Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.
This week's featured story comes from Discovery News.
Volcano in Iceland? Planes not Flying? Count Your Lucky Stars
by Michael Reilly
The eruption of Iceland's very photogenic Eyjafjallajokull volcano has heated up in the last few days, leading to the cancellation of hundreds of commercial plane flights and effectively shutting down much of northern Europe's airspace.
This is a hassle for thousands of people, and it's a testament to the region's governments and aviation authorities that no one is taking chances here -- the danger to aircraft from volcanic ash clouds is not to be trifled with.
That said, it's worth noting that this eruption is a pipsqueak by Iceland's standards.
More science, space, and environment stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
Watch this space!
DarkSyde: This Week in Science
A Siegel: "The most important number you've never heard of."
laflaur: "Something Called 'Volcano Monitoring'"
patrickz: Missing heat "will come back to haunt us"
Slideshows/Videos
BBC: In pictures: Deserts of the World
Scientists have released captivating images of the world's deserts as Oxford University, UK, prepares to host the first interdisciplinary conference on these unique ecosystems.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Discovery News: Leeches, Cannibals, Volcanoes and More: Photos
From a massive volcano eruption in Iceland to a new direction for the space program, Discovery News runs down this week's top stories.
Boston Globe: Journeys to the International Space Station
April 12th marked the 49th anniversary of human spaceflight, when Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit the Earth in 1961. At this moment, 13 humans are currently in low-Earth orbit, aboard the International Space Station. Several were already aboard the ISS when a Soyuz TMA-18 brought a fresh crew up from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 2nd - they were later joined by the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery on the 131st shuttle mission to date (only three remaining launches scheduled). NASA recently signed a new deal with Russia for six more round-trips to the ISS, at a cost of $55.8 million per seat. Collected here are recent photos of the Space Station, its current crew, their launch vehicles, and the views from above. (38 photos total)
BBC: Earthquake prediction using accelerometers in laptops
A scientist in California is trying to recruit thousands of people to build a volunteer early warning system by harnessing technology in laptops.
Motion sensors already fitted in computers are being used as seismographs.
The hope is a large network of quake sensors could one day help give warning of impending tremors, as Rajesh Mirchandani reports from California.
Discovery News: Earth: Measuring Big Waves
When surfers make the news for riding big waves, how do we know how tall those waves actually are? James Williams finds out by asking Bill Sharp, creator of the Billabong XXL Big Wave Awards.
Discovery News: Animals: Frog Tadpoles Scream Underwater
Researchers report that Argentine horned frog tadpoles produce 'screams' when in distress. It's the first time ever that vertebrate larvae have been heard using sound to communicate underwater. Jorge Ribas reports.
Discovery News: Why? Tell Me Why!: Why Do We Forget Things?
Have you ever noticed how you can forget where you put your car keys, yet remember how to ride a bike? This week Kasey-Dee Gardner gets to the root of why we forget certain things and remember others.
Discovery News: Iceland Volcano: Massive Ash Plumes
A montage of photos of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano in action.
Astronomy/Space
U.S. Air Force: Air Force space officials prepare to launch first Minotaur IV
4/16/2010 - LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFNS) -- The first launch of the Minotaur IV Space Launch Vehicle is scheduled to occur April 20 at noon PDT from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
The Minotaur IV is the newest variant in the Minotaur family of rockets built by Orbital Sciences Corporation. It is a four-stage solid rocket vehicle consisting of three decommissioned Peacekeeper missile stages and a fourth commercially built stage developed by OSC. For this maiden lift-off, the rocket will be in a "lite" configuration consisting of only the first three stages and no fourth stage due to mission requirements.
The payload for this first launch is the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle, or HTV, built by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency scientists. The Falcon HTV-2 program is an innovative research and development joint venture of DARPA and the Air Force to develop and demonstrate hypersonic technologies that will help achieve a prompt global-reach capability.
Hat/Tip to tlemon for this story.
