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 Space.com via MSNBC.
Perseid meteor shower lives up to its promise
The 2010 Perseid meteor shower lived up to its promise of a meteor per minute just before dawn Friday, providing an excellent celestial spectacle for people around the globe who had dark and clear skies.
"In Iran, the Perseid meteor shower was great," Mohammad Reza Zaman Sani told Spaceweather.com.
More science, space, and environment stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
DarkSyde: This week in science
DarkSyde: CNN climate disinformant gets religion on global warming
Edger: Pakistan, & Hugely Unequal Global Climate Change Effects
Patience is Not a Virtue: The Awful Impacts of Scientific Misconduct and Ambiguity
Slideshows/Videos
Washington Post: Perseid meteor shower lights up the night sky
The annual Perseid meteor shower brightened up the night sky, creating a spectacle for stargazers all over the globe.
Discovery News: DNews Quiz
Test your smarts on the week's leading stories, take the Discovery News Quiz!
We admit it: here at Discovery News, we're a little competitive. We also have our minds blown every single day by the news we report.
That's why we, the DNews staff, create this weekly news quiz: it's just a friendly test of how much we remember, as well as a way to blow your minds too -- because that's what we call fun.
So test your smarts with the DNews Quiz, and beware of brain burn.
National Geographic: Sea-Creature Discoveries Spawn Music Video
Featured in a new "roll call" of life from 25 key ocean regions, marine oddities oscillate, swim, and skitter to an ocean "chorus." The animals are all on the Census of Marine Life's newly released species inventory of 25 key areas of the world's oceans. Each area averages more than 10,000 known forms of life, including jellyfish, octopus, sharks, and crustaceans.
BBC: Orangutans mime to get message across
An orangutan uses a palm to mime opening up a coconut, in the hope that her human companion will use his machete to do just that
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News
Just like humans, orangutans will resort to mime to get their message across, scientists report.
A team from Canada found the great apes would sometimes use elaborate gestures to explain what they meant.
They mimed the action of being scratched to get an itch attended to, and enacted opening a termite nest to prompt a partner to do just that.
The study, published in Biology Letters, suggests ape communication is more complex than was thought.
Dark Roasted Blend: Dwellers In The Abyss: Ugly, Monstrous Fish
"Why are the Earth's oceans more mysterious to us than the Moon?"
- Bill Bryson, "A Short History of Nearly Everything"
It's commonly said we know more about the surface of the moon than we know about what happens right here on our own planet, in that murky world at the bottom of the sea. And indeed, we have only explored less than 5 percent of our oceans (we have better maps of Mars than we do of the ocean floor!)
Here's a fun fact for you: did you know that you, an unprotected human being, can last for about two whole minutes in a vacuum -- say on the surface of the moon? Here's another amusing bit of knowledge: did you also know that you, still just an unprotected homo sapiens, would last only the barest smidgen of a second before being totally, completely pulped by the crushing pressures at the bottom of the sea?
There is also more light on the dark side of the moon than there is down, down, down in those ocean depths... One thing we do know, though: even in the deepest part of the ocean, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, despite the crushing pressure (at least 16,000 pounds per square inch) and the absolute, total, complete darkness, there is life. Auguste Piccard, who made an adventurous trip in 1960 to the bottom of the Deep in his bathyscaphe, the Trieste, saw a few extreme creatures that managed to made that extreme environment their home.
DishSTUDIO on YouTube: Solar Eclipse Visible via DISH Network's DishEARTH
On July 11, 2010 a solar eclipse occurred, but was not visible in our hemisphere. DISH Network customers were able to view the phenomenon on the TV company's exclusive DishEARTH channel. Want to see what they saw? Watch the clip.
Astronomy/Space
IBNLive (India): India to launch GAGAN satellite-based navigation system
Jaimon Joseph, CNN-IBN
New Delhi: India is set to launch its own satellite-based navigation system - GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation or GAGAN.
In the next five years the Indian airspace will get more crowded and the chances of accidents may increase. To reduce the chances of future air disasters, India has endeavoured on the GAGAN project for traffic and directional guidance from outer space.
"The scope for GAGAN extends far beyond Indian borders. It reaches up to Africa and south East Asia. It is a huge airspace that we can monitor with this technology," says Praful Patel, minister of state for civil aviation.
MSNBC's Cosmic Log: 50 years of space elevator dreams
Alan Boyle writes: When Soviet engineer Yuri Artsutanov came up with his concept for an "electric train to the cosmos" in 1960, he thought it'd take 200 years to turn it into a reality. Fifty years later, the 81-year-old is more optimistic: Now he thinks the first space elevator will rise into the heavens 30 years from now.
