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Quiz: name that synonym! | Mind your languageJamie Fahey: Now you know your popular orange vegetables from your war-torn republics, can you work out what these phrases refer to? Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 1 Jun 2011 | 5:55 am Spending time in nature makes people feel more alive, study showsBeing outside in nature makes people feel more alive, finds a series of studies. And that sense of increased vitality exists above and beyond the energizing effects of physical activity and social interaction that are often associated with our forays into the natural world.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 6:00 pm Aquatic life declines at early stages of urban development, research findsThe number of native fish and aquatic insects, especially those that are pollution sensitive, declines in urban and suburban streams at low levels of development -- levels often considered protective for stream communities, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 6:00 pm Marmots can teach us about obesityA professor has discovered that a common nutrient can help stimulate appetite in hibernating marmots, which can help scientists understand more about human metabolism and obesity.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 6:00 pm Tiny blood vessels in brain spit to surviveScientists have discovered capillaries have a unique method of expelling debris, such as blood clots, cholesterol or calcium plaque, that blocks the flow of essential nutrients to brain cells. The capillaries spit out the blockage by growing a membrane that envelopes the obstruction and then shoves it out of the blood vessel. Scientists also found this critical process is up to 50 percent slower in an aging brain and likely results in the death of more capillaries.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 6:00 pm Lifestyle and genes pose separate risks for breast cancerThe increased risk of breast cancer associated with a range of common genes is not affected by lifestyle factors -- including use of hormone replacement therapy, age at birth of first child, obesity, and alcohol consumption -- a new study has found.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 6:00 pm Drilling into the unknown: First exploration of a sub-glacial Antarctic lake is a major step closerScientists have located the ideal drill site for the first ever exploration of an Antarctic sub-glacial lake. Scientists have revealed the optimal drill site for exploring Lake Ellsworth, a sub-glacial lake comparable in size to England's Lake Windermere which is covered by three kilometers of ice. This development is likely to facilitate a revolution in climate-change research and may lead to the discovery of life-forms cut off from the main line of evolution for millions of years.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 6:00 pm Outcrop of long-sought rare rock on Mars foundA mineral-scouting instrument has found an outcrop of rock rich in carbonate minerals in the Columbia Hills of Gusev Crater on Mars.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm Color-coded tracking method helps scientists analyze outcomes of newly transplanted tissueA group of "color-coded" laboratory mice are providing researchers with a novel way of tracking T-cells, enabling them to visualize and monitor the cellular responses of transplanted tissue in real time.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm More choline for pregnant, nursing women could reduce Down syndrome dysfunction, guard against dementiaMore choline during pregnancy and nursing could provide lasting cognitive and emotional benefits to people with Down syndrome. The work indicated greater maternal levels of the essential nutrient also could protect against neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm Mutations that cause Parkinson's disease prevent cells from destroying defective mitochondriaMutations that cause Parkinson's disease prevent cells from destroying defective mitochondria, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm BP places cap on leaking oil wellBP lowers a cap onto a leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, but it will not be known for up to 24 hours if it will be successful.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:55 am £2bn offshore windfarm goes aheadWork is to begin next year off the coast of north Wales on what will be one of the world's largest windfarms.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:50 am BP puts containment cap on gushing Gulf well pipe (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:50 am Citizen solutionCan ordinary people think of a way to stop the oil?Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:48 am Haycast 07: Robert Winston, Rick Gekoski and the classicsIn today's Haycast, Robert Winston answers festivalgoers' questions on science, literature and his guilty pleasures, while Claire Armitstead and Sarah Crown catch up on gossip in the Hay festival green room, where writers and performers gather when they're not on stage. History – what it is, how it's taught – has been one of the unexpected themes of this year's Hay festival. Charlotte Higgins talks to classicists Richard Miles and Paul Cartledge about where ancient history fits in, and challenges them to name one thing she didn't already know about Carthage and Sparta. Finally, Sarah takes a magical mystery tour of the town of Hay-on-Wye with rare books dealer Rick Gekoski – in town to discuss his bibliomemoir, Outside of a Dog – as her guide. He ferrets out the best books the town has to offer, culminating in an amazing discovery in the Poetry Bookshop, which results in some highwire negotiations. Today, we're interviewing Roy Hattersley. Any questions – post them below. Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:34 am Falcon 9 rocket ready for debutThe Falcon 9 rocket, which could one day launch astronauts to the space station, is set for its maiden flight from Florida.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:06 am Video: Mars capsule: I guess it's gonna be a long, long timeSix astronauts from Russia, Europe and China have begun a Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:00 am The nation's weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:59 am BP wrestles cap over leak as Obama heads back to Gulf (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:54 am Storm forceWhat happens if a hurricane hits the Gulf of Mexico?Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:38 am 'Final warning' over UK pollutionThe EC threatens to take the UK to the European Court of Justice if the air quality in the country does not improve.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:33 am 'Furious' Obama heading to Gulf for spill update (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:10 am Drug hope for sepsis uncoveredScientists have uncovered a potential new treatment for blood poisoning, which affects 20 million people a year.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:06 am BP's battered brand draws consumer opposition (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 4 Jun 2010 | 1:30 am Would You Like to Star in Steven Spielberg's New Dinosaur Drama Series?Steven Spielberg's team is looking for actors and extras for a new dinosaur-themed series. Find out how to submit your photo and resume.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:39 pm Video Shows Brown Pelican 'Choking to Death on Oil'New video footage shows a brown pelican 'choking to death on oil' near the site of the Gulf spill.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:09 pm Interracial Marriages Soar (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - Nearly 15 percent of new marriages in the United States in 2008 were between spouses of different races or ethnicities, a number that's six times that found in 1960, according to a report by the Pew Research Center released today.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 10:10 pm Interracial Marriages SoarInterracial marriages in 2008 were six times the rate in 1960. The top state for intermarriages: Hawaii.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 10:04 pm Amateur astronomer spots another Jupiter strike (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:58 pm See Tungurahua's Fire, Hear It RoarEcuador's Tungurahua has been the scene of one heck of a volcanic show.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2010 | 8:55 pm BREAKING: Impact Observed in Jupiter's AtmosphereOn the day Hubble releases further analysis of the impact that scarred Jupiter in 2009, the same discoverer, Anthony Wesley, witnesses a second impact fireball in the Jovian atmosphere.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2010 | 7:43 pm Mars rocks point to wetter pastMars harbours rocks rich in carbonate minerals, suggesting there was more water there in the past than previously thought.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Jun 2010 | 7:26 pm Bike-Powered Device Recharges PhonePedaling at 10 miles per hour for 20 minutes provides an hour of talk time.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2010 | 6:31 pm Sine flu experts linked to big pharmaTrio of scientists who urged stockpiling had previously been paid, says report Scientists who drew up the key World Health Organisation guidelines advising governments to stockpile drugs in the event of a flu pandemic had previously been paid by drug companies which stood to profit, according to a report out today. An investigation by the British Medical Journal and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the not-for-profit reporting unit, shows that WHO guidance issued in 2004 was authored by three scientists who had previously received payment for other work from Roche, which makes Tamiflu, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), manufacturer of Relenza. City analysts say that pharmaceutical companies banked more than $7bn (£4.8bn) as governments stockpiled drugs. The issue of transparency has risen to the forefront of public health debate after dramatic predictions last year about a swine flu pandemic did not come true. Some countries, notably Poland, declined to join the panic-buying of vaccines and antivirals triggered when the WHO declared the swine flu outbreak a pandemic a year ago this week. The UK, which warned that 65,000 could die as a result of the virus, spent an estimated £1bn stockpiling drugs and vaccines; officials are now attempting to unpick expensive drug contracts. The cabinet office has launched an inquiry into the cost to the taxpayer of the panic-buying of drugs. Today, the Council of Europe, produces a damning report into how a lack of openness around "decision making" has bedevilled planning for pandemics. "The tentacles of drug company influence are in all levels in the decision-making process," said Paul Flynn, the Labour MP who sits on the council's health committee. "It must be right that the WHO is transparent because there has been distortion of priorities of public health services all over Europe, waste of huge sums of public money and provocation of unjustified fear." Although the experts consulted made no secret of industry ties in other settings, declaring them in research papers and at universities, the WHO itself did not publicly disclose any of these in its seminal 2004 guidance. In its note, the WHO advised: "Countries that are considering the use of antivirals as part of their pandemic response will need to stockpile in advance." Many nations would adopt this guidance, including Britain. In 2005, the government said it had begun bulk-buying the drug Tamiflu, initially ordering 14.6m doses after bird flu killed 40 in Asia. The specific guidance on