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 IEEE Spectrum.
How to Build a Better Barbecue Pit
Engineers use technology to demystify the black art of barbecue
BY Erica Westly // July 2010
About six years ago, Bill Karau, an engineer who has worked for the U.S. Navy and Motorola, decided to build his own barbecue pit. What started as an annual barbecue tour with friends had quickly turned into a full-fledged hobby. "I’ve probably had the opportunity to eat at somewhere between 120 and 130 barbecue joints over the last decade," says the Texas native, "and one of the things we always did on these trips, in addition to sampling the meat and talking about it, is we always go visit the pit boss and look at the pit. And me being the engineering geek in the crowd, I always wanted to try to understand the science behind what appears to be a black art."
More after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
Watch this space!
DarkSyde: This Week in Science
Eclectablog: UPDATEx2: Obama announces $2 BILLION in solar power investments
Ellinorianne: Studying the Effects of Oil on Endangered Whales and Those Burning Turtles
Junkyard Dem: Hydrofracking may endanger New York's water supply
mwmwm: One year, two years ago in ecocollapse
Slideshows/Videos
BBC: Scientists peer inside a python to see swallowed rat
By Victoria Gill
Science reporter, BBC News
Scientists have used the latest imaging techniques to look inside a python that had just swallowed a rat whole.
The resulting footage is part of a project using hi-tech scanning methods to explore animals' anatomy.
It took 132 hours for snake to fully digest the rat, the scientists said. Their work has revealed other strange insights into python digestion.
BBC: Cardiff pupils ask astronauts about space
Children in Cardiff have been given the chance to quiz an astronaut about life in space.
Astronauts from the Nasa space shuttle Atlantis, which travelled to the International Space Station last month, are visiting schools to promote science education.
Students at Fitzalan High School wanted to know everything from what astronauts missed while they were in space to the toilet arrangements.
National Geographic: Diver "Vanishes" in Portal to Maya Underworld
Diving into natural pools in Belize in the quest for offerings from the ancient Maya, explorers found what's believed to be the country's first recorded fossilized remains. In the course of the expedition, one diver "disappeared" into the pool's floor.
Discovery Magazine: How Scientists See the World
Amusing cartoon at the link.
Astronomy/Space
CNET: Russians trace Progress docking abort to interference
by William Harwood
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--Russian engineers believe radio interference caused an approaching unmanned Progress supply ship to abort its approach to the International Space Station Friday, officials said Saturday. Subsequent tests showed the cargo craft is in good health and that its automated rendezvous system is working normally, clearing the way for a second docking attempt around 12:10 p.m. EDT Sunday.
The aborted approach Friday occurred about 20 minutes before the Progress 38 craft was scheduled to dock at the Zvezda command module's aft port. Instead of proceeding, the craft aborted and flew safely past the station, rotating slowly to keep its solar arrays face on to the sun.
It was the second Progress docking problem in a row for the Russians. During an approach May 1, a problem with the automated KURS navigation system aboard an approaching cargo ship forced the space station commander to take over manual control using a backup system.
N.Y. Times: In a Space Probe’s Journey, a Test for Japan
By HIROKO TABUCHI
TOKYO — The Japanese are calling it a miracle. The Hayabusa space probe returned last month from a seven-year, 382-million-mile round trip to an asteroid, giving a much-needed confidence boost to a country worried that its technological prowess might be waning.
But Japan is still holding its breath. Did the mission accomplish one of its main objectives?
Preliminary tests on a capsule retrieved from the probe have shown no signs of the precious samples of the 4.6-billion-year-old asteroid that the Hayabusa was supposed to retrieve — samples that scientists around the globe had hoped would hold new clues about the formation of the solar system.
Evolution/Paleontology
Science News: Saber-toothed cats strong-armed prey
By Gwyneth Dickey
A saber-toothed cat’s pounce may have been as bad as its bite. These extinct animals had exceptionally strong forelimbs that probably held a victim still while razorlike teeth ripped out its throat, a new study shows.
Most carnivorous cats suffocate their victims with a long, crushing bite to the throat or nose. This wouldn’t have worked for sabertooths because their formidable twin canines were surprisingly fragile. The teeth were oval-shaped when cross-sectioned – like blades are – rather than round like other cats’. That made saber-shaped teeth good for slicing through flesh, but easily snapped by writhing prey.
