Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.
This week's featured story comes from the University of Texas via physorg.com.
Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Wednesday
The Leonid meteor shower best viewing this year will be in the two to three hours before dawn on Nov. 17 and 18, according to the editors of StarDate magazine.
More science, space, and environment stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
Watch this space!
DarkSyde: This week in science
David Brin: Colbert and Science - plus my new Graphic Novel about..... Industry!
Dr Teeth: Green Jobs Require Green People
FerrisValyn: More reasons not to take the Catfood commission seriously
Slideshows/Videos
National Geographic: Rare Pictures: Crocodile Attacks Elephant
In an unusual ambush, a Nile crocodile grabs onto an elephant's trunk at an African water hole. See which animal comes out alive.
Astronomy/Space
Examiner.com: SpaceX delays launch of rocket that will carry cargo to space station
By Hank Lacey, Denver Science News Examiner
SpaceX, the California company that is on track to carry cargo to the International Space Station after the space shuttle program ends next year, has announced a delay in this month's test flight of its rocket.
The flight of the Falcon 9 will be postponed until Dec. 7.
Commerical Spaceflight Federation: Commercial Crew Development Round 1 Companies Have Reached Substantial Hardware Milestones In Only 9 Months, New Images & Data Show (PDF)
By John Gedmark, November 8th 2010
Washington, D.C. – Showcasing the potential of commercial crew transportation and commercial fixed-price agreements, five company teams selected by NASA in February 2010 under the $50 million Commercial Crew Development Round One program have built significant working hardware in just nine months, new images and data show.
"The launch vehicles for Commercial Crew already exist and are flying today, and the capsules
and spacecraft that will fly atop these launch vehicles are making significant hardware progress – rocket engines are being fired, landing systems are being tested, heat shields are being built, designs are being refined," said Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight
Federation. "The commercial spaceflight industry is poised to meet NASA’s mission
requirements for crew transportation, creating thousands of jobs along the way."
On the following pages is information on the progress of the five teams participating in
Commercial Crew Development Round One:
- Sierra Nevada Corporation
- Paragon Space Development Corporation
- United Launch Alliance
- Blue Origin
- Boeing
Evolution/Paleontology
Kent State University via physorg.com: Oldest fossil shrimp preserved with muscles
One of America’s favorite seafood is shrimp. Did you know that they fossilize as well? Rodney Feldmann and Carrie Schweitzer (both Kent State University) report on the oldest fossil shrimp known to date. The creature in stone is as much as 360 million years old and was found in Oklahoma. Even the muscles of the fossil are preserved. The study will be published soon in Journal of Crustacean Biology.
"The oldest known shrimp prior to this discovery came from Madagascar," Feldmann says. This one is way younger, having an age of ‘only’ 245 million years making the shrimp from Oklahoma 125 million years older. The fossil shrimp, having a length of about 3 inches, was found by fellow-paleontologist Royal Mapes (Ohio University) and his students. Feldmann and Schweitzer named the fossil after him: Aciculopoda mapesi.
The discovery is also one of the two oldest decapods (‘ten footed’) to which shrimp, crabs, and lobsters belong. The other decapod, Palaeopalaemon newberryi, is of similar age and was found in Ohio and Iowa. "The shrimp from Oklahoma might, thus, be the oldest decapod on earth," Feldmann explains.
Oregon State University via physorg.com: Halloween horror story -- tale of the headless dragonfly
In a short, violent battle that could have happened somewhere this afternoon, the lizard made a fast lunge at the dragonfly, bit its head off and turned to run away. Lunch was served.
But the battle didn't happen today, it happened about 100 million years ago, probably with dinosaurs strolling nearby. And the lizard didn't get away, it was trapped in the same oozing, sticky tree sap that also entombed the now-headless dragonfly for perpetuity.
This ancient struggle, preserved in the miracle of amber, was just described by researchers from Oregon State University in Paleodiversity, a professional journal. It announced the discovery of a new sub-family of dragonflies, called "Paleodisparoneurinae," in the oldest specimen of this insect ever found in amber.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
National Geographic: Early Cities Spurred Evolution of Immune System?
"Amazing" DNA results show benefits of ancient urbanization, study says.
Matt Kaplan
for National Geographic News
Published November 8, 2010
As in cities today, the earliest towns helped expose their inhabitants to inordinate opportunities for infection—and today their descendants are stronger for it, a new study says.
