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 CNN.
Solar eclipse predicted at same time as World Cup final
By Gillian Tee
It is unlikely anything would fully eclipse the World Cup final, but the universe is giving it a shot.
A total solar eclipse is predicted to start at sunrise in the Cook Islands on July 11 -- when the World Cup 2010 final will be in play.
It's set to take place in the southern Pacific across the French Polynesia, according to NASA's report on the Annular and Total Solar Eclipses of 2010.
More science, space, and environment stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
Watch this space!
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David Brin: Advice to New Writers - plus interesting films and science
Mark H: Marine Life Series: Paul the Octopus is a Fraud
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Yosef: That Which Is; Self-Organization and Emergence
Bumper crop today!
Slideshows/Videos
Discovery News: Animals: Sea Otter Poop May Help Save Species
The fur trade wiped out the sea otter populations worldwide. Now scientists have figured out an innovative way to get insights into sea otter reproduction- using their poop as pregnancy test. Kasey-Dee Gardner explains.
Discovery News: Animals: Hungry Goats Help Save Bog Turtles
Rare bog turtles are getting help from some unlikely environmentalists: sheep and goats that snack on woody and invasive plants. Jorge Ribas visits the turtles' wetland home.
Discovery News: Earth: Volcanic Eruption Too Close for Comfort
Volcano photographer Richard Roscoe describes what it was like sitting a few feet away from an erupting volcano.
Discovery News: World Cup Ball: What's Wrong With It?
Players and coaches at the 2010 World Cup are complaining that the Jabulani, the tournament's official ball, behaves unpredictably. Discovery News' Jorge Ribas talks to a NASA aerospace engineer and a pro soccer player to find out the science behind the ball.
Discovery News: Brawny Neanderthals, Walking Fish and More: Editor's Picks
Posted by Talal Al-Khatib
Above, you'll see some of the top images of the week. Click on each one to explore the story behind it. If you were too busy powering your air conditioner this week to turn on your computer, here's a list.
Discovery News: Faces of Our Ancestors
To put a human face on our ancestors, scientists from the Senckenberg Research Institute used sophisticated methods to form 27 model heads based on tiny bone fragments, teeth and skulls collected from across the globe.
The heads are on display for the first time together at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.
Astronomy/Space
Digital Journal: Planck telescope releases first full-sky image of universe
By David Silverberg
Europe's super telescope known as Planck recently captured the first full-sky image of the universe. The image has been called "an extraordinary treasure chest of new data for astronomers."
The image in this article showcases the universe we all live in. This full-sky image is courtesy of the European Space Agency's Planck telescope, which was shuttled into space last year to scan the "oldest light" in the cosmos.
Dominating the foreground of the image are large segments of our Milky Way Galaxy. Looking at the bright horizontal line spanning the full length of the image is the galaxy's main disc, the plane in which the Sun and the Earth also reside.
Digital Journal: Small black hole creates massive 1,000 light-year hot gas bubble
By Andrew Moran
Paris - Astronomers have stumbled upon a small black hole that releases astronomical amounts of energy from powerful jets and are slamming into interstellar gas, which has created a large bubble of hot gas that reaches 1,000 light-years across.
According to the basic laws of quantum physics, nothing, including light, can escape from a black hole, which is, in laymen's terms, a vacuum cleaner. A surface of a black hole, where it is impossible to escape, is called an event horizon. Supermassive black holes have even been found in the center of galaxies.
Discovery News: New Group of Moons Found Orbiting Saturn
by Irene Klotz
Curious how planets can form from disks of gas and dust? Well, the rings of Saturn are serving scientists as a living laboratory to better understand the process.
Astronomers have been able to use the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft to track what are believed to be half-mile wide moons embedded in the planet’s outermost dense ring, known as the A ring. The moonlets were found by perturbations they are creating in the structure of the ring, which is about 30 feet thick. The moonlets’ gravitational grip is causing 1,600-foot long shoots of material above and below ring, reports Matthew Tiscareno, a Cassini scientist at Cornell University, in this week’s issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Scientists estimate there are dozens of these extremely long propeller-like features toward the outer edge of Saturn’s A ring and have been tracking 11 of them for four years -- the first time a disk-embedded object has ever been tracked anywhere.
