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.
Between now and the general election, Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday will highlight the research stories from the public universities in states with competitive contests for the U.S. Senate and Governor. Competitive states will be determined based on the percentage chance to win at Daily Kos Election Outlook. Those that show the two major party candidates having probabilities to win between 20% and 80% inclusive will count as competitive states. Currently, the states with competitive races for the U.S. Senate are Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, New Hampshire, and North Carolina, and the states with competitive races for Governor include Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Tonight's edition features the research and outreach stories from Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.
This week's featured story comes from Space.com via LiveScience: Comet's Mars Flyby Sunday Has Scientists Abuzz
By Mike Wall, Senior Writer
October 17, 2014 11:06am ET
A comet's close shave with Mars this weekend could reveal some key insights about the Red Planet and the solar system's early days, researchers say.
Comet Siding Spring will zoom within 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of Mars at 2:27 p.m. EDT (1827 GMT) on Sunday (Oct. 19). Scientists will observe the flyby using the fleet of spacecraft at Mars, studying the comet and any effects its particles have on the planet's thin atmosphere.
"On Oct. 19, we're going to observe an event that happens maybe once every million years," Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division, said in a news conference earlier this month. "This is an absolutely spectacular event."
More stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
WATCH THIS SPACE!
Amazing video of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket re-start and re-entry
by Keith Pickering
Spotlight on green news & views: Protest in the Pacific, boom is not all it's fracked up to be
by Meteor Blades
This week in science: Death to the ITAR!
by DarkSyde
Slideshows/Videos
Georgia Tech: Robots learn from sidewinder snakes
The amazing ability of sidewinder snakes to quickly climb sandy slopes was once something biologists only vaguely understood and roboticists only dreamed of replicating. By studying the snakes in a unique bed of inclined sand and using a snake-like robot to test ideas spawned by observing the real animals, both biologists and roboticists have now gained long-sought insights. Video shows research into how the snakes move.
Also see the associated story under Physics.
Discovery News: How Blue LED Lights Changed The World!
The inventors of blue LED lights recently won a Nobel Prize. What makes this invention so revolutionary? Tara explores the world of LED bulbs.
University of Iowa: UI alum James Hansen reflects on working with Van Allen
Born and raised in Denison, Iowa, James Hansen earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in physics from the UI. He studied under the legendary UI space scientist James Van Allen.
NASA: Power Spacewalk on This Week @NASA
During an October 15 spacewalk outside the International Space Station – the second U.S. spacewalk in as many weeks – Expedition 41 Flight Engineers Reid Wiseman and Barry Wilmore of NASA, replaced a failed voltage regulation device to restore the station’s electrical power output to full capacity. The pair also relocated camera and TV equipment as part of a major reconfiguration to accommodate new docking adapters for use by U.S. commercial crew spacecraft in the next few years. Also, MAVEN’s “First Light”, Hubble finds extremely distant galaxy, Possible bonus destination for New Horizons, New information about volcanic activity on our moon and more!
Sorry, no embedding this week.
Science at NASA: ScienceCasts: Sunset Solar Eclipse
On October 23rd, the Moon will pass in front of the sun, off-center, producing a partial solar eclipse visible in most of the United States.
No embedding here, either. :-P
Discovery News: What Was The Military's Secret Shuttle Doing In Space?
The military's shuttle X-37-B Orbital Test Vehicle landed back on Earth this week. What has it been doing in space all this time? Trace investigates.
Astronomy/Space
University of Colorado: MAVEN spacecraft’s first look at Mars holds surprises, says CU-Boulder mission leader
October 14, 2014
NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft has provided scientists their first look at a storm of energetic solar particles at Mars and produced unprecedented ultraviolet images of the tenuous oxygen, hydrogen and carbon coronas surrounding the Red Planet, said University of Colorado Boulder Professor Bruce Jakosky, the mission’s principal investigator.
In addition, the new observations allowed scientists to make a comprehensive map of highly variable ozone in the Martian atmosphere underlying the coronas, he said. The spacecraft entered Mars’ orbit Sept. 21 and is in the process of lowering its orbit and testing its instruments. The $671 million Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission, or MAVEN, was launched toward Mars on Nov. 18, 2013, to help solve the mystery of how the Red Planet lost most of its atmosphere.
“Everything is performing well so far,” said Jakosky of CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. “All of the instruments have now been turned on, and although they are not yet fully checked out, they are functioning nominally.
Colorado State University: Spacing out: CSU researchers involved in recent NASA Earth science missions
by Kortny Rolston
13 Oct, 2014
2014 is shaping into a big year for NASA’s Earth science missions – and for researchers at Colorado State University who’ve been involved in some of the projects.
For the first time in more than a decade, NASA is launching five Earth satellite missions in a single year. Researchers in Department of Atmospheric Science , CIRA – the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere – and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering are playing major roles in two of the five.
In February, NASA sent up the international Global Precipitation Measurement satellite, which collects high resolution sharper rain and snow data from around the world.
Then in July, the federal agency launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, its first satellite dedicated to measuring the amount of carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere and in natural “sinks” such as oceans and forests.
In both cases, CSU developed the complex algorithms that convert the raw data collected by the orbiting satellites into accurate information that can be used by researchers around the world.
Climate/Environment
University of Massachusetts: Icebergs Once Drifted to Florida, New Climate Model Suggests
UMass Amherst geoscientist models ocean circulation to understand past climate change
October 14, 2014
AMHERST, Mass. – Using a first-of-its-kind, high-resolution numerical model to describe ocean circulation during the last ice age about 21,000 year ago, oceanographer Alan Condron of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has shown that icebergs and meltwater from the North American ice sheet would have regularly reached South Carolina and even southern Florida. The models are supported by the discovery of iceberg scour marks on the sea floor along the entire continental shelf.
