterrestrials) with LOFAR

A new radio telescope is under construction, consisting of 44 stations spread across Europe. Not only will LOFAR peer deep into the cosmos with unprecedented detail, it will also listen out for ET's transmissions.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Apr 2010 | 6:16 pm

Ancient Cockroach Relative Revealed in 3-D (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - An early ancestor of the cockroach that lived around 300 million years ago has been revealed in a 3-D virtual fossil.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Apr 2010 | 6:03 pm

Obama to propose $6 billion NASA budget increase

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will outline a revamped space policy on Thursday that will use $6 billion in new funding over five years to create 2,500 new jobs in Florida with the ultimate goal of going to Mars.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 13 Apr 2010 | 5:52 pm

Boom! The Sun Unleashes a Huge CME

The sun erupted today, blasting a huge coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. This is the largest event of its kind since the sun's extended solar minimum.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Apr 2010 | 5:13 pm

Notes and queries

How to spot a more advanced species; What makes a song like Ghost Town so special?; Confusion in the cutlery drawer

If there were a cleverer, more advanced species than us on this planet, how would we know? (With no way of knowing otherwise, doesn't every species think it's the brightest and most advanced?)

The existence of a cleverer, more advanced species wouldn't make Homo sapiens blind or stupid. Consequently, if this more advanced species was riding around in Maglev cars, say, we'd probably spot them. Such a species would also have been particularly visible in the 1970s: they would have been the ones not wearing flares and platform shoes.

As for every species thinking it is the brightest and most advanced, many species are not capable of thought: trees, for example. Of those species that have a brain, does even an advanced animal such as a horse really ponder where it is in the IQ pecking order? Neigh lad, methinks.

Ged Dale, Eccles, Lancs

It depends on what you consider to be advanced. The fact that every other species, except man, can survive in a state of complete freedom in what is becoming a very threatened environment says much more for those species than for our own, which, despite all the science and technology at our disposal, is the least free on Earth.

As for the past – Neolithic people's ability to produce the tools and expertise to survive surely made them far more advanced for their day than we are now with all that is at our disposal. Just ask an archaeologist.

Rob Parrish, Starcross, Devon

Dammit, you rumbled us!

Thomas Mutz, Portoroz, Slovenia

Wouldn't they have done something to control the plague of humans that is overrunning the planet?

Tim Lidbetter, London EC1

The answer is implied in the question – we define intelligence by the attributes that we ourselves have: for example self-determination, and the ability to make and use tools. If we were to apply different criteria, we could easily conclude other beings are more intelligent than us – for example the ability of ants to work together to achieve common goals exceeds the ability of humans to do the same. 

Nina Grant, London EC3

If you don't know whether a cleverer species exists, you haven't met our cat.

Anne Cowper, Swansea

Just ask Mulder and Scully. But the real question is, why would they choose not to reveal themselves?

Susan Harris, Birmingham

What is there in a song that makes someone like it? I love key changes, but no one else seems to – why is this?

Key changes are often used to bolster weak songs, usually in the repetition of choruses towards the end of a song where the key is raised by a tone each time. This is the songwriting equivalent of "Go faster" stripes on a Robin Reliant. Key changes may, however, be used in more subtle and beautiful ways, and so shouldn't be dismissed. An example of a more artfully rendered modulation is Paul McCartney's Here, There and Everywhere.

While one might analyse aspects of songs to try to explain why people like them, the song remains a vital and tangible vehicle to help people express their hopes, feelings and fears, and to build up a soundtrack of their lives and memories. Whenever I hear Ghost Town by the Specials I am transported back to Thatcher's Britain, to the jobless millions, to the race riots, and to making my school tie as wide and as short as possible, for reasons that are no longer entirely clear to me. What is clear is that these songs have become woven into the fabric of our lives.

Andy Price, Hugglescote, Leics

Our partitioned cutlery holder has, from left to right, knives, forks and spoons, as in the phrase "knives and forks". My housemate insists it should be forks, knives, then spoons, as in table settings. Who is right? 

I can't instinctively tell left from right, so trying to give directions is a bit of a nightmare. It was once suggested that I think "fork" for left and "knife" for right, as with table settings, but this didn't help, and the point made in Bobby Coppin's query explains why – the brain is confused by visualising a table setting but thinking "knives and forks".

