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When a market is healthy, co-movement is low. But in the months and years before a crash, co-movement seems to grow.</p> <p>Regardless of whether stock prices go up or down or stay the same, they do so in tandem. People are copying each other, and a small nudge can send everyone in the same direction. The system appears primed for collapse.</p> <p>"One of the most important things happening now is that economists are trying to understand, what is systemic risk? When is the entire system vulnerable to disaster? Our results show that we have a direct, unambiguous measure of that vulnerability," said Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute.</p> <div>Seen through an econophysicist's eyes, a stock market panic is an avalanche.</div> <p>Bar-Yam's findings, released <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.2620" target="_blank" title="http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.2620" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Feb. 13 on arXiv</a>, are part of an emerging research field known as econophysics. It applies to economics insights from the physical world, especially from systems in which networks of interacting units produce radical collective behaviors.</p> <p>Heated water turning to gas is one such behavior, known technically as a phase transition. Another is snow gathering into an avalanche. Seen through an econophysicist's eyes, a stock market panic is an avalanche, too.</p> <p> </p> <p>Using a phase-transition model, Bar-Yam's group analyzed patterns of movement in the stock market. At the beginning of the 2000s, co-movement was low. On any given day, about half the stocks were moving up or down. By 2008, shortly before the crash, co-movement was absolute. People were no longer making independent decisions, but copying others.</p> <p>"There's a break point where the system is flat — equally likely to have any number of stocks moving together on a particular day," said Bar-Yam. "And if you see these collective behaviors building up, then you know you're in trouble."</p> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/panic_crash2.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/panic_crash2.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=9d1e80edbb751ba2c9658de646778c9b&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fpanic_crash2.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a><p>At top, a metric of stock co-movement during the 2000s. As it gets closer to zero, individual stocks are more likely to move up or down in the same direction. At bottom is the Russell 3000 Index.</p></div> <p>After expanding the analysis back to 1985, they found periods of increasing co-movement within four years before each major crash, though never so starkly as before 2008. The researchers also propose that increasing co-movement fuels large, single-day market drops.</p> <p>Jeffrey Fuhrer, researcher director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, called the results intriguing but preliminary, requiring more rigorous statistical examination.</p> <p>"As an initial pass, it's an interesting idea," he said, but doesn't yet distinguish when investors respond rationally and independently to the same information, such as a rise in fuel prices, or move reflexively as a herd.</p> <p>However, the line between those trends may be blurry. According to Bar-Yam's group, external stresses — fuel prices, war, the perception of market bubbles — may increase the market sensitivity, making it more vulnerable to panic. So might changes in the very structure of markets, from their <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/economics-of-network-collapse" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/economics-of-network-collapse" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">increasingly interlocking nature</a> to instant-communication tools.</p> <p>Fuhrer's cautions were echoed by econophysicist Tobias Preis of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. "One should be very careful about generalization to predict future crises," he said. "The most important point is to quantify this risk. That would be a huge step forward."</p> <p>If co-movement does prove to be a reliable early warning signal, it's an open question how to make use of it. "That is one of the $64,000 questions," said Fuhrer.</p> <p>Whereas bailing out a company is relatively simple, intervening in the dynamics of a system is not. But the first step is understanding that markets follow rules we're just beginning to understand.</p> <p>"The financial crisis has shown that mainstream economic theories have limitations that need to be overcome," said Dirk Helbing of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, who specializes in modeling crowd behavior. "Economic systems have become much more complex, and complex systems have certain features — cascading effects, systemic shifts. This calls for new theoretical approaches."</p> <p><em>Images: 1) NASDAQ © 2010. 2) arXiv.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/economics-of-network-collapse/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/economics-of-network-collapse/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Analysis of 2008 Collapse Shows Economy Networked for Failure</a></em></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/networked-networks/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/networked-networks/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Networked Networks Are Prone to Epic Failure</a></em></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/extinction-tipping-point/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/extinction-tipping-point/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Early Warning Signs Could Show When Extinction Is Coming</a></em></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/earlywarnings/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/earlywarnings/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Scientists Seek Warning Signs for Catastrophic Tipping Points</a></em></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/twitter-crystal-ball/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/twitter-crystal-ball/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Twitter Can Predict the Stock Market</a></li> </ul> <p><em>Citation: "Predicting economic market crises using measures of collective." By Dion Harmon, Marcus A. M. de Aguiar, David D. Chinellato, Dan Braha, Irving R. Epstein, Yaneer Bar-Yam. arXiv, Feb. 13, 2011.</em></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=VT6mlHzG34s:kAwtHRV29xw:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150158100505795">Understanding Japan’s Nuclear Crisis</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 18 Mar 2011 09:00 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=b6ac8aa704e9d6974372725a0ee40597&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fjapan-nuclear-ars-technica.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><strong>By John Timmer, Ars Technica</strong></p> <p>Following the events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors in Japan has been challenging. At best, even those present at the site have a limited view of what's going on inside the reactors themselves, and the situation has changed rapidly over the last several days. Meanwhile, the terminology involved is somewhat confusing—some fuel rods have almost certainly melted, but we have not seen a meltdown; radioactive material has been released from the reactors, but the radioactive fuel currently remains contained.</p> <p><a href="http://arstechnica.com/" target="_blank" title="http://arstechnica.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=433c02fa0ab707d3e69b7ef83156d12d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fepicenter%2F2010%2F07%2FPicture-1.png" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>Over time, the situation has become a bit less confused, as cooler heads have explained more about the reactor and the events that have occurred within it. What we'll attempt to do here is aggregate the most reliable information we can find, using material provided by multiple credible sources. We've attempted to confirm some of this information with groups like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy but, so far, these organizations are not making their staff available to talk to the press.</p> <h2>Inside a Nuclear Reactor</h2> <p>Nuclear reactors are powered by the fission of a radioactive element, typically uranium. There are a number of products of this reaction, but the one that produces the power is heat, which the fission process gives off in abundance. There are different ways to extract electricity from that heat, but the most common way of doing so shares some features with the first steam engines: use it to boil water, and use the resulting pressure to drive a generator.</p> <p>Radioactivity makes things both simpler and more complex. On the simpler side, fission will readily occur underwater, so it's easy to transfer the heat to water simply by dunking the nuclear fuel directly into it.</p> <p> </p> <div><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=6c5216dfb4d705a04541c6fd02c08a2b&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fboiling-water-reactor-ars-technica.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /><p>In the reactor design used in Japan, the fuel is immersed in water, which boils off to generate power, is cooled, and then returns to the reactor. The pressure vessel and primary containment keep radioactivity inside. <em>(Ars Technica)</em></p></div> <p>Unfortunately, the radioactivity complicates things. Even though the fuel is sealed into rods, it's inevitable that this water will pick up some radioactive isotopes. As a result, you can't just do whatever you'd like with the liquid that's been exposed to the fuel rods. Instead, the rods and water remain sealed in a high-pressure container and linked pipes, with the hot water or steam circulated out to drive machinery, but then reinjected back into the core after it has cooled, keeping a closed cycle.</p> <p>The water recirculation doesn't just let us get power out of the reactor; it's essential to keeping the reactor core cool. Unless the heat of decay is carried away from the core, its temperature will rise rapidly, and the fuel and its structural support will melt.</p> <h2>The Fission Reaction</h2> <div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/2855290418/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/2855290418/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=783313971f9c05e4b194e395a7bf3325&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Furanium-ore-flickr-marcin-wichary.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a><p>Uranium ore. <em>(Marchin Wichary/Flickr)</em></p></div> <p>On its own, the uranium isotope used in nuclear reactors will decay slowly, releasing a minimal amount of heat. However, one of the decay products is a neutron, which can strike another atom and induce that to split; other neutrons are produced as the products of that split decay themselves. At high enough densities, this chain reaction of neutron-induced fission can produce a nuclear explosion. In a nuclear reactor, the fuel density is low enough that this isn't a threat, and the rate of the fission can be controlled by inserting or removing rods of a material that absorbs neutrons, typically boron.</p> <p>Completely inserting control rods to limit uranium's fission, however, doesn't affect what's happened to the products of previous reactions. Many of the elements that are produced following uranium's split are themselves radioactive, and will decay without needing any encouragement from a neutron. Some of the neutrons from the reactor will also be absorbed by atoms in the equipment or cooling water, converting those to radioactive isotopes. Most of this additional radioactive material decays within the span of a few days, so it's not a long-term issue. But it ensures that, even after a reactor is shut down by control rods, there's enough radioactive decay around to keep things hot for a while.</p> <p>All of which makes the continued operation of the plant's cooling system essential. Unfortunately, cooling system failures have struck several of the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi.</p> <h2>Surviving the Quake, But Not the Tsunami</h2> <p>Because cooling is so essential to a plant's operation, there are a few layers of backups to keep the pumps running. For starters, even if the reactors themselves are taken offline, the coolant pumps can receive power from offsite; this option was eliminated by the earthquake itself, which apparently cut off the external power to Fukushima. The earthquake also triggered a shutdown of the reactors, removing the obvious local source of power to the pumps. At this point, the first backup system kicked in: a set of on-site generators that burn fossil fuels to keep the equipment running.</p> <p>Those generators lasted only a short while before the tsunami arrived and swamped them, flooding parts of the plant's electrical system in the process. Batteries are in place to allow a short-term backup for these generators; it's not clear whether these failed due to the problems with the electrical system, or were simply drained. In any case, additional generators were slow to arrive due to the widespread destruction, and didn't manage to get the pumps running again when they did.</p> <p>As a result, the plants have been operating without a cooling system since shortly after the earthquake. Even though the primary uranium reaction was shut down promptly, the reactor cores have continued to heat up due to secondary decay products.</p> <h2>Ugly Possibilities</h2> <p>Without cooling, there are a number of distinctly ugly possibilities. As water continues to be heated, more steam will be generated within the reactor vessel, increasing the pressure there, possibly to the point where the vessel would fail. The reactor vessel would burst into a primary containment vessel, which would limit the immediate spread of radioactive materials. However, the rupture of the reactor vessel would completely eliminate any possibility of restoring the coolant system, and might ultimately leave the reactor core exposed to the air.</p> <p>And that would be a problem, since air doesn't carry heat away nearly as efficiently as water, making it more likely that the temperatures would rise sufficiently to start melting the fuel rods. The other problem with exposing the fuel rods to air is that the primary covering of the rods, zirconium, can react with steam, reducing the integrity of the rods and generating hydrogen.</p> <p>To respond to this threat, the plant's operators took two actions, done on different days with the different reactors. To begin with, they attempted to pump cold sea water directly into the reactors to replace the boiled-off coolant water. This was not a decision made lightly; sea water is very corrosive and will undoubtedly damage the metal parts of the reactor, and its complex mixture of contents will also complicate the cleanup. This action committed the plant operators to never running it again without a complete replacement of its hardware. As an added precaution, the seawater was spiked with a boron compound in order increase the absorption of neutrons within the reactor.</p> <p>The second action involved the bleeding off of some pressure from the reactor vessel in order to lower the risk of a catastrophic failure. This was also an unappealing option, given that the steam would necessarily contain some radioactivity. Still, it was considered a better option than allowing the container to burst.</p> <p>This decision to bleed off pressure ultimately led to the first indications of radioactivity having escaped the reactor core and its containment structure. Unfortunately, it also blew the roof off the reactor building.</p> <h2>Hard Choices to Bad Results</h2> <p>As seen in some rather dramatic video footage, shortly after the pressure was released, the buildings housing the reactors began to explode. The culprit: hydrogen, created by the reaction of the fuel casing with steam. The initial explosions occurred without damaging the reactor containment vessel, meaning that more significantly radioactive materials, like the fuel, remained in place. Larger increases in radioactivity, however, followed one of the explosions, indicating possible damage to the containment vessel, although levels have since fluctuated.</p> <p>However, the mere presence of so much hydrogen indicated a potentially serious issue: it should only form if the fuel rods have been exposed to the air, which indicates that coolant levels within the reactor have dropped significantly. This also means that the structural integrity of the fuel rods is very questionable; they've probably partially melted.</p> <p>Part of the confusion in the coverage of these events has been generated by the use of the term "meltdown." In a worst-case scenario, the entire fuel rod melts, allowing it to collect on the reactor floor, away from the moderating affect of any control rods. Its temperature would soar, raising the prospect that the material will become so hot that it will melt through the reactor floor, or reach a source of water and produce an explosive release of steam laced with radioactive fuel. There is no indication that any of this is happening in Japan at the moment.</p> <p>Still, the partial melting of some fuel does increase the chances that some highly radioactive material will be released. We're nowhere near the worst case, but we're not anywhere good, either.</p> <p>An additional threat has recently become apparent, as one of the inactive reactors at the site suffered from an explosion and fire in the area where its fuel is being stored. There is almost no information available about how the tsunami affected the stored fuel. Hydrogen is again suspected to be the source of the explosion, which again suggests that some of the fuel rods have been exposed to the air and could be melting. It's possible that problems with the stored fuel contributed to the recent radiation releases, since there isn't nearly as much containment hardware between the storage area and the environment.</p> <p>Again, plans have been made to add sea water to the storage area, both by helicopter drops attempted earlier today, and through standard firefighting equipment.</p> <h2>Where We Stand</h2> <p>So far, the most long-lived radioactive materials at the site appear to remain contained within the reactor buildings. Radioisotopes have and continue to escape containment, but there's no indication yet that these are anything beyond secondary decay products with short half-lives.</p> <p>Although radiation above background levels has been detected far from the reactor site, most of this has been low-level and produced by short-lived isotopes. Prevailing winds have also sent a lot of the radioactive material out over the Pacific. As a result, most of the problems with radioactive exposure have been in the immediate vicinity of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors themselves, where radiation has sometimes reached threatening levels; it's been possible to hit a yearly safe exposure limit within a matter of hours at times. Areas around the reactors have been evacuated or subject to restrictions, but it's not clear how far out the areas of significant exposure extend, and they may change rapidly.</p> <p>All of this is severely complicating efforts to get the temperatures under control. Personnel simply can't spend much time at the reactor site without getting exposed to dangerous levels of radioactivity. As a result, all of the efforts to get fresh coolant into place have been limited and subject to interruption whenever radiation levels spike. The technicians who continue to work at the site are putting their future health at risk.</p> <p>There is some good news here, as each day without a critical failure allows more of the secondary radioactive materials to decay, lowering the overall risk of a catastrophic event. In the meantime, however, there's little we can do to influence the probability of a major release of radioactive material. Getting seawater into the reactors has proven to be hit-or-miss, and we don't have a strong sense of the structural integrity of a lot of the containment buildings at this point; what's happening in the fuel storage areas is even less certain. In short, our only real option is to try to get more water in and hope for the best.</p> <h2>Future of Nuclear Energy</h2> <p>Nuclear power plays a big role in most plans to limit the use of fossil fuels, and the Department of Energy has been working to encourage the building of the first plants in decades within the US. The protracted events in Japan will undoubtedly play a prominent role in the public debate; in fact, they may single-handedly ignite discussion on a topic that the public was largely ignoring. The take-home message, however, is a bit tough to discern at this point.</p> <p>In some ways, the Japanese plants, even though they are an old design, performed admirably. They withstood the <em>fifth-largest earthquake ever recorded</em>, and the safety systems, including the automatic shutdown and backup power supplies, went into action without a problem. The containment systems have largely survived several hydrogen explosions and, so far, the only radioactive materials that have been released are short-lived isotopes that are concentrated in the plant's vicinity. If things end where they are now, the plants themselves will have done very well under the circumstances.</p> <p>But, as mentioned above, ending where we are now is completely beyond our control, and that highlights some reasons why this can't be considered a triumph. Some of the issues are in the design. Although the plant was ready for an extreme event, it clearly wasn't designed with a tsunami in mind—it is simply impossible to plan for every eventuality. However, this seems to be a major omission given the plant's location. It also appears that the fuel storage areas weren't nearly as robustly designed as the reactors.</p> <p>Once the cooling crisis started, a set of predictable issues cropped up. We can never send humans inside many of the reactor areas, leaving us dependent upon monitoring equipment that may not be working or reliable during a crisis. And, once radiation starts to leak, we can't send people to many areas that were once safe, meaning we've got even less of an idea of what's going on inside, and fewer points to intervene at. Hardware that wasn't designed for some purposes, like pumping sea water into the reactor vessel, hasn't worked especially well for the emergency measures.</p> <p>On balance, the safety systems of this reactor performed reasonably well, but were pushed up against a mixture of unexpected events and design limits. And, once anything starts to go wrong with a nuclear reactor, it places the entire infrastructure under stress, and intervening becomes a very, very difficult thing to do.</p> <p>This latter set of issues mean that the surest way to build a safe nuclear plant is to ensure that nothing goes wrong in the first place. There are ways to reduce the risk by adding more safety and monitoring features while tailoring the design to some of the most extreme local events. But these will add to the cost of a nuclear plant, and won't ever be able to ensure that nothing goes wrong. So, deciding on if and how to pursue expanded nuclear power will require a careful risk analysis, something the public is generally ill-equipped for.</p> <p><em>Top image: Ars Technica.</em></p> <p><em>Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/03/understanding-japans-nuclear-crisis.ars" target="_blank" title="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/03/understanding-japans-nuclear-crisis.ars" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Ars Technica</a>.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/japan-earthquake-surpise/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/japan-earthquake-surpise/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Japan Quake Epicenter Was in Unexpected Location</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/earthquake-tsunami-nuclear-plant/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/earthquake-tsunami-nuclear-plant/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Japan Struggles to Control Quake-Damaged Nuke Plant</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/nuke-fallout-risk/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/nuke-fallout-risk/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">North America Safe From Radioactive Particles</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/biggest-japanese-earthquake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/biggest-japanese-earthquake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Earthquake Is Biggest in Japan's Recorded History</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/albatrosses-tsunami/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/albatrosses-tsunami/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Midway's Albatrosses Survive the Tsunami</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/china-thorium-power/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/china-thorium-power/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">China Takes Lead in Race for Clean Nuclear Power</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/nuclear-war-climate-change/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/nuclear-war-climate-change/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">How One Nuclear Skirmish Could Wreck the Planet</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=F3aLh0_nJ7E:Prt3kK622c0:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150158100510795">Spacecraft Swings Into First Orbit Around Mercury</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 18 Mar 2011 08:14 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/messenger-orbit-insertion/messengerapproachmercury/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/messenger-orbit-insertion/messengerapproachmercury/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=bd102f9b75a43515fe30cace9e3a1d6e&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FMessengerApproachMercury.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>NASA's Messenger spacecraft swung into position around Mercury Thursday night, making it the first spacecraft ever to orbit the innermost planet.</p> <p>Engineers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, 96 million miles from Mercury, received the signal confirming that <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/tag/messenger/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/tag/messenger/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Messenger</a> (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) had completed its final maneuver at 9:10 pm EDT.</p> <p>To slow down enough to get caught in Mercury's gravitational field, Messenger fired its main thruster for 15 minutes. The burn slowed the spacecraft by 1,929 mph and used up 31 percent of its original fuel supply.</p> <p>After finishing the burn, Messenger rotated to face the Earth by 9:45 p.m., and started transmitting data. Engineering and operations teams confirmed the maneuver went according to plan.</p> <p>The event marks the end of a 6½-year journey for Messenger, which has made 12 laps around the solar system, two flybys past Earth, one past Venus and three past Mercury since launching in August 2004.</p> <p>Although engineers still need to do some analysis to figure out the spacecraft's exact orbit, they expect Messenger to swoop around Mercury in a highly elliptical orbit once every 12 hours. It will dip within 120 miles of Mercury's surface at its closest point, and go out to 9,320 miles at its farthest.</p> <p>The orbit goes nearly pole-to-pole, offset by about 7 degrees. That slight tilt is to help get a handle on the planet's gravitational field, said principal investigator <a href="http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/scs/" target="_blank" title="http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/scs/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Sean Solomon</a>, a planetary scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in a press conference March 15.</p> <p>Measurements of the gravitational field "will tell us something about Mercury's composition, the size of the core and the structure of that core," he said.</p> <p> </p> <p>One of the mission's main objectives is to figure out why Mercury's core is so big compared to the cores of the other rocky planets. Another is to make high-resolution maps of the whole planet, some of which has still never been seen.</p> <p>"Many on the science team have been involved from the very beginning," Solomon said. "We are extremely excited to begin that mapping."</p> <p>Scientists also plan to search for water ice in craters at the poles which, despite Mercury's proximity to the sun and scorching daytime temperatures, are stuck in eternal freezing shadow.</p> <p>The spacecraft's seven science instruments were turned off for orbit insertion, but they will reactivate March 23. The first orbital image, planned for March 29, will include some uncharted regions near Mercury's south pole.</p> <p>The science phase of the mission will begin April 4. The Messenger team will release data to the science community at six-month intervals, but will release images at least once a day throughout the mission, Solomon said.</p> <p>"In addition to the global imaging we'll be doing, we've targeted more than 2,000 areas for ultra-high-res with our narrow-angle camera. Many of them were not discovered until flybys," he said. "We've got a long list."</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/messenger-orbit-insertion/messenger-first-image/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/messenger-orbit-insertion/messenger-first-image/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=2b944c56842ab86c4fbfa6fde531a267&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FMessenger-first-image.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><em>Images: 1) Artist's conception of Messenger approaching Mercury. 2) The target area for Messenger's first image from orbit, including never-before-seen terrain. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/messenger-orbit-preview/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/messenger-orbit-preview/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">NASA's Messenger Spacecraft Zeroes In on Mercury</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/06/messengers_flyb/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/06/messengers_flyb/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">MESSENGER's Flyby View of Venus</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/mercury-flyby-teaser/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/mercury-flyby-teaser/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mercury Flyby Maps New Territory</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/10/mercurys-red-ho/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/10/mercurys-red-ho/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mercury as You've Never Seen It Before</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/first-global-map-of-mercury/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/first-global-map-of-mercury/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5adcf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">First Global Map of Mercury</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=XIcwD_eWNIg:ANHnEOW-oZQ:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-27431253090458471752011-03-18T13:17:00.001-07:002011-03-18T13:17:13.765-07:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Seasonal Methane Rain Discovered on Titan</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Japan Quake Epicenter Was in Unexpected Location</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Crop Tops: Strange Agricultural Landscapes Seen From Space</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150157102020795">Seasonal Methane Rain Discovered on Titan</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 17 Mar 2011 12:12 PM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/titan-april-showers/titan-clouds-oct-2010/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/titan-april-showers/titan-clouds-oct-2010/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=39c8029a909455f9f4447ebda0534b02&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FTitan-clouds-Oct-2010.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Spring may bring methane showers to the deserts of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. NASA's Cassini spacecraft recently saw a large, dark puddle appear in the wake of a storm cloud at the moon's dune-filled equator.</p> <p>"It's the only easy way to explain the observations," said planetary scientist <a href="http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~turtle/" target="_blank" title="http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~turtle/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Elizabeth Turtle</a> of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, lead author of a study March 18 in <em>Science</em>. "We're pretty confident that it has just rained on Titan."</p> <p>Aside from Earth, Titan is the only world known to have <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/titan-lake-light/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/titan-lake-light/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">liquid lakes</a>, clouds and a weather cycle to move moisture between them. But on chilly Titan, where temperatures plunge to -297 degrees Fahrenheit, the frigid lakes are filled with liquid methane and ethane, not water.</p> <p>Titan's lakes are also exclusively <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/titanshape/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/titanshape/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">confined to the poles</a>. The moon's dry central regions are covered in rippling dunes and arid deserts.</p> <p>But the dunes are crisscrossed by a network of dry channels, suggesting a wetter past. In 2006, Cassini observations showed <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7101/abs/nature04948.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7101/abs/nature04948.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">hints of drizzle at the equator</a>, but not enough rain to explain the riverbeds.</p> <p>"So the question was, 'When was the last rainfall near the equator of Titan?'" said planetary scientist <a href="http://79.125.109.44/expert/germany/university/tokano/tetsuya-tokano-1329515.html" target="_blank" title="http://79.125.109.44/expert/germany/university/tokano/tetsuya-tokano-1329515.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Tetsuya Tokano</a> of the University of Cologne in Germany, who was not involved in the new work. Some researchers suggested that the rivers were a relic of a bygone era, or carved by things other than rain.</p> <p>"This observation by Turtle et al. showed for the first time that there is rainfall on present Titan, not merely millions of years ago but at the present Titan," Tokano said. "This is extraordinary."</p> <p> </p> <p>In the new study, Turtle's team describes a large cloud system moving eastward across Titan's equator on Sept. 27, 2010. By October, observations show, a dune field called Belet that lies east of the clouds suddenly darkened. The dark patch extended for more than 190,000 square miles, and started fading fast. Some spots that were dark on Oct. 14 were bright again by Oct. 29, and even more bright spots were visible on Jan. 15.</p> <p>Turtle thinks the shadow is wet ground after rainfall, like a sidewalk darkened by a shower. Titan's winds aren't strong enough to wreak such sudden or vast changes, she says, and it's doubtful that the kind of explosive volcanic activity that could explain the dark patch is possible on Titan.</p> <p>It's not clear how much rain fell, she adds. Some areas could have flooded or sustained small puddles, but it may just be that the surface got wet.</p> <p>The showers were probably prompted by Titan's changing seasons. Cassini has been orbiting Saturn since 2004, but since a full year on Saturn — and therefore all its moons — lasts 29 Earth years, the <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">spacecraft has only observed</a> one 7-year season on Titan. Astronomers saw storms and rain at Titan's south pole during the summer, and then the <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/clear-spring-skies-on-titan/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/clear-spring-skies-on-titan/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">clouds cleared</a> after the spring equinox in August 2009.</p> <p>"It's kind of the equivalent on Titan right now of early April, just into northern spring," Turtle said. "What we think triggered this huge storm is that the weather patterns are seasonal." Major cloud patterns move north as the southern summer ends, similar to the way they do on Earth, she says. The only difference is, Earth's tropics sustain rain clouds year round. On Titan, the equator may see rain only a few times a year.</p> <p>The difference comes, at least in part, from Titan's leisurely rotation rate, Tokano said. Titan takes 16 Earth days to rotate once, meaning its atmospheric circulation patterns are somewhat more simple. Titan's clouds shift quickly from north to south, filling the polar lakes with rain but mostly leaving the equator out to dry.</p> <p>As for whether the spring showers are good news for the possibility life on Titan, Turtle and Tokano are agnostic.</p> <p>"There's no liquid water involved in any of the processes we're describing here, so life as we know it can't exist," Turtle said. "But there's clearly so much scope for prebiotic chemistry on Titan…. Understanding Titan better in general helps us to understand what the possibilities are."</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/titan-april-showers/titan-weather-diagram/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/titan-april-showers/titan-weather-diagram/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=3d1841fccae9dfd5bcad02d1d5d1ba14&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FTitan-weather-diagram.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><em>Images: 1) NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. 2) P. Huey/Science AAAS</em></p> <p><em>Citation:<br /> "Rapid and Extensive Surface Changes Near Titan's Equator: Evidence of April Showers." E.P. Turtle, J.E. Perry, A.G. Hayes, R.D. Lorenz, J.W. Barnes, A.S. McEwen, R.A. West, A.D. Del Genio, J.M. Barbara, J.I. Lunine, E.L. Schaller, T.L. Ray, R.M.C. Lopes, E.R. Stofan. Science, Vol 331, March 18, 2011. DOI: 10.1126/science.1201063.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/cassini-titan-flyby/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/cassini-titan-flyby/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Cassini Skims Through Titan's Upper Atmosphere</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/clear-spring-skies-on-titan/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/clear-spring-skies-on-titan/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Clear Spring Skies Emerge on Titan</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/titan-haze-life/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/titan-haze-life/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Titan's Haze Could Hold Recipe for Life, No Water Needed</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/titan-lake-light/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/titan-lake-light/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Photo: Shining Lake Confirms Presence of Liquid on Titan</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/titanshape/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/titanshape/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Titan's Strange Shape May Explain Polar Lakes</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=V2hrtEupidY:xX9vMfPEtcM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150157102030795">Japan Quake Epicenter Was in Unexpected Location</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 17 Mar 2011 09:43 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=d00e27f530796e217295ccdc6b5e4981&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fjapan-earthquake-intensity-epicenter-usgs.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>Japan has been expecting and preparing for the "big one" for more than 30 years. But the magnitude-9.0 temblor that struck March 11 — the world's fourth biggest quake since 1900 — wasn't the catastrophe the island nation had in mind. The epicenter of the quake was about 80 miles east of the city of Sendai, in a strip of ocean crust previously thought unlikely to be capable of unleashing such energy.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>"This area has a long history of earthquakes, but [the Sendai earthquake] doesn't fit the pattern," says Harold Tobin, a marine geophysicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "The expectation was high for a 7.5, but that's a hundred times smaller than a 9.0."</p> <p>Understanding where big earthquakes will emerge is extraordinarily difficult, and nowhere more so than Japan. The northern part of the island nation sits at the intersection of four moving pieces of the Earth's crust. Where one tectonic plate slides beneath another, forming a subduction zone, sudden slippages can unleash tremendous amounts of energy.</p> <p>The Sendai earthquake occurred at the Japan Trench, the junction of the westward-moving Pacific Plate and the plate beneath northern Japan. Historical records, one of seismologists' best tools for identifying areas at risk, suggest that this segmented fault has produced several earthquakes bigger than 7.0 in the 20th century alone — but none bigger than 8.0.</p> <p>That's why the Japanese government has long focused on the nation's southern coast and the northward-moving Philippine Plate, which has a proven ability to generate large quakes. Quakes larger than 8.0 tend to strike the Tokai region in central Japan every 150 years or so, with the last big one appearing in 1854.</p> <p>In 1976 researcher Katsuhiko Ishibashi of Kobe University warned that Suruga trough, a subduction zone just off the coast of Tokai, was due for a big one. In the years since, the Japanese government and research community have braced for this predicted Tokai earthquake — deploying GPS systems to monitor the movements of islands on the Philippine Plate and even generating computer simulations of how crowds in train stations might behave during such an event.</p> <p>Current thinking about the mechanisms that govern megaquakes also favored the Philippine Plate as the site of greatest risk. About 80 percent of all earthquakes above magnitude 8.5 occur at the edges of such geologically young, warm tectonic plates. Kilometer-thick sediment layers carried by these plates are thought to grind smooth patches that allow long stretches of fault to rupture at once. The Pacific Plate, some of the oldest ocean crust on the planet, doesn't fit this description.</p> <p> </p> <p>But preliminary computer simulations at Harvard that crunched early data from the Sendai quake suggest that a long stretch of the Japan Trench ruptured during the event — about 390 kilometers [240 miles]. Multiple segments that usually behave independently broke over the course of two to three minutes.</p> <p>"It looks like three of the segments all slipped together," says Miaki Ishii, a seismologist at Harvard. "There is some evidence that a fourth may have been involved as well." She doesn't know why these particular segments ruptured together, or why other similar segments nearby didn't join them.</p> <p>What does seem to be clear is that the slip happened in a relatively shallow region of the subduction zone. According to computer simulations run by geophysicist Chen Ji at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the quake originated 8 to 20 kilometers [5 to 12 miles] below the ocean floor. The shallower an earthquake, the more easily it flexes the Earth's crust, raising a mountain of water that can turn into a tsunami. The Sendai quake lifted the seafloor several meters and generated a tsunami up to 7 meters [23 feet] high.</p> <p>"We're learning that we can't discount any of these big subduction zones," says Tobin. "They're all capable of producing large earthquakes." The magnitude-9.1 earthquake that struck Sumatra in 2004 also broke the rules: It, too, happened on the edge of an old piece of crust, hurling a tsunami across the Indian Ocean that was more deadly than any in recorded history.</p> <p>In the United States, seismologists are now eyeing the Cascadia fault zone that flanks Oregon and Washington, which last gave way in 1700 to produce the <a href="http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/01/0126northwest-quake-japan-tsunami/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/01/0126northwest-quake-japan-tsunami/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">largest known earthquake in North American history</a>.</p> <p>"Perhaps the earthquake in Japan shouldn't have been as surprising as it was," says Stanford seismologist Greg Beroza.</p> <p>Beroza explains that deposits of sand found kilometers from shore have revealed a large tsunami that struck the Sendai area during the Jogan earthquake of 869. Ever since this magnitude-8.0+ quake, the Pacific Plate has been moving more than 8 centimeters [3 inches] per year — a tectonic sprint — pushing against its neighbor plate and perhaps building a tremendous amount of strain.</p> <p>Seismologists hope that the detailed Sendai earthquake data collected by Japan's advanced monitoring technologies — hundreds of sensors spaced an average of 20 to 30 kilometers [12 to 18 miles] apart across the Japanese islands — will lead to a better understanding of subduction zone quakes. Researchers will also analyze the emerging pattern of aftershocks, which now includes at least three bigger than 7.0 and dozens bigger than 6.0.</p> <p>But being able to spot signs far in advance of a big earthquake — currently far beyond the reach of modern science — may require digging deeper. Tobin and his Japanese colleagues have for the first time embedded strain sensors directly inside a subduction zone, the Nankai trough located southwest of Tokai. </p> <p>Large earthquakes have struck this region every 100 to 120 years, from 686 to 1946. The researchers hope to catch the next big one in the act and find a warning sign that could provide more than a minute's notice that a monster quake is on its way.</p> <p><em>Images: The March 11 Sendai earthquake (epicenter shown as star) occurred when the westward-moving Pacific Plate took a sudden dive beneath northern Japan's plate, the identity of which is disputed among scientists. (<a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/shakemap/global/shake/c0001xgp/" target="_blank" title="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/shakemap/global/shake/c0001xgp/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">USGS</a>)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/earthquake-tsunami-nuclear-plant/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/earthquake-tsunami-nuclear-plant/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Japan Struggles to Control Quake-Damaged Nuke Plant</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/biggest-japanese-earthquake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/biggest-japanese-earthquake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Earthquake Is Biggest in Japan's Recorded History</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/albatrosses-tsunami/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/albatrosses-tsunami/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Midway's Albatrosses Survive the Tsunami</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/tsunami-ripple-effect-2/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/tsunami-ripple-effect-2/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">The Tsunami's Ripple Effect</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/satellite-photos-of-haiti-before-and-after-the-earthquake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/satellite-photos-of-haiti-before-and-after-the-earthquake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Satellite Photos of Haiti Before and After the Earthquake</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/double-earthquake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/double-earthquake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Double-Whammy Earthquake Caused Tsunami</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/can-hurricanes-trigger-earthquakes/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/can-hurricanes-trigger-earthquakes/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Can Hurricanes Trigger Earthquakes?</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=-tCBVNv6jwg:tunqvpfSREc:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150157102040795">Crop Tops: Strange Agricultural Landscapes Seen From Space</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 17 Mar 2011 04:00 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1032" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1032" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> </div> <div> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=cd2a5f52d320c6a26f6a2aa9593e9ad1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fearth-from-space-agriculture%2Fkansas_gardencity.jpg" onload="var img = this; 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onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1037" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1037" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=688c78cd6332d50176e56c52c93432ac&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fearth-from-space-agriculture%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_libya.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1039" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1039" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=b7aad11ba06ca518b84a7e0369d780ac&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fearth-from-space-agriculture%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_netherlands.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1036" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1036" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=444464755c6b4b6a61ceedff5d2dc55b&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fearth-from-space-agriculture%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_kazakhstan_syr_darya_river.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1113" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1113" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=a86ac6fefe0f3e172a532e8dafeeb9ae&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fearth-from-space-agriculture%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_bankok.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1043" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1043" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=c37f25f8c5a302f9194ba9c07c536320&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fearth-from-space-agriculture%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_sacramento_river.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1038" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1038" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=db24829bce04386b4970496605f174c7&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fearth-from-space-agriculture%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_minnesota_natural.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1040" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1040" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fab0de456903ffd09e916cbde1499bf5&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fearth-from-space-agriculture%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_nile.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1134" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1134" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=900a10a14157d3582804c63bdaa4d121&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fearth-from-space-agriculture%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_germany.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> </ul> <br /> <div> <p>Agriculture is one of the oldest and most pervasive human impacts on the planet. Estimates of the land surface affected worldwide range up to 50 percent. But while driving through the seemingly endless monotony of wheat fields in Kansas may give you some insight into the magnitude of the change to the landscape, it doesn't compare to the view from above.</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/?attachment_id=53962" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/?attachment_id=53962" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=8e4ccee2b890ca4f118ad9f9dac2cd38&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fcenter_pivot_irrigation_texas_USGS.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>When seen from space, those same boring wheat fields are transformed into a strange and even beautiful pattern. Some of the most arresting agricultural landscapes occur in the Midwestern United States in areas that rely on <a href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/07/dayintch_0722" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/07/dayintch_0722" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">center-pivot irrigation</a> (shown at right). The area pictured above near Garden City, Kansas, is being farmed to the point of resembling abstract art or a <a href="http://www.magiceye.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.magiceye.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Magic Eye</a> illusion. Groundwater from the Ogallala Aquifer is used to grow corn, wheat and sorghum in the region.</p> <p>The image above, taken by the USGS' <a href="http://landsat7.usgs.gov/" target="_blank" title="http://landsat7.usgs.gov/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Landsat 7</a> satellite on Sept. 25, 2000, is a <a href="http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/education/compositor/" target="_blank" title="http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/education/compositor/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">false-color composite</a> made using data from near infrared, red and green wavelengths and sharpened with a panchromatic sensor. The red areas actually represent the greenest vegetation. Bare soil or dead vegetation ranges from white to green or brown.</p> <p>The image below is a simulated true-color shot from the same county in Kansas taken June 24, 2001 by NASA's <a href="http://terra.nasa.gov/" target="_blank" title="http://terra.nasa.gov/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Terra satellite</a>. Bright greens are healthy, leafy crops such as corn; sorghum would be less mature at this time of year and probably a bit paler; wheat is ready for harvest and appears a bright gold; brown fields have been recently harvested. The circles are perfectly round and measure a mile or a half mile in diameter.</p> <p>In this gallery, we've collected some of the most interesting views of crops from space, including rice paddies in Thailand, cotton fields in Kazakhstan and alfalfa growing in the middle of the Libyan desert.</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/?attachment_id=53966" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/?attachment_id=53966" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=71b3ecf094610b9a91f1918391b37457&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fkansas_centerpivot.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><em>Images: 1) USGS/NASA. 2) USGS. 3) NASA.</em></p> </div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1032" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1032" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1134&viewall=true" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/agriculture-from-space/?pid=1134&viewall=true" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">View all</a></div> </div> </div> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/gallery_volcanoes/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/gallery_volcanoes/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Erupting Volcanoes on Earth as Seen From Space</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/gallery_glaciers/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/gallery_glaciers/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Stunning Views of Glaciers Seen From Space</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/islands-space/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/islands-space/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Out of the Blue: Islands Seen From Space</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/impactcraters/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/impactcraters/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Asteroid Impact Craters on Earth as Seen From Space</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/earth-as-art-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/earth-as-art-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Earth as Art: Stunning New Images From Space</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/deserts-gallery-1/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/deserts-gallery-1/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Sublime Sand: Desert Dunes Seen From Space</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/gallery_mines/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/gallery_mines/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Huge Holes in the Earth: Open-Pit Mines Seen From Space</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/gallery-ice/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/gallery-ice/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Cryosphere: Earth's Icy Extremes Seen From Space</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/gallery-rivers/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/gallery-rivers/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Channeling Earth: Rivers Seen From Space</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/phytoplankton-blooms-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/phytoplankton-blooms-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Magnificent Marine Algae Blooms Seen From Space</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/satellite-photos-of-haiti-before-and-after-the-earthquake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/satellite-photos-of-haiti-before-and-after-the-earthquake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Satellite Photos of Haiti Before and After the Earthquake</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/olympic-cities-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/olympic-cities-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "98247", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Olympic Venues Past, Present and Future as Seen From Space</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=--_-tS8OXvM:hqvciLlE2Cw:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td 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type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Robot Nurses Are Less Weird When They Don’t Talk</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Oldest Female Elephants Have Best Memory</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">115-Year-Old Medical X-Ray Machine Comes Back to Life</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">Japan Struggles to Control Quake-Damaged Nuke Plant</a> </li> <li> <a href="#5">NASA Considers Shooting Space Junk With Lasers</a> </li> <li> <a href="#6">Midway’s Albatrosses Survive the Tsunami</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150156043400795">Robot Nurses Are Less Weird When They Don’t Talk</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 16 Mar 2011 11:05 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=b79f60b3cd2aa30b5b772bb096ff3c38&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Frobot-nurse-touch-georgia-tech.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>Medical patients would probably be ok with semi-autonomous robots tending to them, but only if the robots don't talk to them first.</p> <p>Robotics researchers tested whether a verbal explanation from a robot would help people feel more comfortable with the robot administering care, but found that precisely the opposite was true.</p> <p>"Robotics has mostly been about teaching machines how to not touch people, walls, chairs and other objects," said robotics researcher <a href="http://www.prism.gatech.edu/%7Etchen46/" target="_blank" title="http://www.prism.gatech.edu/%7Etchen46/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Tiffany Chen</a> of the Georgia Institute of Technology, part of a team that <a href="http://www.hsi.gatech.edu/hrl/pdf/hri2011.pdf" target="_blank" title="http://www.hsi.gatech.edu/hrl/pdf/hri2011.pdf" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">presented the study</a> March 9 at a human-robot interaction conference in Switzerland. "This is one of the first steps toward understanding what happens when robots touch people."</p> <p>Most semi-autonomous robots do precise or dangerous grunt work, such as assemble automobiles or help neutralize improvised bombs. Now robots have advanced to the point that they are ready to take on more delicate work, such as assisting nurses. But the bots may not be as accepted in a hospital as they are in a factory.</p> <p>"If we want robots to be successful at health care, we're going to need to think about how do we make those robots communicate their intention and how do people interpret the intentions of the robots," biomedical engineer <a href="http://www.charliekemp.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.charliekemp.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Charlie Kemp</a> of the Georgia Institute of Technology said in a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=sKysoWzfZSI" target="_blank" title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=sKysoWzfZSI" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">video about the work</a>.</p> <p>Kemp and his team programmed a robot named Cody to gently wipe its hand across volunteers' arms, as if cleaning them, or administer a soothing touch. In some trials, Cody explained to people with a synthetic female voice what it was about to do, and in others it didn't say anything until after touching the participants.</p> <p>People generally didn't mind being touched by Cody overall, but were less comfortable with the robot when it spoke to them beforehand. And participants were more accepting of a potentially necessary medical touch than an attempt at a soothing touch by the robot.</p> <p>"The results of the voice timing surprised us. We thought people would want to be told something like 'I'm going to clean you,' and then the robot cleans. But the opposite was true," Chen said.</p> <p><em>Image: Cody the robot touches one of 56 study participants. (Georgia Tech)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/robotsmile/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/robotsmile/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Robot Teaches Itself to Smile</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/03/ceepy-japanese/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/03/ceepy-japanese/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Creepy Japanese Dental Robot Demonstrates The Uncanny Valley</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/robots-taught-how-to-deceive/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/robots-taught-how-to-deceive/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Robots Taught How to Deceive</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/robot-swarm/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/robot-swarm/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Flying Robot Swarm Takes Off</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/robonaut-rides-the-shuttle/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/robonaut-rides-the-shuttle/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Why NASA Is Sending a Robot to Space That Looks Like You</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/robot-fish-ribbon-fin/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/robot-fish-ribbon-fin/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Black Ghost Knifefish Robot Unmasks Movement Secrets</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/sand-swimming-robot/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/sand-swimming-robot/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Video: Secrets of Swimming in Sand Revealed</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=YgTiMuKAi-A:J3kANdqanqM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150156043420795">Oldest Female Elephants Have Best Memory</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 16 Mar 2011 10:00 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=b5f527d10840c4823c06cf8cef2c35a3&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Felephant-family-kenya-graeme-shannon.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>Not to cause dinner table shouting or new excesses of political punditry — but in a test of a particular leadership skill among elephants, age and experience really did trump youth and beauty.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>Elephant matriarchs 60 years of age or older tended to assess threats in a simulated crisis more accurately than younger matriarchs did, says Karen McComb of the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. When researchers played recordings of various lion roars, elephant groups with older matriarchs grew especially defensive at the sound of male cats. Younger matriarchs' families underreacted, McComb and her colleagues report in an upcoming <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B</em>.</p> <p>The older females have it right, McComb says. Male lions rarely attack an elephant, but when they do, they can be especially deadly: A single male can bring down an elephant calf.</p> <p>Studying leadership among animals has become an active research area. "People have become intrigued by some of the parallels between the sorts of characteristics that seem to define a leader in animals and in humans," McComb says.</p> <p> </p> <p>The new elephant approach "is definitely novel," says psychologist Mark van Vugt of VU University Amsterdam, who studies the evolution of leadership. The new paper extends a general observation — that older individuals show more leadership in tasks involving specialized knowledge — into situations involving threats.</p> <p>"There is an interesting trade-off here, which certainly applies to humans and maybe elephants as well," van Vugt says. "The group might want a young, fit and aggressive leader to defend the group — the Schwarzenegger type — but at the same time might want an older, more experienced leader — the Merkel type — to make an accurate assessment of the dangers in the situation."</p> <p>Among elephants, family groups made up of a matriarch and a dozen or so of her female kin and their youngsters can stay together for decades. The oldest elephant provides leadership, but "she doesn't lead by being heavy-handed," McComb says. She may not walk at the front of the group when they commute to their morning waterhole, but the other elephants pay attention to where she goes and how she reacts.</p> <p>To test for crisis leadership among elephants, McComb and her colleagues played lion calls to 39 elephant families in Kenya's Amboseli National Park. Researchers compared reactions to roars from one lion versus three lions. All the matriarchs correctly perceived that three was more worrisome than one. "It was quite a revelation" says coauthor Graeme Shannon cq, also of Sussex. Before this test, evidence had been unclear about how widespread numerical threat assessment would be. The older matriarchs managed another layer of awareness though, by judging male lions more threatening than females.</p> <p>"If you remove these older individuals, you're going to have a much bigger impact than you realize because they're repositories of ecological knowledge and also of social knowledge," McComb says. Poachers, targeting the big old elephants, pose a particular menace to the species.</p> <p> </p> <p><em>Image: <a href="http://www.wildliferesearch.co.uk/Wildlife_Research/Wildlife_Photoraphy_1.html#3" target="_blank" title="http://www.wildliferesearch.co.uk/Wildlife_Research/Wildlife_Photoraphy_1.html#3" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Graeme Shannon</a></em></p> <p><em>Video: Elephants react to what they perceive as a very dangerous lion during a test of threat assessment. (Karen McComb/<a href="http://vimeo.com/21111737" target="_blank" title="http://vimeo.com/21111737" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Vimeo</a>)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Camera Traps Reveal Secret Animal Worlds</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/elephant-cooperation/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/elephant-cooperation/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Video: Elephants Lend a Helping Trunk, Pass Cooperation Test …</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/elephant-biomechanics/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/elephant-biomechanics/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Video: Elephants Run Like No Other</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/memory-virus-neurons/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/memory-virus-neurons/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Engineered Viruses Boost Memory Recall in Mice</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/interspecies-friends/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/interspecies-friends/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Why Can't We Be Friends? Top 10 Interspecies BFF Videos</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=KQHf88dYkE0:YSqV5M3bqUM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150156043435795">115-Year-Old Medical X-Ray Machine Comes Back to Life</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 16 Mar 2011 09:02 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p> </p> <p>A team of physicists, engineers and radiologists recently revived a first-generation X-ray device that had been collecting dust in a Dutch warehouse. The antique machine still sparked and glowed like a prop in an old science fiction movie, and used thousands of times more radiation than its modern counterparts to make an image.</p> <p>The old machine was originally built in 1896 by two scientists in Maastricht, the Netherlands, just weeks after German physicist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_R%C3%B6ntgen" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_R%C3%B6ntgen" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen</a> reported his discovery of X-rays — an achievement that won him the first-ever Nobel Prize in physics and sparked a <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/xrays/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/xrays/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">rash of copycat experiments</a>.</p> <p>H.J. Hoffmans, a physicist and high school director in Maastricht, and L. Th. van Kleef, director of a local hospital, assembled the system from equipment already on hand at Hoffmans' high school and used it to take some of the first photographs of human bones through the skin, including in van Kleef's 21-year-old daughter's hand.</p> <p>Since then, X-rays, which are the right wavelength to tunnel through muscle but are slowed by denser bones, have become almost synonymous with medical imaging. But most of those first X-ray systems were lost to history. Because the techniques and technology to measure radiation doses weren't invented until decades after the first X-ray machines came about, no one knows exactly how powerful those systems were.</p> <p>"There's a gap in knowledge with respect to these old machines," said medical physicist <a href="http://www.biomedexperts.com/Profile.bme/690175/Gerrit_J_Kemerink" target="_blank" title="http://www.biomedexperts.com/Profile.bme/690175/Gerrit_J_Kemerink" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Gerrit Kemerink</a> of the Maastricht University Medical Center. "By the time they could measure the properties, these machines were long gone."</p> <p>About a year ago, when Kemerink's colleague at the hospital dug Hoffmans and van Kleef's aging machine out of storage to use in a local TV program on the history of health care in the region, Kemerink grew curious about what the gadget could do. In a paper published online in <em>Radiology</em>, Kemerink reports the first-ever <a href="http://radiology.rsna.org/" target="_blank" title="http://radiology.rsna.org/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">diagnostics on a first generation X-ray device</a>.</p> <p>"I decided to try to do some measurements on this equipment, because nobody ever did," he said.</p> <p> </p> <p>Aside from a modern car battery and some wires, the researchers used only the original equipment, including an iron cylinder wrapped in wire to transfer electrical energy from one circuit to another and a glass bulb with metal electrodes at each end.</p> <p>The glass bulb, technically called a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crookes_tube" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crookes_tube" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Crookes tube</a>, contained a tiny bit of air, about a millionth of normal air pressure. When the researchers placed a high voltage over the tube, the electrons in the gas were ripped from their atoms and zipped across the tube from one electrode to the other.</p> <p>Electrons naturally emit X-rays when they speed up, slow down or change direction. When the electrons hit the glass walls of the Crookes tube, they came to a screeching halt, giving off a ghostly green glow and invisible X-rays.</p> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/old-x-rays/p1010111/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/old-x-rays/p1010111/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=551bbd737e00a291a16c1366343227c3&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FP1010111.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a><p>An 1896 Crookes tube emitting X-rays.</p></div> <p>The machine took some coaxing before it would glow, Kemerink said. The team fiddled with it for a solid half hour with no success.</p> <p>"At the time we were thinking that it would be possible that we would not succeed with our plans," he said. "But then suddenly something happened, and we were in business."</p> <p>Kemerink now thinks that the gas pressure inside the bulb was too high for the electrons to travel through the tube. But then a bit of aluminum on one of the electrodes melted, sucking gases from inside the bulb.</p> <p>"It's a technique used today to improve your vacuum: Evaporate metal and trap some gases," he said. "That is what happened, although we did not do it on purpose."</p> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/old-x-rays/hands/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/old-x-rays/hands/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=4a8970201d0dda6dcab6c49622769a1c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FHands-450x445-custom.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a><p>Images of a hand specimen from an 86-year-old woman taken with the old X-ray machine (left) and a modern one (right). The exposure for the 1896 system took 21 minutes.</p></div> <p>The researchers used standard hospital radiation-detecting devices to measure the amount of X-rays needed to take an image of the bones in a human hand (this time, a specimen borrowed from the anatomy department, not from a living person). The old machine took surprisingly clear pictures, but gave the skin a dose of radiation 1,500 times greater than the same image would require today. An exposure that takes 21 milliseconds (thousandths of a second) on a modern machine took up to 90 minutes on the antique system.</p> <p>"It was interesting that the image quality was actually that good," said radiologist Tom Beck of <a href="http://www.qmminc.com/about_us" target="_blank" title="http://www.qmminc.com/about_us" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Quantum Medical Metrics</a>, a company that researches ways to get structural information from bones using medical imaging. "That was surprising."</p> <p>This first-generation system did not produce enough radiation to cause health problems, although Kemerink and colleagues all stood behind a transparent lead shield whenever the machine was on, just in case. But X-ray devices got steadily more powerful shortly after Hoffmans and van Kleef built their machine, and technicians didn't always take precautions against harmful radiation.</p> <p>"Within weeks, people reported skin burns, a little bit later even much worse things," like blisters and sores that wouldn't heal, Kemerink said. Some workers had to have fingers or even a whole arm amputated. "Many of these early X-ray workers developed cancer, and many of them died untimely, very young."</p> <p>The difference in danger highlights how far X-rays have come, he said. In another study published online Feb. 15 in <em>Insights into Imaging</em>, Kemerink and colleagues showed that, with all the shielding used today, modern X-ray workers feel less radiation in the hospital than they do at home.</p> <p>"There's so much to say about how far we've come," Kemerink said. "These machines when they started they were extremely dangerous. Now in all those years, they improved technology so far that you can really neglect what you are receiving when you do normal X-ray scans."</p> <p>Working with the machine was "very special, I must say," Kemerink added. The air smelled of ozone, the interruptor buzzed, lightning crackled in the spark gap, and the insides of the human body showed themselves.</p> <p>"Our experience with this machine," the researchers wrote, "was, even today, little less than magical."</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/old-x-rays/sparks/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/old-x-rays/sparks/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=16f9d4b7a6501343cfb32baf1e757f5f&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fsparks.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><em>Video: Maastricht University Medical Center. Images: Courtesy Gerrit Kemerink.</em></p> <p><em>Citations:<br /> "Characteristics of a First-Generation X-Ray System." Martijn Kemerink, Tom J. Dierichs, Julien Dierichs, Hubert J.M. Huynen, Joachim E. Wildberger, Jos M.A. van Engelshoven, Gerrit J. Kemerink. Radiology, online March 16, 2011. DOI: 10.1148/radiol.11101899.<br /> "<a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/c672357443052641/" target="_blank" title="http://www.springerlink.com/content/c672357443052641/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Less radiation in a radiology department than at home</a>." Gerrit J. Kemerink, Marij J. Frantzen, Peter de Jong and Joachim E. Wildberger. Insights into Imaging, online Feb. 15, 2011. DOI: 10.1007/s13244-011-0074-7</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/10/video-the-scotc/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/10/video-the-scotc/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Video: The Scotch-Tape X-Ray Machine</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/x-ray-video-laser-welding/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/x-ray-video-laser-welding/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Video: New X-ray Camera Sees Through Melting Metal</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/x-ray-laser-2/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/x-ray-laser-2/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">World's Most Powerful X-Ray Laser Illuminates Hidden Protein World</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/x-ray-laser/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/x-ray-laser/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">World's Most Intense X-Ray Laser Takes First Shots</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/xrays/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/xrays/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">X-Ray Discovery Sparked 19th-Century DIY Craze</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=9UQWqz5YrnU:YPxmWfJB-g4:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150156043460795">Japan Struggles to Control Quake-Damaged Nuke Plant</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 15 Mar 2011 10:08 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=48ddee722c537df63b65f460b2d350cc&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fjapan-earthquake-tsunami-fukushima-daiichi-march-14-2011-digitalglobe.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>In the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan on March 11, engineers are flooding three nuclear reactors with seawater in an effort to cool their radioactive cores and to prevent all their nuclear fuel from melting down. Explosions have been recorded at two of the reactors, but do not seem to have breached the crucial inner containment vessels.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>The grimmest situation is at the final reactor, where water stopped flowing temporarily March 14, exposing the fuel rather than cooling it. Much now depends on the containment vessels that shield the highly radioactive reactor cores. Even a full meltdown does not necessarily mean that the reactors will release large amounts of radioactive material — as long as the vessels remain intact.</p> <p>Officials are closely monitoring several reactors at the Fukushima facility, on the northeastern coast of Japan near where the magnitude-8.9 earthquake hit. There are two clusters of reactors at Fukushima. The Daiichi cluster includes six boiling-water reactors, all of which came online in the 1970s.</p> <p>In the boiling-water design, nuclear reactions in the core generate heat and cause water to boil, which makes steam to drive turbines and produce electricity. Together, the six Daiichi reactors produced 4.7 gigawatts of power before the accident.</p> <p>The largest nuclear facility in the United States, the Palo Verde facility in Arizona, has a capacity of 3.7 gigawatts and serves roughly 4 million people. With 54 nuclear facilities operating before the accident, Japan is the third-largest producer of nuclear energy after France and the United States.</p> <p>Most nuclear reactors use uranium as their primary fuel, although Unit 3 at Daiichi uses a mix that includes plutonium. Pellets of enriched fuel are encased inside long, narrow tubes made of an alloy containing the metal zirconium. These tubes, known as fuel rods, are spaced in an array with water flowing between them. Several hundred of these packages are then put together to create the core of the nuclear reactor.</p> <p>The uranium-235 isotope, which contains 92 protons and 143 neutrons, is inherently unstable, tending to split (or fission) into lighter elements. Such spontaneous fission releases stray neutrons. When one of those neutrons hits a uranium atom, it also initiates fission into lighter elements, releasing more neutrons. Those neutrons can then go on to hit other uranium atoms in the fuel pellets, causing a chain reaction.</p> <p>A reactor is said to have "gone critical" when it has this self-sustaining reaction underway in its core. As long as operators keep variables such as temperature and the flux of neutrons in hand, the fission will continue at a controlled pace.</p> <p>But the reactor core requires water to cool things down and moderate the flux of neutrons coming from the fissioning uranium. Without water things can heat up quickly — both the temperature and the rate of fission within the reactor core.</p> <p> </p> <p>According to Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, the earthquake knocked out power to the Daiichi facility. "Control rods" to slow the rate of fissioning dropped automatically in between the fuel rods.</p> <p>Control rods are usually attached to magnets and hang above the core, and if an earthquake strikes they automatically detach, drop down and help shutter the reaction, says Ron Hart, a retired professor of nuclear engineering from Texas A&M University in College Station. The control rods absorb neutrons to prevent the reaction with uranium that causes fission. But even with the control rods in place, the reactor still produces heat at a small fraction of its full power, because of the decay products of the uranium fission.</p> <p>As planned, backup diesel generators kicked in after the monster earthquake and continued to pump water in to cool the reactor cores. But when a tsunami swept across the Japanese coast about an hour later, the wave disabled the backup generators. The next backup system then kicked in: battery-powered pumps.</p> <p>But the battery pumps could not keep up with the residual heat still coming from the cores of several Daiichi reactors. Excess heat caused steam to build up in the system, which operators eventually vented into the environment along with low levels of radioactive elements like cesium and iodine.</p> <p>At the same time, though, hydrogen gas had apparently built up within the core, likely created by chemical reactions of the hot zirconium rods with water. The explosions at Daiichi Units 1 and 3 were likely caused by that hydrogen igniting.</p> <p>Potentially far more serious is Unit 2, where pumps failed for a time on March 14, causing the water level to expose the fuel rods almost completely. If the rods melt entirely, they could drop their fuel pellets to the bottom of the reactor core. The pellets could then generate enough heat to melt through the bottom of the steel containment vessel.</p> <p>"Once that happens the ability to contain the accident is greatly reduced, because the core is liquefied and spreads across the floor," says Edwin Lyman, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, D.C., a group that has long voiced concerns about the risks of nuclear power.</p> <p>In the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine, the melting core did not have the heavy shielding of a containment vessel, as the reactors in Japan do. The Chernobyl core exploded, blowing radioactive materials over large parts of western Asia and Europe and causing an ecological and public health castastrophe.</p> <p>In the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania, the reactor's core suffered a partial meltdown but its pressure vessel was not breached, and only low levels of radioactive material made it into the environment. The Daiichi incidents, at least so far, may be far more like Three Mile Island than like Chernobyl.</p> <p>On the international scale used by experts to rank nuclear incidents, Chernobyl ranked as a "major accident" or 7, the highest on the scale. Three Mile Island was a 5, an "accident with wider consequences." Japanese officials have said they regard the Fukushima incident as a 4, an "accident with local consequences."</p> <p>Operators at Daiichi have flooded all three reactors with seawater mixed with boric acid. The boron in the boric acid absorbs neutrons and helps keep them from bouncing around and triggering further fission in the fuel rods. Salts in the seawater will, however, permanently corrode the reactor cores and render them unusable in the future.</p> <p>Hart says it will probably take several weeks of keeping the cores underwater to cool them enough to stop the fission completely. At that point, operators can carefully extract the cores and take them to a containment facility to assess damage, take them apart and dispose of them.</p> <p><em>Image: DigitalGlobe [<a href="http://www.digitalglobe.com/downloads/featured_images/japan_earthquaketsu_fukushima_daiichi_march14_2011_dg.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.digitalglobe.com/downloads/featured_images/japan_earthquaketsu_fukushima_daiichi_march14_2011_dg.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">high-resolution version</a>]</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/albatrosses-tsunami/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/albatrosses-tsunami/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Midway's Albatrosses Survive the Tsunami</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/the-tsunamis-ripple-effect/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/the-tsunamis-ripple-effect/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">The Tsunami's Ripple Effect</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/biggest-japanese-earthquake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/biggest-japanese-earthquake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Earthquake Is Biggest in Japan's Recorded History</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/satellite-photos-of-haiti-before-and-after-the-earthquake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/satellite-photos-of-haiti-before-and-after-the-earthquake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Satellite Photos of Haiti Before and After the Earthquake</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/double-earthquake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/double-earthquake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Double-Whammy Earthquake Caused Tsunami</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/can-hurricanes-trigger-earthquakes/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/can-hurricanes-trigger-earthquakes/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Can Hurricanes Trigger Earthquakes?</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=B1NEzOfqDLE:mKITERV4bTo:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="5" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150156043490795">NASA Considers Shooting Space Junk With Lasers</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 15 Mar 2011 09:32 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/lasering-space-junk/bee-hive-4_h1/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/lasering-space-junk/bee-hive-4_h1/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=3d1da99f9ca1b66979ffecb9109202b7&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FBee-Hive-4_H1.