"If cities increase the amount of disease people are exposed to, shouldn't they also, over time, make them natural places for disease resistance to evolve?" asked study co-author Mark Thomas, a biologist at University College London.
It's basic evolutionary theory: People who survive infection stand a better chance of having children and passing along disease-resistant genes. So groups from regions where urbanization has existed for thousands of years should be more disease resistant.
The trick was finding proof.
Biodiversity
National Geographic: New Self-Cloning Lizard Found in Vietnam Restaurant
All-female species reproduces via virgin birth, new study says.
Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
Published November 8, 2010
You could call it the surprise du jour: A popular food on Vietnamese menus has turned out to be a lizard previously unknown to science, scientists say.
What's more, the newfound Leiolepis ngovantrii is no run-of-the-mill reptile—the all-female species reproduces via cloning, without the need for male lizards.
Single-gender lizards aren't that much of an oddity: About one percent of lizards can reproduce by parthenogenesis, meaning the females spontaneously ovulate and clone themselves to produce offspring with the same genetic blueprint.
Biotechnology/Health
Agence France Presse via Yahoo! News Canada: Scientists turn skin into blood
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Stem cell researchers have found a way to turn a person's skin into blood, a process that could be used to treat cancer and other ailments, according to a Canadian study published Sunday.
The method uses cells from a patch of a person's skin and transforms it into blood that is a genetic match, without using human embryonic stem cells, said the study in the journal Nature.
By avoiding the controversial and more complicated processes involved with using human embryonic stem cells to create blood, this approach simplifies the process, researchers said.
U-M and MSU researchers well represented at public health association meeting
By Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner
Scores of faculty and students from the University of Michigan School of Public Heath (UMSPH) joined approximately 13,000 other participants in the 2010 American Association of Public Health Annual Meeting in Denver this past week. There, the researchers from presented 72 talks, symposia, and poster sessions on a diverse range of topics ranging from the use of social media in public health to asthma, fast food, gender, and car accidents. More than 4000 studies were presented at the conference.
In addition to presenting their research, the participants joined in honoring Marc Zimmerman, chair of Health Behavior and Health Education at UMSPH. Zimmerman was among the winners of the 2010 Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) Distinguished Fellow Award.
Also, at least one researcher from Michigan State University also attended the conference and presented his findings.
More about UMSPH research into asthma at the link.
Climate/Environment
Southern Methodist University via physorg.com: Archaeological sites threatened by rising seas, urban development
November 12, 2010 By Leslie Reeder
Should global warming cause sea levels to rise as predicted in coming decades, thousands of archaeological sites in coastal areas around the world will be lost to erosion.
With no hope of saving all of these sites, archaeologists Leslie Reeder of Southern Methodist University, Torben Rick from the Smithsonian Institution, and Jon Erlandson of the University of Oregon have issued a call to action for scientists to assess the sites most at risk.
Writing in the Journal of Coastal Conservation and using California's Santa Barbara Channel as a case study, the researchers illustrate how quantifiable factors such as historical rates of shoreline change, wave action, coastal slope and shoreline geomorphology can be used to develop a scientifically sound way of measuring the vulnerability of individual archaeological sites.
They then propose developing an index of the sites most at risk so informed decisions can be made about how to preserve or salvage them.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Examiner.com: Biologists notice link between global warming and warbler migration
By Lisa Hossler, Toledo Environmental News Examiner
For over 20 years, biologists at the Virginia Commonwealth University have been studying the prothonotary warblers that migrate from the tropics to wooded riversides in North America and occasionally show up in Ohio woodlands. The study began as research into the effects of habitat destruction on the warbler species. However, researchers noticed the birds are arriving earlier and earlier each spring. And studies of other birds around the globe are showing similar trends. Experts believe the birds are responding in a behavioral way to temperature change. As spring gets warmer, the bugs the warblers eat are out earlier.
Geology
Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology via physorg.com: African dust caused red soil in southern Europe
Spanish and American researchers have conducted a mineralogical and chemical analysis to ascertain the origin of "terra rossa" soil in the Mediterranean. The results of the study reveal that mineral dust from the African regions of the Sahara and Sahel, which emit between 600 and 700 tonnes of dust a year, brought about the reddish soil in Mediterranean regions such as Mallorca and Sardinia between 12,000 and 25,000 years ago.
