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 MSNBC.
Happy Birthday: Joe Biden Turns 68
In honor of Vice President Joe Biden's birthday, we look back on 68 glorious years of mutton chops, embarrassing gaffes and winning smiles.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Vice President. What do you have to say for yourself today?
That's the spirit!
This week's science, space, and environment stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
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jamess: How many Billionaires can dance on a Pinnacle?
Slideshows/Videos
The Planetary Society: Deep Impact at Hartley 2: Two weeks after the flyby
By Emily Ladkawalla
Today the Deep Impact/EPOXI science team held a press briefing that followed up on their very successful flyby of two weeks ago, a status report on what they can say so far about the science that's coming out of the encounter. There's still years worth of work to be done with this data set, and actually the spacecraft hasn't even stopped taking Hartley 2 data yet; according to the timeline, it is still snapping photos every half an hour and will continue to do so until the last day of November.
Before I launch into detail, here were the major points from the briefing:
•Hartley 2's jets are spitting out big fluffy snowballs, some of which can be individually tracked in sequential images. (Cool.)
•These snowballs did absolutely no damage to the spacecraft, although close examination of its telemetry revealed that it may have gotten hit by very low-mass particles nine times during the ten minutes around closest approach.
•The comet has a split personality, with carbon dioxide-powered jets spitting ice and dust out of its ends, but behaving more like Tempel 1 at its waist.
The Planetary Society: Asteroids and comets to scale, including Hartley 2
By Emily Ladkawalla
I've updated my montage of all the asteroids and comets that have been visited and photographed to include Hartley 2. This required no major rearrangement from the last update, since Hartley 2 is so tiny; you can see it grouped with the rest of the comets to the lower right of gigantic Lutetia, which dominates the scene.
The Planetary Society: Five amazing engineering camera videos from Chang'E 2
By Emily Ladkawalla
I couldn't believe these videos when I first saw them: five views from engineering cameras of important events in the Chang'E 2 spacecraft's journey to the Moon. It's a thrill to see actual human-built artifacts out there in space, and I don't believe I have ever seen actual video of such key mission events on robotic missions except from rocket-mounted cameras before. You can see the solar panels bouncing back and forth after they deploy; you can see the throat of the main engine glowing with every firing; you can see the Moon and Earth swinging behind the view. I think my favorite moment in all these videos is the beginning of the "Second Orbit Trim maneuver" video, when the Moon rolls and rotates behind view of the main engine with the spacecraft's series of rolls. I get the sense of a human-built machine working like utter clockwork as the rugged, ancient scarps of lunar craters lurk in the background, just waiting for us to explore them.
University of Southern California: Jim Haw Joins ABC Castle Actors in Short Videos for Environmentalism
Navigating Los Angeles without a car is possible and worth the change of habit, just ask ABC Castle television actors Stana Katic and Seamus Dever.
USC College's Jim Haw was tapped for his environmental expertise, and is featured in the videos along with the actors in The Alternative Travel Project.
Katic and Dever gave up their cars for seven days to explore travel accessibility in Los Angeles, to benefit the environment and to enhance personal health.
UCLA: UCLA News Week: Nov. 17, 2010
Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Robert Cargill unravels a strange case of academic cyberbullying in this edition of UCLA News Week, the weekly videocast of research and other developments at UCLA.
"Scholars have not always been the most professional toward one another. There's been a lot of hostility," Cargill said. "This hostility within Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship has now carried over into online media." The case he cites involves New York lawyer Raphael Golb, convicted in September of felony and misdemeanor charges over the bullying of rival researchers in a secret campaign to boost findings by his father, a University of Chicago historian. Golb was scheduled to be sentenced this week. Cargill discusses the case in deeper detail in this UCLA Newsroom video...
Cargill is best known for his work on a three-dimensional computer model of Qumran, a first-century settlement on the shores of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 11 nearby caves at various times between 1947 and 1956. In his 2009 book, "Qumran through (Real) Time," Cargill argued that at least some of the more than 800 scrolls now known to exist were produced at Qumran.
