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 MSNBC.
Science made for April Foolery
By Alan Boyle
Which of these headlines from today are April Fools' jokes? British billionaire buys Pluto, reinstates it as planet ... Quest to find Northwest Passage stymied by imaginary mountains ... One Mercury probe rediscovers another ... Spaceship guru hangs it up, is moving to lake resort ... Arsenic life found in sea monkeys ...
Tales of discovery are tailor-made for scientific foolery, because scientific advances and exploration almost always take place outside the sphere of everyday life.
...
Without further ado, here's a roundup of today's scientific foolery and non-foolery:
More stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
Watch this space!
TEPCO Tries & Fails to Stop Radioactive Leak to Sea: Japan Nuclear Incident - ROV #38
by mahakali overdrive
Science Project: Count YOUR Stars
by jim in IA
This week in science
by DarkSyde
Green diary rescue: All together now — fight back
by Meteor Blades
Slideshows/Videos
MSNBC: Space gallery: Open up a window on the cosmos
See stunning images of the sun, Earth and far-out locales in our roundup of cosmic views from March 2011.
MSNBC: Mercury reveals battle scars in NASA probe's up-close photos
Scientists marvel over Messenger's first pictures from Mercury orbit
University of Michigan: "Back to the Sea" exhibit tells a whale of an evolutionary tale
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—An updated, permanent exhibit on whale evolution, opening April 9 at the University of Michigan Exhibit Museum of Natural History, presents the story of how these massive mammals evolved from typical land dwellers to creatures that spend their whole lives in the sea.
"Back to the Sea: The Evolution of Whales," showcases decades of research spearheaded by U-M paleontologist Philip Gingerich. Since the 1980s, Gingerich and colleagues have located and mapped remains of more than a thousand whales in an area of the Egyptian desert known as Wadi Al-Hitan (Valley of the Whales), now a UNESCO World Heritage site. This area was underwater 37 million years ago, when whales, sea cows and other marine animals called it home.
The exhibit also features discoveries from Gingerich's field work in Pakistan.
In keeping with the theme of the past month or so, Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday is featuring science and other news from the major public research universities in the midwestern states where Republican governors and legislatures are threatening the collective bargaining rights of public employees.
Astronomy/Space
Space.com via MSNBC: Searching for alien life? Check out failed stars
Potential exists on free-floating planets and sub-brown dwarfs, researcher says
By Clara Moskowitz
Space.com
updated 4/1/2011
The search for alien life usually focuses on planets around other stars. But a lesser-known possibility is that life has sprung up on planets that somehow were ejected from their original solar systems and became free-floating in the universe, as well as on small bodies called sub-brown dwarfs, which are stars so small and dim they are not really stars at all, but function more like planets.
Studies show these bodies could potentially host atmospheres and surfaces where some form of extraterrestrial life could take hold.
Researcher Viorel Badescu of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest in Romania recently investigated the possibilities for life on free-floating planets (FFPs) and sub-brown dwarfs (SBDs) that might contain lakes of the chemical ethane. He found that such life is not impossible, though it would be significantly different from life on Earth.
His findings were detailed in the August 2010 issue of the journal Planetary and Space Science.
Space.com via MSNBC: Dark matter could bring starless planets to life
It may warm starless planets enough to make them habitable, scientists theorize
By Charles Q. Choi
Space.com
updated 3/31/2011
There may be worlds that float through intergalactic space in darkness without stars to warm them. Such lonely planets, endlessly adrift in night, might seem too cold and dark to ever serve as homes for life.
But mysterious, unseen dark matter could help warm these starless planets and make them habitable, a new study suggests. The idea may be a bit out there, but it’s not impossible, researchers say.
Scientists think invisible, as-yet-unidentified dark matter makes up about 85 percent of all matter in the universe. They know it exists because of the gravitational effects it has on galaxies.
Space.com via MSNBC: Comet impacts scar the rings of Saturn, Jupiter
Researchers say they now have record of solar system's bombardment history
By Mike Wall
Space.com
updated 3/31/2011
Strange formations in the rings around Saturn and Jupiter are the telltale marks of dramatic comet impacts that occurred in the last few decades, two new studies suggest.
The newly discovered ripples show that bits of a broken-up comet likely plowed through Saturn's C ring, one of many around the planet, in 1983 — an event that went undetected by astronomers at the time. Similar structures appeared in Jupiter's gossamer rings in 1994, when the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into that gas giant's southern hemisphere, researchers said.
The new findings show that rings can act as historical documents, chronicling the violent pasts of their parent planets, researchers said.
Indiana University: STAR TRAK
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- For those who enjoy viewing clusters of planets, the evening sky in April may be a bit disappointing. Saturn will be the only planet visible for most of the night, until the sky starts to brighten toward dawn.
Saturn will be well above the southeastern horizon as darkness falls, one of the first "stars" to appear. The bright yellow planet will be opposite the sun in our sky on the night of April 3-4 ("at opposition"), and it will gleam at its biggest and brightest for the year. It will remain near its peak of visibility for most of the night throughout April. The best views through a telescope will be when it is highest in the southern sky in the middle of the night. Saturn will outshine nearby Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo the Maiden.
Space.com via MSNBC: NASA space inventions benefit all our lives on Earth
No, no Tang, but they did develop thousands of other life-changing products
By Mike Wall
Space.com
updated 4/1/2011
Contrary to popular belief, NASA didn’t invent Tang. But the space agency's contributions to people's everyday lives here on Earth still run wide and deep.
