Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors jlms qkw, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir and ScottyUrb, guest editors maggiejean and annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.
Between now and the end of the primary/caucus season, Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday will highlight the research stories from the public universities in each of the states having elections and caucuses during the week (or in the upcoming weeks if there is no primary or caucus that week). Tonight's edition features the science, space, environment, and energy stories from universities in the states of Arizona, North Dakota, and Utah.
This week's featured story comes from World News Australia.
China sends first woman into space
16 Jun 2012, 9:37 pm
China has launched its most ambitious space mission yet, with the Shenzhou 9 capsule lifting off as scheduled and on its way to an orbiting module.
China has launched its most ambitious space mission yet, carrying its first female astronaut and two male colleagues in an attempt to dock with an orbiting module and work on board for more than a week.
The Shenzhou 9 capsule lifted off as scheduled at 6.37pm on Saturday (2037 AEDT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre on the edge of the Gobi Desert. All systems functioned normally and, just over 10 minutes later, it opened its solar panels and entered orbit.
Female astronaut Liu Yang, 33, and two male crew members - veteran astronaut Jing Haipeng and newcomer Liu Wang - are to dock the spacecraft with a prototype space lab launched last year in a key step toward building a permanent space station.
More stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship, Part 1
by Robert Fuller
William Paley and the watchmaker
by CT yanqui
Silly Science Saturday Sermon
by agnostic
Sci-Tech For Saturday - A Selected Round-Up from the Week
by xaxnar
62 Things I learned in a Decade of Teaching Science to the Public
by otto
Starry Nights In the Desert
by Desert Scientist
This week in science: Toons in space
By DarkSyde
Slideshows/Videos
Discovery News: Artifacts Unearthed at Olympic Park: Photos
The London 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games open on July 27. Among the first to prepare for this historic moment were archaeologists, who excavated a 1.6-square-mile site in east London. Olympic Park, with its stadium, Aquatics Center and Velodome, was later constructed on the land.
Most viewers of the games will see these buildings, not realizing that thousands of years of U.K. history exist underneath the structures.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
KAIT-TV8: New research to stop deadly mosquitoes
A University of Arizona team of researchers has a way to turn mosquitoes' blood-sucking habits against them.
Mosquitoes are the cause of a lot of human misery in many parts of the world.
They spread diseases that kill millions of people.
How to stop them?
NASA Television on YouTube: Bolden's Two Stops at SpaceX on This Week @NASA
Published on Jun 16, 2012
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden pays congratulatory visits to the facilities Space Exploration Technologies in Texas and California following the company's teams for the successful round-trip of the company's Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. Dragon demonstrated its ability to maneuver and berth to the ISS, then make its safe return to Earth. Also, Garver opens robotics challenge; chasing dreams at Langley; record-breaking engine test; networking for the future; new site for Curiosity; NuSTAR makes orbit; and more.
NASA Television on YouTube: ScienceCasts: Why Won't the Supernova Explode?
Published on Jun 15, 2012
A question has been troubling astronomers: Why won't the supernova explode? Although real stars blow up, the best computer models of dying stars do not result in much of a bang. NASA has launched a new observatory named "NuSTAR" to seek out the missing physics of exploding stars.
Astronomy/Space
World News Australia: Space knot riddle puzzles experts
13 June 2012
Space knots may be the result of imperfections in the structure of the cooling universe and should be identifiable by studying the Cosmic Microwave Background.
A knotty problem that affects our view of the universe is confounding cosmologists.
Theories of the primordial universe predict the existence of knots in the fabric of space known as "cosmic textures".
They should be identifiable by studying the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the faint afterglow of the Big Bang. But the first full search by scientists has revealed no sign of the space knots.
University of Arizona: Astronomers Pinpoint Elusive Galaxy – and Find it is Not Alone
By Daniel Stolte, University Communications, and Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany, University Communications
June 15, 2012
An international team of astronomers has for the first time determined the distance of the galaxy HDF850.1. The discovery challenges and expands our understanding of how galaxies are born and develop over time.
An international team of astronomers has managed for the first time to determine the distance of the galaxy HDF850.1, well-known among astronomers as being one of the most productive star-forming galaxies in the observable universe.
The galaxy is at a distance of 12.5 billion light years. Hence, we see it as it was 12.5 billion years ago, when the universe was less than 10 percent of its current age.
Even more of a surprise, HDF850.1 turns out to be part of a group of around a dozen protogalaxies that formed within the first billion years of cosmic history – only one of two such primordial clusters known to date. The work is published in the journal Nature.
Discovery News: Voyager 1 About to Become Interstellar Emissary?
Analysis by Ian O'Neill
Fri Jun 15, 2012
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft may be getting its first taste of interstellar waters beyond our sun's familiar shores and, like the pioneers that first took to the oceans to explore seas unknown, the 34-year-old robotic spacecraft is about to make history as the first man-made object to venture beyond the known horizon.
This historic announcement was made on Thursday by the team keeping a careful eye on Voyager 1's particle detectors who noticed an uptick in interstellar cosmic ray counts in recent years. That can mean only one thing: the mission is beginning to leave the outermost regions of the heliosphere -- the farthest extent of the sun's influence.
Nature: Tropical lakes on Saturn moon could expand options for life
Subsurface source of liquid methane may be replenishing equatorial lakes on Titan.