Such a view of past meltwater and iceberg movement implies that the mechanisms of abrupt climate change are more complex than previously thought, Condron says. “Our study is the first to show that when the large ice sheet over North America known as the Laurentide ice sheet began to melt, icebergs calved into the sea around Hudson Bay and would have periodically drifted along the east coast of the United States as far south as Miami and the Bahamas in the Caribbean, a distance of more than 3,100 miles, about 5,000 kilometers.”
His work, conducted with Jenna Hill of Coastal Carolina University, is described in the current advance online issue of Nature Geoscience. “Determining how far south of the subpolar gyre icebergs and meltwater penetrated is vital for understanding the sensitivity of North Atlantic Deep Water formation and climate to past changes in high-latitude freshwater runoff,” the authors say.
University of Michigan: Lake Erie increasingly susceptible to large cyanobacteria blooms
October 15, 2014
ANN ARBOR—Lake Erie has become increasingly susceptible to large blooms of toxin-producing cyanobacteria since 2002, potentially complicating efforts to rein in the problem in the wake of this year's Toledo drinking water crisis, according to a new study led by University of Michigan researchers.
Since the detection of the toxin microcystin left nearly half a million Ohio and Michigan residents without drinking water for several days in early August, discussions of ways to prevent a recurrence have largely focused on the need to reduce the amount of phosphorus fertilizer that washes off croplands and flows into western Lake Erie to trigger harmful cyanobacteria blooms.
In a study published online Oct. 8 in the journal Water Resources Research, scientists from U-M and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conclude that microcystin-producing cyanobacteria in Lake Erie are becoming more sensitive to phosphorus and that reductions may have to cut far deeper than recently proposed targets.
Biodiversity
University of Wisconsin: Climate change alters cast of winter birds
by Terry Devitt
Oct. 16, 2014
Over the past two decades, the resident communities of birds that attend eastern North America’s backyard bird feeders in winter have quietly been remade, most likely as a result of a warming climate.
Writing this week in the journal Global Change Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison wildlife biologists Benjamin Zuckerberg and Karine Princé document that once rare wintering bird species are now commonplace in the American Northeast.
Using more than two decades of data on 38 species of birds gathered by thousands of “citizen scientists” through the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch, the Wisconsin researchers show that birds typically found in more southerly regions are gradually pushing north, restructuring the communities of birds that spend their winters in northern latitudes.
University of Florida: Struggle on the savanna: Leopards, wild dogs contribute to thorny landscape
October 16, 2014
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In a classic food chain, predators, such as the sleek and strong leopard, eat herbivores — for instance, the slender and deer-like impala. In turn, herbivores eat plants.
But according to a new study co-authored by University of Florida associate professor of biology Todd Palmer and his recent postdoctoral student Jacob Goheen, that predator-prey relationship may be much more complicated, with broad implications for the habitats in which these animals live, such as the African savanna.
One benefit might be for the people who live in these areas.
Biotechnology/Health
University of Florida: Researchers suggest Ebola virus may be creating its own immunity
October 14, 2014
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- The spread of Ebola in West Africa reveals two truths: The disease is swift, and it is devastating. Amid the chaos of deadly outbreak, researchers say another truth may exist: The disease might be quietly inoculating a significant portion of the population who are exposed to the virus but never succumb to it or show symptoms of being infected.
If those individuals have acquired an immunity to Ebola, the strategies for the intervention and treatment of the disease need to be reconsidered, according to a letter published online today in The Lancet, a leading medical journal. Juliet Pulliam, one of the letter’s authors and an assistant professor of biology at the University of Florida and UF’s Emerging Pathogens Institute, said, “If infection without disease protects people from future Ebola infections and illness, the epidemic should decline sooner than currently predicted and affect a smaller number of people.”
The authors, led by postdoctoral fellow Steve Bellan at The University of Texas at Austin, looked at studies done in the aftermath of an outbreak. One showed that 71 percent of people who had close contact with Ebola patients and tested positive for the virus did not get sick; another showed 46 percent of people who had close contact with Ebola patients and did not get sick had evidence of infection with the virus.
Northern Illinois University: Ebola: Should we worry?
NIU professor: Money spent to protect U.S. from Ebola better spent in Africa
October 16, 2014
So, is there reason for concern in this country? Yes and no, say two NIU biologists and a professor of public health.
“We maybe should worry,” says Neil Blackstone, a professor in the NIU Department of Biological Sciences whose field of interest is evolutionary biology.
“We don’t yet have a grasp of how it got to West Africa, and the concern is that it’s evolving. It’s evolving to be a better human parasite than it has been, perhaps less deadly but more transmittable,” Blackstone adds. “If it infects 1,000 and kills them all, that’s one thing. But if it infects 1 million people and kills 10 percent of them – 100,000 – that’s another.”
University of Colorado: Biomedical research lands CU-Boulder prof coveted award for $3.7 million from NIH
October 9, 2014
University of Colorado Boulder Associate Professor Amy Palmer of the BioFrontiers Institute was awarded a coveted Director’s Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health this week, a five-year, $3.7 million grant made to select researchers showing exceptional creativity in solving pressing biomedical and behavioral research problems.
Palmer, a faculty member in the chemistry and biochemistry department, is studying how metals, including zinc, affect the health of humans. Zinc is involved in a wide array of biological functions, including the creation of the human genome. Zinc also plays a role in the susceptibility of humans to illnesses and infections.
