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 Reuters.
House approves oil spill reform bill
By Tom Doggett and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON | Fri Jul 30, 2010 7:16pm EDT
The House of Representatives on Friday approved the toughest reforms ever to offshore energy drilling practices, as Democrats narrowly pushed through an election-year response to BP's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Passing the bill as the House leaves for its six-week recess gives lawmakers the opportunity to return home boasting they reined in Big Oil and held BP responsible for the worst offshore oil disaster in U.S. history.
The vote was 209-193 on the bill supported by President Barack Obama.
More science, space, and environment stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
Watch this space!
Dante Atkins: As temperatures soar, crickets from the right
DarkSyde: Studies show dramatic decrease in plankton as planet warms
DarkSyde: This week in science
DarkSyde: Help Help I'm being repressed!
jamess: Houston, We got a New Problem -- BP's Oil has ALL Disappeared!?
Laurence Lewis: Fasten your seatbelts
Slideshows/Videos
Astronomer Dimitar Sasselov and his colleagues search for Earth-like planets that may, someday, help us answer centuries-old questions about the origin and existence of biological life elsewhere (and on Earth). How many such planets have they found already? Several hundreds.
MSNBC: Views from high fliers
See a spaceman's fall, a solar plane's rise and other "Month in Space" highlights from July 2010.
Don't Panic: When Games Invade Real Life
Written by Onjuli Datta / 26 Jul 2010
Right now gaming is a major part of technology, from one-minute races in an arcade to all consuming universes, like World of Warcraft. A lot of people put more time and effort into gaming than they ever would to their work or even social life. Jesse Schell argues that our obsession with gaming is spilling over into real life, making us easier to manipulate – and more willing to be manipulated.
Astronomy/Space
NASA: NASA's Hibernating Mars Rover May Not Call Home
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA mission controllers have not heard from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit since March 22, and the rover is facing its toughest challenge yet - trying to survive the harsh Martian winter.
The rover team anticipated Spirit would go into a low-power "hibernation" mode since the rover was not able to get to a favorable slope for its fourth Martian winter, which runs from May through November. The low angle of sunlight during these months limits the power generated from the rover's solar panels. During hibernation, the rover suspends communications and other activities so available energy can be used to recharge and heat batteries, and to keep the mission clock running.
Space.com via MSNBC: Area on Mars could hold fossilized remains of life
Study finds spot that is abundant in clay mineral-rich rocks
by Denise Chow
updated 7/30/2010 6:34:34 PM ET
A spot on Mars called Nili Fossae that is rich in clay mineral-rich rocks could be a prime spot to search for the fossilized remains of Martian life that may have existed 4 billion years ago, a new study suggests.
In the study, scientists used an instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to study clay-carbonate rocks on the Martian surface leftover from ancient red planet era known as the Noachian period.
The study does not offer actual evidence of past life; rather, it suggests a place that might have been habitable.
Space.com via MSNBC: NASA may aim for Venus for future missions
Planet is similar to Earth in terms of atmosphere, climate, researcher says
by Zoe Macintosh
updated 7/30/2010 5:17:45 PM ET
After more than 20 years of neglect, the planet Venus is once more drawing NASA's eye for ambitious new missions.
A Venusian dream expedition for some scientists would include nothing short of an exploration flotilla a ground robot, planetary airplane and orbiting manned spacecraft. The potential mission to Venus could investigate its surface from up-close for the first time in several decades, a NASA scientist said. [Photos: The surface of Venus.]
"Recently there has been a renaissance in looking at proposals to study Venus," researcher Geoffrey A. Landis at NASA's John Glenn Research Center in Ohio told Space.com. "One very good reason is that there has been a renewed interest in study of the atmospheres and climates of planets, and being the planet that is most like the Earth in size learning more about the atmosphere of Venus may help us learn more about the atmosphere (and climate) of the Earth."
MSNBC's Cosmic Log: What's new in New Space?
