Monday and science talk comes once again. Today is the time to take a well deserved hiatus from all the politics of the day and enjoy some of the fine science news of the past week. New discoveries, new takes on old knowledge, and other bits of news are all available for the perusing in today's information world. Over the fold are selections from the past week from a few of the many excellent science news sites around the world. Today's tidbits include the site of human evolution was scorching, the earth and moon formed later than thought, a new strain of bacteria may help future oil spill resolution, the first cloned foal is born, solution to beading saliva has practical uses, and sharks really can sniff out their prey. Pull up that beach chair and settle in for one more session of Dr. Possum's science education and entertainment.
Featured Stories
In the Turkana Basin of Kenya daytime temperatures have reached the 90's for the past 4 million years. Human evolution may be in part a response to the heat.
That hypothesis states that our pre-human ancestors gained an evolutionary advantage in walking upright because doing so was cooler (when it is sunny, the near-surface air is warmer than air a few feet above the ground) and exposed their body mass to less sunlight than did crawling on all fours. The loss of body hair (fur) and the ability to regulate body temperature through perspiration would have been other adaptations helpful for living in a warm climate, according to the hypothesis.
Conventional thinking puts the birth of the earth and moon at a time when the solar system was 30 million years old or approximately 4,537 million years ago.
The age of the Earth and Moon can be dated by examining the presence of certain elements in the Earth's mantle. Hafnium-182 is a radioactive substance, which decays and is converted into the isotope tungsten-182. The two elements have markedly different chemical properties and while the tungsten isotopes prefer to bond with metal, hafnium prefers to bond to silicates, i.e. rock.
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The result of the research means that the Earth and the Moon must have been formed much later than previously thought - that is to say not 30 million years after the formation of the solar system 4,567 million years ago but perhaps up to 150 million years after the formation of the solar system.
Current issues with oil spill resolution put pressure on science to find new ways to correct the problems. A new strain of bacteria (strain "NY3" of a common bacteria that has been known of for decades, called Pseudomonas aeruginosa) offers some possibilities.
Although the type of biosurfactant called "rhamnolipids" have been used for many years, the newly discovered strain, NY3, stands out for some important reasons. Researchers said in the new study that it has an "extraordinary capacity" to produce rhamnolipids that could help break down oil, and then degrade some of its most serious toxic compounds, the PAHs.
Rhamnolipids are not toxic to microbial flora, human beings and animals, and they are completely biodegradable. These are compelling advantages over their synthetic chemical counterparts made from petroleum. Even at a very low concentration, rhamnolipids could remarkably increase the mobility, solubility and bioavailability of PAHs, and strain NY3 of P. aeruginosa has a strong capability of then degrading and decontaminating the PAHs.
For now a limiting factor is the cost of production but measured against the costs of damage to the environment maybe that will become less of a consideration in time.
One more large step in reproductive science came with the birth of the first cloned foal
The process began with a biopsy of skin cells from Marc, the horse to be cloned. Through the cloning process using oocytes recovered from a live mare, viable embryos were developed and sent to Hartman Equine Reproduction Center, an embryo transfer facility in North Texas which works closely with Hinrichs' lab, for transfer into surrogate mares. Minnie, the mare carrying Mouse, stayed in North Texas for approximately 200 days, then was sent to her new home in Florida.
Minnie began to show signs of an early delivery, and was taken to the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine for observation and intervention. That's where Mouse arrived and was cared for by a team of neonatal experts that helped make sure he would make it through this critical time.
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Most of us have watched saliva beading between our fingers. The reason for that phenomenon is now understood.
A key factor in the beading mechanism is fluid inertia, or the tendency of a fluid to keep moving unless acted upon by an external force.
Other major elements are a fluid's viscosity; the time it takes a stretched polymer molecule to "relax," or snap back to its original shape when stretching is stopped; and the "capillary time," or how long it would take for the surface of the fluid strand to vibrate if plucked.
Once the mechanism is harnessed application to processes such as inkjet printing are just over the horizon.
Biologists have long known sharks have a keen sense of smell.
It turns out that sharks can detect small delays, no more than half a second long, in the time that odors reach one nostril versus the other, the researchers report. When the animals experience such a lag, they will turn toward whichever side picked up the scent first.
So by following their nose sharks can find their prey.
Other Worthy Stories of the Week
Ancient beehives yield 3,000-year-old bees
Exo-planet caught on the move
Many famous comets may have originated in other solar systems
Dingos, like wolves, are smarter than pet dogs
High meat diet may lead to early puberty for girls
How black holes eat matter
Tiny insect brains capable of huge feats
The science of flash floods
World's oldest leather shoe found in Armenia
Graphene makes light work of aircraft design
Scientists strive to replace silicon with graphene on nanocircuitry
Elephant seals send scientific data via satellite transmitter
For the first time astronomers have observed the making of solar systems in great detail
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The Skeptics Guide to the Universe--a combination of hard science and debunking crap
Daily Kos regular series:
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Overnight News Digest:Science Saturday by Neon Vincent. This week OND by palantir.
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NASA picture of the day. For more see the NASA image gallery.
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