"It's happening very quickly," he told me through an interpreter today.
Artsutanov is among the optimists who have come to the Microsoft corporate campus in Redmond, Wash., for the 2010 Space Elevator Conference this weekend. (Microsoft and NBC Universal are partners in the msnbc.com joint venture.) The annual gathering brings together researchers and entrepreneurs who specialize in the technologies that could come into play if anyone ever builds Artsutanov's train to the cosmos.
Evolution/Paleontology
Science Daily: Mosasaur Fossil: Life of 85-Million-Year-Old 'Sea Monster' Illuminated
ScienceDaily (Aug. 10, 2010) — One of the ocean's most formidable marine predators, the marine mosasaur Platecarpus, lived in the Cretaceous Period some 85 million years ago and was thought to have swum like an eel. That theory is debunked in a new paper published August 10 in the journal PLoS ONE. An international team of scientists have reconceived the animal's morphology, or body plan, based on a spectacular specimen housed at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Biodiversity
Examiner.com: Michigan Sea Grant confirms zebra mussels in 255 of Michigan's inland lakes
By Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner
In a press release issued by Michigan State University on Monday, Michigan Sea Grant confirmed reports of zebra mussels from 255 of Michigan's inland lakes and 17 of the state's streams and rivers in 2009. The number of inland lakes in Michigan infested by zebra mussels has steadily increased during the past decade, with more than 100 lakes being added to the 149 known in 2000.
The worst-hit county in the state has been Oakland County with 51 infested lakes. The three next most impacted counties have been Livingston County with 17, Cass County with 14, and Branch County with 11.
The reports have come in from both amateurs and professionals, including lakefront property owners, other interested citizens, and resource managers. The reports were of colonies of adult mussels attached to hard surfaces, including boats, docks, rocks, dams, and water pumps.
More at the link, including basic information about zebra mussels, what boaters and others can do to prevent their spread, and a brief description of the Michigan Sea Grant.
Personal note: I spent almost an entire year working at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory doing research on zebra mussels. Before that, I wrote a paper describing a model of the population dynamics of the zebra mussel's introduction and spread throughout the Great Lakes. I was also the person who piloted the boat used by the researcher who found zebra mussels in the lake where I had a summer house from 1994-1999 that became my full-time residence during 1999-2006. Trust me, I'm very familiar with these critters.
Michigan State University: Freezing, preserving sperm vital to saving ‘snot otter’ salamanders
EAST LANSING, Mich. — The hellbender salamander - known affectionately as a snot otter or devil dog - is one of America's unique giant salamander species. For unexplained reasons, most hellbender populations have rapidly declined as very little reproduction has occurred in recent decades.
Working with researchers from the Nashville Zoo and Antwerp Zoo in Belgium, veterinarians from Michigan State University are helping develop conservation techniques to sample and freeze the sperm from some of the last surviving salamanders. The international consortium's work aims to enable future re-stocking of genetically viable hellbenders back to their streams and rivers, ensuring the survival of the species.
The largest salamander found in North America, the hellbender can grow to up to 30 inches long and live 30 years or more. They live in a geographic range from Arkansas northeast to New York and have remained relatively unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs.
Discovery News: New Monkey Sports Bushy Red Beard
By Jennifer Viegas
An expedition to the Colombian Amazon has just revealed a new species of titi monkey that's the size of a house-cat and sports a bushy red beard, Conservation International announced today. The discovery is also described in the journal Primate Conservation.
Titi monkeys hail from South America and are territorial, monogamous, and always possess furry, never prehensile, tails. Most have a white, bar-shaped patch of fur on their foreheads, but the new monkey, Callicebus caquetensis, is an exception, as you can see.
BBC: Peru battles rabid vampire bats after 500 people bitten
Peru's health ministry has sent emergency teams to a remote Amazon region to battle an outbreak of rabies spread by vampire bats.
Four children in the Awajun indigenous tribe died after being bitten by the bloodsucking mammals.
Health workers have given rabies vaccine to more than 500 people who have also been attacked.
Some experts have linked mass vampire bat attacks on people in the Amazon to deforestation.
Biotechnology/Health
News.com.au: Meet Spider Goat - the DNA-enhanced web-flinging nanny that may one day knit bones
By Peter Farquhar, Technology Editor
ON a farm in Wyoming, USA, goats are being milked for their spider webs.
And if that sounds bizarre, molecular biologist Randy Lewis claims that within two years, spider silk milked from goats could replace your body's tired or strained tendons and ligaments - maybe even bones.
Professor Lewis and his team at the University of Wyoming have successfully implanted the silk-making genes from a golden orb spider into a herd of goats and are now, finally, producing one of nature's strongest products in useable quantities.
