Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors jlms qkw,
maggiejean, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, and ScottyUrb, guest editor annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.
This week's featured stories come from io9 and Space.com.
Happy Star Wars Day! May the Fourth be with you!
Lauren Davis
May 4, 2013
It's May the Fourth, that day when Star Wars fans punnily wish each other well. We're celebrating with some of our favorite Star Wars gifs. How are you celebrating Star Wars Day?
Space.com: Happy Star Wars Day! What Would It Take to Build a Death Star?
by Tariq Malik, SPACE.com Managing Editor
Date: 04 May 2013 Time: 09:49 AM ET
Hello space fans, and May the 4th be with you! In honor of Star Wars Day, physics professor Rhett Allain of Southeastern Louisiana University took a look at just what it would take to the build the Empire's Death Star using only the Automated Transfer Vehicle robot cargo ships built by the European Space Agency. The answer: We'll have to wait a LONG time for anything like the Death Star.
More stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
Climate Change and "Hubris"
by rktect
This week in science: In new light
by DarkSyde
Green diary rescue: Carbon dioxide reaches 400 parts per million
by Meteor Blades
Slideshows/Videos
WJCL via The Coastal Source: Georgia Southern archaeologists conserve Civil War artifacts
By WJCL Staff
Updated: Friday, May 3, 2013, 8:44 am Published: Wednesday, May 1, 2013, 9:47 am
STATESBORO, GA – Georgia Southern University archaeologists will begin a major conservation project to identify and conserve 150-year-old metal artifacts found at Camp Lawton, a Confederate Prisoner of War (POW) camp located at what is now Magnolia Springs State Park in Millen, Ga. The project is the next step in preparation for the opening of a planned History Center at the park.
As part of the project, Georgia Southern archaeologists will X-ray recovered artifacts to determine if solid metal remains inside visible corrosion. In a unique partnership, the team will be working with Gary Edwards, DVM and the staff at Gateway Animal Hospital of Statesboro who are graciously donating their time and equipment to X-ray the artifacts before conservation is attempted.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Discovery News on YouTube: Morning After Pill IS Safe for Teens
There is lots of debate about the so called "Morning After Pill" being released to teens without a prescription. Laci Green takes a look at the debate and breaks down the issues as only Laci can.
Discovery News on YouTube: Solar Impulse Plane Takes Flight
Forget fossil fuel, this plane is driven by energy from the sun! Anthony woke up at the crack of dawn to watch the amazing Solar Impulse take to the sky.
Discovery News on YouTube: Can We Evolve Without Competition?
Can evolution occur without a competition between animals, fighting to survive? After all, that was one of the key elements to Darwin's Theory of Evolution. But as Trace tells us, modern scientists have found that evolution is not so straightforward.
Discovery News on YouTube: Ladies Love Beards
For optimal sexiness, scientists say keep that 5'oclock shadow going! Anthony talks to Cristen Conger, host of "Stuff Mom Never Told You" to find out why beards are back and driving women crazy!
Also read
Study finds men most attractive with heavy-stubble on MedicalXpress.
Space.com on YouTube: Birth of a Giant Iceberg -- Climate Change Evidence? | Video
An enormous plain of Antarctic ice is splitting in two. Airborne NASA scientists discovered the nearly 20 mile-long crack during a research flight, capturing its contours by laser imaging. From our video series Over Earth with Andrea Mustain.
NASA Television on YouTube: Garver Tours Gulf Region NASA Facilities on This Week @ NASA
During a recent visit to the Gulf Coast region, Deputy Administrator Lori Garver toured two NASA facilities that are key to development of the new Space Launch System and the agency's commercial crew partnerships with private industry. At the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Garver was briefed on progress being made in support of the SLS and the Orion spacecraft programs. Garver later traveled to Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi for a tour of testing facilities there, including the B-2 test stand. Once used to test Apollo era engines, the structure is being restored to prepare it for testing of the SLS core stage. Also, Training in Star City, Back to Work for the rovers on Mars, Ice Sheet Rover, Asteroids -- Coming to Earth!, Saturn's Big Hurricane, Herschel Completes Cool Journey, Three Years of the Sun, Seeking Quiet Supersonic Flight and more!
NASA Television on YouTube: ScienceCasts: Glow-in-the-Dark Plants on the ISS
Can plants adapt to the novelty of climate change? Researchers seeking to answer this question have sent genetically engineered plants to the ISS for exposure to extreme conditions. To report their condition, the plants have learned to glow in the dark.
NTDTV on YouTube: Boeing and U.S. Military Claim Hypersonic Flight Record
Boeing and the U.S. military claim a hypersonic flight record in the latest test of the company's unmanned X-51A Waverider.
Space.com on YouTube: Solar Eclipse & Evening Planets - May 2013 Skywatching Guide | Video
Jupiter, Mercury and Venus get together. Using binoculars, see the Virgo Cluster and Sombrero galaxy. The Eta Aquarid meteor shower rains and an annular solar eclipse is viewable in Northern Australia.