BBC: Pterosaur reptile used "pole vault" trick for take-off
A new study claims that the ancient winged reptiles known as pterosaurs used a "pole-vaulting" action to take to the air.
They say the creatures took off using all four of their limbs.
The reptiles vaulted over their wings, pushing off first with their hind limbs and then thrusting themselves upwards with their powerful arm muscles - not dissimilar to some modern bats.
The research is published in the open-access journal Plos One.
BBC: Unique mammals struggling for survival
Unique species joining the list of the world's most evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered mammals.
Astronomy/Space
The Planetary Society: Planetary Society Says Bravo to Hayabusa's Return of Asteroid Particles
Pasadena, CA, — The Planetary Society congratulates the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on the successful capture of asteroid dust grains by their Hayabusa mission. The spacecraft returned the samples in a lander to the Australian desert a few months ago. Subsequent analysis by scientists at JAXA has confirmed that the particles in the sample return capsule are indeed from an asteroid.
"Today's announcement that Hayabusa has brought back the first ever sample of asteroid dust is one more fantastic achievement in a fantastic mission. These tiny grains are particles from another world, a primordial one. They are indeed small, but they could easily change the way we view our place in space. If I may, JAXA rocks!" said Bill Nye, Executive Director of the Planetary Society.
The Planetary Society: NASA's Nanosail to Fly this Week
by Louis D. Friedman
NASA's Nanosail-D is scheduled to launch on Friday -- and we wish them well. Nanosail is an innovative development by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight and Ames Research Centers, and in many ways is the inspiration for the Planetary Society’s LightSail spacecraft, scheduled to be ready early in 2011 to carry out the first solar-sail propelled flight in Earth orbit.
The spacecraft is the same size and approximate mass as our own Lightsail-1, although Nanosail’s sail is smaller (3 meters on a side, instead of 4.5 meters). Nanosail will be pioneering the use of the Air Force Research Lab’s TRAC booms, which we will also be using on Lightsail-1. We'll be interested in evaluating their deployment experience and understanding any implications to our own design.
The Planetary Society: Brian Marsden, 1937 - 2010
By Charlene Anderson
November 18, 2010
Astronomer Brian Marsden died today. He is being mourned around the world by those who knew him and his work, particularly his leadership of the Minor Planet Center, where he was a towering figure in the realm of asteroid and comet discovery and science.
The Planetary Society has a special reason to remember him. Our thriving and productive Gene Shoemaker NEO grant program was born in a conversation with Brian Marsden. Way back when, Lou Friedman tasked me with dreaming up a new something the Society could do about near-Earth objects, and I knew the way to start my work was by calling Brian.
Twenty minutes after he picked up the phone, Brian and I had mapped out the entire grant program. Amateur astronomers, he told me, were a great untapped reservoir of knowledge, energy, and observational skill that could fill the overriding need for "follow up, follow up, follow up!"
Examiner.com: NASA Reschedules Press Conference - Launch of STS-133
By Jason Rhian, NASA Examiner
Mission managers at NASA have rescheduled a press conference that was to be held on Monday, Nov. 22. The press conference will be held to discuss the problems facing the next space shuttle mission, STS-133, which was repeatedly delayed at the beginning of this month. NASA managers decided to push the date back further after they realized they needed more time to evaluate the situation before proceeding toward the launch of the space shuttle Discovery – now scheduled to take place no-earlier-than Dec. 3 at approximately 2:52 a.m. EST.
...
The next launch window for space shuttle Discovery and six NASA astronauts will open on Nov. 30 and extends until Dec. 6. Whether the shuttle will be able to launch in this window has been placed in doubt as technicians are finding numerous cracks on the ET and the type of repairs needed have never been attempted at the launch pad. It still remains to be seen if this is feasible.
Evolution/Paleontology
The Dallas Morning News: Experts in Dallas chip away at vertebrae of Alamosaurus
By ERINN CONNOR / The Dallas Morning News
econnor@dallasnews.com
In the bowels of the Museum of Nature & Science in Fair Park, Tommy Diamond sat hunched over what looked like a huge boulder of plaster.