Discovery News: Station Cargo Ship Docks On 2nd Try
By Irene Klotz
A robotic Russsian cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday after a communications glitch caused the freighter to abort its first rendezvous and docking on Friday.
Flying on autopilot, the Progress spacecraft eased into a parking slip on the station’s Zvezda service module at 12:17 p.m. EDT. The ship had been slated to arrive Friday, but it lost radio contact with the space station about 25 minutes before docking and ended up sailing past the outpost.
Evolution/Paleontology
Agence France Presse via Discovery News: Saber-Toothed Cat Unearthed
Australian scientists Thursday said they have unearthed the remains of a bizarre, prehistoric, saber-toothed "cat" in an ancient former rainforest, where specimens stretch back 25 million years.
Lead paleontologist Henk Godthelp said it was the first time the carnivore, with fangs half the length of its skull, had been seen in Australia, calling it an exciting and unique discovery.
"It's sort of like a native cat with a broad flattish head with large canines," Godthelp told AFP. "It's an animal we don't think we've seen before up at Riversleigh so it was quite a nice find for us."
Discovery News: Extinct 'Welded Beast' Found in Tennessee Swimming Pool
by Jennifer Viegas
Remains of a probable Gomphotherium, aka "Welded Beast," were recently dug up at the site of a Tennessee swimming pool, according to a WHEC report, and other media sources.
Gomphotherium, also called Trilophodon, Tetrabelodon, or Serridentinus, grew to about 9.8 feet tall and resembled a modern elephant. These animals are believed to have been widespread in the Americas 12 to 1.6 million years ago. The exact age of the Tennessee remains has yet to be determined.
Discovery News: What Caused a Mammoth Holocaust?
by Teresa Shipley
Where did all the mammoths go?
It's a subject that has fascinated naturalists for 300 years. Scientists generally agree that most mammoths died off gradually during the late Pleistocene, probably due to a combination of hunting from humans and environmental change.
They've also known that a few isolated mammoth communities managed to survive into the Holocene, which began about 10,000 years ago.
Now a team of international researchers has studied the genetic changes of one of those populations from Wrangel Island, located in the Arctic Ocean off the north east coast of Siberia.
Biodiversity
The Times of India: Marine research centre to be set up at Goa University
PANAJI: Goa university (GU) vice-chancellor D Deobagkar said recently that a marine microbial diversity research centre, under government of India's department of earth sciences, is proposed to be set up at the university.
Speaking at a biodiversity awareness programme sponsored by UGC and organized by GU's botany department, Deobagkar said that the national facility (with a sub-centre in Chennai) will facilitate collection of data on microbial resources.
The major hub in GU campus will have its separate building and world class infrastructure, especially laboratory and is likely to function on the pattern of central research organizations through a Rs 6-crore project.
The Globe and Mail (Canada): Giant weed that can cause blindness popping up in Ontario, B.C.
Ciara Byrne
Toronto — The Canadian Press
A weed that can grow six metres tall, sprout massive leaves and produce toxic, blindness inducing sap is creeping into Ontario and parts of British Columbia.
Giant hogweed is easily identified by its teetering height. The leaves on the weed fan out as much as 1.5 metres in diameter. It is also identified by its tell-tale purple splotching on the stem and its umbrella-like cluster of white flowers.
The plant, which was spotted around the coast in British Columbia in late June, and is known to flourish in the Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley, Gulf Islands, and central to southern Vancouver Island, was discovered in the Renfrew County area in eastern Ontario on Thursday.
There's a song about this plant.
Seriously, though.
Discovery News: Light Pollution: A Growing Problem for Wildlife
by Zahra Hirji
Migratory birds are veering off course. Newborn sea turtles are crawling inland rather than moving towards the sea. Nocturnal insects are flocking to the cities.
Why all the confusion in the animal kingdom? Artificial lights.
Researchers convened to discuss the increasing impacts of light pollution earlier this week at the 24th annual International Congress for Conservation Biology in Edmonton, Alberta.