Space.com on YouTube: SpaceShipTwo's First Powered Flight - Inside Look | Video
Virgin Galactic's Sir Richard Branson and George Whitesides talk about Space tourism's next huge step taken on April 29th, 2013.
Astronomy/Space
Space.com: Why Is Our Solar System Such a Cosmic Weirdo?
by Charles Q. Choi, SPACE.com Contributor
Date: 02 May 2013 Time: 02:00 PM ET
The solar system that humans call home may be a strange oddity when compared with the incredible diversity of planetary systems researchers are discovering in the Milky Way, astronomers say.
Scientists now estimate the Milky Way galaxy contains at least as many planets as it does stars. So far, researchers have detected nearly 900 of these so-called exoplanets already, and several thousand more candidates are under investigation.
The number of distant worlds that astronomers have discovered in the past 15 years or so has skyrocketed recently due to new advances such as NASA's Kepler mission, which can detect planets as small as Earth's moon. Analyzing the orbits, masses, diameters and compositions of these exoplanets has revealed that an extraordinary variety of them exist, such as so-called "hot Jupiters," gas giants orbiting closer to their stars than Mercury does the sun.
Space.com: Saturn's Age-Defying Secret Discovered
by Denise Chow, SPACE.com Staff Writer
Date: 03 May 2013 Time: 01:28 PM ET
As planets age, they typically become cooler and darker, but astronomers have long wondered why Saturn, one of the largest planets in the solar system, appears to be bucking the trend. Now, researchers are beginning to understand how the ringed planet manages to stay warm and bright.
A new study, led by astronomers at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon in France, discovered physical instability inside the planet creates layers of gas that keep the heat in, the researchers said. This explains why Saturn is not cooling at the rate scientists expect for a planet of its age.
"Scientists have been wondering for years if Saturn was using an additional source of energy to look so bright, but instead our calculations show that Saturn appears young because it can't cool down," Gilles Chabrier, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Exeter, said in a statement.
Space.com: 1st Meteorites from 1908 Tunguska Explosion Possibly Found
by Megan Gannon, News Editor
Date: 02 May 2013 Time: 11:33 AM ET
In June 1908, a mysterious blast occurred above the remote Russian forests of Tunguska, Siberia, with 1,000 times more power than the Hiroshima bomb, flattening trees over an area roughly the size of Tokyo.
The most widely accepted theory is that a huge asteroid or comet (not a UFO or chunk of antimatter) exploded as it entered Earth's atmosphere. But with just one death, few witnesses, and no fragments nor any impact craters to study, scientists have been left to puzzle over what exactly caused the so-called Tunguska event.
Now one Russian researcher claims to have found the first meteorites possibly left by the Tunguska impact.
Climate/Environment
World Health Organization: WMO Annual Climate Statement Confirms 2012 as Among Top Ten Warmest Years
GENEVA, 2 May 2013 (WMO) The World Meteorological Organization’s Statement on the Status of the Global Climate says that 2012 joined the ten previous years as one of the warmest — at ninth place — on record despite the cooling influence of a La Niña episode early in the year.
The 2012 global land and ocean surface temperature during January–December 2012 is estimated to be 0.45°C (±0.11°C) above the 1961–1990 average of 14.0°C. This is the ninth warmest year since records began in 1850 and the 27th consecutive year that the global land and ocean temperatures were above the 1961–1990 average, according to the statement. The years 2001–2012 were all among the top 13 warmest years on record.
“Although the rate of warming varies from year to year due to natural variability caused by the El Niño cycle, volcanic eruptions and other phenomena, the sustained warming of the lower atmosphere is a worrisome sign,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. “The continued upward trend in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and the consequent increased radiative forcing of the Earth’s atmosphere confirm that the warming will continue,” he said.
Climate Central: The Last Time CO2 Was This High, Humans Didn’t Exist
By Andrew Freedman
The last time there was this much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth's atmosphere, modern humans didn't exist. Megatoothed sharks prowled the oceans, the world's seas were up to 100 feet higher than they are today, and the global average surface temperature was up to 11°F warmer than it is now.
As we near the record for the highest CO2 concentration in human history — 400 parts per million — climate scientists worry about where we were then, and where we're rapidly headed now.
According to data gathered at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, the 400 ppm mark may briefly be exceeded this month, when CO2 typically hits a seasonal peak in the Northern Hemisphere, although it is more likely to take a couple more years until it stays above that threshold, according to Ralph Keeling, a researcher at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
As I wrote in the comments to the repost of this report over at
Desdemona Despair, "If the 10-15 million year figure is right, the last time CO2 was this high,
Antarctica still had forests."
