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 Reuters.
Artificial life? Synthetic genes 'boot up' cell
Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
Researchers trying to make synthetic life in the lab have "booted up" a hollowed-out bacterium using a human-made genome in a major step toward making synthetic life.
They hope to use their stripped-down version of a bacterium to eventually engineer custom-made microbes.
"This is the first synthetic cell that's been made, and we call it synthetic because the cell is totally derived from a synthetic chromosome, made with four bottles of chemicals on a chemical synthesizer, starting with information in a computer," said genome pioneer Craig Venter, who led the research.
More science, space, and environment stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
DarkSyde: This Week in Science
Mark Sumner ANA Devilstower: SEGO: Next!
jamess: It may be time to Turn to the Scientists -- They get it
Slideshows/Videos
NASA (Astronomy Picture of the Day): Large Eruptive Prominence Movie from SDO
Explanation: Sometimes part of the Sun can just explode into space. These explosions might occur as powerful solar flares, coronal mass ejections, or comparatively tame eruptive solar prominences. Pictured above is one of the largest solar prominence eruptions yet observed, one associated with a subsequent coronal mass ejection. The prominence erupted last month and was recorded by several Sun-sensing instruments, including the recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The above time lapse sequence was captured by SDO and occurred over a few hours. In recent months, our Sun has becoming increasingly active, following a few years of an unusually dormant solar minimum. Over the next few years our Sun is expected to reach solar maximum and exhibit a dramatic increase in sunspots and all types of solar explosions.
Astronomy/Space
Bad Astronomy Blog on Discover Magazine: Star: om nom nom! Planet: Aieee!
600 light years away, in the constellation of Auriga, there is a star in some ways similar to our Sun. It’s a shade hotter (by about 800° C), more massive, and older. Oddly, it appears to be laced with heavy elements: more oxygen, aluminum, and so on, than might be expected. A puzzle.
Then, last year, it was discovered that this star had a planet orbiting it. A project called WASP – Wide Area Search for Planets, a UK telescope system that searches for exoplanets — noticed that the star underwent periodic dips in its light. This indicates that a planet circles the star, and when the planet gets between the star and us, it blocks a tiny fraction of the starlight.
The planet is a weirdo, for many reasons... but it won’t be weird for too much longer. That’s because the star is eating it.
L.A. Times: Supernova is rich in calcium
By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times
May 19, 2010 | 9:18 p.m.
Scientists have identified a type of supernova, or exploding star, that produces unusually large amounts of calcium — enough perhaps to explain the abundance of that element in the universe and in our bones.
Perhaps more significant for astronomers, these calcium-rich exploding stars — eight have been identified so far — may also represent a new class of supernova, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature.
"If it's not a new genus, it's at least a new species of supernova," said Alex Filippenko, a professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley and one of the study's 28 coauthors. "This is not just a variation on a theme."
National Geographic: Solar Sail Hybrid Launches Today From Japan
Julian Ryall in Tokyo
for National Geographic News
Updated May 21, 2010
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has launched the first spacecraft that will speed across the solar system using a hybrid solar sail—one propelled partly by solar pressure, partly by traditional solar power.
Dubbed Ikaros—for Interplanetary Kite-Craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun—the experimental craft launched from the Tanegashima Space Center at 5:58 p.m. ET on May 20 (6:58 a.m. on May 21, local time).
Ikaros is hitching a ride into space aboard an H-IIA rocket, piggybacking with JAXA's Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter mission.
Reuters: NASA astronauts attach new room to space station
Irene Klotz
The compartment, known as Rassvet -- Russian for "dawn" -- was delivered aboard shuttle Atlantis, which is making the third-to-last flight of the shuttle program.
Russia plans to launch its prime research laboratory in 2012, which will complete the $100 billion orbital outpost, a project of 16 nations that has been under construction 220 miles above Earth since 1998.
NASA has two shuttle missions remaining. Discovery is due to fly in September with a final load of spare parts and a storage pod that will be left at the station.
Endeavour, on NASA's 134th shuttle flight, will mark the program's finale with the delivery of the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector. The physics experiment will be mounted outside the station.
Evolution/Paleontology
N.Y. Times: Creatures of Cambrian May Have Lived On
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Ever since their discovery in 1909, the spectacular Burgess Shale outcrops in the Canadian Rockies have presented scientists with a cornucopia of evidence for the "explosion" of complex, multicellular life beginning some 550 million years ago.
