Science talk returns to brighten your day one more time. New discoveries, new takes on old knowledge, and other bits of news are all available for the perusing in today's information world. Over the fold are selections from the past week from a few of the many excellent science news sites around the world. Today's tidbits include Arctic warming linked to a combination of reduced sea ice and global atmospheric warming, record breaking drought across the U.S., first 'bottom-up' estimates of China's carbon dioxide emissions, what happens when we sunburn, in the biggest story of recent times scientists announce their findings on the Higgs particle, and eddies not sunlight spur the bloom of tiny plants in the North Atlantic.
Pull up that comfy chair and grab a spot on the porch. There is always plenty of room for everyone. Another session of Dr. Possum's science education, entertainment, and potluck discussion is set to begin.
Featured Stories
Climate science expands almost every week with new reports. This time a link between Arctic warming and global atmospheric warming is reported.
The combination of melting sea ice and global atmospheric warming are contributing to the high rate of warming in the Arctic, where temperatures are increasing up to four times faster than the global average, a new University of Melbourne study has shown.
As many news outlets report the U.S. is suffering a record breaking heat wave. At the same time we are in the midst of a
record breaking drought.
Analysis of the latest drought monitor data revealed that 46.84 percent of the nation's land area is in various stages of drought, up from 42.8 percent a week ago. Previous records were 45.87 percent in drought on Aug. 26, 2003, and 45.64 percent on Sept. 10, 2002.
Looking only at the 48 contiguous states, 55.96 percent of the country's land area is in moderate drought or worse -- also the highest percentage on record in that regard, officials said. The previous highs had been 54.79 percent on Aug. 26, 2003, and 54.63 percent on Sept. 10, 2002.
Industrialized nations around the world continue to pour carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The first 'bottom-up'
estimates of China's contribution were just released.
The Harvard-Nanjing team believes provincial energy data to be more accurate than national statistics because the provincial data have been empirically tested in peer-reviewed atmospheric studies that compare the expected emissions of conventional air pollutants to actual instrumental observations by satellites and ground stations. Provincial statistics also take into account the large quantities of coal produced by small, illegal mines.
In this season of bright sunshine and warm North American weather many cases of
sunburn may be expected as we expose our skin to the elements.
Using both human skin cells and a mouse model (scientists) found that UVB radiation fractures and tangles elements of non-coding micro-RNA – a special type of RNA inside the cell that does not directly make proteins. Irradiated cells release this altered RNA, provoking healthy, neighboring cells to start a process that results in an inflammatory response intended to remove sun-damaged cells.
We see and feel the process as sunburn.
The
Higgs particle consumed much of both the popular and scientific press this week with announcements of new findings.
The Higgs particle is named after Scottish physicist Peter Higgs, who among other physicists in the 1960s helped develop the theoretical model that explains why some particles have mass and others don't, a major step toward understanding the origin of mass. The model predicts the existence of a new particle, which has eluded experimental detection ever since. Only high-energy particle colliders such as the Tevatron, which was shut down in September 2011, and the Large Hadron Collider, which produced its first collisions in November 2009, have the chance to produce the Higgs particle. About 1,700 scientists from U.S. institutions, including Fermilab, are working on the LHC experiments.
The Tevatron results indicate that the Higgs particle, if it exists, has a mass between 115 and 135 GeV/c2, or about 130 times the mass of the proton.
Springtime brings
phytoplanckton bloom but scientists discovered it is eddies and not sunlight that start the process.
...whirlpools, or eddies, that swirl across the North Atlantic sustain phytoplankton in the ocean's shallower waters, where the plankton can get plenty of sunlight to fuel their growth even before the longer days of spring start.
The eddies form when heavier, colder water from the north slips under the lighter, warmer water from the south. The researchers found that the eddies cause the bloom to happen around three weeks earlier than it would if it was spurred just by spring’s longer days.
Knucklehead's Photo of the Week
Coral Banded Shrimp
©Knucklehead, all rights reserved. (Click on the image to see more in the same series.)
Other Worthy Stories of the Week
In elite swimming paddlers are more efficient than propellers
Opportunity celebrates 3000 Martian days of operation
Smaller volcanoes could cool the climate
Rising plasma offers clues to sun storms
Diabetes drug makes brain cells grow
Increased growth responsible for color change in coral reefs
Zebrafish provides promising process for healing spinal cord injury
Development of antibiotic resistance more predictable than thought
Cosmology group finds measurable evidence of dark matter filament
Smart headlights let drivers see between the raindrops
For even more science news:
General Science Collectors:
Alpha-Galileo
BBC News Science and Environment
Eureka Science News
LiveScience
New Scientist
PhysOrg.com
SciDev.net
Science/AAAS
Science Alert
Science Centric
Science Daily
Scientific American
Space Daily
Blogs:
A Few Things Ill Considered Techie and Science News
Cantauri Dreams space exploration
Coctail Party Physics Physics with a twist.
Deep Sea News marine biology
Laelaps more vertebrate paleontology
List of Geoscience Blogs
ScienceBlogs
Space Review
Techonology Review
Tetrapod Zoologyvertebrate paleontology
Science Insider
Scientific Blogging.
Space.com
Wired News
Science RSS Feed: Medworm
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe--a combination of hard science and debunking crap
At Daily Kos:
This Week in Science by DarkSyde
Overnight News Digest:Science Saturday by Neon Vincent. OND tech Thursday by rfall.
Pique the Geek by Translator Sunday evenings about 9 Eastern time
All diaries with the DK GreenRoots Tag.
All diaries with the eKos Tag
A More Ancient World by matching mole
Astro Kos
SciTech at Dkos.
Sunday Science Videos by palantir
NASA picture of the day. For more see the NASA image gallery or the Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive
Camelopardis, NASA, public domain