Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, jlms qkw, Interceptor7, and ScottyUrb, guest editors annetteboardman and Doctor RJ, 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, health, energy, and the environment.
Our fearless leader, who usually posts here on Saturday nights, is having fun at Netroots Nation, so I am stepping up to the plate.
Tonight's Featured Story, From the Ocala Star Banner:
45 years later, moon landing still vivid in the minds of many
By Monivette Cordeiro
Bill Helms remembers exactly where he was the day Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin launched into space on their way to the moon in 1969.
At the time, Helms, 70, of Old Town, was a 25-year-old engineer on the launch team of Apollo 11 at the Kennedy Space Center. He was working on the Hazardous Gas Detection System console in Firing Room 1 in the large control center, which Helms said was basically "making sure the back end of the rocket didn't explode."
The night before the launch, Helms went out to the launch pad to put the final tweaks on the rocket.
Yahoo News
Moon Landing 45th Anniversary: Top Five Greatest Nasa Achievements
By Lydia Smith
On 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module Eagle and stepped onto the surface of the moon for the very first time.
Followed by shortly afterwards by Buzz Aldrin, the pair became the first humans to venture onto planet Earth's only natural satellite. The third astronaut, Michael Collins, sat in orbit in the Columbia command module.
After launching towards the moon on 16 July, the trio splashed down into the Pacific Ocean on 24 July. Since then only ten more people have stepped onto the dirt on the surface of the moon.
On the 45th anniversary of the first moonwalk, IBTimes UK looks at the some of the greatest achievements of Nasa so far:
From the Daytona Beach News-Journal
Volusia County residents share memories of moon landing
By Lacey McLaughlin
For the last 45 years Jim Purdy has kept a front-page news article detailing man’s first steps on the moon inside a paper bag tucked away in his closet.
This week the public defender from Ormond Beach unfolded the yellowed newspaper from July 21, 1969, and recalled watching the television as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon.
As Americans mark the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission today, local residents recalled watching the event and its historical significance.
For more astronomy and other science news, follow me below the orange thingamabob.
Some fine science diaries are published here every week. From this past week, just a few highlights:
From SkepticalRaptor, How to evaluate the quality of scientific research, a very good discussion of how to evaluate science research (and, frankly, almost any scholarly research).
From mem from somerville, Science policy decisions by experts or average Americans, a contribution to the discussion of GMOs, a discussion that at times gets rather heated around here.
One of the Daily Bucket diarists, matching mole offered silly mammal photos, with bunnies (okay, snowshoe hares, but ... BUNNIES).
From Gwennedd, Finding Life Beyond Our Solar System, about the announcement by NASA scientists that they estimate we will find evidence of life beyond Earth in the next twenty years.
And, as always, DarkSyde has This week in science, now with more balls.
There are two more astronomy stories in the digest, one here, and one (far) below:
From Discovery News:
Curiosity Finds Large Iron Meteorite on Marsby Ian O'Neill
On Curiosity’s 640th day (or sol) on Mars, as it continued its long drive to the base of Aeolis Mons (a.k.a. Mount Sharp), the robot stumbled across a fairly hefty meteorite. Shown here, the 2-meter-wide iron space rock can be seen embedded in the ruddy regolith.
The May 25 find adds to the puzzling reasons as to why the majority of meteorites found on the Martian surface are iron rich. On Earth, though fairly common, iron-rich meteorites are outnumbered by stony ones, leading scientists to believe that large iron-rich specimens may be more resistant to Martian erosion processes than stony space rocks.
Science in the News: Two stories on the scientific side of one of the sad stories in the news this past week.
From the Associated Press:
Forensic experts gather material to id victims
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Forensic teams fanned out across the Netherlands on Saturday to collect material including DNA samples that will help positively identify the remains of victims killed in the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine.
Police said in a tweet that 40 pairs of detectives from the National Forensic Investigations Team would be visiting victims’ relatives over the coming days.
Their aims is to build a database of material including DNA and photographs of distinguishing features like scars and tattoos that can be used to identify bodies and body parts recovered from the crash site in eastern Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines said 193 of the 298 passengers and crew killed in Thursday’s aviation disaster were Dutch.
On a related note, this from The Sydney Morning Herald:
Moment of impact: MH17's final seconds
Michelle Fay Cortez
The blast force from the missile that slammed into a Malaysian plane over Ukraine, combined with the plane’s dramatic deceleration, probably instantly rendered everyone on board unconscious or dead.
That’s the best guess of James Vosswinkel, a trauma surgeon who led a definitive study of TWA Flight 800 that exploded and crashed off New York’s Long Island in 1996, killing all 230 on the flight. The Malaysian plane carried 298.
Biology News:
From Rappler:
Lowly microbes, high-tech research
A Singapore-based research institution is studying how the lowly biofilm can make an impact on environmental and public health issues
KD Suarez
SINGAPORE – It’s on your kitchen sink. On rocks by the river. In the pool of your favorite resort. In the refrigerator. Even on your office water bottle.