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>The growing cloud of space junk surrounding the Earth is a hazard to spaceflight, and will only get worse as large pieces of debris collide and fragment. NASA space scientists have hit on a new way to manage the mess: Use mid-powered lasers to nudge space junk off collision courses.</p> <p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Space_Surveillance_Network" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Space_Surveillance_Network" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">U.S. military currently tracks</a> about 20,000 pieces of junk in low-Earth orbit, most of which are discarded bits of spacecraft or debris from collisions in orbit. </p> <p>The atmosphere naturally drags a portion of this refuse down to Earth every year. But in 1978, NASA astronomer <a href="http://webpages.charter.net/dkessler/" target="_blank" title="http://webpages.charter.net/dkessler/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Don Kessler</a> predicted a doomsday scenario: As collisions drive up the debris, we'll hit a point where the amount of trash is growing faster than it can fall out of the sky. The Earth will end up with a permanent junk belt that could make space too dangerous to fly in, a situation now called "<a href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_space_junk/all/1" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_space_junk/all/1" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Kessler syndrome</a>."</p> <p>Low-Earth orbit has already seen some scary smashes and near-misses, including the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o7EKlqCE20" target="_blank" title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o7EKlqCE20" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">collision of two communications satellites</a> in 2009. Fragments from that collision nearly hit the <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/spaceoddity/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/spaceoddity/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">International Space Station</a> a few months later. Some models found that the runaway Kessler syndrome is probably already underway at certain orbit elevations.</p> <p>"There's not a lot of argument that this is going to screw us if we don't do something," said NASA engineer <a href="http://people.nas.nasa.gov/~creon/" target="_blank" title="http://people.nas.nasa.gov/~creon/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Creon Levit</a>. "Right now it's at the tipping point … and it just keeps getting worse."</p> <p>In a paper submitted to <em>Advances in Space Research</em> and posted to the preprint server arXiv.org, a team led by NASA space scientist James Mason suggests a novel way to cope: Instead of dragging space junk down to Earth, just <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.1690" target="_blank" title="http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.1690" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">make sure the collisions stop</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p>"If you stop that cascade, the beauty of that is that natural atmospheric drag can take its natural course and start taking things down," said <a href="http://singularityu.org/people/nasa-liasons/dr-william-marshall/" target="_blank" title="http://singularityu.org/people/nasa-liasons/dr-william-marshall/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">William Marshall</a>, a space scientist at NASA and coauthor of the new study. "It gives the environment an opportunity to clean itself up."</p> <p>Simply keeping new fragments from forming can make a big difference for orbital safety, Levit said. Because objects with more surface area feel more drag, the atmosphere pulls down the lightest, flattest fragments of space junk first. When big pieces of debris break up into smaller ones, the pieces become harder and harder to remove.</p> <p>Worse, the pieces left behind are often the most dangerous: small, dense things like bolts.</p> <p>"If one collides with a satellite or another piece of debris at the not-unreasonable relative velocity of, say 5 miles per second, it will blow it to smithereens," Levit said.</p> <p>In the new study, the researchers suggest focusing a mid-powered laser through a telescope to shine on pieces of orbital debris that look like they're on a collision course. Each photon of laser light carries a tiny amount of momentum. Together, all the photons in the beam can nudge an object in space and slow it down by about .04 inches per second.</p> <p>Shining the laser on bits of space litter for an hour or two a day should be enough to move the whole object by about 650 feet per day, the researchers show. That might not be enough to pull the object out of orbit altogether, but preliminary simulations suggest it could be enough to avoid more than half of all debris collisions.</p> <p>NASA scientists have suggested shooting space junk with lasers before. But earlier plans relied on military-class lasers that would either destroy an object altogether, or vaporize part of its surface and create little plasma plumes that would rocket the piece of litter away. Those lasers would be prohibitively expensive, the team says, not to mention make other space-faring nations nervous about what exactly that military-grade laser is pointing at.</p> <p>The laser to be used in the new system is the kind used for welding and cutting in car factories and other industrial processes. They're commercially available for about $0.8 million. The rest of the system could cost between a few and a few tens of millions of dollars, depending on whether the researchers build it from scratch or modify an existing telescope, perhaps a telescope at the <a href="http://www.wpafb.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=9454" target="_blank" title="http://www.wpafb.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=9454" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Air Force Maui Optical Station</a> in Hawaii or at <a href="http://www.eos-aus.com/?pid=26" target="_blank" title="http://www.eos-aus.com/?pid=26" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mt. Stromlo</a> in Australia.</p> <p>"This system solves technological problems, makes them cheaper, and makes it less of a threat that these will be used for nefarious things," said space security expert <a href="http://swfound.org/about-us/our-team/brian-weeden" target="_blank" title="http://swfound.org/about-us/our-team/brian-weeden" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Brian Weeden</a>, a technical adviser for the Secure World Foundation who was not involved in the new study. "It's certainly very interesting."</p> <p>However, "I don't think this is a long-term solution," Weeden said. "It might be useful to buy some time. But I don't think it would replace the need to remove debris, or stop creating new junk."</p> <p>Don Kessler, from whom the Kessler syndrome takes its name, agrees, and points out that laser light isn't forceful enough to divert the biggest pieces of junk.</p> <p>"The only complete solution to is to prevent collisions involving the most massive objects in Earth orbit," he said.</p> <p><em>Image: ESA</em></p> <p><em>Citation:<br /> "<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.1690" target="_blank" title="http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.1690" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Orbital Debris-Debris Collision Avoidance</a>." James Mason, Jan Stupl, William Marshall and Creon Levit. Submitted to Advances in Space Research.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/howtojunk/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/howtojunk/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">How to Track Space Junk Online</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/spacedebris-1/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/spacedebris-1/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Shuttle Dodges Space Junk Risk</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/space-junk-forcing-more-evasive-maneuvers/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/space-junk-forcing-more-evasive-maneuvers/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Space Junk Forcing More Evasive Maneuvers</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/spacestuff/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/spacestuff/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Lost in Space: 8 Weird Pieces of Space Junk</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/shuttledata/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/shuttledata/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Open Data: Shuttle Impacts From Space Junk</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/space-junk-tracking/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/space-junk-tracking/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Launch Debris Could Be Tracked Like Vultures</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=g4e_k9O3GxI:HuxtCi4w5wU:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="6" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150156043510795">Midway’s Albatrosses Survive the Tsunami</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 15 Mar 2011 08:58 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/short_tailed_albatross_chick.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/short_tailed_albatross_chick.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=d12b65cedb40f3d4027551a7a23cb549&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fshort_tailed_albatross_chick.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>The famed albatrosses of Midway Atoll took a beating from the tsunami, but their population will survive, say biologists on the islands.</p> <p>There are, of course, more pressing concerns in the tsunami's aftermath than wildlife, and some might balk at paying attention to birds right now. But compassion isn't a zero-sum game, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_Atoll" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_Atoll" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Midway Atoll</a> is one of Earth's natural treasures: 2.4 square miles of coral ringing a deep-sea mountaintop halfway between Honolulu and Tokyo, a flyspeck of dry land that's home to several million seabirds.</p> <p>Roughly two-thirds of all Laysan albatrosses live on Midway's two islands, as do one-third of all black-footed albatrosses, and about 60 people. Many of them work at the <a href="http://www.fws.gov/midway/" target="_blank" title="http://www.fws.gov/midway/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge</a>. They had time to prepare for the tsunami, which struck late on the night of March 10. Nobody was hurt; after the waves receded, they checked on the wildlife.</p> <p>An estimated 1,000 Laysan adults were killed, and tens of thousands of chicks, said Refuge official Barry Stieglitz. Those figures represent just the first wave of mortality, as adults who were at sea when the tsunami hit may be unable to find their young on returning. Chicks now wandering on shore may be doomed — but in the long run, the population as a whole will recover.</p> <p> </p> <p>"The loss of all these chicks is horrible. It's going to represent a significant portion of this year's Laysan albatross hatch. But in terms of overall population health, the most important animals are the proven, breeding adults," said Stieglitz. "In the long term, the greatest impact would be if we lost more adults. The population should come through this just fine."</p> <p>On a sadder note, however, one of the wandering chicks is the<a href="http://www.susanscott.net/OceanWatch2011/jan-24-11.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.susanscott.net/OceanWatch2011/jan-24-11.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> first short-tailed albatross to hatch</a> on Midway in decades. The species was hunted to near-extinction in the 19th century, its feathers so fashionable that a population of millions was reduced to a handful of juveniles who stayed at sea during the carnage. (Young short-tailed albatrosses live in the open ocean for several years before mating.) About 3,000 of the species now survive, and a few have recently made a home on Midway.</p> <p>"If the chick lost one parent, it could be in danger. If it lost both, it's definitely out of luck," Stieglitz said.</p> <p>Another well-known avian denizen of Midway is Wisdom, a 60-year-old female Laysan albatross. Banded for identification in 1956, Wisdom is the oldest known wild bird. In February, she was spotted rearing a new chick.</p> <p>"When I gaze at Wisdom, I feel as though I've entered a time machine," wrote U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist John Klavitter in an email. "My mind races to the past and all the history she has observed through time."</p> <p>Midway's Laysan albatrosses feed in waters off Alaska, flying about 50,000 miles each year as adults. Wisdom has flown between 2 and 3 million miles in her lifetime, compensating for age with smarts and efficiency. She hasn't been spotted since the tsunami, but Stieglitz said the biologists haven't looked for her yet. Wisdom's nest is on high ground. They're not too worried about her.</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/wisdom_albatross.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/wisdom_albatross.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=dd60bf3847e117d2e9f2d5647b86e56f&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fwisdom_albatross.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/albatrosswhale/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/albatrosswhale/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Bird Cam Captures Albatross, Killer Whale Rendezvous</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/blue-footed-booby-siblings/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/blue-footed-booby-siblings/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Bullied Booby Chicks End Up OK</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/ocean-bpa/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/ocean-bpa/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Chemical From Plastic Water Bottles Found Throughout Oceans</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/08/early-birds-get/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/08/early-birds-get/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4638a", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Early Birds Get the Babes</a></li> </ul> <p><em>Images: 1) Short-tailed albatross chick./Pete Leary, USFWS. 2) Wisdom, the 60-year-old Laysan albatross./John Klavitter, USFWS.</em></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=DW2kDQX_CKA:azhNijXXfZA:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-59465862625516309012011-03-15T13:41:00.001-07:002011-03-15T13:41:22.978-07:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Camera Traps Reveal Secret Animal Worlds</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">North America Safe From Radioactive Particles</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Sperm Whales May Have Names</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150154895605795">Camera Traps Reveal Secret Animal Worlds</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 15 Mar 2011 04:00 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1133" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1133" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> </div> <div> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=bedd2063aa916b905ee5c250997fef01&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fcamera-traps%2Fian-black-bear-camera-trap-smithsonian.jpg" onload="var img = this; 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onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1131" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1131" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=0254fce44d48daf9c197dcb0a629d499&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fcamera-traps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_temmincks-tragopan-camera-trap-smithsonian.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1123" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1123" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=ee97d69c6c1c64d72aa1a31443333b3e&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fcamera-traps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_golden-snub-nosed-monkey-camera-trap-smithsonian.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1130" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1130" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=294406578dbccb7de78145686a058793&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fcamera-traps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_takin-camera-trap-smithsonian.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1128" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1128" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=acb3b4c87c75189901dbdc8dae5ede0f&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fcamera-traps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_sambar-camera-trap-smithsonian.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1120" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1120" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=56ec7e9fd76497f937b0c589be029255&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fcamera-traps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_crested-serpent-eagle-camera-trap-smithsonian.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1129" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1129" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=3cb5c710fbb740fda55a7706c6a6e798&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fcamera-traps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_silver-phesant-camera-trap-smithsonian.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1119" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1119" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=76a106d002209288b81e93ce0f142427&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fcamera-traps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_blood-pheasant-camera-trap-smithsonian.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1126" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1126" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=f07f8af0ffd5d535c66700dc51171eb6&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fcamera-traps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_mountain-weasel-camera-trap-smithsonian.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1117" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1117" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=d29d048e9bc34d6d03e66a03265f7099&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fcamera-traps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_bairds-tapir-vampire-bat-camera-trap-smithsonian.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1118" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1118" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=76d64e2a5773cbf90dd2f37d0012286f&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fcamera-traps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_bharal-goat-camera-trap-smithsonian.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1132" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1132" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=b8d78ac65b4574c6660a6585b922b458&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fcamera-traps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_white-faced-capuchin-monkey-camera-trap-smithsonian.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1125" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1125" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=19b2197add0201b47406e21a10feeafe&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fcamera-traps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_jaguar-camera-trap-smithsonian.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> </ul> <br /> <div> <p><em>Asian black bear, November 2008, China. [<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/51045845@N08/5179880986/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/51045845@N08/5179880986/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">high-resolution version</a>]</em></p> </div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1133" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1133" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1125&viewall=true" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/animal-camera-trap-gallery/?pid=1125&viewall=true" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">View all</a></div> </div> </div> <p>Catching images of wild animals, especially rare ones, can be exceedingly difficult for photographers. But the Smithsonian Institution recently released more than 200,000 wildlife images captured by automated cameras hidden in forests, mountains and savannas across the globe.</p> <p>Called <a href="http://siwild.si.edu/" target="_blank" title="http://siwild.si.edu/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Smithsonian Wild</a>, the project harbors five years' worth of photographs collected in seven countries by dozens of camera traps that take photos when animals wander nearby. Some are equipped with night vision, strobe flashes and other gizmos, and some can record video.</p> <p>"Each camera-trap image is a record of an animal in space and time, a record of life on Earth. To my knowledge, this is the largest database of such photos in existence," said the Smithsonian's <a href="http://www.mnh.si.edu/livingfossils/researchteam.htm" target="_blank" title="http://www.mnh.si.edu/livingfossils/researchteam.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Robert Costello</a>, co-leader of the project. "If you create a research-grade repository that's safe and secure, it's going to be useful to researchers for a long, long time."</p> <p>The scent of one person can spook shy creatures for miles around, which is when camera traps come in handy. The devices take pictures only when an animal's heat signature is detected by sensors inside a weatherproof housing. Hunters have popularized camera traps to better track and map game, but scientists use them to observe secretive animal behaviors, estimate <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/cambodian-elephant-video/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/cambodian-elephant-video/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> at-risk wildlife populations</a> and even rediscover species once thought to be extinct.</p> <p> </p> <p>"Many animals leave virtually no sign of their existence, so camera traps are just a godsend for people like me," said wildlife ecologist <a href="http://nationalzoo.si.edu/AboutUs/Staff/BiosAndProfiles/McSheaBill.cfm" target="_blank" title="http://nationalzoo.si.edu/AboutUs/Staff/BiosAndProfiles/McSheaBill.cfm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">William McShea</a> of the Smithsonian Institution, co-leader of the project. "It's much better than looking at a handful of feces and wondering what dropped it. These images are like museum-quality specimens with collection dates, locations, species names and other veracious metadata."</p> <p>The $29,000 pilot project used only a portion of more than a million camera-trap photos available to the Smithsonian. Costello, McShea and others hope to launch a new version that incorporates older camera-trap images and has features hat will make it easier for scientists to use and upload data. The team also wants to enlist the public's help in deploying camera traps, which cost anywhere between $200 and $600 each.</p> <p>"These cameras aren't rocket science. I can train anyone to use them in under two hours, even kids," McShea said. "I'd love to have school systems deploying these in Montana, Indiana and other regions, then uploading that stuff to our database."</p> <p>Aside from bolstering future research, McShea said the database is an engrossing way to learn about animals in their natural environments.</p> <p>"Pictures of wild animals are usually very majestic, showing them regally, off in the distance. But camera traps bring out the good, the bad and the ugly," he said. "You can see them scratching their privates, being bit by vampire bats and even mating. It's not what you'd expect, and it makes their existence more real to me."</p> <p>Te gallery above shows off some of the collection's best images and videos.</p> <p><em>Images: <a href="http://siwild.si.edu/" target="_blank" title="http://siwild.si.edu/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Smithsonian Wild</a>/Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.</em></p> <p><em>Videos: <a href="http://blog.blueraster.com/" target="_blank" title="http://blog.blueraster.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Blue Raster</a>/Smithsonian Wild/Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/cambodian-elephant-video/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/cambodian-elephant-video/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Rare Cambodian Elephant Captured on Video</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/new-species-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/new-species-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">200 New Species of Frogs, Spiders, Mammals and More Discovered</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/interspecies-friends/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/interspecies-friends/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Why Can't We Be Friends? Top 10 Interspecies BFF Videos</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/tigercam-first-ever-video-of-sumatran-tigress-and-cubs-in-the-wild/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/tigercam-first-ever-video-of-sumatran-tigress-and-cubs-in-the-wild/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">TigerCam: First-Ever Video of Sumatran Tigress and Cubs in the Wild</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/snowleopard/2/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/snowleopard/2/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Forget Apple, Here's the Real Snow Leopard</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=vcb9DSoyuCw:dFBE_kn-HMY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150154895655795">North America Safe From Radioactive Particles</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 14 Mar 2011 10:29 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/mar12_traj1.gif" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/mar12_traj1.gif" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=8b10565014c00de03888f89d8ee3b217&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fmar12_traj1.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Radioactive particles from the failing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station pose little immediate risk to North America, and should fall into the Pacific before reaching western shores.</p> <p>Using a publicly available <a href="http://ready.arl.noaa.gov/HYSPLIT.php" target="_blank" title="http://ready.arl.noaa.gov/HYSPLIT.php" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">modeling system for airborne pollutants</a> developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Weather Underground's Jeff Masters has <a href="http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1763" target="_blank" title="http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1763" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">modeled the spread of radioactive plumes</a>. So far, the "great majority of these runs" have seen the plumes float over the Pacific, reaching eastern Siberia and the western coast of North America in about a week.</p> <p>"Such a long time spent over water will mean that the vast majority of the radioactive particles will settle out of the atmosphere or get caught up in precipitation and rained out," wrote Masters. "It is highly unlikely that any radiation capable of causing harm to people will be left in the atmosphere after seven days and 2000-plus miles of travel distance."</p> <p>A press release issued March 13 by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission echoed Masters' speculation. "Given the thousands of miles between the two countries, Hawaii, Alaska, the U.S. Territories and the U.S. West Coast are <a href="http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2011/11-046.pdf" target="_blank" title="http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2011/11-046.pdf" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">not expected to experience any harmful levels of radioactivity</a>," (pdf) they announced</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p>The March 11 earthquake disrupted cooling systems that pump fresh water onto fuel rods inside the plant's reactors. Even when reactors are shut down, the rods continue to produce heat. Without cooling, the rods could melt, releasing radioactive steam inside. (See Nature.com's Great Beyond blog for an excellent <a href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2011/03/fukushima_crisis_anatomy_of_a.html" target="_blank" title="http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2011/03/fukushima_crisis_anatomy_of_a.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">anatomy of the disaster</a>.)</p> <p>Repair crews are now using fire pumps to flood the plant's reactors with seawater. It's a touch-and-go process, however, and <a href="http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110314D14JF802.htm" target="_blank" title="http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110314D14JF802.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">steam buildup produced explosions on Saturday</a> and again Monday morning. A partial meltdown is now taking place. A <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-japan-quake-reactor-qa-20110314,0,5470584.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fscience+%28L.A.+Times+-+Science%29" target="_blank" title="http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-japan-quake-reactor-qa-20110314,0,5470584.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fscience+%28L.A.+Times+-+Science%29" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">full meltdown is possible but unlikely</a>. In the meantime, steam from the reactors will send radioactive particles airborne.</p> <p>According to the Pentagon, soldiers aboard the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, now sailing the Pacific, were <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/14plume.html " target="_blank" title="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/14plume.html " onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">exposed to a month's worth of radiation</a> in one hour from particles blown out to sea. Winds over Japan blew east across the Pacific last week, and are expected to do so for the next week.</p> <p>Masters noted that the Chernobyl disaster failed to spread "significant contamination" beyond 1,000 miles, and that disaster was far worse than Fukushima Daiichi has been. This release could, however, <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-reports/japans-earthquake-damage-up-to-34-billion/story-fn7zkbgs-1226021444026" target="_blank" title="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-reports/japans-earthquake-damage-up-to-34-billion/story-fn7zkbgs-1226021444026" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">continue for months</a>, until the fuel rods have completely spent themselves.</p> <p><em>Image: Atmospheric simulation for radioactive particles released March 11. The blue represents particles released about 300 feet into the air, and red about 1,000 feet. The black star is the location of the Fukushima Daiichi plant./Jeff Masters and NOAA.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/biggest-japanese-earthquake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/biggest-japanese-earthquake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Earthquake Is Biggest in Japan's Recorded History</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/russian-fires-approach-nuclear-plants/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/russian-fires-approach-nuclear-plants/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Russian Fires Approach Nuclear Plants</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/nuclear-war-climate-change/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/nuclear-war-climate-change/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">How One Nuclear Skirmish Could Wreck the Planet</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/china-thorium-power/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/china-thorium-power/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">China Takes Lead in Race for Clean Nuclear Power</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=XG3faky9ObU:6utN1QlLPqc:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150154895675795">Sperm Whales May Have Names</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 14 Mar 2011 05:00 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/spermwhale1.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/spermwhale1.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=7c6a8cc7e471eea761b2223f5ece2dbc&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fspermwhale1.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Subtle variations in sperm-whale calls suggest that individuals announce themselves with discrete personal identifier. To put it another way, they might have names.</p> <p>The findings are preliminary, based on observations of just three whales, so talk of names is still speculation. But "it's very suggestive," said biologist Luke Rendell of Scotland's University of St. Andrews. "They seem to make that coda in a way that's individually distinctive."</p> <p>Rendell and his collaborators, including biologists Hal Whitehead, Shane Gero and Tyler Schulz, have for years studied the click sequences, or codas, used by sperm whales to communicate across miles of deep ocean. In a study published last June in <em>Marine Mammal Sciences</em>, they <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/whale-talk/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/whale-talk/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">described a sound-analysis technique</a> that linked recorded codas to individual members of a whale family living in the Caribbean.</p> <p>In that study, they focused on a coda made only by Caribbean sperm whales. It appears to signify group membership. In the latest study, published Feb. 10 in <em>Animal Behavior</em>, they analyzed a coda made by sperm whales around the world. Called 5R, it's composed of five consecutive clicks, and superficially appears to be identical in each whale. Analyzed closely, however, variations in click timing emerge. Each of the researchers' whales had its own personal 5R riff.</p> <p> </p> <div>'This is just the first glimpse of what might be going on.'</div> <p>The differences were significant. The sonic variations that were used to distinguish between individuals in the earlier study depended on a listener's physical relationship to the caller: "If you record the animal from the side, you get a different structure than dead ahead or behind," said Rendell. But these 5R variations held true regardless of listener position. </p> <p>"In terms of information transfer, the timing of the clicks is much less susceptible" to interference, said Rendell. "There is no doubt in my mind that the animals can tell the difference between the timing of individuals." Moreover, 5R tends to be made at the beginning of each coda string as if, like old-time telegraph operators clicking out a call sign, they were identifying themselves. Said Rendell, "It may function to let the animals know which individual is vocalizing."</p> <div> Audio: From a <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/Overlapping and matching of codas in vocal interactions between" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/Overlapping and matching of codas in vocal interactions between" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">2008 study</a> of overlapping codas in pairs of sperm whales. One animal produces 1+1+3, the apparent group-level identifier. Both then produce overlapping 4R codas. After that, the first whale continues with 4R, while the other switches to 1+1+3. Finally, both make 1+1+3. The full meaning of such exchanges remains unclear, but they appear to reinforce social bonding.</div> <p>Rendell stressed that much more research is needed to be sure of 5R's function. "We could have just observed a freak occurrence," he said. Future research will involve more recordings. "This is just the first glimpse of what might be going on."</p> <p>That individual whales would have means of identifying themselves does, however, make sense. Dolphins have already been shown to have <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060508_dolphins.html" target="_blank" title="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060508_dolphins.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">individual, identifying whistles</a>. Like them, sperm whales are highly social animals who maintain complex relationships over long distances, <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/sperm-whale-teams/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/sperm-whale-teams/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">coordinating hunts</a> and cooperating to raise one another's calves.</p> <p>Sperm-whale coda repertoires can contain dozens of different calls, which vary in use among families and regions, as do patterns of behavior. At a neurological level, their brains display many of the features associated in humans with sophisticated cognition. Many researchers think that sperm whales and other cetacean species should be considered "non-human persons," <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0050139" target="_blank" title="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0050139" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">comparable at least to chimpanzees</a> and other great apes.</p> <p>Compared to primates, however, studying the behaviors and relationships of whales is extremely difficult. They don't take well to aquariums, and observations in the wild take place on their aquatic terms.</p> <p>What's been observed so far are just "the crude behavioral measures we get by following them in a boat," said Rendell. "I'd argue that there is probably a vast amount of complexity out there in sperm whale society that we have yet to understand. As we get to know more about them, we're going to continue to reveal complexities that we didn't anticipate."</p> <p><em>Image: NOAA. Audio: Luke Rendell.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/whale-talk/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/whale-talk/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Sperm Whale Voices Are Personal</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/blue-whale-song-mystery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/blue-whale-song-mystery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Blue Whale Song Mystery Baffles Scientists</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/whaleculture/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/whaleculture/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Hidden Whale Culture Could Be Critical to Species Survival</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/sperm-whale-teams/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/sperm-whale-teams/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Sperm Whales Use Teamwork to Hunt Prey</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/whalepeople/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/whalepeople/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Whales Might Be as Much Like People as Apes Are</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seti-dolphins/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seti-dolphins/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "affce", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">To Talk With Aliens, Learn to Speak With Dolphins</a></li> </ul> <p><em>Citation: "Individually distinctive acoustic features in sperm whale codas." By Ricardo Antunes, Tyler Schulz, Shane Gero, Hal Whitehead, Jonathan Gordon, Luke Rendell. </em>Animal Behavior<em>, Feb. 10, 2011.</em></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=QMz-VMoXJgA:_1QULKIamRM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-79675595201162044172011-03-13T14:24:00.001-07:002011-03-13T14:24:12.991-07:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">The Tsunami’s Ripple Effect</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Space Duct Tape Could Confuse Mars Rover</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Turn Your Cellphone Into a High-Powered Scientific Microscope</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">Earthquake Is Biggest in Japan’s Recorded History</a> </li> <li> <a href="#5">Laser-Powered Tractor Beam Could Move Tiny Particles</a> </li> <li> <a href="#6">GOP Assault on Environment Defeated — For Now</a> </li> <li> <a href="#7">Best Mars Images From Orbiter’s First 5 Years</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150152563945795">The Tsunami’s Ripple Effect</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 12 Mar 2011 12:27 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p>I'm in southern South America preparing to lead a geological field trip and am just now catching up on the huge earthquake in Japan, the subsequent tsunami, and news about the devastation. My thoughts are with all the people directly affected by this disaster. There's obviously a lot of news out there to read about this event. Many of the geoscience bloggers are covering the geological aspects of this event — I don't have the time on this slow wi-fi connection to summarize it all so here are just a few:</p> <ul> <li>Chris Rowan of <em><strong>Highly Allochthonous</strong></em> discusses the <a href="http://all-geo.org/highlyallochthonous/2011/03/magnitude-8-9-or-9-0-or-9-1-earthquake-off-the-coast-of-japan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=magnitude-8-9-or-9-0-or-9-1-earthquake-off-the-coast-of-japan" target="_blank" title="http://all-geo.org/highlyallochthonous/2011/03/magnitude-8-9-or-9-0-or-9-1-earthquake-off-the-coast-of-japan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=magnitude-8-9-or-9-0-or-9-1-earthquake-off-the-coast-of-japan" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">tectonic context of the earthquake</a></li> <li>Callan Bentley of <em><strong>Mountain Beltway</strong></em> highlights an <a href="http://blogs.agu.org/mountainbeltway/2011/03/12/the-morning-after/" target="_blank" title="http://blogs.agu.org/mountainbeltway/2011/03/12/the-morning-after/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">interactive map of the event</a></li> <li>Susan W. Kieffer of <em><strong>Geology in Motion </strong></em>compiles <a href="http://www.geologyinmotion.com/2011/03/more-videos-of-tsunami-and-situation-in.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.geologyinmotion.com/2011/03/more-videos-of-tsunami-and-situation-in.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">some links to video footage</a></li> <li>Elli Goeke of <em><strong>Life in Plane Light</strong></em> also has a nice <a href="http://lifeinplanelight.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/japan-earthquake-tsunami-one-day-later/" target="_blank" title="http://lifeinplanelight.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/japan-earthquake-tsunami-one-day-later/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">collection of links</a></li> </ul> <p>Me and a couple colleagues have been down in this region for a few days checking out the outcrops and talking with locals to prepare for the trip. The participants are all arriving today and flying into the city of Punta Arenas, Chile, along the coast on the Strait of Magellan, which is where I sit right now. Earlier today there was talk of tsunami warning and potential evacuations but this has since been lifted. I don't know the details but am assuming a 'better safe than sorry' precaution was behind the alert. I'm all for that. I have no time for those who get upset about authorities "crying wolf" when it comes to this stuff.</p> <p>What's amazing — and quite scary — is how much of the planet is affected by an event like this. Here I am at the southern tip of South America, more than 10,000 miles from the earthquake's epicenter, and we had to keep an eye on what was going on. Incredible.<a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/the-tsunamis-ripple-effect/tsunami-3/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/the-tsunamis-ripple-effect/tsunami-3/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=9dd4332b8fc1b7485687d1aa55410751&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Ftsunami1.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=WJ_XpC2uLjA:uQpWB_ltZhQ:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150152563950795">Space Duct Tape Could Confuse Mars Rover</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 11 Mar 2011 02:02 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/msl-duct-tape/msl-in-prep/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/msl-duct-tape/msl-in-prep/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=25e8fa3699c62c1d31ecbac96af79601&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FMSL-in-prep.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>The NASA equivalent of duct tape could leak enough methane to confuse the next Mars rover's life-detecting sensors.</p> <p>Astrobiologists <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/marsmethane/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/marsmethane/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">found evidence for three distinct plumes of methane</a> flowing from beneath the planet's surface, like swamp gas or a burp, in January 2009. The gas could simply mean that Mars is more geologically active than previously thought. But because much of Earth's methane is a byproduct of life, the plumes could point to something living, eating or breathing methane beneath the Martian surface.</p> <p>To settle the question of the methane's origin, the next Mars rover, called <a href="http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/" target="_blank" title="http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mars Science Laboratory</a> or Curiosity, will launch in late 2011 equipped with a suite of instruments capable of sniffing out one molecule of methane in a billion other molecules.</p> <p>But some of the materials in the rover itself could also release methane and confuse the sensors. In a paper in press in the journal <em><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WGF-529MVKJ-1&_user=9760109&_coverDate=03%2F04%2F2011&_rdoc=3&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_origin=browse&_zone=rslt_list_item&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%236821%239999%23999999999%2399999%23FLA%23display%23Articles)&_cdi=6821&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=74&_acct=C000047720&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=9760109&md5=66180bd8e72e94417d07ab0cf63abfa0&searchtype=a" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WGF-529MVKJ-1&_user=9760109&_coverDate=03%2F04%2F2011&_rdoc=3&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_origin=browse&_zone=rslt_list_item&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%236821%239999%23999999999%2399999%23FLA%23display%23Articles)&_cdi=6821&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=74&_acct=C000047720&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=9760109&md5=66180bd8e72e94417d07ab0cf63abfa0&searchtype=a" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Icarus</a></em>, microbiologist and veteran Mars simulator <a href="http://plantpath.ifas.ufl.edu/People/Faculty/Schuerger/Schuerger.htm" target="_blank" title="http://plantpath.ifas.ufl.edu/People/Faculty/Schuerger/Schuerger.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Andrew Schuerger</a> of the University of Florida and colleagues show that the tape used to hold the rover's joints together could release enough methane to be a problem.</p> <p>"I think it's a valid concern,"said planetary scientist <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/%7Edeeplife/adam.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.indiana.edu/%7Edeeplife/adam.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Adam Johnson</a> of Indiana University, who has investigated which <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/martian-microbe-stowaways/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/martian-microbe-stowaways/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Earth microbes could hitchhike to Mars</a> but was not involved in the new work. "We're sending a very very sensitive instrument, and we are able to produce concentrations of methane that are orders of magnitude above the detection limits for that instrument."</p> <p> </p> <p>Schuerger and colleagues placed 18 materials in the Mars Simulation Chamber, a stainless steel cylinder whose interior mimics the atmosphere, dustiness, sunlight, temperature and pressure at the Martian surface.</p> <p>"Andrew's simulation setup in his chamber is state of the art, the best simulation chamber in the world," Johnson said. "As far as simulation of the Mars conditions, you can't ask for much better."</p> <p>The researchers tested a variety of biological materials, including amino acids, DNA and spores of a common soil-dwelling <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_subtilis" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_subtilis" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">bacterium</a>. They also checked several materials used to build the rover itself, including vacuum grease, a small sundial like the one rovers Spirit and Opportunity use to calibrate colored images, and <a href="http://www.kaptontape.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.kaptontape.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">kapton tape</a>, the space industry equivalent of duct tape.</p> <p>"I kind of think of it as electrical tape on Mars," Johnson said. "It's used for everything on there."</p> <p>After eight hours in the chamber, all the organic materials tested emitted some amount of methane, though not enough to worry about in most cases. The methane comes from the interaction of sunlight with materials that contain a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_group" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_group" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">methyl group</a>, one carbon atom attached to three hydrogen atoms. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun (or, in the simulation chamber, a special lamp) could rip methyl groups from the materials. The charged methyl groups could then steal an extra hydrogen atom from a neighboring molecule to form stable molecules of methane, which has one carbon and four hydrogens.</p> <p>Surprisingly, the bacterial spores they tested leaked noticeable amounts of methane, even after they had been irradiated to death. But the standards for cleaning the rover before launch are so stringent that there probably won't be enough spores left on the rover by launch time to pose much of a problem.</p> <p>The most trouble could come from kapton tape, which is ubiquitous and unavoidable on the rover. Schuerger's team found that in the first few Martian days of the mission, the sensors in Curiosity's <a href="http://microdevices.jpl.nasa.gov/capabilities/semiconductor-lasers/tunable-laser-spectrometers.php" target="_blank" title="http://microdevices.jpl.nasa.gov/capabilities/semiconductor-lasers/tunable-laser-spectrometers.php" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Tunable Laser Spectrometer</a> could pick up a few tens of methane molecules per million other molecules, about 100 times above the instrument's detection limits.</p> <p>This is especially worrisome given that Curiosity uses about 3 square meters of kapton tape, more than any previous rover.</p> <p>"It's a big monster rover," said NASA planetary scientist <a href="http://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/index.cfm?fuseAction=people.jumpBio&&iphonebookid=17033" target="_blank" title="http://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/index.cfm?fuseAction=people.jumpBio&&iphonebookid=17033" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Paul Mahaffy</a>, who is in charge of MSL's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. "They use the appropriate level of tape to secure that stuff down. There's just more of it than there might have been on [Spirit and Opportunity]."</p> <p>The rover team already has a few low-tech solutions in mind to find the true Martian methane, Mahaffy said. First, they'll take measurements at night, when ultraviolet radiation will be at a low.</p> <p>"My best guess is, once you rotate into the dark, methane production stops pretty fast," Mahaffy said. "By sampling at night we'd get a much cleaner sniff of the Martian atmosphere."</p> <p>The rover will also rotate the sensors into the wind to get the strongest whiff of the Martian atmosphere. Schuerger and colleagues suggest coming up with more detailed models of how much methane kapton tape will produce, and where on the rover it's likely to show up. They also note that kapton tape gives off less and less methane as time goes on, so methane detections in the later parts of the mission should be more reliable.</p> <p>"By no means does is nullify the measurement we're trying to do on [Mars Science Laboratory]," Mahaffy said.</p> <p>Still, the study is "very useful," Mahaffy said. "It will help us do a better job of sorting out what's really there on Mars, and what we might bring along from Earth. The last thing we want to do is have a false positive."</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/msl-duct-tape/mars-simulation-chamber/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/msl-duct-tape/mars-simulation-chamber/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=c6d93cb01f586b5131649eb1b85134cb&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FMars-Simulation-Chamber.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><em>Images: 1. Engineers assemble the Mars Science Laboratory ("Curiosity"), using rolls of shiny kapton tape. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) 2. The Mars Simulation Chamber. (Schuerger et al./Icarus)</em></p> <p><em>Citation:<br /> "<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WGF-529MVKJ-1&_user=9760109&_coverDate=03%2F04%2F2011&_rdoc=3&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_origin=browse&_zone=rslt_list_item&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%236821%239999%23999999999%2399999%23FLA%23display%23Articles)&_cdi=6821&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=74&_acct=C000047720&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=9760109&md5=66180bd8e72e94417d07ab0cf63abfa0&searchtype=a" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WGF-529MVKJ-1&_user=9760109&_coverDate=03%2F04%2F2011&_rdoc=3&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_origin=browse&_zone=rslt_list_item&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%236821%239999%23999999999%2399999%23FLA%23display%23Articles)&_cdi=6821&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=74&_acct=C000047720&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=9760109&md5=66180bd8e72e94417d07ab0cf63abfa0&searchtype=a" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Methane Evolution from UV-irradiated Spacecraft Materials under Simulated Martian Conditions: Implications for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mission</a>." Andrew C. Schuerger, Christian Clausen, Daniel Britt. </em>Icarus<em>, in press, 2011.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/marsmethane/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/marsmethane/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Life Hunters Target Methane Plumes on Mars</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/nearmarslife/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/nearmarslife/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Life Thrives in Earth's Most Mars-Like Environment</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/mars-organics/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/mars-organics/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">1976 Look at Mars Soil May Have Missed Life's Building Blocks</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/olympusmons/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/olympusmons/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Martian Volcano Could Be Reservoir for Life</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/martian-microbe-stowaways/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/martian-microbe-stowaways/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">How to Catch Microbes Hitchhiking to Mars</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=NS8oqk64fNw:xkgR6TdJ_DQ:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150152563955795">Turn Your Cellphone Into a High-Powered Scientific Microscope</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 11 Mar 2011 10:14 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=1992bafa1a8da96c8e099ebdac8d38e2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fiphone-microscope-images-plos-one.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>Using tape, rubber and a tiny glass ball, researchers transformed an iPhone into a cheap, yet powerful microscope able to image tiny blood cells. They've also added a clinical-grade cellphone spectroscope that might be able to measure some vital signs.</p> <p>And with a few dollars and some patience, you can do the same to your own phone. (See instructions below.)</p> <p>"It still amazes me how you can build near-research-grade instruments with cheap consumer electronics," said physicist <a href="http://cbst.ucdavis.edu/people/sebastian/" target="_blank" title="http://cbst.ucdavis.edu/people/sebastian/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Sebastian Wachsmann-Hogiu</a> of the University of California at Davis, leader of a study March 2 in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017150" target="_blank" title="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017150" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><em>PLoS ONE</em></a>. "And with cellphones, you can record and transmit data anywhere. In rural or remote areas, you could get a diagnosis from a professional pathologist halfway around the world."</p> <p>Similar laboratory devices can cost thousands of dollars and be extremely bulky. Other researchers have created <a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/in-high-school-chem-labs-every-camera-phone-can-be-a-spectrometer/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/in-high-school-chem-labs-every-camera-phone-can-be-a-spectrometer/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">cellphone laboratory kits</a>, but this new microscope is the most compact, simple and inexpensive design created so far. The team's other new device — a light-splitting spectrometer — looks crude but may have high enough resolution to measure blood oxygen levels, for example.</p> <p>Electrical engineer <a href="http://www.ee.ucla.edu/faculty-ozcan.htm" target="_blank" title="http://www.ee.ucla.edu/faculty-ozcan.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Aydogan Ozcan</a> of the University of California at Los Angeles, who helped develop an award-winning $10 microscope for cellphones, said the simplicity of the new prototypes is a big advantage.</p> <p>"They're further miniaturizing this stuff. But we also need to focus on getting these innovative designs out in the field, tested, improved and saving the lives of people," said Ozcan, who wasn't involved in the new study. "In that sense, all of us working on this technology are in the same boat."</p> <p> </p> <p>Two existing cellphone-microscope designs inspired the new iteration, including Ozcan's and another called <a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/05/microscope-enab/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/05/microscope-enab/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">CellScope</a>, designed by bioengineer <a href="http://fletchlab.berkeley.edu/" target="_blank" title="http://fletchlab.berkeley.edu/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Daniel Fletcher</a> at the University of California at Berkeley. Because both models protrude from the cellphone's camera and have several delicate parts, Wachsmann-Hogiu set out to create a simpler and more compact design.</p> <p>The team tucked a 1-mm-wide glass ball into a ring of rubber and slipped it over iPhone and iPhone 4 cameras. The images are magnified 350 times, but have a very thin plane of focus. To combat the resulting blur, the team created software able to stitch the sharp parts together into one crisp photo. They also made a prototype cellphone spectrometer (based on a patent they found) using narrow PVC tubing, electrical tape and a special grating able to split light into its component colors.</p> <p>It costs about $20 to create the microscope and a few dollars to make the spectrometer, but Wachsmann-Hogiu said costs could easily drop below $10 for both. The tiny lenses could be made out of plastic instead of glass, and economies of scale could eventually kick in.</p> <p>The team is working on improving the imagery of their microscope prototype and giving it the capability to detect microbes by fluorescence. They're also building a phone-based app to stitch images together, count blood cells and determine blood oxygenation levels.</p> <p>Ozcan said he looks forward to new consumer technology as an opportunity to make an even cheaper and more powerful laboratories-on-a-chip.</p> <p>"There are dreamlike components in consumer electronics," Ozcan said. "It's orders of magnitude more amazing than the science community could have imagined just decades ago."</p> <p><em>DIY instructions to turn your own cellphone into a microscope are below.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Standard microscope images (top row) compared to a iPhone microscope images (bottom row). Sickle-cell anemia blood is at left, and crystals are at right. (PLoS ONE/Sebastian Wachsmann-Hogiu et al./Center for Biophotonics at the University of California at Davis)</em></p> <p><em>Citation: "Cell-Phone-Based Platform for Biomedical Device Development and Education Applications." Zachary J. Smith, Kaiqin Chu, Alyssa R. Espenson, Mehdi Rahimzadeh, Amy Gryshuk, Marco Molinaro, Denis M. Dwyre, Stephen Lane, Dennis Matthews and Sebastian Wachsmann-Hogiu.</em> PLoS ONE<em>, Vol. 6, Issue 3. March 2, 2011. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017150" target="_blank" title="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017150" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">10.1371/journal.pone.0017150</a></em></p> <div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1100" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1100" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> </div> <div> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=6ac33d7f1ca6664e3e4c8b9dd5048bfd&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fiphone-microscope%2Fiphone-microscope-ring-size.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </div> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1103" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1103" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=9a100dafb56ecc05b6d9da32410bdfd4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fiphone-microscope%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_iphone-microscope-ring-size.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1100" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1100" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=d41a8697248bcd6bad9896a2eff6d762&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fiphone-microscope%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_iphone-microscope-lens-dish.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1102" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1102" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=6144d42f5f79aeb6165556e344f11256&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fiphone-microscope%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_iphone-microscope-ring-ball.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1101" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1101" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=637514c1f2f06b52ba7fbad5bd6c9e47&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fiphone-microscope%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_iphone-microscope-ring-attached.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1105" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1105" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=4a4f6f3d285febfbf83da41ead571a01&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fiphone-microscope%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_iphone-microscope.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1106" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1106" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=45a6ecfec8c9d365154a328aed32ca51&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fiphone-microscope%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_iphone-spectrometer-grating-attached.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1107" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1107" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=a516a940c66c5a77df8ba59350305f93&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fiphone-microscope%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_iphone-spectrometer-grating-slit.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1111" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1111" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=12ae2bedde13250eee499797e10e3716&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fiphone-microscope%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_iphone-spectrometer-tube-supplies.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1108" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1108" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=0a3bac6c398b6167ad6b4ab6c1886f2a&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fiphone-microscope%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_iphone-spectrometer-tube-insert.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1112" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1112" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=dbcfc1bb4217bba8cba0b138b3ac73c6&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fiphone-microscope%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_iphone-spectrometer.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> </ul> <br /> <div> <h2>Cellphone Microscope - Step 1</h2> <p>Grab any cellphone with a camera, but note models that use touchscreen focusing and/or have manual focus options are best.</p> <p>Find some thin, dark, rubbery material and poke a small hole in it (less than 1 millimeter in diameter). This can be done using a pin or needle.<p> <em>Image: Zach Smith/Kaiqin Chu/Sebastian Wachsmann-Hogiu. Instructions adapted from text by Zach Smith and Sebastian Wachsmann-Hogiu.</em> </div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1100" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1100" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1112&viewall=true" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1112&viewall=true" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">View all</a></div> </div> </div> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/microsphere-nanoscope/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/microsphere-nanoscope/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Tiny Spheres Turn Regular Microscopes Into Nanoscopes</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/top-20-microscope-photos-2010/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/top-20-microscope-photos-2010/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Top 20 Microscope Photos of the Year</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/05/microscope-enab/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/05/microscope-enab/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Microscope Enables Disease Diagnosis with a Cell Phone</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/mini-microscope/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/mini-microscope/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mini-Microscope Could Lead to Cell-Sorting Implants</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/snowflakes-by-microscope/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/snowflakes-by-microscope/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Snowflakes Under an Electron Microscope</a></li> </ul></p></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=EzWFOLMe5oM:4zyMy-IUTdo:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150152563970795">Earthquake Is Biggest in Japan’s Recorded History</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 11 Mar 2011 09:40 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=c77592c3562c1875934ce1611293bcef&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fjapan-earthquake-tsunami-map-planet.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>The <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0001xgp.php" target="_blank" title="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0001xgp.php" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">magnitude 8.9 quake</a> that struck off Japan's coast on March 11 will go down as one of the country's largest earthquakes.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>Even if its magnitude is downgraded in the coming days, as sometimes happens as more data are analyzed, the quake will remain a benchmark in a country that has seen many major quakes. It ranks fifth on the <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_big.php" target="_blank" title="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_big.php" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">list of biggest quakes</a> this past century. The Indonesian earthquake that spawned 2004's devastating Indian Ocean tsunami was a magnitude 9.1.</p> <p>Japan's monster earthquake struck at 2:46 p.m. local time, about 150 km off the coast of the island of Honshu. Japan is one of the world's most prepared societies when it comes to earthquakes, and a recently established early warning system broadcast alerts in many areas, including Tokyo, before the shaking began.</p> <p><a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_big.php" target="_blank" title="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_big.php" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Seismic activity</a> in the region began with a magnitude 7.2 quake on March 3. Major aftershocks continue to rattle the area. The death toll is unknown.</p> <p> </p> <p>Japan owes its lively seismic existence to its precarious geologic setting. The islands of Japan formed where one great plate of Earth's crust, the Pacific plate, dived beneath the Eurasian and Philippine plates. The collision is part of the "Ring of Fire" of earthquake and volcanic activity around the Pacific Ocean.</p> <p><a href="http://www.jamstec.go.jp/chikyu/eng/CHIKYU/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.jamstec.go.jp/chikyu/eng/CHIKYU/index.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Chikyu</a>, a deep-sea drilling vessel operated by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, is in the midst of a many-years study drilling into the seafloor off Japan's coast to study the genesis of big quakes there.</p> <p>The deadliest quake in Japan's history came in 1923, when more than 140,000 people perished in the magnitude 7.9 <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/events/1923_09_01.php" target="_blank" title="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/events/1923_09_01.php" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Great Kanto Earthquake</a>. That tremor was centered southwest of Tokyo Bay. The March 11 quake struck more to the north, offshore from the city of Sendai.</p> <p>"Fortunately for Tokyo it's a bit further north than the great Kanto earthquake was, which means the damage in Tokyo is likely to be much less," Kevin McCue, a Canberra-based seismologist at CQUniversity in Australia, said in a statement.</p> <p><a href="http://www.weather.gov/ptwc/" target="_blank" title="http://www.weather.gov/ptwc/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Tsunami warnings</a> spread across the Pacific in the hours after the earthquake; earthquakes generate tsunamis when the ground rupture displaces massive amounts of water. The size of the Japanese quake, plus its relatively shallow depth of 24 km, meant that it was primed to trigger tsunamis.</p> <p>Honshu's east coast had essentially no time to prepare for the waves, but other locations around the Pacific set into gear preparation and evacuation plans polished after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Hawaii was reporting waves of 1 meter or less.</p> <p>Japan Earthquakes Tsunami A computer model for the tsunami created by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck 80 miles east of Honshu, Japan on March 11, 2011. Credit: NOAA/PMEL/Center for Tsunami Research </p> <p><em>Image: A forecast for the tsunami caused by a magnitude-8.9 earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan on March 11, 2011. Heat-map colors show maximum tsunami height within the first 24 hours. (NOAA/PMEL/Center for Tsunami Research) [<a href="http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/images/high_resolution/680_20110311-TsunamiWaveHeight.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/images/high_resolution/680_20110311-TsunamiWaveHeight.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">high-resolution version available</a>]</em></p> <p><em>Video: A computer model of tsunami propagation for the </em><em>magnitude-8.9 earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan on March 11, 2011. </em><em>(NOAA/PMEL/Center for Tsunami Research)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/satellite-photos-of-haiti-before-and-after-the-earthquake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/satellite-photos-of-haiti-before-and-after-the-earthquake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Satellite Photos of Haiti Before and After the Earthquake</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/double-earthquake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/double-earthquake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Double-Whammy Earthquake Caused Tsunami</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/can-hurricanes-trigger-earthquakes/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/can-hurricanes-trigger-earthquakes/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Can Hurricanes Trigger Earthquakes?</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/small-scale-earthquake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/small-scale-earthquake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Lab-Sized Earthquakes Challenge Basic Laws of Physics</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/twitter-earthquake-alerts/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/twitter-earthquake-alerts/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Freaked-Out Tweets After Earthquakes Help Scientists</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/chile-earthquake-moved-entire-city-10-feet-to-the-west/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/chile-earthquake-moved-entire-city-10-feet-to-the-west/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Chile Earthquake Moved Entire City 10 Feet to the West</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=3QhRj5HE6XE:S9_wCLWpEiI:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="5" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150152563975795">Laser-Powered Tractor Beam Could Move Tiny Particles</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 10 Mar 2011 03:43 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p> </p> <p>Another piece of <em>Star Trek</em> technology has become a reality. Captain Kirk would instantly recognize new blueprints developed by a team of Chinese scientists as plans for a tractor beam.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>The proposed device hasn't yet been built. But a similar one conceived by an American physicist was tested last year. Each device would fulfill the science fiction dream of reeling in objects using light — though neither could move anything bigger than a bacterium, much less a starship.</p> <p>The Chinese plan, reported online Feb. 24 at arXiv.org, would use a laser to produce what is called a Bessel beam. This beam, unusual because it remains focused over large distances, could induce electric and magnetic fields in an object in its path. The spray of light scattered forward by these fields could push the object backward, against the movement of the beam itself. "This analysis established that light can indeed pull a particle…. Under appropriate conditions a [Bessel beam] can act as an 'optical tractor beam,'" write physicist Jun Chen of Fudan University in Shanghai and colleagues.</p> <p>Physicist David Grier of New York University believes that the Chinese plan would work. And Grier should know: he designed his own tractor beam and built it, demonstrating for the first time that a beam of light can tug objects over long distances. His paper was published in the March 29, 2010, <em>Optics Express.</em></p> <p>"Both of these papers give us new tools," says Phil Jones, a physicist at University College London. "Something like this would have useful applications for moving particles. The effects are also quite size-dependent, so they might also be useful for sorting particles of different sizes."</p> <p> </p> <p>A beam of light that can pull is counterintuitive to physicists, who have spent centuries studying light's ability to push.</p> <p>"You normally think of light as being like a fire hose that just blows you downstream," says Grier. That's because when particles of light strike an object, they rebound like Ping-Pong balls and give a weak nudge. This radiation pressure is thought to shape the tails of comets and is useful for pushing solar sails in space.</p> <p>The invention of the laser provided scientists with a stronger source of light and a push that could do useful work on Earth. Researchers now routinely use optical tweezers based on this push to pin down and manipulate atoms and small objects. But turning this push into a pull required more sophisticated optics — in Grier's case, a solenoid beam. Unlike traditional lasers, which are bright in the middle and dimmer at the edges, a solenoid beam contains a bright spiral of intense energy.</p> <p>This corkscrew of energy tends to attract small spheres made of silica. The light in the corkscrew can then be tilted at an angle that kicks the spheres backward even as the beam itself moves forward. Like a tennis player sprinting away from the net while deftly lobbing the ball back at an opponent, this tilt can potentially push an object all the way back to the beam's source. Or it can be rotated to push forward. Switching between these states allows Grier to move objects back and forth.</p> <p>The force of this push and pull, limited by the laser's strength and the speed of light, is small. But it's enough to tug 1.5-micrometer-wide spheres a distance of about eight micrometers — with much larger distances theoretically possible.</p> <p>"You'd need a terawatt [or trillion-watt] laser to pull a person," says Grier. Being struck by that much energy, though, would likely incinerate the person being pulled. "It would be a short trip."</p> <p>In a new paper to appear in an upcoming issue of <em>Optics Express</em>, Grier describes new schemes for his tractor beam that even Mr. Scott couldn't imagine. Instead of pulling objects along a simple straight line, Grier has begun to explore curves, loops and even knotted paths that cross themselves.</p> <p>As a first demonstration, he guided spheres around ring-shaped tracks tilted in different three-dimensional orientations. This particle puppeteering, he says, could be useful in generating plasma currents to stabilize fusion power-generation technologies.</p> <p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=003c2d359857c397b2d270abca86eab3&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fsolenoid-tractor-beams-optical-express.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><em>Video: Unlike traditional laser beams, solenoid beams in proposed tractor-beam devices contain a bright spiral of energy woven into their light. (David Grier/New York University/Science News/<a href="http://vimeo.com/20894266" target="_blank" title="http://vimeo.com/20894266" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Vimeo</a>)</em></p> <p><em>Image: A new tractor-beam design tilts the angle of light within a laser beam to switch from pushing (left) to pulling (right) an object. Gray arrows show the angle of this tilt. Sang-Hyuk Lee, Yohai Roichman, and David G. Grier, "<a href="http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-18-7-6988" target="_blank" title="http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-18-7-6988" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Optical solenoid beams</a>," </em>Opt. Express<em> 18, 6988-6993 (2010)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/itweezers/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/itweezers/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">iPad Lets Scientists Drag, Pinch and Swipe Real Molecules</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/laser-light-can-lift-tiny-objects/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/laser-light-can-lift-tiny-objects/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Laser Light Can Lift Tiny Objects</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/real-live-antilaser/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/real-live-antilaser/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Physicists Build World's First Antilaser</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/laser-fusion-ignition/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/laser-fusion-ignition/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">World's Most Powerful Laser on Target for Awesome Science</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/hawking-radiation-in-the-lab/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/hawking-radiation-in-the-lab/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Ultrafast Laser Pulse Makes Desktop Black Hole Glow</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/horrendously-intense-laser-shrinks-the-proton/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/horrendously-intense-laser-shrinks-the-proton/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">'Horrendously Intense' Laser Shrinks the Proton</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=-Li6jvaPf1E:BaKNx02upmI:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="6" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150152564000795">GOP Assault on Environment Defeated — For Now</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 10 Mar 2011 12:50 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/epa_1a.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/epa_1a.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=7e860d5e917fd4d0c32f47feb25b4d86&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fepa_1a.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>No limits on neurotoxic pollution by cement plants. No protecting endangered fish in San Francisco Bay. And no regulation of greenhouse gases.</p> <p>Those are just some of the "riders" tacked onto HR1, the GOP spending bill defeated Wednesday in the Senate — but sure to return as Congress negotiates how the U.S. government will be supported.</p> <p><a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.1:" target="_blank" title="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.1:" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">The bill would have funded the government</a> for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011, which began last October and has been defined by the failure of Congress to agree on a budget.</p> <p>As would be expected in any legislation this massive and urgent, HR1 contained hundreds of fine-print amendments that had little or nothing to do with federal spending, but reflected ideological wishes or political favors.</p> <div>'This week's debate is just a dress rehearsal for the big stuff.'</div> <p>David Goldston, the House Committee on Science chief of staff under President George W. Bush who now directs government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, broke down <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dgoldston/uneasy_riders_the_continuing_t.html" target="_blank" title="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dgoldston/uneasy_riders_the_continuing_t.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">how riders work</a> after HR1 passed the House in February.</p> <p>Many of the anti-environmental riders that passed after what Goldston called a "weeklong carnival of destruction on the House floor" were dropped from the original House plan. But more than a dozen remained.</p> <p> </p> <p>Several would have ordered the Environmental Protection Agency not to fulfill its duty, legally mandated by Congress and the Supreme Court, to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/03/09/09climatewire-house-republicans-brush-off-compromise-bids-61162.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/03/09/09climatewire-house-republicans-brush-off-compromise-bids-61162.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Other bills</a> currently under consideration by Congress would do the same thing.</p> <p>But the assault didn't stop there. HR1 would have cut the EPA's budget by nearly one-third. The agency would have been prevented from limiting pollution from a laundry list of neurotoxins and carcinogens — mercury, arsenic, PCBs, dioxins, heavy metals — at <a href="http://poststar.com/news/local/article_9f81e1e4-3ac4-11e0-89d5-001cc4c03286.html" target="_blank" title="http://poststar.com/news/local/article_9f81e1e4-3ac4-11e0-89d5-001cc4c03286.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">cement plants</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/contaminated_ditch.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/contaminated_ditch.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=cb9301ee6dda4d0a68b639ec6744b12b&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fcontaminated_ditch.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" />As Goldston </a><a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dgoldston/anti-environmental_riders_in_h.html" target="_blank" title="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dgoldston/anti-environmental_riders_in_h.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">recounts on an NRDC blog rundown</a> of HR1's anti-environmental riders, the EPA estimates that cement plant restrictions would cost industry several hundred million dollars. In exchange, it would annually prevent 2,500 premature deaths, 1,500 heart attacks and 17,000 cases of asthma. Those public health benefits, or the cost of their absence, are worth between $6.5 billion and $17 billion.</p> <p>The EPA would also have been blocked from updating its standards on soot pollution, which is <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/soot-control/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/soot-control/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">responsible for up to half</a> of current global-temperature increases. Neither would the agency be permitted to apply Clean Air Act standards to oil drilling in Alaska.</p> <p>In California's San Francisco Bay and delta ecosystem, endangered fish would no longer be protected by the Endangered Species Act. (Ditto wolves in parts of the Rocky Mountains.) The proposed restoration of the San Joaquin River would be halted, as would cleanup efforts in Chesapeake Bay.</p> <p>Under HR1, the Clean Water Act could no longer be used to restrict water pollution that killed wildlife. The EPA would have been prevented from developing handling procedures for coal ash, a carcinogen, and prevented from enforcing restrictions on <a href="http://www.wesjones.com/death.htm" target="_blank" title="http://www.wesjones.com/death.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">mountaintop removal mining</a>.</p> <p>Even Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), best known for <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/17/bp-shakedown-barton/" target="_blank" title="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/17/bp-shakedown-barton/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">apologizing to BP</a> during the Deepwater Horizon disaster, said the <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/09/epa-barton-defender/" target="_blank" title="http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/09/epa-barton-defender/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">EPA-gutting was going too far</a>. Scott Slesinger, the NRDC's legislative director, <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/sslesinger/the_senate_to_vote_on_the_wors.html" target="_blank" title="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/sslesinger/the_senate_to_vote_on_the_wors.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">called HR1</a> "the most anti-environmental bill in 40 years."</p> <p>The bill was defeated, 44-56, but its provisions are likely to return in other spending bills. As Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said after HR1's Senate defeat, "This week's debate is just a dress rehearsal for the big stuff."</p> <p><em>Images: 1) The former Holmes Road Incinerator in Houston. (Marc St. Gil/<a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/epa-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/epa-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Documerica</a> — a photography project commissioned by President Richard Nixon after the Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970.) 