Alan Boyle writes: Space journeys for $60,000 ... the coming boom in space-junk salvage ... and a settlement on the Martian moon Deimos. These are the long-term outlooks that emerged over the weekend from the NewSpace 2010 conference in California's Silicon Valley.
The annual meeting, organized by the Space Frontier Foundation, champions the role of private enterprise in space exploration. But NASA types are also well-represented on the list of speakers. There was lots of talk about how recent twists and turns in space policy might affect future exploration as well as the development of new players in the space game.
Technology Review: The Fermi Paradox, Phase Changes and Intergalactic Colonisation
In 1950, the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi raised the question that now bears his name. If there are intelligent civilisations elsewhere in the Universe with technologies that far surpass our own, why do we see no sign of them?
Since then, the so-called Fermi Paradox has puzzled astronomers and science fiction writers alike. And although there are no shortage of ways to approach the problem (this blog has covered them here and here for example), nobody has come up with a convincing explanation. .
Now there is another take on the problem thanks to a new approach by Igor Bezsudnov and Andrey Snarskii at the National Technical University of Ukraine.
Evolution/Paleontology
Examiner.com: No vacation for science at Michigan State--research roundup for July 19-25
By Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner
First identification of stress hormone in lampreys
A team led by Weiming Li, professor of fisheries and wildlife and a member of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, identified the first stress hormone from the sea lamprey. They then used the primitive jawless fish as a model to understand the evolution of the endocrine system in vertebrates.
Corticosteroid hormones control stress response in animals with backbones, including humans. While scientists have learned quite a bit about these hormones in most modern animals, little was known about the hormones' earliest forms in primitive creatures such as the lamprey.
"By identifying 11-deoxycortisol as a stress hormone in lamprey, it allows us to better understand how the endocrine system in vertebrates evolved into the complex systems we see in humans today," Weiming Li, said in a press release. "Most jawless animals similar to the lamprey didn't survive into the modern era, so they're not available for us to use as we strive to learn more about how human systems developed. The sea lamprey, a survivor, gives us a snapshot of what happened as vertebrates evolved into the animals we know today."
More, including winners of two honors, at the source in the headline.
LiveScience via MSNBC: Tiny footprints are oldest evidence of reptiles
Recently discovered tracks indicate animal about 8 inches long
by Jeanna Bryner
A tiny reptile scampering along an Outback-like environment snagging insects some 318 million years ago left behind footprints that are now the oldest evidence of reptiles to date.
From the size of the tracks, the researchers suggest the animal was about the size of a gecko, nearly 8 inches from snout to tail tip. "This is the earliest evidence we've got for reptiles," said Howard Falcon-Lang of Royal Holloway, University of London.
Discovery News via MSNBC: Triceratops 'secret location' found in South Dakota Bandlands
by Jennifer Viegas
updated 7/30/2010 9:39:05 AM ET
Internationally-renowned dinosaur hunter Phil Manning, from the University of Manchester, and his team are hoping to bag a Triceratops skeleton from a 'secret location' they've found in the South Dakota Badlands, according to Manning.
He and his colleagues believe at least three skeletons of this iconic dinosaur are gently weathering in 65-million-year-old rocks at the undisclosed site.
At present, Manning and his colleagues are trying to figure out how they can excavate one of the Triceratops skeletons from its rocky Hell Creek Formation tomb.
Biodiversity
Reuters via MSNBC: Florida declares open season on lionfish
'Basically, we want them dead,' says one enemy of the non-native species
by Pascal Fletcher
updated 7/28/2010 5:01:36 PM ET
MIAMI — As thousands of Floridians take to the sea to hunt for spiny lobster in the state's two-day mini-season, they are being warned by authorities not to catch under-size specimens or exceed strict catch quotas.
But no such limits exist for the equally prickly — but dangerous — lionfish, which wildlife authorities are encouraging local divers to capture or kill at will to try to stamp out the voracious invading species from Florida waters.