The fossils, all new to science, were at first seen as little more than amazing curiosities from a time when life, except for bacteria and algae, was confined to the sea — and what is now Canada was just south of the Equator. In the last half century, however, paleontologists recognized that the Burgess Shale exemplified the radiation of diverse life forms unlike anything in earlier time. Here was evolution in action, organisms over time responding to changing fortunes through natural experimentation in new body forms and different ecological niches.
But the fossil record then goes dark: the Cambrian-period innovations in life appeared to have few clear descendants. Many scientists thought that the likely explanation for this mysterious disappearance was that a major extinction had wiped out much of the distinctive Cambrian life. It seemed that the complex organisms emerging in the Cambrian had come to an abrupt demise, disappearing with few traces in the later fossil record.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Biodiversity
The Telegraph (UK): Scientists discover frog with inflatable nose
An international team of researchers was camping in the Foja mountains of Indonesia when one of them, Paul Oliver, spotted a frog sitting on a bag of rice in the campsite.
On closer inspection it turned out to be a previously unknown type of long-nosed frog. When the frog is calling, its nose points upward, but it deflates when the animal is less active.
Lame frog gets his leg back in world first operation"We were sitting around eating lunch," recalled ornithologist Chris Milensky. Oliver "looked down and there's this little frog on a rice sack, and he managed to grab the thing."
L.A. Times: Songbirds don't prefer organic food
By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times
May 19, 2010
Increasingly each year, humans foraging in American supermarkets select organically grown food. Not so with wild songbirds searching for sustenance in the gardens of England.
Given a choice between organically and conventionally grown wheat, they opt for the conventional stuff — which is higher in protein — 55 to 60% of the time, a study has found.
The findings, which were published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture on Tuesday, raise yet again the question of which is healthier: organic or conventional food.
L.A. Times: Experiment aims to return wild bison to open range
By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from West Yellowstone, Mont.-- Back in the days when 30 million bison stormed and thrashed across the Great Plains, the four dozen bison quietly chomping grass on Horse Butte near here wouldn't have raised much attention.
But that was before the West got tamed.
The shrill whine of all-terrain vehicles came first, startling the cows and their spindly calves, some only a day or so old. Then came a low-swooping helicopter, driving the bison into a dead run. The animals would be driven for miles, some of them still heavy in pregnancy.
Is this any way to run a buffalo herd? Hardly anybody thinks so, yet it's the best anyone's been able to come up with to manage the yearly migration of bison out of Yellowstone National Park into lands reserved for private livestock.
Biotechnology/Health
Science Daily: Caffeine May Slow Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias, Restore Cognitive Function, According to New Evidence
ScienceDaily (May 18, 2010) — Although caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug worldwide, its potential beneficial effect for maintenance of proper brain functioning has only recently begun to be adequately appreciated. Substantial evidence from epidemiological studies and fundamental research in animal models suggests that caffeine may be protective against the cognitive decline seen in dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
A special supplement to the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, "Therapeutic Opportunities for Caffeine in Alzheimer's Disease and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases," sheds new light on this topic and presents key findings.
Guest editors Alexandre de Mendonça, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal, and Rodrigo A. Cunha, Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of Coimbra and Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal, have assembled a group of international experts to explore the effects of caffeine on the brain. The resulting collection of original studies conveys multiple perspectives on topics ranging from molecular targets of caffeine, neurophysiological modifications and adaptations, to the potential mechanisms underlying the behavioral and neuroprotective actions of caffeine in distinct brain pathologies.
The Local (Sweden): http://www.thelocal.se/...
Peter Vinthagen Simpson
Singing is a popular pursuit in the Nordic countries and while it is often associated with alcohol consumption it can also have positive health effects - such as easing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Swedish research suggests.
Previous studies have demonstrated the beneficial psychological and biological effects of singing, with associated feelings of relaxation, energy and joy. An inter-university Swedish study has set out to test whether there were any additional stress-related benefits from choir singing in comparison with other group activities.
Singing has been found to stimulate elevated oxytocin concentration in serum, and the study hoped to shed light on whether choir singing can aid anabolic regeneration, measured from saliva testosterone, and ease the symptoms of IBS, whose sufferers typically register low levels of oxytocin.