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While many people are aware of the role iron can play in human health, zinc is at least as important and is involved in a much wider array of biological functions, said Palmer. Ten percent of the proteins used to build our cells and tissues, for example, are believed to bind with zinc. A lack of zinc can cause life-threatening diarrhea, a decrease in the ability to heal wounds and delayed growth in and maturation in children.
University of Georgia: Biological clock disruptions increase breast cancer risk, UGA study finds
October 17, 2014
Athens, Ga. - The disruption of a person's circadian rhythm—their 24-hour biological clock—has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, according to new University of Georgia research. The culprit, in this study in particular, is artificial light.
"Exposure to artificial light leads to a significantly higher risk for developing breast cancer," said Chunla He, a biostatistics graduate student in the UGA College of Public Health. "To decrease the use of artificial light, people should avoid working at night and implement earlier bed times."
Her research, published in the International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, examined key studies that included risk factors for developing breast cancer.
University of Illinois at Chicago: Grant allows UIC oral biologists to further explore DMP1
Sam Hostettler
October 16, 2014
The more Anne George learns about dentin matrix protein 1, the more unanswered questions she has.
George, Allen G. Brodie endowed professor of oral biology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has received a $2 million federal grant to continue her research into DMP1, a gene that could play critical roles in bone and dentin mineralization.
Upon the conclusion of the five-year grant in 2019, George’s work on DMP1 will have been funded for 23 straight years by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, one of the National Institutes of Health.
University of Iowa: Want whiter teeth? Fruit mixture is not the answer
University of Iowa study shows strawberries have no effect on teeth whitening
By: Richard C. Lewis | 2014.10.13 | 07:00 AM
Can you ditch the strips and dump the dentist for whiter teeth? From “The Dr. Oz Show” to YouTube videos, experts say you can reclaim those pearly whites simply by mixing fruit, such as strawberries, with some baking soda, and applying the all-natural concoction to your teeth.
It’s cheap, easy, and oh-so-organic. But does it work?
Unfortunately not, says an University of Iowa dental researcher, who compared a homemade strawberry-baking soda recipe with other remedies, such as over-the-counter products, professional whitening, and prescribed whitening products.
University of Massachusetts Medical School: Tuning light to kill deep cancer tumors
Nanoparticles developed at UMass Medical School advance potential clinical application for photodynamic therapy
By Jim Fessenden
UMass Medical School Communications
October 15, 2014
An international group of scientists led by Gang Han, PhD, has combined a new type of nanoparticle with an FDA-approved photodynamic therapy to effectively kill deep-set cancer cells in vivo with minimal damage to surrounding tissue and fewer side effects than chemotherapy. This promising new treatment strategy could expand the current use of photodynamic therapies to access deep-set cancer tumors.
“We are very excited at the potential for clinical practice using our enhanced red-emission nanoparticles combined with FDA-approved photodynamic drug therapy to kill malignant cells in deeper tumors,” said Dr. Han, lead author of the study and assistant professor of biochemistry & molecular pharmacology. “We have been able to do this with biocompatible low-power, deep-tissue-penetrating 980-nm near-infrared light.”
In photodynamic therapy, also known as PDT, the patient is given a non-toxic light-sensitive drug, which is absorbed by all the body’s cells, including the cancerous ones. Red laser lights specifically tuned to the drug molecules are then selectively turned on the tumor area. When the red light interacts with the photosensitive drug, it produces a highly reactive form of oxygen (singlet oxygen) that kills the malignant cancer cells while leaving most neighboring cells unharmed.
University of Massachusetts Medical School: Expert’s Corner: Pediatric critical care specialist on enterovirus D68
Bateman recommends vigilance for worsening symptoms, precautions to prevent spread
By Sandra Gray
UMass Medical School Communications
October 08, 2014
As a doctor in charge of a pediatric intensive care unit, Scot Bateman, MD, has been treating Worcester-area children potentially infected with enterovirus D68.
“We have admitted a large number of patients to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit who have a more prolonged asthma exacerbation that seems consistent with the reports of this enterovirus,” said Dr. Bateman, associate clinical professor of pediatrics and director of the PICU at UMass Memorial Medical Center. “In the last month we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of patients with the most severe form of asthma that requires ICU-level care.”
While awaiting results from testing to confirm enterovirus D68 diagnoses, children with severe upper respiratory infections and exacerbated asthma symptoms receive the same treatment as they normally would.
University of Massachusetts Medical School: Even motivated dieters need close access to healthy food
UMMS and DPH findings challenge previous conclusions about healthy eating and neighborhood environment
By Sandra Gray
UMass Medical School Communications
October 07, 2014
You’re obese, at risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and so motivated to improve your diet that you’ve enrolled in an intensive behavioral program. But if you need to travel more than a short distance to a store that offers a good selection of healthy food, your success may be limited.
A new study from UMass Medical School and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health finds that not having close access to healthy foods can deter even the most motivated dieters from improving their diet, suggesting that easy access to healthy food is as important as personal motivation and professional guidance from health care providers.
“Community health programs should be evidence based, but many studies have showed conflicting associations between the distance to grocery stores and lower or higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes,” said principal investigator Wenjun Li, PhD, associate professor of medicine and director of the Health Statistics and Geography Lab in the Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine at UMMS and senior author of the study.
Michigan State University: Discovery of cellular snooze button advances cancer and biofuel research
October 13, 2014
The discovery of a cellular snooze button has allowed a team of Michigan State University scientists to potentially improve biofuel production and offer insight on the early stages of cancer.
