Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, jlms qkw, Interceptor7, and ScottyUrb, guest editors annetteboardman and Doctor RJ, 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, health, energy, and the environment.
Between now and the end of the primary season, Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday will highlight the research stories from the public universities in each of the states having primary or special elections for federal or state office this year plus stories from all research universities in major cities having municipal elections as listed in the Green Papers or the 2014 Daily Kos Elections Calendar. Tonight's edition features the research and outreach stories from the District of Columbia and the states of Alabama, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
This week's featured story comes from LiveScience and Discovery News.
Scientists Report Evidence for Gravitational Waves in Early Universe
Ben P. Stein, ISNS Director
March 18, 2014 12:44am ET
In what would represent the most direct evidence of Albert Einstein’s last major unconfirmed prediction, as well as a powerful confirmation of a violently fast expansion of the early cosmos, scientists using a cutting-edge South Pole telescope announced evidence for the first detection of gravitational waves in the initial moments of the universe.
Outside experts reacted enthusiastically to the results, but cautioned that the data has unusual characteristics that may ultimately conflict with earlier observations and could require more complicated models for the universe’s early expansion than previously expected.
The announcement was made by the brawny-sounding BICEP2 collaboration, which actually translates into the brainier name of "Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization." The BICEP2 team announced their results today in series of scientific presentations and a news conference at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. The collaboration posted a preprint of their paper which has been submitted for publication and will undergo scientific peer review.
How We Know The Big Bang Actually Happened
Earlier this week, astronomers announced that they directly observed gravitational waves. These waves are evidence for quantum gravity. How does this prove the Big Bang actually happened? Trace is joined by Ian O'Neill to explain this new, groundbreaking finding.
More stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
Green diary rescue: Overfishing, protesting friggin' fracking, pondering civilization's collapse
by Meteor Blades
Science Versus Christianity – An Ancient Race
by liberaldad2
Creationists and Cosmos
by LaFeminista
This week in science: The study of ignorance
by DarkSyde
Slideshows/Videos
Toronto Star (Canada): Was sophisticated Herculaneum actually a city of sin?
University of Cambridge professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill discusses how the refined wealthy city may have been a "city of sin" in the way Pompeii is now regarded.
This week we are exploring archaeology with the University of Cambridge professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, head of the Herculaneum Conservation Project and author of the elegant and informative book, Herculaneum: Past and Future .
In today’s ReThink clip he explains why the small, wealthy seaside resort of Herculaneum, long considered tangible evidence of the more refined tastes of the ancient upper classes, may well have been as much a “city of sin” as we now regard Pompeii to be.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Alabama at Birmingham: UAB's Michael Morrisey talks ACA enrollment deadlines
University of Alabama at Birmingham: Expert offers Affordable Care Act tips ahead of open enrollment deadline
by Nicole Wyatt
March 21, 2014
The Health Insurance Marketplace has been open since October 2013, and its open enrollment period ends March 31. One University of Alabama at Birmingham health policy expert hopes to help alleviate confusion surrounding signup.
The Affordable Care Act, signed into law March 2010, mandates that Americans have at least minimum health insurance coverage. The Marketplace was created to help uninsured people find coverage, and around 5 million people have enrolled.
“The number currently enrolled is down from original estimates that the Congressional Budget Office had of 8 million, and they recently lowered their expectations to 6 million,” said Michael Morrisey, Ph.D., director of the UAB Lister Hill Center for Health Policy. “Things are going much better than they were in the early days of the open enrollment period, but it’s clear they are not going to meet original projections.”
Discovery News: Humans Are Still Evolving!
Human evolution happened slowly over the course of thousands and thousands of years. Are we still evolving today? Trace discusses a few recent findings showing how humans, even in the past 5,000 years, are continuing to evolve!
NASA: Administrator visits Aeronautics and Space Research Facilities on This Week @NASA
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden visited aeronautics and space research facilities at Ames Research Center on March 17, including the laboratory for the volleyball-sized satellites called SPHERES, which are used onboard the International Space Station for space robotics and spacecraft navigation experiments. He also saw the high-fidelity airport control tower simulator called, "Future Flight Central", used by NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and other industry partners for joint research on next-generation air traffic management. Also, Rocket for Orion's flight test highlighted, Future explorer celebrated at KSC, NASA's new Chief Technologist, Coastal Flooding Challenge, Next space station crews, Hubble 24th anniversary image and more!
NASA: NASA Observes World Water Day
On March 22, NASA will observe World Water Day. While our home planet is about 71 percent water, only 3 percent of that is available as fresh water. And many people do not have access to safe and clean water sources. On a water planet like Earth, "following the water" is a massive undertaking but one that is essential to predicting the future of our climate and the availability of water resources around the globe.
Science at NASA: ScienceCasts: A Tetrad of Lunar Eclipses
A total lunar eclipse on April 15th marks the beginning of a remarkable series of eclipses all visible from North America.
Astronomy/Space
Space.com: Active Volcanoes Revealed on Venus
By Irene Klotz, Discovery News
March 18, 2014 11:27am ET
Scientists have long suspected that volcanoes played a huge role in the evolution of cloud-shrouded Venus, the second planet from the sun.
Now, images from Europe's Venus Express orbiter are showing that volcanic eruptions may not just be a thing from the past.
Scientists discovered four transient bright spots in a relatively young rift zone known as Ganiki Chasma, which was observed 36 times by the spacecraft's Venus Monitoring Camera.
Space.com: Tiny Planet Mercury Is Shrinking Fast
By Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor
March 17, 2014 06:26pm ET
The surface of Mercury is shrinking faster than previously thought, photos from a NASA spacecraft orbiting the tiny planet reveal.
