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 states of Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas.
This week's featured stories come from NASA and the Washington Post.
A Star Wars Day Message from NASA
In celebration of Star Wars Day, NASA flight engineer Rick Mastracchio hopes to deliver a special message from the International Space Station. Little does he know, however, that the Empire plans to jam his transmissions. Thankfully, R2-D2 is on the case.
The surprisingly simple way Egyptians moved massive pyramid stones without modern technology
By Terrence McCoy
Few have traveled to the pyramids of Egypt and not wondered how an ancient civilization without modern technology could have constructed structures so large they can be viewed from space. Some have theorized they were built inside out.
On the flakier side, some say aliens did it.
Perhaps the most confounding mystery of all involves how incredibly large stones made their way to the middle of the desert without massive mechanical assistance. No camel, even the Egyptian kind, is that strong.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
To combine the topics of pyramids and Star Wars day, here is a pyramid in Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Welcome to Korriban AKA Evil Space Egypt.
More stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
WATCH THIS SPACE!
Unlikely Hero
by LeftOfYou
Spotlight on Green News & Views: ExxonMobil and the Ukraine, acid ocean, oil 'bomb trains'
by Meteor Blades
This week in science: dulcis condimentum mortem
by DarkSyde
A Science Quiz
by Lenny Flank
Slideshows/Videos
BBC: A Point of View: Is the archaeological dig a thing of the past?
Archaeological discoveries are more likely to be found by technology than with a trowel and a torch, writes classical historian Mary Beard.
May 2, 2014
If you want a vivid glimpse of ancient Roman life, the best place to go - after the more famous Pompeii - is the town of Ostia, a 30-minute train ride from the centre of Rome, near the coast. It's one of my very favourite sites. Beautifully peaceful, surrounded by shady umbrella pines, and, quite unlike Pompeii, you often have it almost to yourself.
...
It's also a place that has recently become a whole lot bigger. Archaeologists used to think that the town was built on only one side of the river Tiber, where it joined the sea. They have just announced, in the last few weeks, that it extended over both banks of the river, and was roughly half as big again as we imagined. We now know that across the Tiber, there was a large built-up area with its own impressive circuit of town walls, including several towers, plus a series of vast warehouses - three laid out around a central courtyard, and another constructed on rows of columns, which is the biggest of the lot at 140x110m (495x360ft), making it larger than your average British cathedral.
...
But don't start planning a visit to these discoveries. They haven't actually been dug up. They are the result of sophisticated scanning techniques, which can reveal on a computer screen all kinds of structures buried under the ground. To the naked eye, they're invisible. If you were to go to the site itself, you wouldn't see any walls or warehouses at all, just a rather unprepossessing field.
Gothamist: Oldest Man-Made Object In NYC To Be Cleaned With Lasers
The oldest man-made object in Central Park, and the only thing in this city using bronze crab claws as supports, is in need of a wash down. The Obelisk, also known as Cleopatra's Needle, will be cleaned during a conservation project, the Central Park Conservancy announced today.
Stabilization and cleaning of the 3,500-year-old Obelisk, situated right behind the Met, starts this week, and is part of an effort to "promote its long term preservation and enhance the public’s understanding of the ancient artifact." Working with the Met and the Parks Department, the Conservancy will kick things off with a cleaning... with LASERS, which they found to be "most sensitive to the stone’s surface and safest for the environment." The laser's infrared light will vaporize the dirt, which has been accumulating throughout the years.
The Wall Street Journal: The Colosseum's Badly Needed Bath
The first full cleaning in the Colosseum's history aims to return the Roman monument to its former splendor
By Eric Sylvers
Rome's Colosseum will soon look a little more like it did in the bad old days two millennia ago, when it first hosted gladiator fights, mock naval battles and public executions carried out by wild animals.
The $35 million project—the first full cleaning in the Colosseum's history—aims to return it to its former splendor, while also strengthening the overall structure. Earthquakes, the pillaging of pieces of its outer frame, heavy car traffic and Rome's nearby subway have damaged key parts. The scrubdown should also reveal secrets of how one of the world's most famous, and often neglected, monuments remained standing for 20 centuries.
Some surprises have already emerged during the project's first six months. The restorers expect to uncover the first five arcades this summer. Visitors will find that the monument's Travertine limestone is once again a vibrant dark ivory—what Rossella Rea, the Colosseum's director, calls "yellow ivory." Pollution had turned the stone a variety of colors from dirty cream to jet black.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
NBC Los Angeles: Firefighters Make Good Progress on Fire in San Bernardino National Forest
All evacuations were lifted and schools had reopened as firefighters got a handle on the blaze
By Jonathan Lloyd and Christina Cocca
Friday, May 2, 2014
Firefighters made good progress Friday on the 2,190-acre brush fire in a San Bernardino County community.
The blaze, dubbed the Etiwanda Fire, was 67 percent contained as of Friday night. All evacuations had been lifted one night earlier.
The fire broke out at 8 a.m. at the base of the San Bernardino National Forest 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The fire grew to 200 acres by noon, quadrupled in size within a few hours and had burned through 1,000 acres of brush by that afternoon.
That's 8 A.M. Wednesday, as the Weather Channel notes in
Southern California Wildfire Only Smoldering.
Winds in the area below the San Bernardino National Forest were around 15 mph Thursday night, with 25-mph gusts — a far cry from the 70-mph gusts a day earlier.
The Etiwanda fire had started in the San Bernardino Mountains near Rancho Cucamonga Wednesday morning, and Santa Ana winds fed the fire and pushed smoke into nearby neighborhoods.
About 1,600 homes were evacuated Wednesday, but families were allowed to return home for the night. Officials did urge people in some northern neighborhoods of Rancho Cucamonga to leave voluntarily if they felt threatened, said Chon Bribiescas, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.
Fire season in southern California is now starting in April. Last year, it started in May. Welcome to the
400 ppm world.