Yes, there was a lot of plaster there, but what was underneath was much more valuable – priceless, in fact.
Diamond spends eight hours (or more) a day chipping away at the vertebra of an Alamosaurus.
Ten vertebrae of the 65-million-year-old dinosaur, uncovered in 1997, are being prepared to go on display for the opening of the Perot Museum of Nature & Science in Victory Park in 2012.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Biodiversity
BBC: Traffic noise is 'bad for foraging bats'
By Victoria Gill
Science and nature reporter, BBC News
Traffic noise reduces bats' ability to locate their prey, say scientists.
Researchers in Germany found that road noise affected the bats' ability to listen for the "rustling sound" of the beetles and spiders they feed on.
This is the first study to examine the impact of traffic on predators that listen for their prey.
The researchers report in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B that the same effect could be true for other "acoustic predators", including owls.
BBC: New bat species found in Ecuador
Scientists have discovered a tiny new species of bat in the western slopes of the Andes in northwestern Ecuador.
The first specimen of the species, which has been called Myotis diminutus, was collected more than 30 years ago.
But the researchers have only now confirmed that the little creature, which weighs just a few grams, is a distinct species.
They published a detailed description of the bat in the journal Mammalian Biology.
Biotechnology/Health
University of Southern California: Speed Heals
USC College's Samantha Butler and collaborators show that the rate and direction of axon growth in the spinal cord can be controlled, a discovery that one day may help improve treatment for spinal injuries or neurodegenerative diseases.
By Laurie Moore
Both the rate and direction of axon growth in the spinal cord can be controlled, according to new research by USC College's Samantha Butler and her collaborators.
The study, "The Bone Morphogenetic Protein Roof Plate Chemorepellent Regulates the Rate of Commissural Axonal Growth," by Butler; lead researcher Keith Phan and graduate students Virginia Hazen and Michele Frendo of USC College; and Zhengping Jia of the University of Toronto, was published online in the November 17 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
Butler, assistant professor of biological sciences, found that a series of connections at the cellular level produce a guidance cue that tells an axon how fast and in which direction to grow in an embryonic environment. Butler and her team also discovered that by modulating the activity of enzyme LIM domain kinase 1 (Limk1), the rate of axon growth can be stalled or accelerated.
UCLA: UCLA team uncovers mechanism behind organ transplant rejection
Suggests new therapies to prevent chronic rejection, stop cancer progression
By Elaine Schmidt
UCLA researchers have pinpointed the culprit behind chronic rejection of heart, lung and kidney transplants. Published in the Nov. 23 edition of Science Signaling, their findings suggest new therapeutic approaches for preventing transplant rejection and sabotaging cancer growth.
The team focused on the mechanism behind narrowing of the donor’s grafted blood vessels, which blocks blood from reaching the transplanted organ. Starved of oxygen and other nutrients, the organ eventually fails, forcing the patient back on the transplant waiting list.
"Chronic rejection is the No. 1 cause of organ failure in the first year of transplant," explained Elaine Reed, director of the UCLA Immunogenetics Center and professor of pathology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "In the first five years, some 40 percent of organs fail after transplant due to blockage of the grafted blood vessels. Currently, we have no way to treat this deadly condition."
UCLA: UCLA researchers find faster way to produce efficient nano-vehicles for gene delivery
New stamp-sized microchip enables low-cost screening of a library of artificial viruses
By Jennifer Marcus
Gene therapy holds the promise for curing a variety of diseases, including cancer, and nanoparticles have been recognized as promising vehicles for effective and safe delivery of genes into specific type of cells or tissues. This can provide an alternative gene manipulation and/or therapy strategy to the conventional approaches that use viruses.
However, the existing process available for producing and examining nanoparticles for this purpose is limited due to the use of conventional synthetic approaches that are cumbersome and time-consuming. Additionally, the conventional approaches are frequently not sufficient to generate productive outcomes that meet the complex need in biology, in this case, optimal gene-delivery performance.