The first comprehensive survey of the surface of Mercury by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft shows that planet's crust has contracted as it cooled by as much as 4.4 miles (7 kilometers), significantly more than previous estimates. The findings clear up a long-standing clash between scientists' understanding of the heat production and loss and the contraction of Mercury.
"These new results resolved a decades-long paradox between thermal history models and estimates of Mercury's contractions," said study lead author Paul Byrne of the Carnegie Institution for Science in a statement.
Climate/Environment
Discover Magazine: The March of Climate Determinism
By Keith Kloor
March 20, 2014 12:35 pm
In the late 2000s, a new climate change story line emerged in the media.
The seeds for this narrative were perhaps sown ten years ago, when a worst-case scenario report commissioned by the Pentagon triggered breathless headlines about a research field known as “abrupt climate change.” Perhaps you saw the 2004 movie [The Day After Tomorrow].
The sensationalist portrayal of a sudden climate-induced doomsday was dismissed in scientific circles as implausible, but the film caught people’s attention.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Penn State: Research reveals true value of cover crops to farmers, environment
by Jeff Mulhollem
March 18, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Planting cover crops in rotation between cash crops -- widely agreed to be ecologically beneficial -- is even more valuable than previously thought, according to a team of agronomists, entomologists, agroecologists, horticulturists and biogeochemists from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
"As society places increasing demands on agricultural land beyond food production to include ecosystem services, we needed a new way to evaluate 'success' in agriculture," said Jason Kaye, professor of biogeochemistry. "This research presents a framework for considering a suite of ecosystem services that could be derived from agricultural land, and how cover crops affect that suite of services.
"Cover cropping is one of the most rapidly growing soil and water conservation strategies in the Chesapeake Bay region and one we are really counting on for future improvements in water quality in the bay. Our analysis shows how the effort to improve water quality with cover crops will affect other ecosystem services that we expect from agricultural land."
Texas A&M: AgriLife Research study: Distinct geographical pattern in Texas’ Ogallala Aquifer water quality
Southern region has growing concern
March 20, 2014
VERNON – Salinity, a major threat to groundwater quality, continues to be a problem for domestic and shallow wells in the southern Ogallala Aquifer in Texas, according to a recent Texas A&M AgriLife Research study.
The paper, “Long-term (1960-2000) Trends in Groundwater Contamination and Salinization in the Ogallala Aquifer in Texas” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Hydrology. It is based on a research study by Dr. Srinivasulu Ale, AgriLife Research geospatial hydrology assistant professor, and Dr. Sriroop Chaudhuri, his post-doctoral research associate, both in Vernon.
“A distinct geographic pattern in groundwater contamination and associated salinization was apparent,” Chaudhuri said.
Biodiversity
Red Orbit: Sea Snakes Need Fresh Water For Drinking
March 20, 2014
Although they spend their lives surrounded by water, sea snakes dehydrate for months at a time, waiting to quench their thirst with fresh water from rainfall, a University of Florida biologist has found.
The finding contradicts the accepted belief that marine vertebrates have evolved to use salt water to meet their water requirements, said professor Harvey Lillywhite, whose research appears [Wednesday/today] in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the flagship biological research journal of the Royal Society.
“These snakes refuse to drink salt water, even when dehydrated,” Lillywhite said. “They need fresh water to survive.”
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Texas A&M: Monarch Butterflies Facing Grim Outlook
March 18, 2014
Monarch butterflies may be named for their large size and majestic beauty, but once again their numbers are anything but king-sized – in fact, 2014 may go down as one of the worst years ever for the colorful insects, says a Texas A&M Monarch watcher who is proposing a national effort to help feed Monarchs.
Craig Wilson, a senior research associate in the Center for Mathematics and Science Education and a longtime butterfly enthusiast, says reports coming from Mexico where the Monarchs have their overwintering grounds show their numbers are significantly down yet again — so much so that this year might be one of the lowest yet for the butterfly.
It’s been a disturbing trend that has been going for most of the past decade, he points out. This year, Monarchs face a triple whammy: a lingering drought, unusually cold winter temperatures and lack of milkweed, their primary food source.
University of Massachusetts: Tracking Endangered Leatherback Sea Turtles by Satellite, Research Identifies Key Habitats
UMass Amherst Marine Scientists Follow 20 Tagged Leatherbacks Using Telemetry
March 19, 2014
AMHERST, Mass. – A first-of-its-kind satellite tagging study of migrating New England leatherback turtles offers a greatly improved understanding of their seasonal high-use habitats, diving activity and response to key ocean and environmental features in relation to their search behavior. Leatherbacks are considered endangered species in all the world’s oceans.
The study, part of doctoral research by Kara Dodge and supervised by her advisor, Molly Lutcavage of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Large Pelagics Research Center (LPRC) in Gloucester, followed leatherbacks in their northern US feeding grounds. It allowed for a rare glimpse into the migratory patterns and behavior of immature and adult male turtles.
Most satellite tagging studies of leatherbacks have focused on adult females on their tropical nesting beaches, so little is known worldwide about males and subadults, the researchers point out. But now, tagging and satellite tracking in locations where leatherbacks forage has allowed the scientists to get a much richer picture of the leatherback’s behavior and dispersal patterns on the open ocean.