Texas A&M: MFA student’s photos of alien worlds to be displayed in NY
April 29, 2014
Hypothetical landscapes of distant worlds, photographed by Cassandra Hanks, a Texas A&M Master of Fine Arts student, will be exhibited at New York’s HERE Gallery, 145 6th Avenue, from May 29 – July 5, 2014.
In her “Alien Landscapes” series, Hanks uses scientific data to simulate planetary landscapes in a studio, which she photographs to reflect the myriad worlds and visual possibilities in our solar system.
“The terrain of our neighboring planets serves as a hypothetical landscape for what earth used to be, could have been, or what it might become,” said Hanks. “These photographs of synthesized planetary landscapes create prophetic possibilities of the impact of natural and human acts of destruction.”
NASA: The Human Path to Mars on This Week @NASA
On Tuesday, April 29, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and other agency officials participated in a public exploration forum at headquarters, to showcase the path the agency has laid out to put humans on Mars. The stepping-stone approach will leverage all of NASA's exploration resources to support the agency's bold human missions to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s. Also, Senate Hearing, Seeking Concepts for Europa Mission, Tornado Outbreak Seen from Space, Spacecraft Stacked, Shuttle Carrier Aircraft Reaches Final Destination, Spinoffs 2013 and NASA Honors Shatner!
NASA: NASA's Path to Mars
Get an inside look at NASA's next steps in deep space exploration -- from the space station, to an asteroid and on to the human exploration of Mars.
Science at NASA: ScienceCasts: Carrington-class CME Narrowly Misses Earth
Two years ago, an intense solar storm narrowly missed Earth. If it had hit, researchers say, we could still be picking up the pieces.
JPL/NASA: What's Up for May 2014
What's up for May. Great views of Saturn and Mars all night long. And a possible new meteor shower.
Hubble Space Telescope: Tonight's Sky: May 2014
Backyard stargazers get a monthly guide to the northern hemisphere's skywatching events with "Tonight's Sky." May features the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, and could feature a meteor storm later in the month as Earth passes through the debris from Comet 209P/LINEAR.
Astronomy/Space
Indiana University: Star Trak: May 2014
April 30, 2014
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- As evening twilight fades during May, bright yellow Saturn will appear in the southeastern sky. It will be highest in the south around 1 a.m. local daylight time.
On May 10 it will reach opposition (opposite the sun), when it will rise just before sunset and set just after sunrise. It will be closest to Earth in its orbit, so it will shine its brightest for the year. Saturn's rings will be tilted 22 degrees to our line of sight during May. Its largest moon, Titan, will be visible in any telescope.
Climate/Environment
University of Connecticut: CL&P, UConn Partner to Help Anticipate Storm Damage
April 30, 2014
When Mother Nature brings destructive weather to Connecticut, it can cause significant damage to the state and its electric system.
While Connecticut Light & Power tracks impending storms closely, it is difficult to predict where severe weather will hit the hardest and cause the most damage.
New damage prediction modeling technology developed by a team of UConn environmental engineers is now able to provide CL&P customized information in advance of a storm to allow the company to better plan and prepare.
Indiana University: Research team to study impact of climate-related challenges on vulnerable Arctic community
May 1, 2014
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University, in collaboration with Montana State University and the University of Greenland, is conducting a three-year, $1.5 million National Science Foundation-funded study of the biological, cultural and environmental challenges facing an Arctic population. Like many coastal and modernizing communities worldwide, northern Greenlanders are confronted by a changing climate, demographic shifts and global economic forces that threaten their continued existence.
The research team is led by Virginia Vitzthum, senior scientist at The Kinsey Institute at IU Bloomington, and Elizabeth Rink, associate professor at Montana State University. Through a process known as community-based participatory research, the team will work with local residents to develop a research design that targets pressing local issues, such as migration and family formation, as well as questions of global significance, such as how a changing environment affects health and reproduction.
"Cultural reproduction of communities and biological reproduction of individuals are necessarily linked, but rarely is this intimate connection so clearly revealed as when facing unprecedented challenges to indigenous lifeways," Vitzthum said.
Purdue University: Longer periods of tornado activity are most likely to spawn the worst events, but they may also be more predictable
April 30, 2014
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Significant tornado outbreaks and especially strong tornadoes are more likely occur within periods of activity lasting three or more days, according to a Purdue University tornado expert.
Jeff Trapp, a professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences, examined 30 years of U.S. weather records and found that an outbreak of 20 or more reported tornadoes had a 74 percent probability of occurring during a period of tornado activity lasting three or more days. During those same periods, a tornado rated 3 or higher on the Enhanced Fujita scale had a 60 percent probability of hitting.
The Enhanced Fujita scale rates tornadoes from EF0 to EF5 with damage rated as "light," including broken branches and windblown signs, to "incredible," including leveling of strong-frame houses.
North Carolina State University: Increased Drought Portends Lower Future Midwest Crop Yields
May 1, 2014
Increasingly harsh drought conditions in the U.S. Midwest’s Corn Belt may take a serious toll on corn and soybean yields over the next half-century, according to research published today in the journal Science.
Corn yields could drop by 15 to 30 percent, according to the paper’s estimates; soybean yield losses would be less severe.
North Carolina State University’s Roderick Rejesus, associate professor of agricultural and resource economics and a co-author of the Science paper, says that corn and soybean yields show increasing sensitivity to drought, with yields struggling in dry conditions in Iowa, Illinois and Indiana during the 1995 to 2012 study period.
“Yield increases are getting smaller in bad conditions,” Rejesus said. “Agronomic and genetic crop improvements over the years help a lot when growing conditions are good, but have little effect when growing conditions are poor, like during droughts.”
North Carolina State University: Urbanization, Higher Temperatures Can Influence Butterfly Emergence Patterns
April 28, 2014
An international team of researchers has found that a subset of common butterfly species are emerging later than usual in urban areas located in warmer regions, raising questions about how the insects respond to significant increases in temperature.
“We know that butterflies emerge earlier in North Carolina than they do in New England, because it’s warmer,” says Tyson Wepprich, a Ph.D. student at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the work. “We also know that cities are heat sinks that are warmer than outlying areas. So we wanted to see whether butterflies would emerge earlier in cities than they do in more rural environments.”
