Welcome to the Saturday Science Edition of Overnight News Digest
Overnight News Digest is a regular daily feature which provides noteworthy news items and commentary from around the world. The editorial staff includes side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, and JML9999.
Neon Vincent is our editor-in-chief.
Special thanks go to Magnifico for starting this venerable series.
Astronomy
Astronomers Watch Unfolding Saga Of Massive Star Formation
A pair of images of a young star, made 18 years apart, has revealed a dramatic difference that is providing astronomers with a unique "real-time" look at how massive stars develop in the earliest stages of their formation. The astronomers used the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to study a massive young star called W75N(B)-VLA 2, some 4,200 light-years from Earth. They compared an image made in 2014 with an earlier VLA image from 1996. "The comparison is remarkable," said Carlos Carrasco-Gonzalez of the Center of Radioastronomy and Astrophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The 1996 image shows a compact region of a hot ionized wind ejected from the young star. The 2014 image shows that ejected wind deformed into a distinctly elongated outflow. "We're seeing this dramatic change in real time, so this object is providing us an exciting opportunity to watch over the next few years as a very young star goes through the early stages of its formation," Carrasco-Gonzalez said. The scientists believe the young star is forming in a dense gaseous environment and is surrounded by a doughnut-shaped dusty torus. The star has episodes in which it ejects a hot ionized wind for several years. At first, that wind can expand in all directions and so forms a spherical shell around the star. Later, the wind hits the dusty torus, which slows it. Wind expanding outward along the poles of the torus, where there is less resistance, moves more quickly, resulting in an elongated shape for the outflow. astronomy
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Dragons And Venus Arise To Fool
Something’s afoot in the universe. For the past few years, my colleagues and I have noticed an inexplicable trend: unusual discoveries and celestial events seem to congregate around a particular date — April 1st. Patterns in the news cycle are typically tied to annual conferences, mission schedules, and solar system dynamics, yet even though April 1st isn't associated with any conference or cosmic alignment (to our knowledge), it unfailing brings with it fantastic revelations. The regularity of this pattern has flummoxed us. We’ve crunched the numbers, watched the skies, and plotted numerous celestial charts, looking for an explanation. The closest we can come is a seventeenth-order differential equation that combines, among other variables, the greatest elongation of Venus, Algol’s brightness, and the tilt of the Opportunity rover’s solar panels. Even that calculation has to be readjusted on a 12-year cadence by adding an additional constellation to the traditional zodiac. Some of this year’s persiflage includes:
◾Moo Spacewalker: NASA has unveiled the next generation of spacesuits — and in the process has revealed whom it’s planning to send on the first “manned” mission. Vacuum-sealed milk bottles not included. ◾In Beyond New Horizons: The Future of Pluto, Michael Lund (Vanderbilt University) discusses the incredible shrinking dwarf planet. Poor Pluto — it's already been removed from the planetary pantheon, now it may have to suffer the indignity of negative mass too. ◾Physicists at the LHC in Switzerland have unwittingly created a rainbow universe, albeit apparently unstable, a discovery that could turn the current theory of gravity on its head. Physicist Randall Pattinson (Princeton University) said of the result, "It’s like finding an original edition Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper that your daughter wanted for her birthday. It’s almost too good to be true." ◾String theory has inspired a team of scientists to rethink science. They argue falsifiability, once a foundation of the scientific method, should be discarded, along with other "F" words such as fidelity, frugality, and factuality.
This year’s April 1st is crowned with a rare and lovely apparition of Venus. Be sure to step outside to enjoy the sight tonight: at magnitude –4.0, Venus shines high in the south at midnight for observers at mid-northern latitudes. But the most remarkable announcement that caught our eye today is not directly linked to astronomy. Reporting in the preeminent scientific journal Nature, zoologists have compiled evidence warning of a possible dragon resurgence. Dragons, as astute readers might know, were major figures in ancient astronomy, training both the Chinese and Babylonian astrologers and devising the first cosmology. We’ve reproduced below the press release in its entirety for your benefit:
The existence of dragons and their probable re-emergence in the near future are detailed in a News & Views article published online in Nature on the 1st April 2015. The article identifies a number of factors that are likely to trigger the resurgence of these creatures, including the global economic downturn, policy changes and inaction on climate change. Andrew J Hamilton, Robert M May and Edward K Waters describe documents uncovered in the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, attributed to the monk Godfrey of Exmouth, which offer evidence of the impact of dragons over past millennia. They also detail further work that reveals that dragons were particularly prolific in the medieval times, due to a high abundance of food (knights), unusually warm temperatures and a high availability of nesting material (silver and gold). However, according to the authors, a decline in temperature and food availability triggered a long-lasting hibernation period in the various dragon species, beginning around the start of the fifteenth century. The authors describe a number of key events over the past few decades that are likely to lead to the resurgence of dragons. The rise in ‘quantitative thieving,’ the process by which failing economic policies are bolstered by the removal of the dragons’ valuable nesting materials, alongside sluggish action on global warming and the restoration of knighthoods in Australia are all identified as factors that would encourage dragons to renounce hibernation. They conclude by warning that climatic conditions are rapidly reaching an optimum for breeding dragons and recommend further research into fire-retardant material and the avoidance of honorific titles.