Biotechnology/Health
The Daily Mail (UK): Archaeologists find 3,200-year-old skeleton with cancer: Wealthy young man's bones could help show how the disease evolved
- The remains of the man were found in a tomb near the River Nile in Sudan
- He is believed to have been wealthy and aged between 25 and 35
- Bones show evidence of a metastatic carcinoma - a cancer that has spread
- It is the oldest 'convincing' example of this type of cancer ever found
- Researchers plan to use the discovery to explore underlying causes of cancer in ancient times
By Victoria Woollaston
Archaeologists have found a complete 3,200-year-old skeleton with cancer and say the discovery could help show how the disease has evolved.
The remains of the wealthy man, believed to have been between 25 and 35 when he died, were found in a tomb close to the River Nile in Sudan last year.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Alabama at Birmingham: UAB researchers find comparable efficacy in two transvaginal surgical approaches for apical prolapse
by Tyler Greer
March 21, 2014
Research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and other medical centers published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has determined that neither of the two most common surgical procedures for apical vaginal prolapse is significantly superior to the other for anatomic, functional or adverse event outcomes.
Apical prolapse is a descent of the uterus, cervix or vaginal vault and affects a significant proportion of women, with approximately 300,000 inpatient surgical procedures for prolapse performed annually in the United States. Women with prolapse have numerous associated complaints, including the feeling of protrusion or pressure in the vagina. The condition can be so severe that, in some cases, women can see or feel the protrusion through the vagina.
Sacrospinous ligament fixation and uterosacral ligament suspension are commonly performed transvaginal surgeries to correct apical prolapse. Little was known about their comparative efficacy and safety prior to this trial, says study co-author Holly E. Richter, Ph.D., M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology, J. Marion Sims Endowed Chair in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and director of the UAB Division of Urogynecology and Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery in the School of Medicine.
“There were not good level one trials that had addressed these issues up to this point,” Richter said. “The findings impact our management of patients in that we can feel good regarding the outcomes of performing either a uterosacral or sacrospinous suspension for apical prolapse as performed in this trial.”
University of Illinois-Chicago: Can treadmill help seniors avoid falls?
Jeanne Galatzer-Levy
March 20, 2014
Clive Pai believes people can be trained not to fall.
...
Pai has been studying how people fall for over 20 years. Everyone falls in a unique way — because it’s unrehearsed and unexpected.
“We have never learned how to fall,” he said.
His research led him to a remarkable discovery — people can be trained relatively quickly and easily how not to fall.
Southern Illinois University: SIU adds disease-resistant soybean lines
By Andrea Hahn
March 21, 2014
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University Carbondale is helping Midwest soybean farmers combat a parasitic roundworm -- the soybean cyst nematode, sometimes referred to as the “billion dollar pest.” And they are using the soybean itself to do it.
Stella K. Kantartzi, associate professor in the Department of Plant, Soil, and Agricultural Systems and principal investigator in the Plant Breeding and Genetics Lab, announced the release of two new conventional germplasm soybean lines that are showing high resistance to soybean cyst nematodes (SCN), “SIU14-2935” and “SIU14-3125.” The SIU Soybean Germplasm and Variety Committee approved the line’s release for this month. This means the lines are available for breeding programs or for companies who want to increase the line and release it as a commercial variety.
“Research that has an immediate industry application is an important component of our mission as a research university,” said Chancellor Rita Cheng. “SIU is working to address a problem plaguing agriculture, and we are enhancing soybean production in Illinois and the Midwest.”
University of Massachusetts Medical School: New data shows spike in smokeless tobacco sales
UMMS and DPH report nicotine levels of moist snuff and snus are on the rise
By Sandra Gray
UMass Medical School Communications
March 19, 2014
The number of smokeless tobacco products sold in Massachusetts is soaring, as are the levels of nicotine packed into many of them, according to a new analysis from UMass Medical School and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH).
“Nationwide, cigarette smoking control has been very successful and we have experienced a steady decline, but that success is being offset by the increased use of smokeless tobacco products, especially by youth,” said UMMS statistical scientist Wenjun Li, PhD. Dr. Li, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, co-authored the paper with colleagues from the DPH.
Published in the journal Tobacco Control, the study examines ten years of product data (from 2003 to 2012) that Massachusetts law requires tobacco manufacturers provide to the DPH. Notable findings include a nearly 30 percent increase in the number of moist snuff products and a nearly sixfold increase in the number of snus products (see sidebar) sold in Massachusetts; these increases correlate with rising use among high school students.
Penn State: 3-D model links facial features and DNA
By A'ndrea Elyse Messer
March 20, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- DNA can already tell us the sex and ancestry of unknown individuals, but now an international team of researchers is beginning to connect genetics with facial features, degrees of femininity and racial admixture.
"By jointly modeling sex, genomic ancestry and genotype, the independent effects of particular alleles on facial features can be uncovered," the researchers state today (Mar. 20) in PLOS Genetics. They add that "by simultaneously modeling facial shape variation as a function of sex and genomic ancestry along with genetic markers in craniofacial candidate genes, the effects of sex and ancestry can be removed from the model thereby providing the ability to extract the effects of individual genes."
In essence, by including sex and racial admixture, researchers can learn about how certain genes and their variations influence the shape of the face and its features.
Texas A&M: Gaitedness of Horses Found Across the World
COLLEGE STATION, TX – The smooth movement of gaited horses is caused by a genetic mutation that can be found across the world, according to a recent study.
The paper, “Worldwide frequency distribution of the ‘Gait keeper’ mutation in the DMRT3 gene,” was published Tuesday in the journal Animal Genetics.