The discovery that the protein CHT7 is a likely repressor of cellular quiescence, or resting state, is published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This cellular switch, which influences algae’s growth and oil production, also wields control of cellular growth – and tumor growth – in humans.
Christoph Benning, MSU professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and his colleagues unearthed the protein’s potential while seeking ways to improve algae’s capacity as a biofuel. Its application in cancer research, however, was a surprise finding that is leading Benning’s lab in a new direction.
Wayne State University: Wayne State study may lead to use of smart phones to assist in stress management programs in the workplace
October 14, 2014
DETROIT – Although studies of the health effects of stress have been published for years, few have examined how chronic and momentary — or acute — stress influences health while people go about their daily lives.
Researchers at Wayne State University recently published the study, “The Relationship of Chronic and Momentary Work Stress to Cardiac Reactivity in Female Managers: Feasibility of a Smart Phone-Assisted Assessment System,” in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, which looked at how both chronic work stress and momentary stress during the day influenced cardiac reactions in a cohort of women who were managers at various companies or institutions in Sweden. The team also took advantage of technological innovations: they used wireless sensors to assess the women’s heart rates throughout the day. When a women’s heart rate became elevated, the system prompted a smart phone to alert the participant to rate her momentary stress.
“Our study sheds light on the various forms of stress experienced by women in positions of responsibility and authority, and how the combination of acute and chronic stress can have a particularly negative health effect,” said Bengt Arnetz, M.D., Ph.D., professor of occupational medicine at Wayne State University and the team’s leader. “This cohort of women is rarely studied, yet they have unique challenges and risks, including work-family balance, workplace discrimination and increased risk of burnout. We found that these women had elevated heart rates at work on multiple occasions throughout the day, and subjective stress was experienced routinely at these times. This suggests that the stress from managerial positions for women may have negative mental and physical health implications.”
North Carolina State University: Bio-Inspired ‘Nano-Cocoons’ Offer Targeted Drug Delivery Against Cancer Cells
October 13, 2014
Biomedical engineering researchers have developed a drug delivery system consisting of nanoscale “cocoons” made of DNA that target cancer cells and trick the cells into absorbing the cocoon before unleashing anticancer drugs. The work was done by researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“This drug delivery system is DNA-based, which means it is biocompatible and less toxic to patients than systems that use synthetic materials,” says Dr. Zhen Gu, senior author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor in the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and UNC Chapel Hill.
“This technique also specifically targets cancer cells, can carry a large drug load and releases the drugs very quickly once inside the cancer cell,” Gu says.
Psychology/Behavior
Iowa State University: Bullies in the workplace: ISU researcher examines the struggles for victims to tell their story
October 15, 2014
AMES, Iowa – The stories are shocking and heartbreaking, but they are often disjointed and hard to follow. In severe cases, the narratives are even more chaotic. This is reality for victims of workplace bullying and a major reason why they stay silent, said Stacy Tye-Williams, an assistant professor of communications studies and English at Iowa State University.
No one expects to go to work and feel as though they are back on the school playground, but bullying is all too common for many workers. Approximately 54 million workers, or 35 percent of U.S. employees, are targeted by a bully at some point in their careers, according to the Workplace Bullying Institute. Instead of reporting it, Tye-Williams found several of the people she interviewed for a study, published in Management Communication Quarterly, suffered silently.
“Many of the participants felt no one would believe them, or they were afraid of being labeled as a big cry baby or a whiner, so they didn’t tell a manager or someone else in the organization,” Tye-Williams said. “When you experience serious trauma in the workplace, it’s difficult to explain to people what is happening to you.”
University of Massachusetts Medical School: Food addiction: The missing piece in the obesity epidemic
Two events at UMass Medical School Oct. 21 and 22 explore diagnosis and treatment
By Sandra Gray
UMass Medical School Communications
October 16, 2014
Mounting evidence indicates that food addiction is a major underlying contributor to the obesity epidemic, and that misdiagnosis and under-treatment of food addiction is a major obstacle to overcoming obesity.
“The scientific consensus is that food addiction is real,” said addiction psychiatrist Douglas Ziedonis, MD, MPH. “Food addiction is a major part of and cause of the current obesity epidemic and a serious public health threat.”
But many patients and health care providers lack the knowledge and skills to confront the problem.
University of Massachusetts Medical School: Boston Globe: UMMS researcher finds that rare genetic disorder protects against bipolar
By Jim Fessenden
UMass Medical School Communications
October 16, 2014
Edward Ginns, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry, has discovered that a rare genetic dwarfism called Ellis van-Creveld (EvC) syndrome protects against bipolar affective disorder, according to a story in the Boston Globe.
Carolyn Johnson, science reporter for the Globe, explains how the finding is one of a number of cases where a specific genetic mutation promotes health instead of disease in the Oct. 15 article. Probing the genetic mutations that are protective may help scientists understand how these diseases are caused at the molecular level, as well as aid in the creation of drugs that have an effect similar to the genetic mutation.
“What has happened is the pieces of the puzzle came together more recently over the last several months,” Dr. Ginns told the Globe. “What we are reporting is that here’s the phenomena that this rare genetic disorder, the mechanism in it which was not obvious years ago, that actually protects those individuals from getting bipolar disorder.
University of Michigan: Older adults satisfied with aging more likely to seek health screenings
October 16, 2014
ANN ARBOR—Adults over 50 who feel comfortable about aging are more proactive in getting preventive health care services, a new University of Michigan study found.
Sometimes, the older population does not visit their doctor because they believe that physical and mental declines typify old age, says Eric Kim, a U-M doctoral student in clinical psychology. They think that lifestyle changes will not make a difference, making them less likely to seek preventive care. This is not true and also not a healthy mindset, he says.