In the past century, night lighting has increased substantially. In a Nature News article, Travis Longcore, organizer of the conference and director of the California-based Urban Wildlands Group said, "We've turned major swathes of the globe into permanent full moon, or more."
BBC: Super squid sex organ discovered
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
The mating habits of deep-sea squid have been revealed for the first time, after the discovery of a male squid with a huge elongated and erect penis.
The male squid's sexual organ is almost as long as its whole body, including the squid's mantle, head and arms.
That shows how male deep-sea squid inseminate females; they use their huge penis to shoot out packages of sperm, injecting them into the female's body.
The discovery may also help explain how giant squid mate in the ocean depths.
The Dominion Post via Stuff.co.nz: New Zealand fish language recorded
By KIRAN CHUG - The Dominion Post
Under water grunts, chirps and pops recorded by an Auckland scientist have revealed a mysterious language used by New Zealand fish.
Audio recordings analysed for the first time in New Zealand to find out whether fish talk, will be played to an audience in Wellington today, presented by Auckland University researcher Shahriman Ghazali.
His study began two years ago, when he started listening to recordings taken by colleagues studying ambient noise in the Leigh marine reserve north of Auckland. They made an underwater microphone, with which Mr Ghazali decided to try to establish which sounds were being made by which fish.
Digital Journal: Another rare white raven born this year on Canadian beach
By Stephanie Dearing
Qualicum Beach - Qualicum Beach, a beach and town on Vancouver Island British Columbia, has been home to rare white ravens for the past few years. This year, at least one new white raven has hatched, prompting birders to flock to the seaside paradise.
Ask anyone -- even an ornithologist -- what colour a raven is and the resounding answer is 'black.' White ravens, although occasionally seen, are so rare, they have not even been studied by ornithologists.
Vancouver Island's Qualicum Beach seems to be a special place, with white Ravens showing up every year for the past ten years reported the Vancouver Sun. This year there is only one new white raven that has been seen, but that hasn't stopped birders.
Biotechnology/Health
Science Daily: Hips Don't Lie: Researchers Find More Accurate Technique to Determine Sex of Skeletal Remains
ScienceDaily (July 6, 2010) — Research from North Carolina State University offers a new means of determining the sex of skeletal human remains -- an advance that may have significant impacts in the wake of disasters, the studying of ancient remains and the criminal justice system.
Historically, forensic scientists have been able to determine the sex of skeletal remains by visually evaluating the size and shape of the pelvis, or os coxa. "This technique is accurate, but is not without its limitations," says Dr. Ann Ross, associate professor of sociology and anthropology at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research.
"For example," Ross says, "when faced with fragmentary remains of the os coxa, it can be difficult to determine the deceased person's sex based solely on visual inspection. This can be a significant challenge when evaluating remains from disasters -- such as plane crashes -- or degraded remains in mass burials -- whether the burials date from prehistory or 20th century political violence."
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story. Everyone welcome her back!
Examiner.com: Michigan State professor probes HIV immunity
By Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner
According to Yong-Hui Zheng, assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, five percent of the world's population are immune to HIV, and he'd like to find out why.
Dr. Zheng dubs those among the five percent "elite controllers." This phrase is not a statement about their personalities, but rather a description of how their cells control replication of the HIV virus.
"When elite controllers are exposed to the HIV virus, they are just fine without any drugs or treatment," said Yong-Hui Zheng in a press release. "Our primary focus right now is to understand why these people are so resistant to the virus."
Examiner.com: >MSU research team awarded $9.1 million to battle malaria in Malawi
By Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner
In the African country of Malawi, more than four million of the nation's thirteen million citizens contract malaria every year. Most of those are children and many of them end up as part of the approximately one million children in sub-Saharan Africa who die of malaria every year. Michigan State University professor of internal medicine Terrie Taylor wants to put a stop to that.
Luckily for her, she's getting the funding to do just that.
This week the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Dr. Taylor and her colleagues a $9.1 million federal grant to create new prevention and control strategies in the small, landlocked country. The team will help establish a self-sustained research entity capable of implementing and evaluating anti-malaria strategies.
Discovery News: Mutant Leads to Jumbo-Sized Apple
By Emily Sohn
When a mutant apple tree in Tennessee produced unusually enormous and extra crispy fruit, scientists took note.