2) Contaminated water in a ditch behind the Pittsburgh Glass Company. (Marc St. Gil)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/epa-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/epa-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">The '70s Photos That Made Us Want to Save Earth</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/obama-epa-investigations/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/obama-epa-investigations/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">EPA's Pollution-Busting Cops Have Lost Focus, Say Watchdogs</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/black-carbon-control/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/black-carbon-control/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">How to Slow Climate Change for Just $15 Billion</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/news/2007/09/mountaintop_mining" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/news/2007/09/mountaintop_mining" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Blowing the Top Off Mountaintop Mining</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=y7QpKF05sag:WNrL4y6EdBs:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="7" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150152564005795">Best Mars Images From Orbiter’s First 5 Years</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 10 Mar 2011 12:49 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/happy-birthday-mro/?pid=1095" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/happy-birthday-mro/?pid=1095" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> </div> <div> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=3117266f1da39f75a10c180d868882fc&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fmro-turns-5%2Fhirise-dust-devil-tattoo.jpg" onload="var img = this; 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onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/happy-birthday-mro/?pid=1096" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/happy-birthday-mro/?pid=1096" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=7639f1815de10dee06705e2807595cac&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fmro-turns-5%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_hirise-winter-dunes.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/happy-birthday-mro/?pid=1090" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/happy-birthday-mro/?pid=1090" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=98233de79edce550c5ea5b505bc4ae96&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fmro-turns-5%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_hirise-eberswalde-msl-landing-site.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> </ul> <br /> <div> <p>NASA's prolific <a href="http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/" target="_blank" title="http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter</a> turns five Earth years old Thursday.</p> <p>Since settling into orbit around the Red Planet on March 10, 2006, MRO has transmitted more data to Earth -- 131 trillion bits and more than 70,000 images so far -- than all other interplanetary missions combined.</p> <p>After the orbiter finished all its initial science objectives in the first two years, NASA extended its lifetime twice. The extra time let MRO watch Mars change over two-and-a-half Martian years, giving a new picture of a shifting, dynamic planet.</p> <p>"Each Mars year is unique, and additional coverage gives us a better chance to understand the nature of changes in the atmosphere and on the surface," said <a href="http://zipcodemars.jpl.nasa.gov/bio-contribution.cfm?bid=346&cid=306&pid=295" target="_blank" title="http://zipcodemars.jpl.nasa.gov/bio-contribution.cfm?bid=346&cid=306&pid=295" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Rich Zurek</a> of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in a <a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-073" target="_blank" title="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-073" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">press release</a>. "We have already learned that Mars is a more dynamic and diverse planet than what we knew five years ago. We continue to see new things."</p> <p>MRO carries <a href="http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/mission/instruments/" target="_blank" title="http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/mission/instruments/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">six science instruments</a>, including radar that peels back the layers of the Martian surface, a spectrometer that has mapped the mineral content of three-quarters of the planet, and a weather camera that monitors clouds and dust storms.</p> <p>But the show stopper is the HiRise camera (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment), which can resolve features the size of a beach ball from 180 miles away.</p> <p>To date, HiRise has snapped more than <a href="http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/katalogos.php" target="_blank" title="http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/katalogos.php" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">18,500 close ups</a> of Mars' canyons, craters and dunes. In honor of MRO's fifth birthday, here are some of our favorites.</p> <p><b>Above:</b></p> <h2>Dust-Devil Tattoo</h2> <p>These twisty trails were traced by <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/dust-devils/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/dust-devils/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">dust devils</a>, spinning columns of rising air that pick up loose red dust grains and reveal darker, heavier sand beneath. Dust devils have been blamed for unexpectedly cleaning off the Mars rovers' solar panels. This image was taken Aug. 24, 2009.</p> </div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/happy-birthday-mro/?pid=1095" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/happy-birthday-mro/?pid=1095" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/happy-birthday-mro/?pid=1090&viewall=true" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/happy-birthday-mro/?pid=1090&viewall=true" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">View all</a></div> </div> </div> <p><em>Images: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong><br /></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/planet-tracks/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/planet-tracks/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Track Record: Man-Made Footprints on Other Worlds</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/new-mars-image-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/new-mars-image-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Exotic New Mars Images From Orbiting Telephoto Studio</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/mars-shifty-sand-dunes/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/mars-shifty-sand-dunes/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mars' Shifty Sand Dunes Knocked Down by Dry Ice</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/gallery-mars/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/gallery-mars/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Strange Places on Mars: What Do You Want to See Next?</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/mars-double-craters/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/mars-double-craters/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Satellites See Evidence of One-Two Asteroid Punches on Mars</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/martian-dune-mystery-solved-by-bouncing-sand-grains/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/martian-dune-mystery-solved-by-bouncing-sand-grains/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ce0d3", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Martian Dune Mystery Solved by Bouncing Sand Grains</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=tCow4zAsT34:N3wY3N7KaNs:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-55244182811604935162011-03-10T13:45:00.001-08:002011-03-10T13:45:30.817-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Farewell Discovery: Longest-Lived Shuttle’s Greatest Hits</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Genetic Errors Nixed Penis Spines, Enlarged Our Brains</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Tiny Fibers Put the Head on Stout Beer</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150150445575795">Farewell Discovery: Longest-Lived Shuttle’s Greatest Hits</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 09 Mar 2011 01:27 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1085" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1085" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> </div> <div> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=b66ecdf19a63e085662a7bf096cb2d78&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fdiscovery%2Fspace_shuttle_f.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </div> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1086" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1086" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=eeda0ffbb1ca03501bb251ddd42ec153&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fdiscovery%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_space_shuttle_f.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1085" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1085" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=1e673c1b154d91fbc8617023ee127555&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fdiscovery%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_discovery_sts41d.jpg" onload="var img = this; 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onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1078" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1078" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=dfd8dc1ef40f6105d37aa8263a595a22&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fdiscovery%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_discovery_glenn.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1082" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1082" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=23c1d11d14c374ea91b15a0e86834c36&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fdiscovery%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_discovery_restricted.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1080" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1080" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=538f075e725d8d1a4779c93ad5dce953&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fdiscovery%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_discovery_july4_launch.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1084" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1084" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=183390e571c3d686fee5b0fec17b9bef&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fdiscovery%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_discovery_sts-120_iss_approach.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> </ul> <br /> <div> <p>The space shuttle <em>Discovery</em> returned to Earth for the last time this morning, ending its reign as the world's longest running and most-traveled spaceship.</p> <p>"It just played out the way we wanted it to," said Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana in a press conference after the landing. "We wanted to go out on a high note, and <em>Discovery</em> has done that. We couldn't ask for more."</p> <p>When it touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:57 EST on March 9, 2011, <em>Discovery</em> had flown 39 missions, spent a full 365 days in space, orbited the Earth 5,830 times and traveled more than of 148 million miles. It has carried 246 people into space, more than any other vehicle, including the first woman to ever pilot a spacecraft, the oldest person to fly in space, the first African-American to perform a spacewalk and the first sitting member of Congress to fly in space.</p> <p>The shuttle's 27-year career hit several of the highlights of the space program, including delivering the Hubble Space Telescope to orbit in 1990 (and fixing it twice), carrying a 77-year-old John Glenn back into space in 1998, and leading NASA's return to space after the loss of <em>Challenger</em> in 1986 and <em>Columbia</em> in 2003.</p> <p>On its final flight, the shuttle linked up with the International Space Station to deliver a new spare room full of supplies and science experiments, plus bring the <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/robonaut-rides-the-shuttle/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/robonaut-rides-the-shuttle/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">first human-like robot into space</a>.</p> <p>"We're going to miss <em>Discovery</em>," International Space Station commander Scott Kelly told shuttle commander Steve Lindsey on Sunday, before <em>Discovery</em>'s crew left the space station. "<em>Discovery</em> has been a great ship, and has really supported the International Space Station, more so than, I think, any other space shuttle. And we wish her fair winds and following seas."</p> <p>Now that it's back on the ground, <em>Discovery</em> will retire as a museum piece at the Smithsonian. Here we look back at the veteran spacecraft's high points as the shuttle era draws to a close.</p> <p><em>Image: NASA</em></p> </div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1085" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1085" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1084&viewall=true" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/farewell-discovery-a-look-back-at-the-longest-lived-shuttle/?pid=1084&viewall=true" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">View all</a></div> </div> </div> <p><strong>See Also:</strong><br /></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/space-shuttle-transit/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/space-shuttle-transit/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Photo: Mad Dash to Catch Space Shuttle Crossing the Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/shuttle-from-space/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/shuttle-from-space/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Shuttle Launchpad From Space: Discovery Awaits Liftoff</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/nasa-shuttle-garage-sale/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/nasa-shuttle-garage-sale/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">NASA Garage Sale Includes Shuttles, Engines, Space Suits</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/robonaut-rides-the-shuttle/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/robonaut-rides-the-shuttle/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Why NASA Is Sending a Robot to Space That Looks Like You</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/shuttle-launch-vid-nasa-eisenstein/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/shuttle-launch-vid-nasa-eisenstein/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Delightful Shuttle-launch Vid mashes NASA with Eisenstein</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/astronaut-time-lapse-videos/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/astronaut-time-lapse-videos/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Astronaut's Eye View: Time-Lapse Videos of Earth</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=z89TK_VIrb0:nFktXqvIIkg:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150150445585795">Genetic Errors Nixed Penis Spines, Enlarged Our Brains</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 09 Mar 2011 11:44 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=0fdd3fe654bfd9dabe50301f022c9ad1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fchimpanzee-face-flickr-picture-taker-2.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>Geneticists have linked the physical appearance of humans to patches of DNA lost in the 5 million years since we shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees. One loss prevented men from growing penile barbs, which chimps possess. Another enlarged some regions of our brain.</p> <p>"We can know what makes us human, what makes us physically different from other animals and why," said <a href="http://bejerano.stanford.edu/ " target="_blank" title="http://bejerano.stanford.edu/ " onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">developmental geneticist Gill Bejerano</a> of Stanford University, an author of the March 10 study in <em>Nature</em>.</p> <p>Only 2 percent of the DNA in our genome forms protein-coding genes. The rest, once called "<a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/genomic-dark-matter/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/genomic-dark-matter/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">junk DNA</a>," helps control and coordinate gene activity. Out of this regulatory coordination, physiological complexity emerges.</p> <p>Bejerano's team started by comparing the genomes of chimpanzees and macaque monkeys, which last shared a common ancestor 20 million years ago. They identified regions that hadn't changed in chimps, then compared these to corresponding stretches of the human genome. They found more than 500 mutations known as deletions, or stretches of DNA present in chimps but lost in humans.</p> <p>Two deletions, one near a male hormone-signaling gene and another near a neural development gene, were especially intriguing. Tweaking those genes in mice suggested possible roles for the loss: eliminating penile spines and boosting cerebral cortex growth.</p> <p> </p> <p>Bigger brains are an obvious advantage ("It probably helped us become the thinkers we are today," Bejerano said), but it's unclear why evolution weeded out the spines. These tiny, hair-like projections, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1946.tb00111.x/abstract " target="_blank" title="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1946.tb00111.x/abstract " onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">found in male chimps</a> and cats, can trigger female ovulation. They also increase sensitivity and remove existing sperm, ostensibly giving males a reproductive advantage. Bejerano suspects the spines are conducive to monogamy.</p> <p>Could restoring the relevant regulatory DNA in humans resurrect penile spines? "I'm going to leave it to others to paint that picture and its consequences," said <a href="http://seanbcarroll.com/" target="_blank" title="http://seanbcarroll.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll</a> of the University of Wisconsin, who wasn't involved in the study. "But my guess is that something would probably happen."</p> <p>More practically, the findings underscore the importance of regulatory changes to human evolution. "Regulation is a choreograph critical to shaping how organisms appear. This research is going to be a hot trail to follow," said Carroll. "It's not just about what genes you have, but how they're used."</p> <p><em>Image: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/80835774@N00/4485190202/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/80835774@N00/4485190202/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Picture Taker 2</a>/Flickr</em></p> <p><em>Citation: "Human-specific loss of regulatory DNA and the evolution of human-specific traits."<br /> Cory Y. McLean, Philip L. Reno, Alex A. Pollen, Abraham I. Bassan, Terence D. Capellini, Catherine Guenther, Vahan B. Indjeian, Xinhong Lim, Douglas B. Menke, Bruce T. Schaar, Aaron M. Wenger, Gill Bejerano and David M. Kingsley. </em>Nature<em>, Vol. 471, No. 7337, pp 216-219. March 10, 2011. DOI: 10.1038/nature09774</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/culturalevoluti/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/culturalevoluti/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Cultural Evolution Not the Same as Biological Evolution</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/human-genome-still-chock-full-of-mysteries/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/human-genome-still-chock-full-of-mysteries/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Human Genome Still Chock-Full of Mysteries</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/expanding-genome/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/expanding-genome/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">New Form of Gene Regulation Hints at Hidden Dimension of DNA</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/genomic-dark-matter/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/genomic-dark-matter/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Early Reports From the 'Dark Matter' of the Genome</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/mutation-sweeps-humans/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/mutation-sweeps-humans/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Helpful Mutations Didn't Sweep Through Early Humans</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/language-genes/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/language-genes/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Human-Chimp Gene Comparison Hints at Roots of Language</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=3GnhhIWBOJU:TnWIQ6lYk0o:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150150445590795">Tiny Fibers Put the Head on Stout Beer</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 09 Mar 2011 11:19 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p> </p> <p>Irish mathematicians have discovered tiny plant fibers can make nitrogen bubbles out of stout beer and form a creamy head of foam. The find could mean an end to more expensive and less-eco-friendly technology currently used to create fizz.</p> <p>Nitrogen-infused stouts are known for their long-lasting and creamy heads, a feature that carbonated beers can't emulate. But nitrogen doesn't froth up on its own, so to get foam on a <a href="http://www2.guinness.com/en-us/thebeer-draught-can.html" target="_blank" title="http://www2.guinness.com/en-us/thebeer-draught-can.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">canned stout</a>, brewers insert a widget — a small plastic ball with a hole in it. When a can is opened, the widget releases pressurized nitrogen into the beer, which then triggers more dissolved nitrogen in the beer to bubble out.</p> <p>But a graduate student supervised by applied mathematician <a href="http://www.ul.ie/wlee/" target="_blank" title="http://www.ul.ie/wlee/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">William Lee</a> at the University of Limerick in Ireland discovered that microscopic plant <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.0508" target="_blank" title="http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.0508" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">fibers made of cellulose, such as cotton, can also froth up a stout</a>.</p> <p>"What happens around these fibers is really complex, so it's a ripe area for research," said Lee, who posted his team's research March 2 on arXiv.org. "This is also a matter of national pride. Stout beers are as culturally important to Ireland as champagne is to France."</p> <p> </p> <p>Carbon dioxide dissolves into beer during the brewing process, and the gas quickly nucleates to form bubbles in the liquid with the help of special surfaces. Microscopic plant fibers that hide in drinking glasses are especially good at bubbling up carbon dioxide because they trap small air bubbles that make for excellent nucleation sites. But carbonated brews form large, fragile bubbles and heads that quickly fizzle out.</p> <p>To create longer-lasting and creamier heads in stouts, brewers pump the beer full of nitrogen because the gas forms smaller, more stable bubbles without affecting taste. A tiny opening in the nitro bartaps forces nitrogen into stouts as the beer is poured, but canned stouts are trickier because plant fibers don't help nitrogen bubble out. Or, so beer experts thought.</p> <p>Lee and his team recorded stouts under a microscope (video above) to watch bubbles form inside cellulose fibers. They discovered the bubbling rate was up to 20 times slower than in carbonated brews, which is probably why no one had noticed it before.</p> <p>"If you line a can with enough of them, you can get a creamy head in less than 30 seconds," Lee said, roughly the time it takes to open and pour a stout.</p> <p>It takes roughly 4.3 million microscopic fibers to accomplish the feat, which translates to a postage-stamp-sized pad of fibers. Food-safe cellulose should be cheaper than widgets to put into cans, Lee said, especially since the latter require a de-oxygenation process to prevent spoiling the beer.</p> <p>Lee and his team hopes their discovery will make stouts slightly cheaper (on the order of a few cents per can), in addition to creating new research leads in fluid mechanics.</p> <p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=192b9ddc7d6ebbc2c52660c0e94673d9&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fguinness-stout-beer-widget-flickr-slworking2.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><em>Video: Pockets of air trapped in tiny cellulose fibers, each between 10 and 50 microns wide, help nitrogen and carbon dioxide bubble out. Courtesy of<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ul_macsi/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ul_macsi/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> Michael Devereux</a>/Mathematics Applications Consortium for Science and Industry</em></p> <p><em>Image: A plastic widget found in a can of Guinness stout beer. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/slworking/446992870/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/slworking/446992870/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">slworking2</a>/Flickr</em></p> <p><em>Via <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26470/" target="_blank" title="http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26470/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Technology Review</a><br /> </em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/antibiotic-beer/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/antibiotic-beer/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Ancient Nubians Made Antibiotic Beer</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/science-geek-beers/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/science-geek-beers/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Science + Geek + Beer = Awesomely Geeky Science Beer</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/ancient-celtic-beer/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/ancient-celtic-beer/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">2550-Year-Old Celtic Beer Recipe Resurrected</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/aubrey-de-grey/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/aubrey-de-grey/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">How Beer, Oprah and Sergey Brin Can Help Cure Aging</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/15943/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/15943/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "7b473", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Why Geologists Love Beer</a></li> </ul></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=PyhQKjcdQ68:FK9Ru6RYKz0:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-57784775143459767522011-03-09T13:03:00.001-08:002011-03-09T13:03:45.124-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Physics of Pruney Fingers Revealed</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Photo: Mad Dash to Catch Space Shuttle Crossing the Sun</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Experts Push NASA to Focus on Search for Life</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">Data as Art: 10 Striking Science Maps</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150149324920795">Physics of Pruney Fingers Revealed</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 08 Mar 2011 04:19 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/pruney-finger-physics/wrinkled-fingers/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/pruney-finger-physics/wrinkled-fingers/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbe3075de36ebf7a300d44657c46929f&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FWrinkled-fingers.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>An exploration of mathematical shapes could explain why skin gets wrinkled after too much time in the tub. Understanding the geometry of wrinkly skin could help design new materials that can stretch out without losing strength.</p> <p>"The paper explains a mechanism that can explain the structural stability of keratin in skin <em>and</em> its ability to absorb very large quantities of water," said mathematician <a href="http://www.theorie1.physik.uni-erlangen.de/gerd/" target="_blank" title="http://www.theorie1.physik.uni-erlangen.de/gerd/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Gerd Schröder-Turk</a> of the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany, who was not involved in the new work. "This is a major breakthrough."</p> <p>Scientists and frequent bathers know that skin can absorb a tremendous amount of water, and still be a strong barrier between our bodies and the harsh outside world.</p> <p>"Your skin wrinkles, yet it maintains its structure," said mathematician <a href="http://physics.anu.edu.au/people/profile.php?ID=477" target="_blank" title="http://physics.anu.edu.au/people/profile.php?ID=477" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Myfanwy Evans</a> of the Australian National University, lead author of the new study. "It doesn't just fall apart and dissolve into the water."</p> <p>The skin's resilient stretchiness comes from an intricate network of fibrous proteins called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratin" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratin" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">keratin</a>, which make up the outermost layer of the skin, as well as hair and nails. Scientists knew that skin's keratin networks were important, but the arrangement of fibers was uncertain.</p> <p>Now, Evans and Australian National University colleague <a href="http://people.physics.anu.edu.au/~sth110/sth.html" target="_blank" title="http://people.physics.anu.edu.au/~sth110/sth.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Stephen Hyde</a> may have found a solution. They describe their stringy skin model in the March 8 <em>Journal of the Royal Society Interface</em>.</p> <p>"It explains a lot of mechanical features that hadn't really been able to be explained before," Evans said.</p> <p> </p> <p>The researchers stumbled upon the new model in a purely math-based search for interesting topological shapes. Evans studies a class of beautiful mathematical shapes called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroid" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroid" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Gyroids</a>, which show up all over the natural world, from lipid membranes to butterfly wings.</p> <p>"It's an interesting fusion of maths and experimental science," Evans said. "These are popping up everywhere."</p> <p> </p> <p>Using computer simulations, Evans and Hyde explored what would happen if you took infinitely long threads and wove them through the labyrinth of the Gyroid surface, then took the surface away. Some of the resulting 3-D woven structures were so tangled that none of the threads could move without breaking the connections between individual threads. If keratin were arranged this way, Evans says, our skin would lose its strength when it got wet.</p> <p>"Losing contacts between keratin fibers means losing structural rigidity," she said.</p> <p>But other weavings could expand, with threads straightening and sliding along each other without losing contact. One of these, which Evans and Hyde call G<sub>129</sub>, could swell to fill a volume seven times greater than its original shape, while keeping all its fiber connections intact — just like skin.</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/pruney-finger-physics/gyroid-weaving/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/pruney-finger-physics/gyroid-weaving/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=e895b9c5a332e2768cf56a7440701c6c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FGyroid-weaving.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Suggestively, the model's version of keratin networks in dry skin matches real data almost exactly, Evans says.</p> <p>"That was quite convincing evidence that it's highly likely that this model really does work," she said.</p> <p>Although the model hasn't made it far from the world of abstract math, Evans and colleagues hope their models of expandable networks of fibers could be used in the bottom-up design of custom materials with controllable stretchiness. These materials could be useful for things like bandages, bulletproof vests and artificial skin, she suggests.</p> <p>"This could be a really good target for bio-inspired materials," she said. "It's not a matter of testing it in the lab, it's a matter of understanding its geometry in order to understand its physical properties…. We hope this paper will put that idea out there, and maybe lead to some new interesting materials."</p> <p><em>Images: 1) Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moff/4242130537/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moff/4242130537/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mathew Wilson</a>. 2) Evans and Hyde, 2011. Video: Gerd Schröder-Turk.</em></p> <p><em>Citation:<br /> "<a href="http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/lookup/doi/10.1098/rsif.2010.0722" target="_blank" title="http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/lookup/doi/10.1098/rsif.2010.0722" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">From three-dimensional weavings to swollen corneocytes</a>." Myfanwy Evans and Stephen Hyde. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, March 8, 2011. DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2010.0722</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/hagfish-skin-eating/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/hagfish-skin-eating/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Hagfish May Absorb Carcasses With Their Skin, Gills</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/skin-cell-to-st/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/skin-cell-to-st/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Skin Cell-to-Stem Cell Alchemy 'Like Turning Lead Into Gold …</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/new-skin-gel-he/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/new-skin-gel-he/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">New Skin Gel Heals Wounds Faster, Reduces Scarring</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/facetransplant/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/facetransplant/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">First Near-Full Face Transplant a Success, So Far</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/realtimemolecul/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/realtimemolecul/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Video: Molecules Moving in Living Cells</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=N0yhh_3KaZs:-HzuB1AXpHk:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150149324925795">Photo: Mad Dash to Catch Space Shuttle Crossing the Sun</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 08 Mar 2011 12:32 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/space-shuttle-transit/friedman-sun-ss-transit/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/space-shuttle-transit/friedman-sun-ss-transit/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=7a601f2304f1a3635757136558924926&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FFriedman-sun-SS-transit.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Intrepid astrophotographer Alan Friedman raced against time to reach exactly the right spot at the right fraction of a second to snap this stunning photo of the International Space Station, with the Space Shuttle Discovery attached, crossing the sun.</p> <p>Friedman drove 1,800 miles from his home in Buffalo, New York to the annual <a href="http://www.scas.org/wsp.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.scas.org/wsp.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Winter Star Party</a> in the Florida Keys, "for the steady skies, warm temperatures and the company of good astronomy friends," he wrote on his website. "But when I heard that the ISS would transit the sun nearby … I had to give it a try."</p> <p>The transit would be visible at 2:39 p.m. on March 1 from a location 20 miles to the north of the star-party site. The entire crossing would last just 0.2 seconds. Friedman was scheduled to give a talk about astrophotography from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. As soon as his talk was over, Friedman jumped in the car with fellow astrophotographers Brian Shelton and Mark Beale and raced after the sun.</p> <p>"We got set up just in time to catch it," Friedman wrote. "I underestimated the narrowness of this event … another 500 feet and we would have missed it entirely. Lucky day!"</p> <p>Friedman shoots his <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/making-a-sun-photo/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/making-a-sun-photo/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">startlingly sharp sun photos</a> with a 3.5-inch telescope he calls <a href="http://www.avertedimagination.com/img_pages/little_big_man.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.avertedimagination.com/img_pages/little_big_man.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Little Big Man</a> and a filter that only lets in light emitted by hydrogen. He then inverts the images, making the light spots dark and the dark spots light, which gives the sun a swirling, textured appearance.</p> <p>Most of the time, Friedman shoots the sun from his backyard. "I think that is a real fascination with my work," he said in an e-mail to Wired.com. "With all the wonderful satellites and missions out there taking close-up images of our solar system neighbors … it is still possible to do it yourself and even come up with something magical now and again."</p> <p>While in Florida, Friedman also caught a puff of plasma detaching from the edge of the sun (below). Although it looks serene, such plasma clouds can weigh tens of billions of tons, and can flood the inner solar system with hot, charged matter if they detach from the sun for good.</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/space-shuttle-transit/friedman-solar-prominance/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/space-shuttle-transit/friedman-solar-prominance/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=ee21cb7005b97c3cbbaef13d2ab5b061&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FFriedman-solar-prominance.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><em>Images: <a href="http://www.avertedimagination.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.avertedimagination.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Alan Friedman</a></em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/making-a-sun-photo/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/making-a-sun-photo/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">The Making of a Mind-Blowing DIY Sun Photo</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/pic-space-shuttle-crosses-the-sun/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/pic-space-shuttle-crosses-the-sun/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Photo: Space Shuttle Crosses the Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/suntransit/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/suntransit/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Photo: Docked Space Shuttle and Station Cross the Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/cupola-iss-images/%3Fpid%3D506%26viewall%3Dtrue" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/cupola-iss-images/%3Fpid%3D506%26viewall%3Dtrue" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Photo Gallery: Best Space Station Cupola Views</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/double-eclipse/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/double-eclipse/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Moon and Space Station Eclipse the Sun</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=DWKeg8CyMvw:g0XoSFhVG9E:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150149324930795">Experts Push NASA to Focus on Search for Life</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 08 Mar 2011 10:37 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=94289f52e6d2ef974a0b0d424d6ffbb8&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fjupiter-mars-orbiter-nasa-jpl.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>The search for life in the solar system, whether in rocks from Mars or on a Jovian moon, tops the wish list of a panel of space scientists convened by the National Research Council. Mindful of shrinking budgets, the panel has issued hard-nosed recommendations that identify which planetary science missions NASA should fly in the decade beginning 2013. Even some top-rated missions should be either deferred or outright canceled if their estimated costs can't be significantly cut, the panel says in a report released March 7.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>Among its big missions, the panel says, NASA should give highest priority to the Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher. This project would be the first of three missions designed to collect Martian samples and bring them to Earth for analysis of any evidence of life forms. But the panel of space scientists recommends that the mission should go forward only if NASA's cost can be limited to $2.5 billion; $1 billion less than the project's estimated price tag in fiscal year 2015 dollars (adjusted for inflation). The European Space Agency and NASA, which will jointly run the mission, should work together to reduce the high cost, the report suggests. One possibility is to include one large robot instead of two.</p> <p>"I'm ready to hit the ground running with Europe to see if we can do something with that first priority," says Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington, D.C.</p> <p>NASA's Jupiter Europa Orbiter also received a nod from the panel, which ranked the mission as the second-highest priority among large projects. The craft would carry a suite of instruments to determine if Jupiter's moon Europa has an ocean — a possible haven for life — buried beneath its icy surface, as many scientists suspect. But the panel says the mission should fly only if the project's current estimated cost of $4.7 billion is reduced and if NASA increases its planetary science budget. The panel did not say specifically how much to cut from the Europa mission in order to maintain funding of other projects, but did spell out a 5 percent boost to NASA's planetary science research funding compared with fiscal year 2011. The panel also recommends that the planetary science budget should remain 1.5 percent above inflation for the remainder of the decade.</p> <p>Exploring the structure, composition and atmosphere of Uranus with an orbiter and probe also earned a high mark from the panel, which rated the project third among NASA's large missions. But the panel recommends the mission be reduced in scope or canceled if it rises above its estimated $2.7 billion cost.</p> <p> </p> <p>The report also encourages NASA to fund two new midsize missions among five candidates but did not say which to choose. The five possibilities include a Venus lander, a probe that would descend though Saturn's atmosphere, missions that would sample either the surface of a comet or a large basin at the moon's southern pole, and a craft that would study the small objects that trail or lead Jupiter in its orbit around the sun. The cap on these missions should be raised slightly, from $1.05 billion including launch costs in fiscal 2015 dollars to $1 billion excluding launch costs, the panel recommends.</p> <p>Among the least costly missions, the committee recommends that NASA continue to support the ESA/NASA Mars Trace Gas Orbiter, set for launch in 2016, as long as currently negotiated costs and responsibilities between the two space agencies remain unaltered.</p> <p>The report also urged the National Science Foundation to complete the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will not only probe the nature of dark matter and dark energy but aid in tracking near-Earth asteroids.</p> <p>Previous reports recommending astrophysics and planetary science missions have been criticized for using cost estimates that were too low. As a result, NASA could not always fund the projects that scientists had pushed for, says planetary scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University, who chaired the panel. This time both NASA and the National Science Foundation, which cosponsored the report, were specific about keeping recommendations and cost estimates in line with budget realities and requesting fallback options in case funding was less than expected.</p> <p>"We took the marching orders very seriously," Squyres said. "We tried very, very hard to be reasonable."</p> <p><em>Image: A National Research Council panel has recommended that NASA fund the proposed Jupiter Europa Orbiter, shown here, but only if scientists reduce the mission's cost, now estimated at $4.7 billion. (JPL/NASA)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/sulfur-europa/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/sulfur-europa/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Canadian Microbes Give Clues for Life on Icy Moons</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/et-life/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/et-life/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Top 5 Bets for Extraterrestrial Life in the Solar System</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/steppenwolf-planet/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/steppenwolf-planet/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Rogue Planets Could Harbor Life</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/europa-ocean-oxygen/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/europa-ocean-oxygen/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Jupiter Moon's Ocean Could Be Rich in Oxygen</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/james-webb-overruns/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/james-webb-overruns/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Exclusive: NASA's Plan to Save Astrophysics From Space Telescope's Budget Overruns</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/space-shuttle-streams/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/space-shuttle-streams/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">3 Great Ways to Watch the Last Space Shuttle Missions</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=zxmPJrFRMnY:iAjDBQh266w:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150149324935795">Data as Art: 10 Striking Science Maps</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 08 Mar 2011 04:00 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1052" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1052" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> </div> <div> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=20744ee8657fda330b2bd37092deb4fd&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscience-maps%2Fscientific-collaborations-map-2005-2009.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </div> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1053" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1053" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=f38257af0f80790c2c56183d38d41b9b&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscience-maps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_scientific-collaborations-map-2005-2009.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1052" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1052" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fb0d30746dc57a8d407b6ddecaceefb8&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscience-maps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_science-publishing-history-map.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1047" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1047" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=1fc67b3a360c14d24c02690e485e7a5c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscience-maps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_classified-life-on-earth-map.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1054" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1054" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=f5729b74afd6a5bd22131682a31960f2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscience-maps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_wikipedia-universal-decimal-classification.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1050" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1050" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=a6c5d3daa50ba6168b0fb51a2f6cc1b2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscience-maps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_mondotheque-paul-otlet-internet-desk.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1048" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1048" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=65bb2c630fc7298180352e96d91b8c13&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscience-maps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_mace-metadata-european-architecture.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1049" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1049" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=9eba69247f0bb758bbe93c37a5da444c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscience-maps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_meta-data-map.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1046" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1046" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=a836073171db2243b9f1150893d73f6f&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscience-maps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_bible-social-network.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1045" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1045" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fdab697e922996506defddaa820c0517&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscience-maps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_airplane-passenger-flows.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1051" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1051" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=e008e3b11c0b79cb209718f22a2b727e&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscience-maps%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_science-fiction-history-map.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> </ul> <br /> <div> <p>The computer age triggered a seemingly endless stream of scientific data, but such incoming mountains of information come at a cost. The more data you amass, the tougher it is to comprehend what you're dealing with.</p> <p>In a push for better perspective, a group of information scientists in 2005 created a decade-long competitive art exhibit called <em><a href="http://scimaps.org/" target="_blank" title="http://scimaps.org/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Places & Spaces: Mapping Science</a></em>. From artistic pop-culture plots to illustrations of the state of scientific collaboration (above), the founders hope winning entries inspire researchers to present their troves of data in clever and digestible ways.</p> <p>"Good science maps give you a holistic understanding of how the data is structured," said information scientist Katy Börner of Indiana University, a founder and curator of the exhibit. She is also author of the <a href="http://scimaps.org/atlas/" target="_blank" title="http://scimaps.org/atlas/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><em>Atlas of Science</em></a>, a collection of the maps gathered over the years. "You don't just have to use maps to find your way home. They can be ways to get global overviews on topics."</p> <p>The exhibit's advisory board follows a theme and some core criteria to pick 10 winners each year. This year's <a href="http://scimaps.org/submissions/7-digital_libraries/10maps+quotes.html" target="_blank" title="http://scimaps.org/submissions/7-digital_libraries/10maps+quotes.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">winning entries</a> for the theme "science maps as visual interfaces to digital libraries" were announced this week. Exhibit-ready versions of the maps are scheduled for display in mid-June.</p> <p>We showcase some of our favorite winners here, in addition to a few that didn't make the final cut. Some maps are too small to properly appreciate here, but we include links to high-resolution versions for each of them.</p> <p><strong>Above:</strong></p> <h2>Scientific Collaboration</h2> <p>Inspired by a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/visualizing-friendships/469716398919" target="_blank" title="http://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/visualizing-friendships/469716398919">map of 500 million Facebook friends</a> published in December 2010, <a href="http://olihb.com/" target="_blank" title="http://olihb.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">research analyst Olivier H. Beauchesne</a> created this winning visualization of international collaboration that occurred from 2005 through 2009.</p> <p>Each arc represents a collaboration between scientists in different cities mined from studies, books and trade journals found in Elsevier's Scopus database. Dense nodes of science emerge in the Americas, Europe and Japan.</p> <p><em>Image: Olivier H. Beauchesne/Science-Metrix [<a href="http://scimaps.org/submissions/7-digital_libraries/maps/thumbs/002_LG.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://scimaps.org/submissions/7-digital_libraries/maps/thumbs/002_LG.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">high-resolution version</a>]<br /> </em></p> </div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1052" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1052" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1051&viewall=true" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/best-science-maps/?pid=1051&viewall=true" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">View all</a></div> </div> </div> <p> </p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Gallery: 10 Stunning Science Visualizations</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/visualizations/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/visualizations/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Best Science Visualization Videos of 2009</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/new-anthrome-maps/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/new-anthrome-maps/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Maps: How Mankind Remade Nature</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/google-noaa-ocean-visualizations/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/google-noaa-ocean-visualizations/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Google Teams With NOAA to Make Better Ocean Visualizations</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/mapofscience/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/mapofscience/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Map of Science Looks Like Milky Way</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/nasa-satellite-maps-99-of-earths-topography/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/nasa-satellite-maps-99-of-earths-topography/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "b9895", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">NASA Satellite Maps 99% of Earth's Topography</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=YBA0Y0S07VE:ipN0VYy6Rg0:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-56868318712751516642011-03-08T13:36:00.001-08:002011-03-08T13:36:19.422-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Video: Elephants Lend a Helping Trunk, Pass Cooperation Test</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Alien Microbe Claim Starts Fight Over Meteorite</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Sleep Quality May Be Tied to Covert Brain Wave</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150148297565795">Video: Elephants Lend a Helping Trunk, Pass Cooperation Test</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 07 Mar 2011 02:10 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p> </p> <p>Asian elephants have passed a test of cooperation with flying colors, one that cognitive psychologists say demonstrates an ape-level awareness and sense of teamwork. Their collaboration isn't just the product of rote learning, but the result of careful thought.</p> <p>In the wild, of course, elephants routinely work together. But that doesn't pass laboratory muster, said University of Cambridge psychologist Joshua Plotkin.</p> <p>"It's anecdotal evidence. These animals are empathetic, they're cooperative. But how empathetic? How cooperative?" he said. "The best we can do is institute controls, do experiments like this, and figure out how what they do is unique from learning."</p> <p>Plotnik's experiment, published March 8 in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, was conducted when he was a student of famed Emory University ethologist Frans de Waal. In 2006, they showed that elephants could <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/103/45/17053.abstract" target="_blank" title="http://www.pnas.org/content/103/45/17053.abstract" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">recognize themselves in a mirror</a>, a benchmark feat believed to indicate an especially sophisticated level of self-awareness, on par with that of young humans.</p> <p>Though important, mirror self-recognition is just one test, and doesn't address the sort of cooperative behavior for which elephants are famed in the wild. They're known to help individuals in distress, cooperate in rearing children, and <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8209-elephants-may-pay-homage-to-dead-relatives.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8209-elephants-may-pay-homage-to-dead-relatives.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">may even mourn their dead</a>. From a behavioral perspective, they <a href="https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/946/1/2008%20Bates_et_al_JCS.pdf" target="_blank" title="https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/946/1/2008%20Bates_et_al_JCS.pdf" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">clearly demonstrate empathy</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p>But behavioral records from the wild are not the currency of cognitive psychology. After all, bees display incredible coordination, but few people would compare an individual bee's consciousness to that of a person. According to Plotnik, it could be argued that elephants and other cooperative animals are acting reflexively rather than thoughtfully. So he and de Waal turned to a test originally developed to measure cooperation in chimpanzees.</p> <p>In the original test, two chimps pulled on ropes attached to an otherwise inaccessible, food-containing box too heavy for one alone to move. In the version updated for elephantine strength — a too-heavy box would have been "as big as a 747," said Plotnik — the rope was arranged so that if one elephant pulled alone, its partner couldn't reach the rope. To get a banana treat, both had to pull simultaneously.</p> <p>Plotniks' elephants pick the trick up quickly. Then, in the study's key step, they demonstrated patience. If only one elephant was present, it would wait for a partner to arrive. Until then, it wouldn't try to pull the rope, and often wouldn't pick it up.</p> <p>If the elephants pulled automatically, it would be evidence of reflexive behavior, said Plotnik. Waiting indicated something more. They understood that their own effort wasn't enough. They understood their partner's role. (One elephant, seen in the video below, even figured out how to cheat. By standing on her end of the rope rather than pulling, her partner had to do all the work — not very nice, perhaps, but <em>smart</em>.)</p> <p>Plotnik's now working on other, more sophisticated tests of elephant cooperation. He hopes to measure how they see other species, process information in the wild, find food and water, and care for one another. But he acknowledges that Asian elephants are unique among social, cooperative animals in their amenability to study. Other animals — say, lions — may be just as smart, but not so easy to test.</p> <p>"Just because something hasn't been tested doesn't mean you reject it as not being possible," he said.</p> <p> </p> <p><em>Video: 1) Two Asian elephants help each other pull closer a table bearing banana treats./Joshua Plotnik, University of Cambridge. 2) An especially clever Asian elephant named Neua Un figures out how to make her partner do all the work./Joshua Plotnik, University of Cambridge.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/acoustic-elephant-counting/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/acoustic-elephant-counting/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Counting Elephants by Voice</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/crow-intelligence/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/crow-intelligence/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Brainy Crows Finally Stumped by Intelligence Test</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/bird-nest-messages/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/bird-nest-messages/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Hidden Messages Found in Bird Nest Decorations</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/whalepeople/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/whalepeople/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Whales Might Be as Much Like People as Apes Are</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seti-dolphins/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seti-dolphins/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">To Talk With Aliens, Learn to Speak With Dolphins</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/new-crow-tools/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/new-crow-tools/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Clever Crows Use Tools in New Way</a></li> </ul> <p><em>Citation: "Elephants know when they need a helping trunk in a cooperative task." By Joshua M. Plotnik, Richard Lair, Wirot Suphachoksahakun, and Frans B. M. de Waal. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 108 No. 10, March 8, 2011.</em></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=vi3MaN4ya8o:HPC61-zlJOg:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150148297575795">Alien Microbe Claim Starts Fight Over Meteorite</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 07 Mar 2011 01:53 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/orgueil_microscopy.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/orgueil_microscopy.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=e14827896418006708cf80c86104f625&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Forgueil_microscopy.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>NASA astrobiologist Richard Hoover thinks he's found fossilized alien bacteria inside a meteorite. If he's right, it's world-shaking news. But that's a very, very big if.</p> <p>"There are legitimate reasons to initially be skeptical of these findings," wrote University of Oklahoma geophysicist Michael Engel <a href="http://journalofcosmology.com/Life101.html#2" target="_blank" title="http://journalofcosmology.com/Life101.html#2" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">in a commentary</a> published March 7 by the <em>Journal of Cosmology</em>, where Hoover's claims were announced on March 4. Nevertheless, "I encourage people to keep an open mind when forming an opinion as to the significance of this work."</p> <p>Hoover's claims involves <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonaceous_chondrite" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonaceous_chondrite" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">carbonaceous chondrites</a>, a class of rare meteorite that formed early in the solar system's history and contain organic chemicals, ostensibly picked up on their passage through space.</p> <p>When those chemicals are found on Earth, they're considered signs of life. When found in a meteorite, their origin is intriguing but undetermined — a likely sign of contamination by Earthly chemicals or microbes, but hypothetically evidence of extraterrestrial life.</p> <p>According to Hoover, he hasn't just found suggestive chemical traces, but complex filament-like structures that could only come from bacteria. Because there's no nitrogen in the meteorites, and Earthly microbes <em>always</em> contain nitrogen, he concludes that these fossils must come from life that evolved elsewhere.</p> <p>"This finding has direct implications to the distribution of life in the Cosmos," wrote Hoover, with great understatement.</p> <p> </p> <p>The claims have already set off an internet tempest of commentary, some of it noting Hoover's fringe announcement venue. The <em>Journal of Cosmology</em> is non-peer reviewed. It's also produced by a community of astrobiologists who are <a href="http://journalofcosmology.com/SearchForLife125.html" target="_blank" title="http://journalofcosmology.com/SearchForLife125.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">zealously evangelical</a> about galactic panspermia, or the notion that Earth was seeded by life arriving from space.</p> <p>Fifty years ago, that notion was crackpot. Nowadays, it's <a href="http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/08/galactic_panspermia" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/08/galactic_panspermia" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">rather more plausible</a>, if not so certain as some proponents insist. Life's building blocks have been found in comets, which could serve as spacefaring petri dishes. There are likely billions of Earth-like planets just in the fraction of space visible to the Hubble telescope. Given trillions of years and billions of opportunities, other examples of self-replicating chemicals don't seem improbable.</p> <div>"I see no convincing evidence that these particles are of biological origin."</div> <p>Beyond the venue, however, critiques of Hoover's claims become more substantive. "As a microbiologist who has looked at thousands of microbes through a microscope, and done some of my own electron microscopy, I see no convincing evidence that these particles are of biological origin," wrote SETI Institute astrobiologist Rocco Mancinelli in an email to Wired.com.</p> <p>"The main claim of similarity with modern earthly analogues is totally inadequate," said University of Croatia microbiologist Stjepko Golubic, who specializes in the sort of bacteria to which Hoover compared the alleged fossil remains. "It is important to note that the SEM" — scanning electron microscope, used in this study — "is an inadequate tool for identifying cyanobacteria and this includes those images offered in this paper for comparison." </p> <p>Mancinelli also criticized Hoover's sterilization techniques, which were not fully described in the paper. "It is unclear to me if the techniques used for the analyses were adequate. For example, the paper states that the implements used were flame sterilized. Does that mean they were placed in a Bunsen burner where soot" — which could confound the results — "could get on them?" Mancinelli wrote.</p> <p>NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay defended Hoover's practices, saying he is "a careful and accomplished microscopist so there is every reason to believe that the structures he sees are present and are not due to contamination."</p> <div>"If these structures had been reported from sediments from a lake bottom there would be no question that they were classified correctly as biological remains."</div> <p>"If these structures had been reported from sediments from a lake bottom there would be no question that they were classified correctly as biological remains," wrote McKay. (Note: Though they share a surname, it was NASA astrobiologist David McKay who lead a team that in 1996 <a href="http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/marslife.html" target="_blank" title="http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/marslife.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">reported evidence of Martian microbes</a> in a meteorite. That claim remains inconclusive.)</p> <p>Nevertheless, the structures could conceivably be random. They could also just be fossilized bugs from Earth, said Allan Treiman, planetary petrologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.</p> <p>"The meteorites Dr. Hoover studied are rich in carbon compounds that formed off of the Earth. However, Earth microbes do not know the difference, will eat alien carbon with gusto," he said. "Because all of these meteorites have been on the Earth for many years, and have not been kept isolated from Earth microbes, it's certain that they have been exposed to Earth microbes."</p> <p>Yet Engel is less willing to draw conclusions. Independent experts need to analyze Hoover's images, and it would be useful if there were better grounds for comparison than visual similarity with known bacteria, he wrote.</p> <p>According to Engel, his own analyses of a meteorite analyzed by Hoover found no evidence of common amino acids, suggesting that Earthly microbes had not invaded them.</p> <p>"Faced with the actual possibility of evidence for extraterrestrial life, we quite often feel more compelled to ignore it or refute it rather than embrace it," wrote Engel. "Perhaps this has something to do with our inherent fear of the unknown."</p> <p>SETI research director Jill Tarter compared Hoover's findings to the <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/arsenic-life-under-fire/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/arsenic-life-under-fire/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">controversial recent discovery</a> of extremophile bacteria that may metabolize arsenic, something never before seen on Earth and suggestive of how extraterrestrial bugs could survive in supposedly inhospitable environments.</p> <p>Like that claim, Hoover's "may turn out to be correct, but it has not yet been proven," said Tarter. "Incredible claim; incredible evidence, not so much."</p> <p><em>Dave Mosher contributed to this report.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Journal of Cosmology</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/08/galactic_panspermia" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/08/galactic_panspermia" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Howard Hughes' Nightmare: Space May Be Filled With Germs</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/arsenic-life-under-fire/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/arsenic-life-under-fire/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Doubts Brew About NASA's New Arsenic Life</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/aliens-riding-meteorites-arsenic-redux-or-something-new/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/aliens-riding-meteorites-arsenic-redux-or-something-new/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Aliens Riding Meteorites: Arsenic Redux or Something New?</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/martian-microbe-stowaways/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/martian-microbe-stowaways/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">How to Catch Microbes Hitchhiking to Mars</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/necropanspermia/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/necropanspermia/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">All Life on Earth Could Have Come From Alien Zombies</a></li> </ul> <p><em>Citation: "Fossils of Cyanobacteria in CI1 Carbonaceous Meteorites." By Richard B. Hoover. Journal of Cosmology, March 2011.</em></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=xLY3cR0n4qA:P0kx-AXBNV0:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150148297585795">Sleep Quality May Be Tied to Covert Brain Wave</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 07 Mar 2011 06:57 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=5de3342f1d4c2f9aa08927d202a4c0be&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fbrain-wave-eeg-flickr-cobalt123.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>Making waves isn't conducive to staying asleep, at least when the waves are a type of brain signal associated with being awake.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>A type of brain activity known as an alpha wave emanates from the back of the head when a person is awake but relaxing with eyes closed. Scientists used to think that the wave was subdued and disappeared as a person fell deeper and deeper into sleep.</p> <p>But the alpha wave doesn't disappear; it just goes undercover during sleep, researchers report online March 3 in <em>PLoS One</em>. The covert alpha wave may help determine how deeply people sleep and how much noise is needed to rouse a sleeper.</p> <p>The finding "stresses that sleep is really a dynamic process," says Mathias Basner, a sleep researcher at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia who was not involved in the study. The study shows that sleep doesn't happen just in discrete blocks, as most charts of sleep stages would indicate. Instead, brain activity changes from moment to moment during sleep.</p> <p>"It may suggest that something is going on in the central nervous system that we don't know about and should maybe pay more attention to," Basner says.</p> <p> </p> <p>Scientists hadn't ignored alpha waves on purpose, says study coauthor Scott McKinney, a sleep scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University. Researchers typically measure brain activity during sleep with electroencephalographs, or EEGs, devices that use electrodes on the scalp to detect electrical activity in the brain. The squiggly lines recorded by the EEG can be hard to interpret with the naked eye, so McKinney and his colleagues used computer programs to break the EEG signals from 13 volunteers down into discrete waves. The analysis revealed that alpha waves never truly go away; they just get drowned out by more vigorous signals the way spreading ripples from a small rock dropped in a pond are swamped by waves from a passing speedboat.</p> <p>Alpha wave activity decreases as people enter ever-deeper levels of sleep and increases as people cycle back into more shallow sleep stages. In study participants, the ups and downs of alpha wave activity were closely associated with how easily a person could be awoken by traffic noises, loud talking or other sounds that might be encountered in hospital or at home in a city. When alpha wave activity spiked just before a noise was played, volunteers woke up more easily than when alpha wave activity was low, the researchers found.</p> <p>Alpha wave activity may be the brain's way of keeping people aware of their surroundings during sleep, speculates Phyllis Zee, director of the Sleep Disorders Program at Northwestern University in Chicago. Such awareness enables people to wake quickly in case of danger, but too much alpha activity might also have a downside if it prevents a good night of sleep.</p> <p>People with insomnia commonly complain that they are very light sleepers and are always aware of their surroundings, Zee says. Although many insomniacs get a full night of sleep, they report that their sleep is not restful. But laboratory tests often don't show any abnormalities.</p> <p>"The classical way we're scoring sleep may not give a good handle on what a patient really experiences," she says. "This new way of analyzing depth of sleep may be used to get a better understanding of a patient's complaint."</p> <p><em>Image: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/157243306/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/157243306/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">cobalt123</a>/Flickr</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/sleep_paralysis/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/sleep_paralysis/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Freaky Sleep Paralysis: Being Awake in Your Nightmares</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/sleep-spindles/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/sleep-spindles/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">The Brain's Secret to Sleeping Like a Log</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/diy-sleep-studies/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/diy-sleep-studies/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">DIY Home Sleep Research With Cameras, Accelerometers, EEGs</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/brainwave-sofa/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/brainwave-sofa/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">This Is Your Brain, on Sofa</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/sycnrhonized-brainwaves/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/sycnrhonized-brainwaves/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "08863", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Synchronized Brain Waves Focus Our Attention</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=XbhUIwYLqW4:A8gtpOszpNQ:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-55571507396331412032011-03-05T13:24:00.001-08:002011-03-05T13:24:58.119-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Satellites See Evidence of One-Two Asteroid Punches on Mars</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">NASA Climate Satellite Crashes After Launch</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Cosmic Rays May Not Come From Supernovas</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150146312230795">Satellites See Evidence of One-Two Asteroid Punches on Mars</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 04 Mar 2011 11:46 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/mars-double-craters/long-crater/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/mars-double-craters/long-crater/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=ac5380676a7dee2bf8ca4470cd96f4e7&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FLong-crater.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>New images from two Mars-orbiting satellites capture times when the planet was pummeled by at least two meteorites at once.</p> <p>The slug-shaped crater above, photographed on Aug. 4, 2010 by ESA's <a href="http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Mars_Express/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Mars_Express/index.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mars Express spacecraft</a>, was probably carved by a chain of projectiles coming in at a shallow angle. The 48-mile-long crater has no name, but it lies in Mars' heavily cratered southern highlands, just south of a large crater called the Huygens basin.</p> <p>Astronomers have speculated that similarly <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/oblong-martian-crater/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/oblong-martian-crater/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">oblong basins</a> were formed by one oblique impact or by volcanic flows. But the shape of the material tossed out of this crater in the initial impact, called the ejecta blanket, suggests the unnamed scar came from a double punch. The blanket shows two distinct lobes like butterfly wings, hinting that each blob was excavated by a different incoming rock. </p> <p>Three deeper areas inside the crater itself suggest that there could have been more than two impactors. Smaller craters that lie to the gouge's right probably formed later.</p> <p>A photo taken Jan. 10 with NASA's <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/tag/hirise/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/tag/hirise/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">HiRISE camera</a> is even more striking. The image below shows two symmetrical, neatly overlapping craters that must have formed at the same time.</p> <p> </p> <p>The assailing rocks could have been parts of a once-intact body that broke up on its way through Mars' thin atmosphere before slamming into the surface. Several known celestial bodies, including the rubbly asteroid <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/08/for-asteroids-s/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/08/for-asteroids-s/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Itokawa</a> and the chicken-leg-shaped comet <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/epoxi-comet-flyby/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/epoxi-comet-flyby/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Hartley 2</a>, would likely break in two and form simultaneous impact craters if they smacked into a planet.</p> <p>Although planets suffer fewer slings and arrows now than they did in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Heavy_Bombardment" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Heavy_Bombardment" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">solar system's youth</a>, Mars is headed for another rough time. One of its moons, Phobos, will collide with the planet in a few tens of millions of years, breaking up in the process to form more wonky-shaped impact craters.</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/mars-double-craters/mars-double-crater/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/mars-double-craters/mars-double-crater/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=e0600f9e4b0adcd96b6d147cc8154cf4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FMars-double-crater.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><em>Images: 1) ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum). 2) NASA/JPL/University of Arizona</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/new-mars-image-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/new-mars-image-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Exotic New Mars Images From Orbiting Telephoto Studio</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/mars-fly-overs/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/mars-fly-overs/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">New Animations Take You Flying Over Mars</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/oblong-martian-crater/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/oblong-martian-crater/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Weird Oblong Crater Deepens Mars Mystery</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/mars-landing-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/mars-landing-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Where Will Next Mars Rover Land?</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/mars-santa-maria/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/mars-santa-maria/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Opportunity Rover Finds Fresh Crater on Mars</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=s-aRiIkl0ao:CO05HYw3SdY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150146312250795">NASA Climate Satellite Crashes After Launch</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 04 Mar 2011 09:32 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/glory-launch-fail/519144main_glory_670-2/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/glory-launch-fail/519144main_glory_670-2/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=75ebfbaf1a4f8b86e160ffb5039928c3&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2F519144main_Glory_670.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><strong>By Mark Brown, Wired UK</strong></p> <p>The rocket carrying <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/23/nasa-glory-satellite" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/23/nasa-glory-satellite" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">NASA's Glory satellite</a>, an observation spacecraft designed to study the effect atmospheric particles have on the planet's climate, has failed to reach orbit due to an engineering glitch with its nose cap.</p> <p>The Taurus XL rocket blasted off from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California earlier this week, but just minutes after liftoff it suffered from a technical failure. The rocket's "fairing" — an aerodynamic cone designed to separate during the trip into space — didn't come off as planned.</p> <p>"Telemetry indicated the fairing did not separate as expected about three minutes after launch," a NASA <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/mar/HQ_11-050_N0_Glory.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/mar/HQ_11-050_N0_Glory.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">statement</a> read. Without that crucial separation, the 1,160-pound rocket and <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/02/satellite-photo-winter-storm" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/02/satellite-photo-winter-storm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">satellite</a> combo was too just heavy to reach its intended orbit 438 miles above Earth.</p> <p>The $424 million satellite would have gone on a three-year mission to improve our understanding of how the sun and atmospheric particles called aerosols affect the planet's climate. It would have established the magnitude of aerosols in the atmosphere, and measured variations in the amount of <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-03/04/astrofarming-in-radioactive-soil" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-03/04/astrofarming-in-radioactive-soil" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">radiation</a> that enters Earth's atmosphere during the sun's decade-long solar cycle.</p> <p>The mission was originally plagued by a computer glitch which caused a delay of more than a week. It also comes almost exactly two years after NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) — another climate-tracking satellite that would have measured <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-11/22/co2-emissions-2010" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-11/22/co2-emissions-2010" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">carbon dioxide</a> levels — crashed into the ocean with an almost identical technical failure.</p> <p>On 24 February 2009, the Taurus XL also failed to shed its protective fairing, and couldn't reach orbit. It crashed down in the ocean near <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/07/russians-penetrate-lake-vostok" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/07/russians-penetrate-lake-vostok" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Antarctica</a>, putting the $270m satellite out of commission. At the time, NASA launch director Chuck Dovale said, "Our goal will be to find a root cause for the problem. And we won't fly Glory until we have that data known to us."</p> <p>A duplicate version of Glory is now scheduled to launch from Vandenberg in 2013.</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-03/04/glory-fail" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-03/04/glory-fail" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><em>Original story on Wired UK</em></a></p> <p><em>Image: NASA</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/glory-launch/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/glory-launch/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Dust-Watching Satellite to Launch Friday</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/launchfailure/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/launchfailure/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">NASA's Carbon Satellite Fails, See Video of Launch</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/clouds-shaped-by-origins/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/clouds-shaped-by-origins/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Clouds Are Shaped by Where They're From</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/georank/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/georank/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Scientists Rank Global Cooling Hacks</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/nasa-maps-global-air-pollution/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/nasa-maps-global-air-pollution/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">NASA Maps Global Air Pollution</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=RoQ2mKrXqtQ:pvpHSOfxJv8:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150146312260795">Cosmic Rays May Not Come From Supernovas</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 04 Mar 2011 07:00 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=8d833a06e2da9370f9e69293b1bd9732&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fcosmic-ray-proton-shower-uchicago.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>The confirmed origin of ordinary cosmic rays may need to be unconfirmed.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>New data gathered by an instrument onboard a Russian spacecraft challenge the theory that most cosmic rays are fueled by supernovas, the explosions created by dying stars.</p> <p>"The mechanism for the acceleration of cosmic rays needs to be completely revised," says Piergiorgio Picozza, a physicist at the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy. Picozza is a co-author of a March 3 paper in <em>Science </em> detailing the new observations of the Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics, or PAMELA, instrument.