Studies show that older adults can go down several different trajectories of health as they age: some decline, some maintain and some even get healthier. Different mindsets influence which health trajectories people follow because mindsets influence health behaviors, says Kim, the study's lead author.
If people are satisfied with their aging process, which includes feeling useful and having high energy, they sought health screenings.
University of Wisconsin: To practice mindfulness, start by counting your breaths
Kelly Aprill Tyrell
October 15, 2014
It's as simple as breathing in and breathing out.
Mindfulness — a focus on the here and now through awareness of the present moment — can be both practiced and, importantly, measured by simply counting your breath, according to new studies led by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers and published collectively this month in Frontiers in Psychology.
The practice of mindfulness has recently gained popularity in the U.S. Studies show it can reduce stress, improve student academic performance, and more. But researchers have lacked a scientifically rigorous way to measure it, sometimes hindering its credibility, says study leader Richard Davidson, a UW-Madison professor of psychology and psychiatry.
"We wanted to develop a behavioral measure of mindfulness," says Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the UW's Waisman Center.
Archeology/Anthropology
Popular Archaeology: Archaeologists Make Surprising Discovery at Neolithic Site in Scotland
Tue, Oct 14, 2014
A giant-sized Neolithic Era cow found as archaeologists excavated at the famous Ness of Brodgar site in Orkney.
Archaeologists Make Surprising Discovery at Neolithic Site in Scotland
It wasn't a buried cache of gold or silver that excavators came across as they methodically dug down through the remains of one of Scotland's most ancient archaeological sites. But in a very important sense, the discovery was equally exciting.
They were the skeletal remains of an animal—a very, very big one. And a very old one.
"It is so big that there was an immediate need for an expert opinion," reported the Dig Diary blogger for the Ness of Brodgar Excavations project.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Paleontology/Evolution
LiveScience: Eyeless Swimmer: Bizarre Primitive Animal Is Your Cousin
by Stephanie Pappas
October 17, 2014 07:24am ET
Newfound fossils may solve a century-long mystery over the identity of a bizarre 500-million-year-old animal.
Strange figure-8 shaped creatures from the Cambrian Period are actually very distant cousins of humans, according to a new study. These vetulicolians, as they are known, appear to have possessed a notochord, a hollow nerve structure — just like modern vertebrates, including humans.
"It finally puts to rest the position of this weird-looking group of animals," study researcher Diego Garcia-Bellido, an invertebrate paleontologist at the University of Adelaide in Australia and an honorary research associate at the South Australian Museum, wrote in an email to Live Science. The findings also suggest that chordates, or creatures with notochords, were diverse and successful from the beginning of animal evolution, he said.
LiveScience: Giant, Extinct Kangaroos Probably Didn't Hop
By Laura Geggel, Staff Writer
October 15, 2014 04:15pm ET
The ancestors of modern-day kangaroos, giant marsupials with rabbitlike faces, may have walked upright on two feet, sans any hopping, a new study finds.
These enormous creatures, part of the extinct family of sthenurine kangaroos, once roamed the Australian outback from about 100,000 to 30,000 years ago. But they were likely bad hoppers, said lead researcher Christine Janis, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University in Rhode Island.
"Modern large kangaroos are not the 'norm' for kangaroos," Janis told Live Science. "In fact, they appear to be more like a cheetah in comparison with other large cats — slimly built and streamlined for specialized, fast locomotion."
Geology
Colorado State University: On a rising tide
by Bryony Wardell
8 Oct, 2014
Successfully navigating stretches of the longest river in Alaska in a kayak ladened with soil samples and gear was only one of many great achievements by CSU graduate student Katherine Lininger this year.
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Lininger floated more than 180 miles of river in the rugged and remote terrain of central Alaska to better understand river-floodplain systems. She spent five weeks in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge to study how much carbon is stored in subarctic floodplain ecosystems.
Quantifying carbon storage in the Yukon Basin floodplains can help scientists understand the carbon cycle and how carbon moves between the land, ocean, and atmosphere. Lininger and her colleagues collected floodplain soil samples to determine the organic carbon content of the active layer, which is the top-most part of the soil that thaws out in the summer. Knowing how much carbon is stored in the active layer could also give clues about how much carbon is in the permafrost beneath, which is continuously frozen soil. Melting permafrost due to climate change could release stored carbon into the atmosphere.
University of Illinois: Rivers flow differently over gravel beds, study finds
Liz Ahlberg
October 15, 2014
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — River beds, where flowing water meets silt, sand and gravel, are critical ecological zones. Yet how water flows in a river with a gravel bed is very different from the traditional model of a sandy river bed, according to a new study that compares their fluid dynamics.
The findings establish new parameters for river modeling that better represent reality, with implications for field researchers and water resource managers.
“The shallow zones where water in rivers interacts with the subsurface are critical environmentally, and how we have modeled those in the past may be radically different from reality,” said Jim Best, a professor of geology, geography and geographic information science at the University of Illinois. “If you’re a river engineer or a geomorphologist or a freshwater biologist, predicting where and when sediment transport is going to occur is very important. This study provides us with a very different set of conditions to look at those environments and potentially manage them.”
Energy
Georgia Tech: Researchers develop world’s thinnest electric generator
October 15, 2014
Researchers from Columbia Engineering and the Georgia Institute of Technology have reported the first experimental observation of piezoelectricity and the piezotronic effect in an atomically thin material, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), resulting in a unique electric generator and mechanosensation devices that are optically transparent, extremely light, and very bendable and stretchable.
