Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment. In keeping with the theme of the past five months, Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday is featuring science and other news from the major public research universities in the midwestern states where Republican governors and legislatures are threatening the collective bargaining rights of public employees.
This week's featured stories come from Reuters.
Obama unveils sharp increase in auto fuel economy
By Ayesha Rascoe and Deepa Seetharaman
WASHINGTON/DETROIT
Fri Jul 29, 2011 6:43pm EDT
Several major auto makers on Friday embraced the Obama administration's proposal to push the industry further away from once-dominant gas guzzlers to more lean and efficient vehicles.
The proposal, which is the result of months of negotiations between the Obama administration and auto makers, would require the companies to reach an average fuel efficiency across their U.S. fleets of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
"This agreement on fuel standards represents the single most important step we've ever taken as a nation to reduce our dependence on foreign oil," Obama said at an event announcing the new standards.
Flanked by top auto maker executives, Obama said the new rules would lower the country's oil use by 2.2 million barrels a day over the next 15 years.
U.S. nuclear fund for waste, not deficit: panel
By Roberta Rampton
WASHINGTON
Fri Jul 29, 2011 3:34pm EDT
The U.S. government should start using the $25 billion it has collected for dealing with nuclear waste for its intended use rather than hoarding it to reduce the deficit, a bipartisan panel said on Friday.
The Nuclear Waste Fund is currently used to "reduce the apparent deficit," the report said. It acknowledged that freeing up the money would be politically difficult.
President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders face an August 2 deadline to reach an agreement to raise the U.S. borrowing limit and cut spending.
More science, space, and environment stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
Watch this space.
Obama Administration to Polar Bear Scientist/Truth Teller - Shut up, and you are suspended!
by wade norris
Inoculation Project 7/30/11: Hands-On Science Library
by nervousnellie
This week in science
by DarkSyde
Slideshows/Videos
Eastern Daily Press (UK): Photo gallery: Archaeologists uncover history at the Mermaid Inn in Hedenham
By DONNA-LOUISE BISHOP, Reporter
Monday, July 25, 2011 4:07 PM
Archaeologists have uncovered a wealth of interesting artefacts after excavating at a Norfolk pub.
The finds were discovered during a dig at the Mermaid Inn at Hedenham, near Bungay, on Sunday.
The dig took place at a Summer Fayre put on to raise money for sufferers of cancer.
Carenza Lewis, of Channel 4’s Time Team, led the digs and explained how excited she was as it was the first time she had excavated in the area she grew up in.
“We’ve never dug here before and we had no idea what we would find,” Dr Lewis explained.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
David Wenkert, associate professor in the Department of Physiology and the Department of Internal Medicine, talks about his interactions with famed chemist Robert B. Woodward and the novel ideas that consumed the last years of Woodward's life — a fascination the world never knew until recently.
Michigan State University:
Faculty conversations: David Wenkert
July 29, 2011
Chemistry Nobel Laureate Robert Burns Woodward left 699 pages of notes in his Harvard University office when he died in 1979, an 8-inch stack written on everything from photocopy paper to hotel stationery.
The world knew nothing of the novel ideas on superconductivity that captivated Woodward for the last years of his life, until recently. David Wenkert, now an associate professor in MSU’s Department of Physiology and the Department of Internal Medicine, worked under Woodward as a graduate student and had an early brush with a concept that is still unrealized.
Around 1976, Wenkert approached the chemist for help on a difficult project, and Woodward confidentially suggested a different one — attempting to create an organic superconducting polymer.
With the guidance of faculty and staff, students develop and operate food gardens. Students learn through experience to develop a farm budget, establish crop rotations, manage plots for fertility and pests, and market their products. Students play a major role in developing goals and management plans for the food gardens.
Purdue University:
Students experience agriculture, business, research at their farm
July 28, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A new farm at Purdue University is providing practical experience to students who are learning not only how to grow vegetables, but also how to manage a small business and conduct research.
Because they run the farm themselves, their experience is bringing them "Full Circle" in agriculture, a reference to the group they formed to organize the operation.
NASA Television on YouTube: The Juno spacecraft is on schedule to be launched August 5 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida for its mission to Jupiter. Juno is meant to improve our understanding of our solar system's beginnings by revealing data about the gas giant's evolution. Also, Gale's a "go" for MSL; STS-135 crew honors flight controllers; Garver at Ames; Job fair; and, aero students report. Plus, Stennis hosts 134 crew and a return of the legends.
Astronomy/Space
Space.com via MSNBC: A first on film: Giant black hole gobbling gas
Camera helps astronomers see how matter behaves in the extreme environment
July 29, 2011
A supermassive black hole devouring hot gas in its vicinity has been seen clearly for the first time in a new X-ray view, according to a recent study.
Black holes consume material around them and grow by using their intense gravity to pull in surrounding gases. This flow of hot gas, as it is being sucked toward the black hole, has been clearly seen for the first time in X-ray wavelengths, helping astronomers to better understand how black holes gobble their surroundings and how matter behaves in this extreme environment.
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory examined the black hole at the center of a large galaxy, called NGC 3115, which is located about 32 million light-years away from Earth. A large amount of previous data has shown material falling toward and onto black holes, but until now, none displayed such a clear signature of hot gas, researchers said.
Reuters: NASA probe poised for launch to Jupiter
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida
Thu Jul 28, 2011 9:08am EDT
A NASA satellite was hoisted aboard an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Wednesday in preparation for launch next week on an unprecedented mission to the heart of Jupiter.