Climate/Environment
L.A. Times: BP forced to admit leak is bigger
By Julie Cart and Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times
May 21, 2010
BP's success at drawing oil from a leaking pipe has proved that official estimates of the size of the Gulf of Mexico spill have been too low.
The company effectively admitted as much Thursday when it said that a tube inserted into the broken pipe connected to its blown-out well is collecting as much as 5,000 barrels of oil and 15 million cubic feet of gas a day, even as a live video feed shows large volumes continuing to billow into gulf waters.
"There's still oil leaking there. We're not saying otherwise," BP spokesman Mark Proegler said Thursday.
L.A. Times: Oil spill's ugly reality sets in
By Ashley Powers and Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Grand Isle, La.This seven-mile squiggle of homey rentals and streets with names like Redfish and Speckled Trout had wrung hope for weeks from a single belief: Oil would land somewhere else.
But on Friday, oil the color and consistency of brownie batter began tarnishing the shore of Grand Isle, a tourist town of 1,500 that draws its livelihood from thousands of weekend visitors.
The dark ooze — the first direct hit from the massive gulf oil spill on a populated, popular shoreline — deepened anger and anxiety on the Louisiana coast as the slick swirled offshore with no containment in sight.
L.A. Times: Engineering a solution to the oil spill
By Jim Tankersley, Tribune Washington Bureau
Reporting from Houston-- More than a week into their quest to stop the oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico from a damaged BP well, several dozen of the brightest minds in the engineering world gathered to watch a 100-ton failure unfold in slow motion.
The engineers packed into a repurposed research center dubbed the Hive, which houses a dozen video screens and, most days, about as many scientists.
Beside a bustling freeway, in a drab Houston office park bedecked with nearly every name in Big Oil, BP had launched a 21st century version of "Apollo 13."
L.A. Times: Kevin Costner may hold key to oil spill cleanup
By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
May 21, 2010 | 7:23 p.m.
The "Kevin Costner solution" to the worsening oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may actually work, and none too soon for the president of Plaquemines Parish.
Costner has invested 15 years and about $24 million in a novel way of sifting oil spills that he began working on while making his own maritime film, "Waterworld," released in 1995.
Two decades later, BP and the U.S. Coast Guard plan to test six of his massive, stainless steel centrifugal oil separators next week. Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser welcomed the effort, even as he and Louisiana officials blasted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for delays in approving an emergency plan to build sand "islands" to protect the bayous of his parish.
L.A. Times: Kudzu linked to poor air quality
By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times
May 22, 2010
Kudzu, a fast-growing and invasive Asian vine introduced in the American South several decades ago, has now blanketed more than 7 million acres of the region, making it sometimes seem more common than the hallmark azaleas, dogwoods and peach trees.
Now there's evidence that the plant also increases air pollution.
Geology
Rianovasti (Russia): Scientists discover 50-km asteroid crater off Australian coast
Australian National University scientists have discovered a crater of at least 50 kilometers in diameter under the Timor Sea near to Australia, created by a giant asteroid which collided with the Earth some 35 million years ago, the university website said.
"The minimum size of the Mount Ashmore dome, which represents elastic rebound doming of the Earth crust triggered by the impact, is 50 kilometres at the base, but the full size of the impact crater - not yet defined - may be significantly larger," said Dr. Andrew Glikson of the Planetary Science Institute and the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at ANU.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Seattle Times via the L.A. Times: Three decades later, Mt. St. Helens is wired with technology
By Sandi Doughton
The first earthquake rattled Mt. St. Helens on March 20, 1980 — nearly two months before the mountain erupted. But it took awhile for anyone to notice.
The sole seismometer on the peak was linked to an apparatus at the University of Washington that recorded squiggles on 16-mm film. Twenty minutes of chemical processing yielded an image so tiny scientists used a magnifying glass to make out details. A punch-card computer chugged for half an hour before spitting out an estimate of the epicenter.
On the 30th anniversary of St. Helens' epic May 18 blast, the Pacific Northwest is wired with more than 350 seismic sensors that make their predecessors look as primitive as Pac-Man. Able to take the Earth's pulse continuously and transmit data with lightning speed, they are part of a new generation of tools that has revolutionized the ability of scientists to peer into the heart of a volcano.
