Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, jlms qkw, Interceptor7, and ScottyUrb, guest editors annetteboardman and Doctor RJ, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, health, energy, and the environment.
Between now and the end of the primary season, Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday will highlight the research stories from the public universities in each of the states having primary or special elections for federal or state office this year plus stories from all research universities in major cities having municipal elections as listed in the Green Papers or the 2014 Daily Kos Elections Calendar. Tonight's edition features the research and outreach stories from Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, and Michigan.
This week's featured stories come from the Los Angeles Times, Vox, and the University of Hawaii with videos from KHON.
State to release primary results ahead of 2 polling places
The primary election will go on as scheduled Saturday, except for two polling places on the Big Island where Iselle caused enough damage to postpone voting for thousands of people.
Amid Iselle cleanup, Hawaiians set to vote in today's primary election
By Maya Srikrishnan
August 9, 2014
Amid cleanup from Tropical Storm Iselle and more wind and rain expected from Hurricane Julio on Sunday, Hawaiian election officials scrambled Saturday morning for the state's primary election to go forth as planned.
All but two polling stations in the state will open as planned.
The two closed stations are in precincts where "there are miles of roads that are obstructed" and power outages, Atty. Gen. David Louie told reporters Friday. The roughly 8,000 affected voters will be able to cast absentee ballots later.
...
Hurricane Julio, which was downgraded to a Category 2 storm on Friday, is expected to veer north of Hawaii on Sunday, bringing rain and winds to the Big Island, according to the National Weather Service. As of early Saturday morning Julio had sustained maximum winds of 100 mph. It is 495 miles east of Hilo, moving at 16 mph.
The University of Hawaii announced closings in advance of the storm, first
UH campuses on Hawaii Island, Maui County to close due to anticipated storm on Wednesday, then
UH’s Oahu and Kauai campuses to close Friday in anticipation of severe weather on Wednesday.
10pm forecast: Hurricane Julio to pass north of Hawaii
KHON2's Justin Cruz says Julio's track remains to the north of the state.
There are 4 hurricane-strength storms in the Pacific right now
by Brad Plumer
August 7, 2014
You don't see this too often: There are currently four big tropical cyclones in the Pacific Ocean — the first time that's happened since 2002.
...
It's rare, but not unprecedented, to see four tropical cyclones with winds over 74 miles per hour in the Pacific at once. Over at Capital Weather Gang, Jason Samenow notes that this happened in 1974, 1978, twice in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 2002.
One reason for the current flurry of storms? The waters in the Pacific are particularly warm right now, with sea surface temperatures in the North Pacific about 1°C warmer than average. That helps fuel stronger storms.
Above modified from
Hawaii's primary election continues despite Tropical Storm Iselle on Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
More stories after the jump.
Recent Science Diaries and Stories
WATCH THIS SPACE!
Spotlight on green news & views: Methane burps, fossil fools in Illinois, treated toilet water
by Meteor Blades
Stanford Study: White Public Supports Harsher Police Laws If They Think More Blacks are Arrested
by Scientistocrat
Franklin Institute: A Photo Diary
by Lenny Flank
This week in science: it's a gas, gas, gas!
by DarkSyde
Slideshows/Videos
BBC: Rolling stone? Archaeologist try to unlock secrets of Pictish find
Archaeologists have released details on what they have described as the most important Pictish stone find to have been made in Moray in decades.
Universe Today via PhysOrg: Watch Pluto and Charon engage in their orbital dance
by Jason Major, Universe Today
Now here's something I guarantee you've never seen before: a video of the dwarf planet Pluto and its largest moon Charon showing the two distinctly separate worlds actually in motion around each other! Captured by the steadily-approaching New Horizons spacecraft from July 19-24, the 12 images that comprise this animation were acquired with the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) instrument from distances of 267 million to 262 million miles (429 million to 422 million km) and show nearly a full orbital rotation. Absolutely beautiful!
Life Hacker (Australia): Supermoon 101: What You Need to Know
Technically yes: by the definition that’s fallen into common usage, it will be a supermoon. By this I mean that the full moon will coincide with the moon being slightly closer to us, as it travels along its elliptical orbit around the Earth.
Will we notice that this moon is bigger and brighter than any other full moons to be seen this year? It might be nice to think so, but in all honesty it’s not really possible to spot the effect.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
NASA: Orion recovery test update on This Week @NASA
NASA wrapped up its second Underway Recovery Test Aug. 4 with the Orion spacecraft, off the coast of San Diego, California. The agency teamed with Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense's Human Space Flight Support Detachment 3 to evaluate primary and alternative methods to recover Orion after the spacecraft safely splashes down in the ocean at the conclusion of future deep space missions. Orion’s first spaceflight test with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean is targeted for December. Also, Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator update, 2nd anniversary: 7 Minutes of Terror, Bolden visits MMS at Naval Research Lab, Scanning for algal blooms, Earth science showcase, and more!