The gaudy white and reddish brown-striped lionfish are equipped with an array of flaring venomous spines like a lion's mane, hence their name. They are native to Indo-Pacific seas, but have been rapidly expanding in Caribbean and Atlantic waters, where they have few natural predators.
Examiner.com: Joint MSU-Chinese research finds most giant panda habitat outside nature reserves
By Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner
In a paper published in Conservation Biology, scientists from Michigan State University, Columbia University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that only 40% of the currently suitable habitat for giant pandas lies within nature reserves.
Andrés Viña, CSIS specialist in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State and senior author of the paper, said, "Our model also identified potentially suitable habitat outside the currently accepted geographic range of the panda."
In fact, the team estimated that the current suitable habitat corresponds to only about 25% of the maximum area in which pandas could live. The team suggested that the additional area be evaluated as potential panda reintroduction sites. This is good news for the Chinese government, which is already planning on increasing panda habitat and range.
All Africa: Namibia: Wild Puppies Are Growing Up
Tanja Bause
29 July 2010
THE fourteen wild dog pups that were rescued from a farm in the Mangetti area by the N/a'an ku se Wildlife Sanctuary are all in good health and doing extremely well.
The nine female and five male pups were about two weeks old when they were flown to Windhoek and taken to N/a'an ku se, about 45 km from the city.
Farmers just south of the Veterinary Cordon Fence who had lost some livestock to wild dogs found the dogs' den and dug it up, finding the litter of pups.
Herald Sun (Australia): Extremely rare dolphin threatened
A LITTLE-known species of dolphin, found only in northern Australia, is taking a battering from boats and lost fishing gear off the WA tourist town of Broome.
Nearly two thirds of the Snubfin Dolphins that live in Roebuck Bay show injuries from boat hits and fishing gear snags, a new report shows.
Dolphin researcher Deborah Thiele wrote the report for the conservation organisation WWF, which is working with the Broome community to minimise harm to the animals.
Agence France Presse: World's 103 wild mountain antelopes face extinction: Kenya
NAIROBI — Wildlife officials in Kenya warned Thursday that an antelope species, whose entire global wild population of 103 exists only in the east African country, was on the verge of extinction.
Habitat loss, genetic factors, predation and disease were threatening to wipe out the mountain bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci), the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said in a statement.
The elusive mountain bongo is the largest mountain antelope and weighs up to 300 kilogrammes (660 pounds). It has white stripes against a chestnut brown hide and both males and females have twisted horns.
Biotechnology/Health
Examiner.com: One night per month outside the city increases malaria risk nine times, U of M researchers find
By Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner
At least 350 million people contract malaria each year. About one million of them die. Most of those are children in sub-Saharan Africa. This week, scientists at the University of Michigan announced their latest findings in their efforts to control this dreaded disease, the most common parasitic infection of humans on the planet.
In a study published in American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, an international team of researchers that included members from the University of Michigan found that found that the greatest risk factor for a child living in an urban area in Kenya was whether the child spent at least one night a month in a rural area. Those children were nine times more likely to contract malaria.
In a press release, Mark Wilson, professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in the College of Letters, Science, and the Arts, said, "We found that factors like house construction and mosquito coils weren't important, whereas traveling to rural areas was. That probably relates to the lack of the use of bed nets in those rural areas."
National Geographic News: Sniff-Controlled Keyboards, Wheelchairs Invented
New devices help paralyzed people move, "locked-in" patients communicate.
Charles Q. Choi
for National Geographic News
Published July 28, 2010
People who are paralyzed from the neck down might soon be leading themselves around by the nose—literally. A new electric wheelchair allows the severely disabled to guide their movements by sniffing into tubes.
Sniffing depends on highly coordinated motions of the back of the roof of the mouth, aka the soft palate. This region receives signals from several nerves that are often unaffected by paralytic injuries and disorders.
That means some patients with disabilities ranging from quadriplegia to "locked-in syndrome"—where a person is completely paralyzed, save for eyeblinks—retain the ability to sniff with precision.
