Science News
To tame traffic, go with the flow
Lights should respond to cars, a study concludes, not the other way around By Rachel Ehrenberg
Web edition : Friday, September 17th, 2010
Traffic lights that act locally can improve traffic globally, new research suggests. By minimizing congestion, the approach could save money, reduce emissions and perhaps even quash the road rage of frustrated drivers.
The new approach makes traffic lights go with the flow, rather than enslaving drivers to the tyranny of timed signals. By measuring vehicle inflow and outflow through each intersection as it occurs and coordinating lights with only their nearest neighbors, a systemwide smoothness emerges, scientists report in a September Santa Fe Institute working paper.
"It’s very interesting — the approach is adaptive and the system can react," says mechanical engineer Gábor Orosz of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "That’s how it should be — that’s how we can get the most out of our current system." |
2 new dinosaur species discovered in southern Utah
By BROCK VERGAKIS, Associated Press Writer
Scientists said Wednesday they've discovered fossils in the southern Utah desert of two new dinosaur species closely related to the Triceratops, including one with 15 horns on its large head.
The discovery of the new plant-eating species — including Kosmoceratops richardsoni, considered the most ornate-headed dinosaur known to man — was reported Wednesday in the online scientific journal PLoS ONE, produced by the Public Library of Science.
The other dinosaur, which has five horns and is the larger of the two, was dubbed Utahceratops gettyi. |
City living helped humans evolve immunity to TB
University College London
New research has found that a genetic variant which reduces the chance of contracting diseases such as tuberculosis and leprosy is more prevalent in populations with long histories of urban living.
The research, published in the journal Evolution, shows that in areas with a long history of urban settlements, today's inhabitants are more likely to possess the genetic variant which provides resistance to infection.
In ancient cities, poor sanitation and high population densities would have provided an ideal breeding ground for the spread of disease. Natural selection should mean that humans would have developed resistance to disease in long-standing urbanised populations over time. However, this association has been very difficult to assess - especially in prehistory. |
Neanderthals more advanced than previously thought
They innovated, adapted like modern humans University of Colorado Denver
For decades scientists believed Neanderthals developed `modern' tools and ornaments solely through contact with Homo sapiens, but new research from the University of Colorado Denver now shows these sturdy ancients could adapt, innovate and evolve technology on their own.
The findings by anthropologist Julien Riel-Salvatore challenge a half-century of conventional wisdom maintaining that Neanderthals were thick-skulled, primitive `cavemen' overrun and outcompeted by more advanced modern humans arriving in Europe from Africa.
"Basically, I am rehabilitating Neanderthals," said Riel-Salvatore, assistant professor of anthropology at UC Denver. "They were far more resourceful than we have given them credit for." |
Technology News
Artists Grab 5,000 Web Images for 1 Massive Collage
By Hugh Hart
To produce the dense, hypersaturated art pieces seen in their new exhibition, two artists googled the web, scoured fan forums and browsed Flickr accounts to round up 5,000 images for a single collage.
The duo, who work under the moniker Simmons & Burke, then assembled their visual plunder into the eye-popping print, pictured above. "We like the idea of making a Frankensteinian world that is both overwhelming and quieting," Case Simmons and Andrew Burke told Wired.com in an e-mail interview.
For their new exhibition If Not Winter, which goes on display Thursday at Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, the pair appropriated about 15,000 images from a vast trove of sources. "We use all sorts of sites and forums to discover images and samples on the internet," they said. |
Apple, Startup Go to Trial Over ‘Pod’ Trademark
By Brian X. Chen
Apple is scheduled to go to trial with a startup to fight over a three-letter word: Pod.
The trademark battle centers on independent entrepreneur Daniel Kokin (right), founder of startup Sector Labs, and his video projector in development called Video Pod. Apple had previously filed oppositions against Kokin’s usage of "Pod," alleging that it would cause customers to confuse it with Apple’s iPod products. |
How the iPhone could get to Verizon
by Erica Ogg
One of the most-asked questions about wireless devices is, "When is the Verizon iPhone coming?" Is it January? July? Or some time in 2012?
There isn't a clear answer yet. There's been talk about such an event since very soon after Apple introduced its smartphone in 2007, but rumors have begun regaining momentum this year. It seems like every week there's a new angle, a fresh theory, or suddenly uncovered factoid that points to Apple finally opening up the iPhone to another carrier in the U.S. besides AT&T, and specifically Verizon, which is the U.S. largest carrier. None of it has been confirmed and no one has gone on the record saying when or if it would happen.
So rather than trying to piece together clues or referee the debate about when, why, or if, let's get practical. What, exactly, would have to happen for Apple to bring the iPhone to Verizon? There are a few barriers in the way, some technical, legal, strategic, and intrinsic to the culture of the companies involved. None of the following is impossible to overcome and in all likelihood will be eventually. |
Analyst: Apple's iPad is 'Mac for masses'; 21 million units for 2011
By Larry Dignan
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is predicting that the iPad will ship 21 million units in calendar 2011, up from the 14.5 million he initially expected.
