Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors jlms qkw, maggiejean, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, and ScottyUrb, guest editor annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.
This week's featured story comes from Space.com.
Petition Asks White House to Reverse NASA Outreach Sequester Cuts
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 05:30 AM ET
A new online petition asks the White House to repeal budget cuts that have spurred NASA to suspend many of its education and public-outreach efforts.
The petition was created on Friday (March 22), the same day that NASA issued two internal memos outlining how outreach activities are being scaled back as a result of sequestration, the set of across-the-board federal cuts that took effect March 1. The memos began circulating outside the agency Friday as well.
"The sequester's recent cuts on NASA's spending in public outreach and its STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] programs must not be allowed," the petition states. "These cuts would end the many programs NASA has for educating the children of our society, as well as many other forms of public outreach held by NASA."
The petition is at the White House "We the People" site
here.
More stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
The Daily Bucket - cottonwood and parrots
by bwren
Green Diary Rescue: Earth's oceans acidifying in that way we keep hearing: 'faster than predicted'
by Meteor Blades
This week in science: Resistance is futile
by DarkSyde
Slideshows/Videos
LiveScience: Best Science Photos of the Week
LiveScience Staff
Date: 30 March 2013 Time: 10:42 AM ET
OurAmazingPlanet: Best Earth Images of the Week - March 29, 2013
OurAmazingPlanet via Space.com: Grand Canyon View From Space Reveals Jaw-Dropping Scenery
Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 05:46 PM ET
A jagged scar etched in copper-colored rocks, the Colorado River's channel curls through one of the world's most scenic landscapes.
Draining seven states and two countries, the river is one of the Southwest's most important water sources. One of its major reservoirs, Lake Powell, can be seen from space in a photo snapped March 12 by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.
Discovery News on YouTube: Doctor Who's Real Life Tech Toys
Doctor Who is coming back for a new season and he's bringing along awesome technology straight from the future! But some of these gadgets are actually being used in the real world today. Anthony shows us the actual science in the Doctor's arsenal.
Discovery News on YouTube: Voyager 1: Where To Next?
Has Voyager 1 left the solar system or not? Scientists seem to have a new answer every other day. And for that matter, where will the historic space probe go once it exists our solar system? Trace looks the skies, and more importantly to science to find out.
NASA Television on YouTube: All Aboard for Cassidy and Crewmates on This Week @NASA
NASA Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy and his Expedition 35/36 crewmates, Soyuz Commander Pavel Vinogradov, and Russian Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin, are now safely aboard the International Space Station, where they'll conduct scientific research through the summer. Also, Dragon's back; Heatshield Hits Beantown; Stir Welding for SLS; Cassini Hot Spots; Hangout En Espanol; and more!
NASA Television on YouTube: ScienceCasts: Don't Let This Happen to Your Planet
Life as we know it doesn't thrive on planets without ozone layers. A new instrument slated for launch to the ISS will monitor Earth's protective ozone shell with greater depth and precision than ever before.
NASA Television on YouTube: ScienceCasts: Collision Course? A Comet Heads for Mars
A comet is heading for Mars, and there is a chance that it might hit the Red Planet in October 2014. An impact wouldn't necessarily mean the end of NASA's Mars program. But it would transform the program along with Mars itself.
For more on the comet grazing Mars, read
Mars vs. Comet in 2014: Scientists Prepare for Red Planet Sky Show at Space.com.
Space.com on YouTube: Comet ISON's Path Through The Inner Solar System | Video
The comet ISON is making what astronomers believe is its first trip through the inner solar system, taking a sweltering pass by the sun (making ISON a 'sungrazing' comet) and then back past Earth in December.
Astronomy/Space
Space.com: Saturn's Rings and Moons are Solar System Antiques
Staff, SPACE.com
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 07:00 AM ET
The dazzling rings of Saturn and its moons are likely more than 4 billion years old — the cosmic remnants of the solar system's birth, scientists say.
The finding comes after a new study of observations from NASA's Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn, which suggests that the planet's rings and moons formed at the same time as the rest of the solar system's planetary bodies soon after the sun sparked into life. Since Saturn's rings and moons formed from the same planetary nebula of gas and dust around the early sun that led to the solar system's other planets, they are a time capsule of sorts for astronomers, the researchers said.
Global View of Iapetus' Dichotomy
"Studying the Saturnian system helps us understand the chemical and physical evolution of our entire solar system," Cassini scientist Gianrico Filacchione, of Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome, said in a statement. "We know now that understanding this evolution requires not just studying a single moon or ring, but piecing together the relationships intertwining these bodies."
Space.com: Earth's Moon and Huge Asteroid Vesta Share Violent History
by Elizabeth Howell, SPACE.com Contributor
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 02:27 PM ET
The same population of space rocks that battered Earth's moon during the early days of the solar system also slammed the huge asteroid Vesta, scientists say.