"The first hint of the relationship between African dust and certain soils in the region of the Mediterranean is their reddish or reddish-brown colour, similar to that of African aerosol filters, caused by their clay content", co-author of the study and researcher at the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Anna Ávila explained to SINC.
The study, which has been published in Quaternary Science Reviews, finds that African mineral dust additions "play an important role" in the origin of the soils (palaeosols) in the Mediterranean region, namely on the island of Mallorca. The results resemble those published regarding the soils on Sardinia, "which indicates the likelihood of Africa being a common source".
In turn, "African dust explains the origin of the 'terra rossa' soils in the Mediterranean region located on top of mother carbonate rock," Ávila added.
Psychology/Behavior
RAND Corporation via phyorg.com: Study links a couple's numeracy skills with greater family wealth
Couples who score well on a simple test of numeracy ability accumulate more wealth by middle age than couples who score poorly on such a test, according to a new study of married couples in the United States.
Researchers found that when both spouses answered three numeracy-related questions correctly, family wealth averaged $1.7 million, while among couples where neither spouse answered any questions correctly the average household wealth was $200,000. Numeracy is the ability to reason with numbers and other mathematical concepts, and are skills typically learned during school.
"We examined several cognitive skills and found that a simple test that checks a person's numeracy skills was a good predictor of who would be a better family financial decision maker," said James P. Smith, a co-author of the study and Distinguished Chair in Labor Markets and Demographic Studies at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization. The other two authors of the study are John McArdle of the University of Southern California and Robert Willis of the University of Michigan.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Discovery News: Robot Makes Ethical Decisions
By Tracy Staedter
Robots and other machines equipped with artificial intelligence shoot military targets, distribute cash (think: ATMs), drive cars and deliver medication to patients, to name a few. If people performed these duties, they would be expected to behave in a certain way and follow moral and ethical guidelines. But what about robots? They can't yet think and act on their own accord, so should we expect them to behave morally?
Researchers working in the field of machine ethics say yes and are investigating ways to program machines to behave morally.
Health Day via Business Week: Sight of Meat Puts People at Ease, Study Suggests
Finding surprised researchers who expected a more aggressive response
That feeling of goodwill when family and friends gather for the Thanksgiving meal may be due to the fact that the sight of meat on the table calms people, a new study suggests.
The researchers in the psychology department at McGill University in Montreal were surprised by their finding. They had expected that seeing meat would make people more aggressive.
"I was inspired by research on priming and aggression, that has shown that just looking at an object which is learned to be associated with aggression, such as a gun, can make someone more likely to behave aggressively," study author Frank Kachanoff said in a McGill news release.
Archeology/Anthropology
Medical News Today: Differences In Human And Neanderthal Brains Set In Just After Birth
The brains of newborn humans and Neanderthals are about the same size and appear rather similar overall. It's mainly after birth, and specifically in the first year of life, that the differences between our brains and those of our extinct relatives really take shape, according to a report published in the Nov. 9 issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.
The findings are based on comparisons of virtual imprints of the developing brain and surrounding structures (known as endocasts) derived from the skulls of modern and fossilized humans, including that of a newborn Neanderthal.
Medical News Today: Ancient DNA Reveals Origins Of First European Farmers
A team of international researchers led by ancient DNA experts from the University of Adelaide has helped resolve the longstanding issue of the origins of the people who introduced farming to Europe some 8000 years ago. A detailed genetic study of one of the first farming communities in Europe, from central Germany, reveals marked similarities with populations living in the Ancient Near East (modern-day Turkey, Iraq and other countries) rather than those from Europe. The results of the study will today in the online peer-reviewed science journal PLoS Biology.
Lead author Dr Wolfgang Haak, of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) at the University of Adelaide, says "We have shown that the first farmers in Europe had a much greater genetic input from the Near East and Anatolia, than from populations of Stone Age hunter-gatherers who already existed in the area."
BBC: Items found in Monmouth shed light on Mesolithic man
The discovery of artefacts during gas mains excavations in Monmouth has helped illustrate how the River Wye supported a Stone Age camp.
Archaeologists found flint tools and bone fragments at St James's Square and Wyebridge Street.
They indicate hunter-gatherers used the River Wye for food and transport some 6,500 to 7,500 years ago.
