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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 About one-tenth of soldiers returning from Iraq may be impaired by mental health problems, study findsBetween 8.5 percent and 14 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq report serious functional impairment due to either post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm No place to hide: New 360-degree video surveillance system uses image stitching technology that is perfectly detailed edge to edgeThe US Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate new Imaging System for Immersive Surveillance is as detailed as 50 full-HDTV movies playing at once, with optical detail to spare.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm Molecular imaging reveals origin of acid reflux diseaseMolecular imaging has uncovered what may be to blame for acid reflux disease, a painful and potentially dangerous illness that affects a sizeable percentage of the population. A new study provides further evidence that the disease of the digestive system is brought on by a lack of tone, or motility, in the esophageal muscles that clear and keep stomach acids and other gastric contents from backing up into the esophagus.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm New way found to attack cancerous cellsScientists have discovered a new way to target and destroy a type of cancerous cell. The findings may lead to the development of new therapies to treat lymphomas, leukemias and related cancers.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm Polymer-based filter successfully cleans water, recovers oil in Gulf of Mexico testIn response to the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, an engineering professor has developed a technique for separating oil from water via a cotton filter coated in a chemical polymer that blocks oil while allowing water to pass through. The researcher reports that the filter was successfully tested off the coast of Louisiana and shown to simultaneously clean water and preserve the oil.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm Violent video games may increase aggression in some but not others, says new researchPlaying violent video games can make some adolescents more hostile, particularly those who are less agreeable, less conscientious and easily angered. But for others, it may offer opportunities to learn new skills and improve social networking.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm Epigenetic gene silencing may hold key to fatal lung vascular diseaseA rare but fatal disease of blood vessels in the lung may be caused in part by aberrant silencing of genes rather than genetic mutation. Pulmonary arterial hypertension has been linked to genetic causes in a small percentage of patients. But researchers have now found that a form of epigenetics -- the modification of gene expression -- causes the disease in an animal model and could contribute to the disease in humans.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am Crocodiles ride ocean currents for ocean travelThe mystery of how the world's largest living reptile -- the estuarine crocodile -- has come to occupy so many South Pacific islands separated by huge stretches of ocean despite being a poor swimmer has at last been solved by a group of Australian ecologists. They say that like a surfer catching a wave, the crocodiles ride ocean currents to cross large areas of open sea.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am Chemists report promising advance in fuel-cell technologyChemists have come up with a promising advance in fuel-cell technology. The team has demonstrated that a nanoparticle with a palladium core and an iron-platinum shell outperforms commercially available pure-platinum catalysts and lasts longer. The finding could move fuel cells a step closer to reality.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am Protein lets brain repair damage from multiple sclerosis, other disordersA protein that helps build the brain in infants and children may aid efforts to restore damage from multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases, researchers have found.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am Crocodiles 'surf ocean currents'Saltwater crocodiles travel hundreds of kilometres by "surfing" on ocean currents, a new study suggests.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Jun 2010 | 4:06 am Field trial of GM potatoes beginsUK researchers begin a field trial of GM potatoes made resistant to late blight - a major threat to the crop.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Jun 2010 | 3:46 am The nation's weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 2:51 am More Nigeria poison deaths fearedHundreds more children could die of lead poisoning in northern Nigeria, an expert tells the BBC, but officials downplay fears.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Jun 2010 | 1:56 am Obama wants to know 'whose ass to kick' over oil spill (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 1:45 am SpacemanWho thought asteroids were dull, dumb rocks?Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 8 Jun 2010 | 1:39 am Fickle oil slick scatters its threats across Gulf (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 1:15 am Could the spill restore Jindal as a GOP whiz kid? (AP)AP - It's a rough schedule for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — a near daily grind of military helicopter flights or roaring airboat tours to remote steamy marshes and sun-baked barrier islands increasingly endangered by the BP oil spill.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 8 Jun 2010 | 1:10 am Natural gas pipeline blast kills one in Texas (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 11:26 pm New Web Site Launches: OurAmazingPlanetOurAmazingPlanet explores Earth and its oceans.Source: Livescience.com | 7 Jun 2010 | 10:04 pm Genetics Linked to Gambling Problems in Both Genders (HealthDay)HealthDay - MONDAY, June 7 (HealthDay News) -- Genetics play an important role in the development of problem gambling in both women and men, a new study has found.