"To find a mutant in an orchard is not uncommon, but these were 40 percent bigger," said Peter Hirst, a horticulturalist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. "From 50 feet away, you could tell they were much larger."
Now, Hirst and colleagues have figured out what gives the apples -- called Grand Galas -- their extra-large personalities: A set of mutations that make their cells grow larger than normal. The finding might eventually help growers produce crispy, delicious and giant apples that consumers would choose over other varieties.
Climate/Environment
The Irish Times: Data shows water's key role in plant CO2 uptake
DICK AHLSTROM, Science Editor, in Turin
CLIMATE MODELS will have to be changed after research into the uptake of carbon dioxide by plants was published. It shows the availability of water is more important to plant carbon uptake than temperature. The findings help to explain contradictions between model predictions and measurements on the ground.
It has to do with the Earth’s natural cycle of breathing in and out carbon dioxide, according to scientists at a press conference at the Euroscience Open Forum in Turin to announce the research.
The details are in two research papers published this morning by the journal Science in its online publication Sciencexpress. Teams at the Max Planck Institute in Germany led the research, which involved scientists from 10 other countries around the world.
Discovery News: Sea Otters, the Cutest Way to Fight Global Warming
by Michael Reilly
Apart from being one of the most adorable ocean-going animals on the planet, sea otters play a powerful role in sucking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. According to a new study written up this week in New Scientist, if the endangered fur balls' population were restored to pre-hunting levels, they could sequester a total of some 10 million tons of carbon in the ocean ecosystem, making them a useful weapon in the fight against global warming.
...
Chris Wilmers of the University of California, Santa Cruz has worked out that otters play a crucial role in how the ecosystem draws carbon out of the atmosphere. By feasting on sea urchins, otters keep vast forests of kelp healthy, which he calculates can sequester 0.18 kilograms (0.40 pounds) of carbon for every square meter of habitat the animals occupy.
That doesn't sound like a lot, but multiplied across all of the coastal waters that could support a kelp forest ecosystem, it adds up. That makes sea otters very valuable animals indeed, and not just in a "let's save the cute fuzzy critters" sort of way.
Geology
Digital Journal: The big one: California's future earthquake probabilities
By Christopher Wager
California has a 99.7 percent chance of having a 6.7 magnitude earthquake or larger. Johnny Carson once made a joke when he said "Things are looking up California; the mud slides are putting out the forest fires."
California, Los Angeles - For some folks living in California, this hits a little too close to home. If over the last few months the state hasn't had its share of problems, with the financial crisis, now they have to worry about earthquakes.
Earthquakes are anything but new to the natives. What makes this different is the timing, says the Southern California Earthquake Data Center (SCEC) in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), California Geological Survey (CGS), and the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) which have concluded after much study that in the new forecast: California has a 99.7 percent chance of having a 6.7 magnitude earthquake or larger during the the next 30 years. The likelihood of a more powerful quake of 7.5 magnitude in the next 30 years is 46 percent. Such a quake is more likely to occur in the southern half of the state than in the northern half. This information has been released in the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF) report put out by the group in 2007.
Psychology/Behavior
Digital Journal: Anguish of romantic rejection parallels addiction cravings
By Martin Laine
The emotional pain of rejection by a loved one affects areas of the brain that trigger an addict’s cravings, motivation and reward, according to a new study.
It may explain the extreme behaviors of stalking, homicide, and suicide often associated with such break-ups.
The study, published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology, was conducted by researchers at Rutgers University, the Einstein College of Medicine, and Stony Brook University.
Discovery News: Science of Evil: Depravity Scale Ranks Crimes
By Emily Sohn
Which is worse: Bombing a building or forcing a child to watch a crime? Attacking a stranger for fun or causing a car accident while under the influence of drugs or alcohol? Murder with intent or murder by mistake?
They're complicated questions that, in the heat of a criminal trial, can get tangled up in emotion, abstract impressions and arguments about how bad a crime really was.
In an attempt to restore order that even judges and juries often can't instill, an ongoing project is working to clarify exactly what it means for a crime to be "heinous," "cruel," "atrocious," "depraved" or "evil" -- words that get thrown around courtrooms but lack clear definitions.