The late Mesolithic items show there were settlers in the area thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
The Guardian (UK): Stone age etchings found in Amazon basin as river levels fall
A series of ancient underwater etchings has been uncovered near the jungle city of Manaus, following a drought in the Brazilian Amazon.
The previously submerged images – engraved on rocks and possibly up to 7,000 years old – were reportedly discovered by a fisherman after the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon river, fell to its lowest level in more than 100 years last month.
Tens of thousands of forest dwellers were left stranded after rivers in the region faded into desert-like sandbanks.
Though water levels are now rising again, partly covering the apparently stone age etchings, local researchers photographed them before they began to disappear under the river's dark waters.
The Guardian (UK): Egypt: A life before the afterlife
Gloomy tombs and morbid mummies? Everyday Egypt was much more than that, argues Richard Parkinson in a first glimpse of a new series focusing on the ancient world, free with tomorrow's Guardian
Ancient Egypt rarely escapes our stereotypical view of it: an exotic place full of pyramids crammed with cursed treasure, waiting to be discovered by adventurous archaeologists. As in René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's comic Asterix and Cleopatra, it is often presented as a land of spooky tombs and people speaking in hieroglyphic pictures. These stereotypes are themselves quite ancient – even to the ancient Greeks, Egypt was a quintessentially different culture. But they trivialise a complex society.
Ancient Egypt is one of the first civilisations that children are taught about, and so people sometimes assume that it must be a "childish" culture, an early step in humanity's evolution towards modernity. People of all ages visit the displays of mummies in the British Museum, and there can be no more vivid way of stirring anyone's historical imagination than to look into an actual ancient face. But as we stare, we can sometimes forget that they were more than mummies, and that once they were people as complex and sophisticated as us.
Sify.com (India): Egyptian secrets of sun worship revealed in new discovery
Egyptologist Barry Kemp has said that the artefacts unearthed recently from an ancient burial site in the city of Amarna shed light on the existence of sun worship in ancient Egypt.
The findings indicate that Amarna was a sun-worshipping city, said Kemp.
"Archaeology is a moving frontier. There are always more questions and uncertainties, as is the case in all humanities," Chicago Maroon quoted him as saying at the Oriental Institute last week.
Xinhua via China Radio: Saudi Unearths First Pharaonic Relic
Saudi Arabia announced Sunday that its archeologists had discovered a rock carrying an ancient hieroglyphic inscription of an Egyptian pharaoh, the first confirmed pharaoh-era relic discovered in the kingdom, local Arab News reported.
The discovery was made in July near the ancient oasis of Tayma, Tabuk province, which has been posited as a stop on an ancient land route between the western coast of Arabia and the Nile Valley, the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquity (SCTA) vice president Ali al-Ghabban was quoted by the paper as telling a press conference on Sunday.
BBC: Peterborough's Bronze Age past has been revealed in dig
Hoards of Bronze Age weapons, pots still full of food and elaborate textiles have all been uncovered at an archaeological dig near Peterborough.
The unusually well-preserved finds are due to a fierce fire in 500BC, which caused the artefacts to sink rapidly into the peaty fen waters.
Archaeologist Tim Malim said: "It's more impressive than Flag Fen.
"The textile finds are unique within England," he continued. "We've never found anything from this date before."
Associated Press via DeKalb Times-Journal: Chinese mine in Afghanistan threatens ancient find
Heidi Vogt, The Associated Press
MES AYNAK, Afghanistan (AP) - It was another day on the rocky hillside, as archaeologists and laborers dug out statues of Buddha and excavated a sprawling 2,600-year-old Buddhist monastery. A Chinese woman in slacks, carrying an umbrella against the Afghan sun, politely inquired about their progress.
She had more than a passing interest. The woman represents a Chinese company eager to develop the world's second-biggest unexploited copper mine, lying beneath the ruins.
The mine is the centerpiece of China's drive to invest in Afghanistan, a country trying to get its economy off the ground while still mired in war. Beijing's $3.5 billion stake in the mine - the largest foreign investment in Afghanistan by far - gets its foot in the door for future deals to exploit Afghanistan's largely untapped mineral wealth, including iron, gold, and cobalt. The Afghan government stands to reap a potential $1.2 billion a year in revenues from the mine, as well as the creation of much-needed jobs.