In a paper published online October 15, 2014, in the journal Nature, research groups from the two institutions demonstrate the mechanical generation of electricity from the two-dimensional (2D) MoS2 material. The piezoelectric effect in this material had previously been predicted theoretically.
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“This material – just a single layer of atoms – could be made as a wearable device, perhaps integrated into clothing, to convert energy from your body movement to electricity and power wearable sensors or medical devices, or perhaps supply enough energy to charge your cell phone in your pocket,” said James Hone, professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia and co-leader of the research.
Iowa State University: ExxonMobil supports Iowa State research in biofuels science and engineering
October 10, 2014
AMES, Iowa – ExxonMobil Corporation is establishing an advanced biofuels research program at Iowa State University.
The ExxonMobil Biofuels Program will initially focus on two research projects with Iowa State. The studies are related to the fast pyrolysis of biomass – rapidly heating biomass (including corn stalks, switchgrass or wood chips) without oxygen to produce liquid bio-oil, which can then be upgraded into transportation fuels.
Iowa State researchers have been studying fast pyrolysis for more than 15 years and have recently upgraded a fast pyrolysis pilot plant at the university’s BioCentury Research Farm.
University of Michigan: Recent gains in gas mileage have fueled major societal benefits
October 13, 2014
ANN ARBOR—Fuel economy in the U.S. has increased 26 percent in the last seven years, saving billions of gallons of gas and billions of pounds of vehicle emissions, say University of Michigan researchers.
Since October 2007, gas mileage of new vehicles has improved from 20.1 mpg to 25.3 mpg, according to Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the U-M Transportation Research Institute.
"While this improvement is rather modest in absolute terms, it is substantial in comparison with the changes throughout the 20th century," Sivak said.
Physics
Georgia Tech: Snakes and snake-like robots show how sidewinders conquer sandy slopes
October 9, 2014
The amazing ability of sidewinder snakes to quickly climb sandy slopes was once something biologists only vaguely understood and roboticists only dreamed of replicating. By studying the snakes in a unique bed of inclined sand and using a snake-like robot to test ideas spawned by observing the real animals, both biologists and roboticists have now gained long-sought insights.
In a study published in the October 10 issue of the journal Science, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Oregon State University, and Zoo Atlanta report that sidewinders improve their ability to traverse sandy slopes by simply increasing the amount of their body area in contact with the granular surfaces they’re climbing.
As part of the study, the principles used by the sidewinders to gracefully climb sand dunes were tested using a modular snake robot developed at Carnegie Mellon. Before the study, the snake robot could use one component of sidewinding motion to move across level ground, but was unable to climb the inclined sand trackway the real snakes could readily ascend. In a real-world application – an archaeological mission in Red Sea caves – sandy inclines were especially challenging to the robot.
However, when the robot was programmed with the unique wave motion discovered in the sidewinders, it was able to climb slopes that had previously been unattainable. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Army Research Office, and the Army Research Laboratory.
Chemistry
University of Wisconsin: UW to expand research into advanced, economically viable bioproducts
by Scott Gordon
Oct. 13, 2014
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Minnesota and Argonne National Laboratory will explore ways to produce renewable plastic precursors and other substances from biomass with a recently announced $3.3 million grant from the United States Department of Energy.
Part of a $13.4 million push by the Department of Energy to support the development of advanced biofuels and bioproducts, the grant plays to the strengths of a UW-Madison research community that already balances basic science with a focus on the processes needed to develop a diverse and economically viable suite of bio-derived chemicals.
"We're trying to make very high-value commodity chemicals from biomass that can be used to make different kinds of plastics and plasticizers," says George W. Huber, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at UW-Madison. "So many people have been focusing on fuels, which are a pretty low-value product — $600 or $700 per ton — but we're going to be making products that are worth more than $5,000 per ton."
Science Crime Scenes
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies via JSTOR: Archaeological Site Damage in the Cycle of War and Peace: A Syrian Case Study
Emma Cunliffe
Emma Cunliffe is a heritage consultant who specializes in satellite imagery, GIS, and forms of site damage in peace and conflict, in particular monitoring the damage to Syria's heritage. She is also a member of the United Kingdom Committee of the Blue Shield, working to protect all heritage during conflict.
This article compares the damage sustained to sites in Syria during 50 years of peace with that recorded during the recent conflict. A methodology is presented to analyze peacetime site damage using remote assessment of sites on sequential satellite imagery and site damage during conflict from media sources, together with samples of the results achieved. The findings are compared to begin to draw out similarities and differences in how site damage occurs in war and peace, what factors affect it, and some of the key challenges sites now face.
ASOR Syrian Heritage Institute: Planning for Safeguarding Heritage Sites in Syria (PDF)
Weekly Report 8 – September 29, 2014
Michael D. Danti and Kurt W. Prescott
Key Heritage Recommendations and Actions
1) The UNESCO WHS Ancient City of Bosra shows evidence for extensive damage due to urban combat, vandalism, looting, and neglect.
*SHI has already designated Bosra as a high priority site for monitoring and assessment.
New satellite imagery is needed for much of the site. In the most recent image, dated August 4, 2014, much of the site is obscured by cloud cover.
2) Islamic State intentional destructions of historic buildings and modern places of worship continue in Syria and northern Iraq.
*As mentioned in previous Weekly Reports, SHI will continue to monitor and assess intentional destructions by Islamic State and all other combatants in Syria.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
North Carolina State University: The Devil’s in The Details: More Research Needed To Address Synthetic Biology Security Concerns
Matt Shipman
October 13, 2014
A new paper examines security risks and policy questions related to the growing field of synthetic biology. While the author doesn’t think the field is ripe for exploitation by terrorists, it does highlight significant gaps in our understanding of the nuts and bolts of lab work in synthetic biology that can contribute to security risks.
