One more time here we are at Monday. The time has come to take a well deserved hiatus from all the politics of the day and enjoy some of the fine science news of the past week. New discoveries, new takes on old knowledge, and other bits of news are all available for the perusing in today's information world. Over the fold are selections from the past week from a few of the many excellent science news sites around the world. Today's tidbits include Maya pressurized water system earliest in New World, tracking wayward pests through mapping, floating islands of germs, the hidden side of star birth revealed by Herschel, drug research financed by pharmaceutical companies is more likely to produce positive results, and lake bed trails tell ancient fish story. Come gather around the fire for one more session of Dr. Possum's science education and entertainment.
Featured Stories
The earliest known example of pressurized water in the New World is found in the Maya city of Palenque, Mexico.
The feature the researchers examined, Piedras Bolas Aqueduct, is a spring-fed conduit located on steep terrain. The elevation drops about 20 feet from the entrance of the tunnel to the outlet about 200 feet downhill. The cross section of the feature decreases from about 10 square feet near the spring to about a half square foot where water emerges form a small opening. The combination of gravity on water flowing through the feature and the sudden restriction of the conduit causes the water to flow out of the opening forcefully, under pressure.
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At the outlet, the pressure exerted could have moved the water upwards of 20 feet.
Managing invasive pests around the world is a problem faced every day.
Species that have the potential to cause harmful ecological, economic or social impacts in an area of concern are considered "pests." Maps are created as visual representations of pest risk. However, the various methods used to create these maps can potentially yield very different depictions of risk for the same species. Pest-risk mapping is part of a greater risk assessment – which informs pest management. Pest-risk assessments help determine the degree of risk a pest might represent, and influence where land management agencies, regulatory agencies and agricultural groups should allocate the most resources – and what specific actions to take – in order to protect our forests, agriculture and other natural resources.
Waterborne disease is an important considerations for humans around the world. Now comes evidence of clumping of infectious organisms on organic material in the water.
Researchers have found evidence that "marine snow"--aggregates of organic material floating in water bodies--may act as microscopic, island-like refuges for pathogens, or disease-causing organisms. This detritus may skew water sampling procedures and mathematical models used to predict the transmission of waterborne diseases to humans.
When water sampling is conducted--to determine whether recreational waters should be open to swimmers, or whether shellfish beds should be closed to fishers--aggregates lend a hit-or-miss aspect to the testing. A sample might include only water without aggregates, giving false-negative results that no danger exists.
New images and results continue to flow from Herschel, the European Space Agency's infrared telescope.
Herschel’s observation of the star-forming cloud RCW 120 has revealed an embryonic star which looks set to turn into one of the biggest and brightest stars in our Galaxy within the next few hundred thousand years. It already contains eight to ten times the mass of the Sun and is still surrounded by an additional 2000 solar masses of gas and dust from which it can feed further.
The old adage that money talks may be more true than we prefer to think when pharmaceutical research is considered.
The results of clinical drug trials that are funded by pharmaceutical companies or whose authors have financial conflicts of interest are favorable to the products of the sponsoring company far more frequently than studies whose funding comes from other sources. Furthermore, interpretation of the data in the conclusions of industrially financed trials more often favors the sponsor.
Fossils contain many artifacts including the trails made some by some ancient fish.
Trails left by these fish, however, are relatively rare. The National Park Service had identified about a dozen of them and asked (researcher) Martin to investigate. Martin specializes in trace fossils, including tracks, trails, burrows and nests made by animals millions of years ago.
One of the fish trace fossils especially intrigued Martin. In addition to apparent fin impressions of two wavy lines, it had squiggles suggesting oval shapes. "The oval impressions stayed roughly in the center of the wavy lines and slightly overlapped one another. I realized that these marks were probably made by the mouth, as the fish fed along the bottom," Martin says.
The scientists were also able to calculate how the fish was moving, and the pitch and yaw of its swimming motion.
Other Worthy Stories of the Week
Diversity in coral populations may influence response to temperature change
Birds of a feather attack together
New nanocoating produces perfectly nonreflecting surface
Zettabytes now needed to describe global information overload
Faster salmonella detection
Brain's master switch identified
Real world proof of hand washing's effectiveness
Tainted nuclear plant water reaches major NJ aquifer
Lenseless imaging of whole biological cells with soft X-rays
Trapping giant atoms for faster quantum computers
NASA successfully tests Orion (the space shuttle successor) abort system
UVA light doesn't cause melanoma
Bladeless wind turbine inspired by Tesla patent of 1913
World's biggest beaver dam discovered in northern Canada
For even more science news:
General Science Collectors:
Alpha-Galileo
BBC News Science and Environment
Eureka Science News
LiveScience
New Scientist
PhysOrg.com
SciDev.net
Science/AAAS
Science Alert
Science Centric
Science Daily
Scientific American
Space Daily
Blogs:
A Few Things Ill Considered Techie and Science News
Cantauri Dreams space exploration
Coctail Party Physics Physics with a twist.
Deep Sea News marine biology
Laelaps more vertebrate paleontology
List of Geoscience Blogs
ScienceBlogs
Space Review
Techonology Review
Tetrapod Zoologyvertebrate paleontology
Science Insider
Scientific Blogging.
Wired News
Science RSS Feed: Medworm
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe--a combination of hard science and debunking crap
Daily Kos regular series:
Daily Kos University, a regular series by plf515
This Week in Science by DarkSyde
This Week in Space by nellaselim
Overnight News Digest:Science Saturday by Neon Vincent. This week OND by palantir.
Weekend Science by AKMask
All diaries with the DK GreenRoots Tag.
All diaries with the eKos Tag
NASA picture of the day. For more see the NASA image gallery.
Solar Flare, March 2010, NASA, Public Domain