While the cosmic bombardment – which occurred when Jupiter and Saturn shifted orbits – has been known for a while, this is the first time scientists found evidence of it on Vesta, one of the biggest asteroids in the solar system.
NASA Apollo astronauts collected evidence of the bombardment on the moon during the lunar landing missions of the 1960s and 1970s. On Earth, erosion washed away most of the evidence of the violent chapter during the solar system's formation, researchers said.
Space.com: NASA Spacecraft Snaps New Photo of Potential 'Comet of the Century'
by Tariq Malik, SPACE.com Managing Editor
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 04:20 PM ET
A NASA spacecraft scanning for the most powerful explosions in the universe has captured a photo of Comet ISON, an icy wanderer that could potentially dazzle stargazers when it swings close to the sun later this year.
NASA's Swift satellite, which is typically used to track intense gamma-ray bursts from distant stars, photographed Comet ISON on Jan. 30, with the space agency unveiling the photo today (March 29). By tracking the comet over the last two months, Swift has allowed astronomers to learn new details about how large the comet is and how fast it is spewing out gas and dust.
"Comet ISON has the potential to be among the brightest comets of the last 50 years, which gives us a rare opportunity to observe its changes in great detail and over an extended period," said Lead Investigator Dennis Bodewits, an astronomer with University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP) who helped obtain the new image.
Space.com: Green Meteorite May Be from Mercury, a First
by Miriam Kramer, SPACE.com Staff Writer
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 03:19 PM ET
Scientists may have discovered the first meteorite from Mercury.
The green rock found in Morocco last year may be the first known visitor from the solar system's innermost planet, according to meteorite scientist Anthony Irving, who unveiled the new findings this month at the 44th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas. The study suggests that a space rock called NWA 7325 came from Mercury, and not an asteroid or Mars.
NWA 7325 is actually a group of 35 meteorite samples discovered in 2012 in Morocco. They are ancient, with Irving and his team dating the rocks to an age of about 4.56 billion years.
Climate/Environment
OurAmazingPlanet: Antarctic Thawing Season Keeps Getting Longer
Douglas Main, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
Mar 27, 2013 07:46 PM ET
More ice is melting for a longer period of time each year on the Antarctic Peninsula, new research shows.
The area is warming more quickly than almost any other spot on Earth. Temperatures on this mountainous strip of land have risen by 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) since the 1950s, according to a news release from the British Antarctic Survey, whose scientists were involved in the research.
The study, published today (March 27) in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, analyzed data from 30 weather stations on the Antarctic Peninsula and found that not only is the temperature rising, but it's staying warmer longer, and all that warming is having an impact on the ice.
OurAmazingPlanet via Space.com: How a Storm Became Big Enough to Span the Atlantic
by Douglas Main, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 02:00 PM ET
There is currently a massive storm churning over the Atlantic that spans the entire ocean basin, stretching all the way from Canada to Europe, and from Greenland to the Caribbean.
It's the same weather system that brought a massive spring blizzard to much of the United States and Canada earlier this week (on Tuesday (March 26), 44 of 50 states had some snow on the ground), and which has now ballooned in size, according to Jason Samenow, chief meteorologist with the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang.
Robert Oszajca, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service's Ocean Prediction Center, explained that the storm got this big by merging with several low-pressure systems that were hanging out over the Atlantic Ocean. The merging weather systems gave it more power, which was accentuated by a gradient between warm moisture from the southeast, delivered by the Gulf Stream, and frigid air from the north. This intensified the storm, causing it to spin, elongate and grow in size, Oszajca told OurAmazingPlanet.
OurAmazingPlanet: Arctic Sea Ice Hits Yearly Max, But Still Dwindling
Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
Mar 27, 2013 07:29 PM ET
It may be time to retire the groundhog and start tracking Arctic sea ice for a better prediction of late-winter weather.
On March 15, the Arctic sea ice reached its maximum extent -- the most ice the frigid North would see this year, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colo. Changes in Arctic ice, and its total extent, may be affecting weather further south, scientists think.
The ice covered 5.84 million square miles (15.13 million square kilometers), the sixth-lowest area on record since 1979. Most of the ice was young, first-year ice, freshly frozen. The Arctic also has multiyear ice, frozen year-round, which is stiffer and thicker, and contains much less brine than first-year ice does. However, its slice of the total ice pie has been shrinking in recent years.
OurAmazingPlanet: Spring Image: Snow in Nearly Half of US
Douglas Main, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer - Mar 26, 2013 06:54 PM ET
Springtime: the time for flowers, newborn animals … and snow. Nearly half of the United States is currently covered in snow, including most of Canada, as can be seen in this image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
That's the largest extent of snow cover at this point in the season in at least 10 years, according to NOAA....
