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New evidence that drinking coffee may reduce the risk of diabetesScientists are reporting new evidence that drinking coffee may help prevent diabetes and that caffeine may be the ingredient largely responsible for this effect.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am A cooler Pacific may have severely affected medieval Europe, North AmericaA new study has found a connection between La Nina-like sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific and droughts in western Europe and in what later became the southwestern United States and Mexico.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am Shortcut through eyelid gives surgeons less-invasive approach to fix brain fluid leaksSurgeons have safely and effectively operated inside the brains of a dozen patients by making a small entry incision through the natural creases of an eyelid to reach the skull and deep brain.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am Oil from Gulf spill could have powered 38,000 cars (and more) for a year, researcher saysAs of June 9, 2010, if all the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico had been used for fuel, it could have powered 38,000 cars, and 3,400 trucks, and 1,800 ships for a full year, according to a researcher who has launched a website that reports the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in terms of lost uses of the lost fuel on a daily basis.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am World's oldest leather shoe found in ArmeniaA perfectly preserved shoe -- 1,000 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt and 400 years older than Stonehenge in the UK -- has been discovered in a cave in Armenia by an international team of archaeologists.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am Personality predicts political preferencesThere is a strong relationship between a voter's politics and his personality, according to new research.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 9:00 am Crocodile and hippopotamus served as 'brain food' for early human ancestorsFish really is "brain food." And it seems that even pre-humans living as far back as 2 million years ago somehow knew it.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am Mechanism links abnormal blood clots with Alzheimer's diseaseNew research suggests that abnormalities in the process of blood clot formation may contribute to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. The study advances our understanding of the link between vascular pathology and AD and proposes a new therapeutic strategy aimed at slowing cognitive decline.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am Long sleep duration linked to an increased risk of metabolic syndrome in older adultsParticipants reporting a daily sleep duration of eight hours or more including naps were 15 percent more likely to have metabolic syndrome. This relationship remained unchanged after full adjustment for potential confounders. Participants who reported a short sleep duration of less than six hours initially were 14 percent more likely to have metabolic syndrome; this association disappeared after controlling for potential confounders. Participants were 29,310 people 50 years of age or older in Guangzhou, China.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am Two brain circuits involved with habitual learningDriving to and from work is a habit for most commuters -- we do it without really thinking. But before our commutes became routine, we had to learn our way through trial-and-error exploration. A new study has found that there are two brain circuits involved with this kind of learning and that the patterns of activity in these circuits evolve as our behaviors become more habitual.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 6:00 am SKorea says rocket believed to have exploded (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 4:16 am Red tape vexes Gulf residents seeking BP payments (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 4:13 am Senate votes on blocking EPA greenhouse gas regs (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 4:13 am BP shares plunge, U.S. threatens new penalties (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 4:11 am Oil extraction becoming riskierThe UK's former chief scientific adviser says "unconventional" oil drilling will pose technological challenges environmental risks.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Jun 2010 | 4:08 am South Korean rocket 'explodes'A South Korean rocket intended to put a satellite into orbit reportedly explodes moments after take-off, officials say.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Jun 2010 | 4:07 am South Korea rocket crashes in second straight failureSEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean space rocket carrying a scientific satellite exploded two minutes into its flight in the second failure in two tries to put a payload in orbit, dealing a major setback to the country's space program.Source: Reuters: Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 3:52 am South Korea rocket crashes in second straight failure (Reuters)Reuters - A South Korean space rocket carrying a scientific satellite exploded two minutes into its flight in the second failure in two tries to put a payload in orbit, dealing a major setback to the country's space program.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 3:52 am Japan prosecutors demand jail for whaling activist (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 3:38 am 'Oldest leather shoe' discoveredThe oldest example of a leather shoe is discovered by archaeologists in a cave in Armenia.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Jun 2010 | 3:26 am Physicists burst bubble mysteryWith the help of high-speed video, scientists discover there is far more to bursting bubbles than meets the eye.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Jun 2010 | 3:25 am Rare fungus discovered in EnglandA tiny, rare orange fungus has been sighted in England for the first time, the Wildlife Trusts announce.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Jun 2010 | 3:22 am Birth of bustard chicks hailed as 'fantastic news'Conservationists hoping to reintroduce the world's heaviest flying bird, the great bustard, to the UK are celebrating the hatching of four chicks.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Jun 2010 | 3:12 am Polar diaryDaily updates from key polar science conference in OsloSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Jun 2010 | 3:08 am BP shares slide on oil spill fallout (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 2:59 am The nation's weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Jun 2010 | 2:34 am In Pictures: Butterfly 'bling'Dazzling pictures have been released by scientists working on tropical butterflies.