antivirals was written by Professor Fred Hayden. He has confirmed in an email that he was being paid by Roche for lectures and consultancy work at the time the guidance was produced and published. He received payments from GSK for consultancy and lecturing until 2002. He said "[declaration of interest] forms were filled out for the 2002 consultation". The previous year Hayden was also one of the main authors of a Roche-sponsored study that asserted what was to become a main Tamiflu selling point – its claim of a 60% reduction in flu hospitalisations. Dr Arnold Monto was the author of the WHO annex dealing with vaccine usage in pandemics. Between 2000 and 2004, and at the time of writing the annex, Monto had openly declared consultancy fees and research support from Roche and GSK. No conflict of interest statement was included in the annex published by the WHO. When asked if he had signed a declaration of interest form for WHO, Dr Monto said "conflict of interest forms are requested before participation in any WHO meeting". The third scientist, Professor Karl Nicholson, is credited with the WHO's influential work Pandemic Influenza. According to declarations he made in the BMJ and Lancet in 2003, he had received sponsorship from GSK and Roche. Even though the previous year these declarations had been openly made, no conflict of interest statement was included in the annex. Nicholson said he last had "financial relations" with Roche in 2001. When asked if he had signed a declaration of interest form for WHO, he replied: "The WHO does require attendees of meetings, such as those held in 2002 and 2004, to complete declarations of interest." A WHO official told the BMJ it had to balance an individual's privacy with the robustness of guidelines, which were subject to a wide external review process. 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 | 3 Jun 2010 | 5:34 pm Yangtze River's True Age RevealedYangtze River dated to 45 million years old by looking at rock cut by water.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 5:15 pm Scientists begin 520-day Mars mission simulation (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 4:47 pm Mars rover finds conditions 'more conducive to life'Carbonate-rock outcrop holds clues to red planet's history.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/zxWwBtmqe1c" height="1" width="1"/>Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 3 Jun 2010 | 4:00 pm Evolutionary insights caught on cameraSpying on wild crickets in the field yields secrets of reproductive success.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 3 Jun 2010 | 4:00 pm Video Games Help Astronauts Prepare for Deep-Space MissionsAstronauts will train for space mission by playing video games.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 3:17 pm New AT&T Wireless Data Plan: Deal or Raw Deal?AT&T has announced a new, two-tiered, limited wireless data plan. Analysts are split on whether the deal is good one or a raw one for consumers.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 3:12 pm High-Tech Space Planes Taking Shape in Italy, Russia (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - The U.S. Air Force's secretive X-37B space plane may eventually get some company in low-Earth orbit as other countries such as Italy and Russia push forward with plans for their own reusable winged spaceships.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 2:45 pm PayPal millionaire's rocket making 1st test flight (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 2:12 pm SpaceX cleared to fly new rocket from FloridaCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Privately funded Space Exploration Technologies, the company operated by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, received final clearance from the U.S. Air Force on Thursday for its debut rocket launch from Florida.Source: Reuters: Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:59 pm Jews worldwide share genetic tiesBut analysis also reveals close links to Palestinians and Italians.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:57 pm Your Brain Could Control This RobotAnother breakthrough in brain-computer interface technology allows a person's brain to directly control the actions of a robot.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:31 pm Academic quits GM food commiteeUK academic quits government committee on genetically modified food, raising concerns about its impartiality.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:27 pm Whales Evolved in the Blink of an EyeWhales evolved shockingly fast into wide array of shapes and sizes.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:18 pm Fossil Antelope Teeth Hold Clues to Europe’s Missing Apes
Wear patterns on ancient antelope teeth have allowed researchers to reconstruct Europe’s environment 8 million years ago, when the continent’s great apes vanished. One of those ape species could have given rise to the human lineage, making the circumstances of their disappearance especially interesting. “Some kind of homogeneity happened around that time,” said anthropologist Gildas Merceron of France’s University Claude Bernard Lyon, co-author of a study published June 2 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “We suspect a uniform environment may be linked to the decrease in great ape biodiversity.” That apes lived in Europe seems strange today, but the continent 20 million years was warm and wet, well-suited for primates that left Africa after shrinking seas exposed a land bridge between the continents. Within a few million years, Europe hosted more than 100 species of primates, and at least 10 species of great apes. Climate change ended that geological age. The southern icecap grew, and the Antarctic circumpolar current formed. The Asian monsoon cycle started and Europe cooled. Merceron’s study gives local detail to that big picture.