BBC: New 'superbug' found in UK hospitals
By Michelle Roberts
Health reporter, BBC News
A new superbug that is resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics has entered UK hospitals, experts warn.
They say bacteria that make an enzyme called NDM-1 have travelled back with NHS patients who went abroad to countries like India and Pakistan for treatments such as cosmetic surgery.
Although there have only been about 50 cases identified in the UK so far, scientists fear it will go global.
Tight surveillance and new drugs are needed says Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Northwestern University: What Makes a Good Egg and Healthy Embryo?
Discovery about zinc’s role may help in future fertility treatments
By Marla Paul
CHICAGO --- Scientists as well as fertility doctors have long tried to figure out what makes a good egg that will produce a healthy embryo. It’s a particularly critical question for fertility doctors deciding which eggs isolated from a woman will produce the best embryos and, ultimately, babies.
New research reveals healthy eggs need a tremendous amount of zinc to reach maturity and be ready for fertilization -- a finding that may ultimately help physicians assess the best eggs for fertility treatment, according to a study from Northwestern University.
"Understanding zinc’s role may eventually help us measure the quality of an egg and lead to advances in fertility treatment," said Alison Kim, a postdoctoral fellow in obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "Currently we can’t predict which eggs isolated from a woman produce the best embryos and will result in a baby. Not all eggs are capable of becoming healthy embryos."
There’s no link yet to zinc content in the egg and the nutritional status of women, but Kim plans to research that area.
University of Michigan: New insights into how stem cells determine what tissue to become
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Within 24 hours of culturing adult human stem cells on a new type of matrix, University of Michigan researchers were able to make predictions about how the cells would differentiate, or what type of tissue they would become. Their results are published in the Aug. 1 edition of Nature Methods.
Differentiation is the process of stem cells morphing into other types of cells. Understanding it is key to developing future stem cell-based regenerative therapies.
"We show, for the first time, that we can predict stem cell differentiation as early as Day 1," said Jianping Fu, an assistant professor in mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering who is the first author on the paper.
University of Michigan: Scientists identify 95 genetic variants associated with cholesterol, triglycerides
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—A global team of researchers co-led by the University of Michigan School of Public Health has discovered or confirmed 95 regions of the human genome where genetic variants are associated with blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels, which are major indicators of heart disease risk.
Of the total, 59 variants were associated with cholesterol and triglyceride lipid levels for the first time, said Tanya Teslovich, a postdoctoral research fellow at the U-M School of Public Health and first author on the study. Teslovich said identifying the 59 new variants on the genome is "probably the most exciting part of the study," which is scheduled to appear Aug. 5 in the journal Nature.
Researchers look at four lipid traits: total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, (the so-called bad cholesterol), HDL-cholesterol (good cholesterol), and triglycerides. A combination of genetics and environment plays a role in determining those levels in our blood.
University of Michigan: Healthiest pregnant women feel a strong sense of community
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—It takes a village to keep a pregnant woman at her healthiest, a new University of Michigan study shows.
The study compared African American and European American women and women of lower and higher socioeconomic status to see what effects communalism, or a strong sense of community, had on African American women and women of lower socioeconomic status.
The pregnant African American women and women of lower socioeconomic status had overall higher levels of stress, negative effect and blood pressure than women of higher status based on race or education and income. However, these ethnic and socioeconomic disparities were not observed among women with higher communalism.
University of Michigan: Sperm may be harmed by exposure to BPA, study suggests
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—In one of the first human studies of its kind, researchers have found that urinary concentrations of the controversial chemical Bisphenol A, or BPA, may be related to decreased sperm quality and sperm concentration.
However, the researchers are quick to point out that these results are preliminary and more study is needed. Several studies have documented adverse effects of BPA on semen in rodents, but none are known to have reported similar relationships in humans.
BPA is a common chemical that's stirred much controversy in the media lately over its safety. Critics say that BPA mimics the body's own hormones and may lead to negative health effects. BPA is most commonly used to make plastics and epoxy resins used in food and beverage cans, and people are exposed primarily through diet, although other routes are possible. More than 6 billion pounds of BPA are produced annually.
Examiner.com: MSU researchers find green buildings make for healthier, more productive employees
By Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner
Changing one's workplace from a conventional building to a green building is not only good for the environment, it is also good for one's health and work performance.
So says a study conducted by four Michigan State University researchers and published in the American Journal of Public Health (abstract only). They found that found that two sets of Lansing office employees who moved from conventional buildings to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified green buildings experienced fewer hours of suffering from asthma, respiratory allergies, depression, and stress while at work after moving to their new green quarters. The same employees also reported less absenteeism for those same conditions. Finally, the workers also believed they had increased their productivity in the new buildings because of their perceived improvements in health and well-being. The researchers calculated that the total potential productivity gains approximated a full work week per building occupant per year.