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Jun 2010 | 1:57 am 'I don't want it to be eradicated'Charlotte Moore, who has two sons with autism, reflects on newly discovered genetic links to autism As the mother of two sons with autism and a third son without it, do I welcome this news? Yes, if it helps kill the idea that autism is somebody's "fault". Autism isn't caused by neglectful parenting; not only that, but parents passing on autistic genes is less significant than had been thought. Although some of these gene variations are inherited, others are found only in children. This helps explain why in some cases autism "runs in the family", but in others it comes out of nowhere. If you have an autistic child, strip away those shreds of guilt. Your child is what he or she is. End of story. The findings will enable some families to get more precise genetic counselling, and that's good. When I debated whether to have Jake, my third child, doctors could only give me vague advice. I'm delighted I took the risk, but it's better to make such decisions armed with as much information as possible. I'm concerned, though, that the information will bolster the idea that autism is a disease that should be cured. Caring for autistic people is hard. Self-harm, destructive outbursts, intense anxiety, sleeplessness ... who wouldn't wish those away? But autism can also mean originality, creativity, an innocence ... Do I hope that early interventions can be devised to wipe the human race clean of autism? No, I do not. 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 | 10 Jun 2010 | 12:01 am NASA aircraft to track spacecraft re-entry (AP)AP - A NASA flying observatory has left California on a mission to track a Japanese asteroid-sampling spacecraft as it returns to Earth on a course for Australia.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Jun 2010 | 10:55 pm Genes May Be a Source of Vitamin D Deficiency (HealthDay)HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, June 9 (HealthDay News) -- Nutrition and sun exposure are both prime influences on an individual's vitamin D level, but a new study suggests that genetics could help determine a person's risk for vitamin D deficiency.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Jun 2010 | 9:48 pm Genetically Modified Eucalyptus Trees Ignite ControversyA paper company genetically modified the Eucalyptus tree, an aggressive invasive plant, to withstand colder temperatures.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Jun 2010 | 5:34 pm Scientists find gene links to vitamin D deficiencyLONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found three genetic differences that affect a person's risk of being deficient in the "sunshine" vitamin D and say their work helps explain why sunlight and a good diet aren't always enough.Source: Reuters: Science News | 9 Jun 2010 | 5:06 pm Shockwave reveals star's birthplaceAstronomers spy the trail carved through interstellar gas by a massive runaway.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/ELUnfpIGhP4" height="1" width="1"/>Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 9 Jun 2010 | 4:17 pm Vodka's Tasty Secret Revealed in Special ChemistryScientists uncover the chemistry secrets behind premium vodka brands that otherwise appear colorless and tastelessSource: Livescience.com | 9 Jun 2010 | 3:51 pm Genetic study sheds light on complex ties of Jewish heritageScientists have shed light on the complexities of Jewish heritage with an in-depth genetic study.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Jun 2010 | 3:25 pm Mystery of Saturn's midget moons crackedTheir recent birth in rings may explain why moons were not pulverized by comets.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 9 Jun 2010 | 3:01 pm How the bubble burstsPopping bubbles create offspring, scientists find.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 9 Jun 2010 | 3:01 pm Majority of Americans Still 'Believe' in Global WarmingMajority of Americans agree that global warming is occurring.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jun 2010 | 2:09 pm German space escapes budget cutsThe chairman of Germany's space agency says he does not expect space to be affected by the nation's big austerity drive.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Jun 2010 | 2:05 pm Japanese Spacecraft Deploys First-Ever Solar Sail
The unfurling of a Japanese solar sail, the first demonstration of a new space propulsion technology, went exactly according to plan. According toJAXA’s blog posts and photos from the event, the IKAROS spacecraft’s sail appears to be in place. It’s a big step in its attempt to travel driven only by sunlight. “This is the first sail ever deployed in space, and if they succeed in using it for solar-sail flight — it’ll still be a few weeks before we know that — it’ll be a milestone,” said Louis Friedman, executive director of the Planetary Society, an organization dedicated to promoting space exploration, which is readying its own solar-sailing mission.
A solar sail uses the pressure from photons striking its surface to push the spacecraft through space. Materially, the 650 square-foot sail is made of incredibly thin, aluminized plastic that’s only 0.0003 inches thick, a little thicker than spider silk, or about the diameter of a red blood cell. When a photon strikes its surface, it bounces off, imparting its momentum to the sail. Each photon might not deliver much thrust, but over time, all that light adds up. “The actual force might be just a few millionths of a g, but because it acts continuously, it allows you to build up large velocity changes over time,” Friedman said. “That’s where a sail really does its work is long missions.” The Japanese sail also has thin-film solar cells built into it. They could be used to generate electricity to drive an engine that would work alongside the sail. The key difficulty with such a thin and large object is that it’s hard to deploy. “The things we’re watching for are all their dynamical behaviors that you ultimately can’t model and that might cause undue stress on the material,” Friedman said. In the IKAROS design, the sail was unfurled by using centrifugal force generated by spinning the craft. Space-travel proponents are particularly interested in the technology because it doesn’t require fuel, which makes it the leading (and basically) only candidate for very long-distance travel. “It’s the only way we know — that anybody knows — to ultimately do practical interstellar flight because you don’t have to carry your propellant along with you,” Friedman said. “Anything else you do, whether it’s nuclear or advanced engines, you’re always carrying propellant and the mass becomes too great.”
