Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors ScottyUrb, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir and jlms qkw, 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 Arizona and Michigan. Coming up, it's Super Tuesday!
This week's featured stories come from Agence France Presse via physorg.com and Arizona State University, respectively.
Stark warning emerges from science summit
A stark theme emerged from an annual scientific get-together in Vancouver: the world must be helped to believe in science again or it could be too late to save our planet.
by Deborah Jones
February 21, 2012
Science is "under siege," top academics and educators were warned repeatedly at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting as they were urged to better communicate their work to the public.
Scientific solutions are needed to solve global crises -- from food and water shortages to environmental destruction -- "but the public now does not understand science," leading US climate change expert and NASA scientist James Hansen told the meeting.
"We have a planetary emergency, and very few people recognize that."
Everything from fleeting to grandiose: ASU researchers talk up science at AAAS
Posted: February 22, 2012
By Margaret Coulombe, Skip Derra, Jenny Green, Richard Harth and Carol Hughes
From detecting material phenomena at the microscale via femotsecond laser pulses, to applying the laws of physics to intergalactic travel, Arizona State University researchers talked up science and research advances at the 2012 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This year’s meeting took place Feb. 16-20, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The annual meeting is the premier meeting for scientists and researchers to gather to discuss their latest findings.
More stories, including others presented at AAAS, after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
The Daily Bucket - first green: 2011 and 2012
by bwren
About the Heartland Institute's evidence for the Hoax that is Climate Change
by jamess
This week in science: Fire and ice
by DarkSyde
Slideshows/Videos
KVAL: Profit or preservation? Debate rages over Titanic treasures
By Ty Steele KVAL News
Published: Feb 17, 2012 at 5:45 PM PST
EUGENE, Ore. -- The Titanic captivated the world when it sank in 1912. And it’s continued to fascinate for generations. Now, $200 million-worth of Titanic treasures are up for auction April 15th—100 years to the day after the ship set sail.
But as the centennial approaches, a Eugene archaeologist, said he strongly objects to the removal and auction of the artifacts from the ship.
“I don’t think the site has been treated properly,” said archaeologist Richard Pettigrew, at his home office in Eugene on Friday. “It hasn’t been treated scientifically, or with the kind of respect that it should be treated with, and that’s why I’m objecting to it.”
ITN News on YouTube: Mud Men finds go on display at British Museum
Mud Men's Johnny Vaughan proudly shows off two items found in the series, which have gone on display at the British Museum. Report by Sam Datta-Paulin.
Michigan State University on YouTube: Bringing History to life
In a narrow, modest laboratory in Michigan State University's Giltner Hall, students pore over African skeletons from the Middle Ages in an effort to make the bones speak.
Michigan State University:
Making the bones speak
By Andy Henion and Todd Fenton
February 22, 2012
In a narrow, modest laboratory in Michigan State University’s Giltner Hall, students pore over African skeletons from the Middle Ages in an effort to make the bones speak.
Little is known about these Nubians, meaning the information collected by graduate and undergraduate students in MSU’s Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Program will help shed light on this unexplored culture.
“This is generally an unknown group of people, so what we get to do with the skeletal collection is really make the bones speak,” said Carolyn Hurst, a doctoral student in physical anthropology who is leading the lab this academic year.
The 409 skeletons – dating from the sixth to 15th centuries – were rescued several years ago from gravesites on Mis Island, located along the Nile River in present day Sudan, before the region became a dam. The collection is on loan to MSU from the prestigious British Museum.
The students' findings are summarized in
Ancient Nubians: A hard life.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Life in ancient Nubia could be brutal. Residents of Mis Island – a remote area along the Fourth Cataract of the Nile River in present day Sudan – were plagued by meager diets, high infant mortality and diseases such as scurvy and tuberculosis.
That’s part of the story developing from a collection of more than 400 Nubian skeletons currently housed at Michigan State University, where student researchers in the Department of Anthropology are analyzing the remains. The data they collect could provide a better understanding of this mysterious culture dating from the sixth to 15th centuries.
Angela Soler, who recently earned her doctorate in physical anthropology from MSU, led a group of graduate and undergraduate students in analyzing the adult skeletons last year. Soler found evidence of numerous cases of tuberculosis and some evidence of leprosy.
“Life must have been difficult for these individuals and we see that in the skeletal remains,” said Soler, whose dissertation was based on the collection.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these links and videos.
Michigan State University on YouTube: Campus Happenings: It Started with a Rock Collection
An exhibit celebrating the accomplishments of Charles Darwin is on display at the MSU Museum through April 24.
Arizona Public Media: Tucson Scientist Remembers First Earth Orbit
Story By Tony Paniagua
February 20, 2012
It's been 50 years since astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth and local resident Bill Hartmann remembers this date fondly.
Hartmann is a planetary scientist, writer and artist who is co-founder of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson.
He remembers Feb. 20, 1962 when Glenn made history. Hartmann and other colleagues at the University of Arizona were paying close attention to the developments.
Astronomy/Space
University of Michigan: Fastest wind from stellar mass black hole discovered
Published on Feb 22, 2012
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The fastest wind ever discovered blowing off a disk around a stellar-mass black hole has been observed by a team of astronomers that includes a University of Michigan doctoral student.
Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, an orbiting telescope, they clocked the record-breaking super wind at about 20 million mph, or about 3 percent of the speed of light. This is nearly 10 times faster than astronomers had previously observed from a stellar-mass black hole.
"This is like the cosmic equivalent of winds from a category five hurricane," said Ashley King, a doctoral student in the Department of Astronomy and lead author of the study published in the Feb. 20 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. "We weren't expecting to see such powerful winds from a black hole like this."
University of Arizona: UA-China Collaboration Advances Astronomy Research
By Shelley Littin, NASA Space Grant intern
University Communications, February 22, 2012
The project represents a major step forward for international astronomy partnerships.
A collaboration between astronomers at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory and at the National Astronomical Observatory of China has led to a better camera for one of the UA's telescopes on Kitt Peak, and better pictures of the sky for the Chinese astronomers.
"Chinese science and astronomy are expanding very rapidly, so in order to train and to give facilities to their scientists, at the moment anyway, they need to seek places outside of China," said Edward Olszewski, an astronomer at the UA's Steward Observatory.