The robotic probe called Juno is scheduled to spend one year cycling inside Jupiter's deadly radiation belts, far closer than any previous orbiting spacecraft, to learn how much water the giant planet holds, what triggers its vast magnetic fields and whether a solid core lies beneath its dense, hot atmosphere.
"Jupiter holds a lot of key secrets about how we formed," said lead scientist Scott Bolton, with the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation via Discovery News: Hotspot Found on Moon's Far Side
Scientists find evidence of volcanoes on the far side of the moon.
Content provided by Stuart Gary, ABC Science Online
Mon Jul 25, 2011 12:10 PM ET
Scientists have found evidence of volcanoes on the far side of the moon.
The new discovery, reported in the journal Nature Geoscience is a rare example of volcanism on the lunar surface not associated with asteroid, meteor or comet impact events.
Until now the best known examples of volcanism were on the moon's near side in a region known as the Procellarum KREEP terrane.
Fox News via Discovery News: Russia Backtracks on Plan to Sink Space Station
Despite earlier comments indicating the station would be sunk by 2020, a spokesperson says they hope to extend the station's life.
Fri Jul 29, 2011 01:02 PM ET
THE GIST
- International science agencies agree to try to operate the ISS beyond 2020.
- The Russian space agency's spokesperson said they were in agreement with the plan to extend the station's life.
- Previously, a head official at the Russian agency had said they would sink the station by 2020.
Discovery News: SpaceX Sets Next Launch for Nov. 30
Analysis by Irene Klotz
Fri Jul 29, 2011 03:23 PM ET
Space Exploration Technologies plans to fly its second Dragon capsule on Nov. 30 -- and park it at the International Space Station, combining two test flights into one.
The company, also known as SpaceX, is one of two companies NASA has hired to take over cargo runs to the station in the post-space shuttle era. The other firm, Orbital Sciences Corp., plans to debut is Cygnus capsule next year.
Final approval for SpaceX to dock at the station won't come until after the Dragon is safely in orbit. The next space station crew, which is launching on Sept. 22 on a Russian Soyuz rocket, has been to SpaceX's Hawthorne, Calif., facility to be trained on Dragon systems.
Evolution/Paleontology
Associated Press via physorg.com: Famed fossil isn't a bird after all, analysis says
By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer
July 27, 2011
One of the world's most famous fossil creatures, widely considered the earliest known bird, is getting a rude present on the 150th birthday of its discovery: A new analysis suggests it isn't a bird at all.
Chinese scientists are proposing a change to the evolutionary family tree that boots Archaeopteryx off the "bird" branch and onto a closely related branch of birdlike dinosaurs.
Archaeopteryx (ahr-kee-AHP'-teh-rihx) was a crow-sized creature that lived about 150 million years ago. It had wings and feathers, but also quite un-birdlike traits like teeth and a bony tail. Discovered in 1861 in Germany, two years after Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species," it quickly became an icon for evolution and has remained popular since.
The Chinese scientists acknowledge they have only weak evidence to support their proposal, which hinges on including a newly recognized dinosaur.
Discovery News via MSNBC: Prehistoric dog domestication derailed by Ice Age
Researchers suggest that earliest efforts to tame canines fell flat
By Jennifer Viegas
updated 7/29/2011 8:27:49 PM ET
Some dogs were domesticated by at least 33,000 years ago, but these canines did not generate descendants that survived past the Ice Age, a study in the journal PLoS ONE suggests.
The theory, based on analysis of a 33,000-year-old animal that may have been a partly domesticated dog, explains why the remains of possible prehistoric dogs date to such early periods, and yet all modern dogs appear to be descended from ancestors that lived at the end of the Ice Age, between 14,000 and 17,000 years ago.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Reuters: Rare fossil of sea reptile found on Alaska beach
By Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska
Fri Jul 29, 2011 8:15am EDT
Alaska scientists have discovered the fossil of a rare, prehistoric marine reptile that is likely the most complete remnant of the creature ever found in North America.
The nearly complete fossilized skeleton is of a thalattosaur, a long-tailed sea creature that plied warm, shallow waters in the early days of dinosaurs and became extinct at the end of the Triassic period some 200 million years ago.
The discovery of the fossil, found during an extreme low tide along the shore of the Tongass National Forest, was announced this week by the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Biodiversity
Discovery News: Japan Considers End to Antarctic Whaling
Analysis by Kieran Mulvaney
Fri Jul 29, 2011 05:03 AM ET
As Discovery News reported earlier this year, observers have detected multiple pressures within and outside Japan - from economic woes to a lack of interest in whalemeat to new shipping regulations in the Southern Ocean - that would appear to portend the demise of whaling in the Antarctic. Exactly when that end might come, however, is a different matter, with many of those same observers predicting at least one more, likely scaled-down, Antarctic season. In the meantime, Japan continues to hunt whales in the North Pacific.
Biotechnology/Health
University of Michigan: U-M researchers create reprogrammed stem cells for disease studies
July 25, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The University of Michigan's Consortium for Stem Cell Therapies has achieved another of its primary goals: reprogramming adult skin cells so they behave like embryonic stem cells.
The reprogrammed cells are called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells. They display many of the most scientifically valuable properties of embryonic stem cells while enabling researchers to bypass embryos altogether.
U-M researchers will use the iPS cells side by side with human embryonic stem cells to study the origin and progression of various diseases and to search for new treatments. Three of the consortium's first five iPS cell lines came from skin cells donated by patients with bipolar disorder and will be used to study that condition.