</p> <p>Cosmic rays aren't actually rays. They're fast-moving particles that carry an extraordinary amount of energy and continuously bombard the Earth from every direction. The most popular explanation for the origin of these particles points to shock waves created by far-off supernovas, one of the few phenomena in the cosmos powerful enough to impart such energy.</p> <p>According to that explanation, known as the diffusive shock acceleration mechanism, clouds of charged gas rush outward during a supernova and generate strong magnetic fields. These magnetic fields could accelerate charged particles to tremendous speeds and eject them into space.</p> <p>Orbiting hundreds of kilometers above Earth, the PAMELA detector spent three years collecting cosmic ray particles; mostly nuclei of hydrogen and helium with energies ranging from a billion to a trillion electron volts, which is comparable to the energy of protons in the biggest particle accelerator in the United States.</p> <p>Magnetic fields in a supernova should accelerate both hydrogen and helium particles in the same way: Graph the mathematical equations describing this push, and the curve for each particle should have the same slope. But in the PAMELA data, Picozza found a difference in these slopes that a single shock wave can't explain.</p> <p>"The two particles seem to be accelerated by different mechanisms," he says.</p> <p> </p> <p>Scientists should investigate other astronomical objects as possible sources of cosmic rays, Picozza says. One place to look proposed by Russian physicists is in the novas, or smaller explosions, produced when white dwarf stars belch out energy. Another option is giant superbubbles of gas blown around the universe by stellar winds, says Picozza.</p> <p>But Mikhail Malkov, a plasma physicist at the University of California, San Diego, who studies supernova shock waves, isn't ready to toss out the existing cosmic ray theory. "The data look statistically significant, but it's too early to say that the supernova acceleration model is in trouble. This statement is too strong," says Malkov.</p> <p>Space telescopes peering into the remnants of supernovas have found lots of evidence over the years to support the supernova shock wave theory — including gamma rays that reveal the structure of magnetic fields, and missing energy that could have been spent making cosmic rays.</p> <p>Malkov says the difference between Picozza's hydrogen and helium curves is small, and it could be accounted for simply by tweaking the existing supernova model. Malkov hasn't worked out the details yet, but he suspects that PAMELA may be seeing cosmic rays created by a shock wave that wasn't completely uniform or a mishmash of particles released by two different supernovas.</p> <p><em>Image: Illustration of a cosmic ray shower. (<a href="http://astro.uchicago.edu/cosmus/projects/aires/" target="_blank" title="http://astro.uchicago.edu/cosmus/projects/aires/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Cosmus</a>/University of Chicago)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/gamma-ray-mystery-traced-to-star-birth-frenzy/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/gamma-ray-mystery-traced-to-star-birth-frenzy/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Cosmic-Ray Mystery Traced to Star-Birth Frenzy</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/ibex-changing-edge/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/ibex-changing-edge/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Solar System's Shield Could Leak Cosmic Rays</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/supernova-wind-galaxy-formation/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/supernova-wind-galaxy-formation/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Supernova Wind Solves Galaxy Formation Mystery</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/supernova-zoo/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/supernova-zoo/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Help Scientists Hunt for Exploding Stars</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/gammarayvid/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/gammarayvid/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "60caf", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Blazar: Time-Lapse Video of Gamma-Ray Sky</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=B5rWIWpJ0oI:SBMvOlRol-Q:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-766053659381882982011-03-04T13:41:00.001-08:002011-03-04T13:41:36.948-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">iPad Lets Scientists Drag, Pinch and Swipe Real Molecules</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Deepwater Horizon’s Impacts Found in Bacteria</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Engineered Viruses Boost Memory Recall in Mice</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">4 New Species of Zombifying Ant Fungus Found</a> </li> <li> <a href="#5">An Unknown Ocean: The Other Rhythms of Life</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150145503255795">iPad Lets Scientists Drag, Pinch and Swipe Real Molecules</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 03 Mar 2011 04:03 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p> </p> <p>Using laser beams to control individual molecules is a precise, difficult operation rendered nearly impossible by the limitations of the computer mouse.</p> <p>Unless you have the right iPad app.</p> <p>New software called iTweezers lets scientists drag molecules around the screen as easily as shooting <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/physics-of-angry-birds/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/physics-of-angry-birds/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">angry birds</a> at pigs.</p> <p>"It's cool because it takes something that normally lives on a lab bench, and makes it so simple," said physicist Richard Bowman of Scotland's University of Glasgow, lead author of a paper in the March 4 <em>Journal of Optics</em> describing the new software. "We have visitors who have never seen an optical tweezer before in their lives, and they happily move particles around."</p> <div>'You can learn stuff by physically connecting in a different way.'</div> <p>The new app is an interface for controlling <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/group/blocklab/Optical%20Tweezers%20Introduction.htm" target="_blank" title="http://www.stanford.edu/group/blocklab/Optical%20Tweezers%20Introduction.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">optical tweezers</a>, an instrument that uses laser light to trap and move microscopic objects. It works a little like a sci-fi tractor beam: The radiation from a tightly focused beam of light applies enough pressure to tiny objects like cells or proteins to pin them to the spot or push them around.</p> <p>The invention of optical tweezers won Secretary of Energy Steven Chu a <a href="http://www.bell-labs.com/user/feature/archives/chu/" target="_blank" title="http://www.bell-labs.com/user/feature/archives/chu/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Nobel Prize in Physics</a>, and they have proven their worth in biology labs, where they have been used to trap and manipulate everything from viruses to DNA. They have helped measure some of the smallest forces ever recorded, detected how DNA's double helix unzips, and watched molecular motors move matter around inside cells.</p> <p>But most of the early experiments with optical tweezers could only focus on one spot at a time.</p> <p>"Up till now, people typically controlled things using a mouse," said physicist <a href="http://www.dur.ac.uk/g.d.love/Site/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.dur.ac.uk/g.d.love/Site/index.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Gordon Love</a> of Durham University in England, who was not involved in the new work. "A mouse is great for moving around one thing like a cursor on a screen, but it's no good for moving around multiple things."</p> <p> </p> <p>The multitouch interface was born when Bowman's colleagues at England's <a href="http://sine.ni.com/cs/app/doc/p/id/cs-13097" target="_blank" title="http://sine.ni.com/cs/app/doc/p/id/cs-13097" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">University of Bristol</a> struggled to control a tiny rod about 300 nanometers wide. To keep the rod from flipping over, the physicists needed to pin the rod down in several places at once.</p> <p>In 2009, the team built a <a href="http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-17-5-3595" target="_blank" title="http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-17-5-3595" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">custom table</a> that let them drag and drop microscopic glass beads just by swiping their fingers along a layer of paper coated with silicon rubber. The device was clunky and complicated, but it mostly worked.</p> <p>But soon the team found a more elegant setup: the iPad.</p> <p>"When the iPad came out we thought, well hey, this is just like the big table, except it's small and works really well," Bowman said.</p> <p>The physicists shine laser light through a high-powered microscope onto a slide holding whatever objects the scientists are interested in. Bowman's lab usually uses glass beads about two microns across, which are used in many experiments as a handle for harder-to-grasp molecules.</p> <p>Before entering the microscope, the laser beam bounces off a tiny LCD screen that splits the beam and steers it around to focus on several beads at once.</p> <p>A computer tells the LCD screen to display specific holograms designed to bend the laser light in specific ways. The app Bowman and colleagues use to write the holograms is available on iTunes as <a href="http://appfinder.lisisoft.com/app/ihologram.html" target="_blank" title="http://appfinder.lisisoft.com/app/ihologram.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">iHologram</a>.</p> <p>"It's fun to use and quite visually attractive," Love said. "My young daughters play with it. They have no idea about optical tweezers, but they think it's fantastic."</p> <p>The iPad displays the view through the microscope, and wirelessly sends the computer the information on where the user's fingers are. A user can select up to 11 different objects by tapping them, move them around by dragging them, and use the pinch-zoom feature to move the objects up and down in space.</p> <p>Theoretically, scientists could be sitting on the couch with an iPad at home moving beads or molecules in the lab. But so far, the method hasn't made it out of the University of Glasgow physics lab. The researchers hope to bring it into other labs to help biologists and chemists run complicated experiments without stressing about the technology.</p> <p>"The interface makes it really easy," Bowman said. "If somebody comes along and sees my computer program with about a bajillion controls on it, it's a bit off-putting. Whereas the iPad lets you get stuck right in there and move stuff around, without having to worry about setting up all the physics behind it."</p> <p>Feeling like you can directly touch cells and molecules can also help build an intuitive sense of the microscopic world, Bowman says. His lab has also developed a way to manipulate molecules with a <a href="http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-17-12-10259" target="_blank" title="http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-17-12-10259" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">joystick</a> that transmits the forces the molecule feels to the user's hand, like a video game with tactile feedback. Bowman says you can even feel water molecules jiggling around your trapped molecule.</p> <p>"The interface stuff is fun, but I think you can learn stuff by physically connecting in a different way," he said. "You get a feel for how things work."</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/itweezers/dha-mkii/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/itweezers/dha-mkii/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fd2e30e9d4980c69ae3264507a5b72ca&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FDHA-mkII.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><em>Video and image: Richard Bowman/University of Glasgow</em></p> <p><em>Citation: "<a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/2040-8986/13/4/044002/pdf/2040-8986_13_4_044002.pdf" target="_blank" title="http://iopscience.iop.org/2040-8986/13/4/044002/pdf/2040-8986_13_4_044002.pdf" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">iTweezers: Optical micromanipulation controlled by an Apple iPad</a>" (.pdf). R.W. Bowman, G. Gibson, D. Carberry, L. Picco, M. Miles and M.J. Padgett. </em>Journal of Optics<em>, Vol. 13, March 4, 2011.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/quantum-computing-thrives-on-chaos/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/quantum-computing-thrives-on-chaos/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Quantum Computing Thrives on Chaos</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/kindle-vs-ipad-in-the-sun/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/kindle-vs-ipad-in-the-sun/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Kindle vs. iPad in the Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/laser-pointer-hazard/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/laser-pointer-hazard/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">DIY Laser Safety: How to Test Pointers and Save Your Eyes</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/laser-light-can-lift-tiny-objects/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/laser-light-can-lift-tiny-objects/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Laser Light Can Lift Tiny Objects</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/lasercontrolledhumans/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/lasercontrolledhumans/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Laser-Controlled Humans Closer to Reality</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=YQm1NiLhEeQ:MMiZwFkWuW8:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150145503270795">Deepwater Horizon’s Impacts Found in Bacteria</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 03 Mar 2011 03:17 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/oilbeach.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/oilbeach.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=d5253f1aaa46cceaed815454c9767e62&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Foilbeach.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Nobody's going to shed a tear for an oiled microbe, but the Deepwater Horizon's impacts include bacteria, underscoring just how subtle and fundamental the blowout's ecological consequences may be.</p> <p>The findings, based on comparisons of microbial flux before and after oil washed ashore, are not a final analysis. It's too soon to say how long-lasting those fluctuations were, or what they meant to other creatures. Instead they're a starting point, an early observation in research that will continue for years, even decades.</p> <p>"While visible damages are evident in the wildlife populations and marine estuaries, the most significant effect may be on the most basic level of the ecosystems: the bacterial and plankton populations," wrote researchers in a study Feb. 28 in <em>Nature Precedings</em>. "Abrupt and severe changes in the microbial metabolism can produce long-term effects on the entire ecosystem."</p> <p>Led by biologist William Widger of the University of Houston, the researchers sequenced DNA from near-shore water and beach-soil samples gathered before and after oil arrived in Gulfport, Mississippi, and Grand Isle, Louisiana, following the blowout last spring.</p> <p>By cross-referencing the DNA to microbe gene databases, they identified populations of bacteria and how they changed. <em>Vibrio cholera</em>, the bug that causes cholera, spiked upward after the spill. So did <em>Rickettsiales</em>, an order of bugs whose diseases include typhus and spotted fever. </p> <p> </p> <p>Populations of <em>Synechococcus</em>, a typically ubiquitous photosynthesizing bug, collapsed. Communities of Archaea — the lesser-recognized microbial kingdom — also underwent radical makeovers.</p> <p>The new analyses are not meant to be exhaustive. Most species of ocean-dwelling microbes have not yet been identified. Rather, they're a diagnostic snapshot that wouldn't have existed even a decade ago, before the advent of faster, cheaper gene sequencing and a rising appreciation of bacteria's ecological importance.</p> <p>"Microbial communities are an essential but vulnerable part of any ecosystem. The basic metabolic activities of microbial communities represent the fundamental status of any environment," wrote Widger's team.</p> <p>Andy Juhl, a Columbia University plankton ecologist who was not involved in the study, cautioned against drawing premature conclusions. "I would take the findings that oil resulted in these changes in microbial composition as a plausible hypothesis," he said. "Further work may support or refute that hypothesis."</p> <p>Juhl's assessment is in keeping with scientific debate over a growing body of research into exactly what poured and bubbled from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead, and what it meant to the Gulf's already-troubled ecologies. The research is still in its early stages, painstakingly gathered and deliberated — as it will be for years to come — even as BP has <a href="http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/02/bp_reneges_on_deal_to_rebuild.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/02/bp_reneges_on_deal_to_rebuild.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">reneged on restoration agreements</a>, arguing that the damage wasn't so bad after all.</p> <p>In mid-February, researchers led by University of Georgia biogeochemist Samantha Joye concluded that up to 40 percent of hydrocarbons released by the blowout <a href="http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v4/n3/abs/ngeo1067.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v4/n3/abs/ngeo1067.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">came in the form of methane gas</a>. Its fate remains unknown, and vast methane pockets could still be floating through the Gulf, they said.</p> <p>Those findings were criticized as relying on outdated data by oceanographers John Kessler and David Valentine, who a month earlier said that the <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6015/312.abstract?keytype=ref&siteid=sci&ijkey=0mWSDQdfse43A" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6015/312.abstract?keytype=ref&siteid=sci&ijkey=0mWSDQdfse43A" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">methane had been consumed</a> by deep-sea bacteria.</p> <p>The disagreement was a standard scientific back-and-forth, but much less debatable were seafloor movies subsequently shown by Joye at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington, D.C. Shot by a robotic submersible vehicle in December, the films showed a Gulf seafloor covered with oil and dead invertebrates.</p> <p>What all this ultimately means for Gulf ecology is unknown. As for human impacts, the National Institutes of Health announced on March 1 that it's looking for 55,000 oil cleanup workers to <a href="http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/01/nih-will-study-health-of-gulf-oil-spill-cleanup-workers/" target="_blank" title="http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/01/nih-will-study-health-of-gulf-oil-spill-cleanup-workers/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">participate in a long-term study</a> of chemical impacts on health.</p> <p>In the meantime, the oil industry and Gulf lawmakers continue to push for lifting restrictions on deepwater drilling. Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of the $20 billion claims fund established by BP, has said that Gulf ecosystems should be <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-02/gulf-of-mexico-to-recover-from-bp-s-spill-by-2012-feinberg-says.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-02/gulf-of-mexico-to-recover-from-bp-s-spill-by-2012-feinberg-says.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">fully recovered by 2012</a>.</p> <p>"One viewpoint, which is what BP would want us to believe, is that this oil and gas had been naturally dispersed and had a relatively minor effect, and perhaps no long-term impact on the health of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. The other point of view is that it killed lots of animals, oiled wetlands and may have long-term ecological impacts, but it's too early to assess that," said Ian MacDonald, a Florida State University oceanographer and co-author with Joye of the methane estimates.</p> <p>"We all hope the first one is correct, but we should try to be very objective about determining what really did happen," he said.</p> <p>Widger's group concluded that "the long-term damage to the ecosystem including the basic food chain is uncertain and requires future research."</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/gulffloor.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/gulffloor.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=a6b5bf43fdf03e995b2bc7eff58f6a5a&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fgulffloor.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><em>Images: 1) Geoff Livingston, Flickr. 2) Samantha Joye, University of Georgia.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/oil-spill-dispersants/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/oil-spill-dispersants/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Deep-Sea BP Spill Dispersants Didn't Degrade for Months</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/gulf-plumes-revisited/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/gulf-plumes-revisited/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Oil-Gobbling Bug Discovery Raises Gulf Hopes — For Now</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/esa-overhaul/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/esa-overhaul/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Oil Disaster Shows Need for Endangered Species Act Overhaul …</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/oobleck-top-kill/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/oobleck-top-kill/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Dr. Seussian Mystery Fluid Could Have Saved Top Kill</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gulf-tipping/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gulf-tipping/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Gulf Coast May Be Permanently Changed by Oil Spill</a></li> </ul> <p><em>Citation: "Longitudinal Metagenomic Analysis of the Water and Soil from Gulf of Mexico Beaches Affected by the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill." By William R. Widger, Georgiy Golovko, Antonio F. Martinez, Efren V. Ballesteros, Jesse J. Howard, Zhenkang Xu, Utpal Pandya, Viacheslav Y. Fofanov, Mark Rojas, Christopher Bradburne, Ted Hadfield, Nels A. Olson, Joshua L. Santarpia & Yuriy Fofanov. Nature Precedings, February 28, 2011.</em></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=3J_LlUVav68:ZnrZdaoWffg:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150145503280795">Engineered Viruses Boost Memory Recall in Mice</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 03 Mar 2011 12:19 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=164e345073d3dc6bfb4ee37e4c7c451d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fhiv-lymphocyte-cdc.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><strong>By John Timmer, Ars Technica</strong></p> <p>Memories fade with time, often to the annoyance of those who can't recall important details. But scientists have now found a way to boost the recall of memories even after they've started to fade. Unfortunately, the method involves injecting an engineered virus directly into the brain, so those of us who are bad with names may want to wait a bit for the technique to be refined.</p> <p><a href="http://arstechnica.com/" target="_blank" title="http://arstechnica.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=433c02fa0ab707d3e69b7ef83156d12d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fepicenter%2F2010%2F07%2FPicture-1.png" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>The work was done in rats, and the memories in question are associations between a specific taste — saccharine, for example — and an unpleasant stimulus, caused by injection of a nausea-inducing drug (the approach is called "conditioned taste aversion"). Unless the unpleasant association is reinforced, the memories will slowly fade with time, although the aversion doesn't disappear entirely during the two-week period that the authors were looking at.</p> <p>Two years ago, the same authors found that it was possible to <a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2007/08/gone-in-a-zip-researchers-erase-long-term-memories-with-chemicals.ars" target="_blank" title="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2007/08/gone-in-a-zip-researchers-erase-long-term-memories-with-chemicals.ars" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">radically accelerate this fading</a>. By injecting a chemical that blocked a specific brain enzyme (protein kinase M ζ), the authors caused the rats to act as if they had never experienced the nausea, even if the memory manipulation took place 25 days after the conditioning. Most chemicals that interfere with memories tend to prevent them from being consolidated for long-term storage, but this chemical seemed to work even after the memory was firmly in place.</p> <p>That's potentially helpful, since some people have formed negative associations with harmless or even helpful items. Still, for most of us, it would be nice to think that fading memories could be resuscitated. Apparently, they can. The researchers have now done what's effectively the converse experiment, and increased the activity of protein kinase M ζ. They did this by engineering a virus to express the gene for the kinase, and then infected specific areas of the brain involved in memory. All the infected cells had additional copies of the gene, and thus made more of its product.</p> <p>The virus had exactly the effect that the authors would presumably have predicted. The virus was injected a week after the rats were given the aversion conditioning, when the memory would already be starting to fade, and the memory tests were done a week after that, yet rats showed a significantly improved retention of their memories. As the authors point out, the engineered virus boosted a memory that was formed before it was even present.</p> <p> </p> <div><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=f5c201dd80a8007f48dc2b38916a5ddf&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fmemory-molecule-pkmzeta-science.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /><p>The memory molecule, PKMzeta, overexpressed in rat neurons. Red (left) shows PKMzeta while green (middle) is a fluorescent protein that shows nerve cells have been infected by viruses engineered to boost the memory molecule. Yellow (right) shows both the memory molecule and green fluorescent protein only overexpress at certain locations in the neuron. <em>Weizmann Institute of Science/</em>Science<em></em></p></div> <p>Actually, you can make that <em>memories</em>, plural. The authors trained rats to avoid both saccharine and salty liquids over the course of three days, and then injected the virus a week after the last training. The memories of both of these trainings were enhanced by the presence of the viral protein kinase M ζ gene.</p> <p>The authors can't tell exactly what protein kinase M ζ is doing to increase the recall of memories, and suggest it could be either enhancing the association between taste and the unpleasant experience, or simply enhancing recall in general. Although they don't mention it, their findings may also be limited to specific classes of memories, like the associations examined here.</p> <p>That latter point makes the last sentence of the paper a bit over the top, as the authors suggest that a chemical that enhances protein kinase M ζ activity might make for a good treatment for memory disorders like amnesia and age-related decline. Until we have a clearer sense of how many types of memories it works for, that's a bit premature. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to test the recall abilities of animals, many of which don't involve negative associations. Hopefully, testing of the virus' more general impact on memory is already underway.</p> <p><em>Image: HIV (green dots), a member of the lentivirus genus. (C. Goldsmith/P. Feorino/E. L. Palmer/W. R. McManus/CDC)</em></p> <p><em>Citation: "Enhancement of Consolidated Long-Term Memory by Overexpression of Protein Kinase Mζ in the Neocortex." Reut Shema, Sharon Haramati, Shiri Ron, Shoshi Hazvi, Alon Chen,<br /> Todd Charlton Sacktor and Yadin Dudai. </em>Science<em>, Vol. 331, March 3, 2011. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1200215" target="_blank" title="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1200215" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">10.1126/science.1200215</a></em></p> <p><em>Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/03/the-memory-virus-gene-boosts-memories-made-weeks-earlier.ars" target="_blank" title="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/03/the-memory-virus-gene-boosts-memories-made-weeks-earlier.ars" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Ars Technica</a></em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/memory-retention-sleep/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/memory-retention-sleep/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Sleeping Protects Memories From Corruption</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/mouse-memory-switch/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/mouse-memory-switch/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Genetic Switch Could Restore Memory</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/muscle-memory/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/muscle-memory/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Muscles Remember Past Glory</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/lasercontrolledhumans/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/lasercontrolledhumans/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Laser-Controlled Humans Closer to Reality</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/world-computer-data/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/world-computer-data/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">World's Total CPU Power: One Human Brain</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=AhsvHDdpOO4:Lu31DX1G2cw:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150145503295795">4 New Species of Zombifying Ant Fungus Found</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 03 Mar 2011 09:50 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1056" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1056" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> </div> <div> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=79454f9fdca834f3b68c9d9b6cbb11b6&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fzombie-ants%2F1.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </div> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1055" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1055" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=be9dd26bd18cd11f6dce16c10d6115a1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fzombie-ants%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_1.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1056" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1056" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=58a0b43664ccda84dba69596a6f53ee4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fzombie-ants%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_2.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1057" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1057" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=735c4e8adadca4d38d1743c7ce284dc8&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fzombie-ants%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_3.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1058" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1058" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=ab3b38ccdc97e6244765e9c3ca8f69f9&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fzombie-ants%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_4.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1059" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1059" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=ad780bb57448a7d4e4f09dd6831cec64&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fzombie-ants%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_5.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1061" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1061" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=7d5e20255926ec8c96b9cfd40faf6d1f&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fzombie-ants%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_9.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1060" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1060" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=173a9d89c6dd6bc7282605078ed4eb2e&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fzombie-ants%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_8.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> </ul> <br /> <div> Four new species of brain-manipulating fungi that turn ants into "zombies" have been discovered in the Brazilian rain forest. <p>These fungi control ant behavior with mind-altering chemicals, then kill them. They're part of a large family of fungi that create chemicals that mess with animal nervous systems.</p> <p>Usually scientists study these fungi as specimens preserved in a lab, said entomologist David Hughes of Pennsylvania State University, co-author of a study March 3 <em>PLoS ONE</em>. "By going into the forest to watch them, we found new micro-structures and behaviors."</p> <p>Once infected by spores, the worker ants, normally dedicated to serving the colony, leave the nest, find a small shrub and start climbing. The fungi directs all ants to the same kind of leaf: about 25 centimeters above the ground and at a precise angle to the sun (though the favored angle varies between fungi). How the fungi do this is a mystery.</p> <p>"It's related to the fungus that LSD comes from," Hughes said. "Obviously they are producing lots of interesting chemicals." <p>Before dying, ants anchor themselves to the leaf, clamping their jaws on the edge or a vein on the underside. The fungi then takes over, turning the ant's body into a spore-producing factory. It lives off the ant carcass, using it as a platform to launch spores, for up to a year.</p> <p>"This is completely different from what we see in temperate zones where, if an insect dies from a fungal infection, the game's over in a few days," Hughes said. "The fungi rots the body of the insect and releases massive amounts of spores over two or three days. But in the tropics, where humidity and temperature are more stable, the fungi has this strategy for long-term release."</p> <p>Of the four new species, two grow long, arrow-like spores which eject like missiles from the fungus, seeking to land on a passing ant. The other fungi propel shorter spores, which change shape in mid-air to become like boomerangs and land nearby. If these fail to land on an ant, the spores sprout stalks that can snag ants walking over them. Upon infecting the new ant, the cycle starts again.</p> <p>Chemicals from this global group of fungi, known as <em>Cordyceps</em>, have been a part of traditional medicine for thousands years, and part of Western medicine for the last 50.</p> <p>Organ transplant patients, for example, receive ciclosporin — a drug that suppresses the immune system, reducing the chance the body will reject the new tissue. Chemicals from this same fungal group are also used for antibiotic, antimalarial and anticancer drugs.</p> <p>The fungi help the forest by keeping ant populations in check. "All of the problems with global ant infestations, for example the Argentine fire ant," Hughes said, "is because the ants have escaped their natural enemies. Then they become a pest."</p> <p>These fungi need a precise level of humidity to survive. As global temperature changes, the forests where they live are drying. Hughes and his colleagues are now studying the decline these fungi.</p> <p>"We're worried we'll see the extinction of a species we've only just managed to describe."</p> <p>On the following pages are more photographs of zombifying fungi in action.</p> </div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1056" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1056" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1060&viewall=true" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/zombifying-ant-fungus/?pid=1060&viewall=true" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">View all</a></div> </div> </div> <p><em>All images: <a href="http://ento.psu.edu/directory/dhughes" target="_blank" title="http://ento.psu.edu/directory/dhughes" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">David Hughes</a>, Pennsylvania State University</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/funky-worms-cause-ants-to-mimic-fruit/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/funky-worms-cause-ants-to-mimic-fruit/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Funky Worms Cause Ants to Mimic Fruit</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/crazy-ants-cloning/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/crazy-ants-cloning/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Clones of Crazy Ant Queens Fuel Global Invasion</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/mosquito-fungus-malaria/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/mosquito-fungus-malaria/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mosquito-Attacking Fungus Engineered to Block Malaria</a></li> </ul> <p><em>Citation: "Hidden diversity behind the Zombie-Ant fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis: Four new species described from Carpenter ants in Minas Gerais, Brazil." By Harry C. Evans, Simon L. Elliot, David P. Hughes. PloS One, Vol. 6 No. 3, March 2011.</em></p></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=ymw8h7LWRJI:Cf5YGoK77NI:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="5" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150145503305795">An Unknown Ocean: The Other Rhythms of Life</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 02 Mar 2011 03:41 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/ocean_moon.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/ocean_moon.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=78a532785fb249c86faa6c803d9bfc98&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Focean_moon.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Circadian rhythms are well known to biologists, with hundreds of studies analyzing fundamental links between sunlight, cellular clocks, hormones and metabolism function.</p> <p>But for the first few billion years of Earthly life, it wasn't just solar cycles that mattered. Lunar and tidal cycles were just as important, and for modern marine creatures they still are. Yet these cycles have received only a smidgen of scientific attention. </p> <p>"When you look at the literature of circadian and lunar rhythms, they were equally prominent in the literature" until the early 1980s, said evolutionary neurobiologist Kristin Tessmar-Raible of Austria's University of Vienna. </p> <p>That's when the first circadian clock gene was cloned in a fruit fly, allowing scientists to manipulate its function in a common model organism, and focus shifted. "Everything switched in modern molecular biology to what you could look at in fruit flies and mice. Those only have circadian rhythms," she said.</p> <p> </p> <p>In a research review published in the March <em>Bioessay</em>, Tessmar-Raible and Florian Raible, a molecular biologist at the University of Vienna, describe the ubiquity of lunar and tidal cycles in ocean creatures, and the still-embryonic understanding of how those cycles work. </p> <p>Their own interest was sparked several years ago in work on <em>Platyneereis dumerilii</em>, a marine worm known to evolutionary biologists as a living fossil, last sharing a common ancestor with vertebrates 600 million years ago. They found a previously unknown, light-sensitive cell deep in the worms' brains, far from any light. </p> <p>Mystified at its location, they researched the worm's natural history, and learned that their wild spawning cycles occurred in time with lunar cycles. At conferences with marine biologists, Raible and Tessmar-Raible learned of a vast literature on animal behavior and lunar cycles.</p> <div>'How many different clocks can you have? It's an open question.'</div> <p> From algae to jellyfish to worms to crustaceans to mollusks to fish, examples abound of behaviors that change according to moon and tide. Molecular research is just beginning now, and questions abound. Raible and Tessmar-Raible's most basic question is how the lunar clock mechanisms work — and, indeed, how many different clock mechanisms there are. </p> <p>"How many different clocks can you have? It's an open question," said Raible. "You can imagine that the inputs could differ between species. It doesn't have to be light. It could be the pressure of the water. This is all up for investigation. It's going to be very interesting to see and compare between species. It may be the same system, or there may be several independent systems that have evolved." </p> <p>Another question is how lunar clocks don't interfere with circadian clocks, and vice versa. Yet another is whether land-dwelling creatures still have lunar clocks. It's not uncommon for complex terrestrial vertebrates to share features with ancient marine ancestors; in humans, female reproductive cycles may correlate with lunar cycles, though evidence is mixed.</p> <p>However, Raible and Tessmar-Raible note that many other animals' reproductive patterns show no connection to the moon, and warn against speculation. </p> <p>To them, understanding lunar cycles is less about investigating potential terrestrial analogues than coming to a deeper understanding of ocean creatures, which — despite humanity's landed perspective — dominate Earthly life. </p> <p>"First we want to understand how these things work in organisms that really have lunar clocks, and see which molecules are involved," said Tessmar-Raible. "And then, are they really involved in vertebrates? Do we have them, and what are they doing? Let's see." </p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/lunar-animal-cylces.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/lunar-animal-cylces.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=7a1d5813e038ea6115165d5894ed8c01&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Flunar-animal-cylces.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><em>Images: 1) <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/photosfrank/2219603116/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/photosfrank/2219603116/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Frank van de Velde</a>/Flickr 2) Phylogenetic chart of animals with lunar cycles. (</em>Bioessays<em>)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong><br /></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/arctic-reindeer-circadian-clock/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/arctic-reindeer-circadian-clock/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Arctic Reindeer Go Off the Circadian Clock</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/circadian-disruption/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/circadian-disruption/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mice Kept on Unnatural Schedule Go Haywire</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/stem-cell-activ/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/stem-cell-activ/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "0d629", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Stem Cell Activity Follows Circadian Rhythyms</a></li> </ul> <p><em>Citation: "Another place, another timer: Marine species and the rhythms of life." By Kristin Tessmar-Raible, Florian Raible and Enrique Arboleda. </em>Bioessays<em>, Vol. 33 No. 3, March 2011.</em></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=pxYwV_YHSjI:-67_F1zY9cU:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-60315895089566301132011-03-03T13:27:00.001-08:002011-03-03T13:27:55.577-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Study Blames Plasma Flow for Spotless Sun</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Hagfish May Absorb Carcasses With Their Skin, Gills</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Sight Gets Repurposed in Brains of the Blind</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">Tiny Spheres Turn Regular Microscopes Into Nanoscopes</a> </li> <li> <a href="#5">NASA’s Messenger Spacecraft Zeroes In on Mercury</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150144557235795">Study Blames Plasma Flow for Spotless Sun</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 02 Mar 2011 10:07 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/spotless-sun-model/spotless_sun/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/spotless-sun-model/spotless_sun/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=414313b019eb3b442549f2d7e58a6513&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fspotless_sun.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>A new computer model suggests the shifting speeds of plasma inside the sun could have shut off sunspots at the end of the most recent solar cycle.</p> <p>The model, described in the March 3 <em>Nature</em>, attempts to explain why the most recent lull in solar activity was so long and so quiet. The sun's magnetic activity ramps up and calms down on a fairly regular 11-year cycle. The highs are full of sunspots, dark splotches that mark where knots of magnetic field have risen from the solar interior to pop up at the surface like a cork. During the lows, some days have no sunspots at all.</p> <p>Sunspots can give rise to <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/big-solar-flare/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/big-solar-flare/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">solar flares</a> and other magnetic storms that can <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/weak-solar-storm/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/weak-solar-storm/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">wreak minor havoc on Earth</a>, knocking out power grids and communications satellites.</p> <p>The last solar cycle peaked in 2001 and was supposed to end in 2008. But the sun stayed asleep, displaying a weak magnetic field and an unusually high number of sunspotless days, for an extra 15 months beyond what astronomers expected.</p> <p>Now, <a href="http://www.iiserkol.ac.in/~dnandi/" target="_blank" title="http://www.iiserkol.ac.in/~dnandi/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Dibyendu Nandy</a> of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research and colleagues offer an explanation: A "conveyor belt" of plasma inside the sun ran quickly at first and then slowed down.</p> <p> </p> <p>Nandy and colleagues at the University of Montana and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics ran a computer simulation of magnetic flow inside the sun for 210 sunspot cycles. They randomly varied the speed of plasma flow around a loop called the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridional_flow" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridional_flow" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">meridional circulation</a>, which carries magnetic fields from the sun's interior to its surface and from the equator to the poles.</p> <p>Observations suggest that the fastest flow runs around 22 meters per second (49 miles per hour). Nandy's model looked at speeds between 15 and 30 meters per second (33 to 67 miles per hour).</p> <p>The model found that a fast flow followed by a slow flow reproduced both the weak magnetic field and the dearth of sunspots observed in the last solar minimum.</p> <p>"This is the first paper that is able to provide a rationale and reproduce two of the main characteristics of the extended solar minimum," said <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/about-us/organization-and-leadership/lead-program-scientist-for-lws/" target="_blank" title="http://science.nasa.gov/about-us/organization-and-leadership/lead-program-scientist-for-lws/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">NASA solar physicist Madhulika Guhathakurta</a>, who was not involved in the new work. "For something as complicated as the solar dynamo and solar cycle, this relatively simple model has produced remarkable results."</p> <p>The model makes physical sense, Nandy says. The seeds of sunspots form when the magnetic field is strong in a region Nandy calls the "creation zone," about a third of the way down into the sun. A faster meridional flow means magnetic plasma spends less time in the creation zone, making a weaker magnetic field and fewer sunspots.</p> <p>"What you're doing by having a very fast flow early on in the cycle is you're producing a sunspot cycle which is not very strong," he said. "It runs out of steam before the next cycle can start."</p> <p>A slower flow in the second half delays the onset of the next solar maximum, leaving a sunspot-free gap between the two cycles.</p> <p>Unfortunately, observations of the sun's surface seem to directly contradict the new model.</p> <p>"We're in this quandary, this clash between theory and observations," said NASA astronomer <a href="http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtml" target="_blank" title="http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtml" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">David Hathaway</a><a>, who </a>analyzed 13 years of data from the <a href="http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/" target="_blank" title="http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Solar and Heliospheric Observatory</a> (SOHO) that tracked the movement of charged material near the surface of the sun.</p> <p>Hathaway agrees that a fast flow can cause weak magnetic fields and fewer sunspots. But his observations, published March 12, 2010 in <em><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/327/5971/1350.abstract" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/327/5971/1350.abstract" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Science</a></em>, suggest that the <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/solar-slumber-may-have-been-caused-by-magnetic-flows/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/solar-slumber-may-have-been-caused-by-magnetic-flows/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">meridional flow was slow</a> in the first half of the last solar cycle, from about 1996 to 2000. Only after the solar maximum did the flow speed up.</p> <p>"That's where there's a problem," Hathaway said. "We see one thing, they want the opposite to explain the observations."</p> <p>Nandy and colleagues point out that the SOHO observations only see plasma moving at the surface of the sun, not in the deep interior where sunspots are born. The surface flows might not reflect what's going on underneath, he says.</p> <p>"In an analogy that you might be able to relate to, one could ask, do ripples on the surface of the sea indicate how ocean currents determine the migration of aquatic animals deeper inside?" Nandy said.</p> <p>Hathaway argues that changes in the surface should be transmitted to the interior at the speed of sound, and should reach the creation zone in half an hour or less. The disagreement between theory and data means there must be a problem with the models, he says.</p> <p>"Since 1999, I was a huge champion of these models. They so nicely explained why the sunspot zones drift toward the equator at the speeds they do," he said. "But I'm worried now. I'm really worried."</p> <p>More observations, especially with NASA's fairly new <a href="http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/" target="_blank" title="http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Solar Dynamics Observatory</a>, should clear things up.</p> <p>"The sun will ultimately tell us how to resolve this conflict because only it knows what the next cycle will bring," Guhathakurta said.</p> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/spotless-sun-model/simulation_flow_field/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/spotless-sun-model/simulation_flow_field/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=9f164c445cfaa25c23e6599125b7c321&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fsimulation_flow_field.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a><p>Black lines trace the meridional flow of magnetic plasma inside the sun.</p></div> <p><em>Image: 1) A spotless sun in September 2008. Credit: SOHO/ESA/NASA. 2) William T. Bridgman (NASA/GSFC), Dibyendu Nandy (IISER Kolkata), Andrés Muñoz-Jaramillo (Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and Petrus C.H. Martens (Montana State University).</em></p> <p><em>Citations:<br /> "The unusual minimum of sunspot cycle 23 caused by meridional plasma flow variations." Dibyendu Nandy, Andrés Muñoz-Jaramillo and Petrus C. H. Martens. Nature, Vol 471, 3 March 2011. DOI: 10.1038/nature09786.</em></p> <p><em>"Variations in the Sun's Meridional Flow over a Solar Cycle." David H. Hathaway and Lisa Rightmire. Science, Vol. 327 no. 5971, 12 March 2010. DOI: 10.1126/science.1181990</em></p> <p><em><strong>See Also:</strong></em></p> <ul> <li><em><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/sunspots/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/sunspots/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Photo: The Sun Gets Its Spots (Back)</a></em></li> <li><em><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/the-year-in-sunspot/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/the-year-in-sunspot/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">2009's Sleepy Sun Finally Woke Up in December</a></em></li> <li><em><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/solarcycle/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/solarcycle/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Big Solar Flare Portends Sun's Return to Normal</a></em></li> <li><em><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/solar-slumber-may-have-been-caused-by-magnetic-flows/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/solar-slumber-may-have-been-caused-by-magnetic-flows/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Solar Slumber May Have Been Caused by Magnetic Flows</a></em></li> <li><em><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/solar-radio-bursts/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/solar-radio-bursts/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Audio: DIY Recordings of Awakening Sun</a></em></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=fXAFU6IQMOM:rFQUv0Rrj8I:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150144557285795">Hagfish May Absorb Carcasses With Their Skin, Gills</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 02 Mar 2011 06:45 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=156f9e83e6129874e9072beceee507ed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fhagfish-linda-snook-noaa-cbnms.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>When Pacific hagfish burrow into a carcass and eat their way out, they may be feeding directly through their gills and skin as well as their guts.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>Lab tests suggest that hagfish actively take up nutrients through their outer tissues, says fish physiologist Chris M. Wood of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Plenty of marine animals without backbones can feed through their skin, but no one had demonstrated the power in a species so close to fish and modern vertebrates, Wood and his colleagues say in a paper to be published in the <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society B</em>.</p> <p>"One of the important steps in evolution was abandoning feeding through the skin and concentrating on feeding through the gut," Wood says. Skin with strong barriers against outside substances allowed animals to keep their inner chemistry more separate from the outside world, and thus move into fresh water or onto land.</p> <p>Hagfishes may not quite count as true modern vertebrates, because their bony skulls don't lead to bony vertebrae making up a backbone. Instead what's called a notochord, a flexible rod of tissue, extends along hagfish backs. Wood calls hagfishes "ancient vertebrates" in honor of their status, currently under debate, as descendants of close relatives to the first fully backboned vertebrates.</p> <p> </p> <div><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=f4b2e60e30fe02ff6b0fe77ce2230b77&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fhagfish-gills-nutrients-bucking-morash.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /><p>The gill pouch of a Pacific hagfish (shown here removed from the fish) may be able to take up nutrients directly. <em>Carol Bucking/Andrea Morash</em></p></div> <p>To test the idea that these almost-vertebrates use skin-feeding powers during full-contact dining, Wood and his colleagues removed bits of skin or gills from the fish but provided glucose to the tissues to keep cells functioning for at least several hours. Then researchers exposed the outside of the tissues to varying solutions of two amino acids and checked the other side of the tissue to see how much of the nutrients passed through, and under what circumstances.</p> <p>If nutrients were just passing through as if the tissue were a lifeless sheet, then increasing the concentrations of nutrients on one side would have increased the concentrations on the other side. Yet that's not what happened, the researchers found. Rising concentrations reached a plateau on the "inner" side of the hagfish tissue. That's a characteristic sign the tissues are actively taking up a substance, in which case the transport mechanism can get saturated, Wood explains.</p> <p>Also, taking sodium away from a seawater-like soup of nutrients on the outside of the tissue disrupted passage through the gills. That blockage, Wood says, suggests the hagfish tissue is using a transport system familiar from other organisms, in which sodium needs to bind to a chemical load for the load to be ferried through a tissue.</p> <p>Another longtime hagfish biologist, Frederic Martini of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, welcomes the attention to the physiology of hagfishes, but says he'd like to see what hagfish would do with other kinds of nutrients besides amino acids.</p> <p>Also, "what you can show in a lab isn't always functionally relevant," he cautions. In the real world the hagfish may not be doing so much carrion-burrowing, he says, because some populations seem so big he suspects the animals prey on animals still living.</p> <p>Wood says he's trying to study more natural feeding behavior. In lab tanks, though, hagfish turn out to be uncooperative, picky eaters.</p> <p><em>Image: Linda Snook/NOAA/CBNMS</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/vertebrate-origins/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/vertebrate-origins/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Hagfish Analysis Opens Major Gap in Tree of Life</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/new-phylum/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/new-phylum/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Animal Kingdom Gains Phylum But Loses Link</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/toxic-cambrian-oceans/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/toxic-cambrian-oceans/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Toxic Oceans May Have Poisoned Early Animals</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/the-worms-go-in-the-worms-go-out-the-habits-of-prehistoric-bone-eating-worms/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/the-worms-go-in-the-worms-go-out-the-habits-of-prehistoric-bone-eating-worms/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">The Habits of Prehistoric Bone-Eating Worms</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=OtBoPTrAVN8:17w_axY_uzA:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150144557300795">Sight Gets Repurposed in Brains of the Blind</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 01 Mar 2011 01:49 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/Helen_KellerA.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/Helen_KellerA.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=474818fb4756c39dbfff1d842f3d6d13&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2FHelen_KellerA.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>In the brains of people blind from birth, structures used in sight are still put to work — but for a very different purpose. Rather than processing visual information, they appear to handle language. </p> <p>Linguistic processing is a task utterly unrelated to sight, yet the visual cortex performs it well. </p> <p>"It suggests a kind of plasticity that's even broader than the kinds observed before," said Marina Bedny, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It's a really drastic change. It suggests there isn't a predetermined function an area can serve. It can take a wide range of possible functions." </p> <p>In a study published Tuesday in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, Bedny's team monitored the brain activity of five congenitally blind individuals engaged in language-intensive tasks. </p> <p>Immense neurological plasticity was suggested by research conducted in the late 1990s on "rewired" ferrets — after their optical nerves were severed and rerouted into their auditory cortices, they could still see — but such studies, already ethically troubling in animals, would be unconscionable in humans. </p> <p>Instead, researchers have used brain imaging to study plasticity resulting from natural sensory deprivation in people. They've found that the visual cortices of blind people become active as they read Braille. It wasn't clear, however, whether this was a function of Braille's spatial demands, which overlap with the spatial aspects of sight, or a radical repurposing of supposedly specialized areas. </p> <p> </p> <div>'Language is a property that emerges out of the system, rather than a magic-bullet solution from one brain area.'</div> <p>In Bedny's study, the brains of blind people were analyzed as they listened to complete sentences — a relatively high-level comprehension task. Then they were given lesser linguistic challenges, from listening to lists of unrelated words to hearing sentences played backwards, or trying to comprehend grammatically structured speech containing nonsense words. </p> <p>The results were twofold. Blind people's visual cortices clearly responded to language, not to space. Moreover, they were most active in response to high-level language demands, just as the brain's "traditional" language centers are. </p> <p>Implications of the findings are many. Some neuroscientists have proposed that human brains are hard-wired for language, with specific regions evolved for the task. While our brains are obviously well-suited for language, its performance by visual centers suggests that more than hard-wiring is at work. </p> <p>"Language is a property that emerges out of the system, rather than a magic-bullet solution from one brain area," said Bedny. </p> <p>Indeed, the brains of congenitally blind people may even hint at the human brain's early state, with "visual" centers open for processing different types of information, and only later becoming involved in vision. </p> <p>Bodny is now using behavioral tests to investigate in greater detail how blind people process language. "We really want to know what sort of things are blind people better at," she said. "Parsing complicated sentences, with different grammatical structure? Might they be better at resolving ambiguities? If they're listening to several things at a time, can they parse two speech streams rather than one? We don't know the answer to those questions yet." </p> <p><em>Image: Helen Keller./Wikimedia Commons.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong><br /></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/how-blind-people-make-sense-of-language/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/how-blind-people-make-sense-of-language/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">How Blind People Make Sense Of Language</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/deaf-sight-enhancement/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/deaf-sight-enhancement/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Being Deaf Can Enhance Sight</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/the-persistence/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/the-persistence/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">The Persistence of Vision: A Story of Freakish Perception</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/musicianshearbetter/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/musicianshearbetter/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Making Music Hacks Your Hearing</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/echolocation/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/echolocation/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Make Like a Dolphin: Learn Echolocation</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/03/babies-see-pure/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/03/babies-see-pure/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Babies See Pure Color, but Adults Peer Through Prism of Language</a></li> </ul> <p><em>Citations: "Language processing in the occipital cortex of congenitally blind adults." By Marina Bedny, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, David Dodell-Feder, Evelina Fedorenko, and Rebecca Saxe. </em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<em>, Vol. 108 No. 9, March 1, 2011.</em></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=IMysalDZQEs:f2AxvNJW7xU:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150144557310795">Tiny Spheres Turn Regular Microscopes Into Nanoscopes</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 01 Mar 2011 12:06 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=ebe85e0ccc25be464265fbfe7a8a3599&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fnano-microsphere-microscope-sem-2-nature.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>Ordinary microscopes can see 8 times more minutely than known physical limits if miniature glass spheres are sprinkled onto samples, according to a new study.</p> <p>The cheapest and most common microscopes use white light to magnify objects, but the nature of light and the limitations of our eyes mean those microscopes can't image things smaller than bacteria. Other microscopy techniques, which use lasers, metamaterials and electron beams to <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/top-20-microscope-photos-2010/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/top-20-microscope-photos-2010/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">image microscopic</a> and nanoscopic worlds, can exceed such limits. But they are difficult, time-consuming and expensive to use, and they can kill live samples.</p> <p>Glass microspheres about the size of red blood cells, however, described March 1 in <em>Nature Communications</em>, act like tiny magnifying glasses and bring normally invisible structures into sight. Stitching the microspheres' images together with software could create unprecedented white-light photos.</p> <p>"We have broken the theoretical limits of optical microscopy in white light," said engineer <a href="http://www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/staff/academic/profile/?staffId=188" target="_blank" title="http://www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/staff/academic/profile/?staffId=188" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Lin Li</a> of the University of Manchester, a co-author of the study. "The surprising thing is the simplicity. One hundred dollars buys you about 100 million microspheres. Using conventional optical microscopes, almost anyone can do this."</p> <p>The microspheres may allow microscopes to image viruses in action or the insides of living cells. But the technique may not be as simple to use as the study's authors say.</p> <p>An independent group of microscope experts at Purdue University, led by physicist and engineer <a href="http://cobweb.ecn.purdue.edu/~shalaev/" target="_blank" title="http://cobweb.ecn.purdue.edu/~shalaev/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Vladimir Shalaev</a>, couldn't replicate similar images on their first attempt. But Shalaev said they're working with the paper's authors to be certain they did it correctly.</p> <p>"It can be very hard to reproduce new experiments," Shalaev said. "I have to admit this all sounds too good to be true. But if it is true, it's going to be a huge, huge development."</p> <p> </p> <p>Microscope resolution is limited by diffraction, or the bending and spreading of light when it encounters obstacles like glass. What we see through microscopes is also restricted by cells in the eye's retina, which can only detect light with wavelengths between 390 and 750 nanometers (between violet and red colors, respectively).</p> <div><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=db0ff996dd9bb92472574f0d8e14cb43&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fnanoscope-microspheres-nature-publishing-group.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /><p>Image: Nature Publishing Group</p></div> <p>These limitations prevent us from directly seeing objects smaller than 200 nanometers — just larger than a rabies virus or <em>Mycoplasma</em>, the smallest-known bacteria. Physicists and engineers have <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/photomicrography/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/photomicrography/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">circumvented the 200-nanometer barrier</a> with electron microscopy, laser fluorescence and nanoscale metamaterials, but they're expensive, kill live samples or are difficult to use. So Li and his colleagues sought a new method.</p> <p>In one experiment with glass beads between 2 microns and 9 microns wide, they could see 50-nanometer-wide holes in gold foil, or 8 times beyond the limits of conventional microscopy (image below). They were also able to see the tiny data grooves on a Blu-Ray disc (image above).</p> <p>"This is quite cheap and easy to implement, while the alternatives are far more expensive and complicated," Li said.</p> <p>Physicist and engineer <a href="http://www.ece.umd.edu/meet/faculty/research/smolyaninov.php3" target="_blank" title="http://www.ece.umd.edu/meet/faculty/research/smolyaninov.php3" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Igor Smolyaninov</a> of the University of Maryland, who wasn't involved in the research, has used metamaterials to image objects as small as <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/315/5819/1699.abstract" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/315/5819/1699.abstract" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">70 nanometers in size</a>. He doesn't think the new results are unreliable or untrue, but does see some limitations to the technique.</p> <p>"They looked at artificial structures. Metal lines, holes and such. These are not a virus or bacteria, which are much, much more difficult to see because they move around," Smolyaninov said. "I tried to do this before but couldn't convince myself it was real. If they can pull it off, I'll be extremely happy."</p> <div><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=8ed6618fdad20413ccd4b854682742f2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fnano-microsphere-microscope-sem-1-nature.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /><p>Image: Top row: Three blocks of lines etched into a metal surface, as seen with a scanning electron microscope, with bunched-up microspheres covering the bottom block (left). The top blocks of lines aren't visible with a light microscope, but under the microspheres they are (right). Bottom row: A gold surface with 50-nanometer holes punched in it, as seen with SEM. A microsphere covers the bottom right (left). The same mesh, with the holes visible under the microsphere with a light microscope (right). <em>Nature Publishing Group</em></p></div> <p><em>Image: Top row: A Blu-Ray disc's 100- and 200-nanometer grooves under a Scanning Electron Microscope (left). The same grooves are visible using microspheres with a light microscope (right). Bottom row: A 1,000-nanometer star etched into a DVD under SEM (left). The same star as seen through a microsphere (right). (Nature Publishing Group)</em></p> <p><em>Citation: "Optical virtual imaging at 50 nm lateral resolution with a white-light nanoscope." Zengbo Wang, Wei Guo, Lin Li, Boris Luk' yanchuk, Ashfaq Khan, Zhu Liu, Zaichun Chen &<br /> Minghui Hong. </em>Nature Communications<em>, Vol. 2 Issue 218. March 1, 2011. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1211</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/top-20-microscope-photos-2010/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/top-20-microscope-photos-2010/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Top 20 Microscope Photos of the Year</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/photomicrography/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/photomicrography/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">35 Years of the World's Best Microscope Photography</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/snowflakes-by-microscope/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/snowflakes-by-microscope/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Snowflakes Under an Electron Microscope</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/portraits-of-the-mind-gallery/%3Fpid%3D535" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/portraits-of-the-mind-gallery/%3Fpid%3D535" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mind-Blowing Brain Images From Then and Now</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/capsidimage/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/capsidimage/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">High-Resolution Imaging Unlocks Viral Secrets</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Gallery: 10 Stunning Science Visualizations</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=L_bl-7-636A:Z0nEuVPw6LE:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="5" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150144557320795">NASA’s Messenger Spacecraft Zeroes In on Mercury</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 01 Mar 2011 10:41 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p> </p> <p>NASA's <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/" target="_blank" title="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Messenger</a> probe will finally settle into orbit around Mercury on March 17, making it the first spacecraft ever to orbit the innermost planet.</p> <p>Since its launch in August 2004, Messenger (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) has revolutionized the way astronomers think about the closest planet to the sun. Combined with data from the <a href="http://history.nasa.gov/SP-424/sp424.htm" target="_blank" title="http://history.nasa.gov/SP-424/sp424.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mariner 10</a> mission in the '70s, astronomers have mapped 98 percent of the planet's surface. The video above, compiled from photos snapped as Messenger flew by Mercury in 2008, reveals huge impact craters and evidence of recent volcanic eruptions that were thought to be impossible on such a small, hot world. Other on-board instruments measured Mercury's magnetic field and tenuous atmosphere.</p> <p>But so far, Messenger's trip has been a tease. The spacecraft has spent the last seven years careening around the inner solar system, catching just <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html" target="_blank" title="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">three quick glances</a> of Mercury as it flew by. Once Messenger gets into orbit, the real work will begin.</p> <p>"We'll be constantly taking data," said principal investigator <a href="http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/scs/" target="_blank" title="http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/scs/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Sean C. Solomon</a>, a planetary scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in a talk Feb. 20 at the meeting of the <a href="http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2011/webprogram/meeting2011-02-17.html" target="_blank" title="http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2011/webprogram/meeting2011-02-17.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">American Association for the Advancement of Science</a> in Washington, D.C.</p> <p>One of the most exciting questions Messenger might answer is whether Mercury, <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/lcross-icy-moon/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/lcross-icy-moon/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">like the moon</a>, hides water ice in shadowed craters. Every part of Mercury's surface spends some time in daylight. But there are impact craters near the poles that are in permanent shadow.</p> <p> </p> <p>"They don't see the sun for millions, probably billions of years," Solomon said. "They're very cold — cold enough to preserve water ice for geologically long periods of time."</p> <p>Messenger's neutron spectrometer, an instrument that measures the concentrations of different kinds of uncharged particles that are knocked off Mercury's surface by cosmic rays, should be able to detect hydrogen in craters' dark corners, a signature of water ice.</p> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/messenger-orbit-preview/rachmaninoffcolor-2/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/messenger-orbit-preview/rachmaninoffcolor-2/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=8fe923bcc183a13fd0fd51400d0f9557&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2FRachmaninoffColor.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a><p>A vent to the north of Mercury's Rachmaninoff crater is "our best example of relatively young volcanism," said principal investigator Sean C. Solomon.</p></div> <p>Other spectrometers — one that measures gamma rays and another that measures X-rays — could help figure out what Mercury's surface is made of. The flybys showed definitively that Mercury has had active volcanoes in its recent past, but didn't show the makeup of the stuff that was erupted.</p> <p>"We're building up a catalog of probable volcanic centers, many of which appear to involve explosive volcanism," Solomon said. "That is a surprise."</p> <p>On Earth, Mars and the moon, volcanic eruptions are explosive only if the magma is full of volatile materials that form bubbles easily, like nitrogen, carbon dioxide and ammonia. For Mercury to have as many explosive volcanoes as it seems to, it would have to have much higher concentrations of volatile chemicals than Earth.</p> <p>That's surprising because Mercury was thought to have been extremely hot when it formed, which ought to have forced all the volatiles to evaporate, Solomon said. Instead, Mercury's formation might have been more like the moon's.</p> <p>"The comparison between Mercury and the moon will have a lot to tell us," Solomon said.</p> <p>Planetary scientists hope to decipher the planet's inside as well as its outside. Earlier observations show that Mercury's core makes up 60 percent of the planet by mass, making the planet unusually dense. Mercury is also the only planet in our solar system other than Earth whose magnetic field is probably driven by a molten metal core that drives a dynamo. Under Messenger's continuous watch, astronomers can finally figure out what's going on inside Mercury, which can give insight into how all the rocky planets formed in the early solar system.</p> <p>By the time Messenger gets into orbit, it will have traveled 4.9 billion miles and circled the sun more than 15 times. The spacecraft will end this long journey by cutting its speed by about half-a-mile per second, burning almost a third of its fuel in the process.</p> <p>The final orbit will be a wide ellipse that takes the spacecraft nearly from pole to pole every 12 hours, just 124 miles from the surface at the nearest point and 9,420 miles at the farthest. This orbit avoids the worst of the scorching temperatures on Mercury's day side, which can reach 700 degrees Fahrenheit.</p> <p>After it's safely in orbit, Messenger will start returning images April 4. It will stay in orbit for one full Earth year, or four of Mercury's 88-day years. An extended mission could keep Messenger in orbit for another year or two after that, if NASA's budget allows. When fuel or funding runs out, the spacecraft will crash into Mercury's surface.</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/messenger-orbit-preview/messenger-orbit-diagram/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/messenger-orbit-preview/messenger-orbit-diagram/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=3b63bf5474d2c89865eb57df037f2ed0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2FMessenger-orbit-diagram.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><em>Video: NASA/Sean Solomon. Images: NASA/</em><em>Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/first-image-ret/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/first-image-ret/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">First Image Returned Of Mercury's Previously Unseen Hemisphere</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/messengermercury/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/messengermercury/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">This Just in: Mercury More Exciting Than Mars</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/nasa-offers-hig/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/nasa-offers-hig/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">NASA Offers High-Res Close-Ups of Mercury's Surface</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/mercury-flyby-teaser/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/mercury-flyby-teaser/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mercury Flyby Maps New Territory</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/10/mercurys-red-ho/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/10/mercurys-red-ho/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "ac92f", event, bagof(null));" rel="nofollow">Mercury as You've Never Seen It Before</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=lgDc7S45msU:2jfqFsAuD9I:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-72276823203379272152011-03-01T13:38:00.001-08:002011-03-01T13:38:46.113-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Banned Chemical May Interfere With Pregnancy</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Recreational Drug Creates Out-of-Body Illusions</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Sometimes Invasive Species Are Good</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">Scientists Buy Rocket Rides to Suborbital Space</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150143587840795">Banned Chemical May Interfere With Pregnancy</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 01 Mar 2011 07:00 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=4765fce61f95232f7570f670bed58b74&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F03%2Fpcb-warning-label-flickr-silverfuture.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>PCB exposure may interfere with a woman's ability to get pregnant, a new study of women undergoing in vitro fertilization suggests. The study of 765 women found that those whose blood contained the highest levels of a particular form of polychlorinated biphenyl — one known as PCB 153 — were 41 percent less likely to give birth than women with the lowest levels.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>One contributing factor: Fertilized eggs were half as likely to implant in women if blood concentrations of PCB-153 fell in the top 25 percent of those measured among all participants. The study <a href="http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.1002922" target="_blank" title="http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.1002922" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">appeared</a> online February 24 in <em><a href="http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/home.action" target="_blank" title="http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/home.action" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Environmental Health Perspectives</a>.</em></p> <p>In women not undergoing IVF it would be difficult to know when to test for implantation, says <a href="http://www.sph.umich.edu/iscr/faculty/profile.cfm?uniqname=meekerj" target="_blank" title="http://www.sph.umich.edu/iscr/faculty/profile.cfm?uniqname=meekerj" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">John Meeker</a>, who led the new study. So the new data may provide a window into a subtle fertility risk that would be almost impossible to find in the general population, explains Meeker, an environmental and reproductive epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor.</p> <p>His team studied blood and urine that had been collected from 765 women treated at fertility clinics in the Boston area between 1994 and 2003. Together, the women had gone through a total of 827 cycles of attempted fertilization — processes that led to 297 live births, 229 implantation failures and 301 pregnancies that naturally terminated within 20 weeks of implantation.</p> <p>The researchers went into the study suspecting that the risk of implantation failure might be elevated among the most highly exposed women, based on earlier studies by others showing a similar problem in PCB-exposed rodents. Two years ago, Meeker's team also showed that in women, PCBs can enter follicles, structures that hold egg cells. So this "does suggest that these chemicals can make it to a place where they would be in contact with the maturing egg," he says.</p> <p> </p> <p>More than 200 related PCBs exist. Most people inadvertently encounter a broad mix of these, including traces of PCB-153, through food and the environment. Because some of these pollutants are difficult and costly to measure in blood, the researchers tested for the sum of all PCBs as well as for a narrow spectrum of specific ones or mixes of several with related functional attributes, such as binding to hormone receptors in cells or — in PCB-153's case — an ability to turn on certain detoxifying enzymes.</p> <p>The authors caution that although they found the strongest signs of potential fertility risks associated with PCB-153, there were hints that other PCBs might also impair fertility. The team notes that PCB-153 might even serve as a marker for one or more other reproductively toxic PCBs — or related pollutants — that co-occur in the environment.</p> <p>"I find the data intriguing — and think they have something here," says <a href="http://www.albany.edu/news/experts/8212.php" target="_blank" title="http://www.albany.edu/news/experts/8212.php" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">David Carpenter</a>, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany in New York. "I'm also underwhelmed," he adds.</p> <p>The researchers probed for a number of different reproductive endpoints, he says, including miscarriage, and what are known as chemical pregnancies — where a fertilized egg dies before a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Only implantation failures appeared at rates greater than would be expected by chance. And only for PCB-153, he adds, not for any of several different PCBs or PCB combinations.</p> <p>The data would be more convincing, Carpenter says, if the authors could point to some mechanism by which PCBs might impair reproduction — such as changing the permeability of the outer membrane of egg cells.</p> <p>Several years ago, Carpenter's team showed that some cells — nerve cells and immature immune cells — can incorporate PCBs, including PCB-153, altering the fluidity of the cells' membranes. "Something as fundamental as changing the fluidity of the membrane in the oocyte [egg cell] or uterus could, in fact, have dramatic effects on implantation," Carpenter says.</p> <p>Until their U.S. production was banned in 1979, most PCBs were used as insulating liquids in electrical transformers. Over the years, PCBs also have found use in other applications, including as an <a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/5271/title/PCBs_can_taint_building_caulk" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/5271/title/PCBs_can_taint_building_caulk" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">ingredient of exterior building caulk</a> and in some floor finishes. Because many PCB-containing materials are still in use and because any PCBs that enter the environment do not readily break down, people continue to encounter exposure to these potentially toxic compounds, most often through contaminated food.