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 9:48 pm Space probe enthralls Japan as it heads home (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 9:05 pm Revealed: How Tibetans Survive Thin AirTibetans are genetically adapted to high altitude.Source: Livescience.com | 7 Jun 2010 | 7:36 pm New Way to Destroy Some Cancerous Cell FoundTechnique kills B cell lymphoma, a cancer of immune molecules called B cells.Source: Livescience.com | 7 Jun 2010 | 7:28 pm Ocean-Going Crocs Are Mean, Green Surfing MachinesEstuarine crocodiles surf ocean and river currents to travel long distances. The discovery comes after years of anecdotal accounts of seeing crocodiles far from shore.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jun 2010 | 6:50 pm Solar-Powered iPhones Around the Corner?Apple filed a patent showing solar cells incorporated into its iPhone. Solar-powered devices are about to go big time.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jun 2010 | 6:42 pm Lost Gray Whale Surfaces Again in the MediterraneanA wayward Pacific gray whale that was recently seen off Israel has now been spotted off Spain.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jun 2010 | 6:19 pm Mammoths Ate Their Own PooAfter mammoths ate their food they liked to eat it again, according to a new study.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jun 2010 | 6:03 pm Scientific advice and common senseYou highlight a problem with scientific advice given by scientists with potential conflicts of interest (Report condemns swine flu experts' ties to big pharma, 4 June). Unfortunately, this is only the tip of an iceberg and reflects only one aspect of the problem with blind acceptance of scientific advice. Scientists are human beings and are driven by the same selfish desires as the rest of us. The altruistic scientist, driven only by "the search for truth", is a media fabrication. Fame and influence inflate egos. Hubris, arrogance and a woeful lack of self-awareness is common, in both scientific and medical communities. In my experience many scientists cannot see beyond their limited horizons and only the most remarkable individuals are able to see the big picture. Wide-ranging controversies – such as the MMR scare, withholding of climate change data and the recent overreaction to the swine flu pandemic – show how powerful scientific evidence can be. This is neither intended to negate scientists nor scientific endeavour, but merely remind us that scientific advice must be tempered by a strong dose of common sense before public policy is altered. Dr Tariq Ali Oxford • Marilynne Robinson (Mind over matter, Review, 5 June) offers a refreshing view that challenges the accepted dogma of neo-Darwinists and other scientific reductionists that the mysteries of nature have been sorted out through the application of unbiased science. They will have us believe that, given enough time, the chaotic laws of nature plus the simple mechanics of biological evolution explain everything. An alternative possible scenario is that matter at its deepest level is characterised by: (a) a quality of "interconnectedness" or very primitive "mentality"; and (b) a natural law that drives matter towards complexity. Quantum theory provides evidence that supports premise (a). The evolution of matter, from the simple elements after the big bang to the complex elements of the periodic table, many of which are necessary as a basis for the biological evolution, which is also a manifestation of this general principle, provide evidence for premise (b). Both premises explain the gradual flowering of mentality from these simple elements that possess it in a most primitive and dilute form to that of the earliest micro-organisms capable of some overt communication and finally to us humans. There is no point of discontinuity at which suddenly the property of mentality emerged, just a sustained increase in material and mental complexity. Ergo, matter and mind are irrevocably entangled. I am sorry to say that many scientists at present, contrary to the basic premise of science that all scientific explanations are temporary, proclaim views that they consider unshakable. Professor Leon Freris Radlett, Hertfordshire 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 | 7 Jun 2010 | 5:06 pm Mosquito saliva may signal infection outbreaksA mosquito's sweet tooth could help researchers to detect deadly viruses.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/d7a5Gptpb8Q" height="1" width="1"/>Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 7 Jun 2010 | 5:00 pm Laser tech could sense explosivesUK scientists say they have developed laser sensors able to sense hidden explosives.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Jun 2010 | 4:27 pm Argentine media heirs in DNA rowDNA tests are being conducted to try to discover if the heirs to an Argentine media empire were stolen as babies during military rule.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Jun 2010 | 4:17 pm Soy Masquerades As ChickenCould the future of chicken farming reside in a bean?Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jun 2010 | 4:13 pm Medics performed 'interrogation research'Human-rights advocacy group alleges major ethics breaches.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 7 Jun 2010 | 3:59 pm Hunters at heartThe unforeseen costs of human civilisationSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Jun 2010 | 3:49 pm Water Source Discovered for Desert Oasis near Death Valley (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - About 10,000 gallons of water per minute gush up from the desert floor at an oasis near Death Valley, Nevada, but only after the water completes a slow 15,000-year underground journey, a new study suggests.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 3:25 pm UK to rule out waste chargesCommunities Secretary Eric Pickles says he wants people to be rewarded not penalised to encourage recycling.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Jun 2010 | 3:15 pm 'UFO' Spotted Over Australia Likely a Private Rocket (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - An eerie spiral light show in the pre-dawn sky over Australia early Saturday prompted a flood of UFO reports to local news stations, but was likely just the remnants of a new private rocket launched by an American millionaire, according to Australian media reports.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 3:00 pm How to Send Your Face to Space