"The two main goals we had when we started the consortium were to make human embryonic stem cell lines and iPS cell lines. Now we've accomplished both those objectives," said consortium co-director Sue O'Shea, a professor of cell and developmental biology at the Medical School.
University of Michigan: Post-traumatic stress disorder linked to smaller birth weight and shorter gestation
July 27, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Women with post-traumatic stress disorder are likely to have smaller babies and deliver prematurely, a new University of Michigan study suggests.
Published today in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the research found that mothers with PTSD who suffered abuse during childhood give birth to babies of lower-average weight and experience shorter gestation.
PTSD is prevalent among women and can occur following traumatic events such as war, disaster, childhood maltreatment, rape and battering. Women with low income and education tend to have higher rates of PTSD in pregnancy, as do African American women.
University of Michigan: Researchers aim for direct brain control of prosthetic arms
July 27, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Engineering researchers at four U.S. universities are embarking on a four-year project to design a prosthetic arm that amputees can control directly with their brains and that will allow them to feel what they touch.
The research at the University of Michigan, Rice University, Drexel University and the University of Maryland is made possible by a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation's Human-Centered Computing program.
The team plans to incorporate technology that feeds both tactile information from prosthetic fingertips and grasping-force information from a prosthetic hand to the brain through a robotic exoskeleton and touchpads that vibrate, stretch and squeeze the skin where the prosthesis attaches to the body.
University of Michigan: Most parents unaware of medical research opportunities for their kids
Eighty-four percent of parents say they don’t know about opportunities for their children to participate in medical research; only 5 percent of children have participated in medical research across the United States
July 25, 2011
One in nine adults has participated in medical research. In contrast, one in 20 children has done so. Also, most adults (68 percent) are aware of medical research opportunities for adults. In contrast, the majority of parents (84 percent) are not aware of medical research opportunities for children.
These are the findings of a poll released today by the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. The poll asked adults and parents about their views on medical research and past participation for themselves and their children.
“Medical research is the backbone of improving medical care. Without volunteers, medical research cannot move forward,” says Matthew Davis, M.D., director of the poll and associate professor in the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit at the U-M Medical School. “Awareness about research opportunities, which is a necessary step before participation, is reasonably high among adults but strikingly low for children’s research. To improve participation rates among children, researchers and institutions evidently need to do a better job of getting the word out to parents.”
University of Michigan: Does menopause matter when it comes to diabetes?
Study shows menopause does not raise risk for diabetes, but weight loss and exercise does lower risk for some postmenopausal women
July 26, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Menopause has little to no impact on whether women become more susceptible to diabetes, according to a one-of-a-kind study that provides good news for older women.
Postmenopausal women had no higher risk for diabetes if they had experienced natural menopause or had their ovaries removed, according to the national clinical trial of 1,237 women at high risk for diabetes, ages 40 to 65.
“In our study, menopause had no additional effect on risk for diabetes,” says study lead author Catherine Kim, M.D., M.P.H., an associate professor of internal medicine and obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan Health System. “Menopause is one of many small steps in aging and it doesn’t mean women’s health will be worse after going through this transition.”
University of Michigan: CT shows changes in lungs associated with COPD flare-ups
July 27, 2011
Using computed tomography (CT), researchers have identified two types of structural changes in the lungs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that are associated with frequent exacerbations, or episodes when symptoms suddenly worsen. Their findings are published online in the journal Radiology.
Michigan State University: MSU, Van Andel investigate drug to halt Parkinson’s progression
July 29, 2011
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Researchers from Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine, Van Andel Research Institute and the Translational Genomics Research Institute are investigating a drug that has the potential to not only alleviate Parkinson's symptoms but also halt the disease's progression.
A $400,000 grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research – part of $2.4 million in funding the foundation awarded this week to institutions nationwide – will fund the research project.
Researchers are focusing on the drug Fasudil, which is currently approved in Japan to improve blood flow to the brain in stroke victims and has shown similar positive outcomes in U.S. clinical trials.
Wayne State University: NIH awards WSU researcher $1.7 million to study non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
July 28, 2011
DETROIT - Kezhong Zhang, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular medicine and genetics and of immunology and microbiology in the School of Medicine at Wayne State University, was awarded $1.7 million by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health to explore how molecular elements in the body regulate the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
The liver is an irreplaceable organ responsible for processing foods into essential energy and nutrients. According to the American Liver Foundation, 25 percent of Americans suffer from NAFLD, which involves the buildup of excess fat in the liver. Fatty liver disease is typically attributed to the consumption of alcohol, but NAFLD is a form of fatty liver disease that occurs even if a person does not consume alcohol. The condition frequently precedes or coexists with obesity, Type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease.
Zhang aims to identify the mechanism that regulates CREBH (cyclic AMP-responsive element-binding protein H), a transcription factor he believes is closely associated with the progression of NAFLD. Transcription factors are molecules that either promote or block the body from interpreting the DNA codes that tell the body what kind of proteins it needs to produce.
Climate/Environment
Environmental News Network: Tree Rings Affected by More than Just Climate
To this point, tree rings have been amazingly useful for gathering information on past climates. A two hundred year old tree can carry a world of information in its rings. In temperate regions, where seasons differ greatly, each ring denotes one year of growing. For longer growing seasons, the rings are wider. For shorter growing seasons, they are narrower. Droughts or floods have an enormous impact on the amount a tree grows, thus affecting the rings. But what else can affect the thickness of growth rings? A research team in Norway has just released a study which shows that sheep and other herbivores have a greater impact on trees than previously known.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.