Biodiversity
PhysOrg: Researchers find high-fructose corn syrup may be tied to worldwide collapse of bee colonies
by Bob Yirka
Apr 30, 2013
A team of entomologists from the University of Illinois has found a possible link between the practice of feeding commercial honeybees high-fructose corn syrup and the collapse of honeybee colonies around the world. The team outlines their research and findings in a paper they've had published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Since approximately 2006, groups that manage commercial honeybee colonies have been reporting what has become known as colony collapse disorder—whole colonies of bees simply died, of no apparent cause. As time has passed, the disorder has been reported at sites all across the world, even as scientists have been racing to find the cause, and a possible cure. To date, most evidence has implicated pesticides used to kill other insects such as mites. In this new effort, the researchers have found evidence to suggest the real culprit might be high-fructose corn syrup, which beekeepers have been feeding bees as their natural staple, honey, has been taken away from them.
The Atlantic: China Is Plundering the Planet's Seas
... by consuming over twelve times more fish than it's admitting to.
Gwynn Guilford
Apr 30 2013, 3:40 PM ET
China might be cracking down on luxury spending in watches, cars, banquets and really foul liquor. But the market for pricey fish parts continues relatively unabated. US border officials recently busted a ring smuggling bladders of an endangered fish used for medicinal Chinese soups (here are some images of these prized bladders). The amount of bladders they seized could have sold for more than $3.6 million, said prosecutors. And there are many other smuggling rings out there.
The totoaba, which is native to the Gulf of California, can grow to six feet long and live up to 25 years. Chinese medicine prizes a tubular organ that regulates the totoabas' buoyancy; the bladder, of sorts, is thought to help promote fertility. According to one report, a similar fish native to Chinese waters called a bahaba, which is also coveted for its bladder, has been known to fetch as much as 3 million RMB ($487,000) per fish -- and there's plenty of evidence of a thriving black market even though it's nearly extinct and listed by the Chinese government as a "protected species" (links in Chinese).
Biotechnology/Health
University of California, Berkeley, via MedicalXpress: Troubling levels of toxic metals found in lipstick
May 2, 2013
A new analysis of the contents of lipstick and lip gloss may cause you to pause before puckering. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health tested 32 different lipsticks and lip glosses commonly found in drugstores and department stores. They detected lead, cadmium, chromium, aluminum and five other metals, some of which were found at levels that could raise potential health concerns. Their findings will be published online Thursday, May 2, in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
Prior studies also have found metals in cosmetics, but the UC Berkeley researchers estimated risk by analyzing the concentration of the metals detected and consumers' potential daily intake of the metals, and then comparing this intake with existing health guidelines. "Just finding these metals isn't the issue; it's the levels that matter," said study principal investigator S. Katharine Hammond, professor of environmental health sciences. "Some of the toxic metals are occurring at levels that could possibly have an effect in the long term."
Johns Hopkins University via MedicalXpress: Making cancer less cancerous: Blocking a single gene renders tumors less aggressive
May 2, 2013
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified a gene that, when repressed in tumor cells, puts a halt to cell growth and a range of processes needed for tumors to enlarge and spread to distant sites. The researchers hope that this so-called "master regulator" gene may be the key to developing a new treatment for tumors resistant to current drugs.
"This master regulator is normally turned off in adult cells, but it is very active during embryonic development and in all highly aggressive tumors studied to date," says Linda Resar, M.D., an associate professor of medicine, oncology and pediatrics, and affiliate in the Institute for Cell Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "Our work shows for the first time that switching this gene off in aggressive cancer cells dramatically changes their appearance and behavior." A description of the experiments appears in the May 2 issue of the journal PLOS ONE.
FASEB via MedicalXpress: Gray hair and vitiligo reversed at the root
May 3, 2013
Hair dye manufac
turers are on notice: The cure for gray hair is coming. That's right, the need to cover up one of the classic signs of aging with chemical pigments will be a thing of the past thanks to a team of European researchers. In a new research report published online in The FASEB Journal people who are going gray develop massive oxidative stress via accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in the hair follicle, which causes our hair to bleach itself from the inside out, and most importantly, the report shows that this massive accumulation of hydrogen peroxide can be remedied with a proprietary treatment developed by the researchers described as a topical, UVB-activated compound called PC-KUS (a modified pseudocatalase). What's more, the study also shows that the same treatment works for the skin condition, vitiligo.
Murdoch University (Australia) via MedicalXpress: New recommendations in bedsharing debate
April 29, 2013
Researchers from Murdoch University's School of Health Professions are urging health organisations to reconsider their attitudes to mothers and babies bedsharing.
Associate Professor Catherine Fetherston said Australian and overseas agencies' warnings against bedsharing were not well supported by evidence and did not meet the needs of mothers and babies.
"Current policies are focussed on risk elimination – 'do not sleep with your baby, because they might die' – when really there is no research that shows an inherent risk for bedsharing and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)," Professor Fetherston said.