skyandtelescope
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Ask an Astronomer About: The Shortest Lunar Eclipse Of The Century On April 4
On Saturday morning, April 4, 2015 not long before sunrise, the bright full moon over North America should turn a lovely shade of celestial red during a total lunar eclipse. The lunar eclipse will be visible from all parts of the United States. Eastern North America and western South America can see beginning stages of the partial umbral eclipse low in the west before sunrise April 4, whereas middle Asia (India, western China, mid-Asian Russia) can view the ending stages of the partial umbral eclipse low in the east after sunset April 4. Greenland, Iceland, Europe, Africa and the Middle East won’t see this eclipse at all. A world map of eclipse visibility is available here. The total eclipse will last only five minutes. This eclipse marks the third in a series of four lunar eclipses in a row, known as a "tetrad." The first in the series occurred on April 15, 2014, with the second in the tetrad of eclipses in September of 2014, and the final will be September 28, 2015. For a total lunar eclipse to happen, the Moon must be full, which means it is directly opposite the Sun, with Earth in between. The eclipse happens when the Moon moves into the shadow cast by the Sun shining on Earth. We don't have an eclipse every month because sometimes the Moon is above the shadow, sometimes below. During the eclipse, the Moon often looks reddish because sunlight has passed through Earth's atmosphere, which filters out most of its blue light. This eerie, harmless effect has earned the tongue-in-cheek nickname "blood moon." nasa
Biology
New Study Evaluates Nutritional Needs Of Polar Bears
Several previous studies have suggested that polar bears consume the highest lipid diet of any species, which provides all essential nutrients and is ideal for maximizing fat deposition and minimizing energetic requirements. Potential foods found on the land are dominated by high-protein, low-fat animals and vegetation. Polar bears are not physiologically suited to digest plants, and it would be difficult for them to ingest the volumes that would be required to support their large body size. [...] Dr Rode and her colleagues from the Polar Bears International and Washington State University noted that over much of the polar bear’s range, terrestrial habitats are already occupied by grizzly bears (Ursus arctos spp.). Those grizzly bears occur at low densities and are some of the smallest of their species due to low food quality and availability. They are a potential competitor as polar bears displaced from their sea ice habitats increasingly use the same land habitats as the grizzly bears. “The smaller size and low population density of grizzly bears in the Arctic provides a clear indication of the nutritional limitations of onshore habitats for supporting large bodied polar bears in meaningful numbers,” Dr Rode said. sci-news
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Glimpses Of The Future: Drought Damage Leads To Widespread Forest Death
The 2000-2003 drought in the American southwest triggered a widespread die-off of forests around the region. A Carnegie-led team of scientists developed a new modeling tool to explain how and where trembling aspen forests died as a result of this drought. It is based on damage to the individual trees' ability to transport water under water-stressed conditions. If the same processes and threshold govern the future, their results suggest that more widespread die-offs of aspen forests triggered by climate change are likely by the 2050s. Tree mortality can radically transform ecosystems, affect biodiversity, harm local economies, and pose fire risks, as well as further increase global warming. Their work aimed to address a longstanding disagreement over how climate change caused by the emission of greenhouse gasses will affect forest ecosystems. On one hand, rising concentrations of carbon dioxide can benefit trees and help them use water more efficiently. On the other hand, rising temperatures and resulting droughts from climate change can cause many forest trees to die off. Most current models of forests under climate change cannot predict when or where forests might die from temperature and drought stress. The model created by the team including Carnegie's William Anderegg (now at Princeton University), Joseph Berry, and Christopher Field fills this gap by accurately simulating the widespread aspen mortality caused by the 2000-2003 drought. Their findings are published by Nature Geoscience. Forests are central to many of the planet's chemistry and energy cycles. They also play an important role in human life on the planet both aesthetically and by providing lumber, as well as fruits and nuts for food.