"These preliminary findings indicate that green buildings may positively affect public health," the researchers wrote, as quoted in a press release.
The full study can be read free at the Michigan State University website (PDF).
More about how the study was done, the detailed findings, and plans for future research at the source, which is linked in the headline.
The Guardian via Monbiot.com: Turning Estates into Villages
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 9th August 2010
It took me a while to recognise what I was seeing. It was an ordinary campsite in Pembrokeshire: a square field with tents around the perimeter. But it had a curious effect on the children staying there. Young people who had seldom experienced daylight slowly emerged from their tents and were drawn towards the centre of the field. Bats and balls left on the grass mysteriously appeared in their hands. Children with no prior interest in sport started playing football, cricket and rounders. Little kids ran around with older ones. As children of all classes played together, their parents started talking to each other. It hit me with some force: we had reinvented the village green.
We are, to a surprising extent, what the built environment makes us. Academic papers show that many of the problems we blame on individual behaviour are caused in part by the places in which we live. People are more likely to help their neighbours in quiet areas, for example, than in noisy ones(1). A long series of studies across several countries, beginning in San Francisco in 1969, shows unequivocally that communities become weaker as the volume of traffic on their streets increases(2,3).
Other papers show that people’s use of shared spaces is strongly influenced by the presence of trees: the more trees there are, the more time people spend there and the larger the groups in which they gather(4,5). A further study shows that, partly as a result, vegetation in common spaces strengthens the neighbourhood’s social ties(6). In greener places, people know more of their neighbours, are more likely to help each other and have stronger feelings of belonging. Social isolation is strongly associated with an absence of green spaces(7).
Climate/Environment
Discovery News: Chinchilla Poop Reveals How Much It Rained
By measuring the size of poop pellets from these diminutive mammals, scientists reconstruct rainfall levels from centuries ago.
By Jessica Marshall
Chinchilla poop is serving an unlikely purpose in one of the world's driest places, Chile's Atacama Desert. The animals' tiny waste pellets are helping scientists reconstruct the rainfall in the region over the last 14,000 years.
Reconstructing rainfall history of the Atacama can provide important information about how events like La Niña and El Niño affect Chile's rainfall, said Claudio Latorre Hidalgo of the Universidad Catolica de Chile and the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity in Santiago.
Knowing this is important for predicting the future water supply in Chile. About 98 percent of the population gets its water from sources in the Andes adjacent to the high Atacama.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Geology
Discovery News: Chunk of Original Earth Found
A piece of pristine, hot rock from the earliest years of Earth's formation is found in northern Canada.
By Larry O'Hanlon
Imagine you suddenly discovered part of your umbilical cord was still attached. Scientists just did that for the planet Earth. What's been found is a clear sign that beneath the crust in northern Canada there is a chunk of pristine, undisturbed rock from the time when Earth was nothing but molten rock.
The evidence comes in the form of lava rocks that, themselves, are a mere 60 million years old. But these rocks contain an early Earth mixture of helium, lead and neodymium isotopes which suggest the mantle rock beneath the crust that yielded them is a virgin pocket of Earth's original material.
That pocket had survived for 4.5 billion years under Baffin Island without being mixed by plate tectonics or erupted onto the surface.
Science Daily: Gondwana Supercontinent Underwent Massive Shift During Cambrian Explosion
ScienceDaily (Aug. 11, 2010) — The Gondwana supercontinent underwent a 60-degree rotation across Earth's surface during the Early Cambrian period, according to new evidence uncovered by a team of Yale University geologists. Gondwana made up the southern half of Pangaea, the giant supercontinent that constituted the Earth's landmass before it broke up into the separate continents we see today.
The study, which appears in the August issue of the journal Geology, has implications for the environmental conditions that existed at a crucial period in Earth's evolutionary history called the Cambrian explosion, when most of the major groups of complex animals rapidly appeared.
Psychology/Behavior
Physorg.com: Trusting people make better lie detectors
Trusting others may not make you a fool or a Pollyanna, according to a study in the current Social Psychological and Personality Science. Instead it can be a sign that you're smart.
Researchers asked study participants to watch taped job interviews of 2nd year MBA students. Interviewees were all told to do their best to get the job. Half of the interviewees were completely truthful; the other half told at least three significant lies to appear more attractive for the job. All interviewees were guaranteed $20 for making the job interview tape, and both the liars and truth-tellers hoped to receive an additional $20 if a supposed "lie detection expert" watched the tape and believed they were telling the truth.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
University of Michigan: Military nurses and combat-wounded patients struggle to cope with stress
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Military nurses say treating combat-wounded patients provides a sense of meaning and purpose that helps them cope with the stresses of a demanding, sometimes heart-wrenching job, according to a new University of Michigan-led study.