Now paleontologists have an explanation for how one saber-toothed cat, Smilodon fatalis, avoided breaking those delicate pearly whites. A fossil analysis shows that the animal’s humerus, the bone between the shoulder and elbow, was stronger than in any other cat, living or extinct.
National Science Foundation via U.S. News and World Report: Origin of Human's Best Friend
By Marlene Cimons, National Science Foundation
Man--and woman’s--best friend likely can trace its origins to Middle Eastern wolves, not Asian or European wolves as previously thought, according to a genetic analysis by an international team of scientists led by UCLA biologists.
"Ours was a much more thorough analysis,’’ than earlier studies, said Robert Wayne, UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and lead author of the paper, which appeared recently in the journal Nature. "We looked across the entire dog genome, which allowed us to build a more realistic dog scenario of dogs’ origins from the wolf population.’’
The researchers studied genetic data from more than 900 dogs from 85 breeds, including all the major ones, and more than 200 wild gray wolves worldwide, including populations from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
IEEE Spectrum: Computing the Neanderthal Genome
BY Prachi Patel // July 2010
Reconstructing cavemen from bits of fossil DNA is still the stuff of science fiction. But thanks to high-powered computing wizardry, we now have the blueprints you’d need to do it. An international team of scientists published the first draft of the Neanderthal genome in the journal Science on 7 May. The study showed, somewhat surprisingly, that early humans and Neanderthals interbred and that 1 to 4 percent of the DNA in modern Asians and Europeans comes from Neanderthals.
The bulk of the credit for decoding the Neanderthal goes to high-throughput sequencing technologies developed in the past five years, which turned bits of ancient DNA into millions of short strings of letters. But sequencing the Neanderthal genome would have been impossible without the sophisticated software that put all those millions of strings together in the right order.
Both the sequencing and computing of whole genomes have come a long way in the nine years since scientists first delivered the DNA blueprints for humans. Then, sequencing machines read 330 000 base molecules per day. (DNA contains a series of four different base molecules: adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine, or A, C, G, and T.) The latest machines made by Illumina, in San Diego, can sequence about 2 billion bases a day, amounting to hundreds of terabytes of data to store and analyze.
Health Day via Business Week: Tibetans' Adaptation to High Altitudes Took Only 3,000 Years: Study
-- Robert Preidt
It took only a few thousand years for Tibetans to develop gene mutations that help them cope with low oxygen levels at high altitudes, a new study found.
Researchers compared the genomes of 50 Tibetans and 40 Han Chinese and found that the ethnic Tibetans split off from the Han Chinese less than 3,000 years ago. Of the 30 genes with DNA mutations the researchers identified that have become more common in Tibetans than in Han Chinese, nearly half are related to how the body uses oxygen. One mutation has spread from under 10 percent of Han Chinese to nearly 90 percent of Tibetans.
Biodiversity
Discovery News: More Death and Controversy at SeaWorld
by Jennifer Viegas
It's been less than 5 months since SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau was fatally injured by Tilikum, a 6-ton male killer whale, but new deaths and controversies now plague the SeaWorld Orlando park.
A few weeks ago, a 20-year-old female killer whale there named Taima died while giving birth. Officials are awaiting the results of a necropsy to provide a definitive cause of death. Tilikum had mated with Taima, resulting in the pregnancy.
...
"We are very saddened by this loss," said Chris Dold, vice president of veterinary services for SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, in a statement about Taima posted to the SeaWorld Orlando blog. "Although we understand that complications with pregnancy can occur here, just as they do in the wild, the loss of any animal affects all of us at SeaWorld."
Discovery News: Smallest Whale Population Identified
by Jennifer Viegas
Only 30 eastern North Pacific right whales are left on the planet, making it the world’s smallest population of whales, according to a paper published in this week’s Royal Society Biology Letters.
Scientists believe 19th century whaling and recent illegal catches by the USSR led to this whale’s dramatic downfall. Reports from the mid 1800’s suggest that these whales once numbered at least 23,000 from North America to the Okhotsk Sea and Japan.
Surveys now suggest that only around eight female and 20-22 male eastern North Pacific right whales are left.