NASA's primary charter is to explore and better understand the cosmos. But much of the technology NASA developed in reaching for the stars has filtered down to the masses, leading to innovations such as more nutritious infant formula and sunglasses that block harmful ultraviolet light.
"We get better airplanes, or we get better weather forecasting from space stuff, sure," said Daniel Lockney, program executive in technology transfer and spinoff partnerships at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. "But we also get better-fed children. That kind of stuff, people don't necessarily associate."
Space.com via MSNBC: Crew practices for Endeavour's final launch day
Astronauts run through mock countdown to prepare for April 19 blastoff
By Clara Moskowitz
Space.com
updated 4/1/2011
The six astronauts set to ride the space shuttle Endeavour on its last voyage to space ran through a mock launch countdown Friday for practice.
Endeavour is set to lift off on its final STS-134 mission April 19. It will carry a large astrophysics experiment and a load of spare supplies to the International Space Station.
Today's launch dress rehearsal, called the terminal countdown demonstration test, allowed the astronauts to practice escaping from the orbiter in case of an emergency on the pad before liftoff.
Evolution/Paleontology
University of Florida via physorg.com: Study names new genus of 125-million-year-old eudicot from China
March 30, 2011
by Danielle Torrent
The study, scheduled to appear as the cover story in the March 31 issue of the journal Nature, describes the basal eudicot species, Leefructus mirus, which lived during the early Cretaceous period about 125 million years ago. It is most closely related to living plants in the buttercup family. Eudicots, known as “typical dicots,” are one of the largest groups of flowering plants.
“It is one of the oldest, most complete megafossils in the buttercup family,” said study co-author Hongshan Wang, paleobotany collections manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus. “Flowering plants are what we live on, the food we eat, the crops we have, even the furniture we sit on can come from the hardwood of flowering plants – but for the early history of flowering plants, we know very little, especially when we get into the Cretaceous.”
There are about 250,000 known species of angiosperms, or flowering plants, and this early evidence provides a link to understanding their rapid diversification during the Cretaceous period. Eudicots comprise about 75 percent of all angiosperms today, including peaches, apples, peas, sunflowers and roses.
The fossil was recovered from the middle Yixian Formation in Northeast China, which is part of the Jehol Biota, a community that has been extensively studied because of the unique plant and animal fossils found there.
University College Dublin (Ireland) via physorg.com: Long lost cousin of T. rex identified by scientists
Scientists have identified a new species of gigantic theropod dinosaur, a close relative of T. rex, from fossil skull and jaw bones discovered in China.
According to findings published online in the scientific journal Cretaceous Research, the newly named dinosaur species "Zhuchengtyrannus magnus" probably measured about 11 metres long, stood about 4 metres tall, and weighed close to 6 tonnes.
Comparable in size and scale to the legendary T. rex, this new dinosaur is one of the largest theropod (carnivorous) dinosaurs ever identified by scientists.
Alongside T. rex and the Asian Tarbosaurus, Zhuchengtyrannus magnus is one of a specialised group of gigantic theropods called tyrannosaurines. The tyrannosaurines existed in North America and eastern Asia during the Late Cretaceous Period, which lasted from about 99 to 65 million years ago.
Discovery News via MSNBC: Ancient Greeks' fossil bone finally laid to rest
Relic that may have inspired myths is heading for England after being lost and found
By Rossella Lorenzi
Discovery Channel
The bone of a large extinct creature, once treasured by the ancient Greeks, has finally found a permanent home in England.
Known as the Nichoria bone, the blackened fossil is part of the thigh bone of an immense extinct mammal that roamed southern Greece perhaps a million years ago. The bone was collected by ancient Greeks and may have even helped inspire certain beasts in Greek classical mythology. It was then rediscovered 40 years ago.
Since then the fossil had largely vanished from the public eye.
"It was presumed lost until 1998. Following my inquiries, the fossil was found stored in a cellar at the University of Minnesota. It then spent the last decade in various U.S. labs," Adrienne Mayor, a research scholar in Classics and History of Science at Stanford University, told Discovery News.
University of York (UK) via physorg.com: Unlocking the past with the West Runton Elephant
Researchers from the University of York and Manchester have successfully extracted protein from the bones of a 600,000 year old mammoth, paving the way for the identification of ancient fossils.
Using an ultra-high resolution mass spectrometer, bio-archaeologists were able to produce a near complete collagen sequence for the West Runton Elephant, a Steppe Mammoth skeleton which was discovered in cliffs in Norfolk in 1990. The remarkable 85 per cent complete skeleton – the most complete example of its species ever found in the world - is preserved by Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service in Norwich.
Santa Clara University via Business Wire: Archaeologists Unearth Remains of Two Ancient Mammoths in California
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Faculty and students from Foothill College, Santa Clara University, and San Jose State University are excavating a site in Monterey County where two Columbian Mammoths, an adult and an infant, have been found.
The team has uncovered about 10 percent of the skeletal remains, which are heavily fragmented and will need conservation and restoration. Archaeologists have also found hair, which may allow scientists to extract DNA. If successful, this will be the first published recovery of DNA from Columbian Mammoths, and it will also help experts learn the how they’re related to Wooly Mammoths and modern elephants.