Archeology/Anthropology
Discovery News: Neanderthal Males Had Popeye-Like Arms
By Jennifer Viegas
Tue Jul 6, 2010 07:55 AM ET
Remains of an early Neanderthal with a super strong arm suggest that Neanderthal fellows were heavily pumped up on male hormones, possessing a hormonal status unlike anything that exists in humans today, according to a recent paper.
Neanderthal males probably evolved their ultra macho ways due to lifestyle, genes, climate and diet factors, suggests the study, published in the journal Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia.
Project leader Maria Mednikova told Discovery News that Neanderthal males hunted in the "extreme," helping to beef up one arm.
Discovery News: Early Humans Settled in Britain 800,000 Years Ago
Wed Jul 7, 2010 03:25 PM ET
Content provided by Marlowe Hood, AFP
Early humans migrating out of Africa adapted to freezing climes more than 800,000 years ago, far sooner than previously thought possible, according to a landmark study released Wednesday.
A trove of flint tools found near Happisburgh in the eastern English county of Norfolk marks Homo sapiens' earliest known settlement in a location where winter temperatures fell below zero degrees Celsius (minus 32 degrees Fahrenheit).
The discovery implies our ancestors some 26,000 generations ago survived climates like those of southern Sweden today, perhaps without the comforting benefit of fire or clothes, the study says.
Seattle Times: Research looks at Bering Strait land bridge
By MARY BETH SMETZER
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Research illuminating an ancient language connection between Asia and North America supports archaeological and genetic evidence that a Bering Strait land bridge once connected North America with Asia, and the discovery is being endorsed by a growing list of scholars in the field of linguistics and other sciences.
The work of Western Washington University linguistics professor Edward Vajda with the isolated Ket people of Central Siberia is revealing more and more examples of an ancient language connection with the language family of Na-Dene, which includes Tlingit, Gwich'in, Dena'ina, Koyukon, Navajo, Carrier, Hupa, Apache and about 45 other languages.
Christian Science Monitor: Melting ice reveals ancient atlatl dart
By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor / July 6, 2010
What looked like a small branch that blew off a tree during a storm turned out to be an ancient wooden hunting weapon wielded by Paleo Indians.
The 10,000-year-old atlatl dart was discovered in a melting patch of ice high in the Rocky Mountains close to Yellowstone National Park.
The dart was made from a birch sapling and still carried personal markings from the ancient hunter. When it was shot, the 3-foot-long (0.9 meter) dart had a projectile point on one end, and a cup or dimple on the other that would have attached to a hook on throwing tool called an atlatl.
Discovery News: Pyramid Construction Supervisor's Tomb Found
Analysis by Rossella Lorenzi
Egyptian archaeologists unveiled on Thursday two rock-hewn painted tombs belonging to a man who had a supervising role in the construction of pyramids -- and his son.
It's considered among the most distinguished Old Kingdom tombs.
Dating from around 4,300 years old, the burials feature vividly colored wall paintings -- as fresh as if they were just painted. They were found in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara near Cairo by an Egyptian team working in the area since 1986.
People's Daily (China): Myanmar makes archaeological research to prove origin of Myanmar
Myanmar archaeological experts have been making research in cooperation with international primate experts to prove the proposal -- "The origin of Myanmar is Myanmar ".
These experts have been working together yearly to find out the fossilized remains of Pontaung primates in Pontaung rock layers.
The findings of the primates on the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, gained from the archaeological research in Meiktila and Yamethin districts in Mandalay division over the past decade, stood some evidences for the Bronze Age and the Iron Age as well as for the Myanmar culture and history, according to research report.
The Sun (Malaysia): Bujang valley continues to amaze historians
by Himanshu Bhatt
KUALA LUMPUR (July 5, 2010): The Bujang Valley in Kedah, where the oldest recorded man-made buildings in South-East Asia have been discovered, continues to be a source of amazement to historians and achaelogists.
Some of the world's top historians converged at the archaeological site over the weekend to survey excavation works for the 2,000-year old civilisation which has been hailed in the last few decades as "the most important civilisational find in the region."