Agence France Presse via Discovery News: Russia Rapidly Loosing Permafrost
As much as a third of the coverage could be gone by 2050.
Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:31 PM ET
Russia's vast permafrost areas may shrink by a third by the middle of the century due to global warming, endangering infrastructure in the Arctic zone, an emergencies ministry official said Friday.
"In the next 25 to 30 years, the area of permafrost in Russia may shrink by 10-18 percent," the head of the ministry's disaster monitoring department Andrei Bolov told the RIA Novosti news agency.
"By the middle of the century, it can shrink by 15-30 percent, and the boundary of the permafrost may shift to the north-east by 150-200 kilometres," he said.
Discovery News: When the Arctic Catches Fire
Analysis by John D. Cox
Fri Jul 29, 2011 05:16 AM ET
In July 2007, lightning sparked a fire on the dry, warming tundra of Alaska's North Slope that dumped 2.3 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere -- in a stroke, feeding back to the climate system as much carbon as all the Arctic's tundra absorbs in a year.
At 400 square miles, the blaze in the watershed of the Anatktuvuk River was the largest tundra fire in thousands of years, researchers say, although the size of this single fire does not concern them so much as the signal it sends that more probably are on the way.
"These fires could be a radical and very rapid positive feedback to atmospheric carbon dioxide," warns Michelle Mack, a University of Florida biologist, whose study of the fire, with colleagues from Florida and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, appears in the new issue of the journal Nature.
Michigan State University: Farmers more likely to be green if they talk to their neighbors
July 27, 2011
EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Besides helping each other plant and harvest, rural Chinese neighbors also influence each other’s environmental behavior – farmers are more likely to re-enroll their land in a conservation program if they talk to their neighbors about it.
Scientists from Michigan State University's Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability used a simulation model to study the amount of land farmers in the Wolong Nature Reserve in southwestern China re-enrolled in the Grain-to-Green Program, which aims to reduce soil erosion by converting sloping cropland to forest or grassland. Farmers receive an annual payment of either 5,000 pounds of grain or $498 for each 2.5 acres enrolled in the program. In 2005, this was about 8 percent of the farmers’ income.
“To achieve global environmental sustainability, it is important to go beyond traditional economic and regulatory approaches,” said Jianguo "Jack" Liu, center director and a co-author on the paper. Liu holds the Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability at MSU.
Geology
Discovery News: Antarctica: A 'Scary' Source for Rising Seas
Analysis by John D. Cox
Thu Jul 28, 2011 02:08 PM ET
Before the last ice age, during a warm era some 125,000 years ago that was comparable to modern times, scientists know that the oceans reached levels that were some 15 to 20 feet higher than they are today. What they don't know is, where did the extra water come from?
Many have been assuming that it came from the melting Greenland ice sheet, but a new study points in the opposite direction -- to West Antarctica -- a circumstance that one researcher describes as "quite scary."
In a warming climate, questions about how ice sheets melt and how fast and how high sea levels rise are hot research topics.
Psychology/Behavior
University of Michigan: Consumers beware: In reality, luxury cars don't make us feel better
July 25, 2011
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—If you think driving a luxury car like a BMW, Lexus or Cadillac makes you feel better—think again, says a University of Michigan researcher.
"Almost everyone assumes that driving a luxury car is more enjoyable than driving an economy car, but the reality is more complicated," said Norbert Schwarz, professor of marketing at Michigan's Ross School of Business. "When drivers focus on their car while driving, a luxury car is indeed more fun than an economy car. But most of the time, the driver's mind is preoccupied with the mundane issues of daily life and the car makes little difference."
In a new study published in the current issue of the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Schwarz and colleague Jing Xu of Peking University explore why it is difficult for consumers to learn from their own consumption experiences. Why is it that drivers of luxury cars believe that their car is a major source of joy even though most of the time they would feel just as well in an economy car?
Archeology/Anthropology
Physorg.com: Grandparents connected to success of human race
by Deborah Braconnier
July 26, 2011
If you looked around at your family some 40,000 years ago, you would not have seen grandparents as the likelihood of a person passing their 30th birthday was slim. However, according to new research reported in Scientific American, 30,000 years ago things began to change and the life expectancy of adults began to rise.
It is this change that anthropologist and Professor Rachel Caspari from Central Michigan University believes was a turning point for human civilization. At the same time humans were living longer, evidence shows that there was an increase in food production, artistic expression, and the creation of complex weapons and tools and the researchers contribute this to the experience of the older members of the population.
The Huffington Post: Neanderthals: Researchers Suggest Ancient Specimens Were Crowded Out By Humans
WASHINGTON -- Were the Neanderthals simply crowded out by the ancestors of modern humans?
That's the theory of a pair of British researchers, who say early modern humans outnumbered Neanderthals by 10-to-1 in a region of southwestern France they studied.
Scientists have long debated the circumstances in which modern people replaced Neanderthals across Europe about 40,000 years ago. Leading researchers in the field challenged the research methods in the new study and added that the idea of a larger population prevailing is not new.
University of Bristol (UK): Archaeologist’s chance discovery may be Britain's earliest example of rock art
Press release issued 26 July 2011
An archaeologist at the University of Bristol believes he may have discovered Britain's oldest example of rock art.
The chance finding by Dr George Nash from the University’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, of a reindeer wall engraving in a South Wales cave could be Britain's oldest example of rock art dating more than 14,000 years ago.