Currently, 44 of 50 states have some snow on the ground. The only states without any of the fluffy stuff are Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi and Rhode Island.
Biodiversity
LiveScience: Mystery of Desert 'Fairy Circles' Solved, Creators Found
Tanya Lewis, LiveScience Staff Writer
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 02:00 PM ET
The "artists" behind bizarre, barren, grassless rings dotting the desert of Southwest Africa have been found lurking right at scientists' feet: termites.
Known as fairy circles, these patches crop up in regular patterns along a narrow strip of the Namib Desert between mid-Angola and northwestern South Africa, and can persist for decades. The cause of these desert pockmarks has been widely debated, but a species of sand termite, Psammotermes allocerus, could be behind the mysterious dirt rings, suggests a study published today (March 28) in the journal Science.
Scientists have offered many ideas about the circles' origin, ranging from "self-organizing vegetation dynamics" to carnivorous ants. Termites have been proposed before, but there wasn't much evidence to support that theory.
LiveScience: 101 Beetles Get Names from Phone Book
Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 27 March 2013 Time: 08:01 AM ET
What do you do when you run across hundreds of nameless species of beetle in the wilderness of New Guinea?
No, the correct answer is not "run away screaming" — at least if you're a scientist dedicated to discovering the massive diversity of insect life. Instead, researchers from the German Natural History Museum Karlsruhe and the Zoological State Collection in Munich turned to the phone book to label all the new species.
After discovering hundreds of distinct species of weevils (a superfamily of beetles) in the genus Trigonopterus, scientists Alexander Riedel and Michael Balke realized they could spend a lifetime describing and naming them all. So they created a scientific shortcut: sequencing a portion of each weevil's DNA to sort out the different species and taking photographs for the online database Species ID, a Wikipedia-like website for cataloguing biodiversity.
LiveScience: Rare Chinese Porpoises Dive Toward Extinction
Megan Gannon, News Editor
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 04:06 PM ET
Giant pandas have become China's poster child for endangered species, but now another iconic animal in the country can claim to be even rarer than the bears.
There are just 1,000 individual Yangtze finless porpoises left in the wild, according to a new report. That's less than half of what a similar survey of the porpoises found six years ago.
The rapidly dwindling numbers have conservationists worried that the species could vanish from the wild as early as 2025.
LiveScience: Tiny Lemur Twins Are 2 New Species
Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 26 March 2013 Time: 07:16 AM ET
Two new species of lemur look so similar that it's impossible to tell them apart without sequencing their genes.
The itsy-bitsy primates are both mouse lemurs, which are tiny, nocturnal lemurs that measure less than 11 inches (27 centimeters) from nose to tail. The newly discovered Madagascar natives have gray-brown coats and weigh only 2.5 to 3 ounces (65-85 grams).
Study researcher Rodin Rasoloarison of the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar first captured specimens of the two new species in 2003 and 2007. He weighed the animals, measured them and took small skin samples for later analysis.
Biotechnology/Health
Climate Nexus via LiveScience: Worst Allergy Season Ever?
Marlene Cimons, Climate Nexus
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 05:47 PM ET
This spring could be the most miserable one ever for those of us with allergies, and we can blame it on climate change.
People in the Northeast, in particular, will be among the hardest hit in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and this winter's record-setting blizzard, both of which dumped massive amounts of precipitation over the region.
...
The planet is getting warmer, and human behavior is responsible. The changing climate has brought early spring, late-ending fall, and large amounts of rain and snow. All of that, combined with historically high levels of carbon dioxide in the air, nourishes the trees and plants that make pollen, and encourages more fungal growth, such as mold, and the release of spores.
MyHealthNewsDaily via LiveScience: Hormone Therapy May Raise Risk of Aggressive Breast Cancers
Rachael Rettner, MyHealthNewsDaily Staff Writer
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 05:42 PM ET
Women who undergo hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) to treat symptoms of menopause are at increased risk of developing all categories of breast cancer, a new study has found.
In the study, postmenopausal women on hormone replacement therapy that included both estrogen and progestin were 1.5 times more likely to develop breast cancer over an 11-year period compared with women not on the hormones.
HRT increased the risk of breast cancers that have a low risk of recurrence, such as estrogen-receptor-positive cancers, as well as the risk of more aggressive breast cancers, such as triple-negative breast cancer.
MyHealthNewsDaily via LiveScience: Dangerous Moves: More Kids Hurt Dancing
Rachael Rettner, MyHealthNewsDaily Staff Writer
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 10:07 AM ET
All the leaps, lifts and turns that make dance a breathtaking spectacle to watch also make it a hazardous activity.
A new study finds the number of children and teens injured from dancing is on the rise.
Over a 17-year period, the number of dance-related injuries that sent U.S. children ages 3 to 19 to emergency rooms increased 37 percent, from6,175 injuries in 1991 to 8,477 injuries in 2007.