The civilisation there is now known to have existed long before neighbouring empires like Sri Vijaya (700AD) and Majapahit (1200AD).
BBC: Huge Roman coins find for hobbyist
One of the largest ever finds of Roman coins in Britain has been made by a man using a metal detector.
The hoard of more than 52,000 coins dating from the 3rd Century AD was found buried in a field near Frome in Somerset.
The coins were found in a huge jar just over a foot (30cm) below the surface by Dave Crisp, from Devizes in Wiltshire.
Physorg.com: International team explores rural Galilee and finds ancient synagogue
Among various important discoveries, the 2010 Kinneret Regional Project discovered an ancient synagogue, in use at around 400 AD. This year’s archeological focus is the first systematic excavation on Horvat Kur, a village inhabited from the Early Roman through the Early Medieval periods located on a gentle hill two kilometers west of the Lake of Galilee. Thirty volunteers - mostly students of theology, religious studies, and archeology - and staff from the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, Romania, Belgium, Spain, Israel, and Germany explore the material remains of the village life in Galilee, a region that features very prominently in Early Christian and Rabbinic tradition. The 2010 campaign lasts from June 21 until July 16 and is sponsored by the Universities of Bern, Helsinki, and Leiden.
Art Daily: Museum of London Digs Up Shakespeare's First Theatre... Take Two
LONDON.- Museum of London Archaeology has resumed excavations on the site of Shakespeare’s first purpose-built theatre. The Tower Theatre Company is set to build a new theatre where the famous Elizabethan playhouse stood in the late 16th century. Previous excavations at the site in Shoreditch revealed the yard where audiences stood and the 16th century pottery from which they drank.
The Shakespearean theatre remains have thankfully been largely unscathed by building in the area to date. For the first time the public are able to watch the excavations unfold as the dig is being broadcast through a site blog and a series of video diaries, posted by the archaeologists on site.
The Boston Globe: Archeologists to dig at tavern
Sara Brown
LEXINGTON — In preparation for this fall’s restoration and renovation of Munroe Tavern, the 275-year-old building will be the site of a small archeological dig.
A team from University of Massachusetts Boston’s Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, sponsored by Brookline Bank, will conduct the dig on the tavern grounds this month.
Phoenixville Register: Washington's cabin unearthed in Valley Forge
By Keith Phucas
Journal Register News Service
UPPER MERION — Archaeologists believe they’ve found evidence of a log cabin Martha Washington mentioned in a letter to a friend 232 years ago while she was visiting her husband in Valley Forge.
When National Park Service archaeologists began digging behind Washington’s Headquarters this summer, they spotted soil discoloration indicating a log cabin Gen. George Washington had built behind the headquarters to use as a dining hall for himself and his top military advisers during the six-month Revolutionary War encampment, according to Joe Blondino, the park’s field director for the public archaeology project.
The Independent (UK): Discovery of U-boat wrecks rewrites the history books
Newly identified sites show far more submarines were sunk by mines than previously thought
By David Keys, Archaeology Correspondent
The final resting places of six German U-boats sunk in the final months of the Second World War's greatest naval conflict have finally been identified. After years of research, maritime experts say their discoveries will force historians to re-evaluate the battle for control of the Atlantic.
Evidence from the wrecks suggests many U-boats were sunk by mines rather than attacks by Allied air and naval forces, as had previously been believed. The findings show coastal minefields were around three times more effective than British naval intelligence gave them credit for. Experts believe their view was distorted, unintentionally, by reports from over-enthusiastic airmen and escort ship commanders who sometimes claimed they had sunk U-boats with depth charges or anti-submarine mortars.
Durango Herald: Grant boosts region's Indian culture
Mesa Verde Country works on improvements
by Hope Nealson
Cortez Journal
At the Mesa Verde Country Indian Arts Festival, a buffalo headed Acoma Pueblo Traditional dancer performs the Hunter Dance, to pray for a successful hunt and food for the table, while Trina Antino, right, dances to welcome the returning hunters.
Mesa Verde Country will give its Indian Arts and Culture Festival a boost and translate its website into languages around the world with a Preserve America grant.