Susan Meek, Dundee

Bobby, you've got that habit from Mum and Dad, but Ben (the housemate) is right: it's forks, then knives. Your way only encourages those who hold their cutlery incorrectly.

Woozle Coppin, Leeds

I think you should get out more.

Richard Wood, Toddington, Beds

Any answers?

Why "cloud nine" and not, say, cloud four?

Maya Reid-Cain, High Wycombe, Bucks

In films that feature high-speed chases through pedestrianised areas, bystanders always jump out of the way, while those in vehicles swerve to avoid them. Would people be better off keeping still to avoid collision?

Keith Donaldson, London N3

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

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 13 Apr 2010 | 5:05 pm

Lost 1913 Lincoln Film Surfaces in Barn

The lone copy of a 30-minute silent film about the 16th president has surfaced in the unlikeliest of places.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Apr 2010 | 4:45 pm

A Victory for the Sea Shepherd, and Whales?

Japanese whalers are blaming activists for a paltry catch this year. Is the crew of the Sea Shepherd right to crow about their victory?
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Apr 2010 | 4:23 pm

Antarctic Ice-Core Research Requires Logistical High-Wire Act

Two freezers full of carefully diced and labeled ice drilled from the Antarctic peninsula were hoisted aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer research vessel Sunday for a trip that will eventually end in Columbus, Ohio.

Getting valuable scientific evidence from a hole in the ice near the south pole to the Midwest is as dramatic as logistics can get. Researchers and their ice samples somehow survive harsh conditions in tiny planes, aboard icebreakers, inside hastily assembled geodesic domes and in refrigerator trucks.

And it all has to go just right because researchers like paleoclimatologist Ellen Mosley-Thompson at the Ohio State University only get a few chances to secure the data they need to reconstruct the climate record for an area.

“We wanted to [drill this ice core] starting in the mid-’90s and it’s taken us 15 years to do it,” Mosley-Thompson said. “It’s just a very challenging place to work. Logistics are hard, and it’s expensive.”

Earlier this year, her team got funding from the National Science Foundation through the LARISSA project to execute their plan to drill in the peninsula.

Data extracted from ice cores is a key piece of climatological evidence. It can provide proxy information for temperature, precipitation patterns, atmospheric chemistry and solar variability of an area were in the past. For example, looking at layer after layer, they could reconstruct a sea-ice record for a given year based on the amount of certain salts and methanesulfonic acid in the cores.

In this case, specifically, Mosley-Thompson is interested in the relationship between inland Antarctica and the peninsula. Over the last few hundred years, it appears the Antarctic peninsula’s temperature seems to vary inversely with the temperature of inland Antarctica. When the inland is very cold, the Antarctic peninsula is warm and vice versa. Mosley-Thompson and her team are interested in whether that correlation holds up over many, many years.

In the best-case scenario, Mosley-Thompson’s team will be able to spot individual years in the “laminated” layers of ice and snow going hundreds of years back and less high-resolution data going back multiple thousands of years. At the top of the core, it’s easy: Individual years can be more than a foot and a half thick. At the bottom, years can be compressed into fractions of an inch, making it impossible to tell them apart, even if they still have scientific value. To preserve the ice cores, it’s imperative that they, well, don’t melt.

As you might imagine, the infrastructure required for the operation is tremendously complicated. The National Science Foundation cut a deal with the large government services company Raytheon for long-term logistics. Raytheon Polar Services employs 350 full-time employees and hires more than 1,000 contractors to staff the various transportation and residence facilities. The NSF recently extended the Raytheon contract by a year.

Raytheon Polar Services controls the transportation of both scientists and scientific equipment around what they call “The Ice” and back home. In Mosley-Thompson’s case, they were aided by the British Antarctic Survey.

Their expedition launched from the British Rothera Research Station on Adelaide Island. Bad weather kept them from venturing to their field location on the Bruce Plateau for 10 days, so when they did make their move they had to be quick. Four Twin Otter aircraft carried the crew and their equipment to the remote location, getting everything into position in just five hours.

Once on the ground, they had to set up their working dome and sleeping tents. You can see the geodesic dome being constructed in the video at the top of the page. They spent 42 days working within its confines.