Say hello to biofilms: that slippery, icky layer you feel when you’ve neglected to wash that mug after lying in the kitchen sink overnight, or on a pail whose water hasn’t been replaced in a week. Biofilms are actually communities of various kinds of microbes that live together in some kind of substrate or matrix, which we usually call slime.
Geology News:
From Discovery News:
USGS Updates Earthquake Map, 16 States at High Risk
by Laura Geggel, LiveScience
Parts of 42 states are at risk of earthquakes during the next 50 years, according to a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey.
The report includes updated maps that show geologists' predictions of where and how often future earthquakes may occur, and how strongly they may shake the ground.
From the LA Times:
Yellowstone National Park road melts into 'soupy mess'
By MAYA SRIKRISHNAN
Yellowstone park sits on a volcano caldera, so temperature fluctuations are normal. But this one melted a road
Yellowstone National Park hopes next week to reopen a road that melted into a 'soupy mess'
Extreme heat from surrounding thermal areas has created a hot spot in Yellowstone National Park, melting a portion of a road and causing temporary closures in the park during the peak summer tourist season.
The more than 3-mile-long Firehole Lake Drive, an offshoot of the park’s Grand Loop Road located between the Old Faithful geyser and Madison Junction, is closed because melting asphalt has turned it into a “soupy mess,” said park spokesman Dan Hottle.
Environmental News:
From the Philippine Daily Inquirer:
Life-saving warning
That CNN resident meteorologist Mari Ramos quoted its findings in the course of reporting on the passage of Typhoon “Glenda” (international name “Rammasun”) indicates that Project Noah (noah.dost.gov.ph) has become an invaluable resource for the Philippines.
Here is an initiative that deserves all support and funding, providing as it does vital information intended to minimise the damage caused by natural disasters such as the typhoons that regularly visit the Philippines.
From Discovery News:
Giant Toxic Algae Bloom Again Plagues Lake Erie
by Patrick J. Kiger
It turns out that NBA superstar LeBron James isn’t the only one returning to the Midwest.
Late summer will see a return of cyanobacteria, the toxic, oxygen-depleting blue-green slime that has been plaguing Lake Erie in recent years, according to NOAA scientists. This year’s bloom isn’t expected to be quite as bad as last year’s intense algae or the record-setting bloom in 2011, which covered 1,930 square miles of water. But it’s still probably going to cover a large stretch of the lake’s western portion, according to NOAA scientists.
Paleontology News:
From the National Geographic:
Ancient Native Americans Ate Pachyderms; Site Challenges Theory of Where New World Culture Began
Bones of the four-tusked gomphothere turned up at an ancient site.
By Gloria Dickie
At a Mexican site known as the End of the World, archaeologists have unearthed a Native American first: the bones of two extinct elephant-like animals that sported four tusks apiece, surrounded by 13,400-year-old spear points.
The discovery at the El Fin del Mundo site in northwestern Mexico's Sonora Desert provides the first archaeological evidence that the so-called Clovis people, who belonged to the earliest well-defined culture of the New World, preyed upon gomphotheres, ancient animals similar in size to modern-day elephants.
From ScienceCodex:
Meet the gomphothere: UA archaeologist involved in discovery of bones of elephant ancestor
An animal once believed to have disappeared from North America before humans ever arrived there might actually have roamed the continent longer than previously thought – and it was likely on the list of prey for some of continent's earliest humans, researchers from the University of Arizona and elsewhere have found.
Archaeologists have discovered artifacts of the prehistoric Clovis culture mingled with the bones of two gomphotheres – an ancient ancestor of the elephant – at an archaeological site in northwestern Mexico.
From the Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA):
Augustana dinosaur hunter helps police identify skeletal remains
By Jack Cullen
When he's not hunting for dinosaur fossils in Antarctica or lecturing to his Augustana College students about prehistoric life, William Hammer helps Quad-City law enforcement agencies in their investigations by classifying unidentified bones.
Although some police departments have their own forensic anthropologist — someone who examines and identifies human skeletal remains for law enforcement agencies, local Illinois investigators call Hammer.
For many years, the world-renowned paleontologist has lent his knowledge and passion for examining artifacts from the past to serve the community.
Archaeology News:
From Science News:
Romanian cave holds some of the oldest human footprints
Preserved Stone Age impressions were made about 20,000 years earlier than thought
by Bruce Bower
Human footprints found in Romania’s Ciur-Izbuc Cave represent the oldest such impressions in Europe, and perhaps the world, researchers say.
From Heritage Daily:
Tooth plaque provides unique insights into our prehistoric ancestors’ diet
An international team of researchers has discovered new evidence that our prehistoric ancestors had a detailed understanding of plants long before the development of agriculture.
Through the extraction of chemical compounds and microfossils from dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) from ancient teeth, the researchers were able to provide an entirely new perspective on the diet of our ancestors. Their research implies that purple nut sedge (Cyperus rotundus)- today perceived as a nuisance weed- formed an important part of the prehistoric diet.