Maggie McKee
13 June 2012 Corrected: 14 June 2012
Nestling among the dunes in the dry equatorial region of Saturn's moon Titan is what appears to be a hydrocarbon lake. The observation, by the Cassini spacecraft, suggests that oases of liquid methane — which might be a crucible for life — lie beneath the moon's surface. The work is published today in Nature1.
Besides Earth, Titan is the only solid object in the Solar System to circulate liquids in a cycle of rain and evaporation, although on Titan the process is driven by methane rather than water.
This cycle is expected to form liquid bodies near the moon's poles, but not at its dune-covered equator, where Cassini measurements show that humidity levels are low and little rain falls to the surface. "The equatorial belt is like a desert on Earth, where evaporation trumps precipitation," says astrobiologist Jonathan Lunine of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Discovery News: Mars Rover Now Aiming for Sweet Spot
Analysis by Irene Klotz
Tue Jun 12, 2012
NASA mission managers are tweaking the landing target for the new Mars rover, which is on track to touch down shortly after 1:30 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6.
Mars Science Laboratory is headed to a large crater that has a 3-mile-high mound of what appears to be layers of sediment inside. Scientists aren't sure how the mound, recently named Mount Sharp, formed, but they believe it is what is left over from debris that once filled the 96-mile-wide pit, known as Gale Crater.
With confidence growing that the rover, nicknamed Curiosity, is on track for a precision landing, NASA decided to aim to for a smaller spot, which would lop off months of driving time if successful. The new zone also is closer to the Mount Sharp's central peak which has more high-priority science targets.
Discovery News: Secret Military Mini-Shuttle Lands in California
Analysis by Irene Klotz
Sat Jun 16, 2012
The military's classified mini-space shuttle landed itself just after dawn on Saturday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California after 469 days in orbit, the Air Force said in a statement.
The Orbital Test Vehicle-2, or OTV-2, touched down at 5:48 a.m. PDT (8:48 a.m. EDT), ending the second mission of the Air Force's unmanned small spaceplane, also known as the X-37B.
"With the retirement of the space shuttle fleet, the X-37B OTV program brings a singular capability to space technology development," Tom McIntyre, X-37B program manager, said in a statement.
"The return capability allows the Air Force to test new technologies without the same risk commitment faced by other programs. We're proud of the entire team's successful efforts to bring this mission to an outstanding conclusion," he said.
Arizona Daily Star: UA veggie garden for space readied for an earthly trek
Mark Armao For The Arizona Daily Star
June 12, 2012 12:00 am
A greenhouse designed for extraterrestrial use is taking a more terrestrial trip this summer.
Someday, the University of Arizona's Lunar Greenhouse will provide a life-support system for astronauts on prospective missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. But before it gets to the moon, the Lunar Greenhouse is hitting the road.
Designed by a team at the University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, the greenhouse is being exhibited at the San Diego County Fair, followed by a stopover at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
"This is for rocket technology, but it's not rocket science," said Lane Patterson, lab manager and researcher for the project.
Arizona Daily Star: 100 days of science: Observatory now one of world's largest
Tom Beal Arizona Daily Star
June 11, 2012 12:00 am
The Arizona Daily Star's Centennial salute to science in Arizona runs all summer. Each day, for 100 days, we'll record a milestone in the state's scientific history.
The original small dome on the University of Arizona campus, built with a donation from Oracle resident Lavinia Steward, was dedicated in 1923. It housed a 36-inch reflecting telescope - at the time, one of the largest in the world.
The observatory's first director was A.E. Douglass, who came to teach physics and founded an astronomy program at the University of Arizona after parting ways with Percival Lowell in Flagstaff.
The telescope was moved to Kitt Peak in 1963.
Evolution/Paleontology
Scientific American: Has a New 10-Legged Species Evolved beneath Rome?
By Rob Dunn | June 14, 2012 |
Crabs are alien. Their eyes stand up on stalks, waving without apology. Their ten legs each grasp the world, but mostly they keep to their realms of tidelands and sea bottoms. The river crab, Potamon fluviatile, sneaks along streams throughout much of Italy, Greece and nearby Malta, Albania, Croatia and Macedonia. It is, as crabs go, both interesting and ordinary. It is one of the crabs Aristotle would have seen, Homer too. It is a crab millions of children have grown up running from and toward—screaming regardless of the direction. It is not a crab about which one hopes to make new discoveries; then someone did.
...
Then there is Rome. It came as a surprise to the world of crab-loving people (though perhaps not crab-loving Roman children) when in 1998 Massimiliano Scalici and colleagues at the University of Rome Tre saw the river crab beneath their city, the biggest city in Italy and one of the biggest cities in the world. One imagines their first temptation was to catch them, which is ultimately what they did, some of them anyway. Where no crabs were thought to exist, Scalici and colleagues found hundreds, looking up at them out of their long, stalk-eyes. The crabs, for their part, appear to have been there quite a while, unnoticed, perhaps glad for it.
...
When Scalici and colleagues described the biology of the Roman crabs — having studied more than four hundred of them and compared them to populations from across Italy, they found that they were, well, “different.” They were slower growing but lived longer, and so ended up being roughly one and half times as big as other crabs of the same species. They were urban, modern, and fat. They also appeared to mate at a different time of year than do the other river crabs.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
World News Australia: Many factors in extinction of mammoths
13 June 2012
Rising temperatures, changing vegetation and the spread of humans all contributed to the extinction of the woolly mammoth, according to a new study.
Rising temperatures, changing vegetation and the spread of humans all contributed to the extinction of the woolly mammoth, according to a new study that said no single factor was to blame.