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 | 9 Jun 2010 | 1:58 pm India's tuberculosis genome project under fireSequence annotated by students should be peer reviewed, say scientists.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 9 Jun 2010 | 1:16 pm Autism Linked to Dozens of Genetic MutationsAlthough some genetic glitches are inherited from parents, many arise for the first time in the person with autism.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Jun 2010 | 1:01 pm May the shrink be with youDarth Vader displays the signs of a borderline personality order, say French researchers Thanks to the work of French researchers, we now have a detailed diagnosis of the mental health challenges faced by Star Wars' (evidently misunderstood) arch baddie Darth Vader. In a letter entitled "Is Anakin Skywalker suffering from borderline personality disorder?", soon to be published in the journal Psychiatry Research, Eric Bui, a psychiatrist at Toulouse University Hospital, and his colleagues, will set out why Anakin (later to be known across that galaxy far, far away as Darth Vader) matches six out of the nine borderline personality disorder criteria as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. "I had watched the two prequel movies [Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith], and it was during my residency in psychiatry, while trying to explain borderline personality disorder to medical students, that I thought of Anakin," says Bui, displaying an unnerving lack of awareness that his study subject is, in fact, a fictional character. "I believe that psychotherapy would have helped Anakin and might have prevented him from turning to the dark side," adds Bui. "Using the dark side of the Force could be considered as similar to drug use: it feels really good when you use it, it alters your consciousness and you know you shouldn't do it." So the universe's baddest, maddest evildoer just needed some time on the couch and a willingness to accept the 12-steps programme. The warning signs were there for all to see, laments Bui. We should have detected the obvious "impulsivity and anger-management issues" when Anakin was an excitable, lovelorn Jedi trainee. And the "identity disturbance" when he changed his name to Darth Vader and turned to the Dark Side. Personally, I knew he was trouble the moment he throttled a colleague by the windpipe and calmly told him: "I find your lack of faith disturbing." But one truism remains constant no matter where you are in the universe: don't trust a man overly reliant on phallic weaponry. 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 | 9 Jun 2010 | 1:00 pm Bursting Bubbles Up CloseAn air bubble on water is filmed with a high-speed camera as it pops and forms a ring of daughter bubbles. When one of these smaller bubbles ruptures, the cycle continues.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jun 2010 | 12:59 pm Wanna Take a Ride? Put Your 'Face in Space'Ever wanted to go to space? I sure do... I still do. Now you can go into space! Well, at least a picture of your face can.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Jun 2010 | 12:53 pm Are Women Taking Over U.S. Politics?Yesterday’s elections saw big wins for women in politics, but in the U.S., government is still primarily a man’s world.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jun 2010 | 12:45 pm What is a story tracker?From today we're trialling a completely new way of reporting major science stories. Read on ... I've always struggled with the idea that a news piece is the best way to tell a science story. Sure, it's a tried and tested format for virtually any topic under the sun, but news reports (short, sharp, pithy) are the direct opposite of what scientists have to do when reporting their work (cautious, conservative, laden with caveats). For me this has always left behind a residual guilt whenever I cover a major story. The complexity of modern science hasn't helped that guilt factor – there might be a dozen potentially interesting lines in a research paper but we can only ever cover one or two in a news article. The infinite space of the web has helped, of course, by allowing for more detailed reporting, linking to source documents and the ability for readers to comment on how something has been written up. But longer stories are not the best answer, because they still don't reflect how scientific research is done. Any scientist knows that a paper can only ever be an interim point in the study of a topic and, on publication, it will immediately be dissected and analysed by other researchers all over the world. Readers who are scientists and other interested people might pick up on some of this discussion but, unless you're steeped in a subject, you might miss out. After the first headlines and news stories summarising the research and instant reaction to it, a casually interested reader might hear nothing about a topic until the next big splashy news story. Where would you go for that extra analysis? And how would you know what is worth reading? We're trying out a completely new way of covering big science stories. We believe our coverage of a major research paper should not be done-and-dusted with a single story but form part of a continuum. By tracking reactions and analysis from scientists and bloggers over the days and weeks after a news story breaks, we think the coverage of the story will be richer, more informed and more comprehensive. Our "story trackers", as we have dubbed them, will allow us to show the wider implications of a piece of research and perhaps follow up the many lines of inquiry that we had to leave out of the original news piece, for whatever reason. Today's autism research in Nature and our story reporting it seem an ideal testing ground for this concept. We will need your help to make this work. If you're a blogger, a scientist or just an interested citizen, point us to the best and worst follow-ups you see of the Nature paper. Every day, we will update the tracker with links to the latest reactions and analysis. If you've been involved in the research and have something to say that you haven't seen reported elsewhere, pipe up. If you're a blogger with an interesting analysis of your own, email us and we'll send readers to your article. Feel free to tell us if you think anything is wrong with our analysis or that of the people we're linking to. You can email us directly (guardianscience@gmail.com) or leave a comment on the tracker itself. This is very much a work in progress and we're unlikely to get everything right first time. Your comments, thoughts and criticisms are all, of course, most welcome. 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 | 9 Jun 2010 | 12:13 pm Pagan Antiquities Unearthed in IsraelIsraeli archeologists have found a large cache of intact pagan vessels piled one atop the other in a natural hollow of bedrock in Tel Qashish, southeast of Haifa. Used by the ancient Canaanite people in a pagan cult that worshiped ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Jun 2010 | 12:09 pm The genetics of autismNature has published a paper on the genetics of autism, which we report here. Over the coming days and weeks, we will post updates on this important story, together with links to sources of further information Wednesday 8.33pm: Gina Gómez de la Cuesta, action research leader at The National Autistic Society, says: "This study furthers our understanding of genetic variation in autism, however there is a great deal more research to be done. Research into autism is constantly evolving but the exact causes are as yet still unknown. The difficulty of establishing gene involvement is compounded by the interaction of genes with the environment. Genetic testing for autism is still a long way off, given that autism is so complex. Whilst it is very important that research continues, it is also crucial that those living with the condition have access to appropriate advice and information, as the right support at the right time can make an enormous difference to people's lives." 