</p> <p><em>Image: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silverfuture/3684308971/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silverfuture/3684308971/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">silverfuture</a>/Flickr</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/fish-toxins-environment/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/fish-toxins-environment/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Mutant Fish Safely Store Toxins in Fat</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/pbde/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/pbde/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Potential Neuropoison Could Be in Our Food</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/sex-changing-ch/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/sex-changing-ch/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Sex-Changing Chemicals Make Male Starlings Sing Sweet Songs</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/irrigation/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/irrigation/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Pollution From Yard Runoff May Be Worse Than Thought</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/nasa-maps-global-air-pollution/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/nasa-maps-global-air-pollution/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">NASA Maps Global Air Pollution</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/obama-epa-investigations/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/obama-epa-investigations/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">EPA's Pollution-Busting Cops Have Lost Focus, Say Watchdogs</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=KHjYFw7fR98:TZEGDjVGC4w:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150143587855795">Recreational Drug Creates Out-of-Body Illusions</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 28 Feb 2011 03:30 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=3fb7910d3d64b7a8779bff765315f59d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fdrug-hallucination-flickr-nick-see.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>A popular "club drug" promises to open a scientific window on the strange world of out-of-body experiences, researchers say.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>Recreational users of a substance called ketamine often report having felt like they left their bodies or underwent other bizarre physical transformations, according to an online survey conducted by psychologist Todd Girard of Ryerson University in Toronto and his colleagues.</p> <p>Ketamine, an anesthetic known to interfere with memory and cause feelings of detachment from one's self or body, reduces transmission of the brain chemical glutamate through a particular class of molecular gateways. Glutamate generally jacks up brain activity. Ketamine stimulates sensations of illusory movement or leaving one's body by cutting glutamate's ability to energize certain brain areas, the researchers propose in a paper published online Feb. 15 in <em>Consciousness and Cognition</em>.</p> <p>"Ketamine may disrupt patterns of brain activation that coalesce to represent an integrated body and self, leading to out-of-body experiences," Girard says.</p> <p> </p> <p>National surveys indicate that 1.6 percent of high school seniors in Canada and the United States have used ketamine at least once. An estimated 70 percent of Toronto rave-goers now report taking ketamine at these all-night parties, Girard notes.</p> <p>In the new survey, use of marijuana, LSD and MDMA, also known as ecstasy, displayed modest links to volunteers' reports of illusions of walking or moving rapidly up and down while actually remaining still. But only ketamine use exhibited a strong relationship with having had a range of out-of-body experiences, regardless of any other drugs ingested at the time of those sensations, researchers say.</p> <p>Neuroscientist Olaf Blanke of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne calls ketamine "an interesting candidate to further understand some of the brain mechanisms in out-of-body experiences." Blanke, who like a growing number of scientists studies these phenomena in controlled experiments (<em><a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/59143/title/Grown_men_swap_bodies_with_virtual_girl" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/59143/title/Grown_men_swap_bodies_with_virtual_girl" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">SN: 6/5/10, p. 10</a></em>), says that drugs such as ecstasy and amphetamines also deserve close scrutiny.</p> <p>Blanke has linked out-of-body experiences to reduced activity in brain areas that integrate diverse sensations into a unified perception of one's body and self. Ketamine and other recreational drugs act throughout the brain, making it difficult to explain how any one drug might specifically affect sensation-integrating tissue, Blanke says.</p> <p>Girard's team administered online surveys about drug use and drug-related experiences to 192 volunteers, ages 14 to 48. Almost half the sample reported having used marijuana, alcohol, ecstasy, ketamine and amphetamines. Roughly two-thirds had taken ketamine, and nearly everyone had used marijuana and alcohol.</p> <p>Almost three-quarters of all participants reported having had a feeling of temporarily leaving their bodies, usually on several occasions. About 42 percent had experienced seeing their own bodies from an outside vantage point. Feelings of rapidly moving up and down, falling, flying or spinning had affected more than 60 percent of volunteers. Another 41 percent reported illusions of sitting up, moving a limb or walking around a room, only to realize that they had not moved.</p> <p>Of those reporting feelings of leaving their bodies, 58 percent were under the influence of ketamine at the time. Ketamine use also displayed a close association with other unusual bodily sensations.</p> <p>Apparent effects of drugs such as ecstasy on out-of-body experiences were largely explained by associated ketamine use, Girard says.</p> <p><em>Image: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicksee/2855516826/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicksee/2855516826/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">nick see</a>/Flickr</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/hallucinations/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/hallucinations/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Out of LSD? Just 15 Minutes of Sensory Deprivation Triggers Hallucinations</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/the-persistence/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/the-persistence/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">The Persistence of Vision: A Story of Freakish Perception</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/schizoillusion/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/schizoillusion/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Schizophrenic Brains Not Fooled by Optical Illusion</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/07/how-cops-can-te/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/07/how-cops-can-te/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">How Cops Can Tell When You Are High on Ketamine</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/sleep_paralysis/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/sleep_paralysis/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Freaky Sleep Paralysis: Being Awake in Your Nightmares</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/vr-goggles-and/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/vr-goggles-and/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">How to Use Neuroscience to Become Your Avatar</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=gLbMfFWbc2s:Ho-uAk6A1Gs:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150143587870795">Sometimes Invasive Species Are Good</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 28 Feb 2011 02:43 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/02/honeybee.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/02/honeybee.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=c41f5f79c02e8e5051ad98275ac8c74e&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fhoneybee.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Invasive species are the stock villains of conservation biology, disrupting ecosystems and throwing native populations into disarray. But in certain cases, they're actually quite beneficial, and perhaps it's time to recognize that.</p> <p>In California, for example, native butterflies feed on non-native plants. In Puerto Rico, alien trees help restore abandoned pastures to a condition suitable for native plants. Even the much-maligned zebra mussel helps filter toxins from lakes.</p> <p>"We predict the proportion of non-native species that are viewed as benign or even desirable will slowly increase over time," write ecologist Martin Schlaepfer of the State University of New York and colleagues in a paper published Feb. 22 in <em>Conservation Biology</em>.</p> <p> </p> <p>According to Schlaepfer's group, biologists are often biased against invasives, and decline to notice or report instances of beneficial invasions.</p> <p>They support their unorthodox perspective by reviewing dozens of papers on plants and animals introduced, accidentally or otherwise, outside their historical ranges. A variety of underappreciated invasive roles are described: providing ecosystem services, replenishing human-damaged regions, and generally helping to sustain some semblance of natural health even as many ecosystems struggle to survive.</p> <p>Schlaepfer and colleagues admit to a certain bias of their own. "Negative roles listed here are not exhaustive and include only those that directly oppose the listed positive roles," they write. "Many of the non-native species listed have other negative effects on conservation objectives."</p> <p>Their goal, however, isn't to do a conclusive analysis of the pros and cons of invasives, but to encourage a more open-minded consideration of benefits — and not just cost — for species often described in militarized, even xenophobic terms.</p> <p>After all, many now-beloved native creatures were once invasives. Among them are dozens of honeybee species introduced to North America since the 16th century. Far from declaring war on bees, people now worry that <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder" target="_blank" title="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">these invading aliens might vanish</a>.</p> <p><em>Image: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/computerhotline/4010231391/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/computerhotline/4010231391/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Thomas Bresson</a>/Flickr.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/invasive-species-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/invasive-species-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">9 Great Invasive Species Worth Admiring</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/giant-snakes/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/giant-snakes/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Giant Invasive Snakes Threaten U.S. Wildlife, People</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/homogecene/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/homogecene/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Global Shipping Industry Makes World Flat — Biologically</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/native-species-climate/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/native-species-climate/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Climate Change Blurs Definition of Native Species</a></li> </ul> <p><em>Citation: "The Potential Conservation Value of Non-Native Species." By Martin Schlaepfer, Dov Sax and Julian Olden. Conservation Biology, published online Feb. 22, 2011.</em></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=fyQPEgb5OZc:AHeOqoFow4Y:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150143587885795">Scientists Buy Rocket Rides to Suborbital Space</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 28 Feb 2011 12:00 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=15644efff29baa29ac879b9e5b5c989c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fspaceshiptwo-virgin-galactic.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>Two companies promising routine suborbital access have signed the first-ever contracts to ferry researchers beyond the Earth's limb and into space.</p> <p><a href="http://www.virgingalactic.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.virgingalactic.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Virgin Galactic</a>, a suborbital-spaceflight company that's building a spaceport in New Mexico, will fly at least two Southwest Research Institute researchers and their experiments into space at a cost of $200,000 per person. The institution has also reached a deal with <a href="http://www.xcor.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.xcor.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">XCOR Aerospace</a> for six researcher seats on suborbital flights at $100,000 each.</p> <p>"No one has ever offered any contracts to fly scientific researchers into suborbital space before," said planetary scientist <a href="http://www.swri.org/iProfiles/ViewiProfile.asp?k=s81y802jwy4371v" target="_blank" title="http://www.swri.org/iProfiles/ViewiProfile.asp?k=s81y802jwy4371v" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Alan Stern of SwRI</a>. "This breaks the ice and not in a small way. This is the beginning to what I think is going to be a huge market for routine access to space."</p> <p>Virgin Galactic's suborbital vehicle, <a href="http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/10/video-virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-glide-flight/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/10/video-virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-glide-flight/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">SpaceShipTwo</a>, will rocket two pilots and six paying customers about 68 miles above the Earth to provide about four minutes of zero-gravity flight. The company is building six ships, and each can haul more than 2,000 pounds of cargo into space.</p> <p>Accounting for the weight of pilots and passengers, that leaves hundreds of pounds for scientific experiments.</p> <p>"We could be flying weekly or daily, once we finish safety flights," said <a href="http://www.virgingalactic.com/news/item/virgin-galactic-appoints-its-first-chief-executive/" target="_blank" title="http://www.virgingalactic.com/news/item/virgin-galactic-appoints-its-first-chief-executive/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">George Whitesides</a>, president and CEO of Virgin Galactic. "That will allow researchers incredibly fast and routine access to the space environment."</p> <p> </p> <p>Parabolic airplane flights can re-create microgravity, but only for 20 to 25 seconds at a time. Sounding rockets are another option to create microgravity, but average around $2.5 million per launch.</p> <p>"No matter how you slice it, these vehicles are significantly cheaper than any other access to microgravity," Whitesides said.</p> <p>Stern, who will be one of the first researchers to fly, said SwRI has the option to reserve nine more seats between the two spacecraft for a total of 17.</p> <p>Once in space, the researchers will perform three different experiments. One involves a biomedical device that will monitor a person's vital signs during flights, similar to equipment astronauts wear today on space shuttle missions. An ultraviolet-imaging device will also be flown to look at the upper atmosphere, as well as an experiment designed to study asteroid-like dust in microgravity.</p> <p>"These aren't hypothetical experiments. They exist, and we've flown some of them before at high altitudes," Stern said. "We're ready to fly, although the vehicles aren't quite ready."</p> <p>In preparation for hundreds of customers who have purchased tickets, including the SwRI researchers, Virgin Galactic hopes to perform full test flights of SpaceShipTwo within a year. XCOR, which is building four one-pilot, one-passenger Lynx spacecraft, also plans to begin demonstration spaceflights in a year.</p> <p>Whitesides said SwRI's researchers will be among the first 200 passengers to hop on board.</p> <p>"We're being cautious about giving a timeline, because this is still a new vehicle," Whitesides said. "Flight testing is one of those things that's impossible to predict with certainty."</p> <div><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=b2ff529f798c6c50e79304acef32ab6e&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Flynx-rendering-xcor-aerospace.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /><p>A rendering of XCOR Aerospace's Lynx spacecraft. (XCOR Aerospace)</p></div> <p><em>Top photo: Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo during a test flight. (Virgin Galactic)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/space-tourism-climate-change/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/space-tourism-climate-change/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Space Tourism's Rubbery Rockets May Spur Climate Change</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/gallery_spacex/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/gallery_spacex/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Space 2.X: The Private Rocket Race Takes Off</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/10/video-virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-glide-flight/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/10/video-virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-glide-flight/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Glide Flight</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/space-tourists/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/space-tourists/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Space Tourists Pack Bags for 2011 Vacation</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/humans-in-space-10-amazing-spacewalk-photos/comment-page-2/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/humans-in-space-10-amazing-spacewalk-photos/comment-page-2/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52058", event);" rel="nofollow">Humans in Space: 10 Amazing Spacewalk Photos</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=XHfqoIhZQGA:LYjYaBlUDGY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-83606283097844036302011-02-26T13:28:00.001-08:002011-02-26T13:28:35.837-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Exotic Superfluid Found in Ultra-Dense Stellar Corpse</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Brain-Wasting Prions Amass Before Dealing Deathblow</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">How One Nuclear Skirmish Could Wreck the Planet</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">Mosquito-Attacking Fungus Engineered to Block Malaria</a> </li> <li> <a href="#5">Navigational ‘Magic’ of Sea Turtles Explained</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150140877340795">Exotic Superfluid Found in Ultra-Dense Stellar Corpse</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 25 Feb 2011 01:38 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/superfluid-neutron-star/cas-a-neutron-star/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/superfluid-neutron-star/cas-a-neutron-star/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=bd80cf31d0a6d001fccf120f53753a36&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2FCas-A-neutron-star.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>The ultra-dense meains of the galaxy's youngest supernova are full of bizarre quantum matter.</p> <p>Two new studies show for the first time that the core of the <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/neutron-star/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/neutron-star/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">neutron star Cassiopeia A</a>, is a superfluid, a friction-free state of matter that normally only exists in ultra-cold laboratory settings.</p> <p>"The interior of neutron stars is one of the best kept secrets of the universe," said astrophysicist <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://www.astroscu.unam.mx/neutrones/dany.html"" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://www.astroscu.unam.mx/neutrones/dany.html"" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Dany Page</a> of the National Autonomous University in Mexico, lead author of a paper in the Feb. 25 <em>Physical Review Letters</em> describing the state of the star. "It looks like we broke one of them."</p> <p>Cassiopeia A (Cas A) was a massive star 11,000 light-years away whose explosion was observed from Earth about 330 years ago. The supernova left behind a tiny, compact body called a neutron star, in which matter is so densely packed that electrons and protons are forced to fuse into neutrons. Neutron star material is some of the most extreme matter in the universe. Just a teaspoonful of neutron star stuff weighs about 6 billion tons.</p> <p>The neutron star in Cas A was first spotted in 1999, shortly after the <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://chandra.harvard.edu/"" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://chandra.harvard.edu/"" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Chandra X-Ray Observatory</a> began scanning the sky for objects that emit X-rays.</p> <p>Last year, astronomers <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://www.ualberta.ca/~heinke/"" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://www.ualberta.ca/~heinke/"" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Craig Heinke</a> of the University of Alberta and <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://www.astro.cornell.edu/~wynnho/"" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://www.astro.cornell.edu/~wynnho/"" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Wynn Ho</a> of the University of Southampton noticed something odd: The neutron star was cooling down at an alarmingly fast rate. In just 10 years, the star had cooled from 2.12 million degrees to 2.04 million degrees, a drop of 4 percent.</p> <p> </p> <p>Theoretical models predicted that neutron stars should cool slowly as the neutrons inside decayed into electrons, protons and nearly-massless particles called <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino"" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino"" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">neutrinos</a> that flee the star quickly, taking heat with them.</p> <p>But ordinary neutron decay is too slow. Two competing groups of physicists, one led by Page and one including Heinke and Ho, saw that something else must be going on in Cas A.</p> <p>Almost simultaneously, both teams came to the same solution: The matter inside the neutron star is converting to a superfluid as astronomers watch. Heinke and Ho's paper will appear in the <em>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.</em></p> <p>Here's how it works: Normally, the laws of quantum mechanics dictate that a collection of neutrons can get only so cold, but no colder. But at extremely cold temperatures in the lab, or the extremely high pressures inside a neutron star, pairs of neutrons can link up. Together, the neutron pairs relax into the lowest energy state quantum physics allows, and convert to a superfluid.</p> <p>"A superfluid is essentially a macroscopic quantum liquid, in which if you take any given particle in the fluid, it's moving in essentially the same way as the particles around it," said <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://www.physics.montana.edu/people/facview.asp?id_PersonDetails=15"" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://www.physics.montana.edu/people/facview.asp?id_PersonDetails=15"" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Bennett Link</a> of the University of Montana, who was not involved in the new studies. "The whole system behaves as a quantum system even though it's large in size."</p> <p>Superfluids flow without friction. On Earth, they can climb walls and escape from airtight containers. When the particles in a superfluid are charged, the fluid is a superconductor, which carries electricity with no resistance.</p> <p>As the neutrons and protons in the neutron star link up to form superfluids, they release massive amounts of neutrinos. The mass exodus of neutrinos fleeing Cas A explains the rapid cooling, the physicists conclude.</p> <p>The idea that neutron stars should contain superfluids had been around since the 1950s. Page and colleagues had even predicted theoretically that the core of Cas A in particular should be a superfluid.</p> <p>"We knew that it was there, our models had it all included before, but we did not have the data to actually hang our coats on," said Madappa Prakash of Ohio University, a coauthor on Page's paper.</p> <p>Page didn't expect that superfluidity would actually show itself in Cas A. When he learned that Heinke and Ho had seen the star's temperature drop precipitously, "I jumped and my head hit the ceiling," he said.</p> <p>Both teams knew the other group was working on the same idea, and raced in friendly competition to publish their theory first. Page's team ended up winning the race by one day. Heinke and Ho were waiting for one more observation from Chandra, taken in November 2010, before submitting their paper for publication.</p> <p>The papers differ only in the details. The two teams made different assumptions about how hot the neutrons were to begin with, so their calculations for the temperature at which the superfluid state is possible are different.</p> <p>Both teams predict that Cas A will continue to cool down over the next 10 years.</p> <p>"That allows people to test it against alternative hypotheses, such as, it's some kind of episodic thing," Link said. "If it's still cooling at the same rate, that would give evidence for their hypothesis, that we are actually seeing a superfluid form."</p> <p><em>X-ray Image: NASA/CXC/UNAM/Ioffe/D.Page,P.Shternin et al; Optical Image: NASA/STScI; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss</em></p> <p><em>Citations:<br /> "<a href="http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v106/i8/e081101" target="_blank" title="http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v106/i8/e081101" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Rapid Cooling of the Neutron Star in Cassiopeia A Triggered by Neutron Superfluidity in Dense Matter</a>." Dany Page, Madappa Prakash, James M. Lattimer, and Andrew W. Steiner. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 106 No. 8, Feb. 25, 2011. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.081101.<br /> "<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1012.0045" target="_blank" title="http://arxiv.org/abs/1012.0045" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Cooling neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant: Evidence for superfluidity in the core</a>." Peter S. Shternin, Dmitry G. Yakovlev, Craig O. Heinke, Wynn C. G. Ho, Daniel J. Patnaude. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, accepted.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/top-10-amazing/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/top-10-amazing/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Top 10 Amazing Physics Videos</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/big-neutron-star/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/big-neutron-star/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Record-Breaking Neutron Star Is Clue to Exotic Physics</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/neutron-star/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/neutron-star/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Baby Neutron Star Found Inside Supernova Remnant</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/dark-matter-neutron-star/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/dark-matter-neutron-star/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Cold, Dead Stars Could Help Limit Dark Matter</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/casavideo/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/casavideo/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: New 3-D Fly-Through of Supernova Remnant</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=x5Kl_432gdY:lfVp1EIiCMo:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150140877350795">Brain-Wasting Prions Amass Before Dealing Deathblow</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 25 Feb 2011 01:30 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=23f875ca73600f329a25989cf3a01d7d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fmad-cow-prion-disease-art-davis-cdc.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>Infectious proteins that cause brain-wasting conditions like mad cow disease appear to build up in the brain long before initiating the cascade of deterioration that leads to dementia and death, a new study of mice finds.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>The findings suggest that other factors besides the misshapen infectious proteins characteristic of prion diseases may control the lethality of the disease. If scientists can determine what those factors are, future treatments may be able to prevent the infectious protein diseases — which include mad cow disease, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people — from progressing to a fatal stage.</p> <p>"We don't know what's going on here, but we do know there's something interesting," says John Collinge, director of the United Kingdom Medical Research Council Prion Unit in London, who headed the new study.</p> <p>Findings reported by Collinge and his colleagues in the Feb. 24 <em>Nature</em> contradict the idea that infectious versions of a normal brain protein called PrP accumulate slowly, gradually twisting all of the healthy copies of the protein into a disease-causing form. Researchers have thought that the disease-causing prions slowly build up to toxic levels that spell the death of brain cells.</p> <p>But the new study shows that the process is anything but gradual, and that infection and toxicity are independent stages of the disease. Prions quickly build up in the brains of mice over the course of a month or two, Collinge and his colleagues found, peaking at about 100 million infectious particles per brain.</p> <p>That level remains constant for months with no evidence of disease.</p> <p>"Whatever you do, it sort of stops at that level and remains there for the duration of the infection," says Collinge.</p> <p> </p> <p>Researchers had expected that if they increased the amount of the normal PrP protein in the mice's brains, the number of infectious particles would increase as well. But instead, prion levels plateaued. No one knows what stops mice from making ever more infectious particles, but the researchers speculate that there may be some substance that puts a ceiling on the number of prions in the brain.</p> <p>Although the number of infectious particles in the brain didn't change, the length of the incubation period between the initial infection and the onset of disease was faster in mice that made more PrP in their brains. The result suggests that how fast an animal will get sick depends upon how much PrP is in the brain.</p> <p>The lag time between prion buildup and disease suggests that infection is a separate process from toxicity. Collinge and his colleagues speculate that some other as-yet-unknown molecule or cellular process might be needed to make the switch between infectious and toxic prions.</p> <p>"It's provocative," says Reed Wickner, a geneticist at the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, of the study. The idea that some other substance might be needed to convert the prion into a lethal form is "a reasonable suggestion, but there may be other explanations, too," he says.</p> <p>He speculates that number of prions in the brain may be limited, but the size of each particle is not. It could be that filaments of prion protein inside cells just keep getting bigger and bigger until they finally become lethal to the cell.</p> <p>Collinge agrees that the size of the prion filament may matter, but says that the new research clearly shows that prions don't directly kill brain cells. Another possibility is that the production of prions depletes some important factor from brain cells, he says. When that substance is used up, cells die.</p> <p>He and his team are now trying to determine if the toxic form of the prion protein is biochemically distinct from the infectious form.</p> <p><em>Image: A cow affected in 2003 by bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a prion-based disease that degrades the nervous system. (Dr. Art Davis/CDC)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/airborne-prions-disease/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/airborne-prions-disease/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Airborne Prions Make for 100 Percent Lethal Whiff</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/pigbrainmystery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/pigbrainmystery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">"Pig Brain Mist" Disease Mystery Concludes</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/swineflufarm/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/swineflufarm/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Swine Flu Ancestor Born on U.S. Factory Farms</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/01/what_really_cau/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/01/what_really_cau/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">What Really Causes Mad Cow Disease?</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/violent-dreams-and-brain-disease/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/violent-dreams-and-brain-disease/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Violent Dreams May Precede Brain Disease</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=tmSci3lvgLg:5frKlP_PfWI:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150140877365795">How One Nuclear Skirmish Could Wreck the Planet</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 25 Feb 2011 12:00 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><div><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=45fe2dbcfc9260c5570ab1b2d374076f&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fnuclear-bomb-explosion-ndep.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /><p>Image: A nuclear bomb test. Nevada Division of Environmental Protection</p></div> <p>WASHINGTON — Even a small nuclear exchange could ignite mega-firestorms and wreck the planet's atmosphere.</p> <p>New climatological simulations show 100 Hiroshima-sized nuclear bombs — relatively small warheads, compared to the arsenals military superpowers stow today — detonated by neighboring countries would destroy more than a quarter of the Earth's ozone layer in about two years.</p> <p>Regions closer to the poles would see even more precipitous drops in the protective gas, which absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. New York and Sydney, for example, would see declines rivaling the perpetual hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. And it may take more than six years for the ozone layer to reach half of its former levels.</p> <p>Researchers described the results during a panel Feb. 18 at the <a href="http://www.aaas.org/meetings/2011/" target="_blank" title="http://www.aaas.org/meetings/2011/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science</a>, calling it "a real bummer" that such a localized nuclear war could bring the modern world to its knees.</p> <p>"This is tremendously dangerous," said environmental scientist <a href="http://envsci.rutgers.edu/~robock/" target="_blank" title="http://envsci.rutgers.edu/~robock/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Alan Robock of Rutgers University</a>, one of the climate scientists presenting at the meeting. "The climate change would be unprecedented in human history, and you can imagine the world … would just shut down."</p> <p>To defuse the complexity involved in a nuclear climate catastrophe, Wired.com sat down with <a href="http://acd.ucar.edu/~mmills/" target="_blank" title="http://acd.ucar.edu/~mmills/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Michael Mills</a>, an atmospheric chemist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who led some of the latest simulation efforts.</p> <div>'It's pretty clear this would lead to a global nuclear famine.'</div> <p><strong>Wired.com: </strong>In your simulation, a war between India and Pakistan breaks out. Each country launches 50 nukes at their opponent's cities. What happens after the first bomb goes off?</p> <p><strong>Michael Mills: </strong>The initial explosions ignite fires in the cities, and those fires would build up for hours. What you eventually get is a firestorm, something on the level we saw in World War II in cities like Dresden, in Tokyo, Hiroshima and so on.</p> <p>Today we have larger cities than we did then — mega cities. And using 100 weapons on these different mega cities, like those in India and Pakistan, would cause these firestorms to build on themselves. They would create their own weather and start sucking air through bottom. People and objects would be sucked into buildings from the winds, basically burning everything in the city. It'll burn concrete, the temperatures get so hot. It converts mega cities into black carbon smoke.</p> <p> </p> <div><strong><strong><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=627c8868f4fffd5fbe562e44187f8382&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fmichael-mills-ncar-dave-mosher.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></strong></strong><p>Atmospheric scientist Michael Mills of NCAR. Dave Mosher/Wired.com</p></div> <p><strong>Wired.com:</strong> I see — the firestorms push up the air, and ash, into the atmosphere?</p> <p><strong>Mills:</strong> Yeah. You sometimes see these firestorms in large forest fires in Canada, in Siberia. In those cases, you see a lot of this black carbon getting into the stratosphere, but not on the level we're talking about in a nuclear exchange.</p> <p>The primary cause of ozone loss is the heating of the stratosphere by that smoke. Temperatures initially increase by more than 100 degrees Celsius, and remain more than 30 degrees higher than normal for more than 3 years. The higher temperatures increase the rates of two reaction cycles that deplete ozone.</p> <p><strong>Wired.com:</strong> And the ozone layer is in the stratosphere, correct?</p> <p><strong>Mills:</strong> OK, so we live in the troposphere, which is about 8 kilometers [5 miles] thick at the poles, and 16 km [10 miles] at the equator.</p> <p>At the top of the troposphere, you start to encounter the stratosphere. It's defined by the presence of the ozone layer, with the densest ozone at the lowest part, then it tails off at the stratopause, where the stratosphere ends about 50 km [30 miles] up.</p> <p>We have a lot of weather in the troposphere. That's because energy is being absorbed at the Earth's surface, so it's warmest at the surface. As you go up in the atmosphere it gets colder. Well, that all turns around as you get to the ozone layer. It starts getting hotter because ozone is absorbing ultraviolet radiation, until you run out of ozone and it starts getting colder again. Then you're at the mesosphere.</p> <div> <p><strong>How Nukes Gobble Up Ozone</strong></p> <p>When we talk about ozone, we're talking about the odd oxygen family, which includes both ozone (O<sub>3</sub>) and atomic oxygen (O). Those two gases can interchange rapidly within hours.</p> <p>Ozone is produced naturally by the breakdown of molecules of oxygen, O<sub>2</sub>, which makes up 20 percent of the atmosphere. O<sub>2</sub> breaks down from ultraviolet solar radiation and splits it into two molecules of O. Then the O, very quickly, runs into another O<sub>2</sub> and forms O<sub>3</sub>. And the way O<sub>3</sub> forms O again is by absorbing more UV light, so it's actually more protective than O<sub>2</sub>.</p> <p>Ozone is always being created and destroyed by many reactions. Some of those are catalytic cycles that destroy ozone, and in those you have something like NO<sub>2</sub> plus O to produce NO plus O<sub>2</sub>. In that case, you've gotten rid of a member of the odd oxygen family and converted it to O<sub>2</sub>. Well, then you've got an NO which can react with ozone and produce the NO<sub>2</sub> back again and another O<sub>2</sub>. So the NO and NO<sub>2</sub> can go back and forth and in the process one molecule can deplete thousands of molecules of ozone.</p> <p>It's a similar process to chlorofluorocarbons, Those are the larger molecules that we've manufactured that don't exist naturally. They break down into chlorine in the stratosphere, which has a powerful ozone-depleting ability. <em>—Michael Mills<br /> </em></p> </div> <p><strong>Wired.com: </strong>Where do the nukes come in? I mean, in eroding the ozone layer?</p> <p><strong>Mills: </strong>It's not the explosions that do it, but the firestorms. Those push up gases that lead to oxides of nitrogen, which act like <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/siberian-traps/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/siberian-traps/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow"> chlorofluorocarbons</a>. But let's back up a little.</p> <p>There are two important elements that destroy ozone, or O3, which is made of three atoms of oxygen. One element involves oxides of nitrogen, including nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, which can be made from nitrous oxide, or N2O — laughing gas.</p> <p>The other element is a self-destructive process that happens when ozone reacts with atomic oxygen, called O. When they react together, they form O<sub>2</sub>, which is the most common form of oxygen on the planet. This self-reaction is natural, but takes off the fastest in the first year after the nuclear war.</p> <p>In years two, three and four, the NO<sub>2</sub> builds up. It peaks in year two because the N<sub>2</sub>O, the stuff that's abundant in the troposphere, rose so rapidly with the smoke that it's pushed up into the stratosphere. There, it breaks down into the oxides like NO<sub>2</sub>, which deplete ozone.</p> <p><strong>Wired.com: </strong>So firestorms suck up the N<sub>2</sub>O, push it up into the stratosphere, and degrade the ozone layer. But where does this stuff come from?</p> <p><strong>Mills: </strong>N<sub>2</sub>O is among a wide class of what we call tracers that are emitted at the ground. It's produced by bacterias in soil, and it's been increasing due to human activities like nitrogen fertilizers used in farming. N<sub>2</sub>O is actually now the most significant human <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/reactive-nitrog/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/reactive-nitrog/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">impact on the ozone</a>, now that we've mostly taken care of CFCs.</p> <p><strong>Wired.com: </strong>You did <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/regional-nuclea/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/regional-nuclea/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">similar computer simulations</a> in the past few years and saw this <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/105/14/5307.abstract" target="_blank" title="http://www.pnas.org/content/105/14/5307.abstract" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">ozone-depleting effect</a>. What do the new simulations tell us?</p> <p><strong>Mills: </strong>Before, we couldn't look at the ozone depletion's effects on surface temperatures; we lacked a full ocean model that would respond realistically. The latest runs are ones I've done in a community earth system model. It has an atmospheric model, a full-ocean model, full-land and sea-ice models, and even a glacier model.</p> <p>We see significantly greater cooling than other studies because of ozone depleting. Instead of a globally averaged 1.3-degree–Celsius drop, which <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wcc.45/abstract" target="_blank" title="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wcc.45/abstract" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Robock's atmospheric mode</a>l produced, it's more like 2 degrees. But we both see a 7 percent decrease in global average precipitation in both models. And in our model we see a much greater global average loss of ozone for many years, with even larger losses everywhere outside of the tropics.</p> <p>I also gave this to my colleague <a href="http://acd.ucar.edu/~julial/" target="_blank" title="http://acd.ucar.edu/~julial/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Julia Lee-Taylor</a> at NCAR. She calculated the UV indexes across the planet, and a lot of major cities and farming areas would be exposed to a UV index similar to the Himalayas, or the hole over the Antarctic. We're starting to look at the response of sea ice and land ice in the model, and it seems to be heavily increasing in just a few years after the hypothetical war.</p> <div><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=3e357c60a77c92e8111b817dd5524a01&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fnuclear-war-ozone-depletion-nsf-nesl.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /><p>Massive global ozone loss predicted following regional nuclear conflict. Michael Mills/NCAR/NSF</p></div> <p><strong>Wired.com:</strong> What would all of this do to the planet, to civilization?</p> <p><strong>Mills:</strong> UV has big impacts on whole ecosystems. Plant height reduction, decreased shoot mass, reduction in foliage area. It can affect genetic stability of plants, increase susceptibility to attacks by insects and pathogens, and so on. It changes the whole competitive balance of plants and nutrients, and it can affect processes from which plants get their nitrogen.</p> <p>Then there's marine life, which depends heavily on <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/phytoplankton-blooms-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/phytoplankton-blooms-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">phytoplankton</a>. Phytoplankton are essential; they live in top layer of the ocean and they're the plants of the ocean. They can go a little lower in the ocean if there's UV, but then they can't get as much sunlight and produce as much energy. As soon as you cut off plants in the ocean, the animals would die pretty quickly. You also get damage to larval development and reproduction in fish, shrimp, crabs and other animals. Amphibians are also very susceptible to UV.</p> <p>A 16 percent ozone depletion could result in a 5 percent loss in phytoplankton, which could result in a 7 percent loss in fisheries and aquaculture. And in our model we see a much greater global average loss of ozone for many years; the global average hides a lot.</p> <p><strong>Wired.com:</strong> This doesn't sound very good at all.</p> <p><strong>Mills: </strong>No, as we said it's a real bummer. It's pretty clear this would lead to a global nuclear famine.</p> <p>You have the inability to grow crops due to severe, colder temperatures and also the severe increases in UV light. You have the loss of plants and proteins in the oceans, and that leads to <a href="http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/RobockToonSciAmJan2010.pdf" target="_blank" title="http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/RobockToonSciAmJan2010.pdf" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">widespread food shortages and famine</a> (PDF).</p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <div><strong><strong><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fca0335cb6b6a6d611274e3696aab4a9&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fatmosphere-layers-noaa.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></strong></strong><p>The first three layers of the atmosphere. NOAA</p></div> <p><strong>Wired.com:</strong> There have been thousands of nuclear tests. Why hasn't this already happened?</p> <p><strong>Mills:</strong> We're not talking about direct impacts of the explosions themselves, but the firestorms that result when you detonate these in cities. Most tests were in deserts or atolls or space or underground.</p> <p><strong>Wired.com:</strong> When you talk nuclear reductions, you're wading into political territory. As a scientist, how do you handle that?</p> <p><strong>Mills:</strong> The response to this from the policy community has been rather underwhelming. We know, from what both Gorbachev and Reagan have said in anecdotes, that these kinds of studies had a big impact on thinking at the time. People started realizing nuclear war was not something you can win. You'd just destroy the whole planet.</p> <p>That led to some of the dramatic reductions we saw in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/START_I" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/START_I" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">original START treaty</a>, but we still have the ability to basically destroy the planet with one-tenth of 1 percent of the world's current arsenals.</p> <p>By the way, there's nobody really funding these kinds of studies. All of us here are doing these on our own time. You can't get grants to do this kind of research. It's puzzling to me.</p> <p><strong>Wired.com:</strong> What would you like to see happen?</p> <p><strong>Mills:</strong> We'd all like to see much more dramatic reductions in the number of nuclear weapons we're seeing proposed in the new START treaty, and the SORT treaty under the Bush administration. These just seem like refinements, in which the number of weapons is reduced, but each airplane counts as one weapon that can carry multiple bombs. So we might not be seeing any reductions.</p> <p><strong>Wired.com:</strong> Should nations have any nukes?</p> <p><strong>Mills:</strong> How many times do you need to explode a nuclear weapon in your enemy's capital to deter them? I think just once. But given the consequences, I don't think it's reasonable to have any.</p> <div><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=5a74c37fdd9e5288768ecffb0a94b6f5&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fnuclear-war-ultraviolet-index-nsf-nesl.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /><p>Ultraviolet radiation indexes before and after a simulated regional nuclear war, with compensation for black carbon (BC) soaking up some of the radiation. A level of 11 or higher is considered an extreme risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure. Michael Mills/NCAR/NSF</p></div> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/yourfriendatom/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/yourfriendatom/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">7 (Crazy) Civilian Uses for Nuclear Bombs</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/regional-nuclea/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/regional-nuclea/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">'Regional' Nuclear War Would Cause Worldwide Destruction</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/first-fusion-bomb-test/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/first-fusion-bomb-test/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Classified Recordings of First Fusion Bomb Test Found in Old Safe</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/google-maps-mas/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/google-maps-mas/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Google Maps Mashup Combines Your Address, Nuclear Blast</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/nukes-are-not-t/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/nukes-are-not-t/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Nukes Are Not the Best Way to Stop an Asteroid</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=9FINZayH_TI:CBVI7ngE9YE:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150140877370795">Mosquito-Attacking Fungus Engineered to Block Malaria</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 25 Feb 2011 10:45 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=afa7a291b7ca20f6749c61c7c6ea8b04&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fmosquito-sucking-blood-cdc.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><strong>By John Timmer, Ars Technica</strong></p> <p>Although public health efforts have eradicated some diseases and helped limit the impact of many others, malaria continues to present a massive public health issue. A large fraction of the world's population lives in areas where the parasite poses a risk, and it kills a million people annually, most of them in the developing world.</p> <p><a href="http://arstechnica.com/" target="_blank" title="http://arstechnica.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=433c02fa0ab707d3e69b7ef83156d12d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fepicenter%2F2010%2F07%2FPicture-1.png" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>The malarial parasite, <em>Plasmodium</em>, has proven tough to tackle for a variety of reasons. Once in a human, it manages to change the proteins that cover its surface often enough that our immune systems have trouble mounting a successful response. Unlike a bacteria or virus, the parasite is a eukaryote, just like humans, which means that it's harder to find unique biochemical properties that would let us target it with drugs. <em>Plasmodium</em> has also been able to evolve resistance to the few drugs that we've been using to treat it. That evolution of resistance extends to its vectors, a few species of mosquitoes, which have also evolved resistance to many of the pesticides we have used to keep them in check.</p> <p>All of that might seem to be enough to make tackling malaria seem like an intractable problem. But some researchers are reporting some success with a new approach to limiting its spread: engineering a mosquito parasite to attack it before it can reach humans.</p> <p>The species of mosquitoes that transmit malaria are themselves vulnerable to parasites, including some forms of fungus. This has led to interest in using these fungi as a form of biological insecticide. But the fungus doesn't always kill quickly enough, and if it did, it might end up facing the same sorts of problems that chemical insecticides do: the mosquitoes would simply evolve resistance to the fungus as well.</p> <p>The solution the researchers arrived at is to use a form of fungus that doesn't kill the mosquitoes until late in their lives, after they've had a chance to reproduce. This keeps them from evolving resistance, but wouldn't keep them from spreading <em>Plasmodium</em>. To do that, they turned to a bit of genetic engineering, creating fungi that produce various proteins that attack the parasite.</p> <p> </p> <p>The authors tried a variety of approaches. These parasites exit the mosquito through its salivary gland, so the authors created a modified protein that coated the glands, blocking <em>Plasmodium's</em> attempts to latch on to them. They also used a fragment of an antibody that binds directly to <em>Plasmodium's</em>, as well as a toxin present in scorpion venom that kills it. They merged two of the approaches, fusing the venom protein to the one that coats the salivary gland.</p> <p>To a degree, all of them worked. The fungus alone had a weak effect on the invasion of the salivary glands by <em>Plasmodium</em>, dropping it by 15 percent. But the engineered fungi dropped it by anywhere from 75 to 90 percent. Two of the combined approaches dropped it by 97 and 98 percent. Thus, in the presence of these modified parasites, <em>Plasmodium</em> had a hard time getting to where it could infect humans.</p> <p>Depending on the precise timing of fungal infection, the authors estimate that it could reduce transmission by 75-90 percent if it reaches the mosquitoes within 11 days of their picking up the <em>Plasmodium</em>. And that's a conservative estimate, given that this estimate was based simply on the presence or absence of the malarial parasite in the salivary glands. The levels in the fungus-infected animals were greatly reduced, which should limit transmission even further.</p> <p>Although this shouldn't select for resistant mosquitoes, it still has the potential to drive the evolution of <em>Plasmodium</em> that can resist the scorpion toxin. There are two reasons the authors think this might not be a huge problem. For one, the fungus can obviously express a number of toxins at the same time, which makes it much more difficult for <em>Plasmodium</em> to evolve a way around it. The other thing is that there are many proteins that could potentially be used to target it; this is especially appealing, given that an antibody fragment was one of the proteins used in this experiment, suggesting that it should be possible to create a large panel of interfering molecules.</p> <p>The other nice thing about this approach is that this fungus (or its relatives) can attack other mosquito species, including the ones that spread Dengue fever. This is a very promising fungus.</p> <p>The general approach holds promise as well, since we reported on another use of an <a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/02/oral-delivery-of-a-ribozyme-via-engineered-salmonella-reduces-viral-load.ars" target="_blank" title="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/02/oral-delivery-of-a-ribozyme-via-engineered-salmonella-reduces-viral-load.ars" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">engineered, disease-fighting pathogen</a> already this month. There have been millions of years of evolution that help pathogens target specific species and tissues, something that we're rarely able to do with drugs. If it's possible to take advantage of that specificity, it can be a powerful tool.</p> <p><em>Image: A mosquito drawing blood. (James Gathany/CDC)</em></p> <p><em>Citation: "Development of Transgenic Fungi That Kill Human Malaria Parasites in Mosquitoes." Weiguo Fang, Joel Vega-Rodríguez, Anil K. Ghosh, Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, Angray Kang, and Raymond J. St. Leger. </em>Science<em>, Vol. 331, No. 6020, Feb. 25, 2011. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1199115" target="_blank" title="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1199115" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">10.1126/science.1199115</a></em></p> <p><em>Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/02/mosquito-attacking-fungus-engineered-to-block-malaria.ars" target="_blank" title="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/02/mosquito-attacking-fungus-engineered-to-block-malaria.ars" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Ars Technica</a>.<br /> </em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/malariaorigin/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/malariaorigin/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Malaria Jumped to Humans From Chimpanzees</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/malaria-resistance/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/malaria-resistance/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Malaria Gaining Resistance to Best Available Treatment</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/plant-virus-tricks/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/plant-virus-tricks/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Plant-Virus Tricks Teach Evolutionary Pest Management</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/trypanosometest/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/trypanosometest/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Diagnosing Parasite Infections With Dye and a Blacklight</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/green-mosquitoe/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/green-mosquitoe/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Green Mosquitoes Could Control Killer Disease</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/deet-resistance/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/deet-resistance/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">DEET Mosquito Repellent Could Lose Its Bite</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=zfVhaQbInCo:dFpWtatT200:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="5" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150140877380795">Navigational ‘Magic’ of Sea Turtles Explained</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 24 Feb 2011 03:28 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/02/loggerhead.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/02/loggerhead.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=e490ecd4844aa523ecd2821e714578a9&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Floggerhead.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>For centuries, determining longitude was an extremely difficult task for sailors, so difficult that it's been thought improbable — if not impossible — for animals to do it.</p> <p>But migratory sea turtles have now proved capable of sensing longitude, using almost imperceptible gradients in Earth's magnetic field.</p> <p>"We have known for about six years now that the magnetic map of turtles, at a minimum, allows turtles to … detect latitude magnetically," said biologist Ken Lohmann of the University of North Carolina, who describes the turtle's power Feb. 24 in <em>Current Biology</em>. "Up until now, that was where the story ended."</p> <p>Lohmann specializes in animal navigation, and work from his laboratory and others have exhaustively demonstrated how sea turtles — along with many birds, fish and crustaceans — use gradients in Earth's magnetic field to steer.</p> <p> </p> <div><strong>Magnetic Reception Found in Pigeon Ears</strong></p> <p>It's not just sea turtles showing off geomagnetic tricks. Birds, known to use geomagnetic location through magnetically sensitive particles in their eyes and beak, also appear to sense magnetism with their ears.</p> <p>In another <em>Current Biology</em> study published Feb. 24, Washington University neurobiologists Le-Qing Wu and David Dickman follow up on earlier observations of magnetically sensitive compounds in birds' vestibular lagena, an inner-ear structure.</p> <p>Wu and Dickman held 23 homing pigeons in total darkness for 72 hours within a rotating magnetic field. Aftewards they killed the birds and searched their brains for activation in regions linked to orientation, spatial memory and navigation.</p> <p>The researchers then repeated the study with five birds whose lagenae were surgically disabled. The brain navigation patterns were altered, suggesting a navigational role for the lagena.</p> <p>According to Wu and Dickman, cell receptors in the lagena, which are known to respond to head tilt in relation to gravity, likely interact with those magnetically sensitive particles. The results may encode a "geomagnetic vector" that links motion, direction and gravity.</p> <p>Fish, amphibians and reptiles also possess the same ear structure, raising the possibility of the mechanism being widespread in the animal kingdom.</p> </div> <p>Those differences, however, are far greater by latitude than by longitude. Travel north or south from Earth's magnetic poles, and their pull weakens noticeably. Travel straight east or west, and the pull doesn't change. Instead the pull's <em>angle</em> changes, and only to an infinitesimally slight degree.</p> <p>That turtles and other migratory animals could detect such a small change was considered unrealistic, but experiments on animals released in out-of-the-way locations repeatedly described them finding home with unerring accuracy and efficiency, explicable only as a product of both longitudinal and latitudinal awareness.</p> <p>Several nonmagnetic explanations were proposed, foremost among them a "dual clock" mechanism analogous to human methods of calculating longitude, which sailors perform by comparing precise differences between the time locally and at an arbitrary longitudinal line, such as the Greenwich Meridian. No such mechanism has been found, however, and longitudinal differences in local airborne or waterborne chemicals don't seem to explain animals' uncanny long-distance steering.</p> <p>"A skeptic could reasonably believe that the latitudinal cue is magnetic, but that determining east-west position depends on magic," wrote James L. Gould, a Princeton University evolutionary biologist, in a 2008 <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2808%2900016-X" target="_blank" title="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2808%2900016-X" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow"><em>Current Biology</em> commentary on animal navigation</a>.</p> <p>In the new study, researchers led by Lohmann and graduate student Nathan Putnam, also a UNC biologist, placed hatchling loggerhead sea turtles from Florida inside pools of water surrounded by computer-controlled magnetic coil systems.</p> <p>By varying the currents, Lohmann and Putnam could precisely reproduce the geomagnetic characteristics of two points at identical latitude, but on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Into each pool they placed the hatchlings, which in the wild would instinctively follow a migratory path from their home beach and into the currents that circle the Sargasso Sea and loop around the Atlantic.</p> <p>In the first pool, programmed to the geomagnetic field in the western Atlantic near Puerto Rico, the turtles swam northeast, on the same trajectory as loggerheads in the wild at that locale. In the other pool, set to the geomagnetics of the eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde islands, the turtles swam northwest.</p> <p>No other cues could explain their directions. Against reasonable expectation, the turtles clearly sensed differences in geomagnetic angle.</p> <p>Gould, who was not involved in the study, wrote an accompanying commentary. Whereas his earlier article was titled "Animal Navigation: The Longitude Problem," this was called "Animal Navigation: Longitude at Last." The findings are "the final piece of the puzzle," he wrote.</p> <p>Lohmann now plans to study whether currents affect the turtles' longitudinal compass, and whether the turtles detect differences over short distances. He also suspects that other animals may have a similar longitudinal compass.</p> <p>"The mechanism we've found in turtles might also exist in birds," he said.</p> <p><em>Image: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ukanda/2112234542/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ukanda/2112234542/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Upendra Kanda</a>/Flickr.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/cockroach-navigation/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/cockroach-navigation/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Cockroaches Use Earth's Magnetic Field to Steer</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/birdcompass/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/birdcompass/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Reverse-Engineering the Quantum Compass of Birds</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/quantum-birds/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/quantum-birds/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">In the Blink of Bird's Eye, a Model for Quantum Navigation</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/bat-compass/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/bat-compass/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Bats Use Sun to Calibrate Geomagnetic Compass</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/to-save-threate/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/to-save-threate/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "5e991", event);" rel="nofollow">Hacking Salmon's Mental Compass to Save Endangered Fish</a></li> </ul> <p><em>Citations: "Longitude Perception and Bicoordinate Magnetic Maps in Sea Turtles." By Nathan F. Putman, Courtney S. Endres, Catherine M.F. Lohmann, and Kenneth J. Lohmann. </em>Current Biology<em>, Vol. 21 Issue 4, Feb. 24, 2011.</em></p> <p><em>"Animal Navigation: Longitude at last." By James L. Gould. </em>Current Biology<em>, Vol. 21 Issue 4, Feb. 24, 2011.</em></p> <p><em>"Magnetoreception in an Avian Brain in Part Mediated by Inner Ear Lagena." By Le-Qing Wu and J. David Dickman. </em>Current Biology<em>, Vol. 21 Issue 4, Feb. 24, 2011.</em></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=hjWKjQ-zTEU:hxlgZUS5ljc:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-27319652413448377322011-02-24T13:47:00.001-08:002011-02-24T13:47:03.573-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Mafia’s Corpse Dissolving Claims Exaggerated</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Baby Exoplanets Photographed During Formation</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">3 Great Ways to Watch the Last Space Shuttle Missions</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">Dust-Watching Satellite to Launch Friday</a> </li> <li> <a href="#5">Gorgeous Jeweled Beetle Reveals Its Tricks</a> </li> <li> <a href="#6">Video: Secrets of Swimming in Sand Revealed</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150139932565795">Mafia’s Corpse Dissolving Claims Exaggerated</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 24 Feb 2011 09:50 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/corpse-dissolving/chemical_barrels/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/corpse-dissolving/chemical_barrels/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=9d7d181c56fe1675f85c6da837c2a096&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fchemical_barrels.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>CHICAGO — Contrary to claims made by informants within the Sicilian Mafia, sulfuric acid will not dissolve a corpse in minutes, a new study finds. The research, reported February 23 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, was part of a wider effort to test claims about the mafia's "lupara bianca," or "white shotgun" murders, wherein the subject is known to be dead but a body is never found.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>Experiments conducted on partial pig carcasses, a widely accepted stand-in for human bodies, showed that it takes days to melt flesh in sulfuric acid. Adding water to the acid speeds up the process, dissolving muscle and cartilage within 12 hours and turning bone to dust within two days, suggesting that the technique could render a corpse completely unrecognizable.</p> <p>"But it is impossible that they completely destroyed a corpse with acid," said study coauthor Massimo Grillo of the University of Palermo in Italy.</p> <p> </p> <p>Police found tanks of acid in a Palermo hideout known as the "chamber of death," where crime boss Filippo Marchese purportedly dissolved victims after torturing them in the early 1980s, said Filippo Cascino, another study coauthor at the University of Palermo.</p> <p>Informants had described the disposal method, the researchers say, with statements like, "We put the people in acid. In 15, 20 minutes they were no more — they became a liquid."</p> <p>The research suggests that the members of the crime clan were not as good at telling time as they were at ritual murder.</p> <p>But "they are smarter than some Georgia criminals," said Michael Heninger, an associate medical examiner in Fulton County, where Atlanta is located. "People think they will destroy a body, but they'll do things that preserve it. These guys are more experienced," he said of the Palermo killings.</p> <p>It isn't obvious whether the new research will translate into something usable for future investigations. "We constantly see cases that are weird," says Heninger. "I'm never going to see this exact case, but when you do see something weird like this, it gets you thinking about how you would figure it out."</p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=Xs_gw-lhGHY:oKqkGK7Gkeg:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150139932575795">Baby Exoplanets Photographed During Formation</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 24 Feb 2011 09:21 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/exoplanet-baby-photos/planet-in-dust-disk/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/exoplanet-baby-photos/planet-in-dust-disk/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=aaba6e0fb805fb754788c1a4ae404e20&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2FPlanet-in-dust-disk.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Infant planets have been spotted forming in the disk of gas and dust around their stars for the first time.</p> <p>Four groups of astronomers caught three different stars transforming from lone bachelors with thick disks of material around their middles to proud parents of a growing family of gas giant planets.</p> <p>The new observations directly show a companion orbiting in the disk around young star T Chamaeleontis (T Cha), the first time a potential planet has been seen mid-formation. The young stars <a href="http://circumstellardisks.org/cgi-bin/objpage2.pl?ID=LkCa%2015" target="_blank" title="http://circumstellardisks.org/cgi-bin/objpage2.pl?ID=LkCa%2015" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">LkCa15</a> and <a href="http://circumstellardisks.org/cgi-bin/objpage2.pl?ID=AB%20Aur" target="_blank" title="http://circumstellardisks.org/cgi-bin/objpage2.pl?ID=AB%20Aur" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">AB Auriga</a> also have Saturn-like rings with gaps in the middle, indicating the presence of at least one planet.</p> <p>"We think we're seeing the baby photos of a planetary system that is just forming, which in fact may be quite similar to our own solar system at a younger age," said astronomer <a href="http://www.mpia.de/homes/thalmann/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.mpia.de/homes/thalmann/index.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Christian Thalmann</a> of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, lead author of a paper in <em>Astrophysical Journal Letters</em> describing LkCa 15. "But with a big 'may' there."</p> <p> </p> <p>An infant star forms from a collapsing cloud of dust and gas and gathers a dense, flat disk of material that rotates with the star like a record.</p> <p>The material in the disk will eventually clump up into nascent planets. Theoretical models of planet formation predicted that those protoplanets should suck up more gas and dust with their gravity, clearing a wide gap in the otherwise solid disk.</p> <p>"If you see this disk with a gap, it's a pretty clear sign that you probably have a planet forming as you're watching," said astronomer <a href="http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/users/alk/Home.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/users/alk/Home.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Adam Kraus</a> of the University of Hawaii, who observed the companion around T Cha, a 7-million-year-old sun-like star about 350 light-years from Earth.</p> <p>Other snapshots of gaps in disks turned out to have been cleared by binary stars, not planets. <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/first-direct-im/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/first-direct-im/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Planets</a> have been photographed in <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/exoplanet-found-in-debris-disk/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/exoplanet-found-in-debris-disk/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">dust disks</a> around their stars as well, but those planet systems were much more mature.</p> <p>"This discovery is the first time that we've looked and seen something there causing a cleared region of the disk, but it's not just another star," Kraus said. "It looks like it's consistent with maybe being a brown dwarf or a planet."</p> <p>Earlier observations of T Cha by <a href="http://www.mpia.de/homes/olofsson/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.mpia.de/homes/olofsson/index.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Johan Olofsson</a> of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and colleagues showed that the disk around it was split into two parts, a narrow ring about 12 million miles from the star and a second band starting about 680 million miles from the star. The gap between the two rings could have been formed by a growing planet.</p> <p>To check, Kraus and an international group of colleagues observed T Cha with a suite of instruments called <a href="http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/instruments/naco/" target="_blank" title="http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/instruments/naco/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">NaCo</a> at the Very Large Telescope in Chile. They used a special technique called <a href="http://authors.library.caltech.edu/18206/" target="_blank" title="http://authors.library.caltech.edu/18206/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">sparse aperture masking</a> that helps clear up the distortions a star's light experiences as it travels through Earth's blurring atmosphere.</p> <p>"The advantage of this method is that allows you to detect very faint objects very close to a very bright star," said astronomer <a href="http://www.laeff.inta.es/modules.php?op=modload&name=LaeffStaff&file=index&luser=nhuelamo" target="_blank" title="http://www.laeff.inta.es/modules.php?op=modload&name=LaeffStaff&file=index&luser=nhuelamo" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Nuria Huélamo</a> of the <a href="http://cab.inta-csic.es/index.php?lng=es" target="_blank" title="http://cab.inta-csic.es/index.php?lng=es" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Centro de Astrobiología</a> in Spain, lead author of the paper a paper to appear in <em>Astronomy & Astrophysics</em> reporting the new observations.</p> <p>When the team looked in near-infrared wavelengths on a clear night in March 2010, they saw a bright object right in the gap. The object is about 620 million miles from the star, or 6.7 times the distance from the Earth to the sun.</p> <p>Unfortunately, the object didn't show up in follow-up observations on a cloudier night in July. The object could have a disk of gas and dust of its own, perhaps precursors to rings like Saturn's, that smeared it out in the second observing run, the astronomers suggest.</p> <p>"We still do not know if it is a planet or not," Huélamo said. The object could also be a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">brown dwarf</a>, a giant ball of gas up to 80 times more massive than Jupiter but still too small to burn like a star.</p> <p>"We need new observations to understand its nature," Huélamo said.</p> <p>Thalmann, who was not involved in the T Cha study, thinks the object is probably not a planet.</p> <p>"But I think the word 'planet' might be a bit overrated in the scientific community," he said. "If it turns out that it's possible to form such massive objects as a product of planet formation, that could have implications on what exactly is possible. I think that's pretty neat."</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/exoplanet-baby-photos/hiciao-planet/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/exoplanet-baby-photos/hiciao-planet/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=d343bdb73fdafcf2171d3e6a55cd38ac&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2FHiCIAO-planet.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>In a different study, published in the August 2010 <em>Astrophysical Journal Letters,</em> Thalmann and colleagues used the <a href="http://www.naoj.org/" target="_blank" title="http://www.naoj.org/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Subaru telescope</a> in Hawaii to observe the young star LkCa 15. The star lies about 450 light-years from Earth and is nearly identical to the sun, but about a thousand times younger.</p> <p>The images did not reveal planets directly, but they did get a good look at the inner edge of the gap in LkCa 15's disk. The gap is wide enough to fit our entire solar system inside.</p> <p>"Our images are the first that really pierced the glare of the star close enough, at small enough separations and high enough contrasts, to image that sharp edge of the gap," Thalmann said.</p> <p>The structure of the disk suggests there should be planets there, he said. The planets don't need to be observable to be there. Several infant planets smaller than Jupiter could be hiding in the dust.</p> <p>"It's very tempting to think that since the star is also a sun-like star, we're looking at something that could have been a close relative of the sun at a much younger age," Thalmann said.</p> <p>A group led by Jun Hashimoto of the National Observatory of Japan also used the Subaru telescope to observe the star AB Auriga, which is even younger than LkCa 15. The team saw nested rings that are tilted with respect to the star's equatorial plane. The disk is clumpy and asymmetric, which also suggests hidden infant planets.</p> <p>"This is a very exciting discovery to make," Kraus said. "That starts telling you things like where should you start looking for the planets."</p> <p>The astronomers all agree that they need to take more observations to figure out exactly what is happening in these hole-riddled dust disks. Current observing techniques may not be good enough to actually see the planets around LkCa 15 and AB Auriga.</p> <p>"But we're always developing new technology, so this could change next year. It could change next month," Kraus said. "The technical side of the field is progressing very rapidly."</p> <p><em>Images: 1) An artist's rendition of the large object in the disk around the star T Cha. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada 2) The bright edge of the disk around the star LkCa 15. Credit: MPIA (Christian Thalmann) & NAOJ</em></p> <p><em>Citations:<br /> "A companion candidate in the gap of the T Cha transitional disk." N. Huélamo, S. Lacour, P. Tuthill, M. Ireland, A. Kraus and G. Chauvin. Astronomy & Astrophysics, accepted.</em></p> <p><em>"Warm dust resolved in the cold disk around TCha with VLTI/AMBER." J. Olofsson, M. Benisty, J.-C. Augereau, C. Pinte, F. Ménard, E. Tatulli, J.-P. Berger, F. Malbet, B. Merín, E. F. van Dishoeck, S. Lacour, K. M. Pontoppidan, J.-L. Monin, J. M. Brown and G. A. Blake. Astronomy & Astrophysics, accepted.</em></p> <p><em>"Imaging of a Transitional Disk Gap in Reflected Light: Indications of Planet Formation Around the Young Solar Analog LkCa 15." C. Thalmann et al. Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 718 No. 2, Aug. 1, 2010. DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/718/2/L87</em></p> <p><em>"Pre-transitional Disk Nature of the AB Aur Disk." M. Honda et al. Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 718 No. 2, Aug. 1, 2010. DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/718/2/L199<br /> </em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/exoplanet-found-in-debris-disk/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/exoplanet-found-in-debris-disk/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Exoplanet Hunters Finally Catch One in a Star's Debris Disk</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/kuiper-belt-dust/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/kuiper-belt-dust/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Kuiper Belt Dust Could Tell Aliens We're Here</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/comets-circling-other-stars/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/comets-circling-other-stars/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">First Hints of Comets Circling Other Stars</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/dust-ring-exo-earth/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/dust-ring-exo-earth/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Sun's Dust Ring Could Help Find Exo-Earths</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/first-direct-im/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/first-direct-im/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">First Direct Image of Multiple Exoplanets Orbiting a Star</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=xxWaswojeBY:-lMZW7fWqsQ:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150139932585795">3 Great Ways to Watch the Last Space Shuttle Missions</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 23 Feb 2011 02:08 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=6d75bbd3d1a43f910b963189e83673d7&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fspace-shuttle-discovery-sts-82-roll-out-nasa.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>NASA's space shuttle <em>Discovery</em> is queued up for its <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">final mission</a> Thursday Feb. 24 at 4:50 p.m. Eastern time, but you don't need to race to the Space Coast to catch the action.</p> <p>Thanks to the magic of the internet (and taxpayer dollars), you can watch <em>Discovery</em> and the two other <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/final-shuttles-delayed/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/final-shuttles-delayed/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">final shuttle flights this year</a> in high-definition, for free.</p> <p>If space agency technobabble isn't your thing, worry not: A handful of space-obsessed videocasters rip the NASA TV feed and provide their own user-friendly live shows.</p> <p>Below are three of the best internet streams able to cater to any flavor of space geek. To watch future space shuttle and other missions, bookmark this page and check NASA's <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/tvschedule/pdf/tvsked_reva.pdf" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/tvschedule/pdf/tvsked_reva.pdf" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">TV schedule</a> (PDF) and <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/mission_schedule.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/mission_schedule.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">launch schedule</a>.</p> <p> </p> <h2>1. Spacevidcast</h2> <p>Hosted by super-fans of space, Benjamin and Cariann Higginbotham, <a href="http://www.spacevidcast.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.spacevidcast.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow"> Spacevidcast</a> is perhaps the most street-friendly source of live mission commentary available.</p> <p>The duo reads and responds to chatroom banter during their coverage, making for an engaging, but sometimes noisy, experience. This year, Spacevidcast plans to take video call-in questions from readers using <a href="http://www.vokle.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.vokle.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Vokle</a>.</p> <p> <br /> </p> <h2>2. Spaceflight Now</h2> <p>When CNN gave veteran space journalist Miles O'Brien the boot in December 2008, he joined <a href="http://spaceflightnow.com/" target="_blank" title="http://spaceflightnow.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Spaceflight Now</a>'s webcasting team.</p> <p>O'Brien brings high-profile guests onto the show to help with mission commentary, including former astronauts and NASA mission managers. Expect a mix of traditional journalism and humor geared toward space enthusiasts.</p> <p> </p> <h2>3. NASA TV</h2> <p>Since its inception, NASA has a long tradition of providing live mission commentary. Unfortunately, <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">NASA TV</a> first timers can find the government-sponsored feed a tough multimedia pill to swallow.</p> <p>For purists who have learned the cryptic language associated with human spaceflight, however, it's the stream to watch.</p> <p> <br /> </p> <p><em>Image: Space shuttle Discovery is lugged out to launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on January 17, 1997. (NASA) [<a href="http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-82/images/high/KSC-97EC-0159.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-82/images/high/KSC-97EC-0159.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">high-resolution version available</a>]</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/cupola-iss-images/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/cupola-iss-images/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Photo Gallery: Best Space Station Cupola Views</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/space-station-family-portrait/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/space-station-family-portrait/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">NASA Considers Space Station Family Portrait</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/egypt-lake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/egypt-lake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Space Shuttle Images Reveal Ancient Egyptian Lake Bed</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/the-last-shuttle-patch/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/the-last-shuttle-patch/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Winner (and Losers) of NASA's Final Shuttle Patch Contest</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/final-shuttles-delayed/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/final-shuttles-delayed/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">NASA Pushes Back End of Shuttle Era to 2011</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=KNfg4QOgYfU:S6xMTfN9sUM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150139932610795">Dust-Watching Satellite to Launch Friday</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 23 Feb 2011 11:51 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/glory-launch/519144main_glory_670/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/glory-launch/519144main_glory_670/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=7affc0c90324dab24bf2e1536ce1378c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2F519144main_Glory_670.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p><em>Updated: NASA has delayed Glory's launch to Feb. 25 at 2:09 am PST. This story was updated on Feb. 24, 2011 at 7 a.m. PST.</em></p> <p>NASA will launch a new satellite designed to probe how the sun and the Earth's atmosphere conspire to shape Earth's climate early Friday morning.</p> <p>The satellite, called <a href="http://glory.gsfc.nasa.gov/" target="_blank" title="http://glory.gsfc.nasa.gov/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Glory</a>, will watch the sun and the Earth's atmosphere simultaneously to see how they interact. The six-foot-tall satellite comes equipped with instruments to measure the amount of solar energy that strikes the top of the atmosphere, and measure the concentration of small droplets and particles called <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Aerosols/" target="_blank" title="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Aerosols/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">aerosols</a> that float suspended in the atmosphere.</p> <p>Atmospheric scientists know that aerosols play a role in shaping the planet's overall climate, but exactly how they do this is unclear. Aerosols can directly warm or cool an area of the Earth by absorbing heat from the sun or reflecting sunlight into space. They can also indirectly influence climate by serving as the seeds of clouds, and changing clouds' properties like brightness, how long they last and how much they rain.