Psychology/Behavior
MyHealthNewsDaily via LiveScience: Suicide on the Rise in Middle-Age Adults
Rachael Rettner, MyHealthNewsDaily Staff Writer
Date: 02 May 2013 Time: 01:57 PM ET
Suicide rates among middle-age U.S. adults are on the rise, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Over the last decade, the rate of suicide among adults ages 35 to 64 increased 28 percent, from 13.7 suicides per 100,000 people in 1999, to 17.6 suicides per 100,000 people in 2010.
The greatest increases in suicide rates were among people ages 55 to 59 (a 49 percent increase) and ages 50 to 54 (a 48 percent increase).
...
Since 2009, suicide deaths have been more common than deaths from car accidents. In 2010, there were 33,687 deaths from motor vehicle crashes and 38,364 suicides, the CDC said.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine via MedicalXpress: Brain region may hold key to aging
May 1, 2013
While the search continues for the Fountain of Youth, researchers may have found the body's "fountain of aging": the brain region known as the hypothalamus. For the first time, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University report that the hypothalamus of mice controls aging throughout the body. Their discovery of a specific age-related signaling pathway opens up new strategies for combating diseases of old age and extending lifespan. The paper was published today in the online edition of Nature.
"Scientists have long wondered whether aging occurs independently in the body's various tissues or if it could be actively regulated by an organ in the body," said senior author Dongsheng Cai, M.D., Ph.D., professor of molecular pharmacology at Einstein.
"It's clear from our study that many aspects of aging are controlled by the hypothalamus. What's exciting is that it's possible—at least in mice—to alter signaling within the hypothalamus to slow down the aging process and increase longevity." The hypothalamus, an almond-sized structure located deep within the brain, is known to have fundamental roles in growth, development, reproduction, and metabolism. Dr. Cai suspected that the hypothalamus might also play a key role in aging through the influence it exerts throughout the body.
University of Michigan: Blowing the whistle on bad behavior takes more than guts
April 29, 2013
Our work environments play a bigger role than previously thought when it comes to reporting unethical behavior, according to University of Michigan researcher.
"Our findings contradict conventional wisdom that the personal characteristics of an employee drive his or her decision to speak up," said David Mayer, assistant professor of management and organizations at U-M's Ross School of Business.
The research found that the social environment—namely, one's supervisor and co-workers—plays a critical role in an employee's decision to speak up about wrongdoing.
Archeology/Anthropology
Stanford University via PhysOrg: Research pushes back origins of agriculture in China by 12,000 years
by Bjorn Carey
May 03, 2013
The discovery pushes back the roots of agriculture in China by 12,000 years. The global emergence of similar practices around 23,000 years ago hints that agriculture evolved independently around the world, perhaps as a response to climate change.
The first evidence of agriculture appears in the archaeological record some 10,000 years ago. But the skills needed to cultivate and harvest crops weren't learned overnight. Scientists have traced these roots back to 23,000-year-old tools used to grind seeds, found mostly in the Middle East.
Now, research lead by Li Liu, a professor of Chinese archaeology at Stanford, reveals that the same types of tools were used to process seeds and tubers in northern China, setting China's agricultural clock back about 12,000 years and putting it on par with activity in the Middle East. Liu believes that the practices evolved independently, possibly as a global response to a changing climate.
Al Bawaba (Jordan): New discovery solves ancient Egyptian chariot mystery
Published April 23rd, 2013 - 12:48 GMT via SyndiGate.info
During routine archaeological research as part of the Ancient Egypt Leatherwork Project (AELP) carried out by Salima Ikram, Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo (AUC) and Andre Veldmeijer, head of the Egyptology section at the Netherlands Flemish Institute in Cairo, a collection of 300 leather fragments of an Old Kingdom chariot were uncovered at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Ikram describes the discovery as very important and the collection as “extremely rare.” Only a handful of complete chariots are known from ancient Egypt, and of these, only one heavily restored in Florence and one in the Egyptian Museum have any significant amount of leather.
“Even then, they are largely unembellished and not as well-preserved as the fragments we found,” asserted Ikram. Although horse-drawn chariots are often illustrated in ancient Egyptian artwork, she said, archaeological evidence that goes beyond wooden frames is rare due to their organic nature, as leather fragments seldom survive.
Discovery News: Robot Finds Mysterious Spheres in Ancient Temple
by Rossella Lorenzi
Apr 29, 2013 06:00 PM ET
Hundreds of mysterious spheres lie beneath the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, an ancient six-level step pyramid just 30 miles from Mexico City.
The enigmatic spheres were found during an archaeological dig using a camera-equipped robot at one of the most important buildings in the pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacan.
"They look like yellow spheres, but we do not know their meaning. It's an unprecedented discovery," said Jorge Zavala, an archaeologist at Mexico's National Anthropology and History Institute.
BBC: Moles unearth Roman artefacts at Epiacum's ancient fort
Epiacum is a site full of buried treasure, which no-one can reach - no-one human at least.
Near Alston in Cumbria, close to the Northumberland border, where now there are fields, there was once a thriving Roman fort.