...
The reason for the rise is not clear. But the researchers suspect it may be due to an increase in the sports' popularity thanks to recent TV shows and video games that feature dancing, said study researcher Kristin Roberts, a senior research associate for Nationwide Children's Hospital's Center for Injury Research and Policy in Columbus, Ohio.
MyHealthNewsDaily via LiveScience: 97% of Restaurant Kids' Meals Are Unhealthy, Consumer Group Says
Rachael Rettner, MyHealthNewsDaily Staff Writer
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 12:03 PM ET
Despite steps by some chain restaurants to offer healthier kids' meals, most still aren't very nutritious, according to a new report.
Of the 3,500 meals from 41 top chain restaurantsthat were analyzed, just 3 percent met the nutrition standards set by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the advocacy organization that conducted the report.
Fifty percent of the meals had more than 600 calories, 78 percent offered soft drinks as a beverage option and 73 percent offered fries as a side.
LiveScience: Health Consumers Don't Give Back Online
Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 03:37 PM ET
People consulting the Internet for health information and advice take what's presented, but rarely give back by posting their own reviews or experiences, new research finds.
This pattern could be skewing the "wisdom of the crowds" about doctors, hospitals and treatment options, said study researcher Rosemary Thackeray of Brigham Young University.
"If more people are contributing to the dialogue, we have maybe better information," Thackeray told LiveScience. "Versus with fewer people, it might be less reliable, more biased."
Psychology/Behavior
Inside Science News Service via LiveScience: Laser Helps Measure Brain Activity
Peter Gwynne, ISNS Contributor
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 12:17 PM ET
European researchers have developed a new tool for studying nerve cells in the brain. The implanted tool can simultaneously inject fluid into individual cells, shine light on them, and record their electrical activity.
The researchers demonstrated the value of the device, called an optrode, in experiments on mice. Laser pulses allowed them to influence the activity of nerve cells in the rodents' brains in a controlled manner.
"Proof of concept has been achieved," said Thomas Stieglitz, of the Laboratory for Biomedical Microtechnology at the University of Freiburg in Germany.
LiveScience: How Mom & Dad's Fights Can Stunt Kids' Brains
Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 06:09 PM ET
Arguments between Mom and Dad can alter the stress responses of children, new research finds, possibly resulting in kids who lag behind their peers in problem solving.
The study, released today (March 28) in the journal Child Development, followed second- and third-graders for three years, asking them about their parents' fights and measuring changes in the kids' ability to deal with stress over time.
"We're trying to understand how environmental stress can shape the development of children's stress response systems," study researcher J. Benjamin Hinnant of the Catholic University of America, told LiveScience.
LiveScience: Women on the Pill Choose Less Manly Men
Tanya Lewis, LiveScience Staff Writer
Date: 27 March 2013 Time: 05:11 PM ET
Women using the birth control pill prefer men with less masculine faces compared to nonusers, new research suggests.
Millions of women use hormonal forms of contraception, and some studies indicate the pill could affect partner preferences. A new study shows women were attracted to less masculine male faces after going on the pill, while their ratings of the attractiveness of female faces were unaffected. And in couples who first met when the woman was on the pill, the men were less likely to have manly faces than those who met when the woman was off the pill. If supported, the findings could have important implications for how relationships are formed.
Many factors can influence human attractiveness. Some research suggests that a preference for masculine or feminine traits may be linked to genetic benefits for a couple's offspring, such as strong immune systems. And a few studies have found that women prefer more masculine traits during the fertile phase of their menstrual cycle. The new study investigated how the pill affects these preferences.
TechNewsDaily via LiveScience: Robots Mimic Ant Colony Behavior
Charles Q. Choi, TechNewsDaily Contributor
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 05:53 PM ET
Robot swarms can mimic how ant colonies navigate complex mazes relatively mindlessly, researchers have found -- knowledge that could help to improve designs for manmade transportation networks.
Scientists are fascinated by ant colonies because they can form collectives called "superorganisms" that function as single organisms do. Investigation into how ants behave has revealed more about how such group behavior arises, and some researchers are using that knowledge to help build smarter robot swarms, said Simon Garnier, a scientist who studies animal behavior at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Scientists are making ants wander through mazes, just as they do with rats. These labyrinths mimic the twists and turns in ants' journeys between their nests and places rich in food.
Archeology/Anthropology
LiveScience: Easter Science: 6 Facts About Jesus
Tia Ghose, LiveScience Staff Writer
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 02:30 PM ET
He may be the most famous man who ever lived, but surprisingly little is known about his life.
This Sunday (March 31), more than 2 billion Christians will celebrate Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead. While there is no scientific way to know whether that supernatural event at the heart of Christianity actually happened, historians have established some facts about his life.