Psychology/Behavior
Science Daily: Meaner Than Fiction: Reality TV High on Aggression, Study Shows
ScienceDaily (May 22, 2010) — All the gossip, insults and dirty looks add up fast on popular reality shows, far outpacing the level seen in equally popular dramas, comedies and soap operas according to a new Brigham Young University study.
The researchers looked at five reality shows and five non-reality shows and found 52 acts of aggression per hour on reality TV compared to 33 per hour for the non-reality programs.
"The Apprentice" topped the list at 85 acts of verbal or relational aggression per hour.
Archeology/Anthropology
Discovery News: Get Ready for More Proto-Humans
Analysis by Jennifer Viegas
Fri May 21, 2010 11:57 AM ET
Today at Discovery News you can read about the earliest recognized species of Homo, the first known member of our genus. This latest addition to the human family, Homo gautengensis, was from South Africa and measured just 3 feet tall. It spent a lot of time in trees and had big teeth suitable for chewing plant material. H. gautengensis emerged over 2 million years ago, but died out at around 600,000 years ago.
The past few years have seen an explosion in the discovery of early human ancestors. Over just the past couple of months alone, we were presented with X-Woman and Australopithecus sediba. One reason for the explosion is improved analysis methods, often based on prior finds, DNA work, and a better understanding of where such remains might exist.
Get ready for more big human evolution announcements in the coming months, as anthropologists have shared with me that a number of bones even older than those for Homo gautengensis await study and classification.
Discovery News: King Tut's Leftover Bandages Yield New Clues
By Rossella Lorenzi
Wed May 19, 2010 09:38 AM ET
Leftover linens from the wrapping of King Tut's body bear an inscription including the date the linen was woven. Click on the picture to see a slide show of the linens and other finds.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
King Tutankhamun's mummy was wrapped in custom-made bandages similar to modern first aid gauzes, an exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art reveals.
Running in length from 4.70 meters to 39 cm (15.4 feet to 15.3 inches), the narrow bandages consist of 50 linen pieces especially woven for the boy king.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Synchrotron probes Egyptian beads
Tuesday, 18 May 2010 Dani Cooper
Not content with managing the household it appears women in Ancient Egypt were also keeping the budget in the black with some home-based manufacturing.
That is the conclusion an Australian team has drawn by using synchrotrons to analyse the synthetic turquoise that was popular during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten around 1300BC.
National Geographic: Pyramid Tomb Found: Sign of a Civilization's Birth?
Oldest known Central American pyramid tomb holds royal burials, jewels.
John Roach
for National Geographic News
Published May 18, 2010
After sheltering jeweled royals for centuries, the oldest known tomb in Mesoamerica—ancient Central America and Mexico, roughly speaking—has been uncovered, archaeologists announced Tuesday.
Apparently caught between two cultures, the 2,700-year-old pyramid in Chiapa de Corzo (map), Mexico, may help settle a debate as to when and how the mysterious Zoque civilization arose, according to excavation leader Bruce Bachand.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: Ancient statues recovered in Greece
Police seize 2,500-year-old artifacts in sting operation
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 | 11:20 AM ET
Two ancient marble statues of male youths were on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens on Tuesday after police in southern Greece arrested two farmers who allegedly planned to sell them abroad.
The Athens News Agency reported that the artifacts, dated between 550 and 520 BC, were recovered last Friday during a sting operation near Corinth.
Al Ahram (Egypt): So where are Anthony and Cleopatra?
Cleopatra's curse hung over the ancient city of Taposiris Magna, 50km west of Alexandria, where excavators combed the sand last Saturday looking for her resting place with her beloved Mark Anthony. Nevine El-Aref witnessed the search
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last Saturday was a very strange day. At Taposiris Magna, where the ruins of the Osiris Temple and few Graeco-Roman tombs emerge from the sand, a dozen journalists, photographers and TV cameramen gathered to witness the revelations of the latest search there carried by an Egyptian-Dominican team.
At first everything seemed as normal as usual. Excavators were busy digging while workmen with their black buckets removing the sand out of the temple. At 9:30am sharp Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), who is supervising the excavations, came to the site to make the announcement and to explore a newly-discovered three- metre-deep shaft. Dominican archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, who heads the excavation mission, was also on the site. There was a sense of great excitement and anxiety as we waited to see what lay inside the shaft.