A farmer in Castroville first found the bones in December while leveling his property with heavy equipment, exposing a tusk and molar. The farmer contacted Mark Hylkema, the Santa Cruz District archaeologist with California State Parks and the project director, who has since gathered a team involving Site Director Daniel Cearley, an anthropologist at Foothill College, and Project Coordinator Timothy King, an archaeologist and anthropologist at Santa Clara University.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Biodiversity
LiveScience: Vulnerable Gorilla Owes Fate to Climate Change and Humans
by Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 01 April 2011
A now critically endangered group of gorillas had split off into its own subspecies about 17,800 years ago, say researchers, who concluded that the evolution of the animal, the Cross River gorilla, was shaped by ancient climate change and, more recently, humans.
Some 1.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene Epoch, a common population of gorillas diverged into two species, western and eastern gorillas. Although the two species now live far from one another, they still look and behave quite similarly.
Based on their genetic work, Olaf Thalmann and Linda Vigilant of the University of Turku in Finland determine that the western species split into the Cross River and western lowland gorilla subspecies about 17,800 years ago. However, they found that some interbreeding continued until 420 years ago. Then, a century later, the number of Cross River gorillas plummeted sixtyfold.
LiveScience: Found! Bronx Zoo Cobra Alive & Well
LiveScience Staff
Date: 31 March 2011
Despite what you may have read on Twitter, the escaped Bronx Zoo cobra never left her house.
While a fake Twitter account posted updates of the cobra's whereabouts, zoo staff had a good idea where the cobra really was hiding. After a seven-day search in the zoo's Reptile House, the missing Egyptian cobra was found inside the building, officials from the Bronx Zoo announced today (March 31) at a news conference.
The deadly snake did not appear at the conference to explain herself. Officials at the press conference showed a photograph of the adolescent snake resting in a secure enclosure.
Biotechnology/Health
Michigan State University: Lack of motivation, equipment main barriers for exercise for boys
EAST LANSING, Mich. — A lack of equipment and venues - and a lack of motivation even if those were available - are the main barriers to physical activity for adolescent boys, according to recently published research from a Michigan State University nursing researcher.
A study of sixth-grade boys' attitudes led by Lorraine Robbins from MSU's College of Nursing suggests an after-school physical activity program could help overcome the decrease in exercise typically seen in this age group.
Robbins' research, published in the Journal of School Nursing, identified the benefits of and barriers to physical activity and suggested ways to increase exercise. A racially diverse set of sixth-grade boys from two public middle schools were brought together in seven focus groups.
"Recent data show less than 12 percent of boys at this age are reaching federal recommendations for physical activity," Robbins said. "There is an urgent need to intervene as soon as boys reach middle school to help prevent long-term health problems."
Michigan State University: Researcher to help low-income mothers improve health
EAST LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan State University nursing researcher has been awarded $3.3 million to help low-income mothers who are overweight or obese improve their health by eating well, being active and dealing with stress.
The intervention program, called Mothers In Motion and funded by the National Institutes of Health, is led by Mei-Wei Chang, a researcher at MSU's College of Nursing. Chang will partner with two community-based programs: the federally funded Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, and MSU Extension.
"More than 52 percent of American women 20 to 39 years old are at risk for having high blood sugar, heart disease and other health conditions because they are overweight or obese," Chang said. "To have a broad impact on obesity in our state, these partners have joined forces to address the underlying issues that cause weight gain in our target audience of young, low-income, overweight and obese mothers."
Purdue University: Study: 3 square meals a day paired with lean protein help people feel full during weight loss
March 30, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Eating fewer, regular-sized meals with higher amounts of lean protein can make one feel more full than eating smaller, more frequent meals, according to new research from Purdue University.
"We found that when eating high amounts of protein, men who were trying to lose weight felt fuller throughout the day; they also experienced a reduction in late-night desire to eat and had fewer thoughts of food," said Heather J. Leidy, an assistant professor of nutrition and exercise physiology at the University of Missouri who was a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue for this study.
"We also found that despite the common trend of eating smaller, more frequent meals, eating frequency had relatively no beneficial impact on appetite control. The larger meals led to reductions in appetite, and people felt full. We want to emphasize though that these three larger meals were restricted in calories and reflected appropriate portion sizes to be effective in weight loss."
The findings are reported in this month's issue of Obesity.
Michigan State University: The way to (kill) a bug’s heart is through its stomach
EAST LANSING, Mich. — A study at Michigan State University has revealed a potential new way for plants to fend off pests – starvation.
Gregg Howe, biochemistry and molecular biology professor, cites that this defense mechanism is just one example of a veritable evolutionary arms race between plants and herbivores.
Howe, in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers insights to understanding the chemical weaponry of this war, which could lead to new approaches to protect crops.
All plants produce the enzyme threonine deaminase, or TD1. Howe’s research focused on potato and tomato plants, which also have the ability to produce a closely related enzyme TD2 when attacked by caterpillars. Rather than repel caterpillars, however, TD2’s devastating effects come later – in the pests’ stomachs. TD2 goes to work in the gut of caterpillars to degrade threonine, a key nutrient they need to grow. In essence, the plant actively starves the caterpillar.
This looks like it could be another
Baccilus thuringensis toxin. The gene for that toxin has been spliced into corn, cotton, and soybeans. It kills pests, but it also is spread in pollen. It's still less dangerous than spraying conventional chemical insecticides.
Climate/Environment
University of Michigan: The Population Bomb: How we survived it
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—World population will reach 7 billion this year, prompting new concerns about whether the world will soon face a major population crisis.