"It was the first time in 16 years that I've felt I've really done something," one of the military nurses told researchers. "I have nothing in my life that has been more rewarding," another nurse reported.
At the same time, nurses said the military failed to provide specialized training to help them care for themselves as they struggled with the emotional work of dealing with severely injured service members.
"There is nothing to prepare you for what you are going to see, how you're going to feel," said one nurse.
Archeology/Anthropology
Discovery News: Tool Use by Early Humans Started Much Earlier
By Jennifer Viegas
Fossilized bones scarred by hack marks reveal that our human ancestors were using stone tools and eating meat from large mammals nearly a million years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study that pushes back both of these human activities to roughly 3.4 million years ago.
The first known human ancestor tool wielder and meat lover was Australopithecus afarensis, according to the study, published in the latest issue of Nature. This species, whose most famous representative is the skeleton "Lucy," was slender, toothy and small-brained.
Physorg.com: Reading the zip codes of 3,500-year-old letters
Unfortunately, when ancient kings sent letters to each other, their post offices didn't record the sender's return address. It takes quite a bit of super-sleuthing by today's archaeologists to determine the geographical origin of this correspondence -- which can reveal a great deal about ancient rulers and civilizations.
Now, by adapting an off-the-shelf portable x-ray lab tool that analyzes the composition of chemicals, Prof. Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations can reveal hidden information about a tablet's composition without damaging the precious ancient find itself. These x-rays reveal the soil and clay composition of a tablet or artefact, to help determine its precise origin.
New Kerala (India): Ancient Phoenician city may have been 'relocated'
By studying ancient maps and records, scholars at Britain's University of Oxford have found that the site for an ancient city called Auza—the earliest African city of the Phoenician civilization that existed 3,500 years ago—might have been in a different spot than was believed.
While experts know that Auza existed from written records, but its exact location has never been proven.
And now, emeritus classics professor Sir John Boardman of the Beazley Archive at Oxford could locate a more likely site for the ancient city, he said.
Art Daily: Archaeologists from Cardiff University Discover Ancient Roman Monumental Buildings
CARDIFF.- Archaeologists from the University have made a major new discovery that will change the way we think about how Britain was conquered and occupied by the Roman army almost 2,000 years ago.
A complex of monumental buildings has been located outside the Roman fortress at Caerleon in South Wales, which is likely to lead to a complete rethink of one of the country’s most important Roman sites.
The discovery was fortuitous - students from the School of History, Archaeology and Religion were learning how to use geophysical equipment in fields outside the fortress that were not thought to have been extensively occupied in the Roman period. 10 days later, the students and their tutors had revealed the outlines of a series of huge buildings squeezed into the ground between the amphitheatre and the River Usk.
ENC Today (North Carolina): Traits of undisturbed site excite, spur archaeologists
Drew C. Wilson
Freedom ENC
CHERRY POINT — Open a box to a 1,000-piece puzzle and find there are only a dozen or so pieces left.
Can you imagine the picture?
That’s the challenge five archaeologists have had in the last month trying to coax bones, shell, charcoal and pottery shards from an American Indian site at Cherry Point air station.
The Scotsman: Crime scene where Mary Queen of Scots' husband was murdered is laid bare centuries on
By Craig Brown
THE scene where the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots was murdered in one of history's most notorious unsolved crimes is to be unearthed for the first time in centuries.
Archaeologists carrying out excavations on the 16th century site in Edinburgh where Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was killed expect to uncover the crime scene within the next few weeks.
Observer-Reporter (Pennsylvania): Church, university team up for gravesite forensics research
By Christie Campbell, Staff writer chriscam@observer-reporter.com
For some time, worshippers at Chartiers Cross Roads Presbyterian Church believed more people had been buried in the church cemetery than records indicate.
This uncertainty resulted in a forensics team from California University of Pennsylvania working last month to determine the number of remains at the site.
Using ground-penetrating radar, coffins or remains as low as 15 feet into the earth can be located even if no gravestones are intact above ground.
Dr. Cassandra Kuba, a forensic scientist, Dr. John Nass, an archaeologist, and students Adina Necciai of Monongahela and Danetta Snook and Donovan Marcoux of Brownsville are working on the project.
South Bend Tribune: Mum's the Word: Niles attorney has a nose for history
By LOU MUMFORD
NILES — Maybe it's digging through law books that honed Niles attorney Mary Ellen Drolet's ability to uncover items lying around Niles since, roughly, the year George Washington was born.