Biotechnology/Health
Science News via U.S. News and World Report: For Most Centenarians, Longevity Is Written in the DNA
By Tina Hesman Saey, Science News
Juan Ponce de León never found his Fountain of Youth, but researchers may have discovered a genetic equivalent hidden in the DNA of centenarians.
Only one in 6,000 people reaches the century mark and just one in 7 million lives to be a supercentenarian — someone who is 110 or older. But a new study, published online July 1 in Science, suggests that more people may have the right genetic stuff for extreme longevity.
In the new study, researchers looked at genetic markers called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, in 1,055 centenarians and 1,267 younger people, all of European descent. The scientists found 150 genetic SNP variants linked to extreme longevity.
Contra Costa Times via San Jose Mercury News: Stem cell scientists warn against fraudulent treatments
By Sandy Kleffman
Contra Costa Times
Leading scientists are warning people to beware of costly, unproven stem cell therapies that have little or no benefit and may be dangerous.
Many with devastating illnesses are mortgaging their homes and borrowing huge sums of money for treatments, which are often performed outside the United States to avoid its safety regulations.
Scientists worry that such therapies could harm people by leading to cancers and other complications.
Climate/Environment
CBS News: Mann, Nobel-Winning Climate Scientist, Cleared of Wrongdoing
By Charles Cooper
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. Another Penn State University review has unanimously cleared a leading climate scientist of a research misconduct allegation stemming from leaked e-mails about global warming.
The report said professor Michael Mann did not seriously deviate from accepted academic practices for proposing, conducting or reporting research.
The university inquiry in February dismissed three related allegations and recommended further investigation on a fourth. A five-member panel of professors dismissed that allegation outright in the report Thursday.
Geology
Discovery News: Earth's Gravity Field in Stunning High Definition: Big Pic
Above is the first view of Earth's gravity field from GOCE taken in November and December of 2009. Data from the satellite allows researchers to construct a "geoid" of Earth -- an idealized sphere of what Earth's ocean would look like if only gravity (and not wind or tides) were acting on it. Variations in the gravity field can result in peaks and troughs nearly 100 meters (328 feet) high.
Psychology/Behavior
Science News: Botox injections put a crease in emotional evaluations
By Bruce Bower
Botox treatment to erase unsightly frown lines may cause unforeseen emotional wrinkles. First-time Botox patients become slower at evaluating descriptions of negative emotions, possibly putting the patients at a social disadvantage, a new study indicates.
For more than a century, scientists have posited that facial expressions trigger and intensify relevant feelings, rather than simply advertise what an individual already feels. Botox patients provide a novel line of support for this idea, as well as for the notion that facial expressions activate links between brain regions responsible for emotions and language, says psychology graduate student David Havas of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Archeology/Anthropology
Discovery News: Archaeologists Find Ancient Weapon In Melting Ice Patch
by Zahra Hirji
Global warming is turning out to be a savior for archaeologists like Craig Lee from the University of Colorado at Boulder, who are finding ancient relics in recently melted ice patches.
Lee's lucky strike is the oldest known atlatl dart, an early wooden spear-like hunting weapon, in the Rocky Mountains...
The research team found the 10,000-year-old weapon in a melting ice in the mountains near Yellowstone National Park. The two-foot long birch spear still had markings from the original hunter.
annetteboardman took this week off for her birthday and the holiday.
Physics
Science News: Making lemonade with quantum lemons
By Laura Sanders
In a feat of physics judo, researchers have harnessed the same forces that usually destroy long-range quantum links between particles to generate those connections.
This counterintuitive approach may produce "extremely long-lived" quantum links, researchers report in a paper appearing online at the physics website arXiv.org. Long-lasting, room temperature quantum effects are ideal for designing systems that can reliably exchange quantum information.
One of the weirdest outcomes of quantum mechanics is entanglement — a mysterious link in which what happens to one object seems to instantaneously affect its partner, even though the two may be separated by some distance. Pairs of entangled objects can serve as powerful messengers, since the information they share is revealed instantaneously, no matter how far apart the two objects are. But this strange link is notoriously delicate, falling apart when the outside environment impinges on either end.
Chemistry
Science News: Ivy nanoparticles promise sunblocks and other green products
By Janet Raloff
I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with English ivy that’s been devolving towards hate-hate. In my yard and neighboring ones, this invasive creeper sends fast-growing vines snaking through grasses, fencing and shrubs, then up trees, brick walls and light posts. But a new paper may temper my antipathy. It indicates that this backyard bully also offers a kinder, gentler alternative to the potentially toxic metal-based nanoparticles used in today’s sunscreens.