...
There was a wide range of responses to urbanization across species, but one finding stood out.
“The combined effect of an urban area and a warmer part of the state appeared to delay emergence in seven of the 20 species,” Wepprich says.
Biodiversity
University of Florida: A first: Real-time genome-scale sequencing at sea
April 28, 2014
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A University of Florida researcher has become the first scientist to achieve genome-scale sequencing and analysis of fragile marine creatures at sea aboard a ship and in real time.
The genomic sequencing of potentially thousands of marine species had been impossible until now because their fragile genetic material could not be stored or shipped reliably. Sequencing, too, used to take days. But using an at-sea full-equipped genomic laboratory and UF’s powerful new HiPerGator supercomputer, Leonid Moroz has opened the floodgates to discovery.
The potential benefits are great: about 50 percent of drugs today are derived from natural products. The globe is 70 percent ocean, and scientists estimate 14 million to 20 million compounds remain to be discovered at sea.
University of Michigan: Viruses hijack deep-sea bacteria at hydrothermal vents
May 1, 2014
ANN ARBOR—More than a mile beneath the ocean's surface, as dark clouds of mineral-rich water billow from seafloor hot springs called hydrothermal vents, unseen armies of viruses and bacteria wage war.
Like pirates boarding a treasure-laden ship, the viruses infect bacterial cells to get the loot: tiny globules of elemental sulfur stored inside the bacterial cells.
Instead of absconding with their prize, the viruses force the bacteria to burn the valuable sulfur reserves, then use the unleashed energy to replicate, eventually filling the bacterial cells to the bursting point.
Biotechnology/Health
The Daily Mail (UK): How modern humans have become WEAKLINGS compared with our ancient ancestors who could outrun and outlift today's top athletes
•Human leg bones have grown weaker since farming was invented
•Scientists found bone structure declined after agriculture emerged
•Male farmers 7,300 years ago had legs of cross-country runners
•But just 3,000 years later, they had legs comparable to 'sedentary' students
By Sara Malm and Ellie Zolfagharifard
Mo Farah would have had some tough competition from ancient farmers living 7,300 years ago.
Scientists claim if they were to cross paths, our ancestors would have been capable of outrunning some of the world’s most talented athletes.
That's according to recent research by Cambridge University which reveals just how far our fitness has fallen in just a couple of millennia.
Nature (UK): Ancient bones show signs of struggle with coeliac disease
An affluent young woman with a probable gluten intolerance tried to manage it by altering her diet.
by Ewen Callaway
If going gluten-free seems hard now, try doing it in ancient Rome. A well-heeled young woman with coeliac disease tried to adapt her diet in an unsuccessful effort to cope with gluten sensitivity, studies of her remains suggest.
The woman’s remains were buried in a 2,000-year-old tomb at the Cosa archaeological site on the Tuscan coast in Italy. The ancient Roman city's economy depended on growing wheat and olives and was not particularly prosperous, yet archaeologists discovered gold and bronze jewellery entombed alongside the woman’s bones. They concluded that she was relatively wealthy and would have had access to plenty of food.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Florida: UF researchers create protein with potential for weight loss, diabetes treatment
May 1, 2014
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — It sounds like a magic bullet: Administer a protein, watch the subject lose weight.
But that’s exactly what University of Florida scientists found when they discovered a new way to deliver a protein that helps develop cells that convert fat into energy.
The study builds upon on a discovery by Bruce Spiegelman, a cell biologist at the Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who found that human muscles release a hormone he called irisin during exercise. Spiegelman also found that mice lost a small amount of weight when given the irisin gene using a virus to ferry it into cells.
Now the UF team — including researcher Dr. Li-Jun Yang, Shi-Wu Li, and postdoctoral researcher William Donelan — has for the first time created a stable protein form of irisin, opening the door to human studies that weren’t previously possible because the virus has not been approved for use in people.
University of Florida: In pitching injuries, the elbow is connected to the hip bone
April 30, 2014
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — New University of Florida research suggests that a pitcher’s elbow injury could be linked to movement in the hips.
Dr. Kevin W. Farmer, an assistant professor in the UF department of orthopaedics and rehabilitation, presented research at the March meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons that shows a limited range of motion in a pitcher’s hips could be a risk factor in injury to his elbow.
“This could open up a whole new line of thought processes and research,” Farmer said. “We’re going to be able to ask: Is there an associated risk of injury down the road with limited hip range of motion, and can we minimize that risk by improving hip range of motion?”
University of Florida: Surprising find: UF/IFAS discovers citrus greening affects roots before leaves
April 30, 2014
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Although citrus greening enters trees through their leaves, University of Florida researchers have discovered that the deadly disease attacks roots long before the leaves show signs of damage – a finding that may help growers better care for trees while scientists work to find a cure.
“The role of root infection by insect-carried bacterial pathogens has been greatly underestimated,” said Evan Johnson, a research assistant scientist with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Hundreds of researchers around the world are rushing to find a viable treatment for citrus greening, which is devastating Florida’s $9 billion citrus industry and has affected citrus production throughout North America.
Purdue University: Purdue MERS experts working on way to block dangerous virus
May 3, 2014
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A team of Purdue University researchers is creating molecules designed to shut down the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, that recently arrived in the United States.
The virus was confirmed in a U.S. traveler Friday (May 2) who on April 24 flew from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to London, to Chicago and then traveled by bus to Indiana, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There is currently no treatment or vaccine for the virus, which has an estimated fatality rate of 30 percent, said Andrew Mesecar, the Walther Professor of Cancer Structural Biology and a Purdue professor of biological sciences and chemistry who leads the team.
Michigan State University: Early numbers show decrease in workplace deaths in 2013
May 1, 2014
Preliminary figures put the number of workplace deaths in Michigan in 2013 at 121, currently down from 135 confirmed deaths in 2012, according to a report compiled annually from Michigan State University.
Yet it’s anticipated that the number will rise once all the data is assessed.