Physorg.com: Turning Planetary Theory Upside Down (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- The discovery of nine new transiting exoplanets is announced today at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting. When these new results were combined with earlier observations of transiting exoplanets astronomers were surprised to find that six out of a larger sample of 27 were found to be orbiting in the opposite direction to the rotation of their host star -- the exact reverse of what is seen in our own solar system.
"This is a real bomb we are dropping into the field of exoplanets," says Amaury Triaud, a PhD student at the Geneva Observatory who, with Andrew Cameron and Didier Queloz, leads a major part of the observational campaign.
Planets are thought to form in the disc of gas and dust encircling a young star. This proto-planetary disc rotates in the same direction as the star itself, and up to now it was expected that planets that form from the disc would all orbit in more or less the same plane, and that they would move along their orbits in the same direction as the star's rotation. This is the case for the planets in the Solar System.
History Channel: Apr 13, 1970: Apollo 13 oxygen tank explodes
On April 13, 1970, disaster strikes 200,000 miles from Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blows up on Apollo 13, the third manned lunar landing mission. Astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise had left Earth two days before for the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon but were forced to turn their attention to simply making it home alive.
AP via Discovery News: Piece of Midwestern Meteor Found
THE GIST:
A peanut-sized rock may be part of a meteor that lit of Midwestern skies this week.
The 0.3-pound fragment appears to have a fusion crust.
The bright meteor streaked across the Midwest on Wednesday night.
Evolution/Paleontology
Eureka Alert: Arizona's mammoth hunters -- out with a whimper or a bang?
Did a change in climate or an extraterrestrial impact bring an end to the beasts and people that roamed the Southwest shortly after the last ice age?
A team of researchers from the University of Arizona has revisited evidence pointing to a cataclysmic event thought by many scientists to have wiped out the North American megafauna – such as mammoths, saber tooth cats, giant ground sloths and Dire wolves – along with the Clovis hunter-gatherer culture some 13,000 years ago. The team obtained their findings following an unusual, multidisciplinary approach and published them in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
"The idea of an extraterrestrial impact driving the Pleistocene extinction event has recently caused a stir in the scientific community," said C. Vance Haynes, a professor emeritus at UA's School of Anthropology and the department of geosciences, who is the study's lead author. "We systematically revisited the evidence for an impact scenario and discovered it just does not hold up."
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Biodiversity
National Geographic: "Tyrant King" Leech Discovered, Attacks Orifices
Christine Dell'Amore
There's a new leech king of the jungle.
The new species—dubbed Tyrannobdella rex, or "tyrant leech king"—was discovered in the remote Peruvian Amazon, according to a new study.
Puzzling scientists from the start, the up-to-three-inch-long (about seven-centimeter-long) bloodsucker has large teeth, like its dinosaur namesake Tyrannosaurus rex.
Discovery News: Sei It Ain't So: Japanese Whale Meat Found on Black Market
Analysis by Kieran Mulvaney
Police in South Korea reportedly raided a Japanese restaurant in Seoul today, the latest development in a widening scandal involving illegal trade in whale meat. The raid comes a day after a new study established that the whale meat that was served to customers in a Los Angeles sushi restaurant came from a whale that was killed as part of Japan's "research whaling" program. The lead researcher in the study says that the findings underline that provisions in a draft "deal" being negotiated by members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) are inadequate to prevent illegal trade in the future.
A team of undercover activists, working with an associate producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove, documented late in 2009 that an upscale LA sushi restaurant, The Hump, was selling whale meat - a violation of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act. (Prosecutors have brought charges against the chef and the owners, who have since closed the restaurant).
Biotechnology/Health
L.A. Times: Research offers promise for diabetics
By Thomas H. Maugh II
Boston researchers have made a major step toward the development of an artificial pancreas that overcomes the bugaboo of most previous such attempts -- dangerously low blood sugar caused by injection of too much insulin.