"The Chinese built a very large telescope near Beijing that can take light spectra of objects in the sky to measure the distance of the galaxies or the age or the compositions of the stars," said Olszewski. "It's the biggest telescope of that kind in the world right now."
Arizona State University: Moon images show crust pulling apart
Posted: February 20, 2012
New images acquired by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft show that the Moon’s crust is pulling apart – at least in some small areas. The high-resolution images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) provide evidence that the Moon has experienced relatively recent geologic activity.
In the new LROC images, a team of researchers discovered small, narrow trenches typically only hundreds to a few thousand meters (yards) long and tens to hundreds of meters wide, indicating the lunar crust is being pulled apart at these locations. These linear troughs or valleys, known as graben, are formed when crust is stretched, breaks and drops down along two bounding faults. A handful of these graben systems have been found across the lunar surface. The team proposes that the geologic activity that created the graben occurred less than 50 million years ago (very recent compared to the Moon’s current age of over 4.5 billion years).
In August, 2010, the team identified physical signs of contraction on the lunar surface, in the form of lobe-shaped ridges or scarps (known as lobate scarps), using LROC images. They suggest that these scarps indicate the Moon shrank globally in the geologically recent past and might still be shrinking today. The team saw these scarps widely distributed across the Moon and concluded that it was shrinking as the interior slowly cooled. The new images of graben therefore present a contradiction – regions of the lunar crust that are being pulled apart as the Moon shrinks.
Evolution/Paleontology
Community Research and Development Information Service (European Union) via physorg.com: Study finds decomposition responsible for fossilised deformations
February 21, 2012
A two-man research team from Germany and Switzerland has discovered how the decomposition of dead dinosaurs triggered strange deformations of fossilised dinosaurs. The finding counters what most researchers believed, i.e. that the dinosaurs' twisted posture was the result of death spasms.
The near-complete and articulated skeletons of dinosaurs with a long neck and tail usually exhibit a body posture in which the head and neck are recurved over the back of the animal. This posture, also known from Archaeopteryx, has been fascinating paleontologists for over 150 years. It was called `bicycle pose¿ when talking with a wink, or 'opisthotonic posture' in a more oppressive way of speaking. Opisthotonic posture is triggered by a lack of vitamins, poisoning or damage to the cerebellum.
The cerebellum is a region in the brain that controls fine muscle movement. Antigravity muscles, responsible for ensuring the head and tail are kept upright, are found in the cerebellum. Operational failure of the cerebellum leads to the full clenching of antigravity muscles, and then the tipping of the head and tail and limb contraction.
Drexel University via physorg.com: Robotic dinosaurs on the way for next-gen paleontology at Drexel
February 21, 2012
Researchers at Drexel University are bringing the latest technological advancements in 3-D printing to the study of ancient life. Using scale models of real fossils, for the first time, they will be able to test hypotheses about how dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals moved and lived in their environments.
"Technology in paleontology hasn't changed in about 150 years," said Drexel paleontologist Dr. Kenneth Lacovara, an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences. "We use shovels and pickaxes and burlap and plaster. It hasn't changed -- until right now."
Royal Veternary College (UK) via physorg.com: New research provides clear answer to debate on dinosaur posture
February 23, 2012
Research published today (22nd February) provides, for the first time, a clear answer to the debate as to whether Triceratops and other extinct creatures took on a more mammal-like or more reptile like posture.
Dr. Shin-ichi Fujiwara from the University of Tokyo and Professor John Hutchinson from the Royal Veterinary College have developed a new, advanced method that provides insight into the kinds of forelimb postures animals might use, derived from simple measurements on bones.
Findings using the new method show that, contrary to popular belief, Triceratops had quite upright forelimbs like larger mammals, not splayed out to the sides like most reptiles and amphibians. This understanding changes the way we visualise the posture and motion of Triceratops, and also suggests that the animal might have been more athletic than previously thought.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Michigan State University: Studying the evolution of life’s building blocks
Published: Feb. 19, 2012
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Studying the origin of life at its building blocks offers a unique perspective on evolution, says a researcher at Michigan State University.
...
Paleontologists study ancient life and reason that each species is a modification of the previous generation. Geneticists embrace this theory and trace the lineage of genes. Root-Bernstein wondered if there could be another level of paleontology embedded in the molecules that reflect evolution from the earliest stages of life and found in prebiotic chemistry, the study of chemical reactions that may have sparked the beginnings of life.
“By studying modules built from very simple chemicals, I’m hoping that it will lead to an understanding of a molecular paleontology in modern systems,” he said. “Whether it’s a human or a bacterium, we’re all made from the same basic modules that have more than likely been around since the beginning of time.”
Northern Arizona University: Evolution of staph ‘superbug’ traced between humans and food animals
Feb. 21, 2012
A strain of the potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant bacterium known as MRSA has jumped from food animals to humans, according to a new study involving two Northern Arizona University researchers.
...
The research focused on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus CC398, also known as pig MRSA or livestock-associated MRSA because it most often infects people with direct exposure to swine or other food animals. It is likely that MRSA CC398 started as an antibiotic-susceptible strain in humans before it jumped to food animals.
After transferring to food animals, MRSA CC398 became resistant to two important antibiotics, tetracycline and methicillin, which are used for treating staph infections. The resistance likely is a result of the routine antibiotic use that characterizes modern food animal production. The animals commonly are given antibiotics to prevent infection and promote growth.
Biodiversity
Popular Science: Russian Scientists Grow Pleistocene-Era Plants From Seeds Buried By Squirrels 30,000 Years Ago
By Rebecca Boyle
Posted 02.21.2012 at 12:33 pm
On the frozen edge of the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia, in an ancient pantry harboring seeds and other stores, an Arctic ground squirrel burrowed into the dirt and buried a small, dark fruit from a flowering plant. The squirrel’s prize quickly froze in the cold ground and was preserved in permafrost, waiting to grow into a fully fledged flowering plant until it was unearthed again. After 30,000 years, it finally was. Scientists in Russia have now regenerated this Pleistocene plant, transplanting it into a pot in the lab. A year later, it grew forth and bore fruit.