Unfortunately for archaeologists, they cannot access any of the historic artefacts beneath the ground - because the site is a scheduled ancient monument.
Moles, however, pay no heed to the land's protected status.
The velvety creatures have not only been digging up the earth, but doing their bit for archaeology by inadvertently pushing ancient objects to the surface.
The Guardian (UK): Richard III archaeologists to return to Leicester site in search of lost knight
Excavators plan to search for Sir William Moton, who is believed to have been buried at Grey Friars church in 1362
Maev Kennedy
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 April 2013 09.17 EDT
A statue of King Richard III stands in Castle Gardens near Leicester Cathedral, close to where his body was discovered. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Archaeologists are to return to the Leicester car park that last year yielded the remains of Richard III, this time in search of the tomb of a knight who died a century earlier.
The team from the University of Leicester hopes to learn more about the history of Grey Friars church, whose priests bravely claimed the body of the dead king, which had been humiliatingly exposed in the town after it was carried naked on the back of a horse from the Bosworth battlefield in August 1485.
The Daily Telegraph (UK): Vatican uncovers 'first Western painting of Native Americans'
They have remained hidden for more than five centuries, but tiny figures of naked men wearing feathered head-dresses could be the first Western depiction of Native Americans, the Vatican claims.
By Nick Squires, Rome
3:33PM BST 02 May 2013
The group of tiny figures was discovered during the restoration of a magnificent fresco, owned by the Vatican, which depicts Christ's Resurrection.
The painting, by the Renaissance master Pinturicchio, was finished in 1494, just two years after Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World.
It has adorned the walls of the Borgia Apartments in the Vatican for 500 years but was only recently subjected to restoration work.
Smithsonian Magazine: Starving Settlers in Jamestown Colony Resorted to Cannibalism
New archaeological evidence and forensic analysis reveals that a 14-year-old girl was cannibalized in desperation
By Joseph Stromberg
Smithsonian.com, May 01, 2013
The harsh winter of 1609 in Virginia’s Jamestown Colony forced residents to do the unthinkable. A recent excavation at the historic site discovered the carcasses of dogs, cats and horses consumed during the season commonly called the “Starving Time.” But a few other newly discovered bones in particular, though, tell a far more gruesome story: the dismemberment and cannibalization of a 14-year-old English girl.
“The chops to the forehead are very tentative, very incomplete,” says Douglas Owsley, the Smithsonian forensic anthropologist who analyzed the bones after they were found by archaeologists from Preservation Virginia. “Then, the body was turned over, and there were four strikes to the back of the head, one of which was the strongest and split the skull in half. A penetrating wound was then made to the left temple, probably by a single-sided knife, which was used to pry open the head and remove the brain.”
My San Antonio: Long-buried parts of acequia unearthed
By Scott Huddleston, Staff Writer
Irrigation features buried for almost 300 years, including portions of an early 1700s dam, have been found in the northern area of Brackenridge Park, the city, San Antonio River Authority and Witte Museum announced Thursday.
Local and state officials will provide more details Friday of recent excavations that unearthed waterway features linking the park to the Spanish colonial era in San Antonio.
City Archaeologist Kay Hindes said the discoveries, done under contract with the river authority for trailheads and other features of the Museum Reach of the San Antonio River Improvements Project, revealed “one of the most concentrated groupings of acequia features in the past 10 or 15 years.”
She called them “truly significant finds” that reveal a part of the Spanish colonial history of the park.
The Daily Mail (UK): Schoolboy, 10, finds Civil War cannonball in his back garden as his father tried to remove a tree root
- The iron cannonball, which weighs 8lbs, has been verified by historians
- It was fired by a four-bore cannon during the 1642-51 conflict
By Lisa Kjellsson
A cannonball dating back to the Civil War has been found by a schoolboy in his back garden.
Ten-year-old Jack Sinclair made the historic find as he was digging a deep hole in his garden where his father had tried to remove a tree root.
Unsure at first of what he had unearthed, the hard object turned out to be a cannonball dating back to the 1642-51 conflict.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Evolution/Paleontology
PLoS ONE via PhysOrg: Killer entrance suspected in mystery of unusually large group of carnivores in ancient cave
May 01, 2013
An assortment of saber-toothed cats, hyenas, an extinct 'bear-dog', ancestors of the red panda and several other carnivores died under unusual circumstances in a Spanish cave near Madrid approximately 9-10 million years ago. It now appears that the animals may have entered the cave intentionally and been trapped there, according to research published May 1 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Soledad Domingo from the University of Michigan and colleagues from other institutions.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
University of Oxford via Science Daily: First Snapshot of Organisms Eating Each Other: Feast Clue to Smell of Ancient Earth
Apr. 29, 2013
Tiny 1,900 million-year-old fossils from rocks around Lake Superior, Canada, give the first ever snapshot of organisms eating each other and suggest what the ancient Earth would have smelled like.