In an effort to overcome this issue, UCLA researchers from the California NanoSystems Institute and the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging have established a faster way of producing highly efficient nano-vehicles for gene delivery. The research team developed a supramolecular synthetic approach to produce a library of nanoparticles for gene delivery by simply mixing several molecular building blocks and DNA payloads (without the use of complicated/multi-step synthesis). In order to streamline the process, a digital dual core microreactor (DCM), or microchip, was designed and fabricated for producing and examining the library of artificial viruses in search of an optimal gene delivery performance.
BBC: Cocoa genome 'will save chocolate industry'
By Jason Palmer
Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Zurich
The public release of the genome of the cacao tree - from which chocolate is made - will save the chocolate industry from collapse, a scientist has said.
Howard Yana-Shapiro, a researcher for Mars, said that without engineering higher-yielding cacao trees, demand would outstrip supply within 50 years.
Dr Yana-Shapiro said such strains will also help biodiversity and farmers' welfare in cacao-growing regions.
The genome's availability is likely to lead to healthier, tastier chocolate.
Climate/Environment
University of Illinois at Ubana-Champaign via physorg.com: As Arctic temperatures rise, tundra fires increase, researchers find
In September, 2007, the Anaktuvuk River Fire burned more than 1,000 square kilometers of tundra on Alaska's North Slope, doubling the area burned in that region since record keeping began in 1950. A new analysis of sediment cores from the burned area revealed that this was the most destructive tundra fire at that site for at least 5,000 years. Models built on 60 years of climate and fire data found that even moderate increases in warm-season temperatures in the region dramatically increase the likelihood of such fires.
The study was published this October in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
After the Anaktuvuk fire, University of Illinois plant biology professor Feng Sheng Hu sought to answer a simple question: Was this seemingly historic fire an anomaly, or were large fires a regular occurrence in the region?
"If such fires occur every 200 years or every 500 years, it's a natural event," Hu said. "But another possibility is that these are truly unprecedented events caused by, say, greenhouse warming."
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
UCLA: West Nile virus more prevalent in low-income neighborhoods, study finds
By Phil Hampton
Low-income neighborhoods appear to be the most susceptible to West Nile virus, a mosquito-transmitted disease that is linked to more than 1,000 deaths since in the United States since 1999, according to new UCLA-lead research.
Using data on infected humans and mosquitoes from the West Nile virus hotspot of Orange County, Calif., from 2005-08, scientists found that per-capita income and other economic conditions were the single greatest predictor of occurrence, explaining 85-95 percent of the variation. While economic conditions have previously been linked to disease, the study is the first to use a rigorous statistical model.
"We are seeing more West Nile virus not only in humans in these lower-income areas but in the mosquito populations as well, so the finding can’t just be attributable to differences in human behavior," said Ryan Harrigan, a post-doctoral scholar with the Center for Tropical Research at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and the study’s lead author. "Clearly, there are other factors."
Among the potential factors influencing the prevalence of the virus in lower-income areas, researchers said, are abandoned swimming pools in areas with foreclosed homes and antiquated water runoff systems that provide favorable breeding habitat for mosquitoes. Another factor may be lower levels of political participation among residents, they said.
Geology
Agence France Presse via physorg.com: http://www.physorg.com/...
An international team of scientists has begun drilling deep below the Dead Sea in an effort to extract material that could provide an unusual look at Earth's history over the past 500,000 years.
The project aims to examine the layers of sediment left behind beneath the lowest place on Earth over the course of millions of years, providing clues about shifting weather patterns, seismic activity and climate change.
"The sediments ... provide an 'archive' on the environmental conditions that existed in the area in its geological past," the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, a partner in the project, said on Wednesday.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Psychology/Behavior
The Guardian (UK): The player: Tetris may stop trauma flashbacks
Researchers believe the way we use our brain when playing this computer game may be key to its beneficial effect
Naomi Alderman
Oxford University last week announced research suggesting that playing the computer game Tetris reduces flashbacks to trauma. Tetris was found to be far more effective than playing a quiz game. Players weren't just being distracted from unpleasant memories; the falling-blocks game has a beneficial effect. The researchers suggest it could lead to a "cognitive vaccine against traumatic flashbacks".