Their experimental device secretes two hormones normally produced by the pancreas -- insulin and its counterbalancing hormone, called glucagon -- and has been shown to control blood sugar levels in about a dozen people for at least 24 hours, they reported Wednesday.
The team is now planning longer trials as they gear up for what they hope will be approval by the Food and Drug Administration in as little as seven years.
Long Island Press: Gluten Free: Millions Have Celiac, Few Diagnosed
By Jaclyn Gallucci
Every aspect of life—from physical well-being to mental health—is susceptible to damage from celiac disease, an intolerance to gluten, the protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Unlike a wheat allergy, which causes a sudden, severe reaction like breathing difficulty, celiac is an autoimmune disease with a slower onset. Simply put, exposing a celiac to even the tiniest bits of gluten, which the body is unable to digest, causes it to turn against itself and attack its internal organs, waging a war on the immune system and destroying the intestinal walls so food and nutrients cannot be absorbed. Over time, celiac can lead to cancer, malnutrition and other disorders. But because many people think of gluten-free as a diet or fad, the fact that the disease is a serious, chronic, lifelong problem, is often overlooked.
Climate/Environment
Discovery News: Climate Mystery: The Case of the Missing Energy
Analysis by John D. Cox
Half of the energy expected to have fueled global warming since 2003 has gone missing, researchers report.
Scientists can't tell whether the climate system has changed in the last few years -- in the oceans, for instance -- or if there is something wrong in the way they keep track of energy as it moves down through the atmosphere from the sun and then escapes back into space.
Researchers thought they could account for the energy in Earth's climate system like a family keeping a budget. They measured solar income and out-go and saw the excess in incoming heat generated by greenhouse gases as rising temperatures -- global warming.
Around 2003, however, this energy budget model evidently sprang a leak.
Discovery News: Oceans' Saltiness Reaching Extremes
By Larry O'Hanlon
The supercharging of Earth's water cycle by global warming is already making some parts of Earth's oceans much saltier while others parts are getting fresher.
A new study by Australian scientists shows a clear link between salinity changes at the surface and changes in the deeper waters over the last six decades caused by the warming seen over the same period.
Discovery News: Green Buildings Too Quiet for Comfort
By Larry O'Hanlon
THE GIST:
Green buildings may help the environment, but they may be too quiet for office workers.
Adding noise has been shown to help make workers more comfortable.
Acoustical standards for buildings are few and far between.
Geology
U.S. Geological Survey: Is Recent Earthquake Activity Unusual? Scientists Say No.
China’s tragic magnitude 6.9 earthquake on April 13 and the recent devastating earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, Mexico, and elsewhere have many wondering if this earthquake activity is unusual.
Scientists say 2010 is not showing signs of unusually high earthquake activity. Since 1900, an average of 16 magnitude 7 or greater earthquakes — the size that seismologists define as major — have occurred worldwide each year. Some years have had as few as 6, as in 1986 and 1989, while 1943 had 32, with considerable variability from year to year.
With six major earthquakes striking in the first four months of this year, 2010 is well within the normal range. Furthermore, from April 15, 2009, to April 14, 2010, there have been 18 major earthquakes, a number also well within the expected variation.
Agence France Presse via Discovery News: Iceland Volcano Eruption Causes Air Traffic Chaos
by Rosa Brynjolfsdottir
A volcanic eruption in Iceland fired ash across northern Europe forcing the closure of huge swathes of international airspace on Thursday which grounded hundreds of flights.
The eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in southeast Iceland had already melted part of a surrounded glacier causing severe floods. More than 700 people were evacuated from their homes.
A huge cloud of ash from the second major eruption in Iceland in less than a month blew eastwards across the Atlantic, closing major airports more than 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers) away.
Psychology/Behavior
Nature: Children who form no racial stereotypes found
Janelle Weaver
Prejudice may seem inescapable, but scientists now report the first group of people who seem not to form racial stereotypes.