From his birth to his execution by the Romans, here are six facts about the historical Jesus.
Discovery News via LiveScience: First Love Child of Human, Neanderthal Found
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 01:29 PM ET
The skeletal remains of an individual living in northern Italy 40,000-30,000 years ago are believed to be that of a human/Neanderthal hybrid, according to a paper in PLoS ONE.
If further analysis proves the theory correct, the remains belonged to the first known such hybrid, providing direct evidence that humans and Neanderthals interbred. Prior genetic research determined the DNA of people with European and Asian ancestry is 1 to 4 percent Neanderthal.
The present study focuses on the individual’s jaw, which was unearthed at a rock-shelter called Riparo di Mezzena in the Monti Lessini region of Italy. Both Neanderthals and modern humans inhabited Europe at the time.
OurAmazingPlanet via LiveScience: Killer Waves: How Tsunamis Changed History
Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 01:18 PM ET
In a jumbled layer of pebbles and shells called the "Dog's Breakfast deposit" lies evidence of a massive tsunami, one of two that transformed New Zealand's Maori people in the 15th century.
After the killer wave destroyed food resources and coastal settlements, sweeping societal changes emerged, including the building of fortified hill forts (pa-) and a shift toward a warrior culture.
"This is called patch protection, wanting to guard what little resources you've got left. Ultimately it led to a far more war-like society," said James Goff, a tsunami geologist at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
annetteboardman is taking a well-deserved night off.
Evolution/Paleontology
Astrobiology via LiveScience: How Ancient Life May Have Come About
Michael Schirber, Astrobiology Magazine Contributor
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 01:15 PM ET
A family tree unites a diverse group of individuals that all carry genetic vestiges from a single common ancestor at the base of the tree. But this organizational structure falls apart if genetic information is a communal resource as opposed to a family possession.
Some evidence suggests that early evolution may have been based on a collective sharing of genes. A group of researchers are now searching for clear genetic vestiges from this communal ancestry.
But it's hard to shake our fascination with family trees.
Inside Science News Service via LiveScience: Ancient Trilobites Featured Spotted Camouflage
Charles Q Choi, ISNS Contributor
Date: 26 March 2013 Time: 04:06 PM ET
Leopard-like patterns of spots on the shells of extinct horseshoe-crab-like trilobites may be the strongest evidence yet that the ancient armored creatures protected themselves with camouflage, according to researchers.
Trilobites are distant, extinct relatives of lobsters, spiders and insects, resembling horseshoe crabs in appearance. These armored creatures prowled the seas for roughly 270 million years, longer than the age of dinosaurs lasted, and died off more than 250 million years ago, before dinosaurs rose to dominance. New species of trilobites are unearthed every year, making them the single most diverse class of extinct life known.
...
These leopard-like patterns of brown spots on lightly colored exoskeletons and white dots on darkly colored shells would have served as camouflage to hide from predators looking for a meal on the sea floor.
LiveScience: Massive Extinction Fueled Rise of Crocodiles
Tia Ghose, LiveScience Staff Writer
Date: 26 March 2013 Time: 08:01 PM ET
A massive extinction between the Triassic and Jurassic eras paved the way for the rise of the crocodiles, new research suggests.
The researchers, who detail their work today (March 26) in the journal Biology Letters, found that although nearly all the crocodilelike archosaurs, known as pseudosuchia, died off about 201 million years ago, the one lineage that survived soon diversified to occupy land and sea. The lineage included the ancestors of all modern crocodiles and alligators.
"Even though almost all the lineages except for one was extinct, the remaining survivors still did well in terms of morphology and body plans and the whole morphological diversity," said study co-author Olja Toljagic', an evolutionary biology researcher who was at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich at the time of the study.
LiveScience: True Color of Dinosaur Feathers Debated
Megan Gannon, News Editor
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 11:41 AM ET
The discovery of microscopic color-making structures in fossilized feathers has recently made it possible for scientists to picture dinosaurs and ancient birds in their natural hues.
But a group of researchers warns we might not be able to paint a Microraptor shimmery black or give the giant penguin a maroon and gray coat just yet.
LiveScience: Little Bitty Ancient Mammal Unearthed in Japan
Tia Ghose, LiveScience Staff Writer
Date: 26 March 2013 Time: 08:01 PM ET
Paleontologists in Japan have unearthed the jaw of a primitive mammal from the early Cretaceous period.
The pint-size creature, named Sasayamamylos kawaii for the geologic formation in Japan where it was found, is about 112 million years old and belongs to an ancient clade known as Eutherian mammals, which gave rise to all placental mammals. (A clade is a group of animals that share uniquely evolved features and therefore a common ancestry.)
The jaw sports pointy, sharp teeth and molars in a proportion similar to that found in modern mammals, said paleontologist Brian Davis of Missouri Southern State University, who was not involved in the study.