Astronomy/Space
New Kerala (India): NASA's Curiosity rover provides clues to Mars' past habitability
Washington, August 8 ANI
NASA's Curiosity rover has completed two Earth years on Mars and has provided detailed analysis of the planet's geology and mineralogy, as well as clues to past habitability.
Evening Telegraph (UK): Dundee ‘meteor’ mystery solved
By Nadia Vidinova,
Astronomy experts have put paid to the theory that a meteor fell through the sky over Dundee.
An orange ball of light with a tail was spotted over The Law at about 9.30pm yesterday, when a reader captured the mysterious object on camera.
Curtin University (Australia) via Science Daily: Violent solar system history uncovered by WA meteorite
August 8, 2014
Planetary scientists have shed some light on the bombardment history of our solar system by studying a unique volcanic meteorite recovered in Western Australia. Captured on camera seven years ago falling on the WA side of the Nullarbor Plain, the Bunburra Rockhole Meterorite has unique characteristics that suggest it came from a large asteroid that has never before been identified.
Curtin University planetary scientists have shed some light on the bombardment history of our solar system by studying a unique volcanic meteorite recovered in Western Australia.
Captured on camera seven years ago falling on the WA side of the Nullarbor Plain, the Bunburra Rockhole Meterorite has unique characteristics that suggest it came from a large asteroid that has never before been identified.
Christian Science Monitor: How you can watch the Perseid meteor shower, even with the full moon
For Northern Hemisphere observers, August is usually regarded as "meteor month" with one of the best displays of the year reaching its peak near midmonth. That display is, of course, the annual Perseid meteor shower beloved by everyone from meteor enthusiasts to summer campers.
Earth's natural satellite could stand in the way of your enjoyment this year's Perseid meteor shower, unless you know where – and when – to look.
Red Orbit: Astronomers Find Stream Of Gas – 2.6 Million Light Years Long
Royal Astronomical Society
Astronomers and students have found a bridge of atomic hydrogen gas 2.6 million light years long between galaxies 500 million light years away. They detected the gas using the William E. Gordon Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory, a radio astronomy facility of the US National Science Foundation sited in Puerto Rico. The team published their results Thursday in a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The stream of atomic hydrogen gas is the largest known, a million light years longer than a gas tail found in the Virgo Cluster by another Arecibo project a few years ago. Dr Rhys Taylor, a researcher at the Czech Academy of Sciences and lead author of the paper, said “This was totally unexpected. We frequently see gas streams in galaxy clusters, where there are lots of galaxies close together, but to find something this long and not in a cluster is unprecedented.”
University of Western Ontario (Canada) via SpaceRef: Dream Team of Astrophysicists Explore Massive Stars at Western-led International Space Conference
An international all-star gathering of 70 astrophysicists from six of the world's seven continents will converge at Western University next week in an effort to better understand stellar disks, which ultimately give researchers answers on how planets like the Earth are formed.
The Bright Emissaries Conference, which runs from August 11-13 in the Physics and Astronomy Building, Room 106, is co-chaired by Carol Jones and Aaron Sigut from Western's Faculty of Science.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Hawaii: Laser wielding robot probes exoplanet systems
August 5, 2014
An international team, including Christoph Baranec of the University of Hawai?i at Ma-noa Institute for Astronomy, is using the world’s first robotic laser adaptive optics system—Robo-AO—to explore thousands of exoplanet systems (planets around other stars) at resolutions approaching those of the Hubble Space Telescope.
The results, which shed light on the formation of exotic exoplanet systems and confirm hundreds of exoplanets, have just been published in the Astrophysical Journal. The design and operation of the unprecedented instrument has just been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Laser adaptive optics systems are used by terrestrial telescopes to remove the image-blurring effects of Earth’s turbulent atmosphere, thereby capturing much sharper images than are otherwise possible from the ground. Baranec, Robo-AO’s principle investigator and lead author of the Astrophysical Journal Letter, led the development of the innovative Robo-AO system on the Palomar 1.5-meter telescope. It is the world’s first instrument that fully automates the complex and often inefficient operation of laser adaptive optics.
Climate/Environment
NBC News via MyArkLaMiss.com: Siberian Holes Could Be 'Visible Effect' of Global Warming, Experts Say
(NBC News) -- There's a scary answer for why Siberia is turning into Swiss cheese: Mother Nature has gas, so to speak, and we gave it to her.