Once it colonizes a site, ivy hangs on with impressive resolve. Trying to wrench free even dead vines that have glommed onto some surface can take tremendous brute strength. While working in Silicon Valley, several years ago, bionanotechnologist Mingjun Zhang began puzzling over that holding power. His backyard wall was covered with ivy, and he wanted to know how its vines managed to climb so effectively and maintain such a dogged grip on disparate surfaces.
Subsequent investigations would show that as English ivy’s rootlets contacted a surface that might offer a good anchoring spot, they issued fingerlike tendrils exuding a yellowy goo. It’s effectively "a super glue," Zhang says, and he and his colleagues showed that this polymer was laden with nanoparticles some 70-billionths-of-a-meter in diameter.
Energy
IEEE Spectrum: Floating Wind Turbines Could Expand Offshore Possibilities
BY: Dave Levitan
So far, offshore wind development has stuck close to shore where the turbines could be anchored directly into the sea floor. This means that the 2,000-plus megawatts of ocean-based wind in Europe have all been installed in around 50 meters of water or less, and the long-awaited Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound also will sit in shallow waters.
For the same reason that heading a bit offshore yields consistent and strong winds, though, heading even farther offshore often will improve those conditions even further. To take advantage of the wind blowing over deeper water, there is movement now to use floating wind turbines as a way of avoiding the need to anchor into a deep sea bed. According to one company, the biggest turbines currently available could feasibly work on such floating rigs.
IEEE Spectrum: Russia Launches Floating Nuclear Power Plant
BY: Peter Fairley
Russian nuclear engineering group Rosatom launched the world's first floating nuclear power plant Wednesday, according to The Voice of Russia. Photos show the Akademik Lomonosov, a 21,500-ton barge equipped with twin 35-megawatt light-water reactors, slipping into the water at St. Petersburg's Baltic Shipyard.
IEEE Spectrum: MIT Weighs In on Natural Gas
BY: Bill Sweet // Wed, June 30, 2010
An MIT study group has issued a report on the future of natural gas, reaffirming that gas will play a "a crucial role" in reducing U.S. carbon emissions in the next decades. Two months ago, the Worldwatch Institute noted that gas already is displacing dirty coal in the United States, and that U.S. greenhouse emissions have dropped sharply in recent years as a result. Substituting state-of-the-art gas generation for obsolete coal generation can reduce carbon emissions "by a factor of three," notes Ernest J. Moniz, head of the MIT unit that produced the gas report and the former top scientist in the Clinton Administration's energy department.
MIT notes that because the United States has a large amount of excess natural gas generating capacity, gas can immediately contribute much more to electricity supplies without new power plants having to be built--a point Robert F. Kennedy Jr also has been pressing in recent years. "The overbuilding of natural gas combined cycle plants starting in the mid-1990s presents a significant opportunity for near-term reductions in CO2 emissions from the power sector," says MIT. "The current fleet of natural gas combined cycle units has an average capacity factor of 41 percent, relative to a design-capacity factor of up to 85 percent."
This scenario works if Peak Natural Gas in North America gets kicked down the road a couple of decades through fracturing shale. However, see the item under "Science is Cool" about the movie "Gasland" for the high cost of doing so.
IEEE Spectrum: Breakthrough in Capturing Lost Energy in Solar Cells
BY Sarah Rosen
Material chemists at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Minnesota say that according to their research, the efficiency of a solar cell may potentially be increased to more than 60 percent, up from what was thought to be a limit of about 30 percent. They report their findings in today’s edition of the journal Science.
From a cost standpoint, boosting efficiency is one of the keys to making electricity from solar cells competitive with fossil-fuel-derived power. "Imagine the practical applications" of a solar cell more than twice as efficient as today’s, says Xiaoyang Zhu, a chemist at the University of Texas. The work he and his colleagues have done, Zhu says, proves that formerly squandered energy "can be taken out and worked with."
CNET: A day at Zap: The future of electric fleet cars has arrived
by Suzanne Ashe
Zap's founder and director of research and development, Gary Starr says the future is here, all we have to do is plug in.