</p> <p>The particles can come from natural sources, like volcanoes, sandstorms, forest fires and sea spray, or from human activity, such as burning fossil fuels or clearing land by burning plants. Glory's mission is to sort out which particles are which by analyzing the physical direction of light reflected off the droplets. The satellite's measurements will provide data for climate models to learn how each aerosol works.</p> <p> </p> <p>Glory is scheduled to lift off from <a href="http://www.vandenberg.af.mil/" target="_blank" title="http://www.vandenberg.af.mil/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Vandenberg Air Force Base</a> in southern California at 2:09 am Pacific time in the middle of a 48-second long launch window. The launch was originally scheduled for 2:09 Wednesday morning, but a technical glitch forced engineers to scrub the launch at the last minute.</p> <p>"We were in safe mode, and externally received signal to go into safe mode. We don't quite understand why that occurred," said assistant launch manager Chuck Dovale in an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOdejadSgaw" target="_blank" title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOdejadSgaw" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">interview on NASA TV</a>. "We're going to troubleshoot in the next few hours, and certainly won't continue until we understand it."</p> <p><em>Image: An artist's representation of Glory in orbit. Credit: NASA</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/clouds-shaped-by-origins/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/clouds-shaped-by-origins/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Clouds Are Shaped by Where They're From</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/nasa-maps-global-air-pollution/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/nasa-maps-global-air-pollution/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">NASA Maps Global Air Pollution</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/geoengineering/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/geoengineering/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Geoengineering Quick-Fix Would Wreak Ozone Havoc</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/georank/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/georank/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Scientists Rank Global Cooling Hacks</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/sundog-ice-crystals/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/sundog-ice-crystals/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">How Rockets Realign Ice Crystals</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/hack-the-planet-excerpt/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/hack-the-planet-excerpt/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Exclusive Excerpt: Hack the Planet</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=lXIDhdQruLA:IZr6zN2GpiA:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="5" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150139932625795">Gorgeous Jeweled Beetle Reveals Its Tricks</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 23 Feb 2011 10:19 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=979" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=979" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> </div> <div> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=3b85f828ee58f9d5ade2463d6bff0af3&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fjewel-beetle%2Ftsato_0.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </div> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=988" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=988" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=8aa8e63b329c949e101d3453b885b283&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fjewel-beetle%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_tsato_0.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=979" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=979" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=dd4fb61c465faf8967e3353685469325&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fjewel-beetle%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_chidorian.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=986" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=986" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=2c2f07a684665eb6fcc7cf6b486a472d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fjewel-beetle%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_tamamushi_shrine.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=982" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=982" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=ee4e3ddd7b174da2b7982d931bc888d8&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fjewel-beetle%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_d-mckin2.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=981" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=981" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=97d2e8f0b49a336e4104599147d6658d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fjewel-beetle%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_d-mckin1.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=985" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=985" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=2da63c0d0242366dfd538c2e8e8fc57f&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fjewel-beetle%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_il_fullxfull-148614548.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> </ul> <br /> <div> <p>The Japanese jewel beetle has been a prized ornament since ancient times, and now researchers have revealed the secret to its scintillating good looks.</p> <p>Brilliant metallic purples and greens run the length of each beetle's body. Each color band corresponds to varying numbers of stacked chitin layers in its wing covers. These nanoscale layers scramble light and reflect an iridescent sheen, reported a team from the Netherlands and Japan in the Mar. 12 issue of <a href="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/366/1565/709.abstract" target="_blank" title="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/366/1565/709.abstract" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow"><em>The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B</em></a>.</p> <p>"This surprises me. I've always assumed they had the same number of layers throughout the body," said Dave Kavanaugh, curator of the insect collection at the California Academy of Sciences, who was not involved with the study. "It makes the color change much less accidental."</p> <p>For many iridescent insects, color seems incidental, a quirk of the cuticle surface. In the insects Kavanaugh studies, surface ridges cause visible iridescence, but their primary job is to deflect water or mud. Many are active at night, when their colors can't be seen. But the Japanese jewel beetle's surface is smooth, and the study's authors suspect that iridescence helps these insects recognize each other and find mates.</p> <p>If you find yourself in Japan, on a summer walk through the woods, you might find one yourself. If you can't make it to Japan, enjoy these photographs.</p> <p><em>Image: <a href="http://tefutefulife.blog107.fc2.com/" target="_blank" title="http://tefutefulife.blog107.fc2.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Takehiko Sato</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Citation: "Polarized iridescence of the multilayered elytra of the Japanese jewel beetle,</em> Chrysochroa fulgidissima." <em>Doekele G. Stavenga, Bodo D. Wilts, Hein L. Leertouwer, Takahiko Hariyama, </em>Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, <em>Mar. 11, 2011. DOI:10.1098/rstb.2010.0197.</em></p> <p> </p> </div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=979" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=979" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=985&viewall=true" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/jeweled-beetle/?pid=985&viewall=true" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">View all</a></div> </div> </div> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/insect-wing-color/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/insect-wing-color/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Amazing World of Insect-Wing Color Discovered</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/dung-beetles-camera-phones/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/dung-beetles-camera-phones/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Dung Beetles Inspire Video Enhancements for Camera Phones</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/05/photonic_beetle" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/05/photonic_beetle" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Brazilian Beetles Hold Key to Faster Computers</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=6SRbCNhn3Fc:ao9yCjYPVZc:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="6" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150139932630795">Video: Secrets of Swimming in Sand Revealed</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 23 Feb 2011 10:00 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p> </p> <p>Using a lizard, a snaky robot and computer simulations, researchers have captured the secrets of swimming through sand.</p> <p>Physicists filmed the movements of sandfish lizards and snake-like robots as they burrowed through sand, then boiled their motion down into a numerical theory. The theory ultimately led to a computer model, described in a Feb. 23 study in the<em> Journal of the Royal Society Interface</em>, that can emulate the fluid-like physics of sand and objects that can swim through it.</p> <p>"They've taken advantage of biodiversity to answer questions in physics and inspire new engineering designs," said biomaterials scientist <a href="http://geckolab.lclark.edu/dept/AutumnLab/Bio.html" target="_blank" title="http://geckolab.lclark.edu/dept/AutumnLab/Bio.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Kellar Autumn</a> of Lewis & Clark College, who wasn't involved in the study.</p> <p>The research, led by physicist <a href="http://phweb.physics.gatech.edu/research/goldman/" target="_blank" title="http://phweb.physics.gatech.edu/research/goldman/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Daniel Goldman</a> of Georgia Tech, builds on his team's previous work. By 2009, Goldman and his colleagues had discovered the sandfish lizard's <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1172490" target="_blank" title="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1172490" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">sand-swimming motion</a> and designed a snake-like robot to emulate it. In the new study, Goldman's team used the experiments to create a highly predictive model.</p> <p>The work may lead to many applications, from landmine detection and earthquake monitoring to sub-surface discoveries on other worlds.</p> <p>"We've never had such a detailed, quantitative, accurate model of an organism moving through an environment that isn't water or air," Goldman said. "You can make devices that can sort of wiggle into or through granular materials. We're already talking to NASA about it."</p> <p> </p> <p>Goldman's team first explored sand-swimming motion by studying sandfish lizards, also known as <em>Scincus scincus</em>. The reptiles are native to North-African deserts and can quickly burrow into sand to escape predators and scorching heat.</p> <p>The team found sine-wave-like movement allows the lizard, and their robot, to push forward in sand, but creating computer models for the experiments proved problematic. Simulating all of the tiny sand grains required a lot of money to purchase time on powerful computers. So, the team performed the same experiments using 3-millimeter-wide glass beads instead of sand.</p> <p>"We wanted something easy to simulate that had some predictive power. We got lucky, because it turned out [the lizard and robot] swim beautifully in the same way through larger glass beads," Goldman said.</p> <p>When the researchers compared data from all three systems — the lizard, the robot and the simulation — the forces matched within 8 percent of one another.</p> <p>"That means we can use this model to generate hypotheses, for example, about what is going on internally in the lizard that allows it to swim," Goldman said. "We can go in and get the physiology of organism and use it to do something useful."</p> <p>Only a handful of laboratories research sand-swimming physics, said <a href="http://www.wpi.edu/academics/Depts/Physics/People/sak.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.wpi.edu/academics/Depts/Physics/People/sak.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Stephan Koehler</a> of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, who wasn't involved in Goldman's work. Despite the low number, Koehler thinks the implications of such work could lead to world-changing technology.</p> <p>"As with a lot of basic research, no one sees it seriously until a killer application puts the science on steroids," Koehler said. "The Wright brother's work was seen as something of an oddity 108 years ago, and they initially had a difficult time selling their product. But now look where we are."</p> <p><a href="http://meche.mit.edu/people/?id=45" target="_blank" title="http://meche.mit.edu/people/?id=45" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Peko Hosoi</a>, a mechanical engineer and roboticist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said work like Goldman's is crucial for robot innovation.</p> <p>"You don't want to blindly copy what animals can do. That doesn't get you very far," said Hosoi, who also wasn't involved in the study. "You need to know the fundamental mechanics behind them to inspire truly useful designs."</p> <p>Goldman ultimately hopes to plug models like his team's into future robots and give them some brains.</p> <p>"Not just <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/what-watson-can-learn-from-the-human-brain/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/what-watson-can-learn-from-the-human-brain/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Watson-type machines</a> that can answer Jeopardy questions," he said. "Ones that can smartly interact with the physical world."</p> <p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=d16130a09a3a925e8df7c7842acf6936&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fgoldman-laboratory.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><em>Video: The sandfish lizard swims through sand by turning itself into a sine wave. Researchers recreate the effect with a robot in glass beads and a computer model. (Ryan D. Maladen, Yang Ding, Paul B. Umbanhowar, Adam Kamor, Daniel I. Goldman, Georgia Tech, 2011)</em></p> <p><em>Image: The high-speed X-ray camera setup used to track the motion of lizards and robots able to swim through sand. (Goldman Lab)<br /> </em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/lizard-camouflage-gender/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/lizard-camouflage-gender/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Lizard Camouflage Confuses Males About Gender</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/thirdeyesteering/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/thirdeyesteering/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Lizards Use Third Eye to Steer by the Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/robot-grip/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/robot-grip/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: Fingerless Robotic Hand Can Pick Anything</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/robot-fish-ribbon-fin/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/robot-fish-ribbon-fin/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Black Ghost Knifefish Robot Unmasks Movement Secrets</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/robotsmile/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/robotsmile/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "4a24f", event);" rel="nofollow">Robot Teaches Itself to Smile</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=ADQVeyGx-1c:frI8s-un4UY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-30204600351660204772011-02-23T13:11:00.001-08:002011-02-23T13:11:39.752-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Cellphone Radiation Increases Brain Activity</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Shields Up: Why Last Week’s Solar Storm Was a Dud</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Tiny Capsules Can Heal Worn-Out Batteries</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">Alan Turing’s Patterns in Nature, and Beyond</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150139021395795">Cellphone Radiation Increases Brain Activity</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 22 Feb 2011 03:00 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=ab7bfae5a141cee7a863d171bc37f2f2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fbrain-scan-cell-phone-jama.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>Radiation from a mobile phone call can make brain regions near the device burn more energy, according to a new study.</p> <p>Cellphones emit ultra-high-frequency radio waves during calls and data transfers, and some researchers have suspected this radiation — albeit inconclusively — of being linked to long-term health risks like brain cancer. The new brain-scan-based work, to be published Feb. 23 in the <em><a href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/305/8/828.full" target="_blank" title="http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/305/8/828.full" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Journal of the American Medical Association</a></em>, shows radiation emitted from a cellphone's antenna during a call makes nearby brain tissue use 7 percent more energy.</p> <p>"We have no idea what this means yet or how it works," said neuroscientist <a href="http://137.187.56.161/about/welcome/volkowpage.html" target="_blank" title="http://137.187.56.161/about/welcome/volkowpage.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Nora Volkow</a> of the National Institutes of Health. "But this is the first reliable study showing the brain is activated by exposure to cellphone radio frequencies."</p> <p>More than 5 billion mobile devices may be in use worldwide today. From behavioral quirks to brain cancer, researchers have looked for any health risks associated with cellphone radiation for years. Volkow said, however, that most research has produced conflicting results.</p> <p>"These studies used only 14 people, at most, and looked at brain activity over brief time spans of about 60 seconds. A cellphone's effect on the brain is very weak, so you lose statistical power with small sample sizes and durations," said Volkow. "Our study had 47 usable subjects monitored over a long time to get us significant data."</p> <p>Cancer epidemiologist <a href="http://eph.aecom.yu.edu/web/faculty_details.aspx?id=2308" target="_blank" title="http://eph.aecom.yu.edu/web/faculty_details.aspx?id=2308" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Geoffrey Kabat</a> of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine said the work can't and doesn't offer any clinical predictions, but regarded it as the best to date on cellphone radiation's effects on the brain.</p> <p>"It's a really even-handed look at this problem, and it shows a small effect that scales with exposure," said Kabat, author of the book Hyping Health Risks. "I'm really curious to see where future research leads."</p> <p> </p> <p>Cellphones use ultra-high-frequency radio waves to connect with telecommunications networks. Antennas within phones emit the waves and, while the strength tails off quickly as distance from the antenna increases, a sizable chunk of it is beamed through the brain.</p> <p>As a result, federal agencies require phone manufacturers to post information about how much radiation the body might absorb for each model, called its Specific Absorption Rate or SAR. Measured in watts per kilogram of tissue, it reveals how much radiation parts of the body are exposed to during use of a mobile device.</p> <p>The simple cellphone used in Volkow's study, a <a href="http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones/SCH-U310ZNAVZW" target="_blank" title="http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones/SCH-U310ZNAVZW" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Samsung Knack phone</a> popular in New York, has a peak SAR in the head of just under 1 watt per kilogram of tissue. The <a href="https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=573413&fcc_id=%27BCG-E2380A%27" target="_blank" title="https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=573413&fcc_id=%27BCG-E2380A%27" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Phone 4</a> has a peak SAR in the head twice as high, while sun's average SAR across the body is 4 or 5 times higher.</p> <p>Some studies have suggested a small yet significant link between long-term cellphone SARs and certain brain cancers, including glioma and meningioma, but most investigations have found no such links. To abolish any uncertainty, the World Health Organization tasked a group of scientists to review all known related research. Their <a href="http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/diseases-and-conditions/cancer/news/news/2010/7/interphone-study-on-mobile-phone-use-and-brain-cancer-risk" target="_blank" title="http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/diseases-and-conditions/cancer/news/news/2010/7/interphone-study-on-mobile-phone-use-and-brain-cancer-risk" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">2010 Interphone report</a> showed no substantial link with mobile phone use and incidence of brain cancers, and in fact found reduced rates for some types.</p> <div>'The effect is very small, but it's still unnatural. Nature didn't prepare our brains for this.'</div> <p>Still, Volkow said, understanding close-up and long-term exposure to cellphone radiation is important.</p> <p>"The state of knowledge is really speculative. No studies have determined mechanisms for what we have seen, or other effects such as increased blood flow in the brain," Volkow said. "I have spent hours on the phone with my sister every week, and have done it for years, so I would like to know if that's harmful or not."</p> <p>Volkow and a team of researchers scanned the brains of 47 people with a cellphone attached to each side of their head. One phone was turned off, while the other had an active call going for 50 minutes. It was muted to prevent the audio from having effects on brain activity.</p> <p>Twenty minutes into the call, clinicians injected a radioactive form of sugar into each person, then began imaging their brains with a Positron Emission Topography machine. Over the course of 30 minutes, the sugar pooled in the brain's most active regions and revealed the energy use to the brain scanner.</p> <p>Accounting for normal activity, the subjects showed about a 7 percent boost in sugar use on the side of the head where the active cellphone was.</p> <p>Brain imaging physicist <a href="http://www.bnl.gov/medical/Personnel/Tomasi/default.htm" target="_blank" title="http://www.bnl.gov/medical/Personnel/Tomasi/default.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Dardo Tomasi</a> of Brookhaven National Laboratory, who co-authored the study, said that's several times less activity than visual brain regions show during an engaging movie.</p> <p>"The effect is very small, but it's still unnatural. Nature didn't prepare our brains for this," Tomasi said.</p> <p>Although the mechanism for the effect and its long-term consequences aren't known, Volkow said it's cheap and worthwhile to take matters into your own hands.</p> <p>"You don't have to wait around on us for the answers. Just use a wired headset or the speakerphone function," she said. "That keeps the phone far enough away to make it an insignificant risk."</p> <p><em>Image: A bottom-of-the-brain view showing average use of radioactive glucose in the brains of 47 subjects exposed to a 50-minute phone call on the right side of their head. (Nora Volkow/JAMA)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/why-cell-phone-talkers-are-so-grating/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/why-cell-phone-talkers-are-so-grating/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Why Cellphone Talkers Are So Grating</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/driving-distracts-cell-phone-users/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/driving-distracts-cell-phone-users/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Driving Distracts Cellphone Users</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/cell-phone-satellite/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/cell-phone-satellite/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Cheaper, Better Satellites Made From Cellphones and Toys</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/did-a-herpes-vi/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/did-a-herpes-vi/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Research Links Herpes Virus and Brain Tumors</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/allergies-tumors-cancer/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/allergies-tumors-cancer/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Allergies Linked to Brain Tumor Protection</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=QZ3kaypiltU:v0sTcrqMZPM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150139021405795">Shields Up: Why Last Week’s Solar Storm Was a Dud</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 22 Feb 2011 02:37 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/weak-solar-storm/feb15-solar-flare/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/weak-solar-storm/feb15-solar-flare/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=a91584b0c8b23d211f55ad975df80f34&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2FFeb15-solar-flare.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>When the <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/big-solar-flare/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/big-solar-flare/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">largest flare in four years</a> erupted from the sun Feb. 14, sky watchers across the Northern Hemisphere braced themselves for a geomagnetic storm. Space weather experts predicted that jets of charged particles smacking into the Earth's magnetic field could disrupt navigation and communication systems, and spark a bonus of bright northern lights dancing across the ionosphere.</p> <p>Instead, nothing much happened.</p> <p>"There were some <a href="http://spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01feb11_page3.htm" target="_blank" title="http://spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01feb11_page3.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">nice displays of aurora</a>, but you had to live in Finland, northern Canada or Alaska to see them," said Joe Kunches, a forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's <a href="http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/" target="_blank" title="http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Space Weather Prediction Center</a>. "This one was the lowest storm category that we even pay any attention to."</p> <p>The storm was so weak because the flare's magnetic field happened to be aligned parallel to the Earth's. When the sun sends a mass of hot plasma hurtling toward the planet in a <a href="http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/CMEs.shtml" target="_blank" title="http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/CMEs.shtml" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">coronal mass ejection</a>, the plasma is imprinted with its own magnetic field separate from the sun's. Astronomers can't predict the direction of the plasma's magnetic field until the burst hits Earth.</p> <p>If the plasma's magnetic field is parallel to the Earth's, the incoming charged particles are effectively blocked from entering Earth's magnetosphere. An identical flare with a perpendicular magnetic field would have triggered a much stronger storm.</p> <p>"If the magnetic fields are parallel, then the shields are up. We are well protected," said space weather expert Juha-Pekka Luntama of the European Space Agency Feb. 19 at the meeting of the <a href="http://www.aaas.org/meetings/" target="_blank" title="http://www.aaas.org/meetings/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">American Association for the Advancement of Science</a> in Washington, DC.</p> <p> </p> <p>But next time we might not be as lucky with alignment, and we can expect up to 1,700 more storms like last week's in the coming months as the sun wakes back up.</p> <p>NOAA ranks geomagnetic storms on a <a href="http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/NOAAscales/" target="_blank" title="http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/NOAAscales/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">scale</a> from G1, minor storms that spark auroras in Michigan and Maine, to G5, extreme storms that can shut down power grids and cause northern lights as far south as Florida. The ranking is based on how much more active the local magnetic field is than a normal, quiet day.</p> <p>The Feb. 14 storm turned out to be a G1, meaning "it wasn't that big a deal," Kunches said.</p> <p>The storm was mostly notable for being the first of the new solar cycle, Kunches said. The sun goes through periods of relative violence and calm every 11 years or so. This last solar minimum was longer and quieter than astronomers expected. Many predict that the ensuing solar maximum, when magnetic activity on the sun will cause more frequent and severe flares, will also be relatively serene.</p> <p>But space-weather experts are more nervous about this solar maximum than ever before. Since the last solar maximum in 2000, society has grown more dependent on systems that can be knocked out by a strong solar flare.</p> <p>"Things have changed a lot since 2000," Tom Bogdan, director of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, told reporters Feb. 19 at AAAS. "What's at stake are the advanced technologies that underlie our lives."</p> <p>A strong flare would send ultraviolet and X-ray radiation to the sunlit side of the Earth, ionizing the upper atmosphere and potentially shutting down GPS satellites. Losing GPS would cause chaos in more than just car navigation systems, Bogdan said.</p> <p>"GPS is involved in everything we do," he said, including financial transactions. Prices fluctuate so quickly that traders need a time stamp accurate to a millionth of a second every time they buy or sell something. Every time you swipe your credit card at the gas station or buy a bag of oranges, Bogdan said, it goes through a GPS satellite.</p> <p>Ten to 20 minutes after the flare, a burst of high-energy protons would enter the Earth's magnetic field at the poles, causing processing errors in other satellites.</p> <p>About half an hour later, the hot cloud of plasma that the sun spit out with the flare would bump into the Earth's magnetic field. If it's strong enough, the plasma's magnetic field can induce currents in electric transmission lines, which could cause widespread blackouts. The most powerful solar flare in recorded history, the <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/06may_carringtonflare/" target="_blank" title="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/06may_carringtonflare/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Carrington flare</a> in September 1859, sent currents through telegraph wires and even set a few buildings on fire.</p> <p>Bogdan noted that that storm and the next-strongest storm in 1921 both happened during particularly weak solar cycles.</p> <p>Still, he said, "don't panic." Many satellites and transmission lines are already fitted with shields to prevent the worst of the damage from a strong flare. Others can be shut down preemptively. Sun-observing satellites give space weather experts about 20 hours to come up with a plan to deal with an impending storm, during which NOAA sends out <a href="http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/index.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">detailed alerts</a>.</p> <p>"This recent solar flare really illustrates that we need to pay attention to space weather," said NOAA administrator <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/lubchenco.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.noaa.gov/lubchenco.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Jane Lubchenco</a> at the AAAS meeting. "The watchword is, predict and prepare."</p> <p>Interested sky watchers can <a href="http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/index.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">sign up to receive space-weather alerts</a> on their phones, and watch for more flares in the next two years. NOAA predicts 100 storms that will spark auroras as far south as Alabama.</p> <p><em>Image: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/big-solar-flare/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/big-solar-flare/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Giant Solar Blast Headed for Earth</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/solarcycle/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/solarcycle/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Big Solar Flare Portends Sun's Return to Normal</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/huge-sun-filament/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/huge-sun-filament/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Huge Magnetic Filament Erupts on the Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/video-solar-butterfly-effect/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/video-solar-butterfly-effect/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: The Butterfly Effect on the Sun's Surface</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/sunspots/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/sunspots/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Photo: The Sun Gets Its Spots (Back)</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/storms2012/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/storms2012/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">The Geomagnetic Apocalypse — And How to Stop It</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=3UMiM4hX77Y:_M6nvElBsvo:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150139021415795">Tiny Capsules Can Heal Worn-Out Batteries</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 22 Feb 2011 07:22 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=de6678746496f3530acbaca14b6bc484&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fmicro-capsules-self-healing-polymer-ben-blaiszik.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>WASHINGTON — A newly created lithium-ion battery that can heal itself may improve the life span and safety of today's energy-storage technologies, researchers report.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries power cell phones, laptops and other portable electronics. But, like any batteries, they tend to break down over time.</p> <p>"There are many different types of degradation that happen, and fixing this degradation could help us make longer-lasting batteries," said Scott White, a materials engineer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who reported the details of the battery Feb. 20 at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.</p> <p>One site of damage is the anode, a battery's negatively charged terminal. As a battery charges and discharges, the anode swells and shrinks. Over time, this cycling causes damage, creating cracks that can interfere with the flow of current and, ultimately, kill the battery.</p> <p>To counteract this cracking, White embedded tiny microspheres inside the graphite of an anode. As cracks formed in the anode, they tore open the plastic shells, releasing the contents within: a material called indium gallium arsenide. This liquid metal alloy seeped out of the spheres and filled the cracks in the anode, restoring the flow of electricity.</p> <p> </p> <p>Damage to a battery — or a short circuit between its components — can cause problems other than a shorter life span. Out-of-control electrical currents have been known to create hot spots that grow into a raging fire.</p> <p>"It's not a common occurrence, but when it happens, the consequences are severe," White said. Battery fires have prompted laptop recalls by Dell and Hewlett-Packard, and the U.S. Department of Transportation has proposed stricter rules for cargo planes that transport large quantities of lithium-ion batteries.</p> <p>To safeguard against this type of failure, White developed a second kind of microsphere made of solid polyethylene, an inexpensive and widely available plastic. A small quantity of these spheres embedded in the anode and other battery components can function as a safety cutoff switch. If the temperature inside the battery rises above 105° Celsius, the spheres melt into a thin layer of insulating material that shuts off the flow of electricity, preventing a conflagration.</p> <p>"We've tested this in real batteries," said White, whose research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. "It works beautifully." This safety feature, he said, could be useful for the electric cars emerging on the market.</p> <p>"Lithium-ion batteries will continue to be the technology used for the next 10 to 15 years in electric cars," said Kristin Persson of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, who is looking for new battery materials that not only have better energy storage but also avoid some of the pitfalls of traditional batteries. "It will take at least that amount of time to develop new materials."</p> <p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=30a862168cb4b90fa4f8d351c19386e5&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fmicro-capsules-self-healing-polymer-aagnus-andersson.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><em>Images: 1) A scanning electron microscope image of microcapsules used in self-healing polymers. Microcapsules in the center are about 100 microns wide. (Ben Blaiszik/University of Illinois) 2) Tiny plastic microcapsules are the secret to a battery that can heal itself when damaged. (Magnus Andersson/University of Illinois)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/self-repairing-solar-cells/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/self-repairing-solar-cells/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Self-Healing Solar Cells Could Have Indefinite Lifespan</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/selfheal/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/selfheal/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Polyurethane Coating Could Make Self-Healing Car Paint</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/superbattery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/superbattery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">New Battery Could Recharge in Seconds</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/nanotube-paper-batteries/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/nanotube-paper-batteries/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Printable, Moldable Batteries Made From Paper and Nanotubes</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/planes-get-extra-senses-from-web-of-sensors/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/planes-get-extra-senses-from-web-of-sensors/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Planes Get Extra Senses From Web of Sensors</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=P_w6Wlp1CFk:fEcTd1MuU24:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150139021420795">Alan Turing’s Patterns in Nature, and Beyond</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 22 Feb 2011 04:00 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=970" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=970" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> </div> <div> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=daeeffc44df20c4d74c52c43ba1e4904&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fturingpatterns%2F01turing.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </div> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=969" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=969" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=bb1e7c6e66b99d2972470c6aece9153b&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fturingpatterns%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_01turing.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=970" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=970" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=7803b9f105a21f2e5d72182a972ca4a7&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fturingpatterns%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_02turing_diagram.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=971" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=971" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=57edfc4128a69f2f3ce13c113a4a3a44&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fturingpatterns%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_03chemicalproof.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=972" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=972" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=2c334dae7d1c5316b648c2c2ba45cd2d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fturingpatterns%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_04seashells.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=973" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=973" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=75f20377d62507aae1c545488f99a6ea&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fturingpatterns%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_05fish.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=974" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=974" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=6db4e56daa922af6bd32fa28d4491945&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fturingpatterns%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_06zebrafish.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=975" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=975" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=59de63f53d55d5c290dc6613963f4b90&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fturingpatterns%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_07jaguar2.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=976" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=976" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=1686ab118dd30fb8627b28419c1a93e1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fturingpatterns%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_08-3d.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=977" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=977" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=e50c481a250b362bbc692048ebc5d7f4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fturingpatterns%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_09dictyostelium_cells.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=978" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=978" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=4a631e855ae5c88e41ef75cfd4dc80e7&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fturingpatterns%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_10m51.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> </ul> <br /> <div> <h2>Alan Turing's Biology Paper</h2> <p>Near the end of his life, the <a href="http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/06/0623alan-turing-born/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/06/0623alan-turing-born/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">great mathematician Alan Turing</a> wrote his first and last paper on biology and chemistry, about how a certain type of chemical reaction ought to produce many patterns seen in nature.</p> <p>Called "<a href="http://www.dna.caltech.edu/courses/cs191/paperscs191/turing.pdf" target="_blank" title="http://www.dna.caltech.edu/courses/cs191/paperscs191/turing.pdf" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis</a>," it was an entirely theoretical work. But in following decades, long after Turing <a href="http://is.gd/ZQB9hh" target="_blank" title="http://is.gd/ZQB9hh" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">tragically took his own life</a> in 1954, scientists found his speculations to be reality.</p> <p>First found in chemicals in dishes, then in the stripes and spirals and whorls of animals, so-called Turing patterns abounded. Some think that Turing patterns may actually extend to ecosystems, even to galaxies. That's still speculation — but a proof published Feb. 11 in <em>Science</em> of Turing patterns in a controlled three-dimensional chemical system are even more suggestion of just how complex the patterns can be.</p> <p>On the following pages, Wired.com takes you on a Turing pattern tour.</p> <p><em>Images: Left: Alan Turing. (Ohio State University) Right: Patterns generated by a computer simulation of the Turing model. each is made by the same basic equation, with its parameters slightly tweaked. (Shigeru Kondo & Takashi Miura/</em>Science<em>)</em></p> </div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=970" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=970" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=978&viewall=true" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/turing-patterns/?pid=978&viewall=true" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">View all</a></div> </div> </div> <p> </p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/slime-molds/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/slime-molds/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Searching for Network Laws in Slime</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/partition-numbers-fractals/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/partition-numbers-fractals/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Hidden Fractals Suggest Answer to Ancient Math Problem</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/fractal-patterns-in-nature/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/fractal-patterns-in-nature/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Earth's Most Stunning Natural Fractal Patterns</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/model-self-organizer/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/model-self-organizer/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: Mysterious Patterns Reveal Self-Organizing Muscle Fibers</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/bead-cloud-mystery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/bead-cloud-mystery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "df15f", event);" rel="nofollow">Baffling Patterns Form in Scientific Sandbox</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=p2q18fVOjqo:TNa66nyXYdo:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-89757009102630950792011-02-19T13:05:00.001-08:002011-02-19T13:05:05.051-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Mutant Fish Safely Store Toxins in Fat</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Moon Race Brings 29 Teams to the Starting Line</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Helpful Mutations Didn’t Sweep Through Early Humans</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">The Mystery of the Missing Moon Trees</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150136193840795">Mutant Fish Safely Store Toxins in Fat</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 18 Feb 2011 02:00 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=2fb335ab2c8d8db70451f9eb8950533d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Ftomcod-fish-science-aaas.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>Some fish in New York's Hudson River have become resistant to several of the waterway's more toxic pollutants. Instead of getting sick from dioxins and related compounds including some polychlorinated biphenyls, Atlantic tomcod harmlessly store these poisons in fat, a new study finds.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>But what's good for this bottom-dwelling species could be bad for those feeding on it, says Isaac Wirgin of the New York University School of Medicine's Institute of Environmental Medicine in Tuxedo. Each bite of tomcod that a predator takes, he explains, will move a potent dose of toxic chemicals up the food chain — eventually into species that could end up on home dinner tables.</p> <p>From 1947 to 1976, two General Electric manufacturing plants along the Hudson River produced PCBs for a range of uses, including as insulating fluids in electrical transformers. Over the years, PCB and dioxin levels in the livers of the Hudson's tomcod rose to become "among the highest known in nature," Wirgin and his colleagues note online Feb. 17 in <em>Science</em>. Because these fish don't detoxify PCBs, Wirgin explains, it was a surprise that they could accumulate such hefty contamination without becoming poisoned. His team now reports that the tomcod's protection traces to a single mutation in one gene. The gene is responsible for producing a protein needed to unleash the pollutants' toxicity.</p> <p> </p> <p>All vertebrates contain molecules in their cells that will bind to dioxins and related compounds. Indeed, these proteins — aryl hydrocarbon receptors, or AHRs — are often referred to as dioxin receptors. Once these poisons diffuse into an exposed cell, each molecule can mate with a receptor and together they eventually pick up a third molecule. This trio can then dock with select segments of DNA in the cell's nucleus to inappropriately turn on genes that can poison the host animal.</p> <p>The tomcod actually has two types of AHRs, with AHR-2 offering the most effective binding to dioxin-like pollutants. But one naturally occurring AHR-2 variant, the result of a gene mutation, proves a very poor mate, Wirgin's team has found. It takes five times more of the pollutants to get substantial binding than is needed with the conventional AHR-2.</p> <p>In local rivers relatively free of dioxins and PCBs, 95 percent of tomcod possess AHR-2 only in the conventional form. But in the PCB-rich Hudson, Wirgin's group finds, the only kind of AHR-2 protein in 99 percent of tomcod is the poorly binding variant.</p> <p>The mutant receptor appears to have evolved long ago and to be widely dispersed. But in the Hudson, fish with the gene to make the mutant receptor have thrived, while those without it have died out, Wirgin notes.</p> <p>Adaptation to resist poisons occurs throughout biology, observes molecular toxicologist John Stegeman of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. This process explains why some pesticides no longer kill their targets and why some microbes become immune to antibiotics.</p> <p>Stegeman has been chronicling resistance to toxic PCBs and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in another coastal species, a killifish. "But the mechanism in the killifish has not been uncovered, despite a long effort to determine it," he says.</p> <p>Knowing the genetic underpinnings for chemical resistance can help predict the likelihood of that resistance developing, he explains, and can point to "how one might exploit resistance — even understand why chemicals are toxic." Genetic mechanisms for chemical resistance in wild species are known for some invertebrates, such as bugs. Stegeman says, to his knowledge, this tomcod finding is the first in a vertebrate.</p> <p><em>Image: Tomcod can grow to 10 inches long. Those in the Hudson produce a mutant protein that allows them to thrive in waters heavily contaminated with toxic PCBs. (</em>Science<em>/AAAS)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/plasticoceans/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/plasticoceans/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Toxic Soup: Plastics Could Be Leaching Chemicals Into Ocean</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/its-time-to-pan/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/its-time-to-pan/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">We Should Have Banned Bisphenol A Twenty Years Ago</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/nanoparticle-sludge-safety/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/nanoparticle-sludge-safety/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Nanoparticles in Sewage Sludge May End Up in the Food Chain</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/gallery-panama-frogs/2/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/gallery-panama-frogs/2/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">New Species of Frogs Disappearing as Fast as They're Found</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/old-fish-populations/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/old-fish-populations/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Old, Ignored Records Yield 200 Years of Fish Population Data</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=WqhwN518uPA:V7Nj92WwJCA:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150136193860795">Moon Race Brings 29 Teams to the Starting Line</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 18 Feb 2011 12:30 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=2ce5bf54f3214a74f4b946d52a8b39c9&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Frocket-city-space-pioneers-moon-glxp.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>When a couple dozen companies sign contracts containing the words "moon" and "landing," it's a good indication that private lunar exploration is heating up.</p> <p>The X Prize Foundation on Thursday <a href="http://xprize.org/press-release/google-lunar-x-prize-announces-official-roster-teams-competing-30-million-race-moon" target="_blank" title="http://xprize.org/press-release/google-lunar-x-prize-announces-official-roster-teams-competing-30-million-race-moon" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">announced that 29 teams</a> had signed contracts making them the official Google Lunar X Prize competitors, contending for more than $30 million in prizes. The competitors, headquartered in 17 different countries, have been crafting promising business plans and rolling out <a href="http://astrobotic.net/media/image-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://astrobotic.net/media/image-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">prototypes</a>. One team, Astrobotic Technology, has even <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/lunar-x-prize-astrobotic/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/lunar-x-prize-astrobotic/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">arranged its rocket ride to the moon</a> already.</p> <p>"We could be intimidated by that development, but it's good for everyone who's serious about going to the moon," said Michael Joyce, president of team <a href="http://www.nextgiantleap.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.nextgiantleap.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Next Giant Leap</a>. "It shows this industry has moved beyond being an idea, that it is really going to happen."</p> <p>To claim the first-place prize of $20 million before 2015 (it drops to $5 million after that), a <a href="http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams" target="_blank" title="http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">team</a> must land a robot on the moon, move it at least 500 meters and beam back high-definition imagery. Additional $2 million bonuses are available for robots that can survive one bitterly cold two-week lunar night or travel 5 kilometers, among other challenges.</p> <p>Google and the X Prize Foundation jointly <a href="http://www.wired.com/science/space/magazine/15-10/ff_moon" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/science/space/magazine/15-10/ff_moon" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">announced the competition</a> in September 2007, but the duo has worked with dozens of teams for years to finalize fair rules that foster progress instead of stunts.</p> <p>"We want to encourage a financially sustainable era of lunar exploration. The Apollo program and Soviet programs were fantastically inspiring, but they stopped just as they really started to scratch the surface," said planetary scientist William Pomerantz, a senior director at the X Prize Foundation. "Flags and footprints aren't sustainable. We want the teams to trigger business much larger in value than our prize."</p> <p> </p> <div>'Flags and footprints aren't sustainable. We want the teams to trigger business much larger in value than our prize.'</div> <p>Most of that value may rest in raw, untapped resources. Recent moon-surveying missions have revealed methane, ammonia and <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/water-moon-north-pole/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/water-moon-north-pole/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">water</a> — useful ingredients for moon bases and rockets — are <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/lcross-icy-moon/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/lcross-icy-moon/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">hiding on the surface</a>. A rare isotope of helium may also be abundant, and it could fuel pollution-free (although still-theoretical) fusion reactors.</p> <p>Lunar science could also get a boost from more frequent visits, as multibillion-dollar moon missions launched every decade or so by the government are too infrequent and too risky to encourage much growth in the field.</p> <p>"Doctoral students who want to do lunar science shouldn't have to gamble their Ph.D.s on one launch," Pomerantz said. "If lunar shots can go every six months or so, we'll see a much higher volume of scientific results as well as scientists."</p> <p>To find out who is leading the race to seed such developments, technology security consultant Michael Doornbos has spent years interviewing the competitors and tracking their progress. The result of his work is a scorecard that ranks teams based on criteria such as funding, industry connections and progress.</p> <p>"No one had any way to tell where we were at in the competition, making it almost impossible to be a fan or, especially, a super fan like me. So I decided to make a visual representation," Doornbos said. "I'm not a space industry expert, but I do talk to them to keep it updated. And a lot of people tell me they see great value in it because I'm an outsider."</p> <p>Four teams now lead <a href="http://evadot.com/glxpscorecard/" target="_blank" title="http://evadot.com/glxpscorecard/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Doornbos' scorecard</a>: Astrobotic Technology at the front, followed by Next Giant Leap, then Rocket City Space Pioneers and <a href="http://www.part-time-scientists.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.part-time-scientists.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Part-Time Scientists</a> tied for third place.</p> <p>David Gump, president of Astrobotic, said the scorecard is helpful, but that it may be impossible to know who is actually out in front.</p> <p>"Many teams are playing their hands very close to the vest," Gump told Wired.com. "They're not saying much."</p> <p>Whoever is leading the competition, there's a slim chance it may not matter. Organizers of the prize aren't happy about the prospect — they may lose rights to video and images from the first privatized lunar landing — but they may get their wish of a burgeoning moon-based industry without awarding a dollar.</p> <p>Over the years, teams have made business plans with revenues projected to exceed the prize's one-team maximum of $24 million after just one successful launch. And as the start-up lunar businesses work multimillion-dollar deals with third parties, concerns about GLXP's <a href="http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/about-the-prize/rules-and-guidelines" target="_blank" title="http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/about-the-prize/rules-and-guidelines" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">contractual language</a> have cropped up.</p> <p>One clause that ruffled teams' feathers states that GLXP will get intellectual property rights related to multimedia. Pomerantz explained it's there to allow his organization to document and share the story of the competition with the world for free.</p> <p>"We're an educational non-profit organization. We're here to inspire the next generation, and it's why we're supported by our donors and sponsors," Pomerantz said. "On the same token, we're not here to interfere with anyone's ability to do business. We want to be the initial push that gets the teams over that first bump."</p> <p>Still, some teams are working big deals with cable TV providers to license content to their networks.</p> <p>"They have 3-D channels on their systems, and they need something to fill them," Gump said. "A documentary about a 3-D-seeing lunar robot would work quite well."</p> <p>Given the prestige — and cash — to be bestowed upon the winner, Pomerantz said it's an unlikely hypothetical that anyone will withdraw, especially because such wrinkles have been ironed out, he said. If a team wants to withdraw from the competition, however, it can rip up the GLXP contract as late as 6 months before a moonshot.</p> <p>Still, propulsion engineer Tim Pickens, who leads the <a href="http://www.rocketcityspacepioneers.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.rocketcityspacepioneers.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Rocket City Space Pioneers</a> team, says the prize isn't the greatest of his concerns.</p> <p>"If you need the prize to make your team's business work, you're hosed," said Pickens, who helped build SpaceShipOne and win the Ansari X PRIZE in 2004 — a win that spawned <a href="http://www.virgingalactic.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.virgingalactic.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Virgin Galactic</a> and a nearly $1 billion private industry in suborbital flights.</p> <p>"The prize money is an awesome consolation and a great way to recoup development costs, but it isn't going to cover your mission costs," Pickens said. "There are much, much less risky ways to make money. For the value of the prize versus the risk, you might as well be doing something else."</p> <p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=5ed7cfb4058060ba508340110aff4c7c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fglxp-teams-map.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><em>Images: 1) Illustration of the Rocket City Space Pioneers' lunar lander and rover combination. 2) Locations of the GLXP's 29 teams. Dark green shows where teams are headquartered, and light green shows countries where team members are from. (Courtesy of Google Lunar X Prize.)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/lunar-x-prize-astrobotic/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/lunar-x-prize-astrobotic/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Q&A: Company Buys Robot a Rocket Ride to the Moon</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/google-announce/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/google-announce/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">New Google Lunar X Prize Teams and a New $2M Bonus Prize</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/the-first-10-te/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/the-first-10-te/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">The First 10 Teams in the Lunar X Prize An Odd Lot</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/nasa-releases-lunar-rover-iphone-game/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/nasa-releases-lunar-rover-iphone-game/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">NASA Releases Lunar Rover iPhone Game</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/moon-map/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/moon-map/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Moon Crater Map Reveals Early Solar System History</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=F-hhwyKPpNs:Xi_ALAdA7V0:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150136193865795">Helpful Mutations Didn’t Sweep Through Early Humans</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 18 Feb 2011 07:30 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=19bb5747db7bea42601b901b690e19a5&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fhuman-gene-profile-flickr-micahb37.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>Humans probably didn't get swept up in evolution.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>Scientists have favored a model of evolution in which beneficial gene mutations quickly and dramatically sweep through a population due to the evolutionary advantages they confer. Such mutations would become nearly universal in a population. But this selective sweep model may not be accurate for humans, a new study indicates. Human evolution likely followed a more subtle and complicated path, say population geneticists Molly Przeworski of the University of Chicago and Guy Sella of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and colleagues.</p> <p>Computational analysis of 179 genomes belonging to people from Europe, Asia and Africa reveal that selective sweeps have been rare in human evolution, the researchers report in the Feb. 18 <em>Science</em>.</p> <p>"I'm convinced," says Andrew Clark, a population geneticist at Cornell University. Clark was among the first to find evidence that selective sweeps can shape evolution. The idea of a favored gene sweeping in to save the evolutionary day is so attractive that other forms of natural selection have been largely ignored, he says. The new study could change that. "I think this will be taken to heart and people will take a step back and start asking what other signatures of selection may be present."</p> <p> </p> <p>In the study, the researchers based their analysis on the idea that when a gene containing a beneficial mutation becomes more common over successive generations it drags along big swaths of neighboring DNA. A sweep would happen so quickly that individual changes in the nearby DNA wouldn't have time to accumulate, so everyone in a population would end up with essentially the same genetic signature in the DNA regions surrounding the beneficial mutation.</p> <p>The researchers searched for such troughs of genetic diversity around genes carrying mutations that would change an amino acid building block in the protein built from the gene — a sign of functional importance. The team reasoned that if the genetic changes were really beneficial, they ought to have deeper troughs than mutations that don't alter amino acids.</p> <p>"But in fact, we found very little difference," says Sella. That could indicate that "very few of these mutations came into the population in the mode of a selective sweep." The researchers didn't find evidence of selective sweeps in regions of the genome that change how genes are turned on and off either.</p> <p>It may have been difficult for selective sweeps to take hold in humans because of demographics, Clark says. People are scattered throughout the globe, so a beneficial mutation would have a long way to spread. Such a mutation would have to have dramatic effects on evolutionary fitness to go global.</p> <p>Good evidence does exist for some mutations that did undergo selective sweeps in humans, such as those for skin pigmentation, hair and teeth morphology and the genetic change that allows adults in some populations to digest the milk sugar lactose. But those examples are the exception rather than the rule in human evolution.</p> <p>"We have beautiful examples of selective sweeps. But there are not many of them, and our results suggest [there are] not many more to come," Przeworski says. "Our results do not suggest that adaptation was rare. Many protein changes in humans may well have been adaptive. What our results indicate is that the dominant mode of adaptation was not the classic sweep," she says.</p> <p>"In looking for the genetic mechanisms of adaptation in the human lineage we'll have to turn to more elaborate models," Przeworski says.</p> <p>Selective sweeps may have been more important in the evolution of some other species, though. Sella and colleagues recently reported evidence that selective sweeps happen often in some fruit flies.</p> <p><em>Image: DNA profile of a human. (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/micahb37/3080247531/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/micahb37/3080247531/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">micahb37/Flickr</a>)<br /> </em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/bornavirus-in-human-dna/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/bornavirus-in-human-dna/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Human Genome Is Part Bornavirus</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/culturalevoluti/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/culturalevoluti/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Cultural Evolution Not the Same as Biological Evolution</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/human-genome-still-chock-full-of-mysteries/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/human-genome-still-chock-full-of-mysteries/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Human Genome Still Chock-Full of Mysteries</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/genome-at-10/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/genome-at-10/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">10 Years on, 'The Genome Revolution Is Only Just Beginning</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/gonorrhea-human-genes/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/gonorrhea-human-genes/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Gonorrhea Steals DNA From Humans</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=ilyBQ2peqyw:x7h1XbVi6q0:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150136193870795">The Mystery of the Missing Moon Trees</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 18 Feb 2011 06:00 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/moon-trees/goddard_tree_plaque/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/moon-trees/goddard_tree_plaque/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=ae31dfb9fe382ad57796fbcf4a81c542&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fgoddard_tree_plaque.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>15 years after NASA astronomer David Williams started searching for them, hundreds of trees grown from space-faring seeds are still missing.</p> <p>The "moon trees," whose seeds circled the moon 34 times in Apollo 14 astronaut <a href="http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/roosa-sa.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/roosa-sa.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Stuart Roosa</a>'s pocket, were welcomed back to Earth with great fanfare in 1971. One was planted in Washington Square in Philadelphia as part of the 1975 bicentennial celebrations. Another took root at the White House. Several found homes at state capitals and space-related sites around the country. Then-president Gerald Ford called the trees "living symbol[s] of our spectacular human and scientific achievements."</p> <p>And then, mysteriously, everyone seemed to forget about them.</p> <p>"The careful records weren't kept, or if they were kept they weren't maintained," Williams said. Williams, whose job includes archiving data from the Apollo missions, hadn't even heard of the moon trees until a third grade teacher e-mailed him in 1996 to ask about a tree at the Camp Koch Girl Scout Camp in Cannelton, Indiana.</p> <p>"No one around here had ever heard of it," Williams said. "This is such a neat story, and no one seems to know about it."</p> <p>Williams has made it his mission to find them. For the past 15 years, he has kept a <a href="http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/moon_tree.html" target="_blank" title="http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/moon_tree.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">record on the web</a> of every known tree's location. When he started in 1996, he only knew where 22 trees were found. Now, that number has climbed to 80.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/moon-trees/goddard_tree_2003/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/moon-trees/goddard_tree_2003/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=79cd06f2c4e4454d2e6bb4431f90688f&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fgoddard_tree_2003-467x705-custom.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>But the climb is slow. Mostly, Williams heard of new trees when a hiker or a park visitor found one and e-mailed him about it. The e-mails are ever fewer and farther between, he says.</p> <p>"It's been sort of a trickle," he said. "Most of the easy ones, the low-lying fruit had already been gathered."</p> <p>Although most of the trees are long-lived species expected to last centuries, some have started to die off. According to Williams' most recent tree count, 21 of the 80 known trees are dead, including the Loblolly pine outside the White House, five sycamores and two pines outside the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and one New Orleans pine that was damaged in Hurricane Katrina.</p> <p>"It's kind of sad, to see them going," Williams said.</p> <p>The trees' poor health has nothing to do with their journey to space, Williams says.</p> <p>"No one knew for sure whether being exposed to weightlessness or radiation would do something to the seeds," he said. "They grew control trees right next to each other to see if they grew differently. But they didn't find anything."</p> <p>The healthy trees have given rise to a crop of half-moon trees, trees grown from the seeds of a moon tree.</p> <p>"There's a lot of second generation moon trees being planted now," Williams said. "That's getting to the point where I can't keep up with it."</p> <p>You can even <a href="http://www.historictrees.org/produ_ht/moonsycm_cc.htm" target="_blank" title="http://www.historictrees.org/produ_ht/moonsycm_cc.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">buy half-moon seeds online</a> and plant one in your own yard. Williams' yard hosts a second generation moon tree, a gift from the National Arboretum.</p> <p>Although Williams will keep looking, there's no way to know when he's found them all, he says. But at least the trees won't be forgotten again.</p> <p>"At least now there's a permanent home for it," he said. "It can't be lost now. At least all the information that comes in, we have that."</p> <p><em>Update: If you think you've found a moon tree, you can contact Williams at dave.williams@nasa.gov. Check the <a href="http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/moon_tree.html" target="_blank" title="http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/moon_tree.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Moon Trees</a> website to see if your tree has been reported before.</em></p> <p><em>Image: 1) The plaque labeling the moon tree at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center, where Williams works. 2) NASA Goddard's moon sycamore. (Courtesy Jay Friedlander.)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/what-to-buy-for/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/what-to-buy-for/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">What To Buy for the Space Explorer Who Has Everything</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/citizen-space-science-gallery/6/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/citizen-space-science-gallery/6/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">NASA Needs You: 6 Ways to Help an Astronomer</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/spacestuff/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/spacestuff/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Lost in Space: 8 Weird Pieces of Space Junk</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/invertebrate-as/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/invertebrate-as/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "bb0e1", event);" rel="nofollow">Invertebrate Astronauts Make Space History</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=McGF-U0sEFo:kALjd-OR6mE:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-72237923904660252682011-02-18T13:33:00.001-08:002011-02-18T13:33:38.820-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Ample Dark Matter Ignites Starburst Galaxies</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Physicists Build World’s First Antilaser</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Gallery: 10 Stunning Science Visualizations</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">Heady Brew: Ice Age Mug Made From Skull</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150135310010795">Ample Dark Matter Ignites Starburst Galaxies</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 17 Feb 2011 01:30 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=da50321fdb9e9333453e23ef9b24c654&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fdark-matter-filaments-herschel.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><strong>By Liat Clark, Wired UK</strong></p> <p>Galaxies need 10 times less dark matter to sustain star formation than previously thought, but just the right amount can set off rapid star formation, a recent study suggests.</p> <p>The discovery was made after European Space Agency photos showed evidence of dark matter 300 billion times the mass of our Sun supporting ancient galaxies. The galaxies — over 10 billion light years from Earth — are some of the most active in the universe, producing thousands of stars each year compared to the 10 a year the Milky Way produces on average.</p> <p>"If you start with too little dark matter, then a developing galaxy would peter out," Asantha Cooray, the University of California astrophysicist who led the study, said in a <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/herschel/herschel20110216.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/herschel/herschel20110216.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">press release</a>. "If you have too much, then gas doesn't cool efficiently to form one large galaxy, and you end up with lots of smaller galaxies. But if you have the just the right amount of dark matter, then a galaxy bursting with stars will pop out."</p> <p>The 300-billion-solar-mass size of ancient galaxies studied seems to encourage star formation more than any other previously recorded mass. It does not just sustain star formation, it facilitates and promotes it, changing previous theories of how galaxies are formed.</p> <p> </p> <p>It is thought that dark matter, which is believed to make up around 20 percent of the universe's energy density, lays the groundwork for galaxy formation. Its gravitational pull attracts gas and dust, which gather and soon condense to form stars. The dark matter then collects around young galaxies in the form of giant spheres known as halos.</p> <p>It does not reflect light and is therefore not visible to us. Cooray and his team detected it by measuring its gravitational pull on other, visible matter. Using the ESA's Herschel telescope they took infrared images at wavelengths 1,000 times longer than those visible to the naked eye. The photos can permeate dust-filled galaxies and Cooray used them to measure light emitted by the galaxies.</p> <p>Their research concentrated on the Lockman Hole — an area of sky about the size of Earth's moon within the Ursa Major constellation. It is an ideal test area because there is minimal dust blocking the view.</p> <p>The photos' web-like patterns are actually an intricate map of galaxies illuminated in infrared. They revealed that distant galaxies produce stars at a rate three to five times higher than young galaxies more easily visible to us. The images are far more detailed than those taken using the Hubble telescope, and by illuminating galaxies in this way much can be learned.</p> <p>Jamie Bock, who studies Herschel's Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, explained the photos are a huge advancement for galaxy formation studies.</p> <p>"It turns out that it's much more effective to look at these patterns rather than the individual galaxies," he said in the release. "This is like looking at a picture in a magazine from a reading distance. … Herschel gives us the big picture of these distant galaxies, showing the influence of dark matter."</p> <p>Galaxies may be sustained on even less dark matter, but they would be short-lived. Supernovas would be common in this instance, it is theorized, and without enough gravitational pull supplied by dark matter the remaining gases would dissipate.</p> <p><em>Image: A computer simulation of dark matter distribution when the universe was about 3 billion years old. Blue shows the basic distribution of dark matter particles, red shows dark matter halos model, and yellow shows dark matter halos that are most likely to fuel starburst galaxies. (Alexandre Amblard/The Virgo Consortium/ESA)</em></p> <p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/17/how-much-dark-matter-to-form-a-galaxy" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/17/how-much-dark-matter-to-form-a-galaxy" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Wired.co.uk</a></em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/dark-matter-neutron-star/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/dark-matter-neutron-star/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Cold, Dead Stars Could Help Limit Dark Matter</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/hubble-dark-matter/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/hubble-dark-matter/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Hubble Helps Build Most-Detailed Dark Matter Map Yet</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/dark-matter-sun/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/dark-matter-sun/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Dark Matter May Be Building Up Inside the Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/dark-matter-milky-way/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/dark-matter-milky-way/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Signs of Destroyed Dark Matter Found in Milky Way's Core</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/x-particle/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/x-particle/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">X Particle Explains Dark Matter and Antimatter at the Same Time</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=EEzD6ABNXc8:atdIOYLE9jw:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150135310015795">Physicists Build World’s First Antilaser</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 17 Feb 2011 12:00 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/real-live-antilaser/wan1hr/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/real-live-antilaser/wan1hr/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=42805a910d63fbb62160defb1c7d1362&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fwan1HR.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Less than a year after it was first suggested, the world's first antilaser is here. A team of physicists have built a contraption that, instead of flashing bright beams, utterly extinguishes specific wavelengths of light.</p> <p>Conventional lasers create intense beams of light by stimulating atoms to spit out a coherent beam of light in which all the light waves march in lockstep. The crests of one wave match the crests of all the others, and troughs match up with troughs.</p> <p>The antilaser does the reverse: Two perfect beams of laser light go in, and are completely absorbed. </p> <p>"There will be nothing coming out again," said experimental physicist <a href="http://www.eng.yale.edu/caolab/" target="_blank" title="http://www.eng.yale.edu/caolab/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Hui Cao</a> of Yale University, whose research group built the new device. </p> <p>The device could find uses in fields from computing to medical imaging, the researchers report in the Feb. 18 issue of <em>Science</em>.</p> <p> </p> <p>Yale physicist <a href="http://www.eng.yale.edu/faculty/vita/stone.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.eng.yale.edu/faculty/vita/stone.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">A. Douglas Stone</a>, a co-author of the paper, <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/antilaser/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/antilaser/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">first suggested the antilaser</a> in a theoretical paper last July. Stone and colleagues had noticed that several other researchers had hinted at the idea of a laser that runs backward, and some problems in engineering called for a way to completely snuff out light. But no one had ever put the two ideas together.</p> <p>"Others discovered independently that there's an optimal condition where they can have the best absorption," Cao said. "But they didn't realize this was a time-reversed laser. They didn't know they can get in principle perfect absorption."</p> <p>To build the antilaser, which Cao and colleagues call a "coherent perfect absorber," the researchers split a beam from a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ti-sapphire_laser" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ti-sapphire_laser" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">titanium-sapphire laser</a> in two. The laser emitted light in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum, with longer wavelengths than the human eye can see.</p> <p>Some of the light continued forward through the beam splitter, and the rest was forced into a sharp right turn. The physicists guided the light beams into a cavity containing a silicon wafer one micrometer thick. One beam entered from the left and one from the right. The distance each beam traveled determined the way the crests and troughs of the light waves aligned when they met in the wafer.</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/real-live-antilaser/antilaser-diagram/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/real-live-antilaser/antilaser-diagram/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=1c1d673f488f70784243691068565f94&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2FAntilaser-diagram.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>When the alignment was right, the light waves canceled each other out. The silicon absorbed the light and converted it to another form of energy, like heat or electrical current.</p> <p>"It is a simple experiment," Cao said. "But it shows a very powerful way to control absorption."</p> <p>The device can only absorb one wavelength of light at a time, but that wavelength can be adjusted by changing the thickness of the wafer.</p> <p>Surprisingly, the antilaser switched from absorbent to reflective when the researchers changed the way the waves met in the wafer. Under certain conditions, the silicon crystal actually helped light escape.</p> <p>"That is a little surprising," Cao said. "We can turn it on and off."</p> <p>Theoretically, 99.999 percent of the light can be extinguished. Because of the physical limitations of the laser and the silicon wafer, the antilaser only absorbed 99.4 percent of the light.</p> <p>That may be good enough, Cao said.</p> <p>"For many applications, if you already have less than 1 percent coming out, you're already okay," she said. "I'm sure people in the community who have better lasers than us, I'm sure they will achieve much more impressive results. This is only the first demonstration of the principle."</p> <p>The device may find uses in optical switches for future superfast computer boards that use light instead of electrons. It may also have medical applications, such as imaging a tumor through normally opaque human tissue.</p> <p>The most exciting applications will no doubt be those no one has thought of yet. The laser itself was called "a solution without a problem" when it first showed up.</p> <p>"It is quite novel and indeed surprising that in such a mature field one can come up with something fundamentally new," said physicist <a href="http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/soljacic_marin.html" target="_blank" title="http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/soljacic_marin.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Marin Soljačić</a> of MIT, who was not involved in the new work. "I think it opens a few exciting venues."</p> <p><em>Image: Science/AAAS</em></p> <p><em>"Time-Reversed Lasing and Interferometric Control of Absorption." Wenjie Wan, Yidong Chong, Li Ge, Heeso Noh, A. Douglas Stone, Hui Cao. Science, Vol 331, Feb. 18, 2011. DOI: 10.1126/science.1200735.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/antilaser/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/antilaser/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Physicists Dream Up the Antilaser</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/x-ray-laser-2/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/x-ray-laser-2/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">World's Most Powerful X-Ray Laser Illuminates Hidden Protein World</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/laser-fusion-ignition/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/laser-fusion-ignition/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">World's Most Powerful Laser on Target for Awesome Science</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/laser-worm-control/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/laser-worm-control/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Lasers Control Nematode Worms Like Robots</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/laser-light-can-lift-tiny-objects/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/laser-light-can-lift-tiny-objects/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Laser Light Can Lift Tiny Objects</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/horrendously-intense-laser-shrinks-the-proton/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/horrendously-intense-laser-shrinks-the-proton/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">'Horrendously Intense' Laser Shrinks the Proton</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=Rjb973h9TMc:_9CEhsddZ6s:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150135310020795">Gallery: 10 Stunning Science Visualizations</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 17 Feb 2011 11:01 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1022" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1022" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> </div> <div> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=0517f0b9b24183498aee6fa8fef1d14a&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscientific-visualizations%2Fhiv-virus-visual-science-company.