Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, jlms qkw, Interceptor7, and ScottyUrb, guest editors annetteboardman and Doctor RJ, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, health, energy, and the environment.
Between now and the end of the primary season, Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday will highlight the research stories from the public universities in each of the states having primary or special elections for federal or state office this year plus stories from all research universities in major cities having municipal elections as listed in the 2014 Daily Kos Elections Calendar. Tonight's edition features the research and outreach stories from the City of San Diego and the states of Arkansas, Florida, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
This week's featured story comes from KPBS.
California Governor Declares Drought State Of Emergency
By Tarryn Mento and Associated Press
Originally published January 17, 2014 at 9:07 a.m., updated January 17, 2014 at 1:20 p.m.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought state of emergency Friday morning amid one of California's driest winters on record.
"We are in a unprecedented, very serious situation, and people should pause and reflect on how dependent we are on the rain, on nature and one another," he told a room full of reporters in San Francisco.
Brown called for a collaborative effort to restrain water use, urging Californians to conserve in every way possible.
"I'm also setting in motion easier water transfers so a farmer who really needs water — who's willing to pay for it — can get it from another farmer who doesn't necessarily need it," he said.
More about the drought and other science, space, environment, and health stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
WATCH THIS SPACE!
The Fox 'News' war on science: Only talks climate change when it's cold
by Lawrence Lewis
Green diary rescue: Spill taints West Virginia water, climate report leaked, peak oil undebunked
by Meteor Blades
Chicago Museum of Science: Photo Diary
by Lenny Flank
This week in science: canis un-familiaris
by DarkSyde
Slideshows/Videos
LiveScience: Photos: Damage to Syrian Ruins Seen from Space
Destruction from Above
By Megan Gannon, News Editor
Since the onset of Syria's civil war, archaeologists have worried about the destruction of the country's rich cultural heritage.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
KPBS: Homeless Camps and Trash Along San Diego River Require Constant Cleanup
The San Diego River is one of the region's most scenic and historic treasures. It's also the birth place of California. But one San Diego group says it's in need of a rebirth. They dream of a river-long system of parks and trails. KPBS reporter Susan Murphy tells us first, they're working to clear a path through all the trash.
Also see the accompanying article under Climate and Environment.
KPBS: UC San Diego Professor Slams TED Talks — During His TED Talk
One San Diego academic recently took the anti-TED gospel to those least likely to want to hear it: TED devotees.
NASA: Cygnus arrives at ISS on This Week @NASA
Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft has made the company's first contracted resupply flight to the International Space Station -- delivering more than twenty-seven hundred pounds of cargo -- including dozens of new science experiments. Orbital Sciences becomes NASA's second commercial ISS resupply partner. Also, Bolden visits Michoud, SLS sees first light, Propulsion technology tour, TDRS-L Update and Remembering MLK.
Science at NASA: ScienceCasts: New Year's Asteroid Strike
The New Year started off with a bang when a small asteroid hit Earth. Infrasound records indicate that the space rock exploded in the atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean like 500 tons of TNT.
JPL: Polar Vortex Behind U.S. Big Chill Explained
The chilling weather phenomenon that hit much of the U.S. in January is explained by scientist Eric Fetzer using data from NASA's AIRS instrument.
Astronomy/Space
Space.com: Giant Planet-Forming Ring Spotted Surprisingly Far from Young Star
By Megan Gannon, News Editor
January 17, 2014 03:17pm ET
Giant Planet-Forming Ring Spotted Surprisingly Far from Young Star
Alien planets may be forming inside a giant gas ring located surprisingly far from its young parent star, scientists say.
In fact, the planet-forming region is so far from its star — about five times the distance between our own sun and Neptune — that it appears to be the first time researchers have seen such an arrangement for the birth of alien planets.
Japanese astronomers spotted the giant planet-forming ring while studying new images of the star named HD 142527 taken by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, in the Chilean desert. They created a video animation of the strange planet nursery to illustrate the discovery. The star is located about 450 light-years away from Earth and is around 2 million years old.
Space.com: Europe's Comet-Chasing Spacecraft Gets Big Wake-Up Call Monday
By Mike Wall, Senior Writer
January 17, 2014 12:36pm ET
A European spacecraft will emerge from 2.5-year hibernation Monday (Jan. 20) to begin preparing for a long-awaited encounter with a comet in May.
The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe is scheduled to wake up at 5 a.m. EST (1000 GMT) Monday after sleeping in deep space for the past 957 days. The first signal from a newly alert Rosetta is expected to arrive here on Earth no earlier than 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT) Monday, ESA officials said.
The Rosetta spacecraft blasted off in March 2004 on a mission to chase down and rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko more than a decade later.
Discovery News via Space.com: Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover
by Ian O'Neill, Discovery News
January 17, 2014 03:22pm ET
After a decade of exploring the Martian surface, the scientists overseeing veteran rover Opportunity thought they’d seen it all. That was until a rock mysteriously "appeared" a few feet in front of the six-wheeled rover a few days ago.