Science Daily: Excessive Intake of Omega 6 and Deficiencies in Omega 3 Induce Obesity Down the Generations
ScienceDaily (July 27, 2010) — Chronic excess of linoleic acid (omega 6), coupled with a deficiency in alpha-linoleic acid (omega 3), can increase obesity down the generations. This has been demonstrated for the first time by Gérard Ailhaud (Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis) working in collaboration with three CNRS laboratories and one INRA laboratory. The researchers exposed several generations of male and female adult and young mice to a "Western-like" diet of this type, and then assessed the consequences of such a lipid environment in the human diet.
These findings are published on the website of the Journal of Lipid Research.
Climate/Environment
Reuters: U.N. panel to probe further Kyoto CO2-cut projects
By Michael Szabo
LONDON | Fri Jul 30, 2010 6:55pm EDT
A United Nations climate panel will ask a working group to investigate further claims that a Kyoto Protocol scheme may be incentivizing participants to emit more greenhouse gases, it said on Friday.
Several carbon-cutting projects approved under Kyoto's $2.7 billion Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which helps provide carbon finance to emerging economies, have been accused by green groups of intentionally increasing their emissions in order to destroy them and collect more carbon offsets.
The panel is probing roughly 20 projects and they are the most lucrative under the scheme. Most of them are in China and India. They eliminate a potent waste gas called hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) and account for more than half of the 423.5 million offsets issued to the 2,300 projects approved to date.
Reuters: Enbridge sees Michigan oil line back up in days
By Jeffrey Jones in Calgary and David Bailey and Kevin Krolicki in Detroit
CALGARY | Thu Jul 29, 2010 8:08am EDT
It will be days before Enbridge Inc can get a damaged section of oil pipeline in Michigan back into service as it begins assessing the cause of the rupture and cleans up crude fouling a river, the company's chief executive said on Wednesday.
Enbridge, which ships most of Canada's crude exports to the United States, expects to excavate the pipe on Wednesday to begin investigating what caused it to break and spill 19,500 barrels (819,000 gallons) of oil into the Kalamazoo River system near Marshall, Michigan.
"We're just now starting to pull down the oil to gain access to the pipe and we're going to be working closely with federal regulators to ensure that we've accurately cut out and examined that pipe," Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel told a news conference.
Geology
OurAmazingPlanet via MSNBC: Mississippi River gets blame for giant 1811 quakes
by Brett Israel
OurAmazingPlanet
updated 7/28/2010 5:10:29 PM ET
Massive earthquakes that struck the town of New Madrid, Mo., in 1811 can be traced to the actions of the mighty Mississippi River thousands of years earlier, a new study in the journal Nature suggests.
The work could affect scientists' understanding of the fault systems that caused the quakes.
Such mid-continent temblors have fascinated seismologists because they occur not at the points where tectonic plates interact — as the 2010 Haiti quake did — but in the center of plates. New Madrid lies atop the center of the North American Plate.
Psychology/Behavior
LiveScience via MSNBC: Monkeys go bananas over flying squirrels
Could be false alarm, researchers say — or male monkeys showing off
by Adam Hadhazy
updated 7/30/2010 3:27:46 PM ET
Researchers have observed small monkeys called Japanese macaques going bananas at the sight of a flying squirrel.
This riled-up response is probably just a false alarm, with the monkeys mistaking the squirrel for a predatory bird. On the other hand, male macaques some of whom give chase and even attack a harmless rodent might be trying to impress females in their troop.
Although this tough-guy motive was not proved in a new study, "it is possible that adult or sub-adult male monkeys may be 'showing off' their fitness" as potential mates, said Kenji Onishi, an assistant professor of behavioral sciences at Osaka University and lead author of the paper being published in the current issue of the journal Primate Research.
Discovery News via MSNBC: Dogs automatically imitate people
Some dogs may look like their owners, but all dogs imitate their human companions
by Jennifer Viegas
updated 7/28/2010 9:35:53 AM ET
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, dogs often shower us with praise. New research has just determined dogs automatically imitate us, even when it is not in their best interest to do so.