“The driving question here is whether terrorists can easily draw on published synthetic biology research to develop new bioweapons,” says the paper’s author, Kathleen Vogel, a biochemist/social scientist at NC State who focuses on biosecurity issues. “The policy community is engaged in a long-running debate on how and whether synthetic biology should be governed or regulated to protect public well-being without stifling science and innovation.”
Synthetic biology involves the design of new biological components, devices or systems that don’t exist in nature, or the redesign of existing natural biological systems. Synthetic biology aims to make biological systems work more efficiently or to design biological tools for specific applications – such as developing more effective antibiotics.
To address the security question, Vogel looked at how easily synthetic biology results could be replicated. Specifically, she looked at how technological advances diffuse and are adopted through the lens of what she calls “revolution” and “evolution” frameworks.
Science, Space, Health, Environment, and Energy Policy
Al-Ahram (Egypt): Meidum Pyramid site under restoration in Upper Egypt
The Meidum Pyramid’s archaeological site in Beni Suef is being restored by the government in an attempt to attract tourists to Egypt
Nevine El-Aref
Antiquities minister Mamdouh El-Damaty embarked on Thursday on an inspection tour around the different archaeological sites and monuments in the upper Egyptian city of Beni Suef escorted by the city’s governor Magdi El-Batiti and Youssef Khalifa, head of the ancient Egyptian section.
The area of Meidum Pyramid was the first site to be visited. During the tour, El-Damaty announced that a comprehensive restoration project is to begin immediately to make the site more tourist friendly.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Colorado State University: Researcher: Analysis of GMO labeling initiative unbiased
by Jeff Dodge
15 Oct, 2014
A research team led by a Colorado State University faculty member has found that a new citizens’ review of the initiative to require labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) was largely fair and unbiased.
Proposition 105, which will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot in Colorado, would require, with several exceptions, “food that has been genetically modified or treated with genetically modified material to be labeled ‘Produced With Genetic Engineering’ starting on July 1, 2016.”
University of Illinois at Chicago: Subsidies help breast cancer patients adhere to hormone therapy
Sharon Parmet
October 15, 2014
A federal prescription-subsidy program for low-income women on Medicare significantly improved their adherence to hormone therapy to prevent the recurrence of breast cancer after surgery.
“Our findings suggest that out-of-pocket costs are a significant barrier” to women complying with hormone therapy, said Dr. Alana Biggers, assistant professor of clinical medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, and lead investigator on the study. Programs that lower these costs can “improve adherence — and, hopefully, breast cancer outcomes — for low-income women,” she said.
Biggers presented the results of the study at an Oct. 14 press conference in advance of the American Society for Clinical Oncology Quality Care Symposium in Boston.
Science Education
Colorado State University: Greenhouse gases heat up new degree
by Jennifer Dimas
16 Oct, 2014
As industries from agricultural to manufacturing work to confront climate change issues, a new job market is emerging for professionals who can accurately quantify and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of businesses. To help train professionals for these careers, Colorado State University has launched a new Masters of Greenhouse Gas Management and Accounting degree that combines environmental knowledge with quantitative and technical skills.
University of Georgia: NSF grant adds up to better-prepared middle school mathematics teachers
October 14, 2014
Athens, Ga. - New research taking place at the University of Georgia College of Education examines how future mathematics teachers can develop flexible methods for solving problems in middle grades mathematics.
Funded by a four-year, $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the project, "Investigating Proportional Relationships from Two Perspectives," investigates how future mathematics teachers make connections among multiplication and division, fractions, ratios and proportional relationships, linear functions and statistical samples.
By learning to solve mathematical problems in multiple ways, said Andrew Izsák, the grants principal investigator, future teachers gain deeper knowledge of content they teach and the flexibility to help diverse students learn mathematics. The project will look at ways the UGA students' understanding of certain concepts, such as ratios and proportional relationships, can build upon their understanding of multiplication and division. This "interconnected" knowledge can help both teachers and students remember what they learn.
Georgia Tech: Animals help people, get their own app
Biologically inspired design inspires a new strategy for Zoo Atlanta
October 9, 2014
Owls are mostly nocturnal animals that depend on stealth to catch their prey. With the help of their wing structure, they also helped create the world’s most famous high-speed train by making it less noisy.
Flamingos are famous because of their pink color, which comes from the tiny creatures they filter from the water and eat. But it’s their fast-moving, mysterious beaks that may provide practical uses for people as they contemplate the kitchen faucets of the future.
Highlighting these unexpected similarities between what animals do and what people are trying to do is a new strategy Georgia Institute of Technology researchers are using to hopefully increase public awareness about animals and encourage conservation. They’ve created an iPhone app based on biologically inspired design, highlighting two dozen species that have helped engineers solve problems or invent new solutions.
University of Michigan: New app customizes animal natural history on the go
October 17, 2014
ANN ARBOR—A University of Michigan startup has launched the first of many mobile apps with customized data on animals for parks, zoos, museums and other natural areas.
The Animal Diversity Web spun off from the university this year after nearly 20 years as a learning tool started by recently retired U-M biologist Phil Myers, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology. He created the searchable database and multimedia encyclopedia of animal natural history on the fledgling World Wide Web in 1995.
From modest beginnings, ADW has steadily grown to become one of the world's largest and most widely used natural history websites. During busy times, more than 4 million pages of content are provided to more than a half million users worldwide each month.