LiveScience: Found: Africa's Oldest Penguins
Tia Ghose, LiveScience Staff Writer
Date: 26 March 2013 Time: 11:16 AM ET
Penguin fossils from 10 million to 12 million years ago have been unearthed in South Africa, the oldest fossil evidence of these cuddly, tuxedoed birds in Africa.
The new discovery, detailed in the March 26 issue of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, could shed light on why the number of penguin species plummeted on Africa's coastline from four species 5 million years ago to just one today — Spheniscus demersus, or the jackass penguin, known for their donkeylike calls.
...
The discovery pushes back the penguin fossil record in Africa by at least 5 million years.
Geology
OurAmazingPlanet: Radar Watches Hawaii Volcano 'Breathing'
Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
Mar 29, 2013 05:59 PM ET
Hawaii's Kilauea volcano breathes fire. Day by day, the volcano's surface subtly swells and deflates as magma courses through deep channels and fissures.
At the very top of Kilauea sits Halema'uma'u crater and its churning, steaming lava lake. Since the lava vent burst open in 2008, scientists at the Hawaii Volcano Observatory have closely monitored its oscillations. Their techniques include recording earthquakes, ground deformation and gas emissions, as well as analyzing rocks tossed out of the lake by small explosions.
Now, there's a new weapon in the arsenal. By combining two types of highly detailed radar data, scientists can track surface-elevation changes at Kilauea volcano to less than a half-inch (1 centimeter) resolution, a new study shows. The findings were published online March 1 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
OurAmazingPlanet: Glacial Legacy Set Stage for Washington Landslide
Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
Mar 28, 2013 12:57 PM ET
With a loud roar, a seaside cliff collapsed into the ocean yesterday on Washington's Whidbey Island, destroying a home and threatening some 30 more.
The 1,000-foot (300 meter) slide broke free about 4 a.m. local time, waking residents and sending one man fleeing from his house, which now sits on the beach. Damage occurred to a road leading to beachfront homes and power and utility lines, according to the Seattle Times.
January through March is landslide season in the Pacific Northwest, according to the Washington Department of Ecology, as heavy rains soak unstable sediments, provoking landslides. The shifty sediments are a legacy of glaciers scouring the region between 2 million and 10,000 years ago, leaving rubbly piles, sand and clay that haven't yet become rock. Steep sea cliffs prone to slides have formed as the land rebounds from the weight of the glacial ice, as well as further boosts from earthquakes.
OurAmazingPlanet: Rare View Reveals How Earth's Crust Forms
Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
Mar 27, 2013 07:08 PM ET
One of the Earth's best-ever baby pictures reveals how crust forms at the biggest volcanic feature on the planet.
The detailed look at molten magma beneath a mid-ocean ridge, one of the giant undersea cracks that ring the globe like seams on a baseball, sheds light on the driving forces behind plate tectonics. The results of the study are published today (March 27) in the journal Nature.
Most of the Earth (70 percent) is covered by oceanic crust, mainly basalt, formed from lava that burbles out ofmid-ocean ridges. The ridges run across some 40,000 miles (65,000 kilometers) of the seafloor. They mark where crust pulls apart, leaving space for hotter mantle rock underneath to rise up and melt.
Energy
LiveScience: Solar-Powered Plane to Make Cross-Country Flight
Tia Ghose, LiveScience Staff Writer
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 03:54 PM ET
Solar impulse, an ultra-lightweight plane powered completely by the sun is set to fly coast-to-coast this spring, researchers announced today (March 28) at Moffett Air Field at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.
The plane requires zero fuel and relies solely on solar panels and battery power.
The two Swiss pilots of the plane, Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, want to complete a flight from Moffett Field to New York City. Along the way it will stop in Phoenix, Ariz., Dallas-Ft. Worth, Washington, D.C., and either Nashville, Tenn., Atlanta, Ga., or St. Louis. The plane will embark on May 1and will arrive in the Big Apple by early July.
Physics
LiveScience: Master Violins Designed to Mimic Human Voice
Tia Ghose, LiveScience Staff Writer
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 11:28 AM ET
Virtuosos who describe the singing voice of a violin may be on to something. The great violin makers, such as Stradivari and Guarneri, may have designed violins to mimic the human voice, new research suggests.
The research, described in the current issue of Savart Journal, found the violin produced several vowel sounds, including the Italian "i" and "e" sounds and several vowel sounds from French and English.
Study author Joseph Nagyvary, an emeritus biochemistry professor at Texas A&M University, previously proved that the violin masters Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesù had soaked their wood in brine and borax to fight a worm infestation that swept through Italy in the 1700s. Those chemicals treatments led to the unique sounds that violin makers have struggled to reproduce.