The researchers analyzed hundreds of deer and antelope teeth found at sites in Germany, Hungary and Greece and dated them to the reign of Europe’s primates and to their extinction. Wear patterns told them what sort of vegetation had prevailed. In Western and Central Europe, ruminants switched from browsing bushes and trees to grazing grasses. In Eastern Europe, the opposite happened, as grazers started to browse. This slide into woodland homogeneity likely left the apes unable to find food, and perhaps exposed them to predators, suspects Merceron’s team. But some researchers think Europe’s apes didn’t necessarily go extinct. Some may have returned to Africa, and followed an evolutionary course ending in the modern great apes, including Homo sapiens. “For every aspect that makes us human, there is a time and set of conditions that explains that,” said Rutgers University anthropologist Rob Scott, who was not involved in the study. “This will help explain the sort of conditions that are relevant to the earliest hominids.” The back-into-Africa hypothesis is controversial, and contradicts the standard narrative of an all-Africa origin for the human lineage. However, there’s a gap in Africa’s great ape fossil record between 14 and 7 million years ago. The Eurasian fossil record is rich at that time. Among the candidates for an ancestor of humans and other modern great apes are Rudapithecus hungaricus, Anoiapithecus brevirostris and Ouranopithecus macedoniensis. Especially in the face, each has features hinting at those found in known human ancestors. The last of these apes to survive was Ouranopithecus, which lived in Greece and was well-suited to eating nuts and tubers. According to Scott, it’s possible that Ouranopithecus had started to come down from the trees, developing methods of locomotion that eventually turned into bipedalism. “I’d be terribly surprised if they were totally arboreal,” he said. All this is speculation, but even if Eurasian apes didn’t give rise to humanity, the study embodies an approach that can be applied to African apes, said Scott. “The field is progressing from the discovery of new taxa, new names to put in our charts, to having enough information to construct larger hypotheses and scenarios,” Scott said. “We want to know, why are we human?” Image: Artist’s rendering and fossil fragments of Anoiapithecus brevirostris./Institute of Catalan Paleontology, Autonous University of Barcelona. See Also:
Citation: “Ruminant diets and the Miocene extinction of European great apes.” By Gildas Merceron, Thomas M. Kaiser, Dimitris S. Kostopoulos and Ellen Schulz. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, June 2, 2010.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:12 pm Simple 'SQUID' Solution Could Contain OilThis idea is so simple and seemingly workable that surely anyone at BP who knows about it must be having a "DUH" moment.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:03 pm Computers See Oil Spreading Far and FastA new computer simulation shows that currents could whip oil out of the Gulf of Mexico and up the east coast of the US within weeks.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2010 | 12:48 pm 70 Percent of Adult Internet Users Watch Videos OnlineThe Pew Research Center has released statistics showing just how many people watch online video.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 12:32 pm Charges likely over earthquake deathsScientists and officials told they could face a manslaughter trial over the L'Aquila earthquake in which more than 300 died Seven senior Italian officials and scientists were today told they risked being tried for manslaughter for failing to evacuate the city of L'Aquila before it was hit by an earthquake last year. According to the website of the newspaper La Repubblica, the heads of Italy's geophysical institute and the national earthquake centre were among those formally notified that they were suspects in an inquiry conducted by prosecutors in L'Aquila. Were they to be indicted, it would doubtless spark furious controversy in the scientific community over the degree to which scientists can be held responsible for predicting natural events. All seven attended a meeting six days before the disaster at which it was decided that a series of tremors in the area did not necessarily signal a major event was imminent. But L'Aquila's chief prosecutor, Alfredo Rossi, said: "Those in charge were highly qualified people who ought to have given different responses to the members of the public." More than 300 people died in the 6.3 magnitude earthquake. Giampaolo Giuliani, a scientific technician working near L'Aquila, had warned of ominously high radon emissions, but was put under an injunction not to spread alarm. 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 | 3 Jun 2010 | 12:18 pm Rare Bonobo Birth Celebrated at Great Ape TrustGreat Ape Trust is celebrating the rare birth of a baby bonobo.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2010 | 12:15 pm Old Moon Rover Beams Surprising … er Flashes to EarthA Soviet robot lost on the dusty plains of the Moon for the past 40 years has been found again, and it is returning surprisingly strong laser pulses to Earth. Researchers plan to use the aged robot to help them measure the Moon's orbit and test theories of gravity.Source: Science@NASA Headline News | 3 Jun 2010 | 12:11 pm Underwater 'Thunder' Could Lead to Better SonarSounds generated using a thunder-like mechanism could lead better sonar.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 12:10 pm Thick Haze Protected First Life on EarthA thick organic haze cloaked early Earth, keeping the planet from freezing over, protecting primordial life.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 12:04 pm Fractal Haze Could Solve Weak-Sun Mystery for Early Earth
A thick haze of organic material let the early Earth soak up the sun’s warmth without absorbing harmful ultraviolet rays, according to a new study. The model offers a new twist on an old puzzle: Although the sun was so dim billions of years ago that the Earth should have been a ball of ice, the young planet had liquid oceans capable of supporting life. “Given these recent papers, we can probably say the early faint sun problem is not one of the problems anymore in solving the origin of life,” said astrophysicist Christopher Chyba of Princeton University, who was not involved in the new work. The sun should have been up to 30 percent less bright 3.8 billion to 2.5 billion years ago, according to studies of the lifecycles of sun-like stars. If the Earth’s atmosphere had the same composition then as it does now, it would have frozen over completely, like Jupiter’s moon Europa. But geological records show the Earth was at least as warm and wet then as it is today. Scientists have struggled with this “faint young sun paradox” since 1972, when astronomers Carl Sagan and George Mullen suggested that an atmosphere containing a small amount of ammonia, a powerful greenhouse gas, could have warmed the Earth enough to keep the oceans liquid. But a later study showed that ultraviolet radiation from the sun would destroy the ammonia in the atmosphere and cancel out its warming effects.