“We have previously demonstrated that a single mutation in the DMRT3 gene has a large impact on gaitedness in horses, and it was therefore named ‘Gait keeper,’” said Dr. Leif Andersson, one of the authors of the article and a Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study Faculty Fellow collaborating with researchers at the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVM). This gene codes for a protein in a specific subset of neurons in the spinal cord that coordinates the movements of the animal’s legs. The mutated version of the gene causes a truncation of the DMRT3 protein, a genetic “mistake” that allows horses to pace and amble.
Psychology/Behavior
University of Illinois: Swing voters hold more sway over candidates on economic issues
Phil Ciciora, Business & Law Editor
3/19/2014
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — New research from two University of Illinois economics professors who study election trends analyzes how polarization on social issues affects competing candidates’ economic platforms.
In the paper, co-authors Stefan Krasa and Mattias Polborn develop a theory of candidate competition that accounts for the influence of both economic and cultural issues on individual voting behavior.
“Many pundits and academics have argued that political polarization, particularly on social and cultural issues, has increased in the U.S.,” said Polborn, also a professor of political science at Illinois. “With this paper, we analyze how that polarization influences the political jockeying between candidates on economic and cultural issues.”
University of Illinois: Autism signs can be identified earlier than formerly thought, study suggests
Sharita Forrest, Education and Social Work Editor
3/17/2014
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Many characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorders can be identified by the age of 2 and are predictive of which children will be diagnosed with these disorders when they’re older, a new study suggests.
Researchers at the University of Illinois identified a number of behavioral problems and developmental deficits – including many associated with communication and language, social interaction and self-regulation – that if present when children were 2 years old were predictive of their receiving an ASD diagnosis by age 4.
“We’ve found that you can identify autism early – around 2 years old,” said lead author Laurie M. Jeans, who conducted the study as a graduate student at Illinois. “Different specialists who work with children with ASD are each focused on specific problems, but this research gathers all those pieces of information together and provides a much bigger picture.”
Penn State: School hearing tests do not detect noise exposure hearing loss
Cara Karper
March 20, 2014
HERSHEY, Pa. -- School hearing tests cannot effectively detect adolescent high-frequency hearing loss, which is typically caused by loud noise exposure, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health mandates school-administered hearing screens for children in kindergarten to third, seventh and 11th grades. The school screenings primarily focus on low-frequency hearing loss. This is logical for young children, who are more likely to develop low-frequency hearing loss due to fluid in the ear after a bad cold or an ear infection. Adolescents, however, are more susceptible to high-frequency hearing loss, usually brought on by exposure to loud noises, but the same tests are used on adolescents and young children.
Deepa Sekhar, assistant professor of pediatrics, compared the results of a special hearing screening designed to detect noise-related high-frequency hearing loss with the results of the standard Pennsylvania school hearing test. The researchers reported their findings in the Journal of Medical Screening.
Penn State: Probing Question: Does hypnosis work?
By Melissa Beattie-Moss
March 18, 2014
You're growing tired. Your eyelids are getting heavy. You're feeling very sleepy...
Most of us recognize these words as the Hollywood script of a hypnosis session. Typically portrayed as the tool of comics and hucksters ("At my command, you will crow like a rooster...") or nefarious, mind-controlling villains, hypnosis has a serious type-casting problem to overcome.
Beyond the stereotypes, is there any validity to hypnosis as a therapeutic technique?
Temple University: Chronic sleep disturbance might trigger onset of Alzheimer’s
March 18, 2014
People who experience chronic sleep disturbances might face an earlier onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s, according to a new preclinical study by researchers at Temple University.
“The big biological question that we tried to address in this study is whether sleep disturbance is a risk factor in developing Alzheimer’s or something that manifests with the disease,” said Domenico Praticò, professor of pharmacology and microbiology/immunology in Temple’s School of Medicine, who led the study.
Initially, the researchers looked at longitudinal studies that indicated that people who reported chronic sleep disturbances often developed Alzheimer’s disease.
Archeology/Anthropology
News North Wales (UK): 'Fantastic discovery' from Bronze Age era near Cilcain
Published date: 17 March 2014
A DIGGING group has uncovered artefacts giving a glimpse into life in the area more than four millennia ago.
Amateur archaeologists made the staggering discovery of the remains of a Bronze Age firepit – thought to be almost 4,500- years-old – on the flanks of Moel Arthur, near Cilcain.
BBC: Cambridge University archaeologists find 'oldest' Roman irrigation system
Excavations at a Cambridge University development have revealed what archaeologists believe is Britain's oldest-known Roman irrigation system.
Planting beds and pit wells were unearthed at the North West Cambridge site near Huntingdon Road.
Chris Evans from the university's archaeological unit said they dated from between 70 AD and 120 AD.
It was an "unparalleled discovery" and "effectively the first irrigation system we've seen", he said.
Simon Fraser University (Canada): Ancient clam gardens nurtured food security
March 20, 2014
A three-year study of ancient clam gardens in the Pacific Northwest reveals that coastal First Nations people used to reap superior harvests using rock-walled beach terraces.
The study’s lead author, Amy Groesbeck, was a student in SFU’s School of Resource and Environmental Management when she initiated the research for her master’s thesis. Her supervisors, who all helped with research and authoring the study, included SFU professors Anne Salomon, an ecologist; Dana Lepofsky, an archaeologist; and University of Washington biologist Kirsten Rowell.
Heritage Daily: Medieval age revealed at Cannington Court
Restoration work at Cannington Court (UK), have revealed the remains of the former 13th century Priory complex.
EDF Energy, in partnership with Bridgwater College, is currently restoring Cannington Court as a state-of-the-art training campus for employees in the UK. Remains of the former 13th century Priory complex were revealed during construction work for a new garden area as part of the sensitive restoration project.