The researchers think Tetris helps because this type of game uses the brain's "perceptual channel", but not the "contextual" one. Internet parodies such as "Tetris: The Movie" notwithstanding, Tetris is the archetype of a game that takes plenty of attention but has no meaning. So, it competes in the brain with memories of vivid sense perceptions – which create flashbacks – but doesn't compete with the helpful contextual associations that give meaning to traumatic experience.
Archeology/Anthropology
The Daily Echo (UK): 'Ball bearings' used in Stonehenge's construction
Neolithic engineers may have used ball bearings in the construction of Stonehenge, it was claimed today.
The same technique that allows vehicles and machinery to run smoothly today could have been used to transport the monument's massive standing stones more than 4,000 years ago, according to a new theory.
Scientists showed how balls placed in grooved wooden tracks would have allowed the easy movement of stones weighing many tons.
Agence France Presse via physorg.com: Sphinx-lined road unearthed in Egypt
Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a sphinx-lined road in Luxor that led to the temple of Mut, the ancient goddess worshipped as a mother, the culture minister said on Monday.
Faruq Husni said in a statement that 12 sphinxes were found along the road, which runs east to west adjoining the already discovered Kabash path that connects the temples of Luxor and Karnak from north to south.
The sphinxes were inscribed with the name Nectabo I, the founder of the last Pharaonic dynasty who died in 362 BC. Most of them were missing their heads.
The Independent (UK): Roman settlement found on historic estate
By Tom Lawrence, PA
A Roman settlement brimming with ancient artefacts and human remains has been unearthed on a building site in west London, it was revealed today.
Archaeologists excavating the listed site in Syon Park made the discovery of more than 11,000 Roman items just half a metre below the surface.
They were digging on the plot of land ahead of the construction of a new landmark hotel, which will open the outskirts of the historic Syon Park Estate in 2011.
New Kerala (India): Chinese mine project threatens to destroy major 7th Century Afghan Buddhist site
Kabul, Nov 16 : Archaeologists in Afghanistan have warned that they are racing against time to rescue a major 7th Century religious site unearthed along the famous Silk Road from a Chinese company that is eager to develop the world's second-biggest unexploited copper mine, which lies beneath the ruins at the site.
According to the BBC, archaeologists fear that the 2,600-year-old Buddhist monastery, complete with domed shrines known as stupas, would probably be largely destroyed once work at the mine begins.
The site is located at Mes Aynak, in the eastern province of Logar.
The mine is reportedly the centrepiece of China''s drive to invest in Afghanistan, as Kabul tries to re-energise an economy still blighted by the ongoing war.
Agence France Presse via physorg.com: Vikings brought Amerindian to Iceland 1,000 years ago: study
The first Native American to arrive in Europe may have been a woman brought to Iceland by the Vikings more than 1,000 years ago, a study by Spanish and Icelandic researchers suggests.
The findings boost widely-accepted theories, based on Icelandic medieval texts and a reputed Viking settlement in Newfoundland in Canada, that the Vikings reached the American continent several centuries before Christopher Columbus travelled to the "New World."
The finding is based on DNA from living Icelanders, which means they most likely have an ancestor from North America.
BBC: Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe exhumed to solve mystery
The body of a 16th Century Danish astronomer is being exhumed in Prague to confirm the cause of his death.
Tycho Brahe was a Danish nobleman who served as royal mathematician to the Bohemian Emperor Rudolf II.
He was thought to have died of a bladder infection, but a previous exhumation found traces of mercury in his hair.
A team of Danish and Czech scientists hope to solve the mystery by analysing bone, hair and clothing samples.
BBC: Wreck of French privateer found 60 miles off Devon
Remains of an 18th Century French frigate blamed for attacking British merchant ships have been found about 60 miles off the Devon coast.
A team from US marine archaeology firm Odyssey Marine Exploration found the wreck of La Marquise de Tourny.
It is believed to be the first privateer found off the UK, a type of ship authorised to seize enemy cargo.
The material goes into Odyssey's own collection and will be displayed on its website or lent to museums.