Sagan countered in 1996 that the early atmosphere would have produced a thick cloud of organic haze, much like the orange cloud that enshrouds Saturn’s moon Titan. This haze would have blocked ultraviolet light but let in visible light, letting the Earth tan without getting burnt. But early models assumed the haze particles were spheres, and that when individual particles collided, they globbed together to make bigger spheres. These spheres blocked visible light as well as ultraviolet light, and left the Earth’s surface even colder. “It basically led us to a dead end where we couldn’t have a warm early Earth,” said Eric Wolf, a graduate student in atmospheric sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the first author of the new study in Science June 4. Wolf and coauthor Brian Toon realized that assuming the haze particles were spherical was too simple. Instead of combining to make bigger spheres, tiny haze particles no more than 100 nanometers across could form long chains, like strings of pearls. These chains would link up and branch off each other in a complicated fractal geometry, similar to the structure of clouds. These strands of haze would form fluffy, airy structures that would let in visible light while blocking ultraviolet light, Wolf said. “If you take into account the shape factor,” he said, “it turns out that the haze would be quite a strong ultraviolet shield while being relatively transparent in the visible. Visible light can reach through the haze and reach the surface.” Without the destructive ultraviolet light, ammonia could build up under the haze and warm the Earth efficiently, Wolf said. Only a few parts per million of ammonia would be enough to offset the faint young sun. But if early organisms could have looked up, they wouldn’t have seen a clear blue sky. The sky would be dim and rust-colored, like Titan’s. “We’re really dealing with this completely alien world on the early Earth,” Wolf said. Wolf’s study comes shortly after an April 1 paper in Nature that proposed another solution to the faint young sun paradox: The early Earth was darker, and therefore absorbed more heat. Both explanations could be right, Chyba said. “It seems likely that the answer is going to be a composite explanation,” he said. “You cobble together a number of factors and you solve the paradox that way.” The next step should be looking at ancient rocks to determine what the early Earth’s atmosphere was really made of, Chyba added. “That’s going to be really hard, because those rocks are really worked over. But that’s probably where the field is heading now.” Image: Haze on Titan./NASA/Cassini See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 3 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm Are Alien Artifacts in Our Solar System?On the hypothesis that we might have been visited long ago, could there be alien artifacts left behind, perhaps abandoned in solar orbit?Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:51 am Mission in a Moscow hangar is no joke, say astronautsThe 520-day simulated journey will provide invaluable data for a real trip, European Space Agency announces
Its critics have suggested it amounts to little more than sitting inside a giant tin can in a Moscow hangar with no sun, no fresh water, no alcohol and (one assumes) no sex for 520 interminable days. But as the six fearless volunteers this afternoon sealed themselves inside a simulated mission to Mars, grinning and waving goodbye to their families before "blast-off", scientists insisted they were embarking on an unprecedented experiment that was no laughing matter. The crewmen – three are Russian, one French, one Chinese and one a Colombian-born Italian – won't emerge from their isolation until November 2011. Their goal is to recreate a return journey to the red planet, spanning a year and a half, complete with simulated emergency situations and realistic psychological pressures. It will, say scientists, provide invaluable data on how a crew would cope with the difficulties and inevitable tedium of long-duration space flight. "This isn't a joke. It will give a lot of useful information, not just about Mars but also for Earth," said Dr Christer Fuglesang, a Swedish astronaut with the human spaceflight directorate of the European Space Agency (ESA). He rejected suggestions that the experiment, named Mars 500, was more Red Dwarf than red planet. "People are isolated in many places in the world," he said. "We have scientists in the south pole for a long time, or in submarines. Then there are all those in jail." The astronauts would be free to leave the experiment at any point, Fuglesang said, adding that he was confident none of them would. The crew will live and work in a chain of cramped metal capsules. The highlight of their voyage will be a simulated spacewalk on Mars, which will take place in a large sandpit. Today journalists toured the sandpit while wearing 3D glasses – the experience was similar to wandering inside a dark and disappointing Moscow nightclub. Before bidding farewell to the world, the six men conceded their experience would be tough. This is especially true for Alexey Sitev, the crew's 38-year-old Russian commander, who was recently married. Asked what his bride Ekaterina thought of his spending the next 18 months away from her, he admitted: "It is difficult to answer this question." But, he