I promise the rest of this OND will be AP-free.
China People's Daily: Large ancient graves from Western Han Dynasty found in Chongqing
Seventeen graves from the Western Han Dynasty were discovered at a construction site for the reformation of Beibei District in Chongqing on Nov. 11.
The 110 unearthed fine cultural relics that were found have both typical Ba State cultural characteristics, as well as traces of the Qin and Han dynasties.
There were over 110 cultural objects unearthed. Among the relics were bronze ware, including willow leaf swords, brass spears, seals, coins, brass knives, brass bells and brass rings; iron ware, including iron swords and knives, and pottery, including round bottom jars, flat bottom jars, kettles and earthen bowls, according to Lin Bizhong, assistant director of the Chongqing Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.
Sofia News Service: Controversy Provoking John The Baptist Relics Displayed in Sofia
The relics, unearthed this summer off Sozopol on Bulgaria's southern coast and purported to be John the Baptist, will be displayed in the capital Sofia for three days as of November 12.
The relics are expected to arrive on Saint Alexander Nevsky square around 5 pm and will be welcomed solemnly by the clergy, politicians and citizens, according to a statement of the Holy Synod.
A mass will be served for the health and welfare of the Bulgarian people in fornt of the relics, which will be displayed at the patriarchal cathedral, giving opportunity to the faithful to take a glimpse of the relics.
The remains believed to be John the Baptist, including a skull fragment and a tooth, were uncovered at the end of July during the excavation of a fourth-century monastery on St. Ivan Island, off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. They were in a sealed reliquary buried next to a tiny urn inscribed with St. John's name and his birth date.
Sify.com (India): 1,000-yr-old Viking massacre remains unearthed in Oxford
Archaeologists have revealed that Viking skeletons found buried beneath an Oxford college two years back were the victims of brutal ethnic cleansing 1,000 years ago.
Experts were mystified when they discovered a mass grave beneath a quadrangle a St John's College, St Giles, in 2008, reports the Oxford Mail.
But, after two years of CSI-style detective work, they believe they can pinpoint the exact day in 1002 AD that Danish settlers were rounded up on the streets of Oxford and murdered, before being carted out of the city gates and dumped in a ditch.
Agence France Presse via Australia Broadcasting Corporation: Mummified dogs unearthed in Peru
Peruvian archaeologists have discovered six mummified dogs, all dating from the 15th century and apparently presented as religious offerings, at a major pre-Columbian site just south of Lima.
The dogs "have hair and complete teeth," said Jesus Holguin, an archaeologist at the museum in Pachacamac, located 25 kilometres south of Lima.
Mr Holguin told AFP that experts were still trying to determine their breed.
The mummified remains of four children were also found at the site, archaeologists said.
Culture 24 (UK): Archaeologists forced to return 800-year-old secrets to the soil after "amazing" public dig
Organisers of a public dig which attracted hundreds of volunteers to excavate a 12th century estate in County Durham have been forced to rebury the "spectacular" 800-year-old remains found under the ruins.
Fragments of window panes, coins and pottery were discovered at Muggleswick Grange, a mysterious manor which may have provided cattle to monasteries and served as a mansion until the 16th century.
The North Pennines Partnership’s Altogether Archaeology project will be opening the site to the public with a range of interpretations next year, but Historic Environment Officer Paul Frodsham said the "amazing" finds cannot be put on show.
Capital City Weekly (Alaska): Archeologist discusses pre-contact Tlingit warfare as part of Native American Heritage Month lecture series
By Katie Spielberger | Capital City Weekly
When Sealaska Heritage Institute invited anthropologist Madonna Moss to speak during the Native American Heritage Month lecture series, she didn't want to talk about war.
"I wanted to talk about herring and herring bones!" she told the several dozen people filling the Sealaska boardroom last Friday.
But Moss, who is a professor of anthropology at the University of Oregon, did end up speaking on the topic of Tlingit warfare, a sensitive subject on which her views differ from those of many anthropologists.
KPHO-TV (Arizona): Archaeologists Hunt Grave Robbers In AZ Backcountry
Looters Increase Activity During Bad Economy
Morgan Loew, CBS 5 News
PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Grave robbers are looting Arizona’s historic ruins at an alarming rate, according to archaeologists and investigators with the Tonto National Forest.