As they drilled the 1,500 feet (445 meters) to the bedrock, they pulled up chunks of the ice, which were carefully cataloged and cut into 3.3-foot (one-meter) chunks. Insulated core boxes can hold six of the chunks. Then, they were buried in a trench in the snow to keep them cold. When the weather permitted, The Twin Otters stopped by to pick up about 15 core boxes at a time.

As the cores arrived back at Rothera, they were placed in two huge refrigerators. Finally, on Sunday, the Nathaniel B. Palmer icebreaker research vessel headed to the station. The freezers were lifted whole onto the boat. They’ll chug along to Punta Arenas in Chile, where they’ll be loaded onto a regular cargo ship for the last leg of the sea trip.

At Port Hueneme, they’ll be loaded onto refrigerated semi-trucks, just like the ones that deliver frozen peas to your local Safeway. And it’s those vehicles that will finally deliver the cores to Columbus. Many other ice cores go through the National Ice Core Laboratory in suburban Denver, Colorado.

If the logistical high-wire act fails, the data is just gone. “Nobody will fund you to go again,” Mosley-Thompson said. With her cores now on the boat headed north, she said that she talks with her contact at Raytheon multiple times a day to ensure that everything is going smoothly.

Images: Ellen Mosley-Thompson.

See Also:

• Report From Antarctica: Countries Maneuver for Potential Future …
• For the Best Stargazing on Earth, Send Robots to Antarctica
• Balloon Circles Antarctica in Antimatter Hunt
• Inflatable Moon Base To Be Tested In Antarctica

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

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 13 Apr 2010 | 4:02 pm

US nuclear policy could boost basic research

National laboratories to see funding increases.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 13 Apr 2010 | 3:59 pm

Can A Child Be A Sociopath?

We're hearing a lot about a Tennessee family who sent their troubled 7-year-old son, adopted from Russia, alone on a plane back to his home country with a note saying they no longer wanted to parent the child. Their reasons ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Apr 2010 | 3:37 pm

Panel to take broad view of bioethics

President Obama appoints commission to advise on stem cells, clinical trials and more.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 13 Apr 2010 | 3:25 pm

Lab-animal battle reaches truce

Biomedical scientists say revised European directive on animal welfare averts feared disaster for research.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 13 Apr 2010 | 3:10 pm

Japan rolls out elite science funds

FIRST scheme targets large grants to world-leading researchers.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 13 Apr 2010 | 3:08 pm

Rampaging Hot Jupiters May Keep Earthlike Planets Out of Their Systems

A bevy of backward-orbiting exoplanets could challenge theories of planet formation, new research suggests. The planets’ wonky orbits might also rule out the presence of Earthlike bodies in some planetary systems.

The wrong-way planets got where they are by cartwheeling over their stars’ heads, Andrew Collier Cameron of the University of St Andrews in Scotland proposed in an April 13 presentation at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

Planets are thought to form from the disk of gas and dust that surrounds a young star. Because the star and the disk both coalesce from the same cloud of material, theory holds that both should spin in the same direction — and so should any planets that arise. The “disk migration theory” posits that some planets should end up close to their stars by gently migrating inward over time, maintaining an orbital plane in line with the star’s rotation.

Last summer, astronomers first discovered a handful of planets that threw that idea for a loop. These planets orbit backward, opposite to the direction of their stars’ spin (SN: 9/12/09, p. 12). And other newly discovered planets that did have “forward” orbits were tilted 20 degrees or more with respect to the plane of the stellar disk where they were born.

These planets belong to a class of extrasolar planets called hot Jupiters — giants that sit scorchingly close to their stars.

“If I had to stick my neck out and make a prediction, it’s probably not a good idea to go looking for terrestrial planets in systems that have hot Jupiters in them,” Cameron says.

Cameron and his colleagues think a single mechanism pushed the tilted and backwards planets into their offbeat orbits and also drew them close to their stars. If these slanted orbits are common, it could be a death knell for the migration theory, says study coauthor Didier Queloz of the Geneva Observatory.

“Migration cannot produce misaligned systems,” Queloz says. The new study brings the total number of planets for which astronomers have angle data up to 27. Of those many are misaligned, with half tilted at steep angles and six orbiting backwards.

“Since most hot Jupiters are indeed misaligned, most cannot be formed by migrations,” Queloz says. “We’re kind of killing this first idea of migration.”