The study, published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B, provides the first evidence that dogs copy at least some of our body movements and behaviors in ways that are spontaneous and voluntary.
In other words, they can't really help themselves when it comes to copying people.
Tech News Daily via MSNBC: 3-D brain model could revolutionize neurology
by Stuart Fox
updated 7/30/2010 4:47:21 PM ET
LOS ANGELES — A new project aims to produce a Google Maps-like guide of the brain's labyrinthine structure. At a presentation here at the SIGGRAPH interactive technology and computer graphics conference, researchers highlighted how a complete 3-D model of the brain could spark a new era in neurological research.
Called The Whole Brain Catalog, the project compiles data from across the research spectrum, in a variety of forms. It takes MRI data, pictures of stained neurons and theoretical diagrams of brain circuitry and presents them in a way that scientists, doctors and 3-D animators can digest in a unified way. Those users then contribute back to the site, wiki-style, to produce an increasingly full model of the brain at every scale, down to the molecular level.
Archeology/Anthropology
EurekAlert: Ancient DNA identifies donkey ancestors, people who domesticated them
Genetic investigators say the partnership between people and the ancestors of today's donkeys was sealed not by monarchs trying to establish kingdoms, but by mobile, pastoral people who had to recruit animals to help them survive the harsh Saharan landscape in northern Africa more than 5,000 years ago.
The findings, reported today by an international research team in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, paint a surprising picture of what small, isolated groups of people were able to accomplish when confronted with unpredictable storms and expanding desert.
"It says those early people were quite innovative, more so than many people today give them credit for," said senior author Connie J. Mulligan, Ph.D., an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Florida and associate director of the UF Genetics Institute. "The domestication of a wild animal was quite an intellectual breakthrough, and we have provided solid evidence that donkey domestication happened first in northern Africa and happened there more than once."
Sofia News Agency: Bulgarian Archaeologists Carry Out 'Rescue' Digs Close to Greek Border
Four teams of Bulgarian archaeologists are taking up "rescue excavations" of a large area in the Rhodope Mountains slated for the construction of an international road.
The area of 2 hectares includes four archaeology sites from different time periods, and is in the way of the long-expected road to the Makaza Pass located right on the Bulgarian-Greek border which is going to open the shortest route between from the Danube River to the Aegean Sea.
The excavations will be the largest archaeological campaign ever to take place in the District of Kardzhali, and are funded with BGN 200 000 by the Bulgarian Roads Agency, announced archaeologist Georgi Nehrizov.
MSNBC's Cosmic Log: Ancient legal code uncovered
Alan Boyle writes: Israeli archaeologists say they have found two 3,700-year-old clay tablets that appear to contain legal pronouncements similar to the Code of Hammurabi and the biblical "tooth for a tooth" rule.
The clay fragments, bearing Akkadian cuneiform script, were unearthed this summer during the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's excavations at Hazor National Park in northern Israel. They date to roughly the same time frame as the Babylonian Hammurabi Code, which is considered the world's oldest surviving written collection of laws. And the fact that the tablets were found in Israel suggests they might have had an influence on Old Testament writers.
Wayne Horowitz, a professor at Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology, told the Jerusalem Post that a team of experts is preparing the Hazor code for publication as part of a book. He said the discovery could open up interesting new connections between the Hammurabi Code and biblical law.
Time Magazine via Kurd Media: A Facelift for an Ancient Kurdish Citadel
time.com - By Charles McDermind
29/07/2010 00:00:00
Its origins are an archaeological riddle worthy of Indiana Jones, but it's also a beacon of an oil-rich future. Welcome to the at least 7,000-year-old Arbil citadel in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, a stunning walled fortress on a roughly 10-hectare site that some experts say is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement on earth (it's still occupied today, by a single family of 12). After years of stop-start negotiations, the citadel is finally set for a face-lift and likely World Heritage status.
Nobody knows who first built the towering castle-city, but it was already famous when Alexander the Great added it to his empire in 331 B.C. Some 1,500 years later, it took an invading Mongol army two tries and a six-month siege to storm it.