The fossils, preserved in Gunflint chert, capture ancient microbes in the act of feasting on a cyanobacterium-like fossil called Gunflintia -- with the perforated sheaths of Gunflintia being the discarded leftovers of this early meal.
A team, led by Dr David Wacey of the University of Western Australia and Bergen University, Norway, and Professor Martin Brasier of Oxford University, reports in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the fossil evidence for how this type of feeding on organic matter -- called 'heterotrophy' -- was taking place. They also show that the ancient microbes appeared to prefer to snack on Gunflintia as a 'tasty morsel' in preference to another bacterium (Huroniospora).
University of Massachusetts, Amherst via PhysOrg: First land animals kept fishlike jaws for millions of years, says biologist
May 1, 2013
Scientists studying how early land vertebrates evolved from fishes long thought that the animals developed legs for moving around on land well before their feeding systems and dietary habits changed enough to let them eat a land-based diet, but strong evidence was lacking. Now, for the first time fossil jaw measurements by Philip Anderson at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and others have tested and statistically confirmed this lag.
"This pattern had been hypothesized previously, but not really tested. Now we've done that," Anderson says. He and his team found that the mechanical properties of tetrapod jaws did not show significant adaptations to land-based feeding until some 40 to 80 million years after the four-legged creatures initially came out of the water. Until then, tetrapod jaws were still very fish-like, even though their owners had weight-bearing limbs and the ability to walk on land. Anderson says this finding suggests tetrapods may have shown a limited variety of feeding strategies in the early phases of their evolution on land.
"What it took to really initiate evolutionary changes in the jaw system was for these animals to start eating plants," he says.
George Washington University via PhysOrg: Biologist discovers new meat-eating dinosaur from the late Jurassic period in China
May 3, 2013
Fossil remains found by a George Washington University biologist in northwestern China have been identified as a new species of small theropod, or meat-eating, dinosaur.
The discovery was made by James Clark, the Ronald B. Weintraub Professor of Biology, in the Department of Biological Sciences of GW's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Clark, along with his then doctoral student Jonah Choiniere and a team of international researchers, found the dinosaur specimen in a remote region of Xinjiang in China in 2006.
In a research paper published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Drs. Clark and Choiniere explain recovering the skull, mandible and partial skeleton of the dinosaur. The new theropod was an estimated 1 meter or just over 3 feet long and probably weighed about 3 pounds.
...
The dinosaur is named Aorun zhaoi, after the Dragon King in the Chinese epic tale Journey to the West.
Canadian Light Source via PhysOrg: Scientists study rare dinosaur skin fossil to determine skin colour for first time
April 29, 2013
One of the only well preserved dinosaur skin samples ever found is being tested at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron to determine skin colour and to explain why the fossilized specimen remained intact after 70-million years.
University of Regina physicist Mauricio Barbi said the hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period (100-65 million years ago), was found close to a river bed near Grande Prairie, Alberta.
...
Barbi said this is only the third three-dimensional dinosaur skin specimen ever found worldwide.
Inside Science News Service via LiveScience: Tiny Winged Fossil Suggests How Hummingbirds and Swifts Evolved
Joel N. Shurkin, ISNS Contributor
Date: 01 May 2013 Time: 10:11 AM ET
Of all the world's birds, swifts and hummingbirds stand out for their incredible flying abilities. They once had a common ancestor.
Researchers have discovered a 50-million year old fossil in Wyoming that isn't that common ancestor, but a closely related small bird that branched off the same line as the two phenomenal fliers and had characteristics that relate to the remarkable flight abilities of the two birds.
Meet Eocypselus rowei, a bird about four-and-a-half-inches long, probably black, and possibly iridescent. It would fit in the palm of your hand and weighed less than an ounce.
Geology
OurAmazingPlanet: Fishing Float Rides 2 Tsunamis … and Survives
Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
May 03, 2013
A barrel-size black plastic float torn loose by the 2011 Japan tsunami may have been tossed into a Canadian forest by a second tsunami in 2012, researchers say.
Though the hollow float hasn't been officially confirmed as tsunami debris, it is identical to a float embossed with the name "Musashi" found in the U.S. Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge in May 2012, the researchers said. A similar float was traced to an oyster farm in northeast Japan. The debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami has washed up from Alaska to California to Hawaii.
"This is a float that was caught up in the tsunami from Japan, so it is doubly tsunami debris," seismologist Alison Bird of the Geological Survey of Canada said at the Seismological Society of America's annual meeting on April 19. The float was discovered in Sunday Inlet on Moresby Island in British Columbia. The island is part of Haida Gwaii, once called the Queen Charlotte Islands.
Energy
University of Michigan: Fuel economy in the U.S. drops from recent high
May 2, 2013
ANN ARBOR—Fuel economy of new vehicles sold in the U.S. slipped last month for the first time this year, say researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.
Average fuel economy (window-sticker values) of cars, light trucks, minivans and SUVs purchased in April was 24.5 mpg, according to UMTRI researchers Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle.