8.29pm: Anthony Monaco, a geneticist at the University of Oxford, re-iterated Gallagher's point by saying that the genetic picture of autism was too complex to make meaningful predictions right now. "One can only offer, when we have a lot more data, an understanding of the probability of an outcome given you've inherited a CNV. It's not like cystic fibrosis or muscular dystrophy or other single-gene disorders where one can say with a lot more certainty that if you have a mutation in that gene then a pre-natal diagnostic test can be done and you can predict with fair certainty that the foetus does or does not have the mutation and will probably get the disorder. Here we're talking about low probabilities and risks and that will be the big issue with pre-natal testing and we won't be able to think about this until we gather a lot more information. Even with all that, it may be difficult to offer the certainty a person wants from a pre-natal test." 8.24pm: What about genetic tests? "Of course parents are going to rush out and want to get the tests done," said Louise Gallagher, clinical senior lecturer in psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin. But she warned that DNA microarrays – the technology needed to test for the autism gene variants – are not yet widely available in hospitals. In any case, no one knows enough yet to be certain about the implications of having a certain set of genetic variations. "However, in future as we know more about the role of CNVs in contributing to autism and how they influence the progress and course of the disorder over the lifetime of the individual, the more [parents] will be able to get clinical information about their child's condition." 8.15pm: Scherer adds: "If you look at studies published to date, the most convincing finding of an aetiologic role in autism comes up with genetics. There've been estimates from numerous studies around the world from the last 20 years that 70-95% of autism has some genetic contribution ... With the rare CNVs, we can account for upwards of 10-15% of the genes involved now. There might be others that we have not yet detected. And certainly some of these genes may be influenced by environment. As far as I'm aware, through epidemiological studies, there's no [evidence of] strong influence from these other [environmental] factors yet." 8.08pm: Geri Dawson of Autism Speaks, a charity that helped to fund the research, addressed the question of environmental factors in autism. "We do believe that environmental factors play a role in autism," she said. "We don't yet understand the role of these factors so currently scientists are exploring a wide range of these factors to understand how they might interact with underlying genetic susceptibility." For anyone worried about the effect of vaccines, she said there "really is no strong evidence that vaccines play a role in the aetiology of autism. This study really points out the strong influence of genetics. At the same time, research is continuing to explore a wide range of environmental factors that may then interact with genetic susceptibility. Currently there is no evidence that vaccines are one of those aetiological factors." 7.33pm: Stephen Scherer of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, said the study starts to tie together the genes they have identified with biological pathways and networks. "They seem to be involved in how the brain functions," he said. "Knowing these autism genes are linked, we can begin to develop rationally derived therapies to target the common pathways involved for the very first time." For example, some of the genes implicated in the latest research are known to be involved in both neural cell development and signalling pathways. In the largest study ever to look at the genetics of autism, scientists have identified rare genetic variations that were 20% more frequent in children with autism than in children without the disorder. These so-called "copy number variations" (CNV), which can be missing chunks or extra copies of DNA in and around the genes, occur in less than one in 100 people in the general population. In the study, scientists compared the incidence of these rare CNVs in 996 people with autism spectrum disorders and 1,287 unaffected people, all with European ancestry. The results, published today in Nature, showed that some of the CNVs were inherited while others were found in children but not in their parents. Read the Nature research in full. To submit suggestions for updates to this story tracker, please email guardianscience@gmail.com putting "Autism story tracker" in the subject line. Here are some sources of further information for parents about autism on guardian.co.uk Your autism questions answered – a handy resource for parents Recent Guardian news stories related to autism Lancet retracts 'utterly false' MMR paper Autism just as common in adults, so MMR jab is off the hook Scientists find genetic clues to how autism can develop Autistic traits linked to high levels of testosterone in the womb For a complete list of Guardian articles on autism go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/autism 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 | 9 Jun 2010 | 12:09 pm Sharks’ Hunting Strategies More Like Physics Than Biology
When sharks and other ocean predators can’t find food, their movement patterns shift in surprising ways that are associated with particle physics rather than animal behavior. They abandon Brownian motion, the random motion seen in swirling gas molecules, for what’s known as Lévy flight — a mix of long trajectories and short, random movements found in turbulent fluids. “It’s fascinating that you get these patterns. Maybe there’s more structure to things than we think, and these patterns occur not just in physics in how particles behave, but in how animals behave,” said biologist Nicoloas Pade of the United Kingdom’s Marine Biological Association. Computer models suggest Lévy flight is the optimal search pattern for predators in low-prey areas, and maximizes the chance of a random encounter. But real-world studies have been inconclusive, with reports of Lévy flight countered by doubts about data gathering and interpretation. The latest findings, published June 9 in Nature, represent the largest dataset yet gathered in search of Lévy flight in animals. The researchers analyzed 13,000,000 movements recorded over 5,700 days in 55 radio-tagged animals from 14 ocean predator species in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, including whale shark, blue marlin and swordfish. As the animals went from areas of high ecological abundance to low, the equations describing their movement switched from Brownian motion to Lévy flight. “Our analysis provides the strongest evidence yet for Lévy behavior in diverse animals ranging across natural landscapes,” wrote the researchers.