News of the errant rock was announced by NASA Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University at a special NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory "10 years of roving Mars" event at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, Calif., on Thursday night. The science star-studded public event was held in celebration of the decade since twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on the red planet in January 2004.
Climate/Environment
Feds Name California Counties Primary Natural Disaster Areas Due To Drought
By Tarryn Mento
Thursday, January 16, 2014
The U.S. Department of Agriculture named Los Angeles and San Bernardino among 27 California counties designated primary natural disaster areas due to recent drought. San Diego was not among those listed.
The designations come on the same day authorities ordered evacuations amid a 1,700-acre wildfire raging in northeast Los Angeles. San Diego County and a large part of Southern California are under a red flag warning for the fourth consecutive day.
"Our hearts go out to those California farmers and ranchers affected by recent natural disasters,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.
KPBS: San Diego River Restoration Involves Clearing Homeless, And Their Trash
By Susan Murphy
Thursday, January 16, 2014
It's warm and dry, the middle of a mid-week morning, as Richie Aguilera looks for all the world like a fishing guide leading his band to the banks of the San Diego River.
But they're not carrying poles and bait boxes. Instead they've got black garbage bags and sharp, metal sticks ideal for snatching up trash.
"We’re going to be in this area; and then if I can get a person or two, maybe you and Alex to help me scout out the other side," he says.
They're not here to pull fish from the historic waterway; they're harvesting trash, hoping to restore the river to its once-scenic splendor.
University of Rhode Island: URI oceanographer examines pollutants in Antarctic seal milk
NARRAGANSETT, R.I. – January 8, 2014 – An oceanographer from the University of Rhode Island is analyzing the milk from Antarctic fur seals to determine the type and quantity of pollutants the seals are accumulating and passing on to their pups.
Rainer Lohmann, a professor at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, is collaborating with a researcher at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in California to learn about the health and ecology of fur seals that winter in different locations in the South Pacific.
“What we’re trying to learn is where the pollutants come from and how those pollutants vary by where the seals feed,” said Lohmann, who has conducted studies of marine pollutants around the world. “Fur seals that have given birth have lower pollutant levels than those that have not, because they pass their pollutants on to their pups in their milk.”
Virginia Tech: Research overturns assumption about mercury in the Arctic
BLACKSBURG, Va., Jan. 15, 2014 – For years, scientists have assumed that if mercury is high and increasing in fish in the North American and European Arctic, the same is true of fish elsewhere in the Arctic. But a team of scientists from the U.S., Russia, and Canada has discovered that assumption is wrong in much of the continental Arctic.
In addition to differences in mercury processes as a result of diverse atmospheric, geological, and biological conditions, “It turns out that the economic decline of the former Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991, appears to have been good for the Arctic environment in that part of the world,” said Leandro Castello, assistant professor of fish and wildlife conservation in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment and the first author of a paper about the finding.
The paper, “Low and Declining Mercury in Arctic Russian Rivers,” was published by Environmental Science & Technology, a journal of the American Chemical Society, on Dec. 20, 2013.
Biodiversity
The Conversation via LiveScience: That's No Kangaroo on the Manuscript – So What Is It? (Op-Ed)
By Peter Pridmore, La Trobe University
The discovery of a Portuguese manuscript purporting to include an illustration of a kangaroo has been used to question which European power was first to “discover” Australia.
The drawing is included in a pocket-sized religious manuscript, dated at between 1580 and 1620, and has widely been described as a kangaroo in various media reports.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Florida: Study: Seashell loss due to tourism increase may have global impact
January 9, 2014
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Global tourism has increased fourfold over the last 30 years, resulting in human-induced seashell loss that may harm natural habitats worldwide, according to a University of Florida scientist.
Appearing in the journal PLOS ONE on Jan. 8, the new study by researchers from the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus and the University of Barcelona demonstrates that increased tourism on the Mediterranean coast of Spain correlated with a 70 percent decrease in mollusk shells during the tourist season in July and August and a 60 percent decrease in other months. Scientists fear shell removal could cause significant damage to natural ecosystems and organisms that rely on shells, said lead author Michal Kowalewski, the Thompson Chair of Invertebrate Paleontology at the Florida Museum.
“This research is best described as a case study that evaluates shell loss due to tourism and then explores how this process may affect natural habitats,” Kowalewski said. “It’s too early to tell whether this depletion is substantial enough to trigger major environmental changes. However, our results suggest that we should not ignore this issue.”
Biotechnology/Health
UCSD: Nationwide Minimally Invasive Surgery Rates Triple for Pancreatic Disease
By Jackie Carr
January 15, 2014
Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report a three-fold increase in the use of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) across the nation for patients with pancreatic disease. Although adaptation of MIS for this difficult-to-reach gland is recent, the growing trend points to improved patient outcomes, such as reduced bleeding and infections. Now published online, the paper will appear in the March print edition of JAMA Surgery.