That's the preliminary conclusion of scientists who have explored the mysterious holes that began popping up in Siberia beginning last month, some of whom have postulated that climate change may be a cause.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Hawaii: Rapid warming of the Atlantic is source of recent Pacific climate trends
August 5, 2014
University of Hawai'i at Ma-noa climate scientists have partnered with Australian colleagues to solve a puzzle that has challenged scientists for over a decade. Climate models predict that the equatorial Pacific trades should weaken with increasing greenhouse gases. Yet, since the early 1990s, satellites and climate stations reveal a rapid and unprecedented strengthening of the Pacific trade winds, accelerating sea level rise in the western Pacific and impacting both Pacific and global climate.
“The answer to the puzzle is that recent rapid Atlantic Ocean warming has affected climate in the Pacific,” say the scientists. Their findings from observations and modeling experiments are published in the August 3, 2014, online issue of Nature Climate Change.
“We were surprised to find that the main cause of the Pacific wind, temperature and sea level trends over the past 20 years lies in the Atlantic Ocean,” says Shayne McGregor at the University of New South Wales and lead author of the study. “We saw that the rapid Atlantic surface warming observed since the early 1990s, induced partly by greenhouse gasses, has generated unusually low sea level pressure over the tropical Atlantic. This, in turn, produces an upward motion of the overlying air parcels. These parcels move westward aloft and then sink again in the eastern equatorial Pacific, where their sinking creates a high pressure system. The resulting Atlantic-Pacific pressure difference strengthens the Pacific trade winds.”
Biodiversity
The Daily Item: Today's Editorial: Fish an indicator something is wrong
August 6, 2014
If you are a glass-is-half-full person, there was some good news in Monday’s Washington Post article about male fish, primarily smallmouth bass, developing female characteristics.
The first heartening information was that the problem is being addressed by biologists from the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a number of other environmental organizations.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Kansas: Can a new species of frog have a doppelgänger? Genetics say yes
August 7, 2014
LAWRENCE — Recently, Malaysian herpetologist Juliana Senawi puzzled over an unfamiliar orange-striped, yellow-speckled frog she’d live-caught in swampland on the Malay Peninsula.
She showed the frog to Chan Kin Onn, a fellow herpetologist pursuing his doctorate at the University of Kansas. They wondered — was this striking frog with an appearance unlike others nearby in the central peninsula an unidentified species?
Poring over records to find out, the researchers saw that a comparable frog had been collected in the area 10 years earlier, but it was written off then as a species from an Indonesian island about 450 miles to the west. The distance and geography between the two habitats made them suspect their frog might have been formerly misidentified.
“The frog was originally confused with the Siberut Island Frog, which is a species that occurs on Siberut Island off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, due to their similar appearance in color-pattern,” Chan said.
Biotechnology/Health
University of Michigan: Lead linked to obesity in mice exposed by mothers
August 8, 2014
ANN ARBOR—When we think of ill effects from lead exposure various neurologic problems usually come to mind. Now researchers at the University of Michigan say another health impact can be added to the list: obesity.
Even at low levels, lead is associated with obesity in mice whose mothers were exposed to the chemical, researchers at the U-M School of Public Health found. Specifically male mice exposed to lead had an 8-10 percent increase in weight.
"The data support the obesogen hypothesis that toxicant exposures in the womb contribute to the higher rate of obesity," said Dana Dolinoy, the John G. Searle Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and senior author of the study. "There are certain chemicals that are considered the hallmarks of the obesity epidemic, and lead has not been not one of them."
Psychology/Behavior
University of Kansas: Study: Attitudes toward individuals with disabilities improve after simulating disability
August 6, 2014
LAWRENCE – Music students’ attitudes toward individuals with disabilities are more positive after they simulate having a disability, a University of Kansas study found.
Cynthia Colwell, a professor of music education and music therapy, recently published an article in the International Journal of Music Education that looked at what happened when music students were asked to simulate a disability.
Students training to be music therapists or music teachers were assigned to simulate one of the following disabilities: a one-arm amputation, lower-limb paralysis that required a wheelchair, a hearing impairment or a visual impairment. With one student simulating the disability and another acting as an aide, the pair had to be in a public place, such as a restaurant or grocery store, for at least 30 minutes each.
Archeology/Anthropology
Philadelphia Weekly: How a Penn archaeologist found a 6,500-year-old skeleton sitting in an unmarked box
Eighty-three years ago, Sir Leonard Woolley unearthed an ancient Mesopotamian skeleton in Iraq and sent it to Philadelphia—where it was promptly forgotten until now.
By Randy LoBasso
Brad Hafford was getting ready to head to Iraq this past May when he first caught wind of the skeleton.
An archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania, Hafford had been working for almost two years at that point on a joint project with the British Museum in London and the National Museum in Baghdad, attempting to digitize the artifacts that the late British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley had excavated from the ancient Mesopotamian kingdom of Ur, which was located in what’s now modern-day Iraq. Woolley had unearthed the kingdom during digs between 1922 and 1934, and had turned over the artifacts along with his notes to the three museums along the way.
YLE (Finland): New unique Neolithic finds in Vantaa
Amateur archaeologists have unearthed a new, unique Stone Age clay figure doll or idol at excavations at Jokiniemi in Vantaa. The figure unearthed on Wednesday is thought to have been created by an ancient shaman at least 5,500 years ago.
Florida State University via PhysOrg: Excavation of ancient well yields insight into Etruscan, Roman and medieval times
During a four-year excavation of an Etruscan well at the ancient Italian settlement of Cetamura del Chianti, a team led by a Florida State University archaeologist and art historian unearthed artifacts spanning more than 15 centuries of Etruscan, Roman and medieval civilization in Tuscany.
"The total haul from the well is a bonanza," said Nancy de Grummond, the M. Lynette Thompson Professor of Classics at Florida State. De Grummond, who has performed work at the site since 1983, is one of the nation's leading scholars of Etruscan studies.
"This rich assemblage of materials in bronze, silver, lead and iron, along with the abundant ceramics and remarkable evidence of organic remains, create an unparalleled opportunity for the study of culture, religion and daily life in Chianti and the surrounding region," she said of the well excavation that began in 2011, which is part of a larger dig encompassing the entire Cetamura settlement.
Tulane University: Egyptologist sheds light on Tulane mummies
Carol Schlueter
August 4, 2014 11:00 AM
Answers don’t come easily when the mystery is 3,000 years old. Egyptologist Melinda Nelson-Hurst has spent two years researching the Egyptian artifacts that have resided at Tulane University since 1852. Her work is yielding surprising details about two mummies, two intact coffins and funerary materials that reside in Dinwiddie Hall.
Nelson-Hurst, a research associate in the Department of Anthropology, and professor John Verano have written a scholarly paper on the topic for publication soon.
The Independent (UK): New Nazca Lines geoglyphs uncovered by gales and sandstorms in Peru
Lizzie Dearden
High winds and sandstorms in Peru have revealed previously undiscovered geoglyphs in the ancient Nazca Lines.
Eduardo Herrán Gómez de la Torre, a pilot and researcher, found the new shapes while flying over the desert last week, El Comercio reported.
He believes one of the geoglyphs depicts a snake 60 metres long and 4 metres wide, near the famous “hummingbird”.
LiveScience: 2,100-Year-Old King's Mausoleum Discovered in China
By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor
August 04, 2014 08:51am ET
A 2,100-year-old mausoleum built for a king named Liu Fei has been discovered in modern-day Xuyi County in Jiangsu, China, archaeologists report.
Liu Fei died in 128 B.C. during the 26th year of his rule over a kingdom named Jiangdu, which was part of the Chinese empire.
LiveScience: Rare Coins Bear Scars of Ancient Jewish Rebellion
By Jeanna Bryner, Managing Editor
August 05, 2014 10:29am ET
A Late Second Temple Period Jewish settlement with a trove of rare bronze coins inside one of its houses has been discovered in Israel.
The 114 bronze coins, which were found inside a ceramic money box and hidden in the corner of a room, date to the fourth year of the Great Revolt of the Jews against the Romans — an uprising that destroyed the Temple on Tisha B'Av about 2,000 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) reported today (Aug. 5).
The Guardian (UK): Archaeologist happens upon Roman bone fragments – at the end of his road
Mike Heyworth says discovery in trench dug in York by utilities company demonstrates 'black holes' in archaeological planning
Maev Kennedy
The Guardian
Mike Heyworth, president of the Council for British Archaeology, was trudging home after a long, hot day in the office when he was startled to find fragments of Roman bone and pottery lying on a heap of soil at the end of his road.
The trench dug by a utilities company in York, which had sliced through an ancient cemetery, was on the corner of a residential street near the city's racecourse.
Stuff (New Zealand): 14th century Polynesian settlement discovered
Wealth of discoveries at Taputapuatea stream
CLAIRE FITZJAMES
Evidence of early Polynesian settlement dating back to the early 1300s has been uncovered within a stone's throw of central Whitianga, in a discovery of national significance.
A team of five archaeologists has spent two months at one of the Coromandel Peninsula's largest excavation sites by the Taputapuatea stream, at a housing development on the outskirts of the Coromandel town.