The tusked mammal's demise was gradual, not sudden, said the authors, disputing earlier assertions that the giants were wiped out quickly - either by disease, humans or a catastrophic weather event.
Nature (UK): 'Hippie chimp' genome sequenced
Genetic sequence could solve mystery of why bonobos are more peaceful than other chimpanzees.
Ewen Callaway
13 June 2012
When the Congo River in central Africa formed, a group of apes was forever stranded on its southern banks. Two million years later, the descendants of these apes — the bonobos — have developed distinct social patterns. Unlike their chimpanzee relatives on the northern shore, they shun violent male dominance and instead forge bonds through food-sharing, play and casual sex.
An 18-year-old female named Ulindi has now become the first bonobo (Pan paniscus) to have its genome sequenced. Scientists hope that the information gleaned will explain the stark behavioural differences between bonobos and common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and help to identify the genetic changes that set humans apart from other apes.
University of Arizona: Evolution of Religious Patriarchy as a Mate-Guarding Strategy?
By Diane Swanbrow, University of Michigan, and Daniel Stolte, University Communications
June 12, 2012
One of the largest and longest studies in a traditional African society sheds light on religious practices and cuckoldry. Genetic data suggest religious patriarchy is directly analogous to the mate-guarding tactics used by animals to ensure paternity.
Religious practices that strongly control female sexuality are more successful at promoting certainty about paternity, according to a study published in the June 4, 2012 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In an interdisciplinary collaboration, a group of researchers around biological anthropologist Beverly Strassmann from the University of Michigan and University of Arizona geneticist Michael Hammer analyzed genetic data on 1,706 father-son pairs in a traditional African population – the Dogon people of Mali, West Africa – in which Islam, two types of Christianity and an indigenous, monotheistic religion are practiced in the same families and villages.
I went to grad school with Beverly Strassmann and shared an advisor with her, so I wasn't the least bit surprised to see this is her work.
Biodiversity
University of Utah: Plant Poison Turns Seed-Eating Mouse into Seed Spitter
June 14, 2012 – In Israel’s Negev Desert, a plant called sweet mignonette or taily weed uses a toxic “mustard oil bomb” to make the spiny mouse spit out the plant’s seeds when eating the fruit. Thus, the plant has turned a seed-eating rodent into a seed spreader that helps the plant reproduce, says a new study by Utah and Israeli scientists.
“It’s fascinating that these little mice are doing analytical chemistry, assaying the fruit for toxic compounds” and learning not to bite into the seed, says Denise Dearing, a coauthor of the study and professor of biology at the University of Utah.
“It adds a new dimension to our understanding of the ongoing battle between plants and animals,” she adds. “In this case, the plants have twisted the animals to do their bidding, to spread their progeny.”
University of Utah: Virgin Male Moths Think They’re Hot When They’re Not
Female Sex Odor Makes Cool Males Take Flight Too Soon
June 6, 2012 – Talk about throwing yourself into a relationship too soon.
A University of Utah study found that when a virgin male moth gets a whiff of female sex attractant, he’s quicker to start shivering to warm up his flight muscles, and then takes off prematurely when he’s still too cool for powerful flight. So his headlong rush to reach the female first may cost him the race.
The study illustrates the tradeoff between being quick to start flying after a female versus adequately warming up the flight muscles before starting the chase. Until the next study, it remains a mystery which moths actually reach the females: the too-cool, quick-takeoff males or the males who wait until they’re hot enough to take a shot. The latter may end up flying faster and more efficiently and win the race, despite a slow takeoff.
University of North Dakota: Raptor researchers band peregrine falcon chicks at UND
June 14, 2012
Students and biology faculty from the University of North Dakota and the University of Minnesota-Crookston took part in a rare scientific opportunity Wednesday, June 13, 2012, analyzing and banding three peregrine falcon chicks that recently hatched at the tall UND water tower.
The raptor researchers, led by UMC's Tim Driscoll of the Urban Raptor Research Project, monitored the chicks' health and drew blood samples that could be used to check for avian diseases. The researcher use special types of metal bands attached to a leg on each falcon to keep track of them. Driscoll said.
Susan Felege, assistant professor of biology at UND, also was present to lend support and expertise to the project. Apart from raptor research, Felege also is involved in another interesting project in the North Dakota oil patch, where she is studying environmental impacts on nesting and mating habits of sharp-tailed grouse.
Biotechnology/Health
Health Magazine: Sleep Apnea in Teens Linked to Social, Behavioral Woes
TUESDAY, June 12 (HealthDay News) — Teenagers with obstructive sleep apnea are at higher risk of behavioral and learning problems, according to a new study.
Obstructive sleep apnea is a sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops during sleep because the airway is blocked. Common symptoms include snoring and a loud snort or gasp for breath after a pause in breathing, which can happen up to 30 times an hour.
Researchers from the University of Arizona, in Tucson, found that children with sleep apnea who continue to have the disorder in their teens have more problems with attention, hyperactivity and aggression; more trouble managing their emotions and social situations; and are less able to care for themselves without help.
World News Australia: Origin cells for cervical cancer found
12 June 2012
The discovery of the cells at the origin of cervical cancer could offer new ways to prevent and treat the disease, researchers say.
Researchers have found the cells at the origin of cervical cancer, in a discovery that could offer new ways to prevent and treat the disease, according to a study.