Asia Times: Holy row in Kashmir over 'Jesus tomb'
By Haroon Mirani
SRINAGAR - When a popular travel guide revived a decades-old debate by saying that a tomb in Indian-administered Kashmir may be the final resting place of Jesus Christ, the influx of foreign tourists and conspiracy theorists did not go down well with local Muslims - they insist the grave contains the remains of an ancient Sufi saint.
Lonely Planet took pains to add a disclaimer when it described the "Jesus tomb" in its latest edition for India, but this didn't stop curious foreigners flocking to the Roza Bal Shrine in downtown Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir's summer capital. Muslim youths responded by roughing up their tour guides.
Discovery News: Nottingham Caves Brought to You in 3-D
Analysis by Teresa Shipley
Fri May 21, 2010 10:41 AM ET
These manmade labyrinths were used for everything from brewing ale to mining to -- legend has it -- imprisoning the famous bandit Robin Hood. Although some are still being used today as pub cellars and tourist attractions, most aren't public or even known about. Now, new technology is shedding light on these previously unseen wonders.
The Nottingham Caves Survey, carried out by archaeologists from Trent and Peak Archaeology at the University of Nottingham in England, uses laser scan technology to create three-dimensional images of the caves.
BBC: Face of Stirling Castle warrior reconstructed
A reconstruction has revealed the face of a medieval knight whose skeleton was discovered at Stirling Castle.
Experts are now attempting to discover the identity of the warrior, who is likely to have been killed in the 13th or 14th Century.
The skeleton is one of 10 excavated from the site of a lost royal chapel at the castle. The skeleton of a woman was found near the knight.
Post and Courier (Charleston, SC): Rare discovery
Tabby floor from 1690s oldest architectural remains found at Charles Towne Landing
By Robert Behre
The Post and Courier
Rebecca Shepherd, a volunteer archaeologist at Charles Towne Landing, thought her co-workers were joking in the fall when they claimed to find a tabby floor.
In fact, they did, and it's the oldest surviving architectural remains unearthed at the historic site so far.
"We were just in shock," Shepherd said. "You just don't find stuff like that."
The News (Portsmouth, UK): Sailors' skeletons from Nelson's navy among thousands at Haslar
By David Hurley
A team of archaeologists who dug up skeletons in Gosport to reveal what life was like in Nelson's navy will have their work shown on TV.
Experts carried out an excavation at the former Royal Hospital Haslar last May.
Now viewers will get to learn about some of the incredible stories behind the skeletons when the Channel 4 show Time Team is aired on Monday night.
Kansas City Star: Everyday items found in archaeological dig give clues to Civil War's devastation
By RICK MONTGOMERY
The Kansas City Star
BUTLER, Mo. | A foot below the grasses of rural Bates County, Ann Raab’s trowel has uncovered scars of a countryside torched by the Union Army.
Burnt wood embedded in rock. Melted glass, scorched ceramics and discolored soil where a flaming wall fell.
As a Ph.D. candidate in archaeology at the University of Kansas, Raab is less interested in the signs of destruction than in the ordinary remnants of lives ravaged. Buttons, for example, offer clues to the kinds of coveralls western Missourians left behind when forced off their properties in 1863.
Culture 24 (UK): CBA responds to growing army of volunteer archaeologists
By Richard Moss
Perhaps it's Time Team, Francis Pryor or Tony Robinson. It might even be Bonekickers. Whatever the effect of TV's take on archaeology, the nation has certainly taken to digging up the earth in search of our archaeological heritage.
According to a new report published this week by the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) the number of people involved in "voluntary archaeology" has doubled to a whopping 215,000 since 1987.
Led by 2,030 community archaeology groups or local societies, this army of volunteers takes part in everything from excavations and marine archaeology to recording historic buildings and volunteering for Young Archaeologists' Club branches.
Columbus Dispatch: Owning up to history
U.S. museums, universities face questions about, requests for return of remains, art and antiquities
By Kevin Mayhood
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Jim Strider, director of collections for the Ohio Historical Society, says the society in the 1990s returned materials to the Hopi tribe, and it has consulted recently with the Miami tribe in Oklahoma as archaeologists prepare for a dig near Piqua. The tribe previously lived in that area.
At the same time that Ohio State University is preparing to send the remains of American Indians back to West Virginia, the school is returning tissue and blood samples from Yanomamo tribes, at the request of the Brazilian government.