CBC: First Nation artifacts discovered, divert highway
CBC News
Posted: Jul 21, 2011 9:34 PM AT
Archaeologists have found evidence that proves First Nations people were in New Brunswick more than 10,000 years ago.
For years archaeologists suspected the First Nations history might go way back because there had been small, individual finds, but Hurricane Earl helped reveal even more.
But for the first time, a large campsite has been uncovered that proves people moved through the area when ice still covered parts of the province.
"We have individual finds and that's how we knew people were here," said Brent Suttie, archaeologist in charge of the site.
LiveScience via MSNBC: Ancient city survived as civilizations collapsed
Archaeologists involved in arduous excavation want to know, 'How did that happen?'
By Owen Jarus
As ancient civilizations across the Middle East collapsed, possibly in response to a global drought about 4,200 years ago, archaeologists have discovered that one settlement in Syria not only survived, but expanded.
Their next question is — why did Tell Qarqur, a site in northwest Syria, grow at a time when cities across the Middle East were being abandoned?
UCLA via EurekAlert: What is war good for? Sparking civilization, suggest UCLA archaeology findings from Peru
Warfare, triggered by political conflict between the fifth century B.C. and the first century A.D., likely shaped the development of the first settlement that would classify as a civilization in the Titicaca basin of southern Peru, a new UCLA study suggests.
Charles Stanish, director of UCLA's Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, and Abigail Levine, a UCLA graduate student in anthropology, used archaeological evidence from the basin, home to a number of thriving and complex early societies during the first millennium B.C., to trace the evolution of two larger, dominant states in the region: Taraco, along the Ramis River, and Pukara, in the grassland pampas.
"This study is part of a larger, worldwide comparative research effort to define the factors that gave rise to the first societies that developed public buildings, widespread religions and regional political systems — or basically characteristics associated with ancient states or what is colloquially known as 'civilization,'" said Stanish, who is also a professor of anthropology at UCLA. "War, regional trade and specialized labor are the three factors that keep coming up as predecessors to civilization."
The Local (Sweden): New battle erupts over 'Sweden's Stonehenge'
Published: 30 Jul 11 11:48 CET |
A new archaeological examination of Ales stenar, a massive stone relic perched atop a cliff in southern Sweden, has sparked a heated crossfire between scientists about the origins of the famed stone ship.
Speculative argument over the astronomical, geometrical, geographical and mythological significance of the 67-metre long stone ship has a long history.
Now, in direct contrast to previous studies, a group currently digging at the site in Kåseberga on Sweden's southern coast, has reported finding no evidence linking the 59 large sandstone boulders to the Iron Age and Viking era, putting previous theories about the site into question.
“No wonder,” Swedish archaeologist Martin Rundkvist told newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD).
“They aren’t even digging in the right place.”
Orlando Sentinel: Signs of early settlements found on Lauderdale barrier island
By Scott Wyman, Sun Sentinel
4:14 p.m. EDT, July 23, 2011
FORT LAUDERDALE — Archaeologists have been uncovering rare evidence in the sandy soil along the barrier island of prehistoric Indians and European explorers living there hundreds of years ago.
The artifacts have included leftover conch shells used for food and tools, shards of clay pottery and the bony plates of alligators that had likely been hunted for dinner. They've also found remnants of lead that was being melted for musket balls.
The most recent discovery came this past week in the southern beach parking lot that the city is renovating near the Bahia Mar resort. Archaeologists discovered indications of a small Tequesta Indian village likely dating back more than 500 years near where they unearthed artifacts from a 19th-century American fort this spring.
Bastro Daily Enterprise: Archaeologists give tentative name to shipwreck
By Wes Helbling
Bastrop Daily Enterprise
BASTROP — Professional archaeologists may have finally solved the mystery behind a sunken steamboat in Bayou Bartholomew that has intrigued local residents for decades.
Dennis Jones with the state Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, Division of Archaeology and Allen Saltus Jr. with Archaeological Research Inc. conducted the first formal study of the site Friday.
As a result of their work, the sunken vessel can now be confirmed as a steamboat and will be recorded with the state archaeologist’s office.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.
Physics
Purdue University: Material created at Purdue lets electrons 'dance' and form new state
July 27, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A team of Purdue University researchers is among a small group in the world that has successfully created ultrapure material that captures new states of matter and could have applications in high-speed quantum computing.
The material, gallium arsenide, is used to observe states in which electrons no longer obey the laws of single-particle physics, but instead are governed by their mutual interactions.
Michael Manfra, the William F. and Patty J. Miller Associate Professor of Physics who leads the group, said the work provides new insights into fundamental physics.
Purdue University: Bridge destruction to reveal clues about 'fracture-critical' spans
July 26, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A civil engineer at Purdue University is taking advantage of the demolition of a bridge spanning the Ohio River to learn more about how bridges collapse in efforts to reduce the annual cost of inspecting large spans.
"There is a whole family of bridges called fracture-critical," said Robert J. Connor, an associate professor of civil engineering. "This means that if an important tension member breaks, it's thought the bridge will fall down."
However, modern analysis techniques could be used to learn whether such bridges really are fracture-critical, or whether other structural elements would share the load if a major piece failed.
Chemistry
Ohio State University: SCIENTISTS DESIGN NANO-SIZED DRUG TRANSPORTER TO FIGHT DISEASE
July 26, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Scientists seeking to improve cancer treatments have created a tiny drug transporter that maximizes its ability to silence damaging genes by finding the equivalent of an expressway into a target cell.
The transporter, called a nanocarrier, is a lipid-based structure containing a piece of RNA. Lipids are fatty molecules that help maintain the structure of cell membranes.