Culture 24 (UK): Archaeologists reveal Mary Rose-style shipwreck finds from The London on Southend Pier
By Ben Miller
08 August 2014
A dive to excavate the blown-up shipwreck of a war vessel built in 1656 has allowed the public to see its spoils within the unlikely setting of Southend Pier
Southend’s pier – the longest pleasure pier in the world – might be better known for its train rides and frivolities than as a place to see the remains dredged from a 350-year-old warship wreckage off the Thames Estuary, but the culmination of 10 planned dives by a specialist team investigating the only surviving wooden Large Ship of the mid-17th century changed that this week.
Historic City News: Hope 1782 Cannon Yields New Clues
By Shannon O’Neil
Special to Historic City News
Three years after finding a shipwrecked cannon from 1782, conservators at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum hope the restoration process will yield new clues to this shipwreck mystery.
On New Year’s Eve, 1782, sixteen British Loyalist ships carrying evacuees from Charleston, S.C., ran aground while trying to enter the St. Augustine Inlet. More than 200 years later, archaeologists from the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum are carefully conserving artifacts recovered from one of those sixteen ships in hopes that they will reveal clues about these ill-fated vessels.
The Daily Telegraph (UK): World War One soldiers' skeletons discovered in former trenches
The remains of World War One soldiers killed in France almost 100 years ago have finally been discovered by a group of archaeologists
The skeleton of a German soldier was unearthed in north east France on Friday by a group of local archaeology volunteers.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Paleontology/Evolution
PhysOrg: Fowl play: Neanderthals were first bird eaters (Update)
by Brian Reyes
Aug 07, 2014
Neanderthals may have caught, butchered and cooked wild pigeons long before modern humans became regular consumers of bird meat, a study revealed on Thursday.
Close examination of 1,724 bones from rock doves, found in a cave in Gibraltar and dated to between 67,000 and 28,000 years ago, revealed cuts, human tooth marks and burns, said a paper in the journal Scientific Reports.
Duke University via Science Daily: Society bloomed with gentler personalities, more feminine faces: Technology boom 50,000 years ago correlated with less testosterone
August 1, 2014
Scientists have shown that human skulls changed in ways that indicate a lowering of testosterone levels at around the same time that culture was blossoming. Heavy brows were out, rounder heads were in. Technological innovation, making art and rapid cultural exchange probably came at the same time that we developed a more cooperative temperament by dialing back aggression with lower testosterone levels.
Modern humans appear in the fossil record about 200,000 years ago, but it was only about 50,000 years ago that making art and advanced tools became widespread.
A new study appearing Aug. 1 in the journal Current Anthropology finds that human skulls changed in ways that indicate a lowering of testosterone levels at around the same time that culture was blossoming.
Penn State via Science Daily: Flores bones show features of Down syndrome, not a new 'Hobbit' human
In October 2004, excavation of fragmentary skeletal remains from the island of Flores in Indonesia yielded what was called 'the most important find in human evolution for 100 years.' Its discoverers dubbed the find Homo floresiensis, a name suggesting a previously unknown species of human.
Now detailed reanalysis by an international team of researchers including Robert B. Eckhardt, professor of developmental genetics and evolution at Penn State, Maciej Henneberg, professor of anatomy and pathology at the University of Adelaide, and Kenneth Hsü, a Chinese geologist and paleoclimatologist, suggests that the single specimen on which the new designation depends, known as LB1, does not represent a new species. Instead, it is the skeleton of a developmentally abnormal human and, according to the researchers, contains important features most consistent with a diagnosis of Down syndrome.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Geology
Irish Times: Eye on Nature: The shifting sand, shingle and stones beneath our feet
There is a wealth of geology on apparently humdrum Irish beaches where beauty and variety can be found in the quartz, jasper and flint pebbles that abound
Much of the recent excess of summer was veiled on this Mayo hillside by days of Atlantic drizzle (not wholly unwelcome; we are a temperate pair). But along with media images of human throngs at the Dublin tideline came others from England that revisited my childhood: in particular, Brighton beach, packed with sun-drenched figures, the Palace Pier shimmering beyond.
University of Florida: Lead in teeth can tell a body's tale, UF study finds
Published: July 30 2014
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Your teeth can tell stories about you, and not just that you always forget to floss.
A study led by University of Florida geology researcher George D. Kamenov showed that trace amounts of lead in modern and historical human teeth can give clues about where they came from. The paper will be published in the August issue of Science of The Total Environment.
The discovery could help police solve cold cases, Kamenov said. For instance, if an unidentified decomposed body is found, testing the lead in the teeth could immediately help focus the investigation on a certain geographic area. That way, law enforcement can avoid wasting resources checking for missing persons in the wrong places.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Energy
Associated Press via CBS News: Solar technology helps in search for ancient Greek village
The world's largest solar-powered boat has arrived in southern Greece to participate in an ambitious underwater survey that will seek traces of what could be one of the oldest human settlements in Europe.