"A forest die-off over a large area like the Amazon Basin, could have a major impact on Earth’s system as a whole," said Berry.
carnegiescience
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Complete Camel Skeleton Unearthed In Austria
[...] "The partly excavated skeleton was at first suspected to be a large horse or cattle," says archaeozoologist Alfred Galik from the Institute for Anatomy, Histology and Embryology at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. "But one look at the cervical vertebrae, the lower jaw and the metacarpal bones immediately revealed that this was a camel." Camel bones have been found in Europe dating back to the Roman period. Isolated bones or partly preserved skeletons are known from Mauerbach near Vienna as well as from Serbia and Belgium. But a complete camel skeleton is unique for Central Europe. "Exotic animal" died in Tulln In addition to horses, the Ottoman army also used camels for transportation and as riding animals. In cases of scarcity, the soldiers also ate the animal's flesh. But the skeleton found in Tulln was complete. "This means that the animal was not killed and then butchered. It may have been acquired as part of an exchange," says first author Galik. "The animal was certainly exotic for the people of Tulln. They probably didn't know what to feed it or whether one could eat it. Perhaps it died a natural death and was then buried without being used." Camel was a hybrid Extensive DNA analysis showed that the animal was a hybrid: its mother was a dromedary and its father a Bactrian camel. The genetic diagnosis confirmed what the scientists saw morphologically. Several of the physical features were that of a dromedary, others of a Bactrian camel. "Such crossbreeding was not unusual at the time. Hybrids were easier to handle, more enduring and larger than their parents. These animals were especially suited for military use," Galik explains. The camel was male, around seven years old and most likely castrated. Find dated to the 17th century Besides animal bones, the excavations also unearthed ceramic plates and other items. A coin - a so-called "Rechenpfenning" - from the time of Louis XIV dates the find to the years between 1643 and 1715. A medicinal bottle containing Theriacum, a medieval remedy from the chemist's shop "Apotheke zur Goldenen Krone" in Vienna was also found at the site. This pharmacy existed between 1628 and 1665, which helped date the site with further precision. biologynews
Chemistry
U.S. Takes Possible First Step Toward Regulating Nanochemicals
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is ratcheting up its scrutiny of nanoscale chemicals amid concerns that they could pose unique environmental and health risks. Late last month, the agency proposed requiring companies to submit data on industrial nanomaterials that they already make and sell. Observers say EPA’s move could be a prelude to tighter federal regulation of nanomaterials, which have begun to show up in consumer products. For years, EPA has grappled with whether and how to use the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the nation’s leading chemical regulation law, to handle nanomaterials. TSCA is silent on nanoproducts, generally defined as materials composed of structures between 1 and 100 billionths of a meter. But many environmental groups worry that they potentially carry unknown risks by virtue of their size. Other observers, however, have argued that size alone shouldn’t trigger new regulation and that existing rules are adequate to deal with the new products. EPA’s 25 March proposal actually walks back an earlier version—now scrapped—that would have let the agency more easily clamp down on any new uses of nanomaterials. Still, the weaker version being proposed now represents the first time EPA would use its powers under TSCA to request information specifically on nanomaterials. (The proposal comes as Congress is debating revamping TSCA, which has drawn extensive criticism.) Under the rule, manufacturers would have to submit a range of data regarding the nanoscale substances they now make and that fall under TSCA’s scope—such as substances used in industrial applications. EPA wants to know how much the company is producing, for example, as well as potential public exposures, and manufacturing and processing methods. It also wants see any existing health and safety data. In addition, the agency would require manufacturers of proposed new nanomaterials to submit existing data before they want to start making and selling those substances. sciencemag
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Fears UK Government Scientists Could Be Gagged By New Rules