NASA wants to put your face in space. No, really: Just in time for the last two space shuttle flights, NASA is offering to fly pictures of anyone who uploads a head shot on their Face in Space website to the International Space Station. Face in Space follows a long tradition of spacecraft carrying personal touches out of Earth’s gravity well. Since 1997, shuttle missions have carried elementary school students’ signatures as part of an outreach project called Student Signatures in Space. The Cassini spacecraft brought a disk of signatures into orbit around Saturn. The Phoenix Mars Lander took DVD to Mars’ north pole. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took a microchip to the moon. And the exoplanet-hunting Kepler telescope took a DVD full of names and messages to ET into orbit. The Voyager I spacecraft’s cargo was even more intimate: It carried a phonograph record containing recordings of a kiss, a mother’s first words to her child and Carl Sagan’s wife Ann Druyan’s brainwaves, among other Earthly sounds. But this is the first time the public has been invited to send their portrait into orbit. As long as you’re older than 13, all you have to do is upload a photo (or, if you’re camera shy, just enter your name) and choose which of the last two Space Shuttle missions you’d like to fly on. STS-133 will launch the Space Shuttle Discovery on September 16, and STS-134 will launch Endeavour in November. After the Shuttle returns, you can print out a “flight certificate” signed by the mission commander. (You can also follow the STS-134 commander on Twitter @ShuttleCDRKelly.) In the meantime, check out this other bit of NASA promo hilarity: Space Your Face, where an animated astronaut with whatever picture you want in its helmet boogies on the moon or Mars. Educational? Iffy. Entertaining? Oh yes. Image: NASA See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 7 Jun 2010 | 2:57 pm Male Spiders Are All Bark, Female Spiders Fight to Kill
While the males of a jumping spider species merely threaten and posture instead of actually fighting each other, fights among females are often fatal. Scientists have termed their willingness to fight to the death, the “desperado effect,” and they think it’s rather neatly explained by the natural history of the species, Phidippus clarus. Nomadic males regularly encounter one another in the quest for receptive mates, but the females tend to stick close to a nest, which they need to survive their molting maturation process and to lay their eggs. When they encounter another female, the researchers argue, they have to win the fight or their ability to reproduce will be compromised. “The bottom line is when you look at the fights between males, they are highly ritualized and the spiders rarely get injured,” said behavioral ecologist Carlos Botero of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina. “If you look at females, they have few signals, are very intense, and almost every single fight, one of them dies or gets severely injured.”
“When you look at most animal systems, the males are the ones doing the ritualized displays,” said biologist Eileen Hebets of the University of Nebraska. “Males are the ones with the extravagant ornaments.” And, to a certain extent, it makes scientific sense to focus on the males’ behavior. While the results in the specific Phidippus clarus case may hold, it’s unclear how far they can be generalized. Hebets said that in many spider systems, the females don’t really fight very often. If you take two females and put them into a laboratory setting, it may create an entirely unnatural encounter with little biological significance. “If you put two predators in a small enough space, they are certainly going to attack each other,” Hebets said. She thought the most interesting part of the paper was the suggestion that a hormone responsible for the spider’s molting and growing to their adult bodies may also make the females more aggressive the closer they get to their transformation. “There is work that shows a correlation between hormone levels and cannibalism in spiders,” Hebets said. “So that link is known to be there, and it is also involved in molting.” See Also:
WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Tumblr, and forthcoming book on the history of green technology; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 7 Jun 2010 | 2:57 pm Insects Inspire Robot DesignEngineer John Schmitt is trying to develop legged robots that can easily run over the roughest surfaces. He uses cockroaches and other animals as models for the robot design.Source: Livescience.com | 7 Jun 2010 | 2:08 pm Apple Announces iPhone 4 with Impressive New FeaturesApple CEO Steve Jobs officially announced the company's latest smartphone upgrade, the iPhone 4, today.Source: Livescience.com | 7 Jun 2010 | 2:02 pm One in 10 Iraq War Vets Face Mental Health ProblemsA new study finds that veterans' serious mental health problems get worse instead of better a year after they leave battle.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jun 2010 | 2:00 pm Ancient Beehives Yield 3,000-Year-Old Bees
Honeybee remains found in a 3,000-year-old apiary have given archaeologists a one-of-a-kind window into the beekeeping practices of the ancient world. “Beekeeping is known only from a few Egyptian sources, from a few tombs and paintings. No actual hives have been found,” said Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist Amihai Mazar. The hives were uncovered in 2007 at an excavation in Tel Rehov, Israel, home to the flourishing Bronze and Iron Age city of Rehov. Mazar and his team found more than 100 hives, capable of housing an 1.5 million bees and producing half a ton of honey. In a paper published June 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers analyzed bees preserved in honeycomb that was charred, but not completely burnt by fire that likely destroyed the rest of the apiary. Unfortunately for would-be makers of ancient honey, heat damaged the bees’ DNA, making it impossible to revive their genes in modern bees. But the researchers were at least able to identify them as Apis mellifera anatoliaca, a subspecies found only in what is now Turkey. It’s possible that A. m. anatoliaca’s range has changed, but more likely that Rehov’s beekeepers traded for them. Local bees are notoriously difficult to handle. During the 20th century, when beekeepers tried to establish a modern industry in Tel Rehov, they ended up importing A. m. anatoliaca — a literally sweet example of history repeating itself.