In northeastern Ohio, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History has received a letter from Odawa Indians requesting the return of two wooden ceremonial bowls. The Cleveland Museum of Art is talking with Italian authorities who want several antiquities returned.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
Physics
N.Y. Times: A New Clue to Explain Existence
By DENNIS OVERBYE
Physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are reporting that they have discovered a new clue that could help unravel one of the biggest mysteries of cosmology: why the universe is composed of matter and not its evil-twin opposite, antimatter. If confirmed, the finding portends fundamental discoveries at the new Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva, as well as a possible explanation for our own existence.
In a mathematically perfect universe, we would be less than dead; we would never have existed. According to the basic precepts of Einsteinian relativity and quantum mechanics, equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have been created in the Big Bang and then immediately annihilated each other in a blaze of lethal energy, leaving a big fat goose egg with which to make to make stars, galaxies and us. And yet we exist, and physicists (among others) would dearly like to know why.
Sifting data from collisions of protons and antiprotons at Fermilab’s Tevatron, which until last winter was the most powerful particle accelerator in the world, the team, known as the DZero collaboration, found that the fireballs produced pairs of the particles known as muons, which are sort of fat electrons, slightly more often than they produced pairs of anti-muons. So the miniature universe inside the accelerator went from being neutral to being about 1 percent more matter than antimatter.
Examiner.com: In quest to create quantum computers, U of M physicists build a better atom trap
by Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner
Earlier this month, the University of Michigan announced that four of the institution's physicists had trapped giant atoms, called Rydberg atoms, in a trap made of laser beams. This achievement, while noteworthy as an example of scientific ingenuity in its own right, carries greater significance as a major step in developing quantum computers, which may be able to solve problems too complicated for conventional computers.
The team of physicists, consisting of Professor Georg Rathel, associate chair of the Department of Physics, two doctoral students, Kelly Younge and Sarah Anderson, and a recent graduate, Brenton Knuffman, who is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, started by exciting the lone outermost, or valence, electrons of rubidium atoms with finely tuned lasers. The electrons then jumped to 100 times their normal distance from the nucleus of the rubidium atoms, turning them into giant Rydberg atoms. The highly excited valence electrons then behaved almost like free electrons, allowing the Rydberg atoms to be trapped.
The researchers took advantage of what's called the "ponderomotive force," which allowed them to capture an Rydberg atom by holding fast to just one electron—-the valence electron they excited with the lasers. They then formed an optical lattice, essentially a light cage, with multiple, intense, interfering laser beams, which also provided the ponderomotive force.
Chemistry
Green Biz.com: Architect Wins Green Innovation Prize for Unique Brick Formula
By GreenerBuildings Staff
NEW YORK, NY — An American architect in Abu Dhabi has won a prize for innovative design with a plan to produce green bricks by using sand, common bacteria, calcium chloride and urea (that's right, the compound found in urine) in a process called microbial-induced calcite precipitation.
Ginger Krieg Dosier, an assistant professor of architecture at American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, received this year's Metropolis Next Generation Design Prize for her idea of producing "biomanufactured" bricks as a substitute for clay-fired ones.
Metropolis magazine announced the award in an article published today.
Energy
Asian Energy: How To Rid The Sea Of An Ocean Of Plastic
It is estimated that between seven and ten million tons of floating plastic garbage are polluting and choking an area the size of Texas in the central Pacific Ocean. This is one of several such areas around the world, known as gyres, where ocean currents naturally concentrate the trash. The enormity of the plastic is a seemingly insurmountable problem because it cannot be removed and taken to land for disposal. It cannot be incinerated due to the toxicity of the smoke. It cannot be ignored because the plastic is being eaten by fish, birds and mammals. Others become trapped and killed by it. The plastic will destroy the food chain. There are six times as much floating plastic as there are plankton and the plankton-eaters are consuming more and more plastic. A Styrofoam cup breaks down into little white pellets that have the appearance of fish eggs, which are swallowed by other hungry animals.
...
The floating plastic must somehow be cleaned up and there appears to be only one practical means to do so.