“For the first time, we show a nationwide tripling of keyhole pancreatic surgery rates for benign and malignant pancreatic disease from 2.4 percent in 1998 to 7.3 percent in 2009. Both laparoscopic and robotic approaches for distal pancreas removal are associated with lower rates of inpatient complications and shorter hospital stays,” said Jason Sicklick, MD, assistant professor of surgery, UC San Diego School of Medicine, and surgical oncologist at UC San Diego Health System. “Patients should know that select approaches for minimally invasive pancreatic operations are safe depending upon the lesion’s size and location in the pancreas.”
UCSD: Keeping Stem Cells Pluripotent
By blocking key signal, researchers maintain embryonic stem cells in vital, undifferentiated state
By Scott LaFee
January 13, 2014
While the ability of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to become any type of mature cell, from neuron to heart to skin and bone, is indisputably crucial to human development, no less important is the mechanism needed to maintain hESCs in their pluripotent state until such change is required.
In a paper published in this week’s Online Early Edition of PNAS, researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine identify a key gene receptor and signaling pathway essential to doing just that – maintaining hESCs in an undifferentiated state.
The finding sheds new light upon the fundamental biology of hESCs – with their huge potential as a diverse therapeutic tool – but also suggests a new target for attacking cancer stem cells, which likely rely upon the same receptor and pathway to help spur their rampant, unwanted growth.
UCSD: Study Demonstrates Need to Change Scoring System for Heart Disease
Dense Heart Plaques May Have Protective Quality
By Jackie Carr
January 13, 2014
A study led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine shows that one of the most widely used systems for predicting risk of adverse heart events should be re-evaluated. A surprise finding was that coronary artery calcium (CAC) density may be protective against cardiovascular events. The study of CAC will be published in the January 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Great CAC density of calcified plaque in the coronary arteries was inversely and significantly associated with risk of coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, said lead author Michael H. Criqui, MD, MPH, of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at UC San Diego.
“Current scoring systems assume that denser heart plaque (CAC) is more hazardous, but we found the opposite,” said Criqui. “It’s not good to have CAC but it is less hazardous if it’s more dense.”
KPBS: One Beer Can Be Too Much To Get Behind Wheel, San Diego Researcher Says
By Kenny Goldberg
Thursday, January 16, 2014
UC San Diego researchers examined 570,731 fatal collisions in the United States. They used a federal database that tracks the blood alcohol levels of drivers involved in fatalities.
Researchers found drivers with a blood alcohol content of only .01 were 46 percent more likely to be found at fault than the sober drivers they collided with.
University of Arkansas: CardioWise Reports Development of Method for Detection of Heart Disease
National Science Foundation grants totaling $180,000 supported company's work
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — CardioWise Inc. has submitted its final report to the National Science Foundation that detailed its continued development and commercialization of a non-invasive analysis method for detection of heart disease.
CardioWise is a portfolio company of VIC Technology Venture Development, a privately held firm based at the Arkansas Research and Technology Park in Fayetteville. The University of Arkansas Technology Development Foundation manages the park.
CardioWise received two grants totaling $180,000 through the NSF’s Small Business Innovation Research Program, which allows federal agencies to stimulate technological innovation in the private sector by strengthening small businesses that meet federal research and development needs. The program also is intended to increase the commercial application of federally supported research results.
University of Florida: UF researcher sets age threshold for treatment of viral respiratory infection in preterm infants
January 16, 2014
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A University of Florida researcher is the first to establish that 4 months old is the age threshold for preterm babies to receive preventive treatment for a common viral respiratory infection.
Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is the most common cause of lower respiratory infection in children under 1 year old, and 25 to 40 percent of those infected will go on to develop bronchiolitis or pneumonia. There is no vaccine to prevent the virus, which spreads through coughing, sneezing and direct contact with infected persons. Almost all children are infected by this common virus by age 2, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as many as 125,000 infants under age 1 are hospitalized in the U.S. each year during RSV season, which typically lasts from November until April.
Palivizumab, an antibody drug administered as monthly intramuscular injections, may be the only protection for babies at high risk of complications leading to hospitalization — with an effectiveness rate of about 50 percent. At a cost of $2,000 per dose, the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases has set guidelines that define high-risk groups for preventive treatment, such as infants with lung disease or congenital heart disease. Until now, however, it lacked comprehensive data on one such group — babies born preterm.
University of Florida: ‘Star Trek’ for animals: A wireless medical monitor for your pet
January 15, 2014
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The next time you take Fluffy in for surgery, the veterinarian may be able to monitor her post-op progress from a smartphone.
Perhaps more significant, there will be no wires connecting the monitor to Fluffy, which means safer and more comfortable healing.
Picture the medical tricorder used by Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in the 1960s TV series “Star Trek” and you begin to get the idea. The device may be available commercially in less than a year.
Psychology/Behavior
KPBS: San Diego Researcher Explains Why We Trash-Talk Opponents
By David Wagner
Thursday, January 16, 2014
When I was in high school, my friends were obsessed with this video game called Counter-Strike. Their arena of battle was a local Internet cafe, Cyber World. Stationed at the rows of networked PCs, they'd spend countless hours shooting each other to bits, always gunning for a fatal head shot.