Image: Top, micrographs of a drone head and larva; bottom, micrographs of a workers’ head and thoracic flight muscles./PNAS. See Also:
Citation: “Industrial apiculture in the Jordan valley during Biblical times with Anatolian honey bees,” by Guy Bloch, Tiago Francoy, Ido Wachtel, Nava Panitz-Cohen, Stefan Fuchs, and Amihai Mazar. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 107 No. 23, June 8, 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 | 7 Jun 2010 | 1:19 pm Sea Hare Turns Food into Chemical WeaponsThis creature's inky concoction leaves potential predators in a daze.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jun 2010 | 12:40 pm Is Chocolate Good for the Heart? It Depends.Another study highlights the heart-healthy benefits of chocolate-- but there are important caveats.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jun 2010 | 12:39 pm New Theory for Life's First Energy SourceScientists propose that an obscure molecule related to phosphorus was the critical spark in the emergence of life from inanimate matter.Source: Livescience.com | 7 Jun 2010 | 12:25 pm Costa Rica bans stem cell treatmentPatients protest as head of research council says there is no evidence that procedure is effective or safe Costa Rica has cracked down on a stem cell clinic which offered patients experimental treatments unavailable in the west, ordering the Institute of Cellular Medicine to cease treating spinal injuries and degenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis and diabetes. There was no evidence that the removal and reinjection of stem cells was effective or safe, said Ileana Herrera, the head of the health ministry's research council. "If [stem cell treatment's] efficiency and safety has not been proven, we don't believe it should be used. As a health ministry, we must always protect human beings." The ministry said the clinic, which opened in the central American country in 2006, would be allowed to store adult stem cells extracted from patients' own fat tissue, bone marrow and donated umbilical cords, but not perform treatments. Medical experts had warned that such treatments, lacking clinical trials and based on anecdotal cases, were reckless and potentially exploitative. The use of embryonic or foetal stem cells, which raises ethical issues, is not approved for commercial use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A Bush administration-era ban on research has been reversed, but in the US the science remains experimental. The International Society of Stem Cell research (http://www.isscr.org) said US clinical trials were "ambiguous" and treatments based on anecdotal success could be exploitative. But Brazil, China, India, Panama, Russia and, until recently, Costa Rica, have offered treatments, drawing thousands of westerners as well as locals. Patients who reported improvements in their conditions said Costa Rica's decision blocked innovation and a source of hope. "I think it's ridiculous," said Cranston Rodgers, a 67-year-old retiree from Las Vegas who was treated at the clinic three years ago for an aggressive case of multiple sclerosis. "I know what it did for me. I haven't used a cane or a scooter since." Holly Huber, a 37-year-old Californian diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, said she began feeling her feet for the first time in a year three weeks after being injected with stem cells harvested from abdominal fat. In a statement, the clinic said it had left Costa Rica because of "unpredictable and arbitrary" regulations and would focus on expanding its Panamanian operations. After spending $300,000 on drug and holistic treatments in the US, Huber considered the $30,000 treatment in Costa Rica a worthwhile gamble. "I didn't have anything to lose." Scientists hope stem cells from embryos, foetuses and adults will eventually revolutionise the treatment of crippling injuries as well as strokes, heart attacks, Parkinson's disease, diabetes and other diseases. Neil Riordan, the US entrepreneur who said the treatment was groundbreaking. "I've seen more medical firsts in four years than probably most people have in their lives," he told Reuters. In neighbouring Panama he runs a larger, similar clinic, the Stem Cell Institute (http://www.cellmedicine.com), which remains open. The company did not immediately return calls today. 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 | 7 Jun 2010 | 12:24 pm Mars Tumbleweed Computer Model DevelopedThe Mars Tumbleweed Rover could be a paradigm shift in planetary exploration thinking, but is it realistic? A group of university scientists think so, and they have developed a computer simulation to help out.