The findings raise the question of where Lévy flight comes from — whether it’s an instinctive or learned behavior, a property of individuals or a function of spatial distributions governed by as-yet-unknown laws — and how it first evolved. “Animals’ behavior is much more plastic than previously thought,” said Pade. “They have a huge repertoire of movement strategies and patterns.”
Image: 1) Movement patterns of a shark in productive (left) and unproductive water./Nature. 2) Aggregate analyses of movement patterns./Nature. See Also:
Citation: “Environmental context explains Lévy and Brownian movement patterns of marine predators.” By Nicolas E. Humphries, Nuno Queiroz, Jennifer R. M. Dyer, Nicolas G. Pade, Michael K. Musyl, Kurt M. Schaefer, Daniel W. Fuller, Juerg M. Brunnschweiler, Thomas K. Doyle, Jonathan D. R. Houghton, Graeme C. Hays, Catherine S. Jones, Leslie R. Noble, Victoria J. Wearmouth, Emily J. Southall & David W. Sims. Nature, Vol. 465 No. 7299, June 10, 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 | 9 Jun 2010 | 12:04 pm Internet Hasn't Replaced Face-to-Face Talks with NeighborsWhen it comes to discussing matters of importance to the community, face-to-face interactions and chatting on the phone still trump Internet-enabled electronic means of communication.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jun 2010 | 12:00 pm High-Speed Video: Bursting Bubbles Breed Ever-Smaller Bubbles
Popped bubbles leave rings of smaller bubbles, whether they’re soap bubbles in the sink or saltwater bubbles on the open ocean, new high-speed videos show. The smaller bubbles make still-tinier bubbles when they pop, which could help transmit both nutrients and pollutants from the ocean to the atmosphere. Scientists have known for decades that when a raindrop falls into a pool of water, it kicks up a ring of smaller droplets, which make still smaller droplets, and so on. But popped bubbles were supposed to simply disappear. “What’s really exciting about this work is that it’s really fundamental, and yet there’s still some new things that people haven’t really ever talked about before,” said Harvard graduate student James Bird, first author of a paper in the June 9 Nature. Bird and a fellow grad student stumbled on the effect while trying to spread soap bubbles evenly on a surface for a different project. They found that not only would the bubbles not spread, but when they popped, they left a circle of smaller bubbles behind. The ring even appeared when they held the bubble upside-down. Furthermore, when the daughter bubbles popped, they left behind their own ring of even-smaller bubbles. “Neither of us had any idea what was causing it,” Bird said. Bird and colleagues made a bubble from a glycerol and water solution on a glass slide. They then filmed the bubble from the bottom and the side between 10,000 and 50,000 frames per second — 300 to 1,600 times faster than a regular video camera. These high-speed videos allowed them a more detailed view of the physics of bubble-popping than was ever seen before, Bird said. “That’s why it hadn’t been discussed or probed in the past, at least not nearly to the degree of what we’ve done in this paper.” The movies showed that when the curved film of the bubble ruptures, the lip of the bubble folds backward. In their video, the lip folded so far that it reconnected with the rest of the film, like a gymnast bending backward and grabbing her own ankles. This loop of film trapped some air. The loop then kept bending away from the rest of the bubble, so that when it finally met the solid surface, it trapped another ring of air. All that happened in less than 3 milliseconds (see below). Over the next 50 milliseconds, the two rings of air coalesced into about 25 individual bubbles.