"What they’re doing out here is disrupting and in most cases destroying human remains while they’re seeking out pots to sell," said Scott Wood, an archaeologist for the Tonto National Forest.
Wood brought a CBS 5 News team to the scene of one of the most recent lootings. The site is known as Mud Springs Ruins and was inhabited by the people known as the Hohokam 700 years ago.
News-Miner (Alaska): Fairbanks archaeologist creates a field guide to coffee cans
by Ned Rozell/ Alaska Science Forum Fairbanks Daily News Miner
FAIRBANKS — The year is 1905. You are a prospector in Alaska relaxing in your cabin after a chilly day of working the tailings pile. Craving a cup of joe, you pull a tin of coffee off the shelf. Though you can’t imagine it, that distinctive red can, the one you will later use for your precious supply of nails, will long outlive you. And it will give an archaeologist a good idea of when you made your Alaska home.
The coffee was Hills Bros. The can was vacuum-sealed. For more than a decade, no other coffee company mastered this technique that was first used with butter. This made Hills Bros. of San Francisco the primary choice of early Gold Rush cabin dwellers. The pungent beverage was so popular in Alaska it inspired a local archaeologist to produce a field guide, the "Hills Bros. Coffee Can Chronology."
BBC: WWI trenches found in Stirling park
The trenches would have been used to train recruits before they went to the front
Archaeologists have uncovered a World War I trench system in a Scottish city park.
The trenches, used to train recruits of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, were found in Stirling's Kings Park after a tip-off from a retired park keeper.
About 20m (66ft) of the zig-zag trench system was opened up over three days.
Irish Times: Berlin excavation uncovers trove of sculptures confiscated by Nazis
DEREK SCALLY in Berlin
ELEVEN SCULPTURES branded "degenerate" and confiscated by the Nazis were unveiled in Berlin yesterday, seven decades after they were presumed lost in the second World War.
The sculptures, by artists such as Edwin Scharff and Karl Knappe, were unearthed in front of Berlin town hall during excavation work for an underground train line. After undergoing extensive cleaning, the works will go on display in Berlin’s Neues Museum this morning.
"Archaeology, as you can see, is always good for a surprise or two," said Dr Hermann Parzinger, president of the Prussian Culture Foundation, which manages Berlin’s cultural institutions.
The rediscovered sculptures were among the 20,000 artworks dubbed "degenerate" and "un-German" seized by the Nazis and, from 1937 on, put in a travelling roadshow. At the show, dubbed "Degenerate Art", visitors were encouraged to laugh at the largely expressionist and modernist artworks.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
Physics
Washington Post: Scientists learn physics behind how cats drink water without getting wet
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 12, 2010; 12:49 AM
As all cat lovers know well, Felis domestica is a marvel of balance, subtlety and other hidden elegances.
Scientists learn physics behind how cats drink water without getting wet
Prepare to learn of another remarkable attribute: Four researchers have painstakingly filmed, analyzed and determined how it is that a cat can drink water while (unlike a dog) keeping its chin and whiskers pleasingly dry.
The answer involves an exquisite demonstration of physics: The cat, in effect, balances the forces of gravity against the forces of inertia, and so quenches its thirst.
Pooties for science!
Hat/tip to nonnie9999 and annetteboardman for this story.
Discovery News: The Wet Dog Shake: Physics Revealed
We've all been sprayed by a shaking soaked pooch. Now their technique could be applied to washing machines.
By Jennifer Viegas
Wet dogs and other wet animals shake their bodies in such a precise, effective manner that washing machine designers are taking notice, according to a new study that is the first to explain the physics of animal self-drying.
In addition to better washing machines, the findings could lead to improvements to dryers, painting devices, spin coaters and other machines.
"It's surprising, but we still do not understand why washing machines work so well," co-author David Hu said. "The equations that govern the fluid motion inside them are too complicated to solve. In this research, we decided to look to nature to ask the question: 'How do we dry clothes effectively and efficiently?'"
Chemistry
Pennsylvania State University via physorg.com: Scientists demystify an enzyme responsible for drug and food metabolism
Scientists led by Michael Green at Penn State University, have solved a 40-year-old puzzle about the mysterious process by which a critical enzyme metabolizes nutrients in foods and chemicals in drugs such as Tylenol, caffeine and opiates. The discovery may help future researchers develop a wide range of more efficient and less-expensive drugs, household products and other chemicals.