Children with a neurodevelopmental disorder called Williams syndrome (WS) are overly friendly because they do not fear strangers. Now, a study shows that these children also do not develop negative attitudes about other ethnic groups, even though they show patterns of gender stereotyping found in other children. "This is the first evidence that different forms of stereotypes are biologically dissociable," says Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, director of the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, who led the study published today in Current Biology.
Adults with WS show abnormal activity in a brain structure called the amygdala, which is involved in responding to social threats and triggering unconscious negative emotional reactions to other races. Racial bias has been tied to fear: adults are more likely to associate negative objects and events, such as electric shocks, with people of other ethnic groups compared with those of their own group. But according to Meyer-Lindenberg, his latest study offers the strongest evidence so far that social fear leads to racial stereotyping.
Archeology/Anthropology
Discovery News: King Tut's Dad's Toe Returns Home
Analysis by Rossella Lorenzi
A toe belonging to King Tutankhamun’s father has been finally returned to Egypt, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Wednesday.
The bone piece belonged to mummy KV55, which was identified as Akhenaton during a recent major genetic investigation into King Tut's family.
The son of Amenhotep III and also the father of Tutankhamun, Akhenaton, (1353-1336 B.C.) is known as the "heretic" pharaoh who introduced a monotheistic religion by overthrowing the pantheon of the gods to worship the sun god Aton.
ANI via Sify.com (India): Archaeologists discover Old Testament-era tablet
Archaeologists at University of Toronto have unearthed a cache of cuneiform tablets that contain a largely intact Assyrian treaty from the early 7th century BCE.
The 43 by 28 centimetre tablet - known as the Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon - contains about 650 lines and is in a very fragile state.
"The tablet is quite spectacular. It records a treaty - or covenant - between Esarhaddon, King of the Assyrian Empire and a secondary ruler who acknowledged Assyrian power. The treaty was confirmed in 672 BCE at elaborate ceremonies held in the Assyrian royal city of Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). In the text, the ruler vows to recognize the authority of Esarhaddon's successor, his son Ashurbanipal," said Timothy Harrison.
Heritage Key: Fourteen Graeco-Roman Tombs Discovered at the Bahariya Oasis, Egypt
by Ann
A collection of 14 Graeco-Roman tombs, artefacts and a mummy dating to the third century BC have been discovered in a cemetery in the Ain El-Zawya area of Bawiti, a town in the Bahariya Oasis, Egypt. The find is early evidence of a large Graeco-Roman necropolis at the site.
The tombs were found during excavation works ahead of the building of a local youth centre in the area, about 260 miles southwest of Cairo. Dr. Mahmoud Affifi, director of Cairo and Giza antiquities, said that the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has halted construction and has started legal procedures to bring the area under SCA control.
The Daily Mail: Hundreds of rare Roman pots discovered by accident off Italy's coast by British research ship
A British underwater research team has discovered hundreds of rare Roman pots by accident, while trawling the wreckages of ships on the sea bed.
The team had been using remote operated vehicles (ROVs) to scour modern wrecks for radioactive materials.
Alamagordo Daily News: Digging up dirt on the past
By Joan Price
CARRIZOZO A diverse crew of archaeologists and interns are about to finish excavation of a large pre-Columbian site in a narrow strip of land on U.S. Highway 54 just south of Carrizozo.
In a grid barely 100-feet wide and 200-feet long, three Navajos, a Pueblo-Comanche, two women of German and Jewish heritage, and two Mexican Americans have worked side by side since last October, despite roaring semi-tractor trailers, cars and recreational vehicles on the two-lane highway. The Bonito water pipeline supplying Alamogordo and Holloman Air Force Base runs along the barb-wire fence of a privately owned ranch nearby.
Oak Bay News: FEATURE: Park stones are markers of history
By Vivian Moreau - Oak Bay News
Behind the cenotaph in Uplands Park, someone has built an inukshuk amidst the rocky outcrop.
"They probably don’t realize that they used burial cairn stones to build that," Darcy Mathews says.