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jun 2010 | 12:16 pm Strangers Influence Dating Choices, Study RevealsLove may be blind, but looking at strangers influences dating patterns.Source: Livescience.com | 7 Jun 2010 | 12:01 pm Invasion of the urban foxesIt's the noisy, scavenging pest that is now responsible for a shocking attack on two babies asleep in their beds. But how fair is our view of the urban fox – and is it actually any different from its country cousin? It was a warm Saturday evening and Nick and Pauline Koupparis left a door to their three-storey house open as they watched Britain's Got Talent on television. Shortly before 10pm, a curious fox padded into their home in Victoria Park, east London, and made its way upstairs, where their nine-month-old twins Lola and Isabella were asleep. The fox attacked the girls on their arms and faces. When Pauline heard the crying, she rushed upstairs. "I went into the room and I saw some blood on Isabella's cot," she said yesterday. "I thought she'd had a nosebleed. I put on the light and I saw a fox and it wasn't even scared of me, it just looked me straight in the eye." As the children were treated in hospital, where they were in a serious but stable condition, the shocking story spread around the globe, triggering a new panic about urban foxes. Police told local residents they should keep their doors closed in hot weather for their own safety. Neighbours spoke of how foxes creep not merely into their gardens but into their kitchens and living rooms. A fox trap was set; one fox has already been killed. "Something should be done about them. I would love to get them out of here. They're really a nuisance and a danger," said one neighbour, Michael Parra. "I think the foxes are getting bolder. They almost go up to you. I've got fearful myself. They've gone towards my dog too." Everyone who lives in a major city seems to agree they see more foxes than ever and these creatures are becoming bolder. Are we overrun with a new breed of fearless urban fox? Are these scruffy-looking, bin-raiding, lawn-wrecking monsters developing different patterns of behaviour to their fluffier, warier country cousins? Are they becoming more aggressive? And if so, what should be done? A native mammal with little to fear from anything much except man, Vulpes vulpes has long fascinated and repelled us, attracting all kinds of fairytales and anthropomorphisms, from Reynard the fox in the Canterbury Tales to Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox. Hunting foxes with horses and hounds was outlawed in England and Wales in 2005 and the only piece of animal welfare legislation mooted by the Conservatives is a bill to bring it back. It is well known that David Cameron has enjoyed days out with the hunt. It is less understood that hunters imported thousands of foxes from Europe to lowland areas in the 18th century to improve their sport. Foxes moved into cities in the 1930s and for four decades, until the 1980s, local authorities shot and trapped foxes in London in an attempt to exterminate them. This failed. By the 1980s there were an estimated 33,000 adult foxes in urban areas. Scientists believe populations have not risen significantly since. The highest densities of foxes are now found in cities but the Veterinary Association for Wildlife Management believes urban foxes still account for only 14% of the total population. Blood-curdling screamsOur perception that we are surrounded by more of them than ever is probably mistaken. Foxes, we believe, are cunning and fearless; they hunt in wolf-like packs, kill for fun and are the size of a burly dog. We have created a stereotype of the urban fox: while rural foxes are bushy-tailed red beauties, the city dweller is a mangy, malnourished beast that emits blood-curdling screams all night. All these views are wrong, according to Bristol University's Mammal Research Unit, led by Professor Stephen Harris, the pioneer of urban fox studies. Foxes are not big: the average weight of the largest vixens is 5.7kg (13lb), a little heavier than the average cat and less than half the weight of a skinny whippet. Foxes do not hunt in packs, nor do they kill for pleasure. If let loose in a hen coop they will kill everything in sight but their intention is to bury their prey for leaner times. And urban foxes are no more or less healthy than rural foxes. In fact, they are often the same animals. Researchers found fox cubs born in the middle of Bristol ended up living in rural bliss on the top of the Mendip Hills, almost 20 miles away. While the idea that country foxes live long and in comfort is another myth, life in town is certainly nasty, brutish and short. A fox in captivity can live for 14 years; in cities, few make it to their second birthday. The vast majority die on roads. The only difference between rural and urban foxes, says John Bryant, an expert in their humane deterrence, is that an urban fox is accustomed to people. "Thousands of people feed them, encourage them into their gardens and those that are not fed always find food on the streets," he says. A typical urban fox has a territory stretching across 80 city gardens. Devouring everything from berries and (usefully) rats to discarded KFC, vixens will have four or five cubs in the spring. We believe we are seeing more urban foxes than ever because, at this time of year, we probably are: in June, the cubs are now teenagers, exploring their local area and boldly going where their wiser parents dare not. By autumn, they move off in search of new territory, which is when they perish on the roads. Few report attacks because they fear they won't be believedThere are few records of foxes attacking humans. In 2002, Sue Eastwood said her 14-week-old boy, Louis, was injured after a fox slunk into her sitting room in Dartford, south-east London. Hackney council claims it has never received a reported incident. But a number of the London borough's