"The Zap approach is to make electric cars more cost effective and more comfortable," Starr said during a tour of the downtown Santa Rosa, Calif. showroom and factory on Monday.
If you're unfamiliar with with Zap's vehicles, don't feel bad. The car maker is right smack in the middle of Sonoma County, a Northern California region more known for its wine than its electric cars.
Truth is, Zap has been the driving force behind electric bicycles, scooters, ATVs, taxis, and fleet cars for decades. Currently, Zap is working on an all-electric U.S. Postal Service truck.
CNET: Austin, NY likely to see first Chevy Volts
Austin, NY likely to see first Chevy Volts
Austin, Texas, and New York will be among the first cities in the U.S. where the Chevy Volt plug-in electric vehicle will hit the road.
General Motors is expected Thursday to announce that a first run of 8,000 cars will be made available in a handful of cities, The Detroit News reported Thursday.
The announcement is expected to come from GM CEO Edward Whitacre, who is set to address the Austin Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.
I find the choice of Austin to be very interesting. According to Bundle.com, Austin is the most expensive city in the U.S. to keep a car. Every year, gas costs the average Austinite $4,052 (most expensive) and repairs plus parking $6,706 (third most expensive behind Scottdale and Plano) for a total of $10,128. A plug-in electric car would be most welcome there.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
BBC: US to provide nearly $2bn for two solar energy projects
Nearly $2bn (£1.3bn) in loan guarantees will be given to two companies to kick-start the US solar energy industry, President Barack Obama has announced.
One of the firms, Abenoga Solar, says that it is planning to build the largest solar power plant in the world in Arizona.
Mr Obama said the projects would provide more than 5,000 new jobs.
The Arizona plant should power 70,000 homes and cut carbon dioxide emissions.
CNET: Consumers getting more attention in smart grid
by Martin LaMonica
The role of consumers--the end point in the complex chain of the power grid--is coming into sharper focus, as the country tries to modernize its electrical infrastructure.
As part of the government stimulus program, millions of smart meters will be installed over the next three years, providing a two-way connection between utilities and their customers. But despite the focus on hardware in the multibillion-dollar smart-grid program, both utilities and advocacy groups are starting to sing the virtues of consumer involvement.
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy on Tuesday released results of a survey finding that energy use feedback tools are more important than smart meters in reducing consumers' energy use. Analyzing 57 residential feedback programs since 1974, the ACEEE concluded that no utilities have sufficient end-user tools, such as more detailed billing or giving real-time feedback through Web pages or in-home displays.
Information Week: Space Policy To Boost Tech Investment
By Elizabeth Montalbano
The Obama administration this week unveiled a new space policy that calls for more investment in advanced technologies from the aerospace industry so the United States can compete better globally.
The plan, unveiled Monday, also increases the program's focus on using space technology to study and monitor global climate change and the environment. This move was expected after NASA in April said that playing a stronger role in environmental research was part of a new agency roadmap that anticipated the end of the space shuttle program later this year.
According to the plan, the federal government will actively promote using domestic technology and services for space-related research and development as a way to bolster U.S. industry, as long as it does not interfere with international cooperative agreements.
MSNBC: Plan to save 7,500 NASA jobs proposed
by Jay Barbree
NBC News space analyst
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee is proposing to save as many as 7,500 jobs of those who work on NASA's launch team by funding an additional space shuttle supply flight to the International Space Station a year from now. That mission would be followed immediately with the building of a heavy-lift rocket and spacecraft to replace the space shuttle.
IEEE Spectrum: Free the Radio Spectrum
BY James Losey, Sascha Meinrath // June 2010
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the government entity that manages the commercial and public radio spectrum in the United States, has proposed making 500 megahertz of spectrum available for broadband within the next 10 years of which 300 MHz between 225 MHz and 3.7 GHz will likely be made available for mobile use within five years. The extra bandwidth, recaptured from broadcasters after the digital television transition, is certainly needed, given that AT&T reports that its mobile broadband traffic has increased 5000 percent over the last three years and that other carriers have also seen significant growth. However, under the current approach to allocating spectrum, this 500 MHz will do little to ease the looming spectrum crunch.
It’s time to rethink the way we allocate spectrum. Under current regulations, spectrum real estate is valuable but exclusive. In the past, that exclusivity was the only way to prevent multiple users from interfering with each other. But advances in radio technology means that today such exclusivity is no longer necessary; instead, it creates false scarcity. So we must change our decades-old approach to managing the public airwaves.