Most cases of cervical cancer are known to be caused by specific strains of human papillomavirus, but now researchers know the specific group of cells that HPV targets, said the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
World News Australia: Genes give inherited clues to migraine
11 June 2012
Scientists from Australia and Europe say they have identified more genes that highlight an inherited cause for migraine.
Australian and European scientists say they have snared four more genes that highlight an inherited cause for common migraine.
The genetic variants were spotted in a trawl through the DNA code of 4800 people with a history of "migraine without aura", which accounts for two-thirds of migraine attacks.
But the telltales were absent among more than 7000 counterparts who did not suffer from these debilitating headaches.
Climate/Environment
World News Australia: Diesel fumes cause cancer: WHO agency
13 June 2012
Health officials say diesel exhaust causes cancer, a ruling that could make exhaust fumes as important a public health threat as second-hand smoke.
Diesel exhaust causes cancer, the World Health Organisation's cancer agency has declared, a ruling it says could make it as important a public health threat as second-hand smoke.
Wired Science: More Big Wildfires May Be Future Norm for US
By Tim McDonnell and James West, Climate Desk
June 12, 2012
For the past 30 years, residents of tiny Laporte, Colorado, near the Wyoming border have gathered inside Bob’s Coffee Shop to swap gossip over coffee and danishes near the dense pine forest of Lory State Park. But since the weekend, Bob’s has become a very different kind of social hub: a de facto refugee camp for homeowners fleeing what many here call the worst wildfire in decades.
climate_desk_bugFrom a booth just a mile and half from the fireline, Bob’s owner Chris McCullough in a phone interview on Monday afternoon described seeing forest ridges ablaze with arching orange flames, a sky blanketed in thick white smoke, and ash falling like snow. At other tables, locals shared updates about the fire’s spread and talked about what they were — and weren’t — able to save from their homes, which may — or may not — still be standing.
“It’s the fastest-growing, hottest-burning fire I’ve ever seen,” said longtime resident and Bob’s patron John Brewer, whose home was evacuated Saturday night. “I don’t know how we’re going to survive this one.”
B.Y.U.*: Studying soil to predict the future of earth's atmosphere
When it comes to understanding climate change, it’s all about the dirt.
A new study by researchers at BYU, Duke and the USDA finds that soil plays an important role in controlling the planet’s atmospheric future.
The researchers set out to find how intact ecosystems are responding to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The earth’s current atmospheric carbon dioxide is 390 parts per million, up from 260 parts per million at the start of the industrial revolution, and will likely rise to more than 500 parts per million in the coming decades.
What they found, published in the current issue of Nature Climate Change, is that the interaction between plants and soils controls how ecosystems respond to rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.
*I have concentrated on public universities in this series. However, as someone with family connections to Utah, I know that ignoring B.Y.U. when covering Utah is like ignoring oil in Texas. During the ONDs when I
covered Texas, I couldn't avoid oil news.
Geology
Salt Lake City Tribune: U. of U. geophysics professor wins national award
Michael Applegate
First Published Jun 13 2012 09:26 am • Last Updated Jun 13 2012 09:26 am
Robert B. Smith, an emeritus University of Utah research professor of geophysics, has been awarded the Geological Society of America’s George P. Woollard Award for outstanding contributions to geophysics.
Smith is an expert on earthquakes and volcanism in the Yellowstone-Grand Teton National Park region, a news release said.
Submitted by jlms qkw.
Psychology/Behavior
University of Arizona: The Language of Perception
Regents’ Professor Thomas Bever has dedicated his career to figuring out something that is uniquely human, innate and intuitive to our species; he studies language. He has built an incredibly distinguished career in the Department of Linguistics in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Arizona.
“What’s been going on in my research,” he says, “is characteristically taking some feature of language and examine it to see if it’s unique to language or whether it’s the result or the effect of some other property of human cognition.”
What does that mean? Well, take a moment and slow down. Read each word in this sentence. Now, consider what is happening in your brain at this very moment. What processes are allowing you to string together these letters and words to create meaning?
Such questions – found at the nexus of perception, language and reasoning – represent the focus of Bever’s work.
University of Utah: U Study Finds ‘Sexting’ More Common Among Teens Than You Might Think
June 14, 2012 — The journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, has published a study by University of Utah psychology professor Donald Strassberg about “sexting” among teens.
A significant number of teenagers are sending and receiving sexually explicit cell phone photos, often with little, if any, awareness of the possible psychological, interpersonal, and sometimes legal consequences of doing so. Even many of those who believe there could be serious legal consequences are undeterred and still choose to engage in sexting.
New communication technologies play an increasingly important role in the lives of young people, especially adolescents. Instant access to others via online social networks has dramatically changed when, how and what teens learn about each other and the world. In addition, sexting is a new way in which adolescents are exposed to sexual material. In many US states, those sending or receiving nude pictures of individuals under 18 risk charges as serious as possession or distribution of child pornography, carrying penalties that include being listed on a sex offender register. In addition, for those featured in the photos, there may be serious psychological consequences.
World News Australia: Do football concussions cause depression?
Retired sports professionals have claimed that mental health problems such as depression and dementia may have been caused by concussions sustained on the field.
By Gavin Davis, Austin Health and Michael Makdissi, University of Melbourne
13 June 2012
A number of retired sports professionals have claimed that mental health problems they developed later in life, such as depression and dementia, may have been caused by concussions sustained during their playing careers. Some of these players in the United States are now taking legal action against their former sporting governing bodies.