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </div> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1026" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1026" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=ffb8e7d00cc1bbee46a2646c5fa77be6&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscientific-visualizations%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_hiv-virus-visual-science-company.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1022" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1022" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=9c8584cec9f636ce533a594ed69bb040&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscientific-visualizations%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_binary-quasar.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1027" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1027" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=9eead408131bed2967e8cd1b4b6ca1dc&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscientific-visualizations%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_nanoscale-molecules-gold-anl-steven-sibener-univ-chicago.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1020" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1020" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=21d9cf121c0280f94f8c216b2429a031&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscientific-visualizations%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_arabidopsis-thaliana-gene-function-carnegie-institution-for-science.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1024" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1024" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=520346b7f4ae2c5bb7e84bc7cb43f2d6&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscientific-visualizations%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_fungi-groups-university-wisconsin-madison.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1025" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1025" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=eee8048a5ff8699b3445b99e47e3bee2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscientific-visualizations%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_glyph-sea-sdsc.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1021" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1021" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=a1557496ace2a91084ff21851274d68a&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscientific-visualizations%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_bacteriophage-t4-virus-jonathan-heras-equinox-graphics.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1030" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1030" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=114bb657da12cb0d61152801c3d924c0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscientific-visualizations%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_yeast-mitotic-spindle-unc-chapel-hill.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1028" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1028" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=cf0cda3af3ddd6c288271faa6077880a&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscientific-visualizations%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_tomato-seed-hairs-trichomes-robert-rock-belliveau.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1029" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1029" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=f056089ca81a33d4b38bb808f6f382f0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fscientific-visualizations%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_trash-track-tag-mit.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> </ul> <br /> <div> <p>All too often, the beauty of scientific knowledge gets trapped in monochrome graphs and jarring acronyms. The touch of talented artists, however, can set it free.</p> <p>The 2010 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge released its top stunning entries today. They appear in the Feb. 18 issue of <em>Science</em>, which together with the National Science Foundation sponsored the event.</p> <p>From GPS-tracked trash and nanoscale ripples to colliding quasars and hairy tomato seeds, dig into our favorite science visualizations in this gallery.</p> <h2>Human Immunodeficiency Virus</h2> <p>The HIV virus, a menacing genetic script that lethally infects more than 33 million people worldwide, looks more like a splotch under the planet's most powerful microscopes.</p> <p>By scraping for details of the virus' structure from more than 100 studies in three different scientific fields, however, four focused artists summed it up into one intricate 3-D structure.</p> <p>The <a href="http://visualscience.ru/en/illustrations/modelling/hiv/" target="_blank" title="http://visualscience.ru/en/illustrations/modelling/hiv/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">model</a> is now considered the most-detailed ever created for the contagion, and won the competition's first-place prize in illustrations.</p> <p><em>Image: Ivan Konstantinov, Yury Stefanov, Aleksander Kovalevsky, Yegor Voronin/Visual Science Company [<a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/media/29676.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/media/29676.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">high-resolution version available</a>]</em></p> </div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1022" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1022" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1029&viewall=true" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/?pid=1029&viewall=true" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">View all</a></div> </div> </div> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/worms-fractals-and-mars-top-science-image-galleries-of-2010/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/worms-fractals-and-mars-top-science-image-galleries-of-2010/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Worms, Fractals and Mars: Top Science Image Galleries of 2010</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/kepler-extrasolar-planets/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/kepler-extrasolar-planets/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: Kepler's Exoplanets vs. the Solar System</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/visualizations/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/visualizations/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Best Science Visualization Videos of 2009</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/revisualizing-y/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/revisualizing-y/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Do Fear the Reaper: Readers Visualize Death Data</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/big-sky-image/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/big-sky-image/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Biggest-Ever Night Sky Image Released to Public</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=3fH_-w1Qz40:bfU4AMg5k1Q:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150135310025795">Heady Brew: Ice Age Mug Made From Skull</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 17 Feb 2011 05:00 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/02/HEADY_VESSEL.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/02/HEADY_VESSEL.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=090952acc5013075e915f1e70706ee1f&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2FHEADY_VESSEL.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Ice Age folk who lived in what's now southwestern England gruesomely went from heads-off to bottoms-up. Bones excavated at a cave there include the oldest known examples of drinking cups or containers made out of human skulls, says a team led by paleontologist Silvia Bello of the Natural History Museum in London.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>Measurements of a naturally occurring form of carbon in the skulls places them at about 14,700 years old, Bello and her colleagues report in a paper <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0017026" target="_blank" title="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0017026" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">published online Feb. 16 in <em>PLoS ONE</em></a>. Prehistoric cave denizens cleaned the skulls before using stone tools to shape the upper parts of the brain cases into containers, the researchers say.</p> <p> </p> <p>Bello suspects that ice age Britons hoisted hollowed-out craniums in rituals of some kind. Other human bones found near the skull cups show signs of flesh and marrow removal, a result either of cannibalism or mortuary practice. The striking similarities between the cave finds and historical examples of drinking cups made out of skulls further support a ritual role for the ice age receptacles, Bello says.</p> <p>Two French sites previously yielded skull containers presumed to date to between 15,000 and 12,000 years ago, but those finds have not been directly dated.</p> <p><em>Image: Natural History Museum</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong><br /></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/skull/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/skull/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Deformed Skull Suggests Human Ancestors Had Compassion</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/inca-skeletons/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/inca-skeletons/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Inca Skeletons Show Evidence of Spanish Brutality</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/bogosphere/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/bogosphere/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Bogosphere: The Strangest Things Pulled Out of Peat Bogs</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/zapotec-thighbones/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/zapotec-thighbones/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "52ec3", event);" rel="nofollow">Lost Civilization Seen in Zapotec Thighbones</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=_avy8Tf8gmQ:7lXaxHWYQMA:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-87617362708069922142011-02-17T14:47:00.001-08:002011-02-17T14:47:08.401-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Giant Solar Blast Headed for Earth</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Video: Carnivorous Bladderworts Catch Meals With Vacuum Power</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Simple Seaweeds May Be Earth’s First Plants</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">Gallery: Meet the Original Dogs</a> </li> <li> <a href="#5">‘Wordquakes’ Can Shake the Political Blogosphere</a> </li> <li> <a href="#6">Adult Brain Activity Stirs Before Birth</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150134441905795">Giant Solar Blast Headed for Earth</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 16 Feb 2011 02:13 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/big-solar-flare/stereo-flare/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/big-solar-flare/stereo-flare/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=f3b862d35d04d6038372dcb055e48ee5&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2FSTEREO-flare.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>The biggest solar blast in four years erupted late Monday, and it's sending jets of charged particles right at Earth. The spray will spark bright auroras when it hits the magnetosphere in the next 24 to 48 hours.</p> <p>A cluster of sunspots called Active Region 1158 unleashed the flare at 8:50 p.m. EST, Feb. 14 [1:50 a.m. UT, Feb. 15]. It was categorized as class <a href="http://www.spaceweather.com/flareexpl.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.spaceweather.com/flareexpl.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">X2.2</a>, meaning it's the most powerful flare since December 2006. The sunspots have continued to let loose smaller flares and may still be active now.</p> <p>As <a href="http://www.spaceweather.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.spaceweather.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Spaceweather.com notes</a>, the sunspots didn't even exist one week ago, and now cover a swatch of sun wider than Jupiter.</p> <p><a href="http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">NOAA forecasters</a> estimate a 45 percent chance of geomagnetic activity on Thursday, Feb. 17, when the bulk of the radiation hits Earth's magnetic field. The December 2006 storm was powerful enough to <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11546-did-space-storm-cause-surprise-gps-disruption.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11546-did-space-storm-cause-surprise-gps-disruption.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">disrupt GPS systems</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p>Should the new storm prove as powerful, it could be a preview of what's expected this year and in 2012, as the sun reaches an expected maximum in its natural cycle of activity.</p> <p>There is, however, a silver — and green, and yellow, and glowing — lining to the flares. In higher latitudes, where the sun's ion spray is pulled by Earth's magnetic poles, collisions between solar particles and atoms suspended in our <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Magnetosphere" target="_blank" title="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Magnetosphere" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">magnetosphere</a> produce photon sparks. Together these form the aurora borealis, or northern lights, and it looks like Earth is in for quite a show.</p> <p>What's more, though a full moon often outshines the auroras, this storm may be so powerful as to mix moonlight and northern lights in one spectacular swirl. So look up! And if you take pictures, send us your best shots. If we get enough, we'll create a reader gallery.</p> <div><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=61c12cf166d0306103958ad8aa9d0b91&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fsunspot-solar-flare-feb-15-2011-sdo-nasa1.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /><p>A flare emerges from the sun in this ultraviolet-light image of the solar surface. (SDO/NASA)</p></div> <p><em>Via Spaceweather.com</em></p> <p><em>Images: NASA/STEREO</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/huge-sun-filament/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/huge-sun-filament/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Huge Magnetic Filament Erupts on the Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/solarcycle/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/solarcycle/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Big Solar Flare Portends Sun's Return to Normal</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/video-solar-butterfly-effect/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/video-solar-butterfly-effect/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: The Butterfly Effect on the Sun's Surface</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/solar-eruption-video/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/solar-eruption-video/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: Sun Puts on a Spectacular Eruption Show</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/aurora-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/aurora-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">New Aurora Webcam Captures Spectacular Videos, Images</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/scientists-disc/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/scientists-disc/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Scientists Discover What Makes Northern Lights Dance</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/storms2012/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/storms2012/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">The Geomagnetic Apocalypse — And How to Stop It</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=b6JuT20JIIk:OaXAQF6sZb4:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150134441910795">Video: Carnivorous Bladderworts Catch Meals With Vacuum Power</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 16 Feb 2011 01:30 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p> </p> <p>Carnivorous bladderworts trap prey with speed that would make a Bond villain shudder in gleeful envy.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>Using high-speed cameras, researchers have gotten the first good look at how these underwater plants spring their ambushes. Bladderworts sport trap doors that buckle in with a tiny nudge, creating a whirlpool that sucks in wee critters — all in about half a millisecond. That's some of the fastest plant action on Earth, a French and German team reports online February 15 in the <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society B</em>.</p> <p>Forget Venus flytraps. Bladderworts of the genus Utricularia are really cunning meat eaters. "Utricularia are the smallest of carnivorous plants and also, evidently, the most sophisticated," says Lubomír Adamec, a plant physiologist at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. These netlike veggies are dotted with tiny traps, often no wider than an ant is long.</p> <p>Small or not, the traps are masterpieces of suction. Pumped nearly dry, the chambers set up a pressure difference between the plant's innards and the water outside. When swimmers brush up against a series of hairs along the trap door, the door bursts open and sucks water and crustaceans alike in.</p> <p>Despite decades of interest in these nefarious plants, botanists couldn't say for sure how the traps worked. Bladderworts were just too quick for old-school cameras. But with fancy new high-speed cameras, biologists can get their close-ups, says Adamec.</p> <p> </p> <p>It looks, at least in three bladderwort species, like the traps spring using an elastic buckle. At just the right pressure, the domelike trap door stays shut. But then, a tiny touch collapses the door like a popped bubblegum bubble, opening a small window to the trap below. But unlike a gum bubble, the doors are bouncy and spring back to their original shape in fractions of a second, says study coauthor Philippe Marmottant. "This kind of change of shape is very abrupt," says Marmottant, a physicist at Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France. The quick pop pulls water in with tiny swirls that move at speeds up to about 3 miles per hour.</p> <p>Physicists had already predicted such a buckling trap in 2005, but this study gives a good look at it in action, says Victor Albert, a biologist at the University at Buffalo in New York. Carnivory isn't a trivial thing for these plants, either, he says. As meat eaters, these plants flourish in rough and strange habitats from swamps to the insides of bromeliads, bowl-shaped tropical plants. "They're just crazy," he says.</p> <p>And maybe crazy useful, Marmottant says. As a physicist, he's less interested in ecology than in the flow of liquid in very tiny environments. And bladderworts move fluid so well, he says, they could inspire new lab tools like pipettes. These tools, which pick up and spit out tiny drops of liquid, are important in the biotech industry. "Bladderworts act like a small pipette," he says. "This could be used in miniature devices."</p> <p>Still no word, however, on whether they can trap rakish British agents.</p> <p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=a8fe0c6f25f2bfadc5b608dabc8af3e9&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fbladderwort-sem-carmen-weisskopf.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><em>Video: Philippe Marmottant.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Many a small crustacean met its end in this bladderwort trap, seen here in a close-up. Now, scientists have a much better idea about how these devious chambers work. (Carmen Weißkopf)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/bat-guano-plants/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/bat-guano-plants/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Carnivorous Plants Eat Poop From Tiny Bats</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/tiny-frog/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/tiny-frog/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Micro Frog Discovered Inside Bornean Pitcher Plants</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/pitcherplants/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/pitcherplants/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">In the Bowels of Carnivorous Plants, a Tiny Model of the World</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/pitcherplantsensor/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/pitcherplantsensor/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Carnivorous Plants Are DIY Ecosystem Monitors</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/high-speed-insect-videos/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/high-speed-insect-videos/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">High-Speed Videos: The Hidden World of Insect Flight</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=2dpmnCU-nyw:N7vPl907pzI:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150134441915795">Simple Seaweeds May Be Earth’s First Plants</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 16 Feb 2011 11:30 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1005" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1005" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> </div> <div> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=821722f3f7fcbce64f06e500d3da318b&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fseaweed-fossils%2Flantian-fossil-branching-zhe-chen-nature.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </div> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1002" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1002" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=455f7eef4ac9c36be35b1d6680208170&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fseaweed-fossils%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_lantian-fossil-branching-zhe-chen-nature.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1005" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1005" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=b63d5bb7e9ecb073694b52708fa9157e&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fseaweed-fossils%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_lantian-fossil-holdfast-zhe-chen-nature.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1006" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1006" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=b2c9b3ea6abc5365d7bd27b480e762c5&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fseaweed-fossils%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_lantian-fossil-ribbons-zhe-chen-nature.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1003" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1003" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=c2b599a308736091160d4bd0c8e034f6&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fseaweed-fossils%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_lantian-fossil-cones-zhe-chen-nature.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1004" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1004" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=de085b7d53b3fb715dee4df771eacb28&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fseaweed-fossils%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_lantian-fossil-conical-zhe-chen-nature.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1001" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1001" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=19a228e6e2cad22b8e56b0e6b71b7c81&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fseaweed-fossils%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_lantian-fossil-branches-zhe-chen-nature.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> </ul> <br /> <div> </div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1005" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1005" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1001&viewall=true" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seaweed-fossils-edicaran/?pid=1001&viewall=true" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">View all</a></div> </div> </div> <p>A trove of seaweed-like fossils unearthed in southern China may be some of the oldest plants ever discovered.</p> <p>Until now the earliest definitive evidence of complex creatures resembling modern organisms was about 580 million years old. A series of fossils described Feb. 16 in <em>Nature</em> predates those archetypal creatures by anywhere from 20 million to 56 million years.</p> <p>"It's not the oldest multicellular life," said paleontologist <a href="http://www.paleo.geos.vt.edu/Shuhai/" target="_blank" title="http://www.paleo.geos.vt.edu/Shuhai/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Shuhai Xiao</a> of Virginia Tech, a co-author of the study. "But it is a collection of the oldest diverse, complex and macroscopic multicellular life."</p> <p>Bacteria emerged 3.4 billion years ago. About 2 billion years ago, some <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/early-multicellularity/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/early-multicellularity/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">may have gone multicellular</a>, though it's possible they were just ornate groups of single-celled organisms.</p> <p>Whatever they were, they didn't have modern physical forms. Most researchers think those didn't evolve until at least 635 million years ago. That's when Earth began thawing from one of the most severe, glacier-covered "snowball" periods in history.</p> <p>No longer trapped beneath ice, diverse life could emerge. But with the earliest evidence for such life at 580 million years ago, a 55 million year gap separated complex modern life with its potential beginning. The new fossils fit into that gap.</p> <p>"If I want to be conservative, I'd say they've described evidence of when plants began. If I'm feeling grandiose, I'd say it may be the oldest evidence of macroscopic multicellularity," said paleobiologist <a href="http://www.geol.queensu.ca/people/narbonne/" target="_blank" title="http://www.geol.queensu.ca/people/narbonne/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Guy Narbonne</a> of Queens University in Canada, who wasn't involved in the study. "The truth is probably somewhere in between."</p> <p> </p> <p>Xiao and his colleagues found their specimens in a rocky outcrop discovered in China's southern Anhui Province. Survey geologists decades ago discovered rich fossil beds within a 260-foot-thick section of rock called the Lantian Formation, but age estimations were rough at best.</p> <p>To get around the difficulty of directly dating specimens, Xiao's team linked the Lantian layers of rock to corresponding, precisely dated formations hundreds of miles away. The fossils proved to be sandwiched between layers laid down between 580 million and 635 million years ago.</p> <p>Since the researchers began digging up one site about a year ago, they've unearthed more than 3,000 detailed specimens. "It was a very different world then than it is now, just algae and bacteria. Burrowing animals hadn't evolved yet, so sediments on the bottom weren't being churned up," said Xiao. "You get these beautiful fossils as a result."</p> <p>Most of the rust-colored specimens have splayed branches, sweeping fans and conical blooms resembling those of modern kelps. A small subset look more like the precursors of modern animals called bilaterians, with their symmetrical tubes and ribbons.</p> <p>Xiao cautioned, however, that knowledge of the fossils is too fresh to make firm conclusions.</p> <p>"It's almost impossible for us to shoehorn them into <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/new-phylum/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/new-phylum/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">modern phyla</a>. There are probably some animals, but we're just not sure," Xiao said. "They don't look like algae, yet we don't see any modern animal analogs. They may be offshoots that died out."</p> <p>Narbonne, who wrote an accompanying commentary in <em>Nature</em>, said the new and more accurately dated Lantian fossils could help resolve persisting riddles of ancient oxygen levels. "We know the deep oceans became oxygenated about 500 million years ago, around the time of the Cambrian explosion. But with older oceans, we're not as certain," Narbonne said.</p> <p>Even large, multicellular life forms — including algae — require oxygen to survive. "Their story is entirely consistent with a shallow, sunbathed, oxygenated environment," he said.</p> <p>However, there's a wrinkle in the evidence, Narbonne explained. Geochemical tests of the Lantian rock indicate the algae lived in oxygen-free oceans.</p> <p>Xiao said the tests were performed on rock layers about 20 inches apart — a sedimentary distance representing millions of years in time. In the future, he'd like to do tests every half-inch or so, looking for brief spurts of oxygenation that would have supported algae and other complex life.</p> <p>"But the really hard, really tedious work we now face is to systematically and carefully describe each of the thousands of specimens recovered from the site," Xiao said. "That data is going to be the bread and butter of our scientific understanding."</p> <p><em>Images: Some of thousands of purported 600-million-year-old fossils recovered from the Lantian Formation in China's southern Anhui Province. (Zhe Chen/</em>Nature<em>)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/early-multicellularity/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/early-multicellularity/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">2-Billion-Year-Old Fossils May Be Earliest Known Multicellular Life</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/anoxic-animals/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/anoxic-animals/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">First Animals Found That Live Without Oxygen</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/green-sea-slug/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/green-sea-slug/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Green Sea Slug Is Part Animal, Part Plant</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/toxic-cambrian-oceans/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/toxic-cambrian-oceans/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Toxic Oceans May Have Poisoned Early Animals</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/anomalocaris-trilobite-bite/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/anomalocaris-trilobite-bite/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Giant Vicious-Looking Ancient Shrimp Was a Disappointing Wimp</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=Q3eL2JEZyrQ:qSaywpU3tVA:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150134441920795">Gallery: Meet the Original Dogs</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 16 Feb 2011 10:53 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=1007" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=1007" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> </div> <div> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=39244c2a68c05cd113661f5d1f884797&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fancientdogs%2Fwolf.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </div> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=999" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=999" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=c968b334bd85de6e1be9c6681ec3f629&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fancientdogs%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_wolf.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=1007" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=1007" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=d6391b042fc662afca16096595ed03f8&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fancientdogs%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_malamute-7.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=997" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=997" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=64623ea47e2407c6de07b056f2b5d965&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fancientdogs%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_sharpei-12-3.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=993" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=993" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=7910e90459bfe15b91278b0c00d048c0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fancientdogs%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_jimmy-james-6.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=991" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=991" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=3967697b14d140087e73ba267a1e5033&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fancientdogs%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_basenjis.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=995" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=995" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=f8e9da383f096eb72cf5524607eddc1a&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fancientdogs%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_ollie5.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=994" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=994" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=a35a790373424fe391cf8409ef34e425&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fancientdogs%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_mastiff9-2.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=998" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=998" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=b4a8e06a42017bb4010e3b79c49d909a&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fancientdogs%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_shetland_sheepdog2.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=996" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=996" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=1386f2e98be0239a0f0e649c834a7274&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fancientdogs%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_pharaoh12.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> </ul> <br /> <div> <p><em>Image: Wolf./<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fremlin/2384478345/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fremlin/2384478345/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Fremlin</a>, Flickr.</em> </div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=1007" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=1007" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=996&viewall=true" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/original-dogs/?pid=996&viewall=true" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">View all</a></div> </div> </div> <p>Even as humans have homogenized other domestic animals, replacing nature's diversity with a few useful breeds, dog diversity has exploded. A kaleidoscope of shapes and sizes have come from an original stock of wolves; there are hundreds of breeds, so many that it was long impossible to determine where they'd all come from. </p> <p>That diversity made dogs an interesting puzzle for geneticists. By mapping subtle differences in each breed's genes, searching for patterns of relationships and designing a tree to fit them, they could finally gain insight into this marvel of evolutionary engineering. </p> <p>In 2004, the <a href="http://www.britainhill.com/GeneticStructure.pdf" target="_blank" title="http://www.britainhill.com/GeneticStructure.pdf" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">foundational analysis of purebred dog genetics</a> was published in <em>Science</em>. The resulting tree was profoundly asymmetrical. After wolves, just four groups sat its base: Asia's shar-pei, along with shiba inu, akita and chow chow; central Africa's basenji; malamutes from the Arctic, along with Siberian huskies and samoyeds; and from the Middle East, Afghan hounds and salukis. <p>Then, on one last branch, came <em>every other dog breed</em>. If the tree was really a tree, it would topple immediately to one side.</p> <p>But within that hodgepodge branch — the product, in part, of a Victorian-inspired predilection for fanciful mixes — were three basic groups: the Lhasa apso, shih tzu, Pekingese and Tibetan terrier; the mastiff, plus bulldogs, boxers, bull terriers, rottweilers, German shepherds and Bernese mountain dogs; and Shetland sheepdogs, along with collies, Belgian tervurens, Belgian sheepdogs, Irish wolfhounds, greyhounds, borzoi and Saint Bernards.</p> <p>Ibizan and Pharaoh hounds, long thought to be ancient breeds, actually proved to be recent re-creations, with modern breeds used to revive ancient combinations of traits.</p> <p>On the following pages are pictures of these ancient (and one not-so-ancient) breeds, taken Feb. 14 and 15 at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York City. More photographs of other breeds can be <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/31805863@N00/sets/72157625936095283/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/31805863@N00/sets/72157625936095283/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">found on Flickr</a>.</p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong><br /></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/dog-drying-physics/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/dog-drying-physics/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Physics of Wet Dogs Shake Out in High-Speed Videos</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/dogenvy/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/dogenvy/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Dog Unto Others: Canines Have Sense of Fairness</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/blackwolves/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/blackwolves/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Black Wolves the Result of Interbreeding With Dogs</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/oldest_dog/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/oldest_dog/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Fossil Jaw Could Be From World's Oldest Known Dog</a></li> </ul></p></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=aU_sTD-f43c:s49Cv3XoNDM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="5" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150134441925795">‘Wordquakes’ Can Shake the Political Blogosphere</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 16 Feb 2011 09:00 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/wordquakes/mccainpalin1/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/wordquakes/mccainpalin1/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=10147271e4beabccb11b3bdb4cd94515&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2FMcCainPalin1.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Certain words can shake the blogosphere in much the same way earthquakes stir the planet.</p> <p>A new study of word frequencies in political blogs finds that equations describing earthquake evolution fit the eruption of topics onto political blogs.</p> <p>News tends to move quickly through the public consciousness, noted physicist <a href="http://www.complex-systems.meduniwien.ac.at/people/pklimek/" target="_blank" title="http://www.complex-systems.meduniwien.ac.at/people/pklimek/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Peter Klimek</a> of the Medical University of Vienna and colleagues in a paper <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.2091" target="_blank" title="http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.2091" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">posted on arXiv.org</a>. Readers usually absorb a story, discuss it with their friends, and then forget it. But some events send lasting reverberations through society, changing opinions and even governments.</p> <p>"It is tempting to see such media events as a human, social excitable medium," wrote Klimek's team. "One may view them as a social analog to earthquakes."</p> <p>To see how far this analogy went, Klimek and colleagues trawled 168 political blogs in the US between July 2008 and May 2010, looking for spikes in the frequency of individual words.</p> <p> </p> <p>The blogs came from every neighborhood of the political blogosphere, from commentators and journalists like Glenn Beck and Taylor Marsh, to civilian bloggers describing themselves as everything from "far right" to "liberal curmudgeons."</p> <p>To make sure their search wasn't biased toward particular words, the researchers wrote a computer program to search for all possible letter triplets: aaa, aab, aac, and so on through zzz. More than half of these triplets never showed up, but for the ones that did, Klimek and company listed the days when each triplet was most common and the words they were found in.</p> <p>This process left them with roughly 4,000 keywords. The researchers then searched their database for instances of those words for 30 days before and after the peak.</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/wordquakes/wordquake/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/wordquakes/wordquake/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=c7360d679de5def47c0f1db06dd463bc&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2FWordquake-462x244-custom.png" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>The types of blogosphere responses took two forms, the researchers say. Some words suddenly spiked in popularity in response to a real-world event. Sarah Palin's nomination as the Republican vice presidential candidate was the most dramatic example.</p> <p>"Indeed, aftershocks of this event are still trembling and quivering through our society," Klimek and colleagues wrote. Because these events are triggered from outside the blogosphere, the researchers called them "exogenous."</p> <p>Other words gradually grew in frequency and then died down, like the use of the word "inauguration" in the days before and after Barack Obama took office. Such events are called "endogenous" because they seem to arise within the blogosphere itself.</p> <p>The researchers found that on average, 0.2 words from within the blogosphere and 1.5 words from the outside world spiked in frequency per day. For both cases, the equation that fits a graphical plot of event frequency versus event size looks similar to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg%E2%80%93Richter_law" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg%E2%80%93Richter_law" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Gutenberg-Richter law</a>, which describes the relationship between magnitude and number of earthquakes in a given region.</p> <p>Events that came from outside the blogosphere also seemed to exhibit aftershocks that line up with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftershock#Omori.27s_Law" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftershock#Omori.27s_Law" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Omori's law</a> for the frequency of earthquake aftershocks.</p> <p>"We show that the public reception of news reports follow a similar statistic as earthquakes do," the researchers conclude. "One might also think of a 'Richter scale' for media events."</p> <p>"I always think it's interesting when people exploit the scale of online media to try to understand human behavior," said <a href="http://research.yahoo.com/Duncan_Watts" target="_blank" title="http://research.yahoo.com/Duncan_Watts" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Duncan Watts</a>, a researcher at Yahoo! Research who describes himself as a "reformed physicist who has become a sociologist."</p> <p>But he notes that drawing mathematical analogies between unrelated phenomena doesn't mean there's any deeper connection. A lot of systems, including views on YouTube, activity on Facebook, number of tweets on Twitter, avalanches, forest fires, power outages and hurricanes all show frequency graphs similar to earthquakes.</p> <p>"But they're all generated by different processes," Watts said. "To suggest that the same mechanism is at work here is kind of absurd. It sort of can't be true."</p> <p>Watts thinks the data set that Klimek and colleagues compiled could be used to study other questions.</p> <p>"Who is generating these large events? Do they happen randomly? Is there a hierarchy that you could extract in the media world, where there's this core group of bloggers and everyone copies them? Or are they consumers and rebroadcasters of stories other people are coming up with?" Watts said. "That I think would be interesting, and might tell us something about the world that we didn't already know."</p> <p><em>Image: 1) Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/34299679@N02/3263755442" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/34299679@N02/3263755442" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">fourpointreport</a>. 2) Klimek et al 2011.</em></p> <p><em>"The blogosphere as an excitable social medium: Richter's and Omori's Law in media coverage." Peter Klimek, Werner Bayer, Stefan Thurner. <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.2091" target="_blank" title="http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.2091" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">arXiv.org</a>, Feb. 10, 2011.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/twitter-crystal-ball/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/twitter-crystal-ball/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Twitter Can Predict the Stock Market</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/braintweet/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/braintweet/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Twitter Telepathy: Researchers Turn Thoughts Into Tweets</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/slime-mold-grows-network-just-like-tokyo-rail-system/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/slime-mold-grows-network-just-like-tokyo-rail-system/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Slime Mold Grows Network Just Like Tokyo Rail System</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/network-behavior-spread/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/network-behavior-spread/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Clustered Networks Spread Behavior Change Faster</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/social-networking-amygdala/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/social-networking-amygdala/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Brain Volume Linked to Social Networking</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=IuRqoIsNlg4:NB-sl08bzKM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="6" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150134441930795">Adult Brain Activity Stirs Before Birth</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 16 Feb 2011 07:55 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=2340b8ad9a9c57501c8f205391b59d8a&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fbrain-activity-adult-flickr-reigh-leblanc.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>The kicks and somersaults of a developing baby aren't the only in-utero calisthenics. Babies also flex their mental muscles months before birth.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>Nerve cells from developing brains as young as 20 weeks old fire in a pattern that persists into adulthood, researchers reported Tuesday in the <em>Journal of Neuroscience</em>. The research provides a glimpse into the behavior of extremely young brain cells and could help scientists understand what happens when brain development goes awry.</p> <p>Cells from the cerebral cortices of 20- to 21-week-old fetuses exhibit bursts of electrical activity interspersed with periods of quiet, researchers from the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington found. When the adult brain is sleeping, or under anesthesia, it also displays this busy-then-quiet firing pattern, suggesting it may be an intrinsic property of human brains.</p> <p>The cerebral cortex deals with sensory information, thinking, emotion and consciousness. But even when not receiving input from the outside world, the nerve cells, or neurons, in this region oscillate between firing and resting.</p> <p>"In adults, we go to sleep and the cortex is disconnected from the outside environment — it sleeps alone. But you see this quiet synchronized activity," says Igor Timofeev of Laval University in Québec. That young nerve cells behave in a similar way long before they grapple with outside input suggests that the firing pattern "is a very basic feature of the brain that occurs in very early stages of development," says Timofeev.</p> <p> </p> <p>Scientists still don't understand what purpose the nerve cell activity serves so early in development. Perhaps it is a flexing of mental muscles to help keep the cells alive, says neuroscientist Srdjan Antic, who led the new study. Having a burst of activity now and again may signal other brain cells that "'Hey I'm here, look at me, maintain a connection with me,'" Antic says. "During sleep neurons do exactly that."</p> <p>Antic and colleagues probed the activity of neurons in lab dishes one at a time. While almost all of the cells exhibited the firing pattern, the team can't say whether the firing was synchronized. If the cells do fire in waves, that could be their way of signaling their location to other brain cells, says neuroscientist William Moody of the University of Washington in Seattle.</p> <p>Such wave-signaling in mice brains plays a role in wiring the nervous system during development so that adjacent brain regions correspond to adjacent body parts. If these young cells are firing in waves, that activity could be part of this mapping process, Moody says.</p> <p>"This is a huge deal," he says of the new work. "They've taken the first step of looking at humans."</p> <p>There are several disorders that may result when neurons don't end up in the right place. And autism spectrum disorders may also be related to improper firing, says Moody.</p> <p><em>Image: Adult brain activity, as seen in a Positron Emission Topography (PET) scan. (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reighleblanc/1372176095/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reighleblanc/1372176095/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Reigh LeBlanc</a>/Flickr)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/sleep-spindles/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/sleep-spindles/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">The Brain's Secret to Sleeping Like a Log</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/silk-brain-computer-interface/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/silk-brain-computer-interface/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Ultrathin Silk-Based Electronics Make Better Brain Implants</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/world-computer-data/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/world-computer-data/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">World's Total CPU Power: One Human Brain</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/memory-retention-sleep/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/memory-retention-sleep/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Sleeping Protects Memories From Corruption</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/forgottenmemories/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/forgottenmemories/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "10e66", event);" rel="nofollow">Forgotten Memories Are Still in Your Brain</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=E4LoPpnaxrY:jvWxAFhTGj0:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-5069910693276693892011-02-16T13:29:00.001-08:002011-02-16T13:29:31.519-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">In Your Face: Close-Up Look at Doomed Comet</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">How Rockets Realign Ice Crystals</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">To Talk With Aliens, Learn to Speak With Dolphins</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">Obama’s 2012 Budget Proposes Pains, Gains for Science</a> </li> <li> <a href="#5">Sex Discrimination in Science Continues, But Reasons Unclear</a> </li> <li> <a href="#6">‘Magnetricity’ Created in Crystals of Spin Ice</a> </li> <li> <a href="#7">Spacecraft Seeks Doomed Comet for Valentine’s Day Rendezvous</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150133523625795">In Your Face: Close-Up Look at Doomed Comet</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 15 Feb 2011 02:06 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=a23460e353fa14192f2665b6e2c4e3f7&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fstardust-comet-tempel-1-flyby-animation-nasa-mosher.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>NASA's Stardust-Next spacecraft flew past Comet Tempel 1 at 8:38 Pacific time Monday night, snapping photos as it sped by.</p> <p>In 2005, the Deep Impact probe blew a crater into Tempel 1 with an 800-pound metal slug. Since then, Tempel 1 has completed an orbit around the sun, losing ice and other material to the sun's hot glare along the way. The new images will give astronomers new insight into how a comet is slowly destroyed by the sun.</p> <p>"This is something we've never been able to see before," said principal investigator <a href="http://www.astro.cornell.edu/people/facstaff-detail.php?pers_id=116" target="_blank" title="http://www.astro.cornell.edu/people/facstaff-detail.php?pers_id=116" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Joe Veverka</a> of Cornell University in an interview on NASA TV during the flyby. "We know every time a comet comes close to the sun, it loses material. But we don't know where those changes occur."</p> <p><a href="http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov/" target="_blank" title="http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Stardust-Next</a>, which originally launched as "Stardust" in 1999, swooped within 124 miles of Tempel 1's icy, dirty core at about 24,300 miles per hour.</p> <p>The spacecraft took a total of <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stardust/multimedia/version1/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stardust/multimedia/version1/index.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">72 science images</a>, 46 as it approached and 26 as it receded from the comet. As it approached, it snapped pictures once every 6 seconds.</p> <p> </p> <p>The new images started arriving at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, about three hours after the spacecraft made its closest approach. Each image took 15 minutes to download. The Stardust crew wanted to download the five closest images first, but an unknown error sent the photos in the order in which they were taken. The astronomers had to wait until 6 a.m. Tuesday Pacific time to get the good stuff.</p> <p>Luckily, the images were everything the science team hoped for.</p> <p>"If you ask me, was this mission 100 percent successful, in terms of the science? I would have to say no," Veverka said in a press conference Feb. 15. "It was 1,000 percent successful!"</p> <p>Stardust-Next shot photos of new terrain that had never been seen before, as well as areas on Tempel 1 that had been covered by Deep Impact. The images showed that several regions changed significantly over the past five years. One of the most interesting areas looks like a blanket of material that erupted from beneath the comet's surface and flowed downhill. That flow is now receding due to erosion, Veverka said.</p> <p>"It goes much against the idea that [comets are] just icy dirtballs where nothing has happened since their formation," Veverka said. "Apparently a lot of things have happened."</p> <p>The spacecraft also found the crater Deep Impact blew in the comet's surface. Deep Impact never saw its handiwork, because the crater was obscured by all the dust and ice kicked up in the impact.</p> <p>"That created a lot of mystery, and it also helped create this mission," said Stardust-Next co-investigator <a href="http://www.planetary.brown.edu/html_pages/schultz.htm" target="_blank" title="http://www.planetary.brown.edu/html_pages/schultz.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Pete Schultz</a> of Brown University.</p> <p>The crater is about 150 meters (492 feet) across, and has a small central mound. It looks as if the cloud of material Deep Impact excavated fell back to the surface.</p> <p>"The surface of the comet where we hit is very weak. It's fragile," Schutlz said. "The crater partly healed itself."</p> <p>Flying close to a comet is a risky business. Comets spew jets of gas and dust from beneath their surfaces, which act as little rocket thrusters, making the comet's position hard to predict. In the final 16 hours, the spacecraft has to navigate on its own — signals from Earth would be too slow to direct last-second turns. And for five minutes before and after closest approach, Stardust-Next had to roll on its side to make sure the cameras were pointing straight at the comet's heart, a maneuver that could have temporarily cut off communication with Earth.</p> <p>The spacecraft also has to fly through the hailstorm of the comet's coma, where clumps of dirt and ice collide and come apart. Co-investigator <a href="http://www.astro.washington.edu/users/brownlee/" target="_blank" title="http://www.astro.washington.edu/users/brownlee/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Don Brownlee</a> of the University of Washington compared the spacecraft's flight to a B-17 in World War II flying through flak. Stardust-Next's instruments recorded about 5,000 dust strikes during the flyby, about 12 of which were large enough — a millimeter across — to pierce the spacecraft's main shield.</p> <p>But Stardust-Next is a flyby veteran. The spacecraft has traveled a total of 3,525,327,446 miles since its 1999 launch, It visited <a href="http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news94.html" target="_blank" title="http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news94.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">asteroid Annefrank</a> in 2002 and comet <a href="http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/photo/cometwild2.html" target="_blank" title="http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/photo/cometwild2.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Wild 2</a> (pronounced "willed two") in 2004. Stardust caught particles from Wild 2's cloudy coma in an instrument that resembled a catcher's mitt, and in 2006 sent them back to Earth, where they are <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/citizen-space-science-gallery/5/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/citizen-space-science-gallery/5/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">still being analyzed</a>.</p> <p>The flyby went without a hitch, the Stardust team said. The spacecraft was in almost the perfect position to photograph the comet when it arrived, and only had to roll half-a-degree to adjust its cameras.</p> <p>The spacecraft's near-perfect performance is particularly impressive considering its age. The 12-year-old probe was put together from recycled parts cribbed from the <a href="http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/" target="_blank" title="http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Voyager</a> mission of the 1970s, the <a href="http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/galileo/" target="_blank" title="http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/galileo/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Galileo</a> spacecraft in 1989 and the <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Cassini</a> probe in 1997.</p> <p>Reusing an already recycled spacecraft makes this mission space science on a shoestring, said <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/weiler_biography.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/weiler_biography.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Ed Weiler</a>, NASA associate director for the science mission directorate. The extended mission, from after the Wild 2 samples returned to Earth until today, cost about $29 million. It would have cost about $500 million to start from scratch.</p> <p>But Tempel 1 will be Stardust's last stop. The spacecraft is running on fumes. It will continue to take photos of the comet over it shoulder for another week or two, until its fuel runs out. Then it will at last retire into the blackness of space.</p> <p><em>Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell. </em><em>Animation: Dave Mosher/Wired.com.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/spacecraft-seeks-comet/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/spacecraft-seeks-comet/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Spacecraft Seeks Doomed Comet for Valentine's Day Rendezvous</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/epoxi-comet-flyby/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/epoxi-comet-flyby/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">New Super Close-Up Images From Comet Flyby</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/little-comet-meet-big-sun/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/little-comet-meet-big-sun/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: Cold, Little Comet Is No Match for Big, Hot Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/video-kamikaze-comet-seen-diving-into-the-sun/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/video-kamikaze-comet-seen-diving-into-the-sun/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: Kamikaze Comet Dives Into Sun's Lower Atmosphere</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/comet-holmes-co-explosion/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/comet-holmes-co-explosion/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Exploding Comet Could Have Blown Up With Carbon Monoxide</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=AZqDd5RlO7I:Nvka71It6S4:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150133523630795">How Rockets Realign Ice Crystals</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 15 Feb 2011 12:00 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/sundog-ice-crystals/rockethaloframes/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/sundog-ice-crystals/rockethaloframes/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=7bfffbcc066c1452344ccb30aff574ab&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Frockethaloframes-296x741-custom.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>NASA's <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/tag/solar-dynamics-observatory/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/tag/solar-dynamics-observatory/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Solar Dynamics Observatory</a>, best known for its <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/tag/sdo/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/tag/sdo/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">mind-blowing photos and videos</a> of the sun, started life as a rainbow killer.</p> <p>As the rocket carrying the sun observer climbed into orbit, it produced shock waves that destroyed a small splotchy-shaped rainbow and created a new, never-before-seen form of ice halo.</p> <p>Ice halos are rings and arcs of light that appear when sunlight is deflected through ice crystals. On the morning of Feb. 11, 2010, when SDO launched from Cape Canaveral, hexagonal plate-shaped ice crystals drifting downward created a <a href="http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/dogfm.htm" target="_blank" title="http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/dogfm.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">sundog</a>, a fragment of a rainbow that can often be found on either side of the morning sun on chilly days.</p> <p>As SDO passed the sundog, it erased it. Shortly after, a column of white light appeared next to the rocket and followed it into the sky.</p> <p>Astronomers knew what happened to the sundog: Shock waves from the rocket destroyed the alignment of ice crystals, which in turn destroyed the rainbow. But the white column was a mystery.</p> <p>"We'd never seen anything like it," said retired physicist and atmospheric-optics expert <a href="http://www.atoptics.co.uk/" target="_blank" title="http://www.atoptics.co.uk/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Les Cowley</a> in an explainer at <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/11feb_sundogmystery/" target="_blank" title="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/11feb_sundogmystery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Science@NASA</a>.</p> <p>Now, a year later, Cowley and retired physicist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G._Greenler" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G._Greenler" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Robert Greenler</a> of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee think they know what happened. Rather than scrambling the ice crystals, the shock wave from the rocket organized them into an array of tiny spinning tops.</p> <p>The hexagonal ice crystals are tilted between 8 and 12 degrees, Cowley said. The crystals then wobble in an ordered, precise motion so that an imaginary line running through their center traces out a cone shape. This motion, called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">precession</a>, shows up in a variety of spinning bodies, from toy tops to planets.</p> <p>"This could be the start of a new research field — halo dynamics," Cowley said.</p> <p>Cowley and Greenler's simulations show that the white column that followed SDO to orbit was part of a <a href="http://story4review.org/headlines/y2011/images/sundogmystery/simulation.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://story4review.org/headlines/y2011/images/sundogmystery/simulation.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">larger oval</a> that would have surrounded the ascending rocket if the crystals and shock waves had covered a wider range.</p> <p><em>Via Science@NASA</em></p> <p><em>Image: Science@NASA. Video: Anna Herbst of Bishop, California.</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/sdo-sunpiter/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/sdo-sunpiter/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">NASA Spacecraft Error Makes Sun's Image Look Like Jupiter</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/solar-dynamics-observatory-first-light/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/solar-dynamics-observatory-first-light/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">New Space Telescope Delivers First Mind-Blowing Video of the Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/huge-sun-filament/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/huge-sun-filament/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Huge Magnetic Filament Erupts on the Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/solar-explosion-connections/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/solar-explosion-connections/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: Explosions Connected Across Sun's Surface</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/video-solar-butterfly-effect/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/video-solar-butterfly-effect/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: The Butterfly Effect on the Sun's Surface</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/sun-magnetic-twister/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/sun-magnetic-twister/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: Magnetic Twister Erupts on Sun</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=0YtYFhz5Or4:_xW7VTYgUuI:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150133523635795">To Talk With Aliens, Learn to Speak With Dolphins</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 15 Feb 2011 10:00 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seti-dolphins/660px-the_race_is_on/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seti-dolphins/660px-the_race_is_on/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=6c979b325b64a7b5a0e7a9b94ff71227&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2F660px-The_Race_is_On.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>The Kepler Space Telescope announced a new bonanza of distant planets this month, reconfirming that solar systems, some possibly hosting life, are common in the universe.</p> <p>So if humanity someday arrives at an extraterrestrial cocktail party, will we be ready to mingle? At the <a href="http://www.wilddolphinproject.org/dev/index.php" target="_blank" title="http://www.wilddolphinproject.org/dev/index.php" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Wild Dolphin Project</a> in Jupiter, Florida, researchers train for contact by trying to talk with dolphins.</p> <p>Behavioral biologist Denise Herzing started studying free-ranging spotted dolphins in the Bahamas more than two decades ago. Over the years, she noticed some dolphins seeking human company, seemingly out of curiosity.</p> <p>"We thought, 'This is fascinating, let's see if we can take it further,'" Herzing said. "Many studies communicate with dolphins, especially in captivity, using fish as a reward. But it's rare to ask dolphins to communicate with us."</p> <p> </p> <p>Dolphins have large, sophisticated brains, elaborately developed in the areas linked to higher-order thinking. They have a complex social structure, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1088601/" target="_blank" title="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1088601/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow"> form alliances</a>, share duties and display personalities. Put a <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/98/10/5937.full" target="_blank" title="http://www.pnas.org/content/98/10/5937.full" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow"> mirror in their tank</a> and they can recognize themselves, indicating a sense of self.</p> <p>When trained, they have a remarkable capacity to pick up language. At the Dolphin Institute in Hawaii, Louis Herman and his team <a href="http://www.dolphin-institute.org/resource_guide/animal_language.htm" target="_blank" title="http://www.dolphin-institute.org/resource_guide/animal_language.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">taught dolphins hundreds of words</a> using gestures and symbols. Dolphins, they found, could understand the difference between statements and questions, concepts like "none" or "absent," and that changing word order changes the meaning of a sentence. Essentially, they get syntax. </p> <div><strong>Easier Language Through Math</strong></p> <p>Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, also studies animal communication in preparation for extraterrestrial contact. Doyle uses information theory — a branch of math that analyzes the structure and relationships of information — to analyze radio signals, hoping to better detect intelligence in space.</p> <p>"Information theory is an example of an intelligence filter we can use to sift the signals we get from space," Doyle said. "Otherwise, we might miss them."</p> <p>Using information theory it's possible to separate binary code from random 0s and 1s, for examples. By <a href="http://faculty.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/faculty/bjmccowan/" target="_blank" title="http://faculty.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/faculty/bjmccowan/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">analyzing dolphin sounds</a>, it's possible to know that adults send information when they whistle, but not babies. Like human babies, they just <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WY9-46R0XTF-3&_user=10&_coverDate=09%2F30%2F1995&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1641574495&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=356947b6b6230a1cb8b0155d1f21f91a&searchtype=a" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WY9-46R0XTF-3&_user=10&_coverDate=09%2F30%2F1995&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1641574495&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=356947b6b6230a1cb8b0155d1f21f91a&searchtype=a" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">babble until they've learned language</a>. Information theory also shows that <a href="http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=JASMAN000119000003001849000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes&ref=no" target="_blank" title="http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=JASMAN000119000003001849000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes&ref=no" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">humpback whales</a> have rules of grammar and syntax.</p> <p>"At SETI meetings we always ask 'Are we alone?'" Doyle said. "No, we're not alone. There are many animals communicating right here that we don't understand."</p> <p>Doyle is interested in applying information theory to bees. Social bees are capable of complex group decisions, it seems, but their intelligence is a product of the hive. He also plans to study the communication between trees, because they share information about pests and threats via chemicals.</p> <p>"Who knows? Brains might not be necessary," Doyle said.</p></div> <p>Some tantalizing studies even suggest dolphins share their own language (see sidebar, "Easier Language Through Math"). All are qualities we'd hope to see in an alien, and no daydream of contact is complete without some attempt at communication. Yet with dolphins, our attempts have involved teaching them to speak our language, rather than meeting in the middle. </p> <p>Herzing created an open-ended framework for communication, using sounds, symbols and props to interact with the dolphins. The goal was to create a shared, primitive language that would allow dolphins and humans to ask for props, such as balls or scarves. </p> <p>Divers demonstrated the system by pressing keys on a large submerged keyboard. Other humans would throw them the corresponding prop. In addition to being labeled with a symbol, each key was paired with a whistle that dolphins could mimic. A dolphin could ask for a toy either by pushing the key with her nose, or whistling.</p> <p>Herzing's study is the first of its kind. No one has tried to establish two-way communication in the wild.</p> <p>"This is an authentic way to approach this, she's not imposing herself on them," said Lori Marino, the Emory University biologist who, with Hunter College psychologist Diana Reiss, pioneered dolphin self-recognition studies. "She's cultivated a relationship with these dolphins over a very long time and it's entirely on their terms. I think this is the future of working with dolphins."</p> <p>For each session, the researchers played with the dolphins for about half-an-hour, for a total of roughly 40 hours over the course of three years. They reported their findings of this pilot study in the December issue of <em>Acta Astronautica.</em></p> <p>Herzing's team found that six dolphins, all young females, were interested in the game, and would come to play when the game was on. Young males were typically less social and less interested in humans. "This is when the females have a lot of play time," Herzing said, "before they are busy being mothers."</p> <p>To Herzing's surprise, some of her spotted dolphins recruited bottlenose dolphins, another species, to the game. This shows their natural curiosity, Herzog zaid. In the wild, dolphins communicate across cetacean species lines, coordinating hunting with other dolphins and even sharing babysitting duties.</p> <p>Herzing found the study sessions were most successful when, before playing, the humans and dolphins swam together slowly and in synchrony, mimicked each other and made eye contact. These are signs of good etiquette among dolphins. Humans also signal their interest in someone with eye contact and similar body language. Perhaps these are universal — and extraterrestrial — signs of good manners.</p> <p>Before we hope to understand extraterrestrials, then, perhaps we should practice with smart animals right here on Earth. Astronomer Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute was struck by this thought at a recent conference. </p> <p>"From the way the presenter was speaking, I thought he was going to announce that he had found a signal of extraterrestrial intelligence," Doyle said. "We've been waiting for this for years, but I thought, 'We're not ready!' We can't even speak to the intelligent animals on Earth."</p> <p><em>Image: Two Atlantic spotted dolphins in the wild. (<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Race_is_On.jpg" target="_blank" title="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Race_is_On.jpg" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Ricardo Liberato</a>)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/crowdsourced-seti/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/crowdsourced-seti/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Astronomers Suggest Crowdsourcing Letters to Aliens</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/kepler-data-dump/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/kepler-data-dump/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Exoplanet Hunter Finds Bounty of Multi-Planet Solar Systems</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/whalepeople/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/whalepeople/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Whales Might Be as Much Like People as Apes Are</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/antarctic-orcas/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/antarctic-orcas/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Your Chilean Sea Bass Dinner Kills Killer Whales</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/whale-talk/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/whale-talk/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Sperm Whale Voices Are Personal</a></li> </ul> <p><em> </em></p> <p><em>Citations: "SETI meets a social intelligence: Dolphins as a model for real-time interaction and communication with a sentient species." By Denise L. Herzing. </em>Acta Astronautica<em>, Vol. 67 December 2010.</em></p> <p><em>"Information theory, animal communication, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence." By Laurance R. Doyle, Brenda McCowan, Simon Johnston and Sean F. Hanser. </em>Acta Astronautica<em>, Vol. 68, February-March 2011.</em></p></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=c3vvNipqp-4:Jp4hN1ycaq4:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150133523640795">Obama’s 2012 Budget Proposes Pains, Gains for Science</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 15 Feb 2011 08:38 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=2b4f8c80771bf511682974f368e18c9d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fscience-budget-2011-t-dube.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>President Obama sent the research community a valentine of sorts in his proposed 2012 federal budget. Sent to Congress on Feb. 14, the budget was a pledge to fight for increased investment in research and education even as the president committed to belt-tightening for most segments of federal spending.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>The $3.7 trillion proposal allocates $147.9 billion to research and development in the coming fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1. That amounts to a small decrease from the 2011 fiscal year, after accounting for a projected 1.3 percent rate of inflation.</p> <p>Many R&D programs would see expanded or new funding to meet a number of administration goals, said presidential science adviser John Holdren, including:</p> <ul> <li>doubling the budgets for the National Science Foundation, the Energy Department's Office of Science and the National Institute of Standards and Technology</li> <li>spurring development of clean energy technologies and providing national high-speed internet access</li> <li>improving science, technology, engineering and math education</li> <li>and promoting private R&D investment by expanding the R&D tax credit and making it permanent.</li> </ul> <p>To pay for those priorities, Holdren says, agencies were asked to make the painful determination of which programs were underperforming or of lower priority to the president's national objective "to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world."</p> <p>"I think it is especially encouraging to have a president who really supports R&D and education," says Albert Teich, who directs science and policy programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. "You wish every president saw things this way. What's discouraging, of course, is that we face this huge deficit. And not everybody in Congress is going to agree with the president's priorities. So there's bound to be fights over it."</p> <p>How big a tussle? "That's the question of the hour. And for the answer, I think you should ask the IBM computer on <em>Jeopardy</em> this week," Teich says.</p> <p> </p> <p>This "zero-sum game" for federal R&D budgeting is novel, Teich notes. It is also virtually impossible to achieve, he adds, since a host of different congressional committees are responsible for eventually drafting the spending bills that will determine how money will be apportioned for individual agencies. And they don't coordinate their spending plans to allow such a finely balanced ledger.</p> <p>Who would feel the pain — or gain — varies considerably.</p> <p>For instance, the Department of Education has been slated for a whopping 33.5 percent increase. But owing to its relatively small R&D component, this boost would amount to a rather paltry $124 million. Some $80 million of that boost would pay for research into developing better science, engineering and math teachers. The president has stated a goal of increasing their numbers by 100,000 within a decade.</p> <p>Among agencies slated to experience a big dip in R&D funding, none stands to hurt more, in dollar terms, than the Department of Defense. The administration has targeted its programs for a nearly $5 billion drop. Part of the cutbacks would be made possible by terminating several major weapons systems that the administration claims "are experiencing significant development problems, unsustainable cost growth, or are not suited for today's security challenges."</p> <p>The U.S. Department of Agriculture, slated for a 19 percent R&D decrease, would kill all spending on research grants that Congress had initially earmarked for funding and would cancel $224 million in construction funds. These adjustments would not only allow for some overall savings, but also free up a little money to boost spending for research on human nutrition, obesity reduction, food safety, climate change and crops that could be used to produce biofuels.</p> <p>Below are summaries of the budget's effects on the following areas of R&D:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69896/title/2012_budget_offers_pain_and_gain_for_R%2BD#basic" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69896/title/2012_budget_offers_pain_and_gain_for_R%2BD#basic" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Basic research</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69896/title/2012_budget_offers_pain_and_gain_for_R%2BD#earth" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69896/title/2012_budget_offers_pain_and_gain_for_R%2BD#earth" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Earth and climate</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69896/title/2012_budget_offers_pain_and_gain_for_R%2BD#space" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69896/title/2012_budget_offers_pain_and_gain_for_R%2BD#space" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Space and planetary research</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69896/title/2012_budget_offers_pain_and_gain_for_R%2BD#energy" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69896/title/2012_budget_offers_pain_and_gain_for_R%2BD#energy" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Energy sciences</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69896/title/2012_budget_offers_pain_and_gain_for_R%2BD#biomed" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69896/title/2012_budget_offers_pain_and_gain_for_R%2BD#biomed" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Biomedical research</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69896/title/2012_budget_offers_pain_and_gain_for_R%2BD#tech" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69896/title/2012_budget_offers_pain_and_gain_for_R%2BD#tech" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Technology and environment</a></li> </ul> <p><a></a></p> <p><strong>Basic research</strong></p> <p>R&D funding within the National Science Foundation would increase by some 16 percent under the proposed budget. "In these challenging fiscal times, when difficult financial choices have to be made to return our nation to solid financial footing, this budget request reflects the confidence that the president is placing in NSF as an agency," said Subra Suresh, the agency's director.</p> <p>Much of the money is designated for interdisciplinary research and training, with an emphasis on clean-energy initiatives, cyberinfrastructure and other programs such as robotics for health care and for deep-sea exploration. Research grants to non-NSF scientists might see a 27.8 percent increase over FY 2010 spending, including boosting the number of faculty career grants and graduate research fellowships.</p> <p>More than $998 million is slated for the Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability portfolio, which would invest in research on clean energy, climate change and rapid response to extreme events. A new National Robotics Initiative would receive $30 million in the next fiscal year, and another $117 million would launch a Cyberstructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering, to ensure internet and computer access to schools and the public.</p> <p>Several interdisciplinary programs, such as BioMaPS, (which is geared towards clean energy), and Science and Engineering Beyond Moore's Law (which focuses on research into efficient computing, data storage and communication) also may receive hefty funds. Almost $200 million could go to research into advanced manufacturing, which includes robotics programs, nanomanufacturing and sensor-based "smart" manufacturing.</p> <p><a></a></p> <p><strong>Earth and climate</strong></p> <p>The budget proposes nearly $5.5 billion for the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the second year in a row that the president has requested a significant uptick from the $4.86 billion NOAA received in FY 2010.</p> <p>Most of that increase would go to develop satellites vital for weather forecasting, said Monica Medina, the agency's principal deputy undersecretary for oceans and atmosphere. For instance, the proposed budget asks for $1.07 billion for the planned Joint Polar Satellite System, the next generation of polar-orbiting satellites.</p> <p>Also on the administration wish list: several climate initiatives, including $4.7 million to improve measurements of fossil fuel emissions nationwide and $2 million for improving the quality of weather forecasts as they relate to clean-energy projects. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill last year, NOAA is asking for $2.9 million for research into such spills, plus a host of initiatives to assist coastal communities that depend on fishing. Overall, the budget would give NOAA $737 million to fund R&D programs on climate, weather and the study of ecosystems.</p> <p>The U.S. Geological Survey would see an essentially flat budget of $1.12 billion. That would, however, include a $48 million increase so that USGS could assume sole management of the Landsat series of Earth-observing satellites, orbiters it had jointly managed with NASA.</p> <p><a></a></p> <p><strong>Space and planetary research </strong></p> <p>NASA's R&D budget would decline by 2.2 percent, to $9.8 billion, under the President's proposed budget. "It's difficult fiscal times and we had to make very difficult fiscal choices," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said at a press briefing on Feb. 14.</p> <p>NASA's successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, which an independent panel recently found had a minimum construction overrun of $1.5 billion, is now funded separately from other astrophysics missions, as the panel had suggested [<a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/65407/title/Cost_overruns_and_delays_add_up_to_%246.5_billion_for_NASAs_next-gen_space_telescope" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/65407/title/Cost_overruns_and_delays_add_up_to_%246.5_billion_for_NASAs_next-gen_space_telescope" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">SN Online: 11/11/10</a>]. Under the president's plan, the James Webb would receive $374 million in 2012, which Bolden said would stabilize the mission but not stem the overrun. A new, later launch date for the telescope, which only a year ago was targeted for 2014, won't be announced until the summer. Rick Howard, program director for the telescope at NASA in Washington, D.C., said it was unlikely to be launched before 2016 due to funding constraints.