The more likely explanation, the researchers say, is the Kozai mechanism. In this scenario, a second, distant large body like a planet or a companion star gravitationally perturbs a planet’s orbit. The orbital plane can flip over the top of the star like a jump rope. When the orbit is flipped more than 90 degrees, the planet is orbiting backwards. At the same time, the shape of the orbit squishes and stretches like a rubber band. As the planet gets closer to the star, its orbit gets more circular, and the cartwheels become less dramatic. When the orbit finally settles into a circle near the star the tilt freezes.

Earlier research predicted that most orbits of giant planets perturbed by the Kozai mechanism should end up tilted around either 40 degrees — a forward but slanted orbit — or 140 degrees — a backwards orbit.

“That looks very much like what we’re now observing,” Cameron says. “It looks almost too good to be true.”

Some critics think he’s right — it is too good to be true. “I think they’re eliminating the standard mechanism of disk migration prematurely,” says Adam Burrows of Princeton University. Some combination of migration, scatter and the Kozai mechanism is still possible, he says. “Their data isn’t that definitive to eliminate any other possibilities.”

Astronomers had hoped that smaller, more Earthlike planets could be hiding in the neighborhoods of hot Jupiters, but the recent slug of orbital data suggests that may be unlikely. The giant planets’ orbits can take hundreds of thousands of years to settle, “during which you have a rampaging Jupiter on a cometlike crazy tumbling orbit, which would simply fling any remaining debris out of the system,” Cameron says.

Images: 1. ESO/L. Calçada 2. ESO/A. C. Cameron

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 13 Apr 2010 | 3:06 pm

Gene engineered crops profit farmers: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Genetically engineered crops are profitable for farmers and may help protect people and the environment from an overload of pesticides, a panel of experts reported on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 13 Apr 2010 | 2:30 pm

Why Women Stay in Abusive Relationships

Women in abusive relationships still see certain positive traits in their abusers, which may partly explain why they stay.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2010 | 2:16 pm

DNA Testing Finds Endangered Whale Meat in Restaurants

Genetic tests of whale meat from Japanese restaurants in Los Angeles and Seoul, South Korea, have confirmed the meat is from endangered animals.

The Los Angeles bust was publicized in March, prompting a restaurant there to close, but finding the meat in South Korea was even more troubling.

“This problem may be more widespread than we originally thought,” said Scott Baker, a whale researcher at Oregon State University. The identifications are described in a paper published April 13 in Biology Letters.

Killing sei, fin and minke whales was outlawed by the International Whaling Commission in 1986, and trade in their products is forbidden by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Possessing or selling whale meat is illegal in the United States. Japan and South Korea allow endangered whales caught as “bycatch” by fishermen to be sold. Japan also operates a research program that’s been criticized as scientific cover for continued whale hunts.

Sei whale meat from The Hump in Los Angeles, purchased last October by makers of the The Cove — a documentary about Japanese dolphin hunting — proved genetically similar to meat purchased at markets in Japan during 2007 and 2008. It likely came from the same whale population. The restaurant has since closed.

Of sei, minke and fin whale meat purchased last year by the paper’s authors in an as-yet-unidentified South Korean restaurant, the fin whale matched with meat sold in Japan in 2007. It likely came from the same individual.

Baker’s team has asked the Japanese government for access to its DNA registry of research whales. If granted, it could confirm the meat’s origin in the Japanese research program. It could also implicate an unknown source, “a situation requiring urgent investigation,” write the researchers.

Images: Oregon State University/Flickr: 1) From a restaurant in Seoul, a sashimi plate containing cuts from four whale and one dolphin species; 2) A waiter serves whale at The Hump restaurant in Los Angeles.