The specimen is distinctly different from the modern-day version of Silene stenophylla, or narrow-leafed Campion. It suggests that the permafrost is a potential new source of ancient gene pools long believed to be extinct, scientists said.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
University of Arizona: UA Pursues Links Between Worms and Their Bacteria
By Susan McGinley, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
February 20, 2012
The NemaSym Research Coordination Network is an opportunity for scientists to collaborate on nematode research.
Nematodes, commonly called roundworms, inhabit every ecosystem on Earth. About 30,000 species have been described so far; scientists also suspect that as many as 1 million species exist.
Many of these roundworms are linked with bacteria in a wide variety of relationships that can benefit or harm plants, animals and humans.
The Nematode-Bacterium Symbioses Research Coordination Network, headquartered at the University of Arizona, focuses on microbe and roundworm interactions as model systems for understanding biological processes, primarily in medicine and agriculture.
Wayne State University: Wayne State University researcher examines effects of jack pine wildfire remnants on ecosystem
February 23, 2012
DETROIT - Successful efforts to restore populations of an endangered bird species in northern lower Michigan have cleared the way for researchers to look at the effects of that restoration on the rest of the ecosystem.
Kirtland's warblers, which nest in the jack pine forests of Michigan (and secondarily Wisconsin and Ontario), were in danger of extinction in the 1970s, with only about 400 birds in existence. Habitat restoration efforts, according to state of Michigan officials, have involved management by logging, burning, seeding and replanting on a rotational basis to provide approximately 38,000 acres of productive nesting habitat for the birds at all times, and there now are close to 2,000 nesting pairs. Kirtland's warblers nest on the ground below young jack pines, around the edges of patches of other types of trees and vegetation. The jack pines must be 5 to 25 years old to make suitable homes for the birds.
While habitat restoration helps grow the bird population, Dan Kashian, Wayne State University assistant professor of biological sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and other researchers and wildlife and forest managers have begun to examine how it affects everything else in the forests. Jack pines depend on fire because the cones that contain their seeds require heat to break them open and prepare the ground for seedlings. Those fires once were started mainly by lightning strikes, Kashian said, and created the habitat required to sustain Kirtland's warblers. Relatively few fires burn the landscape today, making warbler management dependent on large jack pine plantations meant to mimic natural forests.
Large wildfires in jack pines leave behind "stringers" - Kashian's name for unburned stretches of mature trees and other vegetation - interspersed among the burned jack pine areas. Warbler plantations rarely include those features.
Biotechnology/Health
University of Michigan: Too much of a good thing? Kids in low-income families drink more juice than recommended
About half of kids under age 6 in low income families drink twice the recommended servings of juice per day
February 22, 2012
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – To help keep at bay health risks such as childhood obesity and early tooth decay, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting fruit juice in children age 1-6 to one serving per day.
A new report from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health shows that many kids in low-income families are getting more than the recommended amount of juice.
The Poll asked parents of young children of all economic levels about their children’s juice consumption. Overall, 35 percent of parents report that their children 1-5 years old have two or more cups of juice on a typical day – twice the amount recommended by the AAP.
Michigan State University: MSU investigation links deaths to paint-stripping chemical
Published: Feb. 23, 2012
EAST LANSING, Mich. — The deaths of at least 13 workers who were refinishing bathtubs have been linked to a chemical used in products to strip surfaces of paint and other finishes.
An investigation started by researchers at Michigan State University in 2011 has found that 13 deaths since 2000 - including three in Michigan - involved the use of paint-stripping products containing methylene chloride, a highly volatile, colorless and toxic chemical that is widely used as a degreaser and paint stripper. The chemical, in addition to being used in industrial settings, is available in many over-the-counter products sold at home improvement stores.
"To use products containing methylene chloride safely, work areas must be well-ventilated, and when levels of methylene chloride exceed recommended exposure limits, workers must use protective equipment," said Kenneth Rosenman, chief of MSU's Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in the College of Human Medicine. "In a small bathroom, it is unlikely these products can be used safely."
While it previously was identified as a potentially fatal occupational hazard in furniture strippers and factory workers, a report released today in the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report is the first time methylene chloride has been identified as a hazard to bathtub refinishers.
Wayne State University: Researchers find that African-American preemies are more likely to die after leaving NICU
February 22, 2012
Wayne State University School of Medicine researchers on staff at the Detroit Medical Center's Hutzel Women's Hospital have discovered that babies who die after discharge from a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are more often from an African-American background, have had longer stays in the NICU than other preterm babies and have unknown or no health insurance.
The study, "Risk Factors for Post-NICU Discharge Mortality Among Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants," is scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics and is available on http://www.pubmed.com/.
...
Of the 4,807 infants the study successfully followed until 18 to 22 months of age, 107 died after discharge. The team discovered that the odds of death after NICU discharge were double in African-American infants compared to other racial groups, three times higher in infants who were in the NICU for more than 120 days and 15 times higher if the mother's insurance status was unknown.
The latter conclusion was certainly the most astounding, the researchers said, and indicates the mothers likely had poorer access to health care, including appropriate follow-up care.
University of Arizona: Genome Sequencing Finds Unknown Cause of Epilepsy
By Daniel Stolte, University Communications
February 23, 2012
UA researchers have identified a previously unknown mutation in a sodium channel protein as the likely cause of a severe form of epilepsy.
Only 10 years ago, deciphering the genetic information from one individual in a matter of weeks to find a certain disease-causing genetic mutation would have been written off as science fiction.
It was the time of the Human Genome Project, and it had taken armies of sequencing robots working around the clock for almost a decade to unravel the complete sequence of the human genetic code – referred to as the genome – by churning out the DNA alphabet letter by letter.
Now a team headed by Michael Hammer from the University of Arizona applied Next Generation Genome Sequencing to decipher the entire DNA from a patient who had died from sudden unexplained epileptic death.
Climate/Environment
University of Michigan: Protecting people from deadly floods, quakes in the Philippines
Written by William Foreman
Published on Feb 22, 2012
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Typhoons thrash the Philippines every year, causing flash flooding and mudslides that often kill hundreds of people in the Southeast Asian nation. Many blame the death and destruction on the wrath of nature. But Gavin Shatkin has a different view.