Recent changes to the civil service code could make it harder for UK government scientists to talk to the media, leading to ‘misinformation’ about key scientific issues among the public, a group of leading science communication organisations have warned. The changes, which came into effect on 16 March, state that civil servants must have authorisation from their minister before having any contact with the media. In a letter to Francis Maude, the minister for the cabinet office, who introduced the changes, leaders of the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW), Science Media Centre (SMC) and science PR network Stempra say this measure will ‘prevent scientists who are employed at public expense from responding to the needs of journalists – certainly within the tight timeframes required’. Thousands of scientists who work for government-funded institutes and departments are required to sign up to the civil service code. Many of these, the letter points out, work on areas of great public interest such as genetically modified crops, shale gas exploitation and vaccinations. ‘We believe [the changes] will have a negative impact on the public understanding of science, and the quality of the public discourse on some of the most important and contentious issues of our times,’ it says. The signatories call for the changes to the civil service code to be scrapped, or amended to specifically exclude government scientists. They say similar measures in Canada have had serious repercussions, with many scientists prevented from engaging with the media or sharing their research with the public by restrictive communications policies. royalsocietyofchemistry
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With New Nonstick Coating, The Wait, And Waste, Is Over
If a glue did not stick to the inside of the tube or bottle, you might think it must not be a very good glue. On the other hand, clinging glue has annoyed generations of parents and children attempting to scoop out the remaining bits with their fingers. This is one of life’s little problems. LiquiGlide, a company started by a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of his graduate students, has come up with a solution: a coating that makes the inside of the bottle permanently wet and slippery. The glue quickly slides to the nozzle or back down to the bottom. [...] What makes it hard to get mayonnaise and toothpaste out is that they are what scientists call Bingham plastics. A Bingham plastic, named after Eugene Bingham, a chemist who described the mathematical properties, is not made of plastic; the term describes a highly viscous material that does not flow without a strong push. Dr. Varanasi did not set out to solve the problem of clingy glue and mayonnaise. Rather, he was thinking of larger-scale industrial challenges, like preventing ice formation on airplane wings and allowing more efficient pumping of crude oil and other viscous liquids. How to make a slippery surface has been an interest for many scientists and engineers with many potential uses. nyt
Earth Science
Plant Roots May Accelerate Carbon Loss From Soils
Soil, long thought to be a semi-permanent storehouse for ancient carbon, may be releasing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere faster than anyone thought, according to Oregon State University soil scientists. In a study published in this week’s online edition of the journal Nature Climate Change, the researchers showed that chemicals emitted by plant roots act on carbon that is bonded to minerals in the soil, breaking the bonds and exposing previously protected carbon to decomposition by microbes. The carbon then passes into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2), said the study’s coauthor, Markus Kleber, a soil scientist in OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences. He said the study challenges the prevailing view that carbon bonded to minerals stays in the soil for thousands of years. “As these root compounds separate the carbon from its protective mineral phase,” he said, “we may see a greater release of carbon from its storage sites in the soil.” It’s likely that a warming climate is speeding this process up, he said. As warmer weather and more carbon dioxide in the air stimulate plants to grow, they produce more root compounds. This will likely release more stored carbon, which will enter the atmosphere as CO2—which could in turn accelerate the rate of climate warming. enn
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Behind California's Historic Water Restrictions: Low Snowpack
When California Governor Jerry Brown announced unprecedented statewide water restrictions on Wednesday, he did so during a visit to the Sierra Nevada mountains, where snowpack is at the lowest level in recorded history. Brown stood in a bare brown field that would normally be covered with several feet of snow at this time of year. While many people think of drought as a prolonged lack of rain, in California the dryness has been driven by a lack of snowpack. In normal years, California gets 70 percent of its precipitation from snow, says Tom Painter, a snow scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. That snow eventually provides 75 to 80 percent of the state’s usable water, as it melts and fills rivers and reservoirs in the spring and summer. (Learn how California's snows have failed.) [...]
"California gets most of its precipitation for the year during the winter and early spring months. When that moisture falls as rain, it tends to run off the land quickly, and much of it ends up in the ocean. But when it falls as snow, it tends to stick to the mountains. It then melts slowly, so the water becomes available gradually and can recharge reservoirs and groundwater aquifers. "That's water that serves tens of millions of people, grows about half of the fruits and nuts in the United States, produces hydropower, drives industry, supports recreation, and nourishes wildlife. "As it stands, California can store only enough water in reservoirs to cover the state's needs for about a year and a half."