The RNA segment encased in the carrier sets off a process to silence genes, rendering the genes unable to produce proteins that lead to disease or other health problems.
Though the main component of the carrier resembles existing and previously studied transporters, Ohio State University scientists have attached specific helper molecules to the carrier’s surface that their research suggests can enhance the transporter’s effectiveness.
Ohio State University: ONE TINY ELECTRON COULD BE KEY TO FUTURE DRUGS THAT REPAIR SUNBURN
July 25, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers who have been working for nearly a decade to piece together the process by which an enzyme repairs sun-damaged DNA have finally witnessed the entire process in full detail in the laboratory.
What they saw contradicts fundamental notions of how key biological molecules break up during the repair of sunburn – and that knowledge could someday lead to drugs or even lotions that could heal sunburn in humans.
In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Ohio State University researchers and their colleagues confirm what was previously known about the enzyme photolyase, which is naturally produced in the cells of plants and some animals – though not in mammals, including humans. The enzyme repairs DNA by tearing open the misshapen, damaged area of the DNA in two places and reforming it into its original, undamaged shape.
Energy
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Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
NPR via Georgia Public Broadcasting: Bit By Bit, Afghanistan Rebuilds Buddhist Statues
By Joanna Kakissis
Wed., July 27, 2011 5:30am (EDT)
When the Taliban controlled Afghanistan a decade ago, they were fanatical about eliminating everything they considered un-Islamic.
Their biggest targets literally and figuratively were the two monumental Buddha statues carved out of the sandstone cliffs in central Afghanistan. One stood nearly 180 feet tall and the other about 120 feet high, and together they had watched over the dusty Bamiyan Valley since the sixth century, several centuries before Islam reached the region.
Despite international opposition, the Taliban destroyed the statues with massive explosions in 2001. At the time they were blown up, the statues were the largest Buddha carvings in the world, and it seemed they were gone for good.
But today, teams from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, along with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, are engaged in the painstaking process of putting the broken Buddhas back together.
Whidbey News Times via Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
By Justin Burnett, WHIDBEY NEWS TIMES
Published 10:02 p.m., Tuesday, July 26, 2011
State regulators have begun an investigation this week into a third site that might contain Native American remains.
Allyson Brooks, director for the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, alerted the News-Times of the pending investigation just hours before press time Tuesday. She said it's the result of an anonymous tip the agency received late Monday.
She could not confirm the validity of the allegations, but said the historic preservation office is obligated to look into the claims.
LiveScience: NY Mummy Smugglers Reveal Vast Antiquities Black Market
By Charles Q. Choi
The illegal trafficking of mummies can destroy scientists' chances of learning about ancient Egyptians. Here, the mummy Maiherpri resides in a sarcophagus after undergoing a scan to reveal the prevalence of heart disease at the time.
The rescue of an ancient Egyptian mummy's sarcophagus this month from alleged smugglers in New York — the first time authorities say an international artifacts' smuggling ring was dismantled within the United States — sounds more like the plot of a movie than reality.
Amazingly, however, mummy smuggling not only still happens today, it was once so common that enough mummies were available to be ground up and sold as powder, archaeologists reveal.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Space.com via MSNBC: Senate subpoenas NASA over rocket documents
By Dan Leone
updated 7/29/2011 6:59:29 PM ET
WASHINGTON — A Senate panel issued a subpoena ordering NASA to produce internal documents related to the agency’s progress on the Space Launch System, the heavy-lift rocket Congress ordered NASA to make ready for flight by Dec. 31, 2016.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, whose members were the architects of the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 that created the Space Launch System, took the unusual step of exercising its subpoena authority July 27.
"I can confirm that the committee sent a subpoena yesterday," Vincent Morris, a spokesman for the Committee, wrote in a July 28 email to Space News. Morris works for Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
When the private space enthusiasts call the SLS the "Senate Launch System," they aren't kidding.
University of Michigan: University of Michigan statement on today's stem cell court ruling
July 27, 2011
Statement from Sean Morrison, director of the University of Michigan's Center for Stem Cell Biology, on U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth's ruling today dismissing a lawsuit that sought to block federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research:
We welcome Judge Lamberth's decision in the Sherley v. Sebelius case. This ruling clears the way for the National Institutes of Health to continue funding critical embryonic stem cell research throughout the country. It remains important to pursue all forms of stem cell research, including both embryonic and adult stem cell research. Much more work needs to be done to determine which kinds of stem cells will lead to future scientific and medical advances. This ruling also allows the NIH to continue funding research based on scientific merit rather than having courts influence the distribution of funds among scientific disciplines.
Indiana University: IU’s VP for Research among four experts providing Congress testimony on research funding
U.S. global competitiveness relies on scientific research, innovation, members are told
July 26, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University Vice President for Research Jorge José testified today on the merit review grant award process and its effect on federally-funded scientific research during a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Research and Science Education.
José was one of four experts to testify before the subcommittee as it works to understand the strengths and potential weaknesses of a funding process used by a number of federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. In Fiscal Year 2010, the NSF alone awarded 12,996 grants from more than 55,500 proposals, and about 96 percent of those were evaluated through the NSF merit review process.
His testimony emphasized the importance of continued robust federal funding for scientific research and the value of the merit review system for ensuring that federal funds are used to support the most important and far-reaching scientific research.