The recent media interest in concussion in American Football is driven by plaintiff lawyers and ignores much of the important scientific evidence available. The American lawyers claim that concussion causes long-term damage to the brain, and that the NFL has hidden this knowledge from the footballers for decades.
While we make no assertions on the merits of the legal proceedings in America, we can discuss the scientific issues, particularly in their application to football in Australia.
Archeology/Anthropology
The Guardian (UK): Scientists are accused of distorting theory of human evolution by misdating bones
Briton says Spanish researchers are out by 200,000 years and have even got the wrong species
Robin McKie
The Observer, Saturday 9 June 2012
It is the world's biggest haul of human fossils and the most important palaeontology site in Europe: a subterranean chamber at the bottom of a 50ft shaft in the deepest recesses of the Atapuerca cavern in northern Spain. Dozens of ancient skeletons have been unearthed.
La Sima de los Huesos – the Pit of Bones – has been designated a Unesco world heritage site because of its importance to understanding evolution, and millions of euros, donated by the EU, have been spent constructing a museum of human antiquity in nearby Burgos.
But Britain's leading expert on human evolution, Professor Chris Stringer, of the Natural History Museum, has warned in the journal Evolutionary Anthropology that the team in charge of La Sima has got the ages of its fossils wrong by 200,000 years and has incorrectly identified the species of ancient humans found there.
Nature (UK): Spain claims top spot for world’s oldest cave art
Archaeologists say red disk that is more than 40,000 years old could have been painted by Neanderthals.
Ewen Callaway
14 June 2012
It’s no Mona Lisa, but a smudged red disk in northern Spain has been crowned the world’s earliest cave painting. Dated to more than 40,800 years ago, the shape was painted by some of the first modern humans to reach the Iberian Peninsula — or it may have been done by Neanderthals, residents of the Iberian peninsula for more than 200,000 years.
“There is a very good chance that this is Neanderthal,” says Alistair Pike, an archaeological scientist at the University of Bristol, UK, whose team dated dozens of paintings in 11 caves in northern Spain. But Lawrence Guy Straus, an expert on the caves who is based at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, calls that “a pretty wild speculation,” because it is based on a single date that could overlap with human occupation.
BBC: Monmouth ruin find could pre-date pyramids
Archaeologists claim to have unearthed the remnants of a large prehistoric building, which they say could be older than Egypt's pyramids.
Experts said they were mystified by the "unique" find on the site of a housing development in Monmouth.
Monmouth Archaeology, which found the wooden foundations, said they dated to at least the Bronze Age, but could be early Neolithic, about 6,500 years old.
It said the pyramids were built about 4,500 years ago.
World News Australia: Toilet discovery gives scientists hope
The discovery of what's believed to be the oldest toilet in Vietnam has scientists hopeful that much will be learned about ancient culture in the area.
The discovery of a 3500-year-old Vietnamese toilet could yield important clues about early South-East Asian society, scientists say.
Archaeologists have found what is believed to be Vietnam's earliest latrine during the excavation of a neolithic village in the country's south.
LiveScience: Ancient Warship's Ram Under Attack by Corrosion
Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff Writer
Date: 08 June 2012 Time: 12:12 PM ET
An ancient warship's ram has been slowly disintegrating since it was retrieved from the floor of the Mediterranean Sea. A new analysis shows sulfuric acid buildup is to blame.
Researchers are racing to find a way to slow the disintegration and perhaps, in the process, learn how to preserve other ancient wood structures after they've been plucked from the ocean and exposed to the air.
LiveScience: Mysterious Bones May Belong to John the Baptist
Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
A small handful of bones found in an ancient church in Bulgaria may belong to John the Baptist, the biblical figure said to have baptized Jesus.
There's no way to be sure, of course, as there are no confirmed pieces of John the Baptist to compare to the fragments of bone. But the sarcophagus holding the bones was found near a second box bearing the name of St. John and his feast date (also called a holy day) of June 24. Now, new radiocarbon dating of the collagen in one of the bones pegs its age to the early first century, consistent with the New Testament and Jewish histories of John the Baptist's life.
Toronto Star (Canada): Fort Erie dig reveals trove of artifacts from War of 1812
KENNETH KIDD/TORONTO STAR
FORT ERIE, ONT.—From the original British gun positions at the fort’s southeast bastion, you can look across to Buffalo, N.Y., as the narrowing lake turns into the Niagara River.
Even now, it doesn’t take much imagination to understand just how strategically important the place had been two centuries ago.
But it’s the view to the west — across what’s now verdant parkland — that really intrigues John Triggs, chair of the department of archeology at Wilfrid Laurier University. It’s there that secrets lay buried.
E! Science News: Forgotten Annapolis immigration conflict uncovered by UMD archaeology
University of Maryland archaeologists are uncovering a forgotten period of racial tension in Annapolis pitting Filipino immigrants against African Americans. The surprisingly complex relations between the groups go back a century, occasionally marked by violence, but also by considerable social mixing and even intermarriage, the researchers say -- all propelled by changing racial practices at the Naval Academy.
"We're discovering family stories carved in irony," says University of Maryland Archaeologist Mark Leone, who is directing the research. "The home we're excavating belonged to an African American woman married to a Filipino man, anchored in Annapolis by the Naval Academy, brought together by its racial stereotyping, and yet overcoming cultural and racial barriers quite successfully in their own lives."