All plastic is made from petroleum products and is made up of hydrocarbon. There is a proven process in which any hydrocarbon-based material can be converted back to high-quality light oil by a brief application of heat and pressure. This technology is known as Thermal Conversion Process and has been perfected by a New York company, Changing World Technologies, Inc. (CWT). The company has spent the past few years working with the conversion of slaughterhouse waste products into oil and is currently adding the conversion of plastic waste.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
L.A. Times: National Academy of Sciences urges strong action to cut greenhouse gases
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times
In a sharp change from its cautious approach in the past, the National Academy of Sciences on Wednesday called for taxes on carbon emissions, a cap-and-trade program for such emissions or some other strong action to curb runaway global warming.
Such actions, which would increase the cost of using coal and petroleum — at least in the immediate future — are necessary because "climate change is occurring, the Earth is warming ... concentrations of carbon dioxide are increasing, and there are very clear fingerprints that link [those effects] to humans," said Pamela A. Matson of Stanford University, who chaired one of five panels organized by the academy at the request of Congress to look at the science of climate change and how the nation should respond.
The three reports issued Wednesday, totaling more than 860 pages, provide the broad outlines for a U.S. response to the threat; two more reports are to come.
L.A. Times: Truck industry welcomes Obama's fuel efficiency plans for big rigs
By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times
By deciding to set the first fuel efficiency standards for big-rig trucks, President Obama on Friday handed environmentalists a victory, but one that the vehicle industry said it was happy to embrace.
At a televised Rose Garden ceremony at the White House, Obama signed a memorandum ordering federal agencies to prepare plans for the fuel efficiency standards.
The president argued that the standards were needed to ease the United States' dependency on foreign oil and help reduce greenhouse gases and pollutants. The memorandum also directed the agencies to push for new alternative fuels and to help develop electric cars.
"I believe that it's possible, in the next 20 years, for vehicles to use half the fuel and produce half the pollution that they do today," Obama said.
L.A. Times: BP refuses EPA order to switch to less-toxic oil dispersant
By Margot Roosevelt and Carolyn Cole, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Los Angeles and Elmer’s -- BP has rebuffed demands from government officials and environmentalists to use a less-toxic dispersant to break up the oil from its massive offshore spill, saying that the chemical product it is now using continues to be "the best option for subsea application."
On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave the London-based company 72 hours to replace the dispersant Corexit 9500 or to describe in detail why other dispersants fail to meet environmental standards.
The agency on Saturday released a 12-page document from BP, representing only a portion of the company's full response. Along with several dispersant manufacturers, BP claimed that releasing its full evaluation of alternatives would violate its legal right to keep confidential business information private.
But in a strongly worded retort, the EPA said that it was "evaluating all legal options" to force BP to release the remaining information "so Americans can get a full picture of the potential environmental impact of these alternative dispersants."
L.A. Times: Rising maternal mortality rate causes alarm, calls for action
By Shari Roan and Lisa Girion, Los Angeles Times
May 22, 2010 | 3:19 p.m.
After a difficult pregnancy, weeks of bed rest and an emergency cesarean section, Liz Logelin got only a quick peek at her daughter before the newborn, healthy but premature, was whisked away to the neonatal unit.
The next day, a nurse arrived with a wheelchair to take the first-time mother to see her baby. With husband Matt by her side, Logelin rose, took a few steps, said, "I feel light-headed," and died.
She was 30.
Science Writing and Reporting
James Randi Education Foundation: MY WORLD IS A LITTLE DARKER...
Written by James Randi
Saturday, 22 May 2010 18:14
Martin Gardner has died. I have dreaded to type those words, and Martin would not have wanted to know that I’m so devastated at what I knew – day to day – had to happen very soon. I’m glad to report that his passing was painless and quick. That man was one of my giants, a very long-time friend of some 50 years or so. He was a delight, a very bright spot in my firmament, one to whom I could always turn to with a question or an idea, with any strange notion I could invent, and with any complaint or comment I could come up with.
I never had an angry word with Martin. Never. It was all laughs and smiles, all the best of everything.
Science is Cool
DrHoz in wtf_nature on LiveJournal: Detachable Penis & 8 Other Ways To Make Your Love-life Seem Boring
Unlike my last Top Ten post, which was mostly reproductive behaviour and genetics, and the one before that, which was about Prize Bastards Of The Animal Kingdom ( I bowdlerize... ) this one is mostly comparative anatomy. Nonetheless, even if I stick with the larger and better known metazoans it should completely undermine whatever you think is normal and hopefully have you involuntarily clenching your thighs a few times, or I'm not doing my job properly.
Much, much, NSFW beneath the cut...