As a University of Victoria doctoral candidate, Mathews has spent the last seven years studying First Nations burial cairns around Greater Victoria. Few may know that First Nations in the region buried their dead in cemeteries until about 500 years ago. Then they started taking their dead to outlying islands to leave them in above-ground wooden structures.
The Daily Telegraph: Staffordshire Hoard location revealed
By David Barrett
Newspapers and broadcasters have largely abided by archaeologists' requests not to publish the exact position of the field where metal detectorist Terry Herbert found the exquisite Anglo-Saxon collection in July last year, fearing the site could be targeted by thieves.
But a new Channel 4 documentary includes footage of the field where the hoard was discovered, and even pinpoints the location of the main archaeological trench within the plot of land.
Science Daily: French Guianan Coastal Savannas: A Landscape Shaped by Humans and by Nature
ScienceDaily (Apr. 13, 2010) The coastal savannas of French Guiana dotted with thousands of small mounds have given up some of their secrets, thanks to an interdisciplinary European collaborative research project, financed by two CNRS programs.
The researchers discovered that these mounds are agricultural raised fields, vestiges of a pre-Columbian agricultural system constructed over 900 years ago. Above all, the researchers showed that following the abandonment of this system, these well-drained islands in seasonally flooded environments were colonized by other organisms (animals and plants) that have maintained these small elevated structures up to the present day. This example of a landscape modeled by humans and then maintained by nature could help us design ecologically intensive agricultural systems.
These results will appear online on the website of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 12 April 2010.
Eureka Alert: Classic Maya history is embedded in commoners' homes
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. They were illiterate farmers, builders and servants, but Maya commoners found a way to record their own history – by burying it within their homes. A new study of the objects embedded in the floors of homes occupied more than 1,000 years ago in central Belize begins to decode their story.
The study, from University of Illinois anthropology professor Lisa J. Lucero, appears in the Journal of Social Archaeology.
Maya in the Classic period (A.D. 250-900) regularly "terminated" their homes, razing the walls, burning the floors and placing artifacts and (sometimes) human remains on top before burning them again.
Evidence suggests these rituals occurred every 40 or 50 years and likely marked important dates in the Maya calendar. After termination, the family built a new home on the old foundation, using broken and whole vessels, colorful fragments, animal bones and rocks to mark important areas and to provide ballast for a new plaster floor.
Bay Net (MD): Exploring the Colonial Diet Through Archaeology
HISTORIC ST. MARY'S CITY - 4/11/2010
Historic St. Mary’s City will host the annual Archaeology Month lecture on Friday, April 16 at 7 p.m. Henry Miller, HSMC’s director of research, will offer An Archaeological View of Food in Colonial Maryland.
Maryland’s colonists brought Old World eating habits with them. In 17th-century England, meat was commonly believed to be the most nourishing food and its high consumption was a sign of status and wealth.
Some thought raw vegetables and fruit suspect but bread, beer and dairy products were staples. The common man in England found fewer and fewer opportunities to acquire meat, as forests disappeared and enclosure restricted access to commons.
Appalachian State University: Appalachian professor’s research finds no evidence of cannibalism at Donner Party campsite
By ASU News
BOONE – Research conducted by Dr. Gwen Robbins, an assistant professor of biological anthropology at Appalachian State University, finds there is no evidence of cannibalism among the 84 members of the Donner Party who were trapped by a snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the mid-1840s.
Remains from the Donner party’s Alder Creek campsite were excavated by a team of archaeologists from the University of Montana and the University of Oregon Museum. A sample of bones from the campsite hearth was analyzed by Robbins and Kelsey Gray, an Appalachian graduate. They will present the results of this project this week at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Albuquerque, N.M.