said: "I am not the first traveller who has left his family for a long time to discover new frontiers. When they got back, they found their families waiting for them." The fact that the crew is single-sex should prevent the dangerous sexual tensions that have affected previous mixed missions. In 1999, participants in a similar experiment were given vodka to celebrate New Year's Eve: two members then brawled when one tried to kiss a Canadian female astronaut. Chinese crewman Wang Yue struck an exalted tone: "When people say this is a simulation, that it isn't a matter of life and death, I tell them it's much more. It's the future of mankind." He added he would attempt to learn Russian during his odyssey. The experiment is taking place in a sprawling hangar at Moscow's Institute for Medical and Biological Problems, in a suburb of dingy tower blocks and poplar trees. The institute began studying the likely effects of a Mars mission in the early 1960s. Since the Apollo flights of the late 60s and early 70s, there have been no manned space flights beyond Earth's orbit. But Fuglesang said he hoped that a real manned space flight to Mars, with international collaboration, could take place in the next two decades or so, though not before 2025. Mars 500 is designed to recreate as closely as possible the conditions of a spacecraft hurtling through the solar system. A return flight to Mars – 34 million miles from Earth – would take between 18 months and three years. The six crew will spend 250 days performing flight tasks and experiments along the way – with half of them spending 30 days "on the planet" and the others remaining "in orbit". Getting home will take a further 240 days. The 550 sq metre complex that will be their home includes four windowless modules for sleeping, working, storage and for medical and psychological experiments. Each man has a tiny 6 sq metre room. TV is banned but the crew can send emails and communicate with "ground control" via an authentically Martian time delay of 20 minutes. They can also take books, DVDs and video games. Italian member Diego Urbina said he would be reading the entire works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and French flight engineer Romain Charles said he was bringing his guitar "to annoy the other guys". Oliver Knickel, a German who took part in a 105-day experiment in the same complex last year, said tensions between crewmates were inevitable. During his mock flight, the crew almost came to blows over use of the treadmill in the module's tiny gym. Knickel, a German army officer, did not enjoy eating only space rations selected by others. "You don't realise what a privilege it is to choose your own food," he said. The challenges: battle against bugs and boredomEighteen months in isolation will take its toll on the physical and mental health of the Mars 500 crew and is likely to test their ability to work as a team. The six have a storeroom full of rations and will eat the same meals as astronauts on the International Space Station, but these supplies must last the whole stay. A small greenhouse in one of the modules will provide meagre helpings of fresh food including tomatoes, radishes and strawberries. The facility is not an entirely "closed environment", meaning water and air are piped in and waste is removed rather than recycled. There are no windows though, so the crew will live under artificial lighting for the 520 days. The lack of natural light is expected to trigger physiological changes affecting sleep, mood and metabolism. The capsule will be lit for periods with a bluish light to see whether it counteracts any problems the crew experience. A gym with treadmills and weights is provided but European Space Agency scientists still expect to see the crew's physical health deteriorate through lack of activity. The men will be given amino acids and omega 3 dietary supplements to see if they help to maintain their mood and keep their performance sharp. Wherever you have humans, bacteria follow, and the mock-up space capsule has plenty of nooks and crannies where they can breed. On previous simulated trips, pathogens have grown rapidly and at the expense of more benign bugs, posing a health danger. The crew will swab themselves and the capsule to identify which bugs are taking hold. The bugs in the crewmen's mouths and guts are expected to change too, so some will take food supplements laced with bacteria to boost the "good" bacteria in their bodies. The greatest problem by far will be coping with the stress of being locked in a small space, with limited company, for such a long time – and only an internet connection to the outside world. Stress can weaken the immune system, disrupt sleep and hormones and make people irritable and even depressed. The crew will monitor each other for signs of psychological problems, but they will also be regularly assessed through online tests. Ian Sample 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 | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:45 am Gulf Oil Spill Could Spread to Atlantic Coast