"In spite of 50 years of the fastest population growth on record, the world did remarkably well in producing enough food and reducing poverty," said University of Michigan economist David Lam, in his presidential address at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America.
Lam is a professor of economics and a research professor at the U-M Institute for Social Research. The talk is titled "How the World Survived the Population Bomb: Lessons from 50 Years of Exceptional Demographic History."
In 1968, when Paul Ehrlich's book, "The Population Bomb," triggered alarm about the impact of a rapidly growing world population, growth rates were about 2 percent and world population doubled in the 39 years between 1960 and 1999.
According to Lam, that is something that never happened before and will never happen again.
Geology
Our Amazing Planet via MSNBC: Undersea volcanoes don't just ooze, they also explode
And study that finds high levels of carbon dioxide confirms it, scientists say
By Charles Q. Choi
OurAmazingPlanet
updated 4/1/2011
Deep-sea volcanoes can explode instead of just oozing, scientists now confirm.
The new proof — higher-than-expected levels of carbon dioxide in the magma from a volcano off the coast of Oregon —suggests the volcanoes may play a greater role in global climate than thought.
Of all the volcanic activity on Earth, 75 percent to 80 percent of it takes place at deep-sea ridges in the middle of the oceans. Most of these volcanoes apparently spew out huge volumes of lava instead of erupting explosively, as many volcanoes on land do.
Psychology/Behavior
Michigan State University: Study finds gender differences related to sexual harassment
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Sexual harassment may have become so commonplace for women that they have built up resistance to harassing behavior they consider merely “bothersome,” suggests a provocative new study by Michigan State University researchers.
This effect, said lead investigator Isis Settles, may be similar to the way people build up immunity to infection following exposure to a virus.
“When women view sexual harassment as bothersome, it doesn’t seem to be associated with distress,” said Settles, associate professor of psychology. “In some ways this suggests that sexual harassment is such a widespread problem that women have figured out ways to deal with it so it doesn’t interfere with their psychological well-being.”
University of Michigan: Media reports about uncommon acts of goodness can make good people even better
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—People with a strong moral identity are measurably inspired to do good after being exposed to media stories about uncommon acts of human goodness, says a researcher at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.
A new study by Brent McFerran, assistant professor of marketing at the Ross School, and colleague Karl Aquino, a professor at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, shows that exposure to media accounts of extraordinary virtue can spur "moral elevation"—thoughts and emotions about being a better person.
People who experience this moral elevation, they say, are more readily disposed to take positive moral action, including giving to charity.
"Showing acts of goodness may serve to broaden one's donor base and stand out in the charity marketplace," McFerran said. "Rather than showing wreckage from the tsunami (in Japan), for example, (let's) talk about people who have done extraordinary things to help. These stories might foster ordinary people to behave in extraordinary ways."
University of Michigan: Cause marketing lowers charitable donations
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Cause marketing—when firms share proceeds from the sale of products with a social cause—reduces charitable giving by consumers, says a researcher at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.
A new study forthcoming in the July issue of the Journal of Consumer Psychology shows that consumers who buy such products end up giving less money to a social cause or charity. Not only can cause marketing result in fewer donations, it can decrease consumer happiness, as well.
"Consumers appear to realize that participating in cause marketing is inherently more selfish than direct charitable donation, reducing their subsequent happiness (versus a direct donation)," said Aradhna Krishna, the Dwight F. Benton Professor of Marketing. "Unfortunately, this doesn't prevent them from substituting it for charitable giving, which reduces the overall charitable donation."
University of Michigan: Study illuminates the 'pain' of social rejection
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Physical pain and intense feelings of social rejection "hurt" in the same way, a new study shows.
The study demonstrates that the same regions of the brain that become active in response to painful sensory experiences are activated during intense experiences of social rejection.
"These results give new meaning to the idea that social rejection 'hurts'," said University of Michigan social psychologist Ethan Kross, lead author of the article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "On the surface, spilling a hot cup of coffee on yourself and thinking about how rejected you feel when you look at the picture of a person that you recently experienced an unwanted break-up with may seem to elicit very different types of pain.
"But this research shows that they may be even more similar than initially thought."
University of Michigan: Conscientious people earn more and save more for retirement
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Americans who are more conscientious have higher lifetime earnings and save more for retirement, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Retirement Research Center.
Individuals who are at the 85th percentile of conscientiousness earn about $1,500 more per year than the average American, which amounts to about $96,000 more in lifetime earnings and $158,000 more in lifetime savings.
"Conscientious people are reliable, meet deadlines and pay their bills on time," said Angela Lee Duckworth, a University of Pennsylvania psychologist and co-author of a paper on the subject with University of Michigan economist David Weir. "They are very hard working and self-disciplined. These are the people who go running, stick to their diets, and tend not to procrastinate."
Ohio State University: WOMEN’S BODY IMAGE BASED MORE ON OTHERS’ OPINIONS THAN THEIR OWN WEIGHT
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Women’s appreciation of their bodies is only indirectly connected to their body mass index (BMI), a common health measure of weight relative to height, according to recent research.
The most powerful influence on women’s appreciation of their bodies is how they believe important others view them, the study suggests. On the flip side, the more women are able to focus on the inner workings of their body – or how their bodies function and feel – rather than how they appear to others, the more they will appreciate their own bodies.
And the more a woman appreciates her body, the more likely she is to eat intuitively – responding to physical feelings of hunger and fullness rather than emotions or the mere presence of food.