See Also:

• How Filmmakers Used Spy Tech to Catch Dolphin Slaughter
• Sushi DNA Tests Reveal Fraud
• Whales Might Be as Much Like People as Apes Are
• Your Chilean Sea Bass Dinner Deprives Killer Whales
• Blue Whale Song Mystery Baffles Scientists

Citation: “Genetic evidence of illegal trade in protected whales links Japan with the U.S. and South Korea.” By Charles Baker, Debbie Steel, Yeyong Choi, Hang Lee, Kyung Kim, Yong Ma, Charles Hambleton, Louie Psihoyos and Robert Brownell Jr.. Biology Letters, April 13, 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 | 13 Apr 2010 | 2:06 pm

iPhone Multitasking Could Make Driving Safer

The ability to run background apps in Apple's upcoming iPhone software update could make driving safer by allowing specialized distraction-preventing services to run on the popular device.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2010 | 1:21 pm

MacBook Pro Line Updated with New Intel Chips

A new line of MacBook Pros will incorporate Intel's latest processors.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2010 | 12:59 pm

TDZ: anti-ageing cream for flowers

Scientists say a new chemical can add up to a month to the life of cut flowers and potted plants. But what exactly is TDZ? And is it safe to use?

In a development that could make manufacturers of anti-ageing creams jealous, scientists say they have discovered a spray that can add up to a month to the life of cut flowers and potted plants in bloom. A quick spritz with a solution containing a synthetic chemical called thidiazuron, or "TDZ", can delay the withering process. A team of international researchers, working for the US Department of Agriculture and led by Dr Cai-Zhong Jiang, a plant physiologist at the University of California-Davis, has been experimenting with methods to forestall the natural ageing process in plants – called "senescence" – and have found that TDZ, when added to water in concentrations of five-10 parts per million, can achieve "significant, sometimes spectacular, effects". The best results have been achieved with cyclamens, which lived "more than a month longer" when treated with TDZ.

But what exactly is TDZ? And is it safe to spray around our homes? TDZ is a synthetic version of a plant hormone known as a "cytokinin". At higher concentrations, TDZ is used as a defoliant by farmers – in particular, by cotton farmers because it causes plants to drop their leaves so that mechanical harvesters can more easily collect their fluffy bolls. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that TDZ is "not likely to be carcinogenic to humans". But when used on cotton, the EPA has found "some potential ecological risks", with concern for small mammals foraging on short grass, small insects, and "terrestrial and semi-aquatic plants". Florists might want to delay their enthusiasm until the test results are in.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 13 Apr 2010 | 12:30 pm

'Touch Floor': An iPad for Your Feet

iPad? So yesterday. Why waste your time with a laptop-sized touch-screen when you can make the entire floor of a room in your house one giant iPad?! At least, that's what one tech company is hoping for. Patrick Baudisch and ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Apr 2010 | 12:14 pm

Revolution crushed at Royal Institution

Failed bid to oust leadership of historic science body highlights financial turmoil.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 13 Apr 2010 | 12:11 pm

Obituary: CW Wright

My father, CW Wright, who has died aged 93, was one of the last great amateurs of palaeontology, pursuing what was in effect a second career, in parallel with distinguished service in the public sector. He joined the War Office in 1939, after the war worked in the Ministry of Defence and became deputy under secretary (Air), then deputy secretary in the Department of Education and Science, 1971-76. He was appointed CB in 1969.

At the same time, he published well over 150 geological books and papers. In retirement, he took up a research fellowship at Wolfson College, Oxford. He served for many years on the International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature. His most recent work, published in 2008, was part eight of the projected nine volumes of British Cretaceous Echinoids, on sea-urchin fossils, which he had been writing with AB Smith of the Natural History Museum. He left notes for the final part, which will be completed by Smith.

Claud to his Oxford friends, Willie to those he made after his marriage, he grew up in North Ferriby, on the banks of the Humber. It was in the Humber mud that, in 1937, he and his younger brother, Ted (EV), discovered the Ferriby Boats, the first of the Bronze Age sewn boats to be excavated in the British Isles. He was educated at Charterhouse and Christ Church, Oxford, where he read classics. He had an impish sense of humour – he made jokes as easily in ancient Greek and Latin as he did in English – and a profound humanity.