The Swiss-Greek project starts next week and archaeologists hope it will shed new light on how the first farming communities spread through the continent.
...
The 35-meter (115-foot) PlanetSolar, which has sailed round the world relying on solar energy alone, and a vessel from the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research will scan and map the seabed. Divers will then excavate potential targets.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Michigan: When it comes to energy's environmental impact, Southerners think differently
August 5, 2014
ANN ARBOR—Southerners are less likely than Americans in other parts of the country to believe that energy affects the environment by at least a fair amount, according to the latest findings of the University of Michigan Energy Survey.
A joint effort of the U-M Energy Institute and Institute for Social Research, the quarterly survey gauges consumer perceptions and beliefs about key energy-related concerns including affordability, reliability and impact on the environment.
When asked if energy affects the environment, "not at all," "a little," "a fair amount" or "a lot," 69 percent of Southerners chose the latter two answers. The choices of "a fair amount" or "a lot" were given by 77 percent of consumers in the Midwest, 79 percent in the West and 82 percent in the Northeast.
University of Michigan: Gas mileage up slightly last month
August 5, 2014
ANN ARBOR—Fuel economy of new vehicles sold in the U.S. during July fell just shy of the all-time high, say researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.
Average fuel economy (window-sticker values) of cars, light trucks, vans and SUVs purchased last month was 25.6 mpg, just off the record-high of 25.7 mpg in May, but up from 25.5 mpg in June. Vehicle fuel economy is now up 5.5 mpg from October 2007, the first month of monitoring by UMTRI researchers Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle.
Physics
RIKEN (Japan) via Science Daily: Electrons moving in a magnetic field exhibit strange quantum behavior
August 8, 2014
Researchers have made the first direct observations of free-electron Landau states -— a form of quantized states that electrons adopt when moving through a magnetic field- — and found that the internal rotational dynamics of quantum electrons, or how they move through the field, is surprisingly different from the classical model, and in line with recent quantum-mechanical predictions.
Chemistry
University of Kansas: Researcher receives Young Investigator Award for photovoltaic nanomaterials
August 4, 2014
LAWRENCE — A researcher at the University of Kansas has earned an Army Research Office Young Investigator Award grant to conduct research on cutting-edge photovoltaic technology intended to give American forces tactical advantages in the field.
"My YIP Award primarily focuses on the material design and assembly to reach highly efficient photovoltaic nanodevice systems," said Shenqiang Ren, assistant professor of chemistry. "In addition, our discovery of multifunctional photovoltaic nanomaterials will enable us to build an integrated photovoltaic and sensing system, which has dual functionalities."
Ren's work focuses on materials chemistry, synthesis and self-assembly of low-dimensional nanomaterials. For the Army, the researcher said he would be investigating "flexible, durable and highly efficient nanosystems that could be manufactured at low cost for handheld and wearable nano-PV-sensing circuits to large arrays for Department of Defense applications."
Ren said his work could lead to improvements in a variety of devices used by the military by employing "self-assembled nanophotovoltaics" built upon less than a 100-nanometer-thickness photoactive layer.
Science Crime Scenes
Agence France Presse via Art Daily: Islamic State defends destruction of religious sites in Mosul
BAGHDAD (AFP).- The Islamic State group Tuesday defended its destruction of religious sites in the Iraqi city of Mosul on the grounds that the use of mosques built on graves amounted to idolatry.
"The demolition of structures erected above graves is a matter of great religious clarity," the jihadist group said in a statement posted on one of its main websites.
"Our pious predecessors have done so... There is no debate on the legitimacy of demolishing or removing those graves and shrines," the Islamic State (IS) said.
Once again,
may Pazuzu curse the Sith Jihad.
National Geographic News: Losing Maya Heritage to Looters
Stolen artifacts are making it from the Guatemalan jungle to wealthy black-market buyers.
Part of our weekly "In Focus" series—stepping back, looking closer.
Deep in the jungle in the north of Guatemala, along deep-rutted 4x4 tracks, the pyramids of the great Maya city of Xultún are hidden under heavy vegetation and oddly symmetrical hills. But crudely cut tunnels in the sides of the hills signal a modern intrusion.
CBS News: Boy's remains identified from shuttered Florida reform school
TAMPA, Fla. -- A boy buried in an unmarked grave at a reform school with a history of unsanitary and decrepit conditions was the first of 55 sets of remains found there to be positively identified, researchers said Thursday.