"It's helping us to go global," said Mesa Verde Country Tourism Director Lynn Dyer.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
Physics
Discovery News: So You Want To Be A Time Traveler?
by Mark Thompson, BBC Astronomer
Time travel is the stuff of science fiction but interestingly, there is nothing in our current laws of physics that says time travel is impossible. Even such lowly things as the cup in front of me have mastered time travel to a degree. Sitting there on the table, seemingly doing nothing yet it is actually moving through time, relentlessly, at a rate of one day per day.
OK, so this isn’t real time travel since everything on Earth is moving through time at this rate. The big question is can we change this rate of travel, or even reverse it and move backward in time? After all, Dr Who can do it.
Quickly back to basics then: What is time? Time is just another component of something we call "space-time" in much the same way that a head or a tail are two sides of the same coin; space and time are both parts of the fabric of space-time. Since the two are related, maybe the secret to time travel is in manipulating space itself or perhaps our interaction with it.
Chemistry
Science Daily: New Parallel Found Between Cold Gases and 'Hot' Superconductors
Scientists at JILA, working with Italian theorists, have discovered another notable similarity between ultracold atomic gases and high-temperature superconductors, suggesting there may be a relatively simple shared explanation for equivalent behaviors of the two very different systems.
Described in Nature Physics, the new research lends more support to the idea that JILA studies of superfluidity (flow with zero friction) in atomic gases may help scientists understand far more complicated high-temperature superconductors, solids with zero resistance to electrical current at relatively high temperatures. Known high-temperature superconductors only superconduct well below room temperature, but a detailed understanding of how the materials work may one day lead to practical applications such as more efficient transmission of electricity across power grids.
JILA is operated jointly by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Energy
Discovery News: Green Tech Lights the Way In Haiti
by Alyssa Danigelis
This week, an unexpected store opened in rural Haiti. Inside, the items for sale include solar panels, solar-powered lamps, and ultra-efficient stoves. In a country where nearly 70 percent of the people lived without reliable electricity before the earthquake struck, a little sustainable technology can go a long way. American social entrepreneur Dan Schnitzer is determined to make this tech a realistic alternative to kerosene, candles and darkness.
His path to Haiti started when he was a senior at the University of Chicago in 2007. Schnitzer and his friends got a $1,000 grant to build a wind turbine from scratch. They chronicled the project online and one day in early 2008, Schnitzer got an email from a Haitian man living in the United States who asked whether their turbine could power streetlights in his hometown, Les Anglais, a town on the southern peninsula that's several hundred miles from Port-au-Prince.
The turbine was too small for the job, but Schnitzer learned that turbine size wasn't the problem. The town didn't have streetlights, and after doing some research, Schnitzer found that installing them would cost millions. He wondered if the town even wanted streetlights, thinking they might have more pressing technological needs, so he set out to ask them.
Agence France Presse via Discovery News: Solar Plane Makes History With 26-Hour Flight: Big Pic
By Peter Capella, AFP
A solar-powered aircraft made history on Thursday after flying around the clock on the sun's energy alone, bringing a step closer the dream of perpetual flight.
After 26 hours in the air, the experimental Solar Impulse aircraft with pilot Andre Borschberg onboard made a seamless landing at Payerne airbase in western Switzerland at 9:01 a.m., about three hours after daybreak.
"It's the first time ever that a solar airplane has flown through the night," said team chief Bertrand Piccard, the Swiss adventurer who masterminded the project.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
Discovery News: National Park for Sale
by Zahra Hirji
The state of Wyoming is considering selling 2 square miles of Grand Teton National Park for $125 million.
This is Wyoming’s bold attempt to grab the Department of the Interior’s attention -- and it appears to be working.
For ten years, officials from the state have attempted to trade their tiny strip of the park in return for other land, minerals or mineral royalties.
Discovery News: As NASA's Plutonium Supply Dwindles, ESA Eyes Nuclear Energy Program
by Ian O'Neill
NASA is running low on plutonium, an issue that is causing growing concern for future outer solar system missions. And now, the European Space Agency (ESA) has recognized the US space agency's problems in acquiring the fuel, announcing Europe has plans to start their own production to support joint NASA-ESA programs.