"Disasters are not natural," said Shatkin, an associate professor of urban planning at the University of Michigan. "They happen because of social structures."
The problem with the Philippines–especially its sprawling capital, Manila–is that too many people live in areas vulnerable to deadly flooding because they can't afford to dwell in safer places, Shatkin said.
Another problem is a lack of information. "They're limited with what they can do because they don't have basic data that says where the people are who are most threatened by floods," he said.
Michigan Tech: Michigan Tech Falsely Accused of Accepting Anti-Climate Change Research Funding
By Jennifer Donovan
February 24, 2012
Contrary to allegations published in a Chronicle of Higher Education article on Feb. 22, 2012, neither Michigan Technological University nor the faculty member mentioned has been offered or received any funding from the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based nonprofit supported by people who are alleged to be skeptical of anthropogenic or human-caused climate change.
A letter from the environmental group Greenpeace to six university presidents, including Michigan Tech’s, indicated that faculty members at those universities had involvement with Heartland. The letter implicated impropriety in the involvement. The other universities include Harvard, the University of Missouri at Columbia and Arizona State, as well as Lakehead University and the University of Victoria in Canada. Harvard has denied that the researcher named is affiliated with the university.
David Watkins, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering who conducts research on climate change impacts, was named in the Heartland documents. “I have had no relationship with the Heartland Institute, and I do not support their agenda,” Watkins said. “I have not accepted (nor have I been offered) any funds from them, and I am troubled by the misuse of my name in their documents.”
University of Arizona: DOD Funds UA Climate Change, Environment Projects
By Stephanie Doster, Institute of the Environment
February 22, 2012
The UA's Rafe Sagarin and Christopher Castro are among the researchers to receive funding for their projects.
The U.S. Department of Defense, or DOD, has awarded four grants to University of Arizona researchers to help the agency tackle environmental challenges and manage its land in a sustainable way.
Two of the UA projects selected for funding focus on climate change impacts to installations run by DOD, one of the nation's largest federal land managers. The other two center on environmental restoration.
Arizona State University: ASU scientist leads research project on water crisis in the West
Posted: February 20, 2012
John Sabo, director for research development and senior sustainability scientist at the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University, leads a group of scientists from about a dozen universities who are using the latest technologies to chart the plight of dwindling water supplies in the American West.
They have found that current water practices are not sustainable, and many dramatic initiatives will be needed to correct the current unsustainable path the West is on.
Arizona State University: ASU, USC faculty members collaborate on climate change research
Posted: February 20, 2012
A research partnership that began seven years ago when Darren Ruddell was an Arizona State University graduate student in geography and Sharon Harlan a sociologist in the ASU School of Human Evolution and Social Change continues to bear fruit.
Harlan directs the Phoenix Area Social Survey, which examine people’s values, attitudes and behaviors concerning the local environment and the impact of income and ethnic residential segregation on environmental inequalities. As a senior sustainability scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability, she hired Ruddell as a research assistant in 2005 to help with data collection and environmental research.
The two discovered a common interest in climate change and social justice research. They developed a collaboration resulting in a number of shared publications, even as Ruddell has become a lecturer for the Spatial Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California.
Arizona State University: Sustainability scientist gives view of globalization at local scale
Posted: February 19, 2012
The modernization of isolated villages brings about a change in human information flow patterns that not only destroys the social fabric of the community, but also the economy and the landscape, according to Sander van der Leeuw, a Senior Sustainability Scientist in ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability.
Van der Leeuw, an archaeologist and anthropologist specializing in the long-term impacts of human activity on the landscape, studied the consequences of the construction of roads after World War II in Epirus, a region dotted with rural villages that is shared by Greece and Albania. He looked at how information flow patterns were changed by the building of roads and how the mindset of the people in the villages was transformed as a consequence, leading to major transformations in the economy and the social life of the population.
“The roads brought the villages into the modern world, which is essentially a globalization process,” said van der Leeuw, who presented an anthropologist’s view on how globalization works at the local scale during a session at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Feb. 19.
Arizona State University: Climate change studies focus of distinguished lecture with Berkeley director
Posted: February 24, 2012
Afforestation – the establishment of a forest where there was no forest previously – is one possible proposed solution to slow the growing CO2 levels in the Earth’s atmosphere. But will this proposal actually have a positive impact on the greenhouse effect?
Inez Fung, professor of atmospheric science and founding director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment, has studied climate change for the past 20 years and says this proposed solution will in fact enhance the greenhouse effect, triggering further melting of sea ice.
Geology
Michigan Tech: Exploring Eruptions: Research on Volcanoes Could One Day Help Save Lives
By Dana Yates
February 14, 2012
Geology takes the long view. It is a field, after all, in which the pace of change spans billions of years. John Lyons, however, is interested in geological events that happen at a faster rate. So the recent graduate of Michigan Tech’s PhD program in geophysics has found a compromise: he studies volcanoes.
“Active volcanoes compress geologic time. You can sometimes see birth and destruction at an almost human timescale,” says Lyons, who is now doing postdoctoral work at the Instituto Geofisico–Escuela Politécnica Nacional in Quito, Ecuador.
* It’s an apt setting for Lyons; the small, South American country is home to a number of the world’s most active volcanoes. In 2006, for example, at least seven people were killed and three villages were demolished following the eruption of Tungurahua (“Throat of Fire”), located eighty miles southeast of Quito.
Psychology/Behavior
BBC: The myth of the eight-hour sleep
By Stephanie Hegarty BBC World Service
We often worry about lying awake in the middle of the night - but it could be good for you. A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.
In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted an experiment in which a group of people were plunged into darkness for 14 hours every day for a month.
It took some time for their sleep to regulate but by the fourth week the subjects settled into a very distinct sleeping pattern. They slept first for four hours, then woke for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
University of Michigan: Pregnant primates miscarry when new male enters group
Written by Jared Wadley
Published on Feb 22, 2012
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Pregnant female geladas show an unusually high rate of miscarriage the day after the dominant male in their group is replaced by a new male, a new University of Michigan study indicates.