During the excavation of the Donner Party’s campsite, 16,000 burned, fragmented bones were found. Many of the bones also had butchery and boiling marks. Robbins, an osteologist who specializes in bone biology and microstructure, examined the bones with three questions in mind: Are there any human bones in the hearth, which would provide material evidence for cannibalism? What kinds of other animals are present in the assemblage of bone fragments? and, What did the starvation diet look like?
Indian Country Today: Scientists ponder NAGPRA lawsuit
By Rob Capriccioso
WASHINGTON – Scientists are considering a lawsuit against a new rule that would help repatriate thousands of Native American remains to tribes across the nation.
The rule, published March 15 and open for comment for 60 days, is a clarification from the Interior Department to the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. It states that after appropriate tribal consultation, transfer of culturally unidentifiable remains is to be made to a tribe from whose tribal or aboriginal lands the remains were excavated or removed. Civil penalties are proposed for museums and learning institutions that do not follow the law.
The development has been largely celebrated by Native American communities, although tribal advocates say it has shortcomings, like not including sacred associated funerary objects in its scope. Some tribes are using the open comment period to make that concern known, noting that common law and some state laws require repatriation of such objects.
Associated Press via INO.com: Mexico: Fakes dominate seized artifact collection
(AP:MEXICO CITY) A collection of supposed pre-Hispanic artifacts seized from a controversial private antiquities dealer in Germany contains many pieces that are fake, Mexico's government archaeology agency said Thursday.
The National Institute of Anthropology and History said most of the larger, impressive pieces seized by German authorities from Costa Rican dealer Leonardo Patterson are modern copies of ancient artifacts.
The institute said experts who examined the collection of 1,029 sculptures, pots and figurines had determined 252 are fakes.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
Physics
National Geographic: Every Black Hole Contains Another Universe?
Ker Than
Like part of a cosmic Russian doll, our universe may be nested inside a black hole that is itself part of a larger universe.
In turn, all the black holes found so far in our universe—from the microscopic to the supermassive—may be doorways into alternate realities.
According to a mind-bending new theory, a black hole is actually a tunnel between universes—a type of wormhole. The matter the black hole attracts doesn't collapse into a single point, as has been predicted, but rather gushes out a "white hole" at the other end of the black one, the theory goes.
Science News: Physicists untangle the geometry of rope
By Alexandra Witze
Researchers have unraveled the mathematics that keeps ropes from unwinding.
The trick lies in the number of times each strand in a rope is twisted, say Jakob Bohr and Kasper Olsen, physicists at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby. Their paper was posted online April 6 at arXiv.org.
In a traditional rope, each individual strand is twisted as much as possible in one direction. The twisted strands are then wound together in a spiral shape called a helix, which itself rotates in the opposite direction. The interlocking of these twists and countertwists gives the rope strength so that when yanked, it does not unwind.
Chemistry
Science News: Study reports hints of phthalate threat to boys’ IQs
By Janet Raloff
You may have a hard time spelling phthalates, but there’s no avoiding them. They’re in the air you breathe, water you drink and foods you eat. And this ubiquity may carry a price, particularly for young boys, emerging data suggest. Including a drop in their IQ.
A new study examines cognitive risks from phthalates. The study wasn't big — including just 667 third- and fourth-graders. But it does cover a broad and nationally representative cross-section of South Korea’s youngsters. Moreover, whatever changes occurred in these kids might well develop elsewhere. And that’s because residues of diethylhexyl phthalate, or DEHP — the phthalate that appeared most neurotoxic to these children — show up in people throughout the developed world, including the United States.
Energy
Physorg.com: New hope for ultimate clean energy: fusion power
(PhysOrg.com) -- Imagine if you could generate electricity using nuclear power that emitted no radioactivity: it would be the answer to the world's dream of finding a clean, sustainable energy source.
That is the great hope raised by researchers who believe they have found a radical new path to the ultimate goal of solving the world's energy crisis through nuclear fusion power, as detailed in a paper published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science.