“We know these numbers will increase, we just don’t know how much yet until all the final figures come in,” said Kenneth Rosenman, who serves as the director of MSU's Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Michigan State University: Physical activity of nation’s children receives poor grade
April 29, 2014
In a first-ever report card evaluating the physical activity of our nation’s children, the final results are less than stellar.
The United States Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth was released April 29 at a Congressional Fitness Caucus briefing on Capitol Hill and included several key indicators that were evaluated and graded through a collaboration led by the National Physical Activity Plan Alliance and the American College of Sports Medicine.
The report card looked at several areas that affect activity including sedentary behaviors, organized sport participation, active play, health-related fitness, transportation and others, but overall gave the physical activity of kids a D-.
Michigan State University: Estimating baby’s size gets more precise
April 28, 2014
New Michigan State University research aims to help doctors estimate the size of newborns with a new set of birth weight measurements based on birth records from across the country.
“More than 7 million records were reviewed,” said Nicole Talge, an assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, who co-led the study which is now available in the journal Pediatrics.
“Our research looked at live births in the United States during 2009-2010 and using a newly developed method, corrected unlikely gestational ages during that time. This led to changes in the birth weight thresholds, especially for preterm and post-term babies.”
Talge added that these thresholds are important because they can be used to classify a baby as small or large for gestational age.
Wayne State University: Fetal imaging breakthrough developed at WSU could expose earliest origins of neural diseases
May 1, 2014
DETROIT – An unprecedented method for measuring functional connections in the human fetal brain developed at the Wayne State University School of Medicine could open a window into how the brain becomes “wired-up” at the beginning of life. Application of this method may help scientists discover the origins of neural injury or disease before a child is born.
Scientists can now detect abnormal signaling between two or more brain regions, a once impossible achievement. Many early childhood diseases, including autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, prematurity, schizophrenia and dyslexia, involve abnormal connectivity with no structural irregularity.
“As a result, how the human brain is connected into functional systems, or ‘wired-up,’ has become a question of global interest,” said study principal investigator Moriah Thomason, Ph.D.
Ohio State University via Science Daily: World's smallest, leadless heart pacemaker implanted
May 2, 2014
The smallest heart pacemaker available is about the size of a vitamin pill, and now another American hospital is about to test this emerging technology. “With this investigational device, the battery, the pacing electrodes, everything is in a little piece of metal sitting inside the heart. We believe that will eliminate a lot of risk for infection and complications,” said a cardiologist and principal investigator of the trial.
Ohio State University via Science Daily: Brain saver: Vitamin E supplement helps 'redirect' blood during stroke
April 29, 2014
Strokes are a leading cause of death and long term disability in the US. With the failure of more than 1,000 experimental neuroprotective drugs, one scientist has stopped trying to discover the next new stroke treatment, and instead is trying to prevent strokes from happening in the first place. He thinks he may have found the answer in a little known member of the vitamin E family, which appears to remodel the brain’s circulatory system and provide protection the instant a stroke strikes.
Texas A&M: New drug boosts immune system to protect against world’s deadliest infectious diseases
by Holly Lambert
April 30, 2014
Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a new therapy to stimulate the body’s natural immune system, thereby providing effective protection against a wide range of life-threatening infectious diseases. The drug, PUL-042, recently entered human clinical trials through Houston-based biotechnology company Pulmotect, Inc.
“The lungs are the point of entry for many viruses and bacteria. We hypothesized that activating the innate immune defense of the lungs might provide effective protection against a wide range of deadly pathogens,” said Magnus Höök, Ph.D., regents and distinguished professor at the TAMHSC Institute for Biosciences and Technology in Houston’s Texas Medical Center and co-founder of Pulmotect, Inc. “Based on our theory, we created a drug that stimulates the innate immune system, leading to rapid protection against many deadly lung infections.”
Originally designed to prevent and treat respiratory infections, PUL-042 is an inhaled substance that offers intense, short-term protection against bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens by protecting the lungs against infectious diseases. Initially, the team focused efforts on prevention of pneumonia in cancer patients.
Texas A&M: Better genetic markers developed for wheat streak mosaic virus resistance
by Kay Ledbetter
April 28, 2014
AMARILLO – Texas A&M AgriLife Research is developing genetic diagnostic markers to identify wheat streak mosaic virus resistance, providing wheat breeders a new tool in breeding wheat varieties resistant to one of the region’s most prevalent diseases.
...
Wheat streak mosaic virus, which is transmitted by wheat curl mite, is one of the major limiting factors for wheat production in the Southern High Plains, [Dr. Shuyu] Liu said. The yield loss can be up to 50 percent due to wheat streak mosaic virus in any given epidemic year.
There are several resistance genes to wheat streak mosaic available, but only one gene, labeled Wsm2, is from a wheat line, he said. The other two are from wheat relative species. Wsm2 has been bred in two wheat cultivars, RonL and Snowmass. This resistance gene is now being used by breeders in Kansas, Colorado and Texas to combine with other traits.
Psychology/Behavior
University of Michigan: 'Til sickness do us part: How illness affects the risk of divorce
May 1, 2014
ANN ARBOR—In the classic marriage vow, couples promise to stay together in sickness and in health. But a new study finds that the risk of divorce among older married couples rises when the wife—but not the husband—becomes seriously ill.
"Married women diagnosed with a serious health condition may find themselves struggling with the impact of their disease while also experiencing the stress of divorce," said Amelia Karraker, a researcher at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, who presents her findings May 1 at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America.
Karraker and co-author Kenzie Latham of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis analyzed 20 years of data on 2,717 marriages from the Health and Retirement Study, conducted by the Institute for Social Research since 1992. At the time of the first interview, at least one of the partners was over the age of 50.
The researchers examined how the onset of four serious physical illnesses—cancer, heart problems, lung disease and stroke—affected marriages.
Michigan State University: Out of shape? Your memory may suffer
May 2, 2014
Here’s another reason to drop that doughnut and hit the treadmill: A new study suggests aerobic fitness affects long-term memory.