Scientists led by Michael Green at Penn State University, have solved a 40-year-old puzzle about the mysterious process by which a critical enzyme metabolizes nutrients in foods and chemicals in drugs such as Tylenol, caffeine and opiates. The discovery may help future researchers develop a wide range of more efficient and less-expensive drugs, household products and other chemicals.
For the first time, scientists have been able to "freeze in time" a mysterious process by which a critical enzyme metabolizes drugs and chemicals in food. By recreating this process in the lab, a team of researchers has solved a 40-year-old puzzle about changes in a family of enzymes produced by the liver that break down common drugs such as Tylenol, caffeine, and opiates, as well as nutrients in many foods. The breakthrough discovery may help future researchers develop a wide range of more efficient and less-expensive drugs, household products, and other chemicals.
The scientists' findings will be published in the journal Science on 12 November 2010.
Energy
Examiner.com: Getting from poop to energy
By Jackie DiGiovanni, Southeast MI Home & Living Examiner
There is a sizeable biogas plant being built in conjunction with Flint's wastewater treatment facility. Upfront funding, expertise, and expected profits are being shared among Linkoping, Swedish Biogas International, the City of Flint, the State of Michigan, and Kettering University.
As reported by Harvest Superpowered, additional funding has been secured from Swedish Biogas International, plant construction is underway, and the operation will be processing human waste into biogas starting in 2011. The plant will also mean additional jobs for Flint.
At some point, there will be even stronger economic sense for bio-fuels. The cost of handling the bio-waste at a water treatment plant is currently paid for by tax revenue collected from water and sewer users. The cost of construction of a biofuel plant could be paid for from revenues from the energy created and sold. We will see the time when bio-fuels are a competitive source of energy.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
Commerical Spaceflight Federation: Deficit Commission Errs, "Illustrative Cut" Would Outsource Human Spaceflight to Russia
By John Gedmark, November 10th 2010
Washington, D.C. – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation, representing 37 companies employing thousands of Americans nationwide, released a statement opposing in the strongest possible terms the "illustrative cut" to commercial spaceflight put forth today by the co-chairs of the Deficit Commission.
"This proposed cut would have disastrous consequences for NASA and the Nation. Commercial Crew now represents the primary means of transporting U.S. astronauts to orbit following retirement of the Space Shuttle. Commercial Crew will in fact result in substantial cost savings to the U.S. taxpayer. Eliminating Commercial Crew would result in total reliance on Russia to get to the Space Station and result in the loss of thousands of high-tech jobs here in the United States," stated Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
Alexander added, "The bottom line is that elimination of NASA’s Commercial Crew program will cede human spaceflight to Russia. Commercial Crew is the fastest way to reduce the gap following Shuttle retirement, minimizing the time we are dependent on buying seats from the Russians. Some commercial providers have publicly committed to significant cost savings on a per-seat basis as compared to the Russian alternative.
The Catfood Commission screws up again.
L.A. Times: Climate scientists plan campaign against global warming skeptics
The American Geophysical Union plans to announce that 700 researchers have agreed to speak out on the issue. Other scientists plan a pushback against congressional conservatives who have vowed to kill regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.
By Neela Banerjee, Tribune Washington Bureau
Reporting from Washington — Faced with rising political attacks, hundreds of climate scientists are joining a broad campaign to push back against congressional conservatives who have threatened prominent researchers with investigations and vowed to kill regulations to rein in man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
The still-evolving efforts reveal a shift among climate scientists, many of whom have traditionally stayed out of politics and avoided the news media. Many now say they are willing to go toe-to-toe with their critics, some of whom gained new power after the Republicans won control of the House in Tuesday's election.
Examiner.com: Four researchers from Michigan win presidential awards
By Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner
On Friday, President Obama named 85 researchers as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Among them were four from the state of Michigan, including three at the University of Michigan and one at Wayne State University.
In a press release, Mr. Obama said, "Science and technology have long been at the core of America’s economic strength and global leadership. I am confident that these individuals, who have shown such tremendous promise so early in their careers, will go on to make breakthroughs and discoveries that will continue to move our nation forward in the years ahead."