Calling the iPad the "Mac for the masses," Munster reckons that broader distribution, an international rollout and enterprise demand will drive Apple’s tablet.
"We believe the iPad represents a meaningful product category for Apple as a secondary computing device for those who already have a primary computer, a primary device for those who could not previously afford a Mac, and the first Apple product that will be a success in the enterprise; we see the iPad as the Mac for the masses," said Munster. |
Environmental News
Study shows latest government spill estimate right
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
After several missteps, the federal government finally got it right, accurately estimating how much oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, an independent scientific study found.
Nearly 185 million gallons of oil spilled from the broken BP well into the Gulf of Mexico this summer, according to a study by two Columbia University researchers who made their estimates based on video of the oil spewing from the well.
The federal government's final estimate was a shade more than 172 million gallons. The Columbia researchers' estimate is 12.6 million gallons more than the federal figure. However, because it's so difficult to get a precise estimate, there is a large margin of error for both the government figure and the Columbia number. The margin is so large that the two estimates essentially overlap, the researchers said. Their study was published online Thursday in the journal Science. |
New map offers a global view of health-sapping air pollution
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
In many developing countries, the absence of surface-based air pollution sensors makes it difficult, and in some cases impossible, to get even a rough estimate of the abundance of a subcategory of airborne particles that epidemiologists suspect contributes to millions of premature deaths each year. The problematic particles, called fine particulate matter (PM2.5), are 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, about a tenth the fraction of human hair. These small particles can get past the body's normal defenses and penetrate deep into the lungs.
To fill in these gaps in surface-based PM2.5 measurements, experts look toward satellites to provide a global perspective. Yet, satellite instruments have generally struggled to achieve accurate measurements of the particles in near-surface air. The problem: Most satellite instruments can't distinguish particles close to the ground from those high in the atmosphere. In addition, clouds tend to obscure the view. And bright land surfaces, such as snow, desert sand, and those found in certain urban areas can mar measurements. |
130 Feet Above the Amazon Rainforest, Scientists Sample the Last Pristine Air on Earth =
By Clay Dillow
The full ramifications of the Industrial Revolution on this planet may never be known, not because the scope of the those changes can’t be measured but because the same rapid, spastic technological changes that hurled industry forward into a new era did the same for science. As such, pre-industrial science didn’t possess many of the instruments and technologies that allow modern science to happen. So how do you, say, find out what air quality was like before the Revolution wrecked it? You climb up into the canopy in the remotest part of the Amazon rainforest and take a deep breath.
That’s exactly what an international team of researchers recently did in order to get a sample of what air was like before human activity crowded it with particulate pollution. Deep in the Amazon Basin of Manaus, Brazil, the team climbed up 130 feet into the air to find pristine air that had blown two days' travel away from the nearest contaminating sources. This is where the atmosphere is thought to most closely resemble pre-Revolution conditions. |
Groundwater depletion rate accelerating worldwide
AGU Release No. 10–30
In recent decades, the rate at which humans worldwide are pumping dry the vast underground stores of water that billions depend on has more than doubled, say scientists who have conducted an unusual, global assessment of groundwater use.
These fast-shrinking subterranean reservoirs are essential to daily life and agriculture in many regions, while also sustaining streams, wetlands, and ecosystems and resisting land subsidence and salt water intrusion into fresh water supplies. Today, people are drawing so much water from below that they are adding enough of it to the oceans (mainly by evaporation, then precipitation) to account for about 25 percent of the annual sea level rise across the planet, the researchers find.
Soaring global groundwater depletion bodes a potential disaster for an increasingly globalized agricultural system, says Marc Bierkens of Utrecht University in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and leader of the new study. |
Medical News
Main malaria parasite came to humans from gorillas, not chimps
Fecal samples make the case By Rachel Ehrenberg
Web edition : 2:34 pm
The mosquito that first injected Homo sapiens with the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum didn’t pick it up from humans’ closest primate relative, the chimpanzee, but from the western gorilla, new research suggests. The primary cause of malaria in humans, P. falciparum is most closely related to another species of Plasmodium that infects gorillas, scientists report in the Sept. 23 Nature. |
Researchers engineer adult stem cells that do not age
Biomedical researchers at the University at Buffalo have engineered adult stem cells that scientists can grow continuously in culture, a discovery that could speed development of cost-effective treatments for diseases including heart disease, diabetes, immune disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Provided by University at Buffalo
UB scientists created the new cell lines - named "MSC Universal" - by genetically altering mesenchymal stem cells, which are found in bone marrow and can differentiate into cell types including bone, cartilage, muscle, fat, and beta-pancreatic islet cells.
The researchers say the breakthrough overcomes a frustrating barrier to progress in the field of regenerative medicine: The difficulty of growing adult stem cells for clinical applications.
