Gather 'round one and all. 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 lava of a type not seen on Earth said cause of Mars beds, hidden Baja undersea park is the world's most robust marine reserve, Arctic ice melt could pause in the near future and then resume again, electronics that stick and stretch like a temporary tattoo, light speed hurdle to invisibility cloak overcome, up and coming Great Lakes forests will remain important carbon sinks, polar climate change may lead to ecological change, and how molecular motors go into 'energy saver mode.' Pull up that comfy chair and bask in the sunshine. There is plenty of room for everyone. Get ready for one more session of Dr. Possum's science education and entertainment.
Featured Stories
Lovely as the theory of water causing the Mars deformities, now researchers say the formation is the result of lava flow.
The channels superficially resemble channels on Earth formed by floods from giant glacial lakes, he says, but the Martian canyons do not feature obvious river deposits and don't terminate in delta-like, sediment-laden mouths, such as at the end of the Mississippi River.
Instead, he (researcher David Leverington) says, they fade into vast plains composed of volcanic basalt.
"We see abundant evidence for past eruptions of lava at the heads of these large systems, for flows along these systems and for extraordinarily large volumes of lava at the mouths of these systems."
Near the tip of Mexico's Baja peninsula a hidden undersea park proves to be a very robust marine life reserve.
The paper notes that factors such as the protection of spawning areas for large predators have been key to the reserve’s robustness. Most importantly, local enforcement, led by the determined action of a few families, has been a major factor in the park’s success. Boat captains, dive masters and other locals work to enforce the park’s regulations and share surveillance, fauna protection and ocean cleanliness efforts.
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Strictly enforced marine reserves have been proven to help reduce local poverty and increase economic benefits, the researchers say. Cabo Pulmo’s marine life recovery has spawned eco-tourism businesses, including coral reef diving and kayaking, making it a model for areas depleted by fishing in the Gulf of California and elsewhere.
Given the current climate warming trend the Arctic ice pack is at extreme risk.
Since accurate satellite measurements became available in 1979, the extent of summertime Arctic sea ice has shrunk by about one third. The ice returns each winter, but the extent shrank to a record low in September 2007 and is again extremely low this year, already setting a monthly record low for July. Whereas scientists warned just a few years ago that the Arctic could lose its summertime ice cover by the end of the century, some research has indicated that Arctic summers could be largely ice-free within the next several decades.
(Researcher) Kay and her colleagues then conducted a series of future simulations that looked at how Arctic sea ice was affected both by natural conditions and by the increased level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The computer studies indicated that the year-to-year and decade-to-decade trends in the extent of sea ice are likely to fluctuate increasingly as temperatures warm and the ice thins.
“Over periods up to a decade, both positive and negative trends become more pronounced in a warming world,” says NCAR scientist Marika Holland, a co-author of the study.
The simulations also indicated that Arctic sea ice is equally likely to expand or contract over short time periods under the climate conditions of the late 20th and early 21st century.
Another advance in medical science arrived this week with the announcement of smart skin with electronics that stick and stretch like a temporary tattoo.
Engineers have developed a device platform that combines electronic components for sensing, medical diagnostics, communications and human-machine interfaces, all on an ultrathin skin-like patch that mounts directly onto the skin with the ease, flexibility and comfort of a temporary tattoo.
skin scrunched
The circuit bends, wrinkles and stretches with the mechanical properties of skin. The researchers demonstrated their concept through a diverse array of electronic components mounted on a thin, rubbery substrate, including sensors, LEDs, transistors, radio frequency capacitors, wireless antennas, and conductive coils and solar cells for power.
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Skin-mounted electronics have many biomedical applications, including EEG and EMG sensors to monitor nerve and muscle activity. One major advantage of skin-like circuits is that they don’t require conductive gel, tape, skin-penetrating pins or bulky wires, which can be uncomfortable for the user and limit coupling efficiency. They are much more comfortable and less cumbersome than traditional electrodes and give the wearers complete freedom of movement.
An undergraduate student has found a way to overcome some of the problems that limit current invisibility cloaks to a single color of the spectrum.
The optical device, known as an ‘invisible sphere’, would slow down all of the light that approaches a potential cloak, meaning that the light rays would not need to be accelerated around the cloaked objects at great speeds ― a requirement that has limited invisibility cloaks to work only in a specified region of the visible spectrum.
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The usual approach to designing an invisibility cloak works on the basis of bending light ― using highly specific materials ― around an object that you wish to conceal, thereby preventing the light from hitting the object and revealing its presence to the eye of the observer.