residents have been attacked by foxes, including three people in the same block of flats. Many people don't report fox attacks because they don't think they will be believed. Claire Blakeway was attacked by a fox at her home in Stoke Newington, north London, in July 2003. She was sleeping in her bedroom when she awoke and screamed with pain. "It was like someone dropped a brick on my foot," she says. Blood was streaming from her foot. She had left the door to the fire escape open and, at dawn, a fox had padded into her room, three floors up. "It must've come into the bedroom, seen my foot and had a gnaw on it," she says. "It sunk its incisors into either side of my foot." Her screams scared it off before she could see it but it left distinctive paw prints – not the prints of a cat – running across her cream carpet and on to her sheets. Blakeway got antibiotics for the bite but never formally reported it to anyone, although she heard from the flat warden that two other residents had also reported foxes attacking them. Experts, however, are baffled by the baby attack. "This is completely outside my experience of fox behaviour," says Bryant. "I think it is a young fox cub. They are all teenagers, they don't know anything, they have no fear. They wander into houses, steal cat food and will even sleep on the sofa." Urban foxes are particularly fond of schools: there are portable classrooms to nest underneath, open bins overflowing with half-eaten packed lunches and, crucially, no dogs. "Foxes are fascinated by children," says Bryant. "When they hear the children running around the playground they will sit in the bushes and watch them, captivated." 'Foxes are fascinated by children'If this sounds sinister, it is not. Bryant works with schools to educate children and manage their fox populations. In his experience, foxes do not attack children; they are curious, but as wary as any wild animal. Martin Hemmington, of the National Fox Welfare Society, agrees that it is very unlikely that a fox will attack one child, let alone two. "I've been bitten more times than I care to mention through my own careless actions. When a fox bites you, it backs off. It doesn't look to come back and bite again," he says. When he has been called to catch a fox that has wandered into a house and become trapped, he says it is common to find them doing "the wall of death" – leaping around a room in a panic. Perhaps the fox inadvertently injured the children doing this, although Pauline Koupparis told BBC London her husband "lunged" at the fox "three or four times and it moved a few inches each time" before he eventually chased it down the stairs. Hemmington is adamant that a fox would not have attacked the children believing they were prey. Foxes rarely attack creatures that are bigger than them and even the biggest vixen is not as heavy as a nine-month-old baby. "The only thing I can think is that the fox got into the house and panicked, but I can't understand why it panicked twice, with two children," he says. Those in the fox-control industry are now reporting scores of panicky calls from parents wanting foxes eliminated from their gardens. Should there be a cull? "I don't think so," says William Moore, of Foxolutions. Culls don't work because if you kill or catch and remove an urban fox you create a vacuum: within days, a new pair of foxes will move in to establish a new territory. "They are pretty self-regulating. They keep themselves to themselves. Man is so dirty, we've encouraged them by chucking our food away," says Moore. In fact, for every person beckoning them to their backdoor to feed them, there is another picking up the phone to order their extermination. For every exceptional incident of a fox attacking a child, we should recall another statistic: in 2008/9, 5,221 people, including 1,250 children, were treated in hospital in England after being mauled by man's best friend, the dog. How to outfox the fox▶ Never feed foxes; refrain from leaving out bird food and cat food.▶ Use a secure wheelie bin. Don't leave rubbish bags outside. ▶ Foxolutions recommends Scoot, a fox repellent that fools a fox into not recognising its own scent markings so it believes another fox is claiming the territory. ▶ Try an infra-red device that links to an outdoor tap and fires water at intruding foxes (available from jbryant.co.uk). ▶ Put garden sheds on a concrete base so foxes cannot live underneath. If a fox nests underneath decking, remove one plank so the vixen no longer feels secure. 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 | 7 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm Water Source Discovered for Desert Oasis near Death ValleyAn oasis near Death Valley gets water from an aquifer that sits directly beneath the Nevada Test Site, which hosted nuclear bomb tests over four decades.Source: Livescience.com | 7 Jun 2010 | 11:35 am Before the Mississippi: Ancient Rivers Flowed West
Like vacationers taking a pit stop on a long road trip, zircon mineral grains from the northern Appalachians may have stopped off in Michigan before ending up on the Colorado Plateau, a new study suggests. The finding, reported in the June Geology, is a major boost to the notion that a continent-spanning, Amazon-like river system once carried sediments west across North America.