The "Bruce effect" – in which pregnant females spontaneously miscarry after being exposed to an unfamiliar male – has been found repeatedly in laboratory rodents. However, no conclusive evidence for this effect had ever been demonstrated in a wild population prior to this study. Geladas are Old World monkeys that are close relatives of baboons.
The findings appear in the new issue of Science Express.
The U-M research examined five years of data collected from a wild population living in the Simien Mountains National Park in Ethiopia.
University of Arizona: The Moth and the Air Freshener: The Secrets of Scent
By Daniel Stolte, University Communications
February 23, 2012
UA Regents' Professor John G. Hildebrand has been elected to the Council of the National Academy of Sciences. In addition, he is being honored for his lifetime accomplishments on how olfaction, the sense of smell, influences the behavior of animals, from bugs to humans.
"From an early age, I was fascinated by what I could smell and how I reacted to it and by how flavor works and things like that," said John G. Hildebrand, a Regents' Professor in the University of Arizona's department of neuroscience. "And I was fascinated by insects."
His childhood interests would lead him into a life-long career dedicated to figuring out how insects perceive taste and smell, how their brains process them and how they elicit certain behavioral responses.
Arizona State University: Genes may play a role in your investment choices
Posted: February 22, 2012
Whether you’re a safe, conservative investor or a fast-trading stock-swapper, genes may actually play a role in some of your decisions.
Individuals frequently exhibit investment biases, such as not diversifying enough, being reluctant to sell stocks that have lost money or simply trading too much. Now, new research from Stephan Siegel, a visiting professor at ASU's W. P. Carey School of Business, shows some investors may be born with those biases.
“We find a significant portion, between 26 and 45 percent, of the variation across investors is due to genetic differences,” Siegel says. “Our evidence supports the view that investment biases reflect behaviors that were once shaped by evolutionary forces, but might no longer be optimal.”
Arizona State University: Music listeners attentive while crossing street, research shows
Posted: February 22, 2012
We may not know why the iPod user crossed the road, but research indicates he paid as much attention in doing so as the typical non-iPod user.
ASU faculty member Evan Risko and colleagues observed people crossing at two busy crosswalks in a real-world setting. They investigated how much attention was paid by users versus non-users of iPods and other personal music devices (PMDs). The researchers noted head movements associated with assessing the traffic situation and whether pedestrians slowed or stopped before entering the crosswalk.
For females, there was no significant difference in cautionary behavior between users and non-users of PMDs. For males, PMD users actually displayed a greater amount of cautionary behavior than non-users. The results are discussed in “The effects of personal music devices on pedestrian behavior,” published in the January 2012 issue of the journal Safety Science.
Archeology/Anthropology
Discovery News via MSNBC: Stone Age pebble may be oldest engraving ever
Found in South Africa, the meaning of this colorful 100,000-year-old relic is a mystery
By Jennifer Viegas
A colorful pebble bearing a sequence of linear incisions may be the world's oldest engraving.
The object, which will be described in the April issue of the Journal of Archaeology, dates back about 100,000 years ago and could also be the world’s oldest known abstract art. It was recovered from Klasies River Cave in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.
“Associated human remains indicate that the engraved piece was certainly made by Homo sapiens,” co-author Riaan Rifkin of the University of Witwatersrand’s Institute for Human Evolution told Discovery News.
Nature (UK): Human evolution: Cultural roots
A South African archaeologist digs into his own past to seek connections between climate change and human development.
By Jeff Tollefson
Metal scrapes on hard sand as archaeologist Chris Henshilwood shaves away the top layer of sediment in Blombos Cave. After just a few moments, the tip of his trowel unearths the humerus of a pint-sized tortoise that walked the Southern Cape of South Africa many millennia ago. Next come shells from local mussels and snails amid blackened soil and bits of charred wood, all remnants of an ancient feast. It was one of many enjoyed by a distinct group of early humans who visited Blombos Cave over the course of thousands of years.
The Still Bay culture was one of the most advanced Middle Stone Age groups in Africa when it emerged some 78,000 years ago in a startlingly early flourishing of the human mind. Henshilwood's excavations at Blombos Cave have revealed distinctive tools, including carefully worked stone points that probably served as knives and spear tips, and bits of rock inscribed with apparently symbolic designs. But evidence of the technology disappears abruptly in sediment about 71,000 years old, along with all proof of human habitation in southern Africa. It would be 7,000 years before a new culture appeared, with a markedly different toolkit, including crescent-shaped blades probably used as arrowheads.
University of Cambridge (UK) via physorg.com: Archaeologists discover Jordan's earliest buildings
February 20, 2012
Some of the earliest evidence of prehistoric architecture has been discovered in the Jordanian desert, providing archaeologists with a new perspective on how humans lived 20,000 years ago.
Archaeologists working in eastern Jordan have announced the discovery of 20,000-year-old hut structures, the earliest yet found in the Kingdom. The finding suggests that the area was once intensively occupied and that the origins of architecture in the region date back twenty millennia, before the emergence of agriculture.
The research, published 15 February, 2012 in PLoS One by a joint British, Danish, American and Jordanian team, describes huts that hunter-gatherers used as long-term residences and suggests that many behaviours that have been associated with later cultures and communities, such as a growing attachment to a location and a far-reaching social network, existed up to 10,000 years earlier.
Public Library of Science (PLoS) via physorg.com: Ancient rock art found in Brazil
February 22, 2012
Researchers have discovered an extremely old anthropomorphic figure engraved in rock in Brazil, according to a report published Feb. 22 in the open access journal PLoS ONE.
The petroglyph, which dates to between 9,000 and 12,000 years old, is the oldest reliably dated instance of such rock art yet found in the Americas."
LiveScience: Stonehenge inspired by illusions, archaeologist suggests
Written By Stephanie Pappas
Published February 16, 2012
Theories about the purpose of Stonehenge range from a secular calendar to a place of spiritual worship. Now, an archaeologist suggests that the Stonehenge monument in southern England may have been an attempt to mimic a sound-based illusion.
If two pipers were to play in a field, observers walking around the musicians would hear a strange effect, said Steven Waller, a doctoral researcher at Rock Art Acoustics USA, who specializes in the sound properties of ancient sites, or archaeoacoustics. At certain points, the sound waves produced by each player would cancel each other out, creating spots where the sound is dampened.