Agence France Presse via physorg.com: World's oldest champagne uncorked
Wine experts have popped the corks of two bottles of champagne salvaged from the bottom of the Baltic Sea, where they had lain in a sunken ship for nearly 200 years.
On stage in front of some 100 journalists and wine enthusiasts gathered in the capital of Finland's island province of Aaland, they eased the fragile corks from the dark brown bottles - one from the house of Veuve-Clicquot and the other from the now extinct house of Juglar.
As the contents were poured into rows of waiting glasses, a thick, nose-wrinkling bouquet could be smelled several metres away.
The Southern: Digging up an inglorious past
BY STEPHEN RICKERL, THE SOUTHERN
Now owned by the Illinois Historical Preservation Agency, the Hickory Hill Historic Site often reffered to as "The Old Slave House" was once owned by John Crenshaw. Crenshaw operated salt works in Gallatin County and used slaves on the property.
The Center for Archaeological Investigations at SIUC is doing research on behalf of the Illinois His-toric Preservation Agency at the Crenshaw House in Gallatin County. The state-owned site is not open to the public.
Mark Wagner, staff archaeologist with the Center for Archaeological Investigations, said the center will conduct archaeological, historical and architectural research of the property in order to gain a better understanding of the 19th century home.
Greater Greater Washington: Montgomery refuses to release "Uncle Tom's Cabin" records
by David Rotenstein
The Montgomery County Parks Department has spent more than $100,000 on historical and archaeological consultants to do research at the Josiah Henson Site (formerly known as "Uncle Tom's Cabin"). Except for the archaeology reports, you can read all of the consultants' work at the park's website. If you want to read about the archaeology done at the site, you are out of luck.
Despite the fact that Montgomery County Parks staff have posted detailed maps showing the locations of past and proposed archaeological investigations at the park, Parks staff and the Parks Department general counsel refuse to release the reports prepared by consultant John Milner Associates, Inc.
Parks Department staff claim that they cannot release the reports because they contain sensitive information. It is a legitimate claim in many cases: archaeologists don't want to reveal exact locational information because relic hunters and looters may then use the information to damage fragile archaeological resources and steal artifacts for sale on the open market or for private collections.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
University of Southern California: Kucha and the Silk Road
Scholars from the United States and Europe met at USC recently to discuss topics related to Kucha, an ancient Buddhist kingdom along the Silk Road.
Located in what is now the westernmost part of China, Kucha was once a major center of Buddhism and a trading hub in Central Asia. Kucha’s later history was intertwined with the dissemination of Islam and the great game of empire building across the region.
The Nov. 13 symposium was organized by Sonya Lee, assistant professor of art history and East Asian languages and cultures in USC College, with support from the Fisher Museum of Art International Museum Institute at USC; the Visual Culture in the Ancient World Initiative; East Asian Studies Center; and the Center for Religion and Civic Culture.
Physics
University of Pennsylvania via physorg.com: Light bending by a black hole may offer proof of extra dimensions
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania report that a new test for measuring the ability of gravity to bend light seen from distant stars around large objects like black holes may offer proof of the existence of extra dimensions in the universe.
Most of the work by astrophysicists studying the effects of gravitational lensing, or light bending, relates to galaxies and galaxy clusters. New research from Penn makes use of the supermassive black hole believed to exist at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
The analysis was carried out by Amitai Y. Bin-Nun, a theoretical astrophysics and cosmology graduate student at Penn, with guidance from Justin Khoury, assistant professor, and Ravi K. Sheth, professor, both in the Physics and Astronomy Department in Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences. The article appears in the journal Physical Review D.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
New Scientist: Antihydrogen trapped at long last
By Kate McAlpine
ATOMS made of antimatter have been trapped for the first time, a feat that will allow us to test whether antimatter responds to the fundamental forces in the same way as regular matter.
Antiparticles are the oppositely charged twins of normal particles. Since matter and antimatter annihilate on contact, antimatter experiments have been limited to using charged antiparticles, which can be corralled within electromagnetic traps.
Several teams have made antihydrogen atoms in the past, but no one had managed to trap them for detailed experiments as they have no net charge. Now an experiment called the Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus (ALPHA) at the CERN particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, has finally managed to ensnare atoms of antihydrogen.