Bird thinks the lip folds over because the air pressure inside the bubble is greater than the pressure outside. When a hole forms in the bubble, the two pressures equilibrate almost immediately. The sudden decrease in pressure inside the bubble sucks in the sides of the bubble, similar to a person sucking in their cheeks. The lip of the bubble then extends beyond the rest of the film, ready to trap air and form baby bubbles. To test this idea, Bird and his colleagues ran a computer simulation including only four or five variables to describe the bubble’s characteristics. “It did a remarkably good job,” he said. The team also filmed bubbles popping in water from the Charles River in Boston. The pressure inside the bubble forms a dimple on the water’s surface, which is exposed when the bubble pops. Water rushes in to fill the dimple, forming a jet of water, like when a stone drops in a pond. The same folded-lip effect as in the glycerol bubbles forms baby bubbles, which can also pop and shoot jets into the air at speeds greater than 11 miles per hour. Scientists already knew these small bubbles could spray particles of liquid into the atmosphere. This is where sea spray comes from, and why you feel fizz on your nose when you put your face over a glass of soda. These spray particles can carry whatever was on the surface up into the air, from salt to viruses to oil. “What we’ve done is we’ve linked the larger bubbles with the smaller ones,” Bird says. “The larger ones were neglected. Rather than being negligible, it’s an enormous effect, because you’re getting dozens of these little bubbles that can then pop and become aerosols.”
The researchers also blew bubbles in liquids of different thicknesses, and found that thick-enough liquids did not form daughter bubbles. This finding could be useful in industries like glass-making, where bubbles are harmful. Bird next wants to look at bubbles in extremely thick, gloppy materials like molten rock or mud. Jens Eggers, an expert in droplets from the University of Bristol, thinks the cascade of smaller and smaller bubbles is a beautiful demonstration of a standard effect in nature. “Nature is full of these things, but few are really well understood,” he said. “It’s wonderful to have an example where people are really able to take it apart, and look at it from different angles, and really demonstrate that it works.” Image and video: J.C. Bird/Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Jun 2010 | 11:49 am Bubble Bursted on the Science of Bursting BubblesConventional wisdom has held that when a bubble pops, it vanishes. Now scientists have found that a popped bubble actually creates a ring of smaller daughter bubbles in its wake.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jun 2010 | 11:08 am Scientists have the genetic causes of autism in their sightsIn the largest study ever into the genetics of autism, researchers have identified genetic variations that are more common in children with the condition, raising hopes of earlier diagnosis and better treatments Scientists today say they are on track to establish the genetic triggers for autism, paving the way for earlier diagnosis of children who could be at risk of developing the condition and opening up the possibility of inventing new drugs and treatments for the condition. The identification of a range of rare genetic mutations by an international collaboration known as the Autism Genome Project, involving scientists in the US, Canada and Europe, will further undermine the arguments of those who have claimed that the MMR vaccine, against measles, mumps and rubella, is somehow to blame. Geri Dawson of Autism Speaks, a charity that helped to fund the research, said that the findings would bring hope to many families who struggle with autism on a daily basis. "What is critical now is to translate these basic biological findings into clinical tools for early detection and treatment." This would allow children to be helped earlier in life. "We're now developing behavioural interventions for infants and toddlers who are at risk for autism," he said. In the largest study ever into the genetics of autism, the scientists identified rare genetic variations that were 20% more frequent in children with autism than in children without the disorder. These so-called "copy number variations" (CNVs), which can be missing chunks of DNA or extra copies of sequences in and around genes, occur in less than one in 100 people in the general population. In the study, scientists compared the incidence of these rare CNVs in 996 people with autism spectrum disorders and in 1,287 unaffected people, all with European ancestry. The results, published today in Nature, showed that some of the CNVs were inherited while others were found in children but not in their parents. Stephen Scherer of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, said that the research would lead to a paradigm shift in assessing the causes of autism. "Most people in the field believed that autistic individuals shared common genetic variations in just a few genes," he said. But the research suggests the genetic variations are actually rare. "Most people with autism are probably genetically quite unique, each having their own genetic form of autism. As we discover more of these variants, the number of cases of autism that we can explain increases substantially." Identifying the genetic causes means that doctors could develop tests for babies who may be considered at risk of autism based on their family history. "Currently, autism diagnosis is entirely behavioural and lengthy and parents are subjected to a long process where their child is being assessed," said Louise Gallagher of Trinity College Dublin. "Some children are not getting the diagnosis until as late as five years old. With earlier detection, these children could get earlier interventions, which may limit the severity of the condition." Genetic risk is a big issue for families, said Gallagher, as many parents want to know what their risk of having another affected child might be. "With these findings, a proportion of families will be able in the future to get more precise genetic counselling," she said. "However, it is very early days and we're not suggesting that pre-natal testing is appropriate because the penetrance of some of these CNVs is incomplete – they may not affect people equally. What we're saying here is that there's the potential to identify children at greater risk and to institute earlier intervention." Discovery of a major genetic underpinning for autism will help further allay parents' fears of a sinister environmental cause, such as the link that was proposed by Andrew Wakefield in a paper in the Lancet in 1998. The General Medical Council recently struck him off the medical register over his research ethics. But some parents of autistic children continue to believe he has been the scapegoat for a vaccine scandal, in spite of the absence of scientific evidence for his claims. The work will also underpin a better understanding of the physiological basis for autism. The risk genes identified in the latest studies are involved in brain functions and knowing what their altered effects are will give scientists targets for therapies. Rare CNVs are also known to play a role in other learning disabilities and in mental health conditions such as epilepsy and schizophrenia. Anthony Monaco of the University of Oxford, who was part of the consortium, said there was still much more to do to identify the full suite of genetic causes of autism. "This consortium of scientists has been trying to put together a very large jigsaw puzzle without the benefit of having a nice colourful picture on the box. In this paper, the CNVs we found framed this jigsaw puzzle. They give us an idea of what the picture may look like." 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 | 9 Jun 2010 | 11:06 am Template for Life on Mars FoundA shallow spring in Canada holds a type of bacteria that could thrive on Mars.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Jun 2010 | 11:00 am Single Brain Cells Can Recognize ObjectsSingle brain cells, if confronted with a difficult task, can identify objects.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jun 2010 | 10:54 am Complex Life Traced to Ancient Gene Parasites
Mysterious gene structures called introns that help make complex organisms possible are descended from DNA parasites that infested bacteria billions of years ago, according to a new study. Researchers studying Thermosynechococcus elongatus, a heat-loving microbe teeming with so-called mobile group II introns — the contemporary version of those parasites — found that as temperatures rise, the introns infect genes more efficiently. Published June 8 in PLoS Biology, the findings fit the notion that group II introns flourished in the early Earth’s heat, and were ultimately co-opted into their hosts’ genomes. “The introns that currently exist in the genomes of humans and other higher organisms are thought to have evolved from these group II introns,” said molecular biologist Georg Mohr of the University of Texas at Austin. “Over evolutionary time, they acquired function.”