Cambridge News (UK): The groundbreaking female archaeologist
It took more than 700 years, but in 1939 archaeologist Dorothy Garrod became the first female professor at Oxbridge – nearly a decade before women were even allowed to take degrees at Cambridge University. ALICE HUTTON reports on the opening of the first permanent exhibition honouring one of the most important female academics you have probably never heard of.
It is hard to over-estimate the importance of what took place 73 years ago on May 5, 1939.
By unanimous vote, senior members of Cambridge University elected their candidate for the Disney Professor of Archaeology – a position that remains one of the most prestigious in the field.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
Physics
E! Science News: Neutrons escaping to a parallel world?
Published: Friday, June 15, 2012 - 12:36 in Physics & Chemistry
In a paper recently published in European Physical Journal (EPJ) C, researchers hypothesised the existence of mirror particles to explain the anomalous loss of neutrons observed experimentally. The existence of such mirror matter had been suggested in various scientific contexts some time ago, including the search for suitable dark matter candidates. Theoretical physicists Zurab Berezhiani and Fabrizio Nesti from the University of l'Aquila, Italy, reanalysed the experimental data obtained by the research group of Anatoly Serebrov at the Institut Laue-Langevin, France. It showed that the loss rate of very slow free neutrons appeared to depend on the direction and strength of the magnetic field applied. This anomaly could not be explained by known physics.
Berezhiani believes it could be interpreted in the light of a hypothetical parallel world consisting of mirror particles. Each neutron would have the ability to transition into its invisible mirror twin, and back, oscillating from one world to the other. The probability of such a transition happening was predicted to be sensitive to the presence of magnetic fields, and could therefore be detected experimentally.
Chemistry
University of Utah: A ‘Dirt Cheap’ Magnetic Field Sensor from ‘Plastic Paint’
Spintronic Device Uses Thin-Film Organic Semiconductor
June 12, 2012 – University of Utah physicists developed an inexpensive, highly accurate magnetic field sensor for scientific and possibly consumer uses based on a “spintronic” organic thin-film semiconductor that basically is “plastic paint.”
The new kind of magnetic-resonance magnetometer also resists heat and degradation, works at room temperature and never needs to be calibrated, physicists Christoph Boehme, Will Baker and colleagues report online in the Tuesday, June 12 edition of the journal Nature Communications.
The magnetic-sensing thin film is an organic semiconductor polymer named MEH-PPV. Boehme says it really is nothing more than an orange-colored “electrically conducting, magnetic field-sensing plastic paint that is dirt cheap. We measure magnetic fields highly accurately with a drop of plastic paint, which costs just as little as drop of regular paint.”
Nature (UK): Boron finally gets a triple bond
Compound could be useful in organic electronic materials.
James Mitchell Crow
14 June 2012
An elite chemical club has a new member, after a team in Germany found a way to link two boron atoms together with a stable triple bond. Boron joins carbon and nitrogen as one of the few elements in the periodic table known to form stable compounds featuring triple bonds1.
Theory had predicted that such boron structures should be possible, says Holger Braunschweig, a chemist at the University of Würzburg who led the research. After all, nitrogen–nitrogen and carbon–carbon triple bonds are stable: the nitrogen molecules that make up the majority of our air are held together by a triple bond, for example. And boron is next to carbon and nitrogen in the periodic table, so should have comparable properties. “One would expect something similar for boron,” says Braunschweig. “The major problem has been the synthesis.”
Until now, the closest that anyone had come was a molecule made by using a laser to vaporize boron in the presence of carbon monoxide (CO) at very low temperatures2. This compound seemed to incorporate a boron–boron triple bond, surrounded by CO groups, but fell apart at temperatures above about -263 °C.
Braunschweig’s compound, by contrast, is stable up to 234 °C, if kept isolated from the air. “Under inert conditions, this is a very stable molecule,” says Braunschweig.
Energy
Northern Arizona University: Award-winning researcher applies carbon cycle lessons to industry, mentoring
June 15, 2012
Over the years, Debbie Huntzinger’s academic interests migrated from groundwater to the atmosphere, but a fellowship award that will help fund her research in carbon sequestration is bringing her back to her engineering roots.
Huntzinger, assistant professor of climate sciences at Northern Arizona University, recently was named a Bisgrove Scholar award winner by Science Foundation Arizona. She will apply the funding—$200,000 over two years—to her research with a waste byproduct of cement manufacturing, addressing a “small piece” of reducing global CO2 emissions, as she puts it, but one with implications for climate change.
...
What Huntzinger accomplished in the lab as a Ph.D. candidate was to mimic the natural process of mineral carbonation. In the environment, over long periods of time, the geologic weathering results in the formation of rocks such as limestone, a stable form of carbon. That stability is key for those who seek to find a way to store, or sequester, CO2, reducing its growth rate in the atmosphere.
Agence France Presse via Discovery News: 'Cool' Battery Is Great News for Electric Cars
A scientific breakthrough could eliminate the need for heating or cooling systems and make EVs cheaper.
Wed Jun 13, 2012
A new automotive battery performs in extreme temperatures, offering the potential to cut the cost of making electric cars.
Massachusetts-based A123 Systems said its Nanophosphate EXT would "reduce or eliminate the need for heating or cooling systems, which is expected to create sizeable new opportunities" for automotive and other types of batteries.
"We believe Nanophosphate EXT is a game-changing breakthrough that overcomes one of the key limitations of lead acid, standard lithium ion and other advanced batteries," chief executive David Vieau said.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
Irish Independent: Hammer vandals damage 5,500-year-old 'Stone of Destiny'
By Louise Hogan
Thursday June 14 2012
GARDAI are hunting vandals who attacked a 5,500-year-old standing stone at the Hill of Tara in Co Meath with a hammer.