He met his wife, Alison Readman, at the War Office, and they married in 1947. On retirement they moved to west Dorset, where they made a ravishing three-acre garden. She predeceased him in 2003. He is survived by their four daughters, son, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 13 Apr 2010 | 11:22 am

The Most Expensive iPad Apps

These iPad apps are the most expensive on the market.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2010 | 11:00 am

Alzheimer's Self Test Works Surprisingly Well

A new handwritten Alzheimer's test assesses cognitive abilities in older adults. The test could one day serve as a tool to help detect Alzheimer's disease.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2010 | 10:40 am

Profile of a Tax Cheat

Why do people cheat on taxes? A tax cheat may be just trying to save money, or he might justify the cheating because wealthier people pay lower rates.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2010 | 10:11 am

Surgeons Operate More When They Own the Surgery Center

Doctors financially invested in an outpatient surgical center perform twice as many surgeries than doctors with no such financial stake, a clear conflict of interest.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2010 | 9:49 am

Study shows wild birds could spread avian flu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wild ducks that are immune to the effects of H5N1 avian influenza could be spreading the virus far and wide, U.S. government researchers said on Monday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 13 Apr 2010 | 9:22 am

Deadly Cane Toad Is Marsupial's Last Supper

Scientists teach a cat-sized marsupial to associate toxic cane toads with feeling sick.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2010 | 9:09 am

Pavement power lights up Toulouse

Electricity generated by pedestrians used to illuminate street lights in France's technology capital

It is a pleasingly Gallic phrase that brings to mind marauding students and protesting unions. But, while Toulouse's "pavement power" project has nothing to do with social unrest or burning barricades, it could yet prove revolutionary.

As part of wider efforts to put France's south-western technology capital at the forefront of green wizardry, city authorities are testing out a scheme to generate electricity for street lights through the stamping feet of passers-by.

Designers say the section of eight custom-made modules placed in the city centre for a two-week trial period can produce between 50 and 60 watts of electricity to power a nearby street lamp.

It is the first time the modules – unveiled to the world by Dutch company Sustainable Dance Club (SDC) for use in nightclubs – have been tested on the street. For Alexandre Marciel, the city's deputy mayor in charge of sustainable development, the new function is potentially ground-breaking.

"It is a world first," he said. "It is an idea which has existed for a long time in people's minds but which has never actually been made a reality."

Toulouse, France's technological and aeronautical hub, is the latest stop-off for the SDC modules, which had their first outing at Rotterdam's Club Watt last year and which have since lit the imagination of designers the world over.

Embedded with microsensors which produce energy when people move over them, the modules seemed to Marciel to provide an unprecedented opportunity to alter how cities save and produce energy.

"It all stems from an observation that, in the public sphere, energy is wasted and it would be good if we could somehow get it back. There is nothing original in that but what the Dutch start-up had created was new," he said.

Although the authorities say they have succeeded in proving that the idea works – to the bewilderment of some sceptical Toulouse residents – they and the designers admit there have been problems.

The prototype of the modules, said Marciel, was unsuitable for street use as "at that stage they only worked if you jumped on them like a kangaroo". "So a model was developed on which you can walk normally and still produce enough energy to power the lights," he said.

Since last year, SDC designers have been flooded with demands for the modules in increasingly varied locations. Though Toulouse is the first, it is not the only European city to have recognised the potential .

Jaap van den Braak, the company's marketing director, said Rotterdam's football stadium had recently signed a contract to run a pilot scheme. "There are several similar pilots projects being considered which use the modules in public spaces where there is a high traffic movement, such as train stations and sports stadiums," he said.

Marciel admitted there was a way to go before the dream of pavement-powered street lighting could become a reality. The relatively high cost of the modules remained a deterrent, he said, but should not put off authorities in cities where the political will was strong.

"Toulouse has a mission to become the capital of our country in terms of innovation but practical innovation that responds to the needs of the population," he said, adding that a recent test of heat-sensitive lampposts in the city had led to the product being exploited commercially by two companies.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 13 Apr 2010 | 7:40 am

One Mystery of Sandstorm Lightning Explained

How sandstorms produce spectacular displays of lightning has remained a mystery, until now.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Apr 2010 | 7:31 am

How caterpillar walk became talk

Complex communication in some caterpillars evolved from the simple act of walking, according to scientists.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Apr 2010 | 6:27 am

Frog tadpoles 'scream' underwater when attacked, say scientists

Tadpoles produce a sharp distress call when attacked, the first evidence that any underwater larva uses sound to communicate.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Apr 2010 | 4:57 am

Audio slideshow

Beautiful creatures feature on Royal Mail's latest stamps
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Apr 2010 | 4:36 am

Alien invaders

Many nations are failing to tackle invasive species
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Apr 2010 | 3:58 am