The international team of researchers -- led by Emeritus Professor Heinrich Hora, of the University of New South Wales Department of Theoretical Physics -- has shown through computational studies that a special fuel ignited by brief but powerful pulses of energy from new high-energy lasers may be the key to a success that has long eluded physicists.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
Bad Astronomy on Discover Magazine: Obama lays out bold revised space policy
President Obama gave a speech at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center today to outline his new, revamped space policy.
You may remember that his last revamping caused quite a stir, with people screaming that it would doom NASA. I disagree. Canceling Constellation still strikes me as the right thing to do, because it was becoming an albatross around NASA’s neck. Mind you, this was also the recommendation of the blue ribbon Augustine panel. You may also note that NASA astronauts are split over all this, with Buzz Aldrin, for example, supporting Obama, and Neil Armstrong and many others disagreeing.
It’s a mess, and hard to disentangle what everyone’s saying. There’s been a huge amount of misinformation about it (with — shocking — Fox news leading the way; they spout so much disingenuousness, nonsense, self-contradiction, and outright stupidity that it makes me want to fly to their studios just to slap them). But Obama’s plan seems pretty clear.
Discovery News: Acid Ocean Meets Clean Water
by Kieran Mulvaney
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has already announced its readiness and willingness to use the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Now comes word that it is at least considering using the Clean Water Act to do the same.
It doesn't follow that either will actually be used to limit the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases; legislation is pending in House and Senate that seek to address that very issue, and more precise instrument is clearly preferable to a blunt one. But the Clean Air Act decision followed a 2007 Supreme Court finding that carbon dioxide is a pollutant; and when the EPA published a federal register in March seeking public comment on the use of the Clean Water Act, it did so following a suit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity.
Whereas greenhouse gas emissions are most often associated with climate change, the CBD suit sought to address the role of CO2 in what is known as ocean acidification.
Science Education
Earth Times: Learning how to be a gladiator - in the 21st century
Regensburg, Germany - Gladiatorial combat has fascinated people for ages. In August the University of Regensburg in Germany plans to re-enact the spectacle in the service of scholarship.
Twenty-four hours a day for a month, 20 students from various university departments will live, eat and train like the gladiators of Pompeii around 79 AD Participants will prepare for the unusual project in the coming months.
"We know almost nothing about the gladiators," noted Josef Loeffl, a lecturer in ancient history and the project's director. He pooh-poohed the image projected by the breakneck chariot race in the 1959 Hollywood epic Ben-Hur, which he said was full of "myth and cliches."
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above article.
Science Writing and Reporting
Science News: Book Review: Here Be Dragons
By Dennis McCarthy
Review by Sid Perkins
Most people believe "Here be dragons" appears on ancient maps as a warning of the dangers rife in unexplored or unfamiliar regions. But the phrase is found on no such maps and on only one small globe, McCarthy reveals in his book, which chronicles how real creatures got to be where they are and the significance of their movements. In fact, the phrase etched over Southeast Asia on that 16th century globe may be less a warning than a note about the range of the world’s largest lizard, a creature commonly known as the Komodo dragon.
In this fascinating and revelatory book, the author explains how certain species ended up in their present geographic locations and how studying this distribution has driven revolutions in earth and life sciences.
Science News: Book Review: The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence
By Paul Davies
Review by Elizabeth Quill
After 50 years of scanning the skies for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence, astronomers have only silence to report — an eerie silence, Davies argues.
Part history of the search, part road map for its future and (large) part mind-stretching exercise, the book provides Davies’ perspective on profound questions that have implications far beyond alien hunting. Is life inevitable? What about intelligence? How long do advanced civilizations last? What would happen if alien cultures met?
Science is Cool
Discovery News: Comedian Stephen Colbert Heading to NASA's Houston Space Base
By Irene Klotz
Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert is stepping up his interest in NASA, with a day-long visit planed next month at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"I’ve been invited to go to Houston for astronaut training," Colbert announced to his television audience on Thursday night, part of a space spiel tied to President Obama’s policy speech at Kennedy Space Center earlier that day.