Culture 24 (UK): Bodies of 19th century convicts found by emergency archaeology team near Portsmouth
By Ben Miller
March 19, 2014
The bodies of four 19th century prisoners have been rescued off the coast of Portsmouth. A team of soldiers injured in Afghanistan, working on the foreshore of an area known as Burrow Island, responded to an emergency call when a member of the public alerted police to human remains exposed by severe weather conditions.
Better known locally as Rat Island, the site has not been used by the armed forces for more than 40 years, despite its position near Her Majesty's Naval Base and the mighty warships of HMS Victory and HMS Excellent. Experts from Wessex Archaeology hope to reveal the age, sex, stature and physical health of the figures, who are thought to have been held by the floating prisons moored in the harbour.
"It’s always exciting being part of a rapid reaction force," said Richard Osgood, the senior archaeologist for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation behind the two-day excavation.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Georgetown University: Study Offers New View of Language Ties Across Bering Strait
March 13, 2014
A PLOS-ONE study published today by a Georgetown professor shows that people in ancient times may have migrated back to central Asia from the Bering Land Bridge around the same time people were migrating into North America.
Previous research on a language family known as the Dene-Yeniseian has suggested there are common language elements between the North American Na-Dene languages and the Yeniseian languages of Central Siberia.
To examine the relationship more closely, Mark Sicoli, Georgetown College assistant professor of linguistics, and Gary Holton of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, used a technique called phylogenetic analysis, originally developed to investigate evolutionary relationships between biological species.
Paleontology/Evolution
Lewiston Tribune via the Ravalli Republic: Ancient bone near Lewiston, Idaho, may be from mammoth
By ELAINE WILLIAMS Lewiston Tribune
LEWISTON, Idaho – University of Idaho archaeologist Lee Sappington held two plastic Ziploc bags in his hands Wednesday containing the latest mystery for him to unravel.
Inside – sheathed in brown paper sacks – were fist-sized chunks of bone, which on the exterior looked very much like the rocks at his feet.
Science Magazine: 'Little Foot' Fossil Could Be Human Ancestor
14 March 2014
PARIS—He may be called Little Foot, but for human evolution researchers he’s a big deal: His is the most complete skeleton known of an early member of the human lineage. Ever since the skeleton was discovered in a South African cave in the 1990s and named for its relatively small foot bones, researchers have been fiercely debating how old it is, with estimates ranging from about 2 million years to more than 3 million. A new geological study of the cave concludes that Little Foot is at least 3 million years old. If correct, that would mean he is old enough to be a direct ancestor of today’s humans, and could shift South Africa to the forefront of human evolution.
Heritage Daily: Paleo diet didn’t change – the climate did
Why were Neanderthals replaced by anatomically modern humans around 40,000 years ago?
One popular hypothesis states that a broader dietary spectrum of modern humans gave them a competitive advantage on Neanderthals. Geochemical analyses of fossil bones seemed to confirm this dietary difference.
Indeed, higher amounts of nitrogen heavy isotopes were found in the bones of modern humans compared to those of Neanderthals, suggesting at first that modern humans included fish in their diet while Neanderthals were focused on the meat of terrestrial large game, such as mammoth and bison.
However, these studies did not look at possible isotopic variation of nitrogen isotopes in the food resource themselves. In fact, environmental factors such as aridity can increase the heavy nitrogen isotope amount in plants, leading to higher nitrogen isotopic values in herbivores and their predators even without a change of subsistence strategy.
LiveScience: Ancient Egyptian Kitten Skeletons Hint at Cat Domestication
By Stephanie Pappas, Senior Writer
March 17, 2014 07:51am ET
The skeletons of six cats, including four kittens, found in an Egyptian cemetery may push back the date of cat domestication in Egypt by nearly 2,000 years.
The bones come from a cemetery for the wealthy in Hierakonpolis, which served as the capital of Upper Egypt in the era before the pharaohs. The cemetery was the resting place not just for human bones, but also for animals, which perhaps were buried as part of religious rituals or sacrifices. Archaeologists searching the burial grounds have found everything from baboons to leopards to hippopotamuses.
The new find includes two adult cats and four kittens from at least two litters. The size of the bones and timing of the litters hints that humans may have kept the cats. The bones date back to between 3600 B.C. and 3800 B.C., which would be 2,000 years before the earliest known evidence of cat domestication in Egypt, archaeologists report in the May issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Red Orbit: Evolution Of Conch Size Driven By Humans
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
March 19, 2014
The first humans to pluck a Caribbean fighting conch from the shallow lagoons of Panama’s Bocas del Toro were in for a good meal. Smithsonian scientists found that 7,000 years ago, this common marine shellfish contained 66 percent more meat than its descendants do today. Because of persistent harvesting of the largest conchs, it became advantageous for the animal to mature at a smaller size, resulting in evolutionary change.
Human-driven evolution of wild animals, sometimes referred to as “unnatural selection,” has only previously been documented under scenarios of high-intensity harvesting, like industrialized fishing. “These are the first evidence that low-intensity harvesting has been sufficient to drive evolution,” said lead author Aaron O’Dea of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. “The reason may be because the conch has been subjected to harvesting for a long period of time.” Published March 19 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the findings are based on a comparison of mature shell sizes prior to human settlement, from shells excavated from human trash heaps representing various points in the last few thousand years and from modern sites.
Science Magazine: Why Did New Zealand's Moas Go Extinct?