Michigan State University researchers tested 75 college students during a two-day period and found those who were less fit had a harder time retaining information.
“The findings show that lower-fit individuals lose more memory across time,” said Kimberly Fenn, study co-author and assistant professor of psychology.
Michigan State University: Playing outside could make kids more spiritual
May 1, 2014
Children who spend significant time outdoors could have a stronger sense of self-fulfillment and purpose than those who don’t, according to new Michigan State University research linking children’s experiences in nature with how they define spirituality.
In the study, published recently in the Journal of the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, children who played outside five to 10 hours per week said they felt a spiritual connection with the earth, and felt their role is to protect it.
“These values are incredibly important to human development and well-being,” said Gretel Van Wieren, assistant professor of religious studies. “We were surprised by the results. Before we did the study, we asked, ‘Is it just a myth that children have this deep connection with nature?’ But we found it to be true in pretty profound ways.”
North Carolina State University: Study Highlights Importance of Parents Talking to Kids about Money
April 29, 2014
A new study from North Carolina State University and the University of Texas finds that children pay close attention to issues related to money, and that parents should make an effort to talk with their children to ensure that kids don’t develop misconceptions about finance.
“We wanted to know what kids are learning, or not learning, about money from their parents,” says Dr. Lynsey Romo, an assistant professor of communication at NC State and lead author of a paper on the research. “This is one of the first studies to look at what young school-age children know about money. The only other studies we’ve seen that address this issue focused on some high school and mostly college students.”
The researchers conducted interviews with 136 children between the ages of eight and 17, with an average age of 10.5. Fifty-seven percent of the children were boys; 43 percent were girls.
“Broadly speaking, we found that parents were most likely to talk with their kids about saving, spending and earning,” Romo says. The children said they felt their parents talked about these subjects to prepare kids for the future.
Archeology/Anthropology
The Express (UK): UK's OLDEST town revealed: Amesbury dates back more than TEN millenia
THE country's oldest town has finally been confirmed and its not where we all believed.
By: Emily Fox
Archaeologists at the University of Buckingham believe Amesbury, 40 miles from Stonehenge, is the oldest settlement in Britain not the previously thought Thatcham.
Researchers believe the town holds the distinction of being the birthplace of history in Britain.
They say the new findings dismiss previous theories that the Wiltshire town was conceived by European immigrants - instead, relics uncovered during a painstaking search point to British settlers being behind the settlement, which dates back to more than 10 millennia.
LiveScience: Mysterious Buried Artifacts Discovered in Egypt's Valley of the Kings
By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor
Four deposits of artifacts possibly buried as a ritual act of sorts before the construction of a tomb have been discovered in Egypt's Valley of the Kings.
The so-called foundation deposits, arranged in a boxlike shape, contain a mix of artifacts, including the head of a cow, a vase painted in blue and flint blades that have wooden handles that are still preserved after more than three millennia.
Al-Ahram (Egypt): Almost 60 royal mummies discovered in Egypt's Valley of the Kings
Swiss archaeological mission finds cache of 18th dynasty royal mummies on Luxor's West Bank
Nevine El-Aref
A cache of royal mummies has been unearthed inside a rock-hewn tomb in the Valley of the Kings on Luxor's West Bank, Egypt's antiquities ministry announced on Monday.
The tomb contains almost 60 ancient Egyptian royal mummies from the 18th dynasty along with the remains of wooden sarcophagi and cartonnage mummy masks depicting the facial features of the deceased, Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim told Ahram Online.
Western Digs: From Stone Darts to Dismembered Bodies, New Study Reveals 5,000 Years of Violence in Central California
POSTED BY BLAKE DE PASTINO
From shooting their enemies with darts and arrows to crushing their skulls and even harvesting body parts as trophies, the ancient foragers of central California engaged in sporadic, and sometimes severe, violence, according to a new archaeological study spanning 5,000 years.
In an effort to understand life and death in one of the ancient West's most populous regions, anthropologists conducted a landmark study of its dead, cataloging signs of violence found in burials between the Sierra Nevada and the San Francisco Bay, dating from historic times all the way back to 3000 BCE.
LiveScience: 'Mummy Lake' Used for Ancient Rituals, Not Water Storage
By Joseph Castro, Live Science Contributor
In Colorado's Mesa Verde National Park, a large 1,000-year-old structure long thought to be an Ancestral Puebloan water reservoir may not have been built to store water after all, a new study suggests.
Instead, the so-called Mummy Lake — which isn't a lake and has never been associated with mummies — likely held ancient ritual ceremonies, researchers say.
Copenhagen Post (Denmark): Amateur archaeologists unearth Viking gold
After hours of searching through the mud with metal detectors, amateur archaeologists Frank Pelle and Bent Gregersen made the discovery of their lives on a ploughed field in Bornholm earlier in April.
The two lucky gold-diggers found an ancient Viking gold treasure hidden in the ground.
Culture 24 (UK): Archaeologists find 'lost' medieval village full of pottery, coins and bones in Scottish Borders
By Ben Miller
Archaeologists believe a medieval village has been revealed during two winters of work on water pipes in Scotland
German and Dutch pots, jugs and mugs, coins including an American cent, spindles, a sheep skull and horse teeth have been found by archaeologists digging in the Scottish Borders, where doors integrated into walls have revealed a “lost” Medieval village of families, farmyards and hearths.
Between Edinburgh and the Northumberland National Park, the outskirts of Selkirk have previously been associated with the Battle of Philiphaugh, a 1645 victory for the Scottish Covenanter Army against their under-strength Royalist enemies.
Post and Courier: Hunley finally ready to reveal itself
by Brian Hicks
The H.L. Hunley may not hide its secrets for much longer.
Today, scientists at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center will immerse the Civil War-era submarine in a caustic bath of sodium hydroxide and water to begin a long-awaited conservation process that is expected to last about five years.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Michigan: Prehistoric caribou hunting structure discovered beneath Lake Huron
April 28, 2014
ANN ARBOR—Underwater archaeologists have discovered evidence of prehistoric caribou hunts that provide unprecedented insight into the social and seasonal organization of early peoples in the Great Lakes region.