Damage has been caused in 11 places on all four faces of the Lia Fail Standing Stone -- also know as the 'Stone of Destiny' -- which is mentioned in ancient texts about the High Kings of Ireland.
Minister for Arts and Heritage Jimmy Deenihan last night said his department was examining the possibility of increasing surveillance at such monuments.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Nature (UK): NASA scientists fight budget cuts with cupcakes
Planetary researchers bake cakes and shine shoes to raise awareness of declining budget.
Amber Dance
11 June 2012
It has come to this: planetary scientists across the United States hawked baked goods to the public on Saturday in an effort to drum up awareness of their field’s dwindling financial support. They were protesting plans in US President Barack Obama's 2013 budget request to cut 21% from NASA's planetary-science budget, and 38% from its Mars projects.
“The planetary programme is one of the shining examples of NASA at its best,” says Alan Stern, vice-president of research and development in the space science and engineering division at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, who coordinated the nationwide Planetary Exploration Car Wash and Bake Sale. “We’re not asking for a raise, but we sure would prefer not to have such a steep cut.”
One site where scientists are becoming agitated is NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, where many Mars missions are built and managed. As the lab held its annual open house on Saturday, planetary scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena and the University of California, Los Angeles enticed visiting space fans to stop outside the entrance for cupcakes and learn about the budget plight.
University of Arizona: Report to ABOR: UA Excels at Technology Transfer
By University Communications
The UA reported an increase in technology transfer activity in fiscal year 2011.
June 14, 2012
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The Arizona University System met the majority of its research goals in fiscal year 2011, excelling in four categories – invention disclosures, U.S. patents issued, intellectual property income and start-up companies – officials told the Arizona Board of Regents on June 14.
The news came during an update from the enterprise executive committee on the Arizona Higher Education Enterprise plan, designed to realign and strengthen the state university system.
The enterprise report, presented to the regents in 2010, outlines priorities and important discussion areas for realigning the system in a way that each state university can better focus its individual mission to benefit the system as a whole.
Utne Reader: The Walking Blues of Walkable Neighborhoods
Walkable neighborhoods breed healthier and safer communities, but a new study finds that safe streets are scarce in poor neighborhoods.
By Staff, Utne Reader
July/August 2012
Walkability has developed a strong cache in American cities over the past few years. Innovations like Walk Score, which help urban dwellers navigate pedestrian-friendly commutes and communities, are increasingly popular. Studies by Brookings and the University of Arizona have found that home buyers will pay top dollar for a walkable neighborhood, and those areas were more likely to be insulated from the housing collapse. Walkability also breeds higher social capital and trust among neighbors, according to a University of New Hampshire study.
University of Arizona: UA Researchers Awarded $3.6M to Design Cybersecurity Map
By Pete Brown, College of Engineering
June 12, 2012
UA researchers have received a major contract from the Office of Naval Research to research and develop a system that would help detect security threats to networks.
University of Arizona engineering and computer science researchers have received a $3.6 million cybersecurity research contract from the Office of Naval Research to develop dynamic maps that visualize suspicious activity on computer networks.
The project is rooted in the fact that monitoring a network for suspicious activity is a daunting task – the amount of data that has to be monitored is enormous, and it is a cacophony of malicious and normal traffic originating from disparate sources.
University of Utah: U Experts Help with Next Generation of Internet
June 14, 2012—Researchers at the University of Utah are helping lay the groundwork for a new high-speed Internet upgrade. The White House today announced the launch of US Ignite, an initiative in which the U is a major participant.
US Ignite is a national innovation platform for developing and deploying software applications and services on ultrafast networks. This initiative makes use of important contributions from researchers across the nation who have participated in the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Global Environment for Networking Innovation (GENI).
The University of Utah is among more than 60 universities across the country that are participated in GENI. A team of researchers led by Professor Robert Ricci, a research assistant professor in the School of Computing, is playing a leading role in GENI, doing foundational work instrumental in establishing this national research and education network for exploring future Internets at scale.
North Dakota State University: NDSU students attend national public transportation conference
Published: 13 June 2012 07:52 AM
Five NDSU transportation and logistics graduate students attended the American Public Transportation Association’s Bus and Paratransit Conference May 6-9 in Long Beach, Calif. The conference included more than 30 specialized educational sessions, covering topics such as policy and planning, operations and maintenance, public transportation in today’s operating environment, technology, safety and security, professional development and special issues on accessible transportation. The variety of topics allowed students to attend sessions related to their research interests.
The five students who attended the conference were students in Jill Hough’s Public Transportation course. Hough is director of the Small Urban and Rural Transit Center, part of the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at NDSU.
The conference allowed the students to reinforce material learned in class and gain exposure to additional topics related to public transportation. “Students learned not only ‘textbook’ knowledge, but knowledge on how organizations function, how advisory boards shape decisions of an agency, the importance of networking and having mentors and others who can help you, and also to see how they can help others,” Hough said.
Science Education
Daily Herald: BYU students excavating Fremont Indian village in Goshen
GOSHEN -- Thirty-five miles south of Provo near the sleepy town of Goshen, BYU students and professors are in a flurry of activity, working hard to finish excavating the largest Fremont Indian dwelling ever found.
The students are part of a field study class in the archaeology program at Brigham Young University. This is the fourth year students have been using what is known as Wolf Village in Goshen to get hands-on experience working on a dig.