March 17, 2014
For millions of years, nine species of large, flightless birds known as moas (Dinornithiformes) thrived in New Zealand. Then, about 600 years ago, they abruptly went extinct. Their die-off coincided with the arrival of the first humans on the islands in the late 13th century, and scientists have long wondered what role hunting by Homo sapiens played in the moas’ decline. Did we alone drive the giant birds over the brink, or were they already on their way out thanks to disease and volcanic eruptions? Now, a new genetic study of moa fossils points to humankind as the sole perpetrator of the birds’ extinction. The study adds to an ongoing debate about whether past peoples lived and hunted animals in a sustainable manner or were largely to blame for the extermination of numerous species.
“The paper presents a very convincing case of extinction due to humans,” says Carles Lalueza-Fox, an evolutionary biologist at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, Spain, who was not involved in the research. “It’s not because of a long, natural decline.”
Scientists have long argued about what caused the extinction of many species of megafauna—giant animals including mammoths, mastodons, and moas—beginning between 9000 and 13,000 years ago, when humans began to spread around the world. Often, the animals disappeared shortly after humans arrived in their habitats, leading some researchers to suggest that we exterminated them by overhunting. But other scientists have pointed to natural causes, including volcanic eruptions, disease, and climate change at the end of last Ice Age, as the key reasons for these species’ demise. The moas present a particularly interesting case, researchers say, because they were the last of the giant species to vanish, and they did so recently, when a changing climate was no longer a factor. But did other natural causes set them on a path to oblivion, as some scientists proposed in a recent paper?
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Geology
University of Illinois: New book tells the story of a little-known volcano's global impact
Dusty Rhodes, Arts and Humanities Editor
3/20/2014
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The 200th anniversary of the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history will be marked by the publication of a new book by University of Illinois professor Gillen D’Arcy Wood. If you think the title character might be Vesuvius, or Krakatoa, or maybe Pinatubo, you’re wrong. Wood’s focus is Tambora – a mountain in the Indonesian archipelago that erupted so violently in April of 1815 that today, it is ranked as “super colossal” on the scientific Volcanic Explosivity Index. And the explosion was only the first dose of Tambora’s destructive power.
In his book, “Tambora: The Eruption That Changed the World” (to be published by Princeton University Press in April), Wood describes a cascade of aftereffects, ranging from climatic cooling that occurred as Tambora’s immense ash cloud circled the globe, to less intuitive consequences, such as a worldwide cholera pandemic, a boom in opium production, a spike in arctic exploration and an economic depression in the U.S. The fact that people who lived through these chaotic consequences never realized they were caused by a remote volcano made Woods’ research challenging.
“It was really detective work, connecting the dots,” he said. “As a historian, I rely on contemporary documents from that period, and no one was making the connection at the time.”
Penn State: The history of earthquakes in Japan
Giant catfish and a legacy of disaster in one of the world's most seismically active regions.
By David Pacchioli
March 19, 2014
Greg Smits' interest in earthquakes began with a catfish. A book full of catfish, to be precise.
Back in 2002, Smits, then an assistant professor of history at Penn State, was poking around a used book store in Tokyo, looking for titles relating to his specialty, the intellectual history of Japan, when a large and colorful volume caught his eye.
It was a comprehensive, illustrated treatment of namazu-e, the brash, fantastic, often satirical prints depicting namazu -- mythical giant catfish -- that proliferated in the aftermath of the great Ansei Edo earthquake of 1855. Its price had been marked down drastically, and the bargain was too good to resist.
Energy
Discovery News: Solar Power Array Could Orbit Earth
by Alyssa Danigelis
Mar 21, 2014 01:27 PM ET
The U.S. Navy has a solar power plan that’s literally out of this world. The concept entails constructing an orbiting solar array in space that spans nine football fields.
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory spacecraft engineer Paul Jaffe is working on solar modules intended to be launched into space one at a time. Then robots would assemble them into an enormous array that converts solar energy into a radio frequency that gets beamed to receivers on Earth. Hat tip Inhabitat.
Physics
LiveScience: Top Quark: Mass of World's Heaviest Elementary Particle Found
By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer
March 20, 2014 12:49pm ET
In the first joint result from the world's two leading particle colliders, scientists have determined the mass of the heaviest elementary particle, the top quark.
The measurement was made using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Tevatron at Fermilab in Batavia, Ill. Four separate experiments found a joint value for the top quark of 173.34 (+/- 0.76) gigaelectronvolts divided by the speed of light squared, scientists announced Wednesday (March 19) at a physics conference in Italy.
"The combining together of data from CERN and Fermilab to make a precision top quark mass result is a strong indication of its importance to understanding nature," Fermilab director Nigel Lockyer said in a statement, adding, "It's a great example of the international collaboration in our field."
LiveScience: 'Invisibility' Cloak May Hide Things from Sonar
By Jesse Emspak, Live Science Contributo
March 21, 2014 07:54am ET
Cloaking devices, a staple of science fiction (think Harry Potter), are getting closer to reality. Researchers at Duke University have built a structure that would hide anything under it from sonar — at least in air.
Made of sheets of perforated plastic, the pyramid-shaped cloak changes the shape and speed of sound waves as they hit it. Those changes make the sound waves appear to reflect off the surface the pyramid is standing on, as though it wasn't there.
To build the cloak, Lucian Zigoneanu, Bogdan-Ioan Popa and Steven Cummer modeled the way sound waves act on a computer. They tried several simulated shapes, and eventually came up with the pyramid design, made with sheets that have holes in them.
Chemistry
Howard University: Chemistry Professor Awarded DOE Grant to Fight Global Warming
WASHINGTON (March 18, 2014) – Howard University Chemistry Professor Jason S. Matthews, Ph.D., was recently awarded a $200,000 grant by the Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE-NETL) for research in the fight against global warming.