In the end, it doesn't matter why she literally digs at Fort St. Joseph, the once bustling fur-trading post in a chain of European frontier settlements. It only matters that, last summer and this one, she has unearthed items revealing that religion and self decoration aren't anything new.
The artifacts she has turned up are remarkable for their age, condition and historical significance. Last year, it was a roughly one-inch crucifix she uncovered in one of several excavation pits created as part of Kalamazoo-based Western Michigan University's Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project that drew praise from dig officials.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
Physics
Science News: As the icicle turns
Drip by drip, machine freezes out existing theory
By Laura Sanders
A team of Canadian iciclologists has put to rest the notion that one frozen cone of drips is exactly the same as the next. By growing lots of icicles in controlled laboratory conditions, the scientists have uncovered evidence that runs counter to an earlier theory saying that all icicles should, by and large, assume the same uniform, platonic icicle shape. They posted their observations online August 11 at arXiv.org, with a supplementary series of videos on YouTube.
Physicists Stephen Morris and Antony Szu-Han Chen of the University of Toronto set out to test the existing theory’s prediction — that most icicles should assume a conical shape. Break off one of these perfect icicles anywhere along its length, and the fragment will be the exact same shape as the whole thing.
"As far as we know, no one has really systematically studied the shape of icicles and how they grow," Morris says. "Nobody has really tried to fill in the physics of how the shape emerges."
Science News: Blog: Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle still certain
Despite rumors to the contrary, a mainstay of quantum physics is just as (un)certain as ever.
By Laura Sanders
At first glance, a Nature Physics paper published online July 25 may have appeared to threaten the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which says that in the quantum world of electrons, photons and other tiny particles it’s impossible to know certain pairs of physical properties, such as a particle’s position and the momentum, at the same time.
The paper reports that in certain quantum scenarios, it’s possible to have a device that stores knowledge of the exact position and exact momentum of a particle. But try to stifle your panicky screams for just a little bit longer. After a reasonable amount of scrutiny (and a few quick checks with study coauthor Roger Colbeck at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada), I found out that the result won’t have Heisenberg rolling over in his grave anytime soon.
"It is not the case that Heisenberg has been overturned," Colbeck says.
Chemistry
Northwestern University: The Nano World of Shrinky Dinks
Low-cost nanopatterning method utilizes popular shrinkable plastic
By Megan Fellman
EVANSTON, Ill. --- The magical world of Shrinky Dinks -- an arts and crafts material used by children since the 1970s -- has taken up residence in a Northwestern University laboratory. A team of nanoscientists is using the flexible plastic sheets as the backbone of a new inexpensive way to create, test and mass-produce large-area patterns on the nanoscale.
"Anyone needing access to large-area nanoscale patterns on the cheap could benefit from this method," said Teri W. Odom, associate professor of chemistry and Dow Chemical Company Research Professor in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Odom led the research. "It is a simple, low-cost and high-throughput nanopatterning method that can be done in any laboratory."
Details of the solvent-assisted nanoscale embossing (SANE) method are published by the journal Nano Letters. The work also will appear as the cover story of the journal’s February 2011 issue.
MSNBC's Cosmic Log: Tethers tortured in $2 million contest
Alan Boyle writes: Three teams brought lengths of string to the Strong Tether Challenge today in hopes of winning as much as $2 million of NASA's money. But they all went away empty-handed ... except for the shreds of carbon nanotubes and glass fiber they had to pick up off the floor.
This year's challenge, organized by the California-based Spaceward Foundation, was conducted in conjunction with the 2010 Space Elevator Conference on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash. (Microsoft and NBC Universal are partners in the msnbc.com joint venture.) The aim of the contest is to promote the development of lightweight materials that can outperform the strongest fibers available today.
Eventually, such materials could be used in the construction of space elevators, "railways" that reach tens of thousands of miles into the sky. But there are more immediate applications for ultra-strong, ultra-light materials: to make stronger ropes, better bulletproof vests and body armor, lighter and hence more fuel-efficient cars and airplanes, and hardier spacecraft.
Energy
CNet: Solar power plant plans move ahead in California
by Martin LaMonica
After a long drought, large-scale solar power is getting closer to returning to the U.S. desert.
The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday gave the green light to power purchase agreements which two utilities have with solar power project developers, a key step toward beginning actual construction.
The approvals in California follow a flurry of activity at the Bureau of Land Management, which created a fast-track review process for solar projects on federal land. Both agencies' reviews are required for permitting the projects which, if finalized and financed, would result in a dramatic increase in solar power on the California grid.
