The time has come to gather around and take a well deserved hiatus from all the politics of the day. Science talk is here. New discoveries, new takes on old knowledge, and other bits of news are all available for the perusing in today's information world. Over the fold are selections from the past week from a few of the many excellent science news sites around the world. Today's tidbits include no free lunch for the Venus fly trap, a census of marine mammals, watching electrons move in real time, scientists drill through 1.5mile of Greenland ice sheet in search of climate clues, genetically modified plants found in the wild, and man-made wetlands are carbon sinks. Pull up a comfy chair. There is plenty of room for everyone. Settle in for one more session of Dr. Possum's science education and entertainment.
Featured Stories
The Venus fly trap (original article) manages to survive in some low nutrient conditions through its ability to catch insects and use their body ingredients. From a more reader friendly site:
These (research) results show that the plant is as active as it appears and that it has adapted to trade-off the costs of lost photosynthesis against the benefits of additional nutrients from animal prey which in turn may later stimulate photosynthesis. This agrees with my earlier studies on carnivorous plants and shows why Venus Flytraps live in sunny habitats. The energy used in eating insects means that they need a lot of opportunity for photosynthesis, otherwise they lose more than they gain.
Knowledge about sea creatures was expanded in large measures this week with the publication of a census of marine mammals in selected global errors.
Scientists find that the number of known, named species contained in the 25 areas ranged from 2,600 to 33,000 and averaged about 10,750, which fall into a dozen groups. On average, about one-fifth of all species were crustaceans which, with mollusks and fish, make up half of all known species on average across the regions. The full breakdown follows:
* 19% Crustaceans (including crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles),
* 17% Mollusca (including squid, octopus, clams, snails and slugs)
* 12% Pisces (fish, including sharks)
* 10% Protozoa (unicellular micro-organisms)
* 10% algae and other plant-like organisms
* 7% Annelida (segmented worms)
* 5% Cnidaria (including sea anemones, corals and jellyfish)
* 3% Platyhelminthes (including flatworms)
* 3% Echinodermata (including starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers)
* 3% Porifera (including sponges)
* 2% Bryozoa (mat or 'moss animals')
* 1% Tunicata (including sea squirts)
The rest are other invertebrates (5%) and other vertebrates (2%). The scarce 2% of species in the "other vertebrates" category includes whales, sea lions, seals, sea birds, turtles and walruses. Thus some of the best-known marine animals comprise a tiny part of marine biodiversity.
Original citations
For the first time scientists have been able to see electrons in the outer shell of an atom move in real time.
(Researchers) used ultrashort flashes of laser light to directly observe the movement of an atom’s outer electrons for the first time.
Through a process called attosecond absorption spectroscopy, researchers were able to time the oscillations between simultaneously produced quantum states of valence electrons with great precision. These oscillations drive electron motion.
And the pursuit of atomic information and science continues day by day.
Scientists drilled 1.5miles deep through the Greenland Ice sheet in search of samples to study climate change in warming periods.
Accurate climate models based in part on the data collected at NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling) could play an important role in helping human civilization adapt to a changing climate. During the Eemian period, for example, the Greenland ice sheet was much smaller, and global sea levels were about 15 feet higher than they are today, a height that would swamp many major cities around the world.
Now that drilling is complete, scientists will continue to study the core samples and analyze other data they have collected.
The first evidence of genetically modified plants in the wild is being reported from North Dakota.
The (study) results -- which were recorded in early July and are set to be presented at ESA's Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh -- provide strong evidence that transgenic plants have established populations outside of agricultural fields in the U.S. Of the 406 plants collected, 347 (86%) tested positive for CP4 EPSPS protein (confers tolerance to glyphosate herbicide) or PAT protein (confers tolerance to glufosinate herbicide).
What lies ahead as we continue to discover the spread of these plants remains to be seen.
A study of both planted and unplanted man-made wetlands at 15-years shows both function as effective carbon sinks.
After year 15, the two wetlands contained nearly the same number of plant species, and their rates of retaining phosphorus and nitrates – nutrients that can become potential water contaminants – were almost identical. Both wetlands also hold carbon in their soil, with this carbon sink function increasing steadily over the years.
Plant productivity and greenhouse gas emissions were two ways in which the wetlands differed at this stage in their lives: The naturally developing wetland produced more plant biomass and emits more of the greenhouse gas methane, the latter because it contains more decayed organic material from the higher biomass production. Bacteria that produce methane during that decaying process cause wetlands to release the gas into the atmosphere.
Other Worthy Stories of the Week
The "shock and awe" of ant warfare
A nemesis for oil spills?
Study finds deep, open ocean is vastly underexplored
New, inexpensive solar cell design
Ancient, blob-like creature of the deep revealed in 3D model
Seeing a stellar explosion in 3D
Ancient crocodile could have chewed like you do
Habitat of elusive northern squid (an important part of the Arctic food chain) described
Ancient Hawaiian glaciers reveal clues to global climate impacts
Travel by car increases global temperatures more than by plane but only in the long term
Robot climbs walls
Tracking tectonics with the evolution of frogs
Worst impact of climate change may be how humanity reacts to it
Global tropical forests threatened by 2100
Rabies transmission in bats
For even more science news:
General Science Collectors:
Alpha-Galileo
BBC News Science and Environment
Eureka Science News
LiveScience
New Scientist
PhysOrg.com
SciDev.net
Science/AAAS
Science Alert
Science Centric
Science Daily
Scientific American
Space Daily
Blogs:
A Few Things Ill Considered Techie and Science News
Cantauri Dreams space exploration
Coctail Party Physics Physics with a twist.
Deep Sea News marine biology
Laelaps more vertebrate paleontology
List of Geoscience Blogs
ScienceBlogs
Space Review
Techonology Review
Tetrapod Zoologyvertebrate paleontology
Science Insider
Scientific Blogging.
Wired News
Science RSS Feed: Medworm
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe--a combination of hard science and debunking crap
Daily Kos regular series:
Daily Kos University, a regular series by plf515
This Week in Science by DarkSyde
This Week in Space by nellaselim
Overnight News Digest:Science Saturday by Neon Vincent. OND tech Thursday by rfall.
Weekend Science by AKMask
All diaries with the DK GreenRoots Tag.
All diaries with the eKos Tag
NASA picture of the day. For more see the NASA image gallery or the Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive.
Smoke over western Russia, NASA, Public Domain