The new find by Dickinson and his colleagues is the first to identify any of the Appalachian zircons’ rest stops on their long journey west. Rocks of the proper age are rare in the Midwest and the northern Great Plains, where the river presumably ran. Those rocks either eroded away long ago or are covered by thick layers of soil and glacial debris scraped south from Canada during recent ice ages, says Dickinson. The only easily accessible outcrops of such rocks in central North America are in central Michigan, where quarries reach deep enough to expose mid-Jurassic sandstone. In their attempt to trace the transcontinental river system, the researchers took a 20-kilogram hunk of Michigan sandstone from one of those quarries and then extracted and analyzed its zircons. About 40 percent of zircons in the sample were between 905 million and 1.3 billion years old, and about 10 percent were between 285 and 510 million years old. Most if not all of these zircons probably eroded from the northern Appalachians, the researchers suggest. The overall age distribution of zircons from the Michigan sample is strikingly similar to those found in the sandstones of the Colorado Plateau, a hint that all of the zircons eroded from the same sources. “It’s not as good as a barcode, but the match is really quite good,” says Scott D. Samson, a geochemist at Syracuse University in New York who was not involved with the work. The new study notes one prominent difference between the Michigan and Colorado Plateau sandstones: While the western samples contain abundant zircons ranging between 510 and 725 million years old, zircons of that age range are completely missing from the Michigan sample. Most likely, the researchers note, zircons of that age originated in the southern Appalachians, and tributaries draining that area would have fed into the large river that carried material west to the Colorado Plateau but not as far north as Michigan. To garner more evidence for a Jurassic-era, continent-crossing river, researchers could scour ancient sandstones for other erosion-resistant minerals such as monazite, Samson says. Bits of that mineral are rarer than zircons but have a distinct chemical signature that could help researchers pin down their origins, he notes. Image: National Park Service See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 7 Jun 2010 | 11:25 am Animal, Plant Species Less Diverse Than Once ThoughtLess diversity could add greater urgency to the extinction crisis facing 100 species per million.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jun 2010 | 11:25 am Jupiter collision 'was asteroid'An object that hit Jupiter last year and left a scar the size of Pacific Ocean was probably an asteroid, say astronomers.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Jun 2010 | 10:57 am To score, ignore the goalieFocusing on the goalkeeper heightens stress and increases the likelihood a penalty will be saved in a World Cup 2010 shoot-out Penalty shoot-outs at this year's World Cup in South Africa could be less heart-breaking for England fans if penalty-takers heed the latest advice from psychologists: they should do everything they can to ignore the goalkeeper. Ignoring the goalie minimises stress levels and allows the brain to process the best way to place the ball in a specific part of the goal, said psychologist Greg Wood at the University of Exter, who led the research into the psychology of penalty shoot-outs. "When players are anxious, they're more likely to worry about the goalkeeper. There's a tight lock between where we look and where the shot or any actions tend to follow: because you're looking more centrally, you're more likely to hit a central location, making it easier for the goalkeeper to save it." Psychologists already know that looking at something tends to shift your movements towards it. "If you're driving and looking to the right you tend to veer to the right," said Wood. People are naturally conditioned to focus on anything in the environment that they find threatening, and during a penalty the only thing that threatens the success of the player is the goalkeeper. "Our findings suggest we should try to ignore the goalkeeper and focus on where we are kicking the ball," he said. Goalkeepers, meanwhile, would do well to wave their arms or whatever else they can, within the rules, to distract penalty-takers if they want a better chance of keeping the ball from the net. In his research paper, due to be published in the Journal of Sports Sciences, Wood cites the example of Bruce Grobbelaar, who used the famous "spaghetti legs" technique to distract players and help Liverpool beat AS Roma in the 1984 European Cup final. "If the goalkeeper can make himself more threatening, he is likely to capture the attention of the kicker even further," said Wood. In the 2005 European Cup final, Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek waved his arms so much during the penalty shoot-out that he managed to save three out of five of the shots. In his experiments, Wood fitted 18 volunteers with eye-tracking equipment as they took a series of penalties. For some, the pressure for success was heightened by offering a cash prize for the most goals scored in the competition. On the other side, goalkeepers were asked either to remain stationary or to try and distract the kickers by waving their arms up and down. Afterwards they were asked to rate their anxiety level. When the penalty-takers were most anxious, they tended to focus more on the goalkeeper. The length of time their eyes were fixed on him also increased if the goalkeeper was using some sort of distraction technique such as waving or jumping around. When the kickers were anxious, 45% of shots that were on target were saved by the goalkeeper. When they were calmer, that save rate dropped to around 20%. England have a terrible record in penalty shoot-outs, losing around 70% of the time, according to Wood. His tips for the England team in the coming weeks include staying as calm as possible in the buildup to a kick. "I'd try to get them to take a penalty as they do in their normal training environment. Under non-anxious conditions, you will score far more penalty kicks than when you're anxious." Penalty-takers could take comfort from the fact that they are in charge, he added. "Realise that you're in control of the situation, the outcome is heavily in your favour. If you hit a shot to the top corner or the inside of the post, the goalkeeper's got little chance of saving it." 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 | 7 Jun 2010 | 10:52 am Asteroid probe aimed toward EarthJapan's space probe Hayabusa, designed to return samples from an asteroid, is placed on course for a landing in Australia.