It's this pattern of quiet spots that may have inspired Stonehenge, Waller told an audience Thursday (Feb. 16) in Vancouver, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The theory is highly speculative, but modern-day experiments do reveal that the layout of the Stonehenge ruins and other rock circles mimics the piper illusion, with stones instead of competing sound waves blocking out sounds made in the center of the circle.
New Kerala: More needed for neglected Mohenjo-Daro: Pakistani daily
Islamabad, Feb 22 : The magnificent ancient site of Mohenjo-Daro has been badly neglected, a leading Pakistani daily observed Wednesday, pointing out that much more needs to be done even though Rs.100 million has been allocated for it.
An editorial in the Dawn said it is at long last that a sum of Rs.100 million has been allocated to maintaining, conserving and building some facilities at Mohenjo-Daro.
The Guardian (UK): Archaeologists strike gold in quest to find Queen of Sheba's wealth
A British excavation has struck archaeological gold with a discovery that may solve the mystery of where the Queen of Sheba derived her fabled treasures
A British excavation has struck archaeological gold with a discovery that may solve the mystery of where the Queen of Sheba of biblical legend derived her fabled treasures.
Almost 3,000 years ago, the ruler of Sheba, which spanned modern-day Ethiopia and Yemen, arrived in Jerusalem with vast quantities of gold to give to King Solomon. Now an enormous ancient goldmine, together with the ruins of a temple and the site of a battlefield, have been discovered in her former territory.
Louise Schofield, an archaeologist and former British Museum curator, who headed the excavation on the high Gheralta plateau in northern Ethiopia, said: "One of the things I've always loved about archaeology is the way it can tie up with legends and myths. The fact that we might have the Queen of Sheba's mines is extraordinary."
Tel Aviv University (Israel) via physorg.com: Fossilized pollen unlocks secrets of 2,500-year-old royal garden
February 16, 2012
Researchers have long been fascinated by the secrets of Ramat Rahel, located on a hilltop above modern-day Jerusalem. The site of the only known palace dating back to the kingdom of Biblical Judah, digs have also revealed a luxurious ancient garden. Since excavators discovered the garden with its advanced irrigation system, they could only imagine what the original garden might have looked like in full bloom — until now.
Using a unique technique for separating fossilized pollen from the layers of plaster found in the garden's waterways, researchers from Tel Aviv University's Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology have now been able to identify what grew in the ancient royal gardens of Ramat Rahel. And based on the garden's archaeological clues, they have been able to reconstruct the lay-out of the garden.
According to Prof. Oded Lipschits, Dr. Yuval Gadot, and Dr. Dafna Langgut, the garden featured the expected local vegetation such as common fig and grapevine, but also included a bevy of exotic plants such as citronand Persian walnut trees. The citron, which apparently emigrated from India via Persia,made its first appearance in the modern-day Middle East in Ramat Rahel's royal garden.
Ha'aretz: Archaeologists bringing Jerusalem's ancient Roman city back to life
Excavations of the Roman city Aelia Capitolina, built on the ruins of Second Temple-period Jerusalem, have unearthed a few surprises.
By Nir Hasson
If you look at a map of the Old City of Jerusalem, you'll notice something odd. While the vast majority of the Old City's streets form a crowded casbah of winding alleyways, there are a few straight-as-a-ruler streets that bisect the city from north to south and east to west.
The best known of these straight roads are Beit Chabad and Hagai streets, exiting through the Damascus Gate; David Street, exiting the Jaffa Gate; and the Via Dolorosa.
Like the rest of the Old City's streets, these straight roads are narrow but, unlike the others, they preserve a historical skeleton of sorts that forms the basis of the Old City we know today. This skeleton was created, most archaeologists agree, not during Jewish, Christian or Muslim rule, but during the Roman period, when the city of Aelia Capitolina was built on the ruins of Jerusalem following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD.
The Macon Telegraph: Archaeologists: South Bibb graves may predate emancipation
By AMY LEIGH WOMACK - awomack@macon.com
While state archaeologists still don’t know the names of the 101 people who were buried in an abandoned south Bibb County cemetery, they do know several things about how they lived.
The people were buried between the 1800s and the 1920s, and some of the graves may predate the emancipation of slaves.
Sixty percent of the people buried died by age 10 and 90 percent of those were children who died by the age 5, said Matt Matternes, a mortuary archaeologist.
The graves were discovered in 2009 and 2010 as the Georgia Department of Transportation was acquiring rights-of-way for an extension of Sardis Church Road near the Middle Georgia Regional Airport, said Sara Gale, a GDOT archaeologist.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
Physics
LiveScience: Wacky Physics: New Uncertainty About the Uncertainty Principle
Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 21 February 2012 Time: 10:34 AM ET
One of the most often quoted, yet least understood, tenets of physics is the uncertainty principle.
Formulated by German physicist Werner Heisenberg in 1927, the rule states that the more precisely you measure a particle's position, the less precisely you will be able to determine its momentum, and vice versa.
The principle is often invoked outside the realm of physics to describe how the act of observing something changes the thing being observed, or to point out that there's a limit to how well we can ever really understand the universe.
While the subtleties of the uncertainty principle are often lost on nonphysicists, it turns out the idea is frequently misunderstood by experts, too. But a recent experiment shed new light on the maxim and led to a novel formula describing how the uncertainty principle really works.
Chemistry
Michigan State University: Recipe for success: Recycled glass and cement
Published: Feb. 20, 2012 E-mail Editor ShareThis
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University researchers have found that by mixing ground waste glass into the cement that is used to make concrete, the concrete is stronger, more durable and more resistant to water.
In addition, the use of glass helps reduce the amount of glass that ends up in landfills and helps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions which are common due to the high temperatures needed to create cement.
The concrete, in which about 20 percent of the cement that is used to produce the concrete is replaced by milled, or finely ground, glass, is being tested at a number of sites on the MSU campus. And, so far, the results have been pretty positive.
“Milled glass enters a beneficial reaction with cement hydrates, so basically the chemistry of the cement improves with the glass,” said Parviz Soroushian, a professor of civil and environmental engineering who has been studying the glass-concrete mix. “It makes it stronger and more durable and doesn’t absorb water as fast as regular cement.”