Because mesenchymal stem cells have a limited life span in laboratory cultures, scientists and doctors who use the cells in research and treatments must continuously obtain fresh samples from bone marrow donors, a process both expensive and time-consuming. In addition, mesenchymal stem cells from different donors can vary in performance. |
Aortic valve replacement can be an option for inoperable patients, study shows
By Lee Phillion
An innovative procedure that can replace a diseased heart valve is effective for patients who are too frail to endure open-heart surgery, according to results of a nationwide clinical study.
Doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere have demonstrated that an investigational device, which uses a catheter to implant a uniquely designed replacement aortic valve, can make valve replacement an option for patients with aortic stenosis who are not suitable candidates for surgery.
The study involved older, critically ill patients who were not candidates for open-heart surgery, which requires stopping the heart and putting patients on a heart-lung bypass machine. |
Brain-protecting enzyme may fight Alzheimer's
By Julie Steenhuysen
Restoring levels of a nerve-protecting enzyme offers a new approach to developing treatments for Alzheimer's disease, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
They said the enzyme SIRT1 may help prevent the formation of a toxic form of the protein tau that kills brain cells in people with Alzheimer's disease.
"This is definitely the first step toward finding new strategies to reduce tau," Li Gan at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease in San Francisco, whose study appears in the journal Neuron, said in a telephone interview. |
Space News
Primordial Magnetic Fields Discovered Across The Universe
by Staff Writers
Los Angeles CA
Scientists from the California Institute of Technology and UCLA have discovered evidence of "universal ubiquitous magnetic fields" that have permeated deep space between galaxies since the time of the Big Bang.
Caltech physicist Shin'ichiro Ando and Alexander Kusenko, a professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA, report the discovery in a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters; the research is currently available online. |
'Super' Harvest Moon Marks Earth's Changing Seasons
By Tariq Malik
SPACE.com Managing Editor
A bright Harvest Moon ushered in the changing seasons on Earth late Wednesday (Sept. 22) in a rare cosmic arrangement that has not occurred in nearly 20 years.
The full moon of September arrived on the same night as the autumnal equinox, which occurred last night at 11:09 p.m. EDT (0309 GMT Sept. 23) to mark the official start of the fall season in the Northern Hemisphere, as well as spring in the south.
Not since Sept. 23, 1991 has a full moon occurred on the same night as the fall equinox, and it won't happen again until 2029, wrote astronomer Tony Phillips in a NASA announcement. |
Jupiter Closest to Earth Tonight, With Uranus Just Behind
Gas giant planet will be nearest to us since 1951. Andrew Fazekas
for National Geographic News
Jupiter will be making its closest approach to Earth Monday night since 1951, and for about the next four months the giant planet will be teamed up with a distant relative: Uranus.
Jupiter will officially be nearest to our planet—368 million miles (592 million kilometers) away—when it reaches opposition, the term for when the sun, Earth, and a given planet are lined up in a row.
"Oppositions of the Earth and Jupiter occur roughly every 400 days, due to Earth catching up to Jupiter and lapping it in its race around the sun," said Raminder Singh Samra, resident astronomer at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia.
"But because the orbits of the planets are slightly elliptical, the distances between oppositions vary, and so the next time [Earth and Jupiter] are this close won't be until 2022."
For the rest of September, Jupiter will be the brightest object in the sky, aside from the moon. The planet will be visible all night long, rising in the east at sunset and setting in the west around sunrise. |
NASA Rover Finds Another Possible Meteorite on Mars
Mike Wall
SPACE.com Senior Writer
NASA's plucky Mars rover Opportunity has discovered what appears to be another meteorite on the surface of the Red Planet, bringing its lifetime total to five so far.
The rover spotted the rock at the end of its 81-meter (266-foot) drive on Sept. 16, NASA officials said. It appears as a dark, toaster-sized rock in photos taken by the rover from 31 meters (102 feet) away. [Photo: Rover's latest Mars meteorite.]
"The dark color, rounded texture and the way it is perched on the surface all make it look like an iron meteorite," said rover science team member Matt Golombek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
The newfound rock has been given the informal name "Oilean Ruaidh" (pronounced ay-lan ruah), which is the Gaelic name for an island off the coast of northwestern Ireland. The rock appears to be about 45 centimeters (18 inches) wide. |
Odd News
German restaurant in hot water over giant schnitzels
Reuters
A German restaurant operator has run into trouble with local tax authorities because he makes larger-than-average schnitzels -- or veal cutlets -- for his customers in a working class section of Saxony.
Gerhard Kaltscheuer said his giant schnitzels are popular in the town of Hammerbruecke and he sells about 70 dishes per day. He said tax officials told him they believe he sells 200 portions daily based on the amount of raw material he purchases.
"If I served the customers smaller portions at the normal price like that, I wouldn't have any customers because that wouldn't fill them up," Kaltscheuer told Reuters. He said he makes his portions large because his customers are laborers. |