“Women who focus more on how their bodies function and less on how they appear to others are going to have a healthier, more positive body image and a tendency to eat according to their bodies’ needs rather than according to what society dictates,” said Tracy Tylka, associate professor of psychology at Ohio State University and senior author of the study.
Rutgers University: Trauma in Aid Workers a Growing Concern
Monica Indart brings real-world, international experience in crisis intervention into the classroom
By Robin Warshaw
When natural disasters, wars, or other large-scale traumatic events hit a country, most of us watch images of the action from a safe distance. We may write a check – or text a donation – to help, but that’s usually the extent of our involvement.
Humanitarian aid workers have no such distance from emergencies. They staff field operations around the world, providing food, medical care, and other services to those who are suffering from either natural or human-directed catastrophes. Yet despite the benevolent purpose of their mission, they are often in danger.
“In the last seven years, humanitarian aid workers have increasingly been ‘soft targets’ in civil conflict and terrorism,” says Monica Indart, a visiting assistant professor in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP). “Aid workers used to be seen as off-limits (for violence). They’re not seen as sacrosanct anymore.”
Statistics from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs show that, in 2008, 260 humanitarian aid workers were attacked and seriously injured, kidnapped, or killed. The relative rate of attack increased by 61% in three years.
Archeology/Anthropology
News&Star (UK): Hadrian’s Wall needs some TLC – website
By Chris Story
Thursday, 31 March 2011
HADRIAN’S Wall has been named as the UK World Heritage Site “in second most need of attention”.
The rating was revealed following a study into major historical areas by travel website TripAdvisor.
Researchers from the company have based their findings on answers to questions given by thousands of people who visited Britain’s 28 World Heritage Sites.
Hadrian’s Wall failed to make it into the “in best condition” or “most recommend” lists.
It did, however, feature in the “most need of attention” category, featuring second – behind the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape – in the list of 10 places.
University of York via physorg.com: Scientists trace violent death of Iron Age man
An Iron Age man whose skull and brain was unearthed during excavations at the University of York was the victim of a gruesome ritual killing, according to new research.
Scientists say that fractures and marks on the bones suggest the man, who was aged between 26 and 45, died most probably from hanging, after which he was carefully decapitated and his head was then buried on its own.
Archaeologists discovered the remains in 2008 in one of a series of Iron Age pits on the site of the University’s £750 million campus expansion at Heslington East. Brain material was still in the skull which dates back around 2500 years making it one the oldest surviving brains in Europe.
This article is a follow up to
Brains on campus, sure, but 2,500 years old? from LiveScience via MSNBC, which was featured in
last week's Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday.
LiveScience: Millions of Mummy Puppies Revealed at Egyptian Catacombs
Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer
The excavation of a labyrinth of tunnels beneath the Egyptian desert has revealed the remains of millions of animals, mostly dogs and jackals. Many appear to have been only hours or days old when they were killed and mummified.
The Dog Catacombs, as they are known, date to 747-730 B.C., and are dedicated to the Anubis, the Egyptians' jackal-headed god of the dead. They were first documented in the 19th century; however, they were never fully excavated. A team, led by Paul Nicholson, an archaeologist at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, is now examining the tunnels and their contents, they announced this week.
LiveScience: Sweet Trading: Chocolate May Have Linked Prehistoric Civilizations
by Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer
Roughly 1,000 years ago, residents of pueblos in the American southwest appear to have had an appetite for imported chocolate, according to new research. The finding, based on chemical traces found in clay pots, is evidence of a strong connection between the southwestern puebloans and the ancient civilizations of Mexico and Central America.
This early version of chocolate was already known to be well-established thousands of miles to the south of what is now the southwestern United States. The Mayans, Aztecs and other ancient people from Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America) used beans from the native cacao plant to make a ceremonial drink, which they served frothy.
Until now, however, the evidence of cacao in the American southwest was limited. And since cacao does not grow outside the tropics, the discovery of plentiful traces of it far to the north indicates there was extensive trade between these distant societies, according to the researchers led by Dorothy Washburn, of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
If this story looks familiar, it's because it's a follow-up to
Pueblo traded for chocolate big-time from Science News.
One News via TVNZ (New Zealand): Loaded mystery pistol found in Victoria Tunnel
An archaeologist has been brought in after an old pistol was unearthed during construction of the Victoria Park Tunnel near Auckland's waterfront.
The semi-loaded pistol was discovered in an old well last month, and it could have even been a murder weapon.
"The pistol was found on the very base of the well so it looks like it was thrown in there while the well was still in use," said Archaeologist Sarah Phean.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
University of Michigan: Many U.S. women have children by more than one man
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The first national study of the prevalence of multiple partner fertility shows that 28 percent of all U.S. women with two or more children have children by more than one man.
The study will be presented April 1 in Washington, D.C., at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America.
"I was surprised at the prevalence," said demographer Cassandra Dorius, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. "Multiple partner fertility is an important part of contemporary American family life, and a key component to the net of disadvantage that many poor and uneducated women face every day ."
While previous studies have examined how common multiple partner fertility is among younger women, or among women who live in urban areas, the research by Dorius is the first to assess prevalence among a national sample of U.S. women who have completed their child-bearing years.
Physics
Discovery News via MSNBC: Heaviest antimatter produced yet makes debut
RHIC collider kicks out the rare helium-4 — and that's a very big deal
By Jennifer Ouellette
Discovery Channel
updated 3/31/2011
"There's that word again: 'heavy.' Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull?" — Doc Brown, "Back to the Future"
It seems antimatter might have a bit of a weight problem these days, if a new paper on the arXiv is to be believed — specifically, antimatter helium-4, an extremely rare (and heavy!) particle that just made its debut at Brookhaven's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).