Also look for the excerpt about A HREF="http://news.msu.edu/story/10401/&topic_id=13">MSU concrete recycling in the tip jar.
Energy
University of Michigan: Energy-recycling computer technology from University of Michigan goes global through semiconductor firm AMD
Written by Nicole Casal Moore
Published on Feb 20, 2012
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—An energy-recycling computer circuit born at the University of Michigan will enable a new generation of power efficient laptop PCs and servers.
Global semiconductor vendor Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced today at the 2012 International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco that the company's forthcoming 64-bit processor core, dubbed "Piledriver," incorporates a technology invented by a Michigan Engineering computer science professor and his graduate students.
Their patented technique resulted in the launch of U-M start-up Cyclos Semiconductor in 2006. The technology, called a "resonant clock mesh," reduces the total power consumption of the processor core by up to 10 percent. The Piledriver core will be used in multicore computer chips destined for desktops, laptops and servers.
University of Michigan: Energy harvesting technology wins top prize at Michigan Clean Energy Venture Challenge
Written by Nicole Casal Moore
Published on Feb 17, 2012
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—A team of Wayne State University graduate students and their unique energy-harvesting technology has won the $50,000 first prize in the Michigan Clean Energy Venture Challenge, judges announced today.
The annual challenge, established by the University of Michigan (U-M) and DTE Energy, encourages students from Michigan colleges and universities to grow clean-energy solutions into thriving businesses.
...
The first place team Piezo PowerTech developed a device that can generate electricity from vibrations—mechanical energy that would otherwise be wasted. While the technology has broad applications, the team is focusing first on the tire pressure sensor market. The team's technology could extend the lifetime of these sensors and eliminate waste from dead batteries.
"We are very excited," said Piezo PowerTech team member Yating Hu, a doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering at Wayne State. "We enjoyed this competition and learned a lot from it. Now it is time for us to push our business to a higher level."
Arizona State University: ASU develops algae fuel source at Polytechnic campus
Posted: February 24, 2012
Writer Mike Sakal from the East Valley Tribune asks in a recent article: "Can Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus be a world leader in developing an alternate fuel source for transportation?"
"Directors of its Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCati) lab believe that it can," writes Sakal. "Right now, it's simply being called Arizona Crude."
...
"Although making fuel from algae is not a new concept for alternative fuel sources, as it was first conceived during the Middle East's oil embargo on the United States in the late 1970s, AzCati plans to cement future partners into its ecosystem to advance the project," Sakal writes. "It currently has about 50 worldwide partners in the research and development project as well as numerous local organizations."
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
The Art Newspaper: Police raid criminal gang suspected of faking antiquities
Alleged forgers used x-ray machine to cheat dating tests; arrests include boxer and hospital nurse
By Tina Lepri and Ermanno Rivetti. News, Issue 232, February 2012
Published online: 21 February 2012
A two-and-a-half-year-long suspected archaeological fraud involving thousands of forged Greek and Etruscan artefacts, a hospital x-ray machine, a philanthropic aristocrat and a sophisticated network of forgers has come to an abrupt end after police raids late last year on two homes belonging to alleged members of a gang. Seven arrests were made and a further seven suspects are under investigation.
The gang was allegedly led by Edoardo David, a renowned archaeologist who often worked as a consultant for the archeological division of the Soprintendenza for the Lazio region (the local arm of Italy’s ministry of culture), and his two principal associates, Massimo Monaco, a former boxer, and Mariano Capomaggi, all of whom are being held at the Regina Coeli prison in Rome awaiting trial.
Grimsby Telegraph (UK): Immingham council furious at having to pay out for ‘unnecessary’ archaeology report
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Grimsby Telegraph
IMMINGHAM Town Council is asking for £600 to be returned after an archaeology report carried out for the new £100,000 skate park was deemed unnecessary and a "waste of money".
The policy and scrutiny committee of the council all voted in favour of asking North East Lincolnshire Council partner Balfour Beatty, which conducted the report, for the money back.
Environment committee chairman Councillor Mike Burton said: "It was part of the planning condition on the application that the archaeology report was included.
"We asked to have it removed at the time, but this got turned down. There is nothing of archaeological interest in that area and we all knew it.
Moab Times: Bates Wilson non-profit launches signature archaeological program at Arches National Park
by Charli Engelhorn
Monitoring and documenting the various archaeological sites in the national parks near Moab is the signature program for the Friends of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks: The Bates Wilson Legacy Fund, according to the group’s executive director, Joette Langianese. The non-profit is ready for their public launch and will hold a ceremony on March 10 at 4 p.m. at Panorama Point in Arches National Park, Langianese said this week during a presentation to the Grand County Council.
According to information on their recently launched website, bateswilson.org, the group hopes to “inspire stewardship of the natural and cultural treasures... [and enrich] the visitor experience in the national parks of Southeast Utah.”
BBC: Job vacancy on UK's 'lost world' of St Kilda
February 22, 2012
The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has sought to fill a job in one of the remotest corners of the UK.
An archaeologist is needed on St Kilda, a group of small islands 41 miles (66km) west of the Western Isles.
In the job advert, NTS said applicants must be able to work alone on occasions in a "remote environment".
The trust also asked that they be physically fit as the role required "considerable crossing of remote, rugged terrain in all weathers".
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Michigan: U-M to lead statewide Tech Transfer Talent Network to bring more inventions to market
Written by Nicole Casal Moore
Published on Feb 21, 2012
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—To turn an invention into a marketable product that can benefit society, you need, above all else, the right people involved. That's the premise behind a new $2.4 million statewide program called the Tech Transfer Talent Network. It is led by the University of Michigan and funded through a grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
The network includes seven universities and regions with strong research-based technology opportunities or clusters of talent, and in some cases, both. In addition to U-M, members are: Wayne State University, Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University, Western Michigan University, Grand Valley State University and Oakland University. Each university is also collaborating with its regional economic development organization to promote increased access to mentors and partnering businesses.