During last year's dig a large communal-type building was discovered. The building, which is approximately 850 square feet, is the largest Fremont Indian structure found to date and is several times larger than typical Fremont buildings, which average between 80 and 90 square feet.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
University of Arizona: Students Enter Human-Powered Cycle in National Competition
By Pete Brown, College of Engineering
June 15, 2012
The students belong to the UA American Society of Mechanical Engineers chapter. The UA team placed 11th overall.
A team of University of Arizona mechanical engineering seniors recently competed in the 2012 ASME Human Powered Vehicle Challenge at the Miller Motorsport Park in Tooele, Utah.
The UA vehicle, named "Wildcat," of course, was designed and built by a group of mechanical engineering seniors as their senior capstone design project. The high-speed, aerodynamically styled bicycle made its debut May 1 at Engineering Design Day, where the team won two awards.
University of North Dakota: North Dakota State higher ed board OKs UND engineering name changes
June 15, 2012
The North Dakota State Board of Higher Education at its meeting Thursday approved name changes that will affect one of the University of North Dakota's oldest divisions:
The School of Engineering and Mines will become the College of Engineering and Mines.
The Department of Geology and Geological Engineering will become the School of Geology and Geological Engineering as a component within the College of Engineering and Mines.
Hesham El Rewini, professor and dean of the College of Engineering and Mines, said the changes reflect the dynamic growth of UND's engineering programs over the last five years and its expanding role in helping the state deal with its energy industry boom.
Science Writing and Reporting
Wired Science: Why the Scientist Stereotype Is Bad for Everyone, Especially Kids
By Michael Brooks
June 15, 2012
To many – too many – science is something like North Korea. Not only is it impossible to read or understand anything that comes out of that place, there are so many cultural differences that it’s barely worth trying. It’s easier just to let them get on with their lives while you get on with yours; as long as they don’t take our jobs or attack our way of life, we’ll leave them in peace.
Michael Brooks
That’s very frustrating to scientists, who often bemoan the lack of public interest in what science has to say. They’re right to be frustrated: all our futures are dependent on proper engagement with science. So, how to solve this problem?
In recent years, like fervent evangelicals, scientists have begun to instigate outreach programs. If people could only hear about how exciting science is, the thinking goes, they’ll be converted. Then we’ll finally be able to get on with tackling climate change, creationism in the classroom, stem cell research and so on.
The trouble is, those who are already fans of science lap it up while everyone else shrugs – and nothing has really changed. That’s because the problem doesn’t lie with the science. It lies with the scientists. Or rather the myth the scientists have created around themselves.
Wired Science: Q&A: Why It’s Sometimes Rational to Be Irrational
By Dave Mosher
June 15, 2012
The modern world bustles with magical thinking. Some of us pick up pennies for good luck, believe we missed a flight for a reason or become convinced that a computer tried to ruin our day by crashing.
In his new book The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking, science writer Matthew Hutson argues that we’re all believers — even the staunchest of skeptics. The book isn’t a diatribe against irrational beliefs, despite Hutson’s admission of being an atheist and a skeptic since the age of 10.
“I started wondering why people adamantly believe strange things. I began to apply psychology and cognitive science to the question of how we find meaning in the world and how we decide what’s reality and what’s illusion,” Hutson said. “Embracing irrationality, as it turns out, isn’t always a bad thing.”
Wired chatted with Hutson about his book, how it changed him and what kind of magical thinking even über-skeptic Richard Dawkins subscribes to.
Arizona State University: 'Twilight' phenomenon among new faculty books
Posted: June 06, 2012
In 2005, Stephenie Meyer, a stay-at-home mom from Arizona, published her first novel, which was inspired by a vivid dream. “Twilight” was followed by four more books, and Meyer found herself as the best-selling author in the world.
What happens when a mom becomes a star? ASU associate professor of English James Blasingame and two ASU graduates, Kathleen Deakin and Laura A. Walsh, explore that question in their new book about Meyer.
Other new faculty books take their readers to Pakistan and New Spain, and look at marriage, language policy and poetry.
Science is Cool
Discovery News: NASA Astronauts Brought Playmates to the Moon
Analysis by Amy Shira Teitel
Fri Jun 15, 2012
When NASA sent its Apollo astronauts to the moon, it sent them with "cheat sheets" -- wrist checklists attached to their suits that outlined the main stages of surface activities for each extravehicular activity (EVA).
But like all flight hardware, crews didn't train with their real checklists; they trained with a copy and only signed off on the unassembled flight version. Assembling the checklist fell to the backup crew, and also gave them a great opportunity to sneak practical jokes into the mission.
Arizona Daily Star: Get used to idea of bug grub
Western palates will have to adjust to insects, scientists insist; sensing opportunity, UA grads help develop a line of cricket bars
Carli Brosseau Arizona Daily Star
June 10, 2012 12:00 am
Forty years from now, beef could be a luxury on par with today's tiny spoonfuls of caviar.
What will take its spot on Americans' dinner plates? Increasingly, scientists are predicting bugs.
University of Arizona grad Patrick Crowley is one of a growing number of entrepreneurs getting in the game before affluent Westerners are - as scientists foresee it - forced to change their protein tastes.
His company is developing recipes to make insects palatable and even delicious to people who now squirm at the notion.
I just happened to have mentioned insects as food in class on Thursday. My students were amazed that I actually had eaten caterpillars and grasshoppers and enjoyed them.