Crucially, the research, published in PLOS ONE and led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the University of York, suggests that the prehistoric people residing in central Sudan possibly understood both the nutritional and medicinal qualities of this and other plants.
From The Scotsman
5000-year-old Cochno Stone carving may be revealed
by CRAIG BROWN
A SET of mysterious, 5,000-year-old rock carvings could see the light of day again, after being buried 50 years ago to protect them from vandals.
The Cochno Stone in West Dunbartonshire bears what is considered to be the finest example of Bronze Age “cup and ring” carvings in Europe.
The stone, which measures 42ft by 26ft, was discovered by the Rev James Harvey in 1887 on farmland near what is now the Faifley housing estate on the edge of Clydebank.
From Science a Gogo:
Prehistoric token "bookkeeping" persisted long into age of written language
by Will Parker
An archaeological dig in Turkey has uncovered a large number of clay tokens that were used as records of trade until the advent of writing around 3,000 B.C. But the newly found tokens show the rudimentary accounting system didn't die out with the invention of writing, and persisted for at least another 2,000 years. Lead archaeologist John MacGinnis (University of Cambridge) compared the discovery to the continued use of pens in the age of the word processor.
From the National Geographic:
Who Were the Ancient Bog Mummies? Surprising New Clues
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...
Christine Dell'Amore in Copenhagen
Cast into northern European wetlands, bog bodies have long appeared as opaque to archaeologists as their dark and watery graves. But new clues are coming in the centuries-old mystery of their origins.
Over 500 Iron Age bog bodies and skeletons dating to between 800 B.C. and A.D. 200 have been discovered in Denmark alone, with more unearthed in Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. (Read "Tales From the Bog" in National Geographic magazine.)
Much of the bodies' skin, hair, clothes, and stomach contents have been remarkably well preserved, thanks to the acidic, oxygen-poor conditions of peat bogs, which are made up of accumulated layers of dead moss.
From Culture24:
Hacked Roman legs and jawbones come from brutal Boudiccan battles, say archaeologists
By Ben Miller
"The dramatic find last week of burnt human bone has turned out to be even more dramatic than we first thought.
Two bones were involved: one part of a jawbone (mandible) and the other the top part of a shinbone (tibia).
They were found in debris from the massive fire which Boudicca and her army started as part of their attempt to drive the Roman army out of Britain.
From Discovery News:
Medieval Italian Skeleton Reveals Livestock Disease
by Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience
A sip of unpasteurized sheep or goat's milk may have spelled doom for a medieval Italian man.
A new genetic analysis of bony nodules found in a 700-year-old skeleton from Italy reveal that the man had brucellosis, a bacterial infection caught from livestock, when he died. It's not clear if the disease killed the man, but he likely would have suffered from symptoms such as chronic fatigue and recurring fevers, according to the researchers who analyzed the bones.
Education News:
From KTRK (Houston):
Summer camp at UH focuses on technology
The University of Houston is the sight of a unique summer camp. Kids are learning how to turn their interests in gadgets into careers.
"I'm making a game currently and I'm hoping to put it on the app store and if it goes well, I might make millions," said 7th grader Reeti.
It's not your average kid summer camp.
From Discovery News:
Will Texting Be the Death of Spelling and Grammar?
Is all of the texting we do burying the language as we know it? If ur all idk, it prob is! Ross Everett pops in to DNews to tell grammar nerds far and wide if all hope is lost.
Health News:
From the SunStar (Philippines):
When will dengue be prevented?
By Susan Palmes-Dennis
WHEN will that dengue vaccine be available in the Philippines?
I ask this because the past few days have been rough for my family in Tagoloan town, Misamis Oriental in northern Mindanao, Philippines and for me here in Charlotte, North Carolina in the US.
You see my granddaughter Susane Lorette Palmes is in the hospital after she experienced high fever and the results of her complete blood count (CBC) test showed that her platelet was low. The doctor's diagnosis – she had dengue.
News of the Weird:
From the Times of India:
10,000-year-old rock paintings depicting aliens and UFOs found in Chhattisgarh
Rashmi Drolia
CHARAMA (Chhattisgarh): Chhattisgarh state department of archaeology and culture plans to seek help from Nasa and Isro for research on 10,000-year-old rock paintings depicting aliens and UFOs in Charama region in Kanker district in tribal Bastar region.
From Discovery News:
Smart Cat Feeder Uses Facial Recognition
by Glenn McDonald
At the risk of upsetting my cat Murphy — who I’m convinced can not only read, but speed-read — here’s the latest bulletin from the world of cat feeder facial recognition technology.
The Bistro smart cat feeder, designed by a team called 42ARK out of Taiwan, is the sort of crazy idea that Just Might Work. Currently in crowdfunding stage, the device combines several different technologies to ensure your cat is eating properly.
That’s “properly” as defined by humans, not by cats, which is why I just let Murphy outside and am typing this in the closet. Like other automated cat feeders, the Bistro lets owners dispense measured amounts of food when kitty is home alone.