The two-year research project is centered on the development of new processes to capture pure carbon dioxide -- CO2 -- and generate electricity. According to Matthews, researchers will develop synthetic routes toward the preparation of core shell iron oxide particles for use in the chemical looping process developed by Professor Liang-Shih Fan at The Ohio State University. In chemical looping, coal efficiently reacts with iron oxide to generate electricity and a pure CO2 stream, which can be easily captured and stored underground. This cost-effective process is expected to capture more that 99% of coal’s CO2 emissions.
Science Crime Scenes
ANSA (Associated National Press Agency) (Italy): Artemis fresco stolen from Pompeii
EU commissioner, theft is a disgrace, shameful
(ANSAmed) - Naples, March 18 - A portion of a fresco of Apollo and Artemis has been stolen from the world-famous archeological site of Pompeii, Italian dailies reported Tuesday.
Citing an employee at the world's largest open-air museum, newspapers Il Mattino and Il Messaggero said the fresco portion, measuring roughly 20x20 cm, has been missing from the House of Neptune for one week. The missing portion depicted the goddess Artemis, who was seated before her brother Apollo. It was stolen by experts, police say.
The Local (Italy): Canadian tourist steals brick from Colosseum
A Canadian teenager got into hot water with police on Monday after she was caught trying to steal a brick from Rome’s Colosseum, stashed away in her backpack, Italian media reported.
The 15-year-old reportedly wanted to take a “unique” souvenir home from one of the world’s most famous ancient sites, Italian daily Il Messaggero reported.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Alabama at Birmingham: UAB to host Facebook-sponsored cybersecurity competition
by Katherine Shonesy
March 21, 2014
A Facebook-sponsored game of cybersecurity Capture the Flag will be held March 22 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in which teams will try to penetrate peers' online security while defending their own.
UAB joins Stanford University as the first U.S. universities to host the Facebook event designed to test the skills of up-and-coming cybersecurity programmers and penetration testers from around the world. Working in teams of up to four people, participants will compete in a simulated security exercise, much like the game of Risk, in which they attempt to acquire countries throughout the world by penetrating a series of increasingly difficult security barriers.
Each challenge is designed to simulate a type of threat which companies across the world may encounter as part of a cybersecurity attack. Participants are first required to overcome existing security measures; in an added twist, once participants acquire a target, they will then have to defend it against fellow competitors.
Penn State: Parents should try to find middle ground to keep teens safe online
By Matt Swayne
March 19, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Parents might take a lesson from Goldilocks and find a balanced approach to guide their teens in making moral, safe online decisions, according to Penn State researchers.
In a study on parenting strategies and online adolescent safety, the researchers found evidence that suggests that parents should try to establish a middle ground between keeping their teens completely away from the internet not monitoring their online activities at all.
"It's a Goldilocks problem," said Pamela Wisniewski, a postdoctoral scholar in information sciences and technology. "Overly restrictive parents limit the positive online experiences a teen can have, but overly permissive parents aren't putting the right types of demands on their children to make good choices."
Active mediation and monitoring online behavior, not blanket rules, may be a better strategy.
Science, Space, Health, Environment, and Energy Policy
Trinidad Express: Needed: qualified archaeologists
By Heather-Dawn Herrera
Story Created: Mar 19, 2014 at 10:30 PM ECT
Story Updated: Mar 19, 2014 at 10:30 PM ECT
Trinidad and Tobago is a Republic consisting of two small islands that jointly support a population of 1.3 million. This means that there is limited available land space to satisfy the needs of an increasing population. Availability of land space is being challenged every year by major construction of industrial and housing developments and quarrying.
The Guardian (UK): HS2 rail link: archaeologists and English Heritage clash over the route through a nation's past
Archaeologists say that a unique 350-mile trench will open up the buried past, while English Heritage condemns lack of attention to the environment
Robin Stummer
The Observer, Saturday 15 March 2014
To archaeologists, the HS2 high-speed rail scheme is "one huge trench across the country", an unprecedented 350-mile bonanza that promises to open up England's ancient backbone and shoulders for meticulous study in a way never before possible. To many historians, however, it is a colossal folly, an unwarranted assault on the nation's historic heartlands that will dislocate a wealth of precious links with the past.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
George Washington University: How Immigration Reform Can Advance Science
Professor Al Teich provides visa policy recommendations to make the U.S. more globally competitive.
March 12, 2014
The process of brain circulation, or high-skilled immigration, aims to bring the best and brightest minds to U.S. soil for information exchanges that result in scientific advancements and vitality nationwide.
However, foreign-born students and scientists often face difficulty when it comes to visiting or immigrating to the U.S. During his 32-year career at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Elliott School of International Affairs Professor Al Teich noticed the complexities of visa policies in the wake of 9/11. With several colleagues, he catalyzed a group and set to work figuring out how to streamline the processes and promote scientific collaboration in the country.
Dr. Teich has continued research on the topic through a grant from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, and he recently presented his findings at meetings organized by AAAS and the American Physical Society. George Washington Today spoke to the expert about his policy recommendations and how the U.S. can better utilize brain circulation to remain a leader in science and technology fields.
Science Education
Port Clinton Herald: ICS class explores Johnson's Island
Mar. 22, 2014
PORT CLINTON — The fifth-graders in Jane Drusbacky’s class at Immaculate Conception School are preparing to be archaeologists.
The class will participate in the Experiential Learning Program in Historical Archaeology offered by the Center for Historic and Military Archaeology of Heidelberg University.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Texas: For Men of Color, High Academic Motivation Does Not Bring Academic Success
March 17, 2014
AUSTIN, Texas — Despite higher levels of engagement in the community college experience — from rarely skipping classes to accessing tutoring services more frequently — male students of color have lower academic outcomes than White male students who are significantly less engaged, according to a recent University of Texas at Austin report.