An article detailing the discovery of a 9,000-year-old caribou hunting drive lane under Lake Huron appears in today's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"This site and its associated artifacts, along with environmental and simulation studies, suggest that Late Paleoindian/Early Archaic caribou hunters employed distinctly different seasonal approaches," said John O'Shea, the Emerson F. Greenman Professor of Anthropological Archaeology at the University of Michigan and lead author of the article.
"In autumn, small groups carried out the caribou hunts, and in spring, larger groups of hunters cooperated."
Paleontology/Evolution
The Guardian (UK): Neanderthals were not less intelligent than modern humans, scientists find
Researchers say there is no evidence that modern humans' cognitive superiority led to demise of Neanderthals
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Scientists have concluded that Neanderthals were not the primitive dimwits they are commonly portrayed to have been.
The view of Neanderthals as club-wielding brutes is one of the most enduring stereotypes in science, but researchers who trawled the archaeological evidence say the image has no basis whatsoever.
They said scientists had fuelled the impression of Neanderthals being less than gifted in scores of theories that purport to explain why they died out while supposedly superior modern humans survived.
Asociación RUVID (Spain) via Science Daily: Interactions between humans and scavengers have been decisive in human evolution:
April 29, 2014
Scientists have concluded that the interactions that human have kept for millennia with scavengers like vultures, hyenas and lions, have been crucial in the evolution and welfare of humankind. The results of the study note that the extinction of large carnivorous mammals threatens to wipe out the many services that they provide us.
ScienceNow: How Sheep Became Livestock
by Michael Balter
The domestication of plants and animals was one of the most important events in human history, but rarely have archaeologists been able to catch the process in the act. Now, research at an 11,000-year-old settlement in Turkey shows that some early farmers kept wild sheep penned up in the middle of their village—thus setting the stage for the dramatic changes that led to today’s domesticated animals.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Geology
Seismological Society of America via Science Daily: Wastewater disposal may trigger quakes at greater distance than previously thought
May 1, 2014
Oil and gas development activities, including underground disposal of wastewater and hydraulic fracturing, may induce earthquakes by changing the state of stress on existing faults to the point of failure. Earthquakes from wastewater disposal may be triggered at tens of kilometers from the wellbore, which is a greater range than previously thought, according to research.
Texas A&M: Deep Impact: Ocean Drilling Program Leads The Way To New Worldwide Discoveries
April 30, 2014
In many ways, the road to exploration at Texas A&M University begins not on the Earth’s surface, but rather below it. The most extensive and comprehensive ocean drilling program ever conceived — the International Ocean Discovery Program, commonly called IODP – starts yet another long chapter in Aggieland on Oct. 1 when the new 5-year agreement to manage the drilling program and operate its research vessel, the JOIDES Resolution begins yet another new research chapter for the university.
The scope of the project and contract with the National Science Foundation is huge – as high as $250 million, with international partners contributing another $87.5 million, subject to availability of funds and cooperative scientific priorities.
Phrased another way, during the 31-year period that Texas A&M has served as science operator for the program, it has received funding in excess of $1.5 billion, with much of it spent in Texas (IODP headquarters are located in the Texas A&M Research Park.)
Energy
Wayne State University: U.S. Department of Energy and GM tab Wayne State engineering for next generation fuel efficiency R&D
WSU students prepare to lead auto companies toward 54.5 mpg standards by 2025
April 28, 2014
As President Obama’s 2025 deadline for 54.5 mpg fuel efficiency standards draws closer, Wayne State University today announced it has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors (GM) to develop students who will fill the growing demand for engineers specializing in energy efficient vehicle design over the next decade and beyond.
The initiative is part of the EcoCAR3 program developed by DOE and GM to educate the next generation of automotive engineers while creating new ways to reduce the environmental impact of automobiles without sacrificing consumer acceptability. Wayne State is the only university in Michigan to be selected for the four-year program, and one of only 16 in North America.
“Being selected by the Department of Energy and GM to not only lead education but also innovation in the areas of fuel efficiency and emissions reduction means so much to our current and prospective students,” said Jerry Ku, WSU associate professor of mechanical engineering and director of electric-drive vehicle engineering graduate program, who will lead the university’s EcoCar3 team.
Physics
University of North Carolina: Professors connect research to Flight 370 investigation
May 1, 2014
Crews searching for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 are facing major challenges from all sides as they try to locate the wreckage in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia. In addition to the remoteness and depth of the water in the search area, the dynamics of the Indian Ocean itself are complicating the investigation even further, two University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professors said.
It’s a unique difficulty grounded in the physics of fluids. Richard McLaughlin, chair of the Department of Mathematics, and Roberto Camassa, Kenan Professor of Mathematics, both work in the College of Arts and Sciences. They said the varying density of the water in the ocean can interrupt the SONAR signals being used to find Flight 370 – or hide the wreckage from those signals altogether.
“If layers of different densities of water are present, SONAR signals can be severely deflected, making entire regions of the water column invisible, particularly for glancing sound ray propagation angles,” McLaughlin said.
Chemistry
Texas A&M: Texas A&M engineering professors develop "game-changing" gas separation membrane
May 1, 2014
Refining, whether oil or natural gases, can be a costly process because of the need to remove impurities found when extracting them from the ground. Currently expensive materials are used to handle this process.
Texas A&M engineering professors Jaime C. Grunlan and Benjamin A. Wilhite have developed a completely new “game-changing” gas separation membrane that will make the process of extracting these impurities easier, and more importantly, less expensive.
Their work was published recently in the journal Advanced Materials with the title “Highly size-selective ionically crosslinked multilayer polymer films for light gas separation.” They have also filed a patent for this technology due to its commercial potential.
Science Crime Scenes
The Local (Spain): Thieves destroy ancient rock painting in Spain
A 5,000 year-old rock painting in southern Spain has been destroyed by thieves who tried to steal the Unesco World Heritage-listed artwork by chipping it off the cave wall where it was housed.