TamilNet: Tissamaharama potsherd evidences ordinary early Tamils among population
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 July 2010, 03:18 GMT]
A potsherd inscription in Tamil Brahmi found some times back in an archaeological excavation by a German team at Tissamaharama in the Hambantota district of the Southern Province of Sri Lanka can be interpreted as meaning an equipment to measure, and thus evidences the presence of ordinary Tamil speaking people in the population of that region as early as at 2200 years before present, says archaeologist and epigraphist, Ponnampalam Ragupathy. The identification of the script of the legend as Tamil Brahmi and the decipherment getting the reading Thira’li Mu’ri in Tamil by veteran epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan in an article last month in The Hindu, has stirred interest of the archaeological circles in the island to unearth this old find from obscurity to limelight.
Reuters via Washington Post: Sonar scanners find ancient wrecks off Italian coast
By Ella Ide
Reuters
Sunday, July 25, 2010; 7:18 AM
ROME (Reuters) - A team of marine archaeologists using sonar scanners have discovered four ancient shipwrecks off the tiny Italian island of Zannone, with intact cargoes of wine and oil.
The remains of the trading vessels, dating from the first century BC to the 5th-7th century AD, are up to 165 meters underwater, a depth that preserved them from being disturbed by fishermen over the centuries.
The Daily Telegraph: Roman villa found in Welsh 'military zone'
The Roman control over Britain stretched even further than first thought, the discovery of a new villa suggests.
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 2:36PM BST 26 Jul 2010
Archaeologists have discovered a 4th Century villa near Aberystwyth, the first time they have found evidence of Roman occupation of North and mid Wales.
Findings indicate Abermagwr had all the trappings of villas found further south, including a slate roof and glazed windows.
The villa is likely to have belonged to a wealthy landowner, with pottery and coin finds on the site indicating occupation in the late 3rd and early 4th Centuries AD.
Red Orbit: The Thunderstone Mystery
Posted on: Thursday, 29 July 2010, 16:57 CDT
What's a Stone Age axe doing in an Iron Age tomb? The archaeologists Olle Hemdorff at the University of Stavanger's Museum of Archaeology and Eva Thäte are researching older objects in younger graves. They have found a pattern.
"If one finds something once, it's accidental. If it is found twice, it's puzzling. If found thrice, there is a pattern", the archaeologists Olle Hemdorff and Eva Thäte say.
In 2005 the archaeologists investigated a grave at Avaldsnes in Karmøy in southwestern Norway, supposed to be from the late Iron Age, i.e. from 600 to 1000 AD. Avaldsnes is rich in archeological finds. They dot an area that has been a seat of power all the way back to around 300. Archaeologist Olle Hemdorff at the University of Stavanger's Museum of Archaeology was responsible for a series of excavations at Avaldsnes in 1993-94 and 2005-06.
The Guardian: Chinese archaeologists' African quest for sunken ship of Ming admiral
It's another chapter in the now familiar story of China's economic embrace of Africa. Except that this one begins nearly 600 years ago.
A team of 11 Chinese archaeologists will arrive in Kenya tomorrow to begin the search for an ancient shipwreck and other evidence of commerce with China dating back to the early 15th century. The three-year, £2m joint project will centre around the tourist towns of Lamu and Malindi and should shed light on a largely unknown part of both countries' histories.
The sunken ship is believed to have been part of a mighty armada commanded by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He, who reached Malindi in 1418. According to Kenyan lore, reportedly backed by recent DNA testing, a handful of survivors swum ashore. After killing a python that had been plaguing a village, they were allowed to stay and marry local women, creating a community of African-Chinese whose descendants still live in the area.
National Post (Canada): Canadians discover long-lost ship ‘fundamental’ to Arctic sovereignty
By Don Martin, National Post July 28, 2010
MERCY BAY, N.W.T. • The ship whose crew discovered Canada’s Northwest Passage has been found 155 years after it was abandoned and disappeared in this isolated Arctic bay, a historic find and one that may help bolster Canadian claims to Arctic sovereignty.