"This value is down 0.1 mpg from the record high reached in March, likely reflecting the recent decrease in the price of gasoline," Sivak said. "Despite this small drop, the fuel economy is up 4.4 mpg since October 2007—the first month of our monitoring."
Inside Climate News: Arkansas Oil Spill Shatters American Dream of Families Still Displaced From New Homes
Uprooted and anxious, Arkansans find themselves thrust into the debate about the Canadian oil that filled their streets and the safety of such pipelines.
By Maria Gallucci, InsideClimate News
May 2, 2013
It has been more than a month now, and Amber Bartlett has had enough of hotels and apartments and trailer homes. Of crowded rooms whose thin walls amplify the bickering of her four children. Of piles of toys and clothes overflowing from drawers and suitcases. Of not knowing, day to day, where her life is headed.
She wants to be back in her five-bedroom, three-bathroom home at 16 Starlite Road North in Mayflower, Ark.
Ryan Senia, the Bartletts' next-door neighbor, is plenty ready to go home, too. For the past month the 29-year-old electrical engineer has been sleeping on a friend's couch instead of in his bed at 20 Starlite Road North. His power tools and equipment are gathering dust in his garage. His grill sits in his backyard, unused.
The Bartletts and Senia are among 21 families who were evacuated from their homes on March 29, after an ExxonMobil pipeline spilled at least 210,000 gallons of heavy Canadian crude oil into their neighborhood.
Physics
Space.com: The Hunt for Elusive Gravity Waves Heats Up
by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor
Date: 02 May 2013 Time: 02:01 PM ET
In the next five years or so, scientists are poised to discover proof that space and time can wrinkle in the form of gravitational waves. These waves were predicted almost 100 years ago by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, but have yet to be seen.
That could change soon when the latest, most sensitive experiments hunting gravitational waves come online. "There's so much activity and excitement in the field right now," said Mansi M. Kasliwal, an astronomer at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Pasadena, Calif. "The momentum is really building."
Kasliwal is the author of a paper published online today (May 2) in the journal Science describing the burgeoning field of gravitational wave studies.
Chemistry
Manchester University (UK) via ScienceDaily: How Graphene and Friends Could Harness the Sun's Energy Hitting Walls
May 2, 2013
Combining wonder material graphene with other stunning one-atom thick materials could create the next generation of solar cells and optoelectronic devices, scientists have revealed.
University of Manchester and National University of Singapore researchers have shown how building multi-layered heterostructures in a three-dimensional stack can produce an exciting physical phenomenon exploring new electronic devices.
The breakthrough, published in Science, could lead to electric energy that runs entire buildings generated by sunlight absorbed by its exposed walls; the energy can be used at will to change the transparency and reflectivity of fixtures and windows depending on environmental conditions, such as temperature and brightness.
Science Crime Scenes
The Guardian (UK): Egyptians grab ancient land of the pharaohs to bury their dead
Archaeologists fear for pyramid sites as illegal building gathers pace in wake of Arab spring
Patrick Kingsley in Dahshur
The Observer, Saturday 27 April 2013
In Manshiet Dahshur, 25 miles south of Cairo, the villagers recently extended the boundaries of the cemetery. For Ahmed Rageb, a carpenter who buried his cousin in the annexe, it was a logical decision. "We want to bury the dead," he said, strolling through the new cemetery after visiting his cousin's tomb. "The old cemetery is full. And there is no other place to bury my family."
There is just one problem. The new tombs are perilously close to some of Egypt's oldest: the pyramids of Dahshur, less famous than their larger cousins at Giza, but just as venerable. This is protected land, and no one is supposed to build here – yet more than 1,000 illegal tombs have appeared in the desert since January.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
Agence France Presse via Google: 'Thessaloniki's Pompeii' saved from relocation
By Vassilis Kyriakoulis (AFP) – 6 days ago
THESSALONIKI, Greece — Archaeologists in Greece's northern metropolis Thessaloniki were already overjoyed in 2006 when a 2,300-year-old avenue was found during construction work on the city's new underground rail network.
But a decision to keep in situ the superbly preserved ancient neighbourhood described as "Thessaloniki's Pompeii" has been hailed as a major win for conservationists in the cash-strapped country that has been forced to make unprecedented cuts to cultural spending.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Postmedia News via Canada.com: Extreme weather is making Americans climate-change believers, study finds
By William Marsden, Postmedia News
May 3, 2013
A year of strange and often devastating weather that included extreme hurricanes, drought and wildfires appears to have increased the number of Americans who want government action on climate change, a new study shows.
Unfortunately, researchers say, this higher level of global-warming awareness is not translating into political action.
“Mother Nature has been pretty busy teaching Americans and Canadians and people from round the world about climate change through extreme weather over the past couple of years,” said Prof. Ed Maibach, one of the authors of the survey. “Since 2011 we see a fairly strong increase in belief that climate change is real and human caused and people are worried about it.”