Data released this week by NASA show that the state’s snowpack was about 6 percent of normal levels. That’s about 40 percent of last year’s peak, which was itself just 24 percent of normal levels. nationalgeographic
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Deforestation Is Messing With Our Weather, And Our Food
New research published in Nature Communications provides insight into how large-scale deforestation could impact global food production by triggering changes in local climate. In the study, researchers from the United States and China zero in on albedo (the amount of the sun's radiation reflected from Earth's surface) and evapotranspiration (the transport of water into the atmosphere from soil, vegetation, and other surfaces) as the primary drivers of changes in local temperature. The research is the first global analysis of the effects of forest cover change on local temperature using high-resolution NASA global satellite data. A peer-reviewed paper based on the study, "Local cooling and warming effects of forests based on satellite observations," hints at how land use policies could have economic implications from forest to farmland. "Understanding the precise mechanisms of forest-generated warming or cooling could help regional management agencies anticipate changes in crop yields. Together with a knowledge of other ecological factors, this information can help decision makers and stakeholders design policies that help to sustain local agricultural practices," said Safa Motesharrei, co-author of the paper and a systems scientist at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC). Agriculture--specifically, converting forest cover to plantations for oil palm, soy, rubber, coffee, tea, rice, and many other crops--is widely believed to be one of the main causes of deforestation. Such change in land cover could drive a rise or fall in local temperature by as much as a few degrees. This kind of fluctuation could substantially impact yields of crops that are highly susceptible to specific climate conditions, resulting in harvests that are less productive and less profitable. sciencedaily
Physics
Frustrated Magnets: New Experiment Reveals Clues To Their Discontent
[...] The work represents a surprising discovery that down the road may suggest new research directions for advanced electronics. Published this week in the journal Science, the study also someday may help clarify the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity, the frictionless transmission of electricity. The researchers tested the frustrated magnets—so-named because they should be magnetic at low temperatures but aren't—to see if they exhibit a behavior called the Hall Effect. When a magnetic field is applied to an electric current flowing in a conductor such as a copper ribbon, the current deflects to one side of the ribbon. This deflection, first observed in 1879 by E.H. Hall, is used today in sensors for devices such as computer printers and automobile anti-lock braking systems. Because the Hall Effect happens in charge-carrying particles, most physicists thought it would be impossible to see such behavior in non-charged, or neutral, particles like those in frustrated magnets. "To talk about the Hall Effect for neutral particles is an oxymoron, a crazy idea," said N. Phuan Ong, Princeton's Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics. Nevertheless, some theorists speculated that the neutral particles in frustrated magnets might bend to the Hall rule under extremely cold conditions, near absolute zero, where particles behave according to the laws of quantum mechanics rather than the classical physical laws we observe in our everyday world. Harnessing quantum behavior could enable game-changing innovations in computing and electronic devices. [...] To do so, the research team turned to a class of the magnets called pyrochlores. They contain magnetic moments that, at very low temperatures near absolute zero, should line up in an orderly manner so that all of their "spins," a quantum-mechanical property, point in the same direction. Instead, experiments have found that the spins point in random directions. These frustrated materials are also referred to as "quantum spin ice." phys.org
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Entangled Photons Cast A New Light On Cause And Effect
The idea that correlation does not imply causation is well known to scientists and statisticians, but now physicists in Canada have shown that it is not always the case in the weird world of quantum mechanics. Research in medicine, economics and many other disciplines often relies on showing a statistical correlation between two variables. It is often not clear, however, whether a change in one variable actually causes a shift in the other or whether the two variables are related via a third unmeasured factor. In a drug trial, for example, a higher recovery rate among those who take a certain drug compared with those who choose not to take the drug could be related to a third factor that is linked causally to both – perhaps those who choose not to take the drug are less ill than the others. The answer is to carry out randomized drug trials, in which drugs and placebos are distributed randomly. This means that one variable – whether or not a patient chooses to take the drug – is controlled, rather than being left alone. In the latest work, a team led by Kevin Resch of the University of Waterloo in Canada and Robert Spekkens of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, also in Waterloo, has discovered that in quantum mechanics it is possible to find out whether or not two variables are linked causally without having to control one of the variables. Both variables can in fact be left free, with causation established purely by studying the pattern of correlations that emerge from repeated trials of the quantum system. Entangled partners Spekkens and two other theorists devised a scheme in which they start by preparing two photons in an entangled state. They measure the polarization of one of these photons, called A, and then send it and its entangled partner through a gate. The photon that emerges from this gate – denoted B – is in some cases just a transformed version of A, whereas in other cases it is A's entangled partner. In the first instance, A causes B, while in the second case the two particles are related to one another by a common cause. Crucially, these two possibilities are combined using a random-number generator, so that for a certain fraction of the time the apparatus establishes a direct causal link between A and B, whereas the rest of the time A and B are two halves of an entangled pair. In other words, the person operating the experiment doesn't know whether they are dealing with a single particle at two different times or with two entangled particles. physicsworld