Chemistry
UCLA: Nanoscale probe reveals interactions between surfaces and single molecules
New experimental test of buried contacts paves the way for molecular devices
By Mike Rodewald
As electronics become smaller and smaller the need to understand nanoscale phenomena becomes greater and greater. Because materials exhibit different properties at the nanoscale than they do at larger scales, new techniques are required to understand and to exploit these new phenomena. A team of researchers led by Paul Weiss, UCLA’s Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences, has developed a tool to study nanoscale interactions. Their device is a dual scanning tunneling and microwave-frequency probe that is capable of measuring the interactions between single molecules and the surfaces to which the molecules are attached.
"Our probe can generate data on the physical, chemical, and electronic interactions between single molecules and substrates, the contacts to which they are attached. Just as in semiconductor devices, contacts are critical here," remarked Weiss, who directs UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute and is also a distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry & materials science and engineering.
The team, which also includes theoretical chemist Mark Ratner from Northwestern University and synthetic chemist James Tour from Rice University, published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal ACS Nano.
Energy
National Geographic: Cheap Renewable Power Key to BMW’s Electric Megacity
Josie Garthwaite
For National Geographic News
Carbon fiber has long been seen as a potentially powerful weapon in automakers' arsenal for designing more efficient vehicles. But the lightweight, super-strong material does not come cheap—at least, not yet. BMW plans to use carbon fiber for its upcoming Megacity electric vehicle, and at the Los Angeles Auto Show the company detailed its strategy for slashing production costs for the material.
Richard Steinberg, BMW's manager of electric vehicle operations and strategy for North America, said on Wednesday that the automaker plans to use hydropower for the energy-intensive manufacturing of carbon fiber.
With plans initially to invest $100 million, a joint venture between BMW and Germany’s SGL Group began building a new plant this summer in Washington—a state that has become a hot spot for energy-guzzling data centers due to the abundance of cheap hydropower generated there. Thanks to the giant Grand Coulee Dam and other hydroelectric stations on the Columbia River, Washington State has the lowest electricity rates in the United States—about four cents per kilowatt-hour for industrial customers, or 40 percent below the national average.
National Geographic: Brazil Ethanol Looks to Sweeten More Gas Tanks
Marianne Lavelle with J. Okray
For National Geographic News
Brazil, which has done more than any other nation to displace oil with ethanol, is poised as never before to ramp up production of its sugarcane-based fuel and, it hopes, to market its "sweeter alternative" around the world.
Brightening Brazil’s prospects to solidify its position as world biofuel powerhouse are billions of dollars of new foreign investment and the possible fall of a long-standing trade barrier in the United States, a huge potential market.
Brazil Mines and Energy Minister Marcio Zimmerman said in recent weeks that South America’s largest country plans to more than double its ethanol production, from 7 billion gallons (26 billion liters) annually to 17 billion gallons (64 billion liters), by 2019. The plan may sound especially ambitious in light of the depressed ethanol production of the past two years. But it was the global economic downturn—and resulting low prices—that set the stage for a wave of mergers and outside investment in Brazilian companies that were in need of cash.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
Reuters via Yahoo! News Canada: Asia and Europe giving U.S. science a run for the money
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States still leads the world with its scientific clout, armed with highly respected universities and a big war chest of funding, but Europe and Asia are catching up, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Friday.
The U.S. emphasis on biological and medical sciences leaves the fields of physical sciences and engineering open to the competition, the report finds.
"The United States is no longer the Colossus of Science, dominating the research landscape in its production of scientific papers, that it was 30 years ago," the report reads.
"It now shares this realm, on an increasingly equal basis, with the EU27 (the 27 European Union members) and Asia-Pacific," adds the report, available at http://researchanalytics.thomsonreuters.com/....
Examiner.com: NASA Hearing Rescheduled by Senate
By Jason Rhian, NASA Examiner
A Senate hearing on the implementation of NASA's new policy, originally planned Thursday, has been delayed to Dec. 1. With the abrupt change of NASA’s mission from one focused on a return to manned exploration efforts to one that will essentially take a back seat to private firms while the space agency develops new technology – the Senate decided to investigate how this change has been implemented and whether or not some of these changes were handled appropriately.