Researchers from the University of South Florida said they used DNA and other tests to identify the remains of George Owen Smith, who was 14 when he disappeared in 1940 from the now-closed school. They couldn't say how he died.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
Science, Space, Health, Environment, and Energy Policy
Dorset Echo (UK): National Trust acquires Hambledon Hill
The spectacular Hambledon Hill, one of the finest Iron Age hillforts in Dorset, has been acquired by the National Trust.
Built over 2,000 years ago, the massive earthwork defences lie over one of the most significant early Neolithic landscapes in Western Europe, dating back almost 6,000 years, and is a place that half of British butterfly species call home.
Worcester News (UK): Are county's historic archives for sale? Council denies speculation
By Tom Edwards, Political Reporter.
CLAIMS Worcestershire's UK-leading archives could be sold to private investors are being refuted by council chiefs - despite one politician saying "speculation is rife" it could go.
Councillor Richard Udall, chairman of the county council's Labour group, wants assurances the future of the 12-miles worth of treasured archives will stay in-house.
KFSN-TV/ABC 30: Protective wrap covers historical structures near French Fire
By Rick Montanez
Monday, August 04, 2014
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Firefighters are still on the front lines of several intense wildfires across the state. And crews are using unique tools to protect historical sites on the French Fire.
Despite the fire's massive size, no buildings have been destroyed yet. Archaeologists are working with other firefighters to protect several historical guard stations using, what's essentially a protective foil wrap.
Crews rushed this weekend to cover five historical cabins at the Placer Guard Station. "We ordered this wrap," said US Forest Service archaeologist Ward Stanley. "It looks like tin foil.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Michigan: Hospitals could face penalties for missing electronic health record deadline
August 7, 2014
ANN ARBOR—Many of the nation's hospitals struggled to meet a federally mandated electronic health records deadline, and as a result could collectively face millions of dollars in reduced Medicare payments this year, a University of Michigan study shows.
More than half of U.S. hospitals were on the hook to meet a new set of "meaningful use" of electronic health records criteria—known as the stage 2 criteria—by the end of the fiscal year that ended in July. The new study's data, which was gathered in late 2013, suggests that many may have missed the milestone. At the time, only 5.8 percent of those hospitals were on track to adopt all 16 of the stage 2 meaningful use goals.
Hospitals that bill the Medicare program and didn't meet the criteria in fiscal year 2014 will be subject to financial penalties in fiscal year 2015.
University of Michigan: FDA underestimated net benefits of warning labels on cigarette packaging
August 7, 2014
ANN ARBOR—A paper released today by leading economists concludes that the Food and Drug Administration's controversial cost-benefit analysis of its graphic warning label regulation grossly underestimated the net benefits associated with implementing its own rule.
The authors, including Kenneth Warner from the U-M School of Public Health, stress that the FDA's approach, which counted the lost pleasure from smokers who quit as a cost of the graphic warning labels (GWLs), is a major flaw that severely undercuts the estimated benefits of the proposed rule. The authors urge the FDA to consider their findings in analyses of future proposed tobacco product regulations.
"The FDA estimate relies on standard economic models, but those don't apply well to cigarette smoking," said co-author Frank Chaloupka, director of the Health Policy Center at University of Illinois-Chicago. "For example, if labels effectively move smokers to quit or cut back, the FDA's analysis actually considers this to be a cost attributed to lost pleasure, rather than a benefit—that's a serious mistake.
Science Education
Athens News: Dig this: Archaeology class explores 4,000-year-old culture
By Conor Morris
Wednesday, August 6,2014
An archaeological dig site undertaken by Ohio University's Archaeological Field School this summer in the Wayne National Forest near Nelsonville has turned up artifacts that date the human habitation of the site back to about 4,000 years ago, and possibly older.
Gazette.Net: Ex-teacher brings passion for learning to Bethesda digital game company
Chevy Chase woman’s Bethesda company focuses on fun, too
by Peggy McEwan Staff writer
Suzi Wilczynski worked as an archaeologist at digs in Greece and Israel, then as a social studies teacher at private schools in the Washington, D.C., area.
The Chevy Chase woman then combined those careers at Dig-It! Games, creating educational computer games for fifth- through ninth-graders.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Connecticut: ‘Magnificent Microbes’ Offers Kids New View of the World
By: Sheila Foran
August 5, 2014
Who doesn’t like to look at squiggly things under a microscope?
Combining the efforts of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology with those of the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, a Magnificent Microbes course recently offered students a fascinating look at some of the tiny organisms that populate our planet.
Kenneth Noll, professor of molecular and cell biology, taught the course for the first time this summer as part of UConn’s Kids are Scientists & Engineers, Too (KASET) program. He is as enthusiastic about the experience as the students were.
“If we’ve opened their eyes so that they will walk around and see the world in a different and appreciative way, then the course will have been a success,” Noll says.