Oil from BP’s Gulf of Mexico spill could reach the Atlantic coast in the coming months, according to a new computer simulation. The model indicates that oil at the surface is likely to be picked up by a fast-moving stream of water in the Gulf known as the Loop Current, which feeds into the Gulf Stream current that carries water northward along the Atlantic coastline. “I’ve had a lot of people ask me, ‘Will the oil reach Florida?’” Synte Peacock, who worked on the model at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said in a press release today. “Actually, our best knowledge says the scope of this environmental disaster is likely to reach far beyond Florida, with impacts that have yet to be understood.” It is impossible to accurately predict precisely what will happen to the oil because it will depend on the ever-changing Loop Current and regional weather patterns. But the model, which is based on typical wind and current patterns for the area, can provide a range of possibilities. Six different scenarios — one is shown in the video above — were run through the computer simulation. In all of them, the oil eventually gets entrained into the Gulf Stream and reaches the Atlantic coast, traveling north at speeds up to 100 miles a day as far north as Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, before heading east into the open ocean. The main differences between the scenarios are in the timing of the oil’s movement.
“We have been asked if and when remnants of the spill could reach the European coastlines,” team member Martin Visbeck of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at Kiel University in Germany said in the press release. “Our assumption is that the enormous lateral mixing in the ocean together with the biological disintegration of the oil should reduce the pollution to levels below harmful concentrations. But we would like to have this backed up by numbers from some of the best ocean models.” The NCAR-led simulation was performed on supercomputers based at the New Mexico Computer Applications Center and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The scientists caution that the study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed and published, is not a forecast and is based on movement of a virtual dye that doesn’t resemble oil in some ways. The study also doesn’t take into account factors such as chemical breakdown and degradation of the oil or whether the oil will remain as a slick on the surface, coagulate or mix into the subsurface. The team is working on extending the model further into the future. Read more background on the study at the New York Times‘ Dot Earth blog, in the full press release, and at the DOE. All six modeling scenarios can be found here. Video: The animation is based on a computer model simulation, using a virtual dye, that assumes weather and current conditions similar to those that occur in a typical year. It is one of a set of six scenarios released today that simulate possible pathways the oil might take under a variety of oceanic conditions. Each of the six scenarios shows the same overall movement of oil through the Gulf to the Atlantic and up the East Coast. However, the timing and fine-scale details differ, depending on the details of the ocean currents in the Gulf. (Visualization by Tim Scheitlin and Rick Brownrigg, NCAR; based on model simulations.) See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:34 am Gulf Oil Spill Could Spread to Atlantic OceanGulf oil spill could follow currents into Atlantic Ocean, computer model suggests.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 10:47 am Psychologist: Oil Spill Worst Disaster in U.S. HistoryPsychologically speaking, is the oil spill disaster more like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina? Researchers suggest neither; it falls in a third category and is among the worst in U.S. history.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:50 am Wanted: Hottest science blogs on webThe Guardian science desk is hunting down the sharpest, funniest, most fascinating science blogs on the internet. And we need your help ... Are there websites or blogs that you check every day? Places that you know you'll always find some worthwhile insights and analysis, or perhaps some guaranteed humour to keep things ticking along during those difficult afternoons? Are there places you turn to after news stories are published to make sure you've got the real story behind the latest cancer scare or acupuncture research? With so many science-related blogs on the web, a good way to identify the most interesting ones, while blocking out the noise of the dud ones, is to ask your friends (real and virtual). In that spirit, the Guardian's science desk want to share with you some of our favourite science-related blogs. Regular readers will be familiar with most of these scientific stars of the web and you'll notice that the list isn't very long - we're more interested in hearing what you read than what we read. People argue endlessly about whether or not blogs are journalism but, frankly, that question is not what we're interested in here. We just want to find the places that are doing interesting things on the web and are being rewarded with engaged audiences, big or small. So here, in no particular order, is our list: http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/ http://www.nhs.uk/news/Pages/NewsIndex.aspx http://scienceblogs.com/moleculeoftheday http://www.drpetra.co.uk/blog/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/ http://lifeandphysics.wordpress.com/ http://lifeunbounded.blogspot.com/ http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/ http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula If you know them already, tell us why you like them. If you've never seen them, we encourage you to check them out. Most importantly of all we'd love to know your favourite science blogs and websites? The ones you wish you had thought of? The ones you can't spend a day without checking, or even the ones where you go to for a quick respite from real life? Either leave your thoughts below or tweet me (@alokjha) or the science team (@guardianscience) direct. We'll collate the suggestions over the next few days and post a list of readers' reccomendations. 