The survey shows that 58 per cent of Americans believe “global warming is affecting weather in the United States” and 85 per cent of Americans claimed they experienced extreme weather during the last year.
Inside Climate News: Sequester Hits Nation's Climate Change Research Capability
Eight regional centers dedicated to expanding climate research at the local level lose millions in budget cuts.
By Rachel Nuwer, InsideClimate News
May 1, 2013
When Renee McPherson took on the role of director of research at the South Central Climate Science Center last year, she had no idea that she’d soon be grappling with budget cuts that threatened her ability to support regional climate research or hire new graduate students and faculty—the premise of hosting the center in the first place.
The facility McPherson runs out of the University of Oklahoma is among eight centers created between 2010 and 2012 by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The goal was to bring together federal, academic and on-the-ground experts who could pursue climate change research at the local level.
But then came the sequester, the Congressional mandate that slashed federal budgets across the board.
The Guardian (UK): Grand Canyon uranium mining set to go ahead despite ban from Obama
Energy Fuels Resources has federal approval to reopen its mine six miles south of the canyon's South Rim entrance
Leslie Macmillan
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 April 2013 07.39 EDT
Uranium mining on the doorstep of the Grand Canyon national park is set to go ahead in 2015 despite a ban imposed last year by Barack Obama.
Energy Fuels Resources has been given federal approval to reopen its old Canyon Mine, located six miles south of the canyon's popular South Rim entrance, that attracts nearly 5 million visitors a year.
The Canadian company says that the Obama administration's ban on new hard-rock mining over 1m acres doesn't apply because its rights date from when it closed over 20 years ago.
However, its approval is based on an environmental study the US Forest Service conducted more than 25 years ago, in 1986.
Duke University via Science Daily: Environmental Labels May Discourage Conservatives from Buying Energy-Efficient Products
Apr. 30, 2013
When it comes to deciding which light bulb to buy, a label touting the product's environmental benefit may actually discourage politically conservative shoppers.
Dena Gromet and Howard Kunreuther at The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and Rick Larrick at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business conducted two studies to determine how political ideology affected a person's choice to buy energy-efficient products in the United States.
The authors suggest that financial incentives or emphasizing energy independence may be better ways to get people to buy energy-efficient products than appealing to environmental concerns because these represent unifying concerns that cross political boundaries.
Their paper, "Political Ideology Affects Energy-Efficient Attitudes and Choices," is published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Hunter quoted the
Grist article about this research.
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia): UN plans to list reef as endangered
Cameron Atfield
May 4, 2013 - 6:05PM
The United Nations has put the Queensland and federal governments on notice that the Great Barrier Reef could be added to a list of endangered world heritage sites.
In a draft decision released Friday night, expected to be adopted when UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee meets in Cambodia next month, it will be recommended the Great Barrier Reef be included in the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2014 ‘‘in the absence of a firm and demonstrable commitment’’ from the state and federal governments to take action.
That action included halting coastal development project that could impact the ‘‘outstanding universal value’’ of the site.
Science Education
The Guardian (UK): Florida student charged and expelled after 'science experiment' goes awry
Kiera Wilmot, 16, charged with felony possession of a weapon as part of 'zero-tolerance policy' after project exploded
Richard Luscombe in Miami
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 May 2013 14.05 EDT
To Florida teenager Kiera Wilmot, it was a simple experiment in preparation for her school's science fair, mixing common household chemicals in a small plastic bottle to see how they would react.
Witnesses say the bottle popped "like a firecracker", harmlessly blowing off the lid and creating a small amount of smoke.
But to staff at Bartow High School, police officers and an assistant state attorney with a zero-tolerance attitude, her actions were much more serious.
Science Writing and Reporting
Stuff (NZ): Tony Robinson digging around NZ
Christchurch part of a cunning plan
MARGARET AGNEW
Tony Robinson, better known to children of the 80s as Baldrick, diminutive dimwitted sidekick in the cult Blackadder comedy series, and best known to armchair archaeology buffs as presenter of Time Team for the past 20 years, has been here filming segments for his latest history-delving TV show.
His new History channel documentary series Tony Robinson's Time Walks, takes the actor turned presenter to Australasia in search of the stories behind the cities.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Science is Cool
LapTopMag via LiveScience: 10 Weirdest Questions Asked by OKCupid
Anna Attkisson, Laptopmag.com
Date: 03 May 2013 Time: 08:49 PM ET
I find it fairly scary there are people using a dating site to find a lover who showers once a month, eats garbage, likes tortured animals and finds the threat of nuclear war exciting. These are just some of the answers to user-generated questions asked by OKCupid, a dating site and app with 5 million monthly users.
To be fair, the last time I dated, Facebook hadn’t been invented, much less most of today’s social networking dating apps. In my 20s, you met people — wait for it — in a bar. But I was still pretty shocked by some of OKCupid member’s queries. Once you read some of the below gems, I think you’ll probably want to run screaming to your nearest bar, too.