I was terrible at Counter-Strike. But I kept following my friends back to Cyber World just to witness the game's alarming effect on these people I thought I knew so well. Under the influence of Counter-Strike, my (mostly) well-mannered friends transformed into unbelievably vicious trash-talkers, hurling at each other the most creatively brutal verbal abuse I'd ever heard outside a Quentin Tarantino movie. So many ways to repurpose one four-letter word!
I guess I kept tagging along because I wanted to learn why my friends enjoyed this so much. Never very competitive myself, I wondered why they got such a kick out of deliberately getting under each other's skin.
There's a fascinating paper in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that might have given me my answer finally. Researchers led by UC San Diego behavioral economist Uri Gneezy have shown that competitors tend to deliberately anger their opponents when it will give them an advantage. Maybe my friends didn't like making each other angry as much as they just liked winning.
University of Florida: Benefits of mental exercises for seniors persist 10 years after training
January 13, 2014
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Older adults who received as few as 10 sessions of mental training show long-lasting improvements in reasoning and speed of processing skills 10 years after the intervention, according to UF Health researchers with the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly, or ACTIVE, study.
The study findings appear Jan. 13 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
“Our prior research suggested that the benefits of the training could last up to five years, or even seven years, but no one had ever reported 10-year maintenance in mental training in older adults,” said ACTIVE researcher Michael Marsiske, an associate professor of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions. “One of the reasons that this is surprising has to do with how little training we did with participants, about 10 to 18 sessions. This would be like going to the gym for between five and 10 weeks, never going again, and still seeing positive effects a decade later.”
Participants who received the cognitive training also reported significantly less difficulty with daily living tasks, such as housework, medication management and shopping.
Virginia Tech: Ultrasound directed to the human brain can boost sensory performance
ROANOKE, Va., Jan. 13, 2014 – Whales, bats, and even praying mantises use ultrasound as a sensory guidance system — and now a new study has found that ultrasound can modulate brain activity to heighten sensory perception in humans.
Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists have demonstrated that ultrasound directed to a specific region of the brain can boost performance in sensory discrimination. The study, published online Jan. 12 in Nature Neuroscience, provides the first demonstration that low-intensity, transcranial-focused ultrasound can modulate human brain activity to enhance perception.
“Ultrasound has great potential for bringing unprecedented resolution to the growing trend of mapping the human brain’s connectivity,” said William “Jamie” Tyler, an assistant professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, who led the study. “So we decided to look at the effects of ultrasound on the region of the brain responsible for processing tactile sensory inputs.”
Archeology/Anthropology
BBC: Firefighter's Guildford Stone Age flints lead to major find
A firefighter who found Stone Age flints at the fire station he worked at 40 years ago says he is "thrilled" that find has now led to a nationally-important archaeological discovery.
Ron Shettle, 88, first spotted the flints while working there decades ago.
A recent rebuild of the Guildford station has now allowed experts to carry out a dig.
LiveScience: Mummy of Forgotten Pharaoh Discovered in Ruined Egypt Tomb
By Stephanie Pappas, Senior Writer
January 17, 2014 12:27pm ET
An unknown pharaoh named Woseribre Senebkay has been unearthed in southern Egypt.
The rediscovered king's mummy was found in pieces in a pile of debris, ripped apart by tomb robbers. However, University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Josef Wegner, doctoral student Kevin Chahail and their colleagues were able to piece together the royal skeleton. They found that Senebkay was 5 feet, 10 inches (1.75 meters) tall and was in his mid- to late-40s when he died.
BBC: East Lothian's Broxmouth fort reveals edge of steel
Archaeologists have identified the earliest use of steel in the British Isles from a site in East Lothian.
They now believe artifacts recovered from the site of the Broxmouth Iron Age hill fort were made from high-carbon steel.
This would have been deliberately heated and quenched in water, indicating "sophisticated blacksmithing skills".
Chillicothe Gazette: Adena Mound dates to first century
Chillicothe's place in history even more secure
Matthew Kent
Gazette Staff Writer
CHILLICOTHE — As word of new evidence emerges that Chillicothe’s place in history goes back to the first century of the Common Era, at least one state historian is hoping people understand the importance of the discovery.
Ohio Historical Society archaeologists, in partnership with researchers from the private Cultural Resource Management firm Gray & Pape and Ohio State University, conducted radiocarbon testing on small pieces of bark and fabric excavated from the Adena Mound in 1901.
Eastern Daily Press (UK): One careless Roman.. one Norfolk wonder find
A stunning exhibition beginning at Norwich Castle next weekend will throw fresh light on the most famous empire of antiquity. TREVOR HEATON reports.
You don’t expect a children’s sock to have an emotional wallop. But this one does.
It so perfect and colourful that it looks like it was knitted last week by a loving grandma. But, incredibly, the child who wore it lived and died perhaps 1,800 years ago.
The Daily Mail (UK): Archaeologists to explore sixth century Cornish church 'built by St Piran'
- St Piran's Oratory near Perranporth, Cornwall, has been encased in a concrete bunker for three decades to protect it from the elements
- According to legend, St Piran, patron saint of tinners, built a chapel and forged a white cross in a fire which became the symbol of Cornwall
By Daily Mail Reporter
Archaeologists are set to excavate the buried remains of a sixth century chapel - which could be Britain's oldest place of Christian worship.