The discovery was made by the STAR collaboration, designed to study the formation and characteristics of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a state of matter believed to have existed for ten-millionths of a second after the universe's birth. It then cooled and condensed to form the protons and neutrons that comprise matter today.
Physicists believe that in those first fractions of a second, the universe was so hot that no nuclei could exist. Instead, there was the QGP, made of quarks and gluons (the massless particles that “carry” the force between quarks). Nuclear and particle physicists had long dreamed of making this exotic plasma in a laboratory and investigating it experimentally. Because of the enormous energies required, the lab would have to be a particle accelerator.
That's where RHIC comes in.
Chemistry
Ohio State University: SCIENTISTS UNLOCK MYSTERY OF HOW THE 22ND AMINO ACID IS PRODUCED
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The most recently discovered amino acid, pyrrolysine, is produced by a series of just three chemical reactions with a single precursor – the amino acid lysine, according to new research.
Scientists at Ohio State University used mass spectrometry and a series of experiments to discover how cells make the amino acid, a process that until now had been unknown.
They confirmed that pyrrolysine is made from enzymatic reactions with two lysine molecules – a surprising finding, given that some portions of its structure suggested to researchers that it might have more complex origins.
The research is published in the March 31 issue of the journal Nature.
Ohio State University: TWINKLE, TWINKLE, QUANTUM DOT – NEW PARTICLES CAN CHANGE COLORS AND TAG MOLECULES
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Engineers at Ohio State University have invented a new kind of nano-particle that shines in different colors to tag molecules in biomedical tests.
These tiny plastic nano-particles are stuffed with even tinier bits of electronics called quantum dots. Like little traffic lights, the particles glow brightly in red, yellow, or green, so researchers can easily track molecules under a microscope.
This is the first time anyone has created fluorescent nano-particles that can change colors continuously.
Energy
University of Wisconsin: New plan details Wisconsin’s potential to turn millions of exported energy dollars into revenues
March 28, 2011
A collaboration of researchers, business leaders, policymakers and industry experts has identified a plan for capitalizing on the biogas energy opportunity in Wisconsin. The strategic plan, titled "The Biogas Opportunity in Wisconsin," was released today and can be downloaded at http://www.wbi.wisc.edu/....
Biogas is a product of anaerobic digestion, a process that decomposes organic matter like manure, crops or food waste to produce biogas and other byproducts. The gas can be combusted to produce electricity or combined heat and power, cleaned and upgraded to pipeline quality gas for injection into existing natural gas systems or cleaned to create compressed natural gas for vehicle fuels.
While Wisconsin leads the nation with 31 anaerobic digesters, there is ample opportunity to expand homegrown energy use throughout the state. The plan, published by the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative (WBI), is the first step in a comprehensive series of efforts to bring more biogas systems to farms, communities and food processing facilities statewide.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
Indiana University: Indiana Geological Survey is key partner in U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana Geological Survey, a research institute of Indiana University, has been chosen as one of the U.S. partners in the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC), an international research collaboration.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for Indiana University researchers to collaborate with leading universities, national laboratories, and corporations in both China and the U.S. to address the challenges associated with coal utilization," said John Rupp, who is leading IGS participation in the project. "Because Indiana is a highly coal-dependent state, developing these technologies is crucial to developing dependable and affordable energy."
In November 2009, presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao agreed to establish CERC. The center's primary purpose is to facilitate joint research, development, and commercialization of clean energy technologies for the United States and China. This collaboration will also build a foundation of knowledge, human capabilities, and relationships in mutually beneficial areas that will emphasize clean energy usage in both nations.
Michigan State University: MSU prof calls for carbon labeling of consumer goods
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Labeling products with information on the size of the carbon footprint they leave behind could help both consumers and manufacturers make better, environmentally friendly choices.
A Michigan State University professor and colleagues, writing in the April issue of the journal Nature Climate Change, said that labeling products, much like food products contain labels with nutritional information, could offer at least a short-term solution.
“Even modest changes in the household sector could significantly reduce emissions,” wrote Thomas Dietz, a professor of sociology who also is with MSU’s Environmental Science and Policy Program. “A carbon-labeling program could reduce carbon emissions in two ways: By influencing consumer choices and by encouraging firms to identify efficiencies throughout the supply chain.”
Recent surveys, Dietz said, have found that nearly one-third of all consumers are willing to purchase “green” products or have already done so. The problem, he said, is a lack of information.
This hasn't been done before? Really? In any event, this looks like an idea whose time has come.
Indiana University: Indiana University study: Emissions trading doesn't cause pollution 'hot spots'
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Programs that allow facilities to buy and sell emission allowances have been popular and effective since they were introduced in the U.S. two decades ago. But critics worry the approach can create heavily polluted "hot spots" in low-income and minority communities.
A new study by Evan Ringquist, professor in the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, finds the problem hasn't materialized -- that the efficiency gains of allowance trading have not come at the expense of equitable treatment of minorities and the poor.
"There is very little evidence that allowance trading causes 'hot spots,'" Ringquist said. "This study finds there is no inherent trade-off between efficiency and equity when using market-based instruments for pollution control."