Chemistry
LiveScience: Tomorrow's Diapers May Be Made from Greenhouse Gas
Tanya Lewis, LiveScience Staff Writer
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 09:49 AM ET
A chemical found in diapers and other materials could be made more cheaply and sustainably from carbon dioxide, research shows.
Each year, companies produce billions of tons of the chemical known as acrylate, which is used to make the superabsorbent material that lines polyester fabrics and diapers. The polymer it forms is one of the components in diapers, along with the polyethylene in their outer layer, that makes them resist degradation in landfills. Companies usually make acrylate by heating propylene, a chemical found in crude oil. Now, researchers have developed a way to produce the chemical using carbon dioxide and a strong acid.
"What we're interested in is enhancing both the economics and the sustainability of how acrylate is made," chemist Wesley Bernskoetter of Brown University, who led the study, said in a statement. The research was published in the journal Organometallics. "Right now, everything that goes into making it is from relatively expensive, nonrenewable carbon sources."
Science Crime Scenes
TechNewsDaily via LiveScience: The Truth Behind the 'Biggest Cyberattack in History'
by Paul Wagenseil, TechNewsDaily Senior Editor
Date: 27 March 2013 Time: 04:37 PM ET
Is it "the biggest cyberattack in history"? Or just routine flak that network-security providers face all the time?
News websites across the Western world proclaimed Internet Armageddon today (March 27), largely due to a New York Times story detailing a "squabble" between the spam-fighting vigilantes at Spamhaus and the dodgy Dutch Web-hosting company Cyberbunker.
"Fight Jams Internet," the Times headline said. "Global Internet slows," the BBC proclaimed in the wake of the Times' story. Both websites alleged that Netflix streaming was slowing down as a result.
Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy
Space.com: Is NASA Seeking $100 Million for Wild Asteroid Capture Mission?
by Tariq Malik, SPACE.com Managing Editor
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 10:37 AM ET
NASA's budget request for the 2014 fiscal year may include plans for an ambitious mission to send a robotic probe into deep space, capture an asteroid and haul it back within the reach of astronaut explorers, according to a press report.
The space agency is apparently including a request for $100 million in its 2014 budget request to help fund the audacious asteroid capture mission, according to an Aviation Week report.
The asteroid- retrieval mission was first proposed last year by the Keck Institute for Space Studies at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. That study, released last April, revolved around an Asteroid Capture and Return mission that would snag a 25-foot wide (7 meters) space rock and place it in high lunar orbit by 2025 — the deadline set by the Obama administration for NASA's human mission to an asteroid.
OurAmazingPlanet: Booming Coastal Population Heightens Extreme Storm Risk
Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
Mar 25, 2013 04:29 PM ET
Everyone wants to live near the beach, it seems.
Nearly 11 million more Americans will move to the coasts by 2020, putting more of the population at risk from extreme coastal storms, according to a report released today (March 25) by the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration. The nation's shorelines already hold the most densely packed communities in the country, with 446 people per square mile versus the national average of 105 people per square mile (excluding Alaska), found the NOAA National Coastal Population Report. The population density is six times greater at the coast than inland. (One square mile is about 2.5 square kilometers.)
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"As more people move to the coast, county managers will see a dual challenge: protecting a growing population from coastal hazards, as well as protecting coastal ecosystems from a growing population," [Holly] Bamford [assistant NOAA administrator for the National Ocean Service] said.
Natural Resources Defense Council via LiveScience: Why You Are Paying for Everyone's Flood Insurance
Andy Stevenson and Dan Lashof, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Date: 27 March 2013 Time: 03:05 PM ET
There are many, many compelling and urgent reasons to take decisive action to combat climate change. Here's one that's measurable by dollars added to our budget deficit. Actually by tens of billions of dollars.
The soaring cost of private flood insurance is pricing so many coastal homeowners out of the market that the rest of the American taxpayers are having to bail them out – to the tune of $30 billion under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
With over $139 billion in storm, wildfire, drought, tornado and flood damages taking nearly 1 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012, the insurance industry is referring to last year as the second costliest year on record for U.S. climate-related disasters. And while insurers do include $12 billion worth of flood-related damages in their estimates, they aren't the ones getting stuck with most of the bill. It's us, the taxpayer.
Science Education
Space.com via LiveScience: Caltech Challenges Students to Plan Manned Mission to Mars Moon
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Date: 26 March 2013 Time: 01:34 PM ET
Humanity's quest to send astronauts to Mars may get a boost from a student design competition being held this week.
The Caltech Space Challenge, which runs from Monday through Friday (March 25-29) at the university's campus in Pasadena, asks two teams of students from around the world to design a manned mission to Phobos or Deimos, Mars' two tiny moons.
"This is a technical feat that, by necessity, will spark innovation the world over," Nick Parziale, a PhD student in aeronautics at Caltech and leader of one of the teams, said in a statement. "We hope the Caltech Space Challenge serves as a reminder that these incredibly difficult problems are tractable, and that these passionate and dedicated students are just the women and men for the job."