St Piran's Oratory near Perranporth, Cornwall, has been encased in a concrete bunker for decades to protect it from the elements.
But experts have finally been granted permission to remove the casing so they can begin excavating and preserving the medieval site.
BBC: Anglo-Saxon remains found during Rushton excavation work
The remains of four Anglo-Saxon adults have been found in shallow graves during excavation work at a river in Northamptonshire.
The graves, 12in (30cm) below ground level, were found during the work to create a new backwater at the River Ise at Rushton near Kettering.
A 6th Century bowl was also found in the graves.
Archaeologists said they were "excited" by the graves, which have since been covered again with soil.
Andina (Peru): Ancient Sican tombs found in northern Peru
Lima, Jan. 16 (ANDINA). Archaeologists in Peru's northern Lambayeque region have discovered an ancient cemetery with 35 tombs believed to be up to 1,000 years old.
The tombs -containing skeletal remains, ceramics, textiles and gold-plated copper pieces- are thought to be of a pre-hispanic Sican descent.
LiveScience: New England's 'Lost' Archaeological Sites Rediscovered
By Wynne Parry, LiveScience Contributor
January 16, 2014 02:46pm ET
Take a walk in the New England woods, and you may stumble upon the overgrown remains of a building's foundation or the stacked stones of a wall. Now, researchers have begun uncovering these relics from the air.
Examinations of airborne scans of three New England towns revealed networks of old stone walls, building foundations, old roads, dams and other features, many of which long were forgotten. These features speak to a history that Katharine Johnson, an archaeologist and study researcher, wants to see elucidated.
The Bellingham Herald: Bellingham archaeologist joins hunt for U.S. soldiers' remains on Pacific atoll
By DEAN KAHN
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD
Garth Baldwin recently spent three weeks on a small island in the turquoise waters of the Pacific Ocean, but it was no vacation in paradise.
An archaeologist based in Bellingham, he was sifting coral sand for the remains of U.S. Marines and sailors killed during a bloody World War II battle on Tarawa atoll.
Jerusalem Post (Israel): Galilee woman delivers archaeological treasure from the depths
By ROZ WOLBERGER
Israeli resident reveals ancient sunken artifacts, including pottery from the Biblical Period, stored in her basement.
The Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday the staggering find of a large number of ancient pottery pieces, fully intact and safely stored... in a basement.
It all began with a phone call to the authority: “In my basement, there are full boxes of ancient vases and pottery that a member of my family, a fisherman, left before he died... I want to pass the pottery on to the state, and I want my grandchildren to know where to see them in the future.”
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Paleontology/Evolution
University of Chicago Medical Center via Science Daily: Genomes of Modern Dogs and Wolves Provide New Insights On Domestication
Jan. 16, 2014
Dogs and wolves evolved from a common ancestor between 9,000 and 34,000 years ago, before humans transitioned to agricultural societies, according to an analysis of modern dog and wolf genomes from areas of the world thought to be centers of dog domestication.
The study, published in PLoS Genetics on January 16, 2014, also shows that dogs are more closely related to each other than wolves, regardless of geographic origin. This suggests that part of the genetic overlap observed between some modern dogs and wolves is the result of interbreeding after dog domestication, not a direct line of descent from one group of wolves.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Geology
LiveScience: Hellish Northridge Earthquake: Is Los Angeles Safer 20 Years Later?
by Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
January 17, 2014 12:45pm ET
Roaring like a freight train from hell, the Northridge earthquake threw sleeping Angelenos from their beds at 4:31 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1994.
The earthquake's shaking was stronger than the force of gravity, lifting furniture off the floor and buildings off their foundations. Los Angeles firefighters watched their massive fire trucks hop across a station garage in time with the seismic waves.
At least 57 people died and nearly 9,000 people were injured. Some 82,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Seven freeway bridges collapsed. With more than $40 billion in property and economic losses, Northridge was one of the most expensive natural disasters in U.S. history.
Energy
Virginia Tech: Amanda Morris receives $450,000 grant to develop sustainable solar energy technology
BLACKSBURG, Va., Jan. 13, 2014 – In one hour, the sun can provide enough energy to power human civilization for an entire year, but the cost and storage of solar energy prevents its widespread use.
Amanda Morris, an assistant professor in inorganic and energy chemistry in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, is adapting plants’ strategies for using sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide to food – usually some form of sugar that is stored in plant tissue – to instead provide a chemical fuel, which can be utilized as a transportation or residential energy source.
Morris has received a three-year, $450,000 grant from the Department of Energy for her research. She develops catalysts that can oxidize water and use the electrons produced to reduce carbon dioxide to methane or higher order alcohols.
Physics
University of Arkansas: Physicists Quantify Temperature Changes in Metal Nanowires
Findings in field that affects cancer treatment, solar energy
Friday, January 17, 2014
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Using the interaction between light and charge fluctuations in metal nanostuctures called plasmons, a University of Arkansas physicist and his collaborators have demonstrated the capability of measuring temperature changes in very small 3-D regions of space.