The isotope plutonium-238 (or Pu-238) produces a steady supply of heat that can be readily converted into electricity. Small pellets of Pu-238 (like the one shown above) are commonly found inside radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) -- the power source of spacecraft that explore space beyond the orbit of Mars. At these distances, the sun's energy is too weak to be a viable energy source for spacecraft, forcing space agencies to use the plutonium isotope.
Science Education
Rockbridge Weekly: Dig at Monticello Offers Clearer Picture of Jefferson Overseer's Life
After spending the last two spring terms on an excavation of the house site of Thomas Jefferson's overseer at Monticello, a team of Washington and Lee University students and faculty have begun to formulate a clearer picture of the distinctive nature of Edmund Bacon's life.
According to Alison Bell, associate professor of anthropology and archaeology at W&L who is leading the project, the artifacts that have been uncovered provide important insights into Bacon's life and, quite possibly, into the lives of the middle spectrum of the Virginia population in the 18th and 19th centuries.
"This part of the population — the non-elite, free European American segment — has been much less examined than either the elite Virginians or the enslaved population," said Bell, whose team comprising W&L undergraduates and staff archaeologist Sean Devlin has collaborated with the Archaeology Department at Monticello.
Gillette News-Record: Students dig history in old mountain town
BRETT FRENCH The Billings Gazette
LITTLE BELT MOUNTAINS, Mont. — The "gold mine" was an outhouse hole filled in with garbage.
The treasures were more than 100 years old — large pieces of broken brown liquor bottles, the delicate leather sole of a shoe, a .45-caliber cartridge casing and a sardine can, some of its lettering still legible.
Perhaps the most amazing treasure for Jono Mogstad and his crew of student archaeologists digging at this old placer mining site in the Little Belt Mountains was a small pewter lid embellished with delicate floral designs. It may be the top of a cream container for a tea set. Maybe it was owned by Millie Ringgold, a freed black slave who settled at the town site during an 1879 gold rush.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
Bernama (Malaysia): Indonesia, United States Launch Deep-Sea Expedition
JAKARTA, July 9 (Bernama) -- The first joint expedition by the Republic of Indonesia and the United States to explore unknown deep-sea areas in Indonesian waters is under way, reports Indonesia's Antara news agency on Friday.
This expedition is the first activity in a multi-year partnership to advance ocean science, technology and education.
This is the maiden expedition of the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer and the first joint international expedition to send live images and other data from sea to scientists on watch at Exploration Command Centers ashore both in Indonesia and the United States.
Science Writing and Reporting
Science News: Book Review: Pandora’s Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization
By Spencer Wells
Review by Nathan Seppa
At first glance, it’s hard to see the downside of being civilized. Compared with Stone Age living, an office job doesn’t look too shabby. Throw in the Internet, leisure time and dessert, and all this culture looks like a win-win.
But there’s a catch, says Wells, an anthropological geneticist. Civilization grew out of a gradual switch 10,000 years ago from hunting and gathering to farming, and, he says, "more food produced more people." The result is a planet with 6.8 billion human grazers.
Science is Cool
Agence France Presse via Discovery News: 'Psychic' Octopus Predicts Spain to Win
Let the fiesta begin. Spain will win the football World Cup for the first time in their history on Sunday, according to Paul, the "psychic" octopus with a perfect prediction record.
The eight-legged oracle, who has become a World Cup sensation by correctly predicting all six Germany games, very quickly plumped for Spain on Friday carried live on national German television.
Earlier, the two-year-old mollusk medium also said that Germany, his country of residence, would defeat Uruguay in the third-place play-off game on Saturday.
Agence France Presse via Discovery News: NASA Takes Video Games to the Moon
NASA has abandoned plans to return to the Moon but videogamers can explore the lunar landscape with a free new online game released by the space agency.
"Moonbase Alpha" allows players to join an exploration team in a futuristic 3D settlement on the south pole of the Moon.
"In Moonbase Alpha, you assume the exciting role of an astronaut working to further human expansion and research," NASA said in an explanation of the game. "Returning from a research expedition, you witness a meteorite impact that cripples the life support capability of the settlement."