On Friday, the BLM issued its final environmental impact statement for the Chevron Energy Solutions Lucerne Valley Solar Project in the California desert, a necessary step before final permitting approval. That project would bring 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity online in California, enough to supply hundreds of thousands of homes.
CNet: Ford microgrid to combine solar with EV charging
by Martin LaMonica
What was once a Ford SUV factory will become a solar-powered facility turning out fuel-efficient cars.
Ford Motor on Thursday announced a plan with utility Detroit Edison to install a 500-kilowatt solar array and battery energy storage from Xtreme Power at Ford's Michigan Assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan.
The set-up is meant to make Ford's operations cleaner and serve as a smart-grid test case. Installation for the system, which will cost $5.8 million, is scheduled to start later this year, the companies involved said.
Discovery News: Liquid Nitrogen Cools Power Plants' Heat
By Alyssa Danigelis
Besides being favored by geektastic chefs who want to make instant ice cream, liquid nitrogen has some other sweet potential. A team of researchers from the University of Leeds and the Chinese Academy of Sciences came up with system using this inert, colorless, odorless gas that could cut slice power plants' fuel consumption in half.
Power plants dealing with peak loads are like elementary school teachers returning from a short vacation to face a classroom full of students who have all just eaten a ton of sugar. In other words, it's a big strain. Specifically, it forces power plants to resort to expensive, inefficient generators. More gas-firing, more coal burning, more pollution.
To address this energy conundrum, a team led by University of Leeds engineering professor Yulong Ding, figured out a novel approach that could cheaply store excess energy and then use that during the peaks. I've heard of many developments in improving energy storage for power plants, especially with renewables coming online. However, Ding and his fellow engineers are the only ones I've seen so far with a promising plan that involves liquid nitrogen and oxygen. Liquid nitrogen on its own is amazing -- it freezes at 346 degrees Fahrenheit and boils at 321 degrees.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
Science News: Celestial wish list
Astronomers prioritize projects for the coming decade
By Ron Cowen
Astronomers tasked with compiling a priority list of U.S. astronomy projects for the next decade are seeing red, and not just because of NASA’s meager science budget. A National Research Council report released August 13 ranks several telescopes observing the universe at infrared and at even longer, redder wavelengths among the highest-priority instruments to be developed between 2012 and 2021.
These include the proposed Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, an estimated $1.6-billion orbiting observatory that would examine the nature of dark energy, provide broad snapshots of the infrared sky and search for habitable, Earthlike planets. The telescope, which could be launched around 2020, would complement the ultrasharp but narrow vision of the James Webb Space Telescope, the infrared successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that is set to launch around 2015.
Infrared- and longer-wavelength telescopes enable astronomers to see farther away and thus further back in time, to the first stars, black holes and galaxies, fulfilling one of the overall goals set by the National Research Council panel. Chaired by astrophysicist Roger Blandford of Stanford University, the panel marks the sixth time that astronomers have come together to map the coming decade of U.S. astrophysics research projects.
But for the first time, this decadal survey includes independent appraisals of the technical readiness of missions, their cost and a development schedule.
True Food Network: Federal Court Rescinds USDA Approval of Genetically Engineered Sugar Beets
Posted on August 13, 2010 by Heather
Order Bans Planting or Sale of Controversial Crop. Court Denies Monsanto Request to Allow Continued Planting.
Today Judge Jeffrey White, federal district judge for the Northern District of California, issued a ruling granting the request of plaintiffs Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, High Mowing Organic Seeds, and the Sierra Club to rescind the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) approval of genetically engineered "Roundup Ready" sugar beets. In September 2009, the Court had found that the USDA had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by approving the Monsanto-engineered biotech crop without first preparing an Environmental Impact Statement. The crop was engineered to resist the effects of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, which it sells to farmers together with the patented seed. Similar Roundup Ready crops have led to increased use of herbicides, proliferation of herbicide resistant weeds, and contamination of conventional and organic crops.
In today’s ruling the Court officially "vacated" the USDA "deregulation" of Monsanto’s biotech sugar beets and prohibited any future planting and sale pending the agency’s compliance with NEPA and all other relevant laws. USDA has estimated that an EIS may be ready by 2012.
Science Education
University of Michigan: U-M hires almost 200 new Medical School faculty members since May
Number of physicians and medical researchers on staff hits highest point ever, capping five years of steady growth
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Colleen Hawley Neal, M.D., is passionate about imaging techniques that make the difference in cancer diagnosis – and she’s bringing that considerable expertise to the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School. Neal is among the 184 new faculty members hired since May, boosting the total Medical School faculty to 2,254 — its highest point ever.