“Aspirations to Achievement: Men of Color and Community Colleges” was produced by the College of Education’s Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE). It is based on responses from more than 453,000 students nationwide to the Community College Survey of Student Engagement.
“Despite Black and Hispanic males reporting higher aspirations to earn a community college certificate or degree than their White peers, only 5 percent of those who attend community colleges earn certificates or degrees in three years, as opposed to 32 percent of White males,” said Kay McClenney, CCCSE director. “Realities like this prompted us to look at what contributes to the achievement gaps and suggest ways community colleges can better support Black and Hispanic males’ success.”
Science Writing and Reporting
American University: Water Project Catalyzes Communication Students
March 21, 2014
In news, policy, politics and entertainment, water is a hot topic. Safe drinking water. Water scarcity. Pollution and toxic contamination. Conservation and resources management. Hygiene and sanitation.
American University students are mapping the treatment of these issues in their professional fields and producing new reporting, strategic communication campaigns, media productions and communication research through the Water Project, an innovative, experiential cross-disciplinary initiative launched by the School of Communication.
Spearheaded by former SOC Dean Larry Kirkman, the Water Project demonstrates the value of sharing work across academic divisions. "The goal of the Water Project is to engage faculty and students in communicating water problems and solutions - local to global in scope, with scientific, economic, political, legal, and ethical dimensions - and in collaboration with partner organizations, which provide resources and outlets for student work," says Kirkman.
25 SOC faculty members have embraced the project, which launched in the fall of 2013, agreeing to incorporate water issues into course assignments over the next two academic years. In its first semester, the Water Project has yielded high caliber work for public television, national advocacy organizations and municipal initiatives.
Science is Cool
The Bolton News (UK): £1 million bid to 'build' a pharaoh's tomb in Bolton
£1 million bid to "build" a pharoah's tomb
By Saiqa Chaudhari, Education reporter
BOLTON Museum could become a global attraction after unveiling ambitious plans to house a full-scale reconstruction of the tomb of a great Egyptian Pharaoh.
The burial chamber of Thutmose III forms the centrepiece of a million pound bid being prepared by the museum as part of ambitious proposals to radically redesign Bolton Museum’s Egyptology gallery and turn it into a major attraction.
Jo Lewis, community engagement officer at Bolton Library and Museum Services, said: “It is an exciting time for the museum, this facsimile tomb is the only one in the world and would create a major tourist attraction in Bolton.
Western Morning News: Was oratory digger drunk as a Perraner?
By Simon Parker
March 19, 2014
Archaeologists working at the site of one of Britain’s oldest Christian buildings have made an unexpected discovery – a bottle of beer drunk by one of their counterparts more than a century ago.
Researchers working to uncover St Piran’s Oratory in Cornwall say the artefact, dating from the first decade of the 20th century, still contains some of its original contents.
The bottle, bearing the embossed stamp of Walter Hicks & Company – the forerunner of today’s St Austell Brewery – is perfectly preserved. Cornish historians say it is particularly apt because as well as being patron saint of tinners, St Piran was said to have been partial to a tipple. Legend states that the holy man died , aged 200, after falling down a well while inebriated – hence the local saying “drunk as a Perraner”.
L.A. Times: Mystery is the spice of life, or is it vice versa?
A weekend weeding through shelves of salts, peppers and countless herbs in tins and pouches raises a question: Where did all this stuff come from?
By Russ Parsons
March 21, 2014, 3:49 p.m.
I was preparing for our annual holiday posole party and needed some chile molido. I knew I had some, somewhere in my spice cabinet. And sure enough, I did — after half an hour of frenzied digging, I found a half-dozen bags of different ground chiles (all unmarked, of course) in a sealed plastic storage container. And they all smelled the same — like nothing much at all.
The Intelligencer: Archaeological bus tours offered locally
For the Intelligencer
Archaeology fans will get a chance to tour one of Illinois’ most fascinating regions with an expert guide during a day-long bus tour on March 30.
Led by Dr. John Kelly from Washington University, the tour includes 20 mounds and Native American village sites amid the river bottoms and bluffs of the Metro East area. Kelly will discuss the latest findings on each site. Visitors will be able to get out and explore a few of the sites.
The tour begins at 9 a.m. at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site and ends there at 3 p.m. The cost is $30.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
American University: Alum's 'Astronaut' on International Space Station
March 18, 2014
Virginia high school student Blair Mason has wanted to be an astronaut since he was three years old. Filmmaker David J. Ruck, (SOC/MFA ’13) has already put Mason into orbit on board the international space station as the protagonist of Ruck’s film I want to be an Astronaut.
Ruck tells Mason’s story and highlights the importance of America’s space program in his new documentary, which began as his master’s thesis at American University. “This film draws attention to the importance of STEM education as it relates to our nation’s ability to remain on the cutting edge of science and technology and where we might be headed if we fail to inspire young people to pursue these fields,” says Ruck.
From Facebook to Orbit
How do you snag a screening in earth’s orbit? Ruck used Facebook to share the Astronaut trailer with International Space Station Flight Engineer, Rick Mastracchio. Hours later, Ruck had a message in his inbox from the Astronaut orbiting above the Earth on the International Space Station (ISS) requesting to see the entire film. The film was uplinked to the ISS on Friday, March 7, and the “Orbital Premiere” will be screened during the astronauts’ time away from science experiments within the next few days.