Reuters via CNET: First glimpse of EU's solar, windfarm plans
Wind turbine farms are set to expand rapidly across Europe's coastal waters, throwing up challenges and opportunities for industry, according to a Reuters analysis of a leaked draft of EU energy strategies.
A picture of the European Union's renewable energy landscape for 2020 is emerging for the first time as the bloc's 27 member states scramble to meet a deadline for setting their "National Renewable Energy Action Plans."
The documents were due to be delivered to the European Commission by midnight on Wednesday, although most missed the deadline and none of the plans has yet been made public.
Science Education
Seattle Times: Seattle's Museum of Flight breaks ground in its big bid for a space shuttle
By Lauren C. Williams
The Museum of Flight broke ground Tuesday for a giant glass-facade building it hopes will eventually house a retired U.S. space shuttle.
But whether a space shuttle ever comes to Seattle is uncertain.
"The shuttle is among the rarest of space artifacts," Michael Hallman, the museum's interim president, said in a news release. "The possibility of securing one is very exciting."
Science Writing and Reporting
IEEE Spectrum: Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?
BY Mark Anderson
Inventing cars means inventing car wrecks; inventing planes means inventing plane crashes; inventing the electric grid means inventing blackouts. This is the stark logic behind a penetrating new look at power outages. Author David Nye, an expat professor of American history at the University of Southern Denmark, in Odense, has written about electricity before, notably in his award-winning 1992 book Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880–1940. In When the Lights Went Out, though, he examines those moments when a city or region is suddenly de-electrified.
In World War II, for instance, civilian populations quickly learned that dousing all lights in a city frustrated enemy bombing raids, thus saving lives. In a darkly humorous passage, Nye recounts the French sprucing up the color palette of air raid curtains (which were never used because the country surrendered to Germany so quickly) and, by contrast, the efficacy of German citizens’ black curtains.
IEEE Spectrum: Book Review: Taming the Beloved Beast
Reviewed by Kenneth R. Foster
The barbarian is at our gate, in the person of 79-year-old Daniel Callahan. Or so many readers of IEEE Spectrum will feel after reading this provocative book on technology and health-care costs by the famed bioethicist and cofounder of The Hastings Center, a bioethics think tank in Garrison, N.Y.
Callahan addresses a big and seemingly intractable problem: the unsustainable level of spending on health care in the United States, which presently accounts for 16 percent of the country’s gross domestic product—far outstripping education (6 percent) and defense (5 percent). Worse, health-care costs are rising at twice the level of inflation. Such spending, if allowed to continue, will strip resources for many other social goods and will bankrupt businesses and individuals.
Technology is the "beloved beast" that accounts for about half of this increase, often in the form of high-tech treatments for people nearing the end of life.
Is is just me, or do the electrical engineers have a bit of a conservative bent?
Science is Cool
IEEE Spectrum: Gas Fracking Documentary Finds Nationwide Problems
BY: Bill Sweet // Tue, June 22, 2010
Yesterday evening, June 21, HBO aired a two-hour documentary about natural gas fracking, which was made by a resident of Northeast Pennsylvania where unconventional gas production is just taking off. Filmmaker Josh Fox, having been offered about $100,000 for mineral rights under a property his family had owned for several generations, got suspicious and decided to look into the whole subject of hydraulic gas fracturing. What he found, after touring Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, and Louisiana, was a pattern of companies' riding roughshod over local concerns about air and water and--in some cases--almost certainly doing serious damage to human health and safety.
Though the film, Gasland, won this year's Sundance award for best documentary, its production values are nothing to boast about. A review in yesterday's New York Times complained, for example, about Fox's making a big show in the fashion of Michael Moore of trying and failing to obtain interviews with corporate players.
io9.com: Could there be a nerd riot at Comic-Con? Experts weigh in.
Ed Grabianowski
San Diego Comic Con is filled with dense crowds of people who are very, very passionate about their favorite franchises. Could those elements ignite into a serious riot? According to scientists who study crowds, it's very possible.
Fifty-six comments on this article and mine was the first mention of Larry Niven's "The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club" in which a gang of criminals takes advantage of rioting flash mobs to loot. On a science fiction site, that should have already happened. Slackers.