Indiana University: IU Dentistry professor helps set fluoride standards that impact drinking water, research
July 25, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS -- An IU School of Dentistry professor played a leading role in developing the "gold standard" for analyzing fluoride and also chaired a panel of experts that helped set new government recommendations for the amount of fluoride to be put in drinking water in the United States to prevent tooth decay.
Dr. E. Angeles Martinez-Mier served as the primary investigator of a large research team that was funded by the National Institutes of Health to develop simple global gold standard measurements to enable researchers to more accurately, rapidly and conveniently analyze and monitor fluoride levels. The team was composed of 19 researchers in nine laboratories located in seven countries on four continents.
She also played a role in developing new government guidelines on fluoride in drinking water, chairing a panel of experts that reviewed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2010 fluoride risk assessment and sources of fluoride.
Think Progress: Nugent Amendment Pushes Tea Party Attack On Manatees
Florida Tea Party members believe that federal efforts to protect manatees from extinction are part of a United Nations conspiracy to place manatee over man. Freshman Rep. Rich Nugent (R-FL) is now standing up for the Tea Partiers against the feared manatee overlords, offering an amendment to the FY 2012 Interior and Environment appropriations bill (HR 2584) that would block the creation of a manatee refuge in Citrus County:
That's not all for the silly anti-sustainability amendments proposed for the Interior Department appropriations. The Democrats on the national resources committee
have an entire list and I have commentary at
Silly Sustainability Saturday: The Onion, more manatees, heat wave denial, and a poem.
Michigan State University: Prima Civitas, MSU join group to seek high-speed broadband
July 27, 2011
EAST LANSING, Mich. — The East Lansing-based Prima Civitas Foundation and Michigan State University are part of a national, higher education consortium that has come together to seek higher-speed retail broadband for its various communities.
The consortium, dubbed "Gig.U," is housed at Colorado's Aspen Institute and is made up of as many as 25 university communities across the country.
The goal, said Steve Webster, Prima Civitas CEO and board chairperson, is to advance innovation and economic growth by upgrading the communities to ultra-high-speed broadband services made available by commercial providers. Ultra high speed is 1 gigabit-per-second connectivity.
"This project has the potential to be transformational for the capital region," Webster said. "It's an opportunity for our community to offer higher level broadband and accelerate its growth as a hotspot for knowledge economy jobs.
Michigan State University: Pair of MSU faculty reappointed to state board on pain management
July 29, 2011
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Rick Snyder this week reappointed a pair of MSU faculty members to the state's Advisory Committee on Pain and Symptom Management.
Lawrence Prokop from the College of Osteopathic Medicine and Steven Roskos from the College of Human Medicine will be serving another two-year term on the committee, joining five newcomers from across the state.
The committee is charged with addressing issues pertaining to pain and symptom management, holding public hearings to gather information from the general public and making recommendations to the Legislature.
Science Education
Gwinnett Daily Post: Tiny treasure hunters: Camp helps kids explore archaeology
LAWRENCEVILLE — Kids playfully fought over shoebox-sized containers filled with sand and hidden artifacts before settling down to examine their treasures at the Archaeology and Ancient World day camp’s Mystery Dig Friday.
Catherine Jordan, 9, of Dacula, meticulously searched her container for artifacts such as coins, seashells, arrowheads and tiles as she contrived fanciful stories of their origins and the people who used them.
She believed her objects came “from the Mayans that must have been trading with Europeans because I’m seeing a lot of coins from Europe and Mexico.”
Times Free Press: Register for teachers' archaeology class
by Staff Report
Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park invites K-12 teachers of social science, history, civics, humanities and other affiliated disciplines to a free teacher workshop focusing on the Moccasin Bend National Archeological District.
Thursday is the deadline to register for the workshop, which will meet from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 5-6 at Girls Preparatory School, 205 Island Ave. The workshop will use materials provided by "Project Archaeology."
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Michigan State University: Teacher influence persists in early grades
July 27, 2011
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Having consistently good teachers in elementary school appears to be as important for student achievement as small class sizes, according to new research by a Michigan State University education scholar.
The study by Spyros Konstantopoulos found that, starting in kindergarten, teachers can significantly affect students’ reading and math scores in later grades. The study, which appears in the research journal Teachers College Record, is one of the first scientific experiments to find that teachers can affect student achievement over time in the crucial early grades.
“The findings suggest teacher effects do not fade, but remain strong predictors of student achievement,” said Konstantopoulos, associate professor of education.
The study highlights the importance of identifying and hiring effective teachers in the early grades and implementing interventions such as professional development to improve teacher effectiveness, Konstantopoulos said.
WKAR now has a series of video tips for parents of young children available at WKAR.org/educationservices. The tips are funded by the PNC Foundation and Grow Up Great Initiative.
The science tips focus on public television's award-winning children's programming and illustrate how easily a parent can enhance a program and turn it into an experiential learning activity. Each video first shows a brief clip from a program like "Sid the Science Kid" or "Curious George" and then demonstrates how the parent can work with the child to explore such concepts as temperature, wind and transportation. They demonstrate how to problem solve, explore and observe.
University of Wisconsin: UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee award inter-institutional research grants
by Chris Barncard
July 28, 2011
Twelve hybrid teams of faculty from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been awarded the second batch of Intercampus Research Incentive grants, awards designed to foster inter-institutional collaboration.
The awards, announced today by UW-Milwaukee and UW-Madison, total $600,000 and will support projects such as testing new materials for improved lithium-ion batteries and investigating whether Lake Michigan is a sink or source for carbon dioxide. Each award, chosen from a pool of 60 proposed research programs, is in the range of $50,000 for one year.