Residents of the Santa Elena in Spain's southern Jaén province are reeling after news of the damage.
Local mayor Juan Caminero said the painting was now "irreparable" and condemned the act of vandalism as "heartless", Spanish daily La Vanguardia reported on Monday.
LiveScience via Discovery News: Circus Train Crash Mystery: Where's the Animal Graveyard?
by Megan Gannon, Live Science News Editor
May 2, 2014 10:00 AM ET
The first car to go off the rails held the elephants.
The tigers, lions, horses, crocodiles, pythons and a gorilla known as the "Man-Slayer" followed as the Walter L. Main circus train careened off the tracks down a 30-foot-high (10 meters) embankment, with gold-gilt, steel-barred wagons crashing one on top of the other in the legendary pileup at Tyrone, a small town in central Pennsylvania, on Memorial Day 1893.
Today, the story has become ingrained in town lore. Big snakes are eyed with suspicion as possible descendants of escaped crash survivors. Elephants from other traveling circuses have stopped in Tyrone to lay wreaths out of respect for the dead. Bones, horseshoes, lion-cage locks and railroad spikes have turned up every time a new home is built on the site. But the exact location of the mass grave of dead circus animals has been lost to history.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Michigan: Paying for a crime they didn’t do: 4 percent sentenced to death are likely innocent
April 28, 2014
ANN ARBOR—Slightly more than 4 percent of people given death sentences in the United States are innocent, according to new peer-reviewed research led by a University of Michigan expert.
The finding shows that the number of innocent people sentenced to death is more than twice the number of inmates exonerated and freed by legal action, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
No process of removing potentially innocent defendants from the execution queue can be foolproof. "With an error rate at trial over 4 percent, it is all but certain that several of the 1,320 defendants executed since 1977 were innocent," the study concludes. The researchers said this percentage is "a conservative estimate."
About 1.6 percent of those sentenced to death since 1973 in the U.S.—138 prisoners—have been exonerated and released because of innocence. But many other innocent capital defendants are missed.
Michigan State University: Terrorism works, but only when governments allow it to
April 28, 2014
Terrorism can be a successful strategy for rebel groups during civil war, but only when governments allow it to work, finds a new study by a Michigan State University political scientist.
Responding to acts of terrorism with violence is more likely to prolong the conflict. However, if governments negotiate or use sound counterterrorism efforts, they stand a better chance of bringing about a peaceful resolution, said Jakana Thomas, assistant professor of political science.
Her study appears online in the American Journal of Political Science.
“Terrorism can work, but only if a government allows it to,” Thomas said. “When governments attempt to quash the terrorists and kill civilians in the process – as so often happens – their response backfires and feeds into the terrorists’ strategy.”
Science, Space, Health, Environment, and Energy Policy
Whidbey News-Times: Oak Harbor, tribe settle bones dispute
by JESSIE STENSLAND, Whidbey News-Times Co-editor
The ordeal that began when a worker noticed a human bone in a pile of dirt during the Pioneer Way construction project in 2011 may finally be reaching a conclusion.
Members of the Oak Harbor City Council unanimously adopted settlement agreements with the Swinomish Tribe during a special meeting Tuesday.
The tribe will receive a two-acre piece of city property and $2 million from the insurance providers for the city and three contractors.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Wayne State University: Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, Wayne Law clinic celebrate ‘fantastic’ first five years
April 30, 2014
DETROIT – The first five years of a new business venture typically are known as the “survival years” – a time when a great many such ventures stumble and fall.
But, against all odds, the first five years for the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and its partner, Wayne State University Law School’s Transnational Environmental Law Clinic, have proved to be an unmitigated success.
The center and the clinic were founded by Wayne Law Associate Professor Noah Hall, an environmental law expert, as a part of a sabbatical project in 2008. He got the nonprofit center going that year, and the clinic began at Wayne Law in fall 2009.
University of Texas: UT Energy Poll and OurEnergyPolicy.org Surveys Reveal Support for Energy Efficiency and Concerns about Political Squabbling
April 30, 2014
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Four out of five American consumers and energy professionals view energy efficiency as a personal priority and at least two out of three believe it could significantly reduce overall energy use if not for political squabbling, two new surveys show.
Findings from the separate surveys, conducted this spring by The University of Texas at Austin and the nonprofit OurEnergyPolicy.org, were released Wednesday morning during an event at the National Press Club at which a panel of thought-leaders in policy, academia and industry shared ideas and insights on future energy efficiency policy.
The UT Energy Poll, conducted March 3-17 among 2,133 U.S. residents aged 18 and older, found that 79 percent of American consumers view energy efficiency as a priority, up from 72 percent six months ago.
“It's encouraging that most Americans, as well as informed energy industry professionals, place such a high priority on energy efficiency," said Sheril Kirshenbaum, director of the UT Energy Poll.
Texas A&M: Climate Expert Offers Roadmap To Face U.S. Challenges
May 2, 2014
Texas A&M University atmospheric sciences professor John Nielsen-Gammon, who also serves as Texas State Climatologist, is one of the co-authors of a natural resources “roadmap” that will guide research, education and policy decisions in the United States over the next decade.
The roadmap, released by the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities (APLU), details six broad challenges facing the U.S. now and over the next 10 years. These include water, energy, agriculture, climate change, education and sustainability.
Nielsen-Gammon is part of a team of 35 scientists who authored the roadmap, which is sponsored by the Department of Agriculture through a grant to Oregon State University. Other Texas A&M contributors to the project are Pete Teel, professor of entomology, and Urs Kreuter, professor of ecosystem science and management.
A nationally recognized expert on climate data and weather patterns, Nielsen-Gammon helped to write the chapter on climate change, and the authors convey the need to understand the impacts of climate change on the environment. Many aspects of the environment are being affected, such as disease transmission, air quality, water supply, ecosystems, fire and species survival.