The primary goal of the Tech Transfer Talent Network is to increase the supply of seasoned entrepreneurs and innovators who can lend their expertise to university tech transfer offices. These connections will serve as important bridges to launch technology-based startups or license university inventions to established companies. The program will allow other state universities in the network to share and benefit from the tech transfer resources developed at U-M.
University of Arizona: UA Receives $1.6M to Support Poor Working Mothers
By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications
February 20, 2012
With a major three-year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the UA's Southwest Institute for Research on Women is heading up an initiative to support working mothers, and their children, through a residential substance abuse program.
Help for mothers who have addictions and just miss the cut for state-funded care and treatment – because their incomes are slightly too high – can be hard to find, largely because solid structures rarely exist to aid them.
But through an extensive, multi-year, multi-agency initiative, the University of Arizona' Southwest Institute for Research on Women is working with several community partners to build that structure.
Arizona State University: Advances in robotic weapons systems give rise to complex issues
Posted: February 20, 2012
Increasingly sophisticated weapons technology is raising myriad questions in discussions about setting the future course of the nation’s military operations.
One focus of debate is advanced autonomous lethal systems sometimes referred to as “killer drones” – robotic aircraft that could strike targets autonomously, eliminating the need for human pilots or crew.
Experts are dealing with potential implications of deploying drones as a way of managing manpower costs, increasing defense capabilities, and meeting the demands of modern warfare.
Science Education
The Collegian (Richmond University): Richmond senior curates mummy exhibit
By Madeline Small
Collegian Staff
Published: February 23, 2012, 2:16 am ET
Senior Caroline Cobert is the curator of the exhibition “Ti-Ameny-Net: An Ancient Mummy, An Egyptian Woman and Modern Science,” which opens Thursday in the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature. The exhibition displays Cobert’s scientific study of the mummy, the mummy’s coffin and Egyptian artifacts from the Stuart L. Wheeler Gallery of the Ancient World collection.
When Cobert was in her first year at Richmond, she read an article in The Collegian about the 2,700-year-old mummy, Ti-Ameny-Net, Wheeler Gallery in North Court.
Cobert, a biology and classical civilization double major, said she had thought the article had implied there were many unknowns about the mummy, and she had wanted to learn more. At the time, Cobert had wanted to start research in a faculty laboratory, but she had not found one that matched her interests yet.
The Associated Press via the Atlanta Constitution: Penn class teaches students how to live like monks
By KATHY MATHESON
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — Looking for a wild-and-crazy time at college? Don't sign up for Justin McDaniel's religious studies class.
The associate professor's course on monastic life and asceticism gives students at the University of Pennsylvania a firsthand experience of what it's like to be a monk.
At various periods during the semester, students must forego technology, coffee, physical human contact and certain foods. They'll also have to wake up at 5 a.m. — without an alarm clock.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Arizona: UA's Multi-Million Dollar Research Initiative Gets Booster
By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications
February 23, 2012
The UA's Research Data Center offers researchers access to powerful high-performance computing capabilities benefiting scientific, engineering, social, economic and cultural research.
Investigating challenging questions related to new energy sources, diseases, environmental patterns or even the origins of the universe commonly require massive amounts of data and also access to tremendous computing power for analyzing those data.
At the University of Arizona, the newly unveiled and centrally funded 1,500 square-foot Research Data Center is designed to better support researchers with the output, serving as a centralized hub for large-scale computing and storage.
Science Writing and Reporting
Michigan State University: How to ‘hack’ grad school
Published: Feb. 21, 2012 E-mail
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Just six months after launching, a virtual forum started by a group of Michigan State University graduate students has become the first of its kind to contract with a leading higher-education publication.
GradHacker.org was started by grad students Katy Meyers and Alex Galarza to help their cohorts “hack” grad school one blog post at a time. The blog is now an official partner of the higher-education publication, Inside Higher Ed.
“There are university-based grad blogs and there are academic ones, but there wasn’t anything on a broad scale talking about grad school and the universal problems, solutions and issues we deal with,” said Meyers, a doctoral student in anthropology.
Along with Meyers and Galarza, eight fulltime bloggers and a handful of guest bloggers – some from MSU and some from other universities – have cultivated a loyal following of eager, curious and sometimes frustrated graduate students. Posts appear three times a week and receive thousands of hits a day – especially after contracting with IHE.
Science is Cool
Spike TV via Around the Networks Blog: Spike TV Announces New Unscripted show ‘American Digger’
Written by Alex Tucker
February 15, 2012
New York, NY, February 15, 2012 – Spike TV ventures around the country in search of historical treasure buried in the backyards of unsuspecting citizens in the new unscripted original series, “American Digger.” Premiering Tuesday, March 20 at 10:00 PM, ET/PT, “American Digger” follows the American Savage team, led by former professional wrestler-turned-modern- day relic hunter Ric Savage as they scour target-rich areas, such as battlefields and historic sites, in hopes of striking it rich by unearthing and selling rare pieces of American history.
In the US, there are millions of historical relics buried in backyards just waiting to be discovered and turned into profit. “American Digger” hopes to claim a piece of that pie as the series travels to a different city each week, including Detroit, MI, Brooklyn, NY, Chicago, IL and Jamestown, VA searching for high-value artifacts and relics, some of which have been untouched for centuries. After pinpointing historical locations such as Civil War and Revolutionary War battlefields, Savage’s first task is to convince reluctant homeowners to let his team dig up their property using state-of-the-art metal detectors and heavy-duty excavation equipment. The team will then sell any artifacts found for a substantial profit by consulting experts and scouring the antique and collectible markets, but not before negotiating a deal to divide the revenue with the property owners.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
University of Arizona: UA Rube Goldberg Device Flush With Toilet Humor
By Pete Brown, College of Engineering
February 23, 2012
With its bathroom-themed contraption, the UA's Rube Goldberg Club aspires to win a regional competition Feb. 25 on the UA campus.
The most famous shower scene of all time has to be from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 thriller, "Psycho," in which creepy motel owner Norman Bates, played by Anthony Perkins, repeatedly stabs a screaming Janet Leigh, who plays Marion Crane, a Phoenix office worker on the run with $40,000 of stolen cash.
Not any more.
Are you ready for a Rube Goldberg machine featuring Wilma Wildcat, in the shower, wearing nothing but a towel? Gasp!