</p> <p>As many astronomers had feared, money for the Webb telescope appears to have come at the expense of other astrophysics projects. For instance, the president's proposed budget includes no money for the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, recommended as the top astrophysics space mission by a recent National Academy of Science panel. The telescope would search for extrasolar planets and dark energy, the mysterious entity that is thought to be accelerating the expansion of the universe.</p> <p>Although only three more flights of the space shuttle fleet are scheduled before it's retired, funding for a new vehicle that would take astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit — perhaps to a near-Earth asteroid — and a heavy-lift rocket that would launch that vehicle are slated to remain at roughly the current year's level. That's a 1.3 percent decline after inflation. "We're going to have to make some small steps; we're going to have to move incrementally," Bolden said.</p> <p>Funding for NASA's earth science programs would decline from $1.802 billion in fiscal 2011 to $1.797 billion in fiscal 2012. The cuts would slow development of future missions such as the third generation of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory and a satellite that would monitor changes in Earth's temperature.</p> <p><a></a></p> <p><strong>Energy sciences</strong></p> <p>The Department of Energy's budget favors renewable technologies at the expense of fossil fuels. Funding for programs administered by its Office of Science would climb to $5.4 billion, a two-year increase of 6.2 percent. Funding for renewable energy technology would climb a whopping 70 percent. Within renewable R&D programs, only those focused on hydrogen would take a hit — of about $70 million, representing a 40 percent cut.</p> <p>The new budget plan proposes $550 million for ARPA-E, which invests in high-risk, high-reward energy research. DOE would also double to six the number of Energy Innovation Hubs. These are cross-disciplinary collaborations that Secretary of Energy Steven Chu calls the "Apollo Projects of our time." The new hubs would focus on smart-grid technologies, critical materials such as rare-earth elements and energy storage and batteries.</p> <p>At a press briefing Feb. 14, Chu said he expects the United States will soon lead the nuclear market in developing small modular reactors, an as-yet-unproven technology highlighted in the $380 million devoted to nuclear R&D. To encourage the building of more large nuclear power facilities, his agency is requesting a budget increase for loan guarantees for electric utilities — from $18 billion to $36 billion.</p> <p>The president has issued a goal of putting 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015. In addition to $580 million for advanced-vehicle research, the current $7,500 tax credit for electric cars would become an instant rebate at the point of sale. DOE would also boost tax credits and grants to improve the energy efficiency of commercial and residential buildings, including $100 million designated for state and municipal facilities.</p> <p>To help offset these costs, management expenses have been reduced across DOE programs, to the tune of $45 million. But the big cuts are in fossil fuels, where $418 million will be saved by zeroing out a dozen research programs — from clean coal research to fuel cells. Carbon storage and capture research would survive, receiving an increase of funding to $184 million. The president also repeats his call to end subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. An unpopular idea in Congress, it could save some $3.6 billion.</p> <p><a></a></p> <p><strong>Biomedical research</strong></p> <p>Research spending budgeted for the Department of Health and Human Services — almost all of which goes to the National Institutes of Health — is $32.3 billion, a marginal decrease from the current year. NIH research would continue to place strong emphasis on the use of genomics and biotechnology to take on Alzheimer's disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, autism and other ailments.</p> <p>NIH also proposes a new addition, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, which would aim to shepherd laboratory findings as they are "translated" into drugs and diagnostics for practical use. "There's been a great deluge of scientific discoveries that point toward new therapeutics," says NIH Director Francis Collins. "This is a new arrival on the NIH stage."</p> <p><a></a></p> <p><strong>Technology and environment</strong></p> <p>The president would allocate $1.001 billion for research within the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology. The gain represents a projected one-year jump of 7.2 percent.</p> <p>"From NIST's perspective, this is a historic budget request," says NIST Director Patrick Gallagher. "It really reflects some strong White House leadership to make some very difficult priority-setting in a tough climate."</p> <p>Roughly $678.9 million would fund a diverse set of in-house research priorities, including a strong emphasis on manufacturing. That includes funding boosts in nanomanufacturing, biomanufacturing, clean manufacturing and advanced robotics.</p> <p>The proposed budget also looks outward, encouraging collaborations with private industry. One new NIST program — the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia — would receive $12.3 million to identify problems in particular industries, and work with private firms to find a solution. A pilot program that targets semiconductors has been operating successfully for several years, Gallagher says. "It's a very powerful approach, where industry is directly cost-sharing and working on a common research agenda," he says.</p> <p>"I think it's particularly noteworthy that it [the increase] is occurring in a time when the administration is also proposing a fiscally responsible budget," said Gallagher.</p> <p>The Environmental Protection Agency's proposed research budget would sag 3.2 percent from the current fiscal year, but would boost the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program of grants to scientists in academic institutions. These increases would be offset by cuts in some of the agency's other research areas, such as those affecting homeland security.</p> <p>Research at EPA is getting a bit of a shakeup for a more integrated approach, looking at issues systemically rather than focusing as much on individual chemicals or problems. "Even our scientists can get more efficient," quipped EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson when presenting the EPA budget proposal.</p> <p><em>—With additional reporting by the </em>Science News<em> staff</em></p> <p><em>Image: The Obama administration's proposed budget for fiscal year 2012 includes big increases for research in clean energy, environmental science and science education. (T. Dube/ScienceNews)</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/america-competes/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/america-competes/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">U.S. Science-Funding Boost Faces Uncertain Future</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/nsf-youcut-review/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/nsf-youcut-review/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Republican Congressmen Crowdsource Attack on Science</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/obama-science-budget/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/obama-science-budget/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Charting the Winners and Losers in Obama's Science Budget</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/synthetic-biology-money/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/synthetic-biology-money/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">U.S. Leading Charge on Synthetic Biology Funding</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=nY8dGAzG_Ug:ajxwWUI2iKU:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="5" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150133523645795">Sex Discrimination in Science Continues, But Reasons Unclear</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 15 Feb 2011 06:45 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=8327b196b3cfd130d56f1eb482fee48f&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Ffemale-scientist-laboratory-flickr-juan-barredo.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><strong>By Kate Shaw, Ars Technica</strong></p> <p>Today, more than half of all PhDs in the life sciences are awarded to women, compared to a measly 13 percent bestowed upon women in 1970. However, women still lag far behind men in full professorships and tenure track positions in math-intensive fields.</p> <p><a href="http://arstechnica.com/" target="_blank" title="http://arstechnica.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=433c02fa0ab707d3e69b7ef83156d12d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fepicenter%2F2010%2F07%2FPicture-1.png" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>Despite claims that this disparity is due to discrimination against women in the processes of publication, grant review, interviewing, and hiring, a review in <em>PNAS </em>last week, written by Stephen Ceci and Wendy Williams of Cornell University, finds that there is actually little evidence for sex discrimination in these areas, and concludes that women's underrepresentation stems from other causes.</p> <h3>Is it harder for women to publish?</h3> <p>Getting research published is a must for scientists, and is essential for getting hired and moving up the ranks in all scientific professions. Critics have claimed that men have an advantage in the reviewing and publishing processes, and that this bias may account for the dearth of females in tenured positions. However, after reviewing several studies in this area, Ceci and Williams conclude that this just doesn't seem to be the case. Studies of publication rates in <em>Nature Neuroscience</em>, <em>Cortex</em>, and <em>Journal of Biogeography</em>, among others, found no evidence of sex discrimination.</p> <p>When men and women with similar resources are compared, there is no evidence for publication differences between the sexes. However, there are some factors that affect women at a disproportionately high rate and may cause biases in the publication process.</p> <p>For example, women are more likely to work at teaching-intensive colleges and therefore lack the time and resources to produce frequent and high-quality research for publication. When the type of institution, the scientist's funding, the teaching load, and the research assistance are taken into account, there is no difference in publication rates for men and women. It seems that the critical factor isn't sex, but instead access to resources, an area in which women may lag behind men.</p> <p> </p> <h3>Are women at a disadvantage when applying for grants?</h3> <p>Another commonly-cited issue is that it is harder for female scientists to get funding for their work than it is for male scientists. Some studies, such as a very influential 1997 <em>Nature </em>publication by Wenneras and Wold, have found that grant review panels are more likely to fund males over females. This study found that women needed to be "2.5 times more productive" than men to be funded by the Swedish Medical Research Council in 1995.</p> <p>However, this study has been challenged based on methodological and conceptual issues, and further studies have mostly been unable to replicate this level of bias. In fact, where biases have been found, advantages often go to the women; a 1996 study of females funded by a UK panel found they have published just 11.2 papers on average, while the funded males had published an average of 13.8 papers. Large scale analyses of grant review in the past 30 years at NSF, NIH, the US Department of Agriculture, and the Australian Research Council have not found any evidence of sex discrimination.</p> <p>Research does suggest that, before the 1980s, it was more difficult females to get grants than it was for males. However, most research agrees that the playing field has evened out in terms of funding in the last few decades.</p> <h3>Does hiring occur without regard to gender?</h3> <p>Finally, Ceci and Williams examined the interviewing and hiring process at research institutions. A very famous 1999 study distributed mock CVs to 238 psychologists who were reviewing possible hires for assistant professor and tenure track positions. For the assistant professor job, the reviewers tended to rate CVs with male names more highly than identical CVs with female names (although this effect disappeared for the tenure track job). This finding, as well as similar results in other studies, suggested to many that females may be at a disadvantage when applying for some scientific positions.</p> <p>However, since 2000, there is little evidence that females face more hurdles than men in the hiring process. In fact, some studies have shown that women get interviewed and are offered tenure-track jobs at a slightly higher rate than males. What is evident, however, is that females tend to make different choices than men when applying for and accepting jobs. Here, Ceci and Williams argue, is where much of the scientific gender gap arises.</p> <p>About 80 percent of both male and female graduate students believe that working full-time is "important" or "extremely important." However, nearly a third of women believe that working part-time for a period is "important" or "somewhat important," compared to just 9 percent of men. In the UK, females are almost twice as likely as men to work part-time for at least some length of time. So, while females have similar aspirations as men, they seem to make different choices when it comes to employment.</p> <h3>Asking different questions</h3> <p>Instead of debating whether women are being discriminated against in publication, grant review, and hiring, Ceci and Williams argue that we should concentrate on more current causes of female underrepresentation in the sciences. The important question to address now is whether women on the academic track are making personal choices that promote happiness and satisfaction, or whether their careers are constrained by biology and societal obligations.</p> <p>The authors suggest that there are three main contributors to this unde-representation: career preferences, family choices, and ability differences. Women tend to chose careers in which they are "helping people," such as working at teaching-intensive institutions, at a greater rate than men do. Additionally, fertility and lifestyle choices affect women's careers at a disproportionately high rate when compared to men. In terms of ability differences, far fewer women than men appear in the top one percent of standardized math results, such as SAT and GRE scores. The authors cite this last fact without venturing into the complicated reasons behind the phenomenon, except for stating that it is "potentially influenced by both socialization and biology."</p> <p>So, women in scientific fields — especially math-intensive ones — seem to be at a disadvantage due both to free choices and various constraints. According to the authors, however, discrimination in publication, grant review, and hiring do not seem to be among those constraints.</p> <p>As a start, Ceci and Williams suggest exposing young women to successful role models in science and math-intensive fields and giving them more information about career opportunities. Furthermore, they advocate changing the tenure system slightly so that there are fewer disincentives for women to have families and children. As a model, the authors cite UC Berkeley's "Family Edge" program, which provides child care and urges reviewers to ignore family-related gaps in employment and productivity.</p> <p>While more work clearly needs to be done on clarifying the causes of women's underrepresentation in the sciences (especially in math-intensive fields) the review strongly suggests that discrimination isn't the cause, and that we need to "redirect our energies" toward more pertinent questions.</p> <p><em>Image: Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barredo/4057189318/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barredo/4057189318/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">juan.barredo</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/02/does-sex-discrimination-in-science-keep-women-down.ars" target="_blank" title="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/02/does-sex-discrimination-in-science-keep-women-down.ars" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Ars Technica</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Citation: "Understanding current causes of women's underrepresentation in science." Stephen J. Ceci and Wendy M. Williams. </em>Proceedings of the National Academies of Science<em>, published online Feb. 7, 2011. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1014871108" target="_blank" title="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1014871108" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">10.1073/pnas.1014871108</a></em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/brainandbeauty/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/brainandbeauty/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Beauty Affects Men's and Women's Brains Differently</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/mercury-13/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/mercury-13/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: NASA's Lost Female Astronauts</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/star-trek-keeps-women-computer-science/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/star-trek-keeps-women-computer-science/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Star Trek Stops Women From Becoming Computer Scientists</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/secrets-of-asexuality/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/secrets-of-asexuality/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Why Ladies-Only Species Don't Need Men</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=uvxvXrG1vsQ:FP-FG9eLkuM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="6" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150133523655795">‘Magnetricity’ Created in Crystals of Spin Ice</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 14 Feb 2011 03:05 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=6f8e99fba6c0cf255080affe959e7d3c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fmagnetic-monopoles-bramwell.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>Electricity has a new little sister: magnetricity.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" target="_blank" title="http://bit.ly/2TwTeS" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=fbac3f88db91689930ed26c8a65ff07c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F09%2Fsciencenews.gif" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>A team of physicists in England has created magnetic charges — isolated north and south magnetic poles — and induced them to flow in crystals no bigger than a centimeter across. These moving magnetic charges, which behave almost exactly like electrical charges flowing through batteries and biological systems, could one day be useful in developing "magnetronic" devices — though what such devices would do is anybody's guess.</p> <p>In magnets, poles always come in pairs. No matter how many times you cut a magnet in half, down to the atoms themselves, each piece will always have a north and a south — a dipole.</p> <p>But the magnetic molecules that make up a crystalline material called spin ice are arranged in triangular pyramids that prevent them from lining up comfortably with all of their poles pointing in the same direction. In an awkward compromise, each pyramid tends to have two magnets pointing inward and two pointing outward.</p> <p>In 2009 Steven Bramwell of the University College of London found that sometimes a molecule squirms and flips. Two poles, a north and a south, are born. The molecule itself stays put, but these ghostly poles, which aren't actually attached to a physical object, can move around independently of each other as chain reactions of flipping molecules carry them from pyramid to pyramid.</p> <p>"Eventually they get so far apart that they lose all memory of each other," says Bramwell. "The dipole splits in half and becomes two monopoles."</p> <p> </p> <p>Some scientists have questioned the use of the term monopole for a phenomenon that exists only inside spin ice. This term traditionally refers to cosmic monopoles thought to be created during the Big Bang and first theorized by Paul Dirac in 1931.</p> <p>"A real monopole would be a magnetic charge that would exist in a vacuum," says Michael Bonitz, a physicist at the Institute for Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics in Kiel, Germany. "What they have is a complicated condensed matter system."</p> <p>Within the confines of the spin ice, though, these wandering poles do behave much like monopoles. The poles have magnetic charge that closely agrees with theoretical predictions and interact with each other according to the same law that governs the interaction of electric charges, Coulomb's Law.</p> <p>Using brief magnetic pulses, Bramwell and his team have now developed a way to trigger <em>currents</em> of these magnetic charges — "magnetricity" — that last for minutes.</p> <p>"We apply a magnetic field to create magnetic charges and get them all going the same direction," says Sean Giblin, a physicist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, England, and a co-author of a paper published online Feb. 13 in <em>Nature Physics</em>.</p> <p>These currents have revealed new similarities between magnetic and electric charges. The creation and slow dissipation of new magnetic charges follows the exact same principles that govern charged particles in solutions — such as ions in battery electrolytes.</p> <p>The way that the spin ice stores magnetic charge is also similar to the way existing devices called capacitors store electric charge. So Bramwell's pie-in-the-sky dream is for magnetricity to someday spawn a new technology called "magnetronics." But he admits it may take a while to get there, especially because these currents appear only in crystals kept close to absolute zero.</p> <p> </p> <p><em>Image: Currents of magnetricity are born when north poles and south poles split up and move around independently of each other. (Courtesy Steven Bramwell)</em></p> <p><em>Video: When a molecule of spin ice flips, it creates two magnetic poles in neighboring pyramids that can be carried away from each other as other molecules flip. (Steven Bramwell/<a href="http://vimeo.com/19847295" target="_blank" title="http://vimeo.com/19847295" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Vimeo</a>)</em><em><br /> </em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/quantum-glass-melting/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/quantum-glass-melting/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Quantum Fluctuations May Melt Ultracold Glass</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/top-scientific-discoveries/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/top-scientific-discoveries/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Top Scientific Breakthroughs of 2010</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/superfast-magnetic-reversal/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/superfast-magnetic-reversal/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Earth's Magnetic Field Flipped Superfast</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/light-beam-compass/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/light-beam-compass/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">New Compass Uses Light Beams to Detect Magnetic Field</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/quantum-birds/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/quantum-birds/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">In the Blink of Bird's Eye, a Model for Quantum Navigation</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=fuaZXT8nGQw:jkh_KKKGxaY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="7" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150133523660795">Spacecraft Seeks Doomed Comet for Valentine’s Day Rendezvous</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 14 Feb 2011 12:00 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/spacecraft-seeks-comet/tempel1-deep-impact/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/spacecraft-seeks-comet/tempel1-deep-impact/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=f3c2646d69bfd1944a35f5a5ca56673c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Ftempel1-deep-impact.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Late Monday night, NASA's Stardust-NExt spacecraft will make a close flyby of the comet Tempel 1, destined for fiery destruction by the sun.</p> <p>This will be the second comet rendezvous for Stardust-NExT, which caught dusty bits of comet <a href="http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/photo/cometwild2.html" target="_blank" title="http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/photo/cometwild2.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Wild 2</a> in 2004 and sent them back to Earth.</p> <p>It will also be the second encounter with a spacecraft for Tempel 1, which collided with the <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/main/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/main/index.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Deep Impact</a> probe in 2005. Combined with Deep Impact's visit, the Stardust-NExT flyby will give astronomers their first view of a complete cometary circuit around the sun, and the best picture yet of how the sun devours a comet.</p> <p>"We know that comets lose material," said astronomer <a href="http://www.astro.cornell.edu/people/facstaff-detail.php?pers_id=116" target="_blank" title="http://www.astro.cornell.edu/people/facstaff-detail.php?pers_id=116" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Joe Veverka</a> of Cornell University, principal investigator of the Stardust-NExT mission, in a recent press conference. "But the question is, how does the surface change, and where does the surface change?"</p> <p>At closest approach, Stardust-NExT will come within 120 miles of the comet's core. Astronomers hope to get a good look at the scars Deep Impact left behind, and to map some uncharted territory on the comet's dusty, icy surface. Of particular interest are parts of the surface that look like they're layered like a stack of pancakes. Another intriguing spot is a large plateau that looks like material flowed across it in the recent past.</p> <p>The flyby will air live on <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/ntv" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/ntv" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">NASA TV</a> from 11:30 pm Eastern time on Feb. 14 to 1 am Eastern time on Feb. 15. The spacecraft is expected to make its closest approach at 11:37, although confirmation won't reach Earth until 11:56. But if you don't want to stay up that late, we'll have a re-cap tomorrow.</p> <p><em>Image: Comet Tempel 1 immediately after its brief, explosive relationship with Deep Impact. Credit: NASA</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/epoxi-comet-flyby/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/epoxi-comet-flyby/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">New Super Close-Up Images From Comet Flyby</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/little-comet-meet-big-sun/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/little-comet-meet-big-sun/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: Cold, Little Comet Is No Match for Big, Hot Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/video-kamikaze-comet-seen-diving-into-the-sun/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/video-kamikaze-comet-seen-diving-into-the-sun/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: Kamikaze Comet Dives Into Sun's Lower Atmosphere</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/comet-holmes-co-explosion/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/comet-holmes-co-explosion/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Exploding Comet Could Have Blown Up With Carbon Monoxide</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/aging-spacecraf/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/aging-spacecraf/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "979ac", event);" rel="nofollow">Aging Spacecraft Set On New Comet Hunt</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=vQQK79pUhRc:SOuu6ztg1YI:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-47915538190821280322011-02-14T13:08:00.001-08:002011-02-14T13:08:02.804-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">Video: Kepler’s Exoplanets vs. the Solar System</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Gonorrhea Steals DNA From Humans</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">Pasta-Shaped Light From Spinning Black Holes Could Challenge Einstein</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150132795635795">Video: Kepler’s Exoplanets vs. the Solar System</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 14 Feb 2011 10:00 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p> </p> <p>Giving perspective to the search for Earth-like planets, a new data visualization displays more a thousand exoplanet candidates as if they were orbiting our sun.</p> <p>The 1,236 exoplanet candidates shown in the video (above) have been discovered by NASA's <a href="http://kepler.nasa.gov" target="_blank" title="http://kepler.nasa.gov" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Kepler space-based observatory</a> since its March 2009 launch. The <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/kepler-data-dump/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/kepler-data-dump/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">latest trove</a> of data was released Feb. 3 in <em>Nature.</em></p> <p><a href="http://blog.blprnt.com/about" target="_blank" title="http://blog.blprnt.com/about" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Jer Thorp</a>, a data artist in-residence at New York University, said Kepler's surprising number of discoveries inspired him to build the visualization in two afternoons with the programming language <a href="http://www.processing.org" target="_blank" title="http://www.processing.org" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Processing</a>.</p> <p>"I sent out a tweet <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/blprnt/status/32865552712081408" target="_blank" title="http://twitter.com/#!/blprnt/status/32865552712081408" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">asking if anybody had the data</a>, and somebody sent me the paper," Thorp wrote in an e-mail to Wired.com. "It seemed like a really fun data set to visualize, and I also figured it would help me to understand a bit more about the science behind the Kepler project."</p> <p> </p> <p>Nearly all of the planets fit between Earth's orbit and the sun, Thorp noticed, because the planets' orbits are tight and fast around their parent stars. This makes them easier targets for Kepler, which stares at roughly 145,000 stars to detect slight changes in brightness as planets pass by. Out of all the<a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/kepler-data-dump/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/kepler-data-dump/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow"> exoplanet candidates</a>, two in the visualization labelled KOI 326.01 and KOI 314.02 have the best chance so far of meeting Earth-like habitability criteria.</p> <p>Thorp said he has been working on software-based art for 7 or 8 years, but eventually started working on projects with more "real" data like Kepler's.</p> <p>"I have done some science visualizations in the past, and will very likely do more in the future," Thorp wrote. "I'm always intrigued by novel datasets and visualization challenges, and science is certainly rich in both of these things."</p> <p><em>Video: Courtesy Jer Thorp/<a href="http://blog.blprnt.com/" target="_blank" title="http://blog.blprnt.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">blprnt.com</a>. Music courtesy of PumpAudio.com.</em></p> <p><em>Via <a href="http://vimeo.com/19642643" target="_blank" title="http://vimeo.com/19642643" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Vimeo</a></em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/kepler-data-dump/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/kepler-data-dump/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Exoplanet Hunter Finds Bounty of Multi-Planet Solar Systems</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/geoff-marcy-qa/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/geoff-marcy-qa/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Exclusive: Chat With Exoplanet Guru Geoff Marcy</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/kepler-rocky-world/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/kepler-rocky-world/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Kepler Finds First Definitively Rocky Exoplanet</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/kepler-star-sounds/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/kepler-star-sounds/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Space Telescope Listens In on Stellar Symphony</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/exoplanet-stats/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/exoplanet-stats/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Odds of Finding Earth-Size Exoplanets Are 1-in-4</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/many-exoplanet-systems/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/many-exoplanet-systems/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Planet Hunters Bag Systems With Super-Earths and Double Saturns</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=T2p7N3LnzuM:EIr_8NwTqIY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150132795645795">Gonorrhea Steals DNA From Humans</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 14 Feb 2011 08:00 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=872fa7d02deae6bf61971328b6ef252b&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fneisseria-gonorrhoeae-cdc.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><strong>By Duncan Geere, Wired UK</strong></p> <p>Researchers <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110213174143.htm" target="_blank" title="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110213174143.htm" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow"> have discovered</a> the first case of a direct transfer of a human <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/27/jolecule-html5" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/27/jolecule-html5" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow"> DNA fragment</a> to a bacterial genome. The guilty party? Gonorrhea.</p> <p>It'd been previously known that genes could transfer between different bacteria, and even between bacteria and yeast cells, but biologists at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine discovered that <em>Neisseria gonorrhoeae</em>, the bacteria responsible for gonorrhea, had stolen a sequence of <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/04/flea-with-the-most-genes" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/04/flea-with-the-most-genes" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow"> DNA bases</a> (As, Ts, Cs and Gs) from an L1 DNA element found in humans.</p> <p>Hank Seifert, a senior author of the paper describing the research — due to be published in <em>mBio</em>, said in a <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-02/nu-gaa021111.php" target="_blank" title="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-02/nu-gaa021111.php" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">press release</a>: "This has evolutionary significance because it shows you can take broad evolutionary steps when you're able to acquire these pieces of DNA. The bacterium is getting a genetic sequence from the very host it's infecting. That could have far reaching implications as far as how the bacteria can adapt to the host."</p> <p> </p> <p>Seifert also screened the bacteria that causes meningitis, <em>Neisseria meningitidis</em>, which is very similar to the gonorrhea bacteria at <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/28/new-wolf-species-found-in-africa" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/28/new-wolf-species-found-in-africa" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow"> the genetic level</a>. There was no sign of the human DNA signature, suggesting that the gene transfer occurred relatively recently.</p> <p>What isn't known yet is what the sequence actually does — and therefore whether the theft will convey any evolutionary advantage to the bacteria. That's what Seifert reckons he'll focus on next, adding in the release: "Human DNA to a bacterium is a very large jump. This bacterium had to overcome several obstacles in order to acquire this DNA sequence. The next step is to figure out what this piece of DNA is doing."</p> <p><em>Image: A photomicrograph of a T3 colony of </em>Neisseria gonorrhoeae<em> bacteria magnified at 100X./CDC/Dr. Stephen J. Kraus.</em></p> <p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/14/gonorrhea-steals-dna" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/14/gonorrhea-steals-dna" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Wired.co.uk</a></em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/bornavirus-in-human-dna/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/bornavirus-in-human-dna/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Human Genome Is Part Bornavirus</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/green-sea-slug/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/green-sea-slug/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Green Sea Slug Is Part Animal, Part Plant</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/antiretroviral-hiv-prevention/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/antiretroviral-hiv-prevention/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Antiretroviral Drugs May Prevent HIV Infections</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/cigarettes-may-cause-infections/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/cigarettes-may-cause-infections/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Cigarettes May Cause Infections</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/researchers-puz/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/researchers-puz/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Researchers Puzzled by Swedish Chlamydia Mystery</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=KcdRW2fP1g0:JoPqQBfKsRw:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150132795660795">Pasta-Shaped Light From Spinning Black Holes Could Challenge Einstein</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 14 Feb 2011 06:00 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/spinning-black-holes/frame-dragging/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/spinning-black-holes/frame-dragging/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=9eea0db51efd1e3760cf8acc18d1545e&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fframe-dragging.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>Rotating black holes could leave a twisty signature on light escaping their gravitational maws. If this screwy light can be detected from Earth, it would give astronomers a new way to detect exotic black holes and a new test of Einstein's theory of general relativity, says a team of physicists.</p> <p>"For relativity, it's very important," said physicist <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://www.phys.psu.edu/people/display/index.html?person_id=417"" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://www.phys.psu.edu/people/display/index.html?person_id=417"" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Martin Bojowald</a> at Penn State University, who was not involved in the new work. "There are very few classic tests of relativity. It now seems that we are pretty close to actually using this."</p> <p>Black holes are greedy beasts. Not only do they attract matter so strongly that even light can get trapped in their great gravitational bellies, they also grab hold of the fabric of space-time in their vicinity. When a black hole spins — and astronomers expect that most do, although none have been definitively observed — it swirls its surrounding space-time around with it like water spiraling around a drain.</p> <p>This phenomenon, called <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame-dragging"" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame-dragging"" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">frame-dragging</a>, has been proven to work even around bodies as small as Earth. Observations of <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/1997/ast06nov97_1/" target="_blank" title="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/1997/ast06nov97_1/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">two Earth-orbiting satellites</a> over the last few decades show that the satellites drag by several feet per year as Earth's spin tows the fabric of space and time in circles.</p> <p>"If you can see it, such a tiny little effect from this minute mass that the Earth has compared to a black hole, how much easier would it be to see it around a black hole?" said space physicist <a href="http://www.physics.irfu.se/~bt/" target="_blank" title="http://www.physics.irfu.se/~bt/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Bo Thidé</a> of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, coauthor of a paper published online February 13 in <em>Nature Physics</em>. "That's how we started."</p> <p> </p> <p>From other researchers' experiments using lasers and lenses, Thidé and colleagues knew that light traveling in a straight line can be forced into a spiral if sent through the right kind of lens. The twisted beams come out looking like corkscrew-shaped <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">fusilli</a> pasta, Thidé says.</p> <p>Frame-dragged space-time can produce twisted light in exactly the same way, the physicists argue. A photon fleeing the warped region near a black hole's event horizon will pick up a wiggliness that could be visible to telescopes on Earth.</p> <p>"If we have empty space but the space itself has this strange behavior, you don't need a lens," Thidé said. "The space itself is already twisted."</p> <p>The twist would show up in a property of light called <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">orbital angular momentum</a>, which describes how a light particle revolves around a fixed point, similar to the way the Earth revolves around the sun. Orbital angular momentum is invisible to human eyes, but it's as fundamental as color, Thidé says. In principle, there's no reason why an array of telescopes working together couldn't see light do the twist.</p> <p>"Light can have color, light can be polarized, and light can have twists," he said. "There are many qualities of light that we are unfamiliar with because our eyes are so stupid."</p> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/spinning-black-holes/spinning-black-hole-fig-1/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/spinning-black-holes/spinning-black-hole-fig-1/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=208584142f8074b57d42672f1e8d276f&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2FSpinning-black-hole-fig-1.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a><p>A plot of the twisted light emitted from near a black hole. The greater the difference in color from the center of the image, "the more wiggly or corkscrew-y the wave is," Thidé said.</p></div> <p>Thidé and colleagues generated simulation data describing light emitted from near the black hole at the center of the galaxy. They then combined traditional techniques for computing the paths light waves take near a black hole with new ways of determining the twisting.</p> <p>They found that the amount of twisting depends on how fast the black hole is rotating, a result that could allow astronomers to directly measure the rotation rate of a black hole for the first time. Previous estimates of black holes' spinning speeds were based on the way stars moved in the black holes' vicinity, but they were not very precise.</p> <p>"If we can see this twisting, it would be a much more sensitive way to detect the rotation and compare different black holes," Bojowald said. "To me it was surprising, the sensitivity that can be achieved."</p> <p>Getting precise measurements of the spins of lots of black holes could help figure out how black holes form in the first place. The twisted-light signature could also help detect the faint glow black holes may emit as they evaporate, called <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation"" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/feed/"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation"" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Hawking radiation</a>, which was predicted in 1974 but has yet to be observed in space.</p> <p>But Thidé is most excited about the possibility of knocking over Einstein. His computer experiments were based on the predictions of Einstein's theory of general relativity, which describes how gravity warps time and space. Since Einstein's 1915 paper describing the theory, only about five real-world tests have been completed.</p> <p>If a real telescope detects fusilli-shaped light, as Thidé and colleagues predict, it's another feather in Einstein's relativistic cap. But if not, space-time may be even more warped than Einstein thought.</p> <p>"The nice thing is when you find there is a contradiction between existing theories and reality," Thidé. "That is what everybody is hoping for, including myself."</p> <p><em>Image: 1) J. Bergeron/Sky & Telescope. 2) Tamburini et al, Nature Physics 2011.</em></p> <p><em>"Twisting of light around rotating black holes." Fabrizio Tamburini, Bo Thidé, Gabriel Molina-Terriza, Gabriele Anzolin. Nature Physics, Feb. 13, 2011. DOI: 10.1038/NPHYS1907<br /> </em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/extreme-black-holes/%3Fpid%3D565" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/extreme-black-holes/%3Fpid%3D565" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">The Universe's Most Extreme Black Holes</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/moreentropy/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/moreentropy/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Supermassive Black Holes Bringing Universe Closer to Death</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/rogue-black-hol/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/rogue-black-hol/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Rogue Black Holes Could Careen Across Milky Way</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/08/warping-space-a/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/08/warping-space-a/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Warped Space-Time Helps to Understand a Collapsed Star</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/hawking-radiation-in-the-lab/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/hawking-radiation-in-the-lab/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e1f77", event);" rel="nofollow">Ultrafast Laser Pulse Makes Desktop Black Hole Glow</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=cjIjDY-HxgM:hlhMEoV4ycA:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726218793729418157.post-80719847171726619792011-02-12T13:38:00.001-08:002011-02-12T13:38:07.800-08:00Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge<style type="text/css"> h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active, ul#summarylist li a { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} </style> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"> <h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"> <a style="color:#888;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720" title="(http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720)">Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge</a> <br /> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/splurgeywurgey"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif" /> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%" /> </tr> </table> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0" /> <ul style="clear:both;padding:0 0 0 1.2em;width:100%" id="summarylist"> <li> <a href="#1">NASA Considers Space Station Family Portrait</a> </li> <li> <a href="#2">Winter Halts Drilling Into 14-Million-Year-Old Lake</a> </li> <li> <a href="#3">World’s Total CPU Power: One Human Brain</a> </li> <li> <a href="#4">Q&A: Company Buys Robot a Rocket Ride to the Moon</a> </li> <li> <a href="#5">Gallery: The Last Uncontacted People</a> </li> </ul> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150131474155795">NASA Considers Space Station Family Portrait</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 11 Feb 2011 01:05 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/space-station-family-portrait/shuttlemir_nasa_big/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/space-station-family-portrait/shuttlemir_nasa_big/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=c883c25b4bbe23028b76cd08f9caf32b&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fshuttlemir_nasa_big.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></p> <p>NASA is considering a plan to snap a photo of the International Space Station at its most crowded. The agency hasn't made a decision yet — but maybe enough public support can convince them to take the most mind-blowing space photo of the Space Shuttle era.</p> <p>During the <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">final flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery</a>, planned for late February or early March, the <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">International Space Station</a> will play host to a record number of spacecraft. Five new visitors from space agencies all over the world will be docked at the ISS, making the space station the heaviest and largest it has ever been.</p> <p>This flight will the the one and only chance to capture this cosmic conference on film, before the shuttle is retired for good.</p> <p>NASA officials are investigating a scheme in which one of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft would undock from the ISS to take the family portrait.</p> <p>This historic photo op may require an in-flight game of musical chairs. The most reasonable plan, NASA officials decided in a meeting at Johnson Spaceflight Center, is for the Soyuz to undock, swing around the ISS so that the crew within can snap a photo, and then redock, requiring a dual-docking procedure to fit both the Soyuz and Discovery. Several different flight plans are being considered, and each one would give a slightly different view of the ISS.</p> <p>The spacecraft that would gather to say cheese would hail from all over the world, including Japan's <a href="http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/rockets/htv/index_e.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/rockets/htv/index_e.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">H-II Transfer Vehicle-2</a>, Europe's <a href="http://www.esa.int/esaMI/ATV/SEM8HX6K56G_0.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.esa.int/esaMI/ATV/SEM8HX6K56G_0.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Automated Transfer Vehicle-2</a> (named Johannes Kepler), the Italian-built <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/behindscenes/PMM_transformation.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/behindscenes/PMM_transformation.html" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Permanent Multipurpose Module</a> (named Leonardo), the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExPRESS_Logistics_Carrier" target="_blank" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExPRESS_Logistics_Carrier" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">ExPrESS Logistics Carrier-4</a> and the Shuttle Discovery.</p> <p>The procedure would be inconvenient, taking a total of 15 hours and possibly removing crew members from their posts at important moments. But the resulting photo would be one for the ages, and a fitting farewell to the Shuttle.</p> <p>This wouldn't be the first time a Soyuz has played photographer for a space station. In 1995, a Soyuz undocked from the Mir space station to photograph the undocking of the Space Shuttle Atlantis (above).</p> <p><em>via <a href="http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/02/sts-133-nasa-soyuz-flyaround-photograph-discovery-iss/" target="_blank" title="http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/02/sts-133-nasa-soyuz-flyaround-photograph-discovery-iss/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">nasaspaceflight.com</a></em></p> <p><em>Image: Nikolai Budarin, Russian Space Research Institute, NASA</em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/space-shuttle-simulator/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/space-shuttle-simulator/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">What's It Like to Fly the Space Shuttle? We Find Out</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/pic-space-shuttle-crosses-the-sun/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/pic-space-shuttle-crosses-the-sun/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Photo: Space Shuttle Crosses the Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/suntransit/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/suntransit/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Photo: Docked Space Shuttle and Station Cross the Sun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/final-shuttles-delayed/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/final-shuttles-delayed/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">NASA Pushes Back End of Shuttle Era to 2011</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/cupola-iss-images/%3Fpid%3D506%26viewall%3Dtrue" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/cupola-iss-images/%3Fpid%3D506%26viewall%3Dtrue" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Photo Gallery: Best Space Station Cupola Views</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=uECPFBzrw3U:jxttZLgqQ-8:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="2" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150131474160795">Winter Halts Drilling Into 14-Million-Year-Old Lake</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 11 Feb 2011 12:31 PM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=961a9265ec6873e329b0befaa3014534&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Flake-vostok-antarctica-drilling-nsf.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><strong>By Liat Clark, Wired UK</strong></p> <p>A Russian team searching <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/07/russians-penetrate-lake-vostok" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/07/russians-penetrate-lake-vostok" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"> for signs of life beneath a 14-million-year-old frozen Antarctic lake</a> has had to halt drilling just a few meters from water, potentially damaging 20 years of work in the process.</p> <p>The team — headed up by the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St. Petersburg — had to call off work just 29 meters [95-foot] short of the end goal because the Antarctic winter is fast closing in. News that they plan to fill the 3,749-meter [12,300-foot] borehole with kerosene to prevent it from freezing will further trouble groups who fear continued research will contaminate the lake.</p> <p>Alexei Turkeyev, chief of the Russian-run Vostok Station, told <em>Reuters</em> on Feb. 4: "It's minus-40 [degrees Celsius, which happens to equal minus-40 Fahrenheit] outside. But whatever, we're working. We're feeling good." Unfortunately Turkeyev and his team were forced to pack up last-minute amid fears they would be stranded. Temperatures above Lake Vostok fall to as low as 89 degrees below zero Celsius [minus 128 degrees Fahrenheit] during winter, the coldest recorded natural temperature on Earth.</p> <p> </p> <p>The lake has been protected from the atmosphere and the other surrounding 150 subglacial lakes by a 4-kilometer-[2.5-mile] thick ice cap. What lies beneath the mammoth sheet of ice may provide answers to what Earth was like before the Ice Age and how life has evolved.</p> <p>Most importantly, Lake Vostok appears to be incredibly similar to the frozen lakes of Jupiter's <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-12/14/canadian-microbes" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-12/14/canadian-microbes" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Europa</a> satellite and Saturn's Enceladus. <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/08/jupiter-moons-mission-nasa-esa" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/08/jupiter-moons-mission-nasa-esa" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"> As Wired UK reported earlier this week</a>, NASA and the ESA have already planned a joint mission to explore Europa's lake in 2020. If life is found in Vostok, the implications for the possibility of extraterrestrial life on Europa and Enceladus are huge.</p> <p>"It's like exploring an alien planet where no one has been before," said Valery Lukin of the Arctic and Antarctic Research told Reuters. "We don't know what we'll find."</p> <p>Drilling began in 1990 after satellite images revealed a series of subglacial lakes in the region, but work has been held-up several times amid concerns that progress could damage the previously untouched environment below.</p> <p>"If Russia continues to drill, the lubricants and anti-freeze present in their borehole may taint the microorganisms they are trying to discover," the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition has argued.</p> <p><a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/07/russians-penetrate-lake-vostok" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/07/russians-penetrate-lake-vostok" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"> Last month Wired reported that drilling once again commenced</a> after the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat approved the Russians' method. On reaching the lake's water, the team expect sudden pressure to push fluid back up the borehole where it will freeze. After a year, researchers intend to extract a sample of this frozen lake water to be analyzed. There are fears, however, that the gaseous water below could force liquid back up the borehole faster and farther than expected.</p> <p>Drilling has been relatively simple for the first 3 kilometers;. However as the team neared the bottom of the ice layer, it found the structure to be made up of huge monocrystals, hard like glass and a meter [3 feet] each in diameter. As a result, progress has been slow in recent weeks — just 1.6 meter [5 feet] drilled each day — and it was impossible to complete the task in time despite the team working round the clock.</p> <p>The team will recommence work in December.</p> <p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=52afdf17378e32b1d297d9a9e30c4d79&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fantarctic-subglacial-lakes-nsf.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><em>Images: 1) Illustration of ice-coring operations above Lake Vostok, the largest known subglacial lake in Antarctica. Liquid water may take thousands of years to pass through the lake, which is about the size of Lake Ontario./Nicol Rager-Fuller/<a href="http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=109587&org=NSF" target="_blank" title="http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=109587&org=NSF" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">NSF</a>. 2) Diagram of the dynamic water system below Antarctic ice./Zina Deretsky/<a href="http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=109587&org=NSF" target="_blank" title="http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=109587&org=NSF" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">NSF</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/11/lake-vostok-drilling-stopped" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/11/lake-vostok-drilling-stopped" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Wired.co.uk</a></em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/lake-vostok-antarctica/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/lake-vostok-antarctica/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Drill Close to Reaching 14-Million-Year-Old Antarctic Lake</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/extremophile/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/extremophile/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Extreme Life Thrives Where the Livin' Ain't Easy</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/antarctic-methane-lakes/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/antarctic-methane-lakes/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Methane May Be Building Under Antarctic Ice</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/necropanspermia/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/necropanspermia/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">All Life on Earth Could Have Come From Alien Zombies</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/el-gygytgyn-climate-core/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/el-gygytgyn-climate-core/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Arctic Lake Yields Planet's Most Continuous Record of Ancient Climate</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/earth-as-art-gallery/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/earth-as-art-gallery/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Earth as Art: Stunning New Images From Space</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=X8rvE2z4zuU:1HpskW2pV9k:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="3" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150131474165795">World’s Total CPU Power: One Human Brain</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 11 Feb 2011 10:30 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=44490dc0de0ce269113846fb966d6870&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fbrain-cables-data-circuitry-flickr-adafruit.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><strong>By John Timmer, Ars Technica</strong></p> <p>How much information can the world transmit, process, and store? Estimating this sort of thing can be a nightmare, but the task can provide valuable information on trends that are changing our computing and broadcast infrastructure. So a pair of researchers have taken the job upon themselves and tracked the changes in 60 different analog and digital technologies, from newsprint to cellular data, for a period of over 20 years.</p> <p><a href="http://arstechnica.com/" target="_blank" title="http://arstechnica.com/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=433c02fa0ab707d3e69b7ef83156d12d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fepicenter%2F2010%2F07%2FPicture-1.png" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a>The trends they spot range from the expected—Internet access has pushed both analog and digital phones into a tiny niche—to the surprising, such as the fact that, in aggregate, gaming hardware has always had more computing power than the world's supercomputers.</p> <p>The authors were remarkably thorough. For storage media, they considered things like paper, film, and vinyl records, and such modern innovations as Blu-ray discs and memory cards. To standardize their measurements across media, they used Shannon's information theory to consider data storage in terms of optimally compressed bits. They also tracked technology, noting that in the year 2000, bits of video were compressed using cinepak, which was far less efficient than the current MPEG-4 format; calculations were adjusted accordingly.</p> <p>Even so, there are some significant estimations here. "For example," the authors note, "after normalization on optimally compressed bits we can say things like 'a 6 square-cm newspaper image is worth a 1,000 words.'"</p> <p> </p> <p>Similar sorts of estimates are required for things like broadcast capability and two-way communications, both of which are compiled as bits-per-second figures. The researchers estimate typical consumption of broadcast media to figure out how much of the existing capacity is used, and they figure that, since telecom equipment is run to maximize the use of its capacity, it's usually booked to close to its limit.</p> <p>Computing capacity is converted into MIPS, and estimates for the total number and class of chips are available. The big question mark here is mostly in embedded controllers; it's hard to estimate both their computational capacity and how many are out there.</p> <p>So these are pretty rough estimates, but similar assumptions are made at all four time points examined between 1986 and 2007. That should allow comparisons of trends across the time period, even if the absolute values of the estimates are a bit off.</p> <h3>Storage</h3> <p>Some trends are very, very obvious. Analog video accounted for over half the data stored in 1986 (vinyl LPs and cassette tapes accounted for over a quarter), and video held 86 percent of all stored data by 1993, squeezing out nearly everything else.</p> <p>By 2000, CDs and digital tape started pushing back, but analog video still stood at 70 percent of all stored data. By 2007, analog video had plunged to a tiny six percent, eclipsed by hard disks, Blu-ray and DVDs, and digital tape.</p> <p>During that time, total storage capacity grew at about 23 percent annually, and it topped out at 2.9 x 10<sup>20</sup> bytes—that's about 300 exabytes, or 61 CDs for everyone on the planet.</p> <p>A similar shift to digital occurred in broadcast media and two-way communications. Back in 1986, 80 percent of broadcast capacity was used for terrestrial TV, although analog cable was already a presence. Today, broadcast TV has fallen to 50 percent; a quarter of the broadcast data is now some form of digital, and analog cable is declining from its peak in 2000.</p> <p>Two-way communications underwent a far more dramatic shift. In 1986, analog phones handled 80 percent of the data, with digital phones taking the other 20 percent; everything else was a rounding error. By 2000, analog telephony was down to two percent of the world's two-way transmissions.</p> <p>Digital telephony peaked in 1993 at 67 percent; fixed Internet connections accounted for one percent of usage that year. By 2000, it was up to 50 percent, and it's now at 97 percent. Nothing else cleared one percent.</p> <p>Two-way communications handled 65 exabytes in 2007, dwarfed by broadcasting, which sent a whopping 2 zetabytes of data. But, while broadcasting is increasing at a linear rate, the advent of the Internet has given two-way transmissions a big boost, increasing the bytes transmitted by a factor of 29 in just 7 years.</p> <h3>Computation</h3> <p>Computation is probably the most varied mix of hardware of the lot. Back in 1986, pocket calculators represented about 40 percent of all computer capacity, beating out PCs at 33 percent and servers at 17 percent. Even then, gaming hardware held a nine percent share.</p> <p>Calculators were gone by 2000, when the PC peaked at 86 percent and the mobile phone/PDA first appeared at 3 percent. By 2007, phones held six percent of world processing power, but the big story was gaming hardware, which shot up to a quarter of the total computational capacity, pushing the PC back down to a two-thirds share. Supercomputers are apparently rare enough not to measure.</p> <p>One surprising result of the research is the amount of total horsepower found in the application-specific space, where the authors considered only DSPs, microcontrollers, and GPUs (GPUs alone account for 97 percent of this category's capacity). And that capacity is huge, about 30 times that of all the general purpose computation hardware. GPUs account for the lion's share of the 6.4 x 10<sup>18</sup> operations a second that the planet can now perform, and they showed a compound annual growth rate of 86 percent over the study period.</p> <p>Lest we get too enamored with our technological prowess, however, the authors make some comparisons with biology. "To put our findings in perspective, the 6.4*10<sup>18</sup> instructions per second that human kind can carry out on its general-purpose computers in 2007 are in the same ballpark area as the maximum number of nerve impulses executed by one human brain per second," they write.</p> <p>Our total storage capacity is the same as an adult human's DNA. And there are several billion humans on the planet.</p> <p><em>Image: Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/adafruit/4583318583/" target="_blank" title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/adafruit/4583318583/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">adafruit</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Citation: "The World's Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information." Martin Hilbert and Priscila López. </em>Science<em>, 692-693, Feb. 11, 2011. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1200970" target="_blank" title="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1200970" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">10.1126/science.1200970</a></em></p> <p><em>Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/02/adding-up-the-worlds-storage-and-computation-capacities.ars" target="_blank" title="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/02/adding-up-the-worlds-storage-and-computation-capacities.ars" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Ars Technica</a></em>.</p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/attentionlost/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/attentionlost/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Digital Overload Is Frying Our Brains</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/predictrecall/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/predictrecall/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Memory Switch Could Enable Brain Hacks</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/forgottenmemories/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/forgottenmemories/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Forgotten Memories Are Still in Your Brain</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/realvirtuality/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/realvirtuality/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Researchers Want to Add Touch, Taste and Smell to Virtual Reality</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/newtonai/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/newtonai/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Computer Program Self-Discovers Laws of Physics</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/robot-scientist/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/robot-scientist/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">The Future of Robot Scientists</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=Sxp5Tr4Ry2E:AI6LVivyilQ:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="4" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150131474170795">Q&A: Company Buys Robot a Rocket Ride to the Moon</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 11 Feb 2011 07:00 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=ba379bb6495d8231f87cf7455734ae67&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fastrobotic-moon-rover-google-lunar-x-prize.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p>It's impossible to know which team is leading the Google Lunar X Prize competition to land a robot on the moon. But one thing is certain: Only team <a href="http://astrobotic.net/" target="_blank" title="http://astrobotic.net/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Astrobotic</a> has announced that their rocket ride is booked.</p> <p>Spawned in <a href="http://www.wired.com/science/space/magazine/15-10/ff_moon" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/science/space/magazine/15-10/ff_moon" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">September 2007</a>, the GLXP is a $30 million lunar exploration competition created by the X Prize Foundation and backed with Google's cash. It is designed to reinvigorate public interest in space exploration and seed new industries on lunar soil.</p> <p>If the destination were anywhere closer than the moon, the $20 million grand prize challenge — be the first to safely land a robot, have that robot travel 500 meters and send images and data back — would be easy. But the moon is an unforgiving rock that has no atmosphere, brutal temperature swings, two-week nights and a surface buried in razor-sharp dust. It's also 239,000 miles away.</p> <p>Of the 20 or so teams publicly involved in the competition, which <a href="http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/" target="_blank" title="http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Google Lunar X Prize</a> plans to finalize next week, only Astrobotic Technology has announced a contract with an aerospace company for a lunar rocket ride. Their 368-ton <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/gallery_spacex/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/gallery_spacex/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Falcon 9 rocket</a> will be built by aerospace newcomer SpaceX, and it's currently scheduled to launch some time in December 2013. It will sling Astrobotic's planned 1,100-lb lander-and-rover combo, plus cargo and propellant, into lunar orbit.</p> <p>Wired.com called Astrobotic's president <a href="http://astrobotic.net/about-2/people/" target="_blank" title="http://astrobotic.net/about-2/people/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">David Gump</a> to talk money (lots and lots of money), lunar science, what it will take to reach the moon and how parading around a revered celestial body may not go over well with some folks.</p> <p><strong>Wired.com: </strong>No team except yours has said they have a ride to the moon. That's a big deal, right?</p> <p><strong>David Gump:</strong> We're certainly the first to announce it, but many teams are playing their hands very close to the vest. They're not saying much. Let me put it this way: Having a <a href="http://astrobotic.net/2011/02/06/astrobotic-technology-announces-lunar-mission-on-spacex-falcon-9/" target="_blank" title="http://astrobotic.net/2011/02/06/astrobotic-technology-announces-lunar-mission-on-spacex-falcon-9/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">contract for a Falcon 9</a> makes us much more credible than we were a few weeks ago. It's a very hard thing to accomplish because of the cost. Once you have a ride, you have sort of arrived. You have a mission people can really have some confidence in.</p> <p>That's important because $24 million, the maximum you can win from the competition, isn't enough to cover our costs. We need to sell a fair amount of space on our rocket to make the economics work, and having a contract to ride makes that so much easier.</p> <p><strong>Wired.com:</strong> What kind of total costs are we talking about here?</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Gump: </strong>We're under a non-disclosure agreement with SpaceX. But I can say their rockets cost roughly half of their competitors'. <em>[Editor's note: SpaceX's <a href="http://www.spacex.com/falcon9.php#pricing_and_performance" target="_blank" title="http://www.spacex.com/falcon9.php#pricing_and_performance" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">pricing for a Falcon 9 launch</a> varies from $49.9 million to $56 million.]</em></p> <p>From when we started until we're done with our first mission, I think a cost of $90 to $100 million is a reasonable estimate. Part of that is flexible because it's based on how many partners provide components to us at no cost. But at the end of the mission, we hope to see a profit of at least $50 to $60 million, including the first-place prize and bonuses.</p> <p>By the way, that includes media rights, too. Our rover will have a 3-D high-definition camera on it at about the height of a human, and we think one or more networks would buy exclusive rights much like they would to the Olympics. It will look be as if you're standing on the lunar surface.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Wired.com:</strong> What bonus prizes are you going after?</p> <p><strong>Gump:</strong> That depends on which customers sign on to go to the moon with us, but we're looking at surviving a two-week lunar night, going five kilometers instead of only 500 meters and visiting an Apollo heritage site.</p> <p><strong>Wired.com:</strong> I wanted to ask you about that. There are some folks who won't be happy if a rover messes with a historical landing site. How do you respond to that?</p> <div>'We think it would be really cool, and so do scientists, to see what four decades of exposure has done to Apollo materials.'</div> <p><strong>Gump:</strong> Many of us grew up during Apollo, so we certainly don't want to disgrace those sites. We think it would be really cool, and so do scientists, to see what four decades of exposure has done to Apollo materials. You can see what kind of stuff survives best in the lunar environment. Engineers call it a witness plate — a material that records environmental damage. On the moon, that's micrometeorite bombardment, wild thermal changes, solar radiation and other punishment.</p> <p>But we may in fact not go to an Apollo site because of the stunning [Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter] <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/lcross-icy-moon/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/lcross-icy-moon/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">discoveries at the poles</a> of frozen water, frozen methane, frozen ammonia and all sorts of things that would be very useful to start a lunar civilization. The first lunar export could be rocket propellant.</p> <p><strong>Wired.com: </strong>We're big on science here, as you can imagine. Other than materials science, how else might researchers benefit from privatized trips to the moon?</p> <p><strong>Gump:</strong> Well, science is going to be done by NASA and ESA [The European Space Agency] and JAXA, the Japanese aerospace agency, and by the academic researchers that draw funding from those sources.</p> <p>Here's one example of science you could do: No one is able to say with certainty where the water, methane, and ammonia on the moon actually came from. Some advocate that it <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/ice-on-an-asteroid/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/ice-on-an-asteroid/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">came from comets</a> over 2 billion years and is averaged out. But it could be leftover from the formation of the moon four-and-a-half billion years ago, when a Mars-sized body hit the Earth before it was Earth, and left a moon-sized remnant.</p> <p>Digging into the surface and running tests with a rover like ours is the best way to find out.</p> <p><strong>Wired.com:</strong> Okay, so you have a rocket scheduled and a plan to pay for it. What's the biggest hurdle you're facing now?</p> <p><strong>Gump: </strong>Have you ever seen that old movie "Mars Needs Women"?</p> <p><strong>Wired.com:</strong> No. Sounds like I have something to add to <a href="http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Mars-Needs-Women/60020890" target="_blank" title="http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Mars-Needs-Women/60020890" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Netflix</a>.</p> <p><strong>Gump:</strong> (laughs) Well, in our case, the moon needs money. Burt Rutan had great technical competence to build <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/spaceshipone-bo/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/spaceshipone-bo/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">SpaceShipOne</a> for the Ansari X Prize, which was an inspiration to many of us. But he couldn't have done it without a $25 million check from Paul Allen. And that's the same shortfall we're looking at before we can go.</p> <p>We need hedge fun owners, stray billionaires, or even deca-millionaires that can realize the lunar frontier is coming, and that we're going to be there first making maps, doing the prospecting.</p> <p>Anyway, our biggest to-do is nail down the money.</p> <p><strong>Wired.com: </strong>You've got less than 3 years to pull the money together. Are you worried?</p> <p><strong>Gump:</strong> You know, it's an adventure. And going to space ain't easy — it's an enormous challenge. We need allies to get there, and some far-sighted customers and investors.</p> <p><img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=650c9f2d54761da91cb34a55f72eecc8&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fimages_blogs%2Fwiredscience%2F2011%2F02%2Fastrobotic-mission-plan-google-lunar-x-prize.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></p> <p><em>Images courtesy Astrobotic Technology. 1) Illustration of Astrobotic's third and latest rover prototype. 2) Astrobotic's intended mission plan (not to scale).<br /> </em></p> <p><em>Video: Astrobotic Technology<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBOFHnnD0m0" target="_blank" title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBOFHnnD0m0" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"></a>.<br /> </em></p> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/moon-20-blasts/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/moon-20-blasts/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Google Lunar X-Prize Gets First Official Entrant</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/google-announce/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/google-announce/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">New Google Lunar X Prize Teams and a New $2M Bonus Prize</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/the-first-10-te/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/the-first-10-te/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">The First 10 Teams in the Lunar X Prize An Odd Lot</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/nasa-releases-lunar-rover-iphone-game/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/nasa-releases-lunar-rover-iphone-game/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">NASA Releases Lunar Rover iPhone Game</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/moon-map/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/moon-map/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Moon Crater Map Reveals Early Solar System History</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=_dwC1CRR_6Q:TXiMI8W56P4:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="5" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150131474175795">Gallery: The Last Uncontacted People</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 11 Feb 2011 06:25 AM PST</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div><div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=960" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=960" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> </div> <div> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=61caff9c854eb6bfbc81d525a2aaa576&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Funcontactedpeople%2F01uncontacted_family-close.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </div> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=959" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=959" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=9ed957bfc55f74117841de0eca0763d0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Funcontactedpeople%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_01uncontacted_family-close.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=960" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=960" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=290b365d48fd7c1310638f3f4dd02248&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Funcontactedpeople%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_02sentinelese2.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=961" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=961" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=d2e5a6305aff24d6f1c02f65dc4991f7&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Funcontactedpeople%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_03sentinelese1-caron.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=962" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=962" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=beb4baa436ac2e2138d088c79ad39949&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Funcontactedpeople%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_04jarawa-road.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=963" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=963" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=43a82e112af975e6b965c8d6f2bc09db&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Funcontactedpeople%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_05korubo.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=964" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=964" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=1ccfd46d37497509505de37196c2a3da&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Funcontactedpeople%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_06awa.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=965" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=965" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=bdec82febb93011ed24972dbf7e57fd7&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Funcontactedpeople%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_07jorge.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=966" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=966" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=cbea698d9725b548e9f395b621ace092&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Funcontactedpeople%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_08yanomamihome.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=967" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=967" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=faf5a539cbae3d7c604f2a7ac9138f3c&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Funcontactedpeople%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_09uncontacted-2008.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=968" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=968" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow"> <img class="ext_img img_loading img" src="http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=e90c37b3091f7f05f78f7027852a8574&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Funcontactedpeople%2Fthumbs%2Fthumbs_10yanomami_maloca_screen.jpg" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /> </a> </li> </ul> <br /> <div> <h2> Still Uncontacted</h2> <p>Photographs released last week of a tribe in southwest Brazil have put public attention on uncontacted people, of which about 100 are believed to exist. </p> <p>Those tribes, most of whom live in the Amazon, are often described as living fossils of Stone Age life, flash-frozen in time. Such descriptions are unfair: We don't really know how people lived in the Stone Age, and there's no reason to think that uncontacted cultures have not continued to evolve in their own unique ways. </p> <p>What can be said, however, is that uncontacted people are threatened by disease and development. If they're going to survive, they need help from the outside world. </p> <p>Wired.com takes you on a tour of uncontacted people and the issues facing them — and us. </p> <p><em>(Editor's note: the machete in the photograph was likely obtained through trade with Indians who have made contact.)</em></p> <em><p>Image: Gleison Miranda-FUNAI/Survival International.</p></em> </div> <div> << Previous | <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=960" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=960" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Next >></a> <div><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=968&viewall=true" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-gallery/?pid=968&viewall=true" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">View all</a></div> </div> </div> <p><strong>See Also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-tribe/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-tribe/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Uncontacted Tribe Photographed in Brazilian Jungle</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-tribe-video/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-tribe-video/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Video: Uncontacted Tribe in Brazilian Jungle</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/lost-amazon-farms/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/lost-amazon-farms/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Lost Tribes Used Clever Tricks to Turn Amazon Wasteland to Farms</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/10/yucatan-jungles/" target="_blank" title="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/10/yucatan-jungles/" onmousedown="UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "70de5", event);" rel="nofollow">Yucatan Jungles Are Feral Maya Gardens</a></li> </ul></div><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?a=orXyPlikZGw:OaZWTTUX1D4:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/splurgeywurgey?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=593485720">Johnus Morphopalus's Facebook notes</a> <br />To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=BQhrBMp3OnXKECcMrL5O4zpvTAg">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </table> </div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com