Science Education
Michigan State University: Fifth annual Classes Without Quizzes energizes participants
April 30, 2014
Advances in technology took center stage at the College of Natural Science’s 5th annual Classes Without Quizzes. The event, held April 26 at the Molecular Plant Sciences building, gave CNS alumni, friends and guests a chance to meet college faculty members and students, and get an insider’s look at the college’s most innovative science research and education activities.
The day’s “classes” featured presentations on precision agriculture, metabolomics, pain pathways, new information on galaxies and possibilities for building healthy bones. The day concluded with an undergraduate student panel of 2013-14 CNS Dean’s Research Scholars, who shared their research experiences. All of the presentations were geared toward a lay audience, making the science accessible and understandable to the public.
“This year participants were very enthused about what they heard from our faculty members and students,” CNS alumni relations coordinator Elizabeth Wheeler said. “They asked a lot of good questions and interacted with the participants. That’s exactly what we hoped this event would accomplish.”
University of North Carolina: 2014 Impact Award Winners
Graduate student discoveries are making a difference.
These students are: establishing new ways to understand dangerous blood clots, using the arts to foster public discussion of issues, helping policymakers address coastal challenges, informing federal nutrition standards for school meals programs and creating technologies to improve cancer detection…to name just a few areas in which they are making powerful contributions.
Many different innovative ideas, one common denominator: Graduate students, working in collaboration with their faculty mentors, are conducting this critical research.
The Graduate School's annual Graduate Education Advancement Board Impact Awards recognize graduate students for contributions they are making to our state. These awards are possible thanks to the unwavering support of the Graduate Education Advancement Board (GEAB), whose members truly believe in the importance of graduate education at Carolina.
Science Writing and Reporting
Indiana University: IU survey: U.S. journalists say they are less satisfied and have less autonomy
May 1, 2014
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The reporters, editors and producers who put out the news every day are less satisfied with their work, say they have less autonomy in their work and tend to believe that journalism is headed in the wrong direction, according to the initial findings of "The American Journalist in the Digital Age," a representative survey of U.S. journalists conducted by the Indiana University School of Journalism.
Compared to the 2002 survey, the updated demographic profile of U.S. journalists reveals that they are now older on average, slightly more likely to be college graduates and less likely to identify with both the Republican and Democratic political parties. But there are still significantly more men than women in the profession, and fewer racial or ethnic minorities than in the general population.
The survey findings also indicate that U.S. journalists rely heavily on social media in their daily work. Most use social media to check for breaking news and to monitor what other news organizations are doing; these interactive media are used least often for verifying information and interviewing sources. Most agree that social media promotes them and their work, keeps them more engaged with their audiences and leads to faster reporting. Far fewer say that social media has decreased their workload, improved their productivity, allowed them to cover more news or enhanced their credibility.
University of Michigan: Behind the paywall: How media can boost online revenue
May 1, 2014
ANN ARBOR—It's an ongoing debate for online publications: How much content should be free and how much should go behind a paywall?
Make the price for content too high and watch customers disappear and ad revenue decline. Give away too much and you could miss out on subscriber revenue.
New research from University of Michigan finds that online media sites could boost online revenue with the right balance.
Science is Cool
National Geographic News: Hot Stew in the Ice Age? Evidence Shows Neanderthals Boiled Food
An ancient diet expert suggests our early cousins knew how to boil their meals.
Dan Vergano
National Geographic
Neanderthal cooking likely wouldn't have won any prizes on Top Chef, but a paleontologist suggests that our ancient cousins knew how to cook a mean stew, without even a stone pot to their name.
"I think it's pretty likely the Neanderthals boiled," said University of Michigan paleontologist John Speth at a recent meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Austin, Texas. "They were around for a long time, and they were very clever with fire."
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Purdue University: Sketching on tablets promising for collaborative design, creativity
April 28, 2014
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Two new "cyberlearning" platforms allow non-artists to create illustrations rivaling the work of expert designers.
The platforms sidestep a key creative barrier by eliminating the need for drawing skills in developing new designs.
"Non-experts are becoming more empowered and interested in means of creative self-expression," said Karthik Ramani, Purdue University's Donald W. Feddersen Professor of Mechanical Engineering. "More importantly, I think this is the beginning of a new field of computer-supported creativity where you are extending the human mind."
University of North Carolina-Charlotte: NACAS Southern Region Recognizes University's Zero-Waste Initiative
April 28, 2014
UNC Charlotte’s zero-waste initiative to make Richardson Stadium a facility that ideally produces no landfill waste received the Outstanding Collaboration and Partnership Award from the Southern region of the National Association of College Auxiliary Services (NACAS) Southern region.
The award, which was presented at the association’s annual conference, recognizes “unique, innovative or distinctive partnership that benefits the University and the community.”
Originally a student effort, the zero-waste initiative was embraced by UNC Charlotte facilities management/recycling and gathered steam as more departments joined in support. Auxiliary services, student activity center and venue management and Chartwells, the University’s food service partner, were among the early adopters to commit time, effort and resources toward achieving the goal of a zero-waste stadium.
Texas A&M: Internet Memes Provide Unique Insights Into How Faith Is Viewed
May 1, 2014
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins didn’t always coin terms that would be used by millions of people worldwide, but when he did, he gave us the word “meme.” Researchers at Texas A&M University studied Internet memes, specifically religious memes, and found they hold some of the best clues to understanding how religion is viewed in modern society.
A “meme,” as defined by Dawkins in 1976, is an idea, belief or behavior that is spread through a given culture or social system via social or information sharing. Internet memes generally take the form of an image over which text is written and are, for the most part, intended to be humorous, often using sarcasm, pop culture references and puns to relay an idea or simply poke a bit of fun.
Professor of Communication Heidi Campbell, who specializes in the intersection of new media, religion and digital culture, along with a team of graduate students, analyzed six different cases of Internet memes: “Advice God;” “Buddy Christ;” the Christian Meme Facebook page; Mitt Romney/Mormon Memes; Muslim Memes on Facebook; and “Tweeting Orthodoxies,” memes on an Israeli-Jewish Facebook page. The study “Reading Religion in Internet Memes” was published in the Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture.