This announcement by the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee didn't give a reason for the change in schedule for the hearing titled "Transition and Implementation: The NASA Authorization Act of 2010."
Science Education
USC Daily Trojan: Bill Nye speaks at Bovard about global climate change
By jennifer schultz · Daily Trojan
Bill Nye, known for his television show Bill Nye the Science Guy, spoke to a full Bovard Auditorium on Tuesday night about climate and global changes with his signature humor.
Now you know · Many students said they attended the event because Nye, who spoke Tuesday, was a huge influence during their childhood years. - Tim Tran | Daily Trojan
During the lecture, Nye fainted but woke up shortly after.
"What happened? How long was I out?" Nye said after standing up. "Wow, that was crazy. I feel like Lady Gaga or something."
Though Nye was visibly shaken, leaning on the podium for support and eventually sitting down, he finished his lecture.
"The joy of discovery, my friends, is what science is all about," Nye said.
Don't worry about Mr. Nye. He is just fine.
Science Writing and Reporting
The Planetary Society: Reviews of Ten Space-themed Books for Kids
By Emily Lakdawalla
As I did last year, I'm hereby posting reviews and comments on every recent space book for kids that's crossed my desk in the last several months. The first three reviews were published in the September/October issue of The Planetary Report.
It's not too early to add these to your Christmas lists!
The Planetary Society: 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast: What's in a Science Meeting?
By Emily Lakdawalla
If I asked you to think of a space scientist, what would you think of? Maybe somebody staring through a telescope? Or someone in a low-lit office piled with books and papers, with pictures of stars or planets on their computer screens? Regardless of the environment, you probably imagine a person in solitary study. But space scientists don't always work alone. Sometimes, hundreds or even thousands of them get together in big science meetings to share and discuss their findings with each other.
My name is Emily Lakdawalla, and I'm the blogger for the Planetary Society. I recently attended one of these big science meetings, and today I'll tell you what I saw and learned there: new facts about places in distant reaches of our solar system, and stories about the challenges that space scientists face in doing their work.
In October of this year I attended the annual meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, which people usually just call "DPS." This year it was held in Pasadena, California, near Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Lab, and more than eleven hundred astronomers, geologists, physicists, and engineers were there for the five-day conference, along with students, bloggers, and other journalists like me.
University of Southern California: Who We Are
Antonio Damasio probes the world's most marvelous and complex machine — the mind — in his new book.
By Susan Andrews
Without consciousness - that is, a mind endowed with subjectivity - you would have no way of knowing who you are. -Antonio Damasio
The brain, mind, self and consciousness, on their own and in relationship to each other, are the focus of Antonio Damasio's lifelong research and his latest book Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain (Pantheon).
Damasio, David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience and director of the USC Brain and Creativity Institute housed in USC College, dedicated the book to addressing two questions: How does the brain construct a mind? And, how does the brain make that mind conscious?
Science is Cool
Tel Aviv University via physorg.com: What will threaten us in 2040?
Could terrorists of the future use a swarm of tiny robots -- less an a quarter-inch high -- to attack their targets? Will new bio materials be able to target individuals carrying specific genetic markers? Could cyber-attackers melt down a nuclear facility with the press of a "return" key, or implant chips to control our minds?
These scenarios may sound like science fiction, but according to Dr. Yair Sharan, Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Technological Analysis and Forecasting (ICTAF) at Tel Aviv University, they're all within the realm of possibility in the next few decades. That's why it's critical for nations to be aware of the risks, and primed to mitigate them to avert another 9/11 or Mumbai terror attack.
As head of a pan-European project called FESTOS (Foresight of Evolving Security Threats Posed by Emerging Technologies: http://www.festos.org), Dr. Sharan and his colleagues are looking 30 years into the future to determine what our real technological threats will be. At the end of their three-year project, already underway, they'll issue a detailed task report to describe the threats and suggest to leaders of democratic nations how they can avoid them.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.