Plasmons can be thought of as waves of electrons in a metal surface, said Joseph B. Herzog, visiting assistant professor of physics, who co-authored a paper detailing the findings that was published Jan. 1 by the journal Nano Letters, a publication of the American Chemical Society.
The paper, titled “Thermoplasmonics: Quantifying Plasmonic Heating in Single Nanowires, was co-written by Rice University researchers Mark W. Knight and Douglas Natelson.
Chemistry
University of Virginia: Inspired by the World, Chris Li Turns Nature Into Nanotechnology
January 17, 2014
The key to Xiaodong (Chris) Li’s success is his ability to see opportunity in the ordinary. Take, for example, the common cotton T-shirt. Where others might see a ubiquitous item of apparel, Li – recently appointed Rolls-Royce Commonwealth Professor at the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science – sees a platform for innovation.
In 2010, Li made The New York Times’ “Year in Ideas” list for developing a process to make an armored T-shirt. He dipped an off-the-shelf shirt in a boron-nickel solution and heated it to 1,160 degrees Celsius. The result: a boron-carbide nanowire and carbon-microfiber shirt that retains the stretchability of cotton. The shirt, which turns a basic black in the process, provides excellent protection against harmful UV rays and radiation.
Two years later, Li took another T-shirt and turned it into a wearable capacitor, a device capable of storing an electrical charge. He soaked the T-shirt in fluoride, baked it at high temperatures in the absence of oxygen and turned the cellulose in the cotton into activated carbon. He dedicated small swatches of the fabric to serve as electrodes and coated the fibers with nanostructured manganese oxide, producing a stable, high-performing supercapacitor.
“This flexible material could be used to power rollup cellphones or computers,” Li said. “Or people could simply charge their cellphones by putting them in their pockets.”
Science Crime Scenes
LiveScience: New Theory: Alexander the Great Poisoned by Flowering Herb?
By Stephanie Pappas, Senior Writer
January 15, 2014 02:35pm ET
On June 11, 323 B.C., the famed Alexander the Great died, felled by a mysterious illness that left him too weak to move.
Ever since, the cause of the Macedonian leader's death has been debated. Did he succumb to the cumulative effect of battle injuries received while conquering everything between Greece and India? Did a parasite or bacterium lay him low? Or was Alexander the Great poisoned?
BBC: Colombia: Ancient statues replaced with cardboard cut-outs
Ancient statues at an archaeological park in Colombia have been replaced with cardboard cut-outs, it's reported.
A sign at San Agustin park informs visitors that the pre-Columbian statues - some of which are 2,000 years old - have been taken to Colombia's national museum in the capital, Bogota. But NTN 24 television reports they are actually being kept at a local museum. An official from the park told the TV that the statues will be moved to Bogota "later".
National Geographic News: Headhunters' Trophy Skulls Uncovered From Ancient London
Skull discoveries point to hard knocks, and untidy endings, for ancient Roman gladiators and criminals.
Dan Vergano
National Geographic
Published January 15, 2014
Beheadings and brutality aplenty marked the deaths of the Roman Empire's gladiators, criminals, and war victims, suggest forensic archaeologists looking at skulls from ancient London.
The thriving capital of a Roman province by A.D. 100, Londinium (now London) held Roman legions, restive Britons, and an amphitheater for gladiatorial games. Along one of London's "lost rivers," the Walbrook stream, the city also held tanneries and burial pits.
In a new Journal of Archaeological Science report by Rebecca Redfern of the Museum of London and Heather Bonney of London's Natural History Museum, analysis of 39 skulls uncovered from those pits—many bearing marks of decapitation and other brutality—tell a gory tale of ancient times.
The Art Newspaper (UK): Italy threatens to sue UK firm over ancient ‘loot’
Government’s liquidator rumoured to be selling disgraced dealer Robin Symes’s antiquities
By Cristina Ruiz and Javier Pes.
Italy is demanding the immediate return of a cache of antiquities stored in London and warning that if it does not receive information about the status of the collection within 30 days, it may sue the firm responsible for the objects.
Italy’s state legal counsel was planning to send, this month, a final warning to the liquidator responsible for the assets of the disgraced antiquities dealer Robin Symes, who was declared bankrupt in 2003. Italy’s letter includes a detailed list of around 700 ancient objects, including sculptures and jewellery, that Italy is claiming because it believes they were taken from its territory illegally. The action is taking place amid rumours that the liquidator, the British firm BDO, is selling the material in the Middle East on behalf of Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC), which is attempting to recoup tax owed by Symes’s firm, Robin Symes Ltd, which is now in liquidation. If BDO fails to respond to Italy’s warning by the end of the month with detailed information on the status of each item on the list, Maurizio Fiorilli, Italy’s state legal counsel on the Symes case, will notify the public prosecutor at the Criminal Tribunal in Rome.