The awards, established by President Clinton in 1996, are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President. Awardees are first nominated by one of ten Federal departments and agencies for early accomplishments that show the greatest promise for assuring America’s preeminence in science and engineering and contributing to the awarding agencies' missions. They are then selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach.
Winning scientists and engineers have received research grants for up to five years to further their studies in support of critical government missions.
The researchers will be honored at a White House ceremony. A date has not yet been set.
The four researchers honored include a molecular biologist who was recognized for his work on channel proteins implicated in Lou Gehrig's Disease and several cancers, an engineer who has developed sensors that can tell when a bridge is in danger of failing, an ecologist who works on switchgrass as a source of biofuel, and a biological engineer who studies and treats brain trauma in soldiers and marines injured by IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
More details on the award winners at the link in the headline. There is also a slideshow on the winners from the University of Michigan.
Election's over. Time for me to return to writing about science.
Science Education
Press TV (Iran): Tablets reveal Babylonian math skills
A New York exhibition of ancient tablets has revealed the highly sophisticated mathematical practices and education in central-southern Mesopotamia.
Before Pythagoras: The Culture of Old Babylonian Mathematics displays thirteen Babylonian tablets which show that people of the region were math experts more than 1,000 years before Greek mathematicians were even born.
Held at the New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), the event exhibits tablets dating from the Old Babylonian Period (ca. 1900-1700 BCE) along with supplemental documentary material.
Thinq.co.uk: Digital Archaeology show reveals 'lost' web sites
The world's first ever 'archaeological dig' of the internet is set to begin this week in London's über-trendy Shoreditch.
The exhibition, entitled Digital Archaeology, kicks off today to mark the 20th anniversary of the first stirrings of the world wide web.
According to its organisers, valuable evidence from the interweb's early days is at risk of being lost forever. Digital Archaeology is an attempt to kick-start a wider attempt to archive the web in Britain's first 'digital archive'.
Paris Beacon: Wenz archaeologists dig into the past
SARAH SCHMIDT
sschmidt@parisbeacon.com
At Wenz Elementary School, teacher Sharon Wright’s Ideas class of fifth graders dug into the past and learned to explore archaeology last week.
Wright said that her students were exploring a unit in history focusing on the cultures of the past, including the mound builders from around the area, and the excavations of Aztec ruins. Deciding that history would stick more with her students if it was hands-on, Wright gave her class an archaeological experience by letting them excavate tubs of earth in the Wenz garden area.
"We discussed mound builders, how they found obsidian from all the way over in Oregon," said Wright. "The kids will be excavating tubs today and finding artifacts. They’ll have to grid it out, fill out the paperwork, do the digging."
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Science is Cool
TGDaily: Archeology professors dig for UFO evidence
An archeological team associated with the University of New Mexico recently spent a whopping $26,000 digging for evidence of UFO activity in Roswell.
Unsurprisingly, the funds were provided by the Sci-Fi Channel, which sent in a film crew to document the painstaking, yet terribly serious endeavor.
"We engaged in a highly credible standard archeological investigation of a piece of landscape that has been warranted to be the location of a flying-saucer event," Dick Chapman, director of UNM's Office of Contract Archeology, insisted to KRQE's Larry Barker.
The Westmoreland Gazette (UK): Cumbria pupils to follow Roman soldier on Twitter
By Kate Proctor
A NEW online tool to teach primary school children about the Roman invasion of Cumbria almost 2,000 years ago has been developed by Tullie House museum in Carlisle.
Using the social networking site Twitter, students will now be able to read the hopes, fears and experiences of a fictional 26-year-old Roman soldier called Marcus in 140 character online updates.
Schools can follow @iTweetus on Twitter and there Marcus will recount the vivid story of thousands of Roman soldiers marching in to occupy Cumbria in the winter of 72/73 AD.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
AOL News: Grad Student Makes Music Using DNA in AIDS Virus
We're always hearing sobering news about the widespread AIDS epidemic, but, until now, you've probably never "heard" about HIV quite like this.
Alexandra Pajak, a graduate student at the University of Georgia, has just created a whole new way of looking at the complexities of HIV by combining the biology of the disease with music.
For months, Pajak carefully studied the different types of DNA that make up the AIDS virus and assigned musical pitches to each individual strand.
What resulted was a 17-track, 52-minute album of transcribed "DNA music," appropriately dubbed "Sounds of HIV."