University of Kansas: Racing game proves effective in teaching scientific reasoning
August 4, 2014
LAWRENCE — An online game that has students race through a course and learn about scientific argumentation during pit stops has proven effective at a crucial time in American education. Researchers and developers at the University of Kansas who created the game hope to expand it and making new versions available to cover additional subject matter free of charge to schools across the country.
Reason Racer, an online game that allows middle school students to compete with their peers while learning about scientific argumentation, was first available online a few years ago. The game proved so effective that developers in KU’s Center for Research on Learning are seeking funding to expand it and hope to make a math version available soon. They developed the original game with students in a Kansas middle school and tested early versions with students in five schools across the state.
The first iteration of Reason Racer focused on scientific argumentation, helping students learn not only scientific facts, but how to properly come to conclusions, verify findings, defend results and more. The newest version of the game will focus on mathematical reasoning and discourse about conjectures.
University of Michigan: U-M student growing seafood in vacant Detroit house
August 6, 2014
ANN ARBOR—There is something fishy going on in a vacant house in Detroit's North End, and University of Michigan graduate student Elizabeth "Lizzie" Grobbel takes full responsibility.
That's because Grobbel, an environmental engineering master's student and a Dow Sustainability Fellow at U-M, is pursuing a pilot project called "Urban revitalization through sustainable small-scale aquaculture."
With seed funding from U-M's Dow Distinguished Awards for Interdisciplinary Sustainability Program, Grobbel is using a vacant house in Detroit to cultivate approximately 400 shrimp from larvae, distribute the mature shrimp within the city, and demonstrate aquaculture as a viable way to address the scarcity of locally grown seafood, while simultaneously finding productive uses for vacant property in the city.
Science Writing and Reporting
Doug's Archeology on Wordpress: Why Archaeology Should Embrace Wikipedia- Part 1, first in line
Posted on August 4, 2014
‘Never use Wikipedia- anyone can edit it so you can’t trust it.’
‘Wikipedia is edited by men and women are not welcome.’
‘Studies have shown that Wikipedia is not accurate. you shouldn’t trust it.’
Ever heard those phrases? Ever repeated those phrases? Let’s face it, in some circles there is a very low opinion of Wikipedia. In this post and others, I am going to lay out why Wikipedia might be the greatest thing to happen to archaeology since C14 dating or the trowel.
Gizmodo: Microsoft's First Website From 1994 Looks Delightfully Ancient Today
In 1994, there were just a few thousand websites on the internet. HTML was still new, and the concept of web publishing was still embryonic. It was the year that Microsoft launched its own website—and today, to celebrate its 20th anniversary on the web, the company dug that old website up and put it back online.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.
University of Kansas: New Kansas Fishes book a resource for scientists, naturalists, anglers
August 4, 2014
LAWRENCE — Summer days draw Kansas anglers to the state’s rivers, streams and lakes—not just for sport and the open air but also for a glimpse of the colorful world that shimmers beneath the surface.
That surprisingly diverse world fascinated Frank Cross, University of Kansas professor, Kansas Biological Survey director from 1967 to 1973 and author of the widely used Handbook of Fishes of Kansas, first published in 1967.
Now a richly illustrated new hardcover book dedicated to Cross, who died in 2001, offers researchers and naturalists up-to-date, comprehensive information on more than 170 fish species throughout the state.
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Kansas Fishes is available from the University Press of Kansas, which describes it as “a guide and a first-rate reference for the angler, scientist and amateur naturalist.”
Science is Cool
LiveScience via Yahoo! News: Distant Galaxies' Explosions Become Psychedelic Songs
By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer | LiveScience.com
An astronomer and a graphic artist have teamed up to turn powerful explosions in distant galaxies into spellbinding music and animations. The unique celestial compositions are psychedelic and strangely beautiful.
Known as gamma-ray bursts, these explosions of high-frequency electromagnetic radiation are the brightest events known to occur in the universe. Sylvia Zhu, a graduate student in physics at the University of Maryland, College Park, studies gamma-ray bursts at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
Phnom Penh Post (Cambodia): Did ancient Cambodians invent the zero?
Poppy McPherson
A little way outside Siem Reap, a few sheds and a makeshift office house thousands of ancient relics rarely seen by the millions who pass through the city to see the temples each year. On the ground at the Conservation d’Angkor Centre lie broken Buddha statues and severed stone heads – a Jayavarman VII here, a dusty linga there. Last year, on the January morning that Amir Aczel arrived, the place was empty.
The sixty-something American, a mathematician and author, had come to search for the evidence he had chased for the previous five years: an ancient stone slab on which was inscribed what he believed to be the first numeric zero ever recorded.
Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for these stories.