The Intercampus Research Incentive Grants Program is an initiative to foster research projects and scholarship undertaken jointly by researchers at the two institutions. The program is funded by UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee donors. Projects were selected by a committee of faculty and administrators from both institutions.
"Our researchers have outdone themselves," says Martin Cadwallader, dean of the UW-Madison Graduate School. "We were so impressed by the quality and creativity of the collaborative proposals that we doubled the number we originally intended to fund."
All of the funded are science and technology research and most have a sustainability slant to them.
Science Writing and Reporting
Indiana University: IU journalism students return from Kenya with stories, better understanding of HIV/AIDS epidemic
July 25, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A dozen students from Indiana University's School of Journalism recently returned from Kenya, where they and their professor reported on the African continent's continuing HIV/AIDS epidemic and learned about the Kenyan culture by partnering with Moi University students.
Since 2000, Jim Kelly, an associate professor of journalism, has organized reporting workshops in South Asia and Africa for working journalists covering social issues such as HIV/AIDS. This summer and for the second year, Kelly took a class of IU students to Eldoret, Kenya, home to the IU-Kenya Partnership.
The students have published their reporting online at http://journalism.indiana.edu/... and hope their articles and photographs draw worldwide attention to the issue.
Science is Cool
BBC: Should Pompeii have a theme park?
Should archaeologists reconstruct ruins as they decline or should they preserve them as best they can until there is nothing left?
Caroline Lawrence, archaeologist turned children's author, and Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, director of the Herculaneum Conservation project and master of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge, debate the future of Pompeii.
CNN: iPhone app brings Roman London to life
By Laura Allsop for CNN
July 29, 2011
The Romans may have left Britain in the 5th century A.D., but they left their mark on the country after nearly four centuries of occupation.
The settlement of Londinium, now the thriving city of London, was built by the Romans around the middle of the first century A.D., and is one of the enduring legacies of the Roman invasion.
Some sites, such as the ruins of the ancient roman wall, are still standing but much of the city's ancient history remains buried. Now, a new -- and free -- application for iPhone and iPad is unearthing Roman London and bringing it back to life virtually.
Wired: Armchair archaeologists asked to decipher ancient papyri
By Katie Scott
26 July 11
Hundreds of thousands of fragments of ancient papyri have been put online in a bid to crowd source translations.
The Egypt Exploration Society and Oxford University's Ancient Lives project has launched today and it is hoping to recruit "armchair archaeologists" to look through and catalogue the images of the papyri; and transcribe the text.
The papyri were recovered in the early 20th century from the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, which translates as the "City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish". The texts were written in Greek during a period when Egypt was under the control of a Greek (and later Roman) settler class.
Popular Mechanics: Medieval Knights on a Treadmill Put Historical Myths to the Test
As a boy visiting England's armories, Graham Askew always wondered how armored knights could move and fight. When he became a biomechanical expert at the University of Leeds, he decided to find out by putting historical re-enactors in full metal armor on a treadmill.
By Mary Beth Griggs
The legendary knights of yesteryear, mounted on mighty steeds and clad in full suits of heavy armor, have descended to a new low. No longer needed for castle sieges, and with a skill set that was out of date centuries ago, they have been reduced to running on treadmills for science experiments.
Ok, so we're not talking about actual knights here, just historical fight interpreters in full medieval costume. But for a new study from the University of Leeds, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers were serious about putting a historical myth to the test in the lab. Clearly, a knight's shining armor required a lot of energy to wear, and the Leeds researchers wanted to find out just how much this metal wardrobe wore down medieval warriors—and how badly it hurt their battle performance.
Mobiledia: ITTO: Teenagers Revive Dead Languages Through Texting
By Margaret Rock
Wed Jun 29, 2011 4:39 pm
A funny thing happened to several languages on their way to extinction -- they were saved, pulled back from the brink by teenagers and the Internet, of all things.
Is This Thing On?, or ITTO, is our Wednesday column showing how everyday people use technology in unexpected ways.
Samuel Herrera, who runs the linguistics laboratory at the Institute of Anthropological Research in Mexico City, found young people in southern Chile producing hip-hop videos and posting them on YouTube using Huilliche, a language on the brink of extinction.
Herrera also discovered teens in the Phillippines and Mexico who think it's "cool" to send text messages in regional endangered languages like Kapampangan and Huave.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Indiana University: NSF awards Truthy team $905,000 to develop tools for real-time social media analysis
July 28, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's Truthy team -- four informatics and computing professors who last year received international media attention after establishing a watchdog website to identify political astroturfing occurring via Twitter -- has received a National Science Foundation grant of $905,000 to broaden work analyzing the massive stream of public data found in large-scale social media networks.
"To better understand how and why information spreads online, we intend to develop a framework that allows us to apply the same analytical methods to a broad variety of data feeds, including Twitter, Google Buzz, Google , Yahoo! Meme, and Facebook," said Filippo Menczer, who joins Alessandro Flammini, Alessandro Vespignani and Johan L. Bollen as IU Bloomington School of Informatics and Computing professors serving as principal investigators on the grant. "We expect that this new computational framework will offer an unprecedented level of data interoperability for the real-time analysis of a social media data stream on the order of millions of posts each day."
Even with advances in the field of information diffusion in recent years, IU researchers said there remained a need for commonly accepted, detailed and empirically validated models that can reliably predict the size and scope of specific diffusion processes. One goal of the research will be to create a model that captures the shared traits of information diffusion processes in different social networking sites while still accounting for their diverse structures and interfaces.