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 | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:33 am Six men "take off" for 520-day simulated Mars tripMOSCOW (Reuters) - Clad in a blue jumpsuit and waving, crew member Sukhrob Kamolov quipped "See you in 520 days!" before hopping into sealed-off chambers Thursday with five other men taking part in a simulated trip to Mars.Source: Reuters: Science News | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:21 am EU 'half way to emissions target'The EU is more than half way towards cutting emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020, a report shows.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:03 am Meteorologists locate MonetScientists have pinpointed exactly where Claude Monet was in the Savoy Hotel when he painted Charing Cross Bridge and Waterloo Bridge in heavy smog Through a thick blanket of pre-war smog, it is hard to make out the bridge reaching across the Thames and the sun shining weakly above it. Equally unclear is where the artist, Claude Monet, stood to create the painting, one of the "London series" knocked out by the great impressionist during his time in the capital between 1899 and 1901. Now scientists claim to have solved the puzzle of Monet's vantage point, using computerised records of the sun's movement, ordnance survey maps of London and historical weather records. Together they reveal the exact spot where Monet stood on the balcony of the Savoy Hotel. Monet was drawn to London at the turn of the century to paint the extraordinary effects of smog on sunlight. The combination of soot and fog caused the lighting conditions to change dramatically throughout the day, a phenomenon that was captured by Whistler in earlier etchings. Diaries and other documents place Monet at the Savoy for his paintings, but historians have disagreed on which rooms he may have stayed in. Researchers led by John Thornes, an applied meteorologist at Birmingham University, measured the position of the sun in the sky in Monet's paintings and cross-checked it with solar records. They then took further measurements of features in the paintings, such as the obelisk, Cleopatra's needle. Putting all of the details together, Prof Thornes' team traced Monet's position for his paintings of Charing Cross Bridge (now called Hungerford Bridge) to the balconies of rooms 610 and 611 on the sixth floor in 1900 and rooms 510 and 511 in 1901. All of his paintings of Waterloo Bridge were from a balcony on the fifth floor of the hotel. "Smogs fascinated Monet in the way they changed the light. He spent nearly six months in the end living at the Savoy, gazing out across the Thames, but sometimes the visbility was so bad he couldn't even see the river and the bridges," Prof Thornes said. "Most art historians have got it wrong. They think Monet was in the corner suite of the Savoy, where Whistler stayed a few years beforehand, but he was more to the middle of the building," he said. The paper is due to be published in the Royal Geographical Society journal, Area. "From our study, it is clear that Monet faithfully represented the weather and climate of central London at the time, and it is also clear how much the air quality has changed for the better since then. We can say that the London series of paintings can be cautiously used as a pictorial 'weather diary' of typical Victorian London fogs." 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 | 3 Jun 2010 | 7:22 am Hot! Thermal Video of Hawaiian Volcano Is Amazing
This incredible view of a vent in the Halemaumau Crater within the Kilauea volcanic caldera on the Island of Hawaii was captured by a U.S. Geological Survey thermal video camera June 1. Sped up by four times, the video reveals activity in the 450 foot-wide vent that is usually obscured by accompanying gas fumes. The cracks in the lava pond at the beginning of the video — when the lava is at a high stand in the vent — are just visible in the photo below. As the clip continues, more cracks form in the cooled crust of lava on top of the pond and pieces begin to break off and move around. As the activity increases, lava can be seen splattering, releasing hot fumes that look like flames in the thermal view. Hawaii’s volcanoes are the result of a heated plume rising from deep in the Earth’s molten mantle and breaking through the oceanic crust. As the Pacific plate moves slowly northwest, older volcanoes go dormant as they inch away from the plume, and new volcanic islands are formed. Kilauea is the youngest volcano, slowly taking the torch away from neighboring Mauna Loa, the largest volcano on Earth.
Video, image: USGS See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 3 Jun 2010 | 4:00 am
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