BusinessNewsDaily via LiveScience: Post Recession, College Degree is Key to Even Entry-Level Jobs
Chad Brooks, BusinessNewsDaily Contributor
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 10:21 AM ET
With the competition for new jobs as fierce as ever, a college diploma is no longer an asset job seekers can do without, new research shows.
A study by CareerBuilder discovered that employers are looking for educated applicants to fill not only highly skilled positions, but also lower-skilled jobs. More than 30 percent of the hiring managers and human resources professionals surveyed are hiring more employees with college degrees for positions that were historically held by high school graduates.
The research shows the trend is most prevalent among financial services companies, but also spans a variety of industries, including manufacturing, transportation and utilities, information technology, professional and business services, retail and hospitality.
Science Writing and Reporting
Space.com: Buzz Aldrin's Vision for Mars Exploration Detailed in New Book
SPACE.com Staff
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 01:02 PM ET
Pioneering astronaut Buzz Aldrin made history as the second man to walk on the moon in 1969, just after Neil Armstrong during the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. More than four decades later, he wants NASA to set its sights on more ambitious destinations, far beyond the moon. Aldrin's target: Mars.
In his upcoming book, "Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration" (National Geographic Books), Buzz Aldrin argues that NASA should strive to put humans on the Red Planet by the mid-2030s and he lays out a plan for how to make it happen.
Science is Cool
Space.com: Seasons on 'Game of Thrones' Planet: How They Work
by Miriam Kramer, SPACE.com Staff Writer
Date: 29 March 2013 Time: 11:54 AM ET
Winter is coming on the HBO series "Game of Thrones," but no one seems to be able to predict when.
The planet's last summer persisted for seven years, while winter has been known to last a generation on the show. Understanding when the seasons will change is just one of the many issues plaguing the characters of the fantasy series based on the books by George R.R. Martin.
Although science doesn't play much of a role in the fictional world — which comes complete with dragons, magic and a red comet that serves as an omen — planetary science could help explain the odd seasonal changes on the three continents in the TV show's universe.
Space.com: Artist Shepard Fairey Designs Space Mission Patch
by Robert Z. Pearlman, collectSPACE.com Editor
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 12:24 PM ET
A celebrated street artist has turned his attention spaceward, designing a mission patch for the first set of sponsored experiments to be sent to the U.S. National Laboratory on the International Space Station.
Graphic illustrator Shepard Fairey, perhaps best known for his stylized "HOPE" poster of Barack Obama from the 2008 presidential campaign, but also recognized for his work through the movement OBEY, was recruited by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) to create an emblem to represent ARK1, the organization's first set of investigations flying under the increment name Advancing Research Knowledge 1.
"The idea of doing something that is actually going to go into space and be part of exploring new technology that is unknown, I think that even just tangentially, is an amazing thing to be connected to," Fairey said in a video statement released by CASIS and the design agency Fiction. "I was really excited to be invited to be part of this project."
OurAmazingPlanet: James Cameron Gives Deep Sea Sub to Science
Douglas Main, LiveScience Staff Writer
Mar 26, 2013 01:00 PM ET
One year after James Cameron made a solo dive to the deepest spot in the world's oceans, he is donating his submersible, the Deepsea Challenger, to science. Cameron is giving the sub to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to help improve future submersibles and facilitate the exploration of the deep ocean, according to a release from the institution.
"The seven years we spent designing and building the Deepsea Challenger were dedicated to expanding the options available to deep-ocean researchers," Cameron said in the statement. "Our sub is a scientific proof-of-concept, and our partnership with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a way to provide the technology we developed to the oceanographic community."
The Deepsea Challenger contains several unique features that allowed it to withstand the crushing pressures at the Challenger Deep -- the deepest spot in the world's oceans, at approximately 36,000 feet (11 kilometers) beneath the surface of the Pacific. Among those special features are unique approaches to flotation, battery design and energy storage, as well as innovative ways to gather imagery and samples from the seafloor, according to the WHOI statement.
LiveScience: Lindsay Lohan Is Here to Stay: Fame Not Fleeting, Study Finds
Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 28 March 2013 Time: 07:19 AM ET
Fifteen minutes of fame? More like 15 years.
Once a celebrity claws their way to the top, they're unlikely to get knocked off the pedestal, a new study finds. In fact, 96 percent of people mentioned in newspapers more than 100 times in a given year were already famous three years before.
"There is almost a consensus among scholars in the field of the sociology of fame, that most fame is ephemeral," study researcher Eran Shor of McGill University said in a statement. "What we've shown here that is truly revolutionary is that the people who you and I would consider famous, even the Kim Kardashians of this world, stay famous for a long time. It doesn't come and go."