Rutgers University: Laws Interfering with Desire to Start Families
CAMDEN — Revolutionary reproductive technology has assisted thousands of people who have been unable to have children for various reasons. But could the law ultimately interfere with a person’s desire to bring children into a family? A Rutgers–Camden professor says it will.
“I think the law is moving in a restrictive direction,” says Kimberly Mutcherson, an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Law–Camden. “Many would say that we need more lawmaking; we need consistency and uniformity to address issues concerning reproductive technology. My position has always been that those laws often close doors.”
Recently, a New Jersey appeals court ruled against a woman whose child was born to a surrogate. The court ruled that the woman must adopt the baby, which was conceived through in vitro fertilization, in order to be considered its mother. The woman and her husband had arranged for the surrogate to carry their baby.
Genetics Policy Institute via Business Wire: Stem Cell Action Coalition Calls for Minnesota Governor Dayton to Veto Anti-Stem Cell Research Legislation
The Stem Cell Action Coalition issued an urgent appeal to Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton to veto any legislation that contains any impediment to lawful embryonic stem cell research in the state.
Bernard Siegel, J.D., spokesperson of the Coalition and executive director of the Genetics Policy Institute, said, “Minnesota is one of the leading states in biomedical research. It would be misguided to handcuff Minnesota’s world-class researchers that are using embryonic stem cells to seek potentially lifesaving cures. Without any scientific basis, Minnesota lawmakers are being stampeded into passing laws that will likely have tragic consequences for patients.”
Science Education
University of California: Cyber-archaeology aids research in Middle East
Some of the world’s most advanced archaeological research is taking place not at a dusty excavation site, but in a tiny laboratory atop a vegetable market in southern Jordan, where archaeologists from UC San Diego have traded in their picks and shovels for databases and digital tools.
Known as the UCSD CISA3 Jordan Cyber-archaeology Lab, the facility was established in the village of Shobak, Jordan, as a year-round state-of-the-art research and training facility for UC San Diego graduate students and other foreign scholars, as well as Jordanian archaeologists interested in digital archaeology tools. The lab is a showcase for advanced digital methodologies to find and protect artifacts of cultural heritage — methodologies established at the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3), based in the UC San Diego division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2).
“UCSD has five different archaeological field projects in Jordan conducted by UCSD CISA3 faculty, staff and graduate students,” notes UC San Diego anthropology professor Thomas E Levy, who also is associate director of CISA3. “It is impossible to ship all the artifacts recovered from these excavations out of the country, so it is important to have a local presence where we can apply the same digital archaeology techniques we carry out at UCSD, but in Jordan around the year.”
Indiana Daily Student: Student archaeology project helps Habitat
By Rachel Cerrone
At the corner of East Thornton Street and Huntington Drive, senior Bob Zerface held what appeared to be a small, smooth rock in his palm as Cheryl Munson, research scientist in the department of anthropology at IU, examined it.
The object was actually not a rock at all — it is what archaeologists call a flake, something produced by Native Americans thousands of years ago.
“Flakes are debris from the process of making tools, produced by applying pressure against a larger piece of flint or chert to shape the tool,” Munson said.
The presence of flakes meant there had been prehistoric Native Americans on the land at some point, Munson said.
University of California, Berkeley: Grad-student archaeologist returns to coal country to aid a vibrant movement
By Cathy Cockrell, NewsCenter | April 1, 2011
BERKELEY — Brandon Nida wants to save a mountain. Coal-rich Blair Mountain. In Appalachia, where coal is king and traditional underground mining is giving way to a radical extractive technology known as “mountaintop removal.”
A Berkeley archaeology and anthropology student proud of his hillbilly roots, Nida is doing his doctoral research in his native West Virginia. There, he’s a board member of Friends of Blair Mountain, a local grassroots organization, and an outspoken critic of mountaintop removal (MTR), which involves clearcutting mountain ridges, blasting away hundreds of vertical feet of soil and rock to expose underlying coal seams and depositing loose material in adjacent valleys.
“Absolutely devastating,” Nida says of MTR’s impact on the landscape, ecology, human health and traditional life ways in Appalachia. At the same time, he says, the new face of coal mining has galvanized a “really, really vibrant” movement — of which he counts himself a part.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Michigan State University: MSU kicks off Earth Month with weekly ‘Dim Down’
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University will kick off Earth Month festivities this Friday, April 1, with the annual Dim Down program.
Sponsored by the MSU Office of Campus Sustainability, the program is designed to encourage faculty, staff and students to engage in collaborative energy conservation.
Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to participate in voluntary energy conservation each Friday from noon to 1 p.m. throughout the month of April by turning off lights, computer monitors, speakers and other nonessential items.
...
“The Dim Down program has very successful in the past several years at MSU,” said Ashley Hale, senior communication undergraduate and founder of the Dim Down Program. “In 2009, Dim Down events equated to a 3 percent decrease in overall energy usage on campus.”
Steering committee to guide MSU energy transition
EAST LANSING, Mich. — A steering committee composed of 24 Michigan State University faculty, staff, administrators and students will help guide the university as it transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.
Members have critical knowledge in engineering, economics, health, conservation and behavior. The group will create draft goals and strategies for public feedback and external review.
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The formation of the committee is just the latest step in MSU’s energy-transition process. For more than a year, MSU has been engaging in an energy-transitioning process. Staff and administrators have collected data, created educational and financial models and commissioned a study to evaluate energy infrastructure.
The committee is scheduled to submit the transition plan to the MSU Board of Trustees in early winter 2012.