Overall, fiscal year 2010 showed a 103-person total increase in hiring over fiscal year 2009, which is in keeping with the annual faculty growth rate of 100-150 physicians and scientists that’s occurred during each of the last five years. Typically, there is a surge in hiring during the spring and summer months.
In fiscal year 2005, the faculty totaled 1,818 employees.
University of Michigan: Medical students believe video games can help them become better doctors
Survey of medical students at University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin-Madison shows strong interest in role-playing and strategy games for doctor training
Shantell M. Kirkendoll
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Today’s students were raised with a digital mouse in their hands.
So it should be no surprise that a majority of medical school students surveyed say video games and virtual reality environments could help them become better doctors.
A reported 98 percent of medical students surveyed at the University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin-Madison liked the idea of using technology to enhance their medical education, according to a study published online in BMC Medical Education.
For example, a virtual environment could help medical students learn how to interview a patient or run a patient clinic. In the survey, 80 percent of students said computer games can have an educational value.
University of Michigan: UMHS exhibit at Detroit Science Center teaches kids about medical research
Increasing participation in medical research particularly among minorities is goal of NIH-funded partnership
Margarita Wagerson
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A youth-oriented exhibit that allows kids to imagine participating in medical research , test their own knowledge of informed consent (the process of giving permission to be in research) and dispel myths about research participation opens next week at the Detroit Science Center.
The exhibit is the second installment of an effort by University of Michigan researchers to help increase participation in medical and behavioral research studies. Michael D. Fetters, M.D., associate professor of family medicine at the U-M Medical School, is leading the effort, which involves U-M’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and the Detroit Science Center.
The interactive, educational exhibit "What’s Up Doc" just opened at the Detroit Science Center the week as a permanent exhibit. Visitors will get the chance to play the role of myth buster in a game that spells out what has to happen to be in a research study. The exhibit explains the informed consent process in a child and teen-friendly manner. "What’s Up Doc" features a kiosk that challenges kids to answer questions involving payment, privacy, benefits and risk, consent, assent and other aspects of research.
Science Writing and Reporting
Science News: Book Review: Climatopolis
By Matthew E. Kahn
Review by Matt Crenson
Perhaps many looming climate problems can be solved with a dose of the heady cocktail that is one part human ingenuity and one part profit motive. But Kahn’s analysis gives short shrift to two aspects of climate change that make it especially daunting. First, waiting for markets to feel the effects of global warming before getting serious about limiting greenhouse gas emissions will guarantee that the disruption is extreme and long-lasting. Second, the world is finite. It may be true that wealthy nations can easily import food if agricultural patterns change, but only up to a point. As the recent global economic recession illustrates, when a crisis is bad enough, it hurts pretty much everywhere.
Science is Cool
CNet: Yes, there's a proper way to pour the bubbly
by Sharon Vaknin
Though popping open a bottle of champagne is a staple of romance, there's one step that gentlemen (and ladies) might be overlooking: their pouring method. While there's historically been some disagreement about this, a group of French scientists have agreed that the best way to pour the bubbly is at an angle, down the side of the glass.
Sorry, guys, but you'll need to add that to your growing list of date etiquette points.
CNet: Humanoid robot Nao gets emotion chip
by Tim Hornyak
If you think robots are heartless piles of plastic and silicon, you're correct. But soccer-playing humanoid robot Nao has been evolving by developing "emotions" under a European project and is now being used in the U.S. in sessions to treat autistic children.
Under the recently concluded Feelix Growing project--aimed at designing bots that can detect and respond to human emotional cues--researchers at the University of Hertfordshire's Adaptive Systems Group and other centers have been trying to get Nao to simulate human emotions.
Researcher Lola Canamero and colleagues have been programming Nao--created by Aldebaran Robotics and used worldwide as a research bot--based on how human and chimpanzee infants interact with others. Working with a budget of some $3.2 million, the researchers have been trying to create robots that can be better companions for people.
TechNewsDaily: Star Wars Creator Calls Off Duel Over 'Lightsaber' Laser Pointer
By Adam Hadhazy, TechNewsDaily Staff Writer
Many epic but harmless lightsaber duels are likely to be fought at this week's Star Wars convention in Southern California. There is, however, a truly dangerous lightsaber-like device out there that has caused a disturbance in the Force.
It is the flesh- and retina-roasting S3 Arctic Spyder III laser pointer made by Wicked Lasers. The device bears more than a passing resemblance to the iconic weapon in George Lucas' "Star Wars" movies.
In June, shortly after the Arctic became available, Lucasfilm sent Wicked Lasers a cease-and-desist order.
But by late July, any further threat of legal action had been dropped, after Wicked Lasers pulled off a bit of a Jedi mind trick on Lucas' company.