The wreck of HMS Investigator was detected in shallow water within days of Parks Canada archeologists launching an ambitious search for the 422-ton ship from a chilly tent encampment on the Beaufort Sea shoreline.
"It’s sitting upright in silt; the three masts have been removed, probably by ice," said Ifan Thomas, Parks Canada’s superintendent of the western Arctic Field Unit. "It’s a largely intact ship in very cold water, so deterioration didn’t happen very quickly."
The Providence Journal: Mystery R.I. shipwreck spawns theories
01:00 AM EDT on Friday, July 30, 2010
By Thomas J. Morgan
NARRAGANSETT — When Bob Kenyon’s gaze fell upon a front-page photograph in The Providence Journal last week, he traveled back more than 20 years to a day when he labored as a crew member aboard a fishing vessel home-ported in Galilee.
The photo showed an old piece of wooden wreckage that, to the delight of summertime curiosity-seekers, the forces of erosion had dredged out of the dunes to the east of East Matunuck Beach in the village of Jerusalem.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
NewsCore (Australia): Last few early humans survived in 'Eden', scientists say
By Staff Writers
A STRIP of land on Africa's southern coast became a last refuge for the band of early humans who survived an ice age that wiped out the species elsewhere, scientists maintain.
The land, referred to by researchers as "the garden of Eden," may have been the only part of Africa to remain continuously habitable during the ice age that began about 195,000 years ago.
Scientists' excavations showed how a combination of rich vegetation on land and nutrient-laden currents in the sea created a source of food that could sustain early humans through devastating climate changes.
Discovery News via MSNBC: Audubon's first engraving discovered
Running grouse was intended for mass production on bank notes
by Teresa Shipley
updated 7/30/2010 12:28:29 PM ET
A 200-year-old mystery has finally been solved.
Thanks to a never-say-die effort between a currency historian and a scholar studying John James Audubon (1785-1851), the famous artist's first published bird illustration has been discovered.
This depiction of a running grouse or Heath Hen (a relative of the greater prairie chicken) was intended for mass production on bank notes. Audubon had mentioned the drawing and the resulting engraved paper money in two diary entries, but evidence of the work was never found.
Physics
Science News: Two is the magic number
Pillar of quantum mechanics stands up to new experiment
By Laura Sanders
Extending an experiment at the foundation of quantum physics confirms that two is company and three is a crowd. In a new twist on the famous double-slit experiment, researchers have verified a basic tenet of quantum mechanics by showing that adding a third slit doesn’t create additional interference between packets of light.
The double-slit experiment embodies the mystery at the heart of quantum mechanics, the famous physicist Richard Feynman observed in his Lectures on Physics. The experiment illustrates some of the strangest predictions of quantum mechanics, including the dual particle-wave nature of tiny objects.
Chemistry
Science Daily: Behind the Secrets of Silk Lie High-Tech Opportunities
ScienceDaily (July 29, 2010) — Tougher than a bullet-proof vest yet synonymous with beauty and luxury, silk fibers are a masterpiece of nature whose remarkable properties have yet to be fully replicated in the laboratory.
Thanks to their amazing mechanical properties as well as their looks, silk fibers have been important materials in textiles, medical sutures, and even armor for 5,000 years.
Silk spun by spiders and silk worms combines high strength and extensibility. This one-two punch is unmatched by synthetics, even though silk is made from a relatively simple protein processed from water.
But in recent years scientists have begun to unravel the secrets of silk.
Energy
NPR: Experts Fuss Over Cost Of Nuclear Fusion Research
by Geoffrey Brumfiel
What would you pay for a clean technology that could meet all the world's energy needs without producing an ounce of carbon dioxide?
On Tuesday morning, governments from around the world are meeting in France to discuss exactly that. On the agenda is ITER — Latin for "the way" — which is a major experiment to harness the power of nuclear fusion.