Purdue University: Purdue to use $1.25 million NSF grant to launch sustainable energy learning program for rural Indiana teachers
March 21, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University researchers are leading a program for Indiana's rural high school teachers that encourages participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to groom the next generation of leaders in sustainable energy.
The Discovery Learning Research Center in Purdue's Discovery Park is launching Research Goes to School, a five-year statewide STEM initiative supported by a $1.25 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
"Creating a format for delivering the advanced STEM research done at Purdue into Indiana high school classrooms is very important to Purdue," said Tim Sands, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at Purdue.
Science Writing and Reporting
Harvard University via physorg.com: Professor moves Greek texts, Arabic translations online
Long before the Italians rediscovered original Greek sources during the Renaissance, Arab scholars recognized the importance of ancient science and philosophy and began translating precious writings into Arabic. Now, Classics Professor Mark Schiefsky wants to transform those ancient Greek texts and their Arabic translations into an open-access digital corpus that could provide important insight into the development of science in the classical world.
During the Abbasid period, which began in the mid-eighth century, Islamic caliphs started sponsoring the translation of ancient Greek and Roman texts. While Arabs had their own literary traditions and did not systematically translate Greek literature, they were interested in Greco-Roman mathematical and medical treatises and philosophical writings.
“People recognized that Greek texts contained a lot of knowledge that superseded the knowledge available in the Arab world at that time, and realized that it would be fruitful to adopt that knowledge,” Schiefsky explained.
He added that the decision to translate these texts was motivated in part by a desire to compete with the Byzantine Empire to the West.
“The Arabs wanted to say they were the true inheritors of the Greek tradition,” he said.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Michigan State University: Book promotes sustainable fisheries
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Few concepts seem more limitless than the idea of all the fish in the ocean – a comforting assumption that is both false and dangerous, says a new book.
Sustainable Fisheries: Multi-Level Approaches to a Global Problem presents many approaches to the issue of unsustainable fisheries, provides potential solutions and is a call to action for a conference on global sustainable fisheries, said Abigail Lynch, University Distinguished Fellow, doctoral student in fisheries and one of the book’s editors.
“We see this as a lightning rod – a way to give vital information to policymakers and bring an important issue to the forefront,” said Lynch, who worked on the book with a number of people from MSU’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability.
This book discusses the importance of fisheries from a global perspective, describes current fisheries failings and provides recommendations for more sustainable practices such as food and livelihood security, ecosystem-based and community-based management, governance reforms, reduced capacity and accountability.
You can buy the book by clicking on the link in the book's title.
Science is Cool
LiveScience: Behind the Scenes: Capturing The Fugitive … In Art
Francesca Casadio, The Art Institute of Chicago
What do Winslow Homer’s “For to Be a Farmer’s Boy” (1887) and Vincent van Gogh’s “The Bedroom” (1889) have in common?
First, they are both displayed at the Art Institute of Chicago — Homer’s painting represents a high point in the career of America’s premiere watercolorist, while Van Gogh’s painting is perhaps one of most recognizable paintings in the world. However, they also share a key physical trait.
“These breathtaking artworks are both painted with colorants that are sensitive to light, or, as we say in museums, they are ‘fugitive,’ meaning they quickly vanish if exposed to too much light,” says Francesca Casadio, A.W. Mellon Sr. Conservation Scientist at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC). “Fading can dramatically change the color balance of fragile works of art and go so far as to obfuscate, in part, the artist’s intended effect.”
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
MSNBC: Sci-fi director cracks 'Source Code'
By Alan Boyle
Film director Duncan Jones has developed a knack for sci-fi movies with mind-blowing twists, such as "Moon" and the just-released sci-fi thriller "Source Code." Just as "Moon" is more than a space movie, "Source Code" is more than a time-travel movie — but explaining why would totally give away the mind-blowing twist.
Wayne State University: SportScience, featuring WSU's Cynthia Bir, nominated for two awards at 32nd annual Sports Emmys
DETROIT - SportScience, the popular television series featuring WSU Professor of Biomedical Engineering Cynthia Bir, was nominated for two awards at the 32nd annual Sports Emmys, which will be held Monday, May 2, 2011, at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, in New York City.
The SportScience team is nominated for Outstanding Graphic Design and Outstanding New Approaches - Sports Programming - Short Format. The show's first two seasons earned a total of six nominations and three wins at the Sports Emmys.
The series uncovers sports' biggest myths and mysteries by using cutting-edge technology to measure momentum, friction and the laws of gravity. Bir, who is the show's lead scientist, helps viewers understand the internal and external forces sustained and generated by the body during high-level athletic activities.
University of Wisconsin: Director of Oscar-nominated documentary to appear at Wisconsin Film Festival
March 28, 2011
by Tom Sinclair
Filmmaker Jennifer Redfearn will appear at the Wisconsin premiere of her recent documentary "Sun Come Up," which was nominated for a 2011 Academy Award, on the final day of the Wisconsin Film Festival.
Redfearn is expected to introduce the 38-minute film and hold a question-and-answer session with the audience after the screening, beginning at 1:45 p.m. on Sunday, April 3, at the Chazen Museum of Art, 800 University Ave.
Nominated for an Oscar in the Best Documentary Short category, "Sun Come Up" depicts the plight of the Carteret Islanders near Papua New Guinea, who have been called the modern world's first climate-change refugees because as global temperatures and sea levels rise, ocean tides are washing away their shores and salt is seeping into their soil.