When the light is bent, it engulfs the object, much like water covering a rock sitting in a river bed, and carries on its path making it seem as if nothing is there.
Light, however, can only be accelerated to a speed faster than it would travel in space under certain conditions, and this restricts invisibility cloaks to work in a limited part of the spectrum ― essentially just one colour.
This would be ideal if somebody was planning to stand still in camouflage; however, the moment that they start to move the scenery will begin to distort, revealing the person under the cloak.
By slowing all of the light down with an invisible sphere, it does not need to be accelerated to such high speeds and can therefore work in all parts of the spectrum.
The decline of trees in the aging forests of the Upper Great Lakes region is causing concern to scientist and politicians alike.
A team of ecologists led by Ohio State University researchers says, however, that coming up right underneath the old forests is a new generation of native trees that are younger, more diverse and highly competitive. They represent a vast unknown compared to what ecologists have long theorized about how forests work as carbon sinks, but these researchers expect the next generation to carry on the important work of carbon storage.
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So far, the scientists are finding that the canopy created by the newcomers’ leaves use light more efficiently to manufacture carbohydrates and release oxygen through photosynthesis than did the aspen canopy that preceded it. The researchers also are able to use sophisticated instruments to quantify nitrogen cycling in the transitioning forest, and observe that nitrogen losses throughout the system are small even with the death of thousands of trees. As long as nitrogen remains available – within tree wood and leaves as well as in the soil – for the trees to renew themselves annually, the forest will continue to function as an effective carbon sink.
The poles and especially the Arctic regions are warming faster than the rest of the earth producing changes which bring ecological change.
These changes, though different at each pole, could be significant in their effects on not only the local environment, but also globally. While the central part of the Arctic is composed of ice over water, northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia and Greenland all have landmasses within the Arctic Circle. The associated land and water ecosystems are affected by melting ice and thawing soils, but in Antarctica, where much of the ice overlays a continent, the warming alters streams, lakes and the tiny plants and animals that live there.
In the Arctic, where there is more immediate feedback from the higher temperatures, the warming is degrading permafrost, the layer of the ground that usually remains frozen during annual thawing events. This causes creation of a boggy, uneven landscape with a disturbed surface. Subsequent rain or snowmelt can erode this surface carrying silt and sediment into bodies of water, changing the paths of rivers and streams. Debris flows also are a common occurrence in degraded permafrost areas.
The transport of living cells is a remarkable system of molecular motors moving various chemicals around the cell.
hese molecular motors are responsible for a variety of critical transport jobs, but they are not always on the go. They can put themselves into “energy save mode” to conserve cellular fuel and, as a consequence, control what gets moved around the cell, and when.
A new study by Carnegie Mellon University biochemists, published in the Aug. 12 issue of Science, describes how the motors fold in on themselves, or save energy, when their transport services aren’t required. According to the researchers, the solution to this molecular puzzle provides new insight into how molecular motor proteins are regulated, and may open new avenues for the treatment of various neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.
Other Worthy Stories of the Week
Hubble photographs dying star's glimmering green necklace
Supernovae parents foundAlien world is blacker than coal
Escaping gravity's clutches: The great black hole breakout
Pregnant Plesiosaur found
Hidden soil fungus is in a class all its own
Excess body fat in elderly decreases life expectancy
Researchers discover novel state of crystal matter
Severe low temperatures devastate coral reefs in Florida Keys
Hybrid solar system makes rooftop hydrogen
Tohoku tsunami created icebergs In Antarctica
Recurring patterns of viruses in the open ocean
Dark matter may be an illusion caused by the quantum vacuum And the debate continues...
Controversial energy generating system lacking credibility
A photon's point of view
Oklahoma, Texas set heat records in July
The Milky Way's supermassive black hole
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.
Space.com
Wired News
Science RSS Feed: Medworm
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe--a combination of hard science and debunking crap
At Daily Kos:
This Week in Science by DarkSyde
Overnight News Digest:Science Saturday by Neon Vincent. OND tech Thursday by rfall.
Pique the Geek by Translator Sunday evenings about 9 Eastern time
All diaries with the DK GreenRoots Tag.
All diaries with the eKos Tag
A More Ancient World by matching mole
Astro Kos
SciTech at Dkos.
Sunday Science Videos by palantir
NASA picture of the day. For more see the NASA image gallery or the Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive
W340, NASA, Public Domain