ITER's promise of clean, nearly limitless power has won support from politicians. But the experiment's multibillion-dollar price tag has critics wondering whether it's really worth the cost.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
Space News: Vote on NASA Bill Appears Unlikely Before September
By Amy Klamper
WASHINGTON — A controversial House NASA authorization bill that appeared headed for a floor vote July 30 has stalled, and it appears unlikely the measure will be taken up before lawmakers leave town for a six-week summer break that begins Aug. 2.
House leadership aides said just before midnight July 29 that the bill, a three-year authorization that recommends funding the U.S. space agency at roughly $19 billion a year through 2013, would not be taken up July 30, and that it is very unlikely the measure will come to a vote before lawmakers head home to campaign in their districts.
Although the bill, H.R. 5781, would not actually fund NASA, it would set guidelines for how much Congress can spend on the agency’s programs. In June House appropriators approved a $19 billion budget for NASA next year, but fenced off most of the agency’s $4.2 billion human space exploration budget pending enactment of an authorization bill.
Science Education
Perry County Times: Researcher digs to find location of historic site
Published: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 4:27 PM Updated: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 4:29 PM
Wade Fowler
Victor Hart of Mechanicsburg is striving to finish a project he started as a middle school history teacher at West Perry School District.
After years of historical research and archaeological digs, many of them conducted by students at West Perry, Hart thinks he may be closing in on the actual site of Fort Robinson, in Northeast Madison Twp.
Hart is the archaeology director of the Perry County Historical Society under whose aegis the work continues.
The search for Fort Robinson sprang from a $3,000 Teaching American History Grant given by the state to West Perry teachers, Steve Johnson, Jeff Popchock and Hart.
The grant provided the funding for a school-community archaeology program to give both students and adults alike an opportunity to participate in professional archaeological digs.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Science Writing and Reporting
MSNBC's Cosmic Log: Tales for summer science odysseys
Alan Boyle writes: Summer's the season for kicking back, taking time off and heading out on flights of fancy ... preferably with a good book (or e-reader) in your backpack. It's great if the book is associated with far-off times and places. And if the book sparks your brain's science-loving regions, so much the better.
Here's a roundup of books keyed to different fields of science as well as different travel destinations, some of which you can visit only in your imagination:
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Science is Cool
MSNBC's Cosmic Log: The last super-cars standing
Alan Boyle writes: The $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize competition finished up its final on-track round, and the results are clear: If anyone is going to win the $5 million contest for four-seat cars, it's going to be the Virginia-based Edison2 team. If anyone is going to win the $2.5 million contest for alternative two-seat tandem vehicles, it's going to be the Swiss X-Tracer team. It's only the last $2.5 million - set aside for two-seat, side-by-side cars - that is up for grabs.
Edison2 and X-Tracer are sure things, because those teams have the only cars still standing in each of those contests ... two in each category. The side-by-side contest has five cars entered, and based on a runoff race that was conducted this morning, it looks as if it's down to the Finnish RaceAbout team vs. the Wave II from Nevada-based Li-Ion Motors. Those teams finished the course at the Michigan International Speedway just seconds apart, with RaceAbout leading by a nose.
"Only performance stats will tell who wins the big prize in this category," the X Prize Foundation's Amanda Stiles reported in a Twitter update from the race track in Brooklyn, Mich.
I used to live so close to this track that I could not only hear the cars racing, I could tell whether they were stock cars or Indy cars. Stock cars roar. Indy cars whine. I bet I couldn't have heard any of these cars.
Cracked: 5 Ridiculous Ancient Beliefs That Turned Out to Be True
By CRACKED Staff, Sam Blitz
We've worked pretty hard here at Cracked to establish the fact that people from the past were batshit insane. They believed some of the most ridiculous things imaginable, though you can't blame them considering that instead of scientists, they had crazy people claiming to be oracles.
Yet... some of the outlandish myths wound up suspiciously close to the mark. How? We have no idea.
I can't believe I beat Rimjob to this one.