Al-Ahram (Egypt): Armed gang invade Egypt's Al-Hammam archaeological site
An armed gang has, for the second time, encroached on Al-Hammam archaeological site on the Alexandria-Matrouh Highway; antiquities police summoned to face perpetrators
Nevine El-Aref
Monday 13 Jan 2014
The Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) has summoned the Tourism and Antiquities Police to face an armed gang which invaded the archaeological site of Al-Hammam, located on the Alexandria-Matrouh Highway.
MSA minister Mohamed Ibrahim told Ahram Online on Sunday the gang had marched into the excavation area with machine guns.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
KPBS: Alleged ‘Revenge Porn’ Website Opertator Pleads Not Guilty
By City News Service and Kelly Wheeler
Originally published January 17, 2014 at 7:28 a.m., updated January 17, 2014 at 3:01 p.m.
A San Diego man accused of posting thousands of explicit photos of women on a so-called "revenge porn" website without their consent, then extorting money from those who wanted the images removed, pleaded not guilty Friday to 31 felony charges of conspiracy, identity theft and extortion.
Kevin Christopher Bollaert, 27, -- who is out of custody on $50,000 bail -- was charged last month by the state Attorney General's Office. Judge David Szumowski scheduled a preliminary hearing for March 17.
In December 2012, Bollaert created a website called "ugotposted.com," which allows people to create anonymous, public posts of private explicit photographs without their subjects' permission, according to court documents.
KPBS: San Diego Traffic Court Dismisses Google Glass Ticket
By City News Service
Thursday, January 16, 2014
In the first traffic case of its kind, a Temecula woman was found not guilty Thursday of watching television via a pair of computerized Google glasses while driving on a San Diego freeway.
Commissioner John Blair found at a hearing in San Diego that Cecilia Abadie was not actively using the Google Glass device when she was stopped.
A speeding ticket also was dismissed due to a lack of evidence.
Science, Space, Health, Environment, and Energy Policy
India Times: Peace Offering: US to return 10th century artifact
Deepshikha Sikarwar, ET Bureau
Jan 14, 2014, 06.50AM IST
US authorities will hand over a rare 10th century statue of Shiva and Parvati and other relics to the Indian consulate in New York on Tuesday, marking an act of rapprochement after the high theatrics that accompanied the detention and subsequent release of Devyani Khobragade over visa violations.
The antiques were retrieved by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department on information provided by India's Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. "The artifacts will be formally handed tomorrow (Tuesday) at a repatriation ceremony," said Najeeb Shah, director general, DRI.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
KPBS: In Defense Of Controversial Surveillance Program, Obama Points To San Diego
By Tarryn Mento
Friday, January 17, 2014
When President Barack Obama announced big changes Friday to the National Security Agency's bulk collection of Americans' phone data, he didn't necessarily throw the program under the bus.
He defended the program, specifically pointing to San Diego for his justification.
"The program grew out of a desire to address a gap identified after 9/11," he said, speaking from the Justice Department. "One of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar, made a phone call from San Diego to a known al-Qaida safehouse in Yemen."
KPBS: Loan Repayment Program For Nursing Students Accepting Applications
By Deb Welsh
Friday, January 17, 2014
A federal program that partially repays school loans for nursing students in exchange for taking a job in an underserved area is now accepting applications.
Dr. Mary Wakefield of the Health Resources and Services Administration explain the program in an interview with KPBS Morning Edition anchor Deb Welsh:
KPBS: Covered California Targets ‘Young Invincibles’
By Kenny Goldberg
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
About 500,000 Californians signed up for health coverage through the exchange as of Dec. 31.
Twenty-five percent of enrollees were between the ages of 18 and 34. Officials said more of these so-called "young invincibles" need to sign up to make Obamacare financially viable.
Covered California executive director Peter Lee said the exchange is on top of it.
KPBS: Carlsbad’s Vote On New Peaker Plant Hinges On Removal Of Smokestack
By Alison St John
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Carlsbad has fought for years to get a massive power plant off its coastline. The Encina power station will be put into mothballs in 2018 because its sea-water cooling system no longer meets state environmental regulations.
But under previous proposals, there was no guarantee the 400-foot smokestack would be removed. And until now SDG&E had not signed any contract to use power from a replacement plant, so any energy produced might have gone out of the region.
Now, because the San Onofre nuclear power plant has shut down, the energy landscape in San Diego has changed. SDG&E is interested in contracting with the owner of the Carlsbad power plant, NRG, for electricity to use at times of peak consumer demand. The new plant would be gas powered like the old one, but it would be air cooled, rather than using ocean water, to meet new state mandates.
Science Education
University of Rhode Island: Emily Serman: Investigating Global Climate Change at NASA
Climate change threatens everything from the safety of coastal communities to the purity of the air we breathe. To better understand this phenomenon, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration operates an extensive environmental program. Playing a key role in the program are paid interns like University of Rhode Island student Emily Serman (’14).
The civil and environmental engineering student spent four summers interning at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, a hub for the agency’s weather-related research. The first year, she analyzed phytoplankton. During the next three summers, she served on a team studying the behavior of ozone, which protects the Earth from the sun’s rays but can also cause disruptive temperature changes in the atmosphere.