Introns proved common in multicellular organisms. Many genes have multiples. The same gene in different organisms, or even different tissue types in the same organism, can have different intron configurations. Scientists were initially perplexed, but now think that introns are vitally important to cell function. When pieces of RNA are re-assembled, modifications are made to their protein-calling code. By forcing this to happen, introns allow the same gene to produce many different proteins. That variation underlies cell development, tissue differentiation and the diversity of higher organisms. But even as the role of introns becomes clearer, their origins remain murky. Researchers like Mohr and study co-author Alan Lambowitz, also a University of Texas at Austin molecular biologist, point to mobile group II introns. These snippets of DNA have many structural similarities to introns but are free-floating, jumping between genes like fleas on animals. Mohrg and Lambowitz think group II introns infested early bacteria, and were incorporated into the genomes of later organisms — a DNA-level example of the sort of symbiosis seen with mitochondria, which started out as microbial invaders and are now part of every animal cell. The intron narrative makes sense, but has one critical hole. Researchers have been unable to find bacteria with more than a few group II introns. If modern bacteria are barely infested, it’s hard to imagine how ancient bacteria could have accumulated the many introns found in modern animal cells.
When they transplanted T. elongatus‘ group II introns into Escherichia coli, the researchers found that fusion rates depended on temperature. “High temperatures melt the DNA strands, and that makes it easier for group II introns to insert themselves,” said Lambowitz. A hot environment two billion years ago “could have contributed to the introns’ proliferation in early eukaryotes.” Whether this happened is speculative, but the findings may have an immediate use. Clostridium thermocellum, a heat-loving bacteria being studied by Department of Energy researchers for use in breaking down cellulose during biofuel production, has proven difficult to manipulate. “The tools for knocking out and inserting genes have not existed for many thermophilic organisms,” said Lambowitz. “The mobile group II introns from T. elongatus are different from other introns, because they can work at high temperatures.” Images: 1. The hot springs in Beppu, Japan where T. elongatus was discovered./Flickr/Joka2000. 2. The structure of a T. elongatus type II intron./PLoS Biology. 3. T. elongatus./Georg Mohr. See Also:
Citation: “Mechanisms Used for Genomic Proliferation by Thermophilic Group II Introns.” By Georg Mohr, Eman Ghanem, Alan M. Lambowitz. Public Library of Science Biology, Vol. 8 Issue 6, 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 | 9 Jun 2010 | 10:41 am One of World's Most Pristine Coral Reefs RevealedPristine coral reef revealed in Pacific Ocean.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jun 2010 | 10:18 am How Your Brain Works on AutopilotA new study reveals more about exactly what goes on in the brain as we form habits, transitioning from intense concentration to autopilotSource: Livescience.com | 9 Jun 2010 | 10:00 am Costly nuclear fusion demo worries cash-strapped EUBRUSSELS (Reuters) - A funding battle is brewing in Europe over a 16-billion-euro ($21.5 billion) experiment to crack the puzzle of commercializing nuclear fusion -- the process that powers the sun.Source: Reuters: Science News | 9 Jun 2010 | 9:32 am Sun Powers Internet CafesA UK charity wants to harness the energy of the sun to power an entire Internet cafe.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Jun 2010 | 9:11 am Stolen Descartes Letter Returned to FranceA simple Google search ended a more than 150-year-old mystery.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Jun 2010 | 9:10 am Snake Populations Mysteriously PlummetScientists can't explain why 11 of 17 populations of snakes worldwide have dropped sharply over the past decade.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Jun 2010 | 9:09 am Bird Beats Humans, Breaks Its Own Record for Long-Distance FlightA bird has just broken its own world record for long-distance flight, beating out humans and all other animals.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Jun 2010 | 8:55 am Amazing First Race to the South Pole RevisitedNew museum exhibit details race to be the first man at South Pole.Source: Livescience.com | 9 Jun 2010 | 8:47 am American Concerns About Climate Change ClimbA new poll of Americans shows that support for revolutionary, carbon-cutting energy policies is strong, even though disagreement about the causes behind global warming lingers.