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Jun 2010 | 10:41 am Penalty takers must ignore keeper, study showsLONDON (Reuters) - Penalty takers hoping to snatch World Cup glory from their opponents in the final few shots of a match should completely ignore the goalkeeper and focus on where they want to kick the ball, scientists said on Monday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 10:25 am Crocodiles go with the flowSurfing currents allows crocodiles to travel long distances.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 7 Jun 2010 | 9:52 am Laws Might Change as the Science of Violence Is ExplainedAs our understanding of the neuroscience of violence changes, the law will have to change with it.Source: Livescience.com | 7 Jun 2010 | 8:44 am Deadly tornadoes rip through Midwest (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Jun 2010 | 8:33 am Secret Revealed: How Crocodiles Cross OceansCrocodiles surf ocean currents to travel between islands.Source: Livescience.com | 7 Jun 2010 | 7:36 am Let's be honest about placeboRather than dismissing treatments that use placebo as hocus pocus, we should learn what we can from this powerful effect Though it's rarely treated as a religious issue, the alternative medicine debate has a lot in common with the God versus science wrangle. Just as religious belief is scoffed at by atheists, so "traditional healer" services, while providing comfort and relief for many, are prone to come into collision with rationalist claims that they're based on fantastical faith-based premises, that they prey on the delusions of the vulnerable, and do no meaningful good. We saw the latest round of this ding-dong last week, in the wake of a study that claimed to have found a plausible mechanism for a pain relief mechanism in acupuncture. Experimenting on mice, researchers found that rotating needles just below the knee resulted in a two-thirds reduction in pain levels and a 24-fold rise in the production of adenosine, an anti-inflammatory molecule. For the pro-acupuncture camp, this was proof that the therapy works, while critics pointed out that mice are not humans, that other studies have shown you get an analgesic effect when you stick the needles at non-acupuncture points, that sham needles which don't pierce the skin have the same effect, and that any pain relief obtained is so small as to be of little clinical benefit. Of course this study – and the rest – shed no light on the issue that makes acupuncture so loved and despised – the proposition that it promotes healing by unblocking qi energy in the body, restoring an internal balance between yin and yang. Just as scientists have so far failed to find evidence for God, so qi has proved a property elusive to mice-prodding (and other) investigators. And yet it is this belief which forms the basis for most acupuncture practice, for the trust that patients tend to have in the method, and for much of the ire heaped on it by critics. While both sides bicker, perhaps each is missing a trick – the importance of the placebo effect and what it tells us about the power of the mind. Placebo is sometimes a dirty word in medical discussions – we often hear procedures dismissed as "just placebo", while drug companies do their utmost to demonstrate that their remedies outperform dummy pills. But perhaps we might do better to more actively harness placebo, which actually represents the healing ability of our own minds and the environments we place them in. Research on the placebo effect has show that a treatment's effectiveness is significantly impacted by a whole range of factors that seem to have nothing to do with the treatment itself. How well it works can depend on the "warmth, attention and confidence" of the person administering it, by how much the patient believes it'll work and by how much they want to get well. Placebo injections often work better than placebo pills (at least in the US, where "shots" are often seen as a stronger treatment – in Europe placebo pills are slightly more effective), while stopping a placebo treatment often creates withdrawal symptoms. Blue sedatives are more than twice as effective as pink ones (although not among Italian men – one explanation being that they associate blue with the national football team, which gets them excited rather than sleepy). Researcher Daniel Moerman describes the placebo effect as a "meaning response" – the mind consciously or unconsciously makes positive associations with a treatment that then creates healing. It is an issue of faith – and thanks to acupuncture's reputation as a "holistic" treatment, the time, care and attention that practitioners bestow on their patients, and the patients' trust in and desire for an acupuncture-assisted cure, the treatment appears to work for lots of people. These may not be the only reasons it works – the latest study would suggest there's something else going on (the mouse mind is unlikely to attach much meaning to the needles in their knees). But even if treatments like acupuncture were "just" placebo, does this make them all bad? Critics would say yes, as the treatment is then based on false premises, and therefore unethical. Others might shrug that if it helps, it helps – even if the belief that creates the positive response is questionable. But wouldn't it be more interesting to use what we know about our brain's power to heal to develop an integrated mind-body medicine where information about the "placebo" response is celebrated. This would mean working to ensure that each medical procedure is offered in an ambience of care and attention, and where patients learn (honestly, rather than through any elaborate smokescreens) that adopting particular states of mind can have an impact on the course of illness and are given practical methods to help cultivate those states. This is already beginning to happen with the spread of evidence-based treatments based on meditation, visualisation or cognitive therapy. We don't need to know whether qi exists to learn from people's responses to acupuncture, just as we don't need to know whether God exists to appreciate the magic of everyday existence. In either case, wouldn't it be more helpful to make the most of what we do know? That learning how to work more consciously with our mind states can help us live a happier life, in healthier bodies. 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 | 7 Jun 2010 | 4:00 am
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Most spider-fighting research has examined the behavior of males competing for mates. The new work, published in the journal of Behavioral Ecology June 4, is one of a small set of studies that has started to look at female fighting behavior.