At NASA, Serman calibrated data collection instruments, reviewed reams of data and organized atmospheric observations spanning many years so scientists could identify long-term trends. In later summers, she ran calculations to determine the contours of ozone in the atmosphere’s multiple layers. Finally, she brought it all together in presentations to NASA administrators.
“It was more than just doing calculations on paper,” Serman says. “I saw how it fit into the real world. Plus, when you are at NASA you feel like you’re in a special group of people.”
University of Virgina: U.Va. Study Finds Computer Training for ADHD Students Misses the Mark
Ellen Daniels
January 14, 2014
Popular computer-based training programs designed to improve behavior or academic performance in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, do not deliver on their intent, according to research findings published this month in Clinical Psychology Review.
Michael Kofler, assistant professor and director of the University of Virginia Curry School of Education’s Children’s Learning Clinic, and colleagues at the University of Central Florida took a critical look at 25 studies evaluating the effectiveness of cognitive training programs. These programs use computer-aided activities that are designed to help children improve brain functions thought to be underdeveloped in children with ADHD.
“We found that these treatments are not effective for treating children with ADHD,” Kofler said. “They don’t improve ADHD symptoms or behavior, they don’t improve academic achievement, and in many cases do not improve the cognitive functions they claim to target.”
Science Writing and Reporting
Discovery News via LiveScience: Historic, Eccentric Wills Go Online
Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News
January 09, 2014 10:10am ET
The legendary British navigator and privateer Sir Francis Drake acted like a Robin Hood of the seas when he died in 1596, leaving his money to the poor. "Pride and Prejudice" author Jane Austen bequeathed most of her worldly assets to her sister Cassandra, while Britain's most famous playwright William Shakespeare famously left money to his daughters, and a bed to his wife.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Science is Cool
LiveScience: Ancient People Fought Demons and Disasters with Eggs
By Megan Gannon, News Editor
January 10, 2014 05:49pm ET
Residents of Sardis, an ancient city in modern-day Turkey, spent decades rebuilding after a devastating earthquake struck one night in the year A.D. 17. To ward off demons and future disasters, some locals may have sealed eggshells under their new floors as lucky charms, archaeologists found.
LiveScience: Ancient Nordic Grog Intoxicated the Elite
By Stephanie Pappas, Senior Writer
Ancient Scandinavians quaffed an alcoholic mixture of barley, honey, cranberries, herbs and even grape wine imported from Greece and Rome, new research finds.
This Nordic "grog" predates the Vikings. It was found buried in tombs alongside warriors and priestesses, and is now available at liquor stores across the United States, thanks to a reconstruction effort by Patrick McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Delaware-based Dogfish Head Craft Brewery.
"You'd think, with all these different ingredients, it sort of makes your stomach churn," McGovern, the study's lead author, told LiveScience. "But actually, if you put it in the right amounts and balance out the ingredients, it really does taste very good."
LiveScience: Pelvic Bone in Museum Storage May Be King Alfred the Great's
By Megan Gannon, News Editor
January 17, 2014 05:56pm ET
A piece of an ancient pelvis bone that had been tucked away in museum storage might belong to the English King Alfred the Great or his son Edward, scholars announced Friday (Jan. 17).
LiveScience: 'Lost' Remains of Martyred Georgian Queen Unearthed
By Tia Ghose, Staff Writer
January 10, 2014 11:55am ET
The remains of a woman kept in an Indian church likely belong to an ancient queen executed about 400 years ago, a new DNA analysis suggests.
The DNA analysis suggests the remains are those of Queen Ketevan, an ancient Georgian queen who was executed for refusing to become a member of a powerful Persian ruler's harem. The findings are detailed in the January issue of the journal Mitochondrion.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
SDSU: Gender Inertia in Television and Film
The Annual Celluloid Ceiling report shows that women’s roles in television and film have not improved in the last 16 years.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
The employment of women working in key behind-the-scenes roles in film continues to stagnate, according to the 16th annual Celluloid Ceiling report released today by Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
Women accounted for 16 percent of directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 domestic grossing films of 2013. This figure is slightly smaller than the percentage of women working on top grossing films in 1998.
“The film industry is in a state of gender inertia. There is no evidence to suggest that women’s employment has improved in key behind-the-scenes roles over the last 16 years,” Lauzen said.
University of Florida: With playoffs underway, UF researchers offer a safer football helmet
January 9, 2014
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Bone-crushing tackles may make football fans avert their eyes in horror, but Ghatu Subhash studies collisions, impacts and crashes, both on the field and off.
The University of Florida professor needs to do so in order to perfect his design for a safer helmet, which could address the increasing concerns about concussions and other head injuries in sports from Pop Warner to the National Football League when testing is complete.
Subhash and his collaborators have designed a helmet that protects against traumatic brain injury by accounting for the two kinds of force athletes encounter during a football game. Traumatic brain injuries occur 1.7 million times a year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 20 percent of those injuries are sports-related, including concussions that can cause long-term damage.