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Jun 2010 | 8:11 am Lie detectors: the truth and nothing but?Hi-tech 'lie detectors' have fascinated neuroscientists and the public alike for years, but whether they work is another matter Wouldn't it be amazing if there was a machine that could tell you whether someone was telling the truth? It would, of course, be really useful – but more than that, it would represent the ultimate triumph of technology. The utterly private world of our consciousness would be private, and sacred, no more. Given how fascinating the idea is, then, it's no surprise that there have been plenty of attempts to design technological lie detectors, and no shortage of people willing to pay for the chance to use them. All of them have worked, in theory. But that doesn't mean they work. A group of Scottish neuroscientists recently warned against the seductions of the latest approach – the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to detect deception. A number of commercial enterprises, such as the US-based No Lie MRI now offer fMRI lie detection, and fMRI evidence has been submitted to courts of law in the US several times, although it has never yet been accepted as admissible evidence. The judge's conservativism is well placed. To be sure, fMRI is an incredible technology. Scientists use it to probe the workings of the brain, and doctors use it to work out which parts of the brain do what, so they can avoid damaging the important bits during brain surgery. But it's just not capable of detecting lies with the kind of certainty that could stand up in court. When scientists use fMRI in an experiment to investigate brain function, it's typical to scan 10 to 20 people. Scans are expensive, and we don't do this for fun: we do it because it's very difficult to interpret the results of any individual person's scan. There's just too much variability. Using fMRI you can see which parts of the brain tend to light up in response to, say, listening to music. Or telling lies. But everyone's brain is a bit different and there's a lot of random noise in every scan, so it's only by averaging over many people that you can achieve good results. With every new technological advance, it's never long before someone claims to be able to use it to detect deception – for a price. Last time it was computers. An company called Nemesysco sell software – Layered Voice Analysis – which they say can mathematically process voice recordings and reveal the emotional stress-patterns associated with lying. If that doesn't float your boat, you can buy the same technology to work out whether someone you're chatting to online is attracted to you. In 2007, two Swedish academics published a paper criticising the science behind Nemesysco's system. The academic journal that printed the article was promptly slapped with a lawsuit, and the article was taken down amid much controversy, but bootleg copies are available online. It's well worth a read, given that in 2007-2008, the government performed extensive trials of Nemesysco's unproven technology for the purpose of catching "benefit scroungers". Going further back, electroencephalography (EEG), the brain-scanning technology that people used before fMRI arrived, is crude but still effective at measuring neural activation. It turns out that there's a particular neural response, the P300, that happens when you see something that you've seen before – a recognition spike. So if you show a murder suspect pictures of the murder scene, say, you could tell if they'd been there. Even better than just lie detection, it's mind reading. In theory. This "brain fingerprinting" is certainly an interesting technique, but we just don't know whether it's reliable in practice. Studies have shown that it works fairly well in the lab on normal volunteers (such as students) instructed to lie about imaginary crimes, but real-life field tests are lacking. That hasn't stopped it being promoted commercially, and EEG has been admitted as evidence in Indian courts several times, although the Indian supreme court recently banned such tests. This is a common theme. Most "lie detectors" are based on real evidence, but they require you to disregard all of the caveats, the ifs, ands and buts, that are the stuff of science. It's not hard to see why: lie detectors are a commercial product. Caveats don't sell, but if you can show people even a bit of evidence that something exciting should work in theory, you'll go far. In theory, you can use EEG or fMRI to see through deception, but only if you assume that the brains of hardened criminals with strong motivations to lie behave the same was as the brains of college students. This is also true of the very oldest lie detector, the polygraph, invented over 100 years ago. It simply records heart rate and blood pressure etc, on the theory that when you lie, you get stressed and your body reacts. But does it work on actual criminals? Can it distinguish between stress associated with lying and stress associated with telling painful truths? It's hard to say. Yet if we don't know whether it works in any individual case, it's not much use. Neuroscience is advancing rapidly and one day, it surely will be possible to reliably read criminal's minds with brain scans. But not yet. We must resist the temptation to let entrepreneurs blind us with science and claim to be able to peer into a world which is, for now, private. 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 | 9 Jun 2010 | 3:34 am
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Introns were discovered in the 1970s, when scientists thought genes followed simple, linear rules: Cellular machinery would translate the DNA of each gene into an unbroken string of RNA molecules, which then instructed cells to produce a protein. Introns added a twist. They’re stretches of DNA that are not translated into RNA. Instead of producing an unbroken RNA string, an intron-bearing gene makes several pieces of RNA that are then stitched together.
In the new study paper, the researchers finally filled the hole. Mobile group II introns account for more than one percent of the genome of T. elongatus, a cyanobacteria living in a Japanese hot spring. Its living conditions echo early Earth’s, and “some of the earliest bacteria were these free-living cyanobacteria,” said Lambowitz.