University of Michigan: U-M campus sustainability awareness is up, actions lag
October 13, 2014
ANN ARBOR—Findings from a new U-M Sustainability Cultural Indicators Program report show that most U-M faculty, students, and staff have increased their knowledge about how to be more sustainable, particularly in the areas of foods and waste prevention, but behavior change hasn't kept pace.
SCIP is a collaborative effort between U-M's Graham Sustainability Institute and the Institute for Social Research, with support from the Office of the Provost. Launched in 2012 to track "sustainability culture" on the Ann Arbor campus, SCIP uses annual surveys to measure and evaluate changes and progress over time.
The survey data inform a set of sustainability indicators in four key categories: climate action, waste prevention, healthy environments and community awareness—aligning directly with the university's campus sustainability goal areas. The second-year SCIP report reflects responses from 4,700 faculty, students and staff in 2013, and compares those results to benchmarks established in 2012.
Michigan State University: Cadavers beat computers for learning anatomy
October 16, 2014
Despite the growing popularity of using computer simulation to help teach college anatomy, students learn much better through the traditional use of human cadavers, according to new research that has implications for health care.
Cary Roseth, associate professor of educational psychology at Michigan State University, said the study suggests cadaver-based instruction should continue in undergraduate human anatomy, a gateway course to medical school, nursing and other health and medical fields.
In the United States, most anatomy courses still emphasize the use of cadavers, although in many cases digital technologies supplement the instruction. Yet there is a growing debate over whether cadavers are needed at all; some medical schools in Australia and the United Kingdom have stopped using cadavers to teach anatomy altogether.
The research, which appears in the September/October issue of Anatomical Sciences Education, is the only known scientific study to directly compare the effects of cadaver-based and computer-simulation instruction on students’ learning of cadaver-based structures.
Science Writing and Reporting
University of Georgia: Journalist from The Washington Post to speak about Ebola crisis
October 16, 2014
Athens, Ga. - Todd C. Frankel, a reporter with The Washington Post, will discuss the challenges reporters face in covering the emerging Ebola crisis during a talk Oct. 23 at 4 p.m. at the University of Georgia Chapel.
The talk, "Eyewitness to Ebola: A Journalist's Perspective," is free and open to the public.
The original speaker for this event was Liberian journalist Wade C.L. Williams, but her visit has been postponed.
University of Iowa: Science fiction fanzines to be digitized as part of major UI initiative
James L. 'Rusty' Hevelin Collection contains about 10,000 fanzines
By: Kristi Bontrager | 2014.10.17 | 01:56 PM
The University of Iowa Libraries has announced a major digitization initiative, in partnership with the UI Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development. 10,000 science fiction fanzines will be digitized from the James L. “Rusty” Hevelin Collection, representing the entire history of science fiction as a popular genre and providing the content for a database that documents the development of science fiction fandom.
Hevelin was a fan and a collector for most of his life. He bought pulp magazines from newsstands as a boy in the 1930s, and by the early 1940s began attending some of the first organized science fiction conventions. He remained an active collector, fanzine creator, book dealer, and fan until his death in 2011. Hevelin’s collection came to the UI Libraries in 2012, contributing significantly to the UI Libraries’ reputation as a major international center for science fiction and fandom studies.
Science fiction fanzines are amateur publications made by individuals or groups that discuss books, films, politics, and many other public and personal matters. They were initially written for a limited audience and distributed via personal connections and gatherings, beginning in the 1930s in the United States and Europe. Within the pages of science fiction fanzines lies previously inaccessible and unstudied primary documentation of the social history and popular culture of the 20th century.
Science is Cool
Archaeological Institute of America: International Archaeology Day
International Archaeology Day is held each year on the third Saturday of October.
International Archaeology Day is a celebration of archaeology and the thrill of discovery. Every October the AIA and archaeological organizations across the United States, Canada, and abroad present archaeological programs and activities for people of all ages and interests. Whether it is a family-friendly archaeology fair, a guided tour of a local archaeological site, a simulated dig, a lecture or a classroom visit from an archaeologist, the interactive, hands-on International Archaeology Day programs provide the chance to indulge your inner Indiana Jones.
LiveScience: Giant Sphinx from 'Ten Commandments' Film Unearthed 91 Years Later
By Laura Geggel, Staff Writer
Hidden for more than 90 years beneath the rolling sand dunes of Guadalupe, California, an enormous, plaster sphinx from the 1923 blockbuster movie "The Ten Commandments" has been rediscovered and is now above ground.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Michigan State University: When judging art, men and women stand apart
October 9, 2014
The sexes show stark differences in how they evaluate art, finds a new study co-authored by a Michigan State University marketing scholar.
Men seem to focus more on the artist’s background and authenticity, while women pay more attention to the art itself.
The study, which appears in the journal Psychology & Marketing, is the first to investigate how important an artist’s “brand” is to average consumers when they appraise art. Turns out, that personal brand is very important, a finding that has implications for the $64 billion art market and other product industries such as food and fashion.
Michigan Tech: Unplugged: 3D Printing Goes Solar
By Marcia Goodrich
Last Modified 2:07 PM, October 10, 2014
3D printing guru Joshua Pearce wants nothing more than to provide the means of production to everyone, especially people in developing regions who must get by on very little. But there has been a drawback.
3D printers make all manner of fun and useful things, but they do require electricity. And the grid is notoriously unreliable in many parts of the world. “What do you do if the power goes out while you are right in the middle of printing something?” says Pearce, an associate professor at Michigan Technological University. “It’s not good.”
Pearce researches both solar power and 3D printing and combined his specialties to develop two solutions in the form of open-source solar-powered 3D printers. One is designed for schools and businesses, the other for remote communities.